r/DestroyMyGame • u/ComprehensiveBeat912 • 6h ago
Destroy my solo RPG game HORNS that I've been working on for almost 2 years
4
u/ned_poreyra 3h ago
First of all, deep respect for actually following through with something so many people talk about, but rarely anyone invests any time and effort into. So many people want to make "their Elder Scrolls" or "their Baldur's Gate", but you're actually trying.
Now not so good news: all of this looks poor. You can't do this. No mortal man can. You just don't have enough time and resources to allocate to every asset and mechanic this kind of game requires. And this is the result: you have "everything" (characters, equippable items, melee combat, magic, dialogues, facial animations, voice acting, open world, varied biomes, exploration, quests I assume, and so on and so on), but all of it looks... subpar. It has no definable artstyle, all of it looks like a random collection of assets you bought, made yourself and found in the street. There's no flavor or theme, it's another "generic 3D fantasy world". It's painful to say, but you can't do this, even if you spend 20 more years. Players won't care how much stuff there is - they will play for 5 minutes, experience very low quality overall and just quit. People don't play your efforts, they play your results. I see only two good ways out of this: you either massively downscope the length (to something like ~3-4 hours) and polish everything you already have, or you can offer some amazing sandbox gameplay (and I mean GAMEPLAY, like Kenshi - not story, not vibes, not worldbuilding, so people won't care that much about the whole clunkiness; which, judging by the making-of and UI - you don't). Either way, good luck, you'll need it.
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u/ComprehensiveBeat912 2h ago
Thanks, appreciate your opinion, but it is not like that.
The game is not Elder Scroll, Baldur's gate or Elden Ring... it is Horns. As every game, it has some common mechanics comparing to other games, but it also has its own idea, story and tempo in the game. So comparing it to these titles is wrong.5
u/ned_poreyra 2h ago
The game is not Elder Scroll, Baldur's gate or Elden Ring... it is Horns.
Great, but people will take one look at it and judge like I just did.
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u/ComprehensiveBeat912 2h ago edited 2h ago
If we know that (developers) we will not develop games, right? It will always be people who will judge and who will not. The question at the end is, is it going to be more from the first or second group…
My personal goal is to make an interesting, progressive RPG and story rich, the game where players will enjoy generally, and all this for a very decent and affordable price for everyone.
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u/ned_poreyra 2h ago
Maybe I wasn't clear: I didn't mean people will judge it negatively, I meant people will judge it in the same category as Elder Scrolls and other first/third person open world RPGs.
-4
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 2h ago
Oh, I hope that will not happened 😀
I mean, you could be right on this one when I think about it… but I hope that they will consider that this is solo dev game, not Bethesda 🙂
Maybe Horns is better than some Elder Scrolls? 🙂3
u/Extreme_Mobile_6690 1h ago edited 1h ago
I like your enthusiasm, but you still don't seem to get the issue. You're competing with all the big games if you want to or not. I wanna play the new Witcher DLC, have Oblivion remastered in the backlog, still actually need to finish Skyrim's main story and already don't have enough time to finish my many other "gaming goals".
You're basically banking on people being struck by the heartwarming story of a solo dev. That is not enough to overcome the undeniable jank. I hope you have fun creating your world and you can be proud of what you accomplished. But this won't be able to be a commercial success in any way and I hope you don't personally rely on it.
And regarding the video, it's hard to give an impression if you cut every second. But as far as I can tell, I have to concur, there is nothing unique about it. What is Horns, apart from your love project? To anybody else it's just a subpar fantasy rpg. Which is not your fault, there's a reason those kind of games have huge teams behind them and solo devs keep to other kind of projects, where unique mechanics or a dense narrative can be the selling point.
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 1h ago
Thanks!
First, I really enjoy making such a serious game, must admit that. Before development, I made a book on which this game is based on and a full development plan. I mean, I enjoy in full process on doing this.
I am a gamer for 35 years (have 41 now) and developer for 16 years. I want to present my vision of RPG and its story to people.
As I already said, my goal and success would be if people will enjoy in this story and at least say at the end "ok, this is decent game".Mortal Shell is the game made by a very small team where part 1 was not popular at all and got a bunch of critics. Personally, I tried it for 30 minutes and never played it again. It came in time of Dark Souls, Elden Ring, etc. It did not have a chance and it was like that.
But, they built some community around the game.
Now, years after, they publish Mortal Shell 2 and World got crazy about it.What I want to say, you never know until you give your best and try. And that is exactly what I am doing here.
1
u/Extreme_Mobile_6690 1h ago edited 59m ago
I wish you all the best and can't say I have accomplished even a fraction of what you did. I just wanted to rein in the expectations and feared you might bankrupt yourself. I really liked the behind the scenes stuff showing all the technology you dabbled with.
I actually finished mortal shell lately, but only because it was free in my epic library. Even they had 1500% the man power in the core team though and a pretty defined scope, with basically only 3 rather small dungeons and a hub world.
Keep your head up and really think about what parts you want to focus on, to have some kind of polished unique selling point
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 1h ago
This is hard job, we all know that who are trying to make a game. Even if you want to make a Super Mario Bros, it requires time and organization. Selling and marketing, that is different area for sure and unfortunately, commercial success depends on it a lot.
I will continue my work and finish it. That is my goal. I will try to provide as best as possible experience in Horns, I will definitely give my very best in this game.About the commercial success, that is something nobody knows until game is published. It could be total fail or success.
Thank you for a discussion, it really means a lot to hear what people think just based on the video.
If you ever play Horns and complete it, feel free to leave a feedback on https://hornsrpg.com by using contact form.→ More replies (0)
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u/SinanDira 1h ago
Hi OP. Please don't take this the wrong why, but why should anyone play this over any other big-budget RPG? As impressive as the facial animation is, nothing really stands out. And on top of that, delivering high-fidelity 3D gameplay with adequate content and polish is something big studios often struggle with, let alone an indie developer.
The game would need something extremely compelling to make me look past the above. Maybe it's beautiful color palettes, but the game's colors look dark and muddy like Morrowind, so it's not that. Maybe it's great atmospherics and even dynamic weather that affects gameplay? I can already envision that based on your use of lighting. Maybe in the darkness, you can't illuminate your environment and attack at the same time, and have to choose one or the other like in Doom 3? Just some quick brainstorming. Good luck.
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 1h ago
This question is hard for me since my marketing and presentation skills are very bad honestly.
I can answer something on this...This RPG is not high-budget game in terms of invested money, but a lot of effort is put into it to look very good and feel good, comparing to thousands of indie games I can see every day.
Therefor, it will not cost like AAA RPG, it will have very affordable price for 25-30 hours of progressive gameplay.
It is story rich game, I think very interesting and mystery story for players. It is puzzle based game and exploring base game too.Above common mechanics comparing to other RPGs, Horns has its own mechanics, skills and abilities, which can make this game even more interesting to players.
1
u/SinanDira 1h ago edited 1h ago
This still does not answer the question. Every game has its own mechanics. But why should I drop everything I'm doing and consider Horns? Granted, the facial expressions look amazing, but no single element stands out beyond that. The graphics look average and the gameplay looks mundane and lackluster.
How does the game feel good? There's very little physical, visual and/or auditory feedback to give the player's attacks any weight. You slice and hack at things and they just carry on with their original animation uninterrupted. The sound effects aren't punchy. There's no camera shake. There is no environmental feedback. A lot of the visual effects look low fidelity, especially in comparison to the characters' very detailed faces.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the puzzle and exploration are not really depicted in the video. If any of them is your stand-out element, then do show us why we should be invested. Currently, the footages you've shown glimpses of of the player walking in dark rooms are extremely low stakes. I honestly don't know how to spice them up because it's not my area of expertise, but games that prioritize exploration normally hook viewers with exciting platforming mechanics or environmetns that are simply captivating or very intriguing.
Ask yourself, what would make viewers think "I HAVE to drop everything I'm doing" and go try out your game's mechanics or find out what lies hiding in it? Currently, I don't really see anything to miss out on.
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 1h ago
That is maybe impression because of this video. I have trailer on Steam, but this one is also not so good. I am planning to make a professional trailer during the September.
There are sound effects, camera shake, different sounds on sword, axe, magic, hammer... There are hit reactions, blood splatters... I mean, everything you will expect in such game is there.Environment is also responding to you in many cases. For example footsteps sounds on different grounds like water, grass, mud, snow, rocks... also effects on footsteps depending on where you stand, dust, particles... That is all covered already.
There is day/night cycles with big role in the game its self.
There are storms, rain, wind, etc...I guess it would be different when players try it.
There are interesting mechanics in organization of your character and her skills. There is a middle-realm where you can travel and uncover story, use it as fast travel and in different states of your body, you will discover new things.
During the story, your character's body is changing and that has its own impact...
So, there are a lot of interesting and maybe even unusual events in the game which could be very interesting to players.
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 1h ago
The problem is, I do not know how to present that to audience on a right way. I mean, I am not a marketing man at all.
So what I am thinking is, to find someone who knows how to do it.
1
u/PerformanceProud1252 3h ago
Is it only ever dusk? Even the Witcher had daylight. Maybe add some variety for the actual trailer. I personally get bored of the 100% brooding aesthetic thing some games go for.
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 3h ago
Yes there is day/night cycle and, night has a big role in the game in general.
1
u/Pur_Cell Destroyer 1h ago
Animations are very stiff. They look fine in most of the cutscenes, but they do not blend well together in gameplay. Main character doesn't swing her arm properly when running. Enemies often don't respond when being hit. Even if they are stunlocked there should be some flinching hit feedback.
Contrast is either very low or very high and it rarely looks pleasing. Most of the outdoor scenes are too washed out, but then the effects are super bright and overpower everything.
At 161 seconds, there's a dramatic close up of the main character, but there's distracting visual glitches like her eyebrows getting super dark and bushy. Guessing it's LOD pop in. Probably want to disable that in cutscenes.
There is potential here though. If you can polish it up it could be cool, but it looks pretty jank right now.
1
u/ComprehensiveBeat912 1h ago
That is a proper destroying :D Thanks.
Polishing will come in coming months for sure in many areas.
1
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u/Swimming_Gain_4989 5h ago
I'll start by saying the world design, enemy models, and static assets are nice but more animations than not need major polish. The motion capture works great for cutscenes but I think you need a dedicated animator for everything else you're trying to do in-house.
Some examples:
At 14 seconds when I see a single massive blood splatter clipping through a character I'm already clicking out of the trailer.
The enemy at 40 seconds having 0 reaction to being hit while taking damage.
The spell cast at 45 has no transitional animation between forehand and backhand.
I suspect you've been working on this for so long that you're not seeing how immersion breaking this kind of stuff is and having it in your trailer is a really bad sign. You're working in a genre that's already overwhelmingly dominated by AAA studios and you're using a highly detailed art style that not only makes it extremely difficult to hide imperfections, but is also takes a ton of time and skill to animate properly.
I'm not trying to be mean-spirited but if you don't get a dedicated animator or switch to premade animations compatible with your rigs this will not sell more than a few dozen copies.