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BoMToons
So many times, it happens too fast...you trade your passion for glory. Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past, you must fight just to keep them alive.

Age 44, Male

Software Engineer

Somewhere in Nevada...

Somewhere in California..

Joined on 11/29/05

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BoMToons's News

Posted by BoMToons - September 10th, 2013


I'm still cranking away on Super Chibi Knight. I got the alpha pretty polished up and am now adding more NEW content.

I've been sending tweets and emails around to various press type people to ask them to check out the game and help get the word out. I feel a little lame "begging" for exposure, but I don't know how to "go viral" unless I put myself out there. 100% of un-asked-for help never happens. Responses have been varied. I'll post a couple of the "less-productive" responses I've received for your enjoyment.

1. I tweeted Tommy from Team Meat to ask for some advice on making a successful indie game. His response: "Make a good game."

I guess I should be grateful that he responded at all, considering he's "hot stuff" now with the success of Super Meat Boy, but I hope someone kicks me in the rear if I ever get to the point where I think that's "good" advice. Of course I'm trying my best to make a "good game," it's kind of insulting to assume I hadn't thought of that. I guarantee that Super Meat Boy's success was not solely due to it being a "good" game. They hustled their butts off to make connections and even *gasp* relied on fellow indies and media people to help them out and give them good advice and exposure when they asked.

I know busy people don't have time to write out long-winded responses, but maybe point me to a useful website, or an indie-friendly blogger or review site. Take 2 seconds and look at my tweets and see how serious I am about what I'm doing. Maybe tell me "make a game in black and white!"

I'm promising myself now that, if I ever get some small modicum of success, I'll try to be respectful and helpful to people who reach out to me. You can be busy and still be nice.

2. I contacted someone at a popular indie games blog who actually seemed pretty nice about checking out SCK. I got him set up with a password to play the demo and assumed he was in and having fun. He later wrote me and said he couldn't get past the VERY FIRST EXTREMELY SIMPLE "puzzle" (I hesitate to even call it that because it's more of a tutorial than anything else) So he stopped after 10 seconds (he had to slash a pile of garbage into bits). I was so astounded I thought he was joking, but eventually helped him get through it (this is someone who reviews hundreds of games a year). He then said the over-world map was too laggy to be playable... mind you I have been running an alpha test with thousands of testers and NOT ONE has complained about the intro puzzle or main map lag... I asked him what kind of specs his machine has, and it's a super powerful gaming rig twice as fast as my test laptop... So, finally, he never ended up writing about it saying he doesn't usually write about games that don't have a public demo... (since then he's written about at least 3 games that aren't publicly available).

So, either I'm extremely unlucky and he had a perfect storm of problems, or I was getting trolled... I'm bummed about it because his blog has a lot of readers, but I have no clue what was going wrong with him that wasn't with all the other testers.

3. A couple small-time indie blogs have written articles, but I get the feeling they're using me for the views I've been sending them more than the other way around ha ha :-P

Overall I think the "indie" community is a tough one to break into. I guess if it were easy, there would be a lot more people doing it. However, I think those who have made it could be more helpful to those coming up and not make it feel like an exclusive clique. Let's not all turn into Phil Fish :-D
============
Development dilemma: I think I made a mistake in the size I chose for SCK. When playing fullscreen, the main character takes up a lot of the screen and the lack of real-estate is pretty limiting... BUT I've already drawn like 30+ backgrounds to fit that size so I'm kind of stuck. At this point, I'm just chalking it up to a lesson learned for my next game. Having the main char. so big makes it feel more cartoony and quirky, so maybe it works...

Cardinal Rule: TEST FULL SCREEN WHILE STILL PROTOTYPING!
============
Here are a couple pics showing changes I made to the alpha recently (some blockages to harder areas and highlighting quest destinations on the mini map).

Let me know what you think about all the venting I just did!

Fatal Flaws?


Posted by BoMToons - August 28th, 2013


I released the SCK alpha test to the world wibe interneb last night. If you were signed up for the mailing list you should have received an invite.

