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Indie Game Development |OT 2018| Come, help, learn, show and tell!
- Thread starter Popstar
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Thanks. I'll try that out and see how things go. Somehow I almost always forget about sound effects until after everything else is mostly finished haha.
I streamed ~20 minutes of my game yesterday (with the current non good sound effects). I'm sure other devs are used to this, but I'm starting to see why so many people do open development.
You're far too kind :-)
I posted the progress report in the Discord the other day but figured it might be of interest here as well since not everyone goes to the Discord, so here, with an added bonus beginning of color - the rest will come in January when I'm back. And with that I'm *finally* gone this time, so happy holidays to everyone (hopefully you manage to take some, if not, good luck!), and we'll pick this up in 2019! See you all then!
You're far too kind :-)
I posted the progress report in the Discord the other day but figured it might be of interest here as well since not everyone goes to the Discord, so here, with an added bonus beginning of color - the rest will come in January when I'm back. And with that I'm *finally* gone this time, so happy holidays to everyone (hopefully you manage to take some, if not, good luck!), and we'll pick this up in 2019! See you all then!
Such a great job.
I know most of the character cause of my Thread. It is so nice to see them all together like this.
This makes me to create my own Picture for my Thread.
Or at least ask for a commision in the future.
Cheers!!!
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Also I just notice in the gif you posted that when the characters lift their legs left and right, are the same images!!! Such a great dedication for details.
You're far too kind :-)
I posted the progress report in the Discord the other day but figured it might be of interest here as well since not everyone goes to the Discord, so here, with an added bonus beginning of color - the rest will come in January when I'm back. And with that I'm *finally* gone this time, so happy holidays to everyone (hopefully you manage to take some, if not, good luck!), and we'll pick this up in 2019! See you all then!
This is amazing, as always! Man, I can't begin to imagine how much work this took!
So it's been a while. No new gameplay screens or video to show for Project Moon Magic, but I have been commissioning design sketches for both the main companion character and the main alien species in the game's setting. I'll put the first image out here and then the rest in a spoiler tag for page size purposes.
So, Dranea. A half-human, half silver dragon in a futuristic setting, and I think that's conveyed pretty well here.
My basic aim for the alien designs was to utilise familiar concepts but also making designs that are interesting, distinct and also limiting the number of species with human-like proportions. There's a balance between really making aliens, well, alien, and ensuring they're not so alien as not be understandable.
So, Dranea. A half-human, half silver dragon in a futuristic setting, and I think that's conveyed pretty well here.
The Piancar: Monkey-sized armadillo/pangolin-like species that have significant strength despite their size, and use bipedal exoskeletons to compensate elsewhere. Experts on mechanical augmentation and medical technology. The sketch below shows male and female sexual dimorphism.
The Zevurn: Bug-like species with several hives with their own breeds. Unique amongst the species for their ability to fly by their own power and the construction of superstructures.
The GIlni: Sexless (but capable with sexual reproduction with any species or sex), the Gilni are shapeshifters (as seen below with a Gilni partially mimicking a human female). The cell-like structures are their 'cores', complex organs. Their technological speciality is mainly bio-tech.
The Miama: Immortal reptilian beings who long ago made a deal with the living planet Akasha for survival, the Miama are eternally linked with the living planet, tasked to be its eyes and ears across the galaxy. This sketch depicts a typical female. And yes, that is "feather-hair" she has on her head.
The Quisivo: Mostly mineral with biological cores, the Quisivo are telekenetic species that can levitate themselves and other objects, and with some effort, read minds. They are specialised in the creation of artificial intelligence, and are capable of creating 'soul crystals' that allow artificial bodies of any kind to be linked to a newly-born soul.
The Zevurn: Bug-like species with several hives with their own breeds. Unique amongst the species for their ability to fly by their own power and the construction of superstructures.
The GIlni: Sexless (but capable with sexual reproduction with any species or sex), the Gilni are shapeshifters (as seen below with a Gilni partially mimicking a human female). The cell-like structures are their 'cores', complex organs. Their technological speciality is mainly bio-tech.
The Miama: Immortal reptilian beings who long ago made a deal with the living planet Akasha for survival, the Miama are eternally linked with the living planet, tasked to be its eyes and ears across the galaxy. This sketch depicts a typical female. And yes, that is "feather-hair" she has on her head.
The Quisivo: Mostly mineral with biological cores, the Quisivo are telekenetic species that can levitate themselves and other objects, and with some effort, read minds. They are specialised in the creation of artificial intelligence, and are capable of creating 'soul crystals' that allow artificial bodies of any kind to be linked to a newly-born soul.
My basic aim for the alien designs was to utilise familiar concepts but also making designs that are interesting, distinct and also limiting the number of species with human-like proportions. There's a balance between really making aliens, well, alien, and ensuring they're not so alien as not be understandable.
