Japanese gaming is dead

[Skykid]

You are probably part of this problem too, or did you bought Fast Striker?
Fast Striker bombed on iOS too. Nobody bought it either.

And neither the MVS version nor the DC version was played/discussed on this forum.
It was mostly ignored. Why is that so?

The fact that forum member MJClark uploaded the ISO on torrent sites didn't help it's sales either. In fact sales dropped like a stone afterwards. A deal with a bigger distributor rescued us here.

I was close before discontinuing DC support for good...

Actually I did buy Fast Striker.
I also bought Last Hope LE and you gave me a discount on my Pink Bullets preorder when I sent you a pic of the serial no.

Last time I played FS on ios there was no GC or openfeint support, which I remember thinking was kind of critical, but it was a good game that worked well on the platform and my favourite NGdev title so far. It deserved to do well, but I don't really know how well any of the shooting games outside of Cave stuff do on the platform.

I don't think MJclark's misdemeanour was wholly responsible for a drop in ios sales, like I said, the general consumer base isn't interested in anything that challenges their reflexes or skills, or 'looks like an old game.'

Since it seems like there are only 51 spots on the FS scoreboard, may I ask approximately how many FS you did manage to sell on ios?

[THE]

Actually I did buy Fast Striker.
I also bought Last Hope LE and you gave me a discount on my Pink Bullets preorder when I sent you a pic of the serial no.

Good But without people talking about the game/ not having any kind of hype there still was not much interest in the DC version.

Last time I played FS on ios there was no GC or openfeint support, which I remember thinking was kind of critical, but it was a good game that worked well on the platform and my favourite NGdev title so far. It deserved to do well, but I don't really know how well any of the shooting games outside of Cave stuff do on the platform.

In hindsight not having openfeint support was maybe a mistake. We were thinking about adding it in the update. But the sales were not good enough to justify the development costs.

Well, compared to Cave everything a shmup bombs on iOS. But selling a low 10k units at 4 EUR or something would have been a success for us. Unfortunately it was rather 1500-2000 units at 99 cent.

I don't think MJclark's misdemeanour was wholly responsible for a drop in ios sales, like I said, the general consumer base isn't interested in anything that challenges their reflexes or skills, or 'looks like an old game.'

MJClarks doings affected the Dreamcast version. I think the iOS version came later after the DC ISO. But yes the iOS version was available on pirate sites within 24hrs.

Since it seems like there are only 51 spots on the FS scoreboard, may I ask approximately how many FS you did manage to sell on ios?

I honestly don't know, didn't bothered anymore after watching it for 2 month. But the average monthly revenues where around 150 EUR before we discontinued the contract with Apple.

[Skykid]

Well, compared to Cave everything a shmup bombs on iOS. But selling a low 10k units at 4 EUR or something would have been a success for us. Unfortunately it was rather 1500-2000 units at 99 cent.

Well I'm pretty sure ADM would be happy with that right now, lol. NGDev at least has its name out there, so it sounds like your iphone owning fans picked up a copy (Jockel fer sure!)

Which brings us back to the previous point: the great masses have been conditioned to only be interested in spending their money on crap.

But isn't this the way all major industries become?

1: Industry booms, billions adopt
2: Industry finds way to make things to formula to speed up production time and in turn increase profit
3: Industry convinces masses through advertising blitz that they like and want products made to a formula
4: Consumer grows to love formula and ignore anything that doesn't fit into its specific set of parameters

Look at Hollywood, it's the exact same thing.

[Udderdude]

I was chatting to a friend today, who also happens to be the developer of Blade Dash that I worked so hard to promote here.

We were saying how fucked up it was that he can create a simple, fresh action game that plays as tight as a touchscreen game possibly can (I'll testify to this too) and presents a highly addictive score challenge to appeal to hardcore gaming sensibilities, and get pretty much no interest: but Lep's World, a shitty flash Mario clone with a leprechaun, shoots straight up the app chart and sells by the bucketload.

I've heard some devs call App Store the Indie Lottery/Slot Machine, and I can see where they're getting that point. It's really arbitrary which games end up at the top .. it really is just up to the whims of the dumb masses. Pretty sad, really. I expect if I ever ported my Flash games to iPhone they would only do average as well.

[THE]

I've heard some devs call App Store the Indie Lottery/Slot Machine, and I can see where they're getting that point. It's really arbitrary which games end up at the top .. it really is just up to the whims of the dumb masses. Pretty sad, really. I expect if I ever ported my Flash games to iPhone they would only do average as well.

Actually you can pay for your "success".

It's common practice to pay for iOS reviews and placement on mobile gaming sites.
Some sites even want royalties. For small blogs it's enough to give out promo codes.

If you don't have this kind of money or don't want to do it you are basically screwed. Unless you game has the "special appeal".

If I would ever do it again not without professional publishing.

[Skykid]

I've heard some devs call App Store the Indie Lottery/Slot Machine, and I can see where they're getting that point. It's really arbitrary which games end up at the top .. it really is just up to the whims of the dumb masses. Pretty sad, really. I expect if I ever ported my Flash games to iPhone they would only do average as well.

Actually you can pay for your "success".

It's common practice to pay for iOS reviews and placement on mobile gaming sites.
Some sites even want royalties. For small blogs it's enough to give out promo codes.

Yep, ADM sent promo codes to about 30 Youtube App reviewers and only one replied, saying he wants £200 for the review and he literally does the worst reviews ever (30 seconds long, usually slating the game because he doesn't understand it.)

If you have marketing money to throw into the mix, you'll most likely see a major sales boost. If you're working out of your bedroom and broke as a joke, you're stuffed short of a miracle.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Krauser is just a dick, arrgh, don't remind me of him.

I totaly like how you don't have all the time in the world to practice your aim during that fight, and can't just reach for the shotgun once he gets close. Nice to have a fast moving target every now and then. Reminds me of the Ocelot in MGS3 - renders the controls quite imperfect, but then again, why should aiming in videogames be ALWAYS easier than in reality?
Also, I like the way you can knife him to death, at least in the PAL version (where the knife is supposed to deal double damage compared to the NTSC versions). Makes him that more threatening in Assignment Ada, where you don't have a knife at all.

In any case, there's plenty of tension through the game. Maybe you are confusing tension with balls-out difficulty: By the time my third or fourth Professional playthrough rolls around, it's easy to forget that some enemies are dangerous.

Well, God of War I&II are not much harder (and have some game design bullshit you don't need to cope with in RE4), but somehow manage to feel more tense for my money. Same with Onimusha 1&2 (more game design flaws, but greater tension all around). In RE4 only certain bosses, Regenerators and Claw Dudes have the sort of quality I'd expect of a RE game. Regenerators aren't really tough once you get to know their secret, but man, do those guys seem menacing all the same. That sort of tension is what I crave, not just pure challenge.