Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Code: 
Create Event:

set the horizontal speed to -6
Step Event:

if x is less than 0
      jump to position (705,random(room_height))

Howdy everyone. So here is what I want to do.
So I'm making a scrolling shooter, and using the code above I now have my objects scroll along with the background and reset at a random position on the Y-axis so they can scroll back along and give the appearance of motion. I'm sure you're all familiar with this concept.

Well it works fine, but I just realized that on the top and bottom of my room/screen is a border texture that I don't want objects to appear on top of.

So I guess I want something like (705,random(but only in between coordinates 64 and 384))
But I'm assuming thats not going to work as is..
 
Somewhere within the program itself or on yo-yo's site is there a list of functions and stuff that I could look through?


So,

random_range(64, 384) makes sense to me

but I'm not sure what is going on inside 64+random(320)
 
There's a manual that you can access by pressing F1. It's been mislabeled as "contents..." in the file menu.

The way that 64+random(320) works is that it starts at 64, then adds something between 0 and 320 to it, giving you the effective range of 64 to 384.
 
Teknopathetic said:
I think he might be talking about something like moving in the z axis. Like I'm assuming he means something like Here, where Kirby walks in front of the building, opens the door, goes behind the building, then comes out on top of it.

If that's what you mean, that's not very difficult to do. Most 2D engines render sprites on top of each other according to what "layer" they're on and you should be able to handle collisions via layers. For 3D games, you could simply just move the character behind said object.
Click to expand...

Ah, got ya. I'm from the past.. ;D
 
Hi guys, first post here, be gentle :D
Loved the impressions and many posts here of peiple sharing their journey through game cration, very instructing and refreshing.

I've been toying around an idea for a mobile game for a while now, an asynchronous board game. Nothing too fancy in neither graphics, game design or anything else.

I'm a full time iOS developper, but have never touched anything gaming related.
Would I be better coding in pure code as I've always done for such a game, or would a framework such as Unity bring me a lot of added value ?

I'm thinking about things such as game center integration, asynchronous gameplay, game menus, animations, game structure and else.

I'm about to start coding and it's been a big question for me, can't really see some added benefits on unity in my case, according to the type of game I want to create and my skills.
 
Fox1304 said:
Hi guys, first post here, be gentle :D
Loved the impressions and many posts here of peiple sharing their journey through game cration, very instructing and refreshing.

I've been toying around an idea for a mobile game for a while now, an asynchronous board game. Nothing too fancy in neither graphics, game design or anything else.

I'm a full time iOS developper, but have never touched anything gaming related.
Would I be better coding in pure code as I've always done for such a game, or would a framework such as Unity bring me a lot of added value ?

I'm thinking about things such as game center integration, asynchronous gameplay, game menus, animations, game structure and else.

I'm about to start coding and it's been a big question for me, can't really see some added benefits on unity in my case, according to the type of game I want to create and my skills.
Click to expand...
Without knowing any details, it's tough to say for sure, but it sounds like you are best developing it in native code, unless you want to use the experience to learn more about Unity and/or plan on having the game be on Android too down the line. Unity would maybe allow for some more flexibility and it would be easier to get better looking animations, but there are some great iOS native board game apps with those features like Carcassonne that prove Unity is not essential for the type of game you're making.
 
It really depends on the sort of game you want to try first. If you aren't strong with math and want to do something a bit challenging, a framework that does it for you like Unity is fantastic. I'm in this boat. If you're just up for creating some tick-tack-toe then coding it by hand in Obj-C might be your way to go.

That said, remember to make it juicy!
 
Vard said:
Without knowing any details, it's tough to say for sure, but it sounds like you are best developing it in native code, unless you want to use the experience to learn more about Unity and/or plan on having the game be on Android too down the line. Unity would maybe allow for some more flexibility and it would be easier to get better looking animations, but there are some great iOS native board game apps with those features like Carcassonne that prove Unity is not essential for the type of game you're making.
Click to expand...

Android is a very valid concern, since I'll eventually come to it.
What kind of flexibility are you thinking of when talking about unity ?

Megadrive said:
It really depends on the sort of game you want to try first. If you aren't strong with math and want to do something a bit challenging, a framework that does it for you like Unity is fantastic. I'm in this boat. If you're just up for creating some tick-tack-toe then coding it by hand in Obj-C might be your way to go.

