Summary 2025

My projects I been working on or released this year.

Secret of The Deep Forest

Ludum Dare 57 theme was "Depths". At first I started with different prototype and later decided to drop the jam. But randomly at the end of day one I started new prototype that decided to finish. It one of ideas I had time ago and finally put into finalyzed game: turn-based party-driven casual RPG.

The end result was kind of proof of concept but not that easy to understand how to play. Later I decided to merge it with my old unlucky project WORLDS aka Tavern, that I was mentioning this blog few years ago. At some point project stuck into the entropy so it future destiny not clear for now but probably could come back to it some later.

Bonus: when I was working on this project I've tried to start TikTok channel as potential promotion. As I stopped working on game I also temporary stopped with posting video but probably will return to it at some point with another project.

GEE / Ё-моё

Ludum Dare 58 theme was "Collector". This time I was on my trip to Serbia and meeting with my friends who also decided to participate this LD. For myself I put bar low as was knowing that I've less resources to finish but still made a small game.

It is kind of copycat of Nintendo's Game&Watch "EGG" that was also popular in Russia as illegal soviet clone. It's not my first attempt trying to replicate some niche hardware, like the my last year's game HTON where I was trying to imitate Playdate game console. The final game is pretty simple (but still having small twist with upgrades) but I'm happy how I managed to capture aesthetics of original portable game, and also it playable on mobile right from browser. 

PUNCH FOREVER

My most important release of the year was port of PUNCH on Steam. The game I been working on for a while already, but only as mobile version before. Accidentally decided to release it on desktop as free game to change my direction focus for future releases. Game got update title and new UI, still requiring some more time to improve it and probably will spend some more time on it.

It didn't get attention for now but also for a reason that I haven't put any efforts into marketing yet. I'm still planning to give it some love and also participating upcoming Steam fest so let see if it helps. And as I said it opened new door for me, like I already added page for another of my previous games GO BLO that I probably will give a try next year.

Super Simple Pool (Working Title)

And the outsider of the year is my billiards prototype. For some time I had really strong fixation on pool. The idea was to try to combine hyped Balatro mechanics with pool core gameplay, that at first was kind of fresh idea. Only later few projects with same idea and tbh better execution as well were announced and released. It was one of the reasons why I decided not to proceed more on the game. Who knows, maybe I will come back to it later, as still the love for pool lives, but definitely not trying to repeat balatroish mechanics. I have idea for some different vision and specific aesthetics but not sure if I really can do it good way.

***

And that basically it. Of course there was more thoughts and hard work but putting everything on my Telegram blog for friends. This website is mostly technical and just reminder for myself to keep memory of past years. Not setting too much goals and plans for future year (even I have some) as want to try keep flexible without obligations. Also some real life happening so not keeping too much energy for end of this year. Let see what next year bring!

Summary 2024

As a traditional annual post summarizing my indie activities, I wrote 12 paragraphs about the main game projects I worked on this year.

Ludum Dares 55 & 56

In 2024, there were two regular (versus the abnormal three last year) LD jams. Of course, as always, I participated solo in the two-day Compo category. The themes were "Summoning" and "Tiny Creatures" respectively, I released two games.

On the first topic I made a gloomy game called HTON, which I tried to design in the style of the Playdate game console (a black and white monochrome display with a resolution of 400x240). I wrote about the game and its creation in more detail in a separate post-mortem.

For the second jam I made a funny game GO BLO, where you need to control a crowd of little people and solve simple puzzles. Somehow the game gained some popularity and still brings positive feedback. I wrote about the development and results in more detail in the tg-channel. There is a possibility that I will try to port the game to mobile phones.

Mobile releases

It's funny that the year started and ended with the same thing - developing an arena mode for last year's jam game PUNCH. Initially, I made a separate version for two players for desktops, and only later did I start porting the game to mobile devices. Having started with a port of the original game for touchscreen control on phones, I was eventually able to release several updates, including new modes and other improvements.

Also this year I was finally able to release an early version of the new pocket HOBO. The original game had its 10th anniversary this year, which I talked about in more detail in the article about this project, which is important to me. I hope that the game still has potential and I really want to check it out.

As a result, the activity of developing their mobile games has been resurrected after a long pause caused by various factors. I refreshed the account a little, changing the icon and renaming it to octa studio, along with transferring the old domain octahedronstudios.com to a new hosting. All links to new mobile projects, by the way, can be found there.

Other projects

Among new projects, I tried to make a tiled card roguelike. The concept turned out to be raw and seriously lacks usability, so I never released it fully. The idea itself has been in my head for a long time, I even tried to do something similar once on Flash, there is definitely something good in the idea. Perhaps I will return to development later with new thoughts.

I still haven't come up with a name for the game.

