Wrenched Devlog #25 - How to Grey Box Indie Game Levels

[@Elim_Animations]

The thing you said about people not caring about progress unless it’s shiny and polished is so true. It’s the small steps and behind the scenes work that everyone takes for granted. It’s just like a KZbin video, you can pour days into making one and if your thumbnail doesn’t catch people’s eye, its dead on arrival. Regardless I think the games is getting massive progress, keep up the work, I know it must be tedious.

[@chriscopsey4205]

I don’t agree, viewer retention pushes the video into more feeds even if the thumbnail is not great, if a video isn’t entertaining enough for a viewer to watch most of a vid it’s not going to push in the algorithm for more people to watch etc

[@Elim_Animations]

@@chriscopsey4205 true, but if the thumbnail is bad you get no clicks which means no viewer retention at all. I know this firsthand because I had a video that was up for two days and got 5k views but I changed the thumbnail and within a week it got over 100k. Everything factors into a videos success but if nobody clicks on it nothing else really matters, making a good thumbnail is the most important variable in most videos lifespans.

[@royjenk]

The fact that Carley's height is 1M is so funny, imgine a little goblin fighting a gigantic killer robot.

[@CherryNuggetGames]

Hihi 😙

[@takashy87]

Love the idea of color coding the blocks :)

[@CherryNuggetGames]

Thanks! It really helps with planning and flow!

[@ironbytes]

After blocking out one level, I moved away from it and just use proper art assets immediately. As a solodev I don't see much benefit of creating blockouts only to then replace everything with the final art. I can arrange final art just as easily as grey boxes - at least IF I have the art already. What are the biggest benefits of blockouts for you?

[@CherryNuggetGames]

I think for me its: 1) grey boxing give me ideas and direction for art (like I would have never come up with that crane had I not messed around). 2) I can get something in hands of player way sooner! to see if a level even is fun (I guess unless you buy/get premade assets). 3) I have so much more freedom and room to make a level fun gameplay wise. Now you can “mesh” and “kit bash” art together also! BUT at that point you are basically grey boxing with fancy boxes… But reason number 2 is the biggest W for me! But remember, there are more roads that lead to a final game!!!!

[@ironbytes]

@@CherryNuggetGames Thanks for the reply. Letting the level design inspire art is actually a really cool benefit. I do use bought assets so number 2 is not that relevant for me, but I can see how that leads to a better game overall :)

[@salahaldeenb2980]

يسرني ان اكون من اوائل الحاضرين 🗿🤝

[@CherryNuggetGames]

Yes! Lets go!!

[@JYK-F1211]