I actually like a bit of head rotation. It reminds me of Mega Man X's amazing sprite. I tend to do it in my run anims most the time.
So I do personally like that aspect of it.
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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay
- Thread starter Jacksinthe
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I actually like a bit of head rotation. It reminds me of Mega Man X's amazing sprite. I tend to do it in my run anims most the time.
So I do personally like that aspect of it.
First of all: that looks f***ing awesome.I actually like a bit of head rotation. It reminds me of Mega Man X's amazing sprite. I tend to do it in my run anims most the time.
So I do personally like that aspect of it.
In your sprite the head movement is much more subtle and I agree that it fits really well, but in Ito´s it´s more exaggerated and it throws me a bit off. Just an opinion, anyway I wish I could make animations and sprites of that quality. Just yesterday I spent 2-3 hours animating a pixelated tail with only 2 colors for a whooping animation length of 2 frames, so you´de better not put into question my amazing spriting abilities! XD
liliththepale
Banned
^^ some head turn is only natural when the torso is twisting so much from those excellent arm pumps. Her poor neck is doing as much as it can to compensate!
Hibari's neck and face look fine to me, but actually the top hair seems to suggest the head is turning more than it is, so that might be why Correojon thinks it's turning too much.
Hibari's neck and face look fine to me, but actually the top hair seems to suggest the head is turning more than it is, so that might be why Correojon thinks it's turning too much.
SeanNoonan
Member
fengshuifever
Member
No one does. Thats the secret. We all go in and just figure out ways around problems as we meet them and try to plan ahead to keep stuff at bay.
You should make some Black and white versions of your textures by playing with the threshold and levels modifiers in photoshop (or whatever you use) and make yourself a Bump map and Reflection map to add to what you have. It'll make it jump out a ton. Displacement maps are also good.
I posted this awhile back for someone looking at blender since I was relearning maya tricks in blender awhile back. However, it gives a REALLY good detailed explanation on what maps are for and how they work.
Map descriptions
You seem to know how to use your nodes in your material and shader stuff so check these out and see if any of what it says to do with maps is something you can pop into the nodes in your program. Just make some black and white texture variants, and put them through the right kind of node and connect that to what you have. Might help light and texture some. Your definitely looking good so far even before that.
I haven't gotten to texturing my stage yet. Still need to unwrap it piece by piece. Plus I still have several more things to make for this stage.
Anyhow, I'm not worried too much about posting early model work in blender on a stage so I'll post what I got so far.
Still needs backdrops, and a whole lot of bits and bobs like plantlife and lanterns and such, but so far its turning out okay. Should do well with cel shading since I have a lot of actual geometry to work with.
Hearing that makes me feel a lot better about a lot of progression so far.
I'm in the process of finally tying all of the scattered gameplay scripts together into a cohesive whole now and it's very much "oh shit please don't break please don't break please don't break."
Oh wow, those are some really good pointers man, thank you!
I'll be sure to give this a shot tonight and mess about with it.
The trickiest part is still keeping it non-realistic enough that people won't notice the low poly nature of the meshes but detailed enough that it pops out.
I'm watching the video now!
Also, what game are you making? I really like the look of that building!
To stem off what I was saying, I just finished testing of the Reality phase timer system, NPC pathfinding and event system and it all works flawlessly.
The only thing it needs now is the actual proper NPC's walking around and not just 20 "Ethan" testers running around the store.
Also the third person movement and camera is basically 90% done.
The rest of it will probably have to wait until the character meshes start coming in.
Also, tying the subconscious world timer/clock into all of their respective areas and starting to balance enemy placements with the speed in which the timer decreases.
Tomorrow I'm gonna go back and work on the battle system. I can see the Noise (basically this game's reverse "mana" but different) stat tie-ins are gonna be a complete dick to do.
So there's still a shit ton to do but I'm feeling a lot of progress now. Feels good ^^
They just can't handle that sweet button feedback. (I know I've said it before, but goddamn. Even the gif is fun to watch)
I always kinda wanted to do an underwater exploration side scroller, looks like Insomaniac is doing it.
thanks
hmmm I think my feeling on this is that I like it as part of a stylized interpretation of running, which is how I view video game sprite animations in general. A smooth and rhythmic head rotation isn't really realistic in just about any case (correct me if I'm wrong) but I think it can feel nice in a 2d game run animation.
