The Still of the Night Causes a Storm in the Mind

It’s been a crazy year. My time in the serious games industry ended in January of 2012 and I returned to developing mobile games under Midnight Status/Alessi Games LLC. Things started off really well. I moved Skyline Blade, one of my most successful titles from a paid $4.99 app to a freebie with ads. This worked out really well financially (especially in the wake of losing my full time position in serious games) and gave me a lot of confidence coming out of the gate again as an independent developer.

All was not well though. With my move to a free/ad driven Skyline Blade I traded karma for money and angered fans of the game who paid $4.99. To compensate I attempted to spin off an HD version of Skyline Blade that would allow me to switch the original back to paid but the HD version never generated the same revenue and so I was forced to keep Skyline Blade free with ads against my better judgement because I needed the money.

So, financially I dodged a bullet but I had damaged (perhaps irreparably) Skyline Blade’s reputation. This began my confusion as a developer. Do I build quality or do I just do whatever I can for money in this time of need? It always seems easy to make decisions like this when your ass isn’t on the line. As soon as your ass is on the line though it becomes exponentially more difficult to make clear decisions.

I struggled for a bit of time juggling Midnight Status and Friendly Dots. Midnight Status was generating revenue while Friendly Dots was just eating it. I also struggled with the notion of updating older games like Disco Pool to work with the newer retina displays and iPads. I ended up doing so but nothing really came out of it. Sales did not increase.

I also spent time experimenting with business models. The free ad/ad remover model was working well for Skyline Blade so I began thinking that would be the model I used for every game. In retrospect, it only works well if your game is getting downloaded 40k times a day. When the numbers shrink back down it’s better to just charge for the game.

A lot of my experiments ended up dead ends but the technology used for many of them ended up serving in c.AR, an experiment in and of itself. This was the first new app released under the Midnight Status/Alessi Games label in 2 years. Luckily, it was pretty darn successful. This was much needed as my confidence from the Skyline Blade download spree was beginning to wane. It was also really nice that the app coincidentally launched on March 23rd, 2012, the 3rd anniversary of my mother’s passing. March 23rd is always a somber day but the instant success of c.AR made it a little easier to bare.

April began with us mostly preparing for Charlotte’s (my daughter) first birthday party. It was a nice month. In terms of development I was also working on my next game, Airspin. This was an important project for me because it represented redemption from Tropical Tailspin, the example game from iPhone 3D Game Programming All in One. Basically, I decided it would be a good idea to create an entire game and document its development for the book and then use said game as a marketing tool for the book. This did work to a degree, but there were plenty of people who thought the game sucked and so the book must suck. Making a game requires a lot of iteration, which in some ways is bad for a book. If you spend hours writing 10 pages documenting your development and then realize at the end of that development sprint you made a mistake it’s really painful to go back and redo it all. Two things do make me happy though with regard to this experience. First of all Airspin ended up awesome, which proved to me that I could execute a really nice flying game that people enjoyed. Second, a game called “Flight Unlimited” for the iPhone was released based on the project in my book and it has been highly successful. Now if only I could get them to give a nod to the book!

I also attended the East Coast Games Conference in April and as I spoke with people I realized that my confusion as to what direction to go was readily apparent to others. One person even commented on the fact that I wasn’t quite sure how to brand myself. Was I a studio head, a designer, a programmer, a contractor, a writer? Such is life when you know you can do anything you choose. The problem was choosing.

I always hated the idea of being typecast. I’m a firm believer that I can accomplish any task. As such, my attitude is more like: What do you need done? I’m a problem solver and I can help. Unfortunately, this tends to freak people out. Most folks want to categorize other people. As such, it confuses the hell out of them when you don’t identify yourself as one type of worker.

The East Coast Games conference was all about finding a place that wasn’t too far for my wife to move and yet contained a decent amount of game industry activity. Living in Norfolk, VA is great for her family life but terrible for my career. After the conference we decided that we liked Raleigh enough to move there. I also decided I wasn’t quite ready to give up in Norfolk for some reason.

In May I decided to begin transitioning my business from being called Alessi Games LLC to Midnight Status LLC officially. This was part of my strategy to simplify things. I also decided to axe the consumer facing side of Friendly Dots. It was apparent that gamers did not want games featuring little smiley faces. This freed me somewhat to just focus on Midnight Status and now Airspin, the next game.

