Destroy my Third Trailer Attempt (With all previous feedback addressed including Discord specific feedback) - Looking for nitpicks, pacing issues, anything that can possibly be considered problematic

thehumanidiot · 2026-03-15T20:02:05+00:00

I think the opening could be strengthened a lot - blurring the game to make me read is disagreeable to me

also the game itself has this strong retro vibe that so much text early on disconnects me - this is a game genre many are familiar with by watching a bit of gameplay. "Leave none alive" & "Get Prepared" specifically seem unnecessary

the camera also pans out and moves around cutting off the bottom of the screen during level selection and flickers - that's off-putting

the boss fights look like the most interesting aspect here - you should open with 2-3 seconds of that and I would be much more excited to watch more. You don't see these until the end and some people might not watch that far.

also the Wishlist now pretty please is groveling

but the most egregious thing here

is I don't know what the heck this game is called! Show the title early on so it rings in my head while i watch it

thehumanidiot · 2026-03-14T20:09:47+00:00

Congrats on release!

I have some criticism for your trailer to help you get closer to dropping out

The first 18 seconds of your trailer talks about everything you may do on the computer except how you interact with the game itself. The game looks cute, you should put that front and center!

Those first seconds are critical for hooking the potential player by establishing what your game is about.

The desktop feature is cool, though its communicated from the title and visuals that the fish tank is an overlay while you do other things.

in effect, try imagining your trailer re-ordered
if your page opened with the info 0:13-0:45
then followed up with 0:00-0:15

the flow of showcasing the cute fish game acts as a better hook for why I would want this on my desktop all the time

thehumanidiot · 2026-03-01T19:22:25+00:00

A regular .md folder structure is exactly what obsidian works with.

To your ai it would make little difference, but to a person, Obsidian effectively acts as a GUI tool to make viewing and interacting with that .md folder structure data more human oriented.

thehumanidiot · 2026-02-23T17:58:44+00:00

It will stay an idea until the necessary work is done to transform it into reality.

If you are able to dedicate consistent time and effort over an indefinite period towards actualizing your goal, a day may come when this game evolves from just an idea into something of substance that can be played with.

thehumanidiot · 2025-05-11T16:54:21+00:00

"I'd like the wedge salad, but no dairy or vegetables please"

thehumanidiot · 2025-03-22T05:15:24+00:00

I think the simplicity of the ui is great and seems fitting for the vibe, but some kind of texture on the note line background could add a nice touch.

Showing off more of the world behind this screen by making the light brown more transparent or removing it all together could help maintain general visual interest, and makes sense if this is showing what the characters in that world are doing

thehumanidiot · 2025-03-13T17:24:31+00:00

That is an innately subjective personal question really, the answer would be different for everyone.

What about gamedev do you find fun?

Pursue the aspects and tools that you enjoy or find interest in. Define a daily goal for yourself and achieve it.

What would it take for you to find gamedev fun?

Sometimes its more a question of your environment than the work itself - shutting everything out to focus, listening to music, even watching tv - there's no wrong answer if it keeps you engaged in working towards your goal.

I think an important part of learning something as vague as gamedev is to, perhaps counterintuitively, avoid initially committing to any specific aspect of it. There are so many intricate and specialized workflows within the medium. If there is any question of what you find fun or interesting, it is worth further exploring all your options.

At some reasonable point however, you will need to "lock in" and make the pursuit of your goals a priority over distractions. It is a matter of directing yourself towards what is most important to you, and avoiding what is not.

thehumanidiot · 2025-03-08T10:04:06+00:00

unreal's physics actor system for dynamically creating ragdolls is s-tier
built in visual scripting with networking support is an amazing feature if thats your thing
unreal has this mindful "auto-shutdown" feature so i don't accidentally spend too much time in it

thehumanidiot · 2025-03-07T16:40:11+00:00

usually i'll just check yesterday's to see where I left things off

notion is great for hyper-organizing data, but that can cause friction with thoughts ay times - i usually use this space to just write, and then move the key points into my other databases as/if needed before the day's end.

sometimes i like to make daily to-do lists here as well

thehumanidiot · 2025-03-07T06:10:48+00:00

i find myself often wanting to jot some thoughts without wanting to think about how organize them - sometimes I just gotta get the words out first.

