Indie Game Developer Can Be A Lonely Job
I never realized it before but after years of working as indie game developer, one thing that struck me real hard on my head is this path can lead to a lonely lifestyle. Imagine yourself working on your computer most of time with minimal interaction with other people. Most of your communication are conducted on the Internet with your team members, target players and other people interested in your game project.
I guess this does not pose a big problem but the effect do takes its toll several years later. Some friend might ignore you if you're carried away with your work. This is the reason why it is so important to have balanced life. Even if you are a fully committed independent game developer, it's always a good idea to have a normal social life - hanging out with your friends and spending some time with your girlfriend/boyfriend.
Indie game developer does not have to be associated with anti-social behaviour 
Keeping Motivation in Game Project
After suspecting it might happen eventually, the dreaded "losing interest on a game project" has finally struck on me leaving me feeling demotivated to work on the game project. I can use my sheer power of self-discipline to force myself to work on this game project but it will be a destructive process in the long term.
Motivation = Belief + Control
Why do I lose interest in a game project since developing game is part of my passion? The answer to that is as long as you believe in the game project and you will be able to control most aspect of it, that gives you a strong powerful motive to keep do it. This is the reason why I can sustain working on Blade Thrust Tactics for 6 years full time as I am a firm believer of it and I control almost all aspect of it - design, coding, art and others.
A total control if this gives an unparaleled power of motivation to me to keep finishing this game project. I've finally been able to release the game after 6 years of gruelling development and that represent my greatest achievement so far considering how technical and complicated the game can be to people.
On the other hand, working in a team will surely make you losing some control on several aspect of the game. This is actually quite OK if you believe in the game project and you are feeling comfortable with limited control that you have. When I received an offer to join Math Quest development team, I was assigned coding aspect of it. For several months joining the team, I can adapt to the workflow because I receive ample design details to work on accomplishing some features in the game although there is some lacking in receiving arts to be integrated to the game.
But over several months working on the game project, I was frustrated to see many changes to the game direction that slows down the game development progress. There is now 2 separate version of the game - demo version and full version which is basically the same game having a different content to it. Maintaining 2 seperate game version is a nightmare. The reason why there has been 2 versions is because the demo version was developed quickly for testing requirement to students so it lacks proper stryline. The full version on the other hand contain proper storyline as the team managed to find a script writer to write the storyline. In addition to it, there is some development to do contract work for education portal but later scrapped as it affects the main game development 
The plan is to release a single game module by the end of July 2010 which represent a single civilization player can play and interact but due to this changes, the team can only manage to complete only half of it. Because of this, I don't feel that I've achieved a sense of accomplishment as there's plenty of things to do. This in turns demotivates me because I have an expectation I will be able to finish a single game module by the end of July 2010 but due to this changes, that's not going to happen.
Lessons to be learned
1) Stick to the game plan and do not change direction unless the project is deemed unfeasible.
2) Every team member has to know every single task he/she need to do for the rest of development time.
3) Separate development into milestone and reward the team member for completed milestone.
So how can we learn from this experience? The most important of thing is to have a clear direction of what the team want to achieve in a specific amount of time. This mean if the team want to finish a game by the end 2010, do whatever it takes to achieve the goal and do not change direction and add another project because it surely will distract the team from completing the game.
The team has to sit down together and list down every single tasks each team member has to do and its deadline based on feature needed in the game. That way each team member will know how much workload they have to face in relation to each others. It's a good idea to separate the development into several milestones and once the team managed to achieve the milestone, the team should be rewarded with something. The completed milestone and its reward serves as motivator to work on the next milestone.
This is what currently lacking in Math Quest development team as there is no milestone to pursue. I've been coding for more than 6 straight months for this game project and boy, I do feel tired! If there is a milestone to be achieved and some reward to it, that can rejuvenate me once the milestone have been achieved.
Dream City:Life Events – May 2010
After giving out much consideration and thought, I decided to change Chronicles of My Life game title to Dream City: Life Events game title to take advantage of Dream City IP I've been developing so far. The most important thing, Chronicles of My life name is already belong to a well known novel, if I'm not mistaken. I don't want to confuse people
Title change isn't nothing new to me. Before I already change my previous game title called Sphere Core to Blade Thrust Tactics.
Hopefully with this new cool title, I have the necessary zeal to further the game development as this has been lacking for months now.
