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[GekidoRising]

It's been about 7 hours or so since I've launched and I must say, it was an absolutely exhilarating experience! I know I've said this 100 times or so over the course of this entire thread, but it's just so surreal to make it this far.

GODHOOD has raised $174 so far and while it is a humble beginning considering my goals, I'm still absolutely thrilled by the idea of being backed at all! I've even received a message complimenting my art style which admittedly threw me for a loop!

But the thing that put the biggest smile on my face...



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH SKLJDFHLSKDJFHLSKJDHF

I AM SO EXCITED EEHEHE!!

I have to admit, I was worried for a little while when a campaign that was created after mine got a "project we love" stamp BUT THEN I GOT ONE TOO! I know I must sound like a little child right now but GOD, I was so giddy!

I've already updated pretty much every devlog I can think of, and I've even contacted the local newspaper to see if I can get covered here on the island. Beyond that, I've had much to think about regarding who and where I can contact in press. Part of me wants to believe that this will just work out magically and that journalists will flock to my game and cover it, but I know very much that in reality, that's not how it works. Chances are, over the next few days, I have a lot of emails to send out.

While I sort that out though, next up on the menu for GODHOOD: Steam Greenlight! Now is as good a time as ever to set one up, especially considering that I have basically every single resource I need for one ready to go! I just need to buy the pass and then set up the page and I'll be good to go!

For now though, there's one more thing I want to add. After working on GODHOOD for two and a half years, I have learned an incredible amount about game development, marketing, and the indie scene in general. From all that I've learned, no matter what happens, I'll still be proud of everything that I've done and I look forward to seeing what happens next. I know I haven't been as active on other parts of the forums lately and because of that, I'd like to extend a huge thanks out to anyone here reading this right now for giving me your time and support. It's been hugely helpful and wonderfully encouraging to know that people out there actually like my work!

Thank you so much!

[ActualDog]

Hey, congrats on launching your kickstarter and on the "project's we love" selection.

I just checked out the campaign and the demo and I have a few super quick pieces of feedback if you don't mind!

I don't have much to say about the campaign itself since I've never run one or really done much research into running one, but I'd consider replacing the "funds distribution" pie chart with a static image instead of the overloaded labels gif you have currently. The gif is kinda funny but ultimately it's really useful information and it's a little disruptive to have it spin out of control while you're trying to read it. Oh, and that the plush is super good, by the way.

As for the demo, obviously the game isn't done yet and I don't know how easy these are for you to change, but in case any of this is low hanging fruit, I've got a few more things!

The first thing that stood out to me was that you've got a few grammatical mistakes in the cutscene. It's mostly small stuff, but one of the very first lines has "your" and "you're" mixed up. I think it'd be worth going back through and proofing the dialog real quick. I know you have a disclaimer before it, but the effects in the cutscene are really nice and worth people's time to see. The flames and explosions and the like all feel great.

Once I got into the game itself, I was sort of overwhelmed. Again, I know this stuff isn't final, but since you're showcasing the demo at the top of the kickstarter page it might be worth tightening up the experience a bit. Firstly, it would be great to have some in-game prompts for button presses, at least for the first few actions. It was weird having to go into the menu to even figure out how to kick off the first explosion. After that, the game was way too hard for me to get a good feel for it. I'm sure it's not that bad once you get into the swing of things, but as someone who's never played before I died ridiculously fast and felt too overwhelmed by enemies to even get the timing down. I'd really consider starting the demo off with only one or two enemies, and maybe increasing the player's max health so you don't die in (2?) hits. Definitely feel free to ramp up the baddies after a bit, but I think it would help a ton if it started off a little more forgiving to give the player time to pick up the rhythm. It feels like there's a really solid experience there (digging the music), I just couldn't quite get to it.

My last piece of feedback is a little more harsh and definitely take it with a grain of salt, but I want to be completely honest with you. I'm not a fan of Riff's voice in the trailer (I'm assuming it's from the actor you've paid and are planning on using). I think Avadra's voice is solid and her monologue is a really nice little closer to the trailer, but Riff's opening lines don't give off a great first impression. Again, this could just be me, and I totally get that you've already hired and paid someone so this might not be realistic to change, but I wanted to bring it up because it kinda sticks out for me.

Seriously though, good luck with the kickstarter. Your passion really comes through and there's a lot of great stuff here. I hope some of this was helpful!

[GekidoRising]

Oh man, this is some of the best feedback I've gotten! Thank you so much for the informative write up! Here are my thoughts:

The gif is kinda funny but ultimately it's really useful information and it's a little disruptive to have it spin out of control while you're trying to read it.

