Thinking in Tribes: Creating a top grossing game without mass downloads

The App Store is Still a Viable Business Model

A lot of information has been released recently that suggests it’s not worth a developers time to make a game for the iOS App Store anymore. Reports that 30% of App Store apps make less than $1000, have scared away many of those gold rushers that had been filling the market for the last few years. Unfortunately, the average iOS developer publishes 4.2 apps. As well, more statistics that suggest that 20% of the apps make 97% of the revenue on the app store. There have been 18 billion downloads or 500,000 apps for a total of $3 billion dollars paid.

If I’ve lost you, then here is the information the above statistics suggest:
- 20% of app developers have made an average of $125,000
- 80% of app developers have made an average of $950

As an indie game developer, if our games can pull in an average of $125K, we’re doing alright. We’ll be able to feed our families, enjoy our life and have more opportunities to create the next game that could be our hit. If you have what it takes to create a game better than 80% of the rest of the games on the App Store, then you might have a business case to stay in the App Store for a little longer to hopefully find your hit.

Sources:
30% of apps make less than $1000 – http://adtmag.com/articles/2011/06/17/mobile-apps-earn-less.aspx

20% of app developers make 97% of the revenue

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/30/survey-20-percent-of-ios-devs-earn-97-percent-of-app-store-revenue.aspx

Apple has paid $3 billion to developers

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/04/apples-lets-talk-iphone-keynote-liveblog/

The average Android publisher has brought 6.13 apps to the market, while their iOS counterparts only published 4.21 apps each.

http://creatingapps.telekomaustria.com/500000-apps-android-developers-more-active-than-ios-developers-but-less-strictly-wellbehaved.html

500,000 Apps, 18,000,000,000 App Store Downloads (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/04/more-than-18-billion-apps-downloaded-from-app-store/)

We don’t need no stinking platform (or Just make the game)

This post originally started as a long-winded comment on an AltDevBlogADay post by Nicolas Lamanna, found here.

The indie game development community is larger than ever, and every day new coders and creatives are living their childhood dream of making video games and joining the community. Although I’ve made little games my whole life and have followed the industry for years, I only recently was able to officially call myself a part of the “community”. But, as the community grows it seems that we often lose sight of what the essence of indie game development is. Creating lasting game experiences for the player with minimal resources and whatever technology you have available. It was never about revolutionary technology, but about revolutionary gameplay on existing technology. That indie mindset enabled the giant shift in the industry everyone is still talking about.

So, when I hear or read of discussions about what the next greatest technology would be. Or, developers conflicted with whether they should make an iOS, XNA, Flash or HTML5 game because they aren’t sure which platform is going to win out, I feel that we’re starting to miss the point again.

Before the recent shift, game development was always a technology chasing industry. Everyone was trying to be the first to develop the newest graphic technology, in hopes that it would let them be the leader in the next generation of video games. Chasing such technology proved to be the failure for many such as Sega’s hardware devision, or long anticipated projects like Duke Nukem Forever, which changed engines several times until no one would fund the project anymore. We all thought Nintendo was untouchable before the Playstation was introduced. And we all counted them out of the console game before the Wii was created. No one can predict the next leading platform, whether it’s tablets, html5, or onlive as much as they could have predicted the success of the Playstation or the Wii.

As indie game developers, we need to remember to stop chasing the next exciting technology, and create your game on the platform that suits it and your style/skills best. That is the core of indie game development, and what has led to it’s rise in popularity. Some of the greatest indie title of our recent time started as flash games. They weren’t concerned about the next platform or using the latest graphics technology. They knew the game they needed to make, and found the platform/technology that allowed them to create it and share it with the world. It doesn’t matter what platform your game starts on, if people play it and enjoy it they will tell people about it. That is how a game like Flow ended up on the Playstation after being a popular flash game. Or, how Machinarium has recently found renewed success on Steam, then the iPad, and soon on the Playstation 3.

