We probably will add some kind of hints into the game. Though we'll probably hold the hints back and try calculate if a player isn't doing something.
What I mean is, if the player literally doesn't know that there is a special attack, and hasn't used it in several levels, we could write the tip "Every bro has a unique special attack". Quite often though players literally don't know that there is a special attack button, so that hint doesn't really solve that.
The problem I have with hints is that they rob players of discovery. Discovering something is SUPER FUN, and makes players feel that their actions are special. Obviously I also have a problem with players not being able to play the game.
Which is why I prefer solutions that offer players space to play, over feeding them information. But that's not as simple to accomplish.
We also definitely don't want hint screens that keep looping, telling players information they already know how to do. That makes players feel like they're not being listened to, it's shitty feedback.
I think the best kind of hint would be one that just hints that you haven't mastered something yet. A hint that tells you there is the potential to do something, but not how to do it. So like at the start of Mega Man X with Zero using his charged-shot, that indicates the potential of something without telling the player how.
That's not how most hints work, and I'm not really sure a text based hints system can take a "Show, don't tell" approach.
Weirdly the sound is turned off for the entire video. Although that seems to be Lazy Game Review's thing. Glad he liked it! Though I agree, that was a pretty stupid ending the game gave him :)
Exposition of game mechanics is something that fascinates me. The important bit, I think, is the fact that you have two different types of players - the 100 percenter and the average player. Your 100% players will be the loudest, because they are the most enthusiastic. But often they are a loud minority, and will react negatively to any change - much like the outcry when facebook changes it's layout, it causes dissent, but in the end the product gets better.
But I like what you are saying about discovery being fun. Your 100% players hate being hand held - but average joe probably does need a bit a hand holding. And then there is average joe's mom who doesn't play video games and needs a helping hand every step of the way - obviously your game and audience makes a big difference in terms of who you cater to. Graceful fallback "tutorials" are great, because it allows your advanced player to discover something on their own - but means that the regular guy doesn't get stuck down a pit with no way to climb out. The catch - this kind of tutorialisation needs to be very context aware, which requires exponentially more effort to implement. That's why I think we see so little of it in the wild.
@TheFuntastic I don't really share your sentiment about graceful fallback tutorials in the context of Broforce (assuming you were bringing this up in the context of Broforce).
Graceful fallback "tutorials" are great, because it allows your advanced player to discover something on their own - but means that the regular guy doesn't get stuck down a pit with no way to climb out.
I'd phrase this as "Graceful fallback "tutorials" are a last resort only to be considered if large numbers of players are getting stuck and confused and not enjoying themselves, despite all efforts to rectify the problem by making the offending challenge more intuitive, easier to circumvent and/or providing a better play space for discovery of the challenge's solution."
No-one enjoys being hand held. Everyone enjoys discovering solutions. There really aren't two types of players in this regard. Some players are more accepting of hand holding (there's demographics of this, definitely players who identify as "casual gamers" tend to be more accepting, and this audience doesn't overlap well with Broforce), but still everyone prefers to discover the solutions themselves. If a lot of weaker problem solving players definitely can't figure a critical part of the game out, then that's the unfortunate time to take away their opportunity for discovery.
By design, in Broforce, most skills in the game aren't critical. Jumping and shooting is critical, and that's it really. I want for different players to have different knowledge. I want their discoveries to be nonuniform and special and valuable. I want talking about challenges overcome in Broforce to be an act that can transfer that value. (Obviously a game like Nethack or Minecraft is vastly superior in this regard, but I think Broforce can get some benefit out of this if at a lesser scale.)
Though I can understand in Cadence, with its very different player base, of having a higher appreciation for fallback tutorials. Different games need different solutions to player discovery (though my own aesthetic will always drive me away from tutorials).
Sorry if I'm coming across a bit harsh/fervent. I really do feel like tutorials/tips are overused, besides just being poorly implemented. The need for a good tutorial I feel isn't challenged enough. Designers talk about designing good tutorials, when maybe some of that conversation should be about designing games that are better for not having tutorials at all.
We probably will add some kind of hints into the game. Though we'll probably hold the hints back and try calculate if a player isn't doing something.
That for me is what I was speaking about in terms of graceful fallback. Given the tone of your last reply do I take it to understand you see that as a failing on your behalf that you imagine these hints necessary at all? That there isn't some kind of play space for them to discover it themselves?
