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

Polynaut · Apr 19, 2018

HandsomeCharles said:
Thanks for that! The B&W highlights it quite well. I've tried to indicate "colidable"terrain by giving it a white inner-highlight, but it looks like it is getting a bit lost when its next to backgrounds that are using white as a highlight for shading purposes. If I switch to colour for the BGs, I most likely won't use any white at all.

When you say "Messing with the values", what do you mean exactly? Making things lighter/darker? On the background, foreground, or both?

When I say mess with values, I meant on all the layers yeah! It may be a somewhat subjective thing, but I think you can get your collisions walls and your characters to stand out more by adjusting the values as a whole. Here is a quick mockup I did to show what I mean.

See how it gets darker as it goes back into the distance? With the foreground/colliable objects and character being the lightest in value to help them stand out.

Here it is in B+W:

This is just one possibility tho! You could have it getting lighter as it goes back in space as another solution, with your character and foreground being the darkest overall. Whats most important probably just making sure that the collision areas stand out from the background since that seems to be a big part of the game :)

Overall I'm liking the look of your art! Its nice and clean and reminds me of Super Mario World in some ways (thats a good thing!).

HandsomeCharles · Apr 19, 2018

Polynaut said:
When I say mess with values, I meant on all the layers yeah! It may be a somewhat subjective thing, but I think you can get your collisions walls and your characters to stand out more by adjusting the values as a whole. Here is a quick mockup I did to show what I mean.

See how it gets darker as it goes back into the distance? With the foreground/colliable objects and character being the lightest in value to help them stand out.

Here it is in B+W:

This is just one possibility tho! You could have it getting lighter as it goes back in space as another solution, with your character and foreground being the darkest overall. Whats most important probably just making sure that the collision areas stand out from the background since that seems to be a big part of the game :)

Overall I'm liking the look of your art! Its nice and clean and reminds me of Super Mario World in some ways (thats a good thing!).

Interesting stuff! I might mess around with it and see what I can do. I want to try and keep things bright and vibrant though, so I'm a little hesitant about darkening the BG for distance (Lightening it might be a good alternative). I guess I can reserve next week's work for playing about with colours and seeing what works. Thanks very much for taking the time to make these examples, and thanks for the kind words too!

missile, thanks! :)

udivision · Apr 19, 2018

Rolento said:
Massive thanks :)

So now I have something better than the gif:

Unlike the video it is normally in 60FPS, most sounds are placeholder (but give the right mood I want), and there's a few timer messups, but it's finally a good base to work with.

This is just oozing with style, nice!

OllyOllyBennett · Apr 20, 2018

Veidt said:
I would also recommend setting up Twitch streams where you showcase some bits of the game and answer people's questions.

We've been doing this already for a while now. We get a very modest number of people watching, but it's still good. We then turn them into YouTube videos, and get a modest number of hits on those too. So I would recommend this to others also.

Veidt said:
I would also try to contact youtubers who usually enjoy games similar to yours (not just metroidvanias, any games similar in terms of setting, mechanics or narrative), especially those with niche/smaller channels. See if you can get them playing your game and give you some feedback. A lot of developers make the mistake of seeing youtubers as 'tools' for getting exposure, when they're actually a valuable resource to get feedback which you can use to improve your game, as they're more likely to give you informed and in-depth criticism.

This is a great suggestion. I'll definitely consider this, cheers.

ninjaboyjohn said:
After years of noodling with prototypes then dropping them for various reasons, I've gotten to a playable point with Roobound, a first person platforming game where you pilot a robot kangaroo (roobot!) across procedurally generated levels filled with enemy robots based on the critters of Australia.

It's kind of Jumping Flash x Spelunky x Arms x Kratt's Creatures :D

I'm a designer, not a trained artist, but here's where I'm going with it:

Some really nice high-level concept ideas in this. Good luck with the project.

Minamu said:
I wonder if indie devs, large or small, do any kind of market research before deciding to work on a game for years. I know I certainly haven't, and I probably should've. But I didn't plan to be working on the same game for 2+ years either hehe.

We fell into doing The Siege and the Sandfox, as the artists had just been making the assets as a hobby project, so we shelved our 3D project, adopted them, and started work on the game.

Part of why we all went indie (we're all from AAA backgrounds with around 10-15 years' experience each) was so we weren't beholden to market trends and pushy business departments. However, after we started the project, I've certainly been doing market research.

