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Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
People with no artistic ability whatsoever, how did you learn to make decent visuals?

Use pixel art, with as big a pixel size and as small a palette as your game will allow for. The more stringent the restrictions, the more it feels like solving a puzzle rather than drawing.

Many immensely successful games like Minit, Luftrausers, Downwell, etc. use a very effective minimalistic style. For a fantastic example of how charming a game can look in a strictly black and white style, check qhoang's posts in this very thread, or his twitter. Granted, perhaps not the best example of what you're asking for, because he obviously has fantastic artistic abilities, but an inspiring target to aim for nonetheless.
 

qhoang

Member
Oct 26, 2017
50
People with no artistic ability whatsoever, how did you learn to make decent visuals?
Shortcuts. :D

Less options (pixel size, color palette) = less analysis paralysis. Use references (not just one pic, but loads and everything from real world images down to the style you wanna go for). There are lots of free (and paid) assets out there. If you can make it fit your style and the license permits it, modify it, add to it or use it as is.

Thanks for the kind words, Welltall Zero! I wouldn't say that I have artistic abilities, much less fantastic ones. But I think I'm doing well with, and especially thanks to, my limitations. I envy people like you and others in this thread who have put in time and effort to create detailed and intricate art. After all, there's a "limit" on how much you can do with low res/low color palette. Downwell-styled games will never look like Hollow Knight. But if you lack artistic abilities, it's an easy way to create things faster that don't look like old dos games with bad art style.
 

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Shortcuts. :D

Less options (pixel size, color palette) = less analysis paralysis. Use references (not just one pic, but loads and everything from real world images down to the style you wanna go for). There are lots of free (and paid) assets out there. If you can make it fit your style and the license permits it, modify it, add to it or use it as is.

Thanks for the kind words, Welltall Zero! I wouldn't say that I have artistic abilities, much less fantastic ones. But I think I'm doing well with, and especially thanks to, my limitations. I envy people like you and others in this thread who have put in time and effort to create detailed and intricate art. After all, there's a "limit" on how much you can do with low res/low color palette. Downwell-styled games will never look like Hollow Knight. But if you lack artistic abilities, it's an easy way to create things faster that don't look like old dos games with bad art style.

I do think you're extremelly good with that style, frankly. It may make things easier but you still need know-how to make the most of it, and limitations also affect how expressive characters are and what stuff is, while you don't seem to have any trouble getting all that accross. :)

As for simpler vs elaborate styles, I think there's room for both. I mean, Hollow Knight is obviously majestic to behold, and what Team Cherry did with so few people is outright incredible, but I much prefer to have more varied and experimental games with simpler art styles, than safer games with more elaborate styles. FTL, Spelunky (which I got hooked into with its pixel version) and Into the Breach all blew my mind and are among my favorite games of all time.

Also, man, did you hit the nail in the head with "DOS games with bad art style", hahah. I hadn't quite put into words what I always fear my art looking like, but that's the perfect description. :)

Edit: OK, so Spelunky is perhaps a bad example, I remembered it being simpler. How about Desktop Dungeon instead? I got hooked to its original free version and it looks like this.
 

Vic_Viper

Thanked By SGM
Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,047
What do you guys use for making Pixel Art or 2D sprites? Theres a couple different options in the Op, but wasnt sure what was the most popular or best option for either of the two. Just looking to mess around and have fun, not looking to take it super seriously, at least not yet.

I picked up the 3 different Affinity programs while they were on sale. I dont like how Photoshop has switched to a sub service so I stopped using it years ago. Can I use Affinity for Pixel art, or is there something better?
 

jarekx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
623
I use Aseprite after it was recommended here and never looked back.




Getting closer to about what I had before when I was working on this one. I'm debating adding a timeline at the top as a sort of preivew for where your actions fall in with all enemies. So if you wanted to look quickly at whether an action was faster than enemies you could glance at that, and if you wanted specifics you have it on the hud below yourself and each enemy.

And I just see that making gifs on the laptop I do most of my work on slows em down. That's actually a bit faster when playing. Still messing with the screenshake and zoom to get the feel right.
 

dannymate

Member
Oct 26, 2017
647
What do you guys use for making Pixel Art or 2D sprites? Theres a couple different options in the Op, but wasnt sure what was the most popular or best option for either of the two. Just looking to mess around and have fun, not looking to take it super seriously, at least not yet.

