next »

[Phodex Games]

I will post a new video today, so the next weeks will be such dev-only weeks, yeay

I will check that out right away .

In case you are interested in a breakdown of what time roughly goes where when I make a (~6-8 min) video, here is a little breakdown. Maybe we can compare notes get some insight from that

3h Concept & script
2h Setting up lights, camera etc. and disassemble again
1h Recording
2h Voice recording & editing
2h-4h Gameplay/screen recording
7h-12h Editing / motion design
1h-2h Fine cut / corrections
1h Rendering / exporting (different, versions, making a GIF)
1h Thumbnail
2h Uploading & posting on social media
____________
22-30h total

Yes thanks, that's actually really interesting. To be honest my sense for the actual time in hours a task takes is pretty bad. Something I see right away is that you set up lights and a camera which I don't have do to. However, I have this animated character I adjust for each video. Another big junk that I don't have to do is gameplay recording, well I do that of course, but usually, I do it during development. Every time I create something new and interesting I just fire up my recording program and press start, which basically takes no time at all. That means I have a massive folder full of footage I then use for my Devlogs. Sometimes I need to record some new or additional footage, but it doesn't take very long usually. So let's see. My list would look like this:

30 min Define the topic and select the appropriate footage (from the folder I mentioned)
2h Rough cut of the footage and making notes for the script (sometimes it are hourlong clips)
1-2h Video Title and Script
1h Voice over Recording & Editing
3h Final Cut & Post Production
1h Polishing
1h Thumbnail & Video Info (description & stuff)
1h Render, upload & video setup in YouTube
1-2h Preview GIF & Social Posts Scheduling
__________________________________________
11.5 - 13.5 hours

And remember my video are mostly even longer than yours (8-10 minutes). It's no competition by the way I really just wanted to give you some input on it. I think it's important to not spend too much time on marketing and to find the sweet spot where quality is good but the effort is still reasonable. That's what I am continuously doing. I work 60% on the actual content (video in this case) and 40% on making the process of creating it as streamlined and simple as possible.

By the way, although our video style is a bit different I wouldn't consider my videos low quality. It's not that I save time by sacrificing quality. I can see where you spend the time, but you need to ask yourself what is worth it and whatnot. I ALWAYS try to maximize the pieces I can reuse, to create templates and guidelines that make life easier for me. As I mentioned before it's a task of its own, but it saves tons of time in the long run as you can see.

Some easy tips I would give you to improve your efficiency are:

• Record your footage while developing whenever possible
• Create as many reusable motion graphics as possible (I also have quite some motions graphics and do that)
• Sacrifice some effects if necessary, you may care about them, but the audience mostly doesn't even notice
• Create a devlog template (a folder with thumbnail, script, and editing file templates (in my case a premiere project with everything structured correctly already))

I can imagine to do more of these now and then and I hope them to be a chance to spice things up on the one and even save a bit of time on the other. I guess it could be interesting to have a couple of devs talk to each other as well, we can keep that in mind for the future

That for example is a great idea. A talk is pretty easy to do and I think it also would be fun. It's pretty much like DevPlay if you know that. it's a show where german game devs talk about stuff, really interesting by the way. I will make myself some more thoughts about that in the future. I would like to have something that's easy to execute and still helps each other out because usually as a game dev you don't have much time or energy to coordinate stuff like that.

[Phodex Games]

Like for many indie devs, marketing is hard for me. The idea of some group helping each other out, seems great. Although... if all of them only need marketing... ^^

But that's exactly the idea. A group helping each other out with marketing, nothing else. It can be something simple like mentioning the indie game of your buddy in your videos (for example in a certain segment). But I am sure you can make much cooler things. However, it should be something that can be easily done by everyone. Like for example cross-posting stuff on Reddit, so nobody can say you're promoting your own game. You know small things like that.

[Phodex Games]

Only a few more steps before you form your own cooperative distributor

Who knows whats going to happen, but I always had that idea of a strong indie union :D

[Alain]

Only a few more steps before you form your own cooperative distributor

Hahaha, don't worry, not going to happen Yes, I want people to know about and play my game, but I know that it won't be a "financial success" or anything. For that it would have had to be done two years ago :D

And remember my video are mostly even longer than yours (8-10 minutes). It's no competition by the way I really just wanted to give you some input on it.

