Disqus - Latest Comments for jefftunn

Re: How Much Work Does It Take To Become A Great Game Developer?

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Re: Making Flash The Console For The Web

Dale Beermann — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:39:24 -0000

I have to agree with Ben in regards to hardware acceleration. For Jeff, Troy, and Ben, you may be able to guess why. Sharendipity was originally implemented as a Java applet, with hardware acceleration via OpenGL. All other Java issues aside, when you're looking at casual games then you want a unified user experience. We couldn't provide that in Java with OpenGL, no matter what. And we spent all of our time trying to figure out why Sharendipity wouldn't run on machines like my dad's laptop.

Jeff, you touched on this as a bit too: if %30-50 of the install base either can't run or has an app running at a different speed than the other %50-70, you have a lot of problems. Imagine if even 30% of the people on Kongregate couldn't run most of the games there (and why doesn't Kongregate support Java applets then, or Unity, or...). If there's a way to provide the same user experience to everyone, that's great, but I don't know how it's possible when you're throwing hardware configurations into the mix. Differing CPU speeds by themselves provide enough issues for game developers (as Troy said, to be developing for XNA is in many ways a lot easier than developing for the web/PC). And if Adobe goes down the path of having different versions of Flash (accelerated or not) or supporting different hardware configurations, we run into the Java problem all over again. This is the worst case scenario.

I think that one of the main reasons Flash has achieved the ubiquity it has is because of the unified user experience. If you're targeting %50-70 of Flash's install base, then why not go with something like Unity which will be more accepted by the demographic you're developing for and provides the functionality you need?

As for the tools, well Ben and I have said our piece directly to Adobe. Flex Builder (Flash Builder...) needs to be 100 times better. I've reiterated it to every Adobe evangelist I can find. We just need more people on the bandwagon.

Ben, great post.

Re: Making Flash The Console For The Web

Jeff Johnson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:02:08 -0000

I agree with Jeff (mainly because my name is Jeff as well). Enough 3D acceleration for modest 3D graphics(openGL 1.X anyone???) and as much performance consistency as possible.

Re: Making Flash The Console For The Web

jefftunn — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:17:32 -0000

One of the main reasons PushButton Labs chose to use Flash as our first platform this time around was its ubiquity. I think it is proven that it is good enough to make great games, and they are getting better all the time. I love the fact that we can make a game one day, then release it to a world wide audience of a billion or so users the very next day. I have done a presentation on this, and that is more than ALL of the gaming consoles audiences in history COMBINED! I love that.

On the other hand, if Adobe were to include some form of hardware acceleration, there are new ranges of games that could be made. I am a game designer that just wants to make FUN games, so I do not care if we have enough 3D power to make uncanny valley, sweat rolling off the football player characters, but I would not mind enough power to make a decent flight simulator.

I think a nice compromise would be for Adobe to provide a level of hardware support that might reach 50-70% of the installed base. Since Adobe can keep stats on the players, they would be able to tell developers how big the installed base is. Then, as we are creating games, we could make the business decision to go for 1BB people or something smaller, say 500MM.

What I don't want to see is an arms race of technology that is a constantly changing bar requiring tons of QA and product testing for many different hardware configurations. We've all done that in the PC market, and actually still continue to do do today. I don't want to go back.

-Jeff Tunnell, PushButton Labs, Managing Partner

Re: Flashbang Guys Getting It Right

joshuadallman — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:07:08 -0000

I'd also be interested in hearing about not just developers successful indies of all kinds. For example, not just developers but publishers, virtual worlds, social gaming. Big Fish Games started out of a garage with 2 guys, that's about as indie as it gets. Last month SuperSecret picked up $10 million VC funding, making it one of the best funded independent virtual worlds. And Zynga was formed by 6 guys less than 2 years ago and now has 46 million monthly active players, 4 times more than WoW's 12 million! I'd love to hear insights into these companies, or again, any indies off the obvious path in general.

