Support NeoGAF

[Bloodember]

Hey guys,

So the past week or so a potential v1.0 was undergoing playtesting to make sure everything was behaving nicely. Surprisingly no real issues emerged anymore (just some trivial cosmetic things)
I was expecting at least one more round of bug-fixing & playtesting. Anyho, I just pushed the game life on google's play store yay


This is my first game project ever, perhaps a bit bigger in scope than I should've started out with but I'm quite pleased with the end result.
To summarize: it's a 2D platformer with gameplay similar to Mario or Donkey Kong

Google Play Link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hejvisj.paulisadventureisland

Thanks for having a look. Feedback is very much appreciated


PS: for those interested, here is the youtube trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV9ai7qCLLI

Game looks fun, going to download it.

 

[Blizzard]

I just got back from vacation, though I unfortunately got sick right at the start.

I brought along a laptop and game project source code, intending to potentially do some work...only to realize that I had encrypted the source code archive, without bringing the password.

I guess that was an enforced vacation.

 

[Tricktale]

Having a bit of a design challenge here.

I need to teach people a technique that isn't necessarily obvious when they get the ability that allows it. The multidash move enables people to dash repeatedly in the air as long as they dash through an enemy, so it becomes possible to stay off the ground indefinitely -- Like using a sequence of flying enemies to cross a long chasm. That example would be the more obvious use of the power.

It's also possible to dash back and forth over the same enemy indefinitely (provided you don't fuck up the timing).

Originally I was going to leave this as a technique some players may figure out and use to their advantage, but now I'm trying to design specific scenarios that require its use. E.g., the boss causes spikes to erupt from the floor and there's nowhere to stand, so you must use his body to stay off the ground until they're gone. Or maybe one slow enemy or unit crosses a pit or walks over a hazard and the player can "board" it with this technique for safe passage.

That's all well and good, but how do I teach this technique to the player given the minimal style of the game with respect to learning its systems? I don't envision ever having a series of tutorial pop ups suddenly explaining that they need to do this and how to do it. I could throw them into the deep end and see if they figure it out on their own, that's an option, but some may be frustrated by that.

Firstly, the game looks absolutely awesome! I'm a huge Metroid fan, so any game that's remotely similar will always have my attention. Looks like you've really nailed the atmosphere perfectly.

I've got a very similar problem to you, in that I'm also trying to keep text to a minimum and make the game as intuitive as possible. I use hidden "memory engrams" that the player must scan to reveal bit by bit. These are static hologram looking meshes that depict a snapshot of what I want to the player to see. I use it mostly for storytelling, but I can maybe see it being used in your situation, as occasional single uses. Other than that, the creature idea you're already aware of could work.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Hahaha! no way!
I think it's the same Romario that makes an appearance in different indie games.

Wha'ts the name of your game? Seems awesome.


Edit: Our pixel artist is also called Jon.

Lol, what a coicnidence about the pixelartist.
The game in the images ive shown is Super Game Show, is the game we are doing now.
The mobile game is Super Helmets on Fire, and its going to be released on the android and app store in just a few days.

 

[Tricktale]

Testing a new PBR shader that shades the rock surfaces with various colours. The entire game is textureless, with the only textures being used for stuff like particles and some shader effects, so I've been messing around with various ways of shading things for a more interesting look.

The light emitting from the probe is volumetric, and the little caves in the background are accentuated with a atmospheric global fog shader.

 

[Jobbs]

Firstly, the game looks absolutely awesome! I'm a huge Metroid fan, so any game that's remotely similar will always have my attention. Looks like you've really nailed the atmosphere perfectly.

I've got a very similar problem to you, in that I'm also trying to keep text to a minimum and make the game as intuitive as possible. I use hidden "memory engrams" that the player must scan to reveal bit by bit. These are static hologram looking meshes that depict a snapshot of what I want to the player to see. I use it mostly for storytelling, but I can maybe see it being used in your situation, as occasional single uses. Other than that, the creature idea you're already aware of could work.

Thank you! What's your game?

There's a bottleneck tunnel that leads to the area where the boss in mind takes place, so I was considering adding a slow moving floating creature slowly floating back and forth over a body of water you can't cross normally. The only way in would be to "board" him by dashing back and forth on him.

Being alone in the room with the single floating thing will hopefully encourage the player to force herself to experiment and figure out what to do with the creature.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Yay! The publisher finally uploaded the trailer for our mobile game Super Helmets on Fire DX, that we just finished some days ago.
Will also try to get some keys of the game for android and iOS to put them here so devGAF can play it.

https://youtu.be/dYqus744Gm4

What do you think?

Spoiler

I think the publisher is trying to oversell a little the game, but well, they did the narration and said it was the best way to try it to sell it, I hope people are not dissapointed if they decided to buy it

 

[Pehesse]

Yay! The publisher finally uploaded the trailer for our mobile game Super Helmets on Fire DX, that we just finished some days ago.
Will also try to get some keys of the game for android and iOS to put them here so devGAF can play it.

https://youtu.be/dYqus744Gm4

What do you think?

Spoiler

I think the publisher is trying to oversell a little the game, but well, they did the narration and said it was the best way to try it to sell it, I hope people are not dissapointed if they decided to buy it

Saying the name definitely sounds fun, at least, and the video makes it look pretty cool :-D I don't think people would be falsely hyped, it sounds pretty tongue in cheek to me?

 

[Jobbs]

For anyone who is bored, I captured a bunch of misc. footage of my game (most of it is near the beginning but not all) just as b roll for my friend who's making a video of something for his youtube channel.

this is raw 1080p footage outputed in h.264 (so there's a bit of quality loss) and reduced to 30 fps.

www.ghostsonggame.com/miscd/ghostsongfootage30fps.mp4

I was curious if you guys think the character is situated too small on the screen just in terms of the general viewpoint. This is something I mull over constantly and there are pluses and minuses to different configurations.

