GodotCon is a convention organized by the Godot Foundation for the Godot community to meet in person and exchange knowledge. GodotCon Boston took place took place about 1-2 weeks ago on 2025-05-05 to 2025-05-07. It was quite the expensive convention for me to attend, since GodotCon's timing of being right before PAX meant hotel prices were higher. But, I felt that I could particularly benefit from this convention as a person who has been streaming Godot development on Twitch for the better part of two years now. It was also the first GodotCon taking place in North America. Since it was taking place right before PAX, there were also a lot of other game development events happening at the same time such as the Boston Indies "Pre-PAX demo night", at the nearby MIT Open Space. However, I wasn't quite able to take advantage of every single event while I was there, since I didn't have enough energy after showcasing on the floor all day. The event had workshops on the first day and the showcase and talks on the last two days. It was a difficult affair for me to showcase this time. This is because I've taken a hiatus from no signal development due to my move to the California Bay Area and I've since been quite busy and stressed. It was odd to showcase my game when I'm not actively working on the game and my mental health has been significantly harder to manage lately. As I'm in a temporary housing situation, I don't have any of my stuff either. In fact, my setup was very stripped down:
Leading up to the event I had to take some time to prepare the game since I made some refactors since the last showing at the ATX Game Makers Showcase (which, unfortunately, I forgot to write about in my blog) before going on haitus. So, I spent about a week fixing bugs introduced by those refactors as well as improving controller support based on feedback from ATX Game Makers. The showcase was in a part of the space at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD) known as The Garage. There were about a dozen or so developers showcasing, including me. So, how did the game do?

plays

During the event, I logged 27 plays on the first day and 16 on the second, for a total of 43 plays. Only one person finished the demo. This more or less met my expectations and there isn't much to note here, though it's notable that the number of plays on the first day is the second-most number of plays I've had in a single day -- more than 2D Con's 25 but less than Fantastic Arcade's 33. [table][tr][th]event[/th][th]plays[/th][/tr] [tr][td]STAPLE! Austin[/td][td]19[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Delta H Con[/td][td]3[/td][/tr] [tr][td]2D Con[/td][td]39[/td][/tr] [tr][td]San Japan[/td][td]44[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Steam Next Fest[/td][td]434[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Fantastic Arcade[/td][td]33[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Toronto Game [/td][td]17[/td][/tr] [tr][td]ATX Game Makers[/td][td]26[/td][/tr] [tr][td]GodotCon Boston[/td][td]43[/td][/tr] [/table] Although the event was mostly attended by game developers, the feedback I got back from attendees as well as which parts of the game people had trouble with were surprisingly similar to other conventions I went to. What was different, however, was that more people on average seemed to understand more easily how the game worked and were also more likely to compliment me on various design aspects of the game, like how well the new player experience was designed.

other notes

Near the close of the event, one of the organizers came around to all of the showcases to ask if there's anything we wanted to suggest could be done better. I mentioned that the layout of the space wasn't very conducive, as it was hard for attendees to go from booth to booth, especially when it got really crowded:
Unfortunately, it sounds like the host of the space didn't want anything to be moved around, so they were stuck with the layout as-is. And I certainly got a lot of people checking out my game anyhow, so maybe it wasn't all that bad. I was also unable to attend the event as a normal attendee for the majority of the event, since I needed to look after my table and my stuff for the entire event. While I did manage to get other devs doing the showcase to look after my stuff from time to time, I found that the talks were too basic for my taste. Overall, I had a good time anyway. The showcase was good and I was able to make a lot of connections with other people in the community. Right now, I'm considering taking a break from job hunting to finish the game, even if just to put a newly completed project on my resume so I can at least point to what I've been doing all this time since my last employment. I'm not 100% sure how quickly I can get the game done though, so I'm not sure if I'll be committing all my time to that or not.

