It is true, someone has completed the A Shooter game. that is all 13 levels, and jusdging from his core he did it all from the start to the end.
Final Mirage you have my utmost respect in completing this game. You are the first outside of myself and my artist to fully through the game. I wonder if anyone else will have the desire and determination to complete the game. Final Mirage told me via twitter that he did it by playing 3 days for 1-1.5 hours a day.
It is also nice to have my levels justified in some repsect. I was getting worried that noone had the old school gameplay down, or maybe it was that they did not see they were getting better every time they played. Maybe in fact it was the Bosses which can be a bit of a tough deal when ya first meet them. Look at the global high scores to see how many people are actually stuck on Level 5 for example. the first boss that really makes ya come up with a new play method.
I know now that i should have had the normal mode be the Hard mode, and this would mean the easy mode should have become the Normal. I think that i overestimated the abilities of newer players, who are really not used to dodging bullets in this classic arcade style. It could be that i underestimated my own prowess and that just plain sounds better :) I do know that in future i shall make sure i plan the over-arching difficulty better.
for example:-
I plan my next game to have the options available throughout the gameplay experience. I will allow the player to change the difficulty as they go along. So they would be able to play a level through on easy mode, but then change it for the boss for instance.
sounds like a good plan to me
Laters
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Top Score Competition Post Mortem
My main 3 Event competition is now over. Sunday night was it's last hurrah. In the wake of this ending i am going to try and do SorceryGames first Post Mortem, and it will be based on the competition i was running.
Although a lot of this stuff might cross over into the actual games post morten, i want to get this part out first, as best i am able.
What went right...
Got organized before the game went live. A lot of stuff gets left on the shelf when developing games. Not just ideas but also other useful materials for marketiing and such. I knew quite early on that i wanted to run competitions once the game was ready. I did not know quite what to run at that time. But i made it a priority to keep writing down ideas before the game was live. This really showed in the fact i had rule ideas before i needed them.
High Score Sharing was introduced to the project development. This was a real boost to the game, as i grew up playing arcade games in actual arcades. Racking up a top score and seeing it there along with my initials the next weekend was a great feeling. Though with todays leaderboards most people experience a version of this more readily. With the development of this score sharing i was able to set my initial competition goals for the high score.
Knowing what is going on out there is also paramount to being able to create new competition ideas. With the sharing scores i could see people playing my game and make some quick adjustments for competition ideas etc. That was how the first person to score on my leaderboard was created. I just got so excited to see the first shared score. Now if that had been multiple scores at once it would have been more interesting. I shall also use that sharing feature to give out a prize for the first person to complete the last level of A Shooter. Something i find very exciting.
The Press release was a big hit, it went everywhere and a lot of sites listed the fact there was a competition. A lot of the Indie sites i know and love also did special posts to help get the word out that there were prizes to be won in this game.
Life is about Stories. Ones you can tell your friends or wife or children. I was very blessed when the competitions second event produced a real fight for the top of the leaderboard between two brothers from Germany. I got to follow this unfolding rivalry live, even though i am 9 thousand miles away. I of course already wrote about this particular story. It was exciting and i am not sure that it would have been so epic if there were not a competition involved.
There was more interest in reviewing A Shooter than i have recieved for all my other games combined. Some quite large web sites actually asked for review copies and press packs. This was amazing and i put that down to the fact i was willing to run competitions based on my 1 dollar game. This pleased me a lot and felt like a real boon provided by the competition.
What went wrong...
Although i was organized before the game went live, there is no actual control of when a game goes live. Thanks have to go to a lot of my Peers who really helped the game come out about the time i needed it too (Thanks you Xblig Peers, you rock!). So organizing a competition was fraught with danger, what if i failed reveiw for example. The desire to have a competition running when the game goes live had risks for sure, but it also added alot of time to development. I placed A Shooter into a lot of playtest sessions and did a ridiculous amount of testing for the stuff that fails games.
High Score Sharing is wonderful and i started with JWattes high score sharing component (much like everyone else). This however turned out to not really suit to my needs. It has some issues like garbage collection and to be honest was a lot more than i needed (version 2 is out now btw). I already had a high score class written. I just needed something to interface with that and then share scores. So i took it upon myself to rewrite the component, and now it isn't even a component, and i am not sure how much original code there really is. It is however pretty solid and there are no hiccups when sharing. So i can share while people play the game. However all this took a long time to rewrite and test. I also had to buy a second account so i could connect two xboxes together to truly test my sharing code (i borrowed a second Xbox off my friend). The live account and new cco membership were real money.
