[HN Gopher] ConcernedApe's Haunted Chocolatier
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ConcernedApe's Haunted Chocolatier
Author : doppp
Score : 451 points
Date : 2021-10-22 04:33 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hauntedchocolatier.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hauntedchocolatier.net)
| pixard wrote:
| This has the same kind of relaxing vibe as Stardew Valley. A very
| rare instant purchase for me once it is released.
|
| For me personally these games stand out in a huge way in the sea
| of generic AAA micro-transaction "games". If anyone wants to drop
| some more SV-like game recommendations I'd love to hear them.
|
| I am in continued awe ConcernedApe was able to accomplish all
| this largely on his own.
|
| And beyond this that he continues that approach with his new game
| even though he could surely afford to just bring on as many
| developers/designers as he needed. He could even churn out a new
| game on a yearly basis and "milk" it all to maximize profit. The
| fact he is doing none of this speaks volumes (at least to me).
|
| Eric if you somehow happen to stumble upon this comment know
| you've brought one couple many many happy hours together. We wish
| you all the best, and much love!
| poulpy123 wrote:
| Littlewood has similar vibes than SV
| drusepth wrote:
| Animal Crossing has a pretty heavy overlap in vibe, although
| it is a decently-different game (e.g. not really about
| farming). Also, Moonlighter has some similar vibes.
| samstave wrote:
| I still want a remake of 1997's 'Knights and Merchants'
|
| Great game. AI went wonky when you reached +-100 serfs.
| poulpy123 wrote:
| Sun Haven is a early access stardew valley like happening in a
| fantasy universe
| blackearl wrote:
| Not really like SV but all of Lucas Pope's games definitely
| stand out. Another individual who does pretty much all his own
| work. Paper's Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, both
| excellent and very unique.
| psyc wrote:
| I just played Obra Dinn. For years I have been saying "Why
| aren't there any games like Sierra's Manhunter series?" Obra
| Dinn is the first game that ever reminded me of Manhunter.
| Also, it was fun and very well made.
| schnitzelstoat wrote:
| I never really got into "Papers, Please" but "Return of the
| Obra Dinn" is one of the best video games I have ever played.
|
| The mechanics are amazing and make it a better detective game
| than most detective games. Plus, I really liked the story and
| setting.
|
| Just in case OP hasn't played it, I genuinely cannot
| recommend it enough.
| chrbr wrote:
| Completely agree. I wish I could forget everything about
| Obra Dinn so I can go back and play it again for the first
| time. I also recommend going into it blind, so that early
| on when the nature of what your character is dealing with
| is revealed, you won't have any idea it was coming.
|
| Lucas Pope and Concerned Ape are supremely talented (they
| even compose the music for their games!). I'll buy anything
| they release at this point, sight unseen.
| lfowles wrote:
| Some other games with similar vibes to Obra Dinn:
|
| The recently released Echo Beach.. "As a clerk at the
| Ministry, your job is to hunt down the remaining musicians
| in their place of last refuge - The Musicnet."
|
| https://tim-sheinman.itch.io/echo-beach
|
| Hypnospace Outlaw "In Hypnospace Outlaw you play as a
| volunteer 'enforcer' who is tasked with bla bla bla... to
| make money bla bla. The cool thing is that there's a super
| robust fake OS and a really big fake internet with all
| kinds of neat things to find. OK?!? Ok!"
|
| https://jay-tholen.itch.io/hypnospace-outlaw
| ljm wrote:
| Paradise Killer, too. I mainly like it for its heavy 80s
| vapourwave aesthetic and top-notch soundtrack.
| jawarner wrote:
| Have you heard of Outer Wilds? It's a different setting,
| but you piece together a story by exploring. I'd really
| recommend it.
| Shared404 wrote:
| > you piece together a story by exploring. I'd really
| recommend it.
|
| For anyone who likes this style of game, I can't
| recommend Myst and Riven enough.
|
| Haven't gotten around to the later games in that series
| yet.
|
| I should note I haven't played Obra Dinn, or Outer Wilds
| yet, so I may have misunderstood.
| aarpmcgee wrote:
| I've often made that comparison myself, though I hesitate
| sharing it in order to avoid triggering a possible knee-
| jerk response.
