Jacksinthe
Banned
Damn! I feel your pain. Can't wait to see errythang though!
Is UMG a big pain in the ass?
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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay
- Thread starter Jacksinthe
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Is UMG a big pain in the ass?
ken_matthews
Member
Yeah, it should be a slight sway as the body shifts back and forward. Right now it looks as if air is coming up from underneath the character.
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
For anyone working on a mac, Screenflow is a nice piece of software for recording footage. It records from your screen or from any iOS device using iOS 8. Get really good framerates even on my aging iMac. Looks pretty good for editing together a trailer too. Much better than iMovie anyway. It's a bit expensive though - $99.
Screenflow has been in a couple bundles. People might be able to grab it cheaper if they keep an eye out.
ClivePwned
Member
does it look better than the built-in screen recording in Quicktime?
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
When I tried to use the Quicktime screen recording, the image becomes lighter and it also seems to strain the computer quite a bit. From what I have tried with Screenflow I have had almost zero hiccups recording full screen, even with my game running in Unity.
Oh really? Yeah, it would be good if you could get it at a discount.
Btw, you can get a demo of it on their site. It just puts a watermark on exported videos.
I got version 4.5 as part of a $20 MacHeist bundle last year. It looks like version 5 was in a bundle back in march of this year.
Okay, this is all finished.
Got them spawning babies
And now I have the babies fully hooked up
Onward!
Got them spawning babies
And now I have the babies fully hooked up
Onward!
SeanNoonan
Member
Somewhat on topic, today I left Ubisoft!
I'm going to work on Star Citizen - that's indie right ;D?
Actual on topic, here's a post mortem from the last game jam I took part in:
http://noonansean.blogspot.com/2015/07/montreal-game-jam-2015-pwrong.html
I'm going to work on Star Citizen - that's indie right ;D?
Actual on topic, here's a post mortem from the last game jam I took part in:
http://noonansean.blogspot.com/2015/07/montreal-game-jam-2015-pwrong.html
liliththepale
Banned
I think it's funny that you're making these nasty creatures of the deep here and also freaking the fuck out in the other thread.
It looks good though. It's fun for me to see this all come together after watching you animate those.
What!!? Congrats! I hope you enjoy it.
I hate fucking fish
I hate the ocean
I hate "open water"
I even hate deep blue sea
And thanks
I'll probably do this again soon with another thing.liliththepale
Banned
Meanwhile I'm salivating, coming up with ideas for our next game xD. Not deep sea per se, but Lovecraft, HG Wells and Robert Chambers type stuff.
Wait, isn't your next game going to be get to the bottom of the lake?
Yes. If you're going to design something scary and gross, it has to be something scary and gross to you. When I was a young child, Ecco the Dolphin scared me in ways few games had. The suspense, the weight of the ocean above you -- Air running out -- It was intense. That's partly where I'm coming from when I turn my eyes toward underwater stuff.
It's going to revisit similar themes I'm interested in, but the game will be even darker than Ghost Song is, which, despite the isolated feel, maintains some levity by virtue of the characters and the "video gamey" gameplay.
Also tell me your ideas, I'll tell you if they're good.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
that is one hell of an intense death animation.
Oh, thanks. I gave my thesis on death animations and how I came to it after several iterations previously in this thread. It's REALLY good reading...
direct_quote
Member
Man I hope you finish your game looks amazing! Some day I will start my metrodvania game...
Thanks, and I have to, don't worry. XD I don't have any choice.
liliththepale
Banned
Right, but there are different kinds of scary. For example, Costume Quest is based on Halloween and has lots of gross goblins and monsters, but it's not really supposed to scare you. And something like Nightmare Before Christmas is more atmospheric and bizarre than it is scary. And I like that. Scary doesn't always have to be depressing or terrifying to me as long as there's something else interesting or charming about it.
I'm trying not to dwell on it too much because then I'll never be able to finish the current project, but there are a lot of things that we want to do differently next time. Abe had this idea that HP bars feel super artificial in games, like when the boss has 1 pixel of health left but still moves around and attacks like normal, so instead everything in the game just has one or two hit points. In theory there could be a hundred or more, but programming and animating a hundred different damage states is burdensome, so it's just one or two for most things. Yet that's severely limiting on combat, so we're doing something more traditional next time.
Also the original designs called for the player to get random weapons each run through of the game, but a combination of the aforementioned HP debacle and its balancing issues, plus not knowing how to do skins and attachments in Spine meant cutting things down to just one weapon, the basic sword. So next time we want to experiment with more weapon types.
