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[Jobbs]

Why are you using the orange V flower instead of the green hook ones in the other scene? If you're still signposting, why not keep it consistent?

I want going into a room to be like opening a present. If it's deemed particularly important to find a save room, depending on context, I may add more assistance, but I don't want to take the fun out of entering a new room if I don't have to.

Also, as I was saying, "shiny things" to direct the player's attention are meant, often times, to inspire curiosity. Being overly specific doesn't work well to that end.

There are many other examples of shiny objects in my game that don't pertain at all to save rooms. I'll find another example.

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

I don't think there would be anything that would make me choose one path over another in particular unless one path was blocked, and then I knew I had to go the other way

 

[liliththepale]

I want going into a room to be like opening a present. If it's deemed particularly important to find a save room, depending on context, I may add more assistance, but I don't want to take the fun out of entering a new room if I don't have to.

Also, as I was saying, "shiny things" to direct the player's attention are meant, often times, to inspire curiosity. Being overly specific doesn't work well to that end.

There are many other examples of shiny objects in my game that don't pertain at all to save rooms. I'll find another example.

Oh, I see. I don't think a late-game save room qualifies as a curiosity as much as a familiar sight for sore eyes, but I can see that working if it feels like every room's a gamble.

Though I think there's some middle ground. For example, in The Binding of Isaac, you can tell a room you're about to enter is going to be a special room by the door it has, but that doesn't really take away from the feeling of not knowing what you're getting yourself into most of the time.

 

[Jobbs]

Oh, I see. I don't think a late-game save room qualifies as a curiosity as much as a familiar sight for sore eyes, but I can see that working if it feels like every room's a gamble.

Though I think there's some middle ground. For example, in The Binding of Isaac, you can tell a room you're about to enter is going to be a special room by the door it has, but that doesn't really take away from the feeling of not knowing what you're getting yourself into most of the time.

It's always a balance.

Another design thing I was discussing earlier: Trolling.

Someone said "trollish" design -- In this case, he was referring to putting something into the game that hurts the player with little warning -- is universally bad. Like, that's annoying, that's not good design, that's not fair.

I seek to challenge this notion. Not the notion that it's unfair, but the notion that it's bad. Clearly it's bad if you do it frequently, but doing it -- Once or twice, you know, almost never -- This can be useful in shaping the experience. What you call "trolling the player" I call planting seeds of mistrust in the player. This colors their experience going through the game.

What say you?

 

[Kitbash]

I notice you have a black background is it a pro vs personal difference?

Yeah, one of the last remaining pro vs personal differences -- but so hard to give up if you're used to it.

 

[liliththepale]

It's always a balance.

Another design thing I was discussing earlier: Trolling.

Someone said "trollish" design -- In this case, he was referring to putting something into the game that hurts the player with little warning -- is universally bad. Like, that's annoying, that's not good design, that's not fair.

I seek to challenge this notion. Not the notion that it's unfair, but the notion that it's bad. Clearly it's bad if you do it frequently, but doing it -- Once or twice, you know, almost never -- This can be useful in shaping the experience. What you call "trolling the player" I call planting seeds of mistrust in the player. This colors their experience going through the game.

What say you?

Trolling the player tries his or her patience, but lots of things do that aren't inherently bad. Waiting for an enemy's guard to come down, waiting for a platform to return or door to open, getting lost in a maze, et cetera. So you should make sure that patience isn't already worn thin, or that the event doesn't occur often enough to wear patience thin.

The other thing for me is developer intention. I like to think I can tell if a trap is unfair because the dev doesn't know better or if it's deliberate. Some parts of games are frustratingly hard because the dev didn't know how to design an interesting challenge or because the playtesters were too good at it, not because of valid design intentions. Though I can't pretend to speak for the average gamer who doesn't study game design and what they would understand.

The best troll moves are ones that become clear in hindsight, which Dark Souls generally excels at with things like the boulder trap. You don't notice it if you aren't looking for the signs, but you don't blame the game because the signs were obviously there after it happens.

 

[Feep]

Can't you have a certain coloured light emitting from save areas or something that people will recognise?

Dammit you said what I was going to say.

I think save rooms should be an exception to the sense of the "unknown", because it's a bit of a fourth-wall break. Knowing that a room is a save room is fine.

In the more general sense, where one path will lead to an item or powerup, and the other is the "correct" way to go, I will always do item/powerup. I wouldn't attempt to mess with this...players get a sense of "hah, take that, game designer!" when they guess correctly. I think it's pretty annoying when I pick a path, and as I get farther and farther along that path (or another fork appears), the growing sense of FOMO causes me to backtrack.

