Bah, my PC is broken!! I hope it can get fixed before the alpha test begins, I don't want to miss out!
I believe the way betas on Steam work is that you hand out keys to the game to your beta testers and then they can select to play the beta branch of the game through Steam. I've seen this mostly for early access games or games with a continuous production cycle where there's a main branch and a beta/testing branch and the beta branch is locked behind a password or something.
The eye-UI for the attack timing looks better than the bland oval, a good and thematically cohesive change.
The new design is more meaningful, whereas the old design was simpler and cleaner. I see a lot of brans these days go for cleaner and simpler designs, that seems to be the general trend anyhow.
The old symbol gave the impression of a Nexus point with 6 petals scattered around it, all equal except for the one that's clearly shattered. It immediately brings intrigue to that shattered petal, why is it like that?
The new one instead gives the impression of three distinct layers with overlaps in the middle, like a strangely-shaped Venn Diagram. Fracture looks a lot stranger here, it looks like it's outright cut off rather than merely fractured. It also makes it look like there's a bunch of overlaps between all the realms, in a way the old one does not.
Interesting that Meek are now Fear, that's new! It seems the Meek, Lucen and Varnyn all swapped around elements a bit.
I'm very curious to see what Yden and Fulgur look like. Those Elarna designs you posted way back when were really cute!!
I could imagine that Carna was meant to be more ethereal and dreamlike, until the gods left and the ecosystem collapsed into its current brutal cycle. A dream turned into a living nightmare, or something. We've also only seen a small bit of Carna anyhow!
Hm looking at that trailer I was expecting a collectathon in the vein of Yooka-Laylee or A Hat In Time, but when I realized it used Minecraftesque blocks for its tiles I realized it's just kind of a clone of that. Interest waned.
These features might be well-liked overall, but it's also an immediate turn-off for others and it's competing in a very crowded marketspace. From the little I saw there wasn't really another that stands out about the game.
€50.000 is quite decent, actually. That seems to be about where these kinds or projects top off AFAIK. Telepath Tactics and Fell Seal got about $40.000. Even UNDERTALE got about $50.000 I believe. You're only going to get more if one is really lucky or already has professional experience in the business and an established portfolio like the Castlevania or Banjo Kazooie developers.
I think it's good to keep in mind what Kickstarter is actually for: While it is a lump sump of money that is being carried forward from the point of sales to the point of development, the purpose has always been to amass the funds needed to make the game. Whether that is the costs of reimbursing people brought into the project or simple things like living expenses and required software and the like.
At the end of the day there's two parts of why someone should invest in a project:
1) The finished product looks worthwhile
2) The project needs investment or the investment rewards are good
The first one is covered by the game itself, but for the second a solo dev needs to make clear why exactly the game needs to be kickstarted, why is the project not possible without it? How does the game Kickstarter earning €50.000 directly translate into a better product and timelier release?
Here's to hoping my PC is fixed soon!!
1
Tobias 1104~2Y
I'm also hoping that your PC is fixed soon!! That's very frustrating timing for this impending alpha test, but surely frustrating for you in general so I wouldn't want that prolonged!
Is the way you described Steam betas the same as what I did with the first Atonal Dreams alpha, or different? I can barely even remember what I did last time, though I think I must have researched it back then? I don't think there's much point having a separate beta branch though as the game won't be an ongoing, continually-updated thing.
There's an idea that I think I first heard about in sci-fi a few years ago, of multiple universes or 'dimensions' overlapping but on different 'frequencies', and I've recently been seeing the same concept talked about as if it could be the nature of our actual reality in things like UFO communities (so rather than being aliens from a planet a bajillion miles away, they're from physically here but a different frequency). Whether or not there's any truth to that, I like the idea of structuring Alora Fane's 'pocket dimensions' in this way, kind of like how the whole consciousness substrate - drealm - thing is based on similar inspirations. It doesn't clash with anything I had before, just elaborates on it a bit. And of course the new logo would fit with that!
Something I prefer about the old logo is that I can have a flat colour version of it, which would be lost with this new one. So if I do decide to keep it - and I'm still in the wondering phase - I might have to make a single colour version of it in addition to the colourful one.
I wondered whether Carna's winters started happening after the Fracture! But could sindrels have realistically adapted to them so quickly? I suppose in a fantasy world with magic, anything's possible.
