Let's Review Your Games — Ep. 059

I closed out of the stream instead of the game because I'm a spaz. Welcome to the live stream of Thomas Brush. We're going to try this one more time. We're going to play two games today. And the goal the goal of playing these games is to offer constructive feedback while also dismantling and destroying the confidence of the game devs. And we want to do this publicly. a public shaming. No, obviously the goal is to provide constructive criticism, constructive feedback so that these developers who submitted their games, by the way, if you want to submit your games, go to x.com/thomasbrushdev. [snorts] The goal is to help these devs now before they launch their 1.0. So, come on in. Let's play two awesome indie games that were submitted on x.com/toomasbrushdev. I want to say a huge huge [snorts] thank you. It it means the absolute world to

me. Odid, Nicholas, Smart, Jordan, Adrian, Dina, Chris, Jeremy G, thank you so so so much for enrolling in full-time gamedev. And by the way, the reason I'm so thankful, in all seriousness, guys, absolute sincerity, the reason I'm so thankful is in full disclosure, I blew through my budget for my third commercial release, Twisted Tower. In fact, Jason in the chat, he knows all about this budget [snorts] blown. In fact, I had budget cuts as well. So, it was just kind of a nightmare. and you guys came through and in this last stretch of development, for those of you who do enroll in the course, it means so much to me. It means so much to me. So, thank you so much. If you want a shout out in tomorrow's live stream, um, check out the link below. This is the summer sale. You've got 23 hours left to enroll in a course that frankly is taught by an actual indie game developer, somebody who's been

published on three separate occasions. You're going to get 50% off my course, which teaches how I did this, okay? How I did this. How I did this. How I did Let's see if I can get it going here. How I did this. This is my third commercial release which launches August 18th. This is like Bioshock meets Willy Wonka. It's called Twisted Tower. So, if you want to learn how to turn a demo into a paycheck, and I know that sounds like real a pie in the sky or a pipe dream, all I could say is I've done it on three separate occasions. And there there's proof right there. Um, but if you don't believe me, I wouldn't believe me either. So, at least check out the link below and read the reviews. These are students who went full-time with the help of the course. But what does that mean? Well, it means you're going to learn how to reach out to publishers, which is a demo, and get funding and go full-time. How to do Kickstarter campaigns and get [snorts] funding and go full-time. But hey, if that's not for you, let's get wish lists, right? Let's hit the steam up uh

new and new and upcoming uh what is it? Popular upcoming [laughter] popular upcoming or let's hit the new and trending, right? When you release your game, let's get wish lists. [snorts] Let's get press coverage, right? Let's make a 2D game or a 3D game in Unity Gro or Unreal. That's what this course is. And I'll also throw in my 2D art program and my 3D art program completely free. And hey, why not just throw in my YouTube course as well? And bonus, one final bonus, I would love to meet you. Seriously. So, for an hourlong call, small private intimate group of only the students who enrolled during the summer sale, we're going to hang out. You can ask questions and I get to talk to you via a live call, which is going to be really fun. I'm so looking forward to meeting you. So, click the link below, check it out, see if it's something you're interested in. Now's the time. Seriously, now's the time. You got 23 hours left. It really is a great course, guys. And if you're like, "Ah, I don't know. I don't know if this is worth it.

It's a big risk. That's a big investment." I totally get that. I really do. Um, the economy is tight. Money is tight for everybody, believe me. Um, so that's why there's a 30-day money back guarantee. No questions asked. So, if you enroll today, money back guarantee, no questions asked. Seriously, just email my my assistant. His name is Hector. The email is on this page. You just say it's the email is thomasfultimegamede.com and just say refund and then boom. I won't even I won't even know about it. So you got 30 days to do that. Okay, let's jump into the games, guys. Sorry about the uh sorry about the for those of you who were in the previous live stream and you heard an ad read twice. I know that's really annoying. Um okay, the first game we're going to play today is called Riddleale. Riddleale by Catnip Lab.