6 Mistakes of Indie Game Developer
1) Start the effort by going full time indie.
2) Don't study the game market.
3) Develop big game project.
4) Assume you can do all by yourself.
5) Don't takes initiative to build community around the game project.
6) Don't participate in indie developer community.
Going to indie game developer route path is like going to the unknown path that does not guarantee a bright future. Sure, there's some success story of indie game developer who managed to do well in their effort but most of the people I know are struggling especially nowadays when economy are in such a bad shape.
So why bother becoming an indie game developer? The only reason that I can think of is becoming an indie game developer is such a cool stuff because you are doing stuff that you enjoy. Playing games is fun so making games should be fun, right?
That my friend is one piece of bullshit because developing a game is a serious business so you need to approach the development process just like a regular business. This mean you need to carefully plan your game by studying the market and developing the game based on features that market want. Yes, you can develop games that fits your vision but at the same time you have to adapt to what market want. I will discuss this stuff later.
Otherwise you are going to fail in your attempt financially. Yes, you can develop your games as a hobby but you still need to approach the process as a business process because you definitely want to get your creation to the right audience, right? Unless you want to develop games that you are the only ones who plays it Ouch, I'm being sarcastic, here.
Mistake 1 - Start the effort by going full time indie
You can't just jump in to become indie game developer just like that. If you are just graduated from high school or college, you need to get a proper day job then you can working on your indie game project in the evening or weekend. Getting a proper day job gives you financial stability and some money to invest in your own game project.
Fortunately not many people follow this kind of mistake but it can happen to anybody who've enthusiastically want to join the exciting world of indie game development. I was once making this mistake. I could have been better getting a day job but instead I take a plunge into the field full time. I have some side income to support me during the development but the development take a hit due to lack of fund. So the development takes an excruciating time to move forward. It takes 8 years to finish my first game.
Had I choose the path to get a day job, the development process might could have been cut to half and even improve its production quality by bringing in talent. Please, don't follow my mistake. Get a day job, start saving, do the project in free time, bring in talent if you can afford and you'll doing OK
Mistake 2 - Don't study the game market
Game development is a business process. That's a single fact that a lot of indie game developer newbie tend to forget. "Hey, I want to make this cool game and don't give a damn about market." If you think like that then I can assure you are not going to survive financially in the game development field.
Making a game is a business. This mean you have to study the market. There's plenty sources you can find:
1) Gamasutra is website dedicated to the art and business of making games. There's plenty of good articles related to games market that might interests you. Try to observe the pattern in games market.
2) IndieGamer Forum is a forum dedicated to discuss anything about indie game development.
3) TigSource Forum is a forum dedicated to discuss anything about indie game development.
When you study the market, this does not necessarily mean you can't create games that you want to create. You are studying the market to assess whether the game you are about to create has enough market to sustain you as a game developer. Ask yourself this hard question - will there be enough people who want to buy your game? If the market is way too small and your target is to make some decent money, then you have to make some serious decision.
Even if you decided to serve the market, what are important feature that market want? Then you are wiser to incorporate that feature into your games. This way you'll make the game easier to sell. People have expectation and if you don't meet their expectation, they don't bother to see what you are offering to them. Harsh lesson...
I make this mistake of not studying the market before I start my first game project. The game belongs to a niche hardcore market (tactical strategy games) so that make my job harder. To make it worse, I didn't listen to a feature the market want - 3D. Instead I create a 2D game which makes the game looks retro. I couldn't make 3D game because I don't have technical expertise to do it. The 2D game does not look good enough because I'm not a graphic artist.
If I study the market, I wouldn't dare to serve the market. Instead, I can concentrate my effort of creating a game where the market can accept 2D game such as casual, business or simulation games. Beware that your sentiment can cloud your business judgement. Just because you are a big fan of certain game, does not necessarily mean you might want to create game based upon it even if you know that you are not going to make some money out of it. Ignore this if you just want to create game for fun
Mistake 3 - Develop big game project
It's quite natural for newbie to aim to create the grandest game project they can think of. "I want to create FPS with 100 levels, 1000 enemies, 100 weapons and all the junk that I can throw!" Yeah, good luck with that. Let me know if you ever going to achieve that maybe 10 years from now?
