Development of Neverlooted Dungeon continues and the game gets closer and closer to its final form. I feel like a sculptor finishing his work, the sculpture is almost finished, its general form is already great, some places are already perfect but some others are still a little rough. I have to continue refining here and there, until the final experience of the game is as close as possible to my vision.
Some people tell me that I’m stuck in an endless finishing loop, but when I show them the evolution and improvements of the latest versions, they admit that indeed the result is much better and that it was worth it. This is the main problem with working alone, everything is very slow. A little more patience, it will soon be done.
Leave a review on the demo
Before we begin, I would like to announce that following changes on Steam, the demo now has its own page, on which it is possible to leave a review. So if you liked the demo and want to support me, I invite you to go to the demo page and leave a review. This is very important to help me gain visibility.
Lately, I’ve been particularly focused on storytelling, in all its forms. Whether it is the writing of dialogues, books and notes, the creation of visual elements, tapestries, paintings, sculptures, and other visual elements, narration has made a big leap forward and I am delighted about it. I also continued my effort to make the place more alive and plausible by adding many small elements and details. I still need to work on some parts, especially the ending sequence, but the bulk is in its near-final form.
Levels improvements
I started my improvement work on levels 3 and 4. A first pass is done and its very encouraging result proves to me that it was a good idea, and that I need to go a bit further for these levels. They’re not quite in the “dungeon raider” experience I envision, but I’m getting closer and closer, and I’m confident that I’ll get there very soon.
More polish and reducing technical debt
The polish is also done on the entire game, the other levels, the features, the visuals, the audio, etc. In particular, I continued to fix bugs and improve features. I also do a lot of things that are invisible to you, including reducing “technical debt”, for example by completely recoding certain elements that were problematic for me, like the player controller which, extremely rarely, slipped on the stairs.
Roadmap
This summer is a bit complicated for me, for various reasons I don’t have many long periods to work, which slows down my pace quite a bit. Regarding the 2024 release date, I still think the game will be finished at the end of 2024, but I may postpone the release by a few weeks to avoid this already very busy period. I’ll let you know.
I hope you are well since last time. It’s time to take a look at the development of Neverlooted Dungeon.
Still polishing the game
As I announced last time, the game is now in the polish phase. The game is almost finished, but I continue to improve it until it finally reaches my level of requirements.
My process is quite simple at the moment: I play and analyze the latest version of the game, I do some playtests and analyze the feedbacks, then I sort things to debug, improve, change, add, delete. Then, I work on a new version with the aim of improving the things with the most impact in a limited time. Once the deadline is reached, I finalize the game version, and I start the analysis and improvement loop again.
Full level 2 rework
One of the big challenges I tackled was the complete rework of level 2. For a very long time I found that this level was well below the others in terms of interest, because it was one of the oldest levels that I had created. And as it is important to “confirm” the interest of the game after an already very appreciated first level, it became urgent to take care of it.
I started out simply reworking it, but it ended up creating a completely new level. The best parts of the previous level have been reused in this or other levels. It was a big challenge but according to my own tests and playtests, I think it was largely successful. I’m also very happy to have completed this work in just a few weeks.
More life in the dungeon
Among the important improvements of the latest versions, I worked on the creation of new unique creatures, especially for the last levels. Indeed, certain levels were really lacking “their creatures”, whether for novelty and variety, but above all for the atmosphere and narration that they provide.
I started by creating a lot of creature placeholders with very coarse geometry and place them in the levels, and made a lot of tests. I finally really created several of them, including also some variations. There are now crabs, zombies, living statues, and many others which I will not talk about so as not to spoil their discovery. I am very satisfied with the result. In a future version, I will improve their animations, behaviors, and adjust their difficulty, in particular some of them are much easier to defeat than they should be.
Here is a glimpse of some of them. You can find the cute crab in the latest version of the demo.