Don't worry, I totally understand how you mean it and I am really thankful for your input!

Some easy tips I would give you to improve your efficiency are:

• Record your footage while developing whenever possible
• Create as many reusable motion graphics as possible (I also have quite some motions graphics and do that)
• Sacrifice some effects if necessary, you may care about them, but the audience mostly doesn't even notice
• Create a devlog template (a folder with thumbnail, script, and editing file templates (in my case a premiere project with everything structured correctly already))

All these points are things I can improve on. Especially what you are saying about recording during the process and not afterwards is something I thought about, but somehow never got into the habit of. Hearing you are doing it this way is great, I will try it out. Also, I am just getting started and I will put time into fleshing out my Premiere / Photoshop "templates" more to save time in the long run.

As for promoting each other: I don't want everything to become a giant advertisement, although when creating and posting content here and on other platforms I know this is partly that. But I honestly also do it, because I enjoy it. I love talking about games and realated stuff and looking at each other's projects. I think we can support each other best by being part of each other's communities and just be genuinely interested in a game or the person or process behind it.

[Alain]

AND NOW BACK TO SOME ADVERTISEMENT! Just kidding, I guess this video is the least advertisy one of mine yet. As I said yesterday, I'd like to share a chat I had with game music composer Marek Smagala with you. He saw this thread here on the forum and e-mailed me. We stayed in touch, because he is just a super nice guy. We decided to make two videos, one answering questions from my perspective as a dev and one from his as a video game composer. In my video we talk about the synthwave soundtrack I made for my game, although I did not have any experience making music before. His perspective on the game-making process is a very different one and I did not realize how many musicians are reading this forum. There are many ways to get music for your indie games: Buying ready-made tracks, hiring a composer or of course try and make it yourself. So we talked about that and I asked Marek about beginners' mistakes, his work with indie developers and just game music and sound effects in general. If you are interested, you can watch the conversation here:





If you are interested in hearing me answer Marek's questions (in my arguably much less eloquent non-native speaker way), you can check out Marek's video, too:

[Phodex Games]

As for promoting each other: I don't want everything to become a giant advertisement, although when creating and posting content here and on other platforms I know this is partly that. But I honestly also do it, because I enjoy it. I love talking about games and realated stuff and looking at each other's projects. I think we can support each other best by being part of each other's communities and just be genuinely interested in a game or the person or process behind it.

Don't get me wrong I also like making videos and stuff and I love the interaction with the community also here on TIG Source. Advertisement doesn't have to be something bad if it's honest. I think if you enjoy it you are doing it right. Sure I don't like some of the stuff you need to do (e.g press releases, contact press, etc) but it's part of being an indie game dev and I enjoy the process as a whole. Not always but most of the time. So no pressure :D just sharing some thoughts.

[Alain]

Don't get me wrong I also like making videos and stuff and I love the interaction with the community also here on TIG Source. Advertisement doesn't have to be something bad if it's honest. I think if you enjoy it you are doing it right. Sure I don't like some of the stuff you need to do (e.g press releases, contact press, etc) but it's part of being an indie game dev and I enjoy the process as a whole. Not always but most of the time. So no pressure :D just sharing some thoughts.

I'm with you there, for me it is fun most of the time, but it can also be tedious. But working on this interview with Marek for example was a lot of fun and I hope to be able to do more things like that which are not 100% "goal oriented".

[oahda]

Eyy, it's Marek! Fun to see a new format to your devlog videos yet again. Enjoyable conversations!

[Alain]

Eyy, it's Marek! Fun to see a new format to your devlog videos yet again. Enjoyable conversations!

Thanks, I'm glad you like them! For the next videos I'll get back to the basics and focus more on the progress on BattleJuice itself.

[Alain]

I just wanted to share a quick little update: I'm implementing Danielle at the moment.

