Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 048

with me. I know you're making fun of me. It's not my fault. It's so bright. I need to get my light set up properly. There's a big window right here. It's just bright. I had to eat chicken nuggets. Okay, that's why we're late. And that's that is okay. I think that's totally fine. Um, we're going to play two games today during our wonderful live stream. Full disclosure, one of the games was submitted when I at twitter.comomasbrushdev. And by the way, you can follow me over there if you want to submit your games. But another one I found on my uh homepage on Twitter and it looked really cool and so I want to play it. Okay, so we're going to play it and we're going to offer any constructive feedback. I probably won't have much because it looks really cool, but I wanted to play it. And so, these are two indie games. The goal here is to provide feedback to

the indie game developers and hopefully give them an idea of how to make their game better, right? That's the whole goal here. A Okay. Huge thank you to Arie, Nickel, Phillip, Richard, Robert, and Hassan. Welcome to Fulltime GameDev. By the way guys, if you want to get a shout out in my next live stream, but more importantly, you're interested in, you know, investing in your future as a game developer, check out Fulltime GameDev below. This is my massive course. It's currently on sale. Um 4 days left to join Fulltime GameDev and get the massive 50% off spring sale discount. And then also my 2D and 3D art pro program is completely free, but only for this sale event, which again lasts for 4 days. And the seats are selling fast. Um, yeah, you're going to learn everything I've learned in the last decade of making indie games. And by the

way, if you don't trust me, that's totally fine. I wouldn't trust me either. I don't trust anybody who has charisma. And I have some, okay, a little bit. I don't trust people with charisma, and so you shouldn't either. Um, but you can look at what they've done in the past. I don't make viral games, okay? I don't make viral games. I make games that provide for my family, which I know is what you guys want to do. So, the way I do that is I work with publishers. I do Kickstarter campaigns. I get wish lists. I launch the game and hopefully hit the front page on Steam. I've uh done that several times. My goal is to not help you make viral games. My goal is to help you build a sustainable game studio and maybe even go full-time with just a demo. Whether it's Unity, GDAU, Unreal, or marketing or business practices, these students learned how to go full-time. It's really cool. So, these are reviews from actual students who went full-time with the help of the program. So, just check out the link

below. See if it's something you're interested in. Remember, this does close in four days. Okay. I love you guys. Let's go ahead and jump into same and we're gonna play the first game which is called This one was submitted. This one was submitted. It's called Veils Echo. This one was not Shallow Pond. I want to see what this game's all about because I saw a GIF or a video going viral. Uh I think it went viral and I was just really fascinated by it. So, let's play Veil's Echo first. This was submitted by one of you guys. If you're the developer, let me know in the chat. I started learning gamedev 5 years ago. I just released my first title yesterday and the next title is underway. Your video made that possible for me. That's awesome. Thanks. Okay. Welcome. This game supports both keyboard and controller. for the best experience we were making. Okay, so

I just feel like this is a lot to say. Personally, I would just show a controller that fades on screen. It says this game is preferred to play on a controller. Everybody else knows this. We all know this. Uh the demo stuff. I guess that's fine. Okay, let's press E or enter to continue. I can't hear anything. We'll see. We'll see if there's sound. Veils echo demo. Me turn it down. Something about that music is hurting my ears. There we go. That's better. Okay. I just waiting for a better tone. I like it. So, arrow keys don't work,

but I like that there sound on the menu. That's good. Let's take a look at the settings menu. I would love a click sound on the menu, but it's fine. It's not it. This menu is actually really good, by the way. But I do wish that the uh there was a click sound. Way to go. This looks awesome. Honestly, it looks really cool. Let's click start game. I hope it plays a big sound. I would speed this up. So, it it needs to go like this. I would go give it a wiggle. Give a little wiggle. Give a little wiggle, right? So now observe this.

It's very slow. So I would speed that up. Any kind of transitions or animations on hover for a mouse effect, they should be like almost point maybe 0.1 seconds, right? Otherwise that's not very fun to do, right? All right, here we go. Death certificate. Cool. Nice art. It's time. Drift away and welcome aboard. That's awesome. Yay. I love that. I'm pretty sure this isn't where I fell asleep. I hate going places.

Ew. Yes. Ew. With the body. You're talking to me. This is beneath me. Move me out of here. Great music, great vibe. I I need a sound there for selection. Fine, but you could have asked nicely. Fetch my belongings and place everything in the lost and found if it exists in this dump. Why not? It's not like I have any other plans. I've got a spoiled head in my pocket telling me to chop chop. Wee! Oh yeah, I can jump. Look at those feet. Hey, this is great. Oh, I go both ways. Look at all these. It's I'm clearly a ghost or something.

This is awesome. It does have pinstripe vibes, which is a If it If they were inspired by pinstripe, I love that. If they weren't, that's fine, too. Oh, you're not looking so great. What happened to you? Wof. Uh, yeah, I I get it. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with me either. Good animations. It's not I I I I like that. I think it's pretty good. Um, unless you have voice acting, I don't see the point in showing the player response. So if I if I click a button here that is my response. I don't see why I need to say it in the bubble. But that's that's just me. Okay. What do you guys think so far? What do you guys think so far? Do you want me to turn the sound up?

Okay. What's he doing? He's reading a book. Let's go to the bathroom, eh? Oh, ever heard of privacy? Sorry. Added to the inventory. Perfect. Haunted cash. The panic room. I can hear screaming. Yeah, the music's awesome. At least someone doesn't bottle it all up. I would if if I was supposed to hear screaming, I would crank that up. Also, that doesn't say panic room on it. So, I actually thought I opened the door and saw another door. My initial instinct was there. I'm looking at another door, right? So, I would put panic room on there right

there. That foot is is strange to me. I would do an arrow. It just I It looks like a paintbrush. Good sounds though. Where do you think you're going, young lady? Honestly, no idea. Your luggages. Your luggage is in the back. Please retrieve it. Can I pet you? Oh, this is not a petting zoo. Debbie, do you want to get pet too, buddy boy? Yeah. Oh, just a head with a superiority complex.

Needs to be put in the box. Okay, there you go, bud. Probably best not to jump out of a moving chain. Okay. Okay. So, what are we in? We're we're we're into the game. And by the way, the the developers probably thinking it's crazy that Thomas is what, seven minutes into gameplay and he's still on the train. This happens a lot with developers where they watch someone play test the game and the person stays in one level for like 30 minutes. This happens to me a lot with with my own game Twisted Tower. It's not a problem, but I just need developers, including myself, we need to know as game developers, we need to know players tend to stay in a scene way longer than we expect. And so, what's my point? The player, the the developer is probably not going to like what I'm about to say, but it's it's related to

how long I've spent my time in this scene. I wish you gave me more of I've talked about it a million times with previous games, more of a motive. Where am I going? Who am I? And if you don't know who I am, tell me I don't know who I am. What's the problem? What's the potential solution if anything? Um, why should I care? Also, a mystery of some kind. Some kind of mysterious question that needs to be answered. Right now, it's like, well, I woke up on a train and I'm dead. But I think it would be much better if there was some big thing that happens that makes me want to keep going, right? Can anybody think of some

examples in the chat of things that could happen in the first 3 minutes of this game that make me want to keep going? It could be as simple as this. Um, the train's about to stop. Everybody gather your luggage. And you have to go gather your luggage. That in and of itself makes me think, "Okay, I'm about to get off this weird train." Simple stuff of telling me where I'm going, what my goal is. Now, I'm just coming up with random stuff off the top of my head. I'm trying to think here. Like, here's the thing. It's okay to just have mysterious, bizarre things happening. That's great. Um, but at its core, I think what it needs is

some kind of goal. You need to let me know where I'm going. Um, and you don't have to give, like, here's the thing, you don't have to give me the exact place. You just need to give me an idea, a subtle idea of what my end goal is here. Maybe you're um you wake up and she says, "Martin, where did Martin go?" Oh no. And you find out that Martin was your your 13-year-old puppy who is sick and you were taking him to the vet. Now he's gone. And you see pictures of Martin. You hear Martin barking, right? You see Martin floating outside the window and then flying away. That kind of stuff makes me go, "Okay, I need to go find Martin." But right now, it's like I have I have no real goal. It's cool and it's pretty, but I need a reason to I need a

if if the developer wants me to work here. And by the way, this is work, right? there. This is in a way when a game requires me to fetch stuff, it's almost like normal work like working in a spreadsheet unless there's some story goal that I can f that that is implanted in my heart and now gives me a reason to keep playing, right? Yeah. But this is a high quality title for sure. I love it. Okay, so what was the what did I need to do here? The game feels really good. Every day it's the same. You people forget bags like you forget manners. Well, let me pet your head. How would you like that? I don't know why I need that either. Just let me keep running, you know. Okay, let's go to the bathroom. There

we got the panic room. What's this? Can't do anything there. Oh, hi. Woof. Right. Good point. Now move. I need to get my stuff. I don't know why she's American now, but okay. Fine, please. What? Oh, no. He's got a dog attached to him. That's great. All right. Great. They misspelled my name and it's locked. I need to find a way to open it. Great. They Okay, hold on.

I got a walking cane. Maybe somebody needs their cane. Woof. Okay. Anybody need a cane? Oh, that's great. A little bit of a trigger sequence. That's awesome. Oh, I swear. One more rolling suitcase and I'm done. It's a grumpy duck. Anybody need a cane? Oh no. Whoa. What did I get? A new memory. Well, what is it?

Love this music. It's so great. Um, not sure what to do. You guys got any ideas? What about this this guy here? He's got nothing to say. Oh, another one. Um Have some decency. No,

don't go over there. There's a bobby pin on the floor. Yeah, I don't Okay, let me ask you guys what a question. Okay, cuz I'm a little bit add in the chat. This is Okay, we got a bobby pin. Uh, does anyone know what we're doing? So, we're fetching stuff for for what? So, does anybody know what the goal is here? Cuz maybe I missed it, but I feel kind of like I feel like this is very random. It's not bad to be random, but I'm not sure I have a reason. But maybe I missed it. What do you guys think? Yeah, game looks very polished. Okay, now we can use this.

What? Nick Fritz says, "Um, escape the train, but the game didn't tell us that." Fain Fier says, "I don't feel like I need to know what I'm doing. It's giving me Fran Bow vibes." So, the memory I have to press M. Did I miss that? Okay, I have a memory here. I feel like I've seen this before on a carpet. There was screaming all around and I just keep pushing it, pretending I was gathering passengers and friends to get as far away as possible. But was that really me? Okay, so let's try and figure this out.

I don't know why it keeps randomizing. H I'm not sure how to do this. Maybe got to find a clue. I'm not sure what the game is about, but I would personally love a bit more interactions and most importantly more sounds. If you walk past the duck, I want to hear some funny duck sounds. I think that would be funny. When you touch another pin, another shakes. So maybe Oh, okay. Oh, I see. Very good. I don't know if I would have caught that. Let's help the developer out here. Uh, would you have caught that clue? Yes or no?

Yes, you would have caught that clue. No, you would have not caught that clue. And I won't tell you what I think. It was really stuffy in there. You were inside my luggage. Of course, I'm your companion, as they say. Lost and stuck with a skull. Call me Echo. Skull. It feels offensive. There's another piece of your past inside. You'll need it. I got a new journal entry. Oh, yay. A flying skull right from my luggage. It feels oddly familiar, but can I trust it? I'm not really sure.

Okay. Uh, yeah. Okay. So, we're about 50/50. Not with Thomas randomly hitting pins. Austin, shut your mouth. Can you do that for me? Can you shut up? Uh, cre develop says, "No, I was sure it was something else." LMO, LMAO. That's what I always hear when I see that uh acronym. Uh, what did we what did we think though really quick about Tom the Thomas's the idea that maybe we need to give a little bit more motive? I'm not sure what the game is about. It looks like the Okay, it needs rain sounds. I don't feel like I need to know what I'm doing. Me. Okay, we've already read that. I never know what I'm doing. Does anyone have any other thoughts on do we need more direction as to what

we're doing? Um, yes, yes, yes, I know. Believe me, I love I love abstract, strange games as much as anybody. Um, however, even some of my favorite abstract films and games, they have like one little simple through line and all the abstraction hangs on the solidity of that simple trophy through line. And I like to have something like that in abstract games, especially in abstract games. I feel like I need to know why I what things I'm doing matter. That's from Ad Mayo. Foxight says it needs more direction. Um, yeah, this is from Redeye Streamer. Redeye streamer. Yes, I agree. But doing

good work on the game though. I can't wait to see where it goes. I totally agree. Game's awesome. Well, that's the thing, isn't it? Here goes Thomas on a little bit of a rant again. Uh Connor says, "I think we need to know what we are doing, but not why yet." Yeah, you got to you just have to put some kind of Look. Some kind of carrot in front of the pony. something some kind of carrot in front of us that says this is what the next thing is. This is our goal. If you said if it started off and it said next up, hell, 3 minutes to hell, right? That's enough for me to go, "Oh, we're on our way to hell." Right? or even if it's as simple as um careful ladies and gentlemen, the storm is getting heavy, but it should surpass soon when we arrive at Lion's

Gate. So, this feeling of like, okay, something else is about to happen. I'm about to stop. Uh the storm is about to end and we're about to get off and enter the next zone. I just need something. If it were me, I don't even know what this story is, but if it were me, I would do some kind of um some kind of real deep personal connection this character has to something that she wants outside of this train. And that's why I said something like the the lost puppy, right? Or um she can't she can't find her luggage and on the luggage is her mother's ashes, you know, something like that. Some deep personal connection. Now, that doesn't mean that's what the game's about. It doesn't mean we spoil anything. It just gives me a motive, some goal.

FRA says, "Great way to put it. Some kind of carrot, some thing." Okay, let's go. This is great. I'm enjoying this game very much. Okay, hold up. We need to stop for a second. Is this really the best place to stop? I just I'm really dead, aren't I? I mean, what the hell does mean? What does it mean not ready? I suppose we can spare a minute. I thought I'd feel something big. You know, fear, regret, something. Feeling lost is still a feeling. I guess I just I wasn't ready. Not for this. Most people don't schedule deaths, their deaths in advance.

Fair point. And honestly, how much worse can this place be than real life? See? Okay. I need, by the way, I need rain sounds. That's a big problem. I need to hear tin on the ceiling. That's That's a problem. Um, dude, developer, just clarify with me. In the first 10 seconds on that train, I need to hear the duck on the speaker go, "Next stop, hell." Or, "Next stop, purgatory." Or some kind of obvious hint that we're going to the afterlife. Next stop, afterlife. Everyone gather your luggage. The stop begins in five minutes. Right? Something like that to let me know, okay, I won't go into the spooky afterlife world. I didn't really know that. I I didn't fully grasp that. And you might think I'm a dummy. And the truth is is that I am. And that's all I'll say about that.

Okay. That duck. Hire me. I will show up. I will not ask unnecessary questions. I'm prepared to circle back. Seeking roommates. A polite termite seeks a likeminded roommate who respects boundaries and values personal space. Please provide your own. This is a great game, by the way. I think this game will at least have minimum 300 reviews on Steam. That's my theory. Man, we really need some rain sound. Where is What is going on? I'm I'm surprised to see honestly I'm surprised to see a demo as polished as this not have rain sound. So, let me show you guys what I mean here cuz like it it's just a it's a it's a strange thing to miss. Um, and so let's let's let's uh let's find some rain sounds here.

Ambient uh rain storm. Okay. Hollow Break Games is Hollow Beak Games is here with us. Hollow Beak, did you make this game? Is Hollow Beak here with us? All right, let's listen to the rain. This is what we need to hear. Especially after getting off that silent, serene train, I need to be entering a new feeling, right? Hollow beak. Okay, Hollow Beak is with us. Hollow Beak, we talked about a couple things. Were you with us? Uh, I think the game's great. I think that it's um solid art style, solid music. I think

it's going to do I can only say reasonably well on Steam. I don't I don't know for sure. I can't predict anything. I just know how my games my games are kind of like have this vibe and I know how well they did. Um so I think they'll do it'll do reasonably well. Um we're talking right now about rain sounds. I think we need some rain sounds. I'm not sure how that was missed here. We We definitely need to maybe I can barely hear it. It's super quiet. There's certain sounds that are really quiet in this game. Like the panic room. I can barely hear that. And I I think we need to just crank that volume up. That would be really funny if you just hear banging and screaming in the panic room. Um and then also, please forgive me if you already heard all this. Um, but then finally, I feel like you need some kind of at the very beginning of the train sequence. The beginning of the game, I need some kind of um destination on the train. So,

we were talking about how maybe the duck could could on the speaker system say next stop hell or coming up purgatory. Please collect your bags. In 5 minutes, we will be arriving in the afterlife. Something like that. So, I know. Okay, that's where we're going. I just need something to keep me moving. Otherwise, it's just an abstract train. Now, you know where we're going as the developer, you know, and that's exciting to you. And you're probably thinking, "Isn't it so exciting? We're on the train going to the afterlife." But we don't know that, right? Okay, let's keep playing. Oh, there he is. Look. Hey, there's Mr. Wolf. Super quiet. Yeah, bunch of bones blocking. I mean, this is great. I love the art style. Um, game has a lot of personality. Really, really

uh satisfied here. There should be a way to turn them off. I think you can just switch off anything like that you don't like. I'd make this fella not just move left and right. I would make him move up and down too. So it's I think it's a bar sort of. There he goes. Your ticket. What? A ticket. Standard procedure, ma'am. I'm sure we can get a ticket somewhere. Correct. But first, I have a mandatory poem. Shall I proceed? Uh, sure. Lay it on me. This is something JR Tolken would do.

One truth hides beneath your breath. Nine fears dance on the edge of death. Eight whispers call from the mirrored floor. Four steps reveal what you've ignored. You can proceed to take this. Stop the watchful eyes. What? What are you talking about? The tick is asking for a ticket. I missed that. That's great. Yeah, the art is great, man. Uh, okay. So, we need a ticket to get into that little cozy after. What is this? I love, by the way, I love games where you enter a like haunted courtyard and then you make your way up to a haunted like mansion. Wouldn't that be great if that's what

happens? Okay, let's get a freaking ticket. Okay, that's great. I freaking love that. Good job. Look, it's just just bleak and black. Five minutes until arriving at the gray village. That's another another phrase we could do. Just tell me I'm going somewhere bleak. I'm going somewhere gray. And you're like, and she says, and she goes, and I'm talking, I'm going back to that beginning of the game where I feel like we need to know where we're going. Um, you need to tell me two things, developer. This is just my opinion, okay? And this is based on my experience of play testing my own games that have a mysterious story. Tell me some kind of destination. 5 minutes till we arrive at the Grey Town. Please collect your belongings. Okay, something like that. Number two, I need the girl to say,

"Where the hell am I?" She said something like that and I didn't fully understand what she was saying. It was like she said, "I thought I fell asleep somewhere else or something." I want her to say, "I don't know where I am." That would be so good. All right. All right. So, let's see here. Petting epidemic. Please exercise caution when traveling alone. Unsolicited petting may occur. I love how random the game is. It's really silly and wonderful. Okay, so I can't really do anything with any of this stuff. So, I need to find a ticket. Oh, talk to Ekko. Do you remember anything? Anything at all?

Bits, pieces? No, nothing that makes sense. Maybe that's for the best. You're hiding something. Fine. Deeply insecure about my cheekbones. Hilarious. Look, I I know this place is unsettling, but maybe you need to be unsettled. Dude, I think about God that way. When things go bad, and I've had a pretty good life, but sometimes I think when things are tough and difficult, I think God's thinking that. I know this place is unsettling, but maybe you need to be unsettled. That gives me chills. Great writing. Good job.

Can't get out of it. Oh, there we go. Yeah, get rid of the E here, man. Or or ma'am, whoever you are. What's your name, by the way? Is the developer in the chat? Developer just disappears. They don't care what I have to say. Uh, yeah. Get rid of that E. How is that supposed to help? How is that supposed to help? I thought it helped a lot. You do have your guard up, you know. Oh, right. Okay, because we all should be vulnerable in the afterlife. This will be a long journey. So, what do I do? I love that jump. I wish I could I wish I could jump that high. Oh, man. And I want to wear pointy shoes. Apparently, I got a remote. I never I

didn't know I got a remote. I don't know why, but this is just an idea. It would be great if the developer recorded my voice lines right now and used them in the game. 1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Okay, so I'm not sure where I got that remote. Honestly, that tree needs to be darker. It's a little too bright. Oh gosh. It's in the poem, isn't it? Guys, I need you to figure this out for me. Okay.

All right. Do you want to hear the poem again?
Yeah, sure. Let's hear it. Okay, guys. I think that the keypad code is in the poem. So, I need you guys to figure it out because I won't.
One truth hides beneath your breath. Nine fears dance on the edge of death. Eight whispers call from the mirrored floor. Four steps reveal what you've ignored. What? Okay. What is it? You guys figured it out. I'm going to wait. And you're thinking, "Man, Thomas is so dumb." Yeah, that's the whole point. That's why I do YouTube. I pretend to be smart. 1984. Brilliant. 984.

Clever. I knew you had it in you. I didn't. My My audience did, though. Oh, great. Now a machine that wants a piece of me. Literally, I'm having a blast. Oh gosh. Whoa. Ouch. Pain in the afterlife is entirely unnecessary. Okay, I got myself a ticket in exchange for a finger. A finger. That was all that was left. A finger of Peter Pedigrew. Tickets checked.

Yes. I was going to say you need to start playing music now. I want to hear this. I need to hear music here. Yeah, I would definitely start playing music here. Okay, here we go.

1984 is a great book. I've read half and that's really good for me. Um, I would make those bones darker. They're a little bit too bright. You know what I love about this game is it doesn't look too much like Limbo. A winter. Everyone's hurt. Oh gosh. Oh, nice. I would make that louder and scarier. Be careful. Let's pet it. Good boy. Once I was two I love that. He's cute. Look at the one

in the background there. That's cool. I don't know why his parallax was off, but Okay, music's starting. Good. Wow, we made it to the title. This is great. What a solid title. I really love this game. really good. I love those drips of water. They look very um thick and gooey. I can't explain it, but this place feels familiar. I don't think you've been dead before. No, but the fear and the hunger in the spirit's eyes. I I recognized it. I wonder why. The fear was it yours or someone else's?

Well, I guess I guess mine. Well, what's the worst that can happen? Probably remembering why I felt it. You want to feel fear with no explanation. I don't appreciate you bringing logic into this. Well, that's what we companions are for. I love I love having the companion, guys. Can you imagine? And by the way, the mechanic the the companion is a tried andrue tool used in storytelling. Also, I guess you could call it the wise sage. And it's great to have in story games. Without it, it's very difficult to tell a story. He knows everything and you don't know anything. And so, you can ask him questions and talk through your feelings with this sage. And there's a benefit of having him follow you around.

Seems to be empty. Okay, we got to move on to the next game. Overall, that was rock freaking solid, man. So good. Awesome game. Has it have reviews yet? Let's take a look at the reviews. Oh, this game needs um Okay, guys. Guys, this demo uh this demo came out, wow, two days a Yesterday. This demo came out yesterday. Um, and it's sitting at very positive. 100% very positive. Rock solid. Um, did it really come out yesterday, March 2nd? Yeah. Wow. Congratulations, Hollow Beat Games. You've made something that has a really strong personality. It's a good solid title. It seems to be

doing well on Steam. Um, these are good. These are good numbers, especially if you didn't really have a big I don't know how big your audience is. I have no idea. But if you don't have like a big audience to push to and you're getting these reviews, that's awesome. I'm really really proud of Hollow Beak Games. I think they've done an incredible job. The only couple things that I mentioned that really bugged me, give me a destination. I would honestly say get me off that train a little sooner. Get me off that train because like the game got really exciting once I was finally off that train. The train is a cool motif, but y'all you just need to get me off that train like maybe in a minute. Uh, number two, give me a destination. Next stop, Grey Town. 5 minutes to Grey Town. Collect your luggage. Right. Give me something like that. let me know I'm

on the way to this afterlife town. Uh, and then number three, sound of rain. And then and then start that music. If it were me, I'd start that music right after I enter that gate. And it would be okay. Uh, yeah, that's that's my opinion. Don't screw it up too much. based on what I say because you're clearly doing a good job with your reviews. All right, let's jump into the next game. And by the way, if you're interested in getting a shout out tomorrow, tomorrow's live stream like Arie, Nickel, Philip, Richard, Robert, and Hassan. And by the way, I'm not working tomorrow. I'm sorry, I meant Monday. If you want a shout out in Monday's live stream, then check out Fulltime GameDev. Obviously, it's really cool to get a shout out in a live stream, but more importantly, obviously, what what you're getting here is a really massive course taught by a game

developer who's had three commercial games, Never Song, Pinstripe, and I'm currently finishing up my third my third commercial release called Twisted Tower. If you want to learn from an actual indie game dev on not only how to make a game in Unity GDAU or Unreal, but also how to hit the Steam front page, how to get wish lists, how to get press coverage, how to do a c a kickstarter campaign, how to get a uh how to pitch to to publishers and get funding and go full-time with just a demo. If you want to learn about how to do all of that, check out Fulltime GameDev below. It's 50% off for the spring sale. You get my 2D and 3D art programs completely free, but only for this sale event. You got four days left. And also, the seats are selling fast. There's limited seats. There's only 100 seats available. These are students who actually went full-time with the help of the course, which is totally cool. It's totally rad and it makes me really happy and honestly, I'm very proud of these students. Um, okay, let's go ahead and jump into the next game. You guys ready? Now, full disclosure, this game, and it's not that I didn't have enough submissions. I had I think today I had 30 submissions in the last couple hours. Um, but I just

really, really, really wanted to play this game. I really wanted to play this game. It's called Shallow Pond. Something about this game that it's just got a really I think it's got a really juicy character controller. And so, because the developer didn't request me to review this game, I'm not going to review it in the way that I might review another game because I don't I don't want to be too critical to somebody who hasn't really opened that door. I don't think that's very respectful. So, instead, I'm just going to play it and and give positive feedback. I might mention a few things that I don't like, but let's go ahead and get started. Awesome. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Nick Nickel Fritzdev. I got to go. Thanks for doing these streams, Thomas. I'm excited to dive into your course. It's awesome.

That's awesome. the Suabi games. Great music. Honestly, this feels awesome. I wish there was more fog. Anyway, let's keep going. I need to not be I don't want to be critical cuz it the the developer didn't ask me to. Okay, so frame rate's a little slow. Let me see if I can fix that. Oh, dang it. I can't. That's really jarring. Hopefully there's an options menu. No, there's not. I I love it. I just I want to get rid of the the the motion blur and and reduce the resolution. It's just it's the frame rate's kind of slow and that that feels really difficult for me.

Uh yeah, we got to fix that. I love that uh grass though. I wonder if there's a way to I got to get rid of that. Do you guys see that? Press A to double jump. Character control feels awesome. Yeah, I wish there was a landing sound. Um, yeah. Yeah, it's got like a kind of a a a a very laggy it. Look at it's got screen. It's screen tearing. It's screen tearing. We need VSYNC on. I'm seeing some major screen tearing. I

think that's what it is. Okay. Press Oh, yeah. Okay. Press RB to dash shift. So, it's not it's not knowing it. It's not swapping the keyboard. It's just assuming I'm playing with a controller. So, we might want to fix that. Let's get that coin. Overall though, graphics are awesome. Um, and the player controller is rock solid. Yay, I got myself a shell. Press A. Oh, and it good. It unlocked that. Press AB to jump to stomp.

I'm going to have to get a controller, aren't I? Okay, that's right click. Yeah, I wish that it it it swapped out based on if I had a controller or not. Yeah, I would say the camera is is really hurting the game. That's really really jarring. But game is freaking awesome. Jump into an enemy to defeat him. Nice. underwater. Dive down. Dive up. B is dive down. A is dive up. Nice. That feels great. Okay, so Oh, it's Okay, good. So, it's E and Q. That's great. Woohoo. Way to go. I love this.

Really good character controller. Awesome. Rock solid. Does the grass wiggle? I think it is. Yeah, the grass wiggles when I run through it, which is so perfect. Yay. Those bushes would be awesome if it was and leaves kicked off the bushes. Tap right trigger for a light spray. Hey, this game is doing a great job teaching me what to do. I love it. What a solid title. I'm having a blast and I feel like I'm I feel like I'm a kid again. Really feels good.

Come closer and enter the demo. Oh, we're going to go see Mr. Bilbo Baggins. Yeah, you could tell the developer knows their stuff. This is awesome. Um, that camera is the only thing that's bothering me. And it's I think it's a big deal if I'm being honest. It's a pretty big deal. Now, let's vote for the for the developer. Um, let's vote because Thomas may be wrong. Yes, the the camera the jagged camera is a problem or no, it's not a problem. Yes, it's a problem. No, it's not a problem. What a beautiful looking game. Wow, look how big it is, guys. Press Y to interact.

Uh, okay. It's R. Yeah, you definitely need options. I do agree. You need 1,000%. We need options. I got five uh slimy pink guys. Oh, I need to get five slimy. This is so great. This is like Banjo Kazouie. Yes, the camera can do some work. Yes. Yes. It's a problem for motion sick people. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, well, that's the thing, right? Is if I'm streaming the game and you're seeing problems, you do want to fix that as well because streamers are going to play the game. And if that's unique to this this game, then there is something to solve there. Get out of here. Okay. So, I need to do something with him.

Let's see. How do I kill the guys with helmets? I think I need to slam. Yeah, that's fun. Oh, good. There's a shadow below me. Okay. Awesome. Oh, I love that piano. Hey, look at that. Dingo.

We need more encouragement for games like this in this day and age. No, I need it to be a casino game. Where are the slot machines? Where are the stats? Where are the numbers? Where's co-op? Where's multiplayer? No, this is what we want. We want a simple game. We want a simple platformer. For once in our lives, just give me a nice platformer and we've got it here. So, let's praise the developer and encourage them. I love to collect shells. I love to collect my shells.

So, I'm just randomly killing villagers. It's like, and it comes back to that previous demo, which is like, um, I would love a motive cuz I feel like I'm just killing innocent people because they look mean. That's very nice, is it? Uh, Lucas says, "Most Steam players don't want this. This would be a good you I Lucas, I'm not going to argue with you. The market creates the games." It really does. I'm not going to lie. Yay. When I grab a ledge, I would love to hear a

I love spraying pin wheels. Uh, have I been watching Frozen? Dude, I used to watch Frozen every day with my daughter when she was um four and five. Oh, that makes me sad. She don't watch it anymore. Games like this have their place though. It's niche, but there's an audience. That's the thing. It's like if I was making this game, I would be tempted to make it co-op or something and like a little bit more sloppy. Friend sloppy. I'd be tempted to. I wouldn't want to, but I would I would do it because I knew that it would help. But this is good enough, man. Especially if you make a game like this on a low budget and you you make it in like seven

months and it's five three hours long and you sell it for 10 bucks. Totally. I think it's totally feasible cuz you could make $700,000 to a million dollars off of this. So, it could be worth your time for sure. I I I uh I don't know. Maybe you could make more. Okay. So, it's kind of just like open. Um, it's it's just open at this point. And, um, I'm not sure kind of what the goal is. Um, but I do think it's a it's a solid sandbox. Really, really impressed by the sandbox. Uh, okay. So, let's vote for our favorite game, guys. You ready? I'm going to go ahead and put a poll in the chat. Okay. Not a poll, not a poll, but a poll. So, let's go ahead and go to YouTube and I'm going to create that poll for you

guys. Um, and just promise me you won't dance on this poll. Let me open up the Let's review your games here. There we go. Let's take a look at it. do a poll. Poll poll poll poll poll. We're going to start a poll. Which game was your fave? All right, we're going to start with uh Shallow. We got Shallow Pond and then we got Veils Echo. Okay, I'm going to start that poll. I'm not going to um I'm not going to look at the poll. I swear to you, you just have to trust me. I'm not going to look at the poll. I like to kind of guess which game's going to win. But I'm going to let you guys do that poll here. And while we dance on that poll, we're going to give one final shout out to Arie, Nickel, Philip,

Richard, Robert, and Hassan. Welcome to Full-Time GameDev. And again, guys, you got four days left. This is ending very, very soon. To check out my course, Fulltime GameDev, if you want to learn from an actual game de developer who's been published on three separate occasions. I'm currently on my third published game. It's published by 3D Realms. It's called Twisted Tower. I'm almost done with it. It's in beta testing. If you want to learn from an actual published indie game dev on how to take a demo and make a living from that demo, meaning get funded or just get wish lists and finish the game and release it on Steam, hit the Steam front page, get press coverage, how to do a Kickstarter campaign, uh how to stay motivated, how to make a game in Unity, Gdor, or Unreal, but also get my 2D and 3D art programs completely free. Check it out below. It's 50% off. And look, you don't have to trust me. look at some of the reviews for my students who actually went full-time. So, take a look, see if it's something you're interested in. And now, let's go ahead and look at the poll. My guess for the poll right now is um

my guess is that Veil's Echo is probably at 70%. Despite the fact that, I'm going to be honest with you. Despite the fact that in my current life with kids and I'm 35 and I like mindless games because I don't want to think too much, I would probably really enjoy Shallow Pond. Um, in this stage of my life now, which one's more artful? Um, probably Veil's Echo, but I'm going to guess Veils is at six. I'm going to guess 65. 65 is Veil's Echo. So, let's go ahead and take a look here at the final poll. Let me pull it up. Is at six. Let's take a look here. Okay, Veil's Echo is at 60 and Shallow Pond is 41. Awesome. So, general idea. Yeah, I kind of I kind

of nailed that one. I'm not going to lie. I'm like, what am I off? Five points, six points. But yeah, and that let's talk about why that happened. Um, and obviously the poll is going to change throughout as I'm talking. Shall Shallow Pond, I think it really doesn't. Um, it's super fun, but it was a sandbox, you know, if it had a story and a motive and a goal. But I will say there's something about moody, dark, haunting games that tend to do well. I think gamers, they like that edgy, haunted vibe. They really do. Horror games always do well. Um, playful, uh, childlike games like that. I I'm gonna be honest. I made a game just like that. Have you Do you guys know which game I'm talking about? Let's take a look. It's It's not as uh It's not as um

juicy. I would say it's not as juicy as
um Shallow Pond, but I made a game very similar.
The ancient proverbs have spoken.
So, this is called Brave Boy
and um
healing from the Scottish.
I quit the project. shall rise to become an illustrious king. Right.
Hi there, lad. I'm in a bit of a bind, you see. Mercy. And as much as people thought it was cool on X and on Twitter, nobody showed up to play the demo. And this has nothing to do with Shallow Pond at all. But I can just speak from

personal experience with Brave Boy. I can't speak about Shallow Pond because I don't know how it's going to do. But Brave Boy, I think the audience for that game isn't necessarily on Steam. So, one of you mentioned that earlier. It's more of a console title. And I I think you're right. I think you're right. I think it's great for kids who are who are like seven to maybe 11 or 12. Um, but here's the thing. If you take a game like Brave Boy or Shallow Pond and you put edge on it and you make it dark and gritty and maybe even violent, I'm not saying Shallow Pond needs to do this. I'm just saying that's this is my suspicion. You make it edgy and more devolveresque, it has a place or it it may potentially

have more of a place on Steam. I can only speak from experience where I've seen time and time again when I make something edgy and dark, people like it more on Steam. So, what do we think though, guys, in the chat? What do you guys think? Is Thomas Is correct? Kids play games? I thought they were all on TikTok. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think if you're going to make a platformer, like if if I was to make a platformer, by the way, I think I'm going to make a platformer for my next game. 3D. Really, really chill. Really, really cozy and fun, but a little bit edgy. 3D. I think that that that's going to be my goal in the future is just to go hardcore del Toro.

with an otherwise simple game. So, I don't I And by the way, this was something that I also heard from a publisher. They were talking to me and they were like, "Hey, we really like Brave Boy. Uh, can you can you make it just feel haunted?" And I was like, "What?" They were like, "We just feel like that would do better." Um, Glassy Studio. That's kind of Yeah, that my suspicion is that's kind of what what what would be the smartest move. Something like that. Yeah. So, but we'll see. I mean, Never Song did fine. Never did great on mobile. Um, but I just feel like if Never Song was darker and edgier and um was 3D, it would do twice as many sales, which I I would be happy with that. It's like I think close to a million.

Uh, Twisted Tower, but 2D. That would be awesome. I'm I am so excited to announce the next the next game, you guys. I I cannot wait to tell you about it. It's so cool. Um, but I need to finish up Twisted Tower. Thanks, Wackaroya. Okay, how did how did the poll end up, by the way? Where's the poll at? Okay, so it's close to 50/50. Wow, I was wrong. So, Shallow Pond, congratulations. You're about tied with Veil's Echo. So, y'all are It's a coin toss between the two of them. I love you so much. I'm so glad you showed up. I need you

in my life. I love you guys. Thank you so much for chilling and I I can't wait to play the next game. The next games are going to be on Monday and I will talk to you guys later. When do I think I'll launch Twisted Tower? Uh,