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

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Sölf;198159111 said:
The newer versions (XP and onwards) have scripting and stuff, there you can do % damage. But I didn't like XP, never owned VX and only bought the VX Ace after starting this. So, well, yeah. xD
Is RPGM 2003 unable to multiply fractions?
 

Sölf

Member
Is RPGM 2003 unable to multiply fractions?

I think it can't, but that aside I can't change the damage formula anyway without hacking the engine itself. I think that wasn't even possible normally until VX Ace, which was the version before the current one. Unless, of course you would create a custom battle system, but most of the time it's not even worth it, because it's just not as good as the standard one.
 
Sölf;198160141 said:
I think it can't, but that aside I can't change the damage formula anyway without hacking the engine itself. I think that wasn't even possible normally until VX Ace, which was the version before the current one. Unless, of course you would create a custom battle system, but most of the time it's not even worth it, because it's just not as good as the standard one.
Damn!
 

Sölf

Member

Oh, I've been working so long with this engine, especially with the standard battle system, I know when I reach my limits. 2k for example has 9999 HP max health for enemies. Didn't stop me by just healing the enemy back up once he hit 50% HP and reducing a variable to regulate this. One of my games has 30k HP bosses because of that. xD

Members of the community actually made something similar to the scripting in the newer versions for 2k/3. It allows you to write small (or even big) patches, to increase the battle speed in the ATB battle system in 2k3 or change the damage formula, add enemy HP bars and what not. Since the official release I know we are allowed to use this, but I have no idea if some of the patches I use actually work with the official version (which was only released last year in english).
 
yeIn74h.gif


So an update on our game Gunkatana :) Today's our big day, we're making the jump to Steam Greenlight...

-> (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=637591816

... and have also finished both a trailer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvmepmQxYAE

... and a playable pre-alpha demo for that occasion :) (local multiplayer and vs bots)!

http://torn-page.itch.io/gunkatana

So if you want to get your own hands bloody and dirty, please take a moment and check out the demo of Gunkatana. I'd be really happy to get some feedback from you. It's been a long road to get there and the last few weeks were crazy with all the polishing and planning and pixeling... Looking forward to what fate has in store for us now! I'll share some more details on certain elements of production here as soon as the "pre alpha greenlight first somehow still release rush" is over!
 
That feeling when you get a bunch of stuff done in a day :D

Started with a barely working melee attack and finished with melee, rifle and pistol attacks and weapons, basic HUD changes and a 80% done reload and ammo system.

And only one major bug in all that so far too!
 

Ascheroth

Member
Hey there, fellow GAF devs! (well, technically I'm a student :p).

We're currently developing a 2D turn-based strategy game (with mechs) in Unity as a student project and are stumbling upon some annoying 'roadblocks' and I figured I could ask if anyone here could help us out a bit.
Here's the situation:

In this game, a unit consists of 3 parts: the mech-class, which has the actual stats and skills, the pilot-class, which also has some specific gameplay relevant data and the actual unit-class, which takes the data from the mech and pilot and handles all of the gameplay code.

We handled this at first by having a mech and pilot prefab each and putting them as children of the unit-object:

Unit
| - Mech
| - Pilot

Problem is that nested prefabs in Unity are god awful and make changing values a pain (learned that the hard way, please correct me if there's something obvious I'm missing <.<).

We then thought: Let's just do it the old fashioned way and give the unit a reference to the mech and pilot prefabs and instantiate them once the scene starts.
So far so good, but this approach also has a couple caveats: individual adjusting of the prefabs directly in the inspector isn't possible this way, you have to make a different prefab for every configuration. This isn't that big of a problem, because individual changes would be a nightmare in larger levels with more enemies and all anyway, so that doesn't matter much.
But we had some nice OnGizmo-code on the mech-class, which visualized attack- and movement-range in the editor and made adjustments to the enemy/unit placement a bit more convenient. That's gone now since we only instantiate the mech-prefab on scene-start :/

Is there a better way to handle this or do we just have to pick our poison?

