Congratulations on completing this project Ben :)! And with that great mindset I don't doubt you'll make a good living out of game creation at some point soon.
Here is how I see those numbers: you said you have 2000 followers and got almost 45% (~850) to download and play. You served around 800 impressions. Unless you have session data to counteract that, it means you are serving one ad per install - on the way out. Blink is a superbly crafted but boring and uninteresting game frankly. It doesn't have any hook at all. Before leader boards or anything else you need to add a hook or two. In other words: nobody cares yet about getting a high score in Blink, and serving two or three ads per install isn't the solution. Tech, presentation sound: 8/10 Fun: 2/10 I write this with the utmost respect. You are very talented. Need to add some flash and zing to the game. (I don't have any hook ideas, I'm a horrible designer)
I appreciate your constructive feedback! And I agree. It absolutely needs a hook. I think in my quest just to finish and release a game I “settled” a bit too much with a simple gameplay mechanic.
After having played it, I agree. I think it is a bit too simple. A couple of suggestions is that the visual feedback isn’t really there. I don’t really understand if i did it right or wrong and not sure how I die when not eaten. It might be night to have a trailing effect as well when dragging it. I think having good mastery is great. So maybe having more than one circle at a time and they disappear. Or having a color indicator to help players visually see when the right moment to let go is
@@DevDuck Its definitely simple but honestly its a complete game on par and above plenty of games from legitimate publishers. I think its great you settled because it meant you actually reached an end and have a quality polished product to look at, I've been doing game dev for about 3 years on and off and am yet to release anything on the stores. I even have a bachelors in game development. My biggest issue is not settling, I can program anything off the top of my head but when it comes to forming a whole project, I just can't seem to get there without losing motivation and starting a new project. Granted I think the biggest set back is not having art and how it is restricting my development based on art assets i can find, it looks like you already discovered how art can bring a project together and make it feel more complete than it is. Sadly I'm no artist but am slowly getting into it for the past month, I can already see myself feeling more comfortable in releasing something now because I can actually create a style, not just a bunch of cubes or mismatched asset store garbage. Hopefully I can find something interesting to create before the year ends!
I see this, too. I've been worried about this happening with my game, thinking about adding a bunch of gamemodes and stuff, but I think I've got a good thing going. Cool School will be out on the 31st, I will continue to add more content with time, and I think it has a lot of long-term playability. The next major update after launch will be the Christmas update.
@@DevDuck like Sergio said I think you need to add some flash and zing to the game, ironically thats what fireflies do.. just kidding. But you depended too much on the simplicity of the game and lost what the hook point would be along the way i definitely think what hooks you is something you learn/come up with along the way. Yes you can come up with the ideas after but you might need to change a lot about the game to get it right. Just my two cents. Also another cent is maybe focus on what the trials and tribulations of a firefly life is like... such as what its predator could be i.e. a frog... And that frog could represent a tongue trying to grab the firefly as it goes around lighting up the forest. and furthermore when the frog grabs the firefly it would light up the frogs body. etc etc. Little things like this would make the game more immersive... Wish i could code haha i would have endless ideas. But to keep it simple the game is nice just dont give up but learn from it and keep developing upon your game making skills dude. Creativity should be fun use that to think of a new hook point too. cheers for the video maybe one day when i decide to learn how to code ill make an indie game as an inspiration from you.
I've really enjoyed following your journey for this game and I have no doubt that you're going to be successful in the future! It was also very cool to hear that I was able to inspire you in some way ^^ I look forward to your next project!
Hey, cool to see you here! You are a great inspiration - not sure I’d even have a UA-cam channel without you! Thanks for the kind words. I’m equally excited for you next project 😄
@@DevDuck I agree with both of you! You've both been a huge inspiration with you Dev Logs! Can't wait to see the new projects in action! Also, it may not seem like a lot to you at the moment, but your UA-cam channel's growth will also be affected by the games you create! You do a great job so far but from watching ThinMatrix's series I can tell that the majority of viewers are other aspiring game designers who are looking to collect wisdom from those of you who are a bit further ahead in the game dev journey. Don't be afraid to give us a deeper look into ways you are solving difficult situations as it really makes us feel your journey that much more and it also lets us learn with you! Best of luck in the future, I'll be here for the ride! :)
Awesome! For some reason I haven’t seen your channel, but It’s very interesting and I’m now subscribing. I also work a fulltime job, but have since recently gone down to 80% which means one full day of gamedev, and of course several hours on late evenings. How many hours a week would you say you worked with blink for the 9 months? Also if you’d do it again, would you change something in the way you marketed the game? Or would you rather spend that time on making the game better? Thanks 😀
Don’t get down, the first game/ iteration is alway the hardest. I released a game called Glider Island VR a couple years ago. I made like 200$ the first month. After working on it for a year I started averaging 300$ a month on Steam. Then I put it on the Oculus and Viveport store. And I started selling licenses to arcades. I now average around 1000$/ month. But that’s after 2 years of working and tweaking the game.
So would you recommend to save your best idea for later, and work at another game first so you have experience to finally make the game you want to make, that is inside your head?
@@IroAppe Definetly dont do anything too big for your first project. Do something small and simple that you can get done relativly quickly and make all the mistakes before you make them in a big project.
@@IroAppe The key is just to get something done and shipped for people to play and test. Like this guy did here. That process makes you learn fast, and you learn what makes users attracted to your game and whats working and whats not. I meet many game devs who have created a ton of prototypes but never ship a product for other people to test and play. You will never make any money that way... quick iteration and user feedback is key...
@@joeysipos So true, I've probably spent 3000 hours developing games that will never see the light of day despite being mostly complete, it makes me a little sad to look back at it like that. I've had other successful endeavors not game related atleast... I definitely have learned a lot, and gained a tonne of skills in different areas, but that doesn't really matter because I have nothing to show for it. I cannot stress it enough if you haven't released a game before, get it out there as soon as you can, you WILL lose motivation, complete the core, worry about polish in the end. Don't make excuses like "at least I'm learning, the time isn't wasted either way" you will always be learning! I've been learning for 5 years and will continue to, I can do anything off the top of my head but still have not released a game. Part of it now is that my first game is going to have to be "amazing" because of this long lead up and my skill level, I'm trying to hold that mindset off and just get something simple out there before the year ends. Long iterations and early polish is a dangerous mindset, 500 hours of mine is probably polishing things before the core game play is even proven to be fun, its a waste and completely avoidable. *Be aware where every single hour goes on your games, track it, you'll be surprised how much the important things are neglected and not so important things suck up you time*
FreeSky 542 how much development experience did you have before making your game? I’m a web developer thinking about getting into it. Played games alllll my life
I'd say it's a huge success for a first game. Now that you've got these game dev skills, for your future games you can put more effort into things like creating more content (levels, game modes, world size, etc.) which will lead to more replayability and higher player retention.
