I know that the "how to fail" gimmick is often used jokingly, but it is often more useful to look at what failed rather than what succeeded to avoid a Survivor bias
@@viniciusschadeck4992 Survivor bias is when people focus only on what succeeds and overlook what does not, sometimes resulting of a false conclusion of how the results came to be.
@@viniciusschadeck4992its useful to consider the chance of survivors bias. A lot of successful games having thing X doesnt mean that thing X is necessarily the key to success, it could be that a whole lot of really bad games have it too, and its not necessarily good or bad or potentially it could even be actively bad, but the good things the successful ones outweighed it
Don't forget to throw in the possibility of RNG completely destroying any hope of continuing a run! Gotta keep the good players on their toes, by negating all skill with a luck wall!
@@ethanhayes7038 I was more thinking of traditional rogue likes, like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup or Tales of Maj'Eyal, where sometimes you can just get a bad hand, and have a couple very strong enemies spawn too early and destroy you. (mostly an issue with DCSS, because TOME4 has counterplay to bad RNG, and potential revives, but it's still present)
Reaching the end of the game the player comes across a wall that rolls a 1D100000 dice. which requires the dice to land on the highest number. Furthermore to reach the end of the game takes a very very long time. Each run taking 1000 areas to teach the end of the game to even have a single roll to try and get past the wall. And if the roll fails it's right back to the start of the game again, with zero upgrades and not keeping any items from privious runs. ... That could actually be a good game if done right.
Great way to fail: Introduce RNG elements arbitrarily but also inconsistently, in parts of the game that rely on core game mechanics, and put little or no thought in how the RNGs are generated. Random.Range is more than good enough for these functions. That way, the game will feel hard no matter your skill level!
Sorry, , but just stick to it man, it happens to the best of us, sometimes we make a Noita, and sometimes you can turn out a Spelunky, but just keep trying and I'm sure you can make something no one will care about eventually.
i think its time to make a frustrating roguelike with items that dont tie into eachother, and requires extreme reflexes in an arena with no random generation
I would love to see how to fail at making a boomer shooter or doom clone. This is honestly a great way to learn though at what mistakes you shouldn’t make!
This is the funniest series of videos on gamedev. Actually If we take pointers from it to what not to do then we could actually make good games. It is very educational if looked from the correct prespective
“Just add a dash mechanic and call it good” God this is so incredibly, painfully accurate. Seems like every dang game nowadays has a dash and it feels like something the devs thought was a “must have” rather than it actually complementing gameplay and movement mechanics
I like dashes tho, they feel nice and that’s probably why. But it always feels cool when someone implements something different (especially when they do it well)
I watched this because I am working on making a love letter to one of my favorite games called Nuclear Throne and want to know everything that I should and should not do so thank you for the help.
I love videos about hot to fail. It's really funny, but also informative :D I really want to see more videos like this and would be good to see about tower defense games :)
That might be good, I'll have to learn more about what actually makes a TD game good first though. But eventually I'm sure I'll make an episode on that.
A lot of roguelikes and games in general nowadays just don't know how to make enemies fair or proper player scaling. They just throw bullshit at you and then when you die the response is "lolmao you're just mad you died skill issue"
And roguelites are like, lol, keep grinding and you'll beat it eventually! And mobile games are like, lol, pay $1.99 for a boost and you'll beat it! And AAA games are like, lol, turn the game to casual story mode!
That first point is so good... and I think that's something I started as such a victim of... Trying to pick a genre first... now I understand, games are just games, genres are just catergories we put them in to define them, but you can take aspects of many genres in one game and still have it work.
I just love how your videos are slowly pushing me towards the BEST way of failing - towards never trying =) You make it sound so hard and hopeless, that giving up seems more and more of an option rather than an excuse! /j
Don't give up, game dev is hard, but seeing the ways others have failed can actually help you avoid the same pitfalls, that's all this series is about really. :)
Lol great video. I'm actually working on a Roguelike and this is helpful, makes me realize some things you mention in the video that I wasn't aware I was doing like doing certain things because that's how other roguelikes do it, basically trying to fit my game into the genre instead of making it the way I want as you said.
