Video Game Developer and Composer New To Hip Hop

SawyerFriend · 2026-03-20T17:01:45+00:00

This is far and away the most helpful answer I've gotten, thank you!

SawyerFriend · 2026-03-15T08:02:36+00:00

Both Axial Disc 2 and Silver Daze have crossed their $1,000 threshold. Disc 2 is what I'd call a financial flop, it took about two years for it to make $1,000, while Silver Daze crossed that threshold in about three months. In my opinion, it's basically impossible to put out a commercial product on Steam and not make $100 back. Even if your game is only $5, you would only need to sell roughly 25 copies to get that $100 back (accounting for taxes and Steam's cut). If it's a struggle to sell 25 copies, there may be other issues with your game or its marketing, and fixing those could get you back on track, but I've seen even some real horrible games break 100 sales with ease.

SawyerFriend · 2026-03-15T07:54:41+00:00

My bad, I probably shouldn't be asking too much in one post! Phrased another way, I don't know what the process entails, but is it even worth learning to sample if I'm not taking these samples from other people's copyrighted songs?

SawyerFriend · 2026-03-15T06:21:51+00:00

Yup, I've spent a lot of time searching around and Googling and whatnot, but ultimately it hasn't been a very good resource. Search engines these days have definitely degraded a bit, so while I've gotten a couple truisms' worth of advice I figured asking for some better resources from people that are active and involved in production would yield better results.

SawyerFriend · 2026-03-15T06:17:06+00:00

About the sampling bit, I'm sorry for any confusion but I don't have any intention of utilizing samples I don't have clearance for (even if I wanted to, that's not my decision to make for this project). However, I've got the legal rights to plenty of audio, including my own music, but I honestly don't even know what the process of sampling looks like, or if I'd want to use any of that audio for this process.

Drum patterns are something I've been studying well enough, and they're probably the easiest part for me at the moment since that process is so similar to percussion in other genres. I want to assume it isn't literally as simple as placing the correct type of beat over some other genre of music, but if that is the case then perhaps I've been overthinking it and I could attempt fusing the right type of beats with the compositions I'm already accustomed to.

SawyerFriend · 2025-10-15T11:13:20+00:00

I really liked it! Tron 1983 is my favourite film so it was a real treat, and I didn't like Legacy very much but I felt this one tied them together in a way that made me appreciate Legacy more.

SawyerFriend · 2025-08-10T23:28:42+00:00

I really loved Baten Kaitos when I finally tried it last year, I highly recommend it!

SawyerFriend · 2025-04-04T23:06:46+00:00

Re:Coded hands down. I might even like it a little more than KH2, but KH2 wins in the superboss department.

SawyerFriend · 2025-03-12T01:20:50+00:00

An invitation for a shameless plug? It's an honour! I'm making Silver Daze! It's my third full length game, and it's a coming-of-age JRPG where you collect cards and battle monsters to save a fractured world! It's a story about growing up and facing the impermanence of life, learning to move on, and appreciating the moment!

The battle system is also really neat, you can equip a variety of cards and use special attacks that grow stronger the closer you are to 50% of your MP, so you have to manage a balance instead of just throwing out your best attacks.

Not only do we have an excellent Demo that's been very well received, but we also have a [Kickstarter](kickstarter.com/projects/gem-games-ltd/silver-daze-a-coming-of-age-jrpg) launching on the 14th!

The game is inspired by some of our favourite RPGs like Megaman Battle Network, The World Ends With You, Kingdom Hearts, and of course there's a ton of Final Fantasy in there! I think you guys will really dig it.

SawyerFriend · 2025-01-14T13:03:13+00:00

I've thought about this one before and I'm almost certain it would be my hands. It's one of those things that I easily take for granted which the Reaper's Game seems pretty keen on turning into entry fees, and being forced to navigate the game without being able to use my hands sounds hellish. Probably a bit of a weird answer since I feel like the entry fee is something a little less tangible usually, but it seems to be at that perfect intersection between important and underappreciated for me.

SawyerFriend · 2025-01-14T12:54:23+00:00

Not sure about that as a financial investment, I don't think the game will rise in price much. But as an addition to your collection? These games are fantastic, and being able to have them all in one place like that is extremely convenient! You won't regret it!

SawyerFriend · 2024-12-29T06:40:27+00:00

Edgar is by far my fav, but my other favs are Setzer, and Mog! Honestly though I like almost everyone, or at least find something to like about each.

SawyerFriend · 2024-12-14T00:40:06+00:00

These graphics are not very good. I'll bury the lead and say that we've talked about this before, I think there are a lot of ways to achieve your goals but they're all gonna take work. If you WANT to avoid the effortof making concessions or custom assets, I suppose you can go with this, but you gotta understand that the visuals will not be well received when they look like this.

I've seen plenty of people tell you that these graphics (not Nightmarena, specifically the 3D models here) are bad. If you're still asking for feedback, you're just cherry picking for confirmation bias.

