Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 055

Guys, come on in. Welcome, welcome, welcome. If I'm peaking, let me know. Is it clipping? Is it peaking? I think it sounds okay. We good? We're going to play one to three games today. I don't know how many we're going to get through. But, we're going to do that and the goal for today's live stream is what? To tear apart the indie game dream. To destroy any conceived notion that you might be successful as an indie game developer. There's only a few who will be successful. That's me and Jeb. No, of course not. Today's goal is to encourage developers, play your games, and give feedback so that when you launch 1.0, you don't suffer the way you're about to suffer during this live stream. The goal is for you to fix the the issues that come up during this live stream. So, come on in, guys. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And by the way, I wanted to say a huge, massive thank you. You have made my day. Seriously, to everybody on this

list, you have made my day. You've made my week. These are new students who have joined the full-time game dev program. David, Kale, Chris, Blong, Oxlo, Ignaz, and then I mentioned all these yesterday, so I'm not going to keep going through it. But, hey, huge, huge thank you for joining the program. And if you want a shout-out on Monday's live stream, just like those students got a live shout-out just now, check out full-time game dev for the summer sale. The link is below. The summer sale comes, you guessed it, once a year. And this is my biggest sale so far, okay? This is a massive sale. It's 50% off my full-time game dev program, but you're also going to get my 2D art program and my brand new 3D art program completely free. You also get my YouTube program completely free. And then on top of that, I'm going to throw in an hour-long consulting session, a mastermind session with you and just a handful of other developers where you get to meet me, talk with me for an hour, ask me questions, and I'll hang out with you, get to know you.

Okay? So, that is a massive bundle, big big sale event, 50% off. If you're interested in learning how somebody like Thomas Brush, a believe me, can make a game like this, can make a game like this. And not only that, can just make a demo and then sell it to publishers, sell it on Kickstarter. I've done this on three separate occasions. I've gone full-time with just demos with or you'd call them vertical slices. That's one thing I teach in the program. And if you don't believe me, if you think it sounds like BS or Thomas is a snake oil salesman, believe me, I would I would think that, too. I get annoyed with YouTubers. I really do. So, at least read my students. These are students who their reviews. These are students who went full-time with the help of the program. So, at least read the reviews if you're on the fence. I really do think this program's going to help you so much cuz it's pretty much all in one, right? This huge encompassing course with pretty much everything you need to

know on marketing and business side and Steam and making games in 2D or 3D, making games in Godot or Unreal, everything you need to know to make 3D art for indie games or 2D art for indie games. So, click the link below and learn from an actual indie game developer. Okay. Hey, let's play some games. You guys ready? Let's go. All right, first things first, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to play a game called Polaris. Now, I think Indie Game Joe, who by the way, shout out to Indie Game Joe, he just retweeted Twisted Tower, which means the world to me,
[snorts]
but he also tweeted this game Polaris. And I really I was like, oh, this game was actually submitted on Twitter to one of my calls to to play your game. So, we're going to play this game called Polaris. I am very nervous about this game because it looks like a big heavy Unreal game with a lot of mega scans and

I have my doubts about its frame rate and its performance and its streamability. And my computer just started to take off. That's Unreal for you. Also, it looks like my streaming is all screwed up. Okay, let me scale this up. One sec. We're going to scale it up to be pretty big. Uh wanted to say learning so much from you. Keep up the great work. Thanks, Charlon. Let me double-check the chat. Make sure everybody's happy. I know I haven't identified or called anybody out here. Kev, how you doing, bud? Blues and Grays, oh how you doing? Good to see you. Charlon Noir, awesome to see you. Kev, I already said that I said I already said hello to Kev. Tuck Mac, always good to see you, buddy. Awesome Dominion, great to see you. Okay, so I'm going to just keep scaling up my screen here cuz we're we're what about to play an Unreal game and Unreal games always always always do

this. There we go. So, that's about as good as it's going to get. I cannot read the chat because it's pushing my screen to the left. Um Now, I can see the chat. There it is. So far, so good. Frame rate's good. How's the sound? Sound good, guys? Let's get going. This feels really good. I am impressed with this menu. Oh my goodness. And it works with keyboard. What about gamepad? Hang tight. Gamepad works.
[laughter]
I love this. I love when a demo treats itself like a 1.0 launch. Who would have thought that you want to do that, guys? Yes, you want to treat your demo like a 1.0 launch. This feels great.

