Indie Spotlight: Rooftops & Alleys
Oct 22, 2024
My name is Michel Losch and I am the 30-year-old solo developer behind a game called ' Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game '. Today I want to tell you a little about my story and how I ended up in the gaming industry after primarily working as a DJ and music producer for the past 15 years.
I've always been working as a creative, whether in music, graphic design, video editing, or 3D design and animation. However, music has taken over my life for the last one and a half decades. While having been happy with what I was able to achieve in music, I've always felt like something was missing in my day-to-day life. This was mostly due to me not being able to apply a lot of my background in music outside of designing my own artwork for my releases. At the end of the day, I felt like I needed a bigger creative outlet and it was time for a change.
ENTER: UNREAL ENGINE
At the beginning of 2023, I finally chose to open Unreal Engine. While initially being completely overwhelmed, I slowly started learning my way around the interface and got better with every tutorial I watched. It was only a few months later that I started working on the prototype for my first game. I've always had this idea for a game, a mix of some of my favorite childhood titles like Jet Set Radio Future, Mirrors Edge, Tony Hawk Pro Skate, Skate, Assassins Creed, and so many more. I felt like all of those games had elements I really enjoyed, but there just wasn't a title that combined all of the best aspects into one game, specifically in a Parkour and Freerunning context.
THE BEGINNING
While initially starting in Blender to animate my rough character, I quickly found out about a program called 'Cascadeur' which would eventually become an essential tool in the pipeline of making my game. This felt like a sign to me, considering Cascadeur was originally developed for a mobile game called 'Vector' which was also a game heavily inspired by Parkour and Freerunning!
SOCIAL MEDIA
Briefly after getting the first core mechanics working in-game, and a rough controller scheme going, I posted my first clip on social media. I never thought that this first post, and all the ones following would end up with me being a full-time game dev working on my dream game just short of a year later. The response from people all over the world was so unexpected, and at the same time, it gave me the drive to keep going. There were a lot of hurdles to overcome, and mistakes I made in the development, but I always tried to learn from them and kept going.
THE CHALLENGES
Creating fluid animations for my game was essential. A parkour game needs to look good and have a great gameplay feeling to it most importantly. Animation also adds to this feeling and ultimately makes the game satisfying to watch. Having modeled my character in Blender, I initially also chose to animate it in the same program. However, considering the complexity of each animation I needed in my game, it got complicated quite quickly, and I just didn't get the results I was looking for. Getting good at using Cascadeur marked a big milestone for me, as I started gaining more control over the fluidity of my character animations over time. Using the impressive physics and interpolation tools that come with Cascadeur, I finally started seeing the results I wanted.
DISCORD
Shortly after going live with the first clip on my social media channels, I created an official Discord server for the game. This server has since grown to over 34,000 members which has helped me and the development of the game an incredible amount. The constructive feedback from members was ultimately what helped me get the game to where it is today.
THE RELEASE
In May of 2024, my game finally went into Early Access on Steam. I was extremely nervous considering everyone had only seen clips of the game online while also being well aware of the phrase ' not living up to the hype ' - so naturally I was sweating a little. I was so happy with what I had achieved, but ultimately the response of the players would be the only real determining factor as to if, and how successful the game would become. Today I am happy to say that 'Rooftops & Alleys' has been received amazingly well by players around the world, and is currently sitting at a 97% positive review score on Steam.
THE END
I hope you enjoyed this little inside into my personal story :)
Try "Rooftops & Alleys" Today!
Experience the thrill of parkour with Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game . Cascadeur's advanced animation tools helped bring this fluid and dynamic game to life. Now available in Early Access on Steam with a 97% positive review score!
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