I'm glad you found it insightful! I intend on sharing more of my experiences in the future. Hope your project goes well, wishing you the best of luck. It's a big thing to take on
Imagine how much it would cost you to learn those skills at a university, let’s say the game saved you about £30k. Great work you should be very proud!
hey i got this randomly on my recommended, and I’ll say, congratulations! You’ve achieved what most indie devs can’t. This is also a great video that fuels my own indie aspirations. This game will be on my radar and I’ll check it out soon! (also your dedication and determination is crazily admirable)
Hey UA-cam just recommended this video so hopefully you'll get some more traffic coming your way. I just finished my (first) game as well! Edit: Just finished the video and it was a really good one, man. There was clearly a lot of love put into the game and a lot of lessons to be learned. Glad you're proud of your work and I hope you keep making more games!
Congrats! Being a solo dev is not easy and completing a project is a great accomplishment. You've learned a lot during this process and you have a product you can continue to improve upon.
This is really cool, getting to see a game dev's headspace throughout the whole project is something I'd like to see more of, as well as any behind the scenes stuff. Hope to get around to playing Disharmony at some point, but at the very least wishlisted for now. Hope your next projects go well!
Thanks a million for the kind words! While every little detail isn't perfect, I try to make the type of devlogs I'd like to watch, so I'm glad to see others finding them entertaining and/or interesting. (And, of course, thanks for the wishlist!)
I'm fascinated by the Mario plush sitting there in a vice-grip above your microphone. Cheers to the game developer and I wish them all the best, much love from the FreshGaming community! As for my thoughts on the game or this video, I follow the mantra of following 'The Golden Rule' and leave it at that.
Congrats my guy, never heard of you or been here before but I know we can all appreciate how much work goes into making ANY title, LET ALONE an indie title with a single dev. Will def be checking it out, hun. Good fucking work!
Thanks a million! You wouldn't believe how much it means to hear stuff like that from strangers, I find it's often the people you don't know who give the most sincere thoughts.
seems like a great game and it's totally awesome that you finished it, huge props. Just to be honest with you though, a huge amount of that hurdle has gotta be visual aesthetic, the game doesn't look particularly pleasing to the eye. It's unfortunate that people eat with their eyes because they'd miss out on technical gems but they do. If this game had better visual design i think you'd get over that hump. Right now if i saw this in the steam store i would immediately think its instant churn out russian video game because of the graphics.
Thank you! I actually 100% agree on the visual stuff and bring that very thing up later in the video! It's somewhere in the 'Post-release' chapter, where I give my thoughts on the game, both negative and positive. I've gotten pretty good at making pixel art in recent years, but for some reason I decided to settle on a pretty rubbish style when I was 17 and by the time I realised how unappealing a lot of the sprites were, it was just too late to change all of them. That said, I can guarantee my future projects will look one hell of a lot better :P
@@boot-catstudio My bad i commented before finishing the video. I really get what you're saying, from what i can see of your work ethic and vibe i feel like this is really gonna be a stepping stone project for you. Like the final College essay which transforms you into an actual professional and things will now be done with a whole new perspective. Huge luck to you 100% and i'll keep an eye out for your next release
Haha, it's fine, can't expect everyone who comments to watch the whole thing. No hard feelings, obviously. Thanks again for the kind words, and I'm glad to hear you ended up sticking around for the whole video@@peebsyt2870
I also recently released a game on steam and managed to make a whopping 150$, Its tough. But I hope your game gets the recognition it deserves.... I think there is just to many of us trying to make games now
Thank you! I hope yours does better in the future as well. Totally agree about "too many of us trying to make games now", it has become a very saturated market and it's hard for most projects to stand out from the crowd. Very different from about a decade ago when most people only knew about Cave Story, Super Meatboy, and The Binding of Isaac.
thanks for this vid, super dope concept for game. congrats man, glad you caught that release moment on video i bet it's not really something you can put into words. cheers mate 🍻
Congrats!! I'd never heard of this game before, and randomly came across this video. I like devlogs so I stuck around. The game seems really heartfelt and fun, it's on my wishlist now. Here's hoping it keeps getting seen! :]
Thank you UA-cam algorithm for this video. It was really awesome seeing your experience developing a game for this long and actually seeing it too the end good job on everything.
Dude many many props to you From the more than 100 creators that ive watched you are the one with a project this size that you could finish this is not for many congrats despite youtube being stabbing you in the back Also from what ive saw from the game it definetly seems like a top notch experience
Congrats on reaching the finish line! Hopefully you will be able to take everything you've learned along the way and make your next project that much better.
I don't know why the algorithm gods showed me this, but I made it about halfway through the video before taking a moment to become a proud owner of Disharmony. As a musician, artist, and game-dev hopeful, this all really speaks to me. Sometimes you just have to make art for the love of it, rather then the money it could make. I want to support artists who deserve it, who have that love, in a market in short supply for art that really reflects the artist. Your story is an inspiration, thank you, truly, for sharing this part of yourself with the world.
Thank you very much, both for the support and kind words. I'm happy people are able to get something out of my story, and to see some people feel inspired by it. I hope your own artistic ventures are going well, and if they're not, I hope they will in the near future!
Be super proud of this release! Couple things to know, once your game hits 10 actual reviews on Steam, the algorithm picks it up and boosts it for a few weeks! It worked pretty well for my own release! Mind you, the only Steam reviews that count are ones that are from people who actually bought the game. I saw you have 6 counted reviews, so if you got some friends that are willing, have them buy it and leave a review! Trust me! Get it past 10 reviews and you'll see it pick up more
Congrats on finishing your game, this is a huge accomplishment ! You not only coded, drew, marketed and play tested ! but you created a genuine product that many "big" companies / startups fail to do. So well done !
Congrats on completing and launching the game as an indie developer.. As a indie developer, could understand how much work, struggle you have went through for such accomplishment..
awesome game and congrats on releasing it! It looks like the player moves faster on diagonals than straight movements, i had the same issue in my game and it can be fixed by normalizing the player movement vector. You never know, a couple coats of polish and the right marketing break could turn your game into a financial success! Either way, great game, you should be very proud!
Thank you very much! You're absolutely right about the diagonals. It was kind of funny how I 'discovered' that too, because a playtester pointed it out forever ago and I just kind of dismissed it because "Nah, that can't be right, you're moving at the same speed, just in two directions at once." ... Only to realise months later that moving at one speed twice means covering more distance. I also remembered the Pythagorean theorem exists and suddenly felt really dumb. I could go back and, as you suggested, normalise the movement vector and add it through a patch, but I feel done with DISHARMONY and I've already moved on to something bigger and better. I'll count it as a learning experience. :P (Maybe I'll make some kind of big "2.0" type patch in the future where I pretty the game up. I dunno. Now's not the time though.) Thanks again for the kind words!
@@boot-catstudio haha I completely understand your sentiment. I kinda feel the same way as I’m making my first game. I’m trying to keep things simple but I’m learning so much that I’m stuck between just trying to release it and fixing all my previous oversights or mistakes. Ugh why is making games every emotion at the same time? Good luck on your next project, I’ll be looking forward to playing it!