|
| Outer Wilds is my favorite game of all time :) It is
| generally quite chill (though there are a few tense
| moments). I hear the DLC is a little scary/thrilling but
| I haven't played it yet.
| viceroyalbean wrote:
| Your mention of Return of the Obra Dinn reminded me of this
| article[1] which I found quite fascinating about dithering,
| the technique used for the game's art style. One of the neat
| things about these types of small indie games is that they
| can do unique things with (among other things) art style
| which bigger budget games that need a wider appeal can't
| afford to.
|
| [1] https://surma.dev/things/ditherpunk/
| blackearl wrote:
| If you're interested in that you'll probably like this post
| by Lucas Pope on how he handled dithering and camera
| movement - https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=408
| 32.msg136374...
| hh3k0 wrote:
| > If anyone wants to drop some more SV-like game
| recommendations I'd love to hear them.
|
| Not SV-like in terms of gameplay but if you're looking for
| gorgeous feel-good pixelart games you'll find all that in
| Eastward.
| aspaviento wrote:
| Kynseed is another one, by the people who developed Fable but
| its development is taking quite long.
| umvi wrote:
| Not exactly farming or SV-like, but "A Short Hike"
| (https://ashorthike.com/) is a laid-back, wholesome, "no-
| stress" kind of game I can highly recommend.
| jgalecki wrote:
| I'm working on my own indie game that's inspired by Stardew
| Valley, so I've done a good bit of looking at similar cozy
| farming games. I also wrote an analysis of Stardew's game
| design that was well-received on Hacker News [1].
|
| Animal Crossing is the granddaddy of cozy games, but the core
| loop didn't keep me engaged. More "arranging your house and
| island" than farming.
|
| Cozy Grove is Animal Crossing with a far better narrative.
|
| Graveyard Keeper, Littlewood, and My Time In Portia are closer
| to being "Stardew, but X". Your mileage may vary with each, but
| I enjoyed parts all of them.
|
| Spiritfarer is my favorite of the lot. It plays differently
| enough with your hodgepodge boat-city of ghosts, but it feels
| the closest in spirit ( _rimshot_ ) to Stardew. Bring a box of
| tissues.
|
| My own game, Moondrop Mountain, is trying for a roguelike
| farming experience. It should be coming into Early Access early
| next year [2].
|
| [1] https://www.pixelatedplaygrounds.com/sidequests/game-
| design-... [2]
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1417750/Moondrop_Mountain...
| beaconstudios wrote:
| Don't forget that Stardew Valley itself is based on Harvest
| Moon.
| Karuma wrote:
| Indeed. It's kind of surprising that this is the only
| comment mentioning Harvest Moon so far, since SV is so
| similar...
|
| All the games mentioned in these comments are great,
| anyway. And I found some new ones to try now. :)
| capitainenemo wrote:
| Could it be due to HN being more PC than console? I
| personally have not played Harvest Moon and am only
| vaguely familiar with the name. Stardew Valley however
| runs on Linux and has a large mod community (Stardew
| Valley Expanded for example) which has ensured a lot of
| replay in our house. It's the preferred family coop.
| recursive wrote:
| I think HN is pretty diverse. I, for instance, am a big
| fan of SDV. I've only ever played it on my android phone
| though.
| thebean11 wrote:
| I love the idea of a roguelike farming game. Often I feel
| bogged down in lategame, and regret early decisions I made.
| Faster mechanics and restarts would help a ton. Good luck!
| kibwen wrote:
| For a roguelike farming game, look into Atomicrops:
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/757320/Atomicrops/
| fho wrote:
| Isn't Dwarf Fortress somewhat of a roguelike farming game?
| It definitely features farming (and crafting, and raising
| cattle and ... literally everything else) and has been
| called a "honorable roguelike" before.
| myhf wrote:
| Yeah, for sure. Dwarf Fortress randomizes a lot of
| environment and climate features but has standard crops.
| It looks like Moondrop Mountain also randomizes the
| properties of crops (similar to materials in Big Pharma).
| jgalecki wrote:
| It's interesting how shorter run-based gameplay impacts
| every aspect of play. It's like the difference between
| games _with_ permadeath and games _designed around_
| permadeath. The former is a hardcore challenge, and the
| latter, I would argue, is the core of roguelikes.
