I have been asked I few times regarding my income (i.e. game sales) and what I am doing all the time. Basically, as some of you know, “Noble Master Games is a single member company, it’s more or less me doing most of the work. I spend about 10-12h/day including weekends (sometimes I take a day off) developing games, programming, fixing bugs, marketing, talking to customers, keeping up-to-date with latest tech, contributing to open source projects, coordinating with contractors, paying bills, accounting, maintaining servers, posting in forums and so forth. I generally contract out all the artwork, music, translations and modding out if I can. I have a few great artists, musician and modders I work with. I couldn’t do it without them!
So now, how much did I make in 2012 (in US Dollars) based on my taxes filed?
Please note the Gross Income refers to all income (about 99.5% game sales) over all games and platforms (see below). I don’t have any other income. The Expenses include to a large part contract payments for art & graphics, music, translations and modding. A large portion of it is used too for hosting fees/internet, marketing, accounting/financial transaction fees, hardware (e.g. devices for testing), software (e.g. Photoshop), developer fees (e.g. Apple), business fees, phone/fax and smaller office expenses (e.g. paper, stamps & the like), personal retirement payments and health insurance. A small portion has been used to fund open source projects or sponsor tournaments (e.g. Age of Conquest).
So basically this leaves me with a total of about $36,246 for personal expenses such as food, rent, utilities, transportation, personal entertainment and such, i.e. my personal income. To be fair, the Expenses includes about 40% of my rent and my utility bill as I am able to deduct it from taxes but the rest has to come off from the $36,246.
Based off my actual income, I can make more money working for a company, for example Google, than working for myself, so why am I doing it? First of all it is to a big part “fun” to have your own company and develop games. Also, there is no boss to report to. Although I spend a lot of time working, I can choose freely when I want to take a break. So no, I am not complaining. I am not poor but I am also not bathing in Champagne. I wish I could afford to hire 1 or 2 people full-time to work together with as things can get lonely at times. Generally, it’s difficult to say if I am able to continue doing this in the future as it the actual income is little bit low to sustain over a longer period of time. Also, it doesn’t look like sales will increase this year unless I am able to complete a new game soon. Demise of Nations is planned for release towards the end of this year.
If you like strategy games and you like to see more of it, please don’t pirate but support the following games.
Age of Conquest: a medieval Risk-like turn-based strategy game (PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS). Includes ONLINE multiplayer.
Tropical/Desert Stormfront: a modern real-time strategy game (PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS). Includes multiplayer via LAN/internet
Demise of Nations: in the making. Follow my twitter feed @noblemaster for latest updates.
Please note, you are not only supporting me, but you also support all the people I work with (which I prefer to pay decent so they don’t have to starve) including Antony Hager (Artist), Nick Lee (Artist, previous), Sean Beeson (Music) amongst many others. Also, you indirectly support 3rd party companies which products and services I purchase (software, hardware, internet services). You also support Open Source projects, namely libGDX and LWJGL, two excellent projects amongst many others out there.
Feel free to comment or ask questions! Thanks, Christoph, a.k.a noblemaster.
May of Conquest is here again to celebrate another year of Age of Conquest, a Risk-like turn-based strategy game. Age of Conquest allows players to compete on various maps, including but not limited to Europe, America, Asia and a World Map. May of Conquest is the celebration of Age of Conquest which hosts many tournaments allowing players to compete for fantastic prizes. Age of Conquest supports cross-platform multiplayer on Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Android.
Age of Conquest
For this year’s prizes we have a total of 9 Membership Upgrades, 2 Noble Master Apparelsand 2 Drinkwares. The tournaments are absolutely free to join and a good opportunity to gain a membership upgrade. Don’t want to join all the tournaments? Unsure which tournaments give which prizes? Check out the full details at our festival’s page.
After throwing around a few ideas internally last year, Noble Master Games have decided to develop a hexagon turn-based strategy game. It will take place during the Roman Era on a large map of Europe featuring many factions from that time. The game will include several single player scenarios and campaigns. Demise of Nations: Rome will support a wide array of operating systems including PC, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The game is planned to be released later this year in 2013.
