Tasharen Entertainment Forum
Support => NGUI 3 Support => Topic started by: ArenMook on October 25, 2012, 01:52:44 AM
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What an interesting year this has been… In November last year I left my full-time job because I wanted to take some time off from the exploitative environment of corporate-driven game development. My plan was simple -- spend a year working on a game, living off my savings, recovering my "mojo" in the process.
FREEDOM
My first order of business was creating a simple UI system as I was not happy with the UI solutions present in the Unity engine at the time. After about 3 weeks of development, NGUI was born and released in early December.
It was very simple at first -- exactly what I was aiming to create. It was a tool I made for myself -- for what I needed and nothing more. Releasing it on the Asset Store was mostly an afterthought because I thought that if I find it useful, maybe a few others will as well. The initial reception was surprisingly positive, but everyone who tried NGUI inevitably wanted more: more widgets, more tools, more example videos, more tutorials… and so I, inspired as I was by the fact that people actually liked it, was happy to oblige.
Fast forward a month -- NGUI was now earning me more than my previous job. I was thrilled -- who wouldn't be -- and kept working on it. Sure, it delayed my original plan of working on a game with a friend, but it was fun and profitable, so I didn't mind. A month later NGUI reached the #1 spot on the Asset Store, and two days later it was finally pirated (I'm surprised it took this long!), resulting in the first day of the 4-figure daily income. Weird, huh? I soon learned of two different people who pirated NGUI, but liked it enough to actually go legit and pick up a paid copy. Now that… was awesome.
The whole "piracy is good for business" thing gave me an idea of releasing a free version of NGUI for people who just wanted to try it out without having to pay for it upfront. It was a risk, with a potential of blowing up in my face. After all, why would people pay for it if they can just get it for free? Surprisingly, the sales were not affected at all, and varied from the previous week by only about 0.5%. To make this even better for other developers I decided to also release a version of NGUI that can be included freely with other packages, opening up NGUI to be used in other people's Asset Store-bound work, free of charge. While there was no immediate effect on sales, I'm certain it proved to be a positive force in the long run.
Once NGUI was feature-complete, roughly 3-4 months after its release, I was finally able to go back to my original plan of working on a game. The idea of which game to make was changed though -- from an open-space based exploration game to a fast-paced naval combat game instead. This change was due to the naval game's smaller scope. In retrospect, I probably should have stuck to my original idea, as it has a broader appeal and a more welcoming target audience… but that's not how I saw it back then, and so Windward (http://www.tasharen.com/windward/) was born.
RESENTMENT
Now, it's worth mentioning that by that time NGUI was earning me more than 3 times the amount I was getting paid at my full-time job, and all I had to do was keep an eye on the forums and answer questions -- something that was taking roughly 2-3 hours a day, giving me the rest of the time to work on Windward… and work I did -- 100 hours a week for 7 months straight.
Now, some of you may think -- "that's insane!" -- but it really wasn't. To me it certainly didn't feel like work -- it felt more like a hobby. I was doing what I wanted, working from home on a project I enjoyed, all the while earning a steady income from a side-project that I maintained alongside. Dream come true, right? Well, not exactly.
Unfortunately the more I focused on Windward, the more I started to resent having to support NGUI. After all, it was never supposed to eat up my time and attention, and some of the more frequent requests people wanted -- such as a built-in font solution and the depth / Z issue fix was out of my hands. The problem was in Unity, and I had no contacts within it that would help me fix the problems. Plus, I was keenly aware of the fact that Unity were working on a better UI system themselves, so NGUI always felt to me like a product that was destined to meet its end sooner or later -- the end that seemingly kept getting delayed, which frustrated me more.
I was also sincerely hoping that Windward would get a following of players, a community, and less importantly -- start paying the bills roughly 6 months into its development. Unfortunately, that never came to pass. In the first 7 months, Windward sold 68 copies of the game, even though it was featured on an assortment of game-related news sites. By that point I had hired two others to help me work on it, so it was costing me a good $2800 a week, not including my own time, which was obviously considerable.
