![]() ![]() It does include the company line of credit, which I had put to about a balance of $50k right as TLF was coming out. You’ll notice that nowhere in there does it include paying me back for the money that I had to put into the company in order to finish The Last Federation (that was around $40k). The image to the left shows a pretty good approximation of what happened month by month. But the promotional income was gutted, and that was our main source of income. Our non-discount-period sales were up because of the new changes, so that was good. ![]() The Steam store changed a lot, and periodic discount sales - as well as the larger store-wide sales - were no longer the huge windfalls they once had been. However, all this time spent in extra development more than doubled the cost of making the game, and in the meantime our steady stream of income from our 2014-and-before titles started to dry up. We spent a TON of time in R&D mode, and then went to beta, and found out how much the early versions kinda sucked. Basically I overreached with the design, is the simplest way to put it. However you look at it, though, it’s my fault. What happened next is complicated, and the details are somewhat up for debate. What better time, right? People had been asking us to do a true 4X for years, too, and now we were finally ready. It was time for that big awesome 4X game I’d always been wanting to make. We had over $200k in the bank, solid monthly income, and I was feeling my oats. When we started on Stars Beyond Reach, we were relatively cash-rich. That was after pushing the game back repeatedly, first from May to July, and then to late September. You may recall that in early October we decided to push that game back until Q2 2016, citing burn-out on the game and being creatively stagnant, etc. Wait, I thought we were talking about Starward Rogue? Yeah, but my chief screw-up this time happened in relation to Stars Beyond Reach. I brought back on some of the staff I had had to lay off previously, albeit more carefully in terms of how many people and how many hours. This isn’t exactly something you want to be known for.Īnyway, TLF then became our fastest-selling title to date (though it’s total sales have not matched AI War), and we wound up with a large cash buffer. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to do again - particularly after in 2010, that became part of our reputation. By making a lot of personal financial investments and by making the staff cuts, I managed to get us to the finish line on that game without us having to cry for help again. These were not particularly public, but we lost a bunch of staff then again. We had some more woes in early 2014, right before The Last Federation came out. I still had to lay off about half the team that worked on Tidalis, but the company itself continued on and eventually grew larger than ever before. Back in 2010 we had a lot of trouble, and then promptly were pulled out of it by an outpouring of support. I’ll save you the trouble of pointing out that this has happened to us before. By contrast, about 2,100 people have bought the game across Steam and Humble. ![]() About 9,000 people on Steam have wishlisted the title, which is awesome - next time this goes on discount, hopefully they’ll pick it up (but I mean, it’s only $11.99 USD and it’s 10% off already!). People are playing it and they are really loving it! As in, more than anything else we’ve done since AI War - really? That’s awesome news! The Bad ![]() Mostly from smaller channels with a few exceptions at the moment, but still. Starward Rogue is out now, and it’s getting glowing steam reviews (76, all positive, as of this writing) as well as a lot of positive youtube and twitch coverage. Well The TLDR is that almost all the Arcen staff are going to lose their jobs, effective Monday. Part 4: 2015-2016, Beyond Reach, Rogue, Raptor – Going 3D.Part 3: 2013-2014, Shattered, Bionic, Skyward, Last Federation – Peak Arcen.Part 2: 2011-2012, A Valley Without Wind, etc.Skyward Collapse: Nihon no Mura (Expansion 1).The Last Federation: The Lost Technologies (Expansion 2).The Last Federation: Betrayed Hope (Expansion 1).AI War: Destroyer Of Worlds (Expansion 6).AI War: Vengeance of the Machine (Expansion 5).AI War: Light of the Spire (Expansion 3).AI War: Children of Neinzul (Expansion 2).AI War: The Zenith Remnant (Expansion 1).Indie game development studio since 2009. ![]()
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