Posts tagged postmortem 
Sanctum 2 postmortem talks big ideas, low console sales
When the standard challenges of game development combine with advancing a series and learning to port to consoles, it's easy to imagine how things could become overwhelming. Sanctum 2 developer Coffee Stain Studios persevered from building the sequel to its first-person-shooter tower defense hybri...
Monaco tops 750K sold, makes off with $215K in Humble Bundle 11
Sales of the neon stealth game Monaco have hit 750,000 following its inclusion in Humble Indie Bundle 11. During the bundle bonanza, Monaco earned approximately $215,000, developer Andy Schatz writes in a rundown on his blog. "That's a nice hefty sum," he adds. Monaco was one of the "beat the av...
Race the Sun earns $7,400 in first month, struggles on Greenlight
The intro to Race the Sun's one-month numbers breakdown begins on an ominous note: "Launching a PC game without a major distribution platform, such as Steam, is asking for trouble." In its launch month, developer Flippfly sold 771 copies of Race the Sun for a total of $7,400. "This may seem like...
GDC 2013 classic postmortems: Myst, X-COM: UFO Defense, more
The classic postmortem sessions at GDC are always good for some fun, inside stories of old-school game development, including the likes of GoldenEye 007, Doom, Maniac Mansion and Out of this World. GDC 2013 will add a few more games to the list, with postmortem panels scheduled for Myst, X-COM: UFO...
One reason Fez has taken five years to make, has already won awards
Seeing Fez's technical postmortem directly before a screening of Indie Game: The Movie offered a jilted experience, one from developer Renaud Bedard, who presents the game's pitfalls in its most practical terms, and the other from a dramatic 15-foot projection of Phil Fish's muttonchops, who assure...
Left 4 Dead making-of feature recounts Survivor evolution, other odd stuff
Edge has an extensive and rather interesting look back at the development of Left 4 Dead that touches on design philosophy and how people behave while playing. "Some people would declare themselves the leader and bark instructions, whether they were qualified to or not," said Mike Booth, then ...
Okamiden producers discuss planning around Pokemon and 3DS
The producers of Okamiden realized they were in a pickle, marketing-wise, when they were finishing up the Western version of the game just as the 3DS and Pok émon Black and White were being announced for the same release window. Capcom decided to thread the needle and send Okamiden out ri...
Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess was almost The Waterfall of the Dirty Gods
On Gamasutra, Mediatonic's Jim Griffiths and Paul Croft wrote a postmortem for Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, the amusingly-named jumping vampire game that started on PlayStation Minis before, yes, hopping to Xbox Live Indie Games. When the game was first conceived, there wasn't even t...
Jordan Mechner on Prince of Persia, respecting game writers
In 1985, Jordan Mechner was thinking about baggy pants, arches and columns -- images that could be clearly conveyed in a low-resolution, pixelated computer game. While delivering his Prince of Persia postmortem during GDC earlier this month, Mechner delved into his memories, his journals (which y...
Super Meatmortem: The almost-death of Team Meat
Crunch time is just part of game development. When the deadline is looming, it's not uncommon for developers to pull 12-hour shifts (or longer). For Team Meat, crunch time nearly killed half of the duo. Tommy Refenes (pictured left) told GDC attendees that he would "be dead if we put Meat Boy ...
