Double Fine Game Club: Trauma (dev chat)

(06:54:59 AM) Cheeseness: Let us know when the Steam announcement goes off
(06:55:15 AM) Syd: It went off, but I had set it 5 minutes early to give people time to get into the chat.
(06:55:24 AM) Cheeseness: OK, sweet
(06:55:53 AM) Syd: Went ahead and set the event for Ben There, Dan That as well
(06:56:42 AM) Syd: Which will be a nice little return to the more LucasArts-ish style of adventure games.
(06:58:07 AM) Syd: I bumped the forum thread
(06:58:14 AM) Cheeseness_netbook [76d0c645@hide-50D287EE.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(06:58:22 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: There we go
(06:58:39 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: OK, we'll give it another minute or so and then go live :)
(06:59:00 AM) buckybit: Hello. Brütal Tim said "everyone is welcome" ... so here I am. Carry on, please ...
(06:59:20 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: You're more than welcome :)
(06:59:25 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Hey hng
(06:59:58 AM) buckybit: Finally get to see the games I own on Steam, but which are burried between tons of others ;)
(07:00:14 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Alrighty, let's do this :D
(07:00:18 AM) hng: Hi
(07:00:45 AM) Fireflower: Hey
(07:01:07 AM) Mimness [76d0c645@hide-BF4D4B18.mibbit.com] entered the room.
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(07:01:25 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Whoops, title card was a little off. That's my bad, not Mimness'
(07:01:30 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: (I set it up
(07:01:55 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Can everybody hear/see well?
(07:02:25 AM) buckybit: sound video = most excellent
(07:02:28 AM) Fireflower: yeah, the volume might be a bit low though, i turned it up to max on my comp :)
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(07:03:29 AM) Syd: The volume and video is fine for me
(07:03:33 AM) buckybit: Blade Runner PC deja vu
(07:03:37 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: OK, so Trauma isn't meant to be approached linearly. There are four different "dreams" to explore, and each reveals things that are helpful in the others
(07:03:55 AM) KrystianMajewski [4e2279ea@hide-B64552F4.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:04:08 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Hello :)
(07:04:25 AM) KrystianMajewski: Hi Guys!
(07:04:34 AM) Fireflower: Hi
(07:04:39 AM) Syd: Hey
(07:04:44 AM) buckybit: nice visuals, nice focus, gestures .. I dig it
(07:04:47 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: It looks like we will be having some dev chat this week :D
(07:04:59 AM) Fireflower: nice :)
(07:05:43 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: So, Krystian, where did the inspiration for presenting the game using photos come from? Did previous 'interface' motifs exist in earlier prototypes,or was this your plan from the beginning?
(07:06:12 AM) buckybit: "I think, I remember drawing this symbol" - very clever way to make the player do it? :)
(07:06:32 AM) KrystianMajewski: First of all, I'm really amazed to see the game being played here. Definitely made my week. :D
(07:06:51 AM) Fireflower: :)
(07:07:08 AM) buckybit: Polaroids are so expensive these days. The paper costs a fortune too. :D
(07:07:32 AM) KrystianMajewski: About the motifs - no, that actually developed very slowly. I knew I wanted to use photos because it's actually a very economic way to do visuals.
(07:07:49 AM) KrystianMajewski: Samorost made me realize this.
(07:07:53 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: KrystainMajewski: Our pleasure! Sorry about the late notice - we're normally a little more organised with Game Club
(07:08:24 AM) Fireflower: so, are these real photos you've taken?
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(07:08:30 AM) buckybit: I love the narrowing/film style focus during the "exploration" - keeps a certain suspense. makes it more dramatic. really fast paced.
(07:09:00 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yes. They are actual locations in Cologne. Obviously, there is some photoshopping involved.
(07:09:08 AM) Fireflower: cool
(07:09:38 AM) KrystianMajewski: So my early experiments were actually a spherical panoramas like in the latter parts of the Myst series.
