Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 025

to a live stream. What rhymes within? Take it on the chin. Take it on the chin. Take it on. Take it on the chin. We are live and we're going to play your games today, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to play three games today. It's going to be a lot of fun. And the best part about all of the live streams that I do is that you guys get to be involved, offer your opinions, offer your thoughts along with me as somebody who's made games for half of my life. Um, I'll offer up any opinions I have, any thoughts, constructive criticism, and I'm also going to flip around my headphones just like that. Hey, I wanted to say a huge Oh, and by the way, at the end of this uh at the end of the live stream today, we're

going to be Do I need to turn that up? Check one two. Check, check, check. At the end of today's live stream, we're also going to vote on our favorite game. Guys, the goal of these live streams is to just completely um roast indie game developers so that they eventually quit making games. That's the ultimate goal. Um obviously not. The goal is to help them and and provide constructive criticism so at the end of the day they can launch their game and not suffer any kind of critique that they're going to receive today. Um because every game is going to get some critique. Uh so the goal is to uh make games better, right? Okay. Huge huge thank you to Robert W. Chad Erico Mlac Robert Darren Jerry Danny Awas Aaron Tiffany Mtate Albode Lauren Gio Armen K and TK. Thank you so much for joining my courses. And by the way guys, there are three days left in 20 hours to join 2D art pro,

which is my go at your own pace. You don't need any talent 2D art course. Teaches you everything I learned about 2D art for indie games. And if you want a shout out tomorrow, I'll give you a shout out. Well, actually on Monday. On Monday, I'll give you a shout out during the live stream. If you do join 2D Art Pro, just like those students got a a shout out, you're also going to get my 3D art program. Look guys, you can get a course. You can get a art course on Skillshare for 20 bucks. You can get one on Udemy for 20 bucks. Here's the difference. Mine are extensive, but they're also taught by somebody who's actually in the trenches making games. I'm on my third commercial release. I'm being published by 3D Realms, which is like a 30-year-old game brand. Um, I made 2D 2D games. I've made 3D games. I've been featured by Time Magazine, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, um, PC Gamer, you name it. Why is that important? It's important because I'm going to show you what's actually necessary to learn for 2D art. And also, you're

going to get my 3D art program completely free. You're learn you're being taught by an actual game dev. You're not going to learn the crap that you don't need to know. There's a ton of stuff about artwork that you don't need to know, but you don't know that you don't need to know it. So, that's what this course is. And best part is, guys, it's an investment in your future, but it's also an investment in this channel. It helps support this channel. It keeps me chugging along, keeps me making the podcast, and also helps me wrap up my third commercial release, Twisted Tower. And that's always something I'm super grateful for. So, thank you so much for letting me do these ad reads, guys. Check it out below. Three days left and there's less than 50 seats available. So head on over, check that out. See if it's something you're interested in. Uh, okay. What are we saying? Oh, we're going to play some games. Let's jump over to Steam here and take a look here. All right, come on in. I'm trying to see why am I chat. There it is. Yeah, I think the voting we're going to do on on on YouTube. Uh, your GABA.

Um, hello from Vancouver says Wesley. Hello from South Carolina. Okie dokie. Um, what am I doing? Oh, we're gonna play games. First game we're going to play, this actually this game really intrigued me. Uh, and by the way, the if you guys want to submit your games, follow me on over at x.comomasbrushdev. Um, and I'll post every once in a while and say, "Hey, I'm going to play your games." And you can just post your game. And I just look at all the games in the comments and I pick the ones that tickle my fancy. Uh, Watertight looks pretty cool. Um, we're just going to go in cold here and and go to play and just take take a look and see what this game's all about. Um, I like the logo and the artwork. Okay, that was kind of interesting. Um,

let's let's let's go. I don't know if I like that sound. We don't need to hear that sound. Let me turn this down. I don't need to hear that clicking sound, I don't think. Okay, let's hit play. The menu looks like it's done by a graphic designer. Um, so looks like we have a game that is probably built by a graphic designer or a UX designer, someone with that experience. Um, which means the game is going to be clean. It's going to have precise tight controls and uh clean precise UI. Um, that is my I have always learned that if a game has tight clean controls, tight clean uh lighting and graphics, and it's simplistic, they're usually done by

people who are in the graphic design industry. Um, I could be wrong here. Oh, let me unplug um my my gamepad. And by the way, the reason I say that is because that that's me, you know, uh I'm a I I I I was raised in sort of the graphic design world. That's what I went to college for. And so I have a a my games always sort of reflect this sort of symmetrical, clean and precise art style, UI, and even the gameplay is very simple and precise. This is great. Okay, so let me close this and open it up again because it looks like it got confused with the gamepad. Um, if the developers in the chat, let me know what your background is because

it it feels like you do UX and UI design. Um, and if you, by the way, if you're a game developer and you want to advance as a game developer, one of the best ways to do it is UI. Uh, and just graphic design in general. You're going to learn so much and it's going to change how you think about everything, not just UI. Oh, we're going to drink Zia. Team Cherry, they they've submitted their games to me constantly. I just got to say, whenever they submit their games to me, they'll email me every day. I'm just not, you know, I just the quality of their game is not up to up to par for me. So, what can I say? Um, open notebook research vessel. Oh, I love that it's actually handwritten. That's great. Titanic's last reported cards. In case of emergency, restore four lights. Stabilize pressure. Power main motor.

