Our Patreon continues to rip it up, as we blew past the 75% mark this weekend- rapidly closing in on our goal. Our Patreon is actually doing so well that we’re #175 overall on Patreon. All this is awesome, totally unexpected, and you guys are the best. Anyway, on Friday we heard from Neil Young, the founder and former CEO of ngmoco who has since moved on to doing secretive things at N3TWORK. Today, we’re swinging back to the indie side of things to hear from Alex Okafor, who is half-way responsible for Tilt to Live ($2.99) which you’ve probably played in some form or another over the years.
Tilt to Live has always been supremely noteworthy, but maybe not for the reason you might expect: They were among the first popular tilt-based controlled games that offered a few different calibration presets depending on how you were sitting. It seems supremely basic, and almost common sense now, but when you first fired up Tilt to Live and it asked you how you were holding your device. This one tiny UI element made tilt controls so much less funky, as previously developers would have you reset your tilt position and a bunch of other weird stuff to figure out the zero point for tilting. Common sense now, not so common sense five years ago when everything in iOS was new.
Here’s Alex-
I’m Alex Okafor, the programmer half of One Man Left Studios. We’re a small two-man team that have been making indie games since 2009. Our most noteworthy releases over the past few years have been Tilt to Live ($2.99) and Outwitters (Free).
We’ve been involved with the TA community since late 2009. Our debut on the iOS app store was Tilt to Live in early 2010, and it’s initial success was helped in large part by an amazing forum community who loved what we were doing. TA readers rallied around the game and brought it to the attention of TA staff, which in turn brought on a review of the game, and helped give the game the exposure it needed to eventually land a feature on the app store. It’s one of the few direct examples I know of, where a passionate community of gamers like those found on the TA forums had a hand in catapulting a game into the limelight.
*stands on soapbox*
The marketplace has changed drastically since then, with a tidal wave of games releasing everyday. While it’s much harder these days to make any one gem stand out amongst an ocean of games, places like TA become ever more vital to the discerning gamer in helping sorting out what’s worth your time and what isn’t. TA isn’t going to convince the mass of gamers to go download the newest #1 game, as they already likely have it. If you care about playing something unique, different, and supporting “the little guy", TA can shine a light on those games that exemplify that, and give that game a slightly better chance to break out.
*gets off soapbox*
It’s hard to say where we’d be as a studio without TA when we started out. Obscurity is definitely high up on that list. We’re immensely grateful for the opportunities TA has opened up for us, and it’s unfortunate to think that this community could miss out on amazing games in the future due to developers being denied the same opportunities we got if TA went away.
Alex is right, the App Store is a crazy place, and we do everything we can to spotlight the indie games that otherwise would be lost between the cracks or not even discovered to begin with. Our community is awesome for finding those hidden gems, and they’re arguably my favorite thing about iOS gaming. If you agree, and want us to continue highlighting great tiny studios…
