2012 Reflections

26/12/2012 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

With the year 2012 drawing to a close, we’re looking back at the year that has passed and evaluating what we have accomplished.

Fruitbat Factory came to be in early 2012. The missive we set to ourselves when we started was to bring unique and interesting Japanese games to English-speaking audiences worldwide.

Our first localization – strategy game War of the Human Tanks developed by Yakiniku Banzai, was announced in May and released September 14th 2012. It was met with a by and large positive reception, though it’s obviously not a game for everyone. War of the Human Tanks is still struggling on fiercely in Steam Greenlight.

Our second localization, the Puzzle RPG 99 Spirits by TORaIKI was announced in October, shortly after the game’s release in Japan in August. Just last week we wrote about winning the Eclectic Indie Dev Grant competition with it. 99 Spirits is planned for an early 2013 release.

Following the release of War of the Human Tanks, we have taken advantage of two bundles – Bundle in a Box and IndieFort (which right now is still running) to spread awareness of our work. It’s been great to see new people commenting on the game and taking an interest.

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Now let’s review some stats (everyone loves stats, right?):

War of the Human Tanks and its soundtrack, Sound of the Human Tanks;

available from 8 digital distributors,
over 7600 copies distributed,
made it to top10 sellers on Green Man Gaming, and rank 6 on GamersGate,
29,255 unique visitors on Desura,
21,316 unique visitors on Steam Greenlight.C

And our company Fruitbat Factory;

40,089 video views on YouTube,
25,548 unique visitors visiting our homepages 34,560 times,
5,611 visitors on this blog.

It’s hard to say how they compare, but those are some nice numbers overall. We hope things will only get better from here.

Human Tanks Fight On

25/09/2012 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

You’re walking down Steam Greenlight, clicking “YES” on War of the Human Tanks as you pass, and then, suddenly… WHAM-O! FREE STEAM KEYS FOR EVERYONE!

That’s right, once War of the Human Tanks gets on Steam, everyone who’s purchased the game from any of our distributors will receive a free Steam Key for it as well!

Human Tanks, Charge!
Your target: Steam!

How can you support us?
-Purchase a copy of War of the Human Tanks from the distributor of your choice. Your choices are: Indievania, Desura, GamersGate and Green Man Gaming.
-Vote for War of the Human Tanks on Steam Greenlight.
-Tell your friends, family and everyone you hold at gunpoint.
-Once War of the Human Tanks is on Steam, you will receive a key at no additional cost.

In other news, Chapter 3 of the “Let’s Play” Guide for War of the Human Tanks has gone live. Share the miserable struggle at Chapter 3: ‘The Aoba Troop Did Their Best’!

Human Tanks, Charge!

14/09/201230/09/2012 / Jakke Elonen / 1 Comment

The day has come. The troops stand prepared. Are you ready?

War of the Human Tanks is now officially out.

The first pre-orderers have probably begun playing the game already, and we’re hoping they’ll have a jolly good time of it.

To celebrate the launch of our first title, we’re having a 10% launch week discount campaign. Go grab yours at the nearest (hah!) digital retailer!

In additional news, Green Man Gaming came through today, and you can now find War of the Human Tanks listed there as well, in addition to Desura, GamersGate and Indievania!

The reviews are still coming in. Clark A. at Digitally Downloaded gave War of the Human Tanks 3.5/5:

“It’s absolutely a worthy title in its own right. The character banter is thoroughly entertaining, augmented by solid combat.”

But don’t just take his word for it when you can check out the free demo featuring first 5 full episodes of the game.

Incoming!

13/09/201230/09/2012 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

With the release of War of the Human Tanks so close by, I can’t help posting again. Lets start with the new artwork from Angie (@9aia), presenting Choko from War of the Human Tanks.

Choko is always full of energy!

Since we’ve been getting some questions about what we will be selling and where, here’s a recap of our release schedule on 14th.

War of the Human Tanks, the game itself, will be sold for $9.99. Sound of the Human Tanks I, the first soundtrack compilation, will be sold for $3.99. And War of the Human Tanks Deluxe, containing both the game and soundtrack, will be sold for $11.99.

Of course, we are selling the Deluxe bundle for $9.99 for as long as the pre-orders last.

War of the Human Tanks and War of the Human Tanks Deluxe will be available from Desura. War of the Human Tanks, Sound of the Human Tanks I and War of the Human Tanks Deluxe will be available from Gamersgate. War of the Human Tanks will also be available from Indievania, and Sound of the Human Tanks I will be available separately from Bandcamp.

Green Man Gaming will feature War of the Human Tanks soon after.

And with your support on Steam Greenlight, War of the Human Tanks, Sound of the Human Tanks I and War of the Human Tanks Deluxe will be available on Steam one day as well.

Note: The prices may vary slightly depending on your region.