Picture by Navaboo

I’ve met up with a lot of game developers in the past few months, and seen awesome local-develpment-hangouts, gamejams, and general community cohesion. It seems every major city in Canada has a vibrant Indie Game Development community!

I’ve also lived in Victoria for 10 years, where we have the University of Victoria and it’s awesome Computer Science department. We have a few game studios in town, and even a branch of Disney up island a bit. I don’t know a single developer here. It feels like I’m a monitor with no computer to connect to (see image).

My friend Fieran and I discussed it over a pint, and we’ve decided we’re going to get things moving, instead of waiting for it to happen!

WELCOME TO VDEV. I founded a Meetup.com group, we’re using our University contacts to secure some computing space, and we’re going to have monthly beer-and-games meetups, and a GameJam in September. I’m really trying to get the local university folks involved, because so many students graduate and immediately move to Vancouver. Vancouver surely has more jobs than Victoria (it is a bigger city after all), but most are completely unaware of how fun Indie Game Making is, and I’m hoping to make a few converts!

VDev's current logo.

Don’t get me wrong; I miss all my international friends, and hope to attract a few to the larger events. I hope a bunch from Vancouver will come out. And most of all, I hope all those quiet Victoria devs finally come out of the woodwork and I get to meet you all!

So take a look at the Meetup group. It’s free to join and you’ll be notified (optionally) of any events we hold. I’d love it if you did!

We’re currently aiming to have our first big GameJam on September 17th-19th. Just waiting on space confirmation; already have a few big ticket guys on the line!

(And for those that might have to travel: Victoria is hosting the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival on September 10th and 11th. It might be a good month to visit!)

I think it’s really interesting, reading about just what people have done to make games; all the effort they go through, the sacrifices they make.. A nice read that puts a bit of humanity back into game development.

Check it out!

Our road-trip blog is still a bit behind, but we’re working on updating it as soon as we get some of these backlogged photos and videos done up.

It was a really fun experience. I got to meet up with several fellow Indie GameDevs, old friends, and family; some for the first time. SteamBirds money is starting to run out, though, and I’ve got to get on finishing a few more of my projects to keep paying those bills!

I am going to be at Casual Connect in Seattle next week, giving a post-mortem talk on SteamBirds. Anyone else going to be there? Let’s hook up!

I think they dawdled on the “What is Indie?” topic a bit too much, but there’s some interesting reading in there and it’ll only take a few minutes of your time. Check it out now!

Well, SteamBirds has gotten quite popular, and now I understand exactly why. I’m being inundated by eMails and interview requests. There’s an iPhone port in the works. The game is probably going to end up on the XBox. WiiWare/DS is being considered. I was flatly turned down by companies like inXile and Addicting Games, only to have them all come back and open negotiations again a month later. There’s a constant stream of SiteLock sales to negotiate, and then make up code for.

Then there’s the problems: Bandwidth overruns on the primary host site; music files being too large; bug reports from various sites and logistics problems in updating the game (it’s currently hosted on 1600 different sites). In short: It’s a massive headache.

And SteamBirds is only experiencing a tiny fraction of what Colin went through. I have a pretty vivid idea of what it must have felt like for him.

So, over the last few weeks I’ve been contacting people and negotiating with how the future of SteamBirds will be managed. And I decided on working with SpryFox, a company co-founded by Daniel Cook (one of the sTEAMbirds) and David Edery. David is going to take over most of this mess for me, so I can finally get back to doing what I like best: making games.

The future of SteamBirds is a pretty large project. It’ll require multiplayer servers, bandwidth and hardware management, server-side multiplayer code, business deals, distribution, marketing, payment processing… A zillion things I simply don’t want to deal with. And now I don’t have to. I feel a huge burden has been lifted from me already, and we haven’t really done anything yet! I’m able to travel in peace, as it were.

Back to coding!

Of course, since I last really worked on Protonaut, Greg Wohlwend has been off making fantastic trailers and new games, and I’ve been working on SteamBirds. We haven’t had a lot of time or desire to work on something that isn’t being successful.

Greg and I decided that Protonaut wasn’t really working; it’s missing a key nugget of user-retention-fun, and the effort required to fix it is exceeding our desire to continue work. We pretty much decided to write off the game and put it to rest, but I decided to give it one last push.

