Hobby and Indie Game Dev |OT 2020| Discussion, Help and Show-off

Jintor · Apr 20, 2020

dskzero said:
I finally managed to publish the game!

breathe by dskzero

horror themed platformer with a twist

dskzero.itch.io

It's a very simple platformer I made to learn to make games on gamemaker and to learn a bit about design. I'll take this as a base for something much more elaborate in the future, as of now, I've done it. I'll start to plan a new project now, I think I've got enough confidence in that I can make it work now.

EDIT: It's seriously very simple. Like, utterly simple. Simple as possible. Like it should have been made for a jam named "SIMPLE STUFF".

thats fine my guy i've been tooling around with GM for years now and I've never made anything i'd consider complete. Better to finish something and start over than be where i am lol.

i need to scope reduce even further...

I'll check it out soon. Gotta finish goofing off on my work from home sesh

TrashHeap64 · Apr 20, 2020

I did a port of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties for April Fool's Day
https://trashheap64.itch.io/plumbersdontwearties
I don't expect anybody to actually want to play it because the game is fuckin trash, but I'll put it here just in case. I've got something much better on the back burner that I hope to get done soon

jarekx · Apr 20, 2020

More prototype time

This is something akin to Grandia but one on one combat and no delay before you can select your action. Basically, you select an action and it executes after a delay. Each action has it's power(how much damage, healing, etc), defense, and delay. Possibly some bonus effects. Daggers are quick and ignore defense, shields are quick and have high defense, etc.
Combat really just comes down to looking at the enemies action and deciding what to do from there. Big slow hit coming? Use the dagger a couple of times for some quick damage, and then block.

I'm thinking maybe something like an estus flask from dark souls would be a good addition. The game would be about blocking and avoiding damage as much as dealing it. The only problem i'm feeling is i can't really think of ways to make you vary builds..like you would always want something quick to lower the delay of the enemy to block, and a big hit to get through defensive opponents, and well a shield or a defensive weapon.

I've thought about adding a stagger mechanic...similar to FF13 or breaks from octopath traveler..but i'm not sure if that would do the trick. Would probably just come down to interesting skill and status design more than anything but i'm kind of drawing blanks at the moment.

dskzero · Apr 21, 2020

kiguel182 said:
Hi guys! So, I participated in this Lundum Dare. My first in like three years or something. It's also the first game I've actually posted in more than 2 years. I've been getting back to gamedev after some time away and it felt good to actually finish something, even if it's very simple. It was also pretty intense, especially with a problem with UI scaling when I was going to submit it that almost drove me crazy lol

anyway, you have to project a bag of flour during a school day. If you also participated please share a link and I can also rate it!

LD Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/flour-baby

itch link: https://miguelcondez.itch.io/flour-baby

anyway, if you play it I hope you enjoyed it! Technically it isn't too complicated. Doing all the drawings was probably the most time consuming part. But I'm happy I came up with a concept and executed it pretty close to what I wanted. There was a time when I thought I was going to cut most of it.

This was really fun! I enjoyed it big time.

Also loved the art style!

StarErik · Apr 21, 2020

My friends and I made a Game Boy game for Ludum Dare! Here's Scrambl'd, a puzzle platformer! Sorry for its difficulty, takes a bit of time getting used to the controls, but I'm sure you'll master it in no time.

HandsomeCharles · Apr 21, 2020

StarErik said:
My friends and I made a Game Boy game for Ludum Dare! Here's Scrambl'd, a puzzle platformer! Sorry for its difficulty, takes a bit of time getting used to the controls, but I'm sure you'll master it in no time.

I like it!

Could be an interesting concept for a speedrun game. Gotta go fast, but not too fast...

kiguel182 · Apr 21, 2020

dskzero said:
This was really fun! I enjoyed it big time.

Also loved the art style!

Thank you so much :D I'm really happy you enjoyed it!

dannymate · Apr 21, 2020

jarekx said:
I've thought about adding a stagger mechanic...similar to FF13 or breaks from octopath traveler..but i'm not sure if that would do the trick. Would probably just come down to interesting skill and status design more than anything but i'm kind of drawing blanks at the moment.

What about chains? If you go big sword > big sword > shield maybe on that second swing you get a time bonus. Or you could go Big sword > Shield > Big sword and get an extra turn of defence. I think if you introduce something that can counter a dagger like a bow, so they jump back and daggers miss that would work also if you didn't want to intoduce a chaining system.

Edit: You could also if say the sword takes 3 turns to swing do the damage on the first or second turn.

Deleted member 48813 · Apr 21, 2020

Hey, so I was wondering, how active is the indie dev Discord?

I want to start getting more constant feedback about what I'm doing with my game, tips, etc but I don't want to "clutter" this thread too much if you know what I mean, so Discord seems like a better fit for that (I kinda want to post here when I have more substantial updates going on).

jarekx · Apr 21, 2020

dannymate said:
What about chains? If you go big sword > big sword > shield maybe on that second swing you get a time bonus. Or you could go Big sword > Shield > Big sword and get an extra turn of defence. I think if you introduce something that can counter a dagger like a bow, so they jump back and daggers miss that would work also if you didn't want to intoduce a chaining system.

