GDC, a meet up, and a demo (Patreon)

Hey Patrons. I wanted to check in and let you know what I'm up to.

Next week I'm flying to San Francisco for the Game Developer's Conference. Well... GDC isn't until the week after, but I thought I'd extend my stay and do some tourist-y stuff first! Golden Gate Bridge! Seals at the pier! Alcatraz!

For the conference itself I'll be catching up with old friends, meeting new people, attending talks, and going to events. I'll also be hosting a GMTK meet-up. If you're coming to GDC (or just in the area), it's at 1PM on March 22nd, in the Yerba Buena Gardens. Follow me on Twitter, in case the weather sucks and we need to move!

I also thought that this would be a perfect time to get lots of eyes on my game! So I've been hard at work these past few weeks making a new demo.

I had made a bunch of levels for the big puzzle sprint I talked about in my last episode of Developing, and did make a huge demo with about 20 puzzles.

But feedback (from Patrons in the Discord, friends and family, and some fellow puzzle designers) revealed some frustrating, annoying, and just-plain-bad stages. So I've spent a lot of time refining, remaking, recycling, and curating a small handful of (hopefully!) good stages to make up a demo.

I also added in some new stuff like a dialogue system, that powers a prototype conversation...

An improved pause menu...

A lock and key system for certain puzzles...

And so on.

And now I've got to a point that I'm pretty happy with! And so if you'd like to check out the demo I'll be taking to GDC (though, I've still got a bit of time to add or tweak stuff), then please head to Itch and use the password gmtkdeveloping2023. Any feedback, ideas, video playthroughs, etc would be great. Leave a comment, shoot me a DM on Discord, whatever.

Today I'm off to buy a Steam Deck so I can carry the demo around with me easily. That will also give me something to play on the 12 hour plane trip to California!

Other than that...

Last weekend I met up with a bunch of other UK-based YouTubers. This was supposed to be our group's Christmas party, but rail strikes in the UK kept wrecking our plans - forcing us to wear Xmas jumpers and do secret Santa gift giving in March!

I recently spent a day working on one of my GMTK Minis, about the Dead Space Remake. But halfway through (after writing, recording, and starting to edit), I decided that it wasn't up to the standards of the channel so I killed it. I will probably revisit the topic, with a lot more research, after the Resident Evil 4 Remake is released. I'll be back to normal GMTK work in April, so perhaps that's what I'll make.

And I wanted to give a shout out to the Double Fine PsychOdyssey, a 32-part, roughly 20 hour documentary on the making of Psychonauts 2. I've been watching and listening to it at the gym, and it's great - a really unique inside look at how a game studio works. Recommended!

Anyway, that's me. Chat soon!