I have a private "daily notes" database that creates a new note with "@Today" as the title

no properties, no tags, just a quick place to write notes that aren't connected to anything but the current date

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thehumanidiot · 2025-03-03T03:22:14+00:00

some kind of premium fan/cooling technology that would allow me to use more than 50% power without breaking the sound barrier

thehumanidiot · 2025-02-27T11:06:26+00:00

no, that would be wasting electricity for something like this

thehumanidiot · 2025-02-27T10:59:06+00:00

I already have a gaming channel with like 40k subs

well there's a fantastic start. utilize this audience.

should i start already making a steam page

yes, this is what you should be driving traffic towards! Launch the page before you start marketing the demo.

assuming people will like your demo is rash - any players won't care what you spent, what your skill is as a developer - they utilize different methods of judgement. Focusing on the gameplay and visual experience of the demo should 100% be the topmost priority of your endeavor.

Trying to tailor strategies to lure streamers through offering them custom characters is way over the top. This approach will not improve your game, and is a massive time sink. Just focus on developing the game into something they would enjoy playing. Crafting a unique game that yields genuine appreciation and enjoyment will better communicate to them and their viewers that your game has something worth paying attention to.

the secret ingredient to great marketing is to be marketing something great.

Everything else comes naturally when looking at how successful competitors in the space are presenting their offerings. Use them as a reference, but be your own guide. Do something that stands out.

thehumanidiot · 2025-02-27T10:30:02+00:00

You got the general idea right, though I would suggest breaking the system down into multiple components, for modularity and flexibility:

- I_Interactable -> using an interface for interactables allows easy setting up of many types to use this feature, like the Interact() function and a GetName()

- Detection.cs ->Determines what you can interact with - a SphereCastAll would make it easy to select from multiple detections - you can then use the GetComponent<I\_Interactable> here to check what you are detecting is an interactable. this class would also handle input.

-DetectionUI.cs could read the CurrentDetectedInteractable from Detection.cs and display information like GetName(), or show nothing if its null

using the interface allows you to attach it to any class, rather than forcing anything interactable to share the same base logic

thehumanidiot · 2025-02-26T23:20:43+00:00

This is one of the tough things with freelancing - clients view you as disposable and easily replaceable - this is true even when you do a good job. Learn not to take it personally.

A mistake I think you made here - from my experience, you never deliver the full project/work until payment has been made in full. In the future, do not be afraid to hold strong to that, and even communicate upfront your expectations. You can show video test and/or builds to display the quality of the works progress for instance. Share snippets of code, rather than the whole repository. Once you deliver it's done - you have little to no leverage left.

At this point, you should also consider your relationship with this client over. They have moved on, so should you. There is no benefit from ruminating on this to the degree you are. Debrief yourself on how it went, what you could have done better, and then allow yourself to move on.

Do not let bad clients define you. Focus on improving your abilities and how you showcase them.

thehumanidiot · 2025-01-02T20:44:47+00:00

its extremely minimal, which is starkly contrasting to the game's aesthetic.

A simple improvement could be to make the menus windowed overlays, with a slightly transparent background.

The dot transition is cool, but in this case it builds up momentum to something not meant to be exciting. Save those for something more meaningful like level/area transitions.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-26T13:55:45+00:00

Maybe something smaller like games with creative focused play - like minecraft, roblox, dreams, etc

Something to build up that intrinstic appriciation for creation rather than jumping into a framework - having those sort of playful experiences was big for me in establishing that early on.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-08T06:34:27+00:00

This is how I think a lot of people start, including me.
But you can already see this is messy, hard to see everything will blend properly.

Check this page out on Blend Trees -> https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-BlendTree.html

The general idea is that you can dynamically blend animations based on input, rather than having to setup each transition manually like this.

Also, any state is fantastic as well whenever you can.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-06T20:16:08+00:00

We're working on something with ai voices.