[ 2025-05-16 21:08:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Unfortunately, I have to announce a hiatus in development for no signal. Due to political events happening both at the national and state level, I no longer feel safe where I live and I need to move somewhere where I can find more security. What this means is that I probably won't be able to finish no signal nor will I be able to continue doing regular streams, for now. What I want to do with this blog post is share some of the reasons for why I no longer feel safe in Texas where I grew up, share some of the recent progress made with no signal, and talk about what is left to do for the game.

transphobic legislation

Although it can be argued that the transphobic legislation currently being considered at the state level will not be implemented successfully or even pass at all, the fact that such measures are even considered are a source of stress for me. Even setting aside bills that may or may not pass, it is clear to me that the environment is becoming less safe for me. At the state level:

• HB 3399 would, if passed, ban gender-affirming care for all transgender and gender non-conforming people.
• HB 3817 would, if passed, make it a felony fraud for me to identify as my gender at work or when interact with any government worker.
• A transgender bathroom bounty has been implemented in Odessa, TX allowing citizens to call the cops on anyone suspected of being trans who is in the "wrong" restroom.
• Attorney General Paxton declared all court-ordered gender changes void and demanded that all such gender marker changes on driver licenses and birth certificates that have been made as a result of them should be reverted immediately.

At the federal level:

• Other countries have issued LGBTQ travel advisories for travelling to the United States because of the executive order issued by the U.S. president on January 20th requiring all travelers to use their birth sex as their gender.
• The Department of Homeland Security removed privacy provisions that protect people from surveillance based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Almost all references to transgender people were removed from government websites.
• Renewing passports could be difficult due to executive orders demanding that the birth sex is used on passports without providing guidelines for how this will be enforced, leaving the possibility open that passports of transgender people might be confiscated when crossing the border or when trying to get them renewed.

Due to these changes at the state and federal level, I don't feel like I can leave and return to the United States freely. I also feel like I will find it very difficult to immigrate to another country if I need to, because many visa applications require apostilled state documents. These changes have made me feel less safe and has generally increased the amount of stress that I experience. I would rather proactively move somewhere where I can feel more safe, before I find myself in a situation where it's too late to take the time to move properly.

no signal progress

Meanwhile, no signal is very close to completion. Controller support was added, including a radial menu to access things that would otherwise require a mouse:
More level polish has been done, including these general relativity notes from David Moore used with permission:

The game is now playable from beginning to end, as of 2025-03-03 and I recently exhibited it at the 4th Annual ATX Game Makers Showcase at Valhalla in downtown Austin during SXSW.

what's next

The game is missing:

• Level design polish
• One unique puzzle (involving a MIDI keyboard)
• One interactable (a Rubix cube)
• Better controller support for Steam Deck
• Steam integration

After that, the game needs to be play tested and QA tested. I don't think this work will take that long to do. In fact, I feel like if I were able to comfortably continue development like I originally planned, I could be finished with development by the end of April. Unfortunately, it's very difficult for me to say when the game will be completed. My first priority will be to create a more stable, safe environment for myself. I need to move and find a new job and those things will consume most of my time and energy. I might be able to work on the game and stream on Twitch from time to time, but it's going to take a backseat and I won't be able to do it regularly as I have over the last year or so. The fact that I'm pausing so close to the finish line is really stressful and frustrating for me. However, for now, things will have to wait. I can't compromise on my security in order to finish this game. Hopefully it won't take too long for me to figure things out. I am really sad that I'll be leaving behind my friends and the game development community here in Austin, Texas that I've grown close to. I will really miss all of the people and organizations I've connected with and the many events that happen here, including the ATX Beer Nights, Games Y'all (formerly Juegos Rancheros), and the Electronic Game Developers Society (EGaDS) at UT Austin. Since I feel like I cannot return to Texas under the current political climate, the fact that I might never be able to connect in-person anymore hurts a lot. And even though the food scene in Austin is admittedly mediocre, I'll also miss my favorite restaurants too. Tomorrow, I will be having my last stream before the hiatus, where I plan on doing something fun so I can leave on a good note. You can join me at 11:00 AM Central Time at twitch.tv/exodrifter_. Thank you for reading. If you have been supporting me, thank you so much once again. It means a lot to me. I will return as soon as I can.

