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[mStudios]

A test screenshot. I'm not really sure if I wanna use this background in the final version. I had a test room but I lost the file -_-.

Anyways, here is Alice fighting against a Machina. Machinas are enemies in the alternate world. However, the background is clearly happening in the regular world, which should never happen (at least not yet)

Olympia Rising is finally headed to Steam for PC and Mac on July 23. My god it's taken so much longer than anticipated.

Feels good. It's awesome to have a game up there that I had a huge part of.

Didn't you release this game months ago? I rememeber supporting it on KS, and IIRC, i got to play the game already!

 

[Jintor]

do any of you know a gifmaker that plays nice with magnified desktops? I'd like not to have to log out and log back in every time I want to make a gif properly

 

[mStudios]

do any of you know a gifmaker that plays nice with magnified desktops? I'd like not to have to log out and log back in every time I want to make a gif properly

Just use OBS + Webm Converter. OBS to record the screen, Webm to convert.
Is that what you want?

 

[Roubjon]

Didn't you release this game months ago? I rememeber supporting it on KS, and IIRC, i got to play the game already!

Yes we did, but this new release has fullscreen mode, performance increases, as well as some bug fixes. That previous release was mainly to give the completed game to the kickstarter backers and was only available for purchase in our own (really mediocre) purchasing site. This updated version will be available on Steam, the Humble Store, and itch.io. Also all kickstarter backers will be given steam codes.

 

[Jintor]

Just use OBS + Webm Converter. OBS to record the screen, Webm to convert.
Is that what you want?

i'll see if it works out tommmorrow.

a little dancing all night then sleep for me. productive day!

 

[Turfster]

Edit: I'm an idiot.

 

[SquirrelWide]

Yes we did, but this new release has fullscreen mode, performance increases, as well as some bug fixes. That previous release was mainly to give the completed game to the kickstarter backers and was only available for purchase in our own (really mediocre) purchasing site. This updated version will be available on Steam, the Humble Store, and itch.io. Also all kickstarter backers will be given steam codes.

I thought I remembered seeing that backer email. Guess it's for the best that I was too busy at the time.

 

[HellBlazer]

Olympia Rising is finally headed to Steam for PC and Mac on July 23. My god it's taken so much longer than anticipated.

Feels good. It's awesome to have a game up there that I had a huge part of.

Sweet!

Any chance backers get their Steam codes early? <_<

 

[The Emperor]

Hey guys I'm a complete novice at making games and need some advice!!

I recently made a game using RPG Maker for an educational project at Med School.

In the game you basically went round a hospital solving clinical scenarios on wards & fought bacteria in a turn based style system.

The game was really appreciated by my peers & teachers. I really want to expand on what I've already made now. I especially wanted to make it so that it can be playable on phones (so iOS & Android support) as this is how a lot of people like to learn today.

So what engine do you guys think I should use?

I'm aware that RPG Maker games can't be ported to iOS or Android easily? I've just started downloading Unity to start learning it as I've heard that might be a good bet. I'm really excited to get started.

Is Unity a good engine to make 2D RPG's with which will have turn based style battles, dialogue options & so on?

I would've done game development had I not been pressured into going to med school so I'm finally having fun doing something at university haha!

 

[Jobbs]

Hey guys I'm a complete novice at making games and need some advice!!

I recently made a game using RPG Maker for an educational project at Med School.

In the game you basically went round a hospital solving clinical scenarios on wards & fought bacteria in a turn based style system.

The game was really appreciated by my peers & teachers. I really want to expand on what I've already made now. I especially wanted to make it so that it can be playable on phones (so iOS & Android support) as this is how a lot of people like to learn today.

So what engine do you guys think I should use?

I'm aware that RPG Maker games can't be ported to iOS or Android easily? I've just started downloading Unity to start learning it as I've heard that might be a good bet. I'm really excited to get started.

Is Unity a good engine to make 2D RPG's with which will have turn based style battles, dialogue options & so on?

