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[Zizka]

I meant the "yes"/"no" rate which is twice more "no" than "yes"  . Getting told your game is memes is a bit hard to swallow but it's part of the process! Serenity now!

[alvarop]

I have no idea what that comment meant by the way. Memes? wtf



It's still time to fix some issues btw. Analyse the comments and check what people don't understand. Make sure you communicate how your game isn't shallow and what makes it good.

I would honestly say that there is a weird pacing issue in your trailer. I think you should have got to the hook faster and be less mysterious. Of course the music didn't allow for it as it stands, but you should have put stronger images that say a lot more about the game than the ones you have, IMO.

[Lex the Abstract]

Voted. Good luck!
You only got 4 comments so far, so don't get too crazy about negative comments just yet.

I can get crazy about negative comments if and when I want!

But seriously, even the guy who said this game was just memes said it looked much better done than most meme games, so I say it's a half-positive comment.

I imagine we'll get a lot of no votes- many people won't want another 2d game, or something cute, or something language related...  Or are just trolls.  But we're also getting yes votes and that is what counts.

On the dev side of things, we should be getting another build out soon.  We're taking a while to implement the multiple choice stuff and do some improvements in the GUI, as well as putting in some updated sprites.

[alvarop]

Yeah, remember that the YES count counts and no the other way around.

[Zorg]

You could add some more screenshots which include a normal face expression of Pan. There is only one regular screenshot (skewer level) and his face looks like Jim Carrey.

Show the boxing ring, the slime, the helldryer (stills, not animated gifs).

[FauxOperativeGames]

All having a lot of "Nos" means is that the average random person doesn't have an interest in your game.  

Your game is about learning Japanese now apparently (@_@), ergo ANY ONE who does not want to learn Japanese is going to say "No", so that shouldn't make you feel bad, it is virtually a guarantee given your model.

If I could share a bit about our experience on Greenlight with Ruin of the Reckless, I think what you need is TARGETED Greenlight hits.

Meaning, your game is about learning Japanese, so target some indy japanese gaming communities, target weebos, target anime forums, and anime streamers on twitter and the like. Btw, do you have a twitter where you are aggressively courting anime Gaijins and the like?  Aggressively target people that your game would appeal to, that way MOST of the people you send to the page will vote "yes" instead of "no."

your game is NOT trash at all.  It looks like a very well made piece of work that has a lot of potential.  That being said, even I would vote "no" on your Greenlight because I have no interest in a game about learning Japanese.  (I voted yes on yours any way though and sprinkled some love on too, tigsource army.)

[io3 creations]

Just reiterate a few points based on FauxOperativeGames's comment and my earlier comments about having a niche game:  Who is your target audience and how many of them have looked at the game?  Sure, certain things such as GUI navigation are general enough and most could give their opinion.  But when it comes to the niche gameplay, you definitely need to focus on your target audience.  That may also have been a reason why you haven't received much feedback about the combat aspect of the game - especially when typing was involved.  As FauxOperativeGames mentioned, the Steam Greenlight Yes/No ratio is not how "good" your game is but are people interested in it.  So, keep those things in mind when looking at feedback and comments.

*Strategic battles where your survival depends on correctly guessing vocabulary cards.

If you know the correct answer, are you guessing?  English is not my first language but that line sounds like, as one person mentioned on Steam:

an episode of Deal or No Deal i.e. guess - Move on - Guess - Move on

i.e. not skill but more like a luck based approach.  (In a way for those that are interested in the game but not interested in learning Japanese, that aspect would indeed be a guessing game)

As for having to "guess" the card, I prefer the version in your mockup image than in the video.  The English letters are in the center with a different and easily distinguishable background/surrounding image and the Japanese characters are on each side.  In the video, at the bottom of each card there are three question marks "" and the English characters are "squeezed" to the bottom below another "?".  To me, those question marks just add extra stuff that isn't really necessary to show and provide extra diversion and perhaps confusion (unless that is your intent) that was mentioned a few pages back regarding card design.

