Hidden in Plain Sight has been out on the market for a full year now. The free trial has been downloaded 9162 times, and there have been 7248 purchases. The purchase-to-trial ratio is 79.11%.
Here's that weird sales graph again, for the official full year numbers. Click to embiggen.
Needless to say, the sales of HIPS, and the feedback that I've received, has far exceeded my expectations. In fact, I admit that it's made it a little more difficult for me to get motivated to start a new project.
I have successfully created a version of Hidden in Plain Sight for Windows. It is still multiplayer ONLY, and it still REQUIRES Xbox-compatible gamepads for all players! It is for sale on Indievania in a "pay what you want" model. You can even get it for free.
I just got this comment on my YouTube video preview for “Hidden in Plain Sight”.
This is not the first time I've heard this comment, so I thought I'd take some time to officially address this.
First, it’s no secret that Hidden in Plain Sight was inspired by my discovery Spy Party. I first read about Spy Party probably close to two years ago, and I thought the idea sounded fascinating. I've been following along with its progress since then.
Shortly after reading about Spy Party, I wondered if it needed to be a complicated 3D game. I wondered if the main essence of the game could be created in a simplified 2D format. I actually created a little prototype called SpyParty2D. Now THAT was a ripoff of Spy Party. It was a two-person networked game where one person was the spy trying to open boxes, and the other person was the sniper, trying to find and shoot the spy.
I only showed that prototype to a handful of people (including Monaco developer Andy Schatz, who introduced me via email to Chris Hecker, Spy Party’s developer). I never did anything further with it. This was in September, 2010.
I then went on to make and release two Xbox Live Indie Games (“Bad Golf” and “Battle for Venga Islands”).
Then, near the end of 2011, I returned to the idea of Spy Party. I boiled the game down to two main mechanics that I wanted to play with. First, I wanted the player to have to blend in with NPCs or risk elimination. This is not unique to Spy Party. This has roots in board games (Saboteur, for example), Mafia/Werewolf, etc. Second, I wanted to put the player in a state of conflict. I wanted the player to want to accomplish goals, but in a way that introduced some risk. Again, this isn’t specific to any one game.
With those two key concepts in mind, I came up with the game modes for Hidden in Plain Sight.
1) Ninja Party -- this is highly influenced by a web game called Puji. However, I believe Puji has a key flaw. Imagine Ninja Party, but without any statues. There is nothing for the player to do. It’s easy to look like an NPC, so basically someone just has to wait until someone gets bored and does a random attack. By introducing statues and an alternate path to victory, I believe this enhanced the depth of the game a lot.
2) Catch a Thief -- If anything, this is the most straightforward “rip off” of Spy Party. And frankly, in my opinion, it’s the least fun game mode. However, note that this is a four-player game played on the same screen. That alone should considered enough of a distinguishing factor.
3) Death Race -- This is a wholly original idea, and commonly accepted as the best, most fun game. Death Race is a total thought experiment which I came up with independently and without any inspiration. I was thinking “What if there was a race, but everyone in the race had a gun with one bullet. How would it play out?” I've never heard of anything like it, and if another game came out within the next year that had a similar mechanic, I'd wonder if they got the idea from my game.
4) Knights vs. Ninjas -- Another original game idea, arrived at without any specific inspiration. First off, I love the name of the game. I’d done an online version of this game as a prototype, and folded it into Hidden in Plain Sight.
5) Assassin -- this is a computer version of the Werewolf/Mafia type gameplay. Also the “wink” game I used to play as a kid, where people would look around at each other, with one of the people being “it” and winking to kill other people. It was suggested by Andy Schatz.
So there you go. The motivation for each of the game modes.
Now with specific regard to Spy Party, let me address some issues.
First, I contacted Chris Hecker before releasing the game to let him know I was working on something that was similar to his game. He wrote a very eloquent email in which he said:
My attitude towards derivative game designs is that they can contribute significant value to the art form, they simply have to move the game design ball forward. If they're just clones of an existing thing without pushing in any new directions, then that can be fine for game development practice (just like copying a painting at the museum while you're training to be an artist is an effective learning tool), but it's not something you want to focus on as an end goal.
I firmly believe that Hidden in Plain Sight is “moving the design ball forward”. Or, at least, that was my honest attempt to do so. But regardless of this, even if he ranted and raved that I was copying him and I shouldn’t release my game, I still could have been well within my rights to do so. He does not hold a monopoly on this idea, and I am not infringing on any copyrights or patents.