Okay. One of the big problems. It looks beautiful, by the way. Beautiful. I love the cover art. I love the style. The music's okay. It's not my favorite, but it's okay. Who can who can name the one problem with this trailer? And this is not to critique the developer. Okay, this is not to critique the developer. It is meant to help the developer because I want the developer to get wish lists. Okay, but Thomas, who are you? Well, actually, I just I'm about to be 106,000 wish lists on Twisted Tower now. Catnip Labs might have generated more. Okay, so maybe I'm wrong here. Um, and if I if I am, then props to Catnip. But

who knows the one big problem with this trailer? Anybody? Can anyone name the problem? No, the hook is kind of there. You play as a kitty cat. That's a great hook. There's two main issues. Play the demo now on Steam. TM. We don't need the TM. A magic cold to you. What? Hello, frog. You want to go on an adventure? Riddle tail demo.ep. So, I was solving the hook. I'm sorry. [clears throat] I was solving the problem

right there. Who knows how I solved that problem. There it is. Boom. No sound. No sound. There it is. Okay. No sound. That's the big the big problem. Uh, I was talking to Indiegame Joe. Does anyone know Indiegame Joe? I was talking to Indiegame Joe on the podcast and we talked a lot about hooks and why certain tweets and why certain trailers tend to get more views than others. And you know, I've got my reasons for what makes a a trailer hookie. The visuals, the mechanics, the story, right? But Indie Game Joe, excuse me, I'm I'm sitting here burping. Indie Game Joe has a different theory about why certain trailers and why certain clips go viral and why they do

well. And it has to do with juice. Juice. Riddleale doesn't have juice in the trailer. It might have juice in the game. We'll see. But it has doesn't have juice in the trailer. What's juice? This is juice. Watch this. Okay, this is not This is a cough drop. This is not juice. Are you ready? Okay, this is juice. Watch. Do you get the difference? Okay, the same is true with a can of Coke. Okay, if I if I if I do this versus mist [snorts] comes out, that's juice. And you want to put juice into everything that's marketing your games, but even even if it's static screenshots, you want juice. So, for example, let's see if I could find one for Twisted Tower. Okay, that's juice.

That's juice. Okay, this is juice. That's juice. The shaking of the camera, even for an elevator. That's juice. Juice. Juice. Juice. Juice. And it's even in the screenshots. You see it. [gasps and sighs] The goal is to make the game feel tactile, to feel like the player is actually doing something. So, it's very important to put sound in. I don't know why developers avoid putting sound in their trailers. Just ignore it. I don't know why. All right. So far so good. Does that make sense? If that makes sense, say sense. If it doesn't make sense, say doesn't. Now, I war I'll warn you. If you say

doesn't, I'm going to go over it again. [laughter] You should know by now. Well, we're all learning. Yeah. twitter.comomasbrushdev. x.com/thomasbrushdev. Uh, guys, put juice in your games. Sounds, particles, screenshake, tactile, everything. Okay, let's see what the juice is. It was okay. I wanted that to go. So, it's fine. That feels good. Way to go. What about the down arrow? Does it work? Nope.

Oh, it does. It's just ASWD doesn't. Let's see if the game pad works. All this stuff matters. It does. Game pad works. I love this. This is awesome. Look at this. Way to go, dev. [cough] I'd love a sound there. Okay, there it is. It's just [cough] It's kind of subtle. [laughter] I'm sorry, guys. I have a cold. One sec. Sorry guys, I have a cold. Please, if you could forgive me. [snorts] Okay, that that felt a little odd. Do it quick. And and when I watched the trailer, I kind of had this sense that the art

direction is solid, but the juice is not going to be perfect. And one indicator of that is what we just experienced just now. That should feel much better for a game that looks this pretty. We should get a really quick. Double the speed, baby. Double that speed, right? Hollow Knight does it so well. In fact, you don't even need an animation. Just Just jump straight to it. It feels so much better when things are quick. I want to be a dolphin. A little off there. The se hopefully I'm

making sense, guys. The sounds should be quick and tactile. They should be immediate. Watch. I should hear this sound immediately. I'm going to say when I press the button. A there we go. That worked. Maybe it was Maybe it was uh maybe it was different. Sh. Yeah, that sound's not working. It's not working for me. Let's go easy. I should have heard a sound there. And the reason I'm being so critical of the game feel is because the UI and the graphics look so good and I want them to match. Wake up, Wilbur.

