Great Permutator — experience in Bindlach and not only
Hello! In this article, I will share my experience of advance computer games and participation in Bindlach for example, in my project, Great Permutator, which I very slowly sawing for almost a year and a half. Perhaps this someone seems interesting, or even helpful. The tone of the article somewhat negative, which tells "where there were mistakes" and "how not to do" than "we like things cool and good."
But, everything in order.
Great Permutator is a puzzle. More precisely, the genre can be described as engineering puzzle. Examples of games of this genre — LightBot, Manufactoria and, of course, SpaceChem. Impressed by the latter, in fact, and there was this game.
The goal is to build complex system of conveyors and various devices so that the correct way to redistribute the sequences of colored blocks. The complexity is quite high and the process of solving puzzles in a way similar to programming a multi-threaded program.
A couple of screenshots for heating of interest:
Learn more about the rules of the game and the history of its development can be found in this article.
The following are important events in the history of Great Permutator in chronological order. At the end of the article summed up the General income statistics and conclusions.
So, the game released on Desura, it would seem — you can relax and reap the fruits of their labor. As it turned out — it was only the beginning! It sold very few copies (about 50) and the head became hard to figure out what is the problem. Logical assumption — perhaps potential buyers just do not know about the existence of such a cool game, and I started "marketing". Well, good, they had to do another before release, but I'm a programmer, not a salesman — and of marketing as something not even thought of.
Well, okay, quickly sent out a few emails to websites igroupsock, posted information on some forums, knocked on some letsplays. Pretty exhaustive exercise, I must say. Especially when doing it for the first time.
This panic marketing particularly in what have not resulted. To the letters no one really answered (well, it seems that journalists are busy people and so spamming hundreds of emails a day). However, a couple of articles and letsplay I got from those journalists and reviewers. themselves interested in my game and themselves offered to write an article in exchange for the key. Well, one obzorschik already responded to my letter and made a small robot. They can pacitti here and view here and here.
I then wrote an article about the game for Habra (she was already mentioned in the introduction), because I believe that here is the target audience of the game. However, posting in the wrong hub (because the hub "I PR" lacked a little bit of karma) naturally and justly led to the ban. But six months then I was ashamed. This is my stupidity probably cut quite a lot of potential players (the exact statistics I do not get), so the moral is — please read the rules carefully and treat them seriously. Duplicate link slightly modified version, and the version for Habra will forever remain in the drafts as the memory of the event.
The way to promote the game in the style of "panic marketing" I was dismissed as ineffective in terms of the relationship of income to the amount of spent nerves.
Here I made a big mistake. I made the page on Greenlight after came the reviews and letsplay. I am very sorry about this because there was a possibility to obtain an additional couple of hundred votes, and maybe more. Therefore, the Board — create a page on Greenlight before will bring the game to release and before get reviews and letsplay. (However, there are rumors that Greenlight will be abolished soon, so this advice may no longer be relevant.)
Initially, the output on Greenlight has brought quite a few "Yes" votes (relative to the total number of visitors). Probably scared away graphics and the wrong understanding of the essence of gameplay, a La "kasalicka for!". Looking ahead, I will say that after participating in bandah began to appear in the content of "first spared, because misunderstood genre/scared graphics, and now bought bundle — and it's awesome." Therefore, the Council clearly explains the essence of the gameplay in the trailers and in screenshots.
My first bundle, in which I was able to participate. This bundle has been very sluggish and marginal. Its essence: 3 games of a similar genre for $5, or 4 games for $7. And all this mess lasts a month and a half.
In addition, after its completion there were problems with the transfer of money. The fact that they preferred to transfer money through PayPal, but, in connection with the peculiarities of this system on the territory of our country, I agreed to a Bank transfer. And... this translation they tried to make two months, sometimes not responding to email. And only when PayPal has officially come to Russia — they transferred the money through him. On the one hand they can understand, and with another — left an unpleasant aftertaste.
the link to the page bundle.
Pretty cool site, and each month sells a few thousand bundles. These guys are closely integrated with Desura, so I can't even generate the keys did not have — they were automatically taken from Desura. Later this unity IndieRoyale and Desura gave another bun: the fact that the system of withdrawal of payments is also common. This allowed, together with the income from the bundle to bring the income from the sale of those 50+ copies of the game that I mentioned just above. The thing is this restriction on withdrawal with Desura: they automatically send the money as soon as they have accumulated at least $500. If not for this interaction — the income from 50+ copies sold would still be lying on the Desura account.