In addition, I was recently accepted into the Spy Party beta. I haven’t played too many games, but as soon as I did, I was immediately relieved to know that my game wasn’t anything like it. Spy Party is a brilliant game. It is a 1v1 game, played over a network (most often). To that end, you are sitting in your room, probably by yourself, staring at your screen with intense focus and concentration. It’s very tense, and very well executed.
Hidden in Plain Sight, by contrast, is most rightly characterized as a “party game”. Each game mode supports up to four players (and, in fact, plays exponentially better with more players). It’s is local-multiplayer only, which means you are necessarily in the same room with your opponents. So while it shares some vague similarities with Spy Party, the whole vibe of the game is totally different. Game rounds can be tense, but are generally short and light-hearted. There is usually lots of laughing and friendly yelling involved. It's like the difference between chess and Hungry-Hungry-Hippos.
So there you go. I hope that clarifies some of my design choices, and answers the “Spy Party ripoff” claims. It was never my intention to make a quick buck by stealing anyone else’s ideas and making a CLONE of a game. But I freely admit that I did draw inspiration from some sources (who doesn't?!), and in each case tried to enhance those ideas with twists of my own (the addition of statues in Ninja Party, for example, or making design choices that allow for four players to share a single screen (which was more difficult than it sounds, by the way)).
Friday morning was pretty quiet.I got to the place where my game would be
shown.It was in a big garage at a fire
station with a bunch of other games.Some of them were on laptops, some on TVs, some were physical games
where your body was the controller.It
was a great space.
I had a computer with my game on it, and a TV which would be
the monitor, but no cable to go in between.There were two hours to get everything set up, and then was “VIP/Media
Walkthrough” time.So I was starting to
get a little stressed out when we couldn’t find any cables anywhere to actually
connect the computer to the TV.But
eventually someone found an HDMI cable in their car, and all was well.
I don’t remember much of the Friday afternoon
walkthrough.I do remember that John
Romero (cofounder of iD software, creator of Wolf3D, Doom, and Quake, etc)
played briefly and laughed a lot.That
was cool to see.After showing the game
for a while, there was a tent set up with tacos and beer.I didn’t really know anyone, so I enjoyed a
free dinner and headed back to the hotel.
Saturday was the big day.The games were all on display for the public to check out.After making sure everything was set up
correctly, I spent most of the morning showing the game to people.For the most part, they picked it up well
enough on their own.Normally there
would be four people playing while a small group was watching.During this time, I’d look for new faces in
the group and stand next to them and asked if they knew what was going on, and
explain whichever game mode was currently playing.Death Race is by far the most interesting and
engaging mode, so I encouraged people to play that most of the time.
When explaining the game to new people, I’d develop a bit of
a script:“Ok, you’re in a race.You want to get from the left side of the
screen to the right side of the screen.However, each player has a gun with one bullet in it…”At this point, I’d pause to let the
ramifications sink in.Usually the
person would get it and a big smile would show up.“So you can’t just bolt to the end of the
screen.You have to blend in with the AI
opponents.”That was enough to get
people off and running.
I didn’t realize how much media there would be.I gave some more interviews, some video, some
just talking.Most were from (I found
out afterwards) low-traffic indie game review sites.One was a nice lady from the LA Times who had
hand-picked a few games to feature.So I’m
excited to see what happens with that.
My voice was tired and my throat was sore.Eryn showed up, and it was great to see him
there.I met my indie developer email buddy
Ian in person, so that was cool.Eryn
and I had a brief lunch, and it was nice to sit for a while.By the time we were done, Andy Schatz showed
up, and he and Eryn cruised around while I did more talking.
At some point, I turned around and recognized the lady behind me with her two young kids. I was Julie from the Ouya Kickstarter video. I said "You're Julie from Ouya!" She indeed was. I told her that I'd emailed her (and gotten a response) about putting HIPS on the Ouya. She was being dragged around by her kids, but seemed interested in the game and getting it out there. So that was neat.
By the time the afternoon was over, I grabbed a quick dinner
(and some whiskey) and headed back to the hotel.There were evening activities, but I was exhausted.
Sunday was a half-day.We had a few hours to check out the other developers games, which was a
nice opportunity.I then joined a panel
with three other developers and a moderator to talk about Game Mechanics (a
purposefully nebulous and undefined term).With some prompts from the moderator, we shot the shit for a while about
depth and gameplay and conflict and tension and game design.I wasn’t nervous at all speaking in front of
people, and felt I was able to say some insightful things.The other guys on the panel were pretty smart
guys, and it was an honor to sit next to them.
