Hey everybody, it's been a while! No worries, we're still here!



We've been real busy getting things in order for our next phase of development, which was brought to a short halt due to academic responsibilities on my part with college graduation and such. We're back to working on the good stuff though!

We recently had a playtesting session of a working demo with a group of about 30 different people who gave us some awesome feedback on what needed to be tweaked on the game, such as Jim's tripping attack animation confusing people into thinking he was the only one taking damage, and the manner in which Jim reappears in the apartment after finishing a memory. We got a super strong positive response to the game so far overall, and we got some terrific feedback on what needed to be adjusted. Needless to say, things went super well.

This playtesting event was a pretty inclusive thing which is why we haven't put any playable builds of the game up online yet, but our plan is to get a crowdfunding campaign going on Kickstarter in the next month or so with an updated demo to play, which we'll give you guys the link to download as soon as it's ready.

In other cool news, we recently added a fourth member to our team to take on the role of lead programmer, and we're super excited to have him on board helping us with the construction of the game. We've got lots of ideas we're planning on incorporating into this project that haven't been integrated yet, but will definitely be showing up as we move into full development.

We're still doing some tweaking for the Kickstarter release demo, but we'll be making new posts as we get more presentable material for you guys. As always, thanks for the support!

really like the weirdly cynical style

Following because skeleton

Haha, I really love how this looks, the art especially. Best of luck on this 

Thanks a bundle you guys! Hope to see ya around for future updates. Cheers! 

[AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ON GUMROAD!]

Hey gang, got some great news! This isn't directly related to the Jim RPG, but I wanted to let everyone know that the "This Is Jim" book is now finished and
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ON GUMROAD!

The book will have a few tie-ins with the game, but for the most part is completely its own separate entity.

The book is $8 normally, but if you enter the promo code fruitfly you can get it for just $5! If anyone's interested in purchasing, it'd be highly appreciated

Also, just so this is still officially considered a game dev post, here's a skeleton after taking a whollop from Jim's meaty fists!

[Boneborne demo music]

Boneborne demo music
https://soundcloud.com/daneel-games/sets/boneborne-demo-ost

The first iteration of music writing for the Boneborne. Let me know what you think!

Fantastic demos you've got here man, loving the arrangment style! Blue Bully is definitely my favorite so far, it has a really strong "boss room" appeal to it. Keep it up!

Excellent follow up post, it's great to see you thinking about the context of this singular town having the feeling of being alive, where it could easily go stale from being just one location. The devil's in the details, it seems.

In terms of what to generate for a devlog, I've taken a liking to treating it like a personal journal for anything related to the game. It could have development scraps of in-game tests, concept sketches, philosophy discussions...Anything really that pertains to the game in a meaningful way that feels connected to your thoughts as a developer and storyteller. It's like a footlocker for your understanding of the game in that particular frame of time, so that way when you're much further down the road with the project, you can look back and see where your frame of mind might have changed along the way. These are the most enjoyable devlogs to read through, in my opinion.

I did have a question for you about the mechanics of the game though. You'd mentioned that it's an exploration game that takes place over the course of 14 days. Is the game all about walking around and interacting with people and things in the environment to cue up pieces of story? Or will it have other integrated systems as well like combat, mini-games, puzzle solving, or anything along those lines?

I would just watch out for the red text on top of those rectangle boxes at the top where the level and experience are being displayed. I would make the text black just so it stands out and doesn't blend in with the already red box.

I also think having the health bars below each enemy is unnecessary, I'd take those out to avoid screen clutter in a game that's already gonna be pretty chaotic.. You also have some reaaallly tiny text above those barcode looking graphics (I'm not 100% sure what those are just from looking at this image). I think you can take that text out too since you already have the Player 1/2 tags at the top of the window.

Other than that, I think you've got a pretty alright looking setup here. You leave plenty of breathing room on the screen for the actual action to happen which is ideal!

Wow i love the concept. Will follow

Thanks so much, I'll be following your project closely as well, I can't get over how rad your visual direction is!

You guys have some really interesting ideas here.

Any of you familiar with the old "anti-humor" comic strip Jim's Journal?



(looks like they have some reboot of the strip going on now, but the classic run is the one that you've reminded me of)

I'm wondering if the setting here is a mundane world considered in new ways, like that comic, or a mundane world twisted into something bizarro and unique, like Earthbound. Both approaches could work but its not clear which you're going to take here.

Thank you! And no, this is the first time I've ever seen this comic, but it looks right up my alley haha

I suppose the best answer to your question would be a combination of both. Moreso a mundane world considered in a different fashion than usual, but with tinges of things outside the norm that are, if anything, just a result of Jim's fantasy of what he sees around him. Growing up (and still even now) there are seemingly normal interactions I have with everyday things that I often elevate to a level of fantasy in my own mind, as a result of my own overactive imagination. Scenarios that play out in my head that seem humorous or noteworthy that could never happen in real life, but are compelling to me as drifting thoughts. You'll see plenty of these types of things throughout the game, but the key idea here I suppose is understanding that Jim's impression of seemingly realistic scenarios and ones that feel slightly out of place in a "normal" world still exist on the same plane of face-value understanding for him.

Hope that concept is making better sense, thanks for asking!

Wow man, what a fantastic looking project you've got on your hands here. I'm super into the idea of genetic alteration of these "dogs" and having them genetically evolve over time through breeding. That leads me into some interesting thoughts about where you could take the gameplay concept of all this...

What if you were able to take the behavioral editing and programming you're doing now in order to get these different leg variants and body behaviors, and actually create a non-programmer friendly UI for the player to be able to create creatures of their own and have them evolve genetically based on whatever parameters they've set at the beginning of the game. They could continue to breed more and more of their creature until they think they've got a prime candidate, and then have them participate in contests. Perhaps having them place in certain ranks in these competitions gives them a wider range of options in order to construct future creatures.

