2018.07.07 Boss 101 and our development future!

Hey all, this is Tim (one of the Boss 101 devs).

Want to help support the Boss 101 team and see Boss 102? YOU CAN!

Short version
Purchase it on Xbox One: http://bit.ly/2J0o14A
Purchase it on Steam: http://bit.ly/2u0Rnes
Help with the Boss 101 translation project to bring Boss 101 to more regions: http://bit.ly/2zifhaf
Already have Boss 101 or don’t have the money? Spread the word about our game!

Long version
Thanks for your purchase of Boss 101. Whether you bought the game during a sale, when we launched or somewhere in between WE THANK YOU! It’s been a crazy, wild ride getting to this point and we are so grateful for your support.

As you may or may not know, Boss 101 didn’t exactly set the sales world on fire and due to this we are having to take a VERY hard look at our situation for future games. There is no plan to roll up the tents and leave town just yet but we have to scale back the production on games like Boss 102 until our financial situation stabilizes a lot more. At the moment we are all either looking or have extra jobs to help pay the bills. Things like sales and giveaways, while increasing our visibility, don’t really add a lot to the bottom line.

In the end – it’s about funds. We simply cannot go forward at the rate we have been burning our capital. At this point we would need to sell many more copies of the game to stabilize. We’re sitting at well under 3000 shipped copies at the moment across all platforms.  Many, many of those were sold at a low or sale price (under $15/each) so even that number is deceiving.

When Boss 101 launched in November 2017 we sold the majority of ALL SALES TO DATE in the first three launch hours. This is exactly when we were on the front page of Steam. We were off the front page in about 3 hours and sales took a nosedive. In fact. If you total up all the money made after those first three hours (including console Boss 101 sales) we still haven’t matched that dollar amount. If a person had taken a job at Starbucks last November they would have made more money by today than all Boss 101’s sales. Take our profits and split it across three people over four years and you can imagine where we stand with our savings.

Boss 101 is the game we wanted to make and it was made with NO COMPROMISES. We made it as much for you as for us and we made it with our own money. Every time we felt there was something off, we adjusted it. Every time we thought something didn’t look good enough, we made it better. More animation, levels, weapons, hats, story. Everything serves one purpose, to entertain and give you the best value.

So here we are at the end of four years. Feeling great about the game itself but a sad we didn’t get the word out to more people. I know about one million ideas might be going through your head so let’s address a few of them. We want you on the same page as us after all.

What about a publisher? They could give you money and help with localization, translation, porting, marketing, etc!
We pitched Boss 101 to nearly every publisher that would listen. Letters, videos, gameplay, you name it. We offered as much as we reasonably could in terms of deals. Most publishers did a hard pass and a few did soft passes with “well, maybe next time”. We tried this route – believe us. Sure there might be more publishers out there but we did look long and hard!

What about YouTuber (insert name) or this awesome reviewer (insert other name) or what about (insert new name)!?!?! I just know they would love Boss 101!
We sent out nearly 1000 copies of Boss 101 to reviewers, YouTubers, media outlets and as many people as we could find. If they even looked like they might like Boss 101 they got a letter and a copy. In the end we had so few bites we didn’t even register on MetaCritic (you need four ‘verified’ reviewers to get a score). We even offered to partner with people to increase visibility by doing fun hats or promo things with them to promote Boss 101. Not one single returned mail on that idea.

What about Kickstarter? Crowdfunding? Etc
We never wanted to go this route. The goal was always to bring YOU the game FIRST and not ask for money until we had a solid product to deliver. We had seen so many failed crowd funded projects with bad time estimates and vast overpromising. We wanted to work at our own speed and unleash Boss 101 when the time was right. In the end that might have bitten us in the butt. At the same time we feel we did the right thing in MAKING the product before we SOLD the product.

Can’t you just port it to Switch, PS4, Ouya, Atari Jaguar? You would sell a TON OF COPIES!
Well, that is really about time and money and we just don’t have those resources at the moment. The game was always intended to go to console and if the fine folks and Microsoft hadn’t placed us in their great Indie Development program we might never had been on any console. Porting is not a press button affair and each iteration of the game on every system takes time and bug testing. We are three people (only one of us is a programmer). Boss 101 took nearly five months of work to bring to Xbox. We got those dev kits via the ID Xbox program. If we had to lease Switch Dev kits or PS4 or any other console we couldn’t do it easily.

Can’t you just translate it to Japanese, German or (insert language)? I bet it would sell a ton in (insert country)?
Same problem as above and maybe worse. Boss 101 has a TON of idiomatic expressions. It’s way more than a Google Translate away. It would take a lot of time (there is more dialog than you might guess). To top it off all the characters speak in particular ways that would best be handled by a pro. Again – this is time and money. Of course – that would also mean the insertion of all the new language text into the game via a system we don’t really have at the moment since Boss 101 is an English based game made primarily by English speaking people.

We DO have an option to bring the game to various regions and languages though! See the Boss 101 translation project here: http://bit.ly/2zifhaf

What can I do to help!?! I want to see Boss 102!
Simply put – we need to sell many more copies.