The truth is starting a small game project is the most wisest thing you ever do as an indie game developer. Small game project allow you to finish your game project much faster and the best part is you can build yourself a portfolio of games that provide synergy to each others.
However there is a trick you can pull if you still want to develop a big game project. You can split the game into several parts. Finish the first part, release it and then develop the next part. Repeat the process.
So how do we consider a game a small game project? Actually there's plenty of definition but my favourite definition is the game should not take more than 5 hours to complete it on normal difficulty level. If the game takes more than 5 hours to complete, then it is already a big project.
Mistake 4 - Assume you can do all by yourself
Game development is a difficult process as it need multiple skills to pull it off in term of design, programming, writing, art and music. If you decided to work solo on your game project, this mean you have to have skill in design, programming and art. Depending on your education background, if you are majoring in technical field, you have skill in programming so you need to learn some art skill. If you are an artist, you need to learn programming which by the way is very hard things to do. This is based on my personal experience
Does it have to be like this? It used to be but not anymore. There's plenty of tools in the market right now that can help you in your game development process even if you are not good in programming. For 2D game development, nothing beats working on Flash development. You can create a good game with Flash using only basic knowledge in programming. For 3D game development, there's a free 3D software called Unity 3D.
With of all this tool, you might think you can pull it off. Don't be surprised if you can't progress the way you want it to be. Along the way you might face some difficulty that might demotivate you. Now this is a good time to ask help from anyone who can help you - someone from indie game developer community.
You might do yourself a favour by getting in touch with indie game community. This way if you face some problem, you can ask for help. Thanks to the wonderful invention called Internet, this is possible. Indie game developer community can be found on IndieGamer and TigSource.
Mistake 5 - Don't takes initiative to build community around the game project
Any game project no matter how small the scope is can benefit if there is a community behind it. The community consists of developer and a sets of fans/followers who follow the development of the game until it is released and continue to support it by giving precious feedback to the developer. It is easy to build a small community around a game project by asking your friend and colleague to join it but the real challenge is to grow the community across the Internet.
Fortunately, this has been made easy thanks with a plethora of social media tools scattered throughout the Internet - blog and various social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. You might want to create a blog which revolves around the game project and ask people to subscribe to blog news feed so they can keep in touch with any development news related to your game project. You can also create a Facebook page which allow you to post any updates to the game project.
Several years ago, this technology does not exist so any game developer have to rely on press release, coverage on gaming website and paid advertising banner ad/text link to build awareness of their game project. So if you want to build awareness of your game project, please take advantage of this social media tools.
Mistake 6 - Don't participate in indie game developer community
This has been discussed before so if you don't yet join any indie game community, now this is the right time to do it. Do it now!
Math Quest: Flash RPG Game
It's been awhile I didn't post something worthwhile to this blog so some of you might be wondering what's really happen to me. Am I having a deep problem that prevent me from posting to this blog or did I completely lost interest to indie game development? Well man, I'm still coding games if you really want to know
Currently I am working for a local game start-up called HezMedia Interactive Sdn Bhd for their upcoming Flash based game called Math Quest. Math Quest is a role playing game specially designed to help students 10 to 12 years old of age to better learn mathematics. So the game belong to edutainment market which I have never ever consider to enter it before.
Math Quest is an online game which mean player need to connect to the game website to play it. The prototype of the game has already been running with major portion of the game feature has been completed including combat. Here is research paper discussing what Math Quest game try to achieve and deliver. It's in PDF format.
Why Do I Join The Team?
What makes Math Quest special that I'm interested to join the development team? After all I already have developed a complex game so you might assume that I'm working on this game seems like a backward progress to me. The reason that I join their team is because I always interested to work with someone else developing role playing or strategy games so I can't refuse it. The timing is also right for me as I just already finished Blade Thrust Tactics game when I received their offer in November 2009.
Another major appeal is because the game uses isometric perspective. As you already know Blade Thrust Tactics use isometric perspective so I believe I can leverage my experience to the game.
My Role In The Team
I work as a core programmer for the game so I'm doing most of AS3 coding in the game except anything that involves server side coding. Actually the game basic engine has already been running before I join the team as the previous programmer left the team so I inherite quite a code from him. When I join the team, the game basic movement and rendering engine has been completed and its working fine so I guess I don't have to build it from scratch.
