 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 19 of For The Minions, the weekly Vodcast where we talk about some of the spiritual successors to Paragon. This week we're going to be talking about our news and updates. We'll go over the new poll results. The poll results this time include an all of the above category and then we'll go into tech time. This time without Ruba, just me. And we're going to go over why Grux is so hard to implement into any of these games. After that we're going to have a discussion about the rise of popularity of indie games. We're going to do some community suggestions. We're going to go over some skin ideas that you guys had and then we'll do our other segments at the end of that. But I am your host, the one and only Manga is joining me as always is my wonderful co-host Mandy Mal. Mandy, how you doing? Hello everybody. I'm doing so good and I'm really excited because we have a really special guest host this week. So we have the founder and lead developer of Omida Studios, Mr. Sergeant Smoky. And I'm going to refer to you as Mr. Sergeant Smoky for the rest of this. Please don't. Thank you so much for having me guys. Really glad to be here. This is exciting. I'm super pumped. We're really glad to have you here, senior Smoky-san. I just wanted to get this out there right up front. Thank you so much for bringing the game back like I'm so hyped for it. I mean, I got to play it a little bit during the, when the closed alpha was open and it is just absolutely amazing. What your team has done is absolutely amazing and I'm so thankful and grateful that somebody picked up the torch. I mean, there's a couple of people picking up torches now, but you are definitely one of them and you have already taken that torch and lit the fire, so to speak. So really appreciate that, man. Thank you so much. We've been working really hard. So hopefully it's going to pay off in the long run, but you know, small steps to get there. So thanks a lot for that. I was just going to say thanks for being with us because we know you're busy. So just really appreciate that. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of For The Minion. So I really wanted to take this time to do this. You guys have been awesome covering us and the other games as well. So definitely it's my honor. Awesome. Thank you so much. And before we get into it, your favorite hero, Smoky? I'd have to say Gideon. People say I look like him a lot. I'm not sure if I see the resemblance, but I used to love playing Gideon. Now you won't be able to not see me as Gideon because you're just going to keep staring at me. But yeah, so he was definitely my favorite hero. I'd say second best was probably Darbash and Grux as well was third, probably. So yeah, we really need to get you a hood. Like a little. Yeah, they wouldn't be a cool cosplay. Yes. So let's roll into the news and updates starting off with Madeabuff. Madeabuff, they had to delay their alpha. They had a it was supposedly supposed to come out on April 27th. No longer. They had to they had to kick that back. April 27th was kind of a romantic date. It was exactly one year after the announcement that that paragon was going to be well, it was one year after Paragon itself closed, not just the announcement. But and so, like I said, a bit of a romantic date, not really a solid goal. And they're going to have to go to have to push that back a bit and and and, you know, set a date sometime in the future that's more realistic for them to achieve that. And speaking of romantic dates, Noss, if you're out there. Maybe what do you think about what do you think about the delayed alpha? You know, I honestly wasn't too upset about it. I know there was probably a lot of people who were. But I feel like Medabuff has such a good sense about what's right for the game and what's not. And I'm 100 percent behind them if they feel like this is the best way to go. And I really like the quote that they used in the announcement when they announced that they were delaying the alpha. I think they said it was from a Nintendo developer and it basically summed it up perfectly. And that was a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad. So I think that should help help some people understand, you know, why they're making the decisions that they're making. Smokey, you have any comments on the day? Well, I was going to say, did you want me to chime in here? So I I'd say deadlines are a difficult thing to do, mainly because you're setting them so far in advance that and game development is you guys may or may not know, just speaking with all these people that are involved with the process. There's a lot of roadblocks. So you end up getting to the point where all of these sort of add up and then are you ready for that alpha or not? And, you know, it is what it is. Like you guys said, most of the time it's better to hold it back and and sort of make sure that you're ready for that because it's a huge step, so you really want to get it right. But at the same time, alphas are meant to be sort of a testing ground. So there's also that where you're sort of waiting too long so you don't want to fall into that trap where you end up just not being able to release anything at some point. So I, you know, I don't know anything about core, but I'd say if they're making that decision, it's probably the best one. Right on. And they also released a video in conjunction with the announcement. Talk about their UI updates. They showed a lot of different details about their UI. The UI looks really good and you can