I started making a major update and rethinking of MARK-I, my only project available on Steam so far. If I still have the desire, I want to release a procedural roguelike mode codenamed M-I:R. I have an idea to make a soft reboot of the project in order to cover a larger audience.

The long-standing game WORLDS has not received an update for almost 3 years and may seem completely abandoned. However, the project is sluggishly picked around periodically, experimenting with different directions. In general, the general crisis is caused by not the most convenient architecture and various game design issues.

* * *

The further indie direction is vague and unclear. Although there are some plans for current games, I am always open to new ideas and projects. Plus there are other unmentioned projects, and the new channel huindie, which I started mostly for friends, gives me the opportunity to speak out and free my head for new thoughts.

In the next 2025, I wish everyone interesting projects and personal success. Please do not forget that first of all you need to become better than yourself in the past, and not someone else. And if you compare yourself with someone, then with yourself in the past, to feel personal progress. And turn the voice of criticism in your head into a friend who is trying to help. Good luck to everyone!

HTON Post-mortem

This spring Ludum Dare 55 happened. The theme was "Summoning" and I participated Compo as usual. The final game is narrative minimalistic novel with loops called HTON.

I knew that summoning diabolic things will be major usage of theme but decided to make a twist that player plays as ancient entity that is waking up from eternal dream to fulfil someone wishes. Originally I wanted to make novel/roguelike but in the end the game become too linear.

The title is based derivative of Russian's 'хтонь' that means much more then just evil spirit but emotional depressed feeling too. Also sounds like lovecraftian name that is suits for the game's need where you play as an ancient god. Not just god but dark entity that summoned by weak people. They offer sacrifices to you, one by one, and you can accept or not.

Summoning my shit#ludumdare #indiedev pic.twitter.com/8TH6EAXkJE

— Denis Kazantsev 🌳 (@JokerDen) April 14, 2024

Gameplay is simplistic too. Originally was built around idea of unusual text-based roguelike but finished just simple dialogue tree of few branching. One answer always leads to the beginning, the void. And other answer moves you further on a global purpose to eliminate eveything.

Game contains few violent scenes and whole theme is dark. It was just my associations to the LD theme and also crossed with some back-time near depression condition. The game didn't ended well by player's choices, not only because of topic but also poor usability and primitive gameplay. Unfortunately my idea of unwrapping mystery is not very readable but I like that still game have kind of emotion inside.

Visuals are built around the idea to imitate Playdate game console. It was like a personal challenge to design the game within poor boundaries. The console screen resolution is just 400x240 pixels and each pixel could be just black or white.

In the end I'm having one more game on my page and I'm not ashamed of it. Different problems that made a game not reached by the players are only motivate more to become better game developer. Soon next Ludum Dare is coming and I hope I will participate again. Have a nice day everyone!

PUNCH Universe

A lot of thoughts I have about PUNCH. The game I made for Ludum Dare 54 (was mentioned at last summary article) and got really good results.

Some people was keeping telling me that I need to do that and that about the game. And everything was accumulating in my head for a while for bigger picture.

In the end maybe this article would help to relieve and never come back to that game – as it usually working with plans when you sharing it and never complete because you are getting people reactions already and no need to finish project for that.

The picture starts giving me a tic

PUNCH should become universal game, consisting of different game modes. Ludum Dare original simple physics and controls should become a pillar, game law, rule if you want. It should be customizable, platform independent, who knows maybe even open-sourced in the end.

To find the game modes or other values, where I should to put my efforts, is one of the most difficult tasks I have. «Limited Resources» is my personal ludum dare theme for whole life. Work smart, not hard, people saying. Anyway I'm trying just work, my minimal barrier. Low-key it called I think.

For now, the most clearest vision for nearest future I have, is having multiple modes, at least 3-in-1:

• original linear levels from compo version, it is already contains entities like bosses, bonus levels and learning curve;
• PvP arena, that is already released on itch.io and standalone downloadable/web version;
• infinite rogue-like or "survio" game mode, some prototyping already started on that direction.

And that's it, in short. Thank you for reading.

Well, after sharing all this thoughts I'm already feeling some relieve. I also felt relieve few days ago when I finally published PUNCH on GooglePlay that is kind of proof of concept for mobile version of the game that challenged some UX. And I was mentioning platform independence – ideally PUNCH mega app should be almost equally playable on mobile, desktop and console with it all game modes... Oh, my wet dreams.

Also coming with cool or fun titles is such a mind gum. You already saw PUNCH ARENA for PvP version. And so on: PUNCH MOBILE, PUNCH X, SECOND PUNCH, PUNCH BALLS etc.

PUNCH 2/II, when?

Summary 2023

Despite my moderate involvement in indie development, this year I mainly worked on projects that are still far from release. Some of them, as always, can be seen on X where I sometimes post videos and screenshots. I hope to be able to talk more about these games in the future.

