Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 024

Welcome, welcome, welcome. I think I'm double checking something here. Why? Why? Sorry, one sec here. It's not going to the right post. It's not going live to the right post. Where is it? Okay, there we go. Episode 24. Are we good? Are we showing up? Is anybody here? For some reason, my Streamlabs is not going to the right place. Okay, there you are. Everybody's here. Uh, that's good. Let me change my Twitter post really quick. All right. Um, guys, going to be a fun live stream today. I'm looking forward to it. You're going to have a blast. I'm going to have a blast. Everybody's gonna have a blast because I'm going to be playing your games and you're gonna get top tier advice from someone who knows nothing about anything that he's doing with

games. I like to pretend and I like to think I like to think that I know what I'm talking about. Um, but let's go ahead and play three of your games. We're going to play three of your games that you guys posted. Um, and I I shared it on YouTube as well. So, these are some of my YouTube audience, some of my ex audience, and we're going to play some games. The best part about today's live stream is we're going to play three games. I'm going to offer my thoughts, my critique, everything. And then on top of that, you get to vote. You get to vote for your favorite game at the very end. But I don't want you to vote until you've seen all games because that wouldn't be fair, would it? All right. Uh, hey, round of applause for Danny, Awas, Aaron, Tiffany, M, Nate, Albode, Lauren, Goa, Armen, and TK. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And thank you for joining the full-time game dev program, but also I bet I think half of the top ones there

uh joined the massive 7-day art sale. If you want to learn how to do 2D art like Mr. Thomas here. Um, and you want to learn how to also, hey, you'll get this 3D course free, but you're also going to learn some 3D art if you want to learn game art. And here's the best part about this course. This is what makes this something you should definitely consider. Um, you're going to learn from a timefeatured artist. Who is that? That's me. You're going to learn from me. And you're also going to learn from somebody who is on his third commercial release, and that's me. So, if you want to learn what's absolutely necessary to learn for indie game development, you're not going to learn all the other crap, the other stuff that you don't need to know. You're going to learn what is necessary to make artwork and beautiful artwork at that with no talent, no skill. You're going to learn what's necessary for indie games. This is the course for you. So, you're going to get my 2D art uh program, 25% off, but I'm going to go ahead and just throw in my

3D art program completely free, but only for the next four days. So, there's only 50 seats available, less than 50 seats at this point. Um, so see if it's something you're interested in, click the link below, check it out, and uh, invest in your future. Invest in your, uh, future as a game developer. Thanks as always, guys, for letting me do these ad reads. Um, it supports the channel, supports the podcast, and also, hey, supports the final development of Twisted Tower, which really means a lot to me. You guys ready to play some games? Are you ready? Okay, let's get going. Let me turn on the chat box. Let me turn on the image slideshow. Everything's good. Everything's good. All right. The first game we're going to play, guys, is a game called Jacob's Ladder. I'm a little nervous to play this game because the person who posted on Twitter said that they were a student. Um, so I hope it's good. Uh, let me check the chat here. Make sure everybody's happy. Yeah, humble brag. That's right.

Mini Zep. Um, you've been wait says, "I've been waiting or wanting to catch a stream for a long time and I can't read that last sentence. Happen to catch it at the start." Wow, we got a lot of people in the chat. That's awesome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Um, you guys ready to go ahead and play Jacob's Ladder? Let's go. Put that Gatorade in my mouth. Earth light games. Thanks for playing. Help me improve the game and develop the next part. All right. Give me some sound. Give me something. A little subtle click. Arrows work. That's good. All right, let's hit play. Uh, menu looks good, honestly. Really clean.

Um, yeah, let's hit new game. Hey, Matt. It's Matt's first live stream. Come on in, Matt. The maker's every thought is wise, and with a host of honest eyes, he peers through lucid skin and core to judge his faithful evermore. I'm getting Hollow Night or I'm sorry, silk silk silk silk song vibes. I played a little bit of Silk Hog today and I enjoyed it. Let me turn the sound up for you guys. Oopsie. Do not be afraid. Activate the switch by pressing the button firmly with your palm. So that's like a Oh, that's fun. I like that. Such interactions will become easier as you are in are oriented. But do not tarry. Your work is before you. I have

never used that word in my life. I just used it now. Follow the blue arrow to continue. Give me some margin over here. This doesn't look professional. You're hugging the wall over there. Game feels good. I don't love playing as a robot. I never have with indie games. There's some some inclination that indie developers have where they want to make things robots. And that's fine. It's just really hard to project yourself as a player onto a robot. So, but let's see. I'm scared. Let's see here. Is this Unity? I'm going to make a prediction here. You can always tell with the settings. Yeah, this feels like Unity because uh

Unreal games typically have way more settings for some reason. I think it's because Unreal has potentially like an asset pack that's a ton of settings that you could put in default. So, this feels like a Unity game, but we'll see. Why am I awake? The Maker has chosen to awake. I'm changing the voice here. The Maker has chosen you to awaken for acts of faithful service. Although, you do not yet realize it. This is terribly exciting. I would definitely add voice acting here, and it's coming through speakers. I love this idea of pressing a button though and reading script uh or reading a prompt or a teleprompter or tele Yeah, a teleprompter. Your dreamful memories will return in time, but to save cycles, you will be told only what is relevant to the work. Your time awake. Well, okay, there's a lot of dialogue. I'm ready to get playing. So, that's first critique of the game. Second critique of the game.

