Lessons From My First Shipped Game
The first version of Lamplight was built for the Ludum Dare game jam. At some point after that I made a goal to actually ship a game, having never done so. I chose to remake and expand on Lamplight, it being a semi-unique concept and very simple design.
It took about a year of un-funded, inconsistent development time. Lamplight was released on the Google Play Store initially, and eventually made its way to itch.io for Android and Windows. Shipping a game was immensely satisfying, but in hindsight things could have gone a lot better for Lamplight.
There are probably a hundred other things I need to figure out that I don’t even realize, but here are a few big things that I will pay more attention to in the future.
The Engine
Lamplight was built in Game Maker Studio. Unfortunately, YoYo Games released Game Maker Studio 2 sometime during Lamplight’s development and announced that they would cease support for GMS 1 about nine months after Lamplight’s release on the Play Store.
The Play Store loves to update their minimum requirements for hosted apps every time you blink. Moving forward, Google won’t approve any new apps or updates without meeting those new requirements. After YoYo ended support for GMS 1, I had no way of exporting to Android with new SDKs.
Thus ended my ability to update my app on the Play Store with my current engine.
A Game Maker Studio 2 mobile export license costed $199 at the time, so I figured I would just use the first $199 earned from Lamplight to buy it and continue updates. Unfortunately, Lamplight never earned $199 due to me being dumb (see below).
The Game Engine Wars will rage on, but it is important to choose carefully or at least be aware that you may need to make drastic changes or shell out cash to continue working with your project.
The Marketing
I am a programmer by trade. Stereotypically, I am not naturally good at putting myself out there. I didn’t do my due diligence learning how to market my product before it launched, and Lamplight suffered because of this.
My official outreach and marketing program consisted of posting on Reddit a couple times. There was no website at the time, no Twitter account, or anything else. Lamplight never gained a lot of attention and was thus buried by the Play Store’s algorithms.
I’m still not 100% on how to go about doing this properly next time, but I figured building this website and starting an official Twitter (@GoldshoeG follow us!) are good places to start. I will be prepared to do a lot of research and throw some cash at outsourcing if I need to going forward.
If you are a new indie developer and planning on self-publishing, definitely don’t sleep on this.
Monetization
It can be easy to put off or ignore monetization for a creative person who just wants to focus on creating. I thought I could just slap a price on my game and sell it on an app store.
Unfortunately, getting compensated for your work in this industry is more complicated than ever, especially on mobile.
Lamplight costed $0.99 USD on the Play Store at release. That’s the least Google will let you charge. After weeks went by without a single sale (besides an angry Russian who gave a 1 star rating and refunded the game) I decided to make it free and added optional donation IAP. Needless to say this hasn’t landed me a spot in Forbes.
Finding the right price point and monetization methods for your game takes work and, for me, outside help. Integrating ads into your game is a mashup of marketing and game design, and really should be iterated on from the beginning along side the rest of development. The mobile market is especially sensitive, but this applies everywhere.
Conclusion
I met my goal to ship a game, and I’m proud of that. It was an incredible learning experience and I’m proud of the quirky game I was able to create. I personally still play it on the toilet every now and then.
However, a few small changes and shifted priorities could have let Lamplight succeed more, which would have resulted in updates and more content for the product. As of now fans will have to wait for Lamplight 2, hopefully crafted and shipped with a bit more wisdom.