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Chromosome Evil - Lovecraft inspired RTS survival

A topic by 16bitnights created Mar 11, 2019 Views: 11,061 Replies: 132
Viewing posts 1 to 98
(1 edit) (+5)

Hey,

I started this game dev in 2017, I just noticed the devlog itch io forums so I will try to update all progress so far here

Both a bit scared and a bit excited to see your feedback

[b]Story plot[/b]

It was a beautiful spring day, nobody knows the exact order of events during that day but what they do remember is that all of a sudden the sky turned red, all radios and televisions were somehow hijacked by a superior force and were sending only one message: “the ancient one is coming…”.

Then there was a great moment of silence and soon after, they came.

They came from below the earth digging their way out, creatures of nightmare, abominations of unspeakable terror, the army didn’t stand a chance, human civilization fell in a dark age.

You are part of what remains of army forces, your brother, the one who took care of you when your parents died was also part of the army and went missing during a mission a few miles from where you are stationed with the objective to gather information about this underground hole from were these creatures are coming from. You decide that if world is going to end at least to do one last journey of redemption to see your brother one more time.

[b]Gameplay[/b]

During this journey you choose what team you want to assemble, you choose the evolution of each squad member, you choose which location you want to look for supplies and where you want to establish a defense perimeter, you choose your route and you decide the best course of action for the events that will present before you.

[b]Aditional information[/b]

- Real-time strategy game mixed with RPG elements. 
- Code in C++ artwork in Windows Paint
- Top-down
- TBS gameplay during travel map
- survival elements
- skills, level up system, inventory, resources
- multiple choices and outcomes
- main inspirations: C&C, Dungeons & Dragons, Heroes 3, Red Alert, Xcom
- Game development started in mid-2016 (artwise, design, prototyping/ part-time) and heavy development started in half of 2017, currently we got a map editor working and some of the basic features done + 50% from art/animations done
- release date: we hope somewhere in 2018 but then again hope is a dangerous thing

[b]General Classes[/b]
Each character in the game is going to be unique but there are some class boundaries. The maximum squad member is 6.

The Medic
Can heal others, interact with medical documents to find cure, buffs

The Engineer
Can build barricades, turrets and set traps

Soldier/Tank
Can use heavy weapons and manual shooting weapons, huge armor but slow

Soldier/Exoskeleton
Can use mid-range weapons such as shotguns and close range weapons such as melee weapons

Soldier/Tactical
Can use rifle, bow, pistols, also he provides bonuses on travel map 

[b]Team[/b]
Popa Cristian Manuel - artwork, animation, game design, marketing, balance, team management, testing, level design
Sergey Dovganovsky - programming, animation, testing, balance
Alin D. - sounds & music
Developed under 16 BIT NIGHTS studio

[b]Links[/b]


Discord chat group - https://discord.gg/h3aFcf9
Site - http://16bitnights.com/chromosome_evil/]http://16bitnights.com/chromosome_evil/

If you have additional question & suggestions about the project feel free to ask us here or on our discord groups, interacting with the community is what helps our motivation the most.

Thank you

(+1)


Now ... like in all RTS/Survival games there will be resources and this post is dedicated to them.
Each resource type can be looted from specific objects.



9 mm
It is ammunition used by soldiers with rifles, pistols and engineer turrets. Mostly ammunitions can be found in abandoned police stations or military outposts
12 GA
Ammunition used by soldiers with shotguns
Rockets
Ammunition used by soldiers with RPG's and grenade launchers
Antibiotics
Usually found in abandoned hospitals and clinics, antibiotics are used by medics to heal, cure and buff.
Tools
Found mostly in industrial zones, tools are used to upgrade engineer items, build traps and repair and upgrade the car
Fuel
Fuel is one of the most important resources from the game if you remain out of fuel its basically game over. Fuel is used to travel from one location to another
Food
Food is used to negotiate in some random encounters, used also to save game, yes saving game costs, and in camp options
Kevlar
Is used to upgrade soldiers protective gear
Weapon components
Is used to upgrade weapons
Wood & Nails
Used to build baricades

Some other stuff we added:

Destroyable enviroment

Some parts of the environment can be destroyed and some have different damage, for example, fire damage and poison damage in the gif under


And traps combinations, for example, if you barricade windows with wood barricades and then use old tv electronics you get an electric upgrade to the barricades which not only keeps monsters out but also does damage to them




Now, I want each one to be able to develop his own playstyle, either going slow and solid, either fast hit & run, either smart and balanced so most of what is in-game is optional to a certain extent.
And now ...
Let us see who the enemy is ...

Flesh Eaters,
 this are people who had their brain devoured and replaced by demonic worms activating the evil Chromosome in them, fancy description for something that behaves like a zombie

Special Flesh Eaters,
Similar to above but these ones got special traits, my fav one is The Butcher

Game Over Flesh,
These are squad members which got their brains devoured by the worms, poor souls

And now some with a high inspiration from one of my favorites: LOVE CRAFT
The Brute
In short its a flesh tank

The Lich
This creature gives a powerful boost to demons around it and weakens survivors

The Incubator
This creature got eggs growing on his back wich spam demonic worms ... brrrrr...

The Impaler
Best to keep a safe distance from this one

And more but I want to keep some surprises, also if you have any suggestions for enemies please do share with me and maybe I will bring your suggestions to life


Here are some rough estimations:
- 1 month bug hunt and tests that all features work as intended
- 1 month to do extra polish 
- 1-2 maximum of 3 months for building campaign maps and random events scripts
- 1 month for achievements, making a game trailer
and parallel with this marketing and all others

My hopes are to reduce these times on half but to be realistic it is possible that they will take double this amount so I am also planning for a worst case scenario to release game close to Halloween but then again maybe il be lucky and il get a good publisher that will take care of all what does not include game develop, good part is I don't think I need money to finish the game, I already used my own time and money for this development .

Meantime here is the first look at the main travel map, here the gameplay is turn-based.


And random event/encounter interface


(+1)

And now current stage of development, most mechanics are done, soon we will start working on campaign




(+1)

UPDATE

Evacuation zone

Evacuation zone mechanic is implemented, during each building exploration map there will be exit points, to evacuate simply move character on top of it, will take a few seconds for character to evacuate during which other characters can cover him, if he got reflex skill the evacuation timmer will be lowered, in some situation is best not to be greedy with looting while monsters come closer last characters evacuation will be a problem, or you can set automated defenses with engineer to cover evacuation if you have engineer in squad, many MANY possibilities, and gameplay approaches tactics.

The character may evac map at any time he desires but he must take in consideration that each evac will increase aggro(overall difficulty, awareness of monsters) every action got a consequence.

I also added some testing resources in the gif for fun.


Love the visuals! You said it's written in C++, what exactly are you making it in?

Also the discord link is broken, can you post a new one so I can join?

Thank you so much!

I fixed discord link https://discord.gg/h3aFcf9

My partner can answer that question, I deal with visuals & game design

(+1)


And now the traveling vehicle(mobile base) also heavily inspired by ALIENs 

Meantime we also added an active pause mode feature which can be unlocked from travel vehicle, in other words you can put game on pause , issue orders for all team members and then hit play to execute

(+1)

 I added the comic popups as a mockup in the screenshot, we will do the text lines system after we finish some of the main tasks.

Reference to "Aliens - Hudson: its game over man, game over"

The editor is working now at 90% capacity, could use some small fixes and polish but it does the job.



and here is the actual screenshot after I hit play straight from the editor(as I said above the only mockup are the comic text lines which we will implement a bit later, rest is all actual in-game footage)



We are a few weeks away from Beta, we have lots of small fixes we must do... and we hope we will find some serious testers among our fans

Hope you guys enjoy !

(+1)

Meantime ...
We had a major update, we finish the AGGRO/Difficulty design and spanners in the editor

*6 levels of difficulty/aggro and they are based on player choices from random events, map travel decisions options and exploration/combat strategies
*6 types of monster spanners (we can create modes with just clasical zombies outbreaks or going full dark and turn it into a nightmare Lovecraft theme)
*level up system main balance
*level up popups and menus all work now
*Xp rewards

(+1)

Hey

We are very busy with the day job and working on the game and we disappeared a bit from social media but the game is growing solid, we also just finished the development plan for this year and by our worst-case scenario calculation we should start building the campaigning maps from December, and no promises but if all goes according to plan we should have a Trailer release next month and a first beta build on Halloween.