That said, remember to make it juicy!
Click to expand...

I'm quite confident in my capacity to do it quickly in native code. As you said, it's not much more complicated than tic tac toe, only with more rules.

What concerns me is that I have the impressions that I'd be able to add game center or facebook connect in a day in native code, but have absolutely no idea if it'll be easy to do the same with unity.
What could Unity "do for me" and give shortcuts for this kind of game ?

That being said, I'm really curious about unity and plan to create more complex games down the line, so it mightbe a good investment of my time already.
 
Hey, I don't know if any of you guys realised, but Game Jolt just held their New Year's game jam. Looks as though there were about 50 or so games made.

My entry was a solo effort, made almost entirely in Construct 2 (some photoshop and audio programs were used). I'm looking for feedback wherever I can get it :)

I present to you...
cybergunner_2_guns_of_cyberia.png


Link to entry: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/cybergunner-2-guns-of-cyberia/20623/

Screenshots:
cybergunner_03_3.png

cybergunner_03_1.png

cybergunner_03_2.png


Hope you enjoy the game! I'll update the game with scoreboards after I've had some sleep ;)
 
Fox1304 said:
Android is a very valid concern, since I'll eventually come to it.
What kind of flexibility are you thinking of when talking about unity ?
Click to expand...

The flexibility they're referring to is probably the ability to one-click export to multiple platforms. From memory, Unity can export to Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and Blackberry. All except blackberry have a free export with a Unity splash screen.

Fox1304 said:
I'm quite confident in my capacity to do it quickly in native code. As you said, it's not much more complicated than tic tac toe, only with more rules.

What concerns me is that I have the impressions that I'd be able to add game center or facebook connect in a day in native code, but have absolutely no idea if it'll be easy to do the same with unity.
What could Unity "do for me" and give shortcuts for this kind of game ?

That being said, I'm really curious about unity and plan to create more complex games down the line, so it mightbe a good investment of my time already.
Click to expand...

I've been attempting to make very very simple games in unity and it's been a bit of a hassle and I've tossed up just doing it in Actionscript. Unity offers in-built physics (2D and 3D), triggers, a component way of coding, the ability to extend your editor, in-game editing of values via the inspector. Unity is infinitely helpful and is trying to help you out however it can be a bit much for some stuff.
 
Megadrive said:
The flexibility they're referring to is probably the ability to one-click export to multiple platforms. From memory, Unity can export to Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and Blackberry. All except blackberry have a free export with a Unity splash screen.
Click to expand...
Yes that a definitive asset of the Unity system.
But since the game I want to create is quite "light", I think I'd be able to get an easy port to other systems too, so even if it's a good point it's not sufficient for me to go all the way to learn Unity for something I think I'm already able to do quickly in native iOS.
But for other type of games, or for people without any language knowledge, it's an amazing gift.

Megadrive said:
I've been attempting to make very very simple games in unity and it's been a bit of a hassle and I've tossed up just doing it in Actionscript. Unity offers in-built physics (2D and 3D), triggers, a component way of coding, the ability to extend your editor, in-game editing of values via the inspector. Unity is infinitely helpful and is trying to help you out however it can be a bit much for some stuff.
Click to expand...
That's what I think too. I don't ( for this game and at this time ) need any physics, lighting, 3D, movements or else.
Launching myself in unity seems a bit too much for the simple game I'm going to do. It looks like an excellent tool, but I think that there is nothing much for me in it right now.

For people who have used Unity in iOS dev, how are the online asynchronous / Gamecenter / Facebook components ? Is there some helpful stuff, is it from scratch ? Easy ? Quick ?
 
Has anyone ever tried doing something like the dynamic framebuffer you see in R.A.G.E. and wipEout? I was wondering how possible it would be to do something in Unity. Gonna guess it would require a some thing more then basic programming knowledge.
 
SeanNoonan said:
I present to you...
cybergunner_2_guns_of_cyberia.png
Click to expand...

Hehe, badass. Its pretty hard! I like how the green robots dogpile you when they take you down. Obviously consuming your flesh for robo-sustenance. My only critique is to make make the player character more agile. Maybe just slightly faster and a bit sharper turning radius I found it pretty easy to get overwhelmed.. then again there is a cyber war at hand.
 
