Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 046 (Part 2)

episode 46 of let's play your games. Today we're going to be playing more of cat named Mahavi, which is just a great game. I just love this game so much. I'm so excited. Come on in. Come on in. Is anybody going to actually join me? There you are. Zyper. Zyper joins Thomas brushes live stream. Congratulations Zyper for joining me. The previous stream for this episode crashed because the game was that good. By the way, huge huge thank you to Demitro, James, Mahendra, Sheriff, PK, Katie, Rita Ban, Nikki S, Landon F, and Benjamin K. Welcome to full-time game dev. And by the way, guys, if you want to join full-time game dev, which is my massive program, it's a giant course on how to do pretty much every aspect of indie game development. That includes marketing, aka how to get wish lists, how to hit the Steam front page, how to reach out to publishers, how to reach out to the press and get

press Why should we listen to this guy? This freaking YouTuber. YouTubers are annoying. Yeah, they are. Don't trust me. Trust my fruit. Judge me by my fruit. I don't make viral games. I make good games. And I sell them to publishers and I go full-time. I've gone full-time three separate occasions and I can teach you how to do it, whether it's Kickstarter, publishers, or just making a game in Unity, Godot, or Unreal. So, click the link below, check it out, see if it's something you're interested in. And again, if you don't trust me, if you don't trust my products, look at my students. Look at how well some of these students have fared. These students actually went full-time, which is so cool. So, it's 50% off right now for the spring sale. 6 days left and this actually will end. Yes. Um so, be sure to check it out below. See if it's something you're interested in. I think there's like 50 seats left. Um so, check it out below. And uh yeah, let's get back into the cat named Mahavi. Maha Mahavi. When encountering a deer family, we only need to ask, "What would a cat named Mahavi do?"

Absolutely. I I think ultimately at the end of the day, a cat named Mahavi is going to help that family. Um if the family's having trouble, if the family is if the the the the if the couple is fighting, if the deer are having trouble caring for their children, you'll shoot them. Which is I think a reasonable thing to do. So, let's jump back into a cat named Mahavi. By the way, I'm definitely the cat. Um Bring the bodies to the garage. Skin them and then chop them up. After that, drop the bodies into the basement and come see me when you're done. All right, dude. Take it easy. So, I don't know where the bodies went. Oh, they're right here. Wait, what? Oh. That's a little confusing, but okay.

Let's go. Let's go. It's time for you to go to the shed. And we're going to get to work here. I really don't want to do this to be completely honest with you, but it's an it's important to do the right thing. It's important to care for families, uh especially deer family. Oh, no. I'm so sorry. Good grief. I feel kind of wrong playing this. Yeah, maybe Okay, let's keep Maybe we're doing the right thing. Maybe this is okay. It's all a dream, right? Oh my word.

We're doing the right thing. This is all good, right? Drop them in Okay, we're doing the right thing. We're trying to help out here. It's It's fine. We're Everything's fine. We're doing the right thing. Everything's fine. Wait, how do I drop them in the basement? What basement? No, not there. Oh, it's here. Thomas. Okay. I'm glad that's over with. It Sometimes the right thing is hard to do. So, let's keep going. I feel much better.

That's the thing about doing the right thing. It all Sometimes it feels a little strange. It's like, "Well, you know, I don't kind This kind of awkward." But it is the right thing to do. And I think in this case, chopping up these deer into pieces is totally fine. So, let's help this family out and see what happens, you know. Now, would I do this in public in front of other people? No, but sometimes the right thing needs to be done in private. Again,
[cough]
sometimes it feels a little strange doing the right thing, but Again Again, there's no reason to freak out. Everything's fine.

What? Why? What do I do?
[laughter]
Wait, what happened?
[laughter]
Dave says, "We call this moment mental gymnastics, boys." Uh What's happening? I want to play the game. Let me play the game. I'm trying. I'm trying. Okay, the arms. Again, I feel I feel odd right now. I don't feel like I'm doing the right I don't feel like

this is okay, but I know that it is. So, we're moving forward. And look. Mahavi said it was fine. If Mahavi says it's fine, what's the problem? Buddy, calm down. Stop wiggling.
[whistles]
Okey-dokey. Hey, bud. You feel better now? Come here.

All right. You sleep tight, okay? Now, let's go say hi to Mahavi. Oh. Mahavi. I got you some venison steaks. OH, YOU PUT the lights on for me? Hey, dude. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. Way to go, dude. Yeah. Woohoo. He's just going to what I have to watch the whole dance, don't I?

Hey, buddy.
[gasps]
Sorry about that. I didn't hear you come in. Do not sneak up on me like that again. Oh.
[gasps]
Very well. Now that it's some Now that's some high quality meat you dragged in. Look at that muscle tone. That left that lifeless grace. I managed to bag a little trophy myself. Hung it up in the other room to Wait, what is that word? Ask Am I about to say a bad word? Exsanguinate. What, Jeb? What do you want? Got to let him drain slow, like sleeping [snorts] tea.

