Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 010

live streaming three of your games. Uh these are demos and I'm just going to offer my feedback as best as I can. Uh you know, I I will admit, you know, a month ago when I was doing this I would I don't think I've streamed in like has it been a month? May might have been three three weeks. You know, feeling a little bit insecure because well, I haven't really launched my own demo in a long time. Um so I didn't really I don't know. I felt insecure, but I have launched the demo for Twisted Tower and it's doing really really well. People seem to like it a lot. And so my confidence is back and so I'm willing to offer constructive criticism. It's not going to be perfect, but I'm going to do my best offer constructive criticism for your demos. Come on in, guys. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Hey, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um I wanted to say a huge thank you to Thomas S, Anish B, Sergio K, David W. Thank you so much for joining Full Time Game Dev.

Um and by the way, Full Time Game Dev is my program. The link is in the description. It teaches you how to make games from your bedroom, how to get funded, how to get funded with publishers or Kickstarter, uh how to hit the Steam front page. Um and the question is Thomas, why on earth should we listen to you? And the answer is because I've done it. I've done it time and time again and in fact, we hit the Steam front page with our Twisted my Twisted Tower demo uh last week. So, am I flexing? Yes. Am I bragging? Yes. Am I trying to convince you to buy my course? Yes. All three. But the truth is but the truth is is I think you really will learn a lot. I'm being tongue in cheek a little bit. I think you will learn a lot because it's taught by an actual indie game developer. For the next 5 days it's 25% off. And by the way, the way this works is the moment you click that link, it's going to start the timer for you. So, you have 5 days to to join Full Time Game Dev if you want. You get 25% off. You're also going to get a ton of free bonus courses as well. So, this is a really cool program. It's got 4,000

students. Uh world I think it's 4,500 students worldwide. Um and by the way, if you're a student, let me know in the chat what you think about the program. Um like I said, you're going to learn a ton. You're going to learn whatever Flux Games learned. They got funded on Kickstarter. You're going to learn what Bart learned. By the way, he got uh $100,000 in funding and went full time. Chris Stare, he he made over $170,000 in funding. Um he's one of my students as well, went full time. So, proof's in the pudding here, guys. Check it out below. Lots of successful students. It is a hard journey to make indie games. But I still want to show you this and look, if you if you're interested in making 2025 the year where you make uh indie games from your bedroom, check out the course below. I think you're going to love it. I think it's really going to help you a lot. All right, you guys ready to play some games here? Come on in. Come on in. I'm going to do my very very best to offer critique as best as I can. Uh for those of you who are curious, um we'll start with some critique of my own

demo. Um where where I mean, it's going amazing, honestly. It's going absolutely amazing. We're at 449 uh reviews, 92% positive and I know I know exactly why. I don't even have to read the negative comments cuz I already read enough. I know exactly why we're not at 95%, which is my goal for overwhelmingly positive. I always want to get I've always wanted very positive, but now that we're so close to overwhelmingly positive, I want to get there. And so, we'll start the critique for the for for the demos with my own demo. The reason why this is not at overwhelmingly positive is because performance and optimization settings in the options menu. Players want full control over that frame rate and they want full control over how they play the game, especially with like a first-person 3D game. Um so, shut your mouth, dog. Shut up. Quit

your barking. Love you. Please stop. Here, hold on one sec. So, we'll start with the uh we'll start with my own game here, right? I'm not going to play it. Just going to say optimization is key here. So, if I was critiquing my own game, I'd say, "Eh, you know, the frame rate if I was playing on like a laptop, I'd say, you know, it's it's not it's not really stable at 60 FPS. So, that's that's a critique. So, keep that in mind, guys. Um for your demos, optimization I would argue and by the way, the Choo Choo Charles developer, Gavin, he he made a video about this on his channel. It's his channel's called Sciencia Ludos. It's an incredible YouTube channel. He said as much. He said, "Look, if you want good reviews, it's it's going to come down to obviously you want a good game, but it's also going to come down to optimization and and making sure this game runs great and all the settings you need, disabling

