Between Dimensions #01 (DEV VIDEO)

[Blue]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXzRO6C6qrU

In this video series I want to discuss the behind the scenes stuff about Dimension Drifter and the Early Access development. What can you expect in the near and distant future? What's going on with the Steam Direct release?

[Sonnenblume]

Sorry to hear about the poor Early Access release. Have you considered using anything like Patreon? It can help get you sustainable income and it can provide additional visibility for you and your games.

The data is interesting, but I agree that it should be a side thing like the Memories in Unloved. I think the story would benefit from having text dialogue between our main character and another person between missions. They could be a mysterious Dimension Drifter who is helping you for unknown reasons or something like that, or it could change depending on the episode. I had mentioned ludonarrative dissonance before, and my biggest thing right now is that I want to see story elements/text/dialogue that directly tie in to the game world and the next mission. A really basic example would be to have this other aforementioned character talking to you say, "Portals are opening up all over the city and strange otherworldly creatures are appearing and wreaking havoc. We need you to enter the city and eliminate the threat." Again, that's extremely basic and run of the mill, but it's infinitely more directly connected to the missions than anything we've had in this game so far.

Another story issue is this juxtaposition of Unloved-style procedurally generated worlds with story. It's hard to do story elements with completely randomized levels. Have you ever considered this game having fixed static levels with preplaced items and enemies? It would allow you to do those story elements of unique items, unique enemies or bosses, unique objectives, scripted events, set pieces, etc. that can help tie in with the plot.

Gameplay wise, if you do want to steer the game more into a light RPG type thing, I think you should look at the wonderful Doom mod Lithium. The system it provides is fairly light, but it allows you to level up, acquire new gear and loadouts through its shop, and distribute skill points across a variety of skills. I think something like that would be interesting for this game. Because right now DD's level up system is extremely trivial--choosing what category to get a greater chance of uncommon trinkets is not exactly what I call depth.

Also, any chance we could get a melee trinket slot? Things like more damage, faster swing rate, or greater reach would be nice.

[chuck_chivers]

personally i think the rpg side of this game should be minimized. an open world would be too much. but why not just a menu with some characters that would offer quests according to our level or perhaps some kind of treasure hunts or clues for future quests taking place in different maps.
different shops where we could buy or sell new trinkets, new weapons, bombs and lockpicks before going on a quest. why not some missions with bosses who would give pieces of weapons to assemble to make a new weapon.. for now I think we win too many colors compared to trinkets and it's a little frustrating. being able to buy bombs or lockpicks before starting the mission or being able to pick up lockpicks on enemies would be great. I don't like not being able to finish 100% of a map because of it.
or a system that would combine 2 similar trinkets to be able to upgrade one. for me it's a very good game of action and speed, we must include the good sides of RPG games, avoid long dialogues which are often as unbearable as useless. But very good game and can not wait to see more. I wish him a good future.
(sorry for my rough English, I was a dunce at school) x)

[potterman28wxcv]

It's a long post so I'm cutting it into several sections ; sorry if it looks a bit weird :p

Marketing

The first point to bring up is the "marketing" : regardless of the entire thing about Steam not promoting your game, you have to know that by changing from a grit/serious/dark style to a cartoonish style, you are completely changing the kind of people who would like to play your game. So you cannot even count on all the UNLOVED fans to buy this one, because it is not even sure they are looking forward to this game, the genre being so different (TPS vs FPS, gritty vs cartoon).

Also, the big issue with starting from an existing fan-base on a specific title, is to have the effect of "This dev is developing a game no one asked for". I saw it with Runic Games when they started developing Hob instead of continuing on Torchlight (they had their very valid reasons to do so, but as a result Hob wasn't exactly a success), I am seeing it today for Swords and Soldiers 2 from Ronimo Games (barely anyone is looking for the release of S&S2
on Steam.. People are looking for Awesomenauts 2 however, that Ronimo has no plan for), and I am seeing it with DD right now.

