Indie Game Development |OT 2018| Come, help, learn, show and tell!

Camille_ · Feb 19, 2018

Weltall Zero said:
Thanks a lot for the extremely detailed reply, especially on a topic you probably have had to go over and over in the past. In that regard as well, sorry for asking, I don't frequent this thread often enough... due to work like yours making me feel so inadequate. :D

Not sure how much use this will be for you, but I'm exactly in the mirror situation: software engineer, couple decades experience in multiple (non-game) environments... but zero visual design experience. It would be a dream to be able to work with an artist like you, even for free / share of the profits (hopefully resulting in enough of a success to not make the distinction meaningless :D), but I'm far too deep in my own game now, and need more experience specifically with making games. There must be a lot of other programmers with more experience than myself that would love to have the chance to partner with a designer of your caliber, if you should choose to.

That said, I fully empathize with wanting to work alone, and know full well its perks, especially after working for years in office environments where you can't so much as change a typo in a class name without screwing five other people, and being now able to routinely perform radical refactors without having to tell a soul. Plus being pushed out of one's safe space and having to learn a ton of new stuff like making sprites and animations is just great.

About the paradox about having a little money being worse than having none, I think (as someone who wouldn't know about the first case) the issue may be that with that little money comes a lot of responsibility and expectations. It's one thing to work on a game at one's pace and with one's goals that may be changed at any time, but the moment other people give you money, you incur a debt with them, which changes everything. For the record, that's exactly what the devs of none other than FTL reported happening to them; the moment they did the kickstarter, even though the game was nearly complete, it became infinitely more stressful for them. This is why I'm avoiding any such thing myself for the time being (OK, so that's what I tell myself and the real reason is that I can't imagine anyone paying for it, but still...).

I fully agree everyone here is amazing, not just in terms of talent but how warm, welcoming, helpful and friendly they are; I do feel very welcome. It's not the people here that make me feel inadequate, it's myself; I know it's not healthy, it's just what it is. :)

No worries at all, having this discussion at all helps me solidify the arguments in my head and realize what works/what doesn't :-D

Also, to be precise, I am already working with a programmer right now, one of C2's best programmers I know, which is another reason I'm sticking with C2, as I can both work by myself (which is C2's main strength) yet still rely on his tech expertise when I'm stumped. Switching to Unity would make me useless, and rely entirely on his knowledge, which is far less than C2's, so it'd be a net loss for both of us - so I'd have to consider hiring someone else, etc... plenty I'm not in a position to deal with right now :-D
About the "no money better than none", you're also absolutely correct and raise other important points I wasn't referring to, but are also critical. The main thing I was referring to was more about the baseline day to day life - for instance, being poor in France allows me some help for bills or a baseline amount of health coverage, whereas having any amount of money would require me to pay in full for it - and it's pretty damn expensive, even for "low costs" tiers (which, somewhat ironically, cover far less than the welfare one). So I'm mainly concerned about my daily survival right now, but you're definitely correct - adding the weight of expectations on top will be something to look forward to :-D (though I do have that already to some extent towards my Patrons, though the relationship with them so far has been fantastically positive and helpful - I hope this will remain with larger crowdfunding campaigns.. though we all know the horror stories by now!)

I also didn't react previously to your comments as I was running off to bike (HEALTH!), but you should most definitely post here or at least in the Discord (Frogbert's nice, really): I was in the exact same position as you were when I started posting a few years back (and I relate heartily to your feelings of self doubt and inadequacy as I too have them daily in addition to a crippling dose of social anxiety), and it's because of posting here, discussing with the community and receiving their help that I've managed to make it this far without giving up, in addition to simply opening up in general. The help from here (previous threads, Discord, etc) has been immense, and I hope will benefit you as much as it did me - as far as I'm concerned, I'm still learning and will be for the foreseeable future... same as most everyone here, I assume :-D

To end this on an actual moving note, here's the latest stuff fresh from the oven: same as before, but with a Warrior flavor!

And lest we forget, for reference, this is what I had when I started posting here, more or less:

...so, uh, yeah! :-D

OmegaJabroni · Feb 19, 2018

Pehesse said:
No worries at all, having this discussion at all helps me solidify the arguments in my head and realize what works/what doesn't :-D

Also, to be precise, I am already working with a programmer right now, one of C2's best programmers I know, which is another reason I'm sticking with C2, as I can both work by myself (which is C2's main strength) yet still rely on his tech expertise when I'm stumped. Switching to Unity would make me useless, and rely entirely on his knowledge, which is far less than C2's, so it'd be a net loss for both of us - so I'd have to consider hiring someone else, etc... plenty I'm not in a position to deal with right now :-D
About the "no money better than none", you're also absolutely correct and raise other important points I wasn't referring to, but are also critical. The main thing I was referring to was more about the baseline day to day life - for instance, being poor in France allows me some help for bills or a baseline amount of health coverage, whereas having any amount of money would require me to pay in full for it - and it's pretty damn expensive, even for "low costs" tiers (which, somewhat ironically, cover far less than the welfare one). So I'm mainly concerned about my daily survival right now, but you're definitely correct - adding the weight of expectations on top will be something to look forward to :-D (though I do have that already to some extent towards my Patrons, though the relationship with them so far has been fantastically positive and helpful - I hope this will remain with larger crowdfunding campaigns.. though we all know the horror stories by now!)

