First Iteration

Im telling you guys, adjusting the light in a 2D sprite game with Unreal is causing me UNREAL LEVELS OF ANGER! :)))

I hope it will be finished within the next days

Development still continues, a bit slowly cause we push hard to finish phase one while working on 4 multiple projects at the same time

I'm back!

As some of you already know, im doing a 4-game development at the same time marathon .

And now it's time to reveal the third project.

This one is a collab between my studio 16 BIT NIGHTS and FirePath Games.

A dark Tower Defense and Survival hybrid where your only currency is time, and how you choose to use. Step into the dark forest, build your defenses during the day, explore, and during the night make every second count before the monsters find you.

Features & Mechanics:

- Explore the forest for new crafting schematics

- Build defenses around your camp

- Eat what the forest provides, drink what the mountain provides

- Start repairing the helicopter so that you may escape the island.

- Craft better equipment

- Level up your skills

- Hunt down monster bosses

- Defend the camp against the swarm of monsters coming from the dark forest

- Runaway in the safety of the camp

Screenshots:

Going for stylized visuals made in Windows Paint 98 and mixed with normal maps and special effects.

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/ak5zXQxR7D

As for my marathon, I'm still on the first phase: starting all the coming soon pages. So far I started for "Horizon 1990", "Cards N Zombies, and now "TD Fade To Dark" and I still need to start one in the next 3 weeks for "Terraformer Wars".

After that Il proceed to phase 2: start pushing the demos.

Wish me luck, gentlemen

The plan for the minigame has been made over a coffee with cavalie.ro.

It will include traveling with a vehicle, RNG content and a dash of parallax animations with a drop of diegetic interface.

This is how the plan looks now:

We will be back in some time and show how it turned out

Today I spent 3 houres on share screen with one of my partner on the TD fade to dark project, we adjusted lights and stuff, im tired AF, tomorrow I must do the same with coder from autobatler + a short meetup with coder from cards n zombies. + sprite work on Horizon 1990

Im going crazy here guys

OK so after more playing I concluded that game has addictive factor but its fustrating AF and I just end up rage quiting becaus ethe RNG is a lot above limit, I cannot go for a certain build Its always RNG like choice does not really matter. Just grab whatever comes and hope for the best.

Suggestion: add 2 more choices in the event screen and dont softlock the choices like its a puzzle game, an easy mod unlock with some pozitive bonuses would be nice  and its a buy on steam motivation

- Needs a sandbox 

- extremely fun first 30 minutes

- extremely frustrating after I beat dragon and no more progress (the endless mode after the dragon is horible, cannot survive more than 15 lvls, no ballance for actual; endless survival)

So many new things were added 

Introducing: NASA space shuttle:

Also introducing a new mechanic: You can now enter these derelict spaceships by interacting with the door and exploring them.

During interior exploration, the game controls switch to gravity mode.

Here is an early WIP:

We also finished the effects for the interface , we decided to go for that holographic aspect mixed with 3D camera, Tw Fuzz effect, and glitches. We want MAXIMUM immersive factors.

We have such dark mysteries prepared for you.

Testing our Deckbuilder roguelike with printed cards on paper was fun, but now it's time to clean up and bring it to life. However, we are considering adding a PDF print version of the game as a DLC.

Bringin minigun card to life:

And those juicy gold coins

Problems I noticed so far:

Deckbuilder games exploded in 2022 , a huge amount of card games was released cause they were very easy to make, resulting in them having a sort of stigma of low effort game. 

Doing a high production value on this genre is proving to be a true challenge for me in regard to marketing but I have a plan.

cool start

The trailer is now live on Youtube

So let's continue with a progress update.

Introducing:the merchant.

All hero cards from the player's hand can have their stats upgraded on the merchant shop.

Introducing: the couple

Here, the player can acquire services of healing, repairing armor, reloading, and trading fuel.

Now moving forward.

The gameplay loop consists in combat exploration + shop(the ones above) + travel,.

On travel, we will do some sort of interactive minigame but we have not decided on the exact details yet.

