Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 027

Okay, come on in, guys. Welcome, welcome, welcome. If you were watching my previous live streams, and that's plural, uh, I want to apologize. They have been crashing constantly all day. I'm not even sure this is live right now. I don't even know. Something's going on with YouTube today. It's been rough. Um, but uh, we're gonna play. I'm trying to smile here because I'm really, really frustrated. I feel incredibly frustrated. I just want to live stream. I want to have a good day and I want to live stream. So, I'm going to smile and we're going to talk about three games we're going to play today. We're going to play three games and I am so sorry to the developers. We played the the games we played today. They're gone. Everything crashed. It's gone. I'm sorry. So, we're going to play three fresh new games. So, we have a fresh new episode. I'm sorry. It's just the way it is. But we're going to play three games today and everybody say a nice prayer that we do not crash, that this live

stream does not crash. Um, it's going to be fun because we're going to Hey, we're going to play these games. We're going to offer our feedback, constructive criticism to the developers, and at the end we're going to vote on our favorite games. Okay, so let's jump in. Before we do that, guys, huge thank you to Marco, Joseph, Aier, Zachary, Patrick, Chris, Austin, Gavin, Robert W., Chad, Erico, and Robert W. Robert W's there twice. Congratulations, buddy. Thanks for joining the 2D art pro sale, which has just 18 hours left. So, look, if you want to get my 2D art program, and you also get my 3D art program completely free. And by the way, the 2D art program is 25% off. If you want to get this massive discount, check it out below. You've got one day left. I also give you a shout out tomorrow in tomorrow's live stream. If you want to learn from a Time magazine featured artist, that's me. Whether it's 2D art or 3D art, this is

definitely the program for you. Here's the thing, there's a lot of art programs out there, and there's a lot of things to learn. And I don't want you to learn everything. I want you to learn what's necessary. And I could tell you what's necessary because I've been there. Um, and I'm currently there working on my own 3D game. And I've also worked on two previous 2D games that were featured by Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, PC Gamer, Washington Post. So check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. And yeah, that's it. Okay, you guys ready to play some games? Come on in. Come on in. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm going to pull the chat and put the chat right over here. And I'm looking at my Wi-Fi here. My Wi-Fi looks good. I've got full signal. So, please Lord, no crashes today. All right, let's open it up here, guys. So, we've got three different games here that I

want to play. Pinnacle Point, Sky Aces. Okay, looks like Sky Aces. Surprise, surprise. Sky Aces did not download. So, let's go ahead and download that demo. And while we wait for Sky Aces to download, guys, we're going to go ahead and play Pinnacle Point. Let's go. Hey, Ubie. How you doing? Crab, how you doing? Ready to run games? Best play with a controller. Hey, get exercise. How you? All right, let's go ahead and put our controller into the PC. Hang tight, y'all. Hang tight.

[Music] All right. Yep. You bet, Jonathan. Okay, guys. The goal is to to offer constructive criticism. Okay, so first issue we have is I just plugged in the Xbox controller and I'm not seeing Okay, there we go. Okay, it automatically Good, good, good, good. Um, it automatically updated. Thank god. So, let's go ahead and I don't hear any sound. Hold A to select. There we go. Press any key to start.

Sorry, I'm just uh examining the uh UI. I really like it. Let's click new game here and start a new fresh game. I went back for my brother. I swore I'd never return. But back then, I ran. He stayed. And the past never stopped following. Nice water. I dragged myself out of the water, coughing up salt and bile. My skin was numb. Ice digging right through to the bone. And every breath felt like it might be my last. waves pulling at my legs like they weren't done with them yet. Okay.

Um All right. So, one thing I wanted to mention here, this is so true with so many AI uh not AI, so many indie games. The voice acting is always so generic, guys. It's an indie game. It's an art house vibe typically with indie games. So, you want to capture something unique. Capture them something special. Find a voice actor that has a unique voice that's emotional, especially with these story games. What I just heard was an AI voice. Now, I'm not saying it was AI, but that's what I thought I heard. Um, hire somebody. Go to voices.com. Hire a voice actor. All right, let's move forward here. But the graphics look great. And uh yeah, if this is hell, then I've earned it. My head feels like I hit the rocks. I just don't see why we have to low

resolution everything. I don't love I just don't love pixelated filters. Why would I Why do I need to blur the game? If you're going to do a pixelated look, you got to What am I trying to say here? I want to make sure I'm helpful. I just don't see the value in making everything look pixelated. I get it. I get it. It's It looks like retro PS2 game or PSX vibes, but like it's like I don't know. Okay. Um, the arms are really short. If you guys stand up, you'll notice that your arms go to the middle of your thighs, right? Just down to the middle of your thighs. I see this with a lot of indie developers, and I'm not sure that's true for this character. His arms look a little short.