Edit: You could also if say the sword takes 3 turns to swing do the damage on the first or second turn.

Ya, chains / combos could work. They kind of got a good risk / reward scenario of choosing whether to start a chain, or even continue one and risk taking big damage if you don't time it out correctly. The counters are interesting as well, I think i would do something more akin to weakness / resistance on different enemy types.

Actually, been thinking about dividing damage into 3 types. Stab,Slash, and Blunt and also having acitons have an associated resource cost other than time. So, say a dagger would cost 1 AP(or whatever i want to call it) and would also generate one..it would be a safe action that you could continue to chain. Blocking wouldn't cost anything but would not generate anything. The big heavy greatsword might cost 3 and generate 1 or 2. I could then increase its damage and defense a bit to make it safer to use to tank through a lot more hits. Could also tie it into the damage types and if you hit an element / physical weakness you cause the enemy to lose an AP and vice versa (blocking would probably remove weakness during it's duration).

Liking it the more i think about it. I''ll try putting something together with a lot of this and see how it feels.

Biestmann · Apr 21, 2020

I've always felt it a bit cocky to have a name for my one-man indie studio, so the logo of my Studio Biest has matched my artistic qualities (0) up until now. Nonetheless, I think it might be time to commission something proper. And that's a bit nerve-wrecking a thought, given that it's meant to represent my game developer personality. How did everyone here go about designing their indie studio's logo?

I also want to thank dannymate for that shoutout for my game in the other thread; that was very sweet!

CptDrunkBear said:
Thanks! It's definitely one atmospheric game, I've spent a lot of dev time perfecting the look of it. Here's a really old gif of it in motion. It's gotten tons better since then, though. Mostly the enemies, the ones you see there are just sprite stand-ins.

Everything about this is so nostalgic, yet modern. You did a really great job.

Jintor · Apr 21, 2020

committing here to making a minimum viable product brawler!!!!!

im gonna do it goddamnit!

Weltall Zero · Apr 21, 2020

Jintor said:
committing here to making a minimum viable product brawler!!!!!

im gonna do it goddamnit!

Yeah, the Minimum Viable Product is (and should be treated as) the Holy Grail of the indie game developer. The capacity to cut down everything not strictly necessary is even more fundamental to finishing a game than force of will and determination, although you also need the latter to finish up the "boring" parts of the MVP (like menus, options, etc.) instead of further expanding the "fun" parts.

I'm sure there must be some metrics to allow people to focus on completing a core. Something like "don't design ahead more than a week of work", or "don't design a MVP that will take more than two weeks to implement", etc.

Rolento · Apr 21, 2020

I'm always down fora brawler... so much so I tried making my own years ago (it even got Greenlit, but the Kickstarter failed).

Maybe some day I'll retry my hand at it.

On another note, I'll be demoing the AR app I'm developing for my non-for-profit this Thursday. Might help for those working in UE4

Hampig · Apr 21, 2020

Rolento said:
I'm always down fora brawler... so much so I tried making my own years ago (it even got Greenlit, but the Kickstarter failed).

Maybe some day I'll retry my hand at it.

Those punching sounds are chunky. I remember your Kickstarter, the game has such a distinct style. Still looks nice!

Rolento · Apr 21, 2020

Hampig said:
Those punching sounds are chunky. I remember your Kickstarter, the game has such a distinct style. Still looks nice!

Thanks, oddly enough I was and never happy with the sound lol.

I want to get back to doing it but I think that once I'm done with my current project I'll possibly jump back to it. I'ma way better programmer now and I'd like to take a stab at it in Unreal 4 instead of GameMaker. I think it'll run better and I can get what I want done quicker than before. The art though mostly is what took all my time.

Deleted member 62221 · Apr 22, 2020

I got fired from my last freelance job so I'm free to work on my ideas once again. I think I'll work a few months in mobile games, I have some mechanics I want to try. If not I'll go back to work in my city management game.
I have savings but I'm a bit worried because these guys haven't paid me my salary from the last 2 weeks yet. I hope they don't try to pull some shit on me (it would not be the first game studio to TRY to scam me of my last salary, this industry sucks but I just want to make games, man).

Jintor · Apr 22, 2020

Rolento said:
Thanks, oddly enough I was and never happy with the sound lol.

I want to get back to doing it but I think that once I'm done with my current project I'll possibly jump back to it. I'ma way better programmer now and I'd like to take a stab at it in Unreal 4 instead of GameMaker. I think it'll run better and I can get what I want done quicker than before. The art though mostly is what took all my time.

did you end up making an input buffer for that in gm?

I know a bit more about ds stuff so I think I might actually know how to make one now, but I think I need to sit down and concept it out properly

Weltall Zero · Apr 22, 2020

Rolento said:
I'm always down fora brawler... so much so I tried making my own years ago (it even got Greenlit, but the Kickstarter failed).

Maybe some day I'll retry my hand at it.

On another note, I'll be demoing the AR app I'm developing for my non-for-profit this Thursday. Might help for those working in UE4

Wotan looks promising! Have you considered releasing it as an Early Access Steam game?

Rolento · Apr 22, 2020

Jintor said:
did you end up making an input buffer for that in gm?

