Troy Hepfner's Blog

What's next?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:56:52 -0700

Now that Word Play Deluxe is out, and all of my games are now using the same core engine and running well on Windows, Mac, and Linux, I'm taking a break. I've been on the go without much of a rest for months now.

On the more immediate horizon, I'll be working on some patches for Dirk Dashing 1 and 2 to fix some bugs that players have reported. I hope to finish these patches sometime in the next 2-3 weeks.

There are also some long-overdue web site updates that I need to tend to. I worked up a new site design last summer, using more modern and easier-to-maintain technologies, and it's time to convert the site to this new design. That will probably take a couple of months to finish.

While that's going on, I need to think about where I want to go from here. There are a lot of things going through my mind right now, and I need time to sort them all out. First, the gaming landscape has changed considerably since I first started this company back in 2003. My original target audience consisted strictly of kids ages 6-14. My gut feeling is that many kids nowadays spend their time on tablets and other mobile devices, not desktop/laptop computers, but I don't have any solid evidence yet to back up that assumption - I just know that I've seen a lot of kids using iPads, iPods, and iPhones. I've also learned that many kids now spend a lot of time on free flash game web sites, mainly because they can't even download (let alone purchase) games for their computers due to parental restrictions that can be enforced in newer operating systems. I think both of these factors have contributed to my overall decline in sales over the past couple of years. So I need to think about whether or not I want to move into mobile game or flash game development - there are pros and cons for each.

Second, I've had a lot of requests for a third installment of Dirk Dashing. I would really like to do more Dirk stories. I have plots and outlines for a good half-dozen more stories, and at bare minimum, it would be nice to wrap up the series with a final confrontation between Dirk and Dr. Ego. But I have to look at this from a business standpoint. The control scheme in Dirk Dashing doesn't seem like a good fit for an iPad or other tablet since they have no arrow keys or joysticks, so if I do a third installment, it will probably have to be desktop-only (like the first two). And as I mentioned, my desktop sales have been declining. Only about half of my original Dirk 1 customers have bought Dirk 2 - far less than I had anticipated. I suspect it might be because many of the original customers have moved to tablets and other portable devices. Also, Dirk 2 has only brought in a handful of new customers. At this point, the game still hasn't quite paid for all of the audio and art expenses, to say nothing of the 2 years of my time that I invested in the project. While I would really love to make another Dirk game, it doesn't make good business sense. So if I choose to do that, then 1) it would be for the fans and my own personal enjoyment, and 2) it would probably have to use mostly existing art and music in order to keep the cost down.

Third, I've had some requests to do a RPG (role-playing game). Examples of popular indie RPGs include the Eschalon series, the Aveyond series, and various games by Aldorlea and John Wizard Games. I must confess this has some appeal for me. I haven't made such a game yet, but I have had stories and character sketches in mind for such a game for a very, very long time. Plus, this is one genre of games that is still selling very well on desktop/laptop computers. There's a lot of demand for good RPGs, and I know of several indie developers that are able to make a living creating such games. The downside is that this would be another 2-3 year project for me. Since I want to support Mac and Linux, I can't use RPG Maker (a popular toolkit with many indies that is Windows-only). Koonsolo Games, the indie who made Mystic Mine, has been working on an equivalent engine that was originally cross-platform. But he's been working on it for several years now, and still has a long way to go. Plus last year he announced it will be Flash-only. So I don't think that will work for me either. That means if I want to make a RPG, I'll have to build my own engine or try to license someone else's. Both have their pros and cons. But either way, a RPG will be a lengthy game project, and I have to decide if I can tackle such a project right now. Plus, to make a successful RPG, it would have to appeal to older players as well as my primary target audience.

Fourth, I've had requests from some customers for some additional casual-style games. I do have designs for several puzzle/word games that I think would be good. The nice thing about casual games is that they tend to be shorter game projects. I've also talked with Jake Birkett over at Grey Alien Games - he used to work for Big Fish, and does consulting work to help developers get games to a point where they would be accepted by casual game portals like Big Fish. So there's a possibility that I might be able to create a few casual games to help bring in revenue. The downside is that 1) the games would have to be designed/implemented to appeal to a broader target audience (which means they may not end up appealing to my primary target audience), and 2) when I'm working on smaller casual game projects, I won't be able to work on larger projects like another Dirk game or a RPG. I have so many stories I want to tell, and it takes 2-3 years to create a larger story-based game. Given that I'm now 43 (soon to be 44), I'm probably not going to be able to tell all of the stories that I want to tell. So every casual game I write keeps me from telling another story.

So at this point I'm not sure what I want to do next. I need to take some time off and mull over the possibilities. Do I move to new mobile platforms? Do I move to a broader target audience? What kinds of games do I want to make, and how can I make them in such a way to increase sales (especially when I'm still one guy and don't have a big budget)? While I think these things over, I'll catch up on patches and web site changes, and hopefully in a few months I will have answers to some of these questions.