As for getting Greenlit ... I've seen a few games getting greenlit recently that would be pretty much "miracles".  So, it's not impossiburu.   

[Zizka]

I would honestly say that there is a weird pacing issue in your trailer. I think you should have got to the hook faster and be less mysterious. Of course the music didn't allow for it as it stands, but you should have put stronger images that say a lot more about the game than the ones you have, IMO.

alvarop is commenting this:




I'm leaving it there so that you guys can comment on things you would change in the trailer for a better reception.

@alvarop:
Totally. I was hesitating about the beginning of the trailer just showing environment but decided to go with it eventually. I think the environment can be seen as backgrounds for combat already so they're not necessary for taking trailer space.

[alvarop]

I think the greenlight trailer is a tool to sell what the game is all about and what makes it worth a YES vote. Right now you're going to "moody" and "feeling" route, which can be good for another type of game I think, a game that is more about the story. Remember, this is a game and a learning tool : sell us on those merits.

I would have made it more fun. More Kung-Fu. More : this is you kicking ass while learning Japanese in the game. And yeah, the game is so cool that we will make you want to learn Japanese.

Then again, I'm talking from a video editor perspective, which is my day job, so I may be a bit biased




This is not very good either, too many titles. However, it embrases the game aesthetic a lot more. I think your game / trailer is a bit conflicted between the classical platformer, RPG and learning tool. You gotta believe (and decide the direction). Int his trailer, I really  like it when the Onion head teacher shows up (sorry I don't remember the names) and you feel karate as fuck, so that was my point regarding this example.

One last thing I wanna add is that I am not saying that changing the trailer will bring your game into the hall of  fame of indies games. I'm just saying that it could help with communicating to the potential players why they should vote YES and eventually buy it. But, that's just my take on it and how I would personally do it.

[Zizka]

Well, since it's your job, I would say you certainly know what you are talking about! We'll discuss your message and reference in this week's meeting, thanks!

Devlog 90: Upcoming Changes:

This week's devlog is an edit of the first announcement I made on Steam.

This week:
-Redid the game presentation at TIG.
-Redid the battle cross.
-Redid the icon.
-Redid the hud.
-Worked on new foe: Mecha Geisha. Not good enough to showcase yet though.
-Tested latest build for bugs.
-Made video for bug fixes for Greg.

Here are the objectives for the upcoming week:

1. Controller Input
Jeff Mann, the programmer for the game is currently working on implementing gamepad support. Since it's game input isn't typing anymore, having gamepad control is the logical choice. Keyboard will, of course, still be supported, but we'd like to make the game input as simple and practical as possible. We'll be bug testing the controller around the end of the week.

2. New Battle Cross
The Battle Cross is simply put the ability selection UI. It's based off a game I really liked growing up, Lufia: Rise of the Sinistrals.

The previous version was done clunky, cramped and just plain not to my liking so I redid it entirely. I had the touch screen in mind I'll admit in order to make it easy for players to make their selection. Here's a comparison screen:



I would say I'm overall pleased with the new look.

3. New HUD
Another thing I've reworked this week is the hud. The previous version was not very readable and "all over the place":



I've reworked everything so that the important elements can be understood at a quick glance (here's the mockup):


We still have some size issues to fix but I think overall it's a lot more elegant.

4. More than just Kanas
Some comments mentioned that the game was only to learn kana. I can understand this was what was seen in the trailer but I added some actual vocabulary in the mockup. You'll find that kanjis will have furigana on top.

The player simply presses the button on his controller and attempts to identify the right answer for "apple" in this case. A right answer racks up your battle score which in turn determines how effective your attack or defense will be.

New trailer

Tony Manfredonia, the composer for the game, is also going to rework the trailer to show more gameplay (this has been one recurrent comment). This was admittedly my first trailer and so it was as imperfect as I expected it to be. The next version will be more focused on gameplay and the strategy involved in STX.