After the panel, I got some lunch and wanted to get ready to
leave.I was going to be taking my Xbox
controllers home with me, so I needed to find some replacements.That took some time.On the way, I ran into Brad Muir, a prominent
game developer who I’d met briefly the day before.He was so nice and enthusiastic about my
game, it was really cool.He really
wanted to see it succeed, which I think means sell more copies and be on more
platforms.I told him that I’d already
felt like I’d won, and this was all beyond my wildest expectations.It was a fun little sharing of perspectives.He’s a big name, but said he hated the
industry.I’m a nobody, and love doing
what I’m doing.
I also ran into one of the guys who was on the Game
Mechanics panel, and we talked more about some of the stuff we talked about on
stage. I think we really connected well,
and I look forward to following along with his developments.
When I got back to my booth to collect my stuff, John Romero
was back.He was taking an iPhone video
of the game while people were playing Death Race.I waited till he was done, and then took the
opportunity to tell him what a fan I was and how huge his games were in my life
back in the day.We chatted for a bit
about the role of indies in the industry from the 80’s to the present.It was so cool to talk to him.I then discovered that I was kind of eager to
get on the road and get back home, and that Romero is kind of a
chatterbox.In my mind I found it
amusing that I was trying to get myself OUT of a conversation with a god into
the industry.But I stayed and we talked
and parted ways.That was a highlight.
I got stopped for two more interviews before I could finally
leave.It was a tiny, TINY taste of
being annoyed by media when I just wanted to go home.Ha.
I left in the early afternoon and got home, tired and happy
my mind buzzing from the morning.Happy
to see the family.
In the evening, I followed along on Twitter as they
announced the “Audience Choice” and “Developer Choice” awards.I was starting to think I had a chance at the
Audience Choice award, but it went to a more deserving game.Ditto with Developer Choice.I would have liked to have won an award, of
course, but I’m not too surprised I didn’t.
And now back to work.It’s been a wild ride, but I had a lot more fun (and am a lot more
tired) than I thought.
So the evening went well... I showed up to the event and got checked in and was placed in a line with other nominees. At the front of the line was BRIGHT lights and cameras and microphones. Pretty scary. Chatted with the girl behind me who was alone and also looked scared, so we were scared together. Then saw that Kellee Santiago was standing next to me. She's the CEO of the company that made the Journey game (beautiful desert game with hooded guy jumping around that I played recently), as well as some other big names. She also knows Andy, and has tweeted nice things about my game (and is also chairperson of the jury). So I said hi to her and chatted for a bit.
Then I got to the front of the line and got asked some questions about my game which I don't remember and totally was awkward and nervous. I seriously have no idea what I said, and I'm glad I didn't win 'cause the footage was unusably bad. :)
Then I got inside and there was loud music and a crowded couple rooms. I finally got a beer and just kind of camped out until the show began. Felicia Day was the host, so it was cool to see her. I'm jumped on her bandwagon recently. But she (and all the other presenters) were given cards to read, so it didn't really have a natural feel to it. She just kind of read through her lines.
There were various categories, and while they made it very clear that all nominees were up for all categories, they read off three games per category. My game was nominated for "Game Design", and my heart was POUNDING. Then they couldn't find the envelope, which prolonged things. But I didn't end up winning. It went to Armada D6, a tabletop game. I held out a little hope for the final Special Mention or Grand Jury prize, but alas.
I'm both disappointed, relieved, and not-surprised, I guess. Disappointed in that it would have been a dream to win, but I didn't really expect to, I guess. But I hoped. Anyways.
There was an after party with dancing and stuff, but not really knowing anyone and with the crowd thinning, I left.
Tomorrow is pretty open in the morning, then setup and media/VIP walkthrough in the afternoon. Having someone as influential as Felicia Day play and like your game would be amazingly huge (she has 1.9 million followers), so I hope I get a chance to show it to her. (I'LL SHOW IT TO HER!!! Sorry).
And now, a nice big bed to myself. Blinds are drawn. No one to wake me up and no morning plans.
I didn't make Hidden in Plain Sight to get rich. I made it because I thought it sounded like a fun game. And I've gotten a lot of rewarding feedback that people really seem to like the game.
My goal is to have as many people play the game as possible. That's why I've set the price as low as possible.
That said, if you like the game, I think you should have the opportunity to pay me what you think it's worth. I'm sure you'd gladly pay $10 to see a two hour movie. Or $5 on a snack or coffee. So if you play this game for an hour and have some laughs with your friends or family, shouldn't that be worth a buck or two?
Click the big button below to pay me for my time. You don't need a PayPal account and can use a credit card!
