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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogs[KICKSTARTER LIVE] Raji: An Ancient Epic, action adventure, ancient India
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Avichal
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« on: August 05, 2017, 09:52:30 AM »





Raji: An Ancient Epic is an isometric action adventure game set in Ancient India. Raji, a young girl is chosen by the gods, to stand against the demonic invasion of the human realm, her destiny to rescue her younger brother and face the demon lord Mahabalasura.



Hey everyone,

We are Nodding Heads Games, situated in Pune, India. Raji: An Ancient Epic is our debut game. We are here at TIG forums for critique and feedback so as to improve the quality of the game, this will be our devblog. We will be regularly providing updates in regards to where the project is headed. Our aim is to launch our Kickstarter campaign in Q4 2017 and would need help of each of you to see us reach our goal. We hope you find this blog entertaining Smiley

Thanks.


Kickstarter Now Live!! A brand new trailer and a playable demo!!



Kickstarter Trailer




Kickstarter Demo Walkthrough




Square Enix Collective Trailer



Teaser




About two months ago we revealed the first look of our environment. We received loads of compliments and feedback from various developers and gamers. The positive response boosted our confidence and validated our approach towards the visual direction of the game. Since then the art team has worked with patience and hard work to come to this output. We will love to know what you guys think of this and where can we improve?


Screenshots














Updates

Update #5 Live on Square Enix Collective!
Update #4 Environment Screenshots Part 1
Update #3 The Combat of Raji: Part 1
Update #2 Character Creation Process
Update #1 The Initial Environment Sketches



Social Media

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Youtube Channel

Indie DB

Instagram

Press Coverage

Gaming Central

Animation Express

Indian Video Gamer

One Angry Gamer

NerdPlanet.it


« Last Edit: November 08, 2017, 09:35:57 AM by Avichal » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2017, 10:04:06 AM »

That is a really lovely-looking environment, to my eye! The ruins as islands above the mist (or clouds?) make for quite an appealing scene, I find. ^_^
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« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2017, 12:04:35 PM »

Looks awesome. I'm gonna follow this.  Kiss
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Avichal
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« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2017, 02:13:55 PM »

That is a really lovely-looking environment, to my eye! The ruins as islands above the mist (or clouds?) make for quite an appealing scene, I find. ^_^

Thank you Smiley
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« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2017, 02:14:42 PM »

Looks awesome. I'm gonna follow this.  Kiss

Thanks Smiley
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« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2017, 10:49:41 PM »

Our aim is to launch our Kickstarter campaign in Q4 2017 and would need help of each of you to see us reach our goal. We hope you find this blog entertaining and delightful Smiley

Here is a launch table showing potential times to run a Kickstarter campaign for the months of August 2017 to October 2017. I haven't made one for November 2017 to December 2017 yet because I am waiting until Gamescom announcements are over.
http://i.imgur.com/yKxLHAn.png

October is one of the strongest months of the year for video games on Kickstarter. Both September and October can have strong competition for what projects get visibility. The second half of October has many strong AAA releases to compete with this year.

November is the least predictable month of the year. November in past years has been sometimes terrible to sometimes decent. It is not as strong as October, but much better than December. A big reason campaigns suffer in November is some of the strongest selling AAA releases for the entire year are targeting the holiday shopping season.

December is the worst month to run a Kickstarter campaign. It is the second half of December that really stagnates. Christmas is about as slow as it can get on Kickstarter. The platform doesn't recover until mid-January. Bloggers go into their annual retrospective mode in December with posting stuff like awards and top 10 lists. Potential backers can also be expected to have less disposable income due to holiday shopping. The initial days of Steam's Winter Sale is not a fun time to run a campaign.

The majority of Kickstarter backers are in North America. International-based project creators often make the mistake of ending their campaigns at awkward times of the day like 3am in the morning when many frequent backers can be asleep and not around for upgrading their pledges during the final countdown. This nerfs the final surges of campaigns. Catering to the Eastern Time Zone of North America can produce better results. Indian Standard Time is 9 hours 30 minutes ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. That may be tough. The sweetspot of ending around 8:30pm EDT would be 6am IST. Normally an international project creator would usually be looking at ending earlier so a developer is not staying up too late, but in this case it might make more sense to end later.
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« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2017, 12:06:00 AM »

It's really cool seeing a game come out of India. It's great seeing the results from different cultures doing video game art. The environment art is especially interesting and pretty. One thing I noticed is all of your press links don't work properly. It appears you have a "%22" in the beginning of each link which breaks them.
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Avichal
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« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2017, 05:57:08 AM »


Here is a launch table showing potential times to run a Kickstarter campaign for the months of August 2017 to October 2017. I haven't made one for November 2017 to December 2017 yet because I am waiting until Gamescom announcements are over.
http://i.imgur.com/yKxLHAn.png

October is one of the strongest months of the year for video games on Kickstarter. Both September and October can have strong competition for what projects get visibility. The second half of October has many strong AAA releases to compete with this year.

