by Rainware | Jun 9, 2016 | Allgemein
Beta preparations
At the moment i have a lot of stuff to create and fix a lot of bugs to get the closed beta up. I hoped the beta would start a little bit smoother, but as always the time is different for a developer. As always you think this is just a small thing and thats easy and in the end it takes a lot of time 😀
I looking forward to start the closed in the next week thats the good news. Of course there will be parts which are not done yet and also fancy animations missing all over the place. First things first the most important thing for me is to get your feedback, i need to know in which direction the development should go. For now i created everything like i wanted to, but i reached a point where i need feedback and opinions of actual players.
So closed beta will start next week, whats then?
For now i am really focused to get the beta rolling, but of course the are plans made for the near future. As mentioned i wait for feedback to set the development in the right direction, hopefully there is a direction if the feedback is really evil i can’t do that much with the short time and money left. The beta can be tested on android and ios devices. After a successful beta and hopefully a release short after, i plan to apply the game for steam greenlight so we also have a desktop version. I already have desktop version for development which i mainly use, but the problem are the “in-app-purchases” since android works with google play and ios with appstore. My idea is to release the desktop version to steam and connect the steam purchase library otherwise i could of course design something by myself. The other thought is to release Timbertales in amazon underground, the development for amazon will start after the beta is tested successfully.
I have to go back to work and prepare the closed for next week, i just wanted to write some words to do something different :p and let you guys know about the actual state of development and near future.
by Rainware | Jun 3, 2016 | Allgemein
My opinion on free to play
I want to use this blog to give you a little more inside about myself so today i write about a more tender subject. Let me state my point of view: I absolutely hate Paywalls, pay to win games and its even more worse that those games call theirselves free to play. The problem with free to play games is, you never know if a game is a really good free to play game with a good concept behind it like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm where you can really play for free and don’t have any disadvantage against any paying user or you have a free to play game which you can play for free, but if you want to be on the same level as other players you have to pay for these games: “if you pay now your building is completed otherwise wait 50 more minutes” i mean what the actually fuck is this about?
I couldn’t and i will never understand why people will spend even a cent in a gaming mechanic like that. Sometimes i have the feeling I am one of a dying breed who loves to pay for a game in a store or steam and have the whole game to play. Of course this means you have to actually spend before playing, but you can inform yourself about the game before you buy it.
disgusting Pay to win
The trick behind most of the pay 2 win games is to let you play a while and you get some emotional binding with your character or city you have build up and then suddenly you must pay for something, at that point i can at least understand why someone may want to pay. I have never done that and i think i will never do this. Of course i spend a lot of money in games, but when i pay then i usually do it because i like the game and want to support its development. This is one point why i like games where you can buy visual things they don’t change the gameplay but you gain some visual effects and you are able to support the development without harming anyone or creating unfair game situations. In my opinion the game experience should always be on top of everything and money should not have any part in the game mechanics
My way to deal with payments
So lets get into it and talk a little bit about Timbertales. As an indie developer with nearly no resources left, i have to survive somehow and the development can’t continue without creating some income in nearly future. But on the other hand i want to create that income with a fair and honest strategy thats one reason why i write this post 🙂 Timbertales will be “free to play” but as i said i hate the image of free to play, because what i meant is truly free to play 😀 You won’t have any disadvantage if you play for free and almost everything in the game can be unlocked by playing which will take some time of course. (Skins can’t be unlocked by playing, but i think this is a well established concept as you can refer from the games i named before).
Shortly i informed a little bit about the amazon underground apps and have to say i like this concept. Timbertales will be released as amazon underground app as soon as the requirements are fulfilled.
Offering
So let me give you a small overview about the planed in game purchases available:
- Random unit, can be unlocked by in game currency and money
- Campaign can be unlocked by in game currency and money
- Arena entrance can be unlocked by in game currency and money
- Challenge entrance can be unlocked by in game currency and money
- Skins will only be available for money
Feel free to discuss or leave your opinion
by Rainware | May 30, 2016 | Allgemein
Conclusion
After some very exhausting days on the role play convention cologne 2016 i am back at home working. Before i miss the opportunity to write down my thoughts about the whole convention i will do it now. First of all i want to thank everyone for this convention we had a late start, but with the help of the administration from koelnmesse it was possible for us to attend as exhibitor. And of course thanks to my “team” (brother and girl friend) for the tour and representation on the convention. We were able to spread round about 500 flyers on the convention. This is definitely a success in terms of getting attention. I hoped to receive some more beta sign ups until now, but maybe there will follow some more in the next days. And the convention was quite expensive all included which is a problem at my current state as long as we don’t create any income. But after all i would do it again.
My learnings
I have had a lot of positive feedback about our presentation and our logo which took a lot of attention from the visitors. There were also some very interesting talks about the game, its setup and monetization. Timbertales will be free to play and will have no pay walls! (I will write another blog post about my whole opinion about payments and stuff so stay tuned)  I also received a lot of ideas and learned a lot about convention presentation or things i would do better or even different on the next convention. For myself i learned that i am not the type of people who loves it to spread flyers and tell everyone what the game is about, but i am a developer so thats my excuse for that one 🙂
Stand
Because of the lack of electricity on our stand we only had some wallpapers, sweets and our flyers to present the game to the fair visitors as you can see on the pictures. Next time i definitely would love to present the game to the visitors with a playable version. I think with this approach it is much easier to have a talk or even discussions on going and getting more feedback. But anyhow i am proud that we have had a stand and could generate some attention for our game. For the first time as exhibitor we did our best and received good feedbacks there is nothing more to expect.
 
Outlook
Back to work i have to finish the beta version the next days. I want to start the beta as soon as possible to receive more feedback about my game. I also want to get an idea of the view of the player and of course improve parts of the game until the game can be released. I am a little bit in hurry right now because the money resources will not soon and i have to release something or generate income as freelancer or something, but i absolutely want to release a version which is perfectly tested and improved by feedback from many players. There are also some features missing right now which i want to have finished before the beta starts. There is no need in starting a beta if i know already which parts of the game sucks.
So if you don’t have sign up for the beta now, you should do it here and stay tuned for upcoming news.
by Rainware | May 26, 2016 | Allgemein
Last minute we were able to make a deal with the roleplay convention cologne. So we have a seat exhibitor on the convention. We want to spread some flyers, walk with our cool new shirts and show some small slide show presentations. Actually we wanted to visit the convention as visitors but it is a good place to spread some invitations for our upcoming beta. Keep the fingers crossing we will receive some registrations.
by Rainware | May 26, 2016 | Allgemein
[:en]On this blog i want to keep you informed about my personal development stage and progress. I want to share my daily work with anyone who is interested in reading about it. I would also love to have some discussions about topic which bothers me at the moment. Sometimes i need a little view or inspiration from outside. So please let me know if you like my work or you want to here more about specific topics ongoing.[:de]Ich möchte gerne meine tägliche Arbeit und Herausforderungen mit euch teilen. Oftmals gibt es Themen oder Probleme mit denen ich derzeit konfrontiert bin über die man auch gerne mal mit Anderen diskutieren möchte. Dieser Blog soll meine Schnittstelle zu allen interessierten Lesern werden. Wenn ihr etwas spezielles wissen wollt fragt einfach danach oder beteiligt euch in den Kommentaren. Ich werde die meiste Zeit auf Englisch schreiben.[:]
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