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[Zizka]

@Crabby: Thanks for your support, as always. Also, your input has pretty much convinced me to make the powerups at the end of a stage random so that the game can't be abused. I think it'll be a fun mechanic.

@TheWing: Thank you! As for the toaster, you're right!

When I was drawing it, I was thinking to myself: shouldn't I put gears inside and stuff like that? Technically, there is no bones inside the toaster as it's all mechanic. In the end, I decided to go with bones to be more convincing as the bones part of the bread would have been very small otherwise. It's something I could change anyway but it's not the priority right now.

Next build will be very different than the last one. Lots of changes.

[Zizka]

 
Welp, another week filled with business, so another week where I had limited time to work on the game. I did however manage to get quite a chunk of bugs off the list, so it was a semi-success this week I guess:

Characters:
when you launch pan frmo the toaster, he now deals damage.

Enemies:
nothing this week, I think

Systems
Nothing this week


Gui, hud and all that beautiful nonsense
You now can’t assign different actions to the same key

Sounds
Quite some sounds were added, I didn’t note which ones exactly though, so can’t tell you the details :p


Details and Effects
splash animation added
level up text added

Levels
nothing this week

Fixed bugs
fixed tons of bugs with enemies dissapearing out of view or starting to behave weirdly
fixed some weird things happening when you launched the out of toaster pan on the duck or bubbles


Known bugs
A less considerable amount than last week

See you next week! :D

 
This was the last semi-calm week, the next two weeks Il’l be workeng my butt off to get everything perfect, since I have all the time in the world during this period. Anyway, here’s this week’s list:


Characters:
loads of new animations like being electrocuted and a new nice teleport animation
you can now change direction when charing

Enemies:
increased deo devil damage
gave the copter way more momentum

Systems
fridge now only fills to 50% of hp
damage is now a tiny bit random


Gui, hud and all that beautiful nonsense
new item boxes

Sounds
none this week, didn’t have time before the devlog to implement them all


Details and Effects
when bread pan falls in water, he now also leaves a splash


Levels
added some new stuff like towel racks, new water pipes and breakable blocks
added more batteries

Fixed bugs
fixed getting stuck in wall after climbing
fixed reappearing in wall
fixed music not stopping



Known bugs
Only a few left

See you next week! :D

Tony, here!

Nothing new for sound or music this past week.  I was, however, informed that I’ve been assigned a new track for this upcoming week!  I came down with a nasty cold and have been trying to recuperate.  That being said, I’m hoping by Monday my head will be clear enough to work on what will be the “Garden Level” music. Fever + congested sinuses/ears = a terrible time when writing music.

Time to whip out the panflute (and some more DayQuil)!

Cheers

[/i]

Hello, everyone!

This week was filled to the brim with both music and sound effects.  I’ll start with the former (and I’ll be getting a bit technical)!

MUSIC:

https://soundcloud.com/tony-manfredonia/super-toaster-x-garden-stage?in=tony-manfredonia/sets/super-toaster-x

This link takes you to the newest musical addition to Super Toaster X: The Garden Stage!  By request, the music was to be composed with an ethnic or worldly feel.  To accomplish this, I utilized both instrumentation and musical modality.  In terms of instrumentation, the overarching percussion is known as a Tabla, and the ‘twangy’ plucked sound you hear as the main melody about halfway through is a Sitar.  These two sounds alone give an worldly feel feel, as they are both centuries-old instruments stemming from Northern India. 

Those two instruments alongside ‘musical modality’ is a surefire way to provide an ethnic mood.  What I mean by musical modality is simply altering what we as listeners know as the “major/minor scale.”  Think “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do,” for all of you musicians or musically versed people out there.  The two core scales used in popular music in our day and age are the following:

Major (happy, pleasant, uplifting): Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Minor (mellow, sad, somber): Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Te Do

Creating a worldly vibe in music is quite literally utilizing other cultures’ traditional modalities.  Technically speaking, the Garden Stage music uses the Phrygian Dominant mode, which primarily alters the “Re” and “Mi” scale degrees.  This is what it ultimately looks like.

