Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 006

to some of your games and by the way if you want to submit your games follow me on Twitter twitter. twitter.com or x.com Thomas brush Dev if you want your game played by an actual indie game developer and reviewed by an actual indie game developer and hey I'm not perfect but I'm going to give you well marketing advice we're going to take a look at your steam page and then we're also going to play your game um and I'll just provide feedback as best as I can I'm perfect but I can give you kind of a good idea as to well how well the game's going to do or um maybe some feedback on your game if you already released it okay so by the way huge huge thank you huge huge thank you to Jeremy s Patrick M Patrick P Samir T Luke F and Steph U thank you so much for joining full-time Game Dev um it means the world to me uh that you would enroll in fulltime Game Dev which is by the way it's my course on everything that learned in the last

decade of making indie games and building a sustainable game Studio from my bedroom and by the way if you're curious why Thomas why do you have any credibility who are you to teach about this I'm currently published by 3D Realms um our game is called Twisted Tower and twisted Tower should it should be released um next year so fingers crossed right but I teach about how to secure funding from Publishers how to secure funding from Kickstarter how to hit the steam front page and actually make revenue from your game on Steam um how to build a brand how to build an audience how to make a game whether it's gdau Unity unreal whether it's 2D or 3D and by the way uh it's 50% off right now but you're also going to get 2D art Pro and 3D art Pro completely free and best part is you know for this new year sale and by the way it has 5 days left best part is I'll give you a shout out in the next stream um so just like I just did for the students who enrolled yesterday I will give you a shout out tomorrow which will make you feel really fuzzy inside I promise all right first game the first

game that we're going to take a look at today is a game called surmount so let's go ahead and take a look at Sur Mount you're currently published by you Mr Mel Melancholy says I'm currently published by me and actually by the way it's probably what I'm going to do with my next game is I'm probably going to publish myself bled bar bar Tycoon oh I need to update the uh the Youtube hang on one sec I need to update the YouTube link blood bar Tycoon that was the game we played yesterday so I'm going to upload the description really quick guys I'm going to upload the description with the games that we're going to play today so drum roll please we're going to be playing these games three two one right here okay um and I I also need to update the

thumbnail freaking oh got to update the thumbnail hang on one sec 3 2 1 thumbnail is uploaded all right how's everybody doing come on in come on in let's go ahead and take a look at the first steam page for the game called surmount all right so this is a game called surmount a mountain climbing adventure um I don't love games that have colon or like colon and then whatever the subtitle is and the reason why is it's not a business decision or a marketing decision it just bugs me I don't know why um I like things to be nice and clean and you know they tried to do that here and this is from Jasper oel Indiana Jonas um ton of different entities involved in this game not a problem but anyway that's what these individuals try to do with the title or that with the thumbnail um

it just says surmount I wonder what the strategy the marketing strategy is here so if you're the developer in the chat let me know what what was your strategy here maybe it's I don't know trying to explain the hook in the title but fling yourself into a mountain climbing adventure hey that's pretty cool I like that so it explains what the mechanic is and also what the hook is in a single sentence so I think that's actually pretty good um become the first to reach the top to the highest mountain in the world and meet eccentric characters along the way um I think this is great I think the hook is there if you made it I always like to try and insert the big butt principle into into my games so the big butt principle is to say what's the genre or what's the mechanic and then you say but um so for example uh a a mountain climbing game but some something so a way to enhance let's do

this together as sort of a practice guys what is a way that we can enhance the hook for this game because a mountain climbing game in my opinion isn't really a strong enough hook um it doesn't really capture me and make me really really curious so what you do with the big butt principle is you take a hook I'm sorry a mechanic and then you find the exact opposite okay you find the ex something that's very strongly opposed to that mechanic or that theme so let's practice it in the chat really quick okay what is the opposite of mountain climbing what is fundamentally opposed to mountain climbing and by the way we're just practicing here um it doesn't necessarily mean that surmount has to do this um and by the way I look like I think surmount is already released so they there's not much they could change here but maybe they could think about it for the next game it's just something that's uh interesting to think about

what is fundamentally opposed to mountain climbing diving okay that one's that one's really difficult I'm not sure how we integrate that uh a fish that's that's interesting so you could say you play as a fish trying to get up a mountain I don't I don't know if there's much there though uh Pizza um tuck back diving a parachute um skydiving um keep going guys we're almost there we're almost there falling no hey hey cozy how you doing Vaseline that's really really interesting um keep going surfing interesting okay digging

dying well what about having no arms right so there's something there like um where you play as a climber who has no arms and you have to only use your mouth to climb so that to me is a hook that's a strong hook it's more than just a mountain climbing game you're a ragd doll and all you have is a big mouth right or you you maybe it's a a realistic rag doll and all you have is a mouth right in a wheelchair there's another idea you play as this climber who's always dreamt of climbing but he's in a wheelchair and so you you only can use your wheelchair in some way does that make sense um it's just an exercise I like to try to do this exercise um with a lot of games where I feel like the hook isn't strong enough now I'm not going to sit here and pretend that the hook in the trailer is actually presented really really well like that's really

fun right so I'm not sure that there needs to be much more um to strengthen this hook right let's watch the trailer and the reason I brought all that up is it's just a really good exercise pogo stick that's great it's like the opposite of climbing you wouldn't use a pogo stick to climb so the reason why this works is because what it does is it creates and stir curiosity in a potential player they go wait how could how how am I going to play a climbing game where it's just my mouth how am I going to play a climbing game with just a hammer right which that's already been made so that's the idea um so let's anyway let's take a look [Music] here it's so funny

