วีดีโอ

Coffee acquired! YIISS

Good stuff! If you're making a script where the relationship between the nodes is irrelevant you can also use @export to reference nodes instead of using @onready, which will let you connect it up in the inspector. This gets around any renaming issues, and is especially useful when the script is intended to be modular. I personally use both in different situations, so I'd just recommend playing around with each and seeing which works best for you in each scenario.

Love these quick tips, I feel like just making a to do list and crossing it off or moving it over is the best way to get momentum going. Hope you're enjoying the snow, I'm jealous 😂

My program is a piece of paper and a pen. I like pen and paper. I have small notebook where I write down ideas. Good luck with your games.

Solo I use obsidian with kanban plugin. Working with others I love using Asana.

As a solo dev myself, and an Agile Coach in my "real" (😢) life, i keep things as lean as I can. My code is in git so I keep my kanban board in github. I go back to the essence of scrum which is an objective based framework (which companies tend to forget and make it a jira ticket machine). What that means is I have a vision of where I want my Product to be at in 3 Months (example: integrate multiplayer). And every week, i set myself a much smaller objective to reach that bigger goal (based on the time I'll actually have each week). For example: make splitscreen work. That objective is then translated into a to do list of things I need to do. In the first few months the objectives are much more exploratory and get more focused as I figure out what my game is going to be. Its worked well so far (until life took over but setbacks happen when youre not full time sooo it is what it is...)

Love the video and topic! I find that the urge to spend a lot of time in planning tools (trello, notion, jira, whatever) is actually procrastination in disguise, at least for a solo dev. Especially if you find yourself setting up complex systems with lots of templates, automation, and fancy bells and whistles. It *feels like* work, but it's an illusion. That said, they aren't totally useless and there is some value in planning. Working on the wrong thing for too long can be very expensive. It can just be tricky to figure out when the diminishing returns on planning time kick in. For myself, i think an easy tell is how *messy* and *tearse* the doc/plan/tickets etc are. The nicer/more verbose they are, especially if they have lots of nice formatting, the more i know I've just been procrastinating.

I think a lot of solo devs get stuck trying to structure their work as if it were a medium-large company rather than what works for them to actually get work done. Simple == Progress!

I swear we were separated at gamedev birth! I love it. Having a punch list in a word-type document is also what I do.

Finally another Minnesota gamedev!! Let’s go!!

Imagine planning out solo game development. :p

Liking the island update. Excited to see the next round of changes. Really looking forward to the rogue-like elements, probably my favorite genre of games. Keep up the good work Aarimous!

Thanks for watching! If you'd like to support me further please go wishlist Hexagod: store.steampowered.com/app/3059390/Hexagod/

Interesting. Randomness increases replayability but as a strategy gamer I prefer my building options to be limited only by the resources I have rather than them being inconsistently available, because that adds a gambling element that can cause frustration and uncertainty about whether I can execute my strategy. That element of control is also why I prefer chess to card games. Still interested to see where it goes.

Redblobgames guided me for a while in 2016 when I was starting out as a developer. Amazing dude.

Love everything you said here so much! Great reminder that we need balance to be our best. I think that’s such a great mindset as well, that you have this chance right now to do this thing and it may or may not work out, but might as well enjoy it while you have the opportunity. I had seen a couple of your other videos as I was looking for specific subjects, but this one just convinced me to make watching your stuff a regular thing. Hoping to check out some live streams.

I can't stop watching the cat.

why would you make this video, surely you Streisand’d yourself

It's hard

I had this same game idea planned, almost 80% the same as yours. :D Didn't act on it yet though.

Great video. Love the "business/planning" sode of thing

I would love to see a way to swap the position of two adjacent tiles. As someone who loves building a nice and orderly city it would be nice to be able to work towards grouping up the resource tiles to maximize those adjacency bonuses.

Definitely more appealing as a turned-based game for me. I need time to be able to play strategically

Ah, the love for having the omniscient perspective of gaming. I see it from developer, player, and outsider. 20 years of playing, a quarter that developing, and a beta tester for multiple games. Im fairly certain my first game will be fun. I just cant decide whether i want it to be 2 or 3d.

I want to have a proper conversation but im sure youve got better in your life. Outside of that, i do plan on starting another YT channel for development. The only problem is yhe only device i have to develop on is my J24 and it isnt great. But, hey, a basic 3d world is more than nothing.

I've still been using the dollarsign and node path like a big dummy and it has been annoying, thank you for telling me this.

You should watch the original Dune. Try to find the original extended version, I bought one from Indonesia.

7:08 Poland mentioned 💪💪💪

It isn't even rouge like. It's cool though. Suitable from kids to elderly. It reminds me more of 4x, or board game.

I've got good art skills, good programming skills, good music production skills, but game engines feel so convoluted. I quit Godot for almost a year last time because I couldn't wrap my head around the way singletons/autoload, signals, scenes, and nodes work. Nothing was accessible when I called it, spent a whole weekend trying to figure it out. It sucks knowing exactly what I want to make, having the assets made, but the game engine feels itself feels like indecipherable. Well that's my rant This video was very informative though, thanks!

Is Relic "Alter" spelled correctly? Shouldn't it be Relic "Altar"

Amazing tool! I'm using it for all my next games!

Rogue is the crab evolution of gaming

You dont need to have crazy depth, for example I did not enjoy against the storm after I found out after the first "map/base" that this was just part of a larger map and I have to build many bases, so I didnt continue playing. You could aim to make your game more casual and straightforward but that ofcourse depends what player target group you are aiming for

After years, I have not yet gotten sick of roguelikes, so this is a plus in my book. Also like the idea of building towards something with those hidden islands, kind of reminds me of "Dorfromantik" where one sees outlines in the fog of war. This is my first time seeing this game (and your channel) so excuse my naive question but are you set on this concept of "islands"? Are we placing tiles on water? strikes me as a bit odd or maybe you need to lean into the terraforming aspect more?

The game sucks and is poorly designed

well i love the game ! ive played it for almost 9 hours ^-^

I think Localthunk spent a year on just shaders for Balatro. And Balatro SWEPT the game awards, even beating 3 (THREE) AAA gacha games for Best Mobile Game. sorry did I say three? I mean FOUR. WITH ONE OF THEM BEING POKEMON. ofc localthunk did go with a publisher You got this!

Love the idea of unknown islands as "chests"! This caused me to add a new feature to my own to-do list. Also finding PoE2 slipping into my design musings. I've been finding being part of the PoE2 EA process (e.g. patches, community reaction, etc) to be fascinating from the perspective of someone learning game design.

Would you like some help on your next game? I can make sure players will enjoy it

Is it good

I'm 2 years into my 6 month game myself 😋

Is that sale information privileged? Like, are you allowed to show that

Explode the scope you coward 😤 Islands and relics are a nice little way to change it up!

"March 3, 2025 is after August, 2024" *fires up a spreadsheet* Yep, math checks out!

I hope you call tell by this video that I am so excited about these changes to Hexagod. It's like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. You can play the new demo build now over on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3059390/Hexagod/

"The year was 2020..." Proceeds to type 2022.

Good stuff! Thank you

Trying to please everyone, or mostly everyone, will just end up alienating a lot of your customers. Stick to your vision of what your game should be and it will work out.

Do you think having a dedicated TH-cam channel that releases weekly videos to build hype around a game could influence its reviews on Steam? Since marketing efforts can shape expectations, could this impact how players perceive and evaluate the game, similar to how unmet expectations affected some reviews of Chess Survivors? And if so, will you shape your marketing for Hexagod differently?