Category: Indie Stuff (Page 6 of 7)

The Economics of Village Games

November 2, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Lost Garden has a great article on what he calls ‘Village Games’, which is to say, small-scale MMOs in the vein of Puzzle Pirates and Achaea.

Retail games can make over a billion dollars with a single title. That is rather exciting. However, as a developer, you are going to see approximately none of it…A successful village game will produce a steady profit, but the money never becomes astronomical. Instead, you’ll be able to provide above average salaries and many years of job security. This is far better than most games can promise.

Random Things that Amused Me This Week

July 31, 2005 / Damion Schubert

J of Damned Vulpine pointed out to me that the frontpage of the Miami New Times web site has a GTA theme. Another sign that video games are permeating into the mainstream. There appears to be no permanent link, unfortunately.

The Senate is proposing to ban Chimeras. Metafilter snarks well on the topic:

I can’t believe the stupidity of our leaders – to make all this noise about Chimeras when anyone with sense knows that Hydras are much more dangerous. To say nothing of the corrupting influence on our youth of the Satyr and River-Nymph Agenda.

I’ve been saving this one for a while: the Wilhelm Scream. You’ve heard it dozens of times in dozens of films, including Indiana Jones, Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings film. Originally a sound clip called “as Man Being Eaten by Alligator”, it was originally recorded in the 1950s, and has been making cameos in films ever since. The audio file at this link gives a few good examples of the Wilhelm in action.

Lastly, GrowRPG is a neat little flash puzzle. Good for wasting an hour or two.

Why Don’t Some Great Games Sell?

July 17, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Over on Game Matters, Scott Miller has started a good thread discussing why Ico didn’t sell, despite it being considered a work of wonder by everyone whose tried it. Idlenews has a similar thread about Psychonauts, a game that appears to be doing abysmal numbers despite being beloved by anyone that’s tried it. The latter was closer to my heart — I only dabbled in Ico, but I’m now nearly done with Psychonauts, and I’m loving every minute of it (well, up until I get jumping-puzzled out for the night). Both threads are good, albeit depressing, reads. Continue reading

The Life of the 3rd Party Developer

July 10, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Want to know what it’s really like to be part of a small game development studio? See this remarkable diary that talks about a company called Ninja Theory building a game for a next generation game platform – from the business perspective of pitching the product, paying the bills and landing the deal. They talk about how agonizing and scary the whole process is, even though every publisher that saw the game loved it. In particular, his interactions with the publishers are just priceless. Continue reading

Build Your Own Arkanoid Level

July 10, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Moby Blaster is a Shockwave Arkanoid clone , but you can make your own maps and mail them to your friends. Pretty neat and tidy, although I wish it’d chased further the promise of player created content (such as being able to play people’s maps at random and rank them).

The Value of Attentiveness

May 22, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Dr. Cat is one of the lesser-known pioneers of the industry. He launched Furcadia, an MMO which went live before UO, and which has been tidily profitable for quite some time. A social game that caters to a unique audience, Furcadia has none of the grind-y elements of today’s EQ clones, and it has offered some unique lessons to those running the game. One of the things the esteemed Doctor said he’s learned from his experience running Furcadia is “Attention is the currency of the future“. As it turns out, that’s not just true for MMOs.

Television has long simply used the Nielson Ratings to determine the popularity of television shows, and set advertising prices. But now, television executives are discovering that not all viewers are created equal, and this discovery has the potential to transform the entertainment industry. Continue reading

Why Think Big?

February 15, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Brian seems to ask this question a lot, so I thought I’d answer it:

I do have a minor quibble with this. Why focus on the “top 5″ games?

There are two answer to this: the dreamy answer and the business reality. The latter first. When you work for a large organization (as both Jeff and I do), you find that they really aren’t geared to think small. The PC and Console business is incredibly hit driven, and as such, publishers build all aspects of their organization towards their numbers. Continue reading

Puzzle Pirates Published Post-Haste

February 1, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Congratulations to Daniel James and his gang for getting Puzzle Pirates on the shelves (thanks in part to my employer, Ubisoft). Puzzle Pirates is, bar none, the most innovative MMOArrrrPG on the market, and I’ve been urging anyone with the power to sign them to a deal to pursue them.

It will be very interesting to see what happens to their numbers, once they leave from a download-only model to a model with some sort of store shelf presence.

Teenage Lawnmower

January 14, 2003 / Damion Schubert

Who says there are no more innovative game ideas?

Nation States, and other Odds and Ends

January 6, 2003 / Damion Schubert

I’ve found the most intriguing and addictive online game put up in the last 3 years. Create a nation, determine its level of political freedom, and lead as a benevolent ruler or a tyrannical despot. Unfortunately, the game is apparently running on an old Texas Instruments calculator, or something else that really can’t handle the load, but the game is nice in that it scales well to the level of involvement you want. You can put in a minute a day, and have something very near the BBS games of old, or you can join the United Nations and take part in the debates (which are, I might add, well worth the price of admission). Continue reading