Monke. Rat. Wishlist.

I don’t think that people who didn’t live through it will understand the grip that The Matrix had on the world.

The ingredients of our indie game: Monke. Rat.

Robots covered in soft plastic or vinyl is legitimately one of my favourite design tropes. artstation.com/artwork/qANRg…

In fairness, our budgets were slightly different.

How do people describe our game: Monke.

We are thrilled to reveal our new, original IP - Animal Use Protocol! A first person survival horror experience following a group of lab animals as they try to escape the nightmarish Anchorage Station. Wishlist now - and please retweet to spread the word! #AUP 🐒🐀

Just look at this work by @ashthorp1 . This is what Star Wars could look like...

Game designers and art directors... whats your stance on narrative graffiti?

Woah…

People - “this is just fake!” … you have no idea how much stuff is ‘faked’ in game engines. It’s all fake. Water, fog, ripples, rain, blood, movement, foliage, ground, skies, clothing, animation, wind… - it’s ALL just math tricks.

I still want to know which dark god got a blood sacrifice to get Alien Isolation looking THIS DAMNED GOOD.

Way too relatable.

The worst part is that this review dropped our Overwhelmingly Positive rating.

I’ve seen Aliens maybe 50 times… probably more. I’ve never even considered this was a rear projection shot. Honestly I’m usually SO into the movie that it’s just obvious that Ripley is in an elevator filmed on location at Hadleys Hope.

1002 reviews on Steam, and an overwhelmingly positive rating. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to review Bone Totem!!

Every game we do is special to me - but Beautiful Desolation is one that I still dream about.

I LOVE space suits! The Nostromo suit from Alien, and the space walk suit from Sunshine are legit my 2 favs! What are yours?

700 reviews, and Overwhelmingly Positive! Thank you!

This... is... CRAZY. js13kgames.com/entries/q1k3 Quake in just 13 kb. The image in this tweet is bigger than the game.

What are your favorite ISOMETRIC games?

Found some old files of a Noir detective game I was playing around with. Perhaps one day...

I'm proud to say that Stasis - Bone Totem is out! We can't wait for you to delve in the depths of this incredible story. - Chris & Nic (The Bro's) stasis2.com

Bloody handprints are surprisingly common in situations with lots of blood. You’d be surprised at just how much we use our hands to navigate the world - especially if our bodies are otherwise impaired.

What game series would make an awesome setting for a point and click adventure game? I'd love to see an adventure game set in the Bioshock universe.

You'll be happy to know that any AI art was removed and replaced with our bespoke pieces. :D

What if Fallout kept with the Isometric perspective?

I swear that this image has served as a bedrock of 90% of horror artists since 2018.

Its actually one of the main reasons I've never leaned on it - the logistics of creating a new decal set for each new language just seems like a nightmare! And if you use a font, it'll just look like a font.

Just know... its NOT BG3! If you like point and click adventure games - or wanna delve into some cool scifi horror - I think you'll enjoy it!

What if Mass Effect was an Isometric RPG?

The term ‘indie game’ has become completely meaningless. I see people claiming games are indie because they have pixel graphics - but they are games published by multi billion dollar legacy studios. It used to be a badge of honour, now it’s a marketing byline.

STASIS - Bone Totem is launching on MAY 31, 2023! Please RETWEET, LIKE - & SHARE this far and wide! Wishlist on @Steam and @GOGcom store.steampowered.com/app/1… gog.com/en/game/stasis_bone_… Reviewers & Streamers - Fill in your details for a PRESS KEY! thebrotherhoodgames.com/bt_p…

Those are just ghosts.

The biggest issue with monster design is that the pinnacle of monster design was reached in 1979, and everything since then is a pale imitation.

Streamers who take the time to play small indie games - I hope you know just how much you mean to us ‘lil developers.

When you're a micro studio - it can feel a little like you're trying to slay dragons with wooden swords and cardboard shields... but it helps when you have a few giants on your side! Thanks again to @CohhCarnage for supporting our weird games! This was one for the books!

I'll never not be mad that Annihilation wasnt successful. Genuinly one of the best scifi movies of the past decade. Stellar cast (and an all female one at that) - solid characters, amazing visuals, and mind bending cosmic horror.

I see that people liked my Mass Effect Isometric art - so in that spirit... what if DOOM was an Isometric Bullet Hell Shooter?