As for this exact moment, Programmer is fighting to bring the trailer to life and I just finished the design for the New Game options, there will be 4 questions at beginning of each new game which will let you choose the starting bonuses, staring team and resources.

Also, I am working on achievement, each achievement will give New Game some more starting bonus resources and unlock more gaming modes, so we aim for achievement with rewards


(+1)

hey guys, new update, trailer scenes are done, we now only must polish them.
Meantime I finished the design for random encounters.

Hope you guys enjoy!

(+1)

Meantime trailer visuals are done.
We now work on implementing sound effects made by Alin Enesca(Delysid sounds)

What do you think that the squad will find beyond the door? 

Deleted 3 years ago
(+1)

Thank you so much for the kind words!

We will try to make words/sentences as fluid as possible but since neither of us is native english it will take some time

As soon as we got a free short version we will post it on itch IO same as we did for TAURONOS and before this we hope to have a alpha or beta for our discord fans but we do not know any actual dates for this, our only set deadline is to fully release the game by May 22 2020.

About trailer, small spoiler warning: the captain of this team its his brother

Deleted 3 years ago
(+1)

That would be very nice of you.

I can give you a text file from the game to chek it out if you want.

Can you contact me on discord?

Deleted 3 years ago
(+1)

Trailer is out :D

Only took 3 years.... still 1 more year of development ahead

(+1)

Wonder if you put a light system like light lamps or equip torches.

(+1)

it is custom engine, might be hard but we can try after we finish the critical stuff

Hey ,

Out topic has just been unlocked so here are a few updates we did during this time

#UPDATE 1

We now work on saving the game system.
Here are some general characteristics:
- save game costs food
- the cost of save game is determined by what characters you got in the squad and if they got a certain skill upgraded
- the player starts with 1 save game slot but can unlock 2 more save game slots via achievements
- save game can only be made during travel map

We want to take "save game" in a different direction then what is standard but also we do not want to go fully "perma-death" so I believe this will be a nice in-between mechanics

#UPDATE 2

We also are adding part of content now, NPC`s and random encounters and I also started work on the tutorial, just that our time is very limited with

#UPDATE 3 (this was during first days of 2020)

We are tired... its been around 3 years of constant work(2 updates each week), the pressure is getting in our bones and more personal problems occur in our lives but the results are coming and working on this game holds me on a floating line and also makes me happy, this year we want to release "Chromosome Evil", I don't know the exact date but we estimate around 5 months of work left.

With this been said we are now doing final tests for outdoor environments.

And also I started working on story art & text, here is a small preview, don`t judge too harsh, all this is work in progress

#UPDATE 4(now)

We are now at that point were I just need to make map & tests and my pertner only needs to fix bugs and help with ballance

Hope you guys enjoy

(1 edit)

More updates

Now we only got left:

- map making

- ballance

- lots of bug fixes

- some tweeks in travel map

And here is some enviroment progress:





Hope you enjoy :)

Character equipment menu


Just 10 more maps left to finish and then -> ballance -> travel map adjustments -> final tests -> bug killing -> DONE


I work now on a chemical plant from the industrial district and I want to do a humble re-cap of some of the features:
- each map got its own personality, for example on industrial maps there are high chances you find fuel and components
- we got a minimap, available only if you do a certain upgrade to the vehicle electronics, this is good for big maps but optional
- chemical terrain does chemical damage but some armours like for example the one that medic got and engineer in the screenshot offer immunity from chemical damage and fire damage
- each character got his own speech lines according to certain events, this is nice for increasing the game feel depth 
- the pipe layer is on top of everything, they are not interactable just for visual effect, I think they also provide a nice depth for the environment


UPDATE:
Right now I am making maps and programer is fixing bugs and after Ballance part I -> travel map adjustments -> some extra features(maybe, depends how much time) -> Closed Beta for people on this Discord -> Ballance part II + bug fixes from Beta -> final version adjustments -> DONE
Then comes marketing, PR, setting up a steam build, setting up an itch io and Gamejolt build and so on

 This week was fast because I had a vacation from the day job so I worked full time on the game but next week I start day job again so it will be a bit slower.
5 maps left, this last 5 are the hardest, here are infested buildings with some sort of bosses heavy inspired from aliens

UPDATE: We added an eye made of flesh which got a telepathic attack that stuns soldiers, does not do damage but combined with zombies or other monsters this can increase the difficulty by A lot, I am thinking of using this only on infested maps.
The mechanic is simple, it got a target that chases soldier and when on top of them it stuns them for a couple of seconds (inspiration from Ehterial alien from Xcom)


And heavy environment/plot updates
this map is heavily inspired from movie "ALIENS" were the colonial marines had the first encounter with the aliens 



Hope you guys enjoy and if you have any suggestions from other classic movies environments/situations let me know and maybe I can add it
(+1)

I like how this grew in time. Will there be a demo when the game launches ?

Thank you. I am not yet sure I want to release a Demo but surely I will have a closed beta
Meantime
More SciFi/horror movie reference
I tried to create an environment based on the movie "The Mist" more exactly the pharmacy encounter.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCmKg928Cfk

So far I got the layout and the eggs just that in my version instead of spiders are worms.
Hope you guys enjoy


So, big update.

Working on jungle map enviroments and travel map system



More open space maps



exo armour :D

Also the stats are going to be invisible in final version to increase the survival feel


and small adjustments on travel map


Promotional update

Our Discord is up and running: https://discord.gg/h3aFcf9

UPDATE

the final game screen is the path choosing a screen, basically, after the player exits a zone he can choose which zone to visit next during his journey, each zone will cost him one day, after all, days are finished he will only have the option(also he will unlock) final zone.
Note that during city travel he will use fuel.
With this design, I think we can extend gameplay time to as much as we want with the condition to have enough random pool content not to become repetitive


Since I had a medic in the squad I thought it was a good idea to visit the hospital in order to have my medic interact with medical equipment in the hope of making more progress for a vaccine - on the downside a door after it's opened it stays open, might want to add a barricade door mechanic in the future


(+1)

Order of content on current build version
- intro story (done)
- starting quiz (done)
- the 3 tutorial maps ( pending )
- intro cutscene with vehicle conversation ( pending )
- tutorial map area (work in progress 60% done, can be explored but may be bugs /missing content)

Aditional:
- mechanics ( all done but some of them need adjustments and bug fixes)
- content ( 90% is done but only 5%-10% is implemented)
- Ballance (pending)

Id say we are now on a thin line between late alpha and early Beta

And some random tests in getting my squad killed 



(+2)

you can do it ;D

(+1)

Thank you for the motivation boost!

Order of priority ?

- baricade

- loot

- defense pozition

- explore


(1 edit) (+1)

The Late alpha test session is now opened for most active soldiers with @Die Hard role in our Discord room, soon we will open Beta for everyone only on our Discord.

You can join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/h3aFcf9

First elevator is going dooooooownnnnn



(+1)

Hope the coding is well made, doesn't want to experience lag in this type in the game.

Motivation and love  to (☞゚ヮ゚)☞ -----------------> you.

(+1)

I have no ideea how the coding is, my partner does the coding, but I am testing the game on a 2007 generation laptop and works perfectly so I asume it is good .

Thank you for the motivation boost!

(+1)

UPDATE:

 Sergey, the programmer, just finished game code optimization and I made marketing plan along with youtube, journalist and streamer lists, 

within this week we go to next stage

(+1)

well done, wish you success.

(+1)

More tests and more tests ...

We reach alpha 0.5 on our Discord

Curently testing out full squad of 6 characters


(1 edit) (+1)


So some news, after more test sessions the results were good on the combat/explore gameplay, addictive & fun but bad on the travel map system so we had to change the design and start the main map travel concept from almost zero again.

