11 DEVS Make a GAME without COMMUNICATING! (POKEMON edition)

-------- LINKS--------x
Learn how to make games with GAME DEV ROCKET: www.gamedevrocket.com/
How to make your first 2D GAME: www.gamedevrocket.com/free-2d...
How to make your first 3D GAME: www.gamedevrocket.com/free-3d...
-------- PLAY--------x
Hunter's Trail: blackthornprod-games.itch.io/...
-------- CREDITS--------x
Thomas Stewart: www.youtube.com/@ThomasStewar...
Awaken Studios: www.youtube.com/@awakenstudio...
Saint Saturn: / @theindieaccord
Shiba Dog Studios: / @shibadogstudios
Hyve: www.youtube.com/@Hyve/videos
Vav: / @vav97
Antonio: www.antonio-gorisek.com/
Xelalego: • Pass the Game - Alex B...
Moonleaf Studio: www.youtube.com/@moonleafstud...
and their game HALVE: store.steampowered.com/app/19...
-------- TIMESTAMPS --------x
0:00 - Intro
0:13 - Thomas Stewart
2:25 - Game Dev Rocket
3:05 - AwakenStudios
4:36 - The Indie Accord
6:08 - Shiba Dog Studios
7:29 - Hyve
9:25 - VAV
11:37 - Antonio
12:57 - Xelalego
14:21 - Moonleaf Studio
18:02 - Conclusion

[@Aquabrandon44]

the final devs really did the game justice! tho' why wasn't there a segment where the devs play the game and react to it???

[@Blackthornprod]

Unfortunately, we ran out of time and really wanted to stick to our upload plan. Reactions will be back in future videos!

[@BobLobster-fo9zw]

The most likely answer is that they probably didn't want the video to exceed 20min (as shorter videos usually do better). Too bad really.

[@ProStashio]

​@Blackthornprod I would rather wait longer than have a rushed video that isn't complete. The reaction is honestly what makes the whole video worth watching.

[@widdershinnz]

@@ProStashiofacts

[@ajfrancis6365]

@@ProStashio preach

[@BritBox777]

Aw, no footage of the devs reacting to the final product? That was like... the payoff. Seems like half a video without it.

[@Ruscne]

I agree

[@reszzz]

Only halfway through the video... that was the part I was looking forward to.

[@tarantulamadness6191]

Right dafuq

[@MaxIme555]

Was thinking the same, was waiting to see how the game actually looks like and plays like. Looks like that went missing in the editing?

[@imjody]

Yikes, right? And most of the devs seemed more interested in showing off their KZbin channel, than actually doing great work for the game. It's too bad.

[@kingamesthe3rd]

I enjoyed this one it just felt a bit rushed, I would love to see a long form version. Also it a bit jarring when the developers only had 3 seconds to promote themselves and were then cut off, didn't seem very fair considering these videos only exist because of their collaborations.

[@FriedMonkey362]

This is why i hate KZbin shorts tiktok and other short form content Other people dont have the attention span to watch longer videos, this causes the retention to go down, making KZbinrs post shorter and shorter content because other people click off This video had 11 devs it could've been 25-28 minutes long

[@sanguinepub]

@@FriedMonkey362 Yeah, unfortunately, it's said that it's best to keep videos under 20m these days. People need to learn how to retain attention. I've literally made posts that were the size of a paragraph and young teens/adults usually complain that it's too many words. That anything needs to be expressed in only a few sentences. Then when I make fun of them, with another long post, they send this image of a person freaking out with a bunch of words on the screen saying "it's too much." I really find it sad as a writer. xD

[@RubberTag]

If I don't have the retention span or time to watch a long video, I will just pause and come back to it later.

[@sparky-xz1nb]

@@sanguinepub I can completely agree. I mean the only time i feel like its too much is when its a topic i find boring or dislike. but yeah when your having an actually conversion online and then they just say its too much only when its a single paragraph is sad. i hate reading but its sad to see them not even attempt to try it.