I read this comment yesterday (I should really reply to things straight away, but...), and I've been thinking about what you said about Kickstarter. On the one hand it's somewhat discouraging knowing that indie games often don't make much - at least compared to those US tech job salaries I know I shouldn't compare to but do - but I suppose it's also encouraging knowing things like Telepath Tactics got around that 50k amount. And hearing that the one I linked to doesn't have the kind of appeal I feared it might for having those kinds of features (though I find it interesting that it registered as Minecraft-like to you when it doesn't have the super blocky look; I didn't perceive it as such).
I've also been wondering whether 'I need the money so then I can pay the basic bills' is reason enough for people to support a Kickstarter, since that's the main angle I'd be going with. I wouldn't intend to be buying, say, people to make various assets, but maybe people expect that??
I think the biggest thing about doing a Kickstarter for me is that it'll hopefully push me out of my shell, force me to do some hard promotion!! for a whole month, and I feel I need to see whether I can even cope with that. Because if I really can't, then I definitely need to start looking into something else. But just thinking about doing all that is leading to a lot of feet-dragging already, bleh...
1
Maniafig219~2Y
I'd thought my PC was fixed yesterday, when I got it back, but it's still broken! So it's brought back for repairs again, hopefully this time it won't take almost a week... Spending all my free time I'd be spending on the PC on my mobile phone instead is really irritating.
I think what we did for the Alpha is just using keys and a main branch, I suppose that works just as well since there's no need to do multiple branches!
Any and all lore questions can be answered with "The Aolmna Did It". Why do Sindrels have their flower brains? Why is Carna like this? Why are the Elarna cute? Who caused the Fracture? Who impregnated Mardek's mom? Why did Mardek have a sloppy make-out session with Deugan and Steele while Emeela was recording it? And who the hell are Mardek and Deugan??
While Minecraft is known superficially for its very pixelated and blocky look, a lot of Minecraft clones (and mods!) go for a more visually complex look that nonetheless apes the same cubical-tile based crafting/mining experience. It looks very clear at the 0:25 and 1:18 marks that despite the look, the world is clearly tile-based in a manner similar to Minecraft.
I think most true solo devs do use the reasoning that they need it to cover living expenses, yes. There probably is a general expectation that even solo devs do some outsourcing, or at least collaborative work, but it's not unheard of for everything to be done by one person either.
I believe the way betas on Steam work is that you hand out keys to the game to your beta testers and then they can select to play the beta branch of the game through Steam. I've seen this mostly for early access games or games with a continuous production cycle where there's a main branch and a beta/testing branch and the beta branch is locked behind a password or something.
The eye-UI for the attack timing looks better than the bland oval, a good and thematically cohesive change.
The new design is more meaningful, whereas the old design was simpler and cleaner. I see a lot of brans these days go for cleaner and simpler designs, that seems to be the general trend anyhow.
The old symbol gave the impression of a Nexus point with 6 petals scattered around it, all equal except for the one that's clearly shattered. It immediately brings intrigue to that shattered petal, why is it like that?
The new one instead gives the impression of three distinct layers with overlaps in the middle, like a strangely-shaped Venn Diagram. Fracture looks a lot stranger here, it looks like it's outright cut off rather than merely fractured. It also makes it look like there's a bunch of overlaps between all the realms, in a way the old one does not.
Interesting that Meek are now Fear, that's new! It seems the Meek, Lucen and Varnyn all swapped around elements a bit.
I'm very curious to see what Yden and Fulgur look like. Those Elarna designs you posted way back when were really cute!!
I could imagine that Carna was meant to be more ethereal and dreamlike, until the gods left and the ecosystem collapsed into its current brutal cycle. A dream turned into a living nightmare, or something. We've also only seen a small bit of Carna anyhow!
Hm looking at that trailer I was expecting a collectathon in the vein of Yooka-Laylee or A Hat In Time, but when I realized it used Minecraftesque blocks for its tiles I realized it's just kind of a clone of that. Interest waned.
These features might be well-liked overall, but it's also an immediate turn-off for others and it's competing in a very crowded marketspace. From the little I saw there wasn't really another that stands out about the game.