 

[gundalf]

Hey guys,

I have been lately working my butt off on my modular Shader-Set for 2D Sprites on Unity.
It is called NextGenSprites and I have recently uploaded it to the Unity AssetStore.
Since the approval will take some time, I decided to also upload it on itch.io at a sale (50% off) until NextGenSprites is live on Unity's AssetStore.

So yeah, if you interested you can get it here:



What is NextGenSprites?
It is a modular Shader, which means that you use a single Shader where you can toggle features at your desire.

What features?

• Curvature (Normalmapping)
• Reflection (Screenspace projected) + Masking
• Emission + Masking
• Transmission
• Dissolve + Edge Glow

Also included are some FX Shaders:

• Glass
• Lava (Animated)
• Liquid (Animated)

Anyway, if you like to learn more, just visit the Storepage on itch.io, the Wiki or try out the Webplayer for yourself.

Yay! The publisher finally uploaded the trailer for our mobile game Super Helmets on Fire DX, that we just finished some days ago.
Will also try to get some keys of the game for android and iOS to put them here so devGAF can play it.

https://youtu.be/dYqus744Gm4

What do you think?

Spoiler

I think the publisher is trying to oversell a little the game, but well, they did the narration and said it was the best way to try it to sell it, I hope people are not dissapointed if they decided to buy it

I wouldn't use the term overselling because the narration fits the displayed content. But I can see how you may feel a little uneasy about the narrators over excitement. Do you have a blog or something? I would like to know why and how you have chosen your current publisher

 

[jahasaja]

Hi indie GAF,

Long time lurker finally being able to post. I just want to say thanks to OP and all the helpful posts in this thread really helped me during the development process.

"Unfortunately", my game is already out so I cannot post progress here.

Now, since I have now time for making a new game I just make small updates to the old to maintain the skills I attained.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Just this morning they uploaded the website. Simple but effective I think (theres some errors they need to fix though).
http://www.superhelmetsgame.com/

Saying the name definitely sounds fun, at least, and the video makes it look pretty cool :-D I don't think people would be falsely hyped, it sounds pretty tongue in cheek to me?

Hey guys,

I have been lately working my butt off on my modular Shader-Set for 2D Sprites on Unity.
It is called NextGenSprites and I have recently uploaded it to the Unity AssetStore.
Since the approval will take some time, I decided to also upload it on itch.io at a sale (50% off) until NextGenSprites is live on Unity's AssetStore.

So yeah, if you interested you can get it here:


I wouldn't use the term overselling because the narration fits the displayed content. But I can see how you may feel a little uneasy about the narrators over excitement. Do you have a blog or something? I would like to know why and how you have chosen your current publisher

Thanks guys, didnt know if people would like the video. The first version of it was a spanish guy trying to speak english and it was incredibly difficult to understand (and the voice was pretty bad). We had to told them that it needed to be changed without a doubt.

About having a devblog, sadly, no. Maybe I do one for Super Game Show. Will send you a PM about the publisher.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Hey guys,

I have been lately working my butt off on my modular Shader-Set for 2D Sprites on Unity.
It is called NextGenSprites and I have recently uploaded it to the Unity AssetStore.
Since the approval will take some time, I decided to also upload it on itch.io at a sale (50% off) until NextGenSprites is live on Unity's AssetStore.

So yeah, if you interested you can get it here:



What is NextGenSprites?
It is a modular Shader, which means that you use a single Shader where you can toggle features at your desire.

What features?

• Curvature (Normalmapping)
• Reflection (Screenspace projected) + Masking
• Emission + Masking
• Transmission
• Dissolve + Edge Glow

Also included are some FX Shaders:

• Glass
• Lava (Animated)
• Liquid (Animated)

Anyway, if you like to learn more, just visit the Storepage on itch.io, the Wiki or try out the Webplayer for yourself.



I wouldn't use the term overselling because the narration fits the displayed content. But I can see how you may feel a little uneasy about the narrators over excitement. Do you have a blog or something? I would like to know why and how you have chosen your current publisher

WebGL

Unity Web Player no longer works in Chrome and is going the way of the dinosaur. Build with WebGL so everyone with a browser can try it

 

[Jobbs]

Because it's Saturday evening, I'm doing what anyone's doing and making full screen 1080p animated gifs of shit most of you have seen before (but not in 1080p).

http://www.gfycat.com/WholeGlamorousCock
http://www.gfycat.com/NextTotalChanticleer
http://www.gfycat.com/SelfishOrderlyDinosaur

 

[Blizzard]

WebGL

Unity Web Player no longer works in Chrome and is going the way of the dinosaur. Build with WebGL so everyone with a browser can try it

Just be aware that Unity WebGL support is / has been pretty buggy unless they finally figured out a solution. It may be the fault of the browsers, but the end result is that I practically always had a better experience using the plugin instead.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Just be aware that Unity WebGL support is / has been pretty buggy unless they finally figured out a solution. It may be the fault of the browsers, but the end result is that I practically always had a better experience using the plugin instead.

Haven't had issues with the current build. But, of course, I test heavily on 2+ operating systems, 3+ computers and all browsers I can. Not saying someone won't have an issue but I haven't ran into any since using it. If it is working - its working. If not, then its not. I don't think anyone will push something they haven't tested themselves unless it's Batman on PC XD

 

[Tricktale]

Thank you! What's your game?

Currently untitled, but I refer to it as Project Temporality for now. It's a scif-fi adventure / horror game with inspiration from Alien/Prometheus and 2001.

