Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 030

Very fun live stream today. Let's see. I don't want to peek. I'm gonna talk as loud as I want here. Hello, my name is Thomas Brush. How are you doing today? Let me know if that's um Is it peaking? Is it peaking? Is the microphone peeking? I noticed it was peing yesterday and I'm trying to make it stop, but I also want the volume to be nice and loud for you guys. So, I'm just struggling to check check. Okay. I wanted to I wanted to say we're gonna play three games today. I'm just so excited about these games because I think a lot of these games, they actually look like a lot of fun. Sometimes I'll pick games on on my for these live streams and I'm thinking deep down I'm like, I don't know if this is going to be fun. But these three look really, really fun. And we're gonna vote for the best one. Sounds good. Okay. Mr. Tuck back. How you doing, Tuck? Um,

we're going to play three games today and we're going to vote at the end of this live stream on our favorite game. Okay, it's going to be a lot of fun. Come on in, guys. Come on in. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hey, I want to say a huge, huge thank you as always to some new students who joined my 2D art program. Brendan B, Xarin B, Benjamin, Alexander, Larry, Marco, and TK. Hey guys, thank you so much for joining the 2D art program. And as some of you are are aware, but I just just to clarify, I've extended this sale all the way up until Tuesday next week. Figured why not? You know, I usually do a 14-day sale anyway for most of my sale events. So, I figured I'd just make this one 14 days as well. Hey, if you want to learn how to do 2D art, not from a YouTuber, not from an artist, but from a indie game developer who's been featured by Time magazine, Washington Post, PC Gamer. If you want to learn from an artist who's been featured like that, and by

the way, that's me. If you if you want to learn from me from an actual published game developer, I'm my third commercial release, by the way. It's called Twisted Tower. If you want to learn from me, check it out below. It's 25% off and you're also going to get my 3D art program completely free. Here's the thing. This is so important. There are so This is making me stutter. I'm so excited about it. There are so many programs out there on Skillshare, Udemy. There's so many YouTube videos. Not all art advice is the same. And the reason why is because 2D art for indie games is going to be different than 2D art for AAA or 2D art for painting or digital painting or concept art. 2D art for games is very different. And look, I want to show you how to make beautiful art with simple shapes with color theory. My goal is for anybody, even if you know nothing about art, that you're going to master it and make breathtaking

art. Okay? Like my students here did. Um, let's see here. Some students here did some really cool art. Let's see here. Where is it? Yeah, like these students here did some really cool art from this program and and they were just beginners. So, that's so cool that they figured it out and and that I was able to help them. But also, my 3D art program is going to teach everything I've learned in in the 3D world. And it's also taught by Felipe, who's the artist uh for Twisted Tower. So, check it out below. You're going to get 3D art pro completely free. and you've got nothing to lose because well, 30-day money back guarantee. Okay, but I don't believe that you're going to want a refund because students like these really enjoyed the program. All right, Thomas is done shilling his courses. Let's Let's jump into the games we're going to play. Guys, come on in. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Sounds a little bit low. Check. One, two, one, two. Check, check, check. Is it a bit quiet again? Okay, how's that? I just I don't want to be peeking

like I was yesterday because I listen to the I listen to myself sometimes. I'll lay in bed and just watch myself and I'll smile. I'll feel like, "Wow, this guy is so fun." And it was really quiet yesterday. All right. Um, you guys ready to play some games? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Hello, Gibson. How are you? All right, guys. First game we're gonna play is the Star Racer demo. Check. One, two, one. Check. I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. Hello, my name is Thomas Brush. I'm talking as loud as I'm gonna talk. Hello, my name is How's that? Auto. Auto. Auto. Still quiet. Good grief. I wish I could figure this out. Um, check, check, check. Okay, whatever.

Let's go ahead and play this game. It's called Star Racer. Um, I, by the way, I haven't played any of these games, so I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. The goal of these live streams, the goal of these live streams, now it's silent. The goal of these live streams, guys. Oh, yeah. This is awesome. Wow. Go go go go go go. Woo. [Music] Yeah. Let's go racer. That's great. So, there's an homage to F-Zero.

Okie dokie. Let's go. Oh, this feels great. All right. So, the goal of these live streams, guys, the goal of these live streams is to play the game as a new player. Somebody who's Man, this volume just sucks. Um, play it as a new player, as a dummy. Play as a dumb player who doesn't know what they're doing. That's the goal. Play the game as a streamer, which I'm doing right now. Game devs get to watch these live streams and they get to experience what a dumb, impatient live streamer will experience. They're going to get the base low lowest denominator so that they can tune their game to that. All right, so let's do a quick race here.
Novice,
select your racer.

Let's play as uh this cool kitty cat.
Pippy Rose.
Pippy Rose. Oh man, got to love the pink pixelated ship.
Oh man, I wish there was a a thumbnail of like the theme of the of the level. So like right here show like a circle and it sort of shows the theme of it because I I choose races based on the theme. At least when I'm play when we were playing uh um F-Zero. Hey Jason. [Laughter] Jason says you canceled hanging out with me to play video games. Jason was supposed to come over and help me out with uh what was it? Um,

what was it? The Steam API in Twisted Tower. That's right, Jason. I'm here to play video games instead.
Two, one, go. Wait, how do I turn? I don't get it. Hang on. Spin is Q and E. Why? Why doesn't it turn?
Reason I can't turn weird. I don't love that. I don't understand.

Accelerate is W and then moving left and right is how you is is the keyboard left and right? That doesn't make any sense to me. Do we need to use a controller? I think we're going to use a controller. Hang on, guys. The keyboard controls are whack. But I like the graphics. I like the I like the music and the art style. It's very professionally done. I like the homage to F-Zero. All of that's cool.

Yeah, you could turn. It's just W is accelerate and then left and right on the keyboard is how you turn. Very strange. Okay, there's no gamepad support. Watch your energy.
Um,
hey, Star Racer. I'm I'm doing my best here, but there's no game pad support.
So, I'm going to maybe figure out maybe if we start it over. We get some game pad support. We'll take a look here. Um, that's the goal. I love I love what you you've done here. Seriously. Um,
but I don't love the controls. We're gonna do the tutorial.