I picked up the 3 different Affinity programs while they were on sale. I dont like how Photoshop has switched to a sub service so I stopped using it years ago. Can I use Affinity for Pixel art, or is there something better?

I'm not an artist but somebody mentioned Aseprite before. It's free if you know how to compile it from Github, there's some tutorials out there for that if you like it and don't want to spend any money.

----------------------

So all this talk about limited art made me wanna chime in with what I'm working on currently in my gambit to release something this year. I'm still working on my other project...s, it's just life is hard for me right now. Now I'm done finding excuses for myself I can talk about how I hate art so much it's awful and I always underestimate how much time it takes to do something. I've decided I'm making a game with a teletext artstyle and keyboard(page control)/(infrared) point and click (well its teletext with some create liberties).

I'm not actually sure where I'm going to go with it yet but I've been finding it really simple to draw with the limitations. I even created my own teletext font for funsies. It isn't very hard to make something if you know what you want to draw. Like Weltall Zero said it's a bit like a puzzle.

I've spent around a week so far working on this it's coming together quickly. So quickly in fact I don't even know what to do with it (bad form). I'm thinking mystery, cosmic horror, future fascist Britain (we brought back ceefax for nostalgia).

Here's a rubbish little thing I drew in 5 minutes. (Simple animation is a teletext creative liberty).
of2tunZ.gif


I have nearly everything there just background colours I need to do.
P1A20Ed.gif

Another way I get around being bad at art is to make games with rudimentary art (shapes/blocks) or in the case of my other current project a WebUI which is something I can handle art wise.
 

Vic_Viper

Thanked By SGM
Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,047
Thanks, yea I was doing some research after posting and found Aseprite. It looked like exactly what I was looking for so ill probably start messing around with it and watching some tutorials.
 

qhoang

Member
Oct 26, 2017
50
Some minor improvements I got done this week. I want to incorporate bullet hell elements in my game. Have a rudimentary bullet spawner that can create patterns. Gonna try to put together a bullet hell-lite scene next week to see if I can get it to work in a 2d platformer.
 

Qwark

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,022
I also use AseSprite and quite like it.

Speaking of no artistic ability, I made this monstrosity this week. It's ugly, but I like the concept and it's good enough for first pass.
 

Aaronmac

Member
Nov 12, 2017
554
Been working a lot on the shader and texturing for the machines in my game lately, and I'm finally happy with the results. Check em' out! I'm particularly happy with some tricks I implemented with the vertex normals to play with the cel-shading and specular highlight that makes them smoothly "wrap" around the machine instead of the really abrupt snapping that was happening with my older iteration on the model and shader!

 

jarekx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
623
I also use AseSprite and quite like it.

Speaking of no artistic ability, I made this monstrosity this week. It's ugly, but I like the concept and it's good enough for first pass.


I think it's cute, lol. And I love the name.



Combat text is in and I also just finished adding the basics of a status effect / buff UI. Also tested adding instant effects for actions and it's working perfectly. It's all simple stuff but I think I've done it in a way that allow me to expand on it quickly.

Edit: I was working on an idea for parry that was basically if you just have enough block to negate the damage of the attack, that's a parry. It just changes the enemys next action to an empty action called stun that they have to run through before they choose a new one. It works but maaaaybe that's a little too powerful. I may have to change block to be lost after your delay hits 0. So you can't really build it up, but you can time it to get a parry / reduce damage. Could also have an upgrade that changes it that it's not lost unless you are attacked, but your ability to parry is removed.
 
Last edited:

exofrenon

Member
Mar 30, 2019
155
Does anyone use a (no-display) drawing tablet for pixel art? I am thinking about buying an entry-level wacom intuos small specifically for pixel art, but I am not quite sure if it is suitable for such low image resolutions.
 

Deleted member 62221

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 17, 2019
1,140
I've been working a lot more in my turn based prototype. Recently I added new soldiers "mostly" made by me (I took existing soldier models, modified them in Blender and repaint them in Substance Painter), I also made a new scenario (still W.I.P.) and I added basic audio.



AI is still a bit dumb when determining where to move but basic combat works. Clip is a bit laggy probably because I still need to improve performance of scenarios, combine meshes, bake lights, etc.
 