..I just realized whle typing that wall of text that we could still start the scene, pause and have a look at the gizmos that way. Not optimal, but better than nothing, I guess.

Still, I'd be thankful if anyone knew of an elegant way to handle this.
 

Apoc29

Member
Hey there, fellow GAF devs! (well, technically I'm a student :p).

We're currently developing a 2D turn-based strategy game (with mechs) in Unity as a student project and are stumbling upon some annoying 'roadblocks' and I figured I could ask if anyone here could help us out a bit.
Here's the situation:

In this game, a unit consists of 3 parts: the mech-class, which has the actual stats and skills, the pilot-class, which also has some specific gameplay relevant data and the actual unit-class, which takes the data from the mech and pilot and handles all of the gameplay code.

We handled this at first by having a mech and pilot prefab each and putting them as children of the unit-object:

Unit
| - Mech
| - Pilot

Problem is that nested prefabs in Unity are god awful and make changing values a pain (learned that the hard way, please correct me if there's something obvious I'm missing <.<).

We then thought: Let's just do it the old fashioned way and give the unit a reference to the mech and pilot prefabs and instantiate them once the scene starts.
So far so good, but this approach also has a couple caveats: individual adjusting of the prefabs directly in the inspector isn't possible this way, you have to make a different prefab for every configuration. This isn't that big of a problem, because individual changes would be a nightmare in larger levels with more enemies and all anyway, so that doesn't matter much.
But we had some nice OnGizmo-code on the mech-class, which visualized attack- and movement-range in the editor and made adjustments to the enemy/unit placement a bit more convenient. That's gone now since we only instantiate the mech-prefab on scene-start :/

Is there a better way to handle this or do we just have to pick our poison?

..I just realized whle typing that wall of text that we could still start the scene, pause and have a look at the gizmos that way. Not optimal, but better than nothing, I guess.

Still, I'd be thankful if anyone had an idea.

You should look into Scriptable Objects, basically they are like game objects that only contain data. You can edit them in the inspector and reference them as a public variable in any of your scripts. Highly useful for separating data from game logic.
 

Munin

Member
So I am currently building my first game in Unity and it's going well. However I suck at art. I don't mind shelling out for good art. However the issue is that I have no idea what to expect. It seems that most artists charge by the hour, but then I don't know how long it would take them to complete anything. I would be looking to commission some concept art for characters and weapons as well as fully textured models based on that art. How much would I, say, get out of a decent artist for a thousand bucks?

I just find it really hard to get even a ballpark idea.
 
So I am currently building my first game in Unity and it's going well. However I suck at art. I don't mind shelling out for good art. However the issue is that I have no idea what to expect. It seems that most artists charge by the hour, but then I don't know how long it would take them to complete anything. I would be looking to commission some concept art for characters and weapons as well as fully textured models based on that art. How much would I, say, get out of a decent artist for a thousand bucks?

I just find it really hard to get even a ballpark idea.

You may have to do some trial runs. Ask for X small-to-moderately-sized thing to be drawn, then either get a time estimate or actually have them create the art and see how much time they bill for. You might burn a little money in the short term figuring out how and who to work with, but it'll be better than wasting a lot more money in the long term.
 
yeIn74h.gif


So an update on our game Gunkatana :) Today's our big day, we're making the jump to Steam Greenlight...

-> (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=637591816

... and have also finished both a trailer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvmepmQxYAE

... and a playable pre-alpha demo for that occasion :) (local multiplayer and vs bots)!

http://torn-page.itch.io/gunkatana

So if you want to get your own hands bloody and dirty, please take a moment and check out the demo of Gunkatana. I'd be really happy to get some feedback from you. It's been a long road to get there and the last few weeks were crazy with all the polishing and planning and pixeling... Looking forward to what fate has in store for us now! I'll share some more details on certain elements of production here as soon as the "pre alpha greenlight first somehow still release rush" is over!