I also didn't react previously to your comments as I was running off to bike (HEALTH!), but you should most definitely post here or at least in the Discord (Frogbert's nice, really): I was in the exact same position as you were when I started posting a few years back (and I relate heartily to your feelings of self doubt and inadequacy as I too have them daily in addition to a crippling dose of social anxiety), and it's because of posting here, discussing with the community and receiving their help that I've managed to make it this far without giving up, in addition to simply opening up in general. The help from here (previous threads, Discord, etc) has been immense, and I hope will benefit you as much as it did me - as far as I'm concerned, I'm still learning and will be for the foreseeable future... same as most everyone here, I assume :-D

To end this on an actual moving note, here's the latest stuff fresh from the oven: same as before, but with a Warrior flavor!

And lest we forget, for reference, this is what I had when I started posting here, more or less:

...so, uh, yeah! :-D

It looks like you've made fantastic progress so far! I really like the wall hug to avoid the boulder trap and the transition that happens prior to that. Overall the animations are very cool :)

sabrina · Feb 19, 2018

Weltall Zero said:
This is freaking amazing. Also I see you implemented eye saccades and I love them! Was it because I suggested them?

I think you were most of the reason why, yeah. It was a good idea and easy to do.

OllyOllyBennett said:
So, I mentioned before that we've added hand-painted normals to our 2D game. I just wanted to share our first-released screenshot showing the actual results of all that effort, and welcome any feedback:

And here's a comparison shot:

It's not just that these are excellently animated, or that they're extremely charming, or very creatively invented ways of character movement for the situation, it's also that they seem to give you greater freedom in design, offering additional player positioning not often seen. Things like squishing up against the wall, and a little extra time off a ledge before fatal descent. I could be wrong, but that's how it seems. Are your inventive animations leading design, or is design leading a requirement for inventive animations?

This is such a cool application that this modelling method enables. Just make sure you allow bandaging of the knee. I hear it's oft an adventurer's downfall when victim to bow-flung projectiles...

I think you're gonna need more than just a cross, mate...

This looks awesome and terrifying.

That's interesting. Is the brightness of the foam a consequence of the lighting or a change in art direction? I've noticed a lot of games with unlit particles have bright water splashes.

Btw I actually thought about bandaging my character's knee, but it seemed too difficult to get the skinning to work well enough so I held back.

K Monkey · Feb 19, 2018

Pehesse said:
To end this on an actual moving note, here's the latest stuff fresh from the oven: same as before, but with a Warrior flavor!

i can hear the sound effects play out in my head from watching these

Toño · Feb 19, 2018

K Monkey said:
i can hear the sound effects play out in my head from watching these

Hahahaha, me too!

Weltall Zero · Feb 19, 2018

Pehesse said:
...so, uh, yeah! :-D

Well, even the later is lightyears above what I could ever do, I can't draw my way out of a paper bag. Pixel art is a bit easier, but still. :D

I actually did share a bit of what I did, a couple pages back.
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3528687/
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3543907/
If anyone wants me to send them the beta and provide feedback I'll be happy to. jahasaja's feedback was great and I implemented most of his suggestions!

OllyOllyBennett · Feb 20, 2018

K Monkey said:
I love the normal mapping (esp the original post). I find the walls above the platform you walk on being lit a bit off. Its probably right in a sense that it will be lit to some degree but right now its like 2 torches being pointed from the camera towards it, and u lose that sense of depth that the original on the left had. I guess having the walls lit up there also shows the playable pathway too. Looks great by the way :)

Thanks, and thanks for the feedback. This is something we're already discussing actually, both from a technical standpoint, and artistic.

Pehesse said:
I don't really have feedback except that it looks amazing

OmegaJabroni said:
That looks fantastic! The lighting is absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks guys!

sabrina said:
That's interesting. Is the brightness of the foam a consequence of the lighting or a change in art direction? I've noticed a lot of games with unlit particles have bright water splashes.

Neither, it's an issue with the material actually. Please ignore it as it will be fixed soon. I forgot that was in there!

Weltall Zero said:
I've been working technically full time for a year and I have nothing comparable to many of the things shown here. This is what worries me the most, the feeling that I should be progressing faster, especially since I do have a time limit. Again, this is one reason I don't make a habit of visiting this thread or checking how a lot of other indie devs are doing: there's only so many ways you can tell yourself "don't compare yourself to others", but our monkey brains are built to do just that.

Imagine all the teams out there with more than one person. For example, if a team has 5 people, working on a game for 2 years, that's 10 man years' work. 1 person working for 1 year is 1 man year's work. A lone programmer after a year's work is going to have FAR less to show than 10 years of cross-discipline work.