First – if you have bought the game – THANK YOU. You have done so much already. If you have not bought the game we would ask you continue to support us with recommendations on anywhere and everywhere. It means a lot to have a good rating or “Thumbs Up”. If you really don’t like the game or feel it’s not your thing fair enough. Sadly some of the negative reviews seem to amount to little more than “Good game but not my thing – THUMBS DOWN”. Haha. We always hope we are rated for the goals we set as much as the fun you had. Still – you opinions are you own.

If you bought the game on sale or won it in a contest – THANK YOU AGAIN. We are so glad to have you here and thank you so much for playing Boss 101. If you could recommend us or point a friend our way that would be awesome. Heck, if you want to gift Boss 101 to a buddy – please do! If you want to help with some Boss 101 Store translations then please check out the translation project (http://bit.ly/2zifhaf).

Streaming, posting, blogging, V-Logging, reviews and everything in-between all help us raise awareness and ideally bring in people to see and purchase Boss 101.

We’re hoping to continue to make more games and Boss 102 is at the top of that list. To do that we will need not only your support but the support from as many friends and fans as possible. We think the game is great and we want to see it succeed. We know it’s not for everybody yet we feel there is a player base out there. If you can help us – we would greatly appreciate it. Regardless, we’re hanging in there and bringing you our best!

Thank you and always remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Contact us hello(at)donleytimefoundation(dot)com

Boss 101 – Out Now
Xbox One: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/boss-101/9npzfzx1zf66
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/380920
Please check it out if you would be so kind!

2018.03.14 Boss 101 on Xbox One this Friday 5/18

Short version
Boss 101 is out on Xbox One this Friday!

Xbox One Launch Trailer 

Long Version
If you have been checking out this blog for any amount of time you know we started on Boss 101 nearly four years ago. Three people with an idea and drive. That was IT!

Well here we are on the threshold of another great moment on our Boss 101 development journey. We’re about to launch Boss 101 on the Xbox One this week. That’s correct folks! We have been hammering away since our PC launch on this console version. It’s not always been the smoothest ride but we have been hanging in there so we can make this happen.

We happen to think the Xbox One might be a good fit for our game. When we shipped on PC last November we felt great about the game. It was made with all the love and skill we could bring to bear. With this upcoming console launch we feel Boss 101 will bring fun and entertainment to a new audience.

Making Boss 101 a Console Specific Game

Even though we imagined coming to one or more of the consoles we didn’t know how long it might take our team of three to do the port. The Xbox One was probably the easiest among all the consoles since we already had a PC version. The whole process was made infinitely easier by the folks at Microsoft who really went  above and beyond to help our studio and studios like ours bring their products to the Xbox One. Every single person our team interacted with was helpful to a fault; giving us patient guidance and help. There were many times we got answers to letters in minutes and most of the time the longest we had to wait for a reply was one night.

Think about that. A company as big as Microsoft taking the time to do that kind of customer service. You might argue that’s easy for them to do because they are so big but I would argue the reason they ARE so big is they made the customer a #1 priority. It certainly made us feel welcome. No question we asked was dismissed and everything we wanted to know we were able to discover quickly. The vetting process was quick and the final delivery of a working build was about as smooth as we could hope. In fact – they even had a setup to allow small developers like us get access to development kits.

Really, it was a lot more help than we hoped and even near release they took another step towards helping us by providing some marketing push from their social media. Now, let’s be clear, most companies have a vested interest in making sure games published under their wing succeed. Microsoft is no different from Valve, Nintendo and Sony in that respect. What made this so nice was the human interaction from their team. We spoke with people every day during our porting process and each one of them was polite and courteous. We ended up feeling like we were the only developer they were handling and it meant so much to our team. After the PC launch we were looking for our next opening and Microsoft gave us just that.

So here we go, if you have been waiting for Boss 101 on the console and you have an Xbox One then please check out the online store this coming Friday. We would appreciate your support in any way you can – pass along the news, recommend us, a purchase – any or all of the those work!

Seriously – thank you so much for listening, for being with us and for all your support across development. Even if you are new to our team and our game we do appreciate your time.

Here’s to many more games! As always – remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Boss 101 – Out 5/18 on Xbox One
Please check it out if you would be so kind!

2018.04.28 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update 4/28

Hello and welcome to the weekend update for Zazmo Arcade.

First and foremost – WE MADE FINAL CERTIFICATION FOR BOSS 101 on the Xbox One! OK, that is not Zazmo related but it is related to the team and our game. It does mean we are back on Zazmo full time so look for us to be wrapping up Zazmo and getting it out of Early Access.

As we spoke about in a recent update we are now focused on Zazmo, final tune and bring you the final game. We really are looking forward to wrapping this up and we have Boss 102 as well as Zazmo Games Pack 2 on the horizon.

First though, we’re bringing you our very best in the Zazmo Arcade Pack and we hope you get a moment to check it out. Below are two of our game dev logs. There’s gameplay and dev talk happening and hopefully you can join us one of these nights!