|
| While there's no "death" in my game (stayin' cozy), the
| idea that the player needs to go through multiple runs has
| been really fun to play around with :)
| samstave wrote:
| Heh.... my 1987 batch files to save, quit, copy, restart
| .sav files would like a word.
|
| Moria FTW
|
| save.bat and load.bat
| xmprt wrote:
| Hades is the perfect balance of this. Short runs while
| still allowing some amount of progression.
| mywittyname wrote:
| > the latter, I would argue, is the core of roguelikes.
|
| I might be showing my age here, but isn't permadeath the
| core of roguelikes? Like, isn't the point that you have
| to start fresh each play, and that's why games like
| nethack offered a bajillion character classes? Even the
| og rogue had permadeath.
| jgalecki wrote:
| Exactly! A game designed around permadeath will try to
| keep things fresh for the player, through randomized
| proc-gen level design or through different character
| classes. Or, to put it another way, imagine Super Mario
| World with a single life and no saves. It would count as
| permadeath, but it certainly wouldn't be a roguelike.
| Roguelikes are _designed around_ permadeath at their
| core.
| res0nat0r wrote:
| Eastward just came out and has amazing SDV like graphics,
| I've not played it yet though.
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/
| derstander wrote:
| PAX Online this past July had a panel called " A Case for
| Cozy: Why We Need Wholesome Games" which may interest you if
| you haven't seen it yet. They did give a list of some
| upcoming games in the genre.
|
| I linked the PAX page below. I watched the stream after the
| fact in the PAX archive on twitch but I needed to scrub
| through the recording for the whole day and sub-channel to
| find it so I unfortunately don't have a link directly to it.
|
| [1] https://online.paxsite.com/content/sitebuilder/rna/pax/on
| lin...
| CabSauce wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5GXrvUrVA
| IgorPartola wrote:
| Rougelike farming?! There is dungeon crawling in a tune based
| game with ASCII UI?!
|
| Thanks for the recommendations. I and a few friends are big
| fans of SV so having more games with that feel will be great.
| Tried out AC recently and didn't love the core loop either.
| fho wrote:
| Not a farming sim, but Celeste tight platforming paired with a
| very wholesome story made it stand out for me.
| the_lonely_road wrote:
| You would likely enjoy Spiritfarer. As a bonus it has a built
| in local co op and can be played with two controllers from the
| same steam purchase. It tackles the theme of dealing with our
| own mortality and can be a bit hard to handle if you are
| depressed, but otherwise amazing experience.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Give Noita a try, it's a fun indie roguelike with subtle powder
| toy mechanics. It's a proper hearty, arcade-like experience
| too. If I've got some spare time between projects, I seem to
| always find the time to fit a couple Noita runs in...
| xmprt wrote:
| There's a game called Atrio which is probably closer to
| Factorio than Stardew Valley but you might enjoy it.
|
| I've heard good things about Animal Crossing too although I've
| never played it.
| verifex wrote:
| I don't know if it's been said already, but Starbound seems
| like it kind of fits into this world as well.
| busfahrer wrote:
| I remember there was some controversy around Starbound's
| Early Access status when it was first released, haven't heard
| of it since - I'm assuming that it has turned out fine based
| on your recommendation?
| verifex wrote:
| They have done a number of major updates and now it has
| enough of a story and gameplay mechanics to make it fun to
| finish the story. I think previously, you just were
| supposed to hunt upgrades without any story motivation.
| damidekronik wrote:
| Starbound is more like Terraria than Stardew Valley sadly.
| rubylark wrote:
| Aground is not as cozy, but has the same sort of pixel style
| and indie game feel. It's more like Terraria than anything.
| Like Stardew Valley, it has waaay more content and story than
| you expect at the start of the game.
| thrower123 wrote:
| Something in a similar vein that I enjoy a lot is RimWorld.
| It's more of a simulation than an RPG, but it has some similar
| vibes. Especially if you tone down the combat portions of the
| game in the difficulty settings so you can focus more on base
| building and exploring rather than getting raided by Mad Max
| vagabonds every few days.
| bart_spoon wrote:
| There's a new game coming out this week called Moonglow Bay
| which looks like it will have a similar vibe, but focused more
| on fishing. No idea if it will be good, but it looks
| interesting.
