The Omins | Devlogs

August 2023 Update

Hello dear friends of the omins! It's time for a new update 🤓

The planned launch date of the Kickstarter is approaching but we are still far from the number of followers we need to grant its success. That's why in the last month I started to play a little with the ads campaigns in Facebook and in Instagram. Maybe some of you have joined this newsletter thanks to it. You can find the video I used for the ads at the following link:

Youtube - Teaser August 2023

At the same time I'm working hard to get the first official demo ready for October. Then I will contact some content creators to play the game and show it to the public.

The objective is to reach 1000+ followers on Kickstarter in order to set a funding goal of 35K€. If this objective cannot be reached in October, the launch date of the Kickstarter may shift to November. I don't like the idea of postponing it, but this is for me something like the first boss fight in the development of the game and I want to be sure to be prepared for it.

Ads campaigns

At the beginning of August I launched an ads campaign on Facebook and Instagram consisting of a video and a button opening a link of my choice. Here are the results for ~9 days of ads campaign:

430k impressions

42.5k clicks

+ 68 Instagram followers

+ 52 Facebook followers

+ ~130 Mailing list contacts

+ ~300 Steam wishlists

+ 5 Kickstarter followers

+ 10 Discord members

I'm quite satisfied of results considering that I was experimenting all the time and that August is not the best period to run ads for videogames. For the next ads campaign I already have an optimal configuration and don't need more testing.

Development

Main menu and localization: I created a main menu with Video and Audio configurations and a language menu. The first official demo will include the following languages: English, Italian, French and Spanish.

Twitter - Main menu

The resource panel has been completed with the description of all resources present in the game. A hint label will show the description of objects and units by simply pointing the mouse on them and waiting a few seconds. Alternatively, the label can be forced to show by holding the key H.

Twitter - Resources panel

Most weapons and armors have different classes depending on the material used to craft them: stone weapons are crafted with stone components, copper armors are crafted with copper components, and so on. Components are created by Crafters in the crafter huts. Weapons and armors when damaged need components to restore them. Divine weapons can be used only by Hero soldiers and they never get damaged.

Omin Panel: the player can inspect the status, the skills and the gears of his omins by opening the Omin panel that is placed at the bottom-left corner of the screen. Much information has been added to it, including the weapon and the armors owned by the omin.

Twitter - Omin Panel

That's all folks! Please, support the project and share it with your friends and on social media😀 Finally, I'd like to thank all the new people that subscribed to this newsletter. Don't hesitate to contact me at the address below or on Discord to share your thoughts or ask questions about the project.

contact@temesagames.com

See you soon 👋 Gunax

June-July 2023 Update

Hello dear friends of the omins! During the last month, the development has taken most of my time and I didn't communicate too much. I'm sorry for it 🤓 This should change in the next weeks, since the Kickstarter campaign is planned in 3 months and we need much more followers before launching it. According to some fellow developers I need 1000+ followers on KS to reach the funding goal of 35K€. This means that I should start to communicate quite intensively. At the same time I must prepare a demo and the project page on Kickstarter. And since I'm working alone most of the time, this will be challenging (and exciting). Game cover I'm also looking for an artist to draw the cover for the game. Apparently, it's more difficult than I thought at the beginning. I'm contacting people on ArtStation, on Fiverr and also game art studios. If someone among you knows an artist or a studio interested in this job, please let me know at my email contact@temesagames.com. MacOS I'm trying to figure out all the restrictions to run an application on MacOS. By default, MacOS runs only applications that are signed and notarized. It is still possible to run the game even if it does not comply with these requirements but the user needs to modify some system preferences. Ideally, I should avoid this last case. So, another goal for the KS is to have everything ready to port the demo also on MacOS. Development The development was focused on game controls, user interface and the rework of some modules. I implemented more than 30 orders that the player can give to the omins. And many others still need to be implemented. Why so many orders? Well, I imagined The Omins as a game in which the player has more interactions with the units rather than with the buildings (as done in village building games). Anyway the player doesn't need to micro-manage the omins all the time. My objective is to give the player a feeling of total control over the omins so that he can order them to do almost everything including chatting with another omin, attempt to seduce him/her, capture a surrendered enemy, tame an animal, rescue an injured ally, extract resources, hunt, build, repair, sleep and so on... In order to make all these commands easily accessible by the player I had to introduce a series of tools and mechanics, such as a command menu, the command pins, the possibility to chain commands and a button to hurry the omins. I think all these aspects will become much clearer when presented visually. So, I'm planning to make a series of videos to publish during the next weeks in order to explain the controls of the game and show the functioning of the different orders.

That's all folks! Please, share the project with your friends and on social media to support the project 😀 Finally, I'd like to thank all the new people that subscribed to this newsletter. Don't hesitate to contact me at the address below or on Discord to share your thoughts or ask questions about the project.

contact@temesagames.com

See you soon 👋 Gunax

May 2023 Update

Dear friends of the omins, I have some fantastic news for you for this month of May! Steam page Finally the game has its page on Steam! After producing many screenshots, gifs and a video (that is not yet a trailer) it's finally online. You can see it by clicking the button below.

Someone on reddit explained to me that the algorithm of Steam rewards the projects that get high numbers of wishlists. So, have a look at the page and wishlist it to make the omins happy 😀 Official website The official webpage has been also revamped and has now a new fresh look with a press kit page! I invite you to visit it by clicking the following button:

Official website

Music composer I would also like to announce the collaboration with the composer Pieter Van Vliet! When I listened to his music I fell in love with the melodies and the exotic sound. So I absolutely wanted similar music for The Omins. Pieter already composed 4 tracks for the game. I am planning to upload them on Soundcloud so that you can listen to them ;) Kickstarter and first demo I do not have yet a precise date for the launch of the Kickstarter campaign, but I can say with 95% certainty that it will be in October 2023 coincidently with the Steam Next Fest. On that occasion, I'm going to publish the first demo on Steam and hopefully this event will give a certain amount of visibility to the game and to the crowdfunding campaign. Development Obviously, I made important progresses also in the development of the game. The most important are:

The construction of walls and gates.
Implemented the player for the music tracks.
Improvement of the animations of the omins.
Introduced different new sound effects.
The sea has a new aspect with effects and animations.
Improved controls and the command menu to give orders to the omins.

That's all folks! Remember that sharing the project with your friends and on social media will help a lot to ensure the success of the project 😀 In conclusion, I'd like to thank all the new people that subscribed to this newsletter. Don't hesitate to contact me at the address below or on Discord to share your thoughts or ask questions about the project. Email: contact@temesagames.com Discord: Official Discord server See you soon 👋 Gunax