Too much too much to read. Your time, it's okay to force the player to read, but not right now. Your time awake will be spent handling core units hereafter shortened cores. These are powerful batteries enabled, enabling the unique work he requires. Remove the core from the pedestal to continue. Oh, there we go. What do I do with coals? All right. Use your static core containment unit here after shorten to to stack to remove and place live asterisk core such that you can understand. I would just this dialogue is too much. Investing these trials proves your own core assimilation in your continued faithfulness. But most importantly, it pleases the maker. The aptitude for the

work will also be rewarded superficially with stars. Note that cores are inanimate tools for his work. Any reference to a live core singularly describes its active. I don't understand what I'm reading. Does anyone understand what they're reading? Because I I I'm a very bad reader and I'm also have a terrible memory. Um I cannot handle large blocks of text. My brain cannot handle it. Um does anybody feel that way? Um, let the developer know in the chat. Um, lots of text. Lots of text. Wow. Observe your your stack may contain only one of each color at a time. While carrying more than one core, you may select which one to place. Okay, I could do a scroll wheel.

Use cores to open the door. I would definitely like if you're if you're interested in something making some a game marketable, give me something exciting at the beginning, something very exciting. Um, I'm I'm I'm ejected from a spaceship. Uh, and the spaceship explodes and I'm flying through space and I land in a dock in this ship and the lights are flickering and I hear screams and then this happens and it's some mistake. One of the best things you can do for your protagonist, I'm sorry, for your player is tell me that the player that the character I'm playing as is also confused. So, I need to know that this robot that I'm playing as is confused. That will help me so much. If I if the robot says, "What is this place? Where have I woken?" Something like that will help me

so much. Thomas, you're tarrying. Uh, observe. Bright multicolored orbs are above switches that can receive I don't know. My brain hurts already. Um, the game looks good and it feels good, but I don't quite I can't follow all this. And you might say, "Well, Thomas, that's because you're an idiot." Correct. But lots of your players will be. So, you got to hold their hand and also make them feel interested and give them a motive immediately. So, I would definitely change this whole introduction. It's way too much. Okay, I placed a core. That's a bright multicolored orbs are above switches that can receive any type of core. Okay, I need to go get a red one.

I don't even know if I would put this text at all because this is pretty straightforward and I feel like it's way more mysterious if you just teach me without words. I think this this would be much better taught without words personally. So there's some kind of connection occurring here. Okay. Yeah, I didn't need to read any of that. Yeah, walls of text are just not this this none of this is necessary, guys. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if that text wasn't here? Let's let Let me show the developer what I mean. And this I'm If I'm being critical to the developers,

because I'm I really do care and I want I want you to be successful. Imagine a cut scene where you blast out of a spaceship. I don't know what the story is. I'm just coming up with stuff. You blast out of a spaceship and it docks into this strange world and I wake up and the and the robot I say to myself, "What is this place? Where am I?" And you give me some setting. Tell me. Tell me. It says something like somewhere uh 100 miles away from Jupiter, right? Or somewhere in the distant galaxy. I have no idea where I am. At least give me an idea and let the guy let the main character say something like, "Who am I? What is this place?" Here's the thing, guys. It's okay to tell the player that where they are generally, but it's also important to make sure that the player knows that the character doesn't know where they are specifically.

This is true for a lot of places, a lot of games. Okay. Um, am I in space? I don't know where I am. Okay. And then also I walk I start walking and all this text. I don't need to read any of this. I just press, oh, this I I open the door. I don't need to do this. I don't need any of this. This I don't need this. All I need to do is see this and press E and I'm like, okay, I got or click and I'm like, okay, I've got something. And then you go, um Oh, burnt. So, I don't need any of this text. This all of this is unnecessary in my opinion. I kind of like the idea of figuring it out visually anyway. I don't know. That references the door. Oh, yeah. That opens the door. Okay. Dare I say those dotted lines aren't necessary, but maybe they are. Let's take a look. So, it's kind of a a game of translating symbols.

You It's almost like you're translating like hieroglyphics, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. I think that's very interesting. Okay, there's a star here. I can't. Okay, I can grab it. Okay, I've got a core here. I've got a core here. Oh my goodness. Okay. Okay. Oh, I think that's going to keep the door open, maybe. Nope.

Yeah, I would say that I I understand that the wall of text here is potentially a character. Uh if that's the case, I would make it not so like feel so necessary. I would have it sort of playing through loudspeakers. Um, and then the text is read across the bottom of the screen because it might be nice to have that. Oh, there we go. Um, it might it might be nice to have this wall of text as a character. That might be cool. Kind of like in Portal. Um, okay. Let's see here. So, I grabbed that. Okay, this is kind of fun.

Whoa. My brain hurts. Okay, let's think here. Wait, I Okay, I grabbed that. Good. Okay, bring it over here. Great. Whoa, Thomas. No, I got it. I got it. I got it. This is actually pretty fun. Yeah, none of that wall of text I feel is necessary. I really don't think so. Um, let's see here. What was that sound? No, we're good. Um

Oh, no. So that closes the door. Um, what I want to do is keep that here. Grab this one. And I need to get that out somehow. Oh man, my brain hurts. Guys, do you guys have any ideas what to do here? I

need those two orbs over there to get the star. Okay. Uh, so I need to get two pink orbs. Now, in order to do that, this has to be open. That Oh my word. I have to move that over somehow into that. I can't I feel like we need these I don't know what this does. What What do you think that does?