Pleiades

Member
Dec 12, 2017
166
I've been avoiding all types of procedural generation with my project but placing asteroids manually, naming them manually etc. was getting a bit tedious so I succumbed to the temptation and made a small script to automate asteroid field generation.

All principles abandoned!




Shameful "proc gen" code here:

C#:
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
using System.Globalization;

public class AsteroidFieldGenerator : MonoBehaviour
{
    public bool GizmosOn = false;
    public bool SpawnIceAsteroids = false;

    public GameObject[] AsteroidPrefabs;
    public GameObject[] OrePickUpsPrefabs;
    public GameObject[] LargeOrePickUpsPrefabs;
    public string[] ResourceTypes;
    public float[] ResourceProbabilities;

    public Vector3 Extents;
    public float Density;   //this is asteroids per 100m3

    public void EDITOR_GenerateAsteroidField()
    {
        SpawnAsteroids();
    }

    public void EDITOR_DestroyExistingField()
    {
        DestroyAllChildren();
    }

    public void DestroyAllChildren()
    {
        GameObject[] children = new GameObject[transform.childCount];
        for (int i = 0; i < transform.childCount; i++)
        {
            children[i] = transform.GetChild(i).gameObject;
        }
        for (int i = 0; i < children.Length; i++)
        {
            DestroyImmediate(children[i]);
        }
    }

    public string GetAsteroidName()
    {
        int n1 = Random.Range(0, 10000);
        int n2 = Random.Range(0, 26) + 65;
        int n3 = Random.Range(0, 26) + 65;
        int n4 = Random.Range(0, 100);

        char n2char = (char)n2;
        char n3char = (char)n3;

        return n1.ToString() + " " + n2char + n3char + n4.ToString();
    }

    public void SpawnAsteroids()
    {
        //determine how many we want
        float volume = Extents.x * Extents.y * Extents.z;
        float per100m3 = volume / (100*100*100);
        int numAsteroids = Mathf.CeilToInt(per100m3 * Density);

        int seed = GetSeed();

        Vector3[] asteroidPositions = new Vector3[numAsteroids];
        Random.InitState(seed);
        for (int i = 0; i < numAsteroids; i++)
        {
            //world rot
            //asteroidPositions[i] = new Vector3(transform.position.x + Random.Range(-Extents.x/2f, Extents.x/2f),
            //                                    transform.position.y + Random.Range(-Extents.y/2f, Extents.y/2f),
            //                                    transform.position.z + Random.Range(-Extents.z/2f, Extents.z/2f));
            
            //local
            asteroidPositions[i] = transform.position
                                    + transform.right   * Random.Range(-Extents.x/2f, Extents.x/2f)
                                    + transform.up      * Random.Range(-Extents.y/2f, Extents.y/2f)
                                    + transform.forward * Random.Range(-Extents.z/2f, Extents.z/2f);
        }

        //spawn the actual asteroids
        for (int i = 0; i < numAsteroids; i++)
        {
            int asteroidSeed = seed + Mathf.RoundToInt(asteroidPositions[i].x + asteroidPositions[i].y + asteroidPositions[i].z);
            SpawnAsteroid(asteroidSeed, asteroidPositions[i]);
        }
    }

    //TODO: rotation
    public void SpawnAsteroid(int seed, Vector3 pos)
    {
        Random.InitState(seed);
        int index = Random.Range(0,AsteroidPrefabs.Length);
        GameObject go = Instantiate(AsteroidPrefabs[index]);
        go.transform.position = pos;
        go.transform.rotation = transform.rotation * Random.rotation;
        go.transform.SetParent(this.transform);
        Asteroid a = go.GetComponent<Asteroid>();
        a.Name = GetAsteroidName();
        Vector3 scale = new Vector3(Random.Range(0.8f, 1.2f), Random.Range(0.8f, 1.2f), Random.Range(0.8f, 1.2f));
        float scaleFactor = Random.Range(0.5f, 1.5f);
        scale *= scaleFactor;
        go.transform.localScale = scale;
        float massDec = Random.Range(0.01f, 10f);
        int massExp = 0;
        if (scaleFactor <= 0.833333f)
        {
            massExp = 17;
        }
        else if (scaleFactor >= 1.166666f)
        {
            massExp = 19;
        }
        else
        {
            massExp = 18;
        }
        string massString = massDec.ToString("F2", new CultureInfo("en-US")) + "e" + massExp.ToString() + " kg";
        a.Mass = massString;

