HOW A GAME DEVELOPER TURNED 180 000 EURO OF UNPAID TAXES AND LOOMING BANKRUPTCY INTO MILLIONS OF EUROS BY SELLING THEIR GAME IN STEAM

Good stuff in Finnish national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Here is briefly summarized what they wrote about Bugbear.



Now there is one long post title. Bugbear Entertainment has been churning out car games better part of their history. Year 2013 looked like it might be the last as the publisher of their previous game had defaulted on some payments AND the current game had not attracted publisher. Money was running out and ever diligent taxman came visiting for some unpaid taxes.

SO HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO PULL THAT TOTAL TURNAROUND?

Bugbear noticed that the root to their problems were publishers. They wanted to go on their own and control the whole chain and that way keep most of the revenue. The first step was to use take money from their own and financiers pockets and develop a technical demo of the Next Car Game. The following step was to take the development version of the game into crowd funding arena but that sail didn't get any wind. It was looking grim...

As the last resort they put the game on sale on their company website just before Christmas and what do you know - Santa came knocking. The game torso was still badly in development but people were buying it. This was needed encouragement for the Bugbear and in January 2014 they put the Next Car Game on Steam and it went straight to January TOP10 list. In just one week it sold for 1 million dollars and in coming two months for 2 million dollars more. Multiplayer version is coming out for the Christmas. Good times to be an independent game developer.

PASSIVE WEIGHT LOSS TIPS FOR GAMERS

So you want to play games all day long and eat chips at the same time - hmm - remind me not to share that greasy controller with you. Anyway that eating-while-gaming idea will work wonders to you figure and by the time people start to mistake you as a couch it is time to act. Here are some brilliantly passive ways for gamers to lose some weight.

PLAY GAMES STANDING

This should be no-brainer as sitting and playing will first make your muscles go Johnny Winter and then you get horrible back pains. Having no muscles also makes you use less energy, which in turn tanks you up with fat. If you stand and play you can make this vicious circle to spin the other way around. Grow and maintain muscles, which use more energy and burn away excess fat... and no more fat man's back pains.

LOWER THE ROOM TEMPERATURE

I bet you will find it quite surprising that we use more energy to keep our bodies warm than to other activities combined (unless you do heavy physical work or exercise extremely often). When the temperature falls our body works harder to maintain normal temperature. A good standard for video game room temperature is such that you get light chills in normal indoor clothing. You also save money in the process unless of course you happen to live in a hot climate then lowering the room temperature eats into your electricity bill.  

SUBSTITUTE SWEET DRINKS WITH ICE WATER

Original photo by
https://www.flickr.com/photos/londonlooks/7837203538/

This is a super strong passive weight loss method with requires no extra effort (unless you have helplessly out of control habit of binge drinking sweet sodas, in that case you do need to fight to show willpower) and saves you money. Yes, drinking cold or icy water makes your body work harder to maintain normal temperature hence increase in energy consumption.

PLACE FOOD SOMEWHERE FAR

Playing video games can demand very little from your physique and you get a tingling feeling reminding you to do something with your body. For most gamers the choice is easy - just some candy, chocolate, chips and other easy to eat treats to keep the good old temple of your soul ticking.

COMPLEMENT TREATS WITH HEALTHY SNACKS

Substituting treats with healthy snacks is much harder to do than giving up Mountain Dew and drinking water instead. Here I would just like to suggest that you add some rice cakes to your snack food mix. Eat rice cookies between treats and fill your stomach with light calories. Use the ones without salt and avoid strokes.