In the latest update, I added some character-building signposts and rewrote a bunch of the tutorial levels. Fixed replays and made the controls keyboard-and-mouse, which is a whole lot easier to master than the old keyboard-only layout. And then I did the crazy: I posted it up for bidding on FlashGameLicense.

Bidding is probably a week or three away from closing, but it’s looking good so far! The game is already exceeding average sponsorship rates, despite the fact that the game has been out for a while (albeit with no traffic) and has a few external links in it. Exclusive sponsorships probably won’t work without a fancy non-standard deal with a sponsor, and yet we still have a lot of interest!

If the sponsorship gives the game the boost of traffic it needs to jumpstart the engines, I’ll be able to continue developing it. But if it fizzles out over a month or two, I won’t put in much more effort than bugfixes. Crossing my fingers!

Normally I’d post all about it, right here on this blog – but it’s a joint effort between myself and my lady, Aubrey. Individually, we are awesome… When combined, we form BEER CRISIS!

Head over to that link there and sign up for it’s RSS feed. We’ll be posting travel anecdotes, photographing scenic vistas, taking shots with our ArmorGames-provided HD Camcorder, and meeting up with friends and game developers along the way.

While the trip goes on, I’ll be updating this blog with personal/SteamBirds/etc. stuff still.

“[...] A few sponsors have recently been complaining that developers aren’t required to pick the best bid, considering all the terms and conditions. Sometimes developers just pick bids that are clearly worth a lot less, just because they like a certain sponsor more! To businessmen used to a more traditional bidding model, that is absolutely unacceptable and should be banned.” – From an FGL Thread, emphasis my own.

The core of the issue is discussed in a  private FGL thread, which is debating the nature of FGL itself. Is it an auction site? Is it a bidding house? Should it be purely by the numbers? The short answer is “no,” but I won’t be discussing that directly here. I’d like to address the issue of value.

Allright, perhaps that particular quote wasn’t pointed directly at me, and maybe my experience with SteamBirds had nothing to do with it. But maybe it’s a direct response to my last blog post, so I figure I’d better clarify the issue of value and why exactly I chose to go with Armor Games.

When I say “I like Dan (at ArmorGames) better” it’s a shortcut to saying “their offer was financially beneficial in the long run.” Yes, I do like him better on a personal level. But I would have gone with another offer if I actually thought I’d make more money that way. I am running a business here, after all. I find my personal lifetime revenue will probably be higher if I’m with a sponsor I “like” because we’ll have a better working relationship, and more possibilities will blossom. Having a good rapport with you sponsor means more opportunities, more flexibility, and in the end: more value.

As a quick aside, my personal, friendly, awesome relationship with Dan has earned me thousands of dollars in extra revenue (by giving a bit of extra flexibility in his already loose contract), and even earned me some new personal equipment and other joys in life. I would say the “external value” here is worth four times as much money as I’ve earned from advertising revenue.

I should address what is perhaps an unavoidable issue in this debate: the semantics behind the word “value.” When I think sponsorship value (in SteamBirds’ case), it looks like this:

Notice how small my blue circle is and how large my green circle is. I’m not particularly concerned with the size of the dollar-sign-bag; I think I can get much, much more money in the long run with good business partners and built relationships. I’m not looking for a quick fix, nor am I looking for recurring revenue [on this particular game]; I’m looking to get my foot in the door of the industry, and build a brand.

Also notice how small the ad-revenue slice of the pie is. I get the distinct feeling that the average sponsors view looks something a bit more like this:

In this (totally theoretical, based-on-my-experience-only, probably offensive to some) visualization, note that potential ad revenue is as big as the primary sponsorship. External value is nearly disconnected and incredibly tiny; some sponsors even seemed to imply that by taking any deals for “long-term business” reasons would exclude me from obtaining any secondary revenue. It’s like you have to make a choice: Big bucks, OR good business contacts… not both.

During the bidding process for SteamBirds, many sponsors told me I could “Easily double [my] money!” with ad revenue. Considering how low my ad revenue is (around 5% of my total), I’m thinking that’s nearly a complete fabrication, or it simply doesn’t apply to my game’s circumstance.

I’ll grant you that different people have different objectives. Some folks only care about recurring (ad) revenue; some folks only care about up front payments. What I’m trying to say here is that your personal Venn diagram is going to look different than mine, and allowing sponsors to dictate what an appropriate value is is completely retarded.

