I shipped 39 games this year
Friday, December 30th, 2011
In May I set myself a goal to release 50 SKUs this year. By SKUs (Stock Keeping Unit) I mean different versions of games, which could mean brand new games, games on a new platform, or localised versions of a game for example.
By May I had already shipped 17 SKUs (11 of which were different versions of Spring Bonus). The main plan for reaching 50 SKUs was to ship my existing games on mobile platforms and also to make localised versions as well as make some new games. Some things worked out and some didn’t.
Here’s a breakdown of what I did since May:
1) Spring Bonus came out on Windows Phone 7! It hasn’t sold very well though due to crappy download numbers on that platform. Downloads are converting to sales a good percentage of the time though, which is positive.
2) Spring Bonus did not come out for iOS. I was working with a local company to get it ported to iOS but they just got too busy with other work and it became a lower priority for them. However, it will definitely be coming out in 2012, perhaps via Big Fish Games if they will publish it.
3) Spring Bonus was not translated to Japanese. Well it was actually, I just didn’t plug the translations into the game. I’ll do it for next Spring though.
4) Holiday Bonus was translated to 8 languages and is doing quite well on Big Fish Games’ localised sites right now.
5) Holiday Bonus came out on iOS/Android/WP7/Internet! There were HD and Standard versions on iOS/Android and also Lite and HD Lite versions. In total 10 different versions were shipped in the space of a single week! I’m beginning to learn how useful Unity is as a cross-platform language. Damien Sturdy did a fantastic job of the iOS/Android/Web ports and James Mintram did a great Windows Phone 7 port.
6) I didn’t convert my framework to Linux and so did not release any Linux ports
7) I never finished my Ludum Dare #20 minigame although I may still finish it in 2012.
8 ) I did finish a Ludum Dare #22 minigame called Always Alone. I used the Monkey language so that I could release this as a Flash game to be played online.
9) In the Summer I organised a Full Indie 48-hour game jam and made Metal Spawn for PC/Mac.
10) One person I helped as a design consultant shipped their game, but my role was very small so I won’t count it. Other games I’m helping with, such as Eets Munchies with Klei Entertainment, won’t ship until 2012.
11) I didn’t get any of my games ported to Flash. The web version of Holiday Bonus was in Unity, although with Unity’s new Flash export, we should be able to make a Flash version for next year.
12) I didn’t make any brand new games although I’ve had a number of cool ideas and talked to other people about collaborating with them. Let’s see what 2012 brings.
13) Oz has been localised to 4 languages by Big Fish Games and will be coming out in early 2012, then will be localised to some more languages later on by another big portal. If Holiday Bonus hadn’t taken so much time (shipping on mobile was a big learning experience for me), then maybe the Oz localised versions would have made it out this year instead.
14) I made a youtube adventure game with my boys called Death Dungeon.
So a mixed bag of success there. If you read my 2011 Review you’ll know that I had a tough summer in terms of family illness and depression, and I’ve no doubt that those things were a factor in me not quite shipping as many SKUs as I had planned.
Total SKUs shipped
So adding up all of the above we have:
- SKUs shipped up to may = 17
- Spring Bonus WP7 = 1
- Holiday Bonus localised = 8
- Holiday Bonus iOS/Android/WP7/Web = 10
- Always Alone minigame = 1
- Metal Spawn minigame = 1
- Death Dungeon youtube game = 1
Total = 39
Not quite 50, but still a number to be proud of I believe. Not sure I’ll be shipping that many next year, but who knows?
How many SKUs did you ship in 2011? Let me know in the comments.