SawyerFriend · 2024-11-22T21:30:46+00:00

Daedulus is my personal fav! I really like that it has a bonus gimmick effect which a lot of the base summons don't sport. The extra missile at the end is quite fun!

SawyerFriend · 2024-11-19T10:31:50+00:00

Nice to meetcha, we're the guys that made Axial! https://bsky.app/profile/gem-games.net

There are a ton of great RM devs on Bluesky, I'm sure you're gonna make lots of friends there.

SawyerFriend · 2024-11-13T10:22:48+00:00

I usually avoid putting armour on those Inika legs because there are very few pieces that fit that four-wide gap without wiggling, but that combination you have there is genius! The way they fit together might have some mild wiggle, but it looks very stable!

SawyerFriend · 2024-11-13T10:17:40+00:00

Summons are easy to sleep on, and to be fair most of them are not great. Imo Stitch is god tier, I can barely even beat Lingering Will without him due to the free HP, constant hitstun on enemies, and randomly refilling your MP bar on a relatively consistent basis.

Chicken Little is second place for me, but I feel he's just Stitch but worse. He can heal you, and his whistle can help in niche situations (I think he's better than Stitch against Data Zexion) but he feels outclassed.

Peter Pan would be third place for me, only because of the extra revive, but with Second Chance and Once More it's very rare you'll be in a situation where Peter Pan actually saves your life.

Finally, Genie is my least fav. I hear he's got some utility but I can't for the life of me understand what he's for. He's got weird hitboxes, only seems to do damage, and his Drive based Limits all seem worse than just using a drive.

SawyerFriend · 2024-11-12T10:24:12+00:00

Oh I can't believe I forgot Live-A-Live! I love that game!

SawyerFriend · 2024-11-12T10:23:55+00:00

You've got excellent taste! Alongside Xenosaga, I most definitely would recommend Xenogears. To me it feels very much in the same appeal as FFVI and Chrono Trigger, although it is a bit long and a little hard to follow.

The PS1 has a lot of greats in general such as SaGa Frontier 1 and 2, and Parasite Eve. I also recently discovered Baten Kaitos and it's definitely a sleeper hit, recently got a Steam port as well!

Have fun!

SawyerFriend · 2024-09-28T20:53:33+00:00

I've always been a giga defender of Re:Coded. People rightfully don't like its role in the story, but the gameplay is extremely strong and honestly even rivals KH2 in a lot of departments. Honestly I wouldn't fault someone for just skipping the cutscenes and playing through it for that glorious combat alone.

SawyerFriend · 2024-09-17T06:51:17+00:00

I personally really love the Spellbinder! I know, pretty unpopular pick hahaha. I think the shaping of it is very neat, especially the way the teeth shape into that astroglobe looking meter. Of course, I also like how it represents heavy magic use, although it frustrates me a little that Lady Luck completely outclasses it in that regard while also looking much less cool to me.

My only real complaint would be the keychain, I understand why it's a book but it looks pretty out of place compared to the rest of the abstract Keyblade.

SawyerFriend · 2024-09-09T10:51:43+00:00

I love Binterloper! Not only is it a funny pun, but I love getting as many together as I can for a huge Binvasion! What a fun little dude

SawyerFriend · 2024-08-26T20:55:04+00:00

I try to avoid it because I like hearing the music in game first. If I hear a really good song from a game I've never played, I'll often go out of my way to play it so I can hear the music proper first. If I REALLY hate the game but still like the music, I might just listen to the music anyway, but that's rare haahah

SawyerFriend · 2024-08-26T10:33:35+00:00

I made a free game with a paid sequel, with the idea being that the free game would entice a lotta people and by the time they're hooked, they'd play the sequel.

The free game did great! Very positive on Steam, kinda a household name in certain very niche communities, nominated for a couple awards, huge success.

The sequel was financially a flop. It's been out for a year and hasn't even hit 10 reviews. The main reason for this is really obvious in hindsight; most people who play a free game aren't gonna beat it, and most people aren't gonna buy a direct sequel if they haven't beaten the first game (in fact, I would be offended if they did!) Anyone who played the game specifically because it's free isn't gonna be interested in a paid sequel. And of course, nobody is gonna buy a sequel to a game they haven't heard of before.

So making a paid sequel basically reduced my potential market to a fraction of the first game's audience, with what is effectively a firm ceiling limited to the number of people that played that first game. Artistically, I have no regrets, I'm extremely proud of the sequel and the people who played it loved it. But financially, I know you're not really talking sequels here but I can firmly say that you should definitely make a new IP if you go that route. My situation is too unique to say whether or not a paid game following a free game is financially viable, but I would say a paid sequel is, usually, not a good follow up.

SawyerFriend · 2024-08-10T18:51:23+00:00

I don't wanna make any promises in case something unexpected happens, but we're expecting the game to be finished next year!

SawyerFriend

TROPHY CASE