Phrygian Dominant (mysterious, ethnic): Do Ra Mi Fa Sol Le Ti Do

This “mode” takes the Minor scale and kind of throws in a dose of Major (note “Te” in Minor, and “Ti” in Major; “Le” in Minor, “La” in Major).  It also takes Re and lowers it by a half step - which essentially means one ‘notch’ down.

It’s a bit of a technical explanation, but using this system helped create what you hear when you listen to the Garden Stage music!  I hope you enjoy it


SOUND EFFECTS:

This week had a few revisions and a few new sounds to create.  In terms of revisions, one thing that I always need to remind myself of is that high frequencies of sound can really cause ear fatigue - especially with headphones.  For example, there’s a sound of running water used in the game.  Running water naturally has a lot of high frequencies, especially when recorded from a smaller sink (bathroom, kitchen, etc.).  Being a sound designer is about creating sounds, yes, but also ensuring they’ll be comfortable to the listener.  With that in mind, it was an easy fix - all it took was an EQ shelving filter to reduce frequences above that “bite” of 8 khz or so. 

Other than a few revisions including the above, I’ve created some new effects (like a crumbling wall or punching said crumbling wall).  These were fun to make, too, as I got to play around with rocks.  When people see me doing my job in public and creating foley art, they probably think I’m absolutely nuts or have nothing better to do.  Little do they know…

All in all, it was a really great week!  I hope you enjoy the plethora of information above, as well as the music!

Have a good week ahead!

Cheers
 

 

These last two week has been about studying how other games deal with backgrounds with platformers as this is the element that needs the most work game wise.

Of course, I drew some stuff, here are a few examples:







Apart from that, I'm shopping for a website which is something which has been long overdue. Right now the project is floating in the void so to speak. We need some sort of headquarter to ground things.

Development has been slower due these last two weeks. These things happen, I can't control what happens in everyone's lives so you need to let go and go with the flow. Besides, forcing things sometimes give the opposite results.

Oh, there were two more beta tests but those were done in French so I don't think this would be very interesting for you guys.

Speaking of which, I'm looking for someone to test the latest build and make a video their test.

[Zizka]

 
As Sahand couldn't make the devlog this week, here's what he did.

Just to explain, I write down things to be done each week in a spreadsheet on google drive. Sahand then puts them in green once they're completed:

Hello, everyone!

Tony, here, doing all sorts of things sound-related.  This past week was fairly low-key.  Music for the game is on hold at the moment.  However, a good chunk of Sound Effects were created and mixed.  A sound effect that I’m really looking forward to people hearing involves the use of a Movie Projector and a VHS Tape Deck.  Being a sound designer can sometimes be just as much fun (and require just as much creativity/innovation) as creating new music!  Other than that, I spent a great amount of time with my family for our Christmas celebrations (with New Year’s just around the corner!).  If you celebrated Christmas or any other Holiday over the past week, I hope you had a great time!

I’m hoping to communicate with everyone who is following the game even after the devlog process switches to a new routine (see below).  There will still be music postings, I’m sure, and I will definitely keep everyone updated where I can through my own Twitter.

Stay tuned as the game progresses!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!
Cheers

-Tony



 

 

So I’ve come to a decision regarding the devlog, we’ll stop with the format we’ve been using during the last year.

For me, the devlog has always been about having some interaction with other people following my project. Lately, however, there has been very little interaction.

Now there might be many reasons for this, maybe because what’s written isn’t interesting to you guys, or we’re writing too much or not enough, or there’s nothing to say about what’s written or whatever reason why people are not participating. There’s one thing for sure though, it’s not working the way I would like it to work.

So in those situations you can either blame what’s outside of your control zone or take responsability and figure out what didn’t go according to plan.

So I’ll be switching to a video log. A few people around TIG have been doing this so I’ll go ahead and give it a shot.

