Hi,

After releasing my first game (redwizardisland.com) I got various messages from Twitch streamers saying they wanted to help promote my game. However, after checking their profiles I realized they are awarding game keys to their subscribers as rewards. I realized they are not going to promote my game, but just want the free keys. Is there somewhere a blacklist of Twitch accounts I can check, so I know which ones are really interested in promoting my game? If there isn't such a blacklist, I can start it.

Have you had experience similar to mine?

A gif of the trailer I made for the full release:



I now consider this game finished. I will perhaps tweak levels and fix bugs later, but other than that I'm on to other projects.

Here is the trailer on Youtube:



Cheers. 

Hi. I rarely visit these forums, but I really like your game so I just wanted to say well done, and really cool to see that you are still working on it. 

This week I will apply the latest bugfixes and tweaks. Full Steam release coming up! 

I think in any case I invested more energy in this than is reasonable. ^^

  Yeah, I'm trying to prevent that. I've overcomplicated many simple tasks in the past. I checked out your game, do you have a thread on these forums too?

Yes, I did my own thing in PHP (because that is all my server supports) and MySQL. Posts are encrypted a bit with my own algorithm, too.
And I also have the score in a secured number variable in memory, because there are tools that allow you to change those easily. ^^

Interesting. I think the main challenge for me would be the in-memory encryption. What framework do you use, if any? My game is coded in the (fairly obscure) GLBasic, so encryption methods for it are not that commonly found. My next project will be in Unity for sure. 

I have online leaderboards / highscore lists. But the game is still in development. There are not many entries yet.

I'm thinking about adding online leaderboards, but I'm not sure if it is worth the development effort at this point. Did you build your own API or are you using an existing service for this? Have you encountered any troubles with this? (Trying to decide if I'm going to do that) 

Your questions got me thinking for a solution to that for my own game. I have checkpoints every few levels and the player can start at any level he had visited before.
But I wondered if there are levels that are so hard that players are not able to solve them, so now I have added an ingame menu option to pay some money (aka points, score) to open the way to the next level.
So to get a highscore you won't do that, but if you get really stuck, you will be able to get to the end of the game anyway.

That's an interesting trade-off and player choice. What do the players think of it? Do you also have online leaderboards?

The new flying level has been completely debugged, and I have also completed the first jungle/forest level. Next level, the player will get to meet the magical elves (of course). 

Open up all levels at the beginning of the game, or choose for a linear progression model instead?

As I am still developing Red Wizard Island, I was thinking maybe I will give the player the choice to pick from all the levels, except the endboss. Once all levels are completed, they would get to the final level.

Even though the story is linear, it is not primary to the game. You could still choose to do the levels as intended. Alternatively, I could open up two levels at a time, so if a player cannot finish one level they could still progress.

What would you do?

A few more levels added, and...

You can now find the first Early Access release of Red Wizard Island on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/792390/Red_Wizard_Island/?beta=0

 

Google ads got me 1 subscriber to my newsletter. That's not a lot, so I paused the campaign. Think I'm better off doing this on my own for now, or paying someone a little bit to do it for me. In other news:

Your app build is in the review queue. This review typically takes 2-3 days, but please allow up to 5 business days in cases feedback needs to be addressed. No further action is required until the review is complete. You may still upload updated builds at any time.

Submitted for review on Dec 21, 2018

 =D

This build has six finished levels. Still working on the rest, but it's a nice start!

I have started an Adwords campaign. I think Adwords is pretty good, but maybe Facebook ads would work better. Do any of you have any experience with various forms of advertising?  How have you approached this?

Really nice work. Kind of like it! Could be interesting if the character could do some kind of bigger spell while you are pressing the left mousse button.

Thanks for the reply. The size of the fireballs gets bigger the longer you press the mouse button. Maybe I can indicate that in the mouse cursor.

 

The Steam store page has been approved so I set it to 'coming soon'. You can view the page here.

I think I will change the logo to something a bit more "flashy" and colourful, but overall I am quite happy with it.

Steam release date set: 21 January 2019. Now Steam is reviewing my application.

Also, check out the new website: redwizardisland.com

I read this devlog when I'm looking for motivation for my own game. I'm not so consistent with devlog updates, but it's also a long term project. So it gives me great joy to see that you are still going, because I am too. 

Finished building the first boat level. I've made a screen recording of me playing it. Fixed a whole lot of bugs in the process as well.
Forgive me for the audio quality, it is a bit low.

Map may change in the future. Could be that I remove the second mountain.

Recently made adjustments to the menu map level select. You know, like a world map. It's nothing fancy but it's not ugly either and it does the job. Still a ways to go, but sometimes it's good to celebrate the little things too.