Stronger focus on epic traps
Part of my goals in polish is to improve the “Epic Tomb Looting” aspect, particularly by improving and adding “Indiana Jones”-style “epic trap rooms”. I am improving and adding small puzzles too, more for the narrative and atmospheric contribution than for the real challenges, but don’t worry, some optional puzzles will be real challenges. I have actually done things that I find really nice in the new level 2, here is a short preview:
New trailer in progress
In order to better highlight the latest developments and the work on the atmosphere, I started to create a new trailer. It’s always the same structure based on the same musical track, on which I replace the clips with new ones. I think almost all the clips have been changed in this latest version. When the trailer is done, I will officially publish it and promote it. However, I have already put it on the Steam page, so if you visited the page lately you may already have seen it. Here is the current trailer, what do you think ?
Overall improvements
I also work on many things that are not necessarily visible, notably on fixing bugs or improving certain design elements.
I also continue little by little to improve the art style, notably with work on textures and lighting. I would love to have time to improve some atmospheric elements, like adding a waterfall in the first level, more particle and light effects, more visual scene elements.
Visibility and festivals
In terms of the game’s visibility, I’m happy because I feel like I’ve finally managed to break through a bit. I’ve been part of some festivals lately, and I started being really noticed, for instance with an article from Rock Paper Shotgun during the FPS Fest. I must now focus on making the best game possible, so that this visibility has a use when the game is released.
Roadmap
I am currently focusing primarily on improving the narration, with the addition of dialogues, notes, books, indirect and environmental narration, which I had always left at a minimum to concentrate on the gameplay.
My other priorities are improving the UI to have something cleaner and more professional, and finding an illustrator to create the introduction art and various visual elements of the game. Besides, if you are a freelance professional 2D artist specialist in fantasy, do not hesitate to send me your references.
My last really big challenge will be working on level 3. Several months ago I created a new version of this level, but I was never really satisfied with it. I would like to be able to combine the best of the existing level and this new version, to make it one of the best levels in the game.
Then, there are still a lot to do, like improving the combat, balancing the economy, improving the art, and many other things to round out the corners and have the best possible experience.
In terms of release, my current schedule is to aim for the end of the year around November/December. I think I’m still on time, but with the incompressible delays for the localisation and its testing, I can’t guarantee anything. There may also be the issue of overload of game releases at the end of the year that I should take into account.
I’m sorry I do not write devlogs more regularly. I’m too focused on the development of the game and I completely neglect giving news and promoting the game. That’s really not a good thing. This devlog will therefore be a long overview of the many things that I have done in recent months and the state of progress of the game.
Development status – entry into polishing phase
Last time, I told you a little about my work on the last level, and it’s now finished. I think it’s really great, and I can’t wait to see more people playing it. Of course, it still has some flaws. The various playtests revealed some problems which will be corrected gradually.
In terms of general progression, I am now “feature and content complete”, that is to say that all the levels and the content planned for release are done in a playable in a rather clean and polished version. I am now moving into the “polish” phase, that is to say multiple successive iteration and improvement until I reach sufficient satisfaction with all the elements of the game. Of course, I may add a few things here or there.
I’d like to do one or two more iterations on the whole game before doing more open playtests, but they’ll be coming soon.
After a big period of fatigue at the start of the year, this summer finally went well, but I am currently experiencing a seasonal autumn fatigue. This is usually the period of the year where I do a deep look at the project. It is an opportunity to lay the foundations, the vision, to review the schedules, to return to the cor experience, telling myself that this year will be the one!
You will probably have guessed it for yourself regarding the date, the release will therefore not take place in 2023 as we all hoped, once again the release date has been postponed. I had really neglected the accumulated fatigue which seriously affected my production rate. Additionally, the stress generated by approaching the end of development makes me question everything and waste time going in all directions.
Gloomy2
Last year I drastically improved the art style with the “gloomy” update, that consisted in a full rework of all textures and materials. This month, I just completed the “gloomy2” update that goes further with creating better and more varied textures, new environment meshes, and improving the atmosphere using fog, particles and special effects.
This update jas significantly improved the aesthetics of the game, and I plan to continue working on the artistic style.
Improved stealth
For a long time, I had wanted to improve the infiltration system, to return to a richer system based on light and sound, inspired by Thief: The Dark Project.
I finally took the time to create a prototype in which I reworked the detection systems. The goal was to test the technical feasibility of such system in the actual game, but also its impact on the core experience.
