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[breakfastbat]

I strongly disagree with this point of view which I think is rather pervasive in the game development community. Luck plays a role but a much smaller role than a lot of people think it does. The way I see it, luck separates great successes from viral successes, but not failures from successes. If you're failing, it's because your design isn't right, or your writing or gameplay isn't as good as you think it is, etc. Read this article and watch this video to get a crash course in influencing the success of an indie project

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RyanClark/20150917/253842/What_Makes_an_Indie_Hit_How_to_Choose_the_Right_Design.php

Ah yeah I've read that article before! I stumbled upon it sometime ago when googling tips on coming up with a good name. It's good to read it again. But never seen the video, thanks for sharing! I'll give it a listen.

And I'll take what I said back about having a hit being mostly luck based! :p But I wouldn't say it plays a small role... Maybe a medium sized role.

Thank you for putting me on the list! Can't wait to try it out :D

Gonna have to to continue to disagree. If you make a game and it fails, you've failed in some regard. Maybe nobody had the heart to tell you what was bad, maybe it was good but just not great, maybe the different aspects just didn't come together in the right way, maybe the writing was bad, maybe the story or characters were boring, maybe the design wasn't right, maybe the timing wasn't right, maybe the marketing was non-existent, maybe you sold it on the wrong platform to the wrong audience, there are just so many potential problems and I feel like when developers fail and can't properly identify the problem areas, they chalk game development up to luck. I think this entire mindset is dangerous because it discourages new developers from giving indie game development a try, and it discourages critical thinking and honest introspection. Instead ask yourself why it didn't do very well. I could list about 500 questions to ask yourself but I would like 8 hours of sleep tonight haha. If you'd like me to go over some of those questions tomorrow I will.

Like I said I'm a firm believer that luck only comes into play when you talk about a viral game like Angry Birds, Farmville, Undertale, etc. Even then, Undertale is such a good game that regardless of whether it went viral, it would have certainly been a successful game either way. Made by mostly one person in 2-3 years? What determines a success in that case? Earnings of about $100k maybe? He would have only had to sell about 20,000 copies to pocket that much. That's 1% of what he sold. Even total crap sells in the thousands on Steam.

[Stricle]

Hello friends!

Quick update, since it's been like 2 weeks already.

I decided about what I'll do about the side-demo:

I won't do it.

I kind of got similar problems with it, so I just decided to go back to the normal demo.

The good part of it is:
I have two more characters (that I like very much) now;
I've made some alterations in the story so part of the side-demo is in the actual game now. I kind of like the solution I got (but, it would be a terrible mistake to spoil it);

Unfortunately, I'll still lose some minor cool content.

So my begging is exciting now?

I hope so. My next play text will be a pretty polished version of what can be the beginning. So you guys will tell me.

-----EDIT----

I'm Stricle now!
Why? It's cool to say stricle.
Striclenatriclehanaraycle

[breakfastbat]

Can't wait!

I know how tough it can be to get a demo out though. I'm rapidly putting mine together finally. After... so long. XD

[Stricle]

Hahahaha

I just hope it comes out before the 2-year late anniversary (my original plan was late in 2016 XD) - ok, I see that the old schedule was very unrealistic.

The pre-demo alphatest (betatest?) will come out this year, though. (80% sure)

[breakfastbat]

My original development timeline was December 2015 - December 2019. Unfortunately I scrapped everything multiple times as I learned more about game development. Just started my current project in March 2017, with an estimated release date in 2021 or 2022. Thankfully I kept and iterated on all of my best ideas so I had a lot of really solid content to draw from. I'm shooting for demo/Kickstarter next fall, but there will be pre-alpha demos before then. My first one will be in December! You're further along than I am in terms of game-ready assets, I'm sure you can get a demo out before I do!

[Stricle]

So it's a race? I'm on it!

I feel things are getting solid with my game now. I even got some music!
Hopefully, until march I release the demo. (and the crowdfunding if I decide to make it)

If you need more alpha testers, count me in.

[breakfastbat]

It's not a race.

[Stricle]

hahahahaha

(just to not post only this, here's a early version of Gosty)


What's with his arm? Is it broken?

[Stricle]

Hello guys!

Those last days I've been working on the "cutscenes engine".
When I say cutscene, I mean dialogues with different animations and characters moving from point A to B.
It's been a lot of work, but it's "done" (as "done" as the battle system).

Besides the coding, I also spent a good time "writing" one scene (and it still need some tweeks).

This is the first time I'm posting a behind the scene print, I'm not sure if you guys like it, but I'm giving it a try:



I'm posting it to tell how I handle the basic engine of the game and how it makes my life harder.

The red rectangle is the object I use to put the NPCs sprites.
The green rectangles is the object that keeps the dialogues, gives items, etc.
the transparent-gray boxes are the solid walls.

Doing this 3 objects for one single character has some positive points, like more freedom with collision, sprites, etc.
But other things get harder, like synchronizing the dialog with the sprites  

(also, I use arrays for the dialogues. If you're going to use game maker in your next game, consider using ds_lists. The fact you can't delete an array is quite troubling)

I don't know why I made a post like this, but I hope someone finds it useful, or at least likes it.


DEMO/BETA test progress: about 30%... I'm doing a LOT of polishing and rethinking things. I hope it is worth it!

------EDIT-------

Oh my god. Just found out there is a game called:

Playboy the mansion: Private party

Great! playboy has a game and part of its title has "private party" on it!

Ok, Private party might be a weird title for my innocent game.

