Hobby and Indie Game Dev |OT 2020| Discussion, Help and Show-off

[Deleted member 2652]

Hihi!
Im working on a soulslike(?) taking some gameplay ideas from ico+wind waker and visuals from tenshi no tamago with noise/collage music on top. Its a bit of a mess haha
It's the first game I've ever worked on (1 year into gamedev) and Im doing everything from coding to 3d models, animations and music.

Here's a really low-quality vid of the thing in motion


So far the core systems are there:
- enemies have varying levels of aggression to determine if they have to act more offensive or defensive
- enemies choose from an array of different attacks and use the best suited one depending on their level of aggression and position in regards to the player
- enemies also have walk routines and idle states. They have a "leash" area and will go back to their starting point if player runs away etc
- enemies can drop weapons on the ground while fighting but also pick them back up (so like in wind waker)
....many more things*
- game also has systems in place for opening doors/climbing ladders etc

only thing missing is a failstate. I want to make the combat system a bit more unique and Im still figuring out what could make for an interesting change that fits with the world im creating.

Also here are the designs for all of the enemies I've done so far. They are all fully animated and each have 20+unique animations

I know the 2nd one can be a bit hard to read which is why I plan to redesign it. It's actually the first enemy model i created many months ago.
In general I feel like im still figuring out what visual style I want for my game

Click to shrink...

Love the look of this stuff. Hopefully in the future we can see direct feed footage!

 

[Weltall Zero]

Awww thank you so much <3 I was a bit nervous to show my game on here, It really means a lot
Im not a professional at all, only been doing 3d for less than 3 years and outside of 2 comissions it has always been work for my own projects
same goes for animation...its funny cause 4 months ago I finally understood how to correctly use bone constraints to create better animations and had to go back and retroactively fix older animations

Click to shrink...

Well, you certainly must have a natural talent to get this good in just a few years. I really look forward to see more twisted enemy designs like this, they give me life and outside the Souls series there's not a lot of games that go for that look. :) The game already feels weighty, which is pretty amazing as that's one of the hardest things to get right and even the best games tend to look floaty until the final polish.

If you are interested in games taking inspiration from angel's egg I suggest you play "abyssal somewhere". Its free on itch io and its what finally pushed me to start gamedev myself

Click to shrink...

Bookmarked, thanks a lot!

Edit: Also it seems that the developer of Abyssal Somewhere happens to be Spanish, like me. :)

Love the look of this stuff. Hopefully in the future we can see direct feed footage!

Click to shrink...

Seconded, direct feed would be great. :)

 

[dannymate]

It's the first game I've ever worked on (1 year into gamedev) and Im doing everything from coding to 3d models, animations and music.

Also here are the designs for all of the enemies I've done so far. They are all fully animated and each have 20+unique animations

I know the 2nd one can be a bit hard to read which is why I plan to redesign it. It's actually the first enemy model i created many months ago.
In general I feel like im still figuring out what visual style I want for my game

Click to shrink...

Looks amazing. I'm about the same time into my game and I'm nowhere near the state that yours is in. I've been trying to learn 3D modelling in Blender for the last couple of weeks. I was wondering what tools you're using for modelling and texturing if you don't mind sharing (and any tips)?

Also if you need a good tool for taking gifs or what have you, I use ShareX, it's free and on steam also. It can take specific panels of windows if you don't want to share your whole screen or whatever.

 

[Sean Noonan]

Been super busy at work lately, but had a free weekend to make a menu for the Mario thing.



Should release this soonish. Busy for the next week or so though.

 

[hideousarmor]

Well, you certainly must have a natural talent to get this good in just a few years. I really look forward to see more twisted enemy designs like this, they give me life and outside the Souls series there's not a lot of games that go for that look. :)

Click to shrink...

Thank you this is very kind of you.
I agree that fromsoft has some excellent art and its a look that I cant get enough of. I aspire to make as interesting designs as their artists do

Love the look of this stuff. Hopefully in the future we can see direct feed footage!

