YESno - My first attempt as an indie game developer

[ellipticaldoor]

I'm developing an indie game right now using LÖVE

This is the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT-l8QT-MpE

I also want to left my job so I decided to start a crowfunding campaing…

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/yesno/

[micha]

I like the graphical style and the music. I find it difficult, though, to say what the game is about, only seeing the video.

Good luck with the campaign.

[Jeeper]

I'm sorry that you have to take so much hate on Youtube, it is quite uncalled for, but to be expected. I can see that you have put down a lot of work on this.

The problem is that the game does not look fun. In the trailer, you move from screen to screen with minimal interaction. It is hard to tell what is going on and why you move back and forth all the time, most likely to stay on the same page a little while longer even though there is nothing to do.

It would appear that you worked on this for a year, yet you never sought any feedback from these forums (that I am aware of). It is very easy to tunnel vision on a project and without outside feedback you might end up with a product that no one actually likes. There is an important lesson to be learned called "Fail Faster", I recommend that you watch this video about it: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDjrOaoHz9s).

If you think about games such as Anti-chamber, even though it has some similarities to your game, the main big difference is that Anti-chamber has a lot game play mechanics and just makes the player feel like he is playing a game,rather than watching semi interactive media.

Your trailer is also not very good, a trailer should not be x minutes of linear game-play. A trailer should highlight features and tell the player why they would enjoy this game. It should be short and action packed and show what the game has to offer.

I hope that you will not get to discouraged from this and that you will learn from this project and keep making better and better games!

[kikito]

I agree with everything Jeeper's said on his previous comment.

The visuals looked interesting, but the gameplay (at least the one shown in the trailer) was too limited for my taste. Interaction looks so low that you could call it a movie - with two buttons: "play" (go right) and "rewind" (go left).

Also, and please don't take this as a personal attack, it seems that you are trying too hard to monocle-pop your audience . Making a "cerebral" game. Making intelligent or ("artsy") games is one degree of difficulty higher than just making a regular game. That's why we only see (successful) intelligent games coming from experienced developers.

To put it in another way: the first time you take a paintbrush, if you try to paint an abstract painting, you will almost certainly not make a very good one - there needs to be a mental framework and a technique mastery that you simply won't have yet. Most abstract painters do abstract not because they can't do realism - it's because they are so familiar with it that they want to explore other things.

But maybe I am reading too much on the trailer. As Jeeper mentioned, it didn't really show many highlights (while it was too long at the same time).

Also, know I have never published a game, so this comment is really not worth that much - think about that if it takes you down.

[ellipticaldoor]

Yeah, I agree with your comments. I have to work and study a lot more. Thanks for your opinions.

[qaisjp]

It looks really intriguing and I agree with the comments that kikito and Jeeper has said. It makes me want to see more about what the game offers just because of the interesting design of it. I'd class the trailer you have right now as a ... "sneak peek". Looking at the trailer specifically, I feel that €12 000 is quite a lot to ask for and you may need to sell your game to people better if you're aiming to reach that goal.

I understand that indie game development isn't about trying to sell to people and it's about what YOU want, but if you're aiming to get crowdfunded you need to make people know what your game is about. I'm more open about games and the comments on YouTube are uncalled for. I cannot say that behind the hate they aren't making a good point, without the hate they're pretty much saying: "12k is a lot of money for something we don't know much about".

Look at this artistic representation of innovation, culture, design, the reddit will surely love this interactive program, you'll become funded instantly for all that hard work and effort that someone could do with flash in 20 minutes.

Your crowdfunding project doesn't say much about your game. Yes, we've got some beautiful purty screenshots and a little biography but that's about it. An ongoing dispute about your game is how much money you're asking for and if you told us WHY you need that money and WHAT you're using it for, then there's a potential you'll raise more money. I can't imagine why you'd need so much money.

In conclusion, it's some great work and it's clear that you've spent a lot of time on this, but there is lots of work to be done. You've got quite a lot of feedback on your trailer, even though they are haters you can use it to your advantage and bring them over to the dark side.

Good luck

[micha]

Hey, I just stumbled over this talk by Tom Francis:
How to explain your game to an asshole. I found it interesting and quiet helpful.