next »

[Ramos]

I understand, I am still looking forward to see the final results

Thank you for your support!

Great to see your progress!

Yes, mixing top-down with side view is interesting, I find it a bit confusing to look at, but it certainly makes an impact.

I see that the parts in your roadmap that have changed from WIP to DONE are mainly the sections with randomised missions (if I've understood that correctly) I'm curious if there is a reason for that, have you ever envisaged the game as being playable with only randomised missions? Could that be a different game mode when you finish the main storyline?

Hey logophil,
Thank you for the feedback, yes I am mostly aiming for impact.
As for  "have you ever envisaged the game as being playable with only randomized missions" - the answer is yes and also this was the original concept, to have a full game with random content but then we wanted more and we added a solid story campaign that also adjusts according to the player choices/multiple paths.


-----------------------------------------------

While my partner Sergey is busy with last-minute bug fixing and polish before we release the demo, I took a few days off from the main development process to create promotional material for the Twitter marketing campaign which I plan to constantly do 1 month before the release and 2 weeks after the release(the release itself will be in 2022).

I will make a plan for each day what tags to use when to post, where to post, and so on, and by that time I want to already have all promo material so I can concentrate more on real-time engagement.

I used 600x600 for best res for Twitter, nothing spectacular, I will also do some in-game gifs and more.

Preview:









I used both zoom and real size footage so each one got 2 versions.

And here are some mixed ones(I do plan to have a total of around 30 of these pics and around 10 solid gifs)







oh and we also work on adding the second big boss with unique mechanics, still trying to mix RTS with horror.

[Dinomaniak]

Marketing plan sounds good, best of luck !
what did you guys do for Halloween ?

[Ramos]

Marketing plan sounds good, best of luck !
what did you guys do for Halloween ?

Thank you!
I worked on the game. It has become an obsession at this point but a pleasant one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------


 On this occasion, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the TIGSOURCE community and especially to the developers that joined my Discord room and helped me out with the Vertical slice version testing providing constructive feedback and support on my little dream project.

I must mention you all and your creations on my dev blog, that's the least I can do!


Both cepnox and irn - they have a wonderful thriler game project: TENDRIL, inspired by Aliens.
You may check their Devblog here:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=60709.0


Alain got a truly unique visual style in his RPG: BattleJuice Alchemist(he also got a solid youtube channel)
You may check his dev blog here:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=71222.0


bryku got a solid Xcom inspired game with beautiful pixel art, very polished creation: SHARDPUNK
You may check his dev blog here:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=65119.0


Dinomaniak, who got a magical pixel art project: The Mages Club
You may check his dev blog here:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=70124.new;topicseen#new


logophil, who got a Mad max in space type of game with heavy TBS tactics : Relic Space.
You may check his dev blog here:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=71787.0



THANK YOU GUYS!


----------------------------------

In addition to this, I also had test help from:
- around 20 friends and people who play totally different types of games(GTA, triple AAA titles and so on)
- around 10 other developers that are not from Tigsource
- around 20 Fans from the previous instalment from the series(flesh-eaters)
- around 30 Hardcore RTS players
NOTE: All tests were private, either for people with high levels on my Discord or in private chat, I haven`t released the vertical slice demo in the wild

Now that the final vertical tests are done, I want to share some conclusion data with you.

I received different types of feedback from each of these tester categories (mainly each category: developers, hardcore RTS players and AAA players/casual had similar feedback within their respective category), mainly what impressed me the most was the resource on the map suggestion conflict that I want to share:

The developers(both from Tigsource and external) 90% of them(huge amount) suggested highlighting the resources on the map. Around 90% pass half the game, and around 10% actually finished the demo.
The hardcore RTS players and the old instalment from Flesh eaters fans suggested hiding the resources even more on the map, even under the fog of war, they seem to enjoy the thrill of finding things. Around 90% finished the demo and around 10% got stuck in the middle.
The friends and triple AAA players/casual did not pass the tutorial, not even one ...