I agree that it is rather disruptive, but in all truth, this is actually an idea I came up with a really long time ago for this campaign and I got really attached to it, so it would be too difficult for me to just part ways with it. Again, I do agree that in its current state, it is a little much though, so how about we settle on a compromise and I instead hugely increase the delay between the gif freaking out (right now it's only 10 seconds, but I think I can up it to 60 and still be happy)!

The first thing that stood out to me was that you've got a few grammatical mistakes in the cutscene. It's mostly small stuff, but one of the very first lines has "your" and "you're" mixed up.

You know, I could have sworn I saw that ages ago but I guess I never actually corrected it!

There are indeed a whole bunch of things that need to be changed in the cutscene actually. In fact, there's a few lines that are totally different now and there's even one pose for Avadra I need to switch up in one spot, but yes, the cutscene indeed has a lot of work that needs to be done with it!

I am quite flattered to know that you do think the cutscene is worth seeing because I actually disagree! Perhaps it's just the "I HATE MY OLD ART" trait slowly seeping into me (which I am honestly trying my darnedest to avoid), but I'm honestly so bothered by the fact that Riff's face looks different in literally every single frame haha.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so bashful about it though! Again, this might be another place for a compromise! Perhaps I could cut down on the disclaimer so that it isn't so long and perhaps add a fast forward button to the cutscene in case anyone wants to get to the point.

Once I got into the game itself, I was sort of overwhelmed. Again, I know this stuff isn't final, but since you're showcasing the demo at the top of the kickstarter page it might be worth tightening up the experience a bit.

This overwhelming aspect of the game is starting to become a recurring theme in the feedback I'm getting so I'm indeed starting to think that I should look into this. But first, I'll cover each of your notes individually.

Firstly, it would be great to have some in-game prompts for button presses, at least for the first few actions. It was weird having to go into the menu to even figure out how to kick off the first explosion.

There actually is an in game prompt for the first explosion. It slowly fades in after time has stopped, but I suppose I'm trying a little too hard to be artsy with it so perhaps I can make it fade in earlier and faster, or have something to only show it the first time you get to that cutscene.

As for the next few prompts, this is actually really difficult to figure out how to do this eloquently. The best I can do is, after the first explosion, just have a little sign display somewhere on the screen that basically shouts the controls at the player, but beyond that, things might get tricky. I can't really do stuff like "PRESS Z NOW" because the slowest rhythm is literally under every 0.5 seconds, which might get even more overwhelming than before and slowing down time like with the explosion would just make things even weirder.

Thinking about it though, at least having a little sign might be a good idea.

After that, the game was way too hard for me to get a good feel for it. I'm sure it's not that bad once you get into the swing of things, but as someone who's never played before I died ridiculously fast and felt too overwhelmed by enemies to even get the timing down. I'd really consider starting the demo off with only one or two enemies, and maybe increasing the player's max health so you don't die in (2?) hits. Definitely feel free to ramp up the baddies after a bit, but I think it would help a ton if it started off a little more forgiving to give the player time to pick up the rhythm. It feels like there's a really solid experience there (digging the music), I just couldn't quite get to it.

From the people I've tested the game with, it seems like I've definitely fallen victim to "the dev is way too good at their game" syndrome as these are comments that I've definitely gotten from a few other people as well. I think it's time that I finally bite the bullet and make the needed adjustments! Fortunately, a lot of what you've suggested is pretty easy to adjust actually. I've already been spending the morning on some adjustments that I wanted to make so it shouldn't be hard for me to mess around with the ideas you suggested!

I'm not a fan of Riff's voice in the trailer (I'm assuming it's from the actor you've paid and are planning on using). I think Avadra's voice is solid and her monologue is a really nice little closer to the trailer, but Riff's opening lines don't give off a great first impression.

I can understand where you're coming from but I just want to formally say that any shortcomings in the voice acting can very definitely be attributed to my inexperience as a director. While I thought the clips I got sounded great while I was in the studio, upon editing them into the trailer, I realized what I actually needed was far more than what I thought I needed.

The voice acting session has indeed concluded and everyone's been paid, so it would be tough for me to alter it now, but based on my experiences, as much fun as it was, I'm starting to wonder if I should look into changing my plans for having voice acting in the game in relation to my inexperience as a director. Despite my inexperience, though, I suppose the only way to get that experience would be to follow through with the voice acting as intended!

Anyway, thank you so much for the informative review. It's been extremely helpful and I look forward to seeing how your suggestions impact the game!

[GekidoRising]

Just finished uploading the files to itch.io and IndieDB for the new version of the GODHOOD alpha! Even in the middle of a kickstarter, it's nice to know that I still have time to sit down and program for a little while. I've managed to get enough done too that I could practically make a whole devlog for it!

First thing's first, I finally got around to implementing something that I've been wanting to implement for months (or at least a basic version of it)... Practice Mode!