If you're going to be comparing yourself, make sure you're comparing something similar. 1 artist's 1 year of art will look better than 1 programmer's 1 year of code, but that programmer's 1 year of code will be much more functional than 1 year of art.

Also, Xenogears name reference? *nod of respect for Xenogears love*

Weltall Zero · Feb 20, 2018

OllyOllyBennett said:
.

First of all, your shots reminded of the of the other reason it's sometimes stressing to visit the thread, which is entirely separate from a dev perspective, which is "I want to play all these games so much... but there's only so much time and money in the world", and yeah, being an indie dev minimizes both. :D

That said, I will make an exception for your game. It looks absolutely drop dead gorgeous. To me it looks to 16-bit what Shovel Knight looked to 8-bit, and for me that's pretty much the highest praise I can possibly give. I now just hope I also like the gameplay, but I would play it for looks alone.

Oh yeah, that's the other source of frustration with this thread, "I can't put into words what I really feel without sounding like I'm exaggerating". :D

OllyOllyBennett said:
Imagine all the teams out there with more than one person. For example, if a team has 5 people, working on a game for 2 years, that's 10 man years' work. 1 person working for 1 year is 1 man year's work. A lone programmer after a year's work is going to have FAR less to show than 10 years of cross-discipline work.

That's entirely true, and I take solace that the other devs in a local indie game gathering I attended recently were shocked to learn my game was done by just me in (back then) under a year. Devs of games that, to me, looked entirely AA tier, like Disembodied.

OllyOllyBennett said:
If you're going to be comparing yourself, make sure you're comparing something similar. 1 artist's 1 year of art will look better than 1 programmer's 1 year of code, but that programmer's 1 year of code will be much more functional than 1 year of art.

That's true. One thing I've striven for is that my game is playable as soon as possible; I managed that in a few months, so that friends playtesting it can (hopefully) have anything resembling fun.

The one advantage I have is that 20 years of programming is quite a lot, so I know how to write code that is generic and easily expansible, and especially that doesn't crumble under its own weight after years of development. This makes implementing new functionality pretty easy. However I can't help but compare myself with the artists here and their incredibly beautiful games. It's a bad habit that's hard to avoid, like a reflex: "my game doesn't look like that... :(". :)

OllyOllyBennett said:
Also, Xenogears name reference? *nod of respect for Xenogears love*

Yep! Weltall Zero was my character in Phantasy Star Online back in 1999, a blue RAcast (ranger "male" robot) that I tried to make as similar as Fei's gear as possible. It's been my online handle ever since and Xenogears was my favorite game for many years.

OllyOllyBennett · Feb 21, 2018

Weltall Zero said:
I will make an exception for your game. It looks absolutely drop dead gorgeous. To me it looks to 16-bit what Shovel Knight looked to 8-bit, and for me that's pretty much the highest praise I can possibly give. I now just hope I also like the gameplay, but I would play it for looks alone.

Aww, well thanks. We do have two artists and an animator though, and those two artists in particular started our game as a hobby project several years ago, so the art's had a lot more time on it than the rest of the game (and they're bloody talented too, but don't tell them I said that!)

Weltall Zero said:
That's entirely true, and I take solace that the other devs in a local indie game gathering I attended recently were shocked to learn my game was done by just me in (back then) under a year.

Well take that one in, absorb it. It's so easy for people to shrug off praise, but then allow themselves to languish in self-doubt. Many people do this to themselves, including us with our art that you like so much.

Weltall Zero said:
That's true. One thing I've striven for is that my game is playable as soon as possible; I managed that in a few months, so that friends playtesting it can (hopefully) have anything resembling fun.

This, in my opinion, is the correct approach. Our game looked so good off the bat due to there being so much art done before we even started the project as a team. But art assets can be updated on top of a functional game. I spent around 6-7 years working in AAA, and trust me, many games look like ass until a large way through development. 'Make a good game first, then make it a pretty good game.' is the phrase I'd use if I were to invent one on the spot which kinda sums up my sentiment but also has some slightly amusing word play in it....

WishyWaters · Feb 21, 2018

So I need some help. My artist partner and I seem to argue a lot. I try really hard to be understanding of his artistic vision, but at times there are limitations that force a conflict. Recently he removed a bunch of terrain tiles from our sprite sheet out of what I only see as spite.

To give some context to our situation: We are creating the tiles for our first level. We have the walls and floors finished and looking good. I sent an email saying that tiles for the decorative floor layer should be our next goal. My terminology here is limited, so I used lots of images to illustrate the 9 slice and 4 slice we'll need to accomplish the task. I suggested a few things that we could use like rugs, fancy tiles, dirt, or blood splatter; things I thought would compliment our finished cobblestone floor tiles. I sent this thinking this is logically our next task. I get an email back saying that reworking stuff is a waste of time and he is going to do stand alone decorations instead of tiles. I recommend that we do a single tiled decoration so that I can at least show him the strengths of the format. He takes one of my example images, doesn't format it to our tile structure and only replies with "there".