| akuji1993 wrote:
| > instant purchase for me
|
| Also, in comparison to AAA games from the biggest companies
| like EA (BF2042 Beta, hello) and Ubisoft, I KNOW that Eric will
| release a "ready to play" game, without massive bugs and
| missing content looming.
| schnevets wrote:
| Yeah, I didn't play a ton of SV, but I will buy this on day
| one for two reasons:
|
| 1. It will be wonderful to explore alongside a big culture of
| people without everyone being beta testers.
|
| 2. I like to support small, high quality games. As the new
| mantra goes "i want shorter games with worse graphics made by
| people who are paid more to work less and i'm not kidding" (h
| ttps://twitter.com/jordan_mallory/status/127748375624544256..
| .)
| zibzab wrote:
| That's probably more due to one guy running the show in
| contrast to a slave driver / project lead with a team in 20
| different countries who are barely aware of other team
| members existence?
| weeeeelp wrote:
| Check out Graveyard Keeper, while a mildly more morbid vibe,
| the gameplay loop, graphics and general feel are quite similar.
|
| Definitely worth a try, but I had to mod it a little bit to
| make the energy mechanics a bit more forgiving and to speed up
| the gameplay a bit - YMMV.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| Graveyard Keeper is good on the story side, but it comes with
| much more grinding (performing repetitive tasks in the game)
| compared to Stardew Valley. Something to bear in mind for
| potential buyers.
|
| I didn't bother with the extensions in the end after
| completing the main game (at this point you can often pick up
| the game with all of its extensions on sale).
|
| Refreshingly original game nonetheless in terms of setting
| and 'job'.
| lfowles wrote:
| I agree it's pretty grindy, but there was a free DLC that
| introduced "workers" (zombies) and that cut down on a lot
| of the grind.
| Zababa wrote:
| > However, if Stardew Valley mostly channeled the energy of the
| sun, Haunted Chocolatier channels the energy of the moon.
|
| That may explain why I didn't really like Stardew Valley. It's
| hard to put into words better than how he explained it though.
| danparsonson wrote:
| Oh good lord.... I'll never see my girlfriend again
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| rnoorda wrote:
| I have been amazed of what Eric has created single-handedly
| already, and am so pleased he's doing something new! Stardew
| Valley is a prime example of what I want in modern games and so
| often find lacking. No microtransactions, single-player-friendly,
| not graphic-intensive. Not every game needs to or should be
| Stardew Valley, of course, but there's not enough Stardew Valleys
| out there.
|
| Few of us are as talented as Eric is, but I wish more of us tried
| a little harder to create what we wish existed, and not fall into
| the trap of what's popular. To bastardize legend, "If I were not
| [me], I wish I were [ConcernedApe]."
| mepiethree wrote:
| I think about this all the time. I'm pretty young, don't want
| kids, and tech pays so well right now, that I'm quite
| optimistic that I'll have the opportunity to pursue a pure
| passion project like this in my 30s or 40s, heavily inspired by
| ConcernedApe
| wly_cdgr wrote:
| I have zero interest in playing this but will probably still buy
| to support
| colinmhayes wrote:
| The developer has easily $100 million. I think he'd probably
| prefer you support someone who needs it more.
| wly_cdgr wrote:
| 1. Who are you to divine what he would prefer or to conclude
| that $100 million is enough for working on Stardew Valley for
| 10 years
|
| 2. I don't care what he would prefer, anyway
|
| 3. Regardless, it's not an either or situation
| Snetry wrote:
| I am going to be honest with you, reading ConcernedApe made me
| think of NFTs.
| anentropic wrote:
| Same here, I'm so glad it actually a game instead
| Calamitous wrote:
| I've bought Stardew Valley three times on three different
| platforms with no regrets.
|
| I suspect this game will be no different.
| zibzab wrote:
| I like this guy, he is very talented but also down to earth. He
| is like a more adorable version of notch, before he locked
| himself in his mansion and started saying questionable things.
|
| Hopefully he will stay that way when someone hands him a few
| billions.
| amelius wrote:
| Nobody is going to make billions from making retro video games.
