no signal News

GodotCon is a convention organized by the Godot Foundation for the Godot community to meet in person and exchange knowledge. GodotCon Boston took place took place about 1-2 weeks ago on 2025-05-05 to 2025-05-07.

It was quite the expensive convention for me to attend, since GodotCon's timing of being right before PAX meant hotel prices were higher. But, I felt that I could particularly benefit from this convention as a person who has been streaming Godot development on Twitch for the better part of two years now. It was also the first GodotCon taking place in North America. Since it was taking place right before PAX, there were also a lot of other game development events happening at the same time such as the Boston Indies "Pre-PAX demo night", at the nearby MIT Open Space. However, I wasn't quite able to take advantage of every single event while I was there, since I didn't have enough energy after showcasing on the floor all day.

The event had workshops on the first day and the showcase and talks on the last two days. It was a difficult affair for me to showcase this time. This is because I've taken a hiatus from no signal development due to my move to the California Bay Area and I've since been quite busy and stressed. It was odd to showcase my game when I'm not actively working on the game and my mental health has been significantly harder to manage lately. As I'm in a temporary housing situation, I don't have any of my stuff either. In fact, my setup was very stripped down:



Leading up to the event I had to take some time to prepare the game since I made some refactors since the last showing at the ATX Game Makers Showcase (which, unfortunately, I forgot to write about in my blog) before going on haitus. So, I spent about a week fixing bugs introduced by those refactors as well as improving controller support based on feedback from ATX Game Makers.

The showcase was in a part of the space at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD) known as The Garage. There were about a dozen or so developers showcasing, including me. So, how did the game do?



During the event, I logged 27 plays on the first day and 16 on the second, for a total of 43 plays. Only one person finished the demo. This more or less met my expectations and there isn't much to note here, though it's notable that the number of plays on the first day is the second-most number of plays I've had in a single day -- more than 2D Con's 25 but less than Fantastic Arcade's 33.



Although the event was mostly attended by game developers, the feedback I got back from attendees as well as which parts of the game people had trouble with were surprisingly similar to other conventions I went to. What was different, however, was that more people on average seemed to understand more easily how the game worked and were also more likely to compliment me on various design aspects of the game, like how well the new player experience was designed.



Near the close of the event, one of the organizers came around to all of the showcases to ask if there's anything we wanted to suggest could be done better. I mentioned that the layout of the space wasn't very conducive, as it was hard for attendees to go from booth to booth, especially when it got really crowded:



Unfortunately, it sounds like the host of the space didn't want anything to be moved around, so they were stuck with the layout as-is. And I certainly got a lot of people checking out my game anyhow, so maybe it wasn't all that bad.

I was also unable to attend the event as a normal attendee for the majority of the event, since I needed to look after my table and my stuff for the entire event. While I did manage to get other devs doing the showcase to look after my stuff from time to time, I found that the talks were too basic for my taste.

Overall, I had a good time anyway. The showcase was good and I was able to make a lot of connections with other people in the community. Right now, I'm considering taking a break from job hunting to finish the game, even if just to put a newly completed project on my resume so I can at least point to what I've been doing all this time since my last employment. I'm not 100% sure how quickly I can get the game done though, so I'm not sure if I'll be committing all my time to that or not.

Unfortunately, I have to announce a hiatus in development for no signal. Due to political events happening both at the national and state level, I no longer feel safe where I live and I need to move somewhere where I can find more security.

What this means is that I probably won't be able to finish no signal nor will I be able to continue doing regular streams, for now. What I want to do with this blog post is share some of the reasons for why I no longer feel safe in Texas where I grew up, share some of the recent progress made with no signal, and talk about what is left to do for the game.



Although it can be argued that the transphobic legislation currently being considered at the state level will not be implemented successfully or even pass at all, the fact that such measures are even considered are a source of stress for me. Even setting aside bills that may or may not pass, it is clear to me that the environment is becoming less safe for me.

At the state level:

• HB 3399 would, if passed, ban gender-affirming care for all transgender and gender non-conforming people.
  
• HB 3817 would, if passed, make it a felony fraud for me to identify as my gender at work or when interact with any government worker.
  
• A transgender bathroom bounty has been implemented in Odessa, TX allowing citizens to call the cops on anyone suspected of being trans who is in the "wrong" restroom.
  
• Attorney General Paxton declared all court-ordered gender changes void and demanded that all such gender marker changes on driver licenses and birth certificates that have been made as a result of them should be reverted immediately.
  

At the federal level:

• Other countries have issued LGBTQ travel advisories for travelling to the United States because of the executive order issued by the U.S. president on January 20th requiring all travelers to use their birth sex as their gender.
  
• The Department of Homeland Security removed privacy provisions that protect people from surveillance based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Almost all references to transgender people were removed from government websites.
• Renewing passports could be difficult due to executive orders demanding that the birth sex is used on passports without providing guidelines for how this will be enforced, leaving the possibility open that passports of transgender people might be confiscated when crossing the border or when trying to get them renewed.
  

