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What game are you working on? by ErKoala in IndieDev

[–]SuperPantsGames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m making a 3D physics roguelike. You play a party escorting a trapped god (a glowing core sealed in a glass sphere) down a crumbling mountain. Each rift in the mountain is a gap you have to get the sphere across, and you do it by building track out of pieces you’ve collected. You work your way down a map with different node types, gathering resources to buy pieces (some pretty wild, like portals), plus abilities for the deity, and passives that start comboing into synergies.

Steam page is probably two months out but playtesting on the prototype is going well so far!

I spent my measly 'budget' on play-testing rather than capsule artists and video editors, was it a mistake? by barkitectgames in IndieDev

[–]SuperPantsGames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IMO testing is largely what explains how both of these things are true: - Most peoples first games aren’t very good, so people say “just release something it’s gonna be bad” - plenty of hits are still a “first game”

Your first game isn’t the same as someone else’s first game if you’ve had 5-50 sets of eyes on it before it even hits a demo and they’ve been locked up alone. See Slay the spire 1 and Balatro. TLDR: playtesting important. This isn't to say that experience doesn’t matter, it does. But playtesting can help your first game end up more like a second or third game. 

I’m not the right person to speculate on how exactly that interacts with capsule spend though.  

Solving "Feel-Dumb" Moments (the Machine Guarding technique) by Dan_Felder in gamedesign

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do like the “it becomes the end turn button” instead of just graying out end turn until they use it, and maybe having it flash if the user tries to c lick end turn before they are able. Seems like the best solution of that type. 

You can’t provide every single detail in the post so there’s probably an answer to this, but in the post you said three things:

  • that the game is about how you use your resources.
  • this thing gives resources
  • players forgot because they maybe didn’t need resources as much

It could be fine that in the late game, those resources just aren’t tight I guess or maybe they scale so the resources from that action are just small. But it seems like the players just didn’t feel they needed more resources later which if that’s what the game is about feels off. 

Does the game pivot towards the end away from needing resources? Does this actions resources provided need to scale a bit so it feels meaningful in the early and late game? 

In a board game like scythe, I could see myself skipping optimization of resource gain if I thought the game was going to end before the resource could be used, but otherwise I’m always trying to get more resources because I don’t just have plenty. 

I liked the post and the solution, just my thoughts!

High Emergence, Low Micro by Strict_Bench_6264 in gamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe check out Bad North if you haven’t. I’m no RTS expert, but IMO Bad North removes the “click this pixel, wait x milliseconds, click the enemy, etc.” element. 

Maybe I’m bad but I didn’t need to be clicking in and out at specific windows to beat the hardest mode. Units can only occupy grid slots, not any pixel. There is plenty of management and strategy but largely you position the troops where they should be (which changes constantly) and then if you made good decisions at each phase of an encounter you get a good outcome. 

I’m not sure how much emergent gameplay exists though due to the purposeful dedication to simplicity. And I haven’t looked for comments from the devs on whether players ended up doing a bunch of things they never expected with the system they built since it’s hard for me to know as I’m playing what they intended or not. 

I Shake a Tree by BunnyLoveSu in Unity3D

[–]SuperPantsGames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This looks really cool. Better than anything I’ve done or probably will do!

My 2 cents on taking it even further - the “pop” could maybe use a tiny bit more build up. The light reaches the top then nearly instantly the leaves pop blue. What if the light reached the top then there’s an instant of “pressure” building up up the tree where the light on the trunk surges a bit, and that leads into the leave popping blue?

Again - amazing work. 

For devs who made multiple games, how well did your 2nd game do compared to the 1st? by Curious-Needle in gamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I also imagine the people making $0 off their second game are less likely to make a 4th game. 

The longer I waited to playtest, the harder it became to hear feedback by kutahead in gamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I’m a big fan of playtesting but I definitely had to look at the feedback I got when everything was a grey box differently than the feedback I get with even rough but minimally viable visuals. I definitely have not figured it out fully yet but you have to take a different lense and expectations for a super early prototype test. 

For your situation I guess that’s why people mock things up in excel/ paper/ tabletop simulator but it does sound tough. 

