NEW RECORDS

One year ago – on March 11, 2016 – Gremlins, Inc. transitioned from Early Access into full release on Steam. The sales of that first month, March 2016, have been incredible, and while we were encouraged by Valve as well as other dev teams to keep improving the product further based on the "make players happy and players will make you happy, too" concept, we never could have imagined that we will eventually beat the results of March 2016 – and yet here we are! On March 11, 2017 Gremlins, Inc. set new records for – ːfirstplaceː the most people playing the game at the same time; ːcardsː the most copies sold in 24 hours; and ːbh2coinː the highest revenue grossed in any single day of sales on Steam. We thank our existing community for their support ːsteampunkː, and our new players for their trust! ːhypnoheartː Below we share some data on the game's performance, this data is based on the cumulative sales from three digital distribution platforms (including Steam).

"THERE'S ONLY ONE RELEASE"

One of the things that you sometimes hear in the development community is that "there's only one release", i.e. you have a huge spike in sales at launch, and then "some" sales later on – but the big chance to recoup the development budget is just that launch month. Here's how the sales of Gremlins, Inc. look, on a monthly basis (across all platforms):
The launch month, while huge, accounts for less than 25% of our sales. And while platform-wide events like Summer and Christmas sales, which are supported by every major platform, are predictably great, we were able to exceed their results by the events which we organized ourselves: the Chinese New Year update and the release of the Offline Edition. In fact, the last 3 months – 11th, 12th and 13th since full release – accounted for a higher number of sales, than the launch month. Our takeaway? Updating the game regularly with new content adds replayability and keeps players happy, which translates into higher sales – and brings the budget for more updates and more content. The thing is – if we would have stopped updating the game after the full release, by now we would have less than 50% of our current audience.

OVERALL SALES

Here's how our sales look, overall:
One year after the full release, Gremlins, Inc. stands at over ːbh2coinː 80,000 copies sold (core game) with ːbh2coinː 40,000 copies of the DLCs (of which we have 3 cosmetic, the original soundtrack and the artbook) and ːbh2coinː 4,000 in-game items. Since the DLCs are purely cosmetic and have no influence over the gameplay (every player is in the same position in terms of game mechanics and features and game content), we are especially happy about the fact that for every 2 copies of the game, we have 1 copy of the DLCs bought. This is the money that players pay after they have purchased the game, knowing that they do not need to buy this unless they really want to buy this.

HOW DO PEOPLE PLAY THE GAME?

Over the last year, we saw different data as to how people play the game, and we tried our best to respond to the trends that we could identify: more people playing single-player = more single-player content, higher focus on developing the offline edition; more people participating in tournaments = more tournaments, and so on. Here's how the stats look over the period of the last 3 months:
We saw nearly ːcheatdiceː 100,000 sessions played, with roughly a half of them in single-player mode. Players from Russia and USA prefer competitive games – ranked and tournaments. Players from Japan and China prefer invite-only games with friends. Meanwhile, Europe is mostly single-player or custom games, with a few exceptions (France!). Since the game now also supports free in-game drops that are tradable on the market (where players can buy or sell from other players), here's some stats on this front: in the course of the last 3 months, we had ːSneakyChestː 60,000 items drop in the game, with roughly ːgreengemstoneː 15,000 player transactions (which is what we see from inside the game when a specific item is changing owners).

TOP REGIONS

One year ago, in March 2016, the monthly top 10 regions for Gremlins, Inc. by copies sold looked like this:
Roll forward one year, and we're looking at some significant changes in the monthly chart for March 2017:
What happened is that the US and RU sales remained on the same level, while ːchinaː sales to China more than tripled! Another region that shot forward, has been Japan – performing stronger than Germany, France or the UK. A big part of this success is due to the wonderful Chinese and Japanese localization delivered by Akebono Translation Service, whom we highly recommend to other dev teams.

LIFETIME TOP REGIONS

Here's the distribution of Gremlins, Inc. by top 5 regions over the lifetime of the game, by copies sold:
The global sales currently exceed 80,000 copies of the game, with more than 50,000 copies sold in just 3 regions: ːchinaː China, ːRUSflagː Russia and ːstarsandstripesː USA. And if we add Japan and France, then these 5 regions account for over 70% of all the copies sold since we launched. Note to other developers: if you're looking for French and German localizations, we are extremely satisfied with Words of Magic and Rolf Klischewski respectively.

