A bit jaw-dropping that it looks like it will be potentially quite successful commercially, at least the most financially successful game I have worked on at PlayFirst. A bit hard to get my mind around it.
Recently on 24, the character Chloe O'Brien said, "I don't do praise well."
I often feel the same.
Often it's much harder for me to deal with success or impending success -- than to just buckle down and deal with a crisis or a problem. I spent most of the day working on other projects ...and not really being able to sit and let the potential success soak in...other than sneaking peeks at the forum postings!
It's been a few weeks since we GM'ed the game. I have been playing the game again back and forth on BART commuting today, and I can honestly say that I still like to play it! Even the hidden object scenes which are my least favorite as a player, still draw me in. This project was full of emotion for almost everyone on the team, we all cared pretty deeply about it.
David Ryan Paul, the first lead artist on the project, wrote this blog post which has links to all the artists involved except for:
Jeff Troupe, Alt A Games, and Xing Xing Digital Corporation.
We had talented designers - Patrick, Helen, Dana...
Once again I was lucky enough to work with the "Ninja-neer" - Jim.
And Paul, who jumped in to learn the engine in the middle and got us through several major changes (I don't have a nickname yet for Paul. "Remember Sweden!")
Plus as a bonus, Peter, "Winston Wolf", and the awesome senior production of Maryann (who just won a "greenlight Oscar" award today).
Here's the PlayFirst blog post I wrote as the Producer interview...there are tons more Bitten posts on the PlayFirst blog - character diaries, the "focus hat" video made by Mike which stars Chuck and Helen (and I wave my arms around while wearing a werewolf hat).
Also the game trailer (I do like the animation that Big Fish has on their landing page as well).
Plus character profiles, and soon also concept art.
I was so happy to see the positive posts in the forums today and reviews. Early positive word from trusted fans and players is so important...and we are very thankful for it. Many people posting later in the day said that their decision was almost made for them after seeing these posts. I also really love this feeling of connectedness with the fans.
It's like playing Diner Dash:Hometown Hero live with Heather89 the moment that we turned on the multiplayer server for the public almost 3 years ago. Or watching the small but dedicated fan base for Wandering Willows get sucked into the game.
One example from the Big Fish forums: "Poodlebear" posted at 1:41 am on 4/13 - so they had downloaded as soon as possible since the game went live at midnight on 4/13
"Loving this so far - 40 minutes into the demo."
It *is* a very dark, and adult, story and no doubt some players will have issues with that, but not meeee!
Love me some vampire hotness. 
Buying! Gently Poodlebear Approved given I've only played 40 minutes... "
(I was briefly suspicious that this could be another team member, but Poodlebear's account has been active since 2007 and s/he has written thousands of posts!)
At 3:52 am Poodlebear had played a couple more hours and believes he/she is about halfway through: "Unless something really wacky occurs I can now fully Poodlebear Approve!"
Brenda Brathwaite wrote a post on "Moments to Gold" which is probably way more emotional than I can get about this game, but what resonates for me is this emotional feeling at the end of a big project:
Here it is...we made this! We hope you like it!
We (most of us) still like to play it even after working on it for months!
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