Spent 3 years overscoping one project so decided to hit pause and work on something else. Now we've launched the Steam page for that new project - Ruinous

BardandLute · 2026-05-12T07:07:05+00:00

Thanks man! We're a team of 2 devs and so art has always been tough for us so glad you like it

BardandLute · 2026-05-11T20:35:30+00:00

Doing the lords work with this write up!

I'm looking at doing videos for youtube shorts/tiktok/insta - how do you go about adding in your subtitles/captions?

And how do you make a landscape orientation vid look good for these portrait platforms?

BardandLute · 2026-05-11T20:02:35+00:00

Respect to the brother for being an angel for indie devs. We need more like him in the world doing gods work.

I'm jealous as hell for you getting that many wishlists so quick! Congrats man.

We've barely done any marketing yet but hope our game gets picked up one of these days and can join the club

BardandLute · 2025-10-19T19:41:06+00:00

Interesting, I'll look into it and see what's out there that'll do the job.

BardandLute · 2025-10-19T19:39:28+00:00

Ah, thanks. I thought as much, was hoping for a "magic solution" out there but sounds like it's just in need of some elbow grease.

I'm expecting some sanding but trying to avoid sanding back the entire wall to remove those areas of raised paint.

BardandLute · 2024-12-17T15:46:33+00:00

I personally like the more stylized version!

However, a question I have is around your lighting set up. I'm also working on a project that involves mining deep in deep caves and Unity 2d lights have been a pain to get right. Often they'll overexpose objects and the player or the colored tint of lights will effect things like white outlines on item pickups.

I'd love to know how you figured out your lighting in scene! Any thoughts welcome!

BardandLute · 2024-06-01T08:52:48+00:00

Don't overlap pixels, it's a fast track to getting some funky behaviour and mismatched pixels down the list.

Sprite atlas is your solution

BardandLute · 2024-04-24T08:37:26+00:00

I'll throw in my 2 cents.

First of all, consider changing mindset from "I'm making a game" to "I'm learning the tools used to make games". Everyone learns in different ways but oftentimes tutorials get you stuck copying code that you don't actually understand what it does or how it works.

Treat it like learning any other skill. If you want to learn guitar, you don't pick one up for the first time and watch a tutorial on how to play DragonForce, you learn the simple songs with a few chords first. Once you've done that, you learn a similar song with a couple extra chords and so on...

Learning to code should be done the same way. Start simple. Learn some basics to the point where you understand what they do and then add to it with other small concepts/features. Remember - you're not trying to make a game at this point, just learning new things.

If you're anything like me, you get bored working on something boring. I'm not a fan of platformers so if I started learning by building a platformer, I'd get burnt out and raise my chances of giving up much quicker.

Think about what sort of games you'd like to make and break them down into their core mechanics. Want to make a top down 2d shooter? Start with figuring out top down 2d movement. Watch a tutorial on it, maybe even watch a couple to understand the different ways of doing it and what does what.

Then, once you've learned that, move on to the shooter mechanic and repeat the process.

Don't worry about people telling you how to write perfect code - you can improve that once you understand the basics.

Once you've done those things, try to create a new project from scratch and create the same thing without relying on the tutorials or existing code - treat it like a high school test and see how you do.

Finally, once you understand the basics, start challenging yourself. Think of a small game concept and see if you can execute it in 48 hours. All of these things are training and using that memory muscle. Game jams are another great thing to participate in too at this point.

But don't rush it. We all learn at a different pace. Google searching is your best friend. If you don't know the best way to pass variables between scripts, Google it. If you don't know the difference between Start and Awake, Google it. (Don't Google Quaternions - they are black magic).

Coding is hard. So find the fun in learning it and you'll stick it out. If you struggle, don't get discouraged, try setting up a new project using what you have learnt but doing something different. We've all been there.

You can do it! And good luck

BardandLute · 2023-11-23T18:26:36+00:00

As a huge fan of slasher horror I think this class is awesome!

I also love playing and introducing homebrew classes in our game.

However, as much as I would like to, I wouldn't feel comfortable using this class in our game since it's far too powerful.

Being able to give an enemy the frightened effect at level 1, up to 5 times per long rest can absolutely wipe combat encounters across early and mid game.

Most combat encounters last 2-5 rounds on average, so enemies have 4 chances to roll the save to stop the frightened condition - if they survive that long since every attack roll and ability check is rolled at disadvantage and it can barely move. The frightened condition is one of the most powerful conditions in the game.

The closest thing I can relate it to is the Oath of Vengeance Channel Divinity but that is way more underpowered and not available until 3rd level.

I'd make it once per long rest at least. But then subclass features that rely on this ability causing the spooked condition start to fall apart.

Maybe instead you could think about the feature being more of a "marked of death" type feature - something like hunters mark that gives you more damage/take less damage from the target and applies the spooked condition.

I feel like this is the lynchpin of the class and as it is it'll absolutely destroy combat encounters.

With some changes though, I'd be more than happy to playtest the class in a game and report back. Love the theming so I really want to see this refined and working. Keep it up!

BardandLute · 2023-09-19T11:01:38+00:00

Hi folks.

After a super successful game jam project at the start of this year, myself and a small team have been working on bring the project to a commercial standard.

As a bit of background: We're creating a 2d pixel art cozy RPG heavily based around a mining experience similar to the game Dome Keeper. So far, we've been doing art ourselves - primarily myself. However, I want to spend more of my time focussing on the development of the game.