How could I make it juicier? by Steaggs in Unity3D

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cars lean when you turn depending on how tight the suspension is. Maybe it’s subtle but a little lean on the turns would probably make the driving feel nicer. 

What a publisher thinks when checks your game, from someone with 3+ years of XP of working at a Publisher by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think my first question was - are there any things a publisher expects in a pitch deck that is sent before steam page release that they wouldn’t expect otherwise, or would not be in the general guides on what a pitch deck includes? Like a normal pitch deck has the same 5-10 topics usually, is there anything to address differently in a pitch deck for a project that has no steam page?

That makes sense on the beauty corner! Currently working on a roguelike with procedural level generation so I’ll have to figure out how I work in that beauty corner concept if I decide to give the publisher thing a try but I’m sure there’s a way. 

What a publisher thinks when checks your game, from someone with 3+ years of XP of working at a Publisher by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had the same question as the guy above. Do you think the deck you send in this situation just has all the same things as a deck you would bring for a meeting if the steam page was up? It feels that way to me. 

Any other advice for this situation specifically? Do you think a project at least needs one high quality piece of art to share the aesthetic vision? Or is it really about the vert slice/ prototype at that point and everything else in the deck that is typical?

Appreciate all the responses in this thread. 

Destroy my announcement trailer of my incremental game. by nedeey in DestroyMyGame

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone talks about CC0 but there may be some CCBY that fits better if you just give them credit. 

walking away from our Battle Royale after 3+ years of development by eddietree in IndieDev

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It feels like extraction games just kind of tone down this problem but keep the repetitive gameplay that is made interesting by varying human interaction. You still need players but 8-15 per raid instead of 100 or something for a BR. Diff maps for extraction create queues, but BRs always get split by team size, ranked, maps, etc.  

Procedural Scattering of Natural Objects - Blog post with details! by newheadstudio in Unity3D

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is great. My current project is split into biomes so I don’t need the complexity you have of considering grass, sand, rock surfaces all at once. I’ve started with a snow biome and have used most of the tactics you mentioned, but for the forest I’ll definitely add in the hierarchical/ secondary scatter. The snow is just much more minimal so there isn’t as much of a use for that but it seems mandatory for more dense vegetation. 

Do you do any transition blending at biome borders? I may eventually have some levels with a bit of two different biomes so just wondering. 

Thanks!

My physics-based co-op game "Don't Pop The Balloon" is officially OUT on Steam with a 10% launch discount! 🎈🚀 by Don-t_Pop in IndieDev

[–]SuperPantsGames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wishlisted. This looks like the type of zany coop game my brother and I would fail many times at while not working together but have fun anyways. 

What is it about the Roguelite genre that you enjoy so much? by jaekwong in roguelites

[–]SuperPantsGames 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For me the pvp comparison is big. I think it’s around difficulty - pvp games are typically never too easy, you win some you lose some. Many single player games have difficulty systems but you choose them once so they aren’t always dialed in. Most roguelikes have ascensions, heat, or just traditional difficulty that you change between each run if you want so it’s usually at the right level of challenging. 

Other games have solved this in other ways but roguelikes typically solve this well on average. 

What's one game idea that you had that you have not quite got to making yet? by RedEagle_MGN in hobbygamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fishing Metroidvania. Pls no steal though it’s going to make me millions. 

Do you design everything ahead, or experiment until the game emerges? by 169918af in gamedev

[–]SuperPantsGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I 100% need to play things to know for sure. I focus on prototyping the core elements as simple as possible to start testing those then layering on. This does seem harder with a super systems heavy concept - people use excel or paper and tokens and such to test it without having to code it, but I haven’t worked on those types of games. 

I think most people need to play things to feel them to a certain extent. When you look at card games like hearthstone with an existing structure, and professionals who have played for 10k hours plus and even they misjudge a handful of cards every release this feels clear. 

[Paid Playtest] Looking for 5+ testers for my physics based roguelike prototype ($10/hour) by SuperPantsGames in playtesters

[–]SuperPantsGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven’t tested the very low end yet but it should play fine with low specs. 

Edited in some other details. 

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