Eating Well as an Indie Developer | Chetan Surpur, Eric Rahman
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Eating Well as an Indie Developer | Chetan Surpur, Eric Rahman
![Being thrown into
an indie career
Source: Mbdortmund (Own work) [GFDL 1.2
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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Eating Well as an Indie Developer | Chetan Surpur, Eric Rahman
- 1. Eating well as an indie developer Chetan Surpur — Founder, HIGHKEY Games Eric Rahman — Technical founder, Titan Mobile
- 2. Being thrown into an indie career Source: Mbdortmund (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia
- 3. Our first game, a side project
- 5. “Should I quit my job?”
- 8. Peace out
- 9. 3 months in Japan
- 11. Prototyping in a foreign country
- 12. “Don’t let your first baby die.” — Anonymous
- 13. Wait… what?
- 14. Google Play Indie Games Festival 2016
- 15. Back to submarine mode
- 16. “Success”
- 18. $0.02 < $0.13 Lifetime value Cost per install
- 19. ΔUDIO SK Y
- 20. “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” — Peter Weir, Dead Poet’s Society
- 21. HIGHKEY Games
Editor's Notes
- Slide: <title> “I’m Chetan, founder of Highkey Games. I make games.” “I’m Eric, technical founder of Titan Mobile. I’m an advisor of sorts at Highkey Games. I don’t really know why I’m here.”
- Chetan: “Probably because we go way back to high school. Back when waveboards were a thing” Slide: <screenshot of wave board> Eric: For those of you that don’t know, these things are as unsafe as they look For those of you that do know, this story is not going to end well. Chetan: “So Freshmen year, spring break. We were chilling at a friend’s house.” We wanted to see how fast we could go on a waveboard. Eric: So I took Chetan’s hand, and sprinted. Like the steed of a mighty chariot. Then just threw Chetan. Like with a wild haymaker. Couldn’t sprint fast enough to keep up, because he was going downhill Downhill in multiple ways. Chetan: It was super exhilarating. I could feel the wind rushing through my hair. Because I’m not wearing a helmet. I see this kid opening his garage at the bottom of the hill, staring at me like a deer in headlights I realize that I have no way of stopping, only solution is to just wipe out and eat cement <short pause> Eric: “We were stone cold sober, by the way” <short pause> “And this was Freshmen year of college.” Chetan: “This is basically been our career as game devs so far.”
- Introduction of HK as a game studio Used to be AI researcher Worked with Unity to simulate stuff for Numenta Started making games for some reason, most likely nagging What is Orbit Slide: <orbit screenshot> Eric: And this is the game that we came here to talk about today, Orbit. Honestly, it was a surprise and an honor to be invited to speak, and we were asked to give you guys the inside scoop behind making this game. And that’s exactly what we’ll do.
- Slide: <orbit video> Chetan: Simple game, was more of just learning and testing Unity “How can we turn an N-body simulation into a game?” To sum the game up in one sentence: You launch planets with the flick of a finger, and try to get them in orbit around black holes. That’s why it’s called Orbit. Wasn’t intended to be released, Eric kept on nagging me to throw it out there, and it went live in September This is when quitting job became a reality So he showed me this anime.
- Eric: It’s Barakamon, which I highly recommend. To summarize this really quick: This ding dong punches this other old dude, gets sent to an rural island to think about what he’s done Meets this kid, does some calligraphy, and learns to live again Lots of wanderlust after watching this show, perhaps helped my friend here actually make the leap into not having a W-2 I watched this before leaving Zynga to take on leading a team at Tango, which was a rough jump for me. Watched again a year later actually, made me want to leave to travel Japan if I got laid off or quit my job or something.
