It's always the solo devs that release the most banger games, because there is no corporation or mixed opinions to intervene, we need more developers like this.
Any successful software project I've been a part of has always had 1 guy doing at least 80% of the work. Any less and the final product suffers. It's like a team of people trying to build different parts of a sandcastle - if you don't have someone leading the group and building a common foundation that works for everyone then your sandcastle is gonna look fucked
@@greasydave1318 mostly true, I work in AAA and although its pretty much impossible for 1 person in AAA to do 80% of the work, the part about having someone leading the vision of the game I whole heartedly agree on. Ive been at studios that didn't have a 'game director' and it was a mess. Pretty much every issue was caused by 'too many cooks in the kitchen' sometimes you just need 1, or a few people that have authority over the direction of the game or you have too many people pushing the game in too many different directions. A good example of a game director would be hideo kojima, obviously he didn't make a lot of the metal gear games himself, or do most of the work, but it was his vision that the other developers had to follow and stick to. Altho another issue that AAA games face even with a game director is sometimes a director will be there for half of the game then leave the studio and another director will come in and change the whole direction of the game, pretty sure this is what happened with cyberpunk 2077, the originally director wanted it to be more of an RPG but after pre production he left and another person came in to replace him and he started pushing the game more toward and action game. Then problems ensue as a result of all your pre production work essentially being for a different game. There are a lot of other issues that plague AAA development, like lackluster production support is a big one on a lot of projects, but at this point in my career I see it as a red flag if a project doesn't have a game director.
Animal Well, a game made by 1 GUY, has more players than a "triple A" live service game made by a team of 250 people, using an iconic IP, on a much bigger budget. And both games took 7 years to make.
That's because teams of 250 people have each person having to learn what exactly they are supposed to do and how it's supposed to fit, then take 4 weeks to type out code that could be done in an hour, and then it has to fit together with the other code that other people in the exact same situation have written. That's the creative cost of cost cutting. The irony is palpable.
I got it when it was released on PS+ Extra and had 0 idea who made it until yesterday. I don't really read up on most stuff on PS+ I just try anything that looks cool lol.
@@Xfrtrex I saw your comment in all caps and bold so I just ignored it thinking it was another bot, but the next comment replied to you so I checked lol
the custom engine feels like an achievement on par with Christian Whitehead’s Retro Engine he made for the Sonic genesis title remasters and Sonic Mania
Mr Bunkey just published this banger, congratulations for the solo dev for creating this masterpiece, and that whole ARG before the game's release was awesome
Thank you for actually mentioning the developer by name. So many people are calling this "dunkeys game" when really it was just his studio that published it.
Super great game. I applaud dunkey's knack for finding good games and his enthusiasm for supporting indie devs, but of course the true praise belongs to Billy Basso. 7 years of hard work and it paid off in spades.
Dunkey is actually passionate about video games and it shows in his videos. Honestly not surprised Animal Well is a banger. Can't wait to see what games they publish in the future.
@@Ownxerno one said he did. They’re saying it shows his passion because he chose wisely when picking a debut game, despite it not being one that someone not super familiar with the video game industry would
RU-vidrs make good horror movie. RU-vidrs raising money for charity. And now making games, wrestling etc. it’s pretty cool how independent people can go big
This is so heartwarming because, like when BG3 came out and the industry sneered at the idea that all games should be that good, the industry sneered at Dunkey when he said he was tired of the shit being published so he was just going to do it himseld. Bought it because I wanted to give it money. Playing it like an addict because it's fooking incredible.
I really love the Big Mode mission to actually support creators, and let them do their own work without any outside interference or pressure And I’m really glad the developer of Animal Well produced such a quality product, having done it all by himself is extremely impressive
It's so beautiful to see a passion project receive so much praise, especially considering he's the sole creator of basically everything. This dude must be feeling an euphoria that few may get in life. Always support individuals, not brands, folks :)
That’s the problem; you have to outsmart the enemies, use your brain to solve the puzzles, play a completely finished game on launch, and ENJOY playing it. Twitter haters can’t do that.
When people dismiss something because Dunkey was involved I immediately assume it will be a banger. Dunkey is fantastic and his haters will never kill him alive.
Big kudos to the developer Billy Basso. Always great to see someone put their passion and hard work into something and for it to turn out so successful. Bravo on an awesome game!
the game reminds me of some of the oldschool browser games that i used to play as a kid. you dont kill any enemies and merely dodge and try to solve the level puzzle
Ever since Dunkey mentioned this some time ago, I have been glued waiting for release. This game is so, so good. So happy for him and the team at Bigmode.
This game is fantastic. Got the standard ending last night and I'm now exploring the map meticulously looking for the dozens of secrets I almost certainly missed. It gave me a mixture of the feelings I got from Outer Wilds and Hollow Knight. The sense of discovery just keeps on flowing. Both the visuals and soundscape massively add to the atmosphere of the environments. All of the puzzles have been extremely satisfying to complete. It's not a particularly difficult game but the tools you get throughout allow you to interact with the world in such creative ways. Truly one of the most memorable playthroughs I've had in years.
Could not have picked a better time to release a game as a new publisher than now, a time when seemingly every large publisher is trying their best to antagonize their customers.
It is a "short" game, but there is apparently a second and third layer of secrets. Excited to get a couple more hours in. Hoping to learn how to bubble chain lol.
It's always great to see smaller projects get picked up and pushed into the publics' view! Also it shouldn't matter how much attention a project gets so long as it's not toxic.