I’ll be doing those devlogs once every two weeks so that there’s enough change from one build to another to warrant making a video about it.

We’ll then see if people react more and participate more with video devlogs.

Another possibility, be it at RPGMaker.net or TIG, is that there are too many of us “hugging the spotlight”. This means that we have a shared space which is saturated with texts and devlogs that get bumped out of existence faster than you can say “bump”.

This is the reality of things as we all have different standards as to what enough content is sufficient to worth blogging about.

This being said, I’ve also decided to purchase the domain www.supertoaster-x.com . I can’t picture a “serious” project without its own website anyway. If the website catches up, I might end up taking all the development news over there exclusively. We’ll see!

The domain will become my own starting Dec. 31th. I’ve started thinking about what I want the website to look like so we’ll see how that goes. I already have someone working on the website so I'll have something to show soonish I would think.

Game design wise, I’ve been commenting the level design with Sahand, the programmer for the game. I’ve also been working on the background which is something which people have mentioned needing work for quite a while now.

A few pretty pictures:

New copter death animation. There's actually the new copter too but I can't find it anywhere for some reason! Anyways, if you're interested in the artistic side of things, I'm pretty active on the twitter account (weekly at least) and I put my progress over there.


And more progress on the sewer stage:


Alright, that’s it! I hope you enjoyed the final written devlog. Next time we’ll be doing video devlogs.

Yours,
Z.

[Quicksand-T]

Ooh, sewer level! What other areas are planned?

[marcgfx]

it's pretty simple in my opinion, why it does not work. this platform is mostly developers, all with their own agenda/own product they want to get out. what most people are expecting is something like a fan-base building. in the best case with no extra-work for themselves. so people are blogging about their development, to other people who are blogging and expect those other ones to write comments, while they themselves just wait for feedback. the VREC stuff we tried hardly even worked and that was offering testing for testing. I've given up commenting on projects for a large part as there is absolutely no return on investment. I doubt the video-blogging will change this, but good luck!

[Zizka]

The sewer level is part of the bathroom level  .

The official stages I'm 100% sure about at the moment:
-Bathroom level: the water stage. Plenty of water hazards. Boss: Toilet Tank.
-The Garden Stage: forest/desertic stage. Boss: Hesitating between Cannical Charcoal or Lawnmower boss (no name at the moment)
-Workshop: industrial stage (saws, nails, cogs, conveyor belts). Boss: not sure, too many choices with all the tools there. Roundsaw comes to mind.

Potential stages:
-Roof: the sky stage: lightning bolts, kites, drones, clouds, winds that pushes you off ledges. Boss: unknown.
-Game room: toy train, all sorts of toy enemies Boss: possible: one armed bandit, bases his attacks on the slots result.
-bedroom: night/dark stage, fluorescent wallpaper with moon and stars, dark areas, nigthmarish enemies, knife wielding teddy bears.
-basement: final stage, need to beat all of the stage bosses in succession+final boss.
-Office: cyber stage, computers, programs, software, cds, floppies, printers, calculators Boss: Possibly: Laptop, projects various attacks like Green lantern from its screen.
-Kitchen/dining room: Not much idea yet...

That's what I got at the moment.

[Zizka]

@marcgfx: Maybe the video log won't have much success but it's worth a try! I've actually checked the views for other video logs and it's pretty low so that might not be a viable option.

Maybe I'm responsible for not commenting enough other peoples' project. I think that your description of what is happening is fairly accurate.

I'm under the impression that most people (and I might be responsible of this too) are "turtling" in their own respective projects and using TIG as self-promotion. This is fine but it leads to a competitive mindset which doesn't really encourages a healthy community spirit. I've seen it happened pretty often where other developers are disheartened about getting no feedback whatsoever about their projects, it's pretty common.

I actually consider myself one of the lucky few who got quite a bit of feedback about his project compared to others so maybe I shouldn't complain.

But I am  .