I forget how to close it. What was it? Shift tab. What was it? So, there needs to be a little icon here that shows me how to get rid of this. Okay, it was N. Oh, N for notebook. I need to hear a squeal there. There should be a squeaking. [Applause] [Music] Oh, see what I'm saying? I told you. Every time a game has good UI, it typically has a really snappy, responsive gameplay. Um. Oh no. This is one of those games where I humiliate myself on the live stream. Okay, this feels like I'm going to guess that this is actually

Unity. It has that creamy Unreal look, but I'm going to guess that it's Unity. This feels so cool that I'm underwater. I love that. Okay, but anyway. Yeah, this is one of those games where I humiliate myself because I don't know what to do. Oh my goodness. I'm going to have to learn Morse code. Why is it the underwater games are always so complicated? Oh, I can turn the lights on. I love that. That is so cool. Sound is great. Atmosphere is awesome. Post-processing effects are really good. I think the the noise is a little bit too much in my opinion.

Great sound. Plugs. This is awesome. What is a wheel? So, okay, we'll see what happens, but my my thoughts are immediately give me a really strong setup. Um, I think that having this even a dialogue at the beginning with a really strong voice actor and good music, the engine shut off on my mission to Antarctica. I sank to the depths. All communication with the outside world has been lost. This is my only chance or I drown in 10 hours. like something like that to give me a motive because I don't know who I am.

All the who, what, when, where, why. I mean, all that stuff you need to establish pretty much in the first minute of the game to some degree. Give me what Kyle Balda, he's the director of Minions. He's coming on the podcast next week. He calls it rooting interest, which is give me an a something to root for at the beginning of e even a movie or a game immediately. give me something to root for so that I can trust you as the developer. And uh right now I don't quite know unless I miss something. I don't quite know what the goal is here. So what do we do? These are just the lights, but I'm not sure what to do. Research vessel RSV Horizon research submersible watertight. So it's 1952. Titanic's last reported. This doesn't look like some handwriting from someone in 1952. Just FYI, this looks like

handwriting of a 35year-old man in 2025. And that's me. That's what this looks like. I would I would recommend redoing this for handwriting because it looks modern day. Some we just have bad handwriting these days. I would clean this up, make it look like 1950s handwriting because they truly did have good handwriting. Restore four lights. Stabilize pressure. Okay. So, I need to stabilize the pressure and bring power to the main motor. All right. So, let's stabilize the pressure, guys. Is that what that is? I need to get it to the green. So, there's a combination to get it green, I think. Is that what you guys think we need to do here?

Sound too is too good in the post-processing in general to be GDAU. Yeah, I don't think this is GDAU. This looks like Unity to me, especially if you turn the um post-processing off. You can really tell because often times uh Unreal has really good global illumination post-processing. And I'm seeing global illumination here. At least it looks like there is global illumination. Now, you can buy assets from the asset store and on Unity. And this kind of gives me a Unity vibe. What? How do I stabilize the pressure? This is definitely an escape room game, which I'm I I love. I think that's great. I don't know what this is, though. It says lights, but it's doing something to this. Look. Watch. What does that mean?

I don't get it. I got to go to the green. I agree. I'm trying to figure that out. Kind of hard. kind of just random combos. Let's try going the this way. Nope. It controls all the lights in the room, but why does it control that? Anybody have any ideas here what to do?

Help your daddy out. I told you guys these games just make me they turn me into an idiot publicly. The lighting is really good though. I like it a lot. This honestly the game looks really good. It looks like custom art. Oh, what? Wait, hold on. This looks really good. Actually, I'm really satisfied with how this game looks. If you see if you see bad UI, it's Unity. I actually do kind of agree with that because Unreal, but the problem is if you see UI you've seen before, it's Unreal.

I guess it's just something we have to do with this. So close. There's just too many combinations to do here. I don't get it. Oh, I got really lucky there, man. Developer for the very This is what we needed, by the way. Okay, couple things here. If I was the developer and I wanted players to stick around because I was this close to quitting, I would make this so much easier and I would put like a a a hand a notepad right here that gives you some kind some clue. Um, and I would maybe even just do three levers.

Uh, so we talking about rooting interest. Give me a rooting interest. Something to care about is what that means. Tell me who I am, what, when, where, why. Something. Uh, give me a goal, a motive. establish a mystery. For example, a big giant entity goes across something. I hear a voice like imagine if you heard an echoey voice, a woman saying, "Charlie, Charlie, I'm lost." Something like that. Um, and then make that make that easier. It doesn't mean the game has to be easy. Just reward the player quickly with a with something that makes them feel good. All right. Uh, from home. What is this? How did I get that? Hi, Daddy. I love the Orca postcard so much. Mom stuck it on the fridge. Yeah, this doesn't feel like the This doesn't feel like the 40s.

