The Frugal Indie

Today I want to talk a bit about cost-cutting tips for indies.

One of the major advantages indie game developers have over traditional studios is our reduced overhead costs. When working at a studio, each employee costs more than their salary. This cost includes not only salary, bonus, and taxes, but also a portion of the total cost of the company's insurance, office space, security, and a range of support staff including HR, IT, reception, accounting, management, and many others. An oft-quoted figure is that employees cost roughly double their salary in "fully loaded cost", or FLC.

For indies, that overhead is much lower: often zero. My salary pays for my office (home rent), taxes, insurance, and support staff (I am my own accounting, HR, management, and desktop support). As a result, my work as an indie can be as low as half the cost of an equivalent amount of work at a studio.

Why is that important? That low FLC is part of the reason I became an indie. Operating cheaply means I can try game design ideas that I find interesting even if they are risky, since I need to earn less revenue to stay fully funded. That means I can stay afloat with fewer copies sold, lower price, longer development time, or any combination of the three. And the cheaper I operate, the more I can play with development timeline, game design risk, and pricing/distribution models.

Tips for Operating Cheaply

So what are some of these tips?

Before I get into the list, there's one thing I'd recommend doing first. A long time ago, I spoke about indie development and money. One of the most important things an indie can do is to understand their costs. If you don't know where your money is going, you can't plan effectively. In fact, it's arguably impossible to cut costs if you don't already know what you're spending. How else would you know whether a cost-cutting measure works, if you don't have a baseline against which to compare? Having a clear financial picture is an essential first step to cutting costs of operation.

Once those costs are understood, you can begin to examine where you're spending money each month. What costs are necessary, and which can be reduced or eliminated? Everyone will have different priorities and needs, so I can't prescribe a one-size-fits-all recommendation. However, I can share some of the tricks I've used, and perhaps inspire others to think of ways that fit their financial situation.

Okay. Without further adieu, the list of cost-cutting tricks:

• Reduce debt - If you have debt, aim to reduce it. Not all situations allow for this, but if you can, minimize or eliminate your debt. Interest on debt is a cost, and it's money you could be putting towards other things.
  
  There are exceptions, of course. One's mortgage is a huge debt, but is one of necessity for many. It'd also be impossible to reduce quickly. That's fine. It's the frivolous debt that should be viewed with prejudice. Things like credit card interest on designer sunglasses, or a vacation and bar tab in Cabo San Lucas. Those are luxury purchases, and the interest on their debt is part of their cost. If you're reading an article about cost-cutting for indies (and you are!), you probably can't afford this interest (nor the sunglasses and vacation themselves).
• Lower Your Rent/Mortgage - Only rent or buy what you need and can afford. You can save money on housing if you're willing to make some changes. Here are some ideas:
• The Boonies - You can often find some really great deals if you're willing to leave major urban centers. As indies, we have less of a need to be right in the action of a major city, since we can do most of our work from any place with a broadband connection. Living even a short distance away from a city can save hundreds of dollars per month in rent. It's not for everyone, particularly if you have a family with school or job needs, or lack transportation. However, giving up the downtown apartment is a surefire way to save some serious cash.
• Downsize Your Life - Smaller places are cheaper than bigger places, all other things being equal. That's not only true of rent, but also maintenance costs, such as heating, cleaning, furnishing, lighting, etc. Find ways to live in as small a space as you're comfortable doing. In our case, moving cross-country twice in as many years forced us to donate and/or sell a huge amount of crap we had accumulated over our lives. We probably removed almost half of our belongings in the process, allowing us to fit into smaller apartments, and to avoid renting costly self-storage facilities. (It also saved on moving transportation costs!)
• Cook More, Eat Out Less - For a while when I was employed, I ate lunch at restaurants every workday. With each meal costing between $6-15, that means I was spending almost $2500 per year on workday lunches alone. By making my own lunch, I was able to eat for about $3-5 per day. That's a savings of over $30 per week, adding up to over $1700 per year, just from home-cooking my lunches (assuming 235 workdays per year).
  
  Plus, cooking one's own food can often be healthier. This depends a lot on the person and the cuisine, but it's not hard to imagine how saving a trip to the doctor's office or ER saves you money.
• Transportation - Do you drive? Do you need to? Owning and operating a vehicle is a huge cost. Between the purchase of the vehicle, fuel, maintenance, parking, and insurance, vehicles represent a major outflow of money. Seriously consider how much vehicle you need, or even if you need one at all.
  