Congrats, I gave you an upvote. They must've just greenlit a bunch of stuff because Advance just jumped to 60% of the way to top 100 despite not getting an influx of votes that'd explain it.
Depending on who you listen to, after they let a bunch of stuff through is supposedly a good time to jump on greenlight, so well timed! :3
 
Congrats, I gave you an upvote. They must've just greenlit a bunch of stuff because Advance just jumped to 60% of the way to top 100 despite not getting an influx of votes that'd explain it.
Depending on who you listen to, after they let a bunch of stuff through is supposedly a good time to jump on greenlight, so well timed! :3

Thanks for both the upvote and the encouraging words :) Checking out Advance, as well, pretty clever concept!
 
I like that. I'm wondering if you could overcorrect the lighting adjustment for a short moment to simulate getting used to the light, kind of like this HDR simulation:

fade2.gif
Thanks.

I hadn't thought of that. I can add a smoothstep and adjust the curve. Maybe play with the bloom a little bit. Will go on my ToDo list.

Still have to add proper enter/exit quick effects and proper sprites while you are in the tunnel. Right now it's a bit jarring on the entrance with how the player snaps to the entrance axis. It works for now until I get into polishing it.
 
All right!

Just one more thing to ask: should I keep the volume variables "separate" and set the actual listener/source volumes by copying them off, or should I directly use the values on the listener/sources?
That entirely depends on how you want to mix your audio and which sounds you want to direct the listener's ears to.

I have multiple channels setup for various purposes and FX then just route as needed if I want to bring more attention to one sound or another. There's a zillion ways you can attack it.
 
Well, I figured out the solution.

However, it requires me to redo my entire skill list for the third time.

I like that. I'm wondering if you could overcorrect the lighting adjustment for a short moment to simulate getting used to the light, kind of like this HDR simulation:

fade2.gif

I agree with this.
 
Hmm, does it make sense for a manager to want to grab another manager for reference? I was coding the rest of the audio system, in conjunction with a newly-added Settings class (data-only), and then realized that since it's part of PlayerData, the audio manager would need to grab the player manager.

Would that be bad form, code wise? I mean, I certainly can do that, just wondering if that shouldn't happen. In fact, I'm having trouble doing the above...

(Dev progress: working fade ins/outs AND player relocation on new scene load? Yay!)
 
screenshot saturday :D

(tho its a gif)

Got my ammo and reloading all done. Saves values for each weapon and loads them when equipped. Got a bug with the pistol mesh tho, hence why it disappears.

3a20145116.gif


Also I dont have any pistol movement anims yet hence the floating - and apologies for the awful GIF quality, making it small but good is very hard :(
 
Working on a third update on a Bastard's Tale.

Trying to make a crow like enemy. Any input on the head movement. Is it bird-like?

walkingheadpoping0312new.gif

Seems a bit thrust-y. Though I don't know how it should look like, to be honest, without it being an actual screen GIF :) I'm pretty bad at determining animations when it's on a blank background (no reference, in other words)

Fixed the missing player reference issue with my fader and settings relocation. Hmm... I guess this is a good time to implement a dialogue manager, and an NPC script for relevant NPCs.

Since NPCs are always hand-placed in my game, can I get away with no NPC manager? Or would I end up having some useful things I can do with such a manager?
 
screenshot saturday :D

(tho its a gif)

Got my ammo and reloading all done. Saves values for each weapon and loads them when equipped. Got a bug with the pistol mesh tho, hence why it disappears.

3a20145116.gif


Also I dont have any pistol movement anims yet hence the floating - and apologies for the awful GIF quality, making it small but good is very hard :(

Are those Marketplace assets placeholder? Not a judgement if they are not, just curious.
 

asa

Member
Wohoo! we are almost done with the first content update for Power Hover, just completed the last new level in the pack.
giphy.gif


Really happy how the new levels turned out, now just tweaking/testing things for about a week and we should be ready to send the build to Apple.
 
