Oh I know! I know very well.. it's just how a human brain works I think :) And I can often put it in perspective fairly well.. doesn't mean I don't want to complain or rant about it every now and then to get it out the system 😁
For a week where you've no content... perhaps simply play (livestream?) one of your games, and while playing talk over the play, describing various developer notes, commentary, trivia, or simply what's fun for you. As someone who's been an entrepreneur, and started a few companies, I think you should truly be at peace with your success! 21 years as a business (esp in tech\gaming) is incredibly difficult, and is very commendable! I wish you nothing but health, happiness, and success in 2025!
Yeah that's certainly an idea to do such streams.. just that they do require time and energy to make them 😉 And that's often THE number one reason for not having normal content.
Nothing is boring about these videos... I actually enjoy the simple ones the most - just talking to the camera and saying how it is. In your previous video, you said you struggled with depression and your videos got worse because of that... Funny thing - your videos are helping me fight depression :) It is quite possible that I will lose my job soon. Our company has already had 5 waves of layoffs. Also, I feel so burned out from my current career. So I decided to do stuff on my own. I will try to make some income from my hobbies. I like 3D modeling and am currently also learning pixel art. I have some experience in game development. So at the age of 42, I will take this leap of faith... Considering the market and the whole gaming industry, maybe it's not the best time. But I guess for these types of decisions, you never have a perfect time. So we will see. Sorry for rambling, I just wanted to say: I love your videos, they are a great help - they actually motivate and help... help to see how other people struggle and don't give up :)
Have you considered making assets to sell? If you can create game art, be it 2d or 3d, it's a lower risk to start, and you can better modulate the amount of effort you devote to it (a finished asset for sell can involve a couple days or can be done as a side gig, while even most simple games will usually involve months of full dedication) It can also be a stepping stone towards full gamedev
Wow, good luck on your journey 💪 Hope you can still keep your job alongside the venture into game development (or asset creation) as that certainly makes it easier to learn and grow in that role and business.
Fingers crossed that everything works out in the best possible way for you, Pascal! I guess for us, the next year will also decide wether we can continue our gameDev passion, but we do not depend on it financially, so it's not that important. I only wish more gamers could appreciate the hardships we all have to go through in order to make games 😸
Looking forward to the games you are planning this year. I think your plan to have your side html project online with tutorials on how to create games would work. I know I would subscribe to that, would be very interesting. Hoping you have a great year. You make some of my favorite games and they bring something original to the gaming community.
I really hope 2025 is a great year for you and OrangePixel. By far the most interesting developer on TH-cam (closely followed by the fallout guy), with the most polished and playable games. Do you think you'll be taking part in any game jams this year?
As long as you keep exercising those creative muscles. Youre pretty all-rounder, and I wouldnt be mad if you reach out to Jan Willem Nijman and team for some collab ❤ All support from Ozstralia
Thank you for your open words and clear communication. I follow you for some weeks (maybe 2 months) and i really appreciate your type of content. I wish you all the best and good luck with your plans for 2025.
hello there happy new year! I watch your previous video, I had some mental health issues in the past too, don't give up, give yourself time and share with others, being surrounded by people you love is esential, I hope your short game ideas are very successful, hey man 1 minute videos are okay we just want to keep seeing you!!! take care wish you the best in 2025! (buying all your games here)
Thank you for your your openness. Im in same Health issues struggle many years. care yourselfe, dividing time for less stress. You are a super motivation and world designers.
I love your games and look forward to seeing what comes in 2025. Your bite sized games are perfect for handheld and still pack a lot of gameplay depth. I don't have a steam account, so eagerly await your releases on switch. At the moment I have been playing a lot of the Atari recharged games. I think there is definitely still a market for good quality smaller arcade style games. There is often a lot of talk and gate keeping from 'gamers'. But I think the reality is there are a lot more people happy to play and pay for good games. Those people just aren't always vocal on the internet. They are content to just buy and enjoy games. I wish you great success this year and hope that you continue to make great games for many years to come. Thanks for all you do, including making these videos.
9:21 that's a cool idea! if you end up doing a Patreon, that could be a thing for mid-tier backers. maybe just do it on a monthly basis. then it would just take a few hours a month. not too much time.
Best of luck to you in the new year. A small business is always fragile, but by working hard and working smart you can make the most of opportunities especially in a creative field like gamedev. Such a field is less impacted as entertainment will always be bought in whatever economy. You control your outcomes far more then in other businesses. Personally I have a inverted feeling of control as the department of my long term assignment indicated I'm doing fine, but the steel company is under pressure economically and politically. It seems like Trump is going to impact my life more then my own efforts, as his issues will effect the economy, that in turn will effect elections in multiple European countries. Directly or indirectly things are going to change... so around March you will be very happy again being a gamedev in the attic, not having to be bothered with all the craziness going on.
Yeah I try to shy away from all the issues happening in world events - seeing as we have no control over it what so ever.. but it does feel like we all live in a pressure-cooker ! Good luck to you in 2025!
Interesting year ahead! I completely agree that playing to your experience and skills will make you productive. I'm the same. When you were talking about the building genre game for Ashlands, I got the feeling that it was outside of your comfort zone and would require research. Is that right? If so, that would suggest a building game was not in your "efficiency zone". Does that make sense? Nonetheless, have a great 2025 and I look forward to whatever you output!