- Chetan: So after much rumination, I made the leap in February. Slide: “The Leap” Finances suddenly become a big deal I had bought a $4000 bed with the justification that I spend 1/3 of my life sleeping. Now, I had to ask myself, “What the hell? Why did I do this?” Rent is some nonsense in the bay area. Moved home, because every month of rent is a ticking time bomb Quick realization that once bank account hits zero, that’s the end of game development career Everything accelerates death timer Health Insurance. That was not a smooth process. Food actually costs a lot of money. Have to learn to cook, eating outside frequently is pretty expensive Eric: “I remember when I told you to release Orbit, I said. ‘This is an inspired idea, but it’s not going to make money, so you shouldn’t care about that. Just release it. Chetan took that way too literally’” Chetan: Initial version of Orbit straight up had no monetization hooks. No donation request, no ads. Nothing Threw in a donation request. This is basically like begging for money on the streets. Think maybe 2% or so of people actually threw me a bone. At this point, already had a prototype for my next game.
- Slide: screen shot of Percuss It was a drumming rhythm game, and users could make their own drumbeats. This was where most of my focus and passion was, because Eric and I were actually starting to play music together at this time. Eric: It was also around this time that my entire division got laid off, right after Valentine’s day. Heartbreaking, I know, but not really. Cause remember this?
- We’re about to go to Japan baby. Chetan: So Eric comes to me and says he’s been laid off, and we’re going to Japan. I could stay at home and save money, so I can make games for longer Or could go to Japan, maybe change my hair color, because I dunno. Eric: <screenshot of us changing our hair colors> That wasn’t a cheap haircut. Slide: <haircut>
- Chetan: Traveled Japan for 3 months Slide: <Himeji> Japan is a gorgeous country. But a vast majority of our time was not spent touring. We were subsisting off cheap convenience store food, and making games non-stop Dude, you remember submarine mode? Eric: So sometimes, our sleep cycles would shift out of phase. There would be at least one person awake at any given time. And that person, was working on games. It was a very busy and fun 3 months.
- Chetan: We were also scoping out the competition, and spending time at arcades Most rhythm games I’ve ever seen in one place Slide: Tim playing Chunithm Thinking back, this was one of the best places to be when making a rhythm game
- We went through multiple prototypes. I picked up 3D programming on the trip Slide: <screenshot of Drum Tunnel>
- When we returned to the States, we did a bunch of pitches for Orbit, just to start networking Got a lot of love from a lot of people One comment really stood out, “Don’t let your first baby die.” Slide: “Don’t let your first baby die.” So we started working on a rewrite, to support a sandbox, so that users could create own levels We submitted the old build to Google Play Indie Games Festival We got accepted, and something interesting happened.
- Orbit started to chart. Slide: <Orbit charting> That moment changed the fate of Highkey Games forever. Eric: Users started flowing into Orbit pretty rapidly We always had a pretty high app store rating, and donations were coming in But not enough. We knew we needed to do something fast, or squander this opportunity Chetan: We went back to submarine mode. For a week. We crunched to get Sandbox out. This included a backend that could handle the hundreds of thousands of users pouring into the game daily. We added ads into the game. I don’t even remember how many bugs we squashed during this time. Users could donate anywhere from $1 → $10. The average was basically $1. So we removed donations, and sold Sandbox for $3, which also removed ads.
- It paid off — We took a grand prize slot at the festival. Slide: <winners> The reward? They were going to feature the game. Eric: And we weren’t ready The game metrics were frankly terrible What percentage of people are paying anything in the game? 2% Retention was abysmal. A week later, only 0.7% are playing. If we didn’t fix this, we’d squander featuring completely. And so we didn’t
- Chetan: Back to submarine mode. Redesigned levels and level progression to maximize retention Slide: <level redesign> Went with Heyzap for ad mediation so that we wouldn’t run into fill issues. Eric: We finished in the nick of time. Our work tripled retention. Mediation were solid, we doubled eCPM And we cut a deal to drive it even further. We didn’t talk about that pricing change for Sandbox Turns out conversion rate barely changed. We tripled IAP revenue. Featuring was bringing in 300k new installs a day, popped charts even further We broke $1k a day. That was a big moment. But here’s why you guys are watching us ramble right now — that wasn’t enough. Sure we tripled retention. From an abysmal 0.7% to an abysmal 2%. Sure, our Sandbox changes tripled ARPPU, but our conversion rate is still 2% $1k a day wasn’t going to last forever, and we totally knew that There wasn’t a single day when we thought that Orbit was going to change our lives The best that we ever hoped for is enough money to make our rhythm game. And in that sense, yes, it was a success. Orbit did it’s job. But we need to work even harder now so that we don’t squander that opportunity. I’ve used the word “squander” three times now. This is becoming a pattern.
