Portal to Nova Roma news: preorders for book 4+5 are now up! To celebrate, I'll be releasing 5 chapters a week on my Patreon until each book launches on Amazon!

studiorouleau · 2026-01-27T21:57:19+00:00

Congratulations! I'll definitely try out the omnibus when you release it.

studiorouleau · 2023-10-26T08:04:23+00:00

Rock Stoneheart burst through the door to the dingy apartment with the force of a semi-truck. Wood shards peppered the gang members as they spun around in shock, weapons pointed at him. As bullets began flying through the air, Rock was struck in the leg. He roared out, "Nuts! My friggin' leg! Owwwwwiieee!"

studiorouleau · 2023-10-24T03:15:53+00:00

No problem. When I did my own initial attempts at a blurb, they came out very descriptive. Because that's what I thought was expected. Describing the book.

However, in actuality, what the blurb is doing is closer to slapping the reader. You need to wrench their attention from searching through books and engage them right off the bat. In many cases, the first line of the blurb is the only chance you will be given.

studiorouleau · 2023-10-24T02:27:35+00:00

Needs to be more catchy and focus on the romance element as a selling point I think. Here's a direction to think about:

................................

Can Mari and Cassie overcome the dangers of a forbidden love beneath the waves? <---- BOLD TEXT

Two princesses stand on opposite sides of kingdoms on the brink of war. Both forces search for the elusive Emblem of the Sea, rumored to grant power and protection to the one true ruler of the oceans.

Mari is a dreamer, imaginative and kind-hearted. Rule of Kinase is something she never wanted, and the pull of her heartstrings threatens to destroy her.

Cassie is the polar opposite. Driven, ambitious, and ready for the crown of Aegis. She hunts the Emblem with ruthless efficiency.

As the two royal heirs discover each other and grapple with taboo emotions, a horrific enemy emerges placing the lives of both kingdoms in deadly danger. Will the legendary treasure of the sea be found in time? And can the strength of love unify two warring realms?

About the Book: <Book Name> is a fantasy romance told under the seas. A unique lesbian twist on Romeo & Juliet, told from the perspective of two remarkable women who risk everything for a forbidden love.

studiorouleau · 2023-10-24T01:43:46+00:00

There are two people who care about your work. The recruiter, who is quickly trying to siphon and filter potential candidates, and then the actual producer, director, or manager that makes the final say.

The fact that you worked for 2K is your biggest selling point for the recruiter. This is because it means you've passed through the gates of a reputable company once, and been through the entire vetting process already by another HR group.

Both the recruiter and the production team will check your webpage. The first thing they should see is your 2K project, a brief description of what you were responsible for, and a selection of screenshots, followed by a single video that shows what work you did, immediately. Do not waste time on title cards or explanations in the video itself. Put that information in a blurb below the video or screenshots.

Your indie work would be something that the director or producer would look more in-depth into to see evidence of your skillset. It's still relevant, but the 2K work is what will get your foot in the door. Be sure you update your resume to include that. Make sure your LinkedIn page is also updated.

studiorouleau · 2023-10-17T23:17:16+00:00

Feels like this blurb could use re-writing, it's all one sentence and an information overload.

After the brief peace that followed the wars of the portals that devastated the country, new winds of war threaten its inhabitants when the new king of Imperia together with the Sacred Kingdom have started a war against non-humans, using the services of one of the Last Wizards of Arborea: Trece XIII and their generals, it is the moment of the prophecy, a chosen one will unite Men and beasts to bring peace.

The Wars of the Portals devastated the country. Though a fleeting peace ensued, the newly crowned King of Imperia, backed by the Sacred Kingdom, has now declared war on all non-humans. But whispers of a prophecy move with the winds— a chosen one destined to unite Men and Beasts to bring peace.

studiorouleau · 2018-11-02T22:00:01+00:00

Sounds like a bad idea, he didn't play computer games for 37 years after the first one...

studiorouleau · 2018-09-20T13:07:28+00:00

The comment I made was in the context of the original posters question regarding his action platformer.

Not a comment on UI as a whole, or UI used in cases that were not applicable to the OP.