Um, I would I would definitely redo the the the handwriting here. Um, it needs to it needs to feel more elegant. Do we agree or disagree with Thomas? Say agree if you agree. Say disagree if you disagree. Handwriting in the 50s. I mean, if you look at it, it was just so elegant. Hi, Daddy. I love the Orca postcard so much. Mom stuck it on the fridge. It's next to our family Christmas photo. I started our summer bucket list. Number one is a whale watching in the Atlantic. Like you said, when you showed me the sketch of your new ship, wasn't it a submarine? your best friend, Tilly. P.S. It's your turn now. Yeah, this is 1945. Look at this. Watch. Let's just do a little Google search. 1945 handwriting, guys. This is 1945 handwriting. Now,

obviously, we were looking at kids handwriting, but even the adult handwriting is just as bad. Okay, now even this one, it looks bad, but this still feels and this might even be a kid. Um, but this still feels better. So, there's something that really pulls me out of the game and makes it not feel like a period piece when the handwriting looks like, you know, straight from a 2025 school room. Yeah. So definitely definitely if I were the developer, I would change this immediately. This doesn't feel right at all. Um, yeah. Okay, let's take a look at this. Also, this right here, I would make this clean text because this this is not written from somebody. This is But I I guess Yeah. No, I I I see what they're doing. Actually, this is written from me in their little tabs. So, I guess that's fine. I would love a paper sound.

Um, okay. So, anyway, we got a cool note here. Power main motor. Oh, it was over here. I would shrink the size of the reticle, too. Makes it feel like a mobile game. That reticle is a little too big in my opinion. How do I power the main motor? Yeah, I would definitely highlight things a little bit, especially at the beginning of the game.

just a little bit. And a lot of people are probably thinking, "Man, Thomas, you don't need to be handheld." You kind of do at the beginning of a game. You kind of do. In my opinion. In my opinion. What? Power the main motor. No, I don't play JRPGs. I play mainly story games and slight puzzle games. It should be this, right? Power the main motor. [Music] That's not even on my notepad. That's fine. I guess that wasn't that wasn't intuitive. Let's let the developer know though. Say intuitive or

not intuitive. Again, guys, you don't have to make it that easy for players through the whole game, but at the beginning, you really need to reward them and give them instant goodness and show them what to do pretty quick. And again, for this kind of game, establish a really strong story hook, something at the very beginning. So, intuitive or not intuitive, cuz I'm reading I'm reading the notepad and the notebook is saying start the engine. It didn't say anything about this. Okay, so it's been four days. Good grief. Day four since departure from New York Harbor. Surface temp hits -2 degrees Celsius tonight.

Okay. Another question is, are we supposed to be in Fahrenheit or Celsius? Because this is New York in 1950. I'm not sure. I don't know how submarines do things. Anyway, Floyd and Audrey launch watertight. Wait, what? Floyd and Audrey launch watertight come sunrise. Then I'm under. It's calm on Yeah, this handwriting makes me feel like it just it's really throwing me out of the game. It's calm on deck. The dark is so bitter cold. It's 1912 again. What? Oh, kind of confused there. It's calm on deck. The dark is so bitter cold. It's 1912 again and I'm shivering beneath two trench coats. The last warmth I ever felt of mom and dad. Oh, I guess he's saying it feels like

when he was a kid. Trying to figure out what what all that means. I told the officer I'd find them one day. All that's left is the wreck. Tilly used to ride off and I wonder how tall she is now. Her voice carries even miles away. Okay, I I'm I I'm not fully following. Let's Let's try and figure this out here because I understand that this is supposed to be mysterious and we're sort of uncovering the story. Okay, so it's been 4 days since we've left New York. It's very cold. Um, Floyd and Audrey launch watertight come sunrise, then I'm under. Okay, it's So, is this today? It's calm on deck. The dark is so bitter cold. It's 1912 again and I'm sh Okay,

question for you guys. I feel like I'm having like a brain fart here. Does this dialogue make sense to you? Yes or no? This is for the developer. Um, yes, this makes sense. No, it doesn't make sense. This is really important for the developer. Yes. No. And the developer might say, well, we want it to be kind of lynchian or we want it to be kind of mysterious or strange or hard to follow. That's fine, but there needs to be some kind of through line that I fully understand. I personally don't understand it, but I'm going to try it one more time. Okay, it's April 4th. which it seems like it's been three days since I started the game, which feels a little strange, but moving forward. Day four since departure from New York Harbor. It's very cold, -2 degrees C. Floyd and Audrey, which that's Tilly. So, my daughter's name is Tilly. Floyd and Audrey launch watertight, which I guess is the name of the vessel. Come sunrise, then I'm under.

So, I guess I'm going underwater. It's calm on deck. So, this isn't today. This is some other journal entry. So, I'm not writing this currently. It's or am I reading somebody's Is this somebody else? Is this somebody else? It's calm on deck. The dark is so bitter cold. It's 1912 again, and I'm shivering beneath two trench coats. The the last warmth I ever felt of mom and dad. I told the officer I'd find them one day. All that's left is the wreck. Tilly used to write often. I wonder how tall she is now. Her voice carries even miles away. Okay, so to the developer to the developer who is watching, please developer watch this. My audience is saying they don't understand this either. Who's writing this? Where am I getting these journal entries from? They're just randomly appearing.

I should I don't know whose journal this is. Has it been four days? Is it am is this written today? Am I writing this? Did someone else write this? Are these memories? What is this notebook? Where is this coming from? Because I'm alone in this in this submarine and I don't know who this is. Okay, let's keep going. Okay, we need to start the uh I think we need to start it. In case of emergency, restore four lights, stabilize pressure, and power the main motor. Okay, here we go.