However, this year we managed to make 3 releases for all three Ludum Dare events taking place this year.

Ludum Dare 52 theme «Harvest» – In The Rye

I already talked about this release in a separate post at the beginning of this year. I can only add that this project, made mostly in a frenzy, remains one of the best in recent times, receiving a lot of praise from players.

I really, really want to repeat the success by doing something narrative-trash. Unfortunately, I still can’t find a place for such projects – neither among the players, nor among my other ideas. Maybe just doing something from the heart will work out, but I don’t feel the energy from space for it yet.

Ludum Dare 53 theme «Delivery» – Lo-Fi Pizza Delivery Guy During Armageddon Trying To Earn $10000 To Buy A Car

First of all, regarding the name: I tried to make the longest possible name that would fit the rules of LD and itch. And practically the only storytelling in this game. And a great reason to order pizza during the jam.

Despite the lack of strength and motivation, I managed to make a small game in which I was able to successfully test a couple of hypotheses and make a few mistakes.

The most important thing is that we managed to achieve a sense of dynamics from a turn-based game to a rhythm game through music. The beat, by the way, was simply generated in GarageBand by the Drummer tool. I also experimented with rendering, creating pixel art from 3D through a low-resolution camera. I screwed up a lot with the UX, especially at the end of the game, where many players simply didn’t realize how the menu worked. On a funny note: a small bug in the game, when some Armageddon levels occur immediately after the previous one, creates one of the most interesting moments in the game.

The best compliment the game has received is comparison to the game Into The Breach, which I am a fan of.

Ludum Dare 54 theme «Limited Space» – PUNCH

The best actual result was shown by the last release of this year, which received the award for #1 in the Fun category, as well as the top 10 Overall among a couple of thousand participants.

I have a mixed opinion about this game: I can't say that I put a lot of effort into it, but I do like some aspects of it. The most important thing is the recognition of the audience. The game still gets hundreds of views every day on itch.

There are currently a couple of ideas in work for further development of this project. It is possible that I will be able to release something next year. I don’t want to make any promises, because I know from experience that time can significantly change priorities.

* * *

Otherwise, I’m trying to maintain my indie spirit despite the big changes in my life this year. The last couple of years have not been the easiest, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I really want to fucking good release in 2024, which is what I wish for everyone. Happy New Year, good luck to everyone!

In The Post-mortem

The year began with a visit to Georgia, where I met my old friends from the gamedev community. The end of the week-long trip was marked by participation in Ludum Dare. The theme was "Harvest", we participated separately in the Compo category. I got a nice game called "In The Rye". There will be spoilers ahead, so I strongly recommend that you play the game: it will take about 10 minutes, strictly 18+, link to itchio (play on the web from a computer browser).

Idea

After the topic was voiced, the word "ergot" quickly popped into my head - a fungus that grows on crops, and even in ancient times caused hallucinations and other unhealthy effects to people who ate it. Along the chain, images of a story about a peasant family began to appear in my head, where the father of the family is forced to commit ignoble deeds - he kills his pregnant wife, copulates with a cow, and also observes the scene with his son. At the end of this post, I will touch on the topic of how such topics were chosen. In my head, it was more like a theatrical performance in the genre of psychological body horror. The scene with the cow on the tree, remembered by many, appeared quite spontaneously, by the way.

Style

When I already had an approximate scope of the project in my head, I quickly decided on the visual style and aesthetics. I really wanted to make a kind of homage to the era of flash games, when adult themes and black humor were very common. I originally wanted to draw sloppy graphics in flash itself, but due to difficulties in importing, I decided to draw everything in Gimp, deliberately increasing the pixels. I recorded all the sounds through the laptop microphone. Simple melodies made in GarageBand and I tried to diversify the pitch changes in different game situations, immersing the player even more into the atmosphere of a hallucinogenic thriller. In my opinion, the visual and sound design turned out to be very complete and consistent, which is rarely possible within a 48-hour jam.

Results

Personally, I was very pleased with the result. By sending the game to several twitch streamers, I got the reaction that I roughly counted on: laughter, surprise, wtf-moments, shock, and "aha!" moment in the end. But by creating a game with such controversy themes, I was prepared for the fact that it could scare many people and cause real disgust. However, this turned out to be the case: despite the general lack of polish of the game and the fact that the game as a whole is addictive to the very end, the final rating of voting on LD turned out to be very low; a negative emotional response from just a few people can significantly ruin the final grade. Emotionally, it upset me a little, but I knew where I was going. I'm much more satisfied with this game than my previous LD games, which received significantly higher ratings.

Conclusion

Even the day before, before the topic was known, I tried to decide for myself in which direction to go with the game:

Quite consciously, having chosen a disregard for ethics and reputation, I made the game not for high ratings, but contrary to the normality that has become established today, to indulge in a bygone era. When the flash died, all the games that had unprecedented freedom and emancipation in the choice of topics died with him. The first few years of my independent career before I switched to Unity are gone too. And this game for LD will remain for me a reminder of all this.