Knowing what is going is a great thing, only... It can also tell you when nothing is apprently going off. there are times when my game over the first weekend had not a single highscore shared with it. This was ultimately a very depressing time. Whenever an hour went by without a connection i felt more down about the release. This was more unpleasant than not actually knowing.
Although the Press release went everywhere, it was also late. I never checked with my press release guy and he was on vacation when the press release needed to go out. DOH! that was stupid on my part and so the release came out after the weekend and not on the friday (again delayed dated releases for Xblig would be good!). So i missed the best opportunity, but still it wasn't awful. The worst fact of the press release is my games name. It is very hard to find a press release for 'a Shooter' as any first person game released in the last 10 years has that combination of letters in their own press release. So it is actually hard to find mine.
Life is about Stories and as you know i had 1 epic one last weekend. However since then and before then there has not really been any stories, except maybe between my artist and myself. I should really type that one up at some point soon. So although the one i have is great, i have only one story from my high score events.
Although there was more interest in reviewing by the larger sites, not one of those larger sites that asked for a press pack and review copy actually seem to have printed a review. All the friendly Xblig covering sites did a bang up job and i am very pleased to be a part of their community (i do not care if the review is good or bad, everyone has their opinion). However asking for that kind of information from me and then just not doing anything with it bothers me and makes me feel taken for granted.
*edit* Advertising in Game is not allowed on the Xblig games. It is an imediate fail. So i was not allowed to advertise my competitions directly to those people that had taken the time to download the trial version. I would have hoped that this knowledge would have had two effects. Making a better conversion rate and also allowing this Xbox players to tell others that one of the Xbligs had a competition running. I truly believe thios would have helped my conversion rate by about another 50% and also my downloads by about 25%.
Conclusion...
Although i got a lot of press telling people that i had this competition running. I am ultimately not sure it was worth it. I had quite the time investment and commitment creating the background functionality and setup to handle running this competition. Each prize cost me money along with time. Money that so far i have not gotten back. Now of course i do not know if my game would have done worse download wise if i had not got this competition running. Though at this point i do not know how it could have been worse, as it now stands as my lowest downloaded game in its first two weeks. It appears from where i sit that even with all the coverage i feel i got about this competition, I just did not reach the Xbox players themselves. Posting on Facebook, Twitter and various Xbox fan forums did not seem to significantly effect downloads.
If people had downloaded it and just didn't like my game, then fine, don't spend ya dollar. But it hasn't been that way with a 20% conversion rate and one that is getting higher each day.
Final thoughts...
I do not believe i will be running more competitions on future games unless i find a way to get the actual Xbox owners to know about it. I believe they are a great idea, but not worth the investment till i can reach those potential buyers.
Thanks for reading. I hope this give other devs out there some ideas to do better than me. Good luck.
Da Voodoochief
Although a lot of this stuff might cross over into the actual games post morten, i want to get this part out first, as best i am able.
What went right...
Got organized before the game went live. A lot of stuff gets left on the shelf when developing games. Not just ideas but also other useful materials for marketiing and such. I knew quite early on that i wanted to run competitions once the game was ready. I did not know quite what to run at that time. But i made it a priority to keep writing down ideas before the game was live. This really showed in the fact i had rule ideas before i needed them.
High Score Sharing was introduced to the project development. This was a real boost to the game, as i grew up playing arcade games in actual arcades. Racking up a top score and seeing it there along with my initials the next weekend was a great feeling. Though with todays leaderboards most people experience a version of this more readily. With the development of this score sharing i was able to set my initial competition goals for the high score.
Knowing what is going on out there is also paramount to being able to create new competition ideas. With the sharing scores i could see people playing my game and make some quick adjustments for competition ideas etc. That was how the first person to score on my leaderboard was created. I just got so excited to see the first shared score. Now if that had been multiple scores at once it would have been more interesting. I shall also use that sharing feature to give out a prize for the first person to complete the last level of A Shooter. Something i find very exciting.
The Press release was a big hit, it went everywhere and a lot of sites listed the fact there was a competition. A lot of the Indie sites i know and love also did special posts to help get the word out that there were prizes to be won in this game.
Life is about Stories. Ones you can tell your friends or wife or children. I was very blessed when the competitions second event produced a real fight for the top of the leaderboard between two brothers from Germany. I got to follow this unfolding rivalry live, even though i am 9 thousand miles away. I of course already wrote about this particular story. It was exciting and i am not sure that it would have been so epic if there were not a competition involved.
