December Archives

First… Scratch N Score has finally moved into the beta process. What does that mean? A month of never-ending bug reports where people press the weirdest combinations of buttons known to man, that no user will ever actually do, all in an effort to break things. So now we sit back and wait for the reports to start coming in so we can work on fixing all the little things. I’m pretty sure the most common ones found have already been taken care of ahead of time, but there are those people… *ahem* that I know will find more. Hopefully it’s a quick process overall so this can get a scheduled release date. On another note, I also switch to a different video production software that’s much easier to work with than Corel’s and gives me a much better end result! Considering my level of expertise in video editing, I am quite impressed with Wondershare Filmora. Good price for the value, definitely worthwhile. A ton of projects in the works I have a ton of projects in the works, but a lot of them need more thought and fleshing out on paper (well digital paper) before I start work on them. A couple board games and the like. They should definitely be fun and great products for the table, but for now I decided… Dice games! Why? Because I just did one and enjoyed it, and thought WHY NOT? And having certain people kind of try to talk me out of it just made me want to do it more! Sorry J! lol We’re talking about your simpler dice, party type games like Over Under 7, Ship Captain Crew, etc. And since they are simple, we’re going to group them in packs, starting with 7 games in the first one. I started development on the first of the seven, and it’s the one that will take the longest. It’s not complex at all, as a matter of fact it will probably be the quickest of them all, but it’s all the other stuff that goes into a new project and choices that will carry through every single included game. Things like the user interface, sound effects, particles, the general programming structure and framework. That all takes time to develop, even when you’re using components designed from other stuff, and it all has to work and be reuseable. Once it’s done though, it’s a simple matter to adapt each piece to the next game, change the rules and write whatever specialized code is needed for that game. I’ll still have to do GUI’s for them, but the basis of what that looks like will already be done. Simpler games Another thing about simpler games is while they are fun on their own, you have to amp that up with your sound and effects to capture a player’s attention. If you’re just rolling dice and there’s nothing else going on, it’s going to get boring and guess what, you lost a sale but more importantly you lost a customer’s confidence in your past and future products. One thing I chose to do to help amp it up a little is to add some AI generated voice narrations. Playing it with and without those is almost 2 different worlds, even if it is just some simple words being spoken. Gameplay on the first game is nearly completed, it just needs a few more FX touches as well as a game over / play again option, and the in-game settings menu. After that we can move on to the next game. I’m hoping, with the market and audience the table has, that this will be a success, but that’s something only time will tell. I do have plans for at least one more volume if not two of these dice game packs. There’s a lot of cool simple fun ideas out there that wouldn’t work as a standalone game, at least not something you’d want to pay for by itself really. It also pays to listen to people, as one game I had been thinking about doing was just asked for by someone who just picked up a table. There’s a ton more going on in the background, but this will see light of day soon! Simple projects are fun, and it gives me something to work on and think about while working out the details on the bigger ones!     Well, time for bed.. for now…

Debating… Firstly, Gremlins Grotto is a similar type of strategy game, it hit the market mid-September and sales have been a lot lower than I had hoped, netting (after commission) less than $400 in almost 3 months.    It’s enough to pay for the assets within the game, but it’s not enough to recoup any of the time spent on development. In time sales may pick up, one never knows, but I doubt it; it will remain one of those little niche games. There’s nothing wrong with that, I had just hoped it would have performed better. That being said, Rogues is a very similar type of strategy game, and while yes it’s fun at times, it can also be very frustrating at others, combined with the fact that it is not a very fast paced game, it’s lacking something that would make it stick out. I have a ton of ideas and titles on the drawing board, and I’ve come to the conclusion a couple of times over the past year that this is probably one that is just going to get shelved. Maybe someday I’ll come back to it, but I don’t think the market is there for that type of game right now, at least on this platform. So! What do we do instead? MOVE ON! One of my first projects I was going to do for the table was a dungeon board game titled To Delve So Deep. It looked good, played nice, ran like crap on the table, and I moved on to other projects planning to revisit this one someday. Well, that day has come. This platform is aimed at board games and the like, and now is a perfect time to revamp the gameplay entirely, make it more into a board type game with a dungeon theme. Plans are already in the works and being written out of the good ol’ Remarkable tablet already. It’s still a pretty big project so it’s not next on the list. SLOA –  the Secret Life of Aliens is also a board game, and I have a fair majority of its rules and gameplay already written out, and I’m slowly tweaking and adjusting things here and there.  This is also a pretty hefty project (for one person in their spare time) and it needs time to be developed properly, not rushed. Ideally it should take me roughly 6 months at my current pace? Maybe 8… And I want to do it right. What do we do in the meantime? In the long run, it is about making games and making a little money on the side to help keep things moving, buy new assets, training, software etc., so we do smaller fun stuff that should definitely be a hit on the table! I was thinking about doing some dice games and trying to figure out the best way to balance everything. I have to think about everything here, including release schedules, the beta testers, QA, the development, the sales, all of those and more factor in. I had the intention of doing some smaller games and putting them up for .99 or 1.99 each, but right now I have 8 different ones and more in the works. These are all fun, simple to play and easy to develop, but if I did 8 individual games? I’m pretty sure I know a few people who would get really irritated trying to fit in 8 titles into testing, not to mention the release schedule for that.. Then I’d be trying to avoid doing the same UI’s etc. for each one, and even though they are completely different games, they might all end up looking identical and actually end up a detractor from sales. I think the value here lies more in a multi game pack. Easier for everyone from testing (well maybe not, now they test 3-5 games in one) to release, plus it’s better value for the customer. $5.99 and you get like 5 different games, each with its own unique gameplay style and rules: not to mention the variety. Tired of playing Ship Captain Crew? Let’s go play Macao instead! Or how about Triple Chicago, Pig or one of many others! I’m still trying to determine what’s going to be the best value / combo for the cost, but I think it will depend on how many games I include in the bundle. There are tons that can be done, so at least 3 per pack. And if I do 3, I might just aim for a price point around 2.99 or 3.99 which puts each game at roughly one to two dollars each. Then I can release pack 1, 2 and 3, they can stagger the releases or do it all at once and bam. Games that everyone will love (we hope!!) Just have to come up with icons, marketing, titles for the packs.. ugh, it never ends! Don’t ask me to explain how my brain jumps around, I just decided to do this after going to the store the other day, seeing something and going… Yeah.. that’s what we’re going to do! Bonus points because it gives me something to put out while I flesh out and make both Delve and SLOA (among other titles) even better before I release them!