Shelved.. and What’s Next!
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!
