A short story on searching for a publishing deal for our indie game called Heading Out - 2020/2021 |
- A short story on searching for a publishing deal for our indie game called Heading Out - 2020/2021
- "Nobody wants to play an arena shooter from some random indie dev."
- Free Nintendo-inspired music for your games!
- UE4 | Featured free Marketplace content - August 2021
- Part 2: Developing a game in 30 Days, Releasing it in hopefully less than 60 Days — A transparent story…
- how to do memory pool de-fragmentation?
- What do you think about my games art style?
- Wow, I did it… kind of!
- Alternatives to substance painter for someone who can't run it?
- What to expect from zero marketing indie on Steam in 2021?
- What is the easiest type of terrain generation to learn for game development?
- Have you ever actually been sued or brought to court over your game?
- A couple questions…
- Recursive Dungeon generation visualized
- Started a Blog to Help Game Dev Artists Find their Way
- Our game got picked as a model for the future of mental health at the leading global HCI conference. Now we need to take it further and I’d love your advice on finding and working with a game dev.
- Let's create a game system: Multiplayer Abilities, part1 + FREE DOWNLOAD - Unreal Engine 4 + 5
- What determines Minesweeper difficulty?
- JS for 2D mmorpg? Will it preform ok?
- Alternative to polygon rendering?
- Voxel Mesh Generation Part 1!!
- Does anyone have a good resource for finding images to use as Visual Novel backgrounds?
- How to be continuously motivated?
- Just a short video showing how to make multiplayer servers/rooms in Unity using Normcore, hope it helps!
A short story on searching for a publishing deal for our indie game called Heading Out - 2020/2021 Posted: 03 Aug 2021 04:19 AM PDT tl;dr: We are a small indie game studio from Poland. Heading Out is our second game after a relatively successful but quite niche title 'Radio Commander'. Heading out is a mix of racing and narrative mechanics and aims to adopt the American road movie genre to the video game medium. To our best knowledge, we did everything right but yet couldn't find a publishing partner for that title. The game's general idea, esthetics, and mood, as well as our pitch deck, were highly praised. We had a working build in the form of a vertical slice/prototype, we had budget sheets, even some trailers, and promo materials ready. We spoke with numerous publishers (big and small), exchanged hundreds of emails, participated in events (online, since Covid-19), and achieved nothing as of yet. Meanwhile, we've experienced many 'Catch-22' situations and other highly surprising obstacles that we describe below. Authors: Jakub, Kasia, Marcin, Tomek - Serious Sim (https://www.serioussim.net/) Disclaimer: Heading Out is quite an original game, it combines mechanics and topics from different genres and there is no direct comparison to it, therefore it is probably not the best benchmark for the typical indie video game vs. publisher-finding situation. How it started: It's October 2019 and as a small indie studio 'Serious Sim' located in Poland we just released our first game - an innovative strategy game: Radio Commander. The game's gimmick or USP is quite simple - the player can't see his units, their location, statistics and he has to rely on their radio reports only. The novelty works, execution is decent, the game returns its production budget on the release day then it continues to sell well. We plan to publish at least one DLC and port it to other platforms, but more importantly, we want to start working on a new title - something without war and military mumble, something really cool - a video game adaptation of classic American road movies. The movie Vanishing Point (1971) is our main inspiration. We love the concept and pre-production starts right away - gathering materials, references, first prototypes, etc. But the post-release patching and the aforementioned DLC for Radio Commander has to be done, thus any actual production starts in June 2020. We had a nice kick-meeting, crucial design decisions were made - gameplay structure, esthetics, main mechanics, audio aspects, etc. For the next 5 months, we are committed to one thing only - developing a vertical slice demo build of the game. It goes pretty well, the effects are really decent. At this point, we've read/watched/listened to every piece of relevant information on how to approach publishers. We're addicted to GDC prelections. Our general notion is that there is a boom on the market and the stock exchange is hungry for video games. Namely 'anything' that is a video game can get funding, no problem at all! Well, maybe sometimes if the team is completely inexperienced and they have no finished games in the portfolio, there might be a problem. But with a finished game? Especially a successful one? There is no chance to not get a deal. Of course, there are things that could help to get a deal: a neat game idea, a good pitch deck, and the build. We had this idea that with a working build, it's almost certain to strike a publishing deal. Maybe not always the dream deal, but some kind of a deal would always be on the table. So we prepared a pitch deck, attached the demo build, and sent it to approx. 50 publishing companies that we've selected considering their profiles, portfolios, etc. More than half of the companies replied to the messages - not bad at all. Almost every returned message remarked that the pitch deck is really good, very detailed, nicely put together, good looking, etc. The idea was said to be really catchy and the aesthetics were well-received - almost every response points out that the black&white comic esthetic looks dope and the idea and mood are great. We've also created 3 OST songs as part of the demo and those were well received too. The online meetings started, things looked kinda great. How it went further: First problems started to appear not so long after. Below is the general juxtaposition, not 100% chronically but…
One of the big publishers put it very simply - "For us, it is easier to commit 10 million euros into a project than to commit less than 1 million". On the other hand, many publishers when they saw our budget of around 300k euros said that this is way too much for them. It was a really rare thing when the budget fit the publisher we've been talking to.
