As some of you might've noticed I have released a new project ("Tail Trail") two days ago. This can be understood as me ignoring the promised continuation of Sticks and bones.
Which is not true.
Sticks & Bones was meant to be done in episodes each time as a different story, same theme (Pirates) As I have mentioned before I'm an indie solo full-time developer, I create games on 0 budgets. Time spent creating Sticks and bones is a cost only I pay, therefore I have decided before I start making Sticks and bones series of small games (episodes); I would create Episode 0 (Not 1 but Zero). This is meant to be a test to the market and audience, ("Testing the waters") the planned episodes are not going to be very different in terms of: -Theme -Style -Gameplay (to a degree) If Episode 0 did well ((FINANCIALLY)) it means people like it and I can afford to create the rest (Hiring a writer, artists, development costs such as assets, mo-cap, and a lot more)
Sticks and bones did surprisingly well in terms of reviews and media reactions but did not do well enough to cover the costs of the development of future episodes
HOWEVER
It does not mean Sticks & Bones is over in any way.
It only means that Sticks & Bones so far remain a personal Indie-solo project that I will create only when I have enough budget to cover the costs of development & at least an entire year to full-time work on the project. (Even if years passed by, I still want to create the episodes)
What is my solution? I'm still a full-time indie solo game developer, I will create and work on more project that can help improve my chances to be able to afford to create more games (like Sticks and bones)
My new game/Animation short ("Tail Trail") is an investment I made to improve my skill sets, learn and grow as a game developer, to increase my chances and opportunities to work > earn > afford and pay for future projects and games such as Sticks & Bones...
I would like to clarify that this is not meant to be understood as a way for me to ask for your support Again please do not purchase my games just to support me, only do if you like what I offer.
Thank you very much if you purchased, if you commented, if you wrote a review (Negative or positive), if shared, or even if only talked about Sticks and bones. I appreciate it!
Steam Winter Sale discount 45% off!
Hello everyone!
45% off discount for Steam Winter Sale event, offer ends Jan 2, 2020
Cheers!
Halloween discount 45% off!
Hello everyone!
45% off discount for the Halloween sale event, offer ends November 1st!
Cheers!
Summer sale last day! + Patch update
Hi everyone!
Only few more hours before the summer sale ends!
40% Off !
Make sure to grab 93845617 copies!
It'll definitely help me make the next episode..
-
So regarding the last update:
Few have kindly reported about having an issue with steam achievements, for that I apologize the update should fix the issue (hopefully..)
As for the update size (200 MB), It should've been a couple of KBs but it's due to updating the game engine version which should improve on performance.
PS
Thanks to everyone who supported the game with a purchase, a compliment or a comment (positive and negative) I appreciate it.
If you left a negative non-constructive criticism I hope your left mouse click button doesn't work for a solid 8 minutes straight..
Thanks again!
40% OFF! Summer Sale
Hello everyone!
40% off discount for the summer sale event, offer ends 9 July!
Cheers!
Price drop 5.99$ ! + BLOG / Q+A
First of all I'd like to start by thanking everyone who bought the game and or supported me (in any shape or form); thank you!
Regarding the price dropping from 9.99$ to 5.99$; why?
Short answer:
Almost everyone have mentioned that the price is high for the amount of content and so I listened.
---
Long Answer:
None of the following is meant to be taken as an excuse but more of my reasoning behind the price.
As I have mentioned I've been working on the game 100% alone from start to end for a year (Full time) & the game is actually bigger than what I have published here but around 6 months ago I decided to scale it down to where am able to finish and release within a realistic timeline.
So I switched from a 3rd person adventure game to something more achievable & doable for my situation, I wanted to make it feel like watching an episode of a cartoon'ish pirate story but with many different game-play elements.
"Unity asset flip"?:
Yes & No. Yes I have used a 3d pirates package that I bought from Unity asset store (POLYGON - Pirates Pack by Synty Studios) but its not an "Asset flip" it was created to be used for your own project :P, I did however modify all the character textures, materials and rigged them, plus created 2 new characters with the same style and edited a couple of meshes to fit the game-play (Ship, barrel, doors, etc..).
I have created 6 new islands from scratch and changed the main island, plus created 3 in-door stages/levels.
Animations:
I have used a mix of tools/techniques to create the animations, as for the cut-scenes I have mainly used Motion capture to create the base and afterwards worked on manually cleaning it + using masks and IKs to layer on top and improve the overall quality. For the character's 3rd person controller I have used over 130 animations that are from different asset packages also available in Unity asset store.
Music:
I have created a soundtrack for each part (50 parts) myself using garage-band (software)
+ Musical sound effects layer
+ SFX layer
+ Background layer
+ Musical notes for controller Inputs
Game-play:
I wanted the story to determine the game-play mechanics, so depending on the event/situation I would create something that made the continuation of the story more fun/engaging
Too easy?:
It's hard! you're just too good!
Yes it's easy, on purpose. It's a short silly interactive video game.
Too short?:
Due to the time limitation, I did not have enough time to create more content, because I don't want to stretch the game:
('walking simulator', with very far away objectives and NPCs to interact with).
I'd rather have it short (40mins) packed with content than 30 plus minutes of walking or something similar.
---
It is not your problem nor should you care, but...
I get 30%-40% from the 9.99$ (Steam cut + Tax cuts).
+ The game was cracked within 36 Hours!
(BTW: Feel free to download it and buy it later if you wish)
My pirates game have been pirated!
Anyways.. (Biased opinion)
I don't see the game priced anything lower than 10$ to be honest, however I would rather have more people play and enjoy the game I worked extremely hard to make than keep the price and have it harder to reach.
Thank you again for everyone who submitted a review and gave me their feedback.
Cheers!
