YOUR GAMES | Game Design Analysis

[@JonasTyroller]

Fairly busy with Thronefall. Sorry it took so long. Hope you enjoy!

[@springbertstudios7005]

You know the game.Will you snail that game has terrible controller?Suppor it's where for some reason.The depad controls or just not refined at all, where the character was going to the left.Even though I wasn't pushing left just thought I might as well warn you that that happened and can you fix it

[@RugbugRedfern]

The mockup of the new sound design for Dreaming Worlds was incredibly effective at conveying your point, just want to express my appreciation for all the work you put into creating these examples! The comparisons for color correction, lighting, etc, are always my favorite part of the series. I learn so much with every episode :)

[@puttiputt2461]

A wild Ruwugbuwug being cute. But totally agree, it's just so much effort put into making these visual/auditive mockups and all of the suggestions were really good and not too hard to implement. Great selection of games as well. I'd really like to see a comment on killer junkyard.

[@RugbugRedfern]

​@@puttiputt2461 We'll see if he plays it, I did submit it! 👀

[@anthuulos]

We really appreciate your thorough feedback for Town Alight! Your comments about UI simplicity are spot on and we're excited to implement them as soon as possible. As you guessed, we already have a lot of ideas on how to expand the game further, but we'll keep simplicity in mind, thank you again for this opportunity! Both Project Tomb Runner and Dreaming Worlds look great as well, congratulations everyone involved, great job

[@penguiz.]

By the way the game looks super fun and looks amazing. Definitely would buy when finished.

[@derhinek]

Have you considered adding wind speed / direction as a mechanic to the game? Maybe in higher levels?

[@anthuulos]

​@@derhinek We're already planning on having multiple biomes. Each one of them is going to have different mechanics or twists, so it's on our radar!

[@GamesByDominikWolff]

Thanks for the extremely helpful feedback Jonas! I am so happy to see my little red panda on your thumbnail 🐾 And yes i am an absolut noob at sound design, i am sorry for your ears in that regard 😵‍💫 it feels so much better with your examples, i think i need to take a deep dive into this field. I see your points and do my best to make a more enjoyable and intuitive experience for the player 😊

[@gracehowell.]

Whoever does the voiceover has a really soothing voice that I could listen to for HOURS.

[@matute08]

​@@gracehowell. Actually i think the game would be better with sounds and not voice acting

[@CodeOptimism]

@@gracehowell. I agree! I could see leaning into that. ASMR vibes. (Whether this is the game for that I don't know, but someone should.)

[@myrrysmiasi4866]

I'm gonna toss some thoughts to you, hopefully some of this is helpful!😅 I think it would help the pacing a lot if the game started you close to the biggest tree. A lingering shot of it without any words at all would be way more effective at getting players curious. I'd go with giving players the opportunity to run around the statues under the tree without any way to interact with them and then leading them off (by visual cues & having all other paths blocked) to learn the game mechanics and teach un-corrupting smaller trees on the way to the first temple. I'm assuming that the point is that awakening the big spirit in each temple activates one of the statues under the tree? So you probably want the player to return there immediately after at least the first temple to see what happened, if not after each of them, which is why a 'hub and spoke' layout would be the first one I'd consider (from the video I can't really tell how the world is laid out, so maybe it already is well planned out!) Mechanically, I think it might be more interesting if you were stuck in one form at a time. Form switching can easily devolve into using the fastest form all the time and only switching to other ones to clear their specific obstacles and then immediately switching back. I think this could also make level design pretty interesting to do; you design the path to the elephant temple to be traversable by the raccoon moveset in one direction, and by elephant moveset in the other etc. And then could give players the ability to switch for the final challenge in which you need to use your knowledge and skill with each animal! Also, to add to Jonas' thoughts on the grayscale corrupted landscapes looking dull; You could use the glowy pink of the corrupted trees more in the landscape to give it more visual interest, while still keeping it from looking pleasant and inviting in the same way as the full color version. I do see some of that pink, in the water and one rock for some reason, so maybe there is already intention to do something like that? I hope I'm not being too forward, what you have so far is just really inspiring! I wish I was working on your game! :D Your art skills are definitely your best asset, the game looks gorgeous! But that is probably also going to raise people's expectations for the other aspects of the game. Because the visuals look so professional people are going to judge your game as if it was made by an established studio, and I really really hope that won't get you down.

