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[HidingMyThunder]

The voice reminds me so much of Super Hexagon. Looks really cool.


Also I'm so excited I'm finally starting to build the prototype for the game I've been planning. I'm upset I have to stop working on it cause of sleep lol.

I originally used several sound effects but they didn't blend well with each of the level's soundtrack. I ended up transitioning to voice commands throughout the game - I hope it turned out as well as I think it did...

Congrats on the start!!

 

[Kalentan]

So I've sort of... Kind of... Put my game on hiatus.

I really- REALLY want to make, despite being kind of generic and horribly overused by now... A Demon's souls-like game that uses a top down view similar to the old Legend of Zelda games. I know, all of that is buzz words but... I feel like I really need to make it. Playing Majora Mask 3ds and Ocarina of Time 3ds cemented this.

In some ways, I will have to learn new things to make this, on the other hand I feel like I should do this before my tactics game.

I already have begun to write out a sort of design document and I plan to use the YoYoRPG as sort of jumping off point. I also know some story details, like how the game will be called: The Last Sundweller. It takes place in a world where magic vanished and the world became encases in an endless night and most of civilization has died out. Yet some groups still remain (Essentially in the 4 main zones/levels, there will be one settlement to find.) Like Demon's Souls, there is a hub that leads to the games 4 major zones (with a 5th one that unlocks upon completion of the other four.) However unlike Demon's souls, these aren't situated like 1-1, 1-2 and so on. There will be multiple maps in each zone that are interconnected.

Each map contains a boss and each zone ends in a massive dungeon. There is also hidden mini dungeons throughout the maps as well.

The game will have a combat focus but will also have puzzle solving and the such. Not to mention builds and such for replayability. It's not going to have an insane amount of weapons. 9 weapons with 2 to 3 variants each. Mainly you pick with variant you like and upgrade from there.

It's... Like I said, this is a game I've been wanting to make for a while.

Here is my Sundweller:

If your wondering why it looks like an edit of a Link sprite, that's because it is. I decided to hold off on really spriting until I get the game actually up and working properly. No need to pour hours on the sprites if I don't have a working game. So I'm just going to use modified sprites from Minish Cap to emulate the feel before eventually drawing completely original sprites.

 

[liliththepale]

So I've sort of... Kind of... Put my game on hiatus.

It's... Like I said, this is a game I've been wanting to make for a while.

Well, unless you had earnest plans to release the other game, I wouldn't let yourself become a slave to its development. If you're just doing this for fun, you should be working on the project that gives you the most joy.

That said, finishing and releasing a project feels great, so it might not be in your best interest to keep bouncing from project to project.

 

[correojon]

Feels sooo good to start going through the "pending" list and easily get rid of bugs and things that were put on hold

How do you organize your work? I set up a reddit page for the game and I´m keeping track there of everything, that way I can access it from everywhere and is easily editable (and it´ll also be a great resource for other people in the future).

So I've sort of... Kind of... Put my game on hiatus.

I love Souls games and I myself have thought more than once about making a game similar to that which you describe. However, you have to think very carefully about the scope and all necessary things for your project, or you risk ending up with a big monster, getting tired of it and putting it aside for some new, shinier project. I think this is the main cause why games don´t get finished, jumping to a different, more enticing project...I suggest you reduce your scope A LOT, start by trying to make a sort of "minigame" focusing on the basic gameplay mechanics (combat in your case) and then RELEASING that. Having the goal in sight will help keeping you motivated and engaged in the game. Good luck!

 

[Kalentan]

Well, unless you had earnest plans to release the other game, I wouldn't let yourself become a slave to its development. If you're just doing this for fun, you should be working on the project that gives you the most joy.

That said, finishing and releasing a project feels great, so it might not be in your best interest to keep bouncing from project to project.

I think I've a bit too early for the other project still. There's a lot I want to do for my Tactics RPG that i just starting to feel may not come out as good as it would if I had more experience. In comparison, this new game is far simpler. That isn't to say it's a simple game, but it's simpler.

I also think by using the YoYoRPG as a base, I can also get a good insight on far more experienced coding. To see what I can improve on. Cause while I have gotten systems in my game working... I feel as though the actual coding is kind of poor in that it works but can be broken easily. I use far too many variables and honestly begin to lose track of them.