Correct, that's why Ashworld 2 isn't the first on my to do list :) I might not start on that one and come up with something else instead for a safer bet. It depends on how the rest of the year will go before then!
I think you have a great strategy for 2025! I wish you all the best successes with your games. I think you're thinking too much about your critics on your videos and/or games. Critical gamers will want you to produce a AAA game because they're comparing you to that level of quality, and Critical game devs will want you add details to flavor it to their liking. I think you should make your games the way you want. They look fun. I love your art style but I'm not really into those types of games. And I love your motivation and energy for this year to make it your best.
Watching your videos keeps our personal dreams alive about doing something similar but we cannot because have more pressing things to do in our immediate lives. So watching your videos keeps the hope alive like a candle in the window. Also your personality and practical approach helps a lot in this regard. So I will watch whatever you pump out. Although I must admit I have been visiting "other game channels" on TH-cam but I still come back for my weekly fix. In 2025, you should push out 2 small games on top of Regulators to maintain an income stream. PS: Here is a suggestion but NOT a distraction, could you include some of the ideas from willy wonka in your style of games.
I think there are plenty of places for people to go for their triple A gaming fixes, double A fixes, etc....and you have to wait 3-5 years + per for those....what I love about smaller budget games and devs is that you can pump out 1-3 different game ideas in almost completion in a year...and FUN is the most important factor in playing a video game...I like amazing graphics n such too...but fun is definitely more important! Smaller quicker development cycles allows you to bring a great deal more awesome ideas to fruition ya know?
@@cybershellrev7083 Novelty isn't as much a driving force of games as we all hope or like. Most players / humans like "more of the same" that's why the recent Steam numbers showed that a huge percentage of Steam gamers played existing games (and often 10+ year old games)
@@orangepixelgames Steam reflects the collapse of AAA companies & the poor quality games they've been pushing out, not the market being stubborn. Games from 10+ years ago Run better on most hardware & have less strings attached. But notice this, steam most-played charts show a wide range themes that players engage in & we can clearly see that people are sticking onto games that are RPGs which allow them to express their attitudes. So, the take away is, people want a theme & they want to play like a child at recess. Lack of novelty would indirectly discourage setting & announcing a new & improved theme to the market. What are most indies doing? Sticking to pre-existing styles & graphics rendering techniques... No bueno.
I've been watching you for about a year now and I have finally started working on art and prototyping for my game. It's not gonna be some epic thing. My first game will be something I can get out hopefully by the end of the year. Thanks Pascal.
I just plan to focus on one type of game type and get really good at it. And just keep developing the systems on every iteration. My goal is to get good. However I never want to release something that isn't at a certain standard, too much of that crap already, has to have my soul in it. Reality is game dev is just part time wages at fulltime effort and will get worse. I have a part time job and I like having one, I get depressed just being at home otherwise.
Last video you mentioned some information about mobile sales and it got me curious of a few things and if you're willing to share your insights in the future some time I'd appreciate to hear your thoughts on them. I'm beginning work on my second game this week as my first game will be going through steam review process over the next few days. However I am wondering if it will be worth my time building my next project with mobile platforms in mind or if you think paid games are not a good fit for the market. Obviously it depends but I would like to hear what you think, would the work be worth the effort monetarily or for the extra exposure. You've also talked about other platforms in the past such as Atari, that Arcade platform that I unfortunately went under, and then there's Evercade. Are these platforms something to seriously consider for extra revenue or is the extra time and effort not worth the return? I know this could be a difficult topic to talk about so it's not a big deal if you don't want to talk about it, but like I said my brother and I will be starting a new project soon and these considerations are better done early on so I thought I'd ask since you have way more experience than I do. P.S. I'm a big fan by the way
I think he had a couple videos in the past talking about revenues by platform, and whether it was worth the effort. My take is that it depends on where the audience for your games is, vs how much your porting costs are (in time, money, and support). If you are aiming for mobile, you need to first understand how games work there, from a design POV as well as tech. Figure out which part of the market you fit into (big guys have casual locked-down, diff regions go for diff genres, regional pricing, etc), and have a marketing plan to reach your audience. App Store SEO is not enough, you'll need some kind of ad budget, plus reaching out to streamers (or blogs?) that fit your genre. Mobile has its own information ecosystem - most of the info is for F2P games, but you can still get good insights from analysis sites and panel talks.
It's been to long for me since I released a premium mobile game on Android and iOS .. over 4 years now.. so I'm not 100% sure how the market is (I do hear bad things for premium, but that's been going on for over a decade now, so not sure that says it all). For me it just makes more sense to create games that can be played on as many systems as possible, so PC, console, mobile.. that means I can't go for mobile-specific F2P games with in-app payment "traps" and hooks. And I could go for free games with advertising, but then it's difficult to sell that same game on PC or consoles - if people can get it for free on mobile! It's a weird situation :) But I'm pretty sure Gauntlet of Power will release as Premium mobile title this year, because there is still a long tail of sales when you frequently discount the game on Android. And I'll have to decide based on that what I keep doing on mobile after it launches.
