Messages

121

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: December 21, 2020, 01:36:14 PM »

My take, for what it's worth, as someone who doesn't know you:

Thanks for the feedback!

I'd have taken that job in a heartbeat. Income, responsibility, self-respect, possibly meeting the future mother of your children ... That's what most men need.

Sure, I do understand that point of view. But my personal situation happens to be a little bit different;

I already do have an income, responsibility and self-respect. For years I've been self-employed. This year I've sustained myself doing massage, coding custom office solutions, and doing basic lumberjack and house renovation work for my neighbours. But this autumn I've seen decrease in those job opportunities, so my question is if I'd like to seek more odd jobs, or to apply for a full-time job, or if I should pursue my own creative ideas with indie game development. Personally, my self-respect isn't tied to the amount of money I earn, but there is a connection, still. I feel that pursuing my own project plans also makes me feel more fulfilled. Applying for a full-time job would've felt a bit like "Oh, I need to work for others for my own plans are probably just going to fail." So, from the self-respect point of view I'm all willing to keep on being a starving artist 

My son is already 27 years old. Sure, those were great times in my life when my son was smaller. But now I have a 'been-there-done-that' feeling, having absolutely no intention to having more kids. Instead, I enjoy this mid-life freedom.

Therapy doesn't cure depression. It makes it worse because you spend hours dwelling on your problems ad infinitum.

Where does that come from? Is it your personal experience? If so, feel free to send me a personal message if you wish to discuss in private.

I have more than 20 years of experience with different methods of therapy. Yes, there are those kinds which aren't always that helpful. But I've been lucky to find the professionals I like to work with, so that the therapeutic process has been focused on the solutions, instead of dwelling on the problems. I know it might be deeply frustrating if ones first experiences with therapy are not good. But I encourage people to keep on seeking. For finding a good therapist can be of great help.

This hypno-gal seems like she might be exploiting your loneliness and her going rate seems awfully high for someone who is having trouble paying the bills.

I do understand that kind of concern. But don't worry; that hypno-gal is my personal friend. She knows my situation and offered to work with me for free. I don't have therapy bills to pay. But I was struggling with winter tyres for the car, and with replacing the water pump in my dwell.

(Also, in the beginning you said you don't know me. And then you assume I might be suffering from loneliness. I have no idea where does that come from, did I write so? Or is it just an assumption you are making based on what?)

If you're not obsessed with a game concept that you MUST bring to fruition, you probably shouldn't. The process shouldn't be: My dream is to be an indie game developer, now what game should I develop? The process should be: This game that doesn't exist yet is the most amazing idea I've ever had and I cannot rest until I bring it into reality.

The story with not applying for a full-time job was supposed to illustrate that idea. That my desire with indie game development has reached such an level that I'm willing to starving artist to make my projects become true. And, in my case it is not about having the most amazing idea ever - the question has been that I have half a dozen of ideas I like, and then because of my depression-like symptoms I've had trouble picking just an one idea to persistently focus on. Now, with the great help of therapy, friends and other therapeutic processes I finally enjoy a sense of inner clarity and focus. I have chosen one idea to focus on. Sure, it remains to be seen if anyone else will like my idea  So, I'll keep on doing the starving artist thing until I have enough of a demo to probe the possible audience reception.

122

Off-topic / Re: Erkka needs to hone his AIM.

« on: December 19, 2020, 09:31:49 AM »

there’s some foreigners here, that don’t know, but might expect that to be the norm...

Those are probably the same foreigners who see us on the video, and expect it to be the norm that all men in Finland have long hair and a beard 

123

Modding / Re: modding trees - tree painters needed

« on: December 13, 2020, 10:06:28 AM »

I kinda got lost there for a little bit because I had no idea how lindens looked like in finland

Every wild linden I've seen in Finland have been bush-like. But that is probably because I've only seen them in places where they grow partially shadowed by taller spruces. Apparently, on open terrain they grow to be properly tree-likes. With a quick search I didn't find any pictures of bush-like wild lindens in Finland. Maybe that is because people only post pictures of the special, the outstanding ones =)

Well, but something like this.

124

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: December 04, 2020, 01:59:58 PM »

have you considered doing crowdfunding or something similar for supporting extra content for UrW?

This is not an alien idea for us  And I think something like that is the likely next step.

125

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: November 26, 2020, 09:41:21 PM »

Hello! Just a quick note for those who might have been waiting for further news;

After carefully considering all the feedback I decided to postpone the crowdfunding campaign launch until January / February 2021, depending on how the development goes.

So: Thanks for all the feedback and help. I'll be back with more news later on.

126

General Discussion / Re: GoG release?

