Wormhole City Devlog and the Kickstarter Experience

Community Showcase Game Development
#1

Update 6/2/2017

Some new footage,

Some scenes for an indie scifi adventure game, I hope you guys enjoy it. Definitely need to calibrate the movement speed and animations, as well as a ton of polishing in every aspect. Also trying to work on moving away from stock assets.

E: Screenshot gallery for those interested, http://imgur.com/gallery/bwZGG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQSzzEvpof4

've released our game on Steam Early Access; there is still an enormous amount of work to be done for our game, but we hope you can enjoy what we have so far as we add more content and features throughout development. Hope everyone has a healthy 2017, thank you.

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Update 10/8/2016

Hope everyone is having a healthy 2016 so far, just wanted to show some of our progress, thank you for your time. I will clean this OP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--iELkHtEs0

Update 05/22/2016

Hi everyone, just wanted to post some of our progress on our game. We’ve improved a lot of aspects that we hope to get into in the near future, hope you enjoy and thank you all for your continued support and advice.

Update 02/25/2016

Excited to showcase a tank, one of the last vehicle types that will be included in Wormhole City. We plan to have missions that can be completed with different types of vehicles of your choosing, as well as power-ups you can pick up that will customize or add to the arsenal of weapons for your vehicle. Also showing a new set of enemies and air allies that you will encounter in the game!

[Please check our Youtube channel]

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here is an image gallery for a closer look,

[Album] Popular Characters in Unreal 4

Thanks for your time!

Update 01/26/2016

New Gameplay Progress on Wormhole City!

[Please check our Youtube channel]

Thank you all for your time and support.

Update 01/12/2016

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Hi everyone, we would like to thank you guys for helping us getting greenlight on steam.

Our newest video shows a small preview of a new environment and an air boss battle you can experience in Wormhole City. One of your goals in this mission is to assist your allies in breaching and infiltrating a starship hijacked by enemy space pirates. Not all visual, audio, and programming mechanics have been implemented as of yet and this level is not in the alpha demo. In our next update we hope to show more content concerning stats, abilities, and upgrades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qdGjtq1gfk

Update 01/04/2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwTE49LR-3I

Hi everyone, we’re excited to show a few new elements we plan to include in our game. Two new skills, short-range teleportation and a storm spell that you will be able to specialize in and use in conjunction with other abilities. We also hoping you enjoy a little underwater gameplay and exploration in Wormhole City with a new underwater suit to pilot!

Update 12/20/2015

New video showing some gameplay footage, not all content shown is in the demo or reflects the order that the levels are played in,

[Please visit our Youtube channel to see more gameplay content!]

There’s a lot to be said, short story is that the game will need a lot of work.

We’re down to focusing on gameplay for the pilot, two mechs, and at least air and ground transportation. Developing companion AI / extra playable characters will take a lot of time as well, so that’ll probably be focused down to playing the protagonist’s party and developing their individual abilities. A lot of the levels were built at the same time, working on one aspect after there was fatigue in developing another. Other levels took extra attention, but at this point I think only some of the gameplay mechanics/assets of these levels would be included in the final version of the game, a newer demo would have to have all new levels.

However I feel encouraged that we have somewhat of a foundation to work and improve on, just worried about time.

12/15/2015 pt2

We’ve submitted our alpha demo to Steam Greenlight, if you think it has enough merit for a vote please send us your support and let us know!

12/15/2015

New media and images,

[Please see our Youtube channel to see new media and images]

[Album] Wormhole City Alpha

12/10/2015 EDIT

**Thank you for all the valuable advice that’s been given and we hope our development positively reflects what we’ve learned from this thread and we want to hear more input from you.

We’ve released an early demo for our game, right now it’s packaged for 64-bit PC Users, please let us know if the link and game works,**

This is our new Wormhole City trailer and demo,

[Please visit our Youtube Channel to see our trailer]

media gallery,

[Album] Wormhole City Alpha

We’ve also attempted VR gameplay with a FPS/TPS Shooter demo that should be compatible with Oculus Rift hardware,

https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/hq2c5a

Please let us know if you guys have trouble downloading or playing the game, we’re in the process of trying new file hosting services.

Thank you and happy holidays

Hi everyone, we’ve recently launched an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign and would like to offer our insights as developers and users of Kickstarter to hopefully help others in any way we can. I’m part of a two-man game developer team on Wormhole City, a sci-fi adventure game with Metroidvania gameplay, vehicle sections and gravitational force physics so you can navigate upside down and sideways throughout a level. You play as an android reactivated to protect Wormhole City while trying to find your missing creator. Exploring, vehicle sections, solving puzzles, enemy A.I. combat, and equipment upgrades are all implemented in the game. We aim to create a story-driven narrative through characters and audio logs that you will encounter and affect the story’s outcome with the decisions you make.

