I think if I were to make it into a complete experience, I need an audience who'd be interested in seing a full game based on the systems in the demo, and probably some form of financial support through either a Patreon or Kickstarter. I'm mostly looking for technical feedback.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.
Patreon seems like a good option, in my current phase. I'm not sure the game would really cater to the streamer/stream watcher scene.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!
Wait H.Protagonist you're making a game? I missed this, what is it?
scrolling up, scrolling up
(to answer your question [uselessly] my Budget is 0€ in salary for a team of 1 and whatever software I can afford to use and learn by myself in addition)
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.
Wait H.Protagonist you're making a game? I missed this, what is it?
scrolling up, scrolling up
(to answer your question [uselessly] my Budget is 0€ in salary for a team of 1 and whatever software I can afford to use and learn by myself in addition)
Weil, for one you're way smarter than I am, your scope is way more feasible than mine.Haha. A very modest budget, indeed! I'm jealous that you have such a wide range of skills. I have to rely on more talented people than myself for almost everything. I'm excited to pull the pieces together, though.
For my game, as @Weltall Zero pulled up (thank you~), I'm going for a simple point-and-click that consists of only 3 rooms.
^Just LOOK at this sexy notebook doodle. AAA material, amirite? :D
Since writing is my 'talent' in this field, the game is entirely built on using incidental text, dialogue, and books as a narrative device. That's pretty much it. I figure that if I can tell a tight, compelling story on a small scale, then maybe I can shop it around as proof of concept for a bigger version that I have in mind. Either way, it's a fun creative project and I've always wanted to make a game. Seems like a good test.
Weil, for one you're way smarter than I am, your scope is way more feasible than mine.
And your skill in the end is probably way more useful than what little I'm able of drawing and using visionaire, writing is so hard and I'm writing myself into corners and logic errors all the time lol.
Can't wait to see more of it, the concept and pixel art style both seem great :D
Edit: Seeing you've been looking for a coder regarding quite basic point'n click stuff - do yourself a favor and look into Visionaire. I never did a proper line of programming on my own in my entire life, and even I can get some impressive gameplay results out of it, on top of that it has a super helpful community when it comes to adding scripts and neat tricks. You might be way better off taking a day or two to go through some tutorials (and of course, I may be able to help with minor stuff as well) than to pump tons of money into a coder that will need to be with the game to the end of time. You can even do as much as you want with it for free (except for exporting a game, you'll need a license for that).
double edit: Of course, if you already have a great partnership going, I really don't wanna jump on that :D So please, only take the post as a general idea.
That's even better :DMe and H.Protagonist made a deal that I would code her demo and she would edit my script :) Talent swaps rule!
Me and H.Protagonist made a deal that I would code her demo and she would edit my script :) Talent swaps rule!
I think with increasing creative demands this gets increasingly unrealistic. So learning to program is pretty realistic, learning to draw in a limited scope as well, but learning to compose if you are not artistically inclined is probably pretty hopeless.Just some general thoughts on hiring for gamedev since I see the topic came up -- I have a little experience hiring people for some gamedev jobs. I do most of it on my own, though, which keeps me really flexible since I can do most tasks (as they pertain to my project). I have done a little art hiring as well as all sorts of audio/vo hiring.
Anyway, good artists tend to charge $30/hour or more ($30 would be on the low end, really, I've been quoted $60+) and good art takes a lot of hours to make, so... yeah. Art is an enormous expense if you need to hire people for it. Thankfully this is my primary discipline so I've not ever been forced to hire artists.
As for hiring composers I think it seems fairly ordinary to pay per minute of music composed, which can vary quite a bit based on the experience and demand of the composer. It could be $50 per minute or it could be $500 per minute.
In general it just depends on what you're making and who you're making it with.. If you want to make something really professional and you want to hire people with real experience, it's going to cost a lot of money. If you have friends who are willing to work for back end or otherwise on a more casual basis... Well, good luck. It *could* work, I guess!
If you don't have a big budget to work with I recommend learning how to do as many things as possible on your own. That's just a random thought, I guess, I know not everyone has the time for that. Gamedev is a complicated profession.
