Karaski: What Goes Up... Slavic-Steampunk RPG Unraveling a Plot Onboard an Airship! - by Yakoob
Yakoob on 2/8/2015 at 21:30
Quote Posted by Thirith
Last time I'll bring this up, honest, but with the visual design and lettering as well as the music, mentioning "Slavic-themed" strikes me as overkill, plus it may well confuse rather than inform some of your audience. You're *showing* the Slavic thing, no need to *tell* it as well IMO.
Yea I see your guys' point, but it's a gamble I want to take. It's a moniker I want to use in text-based advertising of the game (like email subjects) as a unique selling point, so want to keep trailer consistent. I am not saying I am right, but the few people who contacted me about the game said the "slavic" caught their attention. So we will see; if it fails I'll adjust. Marketing is all about experimenting, measuring and adjusting.
(Also, interestingly, TTLGers are literally the ONLY folks who critiqued the use of "slavic." I'm wondering if it's indicative of something I'm not considering, or just the fact you guys are more insightful/helpful than others?)
Quote:
The characters in motion need some work. Right now they feel like placeholder art to me, because they're so robotic in their movements and lack expression in their faces. Might it be an idea to stylise them more? Make the lack of detailed animation into an asset? (I expect that animation is one of the most difficult things to get right if you're not a big studio.) I'm not saying it'd be easy, but I expect that at the moment the characters would take me out of the game somewhat.
We're looking at buying new animations since the current ones are the raw mocap data from Unity. Adding facial expressions is also on the to-do. But frankly, with the release time so close, I am not sure if we will be able to get all this in :(
And frankly, I don't want to put more time into the game even if I had the budget. It's already been 2 years, it already went through so many major changes. I am both burnt out and reaching a point of diminishing returns tbh. Not to mention the budget's running dry, and I need to start making money off of this if I want to keep making games. Lastly, half of the things I learned from Postmortem I only learned AFTER it was out and hit a wider audience/critics - so in retrospect I was glad I released it even with all its issues.
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On a side note, a new dev blog about all the things I'm learning from all my awesome testers, so a big
THANK YOU to ALL of you guys :) And Beta 2.0 should be ready next week for those still waiting :D
PigLick on 3/8/2015 at 07:47
Hey is there a survey or somesuch you want me to fill out regarding the beta? Just let me know.
I think with the ttlg crew you are gonna get a pretty high level of criticism, we are a pretty elite bunch after all ;)
Personally I dont think the character animations are gonna make or break the game, it works quite well as it is. After some thought you should just go with the slavic thing, it does stand out a bit, you may garner more attention because of it. Sometimes you just gotta get it out there. Good luck with it, I hope you do well!
p.s - have you fixed the couple of spelling errors?
Thirith on 3/8/2015 at 08:17
Quick addendum on the animations: it's possible I wouldn't mind much in the game itself. If more people than me mind them (in the trailer), perhaps minimise them in the trailer.
Anyway, I don't want to say too much based on a trailer, when it might feel very different when playing the game. And I absolutely understand that there comes a point when you don't want to keep polishing and fine-tuning and instead want to finish one project and move on to the next. :)
Yakoob on 5/8/2015 at 23:21
New invites sent! And I know you guys are critical - that's why i picked you for the private beta, I knew I'd get quality feedback and I trust you not to leak the beta :)
(Fixed the spelling errors and hired a proofer too now. )
Yea, the game is definitely at a stage where new tasks are all relative. Sure everything is important, but is it more important than X Y and Z ? I only have so much time and budget left, so I need to prioritize that. If the anims are too gawdy then yea they need to be bumped up. Otherwise, there's different fixes that will make a bigger impact. Not to mention I REALLY need to focus on marketing now, given there is absolutely no hype for it yet. Without some serious advertising/pring on my part, the game will die a quick death.
And yes, personally, definitiely want to move on. I'd rather take the lessons learned and use them on a new project. Those of you who played Postmortem can see how that influenced Karaski - a lot of core ideas are very similar, but vastly expanded and (hopefully) improved by what I learned from the first game. And so the next game will be even better (tho, frankly, I think I'll take a break from big, serious and story-driven thing after this)
EDIT: Also here's some new Promo art, made by people who actually know wtf they're doing ;p
Inline Image:
http://unboundcreations.com/images/karaski/promo/karaski-4Suspects-720p.jpggkkiller on 6/8/2015 at 05:15
Can't wait to start playing the beta! I'll try not to be too lazy and finish it in the next few days :P
Is it just me or are do the dudes look a lot like Anton Sokolov (but older), Howard Stark and Ron Swanson?
EDIT:
Well, this seems to be embarassing. I'm stuck already.
Maybe I'm doing this wrong, but the radio says that I need to get the lockpick from the crew deck. The gyro tells me the key to the crew deck is in the kitchen. But the kitchen is locked ... nicked on 7/8/2015 at 06:55
Quote Posted by Yakoob
made by people who actually know wtf they're doing ;p
But not where to put capital letters... :p
SubJeff on 7/8/2015 at 21:41
I'm really pleased to see this get so far Yakoob. I'm loving your style, both visually and conceptually. I really liked Postmortem and this looks great.
I don't have time for beta testing atm but I wish you the best of luck. I look forward to playing the final version!
Yakoob on 10/8/2015 at 23:43
Thanks for all the encouragement! And just a new dev blog about my typical day these days...
Starker on 11/8/2015 at 01:10
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Thanks for all the encouragement! And just a new dev blog about my typical day these days...
TL;DR
Wake up early (like a dev)
Go to Starbucks (like a dev)
Have a latte (like a dev)
Answer e-mails (like a dev)
Team management (like a dev)
More e-mails (like a dev)
Deal with marketing (like a dev)
Foster press relationships (like a dev)
Take a break (like a dev)
Back to developing (like a dev)
Burn out on spreadsheets (like a dev)
Fix some bugs (like a dev)
Import some models (like a dev)
Write a blog post (like a dev)
gkkiller on 11/8/2015 at 15:35
Um. Guys? A little help? I still can't figure out where to go next ...
