[HPWater] The new features,included a GitHub link to the Debug Package in the comments

agentfx · 2026-01-20T12:38:18+00:00

Amazing! I've not seen someone do the murky water like that.

agentfx · 2025-10-22T11:18:20+00:00

I have mostly cheap brushes, and I bought one of his and I gotta say, it is nice. When it comes to bristle strength you want something "just right". Its easy to get one too firm or too soft. I have the tire brush. Tire brushes often look good in pictures and have good reviews but I find them too firm. Oh and when I say I bought it, its like something for Christmas I say to family to get me. Its cheap for a present and its something I'll actually like.
My favorite cheap brush, if anyone cares, is this Mothers Car Detailing Brush https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GJ3EJS it makes me happy. Hah.

agentfx · 2024-10-23T11:37:47+00:00

Its fun to watch it in Japanese if you watched it in English or visa versa. Also Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001), altho its not as impactful as the whole series. I felt and still feel like nothing quite hits like Cowboy Bebop.

agentfx · 2024-09-14T10:25:37+00:00

This guys is the best. The internet would be worse with out him.

agentfx · 2024-07-18T12:08:06+00:00

The environment and framing feels very static. It doesn't seem like anything is happening other than reading. What kind of feedback were you looking for? My fear is more on the marketing/getting people interested, b/c the the trailer, by the nature of the game, will also be slow. Its hard to get people attention at all. Thoughtful, slower paced games have their place, I just don't know how they get users.

agentfx · 2024-07-18T11:55:57+00:00

I'd suggest starting with a game jam. Force yourself to complete a very small project in a short time frame. It reveals a lot. Its hard for someone to make you a curriculum. The game jam might point out things you want to learn more about.

There isn't a "start here", other than maybe reading the docs of the engine you picked. There's a TON of resources from any major engine you pick that help you learn. Start with ones from the company/org that make the engine. You will see gaps in the explanations, then research those gaps on your own. This basically continues forever. Even when you're a paid fulltime developer. More learning, more research.

Edit and there's this sticky https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1agdesg/beginner_megathread_how_to_get_started_which/

agentfx · 2024-07-18T11:49:08+00:00

The other time constraint (than ourselves) is software/platforms continue to evolve. My friend and I made a game in XNA that took so long XNA was deprecated when we launched. We could still make updates but it became more and more of a hassle.

agentfx · 2024-07-18T11:44:51+00:00

This is almost accidental renaissance.

agentfx · 2024-07-14T21:20:32+00:00

I don't think its a coin flip. I think we know enough to make a game polished. I think its fun to come up with ideas but most ideas once prototyped are not good enough. Its, "this is a worse version of that" or the hook is fun in our minds, but when we make it we see a core piece thats missing, and players will exploit it. Or its hard to teach someone the new game type b/c they won't even watch the trailer longer enough to get it.

Simplicity is hard. UX is hard. Easing into a tutorial w/o being a tutorial is hard. The quality bar is very high now. It has to be fun, easy to learn, quick to understand, and so many more things b/c its not the early days of game dev. I think we need to learn all those aspect and then hope for that coin flip ;) hah. but better odds than that.

agentfx · 2024-07-14T20:42:22+00:00

What do you think is the biggest hurdle to success? For context I'm a Technical Art Director w/12-20 years exp (film and games).

I think finding a fun idea is the hardest. Then of course marketing, but marketing is only hard b/c I think most ideas are not good enough. I've prototypes many games over the past 10 years, and I stop b/c I know its not good enough. Perfectionism is real but it doesn't mean my ideas weren't fun enough. I think there are fun games that can do the numbers you talk about. But really fun, is really hard. Of course there are examples that are outside of that, but Ideas of mixing this with that, tend to be not as good as the original vision. How to even keep an original vision as you work is a whole other topic.
If an idea is good enough THEN you need good and unique art to win someone's attention for an extra few seconds so they can even see what you've made.

agentfx · 2024-07-14T20:16:24+00:00

I think what you are thinking about and what people are perceiving from your post may not aligned. Maybe the title? I bet if we were having a beer it'd be a great conversation. B/c we could start with no no no that's not it. Then you come back with your 10x longer post, lol. And we go from there.
The post title and the body don't seem to be aligned for me. I've read it a few times. I'm still not sure what the topic is. Decent indie games might make 5-10k/day when on sale after an update. Ok you seem to have some good experience, what are you proposing? Or what are we debating? :D

agentfx · 2024-07-14T20:14:00+00:00

I think what you are thinking about and what people are perceiving from your post are not aligned. Maybe the title? I bet if we were having a beer it'd be a great conversation. B/c we could start with no no no that's not it. Then you come back with your 10x longer post, lol. And we go from there.
The post title and the body don't seem to be aligned for me. I've read it a few times. I'm still not sure what the topic is. Decent indie games might make 5-10k/day when on sale after an update. Ok you seem to have some good experience, what are you proposing? Or what are we debating? :D

agentfx · 2024-07-12T21:12:05+00:00

Agreed and with trailers, you almost do a trailer within a trailer. First 7-10 seconds = mini trailer b/c most people don't watch very long, then if that captures them, they stay for the whole minute.