[Music] hey you know what I think I'm gonna I think I'm going to back up on what I said I think this game is using the big butt principle you're not climbing you're throwing yourself so I actually think that it's it's it's achieving it well I'm not sure it's yeah I think it's it actually is clear here so I think I'm going to say I was wrong I think that the big but principle is being achieved here climbing but you're throwing yourself you know what I mean so I think I'm going to eat my words here and say I was wrong um okay let's go ahead and jump in let's take a look

and this game was submitted on my Twitter so twitter.com or x.com Thomas brush daab all right let's go ahead and hit play here [Music] beautiful all right I'd love to get to there we go okay new game this is Mount om a true Marvel of nature the largest mountain on Earth it attracts thousands of visitors every year many of them in attempt to surmount this great Mountain but no matter the approach no M nobody has ever reached the summit

the mountain is home to many Mysteries centuries ago it used to be the home of the Terra burra people hey new kid stop dreaming this is your [Music] stop oh man Nintendo Vibes all [Music] day this is hilarious freaking love [Music] this hello there you must be headed to Mount M oh this feels [Music] good yeah let's go ahead and get plan here uh [Music]

so this is I'm just going to say this that's all I'm going to say is this is py pants's game and Pony pants's [Music] game was released [Music] first that's May 2nd 2024 this is March 6th 2024 huh I don't know what to say I don't know who was first honestly in terms of the creation of the mechanic maybe you guys could do some research I don't think it matters honestly cuz mechanics get inspired and reused by plenty of games all the time but Pony pants's game [Music]

has a very similar [Music] Vibe so like like I said I'm not accusing anybody of anything I just I'm curious if both mechanics were invented at the same time I guess so I'm not sure the fling mechanic is a little stiff h [Music] ah and because it's not it can't go full screen sometimes my mouse gets stuck up there I'm not sure why the full screen is an [Music] issue H quite sure [Music] this one I actually guys I haven't

played this yet so I'm kind of figuring it out H oh is that what it is okay read the freaking sign dude yeah there we go cool that's fun awesome oh do we have a day night cycle really [Music] [Music] rotate left Arrow to build up a swing release to fling yourself rotate left Arrow key how do I rotate the left Arrow [Music] key am I missing something here the game started development more than

two years ago [Music] huh well I I'm not quite sure here what am I missing rotate left Arrow key to build up a swing okay well how do you rotate a left Arrow key though I don't get that what what [Music] I swear I'm trying my best here [Music] guys it is a little strange wording I'm not quite sure what that [Music] means hm

I would say this doesn't feel nearly as accessible as Pony pants's game Pony pants's game you you immediately know kind of what you're supposed to do it's it teaches you really slowly okay there we go that that's a little tough I'm not I'm not going to lie that feels great though so lots of different mechanics here compared to like Pony pants's game pwy pants is just right click and left click that's it which I'm not saying that's a problem I'm still trying to figure out oh come on H I don't feel like I'm good enough for the mechanic see when I click up there it's such a [Music] problem how do I go full screen window no why was that the default I must have missed something okay hold

on okay there we [Music] go also I don't know why it's 4x3 right now by default oh [Music] gosh oh I can grab that okay [Music] what no [Music] Thomas I think I just might suck at this [Music]

it's hard to sort of predict where you can throw yourself it says so you're asking me why am I spinning my mouse cuz that's how you get started that's what I'm kind of confused by I don't know what rotate left key [Music] means woo hands are sweating [Music] here okay I think I get it where you release your mouse is where you get thrown it's tough though it's really tough maybe I just don't understand the instructions [Music]

why am I missing this guys let's do a little a little work together here what does this mean rotate left Arrow key to build up a swing release to fling yourself what does rotate left Arrow key mean what is this if that makes sense this is a controller based game and he needs to plug in a controller okay [Music] [Music] okay all right let's see

here take the key off and rotate it use the left Arrow key to rotate your character but that's not true look cuz what look if I press left and right nothing [Music] happens so that's not what it [Music] is so the controller doesn't plug in hang [Music] [Music] on woo [Music]

restart the game now you might be right I want to give this game a fair shake you will need a controller to fully enjoy this game that's true [Music] just don't know why the controller isn't working it's not working at all huh well well well let's take a look here [Music]

all right all right all right we got it we got it we're going to give this game a fair Shake controller works [Music] now okay here we go [Music] okay okay [Music] so [Music] guys using a mouse and keyboard well number one the instructions couldn't they weren't properly translated for the Mouse um so that's why it said rotate left Arrow key which wasn't true so it still it's still pretty hard honestly so let's see here [Music]

okay I think I got it it feels great honestly with a controller I just missed those instructions there we go yay oh gosh Come on Tom there we go much better okay sorry developer well I mean in a way it's like I don't know it it should be fun with a mouse but I understand why it's not it's tough I mean how are you supposed to make rotating a mouse [Music] fun okay this is great now this feels much better and I also like that you can uh run around that's really fun