| z3c0 wrote:
| Stardew Valley has sold 15 million copies in 5 years. That
| may not be billions in sales, but it's at least hundreds of
| millions. I don't think billions is that far-fetched,
| especially with multiple games.
| mywittyname wrote:
| I bet SV is worth _well over_ a billion dollars. If it sold
| tomorrow, I would not be surprised on bit to hear a
| ballpark of $10-15 billion.
|
| Anyone with some business acumen can look at the game, and
| realize that there's a ton of untapped potential there.
| Merchandising, licensed show potential, faster release
| cadence for new games/content, more complicated versions of
| the games for adults (MMO), less complicated versions for
| small children.
|
| The merchandising thing seems like a no-brainer. Children
| really love toys associated with video games, movies, and
| the like. I wouldn't even think of it as selling out or
| milking the brand, it is letting people enjoy the game in a
| way that doesn't involve sitting in front of a screen.
| mepiethree wrote:
| Certainly not billions, but it's still pretty astounding that
| basically one developer made a game that grossed >$200
| million (15 million copies!)
| tomrod wrote:
| It's a legit joy to play! We bought copies for our two
| gaming systems so the kids wouldn't fight over their turn.
| revolvingocelot wrote:
| Except Notch, a counterexample given literally in the comment
| riiiight above yours!! You presumably had to read it to
| post!!
| amelius wrote:
| Times have changed. Perhaps I should have appended
| "anymore" to my comment to make it more clear.
| revolvingocelot wrote:
| In the spirit of reconciliation, perhaps I should have
| mentioned that Notch made his billions by selling _the
| company_ , not individual copies of Minecraft.
|
| Anyway, you're probably right about the timeline -- I
| suspect the "mere" millions ConcernedApe made to be about
| the ceiling for individual game devs, selling the store
| or no.
| lopis wrote:
| What's your point? He still made hundreds of millions. Most
| people wouldn't continue making "indie" games at this point.
|
| > Stardew Valley sold over 400,000 copies across Steam and
| GOG.com in two weeks,[12][64][65] and more than a million
| within two months. [1]
|
| > By January 2020, Stardew Valley had sold over 10 million
| copies across all platforms, with that figure rising to 15
| million by September 2021.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley#Sales
| jffry wrote:
| I would think quite the opposite - if you've got "set for
| life" money, there is now zero time pressure to release,
| because you don't need the money from sales.
|
| This makes it way easier to make the choice the second time
| round to solo-develop an indie game, and be able to take
| the time to make it just as you want to make it.
| pietrovismara wrote:
| Except some people just can't stop amassing money even
| when they have enough to not work anymore and provide for
| their children and grand children.
|
| The fact that it isn't obvious, makes the choice of
| making more quality indie games even more laudable to me.
| quaffapint wrote:
| I love that SV was written in C#. Who would of thought? I wonder
| if it's the same here?
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/75ag0g/im_concern...
| thrower123 wrote:
| Stardew Valley is a wonderful example of what a great game
| framework XNA was, and what a shame that it did not receive
| continuing development from Microsoft. An amazingly productive
| tool for one person or a small team.
|
| I'm not sure if he has moved on to Monogame (I assume he must
| have by now).
| gnagatomo wrote:
| >I'm not sure if he has moved on to Monogame
|
| >Is it the same engine as Stardew Valley?
|
| >No, it's a new engine written in C#/Monogame... however
| there are some areas where I can reuse code from Stardew
| Valley, so that is nice.
|
| https://www.hauntedchocolatier.net/faq/
| jetpackjoe wrote:
| From the FAQ on the game's page:
|
| > Is it the same engine as Stardew Valley?
|
| > No, it's a new engine written in C#/Monogame... however
| there are some areas where I can reuse code from Stardew
| Valley, so that is nice
| [deleted]
| tckerr wrote:
| You can tell from the video that this game shares a lot in common
| with stardew valley. I'm assuming he's reusing the engine and
| even some art assets for UI, etc. Curious to see whether the
| final product differs in look and feel enough for this to be a
| unique standalone, or whether it will feel more like a total
| conversion mod for stardew.
| juanuys wrote:
| I wonder if it will feature Chocolatiers [0] as a mini-game...
|
| 0. https://www.proudlion.co.uk/product/chocolatiers/6476
| mrkramer wrote:
| This guy is beyond talented. The game looks amazing.
