The autumn triple-A release season is here, but even as Spider-Man webs up foes and cowboys saddle up once again, small indies are still making their way out in the wild, like the newly released musical adventure Wandersong from developer Greg Lobanov. 

Lobanov, who created Wandersong with the help of audio wizard Em Halberstadt and musician Gordon McGladdery will be joining us today at 3PM EDT on the Gamasutra Twitch channel as we stream the game and go over its design and development. Musical games are few and far between, and this is a good opportunity to ask questions for Lobanov about making music mechanics that even the rhythmically-uninclined can interact with. 

For more developer interviews, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

My first venture into solo game development, oOo: Ascension launched this morning on Steam and will be out on Nintendo Switch a week today. It has been pretty well received  by the few that have played it, earning a place as a TIGA finalist for ‘best game by a small studio’ and a BAFTA Scotland nomination for Best Game – but it’s not all as rosey as it could have been.

A quick summary of how I got here – I had been working in bars for nearly 8 years, before deciding that the only thing I truly wanted to do was make games, so I began teaching myself to make 3D models during the evenings and days off, and eventually managed to get a job working for an architectural company making pre-build visuals. When my portfolio was strong enough I landed a job working for a game developer, and by then I had also taught myself to code so that I could start making my own prototypes and mini-games. Eventually, I entered Ludum Dare 38 and the resulting compo entry became the game that came out today, but I spoke about that in a blog post back in May. 

When I look back on this whole journey though, I tend not to focus on the things that I think I’ve achieved in that time, but rather what I wish I had done differently. By the time the game was finished (at least, there was an end level that you could complete and some amount of polish had gone into it), I felt like I’d completed a near-decade long learning experience, and from here on in I was armed with all of the skills that I’d need going forward.

How wrong I was.

I had missed out one, enormous, gaping skill-set that meant that everything from this point onwards would be an up hill battle: Marketing. 

I had read countless articles stressing the importance of marketing, but I always though that it was something I’d get round to ‘once this feature is finished’ or ‘when I get time to put together a video’. I always felt that the game wasn’t the best possible version of what it could be so I kept holding of until I felt it looked polished enough. I left everything until the game was nearly finished, and by then it was far, far too late. I want to go back and punch myself squarely in the face for not taking on board the glaringly obvious (well, it seems it now) advice to create a mailing list, discord server and all the other little things that seem like they wouldn’t be enough to make much of a difference on their own, but when all put together become the driving force of a community, and as such, generate interest in the game.. 

The only reason for the awards the game has been nominated for is because by submitting the game the judges actually had to play it, otherwise I doubt any of them would even have heard of it, let alone give it a shot. Every game that has had time and effort spent on it deserves to be seen, and as such I implore any aspiring developer to start talking about it as soon as they have a title, hell even before then you could be sharing sketches, wireframe models, story concepts – absolutely anything that might attract one new fan is worth it in the long run – it all builds up. 

Learning how to code, model or design for games is a relatively insular process – it’s about you and how you learn best. Marketing, on the other hand, involves constantly putting yourself out there for others to judge, and that comes naturally to almost nobody. However, I cannot stress enough that it is just as important, maybe even more so, than any other element of the indie game development process.

In short, yes, marketing is an uncomfortable, densely packed minefield of pain, but it’s one that I strongly suggest you gracelessly bellyflop onto from a great height – and do so as early as possible. 

I’m happy to announce that Anodyne, our surreal, dream-like adventure game is now available on Xbox One. As you wander the dreamscapes of Anodyne, you may wonder how such worlds came to be. Well, today, with rarely shown concept art, I’d like to take you back 6 years to when we were creating the levels.

To make a level, I first developed descriptions for the areas, and then relied on the expertise of Marina Kittaka, the artist and writer, to visually flesh out the worlds. I was heavily inspired by the surreal nightmare spaces of the cult classic Yume Nikki, as well as the faint sense of unease that hangs over the dream world of the classic Link’s Awakening. Also, Link’s Awakening and many other Game Boy games have a small screen size, which I utilized in Anodyne. This is the ‘secret’ of Anodyne‘s atmosphere – by only seeing a little of the world, it becomes mysterious to the player, as they must imagine what exists outside of that screen.

Now, one visually memorable area from Anodyne is called Redsea. Let’s briefly go through how this area came to fruition! Here’s a picture of the area, in-game.

Here’s an early e-mail from July 2012, where I describe my concept for the Redsea area to Marina. I already had a playable prototype of the area, as well as sketches, which Marina could reference.

It was important for me to include landmark, layout, and visual descriptions. Additionally, I made sure to write a song draft so I could musically convey my idea. With these things in hand, Marina could best imagine what it would be like to be inside of this area, and create the best possible art. A few days later, Marina presented me this concept art, which did a great job at conveying the warm, humid nature of the place.

The concept art is vital, as it’s what Marina will base her low resolution-style art on. So, if we both agree that the concept art works, Marina will be able to make good art for the area! Ultimately, a working partnership is like a relay race, where the creative production is built on trust in the other’s skills. Making a game is dealing with a constant barrage of tasks, and so you have to be able to hand off a portion of the work to others without micromanaging all of their decisions.

Here are a few other examples of the concept and in-game art.

This is the abstract Picasso-esque concept of Anodyne‘s iconic Fields area. Note the similarities in the grass.

And this is one of Anodyne‘s urban areas  – an apartment, filled with books, boxes, mice, and more.

There are various other kinds of communication we had to do while making the game – we would discuss boss or monster concepts, character ideas, writing ideas, even the layouts of the game’s dungeons. However, I’ll leave it at this for now, and let you discover the world of Anodyne for yourself — pick it up today on Xbox One from the Microsoft Store.

Prior to the 2018 Tokyo Game Show, Sega ran a poll asking what games fans wanted to see adapted to the AGES line. In case you missed it, the Jet Set Radio series was at the top of the list. This covered the original game released on Dreamcast in 2000 and also Jet Set Radio Future launched on Microsoft’s Xbox in 2002.

Right below this was the 1999 AM2 classic Shenmue along with its 2001 sequel. As noted at the time, the demand for the first two entries in this series are likely because of the recent two-pack HD remaster made available on multiple platforms. Speaking to 4Gamer around the same time of this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Sega localisation director Hiroji Noguchi said he was flattered fans had shown such strong support for the Shenmue series and said it would be great if the games could be played on Nintendo’s new hybrid device:

The fans have really shown their love for Shenmue – and for that, I really am grateful. Personally, I think it’d be great if you could play Shenmue on the Switch anywhere…

Localisation producer Eigo Kasahara was more direct with his response, saying how both Dreamcast classics were in consideration now that the fans had spoken:

Whether or not we can do something like that in reality, we’re taking the fans’ opinions into consideration. Following up on that might take some time, but it’s definitely something I want to consider.

Would you like to see Shenmue I and II released on the Switch? Have you played these games previously? What did you think about the results of the Sega AGES poll? Tell us below.

A famous Pokémon GO player has recently had his account suspended by Niantic for breaking the rules of the popular mobile game. According to Nintendo Soup, Singapore-based player Brandon Tan has made a name for himself by becoming the best Pokémon GO trainer in the world. As committed to the cause as he is, it appears he’s also been caught out for violating the game’s terms of service.

The player has reportedly been selling Pokémon online for as much as $400 and is also in possession of more than five Pokémon GO accounts. Tan allegedly became an easy target for Niantic when he made all of this information publicly available online. This includes promotion of his “Mewtwo service” via Twitter – offering to trade the rare Pokémon for a high price to his 26,000 followers.

A few days prior to his suspension, Tan tweeted about how he had completed 485 Mewtwo raids this week – participating in an average of 69 raids a day from 6:00 am through to 9:30 pm. It’s basically a full-time job, making it even more surprising he would publicly violate the rules and put himself at risk like this.

What do you think about this? When you’re the very best, should you be allowed to violate the terms of service in a game? Are you glad Niantic has made an example of such a well-known player? Tell us below.