Devlog 15
Welcome to the new StarvingFox Studio Website
It took a while, but I finally finished the revamp! As the website is not hosted on wordpress servers anymore, I now have pretty much full controll on the design and customizability of the website.
Beside the new design, every released game has now a dedicated page on which you can access the different download pages according to the games’ platforms, specific informations related to the game, and a press-kit download button for anyone willing to share the game on his own website or media platform.
First there was a page dedicated to every project I am currently working on, but as there was nothing on their dedicated page beside some infos about the game, it felt meaningless and I decided to keep it down to the games that are currently available.
I did also set up a mailing list you can join to be notified everytime something important happens, like a game or asset release, or a new devlog. As these happen once in a while it won’t be spammy at all, I’d say maybe around 10 mails per year considering I release between 1 and 3 games per year, and a new devlog pop up every 2 months ish.
Release date
The game will be officially released on Steam August 8th 2020. Watch the new trailer :
What's different from the Android version
The main difference is of course the absence of advertisement, but this also impacts game mechanics as cancelling your last move, beeing now limited to 5 uses per level, or skipping the level, now free of use.
Some other noteworthy differences :
- Post Processing Effects
- Settings Menu
- More Soundtracks
- Partial Controller Support (not working in the settings menu)
- Steam Achievements
- Better Graphics
This game is the first I’ve ever published and it has been around for a while now on the Google Play Store, so as I was redesigning the entire app I decided to include English translation.
With almost 50.000 downloads and a rating of 4.7/5 out of 800 ratings to this day, it is my most popular game so far and I’m glad it is now available for everyone.
The translation might not be perfect and I’d appreciate any feedback on this.
The final asset, the Moon, is finished, and I also reworked Mars, Uranus, and Saturn models.
This asset pack is finally ready for publishing and will be available soon.
The graphic redesign of DoH has been paused due to the numerous recent releases, it will be resumed in August.
Taking a step back from this project, I think the game graphics might be too generic, or common to what other developers are doing at the moment. I think it is due to the fact half of the models in the game come from Synty Studios asset packs and as other games use the same assets it just doesn’t feel right to me anymore, I need to find a proper identity for the game.
That said, I decided to not use Synty Studios assets as they come out of the box, but rather use them as a base material to still get a time boost and at the same time have the game to look like no other. It is quite time consuming as Synty Studios models are not designed to be modified or customized, this means I have to import each model into Blender to rework the model, then redefine UV maps, then import each model into Substance Painter for texturing, then import the new model into Unity.
I think I’m still getting a slight time boost doing all this, even if I have to rework most of the models to get a decent UV mapping I might spend half the time I would spend on modeling these from scratch. So let’s say if modeling represent 30 to 40 % of the work on each model and I have to spend half of this time reworking the model for UV mapping, and as Synty Studios models represent half of the assets I use in the game, in the end I still get a 7,5 to 10 % time boost on 3D models.
Here’s a look at a room I reworked :
I’m quite comfortable making lowpoly assets and no matter the direction this project take I feel confident about the final look of the game.
Experiments
I’ve been working on grid systems for quite a long time now, starting with square grids, then hexagrids, and now back to another square grid system. With the soon release of 3 of my projects I think it might be the time to turn these systems into something. I first thought about an Android game, but writting a paper on the core game mechanics has rapidly turned this idea into a PC game as the amount of content can’t suit a mobile game anymore.
It was at first a simple medieval builder/management game but then I made an entire tech-tree, added seasons, deseases, military and diplomacy. On paper this is quite a large game and I’d have to find a way to split it or cut things out to be able to release it. I’ve been wanting to make a building-management game for a while, and I hope this time has come, more infos on this to-be-project soon.
