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

Popstar · Oct 25, 2017

Left to right: Sitcom Valley by SPRidley, Clive 'N' Wrench by _Rob_, Pachacuti by Pehesse, Ghost Song by Jobbs, Ergastulum by K Monkey, Nether Mind by sabrina, Throne of Lies by ISWThunder, and A Bastard's Tale by jahasaja

Welcome to the ResetEra thread for indie game developers!

This is the thread to discuss what you're currently working on, ask for help from others, give advice and critique, or just hangout with other indie developers. From hobbyists just starting out working on small mods to full-time developers this thread is for indies of all skill levels.

*Note that this thread is for discussing indie game development, it's not a place to hit-and-run post a cut-and-paste of your press releases. Usual forum rules about spam apply.

Popstar · Oct 25, 2017

Resources

GETTING STARTED (Engines)

I don't even know how to evaluate which engine to use, I just want to make something, help!
PICO-8

PICO-8 has tools for editing code, music, sound, sprites, maps built right into the console. Create a whole game or program in one sitting without needing to leave the cosy development environment!

The harsh limitations of PICO-8 are carefully chosen to be fun to work with, encourage small but expressive designs and hopefully to give PICO-8 cartridges their own particular look and feel.

Actually, give me a list of some engine options
Unity
Unreal Engine
GameMaker Studio 2
Construct 2
RPG Maker

I'd prefer something free and open source
Godot
GDevelop

Is there anything domain specific that's friendly to non-coders?
PuzzleScript - make sokoban style puzzle games
Twine - make Interactive Fiction / Visual Novels
Adventure Game Studio - make point and clicks
Inform - a design system for interactive fiction based on natural language

I'd like a bit more control without having to write everything myself, what about a framework?
Monogame
Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML)
Cocos2d

I don't know if what I'm doing counts as a game, it's more of an interactive art installation type thingy
Processing, Processing.js
Cinder
Open Frameworks

#YOLO, I wanna put together my own framework/engine
Handmade Network
DirectXTK - Microsoft's D3DX replacement
SoLoud - portable c/c++ audio engine for games
Single-file public-domain/open source libraries with minimal dependencies

WEBSITES

Game From Scratch

News, reviews and tutorials of engines and tools for game development. Also has a YouTube channel.

Gamasutra

Originally the website for Game Developer magazine but long since its own thing. Useful news, blogs and GDC content. Highly recommended to subscribe to their RSS feed.

ASSETS

Free Assets
OpenGameArt.org
Blend Swap
GoodTextures
freesound
GameSounds.xyz
Musopen
Google Fonts
Font Squirrel - icon indicates fonts free for app embedding
Font Library

Asset Stores
Unity - most assets may be used in non-Unity projects
Unreal Engine Marketplace - assets are governed by Unreal Engine license and require UE royalty even when used outside of UE
Itch.io
FontSpring - check individual fonts for app license
textures.com - limited free access

MARKETING TOOLS

presskit()
Promoter
distribute()

SOFTWARE

Pixel Art
Graphics Gale (Windows) - free
Pro Motion NG (Windows) - paid, has free version
Aseprite (Windows, macOS, Linux) - paid
Pyxel Edit (Windows, macOS) - paid

2D Art
Clip Studio Paint (Manga Studio) - paid
Spine - paid

3D Art
Blender - open source
Maya LT - paid subscription
3D-Coat - paid
MagicaVoxel - free

Procedural Generation
Tilemancer - free procedural pixelart tile generator
Spacescape - free procedural space skybox generator (HDR enabled)
Texture Generato Online - free procedural texture generator

Level Editing
Tiled - open source
TrenchBroom - open source
Yarn - open source

Screen Recording
Video
OBS Studio (Windows, macOS, Linux) - open source
VClip (Windows) - free
Quicktime Player (macOS) - pre-installed (File -> New Screen Recording)

GIFs
FFmpeg (various) - open source
GIF Brewery (macOS) - free
Gifski (various) - open source
GifCam (Windows) - free
ScreenToGif (Windows) - open source
LICEcap (Windows, macOS) - open source

Popstar · Oct 25, 2017

Other resource lists
The resource list in the previous post is not meant to be comprehensive. Here are some that try for more coverage.

Magic Tools — An awesome game development list.
GameDev Resources — A wonderful list of game development resources.
Games on GitHub — a list of open source games and game-related projects that can be found on GitHub.
Game Development — The biggest list of game development resources on the web. (so it claims)

Useful Posts
Sometimes certain posts within the thread are useful as reference. If you think a post should be highlighted here please tell me!