[@brunomcleod]

@@FriedMonkey362 I agree, content is going downhill because people's attention spans are getting worse, seeing not only teenagers but also now some kids watching short form content like tik tok and youtube shorts is really sad, I hope this changes in the future, realistically I can't see that happening but I really hope it changes

[@owlbeno]

Please upload a separate video with the reactions of the devs playing the game at the end, it's a huge element of this series

[@yunirosita6574]

No dont seperate

[@JVMarcos]

What happened to the dev reactions at the end to the finished game?

[@ShorteDev]

It was a blast to participate in this one together with our team! Maybe there could be a team-based Pass the Game challenge in the future as well 🤔

[@Blackthornprod]

We could try and do a mega Team edition 👀

[@ChazzyLive]

@@BlackthornprodYou should do some crazy 100 dev video, and get a fully completed and polished game.

[@ShorteDev]

@@Blackthornprod Haha, that would be awesome!

[@Paul_Ward]

+1 for the teams edition video

[@rmasoni]

You completely saved this one. Great job!

[@starvingartist733]

Man, was looking forward to seeing how the first dev reacted to the new models :/

[@ThomasStewartDev]

I was busting up watching it this morning 😂 Can't believe they kept my original horrendous monster aesthetic hahah

[@starvingartist733]

@@ThomasStewartDev They we’re certainly true to your…vision? Lmao I think the silly monsters are charming, good work on the game!!

[@ThomasStewartDev]

@@starvingartist733 Haha thanks! 😝

[@r4pture14]

Im confused on what happened to the textures after Shiba Dog Studios, it looked so nice before

[@johnsnow5125]

I have no idea what happened to the textures, either

[@Redshock8]

Yeah, it looked ugly as fuak afterwards.

[@wernerzurowetz6198]

I would love another part in the video, where the former developers try this game out for a few minutes (just because they all worked on it)

[@Ruscne]

usually they do have a segment where all devs react to it, but for some reason they didnt do it in this one

[@jeremiahtaylor8337]

5:37 environment looked better to me and feels a little lacking after 7:05

[@xrichie7924]

Right? I was like "Oop. We're ugly now?" 😂😂

[@colechristian3765]

Agreed

[@jessenthebenezer]

exactly, dont know what the fcuk she shiba guy did

[@maxshibanov818]

right

[@Jiminal_]

No way! At first I thought “This is too ambitious, it won’t be great…” but the last devs really brought it all together and everyone did a lot of amazing work. You should definitely do more of these ones inspired by other games. As always, I’m (Ex)Gamerworks leaving my lil appreciation for this video!

[@Blackthornprod]

Was also surprised it ended up working out!

[@ChazzyLive]

The 1st dev actually did a lot with his time

[@ThomasStewartDev]

Heyyy thanks!

[@lukesenter1559]

Yeah I was disappointed in how little devs 2-8 seemed to do with their time in comparison

[@OK-69420]

​@@lukesenter1559 the guy who modeled the monsters and vav did a lot too

[@rickloyd8208]

This is a rule: 80% of work needs 20% of time and the rest 20% of work 80% of time. We face this in dev all the time :)

[@BalrogQuote]

​@@rickloyd8208 Isn't it the first 90% takes 90% of the time, and the other 10% takes 90% of the time?

[@Envixie]

I know you probably won’t see this but I’m a solo indie game developer and want to know what I have to do too participate in one of these?

[@cozyProgramm5883]

Be famous i guess😂

[@cozyProgramm5883]

Like AJA poly

[@papasahara3273]

I'm pretty sure you just have to email them and ask.

[@BillyStevans]

He will see this cuh

[@Envixie]

@@papasahara3273 what’s their email?

[@Happy-mx9ds]

the game devs' reactions are the cherry on top of this series. you should always add it in the end, Noah.

[@malikkkk7929]

Can u make a game where like 8-12 creators work on and it’s a multiplayer game and in the end the creators all play it together?