The problem with most games is that they have ads showing while the game is on, or interrupt the game. The good games are the one that give you a choice to watch the ads in order to gain some rewards. The player is in full control of the game. And if the rewards are big and fun and most importantly needed for the game they will surely watch the ads. Is very difficult to balance this but most developers just throw random ads at N minutes and that's for sure annoying and a quick uninstall.
I really appreciate these videos. You always have a calm and constructive viewpoint and it’s really inspiring to see your progress with your projects. Thank you for being so genuine- it’s wonderful.
I have no doubt in my mind we'll all be re-watching this video in a few years just to be like "I was there!" during these humble beginnings. Love your attitude and honesty with this process/the results, man! Let this fuel you. Can't wait to see what you got up your sleeve next 🙌
i haven’t even started learning to code, because in truth actually starting gamedev scares me. i’m more of an artist than a programmer. i’m glad channels like this exist because it makes me feel less scared of dipping my toes in the water. thank you for your documentation! hopefully this game and your future projects will help boost your career further :)
You don't really need to learn coding buddy you can make a pretty nice indie game pretty fast just using unreal engine or unity these great softwares are free and take away the hastle of needing to code and it's a lot easier to pick up and learn than coding but that's just my personal opinion you don't need to take it but at least try it out also unity is more for indie games unreal is more for high end games like first person or third person games
I'm neither an artist nor a programmer, and even i got my little prototype finished after six months working on it beside my job. So don't let yourself be held back by irrational fears, dude!
Thanks for your super open video! On the ad topic... I released a game where you only had the option to play an ad at the end of a level. If you did, you would get an in app currency. This worked really well because I didn’t force any ads on anyone, rather, they wanted to play the ads for the currency.
I am in the exact same position as you. I made a rather simple game and released it to stop making half projects. And ow man I learned so much. But I spent over 200 euros on ads and made a total of 0.04 euros. I mean, would have been nice to have made more, but the amount you learn to stay true to a single project to the end is simply priceless.. Keep it up!
Congrats on finishing your project! Wouldn’t have found your channel except UA-cam finally recommended it to me. I’m also a moonlighting gamedev with a FW engineering job + a family to boot so I can relate to the struggle to find time for everything. Subscribed.
Congratulations Ben - you should be super proud of yourself! Not only have you released your first game, but also simultaneously built a UA-cam audience that cares about you and your work. Looking forward to hearing what's next.
Indie games like yours with ads are no problem to me because I know the struggle and honestly, I can see the intentions of the developer which are understandle. "Mobile triple A games" (if that's even a thing) which generate thousands of dollars through in-app purchases every day and that are STILL loaded with in game ads really deter me from continuing to play it
Congratulations on your project! This last week my mindset has really changed and I started giving game dev a really good try. Being patient and taking my time to learn unity's pipeline and all the features. I have seen many inspiring videos, and in one of those I heard a phrase that really touched me: "You are all full of great dreams and ideas, so stop dreaming. Go work on them, it won't be easy, but in the right time, you'll be there". My advice for anyone reading this that also dreams on making games is to start learning dumb stuff just to get used to your engine. Take a default scene and try to add something to it. You'll start learning a lot and having new and simpler ideas
I really enjoy following your journey in gamedev, especially since I am also beginning to do the same, taking a long path towards making games and learning with each new experience. Your videos are motivational and helpful. Keep up the amazing work! Look forward to your next project.
Congrats once again! I loved the GDC talk and that’s exactly the route you should keep on. Blink may still make plenty of cash just slowly and surely. Not to mention, something you did which gives you an advantage is this UA-cam channel with loads of support. I think a little bit of forced ads aren’t too bad, but maybe it could still give the player a bonus. Either way, your game is incredibly enjoyable and any love and updates to it would be a pleasant surprise. Good luck Ben!
I have a started game project that I started like a year ago, but I was pretty frustated so I abandoned it. This videos makes me wanna continue the game. Congrats on your work and thanks for the motivation!!
I like your optimism! :) Success means different things for each one of us, and you'll be good as long as you meet your own goals, not someone else's. Wish you best of luck! :)
Great video, and thanks for sharing! You should be proud of what you accomplished. Yeah obviously we are all gonna be hard on yourself, but you're almost at 1000 players which is awesome! And I watched that GDC talk a while back and I totally agree! Just keep making games and improving, and eventually you can have a collection which can sustain you. Can't wait to see the next project!
Great job - thank you for sharing. I think keeping games relevant and updating them is important. For an existing player it means that the games are up to date and they'll see active development which goes a long way for trust and fixing bugs etc. For a new player it means they'll pick up straightaway and have all of the benefit.
Hey DevDuck, just discovered your channel yesterday and started watching a few videos. Thank you so much for sharing your story and insights, especially being so open, honest and sometimes a little bit blunt about your indie game dev journey - while also always staying positive. It's easy to have this negative sarcasm about the realities of creative industries and especially game development, so keeping a positive lookout (without being naive about it) is a very healthy attitude in my book and great to see it shared.
You said at the time I had 2k subs I checked and now its almost 35k. I have to say your video qualities and consistant improving soon its gonna me 350k and more !! My best of wishes :)
Thanks for sharing the info dude. I gave up on casual mobile games some time ago after similar results and time spent. And after working for some time at a mobile game dev studio; I know exactly how much was needed in advertising costs to keep a game sitting out of the trench. Wishing you the very best on this and future projects!