There must be something lost in communication. I mean there is no rework and we'll need stand alone assets eventually, so I don't understand the hostility. The decorative tiles are much more useful and lend themselves to creating more interesting environments to explore, so they seem like the highest priority. He is cutting his teeth on this tile work, and while everything looks amazing, maybe there is some struggle that he is not sharing with me.

So does anyone have project management tips to smooth things over?
Are there some difficulties I could be more aware of when creating tile art?
Maybe just hearing others vent would help clear up the picture too, so let it all out!

This is a hobby project for us at it's core, so I want everyone on the team to enjoy what they are doing.

Deleted member 2620 · Feb 21, 2018

Found and tweaked a really simple cloud effect that I'm really happy with! This was needed to keep going with a few stages I have taking place above the clouds.

and then a couple quick first drafts on two of the three said stages

Deleted member 8112 · Feb 22, 2018

Uh, hi, I don't know if this fits here but it's my first time actually developing a game even though I've been programming for a few years now. I made this as part of an optional WebDev course at school and I'm really proud of it. I think it took me about 4-5 hours to build from scratch after scraping some ideas, and a lot of time to learn the ropes of JavaScript because I'm only accustomed to C++: http://pedantic-hugle-82567c.bitballoon.com/

You use the arrow keys to move and space to jump, the two squares change the gravity's direction. I intended the background to change to black but couldn't get it to work due to not being able to influence something from the HTML portion of the game with JS code. I hope you like it and I'll gladly receive feedback! It's not really a game as much as a demo for the "engine" (I guess) I built. A friend told me it reminded him of VVVVV and Gravity Rush but that didn't go through my mind at all while writing it.

Anyway, I think I might try and do something more robust in plain C++ now. I like JS but I feel like I have a better understanding of C++.

EDIT: Actually, I might need a little help from you guys. Where would someone like me who's only ever done algorithmic stuff in base CodeBlocks in C++ start? I don't really want to use engine like Unity or Unreal, I'd much rather develop something on my own from scratch to have a better understanding of how things work. Any books/tutorials?

mikehaggar · Feb 22, 2018

The composer of Bushiden's OST, Michael Kelly (of VA-11 HALL-A fame), has shared some snippets of what he's been working on. Very cool stuff. Obviously, I've already heard these and much more. Fans of his should be very excited for the soundtrack (and hopefully the game itself!).

Dynamite Shikoku · Feb 22, 2018

Liking that music

Aki-at · Feb 22, 2018

mikehaggar said:
The composer of Bushiden's OST, Michael Kelly (of VA-11 HALL-A fame), has shared some snippets of what he's been working on. Very cool stuff. Obviously, I've already heard these and much more. Fans of his should be very excited for the soundtrack (and hopefully the game itself!).

Woah never heard of this game now but looking at it it's giving me a lot of vibes from Hegane vibes, wonder if they were inspired by it. Definitely looking out for this project now.

On my end, finally getting to share more Mega Drive music, I should probably make a tweet that's a full track instead of snippets at some point :p

crienne · Feb 23, 2018

Not sure if just art stuff is okay in the thread, so let me know if not.

I'm working on art and animations for a "SNES"-style puzzle platformer. Don't have an engine chosen yet, so this is still very much pre-production, but I wanted to share what I have so far. I realize it's pretty simplistic design- and art-wise, but I'm doing my best to give this tiny box robot a personality through the animation.

First is standard movement and a jump.

Second is a crouch then crouched movement.

Deleted member 8112 · Feb 23, 2018

sqwarlock said:
Not sure if just art stuff is okay in the thread, so let me know if not.

I'm working on art and animations for a "SNES"-style puzzle platformer. Don't have an engine chosen yet, so this is still very much pre-production, but I wanted to share what I have so far. I realize it's pretty simplistic design- and art-wise, but I'm doing my best to give this tiny box robot a personality through the animation.

First is standard movement and a jump.

Second is a crouch then crouched movement.

Those look great! Hope to see more from you.

Conor · Feb 23, 2018

Hey everyone, I've loved following this thread over the years, you are all incredibly talented and inspiring! I decided after a humble bundle sale for GameMaker Studio about a year ago to finally make a start and begin learning how to make a game. I think I spent about 12 years putting it off, procrastinating and being intimidated by the idea of programming. The moment when I got a little blob to move around on screen was incredible. It was the simplest thing but it almost had me in tears. Ever since then I've just been trying to learn when I manage to get some free time. Mainly trying to learn the GML, trying little experiments and following some online tutorials. I've dabbled with Unity and I'm looking into learning some C#. I now have a lot more time to dedicate to this, so I'm planning to continue my learning and also to make a small game to completion, which is something I haven't done before. I'm happy with what I can do in GameMaker at the moment but was wondering if anyone may know if it would be beneficial to switch to GameMaker 2 or am I fine just sticking with what I have?

