How do I charge for my game? Should I put my game on iPhone or Android?

Inevitably everyone trying to make a living, or just make some money on the side by making apps will run into this question.

How do I charge for my app?

This is a very difficult question, and one that I've gone back and forth with Cat a lot.  There are many variables, and data points, but honestly, contrary to anecdotal evidence from specific developers, there is no clear cut answer.

A lot of fuss has been made about iOS making more than Android for developers.  There are a select few, but very vocal set of developers that have come out and said as such.  And as anything Apple related, they've gotten a whole lot of publicity for it.

However, the story is not nearly so clean cut.

Working with Corona

This isn't actually the first time Cat and I attempted to make a video game.  We've actually been off and on for several years, though we've never actually released anything.  One of our first attempts was around the time Facebook first opened up their API, and we got it into our heads to make a facebook game.

Lets just say, not only did we never finish, we were late to the party in an epic way.  Farmville came along... and did almost exactly what we drafted in our design phase.  Well, ok, so they actually handled the time mechanic better than our implementation might have, but it certainly was a kick in the pants.

Working from opposite sides of the continent

Hi there. I'm the Cat in GigaCat.


Gig posted a fair bit about the advantages and disadvantages of being on either side of the coast. And it's true that if you are looking for a game industry job with an established game developer, West is probably where you want to be.
But for a small independent team working on a game I really don't think it matters where you are. I'm with 37 signals on this one. We have the technology to overcome geographical limitations and nowadays its cheap to almost free.
Gig and I work from opposite sides of the continent. Our 'virtual office' consists of the following:

• Google Talk (free) is our video conferencing software
• A shared Google Docs Presentation (free) serves as our white board
• A private Github account (some dollars a month) serves as our code repository, task tracker, and wiki

We communicate constantly over IM, email, and voice chat, but we also make it a point to have a standing virtual meeting twice a week: Quick check point call on Tuesday nights and multi-hour working sessions on Saturdays. Gig's made the plunge but I still have a day job, so these standing meetings create the momentum to keep us moving forward.


What we realized is that if we really want to work on a game, we should stop worrying about what coast we are on. We should stop thinking about making a game and just start making one.


Go download the free Corona SDK and jam on the example source codes. Even if you are not a seasoned programmer, if a 14 year old can do it, you can certainly teach yourself to do it.

If you don't use it...

You know the old adage, "If you don't use it, you lose it.."  Well, I've very quickly learned how true that is.

Being a two man team means you have to wear a lot of different hats when it comes to making a game.  But one of the most important is the ability to actually code. (With a team this small)

I got a degree in computer science 9 years ago... whew.. first off, the programming landscape is very different now than it was back when I was in college.  Sure, for loops and if statements are pretty much identical, but boy have the tools changed.

Why Jon Bon Jovi's Rant against Apple is self-serving

"Bon Jovi tells The Sunday Times Magazine, "Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it."

"God, it was a magical, magical time, I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am, and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: 'What happened?' Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business." http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=635420&affid=100055&silentchk=1&wa=wsignin1.0

I find this line of reasoning, while quaint, extremely self-serving. It's gotten a lot of publicity, far more than it deserves, but in reality, I find the message borderline dangerous.

NY Gaming Meetup

I attended last nights NYC Gaming Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/gaming/events/16761592/ and it was, to say the least, inspiring.

When you quit your day job to try to do what you're passionate about, with little to no income, every day can be a little stressful, a little nerve wrecking.

When you go to PAX and the panelists say "If a company on the west coast hires you, MOVE/JUMP to go to the West" and you realize that you did EXACTLY the opposite and turned down an opportunity... you can almost find yourself doubting that you did the right thing.

But, when I went to the meetup last night... I knew I had made the right choice. These are the guys that have gaming in their blood. These are the self-starters, the ones without fear, the ones that don't need to rely on someone ELSE hiring them, these are the kinds that make their own path.

If you're on the east coast, and you want to be part of the industry... don't listen to the nay-sayers. I highly recommend going to the next NY Gaming Meetup. The date hasn't been posted yet, but I'll be there. I haven't finished my game yet, but I'm excited.

