Riptide GP2 Development Update: Are We There Yet?

Hi everyone!  We get a lot of questions from people asking us when Riptide GP2 is coming out.  I know, we've just been all mysterious, saying "this summer", or "Summer '13" and people are like, what?  June?  August?  September???

Well.... I can't say exactly, but we're shooting for something in the July timeframe.  Ultimately, what it comes down to is we're going to release the game when we feel like it's done.  

What I can say is, the game is shaping up nicely.  We've got all the new jet skis -- sorry, "hydro jets" -- done. And I'm really happy with them -- they're way higher poly than the vehicles from the first RGP, they have cooler details, there's more of them, and there are some funky new ones that look totally different from the first game.

Also a lot of the tracks / environments are done.  Our goal is to have more variety than the first game, and we totally have that.  Now we're just adding a last couple of tracks and polishing the bejeezus out of the ones we have.

The big piece of the puzzle still being worked on is the progression tuning.  Riptide GP2 has a whole career mode, where you earn money to buy new hydro jets or upgrade the ones you already own, experience points to upgrade your character, and stars (or maybe we'll change that to something else?) to unlock new races and events.  It all works, but we need to play with it more and tune it so the progression and challenge feels good.

And of course there's a lot of general gameplay tuning and polishing.  We are playing multiplayer matches every day at the office to make sure the whole game feels tight and delicious.  

So don't fear -- the final game is not far off.  Just a little more content, a little more polish, and about a month or so of hard work and we'll be good to go!  Stay tuned...

10 Million

So today Beach Buggy Blitz passed 10 Million downloads in the Google Play app store.

10 Million!

I come from a console development background.  Back when I worked on console games for the PS2 and Xbox, and Xbox 360, we had a completely different idea of "audience".  

The most successful console game I ever worked on was when I was at Stormfront Studios:  Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  I believe that game sold something like 4 million copies across all platforms, and that was considered a huge success.  Heck, it WAS a huge success!

Of course LOTR:TT sold for $50/copy or something like that so we're talking about a lot of money.  Beach Buggy Blitz is free, and we depend on lots and lots of people playing the game in the hopes that a few of those people will pay.  And in fact about 1.5% of players do eventually buy something.  So for us, a small company, Beach Buggy Blitz is also a huge success.

But apart from the money, the thing that amazes me is the idea that 10 million people have played our game.  And most of them really liked it!  We know it's not perfect, there are lots of things we'd love to improve or do differently if we had to do it over again.  But still, we poured a lot of our creativity and hard work into that game, and to think that 10 million people have played it and mostly enjoyed it is really staggering, and a little humbling.

I wonder how many total hours of gameplay that is... [Eyes glaze over].

Anyway, to all of you who have played Beach Buggy Blitz, thanks a lot for your support and your engagement, and for the ideas that you have posted on our Facebook page or tweeted or emailed to us.  And thanks even for some of the criticisms which have helped us make the game better. 

The Beach Buggy Blitz story is not over!  There will be more updates and fixes and patches.  And most importantly we have big Beach Buggy plans for later this year.  Hopefully we'll continue to do justice to the parts of the game you like, and add even more stuff for you to enjoy -- I'd hate to have 10 million people angry at me!

My Favorite 2-Star Review Ever

Riptide GP generally gets pretty good reviews -- about 4.5/5 stars average in the App Store and Play Store.  But there are people who don't like it.  Sometimes they don't like it because they want multiplayer or some other feature.  Sometimes it just doesn't click.

But sometimes you get a negative review that actually makes you smile.  And this is one of those:

Not that good ★★

by - Version 1.3 - Aug 8, 2012

I am a kid and I even know that this game is hardly realistic because I know if you release the gas it's like you automatically have the brakes on and also if u ride a jet ski on land it's gonna get a hole in it and it's done for however long till it gets fixed. Also a jetski that doesn't get a hole in it from driving on land will be heavy making it not go up hills or waves well. Also you hit a wall or another jetski at that speed your screwed.

Well, anonymous reviewer kid... you're right.

10 Awesomest Things from Google I/O

This last week we traveled allllll the way down to San Francisco to attend Google I/O as part of the Developer Sandbox.  

The main reason for going was to show off our new game, Beach Buggy Blitz ... which we did to every poor sucker who walked by within arm's length of our kiosk and didn't run away screaming when we shoved our preloaded Nexus 7's into their face.  

Actually, OK, it was a bit more relaxed than that.  We had a great time meeting fellow Android nerds, and people seemed to really enjoy the game, which was gratifying because we haven't shown it to many people outside our little circle.

We had the Sandbox kiosk on Thursday, and on Wednesday and Friday we got to wander around, explore, check out some exhbits, and just soak up the Android love.  

Along the way we saw some things we really liked, and here in no particular order, are our top 10:

1. Nexus 7

Um... a 7" Tegra 3 tablet, kept eternally up to date with the latest pure Android experience starting with the as-yet-unreleased Jellybean...for $199?  Yes, please.  Sure you could quibble about not having a back-facing camera or HDMI out or whatever, but...for the love of pete it's $199!  This is the new ultimate portable gaming device.