In June I continued working on Airspin but I did take a week out to develop Swap Fire for the 7 Day FPS Challenge. I don’t know why but I had an epiphany about first person shooters as soon as I saw the call for innovation in the space on the 7DFPS website. I just came to me in an imaginary slide show. I saw myself playing Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Modern Combat, Shadow Gun, and every other FPS. Each and every title has the same goal, find cover, get line of sight on an opponent, shoot, kill. I instantly thought; wouldn’t it be cool if you had to put yourself in danger before shooting instead of putting yourself in safety? That was the impetus for Swap Fire. So I came up with a swap mechanic so that instead of killing an opponent when you shoot them, they just trade places with you. Thus in order to frag or kill an opponent you had to jump at a spinning blade and then shoot your opponent. Upon success the opponent would hit the blade, not you. Of course if your aim is lousy, you’ll hit the blade and die. With only 7 days to develop the game I think it came out remarkably well especially since it is a networked multiplayer title over the Internet.

The week after developing Swap Fire I taught a game development class to middle schoolers. This was an amazing if exhausting experience. Kids have so many questions about games and indeed the world. With games we can literally explore any question they have whether it be to create a terrain or to explain the mechanics of black holes and gravity. I found myself literally running from kid to kid answering questions every day for 4 hours straight. It was exhausting but also motivational, after all the kids really thought Swap Fire was cool and they played it on their breaks, though there was certainly much more to my motivation than just that.

Moving into July it was time to get Airspin done. I hunkered down and delivered the game, which had sort of plagued me. A part of me did not want to deliver the title because I had spent more time on it than any other Midnight Status game. If it failed then it would prove that I really had no clue what I was doing and that I had wasted approximately 4 months of development time. In the end though the game released and was pretty successful. It launched selling a number of copies on day 1 somewhere between Skyline Blade and Crash for Cash. Crash sold remarkably well with its initial paid run though because I put it out during the Christmas lockup of 2009.

As for Airspin though, all was not rosy. Even though I had worked on the title for 4 months, I engaged in a lot of context switching between projects, Swap Fire, Friendly Dots, c.AR, Skyline Blade updates, etc. As such, I ended up making some mistakes like not properly optimizing the title. Some people gave Airspin spectacular reviews up front (those with iPad 3’s or iPhone 4’s) but people with iPods (or any other device with less than 512 MB of RAM) complained of crashes. I immediately got a fix out but the damage was done. Sales began to drop off from the initially stellar levels due to an influx of 1-star “avoid until update” reviews. The fix worked for the most part though and the game currently holds a 4.5 star rating and continues to sell consistently.

Getting Airspin off my chest was a huge relief and its development gave me some new insights. One thing I am proud of is that I finally released a tool on the Unity Asset Store, which came out of Airspin’s development. The tool is called Unity Draw and I developed it in order to quickly place light probes. I spent an entire full time week (or 2) placing light probes and way points (something else the tool handles) with Unity’s default placement tools and it just took forever. The great thing is that the tool has sold pretty well, adding further revenue which stemmed directly from Airspin’s development. The other good thing was that suffering through the original light probe process caused me to come up with a neat saying: “It’s better to give players a feature they don’t notice than for them to notice a feature you didn’t give them.”

As I’m writing this blog there are so many details I’m skipping from the year. Someday I hope I can more fully divulge my experiences from 2012. It’s been a pretty crazy year, filled with a lot of fear but also a lot of fun and hope. Currently, I’m working on fully delivering upon Airspin’s potential and I’m looking at developing a full version of Swap Fire. There are also two secret projects I’m working on. One is non-game related but I am actively working on it and the other is game related but it’s mostly a mental exercise right now. If Airspin can fully meet its potential then I feel that things will begin to really take off. I can only hope and pray.

The best part of this year is that I have gotten to do what I love for work and I’ve gotten to be there everyday for my little girl and my wife. I’d love to be more successful with my work but I really can’t complain, there are far worse things in life than not living up to your full creative potential. At least I get to pursue the possibility of achieving it!