Click to shrink...

Seconded, direct feed would be great. :)

Click to shrink...

Also if you need a good tool for taking gifs or what have you, I use ShareX, it's free and on steam also

Click to shrink...

Noted! I'll try to have an update in a couple of weeks with some gameplay gifs. At the moment Im upgrading the player character model and animations as they are the first things I made and dont look as good as the newer stuff.
For the moment I can share some pics of the level design

Spoiler

I was wondering what tools you're using for modelling and texturing if you don't mind sharing (and any tips)?

Click to shrink...

I first sculpt the characters in zbrush then UV unwrap, retopology and animations in blender. For environment elements is usually 100% in blender unless I want something more detailed.
For textures I use substance painter
Im sorry but I dont feel like im in a good position to give any tips, as I said, Im still learning new stuff every week. I guess If you plan to do animations, make sure you fully understand how to properly rig a model, using ik constraints and everything so that you dont have to go frame by frame posing the feet of your characters like I used to do 🤕

 

[Weltall Zero]

Been super busy at work lately, but had a free weekend to make a menu for the Mario thing.



Should release this soonish. Busy for the next week or so though.

Click to shrink...

Would it be possible for you to use the "A micro game by Sean Noonan" font for the options, too? It's beautiful and so very Mario 64. The somewhat generic font for the options is pretty much the only thing that breaks the illusion of this being an actual Nintendo game for me.

 

[udivision]

Would it be possible for you to use the "A micro game by Sean Noonan" font for the options, too? It's beautiful and so very Mario 64. The somewhat generic font for the options is pretty much the only thing that breaks the illusion of this being an actual Nintendo game for me.

Click to shrink...

Mario Odyssey uses a "normal" font for it's menus I guess, but regardless I think you're right.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Mario Odyssey uses a "normal" font for it's menus I guess, but regardless I think you're right.

Click to shrink...

Point taken, hahah, even though I probably thought the same when I played it (I can't remember).

 

[GulAtiCa]

Wow, the process for releasing an Android game on Kindle Fire is really really easy. Submitted both versions yesterday and already live for both. Was really really easy, even easier than submitting bunch of info for Google Play Console.

I don't have a Kindle Fire on me anymore, so I don't have access to check them out lol. Might have to buy a cheap one later on to give it a look.

But, I just love that if you search for my game on Amazon, it's there: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=drop+it+block+paradise&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

[Alek]

A friend of mine was telling me that this site closed down and made all its gamedev tutorials free for people to download

https://www.3dbuzz.com/

I don't know if they help anyone but it looks like there's a lot of good stuff there. Lot of stuff on game art (2D and 3D) and programming (Unity, UDK, C#, C++, Javascript etc).

Thought maybe it might help someone in this thread.

 

[Deleted member 48813]

Hey y'all. So today I implemented a basic dialogue system that I've been putting off for some time now since I finally found a good tutorial that goes more in depth on how to implement it and had the features I wanted (Typewriter effect and sounds, character portraits w/ emotions, etc).

Here's the channel that made the tutorials, in case anyone wants/needs it (The channel is small so he could use some subs):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBbJ0w6jHxjLNKotoIg4aXQ/videos

And here's what it looks like so far in my game:

 

[Hanuli]

Hey y'all. So today I implemented a basic dialogue system that I've been putting off for some time now since I finally found a good tutorial that goes more in depth on how to implement it and had the features I wanted (Typewriter effect and sounds, character portraits w/ emotions, etc).

Here's the channel that made the tutorials, in case anyone wants/needs it (The channel is small so he could use some subs):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBbJ0w6jHxjLNKotoIg4aXQ/videos

And here's what it looks like so far in my game:

Click to shrink...