        int resourceTypeIndx = 0;
        if (SpawnIceAsteroids)
        {
            resourceTypeIndx = Random.Range(0, ResourceTypes.Length);
        }
        else
        {
            resourceTypeIndx = Random.Range(0, ResourceTypes.Length - 1);
        }
        float ProbTest = Random.Range(0f,1f);
        if (ProbTest <= ResourceProbabilities[resourceTypeIndx])
        {
            a.OreAmount = Random.Range(1, 51);
            a.OreType = ResourceTypes[resourceTypeIndx];
            a.PickUpChance = 0.85f;
            a.SuperPickUpChance = 0.98f;
            a.PickUpPrefab = OrePickUpsPrefabs[resourceTypeIndx];
            a.SuperPickUpPrefab = LargeOrePickUpsPrefabs[resourceTypeIndx];
        }
        else
        {
            a.OreType = "";
        }

    }

    public int GetSeed()
    {
        int sceneInt = GetIntFromString(SceneManager.GetActiveScene().name);
        int posInt = Mathf.RoundToInt(transform.position.x + transform.position.y + transform.position.z);
        return sceneInt + posInt;
    }

    public int GetIntFromString(string s)
    {
        int cumulative = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++)
        {
            char c = s[i];
            cumulative += (int)c;
        }
        return cumulative;
    }

    void OnDrawGizmos()
    {
        if (GizmosOn)
        {
            Gizmos.matrix = transform.localToWorldMatrix;
            Gizmos.color = Color.white;
            Gizmos.DrawWireCube(new Vector3(0f, 0f, 0f), Extents);
        }
    }
}


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//
//  SEPARATE EDITOR SCRIPT
//
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

[CustomEditor(typeof(AsteroidFieldGenerator))]
public class AsteroidFieldGeneratorEditor : Editor
{
    public override void OnInspectorGUI()
    {
        DrawDefaultInspector();
        AsteroidFieldGenerator script = (AsteroidFieldGenerator)target;
        if (GUILayout.Button("Generate field"))
        {
            script.EDITOR_GenerateAsteroidField();
        }
        if (GUILayout.Button("Destroy field"))
        {
            script.EDITOR_DestroyExistingField();
        }
    }
}
 

Jintor

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,420
Does anyone use a (no-display) drawing tablet for pixel art? I am thinking about buying an entry-level wacom intuos small specifically for pixel art, but I am not quite sure if it is suitable for such low image resolutions.

imho tablets are good for getting the general shapes of something but for pixel you always want to place stuff by mouse afterwards. I use it for sketching animation frames first but i always clean up with the mouse.
 

Bearwolf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
477
There is a great PC app called ManicTime which tracks app usage and automatically takes idle time into account which I highly recommend. It made me realize how much time I spend actually doing work, which was humbling. I would turn the screenshot feature off as it takes up gigs of space quickly.
 

exofrenon

Member
Mar 30, 2019
155
imho tablets are good for getting the general shapes of something but for pixel you always want to place stuff by mouse afterwards. I use it for sketching animation frames first but i always clean up with the mouse.
Yeah, that's what I thought too. But lately my wrists have been complaining and I want to take it easy on them. I don't want any of that carpal tunnel shit, so I ordered a Wacom.
 

dude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,634
Tel Aviv
Hey guys, I just started a new project - and for one of the mechanics I need to know how lit an object is. The issue is that light is going to be dynamic and change with a day/night cycle so I can't just place triggers by hand for shadowed parts. Would appreciate any suggestion on how to tackle this - I have a couple of initial ideas, but nothing that sounds super promising right now. Using Unity 2020.

