Xbox Indie Port of Orbiter

[JCARRION]

hi ..

well ,when I said Xbox360 I meant releasing as a main retail unit. Same as for PS3.

We got the thing running under Unity3D . iPads / Androids - at around 30 fps.

Unity3D also builds for PS3 "at the hit of a keystroke!" (in the studio I still got one PS3 development Kit ) and run that fast that the profiler couldnt catch it !

Problem is that simply getting a PS3 license to build the stuff officially and release it for Sony aprooval we are talking about 30.000 US$. Xbox a bit less , but devkits are astronomically expensive - and last time I inquire you need to adquire at least 3 ! - .

So once that this thing is released for iPad ( our main target ) and Android ... depending how has it done I would consider Playstation3 , mainly cos I got all the hardware for development still here.

Having been developing console games for the last 20 years ( last one was LA. Noire , PS3 ,Rockstar) I still got a few connections here and there ,so I would give it a try for PS3. At the end of the console cycle (i.e.when a new console is due to arrive ) they ease a lot the requirements. It is then when you see bangers like "chess" for ps2, or "the adventures of peppa the pig" for Xbox being flogged for a tenner. . Then would be a good time to release this.

for the time being , iPad & Android is the one to go.

DLC ? yep , of course . We got 2 dudes on it already making spaceports , and missions . Im still looking for someone to do the ships (althought I am in talks with someone already ) .


Pluggins ? too complicated for iPads. It would violate their T&C .We ll simply ship with the main stuff people needs (sounds , Apollo mission hardware , a mission/orbit planner (similar to TransX but in 3D , and the main spaceports/kosmodromes.

Only thing it still undecided is abt 3D cockpits yay or nay. I cant see it being useful on a ipad , but my designers (?) think otherwise . Stay tuned .

Anyway , this is not meant to be on the level of orbiter. This is meant to be just a "quick fix" for orbiter when people takes the ipad on the tube , or on holidays , or in the bed .

 

[Quick_Nick]

XNA doesn't get DLC, XNA doesn't sell for $5, and it is the easiest thing in the world to break even with the crappiest game ever heard of. As for a quality game like this, it's just a matter of how much you value your time. No concern for DLC or bug fixes unless you make a deal with Microsoft to put the game on Arcade. (which is a viable option in this rare case, and potential for loads more profit if you're willing to put in a lot of work)

*JCARRION then posts*

And I'll facepalm slightly remembering that I'm talking about a specific game and this game runs on Unity.
That SHOULD mean 'less work' but many orders of magnitude higher cost to develop and deploy.

 

[Hielor]

I think there's 100$ USD fee for getting an XNA license (I may have that backwards), plus advertising, and eventual patches that you need to push to you user, the costs really stack up over time.

Now, I believe the turnover from MSP to USD is 80c = 1$ (could be wrong there. If you want to put up an indie game on XBL, it has to be at least 80MSP.

So, if you were to develop a game, and sold it for 400MSP (5$), and sold 1,000 'copies'. So, 400x1000=400,000$. A nice little haul. Wait, what about all those pesky fees?



So, 70% of 400k is... 280,000. 400,000-280,000=120,000. Still not bad. However, a lot of games do a lot worse than that.

You converted from dollars to MSP but forgot to convert back. 1000 copies of a 400MSP game is 400,000 MSP, which is...$5000.

 

[Quick_Nick]

You converted from dollars to MSP but forgot to convert back. 1000 copies of a 400MSP game is 400,000 MSP, which is...$5000.

Right. Which is achievable with a game from a newbie developer, surpassable with real work, but not a good revenue when dealing with license fees. (not to mention taxes and MS's take)
I don't know much about business though. My highschool computer science teacher wrote off his 8-core laptop on his taxes as a business expense.

 

[Keatah]

For a space simulator to be anything more than a novelty, I believe it needs the openness and versatility of the PC platform. Online mmorpgs notwithstanding.

 

[mojoey]

You converted from dollars to MSP but forgot to convert back. 1000 copies of a 400MSP game is 400,000 MSP, which is...$5000.

D'oh. Yep. I forgot to do that. Either way, it's not really worth it.

 

[JCARRION]

D'oh. Yep. I forgot to do that. Either way, it's not really worth it.

yeah , I saw that aswell.

I mean releasing for mainstream Xbox360 , as any normal game you buy on the dep. store.

but as said , we ll first focus on the tablet market .. and later PS3 and Xbox.

btw...We got the latest shaders up and running .So here is a minor test of those polished stainless-steel material...

 

[mojoey]

That looks very good.

Do you have any publishers in mind? I.E. Activision or Ubisoft?

 

[JCARRION]

That looks very good.

Do you have any publishers in mind? I.E. Activision or Ubisoft?

For the PS3 version yep (at 90% certainty ) .. but can't confirm until I got the money in the pocket !
They also want to see the reception of the iPad/Droid version first...
Probbably this Crhistmas (2013-14).

 

[Keatah]

The text on the MFD buttons needs to be cleaned up.

 

[Hielor]

Releasing as a full price game for consoles seems like it won't work very well, especially when there's a free version available for a better platform...

 

[jangofett287]

Releasing as a full price game for consoles seems like it won't work very well, especially when there's a free version available for a better platform...

Clearly you have never met a console gamer. The believe their chosen system is the be all and end all pinnacle of gaming technology, and anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

[JCARRION]

Releasing as a full price game for consoles seems like it won't work very well, especially when there's a free version available for a better platform...

Well , this is your opinion and mine as well . Id never buy this for a console ever. But there are people that *need* to buy every conceivable game. After decades in the industry I have seen been sold every conceivable piece of crap. This -the space simulator- looks ok, Its something "cool to have" , at least to show off the power of X console. I hope it ll appeal to the geeky kind of player .

It is also way easier than Orbiter. Trans-X doesnt exist, the orbital paths being selected on a 3d world schema ,(as in KSP but with n-body physics) , so you can select your desired orbit , run a quick numerical simulation to see how things ll go , and fire up the autopilot.

It also looks a bit better than PCs , as we know beforehand the specs of the graphics card, so we squeeze the GPU to the max. Pls note the shader of the mylar on the LEM . This is on ipad2 (that would be tricky on the PC ) .

 

[Hielor]

Sure, it's the sort of thing that "might be cool to have" on a console for showing off/playing with on a big screen--but as something like an Xbox Live Arcade game, not a full game.

 

[Keatah]

I thought it looked pretty fake with the Saturn V launch. With the tower arms meshing with the rocket. Cheap.

 

[JCARRION]

I thought it looked pretty fake with the Saturn V launch. With the tower arms meshing with the rocket. Cheap.

That's one of the 1000s reasons is still not out yet. Waiting for the final KSC to be done . Hopefully (?) if ll arrive with the tower's arms animated ... . I wish the bugs we have were that easy to solve!