Thank you, and good luck to you as well! It takes some perseverance, but I'm sure you'll see it through to the end, and I bet it will be awesome once it's done. @@blackestbill7454
Congrats for finishing your game! 🎉 Sometimes it's not about the quality of the game but only a marketing business plan that failed. Did you offer streamers/youtubers a chance to play it? How did you manage to make you game visible for your audience? Even a niche game needs to be visible 🤷🏻♂️ If you think your sales won't grow anymore, make your game free with "pay what you want" option. It will be more visible as a lot of people seek for free games and there are people that pay for it more than what would have been the initial cost. It will also boost your popularity as a game designer for your next release thanks to a favorable reviews of your previous one (free game -> more reviews and feedback = only good stuff for your next game). Keep going with your passion 💪
There's a lot to unpack with this one. First of all, thank you. Second of all, oh boy. The marketing wasn't planned out very well and I had no budget for it. :P Pretty much the full extent of it was described in the video. I did send keys to people, but no "major" content creators. And yes, even niche games need to be visible. While I agree that the "pay what you want" option could be a good idea, I feel like going that route after less than a year would pretty much be "throwing in the towel", and I want to give the game a proper chance on the market before going that route. This video has ironically enough been the most successful marketing I've ever done. I've never had a video hit 5-digit views before. (I'm not opposed to doing it in the future though!) Thanks again for the kind words!
UA-cam just suggested the video out of nowhere and i'm glad it did. Your journey was full of high and low but it seems it teached you a lot and that's a lot, also finishing and publishing a game is big achievement, congrats!
Thank you for the kind words, and the best of luck to you as well. I've made a lot of mistakes over the past few years, and I'm hoping people can learn from them so that they can avoid making them themselves. If you plan ahead a bit and stick through the rough bumps that'll inevitably come up every once in a while, I promise, you can definitely make a game yourself.
I was looking at Steam stats, to get a feel for what, if any, hope there is that anyone will play my game at all. In 2022, over 10,600 games were published on Steam, LOL. 10,000 games per year. That's a lot of games! A freaking ocean of games. 1 person could not play them all, even if they were all free! But the market share was.. $1.6 billion? Wow! So, that's about $160k per game, if every game had an equal share, which of course they don't; the handful best get all the money and the rest get nothing, heh. But.. if I do a bit of advertising.. I might get maybe 100 people to play my game, which is all I really want. If I can find 5 people who love it as much as I do, I'll be ecstatic.
Great work on finishing your game! Indie development is hard, I can only imagine how hard it must be when working on one game for seven years. The music sounds great, and though the visuals look simple I think they're super charming.
Thanks a ton! I think the visuals are pretty rubbish too, but I can see why people could find them charming, or maybe a little endearing. And, thankfully, I like the music too, since I didn't write most of it. ;P
Hey, I'm at the bit of the video where you talk about the art, and I just want to say the character portraits look really fuckin pretty dude! I know its a lot of time and I'm not here to be a demanding stranger, but I reckon if you went over your old art assets and did a shading pass on the pixel art, it would boost engagement with the title on stores! The flat art is a telltale sign of a simple game in the heads of many. I'm proud of you friend, that's a lotta time and dedication you poured into this project, I respect it a lot
Haha, thank you! I'm pretty happy with the portraits, especially since I remember how rubbish they used to look. :P I'm going to leave the art for DISHARMONY alone, but I know exactly what you're saying, and I'm already working on something new where the shading is a significant step up from what it was here. Thanks again for the kind words!
Thank you for sharing this. It's a huge achievement to not only work on a single project for so long, but really seeing it through to the end - regardless of the financial success. Wishing you the best of luck on your journey from here on out!
Huge Congratulations brother!! I have at many times made attempts at game making so I know just a small bit of what it takes. That being said, you and your team absolutely EARNED this release and everything that comes with it!!! Hope to see more of you guys in the future
Oh man, I am so moved by your story. I am a struggling solo indie dev that juggles my work and my passion project. Most of the time, I am on the brink of quitting to create my game because of burnout, and sometimes I am overthinking if it is worth even doing this. But this random video gave me another booster to stop overthinking and just continue what I've started and don't quit. Congrats on your game, I purchased it, and if I got a time I will play it. Thank you for pushing me brother, let's keep doing awesome things.
Wow, what a beautiful, quintessentially authentic presentation! It tugs on the heart strings and inspires reflection. You're gentle, forthright, candid, authentic, sensitive, and assiduously relentless! A very appealing combination. I think you absolutely are insane. Beyond insane. Me too, welcome to the club. I think you have to be insane to do what we do. "Maybe you should try a few really short projects before diving into another really huge one?" Ha! But you know, we do what we do because we are who and what we are. No way would I be able to make myself follow that advice if someone gave it to me. Not remotely. I think everyone at one time or another feels like so much "dust in the wind." And even famous celebrities sometimes suicide for feeling alone, as ironic as that is. "Even the stars hide away." You're lucky you have friends. I'm lucky I have family. Congratulations and good luck.
I remember watching the first episodes of this series and then loosing this channel in the sea of youtube, I'm so happy that you actually managed to release the game
ps i bought your game ^_^ it doesn't seem like it would be a game for me but I wanted to help support you regardless. I'll probably give it a shot sometime though!
A huge congratulations for sticking with the game development. I've released a few games myself and I really relate to that feeling of loss and emptiness when you have finished a long project. My first Steam game took me 4.5 years and didn't do very well due to lots of rookie errors prior to launch, but I dusted myself off and jumped onto development again. Not wanting to sound patronising in any way but just well done, you should be proud, mate.
i'm very proud of you, this is an extreme achievement. i'll be playing this very soon!! 😍😍 you're doing great with your project and i hope it works out.
First content about you or the game that I have ever seen. I dont play a ton of games on my PC but I love a lot of what you have talked about including in Disharmony. I will most certainly wishlist your game and then pick it up in the future. Thank you for showcasing the good and bad of the process and ultimately ending on a super high note. Its easy to get lost in the negatives that affect all of us. Let that positive energy carry you on the next project! ❤
Something very special happened when you released that game. The are thousands and thousands of tryers out who give up after a month or years of attempting to finish a project but they tried. But you finished the project, you are now a doer. And in the end only doers can succeed, I hope for the best for you current and next project. You have my upmost respect.
When you mentioned texture pages, I knew you were a fellow GameMaker user. Here's to hoping both of our projects immediately achieve great success. EDIT: After hearing about your game's financial issues, I believe that has everything to do with the state of the market and is precisely the reason why indie devs should seek out publishers now more than ever.
Thank you! I hope your project(s) go(es) well too! And yes, I agree with the point about seeking out publishers, even though that can lead to unfortunate limitations from a creative standpoint. I'm always glad to see projects get picked up, but it's hard not to think of the horror stories I've heard when it comes to publishing as well. :P
Fantastic work. I can't promise I'll ever play it, as I'm not sure the genre is my cup of tea, but I have nothing but respect for how hard you worked to make it to release. As a fellow Game dev, I hope to reach that goal someday. I think the simple visuals may be a turn off to casual buyers, but improving them would have come at a price. Less dialogue, shorter story, fewer enemies/bosses, less music. Something would have to give, so I don't think it was a bad call to stick to your trajectory. Maybe you didn't land too many sales. But look at all the views on this video! The hard work paid off. Congratulations.
Congratulations on releasing a game! I bought the game after watching this video. One thing I wanted to mention is that one thing I think that might have hurt is some of the color choices for the graphics were just super bright/oversaturated. If you desaturated some of your background colors/used some darker colors it might be easier for people to play the game. The grass is particularly aggressively bright. I echo similar comments that some shading would definitely help the art of the game. Also the intro cut scene for me was just a blank screen with text and it would probably help to put at least something there because at first I thought maybe the game was broken. It was not obvious what was happening.
