{"author_name":"jovoc","cat":"October Challenge 2012","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"September 29, 2012 5:49 am","epoch":1348915740,"text":"Just wanted to say that I’ve enjoyed Planet Minesweeper immensely over the last several months. Now just waiting for the update to the update to go live, so I can get off the game over screen. \ud83d\ude09","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1348854780,"likes":18,"metadata":{"p_key":"51359","p_author":"jovoc","p_authorkey":"34","p_urlkey":"87052","p_title":"October Challenge Failure Success Story!","p_cat":"October Challenge 2012","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1348854780","p_likes":"18","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"34","us_name":"jovoc","us_username":"jovoc","event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"text":"

Hey now that the October challenge is upon us, I thought I would share the story of the my October challenge from last year.<\/p>\n

I started on “Planet Minesweeper” way back in February 2010, for a Mini-LD<\/a> that I never finished. Over the next few months I poked at the code a little but every so often but didn’t really do much with it. Then for the 2010 October challenge<\/a> I resolved to finish the game. As you can see, it hadn’t progressed very much past the first prototype.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately my strategy for Oct. 2010 was to “Add a bunch of stuff to the game” to complete my vision. I literally had a Campaign mode planned! I wrote a script for the cutscenes. Cutscenes! For a minesweeper game! How insanely stupid is that? YEAH I KNOW!<\/p>\n

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So, needless to say, I didn’t finish the game. It crawled back into hibernation. Not to say that I didn’t work on it, but I just kept messing with it instead of going towards a focused goal.\u00a0Fast-forward to October Challenge 2011<\/a>. By this point I had a bunch of cool artwork, awesome musics from HyperDuck<\/a> Sound Works, and the game itself was totally playable. It just wasn’t finished.<\/p>\n

I was determined to finish it. This time I would adopt a new strategy. That strategy was “DON’T ADD FEATURES JUST FINISH IT”. This served me well and I worked my butt off.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I failed again. I did not make a dollar in October 2011.<\/p>\n

But all was not lost! I rode the momentum that the October challenge and kept going. I switched to a new strategy, “CUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN”. Working through the next month, and in early December 2012, the game was finished. After a week or so waiting for apple to approve it, it went live in time for the holiday season.<\/p>\n

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So did I make a dollar? I did. I made just over $1000 so far! That’s almost as good as Minecraft, right?<\/p>\n

And the momentum continues. Last week I knocked out an update to support the new iPhone 5 screen, we’ll see if that makes a difference with the hordes of new iPhone 5 owners. I’m also playing with the idea of releasing a free version so people who like ads and stuff can play it.<\/p>\n

So even though I failed (twice!) with this October challenge, I ultimately finished a game and \u00a0released it and made a few dollars.<\/p>\n

So, TLDR i would say here’s what I’ve learned from these Octobers:<\/p>\n