My Game Dev Journey (So Far) | Crisis Island Devlog

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I've been making a top-down, twin-stick, pixel art shooter in the Unity game engine since 2022. I recently took a demo build to the Nottingham Video Games Expo here in the UK and let players get hands on!

In this video, we'll explore why I wanted to make a game, what I learned from exhibiting at the show and highlight some of my amazing table neighbours, as well as talking about the convention itself! If you love indie games, you'll love this video!

00:00 - Download the free demo
00:37 - What is Crisis Island?
01:20 - Why make an indie game?
03:52 - Learning C# and Unity
04:52 - How I did it and what tools I used
07:10 - The tricky art of tutorials and conveyance
08:20 - Changes based on player feedback
09:43 - The importance of usability testing
11:50 - Highlighting other awesome indie games
13:41 - Changing my approach to conventions
15:04 - Reviewing Nottingham Video Games Expo
17:11 - Teasing the next video ;)

[SnowyFoxFox]

Thanks for the shout-out! To clarify, I removed the M-DRIVE music pack from the Unity asset store because I disagreed with their business decisions. You can still find the pack on the RPG Maker store and Steam (as RPG Maker DLC), or you can buy an engine-agnostic version directly from me. When Godot gets around to having a storefront, I'll be putting it up there, too.

[IvanDSM]

YouTube recommended me this video and it far exceeded my expectations! I loved the relaxed presenting style you took for this video as well as the focus on lessons learned and the reflection on your journey as opposed to listing technical implementation details or feature milestones. I also really liked the part about usability testing and its crossover with the expo itself. As a fellow autistic person hearing about your approach to attending the convention and the resulting increase in enjoyment was very motivating to hear. I've subscribed to your channel and will be checking out the demo at a later date :)

[ernestoyaquello]

The art looks fantastic, the whole thing really feels like an old game, and it seems pretty fun!

[perfectlyroundcircle]

Kind of gives me Virtua Cop vibes. I can already hear the "Reload! Reload!" sounds in my head. I'm keeping an eye on this game :)

[evanmartinez]

Game looks great. Quick correction on one of the spanish names. It should be 'Isla de la libertad' not 'Isla del la libertad'. The noun is feminine hence 'de la' and not 'del'.

[lanceroman]

me and my childhood friend played an insane amount of Smash TV. PLEASE find a way to make this game co-op if you can! We will buy it in a heartbeat ❤

[jonbourgoin]

1:01 a dude named Claire? Really? I don't recall Claire being a unisex name. Should've just named him Casey