Lovepreet
It has been quite a long time since I last talked about Retool. The last update that I made about Retool, excluding any award mentions or artists search, was in July. That was over three months ago. I was going to do a video update today, but I think it would have been too boring for what I was going to talk about, which is Retool’s UI (User Interface) functionality.
No. It is not over for indie developers. Far from it. Let me write a brief summary of why I am writing this blog post. In the last few weeks, there have been more and more articles saying that it is a bad time to be an indie developer, that indie developers will cease to exist due to lack of sales and exposure, that it is the índiepocalypse’. The reasons behind these articles are two-fold. The first reason is that it has never been easier to be an indie developer and create your own games. This is true. I wouldn’t have been able to create my own games if it wasn’t for all the tools that are available (Unity, GameMaker, etc.). The second reason is that because it is much easier to develop games, there are more and more games being released every day. This makes it harder to get exposure, especially for small one-man indie developers. Lack of exposure leads to lack of sales. This is also true. Just look at Steam this year compared to previous years. There are now dozens of games coming out nearly every day. But here are the reasons why I don’t think it is all over for indie developers.
After 43 artists applied, numerous counts of bad art by me, and 6 weeks of deciding, I have chosen three people to do the art for Retool and make it look better by at least 48%. So please welcome Richard Schmidbauer and Esther Nho as the environment artists, and Tan Woon Tzer as the character artist.
There isn’t much else to say about Retool other than I am trying to optimize the code to get it ready to add all the new assets and features. So until the next update, here is a GIF of Agent M shooting some guards (yes, the characters in the game finally have some names).
Retool is at a stage where the core gameplay is implemented and the game can be played (and hopefully enjoyed). Now I can’t endure to look at its art, especially as it was created by my limited art skillset. Therefore, to improve the game a further 43%, I have decided it is time to hire a professional 3D artist. Read on if you are interested.
Retool (you know, the game I have been working on for the past six months) has been selected as a finalist for the 2015 Indie Game Contest (IGC), as a part of the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival.
Here is the first (kind-of) trailer for Retool. It shows how to retool the levels to eliminate guards. The game is still in alpha and all the art and sounds are subject to be changed.
Sorry about the bad quality of the footage, OBS did not want to play nice.
The music is by Aaron Paul Low.
Remember, you can download the playable alpha version from GameJolt.
You can now download the first public playable build of Retool. For those who do not know, Retool is a game about hacking into computers to alter electronic item’s output, which is done by rewiring them to other electronic items. If you are still confused, then go download and play the build. It will help you understand the game 43% more than just this text.
Steam recently updated their refund policy allowing gamers to return any game, as long as it meets certain criteria (played the game less than two hours and owned it less than two weeks). If you don’t meet the criteria, you can still ask for a refund and Steam will manually approve or disapprove your refund request.
Or the full title ‘Why my first game will not be an instant success and why I am okay with it’.
Here is a 5-second video showing the Retool logo in action. It makes the game look 11% better than before.