Summary 2022

This year is not very pleasant to do summary, but I want to keep annual tradition. And I already did some semi-summary in the middle of the year so this should be easier.

Indie projects are still only my hobby that I do during my free time aside from my primary game dev job. But this year broke my rhythm: it hard to do hobby during the dark times when your head is occupied with searching for security for yourself and your family... I've changed my job and moved to another country.

Projects that I developed a lot, but still far from release:

• WORLDS, more details will be below
• a logic game about blocks in pseudo-soviet style (working title is 'blockage')
• some kind of successor of COLORUS (my old game), casual metroidvania
• new shoot'em'up with top view
• ressurection of HOBO

If 2023 will be merciful, I want to release or move into active production phase at least one project from the list (or new project may be). This is of course not mandatory, especially if I keep spending time to WORLDS.

Speaking of WORLDS, I am already doing it more than a year. But it's true only for the itch.io project. In fact idea of this project came to my head more than a decade ago. During years concept transformed a lot and continue changing into something that I like to spend my resources for. A lot of the components are still missing, it is early to play and understand it. I want to believe that after 3-4 updates base of the game will be solid, fan will be visible and systems will "click" one with another. I have possible plans for development for dozens of future updates if the entropy of projects will not destroy me completely.

But I need to accept that this project and another are in some sort of development hell. Almost every mentioned projects are stuck in some kind of design problem that I don't know how to solve yet. No worries, it will be solved.

The main value for me is still not result, but the regularity of my indie time. Be the samurai without the target, but with the path. Thanks for reading, I wish you successes in the future year.

Year Progress ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░ 50%

 Just to reduce dept for this year summary, I decided to give a quick overview to my indie progress 2022.

As I planned, WORLDS game (still working title) got an update in January. I've focused on interactions with bandits (that can ambush you): now you can try to negotiate them. Besides that map roads are updated, used Poission-Disc algorithm to fill map with locations and A* algorithm based on nodes to path-find best routes. More changes are listed at itch.io update page. The game is still raw in fact and I can't recommend you to try it. I already have big plans for next updates and it is what I passioned about for the now. 

Then I spent few months on creating new vision for one of my prototypes. Originally it is block building game in the setting of soviet-like history slice from 50s to now days. But I eventually stuck in some sort of dead end, where I'm not sure how to evolve the game in something interesting. Still a lot of problems, but I definitely will continue or somehow will re-use this idea because there is something interesting inside it. Decides do not put link for playtest demo but it is existing somewhere.

It is was tough time actually because war started. It was hard to accept, it was shocking and not a lot of options what you actually can do against it. By coincidence I moved to Turkey for a month right at the beginning. And at the start of April there was 20th anniversary of Ludum Dare with Ludum Dare 50. So when I decided to participate it, idea for the game (theme was "Delay the inevitable") threw up out of me without any efforts. The final game as always was made under Compo category in 48 hours. It is something like autocracy simulator but where the end of dictator is inevitable. It also has bonus music track: complete all 5 endings or just type 'bonus'. In my opinion the game is ugly and almost unplayable but I also got some very positive feedback, you could play it through LD page 'Your Regime'.

And the last thing I want to mention is the first demo for my another new concept. I'm planning something metroidvania-like arcade game with some aesthetic and story exploration focus. It is only the first demo, and there a lot of things that I cut here (e.g. almost no sounds) just to finish it to break free to other projects. But if you interested, you can use pass 'monday' to download the prototype for Windows or macOS from itch.io page.

That's all for now I guess. Pretty satisfied that I finished at least this one post in half of year and it was written in one seat. Love you all!

Summary 2021

I'll tell you about my indie projects of this year, which I did in my free time: my first release on Steam, my personal record at Ludum Dare, as well as an endless dream project.

This is how the page on itch.io with these games looks like at the moment

Release of MARK-I: Mission Pilot

The first half of the year was mostly occupied by another personal project - moving and renovating a new apartment. Those who have come across this can imagine how time-consuming it can be. Nevertheless, I managed to find time to finish the project that I've been doing for almost the entire last year. As a result, the trailer was ready by summer (thanks to yaaawny for helping with the art) and the coveted green release button in Steam was pressed (in fact, the release process stretches over months along with the preparation of the page and other meta-data).

The preliminary mailing to publishers, as expected, did not give a result, and there were no high expectations from the game as a whole. The goal was to finish the project, which in itself is often quite a difficult goal, and to gain experience in the full cycle of publishing a game on Steam. At the moment, a little over 50 copies of the game have been sold, and I do not think that this amount will grow much in the future. If you suddenly want to treat me a coffee – you are welcome to the game page, where you can buy it for mere pennies.

