The English language is littered with aphorisms which go along the lines of "stop throwing good money after bad" and "there's no point in flogging a dead horse" etc. etc. and I suspect they have equivalents in every other culture as well.

Work on Alien Flux has polished it the point where it runs on approximately 75% of all systems its tried on; it's played through generally to the end of the demo once by about 50% of the people who play it; the remaining 25% of downloaders have at it a few more times and generally play for up to about 15 minutes.

Further changes to the gameplay will merely make it a different game - it's already pretty radically different from the way it was meant to be played using all the options.

The one last thing I want to try is to put the GUI in to connect directly to the payment server and allow in-game purchase and unlock...

...but after that I think there's bugger all I can do to get it to convert better.

I can see from me feedback stats that 25% of my downloaders never get to play the game and don't even bother contacting me for support as it suggests they do when it doesn't run. So they must have pretty fast connections and be very lazy; it's an 11MB download and I'd want the damned thing to work if I'd just sat through it on a 56k modem. It's trivial to obtain new drivers and just as trivial to fire off a support email asking for help - but we're not getting the support emails asking. Not a single user who has been informed that they don't have GL drivers bothers to get them and try again. It's safe to write off that 25% of users then and concentrate on getting the other 75% to convert.

Now, 50% of people only play the game once and never again. This is fair enough; it's a reasonable indication that they didn't like it! I do this myself with loads of demos.

The remaining 25% are far more interesting. They play the game several times, for quite a length of time.

However... I think I've done everything I more or less can, on the client, to get these people to convert. The nag screen is pretty much what you need to see and know and it appears on startup, shutdown, and demo completion. There's a Buy Now button on the title screen and one on the nag screen. There's screenshots of some interesting looking stuff in the nag screen too. The demo ends just before you get to kill the boss, but you get to see it rez in - that's a great incentive, I know from experience.

So what's holding these people back do you think? There are surely some people who'll play it a few times and then decide it's crap, but that should still leave maybe 2% of the total who like the game enough to buy it. It must be something to do with the purchasing process putting people off.

Is it time to stop worrying about Alien Flux now and just get on with writing another game?

Cas :)

ps. Conversion rate, by the way, is up slightly to 1% with 1.4d :D Although the sample size isn't large enough to make a proper estimate.

FWIW, I believe there are many things you can easily change, and then test the results. Even if you decide against making any further large investment in Alien Flux you should continue to make such changes if only for the learning experience.

First of all, I'd be very interested in learning as much as possible about how the players play the game - do they ever use the options (the auto-shield option for instance)? Do they use the arrow keys or the mouse only? Do they redefine their keys? (btw, in the last version the arrow keys are on by default, but there's no way to use them and activate the shield too) How many of the 50% who play through the demo only once start with the rookie mode and how many with the normal mode?

IMHO, the most important thing that still needs work is making the gameplay better and more varied. Change the speed of the ship. Make the aliens come at you in different wave patterns rather than just always emerge on top of the fluffies (if the waves come from different directions on the map the game gains a strategic component - choosing which way to attack first, etc.). Attack only missions. Special skirmish game modes - not everyone is willing to go through a sequence of 99 levels. Another idea is to let the player peek at the locked out levels - it would be great if you can record some game sessions and replay them at the players request.

Is it time to stop worrying about Alien Flux now and just get on with writing another game?

why not continue to worry about alien flux and start to write a new game?

also, you can STILL improve alien flux that it will sell more. a near %1 is a good conversion rate. why not work with that?

Bring more downloaders
you seed to work well enough on the technical size, now work on the marketting side. More downloads literally means more people buying, this is what conversion rate is all about. bring more people -> sell more of the product. its as simple as that, and i cant stress how logically it sound from a variety of reason (statistically mostly).

improve your website
Bring screenshots and download links into your main page. main pages are like newspapers, they should catch the eyes of those who see them. I had to look for where i can see some screenshots, not to mention where to download (something that should practically be in EVERY place you can put it in). Take the "more info" webpage and make it the main one. Put download links on top (in 800x600 you had to scroll to get there).

improve your demo size
there's no more i can try to convince you here, but for the record, you just plainly gave up on 80% of the 56k users if not more.

