Hobby and Indie Game Dev |OT 2019| Designing, Drawing, Coding, Composing, Everythinging

[RazorbackDB]

I think it looks pretty good overall, but the eyes and the large ears (this might just be me, but they look bigger than normal) make it look kind of alien, unless that's what you were going for.

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In my experience, it's been helpful to try and focus on one or two problem areas at a time. If there's a little bit off about a lot of things then it can be hard to figure out what's wrong, because it can't be narrowed down. I'll go from bottom to top.

The butt cheeks are too high up. They don't feel attached to and controlling muscles in the legs, more just like domes implanted on top of an otherwise flat ass. This would be helped significantly by bringing the butt down.

The torso is too long. It's not impossible for humans to have torsos that long but it's highly unusual, so it looks off.

The breasts look super compacted. For their apparent volume, too much of the weight is being held high and to the side. So lose some of the volume or move some of it from the sides and top to the bottom-front, or both.

The collarbone is pretty low, super shallow, and the musculature doesn't make as much sense as it should. It's important, when drawing or modeling bones and muscles, to think about what their purpose in the body is. They don't just exist to exist. Neck muscles link up between the neck bones, collarbones and jawbone in specific ways for specific functions, so it can be helpful to imagine those functions while sculpting them.

The head is the most difficult to make solid recommendations on because faces vary so much, but her ears were way outside of the standard size, and her mouth is extremely small, the nose is on the large end, the eyes are much larger and much more bulbous than average, with much deeper pits than usual. So in the GIF below I averaged out her features somewhat to help make her look a little more normal.

I hope this helps!

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Thanks to you both!, Indeed her ears and eyes are too big I guess in trying to get the right shape I just didn't think too much about the size and sabrina. that's so much more helpful information than I hoped for I don't know how to thank you taking your time to even do a visual demostration. I did look at reference from time to time while sculpting but seeing the same thing for hours can make it difficult to see what's wrong, indeed your version looks much better. I think I'll be better if I start from scratch with all of your advice in mind but I feel much more condfident now.

 

[Thorsten]

Thanks :)

 

[sabrina]

Thanks to you both!, Indeed her ears and eyes are too big I guess in trying to get the right shape I just didn't think too much about the size and sabrina. that's so much more helpful information than I hoped for I don't know how to thank you taking your time to even do a visual demostration. I did look at reference from time to time while sculpting but seeing the same thing for hours can make it difficult to see what's wrong, indeed your version looks much better. I think I'll be better if I start from scratch with all of your advice in mind but I feel much more condfident now.

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Never be afraid to ask a peer for a fresh set of eyes on something! Everyone needs that from time to time. I'm glad I could be helpful in this case :)

edit: oh shit, pseudotsuga has a great write-up below. Great add by her ♥

 

[Deleted member 39479]

I need some critique here, please be as rough as you can, I'm not particularly stoked with the result but I fear if I keep trashing every sculpt I make I won't improve at all.

Not looking for any specific advice, anything about the proportions, details or the overall look just give it to me please.

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Hi RazorbackDB! sabrina already gave great advice on the body so I thought I'd do a quick paintover/critique of the face. Naturally faces are quite different, and eurocentric beauty standards are unfortunately a thing that likely influence my perspective on faces, so I'll emphasize that this is just one way to do it!

First off, I think your biggest stumbling block is how the eyes and cheekbones are situated in the head. Scale of the eyes is one thing, but also the height of the cheekbones. In general, the cheekbones should be higher (and again this varies!) and the eyes should be set deeper in the skull. A general rule of thumb is that your cheekbone sits on an imaginary line from around the tragus of your ear to the side of your nostril. Because the cheekbones are lower in your model, there's this sallow area between the lower lids and the cheekbones that make the eyes appear bulgier. Also, the lower lids are a tad too thick, and because of that they are angled more outwards and create a deeper shadow. This also contributes to the bulginess. The lower lid is absolutely influenced by the roundness of the eyeball and it's good to see that in your model though!

Second biggest issue I see is the brow area. There's a lot of "puckering" in the mesh itself that is very telltale of the sculpting process. Secondly, the most prominent part of the brow is a bit too far down and creates a very drastic shadow. This means there is no transition area between the upper lid and browbone, which will become problematic once you start to texture the eyebrows.

Third thing is the nose. I pushed it much further down in my paintover. In general, the with of the eye should also be about the distance between the lower lid and the bottom of the nose. In my paintover the nose ended up quite painterly which is perhaps not helpful, but basically I think your nostrils and ala are a bit too high compared to the tip of the nose. The ala will also wrap around the bottom of the nostril, which I do see a bit in your model I think? I also emphasized the facet between the ala and the nose tip, which I think helps to differentiate the nose tip from the rest of the nose.

Other things I changed: Narrowed the widest point of the forehead. Lowered the corners of the mouth and emphasized the crease on the bottom lip. Made the bridge of the nose a tad narrower and more defined. Extended the eyelid crease to stop a bit lower (this is one of those things that varies person to person, but something about the way the crease in the outer corners of the eyes flicked up wasn't working for me?). Lowered the inner corner of the eye just a bit. Raised the lower half of the ear. The top of the ear should be about in line with the brow area and the bottom of the ear generally lines up with the nose.

That's all I noticed, but you are doing a great job so far!!! Also faces are really really subjective and vary a lot and there's really no one right way to make a face. Feel free to throw literally all my advice in the trash because this is just one way to do it. Also, in the future it would be cool to see a profile view of your model as well, it may help with critique! Keep working at it!! :)

 

[jahasaja]

Or Dark Souls!
(to drive the above point home, the boss most people get stuck on in Dark Souls is Ornstein and Smough, because you have to keep track of two enemies at once).

