Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker

@pillbuggames.bsky.social

Indie game developer. Drop Command on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944880/Drop_Command/, Press Kit: https://impress.games/press-kit/pillbuggames/drop-command

667 followers230 following370 posts

Looking forward to the beta demo of MetalMercs!

RetroAction Games@retroactiongames.bsky.social

After two years, the MetalMercs alpha is retiring... And a significantly upgraded beta demo is coming this November! New teaser ๐Ÿ‘‡ www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9_D... All-new screenshots + wishlist on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3045070/... #GameDev #IndieGames #MetalMercs #Mechs

Drop Command just hit 150 reviews! Just under a month since launch. Thanks so much all of you who have been playing and leaving your reviews. Cheers to the next 150 reviews! ๐Ÿฅ‚๐Ÿป๐Ÿฅ‚ #indiegamedev #indiegames

Working on the empire encyclopedia entries for Drop Command. Helpful for diplomacy, finding capital planets, etc. Coming in the next QoL update! #indiegames #indiegamedev

Drop Command update coming soon. QoL patch will include Weapon Groups in the Refit Bay! This should simplify things tremendously when kitting out your new units. You'll still be able to use the in-combat hotkeys, but I expect most people will prefer using the visual UI. #indiegamedev #gamedev

Tracked down the auto-battle win percent bug! Turns out empire fleets were using their theoretical maximum combat value instead of their current combat value... oops! will be fixed in the next patch. #indiegamedev #gamedev

Drop Command hit 50 reviews and Very Positive just 30 hours after launch! Thanks so much everyone, feeling very grateful for all the support. #indiegamedev #indiegames #gamedev

Just hit 10 reviews, thanks so much everyone! Launch day is going well. We could not be happier with how things are going. A couple bugs and glitches to work on for the next patch though. #indiegames #steamgame #gamedev

Kinda crazy that 7,777 people have tried our demo. Also crazy that the mean and median have been essentially static for the last 5000 or so players. Our 20/60/120 min off ramps worked better than expected.

4 hours into a 9 hour scheduled power outage. Drawback of doing dev on a home PC, can't take it to a coffee shop to work. If Drop Command makes a small pile of money, I think I'll get a laptop that can handle serious computing and gamedev.

2 weeks ago we were at 14k wishlists. Today we hit 22k! Very grateful to all the content creators covering Drop Command this week as we get ready to launch on Sept 28th #indiegames #gamedev

Guess which Mech Combat sim is in the top 3000 for Steam top wishlists ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿš€๐ŸŽ‰ Things are looking up for Drop Command launch in 14 days! #indiegames #mechs #gamedev

Adding Black Markets to Drop Command. Here you'll be able to buy resources, trade scrap for coin, and mingle with the shadier denizens of the star cluster. #indiegamedev #gamedev

All the Drop Command mechs sorted by weight class! Armadillo has been upgraded from a light to a medium, while the Sentinel has been upgraded from a medium to a heavy. This is to better reflect their battlefield profile. #indiegamedev

Here's a nice inhabited crater infested with filter feed fungals. Totally harmless as long as you don't wander too close to the filters! I do enjoy adding content to Drop Command, hard to believe launch day is coming up so soon. #indiegamedev

Last moon of the Lagonia System: Gok. A strangely verdant desert. The atmosphere is green with fungal spores, not recommended to be outside without a breath scrubber! Wishlist Drop Command and build a Mech-Empire from the cockpit! #indiegamedev #gamedev

There is some freedom of expression that comes from making art rather than a product. Studios need to worry about repeatable profitability, while game jams foster creativity and exploration for its own sake

GameBrief@gamebrief.bsky.social

Game jams produce more genuinely weird mechanics per dollar spent than any other development context. the constraints create things studios would reject in planning. #gamedev #indiegames

Just a regular week in the Hyades! Fleets moving about, factions at war. Five empires vying for control of this sector of space. Welcome to the 4x layer of Drop Command! #indiegamedev #indiegames

A question for any #gamedev or #indiegamedev who know (see attacked image). I don't have context for what a good or bad ranking is for wishlist activity. This is an indie game, and we are hoping for moderate success on launch. Thoughts and feedback are very welcome!

Expanding on the question: a rank of 3843 in wishlists sounds good. However, the disparity of rank 9639 in wishlist activity implies to me that activity is lower than expected given the total. Yet follower amount is growing at a record rate. Context is needed to interpret the potential launch impact

Took the morning to implement Mech/Tank strafing! no longer are you limited to "back and fore" translations- no, now you have access to trans-ambulatory translations! #indiegamedev #indiegames #gamedev

Profession based uniforms now in the pilot creator. Drop Command is coming along nicely! Release date is coming up fast though, gotta knuckle down and get it done #indiegamedev #gamedev #indiegames

Finally working on adding the location specific notification windows! Started with the hardest one first: Freelancer Guild. A place to hire elite units to join your Mech-Empire #indiegamedev #indiegames

It really has been reaching the right people! Not only are page views up by nearly 100%, but the page view to wishlist conversion rate increased from 3.5% to 16.5%. It is mind blowing to me just how well the #Steam personal calendar algorithm is working. #indiegamedev #indiegames

Matthew Parker@pillbuggames.bsky.social

Drop Command just became visible on the steam Personal Calendar! Already seeing an uptick in wishlists. Here's hoping it reaches the right people =D #indiegames #gamedev

#SteamPersonalCalendar results for Day-1. Compared against Day-0 to show the immediate uptick in store traffic (impressions, views, wishlists are all up). My hypothesis is that these are the lowest numbers we'll see since currently we're at the very bottom #gamedev #indiegames

With wishlist conversion rate massively increased, this is strong evidence that the Steam Personal Calendar is working very well to reach the games target audience. A 13% increase in Page-View-Quality is exceptional. Well done Steam Team =)