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Arcade game developer here. I loved the game concept of ABA's "Defeat Me": http://wonderfl.net/c/9ykQ http://wonderfl.net/c/9ykQ . SHMUP where each enemy is a

Arcade game developer here. I loved the game concept of ABA's "Defeat Me": http://wonderfl.net/c/9ykQ http://wonderfl.net/c/9ykQ . SHMUP where each enemy is a copy of you. Round 3 you fight a clone of Round 1, Round 2, mirrored. but I disagreed with several major design decisions: 1) Rounds were too difficult (a deadline came in very fast, the bullets were nearly the size of the ship) 2) Player movement & weapons changed rapidly (speed & number of shots per spread was a modulo on the level number 3) Losing meant you retried the same level.. at that point in the game, you basically be stuck. I wanted the game to restart. I improved on the game with pixel-perfect collision, weapon animations and other design decisions like letting the player screen-wrap around the edge but not the clones, regaining time on the deadline when you killed a clone and more. I even experimented with a co-op, 2 variants of 1 Versus 1 mode and a Replay site before removing them for the core experience. I made the game because I wanted to play it. Making money was a secondary goal but I'm proud of the game and find it way more fun than most games I've played. How many games do you know that have an AI procedurally determined by your movements? Revenue earned: 3 * $10 on "pay what you want" from itch.io. 1 from a friend's friend who overhead on a Skype chat that I made a game, 1 from an indie developer at a games meetup and 1 from a friend when I sent them a link. + < $100 from iOS sales (I switched from the iOS app to Desktop (Win/Mac/Linux with Eletron packager) for a better experience and more fun coding. I think it's cool that $10 was the amount chosen by 3 people who didn't know each other as a valuation for the game. However it's disappointing that all 3 were people who knew me. I sent out ~100 emails to game reviewers with download links and got 1 brief article but no revenue. Why: Discovering games is hard. Marketing to people who would like this kind of puzzle-y arcade game is difficult to reach without looking like a spammer or spending $. Differently: Not try so many weird experiments with gameplay and focus on the core relentlessly + Playtest more. Iterations: 2 prototypes from TigJam. 2 more iOS versions then another re-write for an App Store launch. 2 Javascript versions (the latter being launched) + 1 seperate version for multiplayer. Time: Hundreds of hours. Maybe a thousand? A lot of this was done earlier on when I was less experienced with programming + design. I playtested a lot Lessons for Game Developers: Playtest often, stick to the core relentlessly. Carve away crap that doesn't fit no matter how cool it is or fun to make. I spent too much time iterating on mobile interfaces when gamepad controller support was far superior and passed "the bar test" (give to strangers at a bar and watch them cheer other strangers on as they pass the controller around). Play [1], An old trailer [2] [1] http://QuantumPilot.me http://QuantumPilot.me (redirects to itch.io) [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy_GBLM_6Qs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy_GBLM_6Qs

chrisdbaldwin 9y ago
Have you tried reaching out to physical arcades? It requires a physical cabinet, but most arcades in the US that I've been to are very receptive to indie arcade titles.
- hellbanner 9y ago
  I've looked at it a bit! Got interest from 1 local arcade. Cabinets are expensive to build + take effort to maintain (replacing parts) so it would have to be calculated. I've done a little bit of prototyping in "play games on a shared screen with your cellphone" that I think might be more conducive to the barcade scene. Something I might look into further; right now my next focus is on a GPS-based ChooseYourOwnAdventure + some tools for indie developers.
s_m_t 9y ago
I just played your game, it is extremely fun but I think there is a lot of missed potential and to be honest I would never buy it in its current state. It feels like a tech demo rather than a full game. My unsolicited advice is as follows: The art is boring. Most bullet hell games either have a mecha or anime art style with a lot of flashy effects. The closest in style to your game is probably geometry wars but your game lacks all of the color, warping, and particle effects that makes geometry wars look cool. You should invest money in the art. It is very interesting that whenever you die in the game you are essentially killing yourself, or some sort of past version of yourself is killing a future version of you. There should be some sort of narrative element to highlight and expand upon this idea. I think it is way less interesting to sell it as "your enemies learn from you" when you could be selling as "a battle against all your past selves", way more emotional content in the latter, you're fighting all of your mistakes, all of your hubris, all of your near-sightedness, and every shot you take is another nail in your coffin. To expound on this emotional element your character should be some sort of actual character, not just a green triangle... This doesn't mean you need a big backstory or cutscenes or anything major like that, something as simple as a drawing of a cute girl with a couple lines of dialogue will suffice. the thing you actually control can still be a spaceship but the player should know there is a character inside of it and they should know what they look like, you could make it so off to the side of the screen the characters face could pop up and react to what is going on. Go to tumblr and ask some type of fan artist to draw you a 'time traveling spaceship pilot that battles her past self and is really cute" and pay them for their work. Then when you die you can see that same character pop out of the space ship that killed you and celebrate ;) You should rethink the gameplay progression and how the levels work. It doesn't seem clear to me why you split up the gameplay into discrete levels rather than having continuous play with 'respawning' enemies. I don't see why I have go through the weapon type progression linearly each time either (shouldn't I be able to collect or switch weapons or something?), reminds me of my main issue with geometry wars which was that I had to play for about 15 minutes before the game really became fun and that I had to redo that boring 15 minutes every time I died. Just start me with the fun gameplay or make the ramp up period very short.

chrisdbaldwin 9y ago

Have you tried reaching out to physical arcades? It requires a physical cabinet, but most arcades in the US that I've been to are very receptive to indie arcade titles.

hellbanner 9y ago
I've looked at it a bit! Got interest from 1 local arcade. Cabinets are expensive to build + take effort to maintain (replacing parts) so it would have to be calculated. I've done a little bit of prototyping in "play games on a shared screen with your cellphone" that I think might be more conducive to the barcade scene. Something I might look into further; right now my next focus is on a GPS-based ChooseYourOwnAdventure + some tools for indie developers.

s_m_t 9y ago

I just played your game, it is extremely fun but I think there is a lot of missed potential and to be honest I would never buy it in its current state. It feels like a tech demo rather than a full game. My unsolicited advice is as follows: The art is boring. Most bullet hell games either have a mecha or anime art style with a lot of flashy effects. The closest in style to your game is probably geometry wars but your game lacks all of the color, warping, and particle effects that makes geometry wars look cool. You should invest money in the art. It is very interesting that whenever you die in the game you are essentially killing yourself, or some sort of past version of yourself is killing a future version of you. There should be some sort of narrative element to highlight and expand upon this idea. I think it is way less interesting to sell it as "your enemies learn from you" when you could be selling as "a battle against all your past selves", way more emotional content in the latter, you're fighting all of your mistakes, all of your hubris, all of your near-sightedness, and every shot you take is another nail in your coffin. To expound on this emotional element your character should be some sort of actual character, not just a green triangle... This doesn't mean you need a big backstory or cutscenes or anything major like that, something as simple as a drawing of a cute girl with a couple lines of dialogue will suffice. the thing you actually control can still be a spaceship but the player should know there is a character inside of it and they should know what they look like, you could make it so off to the side of the screen the characters face could pop up and react to what is going on. Go to tumblr and ask some type of fan artist to draw you a 'time traveling spaceship pilot that battles her past self and is really cute" and pay them for their work. Then when you die you can see that same character pop out of the space ship that killed you and celebrate ;) You should rethink the gameplay progression and how the levels work. It doesn't seem clear to me why you split up the gameplay into discrete levels rather than having continuous play with 'respawning' enemies. I don't see why I have go through the weapon type progression linearly each time either (shouldn't I be able to collect or switch weapons or something?), reminds me of my main issue with geometry wars which was that I had to play for about 15 minutes before the game really became fun and that I had to redo that boring 15 minutes every time I died. Just start me with the fun gameplay or make the ramp up period very short.