I have some pixel-art creation every now and then in videos :) so just keep watching! (and check the Playlist on the channel, there is one for pixel-pushing specific videos)
Have to keep costs low, but maybe it's time to bring in a dedicated artist? Your gameplay is solid, and frankly timeless, but I think new ppl might bounce off the aesthetics. I bought a pixel-art arcade fave for Christmas (Magical Drop II, '96 Neo Geo :), and it's still gorgeous! But that's high-res outlined 24-bit, mimicking a hand-painted aesthetic (works well for the Tarot card theme). Chunky 8-bit is a hard sell, esp for old eyes. Not saying to drop your signature pixel art, just maybe bring someone in for ideas to freshen things up along that axis. We have so many more options now to evoke that style in clever ways. 15-20min deep-dives on past games would be interesting! Maybe gear it as a key lesson or experience, with a specific game that exemplifies that lesson. That would still appeal to ppl not already familiar with a given game, and maybe make it "evergreen". Consciously putting out "good vibes" for 2025, esp as so much else will be negative & stressful. So in that vein, get that game-dev hustle going, let's make some money, whoo-hoo! 👏😆
There are people that will not like the aesthetics, but there are equal amount of people that do love it and tell me the art is awesome (even negative reviews on games still find the graphics great). So that's all eye-of-the-behold type stuff. I don't need to sell a million copies, a few thousand is fine - and I'm certain there are more people that don't mind the pixel graphics 😁 And yeah, it's also a cost issue : hiring someone for it, even at rev share, makes the project take longer, make less money for me, and it would still be questionable if it would sell more (at that point DOUBLE the normal sales I expect) because of the changes in art style. Maybe we'll find out some day! Good vibes for 2025 back at ya! 😉
@orangepixelgames I dig it, makes artistic & business sense 👍 That might be another good use of the web portal though - experiment with some tiny, 2-4wk prototypes to test out not only new mechanic ideas, but cross-pollinate with some art tweaks. See what ppl play more of, maybe add a simple "I like this!" tracker. Nothing that takes too much time, just some A-B sandbox testing, to inform your full-on games. Esp useful as it'll already mostly be your existing playerbase.
@@mandisaw I could certainly experiment with some other art styles there also. I like how SockPop is doing very basic drawing, but it all seems to work nicely.
@orangepixelgames You might check out Nonsensical2d's channel. He's been making vids focused on becoming both efficient & effective in 2d, and often examines games in various styles plus his own art to demo approaches. Seems to be experienced, although I think he also has a day job. He's a digital painter, working in a hand-drawn aesthetic, but the advice holds across styles. My take, from the past year or so, but I think he's good for ppl who already have some basics of art creation, and need to make art within constraints (time, money, game context). Differs from more open-ended art for art's sake, or folks who are just discovering basics like color theory. Now that I think about it, he may also be Dutch, or at least mentioned being based in NL 🤔
Thought about that.. but 1) where do I even find games? 2) do they fit with the brand I have going? and 3) does it make sense to publish if I can't even fund those developers... I know some publisher only offer "marketing" efforts, but not sure that's really a good deal for developers to take (I wouldn't)
I have no doubt that you will make it through 2025 and still be a game developer in 2026. Personally, I have been wondering why you are spending more and more time per game because that also means delaying income which is obviously important when you are a full-time game developer. Previous games like Heroes of Loot and Gauntlet of Power are still my favorites and I keep coming back to them. I can perfectly understand that making bigger games is fun and allows you to make more complicated games with more depth. But is this a good business model for a smaller studio, I wonder? Anyway, just my random thoughts, and I truly love your content here and I am big fan of your (especially ealier) games.
Never was the plan to spend more time on them ! Just a combination of having an "unclear" game concept (or unfinished) and the options to work with a publisher on one game, and having funding for the second.. that made them spiral out of scope in bad ways! But in the end, I could now create sequels to those games much faster because the game design and elements would be set in stone now.. so biggest issue was just not having a clear vision of what the end results needed to be. Avoiding that as much as possible from now on!
I started with game development about 5 months ago and I now develop 2 games at the same time. What struck me when looking at the game development community is that everyone seems to play Rambo and do their own thing - not actually helping each other and cross-promote games. Maybe I am wrong but this is what I have experienced.
Cross promotion is done every now and then, but in most cases (smaller titles) it's not really interesting or doesn't really do much to either of the games. Smaller titles don't really lift each other to new heights, and bigger titles mostly do cross promotion with other bigger titles or brands... Maybe there's room there for some sort of marketing/cross-promo/company or set of tools?
Simple advertising is not within the budget (you are also playing against the big F2P players) and the other value comes from streamers playing your game, but they prefer new titles, and not so much existing titles :) so it's a rock and hard place kinda thing!
@orangepixelgames I hesitate to suggest it, but would you ever consider getting into the F2P space? I imagine doing so would be antithetical to your game development philosophy, and not sure if going F2P route is possible as a solo developer.
@@emoneytrain Not sure I'm good at designing for that specifically.. since I really don't like how it prays on players. And to make it big you need a huge audience where most players don't pay and only a handful of "big whales" do.. and to reach them you need to advertise, and then you are up against the big companies spending hundred of thousands a month on marketing.