Arctic cycle, long winter. Polar night. I like it in parentheses that it tells you like the obvious, but it's still using theming, which is awesome to do as well. I don't know why that's a rotation like that, but whatever. What is that? Why is it doing that? That's weird. That was weird, developer. I don't know what just happened there.
[snorts]
I also don't love the loading bar. I think it looks cheap. Okay, let's go ahead and play. Nuclear detonation, immediate evac. That's a great setup. I love that. Woah. Oh. Oh, mama.
[snorts]

Okay, here we go. Let's do toggle sprint. Wait, what? So, I press start and it doesn't give me the pause menu, but back does. Okay, that's fine. Um okay. Let's go to settings and see if we can do toggle sprint. Good. Hold the crouch. No. There we go. Oh, this feels great. I'm pretty sure this game's going to do well. It just feels good. You could tell that they really put time into this character controller. The assets look great, too. It It's REALLY ARTFULLY DONE. CLIMB. HEY, NICE USE OF YELLOW PAINT THERE. I I really do think so. I really believe that.

And everybody's against yellow paint, but I can't tell you how many indie games I've played in the last week, I guess or or the last two, three years I've been doing this, playing your games, where I'm like, "Yeah, this kind of stuff is wonderful. It makes me so happy." And look at how they started the player. They started the play Oh, I love the tone and the vibe. Oh, it just Man, it feels exactly like [snorts] when me and my wife we went to uh Iceland. I think it was like 10 years ago, and it felt just like this. Just Just bleak. Let's see if there's any good sound. I would increase the ambience, personally. But anyway, let's keep going. It feels amazing to move. So, uh the sprinting has a a a wind sound that

plays. I wish it wasn't so quick to fade out. It's really, really um Why is it doing that? I can't even hear any ambience. There's barely any ambience. I would I would crank up that ambience, baby. Cuz listen how loud the the jump sound is, but I could barely hear that wind. And then when I sprint, it's like and then it stops. You see that? Anyway, let's keep playing here.
[snorts]
Okay, we're teaching crouch. Good, that feels great. Look at my feet. Do they have IK? They do. Incredible. I love it. Assets look great. I'm really, really pleased, guys. Wow, let's keep playing. Oh, this feels so good.

[laughter]
I love that, though. I I really don't mind it. As long as it feels good, I don't care.
My ankle. My ankle.
This is done very well done, this whole thing. Bone fracture, you're you broke your bone. Uh-oh. For some reason the gamepad was moving
[snorts]
the camera. You broke Oh, man. That was my fault. Look, something is eerily wrong with the gamepad. But we're okay. It It just sometimes moves the camera. Freaking skis, man. I love that. Wait, what did I say? To control skiing direction, accelerate and brake. Free look while on skis, avoid skiing on rough surfaces.

Well, yeah. That's good to know. Hold shift to ski faster. I love how like simple and intuitive it is. Let's get skiing. I would say I really hope we can get skiing now. This is awesome. It's like Firewatch. This is going to do so well. Oh, and there's triggered sequences. I love that. I hope it I hope the weather doesn't clear up. Oh, it's clearing up. I liked how foggy it was, but I get it.
[gasps]
LOOK AT THAT. YES! I LOVE when developers do this. You thought about me. You thought about me.
[music]
Look at that town. Yeah, I would say ambience and music we should crank up.

This looks so good. I love this. I saw the trailer for this game and I thought I was immediately skeptical cuz it looked like just an asset flip unreal game. But it feels great. How do I How do I slide or ski? Uh right bumper.
Let's go for a ride.
Heck yeah. WOOHOO! YES!
[screaming]
WOO! THAT FEELS AMAZING. YEAH. WOO! YEAH! LOOK AT ME GO. Let's see if uh Yeah, we got a trial, baby. Moving too fast to stop skiing.