- Chetan: We’ve made $80k so far on Orbit And we just broke 6 million users Slide: <install curve> People still ask us about adding new features into the game People assume we’re putting all our time into this game because it’s a success. “Success” in quotes. Remember our goals? We just wanted to make our music game without starving to death. Eric: We’re not stubborn. There’s a reason why we can’t justify spending more effort on this game.
- Slide: <Apple Ads screenshot> We did a marketing test on iOS. This was the result 13 cents per install? Yeah, that’s cheap. But here’s the thing. How much money do we make per user? Their lifetime value to us?
- Slide: “$0.15 > $0.02” It’s 2 cents. Our retention is so poor, LTV basically boils down to ARPU. This means each user we pay to acquire through marketing costs us 15 cents, and we only make 2 cents back. The game is completely unsustainable.
- Chetan: We’ve been working on Audio Sky, that rhythm game, for basically a year and a half now. Slide: <screenshot of Audio Sky> Audio Sky has made $0 to date, as it hasn’t been released yet. What if we had spent that time, on Orbit instead? You know, the game making money. Eric: Sure, there are TON of things we could have done differently. But remember that abysmal 2 cent LTV? That was after we tripled relevant metrics with a ton of work! That’s a miracle. To get an 18 cent LTV, to just to barely break even on marketing, we’d need to triple performance again. Twice. Charting doesn’t last forever — marketing would be kind of a hard requirement to build a sustainable business off Orbit, and we know we can’t do that. Sure, Orbit is making money, but the prognosis frankly doesn’t look good. Chetan: This like having a bird in hand, and two in the bush. Except the bird in hand has Ebola. And it’s bleeding everywhere. Eric: What’s stupider? Chasing two miracles, or one miracle on a new game? Just by the numbers, if we want to be making games next year, the only move we have is to make a leap of faith. Chetan: We don’t really have a choice. To be blunt, $80k for two people is kind of a steep pay cut. I’m getting married next year. I gotta think about that. Eric: “At Titan, I’m juggling three games right now. Otherwise, I couldn’t afford to help my buddy here chase his passions.”
- Chetan: Slide: <Robin Williams quote> And I think that’s where it always ends up. We’ve spent 1.5 years working on a music game. We’ve gone through 6 prototypes, and ruthless user feedback. That’s because we’re passionate about it. That’s why I quit my old job in the first place. Eric: Time and time again, we talk with indie developers, and I think we all pretty much agree, that yeah, it’s about the passion. Let’s face it, if you wanted a stable, high-paying, universally respected job, you’d go to med school. But often, we let ourselves get distracted, and glorify the image of ourselves as artists. And yeah, I mean, whether you are a programmer, a designer, a product manager, a UA specialist, or, well, an actual artist — pretty much every part of this industry is inherently creative. But starving artists? There’s no pride in that. Look — if you really love game development, then you probably want to still be a game developer next year. If you don’t think about the money from day one — which is a mistake that we made — you’re going to be the only one paying the metaphorical price, at 600 installs or 6 million installs. There’s a ton of financial and psychological knowledge out there that can help you build a sustainable indie career by increasing revenue and retention in your games. While not the end all and be all of user psychology, Hooked is a great place to start Annuities aren’t just for financial institutions. If this is just a hobby to you, then sure, anything goes. But if you want this to be a career, then yeah, it’s 100% about the money. Passion and business are not mutually exclusive.
- Chetan: We’d love to share more about what we’re doing in Audio Sky so that we don’t have to rely on a miracle. Slide: HIGHKEY Games But I think we’ve rambled long enough. Maybe we’ll let you all know how it goes if we get invited to speak next year. You guys have been wonderful. Thanks for putting up with us. Any questions?