kind of glean some hidden information in there if you really look for it. Like they had a tab for alliances, which is going to be their guild or clan system or what have you. So that's confirmed and you can see that they're draft picking in the in the UI. So there's a lot of things you can you can kind of on the slide, take a look at. If you haven't, go ahead and head over to their YouTube channel and check out the UI trailer. Yeah, I thought a little interesting thing that I saw in that trailer was the proving grounds that said, you know, like new trials have been added or whatever. I thought that was very interesting. And it seems like maybe that's I think we had previously talked about having a kind of practice area or whatever you want to call it more than that goes beyond just like an AI game. So that that looked interesting to me. I'm interested to see exactly, you know, how that's going to work out. And the new map test, they they sit their new map out for people to test. You guys, of course, saw it on for the minions already. That was actually the even earlier version of the current map. They they they adjusted some things in the in the new release. And I thought that was really cool. I like I like the way they're doing that. It gives people a little taste of what they're up to. And it gives developers and influencers a chance to give a little bit of feedback on stuff they find that they don't think is so great about the map. And then, of course, give everybody's given feedback on what they love about the map, because everybody's really enjoying that map. What I found interesting is different content creators seem to focus on different elements of the map specific to where they played Paragon. Like I played a lot of support and off lane, especially off lane when it was 1v2. That was my jam. I know that I know it was a balance. I know it wasn't fair, but I loved it. It was fun. But the off lane, like I had a problem with because it's it favors casters over melee heroes because the one harvesters there. So a caster can push a melee hero out, set the harvester like no problem. And they could do all of that safely from a ledge that is well away from the jungle entrance. So it was a very caster friendly solo lane. So that's the one of the problems I had with it. But, you know, a lot of people had different critiques, and that's fine. Those critiques, it's good to get those critiques out there right now and then change things about the map for later. Maybe you played around on it. Did you not? I did indeed. I liked the addition of the stairs that they added some of those like stairs and platforms that they added coming in and out of the jungle. And then it also seemed like they lowered some of the walls, like the walls that like there would be a solid wall and then a fog wall. It seemed like they lowered some of that solid wall. And I think that was a good, good addition because not every hero is going to have the vertical movement of a Kalari or a Wukong or what have you. So I like that. That was just a couple of things that I noticed right off the bat. If I could just add in some comments here, a lot of the sort of the environmental stuff when you're building the game has to do a lot with the gameplay as well. So it's going to be interesting to kind of see once gameplay gets in there, the additional critiques that people have about it, because a lot of this, it's difficult to tell exactly how stuff is going to work out by just a map. So I think once the gameplay gets introduced, then people will be able to sort of set up a scenario where, OK, you know, this person is at that, for example, you know, is this the ideal place to put this and that as well. Without all of those other people playing the game at the same time and sort of interacting with it properly, it's difficult to make assessments. So a lot of people are sort of making these preliminary assessments. But I don't know if they're worth a whole lot without without actually sort of playing the game properly and having a full match. And then you'll really see when something works or when something isn't. So I appreciated some people when they were trying out these math tests, they were like, well, I would like to wait until I actually see proper gameplay to try some of this stuff out. That's probably the best way to go, I'd say. But yeah, it was interesting, nonetheless, to see some of the some of the content that was getting brought out. But I do like when people sort of reserve their judgment for after gameplay comes out that way, at least as you get the whole scope of things so that you're not making changes before you actually try the, you know, the real game out. Right. There's a lot of people make some broad statements about them. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was finding as well. There was very opinionated sort of state. From a lot of the content that I've been watching, I feel like Windu the Mace did a really good stream when he was looking at it because he actually kind of took into account what you were just talking about, Sarge, that he even tried to play out scenarios of like, OK, if I was juggling with this character, this hero, this is what I would try to do, blah, blah, blah. And that still doesn't, you know, give you the right data, if you will, because it's not actual gameplay. But that kind of led into what you were saying that until you are getting, you know, boots on the ground, you really don't know what what exactly things. Well, you just want to get a sort of macroscope of everything and make sure that everything sort of works in conjunction with each other. So but yeah, Windu is one of my favorite streamers. I want to watch him a lot and he's he's a he's a brilliant guy. So doesn't doesn't surprise me that you're shouting him out. Yeah, we shout out Windu all the lot. This is where he comes in for the Windu. That's going to be the name of the Windu. Everybody go check out Windu. Switch streamer, I think I think maybe I'll be having him next week as the guest host, not sure yet. I need to need to check in with him again. Awesome. Yeah, great. Then another thing I just wanted to put out, I can't put this out enough. The the Core, whenever they send out their alpha keys, they've already sent out a few of the alpha keys for the map test and testing everything They're not it's 10,000 slots They're not going to send out 10,000 keys on the first day of the closed alpha A lot of people freaked out of smoky nose, of course Well, I freaked out when predecessor didn't send out every single key They had on the first day of the closed alpha The same thing is going to be true with Core, same thing is going to be true with Ethereal, Phoenix Rising They can't give out all of those keys on the first day So if you don't get a key on the first day, don't flip out, just you know, hang tight It's probably, you know, it might be coming. Maybe you got selected. Maybe you didn't, I don't know But just, you know, hold your horses as we say in West by God of Virginia You might be getting that key. Just, you know, tone it down a little bit guys, tone it down So, yeah, okay, go ahead smoky. Yeah, I mean, I hate to say that you're wasting your time But you may be wasting your time warning people about that It seems like you can repeat it over and over again, but the expectations are just there So, but I do want to say, yeah, the same thing as Mogu said We had it, so I'm pretty sure it's just a continuing trend at this point But people just need to sort of understand that going through the beginning phases of sending out the keys And registering people and making sure that they have, you know Let's say the appropriate roles for Discord or whatever else It can't all happen in like one hour, like you got to give it a little bit of time And that pretty much goes for any game Let the developers enough time to sort of get through the process of registering you Make sure that your key is valid Make sure that because there's some cross-checking there You need to make sure that the person that's registering actually has a valid key And then, you know, you need to set up, like I said, if it's for Discord You need to set up the roles and make sure that they have the proper channels of communication going So it's just a long process and to expect all that to be done instantly is You just need to give them some time, that's all Now, I think that's going to sum it all up for Mateabuff and Core And since we got Smokey with us, Smokey, won't you lead us off with a Matea Studios and Predecessor? Sure, so like you guys know, Predecessor launched their close to Alpha at the end of March We had a weekend where people were able to play the game, give us some feedback We got some feedback saying, okay, well, why didn't that continue or why didn't that go on? Essentially, just because we got the feedback that we needed We knew that there were some issues that we needed to address And we found that the amount of time that we provided was actually a success So I know there's a lot of people saying, well, Predecessor's Alpha flop Or there were some issues, but that's essentially what an Alpha is It's very difficult to identify performance issues without throwing a whole bunch of players at a game So during our testing, it was going very well So when we released the game, it was a bit of a surprise to us that stuff was sort of not as optimized as we could have had it That being said, we took all the feedback that we had And we're basically rewriting most of the game's mechanics, including the ability system So we're going to go with the gameplay ability system, which it wasn't using before That essentially provides you with zero input lag, which was one of the issues that we know a lot of people had And the other issue was just network latency, so people were having sort of lag spikes and stuff like that So we're addressing that as well So there's no point in sort of letting the game run and letting people play it If it's in a semi-optimized state, we would rather close down the servers, get to work on it And then relaunch it once we're ready to go So that's what we're doing at the moment. I know we've been a little bit quiet We haven't really streamed anything. We haven't really sent out any announcements for the last week or so But we're hard at work and we'll be back soon Right on, sir. Everything's going well as far as updating and getting the game ready to come back into the closing Yeah, I mean, as well as it could be It's game development, so there's always stuff that we need to sort of figure out along the road Unreal Engine is a tricky beast to get around, especially using the gameplay ability system But we're sort of succeeding in what we're doing right now So you guys should be able to see a prototype pretty soon. We wanted to release just a sort of state of the game video Outlining what we've been doing for the last week or so So you guys should be seeing that soon. We'll sort of give you guys an update on it Maybe show you some examples of sort of before and after so you guys can see a clear difference In the gameplay that we're sort of