Previously I only used a simple detection cone with a basic detection test, which resulted in a binary “seen – not seen” state. Detection is now affected by how hidden you are in shadows and how much noise you make. The system incorporates multiple levels of detection, NPCs will first “look at something suspicious”, then “investigate” if you are almost detected, and be “alert” when they spot you.
I put my levels to the test by creating more interesting stealth situations in each level, to see if it worked well with the experience I was trying to create.
Well yes, the new infiltration system enriches the game’s experience as I was expecting. You explore “slowly and carefully”, which allows you to detect and avoid both traps and monsters.
So I validated this change, and integrated it into the game. With these improvements, you can now move slowly and silently in the shadows to completely avoid combat or perform sneak attacks. You can also create diversions by making noise, such as throwing objects, or sneaking up behind an enemy to push them into a trap.
Besides, did you know that there already was a lure system based on food? Monsters can be attracted if you place the appropriate food nearby. For the rats, it will be cheese. Use it to keep them away from you or lure them into a trap.
You can test the new stealth system in the last demo update.
Combat Improvement – Dodging, Blocking
A significant criticism of the game was that the combat was not very interesting, consisting only of circling around enemies. Even if combat is far from being one of the priorities of the game, because it’s not an action and combat game, I decided to nevertheless improve it.
This time again, I created a prototype to try out new features and see how to improve combat. After some experimentation, I finally added two new moves: dodging and blocking.
Blocking can be done with the weapon in the right hand or with a shield equipped in any hand. Shields can even block arrows and certain traps. However, be careful when blocking, as it consumes stamina and you will be stunned if you block without enough.
Dodging revitalizes movement, it is much easier to avoid an attack or to slip behind the attacker’s back.
These new movements are well in line with the type of combat that I am trying to create, slow and strategic, where the management of positioning, rhythm, and endurance are priorities to defeat your enemies. I don’t want a game that’s too action-heavy with quick fights where you chain monsters together. I want to encourage players to detect and then approach monsters thoughtfully, by creating an advantage, or using the environment to their advantage.
These changes have also been integrated into the game, and you can also test them in the latest version of the demo.
Player progression and skill tree
In Neverlooted Dungeon, there are no experience points and levels, it’s a “light” RPG. But actually, yes, there are. Gold coins are the equivalent of experience points, and magic items and equipment are the skills you unlock by spending your gold.
Consequently, there is a kind of “skill tree”, even if it is a little hidden. As you progress, you can buy more and more magical items, more varied, but also more powerful. For example, after purchasing “speed boots”, you can choose later to buy “advanced speed boots”, or rather “double jump boots” if you are more of the acrobat type, or even “powerful kicking boots” if you’re the warrior type.
What kind of abilities are unlockable? A lot ! Some examples: telekinesis, rope arrow, speed, high jump, double jump, levitation, slow fall, rock creation, flame thrower, fire extinguisher, enlarge or shrink objects, control and summon rats, fireball…
From a narrative point of view, this system is justified by the fact that when you die, you are a new dungeon raider. Gaining levels therefore makes no sense. However, you can “recover your experience” by looting the corpse of the previous looter to recover your gold and equipment.
Another fundamental difference with a classic “skill tree” is that a skill tree commits you to a branch, for example you have to buy “speed 1” to unlock “speed 2”, and this often prevents you from experimenting because the points are limited. Here, you can simply sell your boots to buy another type, which allows you to change branches whenever you want to try several styles of play.
However, even if there is indeed a character progression, I also don’t want the game to have a “zero to hero” type progression. I see the player’s progression more as an enrichment of the game possibilities, with more and more capabilities, than as a simple “power up” to become a “hero”. It is above all the player himself who will progress and become a better dungeon raider rather than his character.
I hope that these choices will be well understood and appreciated.
Feature Failure: Mega dungeon
When you’re developing a game, it’s sometimes hard to stay on track and always make the right decisions. The creation process is very different from that of software creation, with (more or less) clear specifications and a (more or less well-made) budget. When we make a game, the objective is not clearly defined, we seek to achieve a “vision”, but without always knowing what are the right decisions to achieve it.
