Cyclops (V.O.): Previously on Sexy X-Men Dating Sim. We barely made our deadline to ship the first three chapters – available for free on the Dorian app on both iPhone and Android – despite feeling super sick.
Done. Amanda and I shipped the first three episodes of The Phenomenals. Shipping a game, even a tiny one, is an achievement in and of itself. Prior to Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, I spent two years working on two big game projects, and neither one has shipped. So, a big ol’ YAY for getting something out into the universe for people to actually play!
We had a meeting scheduled with Kylie, our very sweet and supportive editor from Dorian. Kylie was the first to congratulate us when the game went live. She helped us navigate Dorian’s confusing premium choice requirements and even contributed a bit of player instructional text to help us get over the finish line. In our scheduled meeting, we would go over the stats on the pilot. Honestly, I thought Amanda and I were going to be congratulated. I thought Kylie was going to tell us we hit a home run, like Colossus going into metal mode to hit a ball past the fences of the Xavier Institute and across the county line. That’s what I thought, lol.
The launch of The Phenomenals pilot was going really well, as far as I could tell! There were over a hundred comments across the first three episodes. Overall, I’d say sentiments were largely positive. Players were clearly engaged, commenting on specific moments in all three chapters. The gamers were thirsting over the three leads, making horny jokes, and spending heart tokens to make decisions. Granted, a portion of those heart tokens were giveaways by Dorian to boost engagement, but not all of them. Real users were spending real money to decide whether to kiss Gleam in the Panic Dojo, which is still wild for me to consider.
There were some critiques, too. One player didn’t like our photo line art backgrounds and described them as Photoshoppy, though Kylie praised them repeatedly throughout development. Another commenter mockingly called our heroes “bootleg” X-Men, but I’ll take that critique with pride. There’s nothing more awesome than bootleg cartoon stuff. Black Bart has never been cooler IMO, and Real Ghostbusters Spook Chasers figures go for over a thousand dollars each on eBay! By far, the most troubling feedback to me was from many users experiencing a technical issue in chapter two where a key choice didn’t work properly. The problem was a bug in Dorian’s engine, which took their team a lot of time and multiple requests from me to fix.
When Kylie shared Dorian’s “Performance Report” prior to our meeting, I was even more excited. Yes, I was excited by a Performance Review! I am a closeted statistics nerd, and these stats were 🔥! They showed The Phenomenals’ performance versus target benchmarks taken by averaging the stats of top performing Dorian games. Our target number of players for launch was 500. We got 750! Our target for first episode completion was 50%. We got 66%! Our target monetization rate was 10%. We got over 30%! These numbers looked downright rosy. Amanda and I put a bunch of dates on our shared Google Calendar (millennial couple love language) to finish writing and designing the season. We felt excited, encouraged, and ready to dive back in!
I’ll tell you who wasn’t rosy, though. Kylie. In our meeting, she had all the solemnity of a veterinarian telling us our beloved gerbil had died. She explained that, yes, we did beat the targets… but not by enough. For the money they spent on art assets, they were hoping for more than the 2000+ hearts spent on the game’s pilot. Later, when we finally got a check for about $150, I understood what she meant. Our agreement with Dorian was a 50/50 split, and since we commissioned the same artist they did, I know they spent more than $150 on our superhunks. The most important thing to Dorian was the bottom line and our monetization rate of 30% wasn’t tops. To Dorian, The Phenomenals pilot was An Official Disappointment™. Kylie used that word repeatedly.
Kylie said she wanted to try and turn things around for The Phenomenals by tweaking the lead-in language to premium choices to boost the monetization rate. So we worked with her to change a few of the choices here and there. When we were done, we shipped the new version of the pilot. Once there was more data, Kylie said, we’d circle back and discuss again. A month went by and we checked back in. There still wasn’t enough new player data to draw a conclusion. I knew exactly why. Once The Phenemenals was An Official Disappointment™, they decided not to feature it in the app, and without in-app featuring, the game was effectively lost. You might find the pilot if you were searching for the keyword “superheroes” specifically, but otherwise, The Phenomenals were lost in Dorian’s Serververse.
Amanda and I didn’t talk at all about The Phenomenals for a few weeks, because we were having the time of our lives on a long planned two week trip to Japan! (More about that trip in future newsletters.) When we returned, I brought up the fact that we had a “Sexy X-Men” calendar event the next day. Amanda said the quiet part out loud. Dorian killed the momentum on the project for us, and it was clear now they had no plans to support the project moving forward. Without their support, working on the game would feel like a slog. We shipped a pilot, it was fun writing it together, and we’d find something new to collaborate on next year.
The Phenomenals wouldn’t have happened without Dorian, when their VP of Creative Growth reached out to me at GDC. They also killed the project’s momentum for us, when it was clear to them we weren’t making the right sized widget for their factory. I thought it would be a fun first project for Equip Story: an X-Men inspired dating sim written with my favorite creative partner on an outside art budget! As much as I tried to create boundaries to make the project on our terms, by accepting their budget, deadlines, and terms, we ended up making a project on their terms. We gave them the power to decide whether the project was a success, and like Rogue kissing Gambit, The Phenomenals went comatose.
Amanda and I will make something even better next time. I know it. Dorian might’ve lost faith in us, but I never will. And who knows? Whenever a superhero dies in the comics, they often come back to life eventually. Sureshot, Fever, and Gleam may live to battle the Panic Dojo again.
🎲 Your Turn: Have you ever ended a creative project? What were your feelings around it? Happy it was over? Sad it didn’t come out like you planned? Reply to this email to let me know, or tell the whole world by hitting the orange button below.
📨 Next Week: Happy Holidays! Before the end of the year, I’m going to declare my 2025 New Year’s Resolution for my creative life. My resolution has nothing to do with dieting or hiking. (Thank god.)
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