Hard disagree, if you would have heard my first days with magix music maker and comparing that to what I'm doing (self-learned) with FL studio now, I've come to the opinion that you can learn absolutely everything if you're interested in it enough.I think with increasing creative demands this gets increasingly unrealistic. So learning to program is pretty realistic, learning to draw in a limited scope as well, but learning to compose if you are not artistically inclined is probably pretty hopeless.
Well you are an artist in the first place ;). In contrast to programming, for music, you do not only need to be well-versed in the craft to do sufficiently good work, you also need to have artistic inspiration and direction. I am pretty sure I could put thousands of hours into learning every bit about music composing software and I would still not make a single tune anyone, including me, would ever want to hear.Hard disagree, if you would have heard my first days with magix music maker and comparing that to what I'm doing (self-learned) with FL studio now, I've come to the opinion that you can learn absolutely everything if you're interested in it enough.
I'm still far from being technically good at it, but every single improvement comes from doing things, learning from doing them wrong and trying to improve. Making music isn't that different from making pictures, creatively and technically.
Speaking of, if someone is in need of music and not too picky, let me know :D I like the sharing Idea.
Looking at this rn, looks really interesting actually.Edit: Seeing you've been looking for a coder regarding quite basic point'n click stuff - do yourself a favor and look into Visionaire. I never did a proper line of programming on my own in my entire life, and even I can get some impressive gameplay results out of it
I can nothing but recommend it :)Looking at this rn, looks really interesting actually.
Probably not gonna jump on it myself but it's cool to know that there's a dedicated engine to get these kind of adventure games up and running quickly.
Well you are an artist in the first place ;). In contrast to programming, for music, you do not only need to be well-versed in the craft to do sufficiently good work, you also need to have artistic inspiration and direction. I am pretty sure I could put thousands of hours into learning every bit about music composing software and I would still not make a single tune anyone, including me, would ever want to hear.
Weltall Zero's Divinoids has - even on gifs - a great game-feel, very cool pixel art and really cool designs which, again, I probably wouldn't have been able to do.
=== State_Change(State, SubState) ===
#Knot_Delay: Instant
{
- State == "Shopping" && SubState == "Shop":
-> On_Shopping_State
- State == "SERVING":
{
- SubState == "To_ServingWindow" :
Visible2 :: DIRECT_PositionMember(ServingPositioningKey,STEVEO,{GROUP_GET("Till_Name", "")}.Entourage Area 3)
-> DONE
- SubState == "At_ServingWindow":
It is day {GLOBAL_GET("Global_Day", "")}
The till is in state {GROUP_GET("Till_State", "")}
Hey, Nice to meet ya!
~ At_Serving_Window = true
-> DONE
}
- State == "LEAVING":
{ not Leaving && At_Serving_Window:
-> Leaving
}
- State == "LEAVING" && SubState == "Move_To_Exit":
~ At_Serving_Window = false
}
->DONE
===On_Shopping_State===
#Knot_Delay: Instant
:: DIRECT_MoveTo@MoveToServing(Player Till.Serving)
#SetDirective: @MoveToServing, CompleteOnArrive #Delay: @MoveToServing
Hello There!
:: DIRECT_MoveTo@MoveToExit(Player Till.Exit) // Need some way to tell it to stay
#WaitFor: @MoveToExit, Arrived
I should be staying.
STAAAAY. #Speaker: steveo
AND Done.
#Delay: 5 #SetDirective: @MoveToExit, Complete
//Need to change the directive id so the directive knows to stop
->DONE
===SETUP===
#NAME: Kevin
{ GLOBAL_GET("Global_Day", "") :
- 1:
-> SETUP_DAY1
- 2:
-> SETUP_DAY2
}
-> END
===SETUP_DAY1===
# SHOPPINGLIST: 239382987,239382988,239382990,239382989
#ENTOURAGEMEMBER: STEVEO
#ENTOURAGEMEMBER: cHRIS
# ENTOURAGECOUNT: 3
-> DONE
shader_type canvas_item;
uniform float scan_line_count : hint_range(0, 1080) = 50.0;
void fragment() {
float r = texture(SCREEN_TEXTURE, (SCREEN_UV) + vec2(SCREEN_PIXEL_SIZE.x*0.07), 0.0).r;
float g = texture(SCREEN_TEXTURE, (SCREEN_UV) + vec2(SCREEN_PIXEL_SIZE.x*0.07), 0.0).g;
float b = texture(SCREEN_TEXTURE, (SCREEN_UV) + vec2(SCREEN_PIXEL_SIZE.x*-0.07), 0.0).b;
vec4 color = texture(SCREEN_TEXTURE,(SCREEN_UV));
float s = sin((SCREEN_UV).y * scan_line_count * 4.0);
s = (s * 0.5 + 0.5) * 0.9 + 0.1;
vec4 scan_line = vec4(vec3(pow(s, 0.10)), 1.0);
COLOR = vec4(r,g,b, 1) * scan_line;
}
Yeah, it is pretty fun! Not super deep or anything, but a fun, little experiment.