So my work from that point is to just add more feature to the game such as dialog system, quest handling system, character statistic housekeeping and all stuff you expect from typical role playing game. I also contribute some portion to design details as there are plenty of design details that has not been finalized yet.
It takes some time to get used to the working experience as this is the first time I'm doing coding for AS3 as I am a C/C++ guy. So far the transition isn't as bad as I thought it to be because AS3 is almost like a full featured programming language such as C/C++. So I can carry most of my coding style to the new environment which is good.
I promise to spell out more details about the game. So stay tuned for upcoming news of the game.
Sayonara DirectX!
It's been awhile I don't cut my teeth on coding games that can utilize DirectX so I decided to get rid all of DirectX tools on the development PC. I don't have to think anything about DirectX anymore! I have already freeze any code updates on Blade Thrust games so any updates about the game only comes from art and sound department.
This does not look as bad as it looks because the current 0.90 version is a stable version. The only quirk is you have to install it on root directory on any drive as C:/ or E:/. This should not pose a problem as I already install it on Vista PC this way and does not pose a problem at all.
This also does not affect Dream City game as the game is developed 100% on Win32 GDI and if I am committed enough, I might develop it to run on Flash architechture. So stay tune for new updates about the game.
5 Survival Tips for Indie Game Developers
1) Forget about big game project. Just concentrate on small game project.
2) It's hard selling commercial games nowadays. Why don't make freeware games and makes money from derivative such as item/merchandise, strategy guide and special edition version or just depend on advertising money.
3) Do not succumb to pressure selling for dirt cheap price such as anything below $9.95. Instead focus more on increasing value by providing lots of download contents to buyers.
4) Spend more times playing other unique indie games and get inspired. Come out with unique gameplay that other don't implement it.
5) Think positive. It's hard thing to do. Just do anything fun to kill any bad thought.
As you read this blog post on January 2010, the economy throughout the world face its worst condition in several decades. There's a lot of unemployment on the job market which means most of people has less money to spend on stuff. I will assume that on most people mind, they are only concentrating on fulfilling their basic need such as food and shelter and don't care too much for any frivolous activities such as playing games.
Even if they have some little time to play games, most of them don't have money to spend on games. That's why it's not surprising to read that even mighty game publishers such as Electronics Arts lost billion dollars. The real fact is most people don't have money to spend on games anymore. Oh yes, people still buy games but the number are way significantly lower now.
That's why I'm searching high and low throughout the Internet to find some useful survival tips that I can use since I am struggling as indie game developer right now. After been searching for quite some time and reading lots of information and opinion from way too many sources, I have collected some very useful survival tips that I want to share. I'm doing this so I can refer to it from time to time if I somehow get stumped. These survival tips might be useful to other indie game developers whose been struggling to figure out the best ways to handle the situation.
Small Game Project
I define small game project as the game that can be played in less than 5 hours irrelevant of many times developer spent on making it. I think this definition is relevant because it is measured from the perspective on player.
For indie game developer, making small game project make sense because the resources needed for it is less than big game project, there is a high chance of it being finished and most important of all, developer can build up a collection of games in short amount of time. Each games can cross selling each other which kind of good in term of marketing.
Any game no matter how big the scope is can be developed as a small game project if developer think about it from design phase. For role playing game, development can be separated to multiple episodes so each episode can be sold separately as a single game. Amanda Fitch has already done this on her Aveyond game series.
For strategy game, concentrate the first development on basic features and several game levels. For the next development adds more advanced features and more intricate game levels. I think this approach is less risky than devoting all your development time on a single big project.
Freeware Games
Did you know that Battle of Wesnoth, an old school turn based strategy games has been downloaded over 3 million times over the course of its development? What is even more surprising is that each download takes about 200 Mega Bytes of size. That's a huge number for such a niche indie game. I think one of the big reason is it's an open source project which means it's free and it's a good game.
The quality of the game is approaching or exceeding typical commercial game of its genre. This proves that if developer make a good game no matter how niche the market, the game will be well received by public. I think had the game been conceived as a commercial game, it would not reach the status like what it had today. That's the power of freeware games if you care to develop it properly. Freeware games does not have to be associated with low quality or be crappy.
