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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsMASOCHISIA | The Long-Tail (Fall, Christmas & Lunar Sale Stats)
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Author Topic: MASOCHISIA | The Long-Tail (Fall, Christmas & Lunar Sale Stats)  (Read 70631 times)
doobieshrum
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« Reply #300 on: August 11, 2015, 01:03:20 PM »

Gave you a vote on Steam man. Thanks for the comment on my Devlog. The effort that has gone into this so far is amazing and definitely deserves a spot on Greenlight. Hope you get it buddy.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2015, 01:08:33 PM by doobieshrum » Logged

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oldblood
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« Reply #301 on: August 13, 2015, 07:37:54 AM »

DEVLOG 69.

So Masochisia was greenlit about 5 minutes ago. I haven't even gotten the confirmation email yet but happened hit F5 (you do that a lot with greenlight) on the page I had opened earlier this AM and there it was... Happened to get the greenlight in a small batch that included a few other TIG games like Tower 57 & Territory.

So, as a whole... Greenlight has changed a lot over the past few years. A lot. Views were much, much, much lower than I anticipated. Here are some interesting facts on the Masochisia greenlight:

      ● 11 Days on Greenlight. No press coverage.
      ● Masochisia was 82% of the way to the Top 100 when it was Greenlit
      ● Has less than 1k "Yes" votes (958)
      ● Had just 2,651 total views (2 years ago that was Day 1 views)
      ● 47% Yes. 47% No. 6% Ask Me Again Later.
      ● Valve appears to be greenlighting around 10 games every Thursday

The 6% "ask later" was very high for most Greenlight games. Clearly viewers were torn on their reaction to the game. The average Top 50 Greenlight project currently has over 4,000 "yes" votes vs >1,000 for Masochisia so clearly the number of Yes votes aren't as big a factor as people believe...

...My reaction is that there is still a very human element from Valve. I think the Yes/No %'s are likely more important to valve than the number of votes and they clearly still review projects well outside of the Top 100 when making Greenlight decisions...

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Fenrir
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« Reply #302 on: August 13, 2015, 07:56:30 AM »

Thanks for the stats and congrats! Smiley
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nnyei
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« Reply #303 on: August 13, 2015, 08:40:53 AM »

Hand Shake Left Grin Hand Shake Right Congrats!
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b∀ kkusa
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« Reply #304 on: August 13, 2015, 02:19:06 PM »

Congrats !

DEVLOG 69.
      ● Valve appears to be greenlighting around 10 games every Thursday

actually the greenlight section is ordered by greenlight publish time. so there is a lot of game that get greenlight and put on page 2 , 3 etc... Mostly low quality games that got greenlighted after a long stay and i suspect valve to be hiding the visibility.
there is way more than 10 games every Thursday.
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Franklin's Ghost
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« Reply #305 on: August 14, 2015, 06:30:08 AM »

Congratulations on the greenlight Smiley

Just had my first chance to check out the trailer and thought it was really well done and nicely polished. Haven't tried the game yet cause I want to try the full release with all the surprises.
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Greipur
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« Reply #306 on: August 14, 2015, 08:28:04 AM »

Congratulations! I'm surprised how few votes you needed, but as you say there's probably a human factor involved.
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oldblood
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« Reply #307 on: August 17, 2015, 05:04:47 AM »

Thanks everyone. I was definitely surprised how few votes were needed (and being outside the top 100) but glad the Greenlight is over so I can stop being distracted...

DEVLOG 70.

With the Greenlight over, I was able to shift my focus back to where it should be-- finishing the game. Over the weekend, I was able to complete the "rough-draft" on Act 6 into the FSM, finish up the first pass of dialogue and have a playable Act 6. With that complete, at some level-- the game is technically able to be played from start to finish.

...Which is kind of a major milestone.

But at the same time, there is a ton of work that still needs to be completed. For the most part, I've stayed on the schedule I gave myself back in May (technically, I'm 1 full week behind schedule) but overall-- in good shape schedule wise. The game needs a lot of spit & polish and a LOT of testing.

