Inide Dev Story (Steam)

I launched a revamped version of Indie Dev Story onto Steam!

It had been a while since I launched Indie Dev Story originally. In fact it was back in 2017, and it’s now 2024!

I was looking at my itch.io account and realised that people were still playing it, which was cool to see.

I went back to play it again and had a lot of fun, so much so that I decided to launch it on Steam so that more people could play it. I wanted to update the game rather than just releasing the same itch.io version again. So I got to work improving and fixing stuff for the Steam launch.

Below is a list of the main changes I did for the new Steam build:

- Localisation - The game is now in 5 languages; English, French, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese

- Updated Engine Version - You won’t see much change with this it’s more of a base project thing but I updated from Unreal Engine 4.12 to Unreal Engine 4.25

- Steam Achievements - I added 20 Steam achievements that you can unlock while playing the game

- Added More Easter Eggs - Updated the game's auto name generators with names of my newer game dev friends and newer games that I have solo developed since Indie Dev Story (e.g. Freerunners, Ultraball).

- Bugs & Optimisations - and of course I fixed a bunch of bugs and made some optimisations to make the game run better for everyone

- UI Tweaks - I also updated the UI in misc places to help improve readability

Thats not all!

Digital Behind the Scenes EBook (PDF)

I also launched a Behind the Scenes DLC alongside the Steam Launch. It’s a 32-page behind-the-scenes look into the making of Indie Dev Story, a game inspired by my own experiences and journey as an indie developer!

Take a peak into what it takes to bring an indie game to life! Find out about:

- The original concept and inspirations

- Development progress and challenges

- Finding an art style

- Ideas and features that didn’t make the cut

- Enhancements for the Steam release

- And much more!

If that sounds up your street then check out the Indie Dev Story Behind the Scenes Steam page below:

IDS - BEHIND THE SCENES STEAM PAGE

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ULTRA BALL

Solo Project

PLAY ‘ULTRA BALL’ ON ITCH.IO HERE

20 hours over a couple of weeks in 2024

I spent a couple of weeks making a new game for a couple of reasons:

I want to get better in Unreal 5, my other games are all in Unreal Engine 4 and UE5 has so much new cool tech in it
My main game Freerunners is taking forever to complete
I have a backlog of little game ideas that I want to make

I had the idea for the game quite a while ago and when it came to picking something to make this imiediatly sprunk to mind as I thought the concept had potential for fun and that that I could make it quickly.

If you want to find out more about making the game you can read a post I did about its development it HERE. It covers things like:

The initial idea and how I had to deviate from it
Development progress
Overall thoughts and learnings!

Freerunners DEMO

Freerunners Demo is available to play on Steam HERE

If you give it a go, give me some feedback, let me know what you think and if you like it, give it a wishlist!

Become a freerunner. Find a flow and underlying rhythm of movement through your environment. Vault, climb, jump, duck, swing, flip, slide, do what it takes to travel as fast as possible whilst using your environment to outwit the enemy henchmen and save your friend.

I’ve been making the game in my spare time for the last couple of years. It’s taken a while to get to this point but I’m super happy with the progress I’ve made. I’ve always loved freerunning/parkour stuff and this side project was originally to play with that theme, and for me to learn C++! While prototyping the game I realised that finishing and releasing a game are actually skills in themselves that need to be practiced. Tie that with the fact I was having so much fun making it, I thought I’d take things to the next level and make a full game that I release.

I’m making great progress on the full game and it’s pretty much complete. Really now, I’m just fixing bugs, polishing stuff up and balancing the flow of some levels. As I’m making this game for fun and learning, I am in no rush to release it, I’m just taking my time. While developing the game over the last couple of years I’ve shown and playtested it to a bunch of people, but I thought the next logical step would be to put a demo out and see what feedback I get from a broader range of people!

MARAUDERS

Team Project

WISHLIST ON STEAM NOW

Marauders is a Tactical Multiplayer Looter Shooter where you play as a Space Pirate in a dieselpunk alternate timeline. Earth has expanded its industry to the point where law and order is out of reach, the new wild west. Raid colonies, factories and space stations for valuable loot or board other player's ships take their gear by force and return to your base before your oxygen runs out.

