IP Incubator Club Thread 2013: Bi-Week-003: May 6-19- 2013

#1

Rob Note:
Past Thread:
IP Incubator Club Thread 2013: Bi-Week-002: April 22-May 5- 2013
IP Incubator Club Thread 2013: Week-001: April 15-21- 2013

Projects So Far:
—Click To Expand—
[SPOILER]
The Projects so far this week:

Project Name:____________CATEGORY:[color=dimgray]Start Date: First Post______Link
STASIS[color=dimgray]______________Games ______Dec 2010_____04-16-2013 [/color]Link
NeverEndingPrincessStory[color=dimgray]Animation____TBD__________04-16-2013 Link[/color]
Le Gouffre[color=dimgray]_______________Animation July 2011______04-16-2013 Link [/color]
Top secret project[color=dimgray] _________Animation TBD_________04-16-2013 Link
[b]Spec Commercial__________Animation___ April 2013___04-17-2013[color=#696969] Link[/color]
I am the Antagonist[color=#696969]______Cross Media TBD__________04-17-2013 Link[/color]
[color=white]SCHIRKOA_______________Animation___ Mid 2010______04-17-2013[color=#696969]___ Link[/color][/color]
HYPERREALITY ENGINE_____3D Engine ___ April 2013_____04-18-2013[color=#696969]___ Link [/color]
Blaster X HD[color=dimgray]_____________Games ______End of 2010____04-25-2013 ___Link
Le Gouffre [size=2][color=#fffffe]_[color=dimgray]_Animation July 2013 04-23-2013 [/color]Link
Soliloquy of a Madman _____ Games _____[/color][/size][color=dimgray] January 2013___04-23-2013 ___Link
NeverEndingPrincessStory __ Animation June 2010_______04-29-2013_ Link[/color]
I LOVE KAIJU_____________Animation[color=#696969]___ April 2013______05-04-2013[color=#696969]___ Link[/color][/color]

[/color][/SPOILER]

[/b][/color][/color]

THE IP INCUBATOR CLUB.

in·cu·bate

/ˈɪnkyəˌbeɪt, ˈɪŋ-/ Show Spelled [in-kyuh-beyt, ing-] Show IPA verb, in·cu·bat·ed, in·cu·bat·ing.verb (used with object)

  1. to sit upon (eggs) for the purpose of hatching.
  2. to hatch (eggs), as by sitting upon them or by artificial heat.
  3. to maintain at a favorable temperature and in other conditions promoting development, as cultures of bacteria or prematurely born infants.
    4. to develop or produce as if by hatching; give form to: His brain was incubating schemes for raising money.

Welcome to the IP Incubator Club
The idea behind this Club is simple

POST WEEKLY UPDATES of Original IP that you are developing. Hopefully IP that can eventually help the creator generate some income.
Also you should provide CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK to the work posted by other posters of the club.

The idea of this “Incubator Club” is to get away from the gloom and doom and provide a lifeline of support for our fellow artists.

The artists will have at their discretion how much they wish to share on the projects they are working on, what program they will be using and the medium . But the IP HAS BE AN ORIGINAL CREATION.

YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO POST AND UPDATE…

There are 3 ways to participate:
[ul]
[li]IP CREATOR[/li]
Post bi-weekly updates of ip you are developing.

Some Examples:
[list]
[li]A 3d artist developing a line of Vinyl toys on ZBrush[/li][li]A game developing working on a mobile game that uses Geo spatial data.[/li][li]An Artist working to update his porfolio[/li][li]A group of animators animator working on a weekly web series[/li][/ul][b]
[li][size=2][color=darkorange]But If you post your idea, please provide feedback on other’s ideas.[/size][/color][/li]

[li]IP REVIEWER[/li]
[/b]Provide reviews and comments of the IP being developed.
[li]I am looking for people like Roger Eberts of the world and not the Simon Cowels.DIVAS will NOT BE TOLERATED.[/li]

IP MENTORSHIP
An experienced artist/ develop can offer mentorship for the IP creators.
Some examples:
[ul]
[li]An AAA game developer looking to help upcoming talent[/li][li]Experienced feature animators could review game animations.[/li][li]Writers can comment on story points[/li][/ul]
[/list]ANYONE CAN JOIN.

