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[liliththepale]

Twelve is better, but when picking names it's also important to think about the "Googleability" of that name.

If you type "Twelve" into Google I don't think it'll bring you anywhere close to your game. Even typing something like "Twelve game" might not help.

Of the two, I prefer Twelve, but I figured I'd bring up that it will confuse search engines when people are trying to find out more info on your game.

Before Portal became an internet sensation, it was called Narbacular Drop for precisely this reason. The Digitech students wanted something that would be uniquely associated with their project.

Meanwhile, Portal was as ambiguous of a term as you could get at the time. On the web, a portal was a place that linked you to other places, and "portal game" (or game portal) would be a place that links you to lots of other games just as Newgrounds and AddictingGames did.

But Portal was such a good game that it bought most of the mind-share on the the word.

Now, it's ridiculously hard to be the breakaway success that Portal has been, but I don't think Google-ability is as important as you make it out to be.

 

[Jobbs]

If I search "Ghost Song" my game comes up before The Doors' song, whereas that didn't used to be the case. I feel like I buried Jim Morrison a second time.

 

[Turfster]

Twelve is better, but when picking names it's also important to think about the "Googleability" of that name.

Could do the classic "Twe12e"

 

[liliththepale]

If I search "Ghost Song" my game comes up before The Doors' song, whereas that didn't used to be the case. I feel like I buried Jim Morrison a second time.

Right, because you had a successful Kickstarter and a lot of good press. Any decent search engine will take that into account.

My top result is the Ella Henderson song, Ghost, but that's probably because Google knows I use YouTube to look up pop music all the time. Everything afterward is about your game.

 

[electroflame]

Before Portal became an internet sensation, it was called Narbacular Drop for precisely this reason. The Digitech students wanted something that would be uniquely associated with their project.

Meanwhile, Portal was as ambiguous of a term as you could get at the time. On the web, a portal was a place that linked you to other places, and "portal game" (or game portal) would be a place that links you to lots of other games just as Newgrounds and AddictingGames did.

But Portal was such a good game that it bought most of the mind-share on the the word.

Now, it's ridiculously hard to be the breakaway success that Portal has been, but I don't think Google-ability is as important as you make it out to be.

Portal also had the benefit of having extremely good marketing tied to it, as well as being a "Valve game" that people would flock to no matter what.

For us small devs, I do think that "Googleability" is important. It shouldn't be the #1 thing to think about when deciding on a name, but I do believe that it should be considered.

I didn't mean that you should only do obtuse, never-before-used names or words, though, so if it came off like that I apologize.

 

[liliththepale]

Portal also had the benefit of having extremely good marketing tied to it, as well as being a "Valve game" that people would flock to no matter what.

For us small devs, I do think that "Googleability" is important. It shouldn't be the #1 thing to think about when deciding on a name, but I do believe that it should be considered.

I didn't mean that you should only do obtuse, never-before-used names or words, though, so if it came off like that I apologize.

What sort of circumstances is that applicable for? Looking for games isn't like looking for businesses on Yelp/Google.

I guess I'm having a hard time imagining a case where someone hears the name of a game without also getting a link to more info/coverage, and meanwhile is so interested in the game that he or she Google's the game's name, but then gives up after one or two failed attempts to find it. In my experience, there's almost always either a link to more info or there's an easy way to ask the person who posted the snippet/snapshot of a game to provide that link.

If a game looks interesting enough for you to search it, there are probably other people interested in looking for it too, so there's likely either official site coverage or automated SEO already in action that will help you find what you're looking for.

I could be completely wrong about this. Please let me know if I am!

 

[Jacksinthe]

^^ You are right.

Developer and game sites aren't like sites for other projects. There's little use for SEO optimization unless you are simply trying to deliver more accurate results for specific keyword searches like "Game Name" where you are trying to aggregate more info and websites for a page 1 landing. People who have heard about your game or studio will more than likely have a link to a site or social media persona.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

A bit more work on my little gameboy game side project, I have tile based collision, and transitioning between rooms working - now I'm working on filling out a simple map.

Progress has been really slow, it's crazy how many little details you have to think through when everything is in assembly. In particular I have to spend a lot more time thinking about data layout.

I don't think I'll have a game to submit for gbjam at this rate, but I'm having so much fun that I think I'll keep working on it for a while.

That looks really cool. If I didn't know it was indie I would've assumed this came out on the GameBoy.

 

[Jobbs]

Right, because you had a successful Kickstarter and a lot of good press. Any decent search engine will take that into account.

My top result is the Ella Henderson song, Ghost, but that's probably because Google knows I use YouTube to look up pop music all the time. Everything afterward is about your game.

