The last two weeks have been fantastically productive. We've managed to get hundreds of eyes on the Steam Greenlight page, we've filled out the sound and visual design of SiC, and crushed loads of bugs. We've also gained a lump of insights about what SiC is now, and what we need to do while releasing and trying to promote it, which will hopefully get the game into as many hands as possible.
Visually, I've been working more on later stages of the game, without going into too much detail (I'd really like to keep some mystery in the later stages of SiC's progression) there are some changes that happen later in the game. I made the assets for this change a month or two into development, which was about 10 months ago now, so I figured the effects and assets needed to be updated. I've generated a couple GIF's of the new effects and assest, the first compares the old fleshy animation(top) with the new fleshy animation(middle) and then the newest update of the effects(bottom).
Visually, I've been working more on later stages of the game, without going into too much detail (I'd really like to keep some mystery in the later stages of SiC's progression) there are some changes that happen later in the game. I made the assets for this change a month or two into development, which was about 10 months ago now, so I figured the effects and assets needed to be updated. I've generated a couple GIF's of the new effects and assest, the first compares the old fleshy animation(top) with the new fleshy animation(middle) and then the newest update of the effects(bottom).
Apart from late game weirdness, we've also been working on player animation, screen effects, fun little bobbles, and new enemy behaviors. This next GIF has examples of all of those, excluding the new enemy behaviors.
The little bobbles don't really do anything, they're more me expressing my love of the bobbles I always keep over my desk. We've also drastically improved the screen effects, replacing my hideous red circle popping up on the screen when the player takes damage, now we've got this nice little gradient that doesn't make you want to cry. We've also got new character animations for walking up and down that look less like a box sliding around on marionette strings, and more like a person walking. . . or at least they hint at the feeling of a person walking. All together these changes make SiC feel a lot more like a real game, and less like a lump of code, graphics, and sound effects.
This might be a weird shift in tone, but recently we(Myself and Michael White, who's producing music for and helping with the business side of SiC) have come to the admission that SiC's development has not gone to plan. When I set out, it was to make a game that I'd been dreaming about for a couple of months, something that was even more of a passion project than the other games I'd worked on. I'd been unable to really lock in and work on it due to my and my development partner's attachment to the project we were working on, which was CobWoyyz, and lack of any real free time. Anyway, that partnership ended (kind of badly, if you were following my twitter back then I'm sorry for your loss) and so did CobWoyyz. I needed to take things with the next game in a radically different direction. So instead of do something like the slow and measured CobWoyyz I decided to take the years and years spent playing old FPS's and top down shooters and try to crystalize them into a new game. The goal was for the game to take 12-14 months. I'd work 10 months alone, then use the game I generated in that time to secure an artist and a musician, the skilled team members add their valued skills, we finish the game on time and release for something like $3 - $8. When that 8 month mark rolled around, I wasted a shit-ton of time contacting and trying to coordinate with several artists. Each fell through and wasted valuable development time and in the end, I'd decided to do it myself. The biggest issue is that I'm a pretty trash artist. I've done my best to learn, but in the end I'm not going to be able to generate commercial graphics, even by indie standards. Breakdown in skill artists working on the game causes my master plan to break down at the last step, which was to achieve Steam and sell for a real price.
In the end, the end being two days ago, we decided to amend the last step. Instead of pushing to get onto steam, we're essentially admitting commercial defeat. Instead of trying to release for a hard price-point on the largest digital store on the internet, we're going to release SiC as a pay what you want release on itchio. While itchio has a far smaller user-base than Steam, it's also free and almost unrestricted. Itchio also allows us to provide players with the entire game for free. I've been informed that this is an objectively bad business strategy, though with the graphics being what they are I don't think SiC is something I can reasonably expect the average player to spend $5.99 on SiC, so we'd rather some people that play it and don't pay than people don't pay and don't play. The only difference between the paid and free version is that at the end of the credits, the free version will have a little prompt that'll ask if you wanna drop us a few bucks and take you back to the store page.
In any case, SiC is still coming to PC on October 15, and you'll be able to play it and even give us some money for it if you'd like.
Thanks,
Wyatt White
Every diamond is just some coal that got the shit kicked out of it.
This might be a weird shift in tone, but recently we(Myself and Michael White, who's producing music for and helping with the business side of SiC) have come to the admission that SiC's development has not gone to plan. When I set out, it was to make a game that I'd been dreaming about for a couple of months, something that was even more of a passion project than the other games I'd worked on. I'd been unable to really lock in and work on it due to my and my development partner's attachment to the project we were working on, which was CobWoyyz, and lack of any real free time. Anyway, that partnership ended (kind of badly, if you were following my twitter back then I'm sorry for your loss) and so did CobWoyyz. I needed to take things with the next game in a radically different direction. So instead of do something like the slow and measured CobWoyyz I decided to take the years and years spent playing old FPS's and top down shooters and try to crystalize them into a new game. The goal was for the game to take 12-14 months. I'd work 10 months alone, then use the game I generated in that time to secure an artist and a musician, the skilled team members add their valued skills, we finish the game on time and release for something like $3 - $8. When that 8 month mark rolled around, I wasted a shit-ton of time contacting and trying to coordinate with several artists. Each fell through and wasted valuable development time and in the end, I'd decided to do it myself. The biggest issue is that I'm a pretty trash artist. I've done my best to learn, but in the end I'm not going to be able to generate commercial graphics, even by indie standards. Breakdown in skill artists working on the game causes my master plan to break down at the last step, which was to achieve Steam and sell for a real price.
In the end, the end being two days ago, we decided to amend the last step. Instead of pushing to get onto steam, we're essentially admitting commercial defeat. Instead of trying to release for a hard price-point on the largest digital store on the internet, we're going to release SiC as a pay what you want release on itchio. While itchio has a far smaller user-base than Steam, it's also free and almost unrestricted. Itchio also allows us to provide players with the entire game for free. I've been informed that this is an objectively bad business strategy, though with the graphics being what they are I don't think SiC is something I can reasonably expect the average player to spend $5.99 on SiC, so we'd rather some people that play it and don't pay than people don't pay and don't play. The only difference between the paid and free version is that at the end of the credits, the free version will have a little prompt that'll ask if you wanna drop us a few bucks and take you back to the store page.
In any case, SiC is still coming to PC on October 15, and you'll be able to play it and even give us some money for it if you'd like.
Thanks,
Wyatt White
Every diamond is just some coal that got the shit kicked out of it.