Thank you very much for the kind comment

Thank you very much for the kind comment

The game is now finished Thank you all for the support and kind comments during the development

All discussions now moving to the "finished game" section :

UPDATE : PARASITE *GREENLIT*

Parasite has been Greenlit and be will available on the Steam Store in the near future (release date to be confirmed). If you like the game, please continue to show your support !

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =562239858

OVERVIEW

Parasite is a non-linear retro platformer with a mix of action and puzzles. The player controls an alien worm wanting to get rid of a human space colony on his planet. There are multiple shapes to unlock and to switch between to facilitate the navigation and sabotage the complex.

PLAYABLE DEMO

Contains ~15% of the full game (tutorial area + 1 out of 8 modules)

Browser demo

Recommendations : up-to-date Chrome + Xbox360 compatible gamepad

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526 ... index.html

Desktop demo

Recommendations : Windows 7/8/10 + Xbox360 compatible gamepad

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526 ... emo0.9.zip

KEY FEATURES

• 4 unique environments with their own specificities
• 4 shapes to unlock, each providing an exclusive ability
• Non-linear level design allowing for routing choices
• Use health as a resource to change shape and work around obstacles
• Integrated timer, for the speedrun enthusiasts
• Deactivate all 8 station modules before too many humans can escape !
• Controller support (360 gamepad compatible recommended) and keyboard customisation

For those who care and have similar questions - the results of my encounter with experts accountants and lawyers

As I reminder I live in Hungary, therefore statuses are those of the local legislation, but equivalent do exist at least in most of Europe. Not sure about US/Asia

The status that works best for my case (see initial post, "amateur/hobbyist" without an infrastructure) is "self-employed" (exact term "önálló tevékenységet végző magánszemély", e.g. "individual working for himself", sort of) ; this is roughly similar to "independent", "sole trader" and/or "micro enterprise" depending on the country.

I only need to register with the Chamber of Commerce to obtain a "business tax ID" ; this is all done WITHOUT incorporating. Invoices, if any, are therefore done with the name of the person, not a company.

For information purposes, here this costed me ~50€ (25€ administration fee + 25€ as I preferred to have the paperwork done by the accountants as it's all in Hungarian, which I don't speak)

Without an actual company, constrains are minimal (no business bank account, no payroll, no minimal regular social contributions, etc.) and we are only taxed on benefits (revenue - spendings ; income tax + contribution + vat + etc.)

Sounds simple enough in principle ! I'll know more about the actual details when I'll go through some figures.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to try the demo and to comment, 'much appreciated !

I'm meeting legal experts this week, so hopefully I can sell the full game very soon.

I looked into sole trader / sole proprietorship, but I don't think it's as interesting in Hungary (where I live now) as it is in the UK. Lots of obligations, and it seems more suited for a full-time activity :/

I know at least one music composer here who hasn't had to incorporate to be able to sell his creations, while declaring his income to stay on the legal side. That's the kind of thing I'm considering, if applicable to my situation. The experts I'm meeting next week will surely be able to confirm

Thanks for your input, that's very appreciated -

Indeed, I'm sure the "legal stuff" is all very easy when you have done it at least once ; though for someone who has never been through that process, it's all quite confusing and a little bit scary.

In my case for example I don't have a company, and I don't even know if my "amateur/hobby" "work" qualifies as a "business activity" ; so there are lots of questions like "do I need a company to sell a product, or can I do it in my own individual name", "without a company, what are my personal liabilities", "with a company, what are my obligations", etc. Lots of things that do not really seemed to be explained anywhere. Especially considering it all varies depending on the country (adding internet, international digital distribution, and double tax treaty agreements making the whole thing a big mess for non-experts)

I have an appointment very soon with experts, accountant and solicitors, who will be able to tell me how to proceed

So far I haven't sold anything and I'm not expecting to make much money at all to be honest, but I'd like to do it "right" from the beginning. It's quite easy to just setup an itch.io page and a paypal account, but I don't want to go ahead until I have the confidence it is suitable for my situation (and that I won't have to re-do it after creating an actual company, declaring an activity, etc.) and that I don't expose myself to unreasonable risks.

Also, to make things more complicated, I don't have a "normal job" anymore and I'm just living on my savings, meaning I don't have "normal tax" forms onto which I can claim additional personal income from other activities.

As for the marketing side, I've been trying to do my best ; building a small community of followers during the development (updates, screenshots, demos, polls, etc.) I had "some" success - but without much visibility in the first place, it's quite hard to go beyond the small circles of indie game devs themselves. As for the press and games websites, I've got my material ready (resources, screenshots, trailer, etc.) ; thought it's near impossible to catch the attention of "big" news sites unless an indie game is already a success.

Thanks for the contribution ! Updates very soon...

The "solid" behaviour needs the collision information to resolve object overlaps anyway ; that's how all discrete or continuous collision detection systems work. Preventing object overlap should still register a collision, otherwise it makes the behaviour useless to write actual gameplay logic.

Floating point math errors are a known problem, and while actually solving collisions can always be difficult and lead to degenerate cases, registering collisions should be consistent.

I still believe the specific y positions hint at a physics cell boundary issue.

Yes it is ; don't share the repo, just place your game dir in a publicly available location, and get the public link for the index.html file. That's what you give others to test your game

Thank you very much for the positive post -

If you have any comment or feedback, please let me know ! The game has been subject to numerous iterations and focus tests and I believe the current gameplay experience should be close to optimal, but the game hasn't been released yet so there's always room for improvements

The full game isn't available at the moment ; I'm hoping to publish it properly as soon as I sort the "legal" side of things to sell it via online distribution platforms.

It should be noted the demo is limited in terms of content (intro/tutorial + 1 explorable module vs. 8 modules in the full game) and therefore offers less freemdom, though should be sufficient to get a good feel for the product.

Thanks to all the feedback, the game is pretty much finished now !

I have updated the initial post with some new screenshots and links to the latest demo.

Key changes :

• Core mechanics update (energy, morphs, etc.)
• More content (x2 playable area)
• Additional story elements
• New enemy types
• Improved resources
• Keyboard configuration
• Customisable visual style (scanlines, bulge, etc.)
• Endless list of balancing and level design tweaks, plus various bugfixes

Previous focus test demo is no longer available

New demo shows ~15% of the game content (tutorial area + 1 out of 8 modules)

Browser demo

Recommendations : up-to-date Chrome + Xbox360 compatible gamepad

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526 ... index.html

Desktop demo

Recommendations : Windows 7/8/10 + Xbox360 compatible gamepad

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526 ... emo0.9.zip