PLATFORMS

When we designed the game in 2014-2016, we had little idea about which OS versions to expect among our user base as this heavily depends on the genre of the game as well as on the territories. Looking back over the lifetime of Gremlins, Inc., this is the distribution of the OS:
We wondered, if some regions like Russia or China will show different split between Windows and Mac, and here are the results: Platforms – WIN | MAC | LINUX USA – 91% | 8% | 1% Russia – 93% | 6% | 1% Worldwide – 94% | 5% | 1% China – 96.4% | 3.5% | 0.1% Japan – 97.4% | 2.5% | 0.1%

PLAYTIME

Finally, the playtime stats: the average playtime of a user of Gremlins, Inc. is currently at 14 hours. Considering the price, and the challenge of the digital board game mechanics, we're pretty excited about this number! ːF1timeː Over 3,000 players played the game for 50+ hours! ːF1timeː Nearly 1,000 players played the game for 100+ hours! With free seasonal updates that feature new cards, new music and new visuals, we're looking forward to seeing even more playtime logged in. It is a extremely satisfying to see that our creative work continues to entertain players all over the world ːhypnoheartː.

WHAT'S NEXT?

With the release of Gremlins vs Automatons, the offline-specific version of the game, we've completed the last big feature that has been on the drawing board since Early Access. Our plans are more focused on new content now: ːcardsː new cards ːmusicː new music ːgreengemstoneː new emoticons and effects ːfireappleː seasonal updates ːHoly_Grailetː regular tournaments ːmaliceː the first-ever on-site Team Finals! From the concept of the game in July 2013, to the Early Access release in October 2015 and full release in March 2016, it's been a long way – and we're not done yet! Thank you for being with us on this adventure! ːsteampunkː

[ 2017-03-15 11:07:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is an intense strategy board game in a steampunk world of corrupt capitalist gremlins who compete for money, political power and prestige. Save and invest, steal and extort, arrest and get arrested – in single-player and multiplayer modes, with ranks and ladders. Unleash your inner gremlin!

HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS GAME?

Gremlins, Inc. is designed for 2 to 6 players, in multiplayer or in single-player mode (with AI bots). Each player has 6 cards on their hand (replenished from the same deck), and uses them to move around the playing field and to perform a number of different game actions. There is a lot of interaction with other players, and duels are significantly different from 3-player or 4-player games. You play for score limit, or rounds, or for time limit in custom or ranked sessions (with matchmaking by rating). Password-protected private sessions are also available.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PLAY ONE SESSION?

The game offers different session settings to make them fit your available time, and single-player mode offers automatic Save/Load function at every turn so that you can take a break whenever you want (multiplayer mode offers re-connect functionality as long as the session is still in progress). A quick duel for 20 score points with a fast timer can finish in under 20 minutes, while a 4-player session for 60 rounds can last for 2 hours or more.

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES?

There are different types of cards in the game (permanent, regular, secret and criminal) and as each card can be used either to move or for action, you will develop both short-term and long-term strategies for making the most out of where you are, and what you have in your hand. Normally you spend half of your game time accumulating things, and another half controlling other players (stealing, arresting, making them pay a fine, initiating player conflicts, and so on). The more you play, the more new strategies you will discover, especially when combining the effects of several cards played in a row.

MAKE DECISIONS, PLAN YOUR MOVES

• This is an intense strategy game: make decisions at every round! Plan your moves, then adjust to the actions of the other players and new cards drawn.

• The design of the playing field and the layers of optional features allow for a variety of strategies. The more you play, the more roads to victory you discover, using a combination of features based on the particular setup of the session.

• The game offers a resource system that allows for many comebacks even after you're robbed or arrested (or both). With score, money, votes, malice, income and bribes, the tension remains until the very last round.

• In this game, you have to be mean to win: not letting the others to score is as important as scoring yourself. The only true moment of unity in a multiplayer session is when everybody's united against the player who's about to win the game. Earn and steal resources, set traps, arrest, initiate Player Conflicts, bluff and climb up the political ladder to become the Governor.

• The multilayer mode of the game features a system of ratings, ladders and ranked sessions: compete in a specific league, and take part in the regularly organised tournaments (normally, over 1,000 players participate). A system of anonymous masks allows everyone to compete on equal terms in a ranked session, so that you can't really disregard someone as a newbie player, or target a veteran as your prime suspect in a political race.