Yeah, it might be an April Fool's game. That's right. So, yeah, guys, tell let the developer know in the chat kind of what you want the writing to be like. Um, just for just for the sake of understanding the story because I want to know what the I I really do want to know what the developer is trying to say and I don't get it. I don't understand what that is. Okay, I'm running out of oxygen, I guess, or brain power. So, that didn't start it for some reason. Oh, interesting. So, I'm dying for some reason. Not sure why. What? [Music] Okay, I need to put that in the green.

And now I have to kind of guess. So this I think it's this one. Need to go to the left a little bit. [Music] Man, this is kind of hard to know what I'm doing. Yeah. Okay, we're getting close. I wish these were arranged in the same way that they are on this. So, I wish those were arranged the same way here, right? Um, but I'm running out of oxygen. So, there's that. So, the second one over Super dark. I can't see anything. That's kind of cool. [Music]

Okay, I guess. Uh, okay. Good. We're We're Okay, good. Wait, now that's this one. Oh, that's kind of frustrating, guys. Do we agree with Thomas or do we disagree? Is it annoying that these are not arranged the same way as over here? Because I'm going to have to sort of guess and check what's moving what. By the way, I' I've been playing this for a good bit and that's because I'm see I can't figure out which one it is. Is it that one? And the oxygen is getting I don't know which one that is.

Do we agree this is arranged in a really confusing way? I can't even I wish there was just a I could see it here. I This is so hard to know. I mean, I'm going to start with this one. Okay, it's right there. And I'm going to assume it's this one. Nope, it's not that one. Well, I gotta go back and look at this. That one's this one. What's this one? So, it's right there.

Nope. What? Salazar says, "I think the intention is figuring it out is half the fun." I definitely agree with that, but what I'm saying is I feel like we need to scale that. Um, we need to scale it slowly. Um, so typically I this happens a lot with games and I was talking to Dave Gilbert about this on the podcast. Um, I think it was Dave Gilbert where oftentimes the developer thinks it needs to be way more complicated than it actually needs to be. Um, if you had just these in one spot and you could just do them all, it'd be so much easier or so much more rewarding because this

is a little frustrating. And not a single one of those is controlling this. And I don't know why. Are there other ones? There's Okay, there's this one. Okay. I think it's all the way down. That might actually make sense. Let's try that. I think that's I think that's what it is. Running back and forth is isn't really puzzling. It's just frustrating. Do you know what I mean, guys? It's not that this is puzzling. I'm not using my brain here. I'm just running. And that's there's a difference. Okay, that one, that one, and that one. This one, I'm going to assume is this one. So, let's let's memorize where that's at. Okay. It's directly to the right 90°. Nope.

[Music] Okay, almost there. Man, if these shuffle, I'll be so frustrated. Graphically, this game looks great, though. H game looks great. Game feels great. Really fun. really interesting. A come on, man. I'm gonna die. And then I'm thinking the valves are

going to shuffle maybe. Uh [Music] why didn't I die? Why am I not dying? You guys ready to move on to the next game? Is anybody ready to move on to the next game? Because it I feel like it froze. Okay. Uh pretty good game. Um I think there's some some puzzle issues. Um, primarily this concept of making it the the puzzles were were too kind of obtuse on the on the front side or the beginning. It's like pulling levers to find the right combo. It's not really a puzzle, more like just

shuffling until you find the right combo. So, I wouldn't say that that's really a puzzle. I could be wrong. Uh, you I I actually feel like I didn't really use my brain, and maybe that's the problem, but I didn't feel like I was forced to use my brain for pretty much anything. Um, it just felt like guessing and checking a lot. So, we'll we'll we'll we'll we'll say that the graphics and the sound was pretty great. Um, and I would love to hear if the the developer is a graphic designer because it felt like it. All right, you guys ready to play Cyber Rats? Yeah, that's kind of the thing, Dot, is you said mist can always be deduced from available information. You don't just randomly try things. And that's the thing about this game we just played, watertight. It felt like I was just randomly doing stuff. And maybe that's my problem, you know? I don't know. But my theory is is that

that's how most people would play it. they'd just be like, "I'll just pull random levers until I get the right combo." Or with the valves, it's like all it really was was testing, testing, testing, testing, testing. But the problem is the testing I had to run back and forth between the two ends of the ship. Um, welcome to Cyber's demo. Outpost games.
Welcome to the Cyber Rats experiment. You been selected because you are a rat. Your task is simple. Collect cheese and stay alive.
Oh, weird.
Will be rewarded. Enjoy your stay at the cyber rats facility.
Awesome. This is cool. Check out that music. [Applause] Um, hey, by the way, those of you just joining us, check out the 2D Art Pro

sale below. Lasts for four more days. It supports the channel, obviously. Supports the game, supports the podcast obviously. So, thank you guys so much for that. But also, it does support your future. You're also you're going to learn everything I've learned in, I guess, my whole career making 2D games that were featured by Time Magazine, Washington Post, and PC Gamer, but also 3D art as well, which is what I'm currently making. Um, so if you want to learn from an actual gamedev how to do game art and and and not learn all the complicated stuff about artwork that you don't need to know, I'm just going to tell you what you really do need to know for indie gamedev. Check it out below. It's 25% off and you're going to get my 3D art program completely free, but only for the four next four days. So, join hundreds of students worldwide. Check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. Okay, here we go. I like that rat model. It This stuff does not look like It really doesn't look like um assets. This looks custom.