I also want to use this real-life image as a game background, dunno yet if this is a good idea, maybe some suggestions?

Also, we plan for each location to have its own polaroid theme and special danger levels + a special aggro mechanic.

Goal is to have maximum retro aspect but with a touch of modern magic

I hope you enjoyed this devblog entry!

Logo and key art

Hey,

As some of you already know, I started a game development marathon working on 4 different projects with 4 different programmer partners, and today it's time for my second project reveal:

I am bringing this game to life together with  cavalie.ro, I worked with him in the past, and we had an awesome collab in 2017 when we released TAURONOS, after that we went on separate ways, and now we are back again to bring you a new creation.

About the game:

Choose your champions and descend into card-based dungeons of the undead.

Search for upgrade cards and treasures, survive, and make difficult choices, all within an exotic card game atmosphere.

Fun Fact:

 I was able to do the testing for core mechanics + first balance draft ahead of having an actual prototype. This was a first-time approach for me and it worked perfectly.I only had to print out the placeholder cards and have some fun.

Then I started doing the early mockups in Windows Paint 98 version because im that freaking old:

And then my partner's magic came in, and this is what an actual screenshot in the game looks like now:

And here is a feature list:

Combat & Looting

- Unique environment exploration mixed with combat, and with a dash of mystery.

- Search the environment cards for gold coins, fuel, and special survivor action cards custom-taylord for each class.

- Fight the undead horde 

- Balance your choices between the greed of exploring for more treasures, defending against the undead, and trying to escape.

- Choose what survivor cards you want to save and which ones you want to sacrifice to the horde in order to buy more time.

- Use your survivor's special abilities to gain an edge

- Aggro mechanics

Management & Shops

- The merchant will provide you with custom upgrade cards for your survivors' stats.

- The couple will provide you with special services for your survivors, such as repairing armor, healing wounds, refilling ammunition, and trading fuel

Travel & Main goal

- Engaging minigame mechanics for traveling

- Multiple endings based on your main quest progress

- Decide your next location to explore based on resource cost and reward

Developed under 16 BIT NIGHTS and cavalie.ro

Since my game is based on the urban legend of "experimento filadelfia" I have decided to add a lot of focus on it. So here is the first direct prop, the USS Eldrige that was used in that experiment

Made in windows paint 98 baby !

OFC it will have many interacteble parts not just for visual.

And here is a small preview on how it looks in the game:

New ship update

We are close to having feature complete, now that all gameplay loop is established, some of the ship elements had to be changed and I think this is the final iteration

of it.

Mockup + concept art vs In-game (inspired by Aliens movie environment)

Additionally, the black smoke from the left and right screen edges is animated + the heartbeat above is also animated. Will post some gifs later

So lets update things around here.

Some art:

And also  Trailer is out:

Good luck! 

Looking good, salutations from Romania

Screenshot time 

Hey,

I started a new challenge, I'm working on 4 different projects with 4 different programmers.

First project and also my main project:

On October 28, 1943, the first Philadelphia Experiment took place.

USS Eldridge, a Navy ship, by using experimental technology, was supposed to become invisible to radars; instead, it teleported into another dimension and returned moments later with no crew and showing severe signs of degradation.

Soon after, the experiment was recreated, but this time a space shuttle was sent into the void. It returned briefly after with all crew missing, signs of combat on the outer hull, and one note in the captain's log: "We were not the first ones here."

A few years passed, and a third attempt was made; this time, it was a custom ship built with space shuttle technology and a large crew. USS Eldridge Mark 2 stepped into the void and never returned.

Present day: a new attempt is now in progress, this time the new ship USS Eldridge Mark 3 is equipped with the latest modern technology, and YOU were selected to lead this expedition into the unknown horizon.

During this stage, you will use your astronaut squad to explore the void.

• Gather exotic resources,
• Drill asteroids for essential resources.
• Encounter new alien lifeforms.
• Uncover the secrets of an ancient civilization.
• Uncover the mystery of previous void missions.
• Salvage lost technology.
• Survive in a hostile environment.

Think of USS Eldridge Mark 3 as your home; its maintenance can prove to be critical for your survival.

