justsomeguy
Member
Hmm what if you left a coloured trail behind you and had to paint a line somehow (shades of The Witness I know). Alternatively I'm getting a slight qbert/pacman vibe, can you get inspiration from those mechanics?
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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay
- Thread starter Jacksinthe
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The "level change" effect is what looks better from your gifs, so why don´t you try to incorporate that as a mechanic into gameplay? For example: if the player turns the camera turns with him and parts of the level get "reloaded" altering the setup, that could be a starting point to create some interesting puzzles. You could also go for some Escherian puzzles with that perspective (like the 3D puzzles in Super Mario 3D Land).
Cheers.
Now I am fighting suggestions from friends that are, well, not very good. Like having an "exit" button in a mobile game. "That's against best practices, you are supposed to let the OS deal with resources" isn't a very good answer, apparently.
justsomeguy
Member
Yup - great idea... the transition is great, make use of it.
3D levels not just horizontal plane too.
Okay y'all, I need your advice!
Context: I was previously using an instant message display system, because I couldn't figure out how to do otherwise. I've now researched a little more into this since it was discussed just earlier in the thread and found out a way to get it working.
Problem: the new method works, but adds plenty of bugs and special cases I need to track down and fix. It also requires one more key press to fast skip dialog (before, 1 key press=skip to next, now, 1 key press=display full if not displayed already, then another to skip.)
Pros/Cons:
+the new method is way more versatile: I can control the display speed on a text box basis (even probably more, but you get the idea), and I can add it as an option for the player to customize (slow/med/fast/instant text speed, instant allowing the fast skip key presses like before, though not by default).
+it's a VN standard - gotta do like everyone else!
+it's what I intended to do at the start, but couldn't do at this time.
+it allows more time to show the animations, and works better in conjunction
-on standard display settings (ie: not instant), it requires more keypresses to fast forward through the text
-it creates OH SO MANY BUGS I'm going to have to sift through
-it's a VN standard - it now looks like everyone else!
-it has this weird word overlap issue which I'm not sure I can easily fix, though I'm going to try (if you have any suggestions, by all means)
-I kinda got used to the previous instant display with fade
Thoughts on which method you prefer, and which I should keep, and why?
Thanks for your input!
(disregard the horrible GIF compression, the contention point is the dialog display here)
Context: I was previously using an instant message display system, because I couldn't figure out how to do otherwise. I've now researched a little more into this since it was discussed just earlier in the thread and found out a way to get it working.
Problem: the new method works, but adds plenty of bugs and special cases I need to track down and fix. It also requires one more key press to fast skip dialog (before, 1 key press=skip to next, now, 1 key press=display full if not displayed already, then another to skip.)
Pros/Cons:
+the new method is way more versatile: I can control the display speed on a text box basis (even probably more, but you get the idea), and I can add it as an option for the player to customize (slow/med/fast/instant text speed, instant allowing the fast skip key presses like before, though not by default).
+it's a VN standard - gotta do like everyone else!
+it's what I intended to do at the start, but couldn't do at this time.
+it allows more time to show the animations, and works better in conjunction
-on standard display settings (ie: not instant), it requires more keypresses to fast forward through the text
-it creates OH SO MANY BUGS I'm going to have to sift through
-it's a VN standard - it now looks like everyone else!
-it has this weird word overlap issue which I'm not sure I can easily fix, though I'm going to try (if you have any suggestions, by all means)
-I kinda got used to the previous instant display with fade
Thoughts on which method you prefer, and which I should keep, and why?
Thanks for your input!
Those are some sick animations, it looks amazing!
I like more how the first one looks, the second one as you say is used by almost every game. Besides, I hate having to wait for text to write itself completely while reading, having all text appear at once is a much more prefferable option for myself.
Just curiosity: Are you using external files for the text/conversations?
All right! Thanks for your feedback :-D Though the second option (character per character) doesn't invalidate the first, indeed its versatility would allow for the first to be an option, instead of the only speed available (so for instance, toggle "instant display speed" in the options, and there you go, always instant display, the only thing missing would be the fade that was meant to simulate the character appearing effect anyway). I agree that I like the effect for being different, but if I'm being honest, I was shooting for the character display at first, and just gave up... and now I'm wondering because of all the bugs it create and I kinda like the effect from the original too. Versatility wise, though, it's no contest, and who allow me some nifty tricks for special message cases!
