#before my work schedule went into insane holiday mode

[gavinbowman]

February?

Ok, well I’ve been off, so I don’t have any progress to share for February. I found a little time to play some games... but I didn’t finish anything. Lots of Fire Emblem Heroes because I had it on hand and I couldn’t sleep or was holding a baby or whatever. I like it, but I’m kind of done and I’m struggling to shake it off. It’s very compelling and sticky. I’d been playing Megaman X and Mighty Switch Force before the baby came along, but I haven’t really been able to return to them yet, my head is too out of it. And just this week I finally managed to grab an NES Classic, so I’d like to make my way through some games on that in the coming months. So expect a few #playmore posts in the next few months as things normalize for me here.

I’m trying to feel my way back into work and I haven’t figured out what I’m going to focus on immediately yet. So that’s a big vague blergh. I think I know, but I have to try, and my sleep deprived brain might not be in the mood.

So what else? We had a baby. She’s fine and great. Struggling to manage both of them though, but getting there slowly. 2 kids is definitely not just a bump up to hard mode me, it’s skip the tutorial and start on insanity mode. It must vary wildly on the age and acclimatization of the first kid though, and the temperament of the second.

Everyone is at GDC this week (and yes, I’m missing it like crazy, but I feel sick and tired so it’s almost like I was there), so nobody will read this. So I’ll probably post it next week, when just almost nobody will read it.

So, I said I’d do a recap on Zombie Free Throw at some point. It’s been a long time since I did one of these, there’s a lot of people doing better ones for more relevant or sexier games, so I’ll keep it pretty brief anyway.

iOS version launched on Jan 18/19th. It fortunately got a little bit of featuring in parts of europe and the rest of the world, so it got some downloads in that first week. Total downloads to date are around 86k, with a couple of hundred dollars in revenue from IAP, plus about $3,400 in ad revenue. The download graph looks like this:-

So yeah. Feature or die is the new normal. (Like I said in my last post, it’s been like that for a while, but it’s taken me a while to really embrace the fact that I need to make games that might get featured - or move on to other platforms already). This is the best launch I’ve had for a mobile game in a couple of years, since SBACEBALL, which also got a bit of featuring in Europe and the rest of the world, and had very similar results. It’s something to build on, it gives me hope for the future for us doing mobile games and fighting for feature spots, even if it doesn’t do much materially to keep us afloat as a full time studio. It’s just very nice to make something. Last years releases from my dept brought in about $15 max, so if I could drink without collapsing from exhaustion I’d probably break out some very cheap fizzy wine.

Three little things I’m happy about, I went for a launch night pizza with my daughter, it probably cost $30-40 (worth it, best launch celebration ever), I didn’t expect the game to pay that back (it probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t featured), so that felt like a win. I also met some dev friends for coffee on launch day, I guess that cost about $4, and I wasn’t sure I’d make that back based on recent form, so that felt like a win too. And finally, after the feature hit, and there were some downloads, I tweeted that maybe it’d pay for my Nintendo Switch, and it’s even managed to do that. So hurrah for Zombie Free Throw, and hurrah for spending a bit more time on my games and trying to let some of the clearly doomed half built ideas stay on the shelf.

The other thing I said in my last post was that I was going to focus on iOS games and not do Android for now. Both strategically and motivationally, and psychologically, it felt like the right move.

After I launched Zombie Free Throw, I was expecting a baby to drop, but she came a little late, so after the apple feature was dead I added an android version to Google Play, it helped me use up a little bit of that waiting for baby time (I should have used it to sleep, I know, I’m a fucking moron), and I thought maybe there was a chance that if there was any organic word of mouth out there from the feature, maybe it’d get some downloads.

Well it didn’t, to date it’s had under 300 downloads, and total revenue is around $5 (seems high, given the download numbers, so I guess a few of those people really liked it, so that makes me happy at least), with a 5 star rating from 4 reviews. So I’m not changing my plans there. On the plus side though, Android versions from Unity are technically fairly painless.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it’s customary in these things to either explain how I achieved such ridiculous heights with some vague speculation about the things I think I do well, or to try to explain away why I failed so badly with some vague speculation about the things I think I didn’t do well. I mean, we’re kind of in the middle here, so I’m not really sure what to highlight, but here are some things I’d like to have done, or done better, or not done:-

1. I’m still trying to adapt to making games over the course of multiple months, rather than on a jammy or 1GAM kind of schedule. I wish I’d been able to apply that throughout here. I still tried to crunch a couple of times to hit deadlines, like halloween or basketball season, or the holidays, (and ultimately the hard deadline was my baby break!). I feel like I could have done more with the game if I was able to apply myself more consistently over a few months and not sweat the impending launch target I’ve inevitably hung over my head.

2. But I’m still very happy with how it turned out, and it’s a bigger “product” than anything I’ve done in Unity before, more assets, more graphics and sound, game modes, menus, UI, and platform stuff, so there’s a lot I’m happy to have pulled off and learned.

3. Some PR or marketing would probably be a good idea. There are people who do this for a living, and there are publishers who do a much better job of launching games than I could ever do. So I have all these things in my pocket to try this year if I feel good about my games... which I intend to! 