It'll probably still be a side-scrolling game, but I'm not sure how much of it will be procedurally generated. We want there to be an overworld and lots of NPCs and a real sense of place. I know that sounds like some of what you've been talking about for the past couple weeks, and honestly I can't tell how much of it is original thought and how much is agreeing with you on the matter. Having distinct stages is fine in Nethermind because of its approach, but I like the idea of something more networked and alive too.
So there will probably be a Zelda-style map with an overworld with some villages and towns, and dungeons in all of the far reaches. The dungeons will have more of the platforming and gamey bits, maybe with new gear or items in each. It's possible the specific dungeon layouts will be procedural, or even the whole world map, but that's going to take some prototyping to see how feasible it is.
Aesthetically, I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of Don't Starve and the Series of Unfortunate Events movie. Or maybe I should say halfway between Bloodborne and Tim Burton? Depressing, harrowing, low saturation, otherworldly, intimidating.
At some point you just have to embrace the "video game" stuff such as hitpoints, or at least find a balance. This is a struggle for me, as well (not on the matter of HP, but on other things). It's funny you mention the enemy's behavior not reflecting low HP as a sticking point -- Another of my directives for the new game will be fewer, but more robust and complicated enemies, including low HP states for most of them. (Incidentally, a few of my enemies in GS already are like this -- Specifically, "Roslock Bugs", which are intended to be strong and cunning, will retreat from heavy damage and sometimes go berserk when their HP is low.)
Anyway, yea, all that does sound familiar.
Where are you on real time clocks and day night cycles?I think the Tim Burton/Bloodborne angle is a more interesting one of the two you mentioned. I like Don't Starve (I went through a big DS play fest a couple weeks ago) but think the style requires a very particular tone and gameplay. It says "whimsical curiosity" rather than "adventure".
liliththepale
Banned
At some point you just have to embrace the "video game" stuff such as hitpoints, or at least find a balance. This is a struggle for me, as well (not on the matter of HP, but on other things). It's funny you mention the enemy's behavior not reflecting low HP as a sticking point -- Another of my directives for the new game will be fewer, but more robust and complicated enemies, including low HP states for most of them. (Incidentally, a few of my enemies in GS already are like this -- Specifically, "Roslock Bugs", which are intended to be strong and cunning, will retreat from heavy damage and sometimes go berserk when their HP is low.)
Anyway, yea, all that does sound familiar.
I think the Tim Burton/Bloodborne angle is a more interesting one of the two you mentioned. I like Don't Starve (I went through a big DS play fest a couple weeks ago) but think the style requires a very particular tone and gameplay. It says "whimsical curiosity" rather than "adventure".
Yeah, like rolling dice is an accepted abstraction for board games/D&D. For some enemies it works well to do localized damage, but most others will probably just be a few damage states spread out amongst the hitpoint scale.
One interesting solution I've seen is only needing to hit some of the targets to progress. Imagine a large passenger plane, if you will, that has four engines on it. If one of the four engines goes out, the remaining three can struggle to keep the plane aloft. If two go out, the plane's not going to stay up in the air for long. If three go out, then the plane's going to come down very quickly regardless of what it does. But if that plane were most video game bosses, they'd make the player take out all four engines before calling it a success. It doesn't really make any sense.
Real time clocks can be a pain sometimes. Not having access to stores for common goods just because it's night time feels bad, and going into the pause menu to "sleep for X hours" feels artificial too. Graphically speaking, most implementations have at least some time zones that look bland or even ugly. You can work past it, but there are always sacrifices.
Other than that, I think it's a good idea. It helps a place feel more lived in, more dynamic and interesting. As long as the critical components are always easy to find and accessible most of the time, it can be really engaging.
I'm curious if you'll elaborate any more on whimsy. I think a lot of people appreciate that safety blanket so they're not heading into pure terror.
Not entirely, I still think it's a pretty great tool for quickly doing stuff, iterating and adding the visuals in, but I'm currently doing like the final polish phase of moving, scaling and changing stuff and that's where the tools aren't that great yet. It doesn't for example support moving multiple objects together or give any help in aligning stuff, it has kind of rulers on the screen, but you can't get guidelines like in Photoshop. Everything being hooked into blueprint is really nice though, I was able to add logical number coloring to different elements quite fast and I've barely had the change to learn much of blueprints.
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
You indie son of a gun
Art style is entirely subjective, obviously you could make a good action RPG or platformer or whatever else in any style.
You mentioned Lovecraft and other creepy crawly influences -- I just think if you're going to do it, then do it. That's my mindset. Don't make it more approachable with a cartoony art style. Just be the thing. I applaud bold choices in design as well as in art direction.