November is the least predictable month of the year. November in past years has been sometimes terrible to sometimes decent. It is not as strong as October, but much better than December. A big reason campaigns suffer in November is some of the strongest selling AAA releases for the entire year are targeting the holiday shopping season.

December is the worst month to run a Kickstarter campaign. It is the second half of December that really stagnates. Christmas is about as slow as it can get on Kickstarter. The platform doesn't recover until mid-January. Bloggers go into their annual retrospective mode in December with posting stuff like awards and top 10 lists. Potential backers can also be expected to have less disposable income due to holiday shopping. The initial days of Steam's Winter Sale is not a fun time to run a campaign.

The majority of Kickstarter backers are in North America. International-based project creators often make the mistake of ending their campaigns at awkward times of the day like 3am in the morning when many frequent backers can be asleep and not around for upgrading their pledges during the final countdown. This nerfs the final surges of campaigns. Catering to the Eastern Time Zone of North America can produce better results. Indian Standard Time is 9 hours 30 minutes ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. That may be tough. The sweetspot of ending around 8:30pm EDT would be 6am IST. Normally an international project creator would usually be looking at ending earlier so a developer is not staying up too late, but in this case it might make more sense to end later.


Can I take a minute to say that you're absolutely an amazing person. I've followed your 32 page Kickstarter guide you posted on reddit, which is by far the most in-depth guide written about Kickstarter. I feel people like you are the heroes of Indie Game development. I wanted to get to touch with you after reading the guide, it's an honor that you came by our project.

Now then, I will say that our launch was planned for November 1st(Wednesday) precisely. We wanted to apply for Square Enix Collective on 20th September, if selected we would be able to run the entire month to get more eyes on the game via Square Enix Collective and launch right after it. I know this sounds very tight but then again we don't have options.
 
After reading what you've written about the releases in the coming month, either I shift to 2nd November with a 32 day duration, which gives me a okay release date and good end date. Or we go for 23rd October, which might be tight as we want to polish everything that we have. I'm not accounting 31st October as a release date as it's same as Halloween. I'd be discussing this with the team. It'll be great if we can connect through emails, and I could get some advice for our overall campaign, which is still WIP...only if you're comfortable with it and you have time for it.

I had already planned a release at 6.30 am IST after reading your guide Smiley

Thanks and have a great day!
« Last Edit: August 09, 2017, 12:58:13 AM by Avichal » Logged

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« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2017, 05:59:54 AM »

It's really cool seeing a game come out of India. It's great seeing the results from different cultures doing video game art. The environment art is especially interesting and pretty. One thing I noticed is all of your press links don't work properly. It appears you have a "%22" in the beginning of each link which breaks them.

Thank you! We've received really great support from all around the world and it has boosted the team's confident. At the start of the project we talked about how we can provide a game that represents our culture and that itself is a USP. It seems to be working in our favor.

Thanks for pointing out that the presslink issue, I've fixed it. Thanks again  Smiley
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« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2017, 01:45:12 PM »

A game set in ancient India? Oh. My. God. PLEASE tell me the soundtrack will feature Carnatic Indian Classical music. Man, I'm sold on the prospects of the soundtrack alone.
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« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2017, 08:13:31 PM »

Count me in.This looks amazing.I'm not well versed in Indian mythology, but based on what I read the story should be awesome.You still haven't mentioned what genre the game is.I'm assuming that it's an RPG but I could be wrong.

BTW,how did you guys form your team?I'm from Bangladesh and I plan to start developing my own game within a few months(I need to finish University admission first.There isn't much of an indie scene here so I can't seem to find anyone to team up with.Is there a good indie community in Pune?
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Avichal
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« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2017, 11:43:47 PM »

A game set in ancient India? Oh. My. God. PLEASE tell me the soundtrack will feature Carnatic Indian Classical music. Man, I'm sold on the prospects of the soundtrack alone.

We got that covered. We will have an official soundcloud channel and will release 3 to 4 tracks in the coming months. Make sure to follow us so you can enjoy the soundtracks of the game. Thanks Smiley
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« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2017, 12:48:00 AM »

Count me in.This looks amazing.I'm not well versed in Indian mythology, but based on what I read the story should be awesome.You still haven't mentioned what genre the game is.I'm assuming that it's an RPG but I could be wrong.

Hey there, thanks. The genre for the game is action adventure. It will not be an RPG.

BTW,how did you guys form your team?I'm from Bangladesh and I plan to start developing my own game within a few months(I need to finish University admission first.There isn't much of an indie scene here so I can't seem to find anyone to team up with.Is there a good indie community in Pune?

Making the team is one of the most challenging aspects of making an indie game. We have a very small community in Pune, I can say we had very talented friends who shared the same vision and the dream to make a project like this, and some members were really hard to find. I suggest you to take part in game jams and meet more developers, see what interests them and give it a try to make something together. Our team has dedicated a lot of time to project before we took the call to quit our safe jobs (at EA, Zynga, etc). I can't possibly answer on how you can approach to make a team...circumstances, opportunities vary so vastly that it's up to each individual to figure it out themselves. It's no easy task, and one of the first hurdle as well, but if you're adamant about achieving something, you will find your way.