Honestly doing this whilst having a full-time job is really impressive! The last thing I would want to do when I came home (when I worked in the game industry) was to write another line of code :p
as an aspiring indie game dev im enjoying following your journey, also you cant put a price on learning. Everything you taught yourself is invaluable and will be your fuel that ignites the success very excited to see where you go.
Thanks for sharing! One thing I found useful to improve the impressions was to give the player the chance to watch an ad for a reward. How you set this up really depends on your game systems but how I did it in my mobile game was: You could watch an ad once a day to double your points in-game. I feel like 30 sec is a small price to pay for daily players that want to get the most out of your game and it guarantees an impression from those players daily. Keep up the great work and nice structure in your videos! Cheers :)
When I developed Palindraw I opted for an interstitial ad after every 10 levels. This results in ads being more frequent earlier on but then far less often with the more challenging levels. The easy levels may take less than a minute and the hardest can take 10 to 15 minutes. I consider it a reward for users who stick around that long.
Hey, I played your game and I think, even though is fun for a while, it can get boring very fast. One thing that can be very helpful is adding more game modes or others features that will allow the player to have different experiences over time! One thing I think it would be cool would be a hardcore level, with the circle speed faster, maybe small circles and more enemies. Another thing could be a crazy mode, or random mode, where you have different shapes to fill, like squares, rectangles, maybe triangles, and you also play with a random skin. Anyway that’s just some ideas, hope you liked and if you want I can create some other ideas to see if you like
2 ways I can think off to increase your add revenue: 1: Add a Support us by watching an add button on the main menu. 2: "Monetize" some of your extras. For example, to unlock the grasshopper you'll need 50 game currency(Let's call it pollen for… reasons.) By watching an add, you get 2-3-4-whatever pollen. You could also add more ways to earn pollen. Like after a certain amount of stages you get pollen. Once you lose, the player has the option to watch an add to double his pollen. Mad respects to you for prioritizing your players, but a guy has to eat too.
I’m proud of you man. I’ve been doing Unity for fun for a few years and haven’t released anything! That being said I feel I’ve learned a lot with what I have done, as I’m sure you have! Also, found that GDC talk interesting when I watched it a while back. You don’t have to have mega hits to make it.
Hey dev you achieved the number one goal as a developer and thats to complete the game and then publish it. It takes some luck for your first game to be a hit whatever that is. You should be thinking about producing your best work around the third game as the second game is just learning lessons from the first but if you learn those lessons enough and significantly improve the visuals and playability then who knows. Great job keep up the good work you certainly inspired me!
What a decent workplace you have. I am a solo developer too, but my desk it just a mess. Here and there some papers, nail clipper, some pop-up figures and dust. To much dust perhaps, but I can live with it :P So good job on keeping it clean :D
Loving your content! You’re in the 1% who actually released a game, so in my book it’s a total success any way you look at it. Good luck with your next project, will be on the lookout for new videos ✨
Regarding ads, what I did in my older games was limiting them by time, not the number of deaths. This way if someone is super bad (and already frustrated that he's loosing) he won't be frustrated even more by ads showing up all the time. From what I remember I showed an ad after death if it wasn't shown for the last 5 minutes.
That's a good approach, and I tried to do something similar. In Blink, a "death" only "counts" towards an ad if you reached a certain score. That way if you're really struggling you won't see an ad.
Hi, I just have to say as someone who has been playing around with video game design for quite some time, this video was really inspirational. Yes, blink is not the deepest game on the market, but you took it from start to finish and can say you have a shipped game. To me, frankly amazing. You should be extremely proud of those 17 bucks 😁
This whole time I've been watching your devlogs I've thought game looked pretty easy but now that I'm playing it, it's HARD!! Well done man, I'm determined to get good at this haha. Considering you started this with the sole intent of finishing a project I'd say this was an incredible success. You built a substantial audience and you inspired many people (including me) to work on our own projects! You showed us an authentic, balanced and consistent way of completing the seemingly impossible - finishing a game from start to finish. So major thanks to you, and kudos, and congratulations :) Excited to see what comes next!
Hey Julia, thanks so much! I had a great time working on this project, and I’m so stoked it’s inspired so many people. Next step is to do it all over again and build something bigger...excited but nervous haha. As always, thanks for the support 😄
I look forward to be a game developer. I am currently a french student in computer science and app development. So next to my studies i am watching all the videos of thin matrix and I had yours in my recommendations so I watched too and I really like what you are doing. You, thin matrix and the others are already inspiring me so I wanna thank you for your job and hope the best for you all ! 🤩
hey man loved the video im also interested in starting to dev my own games as well. Wish you all the best and will be following along on your journey !!
Congratulations on the release, super inspirational! 🎉 Feel with you on the economic side of this, it's though business. But for any type of business, it often takes many years before they start turning a profit. We're in here for the long run, and love your mentality on that! (Also remember watching that GDC talk, top quality stuff!)
I would personally do it less often than every 3 rounds, however, it is a mobile game, I think most people sort of expect to be annoyed by ads at this point. The people who are really going to get annoyed by ads are probably already staying away from the mobile genre completely and only going there for the bigger titles.
I'm really enjoying your channel. I'm dipping my toes into the waters of indie game design myself. With regards to ads personally, if the game is interesting enough yo make me want to keep playing it I'll pay $0.99 to remove ads. I think with Blink, once players have unlocked everything there's no real incentive to keep playing.
You're now where I want to be in a year from here, I'm studying and working also, but what If we could live from what we enjoy the most. Time to play games is over (kinda), time to make games is here, even if they're not "hits" :D Nice video! Congratulations!
Amazing video, is nice to see your thought process. Also from a development point of view, this was your first project so much to make from scratch, even if your code wasn't perfectly modular, even doing a copy paste and adapt it to the new project is going to save you tons of time, plus of course the know how! I never made a game, I like to make game engines, and my first gl engine took me forever to make anything on screen, then when I started learning dx11 and make a new engine I went so much faster, due to combination of experience and re-using part of the code etc. So best of luck!
as far as ads go, personally, I will pay a buck or so in a heart beat to get rid of ads for a game I'm enjoying! I just stumbled across your videos on my journey of finding motivation and tips to actually START on my first game. I've probably spent hundreds of hours reading, watching, and learning things. But I'm still too nervous to start it. Because I know once I do, there's no turning back for me, and I guess I'm afraid of failure haha. That aside, I will definitely be downloading your game to check out! Looks like fun and my kind of game to pass the time!
