Games, Spiders, RGB and Other Adventures

Studio Update: Games, Spiders, RGB and Other Adventures

Things have been pretty busy around SquigglyFrog Studios lately, so it seemed like a good time for one of those general updates where I throw everything that's going on into one post.

Conveniently, I also need something to test our new social publishing integrations with.

So here we are.

We're Spreading Out a Little

We've added Threads, Bluesky and Instagram to the growing list of places our website can automatically publish our posts.

The goal is pretty simple: start spreading things out a little more and hopefully build up a following on some additional platforms.

I've spent quite a bit of time lately working on the publishing system behind the website, and it's becoming pretty nice to hit Publish once and let the site take care of everything else.

Assuming all of these new integrations actually work.

Which is technically why this post exists.

The Office Makeover Continues

The office redo is also coming along.

I should be getting the rest of the new office furniture next month, of course with integrated RGB lighting.

And, because apparently a normal ceiling fan wasn't ridiculous enough, there's also going to be a 27-inch RGB ceiling fan. The current 20" just doesnt cut it with this much equipment in this tiny space.

Does an office need an RGB ceiling fan?

No.

Is it getting one anyway?

Absolutely. =D

Some Very Sad Studio News

Unfortunately, this week wasn't all good news.

We lost one of our eight-legged studio friends yesterday.

Our Brazilian Blue tarantula somehow managed to escape her terrarium. I'm still not sure exactly how she got out, but at some point she made her way underneath my desk.

I didn't see her.

Unfortunately, my foot found her before I did.

It was a very sad way to lose her, and we're still trying to figure out exactly how she managed to escape in the first place.

She'll definitely be missed around here AND I have to find another $150 replacement for her.

Back to the Dungeon

Development continues on both Just One Floor Deeper and Secret Life of Aliens.

SLOA has been getting quite a bit of attention lately because, as usual, starting something new is incredibly effective at distracting me from the thing that's almost finished.

Today, however, the focus is going back to JOFD. It's getting very close, and I'd really like to finish up the remaining work, get some more testing done, and start figuring out what it's going to take to finally ship it out the door.

SLOA isn't going anywhere.

The aliens can wait.

Probably.

A Much Better Look at the Numbers

This week we also built an entirely new internal sales dashboard.

The old dashboard worked, but the new version gives us dramatically better tracking for all of our games and apps across the different marketplaces.

We can now see things like quarterly performance, historical trends, individual game performance, recent installs, and comparisons against the same point in previous periods.

It's probably not the most exciting project I've worked on, but it's been a much-needed upgrade.

It's also considerably easier to understand what's actually happening when everything is sitting on one screen instead of scattered across reports and spreadsheets.

TheDMsToolkit Is Growing

TheDMsToolkit is also slowly starting to gain a following.

We've even picked up a couple of paid subscribers.

It's still very early, and I know building these projects into something substantial is going to be a long, slow road.

But it's moving.

And right now, that's what matters.

And Then There's EverBoard...

The recent EverBoard announcement also has us pretty excited.

After spending years developing games for the Infinity Game Table, seeing another digital tabletop platform appear naturally gets our attention.

There's currently no announced third-party developer program, so there's nothing for us to actually build for yet but a comment from someone about getting some SquigglyFrog games on there makes it sound promising!

If and when EverBoard eventually opens development to independent studios, we'll definitely be taking a very close look.

We already have games that could potentially make the jump, unfinished projects that might finally get another chance, and I'm sure I'd immediately come up with several more projects that I absolutely do not have time to make.

As is tradition.

Things Are Looking Up

Overall, things are looking up.

It's going to be a long road, and none of this stuff grows overnight, but we're making progress.

The games are moving forward.

The websites are growing.

The internal tools are getting better.

We're expanding onto more platforms.

And apparently the office is slowly transforming into an RGB-powered command center.

There was supposed to be one other project next month too.

I had planned on buying a stripped-down 20-foot pontoon boat and slowly customizing it.

Unfortunately, after looking at the financials, it doesn't look like that's going to be a particularly responsible purchase right now.

So the boat will probably have to wait until next year.

Ah well.

Apparently I have to make responsible adult decisions occasionally.

Besides, that gives me another year to figure out how much RGB lighting you can legally put on a pontoon boat. The RGB lit life ring is a safety feature!