5 DEVS Make a GAME without COMMUNICATING! (DOUBLE cycle edition) 

This man's obssesion with adding bosses and centipedes to games that don't need them astounds me.

Sees any game: "This needs more centipede, & also a big giant monster boss"

I love how Phibian fixes the inconsistency of the art style between his pixel art and the art that was introduced at the end of round 1, and then the same thing happens again hahaha

Phibian: i tried making the art consistent so that people dont gouge their eyes out while playing Noa: so anyways, 3 new enemies that i didnt even attempt to make consistent to the artstyle even after seeing that my art has been made more consistent, add a new plant and make them all cover the screen so the player cant appreciate the art of the other devs

I think this series is actually a commentary on the production process in the modern game industry. 4 people putting love and care into, then the final guy comes along and adds the formula he likes and erases half of the work done. The only reason this is a joke is because I don't think it's an intentional commentary

Noah should not be allowed to go last. He just cannot stop himself from tarnishing the other developers hard work with last-minute suggestions. All the other developers understood that the second round was for polishing -but not Noah! He just had to change the entire game loop (boss, rather than endless) and mess up the art (little respect for the pixel art theme).

Noah's an evil genius. He knows that adding a centipede and a big boss monster at the end every single time will cause people to comment about it, raising the interaction on the video and getting it recommended to more people. He also knows that even if it annoys us, the 5 devs concept is too interesting so we'll keep watching it anyway.

Noa try not to add completely irrelevant bossfight to every game challenge [impossible]

I really liked Phibians take on the art for this game. As much as like Noahs art, it does get very samey when he's the one that handles the art in all these top down sort of games.

In the earlier videos of this series TaroDev was heavily criticized for stomping over peoples work and not respecting what was made. He responed and you could see he really put in effort into working with what he got and he ended up always addding so much polish and creativity to each of the games. Noa has been being criticized for this too but has seemingly not listened at all! You run a studio and this but if you want to be part of the process you need to learn to work with others and not on top of them.

No need to "redesign" thoughtful character art at the final minute of development. You decimated the cohesive enemy design previous devs had worked really hard on. The point of this series should be to "yes, and..." the progress previously made.

I think taking the double cycle approach for this series is super interesting

As a pixel artist, (and as an artist in general) Phibian is my hero.

Love the videos, cannot stand Noah's additions each time in them. Cluttered the game immensely with his first round. As soon as he added the bosses and centipedes in the second, I rolled my eyes. The boss plants and timer were just such trash add ons. Hate hating on someone, especially someone who is bringing great videos, but please, you are consistently my least favourite dev. Also advice to the first dev. If the game had stayed as is where you had to click on individual enemies, I'd have never bought the game. As someone who has RSI from mouse work, clicking 1000 times is my own version of Hell. Vampire Survivors does it well by automating it all.

Noa, we love ya, we’re glad you recovered, we love these videos… but that boss was completely uncalled for. You seem to consistently miss what the others devs are trying to create and add unnecessary things or alter the entire vibe and atmosphere of the game to make it a bit more creepy. I know it’s just the style you like but save it for game’s that would actually benefit from it. Either way these videos are still very entertaining, it just hurts a little to see a game so close to finish, change a lot so unneccessarily

Why is there always a need for a boss? This is a survivor type game, it doesn't need a boss to be 'complete'...

of course noah adds sCoRe, monsters straying completely from the water+fire theme, and a boss, making the game as formulaic as possible..

Noa : I like what they have all done with the game so far. Also Noa : I went ahead and changed the entire aesthetic to the game as well as added all these extra components no one asked for.

Noa, as much as I adore and love the effort you put in your projects. You have to understand what the other devs were trying to go for. The whole big bad boss in the end was extremely uncalled for. Though I don't think adding a boss to the project was a bad decision. It could work as a wrap up at the end of each wave. But the devs were obviously going for an "endless, survive as long as possible" type of game, meaning an endgame is not a necessity.

Last guy was just completely detrimental to this challenge. Everyone else seemed to understand the second cycle was for polishing

Phibian: I'll respect the art style and new assets and just work on aligning them Noa: BIG SCARY SPOOKY BOSS AND CREEPY BIG ENEMIES For real, this is a serious collaboration issue. Noa made no attempt to align his art style with Phibians. Working as part of a team with multiple artists, you HAVE to modify your art style. Trying to push yours and yours alone and ignoring the direction will just lead to you being fired.

i almost feel like blackthornprod shouldnt go last, it feels like he always has the most control over the end result. nothing wrong with him but its him every episode! give someone else time to shine!