2. Jellybean and Project Butter

Jellybean is Android OS 4.1, and it's slick.  It's especially slick because of "Project Butter", Google's effort to smooth out the UI in Android.  Anyone who's compared an iPad and Android tablet side by side knows what I'm talking about.  And thanks to their efforts Jellybean on a Tegra 3 at least is smooooooth as silk, and there are a lot of other new features we like as well.

3. The giant Nexus Q ball

I never quite figured out what this thing did, but it was big and robotic and it played cool music.

4. Cube 3D printer

At $1299 it's not cheap, but the Cube is the first consumer-level 3D printer that I've ever seen that actually looks like it does what you want.  We were super impressed with the quality of the detail and the durability of the materials.  It really is kind of like magic.  Slow magic, but still...magic.

5. Beach Buggy Blitz!

Yeah OK I know this is self serving, but it's my list dammit.  And yeah we were super happy to finally be able to show the game to people and talk to them about it and it didn't crash or do anything weird, and so I think it's fair to say it was the highlight of the show for us at least :-)

6. That guy with the helicopter

Dammit, I didn't get a video of this guy, but on Thursday afternoon this RC helicopter champion gave a demonstration in front of a massive crowd that was completely insane.  He flew that thing upside down, sideways, and within inches of the ceiling and floor.  Really, he distorted physical reality.  It was loco.

7. Visual Studio development plugins for Android and Chrome Native Client

This is actually Ralf's favorite thing.  NVIDIA is releasing a plugin that allows direct building and debugging of Android apps from within Visual Studio.  And Google is releasing one for Chrome Native Client.  This is going to make developing and debugging Android and Chrome apps a lot smoother!

8. 10 Things Every Android Game Developer Should Know

This talk on Friday morning by Daniel Galpin and Ian Lewis focused on what NOT to do to NOT get featured....or NOT NOT get featured.  Or something.  Anyway it was really informative, and surprisingly entertaining and funny to boot.  I don't know if they'll post it online, but if they do and you ever think about making Android games you should watch it.

9. Skydivers with Glass

By now pretty much everybody's seen this, or at least heard about it.  And even though I'm not totally sold on wearing a plastic toothbrush with a camera on it next to my face, the demo was pretty incredible.  Hats of to Google for coordiating a live demo like that which could have gone wrong in so many ways...and didn't.

10. Free Stuff!

Nexus 7, Nexus Q, Galaxy Nexus phone, Chromebox.  Plus T-shirts, little pins and stickers, free food and booze and music and entertainment.  OK well I guess it's not technically free if you bought your ticket, but it's still pretty awesome considering that most conferences don't give you anything except tired feet. 

Thanks again, Google!  See you next year (I hope!)

Ask a Developer: Finding a Publisher

"Mr. Johnson" wrote to us recently with this question:

As a Developer, how do you go about getting a publisher for your game (publishing services only)?  Do you send out letters to game publishers requesting for publishing services, and wait for a response containing instructions or do you send in a package with a demo of your game and request publishing services?

Is this something one can do on their own, or should they have a lawyer (if so, what kind)?  I’ve looked all over the Net for info on how to contact and deal with a publisher, but have found nothing.

If you have dealt with publishers yourself, what can someone doing so for the first time expect?

You're not alone, Mr. Johnson -- a lot of new game developers (and experienced ones) grapple with this question.  

There are basically two things you might want a publisher for:  One is to provide funding for your development.  If possible you should try to avoid this -- typically a publisher that pays for development will want to own the Intellectual Property (IP) rights to your game, and will take the lion's share of any royalties.  It makes sense for them, but is not a great deal for the developer unless you really have no other way of funding your game.

The second -- the one that you asked about -- is to help you with distributing and marketing your finished product.  Marketing is something that smaller devs have a hard time with, and many publishers can do really well.  You have to negotiate the rev share, but typically we've heard of deals where the publisher takes maybe 30% of the net revenue in this kind of deal.  Generally you get to keep the IP.

The best way to contact publishers is to have somebody on the inside you can contact directly -- this is why networking at GDC, Games Connection, and other such events is really important.  If you don't have a direct contact, you can go in through the front door with everyone else.  Most publishers have email addresses on their websites for submissions, along with guidelines for submission.  

You don't need a lawyer to contact a publisher, but if a publisher is interested in your game, you'll need to sign a distribution agreement, and you might want to have a lawyer look at that before you sign it to make sure you're not giving away more than you expect.

As far as what to expect, realize that most publishers see dozens of game submissions a week -- maybe even hundreds.  So you need to show them something that stands out, and that seems like it would fit well with their existing portfolio.  I don't think any publishers these days are signing games based on a paper pitch or a powerpoint deck -- you really need to have a playable demo, and if you're new to the industry you might have to have a completely finished game before any publisher will talk seriously to you.

There's a lot more to say about this subject, but there are resources out there to help you.  You can find great info about pitching ideas and negotiating with publishers on game developer websites such as GamaSutra and GameDev.net. 

Good luck to you, Mr. Johnson!