How do you guys deal with multiple projects? I currently have ideas for 2 different games, simple mobile stuff. No ambition, just for the heck of it type of deal.
I've been developing one of them, but I'm feeling kind of in a rut and keep wanting to mess around with the other one. I'm afraid if I just keep changing games whenever development is a bit more boring / difficult I'll end up in one of three possible scenarios.
I've been developing one of them, but I'm feeling kind of in a rut and keep wanting to mess around with the other one. I'm afraid if I just keep changing games whenever development is a bit more boring / difficult I'll end up in one of three possible scenarios.
- Take much longer to do any task, due to all the context switching.
- End up with a bunch of unfinished projects because I just jump around until I get bored.
- Completely burnout and feel like doing nothing.
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Abandon one and double down on the one with the most potential.
I personally can't even be bothered to do small side projects like Ludum Dare because they detract from my main project.
Stick to one, for long projects, you don't really want to juggle multiple ones. If you need a breath of fresh air, chances are you should probably put your work away for a bit or maybe do a game jam sized game. I have a second project I've thought about for a while now( like my original idea before my current project) but I'm guessing I will start making it like 4 years from now.
I'm managing 4 games as a solo dev at the moment. I have Twisty Puzzle Simulator which I just released on PS4 so now I'm working on updates and porting it to more platforms. I have VizionEck Cube Royale which is a mostly finished online multiplayer cube fps game. I have VizionEck Adventure which is a half finished puzzle platformer. And lastly I have a true 4D game that is in early development.
Multiple projects can be great. It's awesome being able to jump around as needed and take breaks from projects as needed. I make sure to document everything I do so context switching isn't a problem.
However, you really really really should not do this until you understand just how important good management skills are. I think my current situation is only working because I spent 3 years in a "development hell" of sorts. My single project at the time kept ballooning in size and it felt like finishing the game was impossible. I never want to experience that again so now I treat game dev more like a business.
Thanks for the replies. Since the kind of stuff I'm thinking about is relatively simple, I might bite the bullet and give it a shot at both simultaneously. Not taking advantage of the urge to mess around with a particular project feels like a waste somehow. But, for now, I'll stick with the one I started with.
Hello, update v0.2 of my new robot for transport of marchandises and coworkers (enemy).
You can see a glimpse of the v0.1 of a smaller one in the first square, I don't know its specialisation yet but it's at least aimed at mobility with wheels bigger than its body, to allow a grip from the bottom as much as the top.
You can see a glimpse of the v0.1 of a smaller one in the first square, I don't know its specialisation yet but it's at least aimed at mobility with wheels bigger than its body, to allow a grip from the bottom as much as the top.
Hello, update v0.2 of my new robot for transport of marchandises and coworkers (enemy).
You can see a glimpse of the v0.1 of a smaller one in the first square, I don't know its specialisation yet but it's at least aimed at mobility with wheels bigger than its body, to allow a grip from the bottom as much as the top.
Looking nice. I'm getting some sort of FTL in 3D vibes here. :)
I made a small carnival themed puzzle game entirely in UMG a few months back. It was a bit of a hassle but it worked in the end. Tbh, for the thing you're describing, I'd probably try doing it in something a lot more lightweight like MonoGame or libGDX.
Thank you, I had hard time thinking of something but managed after the wheels, now I see the windshield in need of improvement.
Yes it kind of look like FTL. The first areas are mean to be quite basic in appearance, but that don't mean they don't have secrets.
Do you have more footage of your game? It's hard to keep track of who makes what in the thread sometimes, and I don't think I'm familiar with yours.
I would recommend you made a twitter account for the game, if you haven't already, then post updates to twitter and embed the tweets. Creating a community for your game from day 1 is super important, and this way we can see all the other updates if we're curious. It's win-win. :)
Yes I have more footage, my recents ones are screenshots from blender to show 3d model (editor view or renders), the renders are close to my real time in unity but stil lack its better texturing, shading, and also custom bloom and dof.
Even if it isn't much I post most on my own facebook (same profile name as here) and also have some really old videos on youtube.
About social media and community in general I don't have a specific account to my project, and the following I had on some forums died when I stopped to update multiple times long ago.
Since I came back to my project this years I wanted to have enough content before anything, and not begin to have a following who will die because of another break of more than six months or years.
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This Christmas break I decided to pickup UE4 again, lets see if I actually will do much... It's not the first time I've had good intentions about UE4.
If I generate a 3D maze at runtime, does UE4 automatically optimize it or will it render all meshes regardless of whether they are obstructed or not?
If I generate a 3D maze at runtime, does UE4 automatically optimize it or will it render all meshes regardless of whether they are obstructed or not?