I have a database of all titles similar to ours in some way or another - already out and in development - with details about their Metacritic score, release date, platforms, launch price, players, owners (taken before Steamspy went down), and more.

There is a freedom and joy to making what you want, and as trends are so rapid to change, and games so long to make, it's very hard to research pre pre-production and get any data that will be reliable come completion of the game.

WishyWaters · Apr 20, 2018

Minamu said:
I wonder if indie devs, large or small, do any kind of market research before deciding to work on a game for years. I know I certainly haven't, and I probably should've. But I didn't plan to be working on the same game for 2+ years either hehe.

I wanted to chime in on this. I have done market research, but only after I decided what I wanted to make. Doing some research and creating some predictions for income has helped me figure out how long I want to spend on my game. I have an understanding of my floor and what's most likely, which leads me to how much time I want to pour into creation. For me it really helped highlight that going past 2 years of development just isn't worth the ROI.

I love my project and I could develop on it for fun for years. Finding a way to put myself on a clock has really helped me tone down the project and focus on what matters. It is the ultimate scope creep killer.

Rolento · Apr 20, 2018

udivision said:
This is just oozing with style, nice!

awesome! thanks!

I'm considering putting effort in starting an Indie Dev Meetup in my area... I have resources where I can make it happen so people can showcase their games, maybe have an open panel or something, and more, but I was wondering if anyone here has some input.

DNAbro · Apr 20, 2018

The Ludum Dare theme is "2 incompatible genres"

I'm busy with other work yet I'm very tempted to try something.

Deleted member 5167 · Apr 20, 2018

Flappy Ikaruga here I go!

Dynamite Shikoku · Apr 20, 2018

Dr Wily said:
Flappy Ikaruga here I go!

lol I'd play it

Kickmaster Kim · Apr 20, 2018

It's been hard trying to find an artist or musician to stay on board with my game.

Minamu · Apr 20, 2018

Good theme for LD, for sure. I won't be creating something unfortunately, I'm gonna have my hands full with work (and my ongoing Unreal course).

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

Screenshot Saturday? Screenshot Saturday! I (hopefully) don't spam those here too often anymore since, let's be honest, it gets kind of repetitive after a while (and no one feels this more than I do at the moment), but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally... if everything goes well, I should be done with cleaning anim at the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

For now, here's the weekly recap:

jahasaja · Apr 21, 2018

embalm said:
I wanted to chime in on this. I have done market research, but only after I decided what I wanted to make. Doing some research and creating some predictions for income has helped me figure out how long I want to spend on my game. I have an understanding of my floor and what's most likely, which leads me to how much time I want to pour into creation. For me it really helped highlight that going past 2 years of development just isn't worth the ROI.

I love my project and I could develop on it for fun for years. Finding a way to put myself on a clock has really helped me tone down the project and focus on what matters. It is the ultimate scope creep killer.

I have not done any market research and I still have not started to market my game (already worked on it for 2+ years). The market is also changing quickly so I do not know if it is helpful to do research on a 2+ year project.

Edit: sorry my point was to say that there is I guess not a correct way to do it. I think a lot of us except for making a great game, also needs some luck to be able to get attention.

Minamu · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse dude I'd watch your gifs on a daily basis if you just posted them.

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

Minamu said:
Pehesse dude I'd watch your gifs on a daily basis if you just posted them.

Hahaha, thanks a ton :-D I'll post more of the colored ones when I finally reach that point, they're more fun to look at!

SweetSark · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
Screenshot Saturday? Screenshot Saturday! I (hopefully) don't spam those here too often anymore since, let's be honest, it gets kind of repetitive after a while (and no one feels this more than I do at the moment), but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally... if everything goes well, I should be done with cleaning anim at the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

For now, here's the weekly recap:

It seems from your gift you posted, the protagonist will be able to pet the animals which get defeated by her.
Also I see an animation which I guess she look something big/beautiful to the horizon.
An animation which show the hero get alerted before a fight get started. Like a cutscene, but happens on each fight if she get surrounded.
Finally an animation which she opens or activate something by hitting her mace to the ground?

How much close I am?

