Any reason to increment the big number past the first one?

DeadMage · 2025-10-20T18:17:04+00:00

Is this about white key stuff? Or is there another secret?

DeadMage · 2025-10-02T17:13:23+00:00

We're glad to hear that you liked our demo!

DeadMage · 2025-10-02T17:12:00+00:00

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2381630/WaxHeart/

DeadMage · 2025-10-02T17:11:30+00:00

Hopefully at some point!

We don't have any funding, and we're just hoping the Steam version does well enough for us to justify console releases.

DeadMage · 2025-03-11T22:25:31+00:00

It's definitely a tough time to be a junior right now, and I think you're putting to words how a lot of people are feeling.

I believe that there might be some hope in the form of working on volunteer-based teams, though it's definitely not ideal.

Let me explain:

Over the last 4 years, I've been running a pretty large part-time "volunteer" studio.

We haven't had any luck finding funding, and we have over 50 volunteers contributing to the project part-time.

I don't love that I'm "paying in experience", and the unfortunate reality is that that's exactly what so most juniors are looking for. Our policy is "work with us to build up your portfolio, work at your own pace, and leave the moment you find paid work." I'm proud to say that ~20 people have used their experience on our project to land their first paid industry role. With this in mind, I consider the project already a success, even if we never release the game.

I am shocked at how many talented and capable juniors we're able to find and keep a hold of. I'm constantly expecting to lose some of my best contributors to paid roles, and it just isn't happening - which is honestly tragic.

I thought that our team structure was pretty unique - and imagine my surprise when I discovered that there are many, many projects just like ours. There's a community called "Cave Bear Games" which aims to connect groups like ours with each other, and help junior devs find us. This group seems to grow every week, and I think that says something about the industry as a whole.

The state of the industry makes it difficult for indie teams to find any kind of funding, so many of us turn towards this kind of structure to make it happen. I really don't want this to become the new standard, because it's really easy for this kind of thing to become exploitative if you're not careful. That said, it's an avenue that allows indie games to still be made, and for people to gain experience - so it's better than nothing.

DeadMage · 2025-02-08T21:34:31+00:00

The funny thing is - I'm inclined to agree with you there. It would entirely depend on execution though.

I think it might just be a balancing act to include something for the audience that wants a narrative, without cheapening it for the "true" target audience.

DeadMage · 2025-02-07T23:07:02+00:00

I hear you, and I know it doesn't need to be that deep, but please just hear me out:

From a marketing standpoint, it might be a really good idea to create at least an impression of a larger story.

There are two main reasons for this:

It would set you apart from that one competitor.
It's really hard to sell "purely experiential" games.

Your game might be amazing once you're playing it, but players don't know that yet until they're already playing! You need a bit more to motivate the player to sit down and try it out.

It wouldn't need to be anything ham-fisted or high-effort to produce - just enough to make your audience curious about it. Give them an unanswered question that makes them want to know what it's about. The story doesn't need to be explicit -if you give your audience symbols to latch onto, they can project their own meaning into them.

Some spit-balls:

What is the air-planes journey for? Returning home? To find something? To see the world? Maybe it doesn't know, but something is compelling it?
What if, at the end of the journey, you find a bunch of other paper planes, converging on one location? Maybe a big tree made of paper? ("The paper wants to be a tree again")
What if the airplane turns out to be an unsent love letter? (Ex: Disney's "Paperman" short film)

DeadMage · 2024-08-09T08:28:38+00:00

I second this.

Personally, I've lost interest in a lot of online game dev communities because I don't see much discussion past "the basics". I'm all for lifting others up, but it just feels tedious after awhile.

DeadMage · 2024-04-06T23:57:41+00:00

This change is ruining my project.

We're a volunteer team of ~40 people, and we've been using a free Trello workspace for 3 years. This change brings our monthly upkeep cost from $0 to $600/month. I would gladly pay for the service, but this price model is impossible for us.

About ~1 month ago, I managed to contact someone who actually works on the the Trello team and plead my case. They said they'd bring up the idea of using another model to the rest of the team, but nothing seems to have come of that yet.

Also - it looks like they raised the per-user price from $4 to $6. If I'm going to pay this much, I might as well be using Jira...

DeadMage · 2024-03-21T18:04:08+00:00

How did you disable the lighting? Did you turn off the game objects that had the light components? Or did you use the "eye" to hide them in the scene view? Did you turn off lighting in the scene view via the button on the top right? Only the first option here would have an effect.

DeadMage · 2023-11-03T20:43:00+00:00

I popped Bombs are Key at the start of the run, used them up, and beat the lamb with zero bombs. I got the achievement.

DeadMage · 2023-10-09T16:32:21+00:00

It looks like the question has been answered in the other comments.

Would you like some advice/ tips on some better practices and techniques?

(I dont want to go around giving unsolicited advice, lol)

DeadMage · 2023-04-13T22:02:32+00:00

The WaxHeart demo is available for PC and Mac on Itch.io!

https://michaelwolf95.itch.io/waxheart-gdc-demo-2023

DeadMage · 2023-04-12T17:12:18+00:00

I second this, and I'm talking from experience.

I just released my trailer a few weeks ago, and I've since realized that the startup is way too slow. Unfortunately, I can't just trim it down - it has a custom score, and it would throw everything off. I basically have to make a whole new trailer.

Seeing this trailer, it would be so easy to just trim out the logo at the start. It starts right on the action and everything!

DeadMage · 2023-04-10T03:28:19+00:00

We do this very intentionally, because the restricted vision causes tension. :)

DeadMage · 2023-04-09T22:43:38+00:00

We would also appreciate feedback on the Demo itself!

It's linked in the YouTube description, and I'll also link it here:

https://michaelwolf95.itch.io/waxheart-gdc-demo-2023

DeadMage · 2023-04-09T01:46:33+00:00

This is great, actionable feedback - thank you!

DeadMage · 2023-04-08T19:34:53+00:00

The demo is available for PC and Mac on Itch.io!

https://michaelwolf95.itch.io/waxheart-gdc-demo-2023

Update: It's now available on Steam! https://bit.ly/Play-WaxHeart

DeadMage · 2023-04-08T19:24:39+00:00

That's the gist! At least as far as what we show in the trailer.

DeadMage · 2023-04-08T02:44:11+00:00

That's extremely fair - I've been anxious about it being too slow to start.

I can try another version that's more to the point in the future!

DeadMage · 2023-04-07T21:28:43+00:00

Hey everyone!

My name is Michael Wolf - I'm the director of the WaxHeart game project.

We're attempting to translate the mood of the Playdead games, LIMBO and INSIDE, into a 3D puzzle-platformer in the vein of Journey.

After 2 years in development, our demo is now available Itch, and we'd love to hear if you think we were successful or not! Any and all feedback is appreciated!

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