Contact · Feb 23, 2018

Hi everyone! Is RPGMaker a good engine for a RPG? If not, what would be some good alternatives?

Camille_ · Feb 23, 2018

sqwarlock said:
Not sure if just art stuff is okay in the thread, so let me know if not.

I'm working on art and animations for a "SNES"-style puzzle platformer. Don't have an engine chosen yet, so this is still very much pre-production, but I wanted to share what I have so far. I realize it's pretty simplistic design- and art-wise, but I'm doing my best to give this tiny box robot a personality through the animation.

First is standard movement and a jump.

Second is a crouch then crouched movement.

This is definitely the right place to post these in, so welcome, and looking forward to what you make next, those are very good already!

Conor said:
Hey everyone, I've loved following this thread over the years, you are all incredibly talented and inspiring! I decided after a humble bundle sale for GameMaker Studio about a year ago to finally make a start and begin learning how to make a game. I think I spent about 12 years putting it off, procrastinating and being intimidated by the idea of programming. The moment when I got a little blob to move around on screen was incredible. It was the simplest thing but it almost had me in tears. Ever since then I've just been trying to learn when I manage to get some free time. Mainly trying to learn the GML, trying little experiments and following some online tutorials. I've dabbled with Unity and I'm looking into learning some C#. I now have a lot more time to dedicate to this, so I'm planning to continue my learning and also to make a small game to completion, which is something I haven't done before. I'm happy with what I can do in GameMaker at the moment but was wondering if anyone may know if it would be beneficial to switch to GameMaker 2 or am I fine just sticking with what I have?

Welcome as well :-D I'm not familiar with GM2, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. People more familiar with it will surely chime in, but from my limited experience through the grapevine, I'd say the switch might be beneficial!

Contact said:
Hi everyone! Is RPGMaker a good engine for a RPG? If not, what would be some good alternatives?

In my opinion, yes! Of course, it's designed for a very specific subset of games, but assuming you're willing to spend a little time learning the ins and outs of the engine and its scripts, you can transform it into a very capable engine for lots of different stuff (not just SNES-style JRPGs). Of course, more "generic" engines might serve you best, but my recommendation if your plan is to design an RPG is indeed to start with RPGMaker and build something small using its limitations, then learn how to break free of them, and then if you feel like it eventually move on to another 2D engine like Game Maker/Construct 2 to design your own RPG framework, as RMK's can feel a little restrictive depending on the precise design you're going for/your willingness to bend the engine.

For reference, RPGMaker 2000 was my tool for my first semi-serious attempt using a dedicated game making engine and I have nothing but fond memories and good things to say about it, even if the results were less than stellar. I regularly think about going back and trying to work with the newer versions. As far as I'm concerned, RPGMaker is an excellent learning tool, and a completely valid option for making both practice projects and actual commercial games, as seen from amazing releases like To The Moon or Rakuen, or the number of horror games - though Dusk Golem might know more about those!

Hampig · Feb 23, 2018

Contact said:
Hi everyone! Is RPGMaker a good engine for a RPG? If not, what would be some good alternatives?

Absolutely. Great for learning the basics of design, getting your ideas out there in a playable form fast, and getting a taste of what kind of unexpected challenges you'll run into.

Conkersbadfurday · Feb 23, 2018

Haven't posted in ages but

http://store.steampowered.com/app/802190/The_Land_of_Glass/

Feels pretty cool to have this up. Going to start a marketing push on Monday.

Contact · Feb 23, 2018

Thanks Hampig and Pehesse! I'll try the free version and upgrade once I'm more familiar with it.

Elyian · Feb 23, 2018

Hey, another quick question. Is it easier to use a M&KB to do pixel art? or are a pen & pad better? I have a pad that my girlfriend got me, and I tried to use it for creating sprites, but I found that the pad was to sensitive, tracking some really subtle movement on my part, which would cause me to draw an extra pixel or two. Maybe it's just because I haven't gotten used to a digital pad yet, but I just wanted to know what some experienced pixel artist here prefer, and which is better in the long run.

sabrina · Feb 23, 2018

Elyian said:
Hey, another quick question. Is it easier to use a M&KB to do pixel art? or are a pen & pad better? I have a pad that my girlfriend got me, and I tried to use it for creating sprites, but I found that the pad was to sensitive, tracking some really subtle movement on my part, which would cause me to draw an extra pixel or two. Maybe it's just because I haven't gotten used to a digital pad yet, but I just wanted to know what some experienced pixel artist here prefer, and which is better in the long run.

Use whatever tool you're comfortable with. I draw stuff in Illustrator with a cheap amazon mouse >:)

Elyian · Feb 23, 2018

sabrina said:
Use whatever tool you're comfortable with. I draw stuff in Illustrator with a cheap amazon mouse >:)

Yeah i'm realizing that now, just wanted to make sure those no like SUPER SECRET benefit to using a pad and pen over a mouse and keyboard lol

Angeal78 · Feb 24, 2018

Me and 2 friends just released NeonBall on Steam... At the very end we decided to make it completely F2P... If someone wants to check out the game here it is http://store.steampowered.com/app/548280/NeonBall/ Also if someone have questions about the development or something go for it but I don`t think that our way of work was the best one xDDDDDDD.

