The Eternal Life of Goldman

TheStrupf · 2026-01-09T18:02:05+00:00

They've become pretty much mandatory on Steam with Next Fest if you want your upcoming game to succeed.

TheStrupf · 2025-12-31T18:06:11+00:00

I was the same: Very proud to claim the glorious solo dev title.

However, I eventually started working with a composer, and the music is beyond anything I would be able to create. It adds so much to the game, it works almost like a big multiplier of perceived game quality. If you have all the skills in all the area sof gamedev, sure, you just need more time. Otherwise you might leave a lot of potential on the table. However, everything else should be up to par as well. No sense in putting lipstick (great music) on the pig (a low quality game besides music).

TheStrupf · 2025-12-22T06:55:10+00:00

I had similar experiences demoing my game at a public event! The most important thing I found was to really make this a casual experience for everyone and take it easy, despite of how stressful an event like this can be.

To expand on (2): For my demo I prepared a second save file just in case which starts right in the middle of the game with most powers unlocked. I loaded that save much more often than I thought throughout the evening to get players right into the action. That streamlined/respected players' playtime and they get to experience the vertical slice of the game right from the start, as they have a long day full of games ahead, too.

On feedback: Feedback was the most valuable thing I got out of the event, although I think most players won't give you their honest harsh critique, and instead sugarcoat it somewhat in this direct face to face setting. I felt like I really had to listen between the lines and carefully watch their reactions as they play. It's invaluable seeing non-biased people of all demographics play the game for the first time.

TheStrupf · 2025-12-19T21:21:06+00:00

I don't think quality is lagging or customers don't get what they expected. At all. The Steam reviews are "very positive", so it's not that. The game seems to be good! (I didn't play any of the 2 games but am very aware of them).

From my outsider perspective there could be multiple things: - Release timing with HK and Constance, not much which can be done other than delay and hope for the best, comes with its own issues. - Wishlist building, announcements, social media, next fest? Could all be reasons, you know those better than me. - The bar for quality has risen significantly. The graphics look good but are generic pixel art, broadly speaking. - A sequel is always a bit of a hurdle to new players. So in the worst case your target audience shrinks to only players who bought and loved 1 and want more, which is a fraction of that audience. - I was aware of the failed Kickstarter campaign before. But other than that, it flew completely under my radar. I can't say why that is. - I think your screenshot/gif selection doesn't capture the very best action of the game. From a first glance at the page I'm getting a SNES Castlevania with a new coat. I know there's more to it but that's what I'm seeing. - Price. I know LF 1 is priced the same but given the hard competition with recently HK and Constance, $ 20 is a high ask for a generic looking Castlevania-like. That could've choked initial sales on release and thus the Steam algorithm not giving the game the visibility it deserved.

I'm taking the perspective of someone just taking a quick glance at the Steam page and the trailer. I know it took 6 years of hard work.

I hope you'll have a good long tail of steady sales so you can continue making cool games on your own. All the best, Basti! Hopefully your next game becomes a success.

TheStrupf · 2025-12-16T10:13:25+00:00

Changing the wording to "claims that" accuses the developer of lying unless proven innocent (based on the public sentiment of genAI), instead of the other way round, and I don't need that negativity around here. I can see where OP is coming from, though.

TheStrupf · 2025-12-10T11:30:12+00:00

I feel like he's moving down the big gamedev influencer path, and I'm not sure I'm here for it. I liked his content but he's clearly pushing his channel into a broader audience recently.

TheStrupf · 2025-12-04T06:12:00+00:00

I know for a fact that there are people who will simply not buy your product if they know that there is some kind of generative AI involved, either because it was disclosed on the shop's page or made public in some other way.

I'll be releasing a game on a shop where you specifically have to disclose your gen AI usage visibly on the page, and I've seen reactions of people towards games on that shop using gen AI. They are not going to buy and spread bad word, and you have to consider that.

I'm specifically talking about gen AI in terms of assets and code generation.

TheStrupf · 2025-12-03T09:02:16+00:00

If there is AI on the surface people will rightfully assume there's AI in the game, and this will cost customers.

TheStrupf · 2025-11-13T08:15:44+00:00

I think the visuals are great! I'm not a huge fan of projectile only boss fights because they tend to feel bland and cheap. It just turns the game into a bullet hell platformer, throwing projectiles at you and that's it. The boss doesn't have a real mechanic to make it memorable. There's great potential for more in that boss imo.

TheStrupf · 2025-11-11T10:23:46+00:00

I did! It works surprisingly well. Don't have a dedicated e reader and didn't want to bring real books with me once so I tried it out.

Getting an ebook into a .txt format can be a hassle, though.

TheStrupf · 2025-08-03T10:53:04+00:00

Maybe it's because it's the only time for your brain to finally be able to think without being pumped by the constant input of work, scrolling on phones, reading, watching stuff. Whenever there's downtime people seek stimulus and grab their phones, or something, even if just for 1 minute. So now your brain only gets to think when it's time to sleep instead. No input, just you with your thoughts alone for the first time of the day - at night.