Thank you! I'm probably going to make something of the sort eventually, but it might take a while. Editing this behemoth burned me out a little bit and I'm in need of a break :P
Congrats on finishing your game! I'm only a year or so into my own game dev journey, and while I've really only done a few game jams, I'd love to finish a passion project like this one day. Incredibly inspiring stuff! Good luck with your next project!
So, you can heal your wrists, but you need to put in the work. I've gotten myself out of it. I had a point in my life where my wrists didn't hurt, but I couldn't put pressure on them. What you need to do is get grip strengtheners. YOu need the digiflex (get all the different weights) It looks like a finger strengthener for guitars, a MUST. Next you need to get a regular grip strengthener. The one where you squeeze it with your hands and palm. Next up, this is option, but get a forearm strengthener. NEXT get a nightstand where you can put your hand under the lip of it. Put the night stand next to your bed and put a pillow on near the edge of the bed. Place your arm outward, under the lip of the night stand and head your head and body the other way. You're going to feel quite a stretch, and one you probably never knew you needed. The tendons go all the way up your arm and you need to stretch it all. Hold that for about 1-2 minutes at a time at least once a day, maybe more if you can handle it. Next, you need to stretch your wrists like you haven't before. Stretch them up, stretch them down, stretch them sideways (both ways) hold your thumb and in you fingers and with the other hand gently pull that hand downward. Put your hands in a prayer and bend them outward from your body where only your fingers are touching. Feel that stretch. Those grip strengtheners you want to constantly pump until you are at or near failure. Make sure to do push ups, at least 10 every day. Walk on your hands and knees, even walk like a gorilla open palmed. You are making sure you are using your muscles and tendons. If you can try walking on your wrists, be careful though. If you're not ready for that, then just hold the position. Pretty much what I've learned is that you have to go through pain to get through pain. Good luck on your recovery. You can do it.
This sounds genuinely helpful and I didn't expect to receive this sort of advice when I uploaded the video. I've done my fair share of exercises, but never anything quite to the extent you're suggesting. Thank you for taking the time to write all of that, I'm gonna look into getting a grip strengthener ASAP!
Right on man. No problem. I've just been there and I know how much it sucks to have been able to do something once before, which your body isn't allowing anymore. I'm gonna be honest, from this point on, you're probably gonna want to think about giving your wrists breaks every 2-4 hours, doing the hand grip exercises. Thankfully, it's not a long break, but little breaks will be needed. For a while, I bought some copper infused gloves and wore them during my healing. I do believe it worked, but whether it's just in the head of not doesn't matter, as long as it works is all that matters. When I speak about stretching, (almost) always make sure that your arm is extended while stretching and hold it for at least 1 minute each way. Bend wrists and thumbs (yes, bending the thumb all different directions is important too) to a point where you feel the burn, but you're not in unbearable pain. Being uncomfortable is important. Also when I say sidways, I mean twist your wrist. I'd love to hear an update on all of this if you decide to go through with this. It took about a month or so to REALLY see results for me, but when they did happen, it was very obvious a night and day difference. You might not think it's working, but then POOF, you can use your wrists like you used to again. It's a pretty cool phenomena to experience. So if you feel down and that it's not working, that's a normal feeling and you are completely welcome to feel that way. I felt sorry for myself as well. It's all part of the healing process. So long as you don't stay there and continue the hard work, you will heal. @@boot-catstudio
I'm so happy for you my friend ❤️ I get so filled with joy seeing this and all the support you're getting! I wish this could catch the attention of Jacksepticeye bcs he supports a lot of indie devs
I'm a bit late but congrats on releasing your game. Not many people can ever finish what they started. Most people who release an indie game solo (depending on the genre), dont ever really even hit past $100 in sales. That's where reality hits them hard. For everyone reading this, never give up. The ability to create something and have your mark on the world is an accomplishment itself even if it's a small thing. Keep learning.
This hurts me to see, I checked out your game. The art style is unique, it looks smooth, you have a great steam page. I guess it's a cruel reality of our world =(
It would be more rewarding to use my 7 years of making the engine to use in building my main game, it would be less exhausting and beneficial in the long run, in many ways. However, if you didn't make this video, we wouldn't know how hard it would be to do it all by yourself! Thank you!
I feel like this is a good warning to people that they need to understand the marketing side of releasing a game before devoting this much time to something. Kind of depressing
Sure is. That's part of the reason I took the time to go into detail about a bunch of aspects of the game's development and why the video is nearly 40 minutes long. I spent a very long time making mistakes and I think it's great if people can learn something from them so that they don't have to make them themselves.
Watching your video was an eye-opening experience for me. It really struck a chord. Having spent over 11 years in IT, I've often considered transitioning to game development. But the reality of seeing many projects not reach their potential, as evident on platforms like UA-cam and devlogs, is sobering. Your commitment to completing your project is indeed remarkable. It speaks to a strong sense of dedication, a quality that's highly admirable. However, this makes me wonder if this dedication might have, in some ways, blinded you to the sunken cost fallacy. Completing what you start is important, but I'm curious - were there moments during development when you questioned the game's market appeal or the direction you were taking? Did the idea of altering course or making significant changes ever come up, based on feedback or your own intuition? I'm also intrigued about the insights and opinions of those close to the project. How did your friends, family, and playtesters react to the game? Were there consistent pieces of feedback that you chose to overlook? And reflecting on the journey, what do you think were the key factors that led to the financial outcome of your project? An honest evaluation of these aspects could provide invaluable lessons for others venturing into game development.
Lots of stuff to say here. First of all, I'm glad you got something out of the video! It's nice to see it provoke so many thoughts. As for your series of questions... I wouldn't say my dedication was part of the sunken cost fallacy, because that would imply I thought the project would eventually lead to some major gain that would "make it all worth it", when in actuality the reason I completed the project was mainly due to the satisfaction that came from creating something, along with partaking in the nearly life-long dream of mine that is creating games. There were absolutely times when I questioned the game's market appeal-- I've always known the game appeals to a very specific niche-- and I was very well aware that it most likely wouldn't be a smash hit like other indie games have been. I could've spent the same amount of time creating simpler projects with broader appeal, but that was never my goal. I like turn-based RPGs, I like music and rhythm games, and I like the off-beat humour of games like EarthBound and Monkey Island. I set out to make something that would borrow bits and pieces from all of those, despite knowing all of them are part of their own niche already. Feedback definitely played a part in the game's outcome, but the main goals have always remained the same, and I wouldn't say the original vision was altered all that much. Speaking of feedback, it mainly came from my sister and my two playtesters, who've been friends of mine for many years. My sis has always encouraged me, but sometimes I think she might be a little too lenient on criticism :P Despite that, she was really helpful with initial feedback on the concept and the game's script, and helped me refine certain ideas. Feedback from playtesters was typically more critical, but never to the point where they said the game was "bad" or anything, in fact, they mostly said they really liked it. They know my type of humour and stuff so it isn't surprising that they liked stuff like the jokes. There would be points where they said a menu was confusing, or a puzzle was too cryptic, or something would seem out of place, but that was kind of the extent of it. There would be points where they'd give me a piece of feedback that I would dismiss, but I think that was for the best most of the time, with a handful of exceptions. For example, as I described in a reply to a different comment-- One time, one of them pointed out that the player seemed to move faster diagonally than they would moving straight up-down/left-right. I thought "No, that's not right. Your movement speed doesn't change-- You're just moving in two directions at once." ... only to realise months later that "moving twice at the same speed" means covering more distance. I felt pretty dumb. But aside from that, I rarely overlooked any major piece of feedback. As for what I believe led to the financial result, I think it's a combination of the niche appeal of the game's concept, a lack of marketing, as well as a not-particularly-appealing artstyle. Niche indie games can do super well! Some of the most popular ones ever include an EarthBound-inspired bullet hell RPG with a morality system, a run-n-gun platformer with a 1930s animated aesthetic, and a game where you stamp documents at a border control station. That said, those games are usually really good at selling their ideas through great trailers and other means. (Those particular examples were also made by people with some level of notoriety-- like how Toby Fox was already known for his contributions to Homestuck when he made his Kickstarter campaign for Undertale, which definitely gave it a significant boost.) I also wish I'd shown the game off sooner, giving it a higher chance of gaining attention on the internet before I made my Kickstarter campaign. There's no reason to hide your game if no one knows who you are. The main reason I kept mine secret was that I was afraid of someone swooping in and "stealing my idea", which, by the way, happened anyways. :P (Not LITERALLY "stealing", but other devs made rhythm game RPGs while I was making mine. Everhood is probably the most notable example.) If I'd made some videos about it and posted them on forums or reddit or whatever, it could have gained an audience long before I threw it onto a crowdfunding site, where it barely reached its goal. Even beyond that, I think I could have put more effort into marketing the game on social media and stuff throughout the years. My friends have been extremely helpful when it comes to managing the game's social media, and I don't blame them one bit. I should have made sure to give them material to post more frequently. And, while I do like the >30 minute devlogs, I think making more focused shorter-form content would have been beneficial, and is likely what I'll be doing in the future. I have many more things to say about these topics moving forward, and I'm planning on making videos about the things I've learned over the years, in the hopes of other people learning from my mistakes so that they don't have to make them themselves. Thank you for your comment!