Does anyone use a (no-display) drawing tablet for pixel art? I am thinking about buying an entry-level wacom intuos small specifically for pixel art, but I am not quite sure if it is suitable for such low image resolutions.
I use a Wacom for pixel art as well. If you're going for a "traditional" pixel art look, you'd want to do most of it with a mouse. But personally, I love just doing the whole thing with a Wacom and just flow with it. Pixel art doesn't have to be super precise unless that's what you're going for.
 

stan423321

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,676
Hey guys, I just started a new project - and for one of the mechanics I need to know how lit an object is. The issue is that light is going to be dynamic and change with a day/night cycle so I can't just place triggers by hand for shadowed parts. Would appreciate any suggestion on how to tackle this - I have a couple of initial ideas, but nothing that sounds super promising right now. Using Unity 2020.
I assume you tried the dumb brutal approach? Have objects "shoot" in direction of sun, have flashlights "shoot" at objects, and for real torches do whichever's faster?
 

dannymate

Member
Oct 26, 2017
647
Hey guys, I just started a new project - and for one of the mechanics I need to know how lit an object is. The issue is that light is going to be dynamic and change with a day/night cycle so I can't just place triggers by hand for shadowed parts. Would appreciate any suggestion on how to tackle this - I have a couple of initial ideas, but nothing that sounds super promising right now. Using Unity 2020.
Do you mind elaborating on the mechanic a bit more? It may lead us to another solution because as far as I understand it's going to be very hard to determine how lit an an area is unless there's a specific object you want to check.

I have one idea: Let's imagine you want to have enemies spawn on the floor where there is low light. You would add a collider to the floor and from the light sources you would send a bunch of raycasts. If you have a hit with the floor you can then perform some maths such as the position on the floor the ray hit. You could create a sort of grid from the rays emitted depending on a light source's strength/cone and such. This way you could approximate light levels in an area.

Again I don't know the mechanic but you can limit the raycasts to when you need it say when an object moves or you can do a preliminary search. Use a boxcast or something to check if there's a light in range and check whether that light can even reach where it matters to even check. There are a few ways to limit the amount of checks needed to make. Or you can keep track of moved objects and when a cast hits one of these objects it triggers a new check.
 

dude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,634
Tel Aviv
Do you mind elaborating on the mechanic a bit more? It may lead us to another solution because as far as I understand it's going to be very hard to determine how lit an an area is unless there's a specific object you want to check.

I have one idea: Let's imagine you want to have enemies spawn on the floor where there is low light. You would add a collider to the floor and from the light sources you would send a bunch of raycasts. If you have a hit with the floor you can then perform some maths such as the position on the floor the ray hit. You could create a sort of grid from the rays emitted depending on a light source's strength/cone and such. This way you could approximate light levels in an area.

Again I don't know the mechanic but you can limit the raycasts to when you need it say when an object moves or you can do a preliminary search. Use a boxcast or something to check if there's a light in range and check whether that light can even reach where it matters to even check. There are a few ways to limit the amount of checks needed to make. Or you can keep track of moved objects and when a cast hits one of these objects it triggers a new check.
The mechanic is growing plants (in-doors), and the plants are supposed to react to the direction of the light and to how lit the area is to see how well they're doing. I think a grid is a good idea, since I have a grid for placing the flowers and other elements anyway.
I guess I can try to update the "light status" of each cell in the grid every time I change the time of day? I guess I only really need to fire one ray from the direction of the sun to the ground, and then see where I hit, and from that I can just calculate the rest? Gonna give it a test this weekend I think.

Thanks guys!
 

dannymate

Member
Oct 26, 2017
647
The mechanic is growing plants (in-doors), and the plants are supposed to react to the direction of the light and to how lit the area is to see how well they're doing. I think a grid is a good idea, since I have a grid for placing the flowers and other elements anyway.
I guess I can try to update the "light status" of each cell in the grid every time I change the time of day? I guess I only really need to fire one ray from the direction of the sun to the ground, and then see where I hit, and from that I can just calculate the rest? Gonna give it a test this weekend I think.

Thanks guys!
You could also use coloured lights as well just to add more on top of something you havent solved yet. So plants grow better under certain colour conditions. Think of it like creating pixel art from light :p.

Edit: If you need any more help feel free to keep asking. 1. You'd only need to check the light when the light is likely to have changed. 2. You'd probably need multiple rays at different angles to more accurately simulate the way light illuminates. Probably a good idea to create a test to see if the resuts are what you'd expect. 3. Yeah if you're using a grid based system already you could set each cell with a collider and detect how many rays hit that cell from your raycasts that way you can tell how illuminated it is. That way you shouldn't really need so much maths really you're just counting. Just try out a couple things and see with gives you the best accuracy to performance ratio.
 