That's probably because I have such entrenched memories of Mega Man X, and I always loved that run cycle.
thanks
hmmm I think my feeling on this is that I like it as part of a stylized interpretation of running, which is how I view video game sprite animations in general. A smooth and rhythmic head rotation isn't really realistic in just about any case (correct me if I'm wrong) but I think it can feel nice in a 2d game run animation.
That's probably because I have such entrenched memories of Mega Man X, and I always loved that run cycle.
liliththepale
Banned
Yeah, it just depends on what you're going for. Like I appreciate these run cycles a lot, but they're each very stylized in different ways:
Yeah, it just depends on what you're going for. Like I appreciate these run cycles a lot, but they're each very stylized in different ways:
I love the SOTN run cycle and the others that followed in its footsteps on DS. <3 HIGHLY stylized but just feels nice!
On the other hand, run cycles with a lot of "pop" like Guacamelee I find sort of jarring for some reason. The recent Transformers Devastation featured "poppy" run cycles and I found it so distracting it actually affected my enjoyment of the game (I know I'm probably practically alone in having my enjoyment affected by something like that, but it's true).
To dissect what "pop" is, or what I call "pop", is when the "guts" of the run animation are mostly skipped over and all of the emphasis is put on the end poses. I like the guts. I like that detail and smoothness. It's so deliberate.
shaowebb
Member
Hearing that makes me feel a lot better about a lot of progression so far.
I'm in the process of finally tying all of the scattered gameplay scripts together into a cohesive whole now and it's very much "oh shit please don't break please don't break please don't break."
Oh wow, those are some really good pointers man, thank you!
I'll be sure to give this a shot tonight and mess about with it.
The trickiest part is still keeping it non-realistic enough that people won't notice the low poly nature of the meshes but detailed enough that it pops out.
I'm watching the video now!
Also, what game are you making? I really like the look of that building!
To stem off what I was saying, I just finished testing of the Reality phase timer system, NPC pathfinding and event system and it all works flawlessly.
The only thing it needs now is the actual proper NPC's walking around and not just 20 "Ethan" testers running around the store.
Also the third person movement and camera is basically 90% done.
The rest of it will probably have to wait until the character meshes start coming in.
Also, tying the subconscious world timer/clock into all of their respective areas and starting to balance enemy placements with the speed in which the timer decreases.
Tomorrow I'm gonna go back and work on the battle system. I can see the Noise (basically this game's reverse "mana" but different) stat tie-ins are gonna be a complete dick to do.
So there's still a shit ton to do but I'm feeling a lot of progress now. Feels good ^^
They just can't handle that sweet button feedback. (I know I've said it before, but goddamn. Even the gif is fun to watch)
I can feel your excitement and I'm with you buddy. Any code work is like game work IMO. 90% please dont break moments and the other 10% is spread between success and occassional excited hoping lol. Thats software development in general. You break so much shit on the way to making something that works. Just know that no one makes a game start to finish flawlessly. Trick is being willing to learn as you go and work at problems till you fix them as you go.
The kind of game I'm making is a fighting game. Since I saw Skullgirls have Potemkin rip off their Panzerfaust character design, and since I've seen things like Mighty No 9 overstay their fan interest I'm trying not to put out much hard info on system mechanics, or characters or even themes right now since I'm still so far out from anything playable. Usually I just get to post sorta liveblog general sort of descriptions here or there and try to offer help to anyone I can based on anything I might think I know.
But hey a stage...pfffft. I dont care what happens to it. Before I graduated high school in 2000 I used to want to be an architect so I got a lot of design stuff I can fall back on for making more backgrounds. That means I finally have something I can share! Key is...use references. Think of what would be a cool house if it had a theme and start looking at stuff. I have so many images and links saved from pinterest style home design things. Looking up stuff like modern treehouses, microhouses, Hobbit houses, castles, and fantasy themed homes yields a TON of creative insight into design to help stuff along.
