mid_gen's Launch a Game Studio Thread

[throwaway4372]

On demos - quite a few times recently I've played a demo and feel like I've played enough of the game, got my weekend of entertainment out of it, and feel like there's no point buying it now. I feel a bad for the dev who's work I got for free, but ultimately I don't buy the game, I feel like they made a mistake by releasing a demo. If the game is priced fairly, and honestly represented on the store page, and not bad enough to warrant a refund, then the player will buy it, get their weekend of fun out of it, feel fine about that, and the dev has been paid.

In some cases, the demo has been released far in advance of launch, and even if I intended to buy the game, by the time the game launched it has changed a lot or I've moved on to other things and lost interest - so if you are set on releasing a demo, your idea of releasing it at launch time at least helps with these issues.

 

[TNA]

Yeah I agree. Would not do a demo.

 

[mid_gen]

On demos - quite a few times recently I've played a demo and feel like I've played enough of the game, got my weekend of entertainment out of it, and feel like there's no point buying it now. I feel a bad for the dev who's work I got for free, but ultimately I don't buy the game, I feel like they made a mistake by releasing a demo. If the game is priced fairly, and honestly represented on the store page, and not bad enough to warrant a refund, then the player will buy it, get their weekend of fun out of it, feel fine about that, and the dev has been paid.

In some cases, the demo has been released far in advance of launch, and even if I intended to buy the game, by the time the game launched it has changed a lot or I've moved on to other things and lost interest - so if you are set on releasing a demo, your idea of releasing it at launch time at least helps with these issues.

Yeah I agree. Would not do a demo.

I find the idea of demos a little daft when Steam has such a generous refund policy.

Game is really coming together now I’m just trying to tighten up the combat loop UX.

Some of the stuff I’ve slaved over the last month has really come good, when an enemy beam weapon rakes across the ship and carves a big gouge out of the armour, it glows and leaks gas and sparks….looks awesome. Really leaning into that vibe of your trusty ship wearing its battle scars. You need to rebuild up the armour with repair drones. The different components of the ship are connected with conduit (reactor -> weapons etc) which can be severed if exposed by armour being ablated away. Got a few little bits to add there.

Today though first job is writing up contract to engage the concept artist to add some character art for the different factions you can speak to.

 

[loftie]

Cool looking game so far, well done! Think I saw this thread when you first made it then completely forgot about it. While not really alike, the space combat had me thinking about Sword of the Stars and Birth of the Federation.

 

[mid_gen]

Cool looking game so far, well done! Think I saw this thread when you first made it then completely forgot about it. While not really alike, the space combat had me thinking about Sword of the Stars and Birth of the Federation.

Cheers!

Although the macro structure of the game is somewhat based on the classic roguelite tropes (choose your path, upgrades, branching dialog etc) and loosely inspipred by FTL, the main combat loop itself is purely based on an idea I've had knocking around in my head for years. It does make it kinda hard to describe in an elevator pitch, but I'm happy it's something novel and interesting.

Fundamentally, I'm making something that I want to play, and I'm hoping there are enough middle-aged sci-fi nerds like me who are into the same thing to make it a success

Today I'm prototyping mirror fields (yes, inspired by Ian M Banks), making defensive field projectors that can reflect beam weapons. Should be fun. Really pushing on the 'wow' features to get a trailer together before the end of the year.

 

[loftie]

Sounds like a good plan tbh. Your passion for it will show through if you enjoy what you're making, and I believe you'll end up with a better game as a result. Whether others will like it is a different story, but that can be the case even if you aim for something 'mainstream'.

I've only ever read a couple of IMBs books, so I'm unfamiliar with mirror fields. Do they act like a projection in front of the ship or is it a bit like Star Trek shields going around it?

 

[mid_gen]

Sounds like a good plan tbh. Your passion for it will show through if you enjoy what you're making, and I believe you'll end up with a better game as a result. Whether others will like it is a different story, but that can be the case even if you aim for something 'mainstream'.

That's the plan....everything feels so fluid at the moment, the industry is really going through a tumultuous time and the right path forward is not clear at all!

I've only ever read a couple of IMBs books, so I'm unfamiliar with mirror fields. Do they act like a projection in front of the ship or is it a bit like Star Trek shields going around it?

I have implemented a weapon type that projects a planar field to intercept incoming beam weapon fire and reflect it. It looks awesome even though I say so myself!

Getting the concept artist on boarded tomorrow which is exciting times, spent the weekend sorting out contracts etc. Be good to get some more distinctive visuals in the game.

 

[mid_gen]

Two vlogs in two weeks? Madness....

Trying to put a bit more effort in with the script, lighting, editing. But has been a good week. I will show some of the game soon, don't worry

 

[TNA]

I was thinking wow, mid_gen's game has come along very fast (i mean it has) in such a short space of time. Then I looked and first post here was almost a year ago! Your first youtube video 9 months ago. How the hell did that happen?

I honestly thought you started 5 maybe 6 months ago max. Time just flies by!

 

[mid_gen]

I was thinking wow, mid_gen's game has come along very fast (i mean it has) in such a short space of time. Then I looked and first post here was almost a year ago! Your first youtube video 9 months ago. How the hell did that happen?

I honestly thought you started 5 maybe 6 months ago max. Time just flies by!

Haha, tell me about it. Fully focused on getting steam page and trailer ready before Christmas now. Been trying out a lot of things for the UI today to give that more of a flourish. Lots of work on presentation, cameras, menus and other UI elements.

Then new year is mainly going to be figuring out how the hell fund completing it! Everything on the table now. I’d not wanted to do early access initially but faced with the other options I may go that path, for a variety of reasons!

 

[Dr Jack]

Then new year is mainly going to be figuring out how the hell fund completing it! Everything on the table now. I’d not wanted to do early access initially but faced with the other options I may go that path, for a variety of reasons!

I would be very cautious of going Early Access unless you've got a significant number of wishlists/followers already. Your EA launch is your launch, and EA makes the whole development process much more difficult. If you can very, very clearly bring in enough to maintain development then it can work well; otherwise, it's an albatross around your neck.

 

[mid_gen]

I would be very cautious of going Early Access unless you've got a significant number of wishlists/followers already. Your EA launch is your launch, and EA makes the whole development process much more difficult. If you can very, very clearly bring in enough to maintain development then it can work well; otherwise, it's an albatross around your neck.

Yes I'm aware of the downsides. This is all in the context of currently having no external funding to finish the game right now. Any path at this point is going to have some level of seabird round the neck

Publisher funding - I expect this to be like rocking horse poop and use huge amounts of time and effort to chase after, plus eating future revenues.
Equity funding - Lots of time and effort, but protects future revenues.
Grants - UK gov grant is off the table until next round. Epic Megagrant not til next year.
Crowdfunding - I am making a Patreon, nothing to lose really, and I don't need a huge amount to cover my bills, so anything helps. Kickstarter is probably a bigger albatross than Early Access.

We are in a world where any successful game is going to get cloned pretty rapidly, which does make EA appeal At least if your game is out there already you can't get beaten to market with your own game, the business is literally done if that happens. It's not one of these single-mechanic micro-games so not especially susceptible to cloning, but it's still a concern.

Anyway it's all on the table right now. It's not completely beyond the realms of possibility I can finish it with current funds, but I'll have to work around the fact I can't afford to pay for any significant art work.