The Next Penelope (2D F-Zero / Ulysses 31)

Just bought the early access!

Aurel hey Aurel! Have a couple questions here:

First, can you share a little more insight about how you're creating the game? Like, a screenshot, a behavior, any kind of devlog, quirks with engine, anything would be awesome for all of us to learn.

Second (and related to first matter) I'm trying to implement 4 players for one of my games now and it's a mess, lol. I'm trying to use Paster but it seems it doesn't get along with Tilemaps, so if I have to redo the whole "map" with sprites, it will be a huge strain on performance, and I can't imagine with your game (unless you're not using tilemaps, so it *might* be fine). So again, any kind of insight on that, would be great. Guess we need to nag the hound =P

Oh, and about itch.io - they're great. They're very very nice to indie developers, but mind that they need DRM-free copies, AFAIK. It's a very pretty outlet, I can vouch for them, along with gog.com

TNP popped up on two of my fave YouTube channels today, NerdCubed

and SuperBestFriends

They ran into a bug at around 9.30 - but overall the game looks great, it's getting a load of Let's Play exposure.

As a quick heads-up, there's a few errors in the game copy, on the Smash Boost screen is says "and allows to break obstacles" instead of "and allows you to break obstacles" and when you complete a boss fight it says "The new ability earned can now be used in every worlds" instead of "The new ability earned can now be used in all worlds".

Tetriser I really dig what I see of this store. Their game selection is right up my alley! I'll make sure to send the game for the complete DRM-free version.

Mark Van August hey, thanks! : )

Beaverlicious Hope you'll like it!

notnsane I'm not using tilemaps at all, and the 4 players will be on the same screen (a la MicroMachines) so, it has a very low impact on the perfs.

About the devlog, I can't wait to write it. I really want to do it, as these past 2 years have been incredible for me and made me learn so much things.

I don't have time to do it for now, I'm still working on adding free updates to the game, but as soon as the complete version will be online, I'll make a huge one!

If you want to know anything about how this or this is made in the game, I'll try my best to answer you, no problem.

This is the first time I'm coding a game, so, I'm not sure my process can be useful for others, but I really like to share. So, don't hesitate!

Mark "Mines mines mines mines mines mines mines!!!"

the SuperBestFriends one is my favorite for now, I really like them. They played on the very first 1.0 build, sadly, the bug they had as been patched for a few weeks now.

But still, even with the bug, I was super happy to see this pop! : )))

Thanks so much for the FrEnglish corrections, i'm trying my best to have every single text approved by real americans/english, but a few typos may have slipped. Noted, and will be modified in the next update : )

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Also, since it's a developer forum, a hint about how these kind of important youtubers can have an impact on your sales.

... None!

100.000 views on a youtube video doesn't change anything, it's all about having visibility on the store itself.

People going for Steam, don't hesitate to team with an indie publisher who have good relationship with Valve.

I'm really learning this the hard way, only this makes a difference.

I'm very lucky, Penelope has tons and tons of coverage, 99% of it being super positive, saying "buy it!", but the game really need to be pushed on the store to sell a tiny bit.

i'll try to include the sales numbers in the postmortem/devlog/making of, if this can be useful to some : )

Aurel: That's concerning.

I'm currently weighing up ~70/30 split independently publishing through Valve with a 30/70 split with a reasonably well known publisher, it takes a lot of work out my hands as they handle Greenlight, Steam, and press - but the revenue split just didn't seem worth it (considering that Greenlight, Steam and press only really cost time, the financials are near non-existent).

Hearing your experience makes me reconsider! Will be waiting.

At the end of the day, It's all about how close they are from Valve.

If you can get a daily deal or week madness discount thanks to this publisher, it's the right thing to do. If you think they won't get you this, yes, it could be interesting to think twice and look for a bigger one or just go alone to cut the costs.

Food for thoughts here in this sale report for "small" games like ours. And how sales are mostly related to discount and exposure directly on the store:

http://ibbandobb.com/ibb-obbs-pc-sales- ... -for-2014/

Thats a really professional looking and probably feeling game! (i need to buy it yet ^^) It's incredible to see that Construct games can really get a big one with a passionate Designer behind this ... even on Steam.

Congratulation Aurel !

Just finished the game (well, I stil need one more run to get last success).

I liked it a lot. And I'm very impressed buy your work. Good job !

Didn't realise this was in early access already! I've been following the videos for ages, finally picked it up this evening. It does not disappoint. This isn't just impressive for a C2 game, it's an impressive game full stop. You're an inspiration for us all!

Superbe jeu, je n'ai pas encore eu la chance de le tester, mais on voit tout de suite la qualité du travail je suis aussi tres interressé par les informtions, par rapport aux ventes de votre jeu, est ce que le jeu se vend t'il facilemment?

Est il possible de savoir le chiffre d'affaire de votre jeu/succés??

merci a vous

7Ck Thanks!

Vintehin Thanks a lot for playing! The game has now been updated with more content / missions if you want more of it!

BONUS MISSIONS UPDATE VIDEO >

lolpaca Very glad you like it <3 !

imothep85 I'll answer in English so everyone can understand. Steam doesn't allow devs to share numbers. That said, no, it isn't a hit or even a small success for now, not even close. Early access games don't sell much if there is no zombies or craft in it.

After a 2 years development and a small advance on revenues to finish the game I still have to give back, I'm far to have made any money with it.

For now, I'm just super happy with the feedback and that's the most important to me. No bitter feeling of any kind, I'm really super happy right now : )

Ashley Tom > If you guys launch the last version of the game, you'll now notice a "made with C2" logo at start ; )

----------- v dum dum dum, BREAKING NEWS! v ------------

Also, the game will be out in a [BOXED VERSION] (< remember those?) at the end of the month thanks to indiebox.com. The game will come will full manual in color, OST on CD, goodies, etc...

http://theindiebox.com/Penelope/?utm_co ... ign=buffer

It took me quite some time to find someone being ok to do this, so I couldn't be more excited by this : )

thanks for those infos .

i hope a big success of your game on steam

Re: EA success.

I only know of a few games that were a hit during EA in recent times: Neo Scavenger & Prison Architect. There's a bunch of others that were successful also but its true, its very rare these days given how much bad rep EA has got.

I've purchased TNP to support you, but I don't have much free time to play games these days. It's definitely on my big list of games to catch up on (Divinity, Dragon Age Inq are the big ones coming up next!).

I think TNP will do really well once its live-launched, so good luck and all the best!

Whoa, congrats on the Indie Box! That's awesome!

actually you have Positive (44) Négative (0) on steam, thats nice