Feedback so far is very positive. A few bugs being reported, but that's to be expected at this early stage.

Mostly it just re-energizes me to hear from real people that they're enjoying the game. I've been constantly afflicted with fears that it won't be good or fresh enough for the masses and that all this work will have been a waste of time. Seriously, it keeps me up at night.

Question for you: What do you think of quests and linear gameplay? I designed SCK to be really flexible (there's a reason for this later on in the game). But a lot of players seem to be confused saying that they don't KNOW what to do or where to go. The game doesn't force you to do anything first, it just lets you explore and find adventures as they come organically... this seems to go counter to what most people expect or want. A lot of players just sit there for a long time next to their home on the world map and grind against the weakest enemies (then complain that too much grinding is required ha ha!).

Is this a case of bad design on my part, or just poor expectations from people that have been trained to have their hand held through an entire game with NPCs and Quests and stuff there telling you exactly what order to play in?

I'm honestly curious about this one.

In other news, I'm really happy about the latest Steam Greenlight news . It sounds like they're going to try to greenlight a lot more games going forward.

Here's the latest Super Chibi Knight Draw Time Episode:


Posted by BoMToons - August 12th, 2013


Sean Astin from movies you might recognize such as "The Goonies", "Rudy", "50 First Dates", and "Lord of the Rings" kindly recorded some voice clips for the mini-game I made called #Run3rd.

It's to help raise awareness of Sean's campaign to get people exercising with a dedication in mind. You could dedicate your run to a charity, to a loved one, or a cause you care about. He just wants you to dedicate what you do to something worthwhile!

He's using Twitter as the means for publicizing your dedication using the hashtag #Run3rd. Because Sean's philosophy is to run 1st for yourself, 2nd for your family, and 3rd for a cause.

When you play, you can tweet your digital distance + dedication from the game!

It was fun to work with someone whose movies are a part of my childhood (and current) nostalgia. He was a really down-to-earth guy and helped me overcome my bumbling shy starstruckedness by how easy going he was.

The game is simple, but I hope you enjoy seeing the different levels and hearing Sean's voice!

Play #Run3rd Now! (it has medals!)

Famous Amos


Posted by BoMToons - August 2nd, 2013


I've been continuing to chip away at Super Chibi Knight this last week.

I think there are 2 "Draw Time" episodes that I haven't posted here yet.

Both have gameplay footage at the end. (Watch me draw the boss, then fight it!)

Let me know how you think SCK is shaping up and enjoy the vids!


Posted by BoMToons - July 24th, 2013


It was a long drive back from Comic Con, but CC was a lot of fun.

I helped Rog with his booth and showed off the Flexicade arcade cabinet with his Bionic Chainsaw Pogo Gorilla game running inside of it.

People seemed to like the cabinet and we had a video interview about it with a classic gaming site. The people from Stan Lee's Comikaze in L.A. also contacted us afterward and asked us to attend their convention in November to show off our cabinets.

Now I'm back to work on finishing Super Chibi Knight, I have it all planned out, but there's still a lot to actually draw and code, not to mention all the music and sfx. I was inspired by watching people play Bionic Chainsaw Pogo Gorilla so even though the trip to CC was exhausting, it's kind of given me a needed creative burst to keep churning on Super Chibi Knight.

Check out this video of me drawing a mini boss for SCK:

P.S.
I still need lots of YES votes on Steam Greenlight:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetail s/?id=152710075


Posted by BoMToons - July 11th, 2013


I am working full-force on finishing Super Chibi Knight.

We got some good press coverage here:
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/07/01/super-chibi-kn ight-a-2d-adventure-game-from-dad-and-daughter/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/02/fathe r-and-daughter-super-chibi-knight/

My short-term goal is to get a good beta-quality release out there for people who have signed up for beta testing. It's a tough balance between getting feedback early enough to make changes and including enough content that people get a good taste/vision of what the game will be and get excited about the full version.