Mainly after taking into consideration, I come to the following conclusion:
- Developer category feedback: It is good to see what points you did right, for example, all positive points mentioned in most developer feedback its solid foundation pillars, it is good for ultimate confirmation that you did something right.
Also, it is good for Polish notes, for example, we had multiple selections suggested and worked good and lots of interfaces and other tweaks that can make player life better.
- friends and triple AAA/casual players(at least for my indie type of project): it is still good to have negative feedback, you don't need to change the game to try to make all happy, you just need to make sure you know your audience and don't waste marketing time on other target audience that is not for you, they will mostly buy the game and leave a negative review and/or refund. Life is cruel.
- RTS hardcore players and old fans from previous game instalment: truly perfect audience, they streamed the game on our Discord and started to compete against others for different challenges. They are the people with priority when it comes to how you design the game.



Regardless of all, I said, my personal advice is to appreciate all feedback, both negative and positive, and try to judge it from an objective point of view, then take all constructive criticism and decide what changes are worth doing but put in balance the priorities and never cut from the main target audience desires but then again, we are indie developers and one of the advantages of been an indie game developer is that we can do what the hell we want  


Thank you guys  !

[Alain]

I enjoyed testing Chromosome Evil a lot so far and thank you for the shout out. Also, I like the ideas and humour of your promotional images

[Beastboy]

I chekd the devblogs of the other developers, they all seem to have major tactic or rpg elements to their projects, is that also a pathern ? 

[Ramos]

I enjoyed testing Chromosome Evil a lot so far and thank you for the shout out. Also, I like the ideas and humour of your promotional images

Thank you for the support!
If you have any other suggestions regarding the promo material or marketing strategy for Twitter please do let me know

I chekd the devblogs of the other developers, they all seem to have major tactic or rpg elements to their projects, is that also a pathern ? 

Hahahaha funny, conspiracy, Illuminati confirmed

[3dgeminis]

I've seen that movie, it's going to get ugly 

[Ramos]

I've seen that movie, it's going to get ugly 

Yes I know, the sequel was also cruel 

This other boss got totally different mechanics

[Beastboy]

Having such huge bosses is a big +, but are you sure you are not giving away to many spoilers?

[Dinomaniak]

Thanks for the shoutout ! in our case we decided to not update the blog until we start marketing - no answer to when that'll be. But WIP .

Question regarding tentacles, will these move in detailed animation or how far does the rabbit hole go ?

[Ramos]

Having such huge bosses is a big +, but are you sure you are not giving away to many spoilers?

True to some extent but then again I only posted here for now.

Question regarding tentacles, will these move in detailed animation or how far does the rabbit hole go ?

No, just basic stuff


--------------------------------------------------------------------


So much work to do

On the last mile of the development, I am adding a few shock scenarios with unique twists, after all, I do try to combine horror with RTS.

For example, here the intro will say that just after you deployed the strike team you fall asleep, a weird nightmare where you encounter the "ancient one", the mechanics here are a bit twisted, as in you can ask questions, curious players will surely ask a lot of questions from the question pool but the twist is that the strike team soldiers will constantly lose HP during this state, will the answers be more important than your strike team health?

[Alain]

Cool, I like these cosmic horror aspects in your game!

[vdapps]

I checked back TIGSource after a while and your thread. Cool with your Discord channel and testing, good work! Good luck with your project as it's nearing its release. I checked it on Steam and wishlisted.

[Ramos]

Cool, I like these cosmic horror aspects in your game!

Glad to hear that Alain, I am still experimenting here 

I checked back TIGSource after a while and your thread. Cool with your Discord channel and testing, good work! Good luck with your project as it's nearing its release. I checked it on Steam and wishlisted.

Thank you Vdapps, it is a nice surprise and it means a lot to us! 

But about the "nearing its release" I am not so sure about that, we calculated development time a bit wrong and there still is a lot to do.
I am going to put a rough sketch of tasks left on a timeline:

NOVEMBER
- Loose ends
- Critical polish
- Upload private Beta on Steam
- Do an exclusive marketing Demo campaign for YouTubers
- Bug fixing

DECEMBER
- Scenario implementation/testing and fixing
- Marketing promotional material

JANUARY
- Scenario implementation/testing and fixing
- Marketing promotional material

FEBRUARY (PROBLEM)
- Final balance
- Tests
- Final Polish
- Bug fixing
- Russian language
- Achievements with rewards
- extra game modes
- Marketing

MARCH
- Release custom free demo on itch and gamejolt
- upload game on Steam
- Release game(preferably 16 of March)
- Marketing

APRIL
- work on adding more content based on Steam player Feedback
- Bug fixing after release
- Marketing
- ...

and so on.... the rest is not important at this specific moment.
The problem is in February, too many tasks, I think we will need 2 extra months for those tasks and that would mean we will miss out on the opportunity to release this year because of bad release timing. We also consider making a Kickstarter in case we miss the deadlines so we can wait 1 more year until full release.
Nothing is certain at this moment, we will know better in February

[vdapps]

Nice list! As I said, you're already at BETA / marketing stage, so I take it as "nearing to release".