DEVELOPER CO-SPONSORS
My wife is a social worker and she suggested the idea that we use a SPONSOR model similar to AA. [size=2]The idea is to match developers with individual sponsors. People whose responsability is to monito the progress of a specific project. The sponsors would be fellow developers. It would be their responsibility to provide support and provide guidance to the developer from an outsider’s point of view. I’m not advocating “mentorship” where there usually is an imbalance of expertise/knowledge between two parties. Rather, I envision sponsorship to be a vehicle for peer support, for consultation between and among artists who each have valuable tools, experience, and knowledge to share. Sponsorship is method for both parties to learn and grow professionally and perhaps personally as well.[/size]

[font=Verdana]
The C[/font]oncept:___________________________
Ok so lets recap:
[color=white]The idea behind this IP incubator club is to provide a cool hangout place for IP creators. [/color]recap…
Weekly threads will be posted, to provide encouragement for developer to keep working on their idea.

On way to see this is to think of us as a spotter on your local gym.
You use your WIP thread to post your regular updates, But ONCE A WEEK you post on the IP INC thread a summary, based on the forsmat posted blow.

GENERAL RULES:
[ul]
[li]FOR GEN DISCUSSION of the IP CLUB CLICK HERE: Your Own IP?[/li][li]WEEKLY WIP are encouraged[/li][li]On your weekly post please Fill the following information (you can cut and paste it:)[/li][/ul]

CONCEPT NAME:

STILL IMAGE: (VOLUNTARY)
CATEGORY:

Art
Animation
Comics
Design
Fashion (3D Printing)
Film
Games
[i][b]Merchandizing
[i][b]Publishing
Technology
Toys
Web Comics
Video

[/b][/i][/b][/i]
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
STATUS NUMBER: 1
TEAM MEMBERS:(Voluntary)
START DATE
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : (Voluntary) -
WIP THREAD:
WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:
WHAT WENT WRONG:
SHOW AND TELL:

[ul]
[li]WIP thread should be posted on the appropriate CGSociety/Game Art Sub forum and should follow the following naming convention: IP Incubator!:xxxxx:[/li][li]Only participants who follow the rules and submit a weekly Entry entry will be eligible for a monthly spotlight ( A frontpage plug).[/li][li]Any piece caught breaking the rules will be taken off the thread.[/li][li]When you are done creating your IP please do give at least a thank you to the IP. We need the press.[/li][/ul][size=2]
[/size]
RESOURCES:
ART LAW RESOURCES:
–CLICK TO EXPAND–
[SPOILER]
What is a Trademark?
http://www.uspto.gov/faq/trademarks.jsp
What is a Copyright?
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

US
http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

INT
http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en

Notable Laws:
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
Copyright Act of 1976
Copyright Act, 1978
[/SPOILER]
MARKETPLACES:
–CLICK TO EXPAND–
[Spoiler]
Film/ Video/ Animation Content
[ul]
[list]
[li]http://vimeo.com/[/li][li]http://www.youtube.com/[/li][li]Stock Footage:[/li][li]http://www.pond5.com/index.php?ref=orbitrob[/li][li]http://submit.shutterstock.com/[/li][li]http://www.stockfootageseller.com[/li][li]http://www.stockfootageseller.com/w…ostock-logo.jpg[/li][/ul]
[/list]Games/Apps

[ul]
[list]
[li]http://store.steampowered.com/[/li][li]http://www.microsoftstore.com/store…DisplayHomePage[/li][li]http://developer.android.com/index.html[/li][li]Web Comics[/li][li]www.comixology.com[/li][/ul]
[/list]3D Models (for Animation)

[ul]
[list]
[li]http://www.turbosquid.com/[/li][li]http://www.daz3d.com/[/li][li]3D Models (for 3d Printing)[/li][li]https://www.ponoko.com/[/li][li]http://www.shapeways.com/[/li][li]http://www.sculpteo.com/en/[/li][li]http://i.materialise.com/[/li][/ul]
[/list]Clip Art