I was loving this game concept, astounded by how all the devs were working together super cohesively- and then the last guy turns it from a cool “survive as long as you can” to “beat this big boss I just made up” Could we get a version without the time limit please??

Was going to ask if Noa did it again... a quick read says yes 🤣

I kinda liked endless mode better than boss mode NOT EVERY GAME NEEDS A CENTEPEDE! Also the first round was 90% I replaced the visuals the previous guy made.

I have been watching more of these videos because I thoroughly like the idea of multiple artists and game dev's working together and polishing a game that can go any direction. However the one complaint I have (and as others have had) is that there is always an end-game boss full of energy. Yes, some games do warrant a form of endgame to complete instead of endlessly playing till you get bored, but I'm sure there is a better way to incorporate an endgame that ramps up anticipation and makes the player prepare for the end. Maybe there is more interaction of the land in the terms of fire. What if instead of a giant, screen-hogging behemoth of a creature trying to take you down with large, blue, screen-hogging flowers with water guns, your goal is to heal the land with your plants from an impending doom of fire. There are already fire enemies coming to attack you, so why not have the land come for you as well? The land starts to dry up and spread, causing life to decay. You, as the water farmer, are supposed to keep the plant life and surrounding area as healthy and lively as possible, and maybe even take down the main source of the heat and fire before the world gets engulfed in an irreversible drought. Either you win by taking down the main source of the fire, or you lose by the fire burning the world to ash. Points will get tallied for the amount of enemies you kill, how long you last in a single session and how large your farm grows. My idea could totally be straying away from the main idea of the game, I only wanted to provide what I feel could be a great way to compliment what the previous game dev's have already introduced. I don't feel its necessary to have a large fire creature or any form of large boss in every game we see getting developed, and I would love to see more variety from blackthornpod in the terms of his final touches built on top of what already is a beautiful rendition of a game from many talented artists. I very much respect all the work that goes into these videos and the ideas that come from these artists. If anyone has any other suggestions or feedback on what I posted here, please do. I'd love to know what people think about the game in this video.

This is one of the most eye catching respectable series on RU-vid I've seen, the amount of work that goes into game development is admirable

Every other developer: How can I make the game more unique and fun? Noa: CENTIPEDE, BOSSES, DISGUSTING ART STYLE WOOOOOO

You should do a new series where two teams are given a game idea and a time limit then once complete you either vote who won or ask some designated judges who won

Please release the version of the game after Gerard's second cycle too! That look like an awesome game.

I think the biggest thing here is that it’s ok to make big changes SOMETIMES like what happened with the 3d giant fighting game. It wasn’t perfect but the new direction was interesting and ended up pretty cool in the end. The problem comes when you change the entire vision of the project. Honestly the biggest advice I could give is to take the challenge to heart. The idea is to push the devs to work on something as a team and create a shared vision. If the game is clearly set with a good art style and a goal (like the pixel art style and endless survival that the other devs had a shared vision on here) then you should make additions that contribute to that vision. Try a DIFFERENT art style or add another enemy or more plants to add variety to the combat and tactics. The addition of a eldritch horror centipede and tons of other things to change the art style and the overall vision that the other devs had is what has people upset.

Noah just can't stop himself ruining these games.

I definitely like seeing the double-round thing, allows devs who got a lot of their stuff removed or went first and didn’t get to do much to get their final touches in and polish any unfinished ideas they had

Thanks for inviting me Noa, it was a ton of fun! The art and polish of the final game totally blew me away!

BTP 1st run : great 2nd run : ruins it by adding creepy stuff and bosses

Okay so this is a general improvement on the series as a whole. The developers getting a second go at it allows the first person starting to still be able to leave more impression on the end result of the game. Whereas some previous videos, some of the games were completely unrecognizable to the original dev when they tested it at the end. While this still can happen, I feel like this helps make sure a little bit of everyone's vision ends up into the game.

man I really liked the way the game was going up until the final addition.

Noa was doing so good in round 1 with not changing too much. Then we get to round 2 and suddenly adds a "end game" that wasn't necessary at all. The game was about getting a high score by growing plants and defending them, not beating an unecessary boss centipede that serves no purpose other than being a random boss.

