April 8, 2013
4/8/2013
Not to long ago I sent a new Xbox update to peer review. This update fixes a few minor issues that were pointed out to me, as well as redesigned the demo to show that there are in fact more than 12 levels in the whole game. Mostly though, this update only affects the demo and not so much the full game. This brings me to part two of this post, “Future Plans.” For a while now I’ve been considering redeveloping Short Circuit for the PC market via Steam. As time goes by, and I see the Xbox sales stats dropping lower and lower, I’ve begun to pretty much give up hope on the Xbox version. As it stands, by Microsoft’s policy I have to sell enough games to earn at least $100.00 after Microsoft takes thier 30% cut before Microsoft will pay me for the games that I’ve sold. To this point, I’ve only sold 33 copies of Short Circuit. Now, the data that I base my sales figures only only covers 32 days since the game was published, but it already tells me a lot. First, most of my sales occurred within the first 7 days, then dropped off slowly after that. Secondly, the rate of sales has been steadily dropping as time goes by. Looking at the raw sales data, I don’t really see my future sales being very good on the Xbox. While I didn’t expect Short Circuit to be a block busting game, I did expect it to have a slightly better reception than it has been receiving. It’s been extremely difficult to get anyone to review the game, and to this date, I can only find reviews from a total of three separate people. I already highlighted the first review in an earlier post. The second review that I found was by Sard on XblaRatings.com: “A very simple game of clearing each level of lighted tiles. There are many levels to clear and the advanced levels add different colored lights. The music at the main menu gets a bit annoying but levels out once you choose a board. If you like simple logic games this is a perfect game for you. I enjoyed playing it for a short time and would prefer this type of game on a phone for those long wait times at the doctor office or other places. At only $1 though it is well done for what it is.” His review got me thinking, and I think that I agree with him that the Android and iPhone market are probably the best venues for this game. Unfortunately, I don’t yet know anything about developing for those devices. The third and final review was by IndieGamerChick on her blog site: “This is Short Circuit for XBLIG by developer Jason Yarber. Jason’s a cool dude, but his game is so fucking boring. I’ve always been bored silly by Lights Out, since the moment Santa Claus put one in my stocking when I was ten years old. And this version doesn’t look paticularly engaging. It has that lazy XBLIG font that makes me break out into hives. Now, I can either spend hours trying to be snarky over this, or I can spend them fighting monsters and harvesting rare ore. Hmmmm.. sorry Jason. For what it’s worth, your game isn’t total shit or anything, but I can play Lights Out for free at any number of sites. I can also take a handful of sleeping pills and feel the same stimuli.” When I first read this, I was honestly upset. I felt like she was punching me in the face with a horrible review, but then I got to thinking about exactly what she said. She made it clear throughout her brief review that Short Circuit wasn’t her type of game. That being the case, I can understand why she would feel negatively about the game. Sure, I think she could have been a little more tactfull about it and not put the game in a negative light just because it’s not her type of game, but she was honest about what she thought about the game, and even pointed out some things that could be changed. Clearly, there are people who like the game, and there are people who don’t like it. I don’t expect everyone to like it, but this all points out to me the fact that the Xbox may not be the right market for this particular type of game. I say all that to get to this point. For various reasons, Short Circuit is going to take a back seat for a while. I suppose you could say the game is being shelved for future re-release. I’m leaving the Xbox version where it is for now. As my Xbox Indie license begins to expire, I’ll re-review the game’s sales data to determine if I’m going to leave the game on the Xbox Marketplace. If the sales continue in their current trend, then I’d have to say that there’s a large chance that I’ll be pulling the game off the Xbox Marketplace by the end of this year. Right now, I’m stepping away from Short Circuit as I begin working on Rogue Dungeons, and based on the sales data for Short Circuit, Rogue Dungeons will be a PC game.