actually woohoo oh that's funny oh my goodness more mechanics huh let me see what's going on here oh I see I love that there's a crab he's showing you what to do woohoo W that's so [Music] funny oh and it's also you can't hold on forever which I think is great makes it really challenging ropes automatically change length when you hold the direction midair handy right but did you know you can also shorten them really quickly by holding down a okay [Music]

this is really fun actually I really like this yeah you just have to you have to play with the controller it's the only really way this is going to [Music] work woohoo [Music] Graphics look amazing visually this game is really really uh clever there's a wheel here funny really fun [Music] mechanic this great really the controls are really intuitive on game on Gamepad so [Music]

spider [Music] webs all right yeah we we've spent a good good amount of time in this game and honestly I'm going to give it a good review just so and just so everyone's aware I'm not going to let my bad uh um my bad playthrough at the beginning figuring out that I needed a game pad I'm not going to let that affect the score um solid game really really solid honestly I would I would play this addictively with my kids for sure um so let's go ahead and quit here move on to the next game guys click the link actually don't click the there's no link below to to review um because I'm going to have you guys vote um yeah I would say that the okay there I yes it says game pad is is best for this game um however there's a there's an issue here which is going to deduct points which is if I'm playing on the

keyboard you better make sure that the the instructions for the keyboard and the and the the mouse are correct it said rotate left key and that's a big problem because it created a ton of confusion it should have said rotate Mouse but it told me to rotate the left key which doesn't do anything um I would also do a bit I I I would do a huge like Splash at the beginning and it like shows the game pad and it says highly recommended it's almost necessary um it makes me wonder what the any negative scores on Steam are associated with okay let's move on to the next thing Rusty ride Rusty ride Take the Wheel as a gritty veteran in a jetpack equipped car with a tank Cannon Traverse Dynamics Dynamic procedurally generated Landscapes so that's really the hook here obliterate obstacles and unlock

explosive upgrades a thrilling act action-packed Adventure awaits I would actually move the hook to the top here if it were me and I was Albert Freeman I would actually take because I think this is the hook this is not the hook this is the story um and like the the kind of the mechanics but it's mainly just a visual flourish that you you're an equipped car with a tank Cannon I would put the hook at the top Traverse Dynamic procedure usually generated Landscapes as a gritty veteran in a jetpack equipped car with a tank Cannon um I would figure out a way to make the I would try to make the hook I know sometimes it's not possible but I would try to make the hook uh this um cover art I don't know how you would do that um and frankly I would try and figure out a way to make are is it out yet yeah it's out so in the future guys something you can do is you can use chat G PT you could say

hey I'm making a game with procedurally I'm making a racing game about a rusty car on a procedurally generated landscape what would be a cool name that also explains the hook of the game okay let's see here what does she come up with she's going to come up with something here so um okay this isn't good enough please make it obvious in the title that it's procedurally generated why are we doing this so that the hook of the game is clearly explained it's clearly explain explained in the thumbnail because it's like really hard to explain procedurally generated racing in like a a little thumbnail or a

little cover art um so if we can't do it visually can we do it with a title and again I'm not saying the developer needs to do this I'm saying this is a really good um exercise for you guys yeah yeah this I mean this is good procedural Pursuit I mean you you have the word procedural in there this is actually really good procedural Pursuit this will immediately tell you okay this is procedurally generated um so that's that's probably uh probably honestly the route I would go let's see if it's actually available though it's not it is yeah so like you would automatically get huge bonus points here nobody wants to like nobody understands what a hook is for a game called Rusty ride but if it's truly about procedurally generated Landscapes you should have called it something

procedural procedural Pursuit um would probably honestly get a lot more views and a lot more plays you want your hook we've talked about this a million times but please please please you want your hook to be absolutely 1,00% evident in the first 5 Seconds am I perfect at this no let's go to my game Never song this is a really bad example this is an example of a bad one um help Little Pete hack and slash his way through a beautifully haunting coma I mean I guess it's fine the hook of the game is that you're in a coma so I think actually that's that's okay um handrawn action adventure through a dreamy World field with fleshy Monsters the sane grown-ups and sad children looking for their mommies what I don't even know how I got away with this with Serenity Forge honestly um we probably should I I should have made this a fullon Metroid Vania honestly um so I should have said it's a Metroid

Vania about a boy in a coma I think that would have done really well um but I was too stupid to know that the hook wasn't strong enough let's take a look at pinstripe what's the hook here an ex-minister Ventures to the Frozen depths of hell I feel like personally that's a pretty freaking strong hook purely story there's nothing mechanical there it's purely story now is that present in the thumbnail kind of okay what I should have done is I should have had him look like a full-on priest and he's holding a Bible and there's snow and fire that should have been the thumbnail extremely obvious hook okay by the way that hook it takes advantage of contrast aka the big butt principal right a minister but in hell and furthermore but hell is snowy

so you're creating a lot of different contrast it could have worked in fact it makes me wonder if I need to redo this artwork with that in mind does that make sense guys what I'm saying cool all right um and then Twisted Tower I'm really trying I'm still working on the Twisted Tower um uh cover art and um uh text here so I'm still I'm still working through this it's a tough one blast your way through an abandoned theme park crawling with fairy tale mascots AKA demented Disney World and the goal is to make that ever present in this cover art um so notice notice the strong contrast here guys Disney Castle right funny little Hammer from a Looney Tunes cartoon mascots streamers fireworks roller coaster but demented