There was more interest in reviewing A Shooter than i have recieved for all my other games combined. Some quite large web sites actually asked for review copies and press packs. This was amazing and i put that down to the fact i was willing to run competitions based on my 1 dollar game. This pleased me a lot and felt like a real boon provided by the competition.
What went wrong...
Although i was organized before the game went live, there is no actual control of when a game goes live. Thanks have to go to a lot of my Peers who really helped the game come out about the time i needed it too (Thanks you Xblig Peers, you rock!). So organizing a competition was fraught with danger, what if i failed reveiw for example. The desire to have a competition running when the game goes live had risks for sure, but it also added alot of time to development. I placed A Shooter into a lot of playtest sessions and did a ridiculous amount of testing for the stuff that fails games.
High Score Sharing is wonderful and i started with JWattes high score sharing component (much like everyone else). This however turned out to not really suit to my needs. It has some issues like garbage collection and to be honest was a lot more than i needed (version 2 is out now btw). I already had a high score class written. I just needed something to interface with that and then share scores. So i took it upon myself to rewrite the component, and now it isn't even a component, and i am not sure how much original code there really is. It is however pretty solid and there are no hiccups when sharing. So i can share while people play the game. However all this took a long time to rewrite and test. I also had to buy a second account so i could connect two xboxes together to truly test my sharing code (i borrowed a second Xbox off my friend). The live account and new cco membership were real money.
Knowing what is going is a great thing, only... It can also tell you when nothing is apprently going off. there are times when my game over the first weekend had not a single highscore shared with it. This was ultimately a very depressing time. Whenever an hour went by without a connection i felt more down about the release. This was more unpleasant than not actually knowing.
Although the Press release went everywhere, it was also late. I never checked with my press release guy and he was on vacation when the press release needed to go out. DOH! that was stupid on my part and so the release came out after the weekend and not on the friday (again delayed dated releases for Xblig would be good!). So i missed the best opportunity, but still it wasn't awful. The worst fact of the press release is my games name. It is very hard to find a press release for 'a Shooter' as any first person game released in the last 10 years has that combination of letters in their own press release. So it is actually hard to find mine.
Life is about Stories and as you know i had 1 epic one last weekend. However since then and before then there has not really been any stories, except maybe between my artist and myself. I should really type that one up at some point soon. So although the one i have is great, i have only one story from my high score events.
Although there was more interest in reviewing by the larger sites, not one of those larger sites that asked for a press pack and review copy actually seem to have printed a review. All the friendly Xblig covering sites did a bang up job and i am very pleased to be a part of their community (i do not care if the review is good or bad, everyone has their opinion). However asking for that kind of information from me and then just not doing anything with it bothers me and makes me feel taken for granted.
*edit* Advertising in Game is not allowed on the Xblig games. It is an imediate fail. So i was not allowed to advertise my competitions directly to those people that had taken the time to download the trial version. I would have hoped that this knowledge would have had two effects. Making a better conversion rate and also allowing this Xbox players to tell others that one of the Xbligs had a competition running. I truly believe thios would have helped my conversion rate by about another 50% and also my downloads by about 25%.
Conclusion...
Although i got a lot of press telling people that i had this competition running. I am ultimately not sure it was worth it. I had quite the time investment and commitment creating the background functionality and setup to handle running this competition. Each prize cost me money along with time. Money that so far i have not gotten back. Now of course i do not know if my game would have done worse download wise if i had not got this competition running. Though at this point i do not know how it could have been worse, as it now stands as my lowest downloaded game in its first two weeks. It appears from where i sit that even with all the coverage i feel i got about this competition, I just did not reach the Xbox players themselves. Posting on Facebook, Twitter and various Xbox fan forums did not seem to significantly effect downloads.
If people had downloaded it and just didn't like my game, then fine, don't spend ya dollar. But it hasn't been that way with a 20% conversion rate and one that is getting higher each day.
Final thoughts...
I do not believe i will be running more competitions on future games unless i find a way to get the actual Xbox owners to know about it. I believe they are a great idea, but not worth the investment till i can reach those potential buyers.
Thanks for reading. I hope this give other devs out there some ideas to do better than me. Good luck.
Da Voodoochief
Sunday, October 10, 2010
A Shooter Competiton Event #3 Winner
In a great turn of events, Lohen has gone and posted a higher score than anyone else this week. Congratulations. Even outdoing his brother. That is such a glorious thing. Below is the hallowed winner picture :)
He managed to get himself onto a completely new level to pound that score out. His skill is now evolved and I wonder if completion is possible. Certainly i believe the brothers can complet the game together. However multiplayer scores are not shared.
