Great Big War Game port for Windows RT only made $83 first week

[evilrobot]

Great Big War Game port for Windows RT made only $83 in its first?week | Polygon

I, for one, just don't have any interest in this game - but only making $83 the first week seems not so good for developers.

 

[shn'g]

I was just going to post this! I think that we need to help them out! .. as much as I hate companies that act like babies when something doesn't go their way or they loose money.. I kind of understand there frustration because even I noticed that they weren't getting any spot light. Many people don't go past the first 2 pages in the app store! Microsoft needs to find a better way of highlighting newly released games and apps that are good! I have always found Apples app store does a great job of this and they need to follow what they have done. I haven't played this port yet I have played it on other systems and it is really good!!

here's a link to the game.

Great Big War Game

 

[jhoff80]

I actually commented on Polygon about this too, but...

The game is ARM only, which means they’re ignoring the larger chunk of their potential audience that would be running Windows 8.

It’s also a 6-month old game that has been available for PC for that whole time on Steam anyway.

Quite frankly, on top of that, it’s a turn-based strategy game, which narrows down the number of people who would play it even more.


There’s more involved in this not selling besides just Microsoft not promoting them. I mean, has the company tried any promotion on their own until now? No. Have they thought about updating their website to have more than just a small icon at the top about Windows RT? (Hint, it might be a good idea to update "Available now for iPad, iPhone (HD and SD), and Android. Coming soon to Windows PC, Mac, and Blackberry playbook.")


I mean, I’m sure sales aren’t what they were hoping for, but to whine about how it’s because Microsoft isn’t helping them is ignoring a lot of factors. Of course, it did exactly what the developer was hoping for… free publicity on lots of gaming websites, and their blog about it has now been pulled because they got Microsoft to contact them.

 

[inteller]

oh great....so they updated the blog post to say Microsoft is helping them out....now EVERY developer is going to get on the Complain Train and look for Microsoft handouts.

 

[shn'g]

I actually commented on Polygon about this too, but...

The game is ARM only, which means they’re ignoring the larger chunk of their potential audience that would be running Windows 8.

It’s also a 6-month old game that has been available for PC for that whole time on Steam anyway.

Quite frankly, on top of that, it’s a turn-based strategy game, which narrows down the number of people who would play it even more.


There’s more involved in this not selling besides just Microsoft not promoting them. I mean, has the company tried any promotion on their own until now? No. Have they thought about updating their website to have more than just a small icon at the top about Windows RT? (Hint, it might be a good idea to update "Available now for iPad, iPhone (HD and SD), and Android. Coming soon to Windows PC, Mac, and Blackberry playbook.")


I mean, I’m sure sales aren’t what they were hoping for, but to whine about how it’s because Microsoft isn’t helping them is ignoring a lot of factors. Of course, it did exactly what the developer was hoping for… free publicity on lots of gaming websites, and their blog about it has now been pulled because they got Microsoft to contact them.

Definitely agree with this to... the more you think about it the worse their complaining is

 

[checkit20]

Well put JHoff. Did they run any promotion with the blogs? Gaming blogs? Surface blogs? I would have posted it had they contacted.

SurfaceGeeks.net

 

[nasellok]

The game looks like a slighly ****tier version of Red Alert circa 2002... ill pass

 

[allenyw]

I actually bought this game. Apparently I'm one of the 28 or so people who have done so.

 

[vdek]

The game looks like a slighly ****tier version of Red Alert circa 2002... ill pass

It's more like Advance Wars since it's a turn based game.

 

[inteller]

i can't even FIND this game in the Store. I did find SunAge and it is SWEET!

 

[tomm1ed]

I actually bought this game. Apparently I'm one of the 28 or so people who have done so.

And, did you like it?

