First of all, if you haven’t voted for Driftmoon yet, please vote! The last vote next week is the most important, that determines the winner!
I actually came here to talk about download statistics. Those are often well kept secrets, you wouldn’t want your competitors to know you’re doing bad! The reason I wanted to reveal my statistics is that one of my games is keeping me up at night. It’s weird.
A bit of background. Most of my games are from way back. I actually started making games in 1998, and the oldest one available here is The Forge released in 2000. The newest actual release, if you don’t count Driftmoon, would be Notrium from 2003. Now six or more years is a lot of time to get downloads. Too bad I’ve only got statistics from 2004 upwards, so we can only guess at what numbers these games have started with. And I’m only talking about downloads directly from monkkonen.net. I honestly have no idea what the numbers would be from other sites that offer my games. Should I double these or what?
I said I didn’t have statistics from before 2004. Well I lied there. I tracked Notrium in 2003. To a young man just starting game development it was a huge success, with well over 300 000 downloads in the first couple of months alone. After that the downloads settled into about 5000 per month, gradually declining to 2000 per month that I now see. So that’s in the range of 600 000 – 700 000 total downloads up until now.
Before Notrium there was Magebane 2, and after a rough start it soon settled into 5000, declining to current 2000 per month. The total numbers for Magebane are pretty similar to Notrium. The difference between the games is that Notrium took two years to build, and Magebane about half a year. Wazzal and The Forge have always been pretty regular with 500-1500 downloads per month. I think they’re both at about 100 000 total for their lifetime.
So what was the fuss about? It’s about the fact that Bikez II has netted well over 2,5 million downloads! I think about 80 percent of the downloads are from Brazil. If you’re reading this from São Paulo, here’s hello to you. If I got a dollar from each of you, I’d get a decent income. The download numbers for Bikez II are actually continually increasing due to more people getting an Internet connection in Brazil. The counter at one of the bigger sites Baixaki is going at 1.2 million.
So what do you make of it? My statistics software claims it doesn’t count robots and download accelerators, so the number cannot be that far off. Did the game just get lucky in Brazil, such that it has nothing to do with the actual game? Maybe there’s potential for making money out of these growing economies? Is there a huge demand for games like Bikez II, enough to warrant an eight year old game to continue succeeding? Is it riding on the success of Grand Theft Auto, with the difference that it works on really old computers? Or is it just the girl in the menu? I’m at a loss with this one, I really am.
Who wants to see Bikez 3? If one million comment, I’m going to start right now. 
lol 1 million right…it’ll be a while
At least I wouldn’t like seeing you give up on Driftmoon/Cormoon/Notrium 2 for making Bikez 3. I remember using Baixaki some years ago, it was a good software source, but nothing tells me the reason for those numbers.
Well, maybe the game was suggested in Baixaki rather soon, but still…
South America is not a bad place to live, it is just that we have bad politicians. And that is it: B-A-D! I am, for example, from Argentina, Just below Brazil
, and our people have the tecnology, resources, and even the money (if the politicians used it correctly) to grow. But, our politicians are more interested in getting rich themselves. Did I mention that Ms. Kirshner (Our president) is also know as “Miss Botox”?; also, her last dress cost us u$s 1.000.000
Brazil, in opposite, is now growing, because they are improving in politics as well as in economy. Salutations from another south american to you!
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Whew! enought about politics and politicians (sorry but I like talking about politics) and let´s get to the game. While games like Wazzal, Megabane and Notrium are great. the teenagers (one of today´s most active internet users) prefer action-paced games like counter-strike and grand theft auto. In Bikez II, what you did ville was merging both ideas – Speed and Shooter – into one. This is surely attracting a lot of fans of these genres. Take for example one of my friends – He does not like Notrium because he says it is “too slow”. But he is a fan of grand theft auto, and he loves Bikez II. “Hit-and-running at high speed” another of his phrases.
Remember that when making a game, it is much like a product: Who is going to buy it?; What would they like to buy?
Whew! (I talked tooooo much again, I apologize). I had to speak for South America!
Wow. Just checked this site again after staying away for about a year. Great to see you still developing stuff, you’ve made some pretty great games. The download statistics kinda staggered me too, had no idea your games were so popular. It’s good to see you still making stuff though, Notrium is definitely one of the most original games I’ve ever seen. I’d love to see a sequel some day. Anyway, I’m off to check out Driftmoon now. Good luck!
huge fan of your site:D probably one of the reasons your games get a few more Dl’s:D looking forward to driftmoon. i’ve been playin notrium for like 2 years now:P still can’t finish it with psionic though:( hope you get alot more dl’s in the future gud luk^_^
Heh, i don’t think the amount of downloads and how much people enjoyed he game have much to do with each other.
I believe a lot of people download Bikez 2 because they’re going “like, dude, this has bikes AND MACHINEGUNS and it’s in 3d, how can it not be awesome?!” whereas Notrium would inspire a few puzzled “Sur-vi-val? Am i realing that right? Survival? What’s that? Meh.”
Wheras, if you look at the dedicated community that Notrium sprung up (though granted, we’ve mostly stuck around for the company (we still chatter alot on IRC, not as much on the forums anymore (you should visit sometime, Ville, it would be hilarious, we named the bot after you))) and compare that to the Bikez 2 subforum…
Though yes, the Brazilian thing is puzzling, i have no explanation for that.
Thanks for your kinds words everyone!
@Crazy: You’re absolutely right about that, very few of the people who have downloaded Bikez have been amazed by the game and wanted more. Then there’s the question of what to do about it. Should I just interrupt their downloads and tell that there’s a better game right here, try it out instead!
Bikez II was a great game, really fun Carmageddon style arcade gameplay. I’d love to see a sequel made.
Well you are right Crazy, but you can not deny this chain: A guy/gal donwload and loves a game. The guy/gal tells his/her friends. Who in turn, if they like it, may tell their friends. And so on. I mean, there IS a reason why Grand Theft Auto is so popular. I have not played they game, yet, I was invited to do so like hundreds of times. Maybe, the same happens to Bikez II?