Don't let a genre define what a game should be. Some of my favorite games are the ones that blur genres together to make something weird and interesting.
This one is especially interesting to me because of how well-regarded FTL: Faster Than Light is yet it does over half of the things listed in this video (I myself have 1500 hours in it), especially if you compare the base game to it's largest overhaul mod "Multiverse" which mostly attempts to patch up most of the "failures" of the base game (including some that aren't even mentioned in this video, such as losses that are out of the player's control or having the game end in the same place always), yet there are some people who are like "no we don't like this we want more similar to vanilla FTL."
FTL also succeeds at a lot of these though. Items, upgrades and crew members do combine in different ways that allow for different approaches and some enemies interact directly with these different attack approaches in meaningful ways. A run where you focus on boarding enemy ships, might give you trouble when you cross paths with an automated ship, unless you're boarding with lanius crew, in which case it's basically a free win. Some ships are really weak against drones, while others might have a lot of ways to fend off your drones. The main issue is that there are a few weapons that are clearly better than the rest. (Looking at you, Flak Cannon Mk I)
@@LucyTheBox The #1 thing FTL fails at (from this video) is the "impossibly high skill ceiling" part and generally needing to pour dozens of attempts in to memorize a lot of the events. I didn't say that FTL failed at everything here though, it's obviously a good game but it just surprises me that it succeeded despite these very glaring problems. Some people are just masochists though.
Oh wow great video! I don't know if I like more the minimalist art style of the video or the music that absolutely collides with the feelings you have while playing roguelik/tes 😂 Thanks for the non-white background I think that It could destroy me, nice touch.
Only as I was making the first episode did I realize the similarities, hopefully I got my own spin on it though, while of course taking inspiration! :D
I remember one time I made a small roguelike game and the way items worked was similiar to risk of rain, you could get multiple of the same item and your items could activate other items and at some point in the game you would get so absurdly op that your items activated constantly until your target was dead
the part i love about this series is that by simply thinking about what he says in reverse it becomes a tutorial on how to make a GOOD GAME. thats right. this is actually a tutorial on how to SUCCEED in making games!
This playlist (How to fail at...) saved my night after a boring and tiring day of programming stuffs that I don't even know if they're going to work properly!
The “empty room with no random generation” is becoming weirdly common these days for some reason Other than that, great video. I’m starting work on a roguelike myself and this inspired me to rethink some design decisions
[Insert Self-Esteem Boosting Comment] I really enjoy this series. Always funny. Actually had some time to pop in and watch the premiere. I need to get back into game dev so I can start failing too! 😄
This is true! A fighting game for sure takes some incredible amounts of balancing, and I suppose any Moba would too, especially if different options are provided for playable characters or units. Great point! :D
I'am creating a rogue like for about 8 months now I have no much content, but i only make it on free time, at least i have random generate maps using seed base algorithm, each time for default get a timestamp, them turn it into a seed value and generate about 4 different values, each value i use for something, and actually i use only some portions of each value for specific stuff. Main value generate a raw 2D map, second one i use to generate rivers, the third i use to spawn random paths along the map, the last one is used to generate interesting places. My game has low AI for now, they just can do simple and complex move, simple sample is run to the target, mostly the player, complex one is like, prepar slam attack, moving backwards from the target, always aimming to the target, when reach a minimum distance, start slam running the target, with no real control of direction, just run straight for certain amount of time, then back to others behaviours as straight go to target. Also, randonly jump aiming target, and repeat it random times as a slime bursting little jumps all other to hit target, but with high inaccurrate aim and have a breath time then back going afterwards the target. My itens for now are kinda normal, i mean, i have only 7 controlable itens for now, sword club, spear, also bow, chakram and throwable hammer, the last one is a default attack fist attack item. They all can be use for the player as well humans enemies. I want to make more fun itens like fire stuff poison stuff and soo on, but i'am working on enemies IA to properly use human itens when the enemy is human, soo