I haven’t been blogging much lately, I don’t think many people have. However, I’ve been attempting to hit the high points as I continue developing games. My latest adventure has been in the works for quite sometime. In fact as soon as I got done with Crash for Cash this is what I was looking forward too, I just didn’t know what it would be called or even what games I would produce for the idea. The idea of course was to make fun games for busy buddies (like myself).

friendly.fire is the flagship game for this new label. This game exemplifies everything that Friendly Dots is about. The game is asynchronous multiplayer and players build forts using a grid system and various blocks to protect the friendly dots or “friendlies” from the other player who tries to snipe them with a sling shot. It’s Angry Birds meets Words with Friends with a sprinkle of Minecraft. Simply put it’s everything that I’ve wanted to do for fun as a player and everything I wanted to challenge myself with as a developer.

friendly.physics is a nifty little project that uses the parts from friendly.fire and combines them with some fun and super simple physics code I wrote. The game is really just a sandbox for your imagination. You can build with it, destroy, throw stuff … basically whatever you want. This is also the first project that I used the In-App purchase system for.

So far things are going pretty slow but I think we’re building something really great with Friendly Dots and it will eventually turn over in a big way. I have a lot of personal reasons for building this brand. First of all when my mother died we saw smiley faces in several peculiar places. The placement of them was uncanny and it truly made all of us who witnessed them feel better. Second, my experience with News+Gameplay made me feel pretty ill and disenchanted. I did not like the idea of adding any more violence or negativity to the world even though I think games can offer something to the future of news casting. I’ve only made a handful of violent games in my life. Two of those games I produced after my mother committed suicide and the other was the News+Gameplay Raid. After searching my feelings I unpublished all 3 games because I didn’t think they were making the world a more positive place.

My experiences over the last year have lead me to one conclusion. People have worked really hard in the past so that we can enjoy the best of the present. Although there is still work to be done for everyone to enjoy the best that life has to offer we are still obligated to enjoy the pinnacle of life that so many others have worked hard for us to achieve. I think that the arts and entertainment represent our best, especially when they are combined with technology, our world, and friends. So in a way, I think making mobile social games for busy buddies is an ode to all the hard work everyone has done in the past. Every generation wants the next to have it better. I can’t think of anything better than to simultaneously be able to partake in the world, use my imagination, and share it with my friends. This is what Friendly Dots is all about.

I’ve been designing and developing my own games for many years now. Throughout my career as an independent developer I have been plagued by the urge to release my games as soon as I realize they are “kinda fun”. This is really a balancing act. Early on in my career I actually spent what I considered too much time on several projects. I thought out many tiny details and took the time to implement them to the absolute best of my ability.

The problem was that early on I was far too ambitious with my designs. I didn’t actually have the skills to back up my early projects. Then by the time I had developed sufficient skills I had become wary of putting “my all” into a project.

This brings me to the title of this blog, the details. In order to make a great game you need to choose something that is doable with your current resources and you need to do it to the nth degree. You really need to pack every detail in so that the user isn’t left wishing for more, rather they should say “wouldn’t it be cool if” and the next screen in your game should present “why yes it would be, and here it is!”.

Good games don’t play out like a design discussion still in progress, bad games do. If your player has time to start injecting their own ideas into your game within the first few minutes then your details aren’t dense enough. Players should be able to start using their own imaginations to think of new things they want at some point, just not right off the bat. Initially, they should be too busy being enthralled with your elegant yet deep execution to even think about adding something else into the mix. They should be thinking about playing your game, not designing it for you.

In order to nail “the details” you need to have great skills, choose an ambitious yet doable scope, and then iterate on it with NEW user feedback between each revision until players stop making suggestions within the first few minutes of use.