(07:10:01 AM) buckybit: Cologne Uni Clinic? I've been there after a very drunk night. I don't remember it that well. It was like a ... dream :)
(07:10:14 AM) KrystianMajewski: LOL
(07:10:27 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Ha
(07:10:34 AM) Fireflower: :)
(07:11:19 AM) buckybit: motive of "drowning" .. and cut - great cinematic storytelling, Duder!
(07:11:38 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: The individual images gives a slightly claustrophobic sense of tunnel vision that I don't think spherical panoramas would capture
(07:11:52 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: OK, so Mimness has explored the first dream
(07:12:03 AM) Fireflower: there's a discussion if games can be art. this looks like art to me.
(07:12:06 AM) KrystianMajewski: The thing is I found the spherical panoramas a bit bland. They didn't offer enough interactivity. So I did more exploration. Looked into current trends in photography. I stumbled over these loosly, manually stitched panoramas and of course that one Microsoft app.
(07:12:55 AM) buckybit: How expensive is it to get voice actors in different languages, for a "small-budget" game? No need to tell the numbers, but percentage-wise compared to total-cost of game? (don't need to answer this)
(07:13:29 AM) Fireflower: do you consider it art Krystian?
(07:13:54 AM) KrystianMajewski: Oh, no problem. The total budget for the voice work was less than 1000 EUR. Voice recordings are super cheap.
(07:14:11 AM) buckybit: haha - video game art discussion. I am leaving this chat :D
(07:14:18 AM) Fireflower: :)
(07:14:46 AM) buckybit: oh! Didn't thought that. Great voice-acting, btw.
(07:15:10 AM) buckybit: I love the "vignette effect" too.
(07:15:57 AM) buckybit: ... not to bore other people with technical stuff, but in what prog-lingo did you write the game? What tools did you use? :)
(07:16:47 AM) KrystianMajewski: do you consider it art - *rolleyes* I probably attempted something more artistic than most games. But I didn't make this so I could call myself an artist. Many people think that it fist the category and I'm ok with that. But it wasn't necessarily the goal. I just wanted to create something more mature. Something less about Zombies and Spaceships.
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(07:17:41 AM) Fireflower: i see. that's cool
(07:18:21 AM) KrystianMajewski: Not that there is anything wrong with that. I just feel like a lot of people, who aren't gamers don't realize that games are actually pretty interesting. Which is prolly where this whole "Are games Art?" debate is coming from.
(07:18:29 AM) buckybit: btw, who came up with the (mouse) 'gestures' in video games? I remember first time playing it in Molyneux's Black & White.
(07:19:02 AM) KrystianMajewski: Tools I used: Flash, Photoshop, After Effects, Blender
(07:19:31 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah I remember this from Black & White as well.
(07:19:38 AM) Fireflower: yeah, the art discussion is interesting. probly more than one angle at it
(07:20:02 AM) buckybit: The problem I have with the "video game art" discussion is, most people have no knowledge about art history, yet quickly compare apples with oranges. Everybody has an "opinion" these days. It's ok, I guess, but not very helpful?
(07:20:46 AM) KrystianMajewski: Gestures is something that came in later. I thought having an interface on the screen would take away the cinematic quality I was going for. I didn't want players to fumble with buttons. So gestures was a convenient solution.
(07:21:15 AM) KrystianMajewski: Also, the first prototype was actually controlled with the Wiimote. Casual games on the Wii were big at that time.
(07:21:36 AM) buckybit: Logan Decker - journalist at PC Gamer - had a great argument about "the player as the artist" in the latest PC Gamer (US) podcast from yesterday. There are different concepts about this. 1900s Futurists would make video games today?
(07:21:52 AM) buckybit: Art is not about "looking pretty".
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(07:22:28 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Whoops
(07:22:54 AM) Fireflower: i like the gestures
(07:23:14 AM) Fireflower: should probly be used more often in games
(07:23:22 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Was there significance to the photos where you get the gesture to capture ghosts? I think there was Sailor Moon, Mulder and Scully from the X-Files, and Michael Jackson there?