Kamaki said:
Has anyone ever tried doing something like the dynamic framebuffer you see in R.A.G.E. and wipEout? I was wondering how possible it would be to do something in Unity. Gonna guess it would require a some thing more then basic programming knowledge.
Click to expand...

There's no reason to do that if you are developing for Pc
 
I need to be pointed towards some player control tutorials.
My game just doesn't feel right. Granted, I've only been making games for like 96 hours now but I think I'm ready to move past just using relative coordinates for player control like the Gamemaker tutorial tells you.

I want to add like, acceleration and weight and stuff to my character. Which tutorial should I do to see that stuff?
 
Jtwo said:
I need to be pointed towards some player control tutorials.
My game just doesn't feel right. Granted, I've only been making games for like 96 hours now but I think I'm ready to move past just using relative coordinates for player control like the Gamemaker tutorial tells you.

I want to add like, acceleration and weight and stuff to my character. Which tutorial should I do to see that stuff?
Click to expand...

Have you tried the motion_add() function?
 
Jtwo said:
Hehe, badass. Its pretty hard! I like how the green robots dogpile you when they take you down. Obviously consuming your flesh for robo-sustenance. My only critique is to make make the player character more agile. Maybe just slightly faster and a bit sharper turning radius I found it pretty easy to get overwhelmed.. then again there is a cyber war at hand.
Click to expand...
You made me realise that I never got around to doing a pass on the player control - something I will address in the next version. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for playing!
 
So, I'm preventing my player character from leaving the screen because thats no fun.

Right now I have
Code: 
if x is less than 32
      jump relative to position (8,0)

Which works perfectly, however. I previously had implemented a [no key] event to make the character scroll backwards -2 to create an "idle" illusion. That too, looked and worked fine. You could play and then when you let your fingers off the keypad the character scrolls backwards like he's losing momentum.

I noticed that the [no key] event of -2 motion on the x axis seemed to interfere with the "forward" key event I had, but I just compensated by adding another +2 to the forward motion and viola problem solved.

But now that I've implemented this border to keep the character on screen, the no key action is interfering with it.

hmmph.
 
Jtwo said:
So, I'm preventing my player character from leaving the screen because thats no fun.

Right now I have
Code: 
if x is less than 32
      jump relative to position (8,0)

Which works perfectly, however. I previously had implemented a [no key] event to make the character scroll backwards -2 to create an "idle" illusion. That too, looked and worked fine. You could play and then when you let your fingers off the keypad the character scrolls backwards like he's losing momentum.

I noticed that the [no key] event of -2 motion on the x axis seemed to interfere with the "forward" key event I had, but I just compensated by adding another +2 to the forward motion and viola problem solved.

But now that I've implemented this border to keep the character on screen, the no key action is interfering with it.

hmmph.
Click to expand...

So you don't want your character to ever leave the screen but, when you are not moving, you want him to fall back at a rate of -2?
 
PhiLonius said:
So you don't want your character to ever leave the screen but, when you are not moving, you want him to fall back at a rate of -2?
Click to expand...

Yup. But since I made that post. I've made some crucial discoveries.
First, I had added that code to the creation event for the object and not a step event.

So, I just implemented the way I had originally intended (using the NOKEY = -2 on the X axis) and it works. but now he does a funny little bounce.

When he reaches x32 he jumps forward 8 paces but then also is bounced back 2 paces if youre not controlling him. so it looks like hes being dragged behind a car or something.


edit:
Oh! ok so i think what i need to do is run a check on the position and disable the no key action when the character gets to a certain threshold!!!! i wonder if you could also run a check to disable the no key action when another key is pressed. hmm.....


also thinking a ghetto way to maybe add inertia is to a second position jump on key release
 
Jtwo said:
Y
edit:
Oh! ok so i think what i need to do is run a check on the position and disable the no key action when the character gets to a certain threshold!!!!
Click to expand...

Was about to post that. When you have the NoKey movement, before it makes its next move check to make sure it hasn't reached 32 yet or within the next step.
 