E-magazines, Forums, Download sites
there are simply ALWAYS some you didnt visit yet. if if you did, go there and make a follow up interview about the new version, advertise more, update in download sites the version.

work on a new game in the meantime
It will improve your motivation. No one said that ONE game should make profits enough to support you. whats wrong if two/three game will do? creating a brand also brings more people, and those who did buy your game, have more chance of buying more.

Also, AF is a fantastic game, I certainly expect the next one youll come up with.

Good luck.

-Gil

I haven't really got the energy to worry about Alien Flux any more! I've got to worry about finding large amounts of cash, fast, because I'm in danger of having my house snatched by the bank!

Bringing more downloaders is definitely on the cards; we only get 100 downloads a day - we could really do with a 1,000 a day. What's the best way of bringing more downloaders? Getting more visitors. What's the best way of getting more visitors? Having more games... so I've kind of answered this one myself really ;)

Improving the website is always on our minds and we always like to tweak it when we get good suggestions!

The demo size is just fine - really. We experienced very little difference with 5mb and 10mb. I don't really care about the 56k'ers any more. I'm much more interested in the 60m broadband users and the hundreds of millions who use work bandwidth to grab stuff to take home :D It's just not about the number of downloads with us, it's all about conversion rate. If we sold one copy a day at our current exposure (1% conversion rate!) we'd be very happy.

Download sites have proved stunningly disappointing, referral-wise. I've had far, far, more interest from a few big ones than all 250 of the little ones put together. Even the link exchanges with other Dexterity members have been more successful. I think we've done enough on that front.

Working on a new game in the meantime would be easy if I didn't have to work on some stuff that was actually paying :D I just don't have the energy to do both...


Cas :)

Originally posted by princec
What's the best way of bringing more downloaders? Getting more visitors. What's the best way of getting more visitors? Having more games... so I've kind of answered this one myself really ;)

I have to disagree with you here. Having more games while abandoning the current one isnt the way to go. don't stop flogging the horse when you get a new one attached to your carrage.

Originally posted by princec
The demo size is just fine - really. We experienced very little difference with 5mb and 10mb. I don't really care about the 56k'ers any more. I'm much more interested in the 60m broadband users and the hundreds of millions who use work bandwidth to grab stuff to take home :D It's just not about the number of downloads with us, it's all about conversion rate. If we sold one copy a day at our current exposure (1% conversion rate!) we'd be very happy.

I thought that this was a lost cause. I wish i had a current statistic to show you the enormous amounts of potential clients youre missing.

Originally posted by princec
Download sites have proved stunningly disappointing, referral-wise. I've had far, far, more interest from a few big ones than all 250 of the little ones put together. Even the link exchanges with other Dexterity members have been more successful. I think we've done enough on that front.

Yes, but think of it this way: take the hypothetical 250 websites, double it with 2 downloads per week (realistic scenario enough?), you have 500 dls * 0.01 = 5 sales per week = 5*25 = extra 100$ per week. decent enough for you? enough reason to put it in another 250 websites?

Originally posted by princec
Working on a new game in the meantime would be easy if I didn't have to work on some stuff that was actually paying :D I just don't have the energy to do both...


oh well...

-Gil

I just can't find another 250 websites! And if I can't find 'em it's probably safe to say most other people can't either. It looks like a law of diminishing returns is very much in effect.

Cas :)

Got this website problem too, now i released my game. 99.5% of the sites don't produce traffic. Download.com was good last week while my game was on the frontpage of "Games". But what will the future bring? At least i got a freeware game out which brings some visitors to my site.

Originally posted by princec
The demo size is just fine - really. We experienced very little difference with 5mb and 10mb. I don't really care about the 56k'ers any more. I'm much more interested in the 60m broadband users and the hundreds of millions who use work bandwidth to grab stuff to take home :D It's just not about the number of downloads with us, it's all about conversion rate. If we sold one copy a day at our current exposure (1% conversion rate!) we'd be very happy.

