Got it, Prototypes are key

Tbh, this was actually really inspiring

So basically: "Core game loop needs to be fun, everything else is icing on the cake and comes from iteration". Difficulty in mastering will keep dedicated players coming back for more, and the core mechanics need to be easy to learn to make people stick around for at least one full iteration of the core game loop, so they get the best experience out of it.

this game is extremely visually appealing

Sneezing mechanic, now that is innovative!

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” - Edison

Marketting is a really underatted process if a game's success. You have to make sure people know your game somehow. This video is a very creative way to market a game. Showing how awful the creation process was. But goddamn it works. Now I want to play your game

looking at the footage and seeing how finished the tests look, im thinking maybe using placeholders wouldve saved a lot of time haha

"the first year was disheartening" me: you should be happy your character can even move

Patch Quest: How not to make an indie game YandereDev: How to not make an indie game

Awesome video! Game Development is definitely very tricky and everyone has their own journey, that final version looks great! And all the time you spent iterating on all those ideas was definitely not lost! All of that experience gave you a ton of knowledge on what works and what doesn't. It will greatly benefit you for many years and many games to come. Btw the Steam link in the description is broken, it just goes to the Steam homepage.

"The only way to write good code is to write bad code first" I think this applies to everything: Playing games, writing, designing, making a game, making a movie, a sport, anything. I really enjoyed this video and your journey, thank you for sharing it with us!

Very cool! While watching I was like, "Oh wow--he's putting a lot of effort into the art for those prototype tests huh?" ;P

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” -Thomas Edison is exactly what I thought about when you talked about how those years weren’t wasted but actually helped at 20:22-20:42

I really love how you step back and were brave enough to critizice your own work in that way. If I realized my game isnt good after three years of work, I would just publish it as it is and cry for the rest of my life. Great and trully inspiring video.

Your original idea was cool on paper, but seeing it in action made it look like a shitty cashgrab mobile game. But your redesigned product looks truly enjoyable.

So I take this as a "draw the eye before the eyebrow" type of mistake, except the eye is the concept and the eyebrow is the structure of the game and you drew a very nice eyebrow but oh god it's on his forehead

Ah, it seems you fell for one of the classic blunders: Finishing assets before making sure the game is fun to play even with crappy, stand-in assets. Don't get me wrong, they looked awesome! And everybody wants to turn what they see in their heads into reality as soon as possible, and that's 90% visuals, MAYBE 10% gameplay, but a game with MS paint assets that is extremely polished gameplay-wise will always beat a beautiful, boring game. Really glad you got it all on track, though! Will definitely be keeping an eye out for this one. Best of luck!

To be frank, i lowkey loved the idea of being an explorer on a strange and dangerous land having to figure out the way through dangerous terrain. It seems like that idea disappeared on the later development.

I really liked the initial idea... until I saw the one about riding the creatures. I love it! I can see a "little bit" of the influence of the other roguelikes that you showed in the video xD #Fighting!