Billy Saves the World - Smaller Is Better
A trailer for Billy Saves the World
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00:00Hey everybody, welcome to another video here. My name is Cooper Bebo. We're taking a look at my indie game, Billy Saves the World.
00:08I'm the writer, director, and designer of this game. Last video we took a look at one of the levels in the game,
00:15and this week we're going to be taking a look at the hub area. So what you're looking at right now is the world map.
00:22Obviously you can use this to fast travel. These are four of the floating islands on this planet called Arlet.
00:30There is the eastern island, which is home to the Faithfuls. It's kind of a camp. That's where you're going to see a lot of your typical villagers,
00:38your supplies, that kind of thing. Lots of stuff to do here, a lot of side quests, lots of unique experiences.
00:44I'm not going to walk through each island, but I wanted to explore one island in particular.
00:49So we're going to go to the south island, the Outlands, and I'm going to just give you a little bit of a tour of this area,
00:57because I've already shown you what a traditional level looks like and all the different branches and pathways through that.
01:05If you haven't seen that video, I highly encourage you to check it out. It's a great video. It really shows you how much freedom is really in the game.
01:13And that's just one level, and there's dozens. And so this time we're going to be taking a look at how open and free the hub world is.
01:21This is just where you can explore the game and just see what the game has to offer.
01:26And this is just one area. So this is the southern island. It's the open world. It's a 2D open world.
01:36And as you can see, obviously. And so I'm just going to go through. I'm going to go from the left to the right.
01:42I'm just going to show you what it looks like, and I'll explain a few things as I go.
01:46And I'm just going to go over here, jump on this glow bug here, and start right here.
01:53So we'll go from left to right. This isn't actually as far left as you can go, but this is a good starting point anyway.
01:59So as you can see, you'll run around and there's some falling platforms there. There's a cave here.
02:06And if you have the cave navigator, which is an item you can get right here, it allows you to scan caves before you enter them.
02:17And so you can see if you've actually completed them or not, if you've been inside it, if you haven't.
02:22It gives you the name of the cave, if you've completed it, the difficulty, the target time,
02:26if you want to do that time trial, and how many explorer coins, kind of the games collectible, are in that cave.
02:32Also, a little summary. Oftentimes, the summary is actually very helpful.
02:38So if you find yourself stuck on a particular level, get the cave navigator, read the summary.
02:45And usually, this one's an easy cave, so there's not much information to tell you.
02:50But a lot of times, there will be a very helpful tip and sometimes a straight up answer in that summary there.
02:56And it'll help you figure out how to get to the end of the cave if you're stuck.
03:00Because some of them require a bit of thinking sometimes.
03:03For the most part, they're usually for action-orientated platforming kind of things.
03:09So this is an example of a cave. I'm not going to go through this level as we just went through a level on the last video.
03:15But this is an example of another start point here.
03:18And it's your job to reach the end point.
03:20There's always several routes and different ways and secrets in each level and different routes to reach the end.
03:27And it's up to you to find out which one you want.
03:30So we're going to continue on this way here.
03:32If you didn't notice, it is darker now.
03:35We do have a full day-night cycle in the game.
03:38It's not 24-hour real-time. It's just my own little simulation of how long I think the days and nights are.
03:44And certain things will happen exclusively at certain times.
03:49And something to keep in mind is that when it's dark, it's dark. It's legit dark.
03:55So if you're in a cave and it's dark, it's pitch black.
03:59You'll need to find an item to help you see in the dark.
04:04Even in the overworld here, some of the plants emit a tiny bit of light.
04:10The SP, the spear protons here that I'm collecting, they shoot out a little bit of light.
04:15So it's very dark and that's intentional.
04:17If you're watching this and you're like, man, I can't see anything, it's entirely intentional.
04:21There are items that will help you see in the dark a bit better.
04:25And it's meant to be a little kind of realistic in that sense.
04:30So here we can keep going over here.
04:32Another glow bug.
04:34Here's a little source of light here.
04:36Another cave.
04:37So something I want to point out is that one of the things I intentionally tried to do with the design of the game
04:44is that I'm trying to give the player a purposely small but dense open world.
04:51So each area is small but dense.
04:54There's always something to do.
04:56So we just defeated this glow bug.