The main thing...dont leave a box shape a box shape. Thats dull. I still need to add vines over that far right wall just to get rid of that bland spot. If you got a squared off corner to a building put a wooden beam, a pillar, a retaining stack of stone blocks or something there to frame the square shape and give it some geometric variance. I like putting small stone walls about a third of the way up using a different kind of stone texture than the main building and offset that area's geometry either with extrudes or a seperate mesh altogether in addition to adding corner areas on buildings. Second floor balconies, decks, or veranda type things are also cool and in general I just dig round windows on square buildings and square windows on round buildings. It adds significance to that part of the building and makes it pop out. It also helps to look into decorative iron gates and fence work, make a texture and slap that with some transparent alpha channels along doors, or glass panes. It looks incredible to see a mosaic stained glass with a wrought iron trim filigree shutter in front of it that does nothing but add style points.
Experiment and use references is all I'm saying I guess. If you can make a light fixture, faucet, door, window or wall a decoration then do so IMO. These are areas in a home people interact with constantly so they may as well be pretty.
Thom Yorke's Wobbly Eye
Member
Finally got round to putting another devlog video together for Stage Presence. Making videos is harder than making games by far. Still, at least I get to show my sweet new dynamic rain clouds. Lookit them clouds! It's good to finally announce a launch date too. Two months until people are throwing bottles of piss at each other in multiplayer!
(click the pic to watch the vid)
(click the pic to watch the vid)
SeanNoonan
Member
This feel, I know it.
Jacksinthe
Banned
The piracy discussion in that Blow thread is bonkers. BONKERS.
Recap please so I don't have to go read it
Jacksinthe
Banned
There's literally zero reason to participate. Changing most people's minds about something like that is practically an impossibility, especially when a good chunk of them are probably trying to defend their decision to pirate it without being able to come out and say so.
Yeah, it sucks. Speaking of which, I've been trying to get a rough cut trailer together -- anyone want to help with some feedback?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMrzp5fKpCU
Some quick thoughts:
I don't know exactly what the game or it's genre is.
Some words overlayed on the opening especially could help get a feel for the world / game.
The first part of it is a bit uneventful. The bird flying part is cool, but some of the scenes following feel long. For example, the top down view of the entire kingdom at the beginning from 0:12 to a fade @ 0:20-ish is too long.
Things really pick up 0:55. Showing exciting gameplay, particles, animations, and gameplay, along with the music crescendoing is great.
The game looks great!
Geminosity
Member
Yeah, I'm working on my trailer at the moment and it just feels like so much more work than making the game XD
wow, pretty
I'd be inclined to agree with most of what snarge said: the intro is nice but probably too long and it's not clear until a good way in what kind of game it is as there's no gameplay until a decent amount of time has passed.
I don't know what the title is just from the trailer but having it pop up before ending the castle scene would've been a good place for it :3
I definitely feel like some sound effects would help as while the music is nice it doesn't quite make up for the lack of other audio for me
Again though, it's really darn pretty XD
That scene with the whirling stuff and the apparition floating above it is particularly gorgeous.
wow, pretty
I'd be inclined to agree with most of what snarge said: the intro is nice but probably too long and it's not clear until a good way in what kind of game it is as there's no gameplay until a decent amount of time has passed.
I don't know what the title is just from the trailer but having it pop up before ending the castle scene would've been a good place for it :3
I definitely feel like some sound effects would help as while the music is nice it doesn't quite make up for the lack of other audio for me
Again though, it's really darn pretty XD
That scene with the whirling stuff and the apparition floating above it is particularly gorgeous.
Blarggh, just what I wasn't hoping for. Basically, it's Ogre Battle mixed with the traditional JRPG field map-style gameplay. The game is cut into stages that you command your army through like an RTS or real-time tactics game (shown in the outdoor scenes with the drawn out view with the small character icons), but encounters take you to JRPG-style combat, and the places and structures in the stage can be explored like in a typical JRPG.
The problem is that I can't really say, "It's not Ogre Battle.. but it's Ogre Battle" and calling it a RTSJ(-style)RPG doesn't work all that well either. Still working on the most precise and concise way to get exactly what it is across.
That's something to consider, but I'm generally not a huge fan of it unless it's done really well. Maybe I could try to work something into the beginning because...
... yeah, I'm definitely cutting that down. I think that I'll have the bird part be a slower but later fade from the 'studio' tag that goes at the head of most videos, and I'll be taking at least one bar of the song out to speed that part up.