For anyone who is bored, I captured a bunch of misc. footage of my game (most of it is near the beginning but not all) just as b roll for my friend who's making a video of something for his youtube channel.

this is raw 1080p footage outputed in h.264 (so there's a bit of quality loss) and reduced to 30 fps.

www.ghostsonggame.com/miscd/ghostsongfootage30fps.mp4

I was curious if you guys think the character is situated too small on the screen just in terms of the general viewpoint. This is something I mull over constantly and there are pluses and minuses to different configurations.

Looking great! The attention to detail is insanely high. I think the size of the character on-screen looks about right. It's nice to be able to see a lot of the surrounding environment, plus you get to have bigger enemies fit on-screen.

 

[liliththepale]

I was curious if you guys think the character is situated too small on the screen just in terms of the general viewpoint. This is something I mull over constantly and there are pluses and minuses to different configurations.

IMO, small characters is a popular crutch for people who aren't very good at character design or animation, whereas larger characters are more popular with devs and artists who want to show off their characters more. Consider, for example, how much of the screen space the characters in The Mask game take up:

A lot of Disney games were similar, like Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse:

Naughty Dog used the same principle for Crash Bandicoot back on the PlayStation. Grievances with the gameplay mechanics aside, Crash had cutting edge animation for video games at the time.


But I don't get the impression that Ghost Song is trying to hide anything. The character designs and animation are very good, so it's not trying to downplay that. Rather, it feels like the smaller size of the character lends to a sense of smallness and isolation, of feeling lost in this great big mystery world. Maybe you can find some places in the game to pull the camera in tighter, although I know this is suboptimal because of the resolution Little Blue has been illustrated at, but it might be worth considering for a few scenes.

That said, I don't think it's a problem if you leave things as are. It would be a minor grievance in a lesser game, but you don't have anything to worry about here.

 

[thomasmahler]

I was curious if you guys think the character is situated too small on the screen just in terms of the general viewpoint. This is something I mull over constantly and there are pluses and minuses to different configurations.

I remember when I sent you a Beta Build of Ori, your first feedback item was that the character is too small and we need to zoom in more

Don't worry about it. We went through a lot of testing on this - If you look at platformers at large, most of the good ones had smaller characters, cause the game is really all about the levels and you want to make sure you show the player where he can go.

I remember during the 16bit age, there was this perverted idea that bigger sprites automatically means better graphics, so a lot of games suddenly had character sprites that were really big and you just didn't see as much of the level anymore, which just made it all feel bad.

I think Ghost Song strikes a nice balance so far

 

[Pehesse]

I remember when I sent you a Beta Build of Ori, your first feedback item was that the character is too small and we need to zoom in more

Don't worry about it. We went through a lot of testing on this - If you look at platformers at large, most of the good ones had smaller characters, cause the game is really all about the levels and you want to make sure you show the player where he can go.

I remember during the 16bit age, there was this perverted idea that bigger sprites automatically means better graphics, so a lot of games suddenly had character sprites that were really big and you just didn't see as much of the level anymore, which just made it all feel bad.

I think Ghost Song strikes a nice balance so far

I just finished Ori not two days ago, and I kept thinking during the whole playthrough how clever your character design was to allow for such a small, yet expressive, character on screen, to have a clear visibility of the surrounding level design *and* a notion of scope between character and environment. Really awe inspiring job all around!

As for Little Blue: I think since the character isn't too detailed, and is more about the overall shapes/motion rather than the individual texture of any given point, the smaller size works quite well. As said above, it also gives quite a good contrast between environment and player character, making everything around you all the more intimidating. So yeah, I think you have a pretty nice camera here as well!

 

[Jacksinthe]

IMO, small characters is a popular crutch for people who aren't very good at character design or animation, whereas larger characters are more popular with devs and artists who want to show off their characters more. Consider, for example, how much of the screen space the characters in The Mask game take up:

Hey now. HEY NOW. It's all I could do at the time while looking for an artist XD

Also - that no-hotlink image you've got stuck there is some seriously nasty shit. it's named "idiot.png" (http://bisqwit.iki.fi/kala/ctimg/idiot.png).

 

[thomasmahler]

Kept working a bit yesterday on A&B. Here's a video showcasing some of the moves I added:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxH05PbIkso&feature=youtu.be

There's now different combos for when you stand and walk, there's a stab move when you're shielded and walking backwards (for quick surprise jabs), there's a Ninja Roll, general rolls and Heavy Attacks, like the SwirlAttack and the JumpAttack.

Added an EXP System and Pickups as well.

I also fixed the walking animations, so now the playerCharacter shouldn't be able to moonwalk anymore.

If you want to try it youself:

http://www.warsoup.com/files/A&B01.zip

 

[Jacksinthe]

Kept working a bit yesterday on A&B. Here's a video showcasing some of the moves I added:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxH05PbIkso&feature=youtu.be

There's now different combos for when you stand and walk, there's a stab move when you're shielded and walking backwards (for quick surprise jabs), there's a Ninja Roll, general rolls and Heavy Attacks, like the SwirlAttack and the JumpAttack.

Added an EXP System and Pickups as well.

I also fixed the walking animations, so now the playerCharacter shouldn't be able to moonwalk anymore.

If you want to try it youself:

http://www.warsoup.com/files/A&B01.zip

Cons:
I'm big on how things "feel" to play - that's always my number one pet peeve.