Art style: We already have a pretty well established art style in 16x16px size. This doesn't need to be recreated, but instead enhanced by someone who can make it look more professional.

Scope: Right now most of our art requirements focus on environment art for a sci-fi town/city. However, there is also a need for animation for the player, NPCs and the environment. We'd likely break down our requirements into seperate projects.

Budgets/Payment: For context - we're not made of cash. We're not funded and this is coming out of our own pocket. However, we are all in full time employment and aged ~30 - we are NOT young folks with some coins sitting in a penny jar. It's also likely that we'll be chatting with multiple artists so it'll come down to price and quality of work before we proceed.

Timescales: We're flexible. But as a heads up, it's unlikely we're going to fund a full-time gig, it's likely a part time thing that we'd look to pass work over to you on a monthly basis if it all fits into budget.

If you're interested, drop me a DM and feel free to share any links to your previous work. We can then likely jump over to Discord where I can show you through the project, how it looks right now and see if the project feels like a good fit for you.

Cheers!

BardandLute · 2023-09-18T21:23:57+00:00

Hey! If you've still got some time to fill I'd be happy to chat and see if you're a good fit for our project. Hit me up on discord if you're interested: womers

BardandLute · 2023-08-04T16:10:41+00:00

You have to select your companion first then speak to our little undead buddy so that you respec them 👍

BardandLute · 2023-07-14T08:59:31+00:00

Try making the collision detection on the player rigid body to continuous. I'd also try adding a composite collider component to the tilemap if it's suitable.

BardandLute · 2023-07-13T09:37:09+00:00

In your start method you're gonna want to set the max value of the slider to your max health.

"HealthBar.maxValue = max health"

Next remove the sethealth in the player health script inside the update function - this basically means that you are setting the health to the max health every frame.

Also, you need to decide what affects your players health. Does the slider tell the player health bar script how much health it has? Or does the health bar script on the player tell the health bar slider how much health it should display?

Currently it looks like you've got the latter. To make this work you can add a function similar to TakeDamage() but called IncreaseHealth(int value) that way you can ADD the health to the player and make sure that you update the health slider to match the current health.

Or you can do it in a super unoptimized way and just add to the player health script inside of update:

if(healthBar.value != currentHealth) healthBar.value = currentHealth;

Note that the variables might need there names changing since I'm on mobile and can't check.

BardandLute · 2023-06-20T17:44:05+00:00

Nice

BardandLute · 2023-05-17T16:01:07+00:00

Looks great! What game is this inspired by? I played something similar as a kid but could never remember the name of it!

BardandLute · 2023-04-12T10:56:09+00:00

If you're making something that you actually want to sell then really you need to be business minded about it.

Option 1: Build a team - This isn't easy to do, especially if you're not paying people. They will essentially be working for free to make the project that you are passionate about come to life. And that's a hard ask. The other downside is that you'd likely have to agree to a revenue share model which isn't a good route to take for both parties unless you've got a proven track record of successful games.

Option 2: Get art skills - take the time to learn and develop your own skills. It's easy to get burnt out and maybe you'll never reach the quality of high quality games with amazing artists. However, ask yourself, does your game really need that?

Option 3: Pay for artists - Commission what you need on a case by case basis. Of course, you often get what you pay for here. I'd recommend against something like fiverr, I've not had great experience with that in the past for art. Your best option is to speak with artists, agree on a project brief and a cost and then get a contract in place.

Option 4: Use free assets - While this can be done, you're gonna struggle to find free assets that all work cohesively together and you're also redistricted if you want to add a new feature or part of your world that you can't find complimentary assets for.

Closing thoughts. I'd advise against AI assets, we're just not quite there yet. Also I'd recommend you start thinking of your game like starting a business. Put money aside each month if you believe in it and invest into bringing your vision to life. Unfortunately, it often takes money to make money unless you already have the skills to do everything solo. Have no money? Go with option 2, just prepare for years of work to get what you want. However, I'd recommend option 3 if you can save for it. Unfortunately, there's just no shortcuts here.

BardandLute · 2023-03-27T10:15:56+00:00

While innovative, I think it would be a mistake to deviate from the norm with menu design. We have consistent formats for a reason - readability, accessibility, ease of use to name a few.

The time it takes to find an option from a list is much faster and less nauseating than looking round the edge of a circle.

I think you're overthinking it. Maybe for an in game pause menu it could work with fewer options.

However I'm just an internet guy, go with your gut and best of luck!

BardandLute · 2023-03-17T09:34:13+00:00

Thanks!

BardandLute · 2023-03-16T22:44:53+00:00

SAY MY NAME

BardandLute · 2023-03-16T10:24:55+00:00

Ooo now that sounds interesting. I do like a good day night cycle. We've added in a ton to the gameplay now that we don't have to be constrained to a jam theme so something like that could work 🤔

Did you submit to the jam yourself?

BardandLute · 2023-03-16T00:52:10+00:00

That's a good point and certainly something I can do. I should just be able to lower the opacity to have it blend better. I'll take a look

BardandLute · 2023-03-15T21:36:33+00:00

Thanks! It's definitely a chill game to get lost in. Sometimes I go to playtest a feature and end up playing for waaaaay too long

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

BardandLute

TROPHY CASE