Some publishers were so lazy that they wrote back to us asking "what do we expect from them as a publisher". All the information was in the pitch deck! We were so shocked, that while sending the next round of emails we added a special extra page titled: "What do we expect from a publisher?" where all the info was gathered.
It often seemed as if the project and the build itself were judged by someone who somehow hasn't played too many video games in a 'work-in-progress' state. We had this feeling that the people on the other side completely lacked the ability to extrapolate from what they saw. Instead, they took most of the presented features as supposedly "ready-to-ship" and as such, gave irrelevant remarks at this stage of the development. With a focus on performance, amount of content, replayability, etc. Of course, there were some examples of really good feedback, e.g. super.com - kudos.
How is it now: We decided to update the build, redesign the gameplay loop according to those few examples of reasonable feedback, add some features into it, polish it to avoid any performance or similar issues and we've sent the second wave of pitches in February 2021. This time even to those publishers who seemed not the best fit for us in the first place - around 100 more emails. The situation was more or less the same with some talks going for several weeks and ending with 'No'. We started to run out of money since we invested everything from our first game into this one. Eventually, we decided to publish the project and see how it is received by players, not publishers only. We released the Steam page in June 2021 and did some in-house marketing without spending any money to see how it goes. We wrote a press kit, created a trailer, and a music video for one of the songs. We are trying to reach gamers on Twitter, Facebook, Imgur, 9gag, and many other platforms. After one month we have around 2k wishlists on Steam without spending a single dollar. Is that good or bad? Hard to tell - 'not great, not terrible' to quote one bastard. We are still in talks with really great publishing companies, but after all these rejections we are not feeling optimistic. We have not given up hope completely and would love to work on the project. What we think we might have screwed up: We just always assumed that people who sign publishing deals and whose daily job is to playtest early builds would see past the technicalities. It might have backfired and our demo was not self-explanatory, and playtesters simply did not 'get' at what stage of the development the game actually was. Question: Do you guys have similar experiences or maybe we are in the wrong? Maybe the game concept is simply crap, but no one was honest enough to say it to us? :) Links: [link] [comments] | ||
"Nobody wants to play an arena shooter from some random indie dev." Posted: 03 Aug 2021 06:25 AM PDT Is that true? As someone who has been solo developing a team based FPS I never really stopped to think.. is this game something that anyone would play? I have been working on it for nearly 5 years, learning to make games for almost 10, specifically because I wanted to make this game. As I try to get it out there and market it, I continue to run into the same problem, nobody cares! It could be for many reasons, and don't get me wrong, I love working on it. It has become my "thing" and regardless of it's potential success I personally NEED to see it through to the end. My curiosity lies in does it even have a chance to be played. When people have the likes of Halo and CSGO and CALL OF DUTY, would they even want to give my game a shot? Sure mine has a few gimmicks that make it stand out but do regular player scoff at these kind of games? I am starting to feel like a musician obsessed with a song that only my grandma will listen to. Rant over. If you're curious here is my steam page. (keep in mind it is a WIP not a final product) [link] [comments] | ||
Free Nintendo-inspired music for your games! Posted: 03 Aug 2021 09:37 AM PDT Hi there, I'm the composer for a recently launched copyright-free music label called Stream Cafe. Our goal is to create thoughtful, high quality music that game developers/streamers/content creators can use free of charge. We just released our first volume of music last week, which is heavily inspired by classic Nintendo music. You can listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQvXEza4fPc (or just search "Stream Cafe" on any major streaming service) If anyone would like to use any of these tunes in their game please shoot me an email at the address located in the description of the video, and I can send you the full-quality .wav files. It's all available under the Creative Commons "Attribution-NoDerivs" license (This license lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to the original creator). Thanks for checking it out and feel free to share with anyone you think might be interested! - Justin [link] [comments] | ||
UE4 | Featured free Marketplace content - August 2021 Posted: 03 Aug 2021 08:57 AM PDT
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Posted: 03 Aug 2021 11:26 AM PDT
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how to do memory pool de-fragmentation? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 10:36 AM PDT I'm new to this stuff. Instead of developing a rendering engine, I'm trying to lay down the foundations first. After a few failed projects, and some necessary humbling failures, I have learned a major lesson : Game engines are meant to create games, so if I don't have a goal of creating a game using my game engine, then I shouldn't be building one. My current goal is to create a simple retro game with Silent Hill 2 style graphics, DOOM Eternal style combat and Sekiro like difficulty. I have finished creating the basic data structures (everything's using heap allocated 1D arrays, even the trees and linked lists), level/scene storage schema, and now I want to create the more advanced stuff like memory allocators and data serialization / de-serialization methods. Then move on to creating editor, implementing rendering and animation. Hopefully my method and steps taken are correct. Currently I'm trying to create a memory pool, so that the game engine doesn't have to dynamically call malloc during gameplay, and suffer from excessive slowdowns. Maybe I can use multi threading to call malloc on a thread that's not busy rendering, and thus hide the slowdown. But, still I need a central memory manager that will distribute the memory required by different datastructures in the game engine. There is one very specific thing that I'm not sure how to do:
