Well, the project is moving slower than I expected (and I expected it to be slow to begin with). Nevermind. I just merged two dungeon environments into one, so technically speaking, I have 25% of the environment set. If I keep at the current rate I may be able to finish right before September.
I am also now considering Shiva3D as well as Unity3D as a candidate for a 3D engine to make a short action side-game that reuses the 3D models I had prerendered.
I really want to finish in early August though, to commemorate 5 years since my registering on Lemmasoft forums and taking my first steps as a game-maker... from small experimental text-and-pictures visual novels, to slightly more complicated simulations, and now an RPG hybrid. Many developers took 10 or 15 years of industry experience before deciding to go independent. We live in an exciting time that I can go head to head with them at the same points of entry: PC, iOS, Android, XBLIG (if available in your country).
Five years also marks a generational shift, whether it's a console life-cycle, an automobile full model year change, or even the population of a forum.
So with this work, I will be deciding what I will be doing next as far as serious hobbies go, depending on the end result and reception.
Happy Holidays!
This is the humble development blog for an upcoming tactical adventure / SRPG, currently being made by a hobbyist with a few friends and professional freelancers.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The West will save the ACG (anime, comic, game) industry
I've been thinking about in-game advertising, and I have a somewhat reasonable idea to propose. Instead of some random crap being advertised, how about tying up with fellow VN makers and let them advertise through your game?
With the increasing popularity of pay-what-you-want schemes and crazy sales that destroy any sense of value (i.e. Steam's 5 indie games for $5 which essentially puts even desktop games at the same price points as iphone apps and XBLIG games), we could be looking at a future where majority of the audience would rather not pay for games (in fact it could be happening now). iTunes is a captive market because unless the phone is jailbroken, it's easy enough to purchase something on impulse since the user accounts and credit card info have already been entered. The problem is exposure. So I'm thinking... instead of the usual convention of having the mobile version advertise the desktop version of the game... how about have the desktop version advertise the mobile version instead? Or have the desktop version of some other game advertise the mobile version of a related but different game?
I've read that Android is so rife with piracy that one might as well treat it the same as a desktop market (I don't think Unity Android Pro should be so expensive, because I expect Android developers to get even less ROI compared to iOS devs.).
I'm thinking a pay version of the game will get a dedicated high speed direct download, be ad-free, and contain extras (i.e. wallpapers and strategy guide in the package). While a free version can be offered on a dedicated torrent and will force the player to sit through a a sponsor's message (which can be skipped on subsequent play-through using persistent data) before playing the game. That sponsor's message can be the iTunes version of a fellow VN maker... or it can even be propaganda of a political or activist nature (yeah I'm thinking of writing a 1,000 word essay regarding the problems of one's country). Maybe a game can be so good that players will indulge the developer ranting and rambling in his soapbox for a few minutes. This can be in addition to a blog post and probably will even be more effective than a blog post.
As technology matures and digital goods and services follow the general trend of paid --> free (e.g. game engines such as Unity), the patronage model must be bolstered if we want to keep the things we love around. Maybe not the consumers themselves, but somebody has to be around to fund and maintain such things. I used to be intrigued by Taiwanese single-player RPGs such as Heroine Anthem since they resembled JRPGs so much... guess what? They're gone now, replaced by generic MMORPGS. I also used to enjoy the anime works of Gonzo since they really catered to Western tastes... well guess what? They too are largely gone now, and their crazy narratives have been replaced by generic moe shows. Unlike other arts that can be supplemented by live performances, the digital media arts -- especially animation, comics, games only have print runs and digital distribution as their only source of revenue. And unlike the performance arts, the digital media arts can be created by introverted, ugly people in their bedrooms -- as long as they have brilliant minds and artistic talent. And I want to reward them for it. (Beautiful people are essentially getting paid for being born with the traits to begin with).
Japan enjoyed a recent boom in cultural exports, but I think the ACG industry in Japan is dying a slow death. The population is growing old, the yen remains too strong, the young workforce (after what's left of the NEETs) is unmotivated. I sincerely believe the future of anime will be more western-commissioned works such as Iron Man. The same goes for games and manga as well, if Korea (or even China) doesn't beat them to it.
I hope to be among the second wave of "Western" (well I'm Asian, but raised in the West) developed JRPGs. The first wave was after the release of the popular Final Fantasy VII. Right now JRPGs are very unpopular, so the only western-developed JRPGs are either RPGMaker clones or parody games (usually RPGMaker parody games). I want to make a genuine game in the JRPG (or more like, SRPG) spirit.
With the increasing popularity of pay-what-you-want schemes and crazy sales that destroy any sense of value (i.e. Steam's 5 indie games for $5 which essentially puts even desktop games at the same price points as iphone apps and XBLIG games), we could be looking at a future where majority of the audience would rather not pay for games (in fact it could be happening now). iTunes is a captive market because unless the phone is jailbroken, it's easy enough to purchase something on impulse since the user accounts and credit card info have already been entered. The problem is exposure. So I'm thinking... instead of the usual convention of having the mobile version advertise the desktop version of the game... how about have the desktop version advertise the mobile version instead? Or have the desktop version of some other game advertise the mobile version of a related but different game?
I've read that Android is so rife with piracy that one might as well treat it the same as a desktop market (I don't think Unity Android Pro should be so expensive, because I expect Android developers to get even less ROI compared to iOS devs.).
I'm thinking a pay version of the game will get a dedicated high speed direct download, be ad-free, and contain extras (i.e. wallpapers and strategy guide in the package). While a free version can be offered on a dedicated torrent and will force the player to sit through a a sponsor's message (which can be skipped on subsequent play-through using persistent data) before playing the game. That sponsor's message can be the iTunes version of a fellow VN maker... or it can even be propaganda of a political or activist nature (yeah I'm thinking of writing a 1,000 word essay regarding the problems of one's country). Maybe a game can be so good that players will indulge the developer ranting and rambling in his soapbox for a few minutes. This can be in addition to a blog post and probably will even be more effective than a blog post.
As technology matures and digital goods and services follow the general trend of paid --> free (e.g. game engines such as Unity), the patronage model must be bolstered if we want to keep the things we love around. Maybe not the consumers themselves, but somebody has to be around to fund and maintain such things. I used to be intrigued by Taiwanese single-player RPGs such as Heroine Anthem since they resembled JRPGs so much... guess what? They're gone now, replaced by generic MMORPGS. I also used to enjoy the anime works of Gonzo since they really catered to Western tastes... well guess what? They too are largely gone now, and their crazy narratives have been replaced by generic moe shows. Unlike other arts that can be supplemented by live performances, the digital media arts -- especially animation, comics, games only have print runs and digital distribution as their only source of revenue. And unlike the performance arts, the digital media arts can be created by introverted, ugly people in their bedrooms -- as long as they have brilliant minds and artistic talent. And I want to reward them for it. (Beautiful people are essentially getting paid for being born with the traits to begin with).
Japan enjoyed a recent boom in cultural exports, but I think the ACG industry in Japan is dying a slow death. The population is growing old, the yen remains too strong, the young workforce (after what's left of the NEETs) is unmotivated. I sincerely believe the future of anime will be more western-commissioned works such as Iron Man. The same goes for games and manga as well, if Korea (or even China) doesn't beat them to it.
I hope to be among the second wave of "Western" (well I'm Asian, but raised in the West) developed JRPGs. The first wave was after the release of the popular Final Fantasy VII. Right now JRPGs are very unpopular, so the only western-developed JRPGs are either RPGMaker clones or parody games (usually RPGMaker parody games). I want to make a genuine game in the JRPG (or more like, SRPG) spirit.
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