P.O.L.L.E.N post-mortem

What the talk is about

Niko Rantala looks back on P.O.L.L.E.N, a VR game from Minefield Games, where by his account nearly everything went wrong. The team started in 2013, was too optimistic about when Oculus would ship, and waited for it instead of releasing on PC; each month of delay added about 45,000 euros, and the budget reached roughly 1.3 million euros. Photorealistic graphics made the game too heavy for Oculus and PS VR, and it reached Steam without hand-controller support. A strong artistic vision and a too-high price led to mixed reviews, after which sales nearly died. He shares Steam data on the importance of launch visibility, curators and discounts, and advises making fast low-budget demos, getting inside knowledge from hardware makers, and staying flexible about business choices. Useful for VR and indie teams.