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Jawbytegames@gmail.com

@JawbyteGames

Jawbyte Games

@JawbyteGames

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Who is Jawbyte

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Esewi Egheosa

Alethea Fagan

Flinn Fraher

Programmer, Generalist Designer,

TIGA Graduate of the Year

Jawbyte Started for the Jamfuser 2021

Submitted Acquisition

3^rd Place overall

Launch-Test started as a university project

Protype highlighted a fun core gameplay loop

Highlighted a market for physics based chaotic sandboxes

E.g., Octodad, Goat Simulator, I Am Toast

3D Artist, 2D Artist

1^st Class In Games Design

Programmer, Technical Designer,

TIGA Graduate of the Year

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Premise

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Launch Test Programme

Esteemed organisation that invites only the most promising candidates
The content of the programme is a closed guarded secret

World building

Implicit world building
Info gained through:

Dialogue cues
Easter eggs
Environment
Gameplay

*Early Concept art

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Premise

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Player Character

Professor of Rocket Engineering
Selected for the newest iteration of the programme
Has limited knowledge of the true nature of the Programme

B.A.M

A.I Assessor (think GLaDOS)
Strong personality
Quirky

*Early Concept art

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Key Features

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Fully customizable rocket

Change Rocket stats
Add New abilities/mechanisms
Unlockable components and modules

Attach your trusty B.A.M (Ballistic Assistance Machine)

Voiced Mascot & Companion
Adds to the destruction on missile hits
Reacts to game events, player decisions, level outcomes

Fully Destructible Terrain

Cause chain reactions
Use strategy
Just blast away

Progression

Unlocks new components
Special levels
Unique decorations
Show-off to your friends

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Art Style

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Low poly cartoonish art style
Bold colours
Simple textures and Plain materials
Memorable but simple

Art Inspirations

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Release Overview

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LAUNCH PLATFORM

LATER PLATFORMS

RELEASE DATE

Q4 2023 (Early Access in Q1)

PRICE POINT

Price point: £4.99 (TBC)

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Target Audience

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AUDIENCE DEMANDS

AMUSING PHYSICS ACTION

PROGRESSION AND CUSTOMISATION

MASCOT/AVATAR AS A FOCUS/INSTRUMENT FOR THE DESTRUCTION/MAYHEM

Mid/hard core PC gamers (all ages) who enjoy destruction and goofy action.

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Market Place

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VALUE PROPOSITION

Easy to understand, simple hook

Fire rockets into object = Destruction
Pick up and play

Long Lasting progression-based gameplay

Unlockable content
Each world provides a new a destruction based unique puzzle

*Sales estimates from SteamSpy

Title	Price	Sales	Metacritic
Kerbal Space Program	£29.99	5M	88
Goat Simulator	£7.19	5M	62
Besiege	£11.99	2M	80
Octodad	£11.99	1M	80
Turbo Dismount	£9.99	500K	75
Stilt Fella	£6.99	50K	N/A
Instruments of Destruction	£11.99	20K	65

*Steam spy statistic

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Route to Market

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16^th September 2022

Pre-Alpha A

31^st September 2022

Pre-Alpha B

March 2023

Pre-Alpha C

April 2023

Alpha

July 2023

Beta

September 2023

Launch

Self-publish
Staffordshire Alumni business Fund
Approach platform holders
Apply for the epic games fund
Potential early-access release on steam
Explore project funding from relevant publishers

(coffee stain studios, Chuckle fish)

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Thea

to ensure launch test can be a success, we've explored a variety of different potential avenues to market.

we plan to contact relevant publishers for our game in order to secure additional funds - coffee stain studios, raw fury, chuckle fish to name a few

we'll be approaching platform holders, and as we're using unreal engine we will naturally also be exploring the possibility of an epic megagrant. Epic's applications are currently closed until August the 15th, and we'll be aiming for an application submission that can coincide with our Pre-Alpha A milestone.

As we're all alumni from Staffordshire University, we can apply for the universities business fund and leverage the monies awarded to self-publish if we were accepted.

Our other alternate route to market would be through self publishing launch test following an early-access release on steam.

