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[vdapps]

I really like that minimalism. I'm on the same boat with you here. And not just as indie dev but also as a player (many of today's games with hunt for super-duper-bestest visual fidelity are many times too much visually cluttered with details, distracting from game's substance).

[Ramos]

Dang, this is like a crash-course in how to go from planning-a-game to making-a-game.

Very good

Thank you for the kind words!
I am working hard now to have enough content to start a coming soon page.

I really like that minimalism. I'm on the same boat with you here. And not just as indie dev but also as a player (many of today's games with hunt for super-duper-bestest visual fidelity are many times too much visually cluttered with details, distracting from game's substance).

I am glad you feel this way because as I said: my goal is to make maximum atmospheric value with minimal details and minimal colors.



Started work on animating some of these panels,  we still need to make some polish but it's almost there.

And as far as progression goes this will have a solid combo, included here it will be: the intro cinematics, The teaser trailer content, the tutorial, the interactive start new game choices.






















I can hardly wait to compile all these scenes with voice acting and release the teaser trailer


 

[Alex N.]

A small unasked for advice from a fellow art director _{(look at me dropping titles, ikik)}. Avoid as much as possible inconsistencies in style (look at the smoke plumes in second gif vs the smoke in the third and forth gif). The rule usually goes it's either all inconsistent all the time, or the inconsistency means something in particular. Not sure it's the case here. Having inconsistencies outside of the mentioned above special cases is hardly well received by the general public.
Also a small camera shake in gif 2, 3,4 and 6 would add to the scene. The question would be, how is this scene "filmed"? Well there is a drone or another helicopter with a cameraman filming the action. So there must be some shaking in the recording happening, because that drone/helicopter is also affected by wind.
Hope these help!
All in all good progress so far, keep it up.

[Bombini]

Do you have a rough timeline for a first rough playable?

[Ramos]

A small unasked for advice from a fellow art director _{(look at me dropping titles, ikik)}. Avoid as much as possible inconsistencies in style (look at the smoke plumes in second gif vs the smoke in the third and forth gif). The rule usually goes it's either all inconsistent all the time, or the inconsistency means something in particular. Not sure it's the case here. Having inconsistencies outside of the mentioned above special cases is hardly well received by the general public.
Also a small camera shake in gif 2, 3,4 and 6 would add to the scene. The question would be, how is this scene "filmed"? Well there is a drone or another helicopter with a cameraman filming the action. So there must be some shaking in the recording happening, because that drone/helicopter is also affected by wind.
Hope these help!
All in all good progress so far, keep it up.

Thank you for the feedback mister Alex!

Yes, I agree in regards to the smoke, It's a personal choice to have it animated in some scenes in order to have a different impact on another scenes.

For shaky cams it's funny, you say this, I both agree and disagree because we had shaky cam for those exact scenes lol but during the AB testing we had complaints about motion sickness + personal opinions on shaky cams in movies so we had to remove it.

BTW what are you working on these days ?

Do you have a rough timeline for a first rough playable?

Well, we just decided on the game name, next month we will be releasing the coming soon page on Steam.

We will also be releasing a teaser demo(aka only the intro) on itch and Gamejolt.

And a serious public demo we should have by October Steam Next Fest


 

[Alex N.]

in regards to the smoke, It's a personal choice to have it animated in some scenes in order to have a different impact on another scenes.

Completely agree on the animation, it's way more effective than static image. What I was trying to say is the style of clouds should be the same, no matter if static or animated, because now the static ones are sharp w clean contour vs the animated ones (being done via particle system i presume) which are fluffy. here's a visual example of what i mean regarding animated clouds in a similar-ish style as the static ones

For shaky cams it's funny, you say this, I both agree and disagree because we had shaky cam for those exact scenes lol but during the AB testing complaints about motion sickness + personal opinions on shaky cams in movies so we had to remove it.

Fair point. Better to cut things out in order to avoiding motion sickness.

BTW what are you working on these days ?

Aww shucks, thanks for the question  . I'm elbow deep into learning programming. There should be a thread over here somewhere. There's this game concept I'm experimenting with rn, that i want to art, code, animate, make music for it myself, but first I have to see if it has potential for something worth exploring. If not, it remains an amazing tool for mastering coding.

[Ramos]

in regards to the smoke, It's a personal choice to have it animated in some scenes in order to have a different impact on another scenes.

Completely agree on the animation, it's way more effective than static image. What I was trying to say is the style of clouds should be the same, no matter if static or animated, because now the static ones are sharp w clean contour vs the animated ones (being done via particle system i presume) which are fluffy. here's a visual example of what i mean regarding animated clouds in a similar-ish style as the static ones

For shaky cams it's funny, you say this, I both agree and disagree because we had shaky cam for those exact scenes lol but during the AB testing complaints about motion sickness + personal opinions on shaky cams in movies so we had to remove it.

Fair point. Better to cut things out in order to avoiding motion sickness.

BTW what are you working on these days ?

Aww shucks, thanks for the question  . I'm elbow deep into learning programming. There should be a thread over here somewhere. There's this game concept I'm experimenting with rn, that i want to art, code, animate, make music for it myself, but first I have to see if it has potential for something worth exploring. If not, it remains an amazing tool for mastering coding.