Last edited:

jarekx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
623


Slow but steady progress. I like the parry mechanic, but it may be too strong. I'm probably going to allow you to change parry actions as well, so maybe one character stuns enemies after a parry, another counterattacks, things like that. Still lots of work to do on the combat text and icons, but it's at least functioning. Now, I gotta decide if i'm going to with my original idea of having you actually move your character through a dungeon, or more of a node based approach like Slay the Spire and FTL. I could see it be interesting to have you exploring and finding cards to add to your deck that way, but I do want to be mindful of run length as I'm looking for 30-45 minute max for a full run.
 

MotiD

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,560
Can anyone refer me to a good tutorial on using Unity please? Not directly related to C# but the getting started with the engine itself
 

wossname

Member
Dec 12, 2017
1,421
Can anyone refer me to a good tutorial on using Unity please? Not directly related to C# but the getting started with the engine itself

Tom Francis (of Gunpoint, Heat Signature and Tactical Breach Wizards) has a good series on making a game with no experience. There are only 14 episodes at the moment and they release fairly infrequently, but they are quite informative and also entertaining. He did a similar series with Gamemaker years ago which is what got me into game dev.
 

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
The mechanic is growing plants (in-doors), and the plants are supposed to react to the direction of the light and to how lit the area is to see how well they're doing.

I don't have much to contribute or help with, but I just wanted to say this sounds really cool!

Can anyone refer me to a good tutorial on using Unity please? Not directly related to C# but the getting started with the engine itself

Here!
 

SaberVS7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,252

CptDrunkBear

Member
Jan 15, 2019
62
Wew! I've just finished the vertical slice for my first-person-shooter metroidvania Canopic, and I was hoping to get some feedback on it!

48XsK95.png


Anyone can download and play it here: https://cptdrunkbear.itch.io/canopic-working-title/download/G6jGNWeQUOemY3CGCefpWz6CYHhWU2C8dcUj0NHu

If you do so, please fill out the feedback here (It's really short, I promise!): https://forms.gle/gMXcorDUFdCcewLd9

I'm at the very early stages, so I'm still trying to figure out if it's a good formula, or where I need to make improvements.
 

Pleiades

Member
Dec 12, 2017
166
Redid some models and set up others so I wanted to try a large scale space battle again. Seems to actually perform quite OK for so many ships. Also got some SFX in to the game.




Also an 8K screenshot for the hell of it: https://i.imgur.com/Ke5jGWE.jpg

Next up should probably be the weapon system overhaul with stations selling weapons, weapon storage / slots for the player etc.
 

ekim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,405
Hey guys. I would like to offer my production/songwriting and sound fx creating skills to build my portfolio. Usually I do "normal" music but have done some things in the past for video games. As an example, I produced the music and sound fx for this small game:


Just hit me up via pm if you need anything. I can provide further references then :)
 

MotiD

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,560
Does Unity have parity between Windows and macOS? I have a 2015 MBP and I'm thinking of doing all of the learning and experimenting on it using Rider (student license FTW!) as the IDE instead of Visual Studio
 

dude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,634
Tel Aviv
Does Unity have parity between Windows and macOS? I have a 2015 MBP and I'm thinking of doing all of the learning and experimenting on it using Rider (student license FTW!) as the IDE instead of Visual Studio
Yeah, pretty much. Like everything - it's not 100%, and you're bound to hit issues on Mac you wouldn't find on Windows and vice versa, and if you're planning on releasing a Windows build it's recommended to have a Windows machine handy for testing.

You could also use coloured lights as well just to add more on top of something you havent solved yet. So plants grow better under certain colour conditions. Think of it like creating pixel art from light :p.