You might want to adjust the blend model or whatever the FBX. And and I noticed that when I when I saw the trailer, his arms looked so short. All right, we got a medkit. Use Y to open the inventory and use your medkit. I woke up in the water going under. My clothes were pulling me down. Barely made it tearing them off. Okay, med kit. It's a clip-on flashlight. Okay, thank you. Graphics look good so far. Mood is awesome. watched as the boat sank, slipping under like it'd never

been there at all. Water poured into every crack, every breach, dragging it down inch by inch. There wasn't anything I could do. Just stand there cold and shivering and watch it disappear. Okay, cool. Now I can run. Great. I'm not being nitpicky, guys. I see this this sort of low resolution effect on so many indie games and it it I just get kind of annoyed with it. It it it seems unnecessary. Um, okay. You can hold down left trigger to aim your flashlight. Cool.
The cold bit deep. Every step a reminder of how exposed I was. The posts loomed

ahead. A faded welcome to Pinnacle Point. This was supposed to be where I'd find Jess, where I'd confront the past. But it was dead, hollow. Nothing left but shadows. [Music] All right. It's not your shadow. So, I'm not I'm kind of unsure why he's doing that. Sleeping bag. Water. Cans of food. Someone is living here. Okay,

these clothes look warm. Take clothes and backpack.
Someone lived here. That much was clear.
Got some clothes on.
Cans and clothes left behind. But I was freezing. And desperation doesn't ask for permission. Okay, rain's not letting up. This place is definitely abandoned. Just left here to rot. All that noise, all that madness, and they just walked away. Someone's been here, though. Took shelter in the ruins. Could have been Jess.

He was always better at surviving this kind of [ __ ] I I just need a minute. What was that? Hello? Is there anybody out there? Hey, I I just want to talk.

What? Jess, we got a light in the distance. Hello must have dozed off. Okay, let's go exploring. Yeah, I think graphically the game looks awesome. I love the color theory. I love

the lighting and the mood, the ambience. Um, the voice over. Yeah. So, the the first line that was read sounded like AI to me. Um, it's it's not necessarily that it the problem is that it sounds like AI. I think I think the problem for me is it doesn't sound like him and it sounds very generic. Uh, it doesn't sound personal. So, all I'm saying is is try and find a voice actor that's personal, right? That has a real personal, unique voice. And there's plenty of them on voices.com. Um, that's what I would do. As it pertains to the filter, for those of you who disagree with me on the filter, the pixelated filter is really, really cool when it actually looks like that old school PlayStation vibe, but for me, it looks like it has it has bloom on it and it has blur on it and it has this sort of

anti-aliasing effect. So, it it just feels blurry. So, that's just my opinion. And if you guys disagree, that's totally fine. All right, let's keep playing here. March 27th, 1996, Harris volunteered first. Nobody expected him to. Two days, so I'm not sure why volunteered misspelled there. Two days after the procedure, he was steady, easy in his skin in a way I've never seen. Crow called it alignment. So, let me know in the chat, guys. This is for the developer. Let me know in the chat if you understand what this is saying here. It's a little confusing. Harris volunteered first. Nobody expected him to. Two two days after the procedure, he was steady, easy in his skin in a way I've never seen. Crow called it alignment. Harris just smiled and said, "I feel light. It's hard to explain. I caught myself wondering what it would feel like." Okay.

a scarecrow. What is it doing here of all places? So, like here's an example, guys. I'm not a voice actor, but let me explain. This is kind of how I when I'm when I hire voice actors, and you can watch my story video that I released uh last week. When it comes to voice acting, if you hire a voice actor, they're going to read things as plainly, as generically, and like professionally as possible. So, they might read it like this. A scarecrow. What is it doing here of all places? Kind of sounds a little bit like AI, but sounds professional, right? You can also direct onvoices.com either through a remote session or you could send them audio direction. So, what I do is I send audio direction. And what I'll do is I'll say, "Hey, I wanted this to sound very uh like he's nervous. Um that

he's he's scared of the storm, right? And he's his head has just been hit." And so he's got a headache. And so I'll direct and and tell them how I want it to sound. So it could sound something like this. Scarecrow, what is it doing here of all places? Not saying we need voice over here, but that's my point when it comes to AI voice or when it comes to voice acting. Um, we want it to sound like he's feeling something and not just professional. Does that make sense? All right, let's keep playing. All righty. New location discovered. Laboratories, messole, and lodging. What crossed wasn't?

Can't read that. Area is closed. Oh, what's that? Poster. In case of an attack, do not shoot manifestations directly. They are protected. Use your assigned resonator to disrupt protected field. Uh, neutralize targets using service weapon. Warning, prolonged resonator use may result in bodily harm. Manifestations. I see they gave it a name, made it official. Back then, we barely talked about it. Say the wrong thing, they'd either give you pills or ship you out the first boat. Oh, cool. Oh, look. We got physics. I like it. Cool. So, do we understand the story so far, guys? How Let's let the developer know. Do we understand the story so far? What do you guys think? Yes or no?

Hey, nice. It's just trash. See nothing of use. Thomas, do you pay royalties to your musicians and actors? No, you I pay an upfront fee. Yep. Some kind of mystery, but I'm not quite sure what's going on if I'm honest. But I'm pro also just rambling here, so probably not paying attention like I should. It seems like an honest company doing ethical experiments. Nature walk. Hello. Let's go to a nature. This pile of wood is blocking the path.

Look like I need to find something to break that. Okay. Very good. Very good. I kind of wish my flashlight was like in front of me and not looking at the ground at all times. But I understand. I wish it maybe it was where your mouse was pointed. But I get it. I get it. I love that water, guys. Check that water out. Isn't that great? That's wild. Also really like his red backpack.

It's definitely a nice contrast against the blue the blue fog. Looking for our brother in a strange science facility. Can it be aimed? No. Well, oh, you have to use right click. Okay, so right click, you can aim it. Okay, good. Very good. Very good. That's right. They mentioned that. I totally forgot. Outlook point. I changed that to lookout. New location discovered. So, can I go to my map? Let's see. Maybe it's M. There we go. Cool.

So, where are we? I'm not sure where we are. Is that it right there? That little arrow. Yep, that's the lookout. So, it says Outlook. It said Outlook, but here it says lookout. So, I would just double check that and fix that if I was the developer. Okay, what do we got? Enter a code. Awesome. Yeah, in terms of game feel, atmosphere, sound, I think it's all great. Um, voice acting, I would make it feel more personal. And then I would consider at least giving the player the option to make this resolution not so crispy and crunchy. Feels very, very crunchy when I'm looking at it. Full 3840 x 2160. [Music] Is that my brother?

[Music] So, yeah. I mean, I I don't know if I'm supposed to be able to see what that is, but I have no idea. It's so pixelated. If I were the developer, I would just get rid of the PSX. Look,
you can you can do it with textures and you can do it with filters. There's two ways to do it.
Um, it
didn't matter what just happened. I had enough to deal with, but what he left behind caught my eye and I couldn't look away.
Okay. It doesn't that voice over doesn't sound like the character. Am I wrong, guys? I I see some conflicting people uh people in the chat might disagree with me. Let's try and figure this out for the developer. Is that voice acting working for this character?

I don't personally feel like it is. Okay, so there's something down there now. I can roll with the space. I love that. How did I do that? I don't know how I did that. All right, let's move up. It's too old. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So, guys, okay, so when it comes to like creating that pixelated old school PlayStation vibe, you could do it with filters. So, with a Unity game, you can buy them on the asset store and it'll create a post-processing effect and pixelate the image. Okay? You can also just pixelate the textures and crunch them in the Unity inspector. So, that you could do it both ways. You could do it one way, you could do the other way. I prefer a nice clean high resolution look with the actual

game size so that I can actually see things and then crunch the textures. Um, that's that's my preference because then it it you can see things, you know. So, I get it though. I understand that some of you might want that old pixelated look. Um, but yeah, anyway, I think we've talked enough about it. Let's go ahead and investigate the site. Oh no.

Now we wait. Run. Find shelter.
Never let go. Never let me.
Oh no. Thomas, what are you doing, buddy? [Music] Oh, no. I won't I won't get paid to play people's games. No way. If your game is good and you post it on Twitter, I'll play it. Or at least if uh Well, if it tickles my fancy.
Hi, buddy.

