Marketing!

Okay, I've been working hard this week getting accounts at a bunch of different places. Check out the side-bar to see what they are! I've gotten some other work done on making the installer look better and got started on the box art, but when I realized how small Microsoft shrinks the box art images I realized that I need to rework it. Time to write a press release!

March to the Moon has only had a few changes in the last week, but I did get a few bugs cleaned up in Siphon Spirit.


Also, if you want to get into making games because you like playing games you might be interested in the following story. I just finished Half-Life last night. Steam tells me that I put a total of 19 hours into the game. I started playing in mid-December. It turns out that making games takes a lot of time away from playing games.

If only...

If only it was as easy to sell a game as it was to make it. Okay, so it's probably harder and more time consuming to do all the work to make it, but that just makes me all the more tired at the thought of everything I'm going to have to do in order to market this thing.

I just want to take a nap.

Beta Stage 3

The third stage of beta testing is going out in just a few minutes. While I wait for feedback from this group I'm going to put some more time into making the modding guide.

Footage and testing

Well, I got that video done that I was talking about! Here you go.



I was going to start a new round of testing today, but then I got a bunch of feedback! If you're still waiting to test then I'm sorry, but it's going to be a few more days. On the bright side, you'll have a better version of the game to play.

Marketing Prep

Well, after a bit of a false start with the beta testing (bad installer) We're finally beta testing! They haven't given me any feedback yet, so I'm looking for other things to keep me occupied. For instance, gameplay footage! I was hoping to have a video for you guys to watch today, but I ended up finding out that the free version of Fraps puts a watermark and only allows 30 seconds of video at a time. So I bought it.I"ll have some videos next time :)


As for Siphon Spirit, since things are a little quiet while I wait for feedback I will probably jump back in there to add another 40-50 levels using the advanced spells.

Time for some beta!

Okay, so I've finally got everything together except for a good working installer. I'm just going to put the requirements in as a forced install rather than checking to see if you already have stuff installed. Sorry, I'll try to fix it in the next wave.

As for how the beta is going to work, I'm going to choose a few people to be the first wave, then fix things according to suggestions. Then I'll put out a new build for testing and add more people into the group. If you don't get the beta link right away don't worry, I will get to you. Unless of course we talked about getting you in the beta a while ago and I forgot to write it down. In which case, I am already sorry :(

Also, we had Indie Game Night last night! Jay at Rampant Games gave a nice little write up on March to the Moon which I'm going to copy below.

I ended up spending way too much time hogging up Curtis Mirci‘s March to the Moon game, which I’ve played and enjoyed before. It’s a goofy little action game with RPG elements, and I mean goofy. Programmer art, and completely over-the-top, and exactly the kind of fun I was looking for. Good ol-fashioned shoot-em-upiness with absolutely no taking of itself seriously.

It's true! I had to ask him to let someone else take a turn. He had a great suggestion that I'm going to implement. I was a bit surprised at how much people were laughing at the humor in the game. I was talking to someone about an idea they had to help indie developers get art, and I kept getting distracted when everyone around me would burst out laughing in reaction to what was happening in the game.

Well, I'd better finish that installer so I can finally let other people test this thing!