I know a bit more about ds stuff so I think I might actually know how to make one now, but I think I need to sit down and concept it out properly

The input buffer I did have was a mess TBH. It was mostly for dashing but I do think there are some GM tutorials out there for good buffers.

Weltall Zero said:
Wotan looks promising! Have you considered releasing it as an Early Access Steam game?

The current state it is in is a big mess of code that, even though it is well put together and not hard-coded, is very much a massive tangled web, plus what you are seeing is the demo I put out for the kickstarter.

I will probably push it to early access if I get the time to switch it to UE4 where I'll be able to manage my code better and streamline my process.

The real reason I stuck with GM was to use its support for vector graphics (everything was designed in Illustrator and animated inAnimate/Flash). I quickly realized GM has a bottleneck and I had to limit my output since I started to get slowdown in places I was not expecting.

Mabec · Apr 22, 2020

Its not a game yet, maybe one day..

Sean Noonan · Apr 22, 2020

I'm still not thinking I'm going to do combat/death, but I thought this would be amusing :)

jarekx · Apr 23, 2020

So yea, I'm liking this one. Excuse all the ugly pixels I used just to throw this together. I justkinda wanted to get a general idea of a layout. Still think i'll move the player info to the bottom. So that it can be a split between your info on the bottom and the enemy on the top. I decided to add the action info of both you and the enemy onto the screen and it helps a lot in planning your actions.

Adding a resource along with the action time cost was the right decision, i think. Gonna have to balance what you bring so you aren't constantly waiting AP to act, as well as having a diverse set of actions to target weakness and avoid resistances.

I'm still not settled on the "bonus" for striking a weakness. I've narrowed it down to two. In one, when you strike a weakness you would add half the starting delay of your current action to their delay, slowing their current action. It works well, but it seems a bit powerful. I haven't really tested it with an enemy striking a weakness you could have so it may balance out that way.

The other choice would be instead to buff you and halve the delay of your next action when striking the weakness. This sounds good in my head, but it could also backfire when you go for a block or defensive action as you would be halving the time you block and making that window a lot tighter..which doesn't sound like much fun for something that should be rewarding you. I'll definitely have actions that lower the delay of subsequent actions..but i'm not sure if that'll work for this bonus mechanic.

Oh well, I'm excited to continue with this.

Jintor · Apr 23, 2020

it's crazy to me you can iterate on something like an rpg system that quickly, but i guess that's because i'm just not that experienced lol

Rolento · Apr 24, 2020

I'm considering for my next project to use a skeletal 2D animation program like Spine, DragonBones, or Spriter, but does anyone have input on what they prefer? It'll probably be a Unreal Engine 4 project, so easier integration with UE is a plus.

HandsomeCharles · Apr 24, 2020

Vini256 said:
Hey, so I was wondering, how active is the indie dev Discord?

I want to start getting more constant feedback about what I'm doing with my game, tips, etc but I don't want to "clutter" this thread too much if you know what I mean, so Discord seems like a better fit for that (I kinda want to post here when I have more substantial updates going on).

I should really get into Discord more. Same reasons as you, Don't want to spam the thread but feedback is useful!

Speaking of which...

As part of my revamp I need to redo my backgrounds. I've made a mockup to illustrate colours, shapes and sizes etc. I'm quite happy with this (Obviously detail is needed). Do you all think the foreground is distinct enough from the background? Considering foreground = collision.

I'm currently working on making a sensible tileset for these background buildings.

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

Vini256 said:
I don't want to "clutter" this thread

HandsomeCharles said:
Don't want to spam the thread

Sorry guys but I don't get this. Isn't the whole point of the thread to show our work and get feedback? A more active thread is always better than a slower thread, absolutely don't worry about "cluttering" it or anything like that!

Plus both of your games look fantastic and are always a sight for sore eyes. I admit I had to look up Vini256's game (a sign that you should post more!) but I really really want to see more of its delightful Eartbound aesthetic; and HandsomeCharles is always so colorful and delightful looking that it cheers me up. <3

HandsomeCharles said:
Speaking of which...

As part of my revamp I need to redo my backgrounds. I've made a mockup to illustrate colours, shapes and sizes etc. I'm quite happy with this (Obviously detail is needed). Do you all think the foreground is distinct enough from the background? Considering foreground = collision.

I'm currently working on making a sensible tileset for these background buildings.

Yeah, this works great! The low contrast between different background elements is the key; this usually means using fainter outlines, and tinting it all with the sky color as it happens in nature due to distance. I use the exact same techniques in Divinoids and they work really well, people have never complained about BG elements causing unwanted visual noise or being confusing.

Personally, let me stress I think the background looks perfect right now. I would advise against adding any more detail because that will increase the visual noise and make it stand out more, which you don't want. The current level of detail is perfect for background elements IMHO. The only thing I would change is trying to make the buildings different heights so that their roofs don't "align" into a single block, if that makes sense.

jarekx · Apr 24, 2020

Jintor said:
it's crazy to me you can iterate on something like an rpg system that quickly, but i guess that's because i'm just not that experienced lol

it's just all I've done. I've got a collection of scripts I made that I can easily import for the basic stuff so iteration on a lot of these isn't crazy for me. Now if I wanted to do something action based it would take me a lot more time.

and yea, I support discord as another means of feedback but I doubt anyone would call posting here more frequently cluttering it up. I always like peeking in here and seeing what people are working on.

