Destiny of End
07-31-2019, 06:21 PM
Okay, it's been about 8 or 9 months since the last update, so I figured I'd do one now.
Working alone has been a pain, and the thought of "Asking for money" with some sort of Patreon or crowdfunding project to pay artists and musicians and even potentially a coder has made me queasy... so alone I'd stayed. My very good friends constantly told me I'll work myself to death and a subpar game will be released in 10 years at this rate, so I should hire people.
Indeed, at this rate... they're right. "A few more years" on a game I've worked on for 10+ years on and off already wasn't too painful a thought at first, but the more it's thought about and the more work is undone, the more painful the thought has gotten.
I started taking the creation of Destiny of End MUCH more seriously a few years ago, and I've made maps and the like to show it. I even have a couple secret maps I haven't shown yet because they're actually subject to change currently and I feel like I can do better. I've edited battlers I found online where the creator allowed editing to "make them my own", and it took an entire day for each to make them look halfway decent-- only for me to basically decide later that the animations during battle will be limited for the sake of an artist that I never hired and for the battle system that was decided on with the step-forward attack animations. That, and the fact a lot of battlers had to go because the "creator" LIED ABOUT THE ASSET BEING PUBLIC DOMAIN BECAUSE THEY RIPPED IT FROM A GAME. With that, the number of usable assets dwindled slowly but surely until I barely had enough for a small demo. It's nigh impossible to confirm if something is usable or not unless one is familiar with all classic RPGs, or you got it from Dollmage like so many got their battlers. Speaking of... Dollmage has secret "updated" versions of every battler that's publicly released with smoother animations and lines, but refuses to release them. So I'm using downgraded Dollmage assets. Great to know
I'm afraid of doing crowdfunding for so many reasons. It opens me up to criticism from people who wouldn't understand the ideas in my head and have been put to paper and here. I'm afraid of what people will say when they see a battler that's been in a lot of other games, yet I promise it'll be different and better. What would people say when I tell them I'm using a publicly released battle system based on Final Fantasy X, and a menu system that is merely lightly edited from a public version? That in my first "demonstration" video, there was one copyrighted asset... or more! Where did the monsters come from? Are THEY custom or a ripped asset as well? Jeez... I just thought of that now. Do I have to look at every classic rpg's bats to make sure this one wasn't ripped from somewhere?
My thought train got off track a bit there, but you see what I'm dealing with? My game is a mess right now.
I know my story, I know the events work, and I know I've made custom faces for each character. I know I have the characters designed, I know I've made maps, and I know I have tilesets ready to make the maps. I know I have music and I know a musician that could make custom songs for the game.
I know I need help now...
But how do I ask?
How do I convince people that I'm not just begging for money that'll go down the drain because all I have are premade assets and edited assets which some might need to be removed at some point because they're ripped by some idiot and I didn't know it? How do I know the total amount that needs to be crowdfunded in the first place? How does one put monetary value on the works of artists if you've never worked with one before? How long does it take to get enough custom assets to make a demo that screams "This can go somewhere"?
I've talked with a GREAT independent musician, and I have estimates for songs already. It's quite reasonable, but still quite a bit. I won't get into it, but $5 won't cover a bit of even a single song, let alone the 7+ custom songs I'd like. And then there's the need for probably using RTP songs for a lot of towns or something, since having a custom soundtrack for the entire game would be WAY too much. Sure, there are "music packs" I could get for cheap if Humble Bundle does another bundle, but that costs money as well, and I well... I don't really have much at all. 99% of what I have goes to bills and necessities. So it's an issue of being completely helpless and needing others' help. And nobody wants to hear that.
I don't want to drop DoE. I need help. But asking for money is still a scary thought to me, and getting nothing to help after opening up like this would be even worse. But what else can I do? I don't have the artistic skills to make assets. I don't have skills to make music like I would want to. I'm a writer. I'm a developer. I'm an asset hunter. I'm a eventer. I can photoshop a mean edited battler or map asset, or even generate a few faces with assets. But when it comes to asking for help with what I'm bad at... I'm bad at that too, apparently.
Are storyboards, character bios, character face and turn graphics, demonstrating events, and showing off in-game maps and world maps made in photoshop with big plans for the future enough?
I wonder... and so I ask.
Should an indie game dev be expected to be self-sufficient and be able to do it all and pay it all themselves already? I see comments say "You shouldn't have started making the game if you didn't have the money to finish it" on other unfinished indie projects that are in early access. I see it all the time, so it's really kept me from asking until now. So please be honest, I can take it. Nobody likes a poor dev, right? I should just give up? Not even bother asking for anything?
Or do I buck up and just start crowdfunding and see what happens? And what would I include? What site would I use? There are so many! Do I need a proper estimate, or do I need to go above an estimate to ensure nothing suddenly pops up during development?
I've never done this before, so I wouldn't know what would be best, even what I'm doing. But I am open to doing it now. I just need to know what I'm doing beforehand, since I feel so alone in asking for help and needing help in the first place.