far, almost done, need test item cost to use working well on enemies and drop the enemies invetory on death. Then i have to finish my demo boss, that will be a mini boss on version 1.0. The deadline of my game first demo is now end of year, but maybe i not handle it in the schedule. Soo, i hope keep on date, even not making some quality of life improvements, i have done all art by myself, but because of it, is a really low quality graphics for now. And sound is even worst, because is literally me speaking for now. But if i finish my boss, i hope make some extra itens, ooohhhh by the way, my game has others itens as armours like stuff, you know, boots, helmets armor itself, and they had properties as well, also has levelup and you can levelup some stuff on each match, this all is working and just need add more content in the future. It is fun? I don't know, but a friend of mine take a old version and play more than a hour straight, he was trying to beat my placeholder boss and actually did it over a hour and half after, using just my initial itens, that was insane because i did a single entity with 1000 health and itens make 1-5 damage on that point, but the entity regens 1 healthpoint each second, soo i used that to test attacks and him just get hitting the boss until kill it LOL
Although im not making a rogue like. I found tech trees as a concept as a good beginner friendly way to manage difficulty and balance. The tricky bit though You'll have to figure out the overall pacing of your game. Then you place more difficult enemies based on where you believe the players made progress unlocking the tech tree. You then play test and iterate by adjusting the weapon damage upgrades on the tech tree and difficulty of the enemy until you reach the right equilibrium for your game.
Can I have the Artindi power up please? Really loving these series, they will be the first place I would visit IF I wanted to make good games. The SFX and art style is looking good as well!
So basically "Hotline Miami"? Reflex/precision based combat, super hard, static levels, weapon veriety is mostly just cosmetic, few enemy types, and camera tilting back and forth with shifting colors to get that nausia feeling. Great game though 👍
Dude. Person who made these. I haven't commented on youtube for eons, but I'm watching your videos after them being randomly generated to me (sorry) and, as a guy who dreams of making games in general, and a traditional roguelike especially, your videos are basically you punching me in the balls repeatedly by describing my escapades in game making in perfect detail. My seasoned dev friend tried to tell me about it but I'm apparently not one to listen unless the punching of the balls is part of the equation. Thank you, I promise to try and change my ways. I will mention your videos as a defining moment in my future post-success interviews 😉(No, really, that line hit close to home). I will now go make brick breaker.
Funnily enough the roguelike I've put the most time into, the wild dark, actually checks a good few of your failure points, with large amounts of repetition, but consodering the game makes you have to start from scratch and survive long enough to even consider tackling the bosses to get critical tools required to challenger even harder environments and bosses to eventually be able to tackle one of the 4 endings or even harder reincarnation. It's a roguelike that a successful run will take you at least a couple irl weeks if you have a life. The game is somewhat forgiving, but it is very easy to make compound mistakes leading to numerous early deaths, once you get past a certain point that becomes less of an issue, although the later areas are still particularly dangerous.
I love unlocking items that are worse than what already is in the itempool at the start, that sure values the playertime. Next I want my random item synergies dependent on the order I get them. Get component B first? Haha missed out on that run, try another. So fun and engaging.
Well you are basically describing spelunky 2 and that was quite successful so i guess the takeaway is that its best to just make a game bug free And aestetically pleasing and have an established franchise and famous UA-camrs who play your game
i don't know if my comment will boost your self esteem. The only commenting skill I worked on was reflexes. Nice video and it looks like you got a bunch of other nice videos too.
Make sure your weapon and item descriptions are just flavor text so the player has to open a wiki every time they find something new to make basic informed decisions. Make sure there is no reliable way to heal damage. After all, taking damage in a highly random game is ALWAYS the player's fault. Make sure the weapons the player finds vary dramatically in power, and balance enemy health against the strongest weapons the player will almost never have. Make sure NPCs that might help or even provide tradeoffs are randomly absent from 90% of runs. If there's a way to skip the early game, make sure unlocking it is more difficult than beating the game normally, or make it a secret the player will never find.