  Rochelle and I decided to sell one of our cars, and the savings has been tremendous. Since I work from home, we really only need one car anyway (we live 34km from her school). Hers was better on fuel, and cheaper to maintain and insure, so we sold mine. This has saved us several thousand dollars per year.
  
  If you're lucky enough to live near public transportation (we don't), consider using that instead. It's cheaper, plus, some places allow you to deduct public transit costs from your taxes. More savings!
• Haircuts - How much do you spend on haircuts each year? I've lived in a wide range of places, and I think the cheapest haircut I've paid for was $10, plus tip. That was a tiny shop in the subway tunnels under 8th Ave in Manhattan. Most salons will charge at least $15-20 plus tip for a men's cut.
  
  Want a cheaper cut? Do it yourself. I spent $30 on an electric razor with an assortment of guard lengths, and I just buzz-cut my hair every month. Haircuts are free now. Saves us $150-200 per year. Other alternatives? Don't cut your hair. Or go to a haircutting school and let the students practice on you.
• Shaving - Shaving cartridges can be pricey. At one time, a 10 cartridge refill was costing me $20. When I took a step back and thought about it, that was pretty ridiculous. Rochelle's dad gave me his old butterfly safety razor, and I now use double-edge razors: $3-5 for a pack of 10 razors. They last longer too.
• Change Your Shopping Behavior - Spend less time browsing in stores. Don't tempt yourself by looking at things you don't need. Just go in, get what you need, and leave. You can't be tempted to impulse buy something you don't know about. Which reminds me:
• Don't Impulse Buy - Don't buy anything you didn't already research and plan on buying. If you see something you need, great. Make note of it, go home, and start researching it. Compare it with competitors. Read reviews. Price it out at a few local stores and online. Sleep on it. Do you still need it after all that, or do you just want it? If it's a necessity, go to the store with the best value, armed with your research, and make an informed purchase. If it's not, put it on your wishlist for when you have money to waste on something.
• Grocery Pricing - Groceries are a monumental cost, often second only to rent/mortgage. It's easy to underestimate how much money one spends on food each month. Ever checked the weekly circulars grocery stores put out? If you're willing to visit two or more stores, or adjust your buying schedule to work with sales, you can save a ton of money on your grocery bill. We're talking 20-30% savings. Potentially hundreds of dollars per month, depending on how many mouths to feed. It's worth it.
• Beer - If you're like me, you enjoy a frosty beverage from time to time. Also if you're like me, you can enjoy it on the back porch, living room, or yard just as much as in a bar. Maybe more. So do so. On average, a bottle of beer in a bar is roughly 200-400% of the equivalent you take home from the store. Better yet, invite some indie friends over to drink and talk shop. Now your beer is both cheaper and enriching your business.
• Kill Your Phone - Technology has made reaching out to others phenomenally easy. Email, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and a host of other services make keeping in touch an easy and free prospect. Unfortunately, phone carriers are trying to hide that fact as much as possible, and charge you accordingly.
  
  Ditch them. As much as humanly possible, dissociate yourself from the racket that is voice carriers. We don't have a landline. For outgoing calls, we use Google Voice through our computers. Calls to anywhere in North America are free, at least in 2012. Compare that to $25+ per month for a local phone plan w/voice mail, plus per-minute fees to call long distance.
  
  Unfortunately, we cannot receive calls via Google Voice. So we invested in 2 prepaid cellphones. This way, we have a phone number people can reach, and we can coordinate with each other when Rochelle is in town and I'm at home. We bought text-friendly handsets for $60 apiece, and $100 worth of prepaid minutes on each (in our region, $100 prepaid refills have the longest expiration period: 12 months). Provided we don't overuse our minutes, that works out to $13.33 per month per phone the first year, and $8.33 per month per phone every year after. Still cheaper than a single local phone plan through Telus.
• No Cable TV - How much do you spend on cable TV each month? $30? $50? More? Assuming you have a TV package that costs, let's say, $40/month, that works out to almost $500 per year. Is it worth it? What percentage of the programming would you say you actually view?
  
