GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay

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Hello!

My "tentative-title" shmup using GMS is proceeding. I have a date too!
close to Half Life 3 release :B

Working on Mars level and I'm abusing on tiles, I'm at almost one third of the background and I've drawn already 201 tiles over the partial map of 52x10. I don't use the built in tiles system but I've made one myself using sprites with subimages.

Made a few asteroids too for the space level.

Fixed a bit of stuff here and there...

Bonus pics!
5XipQCP.png


pLDD0rV.png


AZgYota.png
Click to expand...
 
Hi again, our game Tank isn't doing very in the first 10 days of kickstarter (we know that it would be really hard with our little game). We hoped that a solid demo of a late build will show that we're serious about our game, although we're unknown developers. At least the greenlight is doing better. But regardless of the outcome, at the we'll learn a lot about this amazing and scary thing that it's the independent game development.

We're still working very hard to promote the game, and we have a new trailer to show all the features of the game in a funny way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYHSCazA2h8
 
Candescence said:
Jump links are finally a thing! Well, sorta. For starters, there's too fucking many.

jumparcsinteresting.png


I'll definately need to figure out how to prune the unnecessary jump links. And actually calculating them certainly takes a while, even with such a small map. I'll need to figure out how to generate the grid in the editor and actually keep the grid data preserved.
Click to expand...

Looks like you just need to limit the distance when searching for jump targets, unless the enemies can jump to any target.
Excluding every target that is further than a certain distance would make it a lot faster at least.
 
Nezzhil said:
Hi again, our game Tank isn't doing very in the first 10 days of kickstarter (we know that it would be really hard with our little game). We hoped that a solid demo of a late build will show that we're serious about our game, although we're unknown developers. At least the greenlight is doing better. But regardless of the outcome, at the we'll learn a lot about this amazing and scary thing that it's the independent game development.

We're still working very hard to promote the game, and we have a new trailer to show all the features of the game in a funny way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYHSCazA2h8
Click to expand...

A link in your description and an annotation link at the end to your KickStarter would help drive traffic.
 
Hinomura said:
Hello!

My "tentative-title" shmup using GMS is proceeding. I have a date too!
close to Half Life 3 release :B

Working on Mars level and I'm abusing on tiles, I'm at almost one third of the background and I've drawn already 201 tiles over the partial map of 52x10. I don't use the built in tiles system but I've made one myself using sprites with subimages.

Made a few asteroids too for the space level.

Fixed a bit of stuff here and there...

Bonus pics!
Click to expand...
Was wondering where you were. Your Truxton-like SHMUP is looking fab, yo. In my veins with it, plz.
 
Unain said:
Looks like you just need to limit the distance when searching for jump targets, unless the enemies can jump to any target.
Excluding every target that is further than a certain distance would make it a lot faster at least.
Click to expand...

Well, I do have minimum and maximum jump height and horizontal speed set in place, but the other big issue is that the jumps calculated also includes numerous links that are otherwise traversable via walk or fall links.

However, I've also decided that I should probably put in an in-game 'edit mode' that lets me modify the nodes and their links, including removing and placing links manually, which would be neat. Would take some work, but hopefully it'd be worth it.
 
Hinomura said:
Hello!

My "tentative-title" shmup using GMS is proceeding. I have a date too!
close to Half Life 3 release :B

Working on Mars level and I'm abusing on tiles, I'm at almost one third of the background and I've drawn already 201 tiles over the partial map of 52x10. I don't use the built in tiles system but I've made one myself using sprites with subimages.

Made a few asteroids too for the space level.

Fixed a bit of stuff here and there...

Bonus pics!
Click to expand...
Your bonus pictures seem to be broken for me.
 
Candescence said:
Well, I do have minimum and maximum jump height and horizontal speed set in place, but the other big issue is that the jumps calculated also includes numerous links that are otherwise traversable via walk or fall links.