Find the game you want to make. Then, choose a platform/technology that works for you and enables you to create the game you want. Focus on creating a lasting experience for the player no matter what platform you choose. That is why they are playing our games. Because they want to have those experiences. Sacrificing our game in order to put it on what we believe is the next greatest technology will remove from the player experience. So, use the technology you know. If it’s HTML, then make a next generation web game. If it’s Flash, then instead of being crippled by all those “Flash is dead” posts, just make your game. Let’s get back to making games. The essence of indie game development cannot be forgotten by chasing the next great technology.

iPhone and iPhone 4 Grid Systems

I’ve created a couple of Illustrator templates which share a grid for iPhone UI design.

Share them with your friends, show them to your family, adore them while sipping hot chai.

And, while your at it, you might as well use them to design your next app.

Download the Illustrator CS Templates:
iPhone-grid-systems-IllustratorCS.zip

Here’s a preview of what’s in store:

iPhone, 3G, 3GS (320×480)

iPhone 4 Retina Display (640×960)

On Improving the Quality of iPhone Games and its Marketplace

Earlier this week I was able to attend the inexchange 2010 conference. For those who aren’t familiar with it, its main focus is on interactive and cross media productions in Canada. More specifically, the province of Ontario.

With the changes occuring within the gaming industry in the last while, this year featured much talk about mobile gaming and the future of the industry. During a panel titled “Game Changers”, discussing the changes in the way players may consume game content, Denis Dyack (of Silicon Knights) pointed out the scary fact that the average iPhone game makes only $700 in revenue.

The one discussion I left the conference hungry to discuss is how we can leverage the mobile platform to create great games, now that the hype is dying down. And hopefully, in the process, see some better ROI for the talented content producers.

Although the average game in the AppStore makes $700, I doubt the average great game on the iPhone makes that little profit. There are many factors that go into sales including the problem of visibility in the overcrowded AppStore. But, in the end we must create compelling game experiences if we want to sell our games. The poor quality of games in the AppStore is what is bringing down the marketplace. Even the games released by the big studios, are simply big wastes of money, trying to replicate console style successes on a movie device.

So, here are two ideas on how we can make better mobile games, and improve the mobile gaming marketplace:

1) A Proposal for a new type of mobile game

Mobile gaming is still waiting for it’s Space Invaders or Super Mario Bros or Doom (do I need to go on?). We are still waiting for that game that shows us that a compelling experience can be had on a mobile device. Although I love it, it is not Angry Birds, nor do I think it’s Epics Citadel. Or maybe it’s already out there, just hidden in the AppStore somewhere… I doubt it, but maybe we need an AppStore Palaeontologist, who digs through the masses of bad games to find the one gem we all missed.

Let’s stop expecting the same formula that has been used on the console games to be applicable in the new mobile marketplace. Let’s spend time analyzing and researching the game design that works on mobile before we spend time analyzing our poor ROIs. Design, prototype, test, design, prototype, test… it’s really not a foreign concept to us. But, by the look of the games in the AppStore, this is not being followed well.

2) A Proposal for a New AppStore

Although Apple has been getting some very bad attention because of their “strict” developer agreement and “closed” development platform. As a developer, I can tell you that their review process is quite lenient. If your app doesn’t contain anything deemed offensive by Apple or make the iPhone explode (literal read: crash) you can pretty much count on it being accepted into the store.

So, every Joey Developer (including me), who wants to put their game into the AppStore, can. This has been great for innovation. We’ve seen some incredible art emerging from some talented individuals who would have a hard time getting their work on the PSN or WiiWare. Passage is one that was mentioned at in10 (Its creator, Jason Rohrer is now working on a Nintendo DS game for Majesco).

But, we have to admit that this has also opened the floodgates to allow a plethora of (sorry to say) crap into the store. As a producer and consumer, I find it far too frustrating to sift through all this poo-poo while trying to find that gem.

