A little over a year ago, Richard & I sat at the table behind us in this picture and decided to work full-time on making a VR experience. We were newly married and probably still ‘living in a dream’ to think it was a great idea to both start working full-time in an industry that we had no experience in.
Today marks one year since we released Richie’s Plank Experience. I remember sitting at that table and agreeing “If we make 1000 sales by the end of the year we will consider continuing to build a VR studio”.
We originally planned to release Richie’s Plank Experience on 1 September 2016 until a few big bugs appeared and set our launch date back. We eventually got it working again and released it one year ago today and 5 days before we departed on our honeymoon!!
The day we released Richie’s Plank Experience we were fixated on the Steam store, waiting for our first sale. We were so excited and nervous. We would refresh the page every few minutes to see if the sales increased. Surprisingly, every couple of minutes we would make a sale. We were thrilled. On the first few nights of our honeymoon we were on our phones watching Youtube reviews from people around the world including Jacksepticeye and PewDiePie.
If you have followed our journey you will know we made over 1000 sales within the first week. So we made it official, Richard & I now were now going to make VR games as a family business.
So what have we learned one year later?
Today, we sat at the same coffee shop table. This year we were joined by Danny our talented 3D artist. Once again, We had planned to release Richie’s Plank Experience (out of early access) on 1st September. Once again, we have a few bugs that have stopped us from releasing the update. Today, we are 5 days from our first baby due date!!
We have learned one thing though. We value the support of the VR community and industry. We wanted to take a minute to say thanks to everyone who has supported us. The community on Steam, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube who have shared videos and provided feedback. HTC, Oculus, and Microsoft who have offered us help and amazing opportunities. The businesses using our experience for exhibits, events and arcades and anyone who has taken the time to try Richie’s Plank Experience. We really appreciate your support.
The past year has exceeded our wildest dreams! Thanks to you guys.
We desperately wanted to publish our latest update of Richie’s Plank Experience by now. We have made major graphical improvements and added 2 new features. We can’t wait to share it with everyone.
Once again, we are excited and nervous about releasing the next update and ask for your support and patience. Our next release will bring Richie's Plank Experience out of early access. The release date will depend on which comes first… all the bugs fixed or the arrival of our baby!
Wish us luck for another year. We can only imagine what we are in for in the next 12 months.