So here's the thing about shipping games nobody asked for: you find out real fast whether anyone wanted them.

Quick recap for the three of you (hi mom). This summer I went on a bender and built seven Alexa games and one Fire TV app from the boat. Reverso (you hear a phrase backwards and guess it), Pawn Step Sisters (haggle with two campy pawn shop sisters over cursed items), Trivia Harbor (daily trivia with a harbormaster who doesn't respect you), Sound Sleuth, Crown Keeper, Pickle Jar, Locked Lantern. Plus the Houseboat Party Pass on Fire TV, which is Trollilopolis (free), The Price Is Nice, Who Are You: Xmas, and Heifferopolis in one app for the remote.

All of it passed Amazon certification in about a month. i was pretty proud of that. still am, a lil.

Now the numbers, because i think the internet has enough launch posts and not enough "and then what happened" posts.

• Alexa, all seven games, last four weeks: 37 sessions total. Trivia Harbor and Pickle Jar carry the fleet at 14 and 13. Reverso, the one i love most, got zero. zero!
• Reviews across everything: 0
• Revenue: $0 (the fire tv subs have a 7 day trial and nobody's finished one yet, cause nobody's started one)
• Fire TV bundle went live August 23 under the title "Houseboat Studios." Not one human on earth types that into a Fire TV search bar. it got retitled this week to what it actually is (party games, trivia). we'll see.

Things I learned that i genuinely wish someone had told me before the bender (writing them down so the next feller finds them):

1. The Alexa skill store is a wind-down platform. The new LLM Alexa (the one that's free with Prime now) breaks "Alexa, ask Trivia Harbor for today's question" for basically every third party game. Only "Alexa, open trivia harbor" works reliably. And "Alexa, play a trivia game" will never route to you, that door is closed to indies. so the whole discovery model is: people find you somewhere else and click a link that launches the game on their Echo. which means the store is not where you get found. your own website is.

2. Nobody reviews voice games. 62% of all skills have zero ratings. Ten honest reviews puts you ahead of most of the store. i have none, so if you play one and it makes you laugh, the Alexa app has a little stars thing, and i would love you forever.

3. Fire TV search only reads your title and a hidden keyword box. Not your description. A brand name title is invisible. i learned this the expensive way (five weeks of nobody).

4. Amazon quietly turned off every dev growth program between 2024 and 2026. Developer rewards, AWS credits, A/B testing, the quality coach thing, all gone. The subscriptions still pay out 80%, that part's real. but you are on your own for getting people in the door.

5. One free round a day starves the habit. Amazon's own guidance says don't even try to sell someone until their second or third session. i had the games pitching the subscription after one round like a car salesman at the door. rebuilt it this week: the flagship gives three free questions a day, the pitch waits until you've actually come back.

Am i bummed? a little. would i do it again? obviously, look at me. the games are good (i think Pawn Step Sisters is the funniest thing i've made) and they're all free to try:

• Alexa games with one click "play on your Echo" links: houseboatstudios.com/alexa-games
• The Fire TV bundle: amazon.com/dp/B0HFGQMBYL (Trollilopolis is free forever in there)

If you've got an Echo or a Fire Stick and 90 seconds, go be session number 38. tell me what broke.

anyway. the cow says hi.