And for a game like my Tactics RPG where A LOT of stuff needs to be kept track of... I just. I don't want to see that game become a walking disaster. I think I need to take it slow and dial back.

The thing is... I don't want to do this for just fun. But to release this. That is why I think it's truly important for me to dial things back.

 

[liliththepale]

Feels sooo good to start going through the "pending" list and easily get rid of bugs and things that were put on hold

How do you organize your work? I set up a reddit page for the game and I´m keeping track there of everything, that way I can access it from everywhere and is easily editable (and it´ll also be a great resource for other people in the future).

I barely keep things organized ever since branching out on my own. Dozens of notes on my phone for random ideas I have while out and about, a handful of txt files for hard data tracking and to-do lists (including bugfixes), and dozens of Illustrator/PhotoShop files with concepts, names and whatever.

The thing is... I don't want to do this for just fun. But to release this. That is why I think it's truly important for me to dial things back.

Yeah, it's good to keep a realistic and attainable project scale. I know DiabloHead recently talked about having to scale down the graphics in his game so that finishing would be feasible. Just keep in mind that if there's a talent or skillset you want to improve, you don't have to do so through a full-fledged project. Experimenting in mini projects can be super helpful!

 

[Jobbs]

if people knew how disorganized my design stuff is for a game that's so large with so much to keep track of they'd be shocked and figure anyone could be a better game designer

 

[correojon]

I didn´t expect that, and here I was thinking I was a disaster lol. I´m pretty disorganized myself, but I´m making the effort to have everything written down. Also, having a "main" list were you can scratch things as you achieve them feels great and gives a nice sense of accomplishment, which boosts morale and helps trucking forward. Except those days when you scratch 2 things but add 5 :S

 

[Insolitus]

My design stuff consists of a single notepad file full of outdated information as well as several papers scattered around my room that I never look at.

 

[liliththepale]

I didn´t expect that, and here I was thinking I was a disaster lol. I´m pretty disorganized myself, but I´m making the effort to have everything written down. Also, having a "main" list were you can scratch things as you achieve them feels great and gives a nice sense of accomplishment, which boosts morale and helps trucking forward. Except those days when you scratch 2 things but add 5 :S

Oh, are you kidding? I love adding things to the list. It makes me feel like I have a better idea of where I'm actually going and what I'll be doing over the next couple days than I actually do.

 

[Jobbs]

My design stuff consists of a single notepad file full of outdated information as well as several papers scattered around my room that I never look at.

sounds familiar

I have a ton of google docs and spreadsheets, and sometimes I have to re-figure out which thing is completely out of date and which thing I changed at some point etc

my desktop is full of random notes

if I didn't have a firm grasp on the game's design and what happens and where and in what order firmly committed to memory, I'd be so fucked

 

[correojon]

Oh, are you kidding? I love adding things to the list. It makes me feel like I have a better idea of where I'm actually going and what I'll be doing over the next couple days than I actually do.

For me, adding more things means that I have more stuff to do before I get to the goal. Doing 3 things but having 5 new more makes me feel like I´m not advancing. For now, I´ve set the goal to be an open demo with a single level to just test basic movement and get feedback on how it feels, I want to keep goals at close range so I can wrap up parts of the game and keep moving forward. Specially because I tend a lot to become entangled in an issue, usually a stupid small detail, and polish it over and over again so I need a way to force myself forward.

 

[ZServ]

sounds familiar

I have a ton of google docs and spreadsheets, and sometimes I have to re-figure out which thing is completely out of date and which thing I changed at some point etc

my desktop is full of random notes

if I didn't have a firm grasp on the game's design and what happens and where and in what order firmly committed to memory, I'd be so fucked

I have 4 different text files with names such as "buglist, issues, need to resolve," etc. Half of the issues don't even exist anymore. Also took me MONTHS to figure out how to map out quests in a way that worked for me.

 

[liliththepale]

For me, adding more things means that I have more stuff to do before I get to the goal. Doing 3 things but having 5 new more makes me feel like I´m not advancing. For now, I´ve set the goal to be an open demo with a single level to just test basic movement and get feedback on how it feels, I want to keep goals at close range so I can wrap up parts of the game and keep moving forward. Specially because I tend a lot to become entangled in an issue, usually a stupid small detail, and polish it over and over again so I need a way to force myself forward.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I don't have any hard deadlines or even milestones or sprints or anything. I just work very free-flow.