If you find this comment Name it the Portal something like HTML OP. In the competitive gaming scene OP means over powered. But also has your meaning Orange Pixel with strides to be Over Powered. No stopping the Orange Pixel! Thoughts Orange Pixel fans?
gamers really don't trust promises anymore that's why a releasable presentation has become so important. Too many devs have broken gamers trust over the past decade. Hopefully regulator city doesn't get overshadowed by a huge release in that timeframe. I'm really interested in how it will perform
9:07 it's hard wired to focus on danger for survival. Danger = negativity. Our environment however has evolved way faster than the we people. We can get shit from people we can't even physically interact with through social media. That's unnatural. We know that negative comments does not equal a dangerous lion or unfriendly tribes. But our fundemantal body and mind doesn't know the difference. So it's not you. We all have this same behavior. Why do you think the news is mainly negative? Because it catches our attention. Even though we don't always really want to hear all the negativity. They even tried to do more positive news, but it didn't got as many views from what I heard.
Also, just because you make a game that isn't a fresh new innovative idea doesn't mean shit imo...do something that's been done before but do it well and I'm excited as can be to gobble it up.
Agreed! Think that's also the best way to look at creating games. Most players just want more of what they know.. and you can change it up sometimes with fresh ideas, just as long as the familiar stuff is still there and it's done well!
Don't you think it's time to move to a game engine? You would be able to export to many platforms without relying on someone else to port it. It would increase your efficiency and your % of the income.
I have a game engine, just not Unity or Unreal or Godot.. but I bet that 99% of "solo" game devs on those engines never released on any console at all :) It's not about the engine ! Porting to console (even with engines) still takes time, technical know-how AND business skills to get yourself in the door with console parties. All that takes time and in my situation it was worth partnering up with another solo indie dev allowing me to focus on new projects while my existing projects get a console release.
@@orangepixelgames I wouldn't call LibGDX an engine, it's a framework. That's beside the point, it's in Java which doesn't run on consoles. Even if you were to switch to XNA/FNA C# which is very similar to Java you would be saving time & money from the porting. I come from a Java background too, and I picked up and was comfortable with C# within a day. The engine absolutely matters. You wouldn't try to write your own 3d rendering solution and it would be a fools errand to do so. It's a good thing for a solo dev to take as many shortcuts and use all the available tools. For example.. I know you've mentioned struggling with pathfinding on regulator city and spent how many hours or days on it? That would be a few clicks on any of the main engines. You can do what you want, and it seems you'll just stick to what you know and you're comfortable with. It was only a suggestion, you can ignore it like the rest.
@@orangepixelgames I wouldn't call LibGDX an engine, it's a framework. That's beside the point, it's in Java which doesn't run on consoles. Even if you were to switch to XNA/FNA C# which is very similar to Java you would be saving time & money from the porting. I come from a Java background too, and I picked up and was comfortable with C# within a day. The engine absolutely matters. You wouldn't try to write your own 3d rendering solution and it would be a fools errand to do so. It's a good thing for a solo dev to take as many shortcuts and use all the available tools. For example.. I know you've mentioned struggling with pathfinding on regulator city and spent how many hours or days on it? That would be a few clicks on any of the main engines. You can do what you want, and it seems you'll just stick to what you know and you're comfortable with. It was only a suggestion, you can ignore it like the rest.
Care less for negative comments and realize there are many people (like me) who just watch your videos, enjoy them very much and rarely comment.
The "silent majority" of lurkers is always hard to remember, but is way more important ✔
+1, I’m a dedicated lurker and love the channel
Oh I know! I know very well.. it's just how a human brain works I think :) And I can often put it in perspective fairly well.. doesn't mean I don't want to complain or rant about it every now and then to get it out the system 😁
What he said! Thank you Pascal for keeping it real as the kids say 🙂
For a week where you've no content... perhaps simply play (livestream?) one of your games, and while playing talk over the play, describing various developer notes, commentary, trivia, or simply what's fun for you.
As someone who's been an entrepreneur, and started a few companies, I think you should truly be at peace with your success! 21 years as a business (esp in tech\gaming) is incredibly difficult, and is very commendable!
I wish you nothing but health, happiness, and success in 2025!
I'm all in for commented plays
They could even be recorded in advance and saved for the busy weeks
Yeah that's certainly an idea to do such streams.. just that they do require time and energy to make them 😉 And that's often THE number one reason for not having normal content.
I really realllllly hope you don't go away 😟 you definitely have a unique place in my gaming space!
Nothing is boring about these videos... I actually enjoy the simple ones the most - just talking to the camera and saying how it is. In your previous video, you said you struggled with depression and your videos got worse because of that... Funny thing - your videos are helping me fight depression :) It is quite possible that I will lose my job soon. Our company has already had 5 waves of layoffs. Also, I feel so burned out from my current career. So I decided to do stuff on my own. I will try to make some income from my hobbies. I like 3D modeling and am currently also learning pixel art. I have some experience in game development. So at the age of 42, I will take this leap of faith... Considering the market and the whole gaming industry, maybe it's not the best time. But I guess for these types of decisions, you never have a perfect time. So we will see. Sorry for rambling, I just wanted to say: I love your videos, they are a great help - they actually motivate and help... help to see how other people struggle and don't give up :)
Have you considered making assets to sell?