What if the 56kers were far more likely to make a purchase? :) (I have no evidence of this, I'm just playing devil's advocate)

It's immaterial really... I keep saying but no-one's listening so I'll spell it out once more: the number of downloads has hardly dropped since we moved from a 5mb demo to a 10mb demo. The 10mb demo is making no significant difference to our exposure.

Cas :)

Looking at your numbers, two things jump out at me immediately:

1) What are you doing about that first 25% who don't have the drivers necessary to play your game? It sounds like you're just popping up a message (possibly scarily worded for non-technical people) saying to contact tech support. Yep, I'm quite sure that'd scare off nearly everyone who sees it! Tech support is synonymous for "not being worth it" imo.
What you should be doing is doing your best to detect what type of hardware they have and giving them links to the appropriate download page (nvidia.com, ati.com, etc). If they simply don't have anything to let you know their installed hardware (DX for instance), then you should fall back to a list of links to say the top 5 video card manufacturers' web sites for them to choose from, and then a "if you're not sure which to choose, please send us a quick email at support@blah.com and we'll do our best to help you.".

2) Your last 25% you're saying play your demo for up to 15 minutes, several times - that doesn't sound like very much time to me at all. I'm obviously not a good person to say much about this, but it does sound very low.
For instance, games like Space Tripper I played for hours to try to finish the demo, and only then did I buy the full version. Maybe I'm just very bad at it (quite possible considering how "far" I've got, hehe), but that demo showed me that the game is definitely, without a doubt going to have enough content to keep me busy for a long time - 15 minutes doesn't seem anywhere near long enough to me.

1) Yeah, I know, and it's in the works but it's not quite as trivial as it looks to do it right. The tech support message isn't that scary:

Sys.alert(
GAME_TITLE,
"You need an OpenGL compatible graphics card to run "
+ GAME_TITLE
+ ". You may have a suitable graphics card but not have OpenGL drivers. Please contact "
+ EMAIL_ADDRESS
+ " for assistance if you need help finding OpenGL drivers for your graphics card.");


2) It used to take a lot longer to finish the demo but it was almost unanimously declared too hard. So I make it easier - anyone can finish the demo, some people without even batting an eyelid. Now it takes 5 minutes to play it through. I personally think it's far too easy nowadays but I still get feedback telling me how hard it is - but now I know that they've only played it once for 5 minutes I can safely ignore them. I'm looking forward to feedback telling me it's too easy.

Cas :)

u have 3 problems

people love the game but they do not pay
-I think many people may love playing the demo version, but they say after finishing the game "ok it is nice...but that is enough", the game is technically very good and has wonderful graphics and sounds but it is not this so fun to keep playing for long time .my young brother said it is a good game but he played it for 5 minutes only, some people may play it for 30 minutes and get bored , that means they will not want to buy it.
The game needs more incentives and better game play
-if me I would consider lowering the price (let it be $15) just for testing.
need more visitors and downloads:
-you may need to make a freeware game; a very classical shooting game where enemies come from above and shoot u, but what will make it better than others is using ur wonderful special effects (explosions, lasers), I think u can finish it in a week...(just one more week to lose!).
Or you can make it something between a freeware and shareware (u can call it a freeshare :D) that is if u make 100 levels in the game let 50 of them for free and the next 50 for a very low price ($5)
- another option is ads...but "where" is the question u asked before
need more money
go and get a good job
ps: if u can find me a job it will be appreciated:D

I'm retrying your latest version so here's some semi-random thoughts while I do this:

I definitely agree with the criticisms regarding the website. Finding a screenshot link was particularly hard. I went to the Alien Flux website and clicked whatever link to get to the download page. I decided I wanted to see your screenshots and found out that your navigation bar doesn't have them. It has nice large buttons for things that as a consumer looking for a quick game fix I could care less about. Reviews, articles, high scores, forums, links, these are all things that are much easier to find than relevant information such as screenshots, system requirements, troubleshooting, etc. I would also reckon that the Show System Requirements links don't get used by most people. Just display the requirements info to begin with. Put system requirements for both beneath the two download buttons to avoid having the system requirements push the java webstart button down. Your whole site is based around a gaming network design instead of selling a game design, and I'm sure that's hurting you. I would also change that AliexFlux logo so that U is more prominent. I would have never figured out what the Flux part was (tip: human brain doesn't examine each letter, just looks at shape of the word). Also even when maximized at 1024x768 your download page has a horizontal scrollbar. Not a huge issue but since you have no content that actually goes that far you probably have an html bug somewhere.

