Not good at having an online presence

     As usual, here is another late overdue blog update. The last few posts I made have been art and game design/development related which is really the whole point of this blog I guess. I mean that's why I started this whole thing to begin with. To talk about game design and share my works of "art". This post is kind of different though. I've been doing this indie game developer thing for a while now. Years actually. And I don't know what it is, but I feel like I haven't been doing it right. The main thing especially is communicating. Sure, I have this blog that I post updates on every once in a while to share what i'm working on, or talk about video game design or just have some kind of presence online. But, it just doesn't seem to be really doing it. After releasing "Potato Thriller" (which was my first commercial game) I felt like I had to really go back and pursue this indie developer journey more seriously. Learn more, improve myself, build up my skills to produce better quality and more polished games and so on. And I have been doing that. It feels like I have been working on improving my game developing skills forever now.

     I haven't released anything at all since Potato Thriller as of this post because I have been spending so much time reinventing my skill set. But it isn't enough. Going back to the communication thing, I feel like I have been terrible at communicating. I have a YouTube channel, but I barely ever use it and when I do, I just post some random shitty weird animation I pieced together. 90% of the content on my YouTube channel makes absolutely no sense at all. I have two twitter accounts, my main one which I occasionally use and my "productions" account which I made to exclusively just self promote my work, my games, art and brand or whatever. You know, like those company/studio accounts that the big boys have to self promote their brand. I thought, "i'm a game developer, I make stuff, I should make an account to promote my own brand!" - I barely ever even look at that account.

     I don't know. I'm just not good at having an online presence. Not good at doing PR stuff or whatever. You know what I mean. And I see so many other people who are just so naturally good at having an online presence. It's like woah! These people are so much cooler than me. I don't know how people do it but, it's impressive for sure. I applaud those who can pull it off. It's hard to have an online presence and communicate with people. Like, it takes some real talent and skill to manage. Social media is hard! I'm not an old man or anything. Age 25 as of this post. But I am just so naturally bad at social media. But then again, maybe that's because I spend all of my time dedicated to working on my game projects. But sometimes it just makes you so out of touch man! Game developing. It's a lonely and cold thing.

      I'm not really sure where i'm going with this blog post. It's kind of all over the place. Just a rant about myself. But I do want to reinvent myself. Or at least try to be better at the whole online presence thing. I really need to reinvent how I communicate, use twitter, YouTube this blog. YouTube especially, that's a big one. It definitely is the best and most efficient way to share, get info out and communicate with your audience. I mean, I don't even have a freaking comments section on my blog. I get daily page views and visits but I don't know what people are saying. I can't interact with anyone on here. I mean I can. I can just add comments, but it's just different from a comments section on YouTube. So I really want to get into YouTube and start using that as my main platform of communicating, sharing updates and rants and whatever. And I know, I think I have said "I want to get into YouTube" like a hundred times on this blog throughout the years and never really follow through. I guess blogging is just easier and quicker than filming a video, editing and uploading. But I want to do it! I might go back and clean up my current YouTube channel or just start a new one entirely to have a fresh start. I would still post updates here on the blog as well of course.

     Anyway, sorry for the lengthy post that kept jumping around. Kind of confusing rant I suppose. It's different from what I normally talk about here on the blog. I'm not sure if this was even really worth posting. But I already typed it, so why not.

     As for new projects, as mentioned many times already in previous posts, I am working on multiple new game projects and I still believe that 2018 is going to be a great year. I have so much new content I want to get out there and my new games are a major step up from anything else I have ever developed. I'm excited to continue creating games and sharing them. My next game will probably be announced and have an official Steam store game page within the coming weeks. I'll definitely keep you guys posted!

First Vlog of 2017!

Been a while since I did one of these.

I hope to do more vlogs as well as other YouTube content such as tutorial videos, animations, rants, whatever I can think of in the future.

Samer Hills On Steam GreenLight!