The reason I'm bringing up the virtue of freeware games is because it's hard selling commercial indie games nowadays. Most of the indie games that can be sold nowadays are either belong to casual games market, has unique gameplay ( such as Braid or World of Goo ) or the games are developed by established game developers with a strong fan base. If your commercial indie games do not belong to these categories, then expect lots of disappointments.
Since selling commercial indie games are hard, why don't change a strategy by shifting the focus on making freeware games? I know this sounds like a crazy thing to do if you've been dabbling with commercial indie game for years. Just because the game is freeware does not necessarily mean you can not make money out of it. You can make money but that requires some crafty business model out of it.
The usual stuff is just asking for player to donate money through PayPal account. Well, this strategy might work if you consistently remind player about this in the game website or even in the game. Bay 12 developer has already successfully implement this strategy with their Dwarf Fortress game. To encourage player to donate, maybe you can throw some incentive such as strategy guide or walk through in PDF format to anyone who donate.
But I was thinking about more creative way of selling item or merchandise related to the game. You actually does not make much money out of this if you outsource the stuff to one stop shop but if you are willing to handle the operation by yourself, this can be a rewarding stuff. If you are willing to do this, you can advertise or mention it on your game. It's free marketing. I think the player will understand the logic behind this and if the deal looks good enough, they might check it out on the game website.
Another radical approach is to introduce a special edition version of the game that is bundled with digital goodies and item/merchandise. The digital goodies are something that does not included in the free version such as wallpaper, soundtrack, additional game levels and strategy guide/walk trough. The version should comes in a nice packaging box which also includes item/merchandise related to the game.
The last approach is to depend on advertising money. This approach works if your games can be developed with Flash technology. You can then submit your Flash game on many Flash game portal. You'll share profit with the portal on advertising money generated while player playing the game on the portal. So the more player playing the game or spend more time playing the game, the profit money will be higher. This is a win-win situation as all parties can benefit out of it but the problem is advertising money seems to be on low side nowadays. People and business don't have loads of cash to spend on advertising nowadays.
Increase Game Value
The current price wars between casual games portals really sadden me as indie game developer because the real victim here are developer themselves. The current price war force the developer to cut cost and force them to make their game shorter. But the biggest problem is this price wars create an artificial perception on player that they can expect to buy indie games at such a low price. Why pay $19.95 when you can buy games at $6.95? Heck, why even pay when you can get it free and conveniently on torrent sites?
A few indie games developer veteran has been complaining about this low price practice such as Jeff Vogel on his blog. This is definitely a sad time for indie game developer community because from now on it will become much harder to convince player to spend that $19.95 on indie games. Jeff Vogel suggests that indie games should be priced according to the estimated gameplay time. Well, I agree on his suggestion.
Do not succumb to pressure selling for dirt cheap price such as anything below $9.95. I think it's still OK selling indie games for $10 or more depending on how much content the game has and gameplay time player can get from it. If you believe your game is worth $19.95, than stick with it. Of course if your game can only be played in less than 5 hours, slapping $19.95 price tag seems like too much nowadays.
In addition, you can increase the game value by providing lots of download contents to buyers. Anyone who buy the game has access to private section of the game websites which allow them to download these DLC. These download contents need to be updated from time to time so this requires more work but will make the buyer a happy and satisfied customer.
Play Other Indie Games
I will suggest indie game developer should play as much as indie games they can get their hands on especially indie games that does not belong to their favourite genre. The reason why I'm suggesting this approach is because some of indie games has such a profound design innovation on it that you have to experience yourself by playing it.
One of notable example is Braid game developed by Jonathan Blow. Although the game looks like a typical platform game, its distinct game design that allow player to reverse his action and time gives it a new fresh perspective to platform game. The reason why I dislike typical platform game is because it is so easy getting killed and you have to restart the game level after your character death. With this game, I no longer have to endure that kind of experience.
Playing unique indie games will broaden your thinking horizon and can even inspire you in some ways. This is good because indie game developers need to be inspired from time to time. To survive as indie game developer, you need to come out with unique gameplay that other don't implement it. Jonathan Blow has already done this and he reaps the reward of it. This should be the essence of indie game developer - try to come out with unique gameplay that stands out from other me-too game.
I would say cut back your time on playing mainstream AAA game title because most of them are just old stuff in a new dress. There's nothing new and revolutionary gameplay can be found there as the developer can't have too much risk creating something revolutionary.