“To businessmen used to a more traditional bidding model, that is absolutely unacceptable and should be banned.”

I can see how businessmen would like to ban me from realizing and calculating the definition of value on my behalf. According to sponsors, business partners are worthless and ad revenue is king. That simply isn’t the reality for me. Businessmen that want to lock me in to their value systems does nothing but increase their revenues at my expense. I won’t even get into the fact that Dan @ ArmorGames had the best licensing terms (the least stringent contract), so it’s not even like someone equally matched him, dollar-for-d0llar.

That’s not to say that my green-circle value wasn’t limitlessly large or infinite; in fact, I took great care sizing those circles in the first Venn diagram. Two sponsors, very late in SB’s bidding process, approached me and said “What would it take to win this bid.” I responded honestly, if not slowly. It was a tough few days for me (just ask my girlfriend!), having to sit there and sum my emotions and my ethics, and provide sponsors with a pricetag for my morals and potential future. But I did it, and the price wasn’t incredibly steep or unattainably high. Both my offers were seriously considered, and thankfully (for my soul), declined.

I did meet up with one sponsor after the bidding, while attending the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. He mentioned they didn’t submit a bid in the end, because the pricetags on the upper bids were simply too high and they thought they had no chance. When I asked him what he would have offered, he was right in my range, and would have been a real contender for winning.

I’ll double-facepalm that little tidbit. Not only did the other sponsor potentially miss out on my game, but I missed out on them because of my unusual business tactic of not taking the highest bid. My own methodology shot me in the foot here; but hopefully the last few articles here will help correct that for the future.

For everyone.

Let’s make this industry a double-win instead of a double-fail!

EDIT: Eric from FlashGameLicense made an excellent comment to clarify some of the quotes coming from their site. It seems my sponsor-rage is directed at sponsors that possibly don’t exist, which I suppose is a very good thing. ;) Thanks for the clarification, Eric!

As an aside, I can’t help but feel that this post is coming way too early. The game launched on March 3rd, which means we’re coming up on the 1 month birthday soon. There hasn’t been enough time to collect all the secondary licenses (some of which are scheduled for mid-April and beyond), and definitely isn’t enough time to get a clear picture of the user traffic and how big the tail is. I hope to rectify this by making some update posts as things progress in the future.

Note: Some sponsors have asked that I don’t reveal exact figures, or associate their names with their pricetags. I’ve fudged all of the numbers by a certain percentage and made some anonymizing edits so I don’t step on any toes (though I’m sure some basic sleuthing can get you any answers you need).

The Development Split

I had a really tough time deciding on a proper revenue split model. I wish the game had 150 percentage points so I could pay everyone a bit more, but I think the ratio I have is fair to everyone. I won’t lie; I do wish I had more money for myself. Who doesn’t? But even if I cut someone’s wages back I’d feel like giving it to someone else, not myself. At least I’m happy. :)

Of the upcoming iPhone port, courtesy of SemiSecret Software (makers of the excellent games Canabalt and Gravity Hook HD):

• 30% of all revenues go to Apple first;
• 50% of the remaining revenue goes to SemiSecret Software
• 50% then goes to the SteamBirds Team (see below)

Outside of the iPhone,

• 10% of all profit FlashGameLicense inspires goes back to them. They get paid first, because without them I’d only have made a fraction of the money. Their service is truly excellent for the flash-portal-distribution model and not using them is foolhardy. Not paying them is just mean.

Of the remaining profit, the sTEAMbirds team divvies:

• 50% goes to myself, for game design and programming. I dare say I put some kickass lines of code into the game and I wish I could showcase them as easily as a work of art. :)
• xx% goes to Daniel Cook, a true game design genius and excellent artist to boot. Before SteamBirds, I don’t think I ever would have worked with a “GameDesigner,” thinking it was mostly elementary. I primarily hired DanC on to be an artist. Now I don’t think I can make a game without his advice.
• xx% goes to DannyB for his musical genius (and who also pays Jordan Fehr for sound effects out of his cut). I get a lot of shocked looks at this one, and I agree; I’m used to paying only a meager sum for audio. But the services Danny offers (perpetual unlimited music!) and the quality of the end result is astounding. Absolutely astounding. I do believe in the gameplay as a standalone product, but the music takes it to a whole other level of awesome. I think it’s worth it.