Good work with the dialogue system! It definitely makes the difference in game feel when all the text doesn't just appear at the same time. I think the beep sound might be a little ear grating for long play sessions though. I like that Sade dislikes rain in the morning when in my language Sade = Rain. What kind of game is Rive? Is it an rpg? Getting some Earthbound/Undertale vibes.

 

[Mike Armbrust]

Hey y'all. So today I implemented a basic dialogue system that I've been putting off for some time now since I finally found a good tutorial that goes more in depth on how to implement it and had the features I wanted (Typewriter effect and sounds, character portraits w/ emotions, etc).

Here's the channel that made the tutorials, in case anyone wants/needs it (The channel is small so he could use some subs):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBbJ0w6jHxjLNKotoIg4aXQ/videos

And here's what it looks like so far in my game:

Click to shrink...

Looking good. One thing I'd suggest is making it more obvious when the dialogue has finished typing. The short pause after a sentence would have left me accidentally clicking next prematurely.

Also you could make it so words automatically jump to the next line if it'll be needed. Easy solution would be always displaying the whole paragraph but making the unsaid stuff transparent. Here's a quick example script of how it could be set up without reworking your current solution.

string OutputText(string displayText, string fullText){
    return displayText + "<color=#00000000>" + fullText.Substring(displayText.Length) + "</color>";
}

 

[Deleted member 48813]

Good work with the dialogue system! It definitely makes the difference in game feel when all the text doesn't just appear at the same time. I think the beep sound might be a little ear grating for long play sessions though. I like that Sade dislikes rain in the morning when in my language Sade = Rain. What kind of game is Rive? Is it an rpg? Getting some Earthbound/Undertale vibes.

Click to shrink...

Thanks! The sound does get grating pretty quickly. It is a placeholder sound though, so for the time being I'll either turn it off or lower the volume. Awesome coincidence with Sade's name, I didn't know that! What language is it?

@bold Yeah, that's the vibe I'm going for. It's a turn-based RPG and it's indeed inspired by EarthBound/Undertale but I also want to take some cues from Dragon Quest, like a day/night cycle with sidequests that depend on the time of day. Don't wanna make the artstyle too similar to EarthBound though as I don't want it to feel like a ripoff. I have some art/sketches done for the main party already (Sade is the protagonist), maybe I'll post it here sometime.

Looking good. One thing I'd suggest is making it more obvious when the dialogue has finished typing. The short pause after a sentence would have left me accidentally clicking next prematurely.

Also you could make it so words automatically jump to the next line if it'll be needed. Easy solution would be always displaying the whole paragraph but making the unsaid stuff transparent. Here's a quick example script of how it could be set up without reworking your current solution.

string OutputText(string displayText, string fullText){
    return displayText + "<color=#00000000>" + fullText.Substring(displayText.Length) + "</color>";
}

Click to shrink...

Thanks! I'll probably fix that today. I'll make it so the next button only appears after the sentence is complete (I'll also change it to an arrow pointing down since that button screams placeholder haha). As for the issue with the text wrapping to the next line, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll do it like you suggested and see how it goes. Every dialogue tutorial I've seen always brushes past this problem, they always go with the "type one char at a time" and ignore the wrapping issue at the end of the lines =P

 

[Remeran]

Learning blender a little so I can make a vr game. I am by no means an artist, but I'm Trying to make a blacksmithing hammer in a low poly art style. It almost looks too clean to me. Any artist here that can give a quick critique?
Edit whoops I meant anvil

 

[Kamaros]

Learning blender a little so I can make a vr game. I am by no means an artist, but I'm Trying to make a blacksmithing hammer in a low poly art style. It almost looks too clean to me. Any artist here that can give a quick critique?
Edit whoops I meant anvil

Click to shrink...

looking nice :)

you can sculpt the signs of use on the model or direct in the texture (it keeps the model light hehe).