@TheFuntastic Yeah, if we end up adding hints (even the clever hints that only appear when it's calculated that they're needed) I'll see it as a bandage to cover up a problem with the design. The exceptions being the cases where the information the tips are providing isn't something that players would have felt rewarded in discovering.
In other news, if you exclude the Kung Fury film as a game, Broforce is right now the 10th highest rated on Steam. (Crypt of the Necrodancer launched and probably went on sale)
Richard (@Merrik) made another devlog! There's some downlow about Broforce's art process, as well as our impeccable team dynamics on display! Truly a collection of people that would not be described as idiots.
Very late to the tutorial conversion above, but: There is nothing worse than starting a game and being forced through the painful "We need to calibrate you suit. Look at this dot, then this dot...". Looking at you, Halo.
Very late to the tutorial conversion above, but: There is nothing worse than starting a game and being forced through the painful "We need to calibrate you suit. Look at this dot, then this dot...". Looking at you, Halo.
It's the absolute worst way to start a game. Unless the player enjoys being treated like a child. I know I react worse to tutorials than most, but, even if I could tolerate them, they rob me of the feeling of ownership over my performance.
I recently played GalakZ. You'd think that a game aimed at fans of Robotech would assume that you might have held a playstation controller before. It was appalling and patronizing and delivered with voice acting that seemed to indicate the player was a small child.
It seems kind of strange to me that Broforce, and in particular the marketing material around it, has such a strong persona. This was something that started before Devolver took over publishing duties (our preorder button has always read "PREORDER NOW AND WIN THE WAR ON TERROR", and our Greenlight page promises to kill terrorists in real life, for instance), and this approach has always just felt right for Broforce. Of course Devolver have been executing brilliantly on this direction and improving the formula (as per the video in the previous post).
It seems to me that most marketing for games is very factual. They may try evoke the fantasy that takes place in the game, but this is based on what the experience of the game is in fact. Whereas the marketing for Broforce (and games like Strafe) may poorly describe the game, but instead create a fiction surrounding the game which viewers are encouraged to play along with (which acts as a sort of meta-game itself).
The other thing that occurs to me is that there is really no limit to how patriotic an American can plausibly sound. Just when I thought we'd gone over the top @raithza linked me to this video:
It seems to me that most marketing for games is very factual. They may try evoke the fantasy that takes place in the game, but this is based on what the experience of the game is in fact. Whereas the marketing for Broforce (and games like Strafe) may poorly describe the game, but instead create a fiction surrounding the game which viewers are encouraged to play along with (which acts as a sort of meta-game itself).
Yeah, one of the key things to remember with marketing is that people tend to buy based on emotion. So you need to try to figure out what emotion you're trying to sell and convey that strongly in your marketing.
It could be the fantasy at the core of the play experience: "How cool would it be to be a cyborg ninja? Doing backflips and slicing shit up with your laser sword? Wicked cool, right? Buy our game and you can experience that.".
It could be aspirational: "Check out all these cool sexy people driving sports cars, gambling in Monaco and skiing in the Alps. Wanna be cool and sexy like them? Buy our cigarettes and you can live that life.".
It could be competition-pride-machismo: "Hey, this game is so tough, it'll kick your pansy ass, kid. Only real bad-asses need apply. You really think you're a bad enough dude to take on this masochism-fest? Hah! I don't think so! Go home and cry to your momma!"
It could be the promise of a good laugh: "Haha, imagine being the dude who has to clean up after the action hero!"
Or, it could be evoking a beloved theme or reference: "Remember how awesome those campy 80s action movies were? Buy our game and experience that awesomeness again."
Of course, the theory is easy to understand, execution is the difficult part. Well done with Broforce, you guys flipping hit it out of the park.
@Garethf That wasn't quite the distinction I was trying to make. I do agree, though I'd phrase it differently.
I mean, people have a heuristic that they use to solve the question: "Do I want to buy this". My understanding is that this is answered by their brain with "Have other experiences that I associate with what is being described here excited me?". The brain scans through all the associations and comes back with an urge to buy or not to buy.
Which is why describing your game as "pretending to be a spy and breaking into secure buildings" (for instance) has more resonance than saying "in this game you open locked doors by having remote control of the wiring of the building ".