[ 2025-03-17 23:57:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Toronto Game Expo is a bi-annual games convention that takes place in Toronto. There are video games, arcade machines, board games, and most importantly: a place for indies to show their games. Tanuki, the artist for no signal, was able to showcase the game there last weekend at Exhibition Place on November 16th, 2024.

plays

At the expo, we had 17 people play the game. This more or less met my expectations as it was about as many plays as we got at STAPLE! Austin, but in a single day instead of over two days. There are things that were similar between the two events; at STAPLE! I also only demoed the game on one computer and I was also less prepared to show off the game at the time (as I assume Tanuki was, as it was her first time tabling at an event). However, STAPLE! Austin is not a games event so I expected attendees to be more interested. [table] [tr] [th]event[/th] [th]plays[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]STAPLE! Austin[/td] [td]19[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Delta H Con[/td] [td]3[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2D Con[/td] [td]39[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]San Japan[/td] [td]44[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Steam Next Fest[/td] [td]434[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Fantastic Arcade[/td] [td]33[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Toronto Game Expo[/td] [td]17[/td] [/tr] [/table] We got 5 wishlists on the day of the event, with 26 wishlists coming in over the following week: [table] [tr] [th]Sa[/th] [th]Su[/th] [th]Mo[/th] [th]Tu[/th] [th]We[/th] [th]Th[/th] [th]Fr[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]5[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]6[/td] [/tr] [/table] Wishlist activity on the day of the event was similar to STAPLE! Austin, though in STAPLE Austin's case we had a spike of wishlists on the following Monday: [table] [tr] [th]Sa[/th] [th]Su[/th] [th]Mo[/th] [th]Tu[/th] [th]We[/th] [th]Th[/th] [th]Fr[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]4[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]15[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]0[/td] [td]1[/td] [/tr] [/table] no signal now has an outstanding total of 1,413 wishlists.

overall notes

At first, we were unaware that Toronto Game Expo offered free tables and we paid for a vendor table, which costed a little over $250 CAD after tax and was quite an expensive price for us to pay. We later learned of free tables for indie developers and submitted our application, which was accepted. Our fee was refunded and we only had to worry about travel expenses to attend. In general, I think it was worth going. However, I don't think it would have been worth it if we had paid for the table as we originally did. STAPLE! Austin, in comparison, costed $100 and we were allowed to split the table with another vendor, halving the cost to $50. I was really happy that Tanuki was able to show the game in Toronto, and I'm a little sad that I wasn't able to go as well. Hopefully we can show one of our games at an event together in the future. As for the game's development, it seems like we will miss our original release date of Q4 (especially considering Steam's requirement to set a release date two weeks in advance) and it's unlikely that development will conclude before the end of the year. However, I am hard at work doing as much as I can before the end of the year and I'm holding onto a foolish hope that I will finish development before 2024 is over. You can catch me streaming the development of the game on Twitch if you'd like to see how it's going.

[ 2025-01-05 22:32:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fantastic Arcade: Fun Size Edition! is an indie video game festival that took place last weekend on October 26th, 2024. I showed no signal there and it is the last event this year I plan to be at. There's only one event left -- Toronto Games Fest, which is happening in a little over a week as of this writing -- but I won't be there. Instead, the artist Tanuki will be there. It's been a long time since Fantastic Arcade has been held. The last Fantastic Arcade event, Fantastic Arcade Retro(spective), was held before the pandemic on November 16th, 2019 (although it was just a re-run of games previously shown at Fantastic Arcade). To me, Fantastic Arcade: Fun Size Edition! is the first time that an actual Fantastic Arcade event has been put on by its new owner, the Museum of Human Achievement. There were between one and two dozen other developers tabling at the event in the Cafetorium of the Baker Center. At the end of the event, since the Baker Center was previously a school, there was a small graduation-themed event where all of the developers received a certificate award for participating and two awards for "Most Fantastic" and "Audience Choice" were given out. This year, the game TrashCan Dreams won both awards.