Thanks, for that and the feedback. It's always hard to get a clear read on something when you're nose-to-the-monitor with it all day.
Yeah, I'm working on my trailer at the moment and it just feels like so much more work than making the game XD
wow, pretty
I'd be inclined to agree with most of what snarge said: the intro is nice but probably too long and it's not clear until a good way in what kind of game it is as there's no gameplay until a decent amount of time has passed.
I don't know what the title is just from the trailer but having it pop up before ending the castle scene would've been a good place for it :3
I definitely feel like some sound effects would help as while the music is nice it doesn't quite make up for the lack of other audio for me
Again though, it's really darn pretty XD
That scene with the whirling stuff and the apparition floating above it is particularly gorgeous.
Thanks! I haven't gotten around to where I want to put the title in yet, but that's actually a really, really good idea there. Would definitely ease the timing a bit.
I don't understand all the tacit support or justification for piracy.
You want a demo? One isn't offered? SORRY OUT OF LUCK! Don't buy it then, asshole.
Children seem to think they're owed things. Dev made a game -- I'm entitled to it, whether I can pay, or whether I think I should pay. Gimme.
Jupiter_Shrooms
Member
Anyone have a good recommendation for their go-to font for games?
I spent the past hour scouring dafont but can't seem to find one that quite fits my criteria. My game has a pixel art style - so a pixel font would be best. However, at various times the font needs to be displayed quite large, and most pixel fonts don't work well when enlarged. Ideally, I'm looking for a font that is still pixel while being non-minimal (ie, not using the least amount of pixels required to represent a character, but rather embellishing a bit more).
I spent the past hour scouring dafont but can't seem to find one that quite fits my criteria. My game has a pixel art style - so a pixel font would be best. However, at various times the font needs to be displayed quite large, and most pixel fonts don't work well when enlarged. Ideally, I'm looking for a font that is still pixel while being non-minimal (ie, not using the least amount of pixels required to represent a character, but rather embellishing a bit more).
It actually sounds like you need two fonts in the same style. One maybe twice as many "pixels" high as the other for use when displaying large.
Instead of looking for a "pixel font", perhaps look for old-school Windows 3.1 era bitmap fonts? They often had multiple sizes.
(from Game Font Database)
Also:
"Victim blaming is always a bad thing, except when the victim is a developer that has distributed a few DRM-free copies of his game, he should know business!"
Jacksinthe
Banned
Instead of a broken game, I would grant the pirates a more obvious "you get what you pay for" message. Example: in Ghost Song: the character moving extra slow, music is painfully loud, your bullets fall to the ground making fart noises, and after 30 minutes: game over.
Seriously speaking, distributing "fake" torrents sounds like a way to draw the pirate's attention over your game, which would eventualy cause them to effectively pirate your work. Sadly, the only efficient way to fight against piracy is denouncing and asking these sites to take the torrents down. It works better if your attorney does it, under a lawsuit threat of course.
Seriously speaking, distributing "fake" torrents sounds like a way to draw the pirate's attention over your game, which would eventualy cause them to effectively pirate your work. Sadly, the only efficient way to fight against piracy is denouncing and asking these sites to take the torrents down. It works better if your attorney does it, under a lawsuit threat of course.
Just be careful. A bad copy can ruin your rep if it gets out of hand. I remember a story from years ago where a dev did this, they made their game run badly. It got out that it ran badly and messed up (from piraters being vocal of it) and the press picked up on it thinking the game itself was broken, thus ruining the dev.
I liked that that one game did, forget what it's called. But was a simulation game where you ran a video game buisness through the eras from like Atari and up. Anyways, apparently they made it so eventually your produced game wouldn't make money and would lose sale due to being "pirating". And then those people would complain on their forums, thus exposing them as pirates and becoming ironic idiots. lol
I'd imagine the best way to do this, is to make it in a game takes many hours to beat, and it fails you at the end, not early on.
I liked that that one game did, forget what it's called. But was a simulation game where you ran a video game buisness through the eras from like Atari and up. Anyways, apparently they made it so eventually your produced game wouldn't make money and would lose sale due to being "pirating". And then those people would complain on their forums, thus exposing them as pirates and becoming ironic idiots. lol
I'd imagine the best way to do this, is to make it in a game takes many hours to beat, and it fails you at the end, not early on.