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Yeah Ornstein and Smough have the problem that sometimes it is almost impossible to avoid attacks.

You never want to create a situation were the enemy skills does not matter

I have been thinking a lot about enemy variation and enemy design. For my upcoming game. I also try a lot of different things in it but I am not sure everything will turn out fun. I am also worried about exploits my first game had a lot of them.

 

[JRBechard]

Thanks for your feedback all! Super appreciated.

I love look of the character.
Does it have a name the game you are making os it is unrelated?
Thank you!

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Thank you! Ideally it would be the main character of a game I'd like to make, but I'm on day 2 of learning Unity and sometimes I go bit overboard with my ideas so I'm trying to go one step at the time, and that guy is step 1!

Yeah, this looks great. As long as the background shows through too, nothing wrong with that foot. It might help to add a little extra shine on the top half of the ball/make it a little more glossy, could help better define it as a plastic orb.

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Yea shinier would definitely be better, I'll see what I can do.

This looks amazing! The foot through the body looks perfectly fine once you use a background like in your other gif. Very simple design but really cool, it exudes personality with just the run cycle, can´t wait to see it doing other stuff. Great work!

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Thanks! I think my limited modeling knowledge is helping me do more with less haha

 

[RazorbackDB]

Hi RazorbackDB! sabrina already gave great advice on the body so I thought I'd do a quick paintover/critique of the face. Naturally faces are quite different, and eurocentric beauty standards are unfortunately a thing that likely influence my perspective on faces, so I'll emphasize that this is just one way to do it!

First off, I think your biggest stumbling block is how the eyes and cheekbones are situated in the head. Scale of the eyes is one thing, but also the height of the cheekbones. In general, the cheekbones should be higher (and again this varies!) and the eyes should be set deeper in the skull. A general rule of thumb is that your cheekbone sits on an imaginary line from around the tragus of your ear to the side of your nostril. Because the cheekbones are lower in your model, there's this sallow area between the lower lids and the cheekbones that make the eyes appear bulgier. Also, the lower lids are a tad too thick, and because of that they are angled more outwards and create a deeper shadow. This also contributes to the bulginess. The lower lid is absolutely influenced by the roundness of the eyeball and it's good to see that in your model though!

Second biggest issue I see is the brow area. There's a lot of "puckering" in the mesh itself that is very telltale of the sculpting process. Secondly, the most prominent part of the brow is a bit too far down and creates a very drastic shadow. This means there is no transition area between the upper lid and browbone, which will become problematic once you start to texture the eyebrows.

Third thing is the nose. I pushed it much further down in my paintover. In general, the with of the eye should also be about the distance between the lower lid and the bottom of the nose. In my paintover the nose ended up quite painterly which is perhaps not helpful, but basically I think your nostrils and ala are a bit too high compared to the tip of the nose. The ala will also wrap around the bottom of the nostril, which I do see a bit in your model I think? I also emphasized the facet between the ala and the nose tip, which I think helps to differentiate the nose tip from the rest of the nose.

Other things I changed: Narrowed the widest point of the forehead. Lowered the corners of the mouth and emphasized the crease on the bottom lip. Made the bridge of the nose a tad narrower and more defined. Extended the eyelid crease to stop a bit lower (this is one of those things that varies person to person, but something about the way the crease in the outer corners of the eyes flicked up wasn't working for me?). Lowered the inner corner of the eye just a bit. Raised the lower half of the ear. The top of the ear should be about in line with the brow area and the bottom of the ear generally lines up with the nose.

That's all I noticed, but you are doing a great job so far!!! Also faces are really really subjective and vary a lot and there's really no one right way to make a face. Feel free to throw literally all my advice in the trash because this is just one way to do it. Also, in the future it would be cool to see a profile view of your model as well, it may help with critique! Keep working at it!! :)

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Hey you made her look like a human! Thank you so much for all your advice, I'm pretty new to sculpting in general and my knowledge of anatomy is next to nil, so all of this information is super helpful. Thanks to you all!, such a helpful community.

 

[correojon]

Ah, I see! I'm sure I'm pointing out the obvious, but Persona 5's opening was the first thing that popped into my mind when watching that opening, too.

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Awesome suggestion, hadn´t thought of that one! Thanks!

Yeah, that is the same problem as batman. I just do not like looking for the prompts instead of looking at attack build ups. That propably why I love monster hunter so much since you really have to focus on the beautiful monster animation.

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I understand what you say, but you can´t also dump all games using prompts in the same group. I mean, you can play pretty competently in Batman by just looking at the prompts, but in something like Dead Cells or Bayonetta their function is only to focus attention on a certain enemy. Then, you must identify their attack (which sometimes can be done with the audio cue of the prompt itself) through their attack build-up and react accordingly. I think that you mean is that you don´t like prompts in games when they take the place of decission making: Instead of the player looking at the enemy and having to decide what action to take, the game is deciding on its own and just communicating to the player "do this...now!". That´s why prompts work well even on 1VS1 situations, like many times in Momodora or Furi, because they don´t rob the player of the process of taking the decission on what to do.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Tghis is pretty great. Crowd

Awesome suggestion, hadn´t thought of that one! Thanks!

I understand what you say, but you can´t also dump all games using prompts in the same group. I mean, you can play pretty competently in Batman by just looking at the prompts, but in something like Dead Cells or Bayonetta their function is only to focus attention on a certain enemy. Then, you must identify their attack (which sometimes can be done with the audio cue of the prompt itself) through their attack build-up and react accordingly. I think that you mean is that you don´t like prompts in games when they take the place of decission making: Instead of the player looking at the enemy and having to decide what action to take, the game is deciding on its own and just communicating to the player "do this...now!". That´s why prompts work well even on 1VS1 situations, like many times in Momodora or Furi, because they don´t rob the player of the process of taking the decission on what to do.

