Author Topic: Retail Status  (Read 26126 times)

Badspot

  • Administrator
Heres a history of what has happened over the last 8 months or so:
  • Blockland got Lego's attention.  They contacted me and wanted to meet with me.
  • I went to brickfest (a Lego convention here in Virginia) and talked with 2 lego executives, demo'd the game for them.  They were adamant that I could not make money of of Lego intellectual property.  However, they were extremely impressed with the progress I had made since the beta and wondered if I would like to work with them on a project.  I said that I would.
  • Later In a phone conversation, they say that they would like to buy the game from me and hire me in some capacity to develop the game further for at least a year.  They make an offer.
  • I email some garage games folks and ask for advice.  They say the offer sounds low.  They offer to compy my entry fee to IGC. 
  • I fly to oregon and attend the Indie Games Con (IGC) - a conference hosted by Garage Games.  I speak to several people there, the general consensus is that I should be getting much more than what Lego has offered and suggest I make a counter offer.
  • I talk again with the lego executive on the phone, and he makes this wonderful flabberghasted noise when I tell him the counter offer.  We agree that it would be good for me to come to Denmark and see the place where I would theoretically be working and who I would be working with.
  • Lego flies me to Denmark.  I demo the game for some developers, art guys and business types.  They are impressed.  I have a bit of trouble converting them to my gaming philosophy but I make some progress.  We discuss the problems of online gaming.  The lead software guy doesnt seem to like me.  The offer to buy the game stands as well as the employment offer for 1 year.  They tell me to think about it.
  • I email the garage games guys and tell them that the offer combined with employment sounds like pretty decent deal.  They agree. 
  • I attempt to contact the Lego guy.  I leave a phone message and email.  No reply, I figure they must be on holiday break.  In january I leave a few more phone messages and send some emails.  No reply.  Previously they had been quite prompt in replying to my messages.   
  • And that brings us to today.  Was it all a ploy by lego to delay blockland and get some sweet design tips for the price of a plane ticket?  Did they simply change their minds?  Who knows. 

Current plans: - in chronological order
  • Release new patch for Age of Time.
  • Create and release an Age of Time style Blockland beta (where only the client is publicly available, so you must join the official server to play).  This way I can test things without a stuff-storm of mod wars and leakage. 
  • Refine gameplay using this new beta. 
  • Finish school (march hopefully)
  • Complete Blockland with non-lego IP.  Possibly through employment at Garage Games (they made some vague job offers to me)
At this point It doesnt really matter to me which way I go (with Lego or Garage Games).  With Lego, I'd make more money but I'd have to live in Denmark and deal with other people's bad ideas.  With Garage Games, I'd make less money but at least I would own the game and have complete control.  If lego calls me tomorrow, I don't know what I'll do.

Technical status
The game works quite well serveral people had a good time playing it at IGC.  Avatar customaztion has many features, but is not quite as extendable as I would like.  Building and selecting bricks works quite well.  You can have around 8x more bricks on the screen than v0002 with the same performance.  Brick saving and loading works.  Hidden surface removal works on the top and bottom of bricks, but not on the sides yet and there are some bugs with transparent bricks.  Jerk management needs to be more robust (this is where the new beta will come in).




:O  :cookieMonster: :cookie:


Did Denmark smell? Are you even ever gonna look at this topic again?

If you join GG, will you move out to Eugene, Oregon?

BS you might ecounter some reCIAtance in the client BL, the modable aspect of the game is what has really drawn people to it. and look at the servers people make. it's your game but i think taking away the create server is a BIG mistake

Badspot

  • Administrator
I'm taking away the create server option for testing, not final release. 

Glad to hear the news. Good luck to you man.

Thanks for update, it's really appreciated.  From what you said in the post, it sounds good so far.  I look forward to a future release.  As for the "AoT - must enter official server" method, I agree that doing something like that will cut back on popularity a lot.  However, for testing purposes, I think it's a great idea.  As for making the game through Lego, or through GG, I don't really care right now.  I just want to see the finished product.  Either way, there's a very good chance that I'll pick up a copy (if I had the money, of course).  Good luck with it (and of course your other IRL responsiblilties), and hopefully you get the final release issues (distribution means, through Lego or GG, of course) worked out in a satisfactory way.  Thanks again for such a great idea and game!  Mouser X over and out.

Good Job, and i hope all goes well with you :)

Sincerely,
              Spaceomega

I wonder if Lego will screw you over and put their own game out like Blockland, totally screwing it in the process.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2012, 05:48:17 PM by Otis Da HousKat »

sweet,and ooh yeh,iwas born in VA,Roanoke.did you go to the red light district?!?!

So if this game becomes retail all of us that play the version that there is now cant play it unless we buy it. Or is this like and demo version kinda and can still playit. Please let me understand.

It sounds to me like Lego dropped the deal because you made a counter, then they probably got told some stuff from the people who dident like the game, and Legos to tight assed to tell you and make themselves look bad, as for using GG you may get less pay but you will have better control, and to me sounds like the best idea, cant wait to play retail!

cool can you unban me now

If you're banned how can you post?

he made a new account, so badspot, will you include the all of the bricks from rtb and such in the Client BL?