"Retail is the past," Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano says, explaining that even if the retail price was twice the digital price, he'd net less profit. He reflects on this and several more business and programming lessons he learned being a one-man developer and publisher, in this GDC 2013 lecture.
Retro City Rampage's custom-built engine created extra considerations for the developer, who says getting his game up and running took less time than conforming to platform requirements. He discusses the core architecture differences across all platforms, along with programming joysticks, leaderboards, saves, menus and more in this hour-long lecture, free courtesy of GDC Vault.
Session Name: One Man, 17 SKUs: Shipping on Every Platform at Once
Speaker(s): Brian Provinciano
Company Name(s): Vblank Entertainment
Track / Format: Programming
Description:This talk takes attendees through the entire process of developing and releasing multi-platform games, from A to Z, with a primary focus on consoles and Steam. From programming to business and production, it's a content heavy talk that covers a lot of ground. It paints the complete picture by detailing everything from code to contracts. The sheer volume of tasks adds up quickly when developing console games; building a game which can can fit every system's varied requirements and SDK adds even more complexity. Preparation is key and this talk provides the roadmap.
Video: Shipping Retro City Rampage on 17 SKUs at once
Brian Provinciano reflects on business and programming lessons he learned being a one-man developer and publisher, in this GDC 2013 lecture.