My girlfriend got a present from her latest online-flower purchase… I don’t know the technical name but is one of those instrument to measure temperature, weather, humidity, etc.
Well look at this picture… I’m a bit scared, 71% humidity inside my room?! now I understand why I have sometime bones-pain …!!
I need to fix that stove as soon as possible…
Sometime you think a game or an update would be very fast to make and instead takes you twice the time… on the other hand, sometime what you think will take lot of time, gets done much faster. This happened with my latest Magic Stones update, that you can download right now here:
http://www.didone.com/games/MagicStonesTrial.exe (Pc)
http://www.didone.com/games/MagicStonesTrial.zip (Mac)
as always if you already have bought the game, just reinstall and it will keep your current druid progresses. New quest added and 2 new avatars. Remember is a BETA, so there could be still bugs!
Yeah it seems that I’m close to finally have both leagues and cups (national cups only) working 100% on USM2. This is one of the biggest step forward the completion of the so-long-awaited version 1.0! 🙂
However, programming such games is really tiring ^_^ yeah, can work on it only a few hours a day (maybe I’m getting old?) and then have to do something else. So I thought, why not proceed with the new Magic Stones update?
Works well so far for me. In the morning, with fresh mind, I code. In the afternoon I do less brain-intensive stuff like graphic or updates (that require no excessive programming). In the evening… well I relax! is still summer and sun has come back out here at last ! 🙂
A recent interesting thread on indiegamer forums talks about the possibility to charge customers for extra content for niche games. An example that everyone can see is Oblivion data packs, like the (in)famous horse pack 😉
Lot of people complained about it, not willing to pay even only $5 for such a “little” update. On the other hands Bethesda replied that it was a huge success. Surely we’re talking about commercial games, I know no example of such business startegy in the casual/niche shareware market.
I thought about it just recently, when I decided to add a modular expansion to my game Magic Stones, the “Quest Mode”. Basically each quest added several new neutral enemy avatar and 2 new playable avatar from 2 new magic schools of Life and Spirit. The quest mode is very different from the rest of the game and I think is the most fun part of it.
So, when I added that, I had to decide if to ask a small amount for each pack, or just release them as a “free add-on” to encourage the potential buyer to make the big step and buy the game.
While I don’t actually have any statistical data to support my idea, I can say that giving away free content (and quality content, not just “extra levels” but valuable new game features) had a very pleasant impact both on customers comment and also on reviewers. Was not uncommon to read phrases like “considering that the game gets frequent updates, is really a bargain at this price”.
In any case, I don’t plan to do that very often for future games, because is very time-consuming (every update requires at least 1-2 weeks of work).
I experience a very fun thing in my job, being an indie devs and working from home independently. Don’t know if is common or not, maybe is just me, but I’m curious to see if someone else feels the same way.
What happens when I woke up, have breakfast and then sit on front of pc ready to work? usually that is the hardest part. That’s where all sort of temptations come out. Browse forums, blogs, game sites, talk with people, with pets even. Everything except starting.
But- what is more fun- ONCE I get started, once I get past those initial 15-20 minutes, I can work without problems for long time, even 4-5h if needed only with short 10-minutes breaks! this is really fun, because I know it: I know that once I start, I can go fast, still every time I try to delay the begining of work! 😀
That’s why is important in my opinion to either get your own office away from home (ideal solution) or try to isolate yourself the best you can, to avoid unwanted interruptions (music, tv, phone ringing, etc). And those days that really seems you can’t start working, well better take it completely off and relax doing something else. Sometime will work much better than “forcing” yourself to work!