I've been working on the Rise of Dagon since April of 2014 and to be honest with you I had hit that really long deep trench in the middle of a long project where daylight disappears and you completely lose sight a project and have no hope of seeing the end either.
I still believed in my project - this is still the kind of game I've always wanted to make - but lately it literally felt like every step forward was becoming exponentially more difficult.
Then something totally unexpected happened to me: a gentleman by the handle of Highsight who runs a Lets Play channel on Twitch for Indie Games in progress called Indie Insights reached out to me to offer to play my game, The Rise of Dagon, live on his channel.
To be totally fair Indie Insights has a fairly small audience (which he was upfront about) so realistically this was not 'my big chance' to show my game to the world or anything .
Rather it was just what it sounded like ; a chance for a tiny bit of exposure and maybe some helpful feedback.
Much to my surprise though the mere fact that anyone had reached out and showed interest in my game reignited my creative drive and spark! All of a sudden instead of feeling like I was carrying a ten ton heavy-thing with me; I was able to crank out what would easily have looked like a month's worth of work in the next two weeks getting my game polished up and presentable with several new features!
I had of course planned to do these things anyways - but all of a sudden I had really strong short term goals and a very demanding reason to make them happen!
I've linked the youtube video for his playthrough here in the post - and let me tell you I was actually really impressed with Highsight's feedback during the play through. Particularly helpful was his style of 'stream of consciousness' feedback of just saying out loud exactly what he was thinking as he played through.
Sure : many things he talked about I either planned to do or had thought about doing but all of a sudden many things became painfully obvious I needed to do right away.
One great example is his feedback about right-click equipping items .. I had this on a list of things to do "one day" but I realized that both because I had not implemented a 'paper doll' system yet and the confusion about inventory management in general that really I simply had to make my inventory much easier to use.
And that's a funny thing for me to admit because one of my goals had always been to make my user interface better than the old classic games like Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master - yet here I was neglecting it to the point that it really distracted/detracted from a lot of the game play how inventory management was difficult for him to figure out.
Otherwise though something that really inspired me was his ability to pick up on my core design for the look and feel of the dungeon. It's super easy to get so locked into tunnel vision when you are making a game that you completely lose sight if your game looks and feels like you want it to - or you are just telling yourself that it does ..
Highsight's feedback about my dungeon's look and feel and the movement controls really inspired confidence that I was doing it right and that confirmation is HUUUGE for me! If the dungeon and movement don't feel right - this game is not going to be worth playing!
Another cool thing came out of him playing my game - and that is I've attended the live cast of the show a few times now and participated in giving feedback to the other developers whose games are being played.
Even when it's not your personal game being played - you learn things from watching Highsight play and comment on what' hes experiencing; and then comparing your observations and feelings about the game being played vs his. Then at the end of a game play through he takes feedback from the audience - which further helps spur discussion that may differ or match your perceptions about the game.
It actually reminds me of when I took art classes in college; and we would go around at the end of class and provide critical feedback to each other in a really constructive and thoughtful way. This is something that's really intensely difficult to get as an indie and I enjoy it immensely when I can!
In summary I have to send out a heart-felt thank-you to Highsight for taking the time to show interest and play through my game - he made a big difference in my motivation that I'm still seeing the benefits of - and that I'm very grateful for!
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