Universal Ire - Blood Memory (by 10Birds)

Continued.

Furthermore, as an indie gamedev looking for publishing/investment, looking back on our experience, people might have to be prepared to relinquish no less than 30% of shares for a post valuation of under USD 3mil if incorporated. You will also have to hand over many creative rights and freedoms, and retune/remake your game according to publisher/platform/channel’s guidelines. I feel this is one of the reasons we see so many similar games from similar game companies on open market platforms. Also, VCs mentioned frequently that they would not invest unless we had a publisher or channel (i.e. messenger/content platforms) lined up. Another thing we learned firsthand while looking for investment/publishing: They will make sure to push back IR and publishing milestones so that they can insert themselves when the devs are at their most vulnerable and desperate. Personally, this is not cool, but it is realistic. Also, in regards to due diligence the systems seemed to have changed in the last year. Investments/publishing MGs come in 3-4 parts depending on milestones that the publisher/VC has set. If you are receiving USD in 1mil in investment money-holders will divide the due diligence into 3-4 parts—smart, because there are devs that just eat money and poo nothing. Due diligence and investment become more complicated when MGs/deposits are added to the mix. How investment will fill the bank to feed a project seems to depend on the milestones publishers/VCs have set for you.This is understandable as it makes good business sense for both major publisher-dev and VC.

It appeared that it is not the profile of major publisher-devs/VCs to innovate. Could you blame them? I can’t. Perhaps it is because I used to work for a major publisher-dev. From their standpoint we weren’t worth the risk. I see this as very natural. Thousands and thousands of jobs and billions of dollars are at stake, and in a sense it is easily understandable for such entities to play day trading with content. And I have heard the word ‘stocks’ used in relation to picking and pushing mobile game titles for a couple of years now. Financial success is the most important thing for most major publisher-devs, especially in mobile games. Major publisher-dev driven mobile games are very data-driven, hence the analogy to day trading. Funny thing is, the difficult thing for indie gamedevs like Tenbirds is this: not only do we need positive recognition, we also need to be financially successful and viable. This cannot happen without the interest and support that you have shown us. However, without any interest and support I feel that you will be seeing the same old same old again and again in mobile games. If indiedevs are not able to gain exposure, find commercial and financial success, the possibilities of seeing new and fresh games seems… well, you get the picture. It is one of the reasons why we are coming to you, asking questions, receiving feedback, and constantly experimenting. I guess that is one of the reasons I am posting this. I apologise for the long read, and especially to /u/Saloice on TA for the long wait. Really. I’m effin-sorry. Seriously. We like you. We look at your Emails and smack ourselves on the back of our head thinking we are morons. Srsly. Dude/Dudette, we effin care what you, and of course, our gamers think. Hey, if you know who Saloice is, could you give the hooman a call? Saloice has been with us from the beginning (tears). I even DMed Saloice… This is a song especially for you, Saloice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imxAeQZjBeI. Check it, mfr. Btw, I don’t know what to do if you don’t like the song.

4. Race Against the Clock.

Again, time was not on our side, and we felt that the only way Ire was going to see the light of day was if we self-published. Below are several contributing factors of our launch:

- Publisher-devs/VCs taking time we didn’t have: Made 7 different alphas for over 11 different publishers/VCs to evaluate during 8 months.
- Budget and resources: Tic-toc-tic-toc… BHRRRIIING!
- Date of delivery (Internal Deadline): We promised ourselves that we would have a rollout by April 2015 (M12).

That last point was perhaps one of the most important milestones we wanted met. My experience with productions is that when you hit M9-10 work fatigue starts to seep in quickly and a production can get stale, especially for a mobile game. Keeping the team motivated and excited was very important. All of us in the studio knew the risks were high. Usually around M9-10 people start questioning their loyalty, commitment, and happiness. Having short and achievable goals/milestones was a way we kept the energy high.

So, we went ahead with our Beta rollout. We did not look too deep into our numbers as we felt the absolute number of testers we had was too low to stand for meaningful metrics (380ppl). There was definitely a dip in metrics with our live release, but we feel that the current numbers, the positive and constructive feedback, and general excitement the studio and gamers all share are more than acceptable to keep moving forward.

