tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90496432491552246092024-03-06T01:08:41.860+02:00Part Time MonkeyTuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-42765977581537526382018-04-25T10:09:00.003+03:002018-04-25T10:09:51.539+03:00The blog has moved!Hey all, the new blog can be found on Part Time Monkey's website at <a href="http://www.parttimemonkey.com/">www.parttimemonkey.com</a><br />
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To kick things off, there is a new blog post about <a href="http://www.parttimemonkey.com/2018/04/24/silly-walks-revenue-downloads/">Silly Walks - Downloads & Revenue</a>!Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-74872979174623704482018-04-02T16:29:00.000+03:002018-04-02T16:29:19.890+03:00Efficient DevelopmentI often get asked how I develop games so fast with high quality. Usually I shrug my shoulders and give an "I don't know" answer because it's half the truth, and I don't want to sound like a know-it-all fool. I've been pondering on it for a while, however. I think the actual answer is quite complicated and has to do with a combination of a variety of things that connect together. I'll try to put these thoughts in words.<br />
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To start out with a simple statement, I think effectiveness comes through experience and focus; being able to steer away from time-consuming decisions early on throughout a project and knowing how the different processes evolve from start to finish.<br />
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Keep in mind that I develop casual mobile games (mostly), so the following is written that in mind, and much of it I wouldn't suggest to a hardcore game developer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This image is here just to break the wall of text.</td></tr>
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Experience</h2>
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Since I've shipped so many titles on mobile, I've gone through the process multiple times, having stumbled on the same repeating problems. With every published title I become more aware of the problems that await in every project. Because of that I prepare for them before-hand making them basically non-existent. Many of these headaches change over time due to software updates, new devices, limitations, restrictions and whatnot, but by publishing often I keep my self up-to-date with them.</div>
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The published projects build up a "framework" of solutions that I re-use in the next projects. This saves the most time I believe. There are so many aspects to a mobile game that need to handled in order for it to be considered a "full" game, e.g. in-app purchases, advertisements, social mechanics, UI, audio handling, cross promotion, input handling, economy and whatnot. For me this framework has built itself up over time. Each of the features take a lot of time to implement if done from scratch, but by using them in all my projects they get refined over time and take even less time in each new project I start. </div>
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I recycle a lot of other, non-technical, material from game to another, too. If you look at any of <a href="http://www.parttimemonkey.com/">Part Time Monkey</a>'s games you'll notice that especially the UI looks more or less the same in each, with just different colors and compositions. I try to recycle much of the ingame art too, if possible, but always in a fashion that it doesn't feel like the previous.</div>
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Having a technical background in game art for a number of years gives me the ability to make constant decisions that remove or minimize later development steps, for example performance-related issues. From the beginning of time I've approached game art in a more technical way rather than artistic. This means getting to know the software, its tools and shortcuts in an efficient manner, making it so that I don't have to learn new things when trying to achieve a certain look for a game.</div>
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I've always been very nitty about naming conventions, project hierarchies and making sure that a project never has any legacy or otherwise unneeded assets in it. As I've done this since always, it has become a subconscious way of being, and therefore I don't need to think about it anymore, it just happens. This goes deeper than just the project hierarchy; I group and name layers within PSD and 3D files, have solid naming conventions in scripts and even keep my folders and files in Windows tight and clean. Having everything organized helps to save time for always knowing where something is and how it has been created, in order modify something or create more similar material. I think that this paragraph becomes even more crucial in effectiveness when working with a team, and needs to be applied to the whole team.</div>
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I never start developing anything unless I have at least a hunch of how it needs to be executed and how it will look like. This way I avoid an uncertain timeline and can plan further without yet having everything in place. I say no to a lot of ideas of my own (and from others) just because I don't know how to do it easily. If there's something interesting to be achieved in an "unknown", I try to take baby steps towards it by using other people's expertise, or Google and Unity's asset store. Examples of this could be shader programming and advanced mathematics, or new software and/or plugins. I think it's much more valuable to execute fast with a good look 'n feel instead of waste time on forcefully trying to achieve something new and unique.</div>
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Through experience I know I lose motivation on long-lasting projects and tasks, and I've accepted it. This "self-awareness" has lead me to drop projects early if I feel it's gonna take more than 2 or 3 months to get it in a presentable, almost shippable, state.</div>
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I'm a workaholic but I don't often do long days. I'm a workaholic in the sense that not a minute goes by that I wouldn't think about something work-related. It makes relaxing harder but keeps my motivation straight.</div>
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I don't stress or worry at all. I used to stress a little, but over time I've realized that it doesn't help me at all. Now I get tingly sensations when I'm on a tight timeline in an excited way. I might get frustrated too, but it's mostly about me not being able to solve something that I know should be solvable within minutes if I just did something right. It's a great challenge. This may sound weird, but deep down I don't care if I don't hit some specific deadline, since in the end I know that I did my absolute best, and the deadline wasn't met because I made some humane error in estimations or predictions. I take full responsibility, but I use the failure to be better next time. Don't worry, be happy!</div>
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<i>The next paragraph will sound a little vague, but it's something I often think about so I wanted to put it out there.</i></div>
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Many people will say that the last 5% of effort mean the most, but I think it can be easily misunderstood by using a lot of time on some certain - often non-important - features, therefore leading into a game where parts have been done to "the full 100%" and others with a 20%-attitude. I'm a strong believer that with casual games 80-90% is enough, as long as it's executed all-around the project. </div>
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Art, Design & Audio</h2>
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My projects often start based on other games, sometimes even straight up copying mechanics. But as the project evolves, it usually turns out to be something else than a rip-off. If it doesn't, and it feels too much like its predecessor, I'll just scratch it and start something new. However I think it's a good starting place to rip off something that works well, since someone else has done most of the design work already, and I can reap some of the benefits by making a new version of the same. In the end, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc">everything is a remix</a> anyway.</div>
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I'm not a good traditional artist but I've got an idea on what looks good. I've realized this early on, which has lead me to only approach simplistic art by using my technical knowledge. Most of the art in my games are just plenty of "disguised primitive shapes" put together with an idea of how the big picture should look like. This, again, enables me to create good looking stuff fast without having to spend time on concept art or even learning how to actually draw. I use a lot of references to skip the concepting phase, meaning mostly going to Google and search for "<desired thing> cartoon" and quickly glancing on how others have conceptualized the same thing.</div>
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For small mobile games I don't think audio even really needs to enter your thoughts, it just needs to happen. There are so many good-enough free or very cheap sources online that it makes no sense to create your own SFX or background music. It's fun, but not necessary in order to be efficient. I've done some audio myself, and had my friends do, but for the bigger picture I know it doesn't make sense. Sometimes, though ,it makes more sense to spend a little longer on something just to have fun, to keep one's motivation straight.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihry0dU2LjLyF1oOX7T3eMynFP-D6N7AGSVTJKiHIN3WUk2S7zfZ4tSRw1Ygq4Bfj-gDts0ZAUHroPW8kPkW6tcDTjyPRbippsUtf0fCZac6FLAbPuK2JyX49SKG_9KmI1LioNe05UaNQ/s1600/Untitled-6.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="411" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihry0dU2LjLyF1oOX7T3eMynFP-D6N7AGSVTJKiHIN3WUk2S7zfZ4tSRw1Ygq4Bfj-gDts0ZAUHroPW8kPkW6tcDTjyPRbippsUtf0fCZac6FLAbPuK2JyX49SKG_9KmI1LioNe05UaNQ/s320/Untitled-6.png" width="312" /></a></div>
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Getting Downloads</h2>