Here’s hoping I nail the details this time out …

I’ve been mega busy with tons of work and a new baby! I always take time out to state my opinion on E3 though. I don’t know if I’ve just fallen too hard for my new age mobile devices but in general I feel that the traditional game industry has lost its way. That is what I took away from E3. Microsoft’s Kinect connectivity was the most interesting thing in my mind because it seems to get us that much closer to the holodeck. Nintendo on the other hand really threw me for a loop with the Wii U. Many people were shocked by the original Wii but I wasn’t. The motion controls instantly made sense as soon as I read about them. The innovation and break away from the pack was clear to understand. The Wii U on the other hand isn’t a break away from the pack but rather an attempt to cash in on the tablet craze, Nintendo style. Personally, I’ve got too many touch screen devices on my coffee table already. I would have preferred for Nintendo to do something completely unexpected for them and add iOS and Android connectivity to Wii U instead of their own tablet. Instead I feel like they’re in a strange middle ground where they aren’t competing head on with Apple and Google (I rather like the idea of a Nintendo phone) but they aren’t delivering something completely new and innovative like the Wii was (or even the glassesless 3DS). Nintendo’s stock price has suffered and I agree, the Wii U is going to be another Gamecube. As a Nintendo fan I’ll get one and love it (I have a Virtual Boy) but beyond fanboys like myself I can’t see Nintendo succeeding financially on Wii U. Nintendo is failing to compete on both magnitude and direction simultaneously. In my “life’s a vector” strategy that just doesn’t work.

Oh yeah Sony … thanks for the free “Welcome Back from the PSN outage” games. Other than that I didn’t think anything of your E3 show.

Basically I see a gaming future dominated by techs like iOS, Android, OnLive, Facebook, and the crazy cross-everything connectivity that will destroy the traditional “game locked to platform” walls that have dominated our industry for so long. At least Sony has the PS Suite. That’s a step in the right direction…

I’ve got more ideas than I can shake a stick at. The latest concept is News+Gameplay. This is my take on the newsgame phenomenon that’s been flying just below the radar for the last decade. Newsgames are going to be huge in the future. My team on this particular project made a big splash by cranking out an interactive version of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. WIRED interviewed me and several other blogs, newspapers, and radio stations picked up on it. This was the first time reporters were actually contacting me to get the scoop, which was cool. Anyway, we don’t want to stop there. We want to do all types of newsgames from “just for fun” to “editorials”. The raid is considered a “spacial reality”, which I think is the most interesting form of newsgame. For more information read Newsgames by Ian Bogost.

My new studio (a big team effort), Kudzooka, has just released it’s first title called Fat Rat.  This is a mostly multiplayer affair for 4 players to enjoy over Wi-Fi.  We also added an iPad exclusive Table Top mode that can be enjoyed with 4 friends, no networking necessary.  A lot of hard work went into this title and we hope people enjoy it.

Yeah, I’ll get one but only because they’re putting a new Pilotwings title out!

I’ve been developing iPhone games since the App Store launched. The iOS line of devices are my bread and butter and also my most prized gaming machines. Although I will purchase Nintendo’s latest creation I know that it’s already inferior in many ways to my iPhone 4 that’s nearly a year old. Sadly, I will play the 3DS for a short while before it takes a spot on my shelf next to my PSP and original (day one) DS.

I remember that sweet Sunday in November of 2004 when the Nintendo DS launched. My sister and I rushed out to Target right when it opened and picked ourselves up 2 Nintendo DS systems. We were instantly blown away by the wireless networking, 3D, and touch screen abilities of the system while we played and ate breakfast at our local Burger King (Croissan’Wich Mmmm…). Once I played the DS I knew that Sony’s PSP would be no threat because the DS would simply be more interesting to play with. The DS paved the way to all the super simple yet super innovative titles that we take for granted now on the iPhone.

It’s really very interesting. That year was also the year that Aerial Antics had been published by Garage Games and indeed indie game development was beginning to take hold. Of course no one at that time considered indies a threat to Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld market. Today though the iPhone is where it is because of indie game developers. The titles on the iPhone are very similar to the titles of the original DS, small, innovative, and fun. The best part though are the prices.  Gamers now get to experience hundreds of titles for the price of 3 original DS titles.

This brings me to a big wish I had back then. As a struggling indie I always wished games were cheaper so that gamers could afford to spread their money around more (hopefully sending some left over game dough my way). It was common knowledge that 10% (probably more like 1%) of games made 90% of the money. With the iPhone this has finally come true and it has benefitted gamers and developers alike. Gamers get more games and more developers can actually make money. Some fickle gamers may cry foul stating quality concerns but I have always been a firm believer that the biggest reason to play a video game is to get the experience of controlling something in a new and innovative way. Therefore most of the value in a game is that first experience. The iPhone market with its shorter (and perhaps lower quality) games proves this theory correct.  It’s a diverse market powered by people’s desire for new experiences. Variety is the spice of life after all.