I don't know how to properly de-fragment this whole mess. I don't want to do premature optimization here, and thus wanted to ask other experts on how this is normally done in the industry, and ask for whatever resources I can get to learn more about creating memory pools, and proper memory handling. There's probably no right answer, and different cases might require different solutions, so I don't know how to better frame this question. [link] [comments] | ||
What do you think about my games art style? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:06 PM PDT Hi everyone, I'm currently working on a small puzzle platformer game. I'm trying to make an art style for my game. I'm not good at visual side of game development so I decided to make something a little simple. What do you think about my games visual style? Is it looks like too much complex? If you see this games screenshots on Steam would you be positive about it or negative? Any comments appreciated. [link] [comments] | ||
Posted: 03 Aug 2021 09:50 AM PDT About a week ago, I published my first commercial indie game on Steam (Car Looper). With this release, I earned my first money from a game that I made and published by myself. Well I only sold 6 copies so far… that's about 25 $. I think it is. I did it, I made a game that everybody who played it liked, it has enough content to be really considered a "game" and I made some money from it. The best part is still missing, I learned so many things.
All in all, for a game idea that started as a GameJam in 2020, I am really happy that I was able to finish it! That is the most important tip that I can give to you. FINISH YOUR PROJECTS! Only then will you be able to learn new things and get some success with it! [link] [comments] | ||
Alternatives to substance painter for someone who can't run it? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 11:31 AM PDT Hi! I'm a 16 year old dude whos been drawing and programming for a bit now. I want to get into making 3d games, but my problem comes from the fact that the computer that I use to draw is not powerful enough to run substance painter, which is what everybody says I should be using. I've been getting by on texturing very low poly stuff in blender, but even things as simple as a ps1 style model are difficult, especially since I don't really now how to lay out a texture sheet. Any advice? [link] [comments] | ||
What to expect from zero marketing indie on Steam in 2021? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 11:26 AM PDT I just launched a coming soon page for a small game, and I'm wondering about what to expect in terms of organic traffic. Last release was a few years ago and it was getting something in the ballpark of 40 wishlists a day during coming soon (zero marketing). From watching analytics, it seems like the organic traffic is close to zero though with this store page. It has me a bit concerned. Is it still realistic to expect at least a few hundred to a thousand sales on a zero marketing game in 2021 (assuming the game is reasonable indie quality)? [link] [comments] | ||
What is the easiest type of terrain generation to learn for game development? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 03:52 AM PDT Recently I became interested in learning terrain generation for gaming, but there are different types (simplex, diamond square, etc.). But since I have no experience with terrain generation, what is the easiest type of terrain generation to learn for game development? [link] [comments] | ||
Have you ever actually been sued or brought to court over your game? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 11:12 AM PDT I hear a lot of talking and see a lot of questions about potentially getting sued because of ______ in a game. But I've never actually heard anyone claim that they really did get sued or taken to court. So is this just people being overly cautious or is it a real possibility that you could get sued for your game? I'm not talking about the stuff that is blatantly illegal like selling real drugs or abuse or breaking the law, but the stuff that many gamedevs seem to ask questions about like using other people's assets without permission or using copyright music/sfx or using someone else's game idea. Has anyone on here actually been sued and/or brought to court for your game? [link] [comments] | ||
Posted: 03 Aug 2021 08:45 AM PDT Okay, so i'm more of the English Speaker, proofreader, social media guy who has some ideas for the game. Basically, the only reason i'm part of this team is because the developers need some things hardware-wise, and i happen to have most of it (servers and junk) with little out of pocket money. What i actually contribute is very little but am privileged to be part of the game dev and design team. However, it seems we have gotten to a stand still. And that stand still now requires some cash flow to continue. We're using free tools, and models, but those only go so far and it seems to me that the actual developers know, but also don't know things to assess. And since their second language is english, it's hard to communicate. Especially when it comes to proofreading dialogue… First: how can i assess the required hardware needed to play the game on low, medium and high quality settings? I don't have game play hardware for high quality beta test at this time, and i am trying to set up release notes on our game website. They just tell me "a 2gb card should work okay with this game" Second: for indie devs out there; how do you obtain funds when needed? I'm guessing crowdsourcing, but is there any specific sites that specialise is games? Again, i'm barely part of the actual development. But i want to prove my worth, however little that is. [link] [comments] | ||