When I paused Goblin’s Week to work on Neverlooted Dungeon, one of the constraints I imposed on myself was to have a set of independent levels, and not a mega dungeon with interconnected levels, to better manage the scope and avoid a new pitfall. But for a long time, this idea of an “interconnected mega dungeon” had been circling around in my head, and I couldn’t decide if it was the right decision. So, once all the levels were completed, I wanted to spend a few days working again on this concept of “interconnected mega dungeon” to validate or invalidate it once and for all.
For this, I made several prototypes:
1 – The first was a technical feasibility prototype. Given that I already had everything set up during my work on Goblin’s Week, it didn’t take very long to connect all my levels with object persistence (for example, place an object on the ground in a level and it will still be there later)
2 – Next, I wanted to evaluate whether connecting the levels and allowing back and forth had as much added value as I thought. So I put together the “coolest” ideas that had been running through my head for months. While playing it, there was certainly added value, but I also encountered some degradation of the core experience, and I also found that certain aspects would require more work to adapt than expected.
3 – I was also wondering whether I should connect the levels around a central hub or in a more organic way. I had the central hub set up and started making a more organic version. The central hub was rather unsatisfactory, but the organic connection added even more problems.
The important thing when making a prototype is that it must answer a specific question, here was whether an “interconnected mega dungeon” was the right direction to take to complete Neverlooted Dungeon. No, it’s not a good idea. This is a very important element and one that works well for games that are built around this idea from the start, like Arx Fatalis or Lunacid, but for Neverlooted Dungeon not only does it degrade certain aspects of the experience that I consider important , but it also requires a lot of additional work that I would prefer to invest elsewhere.
I decided invalidate that hypothesis and return to the fundamentals of Neverlooted Dungeon: atmospheric dungeon exploration, traps, treasures, and a lot of freedom of action. From my point of view, there is still a lot of work on this side, and their improvement has much better added value than the connection of levels.
This little paragraph was written to show you that in a game development, it’s misleading to look at the final product and imagine that everything has flowed naturally. The creation process contains a lot of research, trial and error, and sometimes failures and cut content. I recently found the graphic below at a GDC talk and think it expresses this point perfectly.
Many other things
Apart from the work on the levels and major features, all the elements of the game continue to progress. Most of these changes are invisible, but you may notice improvements in all areas of the game.
The music is almost finalized. Alexandre Sciré continues to compose excellent pieces, separated into stackable tracks, which I spend a lot of time listening to in detail, mixing dynamically, testing in the game, writing precise and detailed feedback, so that the soundtrack allows really create the atmospheric exploration experience I desire.
I made lots of tweaks and minor changes here and there. For example, the improved stamina/health UI which better shows consumption or damage taken. Or that nice gamepad control scheme.
I told you last time about rope arrows, they are now available in the demo. Try to find them and use them to reach inaccessible places and collect all the loot.
Don’t like spiders? Look at the game settings and turn them off for a spider-free experience. Also, I was told that I should also add a thalassophobia mode, it will be done.
Christmas demo
Finally, this year, a little break in development to put the demo in Christmas colors. If you missed the Halloween update, now is the time to go and test the latest new features with a winter theme (shields, parries, infiltration, rope arrows, etc.) and give me your opinion.
Roadmap
I am therefore in the polishing phase. The biggest difficulty is sorting the things to do by importance and properly estimating their costs. I’m currently focusing on improving atmosphere, exploration, traps and treasures. Some levels need more work than others. Some levels require more variety of traps and monsters. I also know that the narrative needs to be improved to strengthen the player’s motivations. There is also polish work to be done everywhere, whether on the visuals, the interfaces, the dialogues.
In short, there is plenty to do… 2024, I believe in it!
Several months have passed since the last newsletter, it’s time to take a look at the progress of Neverlooted Dungeon. I’ve been pretty tired lately and my work rate has dropped a bit, but I’ve still done a lot of interesting things that I’ll show you:
Demo update
First of all, the demo has just received an update to stay as close as possible to the final game experience. It includes, among other things, the changes described below. Feel free to relaunch it and let me know what you think of these changes.
Rope arrows!