Thread:
next week i'm undergoing a pro course on Maya, Zbrush and Substance Painter, wish me luck fellow devs :)

 

[Weltall Zero]

Hey y'all. So today I implemented a basic dialogue system that I've been putting off for some time now since I finally found a good tutorial that goes more in depth on how to implement it and had the features I wanted (Typewriter effect and sounds, character portraits w/ emotions, etc).

Here's the channel that made the tutorials, in case anyone wants/needs it (The channel is small so he could use some subs):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBbJ0w6jHxjLNKotoIg4aXQ/videos

And here's what it looks like so far in my game:

Click to shrink...

Very nice! The speech sound is very nice; it's not easy to hit the sweet spot between dull and annoying.

I was about to ask if the "Next" button is a placeholder but you addressed that later. :D

Looking good. One thing I'd suggest is making it more obvious when the dialogue has finished typing. The short pause after a sentence would have left me accidentally clicking next prematurely.

Also you could make it so words automatically jump to the next line if it'll be needed. Easy solution would be always displaying the whole paragraph but making the unsaid stuff transparent. Here's a quick example script of how it could be set up without reworking your current solution.

string OutputText(string displayText, string fullText){
    return displayText + "<color=#00000000>" + fullText.Substring(displayText.Length) + "</color>";
}

Click to shrink...

I am in awe of how you instantly nailed my two most common pet peeves with game dialogue: accidentally skipping to the next text box because I thought the current one was over, and the current word suddenly jumping to the next line once it can't fit the current one. The last one in particular gives such a shoddy, amateurish feel to me, and yet a lot of relatively high-profile games do it!

The former is easily fixed by adding a "next" special icon (e.g. a right arrow), but again, even a lot of non-indie games don't seem to understand its purpose and render it entirely pointless by delaying its appearance, with the result that the player ends up pressing a button before it appears anyway, out of impatience.

 

[Deleted member 48813]

string OutputText(string displayText, string fullText){
    return displayText + "<color=#00000000>" + fullText.Substring(displayText.Length) + "</color>";
}

Click to shrink...

Yaay, I fixed it! Unfortunately I tried adapting your code and it wasn't working out, so this is the solution I came up with based on what I looked up online. It's the same basic idea as yours though, so thanks for the help anyways!

This is what I had originally:

Spoiler

foreach(char c in info.myText.ToCharArray()){
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(textDelay);
            dialogueText.text += c;
            if(info.character.myVoice != null){
                AudioManager.instance.PlayClip(info.character.myVoice);
            }

            if(CheckPunctuation(c)){
                yield return new WaitForSeconds(punctuationDelay);
            }
        }

And this is how I got it to work, based on this code:

Spoiler

        var index = 0;
        char c;
        while (index < info.myText.Length)
        {
            index++;
            dialogueText.text = info.myText.Insert(index, "<color=#FFFFFF00>") + "</color>";
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(textDelay);

            if(info.character.myVoice != null){
                AudioManager.instance.PlayClip(info.character.myVoice);
            }
            if(CheckPunctuation(c = info.myText[index-1])){
                yield return new WaitForSeconds(punctuationDelay);
             }
        }

Very nice! The speech sound is very nice; it's not easy to hit the sweet spot between dull and annoying.

I was about to ask if the "Next" button is a placeholder but you addressed that later. :D

Click to shrink...

Thanks! Already working on changing it, and making it so it only shows up when the sentence is completed. I'll post another video here once I finish fixing everything!

 

[Sean Noonan]

Would it be possible for you to use the "A micro game by Sean Noonan" font for the options, too? It's beautiful and so very Mario 64. The somewhat generic font for the options is pretty much the only thing that breaks the illusion of this being an actual Nintendo game for me.

Click to shrink...

I started out that way but found it to be overkill. Felt like having a little restraint made it feel "classy"? Perhaps generic though :D

 

[Valkrai]

Didn't know there was an indie dev era group here until now. Looking at the work everyone's doing is definitely inspiring me to work on something on the side while going to class.

