Hi! My name is Denis Listov and I would like to share with you my experience as a developer, as well as tell you about how the game Demon Skin was created :)
It's all started back in the 2014... It was then that I got the idea to make the game of my dreams. But at that time I had no experience, so I had to start from scratch. Programming, animation, visuals - all this had to be mastered in free time from the main work, including weekends. After six months of “intensive training”, I realized that it was definitely not possible to carry out the idea alone. I began to browse thematic forums and look for like-minded people, along the way continuing to improve my own skill.
First concepts:
At first I tried to find the same enthusiasts as me, but disputes and disagreements began that only hurt the game (unexpectedly, huh?).
Lesson 1: Be prepared to make compromises or prepare for a quick loss of interest in the project of other developers if you defend your vision of the game, but you have nothing to pay.
So it became necessary to turn to professionals, which means it was necessary to look for funding. I prepared documentation, concepts and started looking for an investor. I sent hundreds of letters to successful businessmen in social networks. And a group of wealthy young people became interested in the game. They were ready to finance the project, but made a condition that I must find a full-fledged development team. The negotiations took about two months. During this time, a programmer, animator and artist was found.
And then something happened. Many would not be surprised, but for a beginner in the gaming industry it was a shock. They called me and said:
“Well, now you have a team, well done. And we consulted again and decided that we did not want to invest yet.”
I was very surprised, because all this time we communicated positively, and it seemed that they would agree... but life turned out to be cruel :)
Lesson 2: When concluding any important agreements, always draw up official documentation that you can use if something happens. Even if you are "in a very good relationship."
As my try to get funding failed miserably, I loaned bank money to pay salaries and proceed with the development. I hoped that it will be way easier to find funding with at least some parts of the future game at hand. Unfortunately, there were not much to show anyone at early stage of the development. Unfortunately, there has been little progress at this stage. Some specialists did not always understand the technical tasks, which I set and did in their own way, so there were a lot of ‘re-dos’ and delays.
The first options for the appearance of the character:
Lesson 3: learn to immediately set specific, understandable and detailed requirements for the task being performed. It's better to spend time explaining at the beginning than reworking later.
On the other hand that was when the team realized – 3D is a must. There are too many animations for every character and it’s easier with the polygon modeling as you don’t have to draw every single frame and it saves a lot of time with the pre-made animations.
Lesson 4: if you want more lively and detailed animations in your game, then think about 3D at the start, this greatly simplifies the process.
Along the way, I kept looking a new investor. With the early pre-alfa version ‘The Forging Destiny HROFT’ we started a crowdfunding campaign at Boomstarter.
There were no big hopes about this platform, but the we wanted to test the crowdfunding mechanics anyway. All in all the project raised just about $250 out of the projected $15 000. There was a good thing though – the new investor expressed a desire to fund the project if they cut the budget. This was their only option so they had to agree to this term. With this funding we finished the first game build and designed a lot of 3D-models (most of which are still in the game).
As time went by, the team ran out of money and we had to cease the development. No one believed at this point that they could ever release the title. All of my staff told me that if I want to do something right, I have to learn how to do it by myself. That to create a game of this level I have to master programming, animation and stuff. Obviously that wasn’t the goal for just 3 or 4 years. Not to mention other development tasks needed to be done. Sure, I could have started with something less complicated but this game was the only thing I could think about! I still didn't want to compromise xD
Meanwhile the game’s community was growing rapidly. The gamers saw that despite all odds I didn’t give up and just kept working. Some of them (designer, animation designer and programmer) even joined the team without any pay! The gameplay as well as the most of the characters and the narrative had been revised and the game changed its name to A.S.H. (About Savior Hunter).
Lesson 5: Even if it is very difficult, but you see that there is a chance - try and continue. Sometimes fate also brings positive surprises.
While pursuing my dream I made some desperate decisions – sold my car to pay for a motion capture studio to make character moves look as real as possible. First try was a failure, though. The studio didn’t even considered the reference moves I provided them with, so I decided to take a train to Moscow (I live in Archangelsk, over 620 miles from there) get into the mocap suit and capture all the character moves he needed in the exact way I wants them to look like.
It had never happened to me before. As I was practicing the moves before the capture session I stretched my leg so hard that I barely could walk. They told me it could take up about 10 days to recover but my mocap session was in two days. I could not reschedule it everything was already arranged and paid. With some painkillers I had managed to get there and after the 5 hours of motion capture (and pain!) we somehow recorded all the moves I wanted.
After long hours of waving a stick:
After a while, we gave crowdfunding another chance and started a new campaign. Only this time - on Kickstarter. Lack of the marketing caused another failure despite the title raised more than a $1000 in pledges. It didn’t help much though, and the team broke up again seeing their goals unachievable. Once again I had to find an investor to resume the development. And after a couple of months I found one. On a strict condition that I had to gather a new team and find a publisher first. Finding a publisher was quite a challenge and yet I somehow pulled it off. And yet It's all has been for nothing – after a week the investor informed me that they are not going to support my project.
At some point my family pushed me pretty hard to drop this project as I put way too much effort into it with little avail. Well, there was some progress in development, but it definitely wasn’t enough. I started to realize that something pushes investors away so I had to find a common ground with them…
Lesson 6: Do not forget about lesson 2 and if you see that people are not very interested in your game, stop and try to find out what exactly pushes gamers and investors away.
I continued to post information about the game on hundreds of sites in search of investors. Requests came from different countries, they say "your game is very interesting to us", but after a couple of weeks the investors disappeared. By this time I began to approach the issue of discussing investing much more seriously and after about couple of months of he negotiations the contract had been signed and development was on again. I could finally gather a team of professionals to develop a playable game build I would be proud of. With two new programmers, level-designer, animation designer and two part-time 3D-modelers.
For the next 2 months, intensive work was also carried out with the composer and sound engineer. Actually, all team members are contract workers implementing the game designer ideas for a salary. In so doing, they are did their best. Ludus Future team worked about 12-16 hours a day and sometimes willingly on weekends (everything, of course, was paid and no one was forced to work). I don't like the word "studio", as I find it too formal, and I still like to think that my team is more about friendship, despite the fact that all team members live in different regions of Russia.
After six months of hard work, we got a new build called Demon Skin. I actively communicated with the team and listened to the opinions of other people, and as a result, the game's plot changed, as well as the main character. We sent Demon Skin to DevGAMM Online event and UEDC-2020.
The final look of the game:
Now Demon Skin is 3D platform game with RPG elements mainly focused on the melee combat. And I still finds its melee combat system the best one i know in this genre (inspired mostly by Severance: Blade of Darkness). I literally put my soul into the combat system xD
RESULTS
And now, after almost 7 years of blood and sweat, life lessons and overcoming I finally finished my game and now it's on Steam! I learned a lot, I managed to find investors at different stages of development, a team of professionals, and also bring the game to the point of "finished product".
And all this would have been impossible without your support all these years. Many of you already know this story, and I hope that Demon Skin has become as dear to you as it is to me :) Thank you!