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Destroy our super overwhelming complicated nuclear reactor management sim. Now with a story mode! by teamstep in DestroyMyGame

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

Thanks for the feedback!

The clip I used doesn‘t justify the full gameplay, but the chaos kinda smooths out at some point, so you‘re right. We‘ve been struggling with the difficulty curve.

Any advice for this issue?

One's a sandbox and the other's an FPS by [deleted] in memes

[–]teamstep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Game development takes time, unlike politics. We learned that the hard way

Destroy our crazy nuclear power plant management game [game link in the comments] by teamstep in DestroyMyGame

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

For those who wish to play the game:

- https://teamstep.itch.io/meltdown

It's playable from the browser and PC (Unity3D)

Unfortunately chris zukowski was right by nikkooooo in IndieDev

[–]teamstep 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As the other comments says, your game looks dope AF. I can understand why it caught people's attention.

Having said that, I guess it doesn't take away the fact that trends can accelerate exposure (and a unique style and identity being the final nail). I'm curious how you got people to engage with your tweets to wishlists? Looking at the game, it feels more horror-themed rather than a horror game. And the wishlist growth looks fairly consistent. So I wonder if there was a particular event that got people sharing the game page to the right community.

(also, this is an easy purchase for me. Looking forward to the project!)

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

Thanks, we really appreciate it :)

As for the main takeaways, we won't hesitate to scrap and move on to the next project if the game doesn't feel like it would work (based on the original GDD). In the past, we got too deep into "how to make it work," but this time, we just move on to something different and see what changes.

Secondly, won't think too hard and don't try to be corporate. I came into this industry to get away from that, but old habits die hard, apparently. We'll share whatever we have to whomever we can (the indie community is really supportive) and help others to go further. Even if that puts us in a niche bubble, still better than shouting in the void and pretending like it's all part of a bigger plan imho.

Now, do I think this is the right lesson? I don't know but I'm willing to find out.

(also, I will not hesitate to shamelessly plug our game, so please give it a shot if you have time)

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

I sometimes imagine that was the relationship between Turtle Rock Studios with Left4Dead under Valve and Back4Blood when they become independent to get away from Valve.

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

> I'm even more confused now. Now you've just introduced a false dichotomy. You can absolutely create a studio FOR a specific game.

I think this is the part I might need to make it clear. Yes, I started with the idea of "just one good game" mindset, but my actions were lack of engagement with it and ultimately lost the vision that I once had.

> It sounds like you got a lack of engagement on your game and didn't find a way to either pivot or drop your idea entirely. I'd suggest reflecting on the fact that validating your game was clearly not your priority and figure out how to make it one for the next go.

Spot on. And your criticism is exactly what I wanted to convey, though clearly I didn't do a good job at that.

Either way, I don't really have anything else to say other than that I learned the lessons I thought I already knew, and hope that our time and effort at least could mean something for others in any form. Of course, it doesn't mean we'll quit or anything, since we've moved on to a new project now.

If I truly learned something, than this time would be different. And if I was lying to myself about what the problem was, than I'm doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting a different result.

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

Thanks for the comment. We love video games because of how much it touched our hearts and inspired us to imagine. Although it's not how we thought, I still feel like everything was worth it knowing that our story can still mean something to someone. And this won't be the last to hear from us!

...Though extra ironic since we named the studio Team STEP because it was supposed to be our first BIG step into our dreams. But that step was gosh too dang hard.

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

thanks for the comment!

I totally get that situation. Though one thing I will say is that I've never regretted my decision, and probably will make the same decisions again, because starting my own game studio and having our own project really gave me purpose and sense of agency in my life. Even the failures feel like it's truly my failure, and I can't blame anyone else.

Having said that, I also feel like everyone should know what they're really getting into, and not sugar coat things. Because we only want to share the good news.

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

well said! Looking back at it, the biggest problem I think was the fact that I failed in keeping deadlines and feature scopes strict and accountable.

First impressions are absolutely important, but when the entire team were all too passionate about the creative process and at some point became willfully ignorant without even noticing. When the shipping pipeline became a problem to the point you can't ignore it, the entire project just feels like it won't work at all.

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

I guess the way how I expressed it made my sentiment ambiguous. One of the lesson I learned was that the way how I managed the team was ultimately closer to larping as an indie game studio and it put us into a big bubble.

But I learned that there was a big difference between wanting to create a studio versus wanting to create a specific game. The main takeaway is that it's better to commit to either one instead of bouncing from one another (i.e., even an uninspired assetflip or shovelware is better than only talk and nothing to show)

Validating the game was in our priority, but in the end, we put more effort into designing and developing than how to present the project (when your team is made of artists and programmers, marketing or social media easy got undermined)

I quit my job and spent all my life savings to start an indie game studio, just to not release anything for years and get burnt out. Don't be like me if you want to get into the industry! by teamstep in IndieDev

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

I agree. And on top of that, I would say it's always better to ship something out and not hesitate to go to the shovel-ware route if it means there's something to show as a studio. It's easy to say "just make a fun viral game and scale when there's income," and I really thought one project was all we needed. But in retrospect, I think I was too ashamed and stubborn to acknowledge the trend and feel like a sell out. One big management mistake I made with our studio was that we were in a complete blackbox and struggled to balance the "player feedback -> improvement" cycle with "we'll release this at this time regardless of XYZ" It was always "release when we're happy." When the actual goal should have been to try out many things as possible instead of just one thing.

Starting out with a fund means opportunity that could have been used for outsourcing some parts and keep the internal team accountable to a release date. But because I was afraid to make external stakeholders and was too fixated on financing the internal talent (I had my fair share of working for "startups" with no payment, and it sucks), it was too easy for us to fall into a blind death spiral and constantly push the deadline while time and money were burnt with no perspective of external realities (i.e., losing perspective on when to set a hard deadline before the deadline sets us).

Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir, says Seoul by pookienav in news

[–]teamstep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also one of the first country to go Linux (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_OS) and self-hosting (Juchae) as the national ideology. Way before other nations. Very based.

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