New entry added to your log. Mount Aivian in a time unknown. Okay, so game looks incredible. Ambience, music, art, direction, it's all rock solid. My main critique is the speed of the juice. The speed of the transitions, the speed of things starting and ending, moving from scene to scene. I wish that that was like wake up and then go. That slow pull. Not for me. Camera controls. Welcome to Riddleale. You can rotate the camera

around Wilburn freely. Give it a shot. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay. Oh, that felt good. I don't think we need that bouncing effect. It's kind of It's kind of weird. Movement and navigation. Wolver can walk and or run. Running increases speed but drains stamina. I I'm glad you're teaching me the even the most basic stuff. That feels great. Yay. Yay. That feels awesome. I think the jump animation could use a little bit of work. It feels a little stiff. And I also want a sound. I also want to hear paw sounds. Watch this. [laughter] Right.

You could do this.
[laughter]
Bro, if you can make some sound. Oh, the jumping needs to be definitely. We need to hear some jumping, right? When I when I start my sprint or [gasps] [panting] [cough] so definitely need some sound for that. If you could if you can get the character controller perfect, you win. you win. So far so good though. Graphics are incredible. I'm I'm thrilled with this game.

It feels so good. If the developer hears me critiquing them, it's not cuz I'm not completely thrilled with this ambience and mood. It's awesome. I also would love feet prints. Okay, there are feet prints. If there's going to be feet prints, wait, hold on. Okay, there are feet prints, but you could barely see them. So, I would crank it up. And this comes back to what I was saying at the very beginning when we were watching the trailer. This game will succeed. And maybe it will already succeed, but I think it will succeed if everything is tactile and juicy. Crank it up times 10. Look, particle particles are great, but let's see some footprints. Let's hear some sounds. Right. I don't hear any sound. Okay, let's see what kind of juice we

got here. Barely any. I need to hear like a paper opens, but I don't really hear much. There's a sound, but this game looks organic. It looks natural. There's rocks and trees. There's a cat. There's armor. So, if I press X, I want to hear organic sounds. I want to hear a crunching. Watch. Great thunder. Oh, that felt great. Good job. Jump and rolls help Wilbur navigate the environment. Press the jump button twice to double jump. Great. And there's also a roll. Oh, we need sound. Where's the sound?

Hey, give me a front flip. I'm serious, guys. I've I've been learning so much about juice from Thomas Morer, from Indie Game Joe, uh from Jonas Tyroller. He does some incredible videos about not necessarily juice, but game feel. And also myself. I've just been learning a lot from myself. juice is like what's going to make this game be amazing. I I when I double jump, give me a front flip. Come on. Can you imagine? [cough] Can you imagine if it wasoop? Totally totally need a front flip. Also, the jump, if you guys can see, the animation doesn't feel right. So, let's talk about jump animations. And this is

something I had to really figure out, okay? I'm not just blowing I'm not I'm not just BSing here, okay? Uh, this game 2D jump animation is about to this one and then also this one. I'm going to teach you what I learned from these games, but also my game. Um, maybe not. I don't think Brave Boy did it. But with jump animations, what you want to do is we've got our cat, right? With jump animations, you immediately immediately want to have them almost squish. It's almost like a spring where it goes and then when the jump occurs, it's immediate. So it's really fast. So it's squat down. No transition immediate squashed. And then when the jump occurs, it goes like this. And then once they hit the peak, what do they do? And then that landing animation is what makes it all work. Okay. The landing animation needs to be

right. and and you want to like double or triple or quadruple how the how intense that animation is. Um, and that's what Walt Disney said with animation, you got to go hard, much harder than you think with when it comes to the intensity of the animation, the suginess and the saltiness and the spiciness of the animation. So again, with the jump animation, it's squash immediate almost like you. And the way that I do this is I always start with the scale of the mesh. I don't animate anything. No, I don't animate arms or legs. I just start with the the the you could start with the scale of the cat. Squash down and then immediately bounce up. And as I go in the air, once I hit the peak, when I start coming down, I start to stretch. It's imagine it's like uh goop.