Yep, doesn't necessarily make it a bad game tho, just not as good as it could have been with a little more planning at the outset AND a realistic scope (trying to do something Open World like Fallout 4 for a 1st game wasn't a good idea for me lol), been there done that!!! :o)
I'm a pretty random viewer of yours(accidentally seen your video in youtube suggestions), but just wanted to say thank you for your effort. A lot of your thoughts about game dev seems a little bit naive from my point of view(as a game developer with more than 10 years of experience I know exactly how game companies earn their moneys and sometimes it could be a dirty business :P), but I really love what are you doing! Looking at your motivation, how passionate you are really helps me not to forget that making games is super cool! Keep it up and I'm sure your best game is to come ;)
I usually just close the game when it makes me watch too much ads just for playing again and desinstall. I would rather choose to watch ads to win something, that way I feel rewarded for watching the ad and not that the ad is something ruining my experience. Altough, for this game there's not much too reward the player with...
There's always this thin line between showing ads and making the player frustrated. I consider interstitial ads annoying and as a momentum breaker, however in-game banners (if the banner positioning goes well with screen content) and reward videos just works fine.
Every game makes you a better Developer! Everytime when working on a new one you will definelty want to make changes to all previously released games. Because of new knowledge and beter ideas. Keep it up!
Quick note on the Unity Ads, it's based on CPI, Cost Per Install, not CPM, Cost Per Mile (shown). Basically if an ad is shown that doesn't generate any money for you. Only when a user is shown an ad, clicks on it, downloads the game and starts it will it trigger the system to give you the reward. From what you've shown in the dashboard my guess is that you had 1 or maybe 2 people watch an ad and install the game that was shown in that ad. Also the attribution can be delayed by about 30 days before it's reflected in the dashboard (e.g. a user goes through the whole process of installing the game being advertised but doesn't open it until 30 days later for whatever reason). Hope this helps a bit :)
This was not a bad game at all. I like my games to be beautiful and blink is surely very satisfying in appearance. However, hardly can I feel it is a serious game as well. Here what I think could be improved: 1) No stat of bugs, no coins. I think "keep the bug alive" and "make more money to unlock things" would be motivating. 2) Cannot pause or stop the game and return to the main menu in the middle of the game/tutorial. 3) The transition between the scenes is a bit awkward, the blackout of the screen makes me feel my phone is going to sleep. 4) If there are skills to unlock, it would make me addicted. I just began using unity yesterday (I am not a CS student), and I love to see how people construct small games and improve game's functionality over time. I hope you success in the future!
Jake's comments on the long tail are so important. Far too many indie Devs out out a game, then sit back and leave it. I update my games regularly and it definitely helps with both downloads and review scores.
You shipped a game! That's a huge win! 💪👍😊 I think you are right about the ads - they have to be more frequent to drive in app purchases. Also I would play with some additional IAP to drive purchase of the basic one. 0.99 - get rid of ads 2.99 - get rid of ads and get dev duck. Having the dev duck gives you some cool feature like faster bonuses? This will give players three choices instead of just two. Maybe also consider a Patreon to allow people to support DevDuck games on a subscription. Finally, I agree about Jake Burkett!
I like the idea of putting ads on the 3rd click of play again and adding the leaderboard. I think most people would ignore the ads or pay the dollar to remove it rather than delete it, especially with a leaderboard to motivate long term playing
Congratulations on completing this project Ben :)! And with that great mindset I don't doubt you'll make a good living out of game creation at some point soon.
Hey Noa! Thanks for both the inspiration and kind words. Can’t wait to keep making games and see where it takes me!
Hey Noah! Let's hope dreadful whispers makes more than 17 $ huh?😉
omg!! Blackthornprod is here too, i love your art!
Noa man you are everywhere
Here is how I see those numbers: you said you have 2000 followers and got almost 45% (~850) to download and play.
You served around 800 impressions. Unless you have session data to counteract that, it means you are serving one ad per install - on the way out.
Blink is a superbly crafted but boring and uninteresting game frankly. It doesn't have any hook at all.
Before leader boards or anything else you need to add a hook or two.
In other words: nobody cares yet about getting a high score in Blink, and serving two or three ads per install isn't the solution.
Tech, presentation sound: 8/10
Fun: 2/10
I write this with the utmost respect. You are very talented. Need to add some flash and zing to the game.
(I don't have any hook ideas, I'm a horrible designer)
I appreciate your constructive feedback! And I agree. It absolutely needs a hook. I think in my quest just to finish and release a game I “settled” a bit too much with a simple gameplay mechanic.
After having played it, I agree. I think it is a bit too simple. A couple of suggestions is that the visual feedback isn’t really there. I don’t really understand if i did it right or wrong and not sure how I die when not eaten. It might be night to have a trailing effect as well when dragging it. I think having good mastery is great. So maybe having more than one circle at a time and they disappear. Or having a color indicator to help players visually see when the right moment to let go is
@@DevDuck Its definitely simple but honestly its a complete game on par and above plenty of games from legitimate publishers. I think its great you settled because it meant you actually reached an end and have a quality polished product to look at, I've been doing game dev for about 3 years on and off and am yet to release anything on the stores. I even have a bachelors in game development. My biggest issue is not settling, I can program anything off the top of my head but when it comes to forming a whole project, I just can't seem to get there without losing motivation and starting a new project. Granted I think the biggest set back is not having art and how it is restricting my development based on art assets i can find, it looks like you already discovered how art can bring a project together and make it feel more complete than it is. Sadly I'm no artist but am slowly getting into it for the past month, I can already see myself feeling more comfortable in releasing something now because I can actually create a style, not just a bunch of cubes or mismatched asset store garbage. Hopefully I can find something interesting to create before the year ends!
I see this, too. I've been worried about this happening with my game, thinking about adding a bunch of gamemodes and stuff, but I think I've got a good thing going. Cool School will be out on the 31st, I will continue to add more content with time, and I think it has a lot of long-term playability.
The next major update after launch will be the Christmas update.