  Try an experiment. Hook up your computer (you're an indie dev, you have a computer) to your TV. Or if you prefer, just use your computer normally. Try ignoring cable TV for a month, and instead rely on internet programming. I mean legit internet programming (pirated TV and torrents are a whole other discussion). You might be surprised at what you can find online, free, and legally.
• Most major networks have current full episodes online, free for you to watch. ABC, CTV, NBC, you name it.
• TED.com has a seemingly endless series of inspiring and interesting talks on a wide range of topics.
• Watch the Daily Show each weekday, as long as you're ok with a 24-hour delay. Even in Canada.
• YouTube now has full movies online. Free.
• Catch a course at MIT.
• And none of this even scratches the surface of paid subscription and on-demand services like Netflix and YouTube.
• So why are you paying the cable company for video content? Especially if a huge portion of it is commercials and crap programming? With the money you save in your first cable-free year, you could buy a dedicated computer for your TV setup, and have spent the year watching what you want, not what cable TV execs want you to watch.
• Recycle - Got a bottle depot near your town? We do, and we live in the mountains. It's 30 minutes away, but we drop bottles off there once a month on one of our weekly grocery runs. A month-worth of household recycled bottle deposits comes to about $5. All you have to do is keep them someplace, and when it comes time to drop them off, sort the bottles and cans. There's a reason you see folks raiding garbage bags on the sidewalks for bottles and cans.
• BBQ - As soon as it's above freezing in Canada, it's BBQ season. While that may sound crazy to our southern neighbors, it can also be a great way to save money. 15 minutes heating a small BBQ or hibachi is way cheaper than an equivalent 15 minutes heating a full oven. Especially an electric oven.

Is that all? Definitely not. One could save even more, from trimming vacation costs, to choosing the right banking plans. And none of this really explores the topic of business expenses (website hosting, incorporation fees, accounting fees, etc.)

Think of it this way: every single service you pay for has been carefully engineered to gouge as much money out of you as possible without turning your stomach in disgust. Teams of marketing and engineering experts have been trained on this problem for decades (centuries in some businesses). So every single thing you spend money on is worth at least a cursory examination on your part for an opportunity for cost-cutting somewhere. Some are low-hanging fruit (like those I list above), others are a tougher nut to crack.

Whatever the case, chances are, you have room to save money. And money saved means you can operate cheaper, which translates into more freedom for you to make what you want and do what you love.

Got some tips of your own? Feel free to add them in the comments! I'm always up for learning a new trick, and maybe it'll save readers some money, including me!

The Importance of Data

I was recently looking over the Steam game submission form. As mentioned last week, one of my goals is to get NEO Scavenger onto delivery services such as Steam, so I was curious what that entails.

While looking over the questions they ask, I came across two which previously gave me pause:

1. Current Sales Data on Released Platforms
2. Links to Reviews

The first time I saw these was well before NEO Scavenger was released (probably even before it was started). I remember seeing those fields and feeling discouraged. How would I get the reviews to convince Valve my game would be worth it? And wouldn't answers to these questions present a sort of Catch 22? Granted, they're not required fields, but Steam had a reputation as a hard service to get indie games onto, so not having such data seemed like a major weakness.

Looking at them now, however, I'm actually feeling fairly confident. Apart from the recent increase in indie games on Steam, soft-launching my first game has given me data I can point to. For one thing, my payment provider (FastSpring) compiles sales data since the launch of the game, and Google Analytics can tell me how many unique visitors I've had.

Using these stats, I can tell a prospective distributor that NEO Scavenger has a 2.4% conversion rate. That is, 2-3 visitors out of every 100 buy the game. I'm not sure how that stacks up against other games, but I've heard that ~2% is actually a respectable number in the e-commerce world.

Furthermore, my obsessive tracking of magazine reviews and forum threads about NEO Scavenger seems to have paid off as well. Since NEO Scavenger's soft launch, I've kept links to every article mentioning NEO Scavenger, as well as every forum thread I can find. I gathered these links from referrer info in Google Analytics, Google Alerts on both "NEO Scavenger" and "Blue Bottle Games," and my own obsessive Google searches for instances of "NEO Scavenger" each day.

By now, I have a long list of articles where people talk about the game, and I can easily link to and quote them should a distributor ask.

Overall, this appears to be yet another benefit of "soft launching" one's game. In addition to the benefits of early adopters testing and helping to refine the game, and an early boost in funding, I can also quote relevant data for potential distributors.

Could it have backfired? I bet so. Had I released NEO Scavenger earlier, it may have been so broken that early reviews were negative, potentially marring NEO Scavenger's reputation on the market for a long time. So it's definitely not a one-size-fits-all endorsement.

