I couldn't have made Spaceteam if I'd 'prioritised money', says Sleeping Beast's Smith
Reflections on redefining success
Former Bioware staffer Henry Smith won critical acclaim with the launch his free local multiplayer Spaceteam on the App Store, and now he's taken a retrospective look at the game almost a year after launch.
In a recent blog post, Smith has given full disclosure into Spaceteam's financial performance and notes that its completely optional IAPs - which he views as a "tip jar" - have earned him $12,000 of the "over $25,000" Spaceteam has amassed to date.
What's most interesting about Smith's retrospective, however, is his frank admission that making money wasn't his priority.
Money matters?
Smith notes he always intended for Spaceteam to be a free release, but adds that "worrying about how to 'monetise' effectively might have compromised the game design" and may also have hindered his efforts to "get his name out" because "there would have been much more resistance to sharing and spreading the game."
"If I had prioritised making money, then I would not have made a game like Spaceteam," he added.
Smith's takeaways are obviously only relevant to games where raking in masses of cash isn't the priority, but his take nevertheless highlights how malleable the concept of success on the App Store be.
Indeed, evaluating his three main goals for Spaceteam - learning iOS programming and how the App Store worked, finishing a small project to make better estimates in the future, and gaining exposure - Smith happily concludes that the game "certainly wasn't a failure".
Aside from the awards and accolades Spaceteam accumulated, Smith reports that it's also slated for a featured exhibit in New York's Museum of the Moving Image and that a few tech-savvy family therapists have even used it as a tool during group sessions.
[source: Sleeping Beast Games]
