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Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
151 points by isaiahg on Dec 18, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 93 comments
Hey everyone!

Long time lurker, first time poster. I've just reached beta in my game BoxByte Lyte.

-What is it-

It's a free 3d arcade game for hardcore players that uses color matching in interesting ways. Also it's a one button game, well movement and one button. Cool huh? The final release will be free too.

-What I need-

This is a very challenging game, so I really need to balance the difficulty so that it's still hard but not impossible. It would be great just to hear your experiences of the game and how far in it you got.

-Where can I report bugs?-

https://bitbucket.org/ZayWolfe/boxbyte-lyte/issues

-So where's the game?-

Windows: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3143ynz2hlqhg58/BoxByteLyte%2012.17.15-win.zip?dl=0

Mac: https://www.dropbox.com/s/welj1gswunfm4tq/BoxByteLyte%2012.17.15-mac.zip?dl=0

Linux: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypvtnndmzklj17e/BoxByteLyte%2012.17.15-linux.zip?dl=0

Win VR: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bm0ydtzra4sjml0/BoxByteLyte%2012.17.15-winVR.zip?dl=0 (Warning VR isn't going to be an official feature. It's just a cool experiment for kicks. Might be nausea inducing. I just think it's cool :3)

For the most accurate movement, I recommend playing with a gamepad of some kind.

So if hard challenging gameplay is your thing, why don't you see if you have what it takes to beat my game... Mwahahaha!

13 gates, can you reach the end?

Cheers!




Friendly advice: Getting a simple site up and running describing your game with a few screenshots or a gameplay vid and providing download links takes no more than 2 hours. Personally I hesitate to download anything from another person's dropbox.

Since you've worked a lot on your project don't let it fail due to poor promotion :)


Yeah I definitely agree. I actually had a website up once but I had to let it go because I couldn't afford the domain and server costs. Currently living off of government assistance so it's rare to have more than a few dollars extra.

I also tried to contact some publishers for a bigger version but I've never received a reply. It is how it is. I'm hoping the game is good enough to travel through word of mouth :)


It's that time of the year where I'm feeling altruistic, so I just registered boxbytelyte.com for one year. Just let me know where you want it to point, and then I'll transfer the ownership to you in a year's time (or sooner if you like).

Also, have you thought about open-sourcing the game? That would definitely relieve people's qualms about downloading an anonymous binary blob.

Edit: Forgot that there are no direct messages on HN. You can reach me at domainname@boxbytelyte.com


I'm sorry that it took me a while to reply. The response has been so overwhelming that I honestly don't know how to react.

I wish I could show gratitude better through text. Thank you so much for that. I'm fixing up some important bugs at the moment but I'll send you an email as soon as I can.


Good on you, this is a great gesture. Hope they take you up on it.


you're awesome!


I'm happy to give you credits to host it on Google Cloud Platform :-) Shoot me an email campoy@google.com


You could use itch.io or Github pages.


Oh wow I've never heard of itch.io! I wonder if they allow games in beta.


Have you considered publishing on Steam? Its a good avenue to monetise as well.


It's actually pretty hard to get on Steam without a publisher. Without a publisher, you have to go through the Greenlight process which requires a ton of people voting "Yes I'll buy it if available" for your game.


Surely with the audience here on HN you could get some upvotes across there. Worth a try.


Yes they allow games in beta.


I run a web hosting business and have servers to spare. Email me and I'll get you one for as long as you need it (see profile for email address).


If hosting costs are a problem why not just make use of the wiki you have on BitBucket?

It's already there but empty: https://bitbucket.org/ZayWolfe/boxbyte-lyte/wiki/Home


Why not use Github Pages?


Amazon S3 static sites are not that expensive either, but as far as I know you would be needing a credit or debit card.


Congrats on the release. We'd love to help promote and showcase it on www.indiedb.com we are community run and here to help. We also have VRDB.com In the pipeline which would be cool for this. Keep up the fine work!


