Lodsys and Android Marketplace in-game billing

We decided to give Google's (relatively) new in-app billing feature a try when we ported Pangea's Warheads from iOS to Android.  The goal was to give customers an opportunity to try out the game before they actually bought it. 

It was rather a tough decision because the API isn't exactly straightforward.  You need to do a bit of thinking in order to make it work for various scenarios.  We also had a number of bugs crop up after the game shipped.  After a few initial bumps, though, it seemed to work out pretty well for everyone.  

Until now.

Lodsys (the "patent troll company") recently sent citizen12 a fedex package detailing how they believe Warheads' use of Google's in-app purchase tech infringes on some of their patents.  We're not saying that we agree with them, but at this point our choices are pretty much:

1. Ignore them and hope it just goes away
2. Call our lawyers and try to fight it
3. Pay a royalty to Lodsys
4. Remove the feature

Not sure what we're going to do yet, but we want to get this out there as a cautionary tale to others who are considering using Google's in-app billing tech.  Don't think that being small is going to keep you out of the crosshairs of Lodsys and their ilk!

WTF Cro-Mag Rally on Windows Phone 7?

"Um, WTF?"

That about sums up the launch of Cro-Mag Rally for Windows Phone 7.  Let's talk about what happened and even more important-- what we're doing to fix it.  But first, an apology.

To everyone out there who tried Cro-Mag for WP7 and found the controls to be, shall we say, lacking: we're sorry.  We screwed up.  During the process of porting Cro-Mag from iOS, we got some great feedback from our (MGS) publishing team that the controls were, as I believe one tester said, "stupidly hard".  We put a bunch of effort into addressing that feedback, and the result was the controls system that we launched with.  We thought that was good enough, but the overwhelming customer feedback told us we were wrong.

With some help from Microsoft Game Studios, who have been really supportive of Cro-Mag throughout development, we went back to the drawing board to figure out what was wrong.  One conclusion we came away with is, well, WP7 gamers are not the same as iPhone gamers.  You have, shall we say, "different" standards?  In general, you want tighter controls and a greater range of customization in your settings.

Armed with that knowledge, the forum feedback, and with the help of some dedicated testers, we did a bunch of test versions of different controls.  We settled on the version that got the most "thumbs up" from our test team.  The final result is embodied in the Title Update that is working its way through certification right now.  Here's what you'll find in 1.1.0:

• Lower camera for better overall car control
• Implement auto-accelerate.  You no longer need to hold down F to keep going.
• Tweak physics for cars on medium difficulty to make them a little less grippy (easier to drift through turns)
• Tweak control response curve to make it more "linear" (and thus more responsive at smaller angles off-center)
• Tweak dynamic range of the sensitivity setting.  The least sensitive setting should require nearly 90 degree rotation of phone to achieve maximum turn.  Most sensitive setting requires only about 30 degrees to achieve maximum turn.  
• Lower maximum speed for all cars in certain tracks (the more curvy ones) in order to slow down the overall pace (and make them a little easier).  Does not apply to Expert mode.
• Tweak the wall collision code to prevent certain instances of being able to go off map

We also investigated some bigger changes, like adding a non-accelerometer-based control option, and doing away with the Forward/Reverse control altogether, but those changes would have taken more time, and our #1 priority was to address the immediate problems ASAP.

To those who already tried Cro-Mag, we hope you'll take another look once the update goes live and let us know what you think of the changes.  If you like them, please feel free to express your opinion in the review area of the Marketplace.  If you still don't like them, let us know what you'd change.  You can reach us at cromag@citizen12.com.

Postmortem- Nanosaur 2 on Amazon Appstore

We recently released the Android version of Pangea's excellent Nanosaur 2, and it's available exclusively on the Amazon Appstore.  A number of folks have asked me about our experience working with the Amazon team, so I thought it would be helpful to post a mini "postmortem."

While Nanosaur has enjoyed tremendous success on iOS, it's widely know that premium apps like Nano have a tougher time in the Android space.  Knowing this motivated us to search for a way to successfully introduce Nano to the Android market.  It didn't take much for us to realize that Amazon presented an interesting opportunity in their new Appstore.

What Went Right

1. Communication-- right from the beginning, the Amazon team was responsive and fully engaged.  We approached them to see if they were interested in doing some kind of promotion with us for Nanosaur, and we got a response in less than 24 hours.  Over the course of about 2 weeks, 2 conference calls, and a handful of emails we were able to work out the details of the agreement.
2. Promotion-- Amazon.com is an e-commerce powerhouse.  Being featured on their site-- even in their fledgling Appstore area-- is a big boost for a small studio like citizen12.  They have a variety of promotional tools in their toolbox, and we were able to work out a combination of features that we felt would help get Nanosaur the kind of exposure it deserves.
3. Infrastructure-- One of the last things you want when working on deadline is to have your tools fight against you.  Amazon's Developer Portal worked great and enabled us to deal with the nuts and bolts of uploading the game and associated marketing materials with ease.
4. Test support-- This may be the #1 benefit of working with Amazon.  Developers in the Android space have rightly complained that there's no good way to test your apps on all the different Android devices out there.  Like Apple, Amazon runs all their appstore submissions through a validation/test process.  This includes testing on many popular devices, including numerous devices we don't have on-hand at citizen12.  The result was awesome.  Their test team identified 4 issues that would have caused lots of customer heartache, had we released the app as-is.  They worked with us to re-test the fixes and in the end the collaboration meant that the Nanosaur 2 which went live was much improved over the Nanosaur 2 we had initially submitted.

What Went Wrong 

1. Communication-- After Nanosaur 2 went live on the Amazon Appstore, we realized that we didn't fully understand how the various aspects of the promotion would be managed by Amazon's marketing team.  We had expected Amazon to lead with the major component-- 50% off and prominent placement on the Appstore landing page-- but instead they led with some of the smaller promotional tools.  It only took a couple of emails to work out where the misunderstandings were, but it definitely made it a bit more challenging for us to coordinate our marketing efforts with the Amazon promotion.
2. Timing-- This one lies squarely in citizen12's lap.  The studio was taking some planned downtime during July, which unfortunately was the same time we decided to launch Nano.  I had somewhat foolishly thought I could manage the rollout from abroad, but my absence caused some unnecessary work for folks at both citizen12 and Amazon.  Basically, we should have waited a few weeks before launching.

Conclusion

Overall, Amazon's presence in the Android market is a positive for both developers and users.  They provide a much-needed service by offering a "curated" portfolio of Android games and other apps.  They help small developers like citizen12 by providing QA services that would otherwise be out of reach.  They also provide healthy competition for the Android Marketplace.  

Our experience working with Amazon was a positive one, and we'd definitely work with them again.