For a long time, I’ve wanted to add the ability to fire rope arrows inspired by Thief: The Dark Project. It’s a new tool that allows you to fire special arrows on walls or ceilings, which upon impact release a rope that can be used for climbing.
In the past, I had already made several attempts and given up for various technical reasons, but I tried again recently, and this time it’s the right one!
After testing this feature in all the levels, I must say that it’s really amazing. It unlocks a lot of possibilities to explore the level vertically, and also a lot of possibilities to avoid traps.
There are no limitations on arrows, they work anywhere, you can shoot them into a stone wall or ceiling. I didn’t want to offer such a creative tool and limit it only to places where I myself would have planned to use them. Besides, I would not have liked to have to manually add “wooden beams” everywhere in the levels so that we can plant an arrow there.
Some could ask me: but, these arrows must totally break the game and the exploration? And I would answer that there are already magic items allowing vertical traversal (like the great jump boots, the wand of rock) and that the levels were designed to be explored freely. On the contrary, the experience that I want is precisely to make the player feel that he is smarter than me because he has used the ropes in an intelligent way, perhaps even unintended. The vertical exploration aspect is just reinforced, and I should just be careful to balance the availability of arrows.
Here’s a little WIP video showcasing some possibilities:
There are still a few design and technical issues to solve, but adding them is so positive that I’ll take the time to make it right. And I have to tell you, these arrows will be especially useful for the grand finale.
Full gamepad support
In order to avoid having certain critical tasks left for the end of development, I worked on gamepad support and accessibility features, so that the critical features are all in place and only content and polish are missing.
I implemented full gamepad support. A lot of work was needed, especially on the redesign of the menus and of the inventory, so that everything could only work with a gamepad.
Although I’m more of a keyboard-mouse player, I find the game very enjoyable to play on the gamepad, and the default controls very easy to pick up and satisfying. All control keys are obviously configurable to play as you prefer.
I also added control and interface options (detailed below), such as interaction assistance and object highlighting, which are more suited to gamepad control.
If you like playing with a gamepad, I invite you to try the new version of the demo and give me your feedback. Above all, if you have the slightest gamepad detection problem, remember to report it to me, on Discord or via the bug report form included in the game.
Accessibility and interface options
I’ve implemented a lot of control and interface options to make the game as customizable and accessible as possible, and to better suit gamers who prefer playing with a gamepad:
– Interaction assistance with a customizable action radius that allows you to interact with objects even when you are not quite focused on them.
– Highlighting targeted objects with a colored outline.
– Adjustment of the size of texts and interfaces.
– Choice of an OpenDyslexia font as well as a more readable font.
– Adjustment of background transparency in texts.
– Reminders of the controls displayed during the game.
– Actions crouch, run, lean, carry, can be set to “hold button” or “press once”.
– I tested the game quite a bit with a color blindness filter to check that the game was playable for everyone. I took the opportunity to rework the potions and magic items to differentiate them more easily by their shape and not just by their color.
Here is a small preview of these features, where the game detects a gamepad for the first time and sets the default gamepad settings.
More loot!
I decided to reinforce the loot aspect of the game (after all, it’s in the title!) by varying more the treasures found and the way to find them. For example, you don’t find only hidden gold coins, but also valuable items, like golden chalices, golden candlesticks, jewels, precious stones, relics, etc.
I wanted to reinforce the immersion with coherent objects, but above all the “investigation” aspect. When you enter a room, you will look more for what objects could have value. “Those gold candlesticks on that tombstone look well made.” Some additional interactions (and traps) are to be expected, such as detaching a precious jewel from a statue… watch out for the statues… I would have warned you.
To recognize valuable objects, first of all there is their golden / precious appearance which contrasts with common objects and allows them to be spotted. Then, next to the name of the precious object is displayed an estimate of its value (“precious”, “very precious”, “extremely precious”, etc.). There is also the sound emitted during the collection which clearly indicates that it is a precious object. I’ve also added an optional option in the difficulty mode that allows you to add some eye-catching light effects, to make them easier to identify at first glance.
When you complete the level, there is now a small loot report animation. Will you be a “Bredrouille Explorer” or a “Legendary Pillager”?