Jupiter_Shrooms
Member
@Popstar, Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn't aware there were fonts that came in different sizes. Also "bitmap" fonts seems to be getting me more results than "pixel" fonts.
I wouldn't do that.
I'd just make the game impossible to progress after a certain point, maybe adding an on screen message of some kind.
-Edit-
Gulatica said what I was going to say.
-Edit 2-
I always liked how Link's Awakening called you a THIEF if you stole from the shop in Mabe Village. Imagine the pirate finding his character, user profile, and save files being renamed "THIEF" after every session.
-Edit 3-
What if you put some kind of "secret code" in the pirated version of your game, then ask the player to introduce that code somewhere on the internets, and ...?
Gulatica said what I was going to say.
-Edit 2-
I always liked how Link's Awakening called you a THIEF if you stole from the shop in Mabe Village. Imagine the pirate finding his character, user profile, and save files being renamed "THIEF" after every session.
-Edit 3-
What if you put some kind of "secret code" in the pirated version of your game, then ask the player to introduce that code somewhere on the internets, and ...?
Do you mean these guys? worth a read
http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013...lator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/
DRM/copy protections is always an interesting topic. Big "AAA" companies pays large sums for the latest, unbreakable drm (See Denuvo) and i cant help to feel that all you really have to do is to make the game make a handshake towards a server (Yeah yeah always online, but who isnt)
Best DRM to date most have been Sierras when you had to use the manual and answer all sorts of dumb (read: mature) questions. Even SNES games had good ones. Remember MegaMan X played the first level of the game and right before the main menu it locked/reset. That happen both on imports and roms
This whole thing did remind me of that one game that trapped you in an elevator if you were playing with a pirated version that didn't have the day 1 patch. Talos Principle, maybe?
Imagine the busts that would be going down in the OT for The Witness with people that couldn't solve puzzles because they didn't know that pirated copies were missing necessary chunks.
Thats Earthbound (not sure if the file got deleted or you just couldnt kill the last boss. It could tell if you ran a copy or used an adapter on a imported game)
edit: turned out it deletes all your saves on the last boss. beware of spoilers i guess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmyoV1bkXNI
ALSO. Earthbound checks if you use a pirate copy or not durring the game, not only on the last boss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMlbEFrD_6c
I look at it as the people who are going to pirate the game were going to pirate it no matter how much the game costs. So fuckem. Let them play a version of your game and then make them feel shitty about it. It might make them think twice about pirating another game from the same developers next time.
I don't think they feel shitty about it. Most pirates are entitled children who don't have a sense of community or conscience about this kind of thing. I'm only asking if there's any ground to be gained by getting into the "seeding an alternate version" business.
Maybe I could start seeding a completely normal vision but contains an appeal to emotion rather than a cockblock. Who knows.
Jacksinthe
Banned
Talking about this exact thing earlier.
I have a zillion "bugs" to introduce as seeds. My favorite is randomly reassigning controls which increases frequency over time.
Good luck playing a platformer like that.
I have a zillion "bugs" to introduce as seeds. My favorite is randomly reassigning controls which increases frequency over time.
Good luck playing a platformer like that.
I'm almost wondering if honey would work better than vinegar.
Don't stop the game, but include a message somewhere -- maybe a ways in -- that basically says... This game took a long time to make, I need to make a living, it wasn't supposed to be free, if you enjoy it please buy it.
Something to appeal to their better angels, remind them of what they're doing, ya know? Maybe actually gain a few sales that way? If you make someone think "fuck you" getting a sale from them seems even less likely.
liliththepale
Banned
If I was making an RPG, I would add a pirate class with really shitty stats and lock all of the other classes.
I'm wondering how much work it would be implement it sort of in app purchase on the pirate build. Something that says OK, you've gotten a good taste of the game, now here is a literal wall in the game that can't be passed until you pay up. And it doesn't even necessarily have to be a monetary payment. For example, I might be willing to let pirates slide for a Twitter mention.
Anyway, it's probably best not to dwell on it too much. It doesn't seem to be a lot you can do to change the attitudes of most pirates. So I think combating them has a low return on time invested.
I'm wondering how much work it would be implement it sort of in app purchase on the pirate build. Something that says OK, you've gotten a good taste of the game, now here is a literal wall in the game that can't be passed until you pay up. And it doesn't even necessarily have to be a monetary payment. For example, I might be willing to let pirates slide for a Twitter mention.
Anyway, it's probably best not to dwell on it too much. It doesn't seem to be a lot you can do to change the attitudes of most pirates. So I think combating them has a low return on time invested.
I've completely convinced myself now that the most productive way of dealing with this would be to seed your own game, fully functioning, but including friendly reminders to please buy it.
That might actually get you a few sales. Pissing someone off will never gain you any sales.
My reasoning is that people are going to pirate it no matter what. It's an immutable fact of game dev... So, if they're going to pirate it -- This cross section of people on the torrent sites -- You may as well propagate a version that requests them to please buy it. It may not cause most pirates to buy it, but I'd wager it would work on at least a few.
Piracy is a tough topic but I wanted to say one thing: If nothing else, I think it's safe to conclude demos are a non-factor, or a very tiny factor, for piracy these days.
Braid had a demo and was apparently heavily pirated. Even for games without demos, Steam refunds enable a free 2+ hour trial of virtually any game. If one is making a demo it should probably be for other reasons.
Braid had a demo and was apparently heavily pirated. Even for games without demos, Steam refunds enable a free 2+ hour trial of virtually any game. If one is making a demo it should probably be for other reasons.
fengshuifever
Member
It was pretty much my workload yesterday working with Enemy wandering and pursuit for battles.
My vocabulary consisted of the words "YES!" and "FUCK!" only yesterday, sometimes not in that order.
Keeping your cards to your chest seems to be the smart thing to do these days (I'm half smart haha) especially for that reason.
When are you thinking of releasing more about the game?
(Also any mention of a fighter gets me amped as hell)
Haha I know this feel. My pinterest and local reference folder is 90 percent Pop Art and Horror haha You're completely right though, you almost don't realise how useful it is until you actually start to think of the tangibility (that's probably not a word) of something as simple as a structure and then you suddenly remember all of those references.
Do you find it difficult to know when decorations to flesh out a structure becomes too much? I'm slowly learning this now even with the main entry chamber into the Labs.
More progress stuff, I found a great AI series for Unity on youtube (more on it's method of roaming and pursuit, the FSM system they had was broke phi broke) that I edited like crazy so now my enemies on the 'field' use a camera with a limited far plane to detect the player.
Except that I found out by accident that they can't process anything within hard shadows (which is great because Wavelength uses hard shadows everywhere)...sooo....ACCIDENTAL STEALTH MECHANICS WOO
shaowebb
Member
Yeah, I just see too much negative press from folks who see a game trying to compete for attention that never comes out. With the way folks are viewing indies and crowdsourced projects anything that talks more than delivers gets a black mark on it no matter whether it was delayed for legit reasons or actually following the real time table. This is why I just dont release much nor ever want to crowdsource. I'd rather handle my business and not let my business handle me and make me hated for no reason as so many projects keep becoming these days in the public's eyes (whether justifiably so or not).
Hard facts on the combat system, cast, and story are ALL being withheld till I am closing in on a launch date or find a publisher who tells me otherwise. I'm playing it that tightly. All I'll release is general stuff like stages, texture and lighting tests, maybe similar stuff. And yes, since I brought it up, I intend to seek a publisher and not crowdsource. I plan on having the majority of the title built before I bring it to the table of anyone, but I have some leads that could get me in front of the right people when I have something worth showing up with some year down the road
Depends on the mood I want. Some things are difficult and some aren't. When it comes to design I try to think of atmosphere and tone and relate those feelings to shapes and locations. If I think elegant city but outdoor setting I think Spanish, or French architecture and stuff like cafes and Cantinas. I then think of mood. High class means no hanging cloth, but instead detailed stonework, ironwork and possibly sculpted plaster ceiling work. If I think harsh and forboding I use long looming lines to architecture and sharp angles. If I think more mellow moods I use curves a lot. If I want something mysterious or magical I tend to mix them and go Aladdin and use rounded shapes with points on them like the buildings in Agrabah.