On the other hand, being an indie carries a certain amount of leniency. I probably was treated less harshly than if I were a giant publisher pre-releasing a buggy and unfinished game.

Is it critical to have this data before submitting a game? Not necessarily. As mentioned above, it's not required to get onto Steam, and launching early has it's own perils.

However, I think tracking stats and product coverage is a valuable tool, whether "soft launching" or not. For example, I also found that 8.7% of visitors become members of the Blue Bottle Games site. This is an interesting number, since that means a whole 6% of visitors become members, but don't buy the game. Judging by the forum posts, I don't think all of this is for the ability to post comments either. So why else would visitors become members?

Probably this is a byproduct of the clunky purchase flow on the site, which requires the user be a member to see ordering info for the game. If I were to change it such that pricing info was available to non-members, how would that affect numbers? Would the member conversion rate go down? Would the purchase conversion rate go up? My gut instinct is that a combination of the two above would happen. Although, it's possible that people may actually feel more inclined to buy the game after completing a membership.

It would be an interesting experiment to try. If nothing else, it should increase transparency, and I'm all for that. And back to the main point, this is an experiment I could hardly explore without this data on hand.

Whatever method one uses for distribution, I suggest gathering as much data as possible. The tools are out there, and often free (several are linked to above), so the only thing barring their use is effort on the indie's part. Don't be lazy!

How Soon is Now?

I'm in a weird place right now, in game development. I'm in a sort of between-world that exists before a game is gold, but after it's been released to the public. I'm reluctant to put a lot of effort into another round of publicity just yet, as I feel the addition of upcoming features will make a better first impression.

On the other hand, I've already done some PR, and attracted players to a much older, buggier, incomplete version of what there is now. And by all accounts, most people loved it. That may sound like a good thing, and in some ways it is. However, I think a lot of people are enchanted by the "potential" NEO Scavenger promises: NEO Scavenger is a suggestion of a game many people have been waiting for. If I'm not careful, putting a lid on NEO Scavenger may disappoint many folks.

I suppose this is an issue many developers deal with, especially those who offer games for pre-order. How did they decide which features were required vs. optional? How did they decide when to wrap-up version 1.0, sell it, and begin work on 2.0? I have a gut feeling as to what I'd expect to be in 1.0, so I guess that's a start. It's more than what's there now, but probably less than I've outlined in my feature voting page (unless there was a financial windfall).

Why am I thinking about this? I guess it's largely influenced by the ever-shrinking tail of sales. The initial spike has paid for a couple of months of living costs, which is good. However, that money hardly dents the year's worth of living costs I've spent so far, and none of that addresses future development costs. I'm not quite in emergency finance mode yet, but with sales at 1-3 copies per day, it won't be enough to sustain development for long.



In retrospect, this isn't the first time I've been here. This sounds a lot like where I was just before NEO Scavenger's "soft" launch. I was burning up savings each day, and was starting to get antsy about whether I'd be able to recoup my costs. NEO Scavenger itself was a fun little game, in need of a plot resolution and several bug fixes. I didn't technically decide to launch then, as much as prepare for being mentioned in a few articles. And it was that accidental publicity which led to greater awareness, and a funding "shot in the arm" for new features.

Fast-forward two months, and the game has made significant leaps in stability and usability, and even has a few new tricks to show off. The plot is still as unfinished as before, but that appears to be the next thing on my agenda. Is this it? Do I put together a satisfying plot resolution and start preparing for final launch? Or do I wait and see where finances are once the plot is in, and consider a few features after that?

I feel like there's a good game here, so it's possible that a final launch could sell pretty well, with the right exposure. If I could get onto services like Steam, Desura, or Good Old Games, it could really take off. Possibly enough to recoup my costs and start funding the next game. But how much more NEO Scavenger do I need to cross that threshold?

I don't have a good answer, this is more a "thinking out loud" style post: a journal entry. My gut tells me that NEO Scavenger could show best if at least the plot were resolved somehow, and I addressed the randomness of combat. Resolution increase and downloadable versions would be good bonuses, as would a sprinkling of content variety (more items and creatures).

Fortunately, it appears my players agree. Looking at the feature voting page, plot and higher resolution are the two most popular features, respectively. And even though combat is fifth, it is the single most often talked about issue that players have. There's at least one good explanation for this discrepancy, so I've been thinking about what that might mean. It's possible I may need to make an executive decision to resuscitate the neglected feature.

