Flashbacks
I'm 21, I'm young, working in an advertising agency as a web designer. I have enough money to rent housing and doshiks, but I am not discouraged, because this is my first job.
At some point, I come across flash blogs in which unrealistically successful stories of ordinary hard workers slip through. Every day I get more and more imbued with the idea of quitting my job and trying to make a game, and then sell it. While there are no clients, I am assembling such a prototype right in the office.
It is playable and made entirely on its own - this is very motivating for a feat.
The hour of X has come. Having worked for exactly one year, I quit and return to my native village. With a groaning computer and a graphics tablet at hand, I set about creating a full-fledged adventure based on a prototype.
Comp, tablet and one of the working moments. 2012 r.
The first bummer - on a computer 2 GB of RAM, it does not pull Flash and Photoshop open at the same time. I buy another 2 GB, it's gone.
I like Machinarium and Samorost very much, I am in love with their visual and sound design. Inspired, after five months of work I release my first game - Shapik: the quest, the quest of my dreams.
I didn’t come up with anything smarter than the name “Shapik”, the hero in the cap is Shapik.
Few development details
I drew with a Wacom Bamboo A5 tablet. This was the first experience of real drawing, before that I used it for web layouts. Backgrounds - photoshop, characters and animation - flash.
When the first three levels were ready, I thought about music. I found the composer on the flash forum, described the wishes, and also sent screenshots of the levels.
I took 90% of the sounds from freesound.org, the rest I recorded myself. Processed in Adobe Audition. The game has more than 100 sounds.
You can play here (flash) .
The game is ready, now it needs to be sold. At that time, flash games were actively sold on the FGL (flash auction). I upload the game, the auction lasts three weeks, I am very worried and happy with every new bid. At one point, an offer comes in, which is equal to the annual salary in the agency. I am very happy, right on top with happiness.
Stumbled upon FlashGAMM (developer conference) and submitted the game to the competition. Since the event was held in Moscow, I was unable to attend and, to be honest, I didn’t hope that my first game could take anything.
A miracle happened, three days before the start of the conference, we received a notification about the nomination in three categories at once. I ask an acquaintance who is at the conference to observe what will happen next. And then he writes that my quest won the Best Future Mobile Game nomination, and the main prize was Microsoft Surface. There is no limit to my joy, I am a cool indie developer.
2013-2015
In the wake of the success of the flash quest, I find a programmer and we rivet physics puzzle platformers one by one.
You ask - why not a new quest? Physics puzzles are trending, much easier to make, and selling well. We have enough to live on and we are saving a little.
Screenshot from FGL, $ 3,300 for a simple platformer
Since 2015, flash, and with it web games, are gradually fading into the background. Instead of flash drives, games in HTML5 came, they are much more primitive, and are sold twice as well. Sawing cute puzzles.
Also, during this period from the flash, everyone runs en masse to mobile phones.
I remember that once I had a seemingly good quest, and in order to keep up, I port it to Android using Adobe AIR. Fortunately, all porting was done by pressing one publish button.
The game is released on Google Play. Since I didn’t have enough sense to add advertising, and for a paid one, I consider it very small, it comes out completely free and without monetization. Filled in and forgot, not counting on any success, the task was to assemble a game for a mobile platform.
I don't have an Android device, I don't visit the store at all. At one of the parties, a friend pulls out a Samsung Galaxy S5 - at that time a device with a space diagonal and an unrealistically cool display. I think, let me take a look at how my mobile brainchild is doing, and to my surprise I find 35,000+ installs and more than 800 comments per month. I'm shocked.
This is how the idea appears to make the second part, it should be twice as large, cooler and more interesting.
Shapik: the quest 2, 2015
A general story about nuclear war and its aftermath emerges very quickly.
Literally in three days on a flash I collected the first level.
Also drew a new protagonist. Compared to the old one, he has a normal body, head and neck. He was old as a sausage.
The game runs in Full HD and a simple flash drive can no longer cope with the load. Need to rewrite on GPU (starling). I'm not a programmer at all, I'm writing a post on gamedev.ru about finding a partner.
Five people unsubscribed, the first did not answer, contacted the second, and everything started spinning.