right did I do this cover art yes does that make sense all right let's move forward Twisted Tower sounds like dynamic levels with puzzles and horror elements yeah I mean it's it's it's basically that um did I pay someone to do the steam capsule I tried to and then it didn't turn out like I wanted so I went in and took all of the game art that we had the models and I took it all together and sort of painted over it um so that's that's the idea uh if you use AI to make your capsules good luck not getting um if people find out I don't think they love that um so that's just my

opinion okay you guys want to play Rusty ride oh let's take a look at the trailer really quick the trailer doesn't have any sound it's slow to start and it's 6 minutes long yeah so your trailer should be like a minute 15 seconds and it should immediately get to the point it should immediately when I say get to the point it should immediately identify the hook no music okay so the trailer is uh not really a trailer it's almost like a let's play so yeah uh I would make it a trailer actually if it were me um but let's go ahead and hit play

here thank you thank [Music] you okay this gives me like old uh Flash game Vibes we can jump whoa whoa so right is to is uh PR forward okay let's keep going rusty ride oh my okay so graphically I think it's whoa so okay okay so you aim with your mouse but I can't see my

mouse so it's it's tough uh that you would what you would want to do is you would want the gun to point in the direction of the mouse but it's not currently doing that um is that the sound design isn't great and I'm trying to figure out if it's trying to be ironic maybe it is but let's keep keep going there's no Drive sound either I kind of wish that it had Dynamic volume and dynamic pitch change [Music] so like that I'm not quite sure why I can't rotate fully it's kind of the rotation

is kind of tough to to pull off okay I also have a jetpack on it um hang on can't I can't see my mouse so I keep SK uh clicking outside of the screen I kind of wish that the mouse was shown especially if I'm going to be shooting [Music] stuff H hey okay as okay so I can't it's hard to read that but shoot Zoom yeah I would shrink the size of those those uh signs I actually just completely ignored those when I first started playing I would shrink though so I could read it or pitch the cam move the camera up whoa okay so there's zombies apparently I got stuck go

sorry I keep clicking outside of [Music] theoo okay sorry I keep clicking outside of the screen because I can't see my mouse what in the [Music] world okay um um I'm I'm tempted to move on to the next game it's it's uh it's tough to play difficult to play um especially when you can't see your mouse it the for some reason the rotation is really difficult like rotating the car it just feels really once you hit a certain rotation it inverts um yeah it needs it needs definitely needs some more music and sound effects and It's just tough it's tough to play whoa

what there was a naked guy in a jetpack okay so typically with these kind of games I've actually seen this in Old flash games uh to go forward um you hold up and then to rotate you use a and d d is clockwise a is counterclockwise that's how I would have programmed it and I think it would be a lot easier to play that way um it's just hard to rotate I can't I can't uh figure out the rotation you you stop rotating it's it's really tough whoa whoa [Music] okay let's let's think about some of the music we could add to this game guys

um let's think here I'm trying to figure out what this what the the voice of this game is maybe like sort of a rustic um acoustic rock that might work let's let's go to epidemic sound um rustic or acoustic rock something that's [Music] uh but then again there's aliens and stuff so it's hard for me to to identify what the what the music should be because it there's there's several different tones in this game um there's

aliens there's there's it's it's kind of beautiful um you play as a sort of a hillbilly in a car I don't know I honestly know what the music should be let's think here maybe maybe some some like an alien type [Music] music I don't know techno banjo we could

[Music] try maybe synth wve let's try that [Music] I don't understand why they don't get killed when I shoot them what I don't I it's hard for me to understand what to do okay okay okay we we got that [Music] finally all right and I can't see my so it's just yeah that's that's one of the biggest concerns I got for that game well among

many um okay are you guys ready for the next game let's go to the next game the next game we're going to play is uh CIA reports bousy interesting name um not sure what it means but our CPA reports bousy if you guys can figure out what that means please let me know it's completely Beyond me what it means um experience the constant fear and loneliness surrounded by the decrepit old walls of an abandoned house with a tragic story while feeling a true horror of being hunted by a creature created from a strong friendship try to survive and escape the house whoa whoa okay let's let's let's figure out what the hook is okay it seems like the hook CU because the hook shouldn't inform your first sentence in my opinion

okay you should get started pretty quick so get me going right here don't don't give me this notice how I instinctively just skipped ahead just go right now there it is start there I don't know what that means so I wouldn't start there actually start with the hook okay get we need to get going we need to get going where's the hook right there there's the hook start here okay watch this guys I'm going to use my voice to explain how this works drop Basse drop then go to the creepy explore a haunted house haunted by your childhood fear