« on: November 14, 2020, 07:05:55 AM »

An alternative to Steam is itch.io

If you release this game on GoG

A few years ago we tried, but it turned out that one doesn't simply release a game on GoG. At GoG they screen every game and decide what they accept into their store. Regarding UrW their reply was basically that they don't believe UrW would sell enough to be interesting for them. So we went onto itch.io as they are a lot more indie-friendly.

127

Suggestions / Re: Re: UnReal World Mobile Controller app for Android Devices

« on: November 03, 2020, 06:02:31 PM »

pc port?

Technically speaking it would be possible to make a version which runs on the same machine as UnReal World itself. So, instead of a touch-screen one would use a mouse to click on virtual buttons.

At the moment I have another plans for the next three or four months, so a PC port of the mobile controller has to wait...

128

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: November 01, 2020, 08:54:04 PM »

Good comments, PALU, thank you!

You are right about the point 1. Maybe I should've been more clear with my writing. I think that by "saying no" I actually mean "not now", instead of "no, never".

2. is something I didn't know! This one needs to be considered carefully, as indeed the intention is to make a peaceful game with no simulation of warfare.

129

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: November 01, 2020, 03:20:31 PM »

And here is a blog post which focuses mainly on my personal thoughts and feelings on preparing for the side-project. It also contains a little on the actual game idea.

I feel that once the campaign starts the focus of feedback and communications is most likely going to be in the actual game and coding-related stuff. So, before that phase I felt like writing a more personal post, going through the psychological stuff which anyway affects everything we human beings do or don't do. Hence this blog post.

And thank you for all the feedback and ideas for Indiegogo Perks. I think I have found a way to fit MrMotorhead's suggestion neatly into the planned project. But more of that kind of stuff once the Indiegogo campaign is ready to launch. In the meantime, feel free to post further suggestions, to send negative or positive feedback the way you find it.

130

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: October 29, 2020, 05:41:50 PM »

As a customer of UnReal World, I'd much much rather have more updates on that and/or even crowdfound specific features. I don't wanna grap another game to fullfill my UnReal World "needs" and is a little concerned about the state that game could/will be left in (I haven't been here for 28 years, just 2). It does seems counter productive, from a customer's point of view

I understand and appreciate that point of view. So, it remains to be seen if most of the UnReal World players feel that way - if the another game project won't get backers, then clearly that will mean that I won't be wasting my time coding a game no-one wants to play =) If that happens, then we need to change plans, no problem.

A full size A-title games sell for about €60. So that should be a “gold standard” to aim for.

Ah, sure! But here I've been crafting plans for a small indie game which could realistically see the first full version released after 3 months of coding or so. I feel that a game like this would sell for half the price of UnReal World, which would make the price tag of 6 €.

That means that either we need to sell a lot of "early access" perks for a cheap price, or then we need to come up with interesting perks in the €10 - €250 range, with emphasiz on stuff at €20 - €50 range.

This has been my line of thinking, wondering what extra people would like to have if they'd decide to support a 6 € game by donating 25 € or so. (Or, to rephrase myself: what perks would people like to have, if they donate to help Erkka become a full-time indie coder, ultimately boosting the UnReal World development, and also getting a nice small game as a side-effect.)

(Yeah I talk about ditching my main work, and I'm already living on minimal budget. Something like 2000 € would be a good sum to keep me coding almost full-time for two or three months. I'm self employed, so luckily it is not a total yes/no decision of quitting my current work. It is just that I'd love to have indie coding as my main work, leaving only a few hours a week of my current work on the side.)

I supported Prison Architect slightly higher to be able to submit a custom prisoner that was included in the game's release.

That's a good idea, I'll think if and how that would fit with the planned project. Just for clarification: in what form did you submit your custom prisoner? You mean pixel art, or a xml-structured text file describing character details, or something other?

131

General Discussion / Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: October 29, 2020, 11:03:35 AM »

This will surely slow down the development of the "flagship", no?

We aim to have it the other way around. Personally, I'd love to quit my main work to be a full-time indie game developer, so that in the future I would have more coding time to help Sami with UnReal World development. After considering various different ways of taking this leap the chosen tactics is a crowdfunding campaign for a small side-game project.

For so many years I have had trouble with finding proper coding time next to my main work. The time has come to ditch my other odd jobs. I do believe that taking this leap will eventually lead to boostin UnReal World development, instead of slowing it down.

EDIT: to clarify; the mentioned side-project is not intended to be a long-term development like UnReal World is. The plan is to spend a few months coding a release version (1.0), then slow down for a few more additional versions (like 1.1 or 1.2), eventually leaving the side-project as it is, so that there will be more time to concentrate on UnReal World development. So, this another game is just a temporary transition phase.