^- Not sure if I've written the best example, but this and arguably all of the examples you wrote are things actually in the game that people think they might enjoy... but like you say the emotional response is what is important.
Which is weird for me, because seeing a video of a dude singing about his love for America and eating American flags isn't actually information about Broforce. If people were rational this would have very little effect on their purchasing behaviour (because they know little about the game still). But for fans of movies like Team America it probably is an indication that this is an experience they might enjoy, because the content associated with it is associated with other content they like.
I guess I mean to say, when people talk about describing your game to fans they usually talk about actually talking about your game. And that usually is the best course of action I assume.
But marketing campaigns like Strafe have spent a lot of time lying about what their game is (though with a wink to those savvy enough to understand the marketing hyperbole they are co-opting) and Broforce is producing videos that tell people just about nothing about the game at all, in fact arguably that last video of Broforce is about things that people don't like but are being encouraged to laugh at.
When thought of as "People just want to support things that give them a positive emotional response" it doesn't seem strange at all (like you point out), it just seems strange when you consider consumers to be rational actors.
Sorry if I'm over explaining it. The original post was written at the end of 48 hours of not sleeping, not sure if I've recovered yet.
Which is weird for me, because seeing a video of a dude singing about his love for America and eating American flags isn't actually information about Broforce.
Well, I don't know that I'd fully agree with that. It's a tone signal, like the text on your pre-order button. It doesn't say anything about the game mechanics, sure, but if you're into stuff that spoofs jingoistic americana (tone), the new video says "come check this out".
I also wouldn't say that kind of video is really about convincing people to buy. It's more about finding an angle that convinces people to pay attention and take a look, just like the Strafe campaign. So the video is not answering the "do I want to buy this?" question, it's answering the "do I want to devote some of my limited attention to considering this?" question.
Increase the number of people paying attention and you'll naturally get more sales.
I wouldn't call Strafe's campaign "lying" so much as "a clever tactic to draw attention in a crowded marketplace where everyone is shouting for attention". Although, perhaps I missed a bit of the the Strafe campaign where they DID lie.
Nah, I don't disagree. But I can't know if you're wrong either :)
This is a path we've taken with Broforce and I'm pretty certain it's had positive results. It's also been a fun path (because pretending like we're super gunho patriotic and obsessing about terrorism gives us plenty of opportunities for roleplaying on a grand scale). I guess I'm just fascinated by what I perceive to be irrational behaviour on the part of consumers (which is what a lot of what all marketing is built around in any case). It feels like we're cheating (but then developing a game like Broforce felt like cheating the system from the beginning, at the very least in the exploitation film sense).
Just gonna slip in here and sling my congratulations at ya'll. Well done with Broforce, it's been great to see it develop since the early days on here; awesome to see it succeed so well :)
We'll be leaving Early Access with VCD on the 23rd as well. You beat us to it! :P
To be honest, I don't think many developers enjoy launch day. Especially in the PC marketplace with all the hardware configurations, there's always problems that appear with new features and/or new players.
I think there's a bit of this disconnect between what culture tells us launch day is meant to be, and what it is for video game developers. There probably are developers with the discipline or foresight to pull off a smooth launch, but in most of the launches I've seen developers need support more than congratulations.
It's the week or two after launch, when the dust has settled, that I'll be accepting pats on the back :)
(Sorry if I'm being a downer, I don't mean to be, I'm super glad that so many of your care about our adventures and our lives, I just think it's weird that there's an expectation of celebration at a video game launch, I suspect it's something that's bled over from the launches of other kinds of media that roll out quite differently)
Have other people here had different sort of experiences at launch (be it an early access launch, or a launch into pre-orders or any kind of press push)? Has anyone had an awesome launch which they spent celebrating?
In fairness, some of us here are having an awesome day. And none of us are having a terrible day. And the reception has been really great. I'm not trying to say this has been a tragic and frustrating day, just, the culture of congratulating developers on their launches feels misaligned with what I've seen developers go through at launch.
@BlackShipsFilltheSky: That sounds about spot on in my experience. Launches are very stressful (even the whole Greenlight part). A few weeks later when it's settled is a much better time. The crunch, the feedback, the scrambling to fix the things that go wrong, etc; it's not very pleasant, I agree. :\ And to top it all off, coming down from a 2-3 years dev cycle to not having that anymore also bites you unexpectedly. Looking forward to that with VCD now...
