Sorry for the delay on this, but the slides for my Death of an Indie Studio talk are now up on Slideshare.

They may not make a ton of sense if you weren’t there, since I used the slides as visuals to highlight or counterpoint what I was saying.  I plan to do the talk again at Boston Post Mortem at some point, and when I do, I’ll either get it recorded or update my notes to high enough quality that I can post them.

It’s time again for PAX East!  I’ll be on three panels (one of which is actually a one-Macguffin show).  Hope to see folks there!

Death of an Indie Studio
Wyvern Theatre
Friday, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

This year, Boston area indie studio Macguffin Games closed its doors. In three years, Scott Macmillan took the studio from a one-man shop to a 4-person startup with paid employees, launched two games (one of them for Facebook), and then finally shut the whole thing down with no regrets. At this talk, he’ll discuss the big lessons he learned, what worked and what didn’t, and take lots of questions from the audience.

Just Because You Have an Idea, You Are Not a Game Designer
Wyvern Theatre
Saturday, 10:30am – 11:30am

Many of us have worked with some amazing designers over the years, and they are much more than walking idea factories. Passion for concepts is great, but don’t confuse passion for skill. In this panel we’ll talk about the characteristics that make a good game designer, and specific skills we look for when hiring on new talent. We’ll also spend some time to point out the differences between good ideas for projects, theoretically good ideas, and bad ideas that you think are good.

Panelists include: Ichiro Lambe [President, Dejobaan Games], Chris Oltyan [Producer, Dire Wolf Digital], Eitan Glinert [President, Fire Hose Games], Scott Macmillan [President, Macguffin Games]

Start Your Own Damned Company
Cat Theatre
Sunday, 4:30pm – 5:30pm

Sometimes, people have great ideas for games. We’re happy for you, we are. But you know what? Our studio isn’t gonna help you realize your vision, and chances are no other company will. It’s shocking, but the reason we dove headfirst into the start-up ocean full of shattered dreams and razor blades was because WE ACTUALLY HAVE A GREAT IDEA FOR A GAME TOO! If you really feel passionately about your idea and want nothing more than to see it live then go make it your own damn self, we’re busy. But we’ll throw you a bone with this helpful panel full of tidbits on how to get started. Let us regale you with tales of wonder and woe, led by our fearless moderator Ichiro Lambe. Only the brave will survive, no refunds.

Panelists include: Chris Oltyan [Producer, Dire Wolf Digital], Eitan Glinert [President, Fire Hose Games], Scott Macmillan [President, Macguffin Games], Ichiro Lambe [President, Dejobaan Games], Damian Isla [Director of Technology, Moonshot Games]

So, Macguffin Games is going out of business.

Although we gave it a great try with Mustache Mercenaries, we weren’t able to turn things around fast enough to keep the company going.  We knew that was a risk when we started, and I’m not unhappy at all with what we accomplished with the time we had.  I’m thinking about doing some post mortem blog posts over the next couple weeks, and if I do, I’ll delve into some of what went right and wrong.

We’ll be leaving the Mustache Mercenaries servers up for now, but they’ll most likely come down in the next week or two.  So play now!

In regards to the Kickstarter – thank you to everyone that contributed.  In the end, even if we had hit our goal, that alone would not have been enough.  In order to keep the company going, we needed a couple things to break our way on the business side.  Sadly, they did not.

I started Macguffin Games because I love game development and although this company is going away, the people that  brought it to life are not.  We’re still here and will still be making games.  On my part, I’m looking forward to having more time to devote to various game projects, as well as to the excellent Boston indie community.  The experience of starting the company and of working on All Heroes Die and Mustache Mercenaries has been an amazing one; I have learned more in three years of doing this than I would have in 10 working at my old job.  I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

So, to our friends, two things.  One – thank you.  You’ve all been fantastic, and we wouldn’t have accomplished what we did without you.  Two – don’t be sad.  There is more and better to come for all of us.

In the meantime, don’t worry about Macguffin Games.  It was, after all, only a plot device.

Alright, we got another new Mustache Mercenaries build in today.  Got a bunch of content in and a bunch of long-awaited fixes, as well as a new feature.  We’re pretty psyched.

• Engine Charge! – Up until now, the action on your engine did not do anything – it just skipped your turn.  Now, it adds one turn worth of steam.  Be careful!  Using this can get you from near empty to almost full steam in one full round… it’s easy to overload.  Let us know if you end up with any serious steam issues, like first turn explosions.
• Invitations – The invitation button at the left on your Friends’ bar now works.  Invite your friends to play as well!
• New Weapons and Robots – We’ve put a bunch of new higher powered weapons, robots, and other parts into the store.  There are items for both Steambucks and Coal.
• Encroaching Robots bug is fixed – We finally fixed the bug where robots will slowly migrate across the battlefield.
• “Locked” in store – the Store now tells you if an item is locked because you are too low level for it.
• Art on Battle Cards – We now have art for the battle cards.  More art will be going in over time.
• Special Borders for Coal Cards – The two cards you always have in your hand,
• Animations Hooked Up – We’ve hooked up a number of weapon animations that were previously all placeholders.  Laura Ingalls Wilder’s mailbox will no longer shoot fireballs.
• Robot Workshop Share Button - The Share button in the robot workshop now works.  We’ll be working on enhancements to that in the near future.
• Streamlined Combat Log – We’ve removed some unnecessary text from the combat log to streamline it.

Thanks!  Have a great weekend everyone, and email us at mmbugs@macguffingames.com if you have any issues.

As of Tuesday night, the new build is up!  It features a completely redesigned store and a number of smaller fixes.  We’re also looking at doing another build tomorrow with some more minor updates and fixes.

In other news, we’ve launched a Kickstarter for Mustache Mercenaries.  We’ve tried to set it up with a number of interesting prizes, such as a sew-on patch for the Research Society for Rampant Robots, authentic Mrs. Macguffin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, Limited Edition in-game items, and even having the Macguffin team take a weekend and make you a game!  Please go check it out.

Hey folks!

We’ve been working hard on a revamp to the in-game store for Mustache Mercenaries, as well as putting in a number of small fixes and changes.  We plan to have the build up some time on Monday, at the latest Tuesday if something huge blows up.  We’ll keep you posted.

As always, please let us know if you find bugs or have comments and suggestions – we’re all ears, folks.

Mustache Mercenaries is now live! Welcome to the Beta!

We’re sure there are tons of bugs – we’ll be sorting them out as fast as we can, as well as adding new features.  If you run across bugs, please feel free to put them up in our discussion forum on Facebook, or to email them directly to us at mmbugs@macguffingames.com.