@@DevDuck like Sergio said I think you need to add some flash and zing to the game, ironically thats what fireflies do.. just kidding. But you depended too much on the simplicity of the game and lost what the hook point would be along the way i definitely think what hooks you is something you learn/come up with along the way. Yes you can come up with the ideas after but you might need to change a lot about the game to get it right. Just my two cents. Also another cent is maybe focus on what the trials and tribulations of a firefly life is like... such as what its predator could be i.e. a frog... And that frog could represent a tongue trying to grab the firefly as it goes around lighting up the forest. and furthermore when the frog grabs the firefly it would light up the frogs body. etc etc. Little things like this would make the game more immersive... Wish i could code haha i would have endless ideas. But to keep it simple the game is nice just dont give up but learn from it and keep developing upon your game making skills dude. Creativity should be fun use that to think of a new hook point too. cheers for the video maybe one day when i decide to learn how to code ill make an indie game as an inspiration from you.
I've really enjoyed following your journey for this game and I have no doubt that you're going to be successful in the future! It was also very cool to hear that I was able to inspire you in some way ^^
I look forward to your next project!
Hey, cool to see you here! You are a great inspiration - not sure I’d even have a UA-cam channel without you! Thanks for the kind words. I’m equally excited for you next project 😄
@@DevDuck I agree with both of you! You've both been a huge inspiration with you Dev Logs! Can't wait to see the new projects in action! Also, it may not seem like a lot to you at the moment, but your UA-cam channel's growth will also be affected by the games you create! You do a great job so far but from watching ThinMatrix's series I can tell that the majority of viewers are other aspiring game designers who are looking to collect wisdom from those of you who are a bit further ahead in the game dev journey. Don't be afraid to give us a deeper look into ways you are solving difficult situations as it really makes us feel your journey that much more and it also lets us learn with you! Best of luck in the future, I'll be here for the ride! :)
Awesome! For some reason I haven’t seen your channel, but It’s very interesting and I’m now subscribing.
I also work a fulltime job, but have since recently gone down to 80% which means one full day of gamedev, and of course several hours on late evenings.
How many hours a week would you say you worked with blink for the 9 months?
Also if you’d do it again, would you change something in the way you marketed the game? Or would you rather spend that time on making the game better?
Thanks 😀
Don’t get down, the first game/ iteration is alway the hardest. I released a game called Glider Island VR a couple years ago. I made like 200$ the first month. After working on it for a year I started averaging 300$ a month on Steam. Then I put it on the Oculus and Viveport store. And I started selling licenses to arcades. I now average around 1000$/ month. But that’s after 2 years of working and tweaking the game.
So would you recommend to save your best idea for later, and work at another game first so you have experience to finally make the game you want to make, that is inside your head?
@@IroAppe Definetly dont do anything too big for your first project. Do something small and simple that you can get done relativly quickly and make all the mistakes before you make them in a big project.
@@IroAppe The key is just to get something done and shipped for people to play and test. Like this guy did here. That process makes you learn fast, and you learn what makes users attracted to your game and whats working and whats not. I meet many game devs who have created a ton of prototypes but never ship a product for other people to test and play. You will never make any money that way... quick iteration and user feedback is key...
@@joeysipos So true, I've probably spent 3000 hours developing games that will never see the light of day despite being mostly complete, it makes me a little sad to look back at it like that. I've had other successful endeavors not game related atleast... I definitely have learned a lot, and gained a tonne of skills in different areas, but that doesn't really matter because I have nothing to show for it. I cannot stress it enough if you haven't released a game before, get it out there as soon as you can, you WILL lose motivation, complete the core, worry about polish in the end. Don't make excuses like "at least I'm learning, the time isn't wasted either way" you will always be learning! I've been learning for 5 years and will continue to, I can do anything off the top of my head but still have not released a game. Part of it now is that my first game is going to have to be "amazing" because of this long lead up and my skill level, I'm trying to hold that mindset off and just get something simple out there before the year ends. Long iterations and early polish is a dangerous mindset, 500 hours of mine is probably polishing things before the core game play is even proven to be fun, its a waste and completely avoidable. *Be aware where every single hour goes on your games, track it, you'll be surprised how much the important things are neglected and not so important things suck up you time*
FreeSky 542 how much development experience did you have before making your game? I’m a web developer thinking about getting into it. Played games alllll my life
I'd say it's a huge success for a first game. Now that you've got these game dev skills, for your future games you can put more effort into things like creating more content (levels, game modes, world size, etc.) which will lead to more replayability and higher player retention.
Absolutely! Really looking forward to the next game for exactly this reason.
Based on my experience, more ads won’t make your player pay the 99¢, they would more likely uninstall.
oynozan Player, chances are it could work but for me and everyone I know it holds true.
@@SeasonedKale for you and those you know
The problem with most games is that they have ads showing while the game is on, or interrupt the game. The good games are the one that give you a choice to watch the ads in order to gain some rewards. The player is in full control of the game. And if the rewards are big and fun and most importantly needed for the game they will surely watch the ads. Is very difficult to balance this but most developers just throw random ads at N minutes and that's for sure annoying and a quick uninstall.
I really like your story, as well as the story about those 11 years of failure, which could somehow lead to a successful story.
That's basically Scott Cawthon's story!
Did u make the game once and upload it on google play and app store ??
And can i make my games once publish for both
I really appreciate these videos. You always have a calm and constructive viewpoint and it’s really inspiring to see your progress with your projects. Thank you for being so genuine- it’s wonderful.
I have no doubt in my mind we'll all be re-watching this video in a few years just to be like "I was there!" during these humble beginnings. Love your attitude and honesty with this process/the results, man! Let this fuel you. Can't wait to see what you got up your sleeve next 🙌
Hey Evan, thanks so much for the kind words! Can't wait to see where all of this takes me.
i haven’t even started learning to code, because in truth actually starting gamedev scares me. i’m more of an artist than a programmer. i’m glad channels like this exist because it makes me feel less scared of dipping my toes in the water. thank you for your documentation! hopefully this game and your future projects will help boost your career further :)
If I can learn pixel art, you can learn to code! 😄 I say hit some Unity tutorials and dive right in! Thanks for the kind words.
Do you have a portfolio site?
Actually being good at arts is more important than being good at programming. That's my opinion at least.
You don't really need to learn coding buddy you can make a pretty nice indie game pretty fast just using unreal engine or unity these great softwares are free and take away the hastle of needing to code and it's a lot easier to pick up and learn than coding but that's just my personal opinion you don't need to take it but at least try it out also unity is more for indie games unreal is more for high end games like first person or third person games
I'm neither an artist nor a programmer, and even i got my little prototype finished after six months working on it beside my job. So don't let yourself be held back by irrational fears, dude!
Thanks for your super open video!
On the ad topic...
I released a game where you only had the option to play an ad at the end of a level. If you did, you would get an in app currency. This worked really well because I didn’t force any ads on anyone, rather, they wanted to play the ads for the currency.
Started Unity game development 3 months ago. This channel is very interesting and full of useful info. Thank you for sharing your journey! Subscribed.
Keep following your passion and enjoying what u do, infact the enjoyment and the satisfaction should also be counted as in your revenu. Best luck.
Thanks for all the honesty! Keep on keeping on! Cheers from Chile!
I am in the exact same position as you. I made a rather simple game and released it to stop making half projects. And ow man I learned so much. But I spent over 200 euros on ads and made a total of 0.04 euros. I mean, would have been nice to have made more, but the amount you learn to stay true to a single project to the end is simply priceless.. Keep it up!
Great work on your project. Looking forward to more games from you. Your video inspired me to get back to game development. I wish you all the best.
Congrats on finishing your project! Wouldn’t have found your channel except UA-cam finally recommended it to me. I’m also a moonlighting gamedev with a FW engineering job + a family to boot so I can relate to the struggle to find time for everything. Subscribed.
Thanks Chad!
Congratulations Ben - you should be super proud of yourself! Not only have you released your first game, but also simultaneously built a UA-cam audience that cares about you and your work. Looking forward to hearing what's next.
Indie games like yours with ads are no problem to me because I know the struggle and honestly, I can see the intentions of the developer which are understandle.
"Mobile triple A games" (if that's even a thing) which generate thousands of dollars through in-app purchases every day and that are STILL loaded with in game ads really deter me from continuing to play it
Congratulations on your project! This last week my mindset has really changed and I started giving game dev a really good try. Being patient and taking my time to learn unity's pipeline and all the features. I have seen many inspiring videos, and in one of those I heard a phrase that really touched me: "You are all full of great dreams and ideas, so stop dreaming. Go work on them, it won't be easy, but in the right time, you'll be there". My advice for anyone reading this that also dreams on making games is to start learning dumb stuff just to get used to your engine. Take a default scene and try to add something to it. You'll start learning a lot and having new and simpler ideas
Hey Ben, honestly your game looks great, the art is so effective, congrats and keep it up, you're an inspiration to newby game devs thats for sure!!🧸
Thank you for sharing your journey. Building an app is an emotional roller coaster, but it's totally worth it in the long run.
I really enjoy following your journey in gamedev, especially since I am also beginning to do the same, taking a long path towards making games and learning with each new experience. Your videos are motivational and helpful. Keep up the amazing work! Look forward to your next project.
You're super awesome dude! and your ability to assess what you got out of the project is super inspiring :)
You're so awesome man, I appreciate your healthy mind set.
Congrats once again! I loved the GDC talk and that’s exactly the route you should keep on. Blink may still make plenty of cash just slowly and surely. Not to mention, something you did which gives you an advantage is this UA-cam channel with loads of support.
I think a little bit of forced ads aren’t too bad, but maybe it could still give the player a bonus. Either way, your game is incredibly enjoyable and any love and updates to it would be a pleasant surprise. Good luck Ben!
Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement! Excited to see where this journey takes me.
If you keep the video’s up, YT will start paying off as well ;) See this as a learning experience and a good start for your portfolio.
Will do! I’ve learned so much from Blink that I can’t wait to apply towards my next project. Thanks Nick!
DevDuck and I’ll be here to follow along and help where I can :)
Dudeee this talk was awesome!! So cool to jump back in time and see the progress :)
Congrats on the release! Great video, thanks for posting.
I have a started game project that I started like a year ago, but I was pretty frustated so I abandoned it. This videos makes me wanna continue the game. Congrats on your work and thanks for the motivation!!
What is the game about?
@@viligor1484 It's an endless runner mobile game
Roger Beltran if it’s interesting I’d play it! Go for it
Thanks for linking your Equipment, i fell in love with that keyboard. Nice video !
Awesome video , Congratulations on releasing your game. Really loved the breakdown of the post launch stats. All the best in the future.
I like your optimism! :) Success means different things for each one of us, and you'll be good as long as you meet your own goals, not someone else's. Wish you best of luck! :)
Thank you! Appreciate the support :D
Great video, and thanks for sharing! You should be proud of what you accomplished. Yeah obviously we are all gonna be hard on yourself, but you're almost at 1000 players which is awesome! And I watched that GDC talk a while back and I totally agree! Just keep making games and improving, and eventually you can have a collection which can sustain you. Can't wait to see the next project!
I just want you to know that you did, indeed, inspire watchers to get started with game dev. Thanks! I love this hobby.
Great job - thank you for sharing.
I think keeping games relevant and updating them is important. For an existing player it means that the games are up to date and they'll see active development which goes a long way for trust and fixing bugs etc. For a new player it means they'll pick up straightaway and have all of the benefit.
Honestly for the ads i would say you can play again around 5 times and then get an ad on the 6th
Very informative content. Looking forward to watching more.
Congrats on the first game man! And don't get discouraged by the numbers.. with time and more experience things will only go upwards :) Good luck!
I’m working on my first game. These videos give me the impetus to keep going!
All the best. Love your frankness. Take care.
Hey DevDuck, just discovered your channel yesterday and started watching a few videos. Thank you so much for sharing your story and insights, especially being so open, honest and sometimes a little bit blunt about your indie game dev journey - while also always staying positive.
It's easy to have this negative sarcasm about the realities of creative industries and especially game development, so keeping a positive lookout (without being naive about it) is a very healthy attitude in my book and great to see it shared.