Edit: If you need any more help feel free to keep asking. 1. You'd only need to check the light when the light is likely to have changed. 2. You'd probably need multiple rays at different angles to more accurately simulate the way light illuminates. Probably a good idea to create a test to see if the resuts are what you'd expect. 3. Yeah if you're using a grid based system already you could set each cell with a collider and detect how many rays hit that cell from your raycasts that way you can tell how illuminated it is. That way you shouldn't really need so much maths really you're just counting. Just try out a couple things and see with gives you the best accuracy to performance ratio.
Thanks for all the help! the color idea is actually not that far off from where I want to take it (to have types of light - Sun, Moon, special etc. plus stuff like humidity etc.) But right now I need to figure out the basics first haha.
Didn't have much time to work on it over the weekend, but I did add some data to my grid. The number is how lit it is between 0-10 - Now all I have to do is shoot some rays in there and see if it works! :P
fdf46256bdb5f3e2bf5659184cbfdb7e.png


I don't have much to contribute or help with, but I just wanted to say this sounds really cool!
Thanks!! Hopefully it turns out right.


Wew! I've just finished the vertical slice for my first-person-shooter metroidvania Canopic, and I was hoping to get some feedback on it!

48XsK95.png


Anyone can download and play it here: https://cptdrunkbear.itch.io/canopic-working-title/download/G6jGNWeQUOemY3CGCefpWz6CYHhWU2C8dcUj0NHu

If you do so, please fill out the feedback here (It's really short, I promise!): https://forms.gle/gMXcorDUFdCcewLd9

I'm at the very early stages, so I'm still trying to figure out if it's a good formula, or where I need to make improvements.
Played this for a bit - I had a blast with it! I really like the look of this game.
I think the formula can certainly work. The place where it breaks down to me right now is in the "platforming" sections, like trying to avoid the fireballs -With no peripheral vision, I sort of felt like I was guessing how to avoid them.
I would think about changing the scaling of some stuff a bit? Plus maybe the FOV? Or the height of the character? Something about the way you have it set up right now just feels a bit off IMO. Maybe it's just me though.
 
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CptDrunkBear

Member
Jan 15, 2019
62
Played this for a bit - I had a blast with it! I really like the look of this game.
I think the formula can certainly work. The place where it breaks down to me right now is in the "platforming" sections, like trying to avoid the fireballs -With no peripheral vision, I sort of felt like I was guessing how to avoid them.
I would think about changing the scaling of some stuff a bit? Plus maybe the FOV? Or the height of the character? Something about the way you have it set up right now just feels a bit off IMO. Maybe it's just me though.

Gotcha, thanks for the feedback! The thing with the fireballs is super helpful, I felt that *something* wasn't great about them but couldn't put my finger on it, because I know exactly where they are and how long they take.
 

toad02

Banned
Oct 10, 2018
1,530
Man, I spent hours trying to figure out why a blur shader wasn't working on my game. Turns out Unity's 2D renderer doesn't have a few features (namely _CameraOpaqueTexture does not work), therefore I can't get the camera's color.
It would be so good for my game to have this properly working. Right now I have to add a blur material to each sprite I want to blur, which is much harder than blurring the whole screen when I need it.
I guess I will work on other things while I wait on Unity's devs to fix this issue. Hopefully it won't take too long.
 
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dannymate

Member
Oct 26, 2017
647
Started work on my Teletext verticle slice. Just finished off the Instructions page. I'm going to explore the religious side of things going for mystery/horror vibes see how it comes out.
PJ2zvA4.png
 

stan423321

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,676
As a kid who spent loads of hours browsing teletext before internet wasn't a limited resource, that's a very appealing setup... not sure how others would relate though.
 

iHeartGameDev

Member
Feb 22, 2019
1,114
Hello everyone -- I am attempting to understand what exactly IK Curves are. I see in the docs that when applying an avatar mask, we have the ability to disable ik curves for the hands and feet: https://docs.unity3d.com/560/Documentation/Manual/class-AvatarMask.html However, I have been unable to find any information on the unity forums or any of the other docs that explain what exactly ik curves actually are. I have the basic ik implementation that was provided by the unity docs, as well: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/InverseKinematics.html And disabling IK pass on the layer actually does disable this implementation, but if I disable the ik on the mask, it doesn't really do anything. Any shared knowledge would be really appreciated.
 

dude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,634
Tel Aviv
OK! it's working as intended for now I think! At least, parts that appear to be be the least lit are the least lit and the areas that have a lot of light is where I'd intuitively guess it to be (though some stuff may need some tweaking).
But now I need to test it with some more colliders and stuff in the room to see that it's still behaving alright... and I'm not quite sure it will lol.
(What I ended up doing was shooting a number of rays from which window/light caster, and then let them bounce around for a couple of samples, then I sort of flood light from all the lit cells until they run out of strength or hit a blocking cell - and then finally I sort of do a primitive "anti alias" thing)

And with the debug visualizers, I get this cool heat map of the light in the room!

e8c76938cedd34c9b7e2e0a56b6c40bd.png


EDIT: After some tweaking with the parameters, I removed the primitive ""anti-aliasing"" and raised the sample count of each ray by 50%, and it seems to work even better now.
 