I don't say it's not possible ; but you are not starting with an advantage (aside of your own experience in developing video games). I am not saying "plz make UNLOVED 2", that's not my point. But yeah, it's quite a challenge (imo) to go on a very different direction and still bring your existing playerbase with you.

So I think you have to extend a little bit the scope of people who knows about you. I don't know much about it unfortunately, but I would try perhaps posting to /r/IndieGaming on Reddit. You might get some valuable feedback in there, as well as gaining more visibility. I don't really know what are the other places where you can get some valuable visibility..

Core gameplay and general direction

Then there is the 2nd point : the core gameplay and the general directions. I just looked again at one of UNLOVED EA "first impressions" video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17NgRp_TRTk

Sure, it had less content than DD has right now. But you can see most of the core gameplay and the general direction is already there, and the youtuber is really digging it.

In general, with EA titles I think it's not about the content. It's EA, we get it, someone who buys an EA game (or is aspiring to) is not looking to have a load of content straight away. Taking GRIP as example, when it started out they only had 1 car, 2 racing tracks (one of them being WIP), a few power-ups and that's it. However, gameplay and the general direction was
keypoint here and they got quite a few sales.

Polling the playerbase

"I don't consider Dimension Drifter to be bad, I think it's a really really good game"

You are the game developer, of course you think the game is great. But how can you be sure that this opinion is shared by the majority of the playerbase?

I am taking right now a random comment from Discord ; I won't reveal who said it for anonymity, but just so you know.

to be honest I am not surprised (when talking about the EA sales). This game has no appeal to me. I don't know how many people are like me, of course.

There are a few folks like Touchdown or me who pointed you out what we dislike, and I feel like we have been (kind of) ignored for the most part of it.

I am saying this also because I think it was also the case back in the UNLOVED days. No offense to you, but when I've read this post of yours that really made me giggle because most of the forum was complaining about it, and it was a subject brought up very often in the discussions.

Originally posted by Blue:

Originally posted by Frollospyre:

It's one of the worst grinds you'll ever experience

That's too bad to hear. Do you have any suggestion how to tweak the grind and make it more enjoyable?

Good that you ask how to tweak the grind, but it's a bit "after the battle" if you see what I mean.. I really hope for you and your game that this time you will be open to comments and suggestions. UNLOVED has some serious grind issues that never got fixed, even though they have been pointed out by a lot of posts.

I think a good step towards this direction would be to ask everyone how they feel about Dimension Drifter, and I mean by that really : asking them specifically what they do not like. I think you can learn a lot from that, and people will point to you major flaws that perhaps you would not have seen otherwise.

In GRIP, a game I follow closely, the devs started a thread "What is your biggest frustration in GRIP?", it's stickied, and it's the most active thread there. And for the devs it's a real golden mine of figuring out what people dislike. (I mean, check out this thread who has 450+ posts in there, compared to the rest of the GRIP forum)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/396900/discussions/0/2592234299534606926/

I really think you would gain a lot from asking this directly. It's important to have positive
feedback, but it's also important to have constructive negative (in the sense of : i don't like this) feedback. It might be the hardest to take into account.. But everyone needs it.

But I see you are starting to take our "unfiltered feedback" into account so that's great :)

RPG element

Roguelikes (or should i say roguelites) are having quite a bit of a success these days, typical examples include Dead Cells and Slay the Spire. You gain bonuses in-between missions, the missions themselves become harder and harder, and you have to do meaningful choices in your build if you want to make it to the end.

I think having a Roguelite-like aspect could give a surprising amount of depth to the game ; you would have permanent upgrades (acquired by XP or other stuff ; these upgrades stick to your character and you never lose them), and episode-only upgrades that would be required in order to stand a chance of beating the final mission.