I'm not sure what that one does. I guess I understand why the lines are there. What does this one do? Oh, the door's open. No, I need to get that. But it's going to it's going to close that door. I need to be able to move that one over through here. This is kind of fun. Really hurts my head though.

Switch white and pink in the small room. Can you? Oh, you're right. Very good. I didn't know I could do that. Woohoo. Good job. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. That's awesome. I got to say, this is kind of fun for me. Um, you know what would make this really fun? Playing as a human being in a mysterious place that you don't understand with a goal. Man, do you guys do you guys get that? Do you do I mean what I mean is like do you understand what I'm saying? And do you agree? Playing as a human being in a place that I don't understand with a goal. And if you're confused by that, watch my previous video I just posted about story and how how to incorporate motive into the player. Um that would help so much.

Okay, we got the star. Oh, I got the star. I hope collecting that elucory shape made you I did feel something. Thank you. So this is this feels better. Piano music. It's kind of creepy. And imagine a voice like this. And I urge you to think on your true purpose here. Pleasing the maker will soon feel all the more rewarding. Hey, this doesn't have to be sci-fi. What if I'm a a a single mom who just got off night shift and she opens up her car door and there's a face behind her with red eyes and she blacks out and then I wake up with this music in an environment like this. Do you see? Do you see how that simple setup makes this feel so much better? I don't want to play as a robot. Now I understand if you want to incorporate you have some kind

of story and maybe it feels good eventually but right now playing as a robot doesn't interest me. I don't care because robots aren't conscience conscious. So I don't feel a connection to that robot. Okay. Free. You should freeze the player. The maker's every thought is wise, and with a host of honest eyes he peers through lucid skin and core to judge his faithful ever more. So, more puzzles, but no motive. It's really hard to identify as a robot. And and the problem with robots, I'm not saying that this robot wasn't customly like a custom model. The problem with robots is it feels so asset because typically a robot is what's included in some kind of in Unreal or

Unity when you start with like the template. It it always just feels that way. So I would just I would and also there's no contrast. Okay. The the environment is a robot. It's sci-fi. I'm being spoken to by a robot projector and I'm a robot. So, it's like none of it is meaningful. Instead, if the environment is hyper techchnology, hyper robot, like 2001 space odyssey, um where there's a robot and then there's a human being and there there's conflict there. That is contrast. You have human and then you have technology. If you make this human, I'm a single mom. I know nothing about this place and I just got off my shift at midnight. That and then you and then and then I'm here. That's the kind of contrast you want to see. Okay, great. Let's move forward. So, Jacob's Ladder was um I thought the the the the graphics were good, the the game feel was good, the

environment was good, the puzzles were fun, um but there there is a motive problem and there's also a problem with the character and then the story as well. And then also the teaching. The teaching was a little rough. Um or I would say overkill. I thought the teaching was overkill. All right, you guys want to jump into the next game? By the way, those of you just joining us, check out the 2D art program below if you want to learn 2D art. And you're also going to get my 3D art program completely free. Links in the description and also in the chat. Thomas, why do you do this? Why do you sell your courses? because it supports the channel, supports the podcast, and helps me with the final leg of development for Twisted Tower, which is super duper helpful. Yes, I'm published by 3D Realms, but additional funding helps the game. So, that's why I do these live streams, or one of the reasons why I do these live streams on top of hanging out with you guys. All right, let's go ahead and play Denden Tokyo Horror Demo.

Yes, it does need some life. But what does that mean? Well, it means you you want to give it humanity. You want to you want to be able to project yourself onto a onto a character. Games and great films and great great games and great films allow it's kind of a mirror. The player wants to feel like they're in the story. Um, and is really hard to be a robot. I mean, I love Wall-E. I think one of the reasons Wall-E failed, or at least I I feel like it didn't do as well, maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like it didn't do well, is because it was about robots. Nobody cares about robots. Granted, I really like that movie, and I think they did bring a lot of humanity to those robots. Let's go ahead and hit play here.

No, I don't want that. Oh my goodness. I freaking love that. What is that? The grudge. Let's take a look here. I think it's referencing the grudge. In fact, I would argue that this is uh A copyright infringement. Is this a copyright infringement? I think it might be. Oh my. It's almost identical. Yeah, you got to be careful with this kind of stuff. I mean, that's cool, but that's You got to be real careful with that. Um, I would not do this. But anyway, let's go ahead and click new game here. I understand that that's kind of what this game is about is I I guess um

like Japanese horror tropes. Um but yeah, anyway, let's hit play. I like this menu though. This is really cool. I love that eye. You can't copyright a girl with black hair. Yeah, you can. Um if an image is Yes, you can. If an image is too close to another image, you can definitely do that. Um, somebody ask Grock or Chad GVT to see if I'm wrong. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty freaking sure you can. You got to be careful with that stuff. Great artist steel. Not like that. We need to we need to do a little bit of research though to know if that's o okay.
Hi. Do you know who I am?

Yes, you're me. Oh, that's creepy. Because you're asleep. Why else would you be talking to yourself? This is all in your subconscious. That makes sense. Yes. Listen, you better get used to it. We have a lot of stuff to talk about before you wake up. I think this has something to do with tomorrow. Tomorrow is a big day for you. You'll be starting your first day at work at your new job. Well, it's the same job you've always had, but a new location. I forgot what I do for work. Please remind me. You work as a caregiver for elderly people. You do various tasks for them such as cooking, cleaning, blah blah blah blah blah, uh, Den elderly care services. You've been working at the Fabashi branch office for the past 3 months. Tomorrow you'll start working out of the branch office in Kagatuba.