Sounds like it does some dynamic occlusion tests, according to this: https://docs.unrealengine.com/Engine/Rendering/VisibilityCulling#dynamicocclusion
You should also use Instanced Meshes, if possible.
Unreal will do occlusion culling for static meshes, but if you are making a runtime maze that doesn't need dynamic pieces that move or are destoyed, look into Heirarchical Instanced Static Meshes (Hisms) - they are instanced but support LODs and a type of occlusion culling that plain Instanced meshes don't support.
Also check out Dungeon Architect on the marketplace if you dont want to roll your own procedural maze generator - it's super powerful!
Whelp I think i just broke all text in my project by updating my text asset with the new unity system. i think i'm just going to downgrade back, too many problems are arising with such a huge change.
edit: in the biggest what the fuck thing, i went back and downgraded, used in old back up, and it the text system now has errors that weren't there before. the fuck. Like the code won't compile when it was working just fine. Re-importing it just breaks everything again. whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
edit: in the biggest what the fuck thing, i went back and downgraded, used in old back up, and it the text system now has errors that weren't there before. the fuck. Like the code won't compile when it was working just fine. Re-importing it just breaks everything again. whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
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Hello. I recently got a new laptop that is capable of supporting both unity and unreal 4 an I want to want to dip my toes in indie game development while I work in my masters degree.
I want to make a small turn base strategy game, see if it works and maybe expand upon it if I like the idea.
¿Do you guys have any idea where to start and what engine to work on?
I want to make a small turn base strategy game, see if it works and maybe expand upon it if I like the idea.
¿Do you guys have any idea where to start and what engine to work on?
You're not going to find one engine being considerably better than the other. At this early stage you almost might as well flip a coin. In either case there's a plethora of tutorials available, and many of them are quite helpful, so you can just run a search for whichever thing it is you need to learn at a given time.
Years ago when I picked up Unity it was because that was what most people I knew were doing, but now it's evening out. I still know more Unity users, but that just seems like inertia at this point, not because it's markedly superior in any way.
Good luck! :)
There are multiple factors to consider:
A good starting point would be what programming languages you are comfortable with - Unity's main language is C#, whereas Unreal is centered around C++ - However stock-Unreal has Blueprints as a decent-ish alternative - But I would highly recommend knowing your way around C++ over reliance on Blueprint, as Blueprints can become quite convoluted and hard to maintain.
Another factor to consider is what kind of graphics and artstyle are you going for, as well as target hardware and related overhead - Unreal is solid for realistic artstyles out of the box but is also more demanding in general (Though Epic has been steadily optimizing Unreal downward more and more for the sake of low-end hardware/Mobile/Portables). However, Unity can stand shoulders to shoulders with Unreal on that front if you're willing to put in the work. Which brings me to another point on 2D - Right now from what I am aware of, Unity readily wins in the world of 2D. Unreal 4 has Paper2D, but it's generally not that well documented from my experience experimenting with it, not really being actively worked on in engine updates, and demands more resources rendering 2D than Unity does.
This is still a bit of a tossup from examining released titles, Unreal is generally better performing on current consoles than Unity, but this is still very YMMV and not exactly relevant to your needs yet and probably comes more down to the experience of the teams doing the ports than the engines themselves.
Both are very solid choices, so consider which one you want to go with based off your experience and goals.
As an aside - Possibly consider GameMaker Studio 2 if you're still learning how to Program and plan on 2D graphics/gameplay. I used to trashtalk GMS2 in the past here for being unstable and weighed moving my game away from it in favor of Unity or Unreal, but it's actually quite a stable and feature-rich engine now with YoYo finally having a public Test-Branch ahead of rolling out updates. GML is a solid language to learn with and has a significant amount of documentation (Official and Community) to work with - Just mind that you don't fall into any bad habits GML might introduce you due to some more lenient rules compared to C#/++. As an aside though you'll be trading some versatility for ease of use, but make no mistake it's about how you use it. Just don't try to compete with Crysis using it or you're gonna have a bad time.
an update to this, the creator of the asset is fantastic and helped me figure out what went wrong tonight. @KaiClavier on Twitter and I highly recommend his SuperTextMesh asset.
Also, I'm gonna add that it's perfectly okay to be doing pre-prod on future projects if you manage your time to prioritize the majority of your energy on your current project.
Thank you both for your feedback!!! I have had experience with Unity before so I'm no stranger to that. Still, I might use this chance to toy around with Unreal and learn its ins and outs (Alongside some c++ experience i need).
Might start by doing some small "Toy projects" to get myself comfortable with the engine, and we'll see how it goes.
That's perfect. Practice projects to help you get a feel for something are great.
