Discussion
Those games were made during what was probably the darkest time of my entire career. We'd jumped into iOS dev thinking it would be ideal for us - small projects we could put out relatively quickly, potentially a vast audience, a fun challenge making touch controls that actually didn't suck.
Every time we did our best to produce something fun and playable. Every time we got excellent reviews from the sites which reviewed such things.
And every time we made about 50p from each one.
We kept trying. We thought maybe we could increase the price slightly, from the default 69p or whatever it was, but when we tried to ask for a couple of quid people said it was "too expensive". It felt like small game dev had been utterly devalued.
By the time we'd done this nine times my spirit was pretty much broken. And iOS was mutating even further, as the devaluation of paid game dev led to the mutant emergence of all the recurring paypoint trickery that is now so prevalent on mobile.
@llamasoft_ox I was an Apple games reviewer and tech journo for a very long stretch. It's ironic that you and I suffered the same experience - the complete devaluation of our professional value to drive corporate profits. It happened in very different ways and at different timelines for each of us, but it ran in parallel. It broke your heart. Mine too. Now far away from tech altogether and better for it.
I'm delighted these games are available again. You got done dirty. They deserve some love.
@llamasoft_ox Mobile gaming is not a sector that rewards integrity.
Nonetheless I am proud of what we made, even under such duress. They are great little games, and it saddened me when eventually they effectively became lost media, as iOS and Android changed and became no longer able to run them. I even heard of people keeping an old iPad around with an old iOS on it, just to be able to run them.
So I'm delighted that now they can be played and enjoyed again.
@llamasoft_ox ngl still waiting on space giraffe 2, such a genius and genuine program
@llamasoft_ox I'm also an iPad (3) Keeper! :)
@llamasoft_ox When I flew almost every week I used to put on the Deflex attract mode and listen to it for about 20 minutes and sometimes it would gently send me to sleep.
Also my lad made Goat Up 2 levels by himself when he was 10.
@llamasoft_ox I have memories of having to learn some Objective-C ( to code on iOS ) and having to deal with Eclipse ( there was no Android Studio at the time ) to code on Android. I remember some of those games I coded them while in severe post-surgery pain working in bed with a Mac Mini and a trackball and KB "to keep my mind busy" 😊 My favorites of them all are Goat Up and Five a day. Minotaur Recue and Super Ox wars too. There are bad and good memories, those were really hard times 😐
@llamasoft_ox Even when the mobile market was lifting off, I ever felt that the audience was too much casual for really being rewarding for developers.
I'm still think that each time I peek what programs offers stores like Google Play.
@llamasoft_ox I am one of the iPad-keepers! I am happy to have another option and hope to eventually see it be unshackled from specific operating systems. ❤️
@llamasoft_ox I think the beauty of games as good as these is that when they connect with a person, that's it forever. It's Tetris or 868 Hack or Gridrunner, they live in your soul. iPhone was a heartbreaker of a system for everyone I think.
@llamasoft_ox I was an Apple games reviewer and tech journo for a very long stretch. It's ironic that you and I suffered the same experience - the complete devaluation of our professional value to drive corporate profits. It happened in very different ways and at different timelines for each of us, but it ran in parallel. It broke your heart. Mine too. Now far away from tech altogether and better for it.
I'm delighted these games are available again. You got done dirty. They deserve some love.
@llamasoft_ox Deflex alone got me through some terrible fucking times. Mobile might have been shite but you both made a bunch of fantastic games that meant a lot to me.
@llamasoft_ox They're certainly the reason I held onto my iPhone as long as I did. I hated that thing. It's only redeeming feature was running Solar Minotaur Rescue Frenzy and Goat Up! I h
@llamasoft_ox It feels like the best “boutique” games can find a market by cutting a deal to be part of Apple Arcade.