Jintor · Apr 24, 2020

honestly i prefer people posting here. discord is really shit for scrolling back through over time.

HandsomeCharles · Apr 24, 2020

Weltall Zero said:
Sorry guys but I don't get this. Isn't the whole point of the thread to show our work and get feedback? A more active thread is always better than a slower thread, absolutely don't worry about "cluttering" it or anything like that!

Plus both of your games look fantastic and are always a sight for sore eyes. I admit I had to look up Vini256's game (a sign that you should post more!) but I really really want to see more of its delightful Eartbound aesthetic; and HandsomeCharles is always so colorful and delightful looking that it cheers me up. <3

Awh thanks! I'm just conscious of "spamming" if I post significantly more than other people, I'd hate for someone to load up the thread and just see a page full of iteration on one of my levels haha!

Yeah, this works great! The low contrast between different background elements is the key; this usually means using fainter outlines, and tinting it all with the sky color as it happens in nature due to distance. I use the exact same techniques in Divinoids and they work really well, people have never complained about BG elements causing unwanted visual noise or being confusing.

Personally, let me stress I think the background looks perfect right now. I would advise against adding any more detail because that will increase the visual noise and make it stand out more, which you don't want. The current level of detail is perfect for background elements IMHO. The only thing I would change is trying to make the buildings different heights so that their roofs don't "align" into a single block, if that makes sense.

Thanks very much for that feedback! Glad you like how its looking :D

I understand what you mean about making it so that the buildings don't "join up", it won't be doing that in the actual implementation, it just happened as a side effect of how I placed things right now. The extra "details" I meant were just to change the "far" background buildings into something other than cubes. I'm going to tone down the one that looks slightly detailed anyway, I think the darker lines are a bit too intrusive.

Will hopefully have something done by the end of the weekend so I'll post up when I've got something working (with parallax!)

Deleted member 48813 · Apr 24, 2020

HandsomeCharles said:
I should really get into Discord more. Same reasons as you, Don't want to spam the thread but feedback is useful!

Speaking of which...

As part of my revamp I need to redo my backgrounds. I've made a mockup to illustrate colours, shapes and sizes etc. I'm quite happy with this (Obviously detail is needed). Do you all think the foreground is distinct enough from the background? Considering foreground = collision.

I'm currently working on making a sensible tileset for these background buildings.

Looks good to me, the contrast between the two is pretty clear.

Weltall Zero said:
Sorry guys but I don't get this. Isn't the whole point of the thread to show our work and get feedback? A more active thread is always better than a slower thread, absolutely don't worry about "cluttering" it or anything like that!

Plus both of your games look fantastic and are always a sight for sore eyes. I admit I had to look up Vini256's game (a sign that you should post more!) but I really really want to see more of its delightful Eartbound aesthetic; and HandsomeCharles is always so colorful and delightful looking that it cheers me up. <3

Aww thanks, that really means a lot to me, especially since I'm still pretty new at making pixel art.

I've been super busy with a 3D game project I'm doing with friends (college assignment), since it's our first time messing with the 3D side of Unity that's why I haven't been as active. I might need playtesters for that soon actually, so maybe I'll show that here too, who knows haha. I'll start posting more regular updates for sure, I just need some time to whip up new stuff to show you guys. Comments like yours really motivate me to keep going though!

I did make a really crude sketch this week to test a layout for a beach town I want to have in my game, I need to start practicing level design more so any feedback to make it better is appreciated.

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

On the topic of "spamming", I personally think one of the better uses of the thread is to rapidly iterate over designs with a group of people that are familiar with your project. I don't mind it in the least if someone posts 10 times in a day because they're trying to get something "just right" while everyone else sits back and offers feedback; it'll be someone else another day.

HandsomeCharles said:
Awh thanks! I'm just conscious of "spamming" if I post significantly more than other people, I'd hate for someone to load up the thread and just see a page full of iteration on one of my levels haha!

Thanks very much for that feedback! Glad you like how its looking :D

I understand what you mean about making it so that the buildings don't "join up", it won't be doing that in the actual implementation, it just happened as a side effect of how I placed things right now. The extra "details" I meant were just to change the "far" background buildings into something other than cubes. I'm going to tone down the one that looks slightly detailed anyway, I think the darker lines are a bit too intrusive.

Will hopefully have something done by the end of the weekend so I'll post up when I've got something working (with parallax!)

Ah, I see. Although you can often get away with having the furthest buildings be pretty much nothing but cubes too.

Vini256 said:
Looks good to me, the contrast between the two is pretty clear.

Aww thanks, that really means a lot to me, especially since I'm still pretty new at making pixel art.

I've been super busy with a 3D game project I'm doing with friends (college assignment), since it's our first time messing with the 3D side of Unity that's why I haven't been as active. I might need playtesters for that soon actually, so maybe I'll show that here too, who knows haha. I'll start posting more regular updates for sure, I just need some time to whip up new stuff to show you guys. Comments like yours really motivate me to keep going though!