 

[Jobbs]

Here's another shiny objects example.

http://www.gfycat.com/KeyUnequaledLark

in this case, the moving flowers mark the max dash distance of your dash move... And I just realized these are no longer correct, because at some point I changed the dash distance.

The best troll moves are ones that become clear in hindsight, which Dark Souls generally excels at with things like the boulder trap. You don't notice it if you aren't looking for the signs, but you don't blame the game because the signs were obviously there after it happens.

Perfect, this is the exact game I was thinking of. I was thinking more specifically about the barrel that rolls down the stairs in undead burg, or the fire breath of the bridge drake the first time it does it. Both are generally kind of unfair, but if you think back, you'll realize if you were being really cautious you may have sensed trouble (less so in the case of the fire drake, which is borderline totally unfair).

But I feel these things work in favor of the overall experience -- Because they're not frequent, but because they happened, you are taught to not trust things easily and examine the environment closely. This actually doubles as an interesting way of "forcing" the player to witness the scenery and take in the view but without actually forcing them to like many AAA games would.

Dammit you said what I was going to say.

I think save rooms should be an exception to the sense of the "unknown", because it's a bit of a fourth-wall break. Knowing that a room is a save room is fine.

In the more general sense, where one path will lead to an item or powerup, and the other is the "correct" way to go, I will always do item/powerup. I wouldn't attempt to mess with this...players get a sense of "hah, take that, game designer!" when they guess correctly. I think it's pretty annoying when I pick a path, and as I get farther and farther along that path (or another fork appears), the growing sense of FOMO causes me to backtrack.

NO! Make me!

 

[Feep]

NO! Make me!

I have a particular set of skills...

 

[Jobbs]

I have a particular set of skills...

Less threats, more getting famous VO people to do cameo roles for me for cheap/free, thanks.

 

[Candescence]

I love making dumb stuff like this

I do like how you're using solid colours to achieve that '2D' look, it's an interesting approach, and something I'd like to try myself in a more '3D' context, perhaps, but at least mainly on character models. While it does make it difficult to discern certain depth in some cases, solid colours have the advantage of being simpler and can often age much better than more detailed textures.

 

[Ito]

Hey, why not using sound?

That's what I'm gonna do with my game**: save rooms have a special sound effect that you can still hear from the contiguous rooms. Hopefully, the player will recognise that such sound comes from the saving point, and they'll feel safe enough to continue through the "obvious" path.

What players fear most about taking the "signaled" way first is not being able to go back to explore that other secret path they spotted (as in, "damn, what if I go right only to find a hard boss battle? What if the secret path lead to some upgrade that I'll be needing against this thing?").

If I recall correctly, Metroid Prime had this kind of thing going on (also you could always see the save station right after opening the door, before even entering the room).


**original kontent do not stel


Also

(less so in the case of the fire drake, which is borderline totally unfair)

That fucker didn't get me. I knew he was going to attack somehow, so I approached carefully and ran for my life when the flames started.

What did get me (and I found excessively punishing) were the boulder and the barrel going down the stairs. In both cases I reacted quickly and tried to side dodge, but it was useless. The boulder doesn't kill you so it's fine. But the barrel (plus that ***** that comes right behind it to finish your life), I still think it was really bad designed. They should have pulled a Megaman X on us, and let us know in some way that enemies in that area can throw barrels at you (perhaps they did and I didn't notice, tho).

Any way, both traps make you learn how cruel the game can be, which eventually makes you a better player. No other trap in DS got me after that damn barrel.

 

[AntiFacebook]

Is there any free compiler that supports direct x?
(free as in you can do everything you want with the software you make with it)

 

[Peltz]

Here's another shiny objects example.

http://www.gfycat.com/KeyUnequaledLark

in this case, the moving flowers mark the max dash distance of your dash move... And I just realized these are no longer correct, because at some point I changed the dash distance.

The spikes sparkle so nicely

The more I see if your game, the more I dig it. The soft blue light coming up from the depths of the ground behind the character against the mist as it brushes past him gives entire scene such a unique tone.

 

[Jobbs]

The spikes sparkle so nicely

The more I see if your game, the more I dig it. The soft blue light coming up from the depths of the ground behind the character against the mist as it brushes past him gives entire scene such a unique tone.

thanks the moving sparkles on spikes were put there because people were having trouble figuring out what things were hazards and what weren't.