• Build and upgrade turrets, searchlights, and the forcefield.
• Use special Crystals you find in the void to upgrade the ship eficiency.
• Maintain the outer hull by repairing the ship's armor plates and removing any alien fungus growth.
• Use external modules to re-arm your astronauts' battery, nitro, and ammunition supplies.
• Manage your Atomics Silos.

Your presence in the void disturbs the natural order of things.

Your ship and astronauts are like juicy beacons for the hostile creatures that lurk in the shadows.

Defends your ship against waves of something that can only be described as Langoliers.

At first glance, this may seem like a glorified walking simulator, but don't underestimate the situation; everything you do here will have an impact on all layers of the game. You will decide your travel paths between asteroid fields, hostile creatures, toxic fog, corrosive steam, and parasitic fungi while being chased by a darkness spammed from the end of time.

• Craft better equipment for your astronauts.
• Research new technologies.
• Heal your astronauts.
• Train and level up your astronauts.
• Upgrade your ship's internal systems
• Manage your Strike Team and their equipment.

Developed by  16 BIT NIGHTS

Discord : https://discord.gg/ak5zXQxR7D

Video Devblog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_RpeDszD9A 

Cool game. Salutation from OpenApoc

also having to send workes each time to colect wood and stone manually is 100% fustrating, needs an auto function

good concept but quality of life elements and unclear information make the gameplay very frustrating.

Cool game, cool developer +1

on these groups you can find both devs and players

Congrats on the release

Hey fellow developers and players,


My name is Cristi. I am part of the 16 BIT NIGHTS indie game dev studio, and I come here again with a new case study/marketing blog to help other indie devs. I also do this for free, so any support is appreciated.

I have seen lately an increase in PR agents in the game dev industry, and I see nobody brings any new information to the table, ofc most of what is said is good, but it's the same old information but presented from a different perspective.

So, for those of you who create games but have little to no marketing funds, I created this list with top content creators' friendly Discord communities for indie devs.

FAIR WARNING
Before using this list, please consider this:

1. Do NOT join to spam, aka "hit & run"! If you do this, you will most likely be ignored and probably banned. Try to get involved in the communities in a genuine way.
2. Do NOT send spam private messages with your game to the content creators! You can very fast end up blacklisted, and it's not cool to spam the people who help this industry.
If you want to send them your press kit, use the official ways; most of them have a public email on their channel for this purpose.
3. If you join other content creators' discords beyond this list, be careful; some of their communities are not so friendly towards indie devs and perceive everything as spam. I can give a few examples, but I prefer to keep this post on a positive side.
4. Keep it safe for work. Use common sense.
5. Posting in these communities will NOT guarantee that someone will make a video of your game, but it will surely bring some extra exposure.

Overall, what I try to say is: don't be a spammer; there is a thin line between spam and presenting your game.
This is a good way to get more eyes upon your creation. Just don't abuse it.

Let's begin!

1. Splattercat
This guy is not only one of the best content creators on indie games, but his community is very friendly with game devs as long as you are not a mindless spammer.
The moderators are also cool, and they engage with everyone in a very friendly manner. Just don't abuse their kindness, or you will hear "Hammer Time" song in the background.
Rooms of interest:
#greathall - do not talk about your game here, but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, and make networking
#content-promotion - you can post in this room your links, preferably the milestones, such as youtube trailer debut, coming soon page debut, big update debut, game release steam link and so on
#game-dev - use this room to chat to other fellow developer from this community(players have also acces to it), you can also post about your game here, preferably posts like progress of your game, screenshots etc, you can also post links but preferably keep the links for the #content-promotion room.
#gamekeys-readpin - You can use this room to make small giveaways that will bring extra exposure to your game, + It its a nice way to give something back to the community and reward the players. Also, make sure you follow the guidelines.
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@Splattercatgaming
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/Splattercatgaming
Moderation, aka "how hard the police hits":  cool if you are cool
Activity: Very High

