Project Nyx

KyleL

Hi there! I wanted to start up an official project thread for Project Nyx. It’s an experimental sci-fi multiplayer shooter that blends frenzied ground combat with chaotic six-degrees-of-freedom space battles. I am looking for portfolios, especially from local developers, artists, sound designers, and so on. If you're a creative with a bit of experience, I'd love to hear from you (jobs(at)major7thgames.com)!

Any feedback is encouraged! I'm working towards a new build that I'd be keen to share with people here eventually.

Reveal trailer:
Project Overview:
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/Major7thGames
Discord: https://discord.gg/54GjcWw
Website: http://www.major7thgames.com/
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1324540/Project_Nyx/

Cheers for now!

KyleL

For Blocktober, I showcased a few screenies from the level design process for the Space Mine map. It's the biggest map so far, and it does a better job of highlighting the potential the game's gravity mechanics have to create unique and thrilling experiences. However, neither of the two maps properly grasp the concept just yet. The next map, which will be built for the zone capture mode Control, will have multiple points of interest scattered around the map with longer stretches of space and asteroids/debris in between.

Here's the tweet: https://twitter.com/Major7thGames/status/1319657086075142149?s=20

KyleL

First #ScreenshotSaturday over on Twitter did pretty well (https://twitter.com/Major7thGames/status/1319963816743022592?s=20)!
The game's finally getting some more exposure thanks to the bots and individuals who peruse the hashtag. The Unreal Engine Twitter account (https://twitter.com/UnrealEngine) also runs a #ScreenshotSaturday event every week, so replying to that catapulted the interactions a little higher. The GIF approach is a well-known marketing strategy to quickly showcase your game's hook(s) (whether that be a cutesy artstyle, the fact that you can pet a dog, or other unique mechanics), which I'm glad to report has worked out after an okayish reveal (low retweets and interactions, only 7 upvotes on Reddit, but the reveal trailer hit over 500 views, which is stellar). This particular GIF did the best out of any previous post on Reddit, racking up over 100 upvotes and resulting in 10 more Steam wishlists. https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/jh7eaa/hi_reddit_its_our_first_screenshotsaturday_heres/

Considering the game had a cold reveal (no hype, no established community, no publisher), the numbers are looking alright. There haven't been any articles written by gaming press outlets at this time, but I'm hoping to get one or two soon. Press releases were sent out during the reveal (local and international), but it's tough to get coverage at the best of times (discovered this working freelance at a game publisher for a while), so investing time in gaming communities on Reddit and Twitter is a better bet (go straight to the players). There's a whole host of reasons why the press may not cover your game, but not getting picked up doesn't indicate that your project lacks value. It's really tough to make decent money as a press outlet, so covering popular stuff for the clicks is the safer option. If a small game gets covered by a press outlet, that's charity. You just need to find other ways to get your game in front of as many people as possible.

The next few attempts at exposure are coming up, like the monthly #PitchYaGame and so on. I'm hoping this gets the attention of a few potential publishers, but we shall see how it goes!

KyleL

Also, people are being so nice and I just want to hug all of them!

Elyaradine

Congrats on making this! It's crazy how much you've done as a solo developer! For clarity for those who aren't on discord, I left a bit of feedback there that focused on taking your "hook" (the arbitrary gravity/antigravity) and trying to make it an indispensable, killer feature, and focusing your footage and prototyping that.

I recently came across this page, and thought of Project Nyx and refining its pitch (but also refining your gameplay footage to help with strengthening the pitch).

https://www.tinybuild.com/how-to-pitch-your-game

KyleL

Thanks so much! I'm a big fan of your work! Thanks for the feedback. I'm focusing a lot more on showing the hook in the marketing materials now, which is definitely getting a better response.

KyleL

The monthly #PitchYaGame came and went, and I had a great time! The reception wasn't huge, but I got a lot of kind words and some great feedback from the organisers. Made some new game dev friends/acquaintances, which is always fun! Was also contacted by a really cool music talent agency who are keen to chat about an original soundtrack. Still hoping to find/hear from local composers and sound designers, though!