m3mnoch

9 ms·

31.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
i keep seeing posts like this: "we made a quality game and it's not selling" "the app store is a disaster" "it's a lottery" no -- none of that is the problem. the issue is that all of the easy, low-h
32.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
sure, sure. remember the context is "not a lottery". first, blow up the top-grossing date range to "all time". if you look at the trending data for 2048, it's in freefall. they're down and off the bottom of th
33.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
hrm. i think you're right and that's a pretty good whack at it. they've got a pretty solid environment artist, so it looks nice. concept is interesting. great potential. sophomore-seeming execution. beyond that, the mix
34.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
fyi - i can't downvote. not enough karma or something. /shrug so, it's not me.
35.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
oh, and it just occurred to me that i might not be clear on describing the bridge that's joining the gaps you're talking about. the reason i bring up the promotion parts (ltv! k-factor! arppu!) is that i have stanford friends who
36.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
seems to me you're lumping everything into marketing. i can understand that from a scholarship perspective, of course. however, i would bet that if you told game designers (product development) they were marketing schleps and not part
37.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
heh. if only i had the power to downvote. even then, i wouldn't downvote folks who simply disagree with me. i love to argue with them too much!
38.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
again, you're conflating "marketing" with "coverage for hitting the lottery". from this article: http://www.haaretz.com/business/start-up-of-the-week/1.59991... They decided to release
39.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
so, you're going to tell us that "yo" isn't the very definition of hitting the app lottery? edit: and i believe you're conflating "marketing" with "coverage for hitting the lottery".
40.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
yes -- hexiled is a great example of a quality game done right with very little (need for) marketing. i'm cheering for you! go, man, go!
41.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
indeed. you're totally correct on naming. that's been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. and, i would love for someone to bring out the counter example -- we've got lots of examples of poorly done games with and without m
42.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
yessir. i am in the game industry. and, i'd love to share my numbers, but we've since been snapped up by disney and i bet they'd frown on my giving out the secret sauce they've paid for. edit: oh, and for the 10,000 h
43.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
marketing failures? how would you differentiate them with marketing? "yet another color bubble popper!" "yet another side-scrolling shooter where you kill the undead!" "yet another match three with fruit!" i
44.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
> So how do you differentiate? > Marketing. again, no. while i feel your pain and the cognotive dissonance associated with "it can't be that i don't make decent games! it has to be someone else's fault!" -- i
45.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
personally, i think this is a good call on his part. abstract planets are more "casual friendly" than magic in a dungeon. especially as a guy who's seen first-hand several neat games with sword and sorcery theming meet gris
46.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
like others have said, absolutely, thank you for writing this up. a few observations for my fellow hope-laden game developers. tl;dr: anyone can use today's tools to make crappy, me-too games. you need to make good games to succeed.
47.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
weird. i think he's gone. i guess we'll never find out what it does now.
48.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
ah! got it. thanks, man.
49.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
> This is the harsh reality for most independent game development teams, except for a few super-star-teams which are able to negotiate non-cut-throat contracts. The publisher pays production cost in advance, and recoups production + mark
50.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
i would guess it's the difference between "making revenue since day 1" and "profitable since day 1". it's hard to imagine that you recouped all of your time/money/expenses not to mention that going fo
51.
by m3mnoch 12y ago
i just finished listening to brandon sanderson's "words of radiance" as read to me by my digital personal assistant during my work commutes. in the ivona amy voice, of course as she's pretty good with crazy names like &
52.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
i was coming here to make this exact remark along with suggesting more of a coverage map approach. meaning, "1 mile radius" seems pretty arbitrary, so why not just grab a square mile of real estate based on lat/long? you cou
53.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
except flappy bird retained users which led to more ad impressions. i guarantee you the retention for 2048 is crap.
54.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
three quick thoughts here. 1) you're bang-on-correct. 2) that why i only read industry analysis from folk who are making money for a living doing it. not a guy who hasn't shipped a game. not a guy who's only tinkered with s
55.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
in a word? retention. of the magical kpi beast, that's the single, most important metric. this is something i cut my teeth on hard as an mmo guy -- you wouldn't believe the amazing realtime monitoring of these numbers going on b
56.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
yup. making no money. and, as the threes guys point out, with no longevity. it won't be at the top of the heap for long. then, unlike threes, it will crash out the bottom instead of hanging around. so, again. meh.
57.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
technically speaking? as a fellow dev with feet traditionally in both worlds (indie and startup), i can heartily say "meh" about both the rant and its the whole "ripoff" thing. you are absolutely correct about the indie
58.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
oh. sorry. just saw this comment. and, no. i don't use sat nav for my morning commute. i've written a few applications enabling my phone to read books, news and other bits of information to me as i drive into the office.
59.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
blink blink um. have you used java?
60.
by m3mnoch 13y ago
indeed. +1 for plainTasks. i've been using it for a month now. it's like freeform task tracking with syntax highlighting, magic dates, and automatic formatting. it's exactly what i've been looking for for years now.

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