Are those Marketplace assets placeholder? Not a judgement if they are not, just curious.

From a visual standpoint absolutely. Wanna get it all working on a basic functional level before I even try to make it fit the aesthetics of my game :)

Reason being: I suck at art. So it's better for me to make a part of the gameplay to show people before I either try and make some art myself or find someone to work with who will do the art :)

Another update also: spent the rest of the day getting the weapon system almost finished. Still a few bugs and holstered weapons to do but nearly there.

The end result will be two slots - primary (2 handed) and secondary (1 handed). You can have one of each equipped and swap between them. So you could have a rifle and a pistol or a rifle and a club or a sledgehammer and a pistol or so forth.

EDIT: also need people's opinions;

When you have a melee weapon equipped what should I show instead of just 0/0 and empty ammo?
 

snarge

Member
Snail Storm is trucking right along in production. Actually in a break-off phase (waiting to hear back from various pitches)...so of course I started another game while waiting. I'd show screens for it, but it's really text based, so for now:

KUMJWIy.gif


MHwqniN.gif
 
Thanks for both the upvote and the encouraging words :) Checking out Advance, as well, pretty clever concept!
Thanks! :D It's inspired by the game mode 'death race' in a sort of multiplayer classic called 'hidden in plain sight' so I can't claim all the credit, but I feel the direction I've gone with it fixes a number of issues I had with the original plus people seem to prefer Advance whenever I've had people play both to make sure I've not strayed too close to the origin of the idea XD

Wohoo! we are almost done with the first content update for Power Hover, just completed the last new level in the pack.
giphy.gif


Really happy how the new levels turned out, now just tweaking/testing things for about a week and we should be ready to send the build to Apple.
Getting major Sonic the Hedgehog bonus round flashbacks from that gif XD
 

correojon

Member
Working on a third update on a Bastard's Tale.

Trying to make a crow like enemy. Any input on the head movement. Is it bird-like?

walkingheadpoping0312new.gif
The head movement is very well done and the sprite overall looks great, but I feel like like there´s something off with the animation, maybe the left (front) arm is thrusting forward too much, specially compared to the other one. I don´t know if this is intentional, but the rest of the animation doesn´t follow through.
Edit: Taking a closer look, I see the arm and leg movement is incorrectly synchronized: When the right arm goes forward the right leg does too, but it should be the left leg the one to move forward instead. Also, I see the same problem as with the left arm´s forward thrust with the legs: it seems that the left arm & leg advance a lot more than the right arm & leg in evrey step, which makes it look a bit weird IMO.

Wohoo! we are almost done with the first content update for Power Hover, just completed the last new level in the pack.
giphy.gif


Really happy how the new levels turned out, now just tweaking/testing things for about a week and we should be ready to send the build to Apple.

Looking great! Can you fall from the borders in that stage?
 
GDC tomorrow!
GDC!
Who is going to the city to get their badges as well as go to the Pizza Mixer?

From a visual standpoint absolutely. Wanna get it all working on a basic functional level before I even try to make it fit the aesthetics of my game :)

Reason being: I suck at art. So it's better for me to make a part of the gameplay to show people before I either try and make some art myself or find someone to work with who will do the art :)

Another update also: spent the rest of the day getting the weapon system almost finished. Still a few bugs and holstered weapons to do but nearly there.

The end result will be two slots - primary (2 handed) and secondary (1 handed). You can have one of each equipped and swap between them. So you could have a rifle and a pistol or a rifle and a club or a sledgehammer and a pistol or so forth.

UE4 Marketplace is a goddamn live saver as well as cost saver.

EDIT: also need people's opinions;

When you have a melee weapon equipped what should I show instead of just 0/0 and empty ammo?

Just bite the bullet and have the ammo meter disappear. Sometimes the best solution is the sloppiest.
 
Hi! Sorry for bothering Dev-GAF again!