Now there will be just one main road, during this main road there will be checkpoints with 1 scenario mission(not optional) and after you beat the scenario mission you will have access to the other location from that checkpoint(optional/grinding missions). Each time to move forward to the next checkpoint it will take 1 day, when day counter reaches 0 you will be at the final mission, and at this moment you better prey your squad is godlike



Also a question for the designers

What is your opinion on healing: you want to be able to heal on a travel map even if you have no medic(this option will make thing easier but non-survival realistic + will make engineer class not so critical to have in squad) or only to be able to heal in the base and during combat, if you have an engineer in the squad (this will make thing harder but will increase the survival atmosphere + will make the medic class more critical to have at least 1 in the squad)?
Having the option to choose mode is not an option.

(+2)

We had a very critical BUG in our game.
Each time we play more than 7 maps(random maps not a specific map) the shadow layer disappears, then if we play more the wall layer disappears, and even the interface layer disappears(note that mechanics, colliders all that worked fine, just the visual part disappeared). We were in an insane mode because we would not find the source, the programmer(Sergey D.) optimized the code and searched for memory leaks but nothing made sense. And in order to be able to play again, we had to exit the game entirely and enter gain
And finally, he fixed it, this bug was from almost the beginning of development.
The solution was to remove the map editor from the game and create a separate exe for the editor.
In the future, we will need to decide if we polish the editor to include it in the full release or to add it later as DLC.
Opinions about editor release?

(+1)

Glad you found the bug. The stupidest of problems have the solutions hidden in the least likely places. You've earned a follower, keep up the good work guys

(+1)

Thank you so much for the kind words !

Hope the end result will not disappoint

I have sent an email to the conradproteus account, I don't know how often you use it, would you please mind checking it out?

(+1)

Hey, I check my email often but your email went into spam folder with the warning: "It contains a suspicious link that was used to steal people's personal information. Avoid clicking links or replying with personal information.", I will read it now and reply to you there

(+1)

This is a safeguard comment to let you know that I replied, because your reply went into my spam too!

(+1)

er... for an idie game be able to edit maps should be great (even better if players can share homemade campaign)

(+1)

I see the logic. Do you think it is a big difrence if we put editor trough steamworks or just standard editing with no steamworkshop ? Also you suggest for editor to be availeble in main release or added as DLC ?

(1 edit) (+1)

For me in steamwork = bad idea. I will not dowload it for sure and it seem  obvious that lot's of people interested by an editor like me will not search to dowload him in standalone. BUT it's best to focus on the main game, release him well done and LATER in a major update add an ingame editor with a place/site/itchio-page where share campaigns.

On an other hand, having the editor ingame to the first release simply make him better, the question are does it take a lot of time to make a clear editor ? if the answer are yes but that you are able to wait a little longer, so do it. Otherwise in an later update seem the best idea.

(1 edit) (+1)

But if people dont use steam workshop how will they share the maps ?

Game is solid enough to stand on its own without editor but I understand your point, an editor can solidify the community and increase game life spawn 

This decizion will be hard to make

Just passing through, posting a screenshot from the new travel map system update, we implemented action points per day, still requires some small visual polish but it is mostly complete.

We also must decide on the research screen, currently, the new design contains 4 main tabs, skilldex, inventory, car workshop, and R&D + the standard travel map screen


(+1)

And ... THE FINAL MENU from the game is DONE !!! I am now sending it to the programmer for implementation.
Some NFO: research screen - here you can unlock new upgrade options for equipment and vehicle + unlock travel map actions.

Final Mockup:


(+1)

congrat :D

Hope you got a good backstory for invest time on the game and really enjoy management.

I will do my best, although storytelling is not my strong point

(+1)

Happy new year!

Outside area. 


(+1)

my attempt to complement the main story with environment storytelling

(1 edit) (+3)

Started work on some promo material.

In this gif I also test some of the animations like shooting, swapping weapons on different armor skins, zombie death based on with what weapon they are killed etc(if they die by shotgun they explode into parts and if they die by rifle the dead body appears and so on).I also now have a better perspective on weapons personalities since each weapon displays another type of UI for ammunition + characters personalities with comic popups text triggered on certain events(gif is a bit small so they are not very visible)

Any suggestions for other promotional material gifs within this size and short length?


Deleted 136 days ago
(+1)

Yes, we do have that on all ranged weapons if the enemy gets too close the character will swap for melee combat. In this gif the zombies did not managed to get close enough he he he

(5 edits) (+1)

Side art update

made a banner


and having a bit of fun with pre-made shadows



And some "fan art"

Chromosome evil strike team versus a monster from another developer game.



We decided to remake the tutorial.

In the final version, we are going to make the road animated & loopable while conversation and basic instruction are issued within the APC, also we plan to combine them with the story.

The main inspiration for both interior and exterior of the squad APC is:

So here it is:




Can you guess from which movie is this from? :)

(1 edit)

So, the tutorial is now in the final implementation stages.

Few notes:

- tutorial miss one is for basic controls learning mixed with a bit of story and setting out the mood of the atmosphere

- after the first-time player finish the tutorial he will get an achievement for it that will have as a reward a skip tutorial button unlock for next time he starts a new game(I want all achievements to give rewards that boost re-playability)

- in the tutorial mission, 1 player will be outside any danger but in mission 2 he will have a small taste of danger

- I want everything the player does to feel like a reward, for example in order to unlock the interface player must press some buttons in the command APC. He can choose(optional) if he already wants to move the mouse on them and see the tooltips now or later

Screenshots of the 2 tutorial missions




Edit:

and vehicle version for cutscene and normal maps


(1 edit)

Mockup/little spoiler for one of the upcoming bosses in Chromosome Evil.

Not much time to post lately, lots of stuff happening in the background of this development, good and bad.


And tactical map design for this scenario.

You will need to excuse me, the text from the design pic is full of mistakes and hard to understand, it is meant to be only for my eyes and programmer eyes. So as you can see we are pretty chaotic but it works just fine, we have a lot of history behind so on this final process of development we are going to work guerilla style.


(1 edit)

Since our game is made in C++ and all shadows and lights must be hand drawn/animated, I now resumed some of the light "systems" polish. On the good side, with such a system the game will basically run even on a potato computer.

My aim here was not to create realistic lights but rather atmospherical ones.

- top layer got an alpha object with main shadow shapes

- all walls and big objects generate a shadow PNG 

- light object shapes used to cut through the generated wall shadow 

So each time a map starts the game will generate one huge shadow / light layer PNG. We also got light animations that we had to fake trough some torture procedures.

So here are a few possible shadow/light combos that we use in the game. Hope you enjoy


(+1)

UPDATE.


We have now the final scenario design. Please note that the game will have a high re-playability value core pilar. SO in addition to the 4 main endings path, those endings will also have 2 additional endings based on secondary vaccine and satellite quests + a variation based on player choices in random encounters. Also, all days between main scenarios got high random elements. In addition to this, we also got a starting quiz that will affect player start bonuses and also we made all achievements to give rewards on new games.


(+1)

Dude this is pretty awesome!

Thank you for the kind words ElectroWizardry !

(+1)

So I have a few minutes so I was thinking to share a bit of the game history.


The first instalment of this game was made in flash and it was my second flash game made(i think it was in 2011 and was called "awaken front line"). I collaborated with Sergey D. , the game got featured on Kongregate, Newgrounds and all major flash game portals. And here is how it looked like back then:


[...some more flash games made and experience...]

Then flash died and I had to migrate to PC / Steam, for me it was like "WOW" I could not even dream of reaching Steam but since I had no other choice I thought to myself I can at least try. So it took me 8 months of development to make the first PC version of this game series, I had 3 programmers abandoning the game and only 4th one managed to finish it, Dmitry N. and because of problems the game did not get polished, did not get balanced, had very little content, had bugs ... BUT ... despite this, the people loved the concept and I managed to get a positive rating and give more than 100k units.  and here is a screenshot of it:

[ ... more history that I do not have time to go into details, I made and released more Steam games not related to this project, some via publishers and some via self-publish...]

and then I got back with my default programmer and mentor Sergey D. to make this game as truly intended from the beginning. Took us 4 years so far but luckily I had some funds from my other game releases to survive and a day slave job. SO here is the evolution to compare with the current version of Chromosome Evil:


Hope you guys enjoyed this little history page :)

This looks fun, is there a demo to try out?
Also why was this updated so long time ago?