Bought it. And I LOVEEEEE it!!!!!! Understand that you guys still have work left before you can celebrate, but you should really celebrate all the small victories too. You guys have created a masterpiece!
@BlackShipsFilltheSky and team, congrats on your steam launch. What an epic milestone!!! I hope it sells even more over the coming months/years so it can fund the next successful one... now don't forget to get some rest ;)
So a huge congrats to everyone on the team! The trailer is awesome, that front page takeover is insane! I completely agree with you on the launch day sentiment. I think it's inevitable with any period of massive crunch, that your emotions have been so hyper focused on fixing problems that you just have no more capacity for feeling the joy or relief of a launch day event. Even if it's going well or exactly as planned, you kind of don't trust it.
You guys have done an awesome job! I wanna come round and give you all hugs, but I know right now you are all probably dead to the world. That's cool - take your time and recover :)
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Something here that you should totally 100% ignore until you guys are feeling human again - I had a lot of trouble navigating the menu with controller (PS4 emulating an XBOX controller through input mapper). Pressing A (bound to jump) to confirm works great until you get to the join screen, where for some reason it becomes cancel and instead you can only push trigger (bound to fire) to join the game. I probably spent a good 15 mins assuming the game was crashing when it reloaded the home screen, but eventually i realised it was just navigating "back" the whole time.
Lots of congrats dudes! Broforce is such an inspiring story of how to do almost everything right - all the way from a simple fun prototype. Can't wait to read the post mortem if you guys ever decide to do a write-up :)
I had a lot of trouble navigating the menu with controller (PS4 emulating an XBOX controller through input mapper). Pressing A (bound to jump) to confirm works great until you get to the join screen, where for some reason it becomes cancel and instead you can only push trigger (bound to fire) to join the game. I probably spent a good 15 mins assuming the game was crashing when it reloaded the home screen, but eventually i realised it was just navigating "back" the whole time.
Just tested with a PS4 controller out the box (without mappers) and it seemed to work fine, though I needed to rebind in the menu for the D-Pad to be properly set up..
Congratulations on the launch guys! Really looking forward to playing the final version. Probably time to remove the (prototype) tag in the thread title ;P
Have other people here had different sort of experiences at launch (be it an early access launch, or a launch into pre-orders or any kind of press push)? Has anyone had an awesome launch which they spent celebrating?
Not since pre digital download days :) Back when if something was broken, it just had to wait for a scheduled patch release.
Polygon posted an guest editorial on Broforce... And there's a picture of the team looking their most dashing to boot!
Shaz wrote it, from her perspective. Though the PR machine wanted something that placed us in a positive light, so there's a couple sentences that make us all uncomfortable...
If someone had thought it a good idea for me to write the article the words "incompetent", "disarray" and "actual idiots" would have been used far more often.
This was Adam Smith's 4th article on Broforce, and he's said in the past:
Adam Smith said:
Eurogamer reckon “Broforce is what The Expendables game should have been” but that’s not going far enough. This is what The Expendables films should have been.
We're ridiculously lucky to have such a passionate fan working for such an influential game website.
"Forget your Just Causes, your Uncharted's, your Battlefields and your Call of Duties – Broforce comes closer to capturing the beautiful chaos and heroic misadventures of a big budget action movie than any of them." - Rock, Paper,Shotgun
Just Awesome! They just dismissed 4 (Four!) franchises in favour of our very own local game... Broforce... *Speechless* :)
This is a pretty big deal for me. Kris Graft (the editor in chief of Gamasutra) did a Hot Pepper Gaming where he talked about why he liked Broforce. It was recorded a while ago apparently.
You'll find this interesting if you either love Kris Graft and respect his work, or hate Kris Graft and want to see him in agony.
We've gotten to the point today where Broforce might be running stably on most people's computers, and the game operates well enough that we're willing for this version to make it onto PS4 as is.
There's still a ton of rough edges in the game. There is missing audio in places, or the chance that enemies get stuck inside the ground, or glitches where enemies vibrate on the spot, or inconsistencies in the art style. But quite a lot of the game works as intended.
I think there are more competent developers out there. We are a team who, for most of us, this is their first game.