Well, how do I get off my skis? Shh. So, I'm curious how the loop works here. Like if I go down here, what's going to happen, you know? This is such a fantasy. There's wish fulfillment in this game for sure. You're in a remote snowy island.
I'm freezing.
Uh-oh. Oh no, I didn't think that I'd be able to do this. Let's get out of the water. A splash there would be nice. Your best way to warm up is to make a fire. Oh good. Look at this. I love these tutorials. This is great. To start a

fire you need a fire source and optionally a fire accelerant. Uh top up fire by adding burnable fuel. Fire starting chance depends on the temperature around the fireplace and whether you want, okay? So I need to go find some fireplace stuff, but I'm freezing cold. I'm going to die. So how do I get out? And how do I sprint?
Just need to lie down. Warm up.
What? So Wait, so what do I do? I'm going to die, guys. That was a huge [laughter] That was a That was a huge mistake. I love how simple the game is. I'm about to die. I will die. What am I supposed to do? That was a huge mistake. Can I teleport?

Simple campfire. Blueprint simple campfire. So I need three wooden branches and I'm So I mean, I think that I think it's my fault. I feel like it's my fault. I know that was my fault. I knew I shouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have done that in real life. And now we're probably going die. I should probably go back home, but it's way up there. Man,
[laughter]
Thomas, maybe don't go in the water next time. Hmm, you know? For some reason I can't sprint and I can't jump, you know? When when I could earlier, so I don't actually understand that. Um I'm not quite sure what that means. I would say I would give this game 10 out of 10.

In terms of like what a demo has to offer, this is great. I'm having a blast and it looks beautiful. I think graphically it just works. So I mean this is a big mistake and I wonder, you know, once you get the skis, you're just going to do it. You know, you're just going to How many of you would do what I did? Serious question. This is for the developer. How many of you would do what I did? Oh, it's the ankle. Got it. This is a serious question. It's not me trying to, you know, manipulate you guys or anything like that. How many of you would go and do what Thomas just did? You go straight to the town.
[laughter]
Oh, you're smart then. I need to go, I guess, back home. What

was my Maybe I should get like a task. Is there a a a task list of anything? That was a huge mistake. I don't think I would have done what you did, Thomas.
[laughter]
Hope my [snorts] legs remember how to do this.
So, can I ski upwards? I doubt it. I mean, it's definitely odd that I can ski uphill. I guess I appreciate it. So, we're just going to That is weird, but I I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain cuz I'm glad that I'm glad I'm able to do that.
Just just need to
Okay, okay, buddy. Chill. Chill. Quit whining. Shut up. Toughen up, dude. Good grief.

He's acting like his legs are broken. Okay. Okay, we're going to go figure out what I was supposed to do.
[snorts]
That is fully erect. All right, let's go in here. A stove.
There's got to be something good in here.
We got some fish. What do I do? It's raw. Health. Look at me. Look at me. [laughter] Okay, so my leg's broken. You broke your your bone. Breaking any of your legs makes you unable to sprint. Use specific medical items to heal it. Okay. Let's go find some See, I probably should have done that immediately.

Up. There you go.
Is my leg better? Okay, I'm very cold. So, maybe we should close this door. Okay. Ooh, we got a health kit.
There's got to be something good in here.
What is that? Morphine. Uh, let's Okay, so I've got that. Wait, so what do I do? I need to move it, right? Place.

Ooh. A lighter. You can restore your energy and health only while sleeping. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What does that mean? Sleep duration. You don't want to sleep more than that. Why? Restore health and cure mild afflictions by sleeping, but be careful with sleeping in the open cold. Oh. Okay, let's sleep a little bit. Yeah, I I love this game. I think this game is is The The reason why this game works so well is because there's something called and I've I just talked about it, but it's called wish fulfillment. And I love this idea of being freezing cold. I woke up at a plane crash and I'm going to go survive in the cold winter. Right? I love that. And is my foot better?

