dq2 Will that crowdfunded game ever actually ship? So you come across a neat-looking new game on Kickstarter. It's got fancy concept art, it has some big names involved, and their pitch is really convincing! Surely this will be the game of our dreams? Well, maybe not. The failure of the Yogscast game [http://www.polygon.
business Dear Adobe: Support Haxe, save your Tools Dear Adobe, My name is Lars Doucet, I'm a game developer [http://www.defendersquest.com]; I can proudly say that I have been using your tools, and Flash in particular, for over 15 years. I love your tools, I think they're great, and I would be
news Doubling Down on Community So pretty much everybody is talking [http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-indie-bubble-is-popping.html] about this [http://gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertFearon/20140526/218535/Popping_The_Indie_Bubble.php] Indie Bubble thing [http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MeganFox/20140527/218539/Indie_Bubble_Buts_What_Do_We_Do_Now.php] and how it&
defender's quest Defender's Quest 2 Engine progress - resolution! A big thing I'm trying to work on for the DQ2 engine is robust support for multiple resolutions, particularly HD. The previous game was hard-locked to 800x600. Here's a screenshot from today's build of the DQ2 engine, using the DQ1 data set: [http://www.
steam An Algorithm for Discovering "Hidden Gems" So you've probably seen that Ars Technica article [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/introducing-steam-gauge-ars-reveals-steams-most-popular-games/] that has magically reverse-engineered every steam game's gross (sales+free-key-redemption) numbers. Everyone's talking about this graph: [http://www.bugs.fortressofdoors.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/steam-meter-graphs-4.001.png]
defender's quest Nobuo Uematsu to work on Defender's Quest 2 So I promised everybody some news. I was originally going to post this yesterday, but that just happened to be Liar's Day [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day], so we decided to wait one more day. Here's the press release we sent out
defender's quest Defender's Quest 2 March Update Alrighty! Time for an update on where we are in Defender's Quest 2 [http://www.defendersquest.com/2/]. Those of you who follow me on twitter [http://www.twitter.com/larsiusprime] know I've been active, but I sometimes forget that our followers are spread out over
haxe 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&
