(The Making Of) Dark Judgement 暗黑裁判團 the PC Game for DOS

The Dark Judgement, and the even darker days for it's developers.

Dark Judgement is a side scrolling beat them up brawler game, for PC MS-DOS, in the 90's.
It is made in Hong Kong, not Taiwan, not Korea.
For you, (who very likely didn't ever heard of it), there are screenshot and video below.

Some people in the net talked about playing it. No one can telling you about the development of this game. But I do.

The Making of Dark Judgement

It was 1996, 5 guys in Hong Kong really likes TV games went together, become "Frankenstein studio". They are:
Truman Tang: The Boss, The Leader, Programmer
Wing Man: The Lead Programmer. Game Play Programming.
Blanka: Artist who do the background, Cut Scenes, an a hidden playable character "Tomato girl" (hidden too well that no player found).
Khaki Lee: Artist who did the Cut Scenes, printable arts.
Nanjay (now Igdbonbon): I did the game play sprites (character and items).

They like to made game hiding in the dark, So, for 16 months, they worked full time (overtime), in a 300 square feet SOHO.
It was really fun, and it was really intensive as well.

On 1997, they finished on something, that is "Dark Judgement" (I will call it just DJ below).

The Selling of Dark Judgment

At that point. They looked forward for DJ to earn back the rent and wage spent before. So they can keep going on.
It was the time in Hong Kong, where majority of PC software is pirated copies. But Taiwan has a more healthy PC software market.

So they found a Distributor at Taiwan, to sell the game, to Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The sales money where coming back, but they don't know the exact sales figure, anyway the money  was just not even enough to cover the cost.

Then the Taiwan distributor help them to find a Korean distributor, to resell the game at South Korea.
Korean distributor paid 4KUSD as whole, they got half of it from the Taiwan distributor.

We never really know how good or bad our game perform, neither in Taiwan, nor in Korea, only we can seen it was not a big hit in Hong Kong. (We except better, by (we think we) fairly compared DJ to other good selling PC games at the period).

We couldn't make money from DJ, but we didn't give it up, we gave it away, to "PC Game Week" Magazine, for free, then they bundled it for free. (DJ was renamed to "暗黑拳王" in this release).
We want to have more gamers to enjoy it, even without money, our hard work was done anyway.
It feel really good to see some talked good about it, even record a full play though for it.

Around 2004, Truman met a Taiwan Game Distributor in China, who helped us to re-sell DJ to south east Asia.
This time we where paid totally about 3KUSD.

To Sum up, the total income of all time form DJ is far under 10KUSD, not even enough to cover just the rent of the place we worked in.

The end of Frankenstein Studio

So, Frankenstein Studio didn't survive.
We all found other daytime job for living. No move full time game development for us.
The End.

Well, it is not ended, actually.

We all still closely connected, and always waiting a chance to make game together again.
Truman found 01Games co., a mobile game company he ran with his sparted time.
Beside a day job as a programmer that keep me alive. I still spent all my free time on game, playing and making.
At least that prove to myself, I love game for fun, not for money (but, I love money too).

After thought

So, Why did we failed?
The Market? But, there were a few Taiwan Studios doing very fine at the time.
Our Games? I can't judge it fairly, maybe can you tell me?

Back to the 90's... What if there was kick starter? what if there was WWW? but it didn't happen, it never would.

I do think we didn't marketing ourselves enough, and we still don't.
Otherwise, at least those gamers, who liked and talked about it, would not think that it is a Korean Game.We didn't even have a website... actually, it was BBS age... but we don't have a BBS neither.

I got things to sell you (for free)

If you like DJ, please like our other works. Follow us, Re-twitch us, Help us get some exposure.
Or give us useful suggestions. So that we can make more games.


Actually, We already have games for you now, and mostly are free!!
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/tang-cho-man/id592719186
android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=01Games%20Technology%20Co.%2C%20Limited&hl=en





I don't even have a playable copy myself to capture screen, but I did keep some Sprite Sheets.

The Quest of Saving My Master (WIP)

If you hit his post, and don't know what it is talking about, the background story is here and here.

Now My "Master Saving" "Master Plan" (and Progress):

Goal

    simple, get more attention to me, so to bring more attentions to my works.

Task

    actually not special at all, just the basic for everyone try to get fame from internet to do.

1. blogger

   done (you see?). (https://igdbonbon.blogspot.com/). But still much to be done, better organizing content, more post etc.

2.  YouTube channel

   (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqIGOJFFyLyNrOXmlR4FEZg), since a year ago. there are 3 gameplay video. I will not make trailer to trick people into thinking my games are more then they really are, gameplay is honest.

3. deviantart

   (http://igdbonbon.deviantart.com/) Done, but only a few old works is there though, will upload some WIP, then, and finished work, from now on.

4. twitter 

   (https://twitter.com/igdbonbon) Done few hour ago, followed 52 was recommended by twitter up front. (please 'follow me on twitter', everyone say it this way, right?)
   

5. reddit   

    todo

6. homepage for each games I made   

    todo

7. write game press release, email to indie game sites   

    todo

8. (to be found)    

   todo

The Result So far:

Blogger

My last 2 blog post in the last 2 day got 2 hit (by me), as good as expected.
I did make a blog for my first phone game at 2010, the total views now is 331.

