Digg it up for Cletus Clay on PC and XBLA

Today I can reveal that Cletus Clay is going to appear on both PC and Xbox LIVE Arcade platforms!

We’ve also got a new blog post revealing why Anthony chose to work with clay, as well as a little more about the game itself, complete with one of our early images.

Please read for the blog post and Digg members can Digg us up!

To those who were wondering, I am still alive - just! I’m hard at work hammering out our indie title, which you can now find blogged on TunaSnax.

I’m very pleased to say that we’re working with Anthony Flack to create his long awaited follow-up to Platypus (download it here), Cletus Clay. To say the least, it’s bloody hard work for all of us but also highly satisfying.

For those who don’t know, we make everything in clay then animate it using traditional stop-frame techniques - just like Wallace and Grommit (Aardman Animations). What you see on the screen, give or take some clean-up and effects work, actually exists on a desk somewhere and it’s the photo which is on-screen.

I hear some people have just seen the blog this weekend and think we’re not really doing this, but honestly - we really are, and it’s more difficult than you can imagine. We’ll talk more about the process over the next few months and I’ll doubtless also mention it here.

Right, back to the hard grind!

In 1981, IBM launched their Personal Computer (PC). For many years it was only ever used as a business computer, with a few shareware games released. However, that changed in 1993 with the massively successful shareware title Doom. The next few years saw a massive boom in PC gaming.

I mention that brief piece of history because it is of great relevance to independent game developers in 2008. It is rarely referred to as such, but shareware is probably what you’ll be dealing with on the PC unless you are developing an on-line game.

The retail market is in a poor state, but the download market is very active, particularly in the casual space. Games tend to be based around the try before you buy model, whether limited by content, such as only the first level being free, or by time, 60 minutes gameplay for free by example.

PC - Pros

• Massive potential market.
• Mature and successful on-line market rather than retail based.
• Completely open download platform - no concept approval required; no restrictions of any kind.
• Huge variety of open source and low cost tools.
• Set your own price and sell where you want.
• Other revenue options, such as ad-based, micro-transactions, or subscription.
• Release your game whenever you want - no third party approval required.
• Immediate downloads for home/office web surfers.
• Generally lower cost of development.
• Easy to add additional content and updates at any time.
• PC boxed copy sales can be a useful extra source of revenue.
• Easy access to your audience.
• Massive on-line audience for web based games or MMOs.

PC - Cons

• PC hardware is variable, leading to unexpected problems on a number of machines. This is not to be underestimated.
• Lower profile than a console release.
• Rampant piracy. However, this could be debated forever so I’ll leave that discussion alone!
• Lack of a submission structure may lead to lack of development strategy if self-publishing or approaching publishers towards the end of a project.
• Lack of approvals mechanism often leads to much lower production values.
• Distribution platforms such as Steam and GameTap require approval from their owners and may incur exclusivity restrictions - if only with respect to other PC distribution systems and portals. Anecdotal evidence from developers is that such platforms are getting harder to reach as mainstream publishers are providing more content.
• Some resellers may take a large cut of the sales price, particularly true of many popular casual game portals.

Piracy is an issue, although evidence for the real effect on sales figures is shakey. Russell Carroll has written excellent articles on the matter over at Gamasutra. However, what isn’t arguable is that a good console download will usually sell many more copies than a good PC download, at least for indie games.

In terms of sales figures, expect around 10k sales if you do very well, 20-30k for a very significant hit, perhaps more if you have a track record and an audience.. Those are not big numbers, although they are big enough if your game is $20 and you receive 60-90% of the income which you will if selling through your own site, affiliates or Steam. Casual games can sell many more copies but the per unit revenue may be a lot less as many traditional portals do not pay high rates and have various customer bundling schemes.

It’s important to bare in mind that the vast majority of indie and casual games will be lucky to scrape past 2000 units. I’ll be writing an article on sales figures later this year, but you’ll find some hard figures here.

In my opinion, the PC is the best platform to get started with unless you already have experience of professional game development. The console learning curve is steep, and for most people it’ll be extremely difficult and frustrating to even get through the approvals stage. By all means aim for console, but keep a PC version in mind and in progress where possible.

A brief note on Mac and Linux based projects. They may well be worthwhile if you are doing PC, but it’s debatable otherwise. Both platforms benefit from an active user base and seemingly less piracy. Supporting the Mac can get your title more press attention too and that can be very important. Mac may increase sales by 10-25%, and Linux by a few percentage points. It will depend upon how the game is promoted and how it resonates with the audience.

If you wish to consider these platforms, I’d suggest using a cross platform library or engine.

EDIT: Great opinion piece on Gamasutra where 2D Boy (World of Goo) explains issues with XBox Live Arcade for indies.

Sony’s follow-up to the massively successful PlayStation 2, the PS3, included an on-line service to compete with XBLA. PlayStation Network (PSN) offered similar game download facilities as its main competitor, although without the Game Points and Awards. That, however, is changing with the constant firmware updates such as the recent - although buggy - 2.4 upgrade.