Love how visually dynamic this game is. The interactively designed trippy characters make this game charming. Beautiful game and stoked that it’s being covered by people like yourself.
@@akramelseriol6989 But everyone IS capable of critical thinking. Even if they haven't noticed for 20 years because they're not 40 years old, they may absolutely be capable of saying "AAA games have been shit for 10/5/3/2 years".
@@normanmai7865 @normanmai7865 oh I am not saying otherwise, I agree that triple A games have been going in decline lately. I was replying to the "where you been?" Because it seemed out of place and unnecessary. He made it seem like its common knowledge and mocking the other guy.
I like this format. I feel like the type of person who watches penguinz0 (the youtuber who does videos) and the type of person who watches moistcritical (the game streamer and reactor) are different audiences. I am a person who watches penguinz0, so I like the fact you didn't just play a stream clip and actually did a presentation. Obviously I know you have limited time so I put up with the stream clips (as I'm sure a lot of us do), but if you could present that'd be nice. Also it gives the moistcritical audience something new, and they don't have to watch the same thing twice.
I don't really like metroidvanias but I LOVED Animal Well. There are so many well executed ideas and large-scale puzzles it made me feel like a smarty pants.
For me, one of my favorite games of all time. Not just because the game is amazing but also because of how it was made. As a graphic designer who is currently teaching myself how to make video games while also getting into music making, Billy is who I want to be. I'm not going to be coding my own engine lol, but art, music, design I got. This game is such a huge motivation and inspiration for me.
He's not reviewing though. Charlie is just talking about how great it is that a project from a RU-vidr didn't end in a bad product or in disappointment.
I used to play Adventure 2 on the Atari throwback and this reminds me of that, just the way you evade that giant cat and transition screens. That game was solid color screens of mazes and evading enemies and I would play it for hours. I would play this for _days._
Its so nice and polished. A breath of fresh air. Really hoping more Indy games pop off and show these game studios that gamers like creativity and well polished games over an IP name
It’s nuts how one opinion in a video can make people rabid and despise a person. I completely disagree with his take on the Arkham games, but that doesn’t mean his other videos aren’t good.
Dunkey is genuinely such a good human being. He has amplified so many great creators. Funny enough the way I found about charlie was when he was in a dunkey video like 6-7 years ago.
no need for researched. Donkey put out a vid and it has a comedic section about who made the game and he makes it clear this was all done by 1 dude. Donkey doesnt even explain how he is involved, he wanted it to be Billy's game.
@braydenbarrett3205 there is like 4 endings and finding the last 2 by yourself would take you super long. Even finding all the eggs for one of the endings will take you a long time by yourself
There's definitely a bit of luck involved in being a solo indie dev even if your game is good, so this is just awesome that Dunkey published the game and that you're putting another spotlight on the quality of it. Good work doesn't always get noticed, but every bit helps, and both you and Dunkey are doing a lot to make the game dev community feel like more of a community.
ive been playing it and i can really feel the love, care, and attention that was put into the game. its a really fun metroidvania style puzzle game and im really happy dunkey is letting indie game dev studios/solo indie devs be published under his company.
The bubble tech isn't the intended way to solve a lot of puzzles because the dev has to assume any area you can access without it can be solved with intended methods. But it's an intended mechanic because there are places the Dev blocks off bubbles with in game ways (level design) so you have to do it the proper way
Quitting league is the greatest joy a human can receive. I quit and now I'm playing all the fun games from my backlog. My friends quit with me and we play co-op games now. Dying Light, Raft for now but will play more for sure. I also go outside more I play basketball I've gone from I've lost 12kg since I stopped caring about this shit game. I implore anyone that hasn't done so TO DO IT TODAY.
The reason i found out about Animal Well, was because of Fury Forged (who mostly does Noita content) and not Dunkey. Really love the process of discovering the different mechanics and secrets. Being reminiscent of games like Tunic and Outer Wilds.
It's a little sad that dunkey seems to be getting more publicity from this than the developer, but I suppose that's the catch-22 when you sign such a big name to publish your game. Billy Basso has created something truly special, and I am looking forward to following his future exploits.
It does seem to be a mutually beneficial arrangement though. I’m sure lots of people heard of the game solely because of Dunkey’s promotion of it, and in his promotion he did explicitly say it is Billy’s game and not his.
Honestly the moment I picked up this game I knew I was playing something special and I’m grateful to Dunkey for elevating this game so far above and beyond in reach than it would otherwise be for Billy.
Dunkey is a popular RU-vidr for sure but this game being front page on playstation and part of ps plus is absolutely mega and a huge achievement for Billy, Dunkey and big mode!
This bodes very well for bigmode. Dunky did announce bigmode saying he doesn't know anything about making games, but he does know how to tell if it's a good game or not. He knew this game would be the perfect first publish and if this is the standard to meet to get published, then bigmode stands to become a titan in the industry. It's deadline season so I don't have time to play this right now, but I'm for sure going to try it when I'm done with uni. Thankfully the ads suggest people will still be discovering secrets and such for a long time so I won't have everything spoiled by the time I get around to it.
There’s a BigMode game jam they do too and you can submit your game and Dunkey might play it on stream... that means YOU could be the next BIGMODE BIG BOI!
I think the bubble chain is very much intended, there is a secret egg that rquires you to use the technique in a very precise manner and there is other way to get it, except bubble chaining
bubble chaining is definitely an intended mechanic. There are multiple rooms that block bubble chaining by hanging vines from the ceiling or the hummingbird, but otherwise, it's expected to be possible.