Minamu · Feb 24, 2018

Angeal78 said:
Me and 2 friends just released NeonBall on Steam... At the very end we decided to make it completely F2P... If someone wants to check out the game here it is http://store.steampowered.com/app/548280/NeonBall/ Also if someone have questions about the development or something go for it but I don`t think that our way of work was the best one xDDDDDDD.

Congrats :) Yeah, I'm curious about the Steam process of getting accepted. I'd like to get a multiplayer game up on there too down the road. I have no idea where to start hehe.

Angeal78 · Feb 24, 2018

Minamu said:
Congrats :) Yeah, I'm curious about the Steam process of getting accepted. I'd like to get a multiplayer game up on there too down the road. I have no idea where to start hehe.

We used Greenlight when it was active... Now if im not mistaken its throught Steam Direct and while I don't really now how that works it should be easy. I think you have to pay per game (I don't know how much) and after that you will have to do a lot of paperwork with steam (I can't talk about the contents of it due to NDA) but don't worry its easy.

Minamu · Feb 24, 2018

Angeal78 said:
We used Greenlight when it was active... Now if im not mistaken its throught Steam Direct and while I don't really now how that works it should be easy. I think you have to pay per game (I don't know how much) and after that you will have to do a lot of paperwork with steam (I can't talk about the contents of it due to NDA) but don't worry its easy.

A quick google search suggests it's a one-time fee of 100 dollars. Not bad at all :) Thanks, next step is finding a better matchmaking system, Unity's basic stuff has a 20 people limit worldwide O_o

_Rob_ · Feb 24, 2018

I could have sworn I posted this earlier..? Apparently not; anyway I've now got the whole of the central section of CnW's hub world done, split into 12 distinct sections with a distinct version of the theme music for each one!

Come to think of it, I still need to get the huge statue done for the middle.... but I'll need to get Daucus' model finalised first!

crienne · Feb 24, 2018

Decided on using a talking head text box (thanks to Celeste for making it seem appropriate still in modern platformers) so I animated the power on and off procedure for my robot friend.

Jump_Button · Feb 24, 2018

I wanted to do something for fun so i made a mock up of a game still working on Sky Town but iam planning to make this my next game

Dynamite Shikoku · Feb 25, 2018

Jump_Button said:
I wanted to do something for fun so i made a mock up of a game still working on Sky Town but iam planning to make this my next game

Very nice

missile · Feb 25, 2018

sqwarlock said:
Decided on using a talking head text box (thanks to Celeste for making it seem appropriate still in modern platformers) so I animated the power on and off procedure for my robot friend.

Nice one. You may perhaps also animate the power up horizontal deflection,
like you did when power down. That is to say, next to the vertical build up
you could likewise do a horizontal as well, all happen at the same time.

Geek of Nature · Feb 25, 2018

_Rob_ said:
I could have sworn I posted this earlier..? Apparently not; anyway I've now got the whole of the central section of CnW's hub world done, split into 12 distinct sections with a distinct version of the theme music for each one!

Come to think of it, I still need to get the huge statue done for the middle.... but I'll need to get Daucus' model finalised first!

Which platforms will this be available on? I'm guessing just PC? It looks so good. Would love to play it on Switch.

Weltall Zero · Feb 25, 2018

So... I'm a bit screwed, have no clue what to do and might as well ask here in the off chance someone else has been in a similar situation.

One of my testers has reported (and screenshotted) an issue that I can't reproduce on any computer at home. I have a suspicion it might be graphics library / video card related, although I've used Unity's OpenGL emulation and still can't reproduce it. It's a masking issue, specifically with a couple of masking shaders I wrote that use the stencil buffer (but don't completely overwrite it, allowing me to also use the buffer for other effects like shadow merging). The absolutely surreal thing is that one of the masking instances is failing (masking the bottom of buildings as they crumble "beneath" the ground) while another one which uses the exact same shader is working for him (punching holes through those buildings).

The kicker is that he's not even in the same continent I am (he's in the Philippines, I'm in Spain), so I can't exactly come over to his house and do some testing. Every solution I think of I have to compile a version of the game and sent it for him to test, which is cumbersome to say the least. Suggestions? Ideas? Words of encouragement? :D

Also, somehow I missed this (I must have missed the alert somehow):

OllyOllyBennett said:
Aww, well thanks. We do have two artists and an animator though, and those two artists in particular started our game as a hobby project several years ago, so the art's had a lot more time on it than the rest of the game (and they're bloody talented too, but don't tell them I said that!)

Well take that one in, absorb it. It's so easy for people to shrug off praise, but then allow themselves to languish in self-doubt. Many people do this to themselves, including us with our art that you like so much.

It's always surprising how self-doubt seems to be more common in the most talented people. It's amazing to me that someone capable of that kind of art would have doubts about their talent!