Hey Karantin, thank you!

We had an alpha test session on our Discord a few months ago. We hope to finish the game this year.

And what do you mean by "updated so long time ago"? I just updated it 4 days ago

i see, didnt see that  there are more pages, is still looks cool tho if i ever have a chace i give it a try!

UPDATE.

And here is the first actual screenshot for the above Lovecraft tentacle monster design + scenario design above.

The outside area is not polished and I will probably replace the outside urban theme with farm theme to be more related to "he who walks behind the corn" aka the movie "Children of the Corn" . ALso, I want to make it darker and more horror.

Will add soon some gifs and a final map layout screenshot.


UPDATE time

Ok, so I removed the urban theme and replace it with a cornfield/farm theme. It is still a work in progress, I still need to add some details in the building and on the outside zone.

I think I will remove the trees.

On the lower side of the map, can you find an easter egg here?

Hint: from a movie

On the upper side of the map. Also if the monster is killed player can use that off-road to move forward.

Can you find another easter egg here?

HINT: from a game



And here is the monster emerging from the upper side


(+1)

Did some more map polish so it is time for some gifs (still not 100% done)

The exit corridor is full of dead bodies from the first strike team, the bodies and dead tentacles are inspired from the hive from "Aliens" with a mix of "The thing" creature design. We also added some basic animation of bugs and flys on dead bodies + the animated fog.


And here is the actual Lovecraftian Alien creature.

I only did basic breathing animation and a bit of rattlesnake on his tentacles. The eye rotation is code-based and always rotate towards the target

Monster got 3 states: idle(vulnerable), tentacle attack(most deadly), and birth(spans worms, the one I used in the screenshot).

Also, you can manually target the barrels to deal extra optional explosion damage, oh and also if you do not kill the worms fast they grow

hope you enjoy

(+1)

I think of starting a small development blog series about How can you add horror/thriller in a real-time tactical game.

Big idea is to use different phobias but in a smart way. 

EPISODE 1 

- BUG PHOBIA: in most residential houses maps there is old food so each time I place 1 or 2 animated bugs, sublime to appear from time to time from under table nothing too exaggerated, sometimes I also combine them with some animated fly`s but in this current map I want to really mess up players with BUG phobias so under the animated light that flickers from time to time I placed a huge amount of bugs. I also plan to later make a room full of bugs that the player must move his squad through. Note that bugs do not have any mechanic, this is purely psihological

- MIND PLAY - PSYCHOLOGICAL: during this stage, the player does not know anything about the creature's origin, it can be a religious factor, military experiment, alien factor, and so on. So in this map, I placed a pentagram to encourage religious plot affirmation but then again under the flickering light I placed some dead tentacles coming from the wall that can also move the mind toward a Lovecraftian type of plot and not removing the idea of an alien invasion either, I mean the pentagram can be just the work of a madman.

-MIND PLAY - MECHANICS: in most residential maps thing is simple, you enter the map and zombie type enemies start coming according to your aggro level(aggro level is based on how the player plays the game) but if you enter on this map with lower then LVL 3 aggro, no monster will come, the player will not know this so he will always be on edge, and if you enter this map with aggro LVL 4 or 5 then very strong monsters will come, the kind of monsters that the player will not normally encounter. Basic by doing this I train player's minds to always have a certain fear/caution of the unknown.

- MAP ARCHITECTURE - CHEAP SCARE JUMP: this is one of the very few bathrooms that got a dark edge from where monsters can come, note that after many of the other buildings exploration if the player sees the bathrooms and dark edge but never had any monsters come out from there he will have a nice surprise when this design element will be different this time.

- MAIN MECHANIC: the player can always leave the building whenever he wants but then he will miss out on the looting rewards,  this will be placed in balance with perma-death and unique characters that the player can get attached to (either because of invested equipment in that character, or past history or purely by personality trait based on text lines) so the player will try hard to keep his squad alive and will always be on edge of decision making.


Hope you enjoyed

PS: I do not know if I will continue this series because soon I must concentrate my attention on marketing and actual scenarios + ending + loot more work :(

(+2)

So I received feedback regarding the thumbnail of the Chromosome Evil steam page. I took it very seriously so I remade it.

Old:

Iteration A

I am not happy with this but I wanted to share it

And now final iterations, I got 2 of them, the only difference is the font, maybe if someone wants to help me out can vote one of the 2 so it would be easier for me to make a decision:



(1 edit) (+1)

Just finished all remaining banners and capsules, I think it is safe to say now I got the final logo for the game, since this is a strategy game mix with Lovecraft-horror I think it is only fair to use the iconic tentacles and triangle. Hope you enjoy it!




(1 edit) (+1)



MARKETING.

I thought about also sharing with you guys some marketing experience mostly because I assume most of us do marketing themselves so it automatically becomes part of the game development. Correct me if I am wrong and I will try to avoid marketing data in the future and resume to just clean game dev.

So during this post, I want to :

- point out the importance of knowing your target audience

- the importance of having good promotional material

- my personal experience with Facebook groups promotions

- some Facebook algorithms

Ok, let`s start!

------------------------------------

First-round

I recently remade my Steam thumbnail and what better way to get some promotional material than this?! Also please note that this information is strictly resuming to Facebook groups.

I first posted in pixel art theme groups on Facebook. Why? Because I try to aim for the target audience and what better way than to start on a place where people love pixel art(since the game is also pixel art) and here are the results from day 1:

Pixel art + 35k members = post got 330 likes 30 comments 17 shares

Pixel Art 29k members = post got 111 likes 25 comments

Pixel Art Heaven = post got 136 likes and 22 comments

Results: 1 follower and 20 new wishlist additions 

Conclusion: I am not some high tec guru dark star fapfap button Wizzard master developer, no, I am just like most developers so when I start to see so many like per post I was very excited, normally my posts on those groups get per average 20-30 likes, I was having high expectations for a wishlist so I was a bit disappointed when I saw only 20 new additions. It can also be the fact that some of them already had my game on wishlist since I posted there before from time to time about the game. Anyhow it was a good result and I strongly recommend you make smart posts, for example, I  only stated in the post I made these pixel art banners but I did not put any links in the description so people actually asked for a link and only after that I edited and added the link, so try hard not to be a hit&run poster. Also if you want to keep your post up, respond to comments a few days after so that your topic gets bumped up. Please also consider I did not include the private messages received based on this.

-----------------------------------

Second round

So why haven't I posted in all FB groups the same day? Because of Facebook algorithms, for example, even though I made the new custom text for all posts, I did have the same 2 pictures uploaded and if facebook sees you post the same comment too many times it will automatically warn you and mark your posts as spam. The second day I decided to target Xcom players because my game is heavily inspired by Xcom, I am not talking just about some art and 1-2 mechanics, no I am talking about the overall game design and the majority of features, heck, my game is basically Xcom in real-time. And note that I posted same 2 picture but I adapted the text,  Here are the results:

XCOM players 4k members = post got 80 likes 50 comments

XCOM: Enemy Withinposting 400 members = post got 14 likes 3 comments

Xcom 2 2k members = post got 40 likes 8 comments

Results: 10 followers and 80 new wishlist additions 

Conclusion: Based on pixel art communities results, I was expecting around 8-12 wishlist additions so when I saw the results it was clear for me, I first yelled some mumbo-jumbo spartan DarkStar Sailormoon Voltron lines in a weird language then I realized that even though the pixel groups were A LOT bigger then Xcom ones and that I got more engagement on them then on Xcom ones, the more I get closer to the target audience the bigger the conversion rate is. So I strongly recommend hard research on the target audience before starting marketing. I believe it is the same s**t with wishlist conversion rate into sales, as in if you get wishlists from giveaways and from people who meh or are casuals the conversion rate will be lower, and the more genuine wishlist audience you got the more the conversion rate will grow.