Last level soon completed
In terms of content, I’m finalizing most of the work on the last level. There will follow a playtest phase, followed by several iterations to arrive at a well-constructed level.
I can’t talk much about it because this level has to be kept secret, but it’s an extremely interesting and unique level, but oh so hard to complete. The advantage of making the levels by hand and not procedurally is that you can create very rich and complex conceptual levels. But here, I really did something complex. When you discover it, I hope you will appreciate it at the height of the energy that it will have required of me!
Get ready for a mind-bending finale.
SteamDeck Support
After several tests, it seems that the game works perfectly on SteamDeck. I do not have the official certification yet, it will only be done at the time of the release. If you have one, don’t hesitate to try the demo and tell me if everything works. If there are any problems, don’t forget to let me know.
Speedrun
Members of the community are already having fun making and redoing the demo to see who will be the fastest, and have recorded their records on www.speedrun.com. Congratulation to Gatorraid for the fastest run! Several records have been broken and you can watch the latest, and why not enter the competition by posting your own video:
Thank you to the few alpha playtesters who continue to play regularly and give me feedback. In particular, thanks this month to Siegfried who recorded a complete walkthrough and talked to me about his experience.
I haven’t given out new test keys in a long time, and I know many people are eagerly waiting for one; but I currently do not have enough time available to process all the feedback that may be made to me; moreover, I have not yet been able to correct the biggest issues that have already been reported to me. Rather than hearing the same thing again, I prefer to wait until I have completed the last level and made a first pass of correction, to finally start giving keys. Don’t worry, there will be!
Thanks to those who talk about the game!
I would like to say a big thank you to Nilme from Discord, who told one of his favorite streamers about Neverlooted Dungeon, and he was convinced to try it out, and loved it! He did a full live demo which generated a lot of views.
These kinds of videos are essential to raise awareness of the game and increase wishlists, so if you have a favorite youtuber/streamer, don’t hesitate to whisper the sweet name of Neverlooted Dungeon in their ear to encourage them to discover the game and make a video.
Roadmap
There is still a lot of work planned, not that much compared to all that has been done in all those years, and nothing very complicated, but with the accumulated fatigue I am progressing more slowly than I would like.
I’m going to complete the last level first, it’s my big priority, because I will finally have a “complete” game. Then, I will start successive passes of improvement, each focused on a particular aspect of the game (narration, level design, graphics, balancing, etc.).
I’m still planning some small additions, for example a few more monsters, some very unique traps, an improvement of the inventory, etc. I will also have to make an intro and ending sequence. For the intro, I think I’ll do a cool image animation with a voiceover, for the ending sequence I’m experimenting semi-interactive cutscene.
That’s it, thank you for reading, and see you soon!
I spent the last weeks doing intensive level design, in order to have a beta version of the whole game as soon as possible.
I’ve been working quite a bit on the level design of the last level. Unfortunately, I can’t show you any images so as not to spoil the surprise for you.
I also reworked on level 2 to improve it. For quite some time, I’ve been thinking about my level 2, which I don’t find good enough. For me, this level is very important because it is a question of “confirming” to players who liked level 1 that the game is good and to make them want to continue. Since it’s one of the oldest levels, it wasn’t designed from the start with the same level design constraints that I use for the other levels, making it a nice level, but not good enough, and a little below the others.
I thought about and experimented a lot on this level and, contrary to my initial planning, I spent several days reworking it. After improving the level and creating many really interesting areas, the result is much better, but the new version now has other flaws, and above all a big problem with the pace: the level is too long!
I was a little discouraged because I thought I could have a level 1,2,3,4 as “gold”(ie almost final) at the end of December and all other levels in “beta”, but unfortunately that won’t be the case. Finally, I decided to put this level 2 work on hold and to focus on the last level again. I return to my original goal of having the game playable from start to finish in good quality (beta for all levels) as soon as possible. Then I would resume my work on level 2, and the other levels, to iterate until everything is perfect.
Here is a small preview of a new area of this level 2 rework.
Full gamepad support
I also started working on the most urgent tasks for the game’s release, including full controller support.