II. WWR: Worldwide Release or World War Release?

1. Hell Week (May14-).

Circumstances pushed us to release. Our first binary was quickly, and automatically, rejected because of what appeared to be an ad tracking software library in one of the features we were using. I think it was an issue with Unity/Everyplay(?). Hamburgers! Frustrating as hell. This is something that developers may want to check before uploading a binary to the App Store. It will save a lot of heartache. Unless you are deliberately using tracking in your application and you state/show that purpose/process for review, check your code/libraries and take that tracking related stuff out. After we did this we waited, entering the eye of the storm. Btw, it doesn’t mean we sat around and did nothing. We worked on optimisation, bug fixes, and future feature sets—we still are. We weren’t too worried about how the game would be received. A lot of care, passion, and calculative thinking went into it. That doesn’t mean we felt invincible either, but confidence and hope was something we had. If not that then what, right? As with the Beta, we did not expect much traction, expecting at most 7k-14k gamers per week in a best case scenario.

One of the reasons we weren’t expecting too much traction from the start was because of the nature of Ire and the gamer audience we initially had in mind—a gamer audience we are a part of. We were right in thinking that there would be PC/console gamers out there like us, waiting for a PC/console game for mobile like Ire. One of the objectives was to bring a very small fraction of PC/console gamers to mobile. But, we were totally, absolutely, WRONG in thinking that they would be our only gamer audience. This is something that our Beta didn’t show us. (Liz Lemon, because I’m a huge Tina Fey fan.) “NERD RAGE!” This happens when you don’t know what you don’t know, and you have no idea what the important questions to ask are. Ignorance is not bliss.

2. The Unexpected Gamer.

A large part of our game balancing, combat mechanics, system, progression, grinding, UI and HUD had experienced PC/console gamers in mind. Our data showed us that hardcore/experienced gamers adjusted to our game quickly and effectively, even complimenting the clean, old school UI and HUD. We were, like, “Yay, you understand us!” That was all good… for about 1 day. For the next two weeks we saw something we had not anticipated. Mobile-centric gamers, or latent(??) gamers, started jumping into our game. I imagine, from the feedback we were getting, these were gamers that were curious about the game, or they were gamers looking for a fresh new type of challenging gameplay they had not been exposed to. Anyway, newcomers wanted to play and wanted to stay. At first our devs and I were having a good dialogue going with many hardcore gamers about very specific, and technical, feature sets. This has expanded to include many mobile-centric/latent gamers. Again, this unexpected audience is… well, very exciting, and as important an audience as any experienced gamer pool.

We had to do something fast to accommodate mobile-centric/latent gamers. But, that didn’t mean we were going to make this a ‘cazul’ handholding game. For the next week we went back to adjusting game/level design, balancing, and read as much feedback we could get our eyes onto. That meant sifting through Emails, forums, Youtube videos, DMs, IMs, and app reviews. The first two weeks of server patching and today’s v1.0.12 update attempts to be a start in addressing such issues for both new and experienced gamers. The only thought that went through my head at this time was, ‘How moronic was I in thinking that mobile gamers were not sophisticated and complex enough to understand and want complex games. Shame on me!’ My friend Sangpil Moon just pointed this out to me. Btw, he just got featured for his game Wicked Snow White on Google Play—it’s a match-3 game. Search it, please. It’s just the start for him as well.

For those that chose to download and give Ire a try, and those of you that kept with it, sending us constructive criticism/feedback, from the bottom of our hearts at Tenbirds, thank you, thank you, thank you. ZOMG, thank you. Maybe it’s because I’m so tired, but my eyes are welling up. There is no word in the human vocabulary to describe how grateful we are. Didn’t expect all of the positive and constructive comments. We really didn’t. We welcome it all, as it makes us stronger, and will ultimately improve the game.

 

Continued, again -_-

II. Moving Forward.

1. v1.0.9 thru v1.0.12.