DISAPPOINTMENT
Understandably, I was growing increasingly concerned about its future. The game itself was pretty solid. It had multiplayer, a variety of ships and maps to play with, equipment, talent progression, a built-in IRC chat… it was even playable freely throughout its lifetime. And yet, it never succeeded in drawing people in or establishing a community of more than a pair of players at any given time. At the end of its 7th month of development I was tempted to call it: it simply didn't seem worth working on it anymore.
In the end, after 8 months of development and as of this writing, I have sunk about $71,000 into its development, not including my own time, and have sold around 100 copies at $7-$10 each, earning me roughly $800, with a final net loss of about $70,000.
Meanwhile, NGUI was still earning me 3 times of my previous job's pay… 11 months after its initial release.
Looking back at the stats (which I've tracked daily), even the simple Game Starter Kits that I've put up on the Asset Store over a year ago, and spent roughly 2 weeks of my time on, have been pulling in about $700 to $1500 a month. That's a gain of roughly $13,000 for something I created over a year ago and barely spent any time on… versus a loss of $70,000 for 7 months of my time working 100 hours a week.
Needless to say, after going over all the stats and seeing the quiet reception I got on Steam Greenlight and Desura, it was not that difficult of a choice for me to put it on hold and work on something else.
CHANGE
Curiously enough, around the same time I was mulling over what to do with Windward last month I happened to get an email from Steffen over at Unity. He was curious what my plans are and if I'd be interested in making a change. At first I just chuckled at it -- after all, Unity can't possibly pay me what I already make just supporting NGUI, let alone what I can make if I was to focus on making more game kits and other useful packages. But… I figured, why not, let's meet and talk about it. So we did.
Originally my stance was neutral -- there was no reason to work for "the man" again. As I kept thinking about it more however, I realized that I simply wasn't happy with how things were -- both with NGUI, and with Windward. Windward obviously wasn't working out, and with NGUI I had to create a lot of "hacks" to work around Unity's limitations -- such as checking transform position / rotation / scale changes every update for every single widget. These kind of hacks negatively affected performance and resulted in a UI that was slower than it could have been. Then there were feature requests that I simply couldn't address, such as unification of Z and Depth properties that were causing frustration for users working with multiple atlases.
In the end, my decision came down to one simple question: was I happy with how I left NGUI, or can I do better? The answer was the latter. No, I was not happy, and I most certainly can do better, given the low-level access to the engine. Working for Unity I would have that access and more.
And so I've accepted their offer. I start on November 1st.
It certainly has been an interesting year…
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And so to questions that will inevitably surface:
Q: What will you be working on at Unity?
The UI system, of course. ;)
Q: What will happen to NGUI?
Unless someone wants to buy the rights from me, I will be able to maintain it -- small tweaks and bug fixes, mostly. Or in other words -- exactly what I've been doing for the past 6 months. Since I'll be working on the new built-in UI system over at Unity you can likely expect to see a lot of familiar content when it's finally released (which won't be anytime soon, in case you're wondering). I'll also try to make some tools that will auto-convert the UI from NGUI to the upcoming UI system. Also, in case you're wondering, NGUI's earnings for this year are going to be around $300,000, so serious offers only please.
Q: OMG! I JUST bought NGUI and now you won't be working on it!?
You bought a well-polished and battle-tested package that has been out for almost a year and will serve you well for another. I will still keep it up to date until the new UI is ready (and possibly beyond). Look at it this way: you will be getting the next UI system that will be relatively familiar to you, for free... and you will have a leg up on everyone else because you'll be familiar with the UI system that came before it.
Q: What will happen to Windward?
In all honesty, I haven't decided yet. Someone can probably buy it from me (including all the rights) with the right offer, and add things it's missing such as micro-transactions, facebook integration, or whatever else you think will help it make money. If not, I have an option of releasing it as a full game on the asset store. If I do, it won't be cheap. Expect it to be around $1000. Reason being, it's a complete game and it has a metric ton of useful game systems and many, many lines of well-commented code that all developers will likely find very useful. I may also not release it anywhere, and just keep working on it quietly... we'll see.