My only suggestion is to not start right away after the university, you need to get a job in the industry, gain experience and knowledge or release a game of small scale to learn how the industry works with the development and business of video game.


Hope I was helpful.
Cheers  
« Last Edit: August 09, 2017, 12:57:38 AM by Avichal » Logged

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« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2017, 04:19:06 AM »

Count me in.This looks amazing.I'm not well versed in Indian mythology, but based on what I read the story should be awesome.You still haven't mentioned what genre the game is.I'm assuming that it's an RPG but I could be wrong.

Hey there, thanks. The genre for the game is action adventure. It will not be an RPG.

BTW,how did you guys form your team?I'm from Bangladesh and I plan to start developing my own game within a few months(I need to finish University admission first.There isn't much of an indie scene here so I can't seem to find anyone to team up with.Is there a good indie community in Pune?

Making the team is one of the most challenging aspects of making an indie game. We have a very small community in Pune, I can say we had very talented friends who shared the same vision and the dream to make a project like this, and some members were really hard to find. I suggest you to take part in game jams and meet more developers, see what interests them and give it a try to make something together. Our team has dedicated a lot of time to project before we took the call to quit our safe jobs (at EA, Zynga, etc). I can't possibly answer on how you can approach to make a team...circumstances, opportunities vary so vastly that it's up to each individual to figure it out themselves. It's no easy task, and one of the first hurdle as well, but if you're adamant about achieving something, you will find your way.

My only suggestion is to not start right away after the university, you need to get a job in the industry, gain experience and knowledge or release a game of small scale to learn how the industry works with the development and business of video game.


Hope I was helpful.
Cheers 
Your post was actually pretty helpful. I plan to take it slow and work on games that I can finish solo.I've tinkered with unity to make some demos and I feel like I'm experienced enough for a small Android game.Hopefully I'll have time to do all this as I pursue my CS degree.

I'm still unsure about getting a job at a AAA studio. Do they hire foreign recruits?

As for the genre,I'm not sure how I missed that since it's right there in the title.I guess I clicked the link too fast XD


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Avichal
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« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2017, 08:17:43 AM »

Quote
Your post was actually pretty helpful. I plan to take it slow and work on games that I can finish solo.I've tinkered with unity to make some demos and I feel like I'm experienced enough for a small Android game.Hopefully I'll have time to do all this as I pursue my CS degree.

I'm still unsure about getting a job at a AAA studio. Do they hire foreign recruits?

As for the genre,I'm not sure how I missed that since it's right there in the title.I guess I clicked the link too fast XD


I'm glad to hear that, your plan does sound sensible and you should stick to it. As for the job, it doesn't have to be a AAA studio, can be a any studio that relates to you. Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and get a job just for experience.
For AAA companies to hire someone who's not a local they will need to see that you have an exceptional skill set first, then the complications of hiring you are another hurdle. Some companies can deal with this and some just prefer local developers. This can be tough even for people with exceptional skill. You can message me if there's anything else you'd need to know. Have a good day Smiley
« Last Edit: August 09, 2017, 09:48:50 AM by Avichal » Logged

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« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2017, 11:40:54 AM »

Wow, lovely atmosphere and art style. I also really like the logo! I'll definitely be following this devlog. Best of luck to you!
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« Reply #16 on: August 09, 2017, 11:57:57 PM »

Wow, lovely atmosphere and art style. I also really like the logo! I'll definitely be following this devlog. Best of luck to you!

Thank you Smiley
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« Reply #17 on: August 10, 2017, 08:00:58 AM »

Quote
Your post was actually pretty helpful. I plan to take it slow and work on games that I can finish solo.I've tinkered with unity to make some demos and I feel like I'm experienced enough for a small Android game.Hopefully I'll have time to do all this as I pursue my CS degree.

I'm still unsure about getting a job at a AAA studio. Do they hire foreign recruits?

As for the genre,I'm not sure how I missed that since it's right there in the title.I guess I clicked the link too fast XD


I'm glad to hear that, your plan does sound sensible and you should stick to it. As for the job, it doesn't have to be a AAA studio, can be a any studio that relates to you. Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and get a job just for experience.
For AAA companies to hire someone who's not a local they will need to see that you have an exceptional skill set first, then the complications of hiring you are another hurdle. Some companies can deal with this and some just prefer local developers. This can be tough even for people with exceptional skill. You can message me if there's anything else you'd need to know. Have a good day Smiley

Thank you.I'll keep your advice in mind.You've earned yourself another follower.Keep on living the indie dream.
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« Reply #18 on: August 10, 2017, 11:42:12 AM »

Thank you.I'll keep your advice in mind.You've earned yourself another follower.Keep on living the indie dream.



Thanks and best of luck!  Beer!
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« Reply #19 on: August 10, 2017, 12:16:05 PM »

wow, environment looks amazing.
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