I'm very open to feedback from potential players. I think anyone can have good ideas about just about anything game related without being an actual game developer. I'm interested in your comments, you can be as harsh as you want, if something is sticking out, I'd rather know about it so I can find solutions about it.

[LobsterSundew]

For some reason TIGSource occasionally stops sending me notifications about new posts in threads I follow.

I agree with zorg that the toast faces for supporters should probably not be on the title screen.

The new 4 cards in 4-directions approach to selecting an answer looks much more gamepad friendly. I like it.

There is now 26 comments on the Steam Greenlight page. It is starting to shift more positively recently.

About outside Kickstarter:

Gamescom is over. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was released.

PAX Dev is August 31st. PAX West is September 2nd to 5th.

I'll eventually build a new launch table of potential dates to run a campaign.

About within Kickstarter:

Kickstarter has added a new button in the rewards sidebar to pledge without selecting a reward. The "Back this project button" has been moved to next to the "Remind me" button. There are now project category specific features. Products now have a prototype gallery section as an attempt to combat vaporware. There is also a feature to follow project creators now through Kickstarter.

GLITCHED had a very entertaining final-countdown.
http://i.imgur.com/62CLuVK.png
I like the glitch effect added to the project thumbnail image.

The Adventure Pals also was funded with a big final surge.
http://i.imgur.com/sRGgvNF.png

Diabotical ends within 50 hours.

Many of the campaigns that launched at the start of August are now dead. Many are starting to cancel just before their scheduled deadlines. With September the category should suddenly spring back to life like it has in other years. The largest projects are often well aware to avoid launching in August.

Suda 51 (of No More Heroes and Killer Is Dead fame) teased he was working on a new AstroBoy game. This generated hype. Astro Boy: Edge of Time launched on Kickstarter. Hype has since been replaced by confusion. The execution seems so bizarre for both the game and the project itself that it stands a good chance of failing.

Russian Subway Dogs is from the developer of They Bleed Pixel. It is about stray dogs in the Moscow Metro. SYNTHETIK is slightly isometric top-down action shooter. Radical Heroes has an early 3Dish MODE 7 style aesthetic for its ground. There continues to be very few other launches worth noting. A top-down 3D shooter called Redie is launching soon.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

About outside Kickstarter:

Gamescom is over. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was released.

PAX Dev is August 31st. PAX West is September 2nd to 5th.

you can add wow: Legion released the 30th.

[Zizka]

@LobsterSundew: Ok for the portrait not on the title screen. I guess I'm trying to find a way to show my appreciation for people who comment and support the project but I'll try to implement those differently. Maybe have a room in-game just with portrait or something similar.

As for the reaction to the game, it comes down to what you guys said: people are reacting positively but it's a game for a fairly limited niche which means a lot of people are voting ''no'' because it's not your typical minecraft/dark souls clone or whatever it is that's popular at the moment.

Vote wise, we're pretty much at 50/50 at the moment I would say, well almost anyway.

The challenge right now is getting attention on the game again. Visitors are dwindling as it's not recent news anymore. In other words, I can't benefit from steam exposure that much anymore.

On the plus side, the promotion I do myself in selected locations has a greater chance to bring in "yes" votes than your typical steam visitor. .

I've had what I think is a great idea of the trailer and the general orientation of the game's lexicon.

Basically, I'd like to use screenshots from popular Japanese games and than do a transition that shows that this vocabulary appears in STX. I think this will inform potential players that the vocabulary they will learn won't be super generic, i.e."Paul goes to the kitchen" but rather focused on common vocabulary found in video games: inventory, magic, sword, armor, etc...

I think this would be another way to stand out among the other Japanese learning games out there.

There's just the issue of copyrights, I don't know if I can use a screenshot from a game in a trailer. Magazine do it for reviews but I'm unsure if it would fly as part of a trailer. I wouldn't want the screens to be misleading about the game content however. So it's certainly something to ponder before making any decisions.

[Zizka]

Hello guys!

