The buzz of releasing a game

I know it was only a small game that took a total of maybe 16 hours develop. But I've got that buzz of releasing a game, then monitoring the number of downloads you get for it.

I'm up to 15 downloads and my blog stats have shot up to 19 views today.

They're only small numbers but they make me feel good. I'll put more work into the next game to polish it off better. I'm still thinking Missile Command right now.

I'm sure others will tell you too, but walking into a shop and seeing your game on the shelf feels pretty damn good too (even if it is in the budget section!)

Yes, that feels good. but also, walking every day waiting to see it arrive and finding it not arriving is also pretty gutting. (I was never told it got cancelled officially, well, not for about 4 months after "release".)

Anyway, didn't mean to drag the thread down. Nice work getting something finished :-)

I nearly had a game published a while back for retail release but I let myself down by not finishing the game. So now I walk in shops thinking what could have been.

Download stats are now 20 downloads and 29 blog views. Wonder what it'll get up to by midnight?

When I first uploaded some games / demo's I agree it's a buzz checking the old webstats every few days.

I still get and average of 100 downloads for each of my old games / demo's every month. Clearly it's no indication of how good ( or potentially worthy of purchase ) your stuff is but it's nice to know that there is interest in one form or another.

Stevie

Here's some download stats from last month:

8107 Scrabble.zip
296 Tempest.zip
268 MsBlitzMan.zip
195 blitzatron.zip
61 AFM.zip
55 othello.zip

Scrabble - old game done in Blitz2D, no sound, clunky interface - still gets over 8000 downloads a month!

I've finished 13 games now since 2001. 10 have been in the shops, one is on Reflexive, one I sold the IP to for £200 (which is OK cos I wrote it in 6 days), the other has been sat on my hard drive for 4 years.

Hole In One is arguably the best known but I don't know how well it sold. Double Top was shifting over 400 units a week when it was released. Wish I'd been on royalties. :/

I can't honestly say as releasing, watching downloads, selling, viewing in shops or any of that has ever been a buzz for me. For me, the buzz comes in the act of creating. Once it's finished, the buzz is completely gone for me. From that point, I'm all about where the next buzz is coming from, which is the next game.

Hmm.. I guess I'll have to write a sequel one day, and then the next game will be related to the existing one. Might be interesting.

I'd like to finish a game one day. Just imagine shifting 200 million units at £20.00 each and keeping all the money - does that equate to £4 billion?

I think this is a given for most too.

but you'd have to pay royalties on all your media cause its not all yours:)

For me, finishing was the main buzz because it made up for previous failures. It wasn't important to me how many people were actually playing it.

puki, yuo are not aiming high enough man.

Well, I was only thinking of UK sales.

Hmm, sequels. I guess sequels are a way to put in all the features you had to abandon from the original game. Kind of like how Microsoft do windows. They probably planned Vista in 1985 but had to release 10 versions of it named with different windows names until they finally realised their dream. Kind of like designing Virtua Fighter 5 but only have a AM1 motherboard, so you release your alpha build, call it virtua fighter 1 then keep releasing what you have every year or so until you get the final product that is virtua fighter 5.

Most sequels get writtne because of feature creep on the original I think, but it's good because you have the original source to work from, so you can vastly improve the original game without devoting as much time. Xilvian knows what I mean. ;-)

That would mean every one in the UK would have to buy approximately 3 1/3 copies each. Now I think you're aiming high enough.

Andy_mc - nice game btw. Downloaded and played it last night.

nah thats only counting the people in the uk we _KNOW_ about :p

Yeah I used to get butterflies posting in the showcase, and then keep checking my stats every half hour or something haha. I definitely get a Buzz from checking sales stats. Reflexive is the best as they have live reporting (all the others you have to wait for your monthly royalty report). Of course you can have live reporting if you sell on your own site too.

I also get a buzz from starting a new game too. So it's ALL buzz :-)

when i get a buzz programming i know i need a new keyboard cos this ones short circited :p

I was in Staples the other day, and watched someone pick up and buy both Snooker and Pool. Even though I don't get anything out of the sale, it still gave me a buzz :)

The only game of mine anybody has ever played out of pure enjoyment is Slippery Slope (programmed in maybe an hour, the lowest of all my games), yet when all the others came out, posted neatly on my website, I felt equally proud.

My favorite thing is watching people play Slippery Slope and seeing their reactions, especially cursing out the rectangle.

Didn't realise they were still on sale.

Saw somebody buying Hole in One in GAME shortly after its release some years ago. So, know the feeling. :)