2. Alpha Beta Gamer
I was pleasantly surprised when I joined this community. They have a lot of friendly rooms for devs and some out-of-the-box approach.
The owner, Alpha Beta Gamer, is also very friendly and interacts with the community whenever he gets the chance.
#general - do not talk about your game here, but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, and make networking
#share-your-art - If you are an artist, this is a room for you to post your artwork
#show-your-games - You can post here about your game links and everything, unfortunatley it has a forum format and not many people use it except for devs.
#jobs-collaboration-and-devs-for-hire - cool initiative to have an actual collab room for devs
#game-dev-chat - here you can talk to other devs and make more networking
#roast-my-steam-pahe - This is got to be the most original room in a content creator discord that I have seen. Everyone is reliant to give negative feedback, but here you can do it. Post link about your game here and be roasted, also, have fun and roast other devs
#playtest - you can post here a link to your game for others to check and give feedback
He also got a giveaway room and so on. A lot of rooms here for devs.
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@AlphaBetaGamer
Discord Link: discord.gg/3Gtqp9BDeY
Moderation aka "how hard the police hits": Gangsta Paradise
Activity: Very High

3. Perafilozof
This one is a hidden gem. If you have a real-time strategy or real-time tactics game, this is surely the place to join, his community is formed by both game devs and players of strategy games, and as a content creator, he is very friendly and responsive to all developers in and out of the community.
But please note: this community is strict on strategy games. Do not post about platformers or other genres.
#general-chat - do not talk about your game her,e but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, make networking
#game-updates - post here about your game updates, milestones, links allowed, similar style to a devblog. Perafilozof reads this room, and if he finds important information, he will add it to his "RTS news" videos
#window-into-development - you can chat here with other devs and post stuff about your game
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@perafilozof
Discord Link: discord.gg/g7HkWAKfSz
Moderation aka "how hard the police hits": Gangsta Paradise
Activity: Good

4. Nookoroium
Here is another Discord community gem. Nook is one of the coolest content creators and his community reflects it.
He also got a funny Dad Jokes room that is worth checking.
#main-room -  do not talk about your game here but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, make networking
#share-your-stuff - you can post here links on your milestones, game release and so on, just dont abuse and try to give some feedback to other people as well
#giveaways - you can use this room to make small giveways that will bring extra exposure upon your game + its a nice way to give somting back to the comunity and reward the players. Also, make sure you follow the guidelines. For this community, I think you need to contact Nook himself, preferably via email, since he does the giveaways himself.
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@Nookrium
Discord Link: discord.gg/amuj3Ky
Moderation aka "how hard the police hits": cool if you are cool
Activity: Good

5. Frazzz
This guy is a weird one, but I'm adding him here because I owe him money.... im joking:))))
Frazzz got a friendly community for indie devs, and sometimes I see extreme humor there, just how I like it.
#general - do not talk about your game here, but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, make networking
#devs-publishers-lounge - here you can talk and post about your game; it is a very permissive room. Have fun
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@FrazzzYT
Discord Link: discord.gg/466CMVGXP9
Moderation aka "how hard the police hits": Pssst, boy, wanna buy some skins?
Activity: Decent

6. Henchbots
Yet another indie game content creator with a friendly community for devs.
#nerdtalk - do not talk about your game here, but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, make networking
#arts-crafts-creations - you can post here about your game progress, milestones, releases
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@wanderbots
Discord Link: discord.com/invite/wanderbots
Moderation aka "how hard the police hits": Stay still, move slowly
Activity: Decent

7. Christopher Odd
This community is heavily focused on turn-based games, so do not post here about puzzle games or other genres.
Cool fact, he also contributed to the game "Every Day We Fight."
#chat-and-stuff - do not talk about your game here, but use this room to talk to various people from the community, have fun, make networking
#self-promotion - only post links on big milestones, do not abuse the kindness of this community
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@ChristopherOdd
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/christopherodd
Moderation, aka "how hard the police hits": Stay still, move slowly
Activity: Low

8. Bestindiegames
Any type of game genre is welcome here as long as it's indie.
#upcoming-indie-games - post here link to your coming soon pages
#game-dev-promo - post here milestones and progress
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@ClemmyGames
Discord Link: discord.gg/aU9qp9Y
Moderation aka "how hard the police hits": Gangsta Paradise
Activity: Low





Many other Content Creators have Discord communities, but not all are friendly towards indie devs, so make sure you read the rules when joining one so you don't waste other people's time or your time.