The negotiations were very long. In fact, they started even before the launch of the bundle on IndieBundle.org. The main point of negotiations was the following: they immediately offered the terms of the rights of the "bonus item", and I was persuading them to take my game to the rights of ordinary item. Let me explain the difference: the rights of ordinary "item" the game is available right from the start of the bundle and profit the author of the game depends on the number of copies sold; the "bonus item" implies that the game will be suddenly added in the middle of the bundle "free gift" and the author gets exactly $1000, regardless of the number of copies sold. It is clear that the first option is potentially more profitable, but I managed to negotiate just for the "bonus item". The argument of the guys from the bundle — not too mainstreamy genre and no shavaet people. And, to some extent, they are even right.
Once seemingly agreed on everything and signed the papers — they're gone for 3 weeks, and then without warning thrust my games from bundles. Thus, the beginning of sales of the game began a bit unexpectedly for me. In General, they have their own marketing troubles.
Bundle ended well, brought a lot of votes on Greenlight too came pretty quickly to the Bank account (and before with a bundle from IndieBundle.org) — there is no problem. In General, IndieBundle.org sucked all at the end, and IndieRoyale — in the beginning.
Link to the mention of bundle.
During the sale on the IndieRoyale page of the bundle hung erroneous information that the game is available for Linux and MacOS. In fact, in the course of correspondence, I indicated that I just plan to make such ports. Manager from IndieRoyale admitted his mistake, but then long been interested in how things go in terms of porting (perhaps he received several letters from disgruntled players and promised them that "soon everything will be"). This, in some way, spurred porting games to these platforms.
The porting went pretty easy, as it was initially built in the architecture of the game. DirectX has smoothly replaced in the graphic part with OpenGL, Direct3D, sound — c DirectMisuc+DirectSound to OpenAL+mpg123, and in terms of input — c DirectInput for input handling using FLTK. The long dance with a tambourine, sound — how long have you selected the right library for mp3 decoding and written production reading music from a file. But pretty soon you have earned (still under Windows).
Once the fundamental system of the game have been rewritten — all pretty quickly and work under Linux. Had to do a little work with a timer. Still having some problems with full-screen mode. As for the rest — all wonderful. Since I'm on Linux almost were not (and now I was sitting under VirtualBox) — asked for help in testing experienced people. After that has collected under the Linux64 version.
Under MacOS lion's share of time was spent on the installation of the system on a virtual machine, downloading and configuration of XCode. The download took a whole week because of some incident. And already downloaded XCode (and MacOS in General) had a long time to get used to (I still sometimes press on the machine End, and then,swearing loudly taking a deep breath and exhale humbly scroll the file up). The port started up pretty quickly and, after a little processing a file, the version under MacOS was added to the store.
Finally got around to creating a website. I long kicked a friend of autopistes to make a simple website, but in the end the thing didn't move. As usual, I had to do everything yourself. During the week quite get what is HTML, CSS and PHP, and built the official website, with the help of the already mentioned friend autopistas. He then looked the code — thanks for that. It turned out cheap and cheerful.
In General, the site should have been done, again, in advance. The official site adds the game look good.
website Link. Be careful not to drop garraffello hosting is the most cheap and all can go from loads of moderate severity.
Participation in this "bundle" was planned for quite some time. I took the word "bundle" in quotes, because at this site, each campaign includes several games, but only one. Based on this, the idea came to be well-prepared to share on this website: indeed, in other banglah part of the interest of the audience provided by other games, and now other games can not hope.
Therefore, before the sale of the game on this website I updated the game to version 1.1. The main innovation of this update: having a full level editor. I must say, the levels for the original version of the game I created solely with code. Now there is a tool that enables bogreat amenities to create levels, not only for users but also for me personally.
In addition, as a "bonus", in the framework of this sale was available as extra small, pack of 15 levels.
Sale went pretty well, there another video and some votes on Greenlight. The money were quickly taken through PayPal — by the time he had settled in Russia.
After the sale the game appeared in local store though sales there is close to 0. Also link to information on sale.
From November to January, work on the game temporarily stopped due to my problems with studying, so then the game did not come in any bundles. But then suddenly in late December, one of the bundles he chose to elevate my game. I got an email from Lazy Guys Studio who decided to gash your own bundle "Starting 2014 Like a Boss" with computer games and bonuses.
