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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.

  • Lars Doucet
9 min read
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.

  • Lars Doucet
44 min read
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.

  • Lars Doucet
27 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
9 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
12 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
18 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
8 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
7 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
10 min read
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,

  • Lars Doucet
5 min read
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,

  • Lars Doucet
9 min read
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:

  • Lars Doucet
12 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
11 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
8 min read
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:

  • Lars Doucet
13 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
7 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
9 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
7 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
11 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
5 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
9 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
7 min read
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

  • Lars Doucet
10 min read
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.No solution is

  • Lars Doucet
5 min read
defender's quest

Steam Linux Sale : Results

Shortly after we published our giant sales report, Defender's Quest: By the Number, part 2, the Steam Linux client officially went public and was accompanied by a site-wide sale.The Linux sale featured

  • Lars Doucet
5 min read
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