List of Canadian multimedia grants offered by the government (Terrell)

chubigans · Oct 25, 2017

Nice! Good to have this thread again.

Bahlor · Oct 25, 2017

Awesome! I'm also really happy to see this thread again. Was more a lurker but it was amazing to see the progress of others. Can't wait :)

Deleted member 733 · Oct 25, 2017

It's back, hooray! Time to make this my first subscribed thread.

Pooh · Oct 25, 2017

One of my most anticipated threads!

BraXzy · Oct 25, 2017

With UE4 version 4.18 dropping, I think it's about time I scraped off the rust and jumped back in. Good luck to everyone on your projects :)

Count Duckula · Oct 25, 2017

Yess... subscribed as well :)

Parham · Oct 25, 2017

Glad to see the indie dev thread has arrived. Mostly lurked before, but I'm hoping to contribute more going forward.

Deleted member 733 · Oct 25, 2017

BraXzy said:
With UE4 version 4.18 dropping, I think it's about time I scraped off the rust and jumped back in.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/unreal-engine-4-18-released

Whoa, volumetric lightmaps are neat.

Vas · Oct 25, 2017

Hey guys! Love how Era hadn't missed a beat in the transition. I'm absolutely shocked and applaud the hardwork by the people who made this possible.

I'm making music for an Indie famicom style puzzle game inspired by Lolo. I'm using nothing but Famitracker and we're having a blast. It's called 'Boulder Boy" and we're far along in development but have a lot more legwork to do, as we are all doing this part-time at the moment.

https://soundcloud.com/boulderboy_soundtrack/sets/boulder-boy-demo-playlist

Comments, criticism, or just discussion about chiptunes are all welcome.

BraXzy · Oct 25, 2017

Blizzard said:
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/unreal-engine-4-18-released

Whoa, volumetric lightmaps are neat.

There are some crazy cool new additions. The engine team continue to impress.

Also, it's taken for granted these days but I think it's still hella impressive that it supports practically every platform off the bat.

Venom · Oct 25, 2017

Hate to be that guy but I think all OT's have to be posted in the hangouts section.

Vas · Oct 25, 2017

Venom said:
Hate to be that guy but I think all OT's have to be posted in the hangouts section.

I'm sure we can get a mod to move it.

Retroid · Oct 25, 2017

Venom said:
Hate to be that guy but I think all OT's have to be posted in the hangouts section.

If the mods allow it, maybe it can stay here temporarily so that people can first find it in the place they were used to finding it. Not a big deal if that exception can't be made, it seems there are a few other threads in a similar situation.

EDarkness · Oct 25, 2017

Cool. Looks like this thread is back. Look forward to seeing everyone stuff!

K Monkey · Oct 25, 2017

Thanks for setting this up :) it's great to be back!

Popstar · Oct 25, 2017

Venom said:
Hate to be that guy but I think all OT's have to be posted in the hangouts section.

I just posted it here because that's were it was on the previous forum.

Once things seem calm I can ask a mod to move it.

Venom · Oct 25, 2017

Further to my last post.

Congrats on making the thread!

Jocchan · Oct 25, 2017

Hello there.
What a nice thread.

Kalentan · Oct 25, 2017

Hey. Happy to see this thread on here. Just like the forum I need to reset my interest in my development of my game.

Popstar · Oct 25, 2017

K Monkey said:
Thanks for setting this up :) it's great to be back!

Venom said:
Congrats on making the thread!

No problem. I look forward to seeing stuff from everyone. :)

Deleted member 733 · Oct 25, 2017

After browsing all the UE4 updates it reenergizes my desire to make a UE4 game some day. What a neat engine.

I hope I figure out a way to get approved as a Switch developer some day too!

Astrael · Oct 25, 2017

Was hoping a thread would get started here soon, glad to see it back. Continuing to look forward to everyone's development progress, and hopefully share some of mine :)

Popstar · Oct 25, 2017

Parham said:
Glad to see the indie dev thread has arrived. Mostly lurked before, but I'm hoping to contribute more going forward.

Looking forward to seeing something!

Vas said:
Hey guys! Love how Era hadn't missed a beat in the transition. I'm absolutely shocked and applaud the hardwork by the people who made this possible.