motion blur, right? Or for God's sake, just don't include it, which is what I did. Uh changing the depth of field, right? All the post-processing effects, the bloom, all of that, the brightness, the controls, remapping the keys, it it's all way more important than you think. Um support for ultra-wide. Um that's another thing that it's so funny. I I I tweeted about this, but if you guys are curious, um if you guys are curious, I released the Twisted Tower demo. Um I was really confident when I when I released it. And Jason, I don't know if Jason's in the chat. Um Jason was like, "Hey, by the way, you know, I have ultra-wide and I'm playing the game on ultra-wide and it doesn't run very good." And I said, "Jason, Jason, Jason. Less than 1% of users" I don't know if it's that's the number, but I said, "Less than 1% of the hardware survey says that ultra-wide is what people play

with." And he was like he goes, um "Yeah, but it's still a cer- it's that's a lot of people." And I said, "I'm not doing it." And so I proceeded to release the demo and that was immediately the loudest voice was ultra-wide. Uh it was the ultra-wide community. So, you know, to appease these people, uh I I quickly created ultra-wide support and it wasn't hard. Um it was pretty quick, actually. But I was wrong. I was wrong. So, I wanted to give you guys some critique of my own demo. Granted, I'm going to be completely honest here. This is pretty great. I'm really happy with the results and we had some pretty big YouTubers play today. So, I'm just like thrilled, honestly. Uh okay. So, now that we've critiqued myself, and I just want to let you guys know, I know how it feels to to launch a demo and get critiqued. So, I'm going to do my best to be kind and constructive. All right, let's go ahead and jump in

here to the first game. The first game we're going to play today is a game called, are you ready? Europa. And I have not even looked at these games. Okay? So, let's go ahead and start Europa up. I really like the artwork here. Looks really cool. Uh I guess we're going to wait for this to load. Let's look at the store page. I tried not to look at reviews, um but oh well. Uh let's look at the store page. I love that cover art. Really cool. On the moon Europa, a lush terraformed paradise in Jupiter's shadow. Okay. Uh it was hard to understand for some reason. An android named Zee sets out in search of answers. Run, glide, and fly across the landscape, solve mysteries in the ruins of the fallen utopia, and discover the story of the last human alive.

What? It's just weird. That was one of that was a game idea I had a while ago. Maybe I stole it from them. I don't know. Uh where's the game though? Running install script Microsoft.net framework. I'm going to cancel it and see if we can start another one. We're going to start with The Devil in the Details. Cuz Europa for some reason isn't loading. All right, we're getting some uh Oh. Okay, let's see here. Oh, give me a sound. Oh, give me a sound. Adjust the screen brightness so the left

and right images are visible. That's kind of cool. I like that approach. I've been thinking about how to do the adjust brightness approach and this one's kind of cool. Okay, this looks great. Wow, music feels good or sounds good. I wish there were sounds when I hover. Let's see how the wish list on Steam button works. Okay, so that opens a URL. Um what David Whaley's game, he made a game called We Harvest Shadows, what he has is it actually accesses the Steam API and the overlay appears on the game. And so, you don't have to exit the game to wish list. So, I'm trying to get that incorporated into Twisted Tower cuz a lot of people aren't logged in on on their URL. Does that make sense? Um okay, let's go ahead and hit play. New trial. Each trial is a different adventure in mansions will vary. Initiates trial. This is kind of cool.

Okay, let's take a look. So far it feels really professional. Space, highlight cursed objects. You might be wondering where you are, so let me tell you. This is a place where humans like you come and go from time to time. Limbo, purgatory, the abyss. Most who come here never escape. But those who do, they listen to me. I am the arbiter, guardian of the Be careful with those traps. They're nasty and they will consume your time. Try disabling them or something and bad happens. Nice. Remember this, human.

I am your only friend. Your sole ally in this darkness. Heed my guidance. One of them became a famous composer. The other one remained a human. To escape, you must win the devil's game. Begin. Open my gate. There must be a switch somewhere you can use. Okay. So, okay, consult with the arbiter. I'm not a huge fan of that much dialogue. It kind of ruins the atmosphere for me. I kind of wish that it kind of happens later. So, I had to do this with my own game. Um I actually just moved the dialogue maybe 7 minutes after the player initially starts the game. There was a cutscene and but it's quick and then it's just quiet. It's ASMR.