[@MechazoidApocalypse]

I really liked the voice acting! However, I feel like you didn't use a pop filter. It was pretty jarring every time there was a 'p' or 't' sound and it peaked

[@CraWea]

You are great at giving constructive feedback! Highlighting the positives, explaining why some things are problematic, suggesting solutions and improvements. I learned a lot. Wholesome and educational. Loved it!

[@fygygufyufyyfhchcxgxy4290]

Hey Jonas, I just wanted to say thank you. Almost 1 year ago, I tried starting game development with Unity, but unfortunately, I kept having problems and tried several times but it never worked for me, so I asked you for help on what I should do, you replied and had a few suggestions, like usiing Godot, and now I've been using it for almost a year and I've been really enjoying it! While I see how Unity has many more features personally Godot just works better for me. So thank you Jonas, not just for proposing to switch engines but to also motivating me and giving me hope! I hope you're doing well and that you keep enjoying what you're doing.

[@Simonschreibt]

Godot is really cool. I'm using it for ~10 months now and it's super nice to work with.

[@SeriousGamer-pi7kw]

​@@yusarimahubara I care kid. Now go and play Fortnite.

[@MisterOx]

​@@yusarimahubarano one asked you, I care, just because u can't code and are going to grow up to be poor, with no skills and homeless doesn't mean that people who have more purpose than you are irrelevant

[@emanknight4934]

​@@yusarimahubaraif you don't care don't comment, it's not that hard

[@xkoan-yy7lg]

i just started solo game dev and am currently learning unreal. your comment reignited the existential dread of wondering if i should be going down the godot path instead lol

[@JD2jr.]

I think that last one could work with a color spreading mechanic; as you explored, the world would add color to the areas you'd been. You could add "puzzles" with blatant instructions written out or shown, but in greyscale, they are not there. Completing the area would fill in any color you missed, maybe shift from a pale color to bright color to really make it feel like an accomplishment. That way you are actively rewarded for exploration, and don't have to deal with the dull colors the entire time.

[@divinewind420]

For tomb hunter: Adding 'screen shake' may help detection of traps behind the player. Making the 'Simon says' puzzle start button flash could help. Maybe add difficulty option, where a trap would not start until you've interacted with something in room.

[@Ibrahimoezhan]

Developer here! If I remember correctly the version Jonas played should have already had screen shake but appearently not since I didn't see any. Maybe a bug. We will definitely note the idea about the difficulty option and consider adding it or something similiar! Thanks for the suggestions!

[@bzybx]

@@Ibrahimoezhan hey i just wanted to tell you that when i first saw the game i was like "it looks fun but i don't really like it" and i didn't know why, until Jonas showed his improved lighting mockups and it instantly sold me, i would 100% buy the game if it had much more appealing visuals!

[@R.Daneel]

Love the look of the firefighter game. A concept idea: creating a firebreak. Let a villager dig a grass area and turn it to dirt pre-emptively - but the villager is locked until they complete it for a challenge. Lets you block the spread at the cost of green land ahead of time.

[@sinksinkswim]

Another idea could be building out the water source. This gives the player a choice between building pipes to carry the water which will give them more places to grab water from but as they are building the pipes the fire is spreading without being put out.

[@loneRang3r]

It's already in there. If the fire burns the right tiles, you can section it off. Arguably harder than giving it as a directable order, so there is more challenge to it this way.

[@stellanovaluna]

I love that the mayor in Town Alight has a Super Mario Bros 3-esque “help me” animation!

[@RecraftedS]

this would be a great series! 😁👍

[@JonasTyroller]

This is the 24th video in the playlist now. :D

[@MatroidX]

@@JonasTyroller In case this helps you optimize for the KZbin gods: like RecraftedS, this is the first video I saw in the series as well, even though I am subscribed to your channel (but Personalized, not All). Big thumbs up though - lots of useful tips here! I'll definitely be watching more!

[@zeusdeux]

I am not a game dev but the depth that Jonas goes into and how he delivers his message is what keeps me coming back. And now I am teaching myself graphics programming. Vielen Dank for being an inspiration Jonas!