Yes, that's right — these guys have not had the experience of conducting bundles and it looked a little suspicious. They have only had one mediocre game of own production, which, however, they managed to advance much further than that with me. I thought — and I lose the cost of copying games is equal to 0, and indeed it has long been possible to pirate. So I agreed.
I must say, their first and only bundle good shot. It sold over 3000 copies, and Greenlight increased more than five hundred advantages. In General, the guys from Lazy Guys Studio that's good at marketing.
A small minus because of the games in bundle was pretty much the total income was very modest. The money was transferred the day after the end of the bundle using PayPal.
Page bundle. Website designterrible is quite unique, so a hint: you need to scroll down the page.
First, the statistics:
the
In addition, the account Desura are still $68, which will probably remain there forever.
Given that the project was done and moved at off-laze time, sometimes with long intervals — current income suits me. However, to be honest, I was expecting to get the same amount in far less time.
Now the statistics on Greenlight:
In principle, the number of votes now as we need the same order. Therefore, the chance to get on Steam.
The relationship of the chronology of events and votes on Greenlight:
Summing up, we obtain the following clauses of "how to do really" (I was the opposite):
the
In General, despite all the disadvantages of bad marketing, it's all the same, there are a few pros: I gained invaluable experience, as did all the work, and the total cash cost for all this was close to 0.
On the one hand, everything that is originally intended is already done. On the other hand, there is a desire to complement the game in full and out of ideas all the juice (so bequeathed to comrade McMillen). And, in principle, the project has room for improvement. There are 3 things that I would like to do:
the
The development framework is more or less limited — this has its pluses: I, frankly, already fed up to saw the same thing a year and a half. But, nevertheless, really want to reach the end.
The community would like to hear any tips, suggestions, words of encouragement, constructive criticism. Will not refuse help in communicating information about the game to all those whom it may be of interest.
Also I will be very grateful to the "Yes" votes on Greenlight:
Thanks to everyone who read to the end!
Article based on information from habrahabr.ru
But, everything in order.
Introduction
Great Permutator is a puzzle. More precisely, the genre can be described as engineering puzzle. Examples of games of this genre — LightBot, Manufactoria and, of course, SpaceChem. Impressed by the latter, in fact, and there was this game.
The goal is to build complex system of conveyors and various devices so that the correct way to redistribute the sequences of colored blocks. The complexity is quite high and the process of solving puzzles in a way similar to programming a multi-threaded program.
A couple of screenshots for heating of interest:
Learn more about the rules of the game and the history of its development can be found in this article.
The following are important events in the history of Great Permutator in chronological order. At the end of the article summed up the General income statistics and conclusions.
after the release
So, the game released on Desura, it would seem — you can relax and reap the fruits of their labor. As it turned out — it was only the beginning! It sold very few copies (about 50) and the head became hard to figure out what is the problem. Logical assumption — perhaps potential buyers just do not know about the existence of such a cool game, and I started "marketing". Well, good, they had to do another before release, but I'm a programmer, not a salesman — and of marketing as something not even thought of.
Well, okay, quickly sent out a few emails to websites igroupsock, posted information on some forums, knocked on some letsplays. Pretty exhaustive exercise, I must say. Especially when doing it for the first time.
This panic marketing particularly in what have not resulted. To the letters no one really answered (well, it seems that journalists are busy people and so spamming hundreds of emails a day). However, a couple of articles and letsplay I got from those journalists and reviewers. themselves interested in my game and themselves offered to write an article in exchange for the key. Well, one obzorschik already responded to my letter and made a small robot. They can pacitti here and view here and here.
I then wrote an article about the game for Habra (she was already mentioned in the introduction), because I believe that here is the target audience of the game. However, posting in the wrong hub (because the hub "I PR" lacked a little bit of karma) naturally and justly led to the ban. But six months then I was ashamed. This is my stupidity probably cut quite a lot of potential players (the exact statistics I do not get), so the moral is — please read the rules carefully and treat them seriously. Duplicate link slightly modified version, and the version for Habra will forever remain in the drafts as the memory of the event.
The way to promote the game in the style of "panic marketing" I was dismissed as ineffective in terms of the relationship of income to the amount of spent nerves.
