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"Race the Sun" developers running out of money

A

Acosta

Member
I found this interesting and a bit depressing, is a really interesting piece where the two developers of Chase the Sun explain how they are doing after one month of sale.

http://indiegames.com/2013/09/losing_steam_-_race_the_sun_a_.html#more

Basically, they are running out of money.

Here's where the story gets a bit discouraging. In our launch month, we've sold 771 copies, or about $7,400 worth.
Click to expand...

Sales have fallen off pretty steadily as the media attention has died down. Our worst day came last week, at 2 copies sold.
This may seem like a pretty big number to some - but keep in mind there are two of us, with families to support, and bills to pay. Additionally, the game's online features require a back-end server, and there are monthly costs associated with that, as well as our web hosting and other expenses.
Click to expand...

We felt that the PC audience was largely still happy to pay decent money for a good game, and so we focused our efforts on PC and Steam. It was about this time when Steam introduced Greenlight - and at first, we saw this as an opportunity.
However, we've now been on Greenlight for over a year, and our launch has come and gone, and we're still seemingly a ways off.
In the meantime, it feels like there are two attitudes that have become prevalent among many PC gamers:
"I'll buy it when it's on Steam."
and
"I'll buy it when it's in a bundle."
I'm just not sure it's realistic to expect to be able to support yourself solely with self-distribution via your website in 2013, unless you're Minecraft.
Click to expand...

The game looks like this:

EF2Fat6.png


Trailer (worth watching instead of screenshots if you what to get the idea)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmjAg0e_YYU

The game price is 10$, has anyone played?
 
E

epmode

Member
I've played it. I own it, even! It's pretty awesome although my playtime has been limited due to a billion other games.
 
D

def sim

Member
Many of the smaller games I've played I discovered through word of mouth on forums like neogaf. It's a shame an interesting game like this was largely ignored, the Steam store page or, really, most digital front ends don't actively advertise indies much.
 
S

SublimeO12

Neo Member
While this is a sad situation indeed, I think the reality of the indie space right now on PC is that if you're going to get through the greenlight process, you need a game that connects with people. Having a "good" game, with fun and polished gameplay, simply isn't enough anymore when you need votes to even get on steam.

Whether it's the art style, the narrative, the characters, the world, the fantasy, etc... there has to be something there where people will look at a trailer for your game and say "I NEED this game in my veins!". That is really the only way to get enough votes.

Look at Hyper Light Drifter. There is hardly a few frames of actual gameplay in the trailer on the kickstarter, and it just passed 250k in funding. Why? Because it looks awesome! I saw the video and thought, I NEED this game right now. Link to the Past meets Diablo with a neon retro-futuristic art style? I backed it right away, because it spoke to me.

And that I think is the problem with Race The Sun. It may be a rock solid, highly polished game with online leaderboards and a bunch of neat features, but at the end of the day, there's nothing there for people to connect with, and so it won't get votes to get on steam. It is sad, because while I wish all great games can be successful, it's just not how it works. Sometimes good games fail.
 
T

ThreePiMatt

Member
I'm just not sure it's realistic to expect to be able to support yourself solely with self-distribution via your website in 2013, unless you're Minecraft.
Click to expand...

When have indie developers ever been able to support themselves via self-distribution?
 
A

AeornFlippout

Neo Member
Oh hey, just saw this via Twitter. Developer here!

Thanks for helping to highlight our situation, I really appreciate it.

The good news is: The flurry of attention that post generated on Wednesday resulted in a big surge of votes, and we sold enough copies that we can stop freaking out about whether can pay October's bills (November's still looking shaky.)

The bad news is: We're still about 2k votes away from the top 20 in Greenlight, which would theoretically give us a good shot at getting into the next batch, assuming it'll be 25 titles again.

We really appreciate your votes and support, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have here.

We'll also be doing a bit of streaming tonight in our twitch channel, if anyone would like to drop by and say 'hi', win a game key, or watch us ramble a bit about other cool indie games (We've had incredible support from the community, and the least we can do is help highlight some other deserving games.)

http://www.twitch.tv/flippfly
 
E

epmode

Member
SublimeO12 said:
And that I think is the problem with Race The Sun. It may be a rock solid, highly polished game with online leaderboards and a bunch of neat features, but at the end of the day, there's nothing there for people to connect with, and so it won't get votes to get on steam.
Click to expand...

I dunno, just a few screenshots and a short video was enough to get me to buy from the developer's site. I think this is one of the most stylish games around but I hadn't even heard of it until many months after playable code was available.
 
W

woo and indeed hoo

Banned
friedeggs said:
Many of the smaller games I've played I discovered through word of mouth on forums like neogaf. It's a shame an interesting game like this was largely ignored, the Steam store page or, really, most digital front ends don't actively advertise indies much.
Click to expand...

