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[TonyManfredonia]

I. Love. The phone. System. SO MUCH. Doing that to save your progress would be awesome. If you have time, you should make the load menu have a mini “devlog” about what happened so far (or the most recent big event in the story). It’d be a fun 4th-wall concept. Simply an idea!

I dig it either way 

[thefoolishbrave]

I. Love. The phone. System. SO MUCH. Doing that to save your progress would be awesome. If you have time, you should make the load menu have a mini “devlog” about what happened so far (or the most recent big event in the story). It’d be a fun 4th-wall concept. Simply an idea!

I dig it either way 

Hey thanks The phone has been in for a while ha, but I do like the suggestion, especially for people who have to take a break from a game or forget easily about the task at hand it's good to have context. I've definitely been frustrated coming back to a game and trying to figure out how to get my footing again


That being said I'd like to softly announce that my Kickstarter for the game is launching tomorrow! I'll make a bigger announcement about it and set off some flares tomorrow

[thefoolishbrave]

My Kickstarter is finally live! If you've been following the project and can back or share that would be much appreciated!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296644525/dont-give-up-a-cynical-tale

I've spent 5 year in indie, and funny enough, haven't given up, but I'm getting older and if this isn't a success I'm likely going to have to shelf it for a while so I can do something else besides bleed for indie


If you haven't played the demo yet you can grab it here: https://gamejolt.com/games/dontgiveup/354865

Let's make this happen!

[Josh Bossie]

I don't think I ever knew the full scope of your game until reading your KS. Damn, dude

Good luck!! Gave you an RT on Twitter for whatever little that's worth <3

[thefoolishbrave]

I don't think I ever knew the full scope of your game until reading your KS. Damn, dude

Good luck!! Gave you an RT on Twitter for whatever little that's worth <3

Haha thanks. Yeah, I think a lot of people make snap conclusions about the game based on some of the visuals and the original demo but it's actually pretty deep! Thanks for the tweetage! =]

[thefoolishbrave]

So far so good! Over a third of the way funded and still on day 2!

Even if you can visit the campaign and just share it with your social media friends and fellow devs it would be much appreciated! :D

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296644525/dont-give-up-a-cynical-tale

[thefoolishbrave]

The project is in its last week and still needs to put together about $800! Give the demo a shot and show some support if able! :D

[Devilkay]

good luck for your KS! the game is good!

[TonyManfredonia]

I know I put this on Twitter, but...

*** CONGRATULATIONS ***

I'm thrilled you got funding early this morning. That's absolutely HUGE. It is well-deserved!

[thefoolishbrave]

Man oh man! It's been a while since I've done this!

First off let me say.... DON'T GIVE UP IS GOING TO PAX SOUTH 2019 AS A PAX RISING SELECTION!




I love telling the world about my game, but I also have a lot of work to do if I want it to be as awesome as it can be, so often times I have to choose between, getting a few more hours in, or making the rounds on social media and forums and applying all of their respective image linking methods.

But today is one of the days I feel like telling the world how things are going!

So- the project was "funded" in September! I raised a little over 5K  and while it of course takes more than 5K to make a game, it was enough at least for me to combine what I already had/will have and cross the finish line!


Making a game has been tough, and without a doubt I can say that, there was a time where the game couldn't even raise 5K, there was a time where might Twitter had less than 100 followers, and while being a successful indie is generally not a linear trajectory, I can say without a doubt I have made progress from where I was ACROSS THE BOARD 1 year ago!

And now my game is finally becoming a thing in only a few months!



So what's new?

Well, the game is now on Steam and I've been working crazy hard to finish all the areas up as well as write the script. While I can't say how long it will take because I have a habit of making more work for myself every time I get an idea that I think will increase the player's enjoyment, I can definitely say I feel like the amount of work left is more of in the < 50% range at this point!

Early Access is coming in just a few weeks and I'll be showing the game at PAX South in January as a Rising selection!

I've been pretty darn stressed about funds, but I'm a resourceful person, and I've been budgeting on a Weekly basis and maximizing my life hacks to make it to the finish line without sacrificing any level of the game's quality!

I've got some new improvements I'm making the the demo that exists now and I'm psyched to be sharing that with you guys in hopefully a week from now!

[kkairos]

This looks rad.

[thefoolishbrave]

It’s finally time! After a little over 3 years in development in last than 48 hours I’ll be doing my first PAX convention for DON’T GIVE UP! I’ve dreamed about doing this for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve had a project that I felt deserved its place alongside other quality games worthy above average success. In just a few months from now the game will also be wrapped up, and even though people have certainly worked on games that have taken longer the amount of effort I’ve put into the story, mechanics, and design, just feels like a massive accomplishment!







I’ll have a new super polished demo with original music, new mechanics, and sound available for folks to play, as well as some sweet trading cards with exclusive art! Shortly after we’ll be opening early access to the public! Awesome!



I’m also revving up for a Kickstarter shortly after coming back, I think with all the polish and improvements and extra attention the game will get through PAX, we can raise some funds to improve the game to its highest potential instead of hanging on for dear life to make it to release, so hopefully you’ll be on the look out for that!

If you might be attending be sure to stop by and say hello! :D

[thefoolishbrave]

The PAX South Post Mortem

I’ve been working on my game DON’T GIVE UP for over 3 years. It’s crazy that it’s been so long. 6 years ago I had never made a game, and now I’ve been a producer, designer, writer, and artist for a full length RPG title.

To me PAX was always like the holy grail of indie conventions. Sure you could probably make it here if you could pony up the dough, but it wouldn’t make sense to bring anything sub par to the table with all the great games coming out to show there. And finally, I felt my minimalist pixel art game was good enough for the big time!



