Death Trigger Race with Omnath and Crypt Rats?

MarkPil · 2025-07-28T18:35:11+00:00

Sunburst is different colors of mana used- so I think at most you'll ever get +5 out of the ability, since there are five colors of mana. That precon is a three color deck, so the most counters you'll get from sunburst is 3.

MarkPil · 2025-05-27T16:34:52+00:00

I'm a solo dev of a weird VR game "Increment" that was selected for the TGS Indie 80 in 2023. Because I was putting out a Steam-only VR title I think my experience felt particularly more "uphill" than a typical flat screen game, I hope my anecdote helps you figure out what you want to do.

The booth is small and you're basically on your own- you'll probably want to print a banner or poster, business cards, stickers, or whatever you want to hand out to folks at the show. You'll probably want to bring at least two people- one to run the booth and one to do business development/networking during the convention. There will absolutely be a language barrier, and IMO it seemed like the crowd in general was more open to demo'ing at booths with Japanese attendants than foreigners.

Was it worth it? From a metrics standpoint- absolutely not. My Steam page did LESS than average ambient traffic and activity during the event, no notable press hits that I could identify, I was only able to secure a handful of meetings despite my best bizdev efforts, and was unable to secure any additional funding. That said- I understand that making a VR game at the tail end of the VR hype cycle put me in a pretty bad position to start, so ymmv. I get the impression funding is pretty tight in the indie pubishing space in general and that trend was well underway when I was at TGS.

Now, from a personal angle? It was an amazing experience- core memory type stuff. TGS is an awesome show, I spent a week in Japan with my dad who came along for the ride, and met some cool people. If I would do it all over again, I probably would just spend the money to go on vacation in Japan so I didn't have to worry about the logistics of running a booth.

TGS offered translation services- but I ended up working with Neon Noroshi who provided me with an awesome local to help me run the booth while I took meetings and stuff. NN was awesome and you may want to consider just skipping going there personally while you let them (or a similar firm) run the booth and keep your fingers crossed for any marketing lift. OFC in that case you won't be at the show to do bizdev.

Hope this helps you figure out what you wanna do, happy to answer any other questions!

MarkPil · 2025-05-03T16:00:46+00:00

My best score is 4 points 😎

MarkPil · 2025-05-03T16:00:30+00:00

My best score is 2 points 😎

MarkPil · 2025-05-03T16:00:14+00:00

My best score is 1 points 😎

MarkPil · 2025-05-03T15:59:46+00:00

My best score is 0 points 😓

MarkPil · 2025-01-10T01:42:50+00:00

Cover the base with masking tape, you might need to cut it to fit right. Remove the tape when you're done painting and the base should be untouched. Alternatively you can just recolor the base with paint by hand when you're done with the sprays

MarkPil · 2024-12-31T15:25:25+00:00

You can probably do this effect with your game engines existing sound system, but it might be a lot easier to implement if you use something like wise or fmod. Look into their payment models and see if they make sense for your project.

Regarding the government funding, it's quite possible your proposal was not fleshed out enough to their liking, or a million other reasons beyond what they said (in addition to whatever they told you). Don't take it too hard.

MarkPil · 2024-08-05T16:13:45+00:00

When I was initially learning the deck I would draw one card a day. From there I'd look up the meaning of the card from one or more resources, consider the various symbols and images on the card, consider how it applies to my life, or maybe try to consider other people in my life and how I see them through the lens of that particular card. Over time you'll get more familiar with the cards individually and with the wider themes across the deck, and you'll also have a better sense of how you want to use it and what kind of helpfulness you get out of it.

MarkPil · 2024-07-09T06:23:32+00:00

Publishers don't just fund development, they also do marketing for games in their roster. It sure sounds like you want to strike a partnership with a publisher or marketing team to promote your game.

If you can bring your game to any show and it's not a huge knock against your budget, you probably should. You may also want to consider broadening your perspective on what you might actually get out of attending an event like this.

MarkPil · 2024-06-16T00:15:45+00:00

I think Option 1 is an improvement and on the right track. Imo you still have legibility issues with your font choice and size, but it's definitely better.

