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Devlog 49



You might have noticed I went a bit apeshit with the devlog logo. I had been very boring and repetitive for the last few weeks so I figured I’d spend a bit of time making it more fun to look at.




Hey guys! Got a load of stuff done this week so lets get straight into it!
A few extra rope improvements since last week:


Red hit marks on enemies.
New damage number for hits.
Dizzy stun if falling too far.
and wall jumping!


Greg







We’ve been talking a lot this week about the trailer for STG. I began with drafting a fairly complex version, which was tricky, but I think Etienne hopes to keep the whole thing close to only one minute, which will prove even trickier. It’ll be exciting to cram as much information, excitement and music into that short time! What do you guys hope to learn in the STG trailer?

-Trev






Dear god, so much has happened this week, I can’t believe it’s only been 7 days.
Both Goulven and Greg have finished school (or are closed to it) so we’ve been pumping content into the game like crazy animals on crack.

I’ve been spending a minimum of 4 hours daily drawing stuff.

So, I redid the dash:


I continued working on the desert stage:


I redid the damage numbers:


Added doors and pressure plates (which we then coded by Greg):


Drew a double jump:


A dizzy animation:


Did a sample portrait of one of my followers on Twitter:


Start dabbling with the water splash:


Promoted the game on twitter, Rpg-maker.fr, rpgmaker.net.

Gave feedback to Greg and Goulven regarding coding and level design.

In short, I don’t think we’ve ever poured so much effort into the game. I’m trying to keep things balanced not to burn out, plenty of exercise and social activities so I don’t end up living secluded in front of my laptop.

I’d say everything is going according to plan except for the promotion. This week, we went from 59 followers to 83. It’s good progress with an increase of 40% but I’d like it to be more. I’m still wrapping my mind around the intricacies of twitter to be honest. A lot of it doesn’t make sense to me yet.

So as we’re ramping things up for the kickstarter campaign, I’m anxious about one thing: when is it the right time to launch a campaign?

I mean, way back then you guys told me that things weren’t looking good if I had launched back then because of the lack of exposure, I was just about ready to launch. You were certainly right I’m telling me so. I think the game has quite a bit more exposure now than it did back then, I’d say roughly 25% more roughly?

I’m prepared for the actual campaign, I mean, with the updates and everything. I wonder though, should I plan things ahead? Like, have a demo prepared ahead of time, contact let’s players ahead of time and so on? I would think so but is it necessary? On which day which update will be released and so on

If so, how many let’s players should I “line up” so to speak?

Is releasing a demo during a KS really such a good idea? Greg has warned me against (with references to various links on the web).

Not having to have a demo would greatly speed things up for the start of the KS obviously.

I feel like the KS campaign will be very stressful and that a lot of weight will be on my shoulders.

So, the KS campaign should last 30 days. Many devlogs ago I wrote about this. I think we were talking about an update every 2 days? So this would mean 15 updates. Each update would mean more content.

The average amount for a campaign is 6000$... ours would 10000$. Maybe it’d be safer to reduce it a bit?
Ahh…! So many questions for my anxious mind!




Hi all !

This week we have take a good rhythm and the project is really grown...

Personally i work on the demo, searching bugs and add all new stuff made by Greg.
Take a look at this short gameplay:


Next step: End the demo, make a new session test and find all bugs...


Stay tuned, see u soon.
- Goulven (Nev)





BTS:
What are the greatest challenges STG will face in your opinion?

Getting the word out there! Advertisement is by far the greatest challenge we will be facing. Making a game is easy but developing a fan base around it is a whole new level. Not only are we having to attract players but we have to keep you guys interested right up to and beyond release date!

So we hope you’ll be stick around for many updates in the future! If you haven’t already don’t forget to follow us on twitter @stg_team!

Posts

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I would say the greatest challenge with the Kickstarter and such is estimating how much interest there is in a silly, eccentric MegaMan-alike. Given how many platformers have already been made so far, and that not much seems to stand mechanically, pretty much the main hope for it succeeding via Kickstarter is if its memberbase decides it's zany enough to be worth playing, yet still feels sufficiently solid design-wise to be worth backing. I do think YouTubers like Markiplier are your best bet here.

Another good advice might well be to sit out this one month entirely, and wait until the monster Kickstarter for Shenmue 3 is done. You ought to have much better chances of success once it is out of the way, and the extra development time also ought to give your chance to back-up the whole doughy aesthetic with more design meat.

I do feel this kind of project would be much safer if it also had some loud stat, if it either had something most people haven't mechanically seen before (or not seen before in that particular manner), or something seen before done to a greater extent. I.e. Axiom Verge was a rather traditional Super Metroid-like mechanically. It also had its own unique aesthetic (as well a plot, which you don't have), but it also had a catchy claim of having 35 weapons total, which instantly attracts attention of those just glancing through the game description. Be it weapon number, enemy number, trap number, reversed gravity zone or something else of a kind would help.
Good points (although you don't know about the plot just yet :).

Pan, the main character, will be highly customizable. I'm planning on having loads of abilities to equip him with.

I will definitely wait until Shenmue is done. I'm thus aiming for mid-july.

Thanks for the feedback!
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