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

SweetSark said:
It seems from your gift you posted, the protagonist will be able to pet the animals which get defeated by her.
Also I see an animation which I guess she look something big/beautiful to the horizon.
An animation which show the hero get alerted before a fight get started. Like a cutscene, but happens on each fight if she get surrounded.
Finally an animation which she opens or activate something by hitting her mace to the ground?

How much close I am?

Wow, very close! You're correct, you'll be able to pet the animals you defeat, and the "look at horizon" and "surprise" are both for cutscenes/small event scenes before bosses, or for narrative impact (since there will be no spoken/written text, I use anims instead to convey what happens in a more theatrical fashion).
The "hit mace on ground" move is her getting her back to a wall to avoid objects coming from above - the mace part is just a byproduct of having to do something with it :-D Still, excellent guesses all around, you've got a good eye!

SweetSark · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
Wow, very close! You're correct, you'll be able to pet the animals you defeat, and the "look at horizon" and "surprise" are both for cutscenes/small event scenes before bosses, or for narrative impact (since there will be no spoken/written text, I use anims instead to convey what happens in a more theatrical fashion).
The "hit mace on ground" move is her getting her back to a wall to avoid objects coming from above - the mace part is just a byproduct of having to do something with it :-D Still, excellent guesses all around, you've got a good eye!

Thank you for the copliments. This was so sweet to hear I was nearly right.
However if your Hero is able to pet the animals, this means you must somehow create a unique pet animation for each type of animal enemy you will have in the game. This sound really difficult. Also make sure to have a joke human character who get defeated by the hero and then get pet like a animal.
Finally because you said the "surprise" animation is from boss fight [I think], this mean she will get locked in a room to fight a Boss.
Or maybe they are 2 Bosses, one for each side the hero look.

Jintor · Apr 21, 2018

i was thinking 'text adventure rhythm game'

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

SweetSark said:
Thank you for the copliments. This was so sweet to hear I was nearly right.
However if your Hero is able to pet the animals, this means you must somehow create a unique pet animation for each type of animal enemy you will have in the game. This sound really difficult. Also make sure to have a joke human character who get defeated by the hero and then get pet like a animal.
Finally because you said the "surprise" animation is from boss fight [I think], this mean she will get locked in a room to fight a Boss.
Or maybe they are 2 Bosses, one for each side the hero look.

Yup, there will indeed be unique pet animations for each animal (thankfully not for the character herself). The system is already in place and can be seen in the devlog if you haven't already, like this:

- as for how many animations will be required... well, I don't know how much you know about the game already, but I think it's kind of a moot point at this stage :-D

I like the idea of a joke human character, but I'll refrain - apart from Inti herself (which is not even really human in the first place, being a divine avatar). There are no humans to see/interact with in the game, so it'd be a bit out of place, even if I enjoy the idea of the joke itself!

The surprise animation will be for specific scenarios like the one you describe, indeed - or others, but I won't spoil what they'll be :-D

DNAbro · Apr 21, 2018

Jintor said:
i was thinking 'text adventure rhythm game'

I was thinking 'rhythm fighter' mostly so I could make title "Dancing in the Street Fighter" work.

But yeah unfortunately they always put this stuff at the end of my semester so I'm usually super busy.

also I just googled rhythm fighter and Rhythm Heaven already did it and it's pretty much exactly what I was thinking lol.

Jump_Button · Apr 21, 2018

I been working on alot of stuff but not ready but i have work on the over lay hub

SaberVS7 · Apr 21, 2018

Might be a little bit before I get my Screenshot Saturday content ready today, but you can have this in the meantime.

Veidt · Apr 21, 2018

OllyOllyBennett said:
We've been doing this already for a while now. We get a very modest number of people watching, but it's still good. We then turn them into YouTube videos, and get a modest number of hits on those too. So I would recommend this to others also.

This is a great suggestion. I'll definitely consider this, cheers.