I really like the double cycle idea! Although, the games are starting to all look the same, i would recommend either getting some different artists or resignating the art for someone else to do, rather than the same person. I would also love to see some different kinds of gameplay, so far it feels like theyve all just been “attack the enemy” kind of games. And also the way theyre all mostly like.. top-down n stuff, just makes for the same feeling. But overall, great work! Edit: ive read a few more of the comments, and, well.. i honestly agree. Noah is a big contributor of making these games feel the same every single time. I understand you wanna develop this game and make it like a game you wanna see or would like to play, but sometimes all those changes arent necessary. Maybe you were trying to do like a “big twist!” sort of thing every time, but really, please chill out on the add-ons. It kind of just feels like you want all the attention or the main focus of the game to be contributed completely to you, or like you want people to say “noah made this so much better! It was such a trash game before he added all those unnecessary and irrelevant aspects!” i know it sounds a little harsh but we dont wanna see the same videos over and over :(

how cool would it be if at the end every dev gets 4h with his/her version of the game. so 5 games with different polish would exist. maybe with a rating/vote at the end. maybe not all of them would have centipedes and creepy bosses 🙈

Like how Black Thorn just tried to overwrite that mans bomb pixel art LOL. Also I would've preferred more of an endless game with no boss battle.

This double round was a great idea!

I actually am exited to watch these videos so I can see how much Noah strayed from the actual game.

Phibians art style is amazing 😍

I once already gave that idea, but you didn’t notice it, how about 1 developer start a project, and then 2 others will have this project at once, that is, it will turn out to be a “tree”? It will be interesting how it will be different.

I'm having the game problem I had with the last one Noa was in. The first round he was fine, it's the final round where he needs to look past adding bosses for the sake of adding bosses. The game already had a fail state, either you die or your last plant dies. Doing something with the plants for a win state would have been fun. Again with the desire to play it until that last step is made. I was excited to potentially play a farm defense game.

gerard was just advertising his tool kits lol

I love the character design that phibian made

Only real complaints is the fact that a boss and centipede enemy were added as it make the "survivor style" kind of die out as well it feels like your re-using ideas for enemy's. The other complaint is the score, as I think a timer for how long you live would have worked better.

alternative title “4 game devs make a game without communicating. then the last guy completely ruins it”

GOD DAMN CENTIPEDES

feels like that one dude just made it into a add plug

This might be my favorite game from this series so far. Seeing everyone get 2 go's at improving the game and seeing their reactions to the changes is also really fun.

This dude's commitment to selling his shader and effects packs is respectable.

Love the double cycle format. This series is always an instant click for me. Great work, the game looks really fun.

Okay seriously, stop adding a boss to everything, arcade style games where you see how long you can last are perfectly fine, adding a boss to everything is getting very old and annoying. You're a very skilled developer but in almost every one of these videos you decide to dramatically alter the entire gameplay loop at the last minute, effectively ruining the balance and design work of the other developers. Phibian worked to make the art style consistent, and then you added a bunch more stylistically clashing assets, The game looked pretty fun up until you started adding the boss. The gameplay loop used to be to build larger and larger defenses to be able to survive larger and stronger groups of enemies, until eventually you're overwhelmed, see how long you can last. You turned it into you have 8 minutes to achieve a set objective and see how much gold you can produce in that time. It's a dramatic change, and while the old gameplay loop had some balance passes done to it, because this change was last minute there was no balancing passes for the final result by other devs.

How did the game go from an endless score game to a boss battle game right at the end? Adding the boss should have been done at the start of the second round so it could be polished and added onto by the other devs, forcing it at the end just ruined the rest of the game.

The double cycle vids are great because the devs get to see how their game ideas changed.

I really liked this project. I was sad to see it didn’t reach its true potential. It lacked map detail and context. I would love to see a special episode where you have atleast double the developers to add even more styles and uniqueness.

Noa did really good on his first cycle, but second in the first 20 seconds i thought it was a joke. Yes it's missing some life, tree, rock, pixel life to make it prettier and... what? It went from cute with a soul to forgetable

As an avid viewer, I've always wanted to see you do one where it branches out into multiple games, where you make a game and then give it out to multiple groups of devs, and then see which one of the games turns out the best

I think you've gotten the point about the bosses, so just wanted to say that the video was very entertaining! Keep it up!

YEESSS. Just discovered this series a few (okay, several) hours ago and been on a binge since (with a couple of plays of one game I liked) and really been wanting to see devs get a second dev session. This made me happy (but now wanting less devs with more cycles (along with changing order per cycle). Such a great concept / series. Loving this.