 

[Mike Armbrust]

Yaay, I fixed it! Unfortunately I tried adapting your code and it wasn't working out, so this is the solution I came up with based on what I looked up online. It's the same basic idea as yours though, so thanks for the help anyways!

This is what I had originally:

Spoiler

foreach(char c in info.myText.ToCharArray()){
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(textDelay);
            dialogueText.text += c;
            if(info.character.myVoice != null){
                AudioManager.instance.PlayClip(info.character.myVoice);
            }

            if(CheckPunctuation(c)){
                yield return new WaitForSeconds(punctuationDelay);
            }
        }

And this is how I got it to work, based on this code:

Spoiler

        var index = 0;
        char c;
        while (index < info.myText.Length)
        {
            index++;
            dialogueText.text = info.myText.Insert(index, "<color=#FFFFFF00>") + "</color>";
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(textDelay);

            if(info.character.myVoice != null){
                AudioManager.instance.PlayClip(info.character.myVoice);
            }
            if(CheckPunctuation(c = info.myText[index-1])){
                yield return new WaitForSeconds(punctuationDelay);
             }
        }

Thanks! Already working on changing it, and making it so it only shows up when the sentence is completed. I'll post another video here once I finish fixing everything!

Click to shrink...

Awesome that you got it working! There are a million different ways to code things and the best method tends to be whatever you're comfortable with.

I am in awe of how you instantly nailed my two most common pet peeves with game dialogue: accidentally skipping to the next text box because I thought the current one was over, and the current word suddenly jumping to the next line once it can't fit the current one. The last one in particular gives such a shoddy, amateurish feel to me, and yet a lot of relatively high-profile games do it!

The former is easily fixed by adding a "next" special icon (e.g. a right arrow), but again, even a lot of non-indie games don't seem to understand its purpose and render it entirely pointless by delaying its appearance, with the result that the player ends up pressing a button before it appears anyway, out of impatience.

Click to shrink...

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this way. There are dozens of us!

 

[Asa]

New game coming out from us(ODDROK): Early worm, game about physics and worm and apples :)
This is actually mainly just my project, I've done most of the coding and all of the art myself. Took about 6 months from start to finish. I didn't work on it full time all the time though.
Trailer:

 

[Ciao]

2D anim tests

 

[GulAtiCa]

Currently experimenting more with Google's Ad Mob with my free version of my game. starting to make me a few cents a day, hoping to eventually have that go up a bit.

I redid how I do the popup ad. Originally had it go straight up once you beat a level, but now changed it to where it won't pop up till you beat 3 and then after 5 more, than after 7 more after that, and finally after 10 more and so on. So, way less intrusive.

Also now experimenting with Reward Ads, where a user has an option to watch a video ad and get rewarded. Not implemented yet, but testing to get it right. In my case, I am adding an option for Free users can skip a level by watching an Ad. It's neat.

Ironically, I keep play testing through the levels to fine tune them so that this option hopefully wouldn't be needed. Heh

 

[Deleted member 62221]

I want to differentiate my current project from other city builders by adding different scenarios, recently I added desertic and ice planet scenarios (that I hope to differentiate more by adding creatures, weather effects, etc)






Does anyone here have any experience with Indiegogo? I'm not decided yet but maybe I should try crowdfunding even if my chances are slim, I don't know.

 

[Mexen]

I know nothing about game design. I will start here.

 

[funkygallo]

 

[Dascu]

Awww thank you so much <3 I was a bit nervous to show my game on here, It really means a lot
Im not a professional at all, only been doing 3d for less than 3 years and outside of 2 comissions it has always been work for my own projects
same goes for animation...its funny cause 4 months ago I finally understood how to correctly use bone constraints to create better animations and had to go back and retroactively fix older animations

If you are interested in games taking inspiration from angel's egg I suggest you play "abyssal somewhere". Its free on itch io and its what finally pushed me to start gamedev myself

Click to shrink...