Whenever you're ready :)Yeah, it is pretty fun! Not super deep or anything, but a fun, little experiment.
Won't be too long. Just trying to find the right weekend where I can support a release (so I can respond to emails...).
Continuing to crack away at new stuff for Ephemeral Tale:
Did a gigantic overhaul patch over the last couple of weeks. Involved redoing all the combat formulas, how gear is created, how points are distributed, all sorts of stuff. Was fun, though! And the game is better for it :)
So now, I'm working on QOL stuff for Tuesday's patch, and also planning out next week's patch as well!
Weil, for one you're way smarter than I am, your scope is way more feasible than mine.
And your skill in the end is probably way more useful than what little I'm able of drawing and using visionaire, writing is so hard and I'm writing myself into corners and logic errors all the time lol.
Can't wait to see more of it, the concept and pixel art style both seem great :D
Edit: Seeing you've been looking for a coder regarding quite basic point'n click stuff - do yourself a favor and look into Visionaire. I never did a proper line of programming on my own in my entire life, and even I can get some impressive gameplay results out of it, on top of that it has a super helpful community when it comes to adding scripts and neat tricks. You might be way better off taking a day or two to go through some tutorials (and of course, I may be able to help with minor stuff as well) than to pump tons of money into a coder that will need to be with the game to the end of time. You can even do as much as you want with it for free (except for exporting a game, you'll need a license for that).
double edit: Of course, if you already have a great partnership going, I really don't wanna jump on that :D So please, only take the post as a general idea.
Budget for our recently released game was:
- around 2000€ in dev kits
- around 100€ for software used on the games
- no salary for the three people who worked on the game itself and equally no salary for the two people who made music for the game
It is the second of three games we are going to release for the platforms (PC, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS) and so far we have earned around 400€ on the second game and around 1000€ on the first game.
Me and H.Protagonist made a deal that I would code her demo and she would edit my script :) Talent swaps rule!
Just some general thoughts on hiring for gamedev since I see the topic came up -- I have a little experience hiring people for some gamedev jobs. I do most of it on my own, though, which keeps me really flexible since I can do most tasks (as they pertain to my project). I have done a little art hiring as well as all sorts of audio/vo hiring.
Anyway, good artists tend to charge $30/hour or more ($30 would be on the low end, really, I've been quoted $60+) and good art takes a lot of hours to make, so... yeah. Art is an enormous expense if you need to hire people for it. Thankfully this is my primary discipline so I've not ever been forced to hire artists.
As for hiring composers I think it seems fairly ordinary to pay per minute of music composed, which can vary quite a bit based on the experience and demand of the composer. It could be $50 per minute or it could be $500 per minute.
In general it just depends on what you're making and who you're making it with.. If you want to make something really professional and you want to hire people with real experience, it's going to cost a lot of money. If you have friends who are willing to work for back end or otherwise on a more casual basis... Well, good luck. It *could* work, I guess!
If you don't have a big budget to work with I recommend learning how to do as many things as possible on your own. That's just a random thought, I guess, I know not everyone has the time for that. Gamedev is a complicated profession.
Vector3 newPosition = transform.position + transform.forward * Time.deltaTime * 100.0f;
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, newPosition, 1);
Application.targetFrameRate = 60;
QualitySettings.maxQueuedFrames = 1;
QualitySettings.vSyncCount = 0;
Time.captureFramerate = Screen.currentResolution.refreshRate;
Hey everyone!
I just started a new project using 2019.3.0f5. I added in some terrain, and a model ship.