If your install doesn't already do this, detect if the person has Java and offer to download/install it for them. Make the user work as little as possible to get your game going.

Whew demo download is done. The demo is, as I've mentioned before, too short. I just beat it in several minutes and felt no reason to purchase more. The demo needs to be longer, and it needs to convince that the full game has more levels and more gameplay elements. Regardless of what your nag screen might say, the demo gives the impression that the full version is very short and that impression overrides a line of text that says "100 levels in the full version". I don't think that 50% of the people that tried it didn't like it. The problem is the demo is too short to bother playing again, which does result in no desire to replay and consequently limits the demo's ability to sell the game. Like I said in another thread, I've never played a demo that sold me on the first play. Replayable demos are much more powerful. 25% of the people did find the demo intriguing enough to replay it. I bet you could increase this number. Above all though, make the demo engrave into the player's mind that there is more to see and play. Not just more levels but new enemies, bosses, etc. Have the installer give the person a chance to run the game after install. People are used to this and can get confused/annoyed if they have to dig for your game in the start menu.

"Don't forget to use your shields" message should include the key to activate the shields. First time I played AF i had no clue what that key was and honestly, who reads the instructions these days? Alt-tabbing to write this did not switch to normal screen resolution. Let fluffies be renameable. This worked very well in the Worms series since naming your team gave you a much larger psychological bond to your worms. It's much harder to get attached to someone else's fluffies. After I got an ICQ messaged and temporarily got minimized out of the game I got a very cryptic Performance Problems messsage telling me something about a 30Hz framerate setting and something about the game not running at its best. As a developer I can barely tell what you intend to accomplish with this setting. Either do it automatically or make the message much more friendly, with an option to switch to this setting built into the message instead of directing the player to find it somewhere in menu land. I think the background could use work. Having an actual fluffy zoo instead of an abstract background might help the player get into the game more.

If you could so something about loading times that would be cool too. Loading the game and loading a level both take longer than GTA: Vice City so it should be possible for you to knock to down some. I don't know how much your use of Java affects this.

It's also worth pointing out that dropping entire groups of people is a bad idea because it adds up. You should do everything possible to make sure your game is accessible. I wonder how many people go to your website and never even download it because of factors that could be fixed (make site more user-friendly, add accessible screenshots, lower download size, etc). Your analysis of the demo is probably wrong too.

Hopefully this is all coherent since I just wrote stuff whenever I noticed something that could be improved. Don't give up.

*sigh*
I just can't leave it alone...
Just uploaded 1.4e, which is now a 10-use demo with 10 level limit. It'll take several goes to get to level 10 I should think. Also, Extreme mode is now already unlocked so you can see all the aliens up front and see what you think of them. I'm hoping that this will increase the number of people who play multiple times and get them a bit more hooked on it, and give them a better feel for the game's contents. I'm worried, though, that one of the incentives to buy the full version ("discover the new aliens") is no longer present - apart from the bosses.

Startup time is now on the order of about 5 seconds instead of 30 (hurrah!)

Download size is down half a meg (hurrah!)

And I've reduced the price experimentally to $14.95 (hurrah!)

I know I should really only be altering one thing at a time really but what the hell :D

Cas :)

Cas, I think you derive pleasure from beating dead horses. If i see "Java Rulz" in one more of your posts.... ;) ahh never mind. :D

All jesting aside, anyone can see that AF has loads of potential, you just need to tap it, so by all means, keep beating that horse!

I just bought your game this morning. The latest demo--well, the previously latest demo(1.4c)-- finally made me want to buy it. I actually played 3 previous versions of your demo and they didn't sell me on it, but this last one did, so you must be making some progress.