It's spooky. It's creepy. I feel like this would have been so much more effective if it was just super quiet and eerie and I'm just walking around right here. Okay, but anyway, let's go ahead. Observation phase. Find and memor- Oh, no. Find and memorize the You have the ability to find the cursed objects. Observe them. Remember what they are. Once you're ready, seek me out and I shall grant some talismans. What? Okay, so it's a picture. Woah. I don't know why that happened. Um a painting and a couch.

A painting of a skull, a painting of flowers and a and a couch. That's so gross. Ooh. So, is this the person I'm seeking out? Are you talking to me? What? Ritual phase. Highlight cursed objects. During the ritual phase, look for cursed objects that have changed and place upon them my talismans. You can see how many you have left by looking at the left bottom corner of the screen. The number of talismans I give you is the same as the number of cursed objects the devil has changed. I bet that clock

is older than you. So, what are we doing here? Once you have finished Oh, am I stepping on the traps? I thought I disabled them. I shall give you your judgment. Yeah, what? Okay, so there's a couple questions. This is not a type of game I've played before. Um What? I thought I disabled the bear traps though. That's what I'm confused about. Okay. I love this uh lantern. So, what am I doing here? Highlight cursed objects, place the talisman and finalize the ritual. So, that changed. Okay. And

that didn't change. I don't think that changed. Let's see how well we did. Hm. This is kind of fun. objects you can interact with. Because who knows, interesting things could happen. Just keep in mind not every object you can use will have the red reticle. You want to learn to be observant. Okay.

Some stone island, a woman, that is a house and there's no books there. What was this again? No books. So, those are identical. There's a house there and there is a woman and then that. Okay, I think I'm ready. Matt Ribs says, "I just started your course and I've been super addicted to your videos." Thank you. Okay, I I think I get what's going on. Uh you know, it's um I'm trying to figure out the loop here.

I I mean I think I got it. I think it's pretty straightforward, but it's hard to know like if I was right earlier. I don't know what all the color changes were with that face, but Okay, so that changed. That didn't. That changed. Um Those didn't change. So, we are we're good to go. So, that changed. That changed. The rest is good. Okay, I think I got it. There's a doll on the couch by the pillow. So, I don't know what that means. What does that mean? Find and memorize the cursed objects. So, you're just uh memorizing stuff.

It's I think it's it this could be fun to play. No, I I think it's I think it's good. I I don't know if it's my kind of game, but I think it's it's a great idea and I don't see anything that's hugely wrong with it, honestly. Um flowers, woman. Look at that doll. Okay. I'm not going to be able to memorize this. Flowers, skull. There's nothing more uh painful than memorizing things for me. It just hurts my head. Flowers, skull. So, flowers, flowers, skull, woman. Flowers, flowers, skull, woman, books. Flowers, flowers, skull, woman, book. I

wish I could skip this. Flowers, flowers, skull, woman. Flowers, flowers. Flowers, flowers, skull, woman. Okay. This is different. This is different. This is the same? I don't know. Man, I already forgot. Is Is a popular uh genre for streamers? What's the odd shadow issue right there?

Who's that sound like? It sounds like um Yoda? Okay. What? That was really cool. Um it's it's definitely not my style of game. Um I like story. I don't I like story and pretty quick movement. Um Honestly though, I don't have much to offer that in terms of constructive criticism. It's hard for me It's hard for me to constructively critique anything that isn't really my style. Um I thought the graphics were really cool. The mood was awesome. Um we're going to try and play Europa here again. There we go. That's what we needed. So, hopefully this will load up here. My fans are starting to whir.