Yes, I had never heard of it until someone mentioned it in Steam GAF. I am a noob to pc gaming though [3 months] so have a lot to catch up on!

SublimeO12 said:
While this is a sad situation indeed, I think the reality of the indie space right now on PC is that if you're going to get through the greenlight process, you need a game that connects with people. Having a "good" game, with fun and polished gameplay, simply isn't enough anymore when you need votes to even get on steam.

Whether it's the art style, the narrative, the characters, the world, the fantasy, etc... there has to be something there where people will look at a trailer for your game and say "I NEED this game in my veins!". That is really the only way to get enough votes.

Look at Hyper Light Drifter. There is hardly a few frames of actual gameplay in the trailer on the kickstarter, and it just passed 250k in funding. Why? Because it looks awesome! I saw the video and thought, I NEED this game right now. Link to the Past meets Diablo with a neon retro-futuristic art style? I backed it right away, because it spoke to me.

And that I think is the problem with Race The Sun. It may be a rock solid, highly polished game with online leaderboards and a bunch of neat features, but at the end of the day, there's nothing there for people to connect with, and so it won't get votes to get on steam. It is sad, because while I wish all great games can be successful, it's just not how it works. Sometimes good games fail.
Click to expand...

Yet that game you mentioned does nothing for me and I clicked 'yes' on Race The Sun's Greenlight page within seconds of starting the video when I looked at it a few days ago. In fact I was trying to see how it was doing on Greenlight earlier but couldn't find anything on Steam. Are these details publicly viewable or Valve/dev only? Steam noob here so forgive me if it's a 'stupid question'.

AeornFlippout said:
Oh hey, just saw this via Twitter. Developer here!

Thanks for helping to highlight our situation, I really appreciate it.

The good news is: The flurry of attention that post generated on Wednesday resulted in a big surge of votes, and we sold enough copies that we can stop freaking out about whether can pay October's bills (November's still looking shaky.)

The bad news is: We're still about 2k votes away from the top 20 in Greenlight, which would theoretically give us a good shot at getting into the next batch, assuming it'll be 25 titles again.

We really appreciate your votes and support, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have here.

We'll also be doing a bit of streaming tonight in our twitch channel, if anyone would like to drop by and say 'hi', win a game key, or watch us ramble a bit about other cool indie games (We've had incredible support from the community, and the least we can do is help highlight some other deserving games.)

http://www.twitch.tv/flippfly
Click to expand...

ohai!

I'm glad things are looking up :). Looking forward to playing your game. I have just made the resolution to clear some of my backlog before adding any more games to it so I'm afraid I'm going to be one of those "I'll wait until it's on Steam" fellows. Sorry about that.
 
G

gngf123

Member
In the meantime, it feels like there are two attitudes that have become prevalent among many PC gamers:
"I'll buy it when it's on Steam."
and
"I'll buy it when it's in a bundle."
Click to expand...

Yep. As sad as this is, I see both mindsets a lot. Sometimes combined.
 
S

Soule

Member
Watched some other videos of it and despite being pretty much being PC only these days I reckon that if it was on mobile or tablet I'd be more likely to buy it. I haven't watched much but the gameplay strikes me as something I'd prefer to play on the fly, still will gladly get this on PC at some point but just seems to me there might be an opportunity there if they can make it work on those platforms.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
gngf123 said:
Yep. As sad as this is, I see both mindsets a lot. Sometimes combined.
Click to expand...
Well, I wonder how many people who bought Fez for five bucks feel a bit silly that a month later, they could have gotten Fez and like 6 other games for the same price in a Humble Bundle.

You almost expect indie games to be super cheap now.
 
A

AeornFlippout

Neo Member
Hehe yeah, I hold no grudges against those who only buy on Steam or on sale. To be honest that's mostly been my buying habits as well, though I do make exceptions.

Part of the thing is - I have such a huge backlog of games, for the past year or two I've hardly bought *anything* just because I feel sort of guilty for not having played my other awesome games. I'm still in Act1 of Diablo 3. I've only played a couple hours of Guild Wars 2, and haven't even touched AntiChamber yet.

But when a humble bundle comes along and it has Fez in it... I just can't help myself. I think the reality is, this is where PC game revenue happens right now.
 
S

SublimeO12

Neo Member
woo and indeed hoo said:
Yet that game you mentioned does nothing for me and I clicked 'yes' on Race The Sun's Greenlight page within seconds of starting the video when I looked at it a few days ago.
Click to expand...