I would've done game development had I not been pressured into going to med school so I'm finally having fun doing something at university haha!

Is RPG maker your only experience, or do you have other programming background?

Depending on the specifics of your game mechanics, Stencyl may be a good choice. It has some shortcomings, sure, but it's extremely approachable for a novice and a lot can be done once you learn the basics.

If you're already capable technically and know some things about programming, going straight to Unity is a fine idea. Unity is ubiquitous in this industry, especially with indies, and it's hard to go wrong with it.

 

[The Emperor]

Is RPG maker your only experience, or do you have other programming background?

Depending on the specifics of your game mechanics, Stencyl may be a good choice. It has some shortcomings, sure, but it's extremely approachable for a novice and a lot can be done once you learn the basics.

If you're already capable technically and know some things about programming, going straight to Unity is a fine idea. Unity is ubiquitous in this industry, especially with indies, and it's hard to go wrong with it.

Yup RPG maker is actually my only exerience. I'll look into Stencyl too!!! Thanks

 

[Noogy]

Is Unity a good engine to make 2D RPG's with which will have turn based style battles, dialogue options & so on?

The upcoming Cosmic Star Heroine by Zeboyd is being made with Unity. Don't assume you can just click your way to a full game... they are coding the engine and tools from scratch.

Unity can be non-coder friendly if you are willing to rely on bought assets, but make no mistake you'll need to code to unlock its potential.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

 

[Jobbs]

The upcoming Cosmic Star Heroine by Zeboyd is being made with Unity. Don't assume you can just click your way to a full game... they are coding the engine and tools from scratch.

Unity can be non-coder friendly if you are willing to rely on bought assets, but make no mistake you'll need to code to unlock its potential.

from what I can tell by looking at videos, UE4 is more "non coder" friendly than Unity, but perhaps less "coder friendly" (depending) in the sense that C++ is a bit trickier in general as well as some other factors.

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

Coming along great. I finally "get" what the game looks like now.

 

[Jintor]

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

goooorrrgeousssss

 

[Jacksinthe]

Coming along great. I finally "get" what the game looks like now.

Thanks, dude. Now you know what we're looking for with that thing

goooorrrgeousssss

Thanks, Jintor!

-

I mean to engage with everyone on the past few pages but today is one of those days where I am pulling my hair out, hence the pre-emptive GIF.

 

[Five]

A test screenshot. I'm not really sure if I wanna use this background in the final version. I had a test room but I lost the file -_-.

Anyways, here is Alice fighting against a Machina. Machinas are enemies in the alternate world. However, the background is clearly happening in the regular world, which should never happen (at least not yet)

Will there be a shadow under the Machina? Otherwise, this looks really great. Although it is kind of funny to see someone just about to punch a big huge robot.

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

I wasn't sold on the art style earlier but this is gorgeous! The colors, the subtle background workings, the smooth yet blocky animation, it all works so well. Stunning work.

 

[Jobbs]

I'm streaming art creation right now for ghost song, if anyone is curious. This is kinda new to me so let me know if I suck. Just working on a hoppy creature right now. I'm painting him then I'll rig him up for animation in photoshop. And then animate him.

http://www.twitch.tv/ttpete

 

[Jacksinthe]

I wasn't sold on the art style earlier but this is gorgeous! The colors, the subtle background workings, the smooth yet blocky animation, it all works so well. Stunning work.

THANK YOU! That means a lot since your game is beautiful :O We are doing something right wooooo! It only looked like it did because I can't art things. For reference:

Original game:

Concept for new look:

In-game screen (Via Xbox One cap):

Closer look at damage FX (Via Xbox One cap):

^^ That is what I mentioned a long time ago i borrowed from Tron when Flynn took damage from a guard. There was this grid-like blur going on on one of the guard's staves I really dug. Basically just offset the pattern, blur, CA (NEXT GEN BABY!), some gran (DOUBLE NEXT GEN BABY!) and a reverse vignette. All for about 0.5s

Been fun making this game so far. I'm glad I stuck with it.