-Move speed is waaaaaaaaay too slow, imo.
-Too much of a delay when hitting sprint before sprinting.
-Shield feels very awkward to use. I have to wait for a 100% full reset of the animation on recovery before I can raise it again.
-Bumpers to attack/block are a no-no, IMO - use triggers. My fingers naturally rest on triggers and bumpers were always a bitch for me to reach - feels extremely off-putting.
-Are you using RigidBody to move the player? There's a noticeable stutter that is consistent with a 50/sec physics update vs 60/sec framerate in character movement.
-You probably know this but I can make the character stop all walking animation and be unable to sprint by repeatedly tapping the dodge button. After several taps he stops animating and is unable to run indefinitely. I considered the endurance bar wasn't hooked up and left him idle to recover but nope. Still unable to roll, sprint or animate properly.

Pros:
-Colors and art style are fab. I am partial to anything creepy/Halloween looking and horror so anything that looks like Tirisfal Glades is a bonus.
-Animations are great. I like how the character moves, attacks, sprints - everything looks really good.

 

[thomasmahler]

Cons:
I'm big on how things "feel" to play - that's always my number one pet peeve.

-Move speed is waaaaaaaaay too slow, imo.
-Too much of a delay when hitting sprint before sprinting.
-Shield feels very awkward to use. I have to wait for a 100% full reset of the animation on recovery before I can raise it again.
-Bumpers to attack/block are a no-no, IMO - use triggers. My fingers naturally rest on triggers and bumpers were always a bitch for me to reach - feels extremely off-putting.
-Are you using RigidBody to move the player? There's a noticeable stutter that is consistent with a 50/sec physics update vs 60/sec framerate in character movement.
-You probably know this but I can make the character stop all walking animation and be unable to sprint by repeatedly tapping the dodge button. After several taps he stops animating and is unable to run indefinitely. I considered the endurance bar wasn't hooked up and left him idle to recover but nope. Still unable to roll, sprint or animate properly.

Pros:
-Colors and art style are fab. I am partial to anything creepy/Halloween looking and horror so anything that looks like Tirisfal Glades is a bonus.
-Animations are great. I like how the character moves, attacks, sprints - everything looks really good.

Thanks for the feedback

Have you played Dark Souls? I'm trying to use that as a baseline for the combat and then take it from there.

1) Move speed is waaaaaaaaay too slow, imo.

You think it's still too slow? Just the walking or also the running speed?

2) -Shield feels very awkward to use. I have to wait for a 100% full reset of the animation on recovery before I can raise it again.

I wonder if you get inputLag or if you're just not used to having to wait for your anims to finish (which is what Dark Souls / Monster Hunter do) to start another action.

3) -Bumpers to attack/block are a no-no, IMO - use triggers. My fingers naturally rest on triggers and bumpers were always a bitch for me to reach - feels extremely off-putting.

Again, trying to copy Dark Souls here RB is for normal attacks, RT is for heavy attacks. Unity is kind of throwing me under the bus right now with its stupid input system - RT might not work if you're not using an Xbox One Controller...

4) -Are you using RigidBody to move the player? There's a noticeable stutter that is consistent with a 50/sec physics update vs 60/sec framerate in character movement.

Yeah, I still need to move some stuff into FixedUpdate, will happen in the next code review pass

5) -You probably know this but I can make the character stop all walking animation and be unable to sprint by repeatedly tapping the dodge button. After several taps he stops animating and is unable to run indefinitely. I considered the endurance bar wasn't hooked up and left him idle to recover but nope. Still unable to roll, sprint or animate properly.

Yup, that happens sometimes - It's me being sloppy with the animation frame events. It's a bit fiddly to set it up, but I wanted to have it all based on animation events, so I can directly set on which frames the player is invincible, a sound effect plays, etc. - Hope I'll have that fixed soon!

 

[beril]

I finally released my little gameboy project that I posted about here a while ago

spent way more time on it than I planned or than I can justify, but it was incredibly fun to do

it's just the first level of the game, and honestly it's not that impressive for a gameboy game, but it runs well and has a decent amount of animation frames. It would be fun to try do some of the later parts of the game, like one of the bosses, and push the hardware more, but I really shouldn't spend any more time on it.

you can get the ROM here www.gunmanclive.com/gameboy

 

[Jacksinthe]

Thanks for the feedback

Have you played Dark Souls? I'm trying to use that as a baseline for the combat and then take it from there.

1) Move speed is waaaaaaaaay too slow, imo.

You think it's still too slow? Just the walking or also the running speed?

2) -Shield feels very awkward to use. I have to wait for a 100% full reset of the animation on recovery before I can raise it again.

I wonder if you get inputLag or if you're just not used to having to wait for your anims to finish (which is what Dark Souls / Monster Hunter do) to start another action.

3) -Bumpers to attack/block are a no-no, IMO - use triggers. My fingers naturally rest on triggers and bumpers were always a bitch for me to reach - feels extremely off-putting.

Again, trying to copy Dark Souls here RB is for normal attacks, RT is for heavy attacks. Unity is kind of throwing me under the bus right now with its stupid input system - RT might not work if you're not using an Xbox One Controller...

4) -Are you using RigidBody to move the player? There's a noticeable stutter that is consistent with a 50/sec physics update vs 60/sec framerate in character movement.

Yeah, I still need to move some stuff into FixedUpdate, will happen in the next code review pass

5) -You probably know this but I can make the character stop all walking animation and be unable to sprint by repeatedly tapping the dodge button. After several taps he stops animating and is unable to run indefinitely. I considered the endurance bar wasn't hooked up and left him idle to recover but nope. Still unable to roll, sprint or animate properly.

Yup, that happens sometimes - It's me being sloppy with the animation frame events. It's a bit fiddly to set it up, but I wanted to have it all based on animation events, so I can directly set on which frames the player is invincible, a sound effect plays, etc. - Hope I'll have that fixed soon!