[@Dashmaster305]

Wow! The difference is night & day compared to livestreams where people play submissions for like, 8 minutes grasping at straws to fill the silence with nitpicky feedback. This video is so compact and inightful!

[@thedollargamestore]

For the second game's double win conditions, I don't think the timer is a bad thing generally. I do however think the game needs to justify why that is a win condition. I think it should be a countdown timer before support arrives, such as a helicopter arrives that extinguishes the remaining flames

[@samhblackmore]

7:28 - holy moley! What a difference that colour correction makes! Literally made the game look "next gen" just with some post processing

[@monke1340]

Fr though

[@amaryllis0]

I love this stuff, especially when you give comparisons of possible improvements. The tomb game looks good but the puzzles seemingly leave a lot to be desired. A puzzle is meant to be a cerebral challenge, not just busy work. If you're just following a list of steps which you immediately know what to do, it's not really a puzzle at all.

[@frez8824]

I have nothing but the utmost respect for game devs. I also tried it quite a bit and I have to say that it is so god damn hard while also having a computer science background, can't even imagine someone doing this with 0 programming knowledge. Your feedback is so sincere and you talk so nicely about the improvements that the said games deserve. I wish you nothing but the best brother Jonas.

[@connordcl5931]

It's nice to hear somebody with a computer science background had trouble too. I'm getting into game dev with little to no experience and after struggling for about a week to recreate something as simple as cookie clicker I was starting to think I was just stupid. Still might just be stupid, but at least now I'm stupid with a little bit of hope

[@frez8824]

@connordcl5931 Yea, your best friends in this stage should be youtube and the ol' reliable pen and paper:) I can't express enough how helpful scribbling your ideas on an actual physical paper could be." I want to make this." Then ask yourself, "How could I start?" And start slow and eventually from one "shitty" idea to another you could have a bunch of something good. You might want to look into a thing called "pseudocode." That's what at least helped me start a career in programming.

[@SentientMicrowave-dd7zq]

I think adding biomes to the fire game is a great idea because not only would it improve the visual variety, the biomes could also come with the mechanic of having fire spread faster in warmer climates to modify the difficulty. I dont think you need a village to protect tho. Protecting this one dudes house is a very silly idea and would make for a way funnier story.

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

on the house stuff, yeah, but I think you'd have to lean into that. With the village angle you just plot some houses and that's that. If it's just the mayor, I'd expect him to be blurbing some stuff out, for example

[@Doops1]

Thanks for the feedback! we already have plans for different biomes, and want different mechanics to come with them so ideas like this are great to hear. And i see the pros and cons to both sides; regarding an actual village vs mayor only. But i think there's a sweet spot where we make a village feel more realistic and lively, but keep the silliness of the mayor's importance.

[@Nic_Holas]

Professor Jonas, thanks for the free lecture in game design and how to provide feedback.

[@Reditect]

Definitely enjoyed this! Sound design and guiding the player without telling them everything is something I struggle with. It's nice seeing an example and possible solutions. I'm not strong with the storytelling side of things too, so I really appreciate that here. Calling things out, even if not my own game, allows me to question the same things. All about the intentionality. :)

[@NicoFye]

0:57 The need to telegraph what's happening behind the player 2:05 The need to telegraph interactable elements 2:19 The importance of sound design 2:55 The importance of extended accessibility, elements differentiation 3:55 The problem of inconsistency and how to solve it 7:23 The importance of color and visual variety 8:41 Meaningful randomization 10:16 The importance of conveying clarity through UI 12:36 Fantasy problem 23:51 Story vs exposition

[@scrub_jay]

Agree completely about the sound design in the last game, it is leaving a lot on the table. The voice lines in particular are in serious need of editing, like the spikes are almost hurting my ears. The game looks really cool otherwise, I would play it! Great video Jonas, you're awesome

[@SharpDressedBear]

You do an amazing job of providing feedback that not only helps the specific games but can also be applied to most other indie games. The diverse lighting tip you mentioned for Tomb Runner probably also needs to be applied to my game (my is a completely different genre)!