I'm streaming art creation right now for ghost song, if anyone is curious. This is kinda new to me so let me know if I suck. Just working on a hoppy creature right now. I'm painting him then I'll rig him up for animation in photoshop. And then animate him.

http://www.twitch.tv/ttpete

Will get on this after dinner in like 10.

 

[Jintor]

i just realised at least one far-off design goal for my video game:

1. fist fight a giant mechanical spider

it's nice to have goals

 

[planckpixels]

THANK YOU! That means a lot since your game is beautiful :O We are doing something right wooooo! It only looked like it did because I can't art things. For reference:

Original game:


Concept for new look:


In-game screen (Via Xbox One cap):


Closer look at damage FX (Via Xbox One cap):


^^ That is what I mentioned a long time ago i borrowed from Tron when Flynn took damage from a guard. There was this grid-like blur going on on one of the guard's staves I really dug. Basically just offset the pattern, blur, CA (NEXT GEN BABY!), some gran (DOUBLE NEXT GEN BABY!) and a reverse vignette. All for about 0.5s

Been fun making this game so far. I'm glad I stuck with it.


Will get on this after dinner in like 10.

Fun doesn't even sum it up. It's the best thing ever. I'll try and get a bunch of new animation done in coming days so we can bite more people with it

Thanks everyone for the support!!!

 

[-COOLIO-]

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

is this the first gameplay you've shown? looking good man! real crisp.

 

[Jacksinthe]

i just realised at least one far-off design goal for my video game:

1. fist fight a giant mechanical spider

it's nice to have goals

Part spider and part oaf:

is this the first gameplay you've shown? looking good man! real crisp.

First time showing the real stuff I've been doing and not all the making and testing of things from last year haha! Thanks

 

[-COOLIO-]

THANK YOU! That means a lot since your game is beautiful :O We are doing something right wooooo! It only looked like it did because I can't art things. For reference:

Original game:


Concept for new look:


In-game screen (Via Xbox One cap):


Closer look at damage FX (Via Xbox One cap):


^^ That is what I mentioned a long time ago i borrowed from Tron when Flynn took damage from a guard. There was this grid-like blur going on on one of the guard's staves I really dug. Basically just offset the pattern, blur, CA (NEXT GEN BABY!), some gran (DOUBLE NEXT GEN BABY!) and a reverse vignette. All for about 0.5s

Been fun making this game so far. I'm glad I stuck with it.


Will get on this after dinner in like 10.

oh sweet, i didnt realize you did the art yourself or that the art wasn't professional. i was actually thinking about writing a blog post about ways that a programmer could best excel at "programmer art", since i noticed that a few little tricks really upped my game. what worked best for you in rapidly improving the look of your game? these are what worked for me:

1 - shrinking things (almost everything looks better when its smaller)
2 - picking and sitcking to a light source
3 - adding blob shadows
4 - really investing in learning and maximizing my usage of particle effects
5 - using motion tweens
6 - picking a fairly simplistic artstyle
7 - animating things with a sine wave

this is also an open question to all programmer artists in this thread trying to make due with their skill set.

i just realised at least one far-off design goal for my video game:

1. fist fight a giant mechanical spider

it's nice to have goals

pics?

 

[Jacksinthe]

oh sweet, i didnt realize you did the art yourself or that the art wasn't professional. i was actually thinking about writing a blog post about ways that a programmer could best excel at "programmer art", since i noticed that a few little tricks really upped my game. what worked best for you in rapidly improving the look of your game? these are what worked for me:

1 - shrinking things (almost everything looks better when its smaller)
2 - picking and sitcking to a light source
3 - adding blob shadows
4 - really investing in learning and maximizing my usage of particle effects
5 - using motion tweens
6 - picking a fairly simplistic artstyle
7 - animating things with a sine wave

this is also an open question to all programmer artists in this thread trying to make due with their skill set.

