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Indie Game Development |OT 2018| Come, help, learn, show and tell!
- Thread starter Popstar
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Much appreciated! Anyone else in the thread that wishes to give it a try too, just PM me your email.
Ahem...
'Azure Jaegers, Red Foxes' - It's an Immersive-Sim Stealth/Action-RPG inspired by the first Deus Ex and Dishonored, but scaled down to 2-dimensions.
I'll PM some up to date screenshots of it for you later today when I update the game's website. Most of my currently posted media of it is out-of-date by months, so I wouldn't recommend posting any old screenshots or videos you dig up :V
I'm the same way. I'm looking up your progress through Twitter and it looks really solid so far. What platform are you using to make Sky Town?
Thank you for telling me.
If you get an updated picture of your game in the future, i will make sure to update my Thread as well.
Also I saw this picture in the twitter of the artist:
It seems he will draw for you all the portraits of your major characters, right?
Sorry, I think I worded that wrong. Are you using Game Maker or a tool like that?
Well, got my compo entry in in time, too much flappy birds DNA and not enough ikaruga for it to ring my bell tho.
Making some progress on my little project, my project isn't nearly as impressive as some of your guy's, but I'll try to share a few times before launch.
Crunching and things going well, already done with most assets, so just designing right now, managed a few fairly unique odd scenarios.
Crunching and things going well, already done with most assets, so just designing right now, managed a few fairly unique odd scenarios.
lol that's so difficult. I really like the idea though. It's fun.
Participated in my first Ludum Dare this weekend. Here is my entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/rhythm-escape
Did anyone else participate this time around?
I'll play yours soon!
Did anyone else participate this time around?
I haven't actually full formed that one in my head, but for story reasons they will definitely need to be together in one way or another!
Glad that comes across! On that point, I manged to get Olga's walk to be 60 frames, and then Daucus' to be 20, so they fit together perfectly too (which may well be important later).
Also while I'm here, something I'd wanted to add to the hub world for a while but needed to have Dr Daucus' model finished to achieve:
I couldn't get any of the Ludum Dare games to run properly on either Chrome or Firefox, there must be something wrong with my WebGL. :/
This is looking awesome, you have no reason to feel it's inferior to any other games here. If I were to make any criticism, it would be to speed up the main character's walking animation to match her walking speed, so that she doesn't seem to be "skating". This is particularly relevant when she's running (unless you're planning to add a separate "run" animation, of course). Otherwise it's looking great!
Making some progress on my little project, my project isn't nearly as impressive as some of your guy's, but I'll try to share a few times before launch.
Crunching and things going well, already done with most assets, so just designing right now, managed a few fairly unique odd scenarios.
This is looking awesome, you have no reason to feel it's inferior to any other games here. If I were to make any criticism, it would be to speed up the main character's walking animation to match her walking speed, so that she doesn't seem to be "skating". This is particularly relevant when she's running (unless you're planning to add a separate "run" animation, of course). Otherwise it's looking great!
Playing with Ren'py got me to boot up my old gamemaker project again and man
I have no idea how I did anything of what I did
probably should start looking at it systematically to figure out what i actually need to do with this project to, like, make a game out of it
I have no idea how I did anything of what I did
probably should start looking at it systematically to figure out what i actually need to do with this project to, like, make a game out of it
This might be slightly off topic, and considerably paranoid, but it's something I've been wondering for a while. When you guys settle on a name, how do you go around "protecting" it before revealing it to the public? I may be paranoid but I wouldn't want to find that because my game's name has been made public, some squatter bought the domain name for 1$ and wants to resell it to me for a much bigger amount. To a lesser extent I wonder if this applies to patents as well (hell, has anyone here actually patented their game's name?).
I guess the easiest way would be to straight out buy the domain yourself. I just bought my domain for a couple years from GoDaddy which seems to be a reputed web domain leaser. Anything else I should worry about before revealing my game's name to the public?
I guess the easiest way would be to straight out buy the domain yourself. I just bought my domain for a couple years from GoDaddy which seems to be a reputed web domain leaser. Anything else I should worry about before revealing my game's name to the public?
I wonder the same thing. Buying a domain is not expensive so that's the first thing I've done. But registering a trademark would cost like $1000 or more... and as far as I've read you absolutely need this. So until I have that many I have to live dangerously I guess.
I've run one of these for about 4 years. We started off monthly, then after a few years went down to quarterly, and now 'whenever', with one big one a year regardless.
