New game - Star Sky

[Mårten Jonsson]

Hi

I'm quite new to the forum still, but have been reading it for a while. I just released a new game game and it does share alot of the not-games principles. My main inspiration has been "Passage" in that you simply move from left to right, and "The Path" which hade a game mechanic I just loved, in that in order to interact with objects you do nothing. I applied those mechanics combined with my own preferences regarding storytelling to a game and this became the result.

A trailer can be viewed at the games website: http://www.jm-j.com/starsky.html

If someone feels like playing it in order to give me some constructive feedback, and don't feel like paying for it, just message me and I'll send you a copy.

Thanks,

Mårten Jonsson

[ghostwheel]

Looks beautiful, I'll have to pick it up, $2.99 isn't that much.

[Måns]

I really enjoy the concept and it looks very nice. I also have to pick it up =)

[Michaël Samyn]

When I bought the game, your $2.99 price changed into $3.62 on Paypal after going to a €2.10 on Fastspring Belgium store. The same thing happened when I chose the United States store. In the end, Fastspring says that it added $0.63 VAT. This is not very nice for European customers: we're used to seeing the price advertised with VAT included. Does VAT also get added for US customers? If not, you're making Europeans pay more. Which is not nice either.

(FYI: in our own online store we do not charge extra VAT to our European customers, we simply subtract it from our revenue so that everyone pays the same price for the games)

Our company has a VAT ID and Fastspring did neatly subtract the VAT again after I entered it (giving me a price of $2.99). But most people don't have VAT IDs. So you should probably put on your page that VAT is going to be added (it's a different percentage for different countries).

You may also want to add that the game runs on Windows.

By the way, is there a way to run the game in a window. My PC has a vertical screen these days and the game is probably not intended to be viewed like that.

[Mårten Jonsson]

Hmm, I thought it was supposed to have VAT included, sorry, I'll look into it immediately.

Pressing F in the menu toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode.

[Michaël Samyn]

Played through it twice now. It's nice.

The ending screen with all the unfound discoveries works well to encourage further exploration.
It feels a bit stiff sometimes, a bit too stylized for my taste.
But definitely interesting. Make more!

[Mårten Jonsson]

Well thank you:)
Do you mean stiff as in gameplay-wise or graphics-wise?

[ghostwheel]

I picked it up today, now I just have to get around to playing it.

[Michaël Samyn]

Do you mean stiff as in gameplay-wise or graphics-wise?

Especially the animations.

[Mårten Jonsson]

Hmm, yes, animation is my Akilles heel. I actually just got a mail from someone saying the same thing, so I've spent the morning trying to fix it. I've uploaded the updated file to FastSpring, you should be able to just re-download it.

[ghostwheel]

I finally got around to playing it a number of times tonight. I thought it was quite lovely. This reminds me of what I liked best about games like Metroid or Castlevania - the exploration and experiencing new things. I was always pretty rubbish at the gamey bits and (especially in the case of Castlevania games) it wasn't much fun. This ejects the unfun parts and just makes it an enjoyable experience. I would like more! More exploration, more to look at. More please!

My only big criticism is that it needs more graphical polish. I'm speaking less about the animation and more about the arty bits and eyecandy. The rain could use some work for example. The trees looked nice in some cases and blobs in others. Also, it's hard to read the "achievements" screen at the end of each play through.

I wouldn't spend too much time on this gama. Just fix any bugs and move on. Expand on these concepts, polish the next one more. You might consider porting this to iOS though or the next one. I don't actually own an iOS device so I don't know what I'm talking about.

[Mårten Jonsson]

Thanks alot, that's pretty much what I was going for:)

I do want to make more, and of course I have loads of ideas of things you could, and how to improve and polish things etc etc. But as you say, one has to move on, otherwise I would just be sitting there updating it endlessly. Better to take the ideas to a new game. If I can make more depends solely on how my life turns out over the next few months. I'm taking my bachelor degree in game development - sound design in a month, and have to look for a job. I would prefer to be able to sit down and just make games out of my ideas, but as everyone probably know, it's all about the money. Gotta pay rent and eat food, unfortunately.

[Michaël Samyn]

It is possible to make a business out of developing games on your own. It takes time to get there but it's a real option. Don't dismiss it out of hand. There's quite a bit of opportunity out there.

Good luck!

[Mårten Jonsson]

Oh yes, that is my full intention, I know you can succeed quite well. I'm just not in a position to do it right now, having no way to support myself while developing games.

[Michaël Samyn]

Step by step.

Just be careful you don't stuck in a situation where you end up doing one job to support the other.

But do give yourself time. It's a slow process.