However, I've also decided that I should probably put in an in-game 'edit mode' that lets me modify the nodes and their links, including removing and placing links manually, which would be neat. Would take some work, but hopefully it'd be worth it.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see.
Ideally you could probably calculate it which would save you a lot of work, but editing it in-game is a good option too. I'm more of a try-to-calculate everything kind of guy just so every level automatically get populated.

Good luck on the edit-mode!
 
New GUI:

SaQWQDF.png
Click to expand...

It's simpler because I don't want to distract player from the environment.
Alice-B (Cyberpunk) has some special system to read people's emotions, which can help in the game (Hint: The surgery in her head).
 
mStudios said:
New GUI:

It's simpler because I don't want to distract player from the environment.
Alice-B (Cyberpunk) has some special system to read people's emotions, which can help in the game (Hint: The surgery in her head).
Click to expand...

Do you plan to add a margin or border to those menu options in the top right? I don't really play visual novels so I don't know if that's just a standard look for them, but the 4 buttons look too close together to me, and without a border separating them it looks a bit disorganized. It doesn't help either that the buttons seem to have different margins around them at the moment - there's more empty space between Inventory and Settings than there is between Settings and Save, and that looks odd to me.

A border would probably be too distracting from the environment on the screen, as you said, but maybe moving the buttons a few more pixels away from each other wouldn't hurt?

Sorry if that sounds like nitpicking, just offering some feedback :P Everything else in the shot looks great!
 
Valen said:
Do you plan to add a margin or border to those menu options in the top right? I don't really play visual novels so I don't know if that's just a standard look for them, but the 4 buttons look too close together to me, and without a border separating them it looks a bit disorganized. It doesn't help either that the buttons seem to have different margins around them at the moment - there's more empty space between Inventory and Settings than there is between Settings and Save, and that looks odd to me.

A border would probably be too distracting from the environment on the screen, as you said, but maybe moving the buttons a few more pixels away from each other wouldn't hurt?

Sorry if that sounds like nitpicking, just offering some feedback :P Everything else in the shot looks great!
Click to expand...

Opinions are very welcome.

As for the menu, I will separated them a little bit more, as you say. I might add a | or -, not sure what, yet.
 
Hinomura said:
Hello!

My "tentative-title" shmup using GMS is proceeding. I have a date too!
close to Half Life 3 release :B

Working on Mars level and I'm abusing on tiles, I'm at almost one third of the background and I've drawn already 201 tiles over the partial map of 52x10. I don't use the built in tiles system but I've made one myself using sprites with subimages.

Made a few asteroids too for the space level.

Fixed a bit of stuff here and there...

Bonus pics!
Click to expand...

Lovely looking game, really captures those old school shmup aesthetics! :>

Michael Armbrust said:
Is there still a separate #screenshotsaturday thread for sharing, or should pics just be posted here?
Click to expand...

desu said:
It still exists: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=853735&page=8 been a bit quite lately though.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd post in that more but then it'd just be a list on successive images from me so I stopped posting in it!
 
What do you guys do when it comes to figuring out minimum system requirements? Best guess based on profiling? Actually having a bunch of old computers to test on? Lowest specs of a beta tester?
 
bkw said:
What do you guys do when it comes to figuring out minimum system requirements? Best guess based on profiling? Actually having a bunch of old computers to test on? Lowest specs of a beta tester?
Click to expand...

Best guess based on profiling, plus making sure it (eventually) runs acceptably on my roommate's piece of shit machine.
 
Jobbs said:
I put Matilda into the game.

matildaingame720.png
Click to expand...

All of the fungal mass there looks so good, but it makes me wonder what the air composition is and whether there are all sorts of spores floating about, yet Matilda doesn't seem to be wearing any breathing apparatus. Am I misreading the situation, or will I have to play the game to find an answer? :)
 
liliththepale said:
All of the fungal mass there looks so good, but it makes me wonder what the air composition is and whether there are all sorts of spores floating about, yet Matilda doesn't seem to be wearing any breathing apparatus. Am I misreading the situation, or will I have to play the game to find an answer? :)
Click to expand...