It wasn't due to attendance that we changed; it was mostly down to my work schedule, though event frequency does impact many behavioural patterns from attendees (numbers per event, time people leave, what they bring, etc.)
I can give you more detailed feedback if you'd like?
They've not, but that's a great idea. I'll give it some thought.
Domain names are cheap, definitely start there, as well as doing a thorough search on Google and the US trademark offices search tools.
You can register a "intent to use" word trademark in the US for about $300. I did this recently for Roobound. Kwy things there are to read the USTPO's guides and watch the videos they've posted on how to file, because your trademark application isn't even looked at for at least 3 months and if it is declined, you don"t get your money back. If money isn't an issue, you can get a lawyer to help you file, but I didn't find the process difficult, and their search tool allows you to get a sense of what else may be using a similar word mark.
If you do file a trademark, you'll get spam from companies trying to sell you international protection and scams that look like bills, so be prepared.
Also, the "intent to use" trademark, or whatever it's called, means that when your game is actually released, you have to file more paperwork that shows an example of the marks usage to turn it into an "active use" trademark.
One last thing on trademarks - trademark the word / phrase that is your game name first, and not a logo. Logo design trademarks are invalid if you update or change the logo and you want to protect the game's name first.
TLDR- get a domain name, strongly consider filing a word "intent to use" trademark for about $300
Great info!
However, I thought as soon as you make the name of your game official that would be enough for it to be protected?
Another name-protection tidbit. I noticed that shortly after posting my first youtube video with Roobound in the title, that video comes up on the first page for a Google search of the name, even though the domain doesn't. I think the most important part of protecting your name early is not keeping someone from seeing your name and taking it, it's making sure someone who comes up with your name independently sees that it is already being used for a video game in a quick Google search. Hopefully they'll cross your name off their list!
(I am not a lawyer, just did reading on this stuff a few weeks ago, ymmv)
You have some copyright protections automatically when you release something, but you have more with a trademark (it has an official "this was started to be in use" date and more legal power behind it)
The real benefit (imho) is that you can file that intent to use trademark ahead of time and it will be in the search system and should dissuade any large company from using it even before your game is announced or released.
Because the reality is, even if wholly in the right and protected by copyright and trademark, a small indie doesnt have the funds to go after an EA or Zenimax for imfringement. The best case scenario is to plant your flag early and dissuade anyone else from using your registered, domain-bought name.
Also, a patent is mainly for specific inventions, not the names of them. Doesn't one also get automated copyrights to some degree just by creating a piece of unique tech/art, regardless of registration? You will also have protections regarding your particular code solution of a specific problem or system, but not for the idea behind it per se.
Even 300$ is a bit rich for my blood right now, so I guess I'll have to risk it and go with the automatic protection. Not like I expect anyone to want to involve themselves much with my little game, let alone copyright troll it, but hey...
Also, I'm Spanish, which I just realize means that some (or most) of the advice given here may not apply to me, as Spanish copyright law is bound to be different.
Also, I'm Spanish, which I just realize means that some (or most) of the advice given here may not apply to me, as Spanish copyright law is bound to be different.
Well, I missed Screenshot Saturday... Because Reasons, but I might as well share something here while I start a little screenshot-buffer of the cool new shit I'm working on now that Spring is here and I have my motivation again.
Better yet:
Pro Mode™
No Copyrights. No Trademarks. Final Destination.
Better yet:
Pro Mode™
No Copyrights. No Trademarks. Final Destination.
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My post was eu/Sweden centric but it might apply to you too. Should be fairly easy to google though, yeah? I guess if someone decided to troll you, maybe it's flattering? :) If nothing else, your post history here could give you a timeline that may or may not prove that you were first with the game and/or name.
Hahah, yeah. More like "if someone patent trolls me with the intention to get money for them, they vastly overestimated how rich I am". :D
In any case, I should really post a video on Youtube under the "final" name; that should be enough, I think, but I keep putting it off because of "just one more fix / feature". I also have a BitBucker repository spanning pretty much the entire history of the project, but you can mess with the dates there.
It's finally happening, we're launching Beacon on April 30th (next Monday) through Itch Refinery!
https://monothetic.itch.io/beacon
(Definitely not crapping myself)
Couple of awesome articles from the day:
PC Gamer
Kotaku
Rock Paper Shotgun
We'll be launching with a brand new trailer on the day, so make sure to keep an eye for that <3
https://monothetic.itch.io/beacon
(Definitely not crapping myself)
Couple of awesome articles from the day:
PC Gamer
Kotaku
Rock Paper Shotgun
We'll be launching with a brand new trailer on the day, so make sure to keep an eye for that <3
Talk about a brainfart. I knew I had seen the game before playing it at PAX this month, but just couldn't place my finger on it....