I did make a really crude sketch this week to test a layout for a beach town I want to have in my game, I need to start practicing level design more so any feedback to make it better is appreciated.

This looks really unique and lovely! I don't think I've ever seen a RPG town that mixes "beach" and "feudal japan" themes except on RPGs that are entirely Japan-themed.

Deleted member 48813 · Apr 24, 2020

Weltall Zero said:
This looks really unique and lovely! I don't think I've ever seen a RPG town that mixes "beach" and "feudal japan" themes except on RPGs that are entirely Japan-themed.

Thanks! Technically Lonalulu from DQ11 has a similar feel but I wanted to emphasize the beach part some more in my town haha. I'm still not totally sure on this direction though, I want to mix it up a bit more still, maybe make it a little more modern while still keeping the architecture.

I was originally gonna go for a "Santorini" vibe but Dragon Quest 11 kinda did that already too, so I changed my mind. I'm always afraid of being too inspired from a game where it starts feeling like a ripoff, so feedback on this stuff is always good to have =P

HandsomeCharles · Apr 24, 2020

Vini256 said:
Looks good to me, the contrast between the two is pretty clear.

Aww thanks, that really means a lot to me, especially since I'm still pretty new at making pixel art.

I've been super busy with a 3D game project I'm doing with friends (college assignment), since it's our first time messing with the 3D side of Unity that's why I haven't been as active. I might need playtesters for that soon actually, so maybe I'll show that here too, who knows haha. I'll start posting more regular updates for sure, I just need some time to whip up new stuff to show you guys. Comments like yours really motivate me to keep going though!

I did make a really crude sketch this week to test a layout for a beach town I want to have in my game, I need to start practicing level design more so any feedback to make it better is appreciated.

That's a cool theme, I like it!

I'm assuming your game is 2D, and top-down perspective (like the picture). I was thinking the buildings look quite equally spaced at the moment, since the smaller huts seem to be of uniform size it almost feels as though they're on a kind of "grid". I wonder how it might look if there were a little height variation between them, or if they were grouped up into clusters? (The latter might be a bit difficult if you're wanting to have the "entrance door is always south" thing)

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

Vini256 said:
Thanks! Technically Lonalulu from DQ11 has a similar feel but I wanted to emphasize the beach part some more in my town haha. I'm still not totally sure on this direction though, I want to mix it up a bit more still, maybe make it a little more modern while still keeping the architecture.

I was originally gonna go for a "Santorini" vibe but Dragon Quest 11 kinda did that already too, so I changed my mind. I'm always afraid of being too inspired from a game where it starts feeling like a ripoff, so feedback on this stuff is always good to have =P

Ah, I haven't played DQ11 so I wouldn't know. I would frankly include a Santorini type town even if DQ11 also did it (that is to say, include both) because it's such a lovely style to have. Spring (2014) is one of my favorite movies of all time and one of the reasons is the incredibly beautiful Mediterranean town it's shot in:

If you haven't seen it, it's also a movie best watched blind, because the trailer and even cover kind of spoil some of the best parts of the movie namely the tone and genre changes. That said, I saw it knowing all of that, and still found it amazing.

Rösti · Apr 24, 2020

Rolento said:
I'm considering for my next project to use a skeletal 2D animation program like Spine, DragonBones, or Spriter, but does anyone have input on what they prefer? It'll probably be a Unreal Engine 4 project, so easier integration with UE is a plus.

I would definitely use Spine. Clean, non-distracting interface and good workflow (in my opinion anyway), good runtime support (UE4 with C for example, also Monogame).

Here's a small demo of how Game Freak used it for Giga Wrecker (2017): http://esotericsoftware.com/showcase/gamefreak/video01.mp4

Also, while in a slightly different category, I would recommend you check out Marmoset's Hexels as well: https://marmoset.co/hexels/?page=overview

If anything for some inspiration.

808s & Villainy · Apr 24, 2020

Rösti said:
I would definitely use Spine. Clean, non-distracting interface and good workflow (in my opinion anyway), good runtime support (UE4 with C for example, also Monogame).

Here's a small demo of how Game Freak used it for Giga Wrecker (2017): http://esotericsoftware.com/showcase/gamefreak/video01.mp4

Also, while in a slightly different category, I would recommend you check out Marmoset's Hexels as well: https://marmoset.co/hexels/?page=overview

If anything for some inspiration.

I wonder if there's anything similar from Vanillaware in terms of a look into their animation process. I think they're the peak/standard when it comes to skeletal 2D animation

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

808s & Villainy said:
I wonder if there's anything similar from Vanillaware in terms of a look into their animation process. I think they're the peak/standard when it comes to skeletal 2D animation

I wonder if there's anything like that; non-indie developers tend to be a lot more secretive regarding their development processess, and Japanese studios doubly so. If you find it, please post it here, because it should be fascinating to watch. And yeah, they're the golden standard; Super Robot Wars has taken a hit lately with the jump to HD, IMHO.

CptDrunkBear · Apr 24, 2020

Rolento said:
I'm considering for my next project to use a skeletal 2D animation program like Spine, DragonBones, or Spriter, but does anyone have input on what they prefer? It'll probably be a Unreal Engine 4 project, so easier integration with UE is a plus.