OllyOllyBennett said:
This, in my opinion, is the correct approach. Our game looked so good off the bat due to there being so much art done before we even started the project as a team. But art assets can be updated on top of a functional game. I spent around 6-7 years working in AAA, and trust me, many games look like ass until a large way through development. 'Make a good game first, then make it a pretty good game.' is the phrase I'd use if I were to invent one on the spot which kinda sums up my sentiment but also has some slightly amusing word play in it....

Haha, yup, I had to parse it a couple times because "pretty good" didn't read like "pretty and good".

crienne · Feb 26, 2018

missile said:
Nice one. You may perhaps also animate the power up horizontal deflection,
like you did when power down. That is to say, next to the vertical build up
you could likewise do a horizontal as well, all happen at the same time.

Added some horizontal dithering to make the boot sequence a little different.

_Rob_ · Feb 26, 2018

sqwarlock said:
Added some horizontal dithering to make the boot sequence a little different.

I really like how the eyes close a frame or two before the "shutdown", adds character.

GRW810 said:
Which platforms will this be available on? I'm guessing just PC? It looks so good. Would love to play it on Switch.

Thanks! PC/Mac/Linux are the plan for the moment, but I certainly haven't ruled out consoles (I'd love to get it on Switch too)!

missile · Feb 26, 2018

sqwarlock said:
Added some horizontal dithering to make the boot sequence a little different.

+1

Tokikko · Feb 26, 2018

Oh my i just noticed this thread here, thought it was dropped when moving from the old forum. Here is something to introduce myself :P. I have been working on a game with my friends and we have built a prototype version of the game and now we are looking for some feedback to see how people will respond. We have presented the game at a small gaming venue and there people were positive about it, but now we would like to test in "anonymously" because that way we can get more honest opinions.

Something about the game now, it is a 2d top down hack and slash game, somewhat inspired by games like Binding of Isaac. The game will have a simple story line where you will follow the adventures of our heroine Fu. The game world itself will be procedurally generated so that each run can be a unique experience. We are also planning to include different bosses in the final game as well as some light puzzle element.

Unlike the full game our prototype so far is not randomly generated, we have setup a simple level for presentation requirements. It features a boss fight at the end and some puzzle elements. Just to emphasise, this is still an early game build, so some bugs are to be expected and if you encounter any it would be helpful if you could report them back to us. My recommendation is to play the game with a gamepad if you can, but a keyboard/mouse combination is possible as well. Officially it is supporting the xbox controller for, so some generic controllers may not work or you will have to use 360ce to bind the controls, sorry about this problem.

The game itself is build with unity and the file size is around 23Mb.

I will leave a google form link here where you can write back to us and hopefully give some feedback(if you do not want to directly comment on the forum). Any kind of feedback is helpful, even if you think the game is bad don't hesitate to tell us, but if possible just try to give us some constructive criticism. Also if you think there are some aspects we can improve, or you have some good idea or tip write that as well, we will take everything into consideration.

Once again thanks to everyone who is reading this and especially to those that will try the game.

Thanks

Download for HackFuSlashFu:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11yAnrsG5HjTVyep4aUxk9q7pqAFgPBH8/view

Google forms:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1GRKYS6TE8VrHsJVyZSKulUw9geEUi8uuDk6Nx130U9QGtg/viewform
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1GRKYS6TE8VrHsJVyZSKulUw9geEUi8uuDk6Nx130U9QGtg/viewform
Some images:

Midramble · Feb 26, 2018

Does anyone here have experience with isometric/2.5D engines other than Unity. For years I've been on the fence on whether to build from scratch (possibly borrowing physics, particle, and other engine parts) or go with Unity. With the work I've done in unreal and cryengine I tired quickly of feature/tool bloat and learning curve. I've seen some stuff on Unity that looks nice for this; however, my fence decision is based on the limitations of Unity as a whole as I'm really am going to be trying to max procedural generation. Not sure I'll be able to do this with the set engine of Unity, or really with any already built engine.

sabrina · Feb 26, 2018

Midramble said:
Does anyone here have experience with isometric/2.5D engines other than Unity. For years I've been on the fence on whether to build from scratch (possibly borrowing physics, particle, and other engine parts) or go with Unity. With the work I've done in unreal and cryengine I tired quickly of feature/tool bloat and learning curve. I've seen some stuff on Unity that looks nice for this; however, my fence decision is based on the limitations of Unity as a whole as I'm really am going to be trying to max procedural generation. Not sure I'll be able to do this with the set engine of Unity, or really with any already built engine.

As far as I know there's not a game engine that has preset blueprints for procedural generation in it. I've done procedural generation in Game Maker and Unity and in both cases I needed custom tools for it. In Unity that was building a customized inspector panel, and in GameMaker my ex programmed a game object in its own scene that let you define terrain and spawn regions and then save them to a readable file which we used to block out a library of rooms that the main game would stitch together.

My recommendation is use the engine you're used to and figure out how other people working in that engine are procedurally generating things.