[@AlonePirate02]

That would be a banger video

[@bonzopippinpaddleopsicopolis]

They have done this, just with less devs

[@ShibaDogStudios]

Massive thanks to the Blackthorn team for inviting me to participate in this one!! I had a real blast 🤩 the other devs absolutely smashed it, so cool to see how this game came out in the end

[@liteniteTheOne]

I loved your idea to switch to trainers instead of the sphere. No hate on the sphere, but the trainer route seemed more organic here. If the sphere was just a line that pushed you along slowly, it may have worked a bit better.

[@JinboDev]

With all the respect, what happened with graphics during your stage?

[@lawrence9713]

@@JinboDev just went through the video to see what and where "this" happened

[@silvha]

Without any respect, what happened with graphics during your stage?

[@outoftime9071]

I wonder how the conversation between blackthornprod and the last three dev went... Blackthornprod: Would you like to join my "No communication game dev challenge" ? The last three devs : Yeah...Mind if we communicated?

[@random1744]

Wait how are they communicating?

[@tinycrisp4455]

This happens all the time in these videos, generally with a studio but they usually go last and polish the game

[@YourXavier]

They're not three devs. They're one team.

[@wetonion]

@@YourXaviertheyre a team of devs 😭

[@thaumaticpig]

Really wish we could've seen all the devs play since seeing their reactions really drives home how much has changed from start to finish

[@MrSqurk]

My favourite part is always the next dev removing the thing that was just implemented.

[@DoroNijimaru]

"the sheep no longer move"

[@plighting_engineerd]

@@DoroNijimaru EXACTLY LOLL

[@shoyo2241]

5:02 "But I didn't wanna undo what the previous dev did" - some guy named Turbo needs to learn this

[@No-ff4mj]

Agreed

[@TrashBoat-.-]

Xelalego and moonleaf were hustling like crazy, they did so much in so little time it’s mind boggling

[@AlexPBenton]

Thanks! (I’m Xelalego, if you couldn’t tell by my icon) My clip was actually twice as long, but it seems like it had to be trimmed down for time

[@TrashBoat-.-]

@@AlexPBenton dude you were awesome, I was watching the vid with each person like oh cool, but then you started I was like, this dude has confidence, and then you started implementing things left and right and essentially reviving the end goal of the game, it was stagnating for too long before the boss was added I was like THANK YOU when you started talking about the boss, I thought the devs were just going to forget the final objective. I’m just starting out as a game dev and I can’t get a decent movement system done in 6 hours, so you were amazing in my eyes 😅 I wish I could have seen the rest of your part, no offense to the earlier devs but you made some more interesting changes and you have a good voice for this type of thing

[@marcelburdon9795]

@@AlexPBenton sad, blackthorn kinda messed up the editing/pacing of this entry to the series...

[@everia_games]

TRASHBOAT, What kind of name is trashboat, you are not rigby 😂😂

[@applesauce8173]

@@everia_gameslol, I forgot he named himself that.

[@mikebrave-makesgames5365]

one guy was like "now it's a shooter instead of a monster catcher" guy later "made it a monster catcher again"

[@ThomasStewartDev]

What a whirlwind haha

[@ThomasStewartDev]

Thanks for inviting me to collab! I had a lot of fun getting to kick-start this project, and I can’t believe how it turned out 🤣

[@LitNight]

As if there was no devs reactions, man that's literally the best part of this series!!! Please please please don't rush the upload next time and include that segment, that's what makes it so enjoyable seeing everyone's reactions and inputs in the end!!

[@Hyve]

It was an absolute blast working on the project, it really came together at the end. And Thanks again for having me!

[@ceanuceanuceanuceanuceanuc4320]

I can't believe I get to see the behind the scenes of Palworld

[@cheesymcnuggets]

Gotta love the small studios in these challenges, they always manage to add a lot of personality to the game

[@RoyalGamerz92]

Hyve:creates a game loop with all the time he had The next dev:There is no game loop,time to add a meaning to the game

[@nahfr7627]

"the game loop is done" ten seconds later "there is no game loop"

[@normankiefer6033]

the reaction is what makes this whole series good.. without that it loses it's sauce

[@tomasmorgado6721]

the last studio was amazing!

[@johnsnow5125]

MVP, certainly. To be fair, it was three people, but still

[@tuna5305]

Damn the visuals got fucked up pretty badly halfway through but vav and moon leaf studios managed to save it

[@ActuallyGoose]

I know moonleaf technically had 3 devs working on it, but god damn did they add a lot of much needed features, and polish the hell out of the ganeplay and visuals

[@subharghyasinha2480]

Evertime at the end of these videos there was a dev playtesting segment,.... Where's that? 😢😢

[@sadwire_nohome]

Wow, not enough people giving props to the 2nd guy. Thought he held himself well there.

[@magicalotterlion]

i would love to see a challenge where they do 2 rounds of the developers seeing what the others did to the game and going back and adding more, it would be fun to see their reaction and how they would adjust it differently!

[@DoroNijimaru]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJLQcnZsoJKdq6csi=9O0LLjN7RmluESDP

[@Noahmadic]

This game seems awesome but I'm honestly pretty disappointed by how rushed the video was. It could have easily been another 10-20 minutes longer and would have been a much better experience. It almost seems disrespectful to the hard work of all the devs when you rush out a video just to stick to an upload schedule. Also as others have said, not seeing the devs reaction at the end kind of defeats the whole point of the video. I really hope that future videos are less rushed. EDIT: VAV is goated

[@carnivores6823]

VAV did a great work improving the game!

[@stevenbuck4090]

I always look to find your videos, so I don't think runtime should affect something as vital as dev reactions. I'd happily watch an hour of this tbh!

[@AllExistence]

What the hell did Shiba Dog break? Graphics looked amazing before him, and were complete shit after!

[@juicedup14]

SERIOUSLY

[@widdershinnz]

I wanted footage of all the devs’ reactions to the final game

[@ETdu38]

I love this concept, it's really cool, and you're doing a great job tweaking it to add some variety to it. I would like to suggest another way to tweak it: Wouldn't it be interesting to invite people a bit more specialized in some part of the process of making a game? Perhaps you could start with a game artist who would make mostly sprites or animations and pass the game to a dev who would make mostly the core gameplay mechanic before a level designer would polish the gameplay loop. I don't know, just thought about the idea, it might be tough to actually implement or might not be that fun since it would feel less chaotic, but it could lead to more dramatic decision-making since reworking someone else's work would be a real risk (most likely, a level designer is slowing at making art than a game artist).

[@Danz___]

really wish these devs were compensated for more than exposure...

[@CritterCapital]

Really enjoy watching these "no communication" videos! Keep em' coming!

[@BriariusTitan]

wish we could've seen the reaction of the previous devs

[@Ricecup09]

I love watching all of these and I know it’s a lot of work to get all these people together but keep it up, you’re what people need to see in the game development community ❤❤❤

[@camolog]

No reaction segment?

[@Sideofsyrup]

I’m really passionate about game development and I want to learn but watching your videos helps keep the spark alive

[@robertwilkins7714]

u can do it :)

[@joaomaria_santos]

12:18 best moment

[@Wiwcac]

Get some people who haven’t participated in making the games to play through at the ends of such videos to get reactions too? Also thanks for these fun videos. They helped me get started on my own learning code adventure. I kept putting it off.

[@GamesBySaul]

This project looked great! Moonleaf's polish and art overhaul at the end was great and made the game look finished! Hopefully we can see some dev reactions to the game! :D

[@tinminator8905]

No reaction of the first few devs playing it?

[@MrKyleA]

finished video > uploading on time quality > quanity

[@kerra7386]

There’s a KZbinr named seso who does team graphic design challenges where each team get the same prompt for a fake company and then have a certain amount of time to design for fake company. It would be cool if you did a similar thing but with game development. Both teams receive the same vague prompt describing a game and then compete to “win” By designing a better game that fits the prompt.

[@vortex_master]

VAV really made this into a game. It was looking woefully inadequate beforehand. Not poo-pooing on the devs before him because they laid down the groundwork, but he really made it all make sense.

[@darkanviii2182]

A video idea. How about you put something like 12 developers in a discord and let them all work at the same time, creating complete chaos. They can't communicate beforehand and have to finish the game in a short amount of time. I got that idea from watching the GMTK video of Jonas Tyroller.

[@karstsn]

The results came out so unexpected! I love it

[@Negreb25]

Yay, I waited for so long. Next up 100 developers

[@TheMR-777]

Man that was awesome, and there's a little thing I wanna appreciate specially. What Iris (I guess that's the name) did at 16:46, honestly expresses the great problem-solving skill.

[@Clever1992ton]

I speedran this series just yesterday! What a treat!

[@aso3892]

my favorite part was where the last developers fixed everything the previous people messed up

[@peetftw3461]

and thats how we got palworld

[@MagicBanana11]

Wow, glad to see everyone's ideas were able to be built upon and developed with only minor changes!

[@guineagames1048]

I have to say this was very enjoyable, props to everyone who worked on and organized this!

[@leovomend8789]

i miss the bit where all the devs get to play the game and react

[@RubberTag]

@Blackthornprod I would advice you to learn from LTTs mistake of focusing more on upload schedule instead of the quality of the video. Also, maybe make a part 2 of some challenges and make the same devs, or others, go again. For e.x, after the 11th developer, it could restart so the first developer takes over and goes for another round. And you could make that to a part 2. Then you could also release the games for download for the patreons or something like that? God bless and take care

[@momsaccount4033]

I love the fact that the design of the collectable monster never changed throughout the whole development process. I was so sure that at least *one* dev would make concept art for future devs to use as reference, or one of the devs reuse monster models that they happen to have. But no. All of the new monsters are just reskins XD

[@quito0567]

No reactions wtf

[@CoffeeAI201]

Son, the last 3 devs took this one to another level!

[@danielnunesstein7922]

And that was the beggining of Palworld

[@plx1212]

This is how Palworld was borned.

[@Dmobley9901]

After playing it, it felt interesting, and like it definitely still has potential, however I felt like while everyone understood the assignment from the previous dev, some of them didn't fully commit to the idea, which makes for a somewhat lacking gameplay loop. Don't get me wrong, it's fun for 10 minutes, which is about the length of the full game. But the combat boils down to mainly kiting the AI into missing their basic attack so you can land yours, and then using your special when it's charged. None of the devs really fixed the issue of guiding the player properly, as I took a second to find the Sun trainer. Overall, it was a dice roll, but it's not exactly a highlight of the pass the project games, if there were room for maybe one or two more devs, I think something special could've come of it though, too many early on were trying to polish or stylize rather than focusing on gameplay. Still nice to watch though.

[@jawar5673]

These videos are starting to feel mass-produced, to be honest.

[@FleurXedas]

1 dev, i made this circle. Next dev, I don't like the circle thing, im going to remove it

[@Qwerasd]

The game looks awesome, but the video felt SUPER rushed! I really would have preferred if each dev segment were given more breathing room, and to see participants' reactions to the final product at the end!

[@Bricklemore]

I respect the work the team at the end did, but a team still diminishes from the work the individual devs do. It reads like "Now that the solo amateurs are done, let's let a real team do it" and it feels disrespectful.

[@kalpolproductions8558]

really wanted the game reactions. Man the result was **AWESOME**. I really want a followup video with the reactions please.

[@royalcupcake2024]

I remember the start of the project, where there were like multiple different monsters and at the arena you just unleashed them and then there would be a head bashing fight, and then it just devovled into the same monster but recolored, and you have to take control of the monster to make it fight.

[@xXxShankersxXx]

love how all the comments are no dev reaction , glad i wasnt the only one who thought something was missing

[@8bitbunnie936]

it's quite unfortunate that there was nobody this time to come in and clean up everything

[@Comrade_Alpaca]

Great video! Love seeing these from you guys. Though, I definitely did miss the reactions at the end. I'd rather have had to wait a little longer and had a longer video with the payoff of the reactions. But, great video nonetheless. Keep it up, guys!

[@LisetteThibodeaux]

Chiming in to add to all the comments about the dev reactions being a huge part of the payoff. We got to see the changes, but didn't actually get to see the game be played once it was finished. A good video with a huge anti-climax

[@josephdahdouh2725]

I typically enjoy the video way more with the reactions of developers. I also don't mind those being a part 2, but they are uploaded concurrently. That makes individuals who only want to watch this part watch it, and those who want to watch the reactions, well there is a separate video for that. But, I think it would get more views if uploaded at the same time(just right in the description part 1 and part 2)

[@michaelhall3111]

"spent an hour modeling this tree...so have fun next guy, byeeee!"

[@moinhauke]

One of the if not the best project in this format. I loved it before and i still of there is a mix of single and team devs working on a project. Thanks!

[@abdelrahman.abdelaal]

I love this type of videos, keep doing them please! I need to see a shooter game of this kind.

[@LuckyBird551]

Okay, I have to say this: I LOVE that monster design, I wanna buy a plushie of that monster design.

[@Robin93k]

Concept of the Video: 5 Stars Production of the Video: 1 Star I have the feeling the video cutter got less time to finish this video than the developers got for each of their steps...

[@daveyg34]

A plot could be added by having the crowd boo the player. All robots capturing wildlife and the player is the only human!

[@GokuDOne]

And that's how you start a indie game studio. I don't know how and why there isn't like a community or syndicate that helps the solo game devs. For instance, one of these games devs, they have their games. The call the "syndicate", for 1 entire day or more they help him do most of the things. The people of this " Syndicate " rotate so they can focus on their game. Game dev would be much faster and easier. Just an idea I'm spitting there.

[@ThePokemonSquadX]

Again putting in a "team" of Devs really defeats the point of the challenge. It might result in a better game at the end but it loses of meaning of no communication

[@Schoritzobandit]

One of the best looking final products, I love big king robot man I do also think that upload schedule > video quality doesn't make a lot of sense as a way to evaluate what's important

[@HavocEntertainment]

One of the best games ya'll have made so far lol. I like that every dev really just built on the last dev's work.

[@47represent]

I wish i had just an ounce of the knowledge of any of those developers

[@AlexPBenton]

My advice is to just start! Check out Brackeys tutorials and simply follow along, you'll pick up so much just from that. I went to college for Game Design Engineering, but almost all of my Unity knowledge came from developing on my own and watching Brackeys tutorials.

[@Luluskuy]

You can! Believe in yourself 😇

[@m1zushi]

The in-video ads time was pretty jarring. Yes I want to listen about the cool tiles game, otherwise I'd have just skipped it. I don't see a reason to remove the devs ads if it's in an appropriate time length

[@gabriellef]

I personally skip over the ads every time. Oops.

[@Future_Farmer_1013]

I downloaded the demo for Tile Lands, and when it comes out, based on how much money it costs, I'll probably get it.

[@RBMonk]

Why did "Shiba Dog Studios" just ruin the graraphics though? The Indie Accord made an amazing art style /graphics

[@SirHorned19]

Uh, what... He did not change the graphics at all..

[@jeremiahtaylor8337]

I think he didn't understand the lighting setup so when he made day night, he blew it up on accident probably just didn't have time to fix it. I was sad to see that as well. He could have kept the lights the same and faded to blue to do day night. Or another directional light to turn on at night to make things blue

[@RBMonk]

@@SirHorned19 he did drastically

[@watercat1248]

why ther is a giru for dragon ball 16:11

[@aquagamesplays3475]

Nintendo was real quiet when this came out

[@aspendespain4606]

Oh my goodness! That guys from Indie Accord and Moonleaf Studio actually said they didn't want to ruin what the previous devs did! They respects their work and build on it rather than making it their own thing! Yes! Thank you so much, these guys are awesome! That's kinda the whole point of the challenge anyway, seeing what you can do with what you're given, seeing what you can build on top of what others have done, rather than erasing their work and making it your own thing.