The Finite-State Machine is Complete (maybe)

As you might imagine when looking at this machine, there is a lot of events that could go wrong. If any one of the events breaks either the game can be stuck in a loop or the player could be reverted back to a previous point in the progress of the game without realizing it.

In example: Player talks to Character X in act 2. But if that conversation accidentally it still available in the start of act 3 and you speak to them, the progression is reset back to where you were in act 2 when you spoke to Character X.

My plan for this upcoming week is to focus solely on play-testing the entire game and attempting to fix as many loose or broken ends as I can locate. I'd like to have all this clean-up done prior to shifting my focus to the Beta II. In short-- this next week is not going to be very fun...

Conversations in Old Warehouses never turn out good...

Once I get a better handle on cleaning up the game this week, I will look to spend next week focusing on getting the game integrated into Steamworks and wrapping up any open QA items from this week. Integrating the game into Steamworks will be important because...

...I want the Beta II to be done via Steam.

That means I will be sending out Steam Keys to beta testers instead of build links and downloads which is really helpful for me and allows me to roll out changes to the Beta II via Steam in the event we discover a game-breaker in the game without needing to download a whole new build.

My target for launching the Beta II will be around the end of August (08/29 - 08/31). If you're interested in participating in the Beta II, let me know via email or drop a comment here.
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Greipur
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« Reply #308 on: August 17, 2015, 05:43:42 AM »

I would like to participate, though I won't be able to deliver feedback until the beginning of September.
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oldblood
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« Reply #309 on: August 17, 2015, 05:49:52 AM »

I would like to participate, though I won't be able to deliver feedback until the beginning of September.

That's fine. Will add you to the list. If the beta II does go live by the end of August, I will definitely be looking for probably at least 2 weeks to gather feedback from testers to insure everyone has plenty of time to test (or retest) and submit feedback. Course, you don't have to wait the full 2 weeks to send feedback...
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Greipur
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« Reply #310 on: August 17, 2015, 06:34:37 AM »

I would like to participate, though I won't be able to deliver feedback until the beginning of September.

That's fine. Will add you to the list. If the beta II does go live by the end of August, I will definitely be looking for probably at least 2 weeks to gather feedback from testers to insure everyone has plenty of time to test (or retest) and submit feedback. Course, you don't have to wait the full 2 weeks to send feedback...

Nice, then I'll be able to send you feedback in time.
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nnyei
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« Reply #311 on: August 17, 2015, 03:26:30 PM »

I think I'll be pretty busy during the first few weeks of September, but I'd still like to beta test.
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Armageddon
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« Reply #312 on: August 17, 2015, 04:25:33 PM »

The Finite-State Machine is Complete (maybe)
Why would you do this to yourself? Crazy
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oldblood
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« Reply #313 on: August 17, 2015, 04:40:13 PM »

I think I'll be pretty busy during the first few weeks of September, but I'd still like to beta test.

Awesome. Will keep you on the list! Will likely just reach out to anyone whose already tested in case they're interested in further testing...

Why would you do this to yourself? Crazy

...I'm making a game called "Masochisia". Shouldn't it be self-explanatory?

In reality, the theory of it is quite good I think. But for future uses like this, I will need to get more creative. I'm not a great programmer so visual programming like this allows me to accomplish more than I would otherwise and faster. I'm definitely still "work in progress" with it...
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oldblood
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« Reply #314 on: August 21, 2015, 05:11:05 AM »

DEVLOG 71.

QA work continues. There isn't a ton to report on that spectrum. I literally have pages of notes scribbled into a pad by my desk and a large number of items I've added digitally to my Intranet for the game. I'm very driven by checking off items from lists... It oddly motivates me... If you're not documenting all the work you're doing and getting the satisfaction of checking off the items as they're completed... you really should give it a try...

***

I've had a few questions on the music license process so I figured I'd write a quick little devlog on the topic...

The music in-game for Masochisia is performed by my friend Jacob Wilkins. He has composed all of the tracks you find in the game but I wanted to do something more "risky" with the trailer so I decided to see if I could license a track from a band I've followed for years.