Releasing a new build today (0.44):

WINDOWS:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/eyax7v2yrbt1ous/Super_Toaster_X_v_44_Windows.zip?dl=0


OS X:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0048px7eazzk2d/Super_Toaster_X_v_44_OS_X.zip?dl=0


LINUX:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/yt0nmgcdlond0q6/Super_Toaster_X_v_44_Linux.zip?dl=0


Mostly bug fixes but also the new input system which makes things a lot fun I think.

[Lex the Abstract]

As Zizka says, we've got a new build!      
(Sure took us a while, huh?)

As you've seen in the trailer, we've been altering the game from essay to multiple choice.  This brought up an unexpectedly large number of issues; from how we were showing cards in the card assignment menu to the lack of any automation in the editor.  A lot of the work on this build is behind the scenes stuff.  It is definitely going to help my side of things, but it doesn't make the game any different.

One of the biggest changes is the new dictionary for cards.  With this, the card references become uint composite indeces, instead of object links.  I also made some new editors, and automation for both making new cards and rebuilding the dictionary.  Overall, it means when we change the cards enough to break the prefabs, I don't have to spend a couple of days hunting for things to link, dragging links around the editor and double/triple checking my work to make sure everything is okay. 

It should also make adding new cards to the game and putting cards in the dungeon as loot easier, as well as allowing for smaller game saves. Speaking of which, serialization is coming soon, I think.

We also got some more proof that you shouldn't let a programmer design the new GUI in 2 minutes while trying to get the rest of the code working.  I doubt that we needed any more, but hey...   

[LobsterSundew]

About the demo:

I gave the sensei stage a quick try.

1 row with 4 cards is much easier than typing.
Each card corresponded to WASD (W then A then S and then D).

Double-tapping the key to select the card works well.

For both S and D options it took longer to figure out which key to press. I'd expect the W card to appear above the S or have the S card appear below the W. Having them all in the same row is conflict with how the keys are on my keyboard.

After a short time with sensei I wanted to see the slime level.

The speed of combat feels much better being able to input the cards faster.

On 2 occasions I knew the right answer to the kana but messed up inputting the right key. Again, these were the S and D keys I'm having more trouble. I may be personally biased towards using the numberpad for such gameplay input.

About outside Kickstarter:

Eve Online announced it is going Free2Play. This news is soaking up press.

As ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ said, the new World of Warcraft expansion is out. The servers are under denial-of-service attack.

Battlefield 1 has an open beta happening (if servers stay up). It is also soaking up press. This apparently eased some of the strain on the World of Warcraft servers as people tried to get into the Battlefield 1 beta instead.

Titanfall 2 showed off more material.

I've prepared a new launch table for potential times to run a Kickstarter campaign for September to December.
http://i.imgur.com/htjmY4r.png
I haven't looked at the AAA game release schedule yet.

About within Kickstarter:

Tuesday and Wednesday saw the video game category come alive again.

Alkimya is an action game. Abatron has RTS/FPS genre mash. Eisenwald: Blood of November successfully raised $83,577 from 2,729 backers for the first game that released on Steam in July 2015. Two psychedelic games launched: Super Mega Best Cat Adventures and Broken Reality. Furious Jack 2D beat'em up with excellent animation, but probably not enough pre-launch marketing.

Kickstarter's official blog announced support for Hong Kong projects. It will be interesting to see what Chinese studios bring to Kickstarter.

The largest projects often wait until August is over before launching. Tomorrow is September 1st. It will be interesting to see what September 2016 brings. The first week of September can get very competitive.

[Zizka]

I'm glad you like the new setup! I like it quite a lot too. As far as the keys are concerned, this is something you'll be able to setup yourself in the future when we have the key binding option, so that won't be an issue. I'm really glad we dropped the typing.

I'm also glad you didn't find any bugs this time  .

I'm drawing some comic book text to show up for especially devastating combos (in Japanese of course!)