2+2=5 · Feb 26, 2018

EDIT:
i don't know how many people will be interested in this news, i have just read that godot engine will migrate from opengl es 3 to vulkan.

Midramble said:
Does anyone here have experience with isometric/2.5D engines other than Unity. For years I've been on the fence on whether to build from scratch (possibly borrowing physics, particle, and other engine parts) or go with Unity. With the work I've done in unreal and cryengine I tired quickly of feature/tool bloat and learning curve. I've seen some stuff on Unity that looks nice for this; however, my fence decision is based on the limitations of Unity as a whole as I'm really am going to be trying to max procedural generation. Not sure I'll be able to do this with the set engine of Unity, or really with any already built engine.

I have no experience on unity so i can't compare,but i'm making a 2.5d game(2d sprites in 3d environments, i hope to show something soon! XD ) with some random elements in Godot.
Godot is open source, lightweight(you download a 20mb file that doesn't need installation!!! I can even use it on the GPD Win 1), simple and constantly evolving, on the other hand it's still rough around some edges and there isn't as much documentation and stuff as other bigger and more consolidated engines, but imo it really deserves a try.
AFAIK no engine gives procedural generation modules because each game has its own needs, but there are many tutorials about procedural generation on internet and youtube so you shouldn't have problems finding what you need for any engine you will choose, but if there's premade nice stuff on Unity then just use Unity, every engine has its pro and cons, no engine is perfect but Unity is used by lots of people so you shouldn't have big problems, remember that the choice shouldn't be based on what's better in general, but on what's better for you and for your game.

EDIT2:
There are many videos comparing Unity to other engines, here's the first one i found comparing it to unreal and cryengine

Kickmaster Kim · Feb 26, 2018

I hate it when people try and tell me how I'[m supposed to work. Just because something works for you doesn't mean it's going to work for me and still goes on about it when I tell him that I've had a bunch of people in the past 9 years tell me the same thing and it still didn't work.

Anyway, can y'all recommend me any books on Unity?

StrandedSail · Feb 26, 2018

Hey what's up people. My indie company Stranded Sail is developing its first release, Rite of Passage. It's a retro point-and-click puzzle adventure game, like a King's Quest but with rotoscoped animations. We just launched our kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2088193727/rite-of-passage?ref=agoh91

I'd love to hear any feedback

Sean Noonan · Feb 26, 2018

I know, I've been super quiet. Been doing some research and coming to terms with putting my projects on hold. Life, etc.

OllyOllyBennett · Feb 28, 2018

sqwarlock said:
I realize it's pretty simplistic design- and art-wise, but I'm doing my best to give this tiny box robot a personality through the animation.

First is standard movement and a jump.

Second is a crouch then crouched movement.

I'd suggest not straying too close to Claptrap. With the mono-wheel, yellow colour, and the [X] panels looking like it's been pranged a few times so a bit worse-for-wear, you may find criticism for originality. The TV screen probably isn't enough on its own to break past that.

Is the cube shape a requirement for design mechanics? Is there another colour or shape or feature you could use to better uniquely identify it?

Conor said:
I now have a lot more time to dedicate to this, so I'm planning to continue my learning and also to make a small game to completion

This is the most important point I'd suggest. As you learn more and more, it is easy to get overly ambitious and end up scaling too far, to the point where you don't finish things. I'd suggest writing a list of what you want to achieve, then strictly make that. Then, as you're making the current thing, take notes about what teased your ambition, and then try those for the next project.

Jump_Button said:
i made a mock up of a game

That's damn cute.

crienne · Feb 28, 2018

OllyOllyBennett said:
I'd suggest not straying too close to Claptrap. With the mono-wheel, yellow colour, and the [X] panels looking like it's been pranged a few times so a bit worse-for-wear, you may find criticism for originality. The TV screen probably isn't enough on its own to break past that.

Is the cube shape a requirement for design mechanics? Is there another colour or shape or feature you could use to better uniquely identify it?.

I wouldn't want to go with a different shape, to be honest. I chose a cube well before I'd decided on the style of the game and some mechanics have evolved off that. For example, there are various "modes" the player will change to for puzzle solving. This is where the [X] panels come in as they're the attachment points for accessories.

Ideation image:

I can understand the Claptrap similarities, but aside from color and wheel and maybe the antenna, I don't see it as a big enough problem to go through a redesign. Not saying a redesign won't happen anyway, because it's likely to, but not for that reason.

Mike Armbrust · Feb 28, 2018

Angeal78 said:
Me and 2 friends just released NeonBall on Steam... At the very end we decided to make it completely F2P... If someone wants to check out the game here it is http://store.steampowered.com/app/548280/NeonBall/ Also if someone have questions about the development or something go for it but I don`t think that our way of work was the best one xDDDDDDD.

Looks nice. Your big outer walls have the same art style I'm using for my game, which is a fun coincidence.

This is an old screenshot from 2014. I'm apparently really bad at finishing games since I still haven't released it yet.

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