Hey all, I'm sure a bunch of you have already seen it, but our own John Warner has managed to develop a game fully independantly and self funded! He's been up on Stardock's Impulse for a little while, but he just managed to get up on Direct2Drive, which is pretty damn awesome I'd say! You can check it out at http://www.direct2drive.com/7894/pro...tcher-Download

So lets show some support! Congradulations John!


If you haven't checked it out yet there's more stuff up on http://www.thinkingstudios.com/

Grats dude! Big step!

Ah, thanks Mitch, you're too kind.

thanks bounchfx... we've still got a ways to go though.

i've been trying to think of ways to get publicity for this thing, but I'm nearing the end of my rope!

wow, congrats!! i hope you are getting to where you want to go, this is inspiring!!

W00T! Good to hear!

Hmmm.... that's an interesting gameplay concept. Very simple, but it lends itself well to extrapolation. Kind of like Missle Command in reverse. (instead of stopping missles, you are catching them)

A good way to get publicity would be to "Gift" a copy to some major gaming sites, along with a personal missive describing the game and asking for a review / callout of some sort. Joystiq, Kotaku, and Penny Arcade would all be obvious candidates. Joystiq and Kotaku might be harder to persuade, but they would almost certainly be open to a paid advertisement. Tycho at Penny Arcade regularly blogs on their homepage alongside their comic updates. If he thinks your title merits it, he would probably say something.

When your game is available for digital download, you have to focus on digital promotions. Ask around on some of the more popular podcasts. They interview developers all the time. I'm sure some of them would love to hear impressions from a small indie developer. Get on one of those for a guest spot and you will have an opportunity to pimp your game.

Also, there are less...scrupulous methods of generating buzz for your game. If you get desparate, you can always consider resorting to those options. Internet drama is a proven method of drawing attention. Keep in mind that in order to keep things plausible, you would have to act as over-the-top and unreasonable as possible. I think of this as the "Jack Thompson" strategy.

congrats Mr Warner!!

John,

mothafucka i'm drunk!

you guys are the bestest. thanks so much for the w00tage.

Richard -- thanks so much for the kind words. actually, I've done a buncha that stuff. I emailed kotaku, and a buncha other sites. I've yet to look into podcasts and advertising. that's brilliant. I think i'll look into podcasts... first thing in the morning. did I mention I'm drunk? i am.

hammered in fact. hammered.

When I get rich.. hookers.. for everyone!!

Nice work John!

w00t! Looks like he's managed to get up on the front page of Steam now! I'm lookin forward to those hookers there John.

http://store.steampowered.com/

haha. This just popped up when I started Steam =)

haha! no way

awesome!!

300 copies and rising.

to be honest, i've got this really really nagging fear that sales are going to just STOP and the forum is going to explode with people yelling "THIS SUCKS ASS" ... i mean.. i think it's pretty good, actually, but.. meh. I've got launch anxiety!

Grats man!

Got a torrent link?



I kid, I kid :p

lol

we were actually thinking of putting one up just for publicity's sake.

i mean.. no! piracy is killing this industry!

Man, Steam is awesome!! they've done such a great thing towards marketing the game, i'm so happy. I didn't expect this at all. everyone give them all your money, seriously.

NO WAY!

there already is a torrent up of it. Lots of them, actually... and apparently it's been downloaded more time than god can count.

what the hell, i didn't expect that. well.. Hell, I guess people are playin it!

haha, man. I guess that is the sign you have "made it"

haha.. grats John!

Just saw it on steam! Awesome job man =), very inspiring!

I'm just noticing this now. Very cool! John, I hope your sales skyrocket. Good luck with this release and all of your future projects

"Win a Hooker" lottery tickets with each genuine purchase would kill the torrents dead. Rockstar missed an opportunity there. Congrats John, really inspiring work.

haha funny, Wheel

thanks guys.

Ughk. We didn't do enough QA. there are big bugs. We're getting some flamage. This is very stressful... we're workin on a patch, but there are big problems.

bleah.

sucks for the bugs, but still, grats on going steam!

You just got another sale Congrats on making it; not only is it very inspirational, it looks super fun It's a very cool concept; it's so hard to come up with a simple, fun design like this, and the video alone was enough for me to buy it. Again, GREAT JOB!

EDIT: I'll also let people at work know, etc.

EDIT AGAIN: Just played for a bit, it's really fun! I imagine you guys played Tempest 2000 a bit? It's very reminiscent of that, but totally different... which is about the highest praise I can give it

Congrats, dude!
This would work really well as an iPhone game. Using the phone rotate feature. I can see this game really kicking off in the iStore.
Best of luck with it, mate.

Bounchfx -- thanks man! yeah, we'll get em sorted.


Wow, thanks hobodactyl, we really appreciate that.. and i'm really glad you like it heheh. not everyone agrees!!

we have never actually played Tempest 200, but i'm going to look that up right now.

many thanks

Caseyjones-- thanks dude yeah, we've got an iphone version in the works. it's coming!! umm... slowly but surely hehe..

okay as soon as i get 500 bucks for iTorque, it's coming haha. we should be doing great

as of last night it had sold 1800 copies. I'm pretty jazzed about that. front page of Steam for the win.

seriously, I can't say enough good things about Valve. They've been just awesome.