Q&A For Skyward Collapse (Plus New Screenshots!)

[SRombauts]

Okay, just to add a line in support for Chris; I did notice this small alignment thing when I first see the public screenshot, perhaps when a comment raise it to my eyes... nothing really important.

The important thing is I NEVER noticed it ingame during those past 7 days of Alpha, because everything is so well polished, from the menu to the music, that it just feels nice.

People will not love the art, but many will love the game!

Cheers!

[chemical_art]

With in mind your percent of expenditures Chris, even I wouldn't worry about the art critics then.

It's one thing to have some people turned off by the art...another to have them turned off and to have spent a huge amount of money making the art relatively.

[SRombauts]

Then again, I you sell it under 10 bucks (not to mention the soooo indecently low price you mention earlier;)) real critics/journalists/bloggers will not seriously compare it to 20$ games.

[x4000]

This is a $5 title, actually.  Our break-even point on this is in the realm of $30k net after distributor fees.  This is actually the least expensive thing other than an AI War expansion that we've ever made, but I think it has the most potential for earnings behind AI War, go figure.  Between Valley 1 and Valley 2, on the other hand, the breakeven point is around $500k net, so we're super in the hole.  Actually, AI War's original breakeven point was around $2k, so that was the lowest ever, heh.  But that only partly counts because it was not my main job when I created.  Even Tidalis had around a $100k breakeven point.

Those might sound stupidly high, but of course we were doing lots of engine development during all that, and those were easily 40% or more of our costs.  So if you take that out, we've probably actually barely broken even on Valley 1 and 2, and then paved the way for doing Skyward as inexpensively as a whole.

All in all, regardless of what happens with a specific product, we're still here as a company, and have even managed growth.  Our revenues have never gone up less than 20% in a year, and in a couple of cases (earlier in) went up 50%.  So we must be doing something right, in all that.

[chemical_art]

With those numbers, Chris, that brings me hope and I now fully support your choices.

It's hard to argue otherwise in context.

[x4000]

Incidentally, all that revenue growth has been plowed back into the company in terms of larger staff and actually HAVING a budget for art rather than it just being what I personally can cook up via free or stock assets, etc.  That makes our position precarious because we're struggling to maintain an income that can support the larger staff we have, but the company as a whole is growing and in no jeopardy.  I just don't want to lose any of the staff, because everyone contributes hugely and of course for personal reasons also.  A big part of that "reinvesting for the sake of growth" strategy is so that we can stabilize at a stage where we can do awesome games without me working quite such ridiculous hours, and with a higher degree of art quality.

[x4000]

Cheers, chemical_art -- I appreciate it.

[Misery]

Frankly, I think debating about the art is really bloody pointless.   As one of you said, I forget who.....  it really is all subjective.

You show me a game that supposedly has amazing art.... and I can easily find a pile of people that think it's bloody ugly (and this generally doesnt take any time).   Often times, I am one of them.


Not to mention the fact that some simply wont give a fart about it, really. 


In my case for this game.... and this isnt just me trying to be nice or something, as that wouldnt even occur to me to do.... I like the art in this game.   Oh, it's not PERFECT.  Certain specific units definitely look a little off, but.... that's really about my only complaint with the art in this game.

And heck, what I've seen of fiddling around with AI War (still aint had a full go at it though), that game now..... yeah, the art in THAT one, I dont like.   Definitely not.  But I know that game by it's reputation, and what I really care about is the gameplay, so I still bought it and all of the expansions, and chances are I'll get a lot of time out of it once I get around to having a full run at it.   

Art that appeals to the masses helps, sure.... but it's not absolutely necessary (and really, what appeals to the masses tends to be only hyper-big-budget games in 3D with HDR-ultra-super-antialiased-megabloom and other gibberish-sounding graphical "features", so..... yeah).   Good games sell, if they are brougt to people's attention in the right way.   I think a BIG part of the problem with Valley 2 and SH is that this didn't happen (seriously, nobody in the places I frequent knows what either of them are.  And some of those people HAD played the first Valley and enjoyed it, yet still....).


EDIT:  WHY does everyone always post in groups when I'm writing up a post of my own?   Ninjas, everywhere!

[chemical_art]

*Chemical_Art wonders of EotM was postponed for funding the art*

[x4000]

*Chemical_Art wonders of EotM was postponed for funding the art*

Not funding, no.  I can't go into it without causing problems.

[x4000]

Good games sell, if they are brougt to people's attention in the right way.   I think a BIG part of the problem with Valley 2 and SH is that this didn't happen (seriously, nobody in the places I frequent knows what either of them are.  And some of those people HAD played the first Valley and enjoyed it, yet still....).

Yeah, we really screwed up there.  It was an expensive lesson, but answered some questions I had on the effectiveness of our past marketing styles.  Answer: they really worked extremely well.  Valley 1 grossed $130k in its first month alone, and $42k in its second month.  Give or take a bit, as some of that was our other games, but not a substantial portion on those months.

Valley 2, by comparison?  $20k gross on launch month.  Shattered Haven?  More like $8k.  Even Tidalis did $14k-ish on launch month.  IIRC, which I often don't.  But for all the numbers except Tidalis, I've looked at them in the last week and so am confident there.  For reference, for us to not shed staff we need to average gross sales of $50k per month at the moment.  So far we're managing that... but barely.  And actually we haven't been completely managing that, because a lot of not shedding staff involved me not taking a salary for the first four months of this year.

Still, financially speaking, this year just by the numbers has already been crazy good.  Not what we needed, quite, but bear in mind this is a seasonal business and so a lot of boils down to cash-flow issues.  Typically half our revenue is earned in the 4th quarter of the year, but we've already made somewhere north of half our revenue for the 2012 year, and it's not even mid-year yet.  That bodes extremely well for the year as a whole, but doesn't solve our short-term problems in terms of cash-flow.  I can't float staff without money until Q4, you know what I mean?  So it's always very complicated.

EDIT:  WHY does everyone always post in groups when I'm writing up a post of my own?   Ninjas, everywhere!

Hahaha.

[chemical_art]

Not funding, no.  I can't go into it without causing problems.

*hands in air and backpedals*

I don't mean to stir trouble.

Hope it works out.

[x4000]

All good, and I know you didn't.  I really can't comment more, but the game will see release at some point this year unless something unexpected happens.

[PokerChen]

Meh, BurningPet is right, but meh. In order to make a significant difference to me, you're looking at a Wesnoth level of hard-line consistency - and there can be no fair comparison between a budget game and many years' labour of love.

We happily played Mario and TMNT as children. That was a good yet exasperating time, before the time of games as art (in the English-speaking world at least).

 = = =

EDIT: By the way Chris, I'm presuming you want to fit as many woes as you have time for next week? Plenty on the threads, but there are several more ideas budding in my head, but I'm thinking things like man if only we had a fire overlay graphic to set buildings and forests on fire... *ponders about the graphics tablet lying next to him*