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Crystal Towers 2 - Post-release
Jun. 15th, 2011 06:36 pmSince I released my rather overly plump digital bird from the nest it had occupied for the last four years, and watched its best attempts to fly into the distance, it's taken over exactly the same amount of my life as before. The difference this time is that I'm just watching it instead of actively doing anything to it, but the Internet makes it very easy to get addicted.
The climate in which I released it is very different from the one that I released the original Crystal Towers into. At that point, just six years ago in 2005, independent games didn't have anywhere near the presence that they have today, and it really was a novelty to be part of the active Click community and to share games with it. If games were really remarkable, they would get the occasional mention on sites like Home of the Underdogs, or a coverdisk position on the German magazine Bravo Screenfun.
Now, the environment is much larger, and independent development has sort of split off into two leagues of its own, with solo projects propagating around various journals on the Internet and miniature development teams releasing to Steam and XBox Live. I was lucky to be able to release into the smaller environment and get some recognition for the original game (because taking it on its own merits these days, it's a bit rubbish), but these days, the release of the sequel didn't really cause a stir at my old home.
However, I'm delighted that it's been picked up and mentioned on Indiegames and Rock Paper Shotgun - the latter review perhaps being slightly more patronizing than I would have ideally liked by calling it "endearing" and "eager to please" while bending down to ruffle its hair, but they've both definitely been making pageviews pour in, and I've reached a new peak of sales today. It seems that people are actually buying it more quickly than I had expected, not waiting until they run up against the barrier of "Buy this now!" slideshows but instead deciding within the first few levels that they're going to upgrade to the full version.
Even though it hasn't let go of my life, it's nice to feel some reward for the whole thing at last - something I also received from everyone's encouragement. Out in the wilds of the Internet it's been drawing comparisons to Sonic, Mario, Metroid, Castlevania, and - a bit of a surprise - Zool. People have been saying that they want to see it on Steam, so I might re-apply for that if the game gets a decent online following.
Maybe I'll manage to talk about something else soon.
The climate in which I released it is very different from the one that I released the original Crystal Towers into. At that point, just six years ago in 2005, independent games didn't have anywhere near the presence that they have today, and it really was a novelty to be part of the active Click community and to share games with it. If games were really remarkable, they would get the occasional mention on sites like Home of the Underdogs, or a coverdisk position on the German magazine Bravo Screenfun.
Now, the environment is much larger, and independent development has sort of split off into two leagues of its own, with solo projects propagating around various journals on the Internet and miniature development teams releasing to Steam and XBox Live. I was lucky to be able to release into the smaller environment and get some recognition for the original game (because taking it on its own merits these days, it's a bit rubbish), but these days, the release of the sequel didn't really cause a stir at my old home.
However, I'm delighted that it's been picked up and mentioned on Indiegames and Rock Paper Shotgun - the latter review perhaps being slightly more patronizing than I would have ideally liked by calling it "endearing" and "eager to please" while bending down to ruffle its hair, but they've both definitely been making pageviews pour in, and I've reached a new peak of sales today. It seems that people are actually buying it more quickly than I had expected, not waiting until they run up against the barrier of "Buy this now!" slideshows but instead deciding within the first few levels that they're going to upgrade to the full version.
Even though it hasn't let go of my life, it's nice to feel some reward for the whole thing at last - something I also received from everyone's encouragement. Out in the wilds of the Internet it's been drawing comparisons to Sonic, Mario, Metroid, Castlevania, and - a bit of a surprise - Zool. People have been saying that they want to see it on Steam, so I might re-apply for that if the game gets a decent online following.
Maybe I'll manage to talk about something else soon.