I personally think I would really dig this kind of gameplay. Let's be honest here, one of the biggest strength of UNLOVED really was the atmosphere, that's what was hooking players into the game. You don't really have that anymore, so your other parts (gameplay and/or story) have to be stronger in order for your game to reach out.

Best of luck Blue, DD has a lot of potential. Being an indie dev is really a super tough job.. But hopefully you will step out and DD will have at least as much success as UNLOVED :)

[Blue]

Thanks for your feedback so far.

I'd like to mention this again: if you have any feedback, please let me know in the Steam discussion boards. I am only one single person without a community manager or anything, so it is very hard for me to follow your feedback if you're leaving it in discord or any place else.

If you have any feedback that I should know about, please let me know here.
Thank you, I really appreciate any feedback I get and I mean it.

There are two sides to feedback. One side is the "theory" part. Many ideas sound great in theory, but in practice, they really don't feel that great. This is a huge deal for the gaming industry and you see countless studios (even AAA) fail and go out of business because of some small mistakes like this. This is why I try and take big steps where I feel comfortable (for example the action gameplay in DD), and I take small steps where I am really unsure (like the progression and story elements).

The other side of feedback is the "trying to please everyone" syndrome. This has also caused a lot of games and studios to fail (The Culling and Paragon as recent examples). I'm always trying to stay true to my original vision as much as possible to avoid this. And in those aspects where I don't have such a clear vision, I'm very open to hear other people's ideas and experiment to find what feels best.

So far the responses to DD have been very positive and hopeful. I'll give my best and use this foundation to make the game as awesome as possible.

TL;DR:
Sometimes it's difficult to find the right path to take for a game to get the most out of it. I appreciate all the feedback and I welcome everyone's opinion to help me find that path for DD.

[Touchdown]

Sorry to hear about the sales. Though as already mentioned, it's not entirely unexpected.

You kind of shot yourself in the foot by having so many parallels with UNLOVED. The similiar gameplay that involves randomly arranged level, the same monsters. People that played UNLOVED didn't find what they wanted in DD and others just assumed it's a reskined UNLOVED. And you can't really blame them considering your mind-boggling decision to reinstroduce UNLOVED monsters in the new game.

Then there's the promotion thing. Look, I'm not an expert on promoting games but there's a reason why you hear words such Discord, Reddit or Twitter every time a game is mentioned. A lot of indie devs post screenshots or short videos / gifs of new features, levels or enemies on Twitter for example. I really don't know if that alone can help you but that's what other devs do.

It's disheartening to hear a developer of a newly released game say that he has no idea where the project should go. I appreciate the honesty but it doesn't fill me with confidence and I'm someone who already supports the game.

As for suggestions on the story side of the game... It's a very complicated question because we don't know where YOU want to take the game in the future. What is supposed to be main appeal? Finishing a campaign? Finding the best items? Following the story? Is it supposed to be a game that you play for the story mode, like SPA (you get stronger but it's mostly about beating the campaign)? Or is it a game about grinding items like in UNLOVED?

Generally I think the best way to make sure that the story portion does not feel out of place would be to make a town/hub area with quest-givers, shops, story, etc. I feel like switching from a super fast paced gameplay to text adventure might be awkward no matter what you do. With a hub area at least you'd keep the flow by keeping the same perspective and controls as in action segments.

I'm a bit hesitant about overworld. Not sure if that can work. You'd have to make A LOT of hub areas for that to make sense.

But again, it all depends on how prevalent the story/RPG aspect is meant to be. If I were you I'd just look at other games, find something that's the closest thing and try to go from there. Is it Deus Ex? Or is it Diablo? Something else?

[oXYnary]

Hey Blue, you mentioned you don't get to read lots or Reddit and Discord and rather prefer the feedback here, as such I don't know if you saw our comments in the Youtube video. I will repost (mine) here. Also, to make it easier, I will also post random comments I saw in a lets play and IGN. :)


My Youtube comments::
Per Steam Direct Sucks

You shouldn't rely on Steam these days. Why not release on GoG and Itch.io?? (GoG has a early access).