Yeah, Ella Henderson came out of nowhere and went over me, but in time I'll Jim Morrison her.

https://twitter.com/twotimingpete/status/533693421769068544

 

[liliththepale]

Yeah, Ella Henderson came out of nowhere and went over me, but in time I'll Jim Morrison her.

https://twitter.com/twotimingpete/status/533693421769068544

For what it's worth, Rob Cantor's Ghost song is better than either Henderson or The Doors.

 

[Jobbs]

Been trying to paint a big tree trunk for hours, for some reason I just can't. I don't understand why I have days where I can't paint.

But I can always draw. This enemy has some kind of creature merged on top of it.

He acts kind of like artillery, but he doesn't move much and is generally passive. If you damage it enough, the crteature on top blows off and the thing under it becomes very volatile and jumps around the room.

 

[Blizzard]

What sort of circumstances is that applicable for? Looking for games isn't like looking for businesses on Yelp/Google.

I guess I'm having a hard time imagining a case where someone hears the name of a game without also getting a link to more info/coverage, and meanwhile is so interested in the game that he or she Google's the game's name, but then gives up after one or two failed attempts to find it. In my experience, there's almost always either a link to more info or there's an easy way to ask the person who posted the snippet/snapshot of a game to provide that link.

If a game looks interesting enough for you to search it, there are probably other people interested in looking for it too, so there's likely either official site coverage or automated SEO already in action that will help you find what you're looking for.

I could be completely wrong about this. Please let me know if I am!

^^ You are right.

Developer and game sites aren't like sites for other projects. There's little use for SEO optimization unless you are simply trying to deliver more accurate results for specific keyword searches like "Game Name" where you are trying to aggregate more info and websites for a page 1 landing. People who have heard about your game or studio will more than likely have a link to a site or social media persona.

I respectfully disagree with these two posts, in particular in regard to new indie games. I feel like people will semi-regularly mention game names on forums or whatever without providing any links or context. I would then typically go google "name here" (no quotes) followed by "name here game" (no quotes) possibly followed by 'allintext: "name here" game' (using double quotes) to dig for the actual page.

I think it's at least possible that making me go through multiple steps to find a game, especially if it is so small and obscure that it is not near the top on Google, can turn me off a little on a game. If it's a hassle to dig up information, there are so many other games that I may just not bother unless it looks super interesting.

 

[Icyflamez96]

Ok I have a Unity problem again. I'll just copy and paste something I posted to the official Unity questions forum 3 hours ago that hasn't gotten moderator approved yet...

Here's my LevelLoader script http://pastebin.com/mZcfPf0m

Player script http://pastebin.com/zydcF4WV

GameManager http://pastebin.com/V5zPPmWy

MainMenu http://pastebin.com/JFwnKbvF

Level (4) is the world select hub where the player can move around to choose the next level via nodes around the area. It sends you there whenever you beat a level and press continue, and whenever you press continue or new game at the main menu screen.

So if I run the game from the main menu screen and press new game, it takes me to level (4) (level select hub) like it should, and I can move around fine. Then I load level one from there, complete it, press continue, and I get sent back to the world select, but I can't move.

Also, there's an object that only instantiates on a node when the level is locked. I had it working before so when you'd complete level 1, the object wouldn't instantiate on the level 2 node (indicating that it was unlocked), and when you beat level 2, the object wouldn't instantiate on the level 3 node (again, indicating it was unlocked).

Now, when I beat level 1, it sends me to the world select, I can't move, and the object doesn't get removed from the level 2 node so it still looks like it's locked.

Another note, pressing new game clears the progress so only level 1 should be unlocked. Usually if I complete level 1, I could stop running the game, run it again from the main menu scene, and I would have the option to press continue at the main menu screen to send me to the world select screen with level 1 and 2 both unlocked. But now since for whatever reason, beating level one sends me back to the world select without taking away the object from the level 2 node, the "continue" prompt at the main menu scene never shows up to me anymore.

I get no compiler errors. Could anyone help please?

 

[liliththepale]

I respectfully disagree with these two posts, in particular in regard to new indie games. I feel like people will semi-regularly mention game names on forums or whatever without providing any links or context. I would then typically go google "name here" (no quotes) followed by "name here game" (no quotes) possibly followed by 'allintext: "name here" game' (using double quotes) to dig for the actual page.

I think it's at least possible that making me go through multiple steps to find a game, especially if it is so small and obscure that it is not near the top on Google, can turn me off a little on a game. If it's a hassle to dig up information, there are so many other games that I may just not bother unless it looks super interesting.

That's fine. I'm only speaking from my own experience, and you obviously are speaking from yours. It's in the best interest to cater to the greatest common denominator here. I appreciate your explanation.