I just wanted to drop in and wish all of my fellow devs, artists, writers, and designers a Happy Holidays. I wish you all the best of luck in the upcoming new year and may your projects be finished and praised!
As for my hard as hell RPG:
After I parted ways with the artist that didn't want to work on the project any longer, I took a very large hit to motivation. Watching the game grow more incomplete as I took out art assets, quite literally broke my heart. It felt like the project would never be finished. After tearing off the skin of the game, I got a good look at it's internals and decided a few things needed righting.
I've honed in on my story and characters. Every NPC has purpose, a simple arc, and something of interest for the player. Any character that didn't have weight was cut and that has really inspired me to write better for the ones that remain. The overall story from beginning to end has moved to final draft stages. It's simple in broad motivation for the player, but complex for anyone who wants to scratch the surface and understand what's really going on. How I tell it has also been refined with better character dialog and item/spell descriptions.
Now I've returned to the gameplay, building out the first 3 levels with stand in art. Complete with almost all of the game's final mechanics. They art may not be finished, but the tutorial is. Anyone can pick up my game and play the entire first level, learn how it works, use items, blast of spells, and be devoured by a giant Corpse Hydra.
So I had a slump of 2 months or so, but I've found the passion for my project again in writing a cleaner story and tighter code.
Now we just need to finish up the demo and start begging some good artists to take on the project.
As for my hard as hell RPG:
After I parted ways with the artist that didn't want to work on the project any longer, I took a very large hit to motivation. Watching the game grow more incomplete as I took out art assets, quite literally broke my heart. It felt like the project would never be finished. After tearing off the skin of the game, I got a good look at it's internals and decided a few things needed righting.
I've honed in on my story and characters. Every NPC has purpose, a simple arc, and something of interest for the player. Any character that didn't have weight was cut and that has really inspired me to write better for the ones that remain. The overall story from beginning to end has moved to final draft stages. It's simple in broad motivation for the player, but complex for anyone who wants to scratch the surface and understand what's really going on. How I tell it has also been refined with better character dialog and item/spell descriptions.
Now I've returned to the gameplay, building out the first 3 levels with stand in art. Complete with almost all of the game's final mechanics. They art may not be finished, but the tutorial is. Anyone can pick up my game and play the entire first level, learn how it works, use items, blast of spells, and be devoured by a giant Corpse Hydra.
So I had a slump of 2 months or so, but I've found the passion for my project again in writing a cleaner story and tighter code.
Now we just need to finish up the demo and start begging some good artists to take on the project.
OP
OP
Don't unless you already know it.
3ds Max use in games has been in decline for quite some time. You'd be better off with either of the other two.
Playing around with blender cloth simulation, I think it looks pretty good and after applying some modifiers and doing some quick edits it ends up low poly enough.
It's been too long since I posted any content in here, hasn't it?
Been working on rebuilding JAEGER's Dialog interface to be more in line with cRPG standards as my original interface (and underlying code) was a relic from a very different vision (or rather, lack of vision) of the game before things started shaping up into what they are now.
Major improvements? Having enough space to have a character talk and have descriptive text in the same panel and let the player actually see what someone just said to them as they pick a dialog choice instead of having separate stages of the dialog window showing only one element at a time. Also showing the full portrait of a character instead of having the dialog window get in the way.
Downside? Well now instead it gets in the way of the actual characters in the world. Which is actually fine because budget reasons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Been working on rebuilding JAEGER's Dialog interface to be more in line with cRPG standards as my original interface (and underlying code) was a relic from a very different vision (or rather, lack of vision) of the game before things started shaping up into what they are now.
Major improvements? Having enough space to have a character talk and have descriptive text in the same panel and let the player actually see what someone just said to them as they pick a dialog choice instead of having separate stages of the dialog window showing only one element at a time. Also showing the full portrait of a character instead of having the dialog window get in the way.
Downside? Well now instead it gets in the way of the actual characters in the world. Which is actually fine because budget reasons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So I messed up with the tax forms on the appstore, so I've made my game free as an apology...
OP
OP
New thread
https://www.resetera.com/threads/ho...drawing-coding-composing-everythinging.90470/
Banner images for the new thread are still in the queue. I'll also be going through all the resources and making sure all the links still work, etc. I just thought I'd get it up now instead of procrastinating until everything was perfect.
If you have any suggestions for changes to the OP feel free to say. (in the new thread, I'll ask for this one to be locked).
https://www.resetera.com/threads/ho...drawing-coding-composing-everythinging.90470/
Banner images for the new thread are still in the queue. I'll also be going through all the resources and making sure all the links still work, etc. I just thought I'd get it up now instead of procrastinating until everything was perfect.
If you have any suggestions for changes to the OP feel free to say. (in the new thread, I'll ask for this one to be locked).
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