     Here it is everyone. My second ever Steam GreenLight campaign for my newest and next upcoming game, "Samer Hills" 

(A game shamelessly named after me, the developer. Feel that big ego)

Samer Hills is a post-apocalyptic thriller about a man who decides to return home after being away for nine years to finish what he started...

Steam GreenLight Page Over Here: http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/samerhills

Trailer:

Plans, Thoughts, Release Date, Misc Info:

      I have been talking and posting about this new game project since late 2016 but never really wen't too in depth about it (don't worry, i'm not about to.) I have been constantly sharing development progress, screenshots and more behind the scenes stuff  here on the blog and twitter but never anything really about the final product or what to expect. The trailer above is really the first thing that does this. This is the first footage of gameplay, some characters are introduced and maybe you could get a good feel of the atmosphere and types of settings that can be expected from the game. 

     There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the game. However, after months of development I finally feel like I have a sufficient amount of content created to showcase on Steam and to run my next GreenLight. This is essentially only an introduction and the first step of many that lay ahead. With that said, there is no set release date. But this game is planned for this year, 2017. Keep in mind that I am just one guy after all and there are some days that I just can't spend on developing the game. Just being honest, but I am working really hard on this project and I plan on delivering a really unique experience (said every other indie ever...) Jokes aside, I am really proud of what I have created here so far and I am really proud of the trailer I put together to demonstrate some of the game. I am really excited about this one and having a great time creating it. I truly do look forward to finishing the game and sharing with the world. 

I am always active online and will continue to keep you guys updated on the project. Also, this is kind of off topic, but I am working on transitioning to posting video updates instead of just here on the blog (no one likes reading)

So more updates to follow down the road. YouTube vlogs as well as other miscellaneous none related videos all coming to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/snowconesolid 

Hello 2017... it is about time

     It is about time I finally post a proper 2017 update. So, whats going on? What ever happened to the new game project? Where is the new Steam Greenlight that was suppose to be posted at the end of December 2016? Do you even still make games? Alright, so I haven't been very active on the blog and have been doing a terrible job communicating about progress on current and new projects.

It is near the end of the first month of 2017 and I am just now going to talk about my plans for the new year. I did mean to get this post out way earlier but life just gets in the way sometimes. First of all, happy new year to everyone (a bit late on that one) 

     Anyway, although it seems like I haven't been very active, I have actually been working really hard on a lot of new things. I have a lot planned for 2017 that I want to get done and put out there, so it has actually been a busy first month for me. I'm actually working on multiple new projects and juggling back and forth between them. I will get more into that in a moment. First, I want to talk about the main project. The most important project that I am working on, "Samer Hills". 

     Whats up with "Samer Hills"? Why isn't this finished and on Steam yet? So, this is a project I started working on shortly after releasing my first game on Steam "Potato Thriller". I have been posting so many blog articles over the past few months talking about this project and even kept making promises I couldn't keep like saying I would have the greenlight campaign for the new game up before the end of last year, or having the entire project done at a certain date. Despite not keeping these smaller promises, there is one promise I will keep and that is that I will eventually finish and release this new game. Some people think that I just got bored, or lost motivation and canceled the game, but actually, the game is far off from being canceled. I have been spending most of my time working on "Samer Hills" and have made great progress on it even though I haven't really been sharing the progress made every step of the way. I won't make anymore promises and announce deadlines, release dates, etc anymore. I learned my lesson. It will be available when I am ready to make it available. But I would like to confirm that I am indeed working on the game and going to release it as my second Steam game. 

"Samer Hills" is going to be a big game. I have made a lot of progress on it and here are some more recent screenshots and images from development to showcase the progress I have been making. Also I will share some more details about the actual game. 

Environment: First, lets talk about the setting of the game. 

Lovely eyes...