That's a shame. I really wanted to play this. Dang it. That stinks. Okay, well, let's go to Kamikaze Tactics and give that a go. Jax or Jax says, "I'm listening while devving." That's awesome. All right, let's go. Pseudo make. Godot, you froze on me? What? Godot? I thought Godot was perfect. Yeah, you can get rid of the film grain. We don't need it. Um that kind of All this heavy post-processing, it it it actually kind of And this is this is I'm talking to myself here cuz I just killed three or four different post-processing effects

for my demo. Um and I did it after I launched the demo. There's a it feels it's like an Instagram filter. It's like just post the photo. You don't have to put in a filter on it. Um you're fine. Don't be insecure, you know? I'm not I'm not saying you're insecure here, but be confident and and realize you don't need all these filters. Um no, I don't want any Well, sure. Wait. Oh, good. Yay, it loaded. Okay, we'll we'll jump back to Kamikaze. Okay, so that's a big problem. If a demo doesn't load in the first like three or four seconds, you've got you've got a problem cuz people aren't going to play it. So, you guys got to figure out what's going on there. This feels great. Ooh, guys, listen to that music. Listen.

Did you hear that? Ah. Music. 10 out of 10. Try to imagine what it would be like to go to sleep and never wake up. Now, try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep. That was when you were born. From time to time, I asked myself, is it possible to miss something you've never known? Let me rephrase. Is it possible to be homesick for a place you have never been? I didn't need a rephrase there. You should have kept it profound. You kind of ruined it.

I think you should start with one sentence. And it's What is this? My son, I was born on Earth. What is this? I This is the name of my game and it's the exact premise of my game. I I'm I don't know what's going on here. Hold on. Do you guys remember the game I I was working on like three, four years ago? I'm not trying to say I don't know what I'm saying. I just I'm just telling you I made this I had this exact premise for my a game I was working on four years ago.

Does anyone remember the game I was working on? It was called Adam. I have it on GitHub. There it is. It's called Adam. And I made it five years ago. And it was about the last man on Earth. And it was about a boy with a backpack. I mean, I guess it's just coincidence. It's fine. What is this?

Check this out. I'm going to show you how I So, this was the game. And you had a backpack. And it was called Adam. And it was about the last man on Earth. Okay, that's It's just interesting. I maybe I think it's just coincidence for sure. I mean, this is clearly better. So, let's keep going. But I think I have been homesick for Europa my whole life. I'm writing this from the island. The view from up here is like nothing else I've seen. I'm sorry. I I'm just trying to figure this out.

I'm going to download this. We're going to look at what this is. Um Okay, let's keep going. there. They built this thing to last. Come to the island if you ever get lonely. Come here and think of me.

Wow. Look how pretty it is. Isn't that awesome, guys? Whoa, you can slide. Let's go! Woo! This is awesome. I love it. Looks very pretty. Wind's coming in. Giving me Breath of the Wild vibes.

Kind of wish the camera was zoomed out a little bit. Leaving home, chapter one. Very cool. Wee! This is great. The jump is a little delayed. Oh, I can charge it. I see. That's why. Ooh, I got an emerald. I love those clouds, too. Those are awesome. All right, so what's my goal? What

what's What am I aiming to do here? So it's about the last man on Earth. And Sorry, I'm just trying to figure it out. Never mind. So where am I going? Hold space bar to power jump. Music and sound is great.

Press left mouse button to interact. Nice. Very pretty. I think the music is actually a little too loud. Watch what we can do here. I think it should be half of what it is. Yeah, I think it was rate way too loud.

Cool. All right, let's go. Hey, so far so good, guys. Um just FYI, earlier, I was not implying anything other than I'm just confused. Uh wild coincidence. It really It's an interesting coincidence because the game that I'm talking about was called Adam. I was working on it for like 3 months. And it was about the last boy on Earth, and he had a backpack. Um but in the backpack was a baby, and it was piano music, and it was a beautiful environment. So it's like I don't know. It's just wild It's an interesting coincidence. But this is great. Seriously, this is awesome.

Nice. So where do I go? I guess we're just moving forward here. Jump and press left mouse bounce button to stop.

All right. All right. So I Yeah, I'm not quite sure where I'm going, and maybe it's cuz I just haven't been paying attention. Um but seriously, game looks beautiful. Um Player Player movement feels a little bit heavy. Um but maybe that's the point. Um I kind of wish the camera was more zoomed out a little bit. Z Zephyr device allows him to levitate.