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Launch-Test timeline to launch

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Milestone	Date	Key features	Notes
Pre-Alpha A	16th September 2022	85% Added	Vertical slice of game ready to showcase at EGX
Pre-Alpha B	1st January 2023	95% Added	All planned features added, working towards bug fixing and polish
Pre-Alpha C	March 2023	100% Added	User testing, bug fixing polish
Alpha	April 2023	100% Complete	Functionally complete and polished project (may be missing assets)
Beta	July 2023	100% Complete	Larger user testing, to find remaining bugs, collect feedback, and improve performance
Launch	September 2023	100% Complete	Complete game as polished as possible before launch
Updates (More levels, Upgrades, game modes, mechanics)	Monthly-Quarterly (Depending on Size)	N/A	DLC, Free content updates, and patches

First public release (if funding goals reached)

Ship product to secure more funding

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By looking at our current development sprint documentation, we've extrapolated an expected timeline for the production of our game. We expect to have a playable, polished vertical slice of Launch test by Q1 of 2023.

If we receive funding from the transfuser programme, we’d begin looking for additional funding for development during April of 2023, leaving us more time to focus on development.

if we were unable to secure tranzfuser's second-phase funding for launch-test, we'd explore an early access release in Pre Alpha B via Steam or the epic store to further fund development. Myself and the team would also explore part-time and contract work in this eventuality in order to continue development on launch test in a part-time capacity, ensuring the game would still be completed.

Given that we've already implemented the majority of the core framework of launch test, we expect to have regular builds for potential investors and our community to try following the Pre Alpha A milestone with each containing more levels and rocket parts than the last.

After Pre-Alpha B, we'll have a technical framework which can support content updates for the rest of launch test's lifetime. Giving us the ability to add new rocket parts, levels, and gameplay twists when we see fit and based on user feedback.

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Budget to Launch

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Expense	Cost(£)	Notes
Team Salary	45,000 (1,500 day-rate)	More Salary = More time able to spend on project instead of supplementing income through part-time employment
Music, Audio (Contractor)	1,500	Based on contractors we already are in talks with and scaled up for the whole projected dev cycle
Graphic Design (Contractor)	1,000	Based on contractors we already are in talks with and scaled up for the whole projected dev cycle
Business (Licenses, store pages, marketing)	5,000
Other (Events, accommodation, transport)	5,000	Based on previous costs and extrapolated
Total	57,500

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Graphic design – don’t mention marketing when talking about it

- key visuals

- ui

our required funding has been calculated through the expenses shown here.

as there's 3 developers currently at jawbyte, those salaries would have to be paid from the recieved funds.

contract work would be required for areas of development where the team have less experience.

Some of the additional funding will be allocated to audio assets for the game, which we would use to secure unique tracks and voice work for the BAM assistant.

Funds for the additional costs during the development process would also be required – this would include travel costs to events showcasing the game, Licensing for software used during development, and marketing.

Before creating this budget list, we considered the potential risks that could arise during the development of launch test [next slide]

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Risks

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Promotion & Visibility

Building visibility on social media platforms (twitter, TikTok, YouTube)

Creating a community around the game (Discord & Reddit)

Competing and hosting events (Game jams, Tranzfuser)

Demo(s)

Funding

Self-funding

Approach other funding sources (platform holders & publishers)

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Due to the required funds for the game, not getting funding could extend the expected roadmap of development quite significantly – to avoid this, we need to be proactive in our attempts to secure funding – we’ve already been researching the methods available to us and are planning on applying for an epic megagrant. Epic's applications are currently closed until August the 15th, but we'll be aiming for an application submission that can coincide with our Pre-Alpha A milestone once their submissions are open again.

The potential technical risk in the project could slow down development if an effective strategy isn’t in place. The chaos physcs framework inside Unreal did pose such a risk during early development, but after spending some time researching the documentation Epic provides, we were able to rethink our implementation and get back on track.

Being fresh graduates without much industry experience, there’s gaps in our knowledge of disciplines we don’t specialise in – animation and rigging for instance, is something we’re all aware of the basics of but don’t have significant experience in. To circumvent these kinds of gaps, we’ll be using some of our funding to outsource animators and sound designers or producers to create this content for us – learning from the finalised piece we’re given, but also ensuring the quality of launch test is kept to a high standard.

Ensuring any product has real-world traction is key to measuring success, and we identified this as a potential issue very early on during development. We’ve been growing our own discord community around the game over the summer so we can regularly release content and game demos over time and request feedback, giving community members the ability to shape the development of launch test, and possibly become evangelistic fans as a result.

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Summary

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Casual but chaotic
Replay value
Player Progression
Sandbox

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Thanks For Watching! Questions?

Jawbytegames@gmail.com

@JawbyteGames

Jawbyte Games

@JawbyteGames

Click icon to add picture