Right now, when the scene swaps, I'd like the music to take the default music in the new scene, and right now, I'm kind of at a loss on how to proceed. Here's the audio manager script, of whose prefab exists in every scene, with just the default music track being the part that differs.

How do I make it so that, when a new scene is loaded, the manager in the loaded scene passes on its information on what music should play to the original manager (the one initialized at the very beginning of the game's run)? (Trying to do it the naïve way by copying the manager's clip to the existing one cause reference errors.)

Code:
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Audio;
using System.Collections;

public class AudioManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    private static AudioManager manager = null;
    public PlayerManager playerManager;

    public MusicPackage defaultMusicTrack;

    public AudioSource musicAudioSource;
    public AudioSource fxAudioSource;
    public AudioSource uiAudioSource;

    public GameObject ap;
    public GameObject apPrefab;

    public bool muExists = false;
    public bool fxExists = false;

    // Shortcuts
    public PlayerScript ps;

    public static AudioManager Manager
    {
        get { return manager; }
    }

    void Awake()
    {
        GetThisManager();
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (playerManager == null)
        {
            playerManager = PlayerManager.Manager;
        }
        else
        {
            if (playerManager.player == null)
                return;
            else
            {
                ps = playerManager.player.GetComponent<PlayerScript>();

                SetMasterVolume(ps.Data.Settings.masterVol);
                SetMusicVolume(ps.Data.Settings.musicVol);
                SetFXVolume(ps.Data.Settings.fxVol);
                SetUIVolume(ps.Data.Settings.uiVol);
            }
        }
    }

    void GetThisManager()
    {
        if (manager != null && manager != this)
        {
            Destroy(this.gameObject);
            return;
        }
        else
        {
            manager = this;

            ap = Instantiate(apPrefab);
            ap.GetComponent<MusicScript>().currentMusic = defaultMusicTrack;
        }
        DontDestroyOnLoad(this.gameObject);
        DontDestroyOnLoad(ap);
    }

    public void MuExists()
    {
        muExists = true;
    }

    public void FxExists()
    {
        fxExists = true;
    }

    public void SetMasterVolume(float vol)
    {
        AudioListener.volume = vol;
    }
    public void SetMusicVolume(float vol)
    {
        musicAudioSource.volume = vol;
    }

    public void SetFXVolume(float vol)
    {
        fxAudioSource.volume = vol;
    }

    public void SetUIVolume(float vol)
    {
        uiAudioSource.volume = vol;
    }

}
 

jahasaja

Member
Seems a bit thrust-y. Though I don't know how it should look like, to be honest, without it being an actual screen GIF :) I'm pretty bad at determining animations when it's on a blank background (no reference, in other words)

Fixed the missing player reference issue with my fader and settings relocation. Hmm... I guess this is a good time to implement a dialogue manager, and an NPC script for relevant NPCs.

Since NPCs are always hand-placed in my game, can I get away with no NPC manager? Or would I end up having some useful things I can do with such a manager?


Thanks for the feedback. It should look something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE-cIwtkeSU

The head movement is very well done and the sprite overall looks great, but I feel like like there´s something off with the animation, maybe the left (front) arm is thrusting forward too much, specially compared to the other one. I don´t know if this is intentional, but the rest of the animation doesn´t follow through.
Edit: Taking a closer look, I see the arm and leg movement is incorrectly synchronized: When the right arm goes forward the right leg does too, but it should be the left leg the one to move forward instead. Also, I see the same problem as with the left arm´s forward thrust with the legs: it seems that the left arm & leg advance a lot more than the right arm & leg in evrey step, which makes it look a bit weird IMO.

Thanks great freedback, I tried to make the arms more consistent. The synchronization is on purpose to make it look more "hulking"

Here is a newer version:
walkingheadpopingtaller.gif
 
Man I wish I was going to GDC. I need to at least get my next project done or nearly done before I can even consider going.

