indiedev postmortem and lessons learned by @necro_bouncer is a new initiative that we are launching as to keep in the radar some interesting twitter threads that we have been able to find.
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indiedev postmortem and lessons learned by @necro_bouncer – Original thread
indiedev postmortem and lessons learned by @necro_bouncer – Edited Thread
Hey, everyone in the #indiegame & #indiedev communities!
For each ❤️ under this post, I will share a fact about the NecroBouncer or my #gamevelopment experience.
🔁 for more facts!
Don't forget to play the demo!
http://ravenage.ink/3KFIgFj
#pixelart #1like1fact #madewithunity
1. I first started working on this project in the summer of 2017. It started with doing animations for the main character
Here how he looked like:
2. Whenever possible I played necromancers in video games and liked spawning zombies, hence one of the inspirations behind the main character.
3. Despite the fact that most bouncers are rarely seen inside the clubs, I somehow imagined them removing unwanted visitors from inside, rather than preventing them from coming in. Let’s just say that is why the game takes place inside a club.
4. Initial inspiration for the first boss came from me wanting to add something similar to Lich King in the game, but that boss was completely scrapped and later replaced with the Scarecrow.
5. When creating enemies, I first decided on the theme for the floor, and then tried to figure out what would work for that particular theme
6. Player-summoned zombies were meant to fight enemies not just run to them and explode. But because I didn’t know how I would do that (I was a little afraid about writing such behaviors for zombies and enemies) I ended up making them do just that.
7. Idea for the genre came gradually, initially it didn’t have any roguelike elements, but because I like this genre so much, I added more & more mechanics that fit its description, until I finally just changed the genre of this game, since it became more roguelike than anything.
8. My Original plan was to do a mobile game because I psyched myself out from playing PC games on my own, thinking “Why are you not working on your game instead?”
9. Trying to adapt the game for mobile didn't turn out so well. Lots of frustration cause by trying to implement f2p mechanics which made the game significantly worse
10. The nail in the coffin of mobile version of the NecroBouncer was the question from one of the publishers when I tried pitching the game for the 1st time: "Did you think about making the game for PC?"
11. There were a couple of features that I completely scrapped right after I moved from to PC, mainly the daily quests and challenges, which took me a while to implement, but they just didn’t have a purpose in the new version of the game, at least not in their current state.
12. I had to “give up” a huge amount of time that this change of platforms required to make. It took me nearly a year and a half to get the game back to a level that I felt good enough to pitch to publishers again, so this was definitely the biggest toll.
13. I didn't regret embarking on this project on my own. But there are moments when I'd really like some help. Luckily, I have amazing friends that can help me with certain things & one of the biggest things is – I can bounce my ideas on them and they give me invaluable feedback.
14. This game is my first real project and because of that, it was very poorly planned, as in, I didn’t plan it at all. My initial idea was: “Clicker game without clicking, and you will be a necromancer who can spawn zombies.” which were just a couple of things I liked in games.
15. Initially there was no theme, no story, and barely any gameplay. I can’t name a single game feature that was in it from the beginning and is also present now, all of them were changed, adjusted, removed & reworked a million times.
16. For the most part of the game’s development, I was working on it in my spare time alongside a full-time job. This took a big toll on my energy and motivation, so there were times that I stopped working on the game altogether for a couple of months.
17. It was a huge relief for me when I updated the game’s engine and completely reworked the input system and UI, which finally got a couple gamepads working that just didn’t work before.
18. An example of a big break in development would be when I finished the first batch of changes when switching the platform from mobile to PC, and the game started to feel 10 times better than before, which gave me a huge boost in morale and motivation.
19. Another one was when I thought of adding the leveling system, which seemed like a good idea in my mind and after adding it to the game, it felt way better and more fun to play than ever before, so this was also a huge step forward in the development process.
20. When I started learning game development, I checked a couple of charts of what to use and what is supported the most and has the most tutorials, and Unity was a clear answer for me, hence the choice for the game's engine.
21. I made probably around 4 simple games during my learning process (which were not my ideas, but I did start adding more and more of my “flair” to them) and then maybe around 6 projects that were never finished and 1 mobile game that I did finish.
22. One of problems faced during development was caused by yhe input system, for which there is a whole blog post written about:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1786830/view/3352387161687906910
23. The other would be the “Charge statue” room. For some reason, all of the problems in the game were mostly fixed, but that room was/is still causing smaller and bigger problems. Like the glitch causing the statue to continue spawning enemies.
24. Funny bug from the time I've implemented the mechanic that lets you dodge roll over furniture. After adding this to the game, everything seemed normal until I sent the game to a friend to test it and he almost immediately tried jumping into a wall and went through it.
25. Enter the Gungeon and Nuclear Throne, were the sources of inspiration for the visual style
26. Originally, music was made by a composer friend of mine João. He made the first 3 pieces of music for the game. But later he found out that this style of music really isn’t something he is comfortable with, so he asked me if I can go in another direction and I obliged.
27. One of the problems I am facing – I don’t have to explain my ideas to anyone most of the time, which can mean that I realize they are bad way too late and I already threw a lot of time into them and wasted it.
28. Throwback to earlier entry: when started working on mobile version, I decided to make a “clicker” game. Instead of clicking to get money, you'd go and fight enemies instead, cause I never enjoyed the clicking part of those, so I thought this could be a better “clicker” game
29. I once thought about working in a game company, but since I was already employed (not in gamedev), I just wanted to try this on my own and see where it leads me.
30. I was quite lucky that I was drawing my whole life and making music, so I could really create everything on my own, plus, as I was learning, I got a bunch of ideas for games that I want to make, so I quickly realized that I will be happiest if I just try to do this on my own.
31. My first finished game was Extreme Delivery where you make deliveries avoiding obstacles and meet different characters
Originally tweeted by NecroBouncer (@Necro_Bouncer) on August 31, 2022.
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