Recursive Dungeon generation visualized Posted: 03 Aug 2021 10:49 AM PDT
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Started a Blog to Help Game Dev Artists Find their Way Posted: 03 Aug 2021 04:37 AM PDT Hi there! A few weeks ago I started a blog with the sole purpose to share my knowledge. I'm an 8+ year AAA games developer, worked on titles like Red Dead Redemption II or the upcoming Dead Island game. During all these years I noticed how all my peers and I have similar thoughts, worries, etc. I never thought about doing something like this as I am a very reserved person, and hate giving my opinion just for the sake of it, until I realized I can be really helpful for people who are lost like I once was. With this post I'm looking for two things, and I'll be fully transparent:
Thank you for reading, and please let me know if you have any questions. Here's the website: [link] [comments] | ||
Posted: 03 Aug 2021 06:45 AM PDT I've been a long-time lurker/listener here and the quality of discussions in this community have been a massive help on my own journey. In 2016 I left a career in tech to study mental health and this somehow led me to video games. I could see so much potential in the medium as a tool for self-understanding and personal change, but I had no idea how to use it. So for a while I just played, talked to other players, went to games conferences, etc. Then last year, I joined forces with an experienced therapist and a World Fantasy award-winning author to create Betwixt: The Story of You. It's a choose-your-own-adventure game that our players describe as a hybrid between Lifeline, Myst and Lord of the Rings. For context, you play as a lone figure trapped in a strange, magical world that responds to your emotions and makes real what you think. Your mission is to escape, but to do that, you have to face yourself. Our idea was to blur the boundaries between fantasy and real life, and create a virtual space where you can escape but also explore your mind. This leads me to my question for you. We've now spent a year and a half tinkering, and it's become clear to us that there's something special and exciting about combining play, storytelling and psychology. We're also getting interest from funders who see a potential in something like Betwixt to shape mental wellness and self-care in years to come. [link] [comments] | ||
Let's create a game system: Multiplayer Abilities, part1 + FREE DOWNLOAD - Unreal Engine 4 + 5 Posted: 03 Aug 2021 10:10 AM PDT
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What determines Minesweeper difficulty? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 08:34 AM PDT I'm making a Minesweeper game for fun and I was wondering what determines the difficulty? The density of the mines? or the distribution? And if someone knows of an algorithm. I'm currently distributing the mines in a uniform random way. I have a threshold say 30% and generate a random number between 0% and 100% and if the number is below the threshold then it's a mine, meaning that 30% of the blocks are going to be mines. What are your thought? should I use something more sophisticated or the difficulty is determined by the threshold i.e. 10% is harder than 40%? [link] [comments] | ||
JS for 2D mmorpg? Will it preform ok? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 11:46 AM PDT I want to do 2d mmorpg in Javascript. But Im unsure how the lag and preformace would be in such a game with 100s of players in the same spot possibly. Is thus somthing node.js and javascript would handle well? [link] [comments] | ||
Alternative to polygon rendering? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 05:26 AM PDT Disclaimer: I'm not a game dev, but I think this community would be my best bet for an answer. Years ago I distinctly remember seeing a video of an alternative rendering method that, if I recall correctly, used what is basically "atoms" to build 3d environments and assets. So instead of triangles they were essentially using millions of individual dots to create games/3d animations, and it was claimed to be more efficient to animated and play. Does anyone else recall this technology or was it just some fever dream I had? [link] [comments] | ||
Voxel Mesh Generation Part 1!! Posted: 03 Aug 2021 05:25 AM PDT
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Does anyone have a good resource for finding images to use as Visual Novel backgrounds? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 11:22 AM PDT Commissioning backgrounds is a bit out of my budget so some cheap generic backgrounds would be fine. Finding naturescapes is pretty straightforward but I'm not sure where to find generic medieval urban backgrounds like inns or pubs and castles and etc. [link] [comments] | ||
How to be continuously motivated? Posted: 03 Aug 2021 10:47 AM PDT Hello guys, I am 20 years old and aimed to be an indie game developer. When come up with good ideas I am so passionate that I can't even sleep at night. But after a few days of laborious work, things just changed, I give up so quickly even the idea is almost implemented. So far I've planned lots of projects, but none of them is ever finished or announced. Sorry I know this is a frequently asked question, I just wonder the actual feelings and state of real game developers. [link] [comments] | ||
Posted: 03 Aug 2021 10:05 AM PDT
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