Oh the art isn't ME, it's my parter - PlanckPixels. My art is the lines n stick figures. The style kinda stuck and Daniel (planck) turned it up to about 9000 XD

Shrinking works, definitely the light source/overall palette/saturation levels, shadows are a nice touch, particles can be hit or miss depending on how they are coded to act and react. On the right track, though I will say being a programmer and trying to art things for me is no bueno

There is a hidden level with my original art in the game, though. Also a few enemies that are "nods" to some Atari games are also carried over as-is from the original works.

 

[-COOLIO-]

Oh the art isn't ME, it's my parter - PlanckPixels. My art is the lines n stick figures. The style kinda stuck and Daniel (planck) turned it up to about 9000 XD

Shrinking works, definitely the light source/overall palette/saturation levels, shadows are a nice touch, particles can be hit or miss depending on how they are coded to act and react. On the right track, though I will say being a programmer and trying to art things for me is no bueno

There is a hidden level with my original art in the game, though. Also a few enemies that are "nods" to some Atari games are also carried over as-is from the original works.

in general, for sure. but sometimes your only choice is to hack it :S

if nothing else, at least you get some practice.

 

[Jacksinthe]

in general, for sure. but sometimes your only choice is to hack it :S

if nothing else, at least you get some practice.

True. My only choice was me for a long while hahaha!

To think this started out as a 5-level freebie with 2 buttons, 1 weapon, 1 boss that would get ported to mobile.

My revamp last year to turn it into a Mega Man/Ninja Gaiden style action platformer and go huge with everything worked for the best and now it's coming to PS4, XO and PC. I almost quit gamedev last year. Glad i didn't ha!

 

[Jintor]

pics?

maybe in like two years lol.

 

[planckpixels]

Oh the art isn't ME, it's my parter - PlanckPixels. My art is the lines n stick figures. The style kinda stuck and Daniel (planck) turned it up to about 9000 XD

Shrinking works, definitely the light source/overall palette/saturation levels, shadows are a nice touch, particles can be hit or miss depending on how they are coded to act and react. On the right track, though I will say being a programmer and trying to art things for me is no bueno

There is a hidden level with my original art in the game, though. Also a few enemies that are "nods" to some Atari games are also carried over as-is from the original works.

9,001

 

[GulAtiCa]

I've mentioned this in other areas, but thought it would go appropriately here more so.

If anyone here is making a Wii U/3DS eShop game. I highly recommend adding Miiverse abilities. Especially the ability to allow a user to Post to Miiverse inside the game (without going to home menu/etc). I just added this ability to my game's latest patch (ZaciSa's Last Stand) and my Miiverse page activity is way up. In fact, it's never been this active before. And this is for a game that was 11 months old, a new game would have seen way more activity. So I really recommend adding this. Really improves the social nature of the game.

 

[Jintor]

I've mentioned this in other areas, but thought it would go appropriately here more so.

If anyone here is making a Wii U/3DS eShop game. I highly recommend adding Miiverse abilities. Especially the ability to allow a user to Post to Miiverse inside the game (without going to home menu/etc). I just added this ability to my game's latest patch (ZaciSa's Last Stand) and my Miiverse page activity is way up. In fact, it's never been this active before. And this is for a game that was 11 months old, a new game would have seen way more activity. So I really recommend adding this. Really improves the social nature of the game.

I think splatoon in particular really proved this to me

 

[missile]

Back from vacation...

... and modified my melting effect right away;

Varying the initial position should make the effect more pleasing. Will see.

...

^^ That is what I mentioned a long time ago i borrowed from Tron when Flynn took damage from a guard. There was this grid-like blur going on on one of the guard's staves I really dug. Basically just offset the pattern, blur, CA (NEXT GEN BABY!), some gran (DOUBLE NEXT GEN BABY!) and a reverse vignette. All for about 0.5s ...