I’ve already completed full controller player control, although there are still a few things to tweak. I’m now working on the game menus and UI, as a lot of their logic needs to be reworked to support controller based navigation.
I have almost finished this task, I still have the inventory which will need a lot of work.
Roadmap
Once I’m done with gamepad support, I will go back on level design to finally have a “content complete” game :)
From November 1st to 6th I was at Paris Games Week to present Neverlooted Dungeon. It was my first participation in a physical event, and it was a very intense experience. The event was open on the 1st exclusively to VIPs from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., then from November 2 to 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
For more than 55 hours, I held a booth with 2 PCs offering a demo of Neverlooted Dungeon specially designed for the occasion. As a solo game dev, I was alone to handle all the event. I had no idea how much difficult it would be, but in the end it was tiring but pretty fun. I offer you in this long post a little look behind the scenes.
Jeux Made In France
For Paris Games Week, I was part of Jeux Made In France, an organization that promotes French video games. In the area, there were big French publishers with big booths, and smaller booths for independent studios, including mine.
I must say that they did an excellent job, and without all this support I would never have been able to participate in such an event. They took care of all the logistics, with the creation and installation of a booth, the supply of equipment, the printing of visuals, etc. Volunteers were there to set up and take down the booths, and also to provide a helping hand to the exhibitors throughout the event. In addition, there was a stage where interviews and presentations took place. I myself participated in an interview on the last day.
Day 1 – Preparation
I arrived at the PGW on November 1 in the morning to prepare my booth. Its positioning was better than I imagined on the maps, and the impression of the large banner was pretty decent, even if a little dark. I quickly set up the demos and everything worked perfectly, which was a big relief!
I took advantage of the remaining time before opening night to wander around and meet other exhibitors. All the booths were still under construction with many people running in all directions. A few minutes before the opening, some booths were still far from being ready, with for example unrolled carpets and missing decorative elements.
Day 1 – VIP evening
The PGW began with a private opening evening from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. When I was told about this opening night, I had imagined a large buffet-cocktail to discuss with the developers and the press. Absolutely not! It was in fact a completely classic opening, but reserved for the press and VIP visitors. So I held the booth like on other days and presented the game to passing visitors. Luckily, some volunteers got me some petit fours so that I could also enjoy the party a bit.
View from above, before the start of the event.
There was not much people that night.
The Week
The organizers of Paris Games Week estimate that there were around 150,000 visitors this year. This is less than the year 2019 with 319,000. However, the surface was reduced by 3, so there was a very dense crowd in Hall 1. Here is what I could see behind me while standing next to my booth.
And this is in an other place of the Hall 1.
My booth was located in a fairly restricted passageway. In the end, I’m quite happy with the attendance, because there were always people playing at both PCs and a few people watching, without being completely overwhelmed by the movements of the crowd. During almost the entire event, I was a few meters from the booth with my flyers to try to convince people to play the demo. The elevator pitch “do you want to explore a dungeon full of deadly traps” seemed to work well to catch people interest.
The first days, the demo had a small issue in its tutorial, and I spent my time giving the same instruction when players were stuck in the first minutes of the game. So I quickly decided to make a fix during the evening at the hotel. The next day, after the update, it’s a disaster, because a new, much more serious bug is happening all time: rats don not move anymore! Too bad, I put back the version of the day before. Finally, on the fourth day all the issues are corrected and I no longer have to tell anything to players, the demo plays very well on its own without any indication, and I can spend more time speaking with visitors.
Very close to the Jeux Made In France area was the large FNAC stage. They were amazingly loud for most of the day – it hard to hear at times without shouting in your ears. Sometimes I witnessed chaotic and noisy crowd movements, where tens or hundreds of people were running in all directions. These were often “fans” of some internet celebrities, following them screaming. Fortunately, I had a VIP pass, and I had the possibility to rest in the quiet VIP zone, in peace, and with a free coffee.
During the week, one of my computer suddenly stopped working. Fortunately, Jeux Made In France staff had a spare PC and in a few minutes the game was running again. Thanks Corentin for the help :)
Interview on Stage
On the last day, I was interviewed for 15 minutes by BillieChou. After a question/answer time, I commented on a 5min gameplay sequence illustrating a lot of the game’s possibilities, trying to convince the game is fun and not punishing. Even if I much prefer the tranquility of my office to being on stage, I was told that it went pretty well.
