First part - https://itch.io/t/1565657/this-is-the-first-project-has-been-doing-it-for-7-year...

I immediately decided to write the next chapter.

Next plan.

I just started to think about a plan of action as a guy wrote to me and offered to finance the project. He had his own business, which over the past year was in a good shape. Now he was looking for where he could invest some money.

As a result, crowdfunding did not raise the necessary amount, but with the help of this platform, the project was noticed.

Agreed on $ 5,700– $ 7,100 Without a contract. I would just tell what was done and how much money to transfer. I did not take anything for myself from this budget. On the contrary, I even added some of my own.

I suggested the following plan. For half a year we make the alpha version of the game and go to Kickstarter. If we succeed, then we sign a contract and start full-fledged development. After evaluating the budget, I decided to make the game even 20% better from what I had planned and distributed the finances among the tasks. Finally, I decide to switch to a three-level defense and attack system. This is the idea that made me start the development.

The Forging Destiny HROFT was a long title. I decided to rename the game. I came up with A. S. H. (About Savior Hunter)

Again, I had to search for a team from scratch. Those who helped were already busy on other projects or engaged in their own. Many test tasks, conversation and … the team was assembled. It was hard, because you needed people with good skills for a small salary. I didn’t devalue the work in any way, but I needed to meet the budget.

Rethinking the beginning of the plot. I made a second attempt at a hand-drawn video.

I decided to find a way to make animations faster. After learning about the Perception neuron mock-up suit, after reviewing a lot of information, I thought this was a good idea. I could create animations myself, I would be able to animate all the characters. We decided to take it.

Found on avito in Moscow for about $1 500. (I live in Arkhangelsk). I had a video call with the seller. He showed me how to connect the suit, how the character moves on the monitor. Everything was normal and a week later I had the costume.

The animations were recorded, but they were very difficult “to clean”, so that the movements were smooth and on the right trajectory. The suit’s sensors were constantly messed up, legs and arms were breaking.

I wrote to the technical support of Perception neuron, agreed to call on Skype.

I don’t know English, so I asked for the help of one of my subscribers — Valera, who was doing translations. There were three of us during the Skype call. I spoke and showed through the webcam, Valera translated. I was told how and what needs to be connected. They saw that some sensors were not working properly and agreed that they would send them free of charge.

After getting the new sensors, the suit still didn’t work very well. Maybe it needed to be configured somehow, but our knowledge was probably not enough and the result was…. long, longer than if the animations were prepared manually.

Here you can see how the hands didn’t work properly. And there is a stick in the middle of the photo, which I used to wave in my apartment)

The development process was underway. But it will be more interesting to tell more about the animation.

I was already absorbed in the idea of mockup animations, as I saw it as a way for fast production.

I decided to find a studio in Russia with professional equipment for motion capture.

Such a company was in Moscow. I called and agreed on a certain list of animations. I also asked for a discount. The investor transferred the money. I recorded all the movements of the characters on a mobile phone video, described their character and sent them to the studio. On the appointed day we had a Skype call. I was shown how the actor and the character move at the same time

After a few animations I began to understand … they did not prepare for the recording at all, did not read or watch the video, how exactly the characters should move. I turn on my webcam and start showing them the movements, but without training the actor does not nail it, especially with the blows. They seemed very comical. After several hours of recording we were sent animations, but we could not make anything sensible out of them.

Many people recommended taking animations from assets, but for our combat mechanics we needed certain animations that were only partially available and were not enough for a full combat system.

After analyzing the situation I understand that the motion capture did not work badly, the actors did. I made a decision to sell my car (VAZ 2115) and rent a studio, come and record the movements myself. In 2017, all this costed me $1 000 along with the road and accommodation.

There would be a female archer in the end) and there will be a similar scene in the game.

Before the trip I try again to rehearse all the movements and … I sprained my leg. I’m going to the hospital and the doctors say I will recover only after two weeks. The train is in 2 days. The recording is in 3 days. Tickets are non-refundable, the hostel is booked, the studio is booked (we found a window on one of the days when the studio is free, the next one is only a month later). Animations are needed urgently in order to have time to prepare everything for crowdfunding.

Well, let’s go. My wife bought some ointments, and we start to rub them in every two hours. I barely got to the hostel. I was limping, my leg was very sore. On the morning of the day of filming, I feel better. I take more painkillers and start recording. That day I had to walk for 5 hours and at the end of the recording I just fell off my feet from the pain, but it didn’t matter, the main thing was that all the characters got animated.

As a result, the animations were much better than during the previous attempts, but it took a lot of work from the animator to bring everything to a more or less presentable state. In conclusion, it is better to use the services of professionals and actors when the budget allows.

