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Oooh boy boy boy oh boy. It's 4 a.m. where I am. I can't sleep you see, which isn't unusual in it's self (some of the best code in Space Pirates was born between 1 and 3 am) but tonight things are getting really tense. We're sitting at 75% peer review completion, we've got websites saying we're going to define the face of Indie Games on the Xbox and that we've got a sleeper hit on our hands, I've been trying to get in touch with Major Nelson and the editor of Kotaku, I'm hoping OXM will be as good as their word and check the game out at release, and all of a sudden the idea of the game being a success is very very real. That's not to say I was ever worried about the quality of the code, or the sounds, or the graphics, or even the gameplay - those are all things under my control - but the strength of interest and the potential sales levels for Space Pirates has been unknowable up until now. They're still not really known of course, and won't be until probably a week after the game goes live, but now we're getting into the position where sales, good solid substantial sales, could be on the horizon.
Whenever we've come to do a press release, we always think very carefully about the claims we make, what we say about other games, and about the Indie Games channel in general. The release we sent out on the 11th was no different. We hoped it would make some kind of splash - traffic here has peaked every time we've sent one out before - but keeping an eye on Google over the course of the day has been a real rollercoaster. Mostly we just see the release copied verbatim from what we send out, but a few proper writers actually think about what to write, and these are the tricky swines you have to look out for ;0) The amazing thing is, mostly they've written what I've been thinking but was too chicken to come out and say, mainly fearing that I'd sound like an arse. There are now some excellent games on the channel - I've puffed Leave Home in the last press release because I think it's so good. I did some peer reviews myself yesterday and there's a game called Office Disorders which is a really funny, sharp and fun satirical RPG which really deserves some attention and success. The top sellers of 2009 are all great games in their own right. But the channel is still really suffering in terms of reputation. My personal view is let people write whatever they want, and if it's crap and doesn't do well they'll go away. But that position is only really workable if there's enough interest in the good games to allow them to sell. I think this really is about to change. If we can get a lucky break and get on to Major Nelson's podcast, or Kotaku's front page for half an hour, or OXM give us a kind write-up then maybe - just maybe - we can get the really good, talented devs who write the really good games which on the service a bit more of the ol' win.
Anyway it's now 4:35 and I'm finally starting to feel sleepy, so away with you now. BUt come back again soon, and I'll tell you some more stories.
DrM
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