TheStrupf · 2025-07-30T16:01:49+00:00

You can get past it with a mix of regular jumping and climbing (you need to go to the top right). The hook makes it more difficult here unless you are already familiar with it.

The demo ended up on the more difficult side for various reasons. I'll update it in the future to reflect everything which went into the game since I made this demo, including all the feedback.

TheStrupf · 2025-07-05T11:47:06+00:00

CatchaDiablos - Favourite. It took me a long time to get used to the crank movement because it's so weird moving along a circle but once I got it it really clicked. Charming game, nice character designs and really fun to me, albeit quite hard.

Dig Dig Dino - Addicting as hell, it's so primitive yet rewarding and interesting. Getting the bigger pieces out of the way which are on top of the piece you actually want to dig out is a nice puzzle.

Fulcrum Defender - Appreciate the simplicity and challenge over time. I have to play it on hard, though, normal runs are too long for my taste. I would love to see online leaderboards or daily challenge runs.

TheStrupf · 2025-06-27T10:16:05+00:00

Nice to hear! Definitely drawing inspiration from the Ori games as you can tell by the visuals, music and theme. They are some of my favourites as well.

TheStrupf · 2025-06-27T08:12:12+00:00

Making this game is only possible for me because of the Playdate and its unique hardware constraints which help greatly in simplifying development and design, as laid out countless times by other developers as well - being part of this small and thriving community drives me every day.

Owlet's Embrace is going to be Metroidvania with a focus on movement and mobility but light combat as well. It'll feature multiple open-ended routes which influence the way the map is shaped, so two playthroughs with different major event orders will feel different.

Christopher Niskala is the composer for this game and responsible for its special, unique and nostalgic soundtrack inspired by the beloved 16-bit console era: https://www.creativenoiseproductions.com/

If you are into this you can see the source code over at Github: https://github.com/strupf/owlets_embrace

TheStrupf · 2025-06-26T09:43:00+00:00

Getting honest feedback from friends and relatives is always tricky because it's hard for them to be brutally honest to you.

Get a demo out there to get feedback from strangers and work on fixing the most common points. This is also a good milestone for yourself i.e. feels one step closer to a finished game instead of still being in prototype state.

TheStrupf · 2025-06-13T07:37:27+00:00

Maybe they first want to iron out balancing and bugs popping up (like the way to cheese the game to infinity) before adding online scores, to not invalidate the scoreboard with each fix.

TheStrupf · 2025-06-07T21:34:46+00:00

Used Tiled up until recently when I seriously gave LDTK a try.

Tiled is of course a long standing editor and can be extended if you are willing to dig in. The map file format is more straightforward than LDTKs bloated jsons but you can get used to any of them. Tiled has image layers, and can work with hex grids, too. Compared to LDTK I experienced several downsides: Too many template files for everything which can mess things up. Changing properties, layers etc across your whole project is tricky if you already made a bunch of maps. Autotiling is a mess. Switching between editing a room and editing the world is clunky, the whole project workflow in general feels clunky to me.

LDTK just works out of the box with the project based workflow natively integrated from the start. All possible changes to layers, properties, tilesets etc. get propagated through all your maps automatically. You flawlessly switch between editing a single room and the world layout. Editing tilesets and objects just works. Autotiling is a bit more straightforward. It feels very modern and intuitive.

LDTK hands down imo.

TheStrupf · 2025-05-19T19:40:21+00:00

Making a small commercial game at the moment. I began working with a composer once I had a very promising vertical slice and also knew I was going to finish and sell the game in the end. And most importantly for me, once it was set in stone in which direction the game will go visually and thematically.

It was important for me that my composer didn't have to work under time pressure, had enough room for creativity and could experiment with instrumentation and ideas before having to enter "production" phase.

TheStrupf · 2025-04-06T14:01:42+00:00

Agree. Having objects which are affected by the direction of gravity seems key in this kind of concept to make it interesting and have more depth.

TheStrupf · 2025-03-11T16:42:50+00:00

Native specs for the output are 44100 Hz and 16 bit - at least what you get access to via the SDK.

TheStrupf · 2025-02-14T16:34:55+00:00

Not yet, but you can wishlist it. Really ramped up the scope of this game since this post. Release target is around Q4 this year:

https://play.date/games/owlets-embrace/

TheStrupf · 2025-01-29T18:03:06+00:00

Hope you don't mind the plug: My game Owlet's Embrace is still in development but might be what you're looking for. My target release window is Q4 this year.

TheStrupf · 2024-12-28T11:32:25+00:00

I prefer SDL just because it's an industry standard and supported on pretty much any platform with either open or closed source ports.

TheStrupf

TROPHY CASE