Beautiful work! And yes, Angel's Egg and _abyssalSomewhere are lovely.

 

[Bufbaf]

Question: if you finish up a steam store page and it's going into confirmation status to valve, and then gets accepted, can you still update trailers and such still before you set it live (or in this case, set it to coming soon)? Or will it hit the storefront as soon as valve gives the okay?

 

[Benz On Dubz]

It runs on machines with non-development software, but there are some frame rate issues I need to sort out on the lower spec'd machines.

 

[GulAtiCa]

Finally figured out how to submit my game to the Windows Store, and by extension Xbox One, sweet. Hopefully be approved for Windows Store soon. But nice to know I can take my HTML5 game, build in Cordova, open in Visual Studios 2017 and then build the bundle app. With that, I can now build for Xbox too! So, that will come in handy later on.

 

[iHeartGameDev]

Happy Saturday everyone! This past week, I started working on my first character for the story-mode of Neon Skies. You can see the wireframe turnaround in the post below. Have literally never textured anything before. Anyone have experience doing so and have any tips?

 

[Radnom]

Did anyone else do the Global Game Jam over the weekend? I'm pretty happy with our effort: https://radnom.itch.io/gates-of-logic

It's sooooort of educational, at a stretch... it's a multiplayer platformer that incorporates logic gates into the gameplay, by forcing multiple players to control a single character in a platformer, and based on your active 'logic gate' you either have to share controls, co-ordinate controls, or let your partner take control

 

[GulAtiCa]

I got myself a Kindle Fire today! A simple 7 inch version. Just so I can test my own game out. Works great actually. Though, seems like google's AdMob doesn't work with it. So will likely need to integrate with Amazon Ads instead for the Kindle Fire version.

 

[Bufbaf]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1237190/Orbis_Fugae/

Made it onto Steam \o/

This still feels quite unreal tbh :) Thankful for any wishlist ^^

 

[Weltall Zero]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1237190/Orbis_Fugae/

Made it onto Steam \o/

This still feels quite unreal tbh :) Thankful for any wishlist ^^

Click to shrink...

Wishlisted!

Also, I thought you meant you actually released the game and I was like "what, already?" since it wasn't that long ago that you showed the designs. :D

 

[Bufbaf]

Wishlisted!

Also, I thought you meant you actually released the game and I was like "what, already?" since it wasn't that long ago that you showed the designs. :D

Click to shrink...

I wish :D

 

[Hanuli]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1237190/Orbis_Fugae/

Made it onto Steam \o/

This still feels quite unreal tbh :) Thankful for any wishlist ^^

Click to shrink...

I wishlisted too! Looking forward to it :)

I always find it super infuriating to work with steam because they are so fussy about how your logo must be placed just right in every capsule and so on. It tells me there must be an actual human checking all the games that go to steam, because they somehow noticed that in one of my images there was a mention of an offer about my game in itch.io and they were like "Nope can't have that. Go remove it." Yet often it feels like the process MUST be automated because all kinds of asset flips go through the system???

 

[Weltall Zero]

I wishlisted too! Looking forward to it :)

I always find it super infuriating to work with steam because they are so fussy about how your logo must be placed just right in every capsule and so on. It tells me there must be an actual human checking all the games that go to steam, because they somehow noticed that in one of my images there was a mention of an offer about my game in itch.io and they were like "Nope can't have that. Go remove it." Yet often it feels like the process MUST be automated because all kinds of asset flips go through the system???

Click to shrink...

Text recognition on images is trivial nowadays, so I wouldn't be surprised if they automatically run them through it and then have the system flag them for review if they contain specific terms like other store names.

 

[Bufbaf]

I wishlisted too! Looking forward to it :)

I always find it super infuriating to work with steam because they are so fussy about how your logo must be placed just right in every capsule and so on. It tells me there must be an actual human checking all the games that go to steam, because they somehow noticed that in one of my images there was a mention of an offer about my game in itch.io and they were like "Nope can't have that. Go remove it." Yet often it feels like the process MUST be automated because all kinds of asset flips go through the system???