Please note that you are NOT ACTUALLY BUYING ANYTHING when you click the button. You are simply giving me money because you think the game is worth it.
Remember, this is just a hobby for me. I love that people are playing the game, and I love the feedback that I've gotten. I'd rather have more people playing the game and make less money than mess with DRM and charging some fixed amount.
Play the game, enjoy it, and if you like it, throw some money my way. And hell, even if you don't want to pay, at least leave a message with some feedback (good, bad, or indifferent).
I'm still not exactly sure what that means. I think I understand that the game will be on display somewhere for the public to play. I guess it's also up to win one of the awards. I don't know if there are prizes to be had, or if it's just publicity. But it's pretty cool.
I'm really honored and flattered, of course.
IndieCade is in early October up in Smell-A. So I guess I'll cruise up there for at least part of it over that weekend. Should be fun!
A long time ago, Bad Golf was featured in a Japanese magazine called Famitsu 360. You can read about that here. Anyways, one of the other games listed in the same issue was SoulCaster II, by Ian Stocker.
Somehow, I contacted Ian about this, and we got the Japanese translated and talked about it. That started a bit of an email back-and-forth about upcoming game development and stuff.
Anyways, as it turns out, Ian's latest game "Escape Goat" came out at around the same time as HIPS, and we again found ourselves along side each other in various reviews and "Best XBLIGs of 2011" lists. So that was kind of neat.
Today, in my daily obsessive searching for news on HIPS, I saw that my game was on the latest episode of a web show called "It Came From Xbox Live" on Gamespot.com. Sure enough, I check out the link, and see that Ian was an in-studio guest on the show.
He talks about Escape Goat, as well as his previous game Soul Caster II. Then, for really no good reason I can think of, he takes the time to introduce my game and lead the interviewer on a walkthrough of it.
I'm honored and flattered that he took the time and chose my game to show off. It's really pretty incredible.
I don't think I ever posted this, so thought I would for completeness. I did a "Tales from the Dev Side" article for IDC a while back. I don't know how many people read it, but I think it's not awful.
With interest in Hidden in Plain Sight picking up some steam, I have some interest in polishing it up a little.
The weakest part of the game, in my opinion, are the instructions screens for each game mode. I think they are really bad. It was a challenge for me to try to describe the rules for each game mode concisely, but also in a visually appealing way. I'd love to see those redone by someone with some graphic design experience. (I'm not sure I can pay much, if anything, but if anyone has any recommendations, let me know!)
Next on my list are the game summary screens that show up after each round. It would be nice for those to be laid out a little better.
I really like the eclectic look of Eryn's title screen (which I hacked together in a few minutes to create box art), but I'm not sure that it's the best advertisement for the game. Some people say box art is CRITICAL to a games success. I'm more of a "screw it, just do the best you can" kind of guy. But for a game with some staying power, maybe it's worth taking another look at that. I've heard at least one person say they passed on the game simply because of the box art. That's not good.
I mentioned this to Eryn, and he threw together a couple of images for my consideration. What do you think? I also included the existing box art for comparison.
A month or so ago, I got a Facebook message from a guy with a French-sounding name. He said he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Official Xbox Magazine in France, and that he loved Hidden in Plain Sight, and wanted to know more about "the geniuses behind the game."
I told him that I was just an average guy with a wife and kid and cubicle job, and that making indie games was a hobby. I thanked him for his kind words, and never got a response back. No big deal.
Then, I got a message on this blog saying that my game was going to be on French TV! There is a show called "Chez Marcus", where this dude reviews and plays video games. The guy sent me the link to the show, as well as a translation. ***UPDATE*** I just got an email from Marcus. They made this full episode free online, specifically so I could show it around to everyone. I'm overwhelmed.
I wrote back to the Xbox Magazine editor guy on Facebook and asked him if he knew anything about it. The guy responded back (apologizing for not getting back to me before). He said that he'd talked to his friend Marcus (the tv guy), and told him about the game, and that Marcus decided to use it on his show! He also said he was having a game night soon with friends from Ubisoft, THQ, and Sony and would make them play it. (This has since happened, and the only comment I got was "They loved the game.")
I found someone on reddit who loaned me their username and password to the NoLife TV website (the channel which airs Chez Marcus), and was able to watch (and capture via FRAPS) the entire episode. There were some good production value, and they guys were laughing the whole time, and really seemed to enjoy it. I couldn't have asked for a better showcase for the game.
Before the show aired, I'd sold about 2000 copies of the game total, with about 60 in France.
In the past five days alone, since the show aired, the game has sold over 400 copies in France.
Crazy.