If they can animate for that, oh my word, it's going to feel so much better. But right now, watch this. Right now, it just doesn't feel full. That was a cool roll. Good. We could hear the roll sound. It's just their sounds are so quiet. From an art direction perspective, this game rocks. It is so well done. The run animation is is totally totally fine. I have no issues with it. You might be able to add some lean to it. If I was the developer, I would add some lean. You don't want to add lean to first person controllers unless you're making like a parkour game. And even if you do, you want in the options menu to be able to turn the camera lean off. But I think with a third person game like this, I think it's totally fine to have the enemy lean almost like he's on a motorcycle. That would be so cool if the player I'm serious. If the developer can do this,

if the developer implements these changes, my theory is my theory is the game will be 10 times funner. You throw in that juice and you make the jumping feel incredible, you win. Okay, so a little glitch there. I was holding X and it gets out of it really quick. So if I hold X, it pulls me out of it, which is really disorienting. So again, sound here or or give me that crunchy ASMR with games like this. Thomas, you haven't even gotten past the first part. Well, what matters is the character controller. Everything else is secondary. Seriously. And for those of you who think I'm full

of it, I I believe I understand. I really do. I understand. [snorts] I'm just telling you what I've learned. That feels really good. That feels great. We just need some sound, man. And the sound is there. It's just so quiet. Great use of uh guys, look at that specular map there. It looks hand painted. That's so cool. Look at that. You see it right there? Specular map is incredible. Art direction for this game is so good. Rock solid. That kind of stuff doesn't need to be taught.

Just put it on the screen. We don't need that. Okay. Okay. So, that animation right there, [snorts] I'm noticing a a a a flaw that I think if I was the developer, I would I would jump into this game and I would spend two weeks, two solid weeks, 80 hours as a team implementing what I'm saying. So, when it comes to this animation here, it's not working for me. It feels stiff. Okay. So, here's an example. I'm going to use my hands here. And I'm not just BSing, okay? This is stuff that I've learned, especially with my 2D games. Um, [sighs] the box right now is doing this. There's not really a curve related to the gravity. It doesn't feel right as it pertains to gravity. What you want to see in the graph when you open up the graph for your animation is you want to

see the curves like this. Like this. Okay. So, this this is what it should look like. And I should see see particles coming out from below it. And I should hear a sound. Right now, it feels stiff and it doesn't [clears throat] feel alive. It feels animated, right? So, there's just subtle stuff when it comes to game feel and animation that is is just it's not perfectly tuned for this game. I should have heard that sound. You got to reward me, right? [laughter] [cough] So again, overall the game's game feel

is incredible. I'm sure the design is incredible. Level design feels really good. We are lacking the juice. I should hear wood crunching beneath my feet. I should hear the board squeaking. [laughter] I should hear all of that. That's going to make this whole traversal up this path feel so fun and exciting. All of the crunches and the wet mud beneath my feet and the sound of the wood crunching. All of that. I can hear the rain, but that's about it, right? aim is not to be realistic. Heck no. If I want to be realistic, I'm going to turn this game off and go outside.

And why am I saying all this? Am I trying to be hyperritical? Of course not. This game looks incredible. I want this game to be successful. I want people to love this game, right? And the way to do it is to make it juicy. Absolutely. Okay. I want to hear this. I want to hear this [laughter] again.
[snorts] [panting] [sighs] [laughter]
Yep. Yep. We need that. All of that.

All right. Here we go. Cool. Here you are. I knew you would come. I have been waiting for you. Where are your friends? Are they coming to save you? Nice. Lick that paw. I know why you're here. The crystals are mine alone. Prepare to die.

Dear Wilburn, it's been ages since we lost s each other. I still remember the day I left Riddleale with your father. A lot has changed since then. So all notice how the sound stopped playing. It's that kind of stuff that that makes a game great. I should hear sound playing with each letter on screen. That makes it so much funner. What we just heard there was just a generic sound that didn't finish, right? It just stopped. So all that kind of stuff matters, guys. This game is so well done as it pertains to the UI to the I'm going to say it a million times just because I want the developer to know, wow, this game is so well done. Um, but there's just tiny little details that could make just amplify it and take

it over uh to the next level. Is it a letter from your girlfriend? No. Let me guess. It's a map and it leads to some treasure. I'm sorry. I don't want to bother you. So, what happened? I probably wasn't reading. Sorry. Man, how long have we been on this ship? Oh, that's still the frog. I can't wait to see the land again. I have some important business to attend to, you know. We got some bosanova going. And you, what's your deal? I'll make sure that that that see that animation isn't working. You guys see that?