I'll need some time to let that sink in. The plot work will take a while, so at least I'll have some time to consider it. (Read: hide from reality.)

On Public Relations

About a year ago, I made a PR blunder. I've probably made many in my life, but this one sticks in my mind especially because it helped inform my present strategy for dealing with the public.

Invited to do a guest post at Tales of the Rampant Coyote, I decided I would write about my job at BioWare. As an indie just starting out, I had little else to offer besides some insight into my former life at BioWare. I tried to pick a few topics that seemed interesting, such as where games came from, and why big developers don't experiment with smaller games more often.

Unfortunately, I also decided to speak up on the love/hate relationship fans had with BioWare. This was shortly after DA2 launched, so the topic was current for me. I had seen some pretty nasty things said about my teammates and friends. Some of it was quite frustrating, since it accused many of them of malice and/or idiocy, which I knew wasn't the case.

It's a touchy subject to begin with, with many facets and where emotions run high. Any misstep can be miscontrued as an attack or dismissal. So when I tromped through the topic indelicately, some ire was raised. In particular, comments regarding the article elsewhere on the net were pretty scathing (some going so far as to call out my criminal incompetence as an artist on DA:O).

Fortunately, the article's own comments were largely constructive, apart from a few snarky comments. And in responding to these comments, I started developing what is now my PR policy.

The Blue Bottle Games PR Policy:

1. Keep my commentary constructive. Refrain from making snarky or sarcastic remarks.
2. Ignore personal attacks and rhetoric.
3. Respond to legitimate feedback, criticism, and inquiry as quickly and earnestly as possible.

Each of these serves an important purpose, so I'll talk briefly about them in turn.

Keep it Constructive

The first is probably the most important. As a business, everyone is a potential customer, and you treat your customers with respect. Acting like a jerk is bad for business. It doesn't matter who you're being a jerk to, or why. In the best case, people see you being a jerk and take their business elsewhere. In the worst cases, they take their business elsewhere, but not before jumping into the fray and/or spreading the word that you're a jerk.

Conversely, respect begets respect. Treat everyone with respect, and do your best to help. That person will be more loyal as a result, and may even spread the word. And better yet, when your customers see you being respectful, they're more inclined to follow your lead and be respectful to other customers.

Ignore Attacks

In some cases, people are going to be jerks to you no matter what. They're spoiling for a fight, or just believe so much that you are a jerk and/or an idiot, that they have nothing constructive to say.

Ignore them.

Seriously, there's no better way to deal with personal attacks than to just ignore them and move on. Acknowledging them works against you in three ways: it validates the attack, it encourages other jerks to attack you, and you use your considerable power of publicity to draw attention to negativity.

You're better off just sucking it up, biting your lip, and ignoring it. Those who want to fight want an audience, and they'll move to more fertile ground when you don't provide one. And those who want to believe you are a jerk aren't waiting to be convinced otherwise. Besides, you don't even have enough time and energy to address all of the constructive things that need doing when you run a business...

Respond to Legitimate Feedback ASAP

...such as interacting with interested customers. Running a business, and especially one which launches games to thousands of players, means there are going to be lots of questions, concerns, and other feedback. Plan on spending a significant portion of your time reading those comments, and in cases where they warrant it, reply to them.

You may not have to time to respond to everything, all the time, but you don't need to. Simply trying to engage makes it visible to your customers that you want to hear them, and want to help make your products better for them. Most will understand that you're busy, and can't hear everything.

This lesson was partially learned from observing Chewbot of Stoic Studios (also BioWare vets). A thread had appeared at RPGCodex talking about their new Banner Saga game. In it, there was a mixture of good feedback, dismissive comments, and legitimate questions. As a former BioWare dev, the 'Dex was a bit of a lion's den. He could have just lurked, mining the useful feedback and moved on.

Instead, he recognized them for what they are: customers who want a specific type of product, and have a hard time finding studios to make it. He created an account, introduced himself, and started addressing legitimate concerns and questions. The members of the forums were genuinely happy to have him visit and chat with them. He demonstrated the power of interacting with players, even in places where antagonism arises.

A week later, I got to try his approach for myself. And I was rewarded by valuable suggestions, words of encouragement, and even potential customers. It's definitely taught me that a developer's presence can really transform a discussion.

One month later, I'm proud to say that the NEO Scavenger community is a great one to be a part of. Both at Blue Bottle Games and elsewhere on the net, NEO Scavengers seem polite, helpful, and optimistic, and I'm thrilled. In the words of my high school chemistry teacher, "it's nice to be nice." Who could argue with that?

