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.
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!
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:
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.
Think of USS Eldridge Mark 3 as your home; its maintenance can prove to be critical for your survival.
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.
Developed by 16 BIT NIGHTS
Discord : https://discord.gg/ak5zXQxR7D
Video Devblog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_RpeDszD9A
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
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
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
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 !
Experimental news everyone,
So, a couple of weeks ago we met the solo dev from "Real Heroes Studio", he had a game called "Desolated District" in which we saw potential, and after some ideas exchange, we decided to help him out in his endeavors.
This will be an experimental collaboration for "16BitNights".
We will contribute to "Real Heroes Studio" with Marketing consultancy, environmental storytelling design, and some other minor investments.
If the experiment will turn out to have a positive outcome then we will consider investing in other small indie developers in the future.
You can find this magical open-world-survival-crafting game on steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2454070/Desolated_District/ and we hope to have it released in Q2 of 2025.
The game vertical slice was also uploaded here on Itch.io and can be found here : https://real-heroes-studio.itch.io/desolated-district
A few words about the game:
Desolated District is an Open-World Survival Crafting game set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Scavenge for resources, craft essential tools, build your base and battle deadly threats as you explore a sprawling, decaying city inspired by the Kowloon Walled City.
And here is an example of environment storytelling.
Step by step you are going to learn what happened to the happy folks of the desolated city while you try to escape its grasp.
I never did this type of collab so if any of you got any tips for me let me know
Hello Commanders,
More news, we hit new milestones.
We managed to finish all maps for Defcon 4 and now we started implementing them. The first one was added yesterday and here is the reveal:
Yeap, it is a library.. Because the game content will be short we are focusing on delivering high-quality in our environments and player experience. What does this mean? Well, it means that each scenario will have a special mechanic/gimmick. For example, this Librabry map has storm weather effects that will prevent the player from doing hit & run so on this map you must first survive until the storm ends.
Oh, we also added some hot interactive cutscenes within the scenario itself and many easter eggs.
Talking about the storm, here are the new storm visual effects rain + thunder.
And today we added the Subway map.
The Subway unique twist is that you can use the alternative way out with some penalties but if you wait for the train to arrive a new exit path will be unlocked and you can leave without penalties but others a catch. When the train arrives it will have unwanted passengers.
In conclusion, each environment is tailored to provide a certain experience.
OK time to go back to work, we need to finish Defcon 4 this month. If this week we manage to implement all scenarios then next week we will start adding custom random encounters for this Defcon as well + a special scenario and full-screen cutscenes.
If you want to support us you can join our Discord and share some gifs with 90thies action heroes, "GET TO THE CHOOOOOOPAAAA!"
Discord invite: https://discord.gg/ak5zXQxR7D
best regards,
Cristi P. - 16 BIT NIGHTS
of it.
We are preparing a roadmap for after after-release