Initially, I wanted to write a full-fledged post-mortem for the game, especially since I managed to learn a huge number of lessons. But I realized that I had grown so cold to the game that I really didn’t want to spend even more time on it. There are some ideas on how to rethink the current 20-minute demo into a full-fledged game, and in general I like the universe of the game that I began to sketch, but I definitely don't plan to return to the project in the near future. Perhaps one day...

LD49 – Ludens Fortuna

In October, another Ludum Dare took place, where, by tradition, I participated into the Compo category, where all content must be done in 48 hours, alone, and the source code must be attached to the game. The theme was "unstable", I decided to make a game about the instability of the world, as a mechanic I semi-ironically decided to use something like solitaire with meditative flow, where the player, in the role of some fateful creator, must play cards, trying to keep the world in balance from turn to turn, avoiding the collapse of instability. And as a small personal challenge I chose a deck of Tarot cards to study it a little.

One of the most interesting tasks was to create a visual display in a very limited time, as well as to come up with and code the logic for each of the 78 cards. As a result, I even felt the nostalgic spirit of indie, when in the last hours, of all, you were trying to meet the allotted time, regularly glancing at the remaining minutes. I remember very vividly how expressively I drew minimalistic art for all these fancy cards, wondering in my head how much time should be spent on each of the cards. Unfortunately, there was not enough time even for the simplest sound, as well as for a tutorial and tips to help you master the rules of the game, some of which greatly simplify the path to victory. Although raw, but still finished, the game Ludens Fortuna was uploaded on time in accordance with all the rules.

The visual setting was a planetary theme to give the game some epic and pathos: from time to time on the planet you can even see the shadow of an eclipse

And it was quite unexpected, after a couple of weeks of voting, to find that the game entered the top 1% of the best games of this Ludum Dare (11 out of more than 700 games in the Compo category, or 21 in both categories out of almost 3,000 games), which broke my last eight-year record by game COLORUS with LD26, to which I would have added a link if Ludum Dare had not disgustingly destroyed all the legacy when moving to the new site.

The success of the game is seen as a large share of luck (which is ironic, given the name of the game - "Fortune / Fate Playing") due to the small number of votes, but it is still a shame that today the game from the top LD collects a miserable several hundred views, whereas before, even the most shitty games could easily collect thousands and tens of thousands of views, simply by being on the Newgrounds or Kongregate. The golden era of web gaming is far behind, somewhere near the resting Flash, and new proprietary mobile platforms make it much more difficult to find your player. But there is no choice but to treat this stoically, accepting the new rules of the game, and trying to self-identify in this new world.

WORLDS

After the release of Mission Pilot on Steam, the most of my indie time switched to one of my oldest ideas. "Procedurally generated RPG" is perhaps one of the most overused clichés for a dream project, but this definition describes well this ambitious project, peppered with ideas not previously seen in other roguelikes.

I have repeatedly tried to approach the project under the working name "Tavern", aka "WORLDS", but only recently I was able to find a suitable format in which I managed to dive into development. I wanted to get rid of the platform as much as possible (or better, focus on every platform) and update the project with iterations. Exactly by this way it has been possible to move so far, and I already released several updates for the game, which is for now available on the web.

Development may be extremely slow due to preparation for the future scale of the game, but this pace suits me perfectly. Internally, I have already committed myself long ago that not a single year will pass before the game begins to take on clear outlines. At the moment, the game is still in its very early stages of evolution, there is still a long way to go, so I recommend you to be patient and watch out for the next updates.

* * *

I'm not making grandiose plans for indie projects for the next year. I would like to release several updates for WORLDS, and, perhaps, take into work a new small-scale project, the basis for which can serve one of the old or future prototypes.

Shinji Mikami, author of the Resident Evil series, once said that he believes that developers make their best games between 30 and 40. Like, you still study before 30, and after 40 there is not much energy. So, if you follow this logic, my most important ten has only begun. And if all of a sudden, even before 40, nothing happens, then who is this bastard Mikami!

That's all, creative success to all aspirants!

Z-buffer problem in Unity on WebGL

While working on a new game I stuck in the rendering problem. There are not much information about this on the internet so I wanted to share the information that could help someone.

First, my setup: Unity 2021.1, URP, Windows. 

Everything looks fine in the Editor but when I built my project to WebGL 2.0, I found weird vertex/facing jittering:

It reminded me popular Z-Fighting problem, but not only with nearby surfaces but much worse. It turned out that this problem related to the Z-buffer. Unfortunately, WebGL don't have the same capability to write depth as OpenGL or DirectX (I expect because of no floating point depth buffer).