[@herbert9039]

Thank you so so much Jonas, I learn an unreal amount in your feedback videos, I would love if you could squeeze more of those in between your dev work. I wish you all the best! :)

[@svon6642]

I'd make the fire-healthbar have 3 parts: the "60% loss zone" that doesn't move, THEN attached a normal healthbar thats "40%" sized right after it. This would help physically feel just how much of the greenspace can burn (the visible proportion would help me A TON). Otherwise I feel I cannot tell what "1block" translates to in the healthbar, what "losing that corner" would do, and if its something I can barely afford to sacrifice. Love the tree theme you suggested! I'd add a bit of plant variety in that case. Would be good for level colour/look variety similar to how you mentioned for the tomb game

[@myrrysmiasi4866]

I love the idea of pivoting Town alight to be about protecting ents/culturally significant trees, and I feel like going in that direction could offer interesting ideas for gameplay variety too; herding lil forest animals to safety, opening beaver dams to flood larger areas etc. While watching I was also thinking about making the town more of a feature, with different buildings and materials that react to fire in different ways but personally I'm way more into the magical forest conservation angle. It would also be interesting to find out what all these little fires are starting from!

[@Doops1]

love your ideas! some of which may be in our plans 😄

[@eloujtimereaver4504]

For dreaming worlds, if it was me, I would make these changes: 1. Cut all exposition lines from ASMR lady, but keep the cutscenes they played over, just let the lines be unspoken. Just music and visuals. 2. Re-add ASMR lady as dynamic commentary over gameplay. 3. Make the levels a smidge less linear. 4. Perhaps add some food objects, or other things that play into the red panda experience. (It will add fun ludonarrative synchronicity, even if we are human playing pretend as a red panda. Like the prey animals in Spyro.) 5. Have more interactions with the follower spirits to solve puzzles. (herding them into spots, stacking them, things that can change them in some useful way. (such as elemental infusions.) 6. Have all transformations provide movement mechanics, the one shown here it looks like highlights relevant objects, but the design of the objects themselves should be providing that functionality. 7. Put particles on the grape jelly, maybe black smoke effects. As someone who is very familiar with the genre, I am unfortunately quite familiar with grape jelly on stuff = evil, but it is not clear to anyone unfamiliar with it. (I am not a fan of the grape jelly plot, but if you want to go with a purification theme, I would definitely try to make it more clear. Though you already have a very similar mechanic that plays out more elegantly in the monochrome worlds, I would maybe just lean into that, and then maybe highlight the important objects for purification with smoke or ink.)

[@SteinMakesGames]

Interesting takes on the first game's "puzzle randomization". It's a problem I'm trying to solve in my own game, also submitted to this series :)

[@RugbugRedfern]

Hoping he plays yours, would love to see his take on Dig Dig Boom :)

[@botocollin]

please PLEASE do more of these. It is amazing to hear thought and walk through and explore with you

[@zionen01]

Really appreciate what you do for the community Jonas, talk about giving back!

[@Doops1]

Thank you for taking a thorough look at Town Alight and for your amazing feedback on it. We're really grateful that you took the time to play all the way through and then adding visual mockups to you feedback, and we loved your ideas on UI. We're looking forward to getting to work on addressing these and hopefully not overscoping our game too much 🔥🌳🔥

[@rnts08]

Can I have a special win state if I manage to burn down the whole map?

[@nanardeurlambda]

the second game feels like the kind that can easily lead to experimental levels, just by virtue of having simple rules and a situation that heavily depends on the level itself. I like it.

[@nanardeurlambda]

also, that's a "level editor" kind of game

[@Doops1]

​@@nanardeurlambda now there's an idea 🤔

[@SealWithoutHat]

I really like how you can tell that he appreciates his fans games, it's awesome how much respect and gratitude he shows, awesome reviews!

[@iliqnikushev3820]

Man i am so happy you picked this series up again. It is so nice to see a dedicated indie dev's point of view and all the great lessons they have accumulated over the years. I would love it if you can dedicate more time in this area. I like throne fall and i am happy to see you contributing to it! PS. Do you guys need help? I'd like to see if i can assist.(10+ y development, devops,DOTSNET)

[@purple_fox_arts]

Watching Jonas Videos while working on my own games is just so incredibly relaxing

[@fierydrake]

The analysis here is such a gift. So clear and insightful.

[@footnotesforthefuture3300]

This feedback is so impressively on point, calm, positive, concise. Absolutely love it.

[@oo0speed0oo]

Your advice is simply amazing. I feel I'm learning so much from this. Thanks for keeping positive.