And there are developers that are a lot stricter about what gets into the game. Our process of adding things whenever they excite us tends towards producing a lot of rough edges, but the benefit is that it's more enjoyable to work on (most of the time). Because of Early Access we had to keep the worst bugs/glitches out of the game as we went, but, also because of Early Access, it was okay to leave a lot of little things until the end (and after the end).
Anyway, in case it wasn't already clear, the larger and more complex the piece of software, the harder it is to get everything working smoothly. It's been two months since launch, and for me the stress has barely lifted in that time (though I have taken a few days off and didn't work a few weekends).
Comments
We probably will add some kind of hints into the game. Though we'll probably hold the hints back and try calculate if a player isn't doing something.
What I mean is, if the player literally doesn't know that there is a special attack, and hasn't used it in several levels, we could write the tip "Every bro has a unique special attack". Quite often though players literally don't know that there is a special attack button, so that hint doesn't really solve that.
The problem I have with hints is that they rob players of discovery. Discovering something is SUPER FUN, and makes players feel that their actions are special. Obviously I also have a problem with players not being able to play the game.
Which is why I prefer solutions that offer players space to play, over feeding them information. But that's not as simple to accomplish.
We also definitely don't want hint screens that keep looping, telling players information they already know how to do. That makes players feel like they're not being listened to, it's shitty feedback.
I think the best kind of hint would be one that just hints that you haven't mastered something yet. A hint that tells you there is the potential to do something, but not how to do it. So like at the start of Mega Man X with Zero using his charged-shot, that indicates the potential of something without telling the player how.
That's not how most hints work, and I'm not really sure a text based hints system can take a "Show, don't tell" approach.
Just want to share!
Weirdly the sound is turned off for the entire video. Although that seems to be Lazy Game Review's thing. Glad he liked it! Though I agree, that was a pretty stupid ending the game gave him :)
But I like what you are saying about discovery being fun. Your 100% players hate being hand held - but average joe probably does need a bit a hand holding. And then there is average joe's mom who doesn't play video games and needs a helping hand every step of the way - obviously your game and audience makes a big difference in terms of who you cater to. Graceful fallback "tutorials" are great, because it allows your advanced player to discover something on their own - but means that the regular guy doesn't get stuck down a pit with no way to climb out. The catch - this kind of tutorialisation needs to be very context aware, which requires exponentially more effort to implement. That's why I think we see so little of it in the wild.
No-one enjoys being hand held. Everyone enjoys discovering solutions. There really aren't two types of players in this regard. Some players are more accepting of hand holding (there's demographics of this, definitely players who identify as "casual gamers" tend to be more accepting, and this audience doesn't overlap well with Broforce), but still everyone prefers to discover the solutions themselves. If a lot of weaker problem solving players definitely can't figure a critical part of the game out, then that's the unfortunate time to take away their opportunity for discovery.
By design, in Broforce, most skills in the game aren't critical. Jumping and shooting is critical, and that's it really. I want for different players to have different knowledge. I want their discoveries to be nonuniform and special and valuable. I want talking about challenges overcome in Broforce to be an act that can transfer that value. (Obviously a game like Nethack or Minecraft is vastly superior in this regard, but I think Broforce can get some benefit out of this if at a lesser scale.)
Though I can understand in Cadence, with its very different player base, of having a higher appreciation for fallback tutorials. Different games need different solutions to player discovery (though my own aesthetic will always drive me away from tutorials).
Sorry if I'm coming across a bit harsh/fervent. I really do feel like tutorials/tips are overused, besides just being poorly implemented. The need for a good tutorial I feel isn't challenged enough. Designers talk about designing good tutorials, when maybe some of that conversation should be about designing games that are better for not having tutorials at all.
In other news, if you exclude the Kung Fury film as a game, Broforce is right now the 10th highest rated on Steam. (Crypt of the Necrodancer launched and probably went on sale)
https://twitter.com/Steam_Spy/status/612923102922715136/photo/1
(It seems like Broforce has the 10th largest proportion of French players of any game on Steam)
I recently played GalakZ. You'd think that a game aimed at fans of Robotech would assume that you might have held a playstation controller before. It was appalling and patronizing and delivered with voice acting that seemed to indicate the player was a small child.