Thank you very much for such a detailed answer! I really appreciate it. I hope that the lessons you learned can help you move forward and make even more amazing games. Wish you all the best and will follow for that lessons for sure :-)@@boot-catstudio
I'm on year seven of my solo indie game. I have 0 expectations for it's release. I figure if it sells even one copy, it's one more copy than I expected ha.
That's kind of the way I started looking at it once I realised my game was extremely unlikely to succeed. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope your game ends up (greatly) surpassing your expectations!
Oh... A rhythm game... The one genre of game I can't play... I can't detect a rhythm to save my life, I can only play rhythm games while relying on my eyes and reflexes because I am incapable "feeling the rhythm" or whatever the heck it is that rhythm fans do when they play rhythm games. Rhythm and beats will forever be an alien concept to me and something I am just simply unable to tap into and trying to play the game only using my eyes and reflexes is so hard and more often than not I get the timing wrong because it's going to fast and I quickly get overwhelmed because I can't focus on more than one note's timing at a time and the next one always comes so quickly after that I can't shift my focus in time to prepare for the next key timing. How people play rhythm games I will never understand, my brain just doesn't work like that.
i see is a game made with passion, and i love this kind of games. i played al the DDR dance revolution and other guitar games.. i hope it gets reconized. the only problem i think that you too seen are the graphics, too much simple, no many shadows to give immersion. im a developer too and im about to publish my game on playstore and ios. (first paid game). and is made entirely with sprites in 2D. made in 4 month.. finger crossed for both my friend.. this video could get many more people to play your game, you really deserve it 👍
Investing in an artist might have helped a bit. I think art is the one thing that can hook players without anything else. Other than that, the hook of battles being rhythm based doesn't see strong enough, but likely because the rhythm aspect doesn't look super engaging. But you could try getting youtubers to play and review the game? Could bring interest if you think the game has enough merits?
As a fellow who took the gamedesign course up at Boden, I likewise know the struggles of getting anything 'done', even if I've yet properly shipped anything yet. So here ye' go; I'll get it and see what me 'n my pals think of it.
Wow! 7 years ago I also had an idea for a rhythm RPG! So glad I didn't do it. I would have hated to work on it for 7 years only to find out that I only had to wait for you to do it! lol
Haha, you're not the only one technically. There's a few people who've tried similar things :P Everhood is probably the most successful one but I've intentionally avoided playing it because I didn't want it to influence the way I made mine. Having the same general concept as others is fine, it's the execution of said concept that makes games unique!
@@boot-catstudio Bro. That part where you import the songs and then assign the notes made my head spin. That's mad tedious. The system I came up with was this: I played the song and while the song played I hit the buttons on the guitar controller and recorded the button presses with time stamps. Then I would set the drop rate to the tempo of the song so they would hit the time stamp at the right time.
Being a finisher and managing to complete and ship an indie project is enormously difficult. Huge congratulations for achieving that!
Thank you very much!
That is pretty crazy how you handled making the Audio Puzzles in the game.
I've been solo developing a game that was designed over 5 years and has been in production for almost 1. This story is very insightful.
I'm glad you found it insightful! I intend on sharing more of my experiences in the future. Hope your project goes well, wishing you the best of luck. It's a big thing to take on
Imagine how much it would cost you to learn those skills at a university, let’s say the game saved you about £30k. Great work you should be very proud!
Thank you! Funny thing is I technically did go to uni :P But it was effectively free, so the price still doesn't apply
hey i got this randomly on my recommended, and I’ll say, congratulations! You’ve achieved what most indie devs can’t. This is also a great video that fuels my own indie aspirations. This game will be on my radar and I’ll check it out soon! (also your dedication and determination is crazily admirable)
Those words mean a lot! I hope you'll make something awesome with those aspirations one day!
Hey UA-cam just recommended this video so hopefully you'll get some more traffic coming your way. I just finished my (first) game as well!
Edit: Just finished the video and it was a really good one, man. There was clearly a lot of love put into the game and a lot of lessons to be learned. Glad you're proud of your work and I hope you keep making more games!
Thank you so much for the kind words, and I hope you're proud of your game as well! Congratulations on your achievement!
I very much am! Thank you!@@boot-catstudio
Congrats! Being a solo dev is not easy and completing a project is a great accomplishment. You've learned a lot during this process and you have a product you can continue to improve upon.
Just bought your game. I'm extremely impressed by anyone that actually finishes a game. Good job man.
Thanks for sharing. I used to play in a band, and seeing this game really moved me. The design elements in it left a strong impression on me!
This is really cool, getting to see a game dev's headspace throughout the whole project is something I'd like to see more of, as well as any behind the scenes stuff. Hope to get around to playing Disharmony at some point, but at the very least wishlisted for now. Hope your next projects go well!
Thanks a million for the kind words! While every little detail isn't perfect, I try to make the type of devlogs I'd like to watch, so I'm glad to see others finding them entertaining and/or interesting. (And, of course, thanks for the wishlist!)
I'm fascinated by the Mario plush sitting there in a vice-grip above your microphone.
Cheers to the game developer and I wish them all the best, much love from the FreshGaming community!
As for my thoughts on the game or this video, I follow the mantra of following 'The Golden Rule' and leave it at that.
this was pretty inspirational as someone who has finally started working on their own game. going to definitely pick this up!
It's been a goal of mine to inspire people since I was a kid, so this means a lot. Thanks a ton!
Seven years. Wow. Keep up the dedication and hard work. You've earned a sub!
Thank you, and welcome aboard!
Congrats my guy, never heard of you or been here before but I know we can all appreciate how much work goes into making ANY title, LET ALONE an indie title with a single dev. Will def be checking it out, hun. Good fucking work!
Thanks a million! You wouldn't believe how much it means to hear stuff like that from strangers, I find it's often the people you don't know who give the most sincere thoughts.