This extends to your example about not wanting to inconvenience the player by having to wait for a shop to open or whatever -- Sometimes inconveniencing the player contributes to the texture, seriousness, and weight of the world. Don't try to reduce everything to slosh! (I'm not saying you are, but that's what a lot of designers do!)
When a traveling merchant shows up in Fallout 3, this is potentially a fun opportunity to do some trading. You're not inconvenienced because he's not always around. You're instead experiencing a pleasant surprise when he is around. And if, for example, he shows up on a predictable timeline, you can structure your gathering and other gameplay in anticipation of this. It could add shape to the experience. It's all in how you frame it.
liliththepale
Banned
Hmm. That's good food for thought. Thanks! Sorry I don't have a more substantial response. I'm going to chew on this for a little while.
Congrats! Must be exciting days. Are you still staying in Montreal?
As for us, might not be getting those screenshots today either as the upgrade went otherwise well, but there were some major changes in UMG scaling that pretty much completely fucked up all the work I'd done on texts and I haven't found a solution yet. We're really close to getting the matchmaking and menu stuff working properly though.
EDIT: Found a solution, add more of them scalebox bastards that broke the UI...well at least it's just manual labor left now.
EDIT2: Command card fixed!
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
I'm not sure this is a good example for the point you're trying to make; random merchants are a random bonus convenience, not an example of deliberately inconveniencing a player.
If the roaming merchants were the only shops in FO3, the game would be substantially worse to play, even ignoring the encumbrance mechanic. The regular shops where you convert dungeon crawling loot into money are always present, and where they keep opening hours are a wait button away from being always accessible.
Just depends on how the game is structured. FO3 just kind of randomly sprang to mind. What transactions can be done and how they fit into the game will vary.
today's progress!
time to shoot lilith a pm again, lol... can't figure out what's wrong why the htibox sometimes simply doesn't connect...
time to shoot lilith a pm again, lol... can't figure out what's wrong why the htibox sometimes simply doesn't connect...
Latest and final girl from the main cast: Memphis
The whole crew so far:
And a first look to the first room-escape in the game:
So, no more arts from my part.
Just like @pehesee this month I'm gonna focus on the script and the puzzle solving of the first episode. I'm trying to give the most possible logical explanation on why "things" are happening.
It's pretty hard when you're not either a astronomic or scientists haha.
Raised by a old-school family, similar to what you see in the "real" world. Don't let her beauty confuse you.
Memphis is nothing, but a truly master of disguise. Mastering the Dance of Anubis (An ancient ritual), She could easily change moods, adapt to any situation, and willing to do anything to fulfill her goals, even if she has to murder her target.
She can also control and adapt to any short range weapons.
The whole crew so far:
And a first look to the first room-escape in the game:
So, no more arts from my part.
Just like @pehesee this month I'm gonna focus on the script and the puzzle solving of the first episode. I'm trying to give the most possible logical explanation on why "things" are happening.
It's pretty hard when you're not either a astronomic or scientists haha.
Jobbs here is some inspiration then, fresh waterI hate fucking fish
I hate the ocean
I hate "open water"
I even hate deep blue sea
And thanks
. Background and creature ambiance together!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-JDT8iVGM8
Congrats!
electroflame
Member
The Humble Bundle that started today has some pretty great indie tools, including Spriter Pro and Sprite Lamp in the $12 tier.
liliththepale
Banned
You can always PM me. I'll let you know if I don't have time to help or can't figure out what's going on in the time I have.
Right. This happened to me, for example, in Twilight Princess involving a bomb shop in one of the villages. I had to wait in the game for about ten minutes and not do anything. In theory, I maybe could have tried to find other quests, or gone bug hunting or poe hunting, but in practice I just ran around Hyrule field for ten minutes. On subsequent runs I plan better than that, and there's an argument to be made that I should have been more careful to begin with, but I think ten minutes of down time is a bad punishment.
Yeah and the sales are contributing to the prize of an indie game contest: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/
Looks like you're missing a state (or reset on a boolean) when you drop down (falling) from higher ground. When you start directly on the lower ground, damage is registering on the hits.
On the same topic, there's a sale for Construct 2 licenses!
https://www.scirra.com/store/construct-2
You get a year of Stencyl indie license (which is what I have and is all you need for stand alone games, if you want to do IOS you need something else) as part of this bundle. It's really a good deal if you were ever curious about Stencyl.