(Percentage splits classified upon request)

And yes, I just casually dropped the “iPhone version” bomb like it was nothing. Bitches.

The Bidding Process

Bidding for SteamBirds opened on FlashGameLicense on January 30th, 2010. I purposefully chose an early-month entry so that any larger companies bidding would have fresh monthly budgets at their disposal. I also consulted with FlashGameLicense’s Sales Statistics to give me some insight; it looks like January is the worst month of the year, and February is a close second. I wanted to wait until later in summer, but I didn’t want to wait any longer!

Eventually 7 sponsors would bid on the game, and a dozen more EMailed me offers and discussed options on the side (they were typically complex enough offers that posting them to FGL wasn’t appropriate).

Those 7 actively-bidding sponsors made 27 bids in a nice (for me) 10-day battle for control of the game. Bidding opened at $500, and quickly made it above $6000. Here’s a quick rundown of the stand-out bids I received through all mediums (including EMail):

• 1/30: $500: Opening LOL bid.
• 1/31: $1,500
• 2/01: $2,000
• 2/01: $6,000: A big jump right away. There were no bids between $2K and $6K.
• 2/04: $8,000: A bidding war follows.
• 2/04: $10,000
• 2/05: $16,000
• 2/06: $20,000
• 2/07: $21,000
• 2/10: $22,000
• 2/10: $25,000: The deal I went with.
• 2/12: $30,000
• 2/12: $35,000
• 2/15: $45,000

I closed bidding around February 16th and notified Dan at ArmorGames that his bid had won.

“But… but why“, I hear you incredulously shouting. “Why would you take such a low offer?!“

“I’ll tell you,” I respond with an eerily-calm demeanor.

The extreme value deals ($35K+) had some very restrictive licensing terms. Phrases like these were most common:

• Rights to first refusal for a sequel.
  While I understand that ‘rights to first refusal’ aren’t all that binding, it still makes me feel uncomfortable. What if I have a bad experience with the sponsor? I don’t want to feel locked into anything. If the sponsor behaves and is a nice partner in the venture, I’d be more than willing to go with them again for a sequel. Why put a friendship in writing?
• No sequels, spinoffs, or use of any existing assets or similar assets for 1 year.
  Bah. I have some pretty big plans for the future, and SteamBirds as an IP is ripe for the picking. Especially now that the game is a resounding success, I cannot ignore it. Yes, I understand it is important to space out sequels and launches – I don’t want to over-saturate the market with my products. But I don’t want to be forced out of my own work for a year.
• This deal is considered pre-payment for a spin-off version containing bunch-of-features XYZ, in addition to primary sponsorship.
  To be fair, these offers were tempting. But in the end the extra amount offered wouldn’t make up for the time and effort that goes into the new features.
• Perpetual exclusive license; no secondary sales or ad revenue.
  Fair enough. As long as you can pay enough to outweigh that lost revenue stream…

How I Chose My Sponsor

What I ended up doing to help me sort through the bids was devise a “value” scale. I projected how much I thought the game would make on secondary license sales, advertising revenue (which I estimated to be near-zero, for what it’s worth), and other such income. I included figures like bonuses for performance (if any), prize money (if allowable), and any other special-case funds. I then added these values to the base price of the offer.

In my mind, the ArmorGames’ offer was worth around $30-40K. By accepting their deal I’m fully expecting to reach $35K (right in the middle of my predictions) in total revenue over the lifetime of the product.

Unfortunately for the larger offers ($35K+ up front), their restrictive licensing terms didn’t result in a whole lot of added-value. In fact, some had negative added-value when they started talking about the longer timeframes and exclusionary periods.

What I was left with, in the end, were two very similar deals I was seriously considering. They both had similar terms and ArmorGames was a little behind on my value scale. But I went with them anyway, for one very important reason:

Personality.

Dan McNeely of ArmorGames is amazing to work with. From early on in the bidding we struck up a rapport and we discussed many things (even not game-related). Several times he suggested that other deals might be better for me. He often tried to work out new agreements, suggested other sponsors I might want to approach, and is on good terms with many other sponsors. Best of all: he always kept his licensing terms wide open with amazingly few restrictions.

In short, most sponsors say the words “This deal is the best deal for you, the developer.” It always sounds like something a used-car salesman might say. Dan earned my trust, and I legitimately think he’s looking out for me and my well-being; he didn’t have to say those words. The words were implied.

