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Solecismic · 05-15-2014, 03:18 PM

Following up... FHM made Steam today. So that's encouraging, in that Steam is looking at text sims in a world that seems to be nothing but first-person shooters at times.

FOF doesn't have the votes. It can sit on Greenlight indefinitely, and the numbers will trickle upward, a few a day. I don't know their criteria.

I would like to continue writing games. That won't happen unless I can make some changes that will lead to a product that would have no problem reaching Steam. Obviously, I can't keep focusing only on game play. That has resulted in a game that has fallen far behind in look and feel. What was a decent interface ten years ago is tedious and hard to learn today. I can spend months working on under the hood stuff - FOF7 is by far the biggest "update" I've ever made. But a good percentage of existing customers won't upgrade because it's in areas that were already working well enough. A big part of that is the look and feel.

Marketing is becoming the elephant in the room. It costs a lot to market through advertising - too much to make advertising practical. I never got much return from ads in the past. My marketing effort was always focused on getting the game in the hands of reviewers. Making it onto Computer Gaming World's top 100 list back in 1998 was huge. That led to the EA Sports relationship and a lot of attention. I could write any reviewer and he'd publish something. It's a different world. I can barely rate an auto-reply from 1UP (essentially where CGW is today). I wrote more than a dozen reviewers about FOF7 and got one review out of it. Even the Football Outsiders relationship - which is essentially mention on their web site in return for the placement within FOF7 - it took months to get that mention this time, and because their reviewer hated the look and feel so much it was a review I don't feel comfortable even linking.

In other words, continuing the way I'm headed is leading to the slow death of FOF. Steam would change that - give the community the infusion of new players - give me the infusion of cash I need to update the look and feel. But I need marketing even to get the votes I need to get on Steam.

Interesting dilemma. I'm throwing a lot of ideas around lately.

05-15-2014, 03:18 PM	#70
Solecismic Solecismic Software Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Canton, OH	Following up... FHM made Steam today. So that's encouraging, in that Steam is looking at text sims in a world that seems to be nothing but first-person shooters at times. FOF doesn't have the votes. It can sit on Greenlight indefinitely, and the numbers will trickle upward, a few a day. I don't know their criteria. I would like to continue writing games. That won't happen unless I can make some changes that will lead to a product that would have no problem reaching Steam. Obviously, I can't keep focusing only on game play. That has resulted in a game that has fallen far behind in look and feel. What was a decent interface ten years ago is tedious and hard to learn today. I can spend months working on under the hood stuff - FOF7 is by far the biggest "update" I've ever made. But a good percentage of existing customers won't upgrade because it's in areas that were already working well enough. A big part of that is the look and feel. Marketing is becoming the elephant in the room. It costs a lot to market through advertising - too much to make advertising practical. I never got much return from ads in the past. My marketing effort was always focused on getting the game in the hands of reviewers. Making it onto Computer Gaming World's top 100 list back in 1998 was huge. That led to the EA Sports relationship and a lot of attention. I could write any reviewer and he'd publish something. It's a different world. I can barely rate an auto-reply from 1UP (essentially where CGW is today). I wrote more than a dozen reviewers about FOF7 and got one review out of it. Even the Football Outsiders relationship - which is essentially mention on their web site in return for the placement within FOF7 - it took months to get that mention this time, and because their reviewer hated the look and feel so much it was a review I don't feel comfortable even linking. In other words, continuing the way I'm headed is leading to the slow death of FOF. Steam would change that - give the community the infusion of new players - give me the infusion of cash I need to update the look and feel. But I need marketing even to get the votes I need to get on Steam. Interesting dilemma. I'm throwing a lot of ideas around lately.