Think Positive
This should be self-explanatory but the hardest thing to do especially nowadays. Maybe you need to visit some self-improvement website to get some tips. Hope these survival tips can be useful to all you guys!
Blade Thrust Tactics : The Meaning Behind The Game
Original Design - a game about human struggle within a harsh environment.
Final Result - a game about the struggle of a weaker side ( the Alliance ) against a powerful side ( Idea Empire ) in the quest of freedom.
Recently I was playing a strange little indie game called Passage. The game itself has nothing special to it but what makes it different is because it was designed and developed by its developer, Jason Rohrer to convey meaning of life and death. Every aspect of the game has been designed to convey this meaning. From my opinion, Passage represent Jason Rohrer's self expression on the subject of life and death.
A game can transcend beyond its stereotype limitation ( mindless fun ) to have an impact on human soul if the developer care to put extra effort to design their game to convey some meaning to it. I was inspired by Planescape Torment game because the game has brought many complex issues with it. I can never forget this haunting question - "What can change the nature of a man?". That question still haunts me to this day. It's a deep stuff.
It's All Started With Dreazth
That's why I decided to start Dreazth, a RPG game project around February 2001 to create a game that reflect my view about human struggle within a harsh environment. Dreazth is a game world of which technology clashes with mystic forces. The game world is imbued with dread, despair and mystic atmosphere ( D2M ). The world is at the brink of major war and people behave in their own self-interest. As you play the game, you'll soon realize the true nature of human in oppressive condition - they are greedy, clueless and hopeless. You can either become just like them or choose another direction - become a good man and prove that there is still a value of kindness within a harsh environment.
I must say this is a big project as I've never done any game project before. It took me almost 3 years to fully build a complete structure of the game world - geography, social system, creature types, organization, conflict issues, and even people details who runs those organizations. Unfortunately I face a problem on how to integrate all these details in quest based game play so I switch to mission based game play. Although the game at that time mutates to strategy oriented game instead of RPG oriented game, most of messages that I want to convey in the game still survive the transition.
That Big Change
But then something big happen on June 2004. I have fast forward the time line in the game world several years later of which the Idea Empire has become a global empire by invading cities/towns throughout the world. An underground rebel organization called the Alliance was formed to fight the global empire. Player are in charge of a special operative squad to carry out several missions for the Alliance in their campaign to liberate several regions throughout the world.
This my friend is where the game starts to become something else - I lose focus of what the game should be and instead focus on more action oriented aspect of the game. I think this is the hazard of long game development project - you tend to lose focus of why you develop the game in the first place and turn it into something way different.
I finally managed to finish the first trilogy in the game called Blade Thrust Tactics on April 2009. Originally I want to create RPG game which convey message about human struggle within a harsh environment. But in the end I turn it to become a tactical combat game which convey message about the struggle of a weaker side ( the Alliance ) against a powerful side ( Idea Empire ) in the quest of freedom. Hey, that is not such as a bad transition, isn't it?
Struggle of Weaker Side
The struggle of weaker side message has been communicated throughout the game with these design implementations:
1) Your squad starts with pathetic supply and it's up to you to salvage any remaining items carried out by your dead enemies. If you don't salvage, you are not going to finish your objectives.
2) The Alliance only has little money to fund their operation so it is possible they will run out of their fund in the middle of campaign. You are responsible to help the Alliance gather more money by completing certain missions.
3) The enemy will try to insult and intimidate you at the early part of the game. Luckily you can only read this if you get close to them.
4) The war machines aka tank gives you nightmare if you enter the sector from wrong entry point. This eventual death can be prevented if you spend your time reading recon details ( mission section ) in the game website.
So there you go - Blade Thrust Tactics game condensed to its core. When you play Blade Thrust Tactics, you are effectively struggle within your limitation to achieve your objective. There are lots of enemies to be killed but that is not totally important. The more important thing is during your time playing the game, if you feel frustrated about your limitation, then I guess I've already deliver my message in the game.
You need a strong will and guts to play this game.
Dream City: Life Events – November 2009 Update
Development for the game is a little bit slow on early part of November because I was concentrating my effort of writing strategy guide for Blade Thrust Tactics. But since I've already finished writing it, then I can go back to this game project.
The major improvement I've made on the game is overhauling the diary system. Nathan Chin has been complaining about this stuff last month so I guess I have to do something about it. The avatar graphics right now is repositioned to the right to give room for diary text.
