The Still of the Night Causes a Storm in the Mind

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

I’ve always wanted to create a hit video game, something that a lot of people would experience and enjoy. This past week it finally happened. Though I’ve created many games and have experienced minor successes from time to time, I’ve never experienced something quite like the phenomenon Crash For Cash is seeing right now.

I originally released Crash For Cash as a paid app at $1.99. It experienced some success and maintained decent sales with a fair run in the Top 100 Racing titles. Around the same time I made a change to all my app store descriptions by adding “Also Try” text with a list of all my other games. I noticed an increase in sales of all my games and attributed this to the cross-promotion between all the apps’ individual descriptions. In turn I decided to do more lite versions of my titles to increase the cross promotion. It didn’t help.

I realized afterward that it was actually Crash For Cash, which was responsible for the other games’ sales increases. First of all Crash For Cash is more polished than any other title Midnight Status has produced. Second, Crash For Cash is hooked up with Twitter and a “More Games” button so it’s a great tool for promotion. I decided that it would be best to just release it for free as a flagship game and advertisement for other Midnight Status titles. Forget doing lite versions, just put my best foot forward and hope that it trickles down.

After a single week as a free game Crash For Cash has risen to the #4 Top Racing spot, the #8 Top Arcade Spot, and the #34 Top Overall Game. It has been played 170,000 times and it experienced 23,000 downloads yesterday alone. Sales of the paid version have actually increased even though it is identical to the free game and sales of all other Midnight Status titles have increased as well. Now an update is waiting in the wings that introduces advertising, which should pull in anywhere from a few hundred dollars a day to an upward of a grand a day and will also offer a real incentive to purchase the paid version since the ads occlude part of the screen.

This is a great opportunity from a business perspective but the best part is just the fact that the game is being enjoyed by people. The game was literally played over 100,000 times before anyone gave it a bad review (app store reviewers are notoriously critical). People dig this game. It’s not the best game and it probably won’t even register with people enough to be remembered. None of that matters though. For the time being people are having fun with it, competing on the leaderboards (I finally got knocked off yesterday), and even tweeting about it. People are using all aspects of the game fluidly and in all likelihood I’ll be able to claim a game that’s been played over 1 million times before too long. I think anyone would consider that a bonafide hit whether it’s free or not.

Thanks for reading and most of all thanks for playing!

I wrote a post earlier which was pretty critical of the iPad. I wrote about all the differing opinions and the pros and cons, etc, etc. That post was erased as I went to publish it.

I took that as a sign. My initial take on the iPad is that it’s nothing but a large iPod Touch and that I won’t get one because I already have access to everything that I need by carrying an iPhone and an iPod Touch simultaneously (which still takes up less space than an iPad). Truth be told though, this is a short sighted attitude. Granted I think everyone knew that the iPhone/iPod Touch would be grand slams (I did for sure) and the iPad’s future isn’t as certain.

I for one will offer some support for the device and test the waters at least. As it stands iPhone development is so easy that it’s almost trivial compared to PC development and the iPad will be no different. I have had modest success on the iPhone but have been unable to create a must have game. Perhaps I will find more success with the iPad which lends itself better to in-person social experiences. With the barrier to entry so low there’s no reason not to give it a try.

This past week the remnants of my family (my sister and I) got together to watch The Boondock Saints 2. After the movie she criticized it rather harshly which spawned a conversation about what makes a good piece of entertainment.  My sister and I are both writing books.  The difference being that I’m writing a tech book on iPhone development and she’s writing a fiction novel.  Inevitably we talk about each other’s projects.

On this particular night she tells me that she’s scrapping the 46 pages of single spaced 10 point font she’s written thus far.  Her reasoning is that she wants to differentiate herself from other female writers.  The specifics of her decision revolve around shifting the focus of the story from relationships to losing one’s mind.

A large part of the conversation involved a debate about the relevance of Twilight which shared some aspects with her original story.  Being the older brother I am I had to point out the fact that Twilight has been hugely successful as have love/relationship stories throughout time.  I also pointed out the fact that there haven’t been too many successful stories about the erosion of one’s mind (though A Beautiful Mind was fantastic).  The end result of the conversation was that I shook my sister’s confidence and at Thanksgiving dinner the next night she reminded me several times.