Here's a GDC talk by the Broken Age guys about 2D animation systems, if that helps any. Not a specific tech, but definitely some thoughts on systemic approaches.

Animation Style and Process for Broken Age

In this 2015 session, Double Fine's Raymond Crook presents detailed walkthrough of creating what Double Fine terms "2.5D animation" for Broken Age and the an...

www.youtube.com

vestan · Apr 24, 2020

Haven't really posted anything in here in a while since I've really been focused on planning my next VN more than anything. Taking my sweet time and not really rushing anything which feels nice.

I have been dabbling a bit in-engine though. Spent the past few days working on my custom dialogue system some more. It's got typewriter text + sound blips, proper string wrapping, various text effects like shake, being able to insert a sprite mid-sentence, string pausing and some other stuff.

No fancy screenshots just yet but I'm really happy with what I've done especially considering I'm not really a programmer at all and tend to lean on the more writing/art side of things.

Making a visual novel in GMS:2 isn't exactly the best thing considering there's always stuff like Ren'Py but I've already made a VN in GMS:2 (Punchline!!) and I've really gotten used to it all. It feels nice expanding on PL's super janky base, cleaning it up and making the tools the next project needs.

In other news, been making some more CGs. 3D blockout in Blender, render with Freestyle and polish in Photoshop like usual. This took me about four hours to do but I'm a notorious procrastinator so a lot of this four hours was spent playing DOTA 2 and losing MMR. :^)

Deleted member 2620 · Apr 24, 2020

aahhhh that's so sick vestan . I can't imagine doing something pixel art based these days without starting in Blender, but I've always been better (uhhh less bad) at 3D.

Deleted member 48813 · Apr 24, 2020

HandsomeCharles said:
That's a cool theme, I like it!

I'm assuming your game is 2D, and top-down perspective (like the picture). I was thinking the buildings look quite equally spaced at the moment, since the smaller huts seem to be of uniform size it almost feels as though they're on a kind of "grid". I wonder how it might look if there were a little height variation between them, or if they were grouped up into clusters? (The latter might be a bit difficult if you're wanting to have the "entrance door is always south" thing)

I thought about going isometric like EarthBound so I could have buildings with entrances on the sides but I didn't like how it looked when I tried it, so I'm going with top down for now. Clusters might be good to fill the space with more buildings though. As for the layout it is really really placeholder and I agree, it looks too even right now. I definitely want to avoid it feeling too much like a grid so I'll try to space them out better later.

Weltall Zero said:
Ah, I haven't played DQ11 so I wouldn't know. I would frankly include a Santorini type town even if DQ11 also did it (that is to say, include both) because it's such a lovely style to have. Spring (2014) is one of my favorite movies of all time and one of the reasons is the incredibly beautiful Mediterranean town it's shot in. If you haven't seen it, it's also a movie best watched blind, because the trailer and even cover kind of spoil some of the best parts of the movie namely the tone and genre changes. That said, I saw it knowing all of that, and still found it amazing.

I was actually thinking about maybe doing a brazilian-style town instead of Santorini since I literally never seen that in a game before, something like this maybe:

Oh, since today's my day off from college I'm starting to prototype pixel art for the other town already:

Looks pretty rough still but it's mostly to test the visuals. I put one of the party characters there for size reference since he's the tallest one =P

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

vestan said:
Haven't really posted anything in here in a while since I've really been focused on planning my next VN more than anything. Taking my sweet time and not really rushing anything which feels nice.

I have been dabbling a bit in-engine though. Spent the past few days working on my custom dialogue system some more. It's got typewriter text + sound blips, proper string wrapping, various text effects like shake, being able to insert a sprite mid-sentence, string pausing and some other stuff.

No fancy screenshots just yet but I'm really happy with what I've done especially considering I'm not really a programmer at all and tend to lean on the more writing/art side of things.

Making a visual novel in GMS:2 isn't exactly the best thing considering there's always stuff like Ren'Py but I've already made a VN in GMS:2 (Punchline!!) and I've really gotten used to it all. It feels nice expanding on PL's super janky base, cleaning it up and making the tools the next project needs.

In other news, been making some more CGs. 3D blockout in Blender, render with Freestyle and polish in Photoshop like usual. This took me about four hours to do but I'm a notorious procrastinator so a lot of this four hours was spent playing DOTA 2 and losing MMR. :^)

This looks super neat! At some point I should learn anything about 3D, hahah.

Vini256 said:
I thought about going isometric like EarthBound so I could have buildings with entrances on the sides but I didn't like how it looked when I tried it, so I'm going with top down for now. Clusters might be good to fill the space with more buildings though. As for the layout it is really really placeholder and I agree, it looks too even right now. I definitely want to avoid it feeling too much like a grid so I'll try to space them out better later.

I was actually thinking about maybe doing a brazilian-style town instead of Santorini since I literally never seen that in a game before, something like this maybe:

Oh, since today's my day off from college I'm starting to prototype pixel art for the other town already:

Looks pretty rough still but it's mostly to test the visuals. I put one of the party characters there for size reference since he's the tallest one =P

Looking great already! The lineart looks finished to me, except perhaps making the roof panes thicker.

