Category: Biznizz

I just released the version 2.0 update to Rebuild iOS, which adds support for iPhone 3GS/4/4S and iPod Touch 3&4. To celebrate, Rebuild is also on sale for 99 cents through the end of this weekend!

I just got new business cards made up for GDC. This one is my favorite. :)

I hope this update also addresses some of the stability issues that Rebuild has been having on the iPad 1. Did you realize an iPhone 4 has twice as much memory as the iPad 1? So it was easier than I’d expected to accommodate iPhones, and obviously I should have done this earlier. I can’t get enough of how nice the cartoony map graphics look on that double-density display.

After all sorts of whining about Flash’s poor performance on the iPad 1, I manned up and made it happen.

The iPad 1 version of Rebuild has less snantzy animations, the map doesn’t scroll quite as smoothly, and admittedly it does run out of ram sometimes and crash. But these issues don’t seem to have lowered the game’s ranking or sales. I’ve gotten more complaints about Air incorrectly listing 15 languages than about performance.

I’ve been tracking the figures on AppFigures.com and was excited to see Rebuild’s #1 app ranking in Anguilla. Well… just kidding, but it was in the top 100 games in the US and UK for awhile. Considering it was never featured by Apple, Rebuild did pretty well, and made $15k in the first month.

It’s evident that Rebuild’s success on the iPad came from it’s previous success as a Flash game. The sales peaks came on days when Rebuild was reviewed on sites like TouchArcade, as well as AppTudes, AppSmile, iPaddisti, 148Apps.

Releasing iPad 2 then iPad 1 separately may have been better too, because the update triggered a second round of press.

Likely it will earn another $15k from now on, possibly more if I put out an iPhone version or a content update and do some creative sales to get more press. But of course I’d rather be working on new things.

Like the Katakana crossword game Colin and I wrote for his mum for Xmas. Or the movie keywords parlor game I’ve been meaning to write for years. Or Word Up Dog (perhaps soon to be rewritten in Stage 3D).

Or, you know, Rebuild 3.

I was so busy enduring (or more like enjoying) typhoons in Japan and the Philippines, I nearly forgot to report on Rebuild 2 being live and in the wild! It’s now playing at at portals near you including Armor Games, Newgrounds (where it’s featured!), and Kongregate!

Feedback has been mostly positive, though some fans are disappointed that it wasn’t more different than the original game. I’m with you – I should have focused on adding more crazy new stuff rather than trying to improve what was already there. I suppose I saw all the flaws in Rebuild 1 very clearly and wanted to fix them all and make Rebuild 2 better in all ways. Turns out that’s incredibly time consuming, and believe it or not, Rebuild 2 took me (not to mention EvilKris who did much of the new art) longer to write than the original game. I get the anti-franchise sentiment and I totally agree that originality is one of the most important aspects of good Flash games. On the other hand, I feel all good inside knowing that Rebuild 2 is the lean, mean, post-apocalyptic city building game it was always meant to be.

EvilKris put together a video of his ending animations in their glorious full form, for those who want to revel in their un-cut awesomeness. Spoiler alert – here it is. The game’s already been mentioned around the web, including a review on JayIsGames and a game pick on the Indie Games Blog. Let me know if you see or write a review, I’ll collect them all in one place.

Finally, Rebuild 2 is going to be played in HorribleNight’s 24 hour gaming marathon benefiting Child’s Play. The guys need your donations to keep them playing games like Rebuild 2 ALL NIGHT LONG (and the next day) this Friday the 14th.

Rebuild has been sponsored – hurrah!

That means it’s coming out very soon, and what better time than October, when everybody has ghouls and zombies on the brain. And things just got zombier, because my primary sponsor is another zombie-themed game: Dead Frontier, a free to play mmo where you battle the hordes in an extensive ruined city. It’s quite pretty (I think so anyway though I know some of you don’t share my appreciation for gore), and it’s a good example of the cool shit you can do with Unity.

The sponsorship bidding process was long and stressful just like with Rebuild 1, and as before I’ve been screwing things up left and right. I was wallowing in One Cup sake earlier and wishing I could hire someone to handle this business stuff. But alas, history has shown that partering with producers is more trouble than it’s worth, especially for a small game like Rebuild.

Plus, if I didn’t do it myself, I might miss out on fun marketing stuff like doing interviews and this blog, plus I like being credited as “Sarah Northway” rather than some faceless studio. Likewise it’s nice to deal directly with people, like Neil Yates of Dead Frontier and Daniel McNeely from Armor Games, who I’m happy to also be working with again.

So look for Rebuild 2 soon on ArmorGames and other fine gaming establishments!