I think the issue here is indeed that the Market Store doesn't really spotlight many games. On my iPad I used to use [URL="https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/appshopper/id387037496?mt=8&at=10l3Vy]Appshopper[/URL] to learn about new apps and games and when they were discounted but there doesn't seem to be anything like that. Heck there isn't even a Web Market

 

[vdek]

I've played the game before on iOS and Android already, it's a fun game if you like turn based strategy.
I put up a video of the game here if anyone is interested in it :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt7eihHCXYs

 

[power5]

Looks like a well made game. I have never heard of the game or the developer so I was definitely not "Waiting" on the windows8 release. If MSFT starts promoting the big name studio works we will fall into the same problem that the app store has. Hundreds of thousands of indie games that no one ever downloads because they are not in the "spotlight" section.I am not a developer, but $10,000 to port a game seems a bit inflated to me.

 

[vdek]

Looks like a well made game. I have never heard of the game or the developer so I was definitely not "Waiting" on the windows8 release. If MSFT starts promoting the big name studio works we will fall into the same problem that the app store has. Hundreds of thousands of indie games that no one ever downloads because they are not in the "spotlight" section.I am not a developer, but $10,000 to port a game seems a bit inflated to me.

$10,000 isn't inflated at all.

If you have 2 developers making $30/hour working 40hrs/week for a month to port the game, it would cost you $9600 not including utilities/rent/healthcare/etc. Mind you, $30/hour is on the low end of a developers pay, a lot of iOS/Android developers here in NYC for example make around $60-$40/hr.

 

[Gken]

Microsoft does need to work on promoting new apps in the marketplace though. Really difficult to find the good apps without knowing about them already.

 

[inteller]

well so I finally found this game in store. NO TRIAL, NO PURCHASE! Don't really want to hear any lamenting from them, cause this is their problem. They could have also made it free and offered in game purchase of more levels. The problem is not Microsoft, it is the developers.

 

[crystal_planet]

well so I finally found this game in store. NO TRIAL, NO PURCHASE! Don't really want to hear any lamenting from them, cause this is their problem. They could have also made it free and offered in game purchase of more levels. The problem is not Microsoft, it is the developers.

This. I won't give an app a second look without trying it first. Especially games that run 4.99+.

 

[power5]

$10,000 isn't inflated at all.

If you have 2 developers making $30/hour working 40hrs/week for a month to port the game, it would cost you $9600 not including utilities/rent/healthcare/etc. Mind you, $30/hour is on the low end of a developers pay, a lot of iOS/Android developers here in NYC for example make around $60-$40/hr.

Time sounds inflated still. I find it hard to believe a working game on 2 other platforms would take a month for 2 developers to port to windows. Again, I am not a developer but still sounds like a long time to be working on a single project like that. I created an entire UI for a senior project in college using Flash. I had never used Flash before. I created all the graphics and created the flash interface and it took me only 2 weeks. Now it only had 20 screens to go through and probably an average of 5 options to select on each screen and no AI but still, I created all art and graphics and did the coding in less than a month. From SCRATCH with 0 previous experience in Flash.

 

[vdek]

Time sounds inflated still. I find it hard to believe a working game on 2 other platforms would take a month for 2 developers to port to windows. Again, I am not a developer but still sounds like a long time to be working on a single project like that. I created an entire UI for a senior project in college using Flash. I had never used Flash before. I created all the graphics and created the flash interface and it took me only 2 weeks. Now it only had 20 screens to go through and probably an average of 5 options to select on each screen and no AI but still, I created all art and graphics and did the coding in less than a month. From SCRATCH with 0 previous experience in Flash.

It's not a long time at all... It can take months to port over code, test it, fix bugs, test it again, then get it certified and uploaded. What you did for a Flash Project has no bearing on what it takes to make a full featured game.

I do Indie game development on the side as a hobby and it's definitely not easy work. You end up putting in a lot of time to get things going.

 

[mparker]

Again, I am not a developer

This is the source of your misunderstanding. There's a huge difference between your toy flash project and an app that is likely 50k-100k lines of code, and hundreds of distinct pieces of artwork and models. Not to mention that just porting an app like that can easily be its own special little pit of misery. Personally I'm kind of surprised it only cost them ~100k to port. I'm guessing that the C++ games API isn't nearly as "special" as the Silverlight API.