Snuggle Skipper or Puddle. This feels great. Oh yeah, baby. I love how snappy that was. I think the graphics are awesome. This is so cool. I actually like that it's not set to shade smooth. There's something really special about these graphics, guys. There's no shade smooth shader. Look, things don't have shade smooth on. Wow, this is cool. H it feels so good. What a relief. This this everything about this feels

good. Um I'm getting the sense that this is unity. Music is great, too. Really good atmosphere. Whoa. Guys, if you ever want to know where the point light is, um, that's sort of, uh, lighting the scene, you can always look in the reflections. So, the point light is looks like it's directly inside of me. So, there's a point light inside of the rat that sort of lights the scene. This is awesome. Very creative. Collect cheese, baby. Oh yeah, that felt good.

Woo! Get out of here.
I wish I could bite those and blood came out. Oh, what's going on? Why did I get bit? It feels really, really good. Lighting is great. Little baby rat there. So, wait. What do I do? What do I do?
The exit is open.
Oh, thank you. Not sure what I did there, but we're going to keep playing. This is Unreal, but done correctly. How do we know this is unreal? Let's take a look at the menu. There is no menu. You can typically tell with the menus. Oh, I got an upgrade, Adam.

Nice. The rat is safe.
This feels really good, you guys. Insect cool stats here. Cheese collected. Yeah, I want to be able to bite those rats when I bite. And you don't even have to kill them. They just blood comes out. Dude, let's get this dude.
Darth Vader Halls. Whoa, that's awesome. [Music]
Upgrade secured.
So, I'm not quite I'm not sure what the goal is. You can again you can establish a really strong and simple goal

um in the first five seconds with literally just some text on screen. Uh your mother is a rat that got kidnapped and you have to find her. Something something silly like that, you know.
Okay, who's next?
That's crazy. So, I just got randomly destroyed. Back to the lab. Yeah, give me give me some kind of I got a new new fur color. Yeah, that's the that's what I'm trying to say. Uh, boggle. What's the point? I don't know. And so that's why I think just give me a cut scene or something at the beginning that gives me the end goal. What What am I aimed towards? Um, why do you want me to pull that bow back and use my muscle and release and go towards something when I don't know where the target is and what the goal is? So, that's my metaphor for the player. You're you're

asking them to work for something. So, tell them what they're working towards.
Flat has been released. That's cool. So, there's a bunch of traps and stuff.
That's so cool. I love these traps. But yeah, give me give me a goal. Okay, we got to be a lot more careful than I thought we needed to be. Hello. How are you? Wait, why why are you not getting blown

up? Oh, I think it was already used. That's so cool. This is a really well done game. I think it has a lot of potential. So, I guess we need to go find cheese. But oh. Oh, Thomas. Yeah, that fire makes me feel like it's unreal. And also the post-processing, but I could be wrong. This game has a really unique look, so it doesn't look like a game from an engine.

Oh, thank you very much. Getting some cheese here.
Great sound, too. Everything about this game is uh
responsive. Really good game feel. Notice how when I do something, guys, and this is helpful for you when you're making your games, it's super snappy and quick. When I click, it's immediate bite. Click, click, click, sprint. Left, right, left, right, left, right. Very responsive. When I collect something, you get it immediately.
Time to get out.
Okay. Oh, okay. Sorry.

All right. So, you just collect the cheese and then go back. That's what the loop is.
Prepare the next maze. It's very well done. I just wish I knew what the point was.
Can y'all come up with some stuff for the developer in the chat? Just come up with some ideas of of creating rooting interest. Again, this is a phrase created or or that was told to me by um Kyle Balda uh who's going to be on the podcast soon, who is the director of Minions and also um um Despicable Me 3. He talks about rooting interest. Rooting interest is giving the player something to root for. So come up with some stuff you know uh so it's mainly story you know what are some things to keep us going to keep us motivated a destination my brother used to tell me that all the time he would say Thomas he would always play my games and he'd say the first thing I need to see when I'm the player is a goal or a destination somewhere to

go right this is why the princess in the tower is such a common trope and it's such a strong and effective trope because it's so core or to especially men who are playing a game deep deep down in their biology, it's immediately motivating. So keep that in mind. I want to play as this guy. [Music]
Escape the escape the lab isn't enough. This is especially a problem because I could choose random rats. So, it's like I have no I have no goal with any rat because they're all going to die anyway. Um I wish there was a something to save or someone to find or something to to like a a medicine that we're trying to

find for our family or something. Maybe I maybe I skipped the cut scene, honestly. Well, dang. I love that blood splatter. It looks great. It's got a really good uh specular. Really nice specular on it. So, these are like my lives, right? I have three lives. Maybe I'm the scientist, you know?
I don't know.
Maybe make me the scientist and I'm rooting for my my special rats. Death race with other rats. Okay. a rat princess. Yeah,
that's not fair.
That blood is awesome. Very good. Cool. Great game. Seriously. Um major problem

major problem is why should I care? Um that's the main problem with that game. But other than that, rock solid. Rock solid. All right. Um, so let's let's review really quick. What were some things that we thought about that game, guys? Um, what are some things we felt about Cyber Rats? Um, I thought that the graphics were awesome. The game feel was awesome. the blood, the effects, the sound, the music was very reactive and snappy. The controls felt really intuitive and snappy. Um, it is a rog light, so that's helpful to know. It is a rog light. Um, and your your goal here, it says escape a sadistic AI's death maze. Well, you know, that's not enough for me