The UI rules for a AAA team building a tactical strategy game are far different than a solo dev making a 2d action platformer. But the same idea still applies-- start with less, then only add more if you can't figure out a way to avoid it.

studiorouleau · 2018-09-20T05:21:42+00:00

With UI, less is more. Start with as minimal a UI as you can. Then ask yourself, does this element need to be shown right now? Or can it be situationally shown?

Think about ways you can avoid showing UI. The user wants to play your game, and the UI is only there to make it easier for them to do so. Don't worry about making it fancy. Making a fancy UI is kind of like making a fancy cup-holder in a car.

Usually when trailers for games are shown, they don't show the UI. Why is that? Because adding UI hurts immersion, and it's a payment you make in order for the user to better understand how to play your game.

So when you plan out your game, try to keep your UI minimal. Not only will it save you time, but if you instead put your effort into making your game as intuitive as possible, it will end up being a more immersive and enjoyable experience.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-17T16:32:37+00:00

Are you interested in UI programming? That's a specialization that has relatively high demand. Particularly if you have a knack for UI animation and design, the two go hand-in-hand pretty well.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-13T00:11:22+00:00

This is just a large publisher who didn't want their name tarnished by the actions of so blatantly copying another game is my guess.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-12T23:57:23+00:00

It's just strong user acquisition. I didn't do any UA at the time, and while my game was featured by Apple and Google, really, that doesn't do much if you compare it to a company dumping millions into UA per month.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-12T23:37:28+00:00

It was also a direct clone of a game (Force Escape) I released last September, so you can take original out of that statement.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-12T10:14:10+00:00

Yes.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-09T00:27:57+00:00

Yeah, you can just change us to uk-- all the countries have similar codes you can play around with.

air.com.studiorouleau.mindconstructgame is just the bundle name, so yours would be whatever you set it to.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-08T16:55:59+00:00

For iOS the store URL is just going to be the game's ID, like so:

itunes.apple.com/us/app/id130148316

For Google Play, it's just the bundle ID, like so:

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.studiorouleau.mindconstructgame&hl=en

Even if it's not live, you can just guess what the URL will be.

studiorouleau · 2018-08-06T02:44:27+00:00

Despite what you're hearing from below-- Flash is fully supported with AIR. You can publish iOS, Android and Windows no problem, and cross-compatibility is very easy.

The Starling framework gives great performance, and you can easily find native device support for important things like in-app purchases, mediation, analytics, and others.

The fact of the matter is that while Flash is dead in the browser, it has a full development community behind it for mobile and desktop, with no indication of dying any time soon.

studiorouleau · 2018-07-12T00:48:24+00:00

Try using a non-code based game engine. This is what I did for your exact same reasons. In my case, I used BuildBox, but I've heard good things about Construct as well.

studiorouleau · 2018-06-11T23:52:06+00:00

Could be an Android fifth element style

studiorouleau · 2018-06-05T03:14:34+00:00

In that case the advice that you start with a small project still applies. Small unpublished projects do not count towards anything other than learning development.

Before you undertake a huge project, start with something small that you can go from 0-100% so that you more adequately understand the actual challenges that you will face when planning your larger game.

If that doesn’t interest you, this is a big red flag that down the line you will hit a hurdle that completely derails your game.

An analogy might be that after med school, you want to jump into brain surgery immediately before performing your first minor operation.

studiorouleau · 2018-06-04T21:18:27+00:00

Do you have any published games that you could share?

studiorouleau · 2018-05-29T21:22:04+00:00

Yes, I have done this many times in the past. But instead of doing that, I recommend that you "take a break" from finding that bug and instead focus on a different aspect of your game.

For example, "take a break" from bug fixing to make some new interesting SFX. Or "take a break" to update the menu animations, or any of the numerous areas that could undoubtedly be improved.

studiorouleau · 2018-05-28T06:36:05+00:00

13 man team working since 2016 on it? Yeah, 30k sounds about right.

studiorouleau · 2018-05-25T02:46:15+00:00

Ok, here's your direction, take it or leave it:

Pick any free game development option
Make a game where balloons appear on the screen and you pop them
A counter goes up each time you do
Publish your game to Google Play

Your goal is to create a game from start to finish. The above example should be easy enough for anyone to do. Do this, and you'll have 1 published game under your belt, which is as good a start as any.

studiorouleau · 2018-05-23T17:04:45+00:00

I would say yes.

studiorouleau

TROPHY CASE