Pixelnest - Steredenn Post-Mortem (Stunfest 2016)

Post-mortem of Steredenn, post-Steam and Xbox One releases.

By Matthieu Oger (@solarsailer - https://matthieuoger.com/) and Damien Mayance (@valryon - https://dmayance.com/), co-founders of Pixelnest Studio, during the Stunfest 2016 in Rennes.

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Version Française/French version:
https://speakerdeck.com/solarsailer/fr-pixelnest-steredenn-post-mortem-stunfest-2016

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Steredenn: http://steredenn.pixelnest.io/
Pixelnest: @pixelnest - http://pixelnest.io/

Transcript

1. “We craft games and apps”
   Pixelnest Studio
   

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2. NB: the game is still not dead, though.
   post-mortem
   Steredenn
   

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3. PIXELNEST
   STUDIO
   solarsailer.net & @solarsailer
   dmayance.com & @valryon
   MATTHIEU OGER
   DAMIEN MAYANCE
   

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4. BEFORE steredenn
   ¯\_(ϑ)_/¯
   "a bit of service, many prototypes, a ton of nothing"
   

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6. Steredenn
   roguelike/shmup
   space shooter
   35 weapons 30 environments
   4 modes
   25 upgrades 13 bosses
   400+ waves
   indie
   PC/Mac/Linux
   Xbox One
   PIXEL ART
   hell, it's hard!
   infiniTe
   METÄL
   

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7. WHY?
   We like shmups.
   (well, not THAT much)
   however, we had:
   created The Great Paper Adventure
   wrote Unity Tutorials
   made the Shmupfest
   sold BulletML for Unity
   Tech+Code+Know-How
   A solid game design
   Worst reason to make a video game?
   "And then, Simon draws space
   pirates in pixels like no one else."
   

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8. HOW Long?
   "Well, we'll need 3 months to make
   a mobile game ready for the summer."
   — strategic meeting at Pixelnest (i.e. Skype), May 2014
   (spoiler: the game will be released on October 1st, 2015 on PC/Mac/Linux )
   

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9. EXPECTATIONS REALITY
   vs
   

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10. WITH WHOM?
    Simon Coroller aka. Plus
    Pixels Shaper—the artist
    Etienne Marque
    Explosive Theatrical Experience—the sound designer
    Zander Noriega
    Heavy Riffs Maker—the musician
    Krokmou
    Destroyer
    Thanks to them
    but not him ➡
    

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11. MONEY
    Self-funded
    Our friend Paul
    Services
    

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12. SUCCESSES
    

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13. Unity
    Cross-platform
    Well, it's actually really cool
    It works pretty well
    Pre-Handle tons of work
    Many abstractions
    Not so ridiculous performances
    Relatively simple
    API &
    ECOSYSTEM
    Sprites, collisions, physic, etc.
    Loads of plugins
    

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14. Early access
    NO regret:
    IT WAS CLEARLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO
    Cash (nope)
    Quality & Polish
    Balance
    Content
    Community ❤
    We added many critical features
    Marketing & Communication
    

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15. Satisfaction
    Version 0.20+
    Content (waves, bosses, weapons, etc.)
    Design
    Loop & flow
    Upgrades
    New UI
    Stability
    With the 1.0.0, we had the feeling that
    the game was complete
    

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16. Satisfaction
    The feeling is here
    people say "it's addictive"
    

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17. plug in digital
    No, it's not an ad, we are truly satisfied.
    tranquility &
    help
    And they are nice people.
    (Even Olivier )
    Many resellers
    Console market more approachable
    Expert + Deals
    

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18. FAILURES
    

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19. Unity
    AWFUL user interface
    Click, click, click, click
    It's slow and crashes too often
    versioning
    
    console engines
    Sh**
    .
    What else…
    Messy documentation
    Unstable "final" versions
    Upgrading is imposed by consoles
    

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20. Supermassive?
    Or how to lose time and visibility
    

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21. Miscellaneous
    damien's internet connection
    planning
    (or the lack of)
    18 months instead of 5
    balance?
    we couldn't
    test it formally
    Matthieu "do something? do it again? nah, was better before".
    

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22. Revenue shares &
    contracts
    no experience + business = oh my
    

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23. usa &
    awards
    

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24. PLATFORMS
    & comm'
    

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25. pc/mac/linux release
    Shows? Way too expensive for what they brought.
    
    YouTube / Twitch So much mails
    (I mean, really)
    Tutorials Devblog
    Twitter Press Contacts Shows
    (Rezzed, Stunfest, TGS)
    Mailing list
    Steam Forums Interviews Facebook Reddit Ad
    Community TigSource
    (not involved enough)
    

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26. Xbox one release
    Contrary to the PC market:
    no idea about what we needed to do.
    Hopefully, requests came massively all by
    themselves after the announcement.
    

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27. Figures
    you only waited this long for that, didn't you?
    

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28. 90% Steam 15/20 JeuxVideo.com
    5/5 Extralife
    8/10 CanardPC
    8/10 Journal Du Gamer 8/10 Spaziogames
    80% IGN Spain
    80% Vandal online
    90% ICXM
    95% MODVIVE
    9/10 TechViewWorld
    9/10 EPicreviews 80% Irrompibles
    17/20 Consolefun
    

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29. and still no
    sales figure…
    6 000+ sprites
    6 903 commits
    64 releases
    (game & level editor)
    60 000+ LOC
    (Core & Ports)
    

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30. 15 000+ units
    Steam (with Early Access), Humble, Xbox One, itch.io & all.
    

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31. so?
    1st october
    Pc/mac/linux
    XBOx One 1st APril
    All combined, it's honorable
    Beta/Early Access: ~10% / 6 months
    Double release
    Highest during releases / sales
    Disappointing
    Not the correct audience for Steredenn
    Despite small catalog
    Game still very young on this platform
    

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32. what next?
    ps4
    and other platforms
    but ports are exhausting
    

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33. Conclusion
    All our excuses if you just said: "about time"
    

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34. making a video game is madness
    even if largely ignored by the US press and critics
    We are satisfied
    

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35. lol, we are making a new one
    

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36. thanks!
    PIXELNEST
    STUDIO
    

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37. Contact?
    pixelnest.io
    @pixelnest
    

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