So I reduced Camera clipping planes distance from ~1000 units to 400 units and it fixed the problem for my in-game scales. Here the same build, but with new Camera settings, no jittering:

It hasn't solved the problem completely and I know there are more pain in the future, when new game design requirements will appear. But my target was to understand and solve the problem by using standard Unity tools without adding custom shader or other long-term support solutions.

By the way, the shown game is procedural role-playing rogue-lite adventure that I'm updating from time to time with new content and mechanics. And it's already playable on itch:

https://kazantsev.itch.io/worlds

Summary 2020

While almost completely ignored jams this year (with the exception of QUBOR for Ludum Dare 46), from the very beginning of the year I set myself the goal of making a complete vertical slice of some new, but easy-to-develop project. Then it seemed that a shooter about a tank would be the simple idea.

The first prototypes did not show the amount of work
that awaited me in the future

And now the project, originally planned for 3-4 months of development, has to barely keep pace until the end of this year (and still leave something for later).

MARK-I: Mission Pilot

Inspired mainly by classic NES games (eg, Contra or Jackal), I wanted to make an arcade shoot 'em up. Since personally I am not a big fan of bullet hell games, I wanted to make a game with a fairly low entry threshold. But trying to find fun in a "not like everyone else" format without explicit borrowing or cloning turned out to be a daunting task. I am still not sure that I coped with it, despite the subjective satisfaction with the result.

The idea of a story in the world of the near future quickly came to my mind, where the player takes on the role of a pilot of a combat vehicle called MARK-I (much later I learned that the project with such existed in reality). A very banal evil bad corporation, a mission to destroy some kind of Core, and at the end the boss-helicopter must certainly awaits. Initially, I wanted to put more emphasis on narrative, but as a result, of course, it is difficult to fit in with the dynamics of the game.

The scene in the cabin of the MARK-I turned out
to be not very readable, but I still wanted to leave it

As a vertical slice demo I set myself the task of making about 15 minutes of intense gameplay. But there is reason why the genre of action games is one of the most expensive in the gaming industry: the player has a set of expectations that require the game to be worked out in very different areas and very densely filled with content. It turned out to be very difficult to deal with this alone.

Development difficulties

Level design and content filling took significantly longer than expected. Whithout great experience in this area, collecting levels even from ready-made objects was complex and time-consuming for me, required full immersion. And in general, the process of filling with content was not as fun as creating new systems in the game.

Due to the chosen scope of the game, I had to redo and fix all ~15 minutes of gameplay several times. Almost all game locations were rebuilt from scratch 3-4 times. In general, the constant alterations, the need for which notifies after the next playtest, is morally and physically exhausting the most. One of the hardest things to do is cope with your anxiety about repetitive development.

Perhaps many will understand the feeling of some disgust for own project,
when throughout the year you open it and see the exact same thing

Needless to say, many added features had to be thrown out. This often has a positive effect on the final result, but the time spent initially cannot be returned. So, for example, the collected data with knowledge about the world, or battle chips obtained from enemies, which initially serve as currency for upgrades, were cut. Many features had to be postponed as they only make sense in the context of a full-size game for a few hours.

At a certain stage, I decided to add a local coop for 2 players, which should become one of the main selling points. Despite the fact that from the very beginning I had in my head the ability to control from a gamepad (now the game can be played entirely with an Xbox controller), this control option turned out to be more difficult to play than a mouse with keyboard. But nevertheless, I'm glad that now the controls can be easily adapted even for two independent Joy-Cons from Nintendo Switch.

Experience gained

Despite the fact that it is difficult for me to give any subjective assessment of the final result, I am very happy with the process and the knowledge gained. One of the most important questions for me - could I work on one hobby project for a year, or maybe even more? - received a positive answer. I learned a lot in areas that I had to deal with a little less before: working with 3D in Unity, physics, rendering, navigation and ai, sound producing and much more.

Regularly posting screenshots to Twitter allows you to periodically look from the outside at the visual component of the game. Only a few subscribers were not enough to overcome the milestone of 100 followers by the end of the year :D Maybe by the 10th anniversary of the account next year it will be possible to do this.

The scene that started it all, but in pre-final form

Regular playtests are one of the most effective tools. In order not to blur the eyes of the players, since every time the feedback is very useful, I tried not to build demos frequintly, making breaks between internal releases of 1-2 months. Once I even managed to make a public playtest within of one local meetup, where I managed to look at very different players trying the game for the first time. Yes, you can't please absolutely everyone, very often the feedback turns out to be very cruel, but this is what makes you reflect on the project.

I was convinced once again how planning works in the industry. Especially now that this issue of overworking and crunches has resurfaced in publicity. The deadlines that business management lays down in the project almost never coincides with the internal reality, especially at the seemingly final stages of development. Planning is great for short iterations between playtests, but it's very hard to rely on in the long run. Quality assurance of the project takes more time, relative to the first stages of development. The devil is in the details.

