Yeah I don't necessarily require that the game has a definitive ending... but just some long term goals would be awesome. Since the episodes play out as little short term goals.

Keep up the good work! 

It's nice seeing fellow MMF games in the works! (it's a great tool guys, really)

Looks like you're going to easily hit your kickstarter goal and then some.

The game looks great, but my concern (as with all procedurally generated games) is that the content generated from it will not be anywhere near the quality of hand made content. Like just saying a game has an infinite universe isn't really selling me, because it could just be an infinite universe of procedural gibberish that doesn't amount to solid content. So I'm REALLY hoping you can change my mind about that!

I think the selling point for me is the "episodes". Will there be an ending to this game, or at least some long term goals to hit? I'd want to feel like I'm making some sort of progress towards a goal instead of "just randomly explore random planets of randomness, and then collect random things to trade for other random things, which lets you buy some other random things... randomly".

If you catch my drift.

The AI building levels reminds me of 3D printing... it's really fun to watch haha.

This game looks really interesting... At first the artwork and first few screenshots seemed pretty simple but after looking at all the mechanics in the game... I'm impressed.

Would love to see what the final game ends up being.

Looks great! Is there any plan for any variation in gameplay... like puzzles or action elements? Right now it just looks like jumping around bodies to get through dialogue trees. Is that the extent of the game? Not that there is anything wrong with that. It could still be quite fun with good dialogue and an interesting story.

This looks like it could be quite amazing.

You'll probably hate me for saying this, but I think this one is the best out of all shown:

Your funding amount and stretch goals make no sense...

You only need $10,000 for a team of 5+ people?

Then you need a whopping $40,000 more to take the existing unity game and put it on PC? Just for some interface changes?

I'll be interested to see how funding goes for this. It seems like you're taking a "asking for the absolute bare minimum to release the absolute bare minimum version of the game" route.

I think your game looks good enough to just outright ask for $50k-$100k in funding. Asking for $10k might not work out as well as you'd think. I'm sure a lot of people like myself will think we'd be getting a mediocre product for $10k and not bother to back the project.

Try to avoid doing physical rewards if possible. Unless you understand what you're really getting yourself into. It's a huge undertaking... I think most people running Kickstarters underestimate the expenses involved in shipping things... especially internationally.

I feel like a lot of people just figure in the cost of making the stuff and then add a bit on as extra padding, but it isn't enough. I think most people's physical reward tiers are actually break even or costing them money in the end.

Like a $50 reward that gives the game plus some digital goodies plus a t-shirt... seems reasonable right? Except you have to subtract Kickstarter's cut from that, plus amazon fees, plus cost to make the shirt, plus cost to ship the shirt. (in a lot of cases, people ship the stuff to themselves first, and then ship it out to people, so that's double shipping) In the end you get like $2 for a $50 pledge... So you actually lose money if the game itself is supposed to cost like $15.

Update: I also just wanted to point out that it's also incredibly time consuming to offer physical rewards... Because you have to deal with handling all those addresses plus making sure each tier gets the proper rewards sent to the proper place... and if you have to package stuff up yourself... you're looking at possibly days/weeks of work... which takes away a lot of time from working on the game. (the entire reason for the kickstarter in the first place)

Unless you have some connections who can help ease the burden of selling physical goods, you should probably try to avoid it at all cost. At most you could do stickers/buttons pretty easily since you can just mail those in normal sized envelopes.

HUGE IMPROVEMENT. Okay now this game is amazing. 

How can we give you money so you can continue making these all the time? 

Glad to see this finally got added to Townhall. I backed it the other day.

Awesome game. Beat the boss.

A couple notes:

- The jump feels just a tad floaty. I dunno how to describe it but sometimes I want to keep jumping but I feel like I'm waiting that split second for the hero to land.

- The game needs a mini-map or something... I can't even count how many times I got lost and ended up backtracking to a dead end where I had already opened a chest. The main problem is that all the levels have the same tileset so there is no easy point of reference to immediately differentiate between rooms. I mean eventually I had to memorize where some save points were and look for a certain pattern of enemies so I knew "okay if I go this way it's leading me to a dead end" but it took me a lot of mistakes to get through.

I just feel like either there needs to be a map, or maybe even just lock off areas you've totally completed... There's no reason to go back into some rooms at all.

- Another thing... It was pretty annoying having obtained an item, backtracked a long ways, and then dying only to find out that I don't start back at the item chest or anything... I start at my previous save, which was before I even got the item at all. It's just kind of annoying. For some reason I just expected to at least start back at the last chest I opened.

- Finally... The boss fight was appropriately difficult... But the problem was that I knew I was going to have to fight it at least 4-5 times to figure out a good strategy... Which means each time I die I respawn back at the closest save point, which is still just too far away. Meaning if I die at the boss I now have to navigate through a decent bit of enemies/obstacles to get back to the boss... and if I take even ONE hit of damage I feel like I might as well just suicide and try again to get full health for the boss. Easy solution would be to just give full health when you enter the boss battle... or put a save point at the boss door so you don't have to keep trekking back through to get to the door.

Overall the game was great. The mechanics were lovely, the controls were great for the most part.... The level design was great. But I found myself getting frustrated and annoyed a lot because of the save system and just getting lost in general. I got lost countless times, and then there is the biggest issue of all:

Sometimes there are situations where if you take a SINGLE hit, you might as well suicide, because you'd be better off trying again instead of trying to continue with a handicap. Like especially when you just leave a save point and take damage... well now I have 2 hearts instead of 3... so I might as well either go back and save again, or just die. That is definitely not what you want players to have to think about. I found myself force suiciding a few times and that's just no good.

