Back when we were setting up the bundle, the Royale crew asked about adding the Soulcaster OST’s to the bundle as bonus content.  I was fine with that, but knowing that they’re available for “name your price” on Bandcamp, I wanted to provide something special and exclusive for the bundle.

My concept: a remix album.  The only problem was that I didn’t have any time to work on it.  So I put the word out to some composer buddies, to see if there was anyone willing to do a track in just a few days.  I thought maybe one or two people would have time, but no… here are the six songs I got back.  Unreal!

Here are some bios on the contributors.  In the spirit of Valentine’s day I’ve tried to add my personal touch to them. (I’m listening to the To The Moon soundtrack right now, so if this starts getting really sentimental, just bear with me.)

 1. James McCawley – Neverglade 02:35

James is a long-time friend with origins going back to the Video Games Lounge on AOL.  He’s currently working as a sound designer & “occasional composer” at Treyarch, where he recently wrote some incidental music for Black Ops, including most of the BGM for Dead Ops Arcade.

 2. Kyle Johnson – Ruin the Remix 04:00

Kyle and I met through the Game Audio Network Guild back in 2005, when we first collaborated on some contract gigs for GBA and NDS audio. Since then we’ve become close friends, and I’ve known him through his tenure at Neversoft, where he did all kinds of stuff for the Guitar Hero franchise, notably (ha!) track design. He’s an all-terrain music guru with sharp composing skills, who just so happens to shred at the guitar. His latest project is a deep ambient collaboration with Tom Owen, We Spies.

3. Surasshu – All Souls Alliance (10,000% Remix) 04:35

Steven and I also met through the G.A.N.G. back in 2005, and he proved a valuable ally on the many game soundtracks we did. It’s rare to find someone who can cope with the limitations of Gameboy Advance and DS, but Steven just happens to be a master of authentic 8-bit and chiptune styles. Just don’t think he’s pigeonholed into that style though, because I’ve found him one of the more versatile composers I’ve worked with. His most recent endeavor is yogurtbox – Tree of Knowledge, what I can only describe as the soundtrack to a make-believe Japanese dating sim.

 4. Jake ‘virt’ Kaufman – Merchant of Beatdowns 04:08

How do I write a bio on virt? Everyone knows virt! Jake and I started doing game audio around the same time, about a decade ago, and in that time he has gone from mere mortal to unstoppable demigod. I could name drop (Bloodrayne: Betrayal and Retro City Rampage), but what I want to say most is that he came through for me on this face-crushing dubstep remix with zero advance notice from me. I think he went without sleep to help me promote Soulcaster’s PC debut and that just says a lot about the man’s character.

 5. DJ Bouche – Soulcaster II (Northern Lights Remix) 02:23

Andrew Lim (a.k.a. DJ Bouche) is a contact I made through this remix album, actually, when I asked Steven to see if he knew anyone interested in doing a track. Steven came through with DJ Bouche. He’s a remix, trance, soundtrack and chiptune virtuoso, who according to his Soundcloud profile, is looking for a break into the industry. Listen to the track, and listen to his Soundcloud reel… the man is ready.

6. madbrain – Storybook – Symphonic MIx 02:10

Hubert Lamontagne (a.k.a. madbrain) is another Surasshu comnection. He’s a mysterious fellow without much web presence, flying under the radar for now, no doubt waiting for the right time to make his move. In addition to music composition skills, he’s got some programming ability and is making a digital synthesizer based on physical modeling of wind instruments.

Cover illustration: James Walker

James and I first got in contact just a few months ago, when he dropped me a message about Escape Goat.  He’s a fellow jack-of-all-trades game developer, currently working on a master’s in statistical analysis of compiler optimization (OK, so he’s a few notches above me in the coding department).  When he’s not distracted by academics, he’s working on his next indie title, yet to be announced but looking very cool so far.

As of now, the only way to get these awesome tracks is to buy the bundle… your contributions will be put to good use, trust me! Help us shatter some records, and get some great games and music in the process.

The wait is over… you can get these titles right now as part of the Indie Royale bundle!

Already played them on Xbox?  Well I’ve added a few extras to sweeten the deal:

• Three control schemes:  Original 360 controller, keyboard only (fully remappable!), or click-to-move with keyboard and mouse
• New challenge rooms:  18 all new levels (8 for Soulcaster, 10 for Soulcaster II) which unlock after beating the campaign. Think of them as time trials with unique combinations of summons.  It even saves your best times for each room!
• Unlockable campaign modes:  Hard Mode not difficult enough for you? Try going without one of the summons.  Still not had enough? Try beating the game with just the archer!  Your best total time for each campaign mode is also saved.
• Autosaving.  No more writing down passwords (though I’m gonna miss this).  It is 2012 after all.
• Option to run in windowed mode or full-screen, stretched to fit or pixel-perfect.

I’m really excited to finally offer these games on PC.  My main project this year so far has been porting these games, and I couldn’t have done this without the help of my crack team of beta testers.  I love you guys!