I second that. YouTube channels are free. Why not post a 3-minutes gameplay demo?


While I'm pretty sure you don't have any bad intentions, you may want to consider how this looks like to someone [paranoid] like me:

- New HN member makes his first post claiming he made a game. He shares only a binary blob, no code. Also he doesn't have a website, or even a gameplay video. On top of that, he shares the game via dropbox.

Would that make you suspicious?

We live in a scary world, not everyone trusts 'by default'. But if you are willing to open source it, feel free to contact me (email is in my profile). I can provide hosting for the website/game.


Set up a VM.

Why not keep throw-away VM to play with stuff like this? You can make a snapshot to always start from your chosen state.


I could, but honestly, I dont want to go thru the effort just to try out the game. I think this is a big part of the learning process as well - learning how to make your game easily accessible to potential users. Making a game open source is more about the 'statement' in this case. It says: "I dont have anything to hide". That's enough for most people.


Open Source gives you a false sense of protection. A VM gives you a real one. But I get the point.

I guess you are the customer, you gave feedback, he can make up his mind. Fair enough. Though I doubt you are his target customer for now as you don't want it badly.


I think this thread is a bit of a showcase of the best things about HN.

It's a place where someone without existing distribution can get what they've made in front of people.

The members decide whether it's interesting or not so it can avoid getting buried.

The OP gets lots of cynicism free advice and even offers of hosting and domain names.

Everyone can have a bit of a chat about the tech used to build it.

We all can learn things from the comments and advice given.

Well done HN! :)


I come bearing mirrors:

-Google Drive-

win: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwh3wi9gnmg4bnNLTjlCZ0hodE...

mac: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwh3wi9gnmg4Mmp4cWYtRXpfd0...

linux: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwh3wi9gnmg4Mmp4cWYtRXpfd0...

VR: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwh3wi9gnmg4XzhMU2xVMGJCUn...

-OneDrive-

win: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9CE2F3A7162E1D05!1068&...

mac: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9CE2F3A7162E1D05!1069&...

linux: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9CE2F3A7162E1D05!1070&...

VR: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9CE2F3A7162E1D05!1067&...


The Google Drive link to linux seems to be the same as the one for the mac version. The OneDrive link works, though :)


Great game! Like others, having a simple webpage with a YouTube video is not just a must, but it's also quite easy! Give http://itch.io a try.


Ignore all the people here telling you to open-source this (for now). You have a product and a compelling story. This could be one of the rare games that actually makes money.

Once you have a playable game that looks good and is fun, your main problem is getting noticed and making it easy for people to get your game and pay you for it.

You've got a good story, which is key to marketing and getting noticed. You worked on a game for 6 years -- that sounds crazy. The media likes crazy. You're on social assistance -- people love feel-good rags-to-riches stories. So those boxes are checked.

Look at all the help that random people on HN have already offered!

I'd say run with this ... and ignore the open-sourcing advice. Only open-source it if either you've given up on profiting from it (as a product rather than a portfolio piece).

There've already been a lot of good suggestions about hosting and putting up a website, so I wont' repeat those.


Absolutely agree with this. I haven't even played the game yet, but what I find compelling is the "worked on making this for 6 years" / "I'm a self-taught programmer" / "I can't afford a domain" story. If there was a website with a Buy Now button I'd already be clicking it.


Very interesting! I have a few questions:

1) Is this your first time releasing your game to the public? 2) How were you able to focus on such a project for so long? 3) I've never made a game before, do you have any tips for me? (Comfortable with code + design)


1) Yes actually. And it's my second game XD

2) It was very painful. I actually lost the whole game once from a hard drive failure and had to remake it whole. I guess I had to learn to use version control sometime lol

3)

A: Focus on the fun.

B: Just start working, even if you're not in the mood. Sometimes you're not in the mood until you're actually doing it.

C: Accept that restarting from scratch is actually awesome because you can make it even better using everything new you learned. I actually have it part of my process now.

D: Learn some back stretches lol. Those long nights coding tear up your lower back D:


Awesome! Thanks for sharing.


Hey everyone! I just updated the game.

There was a vsync problem causing speed issues on some computers. Also fixed some boss bugs and increased the character limit on the score submit to 20.

I just updated the files in the original links, so you can grab the update there.


Hey Isaihg,

I would be happy to pay for your Server and Domain Costs and help you set up the Site. Shoot me an email: the@minijohn.me


Screenshots? Not sure I want to download this without some idea what it is.


I took some screenshots for you. http://imgur.com/a/Tyw5z


Agreed. Also maybe the fact that it's a Unity game.


How is that relevant? If it's fun, it's fun.


It's analogous to downloading the Flash player to see some of the websites around. Once downloaded and used, it makes my system rather bloated and unstable. I rather avoid this if possible.


You won't need the Unity WebPlayer to run this, they look like standalone builds.


And/Or a youtube showing gameplay


Congratulations on the release! Any tips for how you managed to spend 6 years on the same project without getting board?


Hard to say really because I did get bored a lot. I just kept it in my mind and always came back to it. I'd really like a career doing this so I guess having a wager on it is good too.


Great. Dropbox has disabled your download links because people like your game.


I'm pretty shocked actually. I stepped away to watch youtube with the wife and came back to this exploding.

I'm uploading to google drive right now.


Congrats isaiahg on your project and public release!

Shared your story on my website: https://rootgamer.com/download/12170/download-boxbyte-lyte - hope it helps getting word out.

On behalf of Linux gamers; "Thank you for Linux support!!"

cheers,


Oh man that's awesome!

Don't mention it. I got into Linux when I was 13 and it's been in my heart and soul since. I'd actually be using it full time if the Unity3d editor worked with it. But I made a vow to always support Linux with everything I make because I love the community and I love giving back to it.

I'd really appreciate it if you linked to the twitter or facebook btw. Not for promotional reasons but so people can keep up to date on it. Also I don't have much else right now.

https://www.facebook.com/IrisStudioGames https://twitter.com/irisstud


It's actually quite good. Give it a try!


Happy you like it!

I just updated the build btw. You can get it from the original links above. ^-^


Hey :) Well done on reaching beta!

First bit of feedback - I'm running through the tutorial, and text boxes animate on to the screen, slowly, every single time. It's really annoying. Can they just appear there with the text? I just want to read them and find out how to play.


They shouldn't be animating slowly.

I wonder if I forgot to make them framerate independent :/

I'd really appreciate it if you could file an issue here: https://bitbucket.org/ZayWolfe/boxbyte-lyte/issues


Second bit of feedback, same as the first, but this time on the options screen. I want to play! Don't make me wait to watch everything fade in :)


And last bit of feedback - the keyboard controls don't work. Spacebar doesn't change the color, and the arrow keys don't make me move around. This is on the Linux build.


That's really bizarre. I'll have to test it again on my ubuntu box.

Thank you so much for the feedback!


No problem :) I was running in windowed mode, if that makes a difference.


Is it this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhZ-SM104wk

Matches the name and description, for those hoping for a video.


Wow. I can't believe you found that. That video is from the version I lost from a hard drive failure. This version I completely rebuilt from scratch (with version control). This one is much better actually.

For a look at the improved visuals check out these screenshots. http://imgur.com/a/Tyw5z


It would be nice if you put the open source the game as well (seeing as it's free atm, so no profit loss from it). I'd like to see how you wrote it, and learn from it!


I might do that. I'm a little shy about it since I'm self taught. No one's actually looked at my code before haha


Don't be shy about that. The code in some successful commercial products is terrible. People who play a game care less about how elegant the code is and what language it's in, they just want to play something fun they enjoy.

Please take advantage of the offers here to help bootstrap your own permanent website, and please consider making a paid version. Even if it's just an "I donated!" edition that does nothing but show their name on the title screen. Let people compensate you for your 6 years (!) of work, and help you bootstrap to bigger things (and at the very least cover your costs).


Thank you so much for your kind words. It really means a lot to me more than you know.

You can bet I definitely would like something to come from this. I'm working on it full time without being paid. Even just a job would be life changing right now.

I'd love to hear your take on what I'm thinking of doing with it and get any advice anyone has. I thought about making it a commercial game, but I'm very strong on the coding/design part of it and not so good at the marketing and promotion side.

My current plan is to open source it actually and maybe set up a patreon account to help fund the development with donations. There are features I'd like but can't afford to do like online multiplayer. I haven't yet because I'm not sure how it conflicts with unity generated project files. I also made use of a few creative commons sound effects and I want to attribute and mark them right. So I'm not quite sure what I'll have to do to set it all up. I want to do it right.

I'm thinking about doing the open source + donation route because I figured it would take the same amount of marketing effort as a commercial game and I'd much rather give it away than charge for it. Games are best when they're shared with each other.


One tip: try adding an email address to your Hacker News profile, so that people are able to get in touch.

You mentioned that a job would be life changing. Not sure if you're interested in freelancing, but if you're able to put together some kind of website about yourself & your skills and link it in your HN profile, it might help you catch more opportunities out there. People need a way to get in touch if they want to offer you an opportunity!


> It would be nice if you put the open source the game as well (seeing as it's free atm, so no profit loss from it).

This is terrible advice, unless you think you'll never be able to profit from the product itself. Don't give up prematurely!

That said, the typical case is that hobby games don't make any money, so it may be a good idea to open source it, but later. Definitely not immediately.


The money isn't really in the source code - it's in the execution, and community building afterwards. Making a free game can create a following that can help you win players in the future. Making it open source just gives you a bigger audience - people who likes to tinker would be more interested. It's not a black and white situation, where value is lost when you open source!


I'm honestly curious, do you know of any games that remained commercially successful after open sourcing, without having some secondary meta-game source of income (multiplayer servers, f2p, etc.)

Eldritch, I know is, but I'm not sure how commercially successful it was.


Have you actually made any money making games, because this all reads as hopelessly naive?


Is there another place we can download the builds since your dropbox account is blocked because of the traffic HN generated?


I'm uploading to google drive right now but it's moving slow. If anyone who's downloaded it already would like to upload somewhere themselves I'd really appreciate it.


Congratulations on shipping. Most people who want to get into independent development never even make it past alpha, if that.

Really, I think the basic idea is alright, but the actual gameplay and design need a bit of polish.

However, as soon as I opened it up I got a warning from Windows. If I have to choose to let your app through the firewall that's a bad sign. I feel like a beta shouldn't be making network requests and posting my score to a remote server (which is what appears to be happening here.)

The text seems too difficult to see in some cases. For instance - the red text on the grey dialog box background in the tutorial. Some of the UI elements are difficult to read as well, and seem superfluous. I kind of feel like the only thing I need to have is an immediate idea of my health and maybe the score.

I thought the tutorial was a bit condescending. The mechanics of the game aren't that complicated, I just want to know what the controls do, what the basic premise is, etc.

I feel like one or more of the following are probably true: the enemies are too small, the field is too large, or the controls are not responsive enough. Maneuvering to catch the enemies seemed to take far more effort than needed. Perhaps if the movement were restricted to a grid or some kind of graph the actual puzzle aspect of the game could become more prominent. I understand it's supposed to be difficult, but the difficulty in this case seems a bit artificial.

The klaxon sound effect was annoying, and to me sort of detracted from the general sci-fi action feel of the game.

The background isn't doing much to enhance the experience to me - this game would be just as enjoyable (and be a smaller download) if you just had a simple background. It would also make everything else a bit easier to see. Then again, it isn't hurting anything either.. it's just uninteresting.

Being told that my scores were too low for the leaderboard was a bit aggravating. It's never a good thing to be told the game you were playing is a test and you failed it, since I wasn't actually intending to play for a global leaderboard to begin with. Maybe allow my scores to sit on a local scoreboard, then give the option to send the highest score?

Overall though, if this were on Greenlight, I might consider it. It's not yet at a state that I would be willing to pay money for, but it's got potential. It might work well as a mobile game.


Thanks, and yeah I've been stuck on alpha for a long time now. Since your comment is so detailed let me go into a bit of the thinking behind it.

One of the leading goals I've been following is design by subtraction. The idea that you should take away everything but the core gameplay and let that drive the game. So the format settled on focusing just on the color matching gameplay and each gate that comes adds its own mixup of the core. There were times when I tried messing with the core gameplay and tried some more complexity, but it just didn't feel like BoxByte anymore.

It could always use some more polish, I'm really a one man team though so it's been a struggle to get even what I have lol.

I'm not sure what's up with the warning. I think that's just a Unity thing because there's no actual networking code in the game itself.

I agree about the text. I find ui design to be some of the most boring work involved with a game so there are some instances where the ui could definitely be better.

The tutorial seems to be something that people are the most divided on. Some people really like it and some really hate it. I just think that's how it goes with tutorials. No one wants to be stuck reading when they want to be playing. But I found it was really important for people to understand the game. I tried to make it as short as I could if that helps :)

It's funny that you mention those three, because every one of those had significant changes in the past three months. Ultimately the game is one big challenge though, so what I did was try to focus on what the hardcore BoxByte player would want. The downside of course is that there are a lot of cool things later on in the game that some players will never see. In the end I just didn't want to make it easier at a detriment to those core players who will play it most.

I really would have liked to have had more puzzles, but it's mostly a game about skill and tactics. However I don't agree about there being artificial difficulty. But I definitely think it could be too hard and that's part of the reason I'm posting this to hear experiences.

What makes you think it's a general sci-fi world? It's actually a very dark oppressive world. Is there a game world? ;)

I can't comment much on the background, I've already said too much on the world... But all is not as it seems...

About the score, I guess it could be handled better. But it's really meant to be a kind of goal. I don't really want to gravitate towards a kind of participation award though. Of course that leaves it with some sharp edges but that's part of what makes it BoxByte. It's unforgiving but always fair.

With a game like BoxByte I don't think it's something that can cater well to every demographic. I definitely made efforts to try to smooth it out, but in some cases I decided to leave it as is and hopefully the demographic that likes it will like it more for that.

Having said that, I might be completely off. This isn't an exact science after all. In that case I'm definitely willing accept that and take input :)


>I find ui design to be some of the most boring work involved with a game so there are some instances where the ui could definitely be better.

I kind of feel the same way. Unfortunately, if you're going to do this all on your own, you're going to have to find a way to get interested in everything. I've only finished one game myself (a very poor Space Invaders clone, without Unity) and getting text to work was definitely one of the most boring and tedious parts of it.

>The tutorial seems to be something that people are the most divided on. (...)

My issue with the tutorial wasn't the length per se, but the presentation, which seemed a bit to be talking down to the player. Honestly, I figured out the gimmick as soon as I saw the button changed the color of the player sprite and that the other sprites had similar colors, it's not that complicated. I think maybe just tone down the anthropomorphism and it will be better.

>It's funny that you mention those three (...)

I just found the balance to be off somewhere I couldn't quite pin down. It might just be a matter of taste though - I'm more used to shooters and bullet hell games. If other people complain about it then it might be a problem worth looking into, but you're right that you can't please everybody.

>What makes you think it's a general sci-fi world?

The general visual and graphic theme seems to be technological and futuristic.

Good luck with it.

Since you are using Unity, have you considered putting a build for the web up somewhere? I don't even know if it would work, but it might be worth it to put a browser-capable demo somewhere.


>I kind of feel the same way. Unfortunately, if you're going to do this all on your own, you're going to have to find a way to get interested in everything.