Greenlight
Here I made a big mistake. I made the page on Greenlight after came the reviews and letsplay. I am very sorry about this because there was a possibility to obtain an additional couple of hundred votes, and maybe more. Therefore, the Board — create a page on Greenlight before will bring the game to release and before get reviews and letsplay. (However, there are rumors that Greenlight will be abolished soon, so this advice may no longer be relevant.)
Initially, the output on Greenlight has brought quite a few "Yes" votes (relative to the total number of visitors). Probably scared away graphics and the wrong understanding of the essence of gameplay, a La "kasalicka for!". Looking ahead, I will say that after participating in bandah began to appear in the content of "first spared, because misunderstood genre/scared graphics, and now bought bundle — and it's awesome." Therefore, the Council clearly explains the essence of the gameplay in the trailers and in screenshots.
IndieBundle.org
My first bundle, in which I was able to participate. This bundle has been very sluggish and marginal. Its essence: 3 games of a similar genre for $5, or 4 games for $7. And all this mess lasts a month and a half.
In addition, after its completion there were problems with the transfer of money. The fact that they preferred to transfer money through PayPal, but, in connection with the peculiarities of this system on the territory of our country, I agreed to a Bank transfer. And... this translation they tried to make two months, sometimes not responding to email. And only when PayPal has officially come to Russia — they transferred the money through him. On the one hand they can understand, and with another — left an unpleasant aftertaste.
the link to the page bundle.
IndieRoyale
Pretty cool site, and each month sells a few thousand bundles. These guys are closely integrated with Desura, so I can't even generate the keys did not have — they were automatically taken from Desura. Later this unity IndieRoyale and Desura gave another bun: the fact that the system of withdrawal of payments is also common. This allowed, together with the income from the bundle to bring the income from the sale of those 50+ copies of the game that I mentioned just above. The thing is this restriction on withdrawal with Desura: they automatically send the money as soon as they have accumulated at least $500. If not for this interaction — the income from 50+ copies sold would still be lying on the Desura account.
The negotiations were very long. In fact, they started even before the launch of the bundle on IndieBundle.org. The main point of negotiations was the following: they immediately offered the terms of the rights of the "bonus item", and I was persuading them to take my game to the rights of ordinary item. Let me explain the difference: the rights of ordinary "item" the game is available right from the start of the bundle and profit the author of the game depends on the number of copies sold; the "bonus item" implies that the game will be suddenly added in the middle of the bundle "free gift" and the author gets exactly $1000, regardless of the number of copies sold. It is clear that the first option is potentially more profitable, but I managed to negotiate just for the "bonus item". The argument of the guys from the bundle — not too mainstreamy genre and no shavaet people. And, to some extent, they are even right.
Once seemingly agreed on everything and signed the papers — they're gone for 3 weeks, and then without warning thrust my games from bundles. Thus, the beginning of sales of the game began a bit unexpectedly for me. In General, they have their own marketing troubles.
Bundle ended well, brought a lot of votes on Greenlight too came pretty quickly to the Bank account (and before with a bundle from IndieBundle.org) — there is no problem. In General, IndieBundle.org sucked all at the end, and IndieRoyale — in the beginning.
Link to the mention of bundle.
Porting to Linux and MacOS
During the sale on the IndieRoyale page of the bundle hung erroneous information that the game is available for Linux and MacOS. In fact, in the course of correspondence, I indicated that I just plan to make such ports. Manager from IndieRoyale admitted his mistake, but then long been interested in how things go in terms of porting (perhaps he received several letters from disgruntled players and promised them that "soon everything will be"). This, in some way, spurred porting games to these platforms.
The porting went pretty easy, as it was initially built in the architecture of the game. DirectX has smoothly replaced in the graphic part with OpenGL, Direct3D, sound — c DirectMisuc+DirectSound to OpenAL+mpg123, and in terms of input — c DirectInput for input handling using FLTK. The long dance with a tambourine, sound — how long have you selected the right library for mp3 decoding and written production reading music from a file. But pretty soon you have earned (still under Windows).
Once the fundamental system of the game have been rewritten — all pretty quickly and work under Linux. Had to do a little work with a timer. Still having some problems with full-screen mode. As for the rest — all wonderful. Since I'm on Linux almost were not (and now I was sitting under VirtualBox) — asked for help in testing experienced people. After that has collected under the Linux64 version.
