Cthulhu RPG Dev Trying to Break Out of Xbox Live

[Tom Goldman]

Cthulhu RPG Dev Trying to Break Out of Xbox Live

Xbox Live Indie Games might not be a perfect match for Zeboyd Games, but it needs a little help before moving on.

One of the most unique Xbox Live Indie Games developers out there is Zeboyd Games, a team of three that have already Cthulhu Saves the World [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103836-1-Xbox-Live-Indie-RPG-Successfully-Sells-30K]. However, due to the structure of the XBLIG platform, it's just not cutting the mustard. Zeboyd needs a little help to bring its style of RPGs to the PC and beyond, and has set up a Kickstarter donation page in the hopes of getting that help.

Microsoft pays XBLIG developers in what appear to be inconvenient quarters, meaning that profits from the first portion of 2011 won't be paid until May. This is one of Zeboyd's issues. Another is that while the $3 Cthulhu Saves the World, Zeboyd's latest release [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106527-3-Cthulhu-RPG-Makes-It-Out-Before-2011], is selling very well for an XBLIG game, that unfortunately still means it's only moving an average of around 200 copies per day and declining. Zeboyd isn't complaining, but the current level of sales cannot support full time game development.

Zeboyd posted on its website: "XBLIG is quickly proving itself to be a less than ideal platform for our kind of games. If we want to become a full time development studio, then just making games for XBLIG is not going to work."

Through its Charlie's Angels [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/744735150/cthulhu-saves-the-world-enhanced-version-for-pc-an] where Cthulhu is too lazy to be a hero and convinces a group of "talented women" to do some heroic deeds for him instead. This content will also be patched into the Xbox 360 version.

Zeboyd adds that once the PC port of Cthulhu is finished, Breath of Death VII is a shoe-in for a port, and future games will likely go multi-platform as well. Like all Kickstarter donation rallies, supporters will be rewarded based on amount given with anything from chiptune remixes of Cthulhu's soundtrack to tiny Cthulhus [http://cthulhuchick.com/], or even with a role as a townsperson in an upcoming game.

Zeboyd's two available products are both enjoyable RPGs developed with an interesting sense of humor. Despite a retro exterior and casts of silly characters, they have strong underlying JRPG-style gameplay mechanics that make them successful and worth playing to the end. I'd personally like to see what a company like Zeboyd could do working full time at their craft with a comfortable budget, as all its efforts up to this point have been part-time only. If you feel the same way, Zeboyd's Kickstarter page is here [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/744735150/cthulhu-saves-the-world-enhanced-version-for-pc-an].

Source: Zeboyd Games [http://zeboyd.com/2011/01/17/kickstarter-fundraising-efforts-for-enhanced-version-of-cthulhu-saves-the-world-for-pc-360/]

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[BlindTom]

This smells like amnesia envy but maybe that's just the poop in my trousers.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I'd gladly have paid $5, even $10 for Breath of Death, and haven't tried CSTW yet.

Making these games only a dollar is freaking nuts.

Get 'em on Steam, or hook up with the Humble Bundle people.

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

Really? A bigger budget for a Pc port? Heh, guess i might be getting complacent with working on Pc only then. Checked out their work, seems rather cool, hope they do well with the port, might pick it up.

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm,

I'm probably missing something here, but I am not getting why these three guys can't just work on the PC format to begin with, and deal with other indie-friendly platforms like STEAM. I mean, okay, I got it... money is tight, and Microsoft isn't going to be giving them their cut for a few months. I also get that they want to go on to do full time game development which is a fine dream, but can't afford to support themselves why they do it. It seems to me that they just need to be patient.

To be honest they seem to be doing really well, in a slow starting industry. I mean I remember back when Apogee, and Epic were distributing games the hard way as Shareware through BBS systems. If these guys are getting 200 sales a day on average right now (even if it's going to slow) they seem to be rocking for a group just starting out at this level.

 

[JEBWrench]

Hmmm,

I'm probably missing something here, but I am not getting why these three guys can't just work on the PC format to begin with, and deal with other indie-friendly platforms like STEAM. I mean, okay, I got it... money is tight, and Microsoft isn't going to be giving them their cut for a few months. I also get that they want to go on to do full time game development which is a fine dream, but can't afford to support themselves why they do it. It seems to me that they just need to be patient.

Because getting on XBLIG is ridiculously cheap.

$99 a year for up to ten game submissions, and a 70% return on sales.

 

[JEBWrench]

*double-post removed*

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I pledged money.


Because, I'm a god damn saint.

You all wish you were as great as I am.

 

[Andronicus]

While I'm sure they're very nice games to play, I refuse to donate money. If they're going to shaft the European XBLA, I don't see any reason why I should fund their games.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I pledged money.


Because, I'm a god damn saint.

You all wish you were as great as I am.

That ain't nothin, I pledged my undying sanity to our great and mighty, for Cthulhu Fhtagn!

May his heroic deeds spark the delightful end!

