BurgerKurger
patreon
Touching base
🕑 Added 2023-07-16 13:32:25 +0000 UTCHello everyone! First of all I want to give all of you a huge HUGE thank you, I'm genuinely blown away by your generous support. I know the thank you's can kind of blend together after being said so many times but just know when I say it I really really mean it.
I'm so glad people are liking the Kurger Shorts, I'm starting to get a better handle on making them, and they're a ton of fun to write, though they do demand some time to make. I think it's safe to say that they're kind of the main reason many people are here, which brings me to my main topic.
Visca's Earth Conquest is a pretty hefty time commitment, more than I had anticipated (shocker, lol). The biggest issue is that Game Maker's implementation of Spine2d is really janky and cumbersome to work with (because the runtime is not made by the Spine2d team themselves), and the issue only compounds with each new added sprite and animation. Another big issue is that I don't think the game loop scales very well with long play sessions. The idea sounds good on paper but in practice I think it can feel a bit bland after playing for more than an hour, and the solution would probably be something like adding more complex combat, which would end up overcomplicating what is meant to be a mechanically simple game. That's sort of the nature of game development though, things that sound good on paper usually don't work exactly the same once it starts coming together. I think as the game is now it works better as a relatively short experience.
The original plan was to make it pretty content-heavy (a big world with lots of areas) and then charge a few bucks for it on release, however at this point thanks to how many wonderful people are willing to support my work, I'm going to scale the game down and release it for free. My hope is that I will be able to get it done on my original vague release date of "end of 2023" and be able to move back to working on Lilith's Lair, which is a game I think plays more to my strengths.
That being said, you guys are the reason I'm able to do what I'm doing in the first place so if you have an issue with this change please don't hesitate to let me know. If you're giving me your hard-earned money you deserve to be heard. You can do it in the comments or a direct message if you wanna keep it private.
Thank you again, really and truly.
Comments
Burger Kurger
Thank you so much! Every bit towards the noble cause of TOPPLING THE CLOWN is greatly appreciated :)
Meowfullz
Always sucks having to lower the scale of something you had big plans for, but I’m sure the final release will be great regardless if it is a big or small game. I’ve been a fan of your stuff since ameoblaster so being able to support everything you put out has been well worth it, not to mention a dollar towards putting Rhonda McDonda out of business is a dollar well spent lol. Keep up the amazing work.
Burger Kurger
Thank you! And yeah that's totally fair.
Burger Kurger
If I don't turn the game into spaghetti code, future updates for Visca's Earth Conquest are definitely possible, most everything at this point is made with adding more things in mind (like more upgrade types or alternate outfits) and SHOULDN'T cause any conflicting errors with old save files. Spine2d works great on it's own, but there's a persistent issue I run into with how bone transforms are carried over between animations. To put it simply, if an animation ends with Visca's arm turned at a 45 degree angle, the following animation will sometimes still have her arm stuck at that 45 degree angle unless I have a keyframe for that bone in the animation. This causes a pretty steady problem with how Visca's rig behaves in the game, the solution I'm usually stuck with is to add keys to EVERY SINGLE BONE at the start of EACH ANIMATION to ensure that they stay in their correct default position, but also I have to change the data ever so slightly by like a decimal point or it won't register as a keyframe (so instead of a scale of 1 I have to make it a scale of 1.001). Also pretty much nobody uses spine2d with Game Maker so if I'm ever troubleshooting I have to figure shit out on my own 99% of the time lmao.
Burger Kurger
Thank you, I will do my best
Burger Kurger
Thank you! I will do my best to keep delivering
I love all your stuff, but I am way more interested in Lilith's Lair if I'm going to be 100% honest with you.
667TRH
it sounds like you really considered the pros and cons. i'd say i trust your judgement regarding visca's earth conquest, something a bit smaller scale could still be a lot of fun. and hey, if it turns out you really want to work on it more, i'm sure that's still an option in the future. but i think a finished game is better than one that labors in a troubled development. i am kind of curious what issues spine2d is causing, if you wouldn't mind sharing some details as to how it's jank. regardless. looking forward to whatever you make next. i've become a really big fan of your art honestly.
Pingasranger
You've got spunk, you've got what I crave. Frankly, I'm just a big fan, and I'm here to stay. So whatever you've got in store, dude, I'll be cheering you on.
clinko clinko
yo thats absolutely understandable with game dev. im super happy to have joined your patreon regardless because like i LOVE your characters and storytelling!!!! i’ll be stickin around no matter what ahah
Burger Kurger
Thank you! There's already so many wonderful people here I'm not too worried about getting more patrons to be honest lol
James
In all seriousness though, I'm sure those that already support you would still buy it, I can't speak for others, but I enjoy the content you make and believe in supporting you so that you can continue to make said content.
James
You totally could though, I just bought Skyrim for the 8th time because I'm a mindless consumer, and I'm not gonna lie, it's for the adult mods, the fat adult mods.
Hand Banana
Been loving everything you've been putting out. Thanks for the update, looking forward to all in the future. Hey, maybe that free release will drum up even more patrons so the Lair can get bigger and better.
Burger Kurger
Fair enough! I don't wanna make a promise I can't keep but as of right now the plan is to give out keys to patrons for games that I do charge for cuz like, it's kind of fucked up to ask for your money twice lol
James
Stacks obviously being a relative term, given my continued reduction in reserved funds set aside for frivolous purchases, but that doesn't sound quite as neat as a rhyme.
James
Free stuff is cool, and I'm excited for Lilith's lair, I like the fats and because I like the fats I spend the stacks