WOW indeed that smoke looks perfect for my cutscene, if I would have had time I would do it.
Is there any tutorial for that animation?


Also if you will go on a solo developer route it will be more rewarding but a lot harder and time-consuming. I hope you know what you are doing


 

[Alex N.]

Here you go, something quick and to the point

it will be more rewarding but a lot harder and time-consuming.

Above anything else is the personal journey i'm after, of learning something that i ran away from my entire life. Confronting the fear sort of speak. The "making a game" part is not mandatory and if it proves to be something that I really want and can't handle, I'll deal with that when/if the time comes. But thanks for the heads up 

[Ramos]

Thank you for sharing that tutorial tip and insights on your goals Alex!


In the meantime, I am dealing with helicopter interior for the tutorial stage.

[Bombini]

Love the look of it!
So much nice detail

[Ramos]

Love the look of it!
So much nice detail

Thank you for the kind words!

We released the teaser and ... it's 5 minutes long lol because... this is the 5th game released via self-publish 

https://youtu.be/SMLu1Xd81EE?si=iZS2jRn8nFJUuEC5

We also decided on the title: "Welcome Back, Commander"

aaaaaand the coming soon page is live:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3015620/Welcome_Back_Commander/








Gentelmen 

[Alex N.]

You have some typos in the teaser. "Availeble Supplies" "Dificulty" and "Dificuty" are the one I caught

[Beastboy]

Another one?
Congratulations! 

[Ramos]

You have some typos in the teaser. "Availeble Supplies" "Dificulty" and "Dificuty" are the one I caught

Another one?
Congratulations!  

Thank you!
It is the final game from this franchise and trilogy.











Now Gentlemen,


I am writing a case study regarding our trailer debut in hopes that it will help some of you in your game development endeavors and cast another positive light on my branding.


Our first goal was to have a high production value and at the same time to mix multiple elements during the development of the trailer such as:
- Trailer content(actually its more of a teaser)
- Game startup menu(where the player chooses new game bonuses)
- Intro cinematic
- Credit screen

Bassically our debut teaser should cover the exact first minutes of the game.
Now, everyone to whom I talked said the trailer should not be longer than 1 minute, and I agree I had the same opinion but this time I wanted to experiment outside the box and take a leap of faith.
So the trailer ended up having 4 minutes, and I must say right now: I have no regrets about this decision.


Considering that the trailer is more cinematic and shows very little gameplay this was because we aimed it more for our already existing fan base, "Welcome Back, Commander" is the last game from our "Chromosome Evil" franchise.

As to the funding, we had 0 funding.
Now you are going to ask how can we make a high-value production with 0 funding.
Well, it's simple, I did the design, coordination, and artwork, my partner did the core animation and programming and then we searched for volunteers for voice acting, we received much support from the Mud&Blood community, Newgrounds, and some content creators friends.
For music, we found free-use music from the internet.

Work on the trailer took 2 weeks of full-time.

Now on to some bad news, we synchronized the trailer release with the release of the coming soon page from Steam, the problem is we did so at the same time Steam Next Fest started.

And results:

As soon as we released the trailer on YouTube we started getting traffic and the traffic immediately went high.


After 6 days we reached these stats:

- 9000 views
- 500 likes
- 60 comments
- + 60 new subscribers to my channel
- + 300 Wishlists so far



32% of the people watch the video until the end.
87% of the video visibility came from organic YouTube recommendations
10% Impressions click-through rate



And the stats still keep growing

For me, these results are fantastic considering that we are a small 1+1 game development team.


Source: https://youtu.be/SMLu1Xd81EE?si=qyryI_E6zYLvUyYI


What I think caused it:

- Community boost: after the trailer got released we posted about it on our Discord community
- Thumbnail colors/design: I think using bright colors in the YouTube Thumbnail helped a lot and the yellow/orange combo was often used in movie poster design for a reason
- voice acting: I am not sure but I suspect the YouTube algorithm detected multiple voices in the video which automatically boosted the quality perception
- video length: I read somewhere that videos longer than 3 minutes tend to also boost the YouTube algorithm







 

[Bombini]

Thanks for sharing! Great stuff.
So far i thought that "Welcome Back, Commander" was a wip title but its the game name right? Any worries or feedback because of the reference to Command & Conquer?

[Ramos]

Thanks for sharing! Great stuff.
So far i thought that "Welcome Back, Commander" was a wip title but its the game name right? Any worries or feedback because of the reference to Command & Conquer?

My game is also an RTS so reference to C&C is not bad.
Also, the title was made with the Xcom "Commander" reference in mind not with C&C 

[Bombini]

Also, the title was made with the Xcom "Commander" reference in mind not with C&C 

Shame on my! Of course

[Ramos]

Good news!

We just received a Steam Deck via the Steam hardware request developer program.

Now I just need to make sure this beauty reaches my partner who deals with the programming.

[Ramos]

New Capsule art






Also if you guys want to support me I would appreciate any love on this tweet:

https://x.com/16bitnights/status/1812836313306919270

[Ramos]

Reminder: Steam Next Fest is coming in October!