Only 3 more days till I leave my job! Excited to jump head first into dev work. Ordered a new mousepad yesterday with wrist support for those long hours :D Genna stack some books under my screen to raise it for better posture as well :D
 
Very proud today :)

https://youtu.be/ecPDC-7RKvQ

Some footage since the gif would be insane

Got the weapon system 99.9% working! Only 2 major bugs left - pistol not showing when equipped and pistol ammo not saving over weapon swaps.

Can't believe I got it all done in one weekend. So good, nothing beats that feeling of looking at something you actually made work and solved!
 

correojon

Member
Thanks for the feedback. It should look something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE-cIwtkeSU



Thanks great freedback, I tried to make the arms more consistent. The synchronization is on purpose to make it look more "hulking"

Here is a newer version:
walkingheadpopingtaller.gif
Much better. The arm/syncrho thing isn´t so bad, in fact it looks as it´s walking with a limp and that makes it look more disturbing (in a good way), it goes well with the head movement. I like a lot the sprite, cool shadows and overall look.
 
Thanks for the feedback. It should look something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE-cIwtkeSU

Thanks great freedback, I tried to make the arms more consistent. The synchronization is on purpose to make it look more "hulking"

Here is a newer version:
walkingheadpopingtaller.gif

Looks great! I think I like how it goes now...

I think nobody has answered this query yet, no?

In the meantime, still working on additional UI code while playing old JRPGs on the side... Just a little bit more and the buttons will work properly for displaying detailed info.

Things to fix: A glitch that causes the player's step count to skyrocket when he warps or loops around. Perhaps suspending the step counter helps with this, so I think I'm going to reimplement this portion in my scripts.

And also to suspend any random encounters when located in a place that don't allow them... Maybe I should write a location manager...

Is it normal for a Unity project to have tons of managers? It seems like if I were to complete this JRPG project, I'm going to get quite the handful.
 
Looks great! I think I like how it goes now...

I think nobody has answered this query yet, no?

In the meantime, still working on additional UI code while playing old JRPGs on the side... Just a little bit more and the buttons will work properly for displaying detailed info.

Things to fix: A glitch that causes the player's step count to skyrocket when he warps or loops around. Perhaps suspending the step counter helps with this, so I think I'm going to reimplement this portion in my scripts.

And also to suspend any random encounters when located in a place that don't allow them... Maybe I should write a location manager...

Is it normal for a Unity project to have tons of managers? It seems like if I were to complete this JRPG project, I'm going to get quite the handful.
The amount of "managers" you use is entirely dependent on how you want to code your project.

My player character has 14+ (I forget the exact number) for everything because I like to compartmentalize.

Don't confuse "manager" with "controller". You can have a logic manager, sound manager, session manager, etc that handle multiple smaller tasks based on what you need them for. A sound manager can manage the entire audio mix. A session manager can keep track of and manage current play-session events, etc. While controllers can be broken up for smaller tasks that have one purpose. Or you can literally write everything in a single class but that's usually not advised. You have to find a flow that works for YOU.

As for your previous question. I don't exactly understand what you are trying to accomplish. Load a new scene and play music? Multiple managers? I wouldn't think you would need to have multiple managers just for scene music. That is probably overkill.

You already know how to make 2 scripts assigned on objects talk to one another, so just have your main scene controller tell the music manager to play whatever you want it to play, whenever you want it to play it.
 
Soooo

Any of you guys working with Win10 and Unity? Also maybe some of you PS4 folk? Was considering updating to 10.

Curious to see if any of you have issues with anything.
 
My friend and I started working on a more proper game last week. We decided to make something like Silent Bomber(PS1)

Since my friend will be busy coding in the next few weeks, the most I can do is create all these 3d Model for our main characters.



Character design is heavily Inspired by Battle Fever J and some other sentai. I will probably tweak the male character because I find his face unsettling like most Sentai hero with that robotic face design like X1 Mask.

also some Enemy doodle/study. I can really start working on them, not until we pinned down most boss mechanics.
 
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