-----------------------------

Third round & forth round

At this point, I included both 3 and 4 rounds of Facebook group marketing because the results are non-existent. Round 3 was aiming toward casual gamer groups and round 4 was aiming toward Indie Game developer groups and other small pixel art groups, same promotional picture + adjusted text. Please notice how huge are some groups, how small, and how that factor is truly not important when it comes to smart marketing and knowing your target audience. Results:

Indie Game Promo IGD 56k members = post got 9 likes 3 comments

Retro Indie Pixel Game 9k members = post got 12 likes 1 comment

RTS game lovers = post got 2 likes

and other groups not worth mentioning

Results: not even worth mentioning

Conclusion: And for the casual gamer audience, I targeted PC gamer(more than 30k members) group, steam gamers, and so on BUT and it is a strong BUT here, I got 1 or 2 likes per post in these groups, now you are going to say "awww then this is a waste of time I will ignore those groups" and after you say this I will strangle you because you know nothing, Jhon Snow! Why? Some time ago I made TAURONOS game and that game had casual players as the target audience, the thing is that I got good love on this casual player audience group for that game specifically because that was its target audience. So in conclusion: Know your target audience & do not be a spammer that does hit&run, be smart about it and you will avoid wasting time on promotions that will bring no results. Time is very important. Now I am not saying not to post in Indie game development groups but I am saying do not post in Indie game development groups unless you have too much time.


If you got any suggestions/feedback on what I did wrong please do let me know. Also please do not think marketing resumes only on Facebook, if you like this post I will try to share my marketing up-to-date experience for all platforms and marketing-wise related stuff such as email marketing, PR, marketing plan 1 month before release,  and others. NOTE: I am not perfect and this is just my opinion & personal experience

(1 edit)

Did you use your personal FB account for marketing or did you create a business account for your game/studio? Would like to learn more about it aswell

(+1)

Hey Xcrypt

I do have a studio company(LLC) account for Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/16BITNIGHTS/ but when doing promotions on certain groups I found that it is more effective to use my own account, it makes things look more personal and not so sterile, maybe if my company was very big I would have used my company account but for the level I got, it is better to be more personal.  As an extra note, my Facebook account is just for business, I do not use it for family (if you want you can add me here: https://www.facebook.com/Neon.Cyberpunk/ )

If you have any other questions or suggestions feel free to point them out

yeah sounds reasonable.

Hmm if you have any more tips for marketing add it to your devlog it can be interesting for starting indie devs

(+1)

Sure, I will add my marketing experience regarding this project

(1 edit)

Minor update new banner

I thought about sharing some of my desk inspiration "tools" for Chromosome Evil


(1 edit)

So the time has come to also give something back to the communities who supported and encouraged me during this project.

I decided to make an original credit screen, from which all can benefit, basically, when you press on credit button you will be taken to an actual interactive map and you will have a custom pre-defined squad, all interfaces will be hidden except for a "back" button. I will go throughout all rooms and try to explain my logical perspective for each.

Corner up left the room:

- this one is for the people from my Discord that were active and supported me a lot, this is my way of saying thank you to them and solidify the community by confirming their involvement.

Corner up the right room:

- this one is for another Discord rooms that I have posted about my game and got some sort of support & feedback during development, this was a nice thank you to them, it also allowed me to bypass some internal rules to post this picture in other Discord sub-rooms other than "#art"/"#game dev" , for example in "General" and also be able to tag "@admins" / "@moderators" because I mean cmon, it's an honest thank you, they would not delete/ban post because of this, on the contrary, I got some nice love on some Discord rooms.

Corner down left:

- this one is reserved for Itch.io and Gamejolt, best bridges when going indie dev since they both in my heart, both got their own special rooms. I also plan on doing a tweet and tagging them, last time I did this Gamejolt returned the love and re-tweeted my tweet earning me some extra subs.

Middle Up:

- this room is reserved for people that are not part of the team but their contribution was a big addition to the game, they also deserve it.

Middle down:

- this room is reserved for actual developers of the game, me and Sadoff(Sergey Dovganovsky), and ofc the company logo (info: it is an LLC), I am small I know but I do hope to make this brand solid on a long term.

Corner down right:

- one room is reserved for Steam, they will surely not notice it but they surely deserve it for how much the gaming community evolved because of them.

- and one room is reserved for Tigsource since my dev blog got so much love on it, it surely also deserves its own room, and a thank you, it's the least I can do.

Also on outside window areas there are more names, in front of some personal names and left and right alleys I left them blank for now.



Also here is the animated part of Itch.io and Gamejolt rooms, I also tweeted and said thank you to the booth, I hope that is ok!

https://twitter.com/16bitnights/status/1382113360074964993?s=20



Hope you enjoy it!

(+1)

Hey man, it seems you are pretty active here! Even more than on other forums... ;-)

From now on I'll be following your updates here as well!

Thank you vivaladev!

(1 edit)

So these last 2 weeks I concentrated on random map environments/map design & marketing and since I posted a bit about marketing the last few days now it's time for me to post some new screenshots. Hope you enjoy it!  











and a gif



(+1)

Time to do some updates on survival and choice matters elements of the game



(1 edit)


UPDATE time

I was thinking of a new way of boosting the horror element by adding prelude maps for scenarios, for example, this prelude map is for that huge boss fight a few pages earlier. this map is supposed to:

- offer hints about how can you beat the monster(aka you need long-range weapons)

- offer information about the game lore

- some character development

- tension slowly increases by fear of the unknown and mistery.

--------------------------

We had this script for text speech bubbles from characters:

1. Default (The speech bubble appears automatically when you enter the map, the conversation plays automatically, all speech bubbles coming from vehicle are the conversation between the driver and the commander/you )

- Sir? We've reached the last known position of "Gamma Squad" and from where they sent the distress signal.

- Very well, heads-up people! This was a 30-man platoon, if they ran into trouble, we can only pray that we can make a difference.

- No offense sir, but seeing that other Trojan, in that state, I do not feel too comfortable staying here for long.

- I understand your concern, nonetheless, we must scout and secure the area. If nothing comes up, then we can leave...

-------------------

Triggers: When you click with a character on these triggers the character will move close to them and do a fast interaction (around 5 seconds). The range of the interaction can be double it's normal distance because this is an investigation, not an actual object interaction. Each will have a speech bubble according to the class interacting with it (Soldier, Medic, Engineer)

2. 

If you click with a Soldier, the Soldier will say:

- What the hell happened here? This is supposed to be a top-of-the-line armoured vehicle and now look at it.

If you click with a Medic, the Medic will say:

- Judging by the damage inflicted, I estimate the creature that did this had a large mass and was at least as big as the vehicle itself.

If you click with the Engineer, the Engineer will say:

- It looks like whatever attacked this vehicle did a number on it, slicing through it's armour like a tin can. It's beyond repair.

3. 

If you click with a Soldier, the Soldier will say:

- I don't like this at all! I've a bad feeling about this whole operation.

If you click with a Medic, the Medic will say:

- No traces of blood, they were dragged out alive! Judging by this behavior I suspect the creature does not plan on simply attacking - but consuming us!

If you click with the Engineer, the Engineer will say:

- This gives me the chills, are you sure you need an engineer for this mission?

4.

If you click with a Soldier, the Soldier will say:

- There was a fight here! Looks like many rounds were fired, but there's no blood?!

If you click with a Medic, the Medic will say:

- Hmmm... With so many rounds fired and the lack of blood, I assume the creature can attack at range? I recommend switching to rifles and SMGs now!

If you click with the Engineer, the Engineer will say:

- Well, at least they put up a good fight!

5.

If you click with a Soldier, the Soldier will say:

- 'You scared? It's just a scarecrow!

If you click with a Medic, the Medic will say:

- Was that scarecrow there when we arrived?

If you click with the Engineer, the Engineer will say:

- Man! I hope this'll not turn all "Children of the corn" on us!

6.

If you click with a Soldier, the Soldier will say:

- Come quick! I found a... hand?..

If you click with a Medic, the Medic will say:

- This hand was ripped from the body! Guys?! Seriously! We are dealing with a new and extremely dangerous creature here!

If you click with the Engineer, the Engineer will say:

- I didn't sign up for this!..

7.

If you click with a Soldier, the Soldier will say:

- We're sitting ducks here! Let's check out that house up ahead and then get the hell out of here!

If you click with a Medic, the Medic will say:

- If any of "Gamma Squad" survived, they are probably in that house up ahead.