(07:23:36 AM) buckybit: Gestures work very well with this game, indeed. It looks 'fresh' and yes 'cinematic' - drives the story very well. Now I regret that I have not played it yet. Still waiting in my Steam Library.
(07:23:42 AM) KrystianMajewski: According to Joseph Beuys everybody is an artist. So the question is not really "Is it Art" but "Is it Important".
(07:23:49 AM) Syd: With the popularity of motion and touch controls, I imagine we'll be seeing more gesture-based controls in the future.
(07:24:04 AM) buckybit: Beus - touche! haha
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(07:25:02 AM) KrystianMajewski: Sailor Moon, X-Files, Michael Jackson - Yeah I put in some of the pop culture icons I grew up with and which I thought would have been something a woman of that age grew up with as well.
(07:25:18 AM) buckybit: How did you come up with the story? Did it take you long to "figure it out"? Many re-writes? Revisions?
(07:25:49 AM) Fireflower: there might be an economic take on the art discussion too, art are sometimes taxed lower :)
(07:25:59 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Ha
(07:26:24 AM) buckybit: I guess, you walked at night a lot and thought "this place is moody - might work in my game"? :)
(07:26:34 AM) KrystianMajewski: LOTS of rewrites. I did the shooting first and then I tried to develop a story that fits. First story was autobiographical. Scond draft was 4 different stories.
(07:26:45 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Did you grab most of the photos during for each dream during a single shoot? How did you go about planning out what to capture?
(07:27:15 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Whoops, rogue "during" there
(07:27:47 AM) ricin: i'm guessing it was storyboarded?
(07:28:08 AM) KrystianMajewski: I guess, you walked at night a lot and thought "this place is moody . yeah. But it's kinda tough to pull it off. In a digital medium you can make the level whatever you want. If you do on-location shooting you need to base your game design on the actual locations. You need to think on your feet.
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(07:28:56 AM) Fireflower: what time of the night did you take the photos?
(07:28:57 AM) KrystianMajewski: I did shoot at night so I could do re-shoots if I needed to. But I actually didn't end up re-shooting anything.
(07:29:33 AM) ricin: is there a way to turn off the camera sounds?
(07:29:41 AM) KrystianMajewski: Getting a location lasted around 2 - 3 hours- The final one was really tricky with 30 seconds exposures per photo.
(07:29:42 AM) ricin: the UI sounds
(07:30:25 AM) KrystianMajewski: You can lower the volume of the sound effects.
(07:30:25 AM) ricin: i'm not sure i could do this for very long if there isn't a way to turn that off
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(07:30:47 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: I find the sound effects to be great
(07:31:09 AM) ricin: it's just the beep and click that are getting annoying
(07:31:10 AM) ricin: the camera sounds
(07:31:12 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: They only happen in reaction to your mouse movements, so it's less grating when you're playing yourself
(07:31:20 AM) ricin: everything else is nice
(07:31:36 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: That said, I turn shutter and focus sounds on any new camera I get >_<
(07:31:40 AM) Fireflower: cool effect
(07:31:54 AM) buckybit: the camera snapshot & click-closer sounds reminds me of Blade Runner PC - only because it is my only point of reference
(07:31:55 AM) ricin: i turn any sounds on my camera off
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(07:32:13 AM) ricin: shutter you can't get rid of since that's mechanical, but anything generated i turn off :P
(07:32:33 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Where are the locations for the game?
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(07:32:51 AM) hydroninja9: such a strange game :D
(07:32:55 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah, that was certainly something we tweaked a lot. The initial sound effects were even more problematic. I think we hit a good ballance now. But I can see how it may be still off-putting to some people. Which is why I made the volume adjustable,
(07:32:57 AM) buckybit: I would hate if people constantly would tell me "your game reminds me of ... xyz" - no. it's original (& personal) in its core.
(07:33:08 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Most modern digital cameras have recorded shutter sounds that they play (the actual shutter is pretty quiet)r
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(07:33:47 AM) buckybit: "modern digital cameras" .... you mean iPhone :P
(07:34:06 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Nope, all of my Canon cameras do it
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(07:34:19 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Pretty sure Nikons do as well
(07:34:19 AM) buckybit: was just joking.