Karma System
The other major improvement I've made is introducing karma system. Whenever your character perform a good deed, her karma will increase and vice versa. Keep a high karma and there could be high chance your character will be rewarded with something in which case your karma will be exchanged for the reward. Having a high karma also will prevent you from ending up in trouble or disaster as some of your karma will be exchanged with the trouble or disaster.
Yes, this game revolves around morality. Everyday we face this kind of situation. Think karma as some sort of moral currency. The more karma you earn, the more good reward you can exchange or more trouble/disaster you can prevent in the future. I get the inspiration of karma system from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
The karma system is not yet properly balanced because I don't add enough events that improve karma. So your character most of the times will not get any reward derived from karma and will suffer disaster or bad events due to lacking of karma.
Job Overhaul
I also make a lot of changes in term of job. You can now quit from your job. You also earn salary increase if you stick working for the company for certain amount of time which mean loyalty is rewarded. You can't apply new job or get promoted during economic recession. I also flesh out more details about the job. For instance, if you apply for fashion designer job, the company is called GA Apparel which involves in chic casual dress market. By giving more details to the company, I can think up a lot of events related to the job such as product launch, brand war and lots of interesting stuff.
Lifestyle
I also made some changes to the transportation gameplay. If your character want to use scooter, small car, sedan car and luxury car, she will have to buy it in full price. I was thinking to use more realistic system on down payment and monthly installments but the system is way complicated to execute at this point. Buying it can be done in Buy Asset Panel. Once your character buy it, your character can use it by choosing the option in Lifestyle Panel. So it is possible for your character to buy it but not use it.
Assets depreciation does not yet work.
Activity Overhaul
I also overhaul activities by introducing weekend activities in addition to evening activities. There are a lot of weekend activities you can do such as window shopping, going to the spa, chatting on the Internet, watching soccer match in the stadium, go fishing and the boring part time schools. Yes, there is no more evening part time schools. All part time schools are carried out at weekend.
The scoring system also has been overhauled. If you finish the game, you'll get total score:
1) 1 - 199 : You have a terrible life.
2) 200 - 399 : You could've done it better.
3) 400 - beyond : You have a good life!
The new version is Dream City: Life Events 0.21 released on 16 November 2009. It still come in a small download file. I welcome any feedback.
Blade Thrust Tactics Marketing Plan
The marketing plan for Blade Thrust Tactics is simple - try to achieve 15000 downloads before the next game version is released in 2012 or whenever the game is finished. I have no target for sales unit because my objective is to try to get this game to be played by as many target audience as possible. I can make the game as a freeware but I need some money to fund the next game version so I stick to shareware.
I do marketing on the game but not as aggressive as it should be. I think this is the best strategy right now as this keep my expectation low and I can keep working on marketing the game over long period of time.
Since Blade Thrust Tactics is my first game effort, I try to learn as much I can from many sources on the Internet. While searching Google on how to sell shareware games, I come across an in-depth article written by Paul Eres from RPG Creation called How to Sell Games as Shareware. It contains lots of useful suggestion on many aspect of marketing games as shareware. Since then, I've been following some of those suggestions.
What surprises me is Paul Eres has only release one shareware game called Immortal Defense. Since the release of the game on June 2007, the game has been downloaded over 60000 and rakes about 300 units in total sales. For the first shareware games, this is actually a good number. A lot of indie game developers can only start making real money once they have a sizeable collection of games on their pocket.
The marketing effort for the game has been started as early as July 2009. After getting frustrated of lacklustre response on the game public beta released at the end of April 2009, I step up effort to increase traffic to the game website.
Shareware and Download Sites
1) I submit the game to be listed on many shareware and download sites. I think I already try to submit to over 30 websites before I get bored of the efforts. I didn't see any significant traffic to the game website. I think part of the problem is because since most of these websites have lots of software titles, it is very hard for developer to get his software or games to be noticed by people who visit the websites.
And people who runs this website take advantage of this by coming up with some crafty ways to persuade developer to pay if they want their software or games get more attention on the website. This is actually not such a bad idea if the website itself get visited by lots of people. But since I am kind of cheapskates guy, I'll give this thing a pass.