@@boot-catstudio no relationship means people can be honest! And honesty is important in game development n stuff. Shows you exactly what's working
100% agree. The lack of bias (and the honesty that comes with that) is what makes it special@@madisonevans7950
seems like a great game and it's totally awesome that you finished it, huge props. Just to be honest with you though, a huge amount of that hurdle has gotta be visual aesthetic, the game doesn't look particularly pleasing to the eye. It's unfortunate that people eat with their eyes because they'd miss out on technical gems but they do. If this game had better visual design i think you'd get over that hump. Right now if i saw this in the steam store i would immediately think its instant churn out russian video game because of the graphics.
Thank you!
I actually 100% agree on the visual stuff and bring that very thing up later in the video! It's somewhere in the 'Post-release' chapter, where I give my thoughts on the game, both negative and positive.
I've gotten pretty good at making pixel art in recent years, but for some reason I decided to settle on a pretty rubbish style when I was 17 and by the time I realised how unappealing a lot of the sprites were, it was just too late to change all of them.
That said, I can guarantee my future projects will look one hell of a lot better :P
@@boot-catstudio My bad i commented before finishing the video. I really get what you're saying, from what i can see of your work ethic and vibe i feel like this is really gonna be a stepping stone project for you. Like the final College essay which transforms you into an actual professional and things will now be done with a whole new perspective.
Huge luck to you 100% and i'll keep an eye out for your next release
Haha, it's fine, can't expect everyone who comments to watch the whole thing. No hard feelings, obviously. Thanks again for the kind words, and I'm glad to hear you ended up sticking around for the whole video@@peebsyt2870
I also recently released a game on steam and managed to make a whopping 150$, Its tough. But I hope your game gets the recognition it deserves.... I think there is just to many of us trying to make games now
Thank you! I hope yours does better in the future as well. Totally agree about "too many of us trying to make games now", it has become a very saturated market and it's hard for most projects to stand out from the crowd. Very different from about a decade ago when most people only knew about Cave Story, Super Meatboy, and The Binding of Isaac.
thanks for this vid, super dope concept for game. congrats man, glad you caught that release moment on video i bet it's not really something you can put into words. cheers mate 🍻
Congrats!!
I'd never heard of this game before, and randomly came across this video. I like devlogs so I stuck around. The game seems really heartfelt and fun, it's on my wishlist now. Here's hoping it keeps getting seen! :]
Thanks a whole bunch! Every little bit counts, so the wishlist is most certainly appreciated. Glad you enjoyed the devlog!
Thank you UA-cam algorithm for this video. It was really awesome seeing your experience developing a game for this long and actually seeing it too the end good job on everything.
Dude many many props to you
From the more than 100 creators that ive watched you are the one with a project this size that you could finish this is not for many congrats despite youtube being stabbing you in the back
Also from what ive saw from the game it definetly seems like a top notch experience
Thank you very much!
Congrats on reaching the finish line! Hopefully you will be able to take everything you've learned along the way and make your next project that much better.
Thank you! And yes, I can guarantee my next project will be a "slight" step up. ;P
I don't know why the algorithm gods showed me this, but I made it about halfway through the video before taking a moment to become a proud owner of Disharmony. As a musician, artist, and game-dev hopeful, this all really speaks to me. Sometimes you just have to make art for the love of it, rather then the money it could make. I want to support artists who deserve it, who have that love, in a market in short supply for art that really reflects the artist.
Your story is an inspiration, thank you, truly, for sharing this part of yourself with the world.
Thank you very much, both for the support and kind words. I'm happy people are able to get something out of my story, and to see some people feel inspired by it. I hope your own artistic ventures are going well, and if they're not, I hope they will in the near future!
Be super proud of this release!
Couple things to know, once your game hits 10 actual reviews on Steam, the algorithm picks it up and boosts it for a few weeks! It worked pretty well for my own release!
Mind you, the only Steam reviews that count are ones that are from people who actually bought the game. I saw you have 6 counted reviews, so if you got some friends that are willing, have them buy it and leave a review!
Trust me! Get it past 10 reviews and you'll see it pick up more
Comment for engagement. The sheer quantity of time, love, and effort put into this game is impressive to say the least
Congrats on finishing your game, this is a huge accomplishment ! You not only coded, drew, marketed and play tested ! but you created a genuine product that many "big" companies / startups fail to do. So well done !
Thank you very much!
Congrats on completing and launching the game as an indie developer..
As a indie developer, could understand how much work, struggle you have went through for such accomplishment..
awesome game and congrats on releasing it! It looks like the player moves faster on diagonals than straight movements, i had the same issue in my game and it can be fixed by normalizing the player movement vector. You never know, a couple coats of polish and the right marketing break could turn your game into a financial success! Either way, great game, you should be very proud!
Thank you very much!
You're absolutely right about the diagonals. It was kind of funny how I 'discovered' that too, because a playtester pointed it out forever ago and I just kind of dismissed it because "Nah, that can't be right, you're moving at the same speed, just in two directions at once."
... Only to realise months later that moving at one speed twice means covering more distance. I also remembered the Pythagorean theorem exists and suddenly felt really dumb.
I could go back and, as you suggested, normalise the movement vector and add it through a patch, but I feel done with DISHARMONY and I've already moved on to something bigger and better. I'll count it as a learning experience. :P
(Maybe I'll make some kind of big "2.0" type patch in the future where I pretty the game up. I dunno. Now's not the time though.)
Thanks again for the kind words!
@@boot-catstudio haha I completely understand your sentiment. I kinda feel the same way as I’m making my first game. I’m trying to keep things simple but I’m learning so much that I’m stuck between just trying to release it and fixing all my previous oversights or mistakes. Ugh why is making games every emotion at the same time? Good luck on your next project, I’ll be looking forward to playing it!
Thank you, and good luck to you as well! It takes some perseverance, but I'm sure you'll see it through to the end, and I bet it will be awesome once it's done. @@blackestbill7454
Congrats on finishing and releasing a game. A mammoth effort. Best of luck for the future.
Wow, 7 years that's great dedication. Really reveals how much effort it takes to make a solo project
Congrats for finishing your game! 🎉
Sometimes it's not about the quality of the game but only a marketing business plan that failed. Did you offer streamers/youtubers a chance to play it? How did you manage to make you game visible for your audience? Even a niche game needs to be visible 🤷🏻♂️
If you think your sales won't grow anymore, make your game free with "pay what you want" option. It will be more visible as a lot of people seek for free games and there are people that pay for it more than what would have been the initial cost. It will also boost your popularity as a game designer for your next release thanks to a favorable reviews of your previous one (free game -> more reviews and feedback = only good stuff for your next game).
Keep going with your passion 💪
There's a lot to unpack with this one. First of all, thank you. Second of all, oh boy. The marketing wasn't planned out very well and I had no budget for it. :P Pretty much the full extent of it was described in the video.
I did send keys to people, but no "major" content creators. And yes, even niche games need to be visible.
While I agree that the "pay what you want" option could be a good idea, I feel like going that route after less than a year would pretty much be "throwing in the towel", and I want to give the game a proper chance on the market before going that route. This video has ironically enough been the most successful marketing I've ever done. I've never had a video hit 5-digit views before. (I'm not opposed to doing it in the future though!)
Thanks again for the kind words!
Thanks for sharing! You had a great journey and hopefully the niche gamers find your game.
thank you for making this. your determination is very admirable
The pleasure is all mine. Thank you!
UA-cam just suggested the video out of nowhere and i'm glad it did.
Your journey was full of high and low but it seems it teached you a lot and that's a lot, also finishing and publishing a game is big achievement, congrats!
Thanks a ton! And yeah, "full of highs and lows" describes it well, and I sure learned a lot. Glad you liked the video!