plays

During the event, I received 33 plays. This was quite an achievement, as this was significantly more than the single-day records of 25 plays at 2D Con and 18 plays at San Japan despite having a much smaller attendance. I would say this is due to the fact that Fantastic arcade is specifically designed for indie games, and it shows in the engagement from attendees. The player count was even about half of the average number of unique players per day from Steam Next Fest, which was 62. Half! Imagine that, a local event having about half as much traffic as the biggest digital distribution platform (which is practically a monopoly) in the world. Not to mention just the physical limitations of the fact that I only had two stations where people could sit down and play the game. Well, granted, I could have had much better performance at Next Fest on the order of magnitudes if I was better at marketing. This was also the first time I tried to keep track of how far along players got as they played: [table] [tr] [th]Event[/th] [th]Count[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Started playing[/td] [td]33[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Turned on room lights[/td] [td]28[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Entered the reactor room[/td] [td]10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Turned on the reactor[/td] [td]8[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Entered the elevator chamber[/td] [td]1[/td] [/tr] [/table] Unfortunately, no one played long enough to see the cinematic. The demo is simply too long -- I'll have to make a shorter demo for my next game. It was pretty hard to keep track of how far players get, though it certainly did help me stay engaged during the day. I really ought to implement a system into my game to automatically record how far people get... maybe I'll do that for the next game too! Wishlist activity was also quite good, with 14 wishlists on the day of the event: [table] [tr] [th]Sa[/th] [th]Su[/th] [th]Mo[/th] [th]Tu[/th] [th]We[/th] [th]Th[/th] [th]Fr[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]14[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]2[/td] [/tr] [/table] Although Steam Next Fest just ended the previous weekend, I think this is a pretty good read on the number of wishlists from the event, as most of the wishlist activity appeared to die down by the time of the event.

conclusion

I also handed out copies of Gender Dysphoria for free, mostly because I want to get rid of them. I'm not sure I would have had the permission to sell them even if I wanted to. However, one person did donate $10 for one, which I was surprised and happy to see. This event went remarkably well. The fact that I got 33 plays in one day was, well, pretty _fantastic_. I'm also happy to see that the event is finally back and I enjoyed meeting some of the other developers who had flown in from out of state. As an aside, I also ran into more problems at the event with powering the portable monitor using the official Steam Deck Dock. It appears that the USB power supply from the Steam Deck Dock isn't as stable as it needs to be for my portable monitor. It would occasionally lose power and connection to the Steam Deck, requiring a quite involved process to reconnect it. Thankfully, I still had an alternate power source in the form of a backup battery with USB ports, so I was able to give it an alternate power source. This fixed the issues. Unfortunately, the event was incredibly noisy. The Cafetorium in the Baker Center is almost entirely hard surfaces, so it was almost impossible for me to distinguish anything anyone was saying, so I didn't get to collect very interesting feedback like I was able to do at 2D Con. For most of the day, people would play, make hand signs at me when they were done while quickly thanking me, and depart on their way to check out more games. It was pretty consistently loud throughout the entire event -- in addition to people talking, they broadcasted the talks that were happening in a different room and competitions (replete with commentary) were taking place on the main stage. When I got home, I was so tired from all the noise that I just laid down, watched the show _Archer_, and went to sleep. I would still do it again though; great event.

[ 2024-11-06 04:51:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam Next Fest is a digital event that happens on Steam every few months, where the focus is on upcoming games that have demos. I participated in this event with no signal and although I didn't have any particular expectations, I wanted to look at how this event went for me compared to the others I went to so far. I do know that Next Fest was run a bit differently this year. Standalone demo pages were added, live streams were no longer a focus of the event, and more focus was put on showing games in the most random way possible at the beginning of the event in order to gather data on how to recommend the game later that week. Steam, in general, seems to be trying its best to make Next Fest into a meritocracy as much as it can.

plays

The plays during Next Fest over each day looked like this: [table] [tr] [th]Tu[/th] [th]We[/th] [th]Th[/th] [th]Fr[/th] [th]Sa[/th] [th]Su[/th] [th]Mo[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]66[/td] [td]63[/td] [td]52[/td] [td]59[/td] [td]81[/td] [td]56[/td] [td]57[/td] [/tr] [/table] no signal also got 870 wishlists over the course of the event and 147 of those wishlists came from people who also played the game during Next Fest. no signal now has 1,276 wishlists. Compared to other events: - STAPLE! Austin, 19 plays - Delta H Con, 3 plays - 2D Con, 39 plays - San Japan, 44 plays - Steam Next Fest, 434 plays Steam is literally the largest digital games platform on the internet and it is not limited by the amount of hardware I can acquire and set up on a single table, so it makes sense that I had more plays come from Steam than any other event I attended in person. It seems like a single day at Next Fest is 2-3 times as busy as an entire in-person convention in addition to being pretty much completely free to participate in. However, I imagine conventions would be more comparable if I had a demo that didn't take so long to play and with much more legible gameplay, as that would let me have more people interested and able to play the games at events.

conclusion

Next Fest isn't an event I normally participate in, but quite a few other game developer friends had their game in the event as well and I was able to check them out while the event was on. Here's a few of the ones I liked: - Supurr Cat Cafe: Sandwich Rush by 2NerdyNerds - Block Shop by Foolbox Next Fest might be over, but it's always a great time to check out something new! I'm sure they would appreciate you taking a look as well. If you played my game during Next Fest, thank you so much for playing. I've collected a lot of feedback and I'm back at work to try and finish the game before the end of the year (though a timely release seems dubious at the moment). I hope y'all can enjoy the game soon!