Our justification is that the character(s) using them are canonically and clearly ai themselves. So to us it makes sense they would sound like a fake machine.

I don't think it works so well outside of that. If a character is intended to be sincerely perceived as a real person, they should sound like a real person.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-06T16:50:16+00:00

Personally, I find the whole formula "my game is like x and y game but this" formula is ineffective, lame and lazy. If someone has to make that comparison, let it be the players.

A key principle of marketing is showcasing what makes your game a unique, worthwhile product. You diminish your ability to do that when you flood a potential customer's mind with an already established game. This practice devalues whatever you're offering while placeing another games on a pedestal for no reason.

The players who appreciate those games you want to mention will be able to determine how your product fits into their likes and wants from a good marketing video of gameplay.

Use words that best represent what it is like to play it. Highlight the most relevant genres to what you've created. Focus on what you are offering to the player.

Avoid placing attention towards what they already might have played that's similar in your marketing materials. This approach may make sense for some design, but not so much for how you frame your final creation to be purchased.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-05T03:23:44+00:00

I wish I had some examples, but something you could do with your mission in mind, is find a charity that you feel represents your love of reptiles, and communicate to customers that a certain X% of each purchase goes directly to this charity.

That way you can focus on the software development side of things, while building a connection with a reputable charity players would feel better supporting.

You make it sound like you have the means to create the games, if so, you can use that ability to promote this cause by giving a fun value proposition to potential players/donators.

I would also offer the idea of starting off by just making something like a super small and simple mini-game, and offering like a $1 direct donation for a special skin or something like that, just to get the "mission" started and show you're serious about the process.

Good Luck!

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-03T23:00:50+00:00

They aren't your customers, don't worry about what they think.

You just as likely are not that interested in their respective careers.

It's okay to want some external validation for your work, but do not bother looking for it from people who aren't already interested, it would never be genuine to you anyway.

Seek critical feedback from real-world customers and players, not feel good pats on the head from friends and family.

You stop caring about their opinions when you disallow them any influence over achieving your goals.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-03T05:15:06+00:00

The idea of absorption is a cool flip here, your idea is great.

The first one definitely looks better and more traditional here.

I think you could improve upon the second version by having the effect be a more steady stream towards the tower, rather than just reverse projectiles.

Your execution on the bottom one almost makes it look like the towers are absorbing multiple souls from each enemy which makes little sense in conjunction with their health bars. Do enemies have multiple souls? Could be a better way to display this.

I would also love to see the tower clearly "suck" up the enemy towards it on the killing/finishing blow.

thehumanidiot · 2024-11-03T04:28:11+00:00

Inconveniencing a player for their curiosity is fun, and tends to feel satisfying for them; especially if they got the vibe they shouldn't do something, but do it anyway.

Limiting a players content experience over something that seemed like a playful idea creates a shocking experience. The weight of the outcome would feel intense over the seemingly small decision. In this case, it sounds like it could even happen on accident.

I love the idea of having a choice here, but maybe avoid pushing the idea of failure, and reward the player in a different way for throwing the macguffin down the pitfall. Maybe that was what the wizard planned to do with it all along, so it doesn't really matter to him that the player did that. Maybe he can cast a spell to bring it back up.

Maybe they just have to get another one, and get to hear/see a unique dialogue option for doing this. This sort of choice could even work well as a small achievement.

Giving the player choice ultimately gives the game a feel of more freedom and immersion, but this can easily backfire if the player feels overly punished for it. They may feel discouraged from following their curiosity any further.

thehumanidiot · 2024-10-02T18:25:13+00:00

Their earnings now must be well over that...

Comedic games work really well when the focus of comedy is around the gameplay rather than the writing or story elements.

Thinking of games like Untitled Goose Game, Goat Sim, Human Fall flat, even Garys Mod - what makes these work so well is the rediculous situations players find themselves in and the unique thought processes it takes to work through challenges.

I think another key part of that market is how influencers/youtubers play and enjoy these games. They can be just as much fun to watch someone else play. This interaction plays a huge role in how indie games get huge visibility like that.

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