that kotaku comment from the guy who sold "maybe ten copies" of his game is probably the funniest case of sour grapes I've ever read
Incidentally, in the post mortem we address the kind of "strategy" he said he employed for his game..
Before we started development, we made a point out of maintaining as small and conservative budget as we possibly could and focusing our efforts on making a great game and getting the word out... The fact is, indie games can some times be a gamble and you might end up with a flop that sells fewer than a thousand copies (as is true for many, many XBLIG games as an example).
What I find interesting is that person says he paid himself a salary. That's just not how to go about it, IMO, when you're a new indie dev just starting out. That's something to consider, IMO, after you've expanded into a much, much larger operation... and even then perhaps not. RBD and myself didn't consider ourselves as being paid salaries, we just worked our assess off and minimized budget...
And Kotaku's usual journalistic standards are in evidence:
Amid Boyd's frank analysis of what went right and wrong is the astounding report that two thirds of the people who downloaded the game for free then ponied up the asking price. Impressive.
Downloading a demo is not the same as "downloading the game for free".
And Kotaku's usual journalistic standards are in evidence:
Amid Boyd's frank analysis of what went right and wrong is the astounding report that two thirds of the people who downloaded the game for free then ponied up the asking price. Impressive.
Downloading a demo is not the same as "downloading the game for free".
I think he knows what occurs but just worded it weirdly. I think he really meant to draw attention on the 66% conversion rate more than anything.
I find it kinda funny that Japan, of all places, has a 0% share of the sales to date. (I'm aware that might be a language issue)
Yeah, I know. We were kind of hoping for a little bit better response there (only been a few hundred sales there iirc), but to be honest, a lot of the fun is in the writing and unless you speak English fluently it loses a lot of charm.
The other thing is that the Xbox 360 is not a very popular console in Japan, and among the small niche of 360 owners there, very few of those dig into XBLIG. So it's kind of like a tiny market within a tiny market that doesn't get the parody aspect of the game.
We're kind of considering translating into Japanese for the next game but it's a bit up in the air for a variety of reasons.
I find it kinda funny that Japan, of all places, has a 0% share of the sales to date. (I'm aware that might be a language issue)
Yeah, I know. We were kind of hoping for a little bit better response there (only been a few hundred sales there iirc), but to be honest, a lot of the fun is in the writing and unless you speak English fluently it loses a lot of charm.
The other thing is that the Xbox 360 is not a very popular console in Japan, and among the small niche of 360 owners there, very few of those dig into XBLIG. So it's kind of like a tiny market within a tiny market that doesn't get the parody aspect of the game.
We're kind of considering translating into Japanese for the next game but it's a bit up in the air for a variety of reasons.
Grab a weeaboo who can work the Japanese Pokemon theme song parody part and other things
So I just checked our website traffic and we've gotten over 3,000 unique user hits today, no doubt thanks to the link in the kotaku article. That's drastically more traffic than the site has ever gotten (usually we're in the low hundreds a day, with the occasional spike to 500-1000/day).
That's a big boost from our recent sales (due to how long the game has been out, Halo: Reach's release, and generally low September sales, we've been averaging around 60-70/day).
Good game! I finally got around to buying my copy as well, and trying it out, and both myself and the fiance were having fun reading the text as I played.
Sadly, this game's making me want to make my own XNA title now, even if only to improve on my C# skills
Go google 'breath of death VII post mortem' that article has bled out into everywhere on the internet. RPGGamer picked it up, RPGfan has it in their forums...
Robert - did you do a press release on that thing, or are that many press people watching zeboyd.com now for the CSTW release announcement?
Go google 'breath of death VII post mortem' that article has bled out into everywhere on the internet. RPGGamer picked it up, RPGfan has it in their forums...
Robert - did you do a press release on that thing, or are that many press people watching zeboyd.com now for the CSTW release announcement?
Lol!
I think the reason this story is spreading is because it's really interesting to see how website coverage and reviews affect indie game sales. You know, the people writing articles and reviews, they say something nice about a game, and maybe they feel sometimes like those words vanish into the ether. But here's a nice story and a clean graph with supporting data that tells those very same people who write these articles that hey, you really are making a difference, and the people who made this game appreciate it.
Also I think the analysis of pros/cons of the game and of the indie scene in general is something that there really isn't much information available out there in the gaming media, so there's that too.
And yeah I think having some nice graphs to help digest the information helps. People like graphs!
Edit: the post in the RPGFan forums was no accident... the thread was started by Robert :P He's been a community member at RPGfan for a long time actually.
Hello chaps, apparently EDGE think that Breath of Death VII is one of the top 20 indie Xbox games, they say:
"Breath of death isn't as cloyingly ironic as its title and art style suggest. While Zeboyd Entertainment has set out to parody the earnest 16bit RPG genre, it's managed to encapsulate most of the elements that made those games so appealing in the first place.