I haven't been failing anymore, because it's been a while since I stopped trying game design. Have you ever made videos about interactive fiction and visual novels?
Direct control of a single unit, with a grid like style of movement where combat takes place in the same instance (And is not some other space like Final Fantasy), in which time only moves forwards as you take actions. Perma death, Proc Gen, and so on are not necessary (granted this is rare). If the above definition is true, it's almost certainly a roguelike. Meaning, you can't call 99% of indie games Roguelikes because of those two qualities alone.
I know that the "how to fail" gimmick is often used jokingly, but it is often more useful to look at what failed rather than what succeeded to avoid a Survivor bias
Looking at what does well is super great, but looking at what does poorly is often just as helpful. :)
i like survivors, you mean, like vampire survivors? that shit is GREAT. Or you mean, other time of survivors and i don't get it?
@@viniciusschadeck4992 Survivor bias is when people focus only on what succeeds and overlook what does not, sometimes resulting of a false conclusion of how the results came to be.
@@Artindi i totally are thought about other stuff LOL
@@viniciusschadeck4992its useful to consider the chance of survivors bias.
A lot of successful games having thing X doesnt mean that thing X is necessarily the key to success, it could be that a whole lot of really bad games have it too, and its not necessarily good or bad
or potentially it could even be actively bad, but the good things the successful ones outweighed it
Don't forget to throw in the possibility of RNG completely destroying any hope of continuing a run! Gotta keep the good players on their toes, by negating all skill with a luck wall!
Ah, the Binding of Isaac approach.
@@ethanhayes7038 I was more thinking of traditional rogue likes, like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup or Tales of Maj'Eyal, where sometimes you can just get a bad hand, and have a couple very strong enemies spawn too early and destroy you.
(mostly an issue with DCSS, because TOME4 has counterplay to bad RNG, and potential revives, but it's still present)
Ah yes darkest dungeon approach (though the RNG can also work in your favor when your dudes survives multiple death door check back to back)
Reaching the end of the game the player comes across a wall that rolls a 1D100000 dice. which requires the dice to land on the highest number. Furthermore to reach the end of the game takes a very very long time. Each run taking 1000 areas to teach the end of the game to even have a single roll to try and get past the wall. And if the roll fails it's right back to the start of the game again, with zero upgrades and not keeping any items from privious runs.
... That could actually be a good game if done right.
Great way to fail: Introduce RNG elements arbitrarily but also inconsistently, in parts of the game that rely on core game mechanics, and put little or no thought in how the RNGs are generated. Random.Range is more than good enough for these functions. That way, the game will feel hard no matter your skill level!
Instructions unclear, accidentally developed Hades
Sorry, , but just stick to it man, it happens to the best of us, sometimes we make a Noita, and sometimes you can turn out a Spelunky, but just keep trying and I'm sure you can make something no one will care about eventually.
hell of a game.
@@vizthexis… is that a pun?
@@nobleninja94 yes.
Finishing Hades is a great wake up call. "Oh wow, the credits keep going and going and going"
Sea of stars as well.
Thank you for reminding me to reexamine every single one of my game design decisions in excruciating detail
Oh, happy to help. :)
i think its time to make a frustrating roguelike with items that dont tie into eachother, and requires extreme reflexes in an arena with no random generation
Exactly! That's what I'm talking about!
Actually if you do it right it could be fun, come to think of it. :)
Maybe if it wasn't defined as a roguelike, I think maybe it could be good
Ah yes, an arcade game! XD
That basically already exist, it's called Hotline Miami
@@FloatingOerit's more strategy than reflexes
I would love to see how to fail at making a boomer shooter or doom clone. This is honestly a great way to learn though at what mistakes you shouldn’t make!
There are so many categories I want make a how to fail video for. One day I'll have the time. :)
Oh that one's easy. Prodeus
I like how you both roasted and validated the roguelike community here.