(07:34:42 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: ^_^
(07:34:44 AM) Syd: I have a cheap digital camera that just beeps when it takes a picture. :P
(07:35:01 AM) Hinansho: I remember when I e-mailed Krystian about this level...
(07:35:24 AM) Hinansho: I needed help finding one pic and he gave me a clue
(07:35:34 AM) KrystianMajewski: Ha! I remember.
(07:35:39 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: :)
(07:35:44 AM) Hinansho: That was really nice of him :)
(07:35:54 AM) Hinansho: Thanks again for that :)
(07:36:24 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Mimness is asking where the locations used in the game are (she's too busy hunting photos to type herself ^_^)?
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(07:37:03 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah, there are some really tricky photos in that level. It was sometimes a way to exploit the fact that I sometimes just didn't have the footage to make some areas easily accessible. I didn't want those areas to be pointless.
(07:38:00 AM) KrystianMajewski: They are all around cologne. I'll can post the GPS coordinates if you want. You can see some of them in streetview.
(07:38:10 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Yeah, that'd be neat :D
(07:38:12 AM) buckybit: I am curious about "playtesting" - as a gamedeveloper, for you, it is clear how the player should proceed. Fail states are not that obvious. Who did you choose to play your game to "test" if the levels are "logical"? Did you have somebody who "never" played "Adventure Games" to test?
(07:38:21 AM) Hinansho: I'd like that
(07:38:42 AM) Fireflower: Will you be making a game using Google Earth next? ;)
(07:38:55 AM) buckybit: ... the "I am stuck" moments
(07:39:22 AM) KrystianMajewski: So here is a google map with all the locations http://bit.ly/SOrFkR
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(07:39:52 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: If I've done my research properly, you also teach game design, Krystian. Was there much that you found you learned from making Trauma, and did it have the kind of reception you expected? How do your students react to it?
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(07:41:50 AM) KrystianMajewski: Playtesting was tricky. Most experienced players breeze through the game. Less experienced players get stuck more easily. But the point of the game was never to provide a challenge. So I made sure that inexperienced players can get through it. 2nd and 4th levels are still the most tricky ones.
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(07:43:10 AM) ricin: my cameras don't add extra shutter sounds, but i'm talking about DSLRs. none of my canons do that
(07:43:10 AM) Hinansho: getting a giggly looking at street view of the level that's being played now. I'm such a geek.
(07:43:34 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: :)
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(07:44:22 AM) KrystianMajewski: How it affects my teaching - My areas of expertise are prototyping and game history. Trauma had a lot of both and it clearly provided a lot of experience. But I prefer to show other people's work. It's easier to maintain a more critical/objective perspective this way.
(07:45:12 AM) Fireflower: what games do you use in your classes?
(07:45:38 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Mimness says she'd like to continue playing and find all the photos, but we'll let the credits run for the moment
(07:45:47 AM) KrystianMajewski: Sure
(07:46:13 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: And the alternate endings
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(07:46:50 AM) KrystianMajewski: We talk about a lot of games in classes. At Cologne Game Lab, we did a gaming club as well for a semester. That was fun. We did Amnesia, Arkham Asylum and ICO.
(07:47:14 AM) Fireflower: cool
(07:47:20 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: An interesting lineup
(07:47:38 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: What tools did you use for the non-photographic portions of the game?
(07:48:10 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: There seem to be a number of 3D rendered elements/sequences
(07:48:18 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah.
(07:49:03 AM) KrystianMajewski: I used Blender. But it's nothing really challenging. The technique used here is called "Projection Mapping": Pretty much every software package can do that.
(07:49:20 AM) buckybit: Kids learning video games in school - how awesome is that. When I went to school 1970s-1980s we had to teach our teachers how to use computers.