You scared me a little but encouraged me more than that to make my own games, i am sure your game will get more recognition, best of luck man .
Thank you for the kind words, and the best of luck to you as well. I've made a lot of mistakes over the past few years, and I'm hoping people can learn from them so that they can avoid making them themselves. If you plan ahead a bit and stick through the rough bumps that'll inevitably come up every once in a while, I promise, you can definitely make a game yourself.
I was looking at Steam stats, to get a feel for what, if any, hope there is that anyone will play my game at all. In 2022, over 10,600 games were published on Steam, LOL. 10,000 games per year. That's a lot of games! A freaking ocean of games. 1 person could not play them all, even if they were all free! But the market share was.. $1.6 billion? Wow! So, that's about $160k per game, if every game had an equal share, which of course they don't; the handful best get all the money and the rest get nothing, heh. But.. if I do a bit of advertising.. I might get maybe 100 people to play my game, which is all I really want. If I can find 5 people who love it as much as I do, I'll be ecstatic.
Thanks for sharing your story! I'm impressed by the journey and motivated by all of your hard work and perseverance. Keep it up!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.
Great work on finishing your game! Indie development is hard, I can only imagine how hard it must be when working on one game for seven years.
The music sounds great, and though the visuals look simple I think they're super charming.
Thanks a ton! I think the visuals are pretty rubbish too, but I can see why people could find them charming, or maybe a little endearing. And, thankfully, I like the music too, since I didn't write most of it. ;P
amazing work! the part where you explained how you had to go through all songs to convert them into key notes broke my brain haha
Then I did an adequate job at describing the process ;P Thank you for the kind words!
I'm Glad You Finished Your Game ;D It's A Hard Task To Accomplish For Any Game Developer, To Let Go Of Something They Work On For So Long ;P
It most certainly is, but at this point I'm ready to move on to bigger and better things! Thank you for watching.
Hey, I'm at the bit of the video where you talk about the art, and I just want to say the character portraits look really fuckin pretty dude! I know its a lot of time and I'm not here to be a demanding stranger, but I reckon if you went over your old art assets and did a shading pass on the pixel art, it would boost engagement with the title on stores! The flat art is a telltale sign of a simple game in the heads of many.
I'm proud of you friend, that's a lotta time and dedication you poured into this project, I respect it a lot
I understand thats difficult for the character sprites coz they're animated, but absolutely worth re-spriting tilemap[ stuff like grass
Haha, thank you! I'm pretty happy with the portraits, especially since I remember how rubbish they used to look. :P
I'm going to leave the art for DISHARMONY alone, but I know exactly what you're saying, and I'm already working on something new where the shading is a significant step up from what it was here.
Thanks again for the kind words!
The guitar pro distorted guitars brings back so many memories ❤
Thank you for sharing this. It's a huge achievement to not only work on a single project for so long, but really seeing it through to the end - regardless of the financial success. Wishing you the best of luck on your journey from here on out!
Thanks a million, means a lot.
Huge Congratulations brother!! I have at many times made attempts at game making so I know just a small bit of what it takes. That being said, you and your team absolutely EARNED this release and everything that comes with it!!! Hope to see more of you guys in the future
Oh man, I am so moved by your story. I am a struggling solo indie dev that juggles my work and my passion project. Most of the time, I am on the brink of quitting to create my game because of burnout, and sometimes I am overthinking if it is worth even doing this. But this random video gave me another booster to stop overthinking and just continue what I've started and don't quit.
Congrats on your game, I purchased it, and if I got a time I will play it.
Thank you for pushing me brother, let's keep doing awesome things.
Congratulations on the release dude. Gamedev is Hard. Finishing a 7 year game as a solo developer is mega impressive
Congratulations on completing your game!! I’m so glad UA-cam recommended this video! hopefully it leads to some more traffic for you
Wow, what a beautiful, quintessentially authentic presentation! It tugs on the heart strings and inspires reflection. You're gentle, forthright, candid, authentic, sensitive, and assiduously relentless! A very appealing combination.
I think you absolutely are insane. Beyond insane. Me too, welcome to the club. I think you have to be insane to do what we do. "Maybe you should try a few really short projects before diving into another really huge one?" Ha! But you know, we do what we do because we are who and what we are. No way would I be able to make myself follow that advice if someone gave it to me. Not remotely.
I think everyone at one time or another feels like so much "dust in the wind." And even famous celebrities sometimes suicide for feeling alone, as ironic as that is. "Even the stars hide away." You're lucky you have friends. I'm lucky I have family.
Congratulations and good luck.
I remember watching the first episodes of this series and then loosing this channel in the sea of youtube, I'm so happy that you actually managed to release the game
Hello from the algorithm! I hope this video blows up because you deserve it. Good luck on your adventures as a developer and NEVER STOP!
ps i bought your game ^_^ it doesn't seem like it would be a game for me but I wanted to help support you regardless. I'll probably give it a shot sometime though!
A huge congratulations for sticking with the game development. I've released a few games myself and I really relate to that feeling of loss and emptiness when you have finished a long project.
My first Steam game took me 4.5 years and didn't do very well due to lots of rookie errors prior to launch, but I dusted myself off and jumped onto development again.
Not wanting to sound patronising in any way but just well done, you should be proud, mate.
i'm very proud of you, this is an extreme achievement. i'll be playing this very soon!! 😍😍 you're doing great with your project and i hope it works out.
seems interesting the graphics from what i can see in the video are amazing shall play
Random rec. Congratulations! Rhythm games are my favorite, can't wait to try!
First content about you or the game that I have ever seen. I dont play a ton of games on my PC but I love a lot of what you have talked about including in Disharmony. I will most certainly wishlist your game and then pick it up in the future.
Thank you for showcasing the good and bad of the process and ultimately ending on a super high note. Its easy to get lost in the negatives that affect all of us. Let that positive energy carry you on the next project! ❤
Thank you very much!
Damn watched through the end congrats on starting something and seeing it through very motivational as someone who's working on their own projects
588 sub! I already know that's going to be a fraction of your subs soon!
As long as you had fun on your journey it was worth it!
Something very special happened when you released that game. The are thousands and thousands of tryers out who give up after a month or years of attempting to finish a project but they tried. But you finished the project, you are now a doer. And in the end only doers can succeed, I hope for the best for you current and next project. You have my upmost respect.
When you mentioned texture pages, I knew you were a fellow GameMaker user. Here's to hoping both of our projects immediately achieve great success.
EDIT: After hearing about your game's financial issues, I believe that has everything to do with the state of the market and is precisely the reason why indie devs should seek out publishers now more than ever.
Thank you! I hope your project(s) go(es) well too! And yes, I agree with the point about seeking out publishers, even though that can lead to unfortunate limitations from a creative standpoint. I'm always glad to see projects get picked up, but it's hard not to think of the horror stories I've heard when it comes to publishing as well. :P
Eh it’s minimal but I may as well comment to boost the video more.
Congratulations, really. Finishing a game is a big thing.
Hey - keep going! I gave up after my first “financial” failure and regret it every day.
Be proud! Keep going!
Fantastic work. I can't promise I'll ever play it, as I'm not sure the genre is my cup of tea, but I have nothing but respect for how hard you worked to make it to release. As a fellow Game dev, I hope to reach that goal someday.
I think the simple visuals may be a turn off to casual buyers, but improving them would have come at a price. Less dialogue, shorter story, fewer enemies/bosses, less music. Something would have to give, so I don't think it was a bad call to stick to your trajectory. Maybe you didn't land too many sales. But look at all the views on this video! The hard work paid off. Congratulations.