Playing as a skeletal protagonist, you're thrown into a surprisingly roomy adventure filled with genre staples such as an overworld map, bone-rattling dungeons and NPC-clogged towns to explore. The levelling curve is brisk but enthralling, and combat, while presented in a simple Dragon Quest style, is deep and tactical. Random encounters are limited, dialogue and exposition are fairly charming, and there's more adventuring to be had here than you might suspect."
Hello chaps, apparently EDGE think that Breath of Death VII is one of the top 20 indie Xbox games, they say:
"Breath of death isn't as cloyingly ironic as its title and art style suggest. While Zeboyd Entertainment has set out to parody the earnest 16bit RPG genre, it's managed to encapsulate most of the elements that made those games so appealing in the first place.
Playing as a skeletal protagonist, you're thrown into a surprisingly roomly adventure filled with genre staples such as an overworld map, bone-rattling dungeons and NPC-clogged towns to explore. The levelling curve is brisk but enthralling, and combat, while presented in a simple Dragon Quest style, is deep and tactical. Random encounters are limited, dialogue and exposition are fairly charming, and there's more adventuring to be had here than you might suspect."
Hello chaps, apparently EDGE think that Breath of Death VII is one of the top 20 indie Xbox games, they say:
"Breath of death isn't as cloyingly ironic as its title and art style suggest. While Zeboyd Entertainment has set out to parody the earnest 16bit RPG genre, it's managed to encapsulate most of the elements that made those games so appealing in the first place.
Playing as a skeletal protagonist, you're thrown into a surprisingly roomly adventure filled with genre staples such as an overworld map, bone-rattling dungeons and NPC-clogged towns to explore. The levelling curve is brisk but enthralling, and combat, while presented in a simple Dragon Quest style, is deep and tactical. Random encounters are limited, dialogue and exposition are fairly charming, and there's more adventuring to be had here than you might suspect."
I look forward to playing it on PC.
Man that is so cool! Thanks for posting that I am going to try and get a copy of the magazine once some bookstores around here manage to import it, but usually importing it is a month behind.
Hello chaps, apparently EDGE think that Breath of Death VII is one of the top 20 indie Xbox games, they say:
"Breath of death isn't as cloyingly ironic as its title and art style suggest. While Zeboyd Entertainment has set out to parody the earnest 16bit RPG genre, it's managed to encapsulate most of the elements that made those games so appealing in the first place.
Playing as a skeletal protagonist, you're thrown into a surprisingly roomly adventure filled with genre staples such as an overworld map, bone-rattling dungeons and NPC-clogged towns to explore. The levelling curve is brisk but enthralling, and combat, while presented in a simple Dragon Quest style, is deep and tactical. Random encounters are limited, dialogue and exposition are fairly charming, and there's more adventuring to be had here than you might suspect."
I look forward to playing it on PC.
Man that is so cool! Thanks for posting that I am going to try and get a copy of the magazine once some bookstores around here manage to import it, but usually importing it is a month behind.
You can buy a copy online if you can't find one elsewhere.
Hello chaps, apparently EDGE think that Breath of Death VII is one of the top 20 indie Xbox games, they say:
"Breath of death isn't as cloyingly ironic as its title and art style suggest. While Zeboyd Entertainment has set out to parody the earnest 16bit RPG genre, it's managed to encapsulate most of the elements that made those games so appealing in the first place.
Playing as a skeletal protagonist, you're thrown into a surprisingly roomly adventure filled with genre staples such as an overworld map, bone-rattling dungeons and NPC-clogged towns to explore. The levelling curve is brisk but enthralling, and combat, while presented in a simple Dragon Quest style, is deep and tactical. Random encounters are limited, dialogue and exposition are fairly charming, and there's more adventuring to be had here than you might suspect."
I look forward to playing it on PC.
Man that is so cool! Thanks for posting that I am going to try and get a copy of the magazine once some bookstores around here manage to import it, but usually importing it is a month behind.
You can buy a copy online if you can't find one elsewhere.
Oh cool, yeah I might just do that
In the meantime I have taken some photos that a fellow XBLIG dev and PA poster, Trumpets (who developed Apple Jack) took, and put the BODVII section into a small image that we'll be hosting on our website once RBD gets a chance to put it up:
I accidentally misspelled Singapore there unfortunately :P
It would be interesting to know how many 360s are in the UK. Canadian and US sales seem pretty close to the ratio of 360 sales and I wonder if that holds up for all English speaking countries.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Posts
You guys are popular enough to have haters?!
*sniff* They grow up so fast!
Incidentally, in the post mortem we address the kind of "strategy" he said he employed for his game..