Once I have my mood, and general sorts of themes and an idea of shapes I look up a ton of reference material relative to those things, see if any stick, get ideas of how to embellish those with my own tastes and then I use things like figuring out whether or not to add symbolic items like distinctive plant life, , windows, doors or possibly moving parts to add the scene its own character.
Fighting games dont get the benefit of a long explanation. You got a couple of seconds from the second a stage loads to convey the tone of what is happening in this world and a sense of what kind of world it is and thats it. No matter what story mode is like or whatever its the STAGE that will build the world in their memories, not your words. The stage is a character and too many games forget that. KOF , Darkstalkers, Last Blade, and Garou have some of the best stages to learn from.
As for whether or not I find it difficult to know when I've added too much, not really. Dont get me wrong I add too much a lot, but I can generally tell when I have too many busy textures and need to have less or when the opposite is true. Generally speaking though I tend to add a lot of details. I'm a Stjepan Seijic and Marc Silvestri fan. Its what you do after awhile.
LOL! Happy accidents are always gonna happen. Entire games have been made off of odd discoveries made during game development.
Jacksinthe
Banned
Valid points to you both.
I'm dumb as a box of rocks, though. I just want to smash things. That's my preferred method.
shaowebb
Member
If anyone pirates my stuff after it releases my only hope is that I make enough to properly show respect to those that helped me make it possible and to maybe put up cash for tournaments so fans have a reason to give it a shot. I believe people should be paid for their work and I just hope pirates dont ruin that for anyone working on game stuff.
If there is an antipiracy third party specialist I could license somehow it'd be nice. Put that headache in the hands of experts and just pay a fee to enjoy better protection and maybe pay a license for continued support to keep stuff from being pirated. Does anyone know of any reliable folks who do this sort of work?
If there is an antipiracy third party specialist I could license somehow it'd be nice. Put that headache in the hands of experts and just pay a fee to enjoy better protection and maybe pay a license for continued support to keep stuff from being pirated. Does anyone know of any reliable folks who do this sort of work?
fengshuifever
Member
I'm "attempting" to look for a pub myself and crowdsourcing terrifies the everloving shit out of me. I like to be totally in control of my own work, the last thing I need for my self-esteem is a goddamn peanut gallery (I will most likely live to regret those words).
It's sound like you're my favourite type of level designer who thinks form first and then works function into it.
So many games miss treating locations as characters.
(I always regard the original 2 gens of Pokemon to have the best type of character development - location development)
I'm trying to work out light animations and tying them into the BPM of the song, so as the song changes, the light movement and scale changes with it. It's such a small detail but it really gives the environment SO much more life.
I'm really trying to tie visuals and audio together, not may games tend to do that and it's SUCH a missed opportunity.
Update today, I finally got off my ass (plus a conversation with a couple of people made me feel better about just trying things and if they work, GREAT) and started transferring sketched out level ideas into actual level design.
Just the floor layout right now, I'll be throwing interactables, walls/ceilings and enemies into it later today but that's the 1st floor layout done.
From sketch -
To quick prototyping -
At player level, everything now has so much more scale to it now and it feels like the walls are closing it. So good, I'm really happy with it.
Yeah, I'm working on my trailer at the moment and it just feels like so much more work than making the game XD
wow, pretty
I'd be inclined to agree with most of what snarge said: the intro is nice but probably too long and it's not clear until a good way in what kind of game it is as there's no gameplay until a decent amount of time has passed.
I don't know what the title is just from the trailer but having it pop up before ending the castle scene would've been a good place for it :3
I definitely feel like some sound effects would help as while the music is nice it doesn't quite make up for the lack of other audio for me
Again though, it's really darn pretty XD
That scene with the whirling stuff and the apparition floating above it is particularly gorgeous.
disregard that half-second sneer he seems to put in there for some reason
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hub4kla7te8
Still a bunch of work to do, but I think the title works really well there
What do you mean by anti-piracy specialist exactly? Third party software like Denuvo? I doubt that there's anything out there that'd be worth the amount of instant spite-hate that you would get from using it. Trying to fight piracy with anything other than positivity and good marketing might be the most failsafe way out there for generating backlash.
To quick prototyping -
At player level, everything now has so much more scale to it now and it feels like the walls are closing it. So good, I'm really happy with it.
Sorry, I don't hang around the thread too much, but what kind of game is this for?
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