Final comments

Hi,

So Death Pirate has been released on Steam. It was a quite long and difficult road.

Porting the game for Steam was pretty complicated. The Steam system is overly confusing with its own terms and its set of softwares. Anyway, I'm not allowed to talk about it (it's written "Steam Confidential" all over it!) so let's close the chapter.

Things were going smoothly and the game was ready for release two months before. One day, a nice fellow sent me a message on Singe Studio's Facebook: "You should check the Death Pirate board on Steam. Things are going sour over there". I didn't even know Death Pirate had its own message board on Steam! I read a few messages and, yes, it was a mess.

Last september, I received a message from a guy from Desura asking me if I'd want to apply to a special campain to boost my greenlight votes. For one week, they would sell the game at a discount price and the buyers would greenlight the game on Steam (I only got 200 votes from it - it needs around 2500 votes to be greenlit). Then, when the game would be released on Steam, they would get the game for free. I answered "Ok, why not!". I didn't sign anything, I didn't fill any form.

In the meantime, I reworked the game completely for the Android platform and reworked it again for Steam. When I created the Steam page for Death Pirate in March, if I remember well, someone sent me a message saying that he brought the game on "IR" (???) and asked if he would get the game for free on Steam. I answered that he brought the game on "IR" (???) so he wasn't entitled to play the game on Steam again. It's quite logical, if you buy a game on PS3, you're not entitled to the same game on Xbox 360.

It appeared that "IR" meant "Indie Royal" and it was the special campain I applied to 7 months before. I didn't remember this at all (I applied through a messenger in not even 1 minute by a simple "yes, why not?" - easy to forget to kind of stuff). So yes, the guy was actually entitled to a free copy of Death Pirate on Steam. But I didn't know.

It was the reason for an amazing flame war on the Death Pirate board. Nearly 250 messages of pure hate were destroying the reputation of the game. I tried to calm things down by answering most messages but, you know, it's the internet. I was a thief, a crook, an idiot, a murderer, a rapist, anything that could come into their minds.

So I looked for the email of the guy who made me apply to Indie Royal. I told him that I would send him the Steam keys for those who bought the game. He answered me "Alright. I will need 1000 keys.". I checked again the number of buyers and told him I'd send him the 200 keys for 200 buyers. He said that I had to send more because Steam keys tend to be falty sometimes and just in case it doesn't work, blablabla. Alright, here goes 1000 steam keys (1000 free copies of Death Pirate). The guy tells me he would send them right away (but the buyers wouldn't be able to download the game before the release day).

I do the announcement on the Steam board that they would get their free games. The board which was so full of hate before became just plain dead - people are more motivated when it comes to hate than to actually communicate or simply talk about a game. Fun.

Here comes the release day of Death Pirate. I check if the buyers' keys are working. No. None of them actually received anything. Consequently, more hate ensues on the board. I contact the guy from Indie Royal who answers me coldly "Desura and Indie Royal are out of business. I have nothing to do with these matters anymore". Fear. I'm still dead meat for the board.

I sent many messages to the same guy telling him that he should have told me before I sent him the Steam keys and that he lied when he said he would send them right away. I also implied that if he didnt send them and asked for so many keys, it probably meant he was to re-sell them illegaly on some other website. He was therefore a thief and a crook! No answer.

A few days later, the board is happy. They got their free games. Then the board turns dead again. One or two thanks and that's it. And a few bad reviews too. The steam experience.

Well, you got the whole picute now, the long hard road to release a game. In the end, I found myself strangely fullfilled. I did it. No regrets.

But I won't do it again for a while.

Developer Diary #12 - Overview of the story and explanations

Yep.

I realized I didn't express myself much on the story of the game and I didn't promote it as much as it deserves it.

Basically, the story takes place in the very near future in Europe. The financial crisis is over and Europe has become the world's largest economy power. What?! How is it possible? A new Company called the "UCP" began producing a new kind of armors, the "J-Suits", that enhance the physical and mental abilities of Humans. So yes, in that future, Europe has become the richest nation in the world by selling weapons. People and pacifists are outraged but there's just too much money to be made.

The making of these armors is quite mysterious. We don't know where their powers come from, how they are produced... And soon, monsters appear and start assaulting the countries... The two events seem linked but instead of stopping the production of the J-Suits, Europe sells more and more of J-Suits because people are scared... and because the politicians don't want to stop making money. Then, it becomes a vicious circle.