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A lot of people who I've discussed with about getting visibility on the mobile markets are strong believers that it's more or less lottery. They also claim that there are thousands of games that have earned visibility but just haven't. I don't agree on that <i>at all</i>. While it's true that there might be games that for example have a good mechanic, interesting meta-game or a unique idea, I claim that they all lack at least one or more key ingredients that don't make them worthy of publicity. A game doesn't earn its visibility for just one good thing while ignoring other aspects to it. It needs to have, more or less, "everything right." Most indie developers come from a programming background and may ignore for example art, first time user-experience or UX altogether over just good technical implementation or complex gameplay that <i>they</i> find fun.</div>
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This comes back to having everything 80-90% right rather than 20-100%. I strongly believe that the reason for my games' visibility comes through not ignoring any aspect of a game. I find it even more true for the fact that when I released my first game Monkeyrama, it didn't get the visibility I thought it had earned at the time. Now I understand that even though it had good visuals and core mechanic, it lacked the depth and consistency that my more successful titles have had.</div>
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Something else</h2>
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I don't think I am a very good leader. I expect same efficiency, results and like-mindedness from others, and when I don't see it, I get frustrated and don't communicate my thoughts very well. I think the reason for this is that I spend so much time inside my own head consciously and subconsciously mixing everything I know, that it becomes something that I can't even verbally pronounce, it's just something that makes me efficient. </div>
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But Part Time Monkey is already a two-person team, and I can always get better at teamwork by putting my mind to it, and employing the right type of people who can bear me being a little ... cranky at times.</div>
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Conclusion</h2>
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By having worked as an artist, technical artist, core-designer, meta-designer, producer, audio dev, and a programmer, and having published close to 10 games on my own with and without publishers, I think my efficiency comes by being able to mash all the learnings and thoughts in my messy head, which leads into quick development by seeing with multiple eyes.</div>
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Or... I have no idea what I'm doing and I've just been insanely lucky. Who knows.</div>
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Games and Dev Times</h2>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/breakout-ninja/id1181855058">Breakout Ninja,</a> ~3 weeks</div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1041984858">Monkeyrama</a>, ~1.5 months</div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/space-bang/id1072777731">Space Bang</a>, ~2.5 months</div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/silly-walks/id1229630187">Silly Walks</a>, ~4 months (together with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simokovanen/">Simo Kovanen</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/asmo-jussila-532ba982/">Asmo Jussila</a>)</div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/space-frontier/id1252963998">Space Frontier</a>, ~1.5 months (published by <a href="http://www.ketchappgames.com/">Ketchapp</a>, designed by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/antti-ilvessuo-2a35952/">Antti Ilvessuo</a>)</div>
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-70635510611537654392018-03-30T15:35:00.000+03:002018-03-30T15:41:45.114+03:00SUMO League, i.e. Pong Remastered<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="320" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/17AzE94bTu0" width="550"></iframe><br />
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Three weeks of development behind, and we're getting somewhere! 3 arenas are now available for testing, each with distinct visuals and slightly differing arena shapes!<br />
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Another new addition is the Power Toss! Players can now execute a devastating forward toss simply by catching the ball in the air and then using their normal toss.<br />
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We've been fine-tuning controls, testing new mechanics and creating new arenas. Rudimentary menus are in place too, so you can select levels etc. New input mechanics are now supported too, including keyboard (two-player capability with keyboard alone!) Also other controllers should be supported, <br />
but not tested. XBox controllers work like a charm.<br />
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<img height="221" src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/427395971635216386/429258215742504971/unknown.png" width="400" /><br />
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Squeeze in with your friend, because local multiplayer with a single keyboard is now supported! Pressing Esc while ingame lets you see the key bindings.<br />
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In the coming weeks we want to experiment with multiple playable characters each with different attributes. This should create interesting variation to the gameplay. We are also testing new arena styles.<br />
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Download the game on <a href="http://www.derpleague.com/">www.derpleague.com</a>! You're welcome to come by our office in Helsinki to test it live, too, just drop us a message!Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-20735151638624223702018-03-23T16:36:00.001+02:002018-03-23T16:36:11.352+02:00SUMO League (previously known as DERP League)<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GLO4t3zHsKo" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Our DERP League now changed to SUMO League!<br />
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DERP League didn't necessarily bring enough uniqueness to the table so we decided to do something else. We started to prototype a Sumo wrestling game this Monday, but ended up scratching that too. We quickly changed to a kind of volley ball soccer Windjammers type of thing yesterday, and here's the result...<br />
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It's surprisingly fun to play already! But you still need two XBox controllers and a friend to play with. Other input mechanics may come later.<br />
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So far it's been very eye-opening to develop on an entirely new platform with so much more possibilities in game mechanics than mobile. It's also proven not to be very easy to make synchronous versus game, since there's a lot to balance and take care of.<br />
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Two more weeks to go, which is plenty, especially now that we're probably not going to change everything anymore.<br />
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You're welcome to visit our office if you wanna try the game out. <span style="font-family: "apple color emoji", "segoe ui emoji", notocoloremoji, "segoe ui symbol", "android emoji", emojisymbols, "emojione mozilla"; font-size: 28px;">😎</span><br />
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Or download it at <a href="http://www.derpleague.com/">www.derpleague.com</a>Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-54015491309600096622018-03-16T15:38:00.000+02:002018-03-16T15:38:26.139+02:00For the love of split-screen!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As big fans of <a href="http://www.rocketleague.com/">Rocket League</a> and split-screen gaming, we are disappointed for the lack of split-screen games out there. So we figured to make one for ourselves!</div>
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Introducing <a href="http://www.derpleague.com/">DERP League!</a> It’s a free 1vs1 game for PC, requiring two XBox controllers. The core idea is pretty much the same as in Rocket League, but we plan to make the gameplay very different. In the first version, however, we wanted to get the basic controls right and the look ‘n feel OK, so it is currently only a simple version of Rocket League. But it’s still fun! We hope to bring quirky new features in the next build!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL0lNH0ciNPbT7oB4IZEo3Va-8P_VxsG5xseWssA0NomFWOfkzR1xorKTf3K0zfB2nW8HnA38_eKsqv1cnOXZPl8ly2yudlXpHAo4H_B7hR8qZoDjR-QFqL9BRl7iOG22JdHi6OJVofqI/s1600/screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1600" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL0lNH0ciNPbT7oB4IZEo3Va-8P_VxsG5xseWssA0NomFWOfkzR1xorKTf3K0zfB2nW8HnA38_eKsqv1cnOXZPl8ly2yudlXpHAo4H_B7hR8qZoDjR-QFqL9BRl7iOG22JdHi6OJVofqI/s640/screenshot.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The plan is to take a one month break from our regular work of developing mobile games, and just have fun making a local multiplayer game for everyone to enjoy! <br />
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We started the project a week ago on 12th of March. We’re going to release a new version of the game every Friday until the 13th of April. Whatever state the game is in at that point, we will consider it as “final.” <br />
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Download the game at <a href="http://www.derpleague.com/">www.derpleague.com</a> <br />
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We would very gladly hear feedback and suggestions at <a href="mailto:contact@parttimemonkey.com">contact@parttimemonkey.com</a>. Good crazy ideas will be implemented!</div>
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-21311115335768578752017-09-19T14:49:00.001+03:002017-09-19T14:49:27.131+03:00From Zero to 15M Downloads, an Indie Dev JourneyI've been an indie developer for two years now. My initial goal was to experiment, learn, and have fun as a mobile game developer, and for the lifetime of Part Time Monkey I've been able to do so. Here's a look on what has happened during that time, from oldest to newest.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivujpNlUQWnzRQVyoFaKsO1UgkBdkCMtVInzkzXDJHYMPXlt-dNq0fe6FFlm9OEx_Os-IhU223TqvCnD17vhqqiSwFhZdvJ9RS7TLBkRJQ135_P-92LH3UoF-OSD1HrKstqFA5R8aHuw4/s1600/timgameplay.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="706" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivujpNlUQWnzRQVyoFaKsO1UgkBdkCMtVInzkzXDJHYMPXlt-dNq0fe6FFlm9OEx_Os-IhU223TqvCnD17vhqqiSwFhZdvJ9RS7TLBkRJQ135_P-92LH3UoF-OSD1HrKstqFA5R8aHuw4/s320/timgameplay.gif" width="320" /></a>TIM - THE UNSATISFIED ARTIST<br />Goal: Experience the Process<br />Dev time: ~3 weeks<br />Downloads: ~50</h4>