personally. It's like, why should I care about rats? I don't care. These rats are disgusting. I don't care about rats. I I I would I actually actively try and kill rats in my day-to-day life. So, why should I care about rats? So, you need to give me some strong motivation. It's not complicated. Um, also something that I talked to, I can't remember his name. What was his name? He made a game called Coreke Keeper. I talked to the developer of Coreke Keeper and he said sometimes it's as simple as just giving the player a motivation but also letting the player know that the rats thems are confused about this as well cuz I'm playing this and I'm like I'm confused

as the player cuz I don't know where I am and what the goal of this place is. If you told me that this rat family woke up and they completely understood what they were doing and they understood where they are, that's really disorienting for the player because the player is like, I'm confused, but the the rat that I'm playing at is not the rat that I'm playing as is not confused. So suddenly you're disconnected from the character. You want to be embedded in the character. You want the car you want the character that you're playing as to reflect you as the player. You want to feel like it's you. And so if the rat family is like and there's dialogue and it says, "Mom, dad, where are we?" That is so good. Automatically I feel like, "Okay, that's me." Because I don't know where I am either. Does that make sense?

All right, you guys ready for the last game? Are we ready for the last game? It's called Cause. And then after we play all these games, guys, we got to do a big vote. I'll put the the poll in the chat. And um yeah, let's go. Hey, by the way, guys, do you feel like that feedback is fair? Do you feel like it's helpful? Because I don't want the developer to think, "Oh, Thomas is a YouTuber and he has all these followers, so he's right." Thomas is sometimes right. Thomas is sometimes wrong. Um, I've made tons of mistakes in my own games. So, I want to make sure that they get some feed the developers get some feedback from you guys as well. So, in the chat, let me know what you think about number one, you know, giving the rat some small motivation, some something, but also, do you agree with the fact that it would be nice if the rats clarified that they themselves were confused? Or are they in a competition and they know exactly where they are? you know, do they know why they're there? Um, give me give me a

just ground me and also put me into the rat. Um, I don't want to be in a rat. I've never wanted to be a rat in my life. In fact, the the animal that I would prefer to be is a dog. I would also enjoy being a horse. I don't want to be a rat. So, you got to give me a reason to want to be a rat. Does that make sense? The rats, this is great, Salazar. The rats have become conscious after experimentation. They band together to keep escaping the mazes and eventually escape the lab. Another great idea could be something like this. Um, kind of like the fly. So, you could be this mad scientist and your name is Albert. Albert Mouse and you're this mad human scientist and it's the beginning cut scene and he's got this massive

warehouse that's in the middle of the woods and storm clouds in the distance and we zoom in. Always start with an establishing shot. We zoom into this warehouse and inside of it is this huge testing lab with all these rats and then lightning strikes the warehouse and the man he's in like he's like touching a rat and his equipment starts to shock and then it cuts and then it wakes up and you're the rat and he's like oh no I'm a rat and you have to escape your own contraption. Um, something like that. That's a great setup. The developer might be thinking, "Yeah, but this isn't a story game." It's something, though. It's something to give you an idea of why you're there and why I should play this game. Especially if it's not a multiplayer game. Multiplayer games, maybe it is. Let's double check. Multiplayer games,

they give you the rooting interest and the motive is there kind of by default. um just because human beings love to be other human beings. So that by default is that's why like friend slop is so doesn't like often doesn't have story because it it's not needed. You are the story. Uh the multiplayer experience is the story. You're beating other humans and you like it and you feel good. It feels really really good to have control and power over other human beings. Cyber Rat is a brutal Yeah. So it's not it's not multiplayer. It's just roguelike with no motive. Um, now the developer might be thinking, Thomas, we're going to establish motive. You should have just waited five more minutes. Nope. Doesn't work like that. Not not these days. You got to give me motive immediately. So,

Cley, I respectfully disagree, but I appreciate your thoughts. I don't think we have to give a super complicated story. I think we can give some kind of motive, just something. What's the motive of um what's the motive of um does anyone know of any motives for other rogue games? Um what what and for the record, I do not like rogue likes. I do not like them at all. I never have. Um but are there any other rogue likes out there that do have motive? It's an important question because maybe I'm wrong, but Yeah, it takes like 10 seconds to establish motive.

I'm think I might like this game, especially this music. I love synth wave. Oh, come on. No, that's a good question. Is there motive for any of these games? Maybe I just don't like rogue likes. Whoa. I wish I could move the camera. Use a booster. Space is handbre shift. Q and K is utility. So that makes me small. Okay. L and E.

E is use your weapon. Drifting can instantly be stopped by releasing. Drifting refills your booster quicker. Keep driving and keep boosting. Okay. What is this? Feels like Rocket League. What's up here? Yeah, camera feels really close, but that's just me. I don't know what develop gamers are used to with racing

games. Okay. On air. In air. Not on air. Okay. Air roll your vehicle. Okay. We'll figure that out. On air roll on air, release the accelerator and steer left or right. Okay. I can't read that in time. What's it say? I I'll comment on this in just a sec, guys. I'm just trying to figure out how to play the tips appearing in sequence like. Okay. Release the accelerator to your left or right to perform an air roll. A and D. I did that.