Here's the rest of the article, written by a dude who has yet to the play the game: http://www.pcgamesn.com/broforce/broforce-release-date-set-for-october-15th-flags-will-be-flown-apple-pie-made-guns-fired-wildly-into-the-air
It seems kind of strange to me that Broforce, and in particular the marketing material around it, has such a strong persona. This was something that started before Devolver took over publishing duties (our preorder button has always read "PREORDER NOW AND WIN THE WAR ON TERROR", and our Greenlight page promises to kill terrorists in real life, for instance), and this approach has always just felt right for Broforce. Of course Devolver have been executing brilliantly on this direction and improving the formula (as per the video in the previous post).
It seems to me that most marketing for games is very factual. They may try evoke the fantasy that takes place in the game, but this is based on what the experience of the game is in fact. Whereas the marketing for Broforce (and games like Strafe) may poorly describe the game, but instead create a fiction surrounding the game which viewers are encouraged to play along with (which acts as a sort of meta-game itself).
The other thing that occurs to me is that there is really no limit to how patriotic an American can plausibly sound. Just when I thought we'd gone over the top @raithza linked me to this video:
It could be the fantasy at the core of the play experience: "How cool would it be to be a cyborg ninja? Doing backflips and slicing shit up with your laser sword? Wicked cool, right? Buy our game and you can experience that.".
It could be aspirational: "Check out all these cool sexy people driving sports cars, gambling in Monaco and skiing in the Alps. Wanna be cool and sexy like them? Buy our cigarettes and you can live that life.".
It could be competition-pride-machismo: "Hey, this game is so tough, it'll kick your pansy ass, kid. Only real bad-asses need apply. You really think you're a bad enough dude to take on this masochism-fest? Hah! I don't think so! Go home and cry to your momma!"
It could be the promise of a good laugh: "Haha, imagine being the dude who has to clean up after the action hero!"
Or, it could be evoking a beloved theme or reference: "Remember how awesome those campy 80s action movies were? Buy our game and experience that awesomeness again."
Of course, the theory is easy to understand, execution is the difficult part. Well done with Broforce, you guys flipping hit it out of the park.
I mean, people have a heuristic that they use to solve the question: "Do I want to buy this". My understanding is that this is answered by their brain with "Have other experiences that I associate with what is being described here excited me?". The brain scans through all the associations and comes back with an urge to buy or not to buy.
Which is why describing your game as "pretending to be a spy and breaking into secure buildings" (for instance) has more resonance than saying "in this game you open locked doors by having remote control of the wiring of the building ".
^- Not sure if I've written the best example, but this and arguably all of the examples you wrote are things actually in the game that people think they might enjoy... but like you say the emotional response is what is important.
Which is weird for me, because seeing a video of a dude singing about his love for America and eating American flags isn't actually information about Broforce. If people were rational this would have very little effect on their purchasing behaviour (because they know little about the game still). But for fans of movies like Team America it probably is an indication that this is an experience they might enjoy, because the content associated with it is associated with other content they like.
I guess I mean to say, when people talk about describing your game to fans they usually talk about actually talking about your game. And that usually is the best course of action I assume.
But marketing campaigns like Strafe have spent a lot of time lying about what their game is (though with a wink to those savvy enough to understand the marketing hyperbole they are co-opting) and Broforce is producing videos that tell people just about nothing about the game at all, in fact arguably that last video of Broforce is about things that people don't like but are being encouraged to laugh at.
When thought of as "People just want to support things that give them a positive emotional response" it doesn't seem strange at all (like you point out), it just seems strange when you consider consumers to be rational actors.
Sorry if I'm over explaining it. The original post was written at the end of 48 hours of not sleeping, not sure if I've recovered yet.
I also wouldn't say that kind of video is really about convincing people to buy. It's more about finding an angle that convinces people to pay attention and take a look, just like the Strafe campaign. So the video is not answering the "do I want to buy this?" question, it's answering the "do I want to devote some of my limited attention to considering this?" question.
Increase the number of people paying attention and you'll naturally get more sales.
I wouldn't call Strafe's campaign "lying" so much as "a clever tactic to draw attention in a crowded marketplace where everyone is shouting for attention". Although, perhaps I missed a bit of the the Strafe campaign where they DID lie.
Anyway, that's my opinion. I might be wrong. :)
This is a path we've taken with Broforce and I'm pretty certain it's had positive results. It's also been a fun path (because pretending like we're super gunho patriotic and obsessing about terrorism gives us plenty of opportunities for roleplaying on a grand scale). I guess I'm just fascinated by what I perceive to be irrational behaviour on the part of consumers (which is what a lot of what all marketing is built around in any case). It feels like we're cheating (but then developing a game like Broforce felt like cheating the system from the beginning, at the very least in the exploitation film sense).