Any help or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated, whether here or in messages. Thanks.
Working alone has been a pain, and the thought of "Asking for money" with some sort of Patreon or crowdfunding project to pay artists and musicians and even potentially a coder has made me queasy... so alone I'd stayed. My very good friends constantly told me I'll work myself to death and a subpar game will be released in 10 years at this rate, so I should hire people.
Indeed, at this rate... they're right. "A few more years" on a game I've worked on for 10+ years on and off already wasn't too painful a thought at first, but the more it's thought about and the more work is undone, the more painful the thought has gotten.
I started taking the creation of Destiny of End MUCH more seriously a few years ago, and I've made maps and the like to show it. I even have a couple secret maps I haven't shown yet because they're actually subject to change currently and I feel like I can do better. I've edited battlers I found online where the creator allowed editing to "make them my own", and it took an entire day for each to make them look halfway decent-- only for me to basically decide later that the animations during battle will be limited for the sake of an artist that I never hired and for the battle system that was decided on with the step-forward attack animations. That, and the fact a lot of battlers had to go because the "creator" LIED ABOUT THE ASSET BEING PUBLIC DOMAIN BECAUSE THEY RIPPED IT FROM A GAME. With that, the number of usable assets dwindled slowly but surely until I barely had enough for a small demo. It's nigh impossible to confirm if something is usable or not unless one is familiar with all classic RPGs, or you got it from Dollmage like so many got their battlers. Speaking of... Dollmage has secret "updated" versions of every battler that's publicly released with smoother animations and lines, but refuses to release them. So I'm using downgraded Dollmage assets. Great to know
I'm afraid of doing crowdfunding for so many reasons. It opens me up to criticism from people who wouldn't understand the ideas in my head and have been put to paper and here. I'm afraid of what people will say when they see a battler that's been in a lot of other games, yet I promise it'll be different and better. What would people say when I tell them I'm using a publicly released battle system based on Final Fantasy X, and a menu system that is merely lightly edited from a public version? That in my first "demonstration" video, there was one copyrighted asset... or more! Where did the monsters come from? Are THEY custom or a ripped asset as well? Jeez... I just thought of that now. Do I have to look at every classic rpg's bats to make sure this one wasn't ripped from somewhere?
My thought train got off track a bit there, but you see what I'm dealing with? My game is a mess right now.
I know my story, I know the events work, and I know I've made custom faces for each character. I know I have the characters designed, I know I've made maps, and I know I have tilesets ready to make the maps. I know I have music and I know a musician that could make custom songs for the game.
I know I need help now...
But how do I ask?
How do I convince people that I'm not just begging for money that'll go down the drain because all I have are premade assets and edited assets which some might need to be removed at some point because they're ripped by some idiot and I didn't know it? How do I know the total amount that needs to be crowdfunded in the first place? How does one put monetary value on the works of artists if you've never worked with one before? How long does it take to get enough custom assets to make a demo that screams "This can go somewhere"?
I've talked with a GREAT independent musician, and I have estimates for songs already. It's quite reasonable, but still quite a bit. I won't get into it, but $5 won't cover a bit of even a single song, let alone the 7+ custom songs I'd like. And then there's the need for probably using RTP songs for a lot of towns or something, since having a custom soundtrack for the entire game would be WAY too much. Sure, there are "music packs" I could get for cheap if Humble Bundle does another bundle, but that costs money as well, and I well... I don't really have much at all. 99% of what I have goes to bills and necessities. So it's an issue of being completely helpless and needing others' help. And nobody wants to hear that.
I don't want to drop DoE. I need help. But asking for money is still a scary thought to me, and getting nothing to help after opening up like this would be even worse. But what else can I do? I don't have the artistic skills to make assets. I don't have skills to make music like I would want to. I'm a writer. I'm a developer. I'm an asset hunter. I'm a eventer. I can photoshop a mean edited battler or map asset, or even generate a few faces with assets. But when it comes to asking for help with what I'm bad at... I'm bad at that too, apparently.
Are storyboards, character bios, character face and turn graphics, demonstrating events, and showing off in-game maps and world maps made in photoshop with big plans for the future enough?
I wonder... and so I ask.
Should an indie game dev be expected to be self-sufficient and be able to do it all and pay it all themselves already? I see comments say "You shouldn't have started making the game if you didn't have the money to finish it" on other unfinished indie projects that are in early access. I see it all the time, so it's really kept me from asking until now. So please be honest, I can take it. Nobody likes a poor dev, right? I should just give up? Not even bother asking for anything?
Or do I buck up and just start crowdfunding and see what happens? And what would I include? What site would I use? There are so many! Do I need a proper estimate, or do I need to go above an estimate to ensure nothing suddenly pops up during development?
I've never done this before, so I wouldn't know what would be best, even what I'm doing. But I am open to doing it now. I just need to know what I'm doing beforehand, since I feel so alone in asking for help and needing help in the first place.
Any help or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated, whether here or in messages. Thanks.