So, in my opinion, there's kind of a fundamental flaw with the animation in a lot of elements of this game. Like, this feels weird to me. So, excuse me. With this, if you have two UI elements, all you got to do is this. Have it just go over And then flash white. Right. Really quick. Really, really quick. So, this is just odd to me. So again, we're trying to crank up and amplify the animation and the sound, the particles, and make this feel so much more tactile and immediate and

reactionary to the player. If the if the developer can do that for this game, it's going to feel so good. It's going to feel so good. It's going to be epic. That felt good. My name is Wilburn. I'm going to visit an old friend of mine. It's a pleasure to meet you, Wilburn. My name is Ralph and I'm a wizard. I'm on my way to meet the great mage Alistister. He's Greetings, fellow travelers. Oh, greet uh greetings, fellow travelers. We are now arriving at our first destination, Kawaka Beach. We ask all passengers with tickets to Ridddale to grab their luggage and prepare for arrival. Thank you for choosing the Pelican Express for your safe travels. Boy, I don't know if we needed that intro. What was that intro? It was teaching the player how to move.

But did it hook me? I don't know. I'll just I'll just sort of toss that grenade and say I'm not sure we needed that intro. I'd love if we just were on the boat and then we immediately got on an island. Um, one of the ways to, I think, make the the island fantasy so much more exciting, is to do something like that intro, which is you're fleeing something awful and you arrive in a place that you want to be that's exciting. Stardw Valley does this incredibly well. You start miserable and then you find yourself in this beautiful place. Hey, we're all going to the same place. Maybe Thomas dragged it out explaining juice. Probably. [music] Yeah, it could

be. Nice. Whoa. Why don't we just start here? Just start me here. This is awesome, Sack. Way to go, buddy. Woohoo. Good job. I'm feeling it now. Have that. Yep. Give me Give me a The game is just begging for sound. It's begging for sound. That is what we needed all along, baby. Come on. [cough] [clears throat] Yeah. I don't know if we needed that intro. That was strange, wasn't it? I I feel like that intro

I'm I feel completely thrown off. And maybe it's again, you guys are probably right. Maybe it's cuz Thomas spent 25 minutes talking about juice. Here we are, guys. Welcome to the island of Riddleale. The town is north from here, and you may need a map to find your way there. Feel free to come find me if you need more info. Enjoy your stay. Well, it was a Both voices are the same. Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Wilburn, but I have some magic business to attend [music] to. I hope we see each other again. Farewell. I want to meet that toad again. A You could have put a little squishy sound there. Or when he falls, just make me laugh. Throw in sounds. Make this game feel alive.

Let's see if I can still remember the way to town. Agnes should be there. Left one is aim X's interact. You can save your progression at any time. That bounce animation is it. Okay. So, all of my critique, all of my critique has to do with sound and animation. Everything has to do with sound and animation and reactivity, which is such a good thing for the developer because the the game is incredible. It's just the sound and the reactivity and and the animation just needs some ju uh I say juice a lot. I know. I'm sorry, but [clears throat] it does. It needs it. So, right now it's like this. The dialogue box is like this. Watch. I'm I'm literally just looking at it right now. What it should be doing is this.

Just very gentle. Do you guys know what I mean? Or just get rid of it. Right. We don't need There's a There's also um a lack of easing with all the animation. So with easing, so for example, there's I'm looking at the it says save progression. And it's it's a text box right now. And it's doing this. Okay. This is what it should be doing. Subtle ease. It's kind of hard to do with my hands. It doesn't really need the animation, honestly. But guys, look at this now. And you can see what I'm talking about when it comes to easing. Look at that. So the animation of this game is what's

holding it back and the sound. Sound and animation, aka that tactile thing that's so important for game feel. Let's keep going. Sure. Okay. I want to hear wood. Oh, I'm running on the sand and I I can't hear the sand. There's no water sound. All of that is what makes this so fun. I need that. Come on. So yeah, I could barely hear that. I want to hear when I run through that. It should animate. [snorts] [sighs] But Thomas, I can't do that for every

single piece of foliage. Well, that's okay. One, two. They're all the same prefab. So just animate every single one. They're all the same.
[laughter]
But Thomas, I can't do that for the whole game. There's a lot of foliage. It doesn't matter. Just do it for this scene and don't tell anybody. Hook the players now. Okay. There was a game that came out. I can't remember what it was called, but [clears throat] I think you play as like uh who's the guy knight of the round table? Um not Lance a lot. He pulls the sword out of the stone. King Arthur. Yeah. There was a game, I can't remember what it was called, but it was like from 19 or I'm sorry, 2002 or something, and it was the you play as uh you play as you play as this boy and it's it looks kind of like Zelda and you you look at the screenshots and you're like, man, this might be just like Ocarine of