There will be a posrt tomorrow about the competitions and information relating to its success.
Thank you everyone for your interest in this game.
G'night.
'
He managed to get himself onto a completely new level to pound that score out. His skill is now evolved and I wonder if completion is possible. Certainly i believe the brothers can complet the game together. However multiplayer scores are not shared.
There will be a posrt tomorrow about the competitions and information relating to its success.
Thank you everyone for your interest in this game.
G'night.
'
A Shooter sunday Competition Event #3
Yes sunday night at 9pm pst it will be time to annouce another winner.
I see several people playing up the leaderboard near the top. Who will win?
I know this is a small post for today, but i am ill and after Indiecade i am also really tired.
G'night
I see several people playing up the leaderboard near the top. Who will win?
I know this is a small post for today, but i am ill and after Indiecade i am also really tired.
G'night
Monday, October 4, 2010
Competition Event #2 Winner
Here is what i saw at 9pm pst tonight on my xbox.
A very definitive win for sure. Placed directly below my own new score and my artists score. I am very pleased to see someone win who has improved on last weeks score. This makes me happy people are improving at the game.
Well after all my internet and virus problems this weekend i have to call it a night. I look forward to sending off a T-shirt to Germany no less.
Don't forget that next weeks competition is in a wekks time.
Good luck and please pass on the competition info to anyone you know with an Xbox360.
G'night.
Well after all my internet and virus problems this weekend i have to call it a night. I look forward to sending off a T-shirt to Germany no less.
Don't forget that next weeks competition is in a wekks time.
Good luck and please pass on the competition info to anyone you know with an Xbox360.
G'night.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Win - Competition Event #2
Can you take the Highest score for the Day on A Shooter?
Today at 9pm pst I will be declaring the winner for the second prize giveaway. Get your copy of the game Here. Read up on the competition instructions Here.
Then get practising and see if you can knock off the current top place person.
Please note Terminhater, Voodoochief and Gontyanbaby are not eligible for this weeks competition.
Below is the current status of my Global High Score Table. as you will see i have low lighted ineligble players. This mean that Lohengriehn is currently ahead.
Good luck to all those people playing for the win.
Please remember the score must be shared and appear on Voodoochiefs Xbox. To that end, it will be left on acquiring scores all day.
Da voodoochief
Bonus: And just to help get someone else into the mix, here is a code giveaway. DVBWQ-P4M7P-GY99V-CFHTD-HMC8Y
Today at 9pm pst I will be declaring the winner for the second prize giveaway. Get your copy of the game Here. Read up on the competition instructions Here.
Then get practising and see if you can knock off the current top place person.
Please note Terminhater, Voodoochief and Gontyanbaby are not eligible for this weeks competition.
Below is the current status of my Global High Score Table. as you will see i have low lighted ineligble players. This mean that Lohengriehn is currently ahead.
Good luck to all those people playing for the win.
Please remember the score must be shared and appear on Voodoochiefs Xbox. To that end, it will be left on acquiring scores all day.
Da voodoochief
Bonus: And just to help get someone else into the mix, here is a code giveaway. DVBWQ-P4M7P-GY99V-CFHTD-HMC8Y
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Global High Scores Competition Story
Today has been a rather exciting day from my perspective, and also from at least two other people i know of that live i believe in Germany.
So it is time for a story...
This story begins with A Shooter and it's global high score sharing. It is also important to know there is a competition runing each week for someone to win a T-shirt by having a great score on the game.
One of my regular tweet buddies and also someone who posts regularly in this Blog has been playing the game (we shall call him Lohen). He has been working his way up the leaderboard and gotten to level 9 on the game. I have commended him on this and can see that below people that workwed on the game and last weeks winner. He has the next highest score. so he is in a winning position with about 25 hours to go. Sweet you would say, but he has been spreading rumours about his brother (we shall call him Bohdel). His brother who was going to come online this weekend and kick his behind and take away his hard fought for T-shirt position.
Well now it is this weekend, and lo and behold his Bohdel has played the game. Not only that but as i tuned in every hour or so to see what was happening a wonderful scenario and story enfolded. Although i was not in Germany watching these two brothers go at it. I could see their scores screaping up. Every hour Bohdel was getting closer and closer to his Lohens score. I thought it was getting inevitable that he would be overtaken when Blammo, Lohen himself posts a higher score, mere thousands higher than his advancing brother.