(07:49:36 AM) Fireflower: :)
(07:50:02 AM) KrystianMajewski: Well, I don
(07:50:54 AM) KrystianMajewski: Well, I don't teach at school, I teach at a university. But my girlfriend is teaching at a school and I always urge her to incorporate more games in her curriculum.
(07:51:33 AM) KrystianMajewski: Here is a post from 2009 I made explaining some of the 3D effects. http://gamedesignreviews.com/scrapbook/illucinated-the-magic-of-camera-mapping/
(07:51:38 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Huzzah, Blender :D
(07:52:06 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Oh yeah. Krystian's blog is pretty neat. Everybody should check it out!
(07:53:11 AM) yama: I love how there are so many layers to many of the pictures. Feels like there might be things hiding everywhere.
(07:53:13 AM) buckybit: Thanks for the link. I remember the first TV ads using this effect. Was very impressive back then! :)
(07:54:04 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Who is the ghost in the second dream?
(07:54:17 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: (another question from Mimness - she's curious to know if it's you ^_^ )
(07:55:35 AM) KrystianMajewski: It's me. My girlfriend came with me and pressed the shutter. Oh and then she took a flashlight and painted me while i moved my body so I would appear blurry. In the middle of the night. It was bizzarre.
(07:56:36 AM) ricin: light painting is a ton of fun
(07:56:53 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: So far as the 3D stuff goes, I found the car sequence in the intro to be pretty neat - light trails were a fantastic way of implying a violent impact without being visceral
(07:58:25 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah, once I knew it was about gestures and light painting, I looked for subtle ways to tie those to the story. The SLR camera in the passenger's seat is another example.
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(08:00:10 AM) Fireflower: how long did it take to make the game?
(08:00:25 AM) KrystianMajewski: Around 3 years. But not full-time.
(08:00:34 AM) Fireflower: ok
(08:01:20 AM) buckybit: I love the audio cues too. Very minimalistic, very effective - fitting all very well together as a soundscape/music score.
(08:01:53 AM) yama: Oh man. I watched that Twisted Reality video years ago. Looking at it again and it's still so cool. :D
(08:02:01 AM) KrystianMajewski: Initially I though I could pull it off in less than a year. First level was finished in 3 months. But once you get into production, there is so many thing that you tend to underestimate
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(08:03:00 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: The first 90% of development takes up the first 90% of time
(08:03:10 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: The remaining 10% of development takes up the second 90% of time :D
(08:03:36 AM) buckybit: ... I was waiting for the second part. lol
(08:04:02 AM) KrystianMajewski: LOL, exactly. But don't forget that 10% of that final 10% takes the 3rd 90% of the time.
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(08:04:40 AM) McZonk: I used to live exactly on the other side of the road that is shown in the outro :)
(08:04:43 AM) buckybit: ... and then there is a thing called "Microsoft Certification Process" for some gamedev's (but let's not talk about that) :P
(08:04:50 AM) eeekthekat: Hello my peoples.
(08:05:01 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Hello ^_^
(08:05:01 AM) yama: Heyas, eeekthekat.
(08:05:17 AM) Fireflower: hello
(08:05:19 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: How did Martin get involved with the project?
(08:05:33 AM) KrystianMajewski: Ladies and Gentlemen: McZonk, who currently works on the iOS version with me.
(08:06:01 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Hi McZonk :D
(08:06:05 AM) buckybit: That was great! Thanks for chatting with us Krystian. And thanks for answering so many questions :D
(08:06:05 AM) McZonk: hi
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(08:06:18 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: And we're done with the stream
(08:06:23 AM) ricin: yeah, thanks for being here, Krystian!
(08:06:24 AM) KrystianMajewski: I knew Martin from an animated movie I did. He used to do hip hop.
(08:07:02 AM) KrystianMajewski: Absolutly! Thanks for taking a look at the game. That was REALLY cool!
(08:07:22 AM) yama: I missed the beginning of the stream. Think I'll buy the game and play it myself. ^^
(08:07:51 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: yama : It's pay-what-you-want on the official site
(08:08:04 AM) yama: Yeah. Looking at that now. ^^
(08:08:24 AM) KrystianMajewski: PROTIP: You can also play the browser version on the official website. Which is actually the entire game. I hate demos.