Yes! My foot's better, baby. Okay, And now what? I need supplies. Got water. We've got a porch. Okay, so what do I do? Let's figure out what we're supposed to do. What do you guys think we're supposed to do? Am I that cold? Quit whining. Okay. So, let's see here. What else we got?
There's got to be something good in here.
Nothing's good in here. Oh! Soda! So, what do I do? Like, what I'm confused by is I don't know what to do once I see stuff. Like, how I want to

put it in my backpack, right? But, I can't, right? So, that's actually what I'm confused by is why I can't put stuff in my backpack. Wait, L left trigger plus A is quick move. Oh. So, that's in my quick use. Okay. So, let's keep finding whoa. That's feels weird.
There's got to be something good in here.
More? Quick move. Yes. Okay, so lots of soda, baby. And also, yeah, why not? Let's Let's grab our fish. But, I wish I could cook it. Why can't I cook it? What's that? Uh nutmeg?

Can I combine nutmeg with my fish? Mhm. I love it. Oh, there's soda. What does that do? I can't do anything with the soda. I don't like paintings that use AI art. That's all I'll say out loud. I don't know if they're AI art, but I love it when developers use real pictures, real paintings, and just put their heart into just the tiny little details. So, that's all I'll say is I hope the developer will do that or has done that. Man, good grief. This is like a soda factory.

I want to turn the radio on. I wish it was you could turn it on and it would play like old jazz. Got a mug. Any knives or anything? I can sleep. Let's take the morphine.
[laughter]
Let's take the morphine. Let's take the lighter, of course. And then the medical splint. So, if we open up our inventory, this is all of our good stuff, right? There's a health and then crafting, right? Oh my goodness, a durable metal mug designed to use in harsh outdoor conditions. Ideal for boiling water,

brewing hot drinks, or simply holding precious warm liquids in the cold. Nice. Um okay, spiced brew. Uh yes, please. Hot water Look at that. So, I need cinnamon, sugar. Oh, I love this so much. I'm having a blast. I feel so excited. I feel Oh, this crazy like relief playing like a game that just feels like it's perfectly made. But, uh so, how do we light something? You know, that's what I want to do. Do I put it in the quick use? Cuz I have the soda there. How do I move that? I know, but I don't understand.

Guys, I know I'm being stupid. Does anyone have any uh information for me here? I guess I could click and drag. Let's try it with um Yeah, okay. So, it's not great for gamepad. Okay, yeah. It's not great for gamepad. It feels much better. Um So, So, can't put it in quick use. You can only put soda in quick use. Yeah, I I want to figure out what's going on with game pad.

Okay, there we go. No, but still. Oh, you hold A and drag. Thomas, you dummy. Okay. Yeah. All right. But, I still don't know what to do. I kind of want to put my fish there and cook it. Snow coming through the house? Oh, I need to repair that. It's cold in here. -15°. How do I put it in my hands? In hands. Oh, that giant thing that says in hands. Okay. Got Lee. Can't do that. Can't do that. I don't get it. Oh, hands. In hands or hands? Do you guys know what that means? This is serious question.

Go to the town. Okay. I'm going to die, though. Unstuck. That's hilarious. Okay.
[screaming]
You guys told me to do it, so we're going to do it.
[screaming]
I don't love the idea of there being a town at all. You know? Because

[laughter]
Where'd the town go? I remember seeing a town and now I don't. Woah. I just heard a sound. Wait, there's the town. Is something chasing me? Okay. Okay. Okay, Thomas, stop. Stop.
I just need to lie down.
No, shut up. You're not cold, you're fine. All right, how do I get off my skis? There we go.

What's that?
[panting]
It's a radio tower. Okay, we might need to go to that, but hang on.
[panting]
We got a tan, baby. Let me sprint. Hello. Ooh, we got some meat. I want the meat.

