Post by David Mills in Nightmare Fishing Tournament comments

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Thanks! I consider everything before 2022 "earlier", my other account "suitsnnukes" got shadowbanned apparently. You can access it through the link HERE but if you search "suitsnnukes" nothing will come up. But 2022 was the year I switched on an insane level of focus with the game dev stuff and pumped out like 8 games in one year, I cover them in this vid here:

The goal was getting a job in the game industry, but since that whole sector has been on fire for the past couple of years I can't say I even want that anymore. Doing better on my own at this point, my wife works in tech for Disney and let me tell you, the main reason it takes so long to get new things made are the twin forces of bureaucracy and incompetence. Like seriously if I wanted to arrange a couple rocks and trees in a game level for example, I would have to sit through tons of meetings listening to everyone's input and probably still not get a decisive answer. Sorry for the rant here but the current state of games reminds me of watching a loved one hooked up to machines waiting to die in a hospital.

EDIT: Sorry I forgot to answer the other questions, plans for "post" kill series. I usually have a couple game projects on deck at any given point. I got this "one for me, one for them" mentality where I release a game the players want, like more KILLS games, and then I will release something I like that isn't trying to please the most ppl possible. I did that recently with a game called "Spime", I knew it wouldn't do well because I've remade it 3 times and it never does all that good, but I liked the concept and just thought I'd pitch it again with a bigger audience watching now. So I'm not sure what comes next, maybe this dinosaur golfing game I released a 3 stage demo of but in an expanded way, more levels and stuff. Or maybe something completely different!

BrickbiterStudio59 days ago (1 edit)

Never knew itch.io could just shadow ban accounts but honestly i don't expect much from companies anymore. "in tech for Disney" as in making stuff like animation programs and stuff with technology for them right? or do you mean stuff like helping the business succeed or solving programs and such, if the example you gave (arranging trees n rocks) is pretty much the gist of it then yeah i get why new games takes a long time and don't really differ much due to being have to be approved by higher ups, no worries i actually enjoy reading experiences of other people.

I don't really mind what type of games you make I just play stuff, Honestly I could never anticipate what you are gonna make, one time it was a little penguin that became the king of hell, next time, it was a little green alien on a space rig. What's next? Back To Earth? where the ghoul guy you play as finally gets back to the land of the living but he forgot to feed his dog when he died, so he has to find a way back to his house but, unfortunately the grim reaper really did not gave a damnation for where he would end up when he returned (In the middle of the ocean).

Also if you don't mind could you explain more on the reason why the game industries is on fire?

How much did it cost to hire the person that voiced the person on the radio? (DJ SHRIEKS) (I could not find the credits page on the name of the person i know it's somewhere but I could not for the life of me find it.)

Do you happen to know what was the reason that the original 2D Nightmare Fishing Tournament blew up? I know it was mainly Markiplier but still that couldn't have just been it right?

Sorry for the late reply I was making sure there were no writing mistakes.

On an unrelated note: I still quite enjoy the 2D Nightmare Fishing Tournament main menu music, do you think any installments in the future is gonna have a catchy tune like it?

David Mills59 days ago

To answer your questions:

- "in tech for Disney" - I can't get super specific but when you access HULU ( which Disney owns or partnered or something ) she's part of the ppl who make that possible, gets free trips to the theme parks, all that stuff.

-What's next? Back To Earth? - For NFT I would probably keep it in the underworld but go full 3D, maybe an "open blood ocean" kind of thing where the fish are all way bigger.

- reason why the game industries is on fire? - Well it's my outsider perspective of course but it seems like companies are hemorrhaging money at the AAA level ( indies seem to be thriving actually, so that's super exciting ). This probably stems back to the design by committee and bureaucracy thing I mentioned earlier. Might also be a fumbling at passing the torch, by that I mean people in the industry who knew what they were doing are retiring, and maybe new workers just aren't as skilled overall. Always acceptations to the rules, but generally speaking the bar is so high in most cases and the technology so intricate it's a bit unrealistic for a team of kids fresh out of college to be capable of generating something a team of veterans could, that's just the benefit of experience and learning from past mistakes. The other issue with the big names in games is taking creative risk scares investors, so sequels get pushed as safe bets. The less said about payment models and microtransactions the better.

- How much did it cost to hire the person that voiced the person on the radio?- He did that for free if you can believe it! Yea his online name is Tannerdler and he's done some trailer work for me in the past. His Youtube can be accessed HERE.

-Do you happen to know what was the reason that the original 2D Nightmare Fishing Tournament blew up? - Markiplier, 100%. I have a $0 advertising budget so word of mouth makes or breaks my game exposure every time. The bigger my games get the more eyes I attract, but I'm not monetizing it or asking ppl to "like and subscribe" because the way it's being done this days is kinda scummy IMO

- On an unrelated note: I still quite enjoy the 2D Nightmare Fishing Tournament main menu music, do you think any installments in the future is gonna have a catchy tune like it? - For sure. I'm actually making a bunch of A.I generated music, silly stuff mostly, and using it in update videos on my games. Well, I'm not MAKING it of course, the a.i is, you just right a prompt like " make a rock song about Louise from Bob's Burgers killing her family" and you get something a few moments later. Nothing chart topping but I don't get flagged for using copywrite music when I use it so it works for that.