I then went out tonigth for food and finally got a virus on my PC i had to clear. while i was doing that the brothers were obviously neck and neck and fighting for the better score. Germany was a hive of activity as Lohen and Bohdel pitted their finest joystick wrangling and button bashing against each other.
So when i got back home it was sleep time in Germany, though i am sure both brothers stayed up waaay too late. but what of their status? While i was out eating i had relayed this story to my wife (my kids had already ben eagerly following the saga unfold during the day, exceitedly i might add). She thought it sounded pretty cool, and when we got back in we all checked the High Score table... What did we find ?
It seems that Bohdel had increased his score quite considerably, but Omgoodness so had Lohen. Lohen had actually increased his score enough to get above last weeks winner (very nice). So the days battle has ended with Lohen actually residing i 3rd place on the leaderboard about 30,000 points above his brother. This is very exciting and i am anticipating more to come tomorrow. Who can leave this weekend a winner? Will someone random from lower down the table come and steal the Glory?
All these questions and more will be answered come tomorrow at 9pm PST.
Good luck to everyone that tries. And good luck to Lohen and Bohdel, may the best brother win.
Da Voodoochief
Edit:- (response to the recent comment)
Hi Lohengriehn,
It really is a pleasure to hear from you. I also loved the experience of making A Shooter and having you and your brother enhance it in such a wonderful way. Alas, as you might have read my some recent posts by me, until Microsoft allows me scoreboards online (leaderboarsds) then i cannot do another game. all my designs really need people to see how well others can do and compete against them. If MS do allow real scroebaords, then i will redo A Shooter with those added in. Then we can have some real fights going on, with new players as well.
So glad you are doing well, Live life and have fun :)
Da Voodoochief
So it is time for a story...
This story begins with A Shooter and it's global high score sharing. It is also important to know there is a competition runing each week for someone to win a T-shirt by having a great score on the game.
One of my regular tweet buddies and also someone who posts regularly in this Blog has been playing the game (we shall call him Lohen). He has been working his way up the leaderboard and gotten to level 9 on the game. I have commended him on this and can see that below people that workwed on the game and last weeks winner. He has the next highest score. so he is in a winning position with about 25 hours to go. Sweet you would say, but he has been spreading rumours about his brother (we shall call him Bohdel). His brother who was going to come online this weekend and kick his behind and take away his hard fought for T-shirt position.
Well now it is this weekend, and lo and behold his Bohdel has played the game. Not only that but as i tuned in every hour or so to see what was happening a wonderful scenario and story enfolded. Although i was not in Germany watching these two brothers go at it. I could see their scores screaping up. Every hour Bohdel was getting closer and closer to his Lohens score. I thought it was getting inevitable that he would be overtaken when Blammo, Lohen himself posts a higher score, mere thousands higher than his advancing brother.
I then went out tonigth for food and finally got a virus on my PC i had to clear. while i was doing that the brothers were obviously neck and neck and fighting for the better score. Germany was a hive of activity as Lohen and Bohdel pitted their finest joystick wrangling and button bashing against each other.
So when i got back home it was sleep time in Germany, though i am sure both brothers stayed up waaay too late. but what of their status? While i was out eating i had relayed this story to my wife (my kids had already ben eagerly following the saga unfold during the day, exceitedly i might add). She thought it sounded pretty cool, and when we got back in we all checked the High Score table... What did we find ?
It seems that Bohdel had increased his score quite considerably, but Omgoodness so had Lohen. Lohen had actually increased his score enough to get above last weeks winner (very nice). So the days battle has ended with Lohen actually residing i 3rd place on the leaderboard about 30,000 points above his brother. This is very exciting and i am anticipating more to come tomorrow. Who can leave this weekend a winner? Will someone random from lower down the table come and steal the Glory?
All these questions and more will be answered come tomorrow at 9pm PST.
Good luck to everyone that tries. And good luck to Lohen and Bohdel, may the best brother win.
Da Voodoochief
Edit:- (response to the recent comment)
Hi Lohengriehn,
It really is a pleasure to hear from you. I also loved the experience of making A Shooter and having you and your brother enhance it in such a wonderful way. Alas, as you might have read my some recent posts by me, until Microsoft allows me scoreboards online (leaderboarsds) then i cannot do another game. all my designs really need people to see how well others can do and compete against them. If MS do allow real scroebaords, then i will redo A Shooter with those added in. Then we can have some real fights going on, with new players as well.
So glad you are doing well, Live life and have fun :)
Da Voodoochief
Sunday, September 26, 2010
A Shooter Comp - Event1 Winner
Here is the photo i took of my Xbox screen while on the Global Highscore table.
