Productivity at all time low...

I think there's several things getting to me about progress right now.

Firstly, most of the clickbeat stuff I'm working on requires a decent MySQL server to run from. currently I'm on a "load balanced" site. This is not good - it's far too slow to support more than 1 user (and it struggles with just one user!)

Secondly, to get a dedicated server will cost a fair bit of cash per month and I'm not *quite* ready to spend it yet (just moved house etc, etc...)

Thirdly we've been told at the blitz forums that an official 3D module is nothing more than a hope...it's very unlikely. The main man (mr sibly) has decided that he wants to make game creation more accessable...sounds very much like click and play to me. In my opinion it is not the way to go - it actually detracts credability from the language. So I'm even thinking about using...XNA...omg! But that depresses me too :P

So most of my focus has been on my other project which has seen a lot more activity of late at www.chibitamakuchi.com

I am expecting to get a new server in the next couple of months and then no doubt things will move on, but for now I'm in limbo :(

Sorry to complain about it, but I just don't feel good about the game creation stuff right now...

Progress again

Its always good to make progress.

This weekend I managed to get the secure password functions into clickbeat so user's passwords are protected as they're whizzing about the net. I also wrote some ground work for the user detail download. Its all very fast so we should have no problems with up to (I estimate) about 1000 users at the same time. Any more and we'll have to move to a dedicated server but unless we get HalfLife2 level attention I dont think we'll worry about it ;)

Im moving house personally soon so things might slow down in about a week, Im hoping to get a beta of all this out before then though - lets just wait and see :)

Clickbeat for all!

Wow, clickbeat has taken off very well over the last few months, and we've made some significant improvements on it over that time also. There always seems like there is more to do, but its definitly going to be worth it in the end.

One thing that has always worried me about the game is the lastability - since once you've played a script a few times, the need to play it probably isnt there much afterwards. We've always wanted to give more incentive to play the scripts more and more, and our idea was always online high scores so people can play against each other (sort of)!

However this introduces a whole bundle of issues - if you're going to have online high scores, you need online accounts, and security and all the rest. Luckily this is what Ive been working on the last few days and its going pretty well - hopefully all nice and secure too! It should give people the opportunity to show off and discuss the game more, and hopefully lead to more scripts being made and played.

We're also looking at advertising and distribution possibilities. We really dont want to sell the game and have no plans to do so (unless bandwidth goes nuts), therefore we're looking at getting a decent advertising deal. These are not going to be displayed while script are running (obviously) but will probably feature in the highscore tables, both in game and on the site.

We're probably going to get some beta testers in while we get this sorted, and Im sure in game ads will not be the easiest thing to implement!

ThePhorse

We officialy released Clickbeat the other day to the whole wide world.

Wow - not a bad response at all. We've had over 5000 downloads in a week. Thats not bad for an unkown game like ours!

I think we have the press release we created to thank for that! Although we were spurred on by a review at a big indie game review site which gave us the original burst of downloads!

Now we're thinking of ways to improve the game so we get people comming back all the time! Ive finished all my gaming for a while so I should have some time now, if I can get motivated :S But Im really glad that one of our games is popular at least, at the worst its "brand awareness" which I believe is quite important in the IndieGame world since you get a lot of repeat customers.

Wow, its been a long time!

I must be the laziest Indie game dev in the world!

So what have I been working on lately?

No much! Ive been working hard at winning FF8 though!

Seriously, Ive been very lax lately, its mostly to do with my lack of time - and Ive also been working on a project for someone else - which I need to get finished asap! (Im a bit too late with that!)

I have managed to put a small demo of a game im planning to do next year together though. I really want to do something on a larger scale than last time - I mean, clickbeat and pushy are great and everything, but they're not very "involving" and thats the sort of game I want to be creating.

Its a remake of a game i *almost* finished last year but stumbled at the last couple of hurdles. This time however its going to work, I plan to get some artists to do some proper art for it and Im going to sell it at an amazingly cheap price for what it is - mainly becuase i want people to play it!

The worst part of not selling games isnt the money - its really not been a great expense for me - its the fact that not so many people are playing the games...

Which reminds me! Ive got to get pushy sorted out! I only found out recently that the download no longer works! Dont worry everyone, it'll be sorted sometime soon!

Pushy will also be back before the end of the year at a cheaper price and with slightly updated gfx/music!

Progress!

Ok, so im pretty satisfied with my clickbeat script.

Its not graphically amazing, but it shows what clickbeat is capable of at least. Ive just got to finish off the actual interactive part of the game and then i can start thinking about basic marketing for it.

Since this is all stuff i can do in my lunchtime now though Ive been considering what to do next game wise.

I toyed about with a "match-3" idea which a friend of mine pointed out had been done before. This was a set back for a couple of days, but it didnt take me long to get back to my positive outlook.

Ive decided to totally outsource the artwork for my next project, since I am all too aware of the lack of my artistic abilities. People are even being quite brutally honest about it -which i have to admit is difficult to swallow sometimes! - however Ive tried to take it in my stride!

ThePhorse as a team is possibly going to be working on a space strategy game over the next few months. Its actually a project we've planned for many years and we now think we're at a stage to actually be able to do something about it...

Personally (since I dont have to concern myself with design nor artwork on that particullar project) am going to work on a space-action game instead. Ive already started buying media for it and am going to rope in steve to do gui work since he's turned out so good at it :P

I bought some space craft sprites from www.gamebeep.com - very good quality I highly reccomend them!

Selling Out?

Blimey, I really am not a sell out, I swear!

However in the upcomming weeks you'll think I may be. Im going to start looking into affiliate programs and such to bring in a little more income for the site, which itself needs a redesign.

Im also going to look into more advertising solutions (nothing too obtrusive, i dont like flashy stuff!).

Basically it would be nice to get the site to pay for itself. I'm not aiming to make hundreds of dollars a month profit, just a few dollars to pay for the bandwidth (its almost time to pay again!)

Anyways, just dont hate me...'kay?