If you can create game art, be it 2d or 3d, it's a lower risk to start, and you can better modulate the amount of effort you devote to it (a finished asset for sell can involve a couple days or can be done as a side gig, while even most simple games will usually involve months of full dedication)
It can also be a stepping stone towards full gamedev
Wow, good luck on your journey 💪 Hope you can still keep your job alongside the venture into game development (or asset creation) as that certainly makes it easier to learn and grow in that role and business.
Bloody legend!
dude, looking forward to you kicking ass in 2025!
Fingers crossed that everything works out in the best possible way for you, Pascal! I guess for us, the next year will also decide wether we can continue our gameDev passion, but we do not depend on it financially, so it's not that important. I only wish more gamers could appreciate the hardships we all have to go through in order to make games 😸
As a long time fan / player of your games it feels like we’re on a journey with you. 2025 !
Looking forward to the games you are planning this year. I think your plan to have your side html project online with tutorials on how to create games would work. I know I would subscribe to that, would be very interesting. Hoping you have a great year. You make some of my favorite games and they bring something original to the gaming community.
I really hope 2025 is a great year for you and OrangePixel.
By far the most interesting developer on TH-cam (closely followed by the fallout guy), with the most polished and playable games.
Do you think you'll be taking part in any game jams this year?
Pretty sure game jams are not on my calendar this year.. unless I'm out of game ideas and need to prototype something anyway 😉
As long as you keep exercising those creative muscles. Youre pretty all-rounder, and I wouldnt be mad if you reach out to Jan Willem Nijman and team for some collab
❤ All support from Ozstralia
Space Grunts 3 demo , loving the look of the graphics style
I like your game style, I'll be waiting to get more in 2025, keep it up!
Happy new year! Regulators is a much better name
Really cool to have this little window into a game devs work. Keep it up!
Hey Pascal, the "blind leading blind" quote is pure gold! You are 100% correct!
You are a great guy. I wish you all the best, Pascal. Keep going
Thank you for your open words and clear communication. I follow you for some weeks (maybe 2 months) and i really appreciate your type of content. I wish you all the best and good luck with your plans for 2025.
hello there happy new year! I watch your previous video, I had some mental health issues in the past too, don't give up, give yourself time and share with others, being surrounded by people you love is esential, I hope your short game ideas are very successful, hey man 1 minute videos are okay we just want to keep seeing you!!! take care wish you the best in 2025! (buying all your games here)
😎
Finding motivation is hard, but it can also be more rewarding.
I hate that you had such a rough 2024, and wish you all the success in 2025. Good luck
All the best mate. Let's smash 2025!!
"The blind leading the blind". Spot on...
Happy 2025 Pascal, you got this!
Thank you for your your openness. Im in same Health issues struggle many years.
care yourselfe, dividing time for less stress.
You are a super motivation and world designers.
Good Luck in 2025!
I love your games and look forward to seeing what comes in 2025. Your bite sized games are perfect for handheld and still pack a lot of gameplay depth. I don't have a steam account, so eagerly await your releases on switch.
At the moment I have been playing a lot of the Atari recharged games. I think there is definitely still a market for good quality smaller arcade style games.
There is often a lot of talk and gate keeping from 'gamers'. But I think the reality is there are a lot more people happy to play and pay for good games. Those people just aren't always vocal on the internet. They are content to just buy and enjoy games.
I wish you great success this year and hope that you continue to make great games for many years to come. Thanks for all you do, including making these videos.
I already fucked up 2025.
2026 will be my year for sure
You did? How?
Looking forward to the 2025 year-end video!
Back to the basics! Good! Keep up the fight!
Excited to see everything you do thos year! Youve got this 🎉
Lol, man I'm truly 🙏 for ya and will definitely be buying your games in 2025. ESPECIALLY REGULATORS!!
9:21 that's a cool idea! if you end up doing a Patreon, that could be a thing for mid-tier backers. maybe just do it on a monthly basis. then it would just take a few hours a month. not too much time.
Just need to find a few hours a month! 😁
New subscriber here, good luck!! I think your plans sound great
you're going to make it, Pascal! 💪
Best of luck to you in the new year. A small business is always fragile, but by working hard and working smart you can make the most of opportunities especially in a creative field like gamedev. Such a field is less impacted as entertainment will always be bought in whatever economy. You control your outcomes far more then in other businesses.
Personally I have a inverted feeling of control as the department of my long term assignment indicated I'm doing fine, but the steel company is under pressure economically and politically. It seems like Trump is going to impact my life more then my own efforts, as his issues will effect the economy, that in turn will effect elections in multiple European countries. Directly or indirectly things are going to change... so around March you will be very happy again being a gamedev in the attic, not having to be bothered with all the craziness going on.
Yeah I try to shy away from all the issues happening in world events - seeing as we have no control over it what so ever.. but it does feel like we all live in a pressure-cooker ! Good luck to you in 2025!
Good luck ma man... times are rough as hell
Interesting year ahead! I completely agree that playing to your experience and skills will make you productive. I'm the same. When you were talking about the building genre game for Ashlands, I got the feeling that it was outside of your comfort zone and would require research. Is that right? If so, that would suggest a building game was not in your "efficiency zone". Does that make sense? Nonetheless, have a great 2025 and I look forward to whatever you output!
Correct, that's why Ashworld 2 isn't the first on my to do list :) I might not start on that one and come up with something else instead for a safer bet. It depends on how the rest of the year will go before then!