• In addition to the multilayer mode, the game offers 9 single-player challenges plus the option to create custom single-player sessions with different AI bots (with each major update, we keep adding new challenges).

FACTS & FIGURES

• The game currently features 169 cards in the main deck: permanent, regular, secret and criminal, each with a hand-drawn steampunk illustration (with each major update, we keep adding 1-2 new cards to the core deck).

• The game also features 34 telegrams of Misfortune in the Misfortune deck: send and receive events that may disrupt another player's plans, or significantly improve your own standing (with each major update, we keep adding 1-2 new cards to the Misfortune deck).

• Chaos Cards: an optional set of 6 cards available to every player in the game, that changes the dynamics of the session.

• Special Character Abilities: an optional feature that enables 12 sets of abilities unique to each character type, which then defines the core strategy of every player.

• There are 11 locations – the Office, the Plant, the Dump, the Marketplace, the Inferno, the Jail, the Casino, the Court, the Treasure, the Bank and the Astral Plane – and 7 spot types – Danger, Gamble, Police, Income, Bribe, Misfortune and Tribune.

• The game took us three years to develop from concept to Early Access and to full release, and we're committed to the continued support of the community and development of new features and new content. It is the brainchild of Alexey Bokulev, the acclaimed creator of Eador.Genesis. There are currently over 35,000 players of Gremlins, Inc. on Steam from all over the world, including USA, Russia, China, Japan, UK and France. Collectively, players launched over 400,000 single-player and multiplayer sessions since the game's full release in March 2016.

FINALLY, WHO ARE THE GREMLINS?

You think that’s just a pocket watch in your hand, a watch that’s a bit late because you keep forgetting to wind it up? No, no and no – you couldn’t be further from the truth! What you carry around is a whole gremlin town packed into this tiny mechanism: a town with its own bank, its own casino… and even its own jail! Gremlins are the microscopic creatures that inhabit any mechanism that they can possibly infiltrate. If a watch or a telescope malfunctions, then it’s probably due to gremlins who took up a residence there.

More than anything in life, gremlins value money, political power and prestige: prestige that one can claim after completing some sort of a grandiose engineering project. Aside from working on their own projects, gremlins mostly spend their time preventing other gremlins from building something even more grandiose. This they achieve through bribing officials and lying to the electorate, as well through stealing from their competitors - and outright arresting them.

A DISCLAIMER (JUST IN CASE)

We felt it important to note that Gremlins, Inc. is not a free-to-play game. Also, this is not a CCG or TCG: you do not need to buy boosters or packs, in every session the game offers the same deck to every player, and everyone's chances are equal.

OUR DLC POLICY

We remain committed to the principle of continuously updating the game with new features (e.g. special character abilities) and new content (e.g. new cards, new Misfortunes) that come in the form of regular updates that are FREE for every owner of the product. At the same time, from time to time we create and release fun stuff (animations, character portraits, alternative music themes) that is not related to the game mechanics, as paid DLCs. If you like it, you can support our efforts by your purchase. However, there is absolutely no pressure to own any of the DLCs in order to play the game or compete in the tournaments.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ONLINE CONNECTION

Gremlins, Inc. was designed as a digital board game with the multiplayer mode at its heart. This is not to say that we don't like single-player – we do, and there's a separate section with the single-player challenges as well as the mode where you can create any custom single-player session that you like. However, the architecture of the game is built in a way that allows us to continually update the game mechanics and AI logic, which for this reason is processed entirely on the server side. Therefore whether you play Gremlins, Inc. in a single-player mode or in a multiplayer mode, your game client needs to be connected to Steam, and game's server, at all times. If you are looking specifically for a game that can be played offline, then Gremlins, Inc. in the current state is not the right product for you. An offline-only version of the game is currently in development for release later in 2016.

AMSTERDAM AND SINGAPORE SERVERS

The game currently supports 2 separate servers: Amsterdam and Singapore. Players are able to check their ping value for each of these servers, and play on the server that is the most convenient. Each server has its own player ladder, statistics and player profiles. Most players choose Amsterdam, since ping to Amsterdam from anywhere in the world rarely exceeds 300. However, as we saw more and more players from the Asian region join the game, especially from China, we added the server in Singapore in order to be able to offer faster connection specifically to these players. We hope that this works well for every player, as good player experience is our top priority. We will continue to monitor the quality of our server/client connection in order to adapt the servers to the changing requirements and we thank you for your patience.