Also, again, I will mention that the Nintendo Switch has been very good for Indies. Why not port Unloved?

I need to point out that your Steam release came without any fanfare. Did you make PR packets and release notices for gaming sites and YouTube announcers?* Seriously, PR is HUGE, Google Ads won't do much without a initial fanbase. Have you made a Reddit section? Twitter? Announced on the Doom forums you browse? You don't even have a IndieDB page.

I realize you are a private guy with your online footstep, but seriously, make at least your company identity noticeable. Even shudder Facebook.

Finally, you are charging nearly $20, which isn't helping. It's unrealistic.

Per Gameplay Feedback

Made a separate post for your subject of feedback. you hinted at this, but what about a continuous gameworld? No menu lobby, but an actual 3D hub you spend what you found. Teleporters then take you to these "arenas". Or maybe just an over world alah SuperMario 3.

The GUI and HUD for me in game is a mess. I can't tell easily what my bullets and health are at. You have packed a lot of information in the HUD. Step back from your screen and it becomes really hard what symbolizes what. Make it more context based. If your health us less than 100, then the health bar shows and starts blinking the closer to 0 you are in example. Right now the map is useless for me. I can't see it easily on a TV with its mundane colors and size. To fit your whole outline bit if you die or win, maybe the Mini Map is a larger transparent line based vs shaped; sorta like Doom '16.

Some of the controls can be simplified or expanded. If the melee isn't going to be seen as a normal weapon vs a one off melee only (vs Parry), you could combine it with interactivity. If a person is interacting with something, it turns off the melee, while otherwise its melee. I configured my controller to push both buttons at the same time which has made it simpler (other than her swiping at air when the countdown happens when opening a chest).

You are on to something with the speed. Make her current speed the run toggle and she has a slower speed normally. I faked this on my controller by having it auto pressing WASD directions in micro rapid fire blips so I can fake an analog feel. Helps tremendously. In fact this game would be great with full analog ability with controllers (again, Keyboard can have ye old "shift" to run/walk).

Random Peoples comments from a Lets Play::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIG4S4Idyps

Should have been a first person shooter. The game is as you said quite polished gameplay wise but the third person animations are bad and I feel like its really unnecessary.

If they want to keep third person then I hope they add something like action dives (max payne) or kung fu

it looks like Doom made into a third person shooter for people who like hentai. Animations aren't great and are out of sync with the movement speed and there doesn't seem to be much benefit to making it third person.

Random Peoples comments from the IGN trailer::

https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/10/10/dimension-drifter-teaser-trailer

Tf did i just watch

What’s the actual hook of this game? Not trying to be rude, it just looks like you move 712 miles per hour and all the enemies just learned to walk. Doesn’t seem fun or challenging.

Why on earth is this posted on IGN? I mean good for the creators I guess, but more something Jim Sterling would like to have a go at

One of the college kids who made this game must be related to someone who works at IGN. Showcasing this game had to have been a favor.

Meh lol we cant see the feets but are they wearing rollerblades or something? Anyway that was more painful to watch than an actual tease.

It's amazing how you can show so much action and the game still looks boring. Not my cup of tea

*You got IGN recently, so kudos, but look at the comments (above from it).

New thought. Again, I know you like your privacy, but you might setup a Twitch Channel under the Game Dev tag. It could be a way to help gain an audience. It's what Im doing as part of my team, and while its not like I get hundreds of views (let alone 1 an hour), it has helped our project gain a few more fans. You don't need to have a webcam versus just sharing your development on screen. Having a mic while better because you can answer quicker without pausing, you can just type replies as well.

[Blue]

Originally posted by Touchdown:

It's disheartening to hear a developer of a newly released game say that he has no idea where the project should go.

If I said this, I meant it in a more specific way. I have a very clear vision for the game, but the overall path might change and I may have to experiment to find the key ingredients that will stick with the game until the end.

