Nolan's Indie Game Viability live-streamed Impressions & Reviews (featuring PACBUT)

[Trihan]

Have you ever done Born Under the Rain? If not I'd be curious to see your thoughts on it.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

I have not. A quick Google search reveals it to be only on RM net, which I typically don't download games from.
Still if I'm willing to go out of my wheelhouse if you want me to cover it.

 

[hiddenone]

@TheAM-Dol Thanks for playing Crop Circles, sorry that I didn't put in enough warnings about how rough it is. Between poor time management and some overambitious concepts it really turned into more of a proof of concept than a fun game. But it was fun for me to get the mechanics working, so hopefully I'll be able to work on it more and get it to a more 'game'-like state.

If you were curious, each plot had six plants so you'd get six items when you harvested. I definitely need to add more details and hints, but some of my tutorials/guides kept crashing so I ended up having to scrap it and hope players would be willing to mess around to see what happens... With pretty abysmal results as you saw.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

Well, I suppose that means I should play a finished Hidden One gem, then huh? If you have a favorite (or least favorite if you want to shield your baby from the potential harsh criticism) let me know We need a redemption ark.

 

[hiddenone]

Haha, I don’t know if any of my games will really do it for you, most are other jam games focusing on a single ”this would be fun to make” idea. If you want to play any of my older games, feel free, but there are tons of things I would do differently if I made them now. I’ve been told before I should stick to making resources over making games.

May be better for me to give Crop Circles some much-needed tweaking and polish, and have you play an update of it in the future instead. I promise the next version will have a lot more death things to do and a clear(ish) story.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

I briefly peaked at your past games before, but never actually downloaded anything. I'll have to give it another look through.

you gotta to clarify one thing for me though;
Is this farmer PvP? Because...I really like this idea. And if so, you're a genre genius.

 

[hiddenone]

Is this farmer PvP?

Sort of, your foe isn’t going to go around destroying your farm (though that is an interesting idea…) but the main point of growing plants is to ruin you foe’s farm. So not quite PvP and more like Pv”person just living his life who is suddenly dealing with demon attacks”.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

I'm back with games!



In this stream I am trying some new stuff. It may not look it to you, dear viewer, but I am trying some adjustments to improve that oh-so-important SEO (better thumbnail, and a game people might actually be searching for information on). Out of my own wallet, I purchased one of the games featured in this stream.

Only 2 games this week. It was 3, but I started an hour later than normal, so I decided to cut one of the games.

Let's start with the more interesting of the 2:
AK-Xolotl - I was sold on the axolotl aesthetic. I really like Axolotls. They are the epitome of ~no thoughts, empty head~

Spoiler: unrelated picture I took of empty head axolotl

Uuuuuuuunfortunately this game was...not great, well, at least not for someone who doesn't particularly enjoy rogue-likes. It is probably the most rogue-like rogue-like ever. All the expected death which means repeating content, pick 1 of 3 random buffs, etc. There just isn't much exciting about this game. While I wasn't able to finish Patch Quest, I think it's the only Rogue-like that go the introductory formula right for these kinds of games (at least for players similar to myself). This Axolotl game on the other hand, not so much.

The Singing Scar - Hoh boy if this weren't ever an "Oops! All RTP!" game if I had ever played one. Based on some of the topics @Joewoof had started or shared insights on, I decided I wanted to check out his game - I really wanted to see some of the creativity he has talked about on display. Considering the store page for the game talks this one up a lot it...uh...is quite the let down. First let's address the robot in the room: while I am not AI stickler, what did this AI art serve other than to lazily replace (I assume) RTP enemy designs? Everything else in the game is RTP, so what a weird thing to focus on replacing. But that's really the least of this game's worries. I like the idea of weapons giving the player skills, but skills are permanently unlocked when you acquire a weapon. So there is no strategic choice to be made with what weapon you equip, which eliminates the reason why I like the idea. You told not to focus on enemies, but actually you should, because...so many problems. I'm not suppose to be writing a review here, just giving a summary and but I have a lot to say about this one. Let's just say; hold space to win is the max strat for this game.
Edit: I will agree with Wootbm and end this with some slight positivity in favor of the game; at least this dev is actually trying to do something new.

Anyways, here's an axolotl for your troubles:


Anyways, let's hope next stream is better!

 

[Joewoof]

@TheAM-Dol

Wow! Thank you for checking out my game. It's a huge honor to be talked about. Really appreciate it, and I love the detailed analysis.

I make no excuses. I believe that it's a good game, and players that go all the way to the end can attest to that. However, it comes with a lot of jank and intentionally annoying mechanics, which will absolutely turn quite a few people off. I'm a diehard SaGa franchise and Warframe fan, the two most obtuse and confounding games in the market. This is what I wanted to make, and I stand by it.

That said, this is an old design, and is in no way reflective of whatever discussions I've been having recently. Despite what I said, it would be nicer to make a game with broader appeal. You learn from your mistakes and move on.

Let's just say; hold space to win is the max strat for this game.

You can say that about the first hour of any 20+ hour RPG. I'm glad that this is statement is far from the truth. For anyone else that might want to check out The Singing Scar, I guarantee that it gets brutal by the end, with no nonsense like having to grind.

Again, I appreciate the time and effort you've spent on this. As I've said, I'll try to learn as much as I can from your feedback!

 

[TheAM-Dol]

I hope to see something great from you in the future.

 

[Joewoof]

I just watched your video once I got off work. Oh damn, I didn't realize that compatibility has gotten so bad for faster monitors. It's an old project that I had lots of trouble updating. The old, modified codebase fails to work on Apple Silicon, and putting it in the editor breaks the game. That is why the remaster only involves replacing some picture files. I tried to avoid touching anything else.

I was able to replace NWJS on MV without issue for my other prototype and current game though.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

Hey there,
I'm back with another couple of games!

Why would devs WASTE 9 years making THIS!?! || 9 Years of Shadows, Gloomgrave

Be sure to download and support the developers featured in this stream! (And after you click "download", maybe click on one of the recommended games to suppo...

youtube.com

I hope y'all are appreciating the shorter streams - at least for the archive viewers. Maybe the live audience wants to stick around longer. Who knows.

Anyways, this week I played:
Gloomgrave - The rouge-est of rougue-likes. Orc brought up a good question while I was streaming this. Why do I keep picking games in a genre I don't like? Good question! I don't know. They seem to be the most effective at catching my attention. I'm rogue-curious, but rarely find actual rogue-likes I enjoy (but again, I will mention that I liked Patch-quest, but it was more rogue-lite than rogue-like)
9 Years of Shadows - This game slaps. A metroidvania with a lot of style and some pretty sick tunes (menu music not withstanding). Honestly, this game just felt really good to play, I love it's health mechanic fueled by teddy-bear hugs, it's just so cute and unique. I'm actually pretty eager to jump back into this game, but I currently pre-occupy my limited "game playing time" with...
Prodeus - A very short, bonus feature near the end of the stream. A boomer shooter through and through, but it's violent and chunky, and I love it. My biggest complaint is how there is reloading in this game. There is a reason why most boomer shooters give you a bottomless mag, and this game really shows the pain of not having that. Regardless, beside that one pain point, I really enjoy this game. (Oh, and the levels themselves are a little bit long. For a first run of the levels with a healthy amount of exploration, they take about 20 minutes.)

---

I've been playing around with stream formatting; primarily focusing on thumbnail and stream/game length. The length of the streams has been somewhat coincidental as I have just been busy on Saturday evenings, resulting in me pushing the streams an hour late. However, I think it's easier to digest than my typical 3 - 4 hour stream.
The previous 2 streams performed really well, this one however...surprisingly...did not perform well. Such is the YouTube game.

Well, next week I am taking a break, and then I think the following week I will be doing an extra special stream that I am really looking forward to. It's content not yet featured on my channel before. I can't wait!
So I guess the next game stream will be in the middle of December!