Due to these changes at the state and federal level, I don't feel like I can leave and return to the United States freely. I also feel like I will find it very difficult to immigrate to another country if I need to, because many visa applications require apostilled state documents.

These changes have made me feel less safe and has generally increased the amount of stress that I experience. I would rather proactively move somewhere where I can feel more safe, before I find myself in a situation where it's too late to take the time to move properly.



Meanwhile, no signal is very close to completion.

Controller support was added, including a radial menu to access things that would otherwise require a mouse:



More level polish has been done, including these general relativity notes from David Moore used with permission:





The game is now playable from beginning to end, as of 2025-03-03 and I recently exhibited it at the 4th Annual ATX Game Makers Showcase at Valhalla in downtown Austin during SXSW.



The game is missing:

• Level design polish
  
• One unique puzzle (involving a MIDI keyboard)
  
• One interactable (a Rubix cube)
  
• Better controller support for Steam Deck
  
• Steam integration
  

After that, the game needs to be play tested and QA tested. I don't think this work will take that long to do. In fact, I feel like if I were able to comfortably continue development like I originally planned, I could be finished with development by the end of April.

Unfortunately, it's very difficult for me to say when the game will be completed. My first priority will be to create a more stable, safe environment for myself. I need to move and find a new job and those things will consume most of my time and energy. I might be able to work on the game and stream on Twitch from time to time, but it's going to take a backseat and I won't be able to do it regularly as I have over the last year or so.

The fact that I'm pausing so close to the finish line is really stressful and frustrating for me. However, for now, things will have to wait. I can't compromise on my security in order to finish this game. Hopefully it won't take too long for me to figure things out.

I am really sad that I'll be leaving behind my friends and the game development community here in Austin, Texas that I've grown close to. I will really miss all of the people and organizations I've connected with and the many events that happen here, including the ATX Beer Nights, Games Y'all (formerly Juegos Rancheros), and the Electronic Game Developers Society (EGaDS) at UT Austin. Since I feel like I cannot return to Texas under the current political climate, the fact that I might never be able to connect in-person anymore hurts a lot. And even though the food scene in Austin is admittedly mediocre, I'll also miss my favorite restaurants too.

Tomorrow, I will be having my last stream before the hiatus, where I plan on doing something fun so I can leave on a good note. You can join me at 11:00 AM Central Time at twitch.tv/exodrifter_. Thank you for reading. If you have been supporting me, thank you so much once again. It means a lot to me. I will return as soon as I can.

Toronto Game Expo is a bi-annual games convention that takes place in Toronto. There are video games, arcade machines, board games, and most importantly: a place for indies to show their games. Tanuki, the artist for no signal, was able to showcase the game there last weekend at Exhibition Place on November 16th, 2024.



At the expo, we had 17 people play the game. This more or less met my expectations as it was about as many plays as we got at STAPLE! Austin, but in a single day instead of over two days. There are things that were similar between the two events; at STAPLE! I also only demoed the game on one computer and I was also less prepared to show off the game at the time (as I assume Tanuki was, as it was her first time tabling at an event). However, STAPLE! Austin is not a games event so I expected attendees to be more interested.



We got 5 wishlists on the day of the event, with 26 wishlists coming in over the following week:


Wishlist activity on the day of the event was similar to STAPLE! Austin, though in STAPLE Austin's case we had a spike of wishlists on the following Monday:



no signal now has an outstanding total of 1,413 wishlists.



At first, we were unaware that Toronto Game Expo offered free tables and we paid for a vendor table, which costed a little over $250 CAD after tax and was quite an expensive price for us to pay. We later learned of free tables for indie developers and submitted our application, which was accepted. Our fee was refunded and we only had to worry about travel expenses to attend.

In general, I think it was worth going. However, I don't think it would have been worth it if we had paid for the table as we originally did. STAPLE! Austin, in comparison, costed $100 and we were allowed to split the table with another vendor, halving the cost to $50. I was really happy that Tanuki was able to show the game in Toronto, and I'm a little sad that I wasn't able to go as well. Hopefully we can show one of our games at an event together in the future.

As for the game's development, it seems like we will miss our original release date of Q4 (especially considering Steam's requirement to set a release date two weeks in advance) and it's unlikely that development will conclude before the end of the year. However, I am hard at work doing as much as I can before the end of the year and I'm holding onto a foolish hope that I will finish development before 2024 is over. You can catch me streaming the development of the game on Twitch if you'd like to see how it's going.

Fantastic Arcade: Fun Size Edition! is an indie video game festival that took place last weekend on October 26th, 2024. I showed no signal there and it is the last event this year I plan to be at. There's only one event left -- Toronto Games Fest, which is happening in a little over a week as of this writing -- but I won't be there. Instead, the artist Tanuki will be there.

It's been a long time since Fantastic Arcade has been held. The last Fantastic Arcade event, Fantastic Arcade Retro(spective), was held before the pandemic on November 16th, 2019 (although it was just a re-run of games previously shown at Fantastic Arcade). To me, Fantastic Arcade: Fun Size Edition! is the first time that an actual Fantastic Arcade event has been put on by its new owner, the Museum of Human Achievement.