So, while I praise Nintendo for accomplishing so much with its last big push, beginning with the DS and culminating with the Wii, I think that the 3DS is little more than a short speed bump for Apple to roll over before claiming victory over Nintendo in the handheld gaming department. It’s been a feat that no one has been able to lay claim to since 1989 when the Game Boy was released. I think it’s actually clear already that Apple has done this but the 3DS will seal the deal.

In order for Nintendo to compete they will need something more portable and capable than a DS with a 3D screen. In fact the idea of a single purpose gaming device is completely antiquated at this point. The 3DS maybe capable of playing 3D movies and snapping 3D pictures but its overall meaningful end user functionality is still limited when compared with an iPod Touch while its interface is monumentally more complex.

With the DS Nintendo started the tidal wave of accessibility that has expanded the market. Unfortunately, a lot has changed since 2004. Nintendo needs to rethink their approach. I like to think of all situations in life as a vector. You either compete on magnitude or direction. When Nintendo lost the console race with the Gamecube they attempted to compete on magnitude against Sony and Microsoft (better graphics, more buttons, etc), they lost. With the DS and Wii Nintendo was able to regain their foothold atop the market by competing in a new direction. Now the playing field has gotten really crowded. Is it possible for Nintendo to compete by choosing another direction or will they have to compete against Apple based on the magnitude of simplicity? The term sounds oxymoronic but magnitude simply implies a degree of direction. In this case, the new direction is simplicity in hardware interface design.

I told a friend (who was touting the Palm Pre as the end of the iPhone) some years back that no one would beat Apple for a long time because their device design was so elegant. That was 2008. Here we are in 2011 and still no one has come close. Android devices provide a lousy alternative to those who simply do not want to cave in. The only prospect I see on the horizon are device-less interfaces. Microsoft’s Kinect is one experience I had recently that shows the next horizon. Apple’s devices are so simple that they cannot in fact be competed with based on their magnitude of simplicity. The only direction to go is device-less.

Nintendo’s got a head start by going glasses-less (or do they)?

With everyone else going abuzz over Minecraft I decided to weigh in.  First of all, I need to preface this blog by saying that I’m actively engaged in the development of a similar project as far as multiplayer creation games go. That said, I’ve been scouring the Internet looking for any multi-user generated content game that I can get my hands on from Gary’s Mod to Roblox. Minecraft however is the game currently getting everyone excited though it’s certainly not the only game of its kind.

With that out of the way Minecraft is buggy, slow, unintuitive, and ugly.  And yet, the game is completely addicitive. Even as I type this I’m craving to jump back into it’s rough unprofessional alpha build.  I think what makes Minecraft so great is that although it’s unintuitive it’s easy to learn, although it’s ugly you get to control the way it looks, and while it is slow it takes advantage of the basic human drive in all of us that is willing to endure hardship in order to find something better.  To that end Minecraft is in fact a fantastic work of art.  By missing the mark on every point in which traditional video games are measured Minecraft gets it right.  Minecraft is a crude overly refracted reflection of the human condition but the principal structure is still in tact.  By digging, building, persevering, bonding, and surviving life gets better.

So E3 has come and gone once again leaving gamers everywhere in awe of all the cool new tech and gameplay concepts developers have come up with over the last year. This year’s E3 was actually a bit of a let down in comparison with last year’s. For the most part the final marketing push for the new products we saw last year are just now getting underway and that’s what this year’s E3 was all about. Microsoft announced the formal name for Natal (Kinect) and Sony’s motion controller is now officially titled “Move”. Nintendo is the only company to announce something new and truly revolutionary with its 3DS portable console that allows users to play 3D games without the need for any gaudy glasses. This would have been truly amazing had this information not been leaked 2 months prior to E3.

The biggest thing I personally took away from E3 is that the gaming industry is finally getting too big for me to purchase every cool new thing that comes out or even experience everything period. The industry has been supporting 3 big consoles for two generations, mobile phone gaming is now huge and growing, social games and sites like Facebook now have a piece of the pie, and that’s not to mention the old PC crowd or the new streaming services like OnLive and Gaikai. The game industry is F-ing HUGE!