So I just made a little thing in my free time
It's a megadrive / genesis rom so play it on an emulator / hardware
Mega Maverick Bird v0.5
Yes it is a basic port of Terry Cavanagh's Maverick Bird
It's a megadrive / genesis rom so play it on an emulator / hardware
Mega Maverick Bird v0.5
Yes it is a basic port of Terry Cavanagh's Maverick Bird
So I just made a little thing in my free time
It's a megadrive / genesis rom so play it on an emulator / hardware
Mega Maverick Bird v0.5
Yes it is a basic port of Terry Cavanagh's Maverick Bird
An emulated fan port of a fan game of a rip off game? We have to go deeper!
What's the best emulator to use?
Allright, let me get some other stuff out of the way and I'll export and ship it over.
Hmmm, I don't think that's the way my code is set up, but I'll have to go through it again. (It does have something to do with jumping because it inexplicably works sometimes after jumping, but I can't isolate either what's making it fail or what's making it work, other than if I go direct to the dummy within spawning it always seems to work)
ken_matthews
Member
Has anybody been reading the "Destiny: The Hardcore Gamer's Slot Machine" thread? Since we are all actively making games in this thread, I am curious on what you guys think about it. I really don't care about Destiny, but do any of you guys think about these sorts of things as you are making your own game?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1076021
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1076021
There's this design element to the game that I've been pulling around for a while now, and it has become increasingly hard to justify or fit into the game as the game has taken shape.. And I think I need to scrap it.. Which is a huge pain in the ass because I have to go back and untangle the scripting to it and change it to something else...
To wit, basically, there's this idea of "ghost doors" in the game. Your pet, dizzy, masses a charge of energy as you kill enemies, and this energy can be used to open the doors. The doors would re-close any time you use a save point. The reason for this was to try and put speed bumps onto the map - to force more combat.
But as the game has actually become real, it's becoming harder and harder to justify and has presented a bunch of logistical challenges. Among the many problems/absurdities is that I already just arbitrarily force combat in some areas anyway by just spawning magic barriers over the exits until the enemies are dead... So.. Yeah..
So I think I'm scrapping the ghost door (at least, the way they were) idea. The ghost doors idea may work fine in another game, but I just don't think it's going to fit into this one.
Totally worth it -- If only for Spriter. I may even do it just to have Spriter on hand. I think Spine is probably better but I'll look into it more. Sprite Lamp is also really fascinating and makes me wonder what kind of amazing unique 2D look could be created with it.
To wit, basically, there's this idea of "ghost doors" in the game. Your pet, dizzy, masses a charge of energy as you kill enemies, and this energy can be used to open the doors. The doors would re-close any time you use a save point. The reason for this was to try and put speed bumps onto the map - to force more combat.
But as the game has actually become real, it's becoming harder and harder to justify and has presented a bunch of logistical challenges. Among the many problems/absurdities is that I already just arbitrarily force combat in some areas anyway by just spawning magic barriers over the exits until the enemies are dead... So.. Yeah..
So I think I'm scrapping the ghost door (at least, the way they were) idea. The ghost doors idea may work fine in another game, but I just don't think it's going to fit into this one.
Totally worth it -- If only for Spriter. I may even do it just to have Spriter on hand. I think Spine is probably better but I'll look into it more. Sprite Lamp is also really fascinating and makes me wonder what kind of amazing unique 2D look could be created with it.
Are you having anyone test the game for you? How do they respond?
Don't forget that most players start out ultra cautious. There's something rewarding about feeling good enough at the game to run by all of the enemies that you used to patiently and meticulously struggle against.
There are people playing the beta, but it doesn't really include the door mechanic (just once at the very end).
Like I said, I have come to grips with the fact that it probably needs to go. It presents more problems, too, for example -- If I want to use Dizzy's energy for something else, I always need to make sure that it IS possible to still open the doors without having to go back to a save point and reset the world. That's yet another design headache.
Yo.
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Right, I forgot about the beta. I don't know why, I even played some of it.
When you watch people play, are they running past enemies or fighting them?
For whatever reason, they tend to usually try to kill everything. You totally don't have to (most the time).
Speaking of, watching people play your game is one of the most educational things you can do. Back when I first put out the beta, I identified and fixed a ton of bugs/design problems in the first weeks, and there are still more things yet that will be changed in the final game as a result of watching people play the beta on stream/YT.
Right, which is what I was getting at. Watch a speedrun of most games and the player will run past everything. It's pretty eye opening, because most people don't play that way.
We need to get some playtesters for Nether Mind. I'll probably try to set up an open beta in the next month or so.
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