Sandy Duncan Interview – Coming Soon

Earlier today I spoke with YoYo Games CEO Sandy Duncan and asked him about App publishing, Game Maker 8.1, Game Maker for Mac, the HTML5 runner and company itself.

I was hoping to post a recording of our conversation here but Sandy asked that I instead publish edited transcripts. I will do so covering various topics in the next week or so.

Listed below are the points we covered, due to time constraints on my behalf it is unlikely that I will be able to write up everything so I will try to focus on those most of interest to readers. If there are any particular areas you would like covered sooner rather than later please post them in the comments.

How YoYo Games really started
The revelation that Mark Overmars had already agreed to sell Game Maker to a big company before YoYo Games got in touch.
The problems in finding the right people to work at the company
Issues regarding publishing to PSP

The fact that the C++ runner can be pretty much put on any device in a shippable state with about a months work
The process of porting games to different platforms
The current limitations of runners
The YoYo Games submissions process including timescales
When they decided to try HTML5
A “none DRM” game anti-piracy mechanism will be in place in the Game Maker 8.1 runner
C++ runner is up in the air, but it definitely wont be Delphi
That Android device performance varies dramatically and can be a problem
Portable device runner support including Game Maker 3D
Free and Paid release model of Apps
Interesting in-app advertising revenue
High piracy of Android Apps, including piracy of free games!
Android App refunds
Cumulative downloads of Solitaire are approaching a million
Marketing of apps
That they will be offering extra help to good developers
The cost of porting a game
YoYo Studios will be announced at some point
Thoughts on the publishing revenue share deal
Licensing of runners to third parties
Game Maker download figures
Interest in Game Maker from large companies
The decision to work on a HTML5 version
Socially connected games
Game Maker to ActionScript/Flash
Status of HTML5 version
Game Maker 8.1 – the changes
The most disappointing and embarrassing thing for the Game Maker community over the last 4 years
Not Game Maker 9?
Neglect of Game Maker for Mac
HTML5 version as a product – not $25
Quality of bug reports received by the team
Linux version
The early years of YoYo
Helpdesk requests
Current employees
YoYo Games’ relationship with the community
YoYoGames.com website overhaul