Under MacOS lion's share of time was spent on the installation of the system on a virtual machine, downloading and configuration of XCode. The download took a whole week because of some incident. And already downloaded XCode (and MacOS in General) had a long time to get used to (I still sometimes press on the machine End, and then,
Official website
Finally got around to creating a website. I long kicked a friend of autopistes to make a simple website, but in the end the thing didn't move. As usual, I had to do everything yourself. During the week quite get what is HTML, CSS and PHP, and built the official website, with the help of the already mentioned friend autopistas. He then looked the code — thanks for that. It turned out cheap and cheerful.
In General, the site should have been done, again, in advance. The official site adds the game look good.
website Link. Be careful not to drop garraffello hosting is the most cheap and all can go from loads of moderate severity.
IndieGameStand
Participation in this "bundle" was planned for quite some time. I took the word "bundle" in quotes, because at this site, each campaign includes several games, but only one. Based on this, the idea came to be well-prepared to share on this website: indeed, in other banglah part of the interest of the audience provided by other games, and now other games can not hope.
Therefore, before the sale of the game on this website I updated the game to version 1.1. The main innovation of this update: having a full level editor. I must say, the levels for the original version of the game I created solely with code. Now there is a tool that enables bogreat amenities to create levels, not only for users but also for me personally.
In addition, as a "bonus", in the framework of this sale was available as extra small, pack of 15 levels.
Sale went pretty well, there another video and some votes on Greenlight. The money were quickly taken through PayPal — by the time he had settled in Russia.
After the sale the game appeared in local store though sales there is close to 0. Also link to information on sale.
the Lazy Guys Bundle
From November to January, work on the game temporarily stopped due to my problems with studying, so then the game did not come in any bundles. But then suddenly in late December, one of the bundles he chose to elevate my game. I got an email from Lazy Guys Studio who decided to gash your own bundle "Starting 2014 Like a Boss" with computer games and bonuses.
Yes, that's right — these guys have not had the experience of conducting bundles and it looked a little suspicious. They have only had one mediocre game of own production, which, however, they managed to advance much further than that with me. I thought — and I lose the cost of copying games is equal to 0, and indeed it has long been possible to pirate. So I agreed.
I must say, their first and only bundle good shot. It sold over 3000 copies, and Greenlight increased more than five hundred advantages. In General, the guys from Lazy Guys Studio that's good at marketing.
A small minus because of the games in bundle was pretty much the total income was very modest. The money was transferred the day after the end of the bundle using PayPal.
Page bundle. Website design
Statistics
First, the statistics:
the
-
the
- Sale on Desura — $241 the
- IndieBundle.org — $170 the
- IndieRoyale — $1000 the
- IndieGameStand — $852 the
- LazyGuysBundle — $470 the
- total — $2733
In addition, the account Desura are still $68, which will probably remain there forever.
Given that the project was done and moved at off-laze time, sometimes with long intervals — current income suits me. However, to be honest, I was expecting to get the same amount in far less time.
Now the statistics on Greenlight:
In principle, the number of votes now as we need the same order. Therefore, the chance to get on Steam.
The relationship of the chronology of events and votes on Greenlight:
Conclusions
Summing up, we obtain the following clauses of "how to do really" (I was the opposite):
the
-
the
- Think about marketing in advance the
- Read the rules of behavior on the Internet and be serious about them the
- Make the game's official website as early as possible the
- Go out on Greenlight before the release the
- Make a trailer and screenshots to the gameplay was clear the
- Take money through PayPal
In General, despite all the disadvantages of bad marketing, it's all the same, there are a few pros: I gained invaluable experience, as did all the work, and the total cash cost for all this was close to 0.
What next?
On the one hand, everything that is originally intended is already done. On the other hand, there is a desire to complement the game in full and out of ideas all the juice (so bequeathed to comrade McMillen). And, in principle, the project has room for improvement. There are 3 things that I would like to do:
the
-
the
- In terms of expanding the game mechanics — you can gather a addon 1 the size of the current game with new levels and units the
- In terms of features to add buns like sharing levels between users
The development framework is more or less limited — this has its pluses: I, frankly, already fed up to saw the same thing a year and a half. But, nevertheless, really want to reach the end.
The community would like to hear any tips, suggestions, words of encouragement, constructive criticism. Will not refuse help in communicating information about the game to all those whom it may be of interest.
Also I will be very grateful to the "Yes" votes on Greenlight:
Thanks to everyone who read to the end!
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