* * *

About plans: at the beginning of the year to release the received vertical slice as an independent game in Steam. And finally, let go of the project and not return to it (unless, of course, I can find a publisher before release).

I really want to take another look at my indie approach, reduce the amount of stress and the semblance of "work", leaving the indie gamedev hobby in a freer and more fun style. It’s hard to watch after iteration “2021”. I wish you all creative success and strength to create!

My Jam Entries 2019

My indie releases of last year were made as entries to 3 short game jams.

In the April, I got trip to Berlin to visit A MAZE. As a part of this amazing indie video game festival, there was Berlin Mini Jam for a short (something like 8 hours) game jam as part of last festival's day. The theme was `The sky is really the limit` and made a game with same name. The sky really is the limit is a little philosophical sketch with a bit of nihilism, about people of different time and different places which asked themself metaphysic questions just by looking to the deepness of space above they heads, and how these questions changes throughout life.

In the August, was GMTK Game Jam from popular game analysis Youtube channel. It was one of the biggest global jams of last year and I was in. Theme was `only one`, 2 days and jam felt exactly as Ludum Dare. Finished with theonism – political satire game inspired by the events that was going in Russia same time when the jam was.

In the end of November happened Eco Jam Hackathon. I was hyped by the fact that jam took place in the GARAGE museum of modern art. So I visited Moscow for a weekend to participate in this jam. It was really inspiring experience, and at the end I has Waste Problem, city-building/clicker game that is touching the theme of garbage and it's utilization that really edge question in Russia right now.

Personal thoughts

Hello my lovely diary...

Writing posts regularly does not work (as usual), and there is no need for it yet. In order not to completely disappear from the radar, I decided to write at the beginning of the year about my state of the mind.

Recent events

Successfully moved to Unity. Fate of my previous Flash projects is pretty foggy. It is important  for me because "My Pocket Hobo" and "My Pocket Pony" are only games that produces any money – like about 30$ per month. Not much, I know, but it still better than nothing.

Made hyper casual game Hit Balls. May be I'll write the whole post (no) about what for I've made it and what results after all.

Got a new office job in a startup, making hyper casual games for mobile, trying to pay off investments. I think it almost the best option for me in the job market to do what I like.

Currently

Developing one new game prototype. I have ambitions to do a really original product, but it's still to early to judge about it. But who knows, sometimes I'm drop out my ideas...

From time to time I experience personal conflicts about my goals into game development. Most often it comes down to the classic issue of money versus art. But many other questions too often come up in my head – what products to invest own time, how much it is worth investing, how to find a balance with employment, and so on.

All also for a long time I experience long periods of decline and the rise of the motivation. I don’t even fighting with it, but I try to simply adapt to this inconstancy: when I rise, I try to keep it as long as possible; when the decline, I try to minimize losses and quick as possible return to a productive track.

But most important personally for me is that gamedev still warms my heart. My love to it changes over time, but it so natural process. I wish everyone to continue to do their favorite things and that the new 2019th year was better than the previous one. Бороться трудно и удачу!

Feelings about Unity after Flash

I'm Flash developer almost whole conscious life. Started with Macromedia Flash MX 6 around 15 years ago, I wanted to make cartoons and then I found potential for games. I tried to program with frames and `goto` but learned programming only years later. All my jobs was related to Flash and I'm working as mobile AIR developer now.

But epoch is gone. Everyone heard about Flash death (that slightly exaggerated on my opinion). When everyone already moved to other technologies such as JS and Unity, I'm only started this way. And today I want to share my feelings about moving to Unity 3D after years of developing with Flash and ActionScript.

Basics

First at all I can recommend to start from official manual which is structured really well and written easily and informative. Who knows may be it will abolish the need for further reading. Here my understandings of basics Unity concepts.

Project (that almost always are games) consist of Scenes. Each Scene represents independent 3d-space. Let think about Scenes like about separate stages (Flash IDE also have scenes concept but I never used it for development). Even 2d-games are exists in 3 dimensions – I hope you know how z-index works.

This 3d-space is container for GameObjects. Something like DisplayObjects in Flash. And each GameObject (GO) has Transform component/property – information about it position, rotation and scale.

Prefabs are something like stored GOs, presets. You can reuse prefabs with different ways. It one of basic tools of Unity and it better to learn about it in a chapter of manual.

Each GO can (and should) have components. Components are code that describes behaviour of GOs. Working in Unity, you will use many built-in components, as well as write your own. Working with components are main part of business in Unity.

Few more notices

Measure system. Don't forget that Unity (unlike Flash) uses units measure system. It could be a problem at first, but soon becomes natural.

CSharp. Despite the fact that Unity allows you to choose the programming language of a few, of course you need to use C# as only one language. Especially if you programmed on ActionScript 3.0 before. Mostly all projects (I will assume >99%) made in Unity are written on C#.