Custom Merchadize:
http://www.zazzle.com/
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/Make Magazine: Ultimate Guide for 3D Printing is a FANTASTIC resource. GET IT if you are interested in getting into this market:
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Ultimate…s=make+magazine

[/SPOILER]
CONFERENCES:
–CLICK TO EXPAND–
[Spoiler]
Digital Media:
[ul]
[li]SXSW[/li][li]Shepton Digi Fest[/li][li]NAB[/li][/ul]Gaming:
[ul]
[li]PAX[/li][li]PAX East[/li][li]Independent Games Festival’[/li][li]E3[/li][/ul]Europe:
[ul]
[li]Edinburgh Interactive Festival[/li][li]Eurogamer Expo[/li][/ul]Comics:
[ul]
[li]Comicon[/li][li]SPX[/li][/ul]Animation Festivals:
[ul]
[li]SIGGRAPH [/li][li]Bradford Animation Festival[/li][/ul][/Spoiler]

#2

Ill be throwing up a screenshot here tomorrow (or two), and some cool new updates. :wink:

#3

Ok the two hot topics as of Sunday Night:

#4

Hey banman7, what are you planning to do with these characters? Do you have a rough story you could tell us, even a few sentences would be great. Just trying to get an idea of what direction you are planning to go with these guys. Interesting character design, by the way.

To answer the question.

I’m doing a mixed media project with these guys.

I’m making an animated series. It will utilize mocap and facial capture work with a dash of keyframe and Endorphin, etc. Anything to get a good result faster.

The project will be broken down into 4 parts.

  1. Paper print 2) Online animated gif 3) App 4) animated online series which will later be compiled and sold on DVD.

So as I render frames I have a partner who will go through best frames and put them into comic frames and do similiar to the gif or swf.

Something like this

The App might be later down the road. Have to figure out how that will work. Possibly based off the same frames as the comic but just more movement and inserted clips like below

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N3XWffU1HQ[/embed]

This was something I had in mind for years. Ryan Woodward of greater talent beat me to it. :frowning: but it proves my idea could work.

So the audience can pick their poison and I can reuse all the work in more than just one media.

The story of these 2 guys revolves around them actually going on a quest together along with a 3rd character soon to be shown. :slight_smile: Each has a beef with a certain character in the story.

The Wheeled character was ripped in half by the Antagonist.
The Snail guy was framed and killed by the Antagonist.

So just imagine a quest with a couple of giant monsters vs your standard small characters.
I’m basically just having fun with these guys and their story.
Giant monsters, robots, aliens, other dimensions, super heroes, slice of normal life, and quantum time travel, etc.

Just wanted to have fun telling a story like when I was a kid.

I’m looking to get the characters modeled and rigged. I cannot do them justice.
Right now looking for Snail-o, Joe, Megan. Going to use a universal man and woman for other characters and as the series progresses build the library when I need new monsters and such.

I am working on my 2nd kickstarter and trying to save money for modelers. The props and stuff I have no problem modeling. It is character modeling that hits me hard. They look all messed up.

I was also thinking of simplifying the characters to make it easier for rendering. I love the work of Zac Gorman and really shows how simplicity can be beautiful.

Also I loved the work that David Oreiley did on Adventure time

My biggest mistake so far in production was buying a full fledge mocap system. Don’t do it until you have assets. If I had spent my money on assets vs mocap system I would have been on my second series by now. It really hit me hard. But you live and learn. Don’t put the cart before the horse and you don’t need all this tech to get started.

I do want it to be a commercial product so need some level of quality so saving up for my modelers.
While I’m saving up, selling comic books, toys, and various other things around the house to find a modeler I’m doing storyboards and finishing script up.

I should have animatic up in two weeks of episode 1.

#5

http://www.stasisgame.com/screenshots-engineering-deck/

I know I’ve been quite lately, but rest assured I have been toiling away below decks. I recently finished a large chapter in the game, so wanted to show off an area (or 2). *The still screenshots don’t do these scenes justice
the shadows move as the lights swing, particles float through the air, and the sounds of the empty bowels of the ship echo through the engineering decks.
Its pretty darned cool!