I keep saying "Samer Hills" but what is it? "Samer Hills" is where the entire game will take place. This will be the main setting for the game and it is the name of an old abandoned town as well as the main characters hometown. This game will take place mainly in outdoors types of environments. So settings like forests, caves, streets, farms, etc is where most of the game will play out and the kind of areas the player will get to explore. There will also be some indoor settings like the characters house and some buildings that the player will eventually get to go to because of the game's story progression, but for the most part, outdoors settings is a main focus point. In my previous game "Potato Thriller",  about 90% of the game took place inside house/building type environments. The entire first half of the game took place in a long house type setting while the second half took place inside of a challenging tower. My new game, is kind of the opposite of what "Potato Thriller" did.

Gameplay: This game will be entirely a third person game. There will be various features like puzzle solving, fighting enemies, avoiding traps, quick time events and so on. I am doing my best to keep the game entertaining and fresh from beginning to end so I am developing it in a way where it constantly introduces new gameplay elements and throws surprises at the player. 

There will be traps, different weapons, etc. 

Story, Genre, Characters: "Samer Hills" is going to be a post-apocalyptic horror/thriller game with a non serious and more comical tone thrown in. One of the games biggest focus is on the main character himself. I mentioned in an older blog post that the game will let you see what the main character goes through on his adventure and how he changes throughout the experience. However, throughout the game you will come face to face with many other characters in the games worlds and learn more about them. The characters will be unique and interesting and hopefully memorable. That is something I really want to achieve with this project. Creating memorable characters. 

                           

Look at those blood fxs!!!

And here is just some extra screenshots from development:

When will the Greenlight come out?!?!?

     What is taking so long? I am really working hard and taking my time with this new game project. I want this game to be perfect and better than any other game I have ever created. After all, the game does have my own real name in it (so egotistical I know.) "Samer Hills" is going to have a lot in it. Especially plot. This is going to be my biggest, most polished and possibly weirdest game ever. So I am really going that extra mile and putting in a lot more effort into this game than any other project I have worked on. It has to turn out exactly how I am envisioning it to be. 

I know that there is a good amount of people who visit the blog daily to check for updates on my projects and I think that is so cool. I mentioned this before, but the fact that there is a good handful of people out there who take time out of their own day to see updates on my projects and come visit my blog means the world to me. So thank you everyone for being so patient. I will do my best to keep posting daily. I think the game will turn out better this way. I aim to deliver a really bizarre yet intriguing entertaining game with unique characters and personalities as well as a believable post-apocalyptic game world that you can get pulled into. I want this game to be a memorable experience and hopefully contribute a really unique game to the indie gaming community. 

     

OTHER PROJECTS:
     Before I end the blog for today I want to talk about one more thing that I plan on doing this year and that is getting more into YouTube. I have brought this up numerous times throughout the years. Saying that I want to start using my YouTube channel more and start posting daily videos and content, etc but never really got to it. This year, 2017, however is different. I really want to use my skills as a 3d artist/animator/developer etc beyond the scope of just making games. I want to try and do new things and expand from just being a indie game developer. What better way to share content, ideas and art through YouTube right?

     Earlier I did mention that I was working on other projects and those other projects are short animation videos that I started working on for my YouTube channel. Here is a little preview.

Looks weird I know and that is because the content/animations I will create and post to YouTube most likely will be weird.. Just like my game projects. The point is that, I love creating and I will continue creating as long as I enjoy to do so. But yeah, I have been working on a few short animations which will be going onto my channel later on in the year. At the moment, my main focus is finishing up my next game, but after that I hope to post videos on a daily basis on the channel.

Lots of new content to look forward to. I am really excited and motivated to create and share all these new experiences. I have a really good feeling about the this year and I hope to make 2017 my most productive and best year yet. I am really just an artist with a lot of strange ideas and I wan't to get as many of those ideas out that I possibly can. Thanks for reading and more updates coming soon! 

By the way, most of these screenshots I posted in today's article are more recent screens I posted on my twitter. I am not as active on my blog, but I am very active on my twitter account and post almost everyday, for more daily updates follow me here: https://twitter.com/snowconesolid (I am sometimes annoying on twitter)

Hamar Hills Teaser Trailer

   
    Short teaser trailer for my new game "Hamar Hills" - Coming Soon. More updates to follow later on. Enjoy! Vvrroooooooom!!!!!

Cookin Games Episode 3 is out

Here is that new video update I promised. :)

New Vlog series - "Cookin Games"

Hello everyone. For many years I have been posting updates about my game projects and random stuff here on my blog in written format. However, vlogging (video blogs) have been around for quite a while now and is a pretty popular format especially for youtubers and even gamers. 

I believe that people like visual stuff. We enjoy actually seeing and hearing about things more then just reading text silently in our heads (I know that I am definitely a more visual type person) so I decided to create a new video series called "Cookin Games" and all this is, is just me rambling on and talking about my projects and sometimes even off topic random stuff. Its kind of like a blog podcast with a visual element in the background. So as I commentate in the background, footage of something I created like a early prototype from a game or project I am working will  also be shown. So with these two very important elements (Visual) + (audio) I think a much more special experience is created then reading text off of a blog. 

My goal with this series is to showcase some of my newest work and discuss and share it with you guys and hopefully even entertain and interact with those of you who are watching or leave feedback in the comments section. 

This is something that I have been planning on doing for a while now. Becoming more active on my youtube channel. So I look forward to creating more dev vlog videos and sharing. As for this blog, I am not replacing this blog with my youtube channel. I will continue to post updates on here as well of course. :)

I have just uploaded the very first episode. You can check it out here:

I am not really much of a youtuber and don't really have high expectations or am aiming to build like a giant youtube channel with tons of subscribers. Thats not the case at all. I just thought this would be a fun way of better interacting and posting updates. Creating silly indie games is my main thing. Apologies for the constant "umms" and "ahhhs" and sometimes long pauses. Still new to the vlogging thing. Hopefully I will improve at it.

What happened to Potato Thriller for steam?

I did not forget about this. Actually, getting my recently greenlit game Potato Thriller released on Steam is my primary focus at the moment. I have been working on it. It is all I have been working on. I am working on an updated version for steam and adding extra content and stuff to it because I want the steam edition to be special and cool. I will have more updates on that in the next blog post. I actually recorded and created the very first episode of this new vlog series about a week before Potato Thriller was greenlit on steam. So I thought I would just upload this real quick to kick off the series then get back to work on PT. But I will have more updates about that in the next post. Thanks everyone once again and more soon to come.

Sneaking around hamburgers prototype demo

     Just uploaded a video showing off a quick prototype demo I created in the unity game engine. The demo shows my donkey character sneaking around large hamburgers from a third person perspective. Nothing really crazy or anything. Nothing in this video is final. This level/part of the demo won't even be in the final game if I decide to make a full game (which I probably will)

This is just a quick random little prototype that I put together while messing around in the unity engine. Thought I might as well record some of it and show it off in action. Also, here are some new screenshots I took while developing this. Just like what is shown in the video, these screen shots are only screen shots from the prototype demo. 

Honestly, I have no idea what I am even trying to create here but, I like it so far! 

More updates soon.

Potato Thriller Final Trailer

Hey everyone.  First of all, I wanna say thanks to all those who voted for "Potato Thriller" on steam so far. Thank you all for your support.

The trailer I had up on the potato thriller STEAM  page is pretty outdated. I made that trailer when the game was still early in development. Now that so much as changed and so many new things have been added to the game I thought it would be a good idea to create an updated game trailer to give a little preview of what can be expected in the final game.

Here is the newest and final trailer for "Potato Thriller" Enjoy!

If you are interested in silly horror games and want to see this game become available on STEAM then please go hit that YES button and help it get the GREENLIGHT over here:

VOTE FOR POTATO THRILLER

Thanks once again for the support everyone. More updates coming soon.

Expanding PT. First game for 2016. Steam?

     Been working on finishing up my upcoming horror game "Potato Thriller". A game I have been talking about for a while now here on the blog. A game I have been developing on and off in my free time since October. In my previous blog posts and I think in my YouTube vlog update I kept saying that I planned on having this game out for sure before the end of this year. Before the end of 2015.

As you can see by the title of this post. That is going to change.

     I guess this is both a bad thing and a good thing. (More like a who cares thing actually). Anyway, as I continue to develop this game and wrap things up, I feel like this game has more potential then what it started off as. I actually want to continue to expand this game and add more to it as well and polish it up more until I am satisfied with it. So I just wanted to post this update to say that I will not have Potato Thriller finished and released by the end of 2015 like I promised. Instead, this will be my first game release for 2016. Early 2016. I have actually already added a lot more new things to Potato Thriller since my last blog update. More updates coming soon.

     Steam?

     For a while now I have been planning on getting into steam as a developer. I actually recently just got a steam account. To be honest, I was never much of a pc gamer but mostly a console gamer. But there are a lot of great games that are pc only, especially indie games. Steam is a very popular platform obviously and they have a lot of cool stuff on there. I feel like I am missing out sometimes. So as I just said, I have finally got my own steam account. I recently purchased Resident Evil Revilations 2 on there. Unfortunately my laptop is kinda weak sauce and could not run it all that good. Anyway, back on topic. I was thinking of maybe putting "Potato Thriller" up on steam and trying to get it greenlit? I don't really know yet. Do you guys want to see it up on steam maybe? I'm kinda nervous actually about this decision since I don't really know how people will react towards Potato Thriller. It's a pretty weird game even for my standards. I don't know yet. I think I will take a chance, throw it on steam and see how things go. If it gets geenlit awesome. If not, then its not the end of the world. More updates on this later on I guess.

Youtube Updates? 

 As for my YouTube channel, I do want to continue to be more active there (even though I only put up 1 vlog update since my last blog post) I have been busy with my real life job and working on Potato Thriller on the side. A person can only do so much in a day. I actually, did record a new vlog update almost a week ago. I never got to editing that. I prob will not get that one out now anyway. I had a new vlog about my game but things have changed since then. So, I will prob record a different updated vlog later on. Also, like I said previously. I want to start doing lets plays of some indie games. I will definitely get into that. I recorded my first lets play not to long ago. I need to get that edited and then I should have it up soon on my channel.

Anyway, just wanted to post this blog update. Talk about whats going on. This might be my last blog post for 2015. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe not. I don't know about a lot of things yet. If it is, I hope everyone has a happy new year and I will see you in 2016! :D

More coming soon! Stay tuna!

Heres that YouTube update I promised :)

I have been working hard over the past couple days cleaning up my YouTube channel. Getting it more organized and making it look cool. I updated almost everything on my channel and am happy with how much I have changed with it. 

My new YouTube icon I designed:

"You see this? Diamond Dogs... Our new home..." -MGSV

Randomly decided to make a Metal Gear Solid V reference just now for some reason. But that is how I felt when I was re-designing my YouTube stuff, getting it more organized and to look more like how I want it to look. Its a great feeling actually. :D

And the my new YouTube Banner. I think I spent too much time working on this one. But very happy with the results.

Check out and Subscribe to my updated fancy pants YouTube channel today!

YouTube-Snowconesolid

It's a really exciting time and I am really happy. I really look forward to sharing my YouTube adventures and posting a bunch of new content. I have so much planned. More videos and blog updates will be coming soon. More information and a trailer for my new horror game coming up later in the coming days.  Thank you everybody once again for staying with me and checking out all my stuff over the past couple years. It means so much to me. I really enjoy creating and sharing new content with everyone. :)

More updates coming soon! Thanks for reading.