Antair Games An independent game developer blog

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ll know I’m not a massive social networking addict. I’m on Facebook but I hardly use it, I didn’t really take to Twitter at first (I’m there now, but it took a while). Anyway, I was reluctant to try FriendFeed, I figured it would be one step further into the abyss, more time wasted, more information to absorb.

But Paul suggested I give it a try, and then I watched this video Robert Scoble made, and I figured I’d give it a go. And I like it. If you’re on the fence, here’s a few reasons why I like it:-

Twitter

Twitter is great, you have this constant stream of new stuff popping up, you get a real sample of what’s going on in real time. But if you go away for a few hours, and want to know what happened with a few people when you were away, it’s not so good. With FriendFeed I added the Twitter feeds of a few people to my page as imaginary friends. It works the other way too, by sharing something on FriendFeed I can pipe the message straight to my Twitter feed.

Organization

With the rooms and lists and all the different options, it’s great at grouping and channeling information. So, if I always want to check in with some friends, but only want to see what others are doing when I have the time to kill, I can easily create the distinction. I can choose how all my incoming feeds are processed too, so, for example, if I share something in Google Reader it’ll show up on my FriendFeed page, but won’t go through to Twitter. It’s also nice the way it groups related things together into a tree structure, and brings them forward like a forum post getting a new entry.

Conversation

You can discuss anything on FriendFeed. A single tweet can become a full discussion, all you have to do is comment on it. I don’t use this part of FriendFeed much yet, mostly because I haven’t subscribed to a lot of people yet… but I like the way it works. There’s no email notification of comments or updates, but you can setup IM notifications, and they seem to work pretty well.

Rooms

Rooms are a good way to set up shared feeds that you want to discuss with other people. So if I thought that other people might want to follow some Google Alerts about me, I could create an ego room, and then each item it found would appear for discussion by all members. Depending on the room settings, you can allow other members to post new items in the room, or you can make a totally private room for a group of friends. I do have a few Google alerts, mostly about Sneezies, but I wrapped them up in an imaginary friend just for me instead of creating a room. Imaginary friends are a great feature for that sort of thing.

It saves me time

I actually save time by using FriendFeed. When I start working, instead of wondering what’s going on, flicking through Twitter, or bouncing around a number of different sites, I usually just have a quick look over my main FriendFeed page. It satisfies me that I’ve checked for anything important, and I can just get on with some work.

So that’s FriendFeed for me for the first week, we’ll see if it holds up as I settle back into a regular working pattern and when I add more people.

Here’s my FriendFeed page.

We made a cheesecake last night, and although we decided against decorating and entering it into the bake off, I tried to put it to good use. Introducing the first of 2 banners for the Great Indie Bake Off.

And while I was at it:-

The contest will remain open until the 18th January, and is open to anyone. If you’d like to use these banners in any way to spread the word about the contest for the final couple of weeks, that would be awesome. There’s $40 of iTunes credit and a gaggle of other prizes for the winner, not to mention the joy of eating your entry afterwards, so it’s well worth the effort.

The Great Indie Bake Off

Not the most productive week ever, but I feel like I’m settling into a better working pattern again after the holidays.

Sneezies got a couple of new reviews that I haven’t posted yet. One from My World Of Handhelds, and another from iPhone Apps and Games. Sneezies is also a finalist in 4 categories of the 2008 Best App Ever awards, if you like it please vote, it only takes a few seconds, and you don’t need to register or anything.

The prize pool for the Great Indie Bake Off rose to $40 of iTunes credit, plus all the free games and apps and extras. The contest is still open, we’ll probably accept the final submissions the weekend of the 18th, and run the poll to pick the winner the following week.

Lesson learned from running a contest: make the entry conditions as clear as possible, this time around it might not have been clear that it’s open to everyone, including non-developers.

I started using FriendFeed to organize all my info. I also pruned my twitter list a little, removing a few non-followers, it’s amazing how much difference it makes to the feel of the stream when you lose people… like a disturbance in the force (probably not).

A couple of links I enjoyed around the web this week: Market Yourself An iParadigm, discusses the realities of marketing and it’s impact in App Store. Also, The indie game developer’s start-up cost, which takes a fun look at the potential costs of making independent games.