Here, you can sit down, just listen to the music and play along with the rhythms without getting mercilessly assaulted! You also have the option to mute the music and only listen to the isolated rhythms which are programmatically generated.

You can even explode the Way!



I have a lot more features planned for this mode in the future, such as:

• Converting it to more of a training mode style thing where you can move around, spawn Ways, and enable/disable their AI
• For the isolated rhythms, allow the player to pick instruments to represent specific rhythms.
• Disable individual rhythms so you can get a feel of how for how they play out on their own.

For now, this makes for a nice alternative to getting completely slaughtered!

On that note, after a lot of feedback I've gotten from the alpha thread as well as some people I know offline, I've finally properly adjusted the difficulty. Let's go over those changes quick:

• You no longer start the level with 6 Ways immediately on the offense. Instead, Avadra decides that it'd be better to ease you into it, so instead, starting out, there will always be a minimum of one Way (usually works out as two though). Every 30 seconds, the minimum is incremented until after 180 seconds, there will be a minimum of SEVEN Ways active (even more than there were before)!
• The Ways now do significantly less damage. Previously, they actually did 80 damage where as Riff had 100 health. The reason for this imbalance is because Riff actually regens health every time he connects a hit, but only a small amount. Perhaps this was a little excessive to fight back from, so instead, I've adjusted the number down to 45, meaning Riff dies in three consecutive hits now instead of two!
• Speaking of Riff's regen, I've upped it so that it's a little more generous now. If you take a hit, a combo about two measures long should fully heal you!

Apart from that, I've added some quality of life features, such as the ability to fast forward through cutscenes!



If I wanted to, it might have been fun to actually pitch up all the sounds that happen during fast forwarding but I thought that might be a little overkill.

On top of that, ActualDog makes a good point a few posts up that it seems kind of silly that the only way to look up the game's controls is through the options menu so I decided that instead, the first time you play the game, time will slow down after the introductory explosion and show you this message:



There's a really cool fade in/fade out effect where the time and the music slow down and speed up with the fade and I tried to record a gif of it but the fade effect blew up the file size to ridiculous proportions so I decided a screenshot will do.

Apart from that, there's a whole bunch of boring stuff like the ability to go back to main menu as well as some bug fixes.


As for progress on the Kickstarter, I gotta say, this stuff is tough! Right now I'm at day 3 and I've raised a grand total of $362 CAD which, since I really had no expectations on how I was going to do, does not come as a very big surprise. Undeniably, I'm learning an absolute ton on how I should have approached this thing, as well as what I could have done differently in the planning process.

Now, I know I may sound a little crestfallen here, but at least I still know that the most important thing right now is that I should not give up! It's only day 3! I'm barely 10% into the whole campaign and there's still a ton of avenues that I have yet to try, but definitely this is going to be exactly as difficult as I imagined it would be, if not more.

[nnyei]

I'm surprised you don't have a stretch goal for multiple language support. I don't know how many people that would win you over, but even if it doesn't do anything to help you finance your kickstarter project directly, it'll eventually be accessible to more people. So maybe give it a thought?

[GekidoRising]

I'm surprised you don't have a stretch goal for multiple language support. I don't know how many people that would win you over, but even if it doesn't do anything to help you finance your kickstarter project directly, it'll eventually be accessible to more people. So maybe give it a thought?

You know, that's actually a really fair point. In all truth, getting multiple translations for the game was always something I considered doing after the game's release but I do suppose that making that intention a little more explicit, or just offering it as a stretch goal to have it done before release, would possibly give the game a little more draw.


Well, the kickstarter campaign is now a little under half done and I've currently raised $469 CAD which is just a little bit over 1% of my intended goal for GODHOOD which means it is pretty safe to say that this probably isn't going to work out.



Now, before I say anything else, I want to preface this by saying that this is basically EXACTLY what I expected was going to happen. For the longest time, this is something that I really wanted to try, knowing that even if failed, I would still learn a whole host of important lessons and I very VERY much did! Of course, while 95% of me knew this was going to happen, there was still the 5% of me that was secretly hoping the kickstarter fairy was just going to show up and sprinkle my project with pixie dust and of course that part of me is slightly sad, but again, I knew too well that this was the way things were going to turn out.