As a creative person I’ve learned throughout the years that you largely need to ignore other people in your pursuit of that perfect piece of work. The honest truth is that the only person who knows your vision is you. What you create for other’s to see may only be a crude representation of what you actually envision.  If that’s the case then it’s simply a matter of improving your skills to match your vision.  No matter what it’s important to remember that.

Many creative individuals are also insecure which is why most entertainment industries are run by opportunistic moguls instead of the creatives that actually power our culture’s best works of art.  If you’re creative, forget the insecurity.  This is what I told my sister.  I explained to her that it doesn’t matter what anyone, not even me sees in her creation. She’s the only one who knows what her creative spark is capable of.

At the end of the day this is the point of creativity.  It’s the challenge to get what’s on the inside to make sense as it comes out.  There are many ways to communicate these creative thoughts and sometimes other people can help you clarify what you’re trying to communicate but they’ll never be the source of what you’re trying to communicate.

A week or so ago I wrote about The Human Compiler which is an important component of game development.  As a game designer you need to watch other people’s reactions to your creation closely to see if you’re communicating properly with the player.  This is different than relying on someone else to communicate your creative vision for you.  As I stated earlier, you need to grow your skills to match your creative vision and this is no different.  It takes a certain type of skill to siphon out the difference between someone else’s creative vision infringing on your own and an error in the communication of your creative vision.

So there you have it, isolate your creative spark.  You are the only one who knows what’s on the inside and it’s your job to find the best way to showcase it on the outside.  Don’t bow to anyone in this process but don’t get hurt if people don’t “get it” either. People aren’t mind readers, they’re creators, which means it’s your job to communicate not others’ to magically comprehend your inner most thoughts.

In 1997 I came up with a game concept. That concept was a fun and simple 2D building demolition game where players would plant charges and try to level a cityscape. I developed this concept about a year after learning some BASIC programming on my TI-85 calculator and before I entered college. At the time it’s safe to say I didn’t really have the skills to do the concept justice.

Fast forward to 2006. I sit down at my computer one evening and I finally prototype this concept now calling it Debris. I develop a working sim with blocks, bombs, and a caution tape line. The premise is simple, plant the bombs in such a way that upon detonation all the blocks fit below the caution tape line.

I work on this prototype for a few months (mainly tweaking the physics) and eventually show the concept to a company who’d published my earlier work. They write me back and tell me they don’t see any promise in this concept. They tell me they can’t suggest even a single bit of advice in order to make the concept more fun for them.

Their feedback of course stood in stark contrast with my vision as well as the feedback I’d received from several other people who I’d actually gotten to show the game in person. As with anything communication is key when unleashing a brand new game concept. I’m sure something was lost without myself involved to fill in the blanks as someone played this game for the first time. Such is the potential fate of any unfinished prototype.

In October 2007 I attempted once again to show off this concept.  This time at the Indie Games Con. Again, it’s turned down for publication by this company that had worked so closely with me in the past.  To add insult to injury, I’m told by someone I’d once considered a mentor that it “sucked”.  I went home dejected and dropped the development of Debris to work on Full Contact Debate another idea I’d had banging around my brain for years.

Of course there was one redeeming event which took place at IGC that year. The morning after I was told the game sucked I walked in an there was a group of 6 other developers standing around a computer laughing. As I walked up I realized they were playing Debris and they’d just realized you could take the helicopter out if you planted the bombs correctly. In the PC/Mac version of Debris the helicopter would go spastic and bounce around the screen taking everything out in its path. As they left a few of the guys told me it was a great game concept. Seeing their reaction to the title renewed my belief that eventually this would be a hit game.

Now we move on to October 2008. At this point I’d long given up the idea of pitching ideas to publishers with lesser vision than myself. Throughout the years I’d pitched concepts to a plethora of publishers and I was always disappointed with the results. Finally though, the iPhone and the App Store had arrived and there would no longer be a difference of creative opinions to stop the publication of any title. I jumped onto the iPhone development wagon as quickly as possible and I knew exactly what my first title would be.

Debris appeared on the App Store by December 5th 2008 and to my knowledge was the first 2D casual building demolition game created. When I originally developed the prototype I searched for other controlled demolition games and the only thing I found was an obscure PS2 game released in Europe but it was a more serious 3D simulation instead of a casual physics game. My prediction circa 2006 was that the most popular casual games were going to be physics based as opposed to the match-3 titles that dominated the early-mid part of the decade. Looking at the iPhone market today I was absolutely correct and I’m proud to say that I not only made an accurate prediction but I took part in the market with a handful of causal physics sims which I developed.