BrickbiterStudio59 days ago (2 edits)

-So the part about employees working for Disney gets extra stuff like that is true, Sweet

-Honestly, I get why, I mean, that's its main identity after all, But I think it's just my personal bias about giving stuff conclusion, I don't know if anyone asked this before but what's the name of the ghoul guy we play as? How did he die?

-At least we get to see cool stuff from indie devs, But I would also like it if big companies actually step up their game to reach or even surpass stuff they used to make in their prime but I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

-Still can't believe he did all of that for free!, I agree with you on the whole "Like and Subscribe" Thing if the watcher liked your stuff they would've subscribed already, Who does he do trailers for now?

-I mean it make sense, I don't know if Markiplier still does it now but in the past loves digging up small indie games and play them.

-Did you talked to the guy who made the music in DMS and asked if you could borrow it for the main menu and he was just like, yeah. I don't really mind the use of AI as long it doesn't take stuff from other artist and just makes up some random beat using some algorithm. But honestly if you have the time I think you should get into making music for your games, even if it's a simple melody or tune I would not mind at all, you'll be surprised at how many times people who have no clue how to make music make absolute classics for random video games.

David Mills59 days ago

What does "DMS" stand for here? The Nightmare Fishing song came from the Newgrounds audio portal, that used to be where I would go for music in games, but there's tons of sources that are completely free these days so typically I stick to those. The idea behind the Nightmare Fishing corpse was it was always intended to be the player, a blank slate they could project themselves onto. That's why the scoreboard calls you "player" Small Easter Egg, in the new one here I believe, if you talk to one of the NPC's, the angry blue one, he says" watch it, newblood! " which is meant to be a slur for newly dead arrivals in the underworld. From the point after activating that audio interaction, the name "Player" switches to "New Blood" for the rest of the game!

I've actually reached out to Markiplier in email over the years but he never got back, I imagine he's way to busy these days, heard he got really into the indie game "Iron Lung" and is trying to get a movie project off the ground related to it. The last one of mine he played was "Blood Bath Bay" and it bugged on him, ugh I was mortified when I saw the video, still cringe about it even though I'm probably the only one who thinks about it ever. Sometimes I think that bug was like the last straw or something because again he never played my games on the channel after that.

I've messed around with music a little but it's not my calling. Still made a spooky track and I've thought about a "LIMBO" style game purely to make a soundtrack similar to this kind of music:

BrickbiterStudio59 days ago (1 edit)

Sorry! forgot to specify what DMS means, as in Direct Message like messaging someone privately

David Mills59 days ago

Oh I see. Actually if I'm being honest that was usually the case, but in that particular instance I pretty much plucked it like an apple off a tree and slapped it into the game. Things were a little more "Wild West" back then, but the kicker is, and this is the only time this has happened in my recollection, the guy who made that song found out I had used it and confronted me about it. Obviously, by confronted I mean he approached me online. I guess he saw the Markiplier video too, which of course opens with gushing about how intense the music was, and probably thought, "Wait a minute -- I made that song!" We cut a deal where I could keep it in if I went around to all the videos of NFT at the time and credited him in the comments, you can probably still find those old copy/paste credits today if you look.

I mean realistically I'm just some hobbyist flying by the seat of my pants from giant dream project to giant dream project, I'm not really worrying about the nitty gritty of legal bs because I'm not looking to turn a profit. Right or wrong my opinion is if you aren't making money, no harm no foul it should all be up for grabs. But the second I find out my ideas are keeping the lights on in your home then I'm gonna need to see some compensation, you know what I mean? If anything, Youtubers like Mark and others should be answering to all that seeing as they are the ones monetizing the experience of just playing the game. When the dev releases it for free, it's kind of weird the people who just film it get paid, but hey it's a weird world out there isn't it? For me this stuff isn't about the money. I just want to see my ideas made playable.

BrickbiterStudio59 days ago (1 edit)

I liked it better when people could just make a simple agreement and that's the end of it.

I'm picking up what you're putting down, If your game is free then I don't really see the issue about using my stuff, but if i ever see you monetize that stuff that's clearly mine then I'm gonna need that fair share of cash. I don't really know how the whole Youtube site works, you just post stuff and earn money from ads? Don't really know, but I guess it is how it is. I can clearly see that part, you seem very passionate about your projects.

If I had to give my honest criticism about the games, the only thing lacking is: the visuals and the animations,
for example: mount fear doesn't really have any fog or snow falling effect which just makes it looks, a bit flat, the texture on the mountain repeats which looks a bit off, the snow doesn't deform when you walk.

But I have to say they heavily reminds me of those old 3D flash games graphics, and if that's what you're going for then you nailed it.

I have tried game developing and if it had to teach me one thing, it's that I talk a lot about what I want to do for the game and then immediately getting off the studio after one mechanic is finished, If you don't want to bother with stuff like shaders and smoothing out the animation I completely get it.

that is all I can think of, the rest of the games is good but the most important thing is the games are playable and quite enjoyable and I think this is what truly matters the most.