[Music] bousy start with the hook drop go back to the exploration and then build back to the hook book end with the hook does that make sense that's just my opinion but lots of great games do it let's go to choooo Charles and I'll show you just why I'm right the cho cho starts with the hook and then it drops you want me to prove it to you watch this starts right away there he is barely saw him there he is hook hook hook hook hook hook hook hook and

drop see drop o mechanics what tools do I have to explore this world hook mechanics h h does that make sense guys so let's use that logic again with what we just saw here with bousy Bow's inverted it actually treats the audience with too much respect don't treat your audience with respect most people have like five seconds and they want to you know scroll Tick Tock I'm being a little bit tongue-and-cheek here but you want to start with instant gratification let them know what this is and then we can drop okay okay let's jump into uh CPA

reports bousy by the way those you just joining us just remember you can join full-time Game Dev below get 50% off my program which teaches a lot of what we're talking about here but it also teaches how to make games and how to get funding how to secure funding from Kickstarter Publishers and how to hit the steam front page make 2D games 3D games it's it's massive and there's over I think over 4,500 students worldwide by the way if you're a student let me know in the chat what you think about the program but anyway let's go ahead and check this out uh you want to allow public and private networks to access the tab oh is that even mean what do I do guys do I click allow

H who made this I don't know what that means I've never seen this before what allow public and private networks to access this app I think it's fine right this is exactly what you don't want to put in your game I I don't know this game is mining Bitcoin it's a Unity thing that's what multiplayer games usually ask okay okay then let's go ahead and move forward CPA reports bowy that's great I love that this feels good oh yeah oh yeah love that Special Report mom don't worry about me

I'll be fine we embracing a journey to the the location recommended by a subscriber he also sent me a new body cam isn't that amazing well I'll be back by August 4th don't try to contact me here let me turn this down super loud whoa so loud and I couldn't read you need to let me click to read that don't just don't just assume I read it um okay the the post processing is pretty over the top but that's because I I get annoyed by these sort of VHS games I don't know why they just kind of frustrate by how much post-processing there is it's it's like outrageous but let's go ahead and see if we can turn it off

oh there we go play Graphics there we go ah yes off motion turn off Bloom Bloom's fine what I want to turn off is the the weird ah it's whatever go we'll trust the developer okay we're not going to be too control so I'm a YouTuber and I'm trying to like go to a house that a subscriber told me to

graphically looks really consistent really good um it's not that the postprocessing isn't clever well no it's not that the postprocessing is bad in and of itself I think it's just overused by a lot of these kind of games I just kind of wish it wasn't so aggressive um we hope this Mage find you well we are pleased to inform you that we have completed the emergency repairs in the the gas room one of our members has left a copy of the gas room key in the living room okay got to find a key please note that the light lighting system requires additional adjustments so it may not function as expected at the moment however it will continue to operate at no additional charge till the final repairs are team remains available to address any issues that arise they we scheduled to return next week to complete the lighting system requires additional adjustments it may not function so we need to go find a gas room

key so yeah my mouse when I put it on the handle I can't click when it's on the door I can so there's a ray cast issue here um is a little confus there's no sound here let me turn it up turn my flashlight I kind of wish guys what do you think vote let's vote here personally I wish that there was more um available in the camera viewport see it feels really tight and I feel like I'm like zoomed in what do we think more or less or more or the same what do you think

it looks like the Resident Evil house locked lights don't work would have been a great opportunity for a jump scare window or a bird hits the window I think there's something in hello nothing you don't necessarily have to have music right away I'm not going to complain about

that might be nice to have some like uh subtle wind coming from okay so I'm how many minutes in five minutes in and there's not really a jump scare I'm not trying to be like uh super like um fast food here but and I don't like treating games like they're fast food where's the post processing what happened um but yeah I kind of feel like there should be a jump scare in within the first five minutes with these kind of games um so that I know I need to be scared because like right now I'm not scared um that's just my thought this should be the key for the gas room that's cool I like that rotation effect camera's super close I could like zoom out a little

bit uh the fisheye effect it's just it's really it it gives me like a headache all right what do we got here base fast turn okay cool right that's kind of but it's super zoomed in man really disorienting zoom in helps with tension yeah I'm sure it does but it's super disorienting oh it's so zoomed in sorry guys H it kind of makes me um get vertigo yeah it's like I feel like hot sweats coming am I being dramatic

yes cold sweat I keep man yeah it's so zoomed in wow I'm sorry to keep complaining here but I I guess that's how these game I don't know I like that I I do I I sincerely like the artwork and um think all the meshes look consistent can't escape this heaviness suffocating I thought things would change but it's like running in circles the same uh this is just two that needs a T Smiles feel fake are they laughing at me well okay we talked about this yesterday or maybe it was two days ago but with any game that's especially like horror games or atmospheric game uh the

Temptation for developers is to make everything abstract all the time because they it's kind of like Indie music from the early 2000s you could say anything and it would sound profound what you want to do is you want to establish some kind of emotional through line immediately with the story the goal who I am where I am why I'm here my motivation why this place might be actually scary and threatening um and I had this exact problem with Twisted Tower uh where everything was abstract right away there's nothing wrong with abstraction okay like if you watch Twin Peaks I would say 80% of that show is abstract but 20% of it isn't and it holds the abstraction in place you need scaffolding for abstraction scaffolding is conrete it's solid it's static and it's constant you want it to be there it's very human and it's relatable I can tell a story of Luke Skywalker who's an

orphan boy who wants to get out of the planet out of Tatooine and go save the world and be like his father I could tell that story and then I could fill it in with a bunch of weirdness if I wanted to and it would probably still work okay and in a way it might even be more profound and mysterious so give me a motivation here and tell me why I'm scared and do it quickly do it quickly don't give me walls of text yeah I need to go find the gas room which I don't know where that is um have no idea where that is are you guys scared yes or no I'm going to say I'm not scared at all uh guys yes or no are we scared