@orangepixelgames makes absolute sense. Really want you to succeed, Pascal, here's to a great 2025! 🍻
I think you have a great strategy for 2025! I wish you all the best successes with your games. I think you're thinking too much about your critics on your videos and/or games. Critical gamers will want you to produce a AAA game because they're comparing you to that level of quality, and Critical game devs will want you add details to flavor it to their liking. I think you should make your games the way you want. They look fun. I love your art style but I'm not really into those types of games. And I love your motivation and energy for this year to make it your best.
Watching your videos keeps our personal dreams alive about doing something similar but we cannot because have more pressing things to do in our immediate lives. So watching your videos keeps the hope alive like a candle in the window.
Also your personality and practical approach helps a lot in this regard. So I will watch whatever you pump out.
Although I must admit I have been visiting "other game channels" on TH-cam but I still come back for my weekly fix.
In 2025, you should push out 2 small games on top of Regulators to maintain an income stream.
PS: Here is a suggestion but NOT a distraction, could you include some of the ideas from willy wonka in your style of games.
Curious, what ideas from willy wonka would fit in my games? 🤔😁
I think there are plenty of places for people to go for their triple A gaming fixes, double A fixes, etc....and you have to wait 3-5 years + per for those....what I love about smaller budget games and devs is that you can pump out 1-3 different game ideas in almost completion in a year...and FUN is the most important factor in playing a video game...I like amazing graphics n such too...but fun is definitely more important! Smaller quicker development cycles allows you to bring a great deal more awesome ideas to fruition ya know?
Novelty is still important to players. If the games do nothing relatively new in style or graphics, it's gonna be shrugged.
@@cybershellrev7083 Novelty is important to *some* players - unfortunately indie players on Steam specifically fit that motivation category.
@@cybershellrev7083 Novelty isn't as much a driving force of games as we all hope or like. Most players / humans like "more of the same" that's why the recent Steam numbers showed that a huge percentage of Steam gamers played existing games (and often 10+ year old games)
@@orangepixelgames Steam reflects the collapse of AAA companies & the poor quality games they've been pushing out, not the market being stubborn. Games from 10+ years ago Run better on most hardware & have less strings attached. But notice this, steam most-played charts show a wide range themes that players engage in & we can clearly see that people are sticking onto games that are RPGs which allow them to express their attitudes.
So, the take away is, people want a theme & they want to play like a child at recess.
Lack of novelty would indirectly discourage setting & announcing a new & improved theme to the market. What are most indies doing? Sticking to pre-existing styles & graphics rendering techniques... No bueno.
I've been watching you for about a year now and I have finally started working on art and prototyping for my game. It's not gonna be some epic thing. My first game will be something I can get out hopefully by the end of the year. Thanks Pascal.
Good luck!
I just plan to focus on one type of game type and get really good at it. And just keep developing the systems on every iteration. My goal is to get good. However I never want to release something that isn't at a certain standard, too much of that crap already, has to have my soul in it. Reality is game dev is just part time wages at fulltime effort and will get worse. I have a part time job and I like having one, I get depressed just being at home otherwise.
Not a bad plan at all!
Last video you mentioned some information about mobile sales and it got me curious of a few things and if you're willing to share your insights in the future some time I'd appreciate to hear your thoughts on them.
I'm beginning work on my second game this week as my first game will be going through steam review process over the next few days.
However I am wondering if it will be worth my time building my next project with mobile platforms in mind or if you think paid games are not a good fit for the market. Obviously it depends but I would like to hear what you think, would the work be worth the effort monetarily or for the extra exposure.
You've also talked about other platforms in the past such as Atari, that Arcade platform that I unfortunately went under, and then there's Evercade. Are these platforms something to seriously consider for extra revenue or is the extra time and effort not worth the return?
I know this could be a difficult topic to talk about so it's not a big deal if you don't want to talk about it, but like I said my brother and I will be starting a new project soon and these considerations are better done early on so I thought I'd ask since you have way more experience than I do.
P.S. I'm a big fan by the way
I think he had a couple videos in the past talking about revenues by platform, and whether it was worth the effort. My take is that it depends on where the audience for your games is, vs how much your porting costs are (in time, money, and support).
If you are aiming for mobile, you need to first understand how games work there, from a design POV as well as tech. Figure out which part of the market you fit into (big guys have casual locked-down, diff regions go for diff genres, regional pricing, etc), and have a marketing plan to reach your audience.
App Store SEO is not enough, you'll need some kind of ad budget, plus reaching out to streamers (or blogs?) that fit your genre. Mobile has its own information ecosystem - most of the info is for F2P games, but you can still get good insights from analysis sites and panel talks.
It's been to long for me since I released a premium mobile game on Android and iOS .. over 4 years now.. so I'm not 100% sure how the market is (I do hear bad things for premium, but that's been going on for over a decade now, so not sure that says it all).
For me it just makes more sense to create games that can be played on as many systems as possible, so PC, console, mobile.. that means I can't go for mobile-specific F2P games with in-app payment "traps" and hooks. And I could go for free games with advertising, but then it's difficult to sell that same game on PC or consoles - if people can get it for free on mobile!