Demise of Nations: Factions
Demise of Nations: Rome will contain over 30 factions, each having their own uniquely created banner to distinguish them from each other, much like the ones shown above. Confirmed factions include, Armenia, Britannia, Carthage, Dacia, Egypt, Gaul, Germania, Greek Cities, House of Brutii, House of Julii, House of Scipii, Macedon, Numidia, Parthia, Pontus, Rebels, Scythia, Seleucid Empire, Senate SPQR, Spain, and Thrace.
In later era scenarios and campaigns, other factions will appear, Alemanni, Berbers, Bergundii, Celts, Eastern Roman Empire, Franks, Goths, Huns, Lombardi, Roxolani, Sarmatians, Sassanids, Saxons, Slavs, Vandals, and Western Roman Empire. Below is an early alpha screenshot of the game.
Demise of Nations: Alpha Screenshot
Please contact us if you would like to be part of the beta-testing team.
As of today, Tropical and Desert Stormfront have finally been released on iOS. The games use the excellent libgdx framework which made porting from Desktop/Android to iOS a breeze.
Tropical Stormfront and Desert Stormfront are the first ever libgdx games to be released on the iOS platform. The games can be played on all iOS touch-screen devices including the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iPad mini. The games work both on retina and non-retina screens.
Tropical & Desert Stormfront – Retro RTS For iPhone and iPad
Lewes, Delaware – November 21, 2012 — Noble Master Games releases two retro real-time strategy games on iPhone and iPad. Tropical Stormfront and Desert Stormfront are inspired by the turn-based “Classic Empire” wargame by Walter Bright and the classic Command & Conquer, albeit simplified aiming at a game that is easy to control on touch screen devices.
While Tropical Stormfront is played over tropical archipelagos, Desert Stormfront takes place in a hot desert landscape. The player assumes command and has to complete 25 campaign missions for ultimate victory. Game play modes include Survival, Elimination, Defense, Capture the Flag and Convoy Missions. The game supports cross-platform multiplayer matches against players on Android, PC, Mac and Linux. Networking includes game-play over LAN and internet including co-op multiplayer.
Features of Desert Stormfront:
- Real-Time Strategy (RTS) in the Tropics/Desert
- Single Player and Multiplayer (over the LAN and Internet)
- Support for Cross-Platform Multiplayer
- Team-Play (included in multiplayer as well)
- 25 Campaign Missions incl. Scoring/Rating
- Random Map Generator & Skirmish Maps
- Modes: Attack, Defense, Capture the Flag & Convoy Missions
- Ground Units: Humvees, Tanks, Artillery, Anti-Air Tanks
- Naval Units: Gunboat, Submarine, Cruiser and Carrier
- Air Units: Fighter Planes, Helicopter
- Land Structures: Base Station, Shipyard, Airfield
- High Score and Playing Statistics
- Challenging AI with 4 Difficulty Settings
- Engaging Music and Sound Effects
“The dev. team behind Tropical and Desert Stormfront is a truly global affair with contributors from Europe, Asia and North America.”, said Christoph Aschwanden, owner of Noble Master. “The whole team is looking forward to finally release the game on iOS.”
Tropical Stormfront and Desert Stormfront are available in the English language (other languages in the work). The games are priced at USD 3.99/4.99. A free demo version is available for try out before purchase. For additional information on Tropical Stormfront and Desert Stormfront such as press kit and promo codes contact Christoph Aschwanden via chris@noblemaster.com.
Noble Master is an one-man indie game company with focus on real-time and turn-based strategy games for desktop and mobile devices.
I wasn’t able to find a good currency implementation over enums in Java, so here is my own. The table contains all the currencies of ISO 4217 as of November 1, 2012. The currencies are mapped to their corresponding countries. And yes, this is Public Domain. Feel free to steal the code and modify it in any ways you please.