| phgn wrote:
| This looks awesome, if a bit too similar to Stardew Valley for me
| (the fighting & town people).
|
| I hope Eric lands on something that works. He spent 4 years alone
| on the previous game [0] - imagine how lonely & isolated that can
| get. Hopefully he gets good feedback and motivation from this
| announcement.
|
| [0] https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-4-years-of-
| self-i...
| joeberon wrote:
| I personally find it's very disappointing that the game is almost
| entirely visually indistinct from Stardew Valley. In fact even
| the sound effects are identical. I understand that this saves a
| lot of time and money, but this feels more like bonus content or
| an impressive mod of SDV than really having its own new identity.
| I'm sure a vast majority of people are in the "don't care, this
| is exactly what I want" category, and I wish that were me too,
| but unfortunately it's just not happening for me.
| tmountain wrote:
| I agree with you. I loved SDV, and I will probably play this,
| but it looks like an expansion more than a new game.
| revolvingocelot wrote:
| I'm excited for the game, but I understand your position -- I
| don't like it either. The effect is lessened a bit, for me, by
| remembering that it's just the one guy doing all of this.
|
| Plus, we don't know that the sounds/tileset aren't just
| placeholders to allow him to release the trailer's vertical
| slice! I appreciate that this is unlikely, but still! What we
| recognize as normal development practices don't necessarily
| apply to a studio of one.
| joeberon wrote:
| I think it's one of those situations where it's like, yeah I
| appreciate that it's just one dude, but for me as the player,
| that doesn't actually affect my enjoyment of the game, so
| there's only so much I can ignore that stuff. The problem is
| that I already felt "done" and moved on from SDV (actually I
| was never that into the game, which is also a factor to being
| disappointed here) and this just feels like, we're gonna get
| another few years of the same thing..
| rkangel wrote:
| Don't forget that it's early. I'd be surprised if it didn't
| diverge more and more from looking like SDV as time progresses.
| It's to be expected that prototyping leverages assets that he
| has readily available, but then as the game's individual
| personality develops it will be reflected in the UI and the
| look and feel.
| joeberon wrote:
| People always say this about such trailers, that the game has
| a chance to change and probably will look totally different
| when it comes out, but I very rarely have found that actually
| to be true in the end.
| gnagatomo wrote:
| For me it's a big win. SV art style is unique and feels like it
| came from Eric's heart. For me the improvements are clear if
| compared to SV, but the style is the same. And being able to
| enjoy the same art style in a somewhat different context is
| exciting.
| joeberon wrote:
| Unfortunately I found the SDV style grating and lifeless
| rm8x wrote:
| agree, it just looks to me like standard fare of the 16 bit
| era
| js8 wrote:
| It's kinda like saying, oh, another romantic painting, I
| expected some impressionism or cubism from the dude this time
| around.
|
| Maybe you're focusing on the style too much, and not enough on
| other artistic elements. Which is understandable in the
| preview.
|
| I personally enjoy Stardew Valley, and I am sure I will enjoy
| the Chocolatier. I think these are video games as an art form;
| not the ground breaking type which makes the critics drool over
| it, but something like a Bob Ross kitsch that you want to put
| into your home to make it cozier.
| joeberon wrote:
| No, not really, two romantic paintings can (and do) have
| totally different styles.
|
| > Maybe you're focusing on the style too much, and not enough
| on other artistic elements.
|
| Well if we look at another "artistic element" of the game, we
| see that it relies on the absolutely shit combat from SDV,
| which doesn't exactly inspire hope from the gameplay.
|
| The point is that it's really fucking boring to get the same
| art style again. Why am I going to play a game that bores me
| just by looking at it? I want to have fun. That's what games
| are for.
| floatingatoll wrote:
| That reminds of another game that celebrates their
| polarized reviews on Steam, because 75% of players _love_
| the game and 25% of players _loathe_ the game, and there 's
| no in-between. I kind of like that view; I'd rather people
| feel most strongly about my work. Opinionated works that
| _do_ resonate with me resonate far more strongly as a
| result of expressing an opinion.