I don't know if the Steam Greenlight campaign will be successful or not, it tells me I'm 36% of the way to the top 100, which is quite vague. All I know is I still need a lot more "YES" votes. Epic Battle Fantasy 4 has like 800 comments vs. my 260, so I'm guessing it's faring better. No Time To Explain has over 1,300 comments and it got Greenlit.

In good news, I think the challenge of getting game controllers to work with the final AIR app is solved for PC and Mac, and probably Linux.

I'm considering making a build for the OUYA also, though many people have told me that the OUYA is a waste of time because there aren't enough units out there to really generate any $. Do YOU have any thoughts about OUYA?

Some fans have also requested a Kickstarter campaign, what do YOU think of that? I guess I would pre-sell the game on KS and promise backers they'll get Steam codes or codes for wherever it's released. I'm guessing I'll charge $4.99 for the final game, that's what The Binding of Isaac charged. Your thoughts on pricing?

What does this have to do with Newgrounds? Well, NG was my training ground where I first began scratching my itch to make games. I will still make Flash games and post them here, in fact I have a couple laying around I should post soon. NG is a large part of where I learned what makes games fun and what doesn't work. NG has been a great test bed for experimental ideas I've had and has provided brutally honest feedback on those concepts. NG is the place I've met tons of talented people and worked together with them on projects I'm super proud of. NG has helped me find talented people for positions in my real-world jobs. NG is where I began building a fan base. Now I'm trying to fulfill one of my life-long dreams to get a game I've made out for sale on a console/game-pad device for mass consumption.

NG has helped quite a few of its own make the leap (i-smel, edmund mcmillen, brad bourne, Tom/Dan, and others). I'm really grateful to NG for providing a very talented, supportive, and inspiring community and for illuminating a pathway that shows how people with an idea can work toward commercial success in a very competitive industry.

I hope Super Chibi Knight can make the jump. I've got a lot riding on its success.

Check out some of the latest screenshots and some rockin' "box art" from the one and only Jouste below.

Finally, thank YOU for supporting me in making my dreams come true.

Slogging through the muck


Posted by BoMToons - July 1st, 2013


HEY YOU GUY-UYS!

If you didn't know yet, I'm working on a PC/MAC/Linux sequel to Chibi Knight called SUPER CHIBI KNIGHT!

I am trying to polish off a demo in the next couple of weeks to send out for beta testing. If you're interested in helping test an early UN-FINISHED pre-release demo of Super Chibi Knight, then go sign up at the top of the page here:

http://superchibiknight.com/

Additionally, I could really use your help on Steam Greenlight: To get this game released on Steam, vote "YES" here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetail s/?id=152710075

I am currently 29% of the way to the top 100...

Help Test Super Chibi Knight


Posted by BoMToons - June 17th, 2013


If you didn't know, the original Chibi Knight starred my, then 5 year-old daughter as the voice. Thus it became ultra cute.

She and I have teamed up again (she's now 8) to make a sequel called SUPER Chibi Knight!

As you can tell, the engine is up and running and it's about 1/2 way done, and in this one, you can summon and ride BEASTS!

The game is big enough to hold its own on Steam, so we're trying out Greenlight. I really don't know what I'm doing, but I have a dream of seeing a game I've made released to the masses on some kind of console. While Steam isn't exactly a console, it is super-friendly to independent developers, so I hope we make the cut and can then leverage that to something more console-like... maybe OUYA? :-D

If you're on Steam, please consider giving us a yes vote here, I will give you a high five or a hug next time we meet (your choice):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetail s/?id=152710075

Here is another video of some more gameplay:

Finally, here's the site: http://www.superchibiknight.com


Posted by BoMToons - June 7th, 2013


Wouldn't this make a nice addition to your man-cave?

Also, a hint at the game I was mentioning with someone FAMOUS! Coming soonish...


Posted by BoMToons - May 30th, 2013


I'm posting this because it's what I'm working on currently. I will also have a couple mini-games coming out soon-ish.

This is the FlexiCade cabinet at full size and at "broken down for travel" size.

Junk in the Trunk