Here was our trailer for our campaign, a month old now:

[Please visit the link below to see older Wormhole City media]

Few things to remark on, we hope to have a more unique main character model for our game. Given that our protagonist is an android, we are thinking about having the ability control different kinds of mechanical suits (and drones). The racing vehicles need more animations and particle effects, flaps, exhausts, nuances and overall (near)flight dynamics. 3D animation and modeling is one of our biggest weaknesses that we’re working on (using 3ds Max and more recently Blender). We’re definitely on a path of a more stylized aesthetic and believe in exploring different color palettes during the course of the adventure.

[Please visit the link below to see older Wormhole City media]

An example of some of our gameplay. Among the many aspects that need polishing, the biggest issue I have with this video is that it needed more original and interesting level design/events. The video below showcases more features and some technical things we were working while on Unreal 4’s epic settings (sorry for the compression quality):

[Please visit the link below to see older Wormhole City media]

A few more images on the campaign and updates tabs here.

Some of our thoughts on how you may improve your chances with crowdfunding:

Include a playable demo. The majority of people thought our game looked great and Epic’s Unreal 4 engine and assets deserve a lot of credit with their support for independent game developers . The next most requested feedback was having a demo, and we were unfortunately not ready to release one yet. All Kickstarter projects we’ve seen that have included a demo have been better off for it and backers have messaged us to affirm this. We’re currently in the phase of creating a demo for the public to play.

**Stronger marketing strategy. **We didn’t have a demo and we started e-mailing press releases after the start of our campaign, not beforehand (unfortunately we do not think anyone replied to our press releases, given the abrupt nature of our intentions with promoting/advertising a Kickstarter on short notice, it is completely understandable). We didn’t spend enough time getting to know newer communities or gaining an audience while developing our game. As an extremely new two-man company, a demo would have been perfect during our promotions to prove our capabilities. Developers and backers alike have been extremely motivating for us and we hope to share our insights through the Unreal 4 forums and entries on our website.

10/8/2016 edit: This will take complete determination

** Create more appealing rewards.** Based on our numbers our average backer was willing to donate more than the price of the $10 game but we did not do enough research into investing into costs of physical rewards that would interest and widen our audience. Box copies of Wormhole City, shirts, figurines, booklets and other merchandise would have been a great opportunity to branch out to fans who enjoy the sci-fi genre in different mediums. The next time around we plan to commit to sensible physical rewards that we hope anyone can enjoy.

10/8/2016 edit : Merchandise can be a way to boost sales but still really hesitant with this if there were to be another campaign.

**Marketing cannot be underestimated. **Around 2,664 video views in the span of 30 days while doing our best to promote and market our product on Facebook, Twitter, and relatable message boards has been mystifying for us. If we had been more sophisticated in creating an audience or outlet to showcase our project we feel our campaign would have had a better chance at success. We didn’t do enough to network with users on Youtube or link with gaming enthusiasts. We’re extremely reluctant to invest in marketing companies but may look into website advertisements for next time.

10/8/2016 edit This still takes complete persistence

Voice actors and music. If you are at a point where you want to consider voice actors or composers, there are many who will understand your financial constraints and are willing to help you for online and in-game credits for their services. If you go this route make sure everyone understands and agrees to the situation (there are also casting websites that allow you to advertise for unpaid services, http://www.starnow.com/ has been extremely useful for us)

10/8/2016 edit the majority of voice actors are awesome and sincere people.

Currently we’re working on making a playable demo, adding voice overs we’ll have in-game, and creating more 3d assets to rely less on Epic’s stock models. We hope to share more thoughts as they come to mind. If there are any questions about Kickstarter or some of our programming/designs we’ll do our best to answer them while updating this dev log.

#2

If I may put in my 2cents, and don’t take it the wrong way, the trailer really didn’t show me anything. I did not get a sense of what the game was about. There was nothing in it that enticed me, that made me say, “I want to play this game.” much less, “I want to fund this!”

The game overall looks pretty, but when marketing a game, you need a strong trailer. This is an example of a trailer that made me want to fund a game:

I’m not knocking your game, and I am sure it will work out to be something awesome. Keep up the good work!

#3

Thanks for the honest feedback TheBritain, another one of our shortcomings was that our story was to drive a lot of the player’s motivation and yet we didn’t have a lot to show for it (in the trailer and otherwise). Hopefully our game becomes more appealing when more pieces are in place.

#4

I agree with the Britain. I don’t think you guys did a good job conveying what you wrote in your description of the game in the trailer. I did not think game was interesting until I read it’s description. I like your idea if you can pull it off it can be a good game. Your trailer has to give a summary of what your game is about. This is a great example of a good trailer. I want to play this game and I don’t know a thing about game or how it will play. A good trailer gets people attention.

#5

Thanks for the feedback LCSweeper, animation and modeling is one of our major weaknesses that we are working on, the new Deux Ex trailer is amazing and definitely shows what kind of themes you’ll be exploring in that game while ours is way less cohesive and more confusing/generic.

We’re definitely attempting to improve these aspects right now and for the next time we release a trailer, thank you for your time and effort in helping us!

