Hello everyone! I'm NicDev, but you can just call me Nic. I don't know where to start other than welcome to "There Can Only be Two" or TCOBT in short. It's a 2D adventure-RPG game that I've been prototyping for about 2 years. I've been developing it since 2020 when I was only 12 years old and very thankful because my dream of putting it on Steam has been complete. So let me start from the beginning; It was 2020, like I've said I was 12 years old. And at that time, I'd been doing game development for a full year. Although I've started gamedev in 2019, I wouldn't say I learn drastically until 2020. Why so? Because in 2019 I was extremely busy with school since I was preparing for my graduation from elementary school. As you know at those times what school tells you to do is to study, study, and study for many exams. Or at least that's the case for me in Indonesia. Because of that, I don't really have much time for gamedev. Even if I had time I was very unmotivated because what I usually do is use that time to take a break before studying even more.

2020

But in 2020, all of that changed because of the pandemic. Like many others, online learning was applied. The good thing is; my school isn't ready for it. Much of the learning was told horribly and it made me graduate without any exams. The graduation was taken from my previous scores. Anyways, at that time I started to learn gamedev like A LOT. I thought it was the perfect time to learn gamedev. And it was! Back in 2019, the games I made were literally moving squares. But my learning process in 2020 made them evolve into cartoon characters! The gameplay was starting to evolve too like platformers, simulators, etc. They're still shitty, but hey at least they aren't squares anymore!
At that time I also started a YouTube channel called NicDev since back then there were nearly no gamedev YouTube channels in Indonesia other than Kajew Developer. And Kajew made me motivated to do so because of the way he brought his videos. But please don't watch my older videos, they're very cringy and make me want to die every time I watch it :).
So I kept making more games and after 2 games were made I had an idea to make my first serious game. Which is kind of a bad idea come to think about it now. I mean I nearly know nothing about unity which was the engine that I used to make my games. Even the 2 games I made before TCOBT were extremely bad that is "Covid Infinity" and "Lemon Pending". Yet, I was thinking to make a steam game. It was called There Can Only be Two. It was originally planned to be a puzzle game where you control 2 knights which became the reason for the name. Back then, all of the graphics were so bad; no shading, unstable lines, flat colors, etc. You can see what it looks like here. And you can also see the first devlog here (Again, very cringy and it's Indonesian).
Don't know why I was very happy with it back then so I kept making it. Devlogs to devlogs, progress were made. Some of the progress was enemy AI, weapons, and some cheap boss and cutscenes. I also made many other games other than TCOBT back then and a game jam with another gamedev YouTuber named Livander GameDev which was called "Devindo Game Jam". Interestingly, many Indonesian gamedevs started their channel at the same time as I do like Livander GameDev, Vincoo, Kokapa GameDev, etc which made gamedev in Indonesia even better. There was two games that made my YouTube channel pretty popular such as Developer Showdown and Sirengraph. Again, they're pretty bad and cheap, especially Sirengraph but hey, at least it made my channel have lots of audience and around 10.000 subscribers by the end of the year. At the end of the year, TCOBT has evolved from a puzzle game to an adventure game. With some concepts here and there like the type of the game, level ideas that eventually will be put in the game, items, etc, but there weren't any strong foundations yet. And also around June or July middle school started making gamedev a bit harder. But since it was very early and many of my games back then were quantity > quality, it was pretty easy to make them. And this marks the end of 2020.

2021

This was the year when my gamedev stuff really started to take off. This year, there was tons of games that I made. I made a 3D game: TLG Motel, a multiplayer game: Multidrifter, a survival game: 4 Days Later, a horror game: Pestle: Volume 1, etc. And I must say, the games are getting better and better, especially in the gameplay. I was and still am very proud of Pestle, 4 Days Later, and Multidrifter. Especially Pestle which is a pretty scary and suspenseful game that got some attention back then.
At this time of the year, TCOBT's beta version was out. I planned it to be a quick look at the game's current concept to test things here and there and whether people like it or not. At the end of the day, the game wasn't really an adventure game, more like a platformer-combat/hack-and-slash thingy. Because the levels weren't really explorable and all you have to do was go through parkours and slash goblins in different sizes, with some kind of useless NPCs along the way. Many people liked the game, but I personally didn't. But at least that version taught me the things that need to be fixed in the game and how hard it was to make a fully fletched version. Some of the things to fix were high gravity, clunky combat, a better method to make levels, etc.
Since the beta version was out I took a break from the game and started to make other games. One of them by the end of the year was Pestle which I was pretty proud of even now. This year, I also began to gain some stress from the combination of gamedev + YouTube + school. I really started to think that uploading consistently with new games every 1-3 months is a must without taking any breaks. I think part of why I thought this was a good idea is because I didn't want to lose the opportunity I've gained from YouTube. And this marks the end of 2021.