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Yeah, excellently put. It's a world of difference between a prompt that is "press B!" and a prompt that is "do something!". In my game there's a sound cue a split second before enemies attack, but how you should handle that attack is entirely situational depending on your position (should you jump? Drop down?), your melee options (melee attacks stop projectiles), etc.

 

[diddykong13]

I've been slowly working my way through old level art and designs and bringing them up to the new standard that I've set for this project over the past few weeks and I'm really quite happy with the results! Here's an example of one of the 'upgrades' I did today:

OLD

NEW

Has anyone else had to do this? I.e. having had a project running so long that you refine the style and then feel the need to go back through and bring it all up to the new style/standard? It's a pain, but feels great when it's done!

 

[Weltall Zero]

Has anyone else had to do this? I.e. having had a project running so long that you refine the style and then feel the need to go back through and bring it all up to the new style/standard? It's a pain, but feels great when it's done!

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Has anyone else not had to do this? I lost count of how many art passes I've had for my game. :D

Anyway, lava!

 

[diddykong13]

Has anyone else not had to do this? I lost count of how many art passes I've had for my game. :D

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Haha good point! - Maybe I should have asked how many times everyone has had to do it rather than if they've had to xD

 

[Jintor]

dunno why but twitter vids lag like fuck for me in normal but are fine on what I assume are API calls from tweetdeck or when embedded in here. Anyway here's #screenshotsaturday for this week

 

[jahasaja]

Awesome suggestion, hadn´t thought of that one! Thanks!


I understand what you say, but you can´t also dump all games using prompts in the same group. I mean, you can play pretty competently in Batman by just looking at the prompts, but in something like Dead Cells or Bayonetta their function is only to focus attention on a certain enemy. Then, you must identify their attack (which sometimes can be done with the audio cue of the prompt itself) through their attack build-up and react accordingly. I think that you mean is that you don´t like prompts in games when they take the place of decission making: Instead of the player looking at the enemy and having to decide what action to take, the game is deciding on its own and just communicating to the player "do this...now!". That´s why prompts work well even on 1VS1 situations, like many times in Momodora or Furi, because they don´t rob the player of the process of taking the decission on what to do.

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That is a good point! I must admit that I have not played Dead cells enough to fully grasp the combat system but I agree that you also have to see what they are doing after the prombt which I agree is a big difference.

 

[Blaaaarrggghhh]

T...
The biggest issue for me with social media and why I did not do it so much with my first game is that I do not like the person I become when I tweet. I cannot stop looking at my phone and thinking about marketing! So this time I will try to learn to tweet and then try not to think about it for a at least a day. So I do not only need to finish program my own game I also need to reprogram my brain...

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I find this fascinating! I have to reprogram my brain as well recently to be more effective and productive. I don't know how others do it. I've seen a couple of people work with Twitch, YouTube, Forums, Twitter, social media etc... all in their auxiliary monitor screens. I find I'm more effective in my work (including retaining new things I learn) when forget I know any thing of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc... Something I've been doing is listening or reading fiction. Using my imagination and picture a world dictated by an author has helped immensely before and during breaks in my work.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you. Another topic somewhat related, I have reduced my YouTube time. I feel it contributes to difficulties I have had recently with concentration.


GDC2019: I will be going to GDC this year and hanging about the indie side. Lots of cool stuff I saw last year and I'm hoping to see more again this year.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Personally I really dislike all the marketing and promotion side of game making. I tweet once a week during screenshot saturdays, and I kind of stress about even that. I'd so much rather be coding. :D

 

[SaberVS7]

Personally I really dislike all the marketing and promotion side of game making. I tweet once a week during screenshot saturdays, and I kind of stress about even that. I'd so much rather be coding. :D

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Man, that's nothing.

I'm extra-stressed about marketing when all the AAA games in the same genre as JAEGER with million-dollar marketing budgets have all bombed this gen.

But at least it means my only competition on the horizon is System Shock 3 /shrug

 

[Weltall Zero]

Man, that's nothing.

I'm extra-stressed about marketing when all the AAA games in the same genre as JAEGER with million-dollar marketing budgets have all bombed this gen.

But at least it means my only competition on the horizon is System Shock 3 /shrug

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I think comparing yourself to AAA games should be the least of your worries, there's not that much overlap in audiences. Also "bombed" means completely different things for an AAA game than an indie game; an AAA selling, say, 100k copies is an abject failure, but for an indie game made by 2-3 people that's a resounding success.

What I'm worried about is other indies, there's just so freaking many of us...

 

[jahasaja]

I find this fascinating! I have to reprogram my brain as well recently to be more effective and productive. I don't know how others do it. I've seen a couple of people work with Twitch, YouTube, Forums, Twitter, social media etc... all in their auxiliary monitor screens. I find I'm more effective in my work (including retaining new things I learn) when forget I know any thing of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc... Something I've been doing is listening or reading fiction. Using my imagination and picture a world dictated by an author has helped immensely before and during breaks in my work.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you. Another topic somewhat related, I have reduced my YouTube time. I feel it contributes to difficulties I have had recently with concentration.


GDC2019: I will be going to GDC this year and hanging about the indie side. Lots of cool stuff I saw last year and I'm hoping to see more again this year.

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I just try to remember why it is useless to do something (like looking at Twitter every 5 minutes) everytime I think I should do it. It helps a lot.

This is also really helpful to read once or twice a year:
http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html

 

[jahasaja]

Personally I really dislike all the marketing and promotion side of game making. I tweet once a week during screenshot saturdays, and I kind of stress about even that. I'd so much rather be coding. :D

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Now you you can schedule a tweet (sound so dorky). But I think I will use that as a way to not think so much about Twitter and social media.