#6

OK so I found out about your game through indiegamemag. That’s literally the only other place I found that had significant information on Wormhole City. It had me thinking " this isn’t going to go right on kickstarter". Marketing I would say in general was the problem. I didn’t see the game on steam greenlight, twitter, Facebook, or even tumblr. There was no honest way to communicate with the community of gamers on kickstarter alone. Getting the game’s name out there and really getting people to talk about it is key to your success. I saw the trailers and thought the game has potential to be something great. Whether or not it is is up to you as the developer. However, I do believe that even if it is great, it won’t matter if no one knows about it. I’m not trying to bash you or anything. I just wanted to have an honest opinion on what you may need to work on to be successful.

#7

Thank you for all the valuable advice that’s been given and we hope our development positively reflects what we’ve learned from this thread and we want to hear more input from you.

We’ve released an early demo for our game, right now it’s packaged for 64-bit PC Users, please let us know if the link and game works,

This is our new Wormhole City trailer and demo,

Demo download link:

We’ve also attempted VR gameplay with a FPS/TPS Shooter demo that should be compatible with Oculus Rift hardware,

https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/hq2c5a

Please let us know if you guys have trouble downloading or playing the game, we’re in the process of trying new file hosting services.

Thank you and happy holidays

#8

Hey Guys, I haven’t tried playing yet but I can critique the new trailer. I think the first 30 seconds of footage should be reduced and spliced into a different order. They’re by far the most boring parts of the trailer. The second half of the trailer is, I think, the best half for sure. Getting people to watch all the way through is harder than you think, even though it is only 90 seconds long. I think if you could shed some more time/trim and mix up the first 30 seconds a bit it could hold the ADD players attention a bit longer.

For instance, the scene where she runs down to the table with the holographics, that lingers a bit too long. A lot of the first shots in the trailer linger a bit too long I think.

Again, intended as constructive criticism, no offense meant at all!

Can’t wait to try it out this weekend though.

#9

Thanks for the advice and support zlspradlin, we feel the same way about the trailer. We were going to have voice acting and try to make the beginning less boring but we couldn’t come up with any writing that fit our criteria or stayed fresh through repeated playthroughs.

The trailer is a few weeks older than the demo and there’s a couple of levels that have been improved or not shown. We’ll be re-recording almost all of the scenes because we’re not happy with the compression quality that we went with as well.

Thank you for your feedback

#10

Images from our Oculus Rift Demo,

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#11

New media and images,

[Album] Wormhole City Alpha
#12

That looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun!

#13

Thanks a alot zlspradlin, we have submitted our game to steam greenlight, if you think it has enough merit please send us a vote and let us know!

#14

You got my vote!

#15

Thanks so much zls, that means a lot to us and we’ll keep it in mind for our next demo update.

#16

New video showing some gameplay footage, not all content shown is in the demo or reflects the order that the levels are played in,

There’s a lot to be said, short story is that the game will need a lot of work.

We’re down to focusing on gameplay for the pilot, two mechs, and at least air and ground transportation. Developing companion AI / extra playable characters will take a lot of time as well, so that’ll probably be focused down to playing the protagonist’s party and developing their individual abilities. A lot of the levels were built at the same time, working on one aspect after there was fatigue in developing another. Other levels took extra attention, but at this point I think only some of the gameplay mechanics/assets of these levels would be included in the final version of the game, a newer demo would have to have all new levels.

However I feel encouraged that we have somewhat of a foundation to work and improve on, just worried about time.

#17

And my vote too! Nice slick gameplay, the mech part looks really promising and you’ve got so much variety in your levels and environment design. With just two people you’ve done a phenomenal job covering ground/air and mech gameplay too. Scope-creep is a familiar battle indeed but on the other hand if a game needs a particular feature to stand out I think it’s worth it. I think you’re onto something with the variety of content in Wormhole City. It might be worth setting up a presence on IndieDB as well, that place gets a fair amount of “organic” traffic, especially for free demos like the one you’ve planned.

Thanks for sharing your Kickstarter experience as well and good luck with your demo.

#18

Thanks a ton for the feedback and vote VSZ, we will get to work on the IndieDB page and we’re glad you like our approach to our game.

Hope to you and everyone a great end of the year :slight_smile:

#19

Hi everyone, we’re excited to show a few new elements we plan to include in our game. Two new skills, short-range teleportation and a storm spell that you will be able to specialize in and use in conjunction with other abilities. We also hoping you enjoy a little underwater gameplay and exploration in Wormhole City with a new underwater suit to pilot!

#20

Hi everyone, we would like to thank you guys for helping us getting greenlight on steam.

Our newest video shows a small preview of a new environment and an air boss battle you can experience in Wormhole City. One of your goals in this mission is to assist your allies in breaching and infiltrating a starship hijacked by enemy space pirates. Not all visual, audio, and programming mechanics have been implemented as of yet and this level is not in the alpha demo. In our next update we hope to show more content concerning stats, abilities, and upgrades.