Pixelnest - Steredenn Post-Mortem (Stunfest 2016)

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“We craft games and apps” Pixelnest Studio

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

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

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

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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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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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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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EXPECTATIONS REALITY vs

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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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MONEY Self-funded Our friend Paul Services

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SUCCESSES

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

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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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FAILURES

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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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Supermassive? Or how to lose time and visibility

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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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Revenue shares & contracts no experience + business = oh my

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usa & awards

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PLATFORMS & comm'

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

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

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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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what next? ps4 and other platforms but ports are exhausting

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

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