The Salt and Sanctuary Postmortem

[@mud2479]

Damn,didn't know it was just a two person studio. The game is awesome.

[@rooneye]

Ahhh that game is by just one guy? I literally just commented on another vid that was showing up coming pixel games in 2017 about my surprise that the "slug cat" game isn't out yet as I'd seen it years ago...Now I know why :D

[@GLS_MrDean]

Loved this game, not only was it super fun to play but it had a lot of heart.

[@thepurehealer1279]

Dean B yeah but it was so short... which is fine but i want more ;-;

[@robinbernardinis]

To be frank, one of the things that really made me want to play S&S was the bonkers localization. A friend of mine showed me a line in the Italian version which was just incredibly hilarious. I'm going to try to retranslate it in similarly broken English: "To be Saltborn is that of being a fragment of to die of eternity. Coming of light is to be really to live, yet so ephemeral"

[@CantTreadOnMe]

Please Please Salt & Sanctuary 2!! It's needed and wanted! I have been seeking games like Salt & Sanctuary ever since playing it but to no avail.

[@Truestoned0]

Your prayers will be answered in the form of salt and sacrifice

[@CantTreadOnMe]

@@Truestoned0 im so damn excited, now all I need is Bloodborne 2 and I won't ask for anything else maybe. Probably Sekiro 2 and Elden Ring 2 after that actually and Bloodborne 3 if 2 happens but that's it I swear! 😄

[@Truestoned0]

@@CantTreadOnMe Bloodborne in my opinion doesn't need it true cosmic horror shouldnt have a sequel and but a Sekiro 2:A journey to the west would be perfect

[@Truestoned0]

@@CantTreadOnMe also you play on PlayStation

[@CantTreadOnMe]

Yah I have both a pc and ps4 qnd basically all consoles before ps4 but I still dont have the ps5 cuz I gave up looking for one. I dont wanna pay more than what they were supposed to be. The only way im paying a premium on a ps5 is if Bloodborne 2 were happening and is only on ps5. I wanna play Demons Soul's remake but I have it on ps3 and played it 10x already so it's not something im desperate to play and not enough to make me need a ps5 yet.

[@rikamayhem]

Just yesterday I watched this talk on the GDC Vault. I know it's not a groundbreaking talk, but the whole point is that really small teams or solo devs can still make games with the right tools and passion - they did it. Also, they learned a lesson about translation the hard way; I suppose it's not obvious to English-only speakers how bad automated translations are.Personally, I'm glad they are doing fine. I've been following James' work since he won the Dream Build Play and he was my first inspiration to get into game development. I hope he'll keep carrying the XNA torch.

[@Paul_Henri86]

My favorite indie game of all time ;)

[@_electricfinger]

Thank you for creating this BEAUTIFUL game! The art style really pushed to that luck you are talking about IMO. I loved exploring the world and getting lost trying to reach the next area. I didn't undertand the story at first but when the big revelation comes out I got really excited. Thank you Ska Studio!!!

[@SiGhast]

"I don't know what the nature of the stain is." Quote of the year.

[@metalmonster9536]

12:30 Can anyone tell what was James saying and what did Michelle say? At first I thought she was saying "I didn't start" but she wasn't starting any new topic and they didn't seem to argue, considering the talk right after that.

[@megatiny63]

As I'm sure you haven't been getting a wink of sleep over this, I can tell you two years later: she said "How did it start?" and he said "the question is when do you go from foundation to content?" So they're just kind of paraphrasing one another.

[@kantallive]

They aren't together anymore? I saw that at official page of Ska studio there's only James listed :|

[@phiavir5594]

Doesn't look like it. Her Twitter has been really self absorbed and weird lately, like she joined the cult of Woke.

[@andy7666]

Just got into Salt and Sanctuary, it really is the shit. A lovely little game!

[@kyrylosamoilenko5394]

thanks for the inspiring talk!

[@invntiv]

So glad they did this! I loved this game so much. Great to see these two on stage

[@lastanka]

James and Michelle mention that they did weekly dev streams. Anyone knows whether those videos are saved and still viewable somewhere on the internet?

[@noonoox12]

Twitch. skastudios

[@joaokiwi2543]

This game is awesome, thank you SKA studios.

[@bencollison2471]

Great talk, just what I was looking for.

[@allluckyseven]

I think the takeaway here is: You too can make a game.

[@RmFrZQ]

On two conditions. First you have to be insanely talented. Second you have to code lots of tools.

[@somerandomchannel382]

Dude-... no way. Its their 4th projects and they are beyond studio standard in terms of visual and gameplay quality. + they supergood with setting up theme, mood, story, progression, twists.

[@dawidwojda3996]

If that's your true desire then drop all the distraction and go for it! There's nothing to loose. What else could you do with your life :D ?

[@superspyro18]

congrat to these two

[@chlebon]

SALT AND SANCTUARY 2 ... PLEEEEASE ?

[@PaperlessWriter]

Even when I don't initially have interest in these games, I fall in love with these postmortem speakers and that makes me go out and check out these devs and product. Good presentation.

[@bladechild2449]

Coming back to this after the disaster that was Salt and Sacrifice. I think I owe Michelle an apology after claiming James was the brains and mostly made the whole project a 1 dev endeavour. Seems clear to me now that above doing some of the art, she likely reigned in focus and ideas, because Sacrifice was just full of nonsense and terrible mechanical ideas.

[@smokeshows69]

Don't release unfinished loc? What's loc?

[@Ashamedofmypast]

I'm wondering the same

[@lizardrain]

lines of code

[@_electricfinger]

They mean the translation to other languages

[@AlexanderYoshi]

YOU GUYS ARE SO ADORABLE

[@flosmi]

hope they make salt and sanctuary 2...

[@albertgongora6944]

I love this game I hope they make more games and I look forward to them maybe eventually releasing a much more bigger game or even a sequel to salt and sanctuary

[@catarinaalexandra314]

so with a 4 person team we could get a game like this a year? i love salt and sanctuary, just take my money

[@Владислав-ы9м5у]

It's cool and stuff, but they didn't even think about making SaS more balanced, so that not only giant swords or hammers would be viable in NG+ nor did they think about completing PC version of Dishwasher.

[@noonoox12]

the source code for Dishwasher: Dead Samurai has been lost, sadly. He'd have to remake it from scratch

[@osearthesp]

they're perfectly sweetly nervous screen-agers !! ;]

[@TheTrueReiniat]

Your game is hideous but I enjoyed every moment I spent on it.

[@thisnameistaken]

Game looks awesome. You have horrible taste in visuals.

[@zombyjano]

I can certainly see why people could be put off from some of the visuals, but by no means is it hideous. Admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of how the humans look, but they still have a charm about them.

[@TheCivildecay]

noses...this game needed noses

[@Legionary219]

@@zombyjano I first saw it on youtube and thought everyone were anthropomorphic fish people who had hair and... honestly that made me intrigued enough to check it out. The gameplay made me stay

[@m1chaelmendes]

The best game i played in my life, together with Castlevania SOTN! of course for who loves 2D games. Congratulations!!! Amazing game!

[@CantTreadOnMe]

I want to make a game similar to Salt & Sanctuary but I suck.

[@Blarce]

>first game that wasn't bad B-but Zombie Smashers X2, X3, and Zombie Survival Crisis were all baller.

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

30 months with only two persons? Whoa. And using xna? Whoa again. XP Also, PC gaming is not only Steam, release on GOG and other eshops! :)

[@chris.hartliss]

Beautiful game.

[@hasibullah3902]

Michelle Silva,so you are the one who created the horrible abomination called spindle beast which tormented many gamers :v

[@AintPopular]

two guys job really? This shows u dont have to spend alot of money for a dark souls game. kudos to them

[@Superschokokeks]

for any game, really.

[@MrOzzification]

Not much is being said here. Makes me wonder why this was a GDC talk to begin with as by the devs own admission they didn't exactly have any groundbreaking innovations or any remarkable development strategies. Just 2 people with experience working diligently & lucky enough to see their work released on a major console.

[@PeterOliver]

Maybe that's the whole point, all the process stories are great, but sometimes people just make a game without overthinking the process and it can work just as well.

[@MrOzzification]

Peter Oliver There are plenty of success stories like that though. People figuring stuff out on their own, making their own tools to suite their specific needs etc. usual affair for anyone working on a software project with a large scope. I'm not trying to diminish their efforts here, shipping a game & seeing any degree of sucess is a huge accomplishment. What I'm asking is: does this really warrant a long-form gdc video?

[@ludeknovotny3967]

Well, this is a postmortem - not a technical talk per se. And it's just 30 minutes long, I wouldn't call it long-form video.

[@sarowie]

they are married, they stated that in the talk. I understand why some people consider such a talk boring - but put simply: The title of the talk precisely matches the talks content. So, if someone is not interested in the Game, they can skip the talk. If they are interested in the game and the creators behind the game: That is what they got. What shocked me is, that those two thought localization can be as simple as google translate. What? Do they want to support the american stereotype of not even giving a shit about other cultures? Now it could be argued, that they are not culturally insensitive, just culturally unaware - yet that is ultimately the same thing. A lot of people play games in english (me included) even when there is a good localization, because there is always some subtle aspects lost in the process - it can not be avoided. Trying to add something do the translation (new references or jokes) may add something, but for better or worse alter the original work of art. And that´s when you use a professional team. Google translate will litteraly break the game, as any and all descriptions, quests etc. will be cypher text, only barely be understandable when knowing the base language really well (much better then for reading the base text) and which point the translation is worse then no translation. They learned their lesson - yet still I am shocked that they even needed to point that out.

[@jarkokoo]

Unfortunately I have to agree. This really wasn't a great *talk* . Actually I couldn't even finish it, which tells a lot, as I'm a bit of a (GDC) talk junkie. I'm sure some people enjoyed this, but I wasn't sadly one of them.

[@numgun]

A truckload of luck.

[@zxGHOSTr]

numgun marketing, all about marketing