SLIDE 1 Spring & Steam an Odyssey
Eshed Shaham FOSDEM 2020
SLIDE 2 Spring RTS Engine
- Supplies various services for games
– Scripting – Physics – Graphics – Pathfinding – Networking
– 27,963 commits – ~100 contributors – <2 active core developers
SLIDE 3
Spring
Total Annihilation (1997) TA-Spring (2005)
SLIDE 4
Spring
Zero-K Evolution RTS
SLIDE 5
Spring
Spring: 1944 Imperial Winter
SLIDE 6
Spring
Gravitas Kernel Panic
SLIDE 7
Spring
Area 17 Parts Needed
SLIDE 8 Zero-K Steam Launch
- First version released – May 2007
- Reached popularity – ~2009
- Steam Greenlight – April 2014
SLIDE 9 Zero-K Steam Launch
- First version released – May 2007
- Reached popularity – ~2009
- Steam Greenlight – April 2014
SLIDE 10 Zero-K Steam Launch
- First version released – May 2007
- Reached popularity – ~2009
- Steam Greenlight – April 2014
- Steam Launch – June 2014
SLIDE 11
Questions?
SLIDE 12 EvoRTS Steam Launch
- First version released – Dec. 2007
- Reached popularity – ???
- Steam Greenlight – January 2013
- Steam Launch – 4th April, 2014
SLIDE 13
The Catastrophe
SLIDE 14
The Catastrophe
SLIDE 15
The Catastrophe
SLIDE 16
The Catastrophe
SLIDE 17
SLIDE 18
SLIDE 19
SLIDE 20
SLIDE 21
SLIDE 22
SLIDE 23
SLIDE 24
SLIDE 25
Why d’you need all that crap?
SLIDE 26
Why d’you need all that crap?
SLIDE 27
The UI Problem
“There's a closely related issue, however that I don't know how to solve yet without a big player with a lot of money, which is doing systematjc user interface end user testjng. We're not very good at that yet, we need to fjnd a way to be good at it.”
SLIDE 28
The UI Problem
“There's a closely related issue, however that I don't know how to solve yet without a big player with a lot of money, which is doing systematjc user interface end user testjng. We're not very good at that yet, we need to fjnd a way to be good at it.”
SLIDE 29 The UI Problem – Why?
- Users’ time is a limited resource
- Devs’ time is an even more limited resource
- Users’ good will is the most limited resource
SLIDE 30 The UI Problem – Why?
- Users’ time is a limited resource
- Devs’ time is an even more limited resource
- Users’ good will is the most limited resource
- Free games have it worse
SLIDE 31 The UI Problem – Why?
- Users’ time is a limited resource.
- Devs’ time is an even more limited resource
- Users’ good will is the most limited resource
- Free games have it worse
https://xkcd.com/1172/
SLIDE 32 The UI Problem – Inertia
- Teachers are there to get you
- Develobsters want to ruin your game.
SLIDE 33
The UI Solution
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SLIDE 34 Launch Blockers
- Server
- Lobby
- GUI
- Singleplayer
- Trailer
SLIDE 35 Launch Unblockers
- Server migration and new Backend
- Ingame Lobby
- GUI revamp
- Compromises
- Luck
SLIDE 36
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 37
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 38
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 39
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 40
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 41
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 42
Ingame Lobby
SLIDE 43
GUI Revamp
SLIDE 44
GUI Revamp
SLIDE 45
Compromises
SLIDE 46
Luck
SLIDE 47 Itch.io
- Smaller platform
- Smaller exposure – smaller risk
- Great opportunity for feedback
SLIDE 48 Zero-K Steam Launch
- First version released – May 2007
- Reached popularity – ~2009
- Steam Greenlight – April 2014
- Steam Launch – June 2014
April 2018
SLIDE 49
Was it a Success?
SLIDE 50
Was it a Success?
SLIDE 51
Was it a Success?
SLIDE 52 What is Success?
- Donations covered servers cost
- Getting maximum players?
- Getting maximum devs?
SLIDE 53 The Aftermath
- Burned out devs
- What’s more important, stability or stability?
SLIDE 54 Lessons Learnt
- Minimise MTTF
- Compromise!
SLIDE 55 Lessons Learnt
- Minimise MTTF (Mean Time to Fun)
- Compromise!
SLIDE 56
Questions?
This time for real :-)