Maybe changing the devlog format won't change anything as the "issue" is more structural than anything. Just to make things clear, what I miss is the actual conversations, exchanges between developers. It's sort of sad of seeing everyone going their own way bumping their own topics with little interactions whatsoever.

It is disappointing, to me anyway, to see so little helpful interactions between members but I am a pretty hardcore idealist so it might all be between my two ears.

Maybe I misjudged the objective of TIG. Maybe it's more about promotion than criticism, feedback and conversation. Which would explain why it doesn't meet my expectations towards the community.

Or maybe I'm too selfish myself and should comment other people projects more!

[Crabby]

Well, tigsource is for promotions, but people still help and comment. It's just a little crowded. But the issues aren't with the games, because many get a ton of comments. It's the fact that everyone and their dog is making a game and thinks they can be the best. Which leads to bumping, and overcrowding. But the games are still good, and tigsource has helped your game get a lot more feedback, so I wouldn't worry if there is a bit of dead air. All games have that. Mine had pretty much only dead air after the start. Tig users just keep to themselves sometimes,

[NoLocality]

It is disappointing, to me anyway, to see so little helpful interactions between members...

Maybe I misjudged the objective of TIG.

Crabby speaks truth...big influx of people who I'd imagine have varied reasons for their own devlogs and interactions within the forums.

I have no doubt people here are watching you sir, I've been keeping an eye myself on your game, lurking your log yet haven't posted till now.  Personally I try not to post unless I have something at least mildly constructive to contribute rather than 'Your game looks cool!'.

On that note sir...Your game looks cool!...it really does.

Also I would say it's a safe bet that this isn't the highest exposure site out there, great for peer-review and having something solid to look back on and track your own progress or point others towards to show your skills/how far you've come but I'd imagine that other sites (I see you got your twitter rolling) will yield more sheer volume of random reactions from people.

Grind on through this 'silence' sir.  You seem to get quite a bit of confidence and energy when people chime in with encouraging words but I honestly believe you and your team are gonna come out stronger pushing on as the responses ease from a torrent to a trickle.

[Zizka]

Which leads to bumping, and overcrowding.

Yup, I think so too:

Another possibility, be it at RPGMaker.net or TIG, is that there are too many of us “hugging the spotlight”. This means that we have a shared space which is saturated with texts and devlogs that get bumped out of existence faster than you can say “bump”.

Grind on through this 'silence' sir.  You seem to get quite a bit of confidence and energy when people chime in with encouraging words but I honestly believe you and your team are gonna come out stronger pushing on as the responses ease from a torrent to a trickle.

Oh but it's not about that at all though, I was afraid I'd come across as saying: "Tell me my game is cool!". What I miss is interaction, not praise. I don't care much about praise, well, not as much as interaction anyway.

Just talking about the concepts, getting suggestions and so on. Talking about game design. You know, that type of stuff. My motivation doesn't depend on it, I just think it's... well... fun!

[TonyManfredonia]

If anyone's interested at all, here is the SoundCloud playlist for the first few tracks written for the game

https://soundcloud.com/tony-manfredonia/sets/super-toaster-x

[Quicksand-T]

If anyone's interested at all, here is the SoundCloud playlist for the first few tracks written for the game

https://soundcloud.com/tony-manfredonia/sets/super-toaster-x

Those are really good, reminds me of Jazz Jackrabbit. I like the second track the best.

[oldblood]

I think some of you may be going into your devlogs with some confused expectations. A devlog is simply a log of development. The reason why 90% of the devlogs on here go nowhere is because people confuse this forum as a marketing opportunity. Somehow missing the fact that this entire forum is comprised of developers...

I personally devlog because I enjoy it. I like documenting what I'm doing to see how I felt at various times and generally try to provide other developers insight based on things I'm doing right or wrong. I also enjoy these forums because it's a great way to see whats "cooking" in the indie dev community. I find inspiration here. I find motivation here. I find help here. And sometimes, I try to provide those things to others. And who knows? Maybe along the way you will make a few fans, a few connections and a few friends... but if you're dev-logging because thats how you think you're going to sell games, then you're doing this all wrong...

