The past, the present and the future.

The development of 4 In a Blow has been a bumpy ride. No game goes through a perfect development, but it is worth telling my story. Because the past explains the present and determines the future.

The past

I'm a game designer. I have very basic development skills, enough to do some concept design and some pre-production. To make 4 In a Blow, I had to hire a development studio to do most of the development. And there lie most of the problems.

The first developer Monkube didn't do a bad job and the development wasn't costly either. Problems began when Monkube starting to have financial problems. The progress almost came to a stop when Monkube filed for bankruptcy. The programmer tried his best to finish the project in his spare time but seemed to go nowhere. So I decided to look for a new developer.

The second the developer was a big company from China. Me and my little project were just a number. Too small and trivial to be taken seriously. They did some work on the game, but the lesser communication made me move on to another developer.

Not long after finding more funding, Axios games studio caught my eye.
Axios games treated 4 In a Blow as their own project. Caring for it and finishing it so it could be launched on the app store.

The present

So here we are. 4 In a Blow is on Aptoide, Google Play, and the App Store. The game is good overall, but it has usability issues and serious problems under the hood.

In terms of user experience, the first levels are a bit too hard for the typical casual players. Players are also used to the free-to-play business model and its boosters. I'm afraid that most players won't use the items in the game at all, making the game too hard and quitting eventually.

The biggest problem is the bad source code that runs the game. This is the result of a difficult start and being altered by different developers.
I haven't experienced any crash but there are still a few bugs and glitches in the game.

The future

Our next update will be within 2 weeks from now. All levels are redesigned so players will have a better first-time experience. The player can still try 3 demos of the premium version of the game, but they will need to start it themselves by going to the shop.
We will be adding interstitial and banner advertisement to increase our revenue. Interstitial ads in the free version of the game will only be shown after level 4. All ads will still be removed in the premium version.

There will be nothing left of my budget to further develop the game. Everything will depend on how much money the game will make.
If the game generates enough revenue, then refactoring the source code will be the first thing we do along with changing the business model to free-to-play.
This will be a big shift. Players that purchased the premium version by then will have to be compensated for their purchase and all levels have to be redesigned again.

We have big challenges up ahead, but we are motivated to continue working on 4 In a Blow and do our very best to make this game the best connect 4 game there is!
Next time I will write about what else we got in store for you. Stay tuned!