Jeff-Vogel

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg
Showing posts with label shareware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shareware. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 September 2010

Spiderweb Software's Fifteenth Birthday Sale!

Posted on 21:48 by Unknown
(This is the official press release for our fifteenth birthday sale. I'm posting it here because it's funny. Also, shameless self-promotion and all that.)

Spiderweb Software's Fifteenth Birthday Sale!

It was fifteen years ago that fledgling Indie game developer Spiderweb Software released its first game out into the wild. This was, by game industry standards, a long time ago. Back then, small developers sold something called "shareware." The World Wide Web barely existed. People took photographs on "film." Cell phones were the size of loaves of bread. Also, dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

Yes,  the past millennium was a dark and confusing time. And yet, we prevailed, making many fine Retro fantasy role-playing games for Windows and Macintosh. And now we invite you to celebrate our continued survival by offering hefty discounts on the fruits of our labors. For the whole month of October, all collections of our games are 25% off, and everything else we sell is 10% off. CDs containing three or five deep, full-length RPGs, already sold at a discount, are now even cheaper!

So, whether you need a big pile of distractions from the recession and the cold, dark of winter, or you need a nice CD to give as a gift to a gamer friend, or you just like collecting shiny discs, we are eager to help.

Not convinced? Try out one of our huge, free demos.

And here's hoping for another fifteen years. With any luck, our 30th birthday e-mail will be sent out from inside our Pleasure Pod and will celebrate flying cars and the Cure For Death.
Read More
Posted in sales, shameless self-promotion, shareware, spiderweb software | No comments

Friday, 7 August 2009

Sometimes, I Link To a Comic Strip.

Posted on 12:12 by Unknown
Bwaaaaahahahahahaha.

Stolen Pixels #114

I have two things to say about this.

First, every aspiring Indie developer should set this comic as their screensaver, so that it flashes up at any moment when you are foolish enough to feel hope.

Second, I love the term "Indie games" because it doesn't have all the Loser connotations that "shareware" did. I now realize that it's only a matter of time before "Indie game" gets all the same connotations.

If you don't believe me, drop by XNA Community games (Soon to be XBox Live Indie Games. Thanks Microsoft!) and try those out. (Shudder.)


Read More
Posted in indie, linking to things i like, loser, shareware | No comments

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Shareware is dead. Long live shareware.

Posted on 10:12 by Unknown
The first thing I want to do in my official position as author of this blog is thank whoever first came up with the idea of using the word Indie to describe what I do. Indie developer. Indie game design. Whoever did this, you deserve the Nobel Prize in Awesomeness.

I will explain.

When I started this business in 1994, when the web barely existed and I did most of my business over AOL, CompuServe, and BBSes, what i wrote was called Shareware. From the Latin roots 'ware', meaning "Loser" and 'share', meaning "Big, Fat".

Sometimes, people would ask me what I did for a living. I said that I wrote shareware. Then one of two things happened. Either they didn't know what shareware was, in which case they looked at me with bovine incomprehension. Or they did know what shareware was, in which case they'd ask, "Ah. And what do you do for a living?" And then, in both cases, I'd say, "Actually, I squeegee car windows downtown for spare change." And this would make them nod approvingly, because it was far more plausible.

Shareware doesn't really exist anymore. Selling software by freely distributing a demo is standard operating procedure now. (Go read the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page on shareware. Doesn't that describe all software now?) And now I despise the term 'shareware,' because of the connotations of shoddiness and amateurishness the term carries. But that left me needing a new way to describe myself.

Now, when someone asks what I do, I say, "I run an Indie game company." And it is completely sweet.

Isn't that a great word? Indie! It has this aura of cutting-edge and danger about it. Like Indie rockers. Like I'm Kurt Cobain, if he never left his basement or something. Indie means I'm cool, and independent, and fighting The Man. And it even goes a long way to explain why my games look like they were made on basically a zero budget. Because they were. But it's all right. Because I'm Indie. MAN!

It's even in the header of this blog.

I suspect it sounds like I'm attaching too much importance to this, but I'm really not. If you want to do something for a long time, self-respect is important. Feeling like a bottom-feeder gets to you after a while. I'm doing something cool and difficult. I want a term that reflects that.