Fantastico.
Being able to create, modify, and tailor the effects as needed is one of the
coolest things being a programmer. :+


@mStudio: Got your mail. Will see what I can do for you.

 

[Jobbs]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

 

[Makai]

Wow, noticeable improvement in your art.

 

[bkw]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

Wow, you did that in one night? That's some fast and high quality work! I gotta check out your stream. =)

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

Wow, it doesnt look even like a drawing, it looks like its alive.

Yours too? O_O Whats up with having a bday 24/7? Does it mean we get to have one 24 hours, 7 days a week?

lol, Im totally lost here.

 

[Bloodember]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

Do you record your sessions, I would love to watch it, and see how you did that. That is pretty awesome.

 

[liliththepale]

Do you record your sessions, I would love to watch it, and see how you did that. That is pretty awesome.

Here's the VOD. He played Spotify the whole time though so no audio.

http://www.twitch.tv/ttpete/b/674208739

 

[_machine]

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

Absolutely stunning stuff, I can't wait to see the full trailer. It's come such long way since the last time and everything just looks so fluid and more importantly fun to play. I hope the trailer has the spider in action

 

[mabec]

Wow, it doesnt look even like a drawing, it looks like its alive.



lol, Im totally lost here.

That enemy by jobbs looks deliciously dangerous btw!

 

[Pehesse]

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

Wow, looks like it came into its own! The background detail is awesome, and I love the animations - props to the robot telport :-D Really, really like how it's turning out!

 

[pixelpai]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

Oh c'mon... may I have a little piece of your talent. Every time I decide to give animation another attempt ends in pure frustration.

That' s why everything in my game (PixelBoom) is animated by basic "tweening" of things or by particles. PixelBoom is a puzzle-game, so it was easy to get over not having sprite-based animtation, but my new project-draft calls for "real" animations... oh the frustration...

 

[Ito]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

Wonderful. Its leg looks almost 3d, you did a great work with the depth of the sprite.

Fuck it - before the trailer have a sneak peek at one of our enemies just notch above "fodder" but not quite miniboss level:

http://gfycat.com/ImprobableFrequentHypacrosaurus

link to original 32mb GIF: http://stuff.absinthegames.com/titan.gif

I hope everyone likes where we went with this. Been putting in a lot of hard work to get the everything feeling, playing and looking just right. This game put me through hell last year when I was already going through it on a personal level and now being able to show it proper makes me feel good.

Trailer in mere weeks with more gameplay.

So this is your game! Very cool looking indeed. I'll be looking up to see more footage!

 

[Jobbs]

Here's the VOD. He played Spotify the whole time though so no audio.

http://www.twitch.tv/ttpete/b/674208739

I was talking sometimes, too. I didn't realize music got your recordings muted. I'll probably still do it anyway unless there's some way of dealing with it. I noticed a list of approved music.. But that seems limiting.

I removed the archive because something accidentally showed up in a skype chat window -- a private conversation -- And it shouldn't be archived. I exported it first so, though, so when it ends up on youtube I'll just edit it and let it sit there.

Wonderful. Its leg looks almost 3d, you did a great work with the depth of the sprite.

Oh c'mon... may I have a little piece of your talent. Every time I decide to give animation another attempt ends in pure frustration.

That' s why everything in my game (PixelBoom) is animated by basic "tweening" of things or by particles. PixelBoom is a puzzle-game, so it was easy to get over not having sprite-based animtation, but my new project-draft calls for "real" animations... oh the frustration...

Do you record your sessions, I would love to watch it, and see how you did that. That is pretty awesome.

Wow, it doesnt look even like a drawing, it looks like its alive.

Wow, you did that in one night? That's some fast and high quality work! I gotta check out your stream. =)

Wow, noticeable improvement in your art.

I think you guys are giving me a little too much credit, I see a lot of things I'd fix still, but I appreciate the kind words.