If you click with the engineer, the engineer will say:

- That house up ahead can provide us some cover!

---------------------

Unfortunately because of engine limits my Programmer partner decided that speech bubbles are to hard to implement at this point but I still keep the prelude map, I just hope I got enough visual hints to show all that text was explaining




remindedr this is the scenario map that follows:



UPDATE.

The second Tutorial stage is done.

The first one was the interior of APC where the player learns basic controls + story lore and some character development.

This second one puts player in danger and teaches him about interactions + some lore.

The old tutorial was to standard, it was in a building and we remade it because we want players to always experience new environments and situations, we do not want players to get bored. ALso, all mechanics will be gradually unlocked not all of a suddent, and as much as possible we try to mix them with game lore and story plot.



Announcement

This month we will work exclusively on a vertical slice beta version.


Our main goals are:

- have private tests for users who contributed to our Discord with LVL 4 and above.

- send a version to a very small amount of youtubers

If you are interested you can join our Discord room here: https://discord.gg/J2E2YWK


(+1)

Cool, I would like to try it when it's finished!

Small update

So we decided to add a reset skill button, the twist is in order to have this option you need to first research it in the R&D screen. Mostly of R&D upgrades open actual features, not stats bonuses, another example would be the minimap, you first need to research it in R&D, and after you can build it in Car workshop as a permanent upgrade and one of the most critical features is the active command mode aka (tbs), in order to have this feature you must also first research it and after building it in Car workshop



Update and tests on the Telepathic flesh creature grown in walls 

(+1)

The danger rectangle reminds me of those scenes in games and movies with air fights where you are trying to lock your enemy to shoot a missile. :-D

(1 edit) (+1)

Yes, I can see why usually it got this effect when multiple creatures of this type are on screen.

I was aiming to make something fresh regarding strategy creature design.

And as you can see they are pretty easy to kill if you have more squad members, but if I were to combine these creatures with additional zombies or other monsters then this could be a nightmare scenario for the player

(1 edit)

Since we started the Beta we realized that we have a ton of mechanics that are not explained. so we now work on bug fixes and on making the learning curve more clear & user friendly.


Here is a mockup of the AP system explained.

Variant A

Variant B


We are also going to lock many features from the game and make them unlock gradually to give the overall feel of a reward rather than an actual tutorial.

(1 edit)

 We decided to split the game into 3 parts

part 1(all this will also be in the demo version)
- tutorial/learning curve
- 20% random generated content
- fixed path
- plot/story/lore introduction
- 8 unique scenarios
- 5 days of travel map

part 2 (this will be the core of the game)
- more flexibility, allow the player to explore
- 60% random generated content
- multiple paths
- 15 unique scenarios
- 30 travel map days

part 3
- multiple game endings
- 40% random generated content
- 6 unique scenarios
- 15 travel map days


Edit:

Uploaded schematic



Minor update.

Convoy:

To add a bit more of plot logic and mix it better with the tutorial I decided to unlock:

- Car upgrade screen unlocks after the player finds, repairs, and adds to his convoy the mobile repair truck.

- Research & Development screen unlocks after the player finds, repairs, and adds to his convoy the mobile Lab vehicle.


UPDATE

All assets for scenario 06 are done.

I aimed for simple gameplay here, also by this point the player will be familiar with all basic mechanics.

Mainly you must fix the vehicle(doing so you will unlock the workshop menu) by looting components from the map(or if you already have components from the previous exploration even better)and during this time you must also protect the perimeter against the undead. After the vehicle is fixed and you have the key, the exit grid will appear

And a small twist at the end, the player will have a choice. increase Action points permanent + 1 during travel map but get permanent x2 prices in the workshop or do not get the bonus AP and have normal prices in the workshop.


Minor news

We finished all art, design, and maps(in editor) content for part 1 of the game plan, out of a total of 3.

This part 1 represents the introduction to lore, mechanics, and feels of the game and we also consider this to be the demo/vertical slice.

So until 20 July, the programmer works hard on implementing them in the game, so far he managed to implement around 70%. After that, we will have 10 days to do testing and final fixes because in August the programmer will take a vacation for 1 month while I will deal with marketing for the demo(mostly a private Youtuber strategy)

I hope we will have the version done by end of the month otherwise we will have one dead month of development in August

Have a great day

deadlines,deadlines....deadlines

I finally manage to make a coming soon page for this game on Itch.io.


https://16bitnights.itch.io/chromosome-evil

Moderator(+1)

Posting to unlock this topic.

(+1)

A lot of work has gone into this bud, I can really see the passion in each gif, good work.

Thank you for the kind words!

UPDATE


Development map of where are we now and what is left.


UPDATE


GAME STATUS

The demo is finished, we only got around one week of small adjustments left for it, and after we are going to send it to some YouTubers with exclusivity. And overall part 1 out of 3 is done(you can see the full scope of the game with the 3 parts in my previous post). According to the Demo results we decided upon 2 actions: 1. if the demo gets positive received by the YouTubers we are going to invest even more into the project and maybe we are going to do a Kickstarter for voice acting and custom music 2. if the Demo gets a negative reception or no reception at all, we will make some more adjustments and consider making the Demo public and going on the standard path.

TEAM STATUS 

We are both tired af. I feel like I am down on my last battery, My personal life is hard and all my hopes are in this project, 4 years I invested into this, whenever I had a hard time the thought of making this game would motivate me to go on and kept me on the floating line. Now I am approaching the end of this journey and I struggle to milk the last strength from my veins. I am both excited and scared about the upcoming results, And with this said I also want to thank you all for the support, all your feedback was good additional fuel for my motivation.

WHAT IS LEFT

In addition to the previous list, we also made a tasks list based on time requirements. 

15 story scenarios - 500 hours of work

4 endings - 40 hours of work

Achievements - 10 hours of work

Heavy marketing - 1 month before release

That is around 3 months of full-time work, impossible for us since we both have a day job, I can only allocate between 10-20 hours per week and our main deadline is 15 February, and worst-case scenario 15 March.


This being said I hope you had a good read from this small sneak peek behind the curtain.



(+1)



UPDATE TIME:

Development map status. Done: means the scenario and content is already implemented. WIP: art + design + text + editor map done just requires implementation on scenario path.  Part 1 represents the demo, learning curve, and lore introduction. Part 2 is the core gameplay and part 3 is the endings and final scenarios for the 3 paths.



I want each scenario to have its own atmospheric mood and mechanics and for one of them, I was thinking to make this small experiment for one of the final scenarios and mix top-down with side view to be more dramatic. I hope you enjoy it



While my partner Sergey is busy with last-minute bug fixing and polish before we release the demo, I took a few days off from the main development process to create promotional material for the Twitter marketing campaign which I plan to constantly do 1 month before the release and 2 weeks after the release(the release itself will be in 2022).

I will make a plan for each day what tags to use when to post, where to post, and so on, and by that time I want to already have all promo material so I can concentrate more on real-time engagement.

I used 600x600 for best res for Twitter, nothing spectacular, I will also do some in-game gifs and more.

Preview:




I used both zoom and real size footage so each one got 2 versions.

And here are some mixed ones(I do plan to have a total of around 30 of these pics and around 10 solid gifs)



oh and we also work on adding the second big boss with unique mechanics, still trying to mix RTS with horror.

Forgot about this one


So much work to do

On the last mile of development, I am adding a few shock scenarios with unique twists. 

For example, here the intro will say that just after you deployed the strike team you fall asleep, a weird nightmare where you encounter the "ancient one", the mechanics here are a bit twisted, as in you can ask questions, curious players will surely ask a lot of questions from the question pool but the twist is that the strike team soldiers will constantly lose HP during this state, will the answers be more important than your strike team health?


UPDATE

Working on the game endings.

I must warn you by now that I used minimal style for all artwork in cutscenes, to have more time to work on other features + I like it this way (windows paint ftw)

The game got 3 paths, basically, 3 entire different scenarios based on player choices(+ a lot of random content), so each path will have its own ending but also secondary ending screens based on some actions player took trough out his journey.


