Lars Doucet - Fortress of Doors (Page 6)

Flash is dead, long live OpenFL!

I've been a stalwart Flash developer for 15 years, so nothing bothers me more than greatly exaggerated reports of Flash's premature demise. Even today, Flash remains a very viable platform with a large install base and a relatively healthy commercial ecosystem. Many [http://amanita-design.net/games/

defender's quest

Playing Defender's Quest with the Steam Controller

So I got back from Steam Dev Days. You might have heard that everyone who attended got a Steam Controller prototype from Valve, as well as one of the many Steam Machine models (courtesy of Intel). Bottom line -- it's pretty good! Read on for more details. This

WhoLetsPlay - 2014 plans

Hey everybody! So, now that it's officially 2014, I thought I'd lay out some plans for how to get this little movement off the ground before all of our momentum peters out. So, here's today's agenda 1. Communication structure 2. Removing me

WhoLetsPlay: Getting Started

Some quick context: read this Gamasutra post [http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20131219/207483/WhoLetsPlay__Protecting_Game_Videos.php] . I just sent this newsletter out for www.wholetsplay.com [http://www.wholetsplay.com/]: Hey everybody! Thanks for signing up for our newsletter as we try to work out the initial

defender's quest

The Stegosaurus Tail: when "The Long Tail" grows spikes.

You may have heard of "The Long Tail [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail]." For games, it means your sales start off strong and quickly taper off. This force drives the retail marketing cycle -- launch a game to extreme hype, sell it like crazy, then immediately

design

On Procedural Death Labyrinths

A few weeks ago Tanya X. Short said, "Never Say Roguelike. [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TanyaXShort/20131119/204988/Never_Say_Roguelike.php] " I usually shy away from vocabulary fights and let smarter people than me hash it out [http://lesswrong.com/lw/od/37_ways_that_words_

defender's quest

Defender's Quest II's "UnKickstarter" approach to crowdfunding

Kickstarter is the go-to solution for crowdfunding these days, but I'm a control freak so I designed a custom solution for our upcoming game, Defender's Quest II: Mists of Ruin [http://www.defendersquest.com/2/]. No solution is one-size-fits all; we're in the unique

defender's quest

Story-telling as Problem Solving: Defender's Quest (GDC 2013 Narrative Summit)

We (Writer James Cavin and Programmer/Generalist Lars Doucet) initially gave this talk at GDC 2013 in the Game Narrative summit. I'm posting the slides and script here as a blog post, but if you prefer a video, you can watch a recording of this talk here [https:

Youtube and the new AudioVisual Literacy

I've been thinking about writing, journalism, and Youtube a lot lately, and I just realized something: we're moving to a new form of "writing" based on recorded oral culture. Traditionally, "oral tradition [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition]" had no recording

defender's quest

Steam Linux Sale : Results

Shortly after we published our giant sales report, Defender's Quest: By the Number, part 2 [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/186940/defenders_quest_by_the_numbers_.php] , the Steam Linux client officially went public and was accompanied by a site-wide sale. The Linux sale featured every single

Indie Solidarity - Telepath Tactics

Today a bit of a personal post. We have been pretty successful with Defender's Quest as of late, being fortunate enough to get on Steam, GOG, and reap the benefits of that attention. We're still not filthy rich, but we're now generating enough sales

design

Tourette Quest - Media, Magic, and Nostrils!

[http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/tsquest_002_leif.gif] The reaction to my super-dinky "Tourette's Quest" prototype has completely floored me. For those of you just joining us, a few weeks ago I wrote a blog post [https://www.fortressofdoors.com/2012/11/tourettes-quest.html]about

business

Free 2 Play and the Four Currencies

One of my most popular articles was "Piracy and the Four Currencies [https://www.fortressofdoors.com/2012/02/piracy-and-four-currencies.html]", which explains the economics of piracy in terms of four "psychological currencies": money-dollars ($M), time-dollars ($T), pain-in-the-butt dollars ($P) and integrity-dollars ($I). Purchases don't

design

Tourette's Quest

Ever since we launched Defender's Quest [http://www.defendersquest.com/] on Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/218410/], GOG [http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/defenders_quest], and other [http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DQCF/defenders-quest-valley-of-the-forgotten] fine [http://www.desura.com/games/defenders-quest-valley-of-the-forgotten] stores [http://impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-IMP-W3777]

dq1

Steam Launch Date: October 30th

Quick blog post because I haven't done one in a while. Defender's Quest STEAM launch date:October 30th, 2012 That's pretty soon. We will also be launching on Desura, Impulse, GamersGate, and GOG. We will launch at $9.99 USD and equivalent conversions in

defender's quest

Defender's Quest GOLD launches on Kongregate

[http://www.files.fortressofdoors.com/images/Kongregate_logo.jpg] The Kongregate version [http://www.kongregate.com/games/LevelUpLabs/defenders-quest-prelude/] of Defender's Quest GOLD edition is now live. If you are a registered Kongregate user, we've expanded the demo to give you access through all of Act

defender's quest

Defender's Quest GOLD launch

Hey everyone! Time for an official blog post announcing the launch of Defender's Quest version 1.0, or "gold" edition. I've finished the deployment, and the new version of the game is live. If you've already bought it, just run the old

defender's quest

Defender's Quest gold launches today

Hey everyone, a quick heads up - barring unforeseen insanity, Defender's Quest GOLD will launch today! I wanted to make sure the new version of the game would be public before Anthony and I head to PAX tomorrow. James will be manning the customer service account while we&

defender's quest

Defender's Quest coming to Steam!

Before I give you guys the big announcement I've been promising, first thing's first - yes, we've heard all about Steam Greenlight [http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight], in fact you've all been emailing us pretty much non-stop about it :) Now for the announcement.

business

Freeloadable content - an alternative to paid DLC

Cross-posted [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120717/174286/Freeloadable_content__an_alternative_to_paid_DLC.php] on gamasutra.com [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/dlc.jpg] A lot of developers/publishers sell expansion packs and other discrete add-ons to their games as "downloadable content," or "paid

steam

The Holy Grail of Digital Distribution

Cross-posted on Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120607/172033/The_Holy_Grail_of_Digital_Distribution.php] . Twitter handle: @larsiusprime The challenge of being an independent developer is that so much of your game's success is out of your control. There's no Department of Internet

Indie RPG's on sale TODAY

So, the Because we May [http://www.becausewemay.com/] sale just launched today, and about 180 or so games are participating. I'd like to direct your attention to a select few of those that might pique your interest. Indie RPG's! Of course, you should definitely check

Quick News

Hey everybody! We've got a lot of awesome Defender's Quest news for you guys today! First and foremost, we're making good progress on gold version. Second, I'm pleased to announce that Defender's Quest will be featured in the upcoming Because

defender's quest

Defender's Quest: By the Numbers

[http://www.files.fortressofdoors.com/images/tdrpg_dragon_fire.gif] So, in case you haven't heard yet, Gamasutra posted our first ~70 days of sales stats as a featured article today: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/168303/defenders_quest_by_the_numbers.php [http://www.blogger.com/

business

Pay What You Want and the Four Currencies

Cross-posted on gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120322/167131/Pay_What_You_Want_and_the_Four_Currencies.php] [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/pay_what_you_want_purchase.png] [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/pay_what_you_want_purchase.png]Today I'd like to apply my