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At the very beginning I wanted to know what it takes to start a project from scratch and have it published on the App Store and Google Play. There was no expectation of reaching lots of downloads or revenue, so I just basically cloned Flappy Bird with a slightly different control mechanic.</div>
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I learnt a lot about programming, as I hadn't done any real game programming before, and got to familiarize myself with the platform portals and tools (Google Play, iTunes Connect and XCode). The project was a success for what I set out to do.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbS9uYep7XDPH_LsXERGYvozBg1gNegynFdHS6eomHK9AgxtXkI_TJG2n2q8k9KMSecAIL9dfASVjUJXYS_MRCwDAZR4v30PlHx2lptPdThHvAWosYxL1Zkje4P0oW3gCYNhyZs3EpdQw/s1600/screen480x480.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbS9uYep7XDPH_LsXERGYvozBg1gNegynFdHS6eomHK9AgxtXkI_TJG2n2q8k9KMSecAIL9dfASVjUJXYS_MRCwDAZR4v30PlHx2lptPdThHvAWosYxL1Zkje4P0oW3gCYNhyZs3EpdQw/s320/screen480x480.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monkeyrama/id1041984858?mt=8">MONKEYRAMA</a><br />Goal: Make a Premium Game<br />Dev time: ~1,5 months<br />Downloads: ~200K</h4>
<br />
The idea was basically to mimic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_Blox">Boom Blox</a> and <a href="http://www.angrybirds.com/">Angry Birds</a> in 3D, and see how a premium game ($0.99) is received on the stores. Initially the game didn't get much featuring, to which I think the reason was that it didn't have much features overall, and no platform-specific features at all. As a premium game it didn't get many downloads, but it was very well received by the players who ended up buying it - with avg. rating of ~4.7/5. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I eventually made the game free with one rewarded ad placement, and as such it's gotten ~10X downloads and revenue compared to it's premium life cycle. So it was pretty obvious that my games would be free with ads from that point on.</div>
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<div>
At that point I still didn't feel very confident as a programmer, so I couldn't implement many of the features I would've wanted to.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for party soccer part time monkey" height="179" src="https://madewith.unity.com/sites/default/files/styles/slider_item/public/game/teaser-image/partysoccer_teaser.jpg?itok=wXVeYLsx" width="320" /></h4>
<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/party-soccer/id1050103458?mt=8">PARTY SOCCER</a><br />Goal: Experiment with local multiplayer<br />Dev time: ~2 weeks<br />Downloads: ~5K</h4>
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<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I had a bit of spare time while waiting for Monkeyrama to go through the review process, so I had a little bit of fun making a local multiplayer soccer game for just iPads. It didn't have any monetization in it, but helped me learn more about programming and to again experience the process of launching etc.</div>
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<h4>
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<h4>
PROTOTYPES<br />Goal: Find the next game<br />Dev time: ~1.5 months</h4>
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<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After Monkeyrama's failure I started prototyping a bunch of different things. I had recently watched Star Wars, the one with the pod racing bit, which served as inspiration for the prototype. The meta-design on that became too much of a burden, and the level design required too much manual labor, so I ended up dropping the project.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I had also played <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hill-climb-racing/id564540143?mt=8">Hill Climb Racing</a>, and I figured I could basically do the same but in 3D, prettier, and with physics. It was fun, but as people tested the prototype, their initial comments were along the lines of "so this is just Hill Climb Racing?" which was enough of a hint for me to drop the project. Not cool to be a rip-off developer.</div>
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<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-bang/id1072777731?mt=8">SPACE BANG</a><br />Goal: Monetize through F2P<br />Dev time: ~2.5 months<br />Downloads: ~100K</h4>
<h4>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Through the previous prototyping phase I ended up with a space shooter game. I figured to dip my fingers into "real F2P gaming" and for the first time implement IAPs, social features, multiple rewarded ads, infinite gameplay, upgrades and whatnot. The "test" here was basically to see if the market is so f*cked up that it's enough to make an OK game with lots of monetization possibilities to become rich. Thankfully, I found out that it's not enough.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The game was fairly well received and got a bit of featuring, but still wasn't enough to keep on updating forever and make a business around it.</div>
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<div>
To this date, though, Space Bang is the game with the highest LTV ($0.2) of all my games, so from user acquisition point of view this would've been the thing to keep on doing. However I didn't feel like I want to keep on doing games like that, as in very basic gameplay with no real excitement and the focus on milking the players.<br />
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<h4>
GTA EXPRESS<br />Goal: Make an endless playground-game<br />Dev time: ~1 months</h4>
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<div>
I had played too much GTA 5. I figured I could do that for mobile, with cartoony graphics. I didn't have a clear design for it, so I just started making all kinds of features. In the prototype you could </div>
<div>
- do missions as a policeman, fire fighter, gangster, pizza delivery guy</div>
<div>
- gamble at the casino</div>
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- buy and drive different kinds of vehicles</div>
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- race against AI</div>
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- visit the movie theater</div>
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- buy properties that generated money</div>
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- receive text messages and phone calls through your mini iPhone</div>
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- and whatnot</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The player's goal was... uh. I don't know. It became a big blur of stuff, so I just dumped it.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">-----------</span></h4>
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<h4>
SUBCONTRACTING<br />Goal: Make some money<br />Time: ~4 months</h4>
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<div>
I did a bunch of prototyping for other companies such as <a href="http://www.ubisoft.com/">Ubisoft</a>, <a href="http://www.rovio.com/">Rovio</a> and <a href="https://armadainteractive.com/">Armada</a>. I got to learn a buttload about making games of different genres, while someone else was paying for it! I even got to do a 3-week gig in Ubisoft Romania, which was a great experience.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ultimately I figured that as the prototyping was going so well, I could perhaps form a business around just that; prototyping for others. However, in the end I had to be true to myself and keep on fooling around on the indie frontier.<br />
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<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kids-discover-dinosaurs-puzzle-games-for-toddlers/id1148991115?mt=8">KIDS DISCOVER DINOSAURS</a><br />Dev time: ~1.5 months<br />Downloads: ~100K<br />Goal: Experiment on kids' games</h4>
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<br /></div>
<div>
During my time at Romania I met a dude who really wanted to form a business around kids' games. He had a prototype and most of the art already done, but needed a developer to take it til the end. I figured why not try out what it'd be like to do games that are completely different from what I had gotten used to - on design, monetization and target audience. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It was fun to do, and a key learning for me was that even though this kind of games rarely get featured, they could potentially be a real business. The conversion rate from a downloading user to a paying user is insanely high: it's getting downloaded from 50-100 times a day, but the one IAP that it has is being purchased 5-15 times a day. That is somewhere around 10% of downloaders also use money on it. Obviously it is the parents who buy it for their kids, I hope. The game was launched a year ago, but this phenomenon is still steadily happening.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, I would imagine, that there would be a real business, quite "effortlessly", to make quality kids games, re-skin them with different themes, and ultimately generating a nice steady revenue stream that isn't affected by the same rise-and-fall syndrome than "normal casual games."<br />
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<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/breakout-ninja/id1181855058?mt=8">BREAKOUT NINJA</a><br />Dev time: ~3 weeks<br />Downloads: ~2M<br />Goal: Minimalistic approach</h4>
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<br /></div>
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<div>
I had played a lot of <a href="http://www.ketchappstudio.com/">Ketchapp</a> games, especially <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/ketchapp-summer-sports/id1140680115">Ketchapp Summer Sports</a>, and really got hooked on it. The control mechanic was fresh to me, so I wanted to try it in a different environment, and add vertical movement to it. </div>
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<div>
I also wanted to approach a visual style that is fast to do and easily transformed into different themes. I ended up going with a silhouette approach where the silhouettes can be just re-colored through programming.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
This game was my first mega-hit on my scale. 2M downloads and more than a year's worth of income. It was the first moment where I felt that I could do this full-time without the constant fear of soon having to think about getting a job.<br />