Yeah. Yeah. Hello. Hey, bud. Oh, that music feels strange to me. I think we have a music and a a m a voice over and sort of sound issue with this game. I think the the visuals are awesome. The story is good, but that's not working for me. I'm I'm completely thrown out of the game now. Yes or no, guys, in the chat. Do we like the sound or the music or do we not like music? I'm getting thrown out of it. But let's go ahead and read this. You ran fast like the wind. What the hell are those things? Whatever

they are, you chose to stay alive. A rational response. If you wish to talk, then talk. We are here. I don't know the the right accent here. Waiting them out either way. Who are you? Me? I'm nobody really. Just someone who has lasted longer than most. That's not an answer. I could tell you more. Sure. But then, what is this accent? But then I would have to charge you. [Music] And my rates h not so friendly. If you wish to talk then talk. We are here J waiting them out either way. Do you like the music? I feel like it's completely out of place. I'm not scared anymore. Um,

yeah. It feels like a FBI or crime or LA Noir kind of thing. Yeah, it's a little disorienting. Man, don't my arms look tiny? I feel like my arms need to be bigger. Um, who are you? Me? I'm nobody really. Just someone who has lasted longer than most. Oh, sorry. We already read that. That man I saw at the dock. There was a man by the water chanting. Yeah. Yeah. This music needs to be scarier. Then a huge thing came out of the water. Came to him under the water. The alarm went off. Then the man ran and oh now easy. No need to fall over just yet.

Such panic. He dropped this. Let me see. [Music] Pion resonator. I'm sorry. I don't know what that is. What is that? Do you guys know what that that last Three. Poseion resonator MK3. Designed to disrupt, but it is loud. Risky. Very risky. Do you know how it works? Our island is special. She protects them. This was made to infer interfere with that. Mark 3. Is that what that is? Okay. It tears through their shielding, but every pulse also floods your system. Too much and the body starts to fail. [Music]

Okay. Oh, we're going to get a D. A gun. Thank you, sir. Let's call it insurance. Hold still now. What did you do to me? Sleep now. sleep. When you wake, perhaps you will understand. So, uh, agent says, "To me, either change the music or really go into making the character extremely strange." I totally agree. I think if you made him like a guy with a top hat and like um bizarre like a bizarre monle and he's wearing a big tux a tuxedo and

he's like floating then all of a sudden that music makes sense. But it's an old man, right? So I feel like it should be like an old banjo playing or something. Some mysterious. [Music] All right. Oh yeah, I got my pistol, baby. It's a small generator. Honestly, this game has a ton of really good polish. Lots of dialogue. You can interact with a ton of things. It's a solid title. It really is. Um, I think I've pretty much mentioned all the things that concern me. And I will say I'm not confident in my assessment, but hey, I've done what I can.

Do we agree his arms look mini? Do his arms look miniature to you guys? Yes or no? Do his arms look miniature? They look miniature to me. Looks like he's got tiny little arms. I had to put you under. You hadn't start asking the right things yet. And I've got a schedule to keep. The motors are wrapped in a false signature. We learned how to trick the island into protecting things it wasn't meant to. I used it to seal the door so nothing could get in the way. Get in while you were out. Use the resonator. Hold the right mouse to aim and space to break the link. Use the resonator. Hold the right mouse to aim in space. Break the link.

Huh? What? Link, what are you talking about? What? There we go. [Music] Okay. Not quite sure what's going on there. [Music] So, what did that do? Okay, let's get this guy. Hold right mouse and hold space to weaken the island's protection of the monsters.

What's in the dark?
Got him. [Music] Okie dokie. Okie dokie. Hey, game feels good. Feels real good. So far so good. Awesome. Okay, we got to jump to another game, guys. I think we've played a good amount of Pinnacle Point to get a an idea of the game. Um, to review, now

that I've sort of let my brain settle in a little bit, um, the pixelation has a nostalgic vibe, but it doesn't necessarily make me feel good while playing it for a long time. I'm under no delusion. I'm under no delusions that like a PlayStation style game is not popular. I understand that it is, but when you have a bunch of post-processing on top of it, it can look disorienting because it's blurry. You have a lot of bloom. Um you have a lot of um the anti-aliasing. So, it doesn't actually feel like a PlayStation game because it's not crisp. I would consider either removing it or making the resolution just a tad bit higher for the PlayStation effect. Um but and then also the um the voice acting and the music was a little odd. Um it it made me feel disoriented and and it didn't make me feel like I was that actually the character. If it

were me and if it were my game, I would immediately change the voice over and the dialogue to be present tense. I wouldn't speak in past tense. I think that's the right phrase. So the the the voice actor, he often says, "I went to the island and I woke up and I was scared and I was this and I was that." That actually in my opinion, what that does is that makes me not nervous for the character because while I'm in the I'm in I'm speaking in the past, so therefore I survived. I don't know. It I feel like instead it needs to say um what is that who is that guy on the dock? What is this pile of rocks? Where am I? What's going on? I feel like that sort of present tense makes things a little bit more um mysterious and scarier. Um but in terms of the the artwork and the gameplay, that's all great. Honestly,

gameplay felt good. Artwork felt good. Make the arms a little bit bigger. Do you guys have any thoughts and comments um for the for the developer? Mor Explorer says, "I think this is a promise promising title with some polish." I agree. I really do. I think there's something special here. One big thing is um let's let's talk about the story really quick and then we'll move on to the next game. I will admit I started this stream a little frustrated just because of my previous streams crashing. I had three streams crash. So, I wasn't fully fully my what would you say? My brain was in three places and so I wasn't fully following the story. But I want to ask you guys, was the story clear to you? Was the story clear to you? Yes or no? Let's let the developer know. It's kind of a little bit of a a poll here. Was the story clear to you? Clear isn't a

good word. Hang tight because sometimes you want it to be mysterious. Was the was the through line clear? Meaning the motivation like what's the goal? Um was the myster was the mystery clearly articulated? Yes or no? Because I can I can sit here and say was the is the mystery um of a David Lynch film clear, right? The movie can be abstract, but as that you still want it to be have a clear throughine. What is this mystery? Where am I? Right? It's not as clear as Never song. I think it was unfolding as you played more and more. That's fine.

It was about as clear as Alan Wake. Okay. Well, I understand. Yeah, you you definitely want to have a mystery. I agree with that. So, we were looking for the brother. Got it. Okay. Let's play Sky Aces. Uh, no. Okay. So, this game is called Sky Aces. Whoa. Music feels really out of place. Um, got like Mozart playing or something. Um, the UI is kind of disorienting. So, we've got

left alignment here, but center alignment here. We have center alignment here, left alignment inside of a right aligned box. So, I would rearrange this so it's either sort of nice and cleanly flushed left side here with the buttons here and then the tutorial over here. But there's like four different zones that my brain is confused where to look. There's a I can watch a tutorial flight control. Okay, so the tutorial is all over the place in these tabs here. So, nothing's being taught to me. Uh the best way to ensure a player has fun while also teaching them is to give them the tutorial as they play the game. So throw them into the first level and teach them and ensure that they finish each step. [Music] Yeah. Well, this isn't my company. This is my username.

Um so let's go ahead and hit single player here. And some of you might be thinking, "Oh, Thomas, read the tutorials. It's not fair." And I'm playing this game, and I do this with a lot of games. Every game really. I play it as if I was playing a Steam game. I'm not going to read all that stuff. I'm going to get started. So, I can't click anything here. Blue team. Red team. Woo. This is rough UI. There we go. Okay, you have to click one of these. There we go. Buccaneer ready. Start game. Whoa. Not quite sure. Trying to figure out the controls here.

I would remove the music cuz the music makes me feel like none of this is serious. Okay, that's our pitch. Sorry, the controls are very strange. Um, left and right. Our our roll. I guess that that's our pitch. There a pirate boat over there. That's odd. Okay. Whoa. Why am I rolling? It's really hard to control. Sorry, guys. I'm trying to better understand how the controls work. Whoa. Whoa.

What just happened? Oh man. I don't know. I don't quite understand um what shift does. What is this? Okay, that's our speed. Got it. I don't understand why I'm rolling when I try and go up. Okay, I think I get it. I think I get it. Okay. I don't know why that happened. Um, okay. Maybe there's something here that I'm missing.

Why are you doing that? Oh gosh. Okay. So, I can I guess I can control it with just the mouse and I don't really need to press left and right. Um I think left and right kind of do what the mouse does. So, that's that's fine, I guess. Um let's keep flying here and see what we got. Okay, that feels good. So, if you just use the mouse, you kind of I feel like that's all you really need.

Whoa. Yeah, it might have sort of an old school control scheme, like a really technical one. Yeah, if I was the developer, what I would do is I would teach the the player movement in game um instead of like uh the here. So, let's let's read we'll read the flight controls. We could watch the tutorial. Oh, it's a video. Wow. Oh my. Okay, I guess we'll do that then.
While I work on the tutorial level so everyone can play sound effects button compatible with gamepad. You can check your plane. Now that we are in the game, let's see how can you

fly your plane. First, when using a keyboard and a mouse, you can use your mouse to look around. And as you can see, your plane will always try to fly to where your camera You can also use W, S, A, and D to manually control your plane. As you can see, W and S will control your pitch. A and D will control your world. If you want to control your jaw, use E or Q to change the speed of the airplane. Okay. So, what's confusing about that for me and you know every every flying game has different a different control scheme. There's a lot of different ways to do it. What I would do is I would make uh forward increase your acceleration. Back decreases acceleration. Um,

left and right would be not necessarily turning you, but it sort of slowly turns you this way. That's I think that's how Battlefield works. Um, I could be wrong. I'm trying to remember. And then the mouse is is changing your left and right and your up and down. Um, so what do you guys think? Is the are the controls intuitive here? I haven't played a flying game in a long time. So, I'm not quite sure if that's also I understand you the developers working on the tutorial level, but that's that's going to be really important. I would have had a tutorial level done before the demo is out. Um, yeah. So, yeah. Uh, I wouldn't have released this demo in its state. I would I would have had that tutorial level finished.

So, I'm out of ammo. So, now I have ammo for some reason. What? What just happened? Did I collect ammo? I guess maybe it's reloading. Oh, it's reloading. Okay. I see. Whoa. Whoa. No. Okay. [Music] So, yeah, the controls are really confusing to me. I'm not sure. Um, okay. I'm not really sure. And look, I I don't even know what to say. I think that uh I think that there needs to be a tutorial level. If we're going to have control a control scheme like that, there needs to be some kind of tutorial um before the demo is released.

So, that's where my head is, guys. That's where my head is. Should we give it another Should we give it another try, guys? Should we give it another try? [Music] Okay. Flight controls. Press shift and left control to change your throttle. Okay. Use your mouse to move your camera, but your plane will try to fly in the direction you aim your camera. You can use WD to change the pitch or roll of your camera aircraft manually. Q and E to control Wow. Q and E to control the yaw. Pressing space will deploy the air bra.

Press C to enter free view mode. [Music] Yeah, I don't quite understand it. Um, I've never I've never played a a flying game with that complexity of controls. Um, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I I'm not super confident in my opinion there. All right. Remnants of Ria is the next game. Yeah. Pulling back on the mouse should pull you up. Pushing down should uh pushing forward on the mouse should push you down. Going right with the mouse should turn you to the right. Going left with the mouse should turn you left. Forward

should increase throttle. Back should slow you down. That's I think that's about it. That's about it. This looks really interesting. So, you notice that the sound here is there's a nice sound, but it's delayed. It's almost like the sound itself waits like a split second before there's a sound. So, it's delayed. Makes it feel really disorienting. Here, it should be There also shouldn't play a sound on release. What's so weird? It's actually just two sounds on on rollover. Listen. It's weird. Yeah, it should be one sound. All right, let's click new game here. I am Jason, a diver. I hope this is just

a nightmare. All right, this is a one-man team.
It was a night I shall never forget. Our fleet was seized by horrors from the deep. I watched helplessly as my comrades were torn apart and dragged into the abyss. The stench of decay clung to the air, emanating from these unspeakable creatures. gnawing at my sanity. I fought to hold my mind together until I saw it. The towering colossus and the monolithic pillars rising from the ocean. So,
the freezing sea water,
I'll tell you in a sec,

enveloped me. I felt like I was on the verge of death. The voices of those creatures still echoed in my ears, growing distant in the depths. In my memory, the water was warm, something I love dearly. the reason I became a professional diver. But after that night, a deep fear of the ocean took root within me. Cool. Okay. So, I wanted to make a comment about the little cut scene there. That kind of voice acting, it sounds like it's the developer or the developer's brother. However, however, so it's not like super professional, but at least it has emotion behind it, right? At least it sounds like it's not just a simple professional voice actor with no direction. So, I I I prefer that

that level of emotion. Even though it still sounds a little unprofessional, at least it has emotion. Um, I also like the setup here. I think there's a strong setup here. Um, they got attacked on a ship and I went underwater. Where am I? The suffocating sensation of drowning felt terrifyingly real, stinging every cell in my brain. As I gazed out, there was no end in sight. The air carried the scent of rust and moss. Before me stood an enormous structure.
You could smell underwater
steel bridges and iron rings as if crafted by human hands. Yet I've never found any record of it in history books or archives, nor seen such a bizarre wreck in all my years as a diver. I can no longer tell if this is a dream

or reality. But something something is guiding me, urging me towards the end of this path. I love the Lovecraftian vibes. Uh, so he mentioned that he was drowning, but he's in a suit, so I'm not quite sure. Well, that's fun. So, I'm not I'm not quite sure. Am I drowning or am I suffocating or And I can smell, right? So just maybe some clarification there. Nice. Classic. Oo. The feeling of suffocation tightened around me, becoming almost unbearable. Creatures from the abyss stood on twisted, grotesque pillars, chanting in