Over 1k hours between Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

1) Walking feels too slow, IMO. You have an analog stick for movement - use it as an analog stick to denote speed

2) Attacks, dodges, sprinting, etc - you can SPAZ the block in souls games - you don't have to wait for it to reset back to an "idle" state. You do have to wait if you are knocked back due to low endurance.

3) There's nothing wrong with Unity's ability to handle triggers. I use them for my game just fine and I code my own controller input for Xbox and PS controllers. The bumpers on the Xbox controllers have always been awkward to use. The bumpers were used on the Dualshock for primary actions vs Triggers on the Xbox controllers for primary action. You don't have to emulate DS - improve upon it. Triggers are the main action buttons for a lot of reasons. Not to mention if you're not twin-sticking it - there's almost no reason to use triggers/bumpers for main action abilities since your right thumb is free.

4) FixedUpdate IS the physics step of 50/sec - you can set your fixed timestep to 0.01666666 to alleviate some issues but you could just turn on "interpolate" on your RigidBody to help. Or use transform.Translate(Vector3) to move in Update with your own smoothDeltaTime for framerate-perfect movement. FixedUpdate runs independent of framerate (Update) - which is why you get stuttering since physics-based movement doesn't sync with framerate. Interpolate/Extrapolate can help. If you want a better cheat-sheet PM me and I'll splain my methods to ditch that stutter while still keeping RigidBody if that's your thing.

5) Roger that. I would rather code events instead of triggering them in animations. You can get away with a LOT more if you are only using animations as your mask and creating your own timings through code. Then again, i fucking hate mecanim XD

 

[Muskieratboi]

Hey guys

I'm currently working on a university Game dev project. For the course, it's UDK/UScript, with a lot of borrowing from the UT3 codebase. Anyway, I as wondering if anyone around here still knows their way around the language and would help me out with a couple of problems?

I'm not asking anyone to like, write my game or anything. basically asking for a mentor I can poke with occasional questions.
My tutor is only available certain hours of the day, after all

 

[Noogy]

I was curious if you guys think the character is situated too small on the screen just in terms of the general viewpoint. This is something I mull over constantly and there are pluses and minuses to different configurations.

For what it's worth...

When I originally created Dust, I wanted this huge animated character on the screen with all this detail. His sprite is 300 pixels tall, and while he doesn't fill the entire height of that sprite, it's still very large on a (initially) 720p screen.

As time went on I realized it was a mistake to have him so big. The action in the game dictated that you should be able to see more around you... but my camera wasn't coded to allow zooming. I finally buckled down and spent months of terribly difficult coding to allow everything to properly zoom in and out, and it was the best decision I made.

In fact, given the opportunity, I kept pulling the camera out more and more, depending on the action that was to take place in that environment. I still force the camera in close for slower or dramatic scenes, but I've learned that playability always trumps visuals and you should let the camera frame the scene in a way that makes it easiest for the player to navigate your world.

 

[Blizzard]

I started playing Volgarr the Viking recently, and it has a very odd camera choice by default. Thankfully they give you the option to permanently zoom out. I'm not sure if the default view was intended to add yet more difficulty, or if it was referencing a certain style of game, but having such a huge camera zoom on a game that depends on seeing upcoming hazards was really rough.

 

[AlphaProspector]

Well, what a week! After a VERY grim time at work things got a bit better and the artist has provided another finished sprite (as well as WIPs for a lot of other stuff). Hard at work! (Work on the game I mean, my day job "work work"... I'm just waiting for the vacations because I'm thoroughly stressed up)

Here is another of the main cast:

Sekai Project did their monthly wrap-up mentioning my game. It feels very weird to be standing next to things like Narcissu, damn. I'm starting to feel the pressure...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_RGC9OWiNw

I need to stop hesitating and build up a proper landing page at the very least... Any tips on tools to build one? I have a proper Wordpress account now so maybe I can achieve it using a template there.

 

[Odrion]

Managed to get some more work into my game this week. And while a lot of it was pounding my head against some really stupid things I managed to actually get some cool stuff done like:

A working Title menu! I mean, the options don't work right now but you can choose to enter or exit the demo! Also the skull wallpaper actually scrolls downwards, like some silly GBA rom team intro.

As for the titlecard for the level, this isn't a gif but each individual graphic asset scrolls in different directions after several seconds and the level begins. It's like Sonic!

Doesn't seem like a lot here, but I've added: A health and damage system, with fancy knockback! Enemies (when you jump on the slimes, they splatter!) Health and gem pickups! Although when you throw the boomerang and it catches more than one heart or gem, you still only get one back. Same code for keys, but you get all your keys. Why is this logic inconsistent? >_<

Actually that's been kinda an issue I've been running into this weekend. The code logic seems very inconsistent. Sometimes in an event when one object overlaps another and triggers an alterable value change it'll either only effect that object or every single copy of that object. That doesn't mean that the line of code that works only works 50% of the time or anything, but the events that do work do so 100% and an seemingly identical event will always misbehave. This could either mean that I'm an amateur who is overlooking something or Clickteam Fusion is an insane fussy editor.

 

[thomasmahler]

Regarding the Movement Speed in A&B, I just found this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezxTXBGxww

Which shows rather nicely that Dark Souls is moving kinda slowly as well. Obviously this isn't at polished or anything, but it does give a better feel for the speed of the movement when seen from a higher up perspective

 

[Jacksinthe]

Regarding the Movement Speed in A&B, I just found this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezxTXBGxww

Which shows rather nicely that Dark Souls is moving kinda slowly as well. Obviously this isn't at polished or anything, but it does give a better feel for the speed of the movement when seen from a higher up perspective

I would personally be more concerned with giving movement weight than worrying about ultra slow speeds. You can accomplish a lot with a proper feedback loop and still have basic walking sped up a bit. I'd focus efforts on making the player feel grounded with a feedback loop over movement speed, personally. Use the DS series as a metric, not a blueprint.