providing And I think that'll give people a good idea as to how stuff goes Or sort of how it's working with the client prediction that we're putting in And all the other sort of systems that are going to roll with that But yeah, it's just a lot of work. We just have to sort of scrap some of the stuff we had in restart Yeah, you mentioned the gameplay ability system, right? Correct, yeah. Yeah, we're going to be covering that next week on the show Like the ins and outs of that, Ruba's going to take us through that Now, Ruba's an awesome resource for us. I know he's one of your moderators for your Discord Do you ever tap into that? We do, yeah, often. Ruba's been a wealth of knowledge for us So definitely been sort of advantageous to have him around We've been utilizing him a lot, so yeah, he's just amazing He's a wealth of knowledge, like I said Well, going back to wasting your breath and people not really listening to what you say You guys were always very clear from the very beginning That's why you never set a date as far as the alpha will run from this date to this date There will be this many people included in the alpha Because it was always to be determined by the information that you got back But again, maybe some people didn't have their listening ears on when you said that Yeah, so we said it from the beginning We're going to go with what we need for this closed alpha process And that's what we've been doing We needed, admittedly, we probably could have sent out some more Because the servers did have some extra space Sorry, my phone's going off, I apologize So we did have some extra space that we could have utilized So in hindsight we could have sent out more invites than we had But the process that we went through was to gain information and see how the game was running And that's what we did And so that's why we were so vague about certain things is because we didn't know how it would go And so this is where we're at right now So it's difficult sometimes to predict how everything is going to happen It's better sometimes to just leave it open and say We're going to go with how it's going at that particular moment Right on What about the footsteps, Smokey? What about the footsteps? Patrick has already fixed the footsteps Everyone has to stop mentioning the footsteps We understand that they were a bit of an issue We had actually mixed all of the sound components in shortly before launching the closed alpha So there wasn't a whole lot of time to test some of that stuff out We added the audio options as well shortly before launching So that wasn't something that had existed a long time and we had time to test it out It was something that we put in last minute and tried to get through There were certain things that we predicted would happen Such as the footsteps and also the minimap that we had to disable and the scoreboard Those were causing some last minute issues with our testing So we knew that those would be sort of things that people would focus on And sort of give us negative feedback on But like I was saying, you're in a constant battle between trying to release your alpha on time And then trying to sort of get the product out so that you can get feedback on it And then fix the stuff that you need to fix We could have potentially delayed our alpha as well But then at some point also you don't want to wait too long and never get a product out So that's the sort of struggle that you're dealing with as a game developer And I think for a closed alpha you need to just get it out and get feedback on it But that's just our approach to it, it's not everyone's approach But, you know, we proved that we had a game that was working And that was functioning and just, you know, wasn't perfect But we're working on it, so The rest of the salons were absolutely amazing, by the way Severog in particular just... Yeah, Patrick did a great job on the sound effects Yeah, I love Severog as well So creepy I hated it when he would come out of the jungle It was like, just forget everything you're doing and run Because he was so scary Yeah, it's a shame his phantom rush didn't work as well as it should have Because that would have been a scary thing to have a phantom rushing towards you It created some fun moments, son Yeah, Greta and I got to take a romantic walk along the beach together Wow In the ether Oh, did you mean when it teleported out into the lake? Yeah Okay, yeah, that bug, yeah Yeah, so I mean, yeah We had prior to actually doing the closed alpha and everything We had the mods that were testing it out And we had Ruba at some point who pushed the ore prime up the lanes And into the towers And then the ore prime and the towers were fighting Oh, man He pushed the ore prime all the way into the core And with the Murdoch shield bash, which could affect the ore prime And we didn't know this, so he was testing it out And then he ended up pushing the ore prime to the core And then killing the core with it So it was just really weird It was some weird experiences that we had there as well That's just stuff that you're not going to know until you get a whole bunch of people in there Trying everything Stuff that's difficult to predict, right? But it was one of those funny moments that we had That's awesome It's about a battle of epic proportions Yeah, ore prime versus core, it was legendary Alright, I think that's going to wrap it up for predecessor Let's move on to ethereal Not too much from ethereal, we just got some new artwork For Nikolai, Leia, some Malaya artwork, and Dante Smoky, I know you're kind of a fan of