For the countries, please use the excellent implementation of all the country codes by Takahiko Kawasaki. You need to do a rename from “Country” to “CountryCode” if you use Takahiko’s implementation :)
Desert Stormfront is finally released! Desert Stormfront is a real-time strategy game inspired by the turn-based “Classic Empire” wargame by Walter Bright. Units and structures are modeled after the original following a rock-paper-scissors system. Unit movement is in real-time similar to the classic “Command & Conquer” albeit simplified aiming at a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master.
Desert Stormfront takes place in present-time Middle East. The player assumes command of the Western coalition and fights real-time battles for control of cities and oil fields in Iran, Iraq, Saudia Arabia and Afghanistan. Maps are based on real-world locations in the Middle East. The story is fictional (as of this writing). The game supports cross-platform multiplayer matches over LAN and internet including co-op multiplayer.
Key Features:
Real-Time Strategy (RTS) in the Middle East
Single Player and Multiplayer (over the LAN and Internet)
30 Campaign Missions incl. Scoring/Rating
Random Map Generator + Skirmish Maps
Modes: Attack, Defense, Capture the Flag & Convoy Missions
Release Date: Sept. 26, 2012
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Android
Available: via game’s website (PC, Mac, Linux) and Google Play (Android)
Desert Stormfront – a Real-Time Adaption of the “Classic Empire” Game (for PC, Mac, Linux and Android)
Tokyo, Japan – September 26, 2012 — Noble Master releases “Desert Stormfront”, a real-time strategy game inspired by the turn-based “Classic Empire” wargame by Walter Bright. Units and structures are modeled after the original following a rock-paper-scissors system. Unit movement is in real-time similar to the classic “Command & Conquer” albeit simplified aiming at a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master.
Desert Stormfront takes place in present-time Middle East. The player assumes command of the Western coalition and fights real-time battles for control of cities and oil fields in Iran, Iraq, Saudia Arabia and Afghanistan. Game play modes include Survival, Elimination, Defense, Capture the Flag and Convoy Missions. The game is available for PC, Mac, Linux as well as Android and supports cross-platform multiplayer matches over LAN and internet including co-op multiplayer.
Features of Desert Stormfront:
- Real-Time Strategy (RTS) in the Middle East
- Single Player and Multiplayer (over the LAN and Internet)
- 30 Campaign Missions incl. Scoring/Rating
- Random Map Generator + Skirmish Maps
- Modes: Attack, Defense, Capture the Flag & Convoy Missions
- Ground Units: Humvees, Tanks, Artillery, 4×4, Mechanic
- Naval Units: Gunboat, Submarine, Cruiser and Carrier
- Air Units: Fighter Planes, Chinook, Apache Helicopter
- Special Unit: Super-Hovercraft
- Land Structures: Base Station, Shipyard, Airfield and Oil Field
- Nations: USA, England, France, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan
- Team-Play (included in multiplayer)
- High Score and Playing Statistics
- Challenging AI with 4 Difficulty Settings
- Engaging Music and Sound Effects
“The dev. team behind Desert Stormfront is a truly global affair with contributors from Europe, Asia and North America.”, said Christoph Aschwanden, owner of Noble Master. “The whole team is looking forward to finally release the game.”
Desert Stormfront is available in the English, Japanese, Korean and Russian language. The game is priced at USD 9.99/EUR 7.99 for PC, Mac, Linux (via game’s website) and USD 4.99/EUR 3.99 for Android (on GooglePlay). A free demo version is available for try out before purchase. For additional information on “Desert Stormfront” such as press kit and review copy contact Christoph Aschwanden via chris@noblemaster.com.
Noble Master is an indie game company with focus on real-time and turn-based strategy games for desktop and mobile devices.
Although tiicoon (pronounced: /taɪˈkuːn/) is currently abandoned, I figured it would be nice to create a trailer. Arvid Wessman (Arvid Wessman Productions) did all the art. I did all the programming. Both art & programming are about 50% done.
Desert Stormfront is now in beta-testing stage. If everything goes as planned, it is scheduled for release next month (September 2012) on PC, Mac, Linux & Android. The iOS version will be available once the libgdx backend supports porting to iOS.
