Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

The next positech game: Clue #3

Posted on May 11, 2011

Age of empires online could be fun. Anyone played it yet? I’m looking for a new online game to play as co-op with a buddy. He isn’t a hardcore gamer or very tech savvy,  but he is obsessed with Company of Heroes. I’m looking to get him into another game, that isn’t too different. We tried men of war, but that didn’t really work out. Ideally something thats built around co-op play, and would benefit from voice chat. Any suggestions? Is world of tanks a good idea? Also, everyone feel free to add cliffski as a friend on battlefield Bad Company 2. I’m a helpful team player :D I tend to play evenings in UK time (GMT).

I guess it’s time for another clue about my next game, following on from the last two…

Clue #3

..

 

Indie Game pricing pressures

Posted on May 8, 2011

Just looking at the last 10 new indie releases on steam:

  1. Fortix2  £5.39
  2. Beeo £5.39
  3. Dwarfs £7.19
  4. Universe Sandbox £6.99
  5. Capsized £5.99
  6. Your doodles are bugged £6.99
  7. The Tiny Bang Story £11.99
  8. Sanctum £9.99
  9. Anomaly £8.99
  10. Hoard £6.99

Thats scary there is only ONE game there over £10, and these are new release, presumably full price games. What will they be in a sale? £2? £1? £0.01? How on earth are these games expected to make a profit at these prices? In direct sales, 20% of it is probably payment costs. It’s insane. Plus, my next game is unsustainable at £10. I can’t make my money back at that price. It has to be more expensive. People who hate DLC will have to accept that it’s the only way devs can make money if the core game is sold at these prices. If you can sell portal 2 exclusively from your site with no discount, at £29.99, and have an item store on top, then things probably seem much better.

Artists, programmers, software are not getting cheaper each year.

There seems to be an unwritten rule developing that indie games must be under £10, preferably under $10. This is MAD. Harry Potter was written by ONE person. just ONE. It’s production costs were tiny. Does that mean you saw the harry potter books on sale for a third the price of other books? Of course not. Nobody slots books or plays into an ‘indie’ category and tries to get them cheap, ditto music. Do you pay less for an Adele album than a Queen album, because Queen had more members? That would be silly.

I speak to a lot of indie developers privately. They are overwhelmingly worried about the pressure being put on them to sell cheaper, cheaper cheaper. In the end, you get what you pay for. I know quite a few devs who are cutting back the ambition of their games, making them shorters, cheaper to make and mroe casual, because they fear that nobody will ‘allow’ them to sell for >$10.

Is there not a market for a $26 indie game? Should I stop saying I’m indie now?

More next-game clues soon…

The next positech game: Clue #1

Posted on May 6, 2011

I don’t want tot alk too openly in a press style way about my new game yet, because I don’t have whizz bang screenshots to show anyone at the moment, and the game is a long way off, but I know a lot of people are curious. maybe some of you will buy it! (I hope so…)

Anyway, I thought I’d trickle out a bunch of clues about the style, design, backstory (oh yes) and general theme of the game.

I also thought, that what with this being the internet etc… it’s a nightmare to hint at anything without giving the whole game away, so they will hopefully be very obscure.

Here is the first one:

Clue#1

Enjoy!

REFERENDUM DAY. (Democracy is cheap today)

Posted on May 5, 2011

I’m 41, and I have never voted. Nope, thats nonsense, let me re-phrase it. I have never cast a vote that ever influenced anything, ever. That’s because I’ve always lived in a ‘safe seat’ meaning the local MP had nothing to fear, knowing he (and it was always a he) had a job for life, huge salary and expenses to boot.

Today I will be voting in the UK referendum on changing the voting system. I’ll be voting yes, but regardless of my personal views on that, my vote will actually be counted, because it’s not being done on some patronising non-proportional system like constituency voting. I know that AV isn’t PR, but it’s better than FPTP. I have grown incensed by the total lies put out by the No2AV campaign. I’m strongly pro-AV, and I could make a much better argument for FPTP than they did, but they chose to pretend it would cost more (what price democracy eh?) and that the money would be taken from intensive care wards to pay for it. They literally tried to claim that if you vote YesToAV, children would die.

Pathetic.

I hear that the No camp will be annoyed if yes wins on a low turnout, which is ironic, because the whole problem of first past the post is that there is no actual post. You can win with 1% of the vote, if every other candidate only gets 0.99%. So if there is a 1% turnout and yes wins, it will be a victory on the terms of FPTP. Bwahahahahaha. I got 3 No2AV leaflets through my door, with the postman, meaning it’s not being done by political activists for free, but being paid for, no doubt by some wealthy people with a vested interest in the current system.

So anyway, back to the voting system cost issue, to prove to them that the cost of Democracy should not be an issue, Democracy 2 is 50% off today with a special code. Check it out:

50% off Democracy2.

Happy voting,