Congratulations on releasing a game! I bought the game after watching this video.
One thing I wanted to mention is that one thing I think that might have hurt is some of the color choices for the graphics were just super bright/oversaturated. If you desaturated some of your background colors/used some darker colors it might be easier for people to play the game. The grass is particularly aggressively bright.
I echo similar comments that some shading would definitely help the art of the game.
Also the intro cut scene for me was just a blank screen with text and it would probably help to put at least something there because at first I thought maybe the game was broken. It was not obvious what was happening.
Congrats on seeing it through. Not a lot of people can say that but those who can usually go on to succeed!
Congrats on the huge undertaking! I hope you make a post-mortem someday too!
Thank you! I'm probably going to make something of the sort eventually, but it might take a while. Editing this behemoth burned me out a little bit and I'm in need of a break :P
Enjoy the well-deserved rest!
I wish you the best and hope that more people will see this video!
Thank you very much!
Congrats on finishing your game! I'm only a year or so into my own game dev journey, and while I've really only done a few game jams, I'd love to finish a passion project like this one day.
Incredibly inspiring stuff!
Good luck with your next project!
Thank you very much! Good luck on your own project(s), I'm sure they'll turn out great!
Congratulations on your hard work and your phenomenal game. What you have created is simply amazing
UA-cam recommended it, and now i'll comment just so someone else also gets this video :D good luck on your next project
Thank you very much! Any level of support is highly appreciated.
So, you can heal your wrists, but you need to put in the work. I've gotten myself out of it. I had a point in my life where my wrists didn't hurt, but I couldn't put pressure on them. What you need to do is get grip strengtheners. YOu need the digiflex (get all the different weights) It looks like a finger strengthener for guitars, a MUST. Next you need to get a regular grip strengthener. The one where you squeeze it with your hands and palm. Next up, this is option, but get a forearm strengthener. NEXT get a nightstand where you can put your hand under the lip of it. Put the night stand next to your bed and put a pillow on near the edge of the bed. Place your arm outward, under the lip of the night stand and head your head and body the other way. You're going to feel quite a stretch, and one you probably never knew you needed. The tendons go all the way up your arm and you need to stretch it all. Hold that for about 1-2 minutes at a time at least once a day, maybe more if you can handle it. Next, you need to stretch your wrists like you haven't before. Stretch them up, stretch them down, stretch them sideways (both ways) hold your thumb and in you fingers and with the other hand gently pull that hand downward. Put your hands in a prayer and bend them outward from your body where only your fingers are touching. Feel that stretch. Those grip strengtheners you want to constantly pump until you are at or near failure. Make sure to do push ups, at least 10 every day.
Walk on your hands and knees, even walk like a gorilla open palmed. You are making sure you are using your muscles and tendons. If you can try walking on your wrists, be careful though. If you're not ready for that, then just hold the position.
Pretty much what I've learned is that you have to go through pain to get through pain. Good luck on your recovery. You can do it.
This sounds genuinely helpful and I didn't expect to receive this sort of advice when I uploaded the video. I've done my fair share of exercises, but never anything quite to the extent you're suggesting. Thank you for taking the time to write all of that, I'm gonna look into getting a grip strengthener ASAP!
Right on man. No problem. I've just been there and I know how much it sucks to have been able to do something once before, which your body isn't allowing anymore.
I'm gonna be honest, from this point on, you're probably gonna want to think about giving your wrists breaks every 2-4 hours, doing the hand grip exercises. Thankfully, it's not a long break, but little breaks will be needed. For a while, I bought some copper infused gloves and wore them during my healing. I do believe it worked, but whether it's just in the head of not doesn't matter, as long as it works is all that matters.
When I speak about stretching, (almost) always make sure that your arm is extended while stretching and hold it for at least 1 minute each way. Bend wrists and thumbs (yes, bending the thumb all different directions is important too) to a point where you feel the burn, but you're not in unbearable pain. Being uncomfortable is important. Also when I say sidways, I mean twist your wrist.
I'd love to hear an update on all of this if you decide to go through with this. It took about a month or so to REALLY see results for me, but when they did happen, it was very obvious a night and day difference. You might not think it's working, but then POOF, you can use your wrists like you used to again. It's a pretty cool phenomena to experience. So if you feel down and that it's not working, that's a normal feeling and you are completely welcome to feel that way. I felt sorry for myself as well. It's all part of the healing process. So long as you don't stay there and continue the hard work, you will heal. @@boot-catstudio
If I remember to do so, I'll definitely send an update your way. Thanks again for the advice!@@kukukachu
@@boot-catstudio well your video showed up on my recommended once again, so I see that as a sign to check in on you. How'd everything go?
I'm so happy for you my friend ❤️ I get so filled with joy seeing this and all the support you're getting! I wish this could catch the attention of Jacksepticeye bcs he supports a lot of indie devs
Thaaaank you
congrats on finishing your project, hope it reaches more and more people!
Thank you very much!
Good job sir. I will check it out and let you know what I think! Congrats!
Thanks a ton!
I'm a bit late but congrats on releasing your game. Not many people can ever finish what they started. Most people who release an indie game solo (depending on the genre), dont ever really even hit past $100 in sales. That's where reality hits them hard. For everyone reading this, never give up. The ability to create something and have your mark on the world is an accomplishment itself even if it's a small thing. Keep learning.
Thank you very much!
Great work! I hope more people get to see how amazing your game is!
This hurts me to see, I checked out your game. The art style is unique, it looks smooth, you have a great steam page. I guess it's a cruel reality of our world =(
It's totally not my type of game, i just like watching dev logs. It looks really interesting though so best of luck :)
Thank you very much! It's definitely not for everyone, I totally understand. I'm glad you enjoyed the video regardless!
seeing a developer point out big flaws of their game a bit after the launch is definitely a first for me
Well, it's better to be honest about how I feel rather than trying to oversell it, no? ;P
@@boot-catstudio well some of these things like audio balancing could be fixed in a patch
Definitely! And patches are being rolled out every once in a while. One was posted just last night.@@raidev_
@@boot-catstudio that's good to hear
It would be more rewarding to use my 7 years of making the engine to use in building my main game, it would be less exhausting and beneficial in the long run, in many ways. However, if you didn't make this video, we wouldn't know how hard it would be to do it all by yourself! Thank you!
great video! had a blast every time i got to help you out with the game ❤
Couldn't have done it without you
I feel like this is a good warning to people that they need to understand the marketing side of releasing a game before devoting this much time to something.
Kind of depressing
Sure is. That's part of the reason I took the time to go into detail about a bunch of aspects of the game's development and why the video is nearly 40 minutes long. I spent a very long time making mistakes and I think it's great if people can learn something from them so that they don't have to make them themselves.
Well, this is why networking and marketing is very important.
Aw sorry it wasn’t more successful. Make another game with all your knowledge and make it better and in less time! I hope you don’t give up
Watching your video was an eye-opening experience for me. It really struck a chord.
Having spent over 11 years in IT, I've often considered transitioning to game development. But the reality of seeing many projects not reach their potential, as evident on platforms like UA-cam and devlogs, is sobering.
Your commitment to completing your project is indeed remarkable. It speaks to a strong sense of dedication, a quality that's highly admirable. However, this makes me wonder if this dedication might have, in some ways, blinded you to the sunken cost fallacy. Completing what you start is important, but I'm curious - were there moments during development when you questioned the game's market appeal or the direction you were taking? Did the idea of altering course or making significant changes ever come up, based on feedback or your own intuition?
