Hi lovely people, my new game Silicon Dreams just launched on Kickstarter! I could really use any support, retweets, or (if you can afford it!) pledges that you can handle.

Here’s the link to the Kickstarter!

And here’s a little about the game:

“Silicon Dreams” is an android interrogation sim; think “Blade Runner” meets “Papers, Please” meets “NeoCab”.  Question androids; learn their life story; gain their trust. Will players expose their subject’s secrets to the company, or risk everything and help their fellow androids escape decommission?

We’ve been working on it for a few months now and we’re thrilled to launch the Kickstarter campaign! If we make our goal then we’ll be able to make it the game it deserves to be; if we make a little more then we have some really fun stretch goals planned.

If you’d like to learn more, we made a longer post about it from our main studio blog. It includes a bunch of fun streams and other live events we’ve got scheduled for the coming month to push the Kickstarter!

Hi everyone, I have exciting news: Danny and I are working hard on our next project, and we’re ready to show it to you!

Obviously all this is work-in-progress, the final game will be different etc etc.

Silicon Dreams

“Artificial intelligence: it’s never been more advanced, more convincing or more affordable! Believable humanoid androids are as common as smartphones. Some say androids are sentient, others that they are just machines – and let’s not even mention those “freedom for androids” troublemakers!

A lawful and subservient android will be treated fairly. Renegades and non-conformists, or those that glitch too often, will of course be terminated.

It is your job to tell us which is which.”

In Silicon Dreams you play an android tasked with diagnosing bugs and glitches in other androids. Some might be technical errors, others might be… let’s call them “loyalty issues”. In a world where these sentient beings have all the rights of a smartphone, will you fulfil your function to the best of your ability, or betray your owners and join the android revolution?

If you’d like to read more, we did a longer blog post about it here.

One thing you should definitely know, though, is that we’re going to do a Kickstarter for it some time in February! If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss it, make sure you sign up to the mailing list for Clockwork Bird (our studio) so you’ll get an email when the time is right.

We’re really excited about this game: it’s got some mechanics and ideas I’m really fascinated by! I hope you guys like it too once you get to see more of it. 🙂

I’ve been quiet for a few months, but it’s with good reason: I’ve been setting up some pretty big changes for how I do game development! I’m super excited about what lies ahead, and can’t wait to tell you about it.

First, though, let’s ask a difficult question.

 

How hard is it being a one-person dev?

Continue reading “My team is expanding – and other major news” →

I’ve had a bit of breathing room since Spinnortality launched, so I’ve been spending my free time working on two little projects.

 

The Embers of the Stars

You are the last person on the last planet orbiting the last dying star in the universe.

What was it all for?

Continue reading “I made two smol gaems ^^” →

I’m Jamie, and a year and a bit ago I ran a Kickstarter for Spinnortality, a cyberpunk management sim. 6 months earlier that notion seemed ridiculous! Kickstarters are for established game developers who want to revisit cult classics, or designers with an established rep who are trying to do something different, right?

Then I had a chat with experienced game dev Alexis Kennedy who said “You could actually do this, you know” and gave me some advice. I ran the Kickstarter, it raised 140% of its goal, and all was well. I worked on the game for 6 months, got some government funding, worked on it for another six months, and released it about a month ago. It’s doing quite well.

Continue reading “To Kickstart or not to Kickstart” →

On March 5th I gave a presentation at the Vienna game dev meetup about Spinnortality, from its first week of development to launch week. It includes some tips on how to run a Kickstarter, an overview of how my life has changed from before the game to after its launch, and how I managed PR and general project stuff in the run up to launch.

If you’d like to know how I made a successful indie game that is making enough money to let me do another game, this is a good indicator. (Note, however, that I got really lucky and not all of this will be replicable for you.)

You can download the presentation here:

Spinnortality post launch presentation

I thought I’d share how Spinnortality’s launch went.

Sales numbers

Let’s cut right to the chase, shall we? I’m free to reveal my sales numbers since neither itch.io nor Steam (as of last year) forbid me from doing so, so why not?

In its first week, Spinnortality sold about 7000 copies on Steam, and 33 on itch. It made about $70,000 on Steam. (Bear in mind they take a hefty cut of that.) I’m not sure how much it made on itch but I think it was around $300.

(It has now, one month after launch, sold nearly 9000 copies on Steam and itch combined, for a total of $90,000. But let’s work with the first-sales-week figures for now.)

Continue reading “Spinnortality: crunching the numbers” →

Hi everyone,

Spinnortality is out now! Technically it was out about 18 hours ago but suddenly I had a bajillion things to do come launch, so this update is a little tardy.

Buy it on Steam or itch

What is Spinnortality, I hear you ask? (Well, not all of you – some lovely people have bought the game already!)

Spinnortality is a cyberpunk management sim where you run a giant evil megacorporation in a dystopian future. You can look forward to:

• Rigging elections, spreading fake news or just smashing governments with riots and coups
• Researching awful products, then marketing them to make them irresistible
• Pushing the boundaries of brain transfer tech to make sure you and the Board of Directors are always young, fresh and ready to perform hostile takeovers

If this sounds like your thing, the game is out on Steam and itch now.

Hi everyone! I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit but I wanted you to know that my cyberpunk management sim Spinnortality is launching on February 1st!

What can you expect in Spinnortality?

• Grow new bodies; achieve immortality with cutting edge tech.
• Bribe politicians, spread fake news, rig elections.
• Research products such as metacritic for friendships, sentient social media and ‘auto-career.’ Market them so they’re irresistible.
• Crash stock markets, trigger riots or topple governments.
• Determine humanity’s future.

I’ve been working on it for more than 3 years, and I’m very excited that it’s finally launching! Squeeeeeeeee! I’m also very stressed because if it doesn’t sell reasonably well then there goes my dream of being an independent tiny game dev. So I’ve got my fingers crossed!

You can find out more here and sign up for updates if you like, but I’ll let you know when it launches anyway.

So yesterday I gave a fun talk at the Vienna gamedev meetup! It’s about making a game when you have no resources or budget except for yourself and your time, and you maybe don’t have a traditional way into the game dev industry.

Continue reading “From Nothing to Something: Making a Game with Zero Budget” →