Dig up Dntel's Life is Full of Possibilities. Great record to rediscover.

things like that have existed for years actually. you have to realize that a side effect of something being private is that it's not generally known about and isn't available to just anyone, and become invite-only, so new indie developers often don't hear about them

And exactly the boat I am in. I have been working for a little bit, but am only just now really trying to make my ratio better than 99% work 1% marketing. Its totally necessary if I want to actually keep doing what I am doing.

I think it's also important to take marketing (not "advertising") into consideration before even starting to develop the game; not many people seem to be doing that unfortunately.

This is more apparent in my mind now than ever. We tried to lay out a few ideas as we began production of the game we just wrapped. And having just finished something and moving onto pre-production for the next thing I am making it even more of a priority.

Having as many angles as possible to attack, marketing wise, is important.

Think of is this way. The minimum would be 'game'. One. So you try to contact a bunch of game journalists. But if you also have interesting art and music you add 2 extra directions to market in. Three.

Also this whole self promotion situation in general makes me wonder about the resources available to indies. And I am going to take a random shot in the dark with an idea - maybes its been done or maybe its bad or maybe it could be something.


What if there is a private hub that existed online. A place sort of like a forum / wiki / database that collected all the best resources for marketing and press. The reason why it would be private is to avoid spamming out information and making sure the right people had access.

It could be invite only, or reviewed registration. And not for the sake of elitism, but quality control and respect of privacy.

I personally am really wishing something like this existed for us right now, to the point where founding it sounds ideal. And I would be happy to share whatever resources I have collected, but doing so out in the open is kind of rude to the contacts - albeit they were all dug up through public means.

What does everyone else think?

The iPhone / iPod Touch versions are wrapping up today and should be submitted soon.

Then its on to the desktop versions and a demo to send to Steam! 

Hmm,

How much do you think you need all together. And what type of abilities do you possess. That may be good for a trade.

Just letting everyone know that I made an official announcement thread: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=23436.0

So most of the updates will be appearing there from now on.

I bought this and played it the first day of release. These are the type of games I anticipate the most. Its almost enough to make me get it again for Mac.

It was a bit shorter than I expected, and maybe people find fault with the ending - but the atmosphere alone is worth it. I really enjoyed stepping into the Limbo world.

[Trailer:]

It's time for the official announcement post!

Desi Leaves Town has been completed, submitted, approval stamped and released into the wild as an iPad app. I have been working on this project for just over a year and am so happy to see it completed. I had a devlog here during the course of production if anyone wants to see the stages: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=17035.0

And thanks to everyone who commented and was supportive along the way. And a big thanks to TIGSource itself. We found a programmer and composer for this game here!

Now I will stick the trailer and promo jargon under a dashed line! Thanks for reading!

---------------



Trailer:



Official Website: http://www.desileavestown.com

App Store Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desi-leaves-town/id490316780?ls=1&mt=8

Summary:
Desi Leaves Town is a delightfully bizarre adventure starring an eclectic cast of characters in intriguing locations ranging from the streets of Paris to the dentist office from Hell.

Dissatisfied with the vulgarity of life, Desi retires from the city to a secluded villa to explore and relish in his eccentric taste for luxury. However, in this isolated state, he often suffers from endless boredom to the point of life threatening illness.

Join in this hilarious quest for decadence and everlasting comfort.

Watch this eccentric frog’s humorous tale unfold through beautifully animated segments and solve the ridiculous puzzles that get in his way.

This is a vibrant and rare game that you wont want to miss!

Starring Riley Martin, Karah Preiss, Sean Donnola, Jordan Silver, David Shabtai, Geordon Nicol, Scott Meriam, Sophia Lamar, Lauren Kondor, Aron Kelly, Amanda Doman, Drew Lustman, Ilirjana Alushaj, Karen Haglof, Niko Liakaris and Michael Meyer. With music by Cornelis Jordaan and FaltyDL.

Written by Nicholas Kratochvil. Adapted from the novel Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans. With artwork by Jakob Haglof and programming by Hisaoki Nishida.

i'll echo the praise of others: the trailer really sells this for me! congratulations on finishing, i wish there were more ipad games like this.

Thanks! I definitely have more bonkers game ideas planned for 2012, including Desi Leaves Town 2.   

Oh and it was just approved minutes ago by apple!!!!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desi-leaves-town/id490316780?ls=1&mt=8

Damn, this looks great. I just started out the flash demo and the presentation is fantastic.

Holy dang that was amazing. I'd spread it around, though the video is unlisted or something?

I was worried about the gameplay and except for the sliding puzzle it looks very solid.

Great work!

Thanks!

Its only unlisted for the moment. I kept it unlisted in case anyone I sent it to right now thought it was awful. But the feedback has been all been positive so I guess I should make it public.

Hello again!

I worked on a trailer over the past day and wanted to post it here before making it completely public.

Here is the direct link:



I am pretty happy with it and its an amazing feeling to see a whole year of your work come together in something like this.

We finished the iPad version of the game!

Yesterday we submitted it to the App Store. After it is through the review process we will know the release date.

For now we are working on stuff like the trailer and website getting ready for promo.

Do any of you here have iPads and want to try out the game early?

Its nearly that time!

Off topic: Here is the music video that delayed my work on Desi a little bit:
http://pitchfork.com/tv/musicvideos/1641-my-light-my-love/


On topic: I posted a set to Flickr of the title cards used for the different chapters in the game: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakobhaglof/sets/72157628243014989/

Oh lawdy, I love the guy with the huge noes :D. I also like that he slipped on some hot pink lu lu lemons to go with his blazer. That guy has style. 

The most stylish servant of all time! 

moi: totally the vibe I was going for. 

Just wanted everyone to know we got the mastered soundtrack from Cornelis this week and it sounds amazing! His work is brilliant.

Also progress got a tiny bit slow for me in the beginning of November because I was working on a music video. I turned that in last week and got right back to Desi full time. Now things are beginning to wrap up very quickly.



We are hoping to finish up by early December and submit the iPad version to the App Store. After that we will release the additional versions every few weeks as they are completed. We still have the iPhone, Mac and PC desktop versions planned.

Speaking of platforms do any people here develop for Android?

Speaking of Fez I used one of the songs from the soundtrack in my latest mix.

http://www.mixcloud.com/celerymoon/good-morning-stardust-18/

The Disasterpeace stuff is great!

Even with the limited amount to go on I am very interested. Could turn out to be very cool.

Thanks!

We still have to do our mastering session for the vocals.

I have not done an update in a while, but we definitely have been busy. We have a lot of the puzzles finished, and the bulk of the animated story. It seems like we are done to the last few weeks.

The downside though is that its hard to choose what shots of the puzzles to post. I kind of want to hold back on those until people can actually play them.

For now here are some screenshots of the servant and Desi's doctor: