Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 050 (Part 2)

That's right. Come on in guys. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Hey, we had internet issues. Welcome to Thomas brushes life. I just moved into a new house. I'm still getting the studio set up. What I just did at your request. Okay, so you guys let me know how things are going. But at your request, what I've done is I've run an ethernet cord from my PC to the router. So I'm very very excited to see if that actually solves our problem. Let's double check and see who shows up here in the chat and see if this is actually working properly. Cuz maybe just maybe it works. Okay, we've got Zach. So far seems better. Good. Okay. Anybody else? I'm seeing zero viewers. Okay, good. Here we go. All right. Let me know how it's going, guys.

Did you know 10 years, well, actually 7 years of doing YouTube I've never been plugged in via ethernet ever. And that's probably why we've had so many streams crash. That's probably why Thomas's streams always crash. I just didn't want to deal with running an ethernet cable. So what I'm going to have to do is I got to figure out how to run an ethernet cable through my walls. There's an attic above me, so I could probably run it from the attic all the way down to the ethernet in the living room. Okay, so anyway huge huge thank you to these new students who joined the program full-time game dev, which is a massive course. Ed Philip Hennis, Elrisco, Hector, Cloud, Sravan, Vince, and Jake's Powell. And by the way, if you want to get a shoutout in the next live stream, check out the spring sale for my course full-time game dev. If you want to learn how to make a game and turn it into a paycheck before you finish the game during the game's launch and after the game's launch. Check it out below. It's 50% off.

Thomas, how do you do that? What are you talking about? Well, guys, I have been published on three separate occasions. This is Pinstripe. This is Never Song. And this is the Twisted Tower demo. Twisted Tower is coming out soon published by 3D Realms. This one was published by Serenity Forge. And then this one was published by Armor Games. That's how I went full-time on three separate occasions. I found funding. Also did Kickstarter campaigns. Hey, you're going to learn how to do that in this program. You're also going to learn how to hit the Steam front page, how to get press coverage, how to make a game in Unity, Godot, or Unreal. You can take your pick. Also how to do a how or you'll get my 2D art program and my 3D art programs completely free. You've got 5 hours left. It's a awesome awesome course. I wish I had something like this. Seriously. I wish I had something like this when I first started making games. Okay, let's go ahead and jump back into the game we were playing. Ooh, you can definitely run ethernet through the walls. They have stuff to help with that at Home Depot. Yes, I agree. And thank you so much. Totally

agree. So we were playing a game called I or let's see here. What was it called? We were playing a game called I can't remember the name. Time to wake up. Okay? And the sound was so quiet. That was one thing I was concerned about. Now I'll just mention them really quick. Super quiet. Also I couldn't tell the difference between the voice actors. The voice actor one of the voice actors sounded like a male, the other one sounded like a male. He sounded like a generic male and this one sounded like a generic male. And I couldn't really figure out who was talking. Um so all I was saying in the previous stream when it crashed was it'd be great if we could get different voice actors with [music] totally different personalities. So the internal voice could be uh you going to get the door? What's wrong with you? Are you a stupid or something? Really get like a sarcastic,

gritty, mean tone. And then the regular voice my voice, my real voice, the protagonist voice could be more like Bo is Afraid. Uh I don't know if I want to get that door. It could be Satan on the other end, right? You need two totally two totally different tones and personalities if you're going to have an internal voice. That's just my two cents. Do I think I'm right? [music] Yeah. Am I right? Maybe. All right, let's press any key to continue. Okay, so it didn't save. I don't think it saved. Yeah, so there was no auto save, so that's another issue. I would just make sure it's it's saving between checkpoints cuz now we have to play the whole thing over again. Okay, another issue I had with the game was it's all on rails. Like most of this is just automated. Like I'm not doing anything right now.

I'll put my hands up so you can see.
[snorts]
It's all automated. Very quiet voice. Okay, now I'm like doing therapy or something. And this I'm going to skip through this because we did this in the previous stream. Basically the guy's contemplating the S-word. And uh Tom is saying you can't do that cuz you don't know what's in the afterlife. That's about all there is there. Then there's this cute girl. Or maybe that's my mom. But again, dialogue is super quiet. hear

it. So everything here Yes, so everything here that Okay, there's a couple things. Everything here from from this point all the way to this point, from the beginning to this point I feel like we could give five, six moments of the player interacting doing something. Right? Um this I can't really move. Right? Which is fine. I guess it's all on rails. I can't hear that. We need to turn that up. I would highlight that and give me a

cursor. It The thing about game feel is the player wants to feel like they're connecting pieces of puzzles and pressing buttons. I think that's the only way that I can describe it. At least for me. When I'm making a game, I want to make sure things I'm pressing things and pushing things and touching things and interacting things and moving various elements into their locations. Even if it's just a cursor hovering over a highlighted box. And it And then And then the cursor makes a sound when it hovers. Boop. That is connecting pieces. It feels like a game. That didn't feel like a game because I'm just looked at in a general area and didn't even know that that looked like a circuit breaker. So I don't feel like I'm doing anything if that makes sense. How's the internet, guys? Shut up.

[snorts]
So I'm not doing anything, by the way. So I'd love it a cursor, a little dot. Okay, so she's asking me out to go for drinks and the voice in my head is saying you're crazy. You should go and talk to this girl. Okay, cool. And how's audio? How's sound? How's internet? Thanks, guys.
[snorts]
Okay, um so like I said, all that whole sequence um I wasn't doing anything. Now I understand I I talked about this in previous stream before we crashed. I understand that this is a genre and it's it's it's on rails, but I feel like we should give the player little things to do. And making those interactions really clicky and fun.

But don't take my word for it, guys. In the chat or developer in the chat let the developer know kind of what you feel like they should uh I'm not sure of all the different voices. I I I'm trying to figure it out. Okay. But let me know in the chat, guys, what you think. I love the art, though. What do I do? That was so weird. I don't know what I did there to get that to work, but apparently I needed to look at that pill bottle. I just didn't know that I did. So have things flashing and highlighting, give me a little cursor. 6 months ago.

Shut up. Shut So I took pills and now I'm falling asleep. Tomorrow's And you're gone. Great. Alan Malone While you close your eyes and pretend everything will be fine tomorrow I When will you finally take care of yourself? Take care of me. Alan, if you can hear me Please. Can you Please. What are you Alan? You're here? Finally.
[laughter]

Okay. I'm so glad you're here. Here, let me open this door for you. So Let me ask you guys a question. Do you understand what's going on? Just a quick yes or no is fine. And this is for the developer. Do [snorts] you know what is going on? Now, the developer I've talked about this a million times in previous streams. The developer might think, well, we're not supposed to know what's going on. It's supposed to be confusing. A great story has a through line that you can cling to in the midst of an abstract tornado. Great music, by the way. So everybody we got 140 people watching. Can you let me know in the chat? Do you know what's going on? Yes or no, just

say yes or no. You're a sight for sore eyes. Okay, there's Alan. The The movement's very slidy. So like I release and I still slide. It's like I'm on like roller skates. Also, I'm very short. So if I stand next to a door in real life the door knob doesn't come up to my nipples like it does here, right? Like I could open the door with if I had hands on my nipples. So I need to I need to be up to about there. So we need to increase the height of the player controller, the camera on the controller. But again, artwork is great, music is great. Look, remember

click. Yes, like that. Okay. Look. That's cool. That's fun. This is a fun little gimmick. I think that intro sequence was really uh Wait, we should have started the game here. I would start the game here. Your eyes will come in handy. One blink and you reveal your past. Yeah, I would Okay. I would start the game here. We don't need That whole intro sequence I would cut. If it was me and I I would just cut it all. I don't need to see any of that Wake I wake up in bed right there.

Uh I wake up in bed right here. Somewhere right here. I wake up and the mechanic is taught. And then I would I would change the voice actor to be uh ha- haunting. Um he would say, "Wake up, sleepyhead." You do this. Right click. You can see into the past.
[gasps]
And right click again. And you're back in the present.
[laughter]
Something like that, an internal voice. That's all we need. That is all we needed for this. Now, if you want to tell me that story about the backstory about your mom and the girl I think that's great. Let's do it now after we learn the mechanic. Yeah, and we need we definitely need to to make the player care. I totally agree. Give them a motive, but show me this gimmick right away, man.