It's a weird situation :) But I'm pretty sure Gauntlet of Power will release as Premium mobile title this year, because there is still a long tail of sales when you frequently discount the game on Android. And I'll have to decide based on that what I keep doing on mobile after it launches.
Ooooh space grunts 3 too...space grunts is what lead me to ya man, great games
Sir can you make videos how you make art pixel like yours. Your game design is very good. Thank you.
I have some pixel-art creation every now and then in videos :) so just keep watching! (and check the Playlist on the channel, there is one for pixel-pushing specific videos)
@orangepixelgames thank you. Best Wishes
Wish you an all successful 2025! I will miss my Thursday's videos if something happens ;)
Thanks, wish you the same in 2025!
Happy New Year! Hope 2025 is a successful year for you, I would be gutted if you disappeared!
Have to keep costs low, but maybe it's time to bring in a dedicated artist? Your gameplay is solid, and frankly timeless, but I think new ppl might bounce off the aesthetics. I bought a pixel-art arcade fave for Christmas (Magical Drop II, '96 Neo Geo :), and it's still gorgeous! But that's high-res outlined 24-bit, mimicking a hand-painted aesthetic (works well for the Tarot card theme). Chunky 8-bit is a hard sell, esp for old eyes.
Not saying to drop your signature pixel art, just maybe bring someone in for ideas to freshen things up along that axis. We have so many more options now to evoke that style in clever ways.
15-20min deep-dives on past games would be interesting! Maybe gear it as a key lesson or experience, with a specific game that exemplifies that lesson. That would still appeal to ppl not already familiar with a given game, and maybe make it "evergreen".
Consciously putting out "good vibes" for 2025, esp as so much else will be negative & stressful. So in that vein, get that game-dev hustle going, let's make some money, whoo-hoo! 👏😆
There are people that will not like the aesthetics, but there are equal amount of people that do love it and tell me the art is awesome (even negative reviews on games still find the graphics great). So that's all eye-of-the-behold type stuff. I don't need to sell a million copies, a few thousand is fine - and I'm certain there are more people that don't mind the pixel graphics 😁
And yeah, it's also a cost issue : hiring someone for it, even at rev share, makes the project take longer, make less money for me, and it would still be questionable if it would sell more (at that point DOUBLE the normal sales I expect) because of the changes in art style. Maybe we'll find out some day!
Good vibes for 2025 back at ya! 😉
@orangepixelgames I dig it, makes artistic & business sense 👍 That might be another good use of the web portal though - experiment with some tiny, 2-4wk prototypes to test out not only new mechanic ideas, but cross-pollinate with some art tweaks. See what ppl play more of, maybe add a simple "I like this!" tracker.
Nothing that takes too much time, just some A-B sandbox testing, to inform your full-on games. Esp useful as it'll already mostly be your existing playerbase.
@@mandisaw I could certainly experiment with some other art styles there also. I like how SockPop is doing very basic drawing, but it all seems to work nicely.
@orangepixelgames You might check out Nonsensical2d's channel. He's been making vids focused on becoming both efficient & effective in 2d, and often examines games in various styles plus his own art to demo approaches.
Seems to be experienced, although I think he also has a day job. He's a digital painter, working in a hand-drawn aesthetic, but the advice holds across styles.
My take, from the past year or so, but I think he's good for ppl who already have some basics of art creation, and need to make art within constraints (time, money, game context). Differs from more open-ended art for art's sake, or folks who are just discovering basics like color theory.
Now that I think about it, he may also be Dutch, or at least mentioned being based in NL 🤔
Your not alone as an indie. I DO think this is going to be an amazing year for Indie.
Apes together stronger against AAA
neat back to basics - good luck - Question why do you not become a publisher - leverage other devs time - you have reach ? - good luck
Thought about that.. but 1) where do I even find games? 2) do they fit with the brand I have going? and 3) does it make sense to publish if I can't even fund those developers... I know some publisher only offer "marketing" efforts, but not sure that's really a good deal for developers to take (I wouldn't)
Me too. I have until the end of the year at best before the end of money. Let's go!
👍💪
I have no doubt that you will make it through 2025 and still be a game developer in 2026. Personally, I have been wondering why you are spending more and more time per game because that also means delaying income which is obviously important when you are a full-time game developer. Previous games like Heroes of Loot and Gauntlet of Power are still my favorites and I keep coming back to them. I can perfectly understand that making bigger games is fun and allows you to make more complicated games with more depth. But is this a good business model for a smaller studio, I wonder? Anyway, just my random thoughts, and I truly love your content here and I am big fan of your (especially ealier) games.
Never was the plan to spend more time on them ! Just a combination of having an "unclear" game concept (or unfinished) and the options to work with a publisher on one game, and having funding for the second.. that made them spiral out of scope in bad ways! But in the end, I could now create sequels to those games much faster because the game design and elements would be set in stone now.. so biggest issue was just not having a clear vision of what the end results needed to be. Avoiding that as much as possible from now on!
Als je een Beta tester nodig hebt mag je mij gerust een bericht sturen. pc, switch, ps5 ,quest3
Why it feels like it's "All or nothing" year for many people this year? Nevertheless, if you're one of us, good luck and God bless ;)
I started with game development about 5 months ago and I now develop 2 games at the same time. What struck me when looking at the game development community is that everyone seems to play Rambo and do their own thing - not actually helping each other and cross-promote games. Maybe I am wrong but this is what I have experienced.