 

[Jobbs]

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this?

In photoshop, I map undo (control Z) to a button on the stylus. I've been doing this for the past 8 years. Ever since adopting the latest photoshop and windows 8 some months ago, though, all I get is bullshit, and this is one example. The little "ctrl" tooltip thing pops up whenever I press undo, which I find so completely distracting that my heart fills with rage every time it pops up. I can't even explain to you how much this shit is driving me crazy.

Photoshop is also laggier in general. Things were BETTER on my old crappy computer, outdated photoshop, and an intuos3 from 2006. Now with the most modern everything, shit is laggy and full of little glitches pertaining to brush switching and more. How do they manage to make everything worse and worse over the years?

 

[timetokill]

Feature bloat, son!

 

[WanderingWind]

^^ You are right.

Developer and game sites aren't like sites for other projects. There's little use for SEO optimization unless you are simply trying to deliver more accurate results for specific keyword searches like "Game Name" where you are trying to aggregate more info and websites for a page 1 landing. People who have heard about your game or studio will more than likely have a link to a site or social media persona.

Well, you're sort of right, but this is where indie game developers without a seasoned marketing mind often go wrong. It's easy to get caught up in your own bubble and think that it's enough. Sure, you have followers on Twitter and a site up. But what about the people outside of that particular bubble? You should be doing everything reasonable in your power to reach out to people that haven't heard about your game or studio.

Proper SEO optimization for your game is absolutely a necessity. There is a great big world outside of the bubble of carefully cultivated friends, fellow indie devs and the like. Just try to remember that you are one indie developer among millions. Millions.

And it doesn't have to be all that difficult. I can't even begin to tell you how many sites I've inspected that haven't even bothered with proper OG tagging. Or how many indie devs who name their game some very basic thing and wonder why they can't get mindshare penetration. Or who have sites that aren't mobile friendly. Or have a site with some basic "LOOK FOR INDIE GAME 3,292,102 COMING SOON " and nothing else. Or sites that don't link in with their social media presence. Or hell, don't have either a site or a social media presence.

These things matter if you want to get your game out there. Understandably, having a lot of people play your game is not every indie devs goal. In which case, kudos. Do you. But if your goal is to have a large, loyal fanbase, you have to brush the chip off your shoulder and remember that you need to worry somewhat about marketing considerations.

 

[V_Arnold]

Indeed, it is invaluable to have a site with unique, google-indexable content. You need to set your site structure, loading speed, mobile versions right, and you will need to have content there that is actually useful in ranking your page.

Heck, even a few generic articles about the details of your game's development can get you links from visitors that search for a few specific problems and then stay on the page to find out the project that you just described.

SEO is as important as ever. The only thing where SEO does not matter is the application's page itself (in case you have a web-playable game). But the rest of the site? Very important.

 

[derFeef]

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this?

In photoshop, I map undo (control Z) to a button on the stylus. I've been doing this for the past 8 years. Ever since adopting the latest photoshop and windows 8 some months ago, though, all I get is bullshit, and this is one example. The little "ctrl" tooltip thing pops up whenever I press undo, which I find so completely distracting that my heart fills with rage every time it pops up. I can't even explain to you how much this shit is driving me crazy.

Photoshop is also laggier in general. Things were BETTER on my old crappy computer, outdated photoshop, and an intuos3 from 2006. Now with the most modern everything, shit is laggy and full of little glitches pertaining to brush switching and more. How do they manage to make everything worse and worse over the years?

I found out actually turning off hardware rendering (Use Graphic Processor) is better for painting performance in photoshop.

 

[Kitbash]

Ok I have a Unity problem again. I'll just copy and paste something I posted to the official Unity questions forum 3 hours ago that hasn't gotten moderator approved yet...

I had a look through the scripts, but couldn't spot the problem(s). It's tricky if you have no compiler errors and 2-3 different bugs to troubleshoot.

My suggestion would be to add some Debug.Log() messages (or use the Inspector) to make sure you know exactly what's happening. For example, if you think the LevelLoaders are acting strangely, find out what value each one is getting for completedLevel. This will help you narrow things down -- i.e. is the problem in the LevelLoader code, or is the wrong "Level Completed" value getting set somewhere?

 

[Chaos]

Photoshop is also laggier in general. Things were BETTER on my old crappy computer, outdated photoshop, and an intuos3 from 2006. Now with the most modern everything, shit is laggy and full of little glitches pertaining to brush switching and more. How do they manage to make everything worse and worse over the years?

Seen a few folk using Paintstorm Studio if you fancy a change.
$20 for a lifetime license.

