Hi! Very nice pack. But I have a question. Does this pack have animations of cars moving? And are there cars that move up and down or only left and right like in the screenshots?
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"Evershine" is a pixel-art top-down game where you must save a city from the evil lurking within.
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itch.io Community » Game Development » Devlogs · Created a new topic Eveshine (pixel top-down game where you must save a city from the evil)
"Evershine" is a pixel top-down game where you must save a city from the evil lurking within. Can you uncover its mysteries and defeat evil using your wits and a game controller? It’s all up to you! ⚔️
This is a story about how system and society crush dreams and erase individuality. Those who once dreamed of the stars now fight just to survive. You are a schoolboy wandering, “Why is this happening? Can it be changed?”
The game offers answers to many questions but doesn’t promise to answer them all.
This is my second game. I was inspired by Undertale, Stardew Valley, OneShot, To the Moon and others. In the game I want to touch on some important topics but also make it fun.
Itch.io: https://dekore-dev.itch.io/evershine
Twitter: https://x.com/dekore_dev
Discord: https://discord.gg/cTPytrMgHd
itch.io Community » General » Release Announcements · Created a new topic Evershine - Don't let the dream die
"Evershine" is a pixel-art top-down game where you must save a city from the evil lurking within. Can you uncover its mysteries and defeat evil using your wits and a game controller? It’s all up to you! ⚔️
This is a story about how system and society crush dreams and erase individuality. Those who once dreamed of the stars now fight just to survive. You are a schoolboy wandering, “Why is this happening? Can it be changed?”
The game offers answers to many questions but doesn’t promise to answer them all.
This is my second game. I was inspired by Undertale, Stardew Valley, OneShot, To the Moon and others. In the game I want to touch on some important topics but also make it fun.
The game will consist of 4 acts and 1 act will be released soon on itch.io for free! Subscribe to Twitter or join the Discord to keep up to date with all the news!
Itch.io: https://dekore-dev.itch.io/evershine
Twitter: https://x.com/dekore_dev
Discord: https://discord.gg/cTPytrMgHd
itch.io Community » Game Development » General Development · Created a new topic Another Tutorial on How to Fail Your First Game
Introduction
On a cold December evening in 2022, I discovered Stardew Valley game. I had already been fond of pixel art, but I never imagined that a game in this niche with such graphics could be so captivating. For those unfamiliar, Stardew is essentially a farming simulator where, besides growing parsnips in your garden, you’ll encounter many interesting, well-thought-out NPCs and an incredible number of engaging activities. After playing it for about 3-4 months and also getting acquainted with Undertale, I felt an overwhelming desire (or inspiration) to create something similar myself. But since there were already plenty of farming simulators, I decided to pick a different theme.
My experience in game development was zero, but I had a decent background in backend development for web applications. This allowed me to quickly learn the programming language integrated into the game engine (I chose Godot, which I believe is perfect for 2D). The game development started in June 2023 and, to get ahead of myself, lasted 1.5 years. Throughout this time, I watched videos by many more-or-less successful indie devs, read articles and learned from stories of both success and failure. Yet, I still made every mistake possible. That’s why I decided to write this article for others like me, who are “especially gifted” :))
I won’t be saying anything particularly new; all of this has been said and written many times before. So, if you want to fail at making a game, here’s what to do:
Tip #1. Make your “dream game” packed with a million mechanics, where you can enter every house and rob caravans
Initially, the game idea was pretty simple — you find yourself in an unfamiliar town, with no memory of how you got there and only fragments of your past. The main goal is to figure out what this place is and escape it. Also, as the story unfolds, you learn that someone from space is sending you a signal containing all the answers, but to receive it, you need to assemble a powerful antenna, which you spend most of the game doing.
Pick 1-2 core mechanics for gathering the antenna pieces and polish them well? Nah, that’s not our method! It’s better to have a lot of game mechanics none of which are perfected :) Yes, all these mechanics work fine. You can gather parts for the antenna by exploring the labyrinth under the town, build a factory where those parts are crafted, fly a spaceship, defeat enemies, and collect parts. And there are even more ways to gather them. And this is just for collecting the antenna parts.
The game also features many other activities. I think if I had focused on just a couple of mechanics and polished them more, they would be much more engaging. Part of my reasoning for implementing so many mechanics was to explore the game engine more and learn as much as possible. From a learning perspective, it was a valuable experience that I hope will be useful in the future. But in terms of “making the game more interesting,” it didn’t quite work, in my opinion.
Tip #2. Ignore marketing. A good game will promote itself!
We’re unique and making a real hit that will go viral on its own, right? Oh sure 😄 So why bother with blogging, making YouTube or TikTok videos, and do other nonsense to get the word out? One post on Twitter per month will suffice! It will get likes by fellow devs just like you and be forgotten in 5 seconds, but that’s enough for us. With this simple strategy, I managed to gather a whopping 148 wishlists by the time the game was released.
Tip #3. Don’t spend more than a couple of days designing your Steam page, including making a trailer.
The first version of the Steam page had only text. A lot of text! No gifs, no nice subheadings, nothing! The first trailer was 2 minutes long and conveyed almost zero information about the game’s activities and gameplay. 80% of the trailer was just the main character wandering around the map. If you want people to skip your trailer after the first 2 seconds, do like this 😁 If not, make a teaser/trailer 20-30 seconds long that shows interesting gameplay, mechanics, etc. And definitely include gifs throughout the game description that show gameplay or interesting (or beautiful) moments. To truly “kill” your Steam page, use tags that are only partially or completely unrelated to your game. It’s great when you go to your pixel game’s page and see Hogwarts Legacy and Red Dead Redemption 2 in the “Similar Games” section, right? That’s what I thought. But what I should have done was look at the pages of Undertale and Stardew Valley to see which tags they used. If done correctly, the “Similar Games” section will feature actually similar games. And, as I understand it, the more popular the games, the better.
Conclusion
These are the main tips I wanted to share. There are others, but trust me, if you follow even these three, failure is almost guaranteed! Of course, sales have been minimal (9 at the time of writing), but I didn’t give up and started working on a new game just a week after release.
This time, I’ll try not to follow the “tips” above, but who knows what will come to mind tomorrow 😃 Either way, I love making games, and I think for the first time in my life, I’ve found something that truly brings me joy. Thanks for reading this guide, and I wish all developers inspiration and successful games!
(For anyone interested in the game)
- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2598870/Starlight_Riddles/
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/dekore_dev
- Discord: https://discord.gg/cTPytrMgHd
itch.io Community » General » Release Announcements · Created a new topic Starlight Riddles in development