04:58You get to hop over here.
05:00And already here's a cave to explore.
05:02You can read about it.
05:03You can choose to explore this cave or you can choose to keep walking on by.
05:09There seems to be nothing over here.
05:11We can go up here.
05:13Collect some SP.
05:14Now there's an enemy here.
05:16Why is it way up there?
05:17I don't know.
05:18You can continue on.
05:20Looks like there's something up there actually.
05:22Again, there's something else to do.
05:24Again, there's more platforms.
05:25Another path.
05:26There's kind of a fork in the road.
05:28You can choose to go up here.
05:29Again, already there's another cave to explore.
05:32Up to you to explore it or not.
05:35So I'm trying to give people something to do every few steps.
05:39It's kind of a micro-adventure.
05:41That's how I kind of viewed the game when I was making it.
05:44I thought if you had this game on the go or you didn't have much time,
05:47I always wanted you to be able to load your game up and take a few steps and find something new,
05:54find something intriguing, something different.
05:56Here's another enemy already.
05:58Then you can go up here.
06:00Already there's an NPC, an alien you can choose to talk to if you want to or you can go on by.
06:05So you're getting the point here is that there's lots to do every few steps.
06:09There's something new.
06:10Here's an obstacle we can't get by.
06:12I can use an ability that I have.
06:15You won't have this right away to kind of classic Metroidvania style clear that obstacle.
06:21Now you have more of the map opened up to you.
06:23Now the important thing to note is like everything else in the game, everything is optional.
06:28So this level, this cave is totally optional.
06:31The abilities that I get, the cave navigator, almost every single ability is completely optional.
06:40And it's really used as a way to allow people to carve their own unique path through the game
06:48in a way that I don't think they're used to doing.
06:50I think a lot of times these games kind of force you to do everything.
06:53It's just in a different order.
06:55And I'm trying to give people the freedom to do things the way they want to.
06:59So let's go up here and, you know, this is looking interesting.
07:04There's something that looks like an egg up here.
07:08So let's go up here and see what this is about.
07:12I haven't really walked anybody through any like puzzles or dialogue.
07:15So let's do that actually.
07:17Let's actually talk to somebody and see what happens here.
07:19So we can examine this egg.
07:21Now this action button in the lower right corner, it's kind of an adaptive thing.
07:25Think of it like a lot of people, only if you're older like me,
07:29you'll know adventure games at the bottom of the screen, like point and click adventure games,
07:33used to have these contextual menus that said like push, talk to, enter, that kind of thing.
07:39They'd be these permanent buttons at the bottom of the screen.
07:43This is my modern version of that where it's more adaptive.
07:46It knows what you want to do.
07:48It's not in the way.
07:49And so when you're near something that you can examine, it lets you examine it.
07:52When you're near something that you can talk to, it allows you to talk to.
07:56And so here, it's a large round egg.
07:59Cool.
08:00I wonder what it belongs to.
08:03Now we can talk to this guy.
08:06Welcome to one of Arlitt's most magnificent sights.
08:10An egg?
08:12Not just any egg.
08:13It's a mysterious egg.
08:15Nobody knows how it got here or who it came from.
08:18Have you ever suspected it came from a giant chicken?
08:21No, that's far too simple of an explanation.
08:24What about a mysterious chicken?
08:26Hmm.
08:27I never thought of that.
08:29Now you may be onto something.
08:31Anyway, please gawk at it and then move along to the next in line.
08:34It isn't waiting forever, please.
08:36But there's nobody else here except...
08:37Move it along, please.
08:39Give everyone a turn.
08:41Alright, so, short little interaction.
08:43Something to point out here is that I like to do my dialogue in a way that gives you the freedom to...
08:50It kind of teases you with some information.
08:52So it's like, okay, do you feel like going more in depth on this conversation?
08:57You know, that wasn't that long of a conversation.
09:00You kind of got through it pretty quickly.
09:02If you're the type of player that's like, yeah, I kind of want to see what's up with this.
09:05You can continue the conversation.
09:06If you're not, if you're like, nah, I don't want to.
09:08I'm bored of talking.
09:09I want to just keep jumping around.
09:11It doesn't suck you in for a super long conversation.