Let's not waste any more time. You can wake up at any moment. Okay, you guys want to go ahead and wake up? Whoa. Do you remember when you were a child and you would sneak into your parents' bedroom to steal money from their wallets? Children do stupid things. It doesn't matter. You'll need to learn to steal things that don't belong to you, just like when you were a child. If you don't, there is a high probability that you'll die. Okay. So, yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Sorry. I We've got to play three games and I can't. There's a I just don't want to read a wall of text right now. Although, if I was streaming the full game, I obviously would. Oh, I love being able to turn off

lights. That's great. Okay, I'm I gotta ask Chad GPD here, guys, because it's this is question is driving me crazy and I think it's important for all of us to know. Um, I'm actually going to ask rock and we're going to use expert mode, so it takes a while. If a game developer makes a main menu that has an identical image to the Grudge front cover, is that copyright infringement? I really do think that this is something to to to consider as the developer. Um, you got to be real careful. I think you could copyright images or or ideas or concepts like visual concepts or or visual themes

can be copyrighted. But let's double check. Using an identical image in a game menu main menu would likely be an infringement as it's copying. Yeah. Okay. So, here's what what Grock says. Uh, Grock said, "Yes, using an identical image from the front cover, assuming you mean the movie poster from The Grudge in a video game menu would almost certainly constitute copyright infringement under US law, as movie posters are original creative works protected by copyright owned by the film studio." This protection extends to artwork designs and images. See, that's the thing about copyright, guys. It's an abstraction. Um, it's not like, hey, you can only copyright uh a a game's mechanic or you can only copyright uh a title. Copyright is this sort of abstract thing that once you create something and you and you bring it into into from the ether into the world, it's already automatically copyrighted by default. Um, so if if

someone was to go ahead and create a game about a minister who goes to hell and there's snow and it kind of looks like a Tim Burton vibe, I could I could say you just totally ripped off my game. Um, so yeah. Um, what if it's 95% similar? And this is where it it does it truly does come down down to a court of law and a jury of peers because it would end up being a lawsuit and then the lawsuit would have to be determined by a judge and a jury. And so that's why it's law is abstract. Uh it or it's it's subjective and it's abstract still very likely constitutes copyright infringement. So yeah, honest honestly, you just have to look at precedent. Okay, let's go ahead and keep playing. Game is good though. The game feels good. I'm

enjoying it. We got a cabinet with medicine, a mask, and a dead battery. Got my stuff here. Thank you. Got it. Whoops. You you said I don't think they'd hold a grudge. Well, who said that? That was uh Richard. I'm not trying to be mean to the developer. I'm trying to help the developer and say be careful. All right, we got money and then Apple. So, for some reason, this door opened. Not sure why. Do you remember this man? What man? What are you talking about?

Yes, he was. What are you talk Oh, there's there's a man probably to the right of me. You were responsible for his career last year. He died alone in his bed. Um, he was only 80 years old. If you had taken his fever more seriously the day before, he would have survived. We both know that you hate yourself for feeling for the feeling of relief you had after they carried his lifeless corpse out of the apartment on the stretcher. Your burden was gone. But your conscience wouldn't let you forget so easily. He's about to die again. Go and find out what he needs to help ease his burden. Poor guy. Needs something to drink. Needs a photograph of his dead wife. You want to drink some cough syrup?

Oh, that's great. [Music] Oh, let's get you a drink, bro. Oh my goodness. Oh, I just bought a cold brew and I got it in my bag. Okay, we also need a photo of his dead wife. Okay, so first off, obviously you can't critique a game just objectively and say you cannot it ha or it has to be exciting in the first five minutes. But if you want it to be

commercially viable, you got to give me something immediately. Give me some a jump scare, a a very very hardcore mystery, something to fight for. Tell me who I am. Tell me where I am. Tell me what I'm aiming for. What's the mysterious thing? Um, all those things need to be established pretty quick. Pretty quick. All right. All right. Thomas, your gain is a little high. I'll turn it down. Sorry. All right, here we go. Okay, got him a drink. And now we need his wife. So, pressing control does something weird. Okay, that's locked.

Super dark. Can I change the brightness? Let's double check. Yes, we can. Thank you, Lord. [Music] Automatic recycling station. plastic, glass, metals. Why would someone put this picture of her in the trash? Oh no, he died. Oh no.

And she's gone. Nice. That was fun. The screen was a little cheesy. Very good. Yeah, I would have started with this. You know, the for some reason talking to that character, that woman makes me feel unscared. Don't have her in there. Don't let me talk to her and just start me with that man um finding his dead a photo of his dead wife. Just one little thing I need to find. Go find the photo of the dead wife. And he says it to you personally.

I want to see my my wife one last time. and you get them the photo and then we're here in the first 30 seconds. Talking to the like having three really deep conversations before any of this in my opinion is a mistake. Start me right here. Now I'm interested. Also, I can move kind of fast and it makes it less scary. I would slow it down like this. But yeah, this feels great. Still really dark. And I understand it's a horror game, but even still. So that brightness helps a lot. So that's good.