Also, it may be of interest to you to know that I played, and replayed the demo across two days before finally deciding to buy it. Infact, that's pretty much been the case with nearly every indie game I've bought this year. It really does seem that getting people to replay your demo has alot to do with wether they buy or not. And I think this is why: you need to get to the point where you're thinking, "Hey, I've had quite alot of fun playing this demo, and I've been playing it for a while.", before you start thinking, "Ok, I'm gonna get the full version of this so I can keep playing and start seeing some new stuff." I think maybe a demo needs to be a small version of the game that actually has some replay value itself. Hmm.. I should see if I can apply this thinking to my own game...

The trick of having the boss show up in the end of the demo and then not letting you play it is very effective. I'll definitely try to use that myself at some point.

Anyway, if you're getting a 1% conversion rate I don't really feel toooo sorry for you. My game on the other hand really is a dead horse. I've had one sale. Of course you made a better game than I did... but still, I'd be pretty happy with your conversion rate.

If you do decide to give it a rest with Alien Flux so you can work on your next game, it doesn't mean you're abandoning it forever. Come back and work on it again in a few months when you've got some fresh ideas.

But if you do decide to keep plugging away at it, my suggestion would be to consentrate on the demo. Alien Flux by all accounts should convert better, and IMHO it's the demo that's likely to have the biggest impact on your conversion rate. If you're doing anything wrong anywhere, it's probably there.

I was actually a bit confused as to what happened when the boss showed up as it wasn't really apparent that it quit because of a demo thing. Perhaps I didn't see the text explaining this if there is any though. I thought I had just mysteriously died when I wasn't watching or something.

This talk on replayability in a demo is rather interesting though since it contrasts so differently with puzzle games in general not being replayable. Replayability in the demo does seem to be a big factor with many of the big players though (like popcap).

I bought Alien flux a while ago.

Overall I like the game...

Things you could improve on: ( I haven’t downloaded the latest version)

I would like to be able to save my games.

I don’t want to be able to kill the fluffies.

I think your download size is too big (56k modem)

My laptop doesn't run your game but it runs Quake III / we discussed this in an email... ATI Rage has default installed drivers that I can't get updates for from ATI site. My Desktop is fine, but I only recently bought it.

I think you should create more variety in the bosses / just combining them doesn't make it too interesting.

I think that loosing weapon powers if you die when facing 3 bosses is not cool. If I die 5 times then I'm back to no gun power or speed.

The randomness of the powerups often frustrates me when I want speed and laser powerups and get extra lives and bombs.

I agree with the more variety of the bubbles or other enemies in the patterns that they attack, but this might be changing the game into a different game.


Now the next section is not a criticism but just an observation (make of it what you like)


You believe certain things about games and your game, also regarding Java and Opengl and the download size, also about the type of person who would buy your game.

A lot of people on this board are giving you different views from their experience which you are always defensive about. Now if your believes pay off and you have a huge success and make lots of money, then by doing what you believe in is great and you can set a new trend and change the world, but it seems just the opposite has happened. It seems a bit silly that you keep defending your believes while they have proven to not work.

To me it seems that you can take your current results as part of an experiment and say that.

1) You completed a game based on what you believed would work.

2) You have sorted out a lot of game elements by doing so

3) Your believes gave you results... now based on the results you need to change your believes and rework the whole process.

4) Redesign the whole game using all the feedback you got from everybody and from your own experience. This means you might have to create a whole new game based on all the feedback you got. You could call this Alien Flux II.

5) The good part is that a lot of the base work have been done, so you would be able to reuse a lot of your code, graphics and other algorithms.

6) Before you redesign your game look at other games that sell well and measure yourself against them with features and compatibility.

If you give up now, then you have proven that you are just another guy who tried once and gave up. You will be no different from the person who writes half a game and gives up.

If Tomas Edison gave up after attempting to building his first electric light, then we would have never been where we are today. People who are successful, often only become successful at what they do after trying many, many times and not giving up!