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<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/%E9%93%B6%E6%B2%B3%E6%88%98%E9%98%9F-%E5%B1%9E%E4%BA%8E%E4%BD%A0%E7%9A%84%E9%93%B6%E6%B2%B3%E6%8A%A4%E5%8D%AB%E9%98%9F/id1210297400">SPACE BANG</a> (published by <a href="https://www.idreamsky.com/en">iDreamSky</a>)<br />Goal: Publisher experience<br />Dev time: ~3 weeks<br />Downloads: ~100K</h4>
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<h4>
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<div>
After Breakout Ninja I was approached by a lot of people, including publishers. One of them was iDreamSky, who had previously launched games such as <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/subway-surfers/id512939461?mt=8">Subway Surfers</a> and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/temple-run/id420009108?mt=8">Temple Run</a> on the Chinese market. They wanted to publish my previous game Space Bang in China, which sounded good to me.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I ended up getting a lot of experience on what it's like working with a publisher, and implementing external SDKs. The game wasn't a huge success, so we didn't continue to update it, but nonetheless a great and eye-opening experience.<br />
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<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-frontier/id1252963998?mt=8">SPACE FRONTIER</a> (published by <a href="http://www.ketchappstudio.com/">Ketchapp</a>)<br />Goal: Publisher experience<br />Dev time: ~2 months<br />Downloads: ~11M</h4>
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<h4>
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<div>
Through my subcontracting phase I got to know the founder of <a href="http://www.redlynx.com/">RedLynx</a>, <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-CzC9VXoAISGEk.jpg">Antti Ilvessuo</a>. RedLynx and Ketchapp were both acquired by Ubisoft. Antti is a big fan of Ketchapp's games, and so am I. Through the acquisition of Ubisoft-Ketchapp, Antti had an idea to publish a game through Ketchapp which was partly done within Ubisoft, and he was looking for a developer partner which ended up being me.</div>
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<div>
Antti was in charge of game design and getting the deal done, while I was in charge of the development. We had the game mostly done in the beginning of year, and ended up working on it on-off throughout the first half of year implementing SDKs and so on. Finally it was released in the beginning of August, and became an immediate hit.<br />
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<h4>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/silly-walks/id1229630187">SILLY WALKS</a><br />Goal: Publish a "Real Game"<br />Dev time: ~4 months<br />Downloads: ~2M</h4>
<div>
<h4>
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</div>
<div>
I had been searching for a second Monkey Man to join me in my adventures. There was quite a bit of interest and I eventually started a project with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/asmo-jussila-532ba982/">Asmo Jussila</a> from <a href="http://www.ragemode.net/">Ragemode Entertainment</a>, a fellow Finnish indie developer who had released a bunch of games with minor success.</div>
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Silly Walks is based on one of Asmo's prototypes, from which the control mechanic is taken. We designed the world around it and figured out our roles; Asmo would work on game and level design, and I'd work on design and implementation. Together we came up with the visual look of the game, and ended up finding <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simokovanen/?ppe=1">Simo Kovanen</a>, a great artist to take it to the next level and to do all the assets that we'd need.</div>
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While this game was a big success on its launch week, and still is doing OK, it seems like it may be a better idea to focus on the next games instead of keep on doing infinite updates.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">-----------</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
Summa summarum</h2>
<div>
I set out to experiment many different things, and ended up going through many variations of the opportunities a game developer has. </div>
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<div>
I learned that the "luck" behind becoming a successful mobile game developer isn't just about a single game's success on launch, but instead picking the right opportunities wherever you go, and keeping at it.</div>
Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-85238104074959714172017-02-03T08:35:00.001+02:002017-02-03T10:11:57.102+02:00The Search for the Second Monkey ManThe initial search for the second Monkey Man has started. The role is rather vague on what I'm looking for so let's see where this post takes us, if anywhere.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ9jPebSxVuyiDZ6WEbfQqzX_eLzZxI9v3qEeedUuKvLO5MC47D-m9pMgTRNgc0qY8FN056KeASGGOEmZsws_vYqnNFSablA-Xrrd-IBt1lsJtByjaXToQ0fkoErFfyplJmNCnyStYFSc/s1600/SecondMonkeyManProfile.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ9jPebSxVuyiDZ6WEbfQqzX_eLzZxI9v3qEeedUuKvLO5MC47D-m9pMgTRNgc0qY8FN056KeASGGOEmZsws_vYqnNFSablA-Xrrd-IBt1lsJtByjaXToQ0fkoErFfyplJmNCnyStYFSc/s400/SecondMonkeyManProfile.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/private/SecondMonkeyManProfile.jpg">(Click for Bigger)</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<h4>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">THE ROLE</span></b></h4>
<div>
To start out you need to be a great artist with a passion in game design and content creation. You don't necessarily need to have much experience on making games as long as you have the enthusiasm and eagerness to learn for it. I will teach and help you to become a solid pro in Unity and design/content creation in general. You will need to have 3D experience as Unity works in 3D environments, and that will be your main tool. When we make games together, I'll provide the tools for content creation and we'll further design and iterate them together.</div>
<div>
<br />
You don't have to do any UI or programming if you don't want to, as I get the kicks out of those. However it's not a negative aspect if you have the desire for them too.<br />
<br />
There will be miscellaneous tasks to share with me, too. Such as communicating with players, making videos, cleaning up player data, updating websites, QA, "marketing", etc. They don't take much time though, and are very adhoc usually.<br />
<br />
To "market" this to you, this is not a normal job where you do shit and then get paid. Instead it's an opportunity to learn how games are really made inside out from an expert (yeah, I count myself as one!), and eventually become a partner in Part Time Monkey.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="font-size: large;">THE DEAL</span></h4>
The deal would start out as a freelance gig with something like 20€/h with a revenue share deal on all the games we collaborate on. We'll raise those figures as we go and the more certain we are that we're a match made in heaven. Eventually, ultimately, the goal is to make you a full-on partner in Part Time Monkey with shares, benefits and whatnot.<br />
<br />
The hours will likely vary quite a lot, as there might be times that not much is going on and times that all hell is broken loose. Eventually I will include you in all my projects (other collabs and subcontracting gigs etc.) if you want.<br />
<br />
At first we'll work at our homes, hopefully having face-to-face meetings every now and then. Most of the communication will happen through Skype or similar. Possibility to work together at my home studio also exists.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="font-size: large;">THE GAMES </span></h4>
</div>
<div>
We will focus on creating small casual games with short development times (max 2mo per game). When something flies, we'll keep doing updates for it with dev times ~1-2 weeks. The games don't have a specific genre, so anything goes, really. The design should always start a portrait game with one-button mechanics, and elaborated later if seen fit.<br />
<br />
<br />
Send all queries to <a href="mailto:contact@parttimemonkey.com">contact@parttimemonkey.com</a> or ask in the comment section.</div>
</div>
Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-39226807269700775222017-02-02T19:15:00.000+02:002017-02-02T19:15:42.717+02:00Breakout Ninja, the Tail (+ v1.1 Update)As promised, here's "the tail" of <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/breakout-ninja/id1181855058">Breakout Ninja</a>, i.e. "What happened to the revenue and downloads after the launch week." It's not very surprising though.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/private/BreakoutNinjaTheTail.jpg"><img border="0" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVZzEHanJPEIfikVNlAJu41FJQZ_oSnZa8uOg-MAGO0NvMP17vqpc8SrqiyhczFlGscx9A61xMxL34uXcN1MTK5zzKSFdxsxri6oK2jBp0BApMxUNXQwIq4749XaJDOqM5xoO2jKtxTM/s400/BreakoutNinjaTheTail.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/private/BreakoutNinjaTheTail.jpg">(click for bigger)</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Between 5th and 7th the launch with the feature spots happened, so the revenue started streaming in, with the highest paying day being the launch week's Sunday.<br />
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Between 13th and 15th the feature spots updated again, and Ninja wasn't very well featured anymore, which led into the noticeable drop in revenue.<br />
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The latter part of the tail seems to be shrinking slowly day-by-day. I'm a little surprised it's still doing about $100-$200 a day, as I assumed it'd soon go down to a few bucks per day.<br />
<br />
The download counts follows pretty much exactly the same curve, being now at a pretty constant 1K - 1.5K a day.<br />
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<i>Total revenue now: $36K</i><br />
<i>Total downloads now: 865K</i><br />
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<b><br /></b>
<b>MONKEYRAMA RISES FROM THE DEAD</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<div>