That's kind of cool. Whoa. What just happened? So, there's a lot going on on screen. Um, this is clearly the tutorial area. I don't I don't love all this stuff in my face all at once. It feels very overwhelming. Um I what I would do if I was the developer because this is very important. You want the player to to not get annoyed. What I would do is I would not all three of these things do not be need to be happening at once. The the left side of the screen, the top and the right. What needs to happen is they need to all happen in sequence and be delivered to the player in bite-sized chunks and make the player feel rewarded. Number one, get rid of the pro tip crap. Get rid of all this stuff on screen. And you start with moving. Okay.

And that'sing done. Steer. Ching done. Use booster. Ch-ing done. And it's it's showing me step by step what I need to do. Use your weapon. Ching done. Collect a booster refill. Ching done. and let me start playing when I want to start playing. Anyway, let's do the air roll. But because I have to wait for pro tip three to come on screen, I have to just sit here and wait until I can read what how to do an air roll. And it says on air. You can't be on air. You could be in air. So that's confusing. Here it is. Drifting refills your booster quickly. Keep drifting and keep boosting. On air, release the accelerator and steer left or right to perform an air roll. Okay. We will try. Um. Whoa.

There we go. Arold done. Hit an opponent with a weapon. Got it. Let's do it. So using a weapon I can do with E. What just happened? I don't know how to use those. Whoa. What? E and L swapped. Okay, so I need to hit an opponent with a weapon. Okay, I don't know how what happened with the weapon, but All right, let's go ahead and play.

Yeah, I feel like the camera's too close to the car and I would let me use the scroll wheel to zoom out. Although that might be the case. Let me double check. Nope, can't use the scroll wheel. Oh, I feel like I'm playing uh Pod Racer. Feels great, guys. Man, that tutorial really Well, I was about to say sucked. This is great. It did kind of suck. That tutorial sucked. Um, we need to we need to fix that tutorial. Otherwise, man, it's frustrating. Teach the player now. You know, make a really easy map and make don't make it feel like a tutorial zone. Um, that's fine.

Oh, no. Man, this makes me want to play Pod Racer so bad. I love that game. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so thematically I feel like there's kind of a I love the graphics, by the way. The graphics look awesome, but I don't quite know what the theme is. Um, is it cyberpunk? Is it uh you know, desert planet? Is it just the future? Um, cuz I see like big plants and stuff. So, I don't know. It'd be nice to know kind of where we are. Are we on Mars? What? Where are we? What's this place?

Give me a setting. I like setting. Setting is such a fun little device to make you feel interested in the game. Okay. So, I'm going to use my controls better next time. So, I can drift with space. I can I wish I I should probably use my gamepad, but okay. It feels great. Good game. It feels really good. Ooh, you can play online. Let's do a quick race. This is a solid game. I think this would be really good on Switch, too. I'm I'm impressed. Seriously.

Yeah. So, if I go all the way to the right here. Oh, good. Okay, it works. It wasn't working earlier, but there we go. This is great. This is solid. Yeah, it looks like Cyberpunk is the main theme. That level just felt weird. This looks awesome. Oh man, this feels so good, guys. Yes, this is so fun. Woo! It's pretty intense. I kind of understand the low camera angle now. In the tutorial area, it really sucked. Come on.

This is rock solid. That tutorial totally killed the game. The developers need to rework that tutorial. Make it an actual race and give me step-by-step instructions. Whoa. Oh man. This is pretty intense. Oh. Oh, man. getting so many flashbacks to the summer of 1999. Was it 1999 or 2000 when uh Pod Racer came out? You know what I really want? Some height. I want to jump across a canyon.

Even the boost was something you could do in Pod Racer. where you kind of had to wait for it to recharge and then you could use it at the right time. All right, guys. In just a minute, we're going to vote for the best game, but let's see what kind of a position I can get myself into here. Last lap, baby. Whoa. I love that. No. Come on. Come on. Whoa. My That drift was intense.

Well, that would break my neck in real life. Oh, man. My nieces and nephews would love this game. My son would love this game. I need to get it for him actually on Steam Deck. He would love to play this. Sometimes I forget my son is not a toddler anymore. He's a 5-year-old boy. Yes. Whoa. What was that? That's cool. Like alien plants. This feels great, guys. Like it

took a while. Well, it took about 5 to 10, what was it? 10 minutes for this to get exciting because of that stupid tutorial, but uh this has been awesome, honestly. Let's go. Let's go. Come on. What the heck? So, there's sometimes when things happen that I don't quite know what happened. Like, I'll randomly die or I'll swap. I don't quite understand the swapping. But maybe that's just I need to play more. It It truly is. I think this is I think this game is one of the best games I've ever played on a stream. It's very good. Um yeah, of course I got third place. I suck at games. Um Um Wow. Okay, let's go ahead and set up the poll.

Um, let's set up the poll. Start a poll. What What is I'm going to change the language of how we vote for games? Okay. What is the most commercially viable game? No. How about this? Which game will get the highest score on Steam? That's a better question. Um, as opposed to your favorite game. It's a better way to say like look what's what's the highest quality game. Um, and let's go ahead and open up the Hold on one sec, guys. I need to find the names of the games. I forgot just to Oh, it's in my It's in my Steam uh library. All right. I'm going to set up the poll here, guys, and then I'll tell you kind of what I'm thinking will win. Um, Cyber Rats, Watertight, and then Cosmic Race. Okay, which game will do the best?