You mentioned you signed with a publisher, have they tried any sort of cross-promotional initiatives? For example, getting developers of different games they're publishing (particularly titles targeting a similar target audience) showing up on the same stream, playing/showing their games while having a chat? Seems like a good way to reach out to new people and get different communities engaged, especially when it comes to indie labels and smaller publishers.

ninjaboyjohn · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
Yup, there will indeed be unique pet animations for each animal (thankfully not for the character herself). The system is already in place

So cool - I *love* the "pet the animals after you've knocked the evil out of them" concept. Are there gameplay benefits for doing so? Regain a little health, xp, etc? Definitely a good place for achievements - instead of "kill 25 armadillos" it's "pet 25 armadillos"

In Roobound, I'm planning on doing something sorta like when you kill the badniks in a Sonic game - the robot was powered by a real animal "battery" that is now freed after you destroy the robot. Since my game is all about floating platforms, the idea is the battery animal gets a cute parachute and parachutes back to earth.

jahasaja · Apr 21, 2018

SaberVS7 said:
Might be a little bit before I get my Screenshot Saturday content ready today, but you can have this in the meantime.

Huge improvement! Looks great.

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

ninjaboyjohn said:
So cool - I *love* the "pet the animals after you've knocked the evil out of them" concept. Are there gameplay benefits for doing so? Regain a little health, xp, etc? Definitely a good place for achievements - instead of "kill 25 armadillos" it's "pet 25 armadillos"

In Roobound, I'm planning on doing something sorta like when you kill the badniks in a Sonic game - the robot was powered by a real animal "battery" that is now freed after you destroy the robot. Since my game is all about floating platforms, the idea is the battery animal gets a cute parachute and parachutes back to earth.

Many thanks :-D
Regarding any player benefit for petting, no, I'm not planning on any, as I feel that'd "game-ify" the action and be contrary to the intended spirit. I'd like players to pet pecause they want to pet, not because they're aiming to get something from it! Intentional action and aesthetisation of motion is an important part of the project (doing stuff for doing stuff's sake) :-D Also, there is no xp and health auto regenerates, so even if I wanted to give something for it... there'd be very little of interest to give the player in the first place! :-D

SaberVS7 said:
Might be a little bit before I get my Screenshot Saturday content ready today, but you can have this in the meantime.

Dang, I think this looks so much better! Excellent job!

Deleted member 5167 · Apr 21, 2018

DNAbro said:
I was thinking 'rhythm fighter' mostly so I could make title "Dancing in the Street Fighter" work.

But yeah unfortunately they always put this stuff at the end of my semester so I'm usually super busy.

also I just googled rhythm fighter and Rhythm Heaven already did it and it's pretty much exactly what I was thinking lol.

The trick is something you know* you can make in a 48 hour period including all the assets, music, sfx, animations and UI.
I know* I can make flappy bird with some extra bells and whistles...

*"know" lol... hubris is gonna kick my ass as I end up skimping on something or other as per usual

jahasaja · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
Many thanks :-D
Regarding any player benefit for petting, no, I'm not planning on any, as I feel that'd "game-ify" the action and be contrary to the intended spirit. I'd like players to pet pecause they want to pet, not because they're aiming to get something from it! Intentional action and aesthetisation of motion is an important part of the project (doing stuff for doing stuff's sake) :-D Also, there is no xp and health auto regenerates, so even if I wanted to give something for it... there'd be very little of interest to give the player in the first place! :-D

Dang, I think this looks so much better! Excellent job!

Regenerating health in a side-scroller sounds exciting! But are you not worried
it will break the pace of the game? I guess it leads to players just standing still waiting for the health to regenerate. Also, I guess your enemies have to be very mobile otherwise the player can just move away to get back health. Would be interesting to know what you have thought about these issues.

_Rob_ · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
Screenshot Saturday? Screenshot Saturday! I (hopefully) don't spam those here too often anymore since, let's be honest, it gets kind of repetitive after a while (and no one feels this more than I do at the moment), but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally... if everything goes well, I should be done with cleaning anim at the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

For now, here's the weekly recap:

The amount of dynamic items, cloth, hair etc on your characters always blows my mind when considering how much extra work having each one causes; bravo!

An update from my Olga solo post last week, here are both our main Villain Dr Daucus and his right hand woman, Olga Chestycough together!

jahasaja · Apr 21, 2018

_Rob_ said:
The amount of dynamic items, cloth, hair etc on your characters always blows my mind when considering how much extra work having each one causes; bravo!

An update from my Olga solo post last week, here are both our main Villain Dr Daucus and his right hand woman, Olga Chestycough together!

Are we to expect two boss fights? Or one were they work as a team?

Please let it not be a song bird situation :-P.

SaberVS7 · Apr 21, 2018

jahasaja said:
Huge improvement! Looks great.