[@accuwau]

this is an absolutely wonderful video, both to watch, and to see being done for indie creators

[@tiagotiagot]

For the torch puzzle, maybe it would make sense to make the light-able torch be on a weight-based support lever, that animates up as you pick it up and that will trigger the ceiling and light up the firebowls on corners of the room, highlighting to the attentive player the correlation between all elements, hinting at the solution without explicitly spoiling it?

[@Ibrahimoezhan]

Hey there. Developer of the first game here. I believe Jonas' Ideas also was this weight based lever and some other comment also suggested this system where the ceiling only starts after you interacted with something in the room which also maybe can be done only for the first difficulty (Since the difficulty rises over time even though its not very apparent though we are working on fixing that) to better introduce the player to every type of puzzle . Another way could be a seperate tutorial mode but thats rather a more lazy approach . Thanks for the suggestions!

[@hawns3212]

For the third game, I think a pop filter would be appreciated in the voice lines. A lot of the t's and p's were really sharp and noticeable

[@pabloferro2872]

Amazing video, amazing points, you are the boss.

[@Fallstudio]

The idea with the form switching in the last game I believe is a mechanic for highlighting interactive elements and objectives

[@MaximumAxiom]

Please do more of these, its super helpful

[@theothetorch8016]

The format of this video series is getting more refined. Choosing editing over raw footage clearly helps with giving feedback and getting points across. :)

[@spitefol5504]

very impressed by how every single thing you say is so helpful, you really have an eye for this stuff

[@eloctopusmakesgames]

Hi Jonas! Thank you for helping each of us every day with your contents and suggestions!

[@cryingwatercolours]

i would love to see the devs improve the games and you replay them with the improvements!

[@AndrzejGieraltCreative]

Awesome :) I'm not sure that the last game is different enough from Farewell North in its hook...

[@dertobbe1176]

The lost one looks so sweet ❤

[@obvbeans]

This is the best video in the series. Please keep making more as I will keep watching them!

[@RationalBike]

the last game was definitely my favorite.

[@Adjustvolume]

I like the fire fighting game. It would be cool if there were rounds and it gets more difficult as it goes on. Then you'd have to reseed and upgrade between rounds.

[@Doops1]

This just might be one of our ideas we'll toy around with 😉

[@superhero-studios]

For the last one, I like the whispering narrator. But there's something about the tone that I wish was slightly different. It like they're it's been lowered in post, where as I think it'd feel more warm if it was like they're trying to whisper and it felt calmer and smoother.

[@cannotfigureoutaname]

The third game has a great feel, especially with your audio

[@adnanebadi3798]

Like in any form of art, constructive criticism is a great learning tool. Please keep these coming.

[@PuppetDev]

Oh yeah, I need to use the color value thing more! Been trying to learn the art side more, and it always feels things are "gray" when they are not.

[@amaryllis0]

Postprocessing is a cheat code to making your game look polished c':

[@PuppetDev]

@@amaryllis0 I wish I could actually use it in my case. I will need to manually adjust lighting and materials to get better results.

[@Hazzel31337]

great feedbacks, the voice of the voice actress from the last game is great, even speed up

[@TheTinDev]

I feel like the beginning cutscene for the final game was super bright and I felt like I had to look away a few times to adjust again, but overall cool looking game

[@ElusiveGhost]

Nicely done! Enjoyed this a lot :) looking forward to the next

[@SolidHns]

Lovely video, great advise and great visualisations of your advise!

[@icyUA]

Thank you Jonas for the awesome video! Would love to hear how you did color correction for the 1st game, and sound design for the 3rd game? I mean what tools, techniques could be used. Because it seemed fast to make, yet had a huge impact.

[@ottergauze]

Honestly Dreaming Worlds has a gorgeous soundtrack

[@real2late]

Such an awesome Video. I loved the sound mockup you did there, can you recommend resourced to learn game music and sounds / where and what to find?

[@CelebornArt]

At 5:30 I could see the trap, the spikes only start to come down as you remove the torch from the socket and stop it, when returning the torch. It's an immediate consequence that underlines the importance of returning the torch.

[@Ibrahimoezhan]

Hey developer here. Thats a cool idea but sorta goes against the rule that we want to keep the player on the move and this idea allows the player to stand there or walk around and plan a route. Espacially because of the sub traps which jonas didnt show like plates that trigger an arrow flying towards you and some others which you can all plan a path around if you have the time to stand in the room since the ceiling is not moving.

