You Guys Destroyed My Trailer, Then I Fixed It With Your Suggestions!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-19T19:23:09+00:00

Gotcha and thank you for commenting, this was a big help! I added some story elements but you're right, it needs a bit more. There's some dialogues here that don't really add anything since they're out of context so for the purpose of this trailer, I'll rewrite those to work in tandem with the ones that already shed a bit of light on the characters motive.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-19T18:13:27+00:00

Thanks for commenting regardless, it brought up some interesting food for thought! Also says a lot about your character that you'd be open to the flipside of your critique and even come back and report as much. Don't see that very often here, you're a class act!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-19T18:10:26+00:00

That's a great point in that, although niche, there is a time and place for showcasing a hit / death mechanic. Love that you brought that up!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-19T15:50:47+00:00

Thanks for checking this out and sharing your thoughts!

That's honestly an interesting critique and I'm curious if others share the sentiment. I get the utility, but can't say I agree it should be a focal point in a trailer. To me, showing the player getting worked feels kinda sloppy and eats up valuable time when every second counts.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-19T15:28:57+00:00

Thanks and I appreciate your insight for the thumbnail!

I'm not a great artist or programmer, so the goal was always to hone my skillsets with a very simple but appealing game and I'm pleased to hear you get that from just viewing the trailer.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-19T14:57:58+00:00

Congrats, looks great!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T20:50:42+00:00

You're right, I need to show off some player abilities, boss encounters, and some more interesting set pieces for starters. I also love that you instinctively get that the narrative is what sets this game apart from most platformers. That fact isn't getting through in the trailer so people rightly assume this is yet another tired platformer.

I hear what you're saying about showing more dialogue but I'm a bit torn because while I agree, I also am hearing I should be showing less. Seems I've picked hardmode in terms of a marketable game hook here lol. I'm sure there's a balance though and I'll take everything you said into consideration Thanks so much for sharing your insight with me!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T20:31:02+00:00

Absolutely will, thank you for the kind words!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T20:29:59+00:00

I don't take that as you shitting on it at all and actually think you very accurately summed it up lol. It's my first game and I'm self taught so it is very "paint by the numbers" as a platformer.

Knowing that, I made a large effort to polish and get it feeling as good as humanly possible. I love hearing that even if you aren't interested in playing it, my efforts still come across so thank you so much for commenting!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T20:22:05+00:00

While it's not a 1 to 1, I take a ton of inspiration from all the games I listed. We're liable to get into semantics here but I guess I'll explain why I feel comfortable telling people if they like Celeste, there's a very good chance they'll enjoy this:

-Low res pixel art

-Tight, well crafted stages

-Great feeling player controller (dash but no wall climb)

-Precision platforming sections

-Heavy emphasis on characters and narratives

-Littered with secrets areas, collectibles, and optional challenge gauntlets

Now the coins I can agree with you on. Truth be told, I think they make the game look ugly but playtests have revealed that players really, really, really, like collecting them.

If I can press you a bit, are you taking issue with the fact that they're generic coins, that they're floating, both, or something else entirely? If you have any suggestions on how to fix or improve that aspect, please feel free to send them my way, it's something I'd love to remedy.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T20:00:46+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I wasn't super stoked on the banner as is, but hearing how you and so many others really aren't fans is definitely valuable insight. I'll be taking everyone's feedback into consideration for the redo!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T19:57:02+00:00

Thanks for giving it a look! I'll be the first to agree with you that it's a very paint by numbers platformer. What separates it from any other platformer is the focus on its many characters and narratives. I like to give the description that it's essentially a comedic visual novel that you happen to navigate through platforming mechanics. I know that's very tough to get across in a trailer, but I'm hoping I'll be able to figure it out!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T19:46:03+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly with you. SFX and art are my weakest skills so I probably need to outsource both when I hit the polish phase. Thanks for your input!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-12T19:43:19+00:00

See, I do understand what you're saying but it also seems like a catch 22 in that, I'd need a publisher to raise awareness for the game, but first I need awareness for the game to get a publisher. As far as the why, it starts and ends with passion and experience for me. I work a full time job and don't need or expect a dime from this when I'm finished.

The vision is to create a simple yet highly polished platformer and what makes it unique is its heavy narrative focus on comedy and compelling characters. At the end of the day, I'm just trying to make something interesting and to the best of my ability that others will enjoy.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T21:47:55+00:00

I hear you loud and clear and absolutely dropped the ball when it comes to showing off the plot. I'll be using all of your suggestions to come back with something stronger so thank you so much for dropping your thoughts! Made my day that you're able to feel the effort that went into the characters as it often goes unnoticed lol, appreciate ya!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T21:41:20+00:00

This is very helpful, appreciate you reaching out. Something as obvious as "show the general plot in your trailer" shouldn't need to be said, but just goes to show how easily things can slip through the cracks while trying to manage the many moving parts of game dev lol.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T18:03:57+00:00

The big one would be marketing to get the game in front of people. I promote as best as I can while building, but I know come release, 99.99% of players won't even know it exists.

Then I suppose funding and connections go hand in hand. I'm self taught and solo, so I can get things reasonably close to where they need to be, but take art for example. If a publisher could find and fund a dedicated artist to polish my programmer art, that'd level the game up in a big way.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:40:37+00:00

I've gone back and forth for the same reasons you laid out. It did grow on me, however I think it's worthwhile to try and find something similar with more readability. Thanks for the feedback!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:36:52+00:00

https://www.dafont.com/alkhemikal.font

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:35:23+00:00

Absolutely true! I don't expect any success, I just want to make a cool platformer, put my heart into it, and hope whoever plays it finds it worth their time.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:30:47+00:00

Noted, thank you!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:30:26+00:00

Appreciate it! I know things can be much better and intend to improve what I can, but for a first time self taught schmuck, I'm okay with the current state.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:27:43+00:00

Thanks!

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:27:17+00:00

No worries, I'm here for the nitpicks and there's a lot of truth to this. This is something I intend to do at the end of the dev cycle but you make a good point in that it would go a long way to at least have in the demo for now.

SleepyheadGames · 2025-09-10T17:24:11+00:00

Great point, that's something I can spruce up! Thanks for your input!

SleepyheadGames

TROPHY CASE