|
| Apparently, as we've learned today, if you're looking for
| variety and novelty in artistic style, you probably won't
| find it in the works of ConcernedApe. That's probably a
| very polarizing "love it or hate it" moment for quite a lot
| of people. From a press standpoint, best to put that out
| there early on, and let people form an opinion. Far better
| than letting them build up anticipation for a year!
| wodenokoto wrote:
| While it looks a lot like stardew valley it surprised me to read
| that it is based on a new engine _and_ it's developed in evenings
| and weekends as a side project to ongoing stardew valley work.
|
| All by a single person.
| Slippery_John wrote:
| This seems a little bit like Reccatier in that you're going into
| a dungeon to get things to sell in a shop you manage. I'm very
| excited for it!
| dom96 wrote:
| I was expecting something completely different. As somebody that
| hasn't really liked Stardew Valley that much, this just looks
| exactly like Stardew Valley. Maybe these games aren't for me.
| rashkov wrote:
| I personally got a lot of joy from watching my significant
| other play the game and making suggestions as she went along.
| The gameplay isn't my kind of thing either, but I really
| enjoyed watching the story reveal itself, as well as making
| suggestions for optimizing the farming activity
| floatingatoll wrote:
| That's my view of Undertale: It was fun to watch someone play
| it and I helped with one particularly difficult dodging section
| so they could get a [redacted] win, but I don't want to play it
| myself at all. Loved Stardew, though. All of the joy of an RPG
| without the drudgery of a 3D FPS walking simulator.
| fartcannon wrote:
| There's not much to say more than, incredible, and I can't wait.
| I have got to be honest, for some reason I thought Stardew Valley
| was all that we'd ever see from ConcernedApe. I'm surprised and
| delighted that there's more to come! Looks great!
| roemerb wrote:
| After seeing the news interviews with him, I thought the same.
| He did seem a little burned out to me after dedicating his
| entire life to Stardew for so long. Really impressive that he
| still has the energy to start an entirely new game!
| 1_player wrote:
| Especially since he has been adding free content to Stardew
| Valley after its release, also adding online coop (with help
| from his publisher). I would have expected him to take a long
| break and enjoy the fruits of his labour, but as a gamer I'm
| happy to see him back and whatever is creating is a day 1,
| closed box purchase for me.
| ehnto wrote:
| I have bought a few games purely out of support for how the
| developers approach making games. This will be one of them.
| Open Sewer by Loiste interactive was another one, INFRA was
| such a unique breath of fresh air that I bought Open Sewer
| even though it wasn't quite my kind of game.
| rococode wrote:
| I learned today that Eric (ConcernedApe) does the _music_ for his
| games too... Music, art and graphics, storytelling, and game
| development all in one dude, what a talent.
| farazzz wrote:
| Eric and Toby Fox were literal heroes to me, they introduced
| the idea to me that someone could create a video game on their
| own. I grew away from video games, but I probably wouldn't have
| learnt programming without them
| coldpie wrote:
| The Cave Story guy was this for me growing up :) I made many,
| many game engines and then got to the content creation part
| and usually got stuck. If nothing else, it gave me a ton of
| experience programming, which I then built a career on.
| BitAstronaut wrote:
| excerpt from the book Ultralearning by Scott Youn --
| https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/.
|
| "Eric Barone had just graduated from the University of
| Washington Tacoma with a degree in computer science when he
| thought, Now's my chance. He had decided that he wanted to make
| his own video games and that now, before he got comfortable in
| a salaried programming job, was his opportunity to do something
| about it. He already had his inspiration. He wanted his game to
| pay homage to Harvest Moon, a charming Japanese series of games
| in which the player must build a successful farm: grow crops,
| raise animals, explore the countryside, and form relationships
| with other villagers. "I loved that game," he said about his
| childhood experience with the title. "But it could have been so
| much better." He knew that if he didn't follow through with his
| own vision, that improved version would never be a reality.
|
| Developing a commercially successful video game isn't easy. AAA
| game companies budget hundreds of millions of dollars and
| employ thousands of people on their top titles. The talent
| required is similarly broad. Game development requires
| programming, visual art, musical composition, story writing,
| game design, and dozens more skills, depending on the genre and
| style of game developed. The breadth of skills required makes
| game development much harder for smaller teams than other art
| forms such as music, writing, or visual arts. Even highly
| talented independent game developers generally have to
| collaborate with a few people to span all the skills required.
| Eric Barone, however, decided to work on his game entirely
| alone.
|
| Deciding to work alone came from a personal commitment to his
| vision and an indefatigable self-confidence that he could
| finish the game. "I like to have complete control over my own
| vision," he explained, saying that it might have been
| "impossible to find people who were on the same page" regarding
| the design. However, that choice meant that he would need to
| become proficient in game programming, music composition, pixel
| art, sound design, and story writing. More than just a game
| design project, Barone's odyssey would entail mastering each
| aspect of game design itself.
|
| Pixel art was Barone's biggest weakness. This style of art
| harkens back to the earlier era of video games when rendering
| graphics was difficult to do on slow computers. Pixel art is
| not done with fluid lines or photorealistic textures. Instead,
| a compelling image must be created by placing pixels, the
| colored dots that make up computer graphics, one at a time--
| painstaking and difficult work. A pixel artist must convey
| movement, emotion, and life from a grid of colored squares.
| Barone liked to doodle and draw, but that didn't prepare him
| for the difficulty. He had to learn this skill "completely from
| scratch." Getting his art skills to a commercial level wasn't
| easy. "I must have done most of the artwork three to five times
| over," he said. "For the character portraits, I did those at
| least ten times.
|
| Barone's strategy was simple but effective. He practiced by
| working directly on the graphics he wanted to use in his game.
| He critiqued his own work and compared it to art he admired. "I
| tried to break it down scientifically," he explained. "I would
| ask myself, 'Why do I like this? Why don't I like that?'" when
| looking at other artists' work. He supplemented his own
| practice by reading about pixel art theory and finding
| tutorials that could fill gaps in his knowledge. When he
| encountered a difficulty in his art, he broke it down: "I
| asked, 'What goal do I want to reach?' and then 'How might I
| get there?'" At some point in his work on the game, he felt his
| colors were too dull and boring. "I wanted the colors to pop,"
| he said. So he researched color theory and intensively studied
| other artists to see how they used colors to make things
| visually interesting.
|
| Pixel art was just a single aspect Barone had to learn. He also
| composed all of the music for his game, redoing it from scratch
| more than once to make sure it met his high expectations. Whole
| sections of the game mechanics were developed and scrapped when
| they failed to meet his rigorous standards. This process of
| practicing directly and redoing things allowed him to get
| steadily better at all of the aspects of game design. Although
| it lengthened the time it took to complete the game, it also
| enabled his finished product to compete with games created by
| an army of specialized artists, programmers, and composers.
|
| Throughout the five-year development process, Barone avoided
| seeking employment as a computer programmer. "I didn't want to
| get involved in something substantial," he said. "I wouldn't
| have had the time, and I wanted to give game development my
| best shot." Instead, he worked as a theater usher, earning
| minimum wage so that he wouldn't get distracted. His meager
| earnings from his job, combined with support from his
| girlfriend, allowed Barone to get by as he focused on his
| passion.
|
| That passion and dedication to mastery paid off. Barone
| released Stardew Valley in February 2016. The game quickly
| became a surprise hit, outselling many of the big-studio titles
| offered on the computer game platform Steam. Across multiple
| platforms, Barone estimates that within the first year of its
| release, Stardew Valley had sold well over 3 million copies. In
| months, he went from an unknown designer earning minimum wage
| to a millionaire named one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" stars
| within game development. His dedication to mastering the skills
| involved played no small part in that success. Destructoid, in
| its review of Stardew Valley, described the artwork as
| "incredibly endearing and beautiful."6 Barone's commitment to
| his vision and aggressive self-education had paid off
| handsomely."
| minimaxir wrote:
| Toby Fox (Undertale/Deltarune) as well, although he has some
| art help.
| rictic wrote:
| And Daisuke Amaya did all of Cave Story too.
|
| Some really wonderful games come out of single vision, single
| execution
| joe-collins wrote:
| Add Thomas Happ (Axiom Verge) to that list.
| namlem wrote:
| I absolutely love the soundtrack. The game was great too.
| terinjokes wrote:
| I've loved Stardew Valley, and I'm super excited to try out
| Haunted Chocolatier once it drops.
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