The group is starting to explode at the seams. We had almost 300 people there last night. We are at the ground floor of the creation of an East Coast gaming movement. Don't be afraid.

Now is the time.

(That said, the West coast is awesome, and if you CAN go out there, then by all means, it's a great place to be. My friend Cataclyst is out there, so in a way, our Company lives in both worlds)

Times are Changing

Making money with digital goods is a tricky and complex proposition. The thing that separates digital goods from pretty much anything else we consume is that each additional "copy" of the good costs essentially ZERO.

This makes the notion of "piracy" a difficult one to tackle. The large corporations out there have been increasingly hostile towards piracy, and they make great efforts to paint it as a morally reprehensible thing to do. All of the "entertainment" industries are struggling with this, from Movies to music to Video games. Watching the "old money" big wigs trying to fight piracy by throwing their weight around politicians and lawmakers, all the while using the court system to effectively blackmail people into paying to not get sued, well.. it's just a giant /facepalm. It has done next to ZERO to increase their bottom lines, and instead has caused incredible backlash as people actively deciding to not purchase products that are laden with crippling DRM or that install Rootkits.

If you want to get into gaming, move to the West Coast...

I've heard this over and over again. If you want to be part of the gaming industry, move to the west coast.

I've heard it from friends in the industry, I heard it from community managers at PAX.

But to that I say "NAY! I will NOT move to the west! I will make games HERE in the EAST!"

It's true, most of the publishers, and most of the dev houses are on the west coast. But I'm a New Yorker thru and thru. I won't let a little detail like "location of jobs" get in the way!

And I don't think that "all" of the jobs will remain located in the West anyway. We've got a small, but rapidly growing set of Indies, small companies, and social media based game houses over here on the East.

We've got a lot going on, and most of all, we've got the talent.. the knack, to just take the plunge and risk it all (Or is that just me?). The West coast might have Silicon Valley. I vote for the name "Silicon Village" on the East.

And judging by the meetup groups getting bigger and bigger over here, I'm certain we will be a force to be reckoned with.

That is, of course, if the West doesn't snatch up all the talent! *Cough* Cataclyst *Cough*

Team GigaCat?

What the heck is a GigaCat?

Obviously it's a kitten that's struck by lightning!

Actually, it is just an amalgamation of the handles of two long time College friends.

I'm known (occasionally in real life) as Gigaflop. "Gig" for short. It's about as dorky, nerdy, geeky, [insert other adjectives], as it could possibly get. I've claimed Gigaflop on any and every possible venue that I could. Forums, email addresses, gaming systems. I've got a lot of them, but where I miss out because someone else beats me to the punch and steals my handle, I'm "TheGigaflop." Of course, the internet being what it is, means that from now on, both Gigaflop and TheGigaflop will be taken before I get to claim them.

I've been Gigaflop since 7th grade. How disturbing is that. I've had the same handle (nick/alias) for 18 years.

My friend is almost as bad as me. He goes by the name Cataclyst, and he similarly owns the name across almost everything. He has it easy though, since his isn't even in the dictionary (note the misspelling), his is rarely taken. And I think he might have been using his for almost as long as I have used mine.

So there you have it. We're going to be making video games. Small ones for Android and iOS, maybe other projects as well. And our Team, brand, company will be called "Team GigaCat."

We're just 2 people. But we've got passion (and some might even say a little bit of smarts), and the drive to do it.

Pax East 2011

I've just returned from PAX, my first incidentally, and it was very different from anything I had expected.

I've been to Blizzcons and E3's, but PAX has a different vibe, it caters to a different person. The people that attend aren't just gamers (those that PLAY video games), they are the people that are passionate about the entire industry. They want to be a part of it, they want to make games, draw art, and compose music. And I think that's the kind of person I am. I need to check out GDC, because I have a feeling I'm might also be THAT kind of person.

In fact, I've recently done something incredibly insane. I quit my day job. A good paying, stable one for a very large company in the beauty industry.

People have said "you've got balls" and "I'm jealous that you can do that." But the reality is that I'm scared shitless. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do, and I'm not the type that backs down from a challenge.

The challenge in this case, just happens to be finding my passion. And so, it is today, the day after PaxEast ends, that I will do just that.

And so this blog is born.