 

[Water]

This should work pretty well for you without much modification. I can also show you how to fake some of the stuff that UFE is doing but not quite as elegantly. ...

Thanks, this looks very useful as a starting point - I'll pass it onto the team. I haven't used animation events, and would probably not have thought to suggest using them. This project is so dependent on having a solid engine core that I'm going to keep a close eye on how it goes and be more active with guidance and support than I would with most projects.

 

[Ito]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

 

[Jobbs]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

Jobs suck. Congratulations.

 

[liliththepale]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

That's awesome! Congratulations.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

Grats dude!

 

[Peltz]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

I'm trying to make the exact same transition. I'm an attorney who wants to make games and am learning Unity and C# right now at nights and on weekends.

I basically don't sleep. Hopefully, I will learn enough to generate enough content to make the same transition as you someday.

P.S. The early footage of your game looks good. Good luck to you.

 

[_machine]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

Awesome, massive congrats!

Nothing visual to show today, just really happy and also a bit scared that we've been blessed by having 2 very experienced producers stop by this week and we are currently progressing really well. Should have some awesome video footage coming in the next few weeks and we'll be moving some team members fully towards polish and QA even though the launch is still a few months away.

 

[Mikado]

Is there any free compiler that supports direct x?
(free as in you can do everything you want with the software you make with it)

There's Visual Studio. The Community Edition lets you sell/opensource/do pretty much whatever you want with the results, so long as your company has less than 5 people and makes less than 1 million (and you're not doing work for a company that doesn't meet those criteria).

 

[electroflame]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

Congrats!
--------------

I've been playing around with Visual Studio 2015 and so far I like it. It's a lot more responsive than 2013 was (not to mention that 2013 had tons of weird issues that I could never fix).

There are some things that I've noted that are different that I'm not sure I like, though:

• Code formatting changed. This is fixable to some extent, but some options simply aren't there any more. Protip: If you do one-line method declarations for small methods, you'll want to go to Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting->Wrapping and make sure that both options are checked. Otherwise, Visual Studio will wrap your methods for some reason (even if this allows for multiple member declaration per line, which I didn't want...)
• The Lightbulb code insights are really neat, but they take up even more space to the left of your code (i.e. you now have a larger margin between the left edge of the window and where your code starts). I haven't found a way to fix this.
• The vertical rule that allows for methods to be minimized, etc. starts out with a really dark and distracting color (to me, at least). This is easily changed in Options->Environment->Fonts and Colors->Outlining Margin Vertical Rule (and Outlining Margin Square as well).

I'm sure I'll discover more issues as I go, but out of the gate 2015 has significantly less issues than 2013 did (for me at least). Now I just need Color Theme Editor to work to bring back some of my color fixes, and VSCommands to work to get rid of the Sign In/Feedback block that I'll never use.

 

[Nudull]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

Great to hear! *hug*

 

[FloatingDivider]

I know this is sort of OT, but does anyone somehow miraculously have a second copy of the gamemaking humble bundle unredeemed they want to get rid of? I was going to buy it today but ended up getting distracted by life and when I came back it wasn't available anymore. I'll buy it off of you for a modest markup if you want. (pm me with info) I'm really only interested in spriter pro. Although I wouldn't mind putzing around with sprite lamp and stencyl. I have 0 interest in the rpg-gamemaker stuff.

 

[mabec]

I know this is sort of OT, but does anyone somehow miraculously have a second copy of the gamemaking humble bundle unredeemed they want to get rid of? I was going to buy it today but ended up getting distracted by life and when I came back it wasn't available anymore. I'll buy it off of you for a modest markup if you want. (pm me with info) I'm really only interested in spriter pro. Although I wouldn't mind putzing around with sprite lamp and stencyl. I have 0 interest in the rpg-gamemaker stuff.

pm me if you still are interested in the stencyl

 

[electroflame]

I know this is sort of OT, but does anyone somehow miraculously have a second copy of the gamemaking humble bundle unredeemed they want to get rid of? I was going to buy it today but ended up getting distracted by life and when I came back it wasn't available anymore. I'll buy it off of you for a modest markup if you want. (pm me with info) I'm really only interested in spriter pro. Although I wouldn't mind putzing around with sprite lamp and stencyl. I have 0 interest in the rpg-gamemaker stuff.

I have an extra copy of Spriter Pro (thought I needed three, but only ended up needing two), PM me if you're still looking for a copy.