Public Reception
These 55 hours of standing were very tiring, but overall the 6 days went well. The reception of the game has been pretty good. I think a lot of people were surprised that they had so much fun with the game, because “it doesn’t look like it” with old school graphics, but it is quickly catchy. Obviously, we must also take into account the politeness of people who will simply say that they liked it so as not to upset the developer with his desperate look.
In fact, I was afraid that the public would not be receptive at all, especially in the conditions of the event (standing, bad lighting, surrounding noise). I was afraid they would run into the dungeon without paying attention, die, and leave with frustration. On the contrary, I was happy to see that the game was working well and that the experience was close to what I had conceived. The implicit suggestions worked well and people were in the right frame of mind, trying to put the stacks on the spikes, throwing things at the slabs from a distance, looking for every nook and cranny for coins, using the mushrooms as a light source in water, etc. I was especially happy when groups of friends were amazed to see that their playing friends were entering the dungeon in a totally different way from theirs.
Contrary to what one might think with an old school dungeon crawler game, I didn’t have a majority of old male players. On the contrary, the public was very varied. Men, women, teenagers, old people, couples, children with their parents, groups of friends, the game was well received regardless of the profile. I think the physical sandbox aspect and the fun grip had a lot to do with it.
Time to Disassemble
Sunday evening, the public begins to be accompanied to the exit by the security guards. It’s time to disassemble. Like every evening, I stayed a little to chat with the other exhibitors. I also partly helped to disassemble my booth to recover the large illustration of the game, which will be used to decorate a wall of my office. Some big stands were disassembled incredibly quickly, they were almost completely down in two hours!
After such an intense week, I returned to the hotel feeling a great void. Then the next day back by train to normal life in my mountains, and rest.
PGW Special Demo Analysis
By my numbers, around 580 people tried the demo, around 80 played until they reached the end of it. Many people didn’t finish the demo but played a considerable amount of time and left very happy.
The demo, although largely shortened for the event, was still a bit too long. I thought it would last on average 10 to 15 min, but the exploration being quite free and fun, the average was more like 20-25 min. I even had to politely ask several players to shorten their game to make room for others after 30 to 40 minutes! Given that it is recommended to make demos of rather 5 to 10 min for this kind of event, in order to give a good overview of the game while allowing a greater number of people to play, I may have had to further reduce a little. But it wasn’t easy, because given the very sandbox and exploration-based nature of the game, reducing too much would potentially break the experience!
I am pretty happy with the special features of the demo I implemented for the event, such as the automatic reset and the auto replay of the trailer after a certain period of inactivity, which greatly limited the amount of actions necessary for the operation of the booth. In fact, the demo and the booth pretty much managed themselves and I could focus on attracting people and chatting with them.
Marketing Impact Analysis
In addition to the pleasure of meeting people and making people them discover the game, my main objective was to increase the visibility of the game and to make it known. It is unfortunately rather a failure on this side. Indeed, almost all of the video game press didn’t come to my booth, I didn’t even have a few seconds to present the game to them and try to convince them as I had hoped. In addition, many generalist press and even some French ministers visited some association booths, but didn’t give a look at mine.
I still had the chance to meet in person some editors of newspapers or video game websites. I also had the chance to meet two video game critics that I have greatly appreciated for several years, in particular Medoc El Medoc! A big thank you to Medoc for streaming the demo after meeting me in ALaizeBlaize JeudiCouverte and talking about it in the CozyCorner!
Special Thanks
A big thanks to Jeux Made In France staff for making this possible, and the staff and volunteers were very nice and helpful.
I was alone but I received help, especially I warmly thank Kevin, Jorane, Alban and Michaël, who came to say hello to me on the booth, and above all who also helped me for a while so that I could take breaks. Thanks to the volunteers of Jeux Made In France who also gave me a hand!
I made some nice encounters among visitors and exhibitors, this was fun.
Finally, thank you to everyone who came to the booth!