Time for some screenshots:

Comments are very welcome here!  I hope you enjoy Soulcaster I & II on PC!

You might test on a controller with a large dead zone and have no problem, then someone else will play your game with a very small dead zone, and they will find the control “sticking” in that direction.  I’ve had some controllers where the dead zone was so precise, I could have my thumb off the joystick and it would still be transmitting a tiny movement value.

I suggest adding a large dead zone, to make sure you only get simulated DPad input for large, deliberate movements of the analog stick.  Here’s some code that works for me, adjust as necessary to fit your control scheme:

static Buttons GetThumbstickDirection(PlayerIndex player, bool leftStick)
{
    float thumbstickTolerance = 0.35f;

    GamePadState gs = GamePad.GetState(player);
    Vector2 direction = (leftStick) ?
        gs.ThumbSticks.Left : gs.ThumbSticks.Right;

    float absX = Math.Abs(direction.X);
    float absY = Math.Abs(direction.Y);

    if (absX > absY && absX > thumbstickTolerance)
    {
        return (direction.X > 0) ? Buttons.DPadRight : Buttons.DPadLeft;
    }
    else if (absX < absY && absY > thumbstickTolerance)
    {
        return (direction.Y > 0) ? Buttons.DPadUp : Buttons.DPadDown;
    }
    return (Buttons)0;
}

“It’s the kind of game where the answer is always right in front of your face, even if it takes a few frustrating failures to find it.”

HiddenAudioLog - Xbox Live Indie Game of the Year 2011:

“Escape Goat is the definition of a complete package, and is borderline flawless at what it sets out to achieve. That’s why Escape Goat is not only Hidden Audio Log’s Xbox Live Indie Game of the Year of 2011, but probably the best Xbox Live Indie Game ever.”

Destructoid - Manasteel’s A Better List than Microsoft’s “Best of 2011: Indie Games”:

“Escape Goat is from the same creative developer that gave us the Soul Caster titles. The game offers the players a lot as a puzzle based platformer, especially once you create your own puzzle rooms. As a Goat, you have to escape your persecution with the help of a rat, a magical hat, and a lot of planning. It’s shocking what one single developer can create and this is indeed a good game. “

Gamecritics.com - Brad Gallaway’s Top 10 of 2011:

“What do you get when you combine a barnyard animal, a wall-climbing mouse and a magic hat? A damned good puzzle game.“

IndieGamerChick – Top 10 of All Time (#2 spot):

“It’s clever, punchy, and controls absolutely flawlessly.  It hits all the right notes for what a puzzle-platformer should be.”

Gamezone – Best Xbox Live Indie Games of 2011

“It’s an innocent premise aided by some fantastically clever puzzle-solving gameplay.”

Gamasutra - Best of 2011 – Top 5 Overlooked Games (Honorable Mention)

NeoGAF users seem to like it as well.

Bottom line: the price drop resulted in a staggering increase in revenue. Let’s take a closer look, starting with how things were selling in November to establish a baseline.

November 1-30 2011 Sales (30 days):

*Escape Goat has much stronger numbers because November was its release month. Take a look at how the daily revenue has tapered off in its second month:

As you can see, the revenue from the Soulcaster games was barely covering my rent at the coffee shop.  So let’s see what happened in the week since the price drop:

December 13-19 2011 Sales (7 days):

The numbers speak for themselves.  I also brought in some charts to give this post a bit more visual impact:

Escape Goat:

Soulcaster:

Soulcaster II:

The most shocking stat for me is the conversion rate.  For both games it jumped above 100%.  This means more people are buying the full version than are trying the demo first.  One explanation for this is that fans of one game buy the second one sight-unseen, perhaps through the new “related games” links.  The games are similar enough that if you like one, you’ll probably like the other.  But outside of those purchases, I think it really speaks to the power of the 80 MSP in terms of impulse buying.  Customers are grabbing the full version without trying it out first, because, “hey, it’s only 80 MSP.”

Edit: As pointed out to me by Ben Kane, Alex Macfarlane Smith, and Paul Thomas, the “over 100%” conversion might be from customers who had previously downloaded the trial, rather than trying the game on the purchase date.  Thanks guys for noting this.

I know, it’s early to call.  Just one week of data, and who knows, it could all collapse over the next couple weeks.  Maybe a chunk of these sales are the result of the publicity my price drop got.  To know for sure, we’ll just have to wait.

To summarize:

1. After dropping the price, sales went up 12-fold, driving daily revenue up five-fold.
2. I’m making nearly as much off Soulcaster, a game that’s been out over 20 months, as I am off Escape Goat, which is only in its second month and should be in its prime for sales.
3. The dashboard update seemed to have little effect, since it went into effect a few days before the price drop.  And notice how it did not impact the sales or downloads of Escape Goat.

I’ll post another update after some more figures come in.  But so far, 80 MSP seems like the right price for these games.  It’s great to be making money with them again.  I can’t wait until February when I can drop the price on Escape Goat as well.

This is part of a pricing experiment.

Read more in my guest editorial at IndieGamerChick, including juicy sales data!