Um, go ahead guys and start voting. Actually, I'm going to make my prediction before we vote. Um, no, because then I'll that'll influence you guys. How about this? One more shout out to new students. All these great students here. Thank you so much for joining the program. It means the world to me that you joined my programs to support the channel, but more importantly, it does support you guys. So, one more quick ad read here. Seriously, guys, if you want to learn what's necessary for 2D art, if you want to learn what's necessary for 3D art, for game development, and I do recommend you learn both. If you want to do that, it's best to learn from someone who's actually done it, who's half of their life they've spent doing it, who's been featured by Time magazine, Rolling Stone, Washington Post. Yes, I'm flexing. Um, VC gamer, if you want to learn from someone like me, check out the 2D art program below. It's 25% off. You got 3 days left. It really is awesome. It's a great program. You're

going to learn so much about 2D art and 3D art. And that 3D art program is completely free, but only for this sale event. 3 days left, 19 hours. These seats will eventually be closed after the sale event's over. And the sale the the programs aren't actually publicly available. I kind of just close it up uh after these sales. So, check it out below. And hey, there's a 30-day money back guarantee. So, look, there's really nothing you can lose here. You you you buy the program, you see what you think. If you don't like it, I'm not going to ask any questions. In fact, you don't even have to email me. You can email my assistant. So, you didn't have to feel embarrassed for asking for a refund because I want you to be happy. Okay? All right. So, check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. And guys, let's go ahead and check out this poll here. I'm going to go ahead and get it started. You ready to vote, guys? Three, two, one. Here comes the poll. Let's go. Go ahead and vote, guys. And let's watch them come in.

Alrighty. Which game is going to get the highest reviews on Steam? Yeah, you guys definitely like voting in the chat because every time we do a straw poll, the reason I did this this way of voting this time is because for some reason you guys don't vote when I do a straw poll link. Um, I like to do the straw poll link so you guys can't be influenced by one another and sort of watch the vote happen. I feel like there's something I I kind of wish the polls could be private. Um, but yeah, let's let's keep voting here, guys. We've got 48 votes. Come on, guys. We've got 335 people here. No, almost 400 people watching right now and only

49 people have voted. That's bizarre. Guys, vote. Please, please vote. Do the right thing. Exercise your right to vote. Not every YouTube channel gives you the right to vote. Okay, I do. This is a democracy. It's inconceivable. Oh, it's inconvenient to po to poll. I thought you said inconceivable. Uh, your Gava says it's inconvenient to poll on another link outside the stream. Yeah, I understand. I understand, but I want you to stop talking to me and being mean and rude. Um, that's that's basically it. I'm just kidding. Thank you, Yava. Your Yava says, "So good doing this on here." So good. Good job doing this on here, Thomas. Now, I agree with you. It's just I I I wish they could be private, you know. And by the way, guys, after this stream, I want you guys to hop to my next stream because guess what? I'm going to be playing. Anybody have any

idea? What's Thomas gonna be playing? Who can guess? Jason, leave. I don't want you here. Um, who knows what I'm going to be playing? Anybody? We're going to be playing it on Gogg. And who can guess why? There's three There's two questions. What am I going to be playing? And why am I going to be playing it on Gogg? No, we're not playing Minecraft. What's wrong with you? Lang de Silk. Jason, how you doing, man? All right, guys. So far, yeah, I'm going to be playing Silk Song next. So, I want you guys to jump over to my next live stream in just a minute. Um, and the cool thing about it is we're going to we're going to be sort of examining how the artwork is done. Um, and just sort of breaking down the game feel. I'm not here to play Silkong because

it's fun. Um, the goal of playing Silkong is to figure out how to replicate it and copy it so that we can make money on our own games because we all want to break Steam. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? Um, wouldn't it all be awesome? A career goal is that our game breaks steam. But that's why we're going to be playing it on GOG. Um, Jason played five hours of Silk Song yesterday. I love that. Um, okay. Cosmic Race completely obliterated the other two games. And again, the the question is which game will get the highest score. Not what's your favorite or what has the best art style. It's it's it's which which game is going to get the highest score on Steam. Now, I'm going to say something that might be controversial. Cosmic Race. And Jason, I'm sure you're aware of this. Cosmic Race is one of those games that could get

obliterated on Steam because I feel like it's a niche market. And you know what they say about niche markets? At least this is what I just came up with. I've never heard this in my life. Niche markets are picky. Um, so they they they could very well piss all over this game because of one stupid thing like that tutorial. This game is trash. I want a refund. All I was was stuck in a dome and I couldn't do anything and the NPCs didn't even move. And it's like, well, that was the tutorial. Um, so the rat game I feel like actually might have the highest score in the long run. Um, because it's clever and and new and a new sort of clever idea could very well be the audience could be very forgiving,

you know. Um, okay. Well, I'm going to go ahead and get this other stream going, guys, and I'll see you on the next stream. Thank you so much for hanging out. we have, you know, almost 400 people watching. So, let's see how many people can watch the Silk Song stream. And what we're going to be doing again with the Silk Strong stream, Silk Song stream is we're just going to be looking at the visuals and the feel and and we're going to open up Photoshop and see like what's what are they doing and how do these colors work together. Um, and sort of understand how it's made and break it down. Um, so yeah, I'm going to stop the stream. I'll see you guys in the next one. Check out 2D Art Pro. The link is below. see if it's something you're interested in. 7 days or 3 days left, 19 hours, 25% off my 2D art program, and then also get my 3D art program completely free. It really is awesome. 30-day money back guarantee.