 

[Jacksinthe]

I respectfully disagree with these two posts, in particular in regard to new indie games. I feel like people will semi-regularly mention game names on forums or whatever without providing any links or context. I would then typically go google "name here" (no quotes) followed by "name here game" (no quotes) possibly followed by 'allintext: "name here" game' (using double quotes) to dig for the actual page.

I think it's at least possible that making me go through multiple steps to find a game, especially if it is so small and obscure that it is not near the top on Google, can turn me off a little on a game. If it's a hassle to dig up information, there are so many other games that I may just not bother unless it looks super interesting.

Well, you're sort of right, but this is where indie game developers without a seasoned marketing mind often go wrong. It's easy to get caught up in your own bubble and think that it's enough. Sure, you have followers on Twitter and a site up. But what about the people outside of that particular bubble? You should be doing everything reasonable in your power to reach out to people that haven't heard about your game or studio.

Proper SEO optimization for your game is absolutely a necessity. There is a great big world outside of the bubble of carefully cultivated friends, fellow indie devs and the like. Just try to remember that you are one indie developer among millions. Millions.

And it doesn't have to be all that difficult. I can't even begin to tell you how many sites I've inspected that haven't even bothered with proper OG tagging. Or how many indie devs who name their game some very basic thing and wonder why they can't get mindshare penetration. Or who have sites that aren't mobile friendly. Or have a site with some basic "LOOK FOR INDIE GAME 3,292,102 COMING SOON " and nothing else. Or sites that don't link in with their social media presence. Or hell, don't have either a site or a social media presence.

These things matter if you want to get your game out there. Understandably, having a lot of people play your game is not every indie devs goal. In which case, kudos. Do you. But if your goal is to have a large, loyal fanbase, you have to brush the chip off your shoulder and remember that you need to worry somewhat about marketing considerations.

I disagree with both, to an extent. I rarely ever see a game being mentioned for the first time without a link to at the least a screenshot, let alone a video from official channels which makes it super easy to find, a Twitter or FB link, etc. Very rare for me to run across that sort of thing. Then the actual name of the game needs to be taken into account - how unique is it? How many other sites point to it?

I did mention SEO for 1st page accuracy by "game name" so don't think I didn't suggest it.

SEO is only part of the solution. The more alternate sites that reference "game name" and link you, the better. Again, to my earlier point, SEO works for "game name" and that's about it. A name match. Nobody will look for your game the same way they look for and compare vacuums or microwaves. So going all out on SEO is a fool's errand - people search by "game name" or, as stated, "game name game" - looking to SEO deep with genre names, characters, mecahnics, etc - isn't needed, IMO. Light optimization for direct name search is best. Google tends to ignore meta and OG tags for link standing last I checked (earlier this year) so to try and optimize a direct search using those methods seems pointless, to me.

The BEST method to get noticed? Make noise. Don't just expect people to find you no matter HOW good your SEO is. That is the real problem, not web searches. When we were using "Strafe" we had the number 1 result and still had it for several weeks after we stopped using it. That wasn't due to SEO - that was because we made enough noise everywhere else - we didn't need to do much oher than name our page "Strafe". That's it. That's literally all we did, but we were getting the name out there ourselves.

SEO is fine for direct "game name" match for improving page 1 results, but beyond that, nope. Nobody will search for "platformer with a little blue pixel guy that throws things" and land on my site. They will be doing direct searches for exact cases and that is far enough.

 

[Unain]

Ok I have a Unity problem again. I'll just copy and paste something I posted to the official Unity questions forum 3 hours ago that hasn't gotten moderator approved yet...

I don't see the problem atm, but you could try and make it a little less complicated.
You should look into DontDestroyOnLoad. Put that on your GameManager object and keep all your level logic in there.
At the moment you have level logic in 3 separate classes which makes your code really annoying to debug.
The player should just ask the GameManager where he is supposed to be or going level-wise (containing it in one class).

 

[JNT]

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this?

In photoshop, I map undo (control Z) to a button on the stylus. I've been doing this for the past 8 years. Ever since adopting the latest photoshop and windows 8 some months ago, though, all I get is bullshit, and this is one example. The little "ctrl" tooltip thing pops up whenever I press undo, which I find so completely distracting that my heart fills with rage every time it pops up. I can't even explain to you how much this shit is driving me crazy.

Photoshop is also laggier in general. Things were BETTER on my old crappy computer, outdated photoshop, and an intuos3 from 2006. Now with the most modern everything, shit is laggy and full of little glitches pertaining to brush switching and more. How do they manage to make everything worse and worse over the years?

This is the reason why it's so laggy.

 

[anteevy]

If I search "Ghost Song" my game comes up before The Doors' song, whereas that didn't used to be the case. I feel like I buried Jim Morrison a second time.

