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[nathy after dark]

I just re-watched another animated film that you should definitely see if you haven't: A Town Called Panic.

Also I've been replaying Paper Mario since you mentioned it, and wrote in my log how it's influenced my main project Space Bard, if that interests you.

My SJW sense is also tingling about putting a stereotypically bandana-clad squid in a level called the Ghetto Beach. A lot of things make me uncomfortable about that, but I get the sense from Senpai's Body Pillow (which tbh is a lot funnier) that the shock/offensiveness is something you're going for? Anyway just keep in mind that having diverse playtesters and feedback at an early stage not just from me, could save you some trouble and make the game accessible to a bigger audience.

There was Twitter outrage?

[elosociu]

I have to say, I love everything about this game.

[Sundrop]

This reminds me of Noddy, and I love that!

[anotherDev]

YOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOOYOYOYOYOYOYYOYOO!

@nathy: Cool! I'll definitely check out that film! Also haha, ya maybe "ghetto" wasn't the right word. It's a hip-hop inspired world. It features competing hip hop artists DJ Krabby Krab and Lil' Krill fighting for rep on the beach.



 I'm kinda going for that "shock comedy" approach, but, I have higher standards than "haha look the squid's wearing a bandana", stuff like that is more of just a cool theme I like. Also don't give me so much credit, I don't really think I have anywhere close to the audience needed for a twitter outrage lol. Thanks btw, your "SJW senses" make me double check myself to make sure the stuff I'm doing isn't over my level of offensiveness.

@Beirud: Yes! Thanks for the feedback! Definitely going for the story approach with my next trailer, which I'm very excited to show. Right now I plan on having the trailer done January 3rd, and I'm REEEEAALLLY shooting for a public demo out that month as well.

@everyone else: Thanks so much for your positive words. The emotional and mental toll that comes with making a game all alone was really starting to get to me this week and I was kinda breaking down, but your words helped me get out of it. I've been looking into many of your projects too and I'm genuinely impressed with so many of them, it's awesome how much heart and passion there is in this community.

Still doing polishing this week, but I put in one of the final additions to the game(really getting close to having it all done!)which is a "enemy bio" type gallery, but instead of just some description of the enemy, I thought it would be interesting if it showed the development of the game, like concept art and early art for stuff. I love seeing that stuff in art books and stuff, so I thought I'd just put it right in the game for people! Hopefully people care enough to check it out!

[Pixel Noise]

"Lil' Krill" is the best artist name I've heard in quite some time. Everything about this continues to be awesome - love the idea of showing some development process in the monster bios. It seems like pandering, but I sincerely mean it when I say I've loved absolutely everything about this - keep pushing

[JobLeonard]

Hope you'll find a hip-hop fitting replacement for the GB name.

Regarding shock comedy, you could do worse than watch this video by Lindsay Ellis on why Mel Brooks' "The Producers" is great, Southpark is kind of easy but still gets away with it, and why typical edgelords typically deserve all the scorn they get: (hopefully it's obvious I'm not suggesting you're an edge-lord)





It might help you find the right voice for you to keep the "cute shock humour" in but how to do so it in a good way, maybe even accidentally making a point

[anotherDev]

Woah, hey! ...HEY! Woah! Hey!

It's been a little while, I've been debugging a lot and went through this odd phase where I wasn't proud of, like, anything I was doing that I'm just getting out of now. It was very frustrating.

I thought I'd show off a few more of the game's characters today.

Some of these characters are written to be multi-dimensional and complex, but most are what I like to call "aggressively one-dimensional" I've always sorta enjoyed characters in movies where their personality could be summed up in a word without much of a reason, like godzilla or something, whose whole personality is "he likes to destroy things...because reasons" or some action hero fights the bad guys..because he's just really angry. I always thought those characters could be very funny if done right, so a lot of the game's characters are written in that same style.



Jumbo the Dog is an aspiring film maker. He believes heart is the most important thing in an art form. He makes movies like "Pup Fiction" or "The Pawshank Redemption" He gives you dates to return to his theater to see his newest picture. But with each movie, his doubt grows stronger. Nobody seems to be paying attention to his hard work. Maybe...he just isn't cut out to make movies. How far does he need to push himself before he accepts that his movie dreams just wont come true and give up?





Meowmoto Musashi is the leader of "Kyoto Death Cat Squad #7". Death cats are elite groups assigned to pose as a deceased celebrity so that the world doesn't realize that celebrity is dead. His squad is assigned to pose as legendary Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa. Can you imagine a world in which we no longer got movies directed by Akira Kurosawa? What hope would be left for humanity? Why would anyone go on? With an injured member of their squad, however, they will need your help carrying Kurosawa's body to various movie shoots located around the game world.




@PixelNoise: Thanks for the kind words, man! Really means a lot!

@JobLeonard: thanks for the tip! That was a really informative video!

[nathy after dark]

Jumbo the filmmaking dog is a brilliant character idea. Also I semi-recently completed a full playthrough of Paper Mario: the thousand year door, thanks to your project. I am deeply indebted as a result. 

[MatthewRock]

Every new character or screenshot you show off gets me more excited for this game, it's so incredibly charming.
I just want to populate my desk with dozens of your little clay critters! Hope there's some merch somewhere down the line!