ethereal I am And there's stuff I've spoken to a couple of people at ethereal And they are, like I was telling you guys earlier Some of the nicest people that I've ever spoken to Their myths are amazing I love the look of them, I love the style that they have I'm a huge fan, every myth that they've introduced so far I've literally gone back and told them Wow, great looking myth, right up in their Discord I'll just go tag somebody and say that looks amazing So I'm sure they know by now that I'm a huge fan of theirs And yeah, it just looks like a great game so far That is so cool I've seen a few interactions between you and Owen And it's always mutual respect You can definitely tell that it's there Yeah, we've had conversations on a couple of occasions And yeah, like I said, just really really great people Love the team there This update, it's not huge, it's not as big as I thought it would be But they put new emojis in their Discord I have never been like an emoji kind of guy But I find myself going to their Discord And looking for reasons to use these emojis They're so much fucking fun But yeah, I know a lot of people really dig emojis So if you want yourself a new set of emojis And you have Discord and Nitro Head on over to their Discord and get you some Because they're cute, especially the I like the Malaya kissy face one And then the Noxus doing the dab Yeah, I had one to go check them out Right as you mentioned it previously And yeah, they look like they're pretty cool Definitely going to be stealing So moving on to Phoenix Rising We really don't have anything for Phoenix Rising this week Again, just want to let you guys know they're not dead They're just laying low until they can produce something For the community So that's going to move it on to poll results Last week, and I changed up the poll a little bit So there's going to be no bar graph Because I'm kind of starting over from scratch Last week we had Core at 78% Predecessor at 10% Ethereal at 10% Phoenix Rising at 2% This week we had Core at 74% Predecessor at 7% Ethereal at 9% Phoenix Rising at 2% And then the new category, which is all of the above Which I think should be at 100% Personally, I think everybody should be excited About all of these games But yeah, it's at 8% So that'll be the baseline for the poll From here on out I'll no longer do the bar graphs You should have put the all of the below So that you put that option first Because I actually voted And then I got down to the bottom And I'm like, crap, I probably should have voted For all of the above But I had already voted at that point So maybe include that as the first option Just encourage people I think I'll include it as the first option Yeah, that's probably the best one Everyone's out here working So I'm pretty sure people would vote For that more often But what I'm going to do though Is I'm going to keep it as all of the above So people get really confused So this week Like I said, we didn't have Ruba I just had to try my best To bring you tech time But for this week's tech time We're going to talk about Why Grux was so hard to implement in the game Welcome to tech time everyone Unfortunately, Ruba was off the grid this week So instead of his usual masterpiece You get to watch me try to make something With my crayons What I want to cover this time Is why Grux is going to be hard For any of the Paragon remakes to implement I know there are many people out there That look forward to playing Rhino Boy once again Myself included But there is a reason he's not in any of the alphas Epic simply didn't release as many assets For Grux as it did for the other heroes And what they did release was somewhat incomplete Let's compare Grux to Shinbi If we pull up Shinbi We see that she has 141 animations All of her animations are smooth and beautiful We have animations for rushing beat Line tempo Circle rhythm And all kill We have her various emotes Jump pad animation And there are even some travel mode animations For her More importantly she has a slew Of movement animations Now let's compare that to Grux Grux comes with 101 animations 11 of those are for travel mode So they really don't count for now Included are things like double pain His old dash ability The new shark you can uppercut However there is nothing here for smashing grab Also his alt animation is simply incomplete Many of these companies are trying to bring Paragon back In the state that's closer to legacy And the animations for that simply aren't here for our boy Grux We do have his taunts But for real His taunts are cool But I would prefer that he have the ability to move fluidly in combat We're going to have to be a bit more patient when it comes to Grux And hope that these companies can compensate for the lack of animations Or that Epic releases some new ones I personally didn't expect Epic to include more After the initial release of the assets However I find some new ones every time I come in here to mess around Let's hope that Grux is on the list for some unreleased animations Alright I hope you guys enjoyed that tech time Smokey you probably know a little more than the rest of us about why Grux is so hard to implement Because Grux was one of your favorites But you couldn't put him into your alpha Was that the reason they're just incomplete animations from Epic? Right so we had decided a while ago actually to exclude him And to put Severog instead And that was part of the reason we just couldn't be bothered to start producing animations right now We figured that we'd go with somebody that already had their kit a little bit more complete In terms of the assets that we were provided So yeah we had scrapped him because his smash and grab animation wasn't there His alt animation wasn't there so there were some components missing there And I really would have wanted to put him in When we were first starting on Predecessor I had him as sort of my first character Because we had only had half of the assets that were released So Gideon wasn't there so I was like alright we'll go with Grux And so I was having fun building Predecessor with him as the character And finally we couldn't even use him Oh that sucks I really like Grux Yeah I love this molten skin it was awesome Oh god yeah The beetle one yeah that was Oh yeah You like the molten skin Mandy No I like the beetle one he said That was Mandy's favorite Oh yeah It's so seductive You like the saggy man boobs on Grux didn't you? It's alright Mandy it's okay if you like saggy man boobs everybody's got their thing I'm not gonna kink shame Mandy on the show Don't kink shame So let's move on with the topic for discussion this week which is The current rise of indie gaming companies I have always been a huge fan of indie games over triple A titles I wouldn't say always but You know within the past I don't know four or five years I have been I know when Mandy when you and I started collaborating you were just all about triple A triple A triple A until you started doing your cheapskate gamer videos And you seem to have come around to the indie side so what kind of affected that for you? A hundred percent yeah It's weird because I was only playing what people were talking about what was hyped up you know so that's what I was experiencing And then when I started the cheapskate gamer series The majority of things that are free and cheap are these indie games and so I was like It's so funny too because I would be like downloading and I'd be like I don't even play this but whatever like I'm just gonna try it And then it would be something that's so much fun that I never would have given to the second glance And it's something that I had so much fun with and some of the things that I tried for cheapskate gamer I still play Like I still just like they're really nice pick up and play games where if you just have a couple of minutes Or you know like 30 minutes 40 minutes whatever you just want to play something There's so many options out there with the indie games and actually one of my favorite That I did for the series for cheapskate gamer was a really short game called what never was And that was actually just a project that I know I'm gonna butcher his name but I think it's like Ack Ackie or Ack Ackie Hall Green I believe and he's actually a level designer for like the Division 2 And Rage 2 I believe and he just did that as a solo project what never was he did it as a solo project To kind of brush up his skills and and to be able to tell this story and it was like It had such a lasting effect on me. I think that's the one that really like that's the game that made me an indie fan I think so it's really it's fun. You know you you got to give give things a chance Yeah, the indie titles they really bring something kind of new and fun but they always kind of have to sacrifice Graphics or or things like that. They're usually kind of you know low graphic games that are just really fun I mean they might they might have really impressive visuals for what they have there but they're still kind of low in the graphics However Smoky with like with with something like predecessor where you guys have access to triple a Graphics from from epic but you're still an indie company. You're kind of bringing the best of both worlds here You got the triple a assets the the nice graphics nice particle effects all that stuff and then combining it with the With the kind of new fun sort of pirate attitude of an indie developer company I think that's just a lot of fun. What do you think about that? Yeah, so there's there's positives and negatives about that So the the positive side is obviously that the that the indie game that we're producing has amazing visuals All right, so it's gonna look really great the level is gonna be great because of all the props that we have the characters The heroes are gonna look amazing the abilities or the animations and all that So it gives the appearance of being a full fledged sort of triple a game The downside being is that people aren't aware of that process as much as you are because they're expecting the sort of same Development process that triple a companies have which is when the triple a company these days has an alpha or something like that The game is already pretty much done and so they're just like letting people play it for the first time That's what they consider an alpha. So if you go and download or if you played let's say the division or if you played One of those other triple a games or even anthem early access That's their alpha, but their game is already complete, right? So it's not actually the same process that an indie company would go through for their alpha So there's people are sort of skewed on their interpretation of what an alpha is based on triple a companies And then indie companies having both of their different definitions And the the assets branching us or sort of bridging us to that is like I said, there's an upside and there's a downside So the game is gonna look really good. People just have to remember that indie studios are still indie studios Even though that we're using triple a graphics triple a assets and and so you know if you were to try any other indie game in their alpha What would that look like, you know, so just what people need to keep in mind Yeah, spellbreak was not clean Yeah, I had heard that as well. I got in on that one very early. I mean it was fun and like I wasn't expecting a full game So I thought it was a lot of fun and I thought it was great. I was like, this is this is absolutely amazing But you know it wasn't it wasn't so it wasn't like when I first played the alpha for arc for example like Arc was just done. It was done. They just had to add all the freaking dinosaurs, you know what I mean Yeah, I think that yeah, that's a that's a really good point is It sort of gives the illusion that that were triple a companies based on what we're creating But then but then when it comes down to it were a small team and and even you know Even having a larger team just that doesn't exclude you from being an indie studio If it's your first title, it's your first sort of released game. Everything's new You're still gonna have the same hurdles that everyone else has created in their first game So just you know ease up on people's expectations. I think would be the message Yeah And yeah, the triple a companies have professional bug testing teams Yeah, they hire people to do that Exactly before they anybody ever sees that alpha. So yeah good point good point Maybe you have anything that I had for the topic for discussion I think I'm good All right smoky I actually really enjoyed playing start of valley right as it first came out I enjoyed playing just a bunch of indie games and it's really cool seeing some of those takeoff From being like a one or two man team There's also somebody that I watch on twitch who's creating his own game His name is wheeze 210 I believe is his tag name and he's creating a game called the Galder Using the Unreal Engine and him to ease an indie sort of game developer And it's just great to see that sort of game progression And I'm just can't wait to see that get launched as well It looks like a really cool game where he sort of combines spells together So, you know, it really gets people you can you can tell that the developers really invested when it's an indie game It's not just a cash grab. It's something that people have spent a long time working on Particularly when they make their own assets, you know that they've literally made it from the ground up So it's just really exciting to sort of see those companies grow and grow and turn into Turn into huge companies like minecraft did and like Like started valley and those sort of popular games these days Yeah, I mean they've been indie games have been taken a lot more seriously I mean undertale one game of the year I don't know if you guys have ever played undertale but look at under it looks like something It looks like in between Atari and Nintendo as far as the graphics go The game was absolutely amazing. The storyline was just super great I mean everything was just new and fresh about undertale had an amazing soundtrack And yeah got in one game of the year as an indie game that up against all these triple A titles With these super amazing graphics and Well and even Celeste I believe was an indie game that was nominated for game of the year Yeah At the the last 2018 game awards Again very big graphics on Celeste, yeah I find that indie games are more risky in their in their sort of game mechanics In their style they can they can sort of try stuff that nobody else has tried Those triple A studios tend to stick with sort of what works and what they know is going to sell Whereas indie games can sort of stray away from that and say Well I want to have this in the game and then try it out And sometimes that actually it's enough to push them up and really make them stand out So I think that having that freedom and not being sort of tied to You know a publisher necessarily or not being tied to a larger studio Sort of lets the creative juices go and people create some really like amazing games That are that are definitely worth taking a look at so I was looking through things there's actually been studies that suggest that playing indie games increases your own creativity Because they are so creative and they introduce brand new problem-solving skills that gamers normally wouldn't Be up against with the you know the triple A studios that regurgitate the same thing over and over again So I thought that was kind of an interesting thing to look at Yeah definitely Very interesting Alright I think that's it for the topic of discussion Let's move on to community suggestions Let me pull that up I closed out my tangy tang There we go For community suggestions this week I did a post asking for you guys' help to come up with some skins You guys came up with some amazing skins Way more than I could possibly go over on one episode for the Minions So I'm gonna keep referring back to that post And getting more and more skins for each episode of For the Minions Because this was really fun You guys had really great ideas And I wanted to include them all But I just couldn't go down a list of like 30 different skins So if you don't see your skin on this one Then you might see it in one of the episodes down the road for the Minions So let's start going through some of these We had a suggestion I didn't get the name But it was for a Wooden Grim EXE Like and what they said it would be kind of like when Bender got downgraded All of you guys saw that where Bender got turned into Wood But I think that would be absolutely amazing Grim was one of those heroes that never really got a proper skin He just got some recolors and stuff But Wooden Grim what do you guys think? They should make like a Pinocchio version as well Or like his... I don't know Just having him turn into a robot later on in the game But then at the beginning having Wood And kind of grow his nose for some odd reason If they could have him being controlled by like a little fairy Instead of the goblin thing that he would be controlled by Maybe the fey, maybe a tiny of the fey controlling Wooden Grim EXE Then Joji had a King Kong skin for Rampage Where he picks up cards and throws them instead of boulders And a lot of people seem to really like this one I think that's just a natural fit Right? It's just a natural fit He just looked like a big... He looked like a... Davey Jones and a gorilla had sex And here came Rampage So I think that... One of the later movies... One of the later movies had him as a white Rampage Sorry not Rampage, a white King Kong Which I didn't really like I actually liked the black version of the King Kong That would be really cool Just tossing cars and grabbing maybe pieces of a building or something Each time you grab your rocket something else It's just a different sort of prop that he's pulled out of the city That would be cool That would be so cool Alright, well get on it Get on it, smokey I didn't say I was making it, I'm just gonna be cool Then we had Swooge won with... He wants a fishing Richter skin He's brought this up a few times on my channel He wants him to have like a fisherman's vest Like the hat with all the lures and everything And like a pole So that when he throws Rip Lash He hits you with a fishing pole and reels you in I think that's another just natural fit I think it would work perfect I don't know I can see that, yeah that'd be perfect It would be hard to hit him with the pole His hole would just be a boat that goes flying out Stunned everybody It's a big canoe That would be great Oh my god The canoe just comes out of it And then Hevno had sort of a Priest Gideon Which I thought would be really cool Like instead of his sort of dark matter Cosmic energy, it would be like light energy And it would have different runes for each ability And it would be the fires of heaven coming down Instead of the galactic turd And I think that just put him in a more priestly white garb I think that would be a really cool idea Being a Gideon man, what do you think of that one there, Smokey? I completely agree That sounds amazing It sounds like a really great idea I think thematically it would fit really well with his skills already It wouldn't be a huge transition from one to the other Just a lot of color changes Maybe some particle emitters that need to change But for the most part that would definitely work I think it would look really... And then Mufunemon His idea was for a lifeguard deck Or a bit of fan service at the end of these I think that would be cool because she could throw a beach ball Instead of her stasis bomb We were discussing this earlier, Smokey Instead of the containment fence It would be one of those big lifeguard rings One of those big inflatable orange rings That just wrap everyone around it So that you can't escape Yeah, I think that would be a great idea I think it would look really cool They've made lifeguard But they've made beach skins already So it wouldn't be a big stretch Yeah, and how cool would that look To have Decker and then Summer Fun Twin Blast He had lifeguard That would be absolutely fantastic Trying to think of Decker as the jumping one But she can have like a life... Not a life, a diving board Instead of her rocket boots to send her flying Just have a average jump off a diving board That would work for that as well Her slow bubble could just be a big beach umbrella Yeah, exactly There you go And moving on We have the community builder for this week This week this is a subscriber To both Mandy and I And kind of leads into the skin ideas Because they've been creating their own skin ideas And then making videos for them And Nick Tana If you want to check out Nick Tana Take a look at some of his artwork Some of the skins he's came up with A lot of them are just Are sort of dust-dun re-colors But they're all very cool Very cool artwork Cool guy, go check out his channel And you might get inspired For some other skins And that is going to be about it Let's move into plugs Um, no I've been really lazy Smoky? Anything to plug? You got any games or anything that you're making? Do you have anything? Yeah Oh, we lost Smoky We can't hear you, brother Sorry, yeah, I was on push to talk I completely forgot to push Where do I start with my plugs? Yeah, it's just maybe one last Final comment that we're working Really hard to relaunch the alpha To sort of see what people are going to think About the new version that we have coming out So keep an eye out on your steam downloads For people that are already participating And we'll be sending out more keys shortly As well for the closed alpha So, yeah, really excited for that It's going to be loads of fun Right on Then I'll plug our Patreon again Patreon.com For the minions Right now we've just got an unhappy camper He changed his name People thought his name was a bit Offensive He changed his name to unhappy camper So that's what it is now A big shout out to him once again But that is going to do it for this week's episode For the minions I appreciate everybody coming and hanging out Especially those of you that are in the chat right now But that is going to be it Thanks everyone And we are out of here Bye-bye Mango