When the game first came out, I was talking with friends about marketing. I remember Iwan made some comment about how word-of-mouth works, and how some people just kind of act as evangelists for a thing they like. It appears this Facebook guy is acting that role, and I've seen others do it on message boards as well. So that really seems like it's turning out to be true.
I've said this before, but on the one hand, I know this really sounds like I'm bragging. I'm conscious of that, and it kind of makes me feel uncomfortable. But on the other hand, I also don't really feel like I have that much ownership or stake in the game and it's success or failures, if that makes any sense. It's something that I kind of threw together in a few weeks and set free, and how it lives or dies really is kind of out of my hands. I feel much more like an observer to the whole process than directly involved. It's all kind of surreal.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Hidden in Plain Sight sales, with some notable bumps pointed out.
Additional also, the Xbox live Indie game "Hidden in plain sight" is
AMAZING. I want this to be played at Heggfest as much as all the
fighting games. I played it with a few friends this evening and ended up
spending four solid hours on it. Probably premature to say it, but it
feels like it would become a local multiplayer staple on a par with
Saturn Bomberman, Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and Deathtank.
Someone else responded:
Hidden in Plain Sight looks amazing. Just watched a video on youtube of
the man who made it talking about it. Looks tremendous fun; I've always
loved that concept of decieving other players like in The Ship and that
other one witht he sniper party thing. Never played them though. They've
always reminded me a bit of Spy vs Spy as well, which I've played
literally once, and loved, on the Master System, when I was about nine.
I also love how the lovely developer man keeps talking about everyone
having a lot of fun and laughing and yelling and having a good time.
He's a good man.
The first guy wrote back:
Yeah, Mr. Spragg seems like a gent. He's also responded to in the
commnents of numerous online reviews of the game, not to argue with the
reviewers but to explain anything they found questionable and just
chatting about the game.
The game has been criticised for being local multiplayer only, but I
agree with his assessment that it just wouldn't have the same charm
played any other way. It's like with Bomberman, where you can play it
online and mechanically it functions the same, but for me personally it
isn't even half as fun as six people getting drunk and tripping over
Saturn controller cables.
Aside from the hilarity and the (whisper it) social aspect of playing it
locally, with HIPS I think it would affect the gameplay as well.
Reading people's faces and reactions is a part of the game, as are
simple tricks you'd use in any bluffing game like thinking out loud and
whatever other misdirection you can think of. I understand that people
don't necessarily have the luxury of always having three like-minded
people on hand to play the game, but even that reasoning (which might
make, say, a full Rock Band kit more difficult to justify) is offset
quite well by the fact that HIPS costs a mere 80 Microsoft points. I
feel like it paid for itself in the one session I've had with it so far.
Get it and force people to play it with you and have many laughs.
I search for news about Hidden in Plain Sight quite often, and found this video and loved it! It was really fun to watch them play, and especially to listen to them figure out how the game works.
One of the big challenges of HIPS was to explain a relatively complicated game in a concise way. I really didn't want to create big instruction screen, and I obviously can't include a manual or readme.txt file. So getting any feedback on players first walkthroughs is huge.
Also, IndieGamerChick posted a review. From her website, I understand that IndieGamerChick is autistic.
I know very little about autism, but I understand that personal and
social interactions can be affected. I also know that HIPS is a very
social game, revolving around personal interaction. So while she might
not be the exact demographic I was going for, she still gave it a pretty
decent review.
I was wondering what caused this latest spike in sales. Turns out someone posted a favorable review on Reddit, which got a little traction and generated some sales. Pretty neat. It was really killing me to know that there was something out there, but I didn't know what it was. Pretty cool.
I just noticed I had a Facebook message waiting from a few days ago from a random woman. Almost sure it was spam, I hesitantly opened it. Best email ever!
Mr. Adam Spragg,
It is a rarity that I would feel so compelled to send this message. Just to make sure you know right off that this is not a weird message, let me start by saying how big of a fan I am of Bad Golf. Seriously a huge fan. I have showed it to all of my friends and have yet to find a person who is not throughly entertained (although frustrated) by playing this game.
As I often download indie games, I recently downloaded another treasure called Hidden in Plain Sight. It is a delight! I have found that our favorite is the death race. Due to the way in which you sign into the game, it appeared that the creator of hidden in plain sight was also the creator of bad golf. With a little lite research, I found your name.
This message has two purposes. One of which is to let you know personally that your games are enjoyed and to please keep up the great work. The second is to see if you have any plans to make it so these games can be played with others online and also to see if you would ever make more maps for bad golf.
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