This is, in short, the basics of the story. This is also what happens right now in Europe. They tell us we need money and they'll do anything to get it. We already sell weapons, yes, but in a "reasonable" way. I just wanted to ask the question "where would the people in power go to make that money?". The goal of the State is to protect the people, to insure its safety and welfare. And with that Crisis, the governments are doing quite the contrary. They are sucking on the poorest, in sometimes an inhuman way, to make that money.

The parallel is that, in both cases, the State is going against its nature. The State which is supposedly a virtuous protector of society has become the killer of Civilization, promoting hate, individuality and war. Right now, in Europe, people are hating each others, they are even hating themselves! Why? Because the Governments are crushing them and telling them that their neighbourgs are stealing their jobs and their money. They tell us if we don't do as they say, Europe will fall down and there will be misery all over the place.

Everybody is aware of this... but we don't do anything about it... because we are scared. And there we've got our vicious circle.

In my story, things turn sour and the plan backfires. Nature takes its rights back. I hope people will take the power back in Europe.

Death Pirate will be released on Steam on 6th June 2015. Death Pirate SP is already available on the Google PlayStore for android. Here's the link:

Developer Diary #11: The release on GooglePlay

So it was with great joy that I finally could release the game on the PlayStore. But my hopes were quickly crushed.

The first disappointment came with the achievements. I programmed the trophies on GooglePlay and integrated them in the game. It worked. But the game became dangerously unstable. I tried different ways to get a bit more stability but to no avail. I had to do a lot of cuts to fit the game in a tablet and it seemed that trophies were the drop that made the cup overflow (I don't know if that's the right expression...). Anyway, I had to get rid of achievements.

Second huge disappointment: the promotion from Google. Death Pirate never appeared anywhere on the Playstore frontend. It didn't even appear in the new apps section. I've never seen this before. On Steam, Desura, the Xbox live, the PSN, you always have the newest games or apps appearing on the news page of the store. I checked it many times and it only featured big apps like candy Crush Saga or Clash of Clans. Even if you searched for the exact name of the game, it would only appear on the 5th or 6th spot in the search page. It's just like throwing a book in the middle of the ocean and waiting for it to become a best-seller...

Do I have to pay to be considered as a regular developper? My game is not big enough to be qualified as a viable app? Why would we promote apps that obviously don't need any promotion since they are already all over the place??? It's something I really don't understand. And it's the same everywhere. Big medias promote stuff that don't need advertisement. When you see the reviews of the last Assassin's Creed or the online game Destiny and you compare it with the press coverage and the indirect promotion it gets, you wonder if that system is not a bit corrupted... Now, everybody is OK to say that these games were not that good... some even says they were particularly buggy. So... Isn't it time to promote new stuff instead of cash cows?

Trailer for the Steam version and Play Store link.

Hi!

So Death Pirate SP is finally available on the Google PlayStore for android. Here's the link:

And a new trailer for the Steam version:

Official release: tomorrow!

Hi,

Just a little message to announce that Death Pirate SP will be release tomorrow, saturday april 4th 2015!

I hope you'll enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed crafting it!

The Steam version is going well and will be available very soon.

Sorry!!!

Hi,

Bad news... But the Android version of Death Pirate SP has to be delayed for a week or so. I'm really sorry!!!

It's not totally my fault, but Google is very slow on publishing apps and the game won't make it on time. It's ready and totally functionnal but I didn't expect the publishing process to be so long.

As a gift for waiting, I can announce that the game will feature GooglePlay trophies!!!

I'll keep you posted but the release is very soon!

New announcement: STEAM!!!

As a big surprise, Death Pirate has been greenlit by Steam. I wasn't really expectring that as the game was just approaching the TOP 100 last week.

Anyway, that's a really good news and there'll be more announcement soon. Thanks to all for your support!!!

New screens V

For the last batch of screenshots, you can see some huge bosses from the game. I really hope you'll enjoy the game. Please support us by buying theg ame on the Play Store so I can continue making games I'd love to play.

New screens IV

Ouch! A glimpse at the stage 15!!! Then we go on withsome pics of side episode 2. Than you for your patience!

New screenshots III

Time is flying by so quickly! You can see here a few story scenes and the retro city of the stage 10!

Official trailer is up!

Official release date: March 25th 2015

Enjoy!

New screenshots II

Thank you for your support! The game is really close to completion! I'm trying to get rid of as much bugs as possible! On these screens, you can see the 4th stage and a glimpse fo the upgrade weapons screen.

New batch of screenshots!

Sorry for the lack of updates! Here are a few screenshots! Expect a new trailer very soon and a release date!