So many game intros, including my own, take way too long to get started. I still feel like I'm a child. Am I a child? Am I a child? Because I feel like I'm a child. All right, so what do I do here? Ooh, cool. That's great. See what I'm saying, guys? We need to start here. People have limited time these days and there's a lot of games. So let's get them motivated and excited to play. your past our past. That's fun. This is so much better. Okay. Uh I don't know if skipping the intro is

necessarily the best option, but there is a real pacing issue. I guess I Let's get going, you know? Let's get the player This is more of a marketing thing, but it's like we've got we've got players who have a ton of games they want to play on Steam. You You You put them through a sequence that's jarring and the rhythm is off and the voice acting is slow and tiresome and quiet and they don't do anything and there's no interaction and you force them through 5 minutes of that they're going to drop off. Wake me up there. Let me do that sequence and I am invested now because that's a really fun little gimmick. Especially if this has like Portal vibes where each little section is a puzzle. That's That would be so great. Oh, no. We are not doing this. You're going to blink and remember what

happened so we can leave this place. Understood? Okay. What?
breath. What's going on? So there was like three things happening at once there and that was a little confusing. Making teams, never again. Sports weren't for me anyways. Not Not sure quite what that sentence means, making teams. Not Not quite sure what that means. Um but it's okay. Hey. Remember your old bedroom closet? How many times did you hide in there? Yeah, there's a There's a There's something going on where I don't understand if I I don't understand if the protagonist knows what's going on. Cuz the protagonist isn't really reacting. Um

If the protagonist said "Am I Am I in my old house? Why am I here?" Then all of a sudden this voice is much more intriguing. So Give me a sec, guys. I got to go get something. Yeah. So yeah, I guess I just don't really know what the motive is or where I am or

who I am or why I'm here or why I should care. Um Mechanics are awesome, gameplay's great. I like the tone and the atmosphere. And I love the art. Seriously. This is so cool. I think the storytelling is actually the biggest issue in this game. The ghost Let me. That's cool. Okay, apparently I'm not supposed to jump on those.

It feels like I'm being presented with a platforming puzzle, but I don't think I am. There we go. Thomas I forgot the mechanics, sorry. Okay. Whoops, I forgot. Sorry guys. Sorry guys. Okay, I know I'm being a dummy. What am I doing? Oh, oh, it's just so slippery. If if I were the developer, I would definitely tighten up that the controller. He's very slidy. Here.

To keep track of it all. Now, take a look. What? Okay. Why can't I talk Why can't I talk in here? Am Am I really dreaming? Asleep? Both. Am I really in my old bedroom? And this voice It doesn't stop talking. Should I keep my thoughts to myself? Or share them with him? So, that's why you don't speak up. And hey, good luck finding a way out without me. I do appreciate you sharing your thoughts though. As for your questions, I don't know why you can't talk. Told you you're dreaming, so yes, yes, yes, and yes, you're in your childhood bedroom.

Okay, so those shouldn't be visible if I can't turn. Um It's really hard to follow what's going on. But I I don't know if I would trust me if I was the developer. So, I'm going to ask the chat. Again, are you following what's going on? Yes or no? Yes, I'm following or no, I'm not following. And this is not to be critical for the sake of being critical. I'm trying to help the developer with the help of you guys in the chat to find out like, hey, is there a way that we can make this a little bit more apparent what's going on. I think I'm a little kid, yeah. But I'm

I have a man's voice. It's like I'm dreaming or something. I guess this is like my adult life. I'm not sure what the difference between the two are other than they're just different, you know. What book was it again? The one that said life is chaos? Why did you apply those words everywhere? Hm. Got a giant microwave here. Hi honey, I'm having a meeting tonight.

Food is in the fridge. That's fun. Pretty ironic that one day you lost that very book. Your favorite one at that. You even considered the writer, Tom, to be your friend. Good news, bad news. Bad news, I forgot about your birthday and I can't make it. Good news, Frank and I got you a book. Enjoy it, sweetie. So, I am a kid. Those are fun. Okay.

