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[beril]

Congratulations ! I hope it will show the way to other developpers !
Also, I don't know if it's too personnal, but did the eShop version did sold enough to break even the port cost ?

Yes, the porting didn't really cost that much in total

US sales.
Heck, beril, just a few days ago I asked you some updates about GC's sales /rankings in order to try to understand 3DS eShop environment compared to iOS / Android. And to think you thought the game could have taken some weeks in order to outpace iOS's sales...no, just 9 days after my PM.
Congratulatiosn beril. Great results, and great little game!
Sorry for no response after you sent me the PM, though (and thanks for reading and actually answering to my message ).

Yes I was a bit conservative in my estimate and didn't dare hope that the sales would remain quite as stable

 

[Mpl90]

i never heard about this game before, and after watching the trailer i gotta say it looks really cool.
the chosen art style is just fantastic.
i'll probably buy this one for my 3DS tonight.

i know you are not allowed to talk about actual numbers, but how do you consider the eShop as a platform profit-wise?

Let me tell you one thing. It looks VERY cool: 60 fps, great 3D, and some effects that are not present in the iOS version. Plus, the amazing bonus after completing the game the first time. It's a little technical marvel!

 

[beril]

That's great news! Could you state the price of the game on all platforms though? I think that would be good information to have. I may make this and Pushmo my first eShop purchase.

It's $2 on all platforms. (The european prices varies a bit, 1.59€ on smartphones but 2€ on 3DS as that's the lowest you can set on the eShop, and similiar differences in some other currencies)

Nice insight! Somehow I also though iOS would trample all over Android but I guess all that talk about the smartphone future for indie developers is barely nothing more than a mere illusion.

Have you thought about a WiiU version? Well, stupid question, the dev kit is surely a very high wall for a single dev.

I don't really think it's much harder to get a WiiU devkit, but no, I won't do any more ports for a while. I'm trying to get started on a new project though it's going rather slowly at the moment.

Oh hey, I saw your tweet, I was going to ask if you had restrictions on whether you could release exact numbers or not.

Also, does Android have video previews? I definitely think iOS lacks in that regard. The video preview on the eshop is what solidified the impulse buy for me.

I'm not really sure if I'm allowed to give numbers or not. Technically nintendo needs to approve all PR mentioning 3DS, but I'm hoping that doesn't include somewhat vague forum posts. I'm not sure I'd give exact numbers either way though

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

As an old Megaman fan I really appreciate that somebody out there is showing Capcom that there is still a market for awesome 2D action games,

this game in particular removed what poisned 2D games, the unnecessary collectathon etc.. and focused on pure platforming, I bought it on the 3DS because I like mah buttons.

 

[Bidermaier]

yesterday morning I bought super hexagon for android. The control felt awful so I got a refund. Then i staryed listening the Nintendo world report podcast where the hyped this game and then I got this game.

I thing the 3ds might become a santuary where game enthusiast get their games. (hopefully the vita too)

 

[GhostTrick]

Also, was it difficult/long to port the game from iOS/Android to 3DS ?

 

[nickcv]

Let me tell you one thing. It looks VERY cool: 60 fps, great 3D, and some effects that are not present in the iOS version. Plus, the amazing bonus after completing the game the first time. It's a little technical marvel!

i'm definately going to get this tonight...

and i've gotta say i'm glad about nintendo finally being able to deal with indie devs

 

[Zomba13]

Haha, I literally just bought it, before seeing this thread. Good for them.

That £1.99 price point really stands out on the eShop.

£1.99!? I'll get that for my 3DS then.

 

[Santiako]

The game is pretty good, but the secret mode elevates it to fantastic.
Congrats on the good sales beril.

 

[vareon]

the Armillo game looks fantastic... this thread is becoming a problem for my wallet, damn you guys... totally gonna buy it on the eShop.

and shame on Valve.
if anyone would have told me that was easier to get on a nintendo platform then on steam i'd have laughed for hours... really really sad

Kind of bizarre if you look at it that way.

beril, how did you become a 3DS developer in the first place, if I may know?

The eShop seems to be a sweet spot for mid to small developers right now: higher visibility due to smaller amount of games and apparently the process with Nintendo is somewhat easier, judging from developer interviews. If Nintendo played this right, they could persuade developers who got stumped on Greenlight to port their games to eShop. For the time being, at least.

 

[King_Moc]

I think the fact that it isn't 10x the price of the mobile version (plants vs zombies, angry birds) probably helps. The gaming community will always buy quality games as long as they aren't being ripped off in the process.

 

[Spieler Eins]

Might check it out whenever I have money leftovers on my eshop account.

 

[Weiss]

Because of this thread, I looked this game up and downloaded it off the e-shop (the low price certainly didn't hurt), and I gotta say, I'm liking it a lot, especially the gorgeous visuals.

 

[DaBoss]

It's $2 on all platforms. (The european prices varies a bit, 1.59€ on smartphones but 2€ on 3DS as that's the lowest you can set on the eShop, and similiar differences in some other currencies)

Wow that is a pretty good price. It hasn't gotten a sale on eShop I'm assuming so that's good, but I guess there is far less titles available on eShop, but that just means quality over quantity.

 

[Zarovitch]

This thread remind me that i want to download this game on the eshop.

 

[Eyothrie]

Bump for more exposure to this excellent game!

 

[Mael]

Ok you win I'll pick this up tonight,
better have something lined up for 3ds/wiiu soon too

 

[Yes Boss!]

It is a great little game. Perfect for the 3DS and very inexpensive at $2

And you get 15 Club Nintendo points for it!

 

[herod]

which version nets the most revenue per unit sold?

 

[GulAtiCa]

That's great to hear. Great game. Love the 3D effect.

 

[beril]

Kind of bizarre if you look at it that way.

beril, how did you become a 3DS developer in the first place, if I may know?

The eShop seems to be a sweet spot for mid to small developers right now: higher visibility due to smaller amount of games and apparently the process with Nintendo is somewhat easier, judging from developer interviews. If Nintendo played this right, they could persuade developers who got stumped on Greenlight to port their games to eShop. For the time being, at least.

I basically just applied on warioworld. I'd had some previous contact with NOE when I was at Might&Delight (though we never did anything for their platforms in the end) so that might have helped speed up the process a bit

Also, was it difficult/long to port the game from iOS/Android to 3DS ?

Not really, I had the game running after a couple of weeks, and with some more optimization I got it to run much better than on most smartphones. There's some areas where you have to do a bit more low level code. I didn't have that much problem with lotcheck either, though I did fail the first submission (two in europe), but it was mostly small issues and I really can't blame anyone but myself there. The reason it took so long (I got the devkit in early July) was really just me being lazy. I had originally planned to do a bit more extra content but just couldn't seem to get any work done.

 

[Joseph Flemming]

It is a great little game. Perfect for the 3DS and very inexpensive at $2

And you get 15 Club Nintendo points for it!

Really!! That just makes this already great deal even sweeter! This game truly deserves to get noticed. Wish you success. I predict that this will be a success like Shantae, Nano Assault, Mutant Mudds, Switch Force, ect.

Maybe you can do a WiiU port? I've been reading a lot of good press about Nintendo and Indie's lately.

It would be cool to have a Gunman Clive page on Miiverse, or when Miiverse hits the 3DS!

 

[prodystopian]

Great analysis. I'd love to see more like this from indie devs.

 

[Adam Prime]

Sweet I had no idea this would be a game that I would enjoy, watching some vids is a definite no brainer for me!

 

[eXistor]

Well deserved, a gem of a game.

 

[olimpia84]

I'm glad this game is selling well on the eShop since it's fun and looks great. I already convinced three other people to get this game thanks to its low price point.

 

[JWong]

That's a huge spike in Android. Wonder if it had a in-store promotion or something big going on.

 

[nickcv]

That's a huge spike in Android. Wonder if it had a in-store promotion or something big going on.

yes, it's in the OP

Spoiler

i wonder how many people actually read it

 

[grimshawish]

That's a huge spike in Android. Wonder if it had a in-store promotion or something big going on.

You could always read the OP.

 

[vareon]

I basically just applied on warioworld. I'd had some previous contact with NOE when I was at Might&Delight (though we never did anything for their platforms in the end) so that might have helped speed up the process a bit

Thanks for the answers!

 

[fernoca]

Well..after not knowing much about this and how great it looked and played...

Thanks to this thread:

+1 on the 3DS.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Very cool, thanks for sharing this. I have an iPhone and 3DS and I didn't pick this game up until the 3DS version hit primarily because it looked like something that should be played with buttons (and to be honest I don't think I knew the game existed prior to the 3DS release). It was a very enjoyable experience that I'd highly recommend to anyone with a 3DS.

Now make sure you update this next week so we can see the GAF spike.

 

[Rehynn]

Cosider another copy bought. Just give me until tonight

EDIT: ...aaaand it's done.

 

[GulAtiCa]

Have you talked to any of the eShop teams (from the different regions) about getting more exposure by getting a spot on the front of the eShop? If I remember correctly, an older Zen Studios interview talked about those spots were generally paid for or so. But since I'm not a dev, obviously I really don't know much about what goes behind the scenes.

 

[Mael]

Rereading the OP I think it's a great breakdown on how all platforms promote wares.
For all the talks about how the eShop was badly made it still managed to market the game fairly well.
I think I understand better how and why all the shops are made the way they are.

 

[jrDev]

I basically just applied on warioworld. I'd had some previous contact with NOE when I was at Might&Delight (though we never did anything for their platforms in the end) so that might have helped speed up the process a bit



Not really, I had the game running after a couple of weeks, and with some more optimization I got it to run much better than on most smartphones. There's some areas where you have to do a bit more low level code. I didn't have that much problem with lotcheck either, though I did fail the first submission (two in europe), but it was mostly small issues and I really can't blame anyone but myself there. The reason it took so long (I got the devkit in early July) was really just me being lazy. I had originally planned to do a bit more extra content but just couldn't seem to get any work done.

How much is the dev kit?

The games is awesome btw all!

 

[Sanic]

Thanks for sharing!

Out of curiosity, did you use any specific libraries to code this? Because you've ported GL to several platforms, so did you have a multiplatform base to work with?

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Oh hey, I saw your tweet, I was going to ask if you had restrictions on whether you could release exact numbers or not.

Also, does Android have video previews? I definitely think iOS lacks in that regard. The video preview on the eshop is what solidified the impulse buy for me.

Pretty sure Android offers screens and now video previews/trailers/etc.

 

[anon_mastermind]

For 2 bucks it's the best value on the eShop. I'd love more 2 dollar eShop games of this quality (there are only a few, and they are on DSiWare...).

 

[beril]

Thanks for sharing!

Out of curiosity, did you use any specific libraries to code this? Because you've ported GL to several platforms, so did you have a multiplatform base to work with?

I barely use any middleware, so my engine is pretty easy to port. All the other versions use OpenGL but this one uses Nintendos custom graphics library (OpenGL is available for 3DS as well but Nintendo recommends not using it as it's apparently slower). The sound libs are different on all platforms, and I just use the default nintendo libs on 3DS.

 

[magiustra]

Funny little game, this one: love the graphic style, the old school gameplay and the soundtrack, too

(beril, you have a Private Message from me)

 

[pulga]

That's nice. I actually downloaded the 3DS version yesterday, even though I already own the iOS one. D-pad makes too much of a difference.

 

[cacildo]

I got it on my 3ds and i was really enjoying it. Then i missed a jump and died. My character came back to life and i realized i got infinite lives. I really didnt like that aspect of the game. Havent played it ever since.

 

[ToxicAdam]

That's nice. I actually downloaded the 3DS version yesterday, even though I already own the iOS one. D-pad makes too much of a difference.

That's what I was going to post. I own both versions and it's a much better experience on the 3DS. It's really, really hard to make a platformer work on iOS.

So, it shouldn't be too surprising that the platform it plays the best on is the one that is selling the most.

 

[CDX]

Bought Gunman Clive on 3DS, cause I wanted to play it with buttons.

I really like it.

Yeah, Greenlight is a mess.

Look at that Armillo game.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92958244

The developers of this game got approved as official Wii U developers. They had an easier time going through Nintendo than Steam Greenlight.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/01/fuzzy_wuzzy_games_is_rolling_armillo_onto_the_wii_u_eshop

Same goes for Mutant Mudds.

Armillo was also PASSED on by Microsoft

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...ks_armillo_and_developing_for_the_wii_u_eshop

At one point, someone posted a comment and asked if our game will ever see an XBLA release, so I replied talking about our pitch to Microsoft and how they’d decided to pass on us as our type of game generally does not have much of a sales impact on their market.

With Nintendo's new support for Indie developers the Wii U and 3DS eShops have potential to turn into something really great. I hope it leads to great things for Indie developers and for Nintendo too.

 

[Übermatik]

Wow! Very impressive! C'mon Nintendo, break the social/casual gaming market some more. Just, er, fix the horrible e-shop layout...

 

[sammex]

I've just downloaded it on my 3DS after reading this thread too - I checked the video of it and it looks fun.

 

[beril]

I got it on my 3ds and i was really enjoying it. Then i missed a jump and died. My character came back to life and i realized i got infinite lives. I really didnt like that aspect of the game. Havent played it ever since.

Really? Seems like a somewhat odd complaint. The way the game is set up there's not much need for limited lives as there are no checkpoints on the levels, and I don't think I'd have gotten away with releasing a game in 2012 where you have to restart from the beginning of the game when you're game over.

edit: unless you played on easy and instantly respawned next to the pit? You still loose some health though, so that not really the same as infinite lives either

 

[pulsemyne]

Just got this on the 3DS. What a lovely little game!. Gives me flashbacks to Robocop on the Sinclair spectrum (it's the way the three way bullet is done).

 

[Celine]

dat y-axis axed by Nintendo ninjas.

Spoiler

just kidding, really interesting topic.