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Well, I've done my [tiny] part by voting for Windward on Greenlight.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93552173
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Well, I've done my [tiny] part by voting for Windward on Greenlight.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93552173
And thank you for that ;)
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Keep us posted on the future of NGUI. Juha Kiili (RageSpline author) got picked up by Unity and essentially disappeared. Progress completely halted until Freakow (RageTools authors) took over the project.
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Yeah I'm not going anywhere. I'll always be here, Tasharen is still my company.
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I have to say...wow :)
i think it is the best thing Unity coudl do in hiring you.
I bought NGUI one month ago and i am happy with it (i am not a coder/programmer/scripter by all means) and i like it.
I am really happy that you will try to implement a port from NGUI to the new Unity-GUI, so no lost money for anyone and i wish you much luck and fun with your new job!
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Congratulations, Michael! I think you have made a wise decision and I am look forward to see how your talent will shape Unity's GUI system :D
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Wow, that's awesome! Congratulations! My optimism for the new Unity GUI just increased ten fold.
I'm looking forward to all the things you can do, once you can get deeper into the unity core than now.
Will you be going to Copenhagen then? I'm in (aarhus) denmark too, and I might just want to shake your hand and/or buy a beer. ;)
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Yeah I'll be there for two weeks from November 1st onward, then back again sometime in December.
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Congratulations & good luck! NGUI has been and will be (till Unity GUI comes around, I think) one of the most useful add-ons for me...Helped me much to get started with Unity earlier this summer...
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This is the best addition to unity since the release!
Congratulations, you deserve it!
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I agree this is great news and I wish you all the luck for the future.
Justin.
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Blessing you !!!!!! But would you still answer our question in here ??^_^
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This is AWESOME news! Can't wait to see how it's integrated or revamped. Congrats and hope it stays worthwhile for you!
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Congratulation! That's great news, not only for yourself of course but for everyone who uses unity. As a long time owner and user of ngui it will be great to see your influence on the built in GUI system in the future releases of unity. Well done and keep us as informed as you are allowed to.
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Congratulations! Even though I'm new to NGUI and I'm still muddling my way through learning how to program around it I can see the potential and I think it will be a great addition to the Unity core software!
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Grats! I look forward to you doing some great work on Unity! :)
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Awesome!! Gogo make that UI of Unity to become as dazzling as your NGUI!! 8)
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Congratulations on the new job and I look forward to bugging you with questions about UnityGUI when it (eventually) comes out ;)
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Thanks guys.
@dlewis: I don't know if I look forward to that. ;)
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Wow, THAT is some news !
Congratulations ! You've been working so hard on this and everything you've done on NGUI is so great (really good code, well documented and an awesome and fast support on the forum), this is really amazing, congrats again ;)
Also, does that mean that they're going to start all over again the new Unity UI solution ?
I'm really glad for you, and thanks for sharing those figures, I didn't know you could make that much with the Asset Store !
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Asset Store is a very powerful tool that most people seem to underestimate.
No, I won't be starting from scratch. Unity already has a solid foundation for their UI system, it's just a bit bare right now. Nicholas and I were trying to create the same exact UI actually, we were just approaching it from two completely different angles.
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Hehe, by the way do you have some ideas of things that we can create for the Asset Store ? :)
Also, I'm wondering what PhilipC is going to do now?
And congrats for your strength to "abandon" Windward, this is a hard decision and I'm sorry for you.
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Phil has an interview at Unity on the 2nd. ;)
Ideas for the asset store? More content! High-quality spaceship models, especially modular, would sell like hotcakes. I'd also say game starter kits, but they would have to have really clean, well-thought out and high-quality code... and it seems most developers who write content for the Asset Store don't write it it for others, or at least with others in mind.
Whatever you do, just remember that you'll need to support it. The more successful it is, the more support you should be prepared to give.
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Yeah you're right!
I was thinking about maybe like an inventory manager with a great custom inspector and things like that. But we'll see if I have some time :p
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Congratulations!
I look forward to new enhanced Unity UI system.
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Congrats, pal! ;)
I just have read it, deserved a registration from my part...
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Good luck!