Now it’s the end of 2009 and it’s been the roughest year of my life. It hasn’t all been bad but it has been a roller coaster. As most people who read this blog know, I lost my dear mother to suicide on March 23rd. I have been depressed since then although certain events have been overwhelmingly positive this year, the loss of my mother casts a shadow over those events. To further add to my pain this year a title called Implode! landed on the App Store about a week ago and since then has risen up the charts into the top 5 best selling iPhone games. Implode! is Debris, it’s a casual 2D controlled demolition game and it arrived almost exactly 1 year after Debris on the iPhone.

Considering that I developed this concept sooo long ago I’m heart broken that I wasn’t the one to fully capitalize on the concept. When I developed it in 2006 I knew it had the potential to rise straight to the top. Unfortunately, being first isn’t always best and in fact some people would say it’s detrimental. This is one of those cases.

I rushed Debris out on the iPhone trying to take advantage of the devices unique abilities such as pinch/zoom, swipe momentum, and the accelerometer tilt. Unfortunately, using these special capabilities of the iPhone was ultimately a distraction from the core experience. Implode! for the iPhone is actually much closer to what Debris was originally for the PC/Mac. Plant bombs, detonate, and try to get the blocks below a line. The version of Debris I ended up putting out for the iPhone wasn’t received particularly well because the core was watered down in an attempt to make it iPhone-centric. Granted, some components of Debris are great fun but overall I let the core suffer in favor of design diversions such as tilt, zoom, and killing aliens with the blocks.

Still, I’m not jaded or angry (OK, just a little). Debris was after all the title that allowed me to develop my own concepts as my sole source of income. Without Debris I wouldn’t be where I am today. Furthermore, there’s no law against sequels and while Debris may not ultimately get recognized as the title that brought the casual controlled demolition genre into the limelight perhaps its sequel can utilize the success Implode! is currently enjoying to be an even bigger success.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

When you’re developing games it can hurt when you spend a few weeks or months on something only to have other people scoff at your creation. In my early years this really hurt my feelings. Actually, even today it doesn’t “feel good” when other people don’t get what you’re trying to communicate with a game. I often feel like a screaming infant whose parents just don’t comprehend what I’m trying to communicate with my goo-goo-gah-gah’s. It can make you feel quite disconnected from the rest of the world when you think something’s cool and no one else agrees.

The way that I deal with this is to consider play testers what I call “The Human Compiler”. The point of this is that you don’t get your feelings hurt when a programming compiler throws an error. No, instead you simply go to line N and change the code so that it works. When you get people playing your game for the first time there are going to be “Human Compiler Errors”. As with any other compiler the solution is simple, go to the figurative line N and fix it.

The biggest issue is that human beings aren’t discreet like a machine language compiler so you have to use your human judgment and read between the lines a little. Once you get past the “hurt feelings” part though it becomes pretty easy to read people’s feedback and trace the true root of the “Human Compiler Error”. The realization that people play testing your game is just another compiler is the most important piece of the puzzle here. Don’t get disheartened just take it all in, get a gut reading on everyone’s combined input, and then get back to work!

NEW - play it online now at www.iCrashForCash.com

Last year I created this mini-game for a bonus when players completed Debris. It was called Debris Drop and it involved the simple premise of physics-enabled boxes falling from space with players tilting their device in order to match the various colors. Instantly, I knew I had created something cool. The initial mini-game only took about 4 hours to make but it was readily apparent that this core was actually the most fun part about Debris.

After realizing that I’d stumbled onto something my sophomore effort on the iPhone was a pretty easy choice. I took that mini-game and ramped it up a few notches by adding new shapes, online leaderboards, and backgrounds. Poof! Cosmosis was born. The title didn’t take off and I eventually made it free. For a while it accumulated a decent number of downloads but the game had really terrible production values so even as a freebie it wasn’t too enticing. I still thought it was the best core experience I’d created.

This summer I created several iPhone games that still haven’t seen the light of day. After having some success with Skyline Blade I was able to ramp up the production values of Midnight Status titles and invest some money in better assets and tools. Thus instead of making games with a budget of $0 I was able to jump it up. After fighting with myself on which game to “really” make next I chose to iterate again on the physics box dropping concept.