Re: Flashbang Guys Getting It Right

jefftunn — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:46:04 -0000

The advertising market will not always be in the toilet. In my article I was looking a few years out. The first step is getting a lot of fans to love you. Once you have that, you can make money from direct sales, micro-transactions, ads, and even subscriptions. Without an audience and community, you can implement all of that stuff you want, but you won't be able to make it.

Also, taking your best games to XBLA or other paying platforms is a viable strategy. They don't seem to have a lot of desire to do so, but if they keep going, odds are they will create a game that becomes a huge hit. At that point, they will get approached by publishers willing to pay them to take their IP's to other platforms.

Doing contract work for a few years while playing this strategy out is not such a bad thing. It looks to me like these guys are having a great time.

Re: Flashbang Guys Getting It Right

jefftunn — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:44:34 -0000

I have some more ideas for Indies Doing It Right. I'll post a now one from time to time. I am open to getting suggestions from the MBG community as well. If anybody has any ideas for successful Indies doing great things, let me know.

Re: Flashbang Guys Getting It Right

jefftunn — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:42:40 -0000

1989 was a hard year. We were working vary hard on our two Affiliated Publisher products, A-10 Tankkiller and David Wolf: Secret Agent, as well as a bunch of Activision products like Mechwarrior. It is kind of funny to think that 30+ developers could create 8 AA products in one year, but we did. In addition, a bunch of those games got great reviews and were very influencial. For instance, A-10 was one of the very first game to support 256 colors! Sound funny now, but it was nearly the equivalent of being the first to support 3D graphics cards. Going to 256 colors was one of the biggest visual differences in games ever.

Re: One Way To Divide Your Company Equity At Start Up

jefftunn — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:05:02 -0000

This article is about how to divide ownership of your company, not your product. Those are two very distinct and different issues. Usually, the company owns the copyright on the projects that it funds and develops.

Re: One Way To Divide Your Company Equity At Start Up

jefftunn — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:17:51 -0000

Are you a publisher or a developer? A 300K units sales projection is very, very far from modest. I am not a fan of taking investor money for starting a development company. How are you planning on paying your investors back? If you are going to take investor many, why not just sign with a publisher? They understand the risks. Most investors do not. If you take investor money, you no longer own your company, so you are not really Indie. You owe it to the investors to pay back the money at a great return since this is such a risky business. I simply do not think anybody in this business can make those kinds of promises.

Re: PushButton Engine Open Beta Launched

bengarney — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:33:03 -0000

We're using Google Code - check out pushbuttonengine.googlecode.com.

For changes, we hope that most changes will fall into the form of components that get uploaded to the store. :)

But for core changes, yes, absolutely contributions are welcome. If you spot something that needs to be changed, post on our forums (http://pushbuttonengine.com/forum/) and we'll figure out the best way to review & get it into the codebase.

Re: PushButton Engine Open Beta Launched

jefftunn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:32:43 -0000

We are going to accept contributions. The code is currently hosted on Google Code. Ben will have to write more about how we are accepting changes, etc.

Re: Five Realistic Steps To Starting A Game Development Company

jefftunn — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:29:42 -0000

Uuuh. Well, the eBook about how to get started in the games biz is still coming soon now :) Seriously, I really do want to finish it up, but with selling GarageGames to IAC, working on Instant Action, and now starting up PushButton Labs, getting PushButton Engine out, and working on Grunts: Skirmish, something had to go. The eBook didn't make the list. Maybe it'll become the Duke Nuke'm of eBooks :)

Re: Risk Assesment: Don’t Put All Your Games In One Market

jefftunn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:37:47 -0000

I think that trying to get pay back in the first week of release of your game is the wrong way to look at things.

If you have followed my advice of finding like minded people to team up with you to make games, then you don't really have a budget. You have a programmer and an artist that are both part of a team. If you need to make a living, you should have some form of steady income "day job" that will pay the bills while trying to build up your multiple streams of game income.