The investor found a friend in the United States, who registered a crowdfunding company.

We couldn’t make a normal build, there were a lot of bugs. My coworkers could not fully work because of the low salary. I decided to record only cutscenes on Unity in which we will show the future gameplay. The code for this was not required. The pieces of the location were prepared, the effects were bought in the Asset Store, the characters and animations were already there, the plot of the cut scenes was painted. Then joined a cool designer, Micah. He helped a lot in the game and designed the page on Kickstarter. This was a colossal work, I am very grateful for that.

It was necessary to gather an audience for the Kickstarter launch.

I saw that on this website many developers published their projects and found many subscribers.

Here is the plan: I upload the project and the audience votes whether they like it or not. They took only 4 projects per month. 3 months before crowdfunding I began to negotiate with this platform. I was rejected every month in a row for completely different reasons and was never allowed (Instead of A. S. H they accepted much lower-quality projects, but maybe this is just my opinion). In short, this plan failed.

I wrote to many game journalists with a link to the press kit.

На этом сайте — https://www.thunderclap.it/

It was possible to gain subscribers and on the day of crowdfunding there was a mass mailing. Now, for some reason, the site doesn’t work.

There were also accounts for my game:

Twitter (800 followers)

Vkontakte (3,000)

Facebook (600)

Instagram (4500)

YouTube (200)

And with new hope, I launched crowdfunding in 2018.

Link to Kickstarter

This was the second failure, which I also took personally. One of my mistakes was that I was super engaged in terms of emotions and I always waited for something big to happen.

If you are interested in what was and how exactly it was possible to find an investment (it will be the final one), let me know with likes and comments.

You can also support the project by following the link, for which I am particularly grateful

Steam game page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1522140/Demon_Skin

I write to many streamers to ask them to play the game. Maybe if you write 1–2 emails to some streamers, they will be more interested

Thank you all for your support! To be honest, it’s not easy to write articles, especially so often. They take a lot of time, but I can see that you are interested in what happened next, so I’m writing this article.

The second crowdfunding failed, the team split up, no one else believed that the project could exist. The investor was not as upset with the result as I was, but I gave him my word that I would return all the money spent.

It was the hardest time. The sand painting studio no longer brought in enough income, my part-time jobs (tax driving, small orders) helped only in the most necessary things. A son was born, so I had no right to take any chances.

The responsibility has increased tenfold, and this first loan was still hanging. Absolutely all the surrounding people: my wife, parents and relatives pressed on me (to be more honest, they humiliated me) so that I would give up this project and stop spending a large amount of time on

it and forget about this stupid dream. Mentally, I was left alone. I could understand them. I had so many failures and the only option was to start a “normal” job for a decent income.

I could not leave the thought that someone in my place (or I am from the future looking at this situation), he would definitely find several ways to deal with the situation. So I couldn’t give up.

I decided to make a nice little build to show the potential of the project. The programmer suggested switching from Unity to UE4. He wanted to learn this engine. Upgrade his skill and help the project at the same time. The programmer was strong, he quickly understood everything. There was a mini test for locations. I took a winter scene from Unity and told him to recreate it with UE4.

Unity

UE4

For me, the difference was big even with the assets. And he didn’t spend so much time. I am far from an expert, but we decided to switch to a new engine. I did not have much choice, because otherwise the project would stop.

I contacted a bunch of publishers about partnership (thanks to the cut scenes on Unity there was a good trailer to show). Some people said that they really like the project and will definitely take it, but they need to play the build first.

Another programmer was urgently needed. I found a guy who was not bad at working with this engine. Later I learned that he was still in high school, but his skills and logical thinking so great for his age. I immediately warned him about the purpose of the task. I also said that I would pay him after a publisher accepts my game and invests in it. We agreed for 2 months.

We made a build, but it was very buggy and honestly not presentable, but there was no choice. Once again, I sent the build to all publishers. And even those who were interested were no longer responding.

What to do, there must be a way out…

 

This is the third version of the drawing video, the last 2 were in previous articles

Gathered a team again, found the publisher and was again a millimeter away from the start of development … this was another big blow.

The whole team was splitting up, and I understood them. They wanted to improve their skills and life instead of working for a dreamer.

After that my relatives pressed me to quit the project.

The sand painting studio by this time could generate income to pay the rent. The previous advertising methods no longer worked. I needed money quickly.

I concentrated on how I can earn, what I can do. I can play the guitar. In February, I created a group in VKontakte (Social network), found subscribers and came up with a training program for children and adults. And I began to teach at the same sand painting studio. The students liked the training so much that they came to me from other guitar schools. In the second month I managed to spend 2–4 hours every day and get $750 a month.

But no matter what I did, all my thoughts were about the game. I wrote down various ideas and features for the gameplay in a notebook.