So, there should be a book somewhere. I just can't quite figure I guess this is when I was an adult. Hm. You're playing through your core memories. I I I get that. Like I think I understand that. I don't quite know what they're saying exactly. I see Yeah, it's very very abstract and and not super not easy enough to follow. I I feel like you would need a little bit more clarity here. But let's let's try and figure out what I need to do here.

I heard water. Okay. Okay. Well, well, well. Let's go ahead vote in the chat. It's more of a It's This is going to be more of just a free chill vote in the chat. Just cuz we only had time to play two games today. Um we played What games did we play today? We played that game, which was uh Time to Wake Up.
[snorts]
And then we also played a game Let's see here. We also played a game called Tree Planter, right? Um What What did both games have going for them? That's That's the first thing I want to do.

Tree Planter art style was its strongest asset. Um and just the cozy atmosphere. I think the atmosphere was pretty solid. Uh I think its weaknesses um that if you're not into those kind of games, it's not going to be fun. Right? If you don't want to sit around and and plant trees and make pretty scenes, it's just not going to be fun. Um so that's just something to keep in mind for the developer. It's a very very niche kind of game. Um Time to Wake Up, what it had going for it was its art style. I think its art style was rock solid. I think that its atmosphere and music was rock solid. Um overall just vibe was was good. I think its weakness that it currently needs to address is that character controller is way too slidy and slippery. I feel like I'm flying around on soap. Um and I think the voice acting is

dis hurting the story because I Sometimes I don't know who's talking. Like sometimes I don't know if it's me or it's the other voice. I wish that they were more distinct. We talked about that. Uh I think the intro to that game, the first 5 minutes where you're not doing anything except watching the camera on rails, is is a little is a lot too slow. It It was boring if I'm being honest. I like the gimmick. I think that's another thing that the gimmick of going between two uh environments is strong. Um I think we need to lean more into that gimmick. Uh make the puzzles more challenging in that gimmick. Um yeah. And I think overall the story is just I I'm all about abstract storytelling. Like you guys, if you've played if you've played my game Never Song, and then also my game Pinstripe, and for those of you who've beta tested Twisted Tower, you know I'm all about mysterious abstract storytelling.

But you always kind of need to give an emotional through line. For example, uh with Pinstripe, the emotional through line is um your daughter gets kidnapped into hell, and you have to go find her. That's all you need for all of the abstraction to surround that single emotional through line. For Never Song, your girlfriend gets taken, and you're in a strange dreamland. This one is too abstract. It This was a big mistake. A lot of mistakes were made in this game. In Twisted Tower, the through line is number one, you're trying to find your fiance, but number two, you're trying to figure out who you are and why you're at this creepy theme park, right? Um Okay. So, what did we think here? Which game was your favorite? Go. Which game was your favorite?

Tree Planter? Type Tree Planter in all caps. Or Time to Wake Up. Which game was your favorite? Tree Planter? Or Time to Wake Up. Cat Name Mojave is probably one of the best games I've played in 3 months in terms of games submitted for the Indie Game reviews I do. Um this game is like the best thing I've played actually the best thing I've played in like a year. Um I'm looking at the all the other ones. In terms of games submitted, yeah. And then Skin Stapler is not, but this is um one of my guests, Michael, his game. Uh he was on the podcast. This is This is a great game, by the way. Okay, Time to Wake Up was our favorite. Okay.

Time to Wake Up was the favorite. All right, guys. Thanks for hanging out today. That was a lot a lot of fun. I love you guys so much. Just remember, last big call out here. Hey, you got 4 hours left, seriously. 4 hours left to join the spring sale. Check out my course Full Time Game Dev teaches you everything I've learned in going full time. Whether that's getting publishers, doing Kickstarter campaigns, hitting the Steam front page, game sales, uh how to get wish lists, how to get press coverage, how to do all that marketing stuff I know you don't want to do, but it's so important. How to make a game in Unity, Godot, or Unreal. If you don't believe me, I totally get it, but at least check out the reviews on the site of students who actually went full time. That's it. I love you guys so much. Thanks for dealing with my internet issues. I'm actually going to Jason, I think I'm going to go play your game. And then I'm going to um fix the internet. I love you guys so much I'm or bury these