I certainly don't have exact answers to any of these questions. My advice all comes down to my ways of combating falling prices and rising competition. It is very difficult to put actual numbers to these types of ideas. I do think that a budget of $500-1,000 is way too low. I can't imagine making something good enough for people to pay for with that kind of a budget.

I would always release the free version first and try to find an audience, the figure out how to convert a small part of that audience to paying for something. In our case, we will have a free version and a for pay High Definition version (as well as some other bells and whistles, but you will have to wait to see all of it). The free versions are your marketing.

Re: Risk Assesment: Don’t Put All Your Games In One Market

defanual — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:10:42 -0000

A guess it's a bit like putting all your dominoes (sales streams, products, platforms) side by side rather then closely behind each other. If one falls, everything doesn't go along with it! :)

Re: Hey Whiners, the iPhone Market Owes you Nothing

jefftunn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:39:53 -0000

Nice article, Marsh. Like I commented on your site, I think the iPhone App Store would be much better with a Web interface similar to the way Amazon does it for the Kindle, i.e. let user browse and purchase apps on the website, then push them to the iPhone. The sales of apps would sky rocket.

Re: Risk Assesment: Don’t Put All Your Games In One Market

jefftunn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:37:18 -0000

Dan Cook's freely available graphics are awesome! People should be able to have a lot of fun combining his graphics with the PushButton Engine.

Re: Risk Assesment: Don’t Put All Your Games In One Market

jefftunn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:36:08 -0000

Release of the PushButton Engine is getting closer. Check out this screen shot of Tim Aste's website design: http://www.scrnshots.com/users/timaste/screensh...

Re: Risk Assesment: Don’t Put All Your Games In One Market

jefftunn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:32:47 -0000

The Pangaea guys have been working hard for a long time to finally be in the right place at the right time. Congrats to them on the success of Enigmo selling 810,000 units. I hope their success on this one product turns into success on their follow up products. A lot of my base assumptions for building a successful company are based on this being true.

Re: Risk Assesment: Don’t Put All Your Games In One Market

jefftunn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:29:46 -0000

I think it is a lot more work to come up with a new idea than to get your old idea out to as many platforms as possible. Ideally, I would look for diversification across both platforms and games. In my articles about starting game companies, I advocate building a portfolio of products that each bring in a small amount of "annuity" type revenue. A bunch of small streams of income is a better source than one large one, and making sure the risk is spread among IP's and platforms is the best.

Re: Game Pricing, Look Out Below

jefftunn — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:54:06 -0000

I didn't say there not be hits. There will be. How do you make hits? I don't know, nobody does. There are things you can do to improve your chances, but it is too much to put in a comment. Most of my blog is about what you can do to improve your chances.

Re: Hey Whiners, the iPhone Market Owes you Nothing

bengarney — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:55:02 -0000

If you sit down and play through all the Atari 2600 games, it becomes obvious why the 1983 crash happened. The games weren't much fun. Atari was inadvertently in the business of convincing everyone in the US that video games weren't worth buying. And they succeeded!

Re: Hey Whiners, the iPhone Market Owes you Nothing

JeremyAlessi — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:54:17 -0000

Yeah that's right, it wasn't even originally from Wii Ware. So I guess that's another point in the "reaching the players first" column.

Re: Hey Whiners, the iPhone Market Owes you Nothing

jefftunn — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:54:01 -0000

Tower of Goo came out of the free side of the Internet and was ported to WiiWare with updates to become World of Goo.

Re: Hey Whiners, the iPhone Market Owes you Nothing

JeremyAlessi — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:23:53 -0000

The only game I've really heard much about from the Wii Ware side of things is World of Goo. I think it's a really good point though that people get an elitist attitude when they do catch a break with a completely closed system like Nintendo's. In essence you have to get a little bit of special treatment somewhere to catch a break like that. If you're on the Internet or even something like the App Store you're pretty much at the whim of the market so you have to really earn your spot with the masses, not just hit it off with a few people.