Sunday 24 December 2017

Thinking about what to prioritise working on next:

I've been saying i'll release Imbroglio on PC for a while. This hasn't been a high priority for me; 868-HACK has sold 11% as many copies on Steam as on iOS and Imbroglio has only sold half as many copies as 868-HACK in the first place; basically I don't know if it's worth spending much time on. Does anyone actually care? I could just skip this and save myself some time and an ongoing support burden. (p.s. don't talk to me about android; ratios there are even worse.)

I have more ideas for expanding Imbroglio, there's quite a bit of stuff that I started trying out during development but I didn't fully pursue because I needed to get some kind of finished version out. But the numbers are saying it's a lot more worth my time to make a new game than to add more content to an existing one; the Ossuary expansion for Imbroglio has sold 1600 copies and PLAN.B for 868-HACK has sold 900. So unless these take off a bit more somehow, expanding Imbroglio further is just selling to a diminishing fraction of really earnest players; I guess the question is whether I can charge a bit more to make this worth working on? This is something I actually really do want to do, I feel like the game isn't quite complete yet, there aren't enough options to make a really varied possibility space, and I know what to do to get there, again it's a question of whether anyone else cares.

Aside from these, I'm definitely starting on a new game soon and, well maybe there's not too much sense trying to plan that because I'll go ahead and make whatever I end up making regardless, but still I'm curious what people would want to see from me next? I know everyone thinks of me as tiny roguelike man now and hey I have sketches for a few more of those I could definitely try to build, but I'll make anything. Imbroglio selling less than 868-HACK makes me wonder if I shouldn't keep going in that direction right now, but I don't want to read too much into it and I'll have more information on that trend soon anyway. I think I'm going to try for at least a couple more smallish games next before getting stuck into a big project, we'll see. But yeah I'm interested in (non-trollish) thoughts on the matter!

11 comments:

  1. p.s. I don't think Steam is a worse place than iOS to sell games in general! it's going to depend on the type of game, and I guess these tiny roguelikes people really prefer to play mobile-y? plus it definitely made a difference with 868-HACK that i released on iOS first and then took my sweet time to get around to a PC release but that same problem comes around again

    ReplyDelete
  2. make a grand PC game and get Humble to pay you for it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is probably unhelpful since they sell so poorly but: I would really like to see more multiplayer Brough games.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ok somehow it will only let me comment with the name "Unknown", this is Jake.

    obviously i hugely second the multiplayer thing.

    also, i would pay $20 for imbroglio on steam. well, i mean, ok, i would pay like $200 for imbroglio on steam, but what i mean is, i think it would be a good deal at $20 and that maybe there are enough of us die-hards to make it worth your time at a price point like that. but maybe not, i don't know anything.

    as for non-multiplayer new game ideas, i feel like your style and interests would mesh well with adding more procedural-narrative elements to a short roguelike – you work in simple+abstract enough spaces that you can avoid the pitfalls of continuity and natural language stuff, but still have each playthrough have a little suggestive hint of unique story beyond the purely mechanical.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. uhhhh or i guess, it fixed itself, despite still saying Unknown on the submission form. cool.

      Delete
  5. I found these decisions waaay easier to make when using Unity & making the game for pc and touch right from the beginning

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is there a plan in there to update Zaga-33 and Helix for iOS 11? I don’t want those games to disappear forever :(

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree on the multiplayer! Kompendium was some of the most fun I had with your games, with different friends.

    Also, I personally don't care for Imbroglio on PC. I only play those rogue-likes on my ipad, so there's that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I wish more games of yours didn't take place in death labyrinths.

    As one of the Imbroglio diehards: it's your game to perfect, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it being a finished and limited game. If I could wish for anything in the world Imbroglio-related, it would be access to the huge pool of rough-draft tiles from development that you've alluded to in your dev posts.

    ReplyDelete