Well look, that is awesome and I hope Race The Sun gets on steam and is successful. I'm not trying to suggest that everyone will connect the same games that I like. I'm just trying to suggest that the fact that Race The Sun lingered on greenlight for a year is because it hasn't connected with enough people to generate a buzz and positive word of mouth in order to get the votes. If this push on gaf and bump in the news helps the game out, that's great! I too will likely pick this up on steam when it's on sale.
 
P

Pepboy

Member
The trailer has a lot of nice quotes, but to be frank, it makes the game look kind of unexciting. Some generic shapes falling so I have to avoid them.

So the twist is that I rely on the sun? That could be interesting with the sun getting lower and shadows extending, but most of the video shows the ship flying in the sun and the shadows don't really seem to do much. I get that you are racing against time, but if the shadows aren't interesting, how is that different from other racers?

Maybe I'll check out rock paper shotgun impressions, but if anyone can answer these concerns, I'd be interested.

edit:
Rockpapershotgun said:
It’s here I learn about Tris. Tris is the glowing blue cones, the basic score bling that you’re attempting to grab before you run out of juice. The other important pick-ups are the sun shaped Tris, that give you an extra few moments of sunlight. It’s the dash for additional daylight hours, hurtling myself at a sunny icon floating in front of a shard of scenery, that usually ends my run through and sends me back to the start of the race.
Click to expand...

Apparently the sun mechanic is confined to pickups. Could as easily be fuel tokens. I'm no fan of racing games, even if the level is changing, so I don't think this is for me.

SublimeO12 said:
While this is a sad situation indeed, I think the reality of the indie space right now on PC is that if you're going to get through the greenlight process, you need a game that connects with people. Having a "good" game, with fun and polished gameplay, simply isn't enough anymore when you need votes to even get on steam.

Whether it's the art style, the narrative, the characters, the world, the fantasy, etc... there has to be something there where people will look at a trailer for your game and say "I NEED this game in my veins!". That is really the only way to get enough votes. [...]

And that I think is the problem with Race The Sun. It may be a rock solid, highly polished game with online leaderboards and a bunch of neat features, but at the end of the day, there's nothing there for people to connect with, and so it won't get votes to get on steam. It is sad, because while I wish all great games can be successful, it's just not how it works. Sometimes good games fail.
Click to expand...

Precisely, though I imagine the sympathy plea will get them on steam and eventually connect them to a larger audience. It looks like a game designed well enough to be on Steam, at least.

Though I'm also unsure about "there are two attitudes that have become prevalent among PC Gamers". I'm not so sure that's something that has changed. It's not like 3 years ago people would be clamoring at the door for this game. Based on what they've presented, Race The Sun would be a mild diversion for the majority of Steam users. Obviously there are a niche that want to get faster times and love the concept, but I expect less than half will spend over an hour playing it. So, yeah, $2.50-$5 would probably be a decent price point. I get "the concept of an arcade-style, highscore focused game deserved a pure, HD treatment, free of microtransactions and with a focus on depth" but to be honest that doesn't make an endless runner unbelievably fun. I especially like the lack of microtransactions, but I don't see how HD treatment helps with fun or sales (unless the visuals are breathtaking) and I don't see much depth here.

That being said, the audience is there for the right price. I'm confident it will eventually accumulate about 100k-200k after a series of 1-2 dollar sales on Steam. And I'd be happy to check out future games from the developer.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
Game looks awesome. Bought.

The guys here did everything right-they got EvolvePR involved, they got a glowing review from Tom Chick, and got reviews on the major sites that were positive.

I think the big missing thing is a Giant Bomb quick look (these have really helped out other games in similar spots) and some kind of twitch streamer exposure. You guys are right in that a lot of people are Greenlight or bust, and those channels can help in getting people to greenlight your game (since they want it on Steam).

It says something when a massive PC nerd like me has never heard about this game.
 
S

Samus4145

Member
I ended up reviewing it. Review is here if anyone is interested.

If you don't want to click, the game world resets daily, meaning new levels. As you level up you gain new abilities and is extremely addicting.

Speaking of which, the guys behind Fuel Overdose sent an email the other day that they only sold ~600 digital copies. Game was okay and not deserving of such a low number of sales on PSN.
 
S

Soule

Member
NoPiece said:
Not really interested in the game, but gave it a vote in Greenlight, and you should to! :)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92973632

I love Steam, but they really need to fix their approval process. It is hypocritical that they are attacking Microsoft's possible move towards a walled garden in the future when Steam is a walled garden right now.
Click to expand...

Dunno if I'd say it's hypocritical, they've come out and criticized Greenlight themselves too. They definitely do need to fix it sooner rather than later, it affects a lot of people and there are livelihoods on the line.
 
P

Pepboy

Member
NoPiece said:
Not really interested in the game, but gave it a vote in Greenlight, and you should to! :)
Click to expand...