[ 2024-10-22 14:53:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

San Japan is an anime and gaming convention in San Antonio, Texas that I showed no signal at on August 30th to September 1st. Although San Japan advertises itself as the largest anime and gaming convention, I would say that the event is catered to anime fans more than gaming fans. It's also a very big event that happens to provide applications for free tables to indie game developers. It's an event not too far away from Austin, so I applied and I got in.

plays

As the event was local, I was able to drive down on the day of the event and be there for the entirety of the event. I had forgotten to bring a second monitor on the first day, but thankfully a friend who came later on the first day provided a monitor for me. I also had enough space to occasionally have three people playing the game at once, as I brought two Steam Decks and one laptop. Despite being a much bigger event (at an attendance of 28,033 people, five times bigger than 2D Con's ticket cap) and my ability to be present for the entire event, about the same number of people played the game as at 2D Con: [table] [tr][th]Fr[/th][th]Sa[/th][th]Su[/th][/tr] [tr][td]9[/td][td]18[/td][td]17[/td][/tr] [/table] I also received 34 wishlists on Steam that week: [table] [tr][th]Fr[/th][th]Sa[/th][th]Su[/th][th]Mo[/th][th]Tu[/th][th]We[/th][th]Th[/th][/tr] [tr][td]14[/td][td]10[/td][td]5[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]2[/td][/tr] [/table] I also did a stream on the official Godot Engine Twitch channel on the Thursday before the event though, which might account for some of the wishlist activity in the following week. On the Thursday following the event, no signal had a total of 322 wishlists.

complaints

Unfortunately, placement at the event suffered from some familiar issues that I had previously run into at Delta H Con. Namely, the indie game dev space was not in the electronic games space for some reason. The video game hall at San Japan had arcade cabinets, a VR arcade, Pachinko, and something like 70 itashas. However, apparently there was not enough space for us, and we were placed in the adjacent hall next to the entrance for the electronic games space. There were also a significant number of no-show tables, including a paid corner table, resulting in attendees not being able to recognize what the space was for and foot traffic generally passing by on their way to the video game room instead of being drawn in. Thankfully, staff/volunteers recognized that this presented a problem for attracting attendees to our space and I am very thankful to my point of contact for taking steps to mitigate this issue. We were also not allowed to sell items at the event, so I decided to give out free physical copies of Gender Dysphoria to some of the people who played the game. It would be nice if we were allowed to sell, but I can't complain too much since the table was free.

conclusion

I think that despite some of the issues at the event, I had a pretty good showing. It is kind of funny to me that between 2D Con and San Japan, the amount of reach I get is about the same despite their sizes being completely different as I had 40 and 44 plays respectively. Indeed, even after considering STAPLE!, where only 20 people played the game, it seems important to me now that I simply show up to as many events as possible regardless of size.

[ 2024-09-23 18:19:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

2D Con is a gaming convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota that I feel fortunate to show no signal at, which occurred on August 23rd to 25th. I had a really good experience there, which was quite a contrast compared to my previous convention experience. One thing I was particularly surprised by was how proactive the 2D Con staff and volunteers were. After I posted about Delta H Con, I was contacted in order to address any concerns I might have. Power was provided. I was able to borrow a monitor and headphones to use (which was very nice, especially as someone flying in from out of state). And, while not strictly necessary, I was also offered free wifi, which made it much easier for me to keep in touch with friends while I was there.

sales

2D Con let indies sell at the event, but I didn't realize that in order for me to sell at the event I also had a legal obligation to register for a sales tax in the state I was selling in (I only had one for Texas and naively believed that was all I needed). Fortunately, applying was easy and I was quickly approved, so I was able to start selling on the second day of the event. [table] [tr][th]Fr[/th][th]Sa[/th][th]Su[/th][/tr] [tr][td]n/a[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr] [/table] I didn't really advertise that I was selling copies of my game Gender Dysphoria and many other tables didn't participate in selling, so the low numbers don't really surprise me. Nonetheless, I did give away a few free copies to other game devs and staff.

plays

The only direct flight between Minneapolis and Austin was during the middle of the day. This meant that I was unable to be present for the full day on both Friday and Sunday. Despite that, about 40 people played my game: [table] [tr][th]Fr[/th][th]Sa[/th][th]Su[/th][/tr] [tr][td]8[/td][td]25?[/td][td]6[/td][/tr] [/table] ...frankly, I lost count on Saturday. I also received about 10 wishlists on Steam that week: [table] [tr][th]Fr[/th][th]Sa[/th][th]Su[/th][th]Mo[/th][th]Tu[/th][th]We[/th][th]Th*[/th][/tr] [tr][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][td]10[/td][/tr] [/table] * I did a stream on the official Godot Engine Twitch channel on Thursday, which probably increased wishlist numbers on that day. On the Thursday following the event, no signal had a total of 288 wishlists. I was really happy to see attendees arrive to the room keyed in to the fact that it was a room for indie game developers and interested in learning more about the games and earnestly giving them a try. I received a lot of great feedback from the people who played the game and I am very thankful for the enthusiasm people have expressed for it. I also met a lot of other game developers there, many of whom were from the local Minneapolis IGDA chapter. It was nice to talk about what the scene is like in the Twin Cities and talk about games.

complaints

The only complaint I have is related to the venue. The venue was entirely too warm. Normally, conventions are cold and I had brought a sweater in anticipation of that, but I never had to use it. Instead, at the end of every warm and noisy day, I headed back up to my hotel room feeling like my clothes were damp with sweat. Unfortunately, I doubt this is anything that 2D can address directly. After talking to other locals, I've learned that other conventions held at that venue have also experienced the same problem over the last few years.

conclusion

I wish I was able to stay for the entire event as an attendee. I was bummed to miss out on so many things to do, from pinball, to arcade games, to rhythm games, to board games. I even missed out on the hentai game show on Friday because I had lost track of time after exploring the event after Indie Island had closed for the day! Fortunately, I did manage to play a few new things: - Mine Storm (Vectrex) - Battletoads (Arcade Cabinet, 1994) - Godzilla 70th Anniversary Pinball - Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead - Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game I really hope that I'm able to attend 2D Con again next year, either as an exhibitor or an attendee. I had a great time.

[ 2024-09-19 20:20:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes:

• Add button for opening log location
• Add link to license

[ 2024-09-17 22:56:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes:

• Fixed glove duplication bug.
• Fixed audio sources not using the correct audio buses, which caused the audio settings to not work.
• Added a screen linking to support forums.
• The orbit button acknowledge button flashes now.

[ 2024-09-14 19:52:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update contains exactly one bugfix: - Drive bays in the wrong order in the elevator room

[ 2024-09-12 18:54:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=Ed8CmFCwBzI;full][/previewyoutube] The demo for no signal is now available! I've spent a lot of time working on this and I hope the demo captures your interest and makes you excited to see what's next. As for the full game, I still would like to finish it before the end of the year, but we'll see if that happens as most of the rest of the game doesn't exist yet! I have a lot of dialog to write and puzzles to create in the next few months.

[ 2024-09-10 23:54:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

I will be tabling at San Japan this year on August 30th to September 1st in San Antonio, TX. You can get tickets here.

[ 2024-06-24 21:43:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

I will be tabling at 2D Con this year on August 23rd to 25th in Minneapolis, MN. You can get tickets here.

[ 2024-06-24 21:39:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

I will be tabling at Delta H Con this year on July 12th to July 14th in Houston, TX. You can get tickets here.