Nice sound. Very good sounds. Good sound triggers and what's that? See what I'm saying? We need to start here. Get me into this uh this location quickly. And yeah, like being able to like meet our first character this way for me feels way better. Also, here's the thing. Telling me that it's a dream makes it not scary. I I would remove the whole re like telling the player this is a dream. If if I feel like this is real and I'm actually working, it's going to be so much scarier. Um,

yeah. Maybe you should get a second opinion. That is why Yuki isn't your friend anymore. The only monster right now is the creature looking around in the dark. I'm ready to wake up. Tell me what I need to do. This is the strangest dream I've ever had. Darkness. It's a lot to read and I'm so sorry, guys. I'm just trying to get to the other game. So, and I'm sorry to the developer if I'm skipping dialogue. Um, is that actually 3D? Is that really 3D? I think that might be a height map or a texture. No, that's actually 3D. Wow. I think so. Um, I love that sound. That's great. Yeah, I can move kind a little too fast for a horror game like this. I would I

would slow it down because it makes it not scary. I could just sort of run past the jump scares, which I understand is um a tall order because it can definitely make the game feel more boring as well. So, it's a it's going to be a balance. So, I want to know what that giant rat is doing. So, got some locked doors. Let's just go look in the uh the lockers, I guess. There we go. We got some bullets. Okay. Uh, what else? Oh my goodness. We got a flashlight. Yay. Look at all this good stuff.

Uh, how do I go to my inventory? There we go. You have to double click on it or right click on it. Um, reload. Yeah. So, we've got a little bit of a survival horror game. Um, flashlight. I guess you can only equip one at a time. Nice. I don't love the idea of doors randomly unlocking. It's not my favorite thing. Um,

I would probably do some kind of lock key that you get from the lockers. Why is the resolution like this? Can't change it. Yeah, the pixelation is interesting to me. I'm not sure why it's there cuz it's so subtle that it almost feels like it's inventory is I

Yeah. So, it's kind of like um I guess the closest game I could think of that it's similar to is like um would you what would you say guys is like Resident Evil Village kind of the vibe. Equipping things is kind of annoying. I wish I could just use the scroll wheel to swap between weapons. Maybe I'm missing something. Yeah, gun sounds are definitely lacking oomph. We'll talk about it here during this encounter. Come on. Yeah. Uh, you could definitely have a a reticle change. So, the first thing is you could have a

reticle change. Um, where there's red uh reticle chain uh like a red crosshair that appears. Ooh. um that could appear. Also, the sound you need a when you hit anything, no matter how far away it is, even it's all the way over there, it's a two-dimensional sound that plays. You need that sound when you're hitting flesh with bullets. Let's hear the sound of the gun. Yeah, it' give me a little bit more recoil, a little bit of screen shake there. Uh maybe even increase that volume. Cool. Uh let's go ahead and play our last game here.

Um and I apologize to the developer for not reading the dialogue. Uh I have limited time here. Um, so, so yeah, I want to go ahead and jump onto the next game. But yeah, I think the positives of that game is um the the the gameplay felt the moot, the controller felt good. Um, overall the lighting was good. Um, I I felt like the inventory system was fine. It was decent. switching between weapons and and flashlights and items was a little bit laborous. I'd make it easier for the player with the scroll wheel or pressing one, two, or three or like the numpad or whatever. Um, also I'd be very very very concerned about ripping off the grudge with your main menu.

I would be I would be definitely careful about that. Okay, let's see here. All right, you ready for play the next game, guys? Let's go. The next game is called Doodoo Duck. Doodoo Ducky Extra. Why won't you do it? I want to play Doo Doo Ducky. I haven't played any of these games, by the way, guys, so I have to like install them. This one's from Hio. Doo doo duck. Everybody likes the doo duck.

Dodo duck. I like that menu. That felt good. Hello, duck. Okay. So, right off the bat, the camera vertical drag should be increased because it's kind of disorienting with the camera following it perfectly. I would increase the drag of the camera a little bit cuz that's kind of nauseating to have the camera that uh uh pinned to the player. Uh to sprint, hold shift. To jump, press space. Oh, come on. Make me flip. [Music] I want to see a flip

like that. Make him flip for the second jump. [Music] Uh, art works good. Control or the player movement feels pretty good. Trying to figure out why it doesn't feel perfect. Could be that I need some sound. I'm trying to make a duck sound. Come on. Give me some flavor. Give me some character. Hey, bud. Can I talk to you? This was unreal, wasn't it? That motion blur looks like unreal.

[Music] While sprinting to cover great distance. Hoohoo ha. Wait, jump while sprinting to cover great distance. Woohoo! [Music] Oh, sprint. Thomas, what are you Didn't you just get instructions? Okay, it started me all the way over. I would put a checkpoint right here. [Music] [Music] The sky is super flat. Um, what I would do is, it feels zoomed in, too. It feels very zoomed in. Um, so what I would do, let me show you guys. There's something that's really gloomy about this, and I don't think we're supposed to. It it I don't think it

should feel gloomy. Um, so what I would do with the skybox, um, is I would I'll show you in a second. I open up Photoshop here. Platformers are tough. I agree with Hurt 120 or Hunt 120. Um, and also I know that there's a gimmick for this game. The gimmick I think the gimmick is coming up. I would introduce the gimmick very very fast. Very fast. Uh, but I took a screenshot here. I want to show you guys what we could do here with these visuals. Um, give me a sec here. Uh, I'm gonna assume that this background is a skybox. Okay. And if it's a skybox, what you could do, it'll just be sort of basically static. Um, so whatever we change we make here is going to help a lot no matter what the camera angle is. So what I would do is this.