Regards,
Cristi P. - 16 BIT NIGHTS

SCP 001 When Day Breaks

Single mission where your strike team operatives are sent into an SCP 001 encounter, when day breaks.

You will have 1 D-class personnel, 1 scientist, and 3 Strike team operatives assigned to your team.

Make the best of what you have and contain the anomaly. Additionally, try to keep the team alive.

Good luck, Commander!

Instructions:

mouse to move 

1,2,3,4,5,6 select unit

Link to game:  https://16bitnights.itch.io/scp

Discord: https://discord.gg/ak5zXQxR7D

For itchio you can download it for free, donations are optional, I don't know how I can refund if you accidentally clicked on it but I did not get any notifications so I assume you fixed it.

I'm glad you are enjoying the game, I think we can push a few more updates, right now we are working on polishing the balance, final adjustments.

Also Thank you for your support! 

It is the free short version

We are preparing a roadmap for after after-release

CONTENT CREATORS 🙋‍♀️ 

Our 5th self-published game: "Welcome Back, Commander" Launches next week, 6 Feb 2025. 

If you are interested in a Steam Key for the full game drop a message with your Youtube channel and I will send the Press Kit. 

TESTERS 🙋‍♀️ 

If you want to help out with testing drop me a private message.🙏

Regarding tests, we split them into 2 categories:

Test mark 1:

We appreciate feedback on balance and if you encounter bugs on the full version. To gain access you can join our Discord for the private beta on the full game.

Test mark 2:

We appreciate feedback on the core game design. For this type of test, you can use the vertical slice from Itch.io:

https://16bitnights.itch.io/welcome-back-commander

Trailer:

Regards,

Cristi P. - 16 BIT NIGHTS

B2B Marketing Collab

INTRO

Hello,

For the ones that don’t know me, my name is Cristi P. and I represent 16 BIT NIGHTS.
Recently I made a marketing collab with some awesome developers and I had so much fun that I decided to make this case study about it.

HOW IT HAPPENED

So, I am part of several game developer communities and mostly I only see spam and small talk but not long ago I joined a Discord: The RTS Dev Saloon and I saw they had a nice topic about the upcoming Steam Strategy Fest.

Everyone wanted to do something like organize some multiplayer games with content creators and so on.
I also noticed everyone was too busy with their own games to take initiative but at the same time I saw potential in this community, maybe the fact that it’s a bit of a private community also attracted me, so I decided to take a little initiative.

And no, I am not a godlike PR to organize MP game matches with content creators but I wanted to do something so I asked if they wanted to make a trailer collab for the RTS fest regarding this particular community.

Four things impressed me in particular:

First: The developers were 100% cooperative and professional (except for the one who kept sending me pictures of barrels, dunno what is wrong with him but even so I think he is ok to), no s**t talk, and they sent footage as instructed within the timeline (TBH 50% of me believed that they would just forget about it, this was one of the times I was happy to be proven wrong).

Second: The second thing that impressed me was when I saw the footage and did a bit of background research on the devs who submitted entries, I mean WOW, some of them have stellar projects.

Third: The third thing that impressed me was that this made me feel like I am actually part of a community, this was an awesome feeling to experience in this industry.

Fourth: I will keep the fourth thing that impressed me for a bit later in the case study, don’t go just yet.

HOW IT WORKED

OK, now to the substance stuff.
I had the full support of my partner, Sadoff who did all the video editing while I made the trailer design, text, intro cutscene, and outro cutscene, selecting music, SFX, and posting it.

The main goal of this collab was to do a cross-promo. The YouTube algorithm trigger was not critical.

Almost all of us involved in the video have our own communities and social media pages with fans and followers, so after the video got uploaded it got shared by the participants in their own respective communities.

This is as simple as it gets, cross-promo at its origin form.