[ 2024-06-24 21:30:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've been working hard to show off the game at STAPLE! Austin, a two-day expo for independently created comics, zines, art, crafts, games, and more here in Austin, Texas. The event just happened last weekend. It was my first time at the event and it was the first time the event has been held since COVID-19. A couple of other game devs were also tabling, though only two of us were selling video games that we made. Of the ones I know, there was:

• Table 24: Akula Games (G.M. Gray)
• Table 29: PIZZAPRANKS (Andrew Baille)
• Table 43: exodrifter (Ava Pek, that's me!)
• Table 43: Ennui GO! (Doc Glasgow)
• Table 60: elefluff (Hanna Schroy)
• Table 67: Tropical Heat Games (AJ Smith and Angela Sprecher)

Only PIZZAPRANKS and I were selling video games at the event. Tables costed $160, but even though I split half of the cost with Doc I wasn't expecting to make enough money to cover the cost of the table. Instead, I primarily wanted more people to know I exist, that I make games, and to wishlist my upcoming game no signal.

sales

This is what my (very scuff) table looked like:
Generally speaking, it seemed like people were surprised that video games were even at the event, and less prepared for the cassette packaging that Andrew and I were using to sell them. This isn't too surprising, since the vendors at the event are almost entirely comics, ttrpgs, and other print media. When it came to selling them, I noted a few things:

• There were many people who bought the game without knowing much about it aside from my explanation that it is "a short 20-minute interactive fiction"
• I frequently forgot to mention that the game is fully voice acted or that the game is about the negative experiences I had after coming out
• One person commented that while walking by he assumed that the usb stick in the cassette would just be a mixtape.
• The people who liked the joke of "Give the gift of GENDER DYSPHORIA " usually did not buy the game.
• Someone asked me if the game would help people with gender dysphoria get better, which was a bit tricky to... navigate. They did not buy the game.

All in all, though unfamiliar with it, people did generally seem to be very enthusiastic about the idea of buying a game in this kind of packaging. I made 16 sales total:

• 9 sales on the first day (4 card, 5 cash)
• 7 on the second day (3 card, 4 cash)

Not nearly enough to cover the cost of the table at $5 VAT per unit after production costs, shipping, and sales tax, but I'm hoping people will share the game with others and I'd like to return next year with higher margin products to sell.

plays

Unfortunately, the event is not really set up for showing off games and having people play them. First of all, the event doesn't have power, so I am very thankful to my friends that allowed me to borrow their backup battery generators. I borrowed multiple batteries from friends, worried that the power would run out during the event, but a single 240Wh unit worked well for the entire event. Secondly, the format of the event isn't very conducive to having people play the game. As you might imagine, the table is essentially square in the middle of a bunch of a pop-up market. Generally, people seemed to feel awkward stopping in the middle of shopping to sit and play the game because, well, you'd be in the middle of foot traffic and you'd be sitting directly across from me (I've been told that my demeanor can be quite intimidating). When it came to playtests, I noted the following things:

• The shortest playtime was less than 1 minute and the longest was about an hour.
• The person who played it for an hour was the only person to complete the demo.
• Most people played for about 20 minutes, long enough to complete the tutorial which turned on the lights in the first level.
• Many people who played were not very familiar with video games
• Many people expressed that they found the controls and storytelling progression of finding all the items to make the lights turn on in the room to be interesting and novel.
• Some people either didn't notice the chair or wanted to avoid sitting in it, but everyone would use the chair after I suggested it to them.
• Many people commented on being unable to focus on the game's narrative because the event was too noisy.
• A softlock was discovered by the first person to play the game on the first day, and I was able to patch it after they left while on the show floor in about 10~20 minutes. No other bugs were discovered during the event.
• I need to buy a mouse that can be used by both left-handed and right-handed people.
• Quite a few people wanted to know what engine the game was made in despite not being game developers themselves.

In all, 10 people played the game on the first day and 9 people played on the second day. On the first day, I got 4 more wishlists on steam and on the second day I got 6 more. no signal now has a total of 86 wishlists as of this writing.

overall notes

Anyway, overall I think the event was a success for me. I made a lot of nice connections, a friend printed these wonderful bookmarks I made which I gave to each person that played the game, and I'm happy to know that there are more copies of Gender Dysphoria floating around out there. I'm hoping that my games will connect with more with people and that I can start building a reputation for making emotionally powerful games. If you'd like to help me in my full-time indie dev journey, wishlisting the game does a lot because I'm terrible at marketing. It doesn't cost you anything! And in any case, thank you for taking the time to read

[ 2024-04-15 21:46:38 CET ] [ Original post ]