Like Xbox Live Arcade, the quality of download titles is rather mixed, but does include the excellent Super Stardust, Jonathan Mak’s indie hit Everyday Shooter, and - from Japan - the Pixel Junk series. Unfortunately, like with XBLA, the user interface leaves a lot to be desired, and firmwares thus far have not been without their problems.

Whilst I have no firm sales figures to hand, anecdotal evidence indicates that sales are some way off those of successful XBLA titles. That’s obviously a major consideration given the likely development costs involved.

PSN - Pros

• PS3 user base is expected to continue growing fast.
• PSN is a maturing system which Sony are continually updating.
• Sony are currently more open to new concepts than they have been in the past.
• Sony have been actively funding a number of projects (although some have been dropped before completion leading to problems for the developers involved).
• Lack of significant competition on PSN.
• Download games can be virtually any size.

PSN - Cons

• Barrier to entry: Sony restrict projects based upon a concept approval process. That usually means some lengthy document writing in their standard format and, like Microsoft, they really like to see demos and mock-ups.
• Barrier to entry: Development kits must be bought from Sony.
• Barrier to entry: You may be required to support networked multiplayer, and this can bump development and QA costs considerably. Sony’s supporting systems are not as well developed as Microsoft’s are at present.
• Barrier to entry: Development costs must account for TRC handling.
• As with the other platform holders, Sony control the distribution mechanism and may do as they please.
• Sony have to approve the project, both technically and content-wise.
• Once again, localisation and age ratings need to be considered.
• Development environment said to be improving, but the PS3 is considered a trickier beast to develop on than the other home console platforms, at least by some.
• Exclusivity restrictions possible.
• Sales seemingly lower than on XBLA.

With the PS3 selling well as well as the frequent system updates, I personally think PSN has a very promising future. Whilst apparent sales figures are a concern - and I don’t have solid figures to back that up in all fairness - as a system I believe it to be more open to indies than XBLA currently is. Remember that it only takes one or two hits for developers and publishers to follow each other like Lemmings, and PSN hasn’t quite grabbed people’s attention yet.

To register for PS3 development, you’ll need to visit SCE DevNet (the Licensing Information page).

I continue this series with an article about the good old PC, as well as Mac and Linux.

The Nintendo Wii. Apparently it became the fastest selling games console in British history. It’s certainly the first home console to cross demographics so effectively, with everyone from young children to their grandparents prepared to have a go.

Has that success come at a price, however? Anecdotal evidence is that the Wii is kept as a party machine, or for very specific games, such as Wii Sports or Wii Fit. That’s not so bad for Nintendo, but it is a concern for mainstream publishers and indie developers.

WiiWare is Nintendo’s answer to Xbox Live Arcade. It was only launched in May across most regions, and as such there is little data out there right now as to its success. The big worry is that many Wii users simply won’t know or care about it since the Wii may be seen more as a toy or party game than a console.

WiiWare - Pros

• An abundance of Wii units in people’s homes.
• Expect the games to be smaller than recent XBLA titles; that should mean cheaper to develop.
• Nintendo will let you get on with your product - the content is up to you.
• Nintendo claim to be more open to game concepts than Microsoft or Sony.
• You get to code for the WiiMote!
• Nintendo are promoting it to indie developers.
• The Wii is a reasonably easy piece of hardware to develop for.
• No requirement for a Wii exclusive.
• Can still get in early whilst there is a lack of competition (at the time of writing).

WiiWare - Cons

• Barrier to entry: Registering for development has been harder than indies expected. It may help to have a prior relationship with Nintendo or a game development track record. Like the other platform holders, Nintendo still have to approve the core concept although the process seems to be far simpler than with Microsoft or Sony, and with less content-related feedback.
• Barrier to entry: Development kits must be bought, although they are comparatively well priced.
• Barrier to entry: Development costs must account for TRC handling, although Microsoft and Sony are generally considered stricter.
• Right now, no one knows how WiiWare titles will sell.
• As with Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo control the distribution mechanism and may do as they please.
• Nintendo still have to approve the project, although content-wise they may be more open than the other platform holders.
• Localisation and age ratings are again a consideration and expense.
• The WiiMote is the only controller Wii owners are guaranteed to own and it’s not very good at being a regular joypad. This may make it more difficult to design a game for use across multiple platforms.
• Game size is very limited.
• Nintendo don’t allow their hardware in home offices, which conflicts with their pro-indie stance.

WiiWare is the new kid on the block and that makes it difficult to properly evaluate. On the positive side, games can be developed far cheaper and far quicker than for some competing systems. That alone makes it very attractive for independent developers. The home office thing is an issue, but I’d hope people can find ways around that.

I’ll end with some useful links; IGN have a good interview covering a few WiiWare issues with Tom Prata here, there’s a good developer-oriented blog post on BigRedPimp, and to register for development you should head for Wario World (yes, really!).