Pehesse said:
Dang, I think this looks so much better! Excellent job!

I think I should make it perfectly clear though that I'm not the artist. All credit for the new character designs goes to A.P. Jeffin.

Original artist was Yessenia Taylor, who departed from the project (on good terms) to work full-time on Yandere Simulator.

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

jahasaja said:
Regenerating health in a side-scroller sounds exciting! But are you not worried
it will break the pace of the game? I guess it leads to players just standing still waiting for the health to regenerate. Also, I guess your enemies have to be very mobile otherwise the player can just move away to get back health. Would be interesting to know what you have thought about these issues.

Thanks! To be honest, I'm not that worried about the pace of the game, since it's aimed at two main audiences: first one is the newcomers to the genre, for which "hardcore" mechanics such as recoverable health through pickups are a complete turn off (so regenerating health is there to allow them to make mistakes and enjoy the game at their own pace), and speedrunners, who also make their own pace in the opposite direction, and for whom relying on regenerating health is no good, as it'd go against making the best use of time. And indeed, some enemies will be mobile - not all of them, but those you are most "intended to do battle with" (or have more trouble escaping) will follow you around quite a bit, so even regenerating health might not save you from taking too many strong hits :-D All in all, I'm not designing this with a traditional platformer mindset at all, many of the choices are geared with those two audiences primarily in mind, and both tend to make the pace of the game their own, albeit for extremely different reasons!

_Rob_ said:
The amount of dynamic items, cloth, hair etc on your characters always blows my mind when considering how much extra work having each one causes; bravo!

An update from my Olga solo post last week, here are both our main Villain Dr Daucus and his right hand woman, Olga Chestycough together!

The followup motions are too good to ignore, I can't help myself despite the pain it brings :-D
Those two look like a dastardly pair, I like the contrast between their two attitudes and personal rhythms!

jahasaja · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
Thanks! To be honest, I'm not that worried about the pace of the game, since it's aimed at two main audiences: first one is the newcomers to the genre, for which "hardcore" mechanics such as recoverable health through pickups are a complete turn off (so regenerating health is there to allow them to make mistakes and enjoy the game at their own pace), and speedrunners, who also make their own pace in the opposite direction, and for whom relying on regenerating health is no good, as it'd go against making the best use of time. And indeed, some enemies will be mobile - not all of them, but those you are most "intended to do battle with" (or have more trouble escaping) will follow you around quite a bit, so even regenerating health might not save you from taking too many strong hits :-D All in all, I'm not designing this with a traditional platformer mindset at all, many of the choices are geared with those two audiences primarily in mind, and both tend to make the pace of the game their own, albeit for extremely different reasons!

The followup motions are too good to ignore, I can't help myself despite the pain it brings :-D
Those two look like a dastardly pair, I like the contrast between their two attitudes and personal rhythms!

Wow, that was not the answer I was expecting :-). Very interesting choice of target audiences and I guess it might be hard to design for both at the same time.

Will be very fun to follow your progress as always.

Camille_ · Apr 21, 2018

jahasaja said:
Wow, that was not the answer I was expecting :-). Very interesting choice of target audiences and I guess it might be hard to design for both at the same time.

Will be very fun to follow your progress as always.

Hopefully I'm not completely wrong about all of this and it'll end up working as intended, we'll see :-D But thanks all the same!

ninjaboyjohn · Apr 21, 2018

Pehesse said:
I'm not that worried about the pace of the game, since it's aimed at two main audiences: first one is the newcomers to the genre, for which "hardcore" mechanics such as recoverable health through pickups are a complete turn off (so regenerating health is there to allow them to make mistakes and enjoy the game at their own pace), and speedrunners, who also make their own pace in the opposite direction, and for whom relying on regenerating health is no good, as it'd go against making the best use of time.

That's a really cool target audience description, and fascinating what synergies can be found when designing for both of them. I think how Nintendo's designs for Zelda BOTW and Mario Odyssey similarly offer aid to newcomers while providing challenge for speedrunners is a great way of looking at challenge in games - kind of a "beginner" level of basic challenge, with additional elements or dynamics that come out when you're going for time or 100% completion (like Celeste strawberries), etc.

udivision · Apr 21, 2018

Jump_Button said:
I been working on alot of stuff but not ready but i have work on the over lay hub

Looks nice! I always end up redesigning my HUD a dozen times. What kind of game are you making?

ninjaboyjohn · Apr 21, 2018

Early VR gameplay of Roobound - in this video I'm using a two-handed control scheme and gesture-based punching. The default mode is head-aim with a single targeting reticle, and you can either do punch gestures or press a button to punch, but the two-handed mode offers some more advanced combat (punch in two different directions while looking in another) for higher skilled players or for VR players who hate head aim.