The rest of 2015 a programmer is learning to work with GPU flash, I am learning to draw and animate
2016 year
Although we have no experience at all, the development is going briskly, we call up and discuss new ideas and improvements. I really feel that we are one team.
What are our brainstorms on Skype? Sometimes, for a couple of days nothing new entered my head, but as soon as we phoned, ideas would come by themselves.
It worked like this.
- Discussing a new level concept or puzzle;
- Often the programmer draws it schematically;
- Describing branches and animations.
Next, we test, I collect a list of edits and transfer to the programmer, all work goes through the dropbox.
A year has passed in active development.
We have 12 levels and a demo ready, which is already twice as many as in the first part. I fill in Steam Greenlight, we get green light within two weeks.
And then it comes to us that the game has no plot at all, and the levels are essentially a set of separate puzzles. They are also very short and plus the game has bad sound effects and music.
2017 year
We are working on the plot. The programmer does it well.
We add intermediate levels, cutscenes, new animations.
I draw components for animations in Photoshop, animate in flash, effects - frame-by-frame flash.
A composer / sound designer is added to the team.
An atmospheric soundtrack appears, as well as the coolest sound effects.
The game is felt with renewed vigor.
Due to the specifics of the project, dubbing is not fast, since each animation is a mini-cartoon that requires unique sounds.
Design example of a short sound
again release a little tolerated
2018 year
The quest is 80% ready, almost all levels are finalized and voiced, there are not enough cutscenes, a notepad of tips, as well as the main menu.
I collect cutscenes in flash, and then export them to video. At large volumes, flash slows down very much, you have to collect separate scenes, and then combine it all. It slows down a lot.
In the process, a menu is invented on separate sheets of paper, it looks cool, and most importantly, there is no text in it.
When the menu was added, the game immediately began to feel solid, before that there was a set of separate levels.
2019 year
The beginning of 2019. The game is ready and runs from start to finish, but not tested normally, there are minor bugs, and some bonuses have not been added. We are in some kind of dangling state: everything seems to be ready, but it seems not.
HTML5 and Flash games are not sold at all. During the development of Shapik: the quest 2, we all worked in parallel on other projects, due to which there was something to live on and continue development.
The programmer leaves for the office. Although I was optimistic, I understood that it would not be the same as before.
For a month nothing has been done for the game, and we have never phoned - this is the first time. The programmer gets very tired at work, I don't blame him. Testing hard and collecting a list of edits.
Edits are made on weekends, sometimes downtime for two weeks. I am frustrated and upset, at this rate it will all drag on for another couple of years.
I ask the programmer to open the folder with the game sources in the cloud (this should have been done at the very beginning of development, it would have saved a ton of time). I'm starting to pick art, animations, atlases and a self-made scene editor.
The editor is a separate story. The game resolution is 1920x1080, and the editor windows is 600x550. In such a small window, you have to move the camera a lot, and it slows down terribly. In addition, there is no cancellation in it - if something is screwed up, only the last save will save.
Editor window 600x550
The editor can open and play .gaf-animations, which are then placed on the stage. After all the art and animations have been placed, click “save” and we get an unrealistically long line with parameters, which needs to be transferred to the flash-development, and then compiled.
If something has moved, we repeat the operation. Editing a little thing takes a ton of time.
I can't stand it and I go into the source code of the editor, I find there a line responsible for the size of the work area, change it to 1920x1080 and now the entire level is visible in its entirety. I also compile the editor as a separate application and all the brakes disappear. Why we didn’t do this earlier, but suffered for so many years, I don’t know.
Spring. Enlightenment comes to me, the levels made back in 2017 look empty and are very lame in quality, this also applies to cutscenes, puzzles and animations. There is a new wave of improvements ... The
composer is also overwhelmed with work, the dubbing stops.
Updated all levels, put together a new demo. It's time to prepare a teaser for the game.
I cut the video and try to edit, discuss the intermediate stages with the programmer and composer. This is my first experience, it takes a long time.
Editing After Effects We
understand that in the title of Shapik: the quest 2 we need to get rid of 2, the new name is Shapik: the moon quest.
