Developer Diaries: Slash Arena
Its author, Alexander Simakhin, shared about all stages of the development of the minimalistic Slash Arena MMO in his blog. An expanded version of the material can now be read here.
Background
I got into game dev in 2011. I started at Drimmi. Then he worked at Kamagames, Destiny Development and Technobears Publishing. Leaving my previous job, I thought: “Why look for a job when I can file my game?”. So I got on the slippery slope of an indie developer.
The idea was to make a simple online game.
Why the network one?
I had experience of launching a mobile network project, I knew the technical features. Plus, a network project doesn’t need a lot of content. If the online gameplay captivates the players, the content is required many times less. This was very important to me, because I was going to develop the game (and developed it) from my own wallet.
By the way, the budget of the game was $ 3 thousand. This money was spent on 3D models, sounds, graphics for interfaces, as well as food/accommodation for me.
I did everything alone (on Unity and Photon), worked almost seven days a week for 8-12 hours a day. When I really felt sick, I took breaks for half a day. Sometimes I had to be distracted by a small freelance to earn money.
Development
I know how to model /texture / animate, but I decided to buy everything, not counting the code, otherwise the game could be done forever.
It all started with 3D models. Having found a set for a fantasy setting, I stopped at it and filed a small prototype with animation.
Then I connected the server and configured the connection. It’s just a cube, but how much suffering it has brought me.
And the work of the struggle with physics began…
Connected animations together with physics and added interfaces.
Here I try which obstacles are interesting for the game and which are not.
I still have problems with physics, the gnomes seem to be skating on ice, debugging blows.
Added 3D models of the world, animation of death. The game begins to resemble something normal already.
Taught the dwarf to lay down steaks in large quantities.
Adding visual effects.
Now we need to set up a map where everyone will run.
Added bots with the algorithm: “Bastard, come here!”.
Shoveled the animation, added death to the dwarves, put everything together.
I made a forge with a set of weapons.
I took beautiful screenshots to attract attention.
Then there were 3 more weeks of optimizing the game, eliminating bugs. Then a trial run, scored the first online, added ratings, quests and new characters.
I immediately aimed at all platforms. So at the moment the game is in the open beta testing stage immediately on VK, Facebook (WebGL version), Google Play and the App Store. There are also test desktop builds for Steam for PC/Mac/Linux.
The main time and complexity costs were caused by porting to WebGL. I would say that 90% of the problems with porting fell on WebGL. The main reason is that it is difficult to debug bugs on it. But after the build runs under WebGL, it is not difficult to transfer the game to any other platform.
I launched the project on August 8.
All users play on shared servers. Servers are deployed in the USA (East/West Coast), Germany and Russia. I plan to start in Asia soon. So everyone should have a great ping.
I did not invest in advertising, I made several posts on websites and public sites in VK.
MAU on Facebook – 6.6 thousand users, in VK – 8.3 thousand, mobile users – less than 1 thousand.
Now I’m fixing technical bugs, introducing more analytics, balancing the in-game economy. As soon as this is over, I will start preparing for the launch in marketing terms – to purchase advertising. I plan to launch the Android/iOS version at the same time.
The median session time according to FB statistics is constantly jumping, from 2 to 16 minutes.
This is how the distribution of players by age and gender looks like: 90% men, 9% women and 1% unknown.
As for monetization. The game has the opportunity to buy gold and resources for real money. They are spent on buying weapons and character skins. The main spending of users is a new weapon. Skins are not so willing to buy, since there are quite a few of them – 3 paid and 3 free.
Actually, everything.
Thanks to everyone who read to the end. I hope you enjoyed the material and enjoy the game. I will be glad to any constructive and non-constructive feedback.
The first 3 links are web versions, they are launched immediately through the browser without additional installations of anything.
- Play via VKPlay via Facebook
- Play on the site slasharena.com
- Play on Android
The game for iOS is also available, but for this, unsubscribe in the comments.
Yes, there is also a chat in Telegram, where I discuss further development, edits on the game.