Crystal stars expand levitation device's peak capacity. Well, so this is great. So far so good. I I feel a little bit aimless, but I think it's because um I Yeah, I don't know. The game that I was talking about is it's called Adam. And let me show you the footage here. It's not It's not So it's not shockingly similar. It's just the premise. The premise was the last boy on Earth, and his name was Adam. Um Where is it?

Where is it? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Okay, let's keep moving forward here. Um Well, I'll talk about sort of my my ratings and scores for every game, but we're going to go to the last game here called Kamikaze. All right, you guys ready? So script says I I liked the zoomed-in angle. Um Yeah, it did I don't think it looked like an asset flip game. I think it looked great. I think it looked amazing.

Um I just felt a little bit aimless, is all. Um Yeah, Art of Emir says that premise is pretty common when you think of it. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Um It was Yeah, I I think it was just that that game has been on my mind recently cuz I've been thinking about making it. So it's interesting to see, you know, it's it's sort of already there. Um so I might have to just shift gears and make something else, which is totally fine. Props to the props to the developer. It looks amazing. Um Really beautiful game, honestly. So, no complaints. All right, let's keep going here. So this game is called uh Kamikaze Tactics. Learning the ropes. Chapter 1, level 1. Destroy all enemies. What is that? Sortie? What?

Yeah, the post-processing is intense. We don't need that grain. Whoa. Is that the music? Well, I like that. That feels good. Whoa, this music doesn't fit. Um What? Okay. All right, let's see if we get this robot synchronized. Yes, hello. At least the comms are working. We've got a contract to clear out these local pirates. Let's see if we can give the thresh some exercise for its first mission, yeah? Affirmative. Initializing combat protocols. I must admit the prospect of exercise is novel. Do pirates count as car cardio or strength training? Either way, ready to flex.

Okay. Oh, no. Next to it, you will see the turn order. Units with higher initiatives move last and shoot first. While we're planning, we can iterate through our units and choose how well they maneuver. So yeah, it looked like French was on the the menu. Sortie is is exit in French. Um Yeah, this is this music is uh It does I don't I don't think it fits. I think I think we need to find something else. Um Okay, so I can Oh, no, it's one of these So again, another game that I'm not super familiar with, but let's go ahead and get get moving here. What? After maneuver, you have the opportunity to perform an action. AD

plus space or click. Okay, from here the turn order will reverse as we engage in combat. You just have move first, shoot last. Every issue has its own weapon systems, each with unique firing arcs. While the Sorry, a lot of dialogue. Uh I can't remember any of this. While the thresh only has one has the one, my magpie has a swivel turret and railgun. This sounds like Sims music. Copy that, Captain. Maneuver first, then action. Clear and logical. I'll keep an eye on the mini map for any traffic concern. All right, engaging mission parameters. Let's introduce these pirates to the sharp end of our collective learning curve. Oh, okay, the pirates are here. Let's go. What?

Do you guys know what's going on? Does anyone know what's going on? Like Tiptoes uh yeah. Um Yeah, okay. Lock on. Attack. Attack. Thresh is highly mobile with a variety of positioning options. Uh does anyone know what's going on? It Is this a genre of game that I'm just not familiar with? Cuz I have no idea. Um It's probably my fault. And like there's some issues with Let's just I mean

Okay, so let's turn the music down and the sound effects, and let me just show you how quickly things can already get better. So like um there's a sound there's an issue with the ambient in the sound. Um so for example, we need to get a stormy ocean sound and have that going. Um so let's do that. So far so good. Good. And then hey, classic sci-fi strategy music. What are we going to do? You know what we're going to go for. Who knows what we're going to go for? Classic sci-fi strategy music. Does anyone know? What's my point here, guys? My point is is that although Thomas doesn't understand how to play this game, and I'll just be completely honest, I don't. I'm just not smart enough for these kind of games. I can offer some issues with sound that I would approach, and I'll

try and solve these pretty quick. That music not working. The ambient was not working. So here's a different approach here. Ready? Do you guys see? WASD plus space click, so maneuver is selected and displayed on the mini map. Thresh and I shall glide with purpose. Okay.