What I definitely was not expecting during this period was a feature spot for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/monkeyrama/id1041984858">Monkeyrama</a> in China. My guess it has nothing to do with Breakout Ninja, and everything to do with the fact that the "Year of the Monkey" in China is ending, as the feature spot was in a category called "Quit Monkeyin' Around." </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That spot ended up more than doubling the download amount of Monkeyrama, which is now 156K.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Monkeyrama has no IAPs and only one incentived ad-placement, which can only be used when failing a level. I find it quite interesting, because the spot also ended up more than quadrupling the revenue of Monkeyrama, being now at $11K + IAPs.</div>
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<b>BREAKOUT NINJA UPDATE (v1.1)</b></div>
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After the holidays I had about 3 days to make the first update - if I wanted to stay in schedule. The last 3 days have been quiiiite a busy time, as I've clocked in about ~14-16h per day. But now it's done.</div>
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<div>
The update has pretty much a completely new design. It has 4 "Infinite" levels, 4 "Three-Star" levels and 12 "Hard" levels. It's also got iMessage Stickers, a new menu system and a bunch of improvements here and there. The IAP also now unlocks all the levels on top of removing the ads.</div>
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The update will be out next week's Thursday (9th of Feb).</div>
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Here's a sneak peek video, which only shows some parts of the "Three-Star" levels.</div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BUKUQgWXrEw/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BUKUQgWXrEw?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-45419186918742374772017-01-13T11:29:00.000+02:002017-01-13T11:29:49.146+02:00Breakout Ninja, first weekPhew, what a week!<br />
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Breakout Ninja's success was obviously a big surprise to me. I figured it'd likely do a bit better than <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/monkeyrama/id1041984858">Monkeyrama</a>, but this was very unexpected. The original plan was to release it, get the few thousand downloads and be done with it. Obviously now I'm very enthusiastic about releasing the next update!<br />
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If you haven't downloaded it yet, do so now<br />
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/breakout-ninja/id1181855058">https://itunes.apple.com/app/breakout-ninja/id1181855058</a><br />
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As with my previous games, I wanted to share the numbers and details behind the first week, as I believe this is something that interests at least many indie devs and can be learnt from, to some extent.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNYh_stCxMbfWhL6fa-eEiFQLruo9NVll5qNSq6l2MOa71u9pNv4ifCXtJGLbfWBZQvZ_LDLQdVoMpSSLzkhTa34bMM7k4q8qd37sWtz_2YBVNXfaKf2ANoPpeUKeELcQrd1dUG-lm28/s1600/ninja.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNYh_stCxMbfWhL6fa-eEiFQLruo9NVll5qNSq6l2MOa71u9pNv4ifCXtJGLbfWBZQvZ_LDLQdVoMpSSLzkhTa34bMM7k4q8qd37sWtz_2YBVNXfaKf2ANoPpeUKeELcQrd1dUG-lm28/s400/ninja.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>LAUNCH METRICS<i> (First Week)</i></b><br />
<ul>
<li>650K+ downloads</li>
<li>$1.1K+ revenue (uncut) from IAPs (No Ads IAP, conversion ~0.08%)</li>
<li>$23K+ ad revenue (~$18 avg. eCPM)</li>
<li>4.5/5 average rating</li>
<li>Featured in multiple countries, most meaningful US #7 New Games We Love</li>
<li>Download chart achievements</li>
<ul>
<li>Top5 Games in 12 countries, including US</li>
<li>Top10 Games in 30 countries, including Canada, Australia, Germany</li>
<li>Top100 Games in 110 countries, including UK and what have you</li>
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</ul>
<div>
The game has been covered on multiple media outlets such as Touch Arcade, Pocket Gamer, 148Apps and Cult of Mac (see links at the bottom).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Yesterday Apple again updated their featuring spots (happens every Thursday) and it seems Breakout Ninja has vanished from all lists. It will be very interesting to see how the current chart positions behave in a scenario like this; whether the game comes crashing down instantly, and if not, how long of a tail does it get. Will make another post about this within a few weeks.</div>
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Another positive surprise arose from all of Ninja's success; the implementation of my cross-promotion to my other games seemed to have work well. Before Breakout Ninja, Space Bang and Monkeyrama downloads had dropped to 10-50 per day. Within the last week they've been downloaded about 10K times together, and have made about a fifth of the revenue that they had made in their entire lifetimes. So, cross promotion definitely pays off to some extent!</div>
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<b>DEVELOPMENT PROCESS</b></div>
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The game took about 2 weeks and 3 days to finish, give or take a day. I used ~3 days on prototyping the game about 3-4 months ago and dropped the project, as I didn't think it was good enough to continue. About a month after that my girlfriend Eeva suggested (insisted) that'd I'd continue it since she really liked the game. I figured welp I have nothing better to do really, so why not. From that point two weeks later it was done and good to go.</div>
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The inspiration came from Ketchapp's Summer Sports. It has a similar mechanic but instead of circles they show where to tap on the ground. Figured it was quite fresh, and wanted to put it in use in a more fast-paced environment - hence the Ninja.</div>
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<b>VERSION 1.1 <i>(Planned Release 9th of Feb)</i></b></div>
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Breakout Ninja's first update, v1.1, will get 5 all-new levels with 3-star rating and a hard mode in each. Most of the "meta" work is already done, and one level almost finished. With limited user-testing it has proven to be even more fun and addicting than the endless game-play. A sneak peek will follow.<br />
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Unfortunately, as I didn't plan for the success, I had booked an un-cancelable holiday for two weeks starting from tomorrow - which is the reason for the late release date for the update. But after the holiday, with fresh eyes, the update will be better!</div>
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<b>ARTICLES (English)</b><br />
<a class="in-cell-link" href="http://www.cultofmac.com/461894/breakout-ninja-fights-to-be-the-best-one-button-runner/" style="font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">www.cultofmac.com/461894/breakout-ninja-fights-to-be-the-best-one-button-runner/</a><br />
<a class="in-cell-link" href="http://toucharcade.com/2017/01/10/breakout-ninja-is-a-one-button-ninja-game-you-need-to-try/" style="font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">http://toucharcade.com/2017/01/10/breakout-ninja-is-a-one-button-ninja-game-you-need-to-try/</a><br />
<a class="in-cell-link" href="http://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/64812/breakout-ninja-draws-in-500000-downloads/" style="font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">www.pocketgamer.biz/news/64812/breakout-ninja-draws-in-500000-downloads/</a><br />
<a class="in-cell-link" href="http://arcticstartup.com/article/erikoinen-climbing-charts/" style="font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">http://arcticstartup.com/article/erikoinen-climbing-charts/</a><br />
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<b>ARTICLES (Finnish)</b><br />
<a class="in-cell-link" href="http://www.marmai.fi/uutiset/angry-birds-hahmojen-luoja-teki-uuden-hittipelin-kahdessa-viikossa-6614085" style="font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">http://www.marmai.fi/uutiset/angry-birds-hahmojen-luoja-teki-uuden-hittipelin-kahdessa-viikossa-6614085</a><br />
<a class="in-cell-link" href="http://mobiili.fi/2017/01/10/suomalaiskoodarin-yksinkertaisen-hauska-ninjapeli-nousi-applen-app-storessa-viraalihitiksi/" style="font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">http://mobiili.fi/2017/01/10/suomalaiskoodarin-yksinkertaisen-hauska-ninjapeli-nousi-applen-app-storessa-viraalihitiksi/</a></div>
<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style>Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-35453317568106529842016-07-08T15:01:00.001+03:002016-07-08T15:07:55.347+03:00What now?I'm not sure if just developing games by myself is the best thing for me. It's been fun for the past half a year, but it's unhealthy physically (daily steps around 500, between kitchen and man cave), and socially (only communication is with my girlfriend). It is also extremely hard to break through and start generating an actual income (doesn't mean one shouldn't try, though).<br />
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I've had the opportunity to work on a few interesting subcontracting gigs while indieing around, and they've been challenging and equally fun. I also made a prototype as a gig for someone else, which was kickassingly fun; I got to develop fast and only needed to deliver a good prototype; a week worth of work.<br />
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I've also gotten a few offers to join a company, or start from scratch and co-found a company with others. Some publishing deal negotiations, too.<br />
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However, even though I appreciate all of it and many of them are very tempting, here's a few things I've enjoyed the most and could see myself doing. Let me know if you know anyone in need of anything like below:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Helping Others</b></span><br />
Whenever I get to use my knowledge of game development to help others, I enjoy it a lot. Whether its been in form of art direction, Unity lessons, programming tutoring, audio design, game design, or even game development mindsets in general. I'm not a master in any of the previous, but I believe I am at least okay or good in all of them, which makes me a good "game development generalist."<br />
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It would be awesome if it was possible to do this as a partial business, in form of private lessons, classes, or existing teams.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Prototypes</b></span><br />