(08:08:30 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Which brings me to another question I wanted to ask: How do you feel about the pay-what-you-want model, and has it worked well for Trauma?
(08:08:39 AM) yama: Thinking of something now... It would be cool if people got to pay what they wanted for games _after_ they have played them.
(08:09:20 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: You can sort of do that with Humble Bundles (up your contribution after playing the games)
(08:09:21 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah, I always thought that would make much more sense. You pay for food AFTER you eat it.
(08:09:27 AM) buckybit: "Fair Pay" never works? See what people pay for tons of games on the humble-bundle deals. It's a shame how little they value quality work. IMHO :(
(08:09:38 AM) buckybit: ... "long tail" or not.
(08:10:11 AM) Syd: I think the Humble Bundle approach to pay-what-you-want is good. You can get the games for almost nothing, but up your pledge if you really enjoyed them and think they deserve more money.
(08:10:27 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: What are you paying for though? Digital games don't really have a per-unit cost (not that's worth mentioning anyway - bandwidth is pretty much free these days)
(08:10:31 AM) yama: KrystianMajewski, I know, right? I have for sure played games where I'd quantify my the value of enjoyment more than what I paid for the game initially.
(08:10:36 AM) KrystianMajewski: I think the biggest challenge for developers nowadays, especially the small ones, is to get your game noticed. As an indie I have to use my strongest asset to promote my game - which is my actual game.
(08:10:58 AM) Mimness left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(08:11:14 AM) yama: Thanks for the stream, Mimness.
(08:11:18 AM) buckybit: "is it good?" - "it's only five bucks" is always a bad argument, IMHO. But I get where ppl are coiming from.
(08:11:26 AM) KrystianMajewski: Once you get enough people interested in your game, monetizing it is trivial. The 1st part is the hard part.
(08:13:12 AM) buckybit: I look at FTL & Hotline Miami - pirated, yet still made good money afaik. Getting attention on the web/ in the "app-stores" certainly boosts sales.
(08:13:13 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: I don't suppose you'd like to share what your average payment is for Trauma?
(08:13:40 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: All of the people I know who pirate games go out and buy them if they like them
(08:14:18 AM) buckybit: ... bye folks. was nice here. 'til next time. :)
(08:14:21 AM) buckybit left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(08:14:26 AM) KrystianMajewski: Well, I fixed the price at at least 5 eur because below that, PayPal would take a ridiculously huge cut.
(08:14:34 AM) yama: Paid for the game and it's downloading now. :D
(08:14:46 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: Undertsandable
(08:15:28 AM) Fireflower: yeah, paypal are quite pricy
(08:16:08 AM) Fireflower: google wallet and skrill/moneybookers have lower fees
(08:16:17 AM) KrystianMajewski: But eventually, I will make it just free to play. Most people are generous. I think below 10 dollar we are in an area where you don't really think about the value and the only barrier is just the nuisance of actually doing the payment.
(08:17:31 AM) Fireflower: a problem with paying after you've played is that you might forget to pay at all
(08:18:30 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: The average payment for the Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle was under US$5. Assuming an equal split, you'd have gotten 20% of that (60% to developers and even split between yourself, Mode 7 and Zachtronics). Did you find that being involved in that bundle helped your reach more people after its conclusion through raised awareness, or do you feel that it eroded
(08:18:34 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: your potential customer base?
(08:18:35 AM) KrystianMajewski: Flattr was a neat solution, I thought,
(08:19:17 AM) Cheeseness_netbook: assuming default split^
(08:21:11 AM) KrystianMajewski: TRAUMA was just an add-on game in that bundle. So I got a fixed payment, not a split. But really, the thing I try to maximize is the exposure of the game. That's what is important for me personally. And I like to believe that this is also financially the best strategy in the long run.
