Isa Hellström 🔜Nordic Game on LinkedIn: #art #programming #project #indie #indiegames #gamedevelopment #unity (2024)

We are attending at the Nordic Game next week - together with Sweden Game Arena! We are very much looking forward to presenting our game "Magical Harvest" there and taking the opportunity to find a publisher for diving into our next development steps. Moon Flame Games waits on Station E6-DS2!If you want to play the demo of the game, chat with us and get some of our stickers - feel free to drop by! #gamedev #indiedev #ngc2024

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So, it's done! The demo is released on Steam and Itch io! Last minute issues with Steam, but now it works!I'm relieved and nervous at the same time. It seems that the visual style is a positive point at the moment, which is great! I am really happy about the last months of development and progress. Without the small team behind Moon Flame Games, this would not have been possible! I am so grateful for their work and really happy to work with such amazing people! But now... let us enjoy the demo! Steam: https://lnkd.in/eW55sMZd Itch io: https://lnkd.in/dUXHuven

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Just some random thoughts of a nervous developer.So, just a few days left until the Demo of Magical Harvest releases on Steam. It's an early-development demo that showcases a few of the main features we have. After working on the game for nearly 2 years in Unity, basically solo, then switching to Unreal and redoing it since 6 months there (with a few more people in the team!)- I'm not sure if I feel happy about it, releasing the demo or if I should be afraid. What is, if it's not fun enough? What is, if basically no one is playing the demo?What is, if the players expect more? What is, if the players don't understand that it's an early stage demo? Hah! Early stage after 2,5 years of work! But well, switching to Unreal Engine needs a lot of time, but it is worth it. The game is more stable, the graphics look much nicer without a lot of effort and it's more fun to see progress in UE. Not all features that we have in Unity are rebuild yet, but I guess 3-4 more months and the state is the same, just better. With the upcoming demo, I'm not only afraid. I'm proud that the game seems not to crash (at least not in our latest tests!). No serious bugs (hopefully). A nicer environment as 2 months ago. I hope, we can gather a lot of feedback from players to improve. The best thing would be, if everyone is happy and we can just continue. So, the game is available during the Farm-Fest on Steam and then - in May - you can play it on the Nordic Game Conference! The plan is, to have the Character-customizer ready till the NGC! Beside all the Business work that needs to be done...If you are interested in having a look, feel free: https://lnkd.in/eW55sMZd#gamedev #indiegames #indiedev

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How quickly this year has come to an end!We (my wife and I) moved to the centre of Sweden and now live in a small village in the middle of the forest, an hour away from the nearest small town, and got married. You often find game studios in the centre of big cities. However, we are not fans of such cities and like nature and also the possibility of being able to work from home at any time. For us, the location in the middle of the forest is perfect. We see a lot of wildlife (birds, deer, foxes, rabbits), we have snow in winter and it's quiet. At night you can hardly see the stars more clearly as the light pollution is not very strong. This leads to a good work-life balance. We also have the chance to see the Northern Lights here. Magical Harvest It's hard to believe, but we've been working on the game for 2 years now. Starting in Unity, we have now switched to Unreal Engine 5. Our Unity game version is now officially a prototype. But from the beginning: The year started with a focus on adding animals to our Unity prototype. The first daily routines of the NPCs were also implemented and with them the first part of the city. The character creation feature and the creation of new character models took up a lot of time. This took almost the entire months of March and April. This was followed by a lot of visual revisions: The farm trees, the grass, more items in decoration mode and the ability to colour decoration items. This was followed in August by the seasons in the game and the models & icons of all farm plants (except flowers and trees). The dialogue system was expanded and adapted to the mood of the NPCs and made more dynamic. But then came the radical change. In September, the game engine Unity introduced a new payment model and destroyed the trust of many users. So, from October onward, the game has been developed in UE5. This has the advantage that previous elements in the game can also be improved - in addition to the graphical jump forwards. At the same time, we started to be part of the "Sweden Game Arena Coaching Programme"! Through the programme, we were able to take part at the "Sweden Games Conference" in October. After the successful conference, things were a little more quiet from our side. The reason for this was that we focused fully on the implementation of game features in UE5. In addition, the company "Moon Flame Games" was officially founded, which is now our game studio. Additionally, we had interviews with interns and are happy to announce that our team will grow by two artists in January and two in March. We are really looking forward to it! The whole process will take Magical Harvest to the next level! Especially visually. The year has now come to an end and we are heading into the new year with a positive feeling! We wish you all the best from the bottom of our hearts! With warmest regards, Isa & Marie Hellström Moon Flame Games#gamedev #indiedev #indiegames