Click to shrink...

Given the feedback I received for my (unfinished) build, I'm sure it's actual humans at least involved in the process. It's just that steam pages even for asset flips are, technically, correctly set up, so they are fine in valves eye.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Given the feedback I received for my (unfinished) build, I'm sure it's actual humans at least involved in the process. It's just that steam pages even for asset flips are, technically, correctly set up, so they are fine in valves eye.

Click to shrink...

I mean, Valve takes 100$ from them and then a 30% of anything they sell, and they already have the reputation as the store without curation. There's not much incentive (or possibly even legal grounds) for them to ban asset flips. :)

 

[GulAtiCa]

Made it onto the Windows Store! https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/drop-it-block-paradise/9pgjkjv8xb1x?activetab=pivot:overviewtab



I'm excited. Now the next step of course is for an iOS release. Maybe even an Xbox release? Since I figured out Windows Store, Xbox is the same process and rather easy at this point. Just got to figure out how to integrate a controller. It's a touch based game, but.. It might work! I have a good idea.

 

[_Rob_]

It only just occurred to me this morning that despite being active on the Discord, I had completely forgotten to visit here since last month! Some great stuff going on already this year by the looks of things!

I'm still plugging away with Clive 'N' Wrench, actually getting somewhere close to a "game" now. I'm jumping between levels a lot, trying to get everything finished but here's a couple of the most recent bits of progress:




I'll be doing my best to stay active here now... time does have a habit of getting away from me these days!

 

[Pleiades]

1 day prototypes.

Messing around with shaders and ended up with something resembling lava as well as a shader that draws objects only when it's in the cone of a light of a specific color.

Decided that these would work in a portal type of problem solving game. ---> Quick demo / mockup was born :)

Click to shrink...

Decided to make this into a small prototype game on my off time last week.

Free download here: https://olliarkko.itch.io/selective-illumination

And then some screenshots:

 

[H.Protagonist]

Nothing to show yet on my end, but I have since picked and have an agreement with an artist now, outlined the general overview and laid out the gameflow/particulars of the first 'arc', and am in discussions with a sound guy for my BGM.

I was wondering, though (if anyone cared to share), what kind of budgets people were working with for the various parts of their games. The artist I chose is going to be $300 for the 3 room backgrounds that I mentioned last time (right on the money, Hanuli!)(she agreed to throw in the mirror-imaged room w/ minor tweaks at no cost), and I've been quoted a similar number for the BGM w/ a bit of trade thrown in, but I don't really have frame of reference to know if that's about right. He's a professional and seems to know his suss, so I'm inclined to think he's made a lot of concessions for me, especially since it would be a peanuts project for him. Very curious/interested to hear what anyone else is doing/done for their game pieces (art, music, sound effects, editing, QA, VO, etc.). The budget part of this has certainly been a learning experience, especially when I put it out there on Twitter and some people have spent numbers like $3000 on art alone, or have budgeted $45k(!) for their personal projects. Wow, I say, wow.

Didn't know there was an indie dev era group here until now. Looking at the work everyone's doing is definitely inspiring me to work on something on the side while going to class.

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Everyone's amazing, right? Seeing stuff like Biestmann 's character art, _Rob_ 's 'bits' (Holy smokes, Rob), the nuts and bolts of Hanuli's VN, Jump_Button's animation work, GulAtiCa and Bufbaf getting their stuff up (congrats, you guys!), and Asa's trailer, and many, many more... Really motivating stuff.

 

[Hanuli]

Nothing to show yet on my end, but I have since picked and have an agreement with an artist now, outlined the general overview and laid out the gameflow/particulars of the first 'arc', and am in discussions with a sound guy for my BGM.