Oh yes I definitely agree. I don't want the game to be worse because I couldn't bring myself to do something boring XD

> I think maybe just tone down the anthropomorphism and it will be better.

That actually bugs me a bit too. But I had chance to gauge the response at a convention and I found that female gamers actually like the game a lot and they react positively to the tutorial. But I'll have to see the general reaction and I may end up throwing it out.

>The general visual and graphic theme seems to be technological and futuristic.

Sounds like a good facade.

>Since you are using Unity, have you considered putting a build for the web up somewhere?

I tried an online build but it seems like unity webplayer is being phased out for the html5 backend. I tried it out in that but the performance was horrible so I'm not sure if there's an easy path on that.

Thanks for the encouragement! Do you have a website yourself or something I can follow you on?


> Do you have a website yourself or something I can follow you on.

I have an empty Wordpress that i'm being lazy about updating with a child theme and actual content (I kind of fell out of blogging a few years ago.) I am planning on doing (and maybe blogging about) the one game a month challenge[0] starting next year, so maybe I can post it to HN then. I'm not good at selling myself and I really need to work on my online presence again.

I'm on twitter at @kennethrapp but there's nothing interesting there either.

If you want to see me suck at some Japanese shooters, My youtube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUALtf6GWYntaliNPUjWVUQ

[0]http://www.onegameamonth.com/


Is it just me, or would it make much more sense if it switched in order of red > green > blue? Most people already know that sequence, so there'd be much less of a learning curve.

Also, KB+M doesn't work on the Linux build. Gamepad does, though.


That's the second time that's been reported on linux. I'll have to look into that.

I made the order based on blue. The first artwork I made used blue and it just kinda settled that blue would be Box's default state. RGB does make more sense now that I think about it though. I'll have to think about it and gauge whether it's worth changing since I'd have to go back and tear into code in many files.


So can you give us some description of the technologies used in order to build that game ?


It's mostly just Unity3d and lots of elbow grease.

I used blender for the 3d objects and animations.

I used inkscape and the gimp for a lot of the texture work.

I used audacity for a lot of the audio work.

I also made my own library for data serialization with generics. It's pretty cool because you can have multiple tables with any data type and it'll just take care of it for you. I'd like to make it able to update to and from a server someday. C# really makes it easy though.

None of the tech is crazy, but you can make the Sistine chapel with mud and a stick if you poke it long enough.


You should maybe look into distributing this on itch.io (http://itch.io), which handles hosting, promotion, and pricing for you.


> It would be great just to hear your experiences of the game and how far in it you got.

Post this on the TIGSource forums and ask for feedback. That is where most of the indie game developers congregate.


Wow, I've never been there before. No wonder I've been so lonely.

I have to take my son to school really quick so I'll have to do it when I get back. Btw, if anyone wants to go ahead and share this anywhere, feel free! I just want to make fun things and if you share that fun I'd be grateful.


Along with all the other suggestions fir hosting, Red Hat Openshift has free tier that you can pretty easily set up a website with as well.


You'll want to turn off f.lux to play this game. Or leave it on, if you want this game to be much harder. :)


Made an account to give thanks for day-one Linux support. We're a small fan-base but very vocal. :)


Currently getting:

Error (429) This account's links are generating too much traffic and have been temporarily disabled!


I just posted some mirrors on the main thread.


Dropbox have blocked the links due to high traffic. :( anywhere else we can take a butchers?


Make a 3 minute video of the gameplay and upload it to youtube


Dropbox says no.


Self-reported "Long time lurker" to HN: "run my binary, look it's ported to all platforms!" Excuse me if I don't.


That was my first thought. My second thought was that it's not much different from what we do all the time anyway, including when we download source tarballs and then run './configure'.


It is pretty amazing that someone is able to do this and a bunch of people actually do seem to be executing the builds before anyone else verified it.

But now that they have, it's no longer an issue, I guess...


I don't blame you. People seem to be playing it without a problem if it means anything to you.


You are excused.




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