 

[jblanco]

Personally I really dislike all the marketing and promotion side of game making. I tweet once a week during screenshot saturdays, and I kind of stress about even that. I'd so much rather be coding. :D

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Truth, and being constant about it is also hard, but, I have to admit the likes and comments really really motivate me, so there's that :)

I haven't posted updates since last year's thread here, so here I go:


It's an in-combat screenshot vs a Waterbelly Ape

 

[correojon]

I made a room with the new art style, I think it´s still missing something but getting there!

Also in the gif the charged attack: The player must hold down the button and release it at the right time to unleash a powerful attack. This attack can break enemy armor (not shields though). Enemies will react differently to it depending on their weight. For example, a medium weight enemy like the one in the gif will get pushed back, smaller enemies will be sent flying but bigger ones may be able to power through it!

 

[vestan]

.

 

[jahasaja]

I made a room with the new art style, I think it´s still missing something but getting there!

Also in the gif the charged attack: The player must hold down the button and release it at the right time to unleash a powerful attack. This attack can break enemy armor (not shields though). Enemies will react differently to it depending on their weight. For example, a medium weight enemy like the one in the gif will get pushed back, smaller enemies will be sent flying but bigger ones may be able to power through it!

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Looks cool. But now it is just a lot of square windows in different sizes I think needs more round shapes and other interesting buildings and trees etc.

 

[SweetSark]

whew, it's been a rough few days but i'm finally back to the grind. been focusing on writing/coding more than anything these past few weeks but my garbo art needs some love too. been keeping a lid on this game for a while now but i really need to start posting on socials. i can't help but feel really anxious though sometimes haha! hoping to get a demo of this "game" (ehh more a visual novel than anything) out by may for y'all. end game is releasing this before december for free on itch and steam. till then, friends!

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I am in LOVE with the visuals of your game!!!
For sure I will post it my Indie Thread!
Do you have maybe a Twitter account as well?

 

[vestan]

.

 

[OmegaJabroni]

Dylan here from PIXELAKES,

I posted a few images/gifs of our competitive puzzle game Treasure Stack WAAAAAAAY back in January of 2018 in the old Indie Game Development OT.

Since then we were lucky enough to be selected for the Nindies Summer Showcase last year and travel around with Nintendo at PAX West/Australia and EGX to show our game!

Well, it's about time for release (slated for 3/1) and our pre-purchases are now live on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. I'm really proud of our team for getting this out the door! I appreciate any support the community can give. I'm watching this new thread so I can try to stay in better touch with the community here.

Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/treasure-stack-switch

Xbox: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/treasure-stack/9pkp696hvl7t

 

[correojon]

Looks cool. But now it is just a lot of square windows in different sizes I think needs more round shapes and other interesting buildings and trees etc.

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You´re totally right. Back to the drawing board!

Dylan here from PIXELAKES,

I posted a few images/gifs of our competitive puzzle game Treasure Stack WAAAAAAAY back in January of 2018 in the old Indie Game Development OT.

Since then we were lucky enough to be selected for the Nindies Summer Showcase last year and travel around with Nintendo at PAX West/Australia and EGX to show our game!

Well, it's about time for release (slated for 3/1) and our pre-purchases are now live on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. I'm really proud of our team for getting this out the door! I appreciate any support the community can give. I'm watching this new thread so I can try to stay in better touch with the community here.

Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/treasure-stack-switch

Xbox: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/treasure-stack/9pkp696hvl7t

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Good luck with the launch!

 

[Weltall Zero]

Truth, and being constant about it is also hard, but, I have to admit the likes and comments really really motivate me, so there's that :)

I haven't posted updates since last year's thread here, so here I go:


It's an in-combat screenshot vs a Waterbelly Ape

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Can I make a super silly suggestion? I think if you give your enemies punny names, like in Earthbound, they become much more memorable.

Dylan here from PIXELAKES,

I posted a few images/gifs of our competitive puzzle game Treasure Stack WAAAAAAAY back in January of 2018 in the old Indie Game Development OT.

Since then we were lucky enough to be selected for the Nindies Summer Showcase last year and travel around with Nintendo at PAX West/Australia and EGX to show our game!

Well, it's about time for release (slated for 3/1) and our pre-purchases are now live on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. I'm really proud of our team for getting this out the door! I appreciate any support the community can give. I'm watching this new thread so I can try to stay in better touch with the community here.

Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/treasure-stack-switch

Xbox: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/treasure-stack/9pkp696hvl7t

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I remember your game, I even gave you a little feedback back then!

Related, I hate that Nintendo keeps living in the paleolithic and doesn't let you add a game to your watchlist from a PC (or at least I don't see how) >_>.

I made a room with the new art style, I think it´s still missing something but getting there!

Also in the gif the charged attack: The player must hold down the button and release it at the right time to unleash a powerful attack. This attack can break enemy armor (not shields though). Enemies will react differently to it depending on their weight. For example, a medium weight enemy like the one in the gif will get pushed back, smaller enemies will be sent flying but bigger ones may be able to power through it!

Click to shrink...

It looks cool and moody, and I don't mind that it has a lot of square shapes, but I feel that the background is a bit too busy, and since it uses the same (two) colors as the foreground, it doesn't make the action pop out. Additionally, I feel it's a bit of a waste to use the red only as the sky's color, it kind of feels like more things should be red (or failing that, modify the skyline so that more of the sky is visible).

 

[jahasaja]

I am running out of ideas for the Post Mortem.. Anything you want me to write about??

 

[Weltall Zero]

I am running out of ideas for the Post Mortem.. Anything you want me to write about??