€50.000 is quite decent, actually. That seems to be about where these kinds or projects top off AFAIK. Telepath Tactics and Fell Seal got about $40.000. Even UNDERTALE got about $50.000 I believe. You're only going to get more if one is really lucky or already has professional experience in the business and an established portfolio like the Castlevania or Banjo Kazooie developers.
I think it's good to keep in mind what Kickstarter is actually for: While it is a lump sump of money that is being carried forward from the point of sales to the point of development, the purpose has always been to amass the funds needed to make the game. Whether that is the costs of reimbursing people brought into the project or simple things like living expenses and required software and the like.
At the end of the day there's two parts of why someone should invest in a project:
1) The finished product looks worthwhile
2) The project needs investment or the investment rewards are good
The first one is covered by the game itself, but for the second a solo dev needs to make clear why exactly the game needs to be kickstarted, why is the project not possible without it? How does the game Kickstarter earning €50.000 directly translate into a better product and timelier release?
Here's to hoping my PC is fixed soon!!
Is the way you described Steam betas the same as what I did with the first Atonal Dreams alpha, or different? I can barely even remember what I did last time, though I think I must have researched it back then? I don't think there's much point having a separate beta branch though as the game won't be an ongoing, continually-updated thing.
There's an idea that I think I first heard about in sci-fi a few years ago, of multiple universes or 'dimensions' overlapping but on different 'frequencies', and I've recently been seeing the same concept talked about as if it could be the nature of our actual reality in things like UFO communities (so rather than being aliens from a planet a bajillion miles away, they're from physically here but a different frequency). Whether or not there's any truth to that, I like the idea of structuring Alora Fane's 'pocket dimensions' in this way, kind of like how the whole consciousness substrate - drealm - thing is based on similar inspirations. It doesn't clash with anything I had before, just elaborates on it a bit. And of course the new logo would fit with that!
Something I prefer about the old logo is that I can have a flat colour version of it, which would be lost with this new one. So if I do decide to keep it - and I'm still in the wondering phase - I might have to make a single colour version of it in addition to the colourful one.
I wondered whether Carna's winters started happening after the Fracture! But could sindrels have realistically adapted to them so quickly? I suppose in a fantasy world with magic, anything's possible.
I read this comment yesterday (I should really reply to things straight away, but...), and I've been thinking about what you said about Kickstarter. On the one hand it's somewhat discouraging knowing that indie games often don't make much - at least compared to those US tech job salaries I know I shouldn't compare to but do - but I suppose it's also encouraging knowing things like Telepath Tactics got around that 50k amount. And hearing that the one I linked to doesn't have the kind of appeal I feared it might for having those kinds of features (though I find it interesting that it registered as Minecraft-like to you when it doesn't have the super blocky look; I didn't perceive it as such).
I've also been wondering whether 'I need the money so then I can pay the basic bills' is reason enough for people to support a Kickstarter, since that's the main angle I'd be going with. I wouldn't intend to be buying, say, people to make various assets, but maybe people expect that??
I think the biggest thing about doing a Kickstarter for me is that it'll hopefully push me out of my shell, force me to do some hard promotion!! for a whole month, and I feel I need to see whether I can even cope with that. Because if I really can't, then I definitely need to start looking into something else. But just thinking about doing all that is leading to a lot of feet-dragging already, bleh...
I think what we did for the Alpha is just using keys and a main branch, I suppose that works just as well since there's no need to do multiple branches!
Any and all lore questions can be answered with "The Aolmna Did It". Why do Sindrels have their flower brains? Why is Carna like this? Why are the Elarna cute? Who caused the Fracture? Who impregnated Mardek's mom? Why did Mardek have a sloppy make-out session with Deugan and Steele while Emeela was recording it? And who the hell are Mardek and Deugan??
While Minecraft is known superficially for its very pixelated and blocky look, a lot of Minecraft clones (and mods!) go for a more visually complex look that nonetheless apes the same cubical-tile based crafting/mining experience. It looks very clear at the 0:25 and 1:18 marks that despite the look, the world is clearly tile-based in a manner similar to Minecraft.
I think most true solo devs do use the reasoning that they need it to cover living expenses, yes. There probably is a general expectation that even solo devs do some outsourcing, or at least collaborative work, but it's not unheard of for everything to be done by one person either.