In two weeks we have had 3 build updates moving from v1.0.9 to v1.0.12. For iOS we skipped v1.0.10 because v1.0.11 came by so fast. We were rejected the v1.0.11 update on iOS, but got that sorted out through their resolution centre. We asked for an expedited review of v1.0.12 for iOS, knowing full well that there are limits to how many expedites you can submit, meaning you have to be absolutely confident in the build. Asking for an expedited review is a huge gamble, so if you are a dev wanting to use this, please, use with caution. Use it when you feel it really matters. We needed to rollout v1.0.12 as soon as we could for a few reasons.

- We didn’t want iOS users to have outdated builds compared to Android.
- Implementing internal plans/issues and user feedback ASAP: Bug fixes, improvements, revisions, supplements, balancing, etc.
- Cranking up momentum; give no quarter for complacency.

2. WIP.

We have a backlog of data and feedback that we cannot immediately address or implement. We are tackling as many issues as we can simultaneously. I apologise on behalf of all of us at Tenbirds if we haven’t replied to your Email(s). Believe me when I say that we spread the work amongst all of us to go through as many as we can in identifying potential areas of improvement for maximum impact. Below are some of the things are working on, with some having made it to the current v1.0.12 update.

- Attending to mobile-centric/latent gamer needs:
- Early level gameplay balancing/adjustments, and guides.
- PvP matchmaking adjustments.
- User Interface & HUD:
- Fixed exit Shop bug on tablets.
- Repositioning HUD for tablets. Customisation feature will be a while to implement, but we are looking into it.
- UI optimisation: Radically changed list object call and destroy framework for higher/faster load/performance.
- Controller/Key mapping: This will take a while to implement as well. I am very sorry Xyberknight and friends. Will continue to champion this.
- IAP: No plans to move the paywall forward at this time. A key metrics focus here is to grow player base, and for you to play more.
- Many of you have asked for us to add something to our IAPs. TF2 had hats…?
- Many of you asked for us to just go and add a donation button—no in-game currency attached. A new concept for the FE.

3. Miscellaneous

- Diverse/dynamic camera angles (to Tasos Lazarides): We are running into some difficulty pulling this off. But we’ll work on it.
- iFrames (to CRAYTATO): So I’m told that the initial setting to all dodge is set to 0.1sec (3frames/30frames, 6frames/60frames) for iFrames. Mystical Shards will extend iFrames. It’s also really tied into your device performance, and I can’t say it’s an exact science, thus I am very, very cautious as to saying anything with certainty in regards to iFrames.
- We were going to take out Everyplay, but some of you wanted us to keep it. We smoothed out some of the performance issues eating into the game, thus we will keep it.

III. On the Horizon.

Below is our current work schedule we have outlined for the coming builds/months. We are entering a stabilisation/optimisation phase in development. This will open new space for us to experiment and add new content. The update notes are but a fraction of the items that we are currently working on, but I think it covers our basic roadmap. Again, it’s a great pleasure to be able to bring this to you (wiping my tattered sleeves against my mug). We look forward to your continued interest, support, gameplay, and, most of all, screaming at us for stuff. To be sure, a post like this won’t be uploaded regularly. I do hope to keep you informed of any changes or adjustments on the game. If there are any big game changes I will definitely keep you posted. This is just a recap of what went on.



TL;DR

In closing, I’d like to say that we are of the opinion that the pool of games has become stale and that there are people ready and willing for challenging, intelligent [action] games. We wanted to show PC/console gamers that mobile is a viable platform for dynamic combat mechanics and complex systems, both for playing for short and long stretches of time. We feel there are people out there wanting this, and that is something we hope to be a part of and be a part of. We also felt that there are many mobile gamers that want to play such complex games as Ire, but this is the first time they have been exposed to PC/console game inspired combat/game mechanics. There is a clear hurdle here and this is something that we hope to overcome, as mobile-centric gamers seem to enjoy and try to stick to the game no matter how many times they die in the Ire-verse. We feel that balancing is needed, and thus for the early portion and lower stage levels of our game we hope to make the learning curve a bit more rewarding, and make them feel that the odds are impossibly stacked against them. For experienced gamers of various platforms we will ramp up the reward that comes from overcoming difficulties by balancing the next stage levels (for Ire it is the level of Pilgrimage, etc.). Thanks for reading. I am sorry for the many grammatical errors, inconsistencies, or craziness. Let me know if you see a lot of bull, so I can fix it when I wake up. JHC, I’m gonna catch some shut-eye now. Feel free to X-post. Thanks y’all.