Now please, understand that cross-promo only works if it’s a similar target audience, in our case we all had real-time strategy games so it was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Competition is not always your enemy!

Games who participated in this B2B Marketing collaboration:

From Glory To Goo https://store.steampowered.com/app/2607060/From_Glory_To_Goo/
Beyond Astra https://store.steampowered.com/app/2669060/Beyond_Astra/
Cataclismo https://store.steampowered.com/app/1422440/Cataclismo/
Global Conflagration https://store.steampowered.com/app/908770/Global_Conflagration/
Battlefall State of Conflict https://store.steampowered.com/app/1031730/Battlefall_State_of_Conflict/
Welcome Back, Commander (our game) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3015620/Welcome_Back_Commander/
Atre Dominance Wars https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805850/Atre_Dominance_Wars/
Toy Tactics https://store.steampowered.com/app/1772530/Toy_Tactics/
IMMORTAL Gates of Pyre https://store.steampowered.com/app/2921580/IMMORTAL_Gates_of_Pyre/
Powerplay https://store.steampowered.com/app/3010280/Powerplay/
Project 37 https://store.steampowered.com/app/2894750/Project_37/
Godsworn https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328990/Godsworn/
Stardust Exile https://store.steampowered.com/app/1858900/Stardust_Exile/
ZeroSpace https://store.steampowered.com/app/1605850/ZeroSpace/

RESULTS

I had in the first half of the day +35 wishlist additions, the second day went to +131 but for the second day some of us also got featured in the Perafilozof video so I cannot estimate correctly exactly how many WL came from the cross-promo video second and third day but it was on plus.

Valentin from Beyond Astra also had a spike in WL and he did not appear in the Perafilozof video.

CTLN7, the developer from Global Conflagration also had a spike.

In addition to this The RTS Dev Saloon got some nice branding, 48 hours after releasing the video I got at least 5 messages from people asking me for an invite to that server.
Just to clear things out, I am not the owner of that Server, tatsu(dev from ZeroSpace) and Pourya are the owners.

The video itself also got some nice results, 7 days after release it managed to get 4k views and 145 likes.

Link to the video itself: https://youtu.be/CyIZfiEC38I?si=E11HLGxHO3vQVhGj

Now, remember that I was also impressed a fourth time? This was because of Perafilozof

He is one of the best, if not the actual best source of news in regards to Strategy Games.
Also, he is very cooperative and responds to everyone, this is a rare thing among content creators.

But this is not what impressed me this time.
What impressed me this time is that when he saw our trailer video collab he actually shared it himself in his discord community, he genuinely wants to help out RTS games and developers.

You can find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@perafilozof
And if you are developing an RTS game I definitely recommend dropping him a press kit.

CONCLUSION

This B2B marketing approach did not make miracles but it had some results and it was fun to make.
More developers should experiment with this based on genre and audience.
Other things that can work in this regard can be Steam bundles of 4-5 AA RTS games and another bundle with 4-5 pixel art RTS games.
Hell, maybe even some sort of giveaway regarding the system between developer fans.
Right now I am very tired especially since I have a release coming soon but if the opportunity arises I will surely do it again.

Regards,
Cristi P. – 16 BIT NIGHTS

Thank you!

Steam Strategy Fest started!

Me and the devs of the private "RTS Dev Saloon" Discord community made a collaboration and created a Trailer combo:

B2B marketing experiment at its finest, il write a case study about it soon.

[b]Il write a case study about it soon because it was to cool.

[/b]

Then, Perafilozof also made a list of RTS games and we also god included

[b]and to tap it all, steam released the Strategy Fest trailer and the first featured game from the festival is Chromosome Evil 2 [/b]

We just got into the second position on a popular upcoming in Steam Strategy Fest with "Welcome Back, Commander" YAY !

Steam is having a Strategy Game festival and we were accepted to participate!

This is it, we have an official steam release date.

We also updated demo and did a lot of stuff, unfortunately, I don't know if il have time to update the devblog with all the new things since we are a bit behind deadlines already.

working on a new Boss