Time. And then you play it and you're like, nothing is interacting with the player. there's no sound coming from the player [music] and it visually is a feast, but it doesn't feel tactile and then suddenly the whole thing falls apart because it just doesn't have that feeling. And so if the developer goes into every all of these elements that I'm describing and just cranks up all of that sound and animation and the particles, it's going to feel so good. Imagine this. Watch. Right. Not everything has to do it. Those red things should probably wiggle. Just a little a little bounce, right? Tiny little details. Increase the opacity of those uh footprints and let

them stay there longer. Let the player feel like they can draw in the sand. All those details are going to be so valuable, right? That feels real bad right there. Why can't I move past that? What's going on? What is that? That That feels really bad. But doesn't this game look amazing, guys? Isn't the UI perfect? Like, it's so close. It's so close. It's got everything we need except [clears throat] for the the common theme that I've discussed in this live stream. [cough] And part of me thinks the sound is there. It's just really quiet. Look at that cool shader effect. Look, guys. Look. The further it gets away, the more hand painted it looks. Isn't

that cool? One of the rules. Okay. Too slow. Let's speed it up. Everything needs to be sped up. Yep. I didn't need to see that. Yeah, that was too slow. Too slow. what all I needed to do and by the way this is a rule that I learned from one of the two of the guys who used to work at ID software and they've they've been critiquing Twisted Tower and fingers crossed that I've implemented most of their changes although I haven't been able to solve the problem that I'm about to say here. So, I'm a little bit of a hypocrite, but what they taught me was they said, "If you're ever going to freeze the player, make it so that the player feels like they froze themselves." Aka, they pressed a button and then

something happened. Okay? So, for example, instead of stopping me here and then doing a 10se second slow pan just to show a character move, instead what feels much better, and Nintendo does this really, really well is if you go up to the character and press X, the character will go and then go and jump it through into the sky. So, what I would do is I would make it so that when you run up to the character, two things. You could do two options. The first option is you press X and the camera freezes and the and the the character in the robe goes and they squash down and jump and fly up into the air or they run away. The player feels like they did that, right? Or alternatively, even better, don't freeze the camera. Have me run up here and then the character just sees you and runs away. We don't need to freeze. It's

very it's it's very um it feels very stiff and annoying when a character does that or I'm sorry when the when the when the game freezes. I am debating removing all of that from Twisted Tower before launch in 30 days. any kind of freeze that occurs, just strip it from the game and then try and draw attention to what you want to draw attention to with other devices, items that you can go collect at that location. So, for example, imagine if there was gems that drive me up to here and then once I get to the to the character in the robe, he he jumps away. um or uh ammunition or a lever of some kind or even a dotted path or some call out that drives the player up here. But the staircase kind of did that for me. A hoy young pirate, the brave hero who shall remove the sword from the stone

will be granted a free meal at the tiki palace. Okay, I would love a free meal. It feels a bit loose. There should be a way to slip it out of there. Okay. Oh, cool. We've got uh a locking ability. Have I told you guys that this game is awesome? It really is. I'm I'm thrilled with this game. Everything that I've mentioned, I'm trying to help the developer. I want the developer to um Uhoh. We got a little glitch there. Look, it doesn't fully go out of screen. That's it. That feels really strange. Make your way to town. Okay. Can I Can I roll into it? No. Okay. I don't think I can get it yet.

Ah. Whoa. That feels really strange. Not going to lie. I don't love that. What is happening? Careful. That kind of stuff can be really irritating. Now I can't go back for some reason. I don't know why. Um, okay. That's fine. Yeah, make sure that that doesn't happen. We need to we need to add a some stairs right here or something. All right, here we go. So, I would probably simplify [music] I

I talk about this a lot. the first level. And I'm gonna consider this the first level. What we played before this was kind of a tutorial. The first level should be much more um limiting to the player so that it's not so intimidating. That rhymes. Right now, I'm a little intimidated if I'm being honest. Like, watch what watch what I can do. If I really want to, I can just go nuts. Okay? Okay, I could just say I avoid all this and just go and get lost, right? [laughter] This is great. It's Robin Hood. Hey, you. No one gets through without our permission. Yeah, no one. We are the forest vigilantes.