low, raspy tones that filled me with a profound sense of unease. They were singing praises to their gods, beings from unimaginably distant ages. I struggled to keep my sanity intact and pressed forward. So everything, it looks like a lot of stuff doesn't have a specular map, so it's all shiny all at once. This game would look uh significantly better. That was fun. Look, it's a square. This game would look significantly better if there was some kind of uh specular map so that it's not all just flat shiny or like it's not all the same shine. So just keep that in mind if you're the developer. And also like this stuff is really flat. There's no specular and there's no metallic. So it feels like tune shading, but this is super shiny. So there's it's kind of disorienting. Um, if everything had a specular map and a metallic map to a varying degree, uh, it would help this feel a little bit

more immersive. It was the first time I laid eyes on that dreadful statue, and it marked the beginning of a series of horrific events. I had heard whispers before, dating back to the spring of 1926, when torrential rains fell across the globe without end. My neighbor once spoke of deranged people wandering the streets, muttering unsettling incantations and worshiping similar statues. When I finally saw it, a primal fear and revulsion stirred within me, the statue was grotesque and twisted, covered in moss, emanating a powerful aura of corruption. It was clearly not made by human hands, as though it symbolized some ancient god.
Is this actually a Lovecraft story? I

feel like it might be. I feel like this might Let's look this up. Remnants of Rea. Let's look it up. I I I I feel like it. Okay. It's not It's inspired by So, it's definitely got that. And a lot of you are probably I think some of you have said there's too much text. There's too much text. There's too much text. I think you're miss you're potentially missing the point. The point is is that it feels like a Lovecraftian story. Um yeah. So anyway, it's so I'm I'm I'm okay with all the dialogue actually because the goal is to give us a Lovecraftian story as if we're reading it, but we get to experience it visually. So in a way it's kind of like a walking sim, but like

it's a it's a story. So I understand the intent. Um do you guys see how it's everything specular is just set to 100? So everything looks like it's made out of like plastic. Um, so we definitely need some specular maps, but this is really cool. I really like this. Hello. All right, let's see here. I was transported by a mysterious force to a vast underwater realm. A place that may have never been tread by human feet. Or perhaps humanity was never meant to enter. It's hard to put into words the strangeness and revulsion of this place. The walls and pathways around me were slick with a greenish slime and mossy substance. The space and structure defined all logic, twisted yet unnervingly smooth. A strange sensation hinted that this was a dwelling with an extraordinarily

ancient history. My suspicion was further confirmed when I saw the bodies of giant creatures wrapped in shells formed by the dried slime. It's not perfect by by any means. Um, let me think here why the voice acting is troubling. It's hard because the voice acting is it's as if it's reading a story from like sitting at a fireside and they're reading a book yet we're underwater and so there's like this it's disorienting because it's I'm underwater I'm in a a suit. So it may be that I two things the first one would be we start with a black screen and it's it's something like uh my son I

want to tell you a story from 20 years ago about my grandfather and then we're sort of led into it and so we know that it's someone else telling a story or it's it is the main character but he's he's telling us about a past event that could work or there's reverb added to it. So, it's it's it's coming from his mind. But right now, it's a little disorienting. Do you guys kind of understand what I'm saying? Um, but let's let's go ahead and move forward here. So, what do I do? What do I do?

Yeah. So it it's as if we're reading a novel or a short story, but I would start it to give us a sense of place. I would start it with, "My son, I want to tell you a story of when I was in the Pacific Ocean and the ship sank." and then keep reading it like that, but let us experience it and it will feel more like it's being read from a novel. Um, but I I actually don't know what to do here. I I feel like we're stuck with that.

Oh man. Okay. Well, we're stuck, guys. Can you guys give me an idea of maybe what to do here? So, by the way, great example of what to do with specular. Uh, if you ever see a crack, it's a great place to put specular. And then on the surface here, less specular so that it looks trotten and it looks like friction has removed a lot of the shine. Um, whereas the shine in the cracks have has stayed. Interact with the thing. I'm trying. There's nothing there.
Yeah. And if if that's the case, I I agree with you. Uh Kevin, or I'm sorry, Anderson, you said it's like we're reading a diary. Absolutely. Um and I think giving some context to that at the beginning would be helpful. Am I missing something here, guys?

It's to your right. Oh, there we go. There we go. So, not really puzzling at all. That's why it feels like a walking sim because none of that is really challenging, which is fine. So, it's kind of like a an art showcase. What?