 

[Popstar]

Now I just need Color Theme Editor to work to bring back some of my color fixes, and VSCommands to work to get rid of the Sign In/Feedback block that I'll never use.

Color Theme Editor is out for 2015.

I have an extra copy of Spriter Pro (thought I needed three, but only ended up needing two), PM me if you're still looking for a copy.

:|

 

[electroflame]

Color Theme Editor is out for 2015.

Whoo! I must've missed that.

:|

Hey, I actually redeemed the one you gave me on my account! I just happened to buy another bundle for a friend who already had Spriter Pro. I'm not re-gifting it!

 

[Popstar]

I spent hours slaving in the kitchen to make that fruitcake you monster!

 

[charsace]

Today I've been notified that I have won what will probably be my last case as an attorney. With what I've earned doing this, I should be able to live and pay the bills till I have enough content to ask funds for my game, which hopefully will happen when summer is over.

I feel happy, but a little frightened as well.

I like where I work and like the people, but if I could sit around and code 14 hours a day on things I like without a worry in the world I would.

 

[SquirrelWide]

Thank you very much Lilith, I really like those (specially Spirit Residue). I'll keep working from your ideas.

Thanks to everyone else who helped!

~~~~~

Edit:

What about "Faint Essence"?

Missed this discussion while on vacation, but if you go with Rare Essence some DC natives might start breaking it down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X8fvWa13X0

 

[Ito]

Jobs suck. Congratulations.

That's awesome! Congratulations.

Grats dude!

I'm trying to make the exact same transition. I'm an attorney who wants to make games and am learning Unity and C# right now at nights and on weekends.

I basically don't sleep. Hopefully, I will learn enough to generate enough content to make the same transition as you someday.

P.S. The early footage of your game looks good. Good luck to you.

Awesome, massive congrats!

Congrats!

Great to hear! *hug*

I like where I work and like the people, but if I could sit around and code 14 hours a day on things I like without a worry in the world I would.

Thank you GAF. It means a lot

Best of lucks to all of you in your gamedev endeavour, whether if you like your job or if you just want to quit and make games for a living.

I enjoy what I do, I'm positive I was born to make this kind of things, and I've always known that this is where I'll find the best I can offer.

Lets keep making games then!

 

[electroflame]

Color Theme Editor is out for 2015.

Actually, this reminded me of a question I wanted to ask for a while now: what IDE color settings does everyone use? I've always used a light theme, but I've recently tried experimenting with an off-white (light gray or light tan) color for the background of my code window and found that it really helps with the eye strain surrounding long coding sessions.

Anyone do things similarly?

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

I miraculously found two bugs in my game last night. By themselves they were not really noticeable, but by chance I happened upon a certain situation where they both happen together to crash the game. Happy to get those fixed.

 

[SquirrelWide]

Actually, this reminded me of a question I wanted to ask for a while now: what IDE color settings does everyone use? I've always used a light theme, but I've recently tried experimenting with an off-white (light gray or light tan) color for the background of my code window and found that it really helps with the eye strain surrounding long coding sessions.

Anyone do things similarly?

I prefer dark grey with white text (and appropriately bright colors for vars etc).

 

[liliththepale]

Actually, this reminded me of a question I wanted to ask for a while now: what IDE color settings does everyone use? I've always used a light theme, but I've recently tried experimenting with an off-white (light gray or light tan) color for the background of my code window and found that it really helps with the eye strain surrounding long coding sessions.

Anyone do things similarly?

Light theme, yeah, with an off-white blue back and bright keywords.

 

[Blizzard]

Light theme, yeah, with an off-white blue back and bright keywords.

It's interesting how there is so much variation in preferences. This looks simultaneously blurry AND low-contrast, like it would give me eyestrain trying to read gray-on-gray.

 

[bkw]

Actually, this reminded me of a question I wanted to ask for a while now: what IDE color settings does everyone use? I've always used a light theme, but I've recently tried experimenting with an off-white (light gray or light tan) color for the background of my code window and found that it really helps with the eye strain surrounding long coding sessions.

Anyone do things similarly?

Dark. Almost always dark. Dark for Visual Studio, Monokai for Sublime Text. If I had Unity Pro, I'd probably set that to dark as well. =P

 

[liliththepale]

It's interesting how there is so much variation in preferences. This looks simultaneously blurry AND low-contrast, like it would give me eyestrain trying to read gray-on-gray.

Yeah, I have the normal text lower contrast so that the key words jump out more. It's easier for me to do top-level parsing if it looks like an infographic more than a wall of text.

 