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK: I did a ton of cleanup. Small things, like having the character shift a single pixel when he bent down…the annoying things that irk me-but werent big enough to say “Dammit-lets fix it!”

Its going back to my new found philosophy of “Indies need to aim to be AAA”. I want my games to be as slick, and polished as the best games out there-and that means that no mistake is small enough to be glossed over.

WHAT WENT WRONG THIS WEEK: I wasted too much time watching FUTURAMA reruns…but sometimes you just gotta relax. :wink:

#6

I have two video game IP’s I’ve been chipping away at and lately I have realized the value of collaborating with someone who’s skill set complements my own. I personally am more technically skilled than artist and have recently brought on a colleague of mine to help with the concept art and design. I’ve always been a “I’m going to do it all by myself” kind of person, so it was tough to give up that aspect of control, but the work he’s been doing has been incredibly valuable to bring my project to reality.

I’m curious to all of you who have been posting, to what extent have you been getting outside assistance in order to create your IP’s? What have been the benefits? Have you encountered any difficulties

Just thought this might be an interesting topic for discussion.

#7

I’m curious to all of you who have been posting, to what extent have you been getting outside assistance in order to create your IP’s? What have been the benefits? Have you encountered any difficulties

To be honest I’ve decided to go the lone wolf and/or hire folks for some of the other stuff.
Most folks will not collab outside of the other arts like music, acting or writing.

And even if they are willing to collab without money they usually cannot stay that long for the party.

The best I’ve gotten is very nice artists who are willing to work at reduced prices but then the challenge I have had with that is that they are only able to do 1 model tops before life catches up with them. Then I start all over because I have a model of totally different style.

So that has been the challenge. My own modeling ability for characters is not great so honestly I can’t do it myself and I would do something like Poser but none of my characters are strictly human. Poser done right like Rosa.

#8

Here goes for this week’s post. I’m a little busy these days but I’ll make sure to check out and comment the other projects in the next couple days!

By the way, I changed the description of the project a little so that it’s clearer as to what we intend to do with the film after it’s completed and who is our intended audience.

CONCEPT NAME: Le Gouffre

PRODUCTION BLOG: http://legouffre.com/en

CATEGORY: Animation

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Le Gouffre is an 8-minute animated short film about two travellers who embark on the amazing journey of crossing an impossible gap.

My team members and I are currently working full-time on the film, without any financial backing, and we are trying to create a unique look that blends hand-painted textures with realistic animation. We plan to finish the film by the end of the year, spend the next year doing festivals, and later release it on the internet. I won’t lie, we’re not spending that much energy to get unnoticed, so the most awards we can grab the better (and if we can also get an oscar nomination, that’d be pretty freaking awesome). Since we’re going for the largest audience, we made sure to focus our efforts on having a very good story first and foremost and try to have a good mix of actions vs emotions. So basically, let’s say our intended audience is… everyone!

As for after the film, well honestly we’re not quite sure ourselves. We have a lot of ideas we’d like to develop further, and we would like to work on our own series or feature films one day but for now, we’re really just focusing on finishing this film. We’ll go with the flow!

STATUS NUMBER: 3

TEAM MEMBERS: 3

Carl Beauchemin - Animation and Rigging
Thomas Chrétien - FX and Compositing
David Forest - Animation and Art Direction

START DATE: July 2011

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: December 2013

WIP THREAD: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=153&t=1085457

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:

I started working on some autumn shots and the matte paintings of the sky were really fun to do. I can’t wait to see everything comped together.

WHAT WENT WRONG:

On the downside, I’m personally running a little late on my schedule this week. I’m supposed to have one day per week doing camera animation/high resing textures, but it’s taken longer since I had to paint a lot of skies from scratch (as well as project every cloud on different planes so that I can get a little movement and parallax). I’ve done three shots like this so far and I’m getting faster at it, but there was somewhat of a learning curve. On top of that, Thomas is presently comping a very FX heavy shot so that’s eating time he could have spent comping other shots.