People keep telling me how fast I develop my games. I try to keep my feet on the ground, but I guess it's at least partially true, considering all my games' development times. As mentioned before, I recently made a prototype in less than a week for a company and they seemed very happy with it. They wanted a proof of concept. I really loved developing it, as it was a quick thing and it seemed to really help the other party.<br />
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This is definitely something I'd be happy doing for a living; someone having a high-level idea they want to test in action, and I deliver. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Small Games</b></span><br />
I do still get the kicks out of creating complete games, too! But if the game takes more than 2-3 months to finish, or if it's too content-heavy, I tend to get bored with it. I would love to deliver complete games based on others' ideas as subcontracting gigs, as long as they are small and casual. The terms would be obviously negotiable, whether it's a 100% work-for-money, rev shares, or other forms.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Starting Up</span></b><br />
Founding my second actual game company would be nice, but it is extremely hard to find the right partners. It's very unlikely this would happen anytime soon. But I'm open for discussions. :)<br />
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<i>Aaaanyway...</i><br />
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It's been a cool ~8 months being an indie. Now it's time to take a break, do a little roadtrippin' in the U. S. of A. with my lovely girlfriend and friends, and just chill. Monkey out.</div>
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-12170273453195657992016-07-07T10:08:00.002+03:002016-07-07T10:08:26.297+03:00Unity + Asset Store = WINRecently I've had the chance to work on a cool project as a freelancing designer. We used a bunch of different tools - some in-house and some from Unity's asset store. I knew the power of asset store beforehand, but now it became even more clear.<br />
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There are TONS of ready-made tools, helpers, assets, effects, models and whatnot on the asset store for extremely cheap prices. I'll list my favorites here. I'm sure some of these will dramatically effect the development times of yours, too, if you give them a chance.<br />
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<b>Dreamteck Splines (26.80€)</b><br />
<i><a href="https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/61926">https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/61926</a></i><br />
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An insanely designer-friendly tool for creating anything with splines, including extruding meshes, placing objects, animating, etc. Almost any project can take some advantage of it.<br />
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<b>Quickbrush (13.40€)</b><br />
<i><a href="https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15237">https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15237</a></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Designer- and artist-friendly tool to place objects on meshes with lots of customizability. An absolute must-have if you need to, for example, decorate your levels with prefabs etc.<br />
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<b>I2 Localization (40.20€) </b><br />
<i><a href="https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14884">https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14884</a></i><br />
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I was worried that when ultimately I need to start localizing my games, I'd have trouble developing the tools for it. With a quick browse in asset store, I found this gem. Extremely easy and developer-friendly system with a complete localization implementation using either Google Sheets or local files.<br />
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<b>Realistic Car Controller (44.67€)</b><br />
<i><a href="https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/16296">https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/16296</a></i><br />
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For games that have cars, obviously. Again very designer-friendly implementation with lots of customizability. Includes not only the car behaviour, but also implementation for dynamic lights, audio, damage system, etc.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">EXAMPLE TIME!</span></b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyI0tIPHdkk3igieddrUHWzuv1ZZQ-4LB_AHu8UhfOZcSEmB_kM36G6Yo0wasO2dGhsAxZj7ii5TJnyYqsEE7FwoaVN5c8urwli8AWUR8cRxsHaznKS03uA0OKGVA7kgNH-r-udsQXwk/s1600/RallyGame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyI0tIPHdkk3igieddrUHWzuv1ZZQ-4LB_AHu8UhfOZcSEmB_kM36G6Yo0wasO2dGhsAxZj7ii5TJnyYqsEE7FwoaVN5c8urwli8AWUR8cRxsHaznKS03uA0OKGVA7kgNH-r-udsQXwk/s400/RallyGame.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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To give you an idea on just how powerful Unity can be especially when utilizing asset store, here's a game I made. It took about 3 hours from start to finish. It's not a shippable game obviously, but it has a lot of features that would take months to do from scratch if you wouldn't utilize the asset store.<br />
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In this game I used Dreamteck Splines, Realistic Car Controller, Quickbrush, and all the visual assets were bought, or downloaded for free, from the asset store. The visual assets I used cost about $3 to be precise.<br />
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The game required programming only to create the UI functionality and the finish line. Everything else was out-of-the-box ready-made Unity asset store magic.<br />
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Controls are WASD. It's an executable in a zip-file. Have fun!<br />
<a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/private/AssetStoreRules.zip">http://parttimemonkey.com/private/AssetStoreRules.zip</a><br />
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<br />Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-45890796057013997192016-04-14T12:00:00.000+03:002016-04-14T12:00:01.082+03:00Space Bang Launch Week<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/space-bang/id1072777731">Space Bang</a> has been globally available on the App Store for a whole week now. This post covers the key metrics and other information about the project and the launch.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQH4i3b-D-XmtcrYCVd8Eg3Lq51s0M8wV2ZhlB_rdgSUVSDXdFVG8ha9dr2CD_iXkkIQjWhiu6lJ2pDSzkJkII58JbHGwBGggWPQ4FOamo9G3OxwwvGtVqIstamzIXwcsYL2lIma5DVI/s1600/spacebang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQH4i3b-D-XmtcrYCVd8Eg3Lq51s0M8wV2ZhlB_rdgSUVSDXdFVG8ha9dr2CD_iXkkIQjWhiu6lJ2pDSzkJkII58JbHGwBGggWPQ4FOamo9G3OxwwvGtVqIstamzIXwcsYL2lIma5DVI/s400/spacebang.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>LAUNCH METRICS (First Week)</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>25,000 downloads</li>
<li>$219 revenue (uncut) from IAPs</li>
<li>$2,300 revenue from UnityAds (~$20 avg. eCPM)</li>
<li>4.4/5 average rating</li>
<li>~24% day-1 retention</li>
<li>20% day-7 retention (might be flawed)</li>
<li>~1.5 avg. sessions per user</li>
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Similar to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/monkeyrama/id1041984858">Monkeyrama</a>, people seem to dig the game but don't necessarily stick around for that long. </div>
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The game got some featuring but not nearly in the best places available. The best spot it had was the iTunes Home Page, Best New Games position #12 in the UK, which also brought in a bit more than 50% of all revenue.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfiOk9MqZHTAJgczymOJ91D7-6TX2vORDHgRrqpIxbC-25WUuEqc_quZQhlYq12yh2K94LgQNU1lwtbgqPU2J_HRUmTCRkjoejNecP0HtsVA747ytOcyOUGacfdJimEV2h_o9ynUhCeg/s1600/featurespots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfiOk9MqZHTAJgczymOJ91D7-6TX2vORDHgRrqpIxbC-25WUuEqc_quZQhlYq12yh2K94LgQNU1lwtbgqPU2J_HRUmTCRkjoejNecP0HtsVA747ytOcyOUGacfdJimEV2h_o9ynUhCeg/s400/featurespots.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It also got 191 other miscellaneous highlights here an there.</div>
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Considering the fact that the project took about 2 months to develop from start to finish, the metrics are quite a positive surprise for me as an indie dev. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/parttimemonkey/videos/vb.1066888413329122/1219100748107887/?type=2&theater">The first update</a> (out 5th of May) took 5 days to develop, and if it gets anything close to the launch visibility, I'm already running a "sustainable business"! That is, if I can survive with just noodles and live in a cardboard box.</div>
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It took me by surprise how well incentivized video ads monetize, and how high the eCPMs can get especially during the launch week.</div>
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Another nice-to-learn fact was that the launch of Space Bang affected the downloads of Monkeyrama, and even <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1050103458">Party Soccer</a>, too. Nothing major, but some.</div>
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With the two actual launches I've now done (Space Bang & Monkeyrama), I've come to learn that Apple really digs quality over anything else. Even though about 3500 games get launched every week, it's possible for indie devs like me to get visibility on their store fronts even without a recognizable name, high marketing budgets, large teams, or long development times.</div>
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And obviously, I've started the development of my next game already. I call it "GTA Express." More of that later.</div>
Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-21411278188027077412016-01-12T09:57:00.000+02:002016-01-12T09:57:18.265+02:00Freelancing, prototyping and beginning production (Update on the latest)Been a little quiet lately on Part Time Monkey's behalf, so here's an update on the past few months.<br />
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An awesome unannounced Best Fiend title is in development at <a href="http://www.seriously.com/">Seriously</a>, which is <a href="http://tinyurl.com/zocltm7">in need of a Senior 3D Game Artist</a>. I was fulfilling that hole for a while, and can recommend the project, team and work environment to any experienced game devs!<br />