So stopping with failure is a lesson in failure, if you want success you might need to learn to understand failure and then learn the lesson of success.

In a nutshell ( Even if you had the greatest ability to focus in the world , looking at the problem at hand is not going to solve it. You have to look in the opposite way, to the solution)

Best of luck in finding the solutions to your problems.

Cornel

Ok, I won't give much info about AF or how to improve sales, but gonna just say a few things I know from observing all the other people at work. 90% of the people that download demos don't buy the full version even if they enjoy the game. We developers tend to think if 90% of the people play the demo various times, they tend to buy it, but this is hardly the truth. Many people just go around the net and download a demo, play it 10 times (or whatever) and then move on. Iknow some that don't even like the game and still play it 'cause they can't stand to NOT be abel to beat a measly demo.

I think in all my life, I bought about 3-4 games based on a demo (JK: Jedi Academy last week cause the demo addicted me, Space Tripper and I can't really remember any else, but I'm sure there are 2-3 that are missing me). The thing is, most people buy games on impulse, this usually means they end up buying the game because of the presentation they get on the website.

What I mean by this whole thing is not to take numbers too much at heart. People are unpredictable things and gamers (along with not having much of a personal hygiene :rolleyes: ) are even more. Try to improve the downloads or the game but don't do it based on the 'stats' as they are probably worth nothing.

ps: I didn't bitch at princec this time :)

Speaking of beating a dead horse... I didn't really like the controls. :D

Originally posted by Pyabo
Speaking of beating a dead horse... I didn't really like the controls. :D

Here we go again...:rolleyes:

Cas, you're starting to sound like an amateur developer (http://www.dexterity.com/articles/shareware-amateurs-vs-shareware-professionals.htm) . Time to step back, take a deep breath, and really analyze what you're doing.

If you're in financial trouble, starting a new project isn't going to make things better. You'll have the same (or similar) issues with the new game when you get it done. Deal with those issues now, when you already have a game, and save yourself a bunch of time.

As much as I hate to suggest it, maybe you ought to look at a part-time job somewhere to help make ends meet.

I already have a part-time job :D Unfortunately my mortgage is crippling me :(

To drag the thread back on topic, the original dilemma was this: do I really want to spend significant amounts of time tweaking Alien Flux or is it time to draw a line under it and get on with another game from scratch, knowing all the things I know now? I feel as if I'm up against diminishing returns on Alien Flux.


Cas :)

I released my game the 17th. So far about 250 download and zero sales. It is too early of course to start crying, and the 25th will appear on download.com so I'll see if it is worth or not.

If I won't get a satisfiying result in 1 month (at least 15-20 sales), I may seriously think to move to a next project.

I think that twinking a game with a bad reputation is not worth it. Think about it, ppl already know how it is your game, and I don't think they are willing to visit again your homepage or redownload demo (simply because they think it is the same game).

So unless you change A LOT your game, better move on :P it would be easier and faster to make a new one, and you'll get more exposure anyway making more games.

Example:
my game sales are terrible.
It is not worth to simply add a different selection on the team screen (as this is one of the major problem for now).
A completely different matter would be adding a 3D view of the match showing the highlight of the match: this would be a GREAT add, and would probably convince a lot of ppl to try again the game.

The only problem would be that adding such big things require time...! :)

Here is a quote from the article (http://www.dexterity.com/articles/shareware-amateurs-vs-shareware-professionals.htm) by Steve Pavlina mentioned earlier in this thread
Having been in this industry for many years, I've seen this cycle repeat itself again and again. You would be absolutely amazed at how many of the greatest shareware hits experienced dismal sales after their initial release... sometimes even no sales at all in the entire first year. But the developers turned them into hits by continuously improving those critical success factors over a period of years.

I just thought it was kind of relevant to this discussion...

You would be absolutely amazed at how many of the greatest shareware hits experienced dismal sales after their initial release... sometimes even no sales at all in the entire first year.
Ah! then this must be absolutely my case!! :D hehe

To drag the thread back on topic, the original dilemma was this: do I really want to spend significant amounts of time tweaking Alien Flux or is it time to draw a line under it and get on with another game from scratch, knowing all the things I know now? I feel as if I'm up against diminishing returns on Alien Flux.