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Try to focus on things only you can tell us. Specific anecdotes during development. Things that you explored but didn't work and discarded. Ideas that were never implemented. Or in the examples above, show a particular attack animation and explain what parts of the animation carry the movement (perhaps even slow it down), rather than more general stuff like "attack animations should feel good" and then showing a walk cycle.

 

[correojon]

It looks cool and moody, and I don't mind that it has a lot of square shapes, but I feel that the background is a bit too busy, and since it uses the same (two) colors as the foreground, it doesn't make the action pop out. Additionally, I feel it's a bit of a waste to use the red only as the sky's color, it kind of feels like more things should be red (or failing that, modify the skyline so that more of the sky is visible).

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Yeah I get what you mean, the sprites are not yet adapted to this style: I intend them to use pure white and black (and maybe a border) so they´ll pop-up more. I also think that part of the problem is that the characters are too small and they´re located at the bottom of the screen: I should add a new design constraint to the levels so that the action happens closer to the center of the view. I agree too that the skyline needs more work. Thanks for the suggestions, you are right on point!

I am running out of ideas for the Post Mortem.. Anything you want me to write about??

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I think it would be cool to get ot know more about the enemies: In a previous post you said you had created a lot of enemies, you could dedicate one or two posts to some of them explaining what makes them special or different from the rest. I´d also be interested in knowing how you decided the timings of the animations/attacks. Also, why did you decide to make the parry directions up, left and right instead of something like up, down and horizontal? That would´ve made it easier to differentiate the attacks (I remember you said people had trouble with the second boss because of mixing the left and right attacks). Like Welltall Zero said, try talking about specific stuff of your game that only you can tell and maybe (not necessarily) extrapolate a general lesson from that at the end of the post. Right now your lessons feel like very general things that could be said about every game and even without any example: Making them about your game isn´t adding much value as they could be about any other game out there as well.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Yeah I get what you mean, the sprites are not yet adapted to this style: I intend them to use pure white and black (and maybe a border) so they´ll pop-up more. I also think that part of the problem is that the characters are too small and they´re located at the bottom of the screen: I should add a new design constraint to the levels so that the action happens closer to the center of the view. I agree too that the skyline needs more work. Thanks for the suggestions, you are right on point!

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Always happy to help! :)

I´d also be interested in knowing how you decided the timings of the animations/attacks. Also, why did you decide to make the parry directions up, left and right instead of something like up, down and horizontal?

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Indeed, and to expand on this, it would be exceedingly more interesting to see a video with examples of up, left and right attacks / parries. "Show, don't tell" and all that.

 

[Jintor]

if anyone has any ideas on how to make a... call it a dynamic scrolling background, let me know.

Basically what I want to do is scroll a vertical BG. For now we'll just say upwards, though in the future I might want to go backwards, sideways, whatever. If I want the BG to change - go over an ocean, over a beach, then an island, then a town etc - right now the way I know how to implement it is to make a really tall image that is the same as my view width and scroll that image. I think depending on the level that will be problematic memory-wise and in any event I'd like to be able to get the BG to loop indefinitely (e.g. during boss fights or a wave etc).

I found this tutorial which is fairly close to what I want to do, except it uses background_x and the BG options aren't available to me since I need to draw the backgrounds using draw_background_ext commands (due to the way I've implemented parallaxing). However the idea of an 1d array and popping things in and out of the array based on whether or not the BG is in the viewport seems like my best bet. I'm just too tired to sit down and walk through the logic right now.

I'm probably overcomplicating things for myself, but hey, whatever

/edit oh and as a caveat... the way i've implemented scrolling (and probably will continue to implement scrolling pending disaster) is my viewport stays motionless and it's the BG(s) that scroll. Works fine so far. Among other things I'm pretty sure that if I instead moved the player/view upwards at a constant rate, it would fuck with the pathing I'm using for enemies atm

//edit or it could be a DS_List, i guess that would work? I'm still trying to conceptualise what the fuck I'm doing.

 

[jahasaja]

ck animations should feel good" and then showing a walk cycle.

Click to shrink...

I agree 100 % my head is obviously not in the social media space..
Here is part 2 (that I made up after your help)

I think it would be cool to get ot know more about the enemies: In a previous post you said you had created a lot of enemies, you could dedicate one or two posts to some of them explaining what makes them special or different from the rest. I´d also be interested in knowing how you decided the timings of the animations/attacks. Also, why did you decide to make the parry directions up, left and right instead of something like up, down and horizontal? That would´ve made it easier to differentiate the attacks (I remember you said people had trouble with the second boss because of mixing the left and right attacks). Like Welltall Zero said, try talking about specific stuff of your game that only you can tell and maybe (not necessarily) extrapolate a general lesson from that at the end of the post. Right now your lessons feel like very general things that could be said about every game and even without any example: Making them about your game isn´t adding much value as they could be about any other game out there as well.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I agree here as well it is all to general. I not very good at this I guess :-). but it is a good idea to discuss how i decided the timings and stuff I will do that one next. Thanks a lot for the ideas!

 

[e1it3g4m3r]

I've got an idea for a game and am currently watching tutorials on how to 3D model so then I can program next
I have an idea for a game set in 2222 titled "Eternal Nightmare". It is a dystopia where the planets atmosphere is overrun by carbon emissions. Thus denizens must walk around with oxygen masks and stores advertise having trees and oxygen. Terraforming is a thing as is genetic hybrids and genetic engineering (example cat people). Earth is sort of a decaying dystopia while other man made planets are lush and vibrant. The villains are a corrupt police chief, a genetic scientist obsessed with perfection, a wealthy politician hell bent on complete galactic control and a model soldier whom they want to clone/modify for an army of super soldiers.
The protagonist is an African American female cop named Samantha whose daughter committed suicide and she lost her body in a shoot out. Her brAin was transplanted in a synthetic robot body.
Other characters include a space bounty hunter whose synagogue was burned down
A blue androgynous prototype and a cat girl.
I also think about maybe a sequel in a different universe kind of making the games like a darker version of final fantasy.
So enough about my fleeting ambition, what are your ideas for games?