You said at the time I had 2k subs I checked and now its almost 35k. I have to say your video qualities and consistant improving soon its gonna me 350k and more !! My best of wishes :)
Thanks for sharing the info dude. I gave up on casual mobile games some time ago after similar results and time spent. And after working for some time at a mobile game dev studio; I know exactly how much was needed in advertising costs to keep a game sitting out of the trench.
Wishing you the very best on this and future projects!
That's interesting to hear. I'm still doing a lot of thinking on mobile vs PC game development for the long term. Thanks for sharing!
Honestly doing this whilst having a full-time job is really impressive!
The last thing I would want to do when I came home (when I worked in the game industry) was to write another line of code :p
You're up to a great start. Keep it up! :)
Hey Jonas! Thanks a bunch :D
not a game developer but working on a teaching project which will use game dev. Loved the video, subscribed.
you should also factor in that this was a learning project. you will be faster and better the next time and that will be recognized. keep it up!
Thanks Ben for sharing numbers. I am going to release my first game on playstore soon . Hope my numbers will be good .
as an aspiring indie game dev im enjoying following your journey, also you cant put a price on learning. Everything you taught yourself is invaluable and will be your fuel that ignites the success very excited to see where you go.
Thanks for sharing! One thing I found useful to improve the impressions was to give the player the chance to watch an ad for a reward. How you set this up really depends on your game systems but how I did it in my mobile game was: You could watch an ad once a day to double your points in-game. I feel like 30 sec is a small price to pay for daily players that want to get the most out of your game and it guarantees an impression from those players daily. Keep up the great work and nice structure in your videos! Cheers :)
When I developed Palindraw I opted for an interstitial ad after every 10 levels. This results in ads being more frequent earlier on but then far less often with the more challenging levels. The easy levels may take less than a minute and the hardest can take 10 to 15 minutes. I consider it a reward for users who stick around that long.
I like your optimism, you go dude!
Hey, I played your game and I think, even though is fun for a while, it can get boring very fast. One thing that can be very helpful is adding more game modes or others features that will allow the player to have different experiences over time!
One thing I think it would be cool would be a hardcore level, with the circle speed faster, maybe small circles and more enemies. Another thing could be a crazy mode, or random mode, where you have different shapes to fill, like squares, rectangles, maybe triangles, and you also play with a random skin.
Anyway that’s just some ideas, hope you liked and if you want I can create some other ideas to see if you like
Love your honesty. Keep at it
2 ways I can think off to increase your add revenue:
1: Add a Support us by watching an add button on the main menu.
2: "Monetize" some of your extras. For example, to unlock the grasshopper you'll need 50 game currency(Let's call it pollen for… reasons.)
By watching an add, you get 2-3-4-whatever pollen. You could also add more ways to earn pollen. Like after a certain amount of stages you get pollen. Once you lose, the player has the option to watch an add to double his pollen.
Mad respects to you for prioritizing your players, but a guy has to eat too.
I’m proud of you man. I’ve been doing Unity for fun for a few years and haven’t released anything! That being said I feel I’ve learned a lot with what I have done, as I’m sure you have! Also, found that GDC talk interesting when I watched it a while back. You don’t have to have mega hits to make it.
Hey dev you achieved the number one goal as a developer and thats to complete the game and then publish it. It takes some luck for your first game to be a hit whatever that is. You should be thinking about producing your best work around the third game as the second game is just learning lessons from the first but if you learn those lessons enough and significantly improve the visuals and playability then who knows. Great job keep up the good work you certainly inspired me!
Thanks for recommending the GDC Talk. I'm not really a game developer but I found it very useful :D
thank you, your video keep me going on my project
congratulation bro. your game improve so fast :D hope it success.
Thank you!
For me that's massive revenue! Good work.
Keep it up. You gonna make it man.
What a decent workplace you have. I am a solo developer too, but my desk it just a mess. Here and there some papers, nail clipper, some pop-up figures and dust. To much dust perhaps, but I can live with it :P
So good job on keeping it clean :D
Loving your content! You’re in the 1% who actually released a game, so in my book it’s a total success any way you look at it.
Good luck with your next project, will be on the lookout for new videos ✨
Thanks for making this video Ben :)
Regarding ads, what I did in my older games was limiting them by time, not the number of deaths. This way if someone is super bad (and already frustrated that he's loosing) he won't be frustrated even more by ads showing up all the time. From what I remember I showed an ad after death if it wasn't shown for the last 5 minutes.
That's a good approach, and I tried to do something similar. In Blink, a "death" only "counts" towards an ad if you reached a certain score. That way if you're really struggling you won't see an ad.
Hi, I just have to say as someone who has been playing around with video game design for quite some time, this video was really inspirational. Yes, blink is not the deepest game on the market, but you took it from start to finish and can say you have a shipped game. To me, frankly amazing. You should be extremely proud of those 17 bucks 😁
This whole time I've been watching your devlogs I've thought game looked pretty easy but now that I'm playing it, it's HARD!! Well done man, I'm determined to get good at this haha. Considering you started this with the sole intent of finishing a project I'd say this was an incredible success. You built a substantial audience and you inspired many people (including me) to work on our own projects! You showed us an authentic, balanced and consistent way of completing the seemingly impossible - finishing a game from start to finish. So major thanks to you, and kudos, and congratulations :) Excited to see what comes next!
Hey Julia, thanks so much! I had a great time working on this project, and I’m so stoked it’s inspired so many people. Next step is to do it all over again and build something bigger...excited but nervous haha. As always, thanks for the support 😄
I look forward to be a game developer. I am currently a french student in computer science and app development. So next to my studies i am watching all the videos of thin matrix and I had yours in my recommendations so I watched too and I really like what you are doing. You, thin matrix and the others are already inspiring me so I wanna thank you for your job and hope the best for you all ! 🤩
I think you are on a good way !
Just dont give up :)
i just love your videos you also inspired me to release my first android game on google play
That’s awesome! Congrats!
hey man loved the video im also interested in starting to dev my own games as well. Wish you all the best and will be following along on your journey !!
Thanks for the kind words! Best of luck in your journey!
Late to the party but congrats and great work :) I've been following your current project and have been loving it!
Congratulations on the release, super inspirational! 🎉 Feel with you on the economic side of this, it's though business. But for any type of business, it often takes many years before they start turning a profit. We're in here for the long run, and love your mentality on that! (Also remember watching that GDC talk, top quality stuff!)