The track in the Masochisia trailer is called "This Night" by black lab. They're far from being a mainstream alternative rock band but have a fairly significant following as an independent rock band. I actually originally heard the band when I heard this exact song in a commercial for the TV show "The Shield" on FX. The song was also featured in other TV shows like "House, MD" and quite a few others. It's a dark, emotional song and works well with brooding subjects.

Link to full track for those interested:



Knowing that it has been licensed by major television and film studios, I didn't know what to expect when I looked up the bands contact information and reached out to them. And yes- that's all I did to look them up. Found their contact page on the internet.

They were very friendly and more than willing to talk about licensing the track. During the discussion the topic came up that the song has been licensed for fees in the $7,000-10,000 USD range. In perspective, I've funded Masochisia out of pocket for around $9,000 USD (in expenses). So clearly that wasn't going to work. They did express that they'd be willing to work with an indie to find a much better price point and we began talking of something closer to $1,000. This was still expensive and a huge risk, but with bartering on my part-- we ended up agreeing to license the track for $500 and including a slide in the trailer that would show the band name & song as a "featuring".

I think some people would be against the idea of a slide in the trailer, but I really wanted the song and I thought that viewers who saw the trailer would be very interested in knowing who the artist was as the track is clearly a huge part of the trailer so I was not opposed to the idea. I think the video editor I hired did a great job of working the title card into the trailer very seamlessly that feels unobtrusive and works with the overall feel of the trailer.

If you haven't watched the finished trailer yet, you can take a gander here:

THE TRAILER

The band loved the final trailer and agreed to share the trailer with their fans and across their social media pages once the game is released. So some free exposure to boot! In the end, while it was a risky investment and (to me at least) $500 was still a large expense, I do feel that long term it will be beneficial. I don't really see ANY indie games out there licensing music for trailers so I hope this helps the game stand-out more... Given the chance to do it all over again-- I certainly would.
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oahda
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« Reply #315 on: August 21, 2015, 05:52:45 AM »

I'm actually hoping for something similar in the far future, tho I'd ask for a custom song. I know just the band...

Nice to hear you got such a great deal compared to what they've licensed it for in the past.
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Greipur
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« Reply #316 on: August 21, 2015, 06:00:12 AM »

I was never putt off by the title card, thought that it was your artistical intention, so yeah, the editor did a good job. Interesting to read about your endeavours, I hope the licensing pays off in the long run.
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oldblood
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« Reply #317 on: August 26, 2015, 07:42:30 AM »

DEVLOG 72.

This will be a pretty unexciting devlog... You've been warned.

I continue to plod along testing builds and jotting down large amounts of notes on things that aren't working or aren't working as I'd expect... If you're not using a system to manage notes and give you the satisfaction of checking them off as you work-- I'd highly recommend it... The actual list is about 5x bigger than this but it's very satisfying to check off the items.

Warning: Spoilers below so feel free to skip past.

Spoilers and grammatical errors abound...

I'm hoping to have the BETA II up on Steam by the end of August, which is just a few days out. If you're interested in testing the game- let me know and I will be sure to send out some Steam Keys. If you participated in the Beta I, I will automatically be contacting you with a Steam Key but I'd like to expand my testers this time around to try and get more feedback from people who haven't experienced any part of the game yet...

Send me a PM or leave your email here and I will be sure to include you when the Beta II goes live. The Beta II will be all 6 acts of the game.

And a big "thank you" in advance to everyone who wants to help out and participate, it will be hugely beneficial for me...
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A Strange Bird
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« Reply #318 on: August 28, 2015, 04:15:10 PM »

I love making such lists! It's the best when you are down to the last one and you can finally tick it off  Grin
Great work, have been lurking/reading for a while and I can't wait until the final game! Insta purchase I'm sure  Smiley
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Osteel
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« Reply #319 on: August 28, 2015, 04:46:22 PM »

Wow that trailer was intense. The music was a perfect fit.
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