Look forward to Unity GUI! :)
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Wow, congratulations! This is the first time I've ever felt relief about GUI in Unity. Your system has taught us all so much about coding to Unity's strengths, and I'm really looking forward that philosophy becoming part of the native system.
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Wow, I'm glad and sad at the same time!
I'm glad that Unity will get a high-quality developer to help them with their struggling UI system.
I'm sad that NGUI progress will be halted as it is the best UI solution available.
Thank you for all of your hard work, and tedious support that you've provided.
Sorry that NGUI became a burden to support.
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This is really awesome news, well done!
Unity4's UI system optimised by you is a worthy reason in itself to upgrade to Unity 4.
Awesome news for an awesome guy, you deserve all the credit for all the hard work you have put into everything.
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Congratulations and good luck to you!
I can't wait to see what you will do for Unity!
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I'm glad to hear you got a really good job out of all this. NGUI has been helping me through projects since December at two different companies (your UI framework was an easy sell over SpriteManager 2/EZGUI which they had been banging their heads against). I didn't even know Unity had opened a Canada branch (unless you moved)- I'm working in Moncton, N.B. right now. I look forward to mooching more support off you until Unity 4. :)
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Mecanim is done by 3 guys in Quebec ;)
Everyone at Unity Canada is working remotely, and no, I am not moving anywhere... although right now I am in Copenhagen for a bit.
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Indie game development is never easy and you can never predict success. At least you tried to put something out there and were passionate about working on it. The game looked very polished and you should be proud of it. There's no reason that you can try again once your batteries are recharged.
I'm sure developing NGUI wasn't always what you wanted to be working on, it is one of the greatest resources that was created for Unity ;D. I'm sure that there are many developers that would not have been able to complete their projects without it, and we are certainly in that boat. Your support for the product has been the best I have ever seen for any product and Unity is lucky to have you working for them. I hope you decide to release game asset packs in the future because I'm sure that both you and the community would benefit.
Enjoy this teaser trailer of our newest mobile game which made extensive use of NGUI - ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olIX92LA_uQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olIX92LA_uQ)
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Michael, congratulations on your new job! I'm sure you'll make a great contribution to improve Unity's GUI system. Thank you for making NGUI available to us, it certainly makes life a lot easier for all of us who have full time jobs and UI intensive pet projects on the side! I'm also very glad that you've managed to make a substantial income out of it, you really deserve it! :)
--Nacho
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Congratulations :)
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I never thought I would be excited about a unity-made GUI solution. Do us proud!
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I know I'm a bit late but congratulations!
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That you will be involved in the built-in Unity UI is simple awesome. Congrats! Sorry to hear about your Windward experiences, I know that can be very offputting. It does take a lot of luck sometimes.
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Thats AWESOME!!!!
Congrats!
I was one of the early adopters of NGUI and it has been an awesome and rewarding experience.
Once past that ~2 week learning curve, I became VERY efficient using NGUI to make UI's and scripting their functionality. I am super excited what you do to U4. If its anything like what NGUI is currently, it should be an easy transition.. Looking forward to it! :)
P.S. Now that you are making truck loads of cash and people are transitioning from 3 to 4.... any considerations of lowering the price or even putting it out there for free once the new UI rolls out?
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It will still be a while before the new UI is ready and has the same functionality as NGUI, so for now -- no, there are no such plans. :P
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I'll also try to make some tools that will auto-convert the UI from NGUI to the upcoming UI system.
That would be awesome :)
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You developed a great product in NGUI and worked hard to make it this far. Wish you all the luck in the future. Take it easy....
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I just saw this, you deserved Aren!
You really did a nice work, and your support is awesome, I know you didn't create the expected community in Winward, but you created here. I think there's a lot of people in this forum giving a lot of help to newbies (like me), and that is the best.
Well, just giving you all the best!
PS: The Unity with the new GUI system will be compatible with NGUI? or it's going to replace NGUI? You will be able to use both in a project?
Best regards!
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NGUI and the new system will play well together, I'll make sure of that. I can't comment on it much, however.
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Great story, Michael. Love your earnestness about your game's fate.
Making game in such a crowded market is tough.