I don't have any feedback for this game if I'm being honest. I kind of love all of it. It's kind of great. It'd be nice to maybe guide the player a little bit at the beginning and just say ski to the town or do this or do that. Just give me a task list at the first like 5 seconds. That would be great. Look, I've got a freaking uh ATV. Do not put this in the game if I can't ride it. That's the rule. We're going to just follow the path and trust that the developer knew we were going to do this.
[panting]
I don't know why we would get mixed

reviews for this demo. I enjoy it. I like it.
[panting]
Now, the question becomes is there anything to do?
[panting]
Cuz I'm starting to get worried.
[panting]
Well, you know,
[snorts]
it might be a little too sprawling right now. Like we might want to guide the player a little bit more. That was what I That was what I was saying earlier is like my only feedback is to guide the player and it's starting to get a little

I'm getting a little nervous for this game because
Come on. Come on.
Ooh, there we go.
There's a blessing out here.
Yay. So, that's nice.
[clears throat]
So, what's my what I'm I'm warming things up. There we go. Look, I'm I'm warming myself up. That's great. Yeah, I think No, we don't even need a a note or anything. We just need like a mission system at the top left of the screen. Like

Get giving me hints and clues about what to do as we as we learn the game, right? I think the game itself it has rock solid systems. But, it's the teaching that I think might have problems and if the game does have mixed reviews right now, my theory is is it's the teaching and the the progression. Um I just feel like we might need
[clears throat and cough]
We might need to teach the player and guide the player better. Um super dark now. I don't love this. I wish that it had a Yeah, this is problematic. And there's no real light coming from that. Um so I would I would add a bright warm light coming from that.
Badly.
You need to rest? Okay. Well, that that's a good hint.

I just can't see. Okay, yeah. Let's let's It's not bad. It's It's It's It's not terribly cold compared to what it was at the other place. Um Yeah, it's the core is here. The wish fulfillment's here. The graphics, the music, the vibe, the sound, it's all here. But the teaching the player teaching the player what they need to do um might be helpful. Okay, I have good sleep. I need water. This is beautiful though. Look at this, guys. This is great. I don't know if I would get let the player go into a town this quickly. But um maybe that's the point. Maybe the point is free roam and just let the player figure out what to do as if this was real, you know.

Um we can light this fire again. We have a 50% chance. Ah, let's try again.
I need a sip. Anything.
Yeah,
that's a good one.
Let's see if I can go get some snow. There's water all around me. So, surely I can use a mug to get some snow, right? So, how do I get How do I get water? How do I get it? What? There we go.

That's kind of cool. I like that. Please tell me I can just use it. I don't understand. Does anyone know what to do? I've got a Oh, I got to heat it up. I can't just eat the snow? But, how do I Hm. I don't quite know what to do here. Heat it up somewhere? Put it on the fire? Okay, that's an idea.

So, we take the mug and we uh place it here. That's great. Okay. Yeah, I think I think just teaching the player would be really helpful for this game. Um I think that overall the the core is here and I love the idea. But there's the it there's some stuff that just feels a little bit heavy to learn for a dummy like I'm I'm telling you guys, I'm so dumb. Um Uh and I I say that to any anybody when I'm play testing. I'm like, I'm the lowest common denominator for you. Okay, so let's pick it up and use it. Oh, yeah, baby. Oh, that was great. I feel so nourished. Let's go get some more.
Feels like I need a meal.
YOU'RE JUST ALWAYS COMPLAINING.

[sighs]
SO WAIT, WHAT do I do? I can't remember. Crafting. Give me some snow. Okay, let's go put it back on the fire. Wait, what do I What do I do? Yeah, I would say that the the gameplay, like the the the inventory system and the crafting, it's not my favorite. It feels a little clunky. But I it could be that it's just my fault. Um so let's Oh, come on. The fire lasted like 5 seconds.

But I'm learning. I'm figuring it out and I'm actually having a blast. I I'm curious why people would give this mixed reviews. It's like pretty great. I'm having fun. Um I think it might be just the teaching of it. And it also it it might not scale very well.
Light, please.
Kind of hate that. I kind of hate that. It I would say the prob my prob well
Light, please.
If this game did poorly, it's probably the
Yeah, that's a good one.
Stuff like that where it's like like give the player a lot of wins at the beginning of the demo. Um and don't let me just don't give me the ability to just explore everything right away. Lock me in. Don't give me I would say teach all this stuff. Drinking water,