Cross promotion is done every now and then, but in most cases (smaller titles) it's not really interesting or doesn't really do much to either of the games. Smaller titles don't really lift each other to new heights, and bigger titles mostly do cross promotion with other bigger titles or brands... Maybe there's room there for some sort of marketing/cross-promo/company or set of tools?
Any value in increasing marketing $ for your existing catalog? There must be a lot of juice to squeeze out what you've already built.
Simple advertising is not within the budget (you are also playing against the big F2P players) and the other value comes from streamers playing your game, but they prefer new titles, and not so much existing titles :) so it's a rock and hard place kinda thing!
@orangepixelgames I hesitate to suggest it, but would you ever consider getting into the F2P space? I imagine doing so would be antithetical to your game development philosophy, and not sure if going F2P route is possible as a solo developer.
@@emoneytrain Not sure I'm good at designing for that specifically.. since I really don't like how it prays on players. And to make it big you need a huge audience where most players don't pay and only a handful of "big whales" do.. and to reach them you need to advertise, and then you are up against the big companies spending hundred of thousands a month on marketing.
If you find this comment Name it the Portal something like HTML OP. In the competitive gaming scene OP means over powered. But also has your meaning Orange Pixel with strides to be Over Powered. No stopping the Orange Pixel! Thoughts Orange Pixel fans?
gamers really don't trust promises anymore that's why a releasable presentation has become so important. Too many devs have broken gamers trust over the past decade. Hopefully regulator city doesn't get overshadowed by a huge release in that timeframe. I'm really interested in how it will perform
9:07 it's hard wired to focus on danger for survival. Danger = negativity. Our environment however has evolved way faster than the we people. We can get shit from people we can't even physically interact with through social media. That's unnatural. We know that negative comments does not equal a dangerous lion or unfriendly tribes. But our fundemantal body and mind doesn't know the difference. So it's not you. We all have this same behavior. Why do you think the news is mainly negative? Because it catches our attention. Even though we don't always really want to hear all the negativity. They even tried to do more positive news, but it didn't got as many views from what I heard.
That's a good explanation 🤔 - and don't worry, I knew it was just ME with this "issue" ;)
Also, just because you make a game that isn't a fresh new innovative idea doesn't mean shit imo...do something that's been done before but do it well and I'm excited as can be to gobble it up.
Agreed! Think that's also the best way to look at creating games. Most players just want more of what they know.. and you can change it up sometimes with fresh ideas, just as long as the familiar stuff is still there and it's done well!
@orangepixelgames 100%
Don't you think it's time to move to a game engine? You would be able to export to many platforms without relying on someone else to port it. It would increase your efficiency and your % of the income.
I have a game engine, just not Unity or Unreal or Godot.. but I bet that 99% of "solo" game devs on those engines never released on any console at all :) It's not about the engine ! Porting to console (even with engines) still takes time, technical know-how AND business skills to get yourself in the door with console parties. All that takes time and in my situation it was worth partnering up with another solo indie dev allowing me to focus on new projects while my existing projects get a console release.
@@orangepixelgames I wouldn't call LibGDX an engine, it's a framework. That's beside the point, it's in Java which doesn't run on consoles. Even if you were to switch to XNA/FNA C# which is very similar to Java you would be saving time & money from the porting. I come from a Java background too, and I picked up and was comfortable with C# within a day.
The engine absolutely matters. You wouldn't try to write your own 3d rendering solution and it would be a fools errand to do so. It's a good thing for a solo dev to take as many shortcuts and use all the available tools. For example.. I know you've mentioned struggling with pathfinding on regulator city and spent how many hours or days on it? That would be a few clicks on any of the main engines.
You can do what you want, and it seems you'll just stick to what you know and you're comfortable with. It was only a suggestion, you can ignore it like the rest.
@@orangepixelgames I wouldn't call LibGDX an engine, it's a framework. That's beside the point, it's in Java which doesn't run on consoles. Even if you were to switch to XNA/FNA C# which is very similar to Java you would be saving time & money from the porting. I come from a Java background too, and I picked up and was comfortable with C# within a day.
The engine absolutely matters. You wouldn't try to write your own 3d rendering solution and it would be a fools errand to do so. It's a good thing for a solo dev to take as many shortcuts and use all the available tools. For example.. I know you've mentioned struggling with pathfinding on regulator city and spent how many hours or days on it? That would be a few clicks on any of the main engines.
You can do what you want, and it seems you'll just stick to what you know and you're comfortable with. It was only a suggestion, you can ignore it like the rest.
glad you want to try build crafty games, world doesnt need more platformers...
some would say it has enough build crafty games also 😉
So android for regulators or new games ?
Gauntlet of Power will come to Android.. not 100% sure I can make Regulators run on mobile 😅 it does a lot of things at once!
Fun
Biteme games put on blast
Hey, they at least released a couple games :) So many dev-tubers have yet to make back their Steam fee.
February fest ? Mmmm i need t hurry up
Sign-up ends on January 8th ... so really hurry up ;) (can sign up now, and can decide to not participate even a day before it goes live)
Another boring video, 🥱. thanks.....
Just kidding
@@grilleFire that was... funny 😉😁