Why? Although Steam greenlights are not capped at a specific number, giving it positive votes on greenlight may help this developer at the expense of other indie developers, who may also be struggling.
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Really sad to see this. This game rules hardcore.
 
N

Nokterian

Member
Looks pretty cool,such a shame it is underneath steam greenlight and such a shame it is not selling well :( I am going to buy it from the website and vote it on steam. This game does need more attention.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
Acosta said:
it feels like there are two attitudes that have become prevalent among many PC gamers:
"I'll buy it when it's on Steam."
and
"I'll buy it when it's in a bundle."
Click to expand...

And that really is pretty darn depressing.
Steam is killing PC gaming for me. Thank goodness for GoG.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
A Black Falcon said:
Woah, a cool-looking futuristic-ish racing game, it's $10, and I've never heard of it? I think I'll get this...
Click to expand...

See this is what I am talking about-ABF is a huuge fan of futuristic racing style games like this. Like so huge he has multipage posts somewhere on this forum detailing nearly every release.

But he hasn't heard of this game. Why is that?

I think one of the real problems here is that the traditional channels for marketing are really starting to break down in the PC space, and doing so pretty rapidly. I barely visit Metacritic, any review sites, and maybe glance at bluesnews once a week. Compare and constrast to where I got my news and info five years ago, now I get tips for new games to play from like-minded Facebook groups and the Steam and Indie thread here on this forum.
 
P

PrivateWHudson

Member
Get it onto PS4 and I'll buy it day one. Looks like a great couch game, but I won't go into the other room and sit down at the pc to play it.
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
Bought.

I can appreciate the trouble in getting a game noticed. There are so many platforms now, and all of them are flooded with games. In the PC space, Steam has become such a one-stop-shop that it's easy to see how tough it must be to survive without being on it, and how tough it must be to get on it.

Well, chalk up one for me. I find it sad that I'm in the minority, but I will NEVER buy a game on Steam if I can get it DRM-free (which this is) elsewhere. For all the great things there are about Steam, it's still DRM, and quite frankly, some of the stuff in the TOS is absurd.
 
M

Munin

Member
missile said:
I find this article rather odd and it tells something about the developers.
Click to expand...

I agree. I think the recent surge of successful rags-to-riches indie titles has apparently built up the expectation that if you manage to develop a game that isn't half bad, you deserve to be able to live off that title.

Now this game looks alright, a bit like a simplistic but decent iOS title. But I can't see anyone going crazy over it. You know, sometimes games come out and they just flop. It happens. I see no point in blaming the system (AKA Steam) or gamers for it - other indies have proven that if you create a game that rocks your socks off, you will do really well. Hell, I remember the article about Gunpoint making back its development costs within the first day, and that title wasn't even of the "indie blockbuster" category.
 
T

Tellaerin

Member
Voted for it on Greenlight.

I do think the game would be more compelling with an ambient soundtrack, based on what I saw in the trailer. I assume the intention was to ratchet up the tension while you're playing, but this seems like a game that would benefit from a soundtrack you can zone out to and let your muscle memory take over. I also think something ambient or trance-y would be a better fit with the stylized, minimalist visuals. Definitely like the look of it, and the gameplay looks fun, so color me interested.
 
A

Acosta

Member
AeornFlippout said:
Oh hey, just saw this via Twitter. Developer here!

Thanks for helping to highlight our situation, I really appreciate it.

The good news is: The flurry of attention that post generated on Wednesday resulted in a big surge of votes, and we sold enough copies that we can stop freaking out about whether can pay October's bills (November's still looking shaky.)

The bad news is: We're still about 2k votes away from the top 20 in Greenlight, which would theoretically give us a good shot at getting into the next batch, assuming it'll be 25 titles again.

We really appreciate your votes and support, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have here.

We'll also be doing a bit of streaming tonight in our twitch channel, if anyone would like to drop by and say 'hi', win a game key, or watch us ramble a bit about other cool indie games (We've had incredible support from the community, and the least we can do is help highlight some other deserving games.)

http://www.twitch.tv/flippfly
Click to expand...

Hey! I'm glad it looks a bit better now, I had read the Edge review and thought it was pretty cool so I felt it was a shame, hope it goes better.

I just upvoted it in Greenlight (getting into Greenlinght is worse than getting into my backlog, I have voted 400 games and I still feel like I'm lagging, meh). I'll keep my eye on it, hoping for the best.

By the way, when I watched the trailer I thought it would suit great for a console. I know porting takes time and money and I guess it´s far from the short term fix you need, but yeah... I am sure I'm not telling you anything new.
 
S

Servbot #42

Unconfirmed Member
i voted on greenlight, i'm not saying i'll buy if it comes to steam since i'm kinda have a lot of shit to pay for but i'll think about it. I wish you guys the best
 
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