SURVIVE ANOTHER NIGHT

Solo Project

PLAY ON ITCH.IO

7 days in Dec 2020

Here is my entry for the 2020 Epic MegaJam. It was a 7-day game jam which I entered as a solo dev. I submitted the game with 38 min remaining, so I was cutting it a little bit close haha.

The theme was "It's been a long time, but we're not done yet". I decided to make a game about a zombie apocalypse. You play a character trying to protect his family for one last night before help arrives.

It was the longest game jam I’ve ever done and it was very intense, but I’m glad I did it as I really like how the game turned out.

I wrote a postmortem about the development process of making the game during the game jam, check it out HERE

BATTLE SPORT GAME

Team Project

Game Jam

7 days in 2020

Over 7 days, we jammed out a round-based multiplayer shooter. Our aim was to create a prototype demonstrating the main demands, design and good practices across all development areas of a networked UE4 shooter.

Design-wise we settled on elements from the “Gunfight” & “Cyber Attack” game modes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). These modes have a range of elements to help competition; rounds, objectives, downed states as well as battle royale elements such as loot persistence. We also included third-person mechanics, advanced locomotion, leaning and screen-based weapon tracing. We wanted to test/demonstrate a robust backend solution that minimises third party reliance and handles; authentication, client information, matchmaking and server scaling.

The main areas that I worked on were: Animation, UI, sound and blueprint work.

The Black Death

Team Project

A medieval multiplayer survival game based in Western Europe during the 14th century when the plagues of the Black Death were running rampant. Play as a range of medieval professions as you try to survive, whether that be by farming the land as a Peasant, crafting and selling to turn a profit as a Merchant or taking what you need as a Militia.

RAGE

Solo Project

PLAY ON ITCH.IO

Feb - July 2017

An 80s-style beat-em-up, inspired by the likes of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Marvel Vs Capcom.

Fight through a single-player game mode, unlocking new characters and a VS mode so you can play against your friends in local-multiplayer Player Vs Player action!

I wrote a postmortem about the development process of creating RAGE HERE

Indie Dev Story

Solo Project

PLAY ON ITCH.IO

Oct - Nov 2016

A single-player 'clicker' game, with a Voxel art style, which tries to mimic the frantic feeling of being an indie developer.

Attempt to make your first game while trying to stay healthy, social and earning enough money to pay the bills. This was meant to be a smaller project but I liked it a lot and ended up spending a month and a half on it!

I wrote a postmortem about the development process of creating INDIE DEV STORY HERE

M3CH

Team Project

M3ch was a third-person mech multiplayer shooter that was being developed for iOS. Unfortunately, it never got to see the light of day.

FLIGHT SIM VR

Team Project

3 Day prototype

As a team, we made a VR flight simulator prototype. Our goal was to create a functional and realistic flying simulation, with simple gameplay mechanics, which would run on the Vive/Oculus Rift. We wanted to test VR development viability, as well as see what kind of quality benchmark we could hit in a small amount of time.

SHUTTLE LAUNCH VR

Team Project

5 Day prototype

As a team, we made a Shuttle Launch Simulator prototype. Our goal was to create an immersive and co-operative effort to launch a shuttle into space. This multiplayer experience was split into two roles, the “Pilots” and the “Flight Director”. The Pilots are in VR and need to interact with the controls on the shuttle. Whereas the Flight Director is not in VR and instead has a tablet which simulates a control terminal and a flight manual document. They must guide the pilots through the launch procedure, e.g. what buttons to press in what order and help the pilots work through any alarms/problems they encounter, such as a short circuit in the computer system.

THE ANNOYING GAME

Solo Project

May 2016

A single-player continuous runner game with a pixel art style.

Jump/switch to the correct shape for the oncoming obstacle. A simple game mechanic but it allowed me to learn Unreal 4's 2D side. I had a lot of fun animating the elements.

DIVING FRAUD (gamejam)

Solo Project

March 2016

A single-player game, made in a 10-hour game jam.

Time your jump to get a perfect score. Bit of a fail, as I spent too long with the technical side of getting the animation and the slider to be in sync.