Brief Update (From Matt's Patreon) 30 Nov. 2024. I only made one new puzzle this month, to tutorialize a certain concept better. The rest of my time was spent reshuffling them into the right order (a surprisingly time consuming endeavor which I think is finished now), polishing up the Game Boy version (which is now very polished) and getting a start on the PC version (which is not a functional game yet but is coming together faster than I expected). A couple of important points. Firstly, the Game Boy version still has no sound. I'll definitely add some sound effects before release but I'm still unsure about music. This seemed a point of concern in the comments last time so I'll talk about it a bit. Unlike the other projects, this game is small enough that it's a chance to fulfill a selfish little dream of mine: making a game on my own. I can't draw at all but I did the sprites for this game myself and they look fine, at least I think so. Game Boy tiles are only 8x8 so there's not much room to go wrong. This is one reason why I'd prefer not to get a dedicated composer involved. I also don't think I could afford to pay a fair wage for a soundtrack anyway. Maybe it's post-hoc rationalization but I'm not convinced it needs music. When I play it while listening to music I sometimes get too distracted to focus properly on the puzzles. Logic puzzles can require you to reason in difficult ways about what you're seeing. I've tried to avoid long/tedious chains of reasoning but even so it's a difficult game, one that really benefits from focus. Even mild distractions can slow down my gameplay quite a bit. Omitting music might be the right call for this reason. On the other hand, I'm also a little tempted to just do Game Boy renditions of classical music. They say it helps you focus after all, although it sounds quite different coming from a Game Boy chip. I don't know. I'm currently leaning towards no music. If I regret it I can always do an update later. Secondly, I'm planning for the PC version to be a straightforward port of the Game Boy release. It'll be almost like playing the game on an emulator, except you'll be able to use the mouse to fill in tiles. This means blowing my 8x8 sprites up to be much larger, which might be abrasive for some. As such, I'm asking my partner to do an alternate tileset which you can swap between, something that'll look nicer at high resolutions. I think it might be fun if it looks very different from the Game Boy version but I suppose I'll leave it up to her. If it goes well, maybe we'll do more than one. Anyway, it's been a good few weeks. With a bit of luck, this will be the last briefing I have to give you. Here's hoping the PC version goes smoothly, I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Hello there Matthew! God bless you! I don't know If you are a believer, but I am a believer. The Lord Jesus saved my life from death, suicide and depression. Knowing that God exists, and that you can have eternal life with Him, full of purpuse, It would be selfish of me to not tell you about that, because If so, I wouldnt have love for you or anyone Even If I don't know you, I care about your life. I don't want your money or anything else, except that you get saved, just like I did a year ago John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. And It's that simple. That's all it takes. It is through faith in Him that you are saved. I was an atheist most of my life, and I didn't believe any of this. I thought It was all lies and manipulation. But then I met Him, Jesus After witnessing God in my own life, I couldn't ever deny Him and His word. I felt His presence and it changed my life forever. Suicide thoughts were gone, hopeless was gone. I was given a heart that loved God and loved other people, and one that wanted to follow Him, just like He promised in His Word My life isn't done with all problems, just when Jesus comes back is that He will get rid of all evil. But He gives us assurance that He will be with us, in every step of the way, like a true Father, never forsaking us. He will guide us and protect us Matthew 11 28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” That's what I wanted to tell you. I know I can't convince anyone about this, but I wanted to share about the Love of God that saved my life, without it, I wouldn't be typing this today I love you Matthew, and Jesus loves you so much more! Have a good day! God bless you!

"Im trying to phrase this as tastefully as I can" "Turkeybaster" -mic drop.

my therapist is happy you came back for christmas

If you want your game to find an audience in this saturated market, it can only help to release it alongside a new video. Even if you only mention your game in the video's description I understand how that might feel or look, but it is what it is.

Yo Matt, good to see you are still alive! Funnily enough I finished a Super Metroid 100% run over the holidays. I ended up having to look one missile pack up, it was the one behind the power bombs in red Brinstar.

I feel you with the ad complaint around KZbin. Feels like you just can’t get away from ads wherever you go and it’s frustrating

For a first playthrough??? It took me a whole playthrough (with practice and replaying some chapters) just to get to grips with my basic combos and understand some of my options for attacking.

It's really nice to hear your dulcet irish tones again Here's hoping we get to hear them again soon, happy holidays man

I'm so sad that I missed this live

I'm looking forward to playing your game matt, I've been playing picross and dungeon and diagrams recently.

The worst part about Matthew’s annual christmas streams is they remind me of the cruel and unrelenting progress of time. Happy new year!

man, the one christmass in years im with family and i miss the stream...

You turned me on too the action game scene just got wonderful 101 and doing a dmd playthrough of dmc1

I recommend getting steam page up to get some wishlists. Steam is pretty much always the biggest advertiser even if you have a following as long as you have some kind of initial proof, that your game is likely to sell. Oh and happy new year!

Great to see your stuff again. Hope you get the opportunity to do more next year.

You're a treasure. Was just thinking recently about how many of my absolute favorites - Downwell, SoR4, Point Blank, Alien Soldier, and Bayonetta - came from your recommendation, and here you are with a new upload. Always a delight to hear from you and it's lovely to hear progress on your game is going well. Happy new year.

As someone who has a small game awaiting a free Steam release, I can relate to the stuff early on about game development losing, well, steam at the end. In my case it was one of the last projects I worked on with friends in college, and now that we’ve graduated the finishing touches are coming along very slowly since everyone fits it into their schedule differently, and 99% of it has been long done. There’s one big bug I should probably be the one to fix but it’s tough to care enough by now to do it before it becomes last minute. It feels like working on post-launch patches despite the game not being out yet.

crazy, I was just wondering what you've been up to recently and you streamed a couple days ago. Hope you've been well and good luck on making your game/whatever else your doing!

If anyone who sees this, watching this guy play Metroid makes me wanna play a metroid game but I litearlly have no idea what game to start with even after googling. If anyone knows what a agood starting point would be its much appreciated

Hey Matthew, just wanted to say that I love your vids, and your writing has been super inspirational for me. I’ve recently started getting into game development and just wanted to thank you for that. Hope things go good for you with your game!

making a Gameboy game sounds fun. im picking up GB Studio & Pico-8 just cus the idea of actually playing a game ya make on a handheld device just seems damn fun.

this game made me a fan of metroid

Matt it would maybe be wise to release a couple videos on the main channel before releasing a trailer. Work the algorithm. Hell, maybe even stream from your main channel for a pre release discussion of the game. I’m sure you have a lot of ideas but figured I’d throw it out there, I care a lot about the work you’ve done for years now and just hope you find success in this too. Hope you’ve had a merry Christmas and hope you have a very happy new year Matt

Excited for your Game Boy game. I’ve been playing many of them since getting my Analogue Pocket a few years ago.

I really hope you keep doing these streams while developing your game. That’s enough for me.

Finally podcasted through the parts I missed. Thanks for the stream and wishing you a happy new year!

This was fun to catch live, hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy new year.

Matt thinks his game'll "bomb", but it won't just bomb, it'll be _THE_ bomb. :^) Jokes aside, curious to play it.

Nolan hate is well deserved

Persona 5 is my Christmas game.

Mistlematoesis

Hi Matt, loved the stream. Since you don't watch that much youtube, i would like to recommend Mark Brown's (Game Maker's Toolkit) series of videos documenting the development of his puzzle game. I think you'll find some nice insights regarding playtesting, pricing and sales, etc.

Thoughts on Zelda series and TOTK starts at 1:16:59 “Insane take” on menu system in recent Zelda (BOTW TOTK EOTW) starts at 4:26:55

I’ve missed hearing your voice

Oh thank god. We need you more than ever right now.

I brought it up a few times in the chat as a joke, but I seriously think you'd enjoy Shadow of the Ninja Reborn. It's a really nice arcade-style action platformer, made by veteran developers who worked on the original NES game. It only takes about an hour to clear once you understand the mechanics and stage layouts. I ended up spending more time with it than any other game this year, replaying it over and over for score and just for fun. Anyways, thanks for the stream dude, it's always appreciated.

Super Metroid is really cool. I only played it this year after being well familiar with the series thanks to 2, Fusion, Zero Mission, Dread etc. Even coming after all those I still think it might sit at the top. The only thing I thought was tough to get along with were the controls, though I can imagine that isn't a problem after the 20th randomizer run or whatever lol.

As far as remakes go, this might be an even more cynical viewpoint than yours lol, but I just don't trust most developers to be able to create a classic from scratch. Some do fine, I don't think Nintendo need to worry much about remaking Mario 64 or anything. But when someone announce a remake, I always gotta take into account, "what have they been doing lately?". Square Enix only decided to do FF7 Remake after a string of disappointing games. I personally don't believe that any other game Bloober Team makes is gonna be as good as the Silent Hill 2 remake. Sonic Generations is a welcome re-release 'cause it's still the best Sonic game that Sonic Team has made in 20 years. I think it's pretty optimistic to think Grezzo will make something that tops Ocarina of Time 3D or Link's Awakening on Switch, I sure don't think Echoes of Wisdom is that. And Capcom haven't made, in my opinion, a better Resident Evil game than 4, after many, many, _many_ attempts, although some were better than others. Konami made Metal Gear Survive and then stopped making games for ages, so sure, just pretty up Metal Gear Solid 3. At some point, I think you might as well just have another go at the good one. Remakes don't always turn out great, I can think of plenty I dislike, including examples of remakes above. But I don't think they have a worse batting average than original titles and there are plenty of them that I love way more than the original, too. And I don't think it's weird that the audience is hungry for remakes either with how lackluster many of these newer titles are. I spent 60 bucks on the new Mario & Luigi game recently and I wish I'd just put those into the Thousand Year Door remake instead, unfortunately.

Did he actually beat all the Zachtronics games? That would be impressive

I definitely agree that Astro Bot is fun in spite of the basic movement mechanics being so limited. It's my favorite game from this year, but of course I'd be happy if a sequel introduces triple jumps or whatever to Astro's standard moveset. I think the reason people aren't complaining that the movement is worse is 'cause you're not thinking about that when you're having fun. I don't think most people were complaining that Mario's movement was so nerfed in Galaxy for example compared to Sunshine or 64, because they were having so much fun anyway. And I don't think many have asked for any additions to Ratchet & Clank's basic moveset in decades either, 'cause the guns are fun to use. It's not necessarily that people aren't even conscious of it, but people aren't inclined to complain when they're having a great time.

Love to see a Christmas stream! Hope you have happy holidays.

The Lighthouse did have substance. The only Matosis criticism that ever offended me lol

I have a feeling you'd like Copy Kitty. 2D action platformer game about combining various weapon power-ups on discrete stages/levels (the amount of possible combinations for power-ups is dizzying but the ones you find throughout the stages are set) with a score system... early 2000's visual style, some pretty cool boss designs so far, great feedback/game feel... idk!! it's very under the radar, it's got 297 reviews on steam, it's doing its own thing... worth checking out on sale for 5 dollars at the time of writing.

I would kill for a Kingdom Hearts stream LMAO

Oh my god matthew hates all my favourite movies

great stream!

I think dungeon crawlers are kinda underrated. I had a realization a while back that prey 2016 is basically a dungeon crawler which is part of why I like it so much. I love the focus on resource management and exploration. I'd love more games like that

Congrats on the progress on the game, looking forward to its release! Don't want to be too negative but I want to share that I agree with your sentiment regarding SH2. Cheers!

Totally a lord of the rings 3 moment