Star Trek fans - if you were given the opportunity to make your own Star Trek show, what would it be about? For me - a show centred around the first all Klingon crew of a Federation ship.

SMELLY APE. RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN.... Wishlist ANIMAL USE PROTOCOL now - and *please* retweet to spread the word! #AUP 🐒🐀

One of the largest things to consider is shared resources. 100 different objects sharing 1 materials is 100 draw calls. 1 object with 100 different materials is 100 draw calls. But chances are pretty high you're gonna need more than 1 object - so if you can get 100 different objects sharing material, you'll have a lot more flexibility in piecing your levels together. Our main architecture set uses 2 materials. Apart from the decals - everything you see here is done with only 2 materials. UV seems dont really matter - but shared UV's obviously let you use shared textures without warping. Where complex UV's DO matter is when you're doing light baking. Light baking cannot share UV's - essentially your engine will do its own unwrap of the object based on your UV's - moving them into a flat pack where no UV's overlap, and each UV island has some padding around it. To get a higher quality light bake - the more complex the 3D shape, the higher res the light baked texture has to be to get good quality. So in that case - it may be better to break a big complex object up into smaller pieces. You increase your draw calls - but you have more control over your light bake. Instancing is also a big thing - less 'bespoke' objects, the better. Lets say you have a bar scene - and you have 100 bottles in the bar. 1 bottle thats repeated only has to load into memory once - and then the rest of its locations are essentially a text file of coordinates. But as soon as that object is modified to the point where it needs a NEW MESH (so transforms are fine, and material changes are fine) - thats FBX becomes a new instance. So in that case - make 1 bottle, duplicate it 100 times - and then use your MATERIAL to give variation. So you could have your material shader colour the bottle based on its location in the world - or perhaps there are different labels in a texture atlas, and it picks a different label based on its rotation. So your 100 bottles with 100 materials can become 1 bottle with 1 material thats instanced 100 times.

We are a microstudio - but Bone Totem was 100% remotely developed.

In 4 months I produced 44 minutes of cinematics for Stasis Bone Totem. Everything you see here was done with 1 person in @UnrealEngine Motion capture with @hellorokoko Smartsuit 2. Edit & comp with @Blackmagic_News DaVinci Resolve. #UnrealEngine5 YT: piped.video/9_NEbktwRe8

I understand that movie production is always fluid - and things happen in strange orders.. actors aren't always available on the same day or even in the same country - designs arent approved, props aren't read on time, etc. ... But shit like this baffles me.

There was probably a few gameplay sessions where testers didn’t know you could cut off limbs, so they wanted make sure you ‘got it’.

Almost at 600 Steam reviews - and with an Overwhelmingly Positive score! Thank you SO much to everyone who took the time to not only play our game - but also leave a review! You are all truly amazing!

The many faces of @CohhCarnage during the Stasis Surgery pod scene....

Dead Space as an Isometric game? Ok...

Overwhelmingly Positive!

Dead Space as an #isometric horror game. Oooooh yeah... make us whole again. #gamedev #horror #deadspace #indiedev

Become part of the Stasis story! stasis2.com Get the demo NOW! #gamedev #horror #indiedev #madewithunity #freegames

The more I learn about game development, the more amazed I am that games are actually made.

The press largely ignored Stasis Bone Totem. But YOU didn't. This game is for the players. Thank you! Please retweet this - like it - tag a friend - help us spread the word! stasis2.com #gaming #Steam #Gog #pcgaming #SteamDeck #wemadethisforyou

...

What if @masseffect was an Isometric ARPG? Art by us! thebrotherhoodgames.com #gamedev #masseffect #rpg

I keep seeing these art direction > graphics posts posting older games with mind-blowing cutting edge graphics for their time. Then I saw one with Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last Of Us 2 and realized that most people have no idea what art direction is.

He… he watched the movie wrong.

Gameplay from Bone Totem! #screenshotsaturday

Throwback to that one time I left a BioShock instalation CD inside my computer overnight, and it spun so much that it made the computer burst into flames, melted, and almost burned my house down.

Please retweet and wishlist Stasis: Bone Totem on @Steam or @GOGcom ! store.steampowered.com/app/1… gog.com/en/game/stasis_bone_… #horror #indiegame #IndieGameDev #adventuregame #Lovecraft

Stasis Bone Totem just hit 800 Steam reviews!!!! store.steampowered.com/app/1… #screenshotsaturday

Before making games, I wanted to work in the cinematics department for... honestly any game company! I LOVE prerendered game cinematics - so when the opportunity arose to add them into our own games, I've always jumped in with both feet. For Bone Totem, in 4 months I made over 44 minutes of cinematics, doing everything myself from the Motion Capture to the lighting.

