So today Beach Buggy Blitz passed 10 Million downloads in the Google Play app store.
10 Million!
I come from a console development background. Back when I worked on console games for the PS2 and Xbox, and Xbox 360, we had a completely different idea of "audience".
The most successful console game I ever worked on was when I was at Stormfront Studios: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I believe that game sold something like 4 million copies across all platforms, and that was considered a huge success. Heck, it WAS a huge success!
Of course LOTR:TT sold for $50/copy or something like that so we're talking about a lot of money. Beach Buggy Blitz is free, and we depend on lots and lots of people playing the game in the hopes that a few of those people will pay. And in fact about 1.5% of players do eventually buy something. So for us, a small company, Beach Buggy Blitz is also a huge success.
But apart from the money, the thing that amazes me is the idea that 10 million people have played our game. And most of them really liked it! We know it's not perfect, there are lots of things we'd love to improve or do differently if we had to do it over again. But still, we poured a lot of our creativity and hard work into that game, and to think that 10 million people have played it and mostly enjoyed it is really staggering, and a little humbling.
I wonder how many total hours of gameplay that is... [Eyes glaze over].
Anyway, to all of you who have played Beach Buggy Blitz, thanks a lot for your support and your engagement, and for the ideas that you have posted on our Facebook page or tweeted or emailed to us. And thanks even for some of the criticisms which have helped us make the game better.
The Beach Buggy Blitz story is not over! There will be more updates and fixes and patches. And most importantly we have big Beach Buggy plans for later this year. Hopefully we'll continue to do justice to the parts of the game you like, and add even more stuff for you to enjoy -- I'd hate to have 10 million people angry at me!