Sponsors are more than just money-machines. They’re partners with the future of your game-making career. Accepting Dan’s bid is likely to have a long and prosperous relationship between us, where I can trust him to help me find the best deals (hopefully with him again!). Though not tangible, that’s worth a few extra grand in my pocket any day of the week.

You simply won’t believe the number of Sponsors that approached me with aggressive stances, insulting me, or even calling me names for not taking their offers. Some Sponsors won’t even give me the time of day (and haven’t responded to eMails in the last 2 months). Some sponsors seem to think they are superior to the developers and put on this air of “you will bend to our will.” Seriously, you guys? Not very professional.

The Terms of the Deal

Dan at ArmorGames was kind enough to allow me to post the details of the primary sponsorship (with aforementioned number-fudging, of course). Not that there’s much to say. As I mentioned, Dan was very lenient with his terms.

• Up-front payment of $25,000 for the game.
• Bonus of $2,000 for providing a set of Bonus Missions exclusive to ArmorGames
• Requirement to implement ArmorGames AGI (High score interface)
  • 1-week exclusivity period on armorgames.com (ad-free)
  • following that, 1-week of viral-version distribution (ads allowed)
  • following that, secondary sales/sitelocks/etc. can be sold (ads allowed)

Note that Dan didn’t send me a big contract to sign (he was happy exchanging a few eMails confirming the details) and that he’s very flexible and will take every suggestion on a case-by-case basis. I’ve gotten a ton of exceptions out of him, and in return for his generosity — I even gave him a longer exclusivity period than he asked for. These relationships are two-way streets, and nothing is set in stone!

Revenues to Date

About time for a money summary. And our first image!

“Other” is the combined forces of CPMStar (around $300) and Mochi ($10) advertising, as well as some award/performance money. As you can see, my near-zero ad estimates were fairly spot-on. :)

Grand total? The game has earned approximately $34K so far. Also fairly spot-on to my initial estimate. Minus FGL and the sTEAMbirds, that puts $15K in my pocket for 1 month of full-time work. Even if you go on my full schedule (around 5 months to-date), that’s still $3K/month and a decent salary!

Keep in mind that the ad revenue will continue growing as time passes and might end up making a dent. There are a few more secondary licensing deals to be made as well.

Critical Response

The game has done surprisingly well. I won’t go into the details on the reviews and good comments I’ve gotten, as I’ve posted on them previously, but here’s some of the average scores around the internet (flash devs seem obsessed with these numbers, but I don’t see the allure):

• 87% @ ArmorGames.com (8.7/10)
• 86% @ Kongregate.com (4.29/5), before Badges were introduced
• 84% @ Kongregate.com (4.19/5), after Badges were introduced (lolwut)
• 88% @ Newgrounds.com (4.4/5), ratings
• 94% @ Newgrounds.com (9.4/10), reviews
• 91% @ FlashGameLicense.com (9.1/10), developer rating
• 80% @ FlashGameLicense.com (8/10), editor rating
• 75% @ FlashGameLicense.com  (7.5/10), first impressions (these guy are idiots though ;))

The game has also won a few distinctions so far:

• Daily 4th Place: NewGrounds.Com
• Weekly 6th Place: NewGrounds.com
• Front-Page Feature on Kongregate.com
• Weekly Prize Winner on Kongregate.com
• Monthly Prize winner on Kongregate.com (not actually awarded yet, but I’m #1! wooo)

Game Performance Tracking

Huge shouts-out to Ben at SWFStats. His very-easy-to-implement API is quite awesome and I’m very impressed with it. His data aligns perfectly with my data on other collection services, so I can vouch for it’s stability and authenticity. Right now it’s tracking everything for me. Sign up for his beta now, and it’s free to use!

First, an overview of the game’s traffic:

As of this writing, here are some stats for the game at a glance:

• 3,500,000 game loads (people that make it to the main menu of the game; doesn’t count bounces)
• 24,000,000 level plays
• 26:10 average total play time
• 1,000 sites hosting the game
• A statistically insignificant number of players play the game less than 2 minutes(!!!). Official stats say 100% player retention rate! If you see my title screen, by gum you are playing 2 levels on average!
• 53% of users play more than 5 levels.
• Only 1.3% of players hit the mute button (without un-muting it later)
• Only 3% of players look at the credits screen
• Some per-site traffic stats:
  • ArmorGames.com has the majority of my traffic.
  • Kongregate.com is a distant second place, with less than 1/3 the views
  • A Chinese site pirated the game on day four (breaking my sitelock), and is third place so far (again, by a longshot)
  • All others of my 1000 sites have less than 50,000 views each, with most having very low figures.