This breed of crappy games would never make it to the PSN or Xbox Marketplace or WiiWare, or even Steam. Why? Because they have a more strict selection and review process than Apple. Could that be? Apple? The new chosen army of the Devil has a more lenient review process than our beloved Nintendo? But they don’t run Flash?

To me, the answer is simple. Create a new Apple game store that requires a game to be (*gasp*) entertaining if it is going to be available in it. If apple is serious in turning the iOS platform into the next mobile game system they need to separate the crap from the gems for us.  A place where specially selected content producers can showcase their products – ones that meet a higher standard of value.

Let’s buy some land down the street from the flea market and make a Shopping Mall!!

Next Steps

Smartphones and tablets are here, and they will be in our future for a long time. As game developers, we need to ensure that we are delivering on our promise to the world to create engaging, exciting and fun game experiences to the players, no matter what platform they are on, no matter how much innovation is necessary to do so.

The industry needs to be more active in leading the future of the marketplace by working together with these new platform providers to deliver entertaining content to this market.

I’m hoping this article will act as my first contribution to this great cause.

If you have a great game in the AppStore that is hidden in crap, I’d like to hear from you.

The Allure of Game Design

The terms interactive and user experience design can be used to describe applications, websites, user interfaces or games. But each of them can be very different beasts to design, requiring varying levels of balance in user experience to be successful.

When designing a tool like a word processor, the key is to enhance usability. While the user experience is important, the success of the product rides on whether the tool does the task it is meant to efficiently.

In game design we are able to shed the usability requirement and exchange it for ‘playability’. But the importance of a games playability is overshadowed if the user does not have a great experience.

That is the allure of game design over any other type interactive design. The success of your game is completely dependent on the user having a satisfying experience. The user (your customer/client) is
spending their hard earned dollars trusting that your game can allow them to have such an experience. If your game does not deliver on this front, you won’t be delivering a successful product. And remember, your game is not the experience, it only allows the player to have the experience.

So how do we ensure a positive experience for our players? That is a much longer post, and the essence of game design. A good place to start is many iterations and much testing.

I find many similarities between game design and cooking. I get the same excitement from watching someone play with a game or mechanic I made that I do when I cook them a meal. I love to see that look of enjoyment on people’s faces when biting into a delicious meal. And if it’s not perfect, I can’t wait to pick apart the reasons why and how the recipe can be improved.

What is it about game design that keeps you coming back for more?

How to be Happy In Business Desktop Wallpaper

Budd Caddell’s “How to be Happy in Business” venn diagram is accurate, insightful and motivational. That’s why I’ve created a quick desktop wallpaper to remind me to strive for “HOORAY!”.

Thanks Budd!

Download 1920×1200

Doanload 1280×800

Seting up a Virtual Host in Apache 2.2

The following steps will help you setup a virtual domain on apache 2.2 on Windows. Steps are very similar for OS X, only the location of the files will change.

In these steps I’ve used cowabunga.localhost as a test. The .localhost TLD is reserved for testing, so you can be guaranteed it won’t interfere with any real websites. This is the best practice to follow, if you create a virtual host of cowabunga.com, you will not be able to reach the real version of that site.

1. Edit httpd.conf
2. Uncomment the line Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf. Right after # Virtual hosts
3. Add the following above # Virtual hosts (replace C:\www with the path to your web root). Close and save it when done.

<Directory "C:/www">
 Order Deny,Allow
 Allow from all
</Directory> 

1. We’ll setup the follow virtual host site.
   1. cowabunga (C:\www\cowabunga). We’ll access this in the browser as cowabunga.localhost.
2. Edit httpd-vhosts.conf (located in apache root/conf/etc/)
3. Add the following to the bottom of httpd-vhosts.conf. Close and save it when done.