Congrats though!
Looks great! And congratulations for positive coverage from so big outlets!It's finally happening, we're launching Beacon on April 30th (next Monday) through Itch Refinery!
https://monothetic.itch.io/beacon
(Definitely not crapping myself)
Couple of awesome articles from the day:
PC Gamer
Kotaku
Rock Paper Shotgun
We'll be launching with a brand new trailer on the day, so make sure to keep an eye for that <3
It's finally happening, we're launching Beacon on April 30th (next Monday) through Itch Refinery!
https://monothetic.itch.io/beacon
(Definitely not crapping myself)
Couple of awesome articles from the day:
PC Gamer
Kotaku
Rock Paper Shotgun
We'll be launching with a brand new trailer on the day, so make sure to keep an eye for that <3
Nice! Congratulations! I saw an article on Kotaku this morning so hopefully that will snowball into more coverage for you :)
So I've spent the last couple of days finally porting Jack B. Nimble to Steam. It's going pretty well and I've just got a handful of tasks left to do while I wait for Valve to review the Steam page again.
I say again because they rejected the first attempt because my game's website (http://jackbnimblegame.com) links to the game's itch.io page. This is something Valve say is classed as competition, even going as far as to call out the fact I reference that the game is available on iOS.
I've looked around and found that many, many games use their itch.io page as an external website and numerous games even call out other ports within their Steam trailers. Was I just unlucky or are Valve becoming strict?
Anyway, rather than just moaning, here's the capsule image for the Steam store :)
I say again because they rejected the first attempt because my game's website (http://jackbnimblegame.com) links to the game's itch.io page. This is something Valve say is classed as competition, even going as far as to call out the fact I reference that the game is available on iOS.
"The page includes purchase options for the Apple App Store https://sean-noonan.itch.io/jackbnimble Please remove or replace this link."
I've looked around and found that many, many games use their itch.io page as an external website and numerous games even call out other ports within their Steam trailers. Was I just unlucky or are Valve becoming strict?
Anyway, rather than just moaning, here's the capsule image for the Steam store :)
Congratulations! Good luck with it. Let us know how it goes :)It's finally happening, we're launching Beacon on April 30th (next Monday) through Itch Refinery!
https://monothetic.itch.io/beacon
(Definitely not crapping myself)
Couple of awesome articles from the day:
PC Gamer
Kotaku
Rock Paper Shotgun
We'll be launching with a brand new trailer on the day, so make sure to keep an eye for that <3
Hey guys, small update. It has been about month since I announced my game and whoa what a ride. It has been really fun getting feedback on the game for the first time and seeing the reception. I got so motivated I probably doubled my workload this April.
Currently I'm focusing on the announcement teaser video so I'm making assets most of the time. 1% is coding and the rest is marketing. I got like 400 followers in this month, starting with 15 which is good, I guess? My facebook on the other hand has like 10 likes :D
Here is some of the WIP stuff I posted this month:
Currently I'm focusing on the announcement teaser video so I'm making assets most of the time. 1% is coding and the rest is marketing. I got like 400 followers in this month, starting with 15 which is good, I guess? My facebook on the other hand has like 10 likes :D
Here is some of the WIP stuff I posted this month:
Hey guys, small update. It has been about month since I announced my game and whoa what a ride. It has been really fun getting feedback on the game for the first time and seeing the reception. I got so motivated I probably doubled my workload this April.
Currently I'm focusing on the announcement teaser video so I'm making assets most of the time. 1% is coding and the rest is marketing. I got like 400 followers in this month, starting with 15 which is good, I guess? My facebook on the other hand has like 10 likes :D
Here is some of the WIP stuff I posted this month:
Looks great! I really want to fight that Dragon!
If I can give you one critique (I only do it because it already looks so good) I would say that the colours and shading is not always the best. It is my biggest weakness too so I do not have good tips except to study colours and shading and go to pixelation (https://pixelation.org/) for some tips. The colours and shading on the boat are flawless which makes the difference to the other pixel art more apparent.