(08:21:39 AM) Cheeseness: Oh, right. I totally forgot that Frozen Synapse was the only core game
(08:21:40 AM) Cheeseness: Sorry
(08:21:48 AM) Cheeseness: (feeling a little ashamed - I totally knew that)
(08:22:32 AM) KrystianMajewski: :D
(08:23:22 AM) yama: Ooh. The Trauma special edition has a similar box to the one Resonance came in. I like how they open up like that. ^^
(08:23:42 AM) yama: Now I want one. :\
(08:24:25 AM) KrystianMajewski: Yeah, the Publisher Headup Games is really great at doing those. They bring out every indie title with that sort of packaging. I love it.
(08:24:48 AM) Cheeseness: Are they nice to work with?
(08:25:02 AM) Fireflower: this game feels a bit like your game - http://www.tinnitus-games.de But i might be wrong...
(08:25:07 AM) KrystianMajewski: Very indie-friendly.
(08:25:43 AM) KrystianMajewski: Saw Reperfection being discussed recently. Haven't playe it yet, but I'm planning to.
(08:26:08 AM) Fireflower: yeah, looks interesting
(08:26:34 AM) Cheeseness: Oh, on the topic of Humble Bundle stuff, I'm doing research for a new article. I don't suppose you'd mind confirming that Trauma was released on Windows, MacOS and Linux simultaneously (I'm amazed at how few Humble Bundle participants have news/announcements pages, and Wikipedia has been woefully inaccurate so far)?
(08:27:40 AM) KrystianMajewski: Oh yeah. It was all 3 platforms. Which is also one of the reasons why I got into the bundle. They had that as a requirement.
(08:29:11 AM) Cheeseness: They did indeed (the THQ bundle has served as impetus for my new article, which looks at how Humble Bundle promotions have impacted on cross-platform support for the titles and developers who have participated).
(08:30:06 AM) KrystianMajewski: Alright guys. I'm going to take off. Thanks for spending some time with my game. I enjoyed this discussions a lot. Feel free to ask me any follow up questions. You can get me on twitter at @krystman and at info@traumagame.com
(08:30:18 AM) Cheeseness: Thanks so much for joining us!
(08:30:29 AM) Fireflower: thanks Krystian!
(08:30:32 AM) Cheeseness: It's been a while since we had a dev chat, and it was awesome to have your thoughts/perspectives :D
(08:30:40 AM) yama: Thanks for coming on to chat with us. :)
(08:31:05 AM) yama: I'll look into acquiring the special edition!
(08:31:24 AM) KrystianMajewski: Absolutely. I might show up some other time too. Seems like a very cool discussion group!
(08:31:35 AM) yama: You're welcome at any time. :)
(08:31:38 AM) Cheeseness: You're always welcome :)
(08:31:58 AM) yama: The special game club page will be updated for the latest game.
(08:31:59 AM) KrystianMajewski left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(08:32:08 AM) yama: Aww.
(08:32:23 AM) Cheeseness: It's OK. He'd joined by the page anyway :)
(08:32:37 AM) yama: Ahh. Yeah. >.<;
(08:32:48 AM) yama: I forget there's an IRC client on there. ^^:
(08:32:54 AM) Cheeseness: So Syd is looking towards streaming Ben There, Dan That next week. I'm looking forward to checking that out
(08:33:10 AM) Syd: Yeah, I should be able to knock that game out in one session
(08:33:11 AM) yama: Not familiar with that game. *googles*
(08:33:18 AM) Syd: It's a fun little point and click, very LucasArts-ish
(08:33:34 AM) Cheeseness: If anybody has any further thoughts/ponderings/insights about Trauma, feel free to keep discussion going (either here or in the forum thread http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/8084/ )
(08:33:38 AM) Fireflower: that will be cool to watch, don't know much about it
(08:33:40 AM) Cheeseness: I have to duck off and bake some bread now ^_^
(08:33:52 AM) Fireflower: :)
(08:34:09 AM) yama: Hehe.
(08:34:28 AM) yama: Cheeseness, send my thanks to Mimness for the excellent streaming. ^^