Archive for the ‘Misc’ Category
The Survey is Now Closed
Monday, September 26th, 2011
The iOS Game Revenue Survey is now closed! Thank you to everyone who participated. We had 252 respondents to the survey, so hopefully we’ll be able to get some interesting results! I’m going to start going through the data right now, and I hope to write up and post the results in the next day or two. So keep an eye on this blog, or my twitter feed to be notified of when that happens.
Owen
The iOS Game Revenue Survey
Monday, September 19th, 2011
EDIT: If you’re looking for the results, head on over to the Results Blog Post.
EDIT: The survey is now closed! Thank you to those who participated. The results will be posted on this blog in the next few days, as soon as I can get them written up.
iOS Game Development Survey at SurveyMonkey
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8BZFHRX)
Hello everyone! It has been a while since my last post, and for that I apologize. But, as fall approaches, I wanted to kick things off with something that I’ve been thinking about doing for quite a while: an iOS game developer revenue survey.
There are a lot of articles out there about this developer making a lot of money, or that developer not making any money on the App Store. Articles often throw around estimates of revenue averages on the App Store. The problem is, we really don’t have a lot of reliable data. As independent game developers, we don’t have the resources to hire large consulting firms to do very expensive market analysis for us.
So, what I thought I’d do is run an iOS game developer revenue survey. It’s 8 questions long and asks you about the revenue your iOS games have generated. The focus is on games released in the past 12 months so that we can get an idea of what the market looks like right now. The survey gathers no personal information, and all data will be released in aggregate.
The goal is to get an idea of what the App Store economy looks like for games. The term “average” (or mean) gets thrown around a lot, but if you’re an iOS developer, you know that average is almost meaningless, because the massive hits on the App Store distort the mean. What is more important is the median, or what the middle game in the pack is making. I am hoping that, if enough people take the survey, we can start to get an idea of what that median is.
I’m planning to leave the survey up for 1 week (until Monday, September 26, 2011). At that point, I will make some fancy charts and post the survey results right back here on this blog.
So, what are you waiting for? If you’re an iOS game developer, please take the survey and help the iOS game development community:
iOS Game Development Survey at SurveyMonkey
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8BZFHRX)
Please spread the word on twitter, facebook, your own blog, or any other way you can! We need as many iOS game developers as possible to take the survey.
Thanks!
Owen
The 3-Year Indie
Friday, July 8th, 2011
Well would you look at that: today is my three-year anniversary of starting Streaming Colour Studios. It has been an amazing three years, full of crazy ups and downs. I wanted to write a longer, more detailed blog post looking back at the last three years, but I’m excitedly working on a new game. Maybe I’ll get to that post when I’m a little less excited about coding.
In three years, I’ve released four games to the App Store:
And I’ve done some major client work:
I’ve also recently submitted an app to the store that I created for my eight-month-old son:
I made a cool HTML5 party game that you play on your cell phone at TOJam with Matt Rix and Whitaker Blackall:
I wrote a chapter in a book:
And I’ve spoken at several conferences:
I have had a lot of fun, I have struggled at times, and I have met the most incredible people in the indie games community. Thank you all for making this such a great experience, and thank you so much to everyone who has bought my games. Here’s to many more years of indie development!
Owen
The Distracted Programmer
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
On Friday I jokingly posted on twitter that I was going to write my #iDevBlogADay post on “How to code with a baby in your arms”. A whole bunch of people responded saying they’d love to see a post on “The Distracted Programmer”, so here I sit typing.
With a baby born over five weeks ago, I took several weeks off work entirely. But about two weeks ago I started trying to get back into doing little bits of work. Working from home with a baby in the house is proving to be quite difficult, but I’ve already learned a few things that are helping me get at least some work done. Just keep in mind, I’m still new to this. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, just some tips that work for me.
1) Start Small
When I first decided to start coding again, I set a goal of writing one hour of code per day. The first few days I failed miserably. I’m glad I hadn’t decided to work full days or I might have been very discouraged. However, after a few days I found I was able to get even up to two hours of work done, just in 20 minute increments. My main point here is don’t expect too much from yourself at first. Getting used to having a baby is a huge change, trying to work at the same time is a massive challenge. Accept that it’s going to be hard and don’t beat yourself up if you’re not working full days right away.
2) Learn to Work in Small Increments
If you haven’t read this excellent article called “The Interruptable Programmer“, do so now. All of his tips apply to working at home with a baby in the house. I’ll wait. Done? Good. The biggest take-away there is that you need to get used to working in small chunks. Always be aware of what you’re working on. Make notes about what needs to happen next. If you need to stop coding because the baby starts screaming, jot down something quick about what you were doing; put it right in the code if you have to. Personally, I bought a little Mac app called ShoveBox that allows you to take very quick notes just by pressing a key combination on your keyboard.