Thank you! :) It is not the first time someone mentioned the difference between the airship and the rest. But I tried to have those animated objects stand out. Giving them an outline and higher saturation to make sure they work on every background in the game, be it green grass, blue water or red lava. Considering this do you still think they don't fit together? (the last pic is an artwork for the game not an asset btw)
It's finally happening, we're launching Beacon on April 30th (next Monday) through Itch Refinery!
https://monothetic.itch.io/beacon
(Definitely not crapping myself)
Couple of awesome articles from the day:
PC Gamer
Kotaku
Rock Paper Shotgun
We'll be launching with a brand new trailer on the day, so make sure to keep an eye for that <3
This looks amazing, congratulations! How many people are in your team?
So I've spent the last couple of days finally porting Jack B. Nimble to Steam. It's going pretty well and I've just got a handful of tasks left to do while I wait for Valve to review the Steam page again.
I say again because they rejected the first attempt because my game's website (http://jackbnimblegame.com) links to the game's itch.io page. This is something Valve say is classed as competition, even going as far as to call out the fact I reference that the game is available on iOS.
"The page includes purchase options for the Apple App Store https://sean-noonan.itch.io/jackbnimble Please remove or replace this link."
I've looked around and found that many, many games use their itch.io page as an external website and numerous games even call out other ports within their Steam trailers. Was I just unlucky or are Valve becoming strict?
Anyway, rather than just moaning, here's the capsule image for the Steam store :)
That is quite shitty of them indeed. Is it actually reflected anywhere in their TOS?
Hey guys, small update. It has been about month since I announced my game and whoa what a ride. It has been really fun getting feedback on the game for the first time and seeing the reception. I got so motivated I probably doubled my workload this April.
Currently I'm focusing on the announcement teaser video so I'm making assets most of the time. 1% is coding and the rest is marketing. I got like 400 followers in this month, starting with 15 which is good, I guess? My facebook on the other hand has like 10 likes :D
Here is some of the WIP stuff I posted this month:
Your game stuns me speechless every time I see it. You are the only person making it, right? Just mind-boggling. Congratulations!
Hmm? Colors and shading look fine to me, but I'm definitely not an artist. Could you point out any specific examples?
Actually it's the opposite for me, the airship, though incredibly-looking, seems jarring with the rest because it feels as if it has too many colors compared to them. Are you using a common palette for the whole game?
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Thank you! Yes I'm working alone on this. I'm still experimenting so there is no fixed color palette but I think the problem is not necessarily the palette but rather the shading (I'm going to make some asumptions :D) The airship is clearly lit from the right. The entrance and deck are very bright while the rest has a blueish shadow (+ blue secondary lightning from below). The characters and other objects don't have any shadows at all and are lit from every angle. That is because these assets are supposed to be used in different places in different times. So I have to make sprites that can be used all around. Otherwise I would have to draw every sprite for every location and every weather. Or use a lightning tool like in the Siege and the Sandfox which is beyond my budget.
That means I would rather have to adjust the airship to the npcs and not the other way around... or I leave it like it is. I mean there are other games that have this problem. Every PSX title with rendered background and 3D models for example. The backgrounds have a realistic shading while the 3D models have none at all.
I might be wrong though xD Thanks for your feedback.
As I said before I think it looks great. I am just nitpicking since I think you could reach the next level.
I am mostly referring to this:
As I said before I think it looks great. I am just nitpicking since I think you could reach the next level.
I am mostly referring to this:
Yes, I'm really thankful for your feedback! I know about hue shifting. I'll try to adjust the sprites a little more. :)
Thank you! Yes I'm working alone on this. I'm still experimenting so there is no fixed color palette but I think the problem is not necessarily the palette but rather the shading (I'm going to make some asumptions :D) The airship is clearly lit from the right. The entrance and deck are very bright while the rest has a blueish shadow (+ blue secondary lightning from below). The characters and other objects don't have any shadows at all and are lit from every angle. That is because these assets are supposed to be used in different places in different times. So I have to make sprites that can be used all around. Otherwise I would have to draw every sprite for every location and every weather. Or use a lightning tool like in the Siege and the Sandfox which is beyond my budget.
That means I would rather have to adjust the airship to the npcs and not the other way around... or I leave it like it is. I mean there are other games that have this problem. Every PSX title with rendered background and 3D models for example. The backgrounds have a realistic shading while the 3D models have none at all.
I might be wrong though xD Thanks for your feedback.