My next article in this series is about developing on Sony’s PlayStation Network for PS3.

EDIT: I’ll be updating this article shortly following Microsoft’s XNA / XBox Live Community Games announcement. Suffice to say, XNA is now a potentially fantastic route for indies to take, but it does depend how it is promoted to users. If they don’t ever see your games, they can never buy them however good they are. Also, where exactly does this leave XBox Live Arcade? EDIT END.

Originally available for the Xbox, XBLA was an integral part of the Xbox 360 at launch. This makes it by far and away the most mature of the console digital distribution platforms.

By all accounts it’s also the most successful. Figures on Wikipedia claim it to have a high attach rate and conversion rate, although true numbers are hard to come by if you aren’t under NDA with Microsoft. VGChartz attempt to estimate real sales figures but don’t expect them to be particularly accurate.

Titles on the system are a very mixed bag of indie games, poor retro ports, half-decent retro ports, casual games, and - increasingly - original titles and sequels from the traditional publishers you know and love.

From a user point of view, the biggest issue is the dashboard interface. Users are faced with long lists of titles making it difficult to find anything. That’s important because it means your game could disappear very quickly indeed, and it’s undoubtedly costing Microsoft users. The quality of many of the titles has also been hotly debated. Both of these factors have lead to the much discussed delisting policy of which I’m certainly not a fan.

Below are some of the pros and cons developers should be considering.

Xbox Live Arcade - Pros

• Established system with existing user base and proven sales record.
• The most popular console downloadable game environment.
• Successful indie games exist on the system, e.g. Penny Arcade’s Precipice of Darkness, N+, Alien Hominid, Eets and the Mutant Storm series.
• It is possible to do well financially if you’re game does well, and some of the above certainly have.
• Good development environment.
• Similar to PC platform allowing a PC version to be developed at low cost.

Xbox Live Arcade - Cons

• Barrier to entry: Microsoft restricts projects based upon a green light process. This can take months even with a good project, and perhaps most projects are turned down. That may be to avoid clashes with other titles, pre-existing PC release, lack of experience in the development team, or for any other reason they see fit. Being green lit is not an easy process and it can take a lot of work, proof of concept demos included.
• Barrier to entry: Development kits must be bought.
• Barrier to entry: You may be required to support the Live! service, and this can bump development and QA costs considerably.
• Barrier to entry: Development costs must account for TCR handling - that means following strict Microsoft rules for how things should work. If you’ve never done this before, you’re in for a shock. There’s an awful lot that can and will go wrong that you would never have thought of, or you think is unimportant or crazy.
• Microsoft control the release slots, payments, how your game is handled on the system - well, everything! Announcements such as the delisting policy show that they are quite prepared to change the rules.
• Microsoft have to approve the project, both technically and content-wise. The submissions and approval process can be unexpectedly lengthy, especially if you are self-publishing.
• Unicode localisation and age ratings are required. There are time and money considerations to both of these factors.
• Simply having a game on the system doesn’t mean it will sell, despite what people seem to think. You still need to market your game and it still needs to have an audience.
• It is unclear how pro-indie XBLA really is right now. It could end up being dominated by traditional publishers, and some will say it already is. Microsoft are pushing indies to XNA, a cheaper alternative.
• Self-published XBLA game royalty rates may be different for an indie compared to a regular publisher.
• Xbox hardware is reportedly not selling as well as Wii or PS3.
• Exclusivity restrictions are likely.
• Interface usability issues given the large number of games available.

XBLA is certainly a cut above the rest at the moment and has strong positives, but it’s future is unclear. If you can get through the green light process then you will probably be able to find funding or a publisher, but that first stage is much harder than you might imagine.

Developers without commercial experience should consider XNA before XBLA. Besides, a good XNA project could be successful in its own right and may also help with a future jump to XBLA.

More information on Xbox Live Arcade developer submissions can be found here.

The next article in the series can be found here, and this time it’s about WiiWare.

EDIT: Great opinion piece on Gamasutra where 2D Boy (World of Goo) explains issues with XBox Live Arcade for indies.

Choosing which gaming platform to develop for is a difficult decision, yet it’s one which many indie developers take too quickly. I’m going to share a few thoughts that I hope will help guide developers in the right direction, and that may provoke discussion amongst developers of all levels of experience.

A question I hear all the time from indie developers is:

How do we get on Xbox Live Arcade?

To which my answer is:

Are you sure you want to be on there?

That’s when they look at me with wild, ‘are you mental?’ eyes. They often don’t really have an answer - it’s just because they heard that it was popular. Don’t get me wrong - XBLA is a platform with a lot of potential and it can really work for indies. However, developers need to carefully consider what platform they want to develop on - companies live or die on this decision.

Over the next few days I’ll post up some pros and cons of XBLA, WiiWare, PSN and also digital distribution on the PC.

Follow me here where I’ll discuss the most well known of the platforms, Xbox Live Arcade.