And, as mentioned: an another game could also double as a test environment to develop and to polish algorithms before implementing them in UnReal World. For example, back in the time when I was coding the weather simulation for UrW, I first coded a tiny text-based test environment. I ran hundreds of tests in the sandbox environment so that I got the details of the simulation polished, before the whole thing was implemented in the main game. Now I'm planning a full stand-alone small game, partially for the same reason - to have a sandbox where I can experiment with various algorithms. But this is purely to coder point of view - for the player that mentioned small game would naturally be a fully playable and fully enjoyable game in itself.

132

General Discussion / Crowdfunding : your thoughts?

« on: October 29, 2020, 10:05:27 AM »

Hello!

This is Erkka from the Enormous Elk development team. We are planning an another game as a small side-project. To make this happen we'd like to set up a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo platform. The plan is to use Discord as the main platform during the development phase, so that there would be weekly updates on development progress, and monthly Q&A sessions (hopefully with a video stream). I think the funding phase would run for three weeks, aiming to have the first playable alpha or beta version before the end of this year.

To maintain the suspense, we will announce the project details only a few days before the crowdfunding campaign starts (before mid-November, that is). But what I can say already now is that the game would run on Windows, Linux and Android, also aiming for Mac and iPhone release pretty soon after the non-apple release. And also, in case you wonder - from the development point of view a side-project is beneficial also for the actual UnReal World development; a smaller sibling game would double as an experimental laboratory, where different kinds of algorithms and ideas can be tested.

So, at this point - before I start to set up an IndieGoGo campaign - I'd like to ask for your thoughts, ideas or personal preferences. What kind of perks would you like to see, for what sum of money? If you have ideas, please post replies suggesting things like "can we have a €25 perk for an access to the monthly live video streams?". Also, it would be cool if someone provides their views on perk range, like "Because of these reasons [....] I think that the minimum perk should be X euros for perk Z1, ranging up to Y euros for perk Zn" Or, what kinds of perks would you love? Digital content like music or concept art? A physical item like copies of game graphics design drawings, or a  hand-written thank you card?

Ps. More news in the weekend. I'm planning a blog post about my personal thoughts and the process of preparing for the project. In the blog post there will also be a bit more details about the project plans.

133

Suggestions / Re: Small predators like ermine, pine-marten and polecat much more common

« on: October 21, 2020, 08:51:33 PM »

I don't know how common pine-marten or polecat were 1000 years ago. But I think that when it comes to the smallest predators like ermine, it might be that one doesn't see them so often. In wintertime you spot their tracks, but you seldom see the animal.

I'm thinking about this from the coding point of view. Like, if we continue to spawn animals like it is now, but just add a piece of code that when one comes to check small traps after X number of days, in addition to the normal simulation there could be some probability of catching ermine, even if that particular ermine wasn't spawned into the game world like lynx or elk. Something like that could yield the desired outcome - when walking in the woods you seldom see ermine, yet in your well-placed properly-baited small traps you could find ermine more often than in the current version of the game.

134

Suggestions / Re: Torch Holder

« on: October 09, 2020, 08:25:09 PM »

The short burn time is offset by ease of use and ease of manufacture, to allow you to burn as many as needed in a row.

Here I'm thinking how that would be best implemented in the game, regarding the user interface and such. For example, if the player character first ignites a päre for additional light, and then starts a woodworking / crafting operation which would take 3 hours - should there be an option to "automatically start a new päre before the previous one is burnt out", or should we assume the player manually pausing the crafting task every now and then to press a few more keys to start another päre to keep the light going on? Or should it be so coded, that a next päre is automatically lit always when the following conditions are met: "there is a päre-holder with a lit päre in it, and one of the adjacent tiles has a stack of päre, and there also is an npc or the player character occupying a tile which has access to both the stack of päre and the päre-holder. And if so, should we run some additional checks that the mentioned character has at least one operational hand, or should we assume that even when both arms are fractured, the task can be completed by using feet and mouth?"

(sometimes I wonder how seemingly simple additions grow to become surprisingly complex design task when it comes to the actual "how to best simulate this in the game")

135

Suggestions / Re: Torch Holder

« on: October 09, 2020, 02:09:13 PM »

but I don't know what was in use during the period.

I'm under the impression that candles and primitive oil lamps were for special occasions. For every day use the most common additional source of light was a thin piece of wood called päre. The link shows a wooded stand holding a päre in horizontal position. Such stands were used pretty much like a chandle holder. I'm not exactly sure but I'd guess they often had a bowl of water sitting on the floor, to catch any sparks or red glowing small ambers falling off the burning päre.

One piece of päre would burn for 15 minutes, so it isn't that handy for the kind of constant light we nowadays have in the era of electric light. Burning several päre in a row was the method to provide that necessary additional light when doing some indoor work which required more light than the glow of the fireplace.

(Sometimes I wonder how the Iron Age people survived the dimness of Finnish winter.)