Happy New Year all!

I wasn’t going to bother with the obligatory reflection/projection blog post, but I’m just settling down to focus on our next project, and I thought I’d take a quick look back (and forward) before I get too stuck in.

This blog wasn’t here this time last year, but I did post 3 resolutions on my old blog. Two quick and easy ones - I wanted to exercise more (I lasted until about march, a new record), and I wanted to figure out how to reverse my aging thumb syndrome and get good at games again (nope, I still suck).

The main resolution last year was the suitably vague and flexible in scope “Focus on the good stuff”. I meant stick to projects I really want to do, make things I’ll feel good about, and focus on the positive things that come out of them, instead of worrying or dwelling on negatives.

I’m generally happy with the way that one turned out.

I cut off all my other commitments over the course of this year to focus on Antair Games full time. That wasn’t exactly easy, but it was an important step and it felt good. We also finished and released 2 games over the course of the year. The first was DoubleTake for PC/Mac, the second was Sneezies for the iPhone.

That whole positive mental attitude nonsense doesn’t come totally naturally to me if things go badly, but I usually manage to work my way around to it eventually.

My 2008 in Sound Bites

Highlight of the year for me: the great response to Sneezies.

Surprise of the year for me: I really didn’t expect to be running a baking contest.

I got my first Mac this year - I wouldn’t go back unless I had to.

I’m using Twitter (and Facebook and FriendFeed). And starting to “get it”.

My iPod Touch is the first MP3 player I’ve ever owned. Yep.

2009

No new resolution for ‘09, I’m happy with what I’m doing and where things are headed. Craig and I are just going to keep trying to make the best games we can, hopefully they’ll each find an audience that loves them. We’re sticking with the iPhone for our games development. We love the platform, we love the distribution channel (the App Store may have it’s issues, but it’s still miles better than anything we’ve experienced on any other platform), and the scope of a good iPhone game is perfect for a team of our size.

The next game feels like it’ll be a good one, we’re excited about it. This time around we’re hoping to share a lot more info and artwork here as we go.

And that’s that, thanks for reading so far, I hope you’ll stick around to see what 2009 has in store for us.

Calling all Sneezies fans! Sneezies is a finalist in 4 categories of the Best App Ever Awards.

If you’d like to vote for Sneezies, each of the following links will place a direct vote in one of the 4 categories. No registration is necessary, it’s just a one-click thing. You only get one vote per category, but you can change it later if you find something else you’d rather vote for.

Best Casual Game : http://bestappever.com/v/gcas/298155609/vote

Best 99c Game : http://bestappever.com/v/g99c/298155609/vote

Best Kids Game : http://bestappever.com/v/gkid/298155609/vote

Best Kid Distraction App : http://bestappever.com/v/kidd/298155609/vote

The winners will be announced at MacWorld on the 7th January.

Our thanks go out to anyone who nominated us for the awards, we were surprised and delighted to be shortlisted for so many categories.

Another iTunes gift card has been added to the The Great Indie Bake Off prize pool. The total iTunes credit for a lucky winner is now $40, on top of all the free copies of Apps and games on offer already. See the contest page for full prize details and conditions.

The latest prize, the $25 iTunes card, is courtesy of AppBeacon.

Tim started a forum thread for the bake off over on Touch Arcade too, hopefully we’ll see some more cakes coming in.

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In other news, Sneezies got a good mention in Touch Arcade’s 99c games worth a look article, a review from RazorianFly, and a great feature in 148apps Diversions for the trip home article.

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I signed up for FriendFeed, you can check out my page here, I need to live with it for a few days in a full work schedule to know for sure, but I think I like it. Mostly I like that it feels organized. I only have a few people on my main page but I can see more in a different list when I have time to browse, and I turned on IM notifications so I get notified of comments or anything interesting right away. I thought it would be too much information, but it feels more like a filter and set of rules for everything I was seeing already.

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Finally, Andy over at Howling Wolf Software started The New Year App Blowout promotion. This is a group of apps and games that are available at reduced prices. It’s a great idea, yet more creative marketing from the indie community. If you already have Sneezies, you could try BurnBall, it’s a great little game that deserves to do well, a bargain at that price. And it’s just been updated.

