I'm Done With Game Design ...

A year ago I began the creation of my first game - DARKBASE 01.

I spent allot of time every day working on this game and I also created every single asset for it - pushing aside my other graphic design projects in the process. I also did all of the marketing and promotion for this game.

I recently managed to get the game on Steam, Desura and a few bundles.

All I'll care to say is that in the end, this was just a "learning" experience - I don't really want to say anymore than that

I'm working on some more viable projects now.

If you wish to see what I'm up to, you can find me here.

https://www.patreon.com/solarstormstudio

https://www.youtube.com/user/ArtOfVL

Thanks to the forum members who provided positive feedback, but its time to move on.

Have a good day everyone.

Take care.

Damn dude it breaks my heart to hear that and to read those reviews on something i know you must have poured yourself into. All i can say is, if you have learned anything, hold your chest out & chin high and remember those lessons for next time. I donno how old you are or at what stage in your career you are but if there is something you enjoy doing, please please please dont give up because of the feedback - simplify and get back to doing it for yourself / for the love of it and the practice will improve your abilities. I have given my game everything I have and I have nightmares about it being poorly received or joked about sometimes, but even if that happens, I know it just means I gotta get better at what I do and I gotta make sure my next exposure blows peoples minds and I'll work hard on it until it's ready for that exposure.

Huge love, I hope whatever you are going to do next brings you smiles, we're only on earth for such a shitty short time... make sure you spend it doing something that makes you truly happy, totally regardless of what other people say about it etc.

Best of luck & a hug that lasts infinity.

Nate Schmold

hey, I looked up your game on Steam and saw the reviews... wow that's too bad. I can't imagine how that feels. But I say don't give up. Game design is like directing a movie, you are bringing all these forms of art together to make something cool, fun and interactive... it's not easy to do.

I think gamedev is HARD. You obviously have some passion for it, so maybe just keep going with it and keep learning? "They" say to do anything professionally you need to put 10,000 hours into it. So don't give up if it's something you are interested in. A year, believe it or not, isn't that long... I think gamedev is a life long passion.. or at least can be.

well said —

btw some of the reviews on Steam are people trying to get popular by crapping on your game...which has nothing to do with your game at all. That one youtube video, the kid was so reaching... he kept trying to find ways to make fun of your game when there was nothing to even make fun of... like that desperate kid in school who wants to be viewed as popular by beating up on someone smaller. Completely despicable...

make games because you like/love them.. screw what people think..

Well done for finishing a game!

I hope you don't give up.

The reality is that most peoples first game aren't very successful, the majority of people will have finished several games before anyone pays attention to them.

I'm sorry, but this thread reads to me a lot like

[quote:26o2y5xv]People are saying nasty things about my game on the internet. By the way, here is the link to my patreon...

Others have said it here before: you finished game. That's a remarkable achievement already. I don't doubt the work it took to make that happen.

In my opinion you are making a mistake by dropping the ball now. Take the constructive bits of the criticism in and make your next game a hell of a lot better.

I'm sorry, but this thread reads to me a lot like

Others have said it here before: you finished game. That's a remarkable achievement already. ...

This is absolut right. I've seen so many good projects, so good ideas, so vibrant artists... and they never finished their projects. You did it! Damn, that's awesome. Take the critics as a archivement! You would never get a Steam comment WITHOUT a finished game.

And I remember the first reply to my very first game (about... 33 years ago, f*** I am getting old) very good: "Uhm, what exactly is this?" (Thanks, Mum!)

In my opinion you are making a mistake by dropping the ball now. Take the constructive bits of the criticism in and make your next game a hell of a lot better.

True.

you should focus on the the good things you achieved: finished a full game with 3D assets, put it on steam... all that being your first game. do you realize that this is a HUGE milestone, right? you should be proud of

i wish you luck with your next project, but be careful with the burnout o/

Take onboard valuable criticism, and forget about it. Take a deserved break, but don't hesitate to do it again if you feel the need to make new game.

the other issue is that...

[quote:1w9isn8i]The graphics don't bother me, and the cheesy storytelling is actually kind of endearing, but having poor performance on top of those is a killer. I'm not sure why there are three different darkbase01.exe processes running, using over a a gig of memory combined, or why a game with such simple graphics and small areas freezes/stutters so much.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/35848 ... views_hash

author of Darkbase 01 seems to be yet another victim of Scirra's "exporter" policy

I too must say that getting a product done and out the door is an achievement in itself.

Getting the sh*t kicked out of you on steam/youtube/anywhere else with end customer exposure is to be expected, to some degree. Even successful (game and other media things I worked on) products will attract a lot of bile.

On the other hand, if you strip away all the hating and fuming and "this game is so bad my grandmother died from it"-BS of the adolescents are posting, there might still be a lesson to be learned about the scope, depth and challenge people expect from a game.

I've read through a few of the comments and reviews, it seems that some people are seriously unhappy with the performance (which is of course partially out of your control, C2 exports with their browser engine coming along is quite fickle on weak systems, as you probably best know yourself), but other than that, the critique seems to center around enemy patterns and behaviours.

And that is something one could work on in the next product. In my opinion you should let it cool off a bit and not quit, but put all you've learned from this experience to good use.

the other issue is that...

[quote:2csas9pv]The graphics don't bother me, and the cheesy storytelling is actually kind of endearing, but having poor performance on top of those is a killer. I'm not sure why there are three different darkbase01.exe processes running, using over a a gig of memory combined, or why a game with such simple graphics and small areas freezes/stutters so much.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/35848 ... views_hash

author of Darkbase 01 seems to be yet another victim of Scirra's "exporter" policy

Whilst the bile is quickly getting old, please vlweb3d send your .capx to Ashley so it can be profiled.

Hey friend, congratulations on developing a game and releasing it on a major platform! I know its tough to swallow the fact your game is not super successful and being hated on (welcome to the club! haha)

Indie Game Dev is super frustrating, hard, time consuming, scary at times but remember why you went through the whole journey of making and releasing a game, its fun and something you are passionate about. Never give up on the fact that some stooges who have no idea what this process is about say horrible things. Every success story starts with failure, lots of it I hear.

Its a struggle but youre already in the elite group of indie game devs that actually started and FINISHED a game.

Congrats and goof luck to you

You do have a demographic, and you do have a reason to keep going.

Steam has one of the worst communities ever, maybe besides GameFAQs. People are just downright rotten for no other reason that it amuses them. Pay them no mind. I'll be willing to bet not a one of them actually knows what it takes to start making and more importantly finish a game.