Publishers: I have no idea who they are and how to work with them. Found a cool article on how to pitch a game. Following her advice, this letter comes out.
I am sending it to everyone on the list. Out of 60 responded 20, really interested 5, respond once a week.
Early summer. I single-handedly poke around the game, read forums in search of information on solving bugs, make edits to the code, fix jerks in animations, cut video for dubbing, edit sounds in places, adjust the build, communicate with publishers, deal with Steam, and also optimize resources ...
There is a feeling that only I need the game. I have been waiting for weeks for a couple of edits to close, the very moment of waiting is very exhausting, and it is not clear what to do next. I can’t quit the game when it’s 95% ready, but I can’t finish it alone; releasing a buggy project is also not an option.
I go hiking in the Carpathians for three weeks. In the mountains there is no mobile connection, and even more so the Internet. It helps a lot to distract yourself.
Before the trip, I throw off the list of edits.
Returning three weeks later, I see that the list has not even been opened. For the first time in the whole time of work, I was burning, at that moment it seemed to me that the game was scored.
Depression begins. Thoughts only about the game, and I do not see how to find a way out of this situation.
Something needs to be changed, it's time for the office
It seems that while working on casual games, I gained a little experience, I'm looking for an animator vacancy.
They quickly answer me and throw off test tasks. Completed, called for an interview.
Two interviews coincided on the same day. From my village to Kiev 10 hours by train. The train arrives at 8 am, the first interview to 11.
Next to the interview!
I am in Kiev, take a stroll around the city. I am very worried: this is the second interview and the first in a serious company that it will be unclear.
At 9 am a message arrives.
Good morning, we haveI think this is a mistake, because before that I came up and if I was called to a real meeting, then I completed the test task, and I have already arrived in Kiev, passing the time near their office. I call back and they repeat the email text.
to inform you that we cannot accept you for an interview, you are not the right age.
HR Team
What is this answer and what is this nonsense ...
Next interview at 14.00. Walking through the city, smoothly moving to the meeting point. In half an hour, the next one comes.
Forced to cancel the interview, you are not suitable for us. We do not name the reasons so that it does not look like a call to action.I am completely bewildered, the interviews ended before they even started. It turns out that I am old and useless.
GG 2
I slowly drag along the Andreevsky Spusk. I go into some cafe and meet an old friend. With glasses of beer, the day ceases to be sad. The train back at 21:00.
To say that after "employment" I was depressed is to say nothing.
Upon arriving home, my sense of helplessness increases fivefold. It turns out that in my 30s I am very old.
I understand that the long-suffering quest needs to be brought to release. We call, tell how someone is doing, discuss my burning and what needs to be done to complete it.
It lets me go and it seems like a second wind is opening, I am modifying tons of animations and art, which I constantly postponed, I am testing the game intensively, and also collecting a list of edits. Finally, I am designing a website and a page in the incentive.
About burning. At that moment, I probably breathed fresh Carpathian air, how it was possible to burn when the project is based on enthusiasm - it is not clear ...
2020 year
At the beginning of the year, the programmer has a vacation, and we manage to close all bugs and edits. And also finished all the work on the music and sound effects.
The game has 22 levels, 60 minutes of game music, more than 1000 unique animations and sounds.
At the moment, I can say with confidence that the game is completely completed and published on Steam ( I can't even believe it ).
Summing up, I would like to say about the mistakes that we made.
- Lack of script and understanding of what the game will be like;
- Constant underestimation of real terms;
- Desire to make 100,500 chips;
- Lack of normal tools (game scene editor, version control system, collector);
- Lack of normal testing;
- Working with the community.
- This post was written not for the sake of whining or to arouse pity, but to show the everyday life of a simple developer.
And I also want to say:
I have great respect for the programmer and composer for the fact that we, as "abnormal", finish what we think is right and try to do it cool, when hundreds of other "adequate" developers would have turned around and left long ago.
Overall, it's very funny that the three left-handed guys from the flash forum were able to finish the game.PS Plans for the future:
- Find a job (recently offered a revolutionary position as a watchman-programmer. Responsibilities include: advertising products on the Internet, creating business cards / leaflets, visiting the territory every hour).
Some more atmospheric photos