How My Indie Game ALMOST won $10,000 [Disinherited Devlog #0]

I'm saying it, you got that 1st place stolen! You had a huge disadvantage on that fan vote and it showed. In our hearts you are the clear winner

Dryden, in the hearts of us you rightfully deserved that money

Here’s my analysis: Lixian had a great game. Not only did he implement the theme well but he also incorporated the twists well too. It had pretty good art (and a unique style) which made it overall okay. However, he could have improved on the “virus”, progression and enemies. He only had 2 enemies (unless you count the virus). Speaking of the virus, the way to avoid it was just not so great. Pick up stuff, throw it together, bam. Also, the progression was just a bunch of rooms with keycards to go to new rooms. The limited content also restricted replay-ability. + Good art + Nicely implemented themes / Virus wasn’t that creative - Progression was boring - Not many enemies and/or replay ability. Now you had a complete monster of a game. Themes were AMAZINGLY well implemented, and rather than just add a random part of the game, they actually contributed a lot. There we SO MANY unique enemies and bosses, SO MANY cool items, SO SO SO MUCH replay-ability, a great art style, random generation (added to replay-ability), a stupid cool game idea that was actually well-thought out, and it was even executed extremely well! + AMAZING art + Plenty of enemies + Lots of bosses + Random generation + Great game idea + Well executed + So, so SO much replay-ability. Conclusion: Yes, he was robbed. For anyone who hasn’t seen the video or doesn’t understand, the only way Lixian won was because he had 1m+ subs. I think Dryden (creator of this vid) had around 2k at the time. The community decided who won, because they had a weight of two. Even then, I am SHOCKED the judges chose Lixian over your game, when your game did everything his did but better and more. I think the judges had some bias too.  Anyways, please keep making games, you are such a cool creator. Plus, you’re really enjoyable to listen to and seem like a very friendly guy. Bye!

Dryden 100% deserves it. It was way more refined

My wife and I watched the game jam and were rooting for you the whole time. I know how impactful $10k can be toward an indie project, we were really disappointed. We're happy you're going to continue the project and are definitely going to pick it up once it's out!

Im not taking anything away from lixian hes an amazing dev but you so got robbed of that 10k.... i cannot wait to see what you come up with next!!!!!

Some of the other comments already told you, but i just have to say it aswell: That loss in the finals was a different level of bs. The fact that you got 30% of the votes against a youtuber with over 600 times your subscriber count speaks volumes. You didnt beat all the other devs. You slaughtered them. I am truely inspired by your humility, because if i lost a competition after outclassing everyone else by such a wide margin i would be furious. I know that i am probably being too harsh here. The other devs did a great job aswell and are clearly very talented, but especially after seeing how kind of a person you are, my anger issues simply get the better of me here.

I love Lixian, and his game was more my style, but you crushed the competition requirements at every turn. You took the twists and embraced them, rather than just finding a way to technically qualify. And your game had a level of polish throughout. The fan vote shouldn't have counted for 2 votes as that gave them a 29% weight. For what amounts to a popularity contest that really shouldn't have been the deciding factor. I'm waiting for BTP to catch on that some of their decisions are kind of inconsiderate for their guests This isn't the first time. But congrats on setting your new goal! Can't wait to see what becomes of this game. You did so much in a few weeks, I can't imagine what you can achieve in a year.

Dude,i was SO sad seeing you come second, lixians game was good, but you litrally had the best integration of the theme, the most interesting game and definitely the best gameplay. SO many spelunky vibes, 100% gonna wishlist this

I've watched all of Black thorn prods videos. Of all the pass the game challenges, of all the competitions, this game easily impressed me the most out of all of them.

i found it very unfair you didnt win! Lixian was popular, thats all. you had everything required, the theme, story, mechanics, etc. i loved your work ^^

As soon as a read "almost won" in the title I knew what had happened. Community voting just doesn't work, people 'cheese' it, becomes popularity contest instead of gamedev. Ways to prevent it could be: 1. Anonymous entry, that way no one knows who made which game. 2. Force playing of every single game before someone can vote (more work to implement), possibly too hard to vote. 3. Community given a random short list of games to play and rank (eg vote 1, 2, 3 for the following randomly chosen games). You'd think #1 would be fool proof, but I'm sure people would post on private facebook/patreon/discord/steam groups to vote for their particular creation.

Hearing your husband is supporting you so well while you do this challenge made me tear up!! I can't wait to see future dev logs <3

Man..... you were stolen the win. Such an amazing game out of such a challenging theme! Wish listed it on steam! I know that after some more work on it, it will be an amazing game to add to my steam collection!

I have an idea for a boss that might be interesting. Cats supposedly have 9 lives, so what if the way to immortality was to have multiple cats share one of their lives? A cat owner as a boss would be something I haven't seen in games before

While others took the theme in a different direction (and in my opinion lost the theme in some cases), you stayed with the theme the best out of every single contestant. Personally, I would say you won the competition. I have Disinherited wishlisted on steam and look forward to the game's progress!

Your creativity and music is insane! Cant believe that you have only been coding for 2 years!

After the video, I immediately went to see if this game was out,not the other one.

Part of me wonders if you’d have gotten anywhere near the growth if you’d gotten your deserved win. Everyone following you partly or maybe even mostly because they think it’s unfair lmao. Maybe you didn’t get the $10k, but you know it might lead to bigger things sooner anyway!! Wishing you luck for the rest of the journey and i’m excited to follow along!

I watched that BTD competition, its how I found about your channel Dryden! You make really cool stuff, and as everyone said I feel like you were top contender. I've already wishlisted Disinherited and I'm really glad you're pushing for a release! :D