 

[Sean Noonan]

Continuing to learn little art things while the rest of the game stews in the back of my mind...

 

[Weltall Zero]

I've got an idea for a game and am currently watching tutorials on how to 3D model so then I can program next
I have an idea for a game set in 2222 titled "Eternal Nightmare". It is a dystopia where the planets atmosphere is overrun by carbon emissions. Thus denizens must walk around with oxygen masks and stores advertise having trees and oxygen. Terraforming is a thing as is genetic hybrids and genetic engineering (example cat people). Earth is sort of a decaying dystopia while other man made planets are lush and vibrant. The villains are a corrupt police chief, a genetic scientist obsessed with perfection, a wealthy politician hell bent on complete galactic control and a model soldier whom they want to clone/modify for an army of super soldiers.
The protagonist is an African American female cop named Samantha whose daughter committed suicide and she lost her body in a shoot out. Her brAin was transplanted in a synthetic robot body.
Other characters include a space bounty hunter whose synagogue was burned down
A blue androgynous prototype and a cat girl.
I also think about maybe a sequel in a different universe kind of making the games like a darker version of final fantasy.
So enough about my fleeting ambition, what are your ideas for games?

Click to shrink...

It sounds pretty neat in a sort of 80s anime way. I'd say check early Kojima games like Snatcher and Policenauts to see if that's the vibe you want to go with. Other than that, it might be kind of a tonal balancing act to tackle both serious themes like environmentalism, while at the same time having catgirls. :)

I'd say aim for a tone and

 

[correojon]

if anyone has any ideas on how to make a... call it a dynamic scrolling background, let me know.

Basically what I want to do is scroll a vertical BG. For now we'll just say upwards, though in the future I might want to go backwards, sideways, whatever. If I want the BG to change - go over an ocean, over a beach, then an island, then a town etc - right now the way I know how to implement it is to make a really tall image that is the same as my view width and scroll that image. I think depending on the level that will be problematic memory-wise and in any event I'd like to be able to get the BG to loop indefinitely (e.g. during boss fights or a wave etc).

I found this tutorial which is fairly close to what I want to do, except it uses background_x and the BG options aren't available to me since I need to draw the backgrounds using draw_background_ext commands (due to the way I've implemented parallaxing). However the idea of an 1d array and popping things in and out of the array based on whether or not the BG is in the viewport seems like my best bet. I'm just too tired to sit down and walk through the logic right now.

I'm probably overcomplicating things for myself, but hey, whatever

/edit oh and as a caveat... the way i've implemented scrolling (and probably will continue to implement scrolling pending disaster) is my viewport stays motionless and it's the BG(s) that scroll. Works fine so far. Among other things I'm pretty sure that if I instead moved the player/view upwards at a constant rate, it would fuck with the pathing I'm using for enemies atm

//edit or it could be a DS_List, i guess that would work? I'm still trying to conceptualise what the fuck I'm doing.

Click to shrink...

If you´re drawing the backgrounds "manually" in the draw event you don´t even need to use background_indexes. You could do something like:

for (var i=0; i<nLayers; i++) draw_background_ext(back[setting, i], view_xview[0], backY[setting, i], 1, 1, 0, c_white, 1);

I use 4 2D arrays:

• back: Stores the background resource name.
• backY: Stores the y position so you can move each background layre independently.
• backY0: Stores the initial y-position (where the background will be moved to loop).
• backSp: Speed to move the background layer (we´ll use this later).

The 2D array uses these indexes:

• setting: A variable you have to control to set the current setting. For example 0=sea, 1=desert...
• layer: The layer of each setting (if you want ot use many images for each setting to create a parallax effect or something).

Note that I´m using a variable nLayers to indicate the numbre of background layers, but you could turn this into a 1D array if you want to have a different number of layres in different settings. You could set it up at the crate event with:

nLayers[0] = 3;//Sea setting has 3 layers
nLayers[1] = 5;//Desert setting has 5 layers

Now all that´s left is the background movement. Returning to the Draw Event:

for (var i=0; i<nLayers[setting]; i++) {
    backY[setting, i] += backSp[setting, i];//Move the background
     if (view_yview[0] < backY[setting, i]) backY[setting, i] = backY0[setting, i];//Top of the bakckground enters the view, move it back to the start
    draw_background_ext(back[setting, i], view_xview[0], backY[setting, i], 1, 1, 0, c_white, 1);
}

In the create event you´d have to define the starting positions of the backgrounds in backY0[setting, layer] as well as the movement speeds and the background resource names:

nLayers[0] = 3;//Sea setting has 3 layers
nLayers[1] = 5;//Desert setting has 5 layers

//Initiall positions: Sea
backY0[0, 0] = -100;
backY0[0, 1] = -150;
backY0[0, 2] = -200;

//Initiall positions: Desert
backY0[1, 0] = -150;
backY0[1, 1] = -200;
backY0[1, 2] = -300;
backY0[1, 3] = -100;
backY0[1, 4] = -150;//Remmeber the desert layer had 5 layers!

