Watsup! It's me Cassel, the lead developer of Ratropolis.
We focused on polishing bug fixes before we distribute the demo version.
Instead, this development diary is a Post-PlayX4 journal, and review for tumblebucks preparation which is a crowdfunding event.
- PlayX4 Review –
We had a successful exhibition at 2019 Play X4 on May!
In hopes of crowd playing our games, we carried four laptops to the exhibition.
I also brought a monitor at home so that gamer can see the play as passing by and be interested.
The problem is that there is only one desk and four chairs per booth,
After installing the station, it was hard for the guests to sit back and play.
While I was very troubled, a developer next booth lent me a desk and chairs.
Thanks to Zeta Heo, many people were ready to play in a comfortable environment.
< Are you ready to play it? >
I was very disappointed at the beginning of the exhibition.
Even 30 minutes after the event began, the guests just glanced past.
It seemed to waste a good opportunity sitting on a chair, and from that moment I began to act courageously.
After a passing guest watched the game, I ran out and invited them to play.
“Uh? This is like a Hearthstone.” ▶▶▶ “YepYep!! Right! It's Hearthstone!! Come and play.”
“Uh? Isn't it similar to..” ▶▶▶ “YepYep!! Correct!! Slay the Spire! STS! Come and play.”
“Uh?” ▶▶▶ “YepYep!! This is what you think it is! Right!! Come and play! It's super fun!”
In no time, vacancy was filled with the guests and their party.
Most of them are in group, and the crowds attracted more attention.
The cycle continued on and my booth was crowded to the end of the day.
< I threw my chair out for those are waiting to play the game >
손님 중에서는 일행들과 번갈아가면서 함께 즐기시는 분들도 계셨고,
게임을 계속하다가 여자친구분에게 버려지는 안타까운 분도 계셨습니다.
시연을 하면서 가장 인상 깊었던 점은 정말 많은 분들이 재방문을 해주셨다는 점입니다.
이전에 오셨던 분이 다음에도 또 오셔서 즐기고 가시는 경우가 잦았고,
다른 일행들을 불러와 직접 래트로폴리스를 소개해주시고 플레이하는 방법을 알려주시기도 하였습니다.
게임을 하면서 친해지신 몇몇 분들은 머리를 맞대고 전략을 구상하시더니 끝내 끝까지 깨시고 가셨지요.
< I'm glad the score board shows people's attention >
Counting log files played, 672 games were played in 4 days.
51 players have completed the survey after the play.
The questionnaire had a lot of comments about the lack of hotkeys, smooth screen movement,
and poor tutorial even though Ratropolis is a PC game.
After the event, players continued to send us improvements and great ideas via email.
I was impressed that there was so much affection for Ratropolis!
I'm really sorry for not being able to respond quickly to everyone.
- Crowdfunding Campaign –
< What I was only dreaming of became reality! Finally, I am posting this! >
I spent almost two weeks preparing for crowdfunding on a site called Tumblebucks..
We have created a demo version so that users can enjoy the game first and sponsor it.
We did our best to create a demo for distribution, playable in various environments.
Problems with big and small issues occurred in resolution, optimization, and build of the Mac version.
I tried to fix it as much as possible, but to keep up with the timeline, we had to release version that is not all-supporting.
< I conducted a Mac version test with an acquaintance, but it still shows problem with some Macs ... ㅠ..ㅠ >
I was deeply concerned about how far players can enjoy in the demo version.
We had to cut the game after the wave which players feel the core fun of the game.
It was very difficult to specify the exact spot of the cut.
Due to the nature of the real-time game, I was worried about how to flexibly cut the game.
After a long consideration, we've introduced an escalating level of difficulty to limit the playtime of the game.
But even with this difficulty, there were players who moved onto next wave.
The difficulty has been raised to the end of the universe so that even Thanos can not defeat the wave.
The game won't end with the player's victory, so I'm concerned that doing this will have a negative experience for the player.
< If you watch this event(the final battle), you are the top 20% >
In preparation for the demo version, the funding story was written with reference to other funding success stories.
Afterwards, we set up rewards, budgets, delivery schedules, and conducted a preliminary research of manufacturers.
There's not much to do with digital rewards in the game yet, so I've focused on in-life rewards.
It was difficult to prepare orders, contract them, and check if I missed anything.
In the process, some rewards have limitations in making. These were filtered or replaced with other rewards.
High resolution in-game image was required to place an order.
I regret that I didn't collect the game resources in high resolution in advance.
< I hope that the Ratropolis is prosperous in future, and these hold a valuable price on e-bay. >
This Dev Diary covers my last 2 week's journey.
I was careful that it would not look like a writing that encouraged sponsorship.
I am showing that "This team has been through this process, and this is the result."
Hopefully this experience will be of little help to those who challenge creating indie games.
For next Diary, I 'll work on the game to improve the UX, usability, and start localizing process.
Squeak~V
Donation(tumblbug): https://tumblbug.com/ratropolis
Homepage(Download Demo): https://ratropolis.imweb.me/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CasselGames
Watsup! It's me Cassel, the lead developer of Ratropolis.
