Fingers crossed, all sounding positive so far! Hey since Raresloth was mentioning how a company monetises for keeping servers full of created levels how are these doing it? Just with the game price?
@ste86uk sure! You can do monetizing multiple ways. In this case, yeah, the game's price is enough if they bring their usual quality. Players appreciate that. If it's fun to play, the game will form a huge player base around itself with pretty much endless possibilities and amount of content. But the important aspect is the developer's approach to overall game creation. Butterscotch Shenanigens obviously love what they're doing. And they interact with their fans. They share their journey with us. And they appreciate us. Different dev as an example but serves the point: Remember Agent A you liked? The game was released with just 2 chapters and the devs added 3 more over the years for free. That's the way to show appreciation. To honor their costumers. You see, there are devs like BS and others they get it and doing it the right way. And on the other side of the spectrum there are greedy companies like Glu or Gameloft and they usually build the financial model first and then the game around it. I read what @RareSloth wrote trying to justify their monthly subscription for King Rabbit. And I don't buy it. There are obviously different ways they could go only if they wanted to. We're here in Levelhead game's thread after all - as an excellent example how to do it right.
Heyo, thanks for coming into the Discord, Macplash! This is Seth from Bscotch. We kinda wandered off because we put Levelhead into Steam Early Access and put the mobile version on hold for a while, but the full launch is coming soon! So you'll see us in here more often. Regarding the touch controls, I definitely get the concern, because Levelhead is a game of skill that can, in many cases, be quite challenging. We believe that we found a good setup for the controls, so you can still do all the same maneuvers you can with a gamepad. We created a system that allows you to "thumb slide" from one button to another, and it keeps them both pressed, so you can do moves like the package jump. We even have a separate set of instructions on the mobile version to teach you these moves as you play through the campaign. Once you get the feel for it, you can do a lot with the mobile controls, and I am able to make speed records with my phone. The one caveat is of course that a touchscreen doesn't have the tactile feedback of a controller, so it will take a little more time to get the muscle memory and feel for. Regarding the question of monetization, the average level is 2.5kb, so they are very small and easy to store. We did a lot of work developing ways to compress user levels to save on server costs, so that we could just charge an up-front price for the game and not bother people with microtransactions or ads.
Hey Seth, don’t mention it, glad to see you here. Welcome back! And thank you for clarifying the controls. Everything sounds fantastic and I’m sure there won’t be any issues with them. I’m counting days to get my hands on this game on mobile, I’m sure it’s gonna be huge! You’ve proven yourselves in the past to bring the highest quality and I’m not expecting anything less than that. Especially after what I’ve seen in Steam version. I’m also glad for your assurance to see you guys in here more often with the launch coming. Although all my concerns disappeared already and all my questions has been answered as well. But I’m sure I’ll come up with something to ask in the future, so no worries.
Thanks for dropping by and giving us the info on the game, that all sounds good and even though I’m worried I’ll be terrible at it with the talk of it being hard it’s still pre-ordered and I can’t wait to check it out.
FYI for those with Xbox Ones, this will be on GamePass when it launches if you prefer to play it on console. Anxious to play it!
@ste86uk forget about playing levels. Check out building them! I watched this like 10 times in a row. Oh my, how cool is that, huh?
@macplash looks pretty hard being so speeded up, at least I hope it’s speeded up and that’s not the actual speed or I’m gonna die....a lot! But yes that looks really cool, I do really like these devs I loved crashlands and spent so many hours on it.
@ste86uk well, it says it's sped up 3 times. Otherwise it'd be pretty unplayable, obviously. I'm expecting to die a lot too. It's just a part of it. It's like Celeste and Super Meat Boy combined, difficulty-wise, right? And those are pretty hardcore platformers. So I'm really looking forward to creating stuff over playing it tbh. I hope there'll be some user creations in Easy or Very Easy category. That I'd gladly play, just to enjoy it.
@macplash Well you’ve mastered dead cells I’m sure you’ll master this too! I’ll give making levels a try too as I did one on the new King Rabbit and I did actually enjoy it even though I never normally create anything.
Just sharing a link to the handbook they emailed out with some tips and info for the game. Sounding really good and like building a good level will take some time too with all those options! https://www.bscotch.net/post/the-levelhead-new-employee-handbook
Love the handbook! I'm getting familiar with the mechanics in Steam version but it's utterly unplayable for me with keyboard + mouse. I'm just not used to gaming on PC. Specifically platformers. It's great for building though. I'll give it a shot on Xbox since I got Game Pass there, but I feel like iOS is going to be my chosen platform for it. To build and do test runs, even go through campaign and trying other users' creations. I'm wondering how the use of Apple Pencil takes the process of building on iPad to the next level. Can't wait to try it! Just a few more days to go. Yay!
I pretty much mainly gamed pc from about the age of 13 ish until recently (I’m now 33) until recent years iOS was just something extra for me when I was away from the pc so mouse and keyboard are amazing for me. But I’m slowly getting better and more use to iOS and it’s my main source of entertainment now. But yes not long to go and I’m looking forward to firing it up, will definitely be playing those training levels and camping ones.
@ste86uk I've been gaming on PC since my very first 286. But over the years I slowly started to prefer consoles for their comfort. Keyboard and mouse are still the best combo for FPS games, no doubt about that. But as far as platformers (and/or hack 'n slash) go, controller will always have the advantage. But with iPads and their big touch screens (and Apple Pencil) I just prefer iOS platform over everything else lately. I'm really looking forward to playing Levelhead on iPad. Especially after what Seth from @bscotchshenani said about the touch controls - it sounds just right. Steam version seems to be ideal for building levels and Xbox (and Switch) - using the controller - seems to be the one to play and go through campaign on. But I'm hoping the iOS version with touch controls hits that sweet spot and becomes ultimate platform for me to both play and build on. Fingers crossed! Anyway, you're in for a treat. My favorite item so far is definitely trampoline. Like you can carry it with you and whatnot. Throw it at enemy so it jumps into spikes. And I love clouds - how they disappear after being touched. There's so much to love.
@macplash yes it was mostly FPS and RPG games for me, it was only ever consoles I played platformers on but mostly lived on the pc. Those sound fun, even just what you said and the handbook give you ideas for creating levels and what you could do. It should be a fun game that gives hours and hours of entertainment...especially if you make levels along with playing them.
In preparation for the launch I linked all my accounts and services to Rumpus (the one to supersede Bscotch ID from now on), so I think I’m ready. What about the rest of you guys? Are you?