Speaking of bugs, I just spent two hours trying to solve some trigonometry mixed with interpretation of bone data, only to find out my problem could be instantly solved without all that work by moving the sprite's pivot point in the asset loader. Ah well. At least I'll know that feature exists for next time.

 

[DocSeuss]

Welp, we got networking functional now, and AI actually does things.

Currently trying to find a good tutorial for building custom guns in Unreal Engine 4.

Also trying to figure out how to handle a good mantling system in a first-person game. Most solutions seem a bit iffy so far.

 

[timetokill]

Great pic! . Yeh picavoxel and magicavoxel for the modeller. Really helps as I suck with 3d art , and I own a ton of 2d art , so it makes sense to just convert them to 3d

Still learning how picavoxel all works, using the basic animator e.t.c but its an impressive package and definitely recommended if you want to use voxel models.

I'm torn on how I'm going to move forward with voxels. Some of the ones I've made are pretty detailed, and if you load them in PicaVoxel it's a lot of polys. In general it's better to load them as FBX files or something, but then they're not easily destructible like they are in PicaVoxel. So it's a balancing act between performance and functionality.

Using the "flat voxel sprites" approach is a pretty decent compromise, and if you're using PicaVoxel for animations (frame-based) then it works really well. I was originally considering doing things in 3D animation though for the characters, rigging them and using Mecanim and all that in Unity. I actually managed to get voxel characters rigged before so I know it works, but... well, again, tradeoffs! I actually have an easier time doing 3d animation than 2d pixel animation so that's why I want to do it that way.

Those are much less detailed than the models I'm currently working on, though.

One of the things I'm really looking for is a shader that will make the 3d characters look like pixel art, but alas I've come up empty and my shader programming skills are basic so far at best.

 

[liliththepale]

One of the things I'm really looking for is a shader that will make the 3d characters look like pixel art, but alas I've come up empty and my shader programming skills are basic so far at best.

Insomniac seems to have figured it out for the new Ratchet & Clank game. There's a weapon that pixelizes enemies, apparently dynamically (although it's hard to say for sure since the game isn't out yet). I wonder if they'll share the tech at a GCD-like panel or if someone else will be able to replicate it.

 

[tamaster92]

Design wise I make good use of trello. I have a todo, do next, and done list and everytime I think of something that needs doing I add it to the todo list. Then when the do next list is getting empty I look through and move the highest priority todo items to it.

Keep me from losing focus on what needs doing right now vs the greater design

 

[timetokill]

Insomniac seems to have figured it out for the new Ratchet & Clank game. There's a weapon that pixelizes enemies, apparently dynamically (although it's hard to say for sure since the game isn't out yet). I wonder if they'll share the tech at a GCD-like panel or if someone else will be able to replicate it.

Oh, that's interesting! That looks pretty cool. I'll have to see that in action. Thanks for sharing it with me!

The really difficult part of what I want is getting this explicit combo:
- 3D voxel models
- Drawn "without lighting info" so they appear flat -- each individual voxel should be a solid color on all sides
- But with lighting shading, like a toon shader -- so voxels within the model have gradations of color based on lighting

I managed to get a weird version of what I want to work, but alas it only works on spheres:

I've found some stuff that renders 3D models as "pixel art" out of Blender, but it doesn't work that well with hard edges like you'd find on voxels:

I found a game that the creator of Alone in the Dark is working on that does pretty much exactly what I want, but exports to sprite sheets:

I emailed them about how they did it but they never got back to me

Still, from what I've researched, they basically export a sprite sheet with some normals info which allows them to get lighting information for their game and have it show on the sprites. I guess if I wanted to spend a shitload of time I could export my models out and make sprite sheets in Sprite Lamp for it to get a similar effect, but ugh. And it wouldn't allow me to rotate around the models unless I did some Final Fantasy Tactics style sprite-swapping at defined rotations.

Anyway it's all been very frustrating!

 

[floatstarpx]

I love it!!

Is this sort of an FTL type game, but set in WW2? <3

exactly that, yes!

 

[Rafy]

exactly that, yes!

The game looks fascinating! Are you using your own engine or a 3rd party one?

 

[LordRaptor]

I've found some stuff that renders 3D models as "pixel art"

A guy upthread posted a pixelart renderer, not sure if you missed it.