Thinking about changing the name.
Super Kino Friends  Parents  Overstory  Charlotte's mother  One night at Dina's

[breakfastbat]

I've been using arrays myself, you'll have to read up on the exact functionality but they do get destroyed, it's just handled by the gamemaker engine. I don't know exactly when and how they are destroyed but they are. Also a regular 1d or 2d array is not going to take up too much memory anyway unless you're talking a huge amount of gigantic arrays.

Also my god your dialogue needs proofreading!

[Stricle]

Really? I remember I couldn't erase some entries in the dialogues. It's been quite a long time since then, though.


Proofreading? How come?
*Dommed*

Oh yeah.

It's really hard to find mistakes. Today I corrected something I wrote weeks ago and read many times before, without realizing the typo.

I find writing very hard, because I need to:

1)Clean the cheesiness my dialog has naturally;
2)Correct the typos;
3)Correct the mistakes in the structure of the text (the hardest);

Hopefully my testers will help me with this.

[breakfastbat]

"Don't say this word!!" is not something a native English speaker would ever say (unless they were pointing at a word on a sheet of paper or a chalkboard and telling the listener to never say the word they are pointing at). I would change it to "Don't use that word" or "Don't say that" (except this would refer to the entire sentence, and doesn't imply singling out a particular word).

Also "It gets worse when you name it" doesn't mean what you think it means. Naming something almost always means giving it a name, like when you get a new dog you name it. We never use the phrase "name it" like you're using it here, even though I know what you mean. I would say "It only gets worse when you think about it," "It gets worse the more you think about it," or "It'll just get worse if you mention it" - there are a few alternatives but that's a start. You can't really "name" a concept unless you were playing like a guessing game where you had to "name 5 psychological disorders" or something like that - in that case "name" would just mean to recall and state the correct terminology, but that's different than just mentioning a term in general. Other than that, for the most part you only "name" physical things: pets, inanimate objects, geographical locations, stars, planets, etc.

If you ever get to the point where you want someone to help you proofread, fix typos, correct English grammar and word usage, etc., I'd be glad to do it for a price. I mean correcting an entire game's script would be a lot of work. Just keep me in mind if you run a Kickstarter or something.

[Stricle]

Man, I didn't know it was that wrong...
It sure will be a lot of work proofreading all the game.

I guess my english is not as good as I thought.

I would like your help very much, before running a crowdfunding campaign we can talk about the details.

(the sad part is that you won't be able to enjoy the game that much, since you'll be seeing its broken version)

[foofter]

Eidobunny is right about "Don't say this word."

BUT personally, I don't mind and maybe like/prefer if things are a little unnatural sometimes. It gives games a unique feel and makes it feel like a different world. I mean, it'd be weird if everyone spoke in fluent modern, American English in a weird monster world... BUT, even though I'd find it cute and nice if a character said "Don't say this word!", if you're not going for "cute" and "unusual/weird/other" then it's not necessarily a good thing, I guess.

But I also think I'm in the minority here and most people want fluent English, so if selling a lot of copies in the US etc. is your goal, then it definitely should be proofread.

BUT I love all the unnatural and memorable lines in Harvest Moon 64, for example! I don't think the game would've been as fun in fluent modern English, somehow. So I just don't know...

[Stricle]

Hmm, I like what you said.
I like silly dialogues as well. Are we really minority?

And this character could really use some awkward lines. But, relying solely on this is kinda risky, because I can't really tell what is awkward and what isn't.

just to be clear, I know I still need proofreading, but maybe I should keep some awkward lines?

Tell me your thoughts! The many opinions I hear the best!

[foofter]

I guess you could tell the proofreader to only make minor changes or only change things that impede understanding. The alternative would be to tell the proofreader to freely make drastic changes if necessary to make it sound as fluent and natural as possible.

[Stricle]

I guess you could tell the proofreader to only make minor changes or only change things that impede understanding. The alternative would be to tell the proofreader to freely make drastic changes if necessary to make it sound as fluent and natural as possible.

Yeah, or both: Some characters with awkward lines, other with natural speech.

Thanks for the help, btw!

[breakfastbat]

You could absolutely have a character who's specifically not a native English speaker. I worked with a girl who was native Spanish speaker (English as a second language), and I wrote down a bunch of the funny stuff she said in English as potential lines of dialogue for a character in my game. For example in Spanish you use the "x para y" construction like "lo necessito para completar el proyecto," a lot of times she would put that directly into English like "I need it for to finish the project" which is totally wrong in English but gives her her unique character. That said, if you don't know when you are wrong, then you lose the effect. It has to be done intentionally. Or unintentionally but not fixed for that particular character. Look at characters like Harle in Chrono Cross for example, who uses a bunch of French as part of her character. (Which by the way her English version lost all of the cool moon themes she had going on in the original Japanese version).

By the way since I think it's relevant - though not to pat myself on the back or anything - I studied Spanish for about 6 years growing up, I studied Japanese for about 15 years, and I specifically studied linguistics (the study of language) in college for a few years as well. Though I'm not a master in any of these things, I think you'd be hard-pressed to actually find someone who's both more qualified in all of these disciplines, and also a game developer with a focus on character writing reading your topic lol

[Stricle]

As a Portuguese speaker, I can totally relate to your friend.

And holy shit! I didn't know you were that experienced in linguistics and stuff. My writing will surely be in good hands XD.

[breakfastbat]

I don't know much about Portuguese but it's one of those languages that's so close to Spanish that a Portuguese speaker and a Spanish speaker can speak to each other in their own languages and mostly understand each other haha. I was planning on doing Japanese-English video game localization for a while actually. I translated about half of the original Japanese version of FF6 for a project. I was going to do the whole thing but ended up changing my mind and dropping out to make my own video game.

My partial localization was 648 pages lol