There were between one and two dozen other developers tabling at the event in the Cafetorium of the Baker Center. At the end of the event, since the Baker Center was previously a school, there was a small graduation-themed event where all of the developers received a certificate award for participating and two awards for "Most Fantastic" and "Audience Choice" were given out. This year, the game TrashCan Dreams won both awards.





During the event, I received 33 plays. This was quite an achievement, as this was significantly more than the single-day records of 25 plays at 2D Con and 18 plays at San Japan despite having a much smaller attendance. I would say this is due to the fact that Fantastic arcade is specifically designed for indie games, and it shows in the engagement from attendees.

The player count was even about half of the average number of unique players per day from Steam Next Fest, which was 62. Half! Imagine that, a local event having about half as much traffic as the biggest digital distribution platform (which is practically a monopoly) in the world. Not to mention just the physical limitations of the fact that I only had two stations where people could sit down and play the game. Well, granted, I could have had much better performance at Next Fest on the order of magnitudes if I was better at marketing.

This was also the first time I tried to keep track of how far along players got as they played:



Unfortunately, no one played long enough to see the cinematic. The demo is simply too long -- I'll have to make a shorter demo for my next game.

It was pretty hard to keep track of how far players get, though it certainly did help me stay engaged during the day. I really ought to implement a system into my game to automatically record how far people get... maybe I'll do that for the next game too!

Wishlist activity was also quite good, with 14 wishlists on the day of the event:



Although Steam Next Fest just ended the previous weekend, I think this is a pretty good read on the number of wishlists from the event, as most of the wishlist activity appeared to die down by the time of the event.



I also handed out copies of Gender Dysphoria for free, mostly because I want to get rid of them. I'm not sure I would have had the permission to sell them even if I wanted to. However, one person did donate $10 for one, which I was surprised and happy to see.

This event went remarkably well. The fact that I got 33 plays in one day was, well, pretty _fantastic_. I'm also happy to see that the event is finally back and I enjoyed meeting some of the other developers who had flown in from out of state.

As an aside, I also ran into more problems at the event with powering the portable monitor using the official Steam Deck Dock. It appears that the USB power supply from the Steam Deck Dock isn't as stable as it needs to be for my portable monitor. It would occasionally lose power and connection to the Steam Deck, requiring a quite involved process to reconnect it. Thankfully, I still had an alternate power source in the form of a backup battery with USB ports, so I was able to give it an alternate power source. This fixed the issues.

Unfortunately, the event was incredibly noisy. The Cafetorium in the Baker Center is almost entirely hard surfaces, so it was almost impossible for me to distinguish anything anyone was saying, so I didn't get to collect very interesting feedback like I was able to do at 2D Con. For most of the day, people would play, make hand signs at me when they were done while quickly thanking me, and depart on their way to check out more games. It was pretty consistently loud throughout the entire event -- in addition to people talking, they broadcasted the talks that were happening in a different room and competitions (replete with commentary) were taking place on the main stage.

When I got home, I was so tired from all the noise that I just laid down, watched the show _Archer_, and went to sleep. I would still do it again though; great event.

Steam Next Fest is a digital event that happens on Steam every few months, where the focus is on upcoming games that have demos. I participated in this event with no signal and although I didn't have any particular expectations, I wanted to look at how this event went for me compared to the others I went to so far.

I do know that Next Fest was run a bit differently this year. Standalone demo pages were added, live streams were no longer a focus of the event, and more focus was put on showing games in the most random way possible at the beginning of the event in order to gather data on how to recommend the game later that week. Steam, in general, seems to be trying its best to make Next Fest into a meritocracy as much as it can.



The plays during Next Fest over each day looked like this:



no signal also got 870 wishlists over the course of the event and 147 of those wishlists came from people who also played the game during Next Fest. no signal now has 1,276 wishlists.

Compared to other events:

- STAPLE! Austin, 19 plays
- Delta H Con, 3 plays
- 2D Con, 39 plays
- San Japan, 44 plays
- Steam Next Fest, 434 plays

Steam is literally the largest digital games platform on the internet and it is not limited by the amount of hardware I can acquire and set up on a single table, so it makes sense that I had more plays come from Steam than any other event I attended in person.

It seems like a single day at Next Fest is 2-3 times as busy as an entire in-person convention in addition to being pretty much completely free to participate in. However, I imagine conventions would be more comparable if I had a demo that didn't take so long to play and with much more legible gameplay, as that would let me have more people interested and able to play the games at events.



Next Fest isn't an event I normally participate in, but quite a few other game developer friends had their game in the event as well and I was able to check them out while the event was on. Here's a few of the ones I liked:

- Supurr Cat Cafe: Sandwich Rush by 2NerdyNerds
- Block Shop by Foolbox

Next Fest might be over, but it's always a great time to check out something new! I'm sure they would appreciate you taking a look as well.

If you played my game during Next Fest, thank you so much for playing. I've collected a lot of feedback and I'm back at work to try and finish the game before the end of the year (though a timely release seems dubious at the moment). I hope y'all can enjoy the game soon!