Well, the mini map is how we coordinate our movements to avoid collisions. Okay. That's it. There we go. You guys see how it automatically feels better? There was a a big disconnect with the music and the sound. Isn't this badass? You've got thunder and waves and just kickass zerk music. But I don't know what I'm doing, but it still feels so much better. The captain is less cute now. Yeah. This makes me want to play.

I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm just really bad at these kind of games. I'm I'm bad at a lot of kind of games, this one especially. Um Oh. Oh, where's the sound? Oh, I turned it off. Okay. There we go. All right, so I just wanted to show you guys that. Now let's go back to what it was. Um let's see here. I did not mean to press that. But let's let's go ahead and go back to the settings here. That was a quick restart. I wish there was a confirmation menu there. But let's add these back. Do you see? It's like, what? Yeah, the post-processing, what you could do is you could uh Well, you can't you can't turn it off. Um which is fine. I understand it's a demo.

Um Yeah, it's just a there's a disconnect with the audio for sure. Do you guys want me to keep playing? Yes or no? Um Trip Tiptoes says, "Do you want it to be badass or cute? You can only pick one." No. Pass. Okay. All right. Guys, what we're going to do is we're going to

um we're going to do a do a couple things here. Go ahead and vote for your favorite game um below. Number one, the Adam game. Look, I get it. That's a premise. The Last Boy on Earth. That could be a premise that is not unique. So I will I will admit that. I was just confused because there was a lot that was similar to my game. But then again, I let go of that game, so that's the way it goes. Um so anyway, uh go ahead and um So that's I More power to the developer and good luck to the developer. It was just a little confusing to me. Um but go ahead and vote for your favorite ones. I'm going to vote for my favorite one really quick. The link is in the description, by the way. Um I'm going to vote for my favorite one. Um which is I'll let you guys vote.

Too complicated, too quick for that game. Yeah, I agree. Um Okay, yeah, I know what my favorite one is. And so go ahead and vote, and I will tell you my favorite here in just a sec. Um Mine was actually Devil in the Details. So that was my favorite one. But y'all y'all vote based on your gut. Um mine was actually Devil in the Details. Uh I think that it that the loop made the most sense to me. And I think in the right context with the right audience, that game would probably do pretty well. Um I The only thing about Devil in the Details, I wish that the way that the game was taught was not through some heavy grungy voice talking to me all the time about click this and click that, and you'll be so much better if you just avoid those traps. And Thomas, why do you keep hitting those traps? And click this and click that.

I wish it was something more like this. Very simple UI. Pick the different objects. And it shows like a GIF of selecting all the objects. That simple. I didn't need to hear all of that exposition about teaching. However, what I do want to hear is I want to And I understand it's supposed to be like Saw. So I I kind of this is my opinion. I wish the teaching was done through intuitive UI, and the story was presented with good voice acting. Yes, you woke up and you don't know where you are. That simple. 5 minutes later. I see you exited the room. My first task was a little too easy for you, wasn't it? Maybe I can make it a little bit challenging for you. And keep the mystery at the start.

And then as we go through 30 minutes later then you start to reveal that you're in purgatory. I don't like why would we why I don't personally think you should reveal that you're in purgatory immediately. Although and also that's kind of a trope that is it's just it's a very popular trope. And it's one that frankly even I've been tempted to use. So I kind of wish that game had a little bit more mystery and wasn't revealed so obtusely at the start. Um second place for me was Europa. I think it's great, awesome. Um aside from any critiques I had of that game, I think it was really done well. Um I wish that that game gave me a strong motive at the very beginning like right away. Um find the last living human or find the DNA of another human being so that you can clone it.