I'll probably stream again today/tonight and do some more. @Pixel a lot of my art ends in frustration too, you're not alone, being tortured and frustrated is often part of the process, and it's how we improve. Someone who has an easy time drawing, and always thinks their work is awesome, is probably someone who isn't improving. I mean, anyone who was crazy enough to stick around for very long saw how I sat around for hours just sort of fiddling around. It's madness.

 

[_machine]

Here be some bonfire chilling from the menu to celebrate good weather and evening of barbeque (the bonfire is acting weird in the gif for some reason, gonna have to check what gives):

I also just confirmed my trip to GDC and Gamescom as an IGDA scholar (includes free tickets and an accompanying mentor) which feels great, I can't wait to get there for the first time

 

[Blizzard]

Back from vacation...

... and modified my melting effect right away;

Varying the initial position should make the effect more pleasing. Will see.

That looks at first glance like her head is exploding off her body in a cloud of gore. I liked the other fade better. D:

 

[missile]

Just stopped streamin. So tonight from scratch I painted the creature, then got it rigged up for animation, then did a basic idle motion.

Later (probably tomorrow) I'll make it do other things on the next stream.

Sick!

That looks at first glance like her head is exploding off her body in a cloud of gore. I liked the other fade better. D:

Perhaps not the best pictures for this version. But indeed, doesn't look as
good as the previous one, yet the approach is more flexible now. The cut
between the upward and downward moving columns is variable and can be made a
function. If I have some more time for today, I may try to come up with some
simple ones like sin, x^n, rand, whatever making the effect more interesting,
I guess.

 

[Mental Atrophy]

What do you guys think about experience point rewards in strategy RPGs like Shining Force and Fire Emblem? Most games award EXP to the actor, with bonus EXP when the actor destroys its target. I like this but it does have the problem of "winner keeps winning" such that strong offensive characters snowball ahead. Awarding an even split to the entire party keeps things in balance but also takes EXP control away from the player. Any good alternatives? Otherwise I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

[Blizzard]

What do you guys think about experience point rewards in strategy RPGs like Shining Force and Fire Emblem? Most games award EXP to the actor, with bonus EXP when the actor destroys its target. I like this but it does have the problem of "winner keeps winning" such that strong offensive characters snowball ahead. Awarding an even split to the entire party keeps things in balance but also takes EXP control away from the player. Any good alternatives? Otherwise I'm leaning towards the latter.

I personally probably prefer flat XP for everyone in the party. Otherwise you end up with micromanaging like in Pokémon where every battle has busy work switching the leading party member out immediately. Even Pokémon added the Exp. Share to make this more automated.

I don't think I've ever played a Fire Emblem game, but if you have to very carefully make weak characters get last hits, I could imagine that being frustrating in a game where characters can permanently die.

 

[Pehesse]

What do you guys think about experience point rewards in strategy RPGs like Shining Force and Fire Emblem? Most games award EXP to the actor, with bonus EXP when the actor destroys its target. I like this but it does have the problem of "winner keeps winning" such that strong offensive characters snowball ahead. Awarding an even split to the entire party keeps things in balance but also takes EXP control away from the player. Any good alternatives? Otherwise I'm leaning towards the latter.

I'd say some Fire Emblems have found an interesting counterbalance to that with their manual bonus XP system (namely, in Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn)

The idea is that you're awarded some spendable bonus points (you could either give them to the player via completing secondary objectives, or it's a fixed percentage of all xp gain, or static item drops you need to redeem, or whatever else), which you can then spend on the units of your choice to get them caught up to speed with the others. Gives an incentive to complete some side stuff if the bonus xp is awarded there, and allows you to customize your characters a bit since you can spoon feed your favorites, or spread evenly among everyone, etc.

Invisible Inc. has some of that same logic, where you can only upgrade your agents in between missions using the cash you get during missions, so you're encouraged to explore fully each layout to get more cash to spend on more upgrades. Replace cash with bonus xp, and you're set :-D