And yeah, Earthbound's isometric style is pretty weird and I can assume it's very hard to make it work well. Even Undertale went for a traditional front style.

Hampig · Apr 24, 2020

Released my second game on Steam into early access a week ago! It's a pretty simple party arcade game, and it's got flaws for sure, but I'm proud of it. I learned a ton while making it (both in Unity and in working collaboratively on a decently sized project with a friend) and am happy with my time spent even if it never "blows up."

I did all the art, the original concept, most of the game design, all of the sound effects and the music. My friend and I split the programming, he did a lot of the framework stuff and I went about implementing features and polishing things up.

Deleted member 48813 · Apr 24, 2020

Weltall Zero said:
Looking great already! The lineart looks finished to me, except perhaps making the roof panes thicker.

And yeah, Earthbound's isometric style is pretty weird and I can assume it's very hard to make it work well. Even Undertale went for a traditional front style.

Thanks! Is the color scheme fine? I was worried it might be too much blue haha. I'll work some more on the roofs too.

And yeah, it is super weird, you don't notice it as much when you're actually playing EB but those buildings are super deformed, especially on the inside, so I figured Undertale/Deltarune would be a better point of reference for the style I'm going for.

Now, on a different topic entirely, one of my main ideas for this game is for it to be a mix of Zelda (mostly the dungeons/puzzles part) and turn-based RPG gameplay but I'm getting kinda stuck on some details already. I'm not exactly sure whether to keep the heart system and find a way to make it work with the traditional turn-based combat/progression or if I should just straight up go with HP numbers. I kinda wanted to have heart pieces as rewards for exploring, sidequests, etc. but I'm really confused how that would work with multiple characters in the first place (and having shared HP between everyone kinda feels wrong too).

If anyone could give me some insight on this I would be really grateful since I've been thinking about it for a while and still haven't found a "perfect" solution to it.

vestan · Apr 24, 2020

Tain said:
I can't imagine doing something pixel art based these days without starting in Blender, but I've always been better (uhhh less bad) at 3D.

Duuude, this is me entirely. I figured I might aswell put my 3D skills to work in some fashion. Most VN backgrounds are done in 3D anyways before being touched up in photo editing software so business as usual though I don't really see this workflow for pixel art VNs (how many pixel art VNs are even out there in the first place?)

Weltall Zero said:
This looks super neat! At some point I should learn anything about 3D, hahah.

Looking great already! The lineart looks finished to me, except perhaps making the roof panes thicker.

And yeah, Earthbound's isometric style is pretty weird and I can assume it's very hard to make it work well. Even Undertale went for a traditional front style.

Thanks dude! 3D is really fun. Definitely worth even having just basic knowledge in imo.

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

Vini256 said:
Thanks! Is the color scheme fine? I was worried it might be too much blue haha. I'll work some more on the roofs too.

Blue on the roofs (rooves?) may indeed be a bit counterproductive if the background is also blue (sky / water). As an experiment, here's a quick recolor to red / slate in EDG64:

Vini256 said:
And yeah, it is super weird, you don't notice it as much when you're actually playing EB but those buildings are super deformed, especially on the inside, so I figured Undertale/Deltarune would be a better point of reference for the style I'm going for.

Now, on a different topic entirely, one of my main ideas for this game is for it to be a mix of Zelda (mostly the dungeons/puzzles part) and turn-based RPG gameplay but I'm getting kinda stuck on some details already. I'm not exactly sure whether to keep the heart system and find a way to make it work with the traditional turn-based combat or if I should just straight up go with HP numbers. I kinda wanted to have heart pieces as rewards for exploring, sidequests, etc. but I'm really confused how that would work with multiple characters in the first place (and having shared HP between everyone kinda feels wrong too).

If anyone could give me some insight on that it would be really helpful since I've been thinking about it for a while and still haven't found a "perfect" solution to that.

My first thought is that this sounds very ambitious and you may want to rethink for the first version (the Minimum Viable Product) to focus on either battles or puzzles.

Other than that, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going for a heart-based system even in a RPG-ish kind of game. If you start with, say, 5 hearts, and the minimum damage is one quarter of a heart, that's 20 HP, more than what you start with in most Mario RPGs (I personally much prefer RPGs that keep their HP numbers low: it's hard to get a feeling for how much damage attacks deal when most of them deal damage in the thousands or even millions).

In Divinoids I use hearts too; the player starts with 3 and can expand to up to 10. Enemies have hit points instead, with one heart equating to 40 HP if I remember correctly. Damage uses hit points universally since enemies can be mind controlled, etc. Damage dealt to players from enemies is converted from hit points to heart quarters by dividing by 10 and rounding to the nearest integer (with a minimum of 1 quarter if the attack dealt any damage); it's then converted back to hit points for number display (e.g. if an attack deals 24 damage to a player, it deals half a heart, and pops out a "20" number).

jarekx · Apr 24, 2020

Hmm. I may go for something simpler like this for my art style. Would help me when trying to animate too. I still have a concept stored somewhere for this guy but was put off by all the animation I would have to do so maybe doing a simpler game with this style would be good practice for when I finally decide to pull this one back out.
I still see lots of problems with this sprite but at least I can recognize them now.