Something pretty quick. And maybe I just missed it. Um Kamikaze Tactics was number three for me. Um I think the music and the audio was disjointed. I think the post-processing was too intense. Um and I I can't critique the gameplay. I I won't. I don't I refuse to do that cuz that's not fair because it's just not a style it's not a game for me. Um which happens, you know. Sometimes that does happen. Where I just I I do a live stream and a lot of the games are not for me. All right, you guys ready to see the poll? And by the way, again this video is sponsored by Full Time Game Dev. If you want to get 25% off, click the link below. It does support the channel. It supports the development of Twisted Tower. So guys, check it out below. Plenty of students have gone full time. Wow. Let's see here. Chris Steer did Bart.

Everflux. Pretty amazing. Lots of people love the course. 25% off. 5 days left. Once you click the link below, your timer will start if you want to join in and enroll in Full Time Game Dev. You guys ready to take a look at the results? Let's go. And we got Europa at an overwhelming 70%. Well deserved. Devil in the Details second place 17% and then Kamikaze Tactics at 11 percent. I love how you guys are starting to vote. What are you doing? We've got 905 viewers here. 905 viewers here. And now you just decide to start voting now that you see the results? I would call that cowardice. I don't know what that is. Well, it looks like you did No, maybe just one came through. Um Okay, never mind. I I judged you guys. I'm sorry. Um Why did only 53 people vote?

What is that? Um So why did why do you guys like why did you guys like Europa uh more than Devil in the Details? Does anyone have any feedback there? The the motive for Europa was to reach the floating island. Did I miss that? I think I missed that. Thomas, you're going to be reviewing more games? Yeah. Yep. Hey Thomas, Prescott here. Who's Prescott? Who's Prescott? Pin the link so everyone can vote. What? It's in the description. Right? So you guys liked Europa cuz it was really pretty. Okay. Um where's the poll? The poll is in the description. Um

It felt like a more complete game. Yeah, I hear you there. Yeah. Um Devil in the Details is not my type of game. Europa felt a little slow and a little empty. It did feel empty. Um I I will say it did it did feel a little empty. And I know how that feels if you're the developer. I I I feel that I felt that way with Twisted Tower. It just couldn't figure out like it's like it needs to feel empty because that's the premise. So why is it the games like Backrooms don't feel empty? Or if they do feel empty, it feels good and it feels on purpose. Um and so that's that's definitely a challenge for a lot of uh a lot of game devs. Like how empty do you want this to feel? And I think in my opinion um it came down to the camera. If the camera was zoomed out you you want to feel overwhelmed. You want to feel small and you want it to

feel vast. That's how Breath of the Wild is. It feels vast and intentionally empty. Um and it's because and the player's zoom it's zoomed out a little bit and you have a little bit more room to breathe and room to see. Um Foxite says, do you have any tips on to make a story in a video game? Uh the best thing to do is to start with a a character who you sympathize with, who's in a predicament who is not perfect who has a motive and then we also present some kind of solution or at least an opportunity to choose a path. Um That's what I did with my demo. Certainly not perfect, although I think it is. But I know it's not, but I think it is. I hope that makes sense, but I it's it's a very similar to the hook the hook premise. Hook If if you guys ever want a crash course

in in just great storytelling, watch the Hook movie. By Steven Spielberg um with Robin Williams. It starts with a conflicted jackass protagonist that you sympathize with to some degree. There needs to be some level of sympathy. Anyone who's a father will sympathize with Jack. Um I'm sorry, Peter. Not Jack is his son. They'll sympathize with Peter. So Peter is very um he's an absent father. Ollie, can you fix my hair? He's an absent father and all he cares about is making money and his career. Now, some fathers in the chat, let me know if you're a father, but some fathers in the chat will perhaps scoff at Peter and say, how could you be you know, I would never sympathize with you. You're a terrible father. But for me personally, I do

actually sympathize with Peter in in the movie because he's he's just he's he's got blinders on and he's it's hard for him to see that he's being a bad father. He loses his temper at his kids because of work. His kids get kidnapped by Captain Hook and they're sent through the wormhole basically and Peter has to go through the wormhole. He has to make a decision to do it. He actually rejects the call to adventure. By the way picking the call to adventure is a pivotal part of any protagonist in a classic hero's journey. So for Peter he has to say yes to the call or no to the call. I believe he's drunk and he says no to the Tinkerbell shows up and she's like, we got to go through the wormhole. And he's like, uh-uh, I'm too scared. So she knocks him out and forces him on the hero's journey. He goes to this other world re gets it regains his his not only his children, but also his sense of adventure, his courage. He