Thank you :) When the game takes place Matilda is not exactly alive in the way we generally think of people as being alive, so air quality is not a major concern.
 
HellBlazer said:
Oh, well no. I mean, it's a map/level editor, it does not make your graphics for you.

Plenty of free tilesets on Open Game Arts though, if that's what you want.

You could also look into RPG Maker if you want an all-in-one engine with ready-made graphics. Not sure if it supports SRPG-type battles though.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this link by the way. I found some CC0-tiles there for things I struggled with (grass, lava) and am very happy with this. I really feel my poor artskills will hurt the game (meaning the user experience, not the sales, I don't want to earn money with the game, other than hoping to gain back what I paid for the dev kit) in the end :/.
 
mStudios said:
New GUI:



It's simpler because I don't want to distract player from the environment.
Alice-B (Cyberpunk) has some special system to read people's emotions, which can help in the game (Hint: The surgery in her head).
Click to expand...

I think it looks great, but yeah, maybe the top right needs some kind of buttons. Also im not sure about that font color for the character names. It blends too much with the background.
 
I've been using Blender most of the time for my 3D Moddeling, but I thought it might be time for an upgrade.. Should I rather stick to C4D, MODO or something else?
 
Warm Machine said:
This is an image of the reskin / update to our game Star Bridge on iOS

relaunched01.jpg


This is the exact same game, art ,and everything if we moved the camera, added image effects, and made a PC / VR version.

starbridgepca.jpg


In reality it would probably look better as reflections are not on and the Unity window is resolution strapped so it is harder to nail down the image effect sliders in the dev window.
Click to expand...

Holy shit, it`s Zaxxon nnnnnnnnext gen. Looks awesome.
 
SpacePirate Ridley said:
I think it looks great, but yeah, maybe the top right needs some kind of buttons. Also im not sure about that font color for the character names. It blends too much with the background.
Click to expand...

Fixed some of the issues. But I'm not done yet with the interface. I might add some simple buttons to the top right menu as you said.

HqT9a5A.png
Click to expand...

I think the two left boxes looks pretty plain.

ugh, there are some grammar mistakes in the picture.
 
Hinomura said:
Delicious screenshot as usual! ^___^
Click to expand...

mStudios said:
I'm still shocked that you are doing this game with Stencyl. Last time I tried it it was kinda "wack."
Click to expand...

Bloodember said:
Every time you show more screenshots or gifs gets me even more excited for your game. I can't wait till you release it.
Click to expand...

Thank you guys. :)

To respond to the Stencyl remark, it has its pluses and minuses, but ultimately it's just a canvas. If you work hard and put the graphics and scripting together, you can make something cool.
 
I really feel for the Dev who is making Socuwan, he spent 3 years creating his engine/game from scratch, started a Kickstarter and the internet was pretty brutal to him.

Regardless what people think of the game I think its pretty cool what he achieved.

https://youtu.be/aXp461OQrgk
 
I have a problem. I end up wasting time even when I'm making awful placeholder art that I know I'll replace. I need to train myself to go "THIS IS GARBAGE AND THAT IS OKAY" in such situations instead of trying to even tweak it much.

As a bonus, the ugly art will motivate me to eventually replace it instead of trying to keep it! :P
 
Kalentan said:
Honestly one of the things that's been plaguing me as of late is... Do people think my character art is ugly or worse think it's lazy?

Link to an earlier post for those that want to see it.

I mean... Granted it's not as hard to make characters as some other sprites would be... but I always put thought into the designs.
Click to expand...
I'm personally not a fan, but I can see that thought goes into the designs and I probably couldn't make something that looks as good. It is also a bit unique since the Rayman style isn't very common in RPGs as far as I know.

For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of South Park either, and they also use a simple art style so they can get it done quickly and focus on other aspects.
 