I hope that made sense haha Overall though, excellent stuff you've got here, really looking forward to seeing more! These test gifs give me life haha

It's always really interesting to see devs who make games like this, with sort of an "anti-game" aesthetic. Really cool stuff you've got here, especially your use of live-action footage for promotion of the game. I'll be keeping an eye on this project, for sure!

"Electroshock Blues" is probably the only album I hated the first time I listened to it and ended up loving when I gave it a few more tries.

It's definitely their darkest album, and has a very Tom Waits-esque feel to it, which can definitely turn people off at first listen. It took a little while for me as well, but this album cohesively is easily my favorite offering of theirs.

Baby's first introduction to working with hitboxes in Unity.



It went well.

This looks amazing so far. I can not wait to see how it turns out. I love the concept and the art style!

Thanks so much! It's been in the brain pot for a while haha

I am guilty of this too. I really dig the game, both concept and art. It has a unique feel to it and I can already see myself getting hooked on exploring multiple paths/endings. Looking forward to seeing this fully develop, great work so far!

That means so much, thanks! Your work on Hiraeth has been one of my favorite projects I've seen so far on TIG, can't wait to see where that goes

Also, just a small little thing:



Whipped up a skelly-man that you'll be encountering in the game. His grabby hands give me life.

"Grandpa's happy watching video-porn with the closed-caption on."

No problem! If you are jonesin' to have somebody try things out at an earlier state just to get some first real gut reactions, friends are great for that since you'll be able to get immediate feedback. If you still wanna show us progress on what you're working on without any sort of playable build yet, that's totally fine! If not, that works too. The idea is to make the demo something that a person could play for more than just a minute or so. Make it worth their time to download the thing and get it going. If it's a small level snippet that only lasts about a minute, I'd just devote more time to content generation. That way people have longer than 60 seconds to get a feel for what the game's about in terms of playability, storytelling, etc.

Have a skeleton for being spooped! (an enemy you'll encounter in the Jim game)

This looks absolutely stunning, this looks incredible! Great job to the both of you, this is looking like it's going to be a stellar co-op game. I'll be keeping tabs on it for sure!

I think when working on a game, it's important to get people trying it out and looking at it/playtesting it as early as possible.

That being said, I think it's also important to give yourself some time to really evaluate whatever you have at the moment (whether that's a full demo or just a small snippet level) and ask yourself "Is this communicating the message and direction I'm aiming for?" When the answer to that question becomes "yes" (remember to be as objective about it as possible), that's when people should start sitting down and looking at it. They'll be able to tell you if "yes" was the correct answer to that question or not.

Good luck!

This looks like a trip! haha I'll definitely be checking out this alpha build. Can't wait to see what else is in store, great stuff man!

This is such an interesting concept! And the artstyle makes it look both memorable and relatable. We all are having JRPG battles in our daily lives, it's about time its represented in a game! Keep up the good work! 

I'm having constant JRPG battles in life, almost all of them are on a timer too haha Thanks for stopping by!

I will definitely be keeping up with this.

So glad you're on board with us, thanks!

Really digging the combination of concept and art direction here, I think you've really got those two things working together! That giant whale is especially awesome haha

In terms of critique, I just have a few small suggestions:

- Humpty Dumpty's art feels outside of the same art style as the rest of your monsters. It's especially obvious when comparing him to the giant muffin (which I love). I'd take another pass at that. The coins also feel a little too separated style wise from everything else.
- The text that appear when you pick up the coin is really tiny, and I could barely make out that it said "gold." I'd just keep a consistent gold counter in the corner of the screen to avoid cluttering your main play area with extra graphics, as the game already seems like it's pretty busy with all the character fighting. I could see myself getting lost in the swarm of stuff happening.

Other than that, I'm really liking what you've got so far! Looking forward to seeing what's next! 

[What game drives you nuts, and what about it gets your gears grinding?]

We all have at least one...

We might still enjoy it on one level or another, but it still drives us crazy in some capacity. What game drives you nuts, and what about it gets your gears grinding?

For me, this game has, and probably always will be, PAC-MAN 2: The New Adventures for the SNES.





From a design standpoint, this game is extremely unique, and does a lot of really interesting things in terms of character/player relationships. I'd be lying if I said my own game wasn't taking a few cues from the design of this one. The player doesn't directly control Pacman, but instead "suggests" which direction Pacman should travel, as well as having the ability to shoot objects of interest (or Pacman himself) with a slingshot at the bottom of the screen. The game is broken up into different chapters, each one requiring him to retrieve a certain item from one of the many different in-game locales. By using the power of suggestion and your trusty slingshot, you have to guide Pacman to these items and complete the chapter. However, Pacman is often reluctant to listen to you and you'll have to manipulate his mood by pissing him off, making him upset, etc.

The game is actually quite enjoyable for the first few chapters, but there's a point where you start to become irritated with Pacman as he will outright refuse to perform certain actions (especially in the 3rd chapter), which requires a great deal more outside persuasion and grueling backtracking to the point of it becoming a chore, and not being fun anymore. There are times where you will want to physically hurt Pacman just because he acts like such a whiny asshole. I've only successfully beaten this game once, as my patience usually dries up with it by the time I reach the latter half of the third chapter, and the escalation of puzzle solving jumps to an obscure level where you're wondering how the hell you were ever meant to figure certain things out.

Don't get me wrong: I don't hate Pacman 2. It just drives me up the wall every now and then. It's like my child. My irritating, 21 year old child.