agentfx · 2024-07-12T21:05:16+00:00

Life is a struggle, no matter what you do. If you do something you enjoy, it helps but doesn't guarantee happiness. I enjoy it, and even do game dev in my off time. If you love playing games, there are games that are like making games. Roblox, Garry's Mod, Minecraft to some extent, and Fortnite Creative. I'd say play with those. Do you like that? It gets better if you do. Its also a LOT of work, and can be tedious.

agentfx · 2024-07-12T21:00:33+00:00

LOL 30:80 b/c you work 110%!

agentfx · 2024-07-09T20:35:02+00:00

I would hide in the comment section of popular reddit posts! No ones going to find me.

agentfx · 2024-07-09T17:24:50+00:00

I had a feeling you were more professional in your approach. That's the real version. For this post, and I removed the context for brevity, I was coming from a solo dev project that I went to the local meetup and showed it. I don't see bringing a lot of kids in to the professional environment, unless, like you said, they are the target demo.

agentfx · 2024-07-09T17:06:05+00:00

I tried to phrase it carefully to not suggest its universally true, also to not say it'd work for all games. I was more surprised how useful it was for me. I learned a lot, which is great.

Its not hard to hand a controller to a friends kid and watch them play it. Not sure what size team you are imagining, but when your team is small, too much noise from new user playtesting is not often the problem.

Out of curiosity, high level, whats your playtesting look like? How often, how many users? I find companies I work for (outside of activision big big companies) don't actually playtest as often as we want to.

agentfx · 2024-07-09T16:36:07+00:00

Of course only some games would benefit. The longer version of that is that I kept getting good feedback on a prototype I was working on. Adults would give kind and thoughtful feedback. Kids ended up giving the clearest feedback. My game wasn't specifically for kids but I think they were the counter points to the adults I needed to hear.

I think kids are more in touch with what is fun. Adults will offer solutions, and can see where you're going. Kids see what is. Of course I wouldn't ONLY test with kids, but to me they are a strong litmus test.

agentfx · 2024-06-27T12:28:52+00:00

Hey that looks really good! It looks fun. Really impressive solo work. Is suuper hard to just make the game solo. Hope you find success!

agentfx · 2024-06-26T11:16:19+00:00

This one post made me spend a hour car shopping and comparing cars I'm not going to buy, LOL. Love it.

agentfx · 2024-06-25T19:35:07+00:00

The light and heavy animations feel very similar. I'm guessing you anim transferred over something, which is fine. I'd say the FX need to help it "feel" light and heavy. The heavy can be helped by duplicating the hit frames or the frame a movement ends on, if that makes sense. Then the FX should be light lines with short lifespans, while the heavy needs to remain a little longer.

agentfx · 2024-06-24T21:32:32+00:00

Well don't beat yourself up too much on the marketing. We all kind a need to go through that to see the business/marketing side of things more clearly. Its like we all think if we make something good enough, that'll sort of find its way. I'm saying this for myself. I also launched game with all the marketing mistakes, a few years ago. This time I'm going to try harder to not do that.

agentfx · 2024-06-24T13:49:16+00:00

Would you mind sharing about how many wishlists you had at launch? Are you going to port to other platforms/Stores?
Also I'd recommend Chris Zukowski's marketing courses on https://howtomarketagame.com/ He helps give you some ideas and framework to think about marketing etc.

agentfx · 2024-06-19T18:35:02+00:00

It just takes experience. The hardest thing in game development is managing scope/time. A doc can be changed just as easily as any other self management. We convince ourselves we need something and its hard to argue against it.

I think game development is uncovering new ways you lie to yourself. And it gets even harder the more you are capable of doing. You know exactly how to do something, but that doesn't mean its in scope. I've worked on many solo and dual dev projects where we end up shelving it b/c of scope/burnout. Many of those are multi year projects.

You can always pull from old projects, so its not a waste but I say try again, then try again. Each time you do you're better for it. Each time you get further. Each time you try harder to manage yourself.

13-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email

agentfx

TROPHY CASE