Take what you know now and apply it to Alien Flux.

I don't think you'd be wrong in starting a new project, since tweaking AF can't take up all of your time. But I think you'd be very wrong to write off AF completely. I can't help but feel that you're very close to pulling it all together. You're giving up to soon.

Try a little brainstorming experiment. Make a list (ten or so) of areas that affect AF sales. Things like website design, download size, control setup, etc. Rate yourself in each of the areas, on a scale of one to ten. And then for each area, come up with two or three specific things that you could change to make that rating better. Remember the multiplicative formula Steve wrote about? You're better off with small gains in all areas than one big gain in a single area.

Each idea would be small and relatively easy to implement. You could knock those out while working on another project.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you probably have problems outside of AF itself that are contributing to the low sales. Replacing AF with a different game won't change much, if those problems are still there.

Ah no, I never said I'd write off Alien Flux! I just said I wanted to completely cease work on it and get on with a new game. I'm not giving up in the least: the question I'm asking is, am I at the point where effort spent trying to make Alien Flux convert better is costing more than I will ever reap from it during its lifetime?

There are indeed still problems external to AF's actual game, some of which are probably not worth addressing because of the time it takes to implement them, some of which seem to be a really good idea.

Take for example the instant buy feature: that's a whole lot of work. I've got to write a server process to talk to swreg and a large and internally complex client GUI to handle it in the game. But I strongly suspect that without the hassle of having to leave the game and surf several website links that I'll get a large increase in sales. The best bit's yet to come: I'll be keeping all that information on the client so when they come across my next game, the buy now button will have everything filled in for them - like one-click shopping - and all they have to do is type in their password and click once. That's got to do wonders for returning customers conversion rates. It's a couple of weeks' work but it'll reap benefits for years to come for all my games.

But at the other end of the scale there's reducing the demo download size. It's a lot of work writing the JPEG decoder and then creating a custom image format which stores JPEG and alpha-deltas together and at the end of the day it'll save a couple of megs. We're looking at, say, two weeks' work to get it all peachy. But my webstats tell me I'm only likely to see a 20% increase in downloads.. if I get the demo down to 5mb. As it is I can get it down to about 10mb and not much less without resorting to rewriting the game in C++ which will save another 3mb or so... and take me at least 3 months, during which time I could have completely written a new game.

Cas :)

I wouldn't be adding those ordering and file size optimizations if the game itself is having difficulty selling. Adding these little optimizations are just treating symptoms and not the disease (to use a metaphor). You really only care about easing the purchasing process and getting more downloads when you have a game that can convert demos to paying customers. I think your intuition is right on this one.

As to why the game doesn't have a high conversion rate... well, that's one horse I think we can leave dead :)

Cas,

This is just my opinion,

BUT DON"T GIVE UP ON AF!

I agree with Dan M.

I've played the demo, and I believe your game has serious potential.

The question to ask yourself, is how much more time you are willing to put into the project? Many of the people in this forum have made many suggestions, sometimes repeating them. I would make a outline of the changes suggested, and count how many each one was suggested. Then order all suggestions in order of # times suggested AND approx. value in increased income if fixed. Fix the stuff at the top, and work your way down.

Remember what I said before, if someone makes a suggestion you don't agree with, you can ignore it. But if 2 people independantly make the same suggestion, you can't ignore it. Many of the people on this forum have been playing these kind of games for years, and more importantly, many people have been making these kind of games for years, and their suggestions come from experience.

I don't think it's a good idea to start a new game. If AF isn't selling because of problems you have not fixed, why would starting a new game be any different? You don't yet have a working model of what works/ what doesn't yet.

I'm sorry if I am coming down hard on you. It's because I so want to see you succeed. I think with patience and a open mind, AF will be a success.

"A wise man learns from his mistakes. A genius learns from the mistakes of others." -Chinese proverb.

Felix

There are some default things you can do in order to get more sales.