So, "Indie" guy? Thanks.
Read More
Posted in indie, loser, nobel prize in awesomeness, shareware | No comments
Older Posts Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Avadon Out For Windows, Responding To Critics.
    We finally released Avadon: The Black Fortress for Windows. So far, it is functional and selling very well. I am really heartened to the re...
  • Thoughts On Plants vs Zombies
    I just spent a bunch of time playing almost all of Plants vs Zombies . Then I watched my seven-year old daughter play it. She loves it. A fa...
  • Katawa Shoujo, Sex Stuff in Games, and Choosing What You Are Allowed To See
    What I expected: Weirdo smut. What I got: A little box full of therapy. This is one of those blog posts it's really hard to hit the Publ...
  • Avernum Out For Windows, For What It's Worth.
    A few weeks ago, Spiderweb Software finally released our newest role-playing game, Avernum: Escape From the Pit , for Windows. It's als...
  • Minecraft Makes Little Girls Cry.
    I've been playing Minecraft a lot lately (when I'm not porting our newest game to Windows and iPad), and I will have several thing...
  • Watch Me Talk About Something!
    Casual Connect is an annual convention in Seattle dedicated to the discussion of casual computer games, the design and marketing o...
  • So Here's How Many Games I Sell.
    I get a lot of questions from young, aspiring Indie developers, and the most common query is: How many copies of a game does Spiderweb Softw...
  • The Outgoing Goblin's Guide to Gaming Etiquette
    (This is a slightly updated article I wrote for the late, lamented Dragon magazine back in the day. It is a humorous summary of all I learne...
  • Why We Need Video Game Critics, Even If the Whole Topic Is Boring
    Video games need more of this ... We've reached the point where video games have a huge place in our culture, and yet most of them are ....
  • Avadon Developer Diary #2 - What Sort Of Game Will This Be?
    Here is another long overdue developer diary for our next game, Avadon: The Black Fortress . These articles are about the ongoing process of...

Categories

  • 10000 hours
  • addiction
  • adolescent power fantasy
  • advice
  • android
  • apple
  • avadon
  • avernum
  • back in the day
  • bees
  • bioware
  • blatant pr
  • books
  • boring
  • both artsy AND fartsy
  • braid
  • business stuff
  • cowardice
  • criticism
  • death
  • design
  • destroying my employability in the game industry
  • developer diary
  • diablo
  • dragon age
  • drm
  • dry boring stuff
  • dungeons and dragons
  • ego-massage
  • entertaining atrocities
  • everyone will hate this
  • fad
  • fart
  • flamebait
  • flumph
  • games
  • geneforge
  • gold rush
  • grand theft auto
  • grumpy gamer
  • guitar hero
  • high-functioning alcoholics
  • humble bundle
  • humor
  • i act like i am smart
  • i am a parent if you can believe that
  • i am completely freaking out
  • i am very old
  • i hate art
  • i suck at pr
  • i've wasted my life
  • indie
  • internet hate machine
  • interview
  • introduction
  • introvision
  • ipad
  • iphone
  • jetpacks
  • l2pn00b
  • linking to things i like
  • loser
  • losing lots of money
  • mass effect
  • microsoft
  • minecraft
  • mourning
  • movie
  • nerd
  • nerdjoy
  • nerdrage
  • nethergate
  • nobel prize in awesomeness
  • not about games
  • not wrong to expect to be paid for your work
  • omigodomigodomigod
  • penny arcade
  • physical activity
  • piracy
  • ponies
  • pricing
  • pubic hair and semen
  • queen of fun
  • ranting
  • review
  • rock band
  • rpgs
  • saints row
  • sale
  • sales
  • sales figures
  • shameless self-promotion
  • shareware
  • skyrim
  • something for the ladies
  • spiderweb software
  • squid
  • ssssssss BOOM
  • star trek
  • steam
  • still alive
  • stories are for losers and squares
  • tasty meat
  • tech support
  • teh casualz
  • testing
  • that guy
  • the culture war
  • think of the children
  • tldr
  • travel journal
  • union
  • VEGAS
  • view from the bottom
  • watchmen
  • what cruddy graphics
  • whistling past graveyard
  • whomwhomwhom
  • why did my computer just melt
  • work i didn't get paid for
  • world of goo
  • xbox
  • you made my virtual pet starve you jerk
  • zombies

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (18)
    • ▼  December (2)
      • Katawa Shoujo, Sex Stuff in Games, and Choosing Wh...
      • More Arguing About Women In Video Games. But This ...
    • ►  November (4)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (6)
  • ►  2012 (23)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (1)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2011 (34)
    • ►  December (3)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (5)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2010 (39)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (4)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2009 (53)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (4)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (5)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (8)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile