I made Super Auto Pets... with guns

Game dev is hard, but solo indie multiplayer game dev is a true nightmare. Come watch a whole game get made from scratch, with all the twists and turns along the way!
Play Luck of the Draw for free on PC or Mac now!
lukemuscat.itch.io/luck-of-th...
Chapters:
Intro - 0:00
The idea - 1:03
Let's get started! - 2:00
Interruption - 5:40
Back to work - 5:58
Montage time - 8:22
More work - 9:06
Getting multiplayer working - 11:15
Predictions - 14:18
Last stretch - 14:58
Network "security" - 17:26
Play the game now! - 18:50
Stock Media provided by ikoliks / Pond5
#gamedev #devlog #multiplayer #indiegame

[@josephcraig8807]

i don't know why this doesn't have more likes/attention, you are extremely creative and really create these exciting concepts. please continue

[@blaster2000]

+ he is fruit ninja guy

[@DaneC020]

KZbin probably heard gun and filtered this out of promoted results?

[@oriolcosp805]

Great video and fun game! Also, lots of polish for a prototype. I think this is what gives you this "skate vs car" fear. Maybe you could do the 1st iterations with fast 2d graphics and if the mechanics seem fun (even though the game feel won't be there), then you complete the game with cool graphics and extra mechanics.

[@lukemuscat]

Yeah these are much more advanced than the regular prototypes I would make, mostly because I like the idea of releasing them with the video! Normally I would only be looking to validate a concept internally, but part of my solo experiment is seeing if I can validate a concept publicly, which makes me feel like it needs to meet some minimum acceptable bar... which may well be a fallacy on my behalf!

[@darkly77]

It was fascinating watching as you drilled the GUI down to the most necessary elements and emphasized the most important ones. That 3D animation where the slots slide out of the guns 👌. And man, what a difference removing ammo made! So much cleaner and more readable

[@mateuszpatua3016]

Hey, Luke! So, I just binge-watched your channel and let me tell you, the void is unfillable! I can't wait for more uploads! BTW, I believe these videos must be super time-consuming and take a lot of effort, so I really appreciate your hard work. It would be awesome to hear more about your creative process and insights in a podcast or a Q&A episode/stream. Keep up the great work!

[@lukemuscat]

Wow thank you so much for the kind words! I actually literally just finished recording a podcast, Make the Game with Matt Hackett. So hopefully that will be out soon. Will definitely do a Q&A episode at some point too.

[@mateuszpatua3016]

@@lukemuscat yay! superexcited

[@joshgamer1012]

Bro how do I get those emojis

[@n8n8n8]

Luke Muscat does it again! great video. The multiplayer implementation part was very enlightening ;)

[@utsavjana6002]

this really gives a new prespective to ho much work it takes to make even the simplest looking game. I love this!!

[@LowLevelLemmy]

I always wondered how things like this get built. Things that seemingly need everything in place to work. Amazing vid, and it’s cool to see someone else use Apple notes

[@WhiteZtine]

You totally earned my respect! I came across your channel because KZbin recommended it to me and I delved into your channel a bit and watched this video entirely. I really want to pursue game development and you gave me more perspective about this craft. You're incredible! You earned a sub!

[@frogballoon]

This game is absolutely great! I'd kill to see this as a final product. I love your work!!!!!!!

[@ThomasStewartDev]

Very impressive! I love the 0-100 walkthru from ideation to publishing. Keep it up!

[@blazehaze233]

you're so creative I can't wait to see what else you come up with

[@davidsno661]

Dude, that’s awesome. I just tried the game and it’s really engaging. I can imagine this as a finished product and it’s super fun. Thanks for doing what you do, you’re making life a little bit happier.

[@Kanibulus]

Dude.... your content is gold!!!!! Thank you so much, you are seriously inspiring

[@CrittingOut]

I feel as though I have learnt a lot about the process of game creation with this video. Thanks a bunch.

[@benmaven5659]

absolutely phenomenal, can't wait to see the next one! Maybe you could do a twist of a simple platformer if you're looking for ideas

[@lukemuscat]

Out of the nearly 20 games I've made, I've never actually done a true platformer! Might have to give it a go :)

[@maxpowerscomic7586]

really inspiring, thanks for making this!

[@GrouchoDuke]

Great stuff again, Luke!

[@dippydogz]

great video - played the game to see if you added an animation on the trigger fingers but soon didnt care as the game was so easy to understand and fun to play

[@sharpenednoodles]

Another fantastic video! You deserve so many more subscribers

[@MrGrayNk]

I really was getting ready throughout the whole video to go decompile the game and drag out database credentials, you got me there

[@MichelleSleeper]

I'd love to know more or hear more in-depth about the multiplayer aspect. Even just getting Unity to talk to another computer/server and what route you went with and why.

[@lukemuscat]

In this case it was pure HTTP requests, using Unity's HTTP Handler. The body of the message would be jSon data, which was just serialised from a PlayData class! And then on the AWS side, it was a Lambda + DynamoDB configuration. Lambda would process the incoming HTTP request and pass back filtered data. Mostly went this route over something like Playfab (which I've used before) because I really did not need a lot of the extra stuff that comes with those packages, at least for a prototype. Even though I had to learn a bunch of technical stuff that was maybe a little closer to the metal than an existing package, it meant that the entire system was absolutely dead simple!

[@ocsicnarf666]

Hey i loved watching your video on making the game. it was really entertaining and i played the game afterwards and I love it, I can't stop playing its so fun ❤❤❤

[@learnyt3688]

Wow i love this man .this is the true side of making games.horrifying but lovely.see you soon in 1 million subscribers

[@Kurgenshlovdivan]

“So it’ll be like an old school gun duel combined with gambling” Sir. You just described Russian Roulette.

[@LunarBulletDev]

5:44 god i love that backyard part, the atmosphere is magnificent, i love green spaces

[@papasivir4241]

As a budding game developer I totally get that feeling early on in the development process where you just start to lose confidence that the game you're making is going to be fun because you spend so much time just getting basic stuff down. Currently going through this with one of my projects right now lol Love the project. Your videos offer great inspiration.

[@vostrogames]

Thank you for the video :)

[@renji-hjk]

Your videos are so well edited you will be famous one day

[@coprophagichobo2377]

If it isn’t too much work, i’d have several different skins for the guns and hands, cause personally I love details like that.

[@frietje2008]

Awesome video!

[@moomoomang]

Great video!

[@hariskakakhel431]

I mean there are ALOT of games that are similar to each other in terms of the idea.. but every game is unique in its own way, some are simple and some are simply more unique. All that matters is how unique it is and how well you implement it. So don't give up! 👍

[@rhettellis]

This is the best gamedev content on youtube.

[@lukemuscat]

Oh wow, thank you so much, glad you like it!

[@DavidIwanow]

Well done 🎉

[@luckymfdaniel]

definitely deserve more followers

[@clementleow7609]

As a game-dev student, watching your process gives me hope but watching your results make me feel like an imposter.

[@Bushydem0n]

This is a great idea

[@SergeiGranovsky]

Very cool!

[@AkameGaKill194]

when you said "where do I get guns" instant thought was definitelty America.

[@ravioliboy3759]

Please fully design and release this game on phones it is so god damn fun

[@error17_]

I had fun playing earlier today, great game. P.S. Awesome chickens!

[@lukemuscat]

Thanks! Haha, they are extremely spoiled hens.

[@StoryAndSong1]

Luck be a landlord/super auto pets is an interesting combination

[@lukemuscat]

Such good games. I still play the weekly pack in SAP most days.

[@ojakgnuy3551]

17:18 interesting analysis about buffing items here, makes you think about other competitive games which rely on items (for example, League of Legends), and how hard it must be to balance the shop when you have 100s of items, where buffing one may have unintended consequences on others

[@lukemuscat]

I can't even imagine how difficult a system that complex that is so finely tuned must be to balance.

[@IronFudge]

I would buy this game!

[@CatsT.M]

Like a mix of Super Auto Pets and Luck be a Landlord? Yeah it is, I quite like that.

[@lukemuscat]

Didn't get the chance to mention Luck be a Landlord but yes that was a huge influence as well!

[@carlosfourth9738]

I hope you get more subscribers, and views. This is amazing!

[@lukemuscat]

Thanks, Carlos! Appreciate it :)

[@carlosfourth9738]

@@lukemuscat Your welcome! Any time. You've earned a subscriber.

[@carlosfourth9738]

Also, i loved your game!@@lukemuscat

[@kaizacat3278]

Chicken 10/10 follows the rules and commands

[@MichaelReich]

The javascript joke... had me on that one

[@miasmi5992]

NL jumpscare ICANT

[@Isaaclolwastaken]

TRIPLE THE SINS!!!

[@Naysy]

Love this idea for a KZbin series

[@lukemuscat]

Aw thanks so much Naysy! It's been ages!

[@TheAnimalChin]

Love it!

[@lukemuscat]

Thanks Travis!!

[@RhysDee]

Nice video. Reminds me a bit of Luck be a Landlord if you are interested in a similar slot machine builder.

[@lukemuscat]

Thanks! Yeah I didn't get a chance to include it in the video, but definitely played a bunch of and was influenced by Luck Be A Landlord as well. That game just has sooooo many items and multi-step synergies!

[@jeffinjoseph8916]

Hey Luke! I was skeptical throughout the video as I will admit it, it looked a bit too boring but as the game came closer and closer to its final form I grew steadily more interested. I still don't know if I would play this but it does look interesting. Its amazing what a single person can do with some dedication and sheer will. Also I love your philosophy keeping things as simple as possible.

[@lcj3_]

Like the ability chicken have to-

[@Juke-Fox]

Thank god guns are so hard to get in Australia.

[@vaepuer2290]

Damn this is cool. I can see potential cosmetics in store

[@lukemuscat]

If I took this further I really wanted to be able to do cosmetics on the hands and gun! Like, customising your nails in this game would actually be a super prominent cosmetic change haha.

[@vaepuer2290]

@@lukemuscat well if you're in need sometime I'd be happy to provide some models!

[@Canal_PontoFinal]

That's amazing! I'm thinking about creating a multiplayer as well, any tips/advices? I'm still researching netcode, photon, fishnet and now you mention AWS, I'm going to have a look on it😊

[@lukemuscat]

We used Photon a long time ago (I guess 6-7 ish years ago?) on Crash Club, and had a really good experience. The team there were a pleasure to work with! We also used Playfab to build the meta / economy / player management systems. Multiplayer is a tough beast and the best advice I can give is to think about everything through the lens of "will this work well with latency" and "what if someone is trying to cheat". Best of luck!

[@Canal_PontoFinal]

Thank you for your reply! My idea is very simple, a peer to peer sistem for a combat game with 3 skills only, and the players can unlock new skills and create their build, so I'll need some account creation method. This game is more gor learning purpose

[@anniekate76]

Hahaha my favorite step is “questioning everything”

[@lukemuscat]

I have that step with every game I've ever made... usually more than once!

[@jackmiddleton2080]

As someone interested in working with a team to go further than I can solo I am surprised that someone that had that experience is choosing to go solo.

[@chilldogs1881]

6:32 Bro that note "Oh god something happened" 💀

[@fabrictoaster]

i cant believe they allowed him to buy a gun like that without a license

[@sonnechezper]

it's awesome.

[@nilsmuller-cleve6769]

Hey, awesome channel, and awesome content! Small question: as it seems from the video you did a whole lot of work polishing the game to a nearly finial state before you even put in the first actual playable item. Did you actually prototype some stuff you don't show because it wasn't fit for a video, did you do some spreadsheet testing or were you just so confident this would be fun that you went along with it?

[@lukemuscat]

Super good question. With this one I figured the only way to know if it was going to be fun was by having actual people play it, and people wouldn't play it if it didn't at least look passable. Also the visual of the revolvers was an important thing for me to figure out in terms of the whole theming and aesthetic, so was happy top invest more in this upfront!

[@nilsmuller-cleve6769]

@@lukemuscat I see, non-devs are often not as graceful when it comes to placeholder visuals. Tipping my hat, I wouldn't have been afraid full of doubt all during initial development :D

[@moniqueross2835]

Naughty chickens!!

[@anujchavda1854]

Underated ,

[@voidDia]

You inspire me to make games! But.. I don't know where to start...

[@lukemuscat]

I'd say start with a really REALLY small idea, grab a free game engine like Unity, Godot, or anything else, and just start trying! And just search for things you need answers to, it is amazing how fast you learn things and pick them up when its for a specific purpose. Like start with something so tiny as "You can walk left and right and you have to jump over a cat for points". You could grab Unity for free and just start searching like "Move a character in Unity", and then "Detect if you are above an object in Unity" and you will start to piece it together. Just start super small and slowly build up your knowledge with time doing practical work. Good luck!

[@m4rt_]

A good solution for the profanity is having an option where you can enable/disable seeing peoples usernames, or generate a random username instead.

[@AkameGaKill194]

"Can I make money from youtube" :D I saw that easter egg

[@uncletiggermclaren7592]

5:40 Australian Adjective Detected?. 🤣🤣🙃 Just played the game for 2 hours. That was fun, I can't resist the hippo but it goes bad more than it seems good.

[@Zweronz]

Making a really good video doesn’t automatically make it popular, it would seem.

[@TheYaq]

Wow wow wow nice

[@kingmandrake7824]

you mentionned a site you are using to share your progress. what site/forum is it? Im curious

[@StefanLopuszanski]

I'm working on a physical-digital hybrid tabletop game based on the auto-battler genre. Super Auto Pets is a lot of fun. The game you came up with sounds similar to "Luck Be A Landlord" but multiplayer. And yeah, I've always found Unity to be frustrating since you have to reinvent so much each time. Could be a reason why so many people use GameMaker or even Roblox, Core, or even WarCraft 3 / StarCraft 2. Gets you up and running so much faster to the prototype stage. I wish more gamers knew how difficult game dev actually is. A lot of the attacks from gamers show they don't have empathy or understanding on what it takes to make something, especially from scratch and that is trying to innovate gameplay.

[@lukemuscat]

Yes Luck be a Landlord was an influence as well, just ran out of time to include it in the video! Good luck with the hybrid game, it sounds fascinating!

[@tastysnak]

Javascript truly is the nastiest of words! 😂

[@cate01a]

enticing game though did the enemy have an advantage? felt they always had more time/cash and the basic ending was kinda lacking

[@dejungelinafrika]

Very cool video. I am also making a multiplayer!

[@Filip_Z]

“I made a multiplayer game and then didnt make it multiplayer”

[@Huston5180]

What’s the game with pets? It looks cool. Can you please tell me the game?

[@lukemuscat]

It's called Super Auto Pets by Team Wood Games. Super great game, highly recommended.

[@GrahamOfLegend]

Lmao yo you have chickens?! 😂

[@lukemuscat]

4 of them! Backyard chickens are the best, awesome pets and also eggs way better than anything from the shops. Plus they use up a lot of food waste!

[@2wen98]

what's the software you used for the mock-up drawing?

[@lukemuscat]

It's called Sketch! Mostly used to UI layout work.

[@2wen98]

@@lukemuscat thanks! Is it on windows?

[@42Randomise]

All the gambling!

[@paulinka4815]

so basicly basically like hearthstone battlegrounds?

[@M0kiss]

i would love to know the program name that you are using in 7:05

[@lukemuscat]

It's called Sketch. I thiiiink it's Mac only? Very good UI and layout design tool, although a lot of people have switched to Figma now.

[@M0kiss]

@@lukemuscat tks a lot mate! I´ve been using Photoshop for the job, buuut we all agree It's painful.🥲

[@lukemuscat]

​@@M0kiss Yeah I think I used Photoshop for maybe 15 years before I switched! I now use Pixelmator Pro for most image editing stuff, and then still switch into Sketch sometimes for when I know I need to do heavy UI concepting and iteration. Sketch lets you build and edit prefabs, which is really handy for if you have a lot of common elements on screens.

[@whitesnakefr]

It was fun and addictive but I got destroyed

[@lynx8779]

Just goes to show you don’t need two people for multiplayer

[@Silver-ot6pd]

11:12 Java really sucks that bad huh?

[@blueyay]

You should port it to mobile

[@cha0ticneutralbigs]

Good game, I do wish there where more skin tone options though

[@NoName-yb9xe]

Please get dark reader chrome extension, your video is just randomly very bright because of your white background in chrome

[@lukemuscat]

Yeah good call. I tried to edit around the flashes but just being in dark mode the whole time would save a lot of pain!

[@lel7531]

It's not multiplayer at all what a scam

[@lukemuscat]

😅

[@s15jason]

🔥Nice work. Inspirational! - Was just testing the game out on io. went up against JMoney 😂 Me VS Me

[@fullchicken4492]

Dude, I aspire to work on projects I'm passionate about and live in a place free from the crazy world. I want to learn this so bad, anyone have any advice for learning developing?