SHOW AND TELL:

We have posted a new animated sequence on our production blog for you to see!

And exclusively for you CGTalk guys, here’s a few pics showing scaled-down versions of the matte paintings I did in the last few days.

#9

I love your matte paintings. They feel so refreshing.

#10

@Frotze: Regrading Oscar Nominations, be sure you take a look at the rules. I think they have format requirements and require that your short film premieres at a festival accredited as an Oscar Animated Short Film qualifier. I believe SIGGRAPH is one of these events.

#11

Amen to that, brother.

Because of my Day Manager job, I departmentalize everything as far as it will go.

The benefits? Everybody on the team is smart and has ideas. A lot of them better than my own!

The difficulties? Realizing a lot of my own ideas were lousy and having to just swallow my pride and let some aspect I planned for months to just go into the trash so we can go with an idea one of the teammates came up with in 2 minutes. :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

I am pretty much the same way - a perfectionist at heart. I know what you mean by when you said you had to shift your character by one pixel. I do the same…zoom all the way in, close as possible sometimes, just to fix a pixel or two.

You game looks fantastic! I have been following it on here for a while. I am definitely going to buy it when it is available. Best of luck to you getting it completed - as that is the hardest thing for anyone who goes indie.

#13

I have to say that it is very difficult to find someone that you feel matches/complements your skill set and/or work ethic. Communication and work ethic are almost the two most important aspects that I have encountered over the years. When you find someone you “gel” with so to say, try your best to make things work, as the grass is not always greener on the other side. By having to start again and find someone new to develop “trust” with is very difficult and time consuming.

As far as outside help, (it is just 2 of us) when we were looking for publishers before we decided to go it alone, that might be an avenue to seriously look at. Going Indie is fun, but trying to get noticed is very difficult. If you do find someone really good, like Chillingo for instance, I would seriously consider that…also be careful for the fly-bye night publishers who just look for a quick buck. You can find it out easily when you start to talk with them.

As for the work done on our game, Blaster X HD - everything was done in-house. Art, coding, sound, UI, everything. If you decide to out-source or higher someone, make sure you trust them with your work and ideas, that is key. Sometimes, you will find people who have good work ethics that would rather work for a portion of the game, rather than upfront money. Sometimes those people can work out best as there is a more long-term value for them. Just be careful how many people you get on board, it means that many more people to split the profits.

#14

@Frotze Looking great! I love the art style and I look forward to seeing more images in the future.

#15

I couldn’t agree with you more on this. So for my projects, I have decided to do as much on my own as I can but after seriously starting to put effort into the project I realized there are two key areas where I am not very strong: concept art and audio.

Over the course of a year, I’ve hired probably 6 concept artists to do a few sketches of ideas as a means of testing how they work, how quickly they can produce and what their style is. Unfortunately, in every case I wasn’t satisfied, especially considering what I paid was coming out of my own pocket.

However, I’ve been very lucky lately. I was chatting with an old friend of mine from University about my game projects, and he expressed interest in helping me do concept work because he’s been dying to get on a project where he can focus his efforts on practicing art. So now I’ve got a concept artist I can trust, who does good work and isn’t costing me anything (well, I’m going to share revenue with him when we’re at that point, but zero out of pocket cost is what I need right now). So I’d say if any of you need to collaborate, be patient and don’t commit to anyone until you’ve done a small amount of work together. Like Rez007 said, you have to find someone you can “gel” with.

Here’s a sample of his concept work, I’ll start posting about this project a bit later once I’ve got the pitch document more prepared, but it’s about super hero strippers and this is one of the main characters:

Interesting to see everyone’s opinions on this so far!

#16

CONCEPT NAME: Soliloquy of a Madman

WEBSITE: www.soliloquyofamadman.com

CATEGORY: Games (PC, MAC, Linux)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Within the depths of his own mind, a man seeks the answer to an unknown question. Facing fragmented thoughts, haunting memories and reflections of self, the actions taken will lead to enlightenment or self-destruction.