 

[neko.works]

Hi everyone :3

1st post about one of my upcoming games: Super Night Riders, a 3D arcade racing game inspired by 80's classics, mostly Hang-On from SEGA. My goal is to have a similar gameplay with modern visuals. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight.

I'm now working on the visual aspect of the game, as I got mixed comments about its look on Greenlight, so I've changed a lot of things so far, including the riders, which were lowpoly initially.

What do you think guys about the current look of the game?

 

[Jobbs]

Looking great! The attention to detail is insanely high. I think the size of the character on-screen looks about right. It's nice to be able to see a lot of the surrounding environment, plus you get to have bigger enemies fit on-screen.

Thanks. Bigger enemies are a bit hard (truly big) because I'm not using a 2d rig, but I'm working at figuring out what the limits are.

IMO, small characters is a popular crutch for people who aren't very good at character design or animation, whereas larger characters are more popular with devs and artists who want to show off their characters more. Consider, for example, how much of the screen space the characters in The Mask game take up:

A lot of Disney games were similar, like Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse:

Who has The Mask game as an example for something waiting in the wings? LOL

I remember that era, and I particularly remember the Sunsoft (and other) 16 bit games which tended to have larger characters on screen. But I never liked it. It always felt wrong for some reason. I'm going by memory here, but if I recall, Alladin on SNES had a larger character, and Alladin on Genesis had a smaller character, and I always liked the Genesis version better.

In my case, though, I was looking back at some of the really old footage when the character was much larger on screen and it definitely gave a more personal, clausterphobic feel.

I remember when I sent you a Beta Build of Ori, your first feedback item was that the character is too small and we need to zoom in more

Don't worry about it. We went through a lot of testing on this - If you look at platformers at large, most of the good ones had smaller characters, cause the game is really all about the levels and you want to make sure you show the player where he can go.

I remember during the 16bit age, there was this perverted idea that bigger sprites automatically means better graphics, so a lot of games suddenly had character sprites that were really big and you just didn't see as much of the level anymore, which just made it all feel bad.

I think Ghost Song strikes a nice balance so far

Thanks. I felt the Ori character was a bit small when I was playing the game on my smaller computer monitor, but later when I played it on a 42 inch TV I thought it was perfect. I've noticed the same thing about my game. I think with the smaller character it looks good on a bigger screen but it's on the smaller screens where I feel some conflict.

As for Little Blue: I think since the character isn't too detailed, and is more about the overall shapes/motion rather than the individual texture of any given point, the smaller size works quite well. As said above, it also gives quite a good contrast between environment and player character, making everything around you all the more intimidating. So yeah, I think you have a pretty nice camera here as well!

Shank you.

For what it's worth...

When I originally created Dust, I wanted this huge animated character on the screen with all this detail. His sprite is 300 pixels tall, and while he doesn't fill the entire height of that sprite, it's still very large on a (initially) 720p screen.

As time went on I realized it was a mistake to have him so big. The action in the game dictated that you should be able to see more around you... but my camera wasn't coded to allow zooming. I finally buckled down and spent months of terribly difficult coding to allow everything to properly zoom in and out, and it was the best decision I made.

In fact, given the opportunity, I kept pulling the camera out more and more, depending on the action that was to take place in that environment. I still force the camera in close for slower or dramatic scenes, but I've learned that playability always trumps visuals and you should let the camera frame the scene in a way that makes it easiest for the player to navigate your world.

It's theoretically possible to zoom in/out in real time in Ghost Song but I've yet to figure out a perfect solution, there are outstanding issues any way I try it. My hands are a bit tied since I'm an idiot.

 

[liliththepale]

Who has The Mask game as an example for something waiting in the wings? LOL

I remember that era, and I particularly remember the Sunsoft (and other) 16 bit games which tended to have larger characters on screen. But I never liked it. It always felt wrong for some reason. I'm going by memory here, but if I recall, Alladin on SNES had a larger character, and Alladin on Genesis had a smaller character, and I always liked the Genesis version better.

In my case, though, I was looking back at some of the really old footage when the character was much larger on screen and it definitely gave a more personal, clausterphobic feel.

Heh, I think I have that in memory because of one of the recent Games Done Quick events. There was a guy running The Mask and they had a developer on Skype making some commentary and being astonished at all the shortcuts and such.

I agree that they overdid it there, making the characters a little too large. I was just trying to pull some extreme examples to demonstrate ambitious animation or character design.

Regarding claustrophobia, I wonder how much of that is just because of what you're used to. It probably felt really loose and open when you first expanded the view port. It probably wouldn't take too long to get used to the larger character being there, and new players wouldn't have that bias either.

But, like I concluded before, the current size you have is fine. I wouldn't worry about needing to change it.

