It's been a while since I've wrote a blog here, so I figure I'd go ahead and share my current plans as far as game development goes.
As the title suggests, I'm going to be developing commercial games under the name of Uyamau Games. Uyamau Games will consist of only me for now. I'll commission any of the artwork/music I don't have the talent to do myself. In the future, I'd like to have some talented artists become a part of Uyamau Games. But we'll see if it ever gets to that point.
Uyamau is Japanese, meaning to show respect or to honor. The reason for this name is because of the 3 principles I'll abide by in order to respect the gamers.No DRMDRM historically has only made it harder for the customers who legitimately purchased the game, and not the pirates. So no DRM is a no-brainer. Plus, I personally believe that people vastly overestimate the damage done by piracy.No Paid DLCAbsolutely no paid DLC. That's not to say that there won't be DLC for any Uyamau games, it's just that gamers won't have to pay for it. They already generously bought the game, trying to milk them for more is just plain insulting. This also applies to "in-app" style purchases, such as players being given the option to buy some in-game currency with real money. Absolutely horrendous.No SequelsMost games don't need full sequels, they just need updates and/or DLC. There are only two exceptions to this: Story-based games and games in which the sequel fundamentally changes the gameplay mechanics in a significant way. But even in these cases, Uyamau Games won't resort to sequels. Our story-driven games, if we genuinely feel the desire to continue their story even further, will receive a free update containing the continuation of the story. And games where we feel the desire to significantly alter the gameplay mechanics, will recieve the new mechanics in a free update but retain the old mechanics in some sort of "Classic" mode.Anyway, that's the philosophy behind Uyamau Games. Uyamau's first game will be called Crimson Core, and it'll be for the upcoming OUYA console (which I'm surprised nobody's talking about on here btw), and will be 100% free, no strings attached. I figure that the console's already got a pretty solid theoretical install base of over 40,000 people once it comes out. If I can get even 10% of those people to try Crimson Core, then I think Uyamau Games will make a strong impression on them, which I hope will prove beneficial later on when I start releasing commercial projects under the moniker.Crimson Core is going to be a story-driven 2D JRPG-style game, throwing the player into the lives of three separate characters with very separate paths: A farmer who is also a loving husband and father, a young soldier who believes in standing up for justness, and a convicted criminal with a deplorable past. But one thing ties them all together: Their desire to find the Crimson Core, a mythical object which is said to grant any one wish… in exchange for the wisher's life.Crimson Core could very well be my magnum opus. Which isn't saying much, because well… I don't have any significant completed games. But Crimson Core is different, parts of its story are very personal to me. I'm definitely seeing this thing through to the end in some form or another.I already have lots of ideas for projects after Crimson Core, but I won't go into detail as they're still just vague ideas floating around in my head. Once I'm close to finishing Crimson Core, I'll start fleshing out these ideas in detail. For now, Crimson Core's my primary focus.
The symbol in my avatar is what inspired goatse. Neon Genesis Evangelion's influence is not to be underestimated.
Wheels within wheels.
Now - time to actually read your blog.Not convinced by the "no paid DLC" model. If you're doing this for giggles then that's all well and good but you say you're making "commercial games." You need to finance the constant creation of DLC. Either you charge a lot to begin with - this is speculative buying on the part of the consumer which is unlikely to work given you're a completely new brand - or you charge for DLC. Or there's the third option of taking a loss on your first few games.
Well, in actuality, my first few games aren't likely to have any DLC.
And making DLC isn't really that expensive, unless it's a whole expansion pack like Dawnguard or something. Adding in a few new weapons or costumes isn't expensive. The profits from the initial sale of the game should be more than enough to cover this.DLC takes time and time equals money. If you're hiring outside people to do your art/sound then you should be paying them. Doing lots of little updates has other associated costs - marketing, distribution, QA. They stack up fast.
Furthermore, using money made from initial sales to continue producing content for the rest of the game as per your users' expectations isn't profit. If you want this to be a self-sustaining hobby, this is absolutely fine and I don't want to discourage you. If you want to expand and/or if you want to attract investment then you've got to return significant profit after your entire development cycle is complete and closed.Nevertheless, think about setting a precedent. If you want to be a studio that produces games that actively and swiftly adapts those games based on user experiences through DLC or patches, you have got to start doing that from the get-go. You've got to build a brand built upon your principles - you actually have principles which is a fantastic start, protect them from being watering then down.I'm not looking to become rich selling games, and neither should anybody else who might eventually become a part of Uyamau games.
So yes, I'm not looking for this to be much more than self-sustaining. But it'll be a more than just a hobby.Then you've gotta think beyond profit as a mechanism "to get rich." Profit is giving you the capital for expansion, expansion that'll put your games - your view of entertainment - into the hands of more people. And, hopefully, at some point you'll be able to eke out a living doing what you love.
If enough people like what we do and buy what we make, naturally we'll make a profit and we'll expand. And no, not all of it is going to be whisked away by our free DLC principle.
Rather than "no paid DLC" you should be looking at "proportionally priced DLC".
What pisses people off about DLC the most is paying for very very little content which costs 10-25% of the price of the full game. People buy it anyway because they love the game so much. So just set the prices fairly. You can do pointless DLC like TF2's hats and experiment with prices all you want, however pointless DLC severely reduces the quality of the game. Releasing free DLC obviously has its own advantages.The whole "on disk DLC" is interesting. While there's nothing immediately wrong with it, it's simply just disrespectful (a word that isn't in Bioware's vocabulary). It's not courteous. It reminds the consumer that you're more interested in their money than their feedback. I'm not sure if there's a correlation between respectfulness and profit; I don't know if you'll actually lose money for being disrespectful. But you should be respectful regardless.I see the attraction to proclaiming your companies fundamental principles, but really it just boils down to being honest, respectful and not tricking your consumers. It won't make you money, but at least you'll keep your soul.USE MY API
Though my strategy was more like, free games, but you have to pay for game additions using credits.