In this 3rd person action-adventure style game, you will play as Ego, a monk-like representation of self whose goal is to explore the depths of his own mind through meditation. As you explore you will encounter various memories, thoughts and reflections of personality which take form both as enemies you must overcome and the environment itself. The actions you take in the game will either lead you towards self-destruction or enlightenment.

The project is meant to be more on the artistic narrative side of the “video game” spectrum; to create an interesting and memorable experience with a message. Strongly influenced by artistic games like Journey, but mixed with fun gameplay you’d find in something like God of War.

STATUS NUMBER: 2

START DATE: January 2013 (when I actually started working seriously on it)

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : Q4 2012 | Phase 1 | Prototype & Design Doc

PROJECT GOALS:

To create my first independent video game by myself and earn at least one year’s worth of living expenses either from crowd-sourced donations or from direct sales after release.

This project represents a stepping stone towards opening my own small studio. I personally feel that this is a “personal thesis” kind of project, where I need to accomplish the feat of coming up with a concept and following through to full realization before I would feel prepared as a future leader of a small design team.

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:

I leveraged stock assets as a means of saving myself time. I purchased an effects package for Unity and hacked together some of the elements to create an awesome fire effect, something that would have taken me much longer had I done it entirely from scratch.

WHAT WENT WRONG:

It was sunny, beautiful and I didn’t want to spend my weekend inside working on this. I’ve realized that I need to pick a few evenings a week where I do at minimum and hour of work on it. Life must be lived, but consistently working towards a goal should also happen no matter what.

SHOW AND TELL:

I’ve almost finished the character morphing, which is pretty exciting because once that’s out of the way I’ll be able to move on to actually figuring out more of the “game” aspects, like combat, AI and all that fun stuff. In the video the “self destructive” morph is complete, I’m happy with how it looks. The “enlightened” feel weak and I’m still working on making it look better.

Gameplay Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ-xwqz-6Kg

Normal

Enlightenment

Self-Destructive

#17

Hi Everyone,

It has been a very busy week for me so I wanted to give an update to where we are now and what were some things that happened at the end of last week.

NAME: Blaster X HD
COMPANY: 2GMG (2 Guys Making Games)

DIRECT LINK TO GAME: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blaster-x-hd/id615851024?mt=8

CONTACT INFO: www.facebook.com/2GMGames and www.twitter.com/2GMGames

CATEGORY: Games (Mobile Games)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

Blaster X HD is created by 2GMG (2 Guys Making Games) and is avaiable for all generations of the iPad and iPad Mini. It is an arcade style game with action, that emphasizes reflexes, hand-eye coordination, logic/puzzle and other functions.

Blaster X HD boasts the following:
1.) Over 400 Levels of Mental Addiciton.
2.) 9 Diverse Worlds, with 200+ Unique Layouts.
3.) Fluid Control System for more innovative gameplay/mechanics.
4.) High Resolution HD Graphics.
5.) Created for all generations of iPad and iPad Mini.
6.) 100% Independent - no publisher, no funding, just all on our own.

Gameplay Elements: (Taken from AppStore description)
Launch your Blaster by pulling your finger back and let it fly! Manipulate and guide your Blaster, as you blast your way through the Orbs to clear each level! Absorb the Orbs’ energy, as that is the power source for your Blaster - so grab them all!
(Non-violent gameplay, suitable for all ages)

STATUS NUMBER: 3

TEAM MEMBERS: 2

Rudy Gjurkovic = Co-Founder
Joshua Chapman = Co-Founder

START DATE: End of 2010
COMPLETION DATE: 5-1-2013 (Out Now)

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:
1.) We launched at #2 in two category lists on Apple’s New Paid App chart. (I might have listed it in the last thread, but since it happened late in the week I wanted to share here too as it will be relevant for the rest of my post)

2.) Created a Gameplay Trailer/Montage. I literally stayed up 24 hours straight over the weekend - no sleep - trying to get it ready for Monday, which I did.

3.) I contacted about 60+ outlets/reviewers/individuals to tell them about our game.

4.) We had some really great support from some of the people I never thought it would come from.