I really wanted to love this game. The overall design is great, but it just needs some adjustments to the way it deals with saves and also navigating the dungeon.

I really think you need to lower the contrast/detail on the background elements.

Typically the foreground elements have a lot of contrast/detail while background elements are very low contrast/detail in order to better tell them apart.

Right now the bricks/clouds are competing with the characters/enemies for attention.

[It's quite possibly one of the best looking games I've seen on TIGSource.]

This game is like a perfectly packed suitcase. I really don't know how else to describe it. It makes maximum use of the limited colors and space. There appears to be no vertical camera movement. Every part of the screen is utilized.

It's quite possibly one of the best looking games I've seen on TIGSource.

I like the overall combat gameplay. The little dash back maneuver looks like it has good game feel. My only complaint would be that I wish it was more organic and flowing battle... but then again they are robots so I dunno how great that would look.

I'm just itching for a skill based combat game similar to this without doing what most games do nowadays which is just bog down fights with lots of QT event attacks and automatic moves by just rapidly tapping the attack button.

What does this game offer in terms of original gameplay though? Is it more about the story you're trying to tell or what?

Awesome

For hiding in plain sight I actually plan to have the character wearing some various disguises/costumes... such as looking like a common household vase or a bush.

I think the logistics for getting him to be able to hide under tables and stuff would be a nightmare to program though it would definitely be awesome.

Anyway, progress is being made! I'm nearly finished with this stubborn action zone stuff so once that's done, I can finish adding in all the interior loot and actually complete an entire level to play! Michael has been busy working on tons of graphics for the game... and I am really excited to be showing some of that stuff soon... including the exterior tileset and the new lockpicking interface among other things!

Screenshots coming soon!

I like thief games. (if you couldn't tell)

Good luck on this!

That may be the case (that mobile is harder) but it also could be that veering away from your genre too sharply will confuse your user base.  Kairosoft has a pretty avid fanbase on mobile (myself included) that will pick up most of their games, but that's because they have a bog-standard formula and just change the theme of the game.

In our case my friend's hit game was a Tycoon type game.  He followed it up rather quickly with a sort of sequel that generated 30% conversion rates on his in-house ad ticker.  Our new game, which is sort of tower sim/time management, netted a 1% conversion rate.

I totally agree with this strategy. If you're going mobile and you do moderately well with a game, it's probably in your best interest financially to continue making similar games for mobile. Kairosoft is definitely the prime example of this. I started out playing one of their games, enjoyed it thoroughly, and then checked out their other games to find another one I enjoyed even more. Had the game been completely different from the previous one I played, I might not really have bothered checking it out. But since all of their games follow a similar style of gameplay, I knew I really couldn't go wrong trying out another one.

Yeah but you're also assuming that the game has to have some unique aspect or mechanics... That's not always the case. Maybe it's just a well done game for it's genre. Every game doesn't have to be off the wall bizarre or pushing boundaries.

What if you're just making a well polished roguelike with no real never before seen features? Maybe it just has a really great design. It's not always as easy as just describing your most unique selling points.

It's just the lead in... hence the "blah blah blah" part at the end of both examples. You'd fill in the blah blah blah with the game features and unique qualities.

It's incredibly easy for you to pick apart my example, but I don't see you creating a better one.

I guess we'll start with the first paragraph of the description for your own game, on your site:

Laserbrain Studios is an independent video game developer located in Denmark. We’re currently developing our first commercial title, Hostile Takeover, an isometric assassination/stealth game inspired by classics like Fallout, X-COM and Syndicate. When completed, the game will be available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

["Hey, check out this awesome game we're working on called <Title of Game>! It is a top down roguelike/shootemup/rpg with over 100 levels, 200 monsters, lots of characters to interact with and tons of quests! Blah blah blah blah..."]

On the topic of sending your game to reviewers or article writers... I think the objective is to make it as easy as possible for them.

As others have mentioned, sifting through a bunch of e-mails looking for a newsworthy game to post about is very time consuming. I really don't think they have to go out of their way to find a story though... I'm sure they get plenty of e-mails. Especially the more popular sites.

I think it's just finding a game that actually has something to write about. I feel like a lot of indie devs probably send an e-mail like this:

"Hey, check out this awesome game we're working on called <Title of Game>! It is a top down roguelike/shootemup/rpg with over 100 levels, 200 monsters, lots of characters to interact with and tons of quests! Blah blah blah blah..."

The thing about this is there is nothing really newsworthy. It gets skipped because you aren't talking about the game in a way that stands out. You also aren't talking about yourself. Something more appealing might be:

"Prepare for the adventure of a lifetime! The two man indie team of <insert programmer name here> and <insert artist name here> based in <insert location here> are bringing you their first ever game, <Title of Game>. Experience frantic, fast-paced action in a roguelike shoot'em-up like you've never seen before! Blah blah blah..."

You are essentially almost writing their headline and article for them. Then they can easily just cherry pick certain sentences or whatever and make their own amalgamation into a news article. Make sure to include a presskit or link to a presskit to make it even easier. (press kit includes more about the team, the game, etc... along with videos, promo artwork, screenshots, company logos, etc) Whatever they can just grab and toss in the article.

Do not go into excruciating detail about what is in the game or specific numbers of levels or enemies or whatever... It's boring and reads like a generic checklist instead of anything compelling. When is the last time you saw an article about an upcoming game and it was flaunting the number of enemies in the game or quests or something? You don't see it, because it's not interesting to read about.

I'm not saying my example is perfect or anything, but I think it's a start in the right direction.