I added some code to get the ship moving:
Code:Vector3 newPosition = transform.position + transform.forward * Time.deltaTime * 100.0f; transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, newPosition, 1);
What's the point of that lerp if you are just giving it a 1 in time directly? lerp is used for interpolation, you are basically making an extra step just to assign the value. The idea behind lerp is that 0 will return the first parameter, 1 will return the second parameter, any other value will return a proportional value between both parameters so many times you give it a value that you increase over time using Time.deltaTime (if you don't know about using Time then maybe you are getting ahead of yourself).
Messing with the target framerate doesn't seem like a proper solution because this could vary from system to system. The stutter could come from the camera so maybe smooth its code (I assume the camera has code to follow the ship), check the manual for the Vector3.SmoothDamp method, that's one way to smooth things, other is to use Lerp but properly by giving it a value.
Vector3 moveCamTo = transform.position - transform.forward * 20.0f + Vector3.up * 5.0f;
Camera.main.transform.position = moveCamTo;
Camera.main.transform.LookAt(transform.position + transform.forward * 100.0f);
Hey everyone!
I just started a new project using 2019.3.0f5. I added in some terrain, and a model ship.
I added some code to get the ship moving:
Code:Vector3 newPosition = transform.position + transform.forward * Time.deltaTime * 100.0f; transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, newPosition, 1);
But I ended up getting a pretty bad stutter as a result...
Does anything stick out as to why this might happen?
EDIT:
I was actually able to solve this using the following lines of code:
Code:Application.targetFrameRate = 60; QualitySettings.maxQueuedFrames = 1; QualitySettings.vSyncCount = 0; Time.captureFramerate = Screen.currentResolution.refreshRate;
I added this to an empty game object in the hierarchy.
Been a while since I've posted anything substantial here so here goes...
Finished up Punchline in December, took a break. Decided to properly learn Unity in January after dabbling in it over the years, didn't really enjoy it (mainly because the 2D sucks so much compared to GameMaker which is what I used to make Punchline).
Starting to learn Godot, it's honestly really fun. Liking it a lot more than GameMaker. 2D is solid which is important as I'll be working in pixel art again for gaem 2.
Also gotten started on defining a visual look for my next game and the workflow for these backgrounds. I got both of these done within 6 hours. There's definitely a good base there, especially for someone like me who isn't really an artist. Nothing's final atm, but I like the look of it :)
Workflow goes like this:
3D blockout in Blender + fSpy - > render using Freestyle - > clean-up, refinement and everything else in PS
The first image was inspired by the entrance to Durham Castle.
Bit of a UI mockup too (without the portraits since I haven't got any yet ;^))
As fun as Godot is, I want to spend a good amount of time planning this game before jumping head first into the engine stuff. So nailing down the concept, design, character sheets etc etc. Didn't really do this with my previous project which is why I want to take it slow this time 'round. I'm currently commissioning an artist on a few character ref sheets so I hope to show 'em off to you all soon.
Besides what was pointed out above, I would just use Unity's physics for the movement. Rather than actually changing the transform.position, assign a dynamic rigidBody to the ship, then set its velocity, and let Unity's physics take care of the rest. You're almost certainly going to need to do that in order to handle collisions anyway. If you don't know how to do this, let me know and I'll explain.
Also, the physics stuff should go in FixedUpdate rather than Update. If you do this, use Time.fixedDeltaTime instead of Time.deltaTime. Do not mess with the "capture" times, these are for capturing screenshots and recording videos.
Thanks dude 😊
Unfortunately animation is one of those things that takes a lot of time and study to get looking even half decent. The bright side however, is that animation's key principals apply across the board, regardless of medium/software. I'd suggest starting with the 12 principles (something like this is probably a fair introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4bF4), and then move on to something more specific, so in your case a Blender animation beginners tutorial.Can anyone recommend some good resources on (human) animation (in Blender possibly)? Tutorials, reference videos, etc...
I'm not an animator, but I'd like to animate some human character for a project I'm working on alone. I have the rig already (praise be to Makehuman), but trial and error for animation isn't getting me too far. Luckily it's a top-down kind of game so it doesn't need to be super amazing but I'd like a decente walk and run cycle at least lol
I would love to get some modifications to the physics system going if you have any tips. I switched over to the rigidbody and velocity/add force. But it feels really slow and weighty. What I liked about `not` using the physics system was that the flying was so snappy and felt arcade-like. Am I able to get a similar experience with some more code?