09:14I try to keep a lot of my dialogue like that where it's like, okay, we're going to introduce a little thing.
09:19And now it's up to you to decide, do you want to keep going down that dialogue tree?
09:23Or do you want to just get back to playing around?
09:26Another cool thing is that...
09:28And I should have showed you, but...
09:31Depending on the order...
09:33There's so many little details in this game.
09:36Let's go back to this other alien that we met over here or that we walked past over here.
09:44Most players that are exploring this island are going to first meet this character here.
09:53And if you talk to this person first and then go talk to that egg...
09:59Do that egg interaction, it'll actually be different than if you went and did it the order I did it.
10:05So there's lots of adaptive dialogue.
10:08And it will change depending on the order you do things.
10:11And there's so many examples of that.
10:14And probably why the game took forever to make.
10:18Because I tried my best.
10:20You know in games when you like...
10:22Let's say you're exploring a dungeon and you get a gold key.
10:25And then later on you're in a village and you find some character.
10:29And they're like, oh, please keep an eye out for my gold key.
10:32And you get a side quest.
10:34And then you just instantly talk to that character again.
10:37And you're like, oh, thank you so much. You found my gold key.
10:40In my game I really wanted to avoid situations like that as much as possible.
10:43And so in my game, if you already have the gold key...
10:46Your character will be like, oh, hey, do you mean this thing?
10:49I found this in a dungeon. Is this what you're looking for?
10:52So little touches like that.
10:53I know other games have done that in the past.
10:55But I really tried to go out of my way to go pretty crazy with that in my game.
11:01So that it feels more realistic and just more immersive.
11:06So it's like, okay, depending on the order that you do things...
11:09You're going to have sometimes an entirely different experience than someone else who's playing the game.
11:14And that's the same way with not only the dialogue but the levels.
11:18You're going to have a completely different experience with the levels.
11:22Depending on which route you go or which order you do them or which abilities you have.
11:27As you make your way through the game, you're going to have all these moments...
11:30That are seamless.
11:31You're not going to know. I don't make it obvious.
11:34I don't make it obvious that you're experiencing something brand new that no one else has.
11:37It's all blended in seamlessly so that your experience feels nice and cohesive.
11:41And you can talk to one of your friends who's playing the same game.
11:46And you'll be like, oh, I didn't even meet that character.
11:49I beat the whole game and I never even once met that character.
11:53But I did do that side quest that you did too.
11:56I'm just really excited for people to uncover all of those little details.
12:01So now we're back here. This is actually where we started.
12:05These are red glow bugs. They're easy to defeat.
12:09And as you can see, we're picking up lots of little ingredients here.
12:12And you can use the ingredients to craft items if you want to.
12:17It's totally optional. You don't have to do it at all.
12:20But it is helpful to be like, okay, I need a health potion.
12:23So if you know the recipe, if you know what to do, you can mix and match items.
12:30Of course, those ones don't work.
12:32But you can mix and match things to create other things.
12:35And you can use those to your benefit and save some cash or even solve some puzzles.
12:43Yeah, so this is a little look at one of the hub worlds.
12:46This is what exploration is going to look like in the game.
12:50You get a lot of different hub worlds.
12:53This is a moderately sized one.
12:55Most of them are, again, purposely kept somewhat small like this.
12:58Like I just showed you pretty much this entire island.
13:01That's kind of small, but it's very dense.
13:03There's tons of stuff.
13:04I didn't show you the whole thing, but pretty much.
13:07But there's tons. There's side quests.
13:10There's tons of levels here. There's tons of caves to explore.
13:13There's a lot going on here that obviously I'm not showing you.
13:16But the actual footprint to travel across it isn't going to take you three hours.
13:22It's meant to be like, hey, I'm going to boot this up and have a quick experience.
13:26There's these platforms right here. I haven't gone up here.
13:30But that's a whole other thing as well.
13:33Before we end the video, though, let's go take a look at the egg interaction.
13:40I kind of want to walk you through a little bit more of what a side quest looks like.
13:44We'll go more in depth on a future video.
13:47But I wanted to show you a little bit more how that works.
13:51So, again, I can use my meditation ability to reveal hidden platforms that you can't see with the naked eye.
13:58And I can use a little shortcut to reach this person here.