Kind of just want to play though.
Let me see if the control. Yeah, so gamepad doesn't work, which is kind of a shame because that's how I used to play these games. Okay. So, we're going to figure out how to play with the mouse.
No. Yeah. I mean, it does look like Mario Kart, but it looks like uh
um F-Zero. Yeah. I would say that I'm just really confused by the controls. Like, I don't understand why they can't just be intuitive. Maybe I'm uh confused here. Strafe is Z and C.
What? W is accelerate. I don't get it. So, I'm not seeing strafing happening at

all with C and C. Um, cap's lock is tab. What does that mean? S is break. Okay. And then spin is Q and E. Oh, you can fly. That's fun. Kind of like Mario Kart. Nice. Yeah. I don't understand why why it's just not up as um it's mainly just a control thing, man. Maybe if the developer wants to explain themselves. It's really uh odd, but maybe I'm missing something here.
So that like hurts people. Boost is shift. Okay, cool.

Sorry, I'm just learning the controls here. [Music] The developer uses a French keyboard. Is that what you said?
Maybe there's a way to change that. Oh, you have to select it. Yeah, the controller doesn't work. Yeah. So, yeah, the controller doesn't work. It I don't I don't see it working here. Also, there's no

It's like frozen when I try and click. It's really strange. Nothing happens. I can't get out of this menu. I can't get out of this menu. No, that's an Xbox controller. I'm using the Xbox controller, but it's not working. I can't get out of this menu. Man, what a solid game. But I've talked about this in previous videos and live streams, how like a small tiny little thing can just it's like a pothole. If you hit a really deep tiny pothole at just the right spot and the just the right speed, it can total your car or close. That's kind of what happens

here with this like controller support and also the controls in general. Like I can't these controllers to me these controls to me are not like intuitive with the keyboard. Can we let the developer know what you guys think? Put your guys put your hands on your keyboard right now and try and like feel this out. Strafe is Z and C. W is accelerate. S is break, which makes sense, but like the way that the way that it's even shown down there in a in like a it looks like it's a D-pad. So, it's really confusing. And then uh spin is Q and E. Yeah, that's just tough for me, y'all. Um, what I do is ASW WD. A is A is left and right. D is right. A is left, D is right. W and S are forward and back.

Shift is acceler or is boost, which is great. Strafe, I would make strafe the right and left keys on the keyboard. Um, and then spin. I guess spin makes sense like that. That E and Q, that's fine. Um, well, we're gonna have to close it because it froze. So, let's try again. Is the developer in the chat? Is it Is it awkward? Guys, say yes. This is awkward. No, it's not. I'm just wondering, am I missing something about racing games on Steam? Jason, what do you think, bud? I love that intro. [Music]
Plug the controller in, then open the game. I already did that and it didn't work. Options. Game play.

Yeah, there's no there's no key binding here. What? I don't see a keybinds. Minima says I'm being dramatic. Oh, just kidding. I was about to ban you and also insult you. I'm just kidding, by the way. Look, look. It says R1, left one. Those don't work. So, yeah, we got a major issue with like controls. Uh, who was talking about this? Gavin, the creator of Choo Choo Charles, was talking about this on his channel. Um, Ciencia Ludos is what the channel's called. Sciencia Ludos, however you say it. And he was saying that if your options and your controls are not fully uh like dynamic and give the player plenty

of control over their experience, it can result in bad really bad reviews really fast. Um, let's see if I can read the ones on Twitch. No. Yeah, I I don't think I have the Twitch chat, but anyway. Yeah, like this is this is tough for me, guys. We'll play a little bit more, but honestly, the controls are so confusing. The developers done such a good job, though. Can we give a like a huge congratulations to the developer for creating something incredible? Like, it looks amazing. It feels amazing. Everything is so solid. I'm just so surprised that the controls are so random.
All right, let's go to a a different level here. Whoops. What was that?

Yeah. really good, really good game. I mean, it's this this on Nintendo Switch. I think it might do really, really well. This on Switch 2 might do really, really well. So, I would definitely obviously I don't know if you finished it or not, but um
Okay, I'm figuring it out though. Okay, that's spin. I don't understand strafing necessarily. Uh, strafing is tough because it's down there. It's at Z and C. Oh, nice lighting. You clocked me. Woohoo. I love that. Way to go. This is

fun. Whoa, Thomas. Sorry, I'm getting text messages from my wife. Don't you know I'm live streaming, honey? I'm just kidding. I am. No, daddy's working. Um, just like I told Jason McGomery today, I'm too busy to hang out. Seriously, this game is great. The controls just really really screwed up my uh put a bad taste in my mouth. Wait, A and D is Wait, what? A and D is strafe, but it it says Z and C. No wonder I couldn't do it. Yeah, man. Am

I Am I just really dumb today?
Also, what's going on with the control scheme down there? Look, it's showing some It's showing game pad down there. Some of those are gamepad, some of them aren't. So weird. Sorry, I'm just looking at the controls right now. Just trying to think what happened. Why the controller control scheme is so confusing. Okay, well that's cool. Um, great game. We don't have we don't have time to play forever. Um, I spent a long time sort of complaining about the controls. So, uh, okay, let's do a little vote. I'm going to do a poll here just so, and I've been trying to do this lately for the for developers. I don't want them to think Thomas has a lot of subscribers, so he's right. Um, I think I'm right, but I'm gonna just ask you guys, should the control

scheme for keyboard be fixed and more intuitive? Yes or no? I love my wife. [Music] Let's see here. Is daddy right? Did daddy do the right thing? Let's take a look. True player game says, "Yeah, badly." How you doing, true player? Um, what else we got? Samoth says, "I love your content, Thomas. Actually, now I'm trying to develop my first commercial game. Your videos are very helpful and very very

inspiring. These videos are my favorite because it changes my mood. Watch me change my mood. I think you're a terrible person. I'm going to change your per your mood again. You're an amazing guy. I'll change your m mood again. You're a failure. I'm going to change your mood again. God loves you. Okay, we've got overwhelming majority and we've got almost 400 or 350 people watching right now. To the developer, you've done an incredible job. Fix the controls. Fix the controls. Um, okay. Well, you guys ready to move on to the next game? You have too much power. I'm just joking, by the way. Um, I was

totally joking. But yeah, we're at nine. Like nine out of 10 people are saying fix the controls. Let's take a look at the reviews of this thing. 92% of 39 users said the reviews are positive. So, what am I missing here? Not a fan, but I'm recommending this for what it is. Solid fundamentals, just a blast to play. Little janky early access. So, this is uh it's got a demo. Oh, no. It's out. The game is out. I mean, congratulations. Seriously, 92%. That's amazing. Is there anybody complaining about the controls? The controller support is very wonky and buggy. Okay.

You know, when you turn on the control overlay in order to figure out the controls, it says Y button on the controller is caps lock. That's right. There's a lot of weird stuff with controls here. Um, I don't know what happened, you know. Honestly, I don't know what happened. This is a kind of an enigma to me because it's wildly like this looks so good and the game everything was perfect. It's just it's almost like the my keyboard got confused or something. It said Starraer says, "I'm not sure why the controller doesn't work for you." Boy, but Starraer in the chat, you've done amazing here. Obviously, like this is what I'm so confused by is it's clearly a great game. Um I just the keyboard I'm curious what your thoughts are. Uh Star Racer, I know

you're in the chat. Am I missing something with the keyboard controls? a genuine question. Am I missing something? I'd love to know. Um maybe I maybe I'm kind of misunderstand why the controls are so sort of like they feel it just feels like they're spread out like they're not intuitive to me. And I know you know the people in the chat feel the same way. I'm curious what your thoughts are. Seriously, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe we're missing something here. I I really want to know if you're if you're in the chat. Okay, so they are bugs. Okay.

Uh, if you want to submit your games guys, follow me on X Thomas brushdev. Thomas thomasbrushdev dev. Yeah, the keyboard controls were difficult to think about. Well, you know, I don't want to you've clearly got a so far a positive response. Although I I can imagine that if you know more and more reviews you get, people are going to complain about the controls. That's just my gut. Just based on the poll we've done with the audience, what I would do is ASWD is is acceleration braking left and right. Uh Q& would be I I'll tell you what I think and then I tell you the better option. There's a way better option and I'm going to tell it to you right now or in just a minute. But Q&A would be strafing. That makes way more sense. That's also like, isn't that typically in like a first-person

shooter? That's how you peak around a corner. So, I feel like strafing is like Q and E. That makes complete sense to me. Shift to sprint, of course. Why wouldn't we do space or click for for the the span attack? You know, just a standard click. I don't see why it needs to be left or right. Um, that's how that's what Hollow Knight is, I think. Right. Am I wrong about that? The hollow knight keyboard scheme. Is it click to attack or is it X or Z maybe? Um, no. I was just I Samoth. I was just being sarcastic. I I was just totally joking with you. Please don't take what I was saying seriously. I was just totally joking. Now, now here's the best option. This is going to save you a ton of negative reviews.

Give me key binding. I know it's hard. I know it sucks. You got to let me change the controls. Um, 1,000%. Yes. You've got to let me change the controls. Otherwise, people, they want their way these days. Okay. Welcome to 2025, baby. Everybody's got to have their way. Huh? There's no uh there's no room for error here. Let's go to the next game. That was great, though. Seriously, I'm really solid title. It's solid. It It's just that one little thing. Okay, we're going to play a game called Hell Kind. Okay, first thing I'll say is that looks like a backwards H, which I understand what the developer was doing. They're being clever here by having it look like it's reversed, but that look looks like it says Helina

or Heline. Put just all you got to do is bring this down and etch it up just a little bit. Let's just do it because that's a sweet font. I love it. But let's go ahead and open up Photoshop and let the developer know kind of how to fix this. Um because it look I honestly I didn't even know what it said. I thought it said hell kind of Star Racer, do you feel like I was being unfair? Um, let me know if you feel like I was being unfair, but I I feel like that's a totally fair assessment in my opinion. Make the control scheme way more intuitive and also give me the ability to change it. And I don't think that's too much to ask for a game of that quality. Yeah. So, the developer was thinking probably right here like, I love the idea. They were probably thinking, I love the idea of this is the same over here as it is over here. And the developer really liked that symmetry, but it doesn't

work. It's very difficult to read. So, what I would do, I think maybe this will work. Maybe not. Almost. So, what I would do if I was the developer is I'd bring this down to here. And then I love my wife and I love my life. [Music] So something like that.

Helen. Heline. That's hard to say. Helina. What about just inverting the angle of the D? I don't know. Maybe. But that's kind of cool, you know? I like that. Now, it would look more like kind of demonic because it is hell kind. So, it's supposed to feel kind of like I don't know, like a demon. I would do something like this down at the bottom because now it looks sharper and looks almost like a goat or not a goat, like a horned beast. But that's just me. See, doesn't that that's so much easier to read, too. You might want to do this though. Like that. That's way better. Hey Ubie. Hey Kevin. Yeah. Yeah. That that to me is way easier to read. And you you always want

to make sure guys when you're using fonts to have the exact angle, right? So I believe it's that's wrong right there. There you go. We need to do this. Oh, Thomas, that looks so much better. Hell. All right, let's go ahead and play Hellkind. And by the way, guys, just remember if you want uh a shout out in uh the next stream, check out the 2D art program below and you'll get a shout out like these students here. You can join for 25% off and learn everything I've learned in the last well, ever since I started making games. how to do beautiful 2D art. You're not going to get fluff. You're not going to get all this stuff that you don't need to know. You're just going to get what you need to know with 2D art. You're going to get 25% off the art program. And then you're going to get my 3D art program completely free. Learn from an actual indie developer in the trenches making his third commercial release. All right, let's hit play here. Yeah.

Uh oh. It's one of those games where it shifts my entire screen. My my Steam got pushed over to my other monitor for some reason. Oh no. No. So this has got to be an Unreal game or it's like a custom engine. Oh, but that's cool. So, really quick, guys, let's try and figure out what's going on here with uh Helkind. I got to figure out why it's small like that. Okay, I'll try and fix it in a sec.

Give me just a sec, guys. I don't know why it's so small, but I'm going to put it right here for you. That's what she said. Um, that's better, I guess, for you guys. I don't know why it's so small, but so I can't use the mouse to turn. The only way to turn is just using the the uh the keyboard. Okay, I guess I can use this uh controller actually. [Music]

So, I think the art style is um
cool. It It's not. It It hurts my eyes, but it is cool. Like, I think it's good for like streaming and social media posts, but it's not my favorite to play with. But we'll keep playing. Space to examine. There is a way out. But it needs five ingredients on the altar. End this suffering. Gather the five. Speak the spell. Spell spell. So the the key the game pad works, but it doesn't change the UI. So just keep that in mind as the developer. I love that color blue. I've noticed this color blue is very popular these days when it when you open up a menu item in these retro games. It's always this vibrant

like hardcore blue and I love that. I think it's beautiful. It's so disorienting as well and I like that. So, what did it say? Let's Sorry, I wasn't thinking. There's a way out, but it needs five ingredients and the altar. End this suffering. Gather the five. Speak the spell. So, we need to find five ingredients. Helind. Well, that's cool. So, do we agree or disagree in the chat that the filter effect is too much? I won't say I won't say what I think. I'm just going to let you guys say. Say too much or it's fine. Too much or it's fine. Too much or it's fine.
Am I a woman or a man?

That's really I'm struggling. That's probably my the biggest struggle I've got is I don't know if I'm a woman or a man. I feel like you can No, I'll let you guys say it. No, I told you what to write. Don't write agree. Say, is it too much or it's fine. There we go. When you zoom out, it's much better.
That altar gives me a weird feeling. But where are we? Who are we? What are we doing? Where are we going? These are
This is the question of our day that so many indie developers don't want to address. I don't understand.

I mean, maybe it's fine. Maybe we need to figure it out right now. But I would like to get just a little bit of something, like a little idea of who I am and why I'm here and what I'm doing. just a little bit, just a tiny through line for me. But maybe I'm wrong. So, it's a pretty slow movement. I can't really um sprint or anything, which is fine, I get, I guess. [Music] I told you.
Small wooden cross. Redemption through sacrifice.

I like I think this game is very well made. Graphics are awesome. UI is great. music, sound, everything is awesome. Uh, I would just, if it were me as the developer, I would give a who, what, when, where, why. And by the way, when I say that, guys, I don't I'm not saying give everything away. I'm not saying that. I'm saying give me something. Um, it's like uh you go into Costco and they're like, "Here's a little you want a little bit of a smoothie. You want a little sample of a smoothie? Oh, that was a nice smoothie. Oh, you want a little goldfish? You want some goldfish in a tiny little paper cup? Oh, thank you." That's kind of what these who, what, when, where, wise are. They're tiny little samples of what we're going to get. You could say, "Your name is Shandra and we're in a chapel in Denmark and we don't know who we are and we don't know where we are." All I got to say is like a lot of developers, they're like, "Well, we I don't want to give everything away." And it's like,

"Then tell me that. Tell tell I don't know who I am. I don't know where I am. I don't know what this place is. I woke up and I know nothing. Unless I missed a cut scene. So, that's just something to consider if you're the developer. So, that's one thing. Uh the second thing is is the for me the filter effect is a little aggressive. Um yeah, this night we prepare to render the veil twix the living and the dead. A Santa Compana, yes, the procession of souls. Doth weight just beyond the shadows, eager to be loosed. They are bound by forces we dare to command. And when they do walk among us, we shall wield the power. They bring power unlike ought this world hath ever known. So who among thee is ready to rise? Our hour hath come. No background behind the subtitles.

While glitches effects are on the voice over is activated. The analog camera shake effect is also enabled. Both ambient what? I don't understand. What was that? I don't know what that was. Maybe I'm playing like a blind person. Maybe that's why it looks like that. So, I don't know what that was. There was something I had the ability to change words or something.
Okay, there's something under the bench.

Got a key.
An oversized key. Okay. Something under that bench there, too.
Okay. So, here's the thing. When I read a book or let's say I listen to a book or I read a book, this is kind of how it looks, right? In my head. It's very distorted and I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking at and my imagination is so I understand that there's like we're supposed to fill in the gaps here with the visuals. The problem is I can't fill in the gaps with no information. So like if you said, "Hey, this is act this is a chapel. This is a Catholic church." It would be much easier to imagine

what's behind the corners. But it's it's really hard to know where I am. So that's just my opinion.
Okay, we got some lavender. Wait, I just collected a a key. Oh, okay. What's that? Okay, that's nothing. Uh, the altar. I don't understand what I'm hitting. I'm

touching something and I don't know what it is. Oh, it's a pillar. You can't It's just You can't see that. So, I I don't know what I'm touching. I know that blood splatter. I used that in Twisted Tower. I think I think that's an asset. This is a Unity game apparent. Well, maybe not. Okay. [Music] So, I'm looking for five objects. I found one. Maybe I need to go up there. The movement is Very slow. Very slow. And I can't figure out why there's like lines casting up from those

benches towards the camera. I don't know what that means. Does it means that they're they're coming down from the ceiling? Do you see that, guys? So, I I don't quite know what that means. Maybe Oh, it's the light. There's a light coming from me. Okay. So yeah, kind of it was very difficult to see, but there's more over here. So let's keep walking. Gramophone.
Nothing to play. Okay. So, nothing's over here. What about this? There we go. We got a door. Yeah. I I think the visuals are very creative.

I think that the sound, the music, the the the the graphics are good. I'm just not sure for me if I like the effect and also the the the slow player movement. If you told me that you play as a blind character and you have to use your subtle sense of sound to navigate a room, then this would make sense. But I just I can't even see what that says.

glitch effects. I can turn those off. So, I can turn the glitch effects, but it's still like that. So, I mean, everything feels really good. Feel like I'm missing something here. I'm trying to exit this.

So, I can't get out of this. Exit. That's pause. Backspace. Maybe D. Select. I can't get out of it. Um, I don't understand why I can't get out of this menu. type exit.

Okay. Okay. Do we like that? Yes or no? In the chat, guys, let's let the the developer know. Do we like typing exit?
Okay, we got a record, but it didn't go to my objects down there. Maybe it's the security cameras. It could be. Maybe. Maybe we'll find out why it looks like this. Okay, I feel the same way. I mean, I don't have to type exit to get out of my computer right now. I could just stand up and walk. So, I would just make it backspace or X escape or pressing B. Um, very very

unintuitive. Um, it just seems a little obtuse, but Okay. But man, the UI and the the sound is so good.
Does anybody know what's going on in the chat? Can anybody mention like a a vague understanding of what's going on? Say yes, I know what's going on. or no, I don't know what's going on.
Yeah, the sound is very good.

Let's see if space gets us out of this. No, it doesn't. Okay. So, no, you don't understand what's going on and you like it. I think she's having a nightmare in a chapel. It's hard for you to pay attention when listening to feedback. Yeah. You're in a cathedral and people have been killed by probably sacrifices with altars. [Music] There's a ladder right here,

but I can't climb it. Ladders are one of those things that you should not include in your game visually if you can't use them. Um, it's almost like putting a key on the ground and you can't do anything with it. So, you should you should be very careful with ladders. [Music] What? Okay, so that should open both ways. How do I know this is a ladder? Are you sure this isn't a ladder? What is that? What do you What would this be if it's

not a ladder? [Music] It's a blur of pixels. Oh, look at it. That's a ladder. So, yeah, doors opening both ways like that or one way like that is very frustrating for players. So, what's this? Can't go up that. What's this? That's the computer. Reverend Father Padre Armita, we doth need one more, a witch, one who knoweth the forbidden ways. With her the gate shall open, and the right be made whole. But such workings

um but such working workings crave order. I have drawn here what little of the right I know the rest is lost. Sticks, wheat, grass. Um, so more like instructions on ingredients of something, herbs. Okay, we got a rosemary. It's also easy to get stuck on walls. Um, okay guys, are you ready to move on to the next game? Yes or no? Yes or no? Uh, to submit your game, follow me on

Thomas uh on Twitter at Thomas Brushdev. And then I post about it whenever I'm ready to play. I'll just post for the day and say submit your games below. Um, yeah. So, are we ready to play the next game? Yes or no? Oh, we have another. Have I been over here? Oh, I don't think I've been over here. No, I have been over here. Okay, we are ready to play the next game. And by the way, guys, stick around to the end. Okay, we're gonna play one more game. Stick around to the end and then we'll play this last game and then we're going to do a big vote on our favorite games. Okay, Murray says, um, I don't know why, but I think the lack of story is kind of

awesome. Well, you know, I don't I don't disagree with you that that certain stories are really fun when they're just completely they just throw you in, you know, and they don't really give you much. I think that that's a difficult thing to do. Um, I wouldn't take that risk. Does my last name does my last name start with an L and end with an H? No. So, I am not going to try that. And if anybody knows who I'm talking about it talking about, let me know in the chat. If someone can guess who that is, let me know in the chat. Most good stories have a setup of some kind. Some some kind of setup. Um,

my theory is that this kind of game is a niche game. It really is. And it's not bad. It's just niche, man. All right, let's go ahead and play Hollow Descent. David Lynch. David Lynch. Yes, David Lynch is one of one out of a million who can throw you into a story and the the WTF is part of the charm. Um, it takes a very special storyteller to pull that off. Um, so other other normies out there, and I'm not saying that this developer should do this, but people like me, I got to tell a story more traditionally. I got to say, hey, your name is Bob and you're sad because your mom died.

You woke up in a spacecraft though and you were just at her bedside in a nursing home and you can hear her screaming coming from the other side of the spacecraft. That's a setup. Who, what, when, where, why, something like that. The when would be right at the beginning of the game, 1952 fades out somewhere 100 miles off of Jupiter. Who, what, when, where, or why. You do not have to tell us everything. In fact, you don't even have to tell us much. You just got to tell me a little bit if you're going to ask me to play that. That's my opinion. I'm not trying to be a contrarian. I I think what I'm saying is pretty standard advice. All right. Oh, here we go again. My screen is all screwy. Um,

hang on one sec, guys. No, no, Murray, it's totally fine. You're not wrong. You don't have to apologize. I'm just a YouTuber who makes up crap. Um, not again. Not again. No. Why? I don't understand. It's very important to test your game with various streaming software before you release it. Um because the way we market games and in fact I was just talking to William Dubet and he's the um owner of Thunder Lotus Games. He said it the way that they invest

their marketing money is just paying YouTubers. If you're gonna spend money in marketing, go get some YouTubers to play your game. If they can't stream it, what is happening? If they can't stream it, you're going to lose revenue, you know? Um, I mean, I think that's pretty straightforward advice. What is happening? Look at that. Give me just a sec, guys. Okay, so that's a little bit better. Let's do game capture. Give me just a sec. K. Is it called supplies? No. 03.

Okay, we're gonna see if that worked. There it is. Okay. Why does that happen? I don't know why it happens, but you need to make sure that your game streams well, both with the game capture option and the display capture option on OBS and Streamlabs. Which, by the way, same infrastructure. Streamlabs is just a prettier UI basically, but that's what I use. Good. Good. Uh, good game feel there. Nice music. That feels great. Hey, give me something here.

Oh, watch this. Well, you did it with that, but not with mouse. So, that's keyboard. We got a nice click. But for some reason, I can't hover over play. That's weird. That's cool music, though. Let's go. Give me sound there. I need some sound. Wow. [Music]

Yeah, sound is important. We should have heard a especially for the first five minutes of a game. I should have heard a disgusting cracking of flesh. I don't know if we need screen shake for that, but guys, doesn't this look amazing? Really cool. Wow. So, are those mechs or are they flesh? Uh, kind of reminds me of Breath of the Wild. But were those made of flesh? Cuz I was saying fleshy bits, but it was also made of stone. So, it's a little confusing. But this looks incredible.

So, I got something there. I think it maybe ammo or something. Oh, shifty. Shift allows me to move or strafe. Sorry, I'm just practicing how to use it. So, it goes in the direction of my keys. I love this. This feels great. This feels like a solid title. So, I may have missed the the cut scene at the beginning um or reading something. Again, we're suffering from the who, what, when, where, why problem.

You got to tell me something, you know? Give me give me just five to 10 seconds of exposition. You woke in the ruins or you've descended from the 8 F5679 spacecraft in the year 2075. You've descended into the depths of Jupiter and NASA has discovered that Jupiter is not made of gas. Please seek out the Arkan stone so that you can bring the spacecraft back to Earth because we run out of fuel. Something give me something. But yeah, I love it. I mean, it's it's phenomenal. Look at that hole. It's very well done. It's also giving me Protos vibes. Protos from Starcraft. Do

you hear that sound? You could tell this developer just loves him some alien. Oh, check out them sperms. Brilliant work. They're fast.

So Marray Brown says that's an info dump. No, that's just called 5 seconds of exposition. [Laughter] Um, I think there's a a sound issue. I think primarily there's a sound issue. So, I want to hear footsteps. I want reverb when I shoot. Um, I want to hear the sound of the enemies. But it needs reverb and it needs distance. Right now it's actually like it almost sounds like it's right in my head. Um I wonder if we could show the developer kind of what I'm looking at here.

First we look to the skies. Yeah. So I don't Yeah, that wasn't exposition. Um, so there's a very subtle sound of footsteps, but I don't think it's big enough. There's some some kind of weird delay. Um, so I could I could show you guys when I click it takes a while for the fire to begin. Like a split second. Maybe I'm wrong. Something feels sticky about it and I don't know what it is.

Boy, this game is great though. Like rock solid design. just so wellm made. I honestly I don't even know I don't know if I'm the right person to critique this at all. Um I would say add reverb. That's about it. I have a bomb. I love the mood of this game. Giving me Starcraft vibes all day and all night, baby. Great sound, great music. I'd love to meet this developer. I think we'd get along.

I feel like my brother would make something like this. Me and my brother are like best friends. Oh, Thomas, come on, dude. And I love the scaling of this game. Like, I feel like it doesn't throw you into something you don't understand. It's pretty straightforward. Come on. Oh, it's definitely hard to get that uh um Got him. Yeah, it's definitely hard to sort of aim your slowmoving bullet, but I'm sure we can upgrade eventually. Yes, baby. Oo, great. The the artwork is so unique.

Oh, give me that treasure chest, babe. Oh, yeah. Come on. Let's go. Okay, I like this game. I would I totally agree with you about the sound. It's It feels very mono. It does not feel directional. It does not feel 3D. Everything feels 2D and flat. There's something going on with the sound that's not working for me. It feels very stiff. Uh I think that the sound design, the sounds themselves are good, but the sound imple implementation into the game is a problem. I'm not sure what it is. My guess would be it's reverb and that a lot of these sounds are 2D sounds and they should be 3D or at least partly 3D to create depth and and and um a spatial vibe. Oh, that feels amazing. We got triple shot, baby. Let's go.

And you're rewarding me with visual change. What? You thought of me that way, developer? Thank you. Look at that laser, guys. So that's for teleporting. I love that music. Just that subtle. This door will unlock once all enemies in the dungeon. This door, if it was Starcraft, it would be um This door will unlock once all enemies in the dungeons are defeated. This door will This door will un

kind of feel like the music needs to be louder. That doesn't work. What just happened? What just freaking happened? What's going on? I can't see it. By the way, guys, this is what I'm seeing. What in the world?

I'm sorry, guys. I'm gonna have to quit because I can't I can't see it on my screen. No, I didn't fiddle with the resolution. I just pressed escape. Mother, what in the world? I guess I'll just have to play it by looking at the stream because on my left monitor I can't see it. Hang on one sec. Let's turn this off. I'm going to quit this. Hopefully it saves. We're going to start over. Yeah, we've definitely got streamability issues with this game. Um but Thomas,

it's probably your fault. I don't care. Uh, if it's happening to me, it's probably happening to other people just because I mean that's what I found to be true. Um, I don't know why my monitor setup would do that. Um, but wow, what a great game. Okay, now it's on my other monitor. There we go. Okay. Can you guys see it? Son of a I'm going to set this to stretch to the screen. There we go. Simmyi, can we give a round of applause to Simmyi? Despite being incredibly frustrated by the uh resolution issues and some of the

weird sound stuff, Simei has created something very special. I actually feel like the game looks a lot more mature and adult than this screen here. This feels a little childish, mainly because of this and the rounded corners. I would I would make these straight. First we looked to the skies for gods. Give me some exposition. Even if it was like the first time you play. Voice over with text at the bottom goes, "Welcome CC55. Your mission is to extract the alien harvest or alien larvae back to the spacecraft to be delivered back to planet Earth. Remember, if you do not retrieve the larvae, all hope of

eradicating the spawn on planet Earth will be over. Good luck, soldier. Ridiculously simple exposition. I just need to hear that one time and then after every time we start a new game, I don't hear it. I just need that. I need something. CC55. Let's go. Let's go. It's giving me Geometry Wars uh vibes as well. Oh, thank you. You have to give me some new weapons. Press E to install. I did. Nothing happened. I guess I don't need health and I don't need adrenaline surge. So, okay. Oh, you just gave me the gems.

When I enter a door, I want to hear Uh oh. I don't know how to Wait, what? How do I How do I avoid that? Oh, that's so clever. I love that. No, no, no, no, no. I don't think that's very fair, though.
Yes, absolutely. More to explore. Amazing use of complimentary color palette. I love that. You're totally right.

So, just FYI, guys, I suck at video games. I'm not so I'm not so bad at making games. Welcome CC55. Looks like you had a rough go of it. No. Welcome CC-56. Looks like the previous soldier had a rough go of it. Good luck extracting the larvae. Thanks, Cortana, from Halo 5. Oh, watch out for the sperm. I want to hear what this sounds like with the protos music from Starcraft. You guys know I'm always going to pull up Starcraft OST. In fact, it's at the

top of my playlist on Spotify. Listen to this, guys. Um, we could do we could actually probably do Zerg 2. I kind of wish the game had more exciting music. No, don't go into the settings menu, Thomas. Oh, what did I just do to myself? Okay, we're good. We're good. So this is with uh Starcraft music. Way funner imo. Way funner. I would play this constantly if it had just like fun rhythmic music constantly.

This is hard. It's like really hard. It's like really hard. I just killed myself. I love how simple it is. Listen to the the the uh Terran theme. No, Terran 2. Welcome CC57. Looks like our previous soldiers have just had a rough go of it. It's impossible for them to be successful with their controller being from the Thomas Brush Guy. [Music] I love this game, but I kind of wish there was music like this. Watch out for the sperm. Oh no. The last thing I need is sperm.

I didn't know I could fall. I suck. Do we need better music? Yes or no? Exciting like rhythmic music? I would even say it's totally fine to ramp up the music depending on the the room we're in. Right? So that's what I would if I was the developer, I would say this room gets, you know, this track, which is high intensity, and then this one's smaller. And maybe that's going to happen. I just haven't gotten past two rooms. But yeah.

Let's go. Here we go. You ready, guys? Here we go. [Music] Okay, here we go. Ready? Three, two, go. A little bit of funk guitar in there. [Music] I love that the rooms are just so well constructed and random. Okay. Well, you know, I'm not the best at I'm not the best at video games, but you guys get the picture of what that game is, right? Does that make sense? Um, I want to give a big round of applause to that developer. I think the

developers created something very special. Um, in fact, I want to take a look at the before we vote. I just want to look at the store page and see if it's been released. Seven user reviews. Is it? Is the game out? Oh, it's not out. That's the demo page. It's a shame. It's a god awful shame that this came out on July 2nd and this poor developer only got seven reviews. That's not fair. Okay, guys. I need you all to do me a favor. Number one, if you think this game looked great, add it to your wish list and click follow. Um, number two, download the demo and leave this dev review. How unfair.

This game made me smile. I felt like I was 10 again playing Starcraft or something, but like a top down rogike. It's got everything I want and more. Yes, I recommend it. Yeah, definitely add it to your wish list, guys. Download the demo and leave a review. In fact, I would love it if you guys could do that for me right now. Um, I just want to support this developer because they've they've put so much into this thing clearly and only seven reviews. It's such a shame. Um, why is my volume so low? I don't

understand. Check. What about any negative ones? Can't stand the limited moves. If the dude can't evade twice, he is not worth my time. Worth. not fourth. Um, okay guys, you ready to vote on your favorite game? Um, before we do that, before I set the poll up and and and get you guys to vote and we see who the winner of these three games is, I wanted to say a huge huge thank you again to um to Brendan, Xarin, Benjamin, Alexander, Larry, Marco, and TK. And look guys, if you want to join 2D Art Pro and get a shout out in my next live stream just like those students did, check it out. Look, seriously, if you want to learn how to make a 2D a beautiful 2D game or a beautiful 3D game, but you don't want to have to wade through the filth and the

muck of all these art courses, whether it's Skillshare, Udemy, or YouTube, all these courses that honestly they're going to teach you stuff you don't need to know. they're going to spend a whole lecture on, I don't know, normal maps or something. And it's like, no, you just want to learn exactly what you need to know. Obviously, you need to know normal maps, but a lot of courses will go into nitty-gritty details about stuff like normal maps, stuff you don't really need to know. This course teaches you everything you need to know. You're going to get 25% off 2D art pro, and you're also going to get my 3D art program completely free. 30-day money back guarantee. Seriously, if it doesn't work for you, just email me. say, "Thomas, this sucked." And I'll I'll refund you without even arguing with you. And in fact, you don't even have to talk to me. You can just talk to my assistant and you don't have to feel embarrassed about asking for a refund. I ask for refunds all the time. If you want to learn from a Time magazine featured artist, get 25% off and get my 3D program free. Please check it out. You got three days left

and it this will definitely end in three days and 18 hours. That is definitely official. Okay. Um, let's go ahead and set up this poll, guys. I want to see I want to see I want to see what this game gets. What's it going to get? Let's double check, babe. I want to see. I want to see. I want to see. I want to see which game wins. And I'm going to make a guess on which game wins. and which game loses. And I'll even I'll even I'll even predict the percentages. Kley says, "Refunds means the creator believes in his product." Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't be offering refunds if I didn't if I if everyone was going to re I wouldn't be selling it if everybody was refunding it. I get refunds. I do,

but not not anything to be ashamed of. pretty standard. Um, oh my goodness, we got something to say. Li Lim Foley says, "Typing 03 on Steam. The search nothing came up for the search." Okay, to the developer, we have some important information for you. Oh, to the developer, we have some things to say. Let's take a look here. So, the only one that caught my eye immediately was Angel Legion. That's about the only one that I see here that is remotely interesting. Um, of course, it's only interesting to my flesh. My spirit says garbage like that should not be on Steam. So, we got ourselves a problem. This game is not searchable.

Number one. Number two, um, what's it called? H 03 Hollow Descent Alpha. You need to rename this to Hollow Descent. What? Why are we Why? There's no game called Hollow Descent, so just call it Hollow Descent. Is it the title that bugs the developer or I'm sorry the logo? It's Well, that's a problem though. LM Lim Folly says 03 is not and it's not it's it's 03 not 03. Ouch. That's rough. I mean, all of this is rough. If I was the developer, I would definitely make some changes here. Um, we need to call this Hollow Descent. And

in fact, you're sort of capitalizing on that Hollow Night vibe just by using the word hollow. Um, thank you, Nicks. Hey guys, be sure to follow Nick Sant. Nicks's a great artist on Instagram and YouTube and works really hard. Um, yeah. So, like I would definitely rename this game. I would rename it to Hollow Descent. For sure. Also, I would definitely play into like numbers though. Like you start out as welcome O1 and then by the time you've played like 50 times, it's welcome number 50 and you have like that classic Cortana female voice. She welcomes you into the pit. Yeah. Just do a nice little hollow descent here. This is so much easier to read. It's prettier. It's cooler.

I'm not going to find the right font, but you guys get the point, right? Something like this. I want to I want to I want to play Starcraft. I want to So, do we agree with Thomas or do we disagree with Thomas? Say agree or disagree in the chat. Agree or. By the way, guys, don't forget about how most of the time you should be using an off-white. There's just something very professional about using an off-white.

That's just I guess my opinion, but it's also right because it's my opinion. Um, Anton font. Yeah, it doesn't matter. But you guys get the idea, right? Do we agree? Do we agree? Yes, we do. Yeah, just use that white, man. There we go. Something like that.

Whereas this is just I understand how it's cool to have it say 03, but it's really hard to remember. Use comic sands. I think you're right. All right, guys. Let's go ahead and set up the vote. Are we ready? Which game I'm going to type this out. Which game will probably get the best reviews on Steam? 03 Hollow Descent. Uh, what was the other one called? Starraer and Hellkind. Star Racer was the um

Star Racer was the uh um what was that? What what? Sorry, I heard a noise. Just whatever. I'm going to start the poll. You guys know Hollow Descent, Star Racer, Hellkind. I'll make a prediction. Hollow Descent's going to get 95%. No, 90% Star Racer will get seven and then Hellkind will get three.

No, there was not a fourth game. All right, we have 42 votes yet we have 628 people. For those of you who are on Twitch and Twitter, just head on over to my YouTube channel. Um, and you can vote. So, Hailkind is currently at 7%, Star Racer is at 9, Hollow Descent is 85%. Why does it always just stop? Isn't that weird? It always just stops slow. It just gets real slow. Am I going hunting after this? No.

So, is this like sports betting on game reviews? Yeah. Wow. Star Racer and Hellkind are tied, which I'm quite surprised by, but I'm not going to influence it or anything. I don't I don't want to influence it. Y'all vote honestly what you believe in. Thomas, share your workout regimen. I want to be swole like you, Kevin. It's not possible for you. Okay. Um, I'm just joking. Uh, what I do is I work out four to five. I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys because a lot of people are like 50

minutes at 7 am or 6 am uh always the heaviest weight. I do four to five days a week. I work out whenever I can, whenever I want to. I don't have a set schedule. Sometimes it's at 4:00. Sometimes it's at 9 a.m. Sometimes it's at 700 p.m. Sometimes it's at 6, 6:30. Sometimes I work at 6:30. Sometimes I go to the gym. Sometimes I work out in my home gym. But I follow a book called the Oneear Challenge by Something Matthews. It's a yellow book. with a jacked guy on the front. He's then you just you just follow what he says to do and you just do it. The key to a good workout or at least I'm sorry, the key to getting strong big and strong, which I'm kind of I'm like kind

of big. Um I'm not like jacked, but the key is heavy heavy heavy heavy heavy heavy weight. Now, you might be thinking, I can't do heavy weight for, you know, 40 minutes straight, just constant. Because a lot of people try that. They're like, they don't take a break. It's ridiculous. Take a break. The reason why you want to take a break is you can actually lift more weight when you take a four-minute break in between each set. You want to lift heavy, you want to get six to 10 reps, and you kind of always want to fail on the third set. So, for example, if you do bench press, you want to do 10. I do 10. I don't do six anymore because six, six would kill my bones. My bones would hurt. I do 10. 10 reps. 10 reps on the second set. And you kind of want to hit like eight or nine for the third and you fail, right? You want

to you want to go to failure. You want to try to once you finish that one, you move on to the next exercise. So, like let's say Monday's chest day, you do bench press and then you do incline bench, right? And then you do um dumbbell flies, you know, and then I'll do like a calf workout and then I'll run a mile and that's it. And honestly, honestly, I do three exercises and then I run a mile. So, it's not even that much. Kevin says a a four-minute rest break is wild. Well, what you want to do is you want to get you you don't want to turn it into a cardio thing because the problem is when you're when your cardio is exhausted, you can't lift as much heavy weight. Therefore, you're not tearing your muscle as much. So, you want to tear your muscle as much as you can. The way to do that is to take a freaking break.

That's right. ASDF says, "Buy my course and get swole. For every pound of muscle you gain, it helps me finish Twisted Tower." It has crossed my mind. Nutrition is 90% of the battle. Yes, it is. Um, just keep it simple, guys. One gram of protein per pound of body weight. So, I'm 28 pounds. So, I I try and eat 208 pounds, not 208 grams of protein a day. And then creatine. A little scoop of creatine and that's it. Jason is 100% correct. Lift in quick jerky motions using your back. That's the way to get the most muscle gained. All right. So, I was close. Wouldn't you say, guys? I think I was at 90ome percent was hollow descent. And I expected I think that was supposed to be seven and this was supposed to be three. So, I was close, you know. Um, and

congratulations to Hollow Descent for winning um, handsomely. Uh, Star Racer is still a great game. Hellkind, I think, is a good game. It's just got a lot of sort of uh, it's stiff and it needs I think it needs some work. I'm 6' three. Um, yeah, I'm I am um I'm what you would say or what you would call tall, strong. ASDF says, "I dead lift 2,000 lines of C++ every day. I'll be fit in no time." All right, guys. Check out the 2D art uh pros. In all seriousness, I think this is a great course if you want to learn art. You're going to learn color theory. You're going to learn how to use simple shapes to create beautiful, breathtaking

art, both in 2D and 3D. Photoshop, Blender, Substance Painter, how to implement it into Unity. It's a massive course, but it's only going to teach you what you need to know. It's not going to teach you the crap that everybody's trying to teach you everywhere else. The reason I have the right to say it's going to teach you what you need to know is because I've done it. I've made two uh 2D games that did great. They're very positive on Steam. I still bring in revenue from those games every month. I think I got did like $1,000 from Neverong this month, which is really cool. Um, Pinstripe still brings in money. Uh, you're going to learn from a Time Magazine featured artist. So, I was featured by Time Magazine. I was featured by Washington Post. Um, I was featured by PC Gamer. Um, so check it out below. It's taught by an actual indie game dev who's currently published working on his third commercial release. No, you're not. Yes, I am. Shut up, Thomas. You don't have to justify yourself to us. I know, but I get insecure. So, I'm working on this right now. This

is the guy the guys, me and also the 3D artist who worked on this game. Um, all this artwork that you see here, we kind of teach how to do this. And, and to be honest, Felipe, the 3D artist, he teaches a ton in the 3D course. He does an incredible job. teaches about how he does this stuff. I was more the art director for this project and the project lead. So yeah, if you want to learn how to do stuff like this and even the the textures here are 2D art, you know, you got to learn 2D art as well. So check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. It supports the channel, supports the podcast, supports Thomas. Love you guys so much. Thanks for hanging out. Wow, we got