The first game to reflect the new production values ended up being Ragduck Hunt. Of course in truth Ragduck Hunt was actually started in the middle of development on Crash For Cash. I knew Ragduck Hunt was going to be somewhat gimmicky but also fun for a while. Crash For Cash on the other hand had potential to be a really good game so more time was spent on it. I’m probably one of the few people who will drop one project for 2 weeks just to push another idea out there that I think can be done better with less time … but maybe not. The point is if I get a wild hair up my butt I’m going to act on it. In this case Ragduck Hunt was that wild hair.

Anyway, Crash For Cash represents the current pinnacle of iteration for me. I took what was a neat mini-game and evolved it into Cosmosis. Then I took that evolution and completely trumped it in terms of production values, theme, social networking, and gameplay. Cosmosis was still very limited in terms of playability. There were 6 colors to match and the only thing that got harder was the speed. Crash For Cash goes way beyond this.

The differences in gameplay may seem subtle but they are quite effective. First of all as players earn cash they unlock more expensive cars. More expensive cars in turn earn them more money. Of course as the number of various car models increases it also becomes more difficult to make a match. This is where the brand new tap-bomb feature comes in. Players can now tap on a car to blow it up. This adds an element of strategy that wasn’t really present before. Now players have to think on the fly which cars on-screen will help them capitalize the most once things get really intense. Top the new gameplay off with leaderboards, twitter integration, and high quality production values and I think you’ve got a winner.

Anyway, I like it and I hope other people do too. Here’s a video!

Back in March Christian Nutt of Gamasutra posed the question “Can The Industry Make a B-game?”

I think I’ve done just that with a little stupid ass title called Kube Killer.  I initially created this game out of frustration.  I was frustrated and angry over my mother’s death (hence this being one of the few violent games I’ve made) and I was also but to a much lesser degree frustrated over the apparent lack of logic within the App Store eco system.

My last post was about making easy games.  I purposely created Kube Killer to be challenge-less and a time waster that would roll as many ads as possible on the business end.  I was analyzing some of the popular games on the iPhone that my younger cousin was playing and they all had something in common, ZERO challenge but plenty of time consumption. When I released Kube Killer I put it out at $0.99 (no ads) at my wife’s request.  In truth though the game was always supposed to be free.  I thought people might play it and actually get caught up challenging each other to see who could in fact kill the most kubes which would be optimal for an ad based title.  It was also created to be somewhat of a satirical poke at the App Store in general, dumb games getting attention they don’t deserve was part of the inspiration for Kube Killer.

At $0.99 the game was mostly ignored.  It sold a few copies but never made any real impact.  Fast forward to this past Friday when I changed the game to free.  Somehow, the game started climbing the charts regardless of the terrible graphics, poor description, and even worse reviews.  Nearly everything about this game signaled people to avoid it at all costs (the icon is even black like the plague) and yet in true App Store fashion the title started climbing the charts extending its figurative middle finger to logic the whole way.

As of right now the game has been downloaded nearly 10,000 times since Friday.  Some of the players have even taken to competing for the most kills via the online leaderboards.  The title is hovering in the Top 30 Adventure games and the Top 20 RPG games and with each iTunes update the rank climbs while the reviews get worse and yet people even started a thread to talk about this waste of time on Touch Arcade!

As I watched this all unfold I was initially ashamed.  If any game was supposed to do well this weekend it was supposed to be my new title Ragduck Hunt which was logically created to appeal to the App Store crowd while actually being a pretty good game with solid production values.  Kube Killer, the red headed step child of my portfolio though is now the most “popular” iPhone game I’ve made.  This game is terrible both purposefully and accidentally (simultaneously) and for some reason people are downloading the crap out of it … stranger still some people are playing the crap out of it.  I think that constitutes a legitimate B-game.

It may sound elementary but making easy games is one way to guarantee yourself a little success when it comes to game development.  I’ve had people compare the gameplay experience some of my games present to earning a master’s degree.  The good thing about that is the good reviews my games receive are well written (thank you educated folks).  The bad thing is that most people cannot enjoy these games.

I started thinking about this topic because a game (Kube Killer) I released and sorta wish I hadn’t has received the same star rating on iTunes as games like Skyline Blade and Disco Pool even though it’s a terrible game.  The game has gotten better reviews than my first title Debris and it’s so much worse.  Debris however has gotten more complaints about being to difficult than any other title I created and also has the lowest star rating.  Literally, this is the worst game I’ve produced for the iPhone in my opinion.  Now, do I enjoy the game at all?  Actually, truth be told I do enjoy playing it.  It’s a very simple shooting game which can be played from a top down, over the shoulder, or first person perspective.  The shooting aspect of the game is kind of addicting.  Everything else about the title is totally lacking save for one thing.  It’s the easiest game to play of all the titles I’ve put out for the iPhone (the enemies don’t fight back and in fact you literally cannot lose). Because it’s easy to play people can get into it without being rejected too quickly.