//Layer speed: Sea
backSp[0, 0] = 1;
backSp[0, 1] = 2;
backSp[0, 2] = 4;

//Layer speed: Desert
backSp[1, 0] = 1;
backSp[1, 1] = 2;
backSp[1, 2] = 4;
backSp[1, 3] = 1;
backSp[1, 4] = 2;

//backgrounds: Sea
back[0, 0] = bgSea0;
back[0, 1] = bgSea1;
back[0, 2] = bgSea2;

//backgrounds: Desert
back[1, 0] = bgDesert0;
back[1, 1] = bgDesert1;
back[1, 2] = bgDesert2;
back[1, 3] = bgDesert3;
back[1, 4] = bgDesert4;

The code is untested so there may be an error here or there, but I think you get the idea :)

 

[e1it3g4m3r]

It sounds pretty neat in a sort of 80s anime way. I'd say check early Kojima games like Snatcher and Policenauts to see if that's the vibe you want to go with. Other than that, it might be kind of a tonal balancing act to tackle both serious themes like environmentalism, while at the same time having catgirls. :)

I'd say aim for a tone and

Click to shrink...

Interesting, never played those. I did play MGS1,2,3, Portable ops (not technically Kojima) and Peace Walker.
My favorite games are Digimon World, Bomberman 64, and Resident Evil 4. I just wish I could make a game of that quality or a game at all lol. Been watching Udemy tutorials.

It just hurts to see a lack of diversity in media protagonists.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Interesting, never played those. I did play MGS1,2,3, Portable ops (not technically Kojima) and Peace Walker.
My favorite games are Digimon World, Bomberman 64, and Resident Evil 4. I just wish I could make a game of that quality or a game at all lol. Been watching Udemy tutorials.

It just hurts to see a lack of diversity in media protagonists.

Click to shrink...

Metal Gear and very especially Metal Gear Solid games are very different beasts; they follow less sci-fi, more military aesthetics and themes. Snatcher is basically anime Terminator meets Blade Runner:


And for sure, more diversity is always awesome. Even if it's us indies that have to pick up the slack.

 

[Jintor]

If you´re drawing the backgrounds "manually" in the draw event you don´t even need to use background_indexes. You could do something like:

for (var i=0; i<nLayers; i++) draw_background_ext(back[setting, i], view_xview[0], backY[setting, i], 1, 1, 0, c_white, 1);

I use 4 2D arrays:

• back: Stores the background resource name.
• backY: Stores the y position so you can move each background layre independently.
• backY0: Stores the initial y-position (where the background will be moved to loop).
• backSp: Speed to move the background layer (we´ll use this later).

The 2D array uses these indexes:

• setting: A variable you have to control to set the current setting. For example 0=sea, 1=desert...
• layer: The layer of each setting (if you want ot use many images for each setting to create a parallax effect or something).

Note that I´m using a variable nLayers to indicate the numbre of background layers, but you could turn this into a 1D array if you want to have a different number of layres in different settings. You could set it up at the crate event with:

nLayers[0] = 3;//Sea setting has 3 layers
nLayers[1] = 5;//Desert setting has 5 layers

Now all that´s left is the background movement. Returning to the Draw Event:

for (var i=0; i<nLayers[setting]; i++) {
    backY[setting, i] += backSp[setting, i];//Move the background
     if (view_yview[0] < backY[setting, i]) backY[setting, i] = backY0[setting, i];//Top of the bakckground enters the view, move it back to the start
    draw_background_ext(back[setting, i], view_xview[0], backY[setting, i], 1, 1, 0, c_white, 1);
}

In the create event you´d have to define the starting positions of the backgrounds in backY0[setting, layer] as well as the movement speeds and the background resource names:

nLayers[0] = 3;//Sea setting has 3 layers
nLayers[1] = 5;//Desert setting has 5 layers

//Initiall positions: Sea
backY0[0, 0] = -100;
backY0[0, 1] = -150;
backY0[0, 2] = -200;

//Initiall positions: Desert
backY0[1, 0] = -150;
backY0[1, 1] = -200;
backY0[1, 2] = -300;
backY0[1, 3] = -100;
backY0[1, 4] = -150;//Remmeber the desert layer had 5 layers!

//Layer speed: Sea
backSp[0, 0] = 1;
backSp[0, 1] = 2;
backSp[0, 2] = 4;

//Layer speed: Desert
backSp[1, 0] = 1;
backSp[1, 1] = 2;
backSp[1, 2] = 4;
backSp[1, 3] = 1;
backSp[1, 4] = 2;

//backgrounds: Sea
back[0, 0] = bgSea0;
back[0, 1] = bgSea1;
back[0, 2] = bgSea2;

//backgrounds: Desert
back[1, 0] = bgDesert0;
back[1, 1] = bgDesert1;
back[1, 2] = bgDesert2;
back[1, 3] = bgDesert3;
back[1, 4] = bgDesert4;

The code is untested so there may be an error here or there, but I think you get the idea :)

Click to shrink...

Thanks so much! I'll throw myself at it and report back.

I love this community

 

[ohblahitsme]

Dunno if people saw this but Humble Bundle has some art icons for fantasy games for sale: https://www.humblebundle.com/software/fantasy-game-dev-bundle

 

[Burt]

Dunno if people saw this but Humble Bundle has some art icons for fantasy games for sale: https://www.humblebundle.com/software/fantasy-game-dev-bundle

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I picked this up. Can't even use any of it, really, but it's nice to have so many references on hand. When you're doing large numbers of small assets like icons, after a while coming up with the nth idea is harder than actually creating it.

 

[Deleted member 27751]

So I've finally decided it is actually time to get back into my game development lifestyle after putting it off for two years while I figure out life and everything to do with life. I'm actually now in literally the middle of nowhere Australia thanks to my partner's teaching career going rural so I have very much no distractions and all the time in the world to do what I love which is make games.

I just wanted to thank the OP kindly for building such an awesome thread and those posting in here, there are some amazing looking games and wonderful advice that is super appreciated. I'm diving back into the programming side of things as I relearn my C+/C# so the guides I've seen posted through are such great pieces so thanks again!