2022 (This year)

So, 2022 aka this year. This was the year where I made very few games. But focussing on TCOBT. At the beginning of the year, I released Pestle: Volume 1, and the devlog gained some views and made it one of my successful games. In the middle of the year, Kajew Developer wanted to collaborate with me. In Indonesia, 2022 was the year when the simulator genre began to become popular because of the release of one of my gamedev-YouTuber friend, Andy Lukito's "Warnet SImulator" which became an extremely popular game. And because of this, the trend of making simulator games in Indonesia was up. Anyways, Kajew invited me to become the 3D Modeller/artist of the game, "Streamer Simulator Indonesia" which was a game where you play as a streamer. He said I got wages until the end of the year and mention my channel in his videos. So without hesitation, I accept the deal. It was pretty fun though I must say. Making a pretty big 3D game environment and art was pretty fun since I'm more of an art guy rather than the code. I didn't make any videos about this, only live streams and community posts. But my channel became even more popular because of Kajew's mentions of me in his videos. To give a comparison, before I collab with him I got around 20.000 subscribers and after the collab, I got around 35.000 subscribers. And the wages were pretty good for my age.
After that collab, I began to try hard mode on TCOBT. As I began to become angry as to why the game was going nowhere. So I stop making other games other than that and focus on TCOBT. I started by remaking the whole project to be better, cleaner, and easier to develop. Because the previous version has some very poor written code that often causes errors and isn't really flexible on making progress. I also implemented things that need to be fixed since the beta version. So I improved the art style, and the code structure, implemented tilesets to make the levels, etc. And after all of the basics were done, making new things in the game is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy to do and I wish I made these kinds of stuff from the beginning to save time I'd wasted on making levels with barebones methods. It felt like I was trying to go to the moon with a cardboard rocket. After all of this, I started to make early intros, tutorials, and cutscenes for the game. Although it might look simple, and it was, however, it was extremely time-consuming especially if you're working solo. And with powerful foundations out of the way and the help of my parents, I paid $100 to the steam direct fee and made the store page where you read this story.


I am extremely happy with what I've achieved this year, but often times I also felt extremely stressed and burnt out. School was getting even harder with offline learning has been applied, and without I realized, I'm in grade 9, on my way to high school. It's kind of funny how all of this started at the end of elementary school and ended by the end of middle school. Because next year I'm in semester 2 of grade 9 and as always school will become crazy for graduation exams, I decided to take a break. In the 2nd semester, I will take a full break from gamedev, focus on graduating and relax a bit. Don't get me wrong, after all of the things I've accomplished over the past 2 years, I still love gamedev and even like it even more but in a different mood. But I thought that taking a break is necessary. There was a saying "Art comes from the heart" and that is exactly what I need. I realized that in the end all of the things I do is to be enjoyed, so what's the point of stressing my days? And this marks the end of this year.

Conclusion

Alright, that's the story of TCOBT thus far. There are tons and tons of other things that I can talk about, but this blog will become a novel. I think, in the end, the blog is more to my gamedev journey because I must be honest, after all of these years, what I did with TCOBT was just prototyping. I prototyped the idea, the mechanics, the gameplay, etc. In the future, after I finish my break, I promise you that this game will be released, will be (hopefully) good, and all of you will enjoy it. This will be possible because after I graduate middle school, high school is predicted to have a very huge gamedev time as my high school is a vocational school focused on making games and I live on my own since the school is far from my current home. So yeah wish me luck, on graduating and achieving all of that. Thanks for reading this blog, it's literally 7PM and writing this blog felt like contemplating the last 2 years. It's been crazy, fun, stressful, emotional, life-changing years and I am looking forward for more in the future :D. In the end, I got many life lessons from gamedev such as being grateful for what you got, yet keep trying your best; relying on God in hard times; and work hard. Don't look back at bad things that you've made along the journey, it'll collapse you. If I kept looking back at my old shitty, cringy, weird-ass devlogs I will probably be devastated and not move on. So keep looking forward, don't give up, and without you realizing it, you've come through a long crazy road. I finally also want to mention thanks to all of the people that have supported me over the years. Such as my family especially my parents, friends, and communities I've made along the way. That's all, again thanks for reading this long, long blog. Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game so you don't miss out when the game is released on steam and hey maybe you can share this blog too so maybe more people can hear this story. That's all, Cheers!

[ 2022-12-24 10:16:55 CET ] [ Original post ]