5.) We are trying to get some reviews here (hopefully) as we had some interest from a couple of places - Kotaku being one of them.

6.) Blaster X HD was received very well in the TouchArcade forums - some calling it a “rare hidden gem.” We also only have 5 Star reviews, which is great too. (Nice comments from strangers always make you feel like the work you put in was well worth the time.) A lot of people on CGTalk, here as well, seemed to like it.

WHAT WENT WRONG THIS WEEK:

1.) No Gameplay Trailer at the release date. This was a HUGE issue that we overlooked. We thought that Over 400 Levels, nice images, a general trailer, being 100% Indie, etc… would be good for us at launch…nope. Once someone asks to see a gameplay trailer and they can’t find one, that spreads like wildfire, so we busted our butt to get one done. Apparently, some people in the past on the AppStore would have really nice graphics for their screenshots, but the actual game was not that at all…almost like a bait-and-switch. I really can’t believe that people would actually do this, but there are crooks everywhere I guess. Apple has changed their policy, that no marketing images can be changed without a new binary being submitted - this was done to nip this practice in the butt. However though, I don’t think the general public knows this. So, always have a gameplay video ready at release - lesson learned.

2.) Visibility is brutal. Going Indie in the AppStore can be very rewarding, but even though we were high in the charts (Apple’s Charts for New Paid Apps) at release, we were still very hard to find. I had people tell us that they could not find us anywhere in the iTunes store, only if they searched for it or used our direct link could they find us. Apple needs to greatly improve how they show new games by other people, and not just the same old ones. Unless you have deep pockets for marketing, a “connection” at Apple, or have established a relationship with a reviewer or two…it is going to be a very hard uphill battle - but don’t give up. Trying to get reviewers is almost impossible and without that, Apple giving us a nod for “New and Noteworthy” will be tough, but we are still pushing forward and not giving up.

I just want to share what we are experiencing as it could hopefully help others. We have great support from people, but we are still hoping for more. Everyday, my plan is to keep pounding down the doors to some reviewers/forums and I hope something will come of it. Also, getting people who play your game to actually review it, is hard as well. - We have only 5 stars from everyone who played it, but we might have to think of ways for rating our game to be easier for people to do.

SHOW AND TELL:

Some Images from last time about our game, Blaster X HD (Only blowing up one to save screen space)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20604947/BlasterXHD/BlasterXHD_FacebookHeader.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20604947/BlasterXHD/BlasterXHD2GMG_ScreenShot_A.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20604947/BlasterXHD/BlasterXHD2GMG_ScreenShot_C.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20604947/BlasterXHD/BlasterXHD2GMG_ScreenShot_D.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20604947/BlasterXHD/BlasterXHD2GMG_ScreenShot_E.png

Gameplay Trailer (Montage) that I completed over the weekend.:

//youtu.be/shML-DNUD48

Thanks guys for reading my long post and I will update as soon as I can. Please feel free to ask any questions - I will try my best to answer them.

Thanks,
Rudy

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blaster-x-hd/id615851024?mt=8

#18

2.) Visibility is brutal. Going Indie in the AppStore can be very rewarding, but even though we were high in the charts (Apple’s Charts for New Paid Apps) at release, we were still very hard to find. I had people tell us that they could not find us anywhere in the iTunes store, only if they searched for it or used our direct link could they find us. Apple needs to greatly improve how they show new games by other people, and not just the same old ones. Unless you have deep pockets for marketing, a “connection” at Apple, or have established a relationship with a reviewer or two…it is going to be a very hard uphill battle - but don’t give up. Trying to get reviewers is almost impossible and without that, Apple giving us a nod for “New and Noteworthy” will be touch, but we are still pushing forward and not giving up.

That is pretty sad. I think APPLE needs to revamp some things. I meed good grief Angry Birds is still on the main page. Can we like take it off and put it on something like a Archive - Oldies but goodies classic. It is sad to see so many games and such get overlooked.

Apple should have a fast rotation out on Apps. Same few people keep getting 100s of thousands of dollars for the same game being featured all the time.