I know all too well what it is to make something that looks jarring because it looks "too good" compared to the rest of the game, and then facing Sophie's choice between "rework ALL the other art in the game" and "make the one thing WORSE-looking". :/
In my very limited experience, it's best to delay this choice as much as possible, because it tends to happen that as you gain expertise, you end up revising your old sprites anyway. The oldest sprite in my game went through this many revisions:
Of course your expertise level is lightyears from mine, which gives me a lot more space to improve quickly; I can't think of pixel art becoming much better than what you already have, so this advice might not be useful at all. :D
As I said before I think it looks great. I am just nitpicking since I think you could reach the next level.
I am mostly referring to this:
Oooh, this is very interesting, and something even I could make use of. I really need to devote time looking into these tutorials and the ones you sent me; I keep putting it off because I feel my own skills aren't (yet) at the level where they might help, but this is a fine example of something anyone of any skill level can apply. Thanks a lot!
You're clearly very knowledgeable about this stuff, would you recommend a specific palette? I'm using DB32 for my game and it improved its look immensely. Although at this point changing everything to any other would probably be a huge pain in the ass...
I know all too well what it is to make something that looks jarring because it looks "too good" compared to the rest of the game, and then facing Sophie's choice between "rework ALL the other art in the game" and "make the one thing WORSE-looking". :/
In my very limited experience, it's best to delay this choice as much as possible, because it tends to happen that as you gain expertise, you end up revising your old sprites anyway. The oldest sprite in my game went through this many revisions:
Of course your expertise level is lightyears from mine, which gives me a lot more space to improve quickly; I can't think of pixel art becoming much better than what you already have, so this advice might not be useful at all. :D
Oooh, this is very interesting, and something even I could make use of. I really need to devote time looking into these tutorials and the ones you sent me; I keep putting it off because I feel my own skills aren't (yet) at the level where they might help, but this is a fine example of something anyone of any skill level can apply. Thanks a lot!
You're clearly very knowledgeable about this stuff, would you recommend a specific palette? I'm using DB32 for my game and it improved its look immensely. Although at this point changing everything to any other would probably be a huge pain in the ass...
I have never used palettes and I am not very good. For my current game I use other Pixel artist (I just do the animations and programming). If you want to learn more about pixel art it is always good to look at some of the best. One of the artist that have worked a bit on my current game as well has his own game Tower 57 who is really amazing is https://twitter.com/cyangmou as well as https://wolfenoctis.deviantart.com/gallery
And as I keep on saying to everybody: Put your stuff on the pixelation forum. They are amazing at feedback over there.
Edit: I forgot Arne he is amazing!
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I know all too well what it is to make something that looks jarring because it looks "too good" compared to the rest of the game, and then facing Sophie's choice between "rework ALL the other art in the game" and "make the one thing WORSE-looking". :/
In my very limited experience, it's best to delay this choice as much as possible, because it tends to happen that as you gain expertise, you end up revising your old sprites anyway. The oldest sprite in my game went through this many revisions:
Of course your expertise level is lightyears from mine, which gives me a lot more space to improve quickly; I can't think of pixel art becoming much better than what you already have, so this advice might not be useful at all. :D
Oooh, this is very interesting, and something even I could make use of. I really need to devote time looking into these tutorials and the ones you sent me; I keep putting it off because I feel my own skills aren't (yet) at the level where they might help, but this is a fine example of something anyone of any skill level can apply. Thanks a lot!
You're clearly very knowledgeable about this stuff, would you recommend a specific palette? I'm using DB32 for my game and it improved its look immensely. Although at this point changing everything to any other would probably be a huge pain in the ass...
Thank you for your help! Nice development there.
I'll check it out. Thank you.
I checked out your homepage http://www.thegrandgrimoire.com/ and you really have some amazing stuff there. I really like your clouds (on the mech pic)! I spent a month trying to make good looking clouds before I gave up but you really nailed them.
Man, that's incredible. I still can't wrap my head about a single person doing all that, plus the programming. I'm truly humbled by the insane talent at display here.
Stand Tall and Shake the Heavens
iunderstoodthatreference.gif (glances at own username).
Edit: Actually, wait, can I make some criticism? Your art is incredible but I feel like the page could do a better job of showcasing it; the screenshots and gifs are too small to really appreciate all the detail. Perhaps consider making them 2x as big?
Edit 2: I sent a link to your website to some of my friends, and here's some quotes:
Also one of them picked a typo on the main page:
"Your choices will impact the fate of Valandis and it's citizens."
(under the second picture). It should be "its citizens".
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