Hi,
what would you use for saving games or settings in an applet? local file-system access requires the user to give you permission via a scary looking pop-up window. In flash I just use a Local Shared Object, which is pretty easy to use and gives me enough room for everything I need to save. With js you can use cookies or (with html5) LocalStorage (which is much better).

What do you use with java applets?

Thanks,
Ido.

That is a very minor (if at all) factor IMO. Flash didn't (and doesn't) have an "application shop" and that didn't prevent it from becoming the de-facto standard for web games.

Yes, I think we'd just have gotten something like PulpCore earlier if Applets wouldn't have (for all practical purposes) died years ago as far as web games are concerned.

The lack of developer interest also means it took a lot longer to get decent game libs and tools (e.g. see how quickly html5 game libs and frameworks popped up within months of canvas/audio becoming usable for 2d games on cutting edge browsers).

I think a big part of the reason is that Applets sucked too much, for way too long (and in some circumstances they still do).

If we'd have the applet experience you can now get with a modern java plugin on chrome under windows or linux (os x is still on the old plugin) 10+ years ago I think you'd see a ton of java games out there today.

Sure, there are some successful games done in java (I've made most of my games with java2d, pulpcore or lwjgl too) but not as many as you'd expect from arguably the most commonly used language in the world.

It wouldn't surprise me if it's pretty close to reality - java is a very popular language, nobody is disputing that.

It's just that that's because most software out there is server/web based in-house stuff.

Java for games has never been popular and I don't think it's really getting much better.

Last J2ME contract I did was in 2005, and it seemed like it was on the decline back then too.

Maybe it's still popular in some remote parts of Africa or something, but I would certainly not suggest anyone to get into J2ME dev these days.

That little blog post got a lot more popular that I thought it would 

HTML5 was indeed a bit too cutting edge for my taste - regardless of performance, just appeasing all the different browsers was a royal pain in the butt.

A mixture of both, but I would guess the majority of the money comes from ~10 people.

A bit hard to say exactly as the pledges counter on 8bf is a bit buggy and doesn't show all of them.

Also, if it looks like a game you would enjoy playing, don't forget to pre-order it for the low sum of $5

Hi,
you might have heard about the new kickstarter-like website for indie games that went online a few days ago.

My game Cardinal Quest was in the first batch of games seeking funding and have done surprisingly well - in its first 5 days it has received $2835, almost 4x the amount of the 2nd-highest funded game

A special thanks goes to princec & kevglass who helped me getting the word out and with some cool ideas on how to improve the game (by princec)!

Don't be so sure!

I've been on this forum for years and nobody noticed I'm a bot (yet).

No it doesn't.

There is no strict definition for what a roguelike is, but there are at least 2 pretty good attempts to define the term that I know of:

• http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Berlin_Interpretation
• http://www.roguetemple.com/roguelike-definition/

Hi,
on the roguelike-dev chat room (#rgrd @ quakenet), we have spontaneously decided on a new challenge - the October 2010 4DRL Challenge!

To join in you only need to register yourself at http://typewith.me/kbrJYIJHqT.

The challenge takes place on 4 consecutive days of your choice between 22/10/10 (Friday)  to 27/10/10 (Wednesday) - that's in a bit more than 1 week from now.

-Ido.

EDIT: changed the doc to state explicitly that you are allowed to use existing engines, libs, code, graphics, sounds - you just need to mention what you used afterwards.

I've only bought one game, but I'll check out the others next time i need to scratch the gaming itch (I buy a new game about once a month on average).

I think calling it DRM Done Right or whatever was actually an extremely good idea, as this is a touchy subject that attracts links from social media sites like flies to shit.

More visitors to the blog == more people know about puppygame == more potential customers.

One of these is not like the others

BTW, the ox eye guys (http://www.oxeyegames.com/) also have some neat games that I think are at about the same level and scale as puppy's.

Oh, well - I guess it was a bit of wishful thinking on my part

I've been thinking about it, and I believe another reason why your games aren't making a killing (as they should!) is that there isn't really a lot of PR/marketing going on.

I almost never hear of puppygames outside of jgo, and i'm a pretty savvy internet user that checks out a lot of indie games sites. there is almost nothing about it on reddit, digg, SA, tigsource, hn, etc. It is simply not visible to most people who'd normally buy games like that.

The semi-controversial DRM post was definitely a step in the right direction - maybe a couple more attention grabbing posts (e.g. "life as an indie developer") might make quite a difference.

An example where something like that worked is the guys at ludosity: they kept pushing "bob came in pieces" (http://ludosity.com/games/bob-came-in-pieces/), a game that i think don't have a ton of casual appeal, without giving up and ended up selling quite a nice bunch of copies by sheer tenacity.

I think this might be a good way for Puppygames' account to be black-listed as a fraud account...I'd triple check it before attempting a stunt like that.

 

I've had some not so great and some pretty good experiences in the past.

One particular guy I've worked with which was both reliable and not very expansive was Tom Filhol, you can see his style on his homepage: http://www.2dhero.com/

He is quick, keeps his word and produces very good 2d sprites/tiles (but better static stuff than animations). If that's type of work you need done I can only recommend him.

It would really help if you could link to a portfolio of all the finished games you've made.

Also, I think this quote applies to most of the successful games mentioned:

http://www.mailchimp.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/perseverance.jpg

Funny, Osmos is one of my favorite games of the past year (I played a lot more of it than Braid), and is apparently financially very successful

The Steambirds dude did a talk about his game a few months ago. He is very forthcoming with the game's finances and if you follow his blog you'll see he continued making quite a bit more money out of the game after this video was shot:

http://bit.ly/cjaoEH

You bring up a good point that the danger here is that it'd be really easy to fall into cargo cult-ism by emulating the wrong aspects of a successful game.

Let's look at some other indie favorites and see if a pattern emerges:

• Dwarf Fortress (this one shares almost all of the above traits)
• Braid
• World of Goo
• Osmos
• Angry Birds
• Steambirds

How many variables in your formula do they fulfill? The things that really pops up are points 1 and 7 (except for Dwarf Fortress, which I think is even an outlier among outliers).

Would you consider sharing the insight?

Do you know what makes minecraft viral and/or addictive? Why it is so successful?

Because I don't.

It's a good game and I love to pieces, but I don't know how much (or what) we can take out of it when thinking about a "success formula".

How about Merchandising?

Mugs, t-shirts, etc with titans & witty 1 liners on them or titan plushies, puppygames pens and so on - I am sure you can think of more.

Maybe put a "Support Puppygames" donation button on the homepage?

Oh, I can place more than one factory per crystal? 

Also didn't know about the click&drag, will try it again now.

EDIT: ok, the game is easier now, but still harder than most tower defense games I've played