Makes the flavor cleaner, more honest. There's a moment just before the kill, you know? The quiet. Oh, you hold your breath. They hold theirs, and for a second, just [laughter] a second, you both understand each other. Then bang! Understanding over. So, tell me, did Did it move you? Did it Did you enjoy the crunch of bones breaking? Make your heart pound.
[gasps]
Did you like it? Oh, be honest. I know. I'll know if you lie. Bro. I No. No. I Well, maybe. Oh, I knew you would. The thrill. It's pure, clean. It's ancient.
[snorts]
You still don't understand me, man. That's dangerous. Anyways, get up to the crows. Get yourself ready

for the next hunt. This one is going to be a little more interesting. Okay, buddy.
[cough]
I uh I don't What have I done? Oh, what have I done? Okay, that was great. We got to play another game, though. Uh that might be one of my favorite games I've ever played. Uh we only have time for one more game. There's this game called Edge of Evil, and it will not download. It's at 86% and it's been stuck there for a long time. I think it's why the other one crashed. This isn't Edge of Evil's fault. Um it's my internet's fault. So, it crashed the game. So, we got one more game. So, we're just going to pit Cat Named a Holly against this next game called uh Spore [snorts] all. Spore all. I want to play Spore all.

[sighs] [clears throat] [music]
Okay. Hey, we got ourselves Spore all as a work in progress from the Sleep Walking Potatoes.
[snorts]
This demo does not fully reflect the final game. Several features still require some polish. Please don't give us a bad review. Please don't give us a bad review. I'm so sorry. Uh Worth Studios, you said that's your game. Okay, I'll try and download it. I'll I'll try and download it. It's taking forever, dude. It's like How many megabytes is that? A kabajillion? Let's see here. It is currently
[cough]

[cough] [laughter]
9.1 gigabytes. So, I don't know. We're We're trying, buddy. But you're going to break the stream. If you If the stream breaks, we'll know whose fault it is. So, just saying. Okay, let's play this other game. Uh
[clears throat]
Good sounds. Really good sounds. Oh, that's great. Who's that? Hello? Let's hit play and get going. Hey, good character controller. Let me slide, though.

Great coloring.
[cough]
Spook cinema. Football or tennis [music] racket? Which one do I want? Let's go. Oh, I got a freaking slingshot. What? No, I don't I don't know what that is.

Nice. So, the hit the hit impact isn't very satisfying, if I'm being honest. I don't see any blood, despite the fact that the kick is very juicy, but I feel like you should make sure that juice is also uh with the with the slingshot. What do we got here? Uh a lacrosse stick. Yeah, please. Let's go. How do I switch weapons? Thought I just bought a lacrosse stick.

Yeah, music is good. Graphics are good. So, how do I Where's my lacrosse stick that I just bought? Okay. Vampire slingshot. Ooh, thank you very much. I mean, game is solid, honestly. It just doesn't feel very juicy when I hit things. Not sure why. Good Good blood, though.
[clears throat]
I would make sure the reticle turns red. Um I want the lacrosse stick. Okay, there we go.

Yay, okay. Let's go collect the uh goodies from the bodies. Great music. SOLID MUSIC, GUYS. WOO! YEAH!
[screaming]
OH, FIREWORKS OVER THERE TELLING ME where to go. Let's go. So cool. Power gem. Charles. Who Who? What is I don't It's like the skill a giant skill tree. Sports and balls. Hut! Hut!

Nice. I love that. Let's go. What a strange concept. What a play. What a play. Yeah, let's go. Head shot, baby. Move. Nice. Nice. Yeah, baby. Infernal lacrosse, let's go.

Is that like a flame? Get out of here. Give me a death sound. I need a death sound. No, you're not throwing anything at me. I need a death sound. I need uh death sounds. I need hit sounds. I need the player to have sounds when I get hurt. Um I feel like the the the enemies and the player kind of lack uh personality. Volumetric fog would be nice here. Game feels very kind of dry and what I mean by dry is like the weather feels dry.

Hey, we did it. Do I go over here? Yeah. Check that out. That's awesome. Look at that hip bone. Sports involved.
[laughter] [cough and clears throat]
Here we go. Great music, seriously. What? Yeah, I need I need better I want to hear I want to sound like a

a high school like jock when I get hurt. Ah! Oh! That hurts, man. Dang, that hurts. Oof! That one stung. Yeah, give me some like fun jockish voice acting. Good, good, good. Yeah, I think the way that this game is teaching me how to play is pretty good. I think it's pretty solid, honestly. Pretty solid title. Oh, got more ammo. What? Uh-oh. I think I just broke it. There we go. Need to resolve that little bug. But it's not a game breaker. It's not a game breaker. Cool. Okay, so I I feel like we saw a pretty good portion of that game. I know, guys. I know I played Cat Named Mahavi a lot.

Um I'm so sorry that I spent so much time on it. Um but I don't want to I don't want to be late going downstairs to hang out with my kids, so we need to move on to the next game, which is Edge [clears throat] of Evil. Edge of Evil. Remember, guys, at the end of this live stream uh we're going to vote on our favorite games. Um right now we've played the sports game, uh which is called Sportle demo. And then also we've played Cat Named Mahavi. Um and now we want to play Edge of Evil. Let's go. And I think the Edge of Evil developer's in the chat. That man was in fact pelvically blessed. Uh we um What's uh What's Is the developer in THE CHAT? AH!
[screaming]
IS THE DEVELOPER IN THE CHAT?

OF EDGE OF EVIL? OKAY, let's hit play.
[snorts]
No, it's not cuz I play good dad. I'll just Everyone will be mad at me if I don't. I guess. Worf Studios? Worf Studios is the developer of Edge of Evil. So, it looks like Edge of Evil's demo is out
[snorts]
but the game is not out. The game should be coming soon here. Okay, Worf Studios says you're probably going to go full screen borderless in the options. You predicted it. You sure did.

Okay, let's guide me here. Settings. Full screen. Windowed borderless. Good job. Okay, great. Thank you, Worf Studios. [clears throat] All right, Worf, let's now that you're because you're in the chat let's talk about your menu. Great job. Um I see three fonts which is fine and I see a lot of color. So, if it were me Sorry, dude. I know. I know. It By the way, the menu looks awesome.
[clears throat]
But if it were me to make it feel a little bit more professional I try and unify it down a little [clears throat] bit. Um I would here's what I'll do. I'm going to open up Photoshop here and show you kind of what I mean.

And this is this is this could be a preference thing. Uh probably because I'm a millennial and not Gen Z, I have different taste, I guess. I'm not saying you're Gen Z. I just know that Gen Z they like a bunch of crap on screen. Um Not that this is crap, sorry. Just that there's a lot going on and we don't really need that. So, I would do this. And to make it look professional, I would just have it say demo here. And I don't know what font that is, but we're just [clears throat] going to use this one here. And I would just do the same red. So, just assume that's the same font, okay? And I would do this. Same red. Uh and potentially this this is again, this is personal preference. Okay? But this is what I would do to

unify the menu and make it feel like it's cuz like what you don't want is you don't want the player to jump into the menu and feel like three different tones at once. You want them to have like one nice singular note. Um so, what I would do, this is so lame. I know I'm being annoying. Cuz this is definitely like It's uh I'm being nitpicky, but I love I love menus and I love talking about menus. So, I would do something like this. I would unify it all under one theme. Red, green, and one font. That's what I would do. And then we can fade that out a little bit. There we go. I'd do that and then these I would do green.
[whistles]
Just a subtle

low saturation green. So, now the menu is much more unified and frankly, it feels more It [snorts] just feels it feels more professional in my opinion. Um so, that's just me. Okay. Yeah, I would resolve the borderless thing. Um but anyway, let's go ahead and play. Ready? Okay, we have a problem with the sound as it plays uh on the buttons. It's the It's on a delay and my theory is if you open up that audio file, you're going to see silence at the beginning of that click sound. It's like a It's like a split-second delay. Also, it's waiting for the sound to finish before it can play another one. I want to hear Let's see if keyboard works. Keyboard doesn't work, so make sure it does. Let's click new game. Good sound.

I kind of wish it was more of a crunchy sound, but this is awesome. Beautifully done. This is one of the better menus. I need A SOUND THERE. YEAH, GREAT GREAT LOOKING MENU. AMY? UH-OH. NO, HONEY. I just got here. I can barely hear her. Calm down. It's going to be okay. We'll find him, I promise. I see the poster you put up. I'm also starting to see why you got creeped out and left. This place is beyond dark. Let me look around and I'll call you if I find anything. Bro you need to divorce that woman. Wow.
[laughter]
Um the voice acting makes me hate Amy. I hate her a lot now. I really don't want to find this cat for Amy. So if your intention is for me to hate Amy

that's fine. But if your intention is for me to I really want to help my wife what I would do is I do voice acting something like this. Honey I made it to the cemetery. Have you seen him? Is he anywhere near you? No, I can't see him yet. I I don't know what I'm going to do. You know that cat was my dad's before he passed. Please find him. Something like that. Make increase the stakes a little bit by making me not hate Amy. I hope Amy gets hit by a truck. I I hope Amy meets a cat named Mahavi. Oh, there you are. This might be easier than I thought. Good. So far so good. Great volumetrics. Am I seeing Unreal? It is.

Yes, yes, yes. Volumetrics in Unreal always look very good. Cassio just went live. Ooh. Okay, so just went live. Okay. This is a little creepy. Where's my kitty? Hey, we're playing another game about cats, aren't we? Uh what? I was about to make a inappropriate joke. But I'm not going to. What's this statue's name? Chastity? Let's see. Okay, let's see here. We got a interesting

Oh, the kitty cat's making noise.
[screaming]
Good job, developer. Triggered sequences are our friend. Mojave would say it. [laughter] Oh. Oh. Ooh, what is that? What the hell is even that? I would say, "What the hell is that?" That was That's kind of odd. That phrase. Great volumetrics. Good color color scheme here. I've heard that jump scare sound that sound on artlist.io. Which is fine. I use all my sounds on artlist.io. I'm just trying to flex here. Okay, let's take the shovel and start digging in this pit area with your left mouse. Whoa.

I would I would change the pivot there. That was a little little odd. Okay. So, how do I dig? Chastity, you keep showing up.
[cough]
Well, so I will tell you I don't know what to do. I think it's AI voice. Um my guess is it's AI. But let's go ahead and get the developer to give us an answer. Good thunder. I've heard that thunder as well from artlist.io. Where are you getting your sounds, by the way? I'm just curious. Good sounds, seriously. All the ambience is great. Uh I would consider adding some some creaking trees here cuz all I hear is crickets and I want to hear creaking trees. I want to hear

twigs breaking. I want to hear voices. I'm going to get you. I want to hear wind.
[sighs and panting]
Add some texture. Add some texture to the to the to the ambience. It'll It'll help a lot. Right now it feels very dry. Also, the foliage isn't blowing in the wind at all. And I feel like you could do that pretty quick. I can't dig with click, so I don't know what that's for. But I got a shovel. Whoa. Oh, there he is. Be careful. I almost missed that. So, I would say you probably want to put eyes back there. Um and I'd say that that jump scare
happened? is fine. But it was very expected, you know? So,

I would have Here's what I would do with that jump scare. And And I understand that if you don't have time, it's fine. Okay? And I know exactly how this feels cuz I had my brother playtest Twisted Tower and he just the whole time had something to say about all of his ideas and they were very good ideas, but I'm sitting here going, "I don't have time for this." Same with Jason, by the way. Jason, you suck. So, with that jump scare, I think it could have been more effective if we saw the kitty there on the edge and we look at the kitty and the eyes are blinking and then it fades away except for the eyes and then oh, it jumps at you. So, we're looking at the kitty's eyes, the kitty body fades away, and then boom out comes the monster. Sound is a bit low. Let me turn it up for you. Oh, cool. Voices are real people. Great. Edge of People is an open non-linear experience with very little hand-holding or guidance relying on your attention to detail. Interestingly enough, this doesn't

bother me that you said this. I will tell you that doesn't bother me. I It would It should in a way, but I like that you at least said, "Hey, pay attention." Um I wonder if there's a better way to tell me to pay attention. So, for example, a a a note written on the wall and it says, um "Every detail counts." or something. "Don't get distracted." Or a a radio or something and it's a voice of another person. Uh and they're call they they say, "I don't know who you are. I don't know what your name is. Just know this forest. You never know what's behind each corner. Keep your eyes peeled for clues."
[panting and sighs]
Oh, no. Here he comes.

Music soothes the beast. Music soothes is the sa- Yeah, that's weird. I would get rid of that word. I don't know what that is. Music's Oh, savage. There you go. Duh. Just give me one of those. That was a little confusing. I just need one. I don't need three. Cuz it looks like they printed those out on a printing press. You know? So, I would only show one there. Or if you want to put them all over, make sure they're just different handwriting cuz otherwise it'll feel like it's printed. Beautiful music. Give me that chance. So, I have a shovel, but there's no soft soil.

Huh!
[gasps]
Kitty! So, I don't know why you keep telling me that. I would only show that once. It's kind I will I'm going to tell you and be honest with you. It's kind of insulting the second time. Uh it's kind of like you're like, "Hey, dummy." So, I would I don't I I honestly I'm thinking about it. I think what you need to do is put signs up that say, "Pay attention." Um the non-linear experience, that needs to be that needs to be messaged in the marketing material, not here. Right? It's like when I'm playing a first-person shooter, it doesn't tell me, "This game is a first-person shooter and you need to use quick movement and it's all about your choice of weapons and conserve your ammo." That's in the marketing material, not here.

Right? "Hey, dummy." Yeah, that's how that feels. So, I would I would um I would be very careful with that kind of language. It also I will tell you what it also communicates to me. And by the way, this game is solid. It feels good. Atmosphere is great and I I would play this game. But what you're doing is you're you're you're um basically showing your cards. You're saying, "I've got a royal flush." That's how it feels when I start playing. And then when you tell me that message, it's a tell. It's you showing me and it's like, "Oh, you have a terrible hand." And what I mean by that is you're you're showing that you're scared that I'm going to get lost. That's how it feels. I'm not saying that's true. So, you're showing me, "Hey, by the way, the level design is hard or the level design is bad and I had playtesters get lost, so I'm just going to put something on the screen that says, 'Pay attention.'"

And so, looking back at all this after sort of verbally processing it, I think that message is a bad idea. You need that You need to guide the player better at least in the first 10 minutes. And you also need to tell them to pay attention, but do it in a way that is classy. You don't go up to a lady at a bar and say, "I want to make out with you.
[sighs]
Can I buy you a drink and pay for a makeout session?" No. You say something classy. "Can I buy you a drink?" That's it, right? So, you want to be careful with the uh insulting uh messages.
[laughter]
But, this this game is solid. I will say. I'm I'm I'm feeling like you've done a really great job.
[snorts]
Um

Nice. I love that. Way to go. That scared me. Hello? The catacombs. The animal says, "But, that's how I got my wife." Let's ask your wife what she what really happened. Cuz I doubt that.
[laughter]
That line works in Texas. Game dev advice and dating advice in one stream?
[laughter]
Okay, so I I got to admit I don't know where to go and where I am, and it's so dark that it I'm I'm pretty lost and frustrated. But, I have been talking a lot. I just don't really know I know I'm looking for my cat. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. This must be Amy's flashlight. Where she got spooked and ran away.

So, now I can That flashlight, I feel like I could have missed that. But, maybe not. Let's keep going. Okay, this is a bad thing. That looks like a a way to enter a level. You need to put a fence there. And frankly, kind of a game design mistake here is that there's a flashlight here, and it's I'm my my gut is, "Okay, now it's time to move forward." And there's nothing over here. Uh so, I would just gate this off. Put a gate here. Let me get the flashlight and move on. Yeah, footsteps sounds feel really quick. They sound like this. Okay, here I am going to show my skinny legs again. But, they sound like this. Okay, this is how This is how a normal person walks. I'm looking around, right? Right? This is how it feels though in the game.

Which is pathetic. So, we don't want to feel pathetic, do we? Um it's By the way, game is great. Seriously. I'm just trying to help you out here. I totally agree with And I didn't come up with that. Someone in the chat said that, and I agree with them. Uh as if you're a very small person. That's SpyOnFlux. Bro, I'm terrible at dating. I dated one person, and that was my wife. Chastity! Thomas, look at that window. That's what that light's saying. Thomas. Thomas. Thomas. Look at the window. Look at the window. Look at the window. Let's see if it actually does anything. Nothing. So, we need to be careful with lighting, especially at the beginning of the game. Just make sure it's directing the player where to go.

I don't know what that means. What does that mean? That red gear. I would make it be a lock, and I would make it sound more like a lock.
[laughter]
That's why you don't skip leg day. That's right. All right, let's see here. So, I I feel a little lost, but we're going to keep playing. So, I don't know why Okay, now it shows up. Why Why did that happen? You know? That is good programming though. I love that. Way to go. I would honestly, I would make this the entire gimmick of the game. A a game about digging. A a horror game

about digging. I would I would lean so hard into this gimmick, cuz I think it's great. And I would have the shovel turn up like this. So, that didn't appear when I got the shovel. Which is a is a problem, for sure. It's a skull. Make sure that pivots on in the center of the object, okay? That feels really strange. Make sure that center So, it just go into Blender and say set pivot to set pivot to center of mass. And then save it, and then I don't need to tell you the rest. I I love this

this gimmick here. I would lean heavily into this. Digging for the kitty cat. I thought I was looking for my cat, but the cat's right there. So, I don't understand kind of Come here, little buddy.
Okay.
Let's go home. Okay, so he's just running away. Kitty, where are you going? Why am I like crouched on the ground now? Overall, game is solid. I I'm actually enjoying myself. Um But, some of the some of the things are really big things, but I they're easy fixes. Chastity, you're everywhere. Yeah, the meow I would say uh the kitty meow, if you could give me a reverb zone.

Backrooms, yeah, that would be cool. Sorry, I'm just looking at the uh foliage. Why? That that is frustrating. To the developer, I love you. You're doing a great job, but that is very frustrating. Okay, so I can go out here? Kitty! Come on, kitty. Can you please just cooperate? I want to get out of here. That's good voice acting. Wait, no. Come on, kitty.
[laughter]
I feel really short now. Oh. Okay. I would I would

uh remove crouch when I jump. So, where do I go? So far, so good, developer. Um Developer, by the way, what's your name? I want to call you by your birth name. Ah, font. I would really really fix that font. That feels really bad. Box of angels. That crazy road lizard has stolen from me for the Oh, that's a Okay, I thought that word was something else. I was about to stop reading. Should have never hired a second digger. Yard has been dead for years, but it's okay. I found the guild's box. Crafty put Okay, let's start over. Sorry, that I thought that word was something else. Um Box of angels. That crazy I got to be careful what I say. That crazy road lizard has stolen from me for the last time.

Should have never hired a second digger. Yard has been dead for years, but it's okay in the box, and old lizard brain will never think to look inside a grave. Ha ha ha ha. Okay. I'm not sure what that was what I But, so far, the game is I'm enjoying it. I just feel a little lost. Guys, let's let's help the developer out here. Developer, what was your name again? Bill. Bill. So, first off, Bill, congratulations. The game looks great. It feels good. The atmosphere is good. Uh voice acting is good. Um I'm enjoying the I get uh the gameplay and the mechanics. I think overall, I'm a just a little bit confused by where to go. And I know I know what you're thinking. It's like, "Thomas, it's so simple. It's the first level." I would just say uh hold the player's hand significantly more than you are.

Right? And I know you said, "Pay attention. Pay attention." But, Okay, so now we're supposed to go over here.
[laughter]
Sorry, if the Is the stream Is the stream lagging again? Sorry, guys. Stream's back. Good. Okay. Don't go inside there. The kitty went inside the catacombs. Kitty's catacombs. Oh, no, I hear crying. Oh, hello. Screw Amy, we got something else here. You lost, stranger, or did you flee bring you here? Father said they would come for his treasure. Foolish thieves looking for riches among

the graves. But there are no graves for good.
Erected. And now now they whisper about me. The guild wonders if I'll try to claim what was his. Something I already have. But let them wonder. After all, I carry father's blood.
Whose father?
And like most, I was raised in the shadow.
[laughter]
I can fix her. Swallowed like the other greedy before you. Yeah, she looks a little assetty. I'm not going to lie. But you will learn eventually. I think she looks a little assetty.
I'm not sure about all that, but I'm just looking for a lawyer.
We found goth mommy.
[laughter]
You know what? Never mind. Hey. That's exactly right. Uh can I buy you a drink? That didn't work on her. Let's try the

other method. Yeah, she looks a little assetty. Um I would I would I would hire an artist and she's you you deleted her heels, I think. And so she's standing on her tippy-toes. So I what I would do with her is I would hire an artist for for like 500 bucks. Maybe maybe 200 if they're nice. And just make her look less assetty. She kind of just looks like a um you know, like those skanky models you see on Unity asset store. Um So I would I would I would I would work on that. Everything else looks awesome, seriously. I just think she looks a little assetty. Um what does assetty mean? It means that this was a potentially I don't I could be wrong, but it feels like it's like a $50 asset from like Realusion marketplace or Unity asset

store, Unreal asset store. But I could be wrong, seriously. I could be wrong. And if I am, please forgive me, Bill. But that's that's kind of how it feels a little bit. It kind of took me out of the world. I would I would consider Well, let me show you, okay? I sure do like her assets. So here's what I would do with her. Okay, let's take a little screenshot here. Just for, you know, safekeeping. Um what I would do, Bill Yeah, she doesn't fit the rest of the game, I will say. I totally agree. Um Let me open up Photoshop here and show you kind of what I would do. I would I would make her look a little bit more stylized. Um Why is my mouse so glitchy? There we go. Let's see here. First off, I'm just going to be real with you.

This is kind of why it feels assetty. Okay? It's kind of why it feels assetty. It's just kind of skanky. Um which is fine. It's I mean, it's not a big deal. But I would just kind of I would clean that up a little bit, no pun intended. But that's what kind of what makes it feel not scary. It's like Roxanne showed up in the middle of a cemetery. Um so I would just do that. I would make her look a little bit more um Victorian even. Maybe some straps here. And by the way, Bill, I'm not I'm not being I'm not trolling or trying to be silly. I'm I'm I'm serious. I think this

could actually help. Um I would make her look a little bit more like Bellatrix Lestrange. And I would I would change her posture. I think having her stand like this is just a little it's not working. And I've I've done that before with Twisted Tower where you like you immediately pick the female you know, stance and it's always like
[sighs and gasps]
like that. I would find the one where she's kind of like this. And there's plenty on Mixamo. You know, something like that. I'd make her a little bit more thin. And I'm What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to make it so that I didn't get yanked out of the game. And that's that's what she did. She yanked me out of the game. Um because she feels she feels like she doesn't belong. So I would I would do this. Let me grab some rocks here. Make her a little bit more like stylized. So thin out her arms a little

bit. Make her look a little bit more sickly. And Bill, I Dude, this is all preference. This is all personal preference. And this is not necessary. Like you didn't make a bad game. I just think this could help. I would shrink her lips. Right? She kind of looks like she got lip injections. Right? All these models from the asset store, they all look like Beverly Hills housewives, you know? So I would I would shrink the lips a little bit. Mhm. And this isn't a moral I'm not making a moral case here at all. I'm saying it can help the game feel more um more more handmade. Right? For some reason that didn't work.

Well, we're not going to worry about that. Let's give her um If you went with more of a an afraid look like she's sad, she needs help. That could help. Cuz right now it looks like she's just like kind of smutty. And it feels a little cliche. So you could do something like this. Where she looks a little bit more sad. Am I making sense, guys? She got the DL
[laughter]
the DLSS 5 filter. Uh yeah, it kind of feels that way. Am I Guys, do we agree with Thomas or is Thomas being a nitpicky jerk? And it's okay to disagree with me. Am I being nitpicky, guys? Please tell me if I'm being nitpicky. Cuz I don't I don't want the developer

to think, "Oh, Thomas is a genius." No? I just have opinions. Just like everybody else. Oh. Lip filler was given to the Red Riding Hood character. Golly. I'm not against lip filler. I just don't want to see it in a moody horror game. Cuz then it just feels like I don't know. Feels a little silly. We disagree with Thomas. A teeny bit nitpicky. Yeah, I would do something like this. So she's more stylized here. Um let's see here.

And then I'd kind of make her look a little bit um more disheveled. So like a little bit like if I grab uh her hair right here. You do like this. And Bill, just so you know, man this is all just like stuff that doesn't it it it could matter. It could matter, but I don't think it will. Um Your game is solid. I would say the primary thing to focus on here At this point I'm just nitpicking, but yeah. I think the primary thing to focus on here, dude is directing the player.

I think right now the the thing of of telling the player, "Hey, pay attention." I feel like that's the thing you need to focus on. That's what I would focus on, for sure. Um not forcing the player to to read those prompts about how to pay attention, but instead guide them at the beginning. Right? That's That's what I would focus on. Now, do we agree with Thomas? Cuz I I could be wrong, guys. What do you guys think? Let let Bill know in the chat. What do we think? I think she's a a lot more I I I personally feel like she makes way more sense now in the context of the game. She looks like she fits she fits into the game more. Um Now let's dishevel her a little bit.

You guys know I love doing this. I love a good mascara drip. Always always fun. She's a little shiny. I would remove some of that specular from her hair. Uh but let's go ahead and find some grunge texture and do a little bit of kit bashing. So grunge texture dirt PNG. I I agree. I I agree. Um who said she's too sexy? Yeah, I I agree. And by the way, I will tell you this is coming from a place of personal experience of being too sexy and just toning it down. No, but in all seriousness, it is coming from a place of personal experience in that I got the same feedback in Twisted Tower. You're trying to help this girl in Twisted Tower and I had pit players go

she's too voluptuous and too smutty. Is that a word, smutty? For me to trust her. It's kind of like this natural instinct of like she's putting out kind of thing. So I don't trust her. And it's just it's it's this natural feeling to just distrust the character that looks that way. Um So I would say just keep that in mind. Um you can actually bring a lot of uh you can make it you can make characters like other characters by by removing that assety flare, number one, and making them look a little bit more humble. Right? So let's give her a little bit of grunge here. It doesn't mean she can't be attractive. That's totally fine.

Um totally fine. In fact, we want that. I do. For this for this character, I think it's totally fine. I think she looks great. We just want to make sure she's not too too much. And then I would add that tattoo you had was it felt it felt kind of like clip art. So I would do something like this. Like some kind of weird sort of scratchy occult symbol. Right? Some kind of weird occult symbol on her arm. Whatever you had was it was fine. It just felt a little bit like clip art. So I would do something like this. Um let's see what what other things could we do? Well, I said she was too shiny. One of the ways we can get rid of the shine is to blur it.

Thomas the nitpicker, right? Always being nitpicky. There we go. The lips too shiny. She put lip gloss on before the cutscene. We want to get rid of that. And Jason, are you if you're in the chat, I'm sure you I wonder if you felt the same way with Twisted Tower where it was like she's she's just too put together. Right? So there's our character. You could also add some um some like torn I would get rid of the buttons. It feels kind of like a lingerie or something. I'd do that. And then maybe add like a very subtle like a floral kind of thing here. That's what I would do, bud. I know I'm being nitpicky.

But hey, this was a fun little exercise in in discussing how to make how to take an asset that kind of looks assety and and just flip it so it has more personality, right? Um every great character in a game is is recognizable particularly in a silhouette. If you can if you can add a um if you can make a character recognizable in a silhouette um that character will be um more interesting in general. So um let's think here. To make her recognizable, let me let me grab a uh rose PNG. And I I I have to say this over and over and over again. I'm going to go re rose 3D model PNG. I have to say this over and over again to the developer.

I think the developer has actually done a really good job. Um I just think we want to be careful. So we'll throw this rose in here. You want to do before and after? Um I wish I could. Yeah, I think it's in my screenshots. Let me go grab it really quick. Some kind of flower maybe in her hair or something. No, that's stupid. And I don't love this. So I'm going to blur it. Yeah. Let's just blur that. There we go. Um okay, so there's that. Let's go to

the before. I think it's in my pictures folder. Screenshots. We had one today. Oh crap, it didn't save. Snipping tool. I need to open up my previous one. Oh gosh. I can't find it. Oh man, guys. Before and after? Oh, I found it. Yay, I found it. Okay, so here's the before and the after. You guys ready? I'm going to throw it on screen here. Okay. This is hopefully this is going to show you why we just did that. Okay? Before after. Who do you trust more? Who do you want

to help more? Who fits the tone of the game more? And we'll vote. The first one or the second one? Say first. This is first. And and be honest, guys. Nothing hurts my feelings. Not really anymore after I've done years of beta testing. Or the second one. This is the second. Let me know in the chat. And this is for the developer. This isn't a contest between me and the developer. This is for the developer to go, "Okay, does this actually help my game? Does creating a more personal character Okay. Yeah, so there's you know, this this I'm seeing this and it's like anime videos. If that makes sense. If you know what if you catch my drift.

That's going anime videos. They're free with lots of ads. That's what I see with that. And then this is oh wow, this is a custom model. This is a distinguished developer. And by the way, Bill, you are. You've done a great job. But when you do when the problem is is that humanoid models are the hardest thing to to to to model. And also most of the human humanoid models available online the cheap ones are always skanky. Always. And so that's why you see them show up in all these Unreal games all the time because it's like $5 and and they just throw it in there and it's some anime chick. The expensive ones they look like this. And they're stylized and they're unique.

And you don't see them very often cuz they require a lot of um effort. Now Bill, I I I could be completely wrong. If this is hand modeled, please forgive me. Please forgive me. But if this is some character creator um or an asset or something then that would that would make sense to me cuz that's kind of how it feels. So please correct me if I'm wrong, Bill, and I'm sorry. I really do apologize if this is um custom. Right? Yeah, it kind of feels like a waifu, for sure. Uh nothing. I velocity I haven't looked at that stuff since I was 18. I'm being fully transparent here. Um I'm 35. I'm almost 36 now. I have not touched that stuff since I was 18. I got rid of that stuff. But I remember it burned into my 18-year-old brain. Um

Yeah. Uh Bill, is that fair for me to say, buddy? Is Bill still here? Cool. Um Yeah, so this is this is a This This to me is like her name is Annabelle. Right? That's Annabelle. That and you want that to be her That you want that to be the flavor of this character. Her name is It's got to be Annabelle. Right? That's Annabelle. And uh this is Roxanne. Roxy 151456. Right? That's That's kind of the difference. So

He said I Okay, Bill said I definitely love your rework. I just need to make sure it fits the character overall in the entire game. Well, you definitely don't want If she's not supposed to be sad and rather she's supposed to be sinister makes complete sense. If she's supposed to be this sinister hot uh siren, then then this makes sense. It does make sense. But um it does um it still it still does feel like an asset. Crystal, yeah. Yeah. Um Thomas, what software do you use for cutscenes? I use Real Illusion. And this may actually be Real Illusion right here. Um I use Real Illusion. I use iClone 8, which is great for effective um efficient animation with lip sync. And it's got a some really cool puppetry tools. But what I do is I hire a artist to go in and

tweak and really like really tweak and remodel and sculpt previous humanoid characters so that Charlotte which is the the female character in Twisted Tower looks stylized and unique. Uh you know to to with within the context of our budget. Right? Um Yeah. So uh um okay. So so so that's great, man. Like let's go ahead and vote for our favorite games here. Um I'm going to go ahead and throw up throw up the uh throw up the poll so that we can all vote on our favorite game. Um Give me a sec, guys. I'm going to throw it up here. So what was our favorite game? What was our favorite game? And we had I can't remember any of the names. Uh Kitty Litter? What was it called?

Wasn't called Kitty Litter. Sportal, Cat Named Mahavi, and Edge of Evil. What was your favorite game? Sportal? I can't remember. Did we play Sportal? Yeah, we played Sportal. Cat Named Mahavi And what was this called, Bill? I can't remember. I'm sorry, buddy. It's It's not that it's a bad game, seriously. Oh, Edge of Evil. I just have terrible memory. Okay, so here's here's what I'm thinking. Uh Kitty Litter is the sequel. I am going to start this poll here. And I want to just say to all three developers this is one of the better streams, seriously. All the games were really good. I'm really proud of all the developers.

Cat Named Mahavi, I I I I could never make a game like that because it's so so strange. I'm so proud of you for doing that game. That's a great game. Uh I'm going to start the poll here. Um again, while we're Guys, go ahead and vote down below. One final ad read here. Um Demetro, James, Mahendra, Sheriff, PK, Katie, Rita Ban, Nikki, Landon and Benjamin, thank you so much for joining Full Time Game Dev. Guys, if you want to support the channel, you want to support the last leg of development of Twisted Tower. Yes, the game was funded by 3D Realms but I am on the last leg of funding here. Um so this does support the game's development, which means the world to me. It also um supports your future. And yes, even though my funding is blown I have made games that were funded including Twisted Tower. It It that was my largest funded game. Um but I'm just did this last stretch of

development where it's getting a little bit expensive. But this game is Pinstripe and then also I made a game called NeverSong. Uh and then finally my third game Twisted Tower, which is about to be released here in a bit. Um so if you want to learn from an actual indie game developer, um not only how to make a game in Unity, Godot, or Unreal, um not only how to code, not only how to do 2D and 3D art but also the business side, right? How to get wish lists, how to hit the Steam front page, how to get publishers, how to do Kickstarter campaigns. Um How to fund a demo? How do you do that? How do you get money with a demo? I've done that on three separate occasions. Um ton of stuff in this course. And by the way, if you're a student, let me know in the chat what you think about it. It's 50% off right now. So if you have been on the fence about this program and you're like, maybe I want to maybe I want to check this out check out the link below. Click the link below. See if it's something you're interested in. And you also get my 2D and 3D art pro programs completely free. You got 6 days left. And hey, don't trust me. Seriously. Don't trust me.

Look at the reviews on the website. These are students who work full time. And also take a look at my work, okay? I don't have viral games but I also don't make bad games. I make decent games that get very positive on Steam and they get funded, right? That way I can make games. I'm funded to make games and provide for my family. If that's a dream of yours and you're interested in doing that check out the link below. See if it's something you're interested in. Okay, let's go ahead and take a look at this poll. Are you guys ready? Um I'm going to let's see here. I'm going to guess I'm going to guess that Cat Named Mahavi is at 80%. No, it's never at 80%. 75%. Um and then the other two are split at 15 and or Let's just do 70 so I can do the math. 70% is Cat Named Mahavi and then 15 and then 15 are the other two.

Um okay, let's take a look. Pull it up here. Dang, Thomas, you were close, bro. I love that. Yeah, okay. So Sportal is at 16% here. Uh let me open up the chat here. Pop out chat so we can see it on screen. All right, so we've got Where is it? Yeah, Sportal is at I FREAKING TOLD YOU GUYS! SPORTAL'S at 16%, Edge of Evil's I swear I didn't look. Uh Edge of Evil's at 18% and Cat Named Mahavi is 66%. So yeah. Awesome. Kitty Litter is a is a great name, by the way. Um So anyway Uh guys, this was a lot of fun. Thanks for hanging out. I love you guys so much and congratulations to all the developers. Y'all did amazing job. These games look really really cool. Um

Anything else? If I had an option, I would have chosen all of the above. Totally. Although I'll be honest, Cat Cat Named Mahavi was my favorite. I love that game. Uh Swaby, the the course is you do it at your own pace. It's It's there always, so you get lifetime access. And so it's it's great to have a branding. Yes. Uh I'm doing a rebrand next month which will be this color, green, and then this color, orange. And I'm going to rebrand the whole channel. Um [snorts] Yeah. Any idea when the next one will be? We'll do one tomorrow.

Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah.