Samer Mini Direct October Recap

 

Here is a recap of the October mini Samer direct event that I originally posted on Twitter.

A new Samer Hills game was announced - Samer Hills Hollow Jack

It will be a night of trick-or-terror as Hollow Jack roams the streets in search of his next victim in this upcoming Halloween special! Introducing "Samer Hills Hollow Jack" - Coming Soon

Coming Soon???

Originally, my plan was to have this new game out by today just in time for Halloween. Unfortunately, the game still needs a little more time. I may have missed my October deadline but, I'm not going to let that get in the way of this project. Not to worry, we WILL celebrate Halloween again.

 I can also confirm that this will be the first available game entry in the Samer Hills series. I am excited about this one and can't wait to show more. 

What happened to Toxic Turtle, the first Samer Hills announced title? Not to worry, still being developed. In "The Debug" at the end, I've stated that other SH titles may release prior. It was all planned from the start. In the Samer Hills game series, the order does not matter.

Lots of great content is being made at Snowconesolid Productions and I can't wait to reveal more down the road as well as finally release some new games! Keep checking back for more news, updates, and spooky content and have a happy Halloween!

Snowconesolid Productions - September 2020 Recap

Here is a full recap of everything from Snowconesolid Productions for the month of September 2020.

🟢 [Game Release] - The Debug™ Available now on itch.

https://snowconesolid.itch.io/thedebug

🟢 [Event] - The First Samer Direct was held.

http://snowconesolidwho.blogspot.com/2020/09/samer-direct-1-full-recap-samer-hills.html

🟢 [Announcement] - Samer Hills™ series revealed.

(See more information in the Samer Direct link)

🟢 [Announcement] - Samer Hills Toxic Turtle game revealed.

(See more information in the Samer Direct link or check out The Debug to learn more)

🟢 [Branding Update] - Classic logo gets a new and improved HD makeover.

http://snowconesolidwho.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-iconic-samer-smiling-face-logo-gets.html

And now, it's time to welcome "Spooky" season! My favorite time of the year. I'm really looking forward to the next coming months and excited to be working on games again. What will October bring? Keep checking back for more news & updates to find out!

Where am I?

Just getting started. Quality & Polish...

     This is something that I have talked about a few times here on the blog and I apologize if it sounds like I am constantly repeating myself throughout time. I have been making games for a while now. It has been nearly a decade since I embarked on this independent developer journey. I am constantly learning, improving and maturing as a game developer. This is something that I am honestly passionate about. It is something that I love for sure without a doubt.

     Although I have been doing this for years now, I feel like I am at that point where I am just now getting started in game development. I'm taking it more seriously. I understand the struggles of being an indie game developer. Making good games can be a real challenge. Lot's of hours of hard work goes into it. It takes a long time to see any results. Days go by. Sometimes you lose motivation. Then you get that motivation back and start hammering away. Then months go by and you lose motivation again and so on. However, I personally always find myself coming back because of my love for creation. It's like a hunger.

     Sorry for getting all poetic there for a second. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I really do care about the quality of my games. I mentioned this on my Twitter, but I constantly feel like I need to redeem myself for Potato Thriller. Don't get me wrong, I am very proud of all the work I did. I am proud I created Potato Thriller and put it out there. Releasing Potato Thriller on Steam is one of the biggest milestones I have ever reached as an indie game developer and I would never undo it if I could. Potato Thriller is definitely on my top 10 list of life accomplishments.  

     With that said, I am aware of all the issues Potato Thriller had as a game. I know the game seems very amateurish and I understand why someone wouldn't bother to play it just by looking at it's trailer or at screenshots of it. Although I am proud of my creation, I feel like it has stuck me with this image or a label that portrays me as an amateurish dev, who produces low quality games and that's all i'll ever make. 

   I don't want to be known as the guy who produces low quality games. I care about quality. I really do. I want to deliver unique and enjoyable game experiences. Memorable experiences. So, I am working hard to ensure that my next game and all my future games are the best that I can make them and super polished. This is a reason why I haven't released anything in a long time.

     With all that said, i'm going to be away for a while. Away from this blog, social media, just my online presence in general so that I can truly focus all my energy into my upcoming game. To everyone who has followed my work, played my games, checked out this blog and supported me as a developer, I thank you. You are all awesome. Next time I post an update here on the blog, it will be the announcement and official Steam page for my next game. Bye bye for now!

Some teasers

     Hello everyone. Going to keep this post quick and short. Here's some cool teaser screens and gifs of what I have been working on. Spoiler, it appears to be a Potato Thriller 2 or something like that.. More info + updates soon. Okay bye!

The status of "Samer Hills"

Hey Samer, whatever happened to that one game project you were working on? You know, the one you posted to Steam GreenLight over here? Hmmm... I believe it was called Samer Hills? Yeah, this one. 

That is a good question Samer (just play along with me). Let me tell you what is going on because I believe I haven't been really been clear about it's progress and to be honest, I have been a bit confusing because I tend to say something different each time. I recently posted this update over at the game's Steam Greenlight page (yes, as of this post Steam Greenlight is still up and is still a thing. I posted links to my game's Greenlight page exactly 5 times already in this post......) 

Anyway! as I was saying, I recently posted this update on the Steam Greenlight page because I felt it was important to keep the page... well, updated with news relating to the project. However, with Valve's upcoming Steam Direct system, Steam Greenlight can be taken down any day now and who knows if anyone will ever be able to visit those dead Greenlight game pages anymore. 

With that said, I think it is a good idea to simply re-post the update over here on my blog for future reference. Now, I will shamelessly copy paste and quote myself:

Status of the project:

"Just a quick and possibly final update I post here on this game's Greenlight page. Since I have been going back and forth between saying that the game is "temporarily shelved" and the "game is still in development."

So that there isn't any confusion, I want to clarify the current status of this project and my plans. I don't want to sound like I am repeating what I have said in previous announcements, but here is what's going on.

-The game is NOT canceled.

-The game is still set to release/finish development this year (2017)

-I am reworking the game to be something more than what I originally had planned. I have a completely different vision for what I want this game to be and I want to implement all of my ideas into it and tweak it until I feel it is the game I want to put out there. This will be a bigger game with more than originally planned. I want to create an immersive world with multiple characters and multiple story-lines occurring.

-I am planning on changing the game's name to something entirely different. It will no longer be called "Samer Hills". Therefore if the game gets greenlit on here in time before Direct comes out, this game will launch under a different name.

-If greenlight is eventually taken down and replaced with Direct and this game has not passed it's greenlight campaign then that is okay. I will finish the game and look into my options for releasing it. As of this update there still is no exact information on how Direct will work or how much the fee will be. So I can't promise a direct release at this time. But again, I will look into my options for publishing and see if I can work with Direct.

Anyway, thank you everyone once again for the support and interest in this project. Admittedly this greenlight page isn't really getting much views or visits. However, for those few followers I feel it is important that I continue to share updates and the status on the project here on the greenlight page. At least while it is still up.

Thanks everyone once again. I appreciate all of you!

-Samer Khatib (snowconesolid)"

Originally posted on "Samer Hills" Steam Greenlight page here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/updates/868133785/1496360496

On 6/1/2017. Original Page may be removed in future.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to share today. Also, I finally setup an indiedb page for Samer Hills. You can find it here: http://www.indiedb.com/games/samer-hills

More updates soon. 

Thanks for reading.

Never Give Up On Your Dreams.

So, recently (as of this post) I created this forest pond/swampy type scene in the Unity engine to accompany my "Frog" character. I created all the assets with Blender3D (of course I use Blender for all my 3d asset creation) Anyway, the final scene turned out so much better than how I thought it would turn out. It actually looks like a real forest type of setting. See:

I think this is one of the most beautiful scenes/levels I have ever created actually. The lighting, atmosphere, colors, placement of trees and other details etc. It all just turned out wonderful and I am really proud of it. Okay okay, chill out you professional environment artist, 3d artist and photographers. I know it is not perfect. I know many AAA and other indie games have done similar scenes better. And I know there is room for improvement. There is always room for improvement of course.

I know that what I am about to say is going to sound very egotistical of myself but, when I finished working on this scene and saw the final results I couldn't help but just sit back in my chair and stare at my pc screen for 20 minuets. This scene is awesome and I believe that most of my recent stuff is some of my best work yet! I mean look at this stuff! (I know that I have already posted most of these images on the blog in the past but JUST LOOK AT THEM!)

Looking back and comparing myself and my older work from 6 or 7 years ago, or even looking back at how much I have improved since Potato Thriller (one year ago as of this blog post) makes me realize that I have come such a long way and learned so much as a developer and artist since I began this wonderful journey (sorry for the long sentence). I never thought that I would ever be able to create anything even close to what I am able to create today. I never thought that I would be satisfied with my own work. However, I always knew from a young age that I just wanted to learn how to make games and how to create 3d content. This was something I have always been very passionate about. Being a game developer has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember and actually pursuing that dream has consumed nearly a decade of my life now. But it doesn't matter to me because it is just something that I love doing and I am still constantly learning and trying to improve myself as a game designer. I am really proud of how far I have come but mostly, I am really proud that I never gave up.

I know that this entire blog post is coming across as really narcissistic and makes me look like the dev who just likes bragging all the time because I am usually really bad at wording these kinds of topics. I even cringed at myself a few times as I typed this up.

What I am trying to say and the point I am trying to get across here is that you should always believe in yourself and never give up on your dreams. If you are passionate about something, always pursue it. When I started out I didn't know anything at all and it took me forever to understand even simple game development concepts. I wasn't able to go to school to learn game development so I had to teach myself. There was a lot of trial and error and still to this day there is. However, I think that if I can learn how to make games then anybody can. Keep working hard, keep trying and never give up.

Okay?

Anyway, this has been a very weak attempt of me trying to write up a motivational blog post but hopefully the message gets across. I truly do believe in all of you and you can accomplish anything that you set your mind on.

I made this turtle... His name is Frog.

Found my HAPPY ZEN place.

Was bored the other day. Cracked open Blender3d and created a new character. Made this turtle you see here. His name is "Frog".

Early WIP Blender Renders

Why is his name Frog? Isn't it a turtle?

Final Model In Unity Engine.

Look at that constant facial expression it has. So chill. So relaxed. This turtle is obviously either super high or really drunk to the point where he doesn't even know what he is. So... lets just call him Frog from here on out. My newest character. Frog the turtle.

Also, I made it possible to customize his skin for unlimited color variations and combos!

What am I doing with my life.......................