I've been playing a lot of SFV lately, so decided to try using PixelRender to 'demake' Ryu + Ken. Now I want to make a fighting game like this!

 

[Ito]

My kickstarter was small but a few things I learned about running one that might help others:

The kickstarter dashboard is really good, you can see everyone, see their tiers and send out bulk messages to only those at a set tier, I had a feeling this was possible but you can't see what you can do until you launch your kickstarter.

You will get an email about EVERYTHING during the kickstarter, every single backer, pledge change, cancel, message reply, private message, feedback, likes to your update posts, everything. Be prepared for a full inbox every morning.

The 48 hour reminder email people can sign up for is rather good, my second to last day was one of the bigger money increases outside of day one.

about 75% of the backers were all from finding my kickstarter listed on the website directly and not from external sources, my only advertising was on twitter, a neogaf post in this thread and any friends who spread the word. If I was asking for a bigger number I would have tried harder so I do suggest you work out something.

When the kickstarter finished up 17% of the backers had card payment issues which they have seven days to fix, you can see who exactly has not paid in your kickstarter dashboard.

My video for the kickstarter was just gameplay clips with some music, i didn't put much effort into it but I now wish that I did, I did show enough off to give people an expectation but I should have explained things being shown with subtitles.

Only a small portion of backers came from external articles, again I never really advertised the campaign but out of 20+ websites linking to me, only a few % came from those sources.

Depeding on the size of your kickstarter I would say try to not update every day but at least twice a week with reasonable information, don't write a tiny update in the first few days, wait until you have some content. I would also make a web link to the latest news post and apply it to the top of my kickstarter information.

It doesn't matter how many times you explain something, people will ask you about it! I had a lot of PM's about stuff I had covered twice in updates which were directly linked from the kickstarter page.

speaking of pm's I also got a lot of people advertising, asking if I needed X or Y and other kickstarters asking to give them a call out in exchange for backing your project, for these I either said "thanks but i'm ok" or ignored if it was a obvious ad.

Thanks for sharing this bro, very interesting information here.

Also, 17% of backers having issues with their credit cards? That's a bit too high, isn't it? Kind of worrying. Would you mind telling us the next week of many of these actually fixed their issue?

 

[TheKroge]

Simon Says and DDR are pretty good comparisons! And it was made in GameMaker which turned out to be a pretty painless experience

Watched the trailer and figured out what the goal is pretty quick. A few things to note though:

• This has the aestetic of a pretty simple mobile game. These games typically have a very hard time gaining traction on Steam
• It doesn't really have a theme, so there isn't anything for the player to connect with
• The name and the logo are the very first thing people will see, and neither of these managed to interest me personally
• Grey, lime green, and pink are not exactly flattering colors, and they are the only colors the game has
• The main mechanic of the game is very strong, but you should show the player explicitly and simply what exactly it is in the first 5 seconds. As a developer I have patience to learn it, but most customers won't

Overall, I think you've got a great idea for a game, but it needs a lot of polish if you want to make it on steam. As is, I bet you could get a good sound track made and put it on the play store, and send it to some press who cover puzzle games. I think you can think of a creative way to connect it to players on Steam with some thought though.

 

[floatstarpx]

The game looks fascinating! Are you using your own engine or a 3rd party one?

thank you
we're using Unity! (it's been a long time since I've written a game without a 3rd party engine- probably 4 or 5 years, now!)

 

[tamaster92]

Designing an interconnected world

Red B's = locked path

Unsure if it will be a open world via level streaming or various open levels with loads yet. Depends which turns out easier once I reach that part.

 

[TheKroge]

Design wise I make good use of trello. I have a todo, do next, and done list and everytime I think of something that needs doing I add it to the todo list. Then when the do next list is getting empty I look through and move the highest priority todo items to it.

Keep me from losing focus on what needs doing right now vs the greater design

I figure a lot of people here are solo devs, but for those interested in how this can be done for a team (ours has 5 people), here are a few things we set up. Keep in mind, all of this was set up by necessity, as trying to manage a project of our size is untenable without something very organized.


