MetritronHF

[Taylor]

Yeah, it's another jam game.

 

I made Metritron ages ago for Molyjam 2013 but the October Challenge for Ludum Dare this month is to take an existing game (or make a new one) and try to make a dollar off it. Oh, the greed.

 

Since my XBLIG version of Metritron was kind of stopped by Microsoft's website I decided to revive it again for Ludum Dare and polish it up all nice for PC.

 

 

The store page thing is here: http://tayl1r.itch.io/metritronhf

 

Game is pay-whatever and you can pick free. I'm not a monster.

 

There are screenshots on the above link, but have another gif featuring a mouse pointer.

[AlexM]

Cool, look forward to trying it this weekend.

 

What do you mean the XBLIG version was stopped by MSes website?

[Taylor]

Cool, look forward to trying it this weekend.

 

What do you mean the XBLIG version was stopped by MSes website?

There is a site bug where you just cannot access the submission pages (after they take your money, of course):

 

http://alexandertaylor.net/?p=671

[Taylor]

Youtube really hates this game because it's 90% particles, 50% bloom and 34% bad at maths. I've uploaded a cheesy trailer with amazing Windows Movie Maker fades to vimto, the more delicious video sharing site where, at least in HD, it looks less like sick being sick. General consensus so far has been image macros of peoples eyes melting which I'm taking as a positive (also you can change bloom, shadows, particles in the settings).

 

So far I've made 60p. Take that, Notch.

 

[Beck]

Congrats on the release! 

 

Looks crazy as hell and I absolutely suck at these games

[Sjonsson]

Hah! Pretty neon colors and bulletstorm makes mah' belly tingle!

Gratz on release!

[selmitto]

The store page thing is here: http://tayl1r.itch.io/metritronhf

 

Game is pay-whatever and you can pick free. I'm not a monster.

 

There are screenshots on the above link, but have another gif featuring a mouse pointer.

 

Congrats, Taylor!

 

If I may ask, how has been the result of this "sale model" you've been using (the game is free but players may pay how much they feel it's worth)?

 

I'm curious because this is one of the things I think to do with Grasp. I want everyone to play my game, but at the same time I've been dedicating so much time in developing it that I think I should earn a couple of bucks with it. So I don't know if I'll do as you are (free & donations) or sell through Humble Widget for very cheap.

[Taylor]

I'm not sure this game is such a good test case, really. I've basically just put this on the Internet and posted about it on two unpopular forums and a twitter account with ~100 followers. I was going to wait a week and then d-d-drop the stats but what I said above about 60p wasn't a joke. That is literally what I've made so far.

 

The owner of the website has told everyone that for October he will not be taking the usual 10% cut (note that Paypal and Amazon Payments both take cuts too) so I imagine a lot of the October Challenge entries will use it. Perhaps at the end of the month there will be some clearer data on what can happen with itch.io, some ambition and a good game.

 

One problem I do have with the itch.io site is I feel like a second class citizen there. My game never graced the frontpage, which is reserved seemingly for the owner’s indie pals, and is buried behind the “see all games” link. It would also appear an animated image is a privilege I do not have. Still, it's very user-friendly to get something on there and make a nice page for it. And no US government tax forms.

 

Today I decided to be a bit proactive and e-mailed RPS and indiegames.com as they both covered previous solo projects I've worked on (Minimalismism and Doppelgunner) but it's small and doesn't really have a hook so I won't hold my breath.

Edited October 7, 2013 by Taylor

[Sjonsson]

I know it's easy to do but you shouldn't stare at the stats daily, it might draw you into utter madness. Proactive actions on the other hand, that's really good!

[AlexM]

Just played through it. Very nice. 

 

Maybe if MS isnt playing ball you might consider giving playstation mobile a shot? Monogame has support for it (2D). Although I'm not sure if they support RenderTarget2D right now so if you use that it might be an issue. 

[dux]

This game goes really great with LSD