00:00so here's the deal i signed up to put my
00:03game into steam's next fest
00:05which i thought was going to be a great
00:09i needed to make a demo for my game
00:11which would have been fine
00:13except i decided to add a few major
00:16features to the game just a couple of
00:18days before i had to submit my demo
00:23i'll go over my steam stats from the
00:25festival at the end of the video so i'm
00:28making a game about cartoony tanks
00:30and to be honest i feel like the best
00:32part of the game so far is the title but
00:34i'm trying to make the game as good as
00:36the title and here's how i'm doing so
00:37far i made my levels look even better
00:39added music and sound effects added
00:41coins added stores with upgrades some
00:44major bug fixes and i set up the level
00:47loading system to be direction dependent
00:49and i'll explain what i mean by this
00:50there's a lot to go over here but i
00:52wanted to get a bunch of stuff done so i
00:54could release a demo for steam's next
00:55fest you can download it now and check
00:57it out so ladies and gentlemen here's
00:59where we're at remember when i made an
01:01entire video about how i made my game
01:04well i made it even better take a look
01:07the old style of levels felt so
01:09flat and two-dimensional i'm much more
01:12happy with the levels now i changed to
01:13the walls to have a separate top layer
01:15and that combined with the varying sizes
01:17and heights of the blocks make the
01:19levels feel much more immersive in my
01:21opinion then i added some particle
01:22systems to generate snow and sand and
01:25added some post-processing effects which
01:27make the worlds feel a bit more vibrant
01:29and i added little models to give each
01:31world a bit more pizzazz for the forest
01:32world i added little mushrooms the snow
01:34world got a snowman and the desert world
01:40so all in all we're looking a bit better
01:42now but the biggest thing i added was
01:44money i wanted to add coins into the
01:46game and allow the player to buy
01:47upgrades from the store so you probably
01:49already know where i started with my
01:51good pal blender making a claim was easy
01:54peasy i just needed a cylinder and then
01:56another cylinder and then another
01:59cylinder and i cut out holes from the
02:01first cylinder with the other two and
02:02voila then i made a logo in photoshop to
02:05use as a decal on the coin and threw it
02:07into unity for the coin's interactions
02:09with the player i gave it a script that
02:11will slowly rotate it on whatever axis i
02:13want and when the player collects a coin
02:15it will spin faster and rise up before
02:17disappearing boom easy money i didn't
02:19want to just litter coins around levels
02:21though so i made it so you'll collect a
02:23coin whenever you kill an enemy now i
02:25can already hear you asking but thomas
02:27what's the point of having money if
02:29there's nowhere to spend it well i say
02:31the same thing about cryptocurrency but
02:33have no fear i'm gonna make a very ugly
02:35shop so you can use your hard-earned
02:36cash to buy some tank upgrades making
02:38the actual shop was fairly
02:40straightforward i want to make a little
02:41village in the future but i was a bit
02:43strapped for time since i decided to add
02:45coins in stores two days before i had to
02:47release a demo so here's my gorgeous
02:49temporary shop i just put a collider in
02:51the doorway that will trigger a pop-up
02:53where you can make transactions right
02:54now the store upgrades are the same as
02:56the buffs you get when you pick a new
02:57character but now you can stack them
02:59which is super fun the game starts to
03:01get manic once you buy the 2x speed buff
03:04like three times or if you stack a bunch
03:06of allies on your team eventually i'll
03:08balance this out better and let you buy
03:09some unique stuff like different
03:11projectiles or special skills like a
03:13shield or a turret or mines or something
03:15but right now it just randomizes what
03:17gets filled into these three slots i
03:19have to say that this is already making
03:20the game way more fun i'm going to put
03:23some more effort into making the store a
03:25centerpiece of the gameplay right now it
03:26shows up after every third level that
03:28you beat so there's lots of
03:30opportunities to buy stuff one emergent
03:32ramification of this design that i
03:34really like is that if you gain an ally
03:36that's one less coin you get per level
03:39so you could stack your allies and make
03:40the levels much easier to beat but
03:42you'll be getting much less coins in the
03:44process i also spent a lot of time
03:46adding in music and sound effects into
03:48the game i don't think that'll be
03:49particularly interesting to dive into
03:52much but i'll show you how i implemented
03:54it quickly there's basically two types
03:55of sounds you need in a game background
03:57music and sound effects the background