Vini256 yea I went through and looked at ur stuff and I dig it. Definitely that earthbound feel like Weltall said.

Deleted member 48813 · Apr 24, 2020

Weltall Zero said:
Blue on the roofs (rooves?) may indeed be a bit counterproductive if the background is also blue (sky / water). As an experiment, here's a quick recolor to red / slate in EDG64:

My first thought is that this sounds very ambitious and you may want to rethink for the first version (the Minimum Viable Product) to focus on either battles or puzzles.

Other than that, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going for a heart-based system even in a RPG-ish kind of game. If you start with, say, 5 hearts, and the minimum damage is one quarter of a heart, that's 20 HP, more than what you start with in most Mario RPGs (I personally much prefer RPGs that keep their HP numbers low: it's hard to get a feeling for how much damage attacks deal when most of them deal damage in the thousands or even millions).

In Divinoids I use hearts too; the player starts with 3 and can expand to up to 10. Enemies have hit points instead, with one heart equating to 40 HP if I remember correctly. Damage uses hit points universally since enemies can be mind controlled, etc. Damage dealt to players from enemies is converted from hit points to heart quarters by dividing by 10 and rounding to the nearest integer (with a minimum of 1 quarter if the attack dealt any damage); it's then converted back to hit points for number display (e.g. if an attack deals 24 damage to a player, it deals half a heart, and pops out a "20" number).

I really love those colors you chose, good job! Not sure if they give much of a tropical vibe but I'm really tempted to use something like it now. I was trying a green/jade color in the meantime (and fixed the roof):

As for the game design stuff, yeah it is pretty ambitious and I'll probably focus on the combat part first for the MVP since it sounds more essential right now, seeing as it's a party-based RPG game. Thanks for the input on the heart system, that helps a lot already. I'm still not sure on the multiple characters part though, as in, let's assume you found a heart container while exploring, what would you expect to happen/sounds more sensible:

a) You get to choose what character will receive the health upgrade.
b) Everyone in the party gets an extra heart.
c) Health is shared between everyone so it doesn't matter.
d) Maybe different hearts for different characters (that kinda sounds like a mess already haha).

EDIT: Does 8HP per heart sound okay? Quarter damage would be 2HP in this case and you'd start with 3 hearts (so 24HP).

jarekx said:
Vini256 yea I went through and looked at ur stuff and I dig it. Definitely that earthbound feel like Weltall said.

Thank you! :)

Weltall Zero · Apr 24, 2020

Vini256 said:
I really love those colors you chose, good job! Not sure if they give much of a tropical vibe but I'm really tempted to use something like it now. I was trying a green/jade color in the meantime (and fixed the roof):

Oohh, that looks pretty, I love it! Red and green are complementary colors so they work really well together.

Vini256 said:
As for the game design stuff, yeah it is pretty ambitious and I'll probably focus on the combat part first for the MVP since it sounds more essential right now, seeing as it's a party-based RPG game. Thanks for the input on the heart system, that helps a lot already. I'm still not sure on the multiple characters part though, as in, let's assume you found a heart container while exploring, what would you expect to happen/sounds more sensible:

a) You get to choose what character will receive the health upgrade.
b) Everyone in the party gets an extra heart.
c) Health is shared between everyone so it doesn't matter.
d) Maybe different hearts for different characters (that kinda sounds like a mess already haha).

Sorry, I meant to comment on that but I completely forgot! Yeah, I was thinking of something like option d), which is exactly what Hyrule Warriors does: hearts are character-specific, and in fact, you need to be playing that character to even pick them up (but you can probably relax that restriction in your game).

Vini256 said:
EDIT: Does 8HP per heart sound okay? Quarter damage would be 2HP in this case and you'd start with 3 hearts (so 24HP).

I feel like the "scale" you use determines a lot of the "tone" of your game, but that might be a personal thing. Like, in a game like a Mario RPG, enemies doing 1 and 2 points of damage (and you likewise) makes it feel more whimsical and fun than if they did, say, 1487 points of damage. There is some logic behind that, because higher values allow you more granularity and fine-tuning: a "+5% damage" passive skill, for example, doesn't make any sense in a game where you do 1 or 2 points of damage. I personally would try to use values as low as possible that don't paint you into a corner.

That said, you can always change these values afterwards. I originally had 100 HP per heart (25 per quarter), but decided to lower it to 40 (10 per q). If you use a constant for the HP-to-quarter ratio, and define as many HP values as hearts as you can, then you can change this ratio afterwards without much hassle.

What are you going to do with the enemies? Are their healths going to be displayed as hearts or HP?

jarekx said:
Hmm. I may go for something simpler like this for my art style. Would help me when trying to animate too. I still have a concept stored somewhere for this guy but was put off by all the animation I would have to do so maybe doing a simpler game with this style would be good practice for when I finally decide to pull this one back out.
I still see lots of problems with this sprite but at least I can recognize them now.

Vini256 yea I went through and looked at ur stuff and I dig it. Definitely that earthbound feel like Weltall said.

One thing I always priorize in my sprites is them having eyes. I feel like there's a much stronger connection between the player and the character if they have eyes, even if it's literally just one black pixel.

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