Nevertheless, submitting the game to these websites are not entirely useless. I get myself some valuable back link to the game website which helps to improve Google page rank. It's not much but everything little thing adds up. I also get some bonus when some websites such as Softpedia and ZDNet automatically list the game on their website.
I want to share some interesting fact - out of 32 websites I submit, I manage to get the game listed at only 15 websites! We are talking about 53% rejection here.
Game Forums
2) I announce the game on many game forums. This is actually not some sort of spam because I announce the game on feedback section of the forum asking people to try the game and provide feedback. If there is no feedback section, I'll write the post without making it looks like a typical spam. I do it on IGDA, IndieGamer, Bear's Pit, MGDC and even GameDev.net forum.
Initially the effort only attract small traffic but then a blogger and indie game developer himself named Rampant Coyote aka Jay Barnson read my forum post on IndieGamer and put some news about the game on his Tales of Rampant Coyote blog. Someone read his blog and post news about the game on Game Banshee. This build a significant traffic to the website. Although I don't get traffic from Game Banshee website any more, I still receive traffic coming from Tales of Rampant Coyote blog. Jay, if you read this I would like to say big thanks!
Press Release
3) I intend to send press release to many gaming sites but so far I didn't do it. It requires a tremendous amount of work trying to find the e-mail contact list and personally e-mailing them. I can use paid press release service which can streamline the process but since I am kind of cheapskates guy, I'll give this thing a pass. Maybe I can use the service in the future release of the game if I have the money.
Indie Game Developer Community
4) Another approach is to increase my presence within the indie game developer community by participating in indie game developer community forum such as TIGSource. If I have some useful insight about certain aspect of indie game or any other indie games to give feedback, I'll share it through the forum. I also would comment on other indie game developer blogs if I have something useful to say. I like the idea of what Paul Eres has said on his blog - Market Through Helpfulness. If you do good thing to people, people might do good thing to yourself.
It is also about perception management. I don't want to be seen as some sort of clueless jerk who think nothing but only to serve his interest only. I care about indie game developer community and I want them to grow. Becoming an indie game developer allows you to express your creative freedom that wasn't possible with mainstream game architecture. Yes, I tend to sound philosophical at times.
I actually provide my comment on other indie games but that info can only be accessed through the game website. Hmm, maybe I can transfer some content of it to any places where people can see it.
Internet Promotion Campaign
5) I have come out with a crafty campaign by giving the code to unlock the game to the full version to anyone who promote the game on the Internet. There are 3 options - blog, website or forum. If you have a blog, you can write a blurp or short description about the game on your blog and include a link to the game website. The blog can be about anything. It does not necessarily about games.
If you have a website, you can write a short description about the game on your link page and include a link to the game website. I accept most kind of website such as personal website, propaganda website but not porn website. If you are a regular forumites, you can suggest or recommend the game on the forum and include a link to the game website. The forum does not necessarily about games.
Although I might lose lots of sales from this campaign, the extra exposure gain from this campaign might give a boast for download numbers. And remember my target is not sales but download number.
Incentive - Strategy Guide
6) In order to provide incentive for people to upgrade to full version, I have written a full length strategy guide that will given to anyone who upgrade the game to full version. The short version of it can be accessed by anyone from the game website. This actually does not provide good enough incentive but it do make sense as the strategy guide contain lots of useful details that allow player to take advantage of what the full version of the game has to offer.
Game Review
7) I try to submit the game to be reviewed on several indie game websites or blogs. This might take some time though which depends on my presence within the indie game developer community which makes the fourth strategy very important to pursue.
Advertising
I don't intend to spend in any advertising at all for the game. The low game price, the niche target audience, bleak global economic scenario and low reputation as indie game developer ( Who the hell is this guy anyway? ) are reasons why spending on advertising isn't justifiable for me. Even if I have spare money to spend on advertising, I better spend that money on improving the production qualities of the game such as voice actors, art and such.
Tangible Value
9) I plan to provide tangible value to the game by giving USB flash drive preloaded with the full version of the game and some digital goodies to anyone who upgrade the game to full version. This is just a plan and can only be realized if I can gather enough capital money for this effort.
Man, that's a lot of things to do just to sell games directly on the Internet. No wonder lots of developers has switched to casual games or Flash games. They just want to makes games, not to get involved in nitty gritty details of confusing world of Internet marketing.