To sum it up, PAX was worth it. Before deciding whether attending was worth the investment, I tried to google other indie hopefuls thoughts on the experience and they are always mostly vague with a positive sentiment on the experience. To my dismay, I’m afraid I essentially leave PAX with a similar viewpoint.

There was no “single” defining moment for me at PAX (okay, there was, but not in the context of exposure or sales). The best way I can sum up attending PAX is that it is a tool to help propel your game. Just like social media, publishers, or outsourcing. Is there a chance that by attending PAX you can inspire virality? Of course, that is always possible, even from a single Tweet while sitting at home, but the truth is most media and personalities there will only get a chance to pass your booth once, or they won’t wait around if your stations have folks on them. What I know walking away from PAX, is that consumers loved my game, more people than anywhere else signed up for the newsletter to find out when they could buy the game, and even press and industry folks got a hoot out of it. And I’m not just talking about what they said to be nice, I watched them play the 15-20 minute demo, rock to the music, chuckle visibly, and chat me up for a bit afterwards.





I also made friends and got to take a break from the churn of solo game dev. I was constantly complaining about my feet while I was there (those floors are murder, get as much cushioning as you can) but already after being home for one day, I’m kind of like, wishing I could just continue to get that kind of fresh traffic for my game on a daily basis.



If you watch people play your game 3 days straight, no matter how far you’ve come, I guarantee there are things you are going to realize that you wouldn’t have at your office that you can make better.That might be worth it in itself.


I had a half pod, this was my first PAX and I got to take down the thick printed sign with me to commemorate the experience, including it being my first full game and my first PAX, another thing that doesn’t have tangible value (unless you want to be technical).



Now back home, I’m taking just a single day to recharge and go full force! I have also definitively decided to attempt Kickstarter round 2 and I’ll be sure to up the production value this time (within reason of course), so please be on the lookout for that because I know I can take this game a bit further if I had just a bit more resources!

The latest demo is now available on Steam (that was at PAX) with all new music and tunes and you can follow me on Twitter for updates!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/960710/DONT_GIVE_UP_A_Cynical_Tale/
https://twitter.com/tacopizzacats

[thefoolishbrave]

Hey everyone!

I just announced a few days ago that DON'T GIVE UP is going for Kickstarter round 2 on February 12th! The first campaign was able to raise enough to keep the project afloat, but I'm hoping to raise just a bit more in order to add some additional music, portraits, and help with some boss sprites to the game! The amount will be relatively low according to my first one ($5,000) so I hope you guys can help spread the word when the time comes! The game is still slated for a summer release! :D

[archgame]

I tried playing the MAC demo from your website and itch.io, but both kept crashing immediately upon opening (OS X Version 10.9.5). I put the error message below, just wanted to let you know before you launch the kickstarter! Let me know if you find out what's up, would be happy to give it another go, game looks really interesting.

Code:

Dyld Error Message:
  Symbol not found: _getattrlistbulk
  Referenced from: /Users/USER/Downloads/DontGiveUp 2.app/Contents/MacOS/DontGiveUp
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

[airman4]

Sent an word for your cover art ! and just discovered this devlog ! awesome game and idea
Best of luck for the selling on steam !

[thefoolishbrave]

So, here's the thing about me, probably about a month ago I claimed demo portion of the game to be at a "release" state. While that's not untrue, I really try my best to keep good ideas out of my head. But as I spent a little time analyzing certain games I'd drawn aesthetic from (or had a similar one) I realized that this game was really in need of some funky battle transitions!



But of course, I'm not one to really like copying so I had to put my own spin on it, thus this heaping mass was eventually born.



I added the wavy lines because in other iterations of this kind of thing, I noticed "noise" was a pretty static thing. But I also conceded that often times these games were turn based and not real time, so I think this actually had a positive affect on its monotony.

I began working up a final vision and came up with this:



Now all that was left was to execute!



Slightly disorienting, but in my opinion gorgeous to look at and not enough so that it throws the player off! (with many more tiles to come once the base dev is finished!)

I've now resigned myself to only finishing formatting the script

I hope you will help me spread the word about my Kickstarter in less than a week! Feel free to follow me on Twitter or visit this official site:


https://twitter.com/tacopizzacats
http://tacopizzacats.com/


Cheers!

[thefoolishbrave]

Hey everyone! Just want to say my project is live on Kickstarter with a humble starting goal of $1500, I know we can do it, thanks for any support! ^_^

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296644525/dont-give-up-a-comedic-and-cynical-rpg

for the first 24 hours the game is only $9!



Here's the pre-release trailer!

[thefoolishbrave]

The Kickstarter is wrapping up in 7 days and I’m glad to say we’ve hit our goal and have been trickling beyond it! When you’ve been self funding for years a few thousand dollars months away from release can really be a thorn in the side when you don’t have it- I’m glad I could put together the extra funds!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296644525/dont-give-up-a-comedic-and-cynical-rpg

For most of the campaign I have been working on animations for the remainder of the script daily and finished yesterday on page 186 of 224, I’m super close! I considered streaming my work, but the truth is, I’m way to ADD for that, I get up for snacks and pet cats, and spend 3 minutes on phone games too sporadically throughout the day so my brain doesn’t have a nuclear melt down.

Here’s a few things I’ve been working on, they aren’t too revealing or exciting, but it’s a compromise between my no spoilers going forward policy and showing that I am still actually working on new stuff







The game will be out in a few months, and as I’ve said even contributing $1 might seem trivial but the gesture alone really makes an underdog indie dev feel energized!
Here’s a little recap of all the worthwhile gifs I’ve put together for the current state of the game!

https://imgur.com/a/O0ZvkRh

Well, I should get to promoting and making more animations! Until next time!

[beetleking22]

I really like the tile based dodging system.