Water

Before & After water shots

Animation

Procedural / Traditional animation slide

Billy discusses implementation details behind different aspects of animal well including water and animation which used a mixture of traditional sprite animation and procedural animation.

Billy notes the procedural animation was more uncanny so he used it more for antagonist characters

2017 - 2019

A Billy animal well tweet

In 2017 the game looked closer to a NES game.

Billy tweeted about development and the game but had limited traction and points out the 5 likes on his tweet.

Dev Tools

Screen Editor

Sprite Editor

Billy built custom editors including a screen editor for building screens for Animal Well, a sprite editor and a world editor for positioning screens.

Other tools used included visual studio 2009, reaper, modified aesprite and notepad for design and task tracking.

Development Summary slide

For 4 of the 7 years Animal Well was in development Billy was working a full time job.

Originally he only planned for it to be a one hour game. He wanted to keep scope small and stick to tools he already knew.

Previous Efforts Slide

Before Animal Well Billy worked on several custom engines including a 3D one he describes as a less good version of unity.

Past Experience Slide

Billy studied film but realised he'd rather be making games than making films.

He worked at companies making educational games and mobile ports including one of mortal kombat.

At one job he made a diarrhea particle which he tweeted about to make fun of his job. He notes somehow he wasn't fired.

Billy onstage w The Making of Animal Well slide

Billy Basso @animalwell.bsky.social takes us through his journey up to making animal well and the tools and techniques he used to make it.

Chloe onstage w slide Alt Features Billy Basso

Powerhouse Games Curator @chloeappleby.bsky.social onstage at the Alt: Features section of Alt: Games introducing today's feature talk Billy Basso talking about his career and the development of Animal Well.

Slide with Studio Folly logo

Slide with Gubbins key art

Slide with Real Bird Fake Bird screens

Slide with Dogpile key art

To date @folly.studio have released three games
- Gubbins
- Real Bird, Fake Bird
- Dogpile

Jessica onstage with a slide saying "Alt: Sessions Jessica Shipard Colour Matters: Creating Evocative Palettes for Indie Games Powerhouse"

At Alt: Sessions for "Colour Matters: Creating Evocative Palettes for Indie Games" with @jessicashipard.bsky.social of @folly.studio

Jae teaching ink in week 1.

George teaching twine in week 2.

Over 3 weeks me & @dinopoke.bsky.social, as part of @serenade.games, have been teaching interactive fiction to writers with non-games backgrounds. Now we're hosting a showcase of the games created by our participants.

📅 Sat 28th March
🕕 3pm
📍 Arts & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta

See you there!

Arkington Owen follows with @wizardmagicgame.bsky.social and his thoughts on RPGs, being unable to switch off your logic brain when creating a fantasy world and going down development rabbit holes and loving it!

Next is Koji Yajima with King Out. King Out is a 1 v 1 online multiplayer chess boxing game.

Next is @barmearme.bsky.social with @buruthegame.bsky.social funded by Screen Australia and Screen New South Wales

WIP night kicks off with @reubenm.bsky.social from @noblesteedau.bsky.social introducing the night. Reuben says this is the biggest WIP night yet!

Reuben gives special thanks to @xtineagerilla.bsky.social for doing all the work that makes WIP night happen!

We're at Arts & Cultural Exchange Parramatta for @noblesteedau.bsky.social Work In Progress Night.

Supported by Screen NSW and Arts & Cultural Exchange.

Funders & Fundees panel slide

After lunch "Funders & Fundees" panel with Screen Australia Head of Games Joey Egger, Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman, artsACT Program Officer Kiki Skountzos & Oppolyon Studios Co-founder Isaac Iozzi moderated by Screen Canberra Games Administrator @jarrodfn.bsky.social

Sandwich with pesto

Lunchtime!

Holly back onstage

Right after the panel Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman returns to the stage to announce that ACT Minister for Business, Arts and Creative Industries Michael Pettersson MLA has joined us to visit the conference, thanking him for making time for local game developers!

Influencer discussion continues with curators, tastemakers and a recommendation of SullyGnome for finding the best streamers for your game before talk of launch discounts vs bundles, creating value for players while still making money, DLC attach rates and creating a long tail for your game.

The panel for "Business & Marketing in the indie space"

"Business & Marketing in the indie space" panel discusses wishlists, lengthy dev cycles, events, social media, community, how you can't do everything in marketing, the changing games media landscape, content creators and how the dredge demo was designed to "hook" players (Jon notes he went there)

Screen for "Business & Marketing in the indie space" with headshots with panellists.

After morning tea, time for the panel "Business & Marketing in the indie space" with @gameconsulting.bsky.social @merryh.bsky.social Marketing Head at @wingsfund.me
@classicceri.bsky.social & Amy Campbell from Uni of Canberra moderated by @maarlzipan.bsky.social from @hipsterwhaledev.bsky.social

Two muffins resting on an armrest

Morning tea time!

"Canberra: what makes us special and what do we need" panel

The panel "Canberra: what makes us special and what do we need" features Ed Orman of Uppercut Games, @deanw.xyz of Blue Manchu, @markschramm.bsky.social , Kieran Schmidt of Branno and Michelle McPartland of @sledgehammergames.com moderated by @canberra.games Vice President & ub4q lead Ruqiyah Patel

Jarrod at the podium introducing the first panel of Equip Canberra Games "Canberra: what makes us special and what do we need".

Screen Canberra's first Games Administrator and @canberra.games President @jarrodfn.bsky.social introduces the first panel of the day "Canberra: what makes us special and what do we need".

Slide with Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman

Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman introduces Equip Canberra Games, thanking @nfsaonline.bsky.social for hosting us and talking about Screen Canberra's increasing support for game development with lots of praise for their newest hire @jarrodfn.bsky.social !

Senior Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Violet doing the welcome to country for equip canbrra games

Senior Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Violet delivers a wry welcome to country to "the best city in this nation".

Large screen displaying: Screen Canberra Equip: Canberra Games CBR: Canberra National Film and Sound Archive Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman is at a podium presenting below the screen.

Me & @dinopoke.bsky.social are visiting Canberra for Equip Canberra Games at @nfsaonline.bsky.social

Very cool to see a games conference in Canberra!

"Assembly Definitions in Unity - Better code, faster dev" with Emmet Winter showed how to reduce Unity compile times by splitting the codebase into separate assemblies so changes to one part of the code do not require recompilation of other sections of the codebase
#TGLightningTalks

"Automate! Play your changes on Steam 2 minutes after you make them (on a shoestring budget)" with Callum Spring showed how doing automated builds are easier and more affordable than you may think using only an old computer and github actions. Start with a simple script & grow
#TGLightningTalks