Once we have polished the hud, I'm going to start contacting youtubers to give the game a spin. The problem at the moment is that your visibility on steam is pretty much gone:



As far as the votes are concerned, we're having trouble breaching the gap between the "yes" and the "no". We do have 3% of ask me later which would certainly narrow the gap:



As far as the average, we're unfortunately doing far worse than other games on steam:


Our "yes" score is slowly going up but so is the "no" score. I would say we've been stuck at 45%/52% for a while now:


Marketing is a tricky thing! It's very difficult to get exposure.

[io3 creations]

Tried the demo.  I like the music and the animaitons.

The game opened in a 640x400 window and I didn't see any way to change it.  Is that the default setting or was it based on another Unity game that I played before?  With that resolution, the Hint on the main menu is only partially shown (the 't' in try isn't visible).

As LobsterSundew, I also had a little trouble getting the cards.  It felt like having to do the extra step of figuring out which key to actually press took time.  Since AWSD letters are used, that also added a bit of confusion: first I had to figure out the correct character of the card, then press the "correct character" on the keyboard.  My "instinctive" preference would be to use the arrow keys (or some form of directional navigation) and another key to confirm selection (e.g. spacebar).  However, if you keep the same card configuration then using four keys that are next to each other might work - as long as there's no need to take those extra steps.  My guess is that I'd have the same issue with a gamepad and would prefer directional navigation.

Are there situations where you have to chose from more than four cards?

About the fighting ... um ... how do you fight?   I could only move left/right but didn't know how to attack and kept dying.  I saw a page with keys to attack and block but either it didn't work or I just didn't notice that my attacks were effective.  On the fight levels, is there a way to get back to main menu?  I had to close and restart game to try the other parts.

When Pan dies, Pan seems to remain in a single piece.  So, instead of "Rest in Pieces", something more bread related ~ such as "You're Toasted" might fit better.

[Zizka]

Thanks for the feedback/trying the demo.

The game opened in a 640x400 window and I didn't see any way to change it.  Is that the default setting or was it based on another Unity game that I played before?  With that resolution, the Hint on the main menu is only partially shown (the 't' in try isn't visible).

I asked Jeff to get rid of the launcher when you start the game. I want resolution options to be in the game as opposed to being dealt with a launcher. The options will be accessed from the title screen.

As LobsterSundew, I also had a little trouble getting the cards.  It felt like having to do the extra step of figuring out which key to actually press took time.  Since AWSD letters are used, that also added a bit of confusion: first I had to figure out the correct character of the card, then press the "correct character" on the keyboard.  My "instinctive" preference would be to use the arrow keys (or some form of directional navigation) and another key to confirm selection (e.g. spacebar).  However, if you keep the same card configuration then using four keys that are next to each other might work - as long as there's no need to take those extra steps.  My guess is that I'd have the same issue with a gamepad and would prefer directional navigation.

So you mean ASDF instead of WASD. Makes sense. I'll talk to Jeff about it.

Are there situations where you have to chose from more than four cards?

No, there won't be. I want this to be practical with a controller.

About the fighting ... um ... how do you fight? Grin  I could only move left/right but didn't know how to attack and kept dying.  I saw a page with keys to attack and block but either it didn't work or I just didn't notice that my attacks were effective.  On the fight levels, is there a way to get back to main menu?  I had to close and restart game to try the other parts.

I wanted to lock the "real" fight version from the demo because there was no tutorial. It was ultimately decided to leave it in in order to get feedback.

Basically, you press "Q" or "E" in order to summon either your defensive or offensive abilities.

There's currently no way to go back to the menu from the fight. We'll add one in the next build.

Again, you have no idea how invaluable feedback like this is useful and important to us. Thanks so much!

[oahda]

So you mean ASDF instead of WASD. Makes sense. I'll talk to Jeff about it.

SDFG is probably safer, bearing in mind AZERTY keyboards and such. But the best option, guaranteed to be compatible, and perhaps slightly more intuitive in that case, would just be numbers 1-4 (non-numpad, of course), and you probably won't even have to worry about most non-Latin keyboards.