Already it looks so much better. But I would actually do a little bit of a pink Maybe a pinkish yellow like that. Do you guys see how now it feels like I'm not looking at a a blue wall? And then what I would do is I would create clouds in the skybox that are very subtle and they're just a static image. Now, if you really wanted it to feel like the player wasn't stuck in some strange flat um

if I feel like I'm in a Squid game with like just a blue flat wall. If you really wanted to make it feel better, you could definitely add some parallax here of some Let's try and match the art style here. Grab this green here. This is like straight up Mario ripoff, but you get the idea. Um, and then you would, what you would do is you'd take that brown and you would just do this. Maybe a little bit of a subtle gradient shift just for the purposes of this. So I don't because I don't want to waste y'all's time, but uh, that's the idea. You could do something like this to make see how everything feels so much more like depth is is king. If you can add depth to something, you it gives the player a sense of place and a sense of scale.

Right now, if it's really disorient, that's why, you know, it's I guess I may have predicted that it's unreal when I saw that. But you can also tell with the motion blur. Um, and then why not one more thing here. Why not just throw in a little bit of a subtle You could do a moon. You could do uh the sun just in the distance just to give you a sense of place and a sense of per purpose. It looks happier, but it also gives you uh a sense of scale. Um it's really really disorienting and kind of dreary when this is all I can see. Do you guys see the difference? But let's go ahead and move forward. Okay, there we go. We got some clouds there. But I would I would I would highly consider if I was a developer just creating a a little bit more detail

with the skybox down here below is not a skybox. That's a particle emitter or or it could be a shader, but it's you also notice it's not even parallaxing. So there's no depth. Everything has the same exact parallax or Z distance from the camera. So it makes everything feel I mean guess there's a little bit of a parallax but there's not a lot of depth. [Music] Wait, how do I do it? I wasn't listening. Sorry. I wish I could read that again. I wasn't thinking. Sorry, guys. What did it say? Can someone go back in time and see what what the uh how to use the propeller? What did it What did it say? Can someone

look back in time on the uh on the live stream and tell me what it said? Graphically though, I love the duck character. I think he's great. The artwork looks good. I'm excited to turn the camera cuz I know we can. Um. Oh, cool. Butterflies. Those are tiny though. I would make those a little bit bigger. I would potentially even uh make the duck smaller. So, what I would do with the duck is I would consider, if I was the developer, I would I would I would definitely do this if I was the developer, but this is just me. I would make the duck uh significantly smaller giving the this this sort of sense of scale like he's he's um uh insignificant in this world and that the world is daunting. Uh press E to pick up.

What does it say? Press E to pick up. Press again to drop. Okay. Okay. So, what are you supposed to do with it, though? I guess you could stand on it. Okay. I guess that's what you do. Okay. So, the icon had a propeller on it. I thought it was for flying or something. Um, with a game that's themed as a duck, I would consider giving the duck um something that ducks really like. Um, what do ducks like? Do they like popcorn? Do they like uh hot dogs? What does a duck like to eat? Cuz ducks, I've never seen a duck eat a gem before. So, I would just consider theming this a little bit more if it's going to be about a duck.

loop the music as well because it's kind of disorienting when it stops. Wait, why can't I get that? I don't understand. I'm not sure what I'm missing here. Why I can't There we go. For some reason, I couldn't collect those. Whoa, now that works. So, there's a collider issue there. [Music] Nice. That felt good. Seeds. Yeah. or like fish.

Little ducks eat fish. Whoa. I thought that was something I could jump on, but it wasn't. [Music] Something about the character controller feels real stiff. Like when I try and turn, it's like I stop and then I have to turn. It's not very reactive. [Music] So yeah, the gimmick of this game is that the camera rotates kind of like Fez. Um I I would recommend to the developer that we you give me that gimmick pretty quick. Even if it's just a taste, that block should be much more faded out. This block right here, I can't point to it, but that block looks like I can jump on it. And that that's very dangerous for platforming games because I'm going to jump on that and I'm going to lose all my progress. It's almost identical in

opacity uh and and or or or saturation as that block right there. So, you got to be really careful with that. It looks like I could jump on the trees as well. [Music] Why can't I jump on that? Yeah, I don't know why I can't jump on that. And how do I go down? Can't go down. Okay, we got a shop. All right, let's go ahead and try and

buy something. Well, that felt good. And the UI is great. I would say graphically the game is solid. The UI is great. It feels professional. The music feels good. The sounds are good, but there's a stiffness to the character controller that I I can't put a finger on other than it feels sluggish. Um, when I'm running and then I press to go to the other direction, I kind of want it to be immediate. I was just playing Silk Song and it's it's it's immediate. There's no question that when I press the left button, I'm going to turn around immediately and go the other way. There's no there's no turn animation. There's no there's no slowing down. Um, if you're stuck or need a new path, try switching perspectives. Press tab. Okay, good. So, let's do it. Now this is cool. Good grief.

This looks so much better. I can't jump though. I wonder why. Um. Whoa. I can't jump. [Music] K for propeller. So, I can't jump for some reason when I'm in this perspective. [Music] I don't know why that is. [Music] I'm not sure why that's the case. I I I'm guessing it's to to make the game more puzzling, but I can't jump. I'm not sure why that's the case. I love this. It's It's really cool. Like, that looks great.