When googling for my game, I'm always surprised how many people just can't type "Role Playing Game" correctly.

 

[itsmanny]

Hey guys,

since our last game SliceZombies (www.slicezombies.com) has been released a few months ago we just started to work on a new project. This time we're trying to do something more serious.

Check out some very, very early shots:

Hope you like it ^^ You can see more screenshots on our blog http://madeapps.tumblr.com



Manny

 

[WanderingWind]

I disagree with both, to an extent. I rarely ever see a game being mentioned for the first time without a link to at the least a screenshot, let alone a video from official channels which makes it super easy to find, a Twitter or FB link, etc. Very rare for me to run across that sort of thing. Then the actual name of the game needs to be taken into account - how unique is it? How many other sites point to it?

I did mention SEO for 1st page accuracy by "game name" so don't think I didn't suggest it.

SEO is only part of the solution. The more alternate sites that reference "game name" and link you, the better. Again, to my earlier point, SEO works for "game name" and that's about it. A name match. Nobody will look for your game the same way they look for and compare vacuums or microwaves. So going all out on SEO is a fool's errand - people search by "game name" or, as stated, "game name game" - looking to SEO deep with genre names, characters, mecahnics, etc - isn't needed, IMO. Light optimization for direct name search is best. Google tends to ignore meta and OG tags for link standing last I checked (earlier this year) so to try and optimize a direct search using those methods seems pointless, to me.

The BEST method to get noticed? Make noise. Don't just expect people to find you no matter HOW good your SEO is. That is the real problem, not web searches. When we were using "Strafe" we had the number 1 result and still had it for several weeks after we stopped using it. That wasn't due to SEO - that was because we made enough noise everywhere else - we didn't need to do much oher than name our page "Strafe". That's it. That's literally all we did, but we were getting the name out there ourselves.

SEO is fine for direct "game name" match for improving page 1 results, but beyond that, nope. Nobody will search for "platformer with a little blue pixel guy that throws things" and land on my site. They will be doing direct searches for exact cases and that is far enough.

No offense, but you're not actually saying anything that runs counter to anything I or Blizzard said. I don't think anybody thinks or believes that proper compliance with web standard/best practices is the be all and end all of marketing. Nor is anybody saying to "go all out" by adding a bunch of ridiculous stuff. That's old behavior and it's why Google no longer looks at meta keyword tags. What I very clearly talked about was proper OG tags, which are still very important. Some of your site even uses OG tagging, so it's clear that you're not against using them. I think you simply misunderstood what I was talking about. Because your own site and actions show that we're in complete agreement.

Bottom line: Proper optimization doesn't take more than a few hours (if you're inexperienced). You have everything to gain by paying it some attention and literally nothing to lose.

 

[Risk Breaker]

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys, I think I'll keep brainstorming names for a bit until I come up with something less divisive. Also nice to see a conversation about how to get more exposure, or rather, how not to screw yourself and make it harder to get exposure. I think it's quite important. I don't think I will get rich with this, but it would be nice to get people to know about it at least.

Wow, how am I supposed to follow that up with my voxel humans? XD
Also, neither of those titles really sparks my interest, but at least the latter suggests something like... sci-fi or something.

Uh, anyway..... ;__;

Hahah, I don't think our models are really comparable, they're going for completely different styles Mine is still a looong way before it can be used ingame, too.

Twelfth isn't a good word.

Agreed :/ I'm sure it would be misspelled everywhere, too. Four vowels wtf.

Could do the classic "Twe12e"

Hahah, maybe I could use 2elve.

 

[KevinCow]

Are there any artists here looking for a game to hop on? My artist says he's kinda overwhelmed and could use some help.

I posted a screenshot earlier in the thread if you want to see what we're looking for. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in helping with either backgrounds or character animation.

 

[Jacksinthe]

No offense, but you're not actually saying anything that runs counter to anything I or Blizzard said. I don't think anybody thinks or believes that proper compliance with web standard/best practices is the be all and end all of marketing. Nor is anybody saying to "go all out" by adding a bunch of ridiculous stuff. That's old behavior and it's why Google no longer looks at meta keyword tags. What I very clearly talked about was proper OG tags, which are still very important. Some of your site even uses OG tagging, so it's clear that you're not against using them. I think you simply misunderstood what I was talking about. Because your own site and actions show that we're in complete agreement.

Bottom line: Proper optimization doesn't take more than a few hours (if you're inexperienced). You have everything to gain by paying it some attention and literally nothing to lose.