Danielle is Cherokee Creek's chief of guard and makes sure no possessed creature gets in. Yes, technically there are also pentagrams for that, but she does not have too much faith in those. Her title is a bit overstated since she is the last guard here. Now that most people are gone after the explosion, there is not much left of the lively place this once was, but Danielle can't bring herself to leave yet.

Danielle is the last (human) NPC I am adding before the public playtest and she will give you a side quest that unlocks a trusty companion.

[marcgfx]

just watched your video, nicely done! I've never tried making musik. I've made a lot of sound-effects though. My main problem is actually integrating them in a meaningful way without everything just turning to mush. If you know what I mean.

I like Danielle, the only thing I really miss on her is a thumb

[vdapps]

Nice co-operation with Marek, you're really passionate about development of your game.

Regarding music, there's still option of using royalty-free music, of course, downside is your music will not be original. But so far, royalty-free music I used in my previous game (Universe Quiz), I still not heard anywhere else yet and tracks were very nice.

But for RTG, I guess, I will explore "co-op with composer" way, will see about that. I think music tracks will be one of last things to put into the game.

[Alain]

just watched your video, nicely done! I've never tried making musik. I've made a lot of sound-effects though. My main problem is actually integrating them in a meaningful way without everything just turning to mush. If you know what I mean.

I'm glad you liked the video! The problem of everything turning to mush is something I experienced, too, with regards to music. I guess it comes to what Marek says in the interview: If unsure, keep it simple. But what to keep and what to scratch is something that can take a lot of time and expertise to figure out, so it is not always easy to follow this advice and get good results.

I like Danielle, the only thing I really miss on her is a thumb

Your the first one to mention it and you are right. Actually, there are no thumbs (at least not animated ones with their own bone) in BattleJuice

Nice co-operation with Marek, you're really passionate about development of your game.

Regarding music, there's still option of using royalty-free music, of course, downside is your music will not be original. But so far, royalty-free music I used in my previous game (Universe Quiz), I still not heard anywhere else yet and tracks were very nice.

But for RTG, I guess, I will explore "co-op with composer" way, will see about that. I think music tracks will be one of last things to put into the game.

You are right, of course royalty-free music are a valid option as well. And I am sure that it would not hurt Universe Quiz in any way if people realized they have heard the music before as long as it really fits your game.
It makes sense to me that you plan to start the work with a composer quite late in development. This way you can flesh out the tone first and really know what you are going for.

[Alain]

Just a quick update: I made a short trailer for my Youtube channel. As you may know, I make videos mainly about the development of BattleJuice Alchemist, but also about gamedev in general. The core of the viewers come from our forum here, so I also want to say thanks to those of you who have been watching for the last couple of month!

[oahda]

Good trailer! Watched in fullscreen and the quality of your camera really shines too.

[Alain]

Good trailer! Watched in fullscreen and the quality of your camera really shines too.

Thank you! I think the lighting plays a big role here and I had help figuring out the setup for it

[kevin andersson]

It all looks great! I totally agree that it's nice to have a dayjob so the focus of the game is to have fun! Subscribed!

[bram_dingelstad]

Love the channel trailer! I've been kinda skimming through most of your progress thusfar, but haven't had the chance to view your videos yet. I'll def try to watch them soon! Love the energy you're putting out and being realistic about your expectations, I think we need more of that in this community vs the "indie game dream" you referenced .

[Phodex Games]

It all looks great! I totally agree that it's nice to have a dayjob so the focus of the game is to have fun! Subscribed!

As somebody how put the focus on game dev 100% I can agree  . You lose that vibe a bit, but still, I think its an absolutely fantastic job, so I don't really mind 

[Phodex Games]

Love the energy you're putting out and being realistic about your expectations, I think we need more of that in this community vs the "indie game dream" you referenced.

You are right. I don't know the exact definition, of the indie game dream, but I think you are right. I think there are only very few who are really made for that "indie game dream" because ultimately to achieve it you need to be extremely dedicated and also need to make lots of sacrifices. I mean you always can just be lucky, but you can't count on that. It's a hard job. For everyone else, I think it's best to just enjoy the process and be realistic with your expectations.