And it's really cool, but and I understand there's a lot of work that went into that, but I don't understand why I can't jump to prevent you from just playing in 3D. I understand that, but I'm trying to figure out the the It's not in that's not intuitive. Um to force you to use the mechanic. Yeah. And that that's not good. You shouldn't have to be forced to use a mechanic for no reason. You should give me some reason. Um it could be like a a magnetic helmet or something that forces or like boots or something. So yeah. [Music] Okay. I can use a propeller by holding [Music]

I don't I don't quite understand. Okay, I get that. Okay, that that seems obvious now. But I don't We need We need to help the developer out here, guys. What do we think? cuz I I understand that was that was actually really fun figuring that out, but it felt unfair and so let's try and help the developer out here. Um, not being able to jump is is an interesting issue. [Music] It just doesn't feel fair. Something feels really rigid about that and we need to justify it. Am I wrong? [Music]

Sonoma says it 100% turns me off. [Music] I understand the goal of the 2D. There's there's a there's something there, but it's been done with Fez. Um, it is re it is so frustrating that I can't jump there. It feels so I don't know a better word than hamfisted changes into an animal that can't jump. There's got to be a way to justify it. And when I press space, it should be like I should wiggle showing me it's not a glitch. Like you're you cannot jump. [Music]

Man, why is what what do we do here? And why can't I grab those? Oh, it's cuz I'm not lined up. That is That is so so disorienting. [Music] Tell me what you guys think. Seriously, cuz I don't I don't want the developer to just think Thomas is right. What do we think? [Music] How do you make that more intuitive? I get it now. I understand now. But it it doesn't feel fair. It feels hamfisted. It feels forced for sure. That That's cool. I get it. I understand now. I don't understand why you can't

jump. [Music] Change it to top down view. [Music] I'm trying to figure out why the developer doesn't want me able to jump. That's the main concern. Why doesn't the developer want me to jump? Cuz it's too easy. [Music] Cuz that because if I can jump, then there's no reason ever to switch to 2D mode. So, there needs to be an advantage to playing in 2D mode that isn't jumping. There needs to be an advantage in 2D

mode that is not jumping. There needs to be an advantage to play in 2D mode that is not jumping. And that is a big big issue right now. Is Thomas Am I crazy? Is Thomas crazy or is Thomas right? Because I want the developer to be able to read the chat and get sort of a vote. Am I being crazy or am I right? Say you're overthinking it, Thomas. Or say in all caps, overthinking or agree. Overthinking or agree. [Music] paper thin platforms that cannot be

walked across in 3D. Yeah. Okay, guys. Developer, if you're watching, it's not working. Something's wrong with the forcing the player to not jump in 3D. It makes no sense. Um, game looks incredible. Music is good. UI is great. Look at these graphics. How fun. But that is not a good solution. We've got to figure out a way. Let's Guys, can we figure this out? Why do we want the player to play in 2D? [Music] Okay. There needs to be two characters in this game like Banjo and Kazouie. Okay, one of them is a blind bat and the other one is um like a hedgehog or something

and you have to like justify it so you could switch between the character in your backpack like Banjo Kazouie and it that is what Banjo Kazouie does by the way. What? It's It's almost as if what if if if it was just Banjo cuz if it was just Banjo, it would make no sense that sometimes he can run fast and go up hills and sometimes he can't. So, we need to justify it visually with a new animal. So you're you're a you're you're a creature with only the sense of two dimensions like a um like a blind a blind bat or something or a blind hamster. Tab puts you and you're a turtle and the turtle can see in three dimensions but he can't jump. So you switch between the two and it's a teamwork. It's a team effort between two characters. A turtle and a duck. Yeah, the turtle has this ability to see in a third dimension. And the duck is a blind

duck. I think I think you have to justify it. And you have to give me feedback when I press space. Watch this. You can let me jump in the third dimension. That's totally fine. But make it a tiny jump like a right. But in two dimensions, I can jump just fine. Am I wrong or am I right? Do we agree or do we disagree? A duck wears horse blinders. Yeah. I'm trying to think of an animal that's blind. I mean, honestly, that's the only way it works. Um, so that's one option is a character switch. Uh the other option is jumping is not the limitation. What's it what's an animal that can only

run in a that can go straight? You know, uh it could be about a wheel in a sphere, you know? You could have a wheel, but then but and then the sphere is too heavy or something. Blind mole. Yeah. [Music] I mean, lawyer, I think you're probably right. Says, "I kind of disagree. Jump should not be limited at all, even in 3D." But again, why not just play in 3D? Why? Why? Why not just play in 3D, you know? Why not just play in 3D? Oh, that's a great idea.

I love that. So, if you play as like, let's say, a hamster, it's a wheel in left and right. Or maybe you're just the hamster and you can jump, but in 3D it turns into a ball and it's really heavy and it can barely jump. So that's a cool idea as well. [Music] Yeah, this is a tough conundrum. I don't think it's a bad idea. I think the game I think it can work, but there needs to be some justification for why I can't jump in 3D cuz that's really offputting. But now it feels great, you know? It's like, oh, that's kind of fun.