One of my greatest achievements. ;)
guys with the berlin interpretation tattooed on their backs sobbing tears of joy as their decade-long passion project gets its third download
Meanwhile a roguelite first person shooter called Rogue 2 gets half a billion dollars in sales its opening week
This is the funniest series of videos on gamedev. Actually If we take pointers from it to what not to do then we could actually make good games. It is very educational if looked from the correct prespective
yeah, hopefully pointing out the dumb things we do sometimes will help us recognize them before we do them. :)
“Just add a dash mechanic and call it good” God this is so incredibly, painfully accurate. Seems like every dang game nowadays has a dash and it feels like something the devs thought was a “must have” rather than it actually complementing gameplay and movement mechanics
I like dashes tho, they feel nice and that’s probably why. But it always feels cool when someone implements something different (especially when they do it well)
I watched this because I am working on making a love letter to one of my favorite games called Nuclear Throne and want to know everything that I should and should not do so thank you for the help.
Hello, I'm Brazilian, and I liked your video style, and I'll follow more content like this, thank you very much for making me laugh!
Happy you enjoyed it! :D
I love videos about hot to fail. It's really funny, but also informative :D I really want to see more videos like this and would be good to see about tower defense games :)
That might be good, I'll have to learn more about what actually makes a TD game good first though. But eventually I'm sure I'll make an episode on that.
@@Artindi I'm very appreciate that
Agreed, they are a pain in the ass to write, but they are easily worth the pain.
A lot of roguelikes and games in general nowadays just don't know how to make enemies fair or proper player scaling. They just throw bullshit at you and then when you die the response is "lolmao you're just mad you died skill issue"
And roguelites are like, lol, keep grinding and you'll beat it eventually!
And mobile games are like, lol, pay $1.99 for a boost and you'll beat it!
And AAA games are like, lol, turn the game to casual story mode!
The Binding of Isaac: Repentance
I like the creative way you're using to show how a decent game should feel like
That first point is so good... and I think that's something I started as such a victim of... Trying to pick a genre first... now I understand, games are just games, genres are just catergories we put them in to define them, but you can take aspects of many genres in one game and still have it work.
I just love how your videos are slowly pushing me towards the BEST way of failing - towards never trying =) You make it sound so hard and hopeless, that giving up seems more and more of an option rather than an excuse! /j
Don't give up, game dev is hard, but seeing the ways others have failed can actually help you avoid the same pitfalls, that's all this series is about really. :)
Lol great video. I'm actually working on a Roguelike and this is helpful, makes me realize some things you mention in the video that I wasn't aware I was doing like doing certain things because that's how other roguelikes do it, basically trying to fit my game into the genre instead of making it the way I want as you said.
Same here, except i am at the planning phase and i was leading the game towards a bad direction.
Don't let a genre define what a game should be. Some of my favorite games are the ones that blur genres together to make something weird and interesting.
This one is especially interesting to me because of how well-regarded FTL: Faster Than Light is yet it does over half of the things listed in this video (I myself have 1500 hours in it), especially if you compare the base game to it's largest overhaul mod "Multiverse" which mostly attempts to patch up most of the "failures" of the base game (including some that aren't even mentioned in this video, such as losses that are out of the player's control or having the game end in the same place always), yet there are some people who are like "no we don't like this we want more similar to vanilla FTL."
FTL also succeeds at a lot of these though. Items, upgrades and crew members do combine in different ways that allow for different approaches and some enemies interact directly with these different attack approaches in meaningful ways.
A run where you focus on boarding enemy ships, might give you trouble when you cross paths with an automated ship, unless you're boarding with lanius crew, in which case it's basically a free win. Some ships are really weak against drones, while others might have a lot of ways to fend off your drones.
The main issue is that there are a few weapons that are clearly better than the rest. (Looking at you, Flak Cannon Mk I)
@@LucyTheBox The #1 thing FTL fails at (from this video) is the "impossibly high skill ceiling" part and generally needing to pour dozens of attempts in to memorize a lot of the events. I didn't say that FTL failed at everything here though, it's obviously a good game but it just surprises me that it succeeded despite these very glaring problems. Some people are just masochists though.
@@LucyTheBox
Burst Laser Mk II.
On point, direct, and helpful. With this advice, I can surely fail.
Watching these videos after already starting on a game makes them feel like personal attacks sometimes
Haha! That's excellent. Particularly laughed at wasting time arguing about definitions.
guilty.... :/ Glad you enjoyed!
A rougelite that I think followed all of these steps perfectly is: Splatoon's Side Order DLC
Oh wow great video! I don't know if I like more the minimalist art style of the video or the music that absolutely collides with the feelings you have while playing roguelik/tes 😂
Thanks for the non-white background I think that It could destroy me, nice touch.
Thought this channel had way more subscribers than it does, great work! It's like terrible writing advice but game dev!
Only as I was making the first episode did I realize the similarities, hopefully I got my own spin on it though, while of course taking inspiration! :D
very nice! hope to see deckbuilding games to this series
I remember one time I made a small roguelike game and the way items worked was similiar to risk of rain, you could get multiple of the same item and your items could activate other items and at some point in the game you would get so absurdly op that your items activated constantly until your target was dead
oooh that sounds fun is it on the internet
the part i love about this series is that by simply thinking about what he says in reverse it becomes a tutorial on how to make a GOOD GAME. thats right. this is actually a tutorial on how to SUCCEED in making games!
i cant break up the long empty hallways without making more long empty hallways
Love to see more faces in this space. Great content!
Thanks!
But you never saw my face..... did ya. ;)
SO glad I stumbled upon your channel, Artindi - LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
I'm so glad you stumbled into my channel as well! Hopefully I keep making great content for you! :D
@@Artindi I'm sure that you will, I will be here watching your back catalogue so long!
I wonder if Cult of the Lamb has done any of these yet
The very first one helped me the most. Thank you. But I did actually want a rogue like because it’s the hardest. The combinations my dude…
This playlist (How to fail at...) saved my night after a boring and tiring day of programming stuffs that I don't even know if they're going to work properly!
Happy I could help, and best of luck with your programs. :)
The “empty room with no random generation” is becoming weirdly common these days for some reason
Other than that, great video. I’m starting work on a roguelike myself and this inspired me to rethink some design decisions
Instructions clear, made a bad game
did you just describe the development cycle of risk of rain 2
short, Informating and funny! just what I needed. thanks👍
this helped me so much with my rogue like!
I'm sorry. ;)
I love the art man, keep it up!
Welp, I was literally about to do half of what was in this video. Thanks
This man just roasted the fuck out of the entire concept of Geometry Dash
Ah, yes, my favorite rougelike
Honestly, alot of the issues you laid out I actually like 😂
Playing roguelike games is a subtle sign of masochistic tendencies.
[Insert Self-Esteem Boosting Comment]
I really enjoy this series. Always funny.
Actually had some time to pop in and watch the premiere.
I need to get back into game dev so I can start failing too! 😄
Glad you could make it! Even if you don't do a lot, game dev is always a great hobby, even if you fail. :)
2:37
Return of the dashing gentleman.
this is how Neon Abyss was made
I'm planning to start my game development career about after a week from now, so thank you !
You earned my sub with this. Keep up the good work !
0:20 fighting games, which require years to make and balance even at lower levels of polish:...
This is true! A fighting game for sure takes some incredible amounts of balancing, and I suppose any Moba would too, especially if different options are provided for playable characters or units. Great point! :D
I'am creating a rogue like for about 8 months now
I have no much content, but i only make it on free time, at least i have random generate maps using seed base algorithm, each time for default get a timestamp, them turn it into a seed value and generate about 4 different values, each value i use for something, and actually i use only some portions of each value for specific stuff. Main value generate a raw 2D map, second one i use to generate rivers, the third i use to spawn random paths along the map, the last one is used to generate interesting places.
My game has low AI for now, they just can do simple and complex move, simple sample is run to the target, mostly the player, complex one is like, prepar slam attack, moving backwards from the target, always aimming to the target, when reach a minimum distance, start slam running the target, with no real control of direction, just run straight for certain amount of time, then back to others behaviours as straight go to target. Also, randonly jump aiming target, and repeat it random times as a slime bursting little jumps all other to hit target, but with high inaccurrate aim and have a breath time then back going afterwards the target. My itens for now are kinda normal, i mean, i have only 7 controlable itens for now, sword club, spear, also bow, chakram and throwable hammer, the last one is a default attack fist attack item. They all can be use for the player as well humans enemies. I want to make more fun itens like fire stuff poison stuff and soo on, but i'am working on enemies IA to properly use human itens when the enemy is human, soo far, almost done, need test item cost to use working well on enemies and drop the enemies invetory on death. Then i have to finish my demo boss, that will be a mini boss on version 1.0. The deadline of my game first demo is now end of year, but maybe i not handle it in the schedule. Soo, i hope keep on date, even not making some quality of life improvements, i have done all art by myself, but because of it, is a really low quality graphics for now. And sound is even worst, because is literally me speaking for now. But if i finish my boss, i hope make some extra itens, ooohhhh by the way, my game has others itens as armours like stuff, you know, boots, helmets armor itself, and they had properties as well, also has levelup and you can levelup some stuff on each match, this all is working and just need add more content in the future. It is fun? I don't know, but a friend of mine take a old version and play more than a hour straight, he was trying to beat my placeholder boss and actually did it over a hour and half after, using just my initial itens, that was insane because i did a single entity with 1000 health and itens make 1-5 damage on that point, but the entity regens 1 healthpoint each second, soo i used that to test attacks and him just get hitting the boss until kill it LOL
Finally
An honest review of Enter the Gungeon
Seems like the Neon Abyss devs based their entire design philosophy on this video
Although im not making a rogue like. I found tech trees as a concept as a good beginner friendly way to manage difficulty and balance. The tricky bit though You'll have to figure out the overall pacing of your game. Then you place more difficult enemies based on where you believe the players made progress unlocking the tech tree. You then play test and iterate by adjusting the weapon damage upgrades on the tech tree and difficulty of the enemy until you reach the right equilibrium for your game.
I love how the music adapts to the script lol
It would be fun to see how to fail at triple A developement, as an executive
"old man yells at clouds"
Not sure what ya mean....
The "try to fail a little less next time" strategy is exactly how I've been playing rogue fable 3 but i don't think that's intended ;-;
You mean that's not how you're supposed to play roguelikes?
this is an amazing series
This is an amazing comment
shiiiiiiit you got me there with "I'll just start with smth easy, like a roguelike!" too late now tho 😅
"If they actually reached the end, why would they keep playing your game?"
Flowey from Undertale has some words on this, doesn't he?"
Tiny Rogues (rightfully) called out
Me looking at the Vampire Survivors genre...
2:21 Curse of the lamb be like
oh no, its the perfect description of the "the game with the long name"
Can I have the Artindi power up please?
Really loving these series, they will be the first place I would visit IF I wanted to make good games.
The SFX and art style is looking good as well!
haha, yeah, I was running out of ideas for icons there. :) And thanks! :D
I can't believe you just wrote a tutorial for Wizard of Legend!
Instructions unclear, mistakenly made a successful Roguelike
You had one job... one job! ;)
So basically "Hotline Miami"? Reflex/precision based combat, super hard, static levels, weapon veriety is mostly just cosmetic, few enemy types, and camera tilting back and forth with shifting colors to get that nausia feeling. Great game though 👍
Dude. Person who made these. I haven't commented on youtube for eons, but I'm watching your videos after them being randomly generated to me (sorry) and, as a guy who dreams of making games in general, and a traditional roguelike especially, your videos are basically you punching me in the balls repeatedly by describing my escapades in game making in perfect detail. My seasoned dev friend tried to tell me about it but I'm apparently not one to listen unless the punching of the balls is part of the equation. Thank you, I promise to try and change my ways. I will mention your videos as a defining moment in my future post-success interviews 😉(No, really, that line hit close to home). I will now go make brick breaker.
SHEEEEEESH, thats is a such underrated video
Wizard of Legend devs watched this and took notes
Half of this video feels like a love letter aimed directly at Cultist Simulator I swear
Funnily enough the roguelike I've put the most time into, the wild dark, actually checks a good few of your failure points, with large amounts of repetition, but consodering the game makes you have to start from scratch and survive long enough to even consider tackling the bosses to get critical tools required to challenger even harder environments and bosses to eventually be able to tackle one of the 4 endings or even harder reincarnation.
It's a roguelike that a successful run will take you at least a couple irl weeks if you have a life.
The game is somewhat forgiving, but it is very easy to make compound mistakes leading to numerous early deaths, once you get past a certain point that becomes less of an issue, although the later areas are still particularly dangerous.
Do immersive sim next for an even better definition debate
Commenting for the algorithm cause this is good
I love unlocking items that are worse than what already is in the itempool at the start, that sure values the playertime.
Next I want my random item synergies dependent on the order I get them. Get component B first? Haha missed out on that run, try another. So fun and engaging.
Thank you good sir, for this incredible tutorial on how to fail, I hope you don't stub your toe for the next month
Well you are basically describing spelunky 2 and that was quite successful so i guess the takeaway is that its best to just make a game bug free And aestetically pleasing and have an established franchise and famous UA-camrs who play your game
this whole video feels like a love letter to noita
This was pretty dang funny
I feel like this just described returnal
What a well put together video!
What a well put together comment!
i don't know if my comment will boost your self esteem. The only commenting skill I worked on was reflexes.
Nice video and it looks like you got a bunch of other nice videos too.
ahhh the sarcasm is amazing here lol +1 sub
Ya think? jk, thanks mate. :)
I'm trying to make a 2d rougelike/lite game, but damn that hit hard. I never thought of random dungeon generation and the balance.
This might be the first time I understood "Rougelike"
That's impressive seeing as I hardly touched on the definitions besides to make fun of them. :)
This is underrated, can you do sandbox next
That's a good idea. I for sure plan on making more of these. Just need the time to do it. :)
i am doing rouge like game ... this video helped
self esteem bosting comment! i was upset when this ended, funni, tru
Comment: recieved
Self esteem: boosted
Glad to hear you liked it. :)
I felt personally attacked by this video :))))))
I know this is a year late, but I wanted to boost your self esteem: This was a good video!
Boosted! Thanks! :D
Make sure your weapon and item descriptions are just flavor text so the player has to open a wiki every time they find something new to make basic informed decisions.
Make sure there is no reliable way to heal damage. After all, taking damage in a highly random game is ALWAYS the player's fault.
Make sure the weapons the player finds vary dramatically in power, and balance enemy health against the strongest weapons the player will almost never have.
Make sure NPCs that might help or even provide tradeoffs are randomly absent from 90% of runs.
If there's a way to skip the early game, make sure unlocking it is more difficult than beating the game normally, or make it a secret the player will never find.
I haven't been failing anymore, because it's been a while since I stopped trying game design. Have you ever made videos about interactive fiction and visual novels?
Yes, there is a "How to fail at interactive stories" video, but most people don't like it. It's pretty harsh and blunt. Good luck! :D
Instructions unclear, now I stand trial for torture.
Direct control of a single unit, with a grid like style of movement where combat takes place in the same instance (And is not some other space like Final Fantasy), in which time only moves forwards as you take actions.
Perma death, Proc Gen, and so on are not necessary (granted this is rare). If the above definition is true, it's almost certainly a roguelike. Meaning, you can't call 99% of indie games Roguelikes because of those two qualities alone.
Permadeath is utterly core to being a roguelike. It's one of Rogue's most defining features along with procgen.
Instructions unclear, my 2 great aunt 2 times removed became a world war 1 soldier.
Mobile indie games all follow your guide. Thanks
my guides are quite popular for that platform for sure! ;)
Reflexes *whoop*
Great video!
very good sense of humor
What are you talking about? I was being completely serious.