A New Direction
For over a year now I have been committed to Mappdev, my independent venture. There were times when I was 100%, all-out committed, and times when I was only halfheartedly committed, and then there were times when I was sure I would have to give up the whole thing and get a job, but for the most part, it's been a good ride. In January I enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top 20 developers on Facebook and I proved that I still have the skill and know-how to be successful in our modern "social" age, but significant changes with the Facebook platform have forced me to reevaluate my current situation. My successful applications depended on a small but hugely significant feature that no longer exists, and now that it's gone, it's time for me to turn back to what I always wanted to do: large scale social games.
There are a few facts about these types of games that I can't work around; they take more than a few people to build, they need a lot of work to even have a chance at success, and they need a lot of time and commitment to bring in the kinds of user communities that are willing to buy virtual goods. I've tried to build such games on my own and failed, multiple times, simply because it's too much work for one person. That's why I need to make the right decisions now to play the field right. For the past month, I've been communicating with a number of people in the social app development space about my intentions and my ideas for successful games. At this point I am ready to say that I am making the transition from a solo, independent developer of simple social applications to a publisher and designer of large scale social games. What does this mean? It means that 6 months from now I want to be working on games with the scale of Farmville or Restaurant City, whether I am publishing them myself, partnering with existing studios, or consulting for such projects. I want to have a game of my own released that I can promote to my current audience of users, and I want it to be something that rivals current games in the space. I can't give too many specifics on my needs in terms of resources or who I plan to be working with, but I can say that I'm no longer going to be a hermit. I plan to spend as much time as possible talking to people involved with social games, looking for new projects to support, and working on the next big thing… whatever it might be.
So if you are in the social gaming space, I'd like to hear from you… and even if you aren't, then you should still watch this space… I plan to have exciting updates to share soon.
4 Comments
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christian,
this is exciting news.
In the coming months if you are looking at monetization and growth products for your new app give us a shout @ AdParlor.
We specialize in large app growth and monetization.
Take care.
Gareth Smith
AdParlor.com
Campaign Manager
You should check out Blue Frog Gaming… they're a YC company and they're hiring: http://www.bluefroggaming.com/jobs.php
Eheh, Mr. Montoya, didn't know you were a programmer. Making a good game by yourself is near impossible because it requires a lot of skills in various domains : design, coding, music, graphics, promotion. Maybe if you work full time on it and you have an incredible drive, it can be done but it may ruin your social life in the making. Personally, i like the idea of slow paced, turn-based games that can be played on a browser. But, you can't ignore where the demand is, ie apps for ipad and such. I personally can't stand facebook and twitter (hopefully, they'll go away soon).
Hey Ugo, I totally hear you. I actually started teaching myself how to make music so I could use it in my games. Currently I'm working on a 100% native iPhone game (so Objective-C and all that jazz) and it's slow going… mostly because I'm also working on music, consulting, and doing other projects… like a book deal that is supposed to start next week. I'm pretty much all over the place but it keeps me busy! If I ever do finish my iPhone game I'll let you know… ha ha.