Update on everything

Ok so what's new?
Well I've still been working on Starship Tycoon 2. It's making slow progress because I'm not really in the 'zone' in terms of coding it right now. Bits of it *do* look very nice, but theres bits I'm just not sure about. Slower progress than I would like.

Kudos is in its 3rd week in the Yahoo top ten, which is great news. My own direct sales are also doing well, a combination of some advertising, some spillover from yahoo, plus some democracy sales due to upcoming US mid terms.

I've been speaking to a whole range of different people about Kudos and it's future, in terms of portal deals, sequels etc etc. I'm pretty keen to do a sequel to the game, or at the very least, a much expanded version of the current one. I'm thinking about different approaches I could take with a kudos-styled game, and trying to figure out what's best to do next.

I was asked about selling the IP to one of my games, but the discussion ended very quickly when I was asked to put a figure on how much it's worth (and replied). I think that the online publishers are so used to getting their own way, they aren't ready for someone to just say "no". I was doing fairly well even without *any* portal sales. That means I'll do portal deals that I like the sound of. I'm very very happy to say no, when I don't like the terms. If only all developers worked that way.
Even the biggest, hippest, high-traffic portal, is just a blank page of html unless it has new games on it :D

Gamasutra

OOh look IT'S ME

KLINGON PUMPKIN

If your bored with making a standard halloween face in a pumpkin each year, why not try this:

THE KLINGON PUMPKIN

It's amazing what you will do to get out of bug fixing sometimes.

The bow of my dreams

maybe....

http://www.hoyt.com/products/tiburon.tpl

I'm not even sure how much they are. Lots I expect.

It's a hit game...do a sequel....

Hmmm. So Kudos appears to be pretty damned popular in portal land. This is of course a *good thing*. it means I'll be having a bumper month for earnings, and it means I can celebrate my upcoming 1 year trotally-indie anniversary in style. It also means I can consider forgetting about my 'trainer bow' and buying a serious motherfucking aluminium/some other metal recurve bow with proper sights and stabilisers and so on. (tried one today. woohoo, they r0xx0r).

However it does give me a tiny dilemma...

I'm in the middle of doing Starship Tycoon 2. Its a great game, I have some cool ideas for it, I have paid good money to good artists and bought sounds for it, I've coded tons of GUI for it, I'm maybe half or a third way through doing it.

But should I do a sequel to kudos? I'd like to do that too.
Plus people keep pesteirng me to do a sequel to Democracy. I'd love to do that as well.
But heres all this work for starship tycoon 2, it would be silly to abandon it now. Especially as ST1 sold well in retail...
Decisions...Decisions...

Editing Tools & the Sims effect

Still working away on Starship Tycoon 2, in-between other stuff, like patches for Kudos, and checking on it's progress at Yahoo. (looks like it's doing well).
I've actually started doing some primitive level editing tools for ST2, this is way earlier than normal for me, as I always end up worrying about this at the end, when I'm bored with it all, and always do a half-assed effort. Heres a brief screenshot:

I also did a brief email interview, which was cool, and bought PC Zone, because they reviewed Kudos. They slagged it off, which was 100% predictable. It's not the kind of game they like. Like most games magazines, and hardcore gamers, they have a dislike of anything in the general genre of the 'sims'. This amuses me, as they have the UK charts in the mag:


1 The Sims 2
2 The Sims 2 (open for business)
7 The Sims 2 (nightlife)
11 the Sims 2 (University)
18 The complete collection of the Sims


Clearly a pretty popular game. So you would think this would be reflected? but under the mini review of sims 2 university it says: (a haiku)

Boolocky Pissy Arse
Shitty Shitty mango tree
Stop buying Sims soon

Wow. It must suck as a games journalist when so many many people like a game style you don't think is l33t. The sims sells because its a great game. nobody puts a gun to these peoples heads.
ho hum.

YAHOO

Kudos went on sale on yahoo games last night. No idea whether it will be a hit or a miss there. It might be just too complex for the yahoo games audience, or it may resonate really well.
It's an interesting experiment anyway. Its weird to know people are downloading and maybe even buying my game and I have no real-time statistics to look at. I much prefer the immediacy of direct sales.
Plus today got a check from RegNow. I don't use them much, so its just a few sales through legacy links here and there. Paying in a dollar cheque costs me £7.50 so its a pain really.
Still working on Starship Tycoon 2. Lots to do... must stay focused...

Starship Tycoon 2 Early Screenshots

Small ones for now... made some really good progress today. Concluded that limiting each map to a single stellar ssytem, with orbiting planets, was better than the old method. Got laoding of cargo working too.
Now time to spend the rest of the day doing business paperwork, and support for older games.

Starship Crew Renders

Just playing around trying to get some crew portraits for starship tycoon 2. Heres the first three:





I think they look ok. Still dithering about my nebulas, and arranging artists for the other stuff.