EDIT: and now I've even added the slight fade back in for the instant message display, so indeed, it's choosing between a single display type, or one with much more flexibility that also allows for what the first one did... yeah. I think the choice is pretty clear, if it's even a choice anymore. Guess it's time to squash some bugs.
No... sure wish I did, though :-/ Way too late for that now, however. Even tried exporting text from the exported game files, but it's a no-go too. Lesson learned, I guess.
Dios! How are you planning to do the language selector?
Not planning one for the first release, and for the translated releases if there are to be any (and it's still a pretty long shot), I'll have to plug back the script in by hand. It's going to be horrible, don't even ask
tamaster92
Member
So I spent a couple of hours going over the issue i'm having with both the base inventory creator and a friend who is good with UE4.
Turns out it would be a massive undertaking to redo how it works to take and use different weapons like I wanted.
So instead today I start the project over, quickly catching up to where I was minus the weapons and then build the weapon system around the inventory. Annoying but will be better in the long run!
Turns out it would be a massive undertaking to redo how it works to take and use different weapons like I wanted.
So instead today I start the project over, quickly catching up to where I was minus the weapons and then build the weapon system around the inventory. Annoying but will be better in the long run!
Yeah my roommate also got a qbert vibe from it. I'll have to remind myself of what makes it fun since its been forever since I've played a qbert game.
Yeah I was thinking about this. Reminded me a bit of Echochrome. I'm not sure how well it would work in this as I'm using an orthographic camera at isometric angles, but I'll play around with rotation slap a few blocks in places and see if I can get positions where that works.
Only issue with this is since I'm using an isometric view which I really like then having multiple levels will be tricky. I'd have to have a camera rotation which I'll implement, so I'll need to see how that works gameplay wise, but it's a good idea for added variety.
edit:
I played around to see what I could do in orthogonal. Turns out I can do some escher. Not sure how I would implement this in the procedural stuff I'm doing, however I will play around with it the handcrafted levels I want to make as well.
Ignore the gif artifacts.
Anyone know why GameObjects in Unity (5.3.2.f1) disappear as you get close to them sometimes? It's like they're clipping out of existence or get culled as the camera comes close to them, but I'm nowhere near any collisions.
For example, I've built a small hut/house from the basic 3D cubes that you can create in the editor. But some walls just vanish as I get close, but not others. And it only happens from outside the house, not from the inside. It seems they're still there, as lights still cast shadows on the other side, and I can't actually work through the invisible walls. Really frustrating :/
My map isn't that large, just a floor block of 80x80 units, with 1-dimensional planes on the edges for walls. Sometimes it kinda seems like the camera freaks out when it clips through one of these planes, as the other wall on the far side of the map vanishes, but it doesn't happen on the original map the geometry is literally copied from.
For example, I've built a small hut/house from the basic 3D cubes that you can create in the editor. But some walls just vanish as I get close, but not others. And it only happens from outside the house, not from the inside. It seems they're still there, as lights still cast shadows on the other side, and I can't actually work through the invisible walls. Really frustrating :/
My map isn't that large, just a floor block of 80x80 units, with 1-dimensional planes on the edges for walls. Sometimes it kinda seems like the camera freaks out when it clips through one of these planes, as the other wall on the far side of the map vanishes, but it doesn't happen on the original map the geometry is literally copied from.
LordRaptor
Member
What have you set your Clipping Planes "near" value to on your camera?
The default 0.3. Far plane is 1000. I just rebaked the occlusion culling which made it slightly better, at least the said house remains. But as the camera goes outside the plane walls, pretty much all geometry disappears entirely. Except the floor block, for some reason.
LordRaptor
Member
Drop your clipping plane to 0 to see if that fixes it - if I'm reading what you've done right, you are using the standard cube meshes resized to be walls...?
I could well be wrong, but I suspect because those are effectively just big ass quads, there'll be some arbitrary point where the camera stops rendering the entire poly because it thinks you cant see that poly anymore. If changing your culling setting doesn't help, try making the wall out of lots of little boxes instead of one big box (or subdividing your mesh if you are using your own mesh).
I suspect its a LODding / culling thing.