okay so it's not this way board no no no go to the gas room I don't know what a gas room is I've never been in a gas room what's a gas room I'm not saying that to be mean or anything I'm I sincerely don't know what a gas this is where I got the key right okay well there really isn't sound like I could turn it up really loud for you guys and there's not really much going on like let me show you guys one thing that we could do to make this really scary okay or at least just help like I understand the idea that games that are just quiet and Lial and empty can be really scary but they're only scary if you have these subtle jump scares or you have sounds that you can hear in the distance and it's like an actual threat

right and I'm sure the threat comes up eventually in this game but at least give me something to hold me over with uh the game so like right here here we go and it doesn't mean you have to play it all the time guys it's just you can get it every once in a while maybe maybe during that uh sequence where it says look behind you this track plays for like 20 seconds and then it fades out if I saw a figure standing over there and he laughs it's just enough to make me feel like oh something's watching me but right now it's like I'm in an empty house and I have a flashlight so it's not that scary because I have a

flashlight I can't where the heck is the gas room I don't know where the gas room really don't um I'm so the gas room the bathroom although I guess you could call a bathroom a gas room I already went in here though didn't [Music] I know where the gats from been in here maybe I need to click on the handle to use a key there's much uh I'm not sure there's much Clarity in

the instructions on what to do um we can find a lock door distant breathing or yeah laughing in the distance and it echoes through the house but I have no idea what I'm what my goal is here we're going to go upstairs again we're going to see if that can help help with maybe this is a locked door to use the key guys do you have any ideas what to do here go to my inventory how do I go to my inventory that's good that was good how do I go to my inventory options rols interact flashlight candle is G blow candle leaning left Crouch Sprint there's no

inventory Discovery menu is O this should be the key to the Gap follow the pipes all right there go back where you

started I I genuinely want the to give the developer a fair Shake here um but let's turn off the music because that that's not fair but yeah that's the idea that's the idea of why music can help Okay we're going to go back where we started is that it seriously okay thank you guys Thomas need to grow up dude it's isn't it funny though if the developer watching seriously isn't it funny how dummy players like me can completely get lost so quickly and this world is pretty small and by the way I had this happen with my game where players just got so lost in the most basic of places

[Music] um then kind of cool sorry I'm just not going to read [Music] all for the stream because I got to get going lighting system still not functioning correctly blah blah blah overload usual black light effect we do not fully understand the

nature of this light phenomenon oh okay now let's open back up oh that was kind of scary actually je nice that was great that kind of stuff needs to happen I think in the first like keeps them interesting the tiny

little things guys tiny little things I don't even know if that was supposed to happen honestly so what did I do in the gas room I turned on something turned on gas [Music] okay so lights turned on but why was it in the gas I don't know what a gas room is what's a gas room anybody have any ideas what is it I think lights turned that's cool

that's the struggle you know you never really know when it's an asset Flip Game or not guys um but it requires you to sit there and play it you know play for an hour and you realize okay not much effort was put in the game but I'm not saying that in this case I don't know um [Music] flashlight is fored on [Music]

what that was that opened up for some reason kind of cool creepy I like it down down because I don't want my pants this is great this should be at the beginning of the game honestly I just heard something right now this is scary this is wonderful Isn't that cool guys hear the

sounds is that me okay let's keep [Music] going oh Jee okay guys this is a great great part of this game is this not such a solid example of getting to the point I I really believe this and I've had Publishers tell me this my own publisher 3D Realms has told me this for Twisted Tower I've heard this from Bioshock Creator Ken LaVine in his podcast in the podcast I did with him which is launching soon you gota you really got to fine-tune those first five minutes this is great and I'm getting bar Barbarian if you've seen the movie Barbarian I'm getting those vibes for sure we should have started with this this should have been immediate that should have been the

first thing we did like get a key unlock that's it and you know here's the thing and I I'll shut up but the developer props to them for creating such a cool moment however they probably thought in their mind they probably thought okay that first key section you know get open like turning on the gas room and turning on the lights that'll be like 5 minutes it's but it's not like the first the first part of a game it always takes way longer for the player to figure out than it does for you so this isn't going to be true for everybody but for me a dummy and honestly a lot of your players they're going to take a lot longer though I would I would get to the point so much faster yeah okay Dylan Dylan says no it's good at building tension yes however guys we're in a streaming era and we're in an era when there's

thousands and thousands of Steam games you've got to hook the player immediately right they didn't pay5 $20 to get to the movie theater sit down eat popcorn and build tension they've downloaded the demo and you have like five minutes to hook them or they're out or if it's a video a streamer is not going to get any views because somebody has to sit through through 10 minutes of finding a key so you can argue that it builds tension I'm primarily talking about stream ability and also playing a demo okay hook then tension after 100% Daniel and this is what we were talking about with the with the trailer same thing with the trailer guys in a weird way you kind of have to have le less respect for your audience you got to hook them immediately I would start with this and then I would you could do the tension later beautiful Red Door this is great and look the developer probably thinks I'm being completely