It’s no surprise that I personally like the mobile space (particularly when a phone is involved). I’ve always favored on-the-go gaming because it’s so easy to share these experiences as an indie developer trying to show people my work. As a gamer I’m not much different. Portable experiences are the easiest to share and hook up with other people. I also used to really enjoy the arcades due to the social nature. After that I prefer social experiences like the Wii, then multiplayer titles like Halo, followed by single player console games, single player PC games, and finally real-time multiplayer online titles of any sort.

Considering the fact that I’m more of a social gamer it may seem strange that I’m not too big into online games. I’ve always been keen on multiplayer programming having developed several Internet networked titles myself but when it comes down to it, if I’m going to play games with other folks I’d rather do it in person. Either that or it’s just a phase since I haven’t renewed my Xbox Live subscription in two years

With the industry growing at such an alarming rate it’s going to be difficult to choose where to spend hard earned gaming bucks. Mobile is cheap and easy. For me it’s a no-brainer that I’ll be buying some more iPhone games this year. Chances are as well that Nintendo will get some money from me for the new Zelda and 3DS console. Beyond that it’s a tough call. Surely, I’ll pick up a few Xbox 360 games and perhaps a PS3 game like Little Big Planet 2 finally (after having the system for 3 years the only game I ever purchased was MGS4).

Anyway, it’s time to go. I’m busy programming something great but wanted to drop down some words about E3 2010. For the most part I was a lot more impressed by last year’s show but of course I’m ever excited for our industry. Ta ta for now!

So the summer is here again (almost). It’s been a busy couple of months. My last post was about Crash for Cash getting popular and boy has it ever gotten popular. In 2 months the game has been played 2 million times. Furthermore my estimates for daily profits were accurate. The first week that advertising kicked in I started kicking myself for not adding it sooner. Beyond getting played 2 million times, Crash for Cash also took the #1 spot in the racing category for about 3-4 days in April. The day it occurred was truly magical. My wife and I were in San Francisco on her Spring Break vacation. During the day we visited Alcatraz, walked from Fisherman’s Wharf to Crissy Beach, checked out the Exploratorium, and then finally walked the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge to and fro. After crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back was the first time I noticed Crash for Cash in the #1 spot. That was a good day!

Of course Crash for Cash isn’t the only cool thing going on. I also completed the new book iPhone 3D Game Programming All in One, which is currently being printed. This great new 400 page book is published by Cengage and should hit your local Barnes and Noble sometime during the first week of July. In the book I show new iPhone developers how to create a casual flight simulator for the iPhone using Unity. A pre-release version of the game accidentally went out onto the App Store (I forgot to pull it once I uploaded it for book screen shots, that Apple wouldn’t give me permission to use anyway). Long story short though the game actually pushed the book into Amazon’s Top 100 Game Development, 3D, and Apple books in various countries (US included). I ended up leaving the rough cut of the game up for a while since it was promoting sales. I now have a slightly more user friendly version coming out to coincide with the release of the book. A big goal of mine is not to change the game much from what the book covers. Originally, I was looking for 1 : 1 parity but I’ve since decided that a few more play tests and minor minor tweaks aren’t a crime so long as I stay within the realm of the book’s lessons any user should be able to replicate my minor tweaks in a few minutes. In due time I would like to release a fully polished product using the engine from this book. The flight model is really pretty cool and allows for loops and barrel rolls using a fairly accurate and sophisticated method of force and friction applications to the body of the aircraft. It’s not a dead ringer for X-Plane but it’s pretty close in my opinion.

Still in other news I began working at L3 Communications doing some serious games work in February. The work I’m doing there has been very fulfilling. I work with a fantastic team of individuals who love this stuff as much as I do (and GASP … I didn’t have to move to the West coast to find them, although one of them is from San Francisco). Through this job I’ve gotten to attend some really great conferences I might otherwise not have gone to and I’ve gotten to polish my skills even further all while working on projects that have a real world impact (something that I often find hollow in the traditional games industry). At some point I hope I can share more about my work in serious games but for now I’m just happy for the opportunity to apply my skills and communicate with a slew of talented people in this new (to me) arena.

There will be some more game information soon. I haven’t actually released a new game for the iPhone since last year. The funny thing is that by focusing on marketing I’ve been able to increase income from the App Store tremendously without releasing anything new. I plan to reinvest all that I’ve earned through the App Store although it may not be in the traditional sense. Keep reading to find out how all of this will grow (hopefully) into part of a larger plan