Kalentan said:
Honestly one of the things that's been plaguing me as of late is... Do people think my character art is ugly or worse think it's lazy?
Click to expand...

To be a "success" in the indie space, your game needs to break through the noise somehow. This could be by way of incredible design or original mechanics, incredible presentation, amazing story, maybe even a gimmick that's just the right thing at the right time (flappy birds) -- Whatever it might be.

Since you asked, the character art you've shown looks pretty unremarkable to me. It looks amateurish. I don't think it looks "lazy", just novice.

I would say the same thing about Minecraft's art, though, especially if it was the first time I looked at it and I had no idea it was a phenomenon. So -- It's not impossible to make a great game with that art, or a successful game with that art, but judging from the character sprites I don't think the game will stand out for its presentation and anything without a strong presentation will have an extra hard time getting people to give it a chance.
 
Kalentan said:
Honestly one of the things that's been plaguing me as of late is... Do people think my character art is ugly or worse think it's lazy?

Link to an earlier post for those that want to see it.

I mean... Granted it's not as hard to make characters as some other sprites would be... but I always put thought into the designs.
Click to expand...

The one thing that sticks out to me is the hands and feet. Floating is fine, but with this pixel scale the hands and feet are just differently colored circles. Marlow Kilith looks great. His hands add to the character. With the others though, it feels like the hands and feet are tacked on and don't mesh.
 
Jobbs said:
To be a "success" in the indie space, your game needs to break through the noise somehow. This could be by way of incredible design or original mechanics, incredible presentation, amazing story, maybe even a gimmick that's just the right thing at the right time (flappy birds) -- Whatever it might be.

Since you asked, the character art you've shown looks pretty unremarkable to me. It looks amateurish. I don't think it looks "lazy", just novice.

I would say the same thing about Minecraft's art, though, especially if it was the first time I looked at it and I had no idea it was a phenomenon. So -- It's not impossible to make a great game with that art, or a successful game with that art, but judging from the character sprites I don't think the game will stand out for its presentation and anything without a strong presentation will have an extra hard time getting people to give it a chance.
Click to expand...

This is painful for me to hear. :( As I'm a solo man team. I'm trying my best but yeah... The Art isn't going to be the strong suite. In some ways I do have to put the gameplay/story in the fore front.

Michael Armbrust said:
The one thing that sticks out to me is the hands and feet. Floating is fine, but with this pixel scale the hands and feet are just differently colored circles. Marlow Kilith looks great. His hands add to the character. With the others though, it feels like the hands and feet are tacked on and don't mesh.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...

I tried to add arms... What do you think?

jV5b.png


Also Male Slimmer body test:

nV5b.png
 
Hey GAF, I just soft-launched the website for my first major game. It isn't extensive, mainly because it reflects where we are at development-wise, but before I start expanding the site and shopping the game out to publications and such, does anyone have any comments on what looks good/what should be improved/added?

Site is here: http://www.thetwelvemonthodyssey.com/

Thanks!
 
Archurro said:
Hey GAF, I just soft-launched the website for my first major game. It isn't extensive, mainly because it reflects where we are at development-wise, but before I start expanding the site and shopping the game out to publications and such, does anyone have any comments on what looks good/what should be improved/added?

Site is here: http://www.thetwelvemonthodyssey.com/

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The header is absolutely beautiful! I love it. The text not so much.

BnQ4IHR.png


Pick just one or two fonts, not four, and keep all of the links the same color. Also, I'd somehow move "subscribe to updates" to the "enter your email" box, probably as "enter email for updates" since the "subscribe" button sounds redundant.
 
Kalentan said:
Honestly one of the things that's been plaguing me as of late is... Do people think my character art is ugly or worse think it's lazy?

Link to an earlier post for those that want to see it.

I mean... Granted it's not as hard to make characters as some other sprites would be... but I always put thought into the designs.
Click to expand...