0 auto-becomes 0.01, but it didn't change anything unfortunately :/ I tried turning off occlusion culling completely on my player camera and that fixed it actually! But you kinda do want occlusion culling am I right?
My walls aren't that big, at least not the non-plane ones. They're rarely bigger than 5 units and never thicker than 1 unit. Maybe the map is simply too big, the original is 65x70 and this is 80x80, but that seems like a negligible difference. I did have the same problem back on the original map too one time but I don't know what I did to fix that. Probably something with culling settings as well.
LordRaptor
Member
But you kinda do want occlusion culling am I right?
Well, for performance reasons yeah, because otherwise you're spending resources on things the player shouldn't be able to see, but if you can soak the cost you can soak the cost.
sorry couldn't be more help :s
Yeah, I mixed it up with frustum culling, but Unity does that automatically.
Anyway, I fixed it after reading up on the functionality in the manual. Apparently, if your camera ends up outside the occlusion baked culling area, visualized with blue wireframe cubes, everything will get culled, essentially. And for some strange reason, my wireframe cubes were offset so only three walls were inside those cubes, leaving one wall to be outside the drawing area, so when I hugged that wall, my third person perspective camera would end up outside that area. Not sure why this happened, everything is centered around 0,0,0, but a new baking with bigger cubes solved it. I've tripled checked with various sizes and it seems to be working fine again.
If you're using an orthographic camera you can give the close clipping plane a negative value.
Awesome. Grats!
Grats you tooThanks! Good news, we do have a PC version!
Here's the link
.Question about directional lighting. Does Unity's version have attenuation? I'm moving my player cube around and just noticed its self shadow getting lighter and darker. Playing around with moving it on an escher platform and having to teleport it makes it extremely noticeable. Is there a way I can change this so it doesn't change?
edit: Figured it out. My orthographic camera had a negative value near clipping plane and when an object cross into negative the lighting/shadows are different.
edit: Figured it out. My orthographic camera had a negative value near clipping plane and when an object cross into negative the lighting/shadows are different.
timetokill
Banned
Oh hey, another Unity bashfest of GAF. Hurrah. Always nice to see people will write off games entirely for the tools they were made with.
Reminds me of people who say, "looks like RPG Maker, no sale."
Reminds me of people who say, "looks like RPG Maker, no sale."
NM I see it. Guh.
Several Gaffers seem to believe they know better than devs regarding engines, budget and planning (also the tired "devs are lazy" bs). I just don't care enough to go around educating them if there's not really a will to learn.
They're a vocal minority I believe. Most people realize the amazing things Unity has done for the gaming industry as a whole.
Got bored, changed my loading screen. I am content for now... that logo is gonna get changed. Simple but pleasing, I think. Logs on the left will be randomly picked from a giant list of them to give more insights to the story, etc etc.
https://gfycat.com/ParchedUnhappyAmericancrayfish
I kinda want to get involved, but cba. Rather just avoid confrontations, I'm happy with Unity.
https://gfycat.com/ParchedUnhappyAmericancrayfish
I kinda want to get involved, but cba. Rather just avoid confrontations, I'm happy with Unity.
fengshuifever
Member
Just saw that thread
Wow the OP went all in on that topic title...
Wow the OP went all in on that topic title...
timetokill
Banned
Oh, that looks yummy. The cube loop is a little slow for my tastes, but man it looks cool.
Thank you! And yeah I'm agreeing with you on the slow loop, defo could be faster.
I fixed the issue, but I'll try that for kicks
fengshuifever
Member
So simple but so lovely, i actually forgot it was on loop!
Sooooo... has anyone here had a under-the-radar release that ended up doing well for them on Steam?
We're taking the Big Blowout approach as we've been in Early Access for what seems like forever (9 months) and have likely dropped off the radar for most. Hoping that an awesome release trailer and a bunch of new content gets some traction, but honestly have no idea what to expect.
I'm out of fingernails over here!
We're taking the Big Blowout approach as we've been in Early Access for what seems like forever (9 months) and have likely dropped off the radar for most. Hoping that an awesome release trailer and a bunch of new content gets some traction, but honestly have no idea what to expect.
I'm out of fingernails over here!
ThePhotoshop
Member
So I'd love to get some feedback on this build of Wildfire if anyone has some spare time: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljjuu1tl41m1cxu/wildfire_alpha_marchv1.zip?dl=1 (Windows, ~70MB)
It's got a world map now and everything!