[@AlexPepe06]

Hey Jonas, your videos are great! Even though I study game design, I learn so much new things and keep getting more and more motivated because of you. Please keep up your good work, so I can send you my game at some point😂

[@streampunksheep]

Holy shit I have islanders! I wish it had more but I like the building aspect, and how chill it is

[@YEAHKINDA]

For Town Alight, based on intuition, I thought that they would have different speeds with the old man being the slowest.

[@MarvinEull]

The last game is very similar to farewell

[@DungeonWard]

Great video! Good picks for design takeaways.

[@LeoStaley]

Make this a more frequent series PLEASE

[@abysskun9518]

I would love to see you giving feedback to a combat focused game instead of puzzle!

[@goodloser1616]

second form in dreaming worlds could have its own unique ability but it would be unable to interact with the world directly and main character would be the one that can interact with this dream world , that way secondary forms would be more exciting ti use , i like thia game tho it looks really nice and i hope story can be polished up a bit looking forward to full release

[@SparkeyAvalon]

The last game reminds me of RiME. I highly recommend RiMe.

[@Nebulaoblivion]

13:22 villagers could move faster on roads too, giving an extra element of strategy.

[@IIMyLittlePonyII]

Such good feedback! Love the videos bro :)

[@bjornterlegard]

Loved the video, my inner child is free! :D

[@muhammeda3328]

Very nice recommendations in a kind and nice way Awesome!

[@Janek.mallorca]

Am I the only one who thinks about Ico from PS2 when I see the last game? That was the best example of a story without an exposition. And a similar vibe! Just get lost and find what the author wanted to make you do.

[@LiveDoG]

Tfuu jumping sound is legend 😂

[@purple-blaze]

last one reminds me of old school disney princess games

[@cheesecakenl1980]

The genre is not my cup of tea but Dreaming Worlds looks awesome.

[@luquest1848]

Amazing advice!

[@sinisterdesign]

Good stuff! I'd also add that Dreaming Worlds really needs an editing pass from a native English speaker.

[@JAMPLEYDEV]

Well, I came late to the party, I didn't even know you were doing that, I would have sent mine if I knew.

[@Ketirz]

The ASMR voice-over in the third game is something I'm sure would do it for a lot of people but has me personally ripping my headphones off and begging God for mercy, because I *hate* that shit.

[@HunterxGatherer]

the pyramid game instead of unuseable fire maybe embers?

[@greg_the_pineapple]

I like feed back videos

[@Simonschreibt]

You played my "Cozy Space Survivors"?! That's awesome!!!!! Oh, wait...the title is a lie! You did not play my game! Awwhhhhhhhhhhhh! :D As a consultant, I must suggest a new title: "I PLAYED (3 OF) YOUR GAMES!"

[@JonasTyroller]

The people have spoken.

[@stray1239]

@@JonasTyroller our voices are heard

[@Simonschreibt]

@@JonasTyroller "For the democracy!!!" - But just to be sure, I didn't mean that honestly. The old title was good as well! :D

[@JonasTyroller]

@@Simonschreibt You forced my hand plus it actually still fit into the 50 character limit. :D

[@sinkingdutchman7227]

Desperately trying to stay awake for a last chance to see some ion storms. Hey Jonas, you didn't by accident stumble over some game with isometric mechas and an apocalypse?

[@sinksinkswim]

The voiceover for the last game reminds me of Lulu from FFX

[@doce3609]

The last one seems like a really amazing game. Love it, except for the handholding. definitely too much

[@michaelvicente5365]

those are excellent feedbacks

[@pedronoodles95]

haaland is making some great youtube videos

[@sips3812]

welcome back, Jonas!

[@dip8]

Will there be a Wowie game jam this year?

[@felfar197]

yaaaaaaaaaay

[@geostargames]

Missed you 😢❤

[@JonasTyroller]

Aw, thx. No worries, I did not quit nor do I intend to. :P

[@seandobson2682]

I could be wrong but I think the 3rd game would be better with 0% Dialogue, maybe some text but it seems to take away from the real key of the game...that being the visuals.

[@melpeslier]

Learned a lot