Hopefully that answers the majority of your questions. :) Any other details you want to see? Let me know!

First up, about the Secrecy; I had often knocked Closed Development practices but hadn’t actually tried them myself. I thought it would only be fair if I gave it a go. Everything I’ve done before SteamBirds has been very open (just see all these posts on Protonaut and Space Squid), and in many cases my productivity apps have had their source code released to someone.

I often thought closed development was an entirely useless proposition, especially in the Indie Space. In the end though, I made an analytical post on the subject and have now declared that Closed Development was a success for me; it helped me focus and gave me more time to put into the project. I’m not concerned about exposure and building a fan base, because this version of the game is designed to build exposure and a fan base for a later iteration of the game. I can’t say I’d make the same choice if this was my final release!

Anyway, let’s recount the tale of SteamBirds, how it came to be, and how I did it (in a very general sense).

September 4th, 2009: It all started with the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington. I was busy working on Protonaut at the time. Greg Wohlwend, partner in the project and graphical genius, needed to take a short break from the game and it was a good chance at a mini-vacation.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Penny Arcade. I won’t say I had the pre-cognition to be a day-one fan; I think I first graced their pages in around 2000. Even when the comic fails to entertain, I’ve often found – at the very least – inspiration in Tycho’s textual truths.

I had never been to a PAX event before, despite being very close to the West Coast Venue. I was very excited to go to the September 2009 show, but was not prepared for the level of disappointment I felt. I’m fairly abreast of all industry knowledge/announcements/gameplay videos, and seeing games “first hand” a few days before launch held no special magic for me. I don’t put a premium on games that can only tease me; the same way I’d rather have private sexy-times than go to the strip club.

The table-top floor, however, saved the experience. I had a blast. I soaked up new games, unpublished games, games in testing, and old games. I reveled in it. It was like bathing in a big pool of gaming sexy-times. Board games, of course, have a turn-based monopoly… And I quickly found myself whisked away to thoughts of yester-year, where games like X-Com occupied my every waking moment. Where did all the turn-based games go? Why are there almost no turn-based flash games? Have we been swept up in a digital era of quick-action and forgotten our roots?

September 13th, 2009: Still high on the gaming experience a week before, I tried my hand at creating a turn-based table-top game. Using a set of movement mechanics and pieces of paper as placeholders, Aubrey (my girl) and I raced dirigibles across our coffee table. BlimpRace was born. The blimps could bounce off of each other and we often ended up in comical – if frustrating – situations where we just kept bumping around trying to squeeze through narrow canyon-like checkpoints. I still think the game has promise, but it had a lot of issues in both gameplay balance and pacing.

I’m a licensed pilot myself, and Aubrey has an unhealthy enthusiasm towards all things airship-related. It was just fun “playing in the sky” as it were; it’s really enjoyable engaging in something you find fascinating.

To any prospective developers out there: Make sure you love your subject matter! I started making Protonaut when I knew in my heart that I dislike platformers. Bad idea!

October 1st, 2009: Daniel Cook (of Lost Garden fame) instant-messages me.

October 24th, 2009: Nearly two months from my initial inspiration, the first line of code is written for what would eventually become SteamBirds. It was obviously called “SexyPlane” at the time (obviously).

October 28th, 2009: After 4 days of very lazy, part-time effort (I figure 2 days full-time), the first Prototype is complete. SteamBirds never deviated far from this initial prototype. This version of the game is full of programmer-art and had only the most basic human-generated sound effects (bang! pow! boom!). Daniel Cook is excited, and in the coming weeks we hammer out a collaboration deal.

Daniel Cook made some amazing contributions to the game. His experience and insight into the industry – and more importantly – the minds of the players, was invaluable. I’m absolutely certain that without his design and guidance the game would have ended up being a very different product.