Am I being too harsh, guys? Yeah, if it were me and and I was going to choose some music, I would um [Music] There we go. If it were me and I was going to choose music, I'd be choosing Okay, I'll show you. Um, can I find it? Let's see if I can find it. uh something that's more less repetitive and more like um musical, more melodic. What I'm saying is that music that we're listening to now is more like rhythmic, sneaky, and I would choose something that's a little bit more melodic. Uh almost almost cinematic. Um so, for example, let's open up Brave Boy here. The music I use for Brave Boy,

I wrote this song so I can find it. There we go. It's called And also Animal Crossing. There's a That's a great one as well. Oh, man. I can't find it. Oh, sorry guys. I can't find it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Okay, let's go ahead and um um let's go ahead and vote. Uh what I'm gonna say is some some all the things that I loved about the games. Um the uh that one it was called like some hospital or something with the sort of the Asian horror vibe. I like the character controller. I liked the ambience and the tone. I thought the inventory system was pretty good. It had it needed some tweaks. Uh, when it comes to the duck game, I

liked the graphics. I think the graphics are really good. Um, I thought the UI was awesome. Uh, when it comes to the What was the first game we played? I already forgot. What was the first game we played, guys? I can't even I can't remember. What was the first game? My brain is fried today. Jacob's Ladder. Jacob's Ladder. I liked the character controller and I liked the puzzle mechanics and the ambience was pretty good. Um, so there you go. Uh, I'm going to go ahead and predict the winners, but you guys go ahead and vote with the link in the description. Um before I predict and before I reveal who wins, one final uh one final thing is I wanted to say a huge huge thank you to new students who joined uh full-time

gamedev. But more importantly um also the people who uh joined the 2D art pro sale, Danny Awas, Aaron, Tiffany, Mtonate, Albicode, Lauren, Gi, and Armen and TK. Look, if you want to learn from an actual indie game developer, I'm currently working on my third commercial release, which is published by 3D Realms. If you don't know, 3D Realms also made um Duke Nukem. They made a lot of awesome games. Um old old publisher. Um they changed hands a few times, but still 3D Realms. Um they're publishing Twisted Tower. And I say all that just to say if you want to be taught by an actual, you know, published indie game developer, and that is me, check out the uh 2D art pro sale below. 25% off. You're going to learn how to create breathtaking 2D art. I've been featured by Time Magazine with my 2D games, and I did all the art in those games. Uh and also Washington Post, Rolling Stone, um and um PC Gamer. If you want to learn from an actual uh 2D artist who's making

commercial games, check this out. You're gonna also get my 3D art program which teaches how to create 2D art or 3D art uh for for games and that's completely free. So, you really can't lose there. Um, so it's 25% off for the next four days and I'll also give you a shout out in tomorrow's live tomorrow's live stream. So, check it out below. I don't do sales like this very often for this art bundle. Um, so check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. You're going to learn what's necessary. This is what's so important. You might be thinking, I'll just go get a 2D art program from Skillshare or or Udemy or or whatever, um, or a 3D art program. What's cool about this program is that you're only going to learn what's necessary. There's no fluff. It's only the stuff that I actually use when I'm creating my games. Independent game development is all about distilling down all of the things that you're told you need to know into a few things that are absolutely necessary. So, I don't want to waste your time. I want you to learn

what's necessary, and that's what the these programs uh have to offer. So, click the link below, check it out, and I'll give you a shout out tomorrow just to say thank you for supporting me, supporting the channel, and supporting the final uh development uh stretch for Twisted Tower, which is my third commercial release. All right, so my estimate here, my estimate for which games are going to win, um I guess I'm going to tell you what what which ones I like. Well, I'll tell you after I see the results. My estimates for what's going to win is um you know I I it's hard. I think we're going to get a pretty even split. Something like 33 33 33. I think Jacob's ladder will be last. Then second will be Denden. First place will probably be the duck game. Um maybe Denden. I think the duck game duck game and dead end are going to be kind of tied and then Jacob's ladder will be third. So, let's go ahead and take a

look here and see what the final final results are. Give me a sec to pull this up, guys. Sorry, I don't have it pulled up here. Okie dokie. I'm gonna pull this up here. So, yeah, Duck Duck Game, Duck Game wins probably. I'm doing my final prediction. Duck Game probably wins, but right beneath it is just barely second place is that horror game and then the third is going to be the the puzzle game with the robots. But we'll see. Let's take a look. Man, Thomas [Applause] Yeah, I told you it was going to be 33 33 33. Uh, they were all sort of kind of like they were all okay. Um, but yeah,

there you go. I feel good about my prediction there. But yeah, I think this I think Dodo wins. Uh, winning is is fair. Um, yeah. Okay, but only Why is it we only have 29 votes and there's almost 500 people watching? What is this? Yeah, the duck game had quality, but a huge game design error. Um, that that has to be solved. And I hope the developer Sorry, I I I maybe have a solution for the duck game. I if I were if I were the developer, I would do something like the duck can has a has a egg on its head like a half of an egg on its head and then his underwear is the other half and this

allows you to run around side to side. But Oh, no, no, no, no. That's that's in the third dimension, but for some reason you can't jump. and then it closes and then you can roll. Something like that. There something like that. You need to see a a strong visual change that justifies the inability to jump. It's going to be a difficult thing. It's going to be a difficult thing. Um, okay. I got to go uh uh what's the word? Go Pierce. So, I'm going to do that. I love you guys so much. Check out the 2D art pro sale below. And as always, thank you for supporting the channel, guys, hanging out with me. I love you guys so much. I'll talk to you