I'm also intrigued about the insights and opinions of those close to the project. How did your friends, family, and playtesters react to the game? Were there consistent pieces of feedback that you chose to overlook? And reflecting on the journey, what do you think were the key factors that led to the financial outcome of your project? An honest evaluation of these aspects could provide invaluable lessons for others venturing into game development.
Lots of stuff to say here. First of all, I'm glad you got something out of the video! It's nice to see it provoke so many thoughts. As for your series of questions...
I wouldn't say my dedication was part of the sunken cost fallacy, because that would imply I thought the project would eventually lead to some major gain that would "make it all worth it", when in actuality the reason I completed the project was mainly due to the satisfaction that came from creating something, along with partaking in the nearly life-long dream of mine that is creating games.
There were absolutely times when I questioned the game's market appeal-- I've always known the game appeals to a very specific niche-- and I was very well aware that it most likely wouldn't be a smash hit like other indie games have been. I could've spent the same amount of time creating simpler projects with broader appeal, but that was never my goal. I like turn-based RPGs, I like music and rhythm games, and I like the off-beat humour of games like EarthBound and Monkey Island. I set out to make something that would borrow bits and pieces from all of those, despite knowing all of them are part of their own niche already.
Feedback definitely played a part in the game's outcome, but the main goals have always remained the same, and I wouldn't say the original vision was altered all that much. Speaking of feedback, it mainly came from my sister and my two playtesters, who've been friends of mine for many years. My sis has always encouraged me, but sometimes I think she might be a little too lenient on criticism :P Despite that, she was really helpful with initial feedback on the concept and the game's script, and helped me refine certain ideas. Feedback from playtesters was typically more critical, but never to the point where they said the game was "bad" or anything, in fact, they mostly said they really liked it. They know my type of humour and stuff so it isn't surprising that they liked stuff like the jokes. There would be points where they said a menu was confusing, or a puzzle was too cryptic, or something would seem out of place, but that was kind of the extent of it.
There would be points where they'd give me a piece of feedback that I would dismiss, but I think that was for the best most of the time, with a handful of exceptions. For example, as I described in a reply to a different comment-- One time, one of them pointed out that the player seemed to move faster diagonally than they would moving straight up-down/left-right. I thought "No, that's not right. Your movement speed doesn't change-- You're just moving in two directions at once."
... only to realise months later that "moving twice at the same speed" means covering more distance. I felt pretty dumb.
But aside from that, I rarely overlooked any major piece of feedback.
As for what I believe led to the financial result, I think it's a combination of the niche appeal of the game's concept, a lack of marketing, as well as a not-particularly-appealing artstyle.
Niche indie games can do super well! Some of the most popular ones ever include an EarthBound-inspired bullet hell RPG with a morality system, a run-n-gun platformer with a 1930s animated aesthetic, and a game where you stamp documents at a border control station. That said, those games are usually really good at selling their ideas through great trailers and other means. (Those particular examples were also made by people with some level of notoriety-- like how Toby Fox was already known for his contributions to Homestuck when he made his Kickstarter campaign for Undertale, which definitely gave it a significant boost.)
I also wish I'd shown the game off sooner, giving it a higher chance of gaining attention on the internet before I made my Kickstarter campaign. There's no reason to hide your game if no one knows who you are. The main reason I kept mine secret was that I was afraid of someone swooping in and "stealing my idea", which, by the way, happened anyways. :P (Not LITERALLY "stealing", but other devs made rhythm game RPGs while I was making mine. Everhood is probably the most notable example.) If I'd made some videos about it and posted them on forums or reddit or whatever, it could have gained an audience long before I threw it onto a crowdfunding site, where it barely reached its goal.
Even beyond that, I think I could have put more effort into marketing the game on social media and stuff throughout the years. My friends have been extremely helpful when it comes to managing the game's social media, and I don't blame them one bit. I should have made sure to give them material to post more frequently. And, while I do like the >30 minute devlogs, I think making more focused shorter-form content would have been beneficial, and is likely what I'll be doing in the future.
I have many more things to say about these topics moving forward, and I'm planning on making videos about the things I've learned over the years, in the hopes of other people learning from my mistakes so that they don't have to make them themselves.
Thank you for your comment!
Thank you very much for such a detailed answer! I really appreciate it. I hope that the lessons you learned can help you move forward and make even more amazing games. Wish you all the best and will follow for that lessons for sure :-)@@boot-catstudio
I'm on year seven of my solo indie game. I have 0 expectations for it's release. I figure if it sells even one copy, it's one more copy than I expected ha.
That's kind of the way I started looking at it once I realised my game was extremely unlikely to succeed. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope your game ends up (greatly) surpassing your expectations!
Thank you! ^^ @@boot-catstudio
Oh... A rhythm game... The one genre of game I can't play... I can't detect a rhythm to save my life, I can only play rhythm games while relying on my eyes and reflexes because I am incapable "feeling the rhythm" or whatever the heck it is that rhythm fans do when they play rhythm games. Rhythm and beats will forever be an alien concept to me and something I am just simply unable to tap into and trying to play the game only using my eyes and reflexes is so hard and more often than not I get the timing wrong because it's going to fast and I quickly get overwhelmed because I can't focus on more than one note's timing at a time and the next one always comes so quickly after that I can't shift my focus in time to prepare for the next key timing.
How people play rhythm games I will never understand, my brain just doesn't work like that.
Good stuff 👍🏼
I’ll have to pick this game up at some point, looks good!
Thank you!
Good Video!
Thank you for sharing your story
I'm glad you liked it!
GG! ♥
i see is a game made with passion, and i love this kind of games. i played al the DDR dance revolution and other guitar games.. i hope it gets reconized. the only problem i think that you too seen are the graphics, too much simple, no many shadows to give immersion. im a developer too and im about to publish my game on playstore and ios. (first paid game). and is made entirely with sprites in 2D. made in 4 month.. finger crossed for both my friend.. this video could get many more people to play your game, you really deserve it 👍
great content bro, keep it up
Investing in an artist might have helped a bit. I think art is the one thing that can hook players without anything else. Other than that, the hook of battles being rhythm based doesn't see strong enough, but likely because the rhythm aspect doesn't look super engaging.
But you could try getting youtubers to play and review the game? Could bring interest if you think the game has enough merits?
underrated as hell
this is the reality of gamedev every naive game developer (basically everyone under 20) should be aware of
good job!
hell yeah better caul saul intro
As a fellow who took the gamedesign course up at Boden, I likewise know the struggles of getting anything 'done', even if I've yet properly shipped anything yet.
So here ye' go; I'll get it and see what me 'n my pals think of it.
Haha, didn't expect to find a fellow alumnus in my comment section. Thanks a ton for the support, it means a lot!
@@boot-catstudio I know it does; God Jul in advance! ^^
this video feels like nostalgic i dont know why
Wow! 7 years ago I also had an idea for a rhythm RPG! So glad I didn't do it. I would have hated to work on it for 7 years only to find out that I only had to wait for you to do it! lol
Haha, you're not the only one technically. There's a few people who've tried similar things :P Everhood is probably the most successful one but I've intentionally avoided playing it because I didn't want it to influence the way I made mine. Having the same general concept as others is fine, it's the execution of said concept that makes games unique!
@@boot-catstudio Bro. That part where you import the songs and then assign the notes made my head spin. That's mad tedious. The system I came up with was this: I played the song and while the song played I hit the buttons on the guitar controller and recorded the button presses with time stamps. Then I would set the drop rate to the tempo of the song so they would hit the time stamp at the right time.
Wishlisted.