Of course, who would argue with a Greek guy in a suit with unlimited access to chemicals and a pistol-shaped butane lighter tucked into his belt? Maybe that had something to do with it too...

Sales, Metrics, and Doing the Right Thing

Later this week, I'll have hit the 1-month anniversary of NEO Scavenger's launch. The initial few weeks of heart palpitations have given way to a more calm work day, and the never ending stream of emails and forum posts have tapered off to a more manageable rate.

Month 1 Sales

Even though I touched on sales last post, I thought it would be useful to follow-up on that with recent developments. Below, I included a graph of daily NEO Scavenger sales since launch.

Month 1 Sales, in Dollars Per Day

Blue Bottle Games officially announced on March 5th. Initially, I only announced the launch in my social circles: Facebook, G+, Twitter, and here. You can see a tiny blip that week, representing the 4 or so sales as a result. I've also overlaid a red line representing the number of dollars I need to earn each day to stay afloat. Basically, every day I hit that mark, I can afford to work another day.

As mentioned in last month's post, press coverage made a big difference in sales. You can see the major upswing in sales as a result of nearly concurrent interviews, preview/reviews, and forum threads surfacing about NEO Scavenger. In addition to traffic from the articles directly, I did my best to run around the internet, commenting in threads and on articles about the game, answering questions, and generally letting people know I'm trying to interact. The first uptick in sales after the initial peak was the result of posting in the Something Awful thread that appeared, and the second was a MetaFilter thread.

As expected, sales taper off over time, and are settling into a few copies sold per day. I expect this rate will remain pretty constant without outside influence. There are two upcoming website spots that I'll be watching closely, to see if they produce similar echoes to the first coverage period.

Has it been a success? Hard to say at this point. It's at least paid for March and most of April development costs. However, if one counts my unpaid wages between last May and today, that's a huge money pit yet unfilled. Business expenses are also missing here (licenses, registration fees, printing costs, etc.). Hardly a lucrative investment so far :)

However, I have put little effort into promoting NEO Scavenger. Most of the coverage of the game has been due to the press scooping the game before I contacted them. And most seem willing to talk about the game again in the future, as it develops.

Furthermore, I have yet to try the demo out on portals such as Kongregate and Newgrounds. I expect that putting it there will garner additional visitors to Blue Bottle Games, and potentially customers. I've been waiting for the right time to do so, mainly due to bug and feature development. I think there are a few extra things worth adding to NEO Scavenger, to make it more attractive, before announcing the game to additional audiences.

Finally, I've also decided I'd like to try and make a downloadable client for the game. A number of fans have asked, and I think it makes sense to do so. It'll also open up additional sales channels, such as Steam, gog.com, Desura, and other outlets. Indie games are gaining serious momentum in direct sales portals, so I may be well-timed to take advantage of the trend.

Metrics

I've been using Playtomic to track game play statistics, and so far, I've been pretty pleased with the service. It has some rough patches to sort out, but the service was a snap to integrate, is free, and has been quite valuable.

I currently have over 90,000 plays, and over 50,000 views of the NEO Scavenger Demo/Beta pair. The average play time is close to 90 minutes, which I'm thrilled about. It's not Kongregate or Newgrounds numbers, which can often be an order of magnitude more plays, but this is only from Blue Bottle Games traffic, a site which did not exist two months ago.

The site itself uses Google Analytics, which is a brilliant service, and I've hardly scratched the surface. For reference, Blue Bottle Games has had almost 30,000 unique visitors since launch, and almost 2500 registered users. (Registering is free, and provides the user a means to post in the forums, as well as a way to purchase the game.)

I've mainly been using Analytics's daily traffic dashboard and referrer logs. I use it to gauge relative traffic, and track incoming links to see if news has broken someplace. Google Alerts is also useful in this regard.

Doing the Right Thing

One other thing came up which I'd like to discuss. NEO Scavenger had its first major design decision made since launch, regarding saving and permadeath.

Initially, NEO Scavenger had no save feature. When a player died, that was it. Game over. Later, the save game feature grew in prominence on the feature voting page. I was admittedly nervous about making the wrong call on how to implement it, but I went to work on the feature.

A week later, the feature was in, and most of the bugs were sorted out. Players could save at any time, and load at any time. While there was only one load slot, the player could load as many times as they liked. That's when I stumbled across some interesting discussions (both at BBG and off-site) about the decision to add save games, and how that changed the feel of the game.