Game Dev Talk Night Tuesday
Games, action, arcades and Infinity War

Game Dev Talk Night Thursday
More arcade action with Spidey and dev talk about classic arcade games from the 90’s

All right – that’s all for this week and talk with you soon!

Remember to always live your dreams!

-Tim

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Early Access Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
We appreciate your continued support!

2018.04.23 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update 4/23

Welcome to the Zazmo Arcade Pack Weekly update

General News

Not a whole lot to report. We had a busy week with game submission BUT we do want to add we are prepping for our Xbox One console release as well we our upcoming Steam release. We expect to be leaving Early access and heading onto Steam around the time we will be on the Xbox One.

Also – we are looking to wrap up the game in the next month or so in terms of Early Access. We have been doing a bit of testing behind the scene and think things are about ready for a full release. To that end we will keep you posted about the latest news and developments!

Onto the video dev logs from this week!

Monday Game Dev Log

Thursday Game Dev Log

That’s about it for this week and look forward to talking with your soon. Remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Early Access Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
We appreciate your continued support!

2018.04.19 Zazmo Game Night Video

Zazmo Arcade Pack Development Stream – Game Night

Our game night video – be warned – lots of laughing and screaming!

More to come and this Monday so join us then if you can!

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
Get Zazmo for 33% off if you buy Boss 101 too!

2018.04.15 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update

Welcome to the weekly Zazmo Weekend update! 

Let’s get rolling with the news and then share some of the latest development videos.

Boss 101 and Zazmo

Though this is not a Boss 101 update we do need to talk a little about what the development team has been working on for the last week. Our team is three people and we are working on both the Zazmo Arcade as well as the Boss 101 port to the Xbox One. Well, it looks like the Xbox One port is about done. We had a few minor bugs and issues to address this week and ideally we will have great news for all our friends and fans in the next big update.

Zazmo Arcade Pack 2 

With the wrap-up of Boss 101 we will be doing two things. The first will be finishing up the Early Access for the Zazmo Arcade Pack 1 (ZAP1) and then moving onto the Zazmo Arcade Pack 2 – which is tentatively being internally billed as a Sports or Action pack. We don’t know exactly what games will be in it but we are looking at putting in games like car racing, golf and maybe some form of football (North American or world themed).

We’ll keep you posted as we go but you can bet we want to make this amazing and fun so expect some fun twists on the standard sports fare.

Game Development Blogs

Game Dev Night 07

Game Dev Night 08

Check out the two weekly blogs we put up. Both have lots of dev talk. We also look at older games and the designs they have to see how much can still be applied to today. Some really nice work went into the classics and we try to break it down.

Talk with you soon and remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Early Access Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
We appreciate your continued support!

2018.04.11 Zazmo Game Dev Video Log up

Zazmo Arcade Pack Development Stream – Game Night

Our game night video – be warned – lots of laughing and screaming!

More to come and this Thursday so join us then if you can!

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
Get Zazmo for 33% off if you buy Boss 101 too!

2018.04.08 Zazmo Weekly Update

Welcome to the weekly Zazmo Arcade Update

We have a bit of a shorter update this week. All three of us are concentrated on getting our other game Boss 101 through submissions at Microsoft. On that end we are in the home stretch and that means a bit of bug fixing and adjustments to the build for the Xbox One. Thankfully nothing we can’t handle but it is taking our focus.

Onwards and upwards!

On the Zazmo end, I did this week’s game night and development update. Looked at some of the older classics we have been inspired from. It’s interesting to see how these game which are closing in on 30 years old hold up.

Game Development Dev Talk with Zazmo, looking at older game designs

Checked out the sequel to a game called Rush N Attack and man – that thing is a quarter muncher. You die so often and the game is so brutal!

Also did a run through Bionic Commando. It’s hard to overstate the great ideas in that game and how far they permeate into many other games. Really fun still but also a really hard game to just get through without dying a lot! I mean a lot.

On the strictly Zazmo front we are looking to wrap up development and leave Early Access once we are done with Boss 101 on the Xbox One. As we have said – there are not a lot of things on the main list left. We are mostly looking at polishing things and adjusting gameplay bits. All the core gameplay tenets are there and we are focused on making the whole things smooth and easy to play.

Personally I am pretty excited about the new powerups for the games Breakdown and Rob’s Adventure. They add a lot to already fun games and bring the whole experience up a notch or two.

OK, check out the video and we will talk with you soon!

Remember to always – LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Early Access Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
We appreciate your continued support!

2018.04.06 Zazmo game Dev Night Video

Zazmo Arcade Pack Development Stream – Game Night

Our game night video – be warned – lots of laughing and screaming!

More to come and this Monday so join us then if you can!

Zazmo Arcade Pack Info Roundup
Twitch Channel – Monday Thursday Dev Streams at 6pm CST Donley Time Twitch
Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/770320/Zazmo_Arcade_Pack
Get Zazmo for 33% off if you buy Boss 101 too!