...jerk...

 

[The Random One]

OH GOD AN INDIE DEV IS ASKING ME FOR MONEY

HERE I HAVE SOME IN MY PANTS

YOU CAN HAVE THE PANTS TOO

THEY ARE MY SPECIAL PANTS

(It's weird that I seem to be making fun of people who are giving money when in fact I'm just exaggerating what I really feel.)

 

[Rad Party God]

While I'm sure they're very nice games to play, I refuse to donate money. If they're going to shaft the European XBLA, I don't see any reason why I should fund their games.

Indie company, I'm not so sure they can afford to do the translations that might be required for it.
That, and perhaps Microsoft is at fault, and not them. they might have to pay for the rights to publish there, as well as here, who knows.

I pledged money.


Because, I'm a god damn saint.

You all wish you were as great as I am.

That ain't nothin, I pledged my undying sanity to our great and mighty, for Cthulhu Fhtagn!

May his heroic deeds spark the delightful end!

...jerk...

You're just jealous that your sane mind couldn't come up with it before my insanity made me pledge myself to it!

And... I heard he has some rather soft tentacles, I want his secret!

Old Spice is his secret, all hail to Old Spice... I mean Ctuhlu!!!

 

[Xman490]

$25 gets you a special mention (hopefully in the big credits list). Seeing my name there will give me smile.

 

[daskat]

3 guys, 1000$ each... that rise so many questions. Are they held hostage by microsoft and can't contact their family?, microsoft made banks deny them a mortgage? why 30 days? are they holding hostage their own designed level and if someone doesn't pay the ransom they are gonna hit delete? which month is this?, cause this news looks like something that belong to April.

 

[KCL]

200 copies a day for 3 dollars at 70% is still 2940 dollars a week. If there are 3 guys in the team that's a 1000 bucks a week or 4K a month. Which by the way is probably better than many large game studio salaries per week depending on seniority.

$4300 a month is below par, and that's not even counting the fact that they don't get benefits. The current level of sales also isn't sustainable.

 

[Zeboyd Games]

Hi, this is Robert Boyd, the founder/designer/programmer/writer of Zeboyd Games.

I was rather surprised to see this article. We didn't do a press release for this fundraiser - I just posted on our website, our twitter account, and a few forums where I have a presence. We were targeting the fundraiser at our friends, family, fans and supporters and not the general populace. I'm not upset about this article or anything, just a little surprised.

To answer a few concerns and questions that have been brought up here...

A friend of mine heard about our lack of funding and suggested kickstarter. I checked it out, thought it looked like a decent site, and decided that we'd give it a try. Either we'd raise some money and we'd have more time and resources to develop in the first part of 2011 than we would have otherwise or we wouldn't and we'd be no worse off than we were before. I mean, I guess we might get a few people might think we were being greedy to try to raise funds, but given that we've already released two quality games at prices far below what companies usually charge for RPGs, I think we'll be okay on that front.

The point of this fundraiser is twofold - one, to speed things along and two, to give us the extra time to add some cool extra features to Cthulhu Saves the World. If the fundraiser fails, then yes, we will continue taking the "patient" route - the PC version will get done eventually (later than it would have if the fundraiser had succeeded), but there will be no extra features added (we'll be busy trying to get our 3rd game done by the end of August since it has high potential for being a bigger critical and commercial success than our first 2 games).

As for shafting Europe, Cthulhu Saves the World is available in every country in the world that has XBox Live Indie Games including several major European countries like the UK, France, and Germany. If you can't buy it, it's because Microsoft does not support indie games in your country. And if you're talking about the game only being in English, we're a three person team - we don't have the resources to translate the game, test the game in each language, and then market it in each language. At one point, we considered translating the game into German since we had a translator willing to help out there, but in the end, the extra time programming and debugging multiple langauges outweighed the benefits.

And yes, if the game sold 200 copies a day at $3 a piece forever, those would be solid sales. The problem is that daily sales tend to decrease at a fairly rapid rate early on. Not only that, but sales for Cthulhu Saves the World are falling at a faster rate than Breath of Death VII's sales did. I don't know where XBLIG copies of Cthulhu Saves the World sales will stabilize, but it will probably be far below 200/day.

Amnesia envy? Why Amnesia? There are plenty of indie games that have done better than Amnesia. If we were looking to an indie game for inspiration, it would be Recettear - it's done very well for itself and offers good evidence that there's a market for quality JRPGs on the PC.

If you're a fan of what we've done and would like to see us with the capabilities of doing even better and more ambitious projects, then please help us out by donating a few dollars. If you would like to see the new remix mode in Cthulhu Saves the World, please donate because we won't have the time to add it otherwise. And if you don't care about any of this, then don't. Regardless of what happens, I fully intend to continue to build our company up as a developer of high quality games - it's just a matter of how much time and difficulty will be involved.

 

[Tim Latshaw]

A direct connection with the people. At the risk of sounding like a hipster, this is why I love indie.