Please feel free to reply to this thread or e-mail me with your ideas. I need all the input I can get!

Word Play Deluxe Update #6

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:04:34 -0700

I had to take my car into the shop this morning for a quick repair on the door handle, and while it was there, they noticed a leak. So needless to say, they had to keep it awhile longer while they fixed it. So I'm getting a late start on the release of Word Play Deluxe.

I've got the Mac builds and installers finished, and am waiting on the Windows builds. I still have to create the Windows installers and the Linux builds and installers, and then test it all out. So it will probably be tomorrow morning before the game is available. (I might get it out late tonight, but we'll see...)

Sorry for the wait!

Word Play Update #5

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:47:34 -0700

In previous blog posts (like this one), I mentioned that I thought I might have to replace the multi-colored letter blocks with a single color. To refresh your memory, here's a picture to illustrate why. There are 6 different colors of blocks in this grid, and it's pretty distracting. You really have to look hard to find the letters I've selected in the middle of the grid.

To see what it would look like, I reduced the number of colors to one. Here's what the 1-color grid looks like:

Although you can clearly find the selected blocks, the grid looks very boring to me. One nice thing about the variety of colors was that it made the game feel cheery. This doesn't look very exciting or interesting to me at all.

So I decided to bump the colors up to 2. Here's what that looks like:

Even with just 2 colors, it already becomes more difficult to find the selected word. And 2 colors isn't enough to get us back to the cheery feeling that the original grid provided - it still looks pretty dull. But now it's both distracting and dull.

Bumping it up to 3 colors, I get this:

And 4 colors:

It's starting to look cheery again, but now we're getting back to the original problem: the number of colors is distracting and making it difficult to find the selected word.

Next, I decided to turn all 6 colors back on (essentially going back to square one), but this time tweak the random selection process. Instead of weighting each of the 6 colors equally, I increased the weight of the 3 primary colors (red, green, and blue), which also happen to be the easiest to read. I made it so these 3 primary colors are 4x as likely to be selected as the other 3 colors (yellow, orange, and purple). Here's what that looks like:

Comparing that to the original grid, I notice that it doesn't look nearly as chaotic. All of the colors are present, but there are larger patches of blocks that are the same color. I think it looks a little better. It's still somewhat challenging to find the selected word, but it isn't nearly as difficult as it was with the original grid. And all of the colors are present, so it feels just as cheery to me as the original.

One thing Victoria pointed out to me, which I thought was helpful: normally the user is going to be clicking on the blocks to select them and build their word. So their eyes are already looking at the selected word. Unless they get up and walk away from their computer while they're in the middle of selecting a word, they're not likely going to have a problem finding it. Only someone who walks into the room and glances at the screen to see what the player is doing would have a problem finding the selected word - but then the mouse movement should draw their attention to it. So it might be that the problem I'm trying to solve isn't even going to be an issue.

So I'm going to let the testers try it out with the tweaks I've made to the random selection process, and see how they like it (or if they even notice).

Word Play Deluxe Update #4

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:25:50 -0700

I'm starting to run out of meaningful and unique title ideas for my blog posts pertaining to Word Play Deluxe, so I'm just going to start numbering them. This is actually the fourth post related to Word Play Deluxe, so I labeled it #4. But to avoid confusion, if you look back through previous posts, you won't find any labeled #3, #2, or #1. Just look for "Word Play" in the title, and you'll find them.

Anyway, I've been silent for the past week or so because I had a bacterial infection in my lungs last week. The doctor put me on a strong antibiotic, which not only made me sleepy but also a bit nauseous and dizzy when I stood up. So I spent most of the week on the couch, away from my computer.

Bottom line: I don't have any new screenshots to show you this time around. But even though I didn't work on any new game art or programming, I was coherent enough to work on some new phrases for Puzzle mode. I came up with about 2000 brand new ones, which I jotted down in my notepad, and have now transferred into the game. I also refined some of the category names and groupings.

Yesterday I felt strong enough to work on the game itself, and I managed to get the save game feature working. So at this point, the core functionality of the game is done. Everything is working, and the game is fully playable.

At this point, I plan to do some refining on the new artwork and to start looking at some of the enhancements that I want to make to the game. And Jesse is busy working on the new audio. His goal is to finish it up by April 8. So the game should be available around mid-April. Stay tuned!

More Word Play Deluxe screenies!

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:03:33 -0700

I've made a lot of progress on Word Play Deluxe over the past week!

The code for all 4 game modes has been ported into the new engine, and they're all fully playable. I've also got most of the menu art done and incorporated into the game, with the exception of the skill level selection window and 2 new windows that I plan to add.

First, here's what Regular mode looks like now. As you can see, I've got the bonus word train working, and I've added the in-game menu options to the left side of the screen.

Next, here's Puzzle mode. The new chalkboard font not only looks better but also gives me room to display longer and more meaningful category names. So I changed a lot of the category names and added some new ones.

This is Action mode. In my last blog post, I told you that I thought I might have to replace the multi-colored letter blocks with a single color, even though I had toned down a lot of the block colors. Now you can see why. There are 6 different colors of blocks in this grid, and it's pretty distracting. You really have to look hard to see the letters I've selected in the middle of the grid.

I don't have a screenshot for Strategy mode. It looks very similar to Regular mode.

Tomorrow, I need to finish up the skill level selection menu, and then I can put together some builds for my testers. While they're testing, I'll be building the 2 new menu screens and updating the list of phrases for Puzzle mode.

I've also asked Jesse Hopkins if he has time to update the audio. The old royalty-free sound effects and music just aren't working for me anymore. Hopefully he is available for a quick little audio project.

If any existing Word Play customers would be interested in beta testing the new version, let me know!

Word Play Deluxe runs!

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:04:37 -0800

Word Play has 4 different game modes, and I have Regular mode completely ported to the new engine and running perfectly!

Here's a screenshot with the new graphics, and as you can see from the title bar, it's running on my Mac:

I had forgotten how much fun this game is - I hadn't run it much since I stopped using Windows as my primary OS.

Now that the game is in the new engine, I've been making some adjustments to it to polish things up a bit. I'm using a new font for the chalkboard that is easier on the eyes. The level up banner now hangs from a wire and drops from the ceiling when you finish a level. And the bonus balloons now fade out as they float upward.

I'm also thinking I might have to change the letter blocks. Even with the toned down colors on the blocks, it can be tough to see the words. I think there are just too many different colors, and it makes it distracting. I may need to switch to a set of plain wooden blocks, or use a single block color per level.

Anyway, now that Regular mode is fully playable, I should be able to get the other 3 game modes up and running next week. They all use the same basic gameplay, but with slight variations.

New art for Word Play

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:27:27 -0800

I started working on Word Play Deluxe this week. I had planned to begin porting the old code to the new cross-platform engine, but the more I looked at the game, the more I wanted to give the game a serious facelift. So I've been working on some new artwork for the game.

I wanted to get away from the grungy browns, so I decided to replace the entire background. I chose to go for a Toy Story-like vibe, with hardwood floors and sky-blue wallpaper. I added cel-shading to the model railroad tracks, and changed the toy box so it's made out of cherry wood. This is the result:

For reference, here is what the game currently looks like:

As you can see, it's a huge improvement!

I've also repainted all of the toy letter blocks, to tone down the bright colors and make them more readable.

I'm quite pleased with the new look. I think it's a good start. And having new art will give me incentive to get going with the coding effort, because I'm really eager to see how it all looks once it's in the game!

New Dirk 1 trailer

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:30:02 -0800

I just uploaded a brand new video trailer for Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent! Special Edition! Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTlj8GH3yk&list=PLG4F6u89QAh1KcTNpy2-3ZnxrGb2clliX&index=1

Record-breaking sales!

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:35:49 -0800

Last night, I posted on Twitter that I had broken my all-time sales record for the most sales in 1 day! In fact, the record was topped by 1 sale.

This morning, it's only 10 AM here on the west coast, and I've already gotten half the sales from yesterday. I'm hoping today will beat yesterday's new record!

I didn't expect that, considering I made the Dirk Dashing 1 Special Edition a free upgrade for all existing Dirk 1 customers. I thought I might get a few sales for the new Dirk 1 strategy guide, but I didn't expect many sales of the game itself. After all, I've only announced the game to my customers and on a few other sites. I really haven't done any kind of promotion effort yet. And quite honestly, I didn't think an update to an older game would receive much attention. Boy was I wrong!

I've received dozens and dozens of e-mails from Dirk customers and fans, thanking me for the free upgrade and telling me how much they love Dirk. Some of them told me they were purchasing the game anyway, even though the upgrade was free, because they want to help me so I can keep making more Dirk games. Many others bought the new strategy guide to show their support.

Yet, 3/4 of the sales yesterday and today have been games not strategy guides. And over 2/3 of the game sales have been for Dirk 1. The other 1/3 came from folks who added Dirk 2 and/or Rick Rocket to their order. And over half of the game sales are from brand new, first-time customers.

I'm not quite sure how this surge in sales happened (maybe Google Analytics will provide me with some clues in a day or two), but thank you. Your orders and e-mails have been a HUGE morale booster to me.

I've still got a ways to go to recover my development costs, but this is a great start. And hopefully, once I finish the new video trailer and start promoting the game on other sites, the orders will keep coming in for awhile. Thanks again for your support!