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "C:/www/cowabunga"
ServerName cowagunga.localhost
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "C:/www/"
ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

1. That’s it for apache configuration. It’s now ready to host the virtual domain. We just need to tell Windows to go to our virtual host, rather than looking up the DNS.
2. Edit your “hosts” file. Available in one of the following places
   1. Windows 95, 98, ME: Windows directory
   2. NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7: Windows folder\system32\drivers\etc\
   3. Mac OS X, iOS: /private/etc/hosts or /etc/hosts
3. Add the following line to the end of hosts. Close and save it when done.

127.0.0.1    burgess.localhost
127.0.0.1    localhost

1. Restart apache from the GUI or the command prompt using:

apache -w -n "Apache" -k restart

Animated scroll to internal links in JavaScript

Usually, I’m a big fan of UI libraries like jQuery and YUI. Don’t really like to re-invent the wheel. This is a function that’s quite easy to do in either of those libraries.

Unfortunately, I’m working on a project right now with very strict guidelines on it’s code, so it turns out I am unable to use any JavaScript UI Libraries. So, I set forth on putting this together.

There were a few resources I used that came in handy to create this, and I’ve given credit to those folk at the end of this post.

Part one: setInternalLinks

Run this function on page load. I use Simon Willison’s addLoadEvent to do this. It will search for all internal links on your page, and add a click listener to the animation function scrollToYOffset.

/**
* setInternalLinks
* Searches the page for any internal links and converts them to animated automatic scrolls
*/
function setInternalLinks()
{
	// grab all anchor links on the page
	var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
 
	for (var i = 0; i < anchors.length; i++) {
		var a = anchors[i];
 
		if (a.href && a.href.indexOf("#") != -1  // href has #
		   && ((a.pathname == location.pathname) || ('/' + a.pathname == location.pathname)) // path name of url is same as current
		   && (a.search == location.search)) { // query string of url is same as current
			var aName = a.href.substr(1, a.href.length - 1);
			a.onclick = function (e) {
				// checks if the caller event e exists and grabs the target (mozilla + webkit). Grabs the IE equivalent if not.
				var target = e ? e.target : event.srcElement;
				// the anchor name
				var anchorName = target.hash;
				// cut out the hash mark
				anchorName = anchorName.substr(1, anchorName.length - 1);
				// grab all the anchors on the page again
				anchors = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
 
				for (var j = 0; j < anchors.length; j++) {
					if (anchors[j].name == anchorName) {
						// found the right anchor. scroll to it!
						scrollToYOffset(anchors[j].offsetTop);
					}
				}
			};
		}
	}
}

Part two: scrollToYOffset

The method below is called by an onclick handler added by the setInternalLinks method. It’s a time-based animation with sinusoidal easing. Smooth and quick.

/**
* scrollToOffset
*
* @param yOffset	The vertical offset to scroll to
*/
function scrollToYOffset(iTargetY)
{
	// if the target is negative set it to 0
	iTargetY = iTargetY < 0 ? 0 : iTargetY;
 
	var frameInterval = 20; // 20 milliseconds per frame
 
	var totalTime = 750;
	// current scroll position: checks if window.pageYOffset exists (webkit + mozilla). If not, set's it to the IE equivalent
	var startY = window.pageYOffset ? window.pageYOffset : window.document.body.scrollTop;
 
	var d = iTargetY - startY; // total distance to scroll
	var freq = Math.PI / (2 * totalTime); // frequency
	var startTime = new Date().getTime();
 
	var tmr = setInterval(
		function () {
			// check the time that has passed from the last frame
			var elapsedTime = new Date().getTime() - startTime;
 
			if (elapsedTime < totalTime) { // are we there yet?
				var f = Math.abs(Math.sin(elapsedTime * freq));
				window.scrollTo(0, Math.round(f*d) + startY);
			} else {
				clearInterval(tmr);
				window.scrollTo(0, iTargetY);
			}
		}
	, frameInterval);
}

Above code has been tested in Firefox 3.6.6, Safari 5 and IE 7.

Credit for some help: Sitepoint: Make Internal Links Scroll Smothly with JavaScript and Cross-Browser.com: Animation Techniques