And this is the example of the vaccine part(fail state and win state) of the ending(I hope I do not spoil to much just in case some of you actually want to play it when it is done)






That's it for today

(+1)

The first exclusive first impression video of Chromosome Evil Beta Gameplay 



UPDATE

After this marketing round, we noticed a few issues with our game that were not discovered during testing.
So based on the feedback we now have an extra 1 month of dev time delay because we are implementing these new features:
- The game interface must automatically be zoom in x 2 on large interfaces
- all the text from the game must automatically be zoom in x 2 on large interfaces
- manual reload button on the interface


Also, we noticed some people are a bit skeptical about the save game costing resources, we decided not to remove this feature but we do plan to make it more accessible for example on morale zero the cost of save game will not require food resources just action points and will only cost additional resources when the morale penalty is high.

The difficulty choosing screen is out of the question since we want an exact player experience and by having such difficult options some may choose to go on easy even though the good experience only comes on normal difficulty.
So yes, the game balance will remain at the principle: the game difficulty adjusts according to how you play and what decisions you make.

(1 edit)

UPDATE


getting close to the end of development.


Working on achievements


We want to release in 2, max 3 months so you will need to excuse the basic icons for achievements since my time is required on the marketing plan and marketing execution after this.

We also make each achievement with extra rewards for example:

- destroy 100 zombies: gives + 2 bullets on each new game

- upgrade rifle to max LVL: gives + 2 weapon components each new game

and so on... to increase the re-playability factor, along with the multiple paths, multiple choices, and the randomly generated content.

NEXT:

I will work on the release marketing plan, I will also make posts about that too in the hope that it won't be too boring since it's not actually game dev material

(1 edit) (+1)

Now on to marketing.

The organization is important for me.

When I start the campaign I want to use my time to respond and adjust to all responses so all promotional material will be done ahead of time in order for me to be more efficient.

I will concentrate all the marketing funnel on the Steam coming soon page. And from there I plan to redirect already existing fans to my Discord to keep growing my community.

I split the campaign into 2 parts: Critical & Secondary

Critical

These are tasks that I consider to be essential in the overall release campaign, without them I think the chances of success are considerably lowered.

1. Email list updates

Target: my old custom email list needs an update, some of the content creators may no longer be active and some new content creators may have appeared

Type: part of email marketing

2. Email marketing

Target: youtube content creators, journalists, streamers

Type: slow-burn/fast-burn according to the video release timing and userbase flow.

3. Twitter

Target: Journalists / Curators / content creators - networking

Type: fast-burn campaign, regular/constant posting

5. Gamejolt and Itch.io

Target:  exposure

Type: early access release one day before the Steam full release. And full release on Itch.io and Gamejolt one month after.

Secondary

These tasks I consider to be secondary, the campaign can still do decently without them but surely they can give that extra boost(especially the Discord MK).

Also on some of them, I am doing an experimental approach so I don't know the exact results and some are more aimed toward Branding.

1. Facebook "Chromosome evil"(game) page 

TARGET: for people who already know about the game but search for more information, the extra story presentation will boost the prelude element/slow-burn and can be viewed even after release for extra lore

Type: slow-burn campaign / Branding - Story (close to comic book aproach, extra lore, episodic) hints/artistic/atmospheric marketing campaign.

2. Facebook Pixelart groups

TARGET: extra audience

Type: Indirect Marketing / fishing for audience / fast-burn campaign

3. Facebook "16 BIT NIGHTS"(company) page

TARGET: experimentation/Branding - I want to experiment a bit with minimal investment in some facebook Adds campaign

Type: official news of the release, fast-burn campaign

4. Gamejolt (similar to Twitter mechanics)

Target: The aim is to gain extra exposure from Gamejolt closed community + there are many small/medium size YouTubers on GJ that will also boost this effect.

This campaign is meant to also draw attention to the Gamejolt version release. 

Type: both slow-burn and fast-burn, includes regular posts that will end in a  release

5. Deviantart

Target: extra audience + old DeviantArt subscribers fans refresh

Type: fast-burn and slow-burn, one round, post 10 picture art from game in one day in order to get all new submission section 100% covered. This also helps with Branding.

6. FORUMS

Target: extra audience

Type: slow-burn, I made a post about the game on aliens forums, 40k forums, and other external community forums and now I will bump all threads for a refresh

7. Keymailer & Indieboost

Target: extra audience

Type: fast-burn, The demo will be available for most content creators one day before release to increase exposure.

8. Discord

Target: extra audience, target entire gaming communities

Type: fast-burn, will mostly post links from other campaigns in art, self-promo, and other allowed rooms

9. Itch.io

Target: extra audience

Type: fast-burn, release free version 1 day before Steam release to increase extra exposure and full release 1 month later

10. Reddit

And there is also: Reddit although I do not have much experience there so I will need to improvise along the way

11. Steam news/annoucements

Target: This campaign main goal is to "resuscitate" older wishlist players that forgot about the game and to show activity before release

Type: fast-burn campaign

12. 16 BIT NIGHTS official site

Target: community

Type: Branding, official news

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I cannot enter into details on all points in just one post but for example, I will take:

3. Facebook "16 BIT NIGHTS"(company) page

TARGET: experimentation/Branding - I want to experiment a bit with minimal investment in some facebook Adds campaign

Type: official news of the release, fast-burn campaign

This is meant just for official news to already existing fans and JOurnalists that are interested in our projects.

https://www.facebook.com/16BITNIGHTS/

I will make an announcement post on the official Facebook page of my Company regarding the release and other critical news only. I will also make an event countdown for the release.

Example of content that I will be posting(please note that I am not 100% sure I will release in March but I made this so you understand what I mean)



1. Facebook "Chromosome evil"(game) page 

TARGET: for people who already know about the game but search for more information, the extra story presentation will boost the prelude element/slow-burn and can be viewed even after release for extra lore

Type: slow-burn campaign / Branding - Story (close to comic book aproach, extra lore, episodic) hints/artistic/atmospheric marketing campaign.


This is a bit experimental.

https://www.facebook.com/ChromosomeEvil/

I did not enter this page in any of my marketing funnels but I noticed I get some new views from time to time, mostly I suspect that after people hear about the game and they are interested they do an additional search for it on social media and they stumble upon this page. My goal here is just to solidify already existing fans by posting lore-related content. For example, I took the intro cutscene images and modified them a bit to fit the Facebook criteria and when fans enter this page they will have a nice story to read in order to be more informed by the game's lore. In a long term, this can also help with the branding but this will not cause additional exposure unless the already existing fans are impressed and they do a bit of organic exposure to their friends.

And these are the promotional material that I will be posting for this task, 1 post per day in order not to mess up with the Facebook algorithm










Now if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

Also if you have any suggestions please x 2 tell me so that I can improve, I still got time until February to do so and I don't want to miss anything.

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You should put reddit higher up on that list.  One post on the WebGames sub there and you will get many thousands of players for sure.  And there are many such subs, your game will do very extremely well on reddit, as far as actually getting people to play it. 

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Thank you for the tip. Do you have any more suggestions of subreddits that would fit my purpose?

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There's IndieDev gamedev playmygame rpg_gamers pcgaming to name some, some are for dev logs, and others for game players. Once you get into it, it will show you suggestions based on your activities, it takes some getting used to but it's a good resource.

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Thank you!

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UPDATE TIME

this one is regarding marketing.

What did I do last week while my partner was fixing the last few bugs left? I did a bit of email marketing.

And this is how I split my email marketing priorities until 24 March:

List 1 (past) - for Exclusive Beta footage (I think I posted about these results in the past, I only sent the press kit to 5 YouTubers that I have been following and engaging in their communities for some time such as Nook, Frazz, Splat, and so on) aim here was to create quality branding, not quantity. This list got converted 5/5

List 2 (present) - here I aimed for YouTubers that do upcoming indie games announcements, my list was custom made, again with engagement in time but unfortunately from the 5 YouTubers I aimed, only 2 responded but still, I consider this a success. Please note that for this category I haven`t sent the game only the trailer, release date, and a gameplay video from one of the YouTubers that did one during Beta.

