Showcase Saturday - The Banner Saga 3

As a team that’s making our own turn-based tactical RPG, you can probably guess that we’ve played several games in the genre. One favorite that both Robby and I share is Stoic Studio’s Banner Saga series. The first and second installments of the Banner Saga are known for their stunning art style and bleak yet moving narratives. They also introduced a fresh take on tactical combat that required a new approach from seasoned tactics gamers.

Image from the Banner Saga 3 Kickstarter page

The Banner Saga 3 has been up on Kickstarter for a few days and is close to reaching its goal of $200,000. While it will almost certainly reach its goal at this point, I still encourage people to check out the Kickstarter and donate if the pledges interest you. Regardless of whether you choose to donate, I definitely urge you to check out the first two games. While Alkanaur will end up quite distinct in terms of gameplay, narrative themes, and art style, I think the Banner Saga games show just how much depth and variety the tactical RPG genre has to offer.

Next week’s Showcase Saturday will show off some of our progress on Alkanaur’s battle mechanics, so if you’ve been hungry for some Alkanaur content, make sure to stop by our blog on February 4^th.

Dev Take Tuesday - Compliments

When’s the last time you allowed yourself a compliment? Today’s brief Dev Take Tuesday post is inspired by a Twitter hashtag. I saw the little list of what’s trending on Twitter and saw #NationalComplimentDay. Now, I know that all these silly holidays can be somewhat…well…silly. And based off my last desk job I’m pretty sure there are at least three separate “National Donut Days.” All that being said, I still liked the idea of dedicating a day to compliments.

Image of Fallout's Vault Boy, made by Bethesda Softworks

I’m going to make sure to give out a few extra compliments today, both in real life and over Twitter. But that’s not the focus of today’s post. I repeat the question I started with—when’s the last time you allowed yourself a compliment? I feel like the inescapable stream of iteration in game development forces most developers to become increasingly self-critical. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Criticizing is like chiseling—you keep chipping and shaping and smoothing to find something beautiful in what was once rough. But chip away at a stone forever and you’ll wind up with no sculpture and very tired hands.

Remember to take a break from self-criticism every once in a while, and give your project a compliment. Today, I’m going to compliment the work that Robby and I have done to start marketing and playtesting our game early. Working on builds that were only meant for demos felt a bit strange, but we got valuable feedback from the experience. Similarly, tweeting and posting while our followers were few and marketable content was hard to find sometimes felt like the first few brushstrokes of a painting, when the artist wonders if those brushstrokes will amount to anything. We’re starting to see the results from that work as our “painting” takes form, and I’m proud of our efforts to not only make a playable game, but a game that people will (hopefully) want to share with their friends.

So I encourage all the other devs out there to not only participate in #NationalComplimentDay, but to periodically give compliments to your own work, the work of others on your team, and the work of other dev teams. Let’s keep improving our art form and setting the bar higher and higher for what video games can do.  And let’s make sure we don’t wear ourselves out along the way. 

An early Showcase Saturday - Milkmaid of the Milky Way

I'll be busy tomorrow, so I guess we're doing Showcase Friday instead. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

Milkmaids, cows, and frogs. Oh my. (Image found on the game's dev log)

Anyway, I just want to give a quick shout-out to a game called Milkmaid of the Milky Way. I've been following the game's progress on Twitter and Reddit, and I'm impressed at what this one-man dev has been able to create in about two years.  Do you remember the classic point-and-click adventure games of the nineties? Throw in some charming pixel art graphics and rhyming text and you have Milkmaid of the Milky Way. (By the way, the poet in me now feels challenged to make my own game filled with only rhymes, heh.)

The game just came out this week on Steam, and you can check it out here. 

Dev Take Tuesday - La La Land

Yesterday my wife and I went to see La La Land, the musical film starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. I expected some good songs, copious dancing, and a sweet love story between two good actors. I wasn’t prepared for the film to be so poignant to me. I guess you can hold off on reading this post if you’re concerned about very mild spoilers, but I promise I won’t say anything that isn’t apparent 15 minutes into the film.

Gosling and Stone in La La Land (Image found here)

The two main characters are both dreamers of sorts—artist-types living in L.A. (the title of the film is rather clever). As expected, both characters experience conflict as they struggle to balance their dreams with reality. It’s not the first time this theme has shown up in a movie, of course, but maybe because of the music and the likable yet believable characters…something just clicked for me emotionally. During one scene toward the end of the film, I actually got quite emotional.

I know that balancing optimism and pragmatism is a constant conflict for practically anyone in the business of creating. I know some people try to peddle easy answers for game developers and other creators, but I don’t believe there’s one cure-all for everyone. The hard (but true, in my opinion) answer is that every situation is different, and that we need both realism and optimism in these industries. It’s obviously important to be realistic when it comes to managing expectations and taking care of finances.  I don’t see any reason to be ashamed of working a day job to pay for your art, and I never look down on people who want to primarily make money from making games. But I also admire people who take that leap and dare to realize their dreams--without them, we'd miss out on a lot of beautiful art and enjoyable games. As Emma Stone’s character, Mia, sings at one point in the movie: “Here’s to the ones who dream. Foolish as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that ache. Here’s to the mess we make.”

I’m proud to be a dreamer, despite the heartache and despite the messes. Here’s to all the other foolish game devs out there who dream.