Version Control. Even solo devs should use it
For version control, there are a lot of options out there. Git can host public and private repositories, as well as host tools for you to communicate with your team, log issues, host a wiki, etc. SVN is becoming a bit outdated but as a lot of tools that are easy to host yourself. I used SVN mostly because I am very familiar with it and its toolset, and I hosted it on my own server which pushed out email updates to the team and had archived log entries. This all comes out of the box with SVN, and you can host it anywhere you want. I used a free-tier amazon server and it was up and working in a few hours

Unit testing
Some people think Unit testing is overkill, but it's really just taking any code you use to test a new feature, pulling it out in a modular fashion, and sticking it between some annotations. I think of it like putting your laundry in the laundry bin. If you throw your clothes on the floor, you're just going to have to sort it out later. Unit tests are also important in the next step because you can run these automatically any time someone commits code to find out right away if someone broke something!

Build Automation and Testing: What is build automation and why would anyone need to use it?
Build automation hooks into version control to check for changes and kick off builds of your game. It will also run your aforementioned unit tests every time someone commits code or runs a build. Then you can tag your various builds and send them out to whomever you want to test them, whether they be beta testers, developers, friends, whatever. This is particularly useful because you can store as many builds as you have room for and always go back to them. You'll also never have to worry about creating a build with regressions because of your units tests! We used Jenkins which I hosted on my free-tier server as well, so no pain there.

Professional issue tracking with open-source technology
If you're using Git, then GitLab can be a good fit for tracking issues. We wanted a more powerful solution though to keep track of all of our milestones, wikis, source control hooks, user roles, customizable feature/bug types, all kinds of things. For this we used RedMine. It looks like it's from the 1990's, but don't let it fool you! You can do awesome things with this tool and once you figure it out, it's an organizational dream. Keeping everyone on track and hitting milestones with visual cues, burn percentages, even seeing with issue a commit goes with by tagging it in the commit comments! seriously love this tool

All of this to day, with literally one day of work, you can decrease miscommunication and set clear goals for yourself or your team really easily. It's also going to save you a ton of headaches down the line, especially when it comes to testing. If anyone has any questions on this let me know, since this is just a rough overview...

 

[HidingMyThunder]

Watched the trailer and figured out what the goal is pretty quick. A few things to note though:

• This has the aestetic of a pretty simple mobile game. These games typically have a very hard time gaining traction on Steam
• It doesn't really have a theme, so there isn't anything for the player to connect with
• The name and the logo are the very first thing people will see, and neither of these managed to interest me personally
• Grey, lime green, and pink are not exactly flattering colors, and they are the only colors the game has
• The main mechanic of the game is very strong, but you should show the player explicitly and simply what exactly it is in the first 5 seconds. As a developer I have patience to learn it, but most customers won't

Overall, I think you've got a great idea for a game, but it needs a lot of polish if you want to make it on steam. As is, I bet you could get a good sound track made and put it on the play store, and send it to some press who cover puzzle games. I think you can think of a creative way to connect it to players on Steam with some thought though.

Thanks for the feedback!

I am starting to get the feeling that people either love the aesthetic/design decisions or they are not really interested. The game is very minimalistic and as such, only contains six colors aside from black and white (i.e. magenta, cyan, blue, green, orange, red). I am happy to adjust the color selection, but I tried to pick colors that were distinctly different.

The name is a personal decision, but I agree that I may be limiting my audience with an unfocused theme/presentation.

The game would need some adjustments before it can be moved over to mobile devices (there are several input commands for movement and color tile placement), but it is something that I am currently investigating. I was hoping that the game's success/failure on Steam Greenlight would provide an answer to the question of whether I should devote more time to this project.

Edit: There are some great soundtracks in the current build of the game!

 

[TheKroge]

Thanks for the feedback!

I am starting to get the feeling that people either love the aesthetic/design decisions or they are not really interested. The game is very minimalistic and as such, only contains six colors aside from black and white (i.e. magenta, cyan, blue, green, orange, red). I am happy to adjust the color selection, but I tried to pick colors that were distinctly different.

The name is a personal decision, but I agree that I may be limiting my audience with an unfocused theme/presentation.

The game would need some adjustments before it can be moved over to mobile devices (there are several input commands for movement and color tile placement), but it is something that I am currently investigating. I was hoping that the game's success/failure on Steam Greenlight would provide an answer to the question of whether I should devote more time to this project.

Edit: There are some great soundtracks in the current build of the game!

Good stuff! Yeah I didn't listen to the sound track, was just commenting my generally because when the game is minimalistic it becomes a focus. So that's good you've got some good tracks in there.