He forgot the ocular pat down.

Some environmental work...

I appreciate @CohhCarnage , @Ezekiel_III , and @itmeJP bringing up Bone Totem on @DroppedFrames ! This message from Cohh resonated as well. Wishlists mean SO much to indie devs. We REALLY want to keep making these games - ANY support is appreciated! stasis2.com

These budgets look about right. The ‘this costs too much’ crowd have no idea how budgeting works, how much employees actually cost a company, and how games are made.

I legitimately love this design.

In modern engines, materials are more expensive than polygons. They are using Nanite I'm assuming - so the geometry density doesn't really matter. But a 2048 normal map adds an additional load on memory and an extra draw that is unnecessary. I'm assuming that this model was detailed using Vertex painting on the denser areas. Vertex painting is much cheaper than regular texturing, because the data already exists in the model and is going to be rendered anyways.

Let me just... squeeze on in there...

The real reason why game development now takes more time... we lost our way...

I woke up in the middle of my house being filled with smoke from a fire. My body was covered in soot - and for days afterwards I found my handprints EVERYWHERE.

Get Beautiful Desolation NOW! @GOGcom - gog.com/game/beautiful_desol… @Steam - store.steampowered.com/app/9… #gamedev #IndieGameDev #isometric #Kickstarter

Game designers - where do you stand on LOCKPICKING Minigames?

I'd really love to get 4000 followers by the time we launch STASIS Bone Totem! If you wanna follow an indie game developer with a love of SciFi horror who retweets other indie games and cool art/tech news - hit that follow button!

Someone watched the movie wrong. Again.

Im obsessed.

Hence my major confusion!

I stole this meme and I'm not ashamed of it because it's amazing.

Still can't get over how damned cool this is. We recently rewatched The Thing (and the prequel), and wow - they would be perfect for an adventure game. (Art by @DoomCube ) artstation.com/artwork/O5B8b #gamedev #indiedev #adventuregame #horror

We made Stasis Bone Totem entirely with @unitygames - It's SUCH an incredible engine, and without that I know that the Stasis universe wouldnt exist! And - the game is out! In the wild! You can play it RIGHT NOW! store.steampowered.com/app/1… #madewithunity

I can dispel the rumors... we will NOT have an exclusive trailer at this @summergamefest ... But maybe.... the next one...

With a Metascore of 85, and a user score of 9.0 - Bone Totem is our highest rated game. Thank you to EVERYONE who has played and reviewed the game!

One of the wierdest design choices in any game was the introduction of The Animus in the Assassins Creed games. The series would have been better if it was just assassins in cool historical times and locations... the addition of a SciFi framework is just SO out of place.

Spend hours on perfecting copy… researching the best way to get people to notice your game. Do marketing courses, listen to talks by PR companies… craft posts that encapsulate the essence of your game… Or, post ‘Monke’ while you’re out standing in line at the shops.

Always fascinated by the artwork of @emersontung

201 Reviews on Steam, and a VERY POSITIVE rating in just over a week! Thank you to everyone who has bought, played, and reviewed Bone Totem! store.steampowered.com/app/1…

Lets talk about those deep dark gaming confessions... I'm go first. I've never played a Final Fantasy game.

Imagine having a filmography thats so strong that BLADERUNNER 2049 is what keeps you up at night in the 'I shouldnt have done it' category.

Prepare for DESOLATION on the 26th of February. See you there on @Steam : store.steampowered.com/app/9… & @GOGcom : gog.com/game/beautiful_desol… #gamedev #indiedev

Making indie games can be thankless - esspecially when you're making niche games (Horror) in a niche genre (point and click). But reading reviews like this just warms the heart!

I really wanna play The Neverhood again. What a gem.

Game Designers... if you were creating a train level, would you want the train to move, or the terrain? And why?

I’ve used the same walk, run, and idle animations for all my games since 2015.

How we made Stasis Bone Totem: #gamedev

Post a screenshot you can hear…

Just found this guy who is remaking Fallout 2 as an FPS. piped.video/channel/UC8u5yz2… Give @JonaszIGD some love!