So that’s Christmas over for another year for us, my wife’s back at work this morning, we have that little pile of new stuff that we have to either eat or find cupboard space for. Nice holiday. It’s tough to observe most holidays when you work from home, there’s always a temptation to just work on through. Thankfully all the family obligations at Christmas make it impossible, so it’s the one time of the year that I know a holiday is really a holiday. I still check my email too often, but my connected time is kept to a minimum.

It was great taking Sneezies along to the family gatherings and passing it around. Everyone loved it, I never got the iPod back until I was on my way out of the door, it’s definitely a good way to distract kids.

Speaking of Sneezies, we got a some great new reviews this week. On top of the two I’ve already mentioned, Appletell gave it 4/5, and 148Apps gave it a “Highly recommended” 4.5/5.

Over the course of the week, we added 3 cakes to the Great Indie Bake Off, which brought the cake counter up to 10… and there were a couple of links helping spread the word. Tim Haines was doing his bit to push the contest on Twitter too.

I don’t know how Scoble copes with that 5000+ friendfeed friends thing, you can actually go and look at the feed, it’s total insanity. Thanks to MrTweet, I must have followed a couple of noisy tweeters because I find myself missing out on important stuff from the people I’m trying to pay attention to. I think my first twitter “non-follow” pruning session might be in order.

I was excited earlier in the week because our page became the top result for “Sneezies” on Google… but it didn’t stick. The top link is still about our game though, so it almost still counts :).

Veiled Games and Byteclub were both talking about the value of lite versions in the App Store. I agree with both of them a bit (Evan thinks you become your own competition, Peter thinks it works better when you can offer more depth in the full version), and I also think pricing has a lot to do with it. 99c can surely only exist as an impulse buy, it’s not a sustainable price point in most cases anyway, but it has to be doomed if you make it a considered decision and add trial conversion rates into the mix. If the common price point creeps up towards 4.99+, we’ll probably start to see more calls for effective trial mechanisms from developers. Even though that’s still impulse buy territory on other platforms, the volume and the streamlined distribution on the iPhone might help carry it.

I think I’m going to pick up an Invisible Shield in the Zagg sale, I’ve been eying them since I got my iPod Touch, the demonstration is awesome.

That’s it, we’re out of here(*) for the holidays, wishing you all the best, and hoping you all have a great time.

* I’m sure I’m not not fooling anyone. I’ll still be here, and we all know I’ll be checking my email on Christmas morning anyway. But still, the sentiment is genuine.

A couple of quick updates before I pretend to go:-

Sneezies got a couple of extra good reviews. One from AppBeacon, and one from iPhoneAppAttack (you have to read the whole thing, the review is in there!).

The Great Indie Bake Off got another cake today, from the creator of SlingShot. That brings the total up to 10. We’ll post any updates as they come in over the holidays, so keep them coming. Oh, and if you’re a little worse for wear, don’t forget to take the picture ;).

I’ve just updated the Bake Off page with some new cakes and prizes. It’s really hotting up now. We have 9 cakes, including the first cake from an iPhone website, a Scramboni cake, and the first repeat entry in the form of a new Up There cake by Veiled Games (that lovely new game just hit the App Store).

The Great Indie Bake Off

Also, the prize list is getting pretty crowded. The best cake now stands to win 4 free iPhone games, 4 free iPhone utility apps, an acoustic stand for an iPhone worth $20, and now a $15 iTunes Gift Card. (Unfortunately, many of these prizes are only available in the US, check the contest page for details).

Remember, the contest is open to everyone, and will remain open until around mid-January, so there’s plenty of time to get an entry in. I’m sure I speak for all the developers involved when I say that we’d love to see some entries from non developers, just pick a relevant theme for your cake, it’ll be welcome in the contest. So, an indie game you love, the mascot of your favorite games news site, maybe the icon of your favorite iPhone App… it’s all good. That might not be specific enough for some tastes, but we just want everyone to have fun (and cake).

The first update to Sneezies has hit the App Store. I guess Apple are working every hour to clear their massive pre-christmas submission queue.

Sneezies now has more levels, and will allow you to keep listening to your own tunes when the game starts.