Yeah, I totally agree. Um, Yoyo says, "As someone who's read a couple of Lovecraft stories, I wouldn't be able to tell if the dialogue is actually from Lovecraft. I think it's pretty decent." Yeah, it it sounds like it's from a Lovecraft story, which I think is great. The writing is good. It's It's got that drama to it. Um, it's excessively descriptive. It's very emotive, which is great. You know, it's got that classic Lovecraft vibe.

So, the artwork looks good. I like it. Um, the ambience doesn't loop perfectly. You can hear it clip or or stop the loop interrupts. So, I would do that if I was the developer. There we go. I'm not sure what that was for.

I can't tell if I'm walking or I'm floating because like this right here. Um, if I'm walking, shouldn't I drop down a little bit here? But I don't. So, it's a little it's a little disorienting. Um, yeah. But yeah, the vibes are cool. I agree. I like the vibes. And overall, I think we I think we've got a good idea of this game. Okay. Well, guys, we had three games that we played today. The first one was Pinnacle Point. The second one was Sky Aces, and the third one was Remnants of Rea. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and start a poll here to get the poll going for you guys to start voting on your favorite game. Okay. So, give me just a sec here. bring it over to my screen here. Um, all right. So, let's go ahead and

start a poll and we're going to go ahead and vote on our favorite game. What? And actually, the the way I like to frame the question is which game will be the most upvoted or the will have the highest score on Steam. That's how I like to to do these these uh polls lately. So, we've got remnants of Rea Sky Aces and then Pinnacle Point. I'm going to go ahead and set that up. My I'm going to make a prediction like I always do. Pinnacle Point will probably be the highest then remnants than Sky Aces. I think Pinnacle Point will Well, I won't say too much. That's all I That's all I think. Um, and while those votes roll in, guys, one final thank you to the new students who've joined the art programs. Uh, Marco, Joseph, Aier, uh, Zachary, Patrick, Chris, Austin, Gavin, Robert,

Chad, Erico, and Robert W. By the way, if you want to join my art program, there's 17 hours left and you're going to get 25% off my 2D art program and also get my 3D art program completely free. Uh, I'm an actual indie developer. My name is Thomas Brush, if you don't know, and I've made a game. Uh, I've been, uh, published three times from Armor Games, Serenity Forge, and then also 3D Realms with my current 3D project, Twisted Tower. Um, I've been featured by Time Magazine, featured by Rolling Stone, Washington Post, uh, PC Gamer. I say all this just to say I know how to do great 2D art. Um, and me and my team member, uh, Phippe, who has wor he put together all the artwork for Twisted Tower, he actually put together this course with me called 3D Art Pro, which is included free. So, I say all that just to say our team, whether it's me or my team that worked on Twisted Tower, we're going to teach you what you need to know and what you don't need to know for independent games and artwork for those games. Basically,

the idea is I don't want you to learn everything. Um, I just want you to learn what's necessary so you're going to learn from an actual indie game developer on how to create breathtaking 2D art and 3D art. So, check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. And let's go ahead, guys, and take a look at our vote. How are we doing? You ready to look at the final score here, guys? Let's see here. I'll I'll make my vote as well. Pinnacle Point has the highest score. I'm going to say it does. Okay. And let's take a look, guys. It looks like Pinnacle Point is at 70%. Uh, Remnants of Reala is barely barely tied with Sky Aces. Let's keep seeing it, guys. What do we got here? Come on. Bring in the votes. Bring in the votes.

Yep. Pinnacle Point 67, Remnants of Vala 18, and Sky Aces at 17. Now, as as the votes come in, guys, what are our thoughts? you know, why are we why are we voting up Pinnacle Point and why is it that uh Remnant of Relaya and Sky Aces are tied? What are your thoughts on these games? What are our thoughts on these games? Mel says, "Armor Games, I miss FL I miss flash games." Me too. Me too. Um and yeah, Armor Games actually had a they still have a studio. It's called Army Games Studios, which is not Flash Games. They publish Steam games. Um, yeah, Pinnacle Point is not very interesting in terms of game design. It looks too much like Alan Wake. Um, I will say the game design was a little clunky. It It felt a little stiff

and uninteresting. Um, yeah. [Music] Yeah. Um, I voted because you said it will win and I want to be on the winning team. Wow, Henry. Wow. No, don't do that. Let me close the poll here. Uh, remnant should be given into the CRT craze. H, the Star Fox clone is the one that looked more promising. Yeah, that was an old stream though. These are three different games. All right, guys. Thanks for hanging out. Hope that was helpful. I hope you learned a lot and congrats to the developers. Um, keep up the hard work. And yeah, that's all I got to say. Um,