Before we started development, we made a point out of maintaining as small and conservative budget as we possibly could and focusing our efforts on making a great game and getting the word out... The fact is, indie games can some times be a gamble and you might end up with a flop that sells fewer than a thousand copies (as is true for many, many XBLIG games as an example).
What I find interesting is that person says he paid himself a salary. That's just not how to go about it, IMO, when you're a new indie dev just starting out. That's something to consider, IMO, after you've expanded into a much, much larger operation... and even then perhaps not. RBD and myself didn't consider ourselves as being paid salaries, we just worked our assess off and minimized budget...
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Downloading a demo is not the same as "downloading the game for free".
I think he knows what occurs but just worded it weirdly. I think he really meant to draw attention on the 66% conversion rate more than anything.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Yeah, I know. We were kind of hoping for a little bit better response there (only been a few hundred sales there iirc), but to be honest, a lot of the fun is in the writing and unless you speak English fluently it loses a lot of charm.
The other thing is that the Xbox 360 is not a very popular console in Japan, and among the small niche of 360 owners there, very few of those dig into XBLIG. So it's kind of like a tiny market within a tiny market that doesn't get the parody aspect of the game.
We're kind of considering translating into Japanese for the next game but it's a bit up in the air for a variety of reasons.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Grab a weeaboo who can work the Japanese Pokemon theme song parody part and other things
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Haven't had a chance to play it yet; the wife was making me do stuff yesterday. Still, I'm glad I could help you guys out!
364 sales
256 trials
142% Conversation Rate
That's a big boost from our recent sales (due to how long the game has been out, Halo: Reach's release, and generally low September sales, we've been averaging around 60-70/day).
Also, Escapist picked up the story:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103836-1-Xbox-Live-Indie-RPG-Successfully-Sells-30K
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Sadly, this game's making me want to make my own XNA title now, even if only to improve on my C# skills
Robert - did you do a press release on that thing, or are that many press people watching zeboyd.com now for the CSTW release announcement?
Lol!
facebook | Website | twitter
I think the reason this story is spreading is because it's really interesting to see how website coverage and reviews affect indie game sales. You know, the people writing articles and reviews, they say something nice about a game, and maybe they feel sometimes like those words vanish into the ether. But here's a nice story and a clean graph with supporting data that tells those very same people who write these articles that hey, you really are making a difference, and the people who made this game appreciate it.
Also I think the analysis of pros/cons of the game and of the indie scene in general is something that there really isn't much information available out there in the gaming media, so there's that too.
And yeah I think having some nice graphs to help digest the information helps. People like graphs!
Edit: the post in the RPGFan forums was no accident... the thread was started by Robert :P He's been a community member at RPGfan for a long time actually.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I DEMAND pie charts slash
DEMAND THEM!
PIEEEE CHAAARTT
I accidentally misspelled Singapore there unfortunately :P
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
No, don't worry, the colors and order are a little funny, but Canada is 8% of sales and Germany is 2%. The UK is the 12% one.
Be not ashamed of your Canadian brethren! :P
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
There will be some news about our PC plans soon, but right now it's looking pretty good as far as BODVII and Cthulhu Saves the World coming to PC.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
http://zeboyd.com/2010/10/27/happy-halloween-from-zeboyd-games-and-breath-of-death-vii/
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
"Breath of death isn't as cloyingly ironic as its title and art style suggest. While Zeboyd Entertainment has set out to parody the earnest 16bit RPG genre, it's managed to encapsulate most of the elements that made those games so appealing in the first place.
Playing as a skeletal protagonist, you're thrown into a surprisingly roomy adventure filled with genre staples such as an overworld map, bone-rattling dungeons and NPC-clogged towns to explore. The levelling curve is brisk but enthralling, and combat, while presented in a simple Dragon Quest style, is deep and tactical. Random encounters are limited, dialogue and exposition are fairly charming, and there's more adventuring to be had here than you might suspect."
I look forward to playing it on PC.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
You beat me to posting it!
Great article in EDGE on XBLIG.
Man that is so cool! Thanks for posting that
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
You can buy a copy online if you can't find one elsewhere.
Oh cool, yeah I might just do that
In the meantime I have taken some photos that a fellow XBLIG dev and PA poster, Trumpets (who developed Apple Jack) took, and put the BODVII section into a small image that we'll be hosting on our website once RBD gets a chance to put it up:
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Nice work RainbowDespair et al. Already excited for a few of those, and will check out the rest.
Did you try speaking to MS about seeing if they would do a "free X points if you buy all of them" promo?
It would be interesting to know how many 360s are in the UK. Canadian and US sales seem pretty close to the ratio of 360 sales and I wonder if that holds up for all English speaking countries.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)