With the disclaimer that I'm not really much of a 2D RPG fan (I don't know Chrono Trigger from Final Fantasy, and all I know about Fire Emblem are the characters in Smash), I think your game looks like a generic RPG. I don't appreciate the genre and I'm not the target audience, but that's how it appears to me.

In part of your description you mention that the game is like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. What sets your game apart from them? Or if nothing does, why does your game need to exist?

Jobbs' game Ghost Song pretty casually confessed to being a Metroid-like, but the caveat was his opinion that it's been too long since a good Metroid or Metroid-like has come out, so he has the urge to play something in that vein. Fortunately for him a lot of people agreed with his sentiment, so his game was noticed and well-funded. There's another user here, Friken, who's making a game based off of old space exploration titles like Star Control, although I'm not sure if he's also found an audience still pining for that kind of game (his last update was four months ago).

I'm not asking this for my sake. It would take an awful lot for me to be interested simply because that's not a genre that appeals to me. I'm asking for your sake and for your potential audience's sake.

So what sets your game apart from other 2D RPGs that exist? Does it bring something new to the table? Does it bring something long-forgotten back to the table that other people will again be interested in? Or is it just yours™? If, in the end, the reason you're making your game is to prove that you can do it, or because you simply want it to exist yourself, then that has to be enough to make you happy. Because other people are looking for new and for amazing, not yours™. You™ don't have an audience yet.
 
liliththepale said:
The header is absolutely beautiful! I love it. The text not so much.

BnQ4IHR.png


Pick just one or two fonts, not four, and keep all of the links the same color. Also, I'd somehow move "subscribe to updates" to the "enter your email" box, probably as "enter email for updates" since the "subscribe" button sounds redundant.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! That section is really archaic, looking at it now, I'll be sure to fix that.
 
Looks like we are aiming to announce our game this weekend. Will be nice to answer questions we get when posting teaser screens finally. A few things I'm unsure about what we should list on the game's site. When I get most of it ready I'll ask for some feedback if you guys wouldn't mind. Super excited.

Jobbs said:
I put Matilda into the game.

matildaingame720.png
Click to expand...
Looks ace, man. Hot damn at those colors.
 
liliththepale said:
With the disclaimer that I'm not really much of a 2D RPG fan (I don't know Chrono Trigger from Final Fantasy, and all I know about Fire Emblem are the characters in Smash), I think your game looks like a generic RPG. I don't appreciate the genre and I'm not the target audience, but that's how it appears to me.

In part of your description you mention that the game is like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. What sets your game apart from them? Or if nothing does, why does your game need to exist?
Click to expand...
Since I'm also working on an SRPG I just wanted to quickly chime in and say that Chrono Trigger and FF on the one hand (very similar games) and Disgaea and FFT on the other hands are completely different games regarding gameplay. The huge mainstream RPGs of the kind of FF don't play anything like SRPGs. There are basically two still-running series of (his kind of) SRPGs, Fire Emblem and Disgaea, with Disgaea just entering its fifth main iteration and Fire Emblem being on a quite stable 2-3 per generation rhythm. Overall we probably end up with ~4 big traditional SRPGs per generation, so we are at least not talking about an oversturated genre. Of course, him and me will both have one problem: This year there's Disgaea 5 (and typically those games are excessively long), next year it's Fire Emblem Fates, so there's serious likelihood of being completely overlooked.

Though I must say the big three of SRPGs have very different focus, showing already that there is a lot of room for differentiation even through details.
FE is very much focussed on in-battle strategy
FFT is quite focussed on character development
Disgaea is a game of labor because you really need to grind like crazy if you want to play all maps.

EDIT: Based on what he has written in the introduction of the game, there are already unusual things that differentiate the game from all other SRPGs I know:
1. There is a fixed party of eight members, not recruiting, no losing characters
2. Crafting plays a very very small role in FFT and FE and is basically grindwork in Disgaea, so this will probably differ a lot, too.
 
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