“Satellina†developer Peter Malamud Smith breaks down the massive update to the nifty mobile game and its future. Easily one of the most addictive and fun games on the mobile market this year, Smith even talks about the possibility of it finding its way on the Nintendo 3DS or the PlayStation Vita.
What has the reception to the game been like thus far?
Peter Malamud Smith: The reception has been fantastic, and really gratifying for me. A lot of people got really hooked, and critics said some wonderful things about it–one reviewer called it “beautiful and enchanting,” and another said it was “incredibly more-ish”–like he couldn’t put it down. It’s a modest game in many ways, so I loved hearing that.
What have you learned through the past few months after the game’s release?
Well, one thing I’ve learned is that it’s hard to make a game work economically without ads or an F2P model. Because Satellina is so simple, I felt that adding ads or DLC would compromise what felt elegant and clean to me about it. (I did have a build with pop-up ads early on, and it just didn’t feel right.) But that means you have to charge for it up front, and even at $1.99, it’s hard for people to take a leap on an unknown developer and an unknown game that’s quite minimal visually. I think if everyone in the world could play it for five minutes, a large percentage of them would take a chance and buy it. It really is all about the feel of actually playing it. But I understand why in a crowded marketplace, that’s a tough sell. So I may try ads or DLC in my next game, just to see if it’s more workable.
Continue Reading This Article From Review Fix Editor-In-Chief Patrick Hickey Jr. at Examiner.com
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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