I haven’t even seen the main game page in awhile. Let me guess 4 or 5 mainstream, Angry birds, doode jump, pocket gods, fruitninja etc.

Just check it.
YUP!
Can you let some other folks in on the action. Stop putting the same top 25 games up.

So here is a big questions? How can everyone start helping each other get seen.
It is one thing to develop IP but another entirely to get it seen.

Even on forums it is harder to promote. I know most forums don’t allow you to promote anything. There is usually a policy about it. So how can we market and not just to family and friends?

I was thinking we could have a group of folks who do press releases. A press release team that sends out several emails to an orchestrated group.

Like for example 100 people, send to their friends and family. Then we have those 100 also write a quick press release to all the big groups that can do a little story on your work.

That might help. What do you all think?

#19

Marketing is one of those big unknowns to me at this point but I know it’s going to be one of the most difficult parts of developing a commercial product. The biggest challenge I think is figuring out a way to market something when you don’t have a budget to advertise.

I’ve done quite a lot of reading on game developer forums and a lot of them do it through pure grunt work. They create a press package which contains a few key stills, various lengths of descriptions and video gameplay and they start sending these out to all sorts of websites. In addition, a lot of them will send free copies of their games for the reviewers to play. The trick is to send out thousands of these packages to websites in hopes that maybe a 1% of them will actually write about your game.

Other ways is to jump on board special interest forums or social websites. For example, on Reddit there is a subreddit for gamedevs (www.reddit.com/r/gamedev) and every week they have threads for getting feedback (Feedback Friday) and showing off your progress (Screenshot Saturday). That’s a good way to start getting your game seen by fellow devs who could end up being a valuable first push for geting that initial list of downloads / ratings you might need to sway your average buyer.

It’s an interesting topic I’m going to have to do more research on, but the more ideas we list here, the better!

#20

@Rez007: OK I think I want to make quite a few suggestions here, especially with the trailer:

  1. NEEDS MUSIC - There’s this aircon humming noise, it really kills the trailer. The images seemed to imply a House, Electro-Punk theme but there was none of that “bounce” in this trailer.

  2. NEEDS TO SAY MORE ABOUT GAMEPLAY & GAMEPLAY CONTEXT/OBJECTIVE - The trailer claims the game is addicting, but all you have in the trailer are these pretty backgrounds and a ball that seems to absorb these orb things? Can you do something once you accumulate enough orb things? Sometimes the video shows a “rotating spike” from the ball… What does it do? It’s like what Shigeru Miyamoto’s favorite question: “What is the player going to do in this game that is going to be so fun?”

This last point is a bit too late… but still needs to be pointed out. You claim variety of levels, but, to be honest, because it wasn’t clear what the Gameplay or Gameplay objectives are (Do you tilt your tablet to control the Ball? Do you flick it with your finger on the screen? What can you do?) the levels all seem the same game but with different shapes.

Finally, you can’t expect any ONE promo medium to solve all your problems. You need to really “tour” with this thing. Make a site… Demo the game… Go to schools and show it around… I don’t know… but you can’t sit there and just expect things to come to you.

You can still make it work though, you have an FB, a Twitter, start making Featurettes where you demonstrate how the game works… even put up testimony of people playing the game… Do what all the big devs do, send the game to Sites or Magazines and get it REVIEWED.

Personally, I would have only tried launching the “big release” after the game already had quite a few “fans”. Did you play test the game, for example, so that you’d know what people might respond to. You usually see some aspect of your creation, but discover that people see some other aspect. If that’s the case you need to promote based on that instead to “make a connection”.

Like someone said earlier: Think AAA. That’s not just in game design, it goes double for game promotion.

Good luck. :slight_smile:

P.S.: I’m guessing Blaster X is one of those “no story” games… Which is fine. What you can do in a featurette is associate Blaster X with other successful games by talking about maybe how Blaster X improves upon “your grandfather’s old pinball game” or how Blaster X improves over another classic title like Arkanoid (“In Arkanoid you can only really play up and down, but Blaster X allows you to play in any direction… blah blah blah”).