Manifesto Games is no more

Manifest Games is no more. Greg Costikyan, who now spends his days updating PlayThisThing, announced on that site that his indie focused games distribution portal is officially dead. Honestly, Manifesto Games had languished for over a year, with no updates, no new titles and - one would imagine - not a lot of customers. Still, the idea and the thoughtfulness behind it were admirable, even if poorly implemented. You can read Costikyan’s final word on the site at PlayThisThing.

While Manuifesto Games is no more, there are so many paths to digital distribution for indies that it ultimately doesn’t matter: Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, GameTrove, GamersGate, and many others.

Rockin’ Android Brings Doujin Games Stateside

Rockin’ Android announced plans to release five doujin (amateur self-published works, including but not limited to manga, novels, fan guides, art collections, music and video games, according to Wikipedia) titles it has acquired, marking the very first time that fan-created, anime-style games for the PC have ever been officially licensed and localized for commercial sale outside of Japan.

Among the five titles, SUGURI Perfect Edition and GUNDEMONIUM Collection will be released for direct retail sale, while Flying Red Barrel –A Diary of a Little Aviator–, Qualia and Miku Miku will be exclusively available as download-only titles. All five titles are side-scrolling, shooting/fighting action games slated for a summer 2009 release. These games will also be released on Steam and Direct2Drive at a date yet to be determined.

Rockin’ Android’s first PC game release will be the SUGURI Perfect Edition, set for release on June 30, 2009 and priced at $19.99 SRP. The DVD-rom release contains the two complete anime inspired shmup games (SUGURI, Acceleration of SUGURI), an expansion pack (Acceleration of SUGURI X-Edition) and two soundtrack albums (TRANCENATION of SUGURI original soundtrack and Acceleration of SUGURI Soundtrack). In addition to the DVD-rom release, downloadable versions of SUGURI, Acceleration of SUGURI and Acceleration of SUGURI X-Edition will be also be made available for purchase at a later date on the company website.

Further details on GUNDEMONIUM Collection, Flying Red Barrel –A Diary of a Little Aviator–, Qualia and Miku Miku, will be posted in the coming weeks.

Game Developers Choice, IGF Winners

The 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards, the only honors for developers as voted on by developers, were celebrated tonight in a packed hall full of exuberant developers and media. The event was hosted by Double Fine founder Tim Schafer, whose one liners may indicate a career to fall back on should this game development gig fall through.

Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy received the Pioneer Award for their innovation in the music game genre with such games as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, while Video Games Live co-founder and founder of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Tommy Tallarico, was honored with the Ambassador Award for helping to advance game audio, music and games. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Kojima said that there were a lot more things that he wanted to do with his life, like maybe write a novel, or direct a film - but he also said that he has a long career ahead in the game industry.

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Jeff Vogel Talks Shop

Jeff Vogel, founder of Spiderweb Software, and the creator of the popular Geneforge and Avernum series of role-playing games, today offered some sample sales data for one of his games. Vogel released the information to give other independent developers and the general public a sense of what it might cost to make a serious indie game and how much money he’s made. The sample data is based on sales to date for Geneforge 4: Rebellion.

Geneforge 4 was released for the Macintosh in November 2006 and PC Windows in February 2007. The reason Vogel chose this particular game is because it was one of the very few titles Spiderweb has sold exclusively through its web site.

The game took about a year to develop for the Mac, with time include for a Windows version, but used a lot of old assets from previous games. Vogel worked on the game full time, and other employees handled various aspects of development - though Vogel did not mention how big of a team he had or what each individual developer was paid in that time period. The total cost to develop the game and create a hintbook was roughly $120,000 USD. The game was sold for $28 while the hint book was available for right around $7. As of this month, Geneforge 4 has sold 3979 units, while 807 hint books were sold. Total sales for both the game and hintbook? $117,061 USD.

While this might seem like an unworthy endeavor on Vogel’s part there are a few things to consider: First, the game has been cracked and has been pirated heavily, according to Vogel. He also points out that his demo usually offer more game content than they should, which probably keeps some players from making a purchase of the full game. One last thing to consider: The game is still selling, two and a half years later. In the long-term Geneforge 2 will turn a healthy profit in Vogel’s estimation.

Vogel will release some more inside information on this particular game next week including a break-down by platform, along with some friendly advice for indies. We’re looking forward to seeing the big picture, though i’m more curious as to how the latest game is doing.

Hothead Games Ports Braid, The Maw

Hothead Games is bringing some popular indies that were once exclusively on Xbox Live to PC players. The independent development studios that helped create the Penny Arcade RPG titles has inked deals with Twisted Pixel and Jonathan blow. Hothead Games will port The Maw, the popular Xbox Live Arcade platformer from Twisted Pixel to the PC, and Jonathan Blow’s Braid to the Mac.

This might also lead to Hothead helping these developers port future titles to these platforms at launch - though I am kind of speculating on that fact.
The Maw is a clever platformer featuring a strange pair of aliens who are simply trying to get away from an oppressive humanoid force that captures other aliens for some unknown reason. The game follows the exploits of Frank and the shape-changing Maw, who takes on different forms based on creatures that he eats. Braid doesn’t really need an explanation but if you’re from another universe you can learn more at our Braid game page.

You can learn more about Hothead Games by visiting www.hotheadgames.com

Embracing Indies: The Mezmer Games Interview

Today Crispy Gamer talks to Executive Vice President of Paradox Interactive, Fredrik Wester, the man in charge of the new Mezmer Games label. Fredrik fills us in on just what Mezmer Games plans to do to help promote independently developed games and developers, what it takes to get a game on the label, and even his favorite IGF finalists. Read on!

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