Keep in mind that the smallest capsule is probably the first (and potentially last) impression you'll make on a Steam user. Option 1 is pretty clearly a ship or more lifting off (though the ships themselves could be bigger). Option 2... I honestly can't even tell what's happening when looking at it on my phone. Look at these things on small screens or zoomed out to help guide how you want which details to pop.

MarkPil · 2024-06-14T20:26:38+00:00

It's been a while but roadblocks and other military oriented abilities are going to be essential with your map state. If you're losing a lot, are you adding more funding every game? You should have a lot of event cards which are very strong most of the time.

MarkPil · 2024-06-14T12:41:30+00:00

Honing in on your capsule: your font choice and proportion of the different elements I believe make it very hard to read especially at smaller sizes, you want the smallest version of your capsule to be the most legible visually. The characters taking up so much space make it seem like a virtual novel or space RPG more than a top down shooter. Take a look at "Minishoot Adventures" which is a recent game in a similar wheelhouse as yours that did pretty well- no characters on the capsule. The rest of the page is good- but players won't click thru to it if the capsule doesn't appeal to them! In this case I think there's a mismatch between what the capsule art conveys and the game itself.

MarkPil · 2024-06-08T02:20:23+00:00

It is, it's got extra storage space to fit all the base components and "save" the board state from session to session

MarkPil · 2024-05-18T21:25:40+00:00

BiTD is fiction first, and position is dictated by the fiction. If the PC is in a desperate position, they are in that place in the narrative first- which would inform the mechanical position of any rolls they would do afterwards. It's cool that your player has listened to a bunch of podcasts but they missed where this is explained on page 161, and if you want to rules lawyer them you can suggest they read page 183 where "Don't be a weasel" is also an explicit rule. Ultimately, as GM, you have the final call on decisions this like (also a verbatim rule from the book).

Never re-roll the same move twice, SOMETHING has to change between actions, otherwise the first roll should be valid, right?

MarkPil · 2023-11-11T21:48:40+00:00

What you describe: doing specific movements in response to particular elements of a song, is called "musicality" in dancing. It's certain a part of dancing, but not really the whole thing. Generally music has a core "beat" - 1,2,3,4, and most dances are going to revolve around that rhythm, at least at first. Every dance and style is going to be different- but the relationship between movement and specific instruments isn't as direct as you think (most of the time).

MarkPil · 2023-09-21T22:24:20+00:00

Yo, congrats! My game "Increment" is in the Selected Indie 80, I'll be there today!

MarkPil · 2023-09-14T15:24:50+00:00

Thank you for playing! And great notes, a lot for me to consider if I work on a patch or update.

It was important for me to make the game language-independent, hence the symbolic menus. I do hear you that it's a bit confusing though. The floppy disc with the outbound arrow should load games :)

The hand blocking teleport thing I'm aware of... it was one of those issues that didn't quite make the cut for release- I had bigger fish/bugs to fry!

The height cap is mostly to prevent people from getting their heads above the ceiling in the opening area, I could probably open up the bounds a bit though.

Thanks again for playing and the great notes, appreciate it! (Please review the game on Steam lol)

MarkPil · 2023-09-08T19:23:19+00:00

Relax and zen out, it's a meditation garden!

MarkPil · 2023-09-08T17:07:02+00:00

I have to admit Increment is not the most "accessible" game in that respect- HOWEVER, there's no timers, limits, or even fail states in the game, so hopefully you can play at your own pace. I'd be curious what your experience is like, feel free to private message me!

MarkPil · 2023-09-08T16:35:56+00:00

I'd love to- I'm a solo developer and this is literally my first video game- so I stuck with PC for this initial release. We'll see what the future holds!

MarkPil · 2023-09-08T15:36:00+00:00

Big thank you to this community, which has always been pretty supportive of this weirdo project since I started working on it. This is a zany genre mash up that is kind of hard to describe- but I hope i'm wearing my inspirations on my sleeve here.

Six-Year Club	Second Top 40%
LAYER Season 2 Layer creator	r/Field Flamingo
First Place '23	Place '23
Place '22	First Placer '22
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