If you’re a programmer who likes to really dig deep into code and do marathon coding sessions (like I used to), this is going to be a huge adjustment, but it’s a necessary one. If the choice is between coding 30 minutes at a time and not coding at all, I’m going to try to code 30 minutes at a time.
3) Staying Motivated
One of the most difficult things for me over the last couple of weeks has been staying motivated when I can only code in short bursts. It’s easy to get side tracked. It’s really easy to get distracted with reading blogs posts [cough] after each break in coding. This will kill your time. You need to find ways to keep motivated and keep working. I’ve completely stopped reading RSS feeds during the last two weeks. It means I’m not as aware of what’s going on in the world of gaming, but I’ve got a contract to deliver on, so that takes priority. I try to limit my time on twitter when I’m starting a work chunk. I limit what links I click on to avoid being distracted.
The goal is to get right back in where you left off after you’ve been away from the computer for a chunk of time. This will help you stay motivated. Avoid the distractions, and you’ll find a new flow.
4) Talk to Your Partner
This is the most important point. Seriously. Make sure you do this.
If you’re a single parent, you’re amazing. I honestly don’t know how people do it on their own. A baby is a huge amount of work, even spread over two people. Single parents, I’m in awe of you.
But, if you’ve got a partner who is also at home (on maternity or paternity leave, or as a stay-at-home mom or dad), talk to them. Make sure they’re on board with you going back to work. You will need their support. You will need them to look after the baby while you’re at work. You will need them to understand that you’re going to need some time to code/design/draw/create. At the same time, make sure they understand that you’re not disappearing. If the baby won’t stop screaming and they need a break, let them know it’s OK to interrupt you and ask you for help. But also make sure they’re OK with you shouldering them with more responsibility while you’re working. As the baby gets older, and you establish more of a routine, hopefully you’ll be able to spend more time working each day.
Having an amazing wife who understands all of this has made it much easier to get back to working. I’m still only working half-days, but without her support I wouldn’t be doing even that.
5) Working With the Baby
There are times when I need to look after the baby and do work. If (and this is a big if) the baby is in the right mood, sometimes he’ll let me put him into a baby carrier and he’ll happily sleep while I sit and do some coding. It doesn’t always work, and it’s not ideal, but it is a way to look after the baby and do some work at the same time.
6) Family Comes First
Yes, I’m talking about working with a baby in the home, but the final thing I wanted to say is to remember that your baby and your family come first. If your partner needs you, be there for them. If the baby needs you, look after him/her. Yes, we need to get work done, but work isn’t everything.
Conclusion
Working at home with a baby in the house is possible, but it is very challenging. The thing I keep reminding myself is that it’s an amazing opportunity most people don’t get. Most people don’t get to go back to work yet still see their child grow up before their eyes. We’re very lucky that we get to do this. Don’t take it for granted. Enjoy it.
What about you? As a mom or dad programmer/designer/artist/creator, what are your tips for working from home?
Owen
Attempting the Impossible
Sunday, December 12th, 2010
How many times has this happened to you? You’re on your favourite tech blog reading about a new cool tech gadget but your eyes drift inadvertently down into the user comments. The comments are full of fanboys professing undying support for their device while claiming everyone else is an idiot. Random trolls are throwing around racial slurs or homophobic garbage. Know-it-alls claim that they had the idea for the product 10 years ago and only an idiot wouldn’t have thought of it sooner. Other geniuses claim “your stupid.” You move your mouse to the window close button and vow never to read user comments again.
I’m taking a small departure from talking about iOS development today and I want to talk about a new website I’m launching.
I spend a lot of time on the internet. Between twitter, reading blog posts, reading tech and game news, and learning new stuff, a big part of my day is spent online. One of the things I’m constantly frustrated by is the level of discourse I see taking place on blogs and forums. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and general bigotry is rampant online. I used to get so angry reading the user comments on CBC News stories that I had a friend of mine write a script for my browser that just removes them from the site entirely when I browse it (I’m much less angry now).
After seeing several friends attacked online by various internet idiots I had the idea to form some kind of organization whose goal is to improve the quality of online discussions. An impossible mission, of this I am aware. However, I felt like it’s worth a shot. With this in mind, I have created SocBID.org.
SocBID is The Society for the Betterment of Internet Discourse. Its goal is to encourage people to treat each other with respect when posting comments online. I have outlined 5 simple guidelines for people to use when posting online. The guidelines are common sense, but it can’t hurt to state them outright. If you see someone being a jerk on your website, feel free to politely direct them to SocBID and encourage them to participate in the discussion in a meaningful way. If this is something you also care about, take the SocBID pledge not to be an online jerk and help make the internet a better place.
Owen
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