Edit: We have a Facebook Page. I think it is http://facebook.com/irebloodmemory.

 

I can't get this to work on my iPhone. Yeah I'm jailbroken, but not to steal games... It's to add features and mod my phone.. Which I have always done since my first iPhone3g.
Is there any work around to get this free game to work please?

 

Great information!
I'm currently Lv. 20, and have SS on Chapter 1 Anger/Denial/Bargain, SS on Chapter 2 Anger/Denial, and S on nearly all Chapter 3 stages, and soon I'm finally going to beat the final stage and move on to Chapter 4. Currently, the game has worked very smoothly for me when it comes to currency, and each time I’ve grown weary I’ve unlocked something new and continued playing without having to pay any money.

I spent the weekend playing a lot of Atone, for the first time, with over 100 shards I had collected up until that point. I made it up into the 80’s rankings, despite only being Lv. 17, several times, but could never quit when I should have and subsequently fell down several times. It was very annoying to constantly fight players around Lv. 30, but on Saturday I finally managed to make it up to rank 70, and I got 80 gems. My complains about Atone would be having to fight players who are so much stronger than you, and that you only really get anything for playing once a week. Currently, the only way I can manage is to use special attacks over and over again. I have also noticed that the AI is quite weak to special attacks if you start them when the AI is off-screen. I want to see the AI improved, because only using special attacks is monotonous, but if that happens it will become a lot more difficult to get into the Top 100 though.

Anyway: Atone is great, overall, but a bit hard and a bit unrewarding. I will probably only be playing it on Saturdays right now.

I heard you’ve changed some boss stages now. 2-4 was beatable with a single Impact Gauntlet special attack if you were strong enough, and beatable in 16 seconds, before the current update.

New app icon is bad, but splash screen is better, and in-game UI a nice improvement. Still, improvements could be made around the board. Currently, the icons are spread all over the screen in the camp.

It’s great to see you involved with the community. Maybe you should create a forum, so players can discuss features and agree on a consensus on what everyone wants the most, etcetera?

Good luck, it sounds like you’re living the indie-dev dream, more or less!

 

Why the jb protection? People can hack the game damn near just as easily without jail breaking.
I bought the first iap and have been extremely happy with the game but now I can't even play it...
I am pretty pissed/disappointed but I know it's not your fault devs. You want to protect your investment I get that. Some people that hack just ruin it for the rest of us..

THANK ALOT HACKERS!!! #

 

Dito!
I'm not a cheater, I hate cheats!
But game is free, so should be playable for JB and non JB. It's not like you are losing out on sales as its free. And we can all still buy iap in game wether we are JB or not. But now we can't, as got no choice as we can't start game.
Maybe it's unintentional and is a bug that appeared with latest update?

 

Sorry, TA, didn't know how long the post would take or how lengthy it would be. Felt like it needed to be shared. Will update as I receive updates myself. What a relief to finish that! Now that I have that out of the way...

 

Okay, about the JB devices: Talked to the team, and they showed me the abusers. Progammer is saying that the ban is going to be there for a while, unless there are any other bright ideas out there, which we haven't found.

 

Right now it feels like, well I wouldn't say nightmare, but like a war dream. The higher levels will have a different AI. If you are killing them left and right, kudos to you, because I'm at level 22 and it isn't looking to good in Atone for me. As for the app icon... Really? Come on, that was my thing! Okay, well, we're going to swap out icons as we go along. Let's agree to disagree on that one. Btw, v1.0.12 had a lot of balancing calibration to it. We're going to tweak it as we go along to keep everyone on their toes.