 

[nyarla]

heyas! i'm a bit of a lurker but always love reading this thread. it's really inspiring!

here's a video of a game i'm slowly making:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq8J1oBqAXs
(game has no sound yet, music is just random old tracks)

it's an arcadey sort of thing, primarily for iOS. you drive a bouncy little amphibious car/creature around procedurally generated 2D island terrains. it doesn't have much of a point yet..

i wanted to make what felt like some cute & colourful NES game world like Gimmick or Fantasy Zone or something, but make it feel much more alive.. a little ecosystem with weather, day/night cycle, really nice water, creatures (including the player) who live there and go about their lives. i've only made a few kinds of animals yet. because it's proc.gen. it feels more empty than the hand crafted worlds of a proper platformer...like it takes place in the back blocks where the sprites live in between game sessions. hopefully i can alleviate this a bit with cool creature behaviours.

i also want to give a really fluid, free-flowing, constantly morphing feel to your movement. you can use backwards air jumps off hills to shift into a bouncy spinjump form which lets you bop things and be invulnerable. you can dig up buried items and carry them in a stack on your roof, which you can wield like a big bendy pogo stick. (items will have other uses too)

you can also fire bouncy bullets which at the moment do nothing except knock creatures out of the way (and cancel spinjump form). haven't decided yet if you'll be killing anything. maybe there will be bad robots or something... the ducks are too lovely to shoot. it probably won't be a super tough game, it'll be more relaxed, just having fun splashing about. i wasn't going to have shooting or death at all - some kind of cutesy arcade Proteus? - but i've probably changed my mind.

next things to work on: more interesting island generation.. many more kinds of creature..

 

[Odrion]

So this is what I did today:

Surprisingly time consuming! And yes that brick wall looks awful. But it was very neat and cool to make, and drawing with Bob Ross in the background made my Sunday very serene. Making it a goal that next week Sunday I'll have a full fledged demo.

 

[Jumplion]

It's been a while since I sat down and did stuff, but I finally got around to untangling the guts of my code to separate the Object Pooling and Spawning systems, and now I've got a rudimentary "wave" system.

All I have to do to make a new "wave" type is create a new script, have it inherit from the main "Wave" class, and specify how I want the enemies to move, though it took me a while to finagle with Coroutines (turns out I can have a function yield until another function is done).

Feels good, man.

 

[bkw]

Hi everyone :3

1st post about one of my upcoming games: Super Night Riders, a 3D arcade racing game inspired by 80's classics, mostly Hang-On from SEGA. My goal is to have a similar gameplay with modern visuals. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight.

I'm now working on the visual aspect of the game, as I got mixed comments about its look on Greenlight, so I've changed a lot of things so far, including the riders, which were lowpoly initially.

What do you think guys about the current look of the game?

I think it look pretty good. Wasn't a huge fan when it started out with the night shot, but it looked better as I scrolled down. =) The night shot look a bit too black. Perhaps the ground could be dark in the distance, but brightness closer to the camera. The lowpoly-ness of the environment right now is fine for me. If anything, the rider looks higher poly and too smooth compared to the trees and stuff. I'd probably match them closer some how.

I saw the trailer on the website. Need to smooth out that transitions of the rider. The driving is smooth, but the transitions between the leans on the rider is quite rough. Also, the green and red UI letters are hard to read.

 

[LightningXCE]

Hi everyone :3

1st post about one of my upcoming games: Super Night Riders, a 3D arcade racing game inspired by 80's classics, mostly Hang-On from SEGA. My goal is to have a similar gameplay with modern visuals. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight.

Looking slick! Watch your shadows, though. If you are going for that soft look, don't use black shadows. Use softer, very mute and dark shades of colors, rather than just the pure black. Also the fog really helps give it that feel, as apparent in the green screenshot. Absolutely love that look.

Having a bit of a design challenge here.

What if you flash or show some kind of animation/particle effect when you are able to dash again? Players would see it when hitting enemies and see something is up, as it doesn't show normally?

I'm having this issue too, trying to teach lockon and alternate fire techniques for my railshooter D: I am still so in love with your UI and overal visual design.

 

[Bloodember]

Hey guys,

So the past week or so a potential v1.0 was undergoing playtesting to make sure everything was behaving nicely. Surprisingly no real issues emerged anymore (just some trivial cosmetic things)
I was expecting at least one more round of bug-fixing & playtesting. Anyho, I just pushed the game life on google's play store yay


This is my first game project ever, perhaps a bit bigger in scope than I should've started out with but I'm quite pleased with the end result.
To summarize: it's a 2D platformer with gameplay similar to Mario or Donkey Kong

Google Play Link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hejvisj.paulisadventureisland

Thanks for having a look. Feedback is very much appreciated


PS: for those interested, here is the youtube trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV9ai7qCLLI

Tried playing the game. On screen controls for any game like this sucks. The game seems fun though, seems to play like Mario Brothers. But, you need to add controller support. just my 2 cents.

 

[gundalf]

WebGL

Unity Web Player no longer works in Chrome and is going the way of the dinosaur. Build with WebGL so everyone with a browser can try it

Just be aware that Unity WebGL support is / has been pretty buggy unless they finally figured out a solution. It may be the fault of the browsers, but the end result is that I practically always had a better experience using the plugin instead.

Haven't had issues with the current build. But, of course, I test heavily on 2+ operating systems, 3+ computers and all browsers I can. Not saying someone won't have an issue but I haven't ran into any since using it. If it is working - its working. If not, then its not. I don't think anyone will push something they haven't tested themselves unless it's Batman on PC XD

It's a long time since I toyed around with Unity WebGL builds but I remember having problems and thus not bothering making a WebGL Version this time.
But I am getting now an Idea, is it possible to test with Javascript if the user has the WebPlayer plugin installed? This way I could load what fits best to the users Browser.
Either way, this would be great opportunity for me to finally learn some Javascript

I think it look pretty good. Wasn't a huge fan when it started out with the night shot, but it looked better as I scrolled down. =) The night shot look a bit too black. Perhaps the ground could be dark in the distance, but brightness closer to the camera. The lowpoly-ness of the environment right now is fine for me. If anything, the rider looks higher poly and too smooth compared to the trees and stuff. I'd probably match them closer some how.

Yep, I have to agree, it all looks fantastic besides the night shot.