As you can see Terminhater is number 1 by a country mile, but i had to disqualify him for the simple reason he worked on the game. Sorry Terry. so the prize for this weeks competition goes to Gontyanbaby. Who i sent off a friend request to earlier this evening. Once i have his tshirt size and address, a tshirt will be winging it's way to him. SinedX360 has already won a Tshirt as well.
I look forward to receiving scores all week from people playing the game. It is very very exciting for me to see these scores being posted to me. I also realised that the time difference for European players could leave them at a disadvantage. So i will be setting up times that will be in the evenings for them. sorry i did not consider this before now.
Check the competition rules and info HERE.
There have also been several mentions of the competition and i really need to find those links.
Also i have 2 reviews so far. One at Nukezilla.com and the otther at Nave360.com.
Laters
As you can see Terminhater is number 1 by a country mile, but i had to disqualify him for the simple reason he worked on the game. Sorry Terry. so the prize for this weeks competition goes to Gontyanbaby. Who i sent off a friend request to earlier this evening. Once i have his tshirt size and address, a tshirt will be winging it's way to him. SinedX360 has already won a Tshirt as well.
I look forward to receiving scores all week from people playing the game. It is very very exciting for me to see these scores being posted to me. I also realised that the time difference for European players could leave them at a disadvantage. So i will be setting up times that will be in the evenings for them. sorry i did not consider this before now.
Check the competition rules and info HERE.
There have also been several mentions of the competition and i really need to find those links.
Also i have 2 reviews so far. One at Nukezilla.com and the otther at Nave360.com.
Laters
Thursday, September 23, 2010
So Busy
When a game is about complete or is completing, it is a very busy time for any dedicated developer. Every time i come to this period i am amazed how little sleep i get and how hard i am working. This time also much worse than any time before.
Although i already have 3 titles out on Xblig this is the one i have put the most surounding effort into. What i mean by that is Pellmell is the game i spent developing with the most effort (expect an update soon to bring that prixe down!!). A Shooter is the one that has been in development for the longest time. Though a lot of that time can be attributed to the Kickstarter project and me trying hard to get more in than any sane man can.
So every time i put out a game i learn a little more about what marketing is. I come up with new ideas. Some don't pan out, like the kickstarter project, or the demo days at a local Gamestop. Still i have a need to try and help my game succeed. I see too many good games on Xblig fail for some inexplicable reason, and then there is the otehr side where i see crapplications and barelygames do ridiculously well. So i figure the more i can do to get the word out the better my edge is, the stronger hand i hold at the start of the release. However it is hard work and requires a real commitment. 3 hours of fixing up an Excel sheet with email addresses etc for contacts in the press is nothing really. Yet i believe that more than 90% of games that come out on Xblig have no support or marketing whatsoever.
So each time i put a game out and learn more of what can be done to promote my game, the more time the next one takes upon completion as i put that new found knowledge into action. Lets hope that the Competition i am going to run will place me above the crapplicaions at least on the downloads page.
One day i really hope to expand the number of games i do and also the size and scope of those games.
What will be next i wonder... Steam? A New Title?
Time will have the answer, as it always does.
At least today my internet is working again, yay!
Although i already have 3 titles out on Xblig this is the one i have put the most surounding effort into. What i mean by that is Pellmell is the game i spent developing with the most effort (expect an update soon to bring that prixe down!!). A Shooter is the one that has been in development for the longest time. Though a lot of that time can be attributed to the Kickstarter project and me trying hard to get more in than any sane man can.
So every time i put out a game i learn a little more about what marketing is. I come up with new ideas. Some don't pan out, like the kickstarter project, or the demo days at a local Gamestop. Still i have a need to try and help my game succeed. I see too many good games on Xblig fail for some inexplicable reason, and then there is the otehr side where i see crapplications and barelygames do ridiculously well. So i figure the more i can do to get the word out the better my edge is, the stronger hand i hold at the start of the release. However it is hard work and requires a real commitment. 3 hours of fixing up an Excel sheet with email addresses etc for contacts in the press is nothing really. Yet i believe that more than 90% of games that come out on Xblig have no support or marketing whatsoever.
So each time i put a game out and learn more of what can be done to promote my game, the more time the next one takes upon completion as i put that new found knowledge into action. Lets hope that the Competition i am going to run will place me above the crapplicaions at least on the downloads page.
One day i really hope to expand the number of games i do and also the size and scope of those games.
What will be next i wonder... Steam? A New Title?
Time will have the answer, as it always does.