Oh I did say something completely counter to what Blizz said about his believing the norm is "Thread Title: New Inide, Post Body: Twelve is awesome" (suggesting most posts about new IPs say so little they are impossible to find via Google) and for you, I spun from your comment on "proper SEO optimization" being necessary. My idea of "prooper" isnt letting WordPress do it for you with very little thought or time put into it or a few social media links - its much more involved than that. Then again I used to do web work a long time ago for different stuff so SEO was a huge PITA - "proper" to me means sweeping the corners of the room, too. I know you dialed it back in the next paragraph but calling it a necessity prior and my interpretation of "proper" is where we crossed the streams.

 

[Dead Prince]

Seen a few folk using Paintstorm Studio if you fancy a change.
$20 for a lifetime license.

i never heard of this program but bought it anyways. ended up buying the 2 license (desktop and backup)

 

[itsmanny]

i never heard of this program but bought it anyways. ended up buying the 2 license (desktop and backup)

If you're using OSX I recommend you checking out Affinity Photo as an alternative to photoshop. We've switched from Adobe CS to using Affinity Desinger and Affinity Photo and we're not looking back. It's a really great tool, and has 100% PSD compatibility. It was the first tool to ever open a 150 MB PSD file , well besides photoshop of course

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

 

[kiguel182]

So, I reached a stage of my prototype where I really need to get people to play it to have a feel of how things are going. It's still in a very (very) early stage and it might totally suck so that's why I need to share it.

Problem is, I have no idea of a good way to host the html/unity file so I can share a link to it to have people play it. I would prefer a free and simple way to do it of course. The alternative being packing the two files on a zip and having them for download.

Anyway, it would be great if someone could help me with this and hopefully I can post it here later to try and get some feedback.

 

[2+2=5]

This is the reason why it's so laggy.

Honestly that sounds really naive to me, i like Krita(free and awesome for painting, not for pixel art though, download it!) for example, this is its brush setting screen:

Do you see all those words under "common"? Those are all screens with other settings.

Each stroke in krita take into account of all those variables and something similar happens in photoshop, gimp etc. It's too easy to be faster with a simple stroke, when papaya will have a similar level of complexity i bet it will be way slower.

 

[Interfectum]

Anyone doing Ludum Dare this weekend? Thinking about jumping in, but doing the Jam and not 48 hour deal...

 

[Cptkrush]

Been working on a Space Shooter type game for about a week now, and suddenly found my self taking some influence from Just Cause:

So you can eject from your ship:

Then you can have the ship come and pick you up:

Or you can use a grapnel to get dragged directly to the ship:

Or you can use both options so it's even quicker!

I'm thinking you'll be able to grapnel to any ship, and hijack them. In fact the name I'm using for the project file right now is Hijacker. Potentially thinking of having the player start with no ship, and allowing them to buy one as they acquire money. I'm tossing around the idea of making it Rogue-likey, and making ships perma destroyed including all of your cargo, and allowing the player to purchase insurance on ships in order to have some form of monetary way to continue. Right now my wrist is sprained, so I can't really do a whole lot of work on it comfortably, and I'm super bummed out. The flying around and grapnelling is so fun!

 

[Blizzard]

This is the reason why it's so laggy.

If it's laggy because it's not using GPU acceleration, how does that explain the "I found out actually turning off hardware rendering (Use Graphic Processor) is better for painting performance in photoshop." experience of the above poster? Is that experience rare and usually the hardware rendering option in Photoshop works better? Or, is Photoshop doing hardware rendering but not (probably) calculating pixel drawing with shaders and the like?

Oh I did say something completely counter to what Blizz said about his believing the norm is "Thread Title: New Inide, Post Body: Twelve is awesome" (suggesting most posts about new IPs say so little they are impossible to find via Google)

I did not say that. I said this sentence: "I feel like people will semi-regularly mention game names on forums or whatever without providing any links or context."

In regard to the first part of your interpretation, I have probably not seen someone making a new thread like that, and I did not even say anything about threads. I am referring to, typically, posts on internet forums.
In regard to the second part of your interpretation, I did not suggest "most" posts about new IPs are that way. I said "semi-regularly". I think it may happen sometimes, in my experience, but maybe I am wrong.
In regard to the third part of your interpretation, I did not say "impossible to find via Google" -- instead, I elaborated on having to take a few extra steps to look up something. Speaking personally, as a consumer, I then said it's "at least possible" that those extra steps "can turn me off a little on a game."


Your interpretation is so strange to me that it seems borderline offensive in the sense of putting words in my mouth. I was merely trying to provide a respectful disagreement based on my own experience as an internet user and consumer.

 

[Jacksinthe]

If it's laggy because it's not using GPU acceleration, how does that explain the "I found out actually turning off hardware rendering (Use Graphic Processor) is better for painting performance in photoshop." experience of the above poster? Is that experience rare and usually the hardware rendering option in Photoshop works better? Or, is Photoshop doing hardware rendering but not (probably) calculating pixel drawing with shaders and the like?


I did not say that. I said this sentence: "I feel like people will semi-regularly mention game names on forums or whatever without providing any links or context."

In regard to the first part of your interpretation, I have probably not seen someone making a new thread like that, and I did not even say anything about threads. I am referring to, typically, posts on internet forums.
In regard to the second part of your interpretation, I did not suggest "most" posts about new IPs are that way. I said "semi-regularly". I think it may happen sometimes, in my experience, but maybe I am wrong.
In regard to the third part of your interpretation, I did not say "impossible to find via Google" -- instead, I elaborated on having to take a few extra steps to look up something. Speaking personally, as a consumer, I then said it's "at least possible" that those extra steps "can turn me off a little on a game."


Your interpretation is so strange to me that it seems borderline offensive in the sense of putting words in my mouth. I was merely trying to provide a respectful disagreement based on my own experience as an internet user and consumer.

Exaggeration != Interpretation

You are overthinking it, dude.

 

[Blizzard]

Day 3 of Ludum Dare voting is up. I could go for some of these:

Artificial Intelligence
Asymmetric
Build Your Way Out
Consequences
Death is Not the End
Destroying Yourself
Dreamscape
It Spreads!
It Was Not Supposed to Work Like That
Misplaced in Time
Multiple Layers
Mutation
No Combat
Parallel Dimension
Revolution
Shadows
Stick Together
Strange World
Unusual Movement
You are Not Supposed to Be Here

 

[dancrane212]

Guess my model didn't want to go into Unity...

Fixed the issue in Blender (and flipped the normals for some parts of the legs) so aside from the left leg being much lighter than the right no matter what material I use things are looking good.

 

[JNT]

If it's laggy because it's not using GPU acceleration, how does that explain the "I found out actually turning off hardware rendering (Use Graphic Processor) is better for painting performance in photoshop." experience of the above poster? Is that experience rare and usually the hardware rendering option in Photoshop works better? Or, is Photoshop doing hardware rendering but not (probably) calculating pixel drawing with shaders and the like?

The author's point is not so much that GIMP lacks GPU support. Rather, I believe the point he is making is that the brush filling algorithm that GIMP uses has poor performance characteristics (i.e. O(n^2) where n is brush radius). As such, it performs much worse as brush size increases. Ideally, brush size is not a factor in performance. Granted, I've extrapolated that conclusion to apply to Photoshop as well when that's not necessarily true. All things considered, however, it does seem like a plausible explanation.

Honestly that sounds really naive to me, i like Krita(free and awesome for painting, not for pixel art though, download it!) for example, this is its brush setting screen:

Do you see all those words under "common"? Those are all screens with other settings.

Each stroke in krita take into account of all those variables and something similar happens in photoshop, gimp etc. It's too easy to be faster with a simple stroke, when papaya will have a similar level of complexity i bet it will be way slower.

The performance and features of Papaya are irrelevant. I was sharing the author's conclusions as to why professional tools perform badly to begin with. The point here was never to advertise a tool that has yet to reach maturity.

 

[Peltz]

Guess my model didn't want to go into Unity...

So that scene in Grandma's Boy where the character's head falls off is legit? That actually can happen?

 

[Gherid__lacksGPS]

Hey peeps, noob trying to code. Have a hover craft that works well enough off tutorials, code examples, etc. Trying to make it strafe and here's what I have.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class HoverStrafe : MonoBehaviour {

public float strafe;
public Rigidbody rb;

void Start() {
rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();

}

void FixedUpdate() {
rb.AddForce(transform.forward * strafe);

if (Input.GetButton("StrafeRight"))
rb.velocity = new Vector3(1, 0, 0) * strafe;

if (Input.GetButton("StrafeLeft"))
rb.velocity = new Vector3(-1, 0, 0) * strafe;
}
}

The inputs work fine but Vector3 is global and only moves object as such. Would like to make the movement local to the game object. Obviously I'm doing something very wrong, so any tips would be appreciated. Note that I've already assigned "GetAxis" in another script which handles turning / braking etc. Thanks peeps.

Edit: C# unity

 

[bkw]

Hey peeps, noob trying to code. Have a hover craft that works well enough off tutorials, code examples, etc. Trying to make it strafe and here's what I have.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class HoverStrafe : MonoBehaviour {

public float strafe;
public Rigidbody rb;

void Start() {
rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();

}

void FixedUpdate() {
rb.AddForce(transform.forward * strafe);

if (Input.GetButton("StrafeRight"))
rb.velocity = new Vector3(1, 0, 0) * strafe;

if (Input.GetButton("StrafeLeft"))
rb.velocity = new Vector3(-1, 0, 0) * strafe;
}
}

The inputs work fine but Vector3 is global and only moves object as such. Would like to make the movement local to the game object. Obviously I'm doing something very wrong, so any tips would be appreciated. Note that I've already assigned "GetAxis" in another script which handles turning / braking etc. Thanks peeps.