Deleted member 5167 · Apr 21, 2018

End of day 1, wasted a bunch of time due to checking for objects via name and forgetting that Unity adds (clone) to everything instantiated.
Just VFX, Modelling, textures, walls, enemy AI, audio and music to go

Camille_ · Apr 22, 2018

ninjaboyjohn said:
That's a really cool target audience description, and fascinating what synergies can be found when designing for both of them. I think how Nintendo's designs for Zelda BOTW and Mario Odyssey similarly offer aid to newcomers while providing challenge for speedrunners is a great way of looking at challenge in games - kind of a "beginner" level of basic challenge, with additional elements or dynamics that come out when you're going for time or 100% completion (like Celeste strawberries), etc.

Yes, exactly! Celeste is super interesting to look at in that context, with their assist mode that allows you to bend the rules to suit your needs/wants (much like Even the Ocean did, and AC:O too recently, among others). I'm planning something very similar!

SweetSark · Apr 22, 2018

SaberVS7 said:
Might be a little bit before I get my Screenshot Saturday content ready today, but you can have this in the meantime.

Does your game have a name?

SweetSark · Apr 22, 2018

Pehesse said:
Yup, there will indeed be unique pet animations for each animal (thankfully not for the character herself). The system is already in place and can be seen in the devlog if you haven't already, like this:

- as for how many animations will be required... well, I don't know how much you know about the game already, but I think it's kind of a moot point at this stage :-D

I like the idea of a joke human character, but I'll refrain - apart from Inti herself (which is not even really human in the first place, being a divine avatar). There are no humans to see/interact with in the game, so it'd be a bit out of place, even if I enjoy the idea of the joke itself!

The surprise animation will be for specific scenarios like the one you describe, indeed - or others, but I won't spoil what they'll be :-D

What do you mean "thankfully not for the character herself"? Like, someone petting the hero?
Also I will confess I don't know the story at all of your game. What kind of story it have?

Camille_ · Apr 22, 2018

SweetSark said:
What do you mean "thankfully not for the character herself"? Like, someone petting the hero?
Also I will confess I don't know the story at all of your game. What kind of story it have?

Ah, no, no, sorry - you were wondering about how many animations would be needed, so I was saying that each enemy would have a specific "being petted" animation, but the character herself would have only one "petting" animation applied to all situations (and not an unique animation for petting each different animal, as that would be overkill!).
Regarding the story, it's fairly simple and you can think of it more as a driving context than a detailed narrative (the game will have no spoken/written dialog or text, only theatrical animations to cnvey emotions and situations, and I'm keeping the overall direction very simple). The game is about the journey of Inti, daughter of the Sun, as she attempts to reclaim her home temple that is being possessed by the spirit of the moon.
If you're interested in the game, I highly recommend you read through the devlog I've linked above (here it is again just in case) as you'll find much more information in much greater detail there :-D

Jump_Button · Apr 22, 2018

udivision said:
Looks nice! I always end up redesigning my HUD a dozen times. What kind of game are you making?

A fun and colourful Metroidvania i know it in thing to have dark or illness themes but not for me

Weltall Zero · Apr 22, 2018

For some reason I stopped getting notifications (and I think even seeing the thread highlighted in "followed threads") so I only realized there had been activity here upon seeing it in the front page.

Pehesse's work, as always, is so beautiful I could cry. I can't imagine what it would be to play a game with that level of visuals and animations. Can't wait to find out!

ninjaboyjohn said:
In Roobound, I'm planning on doing something sorta like when you kill the badniks in a Sonic game - the robot was powered by a real animal "battery" that is now freed after you destroy the robot. Since my game is all about floating platforms, the idea is the battery animal gets a cute parachute and parachutes back to earth.