At least today my internet is working again, yay!
A Shooter Competition
Though i have been told by a number of people that competitions have drawbacks and are dangerous. I cannot help but be drawn to them to help me get the word out about A Shooter. Having those darned Global Highscores has to be useful for something more than seeing how good people have gotten. I believe they should be able to help me sell A Shooter and also get the word out that it exists.
I know i have spent quite a lot of money on the T-Shirts and Hats, but i hope to recoup that in extra coverage by the media. Maybe it will work, and maybe it won't. I am not shy about trying new things that is for sure. This competition however does not really feel new per se, but more a visit to a bygone age when games had competitions attached to them.
Now i am suffering a lot of internet outtage here at home at the moment, but i hope this posts when it comes time. But here is a quick description of where i am at the moment.
I have the competition page setup (Check it here if you are interested).
I have the Press release ready to go (Check it out in the previous Blog post!)
So what more do i need?
Well i am going to contact the guy who send out my Press releases at Mitorah Games. He does an excellent job and for a low fee (imho). I will be trying to get me press release out for Friday if that is possible. A Shooter looks like it might go Live about then and i really want to hit on all cylinders at the same time. this means release of the game to Xblig and also the press release. I sure hope i do not fail Peer reveiw, or this is gonna get really annoying.
I am worried that soemthing will go wrong, there are many things that could fail of course. Time will tell how it goes.
G'night
I know i have spent quite a lot of money on the T-Shirts and Hats, but i hope to recoup that in extra coverage by the media. Maybe it will work, and maybe it won't. I am not shy about trying new things that is for sure. This competition however does not really feel new per se, but more a visit to a bygone age when games had competitions attached to them.
Now i am suffering a lot of internet outtage here at home at the moment, but i hope this posts when it comes time. But here is a quick description of where i am at the moment.
I have the competition page setup (Check it here if you are interested).
I have the Press release ready to go (Check it out in the previous Blog post!)
So what more do i need?
Well i am going to contact the guy who send out my Press releases at Mitorah Games. He does an excellent job and for a low fee (imho). I will be trying to get me press release out for Friday if that is possible. A Shooter looks like it might go Live about then and i really want to hit on all cylinders at the same time. this means release of the game to Xblig and also the press release. I sure hope i do not fail Peer reveiw, or this is gonna get really annoying.
I am worried that soemthing will go wrong, there are many things that could fail of course. Time will tell how it goes.
G'night
Sunday, September 19, 2010
A Day of Rest?
It is sunday, it was all day, and i am told it is a day of rest. I cannot honestly remember the last time i rested on any day, never mind if it was a sunday or not.
So this morning i started off by taking the family off roading. It went very well and i think everyones skills improved a bit today and we got through about 25 miles or so. I loved it, though it can make me a bit nervoud watching me kids do something for the first time, like scaling a steeper hill than they usually have a go at etc.
Later we managed to go shopping and eventually i ended up at home for a nap :) I managed to take about an hour and this pleased me greatly cos i was slated to play tome mixed doubles tennis at 8pm. Though that got cancelled at 7:50pm. Ahh well.
In the mean time of the afternoon and later evening as well as playing Wow with my friend and warcraft3 with my son. Who i recently inctroduced to the RTS genre i was thinking about what is next for A Shooter, or more pointedly, what do i need to do before it goes live. Not that it is likely to the first try, but ya never know. It was in peer review a lot of times and for long periods.
So the answer is simply Press Release. However my press release for this game must have some details about the competition i will be running when the game comes out. Hmm, i will think more on this and blog when i have more info i reckon.
G'night.
So this morning i started off by taking the family off roading. It went very well and i think everyones skills improved a bit today and we got through about 25 miles or so. I loved it, though it can make me a bit nervoud watching me kids do something for the first time, like scaling a steeper hill than they usually have a go at etc.
Later we managed to go shopping and eventually i ended up at home for a nap :) I managed to take about an hour and this pleased me greatly cos i was slated to play tome mixed doubles tennis at 8pm. Though that got cancelled at 7:50pm. Ahh well.
In the mean time of the afternoon and later evening as well as playing Wow with my friend and warcraft3 with my son. Who i recently inctroduced to the RTS genre i was thinking about what is next for A Shooter, or more pointedly, what do i need to do before it goes live. Not that it is likely to the first try, but ya never know. It was in peer review a lot of times and for long periods.
So the answer is simply Press Release. However my press release for this game must have some details about the competition i will be running when the game comes out. Hmm, i will think more on this and blog when i have more info i reckon.