 

[amanset]

Some may remember me back on the other place a couple of years ago saying I was signing as a developer for a mobile games company that basically didn't want me to release my stuff. To cut a long story short, I spent two years with them but left at the end of last year for personal reasons. I've got a new job, but I have also had two month to kill and I have started doing my own stuff. And I am on a roll.

I started with getting a solid template down, with audio handling, scene handling, state machines and some other crap. I may have over engineered it. But it is done now and I have no started on a game A simple 2D scrolling space shooter because (a) I've never done one and I think everyone should and (b) there is no (b). I just really want to do a 2D shooter.

At the new place release is at the decisions of the CEO, but as the company does games for young children I am hoping not to have an issue. But anyway, this game is now going to be my testing ground, A place to try shit and learn.

And I am so excited for it. Right now I had triangles shooting triangles at triangles, but you have to start somewhere.

So I am hoping to be more part of this community again.

 

[jahasaja]

So I've finally decided it is actually time to get back into my game development lifestyle after putting it off for two years while I figure out life and everything to do with life. I'm actually now in literally the middle of nowhere Australia thanks to my partner's teaching career going rural so I have very much no distractions and all the time in the world to do what I love which is make games.

I just wanted to thank the OP kindly for building such an awesome thread and those posting in here, there are some amazing looking games and wonderful advice that is super appreciated. I'm diving back into the programming side of things as I relearn my C+/C# so the guides I've seen posted through are such great pieces so thanks again!

Click to shrink...

Some may remember me back on the other place a couple of years ago saying I was signing as a developer for a mobile games company that basically didn't want me to release my stuff. To cut a long story short, I spent two years with them but left at the end of last year for personal reasons. I've got a new job, but I have also had two month to kill and I have started doing my own stuff. And I am on a roll.

I started with getting a solid template down, with audio handling, scene handling, state machines and some other crap. I may have over engineered it. But it is done now and I have no started on a game A simple 2D scrolling space shooter because (a) I've never done one and I think everyone should and (b) there is no (b). I just really want to do a 2D shooter.

At the new place release is at the decisions of the CEO, but as the company does games for young children I am hoping not to have an issue. But anyway, this game is now going to be my testing ground, A place to try shit and learn.

And I am so excited for it. Right now I had triangles shooting triangles at triangles, but you have to start somewhere.

So I am hoping to be more part of this community again.

Click to shrink...

Welcome back both! Excited to see your stuff when you are ready to post!

 

[amanset]

Welcome back both! Excited to see your stuff when you are ready to post!

Click to shrink...

Cheers!

 

[vestan]

.

 

[Jintor]

If you´re drawing the backgrounds "manually" in the draw event you don´t even need to use background_indexes. You could do something like:

for (var i=0; i<nLayers; i++) draw_background_ext(back[setting, i], view_xview[0], backY[setting, i], 1, 1, 0, c_white, 1);

I use 4 2D arrays:

• back: Stores the background resource name.
• backY: Stores the y position so you can move each background layre independently.
• backY0: Stores the initial y-position (where the background will be moved to loop).
• backSp: Speed to move the background layer (we´ll use this later).

The 2D array uses these indexes:

• setting: A variable you have to control to set the current setting. For example 0=sea, 1=desert...
• layer: The layer of each setting (if you want ot use many images for each setting to create a parallax effect or something).

Note that I´m using a variable nLayers to indicate the numbre of background layers, but you could turn this into a 1D array if you want to have a different number of layres in different settings. You could set it up at the crate event with:

nLayers[0] = 3;//Sea setting has 3 layers
nLayers[1] = 5;//Desert setting has 5 layers

Now all that´s left is the background movement. Returning to the Draw Event:

for (var i=0; i<nLayers[setting]; i++) {
    backY[setting, i] += backSp[setting, i];//Move the background
     if (view_yview[0] < backY[setting, i]) backY[setting, i] = backY0[setting, i];//Top of the bakckground enters the view, move it back to the start
    draw_background_ext(back[setting, i], view_xview[0], backY[setting, i], 1, 1, 0, c_white, 1);
}

In the create event you´d have to define the starting positions of the backgrounds in backY0[setting, layer] as well as the movement speeds and the background resource names:

nLayers[0] = 3;//Sea setting has 3 layers
nLayers[1] = 5;//Desert setting has 5 layers

//Initiall positions: Sea
backY0[0, 0] = -100;
backY0[0, 1] = -150;
backY0[0, 2] = -200;

//Initiall positions: Desert
backY0[1, 0] = -150;
backY0[1, 1] = -200;
backY0[1, 2] = -300;
backY0[1, 3] = -100;
backY0[1, 4] = -150;//Remmeber the desert layer had 5 layers!

//Layer speed: Sea
backSp[0, 0] = 1;
backSp[0, 1] = 2;
backSp[0, 2] = 4;

//Layer speed: Desert
backSp[1, 0] = 1;
backSp[1, 1] = 2;
backSp[1, 2] = 4;
backSp[1, 3] = 1;
backSp[1, 4] = 2;

//backgrounds: Sea
back[0, 0] = bgSea0;
back[0, 1] = bgSea1;
back[0, 2] = bgSea2;

//backgrounds: Desert
back[1, 0] = bgDesert0;
back[1, 1] = bgDesert1;
back[1, 2] = bgDesert2;
back[1, 3] = bgDesert3;
back[1, 4] = bgDesert4;

The code is untested so there may be an error here or there, but I think you get the idea :)

Click to shrink...

Thanks man. My implementation is a bit different to yours since I already had a few vars controlling scrollspeed, but it all worked great! I can hit a button and the game will swap out the next BG to draw, it's great. It's not perfect but I at least know how it functions.