Because indie games fans:


Because strategy game fans:

List 3 (Next) - Here I will target game Journalists, again my list will be small(5-6 Journalists) but I will do solid research first and active engagement. I will also include here a game version with locked content(I don't want too many spoilers out there + I am still doing the exclusive approach not just because I want better chances at bigger people but because I aim for quality in branding)

List 4 (after) - Here I will target very big Youtubers, it will be a 50-50 shoot in the dark because I did not have time to research and engage in all their communities, this list will probably have 10-15 people and if even 1 of them will make a video the goal will be reached.

List 5(after) - here I will target medium size YouTubers, this list will probably consist of around 30 YouTubers, I will also not have time to do many engagements but if branding from List 1 and 2 worked then this should not be a problem and should increase the exposure more as we are getting closer to the release date

List 6(same time with the release) - here I will target the people who subscribed to my site with their emails, ofc here will be just an announcement so there will be no actual game press kit attached. I aim for a big boom so I will try to synchronize this with the Gamejolt & Itch.io free vertical slice release and probably I will also give some keys on Keymailer and Indieboost although TBH in the future I plan to stop using  Keymailer and Indieboost entirely, exclusivity works so much better than paying YouTubers and risking your keys to end up on third party sites on sale.

List 7 (removed) - here the aim was people who do Streams, unfortunately, I will skip this one because I am lacking time & I am exausted, I hope it wont bite me in the ass at the end but I do hope some streamers will pick it up organicaly

As an extra note:

I will be using Gmail when sending out the pres kit because it is most likely not to get into the spam folder.

If you have anything else do check your email chances of reaching into the spam folder here: https://www.mail-tester.com/test-kc6vi0zve or just google for any mail testers.

After you send your email I also recommend dropping a message or a tweet politely asking if the email reached in good condition and if they need additional info, mostly this works best if you already established engagement in their community or a Twitter account. On my list 1, I had this luxury but for future lists, I did not have time to establish a basic engagement with everyone.

What do I scan when creating my email lists for YouTubers:

- the number of subscribers

- the amount of engagement per video(likes and comments) in the report to the subs

- the flow on which videos are released

- the type of content must include my target audience

- the quality of his videos

- last time he was active

This being said, I had a long chat with my partner Sergey who does the programming and brings my design to life(I have huge respect for this man, in 4 years he ALWAYS provided 2 updates per week, no breaks no computer broken no shit excuses) the chat was in regards to the future after release. For me, it is too much to do both A. art, design, testing, story and B. PR, marketing, community management, so after this project I want to choose just one of them, either A or B, I personally incline more for Marketing and PR but we shall see, the decision is not final yet.

I hope you Gentlemen found some useful information through my post.

I salute you!

Thank you guys for all the kind words and support!

A lot has happened behind the curtain last week, my partner might go indie full time sooner than expected because of various reasons but I will let him post about that when the time comes.

Meantime a small brief of my past week tasks

Press kit / Landing page update/polish: https://16bitnights.com/chromosome_evil/
Because next week I will be on List 3 - Journalists, I need to have the press kit at its best quality, Journalist require a more polished approach when coming to press kits.
My aim here is to get 3 Metacritic approved Journalists in order to get a Metacritic score. I will probably search for similar games reviews and contact those journalists, I only need 3 but TBH my hopes are very low, they are mostly already bombarded with many emails and have very little time + many of them require early engagement and scanning for their preferabilities, this translates into time, time that I have a very limited amount of. I used to be in contact with Owerpowerd noobs but unfortunately, they lost the Metacritic approval a few years ago.
This step is not critical but it is a very solid addition for branding & can help open doors easier for the next steps from my email marketing list.

Steam Developer Page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25256606?snr=1_5_9__2000
I also managed to establish my Steam developer page, I should have done this a long time ago but better late than never.

Update official site news: https://16bitnights.com/
Just a simple update, I created entries regarding things I already posted here, such as a case study on "How to evaluate a publisher", case study on "Email marketing" and the first gameplay video of Chromosome Evil.

Social media posts regarding my latest entryhttps://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=73024.0
Since I made this email marketing template I decided to share it in some places like Tigsource, Itch.io, yoyo forums(game maker), and Reddit.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/16bitnights
I did some posts regarding CHromosome Evil, I also engaged with other people's posts with some likes and minimum comments and I had a few private conversations with some people in the market, basically a bit of networking.

Discord https://discord.gg/J2E2YWK (PS: feel free to join)
I did a bit of chat with people in the industry(not related to chromosome evil) just for more networking & engagement on external Discord rooms + some community management on my own Discord(I do have a nice level-up system on my community that I will probably also share the template in the near future)

Tiktok
Yea I installed TikTok, it is very toxic if you ask me but I want to experiment with marketing, I know that most people there are very young and my target audience is mostly 20+ but I still want to try it out.


And that`s it for now gentlemen

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So much has happened, I don't even know where to start ...

So I try to stay away from Political topics but unfortunately, some also affect my Game dev career so I will try to describe the events as neutral as possible.

The first event.
Last week my partner Sergey D. decided to quit his main job and go indie developer full-time, he got money for 3 more months but this, in theory, should not be a problem because the game is now finished and the release is just around 25 days away so he should start receiving income from the game sales within a maximum of 3 months and our worst-case scenario on sale projection covered his risk factor.
His worst-case scenario is to make his share around 15.000$ profit within the first year, mainly with all expenses and my share we need to make 50.000$ profit within the first year.
I was so happy for him and I got excited and also started preparing my own job quit moment, I planned main for 22 of May since that is also my b-day even though things are very hard on my day-job I wanted to wait a bit to see the exact release results.
BUT ...
The situation from Ukraine - Russia will affect our situation and we are trying to adapt. Especially since my partner is from Russia and I am from a UN country. Mainly:
1.1 If SWIFT will get banned how the hell can I send him money?
1.2 we discussed a worst-case scenario of him coming to my country to give him cash but then again he cannot take more than 10k $ through Vamal customs + the flights might be banned so he might not be able to come.
1.3 50% of our target audience is from Russia so many of our fans will not be able to use bank aka won't be able to buy the game. How will this affect our game sale projections and estimations?

This is a bad situation for my partner since he got 2 kids to raise and he is the head of the fammily and got nothing to do with the conflict.
After working with him since 2010 on different projects I can clearly say he F***ing deserves to finally get his full-time game dev career independence.
So we keep going forward and see how the situation evolves.



On to the second event.
A few years ago I made a game TAURONOS( https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=59788.0 ) with another programmer from my country Tudor Vaida, we managed to find a Publisher from Ukrainehttps://restlesscorp.com/ ) that helped us publish the game on Nintendo Switch and Xbox. He took care of both marketing and the porting process and was very transparent and cooperative so we truly enjoyed working with him. He is one man army, as indie as it gets.
So due to recent Ukraine conflict events, we decided to let him keep all income on Xbox and Switch as effective immediately. He will not be able to make giveaways of our game and porting to PS would require a new contract but with all the income TAURONOS makes on Switch and Xbox he will keep it non-recoupable.


And the third and final event
Marketing, lots of emails sent lots of work I don't feel capable of doing a constructive post about this now, I am exhausted.
But as a small side-event, my partner finally made a social media account on Twitter if anyone wants to drop him a follow https://twitter.com/DovganovskiyS

I don't know what the hell will happen now with this worldwide situation and how will this affect our release and game dev career, I will admit I am a bit scared.



Gentlemen, I salute you!  Gentleman

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12 days until the release

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Good news!

Vertical slice/early access is now available to download for free on Itch.io

https://16bitnights.itch.io/chromosome-evil

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Good news.


The game was released on Steam.

We still work on improving it based on the players feedback

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Work on new content continues.

Here is a preview.
We plan on making an entirely new system for inventory/crafting





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Main game version of inventory(old one):





 expanded version of inventory(new one)




and


+ Just made a post about community management if anyone is interested.

https://itch.io/t/2072083/community-management

Today I finally reached my dream and quit my job. Now I am a full-time indie game developer. I only had to invest 10 years of my life to reach this point but it was worth it.

Thank you Itch.io for contributing to this outcome!

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We are now working on some extra content for the game and we hope that soon we can release the full version on Itch.io too

we just got accepted into the Fearfestival powered by Feardemic