Rider. I like JetBrains IDEs. So highly recommend Rider instead of MonoDevelop as main code editor. It easy to integrate to Unity and much more comfortable to work with.

Conclusion

I'm using Unity hardly more than month but it hard to describe how it changed my approach of development strategy. I'm writing much less code than in Flash for same functionality. Working with components is much more conveniently for game development. I'm excited from possibilities that Unity gave me and ready for new experience.

The Return

Reasons for return

More that three years have passed since the last publications in this blog. Now I'm filled with new ideas, desires and power to revive blog and create new content.

In general, I want to do a blog for myself: it's a good opportunity to write some ideas, as well as a good way to practice English. And this post is something like formality, explaining the further destiny of this blog.

What kind of posts are expected in the future?

Of course about game development. I want to pay attention on the analysis of prototypes, new releases and updates – key ideas and hypotheses, devlog notes, current statuses and post-mortems.

Also, I plan to expand the subject of the posts. Lately a number of thoughts have appeared that I want to share with others; in common about self-organization. And I always wanted to review some products (games, movies, software, etc.), now I hope to find time for it.

About tech side of the blog

Old blog used WordPress on custom hosting but it was lost in time. I decided to use Blogger for new version. It's not the best platform for blogging but I like Google services and hope that blogger could be better in future.

I revived old posts using Web Archive but some pictures, links or formatting could be missed. These posts labeled as `oldpost`, don't have great importance, but I want to save them by some reason.


This time I don't promise any regularity of publishing posts, but I'll be glad if you check here sometimes (it's strange that I can't find any subscription tool on the blogger).

Little release, new announcement and Twitch

As I said in previous post, PATRIOT project is frozen for indefinite term. But it’s not mean that closed. PATRIOT is almost complete and I will return to it in near future. But I have some news.

Few time ago I released small game called TwoNumbers. It was made in only one night. Game has little confusing rules, but it is very simple and minimalistic. I got some feedback (even from Tom Fulp at PM on Newgrounds) and hope I’ll make mobile port soon. Don’t be strict, just keep in mind that it was made by one man in few hours.

I noticed, that my last games was really simple and small. So I started make new game called Holiday in DPRK. It’s something like jRPG about team of cool soldiers in North Korea which must kill Kim Jong-un. Game is a satiric and trash a little. I started to draw for this game. I hope I will develop it till the end and it will get positive feedback. I planned make game about North Korea already few months, but only short time ago I got nice idea.

And last little news is about my Twitch channel. Sometimes I stream game development there. Not really interesting but who knows. Just follow it. Thanks.

Standstill 2

Few months past after last post and I need something to write here.

As I said, I have no stable job right now. So I spend a lot if time for getting money at different projects. But now I get some energy and unfreeze my main main project PARTIOT. It need a lot of work and I can’t promise soon release. But work is going and it was moved from dead point. I hope on some news for you at near future.

I skip last Ludum Dare because of theme. It really sucks. I have a lot of awesome ideas for new projects, but first I need to complete current. And it not cancel my words about outsource projects where I getting money.

Current status

Some time has passed, you need to know about my current business.

I started development of the promising project called PATRIOT. I call it game but it more looks like monumental social experiment. At this time I doing it not alone – my good friends took server-side programming (yes, it’s not single player game). I really lay my hopes on PATRIOT.



In addition, I can say that possible few little projects in partnership with great DiscoFish. I have plans for game series with different mechanics but with same universe. I think Alex can do awesome art style for this project. He agreed for this, but I can’t promise it soon because I will take outsource job for money~ Hey, I’m indie and I need money sometimes!

Ports to iOS — check

After I left my job, it was pretty easy to complete updates and ports. Before I planned it done until summer end but now it was finished in few weeks. I’m glad. Here are the links in AppStore:

• COLORUS
• Hungry Brothers
• Card Football

And guess what? I reincarnated my octahedron studios site. New lite WordPress design and separate  pages for games. Hope you like it. It need some work and time but it better than it was before (static blank page if you remember).

Now I’m started working on new project, that not really game but huge social experiment. It will be awesome and weird. And now I’m not alone with it: my old friend helping me with server side programming. It first not solo experience in development for me (except taphophobia of course).

It will be a lot of news at near time. You can follow my fresh Twitter — there are will be some short news.

Thanks for reading, I’m happy.

Indie. Day one

Today is the first day without office. Yep, I quit my job yesterday. Now I’m poor but free. Now I can take all time to my games.

Here the plan for near future

• Make updates and iOS-ports for my mobile games
• Ressurect octahedron studios site. It will be just homepage for mobile games. All news will be here
• Ludum Dare 30 in August
• New games!

Damn, I’m so glad that I can spent full time to my own projects. I hope I’ll not die from hunger.