4. It’s nice to have that little nut of optimism for this to carry around with me. I really have been running on the fumes of despair for far too long, I’m trying to stop that from bleeding out everywhere, and I think I’m still getting on top of it. It’s why I posted my outline plan for the year last month, it’s why I’m taking the time to post this mini-mortem. I probably won’t stop with the honest and often depressing monthly progress posts, those can be cathartic too, but it’s good to share some happy thoughts.

Finally, if I’m posting this after GDC, I should have a Switch by now. So umm, yeah, either I love the Switch, or I’m really tired and sick still and it’s still in the box, or I got screwed on the pre-order. See you next month... hopefully march is the start of a return to the new normality for me.

[scificheergirl]

When last we spoke, I still had a month and a half of projects and events to enjoy. Well, I’ve enjoyed them, and now I’m done. Just done. I mean, my table is holding four WIPs, two of three dressforms are wearing half-constructed garments, there’s a commission pending in my inbox, and I have a pile of fleece waiting to become sleeved blankets for the kids, but I’m, like, not required to wear a costume until March…except for the 20s NYE party in two weeks…le sigh.

Somewhere in this hoard is a one-hour dress waiting to be made.

According to my calendar, November was spent in my home, making my introvert self happy. This Costume Fairy was hard at work cleaning and mending costumes for storage (#whoevenami) and rearranging the house to setup the basement workshop. The plan is to dedicate the upstairs studio to fabric only and to keep foam, printing, and duct-taping relegated to basement. That’s also where 20 years of costumes currently reside, so my tools are in good company. During the Thanksgiving holiday sales, I supported a few of my favorite small businesses, firming up cos-plans for 2020. Then, I cringed at my list, which is getting out of hand and will definitely spill into 2021. 

Dames a la Mode, Redthreaded, In The Long Run Designs, and American Duchess–Ariel and Mercury are officially WIPs

Before I splurged on footwear, food, and fancy jewels, however, I whipped up an original superhero for my 9-to-5’s Spirit Day, but that was pretty much it for quick builds. That’s probably a record for me. For a Dickens themed holiday party, I went to my closet and gave a 1950s reminiscent dress some 1840s styling. This past weekend, the Oddity Prodigy Productions crew wrapped our final convention of the year, Ocean City Comic Con, where I happily upgraded and wore my 16th century Batgirl. Yes, Team, I wore an existing costume. I know, calm down. I’m proud of me too. 

  Nite Lite

Black as my holiday heart

Red hair upgrade!

  As for my 2019 review, 18th century Storm really set the tone for the rest of the year, which was filled with renewed energy and pride in my hobby. I did more hand stitching than I have in ages, returning to my pseudo-historical costuming roots. Documentation was much better thanks to a spiffy new camera phone, and by investing in some online learning, I feel more focused and contented in taking my time to achieve a higher quality of work…or whatever. I completed two of the four projects that I’d mapped out at this time last year, started mock-ups for a third, and ordered fabric samples for the fourth. In the interest of honesty, I absolutely did an insane number of last minute pieces, but con crunch was filled with more sleep this time around and only one ensemble makes me cringe.

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It’s my Lady Ghostbuster. She knows what she did. She’ll be ready for next season.

For 2020, I’m continuing with Orko for the Masters of the Universe group that will debut at The Great Philadelphia Comic Con on April 4. I’m currently in the garment construction phase; props and millinery have been patterned, but are going to require a couple of weekends of dedicated toiling to come together. Soon after, I’ll be working on an OPP project that has been long planned, but only recently realized. That will require many mock-ups and loads of happy thoughts. Once things calm down (HAHAHAHAHAHA), I can work on Medieval Link and a few other items in “The List”. My 1780s Princess Allura is either going to be a last minute kit for GPCC or she’ll show up for a photoshoot. In the words of Noelle from Costuming Drama, that bit of pre-planning is “unclear.”

Allura’s 18th century space rump

Exciting me further for the coming season of making, I’m itching to dive into some highly anticipated books including “The Art of Extreme Wig Styling” (already on my tablet), “Centaur of Attention” (my alitaur will bring all the hooves to the field), “The Typical Tudor”, and “The Victorian Dressmaker 2: Sport and Outdoor Wear”. Mind you, I still have “The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty” burning a hole in my shelf because I haven’t ordered my materials yet. I’ll get there. 

And where do I plan to wear these fancy, schmancy, olde tyme creations, you may ask. Already engraved on the calendar is Great Philly in March, BlerdCon in July, and Tudor Con in October. Sprinkle in some ren faire visits, fun local faves like Free Comic Book Day, Dover Comic Con, and the slightly less local Baltimore Comic Con, and we have a well-rounded event list. I was almost ready to pull that travel trigger and sign up for Costume College, but I do have to space my jobby-job time off judiciously. Ideally, I’d like to add one new-to-me con and one historical workshop to the schedule. We’ll roll the dice and see if I can avoid a critical hit on my wallet.

This is 39 ❤

I believe that’s it until next month. This was a fantastic year for costumes, and I appreciate every one of you that took a peek at my journey. Thanks for your cheers, Team!

Look How Far We’ve Come When last we spoke, I still had a month and a half of projects and events to enjoy.