And we're out on Steam!



This have been pretty rough 3 years, but fuck it -- still feels great to have another game done and released! :D

Nah, not really. But it feels great to open up an engine you've been using for 10 years and see your own game in the news feed. I wouldn't even dream about something like that in GMC days, and even now it had a surprising effect on me.

Yeah, monster hunter 4 is a pretty good game. Many people seem to agree that it is the best in the series. I've actually been playing it recently, and speaking of that; does anyone know how to reliably farm the shagaru magala? the quest that allows you to hunt it seems to appear and disappear at random. It's a level six quest, so I don't know if those quests are special somehow.

From what I recall, it's an "Advanced Quest" and those come and go randomly. You may go on some gathering quest to re-roll, or just farm Shagaru in multiplayer. Also, #protip: farming monsters before G-rank is a waste of time.

So yesterday morning I open up GameMaker only to be welcomed by this popup:



Honestly, feels pretty awesome! 

Mage's super attack in Bonfire.

Adding special character-specific item attacks:

And I'm getting more hyped for it by the day, despite agreeing with you on the Steam-survivalcraft-punch-the-tree-genre thing being a huge letdown. I guess the premise and artwork still do it for me.

Still playing around with Bonfire's blood spurts and decals.



Why is making video game gore so satisfying? 

Some more fun with blood and decals.



I mean, I wish games were less violent and all... BUT THIS IS JUST SO MUCH FUN! 

We used up copious amounts of lipstick, but the first batch of Solstice Limited Editions is now signed and sent with love and kisses! 

Solstice outshines Cinders as the jewel of visual novels

IndieGames.com seems to love it!  

It's out, you guys! 


I admit it it was a long and bumpy road for us, probably the hardest project I ever worked on, but I gotta say we’re quite proud of how it came out in the end. It's a game that represents a lot of our ideas on how games should be made, and it touches some subjects that are personally important to us, so I'm super curious to see what the reception's gonna be.

A buck or two in the wallet couldn't hurt too!

Regen was my fave build in Demon's Souls, and yeah, it makes the game super easy, almost to the point in which you can trade hits with bosses and come on top.

That said, I'm happy they removed it in later releases. Having infinite health removes some of that crucial sense of tension.

Also, no backstabs. This alone makes Bloodborne's pvp a lot more exciting as people actually need to start hitting each other to win.

This is the first time I feel a console peasant. 

Seems so weird to me when the shtick of the last XCOM was literally "a TBS than can be played with a gamepad". And it's Unreal anyway. Still hoping they'll port it one day. XCOM retail sales seemed pretty good for a niche genre, so I think there's a slight chance.

Why is this PC only?! I loved the last one! 

Finally got a public release date (Feb 11)! And a new trailer:

its not a situation where if you are not in steam dont get any hopes to sell your game

It totally is. Direct sales as a thing have plummeted in the recent years, even for more niche stuff that tends to have more dedicated fans. Steam is very close to monopoly on PC downloadables.

There are the consoles of course, but those are even more expensive to develop for.

Yeah, though he wasn't talking about his own game but in regards to the "indieapocalypse". As in: it's not worth it anymore, if you can't make millions like back in the 2010. Which I can understand from his point of view, but again, not everyone has to be a Sillicon Valley millionaire.

"Making a game for somewhere like Steam, that people are going to want to pay for, is a lot of work," Braid developer Jonathan Blow told Ars. "If someone is able to do that much work, it's hard for me to think they can't come up with $100. Maybe you can think of some extreme case of someone in the developing world who is using a computer they got for free or something, but I think if you show someone like a publisher, Indie Fund, or a site like Kickstarter a strong game, it is pretty easy to get $100."

Publishers, Indie Fund, Kickstarter... All readily available to young indies in the developing world.  

Honestly, the full quote shows just how clueless he is even more than the tl:dr version. I think that's the thing with Jon. He's a little arrogant, but mostly he's just living in that SanFran bubble that disconnects him from the reality of the rest of the world. I also remember him saying something to the effect that a $100k-earning game is a failure not worth the time, which immediately makes my working class fists reach for a pitchfork.

But while many people who make games can't afford to live comfortably, coming up with $100 for a commercial game -- no matter how small -- is very easy in this day and age.

If you can't generate $100 you don't have any business trying to sell your game - either your game cannot generate revenue on its own, or you don't have the resources to market it to make it viable.

This is just so untrue! Coming up with $100 (or €100 in EU) can be pretty hard for many people, especially given how young indie devs tend to be. I've actually borrowed money to promising indie devs here, who simply couldn't afford the Greenlight fee. Their games then proceeded to earn much more than that obviously, but those $100 were really a significant barrier.

Not saying that it's some fortune or that a talented young dev can't procure it some way, but have some perspective, man. Not everyone lives in the US / Western EU. Your minimum wage is higher than what majority of the world would consider upper-class salary, and you don't get a monopoly on talented people.