I was wondering, though (if anyone cared to share), what kind of budgets people were working with for the various parts of their games. The artist I chose is going to be $300 for the 3 room backgrounds that I mentioned last time (right on the money, Hanuli!)(she agreed to throw in the mirror-imaged room w/ minor tweaks at no cost), and I've been quoted a similar number for the BGM w/ a bit of trade thrown in, but I don't really have frame of reference to know if that's about right. He's a professional and seems to know his suss, so I'm inclined to think he's made a lot of concessions for me, especially since it would be a peanuts project for him. Very curious/interested to hear what anyone else is doing/done for their game pieces (art, music, sound effects, editing, QA, VO, etc.). The budget part of this has certainly been a learning experience, especially when I put it out there on Twitter and some people have spent numbers like $3000 on art alone, or have budgeted $45k(!) for their personal projects. Wow, I say, wow.

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Secretly I was afraid I was selling every artist on the planet short with the 300$ figure, but I'm glad that worked out.
My budget has been something like this:
3000$ for the background artist (about 250$ every month since we started. Last piece is due next month)
850$ for the composer
100$ steam fee
50$ logo design

I kinda got carried away with commissioning art from the bg artist. I honestly no longer expect to break even with Vengeful Heart, but at least all that amazing art exists in the world, right? :')

VH will cost 10 dollars. With steam + taxes taking about 50% and my partner gets 50% of the profits I get 2.50$ per sale at full price. We need to sell 1600 units at full price for me to break even. (At least I get the steam fee back after we sell 1000$ worth VH)

My hope is that VH will net us some fans that will look forward to our next work and with sales becomes profitable at some point. In the end making money isn't why I want to make games. I make more than enough money at my day job. But eventually it would be nice to retire from my day job so I could dedicate more time on making games.

 

[iHeartGameDev]

This week I spent time on my first character.

So I need to learn to texture because every single color on my model is it's own material. Is that bad? Also, should all of this be combined into one mesh? Because a lot of the model is separated into different parts (the boots, the coat, the helmet, even the eyes). I want the character to be modular so I can make new helmets and let the player customize their character... but I really am having a hard time understanding things like weighting, rigging multiple meshes (and if I'm even supposed to be doing that)... any and all advice is appreciated!

 

[Nuclear Detergent]

What do you guys do for testing? Its mostly a hobby project for me at the moment, but thinking about making a serious thing out of it eventually.

I was thinking about making a thread here on Era, asking people to check out a demo thats getting closer and closer to being finished, and give some feedback. Dont wanna come off asking people to do labour for free though, but still interested in building a community/receiving lots of feedback

 

[手加減 TG]

What do you guys do for testing? Its mostly a hobby project for me at the moment, but thinking about making a serious thing out of it eventually.

I was thinking about making a thread here on Era, asking people to check out a demo thats getting closer and closer to being finished, and give some feedback. Dont wanna come off asking people to do labour for free though, but still interested in building a community/receiving lots of feedback

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Depends what kind of feedback you're after.

I'm sure everyone here has different experiences with testing, but I find friends tend to give gameplay feedback and strangers report more technical and QoL issues.

I don't usually have strangers play my games until quite late in development.

 

[_Rob_]

What do you guys do for testing? Its mostly a hobby project for me at the moment, but thinking about making a serious thing out of it eventually.

I was thinking about making a thread here on Era, asking people to check out a demo thats getting closer and closer to being finished, and give some feedback. Dont wanna come off asking people to do labour for free though, but still interested in building a community/receiving lots of feedback

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If you can manage it, Patreon is the option that works really nicely. I get good amounts of feedback there, and a monthly demo serves as a "reward" people seem to be cool with (thought I appreciate I'm in a very fortunate position here).

Aside from that contacting streamers who play similar games can be very helpful, watching them and their audience react to things live is second to none in terms of feedback value; it's about as close as you can get to being a fly on the wall!