So like I said, it sounds elementary but truth be told this is something I personally have struggled with.  The games I typically think about playing myself aren’t immediately intuitive for many people.  The bottom line is make an easy game first and then fill the rest in with good graphics and production values and more than likely you’ll find a bit of success.

Well, summer’s over and it is time to go back to work full time.  This year has been a wild roller coaster of ups and downs.  It kicked off with me having just turned 30 and finally getting to become a full time game developer thanks to the iPhone.  This was just about my biggest dream come true … finally after years and years of work.  Not all has been well though, during the month of March I lost my dear mother who I loved very much.  Losing a parent has been, up to this point, one of if not my biggest nightmares.  As such the year suddenly seemed to come right back to neutral if not go completely negative for me.  In the months after that though friends and family gathered around me to help me through the toughest thing I’ve ever faced in my life and they helped me stay on track.  Also, my wife and I got a new golden retriever puppy named Maeby which didn’t hurt (so long as she wasn’t peeing inside).

Not coincidentally, the puppy was our 1st year anniversary gift to each other.  Again, things were looking somewhat positive … even if a bit of depression was lingering from my mother’s passing.  Of course what goes up must come down as I found out that a friend of mine lost his wife.  Again, I felt that negativity.  Life is short and sometimes it’s very painful for you and those around you.  It’s all we can do sometimes just to hold each other up.

Of course that was the beginning of the summer and I knew that better things (like the beach) were just on the horizon.  Since my mother passed I haven’t done too much work.  I hit a deadline for the book I’m writing, created Disco Pool, and also put out a little game called Kube Killer.  All in all it was really nice to live off the work I had done earlier in the year with Skyline Blade which has been my most successful game.  As I’ve written before, it’s not a crazy amount of money but it does pay the rent and when you don’t have to worry about that it helps … a lot.  I got to do a lot of swimming, sunning, and puppy watching which has been therapeutic.  I can now swim a kilometer (~0.6 of a mile) which is pretty cool considering that a month ago I could barely swim 50 meters or 1 lap in an Olympic size swimming pool.

Anyway, now that September’s here I’m back to work and I’m thinking ambitious again.  Over the summer I put something secret together but realized it was too ambitious.  I then proceeded to put that project on hold for a short while longer to pursue another project.  As it turns out I don’t do simple.  It just doesn’t happen, at least not well.  My new project which started out simple has now become a mini-epic.  It’s still not as ambitious as my secret project so that’s good but it’s going to take longer than the few weeks I had hoped to invest.

This brings me to what’s really been on my mind lately.  Is it wise to really invest myself in a game again? In 2002 and 2003 I created 2 large games which took about a year each to complete.  Aerial Antics is the game I’m probably still most well known for although my iPhone games have sold many more copies.  Ever since Aerial Antics flopped I cannot will myself to develop something with a lot of care.  That’s not to say I haven’t worked hard.  I have worked hard this past year and I really pushed myself on Full Contact Debate as well but I haven’t committed myself to a project like I did with Aerial Antics.  At least it doesn’t feel that way.  It’s very hard to fully commit yourself when every time you do your project flops.  Then it gets to the point where you start going for the quick and easy project instead of something you’re truly proud of.

I feel like I’m making myself sound really lazy here.  Anyone who knows me also knows this isn’t true.  The point is though, if you push yourself will anyone really notice or care?  Well, I think they well.  The iPhone games I’ve developed actually seem to sell in direct proportion to how much time and money I invested in them and of course money is really just tangible condensed time.  In the end I suppose I’m answering my own question.  If you make it they will come and they will notice that you worked your ass off.  However, if you waiver even for a split second people will identify the chinks in your armor.  Don’t waiver, be obsessive, create something you think is perfect and even if someone thinks they’ve found a weakness you’ll be able to deflect them because you’ll know in your own heart that you did absolutely all you can.

So here I am after years of time, a better coder, a better artist, with better tools ready to commit myself to a truly ambitious (yet not overly so like FCD) project once again.  Wish me luck!