Folks were concerned that the game had become something different: that fear no longer played into decisions, and the game was starting to feel less original and challenging. When permadeath was in place, many players admittedly chickened out when faced with the House at Seven Gables quest. They saw the house, read the spooky description, looked back over all the struggle they endured to stay alive thus far, and said "Nope, not happening."

It was a beautiful example of exactly the kind of role-playing I was hoping to provide.

Fast forward to a later game where saving was possible, and players would just save the game, and continue without fear. They'd explore each path with impunity, and then move on to the next encounter. The entire experience was robbed of its weight.

After reading through the many discussions, I had to ask myself: why was I adding save games? It was meant to be a tool for the player to solve problems outside the game world. Namely, players who needed to walk away from the browser and wanted to come back later. It was not, however, meant to be a tool for dealing with in-game issues.

Several proponents of save games argued (rightly) that the game was unfair at times, killing players with random dice rolls and no way to mitigate the disaster. To them, save games were a way to make these game balance failures easier to swallow. And while that is one way to address such game design failures, it wasn't in the spirit of NEO Scavenger.

Instead, I want to provide players with in-game tools to deal with in-game problems. I want them to have more operational discretion in combat, for example, and more ways to deal with wounds than just waiting to die. I want the player's choice to be what decides their fate, and relegate chance to a minor role.

So I updated the save game one more time: based on some good suggestions, and some follow-up research into how other rogue-likes handle it, I decided to make save games delete on player death. I briefly considered making save games delete on load, but quickly reconsidered when it occurred to me that browser crashing  might lead to total game loss. At least on player death, I can be sure the player got a full game in.

The result? Hard to say, empirically. I know a number of fans are relieved, and happy to see the game restored to it's original challenge. I think the solution is a nice compromise in player convenience and challenge. And it just "feels right" to me. It's the way I want to play NEO Scavenger. It's true to the vision I have for the game. It's one of the things that makes NEO Scavenger unique, and keeps players talking about it.

It may be a no-brainer for some out there, and maybe this doesn't seem like a big enough deal to blog about. But it was a big deal for me. It was one of my first public game design decisions, and forced me to identify what NEO Scavenger is, and who it's for. It forced me to admit this isn't a game for mainstream audiences. That this is a game for people like me, who want the challenge and role-playing opportunities with real consequences. For people who are more interested in the journey than the destination. It feels good to identify that goal, almost like a crisis of identity averted.

Speaking of, I should probably get back to work, so I can avoid the crisis of falling behind :)

Post-Launch Debriefing

It's been two weeks since NEO Scavenger launched, and things are going well. Truth be told, I'm a little surprised at the reception it's getting. I figured there were some folks out there like me, who revel in hardcore sim-ish RPGs, but the response was better than I expected. Fans and publications alike seem to really like it! I'm thrilled!

For today's post, I figured I'd speak a bit about the experience I had launching the game, as well as some of the sales performance I'm seeing. It's a pretty unique experience so far, and I wasn't entirely prepared.

The Stress of Succeeding

One of the biggest surprises to me was that stress doesn't just come from frustration and hardship. I've been pretty lucky in that I can recognize when stress is getting to me. There are certain things I do, and thoughts I have, when I'm stressed-out. However, until now, I've always associated those behaviors and feelings with negative situations.

Imagine my surprise when a successful studio and game launch was causing the same symptoms! I announced my studio, Blue Bottle Games, and NEO Scavenger on Monday, March 5th. For the next several days, every waking hour was consumed by anxiety. There was this tightness in my chest, and tension in my shoulders, not to mention gritting of teeth and constant shivering. Every thought I had was about player comments, articles about the launch, or what steps I had to take next. It felt like the entire world was focused on my every move, and I had to act both swiftly and cautiously not to let onlookers down.

Of course, by "the entire world" I'm exaggerating. It's more like "my entire world." Friends, family, colleagues, and the niche-within-a-niche that actually enjoys games like NEO Scavenger. (A niche which I'm still trying to define: turn-based, post-apocalyptic, choose-your-own-adventure-survival-RPG?) The positive attention is awesome, but it's also scary. There's a dark thought haunting me that this might just be a bubble, and that the swell of praise may suddenly turn to disappointment.