Deviantart

My 12 artworks were viewed totally 19 times (include a few by me testing). got 4 nice people favorites, no one commented on them at all.
A also newbie suggest we should watch-over each other.
we are on the same boat, why not? so we scratched each other's back.

YouTube

6 nice people subscribed. (Subscribe me, you will be nice too).
Bruce Them All Game Play accumulated 30000+ views in a year, I think they were just driven by app stores.
The other 2 don't even hit the YouTube magic number of 300.

Twitter

 I immediately got a follower, it is a spam bot, sent me link to hack me. I feel sad blocking it as my only follower.
 Then a few nice guys and gals, followed me. sorry for them, they were tricked by twitter's match making bot.
 But I am nice enough to follow them back, two of them immediately message and thanks me. only the message sound like a bot.




To make this post less boring, here is some graphic, just to try to get it a few more hits.

but now I really have some feeling want to share....

Internet advertising myself feels really bad. I only want people to know and like my work, not me.
It is too time consuming, to blog, to favorite, to twitte, to retwitte, to like, to follow.
There is no real warmth when performing those cold 'social' actions.

As a Nobody, an Invisible netizen, blogging, twitting is not that romantic as throwing letters in a bottle to the sea.
It is constantly shouting for attention, inside a partition of a over crowed, noisy, gigantic toilet, even worse, there are too many robots who shout much louder. But yet the worst is those who knock on your door are mostly robot thief.
If social networking is an addictive drug, it just don't work on me. I have been doing this for only 3 days, and it only get me sick.

Social networking is about show up one self? I am not showing up the real me.
I use English for all my post just to try to reach more people. I am shame to use my bad English publicly, my native language is Chinese.
The real me like to stay alone to make games, play games, almost all the time.

I like making game a lot, it is my hobby for decades, but I am not active in indie game community for some reasons.
I am in Hong Kong, not US or UK or JP, where the community is big, active, reachable.
I am not any guru, nor viz kid, has nothing to teach other. I am constantly learning from them, silently.
Games that I make is just some simple 1 minute time killer for people to have a little, not much innovation nor content to surprise people. me and my game just don't shine.
And compare to the pro-indies, i am just a hobbyist with average skill, why would i bother to show off?

My Quest of Save QTE-Fu Master is still going on. keep watching if you are interested.

Please commented whatever, to help me feel like not talking to air.

The of quest of saving my master (aka QTE-Fu Master)

The Titles of my last post and this one should be swapped, here is the background story.

Short Version:

I have been making games, problem is my games are invisible on the net, just as I am.
To marketing my games, I have to marketing myself,
so, now, I am "coming out".

Long Version:

I am nobody to you, but I have been making games since 1991, no big hit though.

I started from full time making PC DOS game,
to the pass few years, doing pet project free mobile games:

Bruce Them All

a mini beat them up, (my best selling, now it is earning a cup of coffee weekly)
    ios: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.O1games.brucethemall
    android: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bruce-them-all/id692662761?mt=8
    gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWM3-RoGMZo

My others those already sunk under the ocean of apps:

 

Final Guard 

    Porting of vertical scrolling shooting game, I made in the 90's.
    ios: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final-guard/id606068059?mt=8
    android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.incubator.finalguard

 

 

Alien Invader (You play the invader, douging "this"ss)
    android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.O1games.alieninvader
    gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUezyvCpJiQ

kamikaze-invader (Time your limited shot to kill kamikaze invaders, or they hit you)   
    itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kamikaze-invader/id858894874?l=en&mt=8

Valentine's Zoo (Tap what you see, ASAP)

    android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.O1games.zoomatch

    ios: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/valentines-zoo/id977427869?mt=8

AutoBoy (NOT FREE), my first mobile game, Boss only mini platformer

    ios: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autoboy/id434557612?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
    video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMc9K9HcakU

   

Then, my latest game sunk at the very day of launch, the problem is me, I am not internet sociable, AT ALL.

Up to now (2016) I have never used twitter. The only thing I have ever posted online is a few hobby 3d art.
My IMs and FaceBook, are for day jobs, or real life friends only. 

I hated idea guys, I sware I will never be one.
I (used to) believe time should be spent on making stuff, instead of useless talking.

Good stuffs will find its way to people who like it over the internet automatically.
but I know it is not true. Even AAA game spend as much on marketing over development (usually far more).
I just ignored the fact, just to avoid spending time and effect on online socializing.

Now I am correcting myself, I used a few weeks part time to develop "QTE-Fu Master".
And will spent the same amount of time doing marketing for it.

My Quest of Saving my (QTE-Fu) Master, to be continue on next post...

p.s.

Don't you realize how rare the chance you find this blog and read it up to this point? You know are the extreme few chosen by destiny now? if you do, please try my free games, ALL OF THEM. PLEASE. because you were destined to.

Day One, After So Many Years....

Few days ago (2016-09-10), I published a free mobile mini game (QTE-Fu Master).


Until now (2016-09-16), the total download is still single digit (not counting friends i brutally forced to download).


Now, 2 things I can choose to do:

1.  just sit still, watch my (hard, but not so hard) work burial by waves of apps (I don't blame, I understand why)
2. do something to 'save' it.

I go for option 2, what will i do? will it be saved? please stay tuned.





btw, I need your help, YOU can make the change, I have hope in you :)

itunes app store:
  https://itunes.apple.com/app/qte-fu-master/id1148345890?mt=8

google play:
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.O1games.QTEFuMaster

youtube video:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-d9hMb8zC0