Oh great, that’s another game that Noa made into an entirely combat-based game with a massive “epic” final boss that clashes with the style previously set up Also gotta love how the horror vid wasn’t even referenced via clips yet this suffers the exact same kind of problem (even down to centipedes showing up out of nowhere lol)

You can see how influental a game is (vampire survivors in this case) when several people think about it an get inspiration from its mechanics

Gerard just kept adding explosions where there didn't need to be any.

Looks really fun to try one of these challenges, can’t wait to watch!

Yay I’ve been waiting for them to do two rounds! Makes the game so much more polished!

I love that you really take the feedback and improve your processes!

Well done all devs, really liked Rugbug’s ideas in particular!

I can highly appreciate the guy that just planted (pun intended) the idea of a menu screen, but didn't want all art to be his!

You've all done super great! I love these vids and the 2nd cycle definitely showed in the polish of the final game.

We need to put phibian at the end to do the art! Its amaing!

I love videos & projects like this, the end result is always so wild from the initial idea. P.s. Good to see you back, I hope you're doing well with recovery! 👏

Super glad to see you guys are back at it! This is one of my favorite concepts on RU-vid.

Great to see you doing well after the surgery. Entertaining watch; I look forward to future editions!

Unbelievable. He did it again. Noa should either always go first so he doesn't mess up other devs' work, or just not take part at all.

So Gerard made VFX toolkit? I didnt really catch it in the vid

Im convinced this "Noah" guy is actually just a massive centipede

This was a great video, hopefully you make more of them !! :)

I love this series so much. Please don't stop

I’d definitely check it out if the version before the “centipede boss” was available to play.

I'm adding a new phrase to my vocabulary called "Adding a centipede" or "centipeding" for short. It's the process in which someone contributes an item which only appeals to themselves.

Yay, great to have you back! I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens when 8 (or more, if we're lucky!) developers get turns to create a 3D game. It's always fascinating to see how different minds and skillsets come together to bring a project to life!

Noa's getting a lot of hate, and yes, the boss he added in his second round was way out of left field, but at the very least, his first round was pretty good honestly. if it weren't for the huge leap in difficulty that other devs had to balance out, and Noa using his own art style for the new enemies and plants rather than keeping with the already established art style, it would have honestly been a perfect expansion on what was already there. yeah, the game could have gone without the boss n stuff, but at the very least Noa's first round was really great! i hope this becomes a trend and he sees that we want him to keep improving on what's already there, rather than completely alter the course of the game the only other *real* complaint I have is that I'd really like to see Noa try and go with the game's art style rather than his own, as the difference in style between the art for the boss and plant, and the rest of the game is pretty grating

Noah already back in the game hardly a day after surgery. Much respect my friend, you and your brother keep up the amazing content!

Great video, the cycle concept was really fun.

I absolutely loved this format!!! Hope we can see more of it

I love his this turned out, and seeing everyone else's perspective was really fun. Thanks again for inviting me, I had loads of fun😁

As someone who has been part of two of these challenges, let me weigh in and mention that the experience of taking part in this is completely different to the experience of watching the video. You don't get context, you don't know what the others were thinking. Of course it's easy for all these commenters who criticise Noa so heavily to play captain hindsight because they saw the whole video in which the other devs literally explain their thought processes but as a participant it's way different. You don't have time on top of not having any context from the other devs. I think the art Noa did clashes with Phibian's great pixel art, yes. Maybe he should've focused on other things that are not art this time. But I'm sure that he did try to make it fit - he's just not an experienced pixel artist. It's fair to critique Noa but let's be a little civil about it. I think the game still turned out great in the end!

Played the game, it was fun! However, after some time the UI freaks out and covers the whole screen making it impossible to get to the final boss :(

This is my favorite until now! Awesome work ❤

I love this format where they have another cycle

2 things.. 1. somehow these multi-dev games nearly always end up being either high-score based.. or (speedrun) time based. Which is not a problem if you guys like that (or hard to do something else), but would be nice to see something new in a multi-dev game you guys do. 2. The game reminds me a lot of "Atomicrops"

welcome back BTP, i’m so glad you’re back and better than ever

Seeing u come back just brings my day, this video is worth watching it :)

This was a lot of fun to watch, everyone did such great work! Love these videos!

It would be cool if this challenge had a variant where each developer gets to work on a certain element such as art, code, etc.

I love these videos! Second round was a great idea and hope to see more!

This was awesome! Please keep doing these videos! The last changes were a bit disappointing though, it really didn't need an endgame