The Definition Of Failure ~ 8th October 2008
I was rather
hoping the previous post would be the last word on my retirement, but it seems a
few of you have gotten the wrong end of the stick. As you'd expect, news of my
demise has been lapped up by my numerous detractors - as if it validates every
criticism that ever spilled from their lips. For the record, all the talk of
"failure" in my writing refers to failure BY MY STANDARDS! It refers to a game
being enjoyed by tens of thousands of people instead of hundreds of thousands. They're still
thousands
that any other independent would be doing cartwheels to reach. It refers to not
being a millionaire. Being the only independent developer to make a living from
it for the past 10 years goes without saying. Running a business that never lost
a penny in all that time goes without saying. In the real world, 90% of small
businesses go under in their first year! I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to
be 10 times more successful than I am. I had lofty ambitions for this industry
and I fell far short of them. But they were ambitions that no other human being
has had - let alone taken steps towards. You make it sound like somebody else
succeeded where I failed? Like there's somebody out there capable of doing a
better job? There isn't. There never was and there never will be. That's what
made me bulletproof from day one, and it's what will preserve my legacy long
after I'm gone. Criticizing me is like banging your head against a brick wall.
If I'm a talentless loser and you're utterly incapable of doing what I do...
what does that make you? You see, the more you criticize me the more you
criticize yourselves! A reason to "love thy neighbour" right there in a
nutshell. I can't believe some of you still don't get it after all these years.
I thank those of you that have shown love and implore me to carry on, but that's
not the answer either. What we have here is a line being drawn under a perfectly
nice career. A guy bowing out gracefully before he embarrasses himself like so
many wrestlers we've seen clinging to the ring. Quite frankly, I'd be a
"failure" if I DIDN'T quit! If I carried on making games like it was the only
thing I could ever be good at. It isn't and it never was. My philosophy was
"independence" from beginning to end - and that includes not being dependent
on doing this for a living...
Don't Quit The Day Job ~ 22nd March 2008
After
giving it some serious thought over the past couple of years, I've finally
decided to reduce the role that making games plays in my life. As anyone who has
spent more than 5 minutes at this site will know, game development transcended
"entertainment" in my hands and became an all-encompassing philosophy that
occupied my every waking hour. That level of commitment and sacrifice enabled me
to achieve some extraordinary things in this field. I've pioneered the most
productive work ethic the games industry has ever known, unleashed it on some
concepts we never thought we'd see, and basked in the kind of media attention
that most mainstream studios can only dream of. But alas, after almost a decade,
the wheels are coming off the machine and the fuel it consumes can no longer be
justified. The amount of work that goes into this site and my games has always
been ever so slightly out of synch with the rewards. At this level - as in all
independent endeavours - there's very little money to be made (if any), and the
only thing that made it worthwhile was the approval of an audience. Now even
that can't be banked on, as the Internet evolves into an increasingly sinister
place where entertainment has no value. Although it gives a lot of things life
(myself included), the web also deals out plenty of death - creating a sea of
mediocrity in which games, music, books, TV shows, and movies all find themselves
being acquired for nothing and consumed with abandon. Heaven for you as a
consumer; hell for anybody that would dare to devote their lives to mastering an
art form. For all the millions of people surfing the net in search of
entertainment, very few of them end up on the shores of independent gaming -
and fewer still appreciate what they're looking at. Meanwhile, advances in
technology lay waste to those that have roots in the past. It's bad enough that
an independent game developer has to compete with the flawless visuals of the
PS3 and the innovative control methods of the Nintendo Wii. The fact that
Windows Vista has practically HALVED the number of people that can use PC
programs without incident does nothing to strengthen the platform upon which so
many independents rely. Throw in the stresses of running your own business and
you've got a profession that has long since ceased to be "fun". All of which
leaves me staring at the prospect of working inhumanly hard for very little
reward - either personal or financial - and that's
simply not a game I'm willing to play anymore. Although I'll probably always
make games in the same way an artist paints and a musician plays, we can expect
them to be downgraded to a rare treat rather than a conveyor belt of produce.
Who knows? Maybe that'll bring back the carefree creativity that made me so
popular in the first place! Until then, the MDickie you've come to know
over the past 10 years must take time out to reinvent himself for the next
decade. I don't regret the time I've spent here. It has been a unique and
interesting life experience - the likes of which most people die having
never tasted. I've felt the highs of being praised by hundreds of thousands of
people, I've felt the lows of suffering their criticism - and I've emerged at
the other side as a strong character that's able to handle both. Along the way,
I've fulfilled a few childhood dreams and given you all something to ponder with
regards to human potential and the creative spirit. That's my 20's in the
history book. The 30's promise to be a very different chapter indeed...
The Price Is Right ~ 17th February 2008
If
you decide to purchase Wrestling MPire 2008, one of the first things
you'll notice is that the price has crept up from $14.99 to $16.99. "Way to cash
in on a product that people are falling over themselves to buy!", you might say.
The truth is that the $14.99 price tag has been bothering me for some time now,
and Reach only narrowly missed out on being the one to introduce a price
hike. I've always prided myself on keeping the cost of games low (and always
will as long as my games can be acquired for less than $20), but even the most
cynical of fans has to admit that the $15 price tag was a little TOO low. A
quick search on the net reveals generic independent 2D games being sold for $20,
text-based wrestling simulators being sold for $35, and mainstream games being
sold for in excess of $50 (I understand a solitary WWE pay-per-view can
also set you back that much nowadays?). When faced with those numbers, it's hard
not to think you're missing out on something. Not that I'm one to use others as
a benchmark for what I should be doing! I appreciate that my independent methods
are supposed to slash the cost of development, so rest assured that a whole host
of other factors are behind those 2 extra dollars. For a start, my newfound
perfectionism and commitment to quality has pushed production times to another
level - with both Reach and the latest wrestling game weighing in at
around 6 months each. It doesn't take an economist to figure out that you need
to be making twice as much money when you're releasing half as many games, and a
slightly increased price takes steps towards bridging the gap. Speaking of
which, my increasing disillusionment with independent game development is
bringing home a few home truths. I always copied the music price structure on
the assumption that I would one day sell as many copies as those albums, but
that fantasy seems further away than it ever has. The reality is that I always
have been and always will be - like all independent game developers - a niche
artist that entertains a minority of people. That being the case, those few
people need to pay a price that reflects their rare discovery. Above all else,
the biggest reason for the price hike is that the $15 you're spending today
simply isn't the $15 you were paying back in 2003! A weak dollar on your side of
the Atlantic and inflation on mine have conspired to
ensure that I'm somehow earning 20% less than I was when I first started?! All
of which, I'm sure you'll agree, is reason enough to throw an extra 2 dollars
into the hat. If my games were sold in stores, I'd even go as far as $19.99.
It's just that I appreciate that you've already parted with that much money by
the time you've paid for shipping on an online purchase. At the end of the
day, you can (and will) vote with your wallets - but please think of it as the
days of you having it good coming to an end rather than the days of me becoming
a money-grabbing capitalist beginning...
Wrestling Encore Joins The 6-Figure Club ~ 27th January 2008
As if Wrestling MPire 2008
didn't have enough to look forward to, BOTH of its predecessors have officially
passed the 100'000 mark at
Download.com - which practically guarantees
that the latest instalment is going to follow suit! It's an especially big achievement
for Wrestling Encore because it's been on there half as long as the
original Wrestling MPire, so it's technically performing twice as well.
Let's hope Wrestling MPire 2008 doubles up on that (which is the least it
deserves) and we might just be celebrating the first 7-figure game next time...
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