Rochelle is currently taking a counseling class, and we had a practice counseling session. In it, I spoke about these feelings, and tried to explain why despite the massive praise, I feel anxiety. I eventually came to start referring to a separate "Dan Fedor," the PR version of me that's "out there" on forums, in emails, and interacting with the world re: NEO Scavenger.

One of my biggest worries is that I'll somehow let fans down: I'll forget to respond to them, or fail to visit their forum of choice, or I'll make a design change to the game that's contrary to their tastes. I realize it's impossible to be everywhere and do everything right, but it's hard to walk away from my desk at the end of the day and accept that. So far, I've been pretty good at maintaining regular hours. I still sneak peeks at email, forums, sales numbers, and magazine reviews outside of regular business hours, but considering this is a company and product launch, it's probably far less than it could be.

Sales Figures

Speaking of sales, I should at least touch upon that point. It's too early to tell if NEO Scavenger is going to be a financial success. Having sunk almost a year's work with no salary into it, I have a long way to go before it recoups the cost.

Still, for the first 5-6 copies sold, I would excitedly tell Rochelle "we made $50 today!" or "we made $38 today!" when she got home from class. We'd both be genuinely excited that someone, out there, thought the game was worth their money. This was after announcing the launch to my various social circles, mainly friends and family.

I also had my new studio mentioned in two BioWare-related articles:

• The Escapist
• Video Gamer

Direct sales as a result of the above pieces were a bit slow to materialize, but I believe they were integral to this next development: just as I was getting ready to start sending emails to other game journals, I was scooped. Within a day of each other, I received coverage in 3 major games journals:

• Rock Paper Shotgun
• Indie Game Magazine
• Indie Games the Weblog

plus threads at Reddit, RPG Codex, Something Awful, Bay 12, 4Chan, and many more. I suspect the Escapist and VG pieces were what tipped off the magazines, which cascaded into other forum coverage. (FYI, RPS was the biggest contributor to traffic, by far, followed by Reddit, indiegames.com, and Something Awful.)

It literally transformed the sales performance. In the 48-hour period after those stories broke, I sold over 200 copies. Rochelle and I were floored. Sure, that's not Ferrari money or anything, but that was, like, rent and groceries money. We could afford food and shelter again!

The spike subsided, as most game launch spikes do, and has settled into a 20-40 sales per day range. I'm waiting to see if that is a plateau, or just the most recent slope in a long tail. Either way, it's a pretty good result for my first gig. I'm definitely glad I went the self-publishing route on this one, and not sponsorship. It's possible sponsors would've offered more than I've earned so far for the game, but there's a good chance I've crossed at least average sponsorship price tags already, and this is only week 2.

Of course, this was an unusual Flash game. 9-months in development means NEO Scavenger will take quite a few more sales to break even, and even the best sponsorship deals would've barely broken even, financially.

I'll have more to say on that topic once time passes.

There are other areas I'd like to talk about as well: the launch impact on hosting and bandwidth, feature voting, offers for volunteer help...a lot has come up in a short time.

However, I should really get cracking on NEO Scavenger's save game feature. It's been a big request, the leader on the voting boards, and I think I can have something working in the beta today. Only if I stay focused, though!

Blue Bottle Games, now launching!

Well folks, the day has finally come: it is my pleasure to present to you my new studio:

I'm nervous as hell, and I hope I haven't messed anything up, but I'm also proud to share what I've been working on, and excited to see what people think.

You can check out the new site at http://bluebottlegames.com, where I talk a bit about the studio, my plans for it, and of course:

My first game, NEO Scavenger! I've made the fruits of 9 months of labor free to the public. Yes, that's one human gestation period. No, I didn't plan it that way.

Go on over there and give it a try! I'm anxious to hear what folks think; what they think went right vs. wrong, and how they think I can improve.

It's not perfect, by far, but hopefully you have fun playing. And if you're really jazzed about it, maybe you'll decide to become a supporter, and help fund more features and content!

What Does This Mean for Game Dev Gone Rogue?

I plan to continue Game Dev Gone Rogue in a limited capacity, but NEO Scavenger-related talk will now be the domain of the newsfeed on Blue Bottle Games's website and @BlueBottleGames on twitter.

GDGR will continue to be a vehicle to talk about indie-hood, running a business, and other topics that I think might be interesting or useful to aspiring indies.

I'll try to keep at least the pace of before, though I'm sure Blue Bottle Games will occasionally steal more of my time than planned.

So once again, go check out the new site! Play the free demo! And have fun!