Super Toaster X: Learn Japanese

Hey guys and gals!

*I tweaked the devlog again. Every time I see it I want to try something new. By the end of the game it might be painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, who knows?

I had too many ideas floating around my head so I got up at 3 a.m. and started working on the game. Well, it’s fun work so. Just finished and it’s 11:00 a.m (I did get back to sleep in between but I probably got a good 5 hours this morning, not bad!).

Fridgepoint (checkpoint)

This is fairly common in platform games. Should you die, it allows you to resume from this point. They are evenly distributed through levels. Why a fridge? Because that the best way to conserve your bread for long. Don’t just leave it on the counter! The toaster goes into the fridge by the way.




Moving about

This was pointed out by marcgfx (star for him). Instead of moving the body (which wouldn’t make sense) I decided to move the toast. This animation took me sooooooo long to do, I’d say a good three hours. I tried many different ways and this is the best I got. I’m happy with it. I think it’s funny and in the spirit of the game. What’s also funny is that I went to get a slice of bread from my fridge and tried to make it crawl on my table in order to understand how to animate it.
For those who are wondering, the hit box becomes the toast once outside the toaster. The toaster becomes invulnerable for as long as the toast isn’t back inside it.



You’ll notice I’ve identified the keys pressed during the animation.

Level Design
A level designer (with experience) has decided to volunteer to work on the game, awesome! Things are shaping up nicely!

The Reward System


“What the hell is that zany gimmick?”

Watch your language. It’s not a gimmick and it’s not zany.

I think people who make the extra effort of not only reading the log but providing feedback, whether through criticism, informative post (like oldblood’s last message) or sharing news about the game to other, popular websites should be rewarded. I realize most people here at TIG do it willingly without asking for anything in return BUT this is just a little extra for them. (It also gave me the excuse to draw something different than a toaster for once and I think the stars look cute).

“Well I think your reward system flipping sucks and I want no part of it.”

Yeah? Well too bad for you, it’s staying.

Basically, bronze stars, silver stars and gold stars.
3 bronze stars = 1 silver star
3 x silver stars = 1 gold star
3 x gold star =

Now, what could that last reward be I wonder? Only those with the most acute perception could determine this one out.
One you reach the last “?” you win a secret prize which I think is worth it. People who reach it will be contacted through PM with their prize. Isn’t it exciting?!?! Don’t be expecting a new car or something, it’s just a little present (but a cool one).

“All right, but what do you consider reward worthy?”

Anything that helps makes the game better or more popular basically. The same idea or criticism can’t be rewarded twice obviously. Encouragements, although always appreciated, do not count (neither do jokes for that matter unless they’re very, very funny).

So I went through the thread since its very beginning and updated the first message with that information.

Kickstarter:

In his previous message, oldblood mentioned that a KS project could be taxed up to 30% unless you had a company. The percentage probably varies from country to country. I live in Canada so if you’re also Canadian and have successfully funded a KS, could you give me PM to tell me how much the amount was taxed for? This is really important right now because I’m calculating the budget for the KS.

There are a few sums I’m certain of. I’m basing this estimate on a KS campaign of 10,000$.

Do you think a game like this has the potential for 10,000$, honestly?

At the moment I’m 1200$ over the budget I wanted to ask. Well, actually, I wanted to ask for 5000$ at first but that now seems ridiculous.



I’m also forgetting some expenses here I’m sure.

Is there a way not to be taxed so much? That would help. I could cut in the art I guess if it comes to it (I would be penalized by that however). Another possibility is to learn to code and compose on my own. This option doesn’t really appeal to me either.

Another possibility would be to ask more than 10,000$. This is something I’m really anxious about. I’ve been in a kickstarter before (I was only translating and animating) but the project was asking 60k. We got 1k. I feel that if I ask for too much, then the whole thing fails because we didn’t reach our mark.

I could offer a cut of the royalties instead of KS money too I guess. Hmm… decisions, decisions.

It’d be really neat if some KS veterans could share their insight at this point.

Anyways, I'll find a way!

I noticed we’ve reached 2000 views about the project so I wanted to make something a bit special for this log with lots of content as well as the reward system which I had thought about recently.

Thanks for reading!