Fox1304 said:
For people who have used Unity in iOS dev, how are the online asynchronous / Gamecenter / Facebook components ? Is there some helpful stuff, is it from scratch ? Easy ? Quick ?
Click to expand...
When I was doing Unity stuff we used plugins (i.e.: prime[31]) that were just C# wrappers around the various APIs. Newer Unity versions have a social API but I'm not familiar with it.

I'd say you shouldn't use Unity and recommend looking into something like Cocos-2D though.
 
Did you see my third edit about also checking to see if another key is pressed? I'm not certain what action I'd use to do that.


I was also just pondering the "inertia" feeling I want to simulate and was thinking a sort of ghetto way might be to add a second position jump upon key release. so if the key is held it just moves like i do now, but then when you release the key it would give it a little extra kick in that direction.. Ugh, I'm glad I ate a lot protein this morning.
 
Jtwo said:
Did you see my third edit about also checking to see if another key is pressed? I'm not certain what action I'd use to do that.


I was also just pondering the "inertia" feeling I want to simulate and was thinking a sort of ghetto way might be to add a second position jump upon key release. so if the key is held it just moves like i do now, but then when you release the key it would give it a little extra kick in that direction.. Ugh, I'm glad I ate a lot protein this morning.
Click to expand...

you could do

Code: 
if (keyboard_check_released)
{
+2 in whatever direction
}

motion_add would do exactly what your thinking. Has friction so you don't start at top speed and you slow down to a stop when not pressing anything.
 
The thing is I'm pretty much only sticking with the GUI for right now because I have ZERO programming or gamemaking experience. LOL, wheres the cute little icon for those?

So this: Code:

if (keyboard_check_released)
{
+2 in whatever direction
}

Totally get and am going to implement.


But right now I'm super hung up on this border/scroll backwards when idle thing.


PhiLonius said:
Was about to post that. When you have the NoKey movement, before it makes its next move check to make sure it hasn't reached 32 yet or within the next step.
Click to expand...

So I'm gonna add this to the step event of the object?
 
Jtwo said:
The thing is I'm pretty much only sticking with the GUI for right now because I have ZERO programming or gamemaking experience. LOL, wheres the cute little icon for those?

So this: Code:

if (keyboard_check_released)
{
+2 in whatever direction
}

Totally get and am going to implement.


But right now I'm super hung up on this border/scroll backwards when idle thing.
Click to expand...

The keyboard release function should be in the add event button I believe. It's been so long since I've used the full GUI like that though, so I might be mistaken. Getting motion_add to work might be a few different GUI elements.

For the idle movement:

Code: 
if (keyboard_check(NoKey) and (x - 2 >= 32))
{
x -= 2
}

Jtwo said:
So I'm gonna add this to the step event of the object?
Click to expand...

Yep.
 
Fox1304 said:
Hi guys, first post here, be gentle :D
Loved the impressions and many posts here of peiple sharing their journey through game cration, very instructing and refreshing.

I've been toying around an idea for a mobile game for a while now, an asynchronous board game. Nothing too fancy in neither graphics, game design or anything else.

I'm a full time iOS developper, but have never touched anything gaming related.
Would I be better coding in pure code as I've always done for such a game, or would a framework such as Unity bring me a lot of added value ?

I'm thinking about things such as game center integration, asynchronous gameplay, game menus, animations, game structure and else.

I'm about to start coding and it's been a big question for me, can't really see some added benefits on unity in my case, according to the type of game I want to create and my skills.
Click to expand...

It really depends on what you are making. We started our last project in pure code. We ran into a lot of difficulty about 6 months in and switched to Unity. We were able to recreate those 6 months of work in a little over 2 weeks. Unity is just a way faster way of getting ideas into a playable state for us which is super valuable. That, combined with how portable the code is makes it a really good solution for us.

My partner takes a lot of pride in his code, and he had to swallow that pride a bit, but Unity has been pretty damn good for us.
 
Ok, so in the step event for the object.
I have the first block, which as previously posted about checks to see if the object is positioned less than 32 on the X axis. And if it is it moves the object forward so it doesn't disappear off screen. But its interfering with a no key action i have set to make the player scroll backwards when idling.

THEN

I've created another block

That first
Code: 
if x is equal to 32
checks to see if x is equal to 32

but THIS is where I'm lost.