[Feep]

Default VS2012 is good enough for me, you whippersnappers.

 

[Ito]

Missed this discussion while on vacation, but if you go with Rare Essence some DC natives might start breaking it down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X8fvWa13X0

lol

About the name, I was going to use "Anima Shard" but a quick google search returned over a dozen of results involving games with features called like that.

I'm still looking for a good name. Meanwhile, I'll be calling it "Spirit Drive".

Here's how they look btw

I still have to find a better name, tho. Spirit Drive sounds good but I'd like to use that name for something else.

 

[electroflame]

I prefer dark grey with white text (and appropriately bright colors for vars etc).

Light theme, yeah, with an off-white blue back and bright keywords.

Dark. Almost always dark. Dark for Visual Studio, Monokai for Sublime Text. If I had Unity Pro, I'd probably set that to dark as well. =P

Default VS2012 is good enough for me, you whippersnappers.

Interesting, I was thinking there would be a bit more overlap between preferences, but it's basically the Wild West.

I realized that I forgot to show my current scheme, so here it is (click for a larger image):


It's basically the default Visual Studio light theme, but with a slightly off-white background that helps with eye strain (I think). I've tried using a dark theme but the light theme syntax highlighting is completely ingrained into my pattern recognition now, so dark theme changes really mess me up.

I think the off-white background works pretty well. It lets me keep the highlighting I'm used to, while not blowing out my eyes.

Another interesting thing that may be worth mentioning is monitor panel type. I use IPS panels, but it'd be interesting if any TN users decide to go dark due to TNs typically being harder on your eyes.

 

[timetokill]

Here's mine

 

[TheHollowNight]

I love looking at dumb stuff like that. What kind of lighting setup are you using by the way, is most of it baked or are all the small point lights dynamic?

We are using Unity's deferred lighting setup. So currently the only shadow casting light is the directional skylight. We can enable it per point light and spotlight, but the performance cost will likely start to drastically climb depending on scene complexity so we will play around to see if we can use it sparingly. We also need to move all our textures off the legacy diffuse and spec shaders we were using in Unity 4. It's only since we moved to 5 that we found out we could have more shadow casters (some weird thing with deferred orthographic in unity4 not allowing us to).

Being on deferred means nothing is baked or uses lightmaps. It's all dyamic/real-time, and sort of required since level generation is randomized! Sometimes we don't know how the seed is going to choose what randomized light source is placed where, along with everything else.

I do like how you're using solid colours to achieve that '2D' look, it's an interesting approach, and something I'd like to try myself in a more '3D' context, perhaps, but at least mainly on character models. While it does make it difficult to discern certain depth in some cases, solid colours have the advantage of being simpler and can often age much better than more detailed textures.

It's cost-effective!
We don't have to worry about UVing except for more complicated objects or enemies and sticking with low-poly (but working our own sensibilities into it) is an interesting aesthetic restriction in of itself. And it creates sort of timeless looking games, stuff like Grow Home and Before will look rad in 10 years time because the visual presentation is so strong. That's kind of what we're trying to achieve.

And yeah, we've had some issues with communicating depth, since there is none in orthographic. We mainly try to highlight obstacles with lights or keep the clutter towards the edges of the playable space.

 

[Blizzard]

Default VS2012 is good enough for me, you whippersnappers.

You don't use curly braces for single-line blocks? You madman! It's only a matter of time until you accidentally add a second line to one and forget to also add curly braces, resulting in a few hours of agony and confusion until you find it.

 

[g23]

Messing around with UE4. Is it advisable to buy blueprints from the marketplace in order to get your foot in the door when creating your first game?

For example, I see an "RTS Creation kit" and "2D SCI-FI shooter" blueprints for sale.

Thoughts?

 

[Feep]

You don't use curly braces for single-line blocks? You madman! It's only a matter of time until you accidentally add a second line to one and forget to also add curly braces, resulting in a few hours of agony and confusion until you find it.

This has literally never happened.

(It helps that VS does auto indenting for you, which means that any second line added would jump back by one tab and alert me to the mistake. Er, not that I ever make them >.>)

 

[Dead Prince]

Dark. Almost always dark. Dark for Visual Studio, Monokai for Sublime Text. If I had Unity Pro, I'd probably set that to dark as well. =P

that's how i am too. unity pro got me wanting to pay $1500 just for the dark theme lol.

i would like to open a suggestion to pay $100 for the dark theme lOL