It's got a world map now and everything!
timetokill
Banned
So I'd love to get some feedback on this build of Wildfire if anyone has some spare time: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljjuu1tl41m1cxu/wildfire_alpha_marchv1.zip?dl=1 (Windows, ~70MB)
It's got a world map now and everything!
If I try it out, can I livestream it?
ThePhotoshop
Member
Yeah go ahead! Also link me so I can watch?
timetokill
Banned
Cool! Will do. If I end up streaming it at an odd hour I'll link you to the archive.
TheHollowNight
Member
This is the last teaser I'm gonna show before the whole thing is ready
http://gfycat.com/EnchantingKlutzyIceblueredtopzebra
http://gfycat.com/EnchantingKlutzyIceblueredtopzebra
That is hot fire!This is the last teaser I'm gonna show before the whole thing is ready
http://gfycat.com/EnchantingKlutzyIceblueredtopzebra
liliththepale
Banned
This is the last teaser I'm gonna show before the whole thing is ready
http://gfycat.com/EnchantingKlutzyIceblueredtopzebra
lol the fog around the character's waist looks a lot like a ball gown
This is the last teaser I'm gonna show before the whole thing is ready
http://gfycat.com/EnchantingKlutzyIceblueredtopzebra
But I want it now!
Cool, I´ll give it a try when I´m home.So I'd love to get some feedback on this build of Wildfire if anyone has some spare time: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljjuu1tl41m1cxu/wildfire_alpha_marchv1.zip?dl=1 (Windows, ~70MB)
It's got a world map now and everything!
I thought the same thing lol.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
This is the last teaser I'm gonna show before the whole thing is ready
http://gfycat.com/EnchantingKlutzyIceblueredtopzebra
That gives me goosebumps.
LordRaptor
Member
Its very simple;
- they want your games and they want them on console because AAA is at the point now where major publishers are only releasing one title a year
- they don't want you using any assets purchased from an asset store (that they know about) you goddamn asset flipper
- they dont want pixel art because why does every indie have to use pixel art
- they don't want vectorial graphics because why should i pay money for something that looks like a flash game
- they dont want to pay more than $20 for something that might have taken years of work because its an indie game why are you trying to charge more than $20 for it
- they don't want engines they didnt preselect as being good, why dont you learn a new engine are you stupid as well a being lazy?
- they dont want languages you might know like c# why dont you learn a real computing language like C++ are you really that stupid and lazy?
- they don't want it right now so eh, I'll wait for PS+
its pretty simple, devs. Customer is always right.
obligatory /s
liliththepale
Banned
The customer is never right. Ever.
Just make the game you want to make. If you enjoy playing it, chances are others will too. If not, at least you enjoyed your time making it!
That's my philosophy anyway.
Just make the game you want to make. If you enjoy playing it, chances are others will too. If not, at least you enjoyed your time making it!
That's my philosophy anyway.
LordRaptor
Member
Yeah, I agree. Thats basically the entire point of being indie in my book.
You don't necessarily (and probably shouldn't) tell potential buyers to fuck off if they say anything to you, but its about doing things your way because you want to do them like that.
e: Im just venting really, because its bad enough as a solo indie I have worries that my arts not that good, my coding is poor, and that my games are not inspiringly original or unput downable fun, its worrying to me like I said upthread that you're automatically starting out in the negative column just because of engine choice
I think a balance needs to be reached, in the end you´re making your game for people to play it and enjoy it, so you should have that in mind when taking decissions. Which is not the same as following feedback like the bible, you must find the sweet spot.
In my case my philosohy is "respect the player". Don´t do anything stupid I wouldn´t like being done to me.
So I'd love to get some feedback on this build of Wildfire if anyone has some spare time: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljjuu1tl41m1cxu/wildfire_alpha_marchv1.zip?dl=1 (Windows, ~70MB)
It's got a world map now and everything!
Not much in the way of feedback or useful criticism, it's been simply brilliant from what I've played so far. Very nice work!
ThePhotoshop
Member
Thank you! If you could even try to pinpoint something you enjoyed the most, or a cool moment you experienced, that would also be useful as it'd give me something to focus on trying to encourage or push players towards.
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