I needed a plan ….

I decided to find investment for the whole project. I calculated the budget, deadlines, and the number of people. I place an offer with a press kit on more than 50 investment sites.

And the only site that had at least some response — biboss

I will post it with a link to my project so that you can see what exactly I wrote there to attract investment.

(https://www.beboss.ru/investments/projects/4318-a-s-h-video-igra-na-pk-i-mobilnyh-ustroystvah)

According to the cost estimate, sometimes we spent a lot of money, sometimes we saved some money. For example, we bought a lot of assets on Black Friday. And in general … there was almost a right amount of money.

I don’t delete my page there to track demand and statistics. From the beginning of 2019 to today, May 2021, I received 40 messages. I spoke to 15 people.

I had a call with future investors. We talked a lot, everyone was positive but in the end … they refused the project. I almost managed to partner with some people, but they disappeared.

This was true for the next 6 months. And then came the offer. At the beginning of the conversation I did not have much hope, but I was positive which is important. And after 2 months of talking and discussing I went to Moscow to sign a contract. (After that 3 very interested person wrote via the site).

I had to create a team in no time. It was a very important moment in my life. The previous coworkers refused to participate. They either had normal jobs or started their own project. I could find people but after a week they would disappear. Some people would stick for two months. But they couldn’t wait much longer, and I couldn’t start the development without a full team. It was a very stressful time.

After two months of tests and negotiations we managed to form a team: 2 programmers, a level designer, an animator and a character modeler. Then a composer and a sound designer joined us on a permanent basis. They were not only good developers, but also great people. They were united by 2 important factors: professionalism and responsibility. During the process, more than 6 modelers and 3 VFX specialists joined us.

The game acquired its final name — Demon Skin

We all worked 10 to 16 hours a day. In indie development, many had to go beyond their limits of performance. For example, level designer made locations, added his ideas, programmed traps, set up some effects, materials, found sounds …, programmers worked with models in Photoshop, and … animator, modeler, they all gave their best ….. Work was in full swing.

Some people will ask, “What did you do?” I can not say exactly what (probably this is a separate whole article), but it is always very difficult to lead a team … and therefore I was busy from morning until late at night.

In May 2020 (after 7 months of development), I signed up for DevGAMM. There was an urgent need to find a publisher who could finance the project and port it to the console.

At the online conference, I talked with 5 publishers. Three of them were interested. After 2 months of negotiations there was only one left. Buka took us under its wing, it was a rescue.

One fact. One and a half years ago I have already sent a build to Buka and talked about my ideas, but they were not interested. At DevGAMM, they saw the same ideas implemented, and we were able to agree.

The development was planned for 9 months. In reality, it took 15 months. I didn’t spend any of the budget on PR, so I decided to leave it for a rainy day. And this was a good decision since it took more than 3 months to finance the team until the investor and the publisher came to a common agreement.

It was quite a battle. 3 months of stress. The deal almost fell through several times, I constantly had to be between two fires and look for compromises, but through constant careful negotiations with both sides we came to an agreement.

A bit about the development. It was necessary to save money as it turned out that you had to spend much more money on some tasks than planned. Therefore, many characters were taken from assets. For example, the Archer from the free Paragon asset, the Necromancer is also from there. We repainted him, added a mask and a staff. It turned out great.

Everyone in the team was unique in their own way. It’s a long list. And thanks not only to the funding, but also to mutual respect and mutual understanding in the team, we managed to fully complete the project. There were a lot of funny moments in the development, for example, the sound designer recorded a roar for zombies ) 

Here’s how the sound was recorded for the mech golem)

I thought for a long time whether to write this article or not. Do I say all the truth or do I cover some facts? You see, if you say everything, people would respond, “You had to do it like this” or “It is not true”. I already know what the word “hate” means, and I decided that if this article helps at least one person, then I didn’t write it in vain.

Plans for the future. Sooner or later I want to become a publisher to help the same developers so that they do not go through the hard way, but focus more on the development and achieve success faster. And of course, I will continue to create. There are plans for several projects with unusual mechanics to convey the drive and action of the gameplay.

It took me 7 years from the beginning of the dream to the finished product. The project is now finished. After April 30, I fixed all significant bugs, rethought gamepad controls (now it’s really cool to play on it, in the past streamers used to swear about it), improved the visual of locations, added 12 animations for blows and many, many other details. If I gave you at least a little useful information, then I ask you to support the project on Steam.

Steam game page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1522140/Demon_Skin

A special thank you to those who will propose Demon Skin to various streamers (since they do not particularly respond to my messages). Let them judge strictly, but take into account that the project was made for a minimum budget by indie developers.

Thank you all for your attention!

See you again!