[Zizka]

I don't know if your message was aimed at me oldblood, but "marketing" has never been the objective of this devlog, in no way, shape or form. In fact, it couldn't be farther from my objective with this devlog in the first place and I'm amazed I might have given this impression.

A devlog is simply a log of development. The reason why 90% of the devlogs on here go nowhere is because people confuse this forum as a marketing opportunity. Somehow missing the fact that this entire forum is comprised of developers...

Which is my point exactly. The reason why I started a devlog here at TIG is because it's a community of developers. I want to interact with developers, that's the whole reason this devlog exists. If I just wanted to document my process, I wouldn't have hosted my writings here at TIG.

I think we all have different expectations as far as devlogs are concerned. Some are seeking encouragements, others aim to market their game, while others want criticism. Me, I just want for people to comment on the development, share their opinions, ideas and talk about the game. The aspect of devlogs I enjoy the most is the interaction between developers (not just for my game, for everyone's game). I'm not interetested in devlogs in which there is no interaction regarding the development. I wouldn't hang around here if it was just a place where you can just browse devlogs with no interaction with the developers, it'd be something pretty sterile for me.

Interactions I like the most are those that discuss the story or the gameplay mechanics or the art.

Tony has posted his music here and I'm actually amazed someone commented, this has never happened regarding music before. Anything music related before has been met with silence. I think it's cool not because it's a positive feedback, I think it'd be cool if someone had said: I don't like those because of so and so.

People often believe that by feedback, praise is expected but in my case that couldn't be farther from the truth. Honest opinions and criticism is, in a way, a lot more helpful.

Anyways, I wanted to comment on something I've seen pretty often so far: "Why is no one commenting..." sort of reaction which happens quite a bit around here. In the case of commercial logs, I can see how there wouldn't be much of anything to say but for the rest of them, not really.

Like I said, I'm also partly responsible for this although I do comment on most games I check (which I guess you could say isn't that many).

[oldblood]

I don't know if your message was aimed at me oldblood

No, I was generally speaking to misconceptions people seem to have about TIG devlogs. I just didnt paint that with a broad enough paintbrush...

[TonyManfredonia]

Those are really good, reminds me of Jazz Jackrabbit. I like the second track the best.

I appreciate it :D.  Your comment means a lot.  I'm thrilled the fanbase is enjoying the Garden music; it was an absolute blast to write.  There's a new Workshop track in the works.  It has a grooving, adventurous feel to it.  Super excited to share it with you and everyone else later this month!

[Zizka]

[Zizka]

[c023-DeV]

Fair lesson learned about 'volunteers'
It
Keep it up and take your time to suck in all the learning - it will be your best friend in the future.

[oldblood]

Yeah. Those are tough situations to manage. Honestly, I think you've done a great job managing a project to this point and really just learning as you go. Production and business management skills are best learned this way. "This way" being the hard way...

Just My Personal Perspective: If you're a part-time or hobby developer (IMO meaning you're not a legal business entity with income), then it's hard to draw a line in the sand of people helping you achieve your dreams. If you're not paying them to work for you, you don't have much you can say to them (other than maybe "thank you").

This is why most developers without funding either partner with people (where all those involved have an equal stake in the "company" which creates a mutual interest in success) or you simply start paying contractors. I personally work with contractors where we negotiate a rate and if the rates low, increase their flexibility (not quality) on how soon the work needs to be completed. Obviously if they've worked with you before, trust you, like the game etc. there's usually more flexibility on both sides regarding rates, time-frames etc. There's a reason why you see so many "revenue sharing" game projects get no where because actually making revenue is hard and most people get that.

To work long-term, you need partners. To create partners, you're going to have to give up some control. If you don't want to do that, you really need to pay contractors. Once you find good partners, you stick with them for as long as you can both handle (which is easier said than done). Not saying these are the only two ways to make it work without being a full-time developer, but it's damn near impossible if you treat people you're not paying as employees when they're not...