gameplay experiments

This week I updated the Steam page for my game Spilled!, I made a nice little animation when recycling your oil. And I experimented with a slightly different approach to gameplay! At the end I'll talk a bit about my struggles with game dev this week and how I'm putting YouTube on hold for now.

Steam Page #

The more I looked at the images I made for the steam page some time ago now, the more I hated it. I wanted it changed.

I did, and it still looks quite bad, but I think it's a little better for now. See before and after below

I'll have to get some help with this in the future, get someone to make a nice drawing and logo perhaps >.<

I also made a little trailer for the game! It's very simple, and also not very pretty yet. But it does quickly explain what the game is about.

I read somewhere that having a trailer on your Steam page is quite important.

I haven't consciously noticed this yet, but supposedly Steam might show my game on their site when they see that it is being wishlisted quite often.

You can check out the new Steam page and trailer here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2240080/Spilled/
(And wishlist if you haven't yet!)

Recycling animation #

Up to now, when you go to a recycle island to recycle your oil, you'd be given coins instantly. That's fine of course, but we want to make it a little more satisfying wherever possible :)

So now, when clicking 'Sell Oil' the oil tank meter will slowly deplete to 0, all the while coins will be added to your balance. Oh, and a nice sound plays, but I can't very easily play this here unfortunately.

For this also goes, I think it could look a lot better. But for now it works, and replacing the components with nicer looking parts should be fairly easy. (Besides the whole 'having to draw them' part >.<)

Gameplay experimenting #

After some brief playtesting, I got the idea that it might be better to section the game off in smaller areas. Each with their own size of oil spill, needing higher upgrades. This is similar to what I had in mind already, but this time the individual areas will be smaller, but more frequent in occurrence. In theory this will make the gameplay more interesting.

Struggles #

The ever-lasting struggle. As it's the first time I'm taking a game really serious like this, there's a lot of 'failing'. Which is good, it's part of learning, and I encourage every to fail (in a healthy way) as often as they can :P

In short, a few months into development I'm still not exactly sure where to take the game. As I have shared before, I know I want it to not be very long, yet I still want it to be fun.

Sometimes I get stuck. And I notice it influences my mood quite a bit. However, knowing that is a whole relieve on it's own. And realistically I know it's fine, as long as I keep trying!

In similar news, I've put YouTube on hold. I've been struggling with focusing on making the best videos I can, while also making the best game I can. I think the best results come from being focused on one thing. I will instead put more time in marketing via Twitter and TikTok. I'll also be looking into other ways of marketing. And obviously focus on making a good game!

That's it for this week! Thank you very much for reading :) See you next week!

- Lente