 

Ire: Blood Memory Hell Week Recap

(Long read) If you haven't seen it, here is a recap of the past two weeks and internal roadmap for future updates.
It's all on one page so it should be easier on the eyes. Just for those of you interested in stuff like this
Tenbirds | Ire: Blood Memory After Action Review
Also don't forget to visit the Ire Facebook Page.

 

So it's the cheats in game, that are ruining it for us JB? But I'm sure I've seen hacks/cheats for this game that can be used on non JB devices.... So why not just ban everyone from playing this? Bit unfair to single out JB users

 

Can't you guys just ban the hackers directly from your server?

 

@Bloodangel:
I'm very sorry, seriously. I really don't know what else to say. JBs are unfortunately a definite starting point for cracks. For Android we aren't even supporting many of the devices that are using mods. From what I heard, we do look at many other things, softwares, and other exploits as well. Lead programmer is telling me I shouldn't talk too much about it, so I'll respect the lead programmer's wishes. Not my area of governance. But you're right, it can be very unfair for well-meaning people. Nevertheless, can't have devs playing cops and robbers all day. When would we dev? It's like they say with antiobiotics: kills a lot of needed bacteria in the body. Still, it's needed. Funny, not condoning, but I saw several folks out there looking into a workaround for JB. It's like an arms race: Shield vs. Spear. Anyway, enough talk. Cheats and abusers are why we can't have nice things. Policy is there for a reason as same as the reason for rule of law: So we won't go Road Warrior on each other, baby.

@geno11233:
Come on, geno11233! You know that we do, and you know that that doesn't cover everything.

Edit: Anyway, looking for better ideas and ways to address security/cracks/hacks/abusers/exploits/destroyers-of-worlds/men-who-just-want-to-watch-the-world-burn. Open to solutions, but not BS.

 

I meant JUST the hackers.... But it's cool. Hope you guys go the premium route next time....

Goodluck with development though

 

That Mad Max reference.

 

The JB ban is sad to see, but also easy to workaround and if you are JB and are using it for tweaks and customization and not cracks, hacks or free IAP, then I think you can find a way to get around it. As for a solution, I am not privy to the exact abuse going on, but I am testing a game called Dawn of Titans and there are several cracks and tweaks that allow cheating and they found a way to stop it, basically through various server checks and server fixes that forced aspects of the game that were using the device to utilize the server instead. I am of the opinion that JB, Cydia, AppCracker checks are a lazy solution to stop cheating. I hope you find a better long term fix in the future as there are a vast number of legit players who also happen to be JB.

Everything stated above, love the game. Only wish it were premium and didn't need a network to play! Implosion is a similar game and well worth the $10 admission price. I understand why many indies go the F2P route and I hope for the day more indies go the premium route and succeed.

Good luck in your future!

 

Well the update wiped out all of my progress. I will start over because I like the game, but it's discouraging to lose all of the time I put into this game so far. I hope the devs get this sorted out for the next update.

 

@Spartyfan6262:
Tried sending you a DM. Don't know if it reached you. Okay, so this was in our Notice section, and I thought I should share here as well.

--
Data loss
Q. Guest account data is wiped. Is there any way to retrieve it?
A. If you login as Guest, your game data can be lost, especially when you update the app.
If you are an Android user, login to Google Play. Then your data will be transferred automatically.
Caution for iOS device users. Data transfer is unavailable, so you must login to Game Center if you do not want to lose your data. Please, contact misc[at]10birds[dot]com for inquiries regarding to data wipe and possibly retrieving it.
--

"Mom" has received some Emails to help retrieve lost data. Not as many as we expected so it is at a volume I think we can handle. "Mom" is looking through the Emails coming in about this issue at misc[at]10birds[dot]com. She's really nice, and I think she will help.

 

Wow, Infinity Blade. Yes, we're looking at many other things including what you mentioned. Asking around to other devs about better solutions that doesn't penalize other users. Not getting any better responses. I know this game isn't anything like Infinity Blade, a game series we really love as well, but hopefully it will get close to that amount of production value.

F2P for this phase of gamedev. Implosion really showed us that it premium is viable. Premium also makes it a lot more convenient to balance a game... That's one of the ways we want to go in the future.