We focused on polishing bug fixes before we distribute the demo version.
Instead, this development diary is a Post-PlayX4 journal, and review for tumblebucks preparation which is a crowdfunding event.
- PlayX4 Review –
We had a successful exhibition at 2019 Play X4 on May!
In hopes of crowd playing our games, we carried four laptops to the exhibition.
I also brought a monitor at home so that gamer can see the play as passing by and be interested.
The problem is that there is only one desk and four chairs per booth,
After installing the station, it was hard for the guests to sit back and play.
While I was very troubled, a developer next booth lent me a desk and chairs.
Thanks to Zeta Heo, many people were ready to play in a comfortable environment.
< Are you ready to play it? >
I was very disappointed at the beginning of the exhibition.
Even 30 minutes after the event began, the guests just glanced past.
It seemed to waste a good opportunity sitting on a chair, and from that moment I began to act courageously.
After a passing guest watched the game, I ran out and invited them to play.
“Uh? This is like a Hearthstone.” ▶▶▶ “YepYep!! Right! It's Hearthstone!! Come and play.”
“Uh? Isn't it similar to..” ▶▶▶ “YepYep!! Correct!! Slay the Spire! STS! Come and play.”
“Uh?” ▶▶▶ “YepYep!! This is what you think it is! Right!! Come and play! It's super fun!”
In no time, vacancy was filled with the guests and their party.
Most of them are in group, and the crowds attracted more attention.
The cycle continued on and my booth was crowded to the end of the day.
< I threw my chair out for those are waiting to play the game >
손님 중에서는 일행들과 번갈아가면서 함께 즐기시는 분들도 계셨고,
게임을 계속하다가 여자친구분에게 버려지는 안타까운 분도 계셨습니다.
시연을 하면서 가장 인상 깊었던 점은 정말 많은 분들이 재방문을 해주셨다는 점입니다.
이전에 오셨던 분이 다음에도 또 오셔서 즐기고 가시는 경우가 잦았고,
다른 일행들을 불러와 직접 래트로폴리스를 소개해주시고 플레이하는 방법을 알려주시기도 하였습니다.
게임을 하면서 친해지신 몇몇 분들은 머리를 맞대고 전략을 구상하시더니 끝내 끝까지 깨시고 가셨지요.
< I'm glad the score board shows people's attention >
Counting log files played, 672 games were played in 4 days.
51 players have completed the survey after the play.
The questionnaire had a lot of comments about the lack of hotkeys, smooth screen movement,
and poor tutorial even though Ratropolis is a PC game.
After the event, players continued to send us improvements and great ideas via email.
I was impressed that there was so much affection for Ratropolis!
I'm really sorry for not being able to respond quickly to everyone.
- Crowdfunding Campaign –
< What I was only dreaming of became reality! Finally, I am posting this! >
I spent almost two weeks preparing for crowdfunding on a site called Tumblebucks..
We have created a demo version so that users can enjoy the game first and sponsor it.
We did our best to create a demo for distribution, playable in various environments.
Problems with big and small issues occurred in resolution, optimization, and build of the Mac version.
I tried to fix it as much as possible, but to keep up with the timeline, we had to release version that is not all-supporting.
< I conducted a Mac version test with an acquaintance, but it still shows problem with some Macs ... ㅠ..ㅠ >
I was deeply concerned about how far players can enjoy in the demo version.
We had to cut the game after the wave which players feel the core fun of the game.
It was very difficult to specify the exact spot of the cut.
Due to the nature of the real-time game, I was worried about how to flexibly cut the game.
After a long consideration, we've introduced an escalating level of difficulty to limit the playtime of the game.
But even with this difficulty, there were players who moved onto next wave.
The difficulty has been raised to the end of the universe so that even Thanos can not defeat the wave.
The game won't end with the player's victory, so I'm concerned that doing this will have a negative experience for the player.
< If you watch this event(the final battle), you are the top 20% >
In preparation for the demo version, the funding story was written with reference to other funding success stories.
Afterwards, we set up rewards, budgets, delivery schedules, and conducted a preliminary research of manufacturers.
There's not much to do with digital rewards in the game yet, so I've focused on in-life rewards.
It was difficult to prepare orders, contract them, and check if I missed anything.
In the process, some rewards have limitations in making. These were filtered or replaced with other rewards.
High resolution in-game image was required to place an order.
I regret that I didn't collect the game resources in high resolution in advance.
< I hope that the Ratropolis is prosperous in future, and these hold a valuable price on e-bay. >
This Dev Diary covers my last 2 week's journey.
I was careful that it would not look like a writing that encouraged sponsorship.
I am showing that "This team has been through this process, and this is the result."
Hopefully this experience will be of little help to those who challenge creating indie games.
For next Diary, I 'll work on the game to improve the UX, usability, and start localizing process.
Squeak~V
Donation(tumblbug): https://tumblbug.com/ratropolis
Homepage(Download Demo): https://ratropolis.imweb.me/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CasselGames