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    Home Unlabelled I found a Twitter account that posts 6-second game trailers for every Steam release. It’s a great dose of realism about the game market!

    I found a Twitter account that posts 6-second game trailers for every Steam release. It’s a great dose of realism about the game market!

    April 19, 2018

    I found a Twitter account that posts 6-second game trailers for every Steam release. It’s a great dose of realism about the game market!

    I found a Twitter account that posts 6-second game trailers for every Steam release. It’s a great dose of realism about the game market!

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 07:20 AM PDT

    I'm not affiliated with @microtrailers aka "Steam Trailers in 6s" but if you're a game developer I highly recommend you follow them. They autopost a chopped up 6 second trailer any time a game is released on Steam.

    We all see stats about how the game market is really saturated; browsing Steam or the App Store for even a minute can reveal loads of games you've never heard of. However, following this Twitter account gave me some real perspective about what's actually being released and how frequently, because they tweet everything; it's just a firehose of game trailers as they're released. There's roughly 2 or 3 games released every hour and the rare gem just floats by with the shovelware. Instead of knowing the statistics, you FEEL them more intuitively.

    I've made games for Steam, PS4, iOS, and most of the VR/AR platforms out there. Right now I'm in the ideation phase of my next game, and this constant stream of trailers has made me realize how NOT special I am. And I think that's healthy.

    submitted by /u/nickpettit
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    I quit my job 2 years ago to make a StarCraft inspired game, now it looks like an alternate universe of Fairly OddParents

    Posted: 18 Apr 2018 02:35 PM PDT

    In 2015 I quit my job 2 weeks after a promotion when I realized if I don't pursue my dream of making a game now I probably won't have another chance. Trap Labs was a game inspired by bound maps from StarCraft, where you have to spot trap patterns and try to run across from one side to the other without being trapped. Bounds had a cult following, but they never made it out like DOTA or defense tower games. So I figured this was a decent business opportunity and I would be really happy if the game could just break even.

    Anyways 2 years of working on it full time and over $10000 invested later, the public alpha builds of the game that I sprinkled around the interwebs received little to zero traction. People thought the game was too hard, or wasn't their cup of tea, or just didn't look interesting, and nobody knew what bounds were…I mean, I thought the game was pretty good. I built all the essential features, built all of the networking, physics, mapping, and event system from scratch, and rigorously tested them. It even has cross-device multiplayer which was extremely rare… so publishers must be the answer right? Wrong. I proceeded to get turned down by 12 different game publishers after pitching to them. FML

    At this time, it was around Christmas 2017. I pretty much came to terms that the game wasn't gonna sell and this journey was going to be a giant failure. But I knew I still have to release the game because at least at my next job interview I could show the hiring manager this POS I made. So I decided as a last ditch effort to spend another 6 month and completely change the art and story.

    As a child I loved cartoons like Dexter's Lab, PPG, and FOP. Particularly art styles of Genndy Tartakovsky and Butch Hartman. I thought I'd pay tribute to that style of that era. But most importantly I understood the style well so I could do it justice. Luckily I found a talented animator who worked for Cartoon Network in past looking for contract work, and we worked on overhauling the visuals of the game since then.

    Fast forward to March and the result was a game that looked like an alternate universe of FOP where you could get m(e)owed by cats on Roombas. LOL The game turned into something I could only describe as, "I don't know what the hell this is but at least it looks interesting." I released a teaser with the new art, it got ~50 views on youtube and a handful of views on facebook and twitter. Sigh.

    Things were looking bleak. The past Saturday my buddy suggested I post the Roomba cats gifs on imgur, "because people go nuts for cats there." I figured what the hell if I get down voted I'd just pull the gallery. I made a post the next day.

    It went viral.

    It got almost 100k views and over 1000 upvotes. This was the first time ever, where I felt the game had a chance. I'm speechless about the power of cats. But seriously, people really responded to the art style. Even StarCraft bounders came out of the forest and recognized that they are based off bounds.

    The moral of the story is that with a little hard-work, persistence, and sleeping on the floor for over 2 years, you can make a failure somewhat more exciting if you put cats in it. :)

    TLDR; Spent almost 3 years on a game and a lot of money, no one wanted the game. Changed the art to FOP like style as a last ditch effort and now it might have a chance.

    PS I tried posting this on r/gaming and the post got promptly removed for self promotion :( I hope my fellow gamedevs here can enjoy the story

    submitted by /u/Ninja_Gah
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    West of Loathing design doc

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 07:35 AM PDT

    Dust3D - a brand new 3D modeling software for game developers

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 08:30 AM PDT

    Hired an artist, agreed to 8 hour contract to extend at a later date but haven't, yet they've worked almost 4x that.