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Even though the above pros, I still felt the urge to come back and focus on my own projects for the full 100% I have in me.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0vWZSeZc-wC4i9qmAn0s-uN2pggSm0RdB7NPAhjKwGATPIiXmU36sHlfR7YJf0TTmqnB5apn0PNRuXG2NJ_5Ww4ZBSZkLBi_X1EQyi5P7pWaqcAiH2cqXtCArfb_B8FIZF8c4mMW9ps/s1600/Blog123Go.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0vWZSeZc-wC4i9qmAn0s-uN2pggSm0RdB7NPAhjKwGATPIiXmU36sHlfR7YJf0TTmqnB5apn0PNRuXG2NJ_5Ww4ZBSZkLBi_X1EQyi5P7pWaqcAiH2cqXtCArfb_B8FIZF8c4mMW9ps/s400/Blog123Go.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video: <a href="https://youtu.be/aj1mFCFL_sE">https://youtu.be/aj1mFCFL_sE</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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During my time in Seriously and a little after that, I developed a Pod Racing prototype (working title "123 Go!", above picture).<br />
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The idea was to make a basic racer-type game with higher-than-normal production values using ghost player data to simulate real-time multiplayer tournaments. While the racing and competing felt good, the "meta-design" of it just didn't feel right. Either it was going to be overly complicated or just plain boring after playing for a day or two. Also the way the levels needed to be created took too much time and after Monkeyrama I swore that I wouldn't do a game that required too much on the level production.<br />
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So I buried (or at least froze) "123 Go!" after two or three weeks of development.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA5sudyVEqaI3-5zGMDmWU2maeUHyAL4YbwOhTfWH98KUhYwVWLlkO-bfIh_6PuZuzi0cP1xzWRbcvc25yXKcqivMqxA0SPK8hJ__0BoSUHfAvQ3JEkF8frj1MD-CDt1oCaEiXrfCjsYw/s1600/BlogOffRoad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA5sudyVEqaI3-5zGMDmWU2maeUHyAL4YbwOhTfWH98KUhYwVWLlkO-bfIh_6PuZuzi0cP1xzWRbcvc25yXKcqivMqxA0SPK8hJ__0BoSUHfAvQ3JEkF8frj1MD-CDt1oCaEiXrfCjsYw/s400/BlogOffRoad.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video: <a href="https://youtu.be/3xP5UQl6J8Q">https://youtu.be/3xP5UQl6J8Q</a></td></tr>
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Next up, I wanted to try make something similar to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/hill-climb-racing/id564540143?mt=8">Hill Climb Racing</a> but with, again, higher production values and a little something added (working title "OffRoad", above picture). <div>
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The meta-design was supposed to be close-to ripped off from HCR with added features, such as being able to fine-tune your car's values and slot-machine type-of retention features. The racing feels pretty good and the car behavior varies quite much with its "bad", "medium" or "good" settings but, for some reason again, it's just missing that <i>something</i>. Also, whoever played the game felt that it's just "Hill Climb Racing with pimped up graphics."<div>
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So I scrapped (or at least froze) "OffRoad" after a bit more than a week of development.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj167T0mBf4sBlW4YO932ichbt50iRHUpadfM6nEN04UJJ1ULL4ssQkMF2-wHf_V-nj8Vfwz90Tdb31b1Hb_-9K48lAhyVlHcjdfttxk69ON7TcJvd5wJE8gJW1EQ6uB1vr3xVd6_I8lMA/s1600/BlogSpaceShooter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj167T0mBf4sBlW4YO932ichbt50iRHUpadfM6nEN04UJJ1ULL4ssQkMF2-wHf_V-nj8Vfwz90Tdb31b1Hb_-9K48lAhyVlHcjdfttxk69ON7TcJvd5wJE8gJW1EQ6uB1vr3xVd6_I8lMA/s400/BlogSpaceShooter.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video: <a href="https://youtu.be/zGqzlNGyhp0">https://youtu.be/zGqzlNGyhp0</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Currently I'm developing a space shooter game (working title "Space Shooter", above picture).<div>
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This one more or less follows HCR's meta-design as well. Long levels that can't be completed fully on the first try, upgradeable and changeable weapons and pod, etc. The levels are pseudo-randomly generated, i.e. they follow predefined curve-based rules for object type and probability, but some of their properties are random such as position and scale. This way creating levels is fast, and they feel the same with minor changes every time you play them.</div>
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The game's been in development for a bit more than a week now. I'm aiming to publish it in March/April but you never know, of course.</div>
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"Space Shooter" will be free with IAPs and incentivized ads. After the previous premium-test with Monkeyrama, it seems like the only way to go - at least for now.</div>
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Speaking of <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1041984858">Monkeyrama</a>...</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvclRE5h0vzhPRR-OEO_abe4qM3NhpKvJnUpiZxDMMylxaiSADYA7zA1vgUu3dFRdecUM75DdPFQF2A8jk7RCKXbIU6pj0uZz876JTHaMFtQ7O97VyzVa1mRRwzNoUeZ16u-00KlYwn8/s1600/FreeOn14th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvclRE5h0vzhPRR-OEO_abe4qM3NhpKvJnUpiZxDMMylxaiSADYA7zA1vgUu3dFRdecUM75DdPFQF2A8jk7RCKXbIU6pj0uZz876JTHaMFtQ7O97VyzVa1mRRwzNoUeZ16u-00KlYwn8/s400/FreeOn14th.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video: <a href="https://youtu.be/ISBcx-l38dM">https://youtu.be/ISBcx-l38dM</a></td></tr>
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While developing the prototypes, I also switched to a free model on Monkeyrama and developed it for Android (it needed more than one push of a button in Unity! At least three.) I also integrated my "game portal" in it, which updates its content online so I can cross-promo my other stuff more easily.</div>
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The first chapter is fully free to play, and the rest of the content (3 episodes with 84 levels each, 4 Challenges) can be purchased with $0.99. </div>
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It'll be out as free on iOS and Google Play on the 14th of January. Unless I f*ck something up.</div>
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-35406041354514146152015-10-22T14:44:00.003+03:002015-10-22T14:44:45.694+03:00Monkeyrama: First week<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1041984858">Monkeyrama</a> has been out for a full week now and so far it seems it's not a complete failure!<br />
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The unit download count is less than a thousand still but the visibility and reviews it's received show tremendous promise!<br />
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Here are some of the highlights:<br />
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<li>Apple "featured" the game in most countries in their Games > Arcade > Pay Once -section</li>
<li>Touch Arcade wrote an <a href="http://toucharcade.com/2015/10/20/monkeyrama-review/">awesome review</a></li>
<li>Touch Arcade <a href="http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=273448">nominated Monkeyrama for Game of the Week</a> (at time of writing is leading!)</li>
<li>AppleNApps wrote another <a href="http://applenapps.com/review/monkeyrama-more-fun-than-a-barrel-of-monkeys">awesome review</a></li>
<li>Slide To Play <a href="http://www.slidetoplay.com/im-a-sucker-for-physics-puzzlers-and-monkeyrama-feeds-that-hunger/">seems to dig it</a></li>
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Amongst all the App Store user reviews and media-written reviews the average rating is about 4.8/5!<br /><br /></div>
Some figures (probably not very insightful as the user base is only ~800 and 1 week lifetime):<br />
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<li>D1 retention avg. ~40%</li>
<li>Sessions per user ~1.7</li>
<li>Avg. session length 23 minutes</li>
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So, even if the download count isn't that high yet, to me the launch has been such a success that it's a no-brainer to keep on improving it.</div>
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Version 1.1 is currently brewing and will be out soon bringing more levels in an all-new Winter episode. Version 1.2 is a bigger bunch including Game Center (leaderboards + achievements) and new Challenge Modes!</div>
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And all of the above makes me one happy Monkey!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjcyL9Op3pBNkj4iaGlJ0AigMrDlX8Ea0nNoajwmP-f8fm-FKQQBtYvKL0XofaMxrStSQIUm1Gcjl3r9T3SEkvhqX-fXOSfFYUxwX5JzmFrQhcFrZirUOeCz-tGANLTwvBaHcBPFZK0s/s1600/HappyMonkey.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjcyL9Op3pBNkj4iaGlJ0AigMrDlX8Ea0nNoajwmP-f8fm-FKQQBtYvKL0XofaMxrStSQIUm1Gcjl3r9T3SEkvhqX-fXOSfFYUxwX5JzmFrQhcFrZirUOeCz-tGANLTwvBaHcBPFZK0s/s400/HappyMonkey.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-14140875861754806942015-09-28T13:42:00.002+03:002015-09-28T13:42:39.392+03:00Monkeyrama Development Cycle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After 1 month and 1 week of development, the level-based physics puzzle game, <a href="https://youtu.be/gxS3T5jXbZg">Monkeyrama</a>, is finally ready! It is currently waiting for review on the AppStore.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJ9xiIG751JyyUY4THW3HvZNS1RrKhzxrTXMQVekzD_H1aiFbD4EhSFRVxTGaYYs0abmKdN1KsFzaolSWMlVyVyg7X12UXCZ6wSy6sB90drTUPvxTpDh6NkNdQrwU0vaaTmNfR1Cnf2k/s1600/ezgif-1464530006.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJ9xiIG751JyyUY4THW3HvZNS1RrKhzxrTXMQVekzD_H1aiFbD4EhSFRVxTGaYYs0abmKdN1KsFzaolSWMlVyVyg7X12UXCZ6wSy6sB90drTUPvxTpDh6NkNdQrwU0vaaTmNfR1Cnf2k/s400/ezgif-1464530006.gif" width="225" /></a></div>
It took about 1,5 weeks to build the core game features such as throwing, monkey-switching, camera movement, level flow, etc. The menus are rather simple, so they took only half a week to create, where the hardest part for me was unlocking the levels in order, since I'm still a shitty programmer.<br />
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The next 2 weeks then went by creating levels and two new themes, of which the levels took about 95% of the time.<br />
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Finally the last week has been about listening to TestFlight testers' feedback, polishing, and creating marketing materials.<br />
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The game will be a premium game ($0.99) and iOS only for an undetermined period of time. Partly because of the obvious reason, featuring chances, and partly because I still haven't decided what monetization methods I should use on Android.<br />