It's been a long road (this thread started in August 2012).
Only 3 years - practically overnight ;)
We'll be leaving Early Access with VCD on the 23rd as well. You beat us to it! :P
BTW I think you can drop the prototype from the thread title now ;)
To be honest, I don't think many developers enjoy launch day. Especially in the PC marketplace with all the hardware configurations, there's always problems that appear with new features and/or new players.
I think there's a bit of this disconnect between what culture tells us launch day is meant to be, and what it is for video game developers. There probably are developers with the discipline or foresight to pull off a smooth launch, but in most of the launches I've seen developers need support more than congratulations.
It's the week or two after launch, when the dust has settled, that I'll be accepting pats on the back :)
(Sorry if I'm being a downer, I don't mean to be, I'm super glad that so many of your care about our adventures and our lives, I just think it's weird that there's an expectation of celebration at a video game launch, I suspect it's something that's bled over from the launches of other kinds of media that roll out quite differently)
Have other people here had different sort of experiences at launch (be it an early access launch, or a launch into pre-orders or any kind of press push)? Has anyone had an awesome launch which they spent celebrating?
In fairness, some of us here are having an awesome day. And none of us are having a terrible day. And the reception has been really great. I'm not trying to say this has been a tragic and frustrating day, just, the culture of congratulating developers on their launches feels misaligned with what I've seen developers go through at launch.
The crunch, the feedback, the scrambling to fix the things that go wrong, etc; it's not very pleasant, I agree. :\
And to top it all off, coming down from a 2-3 years dev cycle to not having that anymore also bites you unexpectedly. Looking forward to that with VCD now...
I can't comprehensibly express what a wonderful partner Devolver has been for Broforce and us.
The artwork is a collaboration between Dawid and Jarred.
You guys have done an awesome job! I wanna come round and give you all hugs, but I know right now you are all probably dead to the world. That's cool - take your time and recover :)
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Something here that you should totally 100% ignore until you guys are feeling human again - I had a lot of trouble navigating the menu with controller (PS4 emulating an XBOX controller through input mapper). Pressing A (bound to jump) to confirm works great until you get to the join screen, where for some reason it becomes cancel and instead you can only push trigger (bound to fire) to join the game. I probably spent a good 15 mins assuming the game was crashing when it reloaded the home screen, but eventually i realised it was just navigating "back" the whole time.
Shaz wrote it, from her perspective. Though the PR machine wanted something that placed us in a positive light, so there's a couple sentences that make us all uncomfortable...
http://www.polygon.com/2015/10/20/9575181/how-to-do-early-access-right
If someone had thought it a good idea for me to write the article the words "incompetent", "disarray" and "actual idiots" would have been used far more often.
Congrats FL, that's high praise indeed!
We're ridiculously lucky to have such a passionate fan working for such an influential game website.
Just Awesome! They just dismissed 4 (Four!) franchises in favour of our very own local game... Broforce... *Speechless* :)
Edit: I see Garethf mentioned it previously.
You'll find this interesting if you either love Kris Graft and respect his work, or hate Kris Graft and want to see him in agony.
We've gotten to the point today where Broforce might be running stably on most people's computers, and the game operates well enough that we're willing for this version to make it onto PS4 as is.
There's still a ton of rough edges in the game. There is missing audio in places, or the chance that enemies get stuck inside the ground, or glitches where enemies vibrate on the spot, or inconsistencies in the art style. But quite a lot of the game works as intended.
I think there are more competent developers out there. We are a team who, for most of us, this is their first game.
And there are developers that are a lot stricter about what gets into the game. Our process of adding things whenever they excite us tends towards producing a lot of rough edges, but the benefit is that it's more enjoyable to work on (most of the time). Because of Early Access we had to keep the worst bugs/glitches out of the game as we went, but, also because of Early Access, it was okay to leave a lot of little things until the end (and after the end).
Anyway, in case it wasn't already clear, the larger and more complex the piece of software, the harder it is to get everything working smoothly. It's been two months since launch, and for me the stress has barely lifted in that time (though I have taken a few days off and didn't work a few weekends).
I am looking forward to a holiday now though :)