Great video. Also, congrats on the success!! Gotta start somewhere! Hopefully adding the leaderboard helps.
Thank you for the video mate! Good luck! :)
That was the best cliffhanger and let down I've ever had. I truly felt Mario dying.
I would personally do it less often than every 3 rounds, however, it is a mobile game, I think most people sort of expect to be annoyed by ads at this point. The people who are really going to get annoyed by ads are probably already staying away from the mobile genre completely and only going there for the bigger titles.
i love how you're marketing this game using people curiosity, smart
I'm really enjoying your channel. I'm dipping my toes into the waters of indie game design myself. With regards to ads personally, if the game is interesting enough yo make me want to keep playing it I'll pay $0.99 to remove ads. I think with Blink, once players have unlocked everything there's no real incentive to keep playing.
love this channel!!! so excited for your marine biologist game-my new favorite dev channel. rooting for you
You're now where I want to be in a year from here, I'm studying and working also, but what If we could live from what we enjoy the most. Time to play games is over (kinda), time to make games is here, even if they're not "hits" :D Nice video! Congratulations!
Amazing video, is nice to see your thought process. Also from a development point of view, this was your first project so much to make from scratch, even if your code wasn't perfectly modular, even doing a copy paste and adapt it to the new project is going to save you tons of time, plus of course the know how! I never made a game, I like to make game engines, and my first gl engine took me forever to make anything on screen, then when I started learning dx11 and make a new engine I went so much faster, due to combination of experience and re-using part of the code etc. So best of luck!
as far as ads go, personally, I will pay a buck or so in a heart beat to get rid of ads for a game I'm enjoying! I just stumbled across your videos on my journey of finding motivation and tips to actually START on my first game. I've probably spent hundreds of hours reading, watching, and learning things. But I'm still too nervous to start it. Because I know once I do, there's no turning back for me, and I guess I'm afraid of failure haha.
That aside, I will definitely be downloading your game to check out! Looks like fun and my kind of game to pass the time!
The first game anyone ever makes is usually the worst but it gives you experience that you can put into more projects you're passionate about.
That’s the plan!
Yep, doesn't necessarily make it a bad game tho, just not as good as it could have been with a little more planning at the outset AND a realistic scope (trying to do something Open World like Fallout 4 for a 1st game wasn't a good idea for me lol), been there done that!!! :o)
I'm a pretty random viewer of yours(accidentally seen your video in youtube suggestions), but just wanted to say thank you for your effort. A lot of your thoughts about game dev seems a little bit naive from my point of view(as a game developer with more than 10 years of experience I know exactly how game companies earn their moneys and sometimes it could be a dirty business :P), but I really love what are you doing! Looking at your motivation, how passionate you are really helps me not to forget that making games is super cool!
Keep it up and I'm sure your best game is to come ;)
I usually just close the game when it makes me watch too much ads just for playing again and desinstall. I would rather choose to watch ads to win something, that way I feel rewarded for watching the ad and not that the ad is something ruining my experience.
Altough, for this game there's not much too reward the player with...
There's always this thin line between showing ads and making the player frustrated. I consider interstitial ads annoying and as a momentum breaker, however in-game banners (if the banner positioning goes well with screen content) and reward videos just works fine.
Every game makes you a better Developer! Everytime when working on a new one you will definelty want to make changes to all previously released games. Because of new knowledge and beter ideas. Keep it up!
Totally agree! Can't wait for the next one!
Your channel is growing fast papi, there you got another source of income :P That talk is great btw I might re watch it soon to keep me motivated
We doin alright! I’ve watched that talk a few times, love it.
Quick note on the Unity Ads, it's based on CPI, Cost Per Install, not CPM, Cost Per Mile (shown). Basically if an ad is shown that doesn't generate any money for you. Only when a user is shown an ad, clicks on it, downloads the game and starts it will it trigger the system to give you the reward. From what you've shown in the dashboard my guess is that you had 1 or maybe 2 people watch an ad and install the game that was shown in that ad. Also the attribution can be delayed by about 30 days before it's reflected in the dashboard (e.g. a user goes through the whole process of installing the game being advertised but doesn't open it until 30 days later for whatever reason). Hope this helps a bit :)
This is false
This was not a bad game at all. I like my games to be beautiful and blink is surely very satisfying in appearance. However, hardly can I feel it is a serious game as well. Here what I think could be improved:
1) No stat of bugs, no coins. I think "keep the bug alive" and "make more money to unlock things" would be motivating.
2) Cannot pause or stop the game and return to the main menu in the middle of the game/tutorial.
3) The transition between the scenes is a bit awkward, the blackout of the screen makes me feel my phone is going to sleep.
4) If there are skills to unlock, it would make me addicted.
I just began using unity yesterday (I am not a CS student), and I love to see how people construct small games and improve game's functionality over time. I hope you success in the future!
I'll be starting my dev journey soon! I found this video really inspiring!
The UA-cam algorithm finally recommended me something good.
Congratulations on releasing the game. I've subscribed.
Congratulation. Discovered your channel. Now I have the motivation to also make a game. Thanks.
Jake's comments on the long tail are so important. Far too many indie Devs out out a game, then sit back and leave it. I update my games regularly and it definitely helps with both downloads and review scores.
You shipped a game! That's a huge win! 💪👍😊
I think you are right about the ads - they have to be more frequent to drive in app purchases.
Also I would play with some additional IAP to drive purchase of the basic one.
0.99 - get rid of ads
2.99 - get rid of ads and get dev duck. Having the dev duck gives you some cool feature like faster bonuses?
This will give players three choices instead of just two.
Maybe also consider a Patreon to allow people to support DevDuck games on a subscription.
Finally, I agree about Jake Burkett!
oops - Birkett!
I like these ideas! Thanks for the support Bruce!
This is so cool and inspiring :D I have released an indie game myself and it's an awesome feeling :D
I like the idea of putting ads on the 3rd click of play again and adding the leaderboard. I think most people would ignore the ads or pay the dollar to remove it rather than delete it, especially with a leaderboard to motivate long term playing
Congrats man !! super inspiring