14:02Now we can talk to her.
14:08Now you get your choice to say things here.
14:13And it's interesting, depending on what you do in the game, you actually have different options to say here.
14:21So there's actually more than you're looking at here.
14:25I'm going to just skip through this dialogue here and just give you the gist of it.
14:30She's a struggling artist looking for inspiration.
14:38She wants you to find her if you look at your to-do list.
14:43So you met a painter who seems to want a large round blank canvas.
14:47I guess I can keep my eyes open for one.
14:50So throughout your journey, you might end up finding such a thing.
14:58Now, it's obvious to me, but of course it is. I made the game.
15:02But maybe it'll be obvious to you what that large round canvas could be.
15:09What could she paint on?
15:11Oh, I don't know. Maybe a large round egg would be a good idea.
15:15That's a place you could start at, you know.
15:18So I think there's a glitch here where Billy's eyes keep disappearing.
15:23I'll have to take a look at that.
15:25See? I can't tell if he's blinking or if the eyes are.
15:28I'll have to go through in editing.
15:30Anyway, so here, now if we examine this egg, the dialogue will be different.
15:36Hey, this egg would be different.
15:38Sorry, this egg would be a perfect canvas for that painter.
15:41No touching.
15:43So now you've got a side quest activated.
15:48And a little update.
15:52I found the perfect canvas for the painter. An egg in South Arlet.
15:55Except it's being watched by a security guard.
15:58If only I could figure out a way to take it or distract him.
16:01Now that's a key piece of information there.
16:04That's my hint to you that there's multiple ways to solve this quest.
16:13You can find a way to take it or distract him.
16:17Just like I tried to keep the design consistent with every type of gameplay experience.
16:25Whether you're going through a level, there's multiple routes to take to reach the end.
16:29Or whether you're trying to solve a puzzle, there's multiple solutions.
16:32Both of which are totally optional.
16:36And you can lean the entire gameplay experience to what you prefer.
16:39So if you need to save up some cash, you can either go through a level, complete the level, and get some SP.
16:45Or you can solve this puzzle and get some SP that way. It's up to you.
16:49Or you can skip both and just stick to the main quest.
17:03Not sure if I get tired.
17:05I don't know if people like me narrating my own dialogue or not.
17:15So again, you've gotten more information.
17:17I can keep talking to this guy.
17:19I can keep talking to him.
17:21This side quest is kind of branched off into two different things.
17:25This is called the Security Guard.
17:27If you're a fan of Seinfeld, this will be a huge easter egg for you.
17:32Not only does it help you solve one of the solutions for this puzzle, but there's a little joke in it for you too.
17:37This entire to-do entry here is an entire Seinfeld homage joke.
17:43So if you've seen that episode of Seinfeld, you'll know exactly how to...
17:47one of the solutions to this puzzle here.
17:50So now it's up to you. You've got to figure out,
17:52huh, how am I going to distract this guy to take this egg?
17:56Or...
17:59Or just take it.
18:01Like, how am I going to take this egg?
18:03Because he won't let you do it.
18:06So there's different ways to solve it.
18:08Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that little glimpse at a side quest.
18:11Again, I'll go more in depth on a future video where we fully complete a side quest
18:17and show off the different ways to solve them.
18:19Yeah, if this looks like your cup of tea, please go to Steam.
18:23Wishlist the game right now.
18:25Billy saves the world.
18:27A lot of love went into it. A lot of detail. A lot of care.
18:31And I'm really excited for people to carve out their unique path
18:35and explore the game the way they want to.
18:37Whether they want to make it lean more into platforming and action
18:40or puzzle solving and exploration.
18:42Totally up to you. I can't wait for you to play it.
18:45I will be back in another two weeks with another video.
18:48Until then, goodbye.
18:54Thanks again for watching. My name is Cooper Bebo.
18:57I'm an actor, writer, and producer of film, television, and video games.
19:01You can wishlist my upcoming indie game on Steam right now.
19:04It's called Billy Saves the World. Link in the description.
19:08I've got a movie coming out this summer and all sorts of stuff.
19:11If you'd like to follow along with these projects,
19:13visit my blog at patreon.com slash cooperbebo
19:17and become a member of my Discord. Thanks!