[Devi Ever]

D:

This is so beautiful. D:

[JobLeonard]

It's been a little while, I've been debugging a lot and went through this odd phase where I wasn't proud of, like, anything I was doing that I'm just getting out of now. It was very frustrating.

We've all been there, glad you managed to crawl out before giving up altogether.

I thought I'd show off a few more of the game's characters today. Some of these characters are written to be multi-dimensional and complex, but most are what I like to call "aggressively one-dimensional" I've always sorta enjoyed characters in movies where their personality could be summed up in a word without much of a reason, like godzilla or something, whose whole personality is "he likes to destroy things...because reasons" or some action hero fights the bad guys..because he's just really angry. I always thought those characters could be very funny if done right, so a lot of the game's characters are written in that same style.

Nice! I completely agree with that; perfect way to avoid too much pretense and becoming too "deep" for your own good - not that you had to worry about it with the lighthearted attitude

Glad you enjoyed the video!

Also, aww... don't let the doggie have a sad ending... I hope Jumbo will find happiness!

[Penguinoccio]

yeah Jumbo is powerful and I want to give him a belly rub and tell him his movies are great

[anotherDev]

Thanks for all your support folks!

@nathy: you're welcome . I gotta play that again one of these days...

Small little update!

I have sorta finished the game from start to end, now it's just a matter of going back and giving some stuff much needed polish and debugging.

I'm expecting it all to take me a few more months of work, but I also don't wanna rush it too much. Especially because I haven't been trying hard enough to get much-needed press coverage of the game. Mostly due to self confidence, no matter the positivity I receive I often have trouble convincing myself to be proud of what I'm doing. It's a problem, I'm working on it. I have that common indie dream of just enough success to continue to make another game without my family and friends asking me what I'm doing with my life, and obviously  the launch is important for that, so I don't wanna rush it for nothing. I'm currently trying to reach out to different publishers to help me with the launch of the game.

I've been polishing up the look of my Japanese snow world:



As well as the look of the final world, which I won't show too much of...


That's all for now! I talk about some more characters next week!

[JobLeonard]

What's your twitter? I'll give you a release-retweet for sure; same thing with facebook presence.

What platforms are you supporting, and where will you release it? I'll buy a copy regardless, but it's still nice to know.

[Pixel Noise]

I absolutely understand the fear of trying to market, promote, etc. Nothing to feel bad about. BUT, yes, you do need to move on and DO IT ANYWAY! This is going to receive some wonderful press, I think, and I'm guessing most everyone who's commented on the log would agree.

Get on Twitter, start throwing up screens, gifs, etc.

Get a Thunderclap campaign set up for release/kickstarter/whatever milestone you want to blast about.

As you said, contact publishers. Also contact gaming news outlets with your press kit.

Back up - make a press kit.

Hahah, you probably know all of that already. But if you need some actionable steps to take, those are all great things to be doing that will work toward your marketing goals.

[anotherDev]

Thanks for the support guys.

I do have a twitter @ConorGarity, where I've usually been posting 1-2 screenshots/gifs a week.

For now I plan on PC, mac and linux. I dream of having any game I make on consoles, but I'm not really worrying about that until I see how release on computers go.

Thanks for all the suggestions Pixel Noise, and ya I am aware of those steps haha. Although I've never heard of Thunderclap before...

I'll work on a presskit and stuff, right now I'm focusing on the publisher situation, just to be able to ask someone for launch support and advice, which would take so much weight off my shoulders.

I seriously don't understand how there are so many people crazy enough to go through the process of making a game lol. The curse of creativity I guess!

[JobLeonard]

Following on Twitter!

I see that you haven't posted the gifs of Jumbo the Dog yet. They'd get retweeted, I guarantee it!

[Beirud]

MAN, I just listened to your OST from your Twitter account and it's awesome.
You really should get your game outside! You have an awesome game that I'm sure a lot of people want to play, I showed this to many friends and they all want it so bad. I want a copy too when you finish it because it's gorgeous.

[anotherDev]

Ya man, Matt did an awesome job with the track he did, I hope to have him do some more! I'm trying to get my game out there, but I'm struggling to determine where exactly I should put in the effort to do so, I'm trying a bunch of different marketing things. Mostly, I'm in talks with a few publishers right now so they can give me that launch support and really help show this to people, hopefully all that goes well, I'll let you know

[anotherDev]

Heyo!

Been a little bit. Unfortunately still no luck with the publishers I've tried. The game is almost complete though, which is cool, even though it currently probably doesn't have the launch support to go anywhere when I release it, I'm still trying hard to change that though. Whatever the case, I hope the people who do play it find it great! It'd actually be pretty cool, I think, to have a small community of people who really like it. That way I could do, like, giveaways where I can mail out hand made sculptures of the game's characters or something to fans.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of polishing tweaks (changing things from just functional to actually looking good) and cutting some things that aren't really worth investing the time into. I changed the look of the main character Jim, since the old model I made like a year and a half ago and I've gotten much better at the art since then. But I'm worried this new one might look too cute, like to the point where it's a little generic looking? Let me know what you think. The new one is on the right:




also been finishing up the game's intro...


(gif capture got messed up at the end of that last one, whoops!)

You may have seen it on twitter, but I made this promo art too, which I think came out nice...


Yup, well, that's it for now. I guess I'll be back with more stuff soon. Thanks!