Edit: C# unity

Moving forward works correctly right? You're apply the forward force in the game object's forward direction (transform.forward), which is correct, while for strafing you're applying it to global right (new Vector3(1, 0, 0), and global left (new Vector(-1, 0, 0). Try applying it to the right of your game object, so transform.right.

For right
rb.AddForce(transform.right * strafe);

and

rb.AddForce(-transform.right * strafe);

(Note: I'm using AddForce for strafing here. I'm not sure what you intended movement design is, given that you were directly setting the velocity in your original code. Maybe you want to only apply forward force if no inputs are down?)

 

[TheHollowNight]

The Art of Gibs

 

[KevinCow]

Why can't every part of game development be fun? Right now I'm tediously dragging and dropping scenery into my game just to make it look decent, but it's sooo boring compared to the actual coding part.

Oh well. You gotta do what you gotta do. Once I'm done with this basic level, I'll have enough to start showing it to people and getting some thoughts on whether it's fun or not.

 

[Jobbs]

The Art of Gibs

I like the execution generally, but it would look a lot better if major body part gibs spawned in place of the major body parts of where the enemy was. So leg shaped gibs spawn where the legs were, etc.

I do something like this.

http://gfycat.com/CapitalArcticCrownofthornsstarfish

In htis test you can see where the "generic gibs" spawned.

Set into motion, it produces a body explosion effect.

http://gfycat.com/JointGlitteringGroundbeetle

 

[Glendemonium]

Hey guys,

since our last game SliceZombies (www.slicezombies.com) has been released a few months ago we just started to work on a new project. This time we're trying to do something more serious.

Check out some very, very early shots:

Hope you like it ^^ You can see more screenshots on our blog http://madeapps.tumblr.com


Manny

Whoa, this is really good! This done with the Unreal Engine?

 

[Gherid__lacksGPS]

Moving forward works correctly right? You're apply the forward force in the game object's forward direction (transform.forward), which is correct, while for strafing you're applying it to global right (new Vector3(1, 0, 0), and global left (new Vector(-1, 0, 0). Try applying it to the right of your game object, so transform.right.

For right
rb.AddForce(transform.right * strafe);

and

rb.AddForce(-transform.right * strafe);

(Note: I'm using AddForce for strafing here. I'm not sure what you intended movement design is, given that you were directly setting the velocity in your original code. Maybe you want to only apply forward force if no inputs are down?)

Awesome, got it. Thanks much, that worked great. Yup, forward is fine. Not sure about the exact mechanic yet, just trying to get something moving lateral. Though, i'm waffling between something like a "burst" strafe or constant. I messed with rigidbody.velocity for bursts, but it just felt weird when flowing from turns, forward, jumps, etc. I then went with relative force and forcemode.impulse after trying out your suggestion, they feel very similar. I was under the impression from some reading that impulse kinda takes the place of velocity in some instances? Doesn't really have the "pop" that velocity gives, maybe I'm doing something wrong (probably). If I go burst style i'll work on cooldowns, Be nice if I could go burst, then into a slower, constant strafe, buuuut as long as i'm moving laterally, we'll work with that ,haha.

Again, thanks much. Current code.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class HoverStrafeAlt : MonoBehaviour {

public float boost;
public float strafe;

void FixedUpdate() {
if (Input.GetButton("StrafeRight"))
rigidbody.AddRelativeForce((Vector3.right * strafe),ForceMode.Impulse);

if (Input.GetButton("StrafeLeft"))
rigidbody.AddRelativeForce((Vector3.left * strafe),ForceMode.Impulse);

if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.LeftShift))
rigidbody.AddRelativeForce((Vector3.forward * boost),ForceMode.Impulse);
}
}

 

[derFeef]

Why can't every part of game development be fun? Right now I'm tediously dragging and dropping scenery into my game just to make it look decent, but it's sooo boring compared to the actual coding part.

Oh well. You gotta do what you gotta do. Once I'm done with this basic level, I'll have enough to start showing it to people and getting some thoughts on whether it's fun or not.

See, for me it's more fun to build scenery and levels. Coding is real work and brainpain for me, maybe because I am still learning. It takes me a long time to get something to where I can try if it's actual a good idea or fun to play. Most of the time it's just neat to look at and then.. uhh.. nope