uh like it's so sad that the game industry is in this state they're probably thinking that and it's true I agree but look you've got you we' we're in a different era right now where you have to hook the player immediately this is so cool I love it handle guys don't you love it without the post-processing doesn't this look so much better without the post-processing okay let's do a little vote for the developer if the developers yes keep the postprocessing no get rid of it I understand we're filming it and it's like a video camera and it's supposed to feel like Blair Witch yes keep it no get rid of it no to postprocessing yes to

post better without it Nico this doesn't look like a normal candle why show G to show the candle blow it out whoa that's cool scary crossing the border has consequences yeah I feel like this is great and I'm glad I

waited just because that intro was great for a movie when you're sitting in a movie theater but you got to get going I know people disagree I know that they do but I'm mainly thinking about the developer and how they ensure that people actually stick around and play their game and I would I would say just start us start with something interesting immediately doesn't mean you have to reveal all this just start immediately with something f is get rid of yeah there we go there we go okay I'm zoomed in that's what the problem was that was such an interesting sequence and I can't turn on my flashlight

[Music] okay real I mean honestly it's great I you know I wish I could do more um but we're running out of time we need to vote though okay guys we need to vote uh I wanted to say something really quick to sort of explain the hook idea of capturing and hooking the player immediately without giving away anything so it's not that we're giving people dessert first instead you're giving them an appetizer or a glass of wine right you're preparing them for the meal a great example of this is in the six sense one of my favorite favorite movies

um um and in The Sixth Sense what what the director ight shamalan could have done is he could have started us with Cole okay he could have could have started us with Cole the boy said I wanted to quit um he could have started us with Cole the boy uh running into the church being followed by the therapist okay but and that's that's really when the story kicks off right but what did what did the director do instead what he did was he started in in the first five minutes we get going and it's it's really really juicy and salty it's a really spooky scene where the protagonist and his wife are are celebrating an award that he just won it's the best part of their their their marriage is amazing it's romantic they're excited that he just won this award he's probably going to make a ton of money as a therapist and he goes in his bathroom

and there's a man in the in the bathroom and you're hooked right are you already hooked there's a man in his b in the bathroom and he's wearing underwear and he's got a gun to his head and he's crying and he he's basically asking the therapist opposite of what we just saw which is you didn't help you actually suck so he shoots the therapist the therapist Falls over and we're wondering is he going to die is he going to die and then bang he shoots himself in the head cut bit into the normal life and now we build up so no we're not perverting the story we're not being cheap we're we're hooking the audience this is in the 90s we're hooking the audience in 1998 or 97 whenever this film was made in the theater you're still hooking them and then what do you have you have a question which is what happened to that

guy who was that why did he shoot him and is he dead all these questions that's the setup and what do you expect at the end a payoff okay the middle the middle is when you can slow down and build characters and build story and build setting the same is true with this game give me something immediately fast create a question and pay it off at the end does that make sense please no one ruin the rest of this movie was made in 1998 if you don't know what the six sense is uh and what the ending is but I'm not I won't I won't spoil it I won't the 15-minute rule is now a FIV minute rule yeah maybe even five seconds to be completely honest with you um guys does that help you at all does that help you at all okay let's go ahead and uh make a vote here um the reason I the reason I'm I'm

being so uh like overe explaining this is because I don't want the developer to go in there and just make it a bunch of jump scares right I don't want you to make it I want you to create a setup and I want you to create motivation and hook the player and create a mystery and create a question put a little itch on them I compare it to taking Poison Ivy and rubbing it on somebody's hand you're just you're just saying I'm going to put a little itch on you and you're going to want to scratch that you're going to want to scratch and you're going to be two hours into this game and you're going to be thinking I got to scratch the itch that's the goal that's the goal especially with these like horror games um all right so let's go ahead and take a look here at the vote you guys ready to vote I'm going to put it in the description and by the way guys go ahead and and if you found any of those games interesting go ahead and um wish list okay I'm going to save

this in the description and you guys can go ahead and yep really good potential with that game um I'm going to I'm actually going to give it a good score um despite the rough beginning because I can kind of feel there's there's a lot of potential there it's it definitely is a slow burn but like I said guys like I said a slow burn typically only works when you've set up a motivation and you've set up a character that you want to be and you want to solve a problem quickly um '90s movies do this so well they just do it so so well guys another example Home Alone one what's the setup

does anyone remember that mystery that's that's established right at the beginning a lot of you might be wondering in if you've watched home alone you go why do they got to show us the cop why do we have to see this cop standing in the middle of their foyer you see all these kids running around go ahead and vote and while I explain this you guys can vote um you've got 20 kids running around in this house it's chaos which by the way that's a really good setup or just really it hooks you immediately just chaos why is there chaos you creating questions and there's a cop standing in the middle of the chaos and you're thinking why is there a cop just watching this it's this question what's the payoff well it's halfway through the movie where Kevin looks at the cop and the cop Winks at him um he says Merry Christmas and ding his his tooth shines and that's the payoff setup who's this cop payoff the cop is a

robber right that that's so freaking rewarding it makes you feel smart makes you feel like a genius when in reality you're not you want to do that especially with these linear story games create these setups and payoffs um slow burns are good if you can at least smell the burning yep yep um okay okay Bioshock is the perfect example of how to G engage right off the bat but what's so funny is I was just talking to to Ken LaVine about this I talked to him last week about this and he was like none of that setup from Bioshock was there until they did testing and what just happened with me playing this game it was like holy crap the game's amazing but people hate it why because the setup for the first five minutes doesn't work so they went in and they fix these small little things and then it works the game is amazing you just got to set it up

right okay guys let's take a look at the the the scores here I guess I'll go ahead and give my scores um Sur Mount I'm going to give that want to be careful here um sir Mount I'm going to give it an 8.5 um well 8.3 yeah 8.3 and that has nothing to do with the controls um it's just because I think that it's not super profound and I wasn't like exhilarated um but I think it's it's a solid game Rusty ride I'm going to have to give it something like a 2.5 uh and then bousy bousy what a strange name CPA reports bousy um

