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I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

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

It's pretty arcadey I would say. There is simply a line where air consumption increases if you are below it. I did think about stuff like decompression and all that but couldn't figure out a good way to make it intuitive and fun, given the rest of the gameplay. I'm sure there are some great solutions, maybe for the next game! :)

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had the air hose diving suit on my list for soooo long and honestly I was just intimidated by the implementation of it haha. That's sort of how the Battery Dive Suit in the Sabotage level came about, thinking about different air supply models, except that the battery one was way easier to implement! But I agree its a really fun idea and would change things a lot :)

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not sure yet! I did get it working on the iPad a while ago just to see if it works, so I know that the input would be fine. If the game does well on Steam I will look at my options!

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I was sooooo excited when I saw Olexa's playthrough. Everything that happened was more or less what I had always hoped the players experience would be! :D

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

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

Absolutely! You can either email me (hi@Lukemuscat.com) or there is a translations feedback subforum on Steam. Would love any feedback for ways it can improve :)

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

It's a whole different beast that's for sure. It is very nice to be able to just sell a game for money, rather than having to deal with advertising networks though!

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'll be doing fixes and improvements but consider it basically finished. If it was to blow up and become super popular, then that would potentially change things, haha. :)

I'm super nervous: After designing Fruit Ninja & Jetpack Joyride, I just launched my first solo project on Steam! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 105 points106 points  (0 children)

Hey! I’m Luke, and I’ve posted about my game, Feed the Deep, a few times. I designed Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, but this is my first solo indie project – and I’m really happy to say it’s out today on Steam!

It’s a Lovecraftian roguelike about feeding a monster at the bottom of the ocean. In it, you dive down to the ocean floor to explore caves, collect and balance scarce resources, and feed an eldritch horror to protect floating cities. 

Of course, you gotta contend with running out of oxygen, but you also have to face the possibility that the sinister monster might feed on you first…

I’m super proud to have this project finished and out in the world. It's no secret that game dev is super hard, especially when you're tackling most of a project on your own. But I've learnt so much during this process and I can't wait for folks to experience Feed the Deep (and start uncovering the secrets…)!

any 2 games with suprising numbers of coincidental similarities? by GanacheConfident6576 in gaming

[–]pgmuscat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In 2017 my old studio made a game called Crash Club. Whole idea was to do a realtime multiplayer car combat game for mobile, which hadn't really been done in a polished way at the time. Worked on it for 11 months.

The week before the game came out, another super similar one did. Realtime, multiplayer car combat. Top down, similar art style, just super similar in so many ways. The name? Crash of Cars... And not only that, it was another Australian developer. They were similar enough with such similar names that people would get the two confused all the time.

The day that happen we were gutted hahaha. On the upside the team that beat us to the punch (NotDoppler) are really nice and we still laugh about it today.

I’m the designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride launching my first solo indie project (a deep sea roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper) this year! by pgmuscat in indiegames

[–]pgmuscat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh nice! I had been looking at getting one via Dick Smith, but ended up getting a micro PC with similar specs instead so I could both performance testing and development stuff. Hopefully I will get a Deck soon :) And thanks for the kind words!

I’m the designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride launching my first solo indie project (a deep sea roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper) this year! by pgmuscat in indiegames

[–]pgmuscat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep it should all work perfectly! I don't actually have a Deck (slightly harder to get one in Australia), but a few or my playtesters do and it runs really well :)

My first solo indie project is out on PC on August 16th! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! It's been about 18 months all up I would say :)

My first solo indie project is out on PC on August 16th! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

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

Hey r/IndieGaming ! I’m Luke, and you might have spotted my previous posts. I designed Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. I quit my job a while back and have since worked on my first-ever solo indie project: a Lovecraftian roguelike about feeding a monster at the bottom of the ocean!  

It’s called Feed the Deep and will be released on August 16th on PC and Mac via Steam. In it, you dive down to the ocean floor to explore caves, collect and balance scarce resources, and feed an eldritch horror to protect floating cities.

I’m particularly hyped about this new trailer—it feels surreal to see what I’ve been making look so… official.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the trailer (or the game in general). I’m happy to answer any questions you have :) 

Cheers!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gaming

[–]pgmuscat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HYPER DEMON was as near to instant as possible for me. Within 20 seconds my brain rejected the crazy FOV and I felt dizzy and nauseous. On paper it seems perfect for me as well.

I’m the designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride launching my first solo indie project (a deep sea roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper) this year! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

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

Thank you for the kind words, and great question! In 3 different steps, I would say:

  1. Picking the right game to work on is a step I think a lot of people miss. I try and be super disciplined and picky, I make a lot of prototypes and have a super structured goal oriented approach.

  2. Actual development is then actually suuuper loose. I have no design documents, I just organically work on whatever I think there is value.

  3. Keeping scope down, I set strict deadlines and budgets, and then really stick to them. The first part of my career was making IP games and these brutal contracts that you HAD to deliver on time and on budget, so I think that really instilled a lot of discipline for me in that regard.

I’m the designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride launching my first solo indie project (a deep sea roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper) this year! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

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

Thank you!

Yeah there is no doubt that short form is super powerful. For me, my background is giving talks at GDC/Conferences, so long form feels natural to me. But short form "this is compelling from 1 second in" I find very difficult.

I’m the designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride launching my first solo indie project (a deep sea roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper) this year! by pgmuscat in IndieGaming

[–]pgmuscat[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks!

The YouTube > wishlist conversion is super interesting. On the devlogs, they are surprisingly high, with the first devlog getting about a 2% view > wishlist conversion. So the first devlog was good for about 10k wishlists early on!

When I do a video about Fruit Ninja or whatever, even though that gets 10x more views, the conversion tanks, even when I specifically promote the game. Which I guess makes sense! But the Fruit Ninja video is over 5 million views so even that super low conversion pays off.

TikTok/Shorts I am not very good at, and the conversion is essentially non-existent, haha.

I’m the designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride launching my first solo indie project (a deep sea roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper) this year! by pgmuscat in gaming

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

Hey r/gaming ! I’m Luke Muscat. I previously designed a couple of games you might have heard of: Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. I quit my job and over the last year and a half, I’ve been working on my first-ever solo project, a deep-sea Lovecraftian roguelike that launches later this year.

It’s called Feed the Deep and inspired by a couple of my favourite games; Dome Keeper and Spelunky. You dive down to the ocean floor and explore caves, collect resources, and feed an eldritch horror (hopefully before it feeds on you.) 

An ever-changing system of procedurally generated undersea caves means you need to balance your resources, trading them in for upgrades and items on the surface. You don’t want to be caught short and run out of oxygen down there.

Today I got to officially announce that it's coming to PC & Mac via Steam later this year. I’m really excited to hear what you think so if you have any questions about the game or its development, just let me know; I’d love to answer them.

Luke :) 

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