sleeping, eating, starting a fire, teach all of that before you give me those keys. You know? That's what I would do. I wish that when I hovered over this, there it told me which button to press. A little Y appears and I press it. That's all I need. I just need to have that above when I'm when I'm hovering over something, put a little Y there cuz I keep forgetting why can't I press A? Why can't I press A? And it's oh, I need to press Y. Use.
[snorts]
Yeah, this this is overwhelming to me. I would I would lock the player in at the top of that mountain. Don't let them go anywhere and if they

go too far, they die and they respond. And just teach everything. Drink water, cook, craft, heal, fire, sleep. Teach all of that at the beginning. Um, look at that. I love that. I don't know why the smoke is going in all directions, but that's great. So I yeah, I think the game is potentially unraveling right now. Um, but he said he needs to eat. So maybe I can cook that fish. Hey, let's cook the freaking fish. So was there a stove? Y'all, was there a stove in in the Cuz like this stove makes complete sense to me, but back at the the the hut, which is I thought I thought that was my base. I didn't see a a furnace. Because now I understand the furnace. And by the way, what I would do is if I was the developer, I would call out the top of this stove like it's the most important thing in the world. I would have it highlighted.

Um, I would have it have a call out on there. I would teach the player how to use it cuz it it wasn't it wasn't intuitive to a dummy like me. Anyway, let's go ahead. And also, I don't know why the mouse keeps moving to left like that. But let's go ahead grab my fish. Y place and then place it down. Cook. So most of the concerns are copy paste Long Dark. Well, there you go. I never played Long Dark. So maybe that's the issue here. Um, technical issues and missing story. Come on. Is it copy paste Long Dark? What do you guys think?

I love it. But if it's copy paste Long Dark, then it's copy paste Long Dark, you know. But I haven't played Long Dark. It worked. I hate that. I wish it would just work.
[laughter]
But I'm having a blast. I really am. If it is copy-paste Long Dark, that's unfortunate, but I'm having a blast. I I really am enjoying it. It's cozy. Will it burn? Add salt, huh? Oh my goodness, we got nutmeg. Can I place it on this? How do I use it? How do I use it?

What's happened? What just happened? Okay, I would, you know, I would speed that up a little bit. But he's cooking. Oh, really? Well, that's unfortunate. I'm enjoying it, but if it's if it's kind of got a copy-paste of Long Dark, then I I don't love that. Okay, I ate some food. Having a blast, but overall guys, I got a I got a happy vibe about this game. I loved it. I I would recommend it for sure. I think it's fun. It's a It's unfortunate that it it is potentially too similar to Long Dark, but I had a great time. Um couple things, pieces of feedback, I would guide the player more. I would call out what buttons to press

in a more effective way, right? It sometimes it feels like I get lost. Like, wait, which button do I press? Um teach the player more. I think some story, yeah, a little bit of story. Guide the player a little bit more with tiny bits of story. Um maybe even have the player say stuff out loud guiding the the story and yeah. Um okay, that was fun. I had a blast. Check it out. I think it's a good game to check out. Huge shout out to all these new students who joined Full Time Game Dev and just one final shout out here. If you want to check out Full Time Game Dev, be sure to click the link below. It's a great course. I love it. And by the way, if you're a student, let me know what you think about the program in the chat. If you want to learn how to take a demo and turn it into it a published game, that's one thing you're going to learn in the program. If you want to learn how to get funding on Kickstarter with just a demo, that's in the program. If you want to learn how to make a 2D game, a 3D game in Unity, Godot, or Unreal, that's in the program as well. You're probably guessing it's a fully

comprehensive program. It's massive and you go at your own pace. It's a great resource to have for years. And look, if you don't believe me or you don't trust me, I totally get it. I wouldn't trust me either. I'm just a YouTuber, so at least take a look at the reviews on the website. It's 50% off. That's a massive discount. It's rarely 50% off and you're also going to get my 2D art program and my 3D art program and my YouTube program completely free, but only for this sale. Okay, guys, I'm going to go downstairs, work out with my wife. Um this was fun. I had a blast. I love the game. It's unfortunate that people think it's a copy paste of Long Dark. That does make me sad. Um cuz I haven't played that game, so but I had to