Yak quoted in Escapist article- Microsoft cert is crap

[teamonkey]

There's two ways of doing this, either spend millions of dollars in a traditional marketing spend, advertising, competitions etc. OR get really creative with the "marketing", and don't forget to be great when delivered (which you are).

Introversion said in one of their interviews that you shouldn't bother with advertising, just go for the PR (I think that's what Kamineko was referring to).

XBLA is a very casual market and SG is a hardcore arcade game and a niche title to boot. Bootstrapping with a couple of crowd-pleasers (GR+++ included) is a good thing.

[Jamesac]

I've talked to another indy who is seeing more or less exactly the same kind of profile as we did with SG but with a game that is much more "mainstream" and less contentious than SG was, so I think we can dispense with the idea that the tutorial mode or the design were in any way to blame. The response that SG had appears to be *typical* for an indy game. The games that sell well unfortunately appear to be the emulations or remakes of famous old games rather than new IP.

In retrospect, I think this may be the most important paragraph in the thread. It says a lot of things-

1) Yak can stop second-guessing his design decisions. If he wants to explore some gameplay twists in Gridrunner+++ then it's not going to alienate anyone. The downside is if the game is revolutionarily genius it's not going to do too much to attract anyone, either.

2) Space Giraffe's sales can be taken as a baseline for XBLA. If lots of quick projects done in this format, taking into account 800 points each, three months of red-tape limbo, and each pulling in the exact numbers at the same rate as Space Giraffe can't keep Llamasoft in curry and plushies, alternate income is going to have to be chased. Neon PC, the Cafepress stuff, other PC conversions, etc are all happening or being worked on, so that's covered.

3) Life is stressful and aggravating. I think we knew that already, though.

James

[sdetoni]

Yak wrote:

and then maybe follow up with Super Llamatron or whatever

I don't own a console, and am not likely to, so I'm not a potential buyer on XBLA.

However, the only reason I don't play Llamatron to this day is that it won't run, there are several old games that won't, it seems to be a "legacy sound card driver" not being "legacy" enough. I don't think you need to do more than change the resolution of the grapics and get it (the not actually sweary version) running.

Play it on a ST Emulator

It's the best way

I disagree, an original Xbox with Uae, and llamatron emulated to 2 joysticks on the xbox gamepad, and on a big telly.... most excellent

S.

[sty]

Yak wrote:

and then maybe follow up with Super Llamatron or whatever

I don't own a console, and am not likely to, so I'm not a potential buyer on XBLA.

However, the only reason I don't play Llamatron to this day is that it won't run, there are several old games that won't, it seems to be a "legacy sound card driver" not being "legacy" enough. I don't think you need to do more than change the resolution of the grapics and get it (the not actually sweary version) running.

Play it on a ST Emulator

It's the best way

I disagree, an original Xbox with Uae, and llamatron emulated to 2 joysticks on the xbox gamepad, and on a big telly.... most excellent

S.

And there, in a nutshell is the reason NOT to put my old XBox up in the loft

50" Plasma and Rude LLamatron here I come


(actually is there a better ST emulator on the XBox, I think the ST version was better than the Amiga wasn't it? )

[sty]

One thing you (Giles & Jeff) must do at/after the next game launch, no matter how you feel, is to post on here (or your LJs) replying to negative criticism of you/your games.

did you mean

"Must NOT do at/after the..."

[sty]

BTW, Jeff and Giles,

Just to be 100% clear here, I am not in any way trying to tell you how to run LLamasoft or decide what you should and shouldn't write and how you should or shouldn't write it.

These are just thoughts and observations, from a little sheepie infested country out here on the edge of the Pacific Ocean

I hope that some of them may help, but I don't want in any way to cause grief, doubt, etc. etc.

I'm cheering for you guys to make this a huge success

[sdetoni]

Yak wrote:

and then maybe follow up with Super Llamatron or whatever

I don't own a console, and am not likely to, so I'm not a potential buyer on XBLA.

However, the only reason I don't play Llamatron to this day is that it won't run, there are several old games that won't, it seems to be a "legacy sound card driver" not being "legacy" enough. I don't think you need to do more than change the resolution of the grapics and get it (the not actually sweary version) running.

Play it on a ST Emulator

It's the best way

I disagree, an original Xbox with Uae, and llamatron emulated to 2 joysticks on the xbox gamepad, and on a big telly.... most excellent

S.

And there, in a nutshell is the reason NOT to put my old XBox up in the loft

50" Plasma and Rude LLamatron here I come


(actually is there a better ST emulator on the XBox, I think the ST version was better than the Amiga wasn't it? )

They are pretty much the same game on both machines. From memory, the Amiga ver was slightly faster (screen/sprite updates), but not by much, oh and it had stereo audio. About the only real difference.

There is WinstonX for Xbox @ xbins.org if want to try the ST ver though...

S.

[PVB]

One thing you (Giles & Jeff) must do at/after the next game launch, no matter how you feel, is to post on here (or your LJs) replying to negative criticism of you/your games.

did you mean

"Must NOT do at/after the..."

Well spotted.

[Dio]

BTW, Jeff and Giles,

Just to be 100% clear here, I am not in any way trying to tell you how to run LLamasoft or decide what you should and shouldn't write and how you should or shouldn't write it.

These are just thoughts and observations, from a little sheepie infested country out here on the edge of the Pacific Ocean

Reading my mind again? More agreement here.