We steal from the rich and give to the smalls. You are unarmed and defenseless. Cooperate and you'll be spared. We own this path. And if you want to go north, you have to pay the passage fee like everyone else. All the profits will go to charitable initiatives. Yeah, George. Of course. Our current fee is 100 coins. You pay or you go away. Hey, I have no money left. I emptied my purse for the boat trip. Not my problem. This is nothing personal. We fight for those in need. And we have weapons and we're not afraid of using them. I need to find a weapon. You [cough] will need [laughter] You will need a weapon before venturing across the island safely. Weapons are

common and easy to find, but having a sturdier blade now could pro prove useful later. Okay, so what I would do, this game feels amazing in certain ways and then in other ways it doesn't. And that's all been discussed in today's live stream. Um, so he covered that case, but still the feeling of being overwhelmed was there. Is there something besides Twitter we can submit our games to? Man, we got a lot of questions about how to submit your games. twitter.comomasbrushdev. Um, so that's good. Even I think the developer did solve that problem, right, of exploring too much. They did stop me, so that's good. So I think overall I think I think maybe I jumped the gun there in terms of critique about it being too open. I think it's I think it's okay. Um, what would I rate this game? I would give it what I rate my own

games. I think I think seven and a half, eight right now. But if the developer wants to crank it up um and and get to an eight and a half or a nine, right, or a 10. And I'm not gonna sit here and pretend my games are nines or tens. But if I were to to to to offer one piece of feedback, it's sound sound. Animation, animation, animation, animation. But neither of those work if they're not instant and reactive and juicy and punchy. If you have sound that's like [snorts] [laughter] ringing, it's not fun. But if it's [laughter] P right when the footprints are,

it's not fun. But when it's that's what I mean by reactive and juicy and quick. If the player, if the developer could put that into Riddledale, man, eight and a half, nine, 10, right? So, that's my encouragement to the developer. I think it's incredible. I think they've done an incredible job. I'm really a fan of Riddledale. I think it's awesome. I think it's really well done. Guys, that's all I've got time for. My wife is about to be home. It's about to be dinner time with the kiddos. If you want a shout out in tomorrow's live stream, just like I did with these students here, be sure to check out Fulltime GameDev. This sale event ends in 22 hours. Okay, this is a big one. If you're on the fence, look, if you're on the fence, you're like, "Maybe I want to take Thomas' course. Maybe I don't." Just know there's a 30-day money back guarantee. Okay, there's seriously there's no risk. I swear to you, cross my heart, hope to die. You email me [email protected]. The email's on this web page. If it's

not for you, I'll refund you. Boom. You got 30 days. No questions asked. Seriously, no questions asked. So, you're going to learn everything I've learned in the last decade of making indie games. And that includes going full-time with demos. Okay. Neverong, just a demo, went full-time. Pinstripe, just a demo, went full-time, got published by Armor Games and Serenity Forge. My third game, just a terrible demo that eventually turned into Twisted Tower, and I got it funded by 3D Realms. Um, and it's coming out in a month. But hey, if you want to learn how to make Unity games or GDAU games or Unreal games, 2D or 3D, it doesn't matter. If you want to learn 2D art, 3D art, doesn't matter. Take your pick. If you want to learn how to do YouTube videos about your game, I'll include that free in this sale event. And I'll also include a a a call with you and me, hourlong call, where I get to meet you, hang out, and have a good time. It's going to be a small group setting with just a few other developers who enroll, but only during this sale event. You got

a day left, guys. I'll give you a shout out in tomorrow's live stream. I love you. This was a lot of fun. Thanks for hanging out, guys. I hope that was fun. I'm sorry I couldn't get to the other game. I'll try and do that tomorrow. Um, but I love you guys. This was a lot of fun. And man, kudos and props to the team who made that game. I'm really proud of them. I think it's incredible. A lot of that stuff is better than I can do, but the things that I think I'm really gifted at, sound and animation, I feel qualified to give feedback for. So, if you're the developer and you're watching this video, man, you're so close. That game is awesome.