7.2 and these the way I think about these scores is like uh related to the Ste the way the steam score um so let's go ahead and take a look at the straw pole here okay surmount is at a 64 I'm sorry surmount is is over overwhelming um in its support then baly then Rusty ride um so yeah looks about right we only got 38 votes we have 7 792 people watching right now um do you guys want to vote a little bit more sorry I didn't show it to you here how does your setup in video always look so crisp eight years of slowly getting the right stuff to make it look

good I didn't see the other ones so I'm refraining yeah absolutely guys if you haven't seen the other games please do not vote that's not fair that's really not fair um the voting link was not working for you really then how did people vote let's take a look here it's right there uh if you missed games don't vote but uh yeah guys it's a dragon drop vote you drag it you sort of order you drag your preferred option to the top and go from there so you're ranking it from one to three okay the link is in the description is it not there guys oh okay uh refresh the stream refresh the stream yep refresh the stream come on guys there we

go the votes are coming in sorry guys my fault no you're not dumb I should have explained that sorry guys I'm sorry sorry I think that um I think surmount definitely deserves the win but we'll we'll see what happens so let's watch the the results come in yeah it's a rank voting system Thomas what are your thoughts on using assets to make your games I'm probably not going to do it um but my opinion changes on it all the time um I was so I was adamant about using assets for Twisted Tower and we just

ended up not doing it it was hard to it was hard to commit to using assets because we wanted a certain looking feel Damen says I recently heard someone say Thomas brush is the gateway drug to uh oh I hope that's a good thing um Josh says having oh is that Josh Chambers no that's not Jos having worked at a handful of different game studios I have to say even large develop struggle with the beginning of game surmount looks like a complete game it's because it is uh so anybody who posts like a well I mean it's a demo but I think the game is done yeah mik keeps cutting out yeah it's

that stupid no I have noise reduction on there we go is that better okay is that better guys check one two one two check che check check on a scale of 1 to 10 how much does experience matter in Game Dev that's from Phil makes games 10 it really comes down of like taste uh your taste just grows as you make more and more games cuz I I i' I think I've compared Game Dev to curation you're curating things you bring all these assets into your game or you hire out contractors or you do it yourself you put it in the game and you arrange it and then you pluck it and then you pull it out and throw it away and then bring in more stuff and then pull it away it's kind of like I it's just this really guess and check kind of process no matter how many times you create the best gdd at the end of the

day you're just cutting stuff and putting stuff in and cutting stuff and putting stuff in it's really expensive at least that's how I do it um um yep yep yep yep yep all right guys that was that was super duper fun uh guys this video is sponsored by my my course full-time Game Dev um I like to sort of sponsor my own stuff lately uh so check out fulltime Game Dev below if you want to learn from an actual indie game developer I have three published games uh pinstripe Never song they're on every platform uh solid games with very positive scores on Steam um also Apple arcade bought Never song so that's that's where um Never song really was successful was on Apple uh my third game Twisted Tower is um published by 3D Realms um that is being completed uh hopefully early next year but I say all that to say look if you want to learn how to start a game Studio from your bedroom if you want to learn how to

get funded uh on Kickstarter if you want to learn how to get funded by Publishers if you want to learn how to hit the steam front page and you want to make 2025 the year where you actually pursue Game Dev and you learn it from an actual indie game developer um check it out below you know it's 50% off you also get 2D art Pro and 3D art Pro completely free which teaches my 2D art and 3D art methods that me and my team have used in in our games and then you also get stream my game which teaches you how to reach out to streamers and get streamers to actually play your game it's the real deal it's a massive uh course with over 4,500 students worldwide and what's really really cool is I've had students go full-time you know and by the way this isn't like college okay it's not like where you go 99% job placement Indie Game Dev no it's it's tough It's I'm just being completely honest it's tough but Chris stair he went full-time thank you so much Thomas I'm now officially a full-time Game Dev which is awesome he got published by Humble games Bart msar loved the course all the business marketing tips helped me get over $100,000 for my first game and go

fulltime we just funded got funded on Kickstarter this is from everlux right pretty sweet soltar here says took his words to heart and took the plunge with my brother we ended up getting a VR game uh funded what is that our VR game zix funded is that cool uh Antonio went full-time after uh for almost two years because uh thanks to the course he got to ship his first commercial game right isn't that sweet like I'm really really proud of this because people are going fulltime and that's awesome so check it out below this is the biggest sale event I've had um it's Black Friday and the New Year those are the biggest sale events after that you're going to wait all the way up till Black Friday at the end of this year um so check it out below I love you guys thanks so much for hanging out thanks for listen