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Plan for Andy Schatz

Name:	Andy Schatz
Date Posted:	Oct 14, 2005
Rating:	5.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
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Profile Page:	View profile page for Andy Schatz

Blog post

Puff Piece!

Hello folks, and welcome to StarCave cocktail hour.

Just kidding. Sorry to toot my own horn here (small as it may be), but there's a pretty cool article on BusinessWeek Online about me, Venture Africa, Pocketwatch Games, IGC, and GG.

READ IT HERE!

Hopefully this .plan will erase the terrible memories of getting shot down in the first hour of my last .plan by Jeff Tunnell. CURSE YOU JEFF!!! If it weren't for you meddling kids...

Recent Blog Posts

List:	08/02/08 - Game Guide Released 07/26/08 - Pocketwatch Games has a great week 12/23/07 - 2007 Sim Game of the Year - Venture Arctic 11/30/07 - Poetry Slam in Eugene 10/17/07 - The Abrupt Goodbye 10/15/07 - Pixel Art 10/09/07 - IGF Entries Out 09/27/07 - TV Appearances

Submit your own resources!

Matthew Langley (Oct 14, 2005 at 20:01 GMT)

Very cool Andy, glad to see you get some good press :)

Media @ KrabbitSoft Studios Inc. (Oct 14, 2005 at 20:18 GMT)

Edited on Dec 06, 2005 17:23 GMT

Brian Richardson (Oct 14, 2005 at 20:25 GMT)

Congrats Andy!

If you don't find a kick-ass full time game programmer in San Diego, I'm available up in Portland for Portland wages! ;)

Ajari Wilson (Oct 14, 2005 at 20:30 GMT)

Way to go man! I'm proud of you. When you get your new Ferarri, don't forget to stop by my house and pick me up so we can go to a Padres or Chargers game. :p

Andy Schatz (Oct 14, 2005 at 21:09 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

The article is a bit cheery about my financial situation, but it's still neat :) The thing she didn't mention is that I've already blown through half of the 100K already, so it's a good thing that success is on the horizon.

Ajari Wilson (Oct 14, 2005 at 21:26 GMT)

Quote:
I've already blown through half of the 100K already

Just on rent and gas alone I bet. :p San Diego is no joke when it comes to your wallet. This city knows all the right moves to cripple your pockets and flip them inside out fast.

Prairie Games (Oct 14, 2005 at 21:59 GMT)

Great going Andy! That is totally sweet!

Vashner (Oct 14, 2005 at 22:02 GMT)

Wow cool.

Anton Bursch (Oct 14, 2005 at 22:41 GMT)

Congratulations on the success Andy.

Jeremy Alessi (Oct 14, 2005 at 23:11 GMT)

Way to go man ... I knew you had a hit on your hands!

Brian Wells (Oct 15, 2005 at 00:12 GMT)

Yeah I enjoyed Venture Africa quite a bit. It was nice to meet you at IGC, and I am glad you are doing well! I think if I had $100k I would give it a go full time too ;)

It says you are looking to make other games involving animals. Will they be "Tycoon" style as well?

-B

Andy Schatz (Oct 15, 2005 at 00:33 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Well the business plan is to be the "Discovery Channel" of game, so that means animals and much much more. Real world inspired games. Just like the Discovery Channel is entertainment, not education (but you will probably learn something along the way), we're hoping to do the same thing with our games.

The next title will be the sequel to this one, Venture Arctic which will be double the number of animals and have underwater as well as land-based gampley (from blue wales to arctic hares). We're also adding cooperative/competitive multiplayer.

There's also another title in the very early stages of development as well.

Brian Wells (Oct 15, 2005 at 01:42 GMT)

Since there are no flowers in the arctic, will there be the Aurora Borealis instead of orange flowers when the animals "get busy"? I can't wait to see some seals being eaten by Shamoo!

Jeff Tunnell (Oct 15, 2005 at 02:05 GMT)

Nice PR eh, Andy? I'm not too happy with GG coverage though. We put on a show, do all the work, pay to bring all of the PR people to Eugene, and it somehow became Microsoft's show.

Andy Schatz (Oct 15, 2005 at 05:43 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Jeff- Yeah that's no good. It seems that most of what she saw at the show was dominated by Greg Canessa, so perhaps she got the wrong impression.

Anthony Fullmer (Oct 15, 2005 at 21:14 GMT)

Andy, congrats on the PR, it's always nice to see all of your hard work be recognized and appreciated. When I first saw your game, I thought it looked interesting, I am just glad that you found a good publisher. I wish you continued success in your endeavors.

Jeremy Alessi (Oct 16, 2005 at 08:54 GMT)

It says:

Quote:

from conference organizer and indie label GarageGames.

... and the last bit:

Quote:

Mark Frohnmayer, president of GarageGames, summed it up for conference attendees this way: "It's definitely possible for independent developers to make a living from making games," he said. "If you can quit your day job, now is the time." That's just what Andy Schatz did. And look where he is now.

Could have been better I suppose but they definitely hit on the Garage Games note a few times. I guess it's just journalists (like that guy from Teen People) conforming to what they know ... their readers know. That really struck a cord with me when the Teen People guy basically said the only games his editor would let him cover were big time games ... or basically the games that people already knew about because of the multimillion dollar budgets behind them ...

I pointed out to him that they were basically not doing a great job with their journalism since anyone who can watch a TV commercial could write about the games they were writing about and also how it stunk that they were basically just falling right in line with those huge marketing budgets. He said they wanted to write about the games their readers wanted to play ... and I said well you're writing about games that your readers think they want to play from advertising ... instead of advertising different innovative games that they'd surely have just as much fun playing just because it'd actually take some work to find them!

Thomas Glennow (Oct 16, 2005 at 09:57 GMT)

Quote:
He said they wanted to write about the games their readers wanted to play ... and I said well you're writing about games that your readers think they want to play from advertising ... instead of advertising different innovative games that they'd surely have just as much fun playing just because it'd actually take some work to find them!

Isn't that the whole problem with the media today? They write what people want to read, and not what they NEED to read. You need to know if your municipal budget is spiralling out of control, but Britney has finally shown her bellybutton after being pregnant! WOOOO! Let's hear all about that!

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