Even games like the new God of War was a total disaster and playtesters didn't like it up until very close to the actual launch. On launch day you can see the dev crying on the live stream when he heard the critics actually liked it. For me this was heartbreaking to see. Game development is no joke.

[OZINI]

I think experimental multiplayer mode can bring to game more players and have a small (or big who knows?) influence to increase popularity of this game. You make a good step to create customisation of the player and weapon, but... in singleplayer game it's doesn't neccesery at all. Multiplayer can make a miracles - Growth of Community, bragging about unique costumes and weapon models (it's have a influence in grinding - more hours in the game) sending invites to friends to bought the game to playing and grinding together or versus. Look at UNLOVED there most of best and faithful players playing in coop mode not alone. Draw conclusions. In DD we have very fast action multiplayer gamers love it!

If multiplayer mode will be failure then You can always cut this out. You don't risk anything because almost nobody playing DD so maybe it is worth a try?

You do as you think but popularity must be higher at all

[all in]

What do I want to see in the future?

1. More trinkets levels and enemies and weapons, ofcouse.
2. Better optimization. My 1070 loaded on 100% in game menu with 83 core temp.

3. Indicators of the number of dead monsters in the game or the efficiency of players trinkets. I mean leaderboard with players. This will make this game more competitive and increase the social element.

4. Ability to acquire more rewards at the level. But so that it would be more risky for the player and always was a choice. Like in Unloved, yes.

5. Global battle. The world of this game involves an endless struggle, in which in different regions of this world things are different with monsters. If you make a choice not only among 3 different missions, but also on a large-scale map of this world, then this will increase the player’s involvement and make the clearing of levels more conscious. On the global map in different regions will vary the percentage of the presence of demons there. The greater the percentage, the stronger the monsters and the reward there appear. If the region reaches 100%, then the owner of this region will appear in it - a kind of unique monster who has enhanced characteristics. Please pay special attention to this item. Passing levels can be made more conscious and increase the incentive of the player.

Thanks for you attention, great dev.

[Toni]

About the graphics. DD compared to UNLOVED is much more simple is think. UNLOVED had places that were good for a horror game. DD has no details in the levels and almost everything is steel. The levels doesn't look like anything that could be in real world like offices or what ever would fit in a place that seem to be in a large city.

Could you add up a bunch of THEMES like mix of office style industrial style suburb style levels mix of them of course. the randomly made levels should have more variety in prefabs at least. The outcome should be for example a quite realistic looking area in a city with realistic looking environments. variety in door styles colors windows, furniture.

The game play is good and its running great, I like the character and her ability to slow time. It is nice to shoot enemies in slow motion. speaking of enemies adding them say 100 or 200 unique enemies in the game could really make the playing much more interesting.

[Gnome]

First of all, the game is great, and I'm digging it. I've decided to bring another perspective that may apply for some players like me. Here we go:

I've bought Unloved during last year's halloween sale. I loved the gameplay, but I couldn't handle the horror atmosphere. It's not that I'm "weak" or anything - I have Panic Disorder (I take medication for it, by the way) and heavy horror atmosphere in games can trigger an attack, which is literally bad for my health. So I didn't played Unloved as much as I would like. This brings to the main reason of my post, which is...

...Dimension Drifter brings some great elements from Unloved (like spawning enemies when you pick some items) and addictive gameplay and progression, but without the horror vibe, so to me, it's a game that I can play with no problems. While some may not like that DD has gotten far away from the horror atmosphere from Unloved, to me it's a big plus, and I would get upset if, during development, DD change when it comes to atmosphere. Of course, I'm not alone, and there are some people out there who can't handle horror games as well, so I think that DD is a good game to show your potential as a developer to those people.

I'm looking forward to see this game grows. It's already super fun right now and I'm sure it will only get better with time. Keep up the great work!