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jarekx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
623
Rough weekend. My laptop died just out of nowhere. I had a backup from a few days ago but it's still kind of devastating. I have a cheap laptop I picked up a whiel back from a friend but it's barely able to run my game. I'll still be doing most of my work there but any real tests will have to be on one of my PC's. Luckily, I was able to save the HD and ordered an enclosure to turn it into an external drive. Which will definitely help working from multiple machines without constantly having to pull different builds down.

Thank goodness for backups!
 

Rolento

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,524
Anyone have tips or experience that may be insightful for submitting an app to the Google Play store? I have the app name/etc registered already on their site, but I'll be uploading the APK/OBB this week most likely.

Also, got interviewed by local PBS tv station about the app today and was way more fun than I expected, but now I need to add "Shoot B Roll Footage" to the list of things I need to do.
 

JeffG

Member
Oct 27, 2017
857
Edmonton, Alberta
Hello everyone -- I am attempting to understand what exactly IK Curves are. I see in the docs that when applying an avatar mask, we have the ability to disable ik curves for the hands and feet: https://docs.unity3d.com/560/Documentation/Manual/class-AvatarMask.html However, I have been unable to find any information on the unity forums or any of the other docs that explain what exactly ik curves actually are. I have the basic ik implementation that was provided by the unity docs, as well: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/InverseKinematics.html And disabling IK pass on the layer actually does disable this implementation, but if I disable the ik on the mask, it doesn't really do anything. Any shared knowledge would be really appreciated.
My guess would be if you set a position for IK and you have not disabled the IK curve, Unity would use the curve to blend between the underlying animation and the IK position.
 

dude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,634
Tel Aviv
Anyone have tips or experience that may be insightful for submitting an app to the Google Play store? I have the app name/etc registered already on their site, but I'll be uploading the APK/OBB this week most likely.

Also, got interviewed by local PBS tv station about the app today and was way more fun than I expected, but now I need to add "Shoot B Roll Footage" to the list of things I need to do.
Nice!
As for GP - They have a nice ordered list of everything you need to do in their new Google Play Console interface that is super helpful. Just follow the steps. If you do any sort of tracking, I think they require you to have a Privacy Policy - There are a bunch of sites that can help you generate one based on what components you have in your app.
One thing to note is that when first uploading to GP reviews are a bit longer, so don't get stressed out if your game is being in review for a while. For future updates and new games to an account that already has games it'll be faster.
Feel free to ask any specific questions that you have, for GP or iOS :)
 

BlazeHedgehog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
702
Long, long ago, somebody in here was making a game in Clickteam Fusion and they were frustrated because they were running in to memory limitations, weren't they?

steamcommunity.com

Build 292.27 - Change log :: Clickteam Fusion 2.5 General Discussions

Note 1: just in case (you should always do it anyway) make backup copies of your MFA files before using this version, as it contains some changes in loading / saving routines to support MFA files larger than 2 Gb (up to 4 Gb). Please report any problem you might see (if possible in the Clickteam...

Sounds like as of the version just pushed today, those limits have been doubled
 

Rolento

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,524
Nice!
As for GP - They have a nice ordered list of everything you need to do in their new Google Play Console interface that is super helpful. Just follow the steps. If you do any sort of tracking, I think they require you to have a Privacy Policy - There are a bunch of sites that can help you generate one based on what components you have in your app.
One thing to note is that when first uploading to GP reviews are a bit longer, so don't get stressed out if your game is being in review for a while. For future updates and new games to an account that already has games it'll be faster.
Feel free to ask any specific questions that you have, for GP or iOS :)

Thanks for the input. I just started the process today and was able to knock out all the steps besides the page listing which I need to now prep and edit for.
 
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