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A bit late, but I took a week off after the #SwedenGameConference and then I worked with full energy on #MagicalHarvest in Unreal Engine 5. So now here's a summary of the latest happenings: Sweden Game ConferenceThe Sweden Game Conference, held annually in Skövde, is a prominent event that brings together game developers, enthusiasts, and industry professionals. The 2023 edition proved to be a significant milestone for me as I showcased my game, "Magical Harvest," receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback that fueled my motivation to take the next big step in my career.The SGC was awesome! We received overwhelmingly positive feedback that fueled my motivation to progress on with even more passion! - The Drakys species dominated player choices, with no one opting for humans or elves.- Surprisingly, the Bachelor Valariel was more popular than the Bachelor Azriel among players.- In comparison to Stardew Valley, "Magical Harvest" was said to be more rewarding, especially in the farming aspect- The switch from Unity to Unreal Engine 5 was validated by the latter's impressive visuals.- The use of magic in the game garnered high praise for its satisfying experience.- The Cross-breeding mechanic became a hooking feature - Nomlings, the adorable creatures, won hearts and generated requests for plushies and additional merchandise. Nom nom nom indeed!Unreal Engine After the Sweden Game Conference, I jumped into getting the basic stuff programmed for "Magical Harvest" in Unreal Engine 5. Turned out it was way easier than I thought - which is a good surprise, right?Right now, things are moving quicker than I thought, and I'm pushing hard to whip up a demo version by around April. I'm back to around 12 hour working days, but I enjoy it! But let's keep it real, there's still a bunch of work to do before that can happen. There are a lot of features and I still need to get more familiar with UE5. But the learning curve is very steep. Founding a company and internships So, I'm currently within the process in founding my own game studio "Moon Flame Games". I despite paper-related work (even if it's online now), especially if it's in a language I'm not so confident with (Swedish). Parallel, we are searching for 1-2 interns to help with the visuals of the game. It is so exciting to be on the other side now! #indiedev #gamedev #unrealengine5

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I'm still working with #UnrealEngine5 now. And I won't go back to Unity. I really fell in love with UE5, even if currently some tasks take longer to finish. It looks so much better than in #Unity with less effort putting into graphics. Additionally, I'm preparing a Pitch for the #SwedenGameConference. The first event I'm attending with Magical Harvest. We will have booth there as well and will showcase the Unity-version of Magical Harvest (officially the prototype). Sadly, the Unreal Version is not far enough to showcase. Only to walk between the maps. If you're also going to the SGC, feel free to talk to me :) There will be stickers! #gamedev #indiedev

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Normally I'm not so write-active on LinkedIn, but now I have the urge to write something. I'm solo-developing a farming game "Magical Harvest" since over 1,5 years with Unity.Over a week ago #Unity created a disaster within in the #gamedev scene. I used this to try out #UnrealEngine 5 for real this time. I always wanted it, because most of the interesting job offers are for Unreal / C++. But I never made the jump, because why should I? I was confident with Unity, so no need. For 7 days I tested the Engine in some directions I would need for my game and followed small tutorials for the basic overall workflow in UE. Not everything was good of course, a lot of crashes and some stuff is not working like I'm used to from Unity. But overall it was worth it - spending that time into trying it out. And now I want to stay with it. Of course, I still have to learn a lot. I'm stuck everyday with a new problem, but I covered already a huge part of topics that I need for my game (I'm really afraid about the Inventory-Drag&Drop system, but well... it will work!). In Unity I hated my visuals. I was not happy with them, not satisfied. I spent hours in adjusting lighting, AO and whatsoever. In Unreal I just dragged the Assets into the game without adjusting anything and it looks awesome! Since yesterday I'm working on my Project in Unreal and started porting Assets and game logic. It will take a few months, but I'm sure this is the right direction to make the game even better! I can fix some coding issues that I still have in Unity and it just looks so much better (yes, I could adjust the visuals in Unity, but seriously? I want to work with Unreal now and think it's more valuable for me for my own future). I can't wait to make more progress! #indiedev #indiedeveloper #gamedev

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