Vendor Art Pass
The vendors in game will finally have their placeholder NPCs replaced with actual characters.
I've always viewed those placeholders as the characters in my head, but I'm excited to finally have my interpretation of those actually in the game for you.
I still need to model the NPC customers, but I think I'll be taking a break from character work to return to the vending machine management systems.
As an FYI, this doesn't mean I can add a male character. Keiko was modelled and rigged by a professional character artist, the setup of which allows me to animate her in a variety of ways.
The horse has run away
I'm no character modeller (clearly), and this wasn't something I had planned to do myself. I was pretty devastated last year when, during a pretty grim financial outlook, I'd spent too much time and money chasing publisher who all said "No, thanks. But stay in touch".
“We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.”
Here's the current deal with publishers for any young, sparkly-eyed devs out there. In order to get a game signed, you need to be one of the following:
Content complete & near release
An exceptionally strong vertical slice
A world renown team with a slew of hit titles under your belt
The game has gone viral on several social medias
Be the son of the richest man in France
Last year, Honcho was none of the above.
Recently, the game went viral. 11 days ago we hit 50,000 wishlists. As of today we're a little over 68,000. I'm not sure where the second round of wishlist additions has come from, but it's very welcome. I expect the velocity of it to die down soon. This has lead to a lot of publisher outreach.
“Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”
I imagine myself having signed with one of those publishers last year. A great windfall of funding would have arrived, and I'd have a small team of talented developers with the game much further along. But also, not being hungry enough, I don't commit to the amount of social media content I'd been doing, and we never get our viral moment.
In the fugue of desperation, I'd forgotten that Honcho itself exists in spite of publisher interference. Distancing myself both from the failures of last year, and the successes of this, I can now clearly see that I can't call it.
Whether, like the farmer's son, we break our leg trying to break in one of the horses, perhaps the next day conscription officers will refuse our service because of that leg.
If you're a developer struggling to get signed, consider the Alan Watts story about the Chinese farmer and just keep cracking on. We do it for the process anyway, right?
Thank you all for your continued support. I promise you the 0.3 build is coming along nicely, with me improving several disciplines along the way.
Greg
Comments (15)
i have a kinda weird idea for a future update (far far future) where you will be able to find abandoned card in random places on the map that you will be able to fix and then drive something like in my summer car or my winter car. I still know that the game has a lot to do so im not expecting for you to work on it or even thinking about it right now
Greg, I've been following you for a long time, back when PSJR made videos on Jalopy, and you are a one in a million indie dev, and I'm proud to support you. I only hope that Honcho becomes such a success that not only can you keep going, but finally buy back Jalopy. And as a tiny streamer, I'll do all I can to help in support of this game and your journey.
Thank you for taking the time to write this! It's entirely my pleasure to work on this stuff, I'm just glad people can enjoy it.
Im not going to lie, your bit of "Tofu is the only non-female character i can afford" is pretty amazing and funny. Its why im here. THEN i found out you made Jalopy! It was a huge inspiration to me. (Even though i had to pirate it as a kid... i bought it later when i had money) Infact, i started 3D Modeling partially BECAUSE of Jalopy (you can probably tell by my ancient pfp) Im no professional, however if you can provide me with a basic process. And some examples, i MIGHT, MIGHT be able to help? No money, no need to pay me, I'd do it for the love of the Game, however, i am no professional- well- anything. However, i can give some revent examples if you need help.
Funnily enough I found out about your game from folks talking about how dedicated you were to Keiko and some of the less than positive responses you'd been getting over it. I looked into the game, joined your patreon, tried the game then started telling my friends about it and now I know it's on at least one or two of their wishlists now!
Thank you for the support, and getting the word out there!
Nice! Characters can add a lot of depth to the world
Isso só mostra o quão o projeto é incrível e que tem um futuro glorioso pela frente! Seguirei o apoiando pois gosto muito da sua sinceridade e honestidade com o público, além do seu trabalho e dedicação ao Honcho (and sorry for always commenting in my native language, but it's my way of showing that there are definitely a lot of Brazilians interested in the game's release).
Vendor NPCs look amazing! Excited to see them in game
The NPCs look good, I didn't really understand the rabbit hole horse analogy. But good to see the wishlist numbers increasing!
Honestly I don't think it would have been better with a sponsor. You poured your heart into this and I feel like with sponsors it turns out to be a lot about money. The reason the wishlists blew up is because people see that you actually care and you're not going to shortcut around things just because it's more profitable. Keep going and stay strong! You're super talented and got a heart of gold. As long as you keep that I believe you will be rewarded. I mean the whole thing about the one sexist comment about some dude wanting to play a man made people realise what good of a human you are.
The sudden interest from publishers now that the game has gained some attention is almost insulting in my opinion. Regardless, thank you for all your hard work. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor in whatever form they may take.
It's just business, so there's no hard feelings from me. My personal opinion is that handing over 100% of revenue before recoup, and half of revenue in perpetuity (as seems typical now) thereafter isn't really a deal worth considering at this point.
Thank you so much for the continued hard work and development. I think the game will slowly but surely catch on in time. A lot of people my age (25) prefer quick and simple games but there are still those few such as I who love these style of games. Your hard work has not gone unnoticed friend!
I enjoy the work so it really is my pleasure. Continued refinement will see Honcho become the unique thing from my head I'm sure. Thanks.