I'm making music for an Indie famicom style puzzle game inspired by Lolo. I'm using nothing but Famitracker and we're having a blast. It's called 'Boulder Boy" and we're far along in development but have a lot more legwork to do, as we are all doing this part-time at the moment.

https://soundcloud.com/boulderboy_soundtrack/sets/boulder-boy-demo-playlist

Comments, criticism, or just discussion about chiptunes are all welcome.

Listening right now. Do you do all your stuff in Famitracker (ie: stuff outside of this game)?

Aki-at · Oct 25, 2017

Hoping to see all the indie dev community back in here soon! :P

Mik2121 · Oct 25, 2017

Blizzard said:
After browsing all the UE4 updates it reenergizes my desire to make a UE4 game some day. What a neat engine.

I hope I figure out a way to get approved as a Switch developer some day too!

You definitely should! I'm downloading 4.18 later today to check all the new lighting stuff.

Vas · Oct 25, 2017

Popstar said:
Listening right now. Do you do all your stuff in Famitracker (ie: stuff outside of this game)?

Yep! I was a drummer mostly when my friend asked me to help. That's why i focused on having very traditional sounding kits.

Wyndstryker · Oct 25, 2017

Yay this thread is back!

SPRidley · Oct 25, 2017

Nice to see this already up Popstar, already bookmarked and ready for the action! :D

Momo · Oct 25, 2017

Maybe this time I'll actually do something.

Ponto · Oct 25, 2017

Watching! Thanks for making it so fast!

Samban · Oct 25, 2017

It's good to be back. Hopefully I'll have a trailer to post for SSS.

andymcc · Oct 25, 2017

Hope to be more active in this thread this time around!

My boy Vas and I are working on a game. We'll probably post a bunch of gameplay clips soon.

Can't wait to see everyone's projects!

Noogy · Oct 25, 2017

Hey all! Nice to have a place to talk shop again!

I'm Dean (Noogy), made Dust: An Elysian Tail and toiling away at Never Stop Sneakin'.

Dynamite Shikoku · Oct 25, 2017

Nice to be here

Jack · Oct 25, 2017

Bookmarked. Glad the thread is up!

I'll start with today's GIF:

Edit: for clarification, I'm making Mainframe One, starting from scratch after 2 years, not pixel art anymore and expanding the scope :)

Mike Armbrust · Oct 25, 2017

Nice to see this community continue.

I didn't post that regularly in the previous thread so for a short refresher, I've been working on two indie games for four years. They were supposed to be a PS4 launch title but I vastly underestimated how much work was needed. One game is an FPS cube fighting game. The other is an open world puzzle game.

SplitYourInfinities · Oct 25, 2017

Glad to see this thread coming back. I was not very active in the previous forum but I will try to participate more in this one. I'm doing a game jam this weekend so I expect to have something to share soon.

RiamuFG · Oct 25, 2017

Yay! My favourite thread has returned and continues. Looking forward to posting more stuff about what I'm working on and seeing what y'all doing too.

Wulfric · Oct 25, 2017

Hello everyone, glad to be back. Looking forward to seeing all your work again.

Deleted member 5876 · Oct 25, 2017

I'm looking forward to silently observing this thread. I'm glad this thread has survived the transition otherwise my only source of cool dev stuff would be from r/gamedev and that would have made me sad.

Mikachu · Oct 25, 2017

Yay indie devs unite again! :)

Look forward to posting and watching

ken_matthews · Oct 25, 2017

hello

Deleted member 6056 · Oct 25, 2017

Glad to see Indie Era again. Hope I can see more Ghost Song updates in here again :)

Deleted member 5167 · Oct 25, 2017

I really hope this doesn't get moved into commun... er, hangouts, as its traditionally been a specific kind of help forum rather than a community about a product, much like a "building a PC" guide thread would be

Deleted member 733 · Oct 25, 2017

I wonder if embedding YouTube for better framerate will partially replace GIFs here.

Here's a 4k 60fps Trackmania video to test:

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to choose the quality in YouTube links or embedding anymore, so people will actually have to click the cog and choose 4k.

Dynamite Shikoku · Oct 25, 2017

Dr Wily said:
I really hope this doesn't get moved into commun... er, hangouts, as its traditionally been a specific kind of help forum rather than a community about a product, much like a "building a PC" guide thread would be

I was wondering about that

Mik2121 · Oct 25, 2017

Embedded Youtube by default is nice. I like some of the other options on this forum, too.

The Report icon scares me all the time though, haha.

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

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