forgets about work and he becomes the Peter that he once knew when he was younger. Uh and he rescues his children and then he comes back with his children through the portal. And what have we gained? We've gained our what? Children, yes, but we've also regained our sense of adventure. We've remembered who we are. We've regained our identity and we've officially won the war against being a workaholic father. That is a classic hero's journey. And so when you when you want to um think about story always start with a well, you should pretty much if you want a safe bet, start with a kind of a crappy protagonist that doesn't really uh know how to solve his problems. He's given an opportunity to solve his problems that he has to accept. He accepts that call to adventure. And then he goes on a journey to not only win something physical, but also he wins the theme. He wins the heart of the

story. He gains something inside of himself. So he gains the physical, but he also gains something inside of himself. So that's that's that's generally a typical hero's journey. You can't you I mean, you can't go wrong, right? Um So there you go. All right, what do we think? What do we think? Did we enjoy that, guys? Did we enjoy playing those games? I feel like I did a bad job. Um Yeah, we're talking about Hook. Um Hitchcock films follow a pretty good story arc. Although, I will say Psycho The Y'all got to watch Psycho. The way that Psycho's story is laid out is brilliant. Who knows what the hook in Psycho is? I don't know. We've probably talked about this. And please forgive me if we have. Um Who knows what the hook in Psycho is? There is a hook, and it's a narrative hook.

What is the hook in Psycho? Not the hook in Hook. The hook in Psycho. Who knows what the hook in Psycho is? Anybody? Nobody? You can ask Chad GPT. Uh no, it's not mommy issues. I mean, I guess. Um It's the protagonist is killed halfway through the movie. The protagonist that we are rooting for and she she makes the turn and she decides to do the right thing halfway through murdered in the shower. So, that's the hook. That's the twist. Um I don't know if you'd call it a hook, but it's it's um it's something that keeps you engaged because halfway through that thing you're like, wait, what? Now what? Now

where do we go from here? Um so, it really captures you. This The shower scene I would say yeah, it's the visual hook. But, when it comes like the narrative hook, um the thing that really captures attention, I guess it's something like being tossed and turned as an in the audience. Um Hitchcock constantly twisting and turning. And you never know who's who, and you never know who you're supposed to be focused on, and who's the main character. Um it makes you feel like you're psychotic. Um so, that's the narrative hook for for Psycho. Well, that's my opinion, and I think it's a brilliant It's a brilliantly written film. Um why are we talking about this? Anyway, any other questions? Yeah, for sure. James Anderson says, "It reminds me of No Country for Old Men." Absolutely. No Country for No Country for Old Man Men is the same sort of psychotic feeling that Psycho has, which

is who am I rooting for? Who is truly evil? Who am I Who's Who am I supposed to be focused on? And where is this going? Um Really? Jason says, "It's really lame of Hitchco- Hitchcock to steal that twist from Scream." Absolutely. Um Awesome. Awesome. Um The Turtle Tank says, "You seem stressed, to be honest. Not really your fault, but you seem like you're off a bit today, and that's fine and totally normal. I think these games today weren't your thing." The games probably weren't my thing, and abso-freakin- Actually, no, you're wrong. I'm not stressed today. I was going to I was going to say yes, you're right, you know, you're not right. I actually feel really good today. The stress was last week. Oh my word. Launching a demo, guys. That was the hardest launch I've ever done. That was really, really hard.

But, today I feel I feel great, actually. I've been really enjoying Uh Man, we got some really big streamers to play Twisted Tower today, and that felt really, really good. When you get When you get those streamers to start playing the game, you just get this huge sense of relief cuz you're like, okay. The goal of getting streamers to play for 3 years, that was the goal. It paid off. So, I feel good. Hey, Liv. Daddy. No, that's Silas. Okay. Well, I guess it's ready to go. No.