October 29th, 2009: Daniel Cook hands me the first pass of art assets and I get to make the game look really beautiful. After a few days I had a revamped playable version. We ended up going in a completely different direction in the end, but this “cut-out” art style got a lot of praise  from the people I showed it to:

This is right about when I started seriously working on Steambirds. Since the core game mechanic was pretty much final, the work Dan and I were doing was dressing it up to the nines. Inventing new compatible mechanics, implementing UI, balancing gameplay, and polishing the game. I never put in a full effort; my time-tracking software says I put in 3 hours per day, 4 days per week. Very part-time. I even did a lot of code from the pub on my laptop.

Some of my downtime, of course, was spent in the shower thinking about the game – sketching ideas and writing notes – or just plain thinking about problems. It really wasn’t a lot, though. I was busy watching the entirety of Deep Space Nine for the first time.

Goddamn I hate Sisko so hard. I don’t think he can act (for TV; he’s apparantly an accomplished theatre actor/instructor) worth a damn and the only reason the show was watchable for me was the supporting cast. Christ.

December 12th, 2009: I went for lunch with Colin Northway. I expressed my desire to have a top-notch musician on this project; someone who can crank out some epic tunes.

Colin: Why not DannyB?
Me: Pff, I can’t get DannyB. He’s all famous and shit.
Colin: Nah dude, give him a shout! He’s a great guy!

Sure enough, DannyB (Danny Baranowski) jumped on the project right away, and gave it that distinctive sound. I love how the game’s opening screen grabs you by the shirt collar and says “YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION TO ME NOW.” The music is even popular enough to have generated some sales on DannyB’s bandcamp page.

DannyB was also instrumental in securing Jordan Fehr to do the excellent sound effects for the game.

I attribute a lot of the success of the game to the audio design. It really makes the experience a complete package. Just check out the trailer I made and tell me it isn’t made a thousandfold more awesome by the sound:

January 19th, 2010: The gameplay and UI has entered a beta stage. Aside from a few bugs, I would almost be happy releasing the game at this point.

Again, Daniel Cook’s contribution was immeasurably valuable. I think collaborating with him on this project not only made the game better, it made it viable. He was also great at keeping me grounded; keeping me sticking to the basics and not wandering off into “things I want to code” land.

I wanted to make this launch count, though; I began large-scale user testing.

I uploaded a copy of my game to FlashGameLicense and used their FirstImpressions service to get some initial big-issue feedback. This service selects random people from around the world (any age group, country, preferences, etc.; only requisite is they know how to use a mouse and keyboard) and forces them to play your game for 5 minutes and write up some feedback. I occasionally re-used this service throughout the coming month, and eventually got the “Average Fun Rating” from 5 points up to 7.5.

I was also user-testing in-person. As valuable as FirstImpressions are, they aren’t very detailed and you can’t watch users get frustrated with things or quit at strange times. I cannot stress enough how important real-user testing is.

I even had Daniel Cook and Colin Northway do some user tests on my behalf. Do not skirt user-testing! I spent nearly an entire month on this stage!

January 30th, 2010: I posted the game up for Auction at this point. I’ll go into a lot more detail in the next blog post about the numbers and figures on this end of things. Development essentially stopped here, and the game is largely feature complete. Minor bug fixes and statistics-reporting APIs developed.

February 22nd, 2010: Armor Games wins the FGL bidding war and even commissions me to make a few bonus levels in the game for his site. I spend half a week of full-time dev working on the requested changes and preparing the game for final release to the wild.

March 3rd, 2010: SteamBirds goes live on Armor Games. Exactly* ten years previous, Penny Arcade posted this comic:

Shit. I was really hoping the comic would be a telling metaphor for my situation! Well.. damnit. If I fudge the date a few days earlier at least I can get a topical comic about videogames as art.

All in all, the game’s development timeline was very short. If you assume full-time days, it took me 2 days to code and around a month of polish to get things to the sellable point. Maybe a further week or two of full time coding setting up things for sequels, ads, sponsors, viral versions, and various things like highscore integrations and badges for sites that support them.

In real-world-time, I spent around 3 months on the game and a further month on post-sale issues and updates. The reason for part-time work? I’m lazy. I had some other work going on on the side, but I spent way too much time catching up on old unwatched StarTrek episodes. :)

I’ll post some details on the numbers and deals next! Until then, any questions you guys have on the process? Timing? Tools I used? Feel free to ask in the comments.