Now, fret not, for I have no intention of making this post a giant sob story because this is most certainly not the end of GODHOOD! Definitely, there are going to need to be some alterations made and things are probably going to slow down pretty significantly for the next while, but I'm not dropping this game quite yet! But anyway, back to the kickstarter and stuff

Now, it's obviously a little early for a postmortem of the campaign when it's not even half over yet. On top of that, as someone who hasn't even raised 2% of their goal, I think it's important to make clear that I am in no position to identify what I did wrong or what I did right. There could be a whole host of things that I haven't even considered that could be a point of contention for the kickstarter's success, but there's at least a few things I can think of that could have helped. I'm going to skip writing the postmortem for now though because, again, we're barely even half way to the end so at this point it'd be more like a premortem which is a really grim term if you think about it haha

That said, in a strange manner, I actually have a whole bunch of reasons to be happy that this is the way the kickstarter went because it means I now have a ton of options for how I go about this in the future! For so long now, I've been working on the game building up to this kickstarter and if it were successful, I would have been working on it for even longer now up until release. With this campaign failure, I've basically been rid of any due dates or deadlines which means I now have all the room in the world to ensure I'm doing this exactly the way I should (within reason, at least. I know there's something to be said for maintaining some sort of pacing through deadlines).

As I mentioned I-don't-know-how-many posts ago, I think the big thing I want to do is get started on is presenting GODHOOD in the form of a webcomic! I'm probably going to be ditching all of the pages I have online right now and I'll be starting from scratch so that I can start the story off properly instead of starting a little ways in due to time constraints I had at the time. On top of that, I'll actually be able to design it around being a comic rather than just jerry-rigging the game's cutscenes into comic form! And in all truth, I actually can't wait to get started on this because what better way to refine GODHOOD's story and my art skills than to have the whole thing already drawn out!

On top of that, it'll now give me the chance to further refine GODHOOD itself and play around with its design a little more. The past few months have definitely been an absolute rush job into getting the game where it is now, but now that I can invest some proper playtesting and design into it, I feel like I can really get GODHOOD on the level I'm looking for!

Right now, my only worry right now is that I REEEAAAALLY need to find a job! I said I was going to try and avoid the sob story in this post but I've basically spent my last dollars on preparing for this kickstarter which I guess is not the smartest idea given how I knew how likely it was to fail. Anyway, while I do have my less-than-desirable options for where I can go and work, it'd be cool if I could find something that still leaves me with the creative energy to work on GODHOOD every so often! In all truth, I'm actually rather tempted to start a thread on the business board to see if anyone has any recommendations for what kind of jobs pair well (or don't) with trying to maintain an indie life of sorts, but I'll save that for when I get to it.

Despite my current situation though, I can't say I regret the kickstarter in the slightest because on top of all the important lessons I've learned, I also have some REALLY SICK GODHOOD merch on me now! I am still hugely appreciative to Chu for doing up that awesome poster and, no joke, I literally have the Way plush on my lap as I type this! :D

And, as I've done so many times before, I'd just like to thank everyone for your support! Even if the kickstarter campaign isn't successful, it's still been a fascinating experience to interact with the community and enjoy the feedback that you guys have given me! On top of that, it's neat to think that I could have even raised the money I did and to see that the alpha has gotten about 250 downloads on itch.io is actually quite the concept! This is the most attention any of my work has gotten in a long long time and it's been a wonderful experience the whole way through!

Thank you guys so much! I may be nearing the end of one chapter but that only means I'll be beginning another soon enough!

[GekidoRising]

With about 2 and a half hours left in the campaign and a little over 1% funded, I decided that it was high time that I wrote up an update on my future plans. It basically goes over a lot of what I already went over in my last post here, but if you want to read it, you can check it out here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1664515104/godhood-a-rhythm-hacknslash/posts/1593521

Essentially, what this is all building up to is that with the kickstarter campaign not coming through, I'm pretty much totally strapped for cash at this point, so I've decided that I'm putting GODHOOD on hiatus. For the next while, I'm going to need to divert my focus to finding work. Once I do have a job lined up, if I'm not bound by a non compete clause, I would love the opportunity to step back and really evaluate GODHOOD. Withe the past few months being an absolute blur with how much I was rushing to get everything together, I think it's going to be really nice to have the chance to make sure I'm doing things right.

I've learned a ton from doing this kickstarter, and as I said in the update, even though it wasn't a grand success, at least I get to walk away with a great experience and some REALLY COOL GODHOOD MERCH :D

As for the whole GODHOOD comic thing, I might drop a quick post here once I get started on it since I most likely will be drawing it no matter what job I get but apart from that, it is most likely going to get pretty quiet on this thread for a little while.

In the end, I'd still like to thank everyone who supported me here! I'm really appreciative of all of the feedback you've given me and I look forward to when I can finally return here with the right skills to do GODHOOD justice!

And by the way, here's a slightly higher resolution version of that somewhat hasty doodle at the end of the update.



Fun fact, the kickstarter update is called The Next Chapter when in fact, this very picture most literally is the next chapter of the game!

Anyway, I'd like to give everyone reading this a big thanks and as always, I hope to see you next time!