roblox So You Want to Compete with Roblox My inbox is stuffed with pitches from start-ups wanting to compete with Roblox, that plucky Lego-ish multiplayer game-creation platform currently valued at 41 billion dollars. They shouldn't try, but here's how to maybe not fail if they insist anyways.
fnf The Future of Games is an Instant Flash to the past The success of an open source browser game called Friday Night Funkin tells us where "instant games" might go. Hint: we've been here before.
gamedatacrunch GameDataCrunch: my facts-first game metrics website I'm working on a new website called GameDataCrunch.com, a new way to understand the game industry by looking at metrics and slicing them up in a bunch of different ways.
steam So You Want To Compete With Steam: Epic, Discord, Kartridge, and RobotCache Four new competitors have emerged to take on Steam: Epic, Discord, Kartridge, and RobotCache. Let's see how they stack up.
steam Operation Tell Valve All The Things, 3.0 I surveyed a bunch of Steam developers and they told me how they feel about recent developments.
steam So You Want To Compete With Steam This article also available in: Russian translation by HTR Mobile Uzbek translation by Drawings Team) I get a lot of pitches for "Steam competitors" in my inbox. 99% of them are
business Stores vs. Developers vs. Customers vs. Publishers All of the major game stores (Steam, GOG, Origin, Uplay, itch, etc) serve different groups at the same time, many of which have competing interests. Broadly speaking, they are: Customers Developers Publishers The
steam Steam Discovery 2.0, Stegosaurus Tail 2.0 Our game Defender's Quest will be five years old in just a few days, which is a good opportunity for a retrospective on how Steam has changed in that time. On November 8th
open source How We Paid Our Open Source Taxes Open Source libraries tend to have two problems: Not enough funding Not enough contributors* *Particularly concerning when you consider the Bus Factor. When you're maintaining an open source library, and you're not getting
4currencies G2A, Piracy, and the Four Currencies I never thought the day would come where I would passionately argue that fans should pirate my game rather than pay for it, but here we are. That's conditional, of course. If you're
dq1 Supporting a single-player Indie RPG for Four Years It's hard to believe, but on January 19th 2016, four whole years will have passed since we first released our game Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten. What's even harder to believe is
4currencies Ad Blockers and the Four Currencies Apple recently allowed Ad-blocking in iOS 9. Some people responded like this: Every time you block an ad, what you're really blocking is food from entering a child's mouth. There's more nuanced takes,
steam Mods, Salutary Neglect, and Storks Okay so let's talk about this whole Steam Workshop paid mods thing, the internet freakout, and its subsequent reversal. Some very good points have been brought up by the "against" crowd,
business Game Maker, Security, and Freedom So Game Maker just got bought by a gambling company, and as the ancients have foretold, the gnarled old Lars has duly appeared from his hermitage with semi-inflammatory opinions on the subject: XNA:
defender's quest I Wish Upon a Steam I write about Steam a lot, because they hold my fate in their hands like a tiny bird. (Photo by Chris Yarzab, link) Given the recent flood of games onto Steam, I had
defender's quest Steam Traffic Patterns Deep Dive So in a previous article I talked about the Steam Discoverability update (which I'm calling "NewSteam"). One of the big new features was a detailed traffic analysis, which Steam has explicitly
steam Why are we releasing DQ1HD as a free upgrade? We recently announced an HD re-release of Defender's Quest 1, and that it will be a free upgrade. Some people want to know why. Specifically, two things prompted me to write this article:
steam Fixing Steam's User Rating Charts Recently I wrote a big article about the new changes in Steam, and rendered my judgment: cautiously optimistic. After further reflection, my position is unchanged -- most of it's very good, but some
defender's quest Brave NewSteam World Over two years ago I wrote an article called The Holy Grail of Digital Distribution where I described what an ideal digital game store might look like. In the last two weeks, Steam
business Follow Your Dreams!...Or Maybe Don't. I am filled with absolute terror whenever I get a message like this in my inbox: "You inspired me to quit my job to make indie games!" (emphasis mine) For those
defender's quest Was Localizing Defender's Quest Worth It? Let's find out. First of all, our total sales to date, across all PC portals for the original Defender's Quest are: $656,000 USD gross 195,000 units sold Next, our monthly sales
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
business Dear Adobe: Support Haxe, save your Tools Dear Adobe, My name is Lars Doucet, I'm a game developer; I can proudly say that I have been using your tools, and Flash in particular, for over 15 years. I love your
steam An Algorithm for Discovering "Hidden Gems" So you've probably seen that Ars Technica article that has magically reverse-engineered every steam game's gross (sales+free-key-redemption) numbers.Everyone's talking about this graph:The obvious first statement is "WOWS! Video games
defender's quest The Stegosaurus Tail: when "The Long Tail" grows spikes. You may have heard of "The Long Tail." For games, it means your sales start off strong and quickly taper off. This force drives the retail marketing cycle -- launch a