In my case, I have still sooo loong way ahead, it's almost frustrating, not even at half-way of game development itself.

[Ramos]

Nice list! As I said, you're already at BETA / marketing stage, so I take it as "nearing to release".

In my case, I have still sooo loong way ahead, it's almost frustrating, not even at half-way of game development itself.

Here is a nightmare scenario:
I aimed for 1 and a half years of development but ... I invested so far 4 years so far and I am still around 70%-80 done.
And I had a very constant flow of work, I am lucky to work with a very disciplined partner, each week I do 1 art update and my partner 1 code update, not even one vacation in 4 years, during actual main job vacation I worked on the project full time, I said this before, for us it has become an obsession at this point

[vdapps]

Ha, same here :D I wanted to finish RTG in one year, now it's clear it'll not be done even in 2 years. And with all post-development stuff I guess it'll be 3 years at least.

[bryku]

I aimed for 1 and a half years of development but ... I invested so far 4 years so far and I am still around 70%-80 done.

Yeah, and I've also heard that the last 20% is the most difficult.

Still, as long as there is persistence there will be a success in the end. Keep grinding!

[oldblood]

While my partner Sergey is busy with last-minute bug fixing and polish before we release the demo, I took a few days off from the main development process to create promotional material for the Twitter marketing campaign which I plan to constantly do 1 month before the release and 2 weeks after the release(the release itself will be in 2022).

I will make a plan for each day what tags to use when to post, where to post, and so on, and by that time I want to already have all promo material so I can concentrate more on real-time engagement.

I used 600x600 for best res for Twitter, nothing spectacular, I will also do some in-game gifs and more.

This sounds like a really effective strategy. I'd definitely encourage some GIFs. My one critique might be that some of these are pretty text heavy, and in a world where people are scrolling at hyper-speeds, text-heavy images might not resonate as well as they could.



This one in particular is my favorite. The imagery is very effective. It uses minimal text (and I think less is more with text in marketing materials) and the mood it sets in 10 words or less is maybe the strongest. It feels foreboding and almost presents as a challenge to the player. 'Can you survive 8 minutes?' You might even consider animating these into GIFs where just the text is animated? Might help give scrollers more reason to pause if it's not 100% static text? Don't read too heavily into this 30 second edit test, but just an example of how even a subtle animation on the text might help attract the eye? Just thinking out loud.

[Ramos]

Ha, same here :D I wanted to finish RTG in one year, now it's clear it'll not be done even in 2 years. And with all post-development stuff I guess it'll be 3 years at least.

If you enjoy the Journey of development it can take 10 years too and you will still be happy but if you are pressed with time and deadlines then it can make you burn out fast

Yeah, and I've also heard that the last 20% is the most difficult.

Still, as long as there is persistence there will be a success in the end. Keep grinding!

You are totally right, I reached 80% of development in the first year and now I am on the last 20% since the last 3 years.
I swear I will think 3 times next time before taking such a complex project

This sounds like a really effective strategy. I'd definitely encourage some GIFs. My one critique might be that some of these are pretty text heavy, and in a world where people are scrolling at hyper-speeds, text-heavy images might not resonate as well as they could.


This one in particular is my favorite. The imagery is very effective. It uses minimal text (and I think less is more with text in marketing materials) and the mood it sets in 10 words or less is maybe the strongest. It feels foreboding and almost presents as a challenge to the player. 'Can you survive 8 minutes?' You might even consider animating these into GIFs where just the text is animated? Might help give scrollers more reason to pause if it's not 100% static text? Don't read too heavily into this 30 second edit test, but just an example of how even a subtle animation on the text might help attract the eye? Just thinking out loud.

Hey oldblood,
thank you for the constructive criticism and suggestions.
I totally agree with you on the gif content, the problem is ... I have a very old laptop, when I try to make gifs it sometimes freezes and the workflow can be very slow and involve much stress on my side regarding the gif content so I planned to make the gif`s last on my list.
Also thank you for that mockup, I will use your suggested design.