-Improve the game (you need to evaluate the ideas from your customers and the people at the forum). I am not sure if it will work out the right way. So you need to evaluate each suggestion carefull.

-You can send after the improvements a press release to Avault, Gamezone etc. Also perhaps an advertisement. You can send press releases to magazines.

-You can make you website easier to navigate to download the demo, check screenshots etc.

-You can send out submissions to publishers in your country and perhaps other countries. Always check if the publisher is a real publisher you can trust. So always ask the experience of other developers who work(ed) with the publisher. And go for the best deal (non exclusive).

To be honest I think it's still difficult. I am sure you already knew much about the mentioned above points. Perhaps you need to ask the developer http://www.mking.com/index.html of Demonstar/Raptor/Galactix, how he did it. The guy is making about 10 years a living of developing/publishing shareware arcade space games. So if somebody got experience in the area of developing /selling shareware arcade space games he is the man. But perhaps he won't tell you, because you are a competitor :) . However most indie developers are helpfull to each other. So you need to give it a chance. Another way is to do some basic research on the internet, to find out about the comments/reviews/downloads (places) etc. about his arcade space games. You need to find a clue(s). How did he get his sales succes and what is the difference between your game demo, website, download places, etc. and his succesfull product(s). If I am right he also publishes shareware games of other indie developers. Perhaps he is still doing that. So you can also think about that option, if other things aren't working out the right way. Good luck!

For example check here some comments from the Demonstar niche: http://download.com.com/3302-2095_4-10174131.html There are some usefull comments.

b.t.w. I tried to play the AF demo but it still doesn't run :(

Cas... Here's a serious piece of advice for you.. Get a full-time job. Get an extra job on the side of that. Or two. Leave Alien Flux and Puppy Games alone for a while, and focus on your personal financial situation. Get to keep your house, get rid of your massive overdraft, save up a little money. Take a timeout.

Then, take a new, fresh look at Puppy Games. This is not your last chance to get Alien Flux and Puppy Games going. Take a step back, build a solid base from which you can go at it again.

I too would very much like to see Alien Flux succeed... but not at any cost.

Originally posted by Mattias
Get a full-time job. Get an extra job on the side of that. Or two.

I think the problem is that it's not easy to get an IT job (also other jobs, like financial administration etc.) because of the unhealthy economic situation. There are very much people who lost there job. So it isn't easy.

Are you saying that he is more likely to make money from AF than he is to get a job? I certainly don't agree about that...

Originally posted by Mattias
Are you saying that he is more likely to make money from AF than he is to get a job? I certainly don't agree about that...

No, that isn't what I meant :confused: What I meant is, that it isn't easy. But I agree that it's better to focus on hunting for a job, (because of the financial troubles) meanwhile you can continue with puppy games. Because hunting for a job, isn't a job of 8 hours a day :D So you got enough time for puppy games.

I'm more likely to make money with Alien Flux than I am to get a job in IT in South West England. And rather annoyingly I'm overqualified for nearly everything menial and non-IT, of all the stupid excuses.

Cas :)

Get a job as a postman. The pay is decent, and you get quite a lot of free time.

"And rather annoyingly I'm overqualified for nearly everything menial and non-IT, of all the stupid excuses."

Man, do I know what that's like! I thought I'd take on some crappy part time job so I could raise a little extra business funds and it ends up I can't get a job anywhere! Even stupid stock-boy jobs are a no go! I don't want to take an industry job because a) everyone working in mainstream dev offices are jerks and b) I don't want to give up 40+ hours per week making someone else's derivative first person shooter or real-time strategy games. I have my own derivative games to make! :)

It does drive home the whole point of going into business for yourself, though. A job search at 30 sucks, I can't imagine having to do something like that when I'm 40 or 50. There's no such thing as job security and the older you get the more your career options dwindle.

Originally posted by KNau
everyone working in mainstream dev offices are jerksHeyyyy.. :mad: :p I've worked with a lot of great people in the industry, and very few are jerks. Of course there are some, but there always are in any industry.

I have a feeling that comment might have been directed at the suits.

Cas :)