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Next up is creating more levels and another theme as the first update for the game.<br />
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I sure won't develop such heavily level-based games as my next titles, as it quickly becomes a time-eater and a rather boring task, to be honest. :)<br />
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-48788491146971399412015-09-07T18:56:00.002+03:002015-12-21T15:10:33.124+02:00Monkey MadnessHere's what I'll do after <a href="http://parttimemonkey.blogspot.fi/2015/09/first-steps.html">Tim - the Unsatisfied Artist</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjawCZZGFiqmCa5qwWWNnXqCPKLcdiPOPiwmXXkd1eMJ3XbMywkE9TSj53qBgQvz5Faw63qCM2BvAGa680JFphbbVPj2d5Ju2moKVcZiQ2YyvJFB416-uysbeXr0oQKKV49Dn38cUSE9s/s1600/pomperiongif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjawCZZGFiqmCa5qwWWNnXqCPKLcdiPOPiwmXXkd1eMJ3XbMywkE9TSj53qBgQvz5Faw63qCM2BvAGa680JFphbbVPj2d5Ju2moKVcZiQ2YyvJFB416-uysbeXr0oQKKV49Dn38cUSE9s/s400/pomperiongif.gif" width="222" /></a></div>
It's a simple crossing of Boom Bloxx and Angry Birds, I'd say.<br />
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You got 4 types of Monkeys which have their own quirks, and each are pre-determined within a level. Your target is to reach the target score by bombarding the shit out of the constructions.<br />
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Web version can be played <a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/pomperion/">here</a> (no longer available)<br />
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The current version has the first episode levels in it. Gameplay-wise it's close to final but I'll do a bunch of other obvious things (visual themes, more levels, better menus, re-order levels, tutorials, etc.) before I consider it as a publishable product.<br />
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I will also create a feature that lets a player continue a level with 3 extra bomb monkeys. The feature can be used every 60 minutes or so, and is fully free, as the game will be premium.<br />
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I'm also considering to record a walk-through video of each level to which I could link to when a player fails a level.<br />
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Both above features are on my list because many of the levels are quite difficult. I wanted to make them hard to have it feel more puzzly/challenge-like, and partly to have more gameplay time.<br />
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As of now I've used a bit more than 2 weeks developing it, and am estimating that it takes about 2 more to finish. The most time consuming task is to create the levels, which has taken ~half of the dev time. But that's what you get when you go develop a level-based game.<br />
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I also consider doing a turn-based multiplayer on a single device, where the players would try to destroy each others' block piles. Not really sure if it'd be worth the trouble, though.<br />
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General feedback is very welcome, but here's a few things I'd especially like feedback on:<br />
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<li>Going premium: Would it make sense to go premium on iOS and free ad-based on Android? Do iOS players feel cheated when devs do that? </li>
<li>Difficulty level: If you played the prototype, let me know if any of the levels just feel way too hard.</li>
<li>YouTube walk-throughs: Is the idea good, or just unnecessary as the players might not find them useful?</li>
<li>Any name ideas for the game? "Pomperion" is obviously a working title. :)</li>
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Bug reports are also welcome!</div>
Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-70833574245123334192015-09-06T10:11:00.000+03:002015-09-06T10:11:18.801+03:00Simple level editing toolsHere are three (3) super simple scripts to help out when doing level editing in Unity. One of them is <a href="http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/replace-game-object-with-prefab.24311/">snagged from the Unity forums</a>, and has the developers' credits in them. The other two I created as I felt that they'd be very useful when handling multiple game objects within the scene hierarchy. Code-wise they're no magic, but in level design they're very useful, so I figured someone else might've been looking for something like this, too.<br />
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They're called Replace, Group and Ungroup. Basically they just create or remove game objects to match your commands. </div>
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The Group function (Ctrl+Shift+G) creates a new game object called "Group" and puts the currently selected objects under it.</div>
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The Ungroup function (Ctrl+Shift+D) removes a selected object and puts its children objects into the same place in hierarchy, where the selected object was.</div>
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The Replace function (Ctrl+Shift+R) has a separate window for it in which you have to set up what objects you want to replace and with what prefab. The objects you had selected when you hit Ctrl+Shift+R will be pre-set as the objects you want to replace.</div>
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Download them <i><a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/storage/UnityLevelEditTools.zip">here.</a></i><br />
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Just place them in a folder called "Editor" in Unity and they should appear in the top tool bar.<br />
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Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-2404957769008812642015-09-04T11:28:00.001+03:002015-12-21T15:09:51.775+02:00First steps<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJp_g4YwrLIa-WJ3rFa5q9I4Qx3e3Y9Ih1bXrOQbAS43X_2fa0qn17j84kHGPWXoJUC3aRuVxR3-P0au8jI_k0WIk3_uRyJKvUpOq94Fx6RPcG_b4Wp2J-Irv-FZY6v4fP3AApiUtMeBQ/s1600/timgameplay.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJp_g4YwrLIa-WJ3rFa5q9I4Qx3e3Y9Ih1bXrOQbAS43X_2fa0qn17j84kHGPWXoJUC3aRuVxR3-P0au8jI_k0WIk3_uRyJKvUpOq94Fx6RPcG_b4Wp2J-Irv-FZY6v4fP3AApiUtMeBQ/s400/timgameplay.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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The first goal I have is to get something published on the App Store and Google Play. This means setting up the developer accounts, getting the right equipment and going through the full process on my own for the first time.<br />
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I'm not anticipating to get loads of users or moneys with this game, as its pure intention is to get familiar with the process so I can better adjust myself in the upcoming projects.<br />
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But still, I don't want to publish just pure shit.<br />
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So I've developed a game called Tim - the Unsatisfied Artist. It's about Tim not diggin' the current pieces of art he's seen and has set sail on a journey to find the best piece of art there is. He does his journey by flying through an art gallery browsing the paintings on the wall, while avoiding the spike fences built in front of him (for some reason).<br />
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The controls are a slight variation of Flappy Bird - instead of just taps you hold your finger on the screen to gain upwards force. Previously I had an Angry Birds-like control scheme but had to drop it due to the first non-me user playing the game had no idea how to control the character.<br />
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The game includes hats because all games need hats and that's just an universal rule. You get a new hat by playing 50 rounds, or by sitting through an ad. I wanted to get my first touch with ads too, so that it wouldn't remain a black box to me. I chose Unity Ads, which was super easy to implement; altogether ~10-20 lines of code to fully implement incentivized video ads.<br />
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I also wanted to try something totally different with the topic of art. In the game I suggest people to send their own art to me which I'd then expose as paintings on the wall in upcoming versions. Sharing can be done via email, FB or Twitter. Twitter-sharing then "ends the loop" where players can share a screenshot of the game - maybe at some point with their own art shown in the background.<br />
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I think it's a long shot to combine a game and an art gallery but it sounded fun so why not!<br />
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The development from start to finish took me about 1,5 weeks. Most time (~70%) was spent to meta-game stuff such as Twitter-share, hat-reward system, save states, etc. where as the core game design & programming took less than 10% of the time.<br />
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<br />Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9049643249155224609.post-87322926917982703722015-09-04T10:27:00.000+03:002015-09-04T10:30:01.461+03:00Becoming an indieI've recently parted ways with <a href="http://boomlagoon.com/">Boomlagoon</a> and have now become an indie developer.<br />
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As a developer I enjoy most when I get my hands dirty on many subjects of the production, I get to create games in as short cycles as possible, and get to try different design quirks in each game. As a (mobile) gamer I've always been a casual player by heart.<br />
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Putting the above facts together, I've formed my own business called <a href="http://parttimemonkey.com/">Part Time Monkey</a> - me being the Monkey.<br />
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My idea is to be open about my goals, process and ideas in order to get the purest feedback possible. This will include public data of my products (good or bad), web versions of the prototypes I'm working on, blog posts about the ideas I have, and any other way of getting that feedback. I also try not to be too serious about this stuff, rather just enjoy creating what's cool at the moment.<br />
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If there are any experienced indies reading, let me know if you know of any obvious pitfalls I should avoid while taking the first steps. :)Tuomas Erikoinenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353764543472734946noreply@blogger.com6