That would go a long way towards making me feel less bad about punching animals in the face, indeed! :D

Pehesse said:
Many thanks :-D
Regarding any player benefit for petting, no, I'm not planning on any, as I feel that'd "game-ify" the action and be contrary to the intended spirit. I'd like players to pet pecause they want to pet, not because they're aiming to get something from it! Intentional action and aesthetisation of motion is an important part of the project (doing stuff for doing stuff's sake) :-D Also, there is no xp and health auto regenerates, so even if I wanted to give something for it... there'd be very little of interest to give the player in the first place! :-D

So basically like A Boy and his Blob's "hug" button. :) That's so cool, and as an animal lover you get a lot of points for it from me.

Dr Wily said:
End of day 1, wasted a bunch of time due to checking for objects via name and forgetting that Unity adds (clone) to everything instantiated.
Just VFX, Modelling, textures, walls, enemy AI, audio and music to go

It's looking pretty cool, but I think you need to make the background lighter so that black bullets and the black form of the ship are more visible.

SweetSark · Apr 22, 2018

Pehesse said:
Ah, no, no, sorry - you were wondering about how many animations would be needed, so I was saying that each enemy would have a specific "being petted" animation, but the character herself would have only one "petting" animation applied to all situations (and not an unique animation for petting each different animal, as that would be overkill!).
Regarding the story, it's fairly simple and you can think of it more as a driving context than a detailed narrative (the game will have no spoken/written dialog or text, only theatrical animations to cnvey emotions and situations, and I'm keeping the overall direction very simple). The game is about the journey of Inti, daughter of the Sun, as she attempts to reclaim her home temple that is being possessed by the spirit of the moon.
If you're interested in the game, I highly recommend you read through the devlog I've linked above (here it is again just in case) as you'll find much more information in much greater detail there :-D

OH! That remind me a story I read which have the same Theme.
I highly suggest you to read it if you like these kind of stories and maybe get some ideas:

https://www.manataka.org/page2617.html

Camille_ · Apr 22, 2018

Weltall Zero said:
For some reason I stopped getting notifications (and I think even seeing the thread highlighted in "followed threads") so I only realized there had been activity here upon seeing it in the front page.

Pehesse's work, as always, is so beautiful I could cry. I can't imagine what it would be to play a game with that level of visuals and animations. Can't wait to find out!

That would go a long way towards making me feel less bad about punching animals in the face, indeed! :D

So basically like A Boy and his Blob's "hug" button. :) That's so cool, and as an animal lover you get a lot of points for it from me.

It's looking pretty cool, but I think you need to make the background lighter so that black bullets and the black form of the ship are more visible.

Thanks a ton :-D And yeah, I'll admit, I've never played A Boy and his Blob, but I know of it, and even without having played it it's kind of an inspiration as far as what I understand it does :-D I'm very fond of leaving actions to the player that have "no purpose" except themselves - I see them as a form of self expression... and the game is kind of designed to emphatize that quite a bit, in case it's ever streamed or speedrunned (spedrun?), or something :-D

SweetSark said:
OH! That remind me a story I read which have the same Theme.
I highly suggest you to read it if you like these kind of stories and maybe get some ideas:

https://www.manataka.org/page2617.html

Oh, thank you kindly, it does look very interesting indeed! I've only skimmed through it before replying but I'll give it a thorough read now, but I appreciate the attention :-D

Weltall Zero · Apr 22, 2018

This morning's work: adding a new, almost-foreground layer of buildings to make the city look less sparse:
Before:

Now (they're the gray buildings right behind the foreground buildings that you can destroy):

With this I now have six layers of parallax. I didn't want to make that many as I want to emulate older arcades, but I guess this is an area where I can break retro conventions...

jahasaja · Apr 22, 2018

Weltall Zero said:
This morning's work: adding a new, almost-foreground layer of buildings to make the city look less sparse:
Before:

Now (they're the gray buildings right behind the foreground buildings that you can destroy):

With this I now have six layers of parallax. I didn't want to make that many as I want to emulate older arcades, but I guess this is an area where I can break retro conventions...

Great progress! Do you want me to have another go?

Weltall Zero · Apr 22, 2018

jahasaja said:
Great progress! Do you want me to have another go?

Sure! I'm close (or so I hope) to finishing a release that's been 1.5 months in the making; it adds a new module system to spice things up, but I also ended up changing a lot of other things. I'll be sure to include you in the email when I release it.

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

BizDev & PR at Cardboard Sword

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