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 10:31 AM PDT

    I entered into a contract with an artist to make some models for my game. Our only signed contract specifies (1) working day (8 hours) in order to "get started" on some rough shapes. They blew past that allotment pretty quickly as we worked evolved into working individual meshes. I was later made aware that they went over that number of hours at about the 16 hour mark I think it was like a week ago or so ago. They are now at 30 hours and I've just said for all work to stop for a second while I reanalyze my situation for a number of reasons - 1) mostly at the rate we're progressing, its going to take double or triple the amount of hours we're already burned and I don't have a budget for that and 2) its been a little difficult directing my vision (mostly on me)

    On the whole, they have been professional and courteous, but at the same time the assets we have so far are not amazing and I'm doubting their overall usability. I don't want to screw this guy over but at the same time our contract was a limited time frame and we didn't sign another contract extending that time, all the while the bill for hours is going to be quite high. Is there any best practices for resolving situations like this fairly? Ask for an invoice of hours? Just refer to the contract as is?

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/oasisisthewin
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    Unity 2018 Roadmap (Unity at GDC)

    Posted: 18 Apr 2018 11:01 PM PDT

    Currently Streaming: Compiler Design And Implementation

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 10:28 AM PDT

    Games don't push us hard enough, I want to brainstorm some ways to make us choose a less savory outcome.

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 03:09 AM PDT

    In single player games you're usually given an ultimatum of sorts. Usually being the pinnacle of heroism or to go a darker path for self interest. I've yet to find a game that has made me feel forced to go down a darker path. No matter what it is so easy to win. I rarely get a bad ending in a game just because I feel like I'm handed a gold star. The only time I felt like I EARNED a victory was in Deus ex Mankind divided on the last level (SPOILERS) where you have to choose between catching the bad guy or saving the innocent. Though I do believe it is a fake scenario that is hard to lose even on the harder difficulty which I was on; I felt like because of mechanical skill and some smarts I was able to beat an ultimatum. If that was a serious choice that you can very much fail, I respect it because I could see someone having to choose because they were pushed into a corner and felt their options fall away. What made that mission so good? Was it the music? Was it an authority figure (In the sense of controlling the situation at hand) telling you that there wasn't a third option? Or was it a feeling of consequence? Maybe a mixture of all three. Obviously not every story can have this scenario; but more games should put you in this spot. Originally survival horror came up with the ammo restrictions to make you choose between a short term solution or to save your ass in the possibility of a problem later. But that same mentality is flawed I feel. We have all played JRPG's where you are over stocked on everything JUST IN CASE. I'm probably rambling but I need to talk about this.

    submitted by /u/Cosmic_Fable
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    Legend of the Sourcerer: A Text-based Adventure Game in Ruby

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 09:38 AM PDT

    The BBC just released 16,000 free audio samples which may come handy for some of you

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 08:16 AM PDT

    Easy to use Event triggered Actions for your help

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 12:02 PM PDT

    Are online degrees worth it?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 11:50 AM PDT

    I'm taking a game development and programming course through SNHU online. I'm about six months into it but I'm starting to get nervous that it won't count for much towards a job once I graduate. I know it's a competitive industry, and I've gotten a late start (I'm 25 and using my GI Bill) but I don't want to spend all this time and have nothing to show for it in the end.

    submitted by /u/BrownWarlord
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    Armory — an open-source 3D game engine with full Blender integration

    Posted: 18 Apr 2018 06:16 PM PDT

    I made a video about my indie game marketing best practices. I hope it will help some of you guys!

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 05:25 AM PDT

    My first android game.

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 10:29 AM PDT

    Quick student survey

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 10:19 AM PDT

    Hi all! I am a games development student, specialising in design, in my final year. Would anyone in the industry would be able to answer this survey please as part of my research? Thank you! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GRMG2CB

    submitted by /u/Lukabu
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    RPG Spreadsheets/Progression Resources?

    Posted: 18 Apr 2018 06:16 PM PDT

    Does anyone know of any good resources regarding designing progression/leveling in RPG's/JRPG's? Something that maybe breaks down level earned with playtime, mobs killed, types of different mobs killed at each level, etc.

    submitted by /u/-Sploosh-
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    Question on bundle licensing

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 09:28 AM PDT

    Let's say I release my game on Steam for $9.99. Then someone wants to include it in one of their bundles, how do I handle that? Do I just ask for like a few dollars per sale of their bundle?

    submitted by /u/upside_down_pixie
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    Optimization of Catan Universe on mobile with Unity

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 03:27 AM PDT

    How to market a game with a minimal budget

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 09:14 AM PDT

    The 200 Word Tabletop RPG Challenge begins in a month!

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 09:00 AM PDT

    Should I register/trademark my "company" name, and how?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2018 08:45 AM PDT

    So my game isn't even close to release yet, but i was thinking "What if someone steals my company name?". So here i am, and my question is: What if i release a game called "farming sim", and i have a company name called "fungames" or something. And then someone else releases a game, and uses the same name as me. Are they allowed to do so, and if they are, what does that mean for me? And how can I prevent someone from stealing my company name, does that cost money? And what if someone registers the name i used to release games, what will that mean for me? And should I register my company name, if we have a 4 person team developing some games? And last, should we do it now, or oce we gain some populairity?

    We live in the Netherlands btw.

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/timl132
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    Marketing on Zero Budget

    Posted: 18 Apr 2018 12:50 PM PDT
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