 

[Jacksinthe]

It's a long time since I toyed around with Unity WebGL builds but I remember having problems and thus not bothering making a WebGL Version this time.
But I am getting now an Idea, is it possible to test with Javascript if the user has the WebPlayer plugin installed? This way I could load what fits best to the users Browser.
Either way, this would be great opportunity for me to finally learn some Javascript



Yep, I have to agree, it all looks fantastic besides the night shot.

A user can have the Unity Web Player Plugin installed - its just newer versions of chrome that don't support it anymore.

What you can do, instead of serving up the error page via Unity'a built HTML, edit the html to redirect instead of throwing up the error message. This way, you don't have to check if the player is installed (see above) and instead will just redirect automatically. At least I think you can do it this way, I haven't dove into the Web Player's html so I really don't know - I just know it will serve an error message in place of the game so you should be able to replace the error string with a redirect.

 

[Ito]

I'm currently configuring all the alternative outfits for my game.

There's going to be like 25, and thanks to a recolor shader, it was quite easy to do (visually-wise).

Each outfit will have attached an unique effect to it, so this customization can also have a small impact on the gameplay (for example, pink boosts healing through items or skills).

I'm also considering letting the player make their own color + effect combinations.

(I really liked this color scheme )

 

[neko.works]

Thanks guys for your feedback ^^

I think it look pretty good. Wasn't a huge fan when it started out with the night shot, but it looked better as I scrolled down. =) The night shot look a bit too black. Perhaps the ground could be dark in the distance, but brightness closer to the camera. The lowpoly-ness of the environment right now is fine for me. If anything, the rider looks higher poly and too smooth compared to the trees and stuff. I'd probably match them closer some how.

I saw the trailer on the website. Need to smooth out that transitions of the rider. The driving is smooth, but the transitions between the leans on the rider is quite rough. Also, the green and red UI letters are hard to read.

Initially, I was using my old lowpoly models for the riders from the original Night Riders, which looked like this...

... but after the mixed comments on Greenlight, mostly saying that lowpoly style feels like a mobile game, I started using more detailed models, including the new riders, even though my goal initially was to give an early 3D arcade look, such as the SEGA Model 1 board, not mobile...

Currently the UI elements fades from red to green (the timer, speed). But yes, the target colors are pure red and green, I will probably change that. Thanks!

Looking slick! Watch your shadows, though. If you are going for that soft look, don't use black shadows. Use softer, very mute and dark shades of colors, rather than just the pure black. Also the fog really helps give it that feel, as apparent in the green screenshot. Absolutely love that look.

I will experiment with lighter shadows. Thanks!

 

[UsagiWare]

Tried playing the game. On screen controls for any game like this sucks. The game seems fun though, seems to play like Mario Brothers. But, you need to add controller support. just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the feedback. I know that Gamemaker supports physical controllers for Android but I've never seen anyone actually use one. May I ask what you use?

 

[ZServ]

Having a bit of a design challenge here.

I need to teach people a technique that isn't necessarily obvious when they get the ability that allows it. The multidash move enables people to dash repeatedly in the air as long as they dash through an enemy, so it becomes possible to stay off the ground indefinitely -- Like using a sequence of flying enemies to cross a long chasm. That example would be the more obvious use of the power.

It's also possible to dash back and forth over the same enemy indefinitely (provided you don't fuck up the timing).

Originally I was going to leave this as a technique some players may figure out and use to their advantage, but now I'm trying to design specific scenarios that require its use. E.g., the boss causes spikes to erupt from the floor and there's nowhere to stand, so you must use his body to stay off the ground until they're gone. Or maybe one slow enemy or unit crosses a pit or walks over a hazard and the player can "board" it with this technique for safe passage.

That's all well and good, but how do I teach this technique to the player given the minimal style of the game with respect to learning its systems? I don't envision ever having a series of tutorial pop ups suddenly explaining that they need to do this and how to do it. I could throw them into the deep end and see if they figure it out on their own, that's an option, but some may be frustrated by that.

In my personal opinion, there's two things you should do here. First, make the boss beatable without the super-duper-dash shenanigans. So, assume that the player is stupid and never learns this technique. Balance it so that if they dash once per "phase" it's just *barely* beatable. An adrenaline pumping, "how the fuck am I supposed to do this" kinda thing. It's accomplishable, but not easy by any means. (Bonus points for secret achievement for beating the boss in this way, or having a secret "hidden" way to beat any boss)

Then, you change some areas that are platforming dense to have ceiling-based enemies that you can dash through. The idea is that a player could just think "fuck, why are there these horribly difficult platforming sequences?" but given enough time they might *click* on the concept of "well, I can dash through enemies, so maybe I can dash through several?" This first off, accomplishes the idea of the world being violent and scary to a player, until they learn to move through it, as they adapt to the game, it's synonymous with your characters journey adapting to the world. And what a newbie player might see as a horribly difficult fighting/platforming sequence, a veteran player is going to see as a shortcut to get from Point A to Point B.

Sorry if this came off a little "this is what you should do" and attitude-y, but it seems like a fair compromise between fun and difficult, while seemingly still fitting the tone of Ghost Song wonderfully.

 

[Kalentan]

I'm starting to get scared. I'm getting into that same lull that I do with anything (writing and game making). My momentum for working on the game has dropped to an all time low. It always seems to happen when I go on break from school. I always lose anything desire to keep working on it...

 

[ZServ]

I'm starting to get scared. I'm getting into that same lull that I do with anything (writing and game making). My momentum for working on the game has dropped to an all time low. It always seems to happen when I go on break from school. I always lose anything desire to keep working on it...

I hit that lull several times while on my current project. The best thing you can do is strive to have no "0" days. Even if you're just going in and tweaking a line of code, or adding a tree to your world map, those little bits add up, and you never know when you'll get hit with a big burst of "OH that's what I should do!"