The road to Steam Next Fest and streaming

The demo for Grav My Balls has been up for a few months now but it will hopefully be getting a bit more attention during Steam Next Fest. This is a showcase of up and coming indie game projects. They seem to do this a couple of times a year. I was just shy of entering the last one but that was right as I was getting the demo ready and I could not sign up in time. I was in the process of getting the game on Steam and that takes a bit of time to do and to get through the approval process of your game, page, and demo. I had plenty of time this time around and signed up months ago. October 13th -20th my game along with many others will be featured on Steam’s front page and in a special category. In fact, Grav My Balls and noox will both be featured. 

My friend UdonEngineering is working on a game called noox. noox is a ghost hunting game where you collect evidence around levels and try to figure out which kind of ghost is haunting the area. You use tools to find out what clues the ghosts leave behind to determine what kind of spirit it is. This can be done solo or with friends online. His game got started around the same time as Grav My Balls. He will be getting his project done in October which is very exciting. I have helping with art and animation for his game. It has been incredibly fun to see the game take shape and contribute as he has done the same for me and my project. Udon will be the first of us to release his game to the public. His demo is up now and it is being constantly updated with new features, fixes, and polish. 

The demo for Grav My Balls got a few updates to help with teaching and fixing bugs as well. I was heavily updating it around the time that it launched but I have not touched it in a while. I was set to have it be in the same state it currently is for Next Fest. I was pretty sure I broke a few things in the demo by editing some tools so I did not want to push another update on it. That has changed. Udon again has inspired me to keep working on it. He did an update on the game based on a feature I wanted to add. This adds a whole lot to the project’s aesthetics albeit being a relatively small new feature. He has added an “idle” to floating objects. I love this new feature. It is a simple toggle on all of the gravity objects. I have scattered gravity objects that are just floating in space and I wanted to add some minor movement to them. This does not disrupt the ability to change the gravity on it with your balls. It looks wonderful and it will help me fill in blank areas in the map that could use a little extra detail. It also adds some life to the areas that already have objects that are floating. 

This was a silent update. I didn’t even notice it as I pulled latest from Git. I always do this even if I believe I was the only one to touch it recently. It’s good practice and I do the same at my current non dev job. I noticed it as I was streaming progress on a new level. You can see my reaction on my Twitch channel on a recorded stream. It was awesome because I also fixed a hilarious bug that it created. The gravity object’s idle turns back after being hit with a reset ball. A gravity on version of that ball made it hit the ground and start bouncing around. I fixed it on stream with minor issues and fix attempts. I am getting better at coding all the time and that makes me feel amazing. 

Streaming on Twitch has been a lot of fun. One very good reason why is because of the bot that Udon helped bring to life. We set up an app that runs on my other computer that has me projected on a gravity object via webcam while my dev screen is in the background. Chat can type in commands and try to turn gravity on and off on me, spawn other gravity objects, shoot balls, do fx on my gravity object too. This will be an ever evolving project to do on the side that will help get the main game out there. Twitch has been nice to keep me motivated and working on the project online helps keep me moving. The next goal with that is to get a Twitch Affiliate status so I can monetize the channel and even better then that is to make channel redeems even easier to do. It will make it so I can make buttons instead of typing out long commands to launch balls and spawn objects. I am really excited for this and to just get more people watching. The goal is not to make money on this, but to get the good word out on the game and demo prior to release. 

On that note I need to get all of my social media stuff up and running. I will get this out before Next Fest so I can promote the game, the stream, and even this blog. I am hoping for more engagement on everything. I have a feeling it will be hard to manage all of it but that is where I want my time to be going. I’m looking forward to Next Fest and the challenges and hopefully the attention it will bring. Please try out the demo now or during the event. I welcome all feedback.