G'night.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Encrypt that Save file
I am working on the Xbox save file tonight. It is one of the last major (?? maybe) items that are lying on my list awaiting time to be done. Tonight is the night. I have been feeling quite unwell today, but tonight i am on a nice eve keeled coding spat.
So i am working on something that actualy works already, the save game. Only i want to offer prizes out for top scores etc once the game goes live. Not that i will be able to advertsie that in game :( But that is anotehr story and complaint. Onto the happier thoughts.
To see scores of course i want them to be shared and have spent a large amount of time getting that working seemlessly. I am happy with that, but i already knew from another Dev that people were hacking the save game files. They are in fact relatively easy to hack being Xml format. So i have decided i want to encrypt my save files so that it will at least stop the occasional hacker. I also have a verification system in place to hopefully stop the next level of hacker up. Time wioll tell if all this actually works well enough to stop people hacking top scores into the save file. I sure hope it delays them more than a month, till i give out the T-Shirt and Hat prizes etc.
Still it is a lot of work to stop these unplayed for scores. Wish me luck that i make it hard enough to at least put them off for a while. I mean, is a T-Shirt worth hacking the scores for? Obviously i don't know. It is after all only a small group of people that even sees them, never mind plays them.
Laters.
So i am working on something that actualy works already, the save game. Only i want to offer prizes out for top scores etc once the game goes live. Not that i will be able to advertsie that in game :( But that is anotehr story and complaint. Onto the happier thoughts.
To see scores of course i want them to be shared and have spent a large amount of time getting that working seemlessly. I am happy with that, but i already knew from another Dev that people were hacking the save game files. They are in fact relatively easy to hack being Xml format. So i have decided i want to encrypt my save files so that it will at least stop the occasional hacker. I also have a verification system in place to hopefully stop the next level of hacker up. Time wioll tell if all this actually works well enough to stop people hacking top scores into the save file. I sure hope it delays them more than a month, till i give out the T-Shirt and Hat prizes etc.
Still it is a lot of work to stop these unplayed for scores. Wish me luck that i make it hard enough to at least put them off for a while. I mean, is a T-Shirt worth hacking the scores for? Obviously i don't know. It is after all only a small group of people that even sees them, never mind plays them.
Laters.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Shmup for Ever Drawing
A Wonderful site has created an amazing opportunity for people to win shmup prizes. I donated Pellmell codes as i don't yet have A Shooter out. Otherwise there would have been some of those too.
I recommend anyone interested in Xbox Shmups go and check it out. Yes you can write your comments in English :)
Thanks Denis at Xbla360.fr
I hope the community sees this and enjoys the opportunity presented here.
G'night.
I recommend anyone interested in Xbox Shmups go and check it out. Yes you can write your comments in English :)
Thanks Denis at Xbla360.fr
I hope the community sees this and enjoys the opportunity presented here.
G'night.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Encryption For Competition
Tonight i started on encrypting my save game data. The reason i need to encrypt it is so i can run a competition or two when my new game A Shooter comes out. I want to run a few competitions based on the score that people can achieve. so rewarding the best players (or most dedicated). However i know people will cheat when there is a prize on the line.
So i worked out what algorythm i will use to encrypt the data, but i am a little disconcerted at this point. Ya see, it doesn't matter how much time i put into encrypting the data, it will always be crackable. There are several well known and documented ways to do this and all of them will work given enough time and dedication. So the question is, just how robust will it be? I know that it is only going to be an Xblig game, so will probably be overlooked by many people. Though i know some people will regard it as more of a challenge than actualy playing my game. Once cracked of course the unscrupulous hacker can insert any score he feels like.
So what do i do? How long do i spend on this, how many layers of self and extra checking should i put into it? I certainly don't have the answer at the moment. Needless to say, if i get to run a top score competition, then i will need to feel it has some level of validity.
G'night
So i worked out what algorythm i will use to encrypt the data, but i am a little disconcerted at this point. Ya see, it doesn't matter how much time i put into encrypting the data, it will always be crackable. There are several well known and documented ways to do this and all of them will work given enough time and dedication. So the question is, just how robust will it be? I know that it is only going to be an Xblig game, so will probably be overlooked by many people. Though i know some people will regard it as more of a challenge than actualy playing my game. Once cracked of course the unscrupulous hacker can insert any score he feels like.
So what do i do? How long do i spend on this, how many layers of self and extra checking should i put into it? I certainly don't have the answer at the moment. Needless to say, if i get to run a top score competition, then i will need to feel it has some level of validity.
G'night
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