03:59music was fairly easy to implement the
04:01hard part was finding copyright free
04:02music i could use luckily i remembered
04:04that i had bought a humble bundle with a
04:06bunch of music in it so i picked the
04:08ones i liked and added them into the
04:09game by tying a list of songs to a
04:12particular world in the game for the
04:14sound effects also called stingers i
04:15made a list of events in the game that
04:17need sound effects and did something
04:19similar to the background music where i
04:20basically just made a list of events
04:22that were paired with a sound clip to
04:24play when i needed i also started
04:25building out an options menu where you
04:27could change the volume but then i
04:29realized that i had one day until
04:31steam's festival started and i still
04:32hadn't submitted my demo so yeah i threw
04:35that in the trash for now and man was i
04:37blown away with how much of a difference
04:39sound makes the music is fun and the
04:41sound effects give you so much feedback
04:43it's much more immersive and enjoyable
04:45to shoot things now um let's see what
04:47else did i do oh yeah the level loading
04:48algorithm okay this sucked let me show
04:51you what the problem was so there are
04:52four doors that can open to take you to
04:54the next level once you kill all the
04:56enemies but i wanted to create
04:58asymmetric levels and build walls
05:00wherever i wanted so maybe a level would
05:03only have two doors that can open well
05:05that's all fine and dandy but my problem
05:07was that i was loading the next level
05:09randomly so if i exit to the right i had
05:11no way of knowing if the next level i
05:13was going into had a left door that was
05:15available for me to enter into this
05:17resulted in the player sometimes
05:19transitioning to new levels but being
05:21stuck inside walls which kind of puts a
05:23downer on the gameplay experience so i
05:25was trying to think how i could fix this
05:27and the only thing i could come up with
05:28is tracking some metadata for each level
05:30so i made a configuration to track a
05:32level scene name which biomid belongs to
05:34which doors are available to open and a
05:37boolean to signify if a particular level
05:39is a store so now i can make sure to
05:41grab a level only if it has an open
05:43doorway that we can enter into and this
05:44works pretty well i'm mostly happy with
05:46it but there are two major drawbacks to
05:48this one is that i need to maintain the
05:50list of level metadata if i ever modify
05:53or add levels which will get
05:54increasingly more tedious as i add more
05:56levels to the game and two it means that
05:59you might skip some levels if there are
06:00a couple force levels that you haven't
06:02beaten yet but you exit the current
06:04level in a particular direction that
06:06doesn't match with an incoming direction
06:08on the remaining levels then you'll just
06:10get carried to the next world and never
06:12get to see those levels one way that i
06:14was thinking i could circumvent this
06:15issue is creating hallway levels that
06:18act as connectors so you could exit in
06:20any direction and it would make a turn
06:22so you could load in more level
06:24possibilities but yeah besides that i
06:26made a few minor changes
06:28i created a crosshair cursor for the
06:30mouse i added circle indicators around
06:32the player and allies so it's easier to
06:34see who's who oh and i added win and
06:36lose conditions which i guess is a
06:38really important thing so now if you die
06:40three times you get a game over screen
06:42and if you beat all the levels in the
06:44demo you get a windscreen oh and also
06:46you can pause the game now too so yeah
06:48that was a lot to try and cram into my
06:50demo before submitting my build to
06:52steam's next fest but i actually got it
06:55all done with only a few bugs i was
06:57thinking about doing an entirely
06:58separate video on how my game did in the
07:00steam festival but to be honest my
07:02experience was a bit underwhelming only
07:04111 people played my demo and i got
07:07almost the exact same number of wish
07:09lists in that period my game was a bit
07:11buried but i didn't think it was too bad
07:13it was like four or five pages into its
07:16sub-genre i think where i really dropped
07:18the ball is not signing up to do a live
07:20stream it seems like that's what drew a
07:21lot of traffic to people's demos because
07:23steam would highlight whatever game was
07:25signed up to stream for the festival but
07:27overall it was a good experience if
07:29nothing else it got me familiar with
07:30steam's back end and build submission
07:32process which is the most awful pipeline
07:35i've ever worked with so i'm glad i
07:37didn't have to figure that out when
07:38trying to launch my full game so i would
07:40give cramming features into your game
07:42days before steam's next fest 2.5 out of