Logically I understand that I need to make an event to disable the NOKEY action in the first snippet of code if that parameter is met. But I can't for the life of me find where in the UI that option exists.

Code: 
if (keyboard_check(NoKey) and (x - 2 >= 32))
{
x -= 2
}

I would benefit greatly from having this expanded back into english. I think I get it, but you know.




edit
I'm gonna for a quick bikeride to blow off some steam.
But I think the easiest way is to create a key release action for every key that assigns negative motion to the player and is disabled upon key press.


so itd be like
upon any keypress>disable negative x axis motion and upon key release engage negative x axis motion
 
Popstar said:
When I was doing Unity stuff we used plugins (i.e.: prime[31]) that were just C# wrappers around the various APIs. Newer Unity versions have a social API but I'm not familiar with it.

I'd say you shouldn't use Unity and recommend looking into something like Cocos-2D though.
Click to expand...

BlastProcessing said:
It really depends on what you are making. We started our last project in pure code. We ran into a lot of difficulty about 6 months in and switched to Unity. We were able to recreate those 6 months of work in a little over 2 weeks. Unity is just a way faster way of getting ideas into a playable state for us which is super valuable. That, combined with how portable the code is makes it a really good solution for us.

My partner takes a lot of pride in his code, and he had to swallow that pride a bit, but Unity has been pretty damn good for us.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your answers.
I've started looking into plugins and frameworks for unity and it seems that there are a few useful things to use.
Coupled with the many "tic tac toe" in 30 minutes tutorials I've seen, I think i'm going to dip a bit into unity and see how fast I can pull something out of it.
 
I just got home and I think 4 way movement is just out of my reach for now so I'll have to just make something simpler.
 
Gamemaker Studio, the free version on Steam. I think I'm happy with what I've decided on. Its really important to me to get something "complete" as soon as possible so I can move on to the next thing, etc. I haven't even moved out of the beginner tutorials yet and trying to make a scrolling shooter with 8 way movement and some of the other things I was thinking about to go with that 8 way movement is just a little too ambitious. Things can get away from you really easy.
 
Saymund investigates interesting things. This is the first time you encounter him.

As before, the original is 1080, I downsized it to 720 to make it easier to look at when embedded and shared and so on.

saymundtunnel720b.png
Click to expand...
 
saska said:
I made an html5 shmup in 5 nights. tell me your scores if you can beat it. :P xbox controller strongly recommended. http://oeoe.fi/roofrunners/rax10/

bjiThb5.png
Click to expand...

It's pretty fun. I only played a half dozen times because I need to get to bed, but I liked what was there. I think my high score was something in the fifty thousand range, but the display kept fading away after every game so I could never be sure.
 
I've started working on the overworld in Another Castle, here's a look:

qPUoREV.gif


Right now there's no reason not to go off of the path, but eventually I'll make it high risk / high reward where you'll encounter difficult random levels, but can also get much better items.
 
Ha, thats a really unique idea. I like the idea of random encounters that are actually wicked fucked platforming levels.

Also, Saska I love the color palette and design of the spaceship. It looks like a 1950s chevy.
 
Grakl said:
Damn, that is a good looking site.
Click to expand...

Piercedveil said:
This is a great looking site, as Grakl mentioned above. What tools did you use to build it, if you don't mind me asking?
Click to expand...

Thanks :)

As far as tools, hmm - I'm a web designer by trade so photoshop and illustrator to get all the elements created. It's based off wordpress and a barebones html5 theme called Bones. The theme has a really barebone (ha) design to it, so 98% of the styling was by me, it just lays out a nice default theme to make getting started easier. The rest of the styling is all using CSS Less and html5 elements. Let me know if you have any questions!
 
Guys, guys, guys. Just got some test VO for one of our main characters. Popping the cider early. I feel like a million bucks even though I'll probably just break even.

Now to go on a nice, relaxing stroll to the bank to mail my health insurance and hope it goes out today.

Ihateyouchris said:
I've started working on the overworld in Another Castle, here's a look:

qPUoREV.gif


Right now there's no reason not to go off of the path, but eventually I'll make it high risk / high reward where you'll encounter difficult random levels, but can also get much better items.
Click to expand...

Nice.
 
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