Dream Build Winner blog - SmudgedCat

After reaching the top 20 of the Dream Build Play competition with Adventures of Shuggy back in 2007 (yes, 5 years ago) I've finally made it to the winner's podium with Gateways.  It made 3rd runner up in the competition, which is brilliant!  It's changed so much since the version I submitted, I just wonder how it would have gotten on had I submitted the version I've got now.  It's great to see it up there on the winner's page though!  With a bit of luck it should give it a boost when it launches on XBLIG on the 13th.

I know the winner's have "The chance" for an XBLA contract but given how things went with Shuggy I think I'll stick with my plan of releasing on XBLIG as part of the Indie Games Uprising.  I guess things might go more smoothly if I had Microsoft backing me this time but I'm not prepared to take the risk and the thought of going through XBox certification again fills me with dread.  The hassle of providing updates to the game worries me as well, like the recent Fez problems.  It's such a different experience releasing a game on the XBox compared to Steam.  On Steam, if someone reports a problem I can fix it and upload a patch within the hour!

Speaking of Steam, it was great to see Shuggy appearing as a Daily Deal last Sunday.  It provided a much needed boost to the game's sales and almost managed to double the lifetime revenue of the Shuggy on Steam.  It's great to think of all those people taking a punt on Shuggy and (hopefully) finding out what a great game it is.  Although I suspect a lot of people, like me, have a backlog of games they need to play and might not get round to it for quite some time!