With any project, you have to balance your personal creative goals with those that other people will be able to relate to. If you have the resources to add some art and give people a goal in the game other than solving the puzzling, like visual feedback, obvious progressions (maybe every 5 levels is a "stage", that's something most people understand).

It's OK to lean on what is already successful, and iterate on the mechanic itself. The faster someone can gauge how they are doing the better.

 

[HidingMyThunder]

Good stuff! Yeah I didn't listen to the sound track, was just commenting my generally because when the game is minimalistic it becomes a focus. So that's good you've got some good tracks in there.

With any project, you have to balance your personal creative goals with those that other people will be able to relate to. If you have the resources to add some art and give people a goal in the game other than solving the puzzling, like visual feedback, obvious progressions (maybe every 5 levels is a "stage", that's something most people understand).

It's OK to lean on what is already successful, and iterate on the mechanic itself. The faster someone can gauge how they are doing the better.

Funny you should mention that! I'm currently working on what goals would look like... I'm leaning towards new gameplay mechanics as the player become more proficient at each stage

 

[GroundCombo]

On the subject of todo lists, we moved from Trello to Asana a few months ago and I've been very happy with it. The project/task system can be tweaked for all sorts of purposes and it has subtasks, tags and custom search views. We've also experimented with issue tracking; it's obviously not as good as dedicated tools (Bugzilla/JIRA), but works well enough if you don't need anything fancy.

 

[dude]

On the subject of todo lists, we moved from Trello to Asana a few months ago and I've been very happy with it. The project/task system can be tweaked for all sorts of purposes and it has subtasks, tags and custom search views. We've also experimented with issue tracking; it's obviously not as good as dedicated tools (Bugzilla/JIRA), but works well enough if you don't need anything fancy.

We're using Taiga.io, because we're used to JIRA. It's a pretty neat tool, but we're considering moving to Trello as well. Would be happy to hear updates to see whether we should

 

[Joe]

I know nothing about programming but I tried out Stencyl and found it to be completely confusing and not intuitive at all.

If Stencyl isn't for me, is it safe to say that learning a programming language won't be for me either?

 

[Cute Dragon Here]

Just implemented something in my game that can grab text from TextAssets and display the correct line, since I finally needed that to work to even have dialogue without hardcoding everything, and started work on de-hardcoding strings now that I finally can do so.

Thing is, right now, the text is implemented in the form of plain old text files, with each new line in the text file signifying a "chunk" of text that can be grabbed wholesale. So something like GetUIText(1) would return the second line of the text file.

Right now, the system does work, but I'm a bit concerned about sustainability and performance. Things might end up becoming a clumsy mess if I have to refer to the text file's line number to produce the correct lines, and I was wondering if there's a neater way to store text data using things that allow easy input (so something like a plain text editor, or Microsoft Excel...)

Also, right now, the function call to produce text actually grabs the TextAsset, splits the entire thing based on the actual newlines in the file, puts the resulting array in a buffer, and then returns the string based on the line requested. Would this have severe performance implications?

For reference, here's the code. (I think TextManager probably should be renamed, but your call?)

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class TextManager : MonoBehaviour {
    public TextAsset UIText;
    public TextAsset LocationNames;
    public TextAsset DialogueText;

    private static TextManager manager = null;

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

    void Awake()
    {
        GetThisManager();
    }

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

    void Update()
    {
        
    }

    public string GetUIText(int number)
    {
        string[] buffer;

        buffer = UIText.text.Split('\n');

        string text = buffer[number];

        return text;
    }

    public string GetLocationText(int number)
    {
        string[] buffer;

        buffer = LocationNames.text.Split('\n');

        string text = buffer[number];

        return text;
    }

    public string GetDialogueText(int number)
    {
        string[] buffer;

        buffer = DialogueText.text.Split('\n');

        string text = buffer[number];

        return text;
    }
}

 

[Insolitus]

I know nothing about programming but I tried out Stencyl and found it to be completely confusing and not intuitive at all.

If Stencyl isn't for me, is it safe to say that learning a programming language won't be for me either?

I haven't used Stencyl but if you're looking for an easy way to get into game design and learn about more about programming I would try Game Maker Studio since it has both drag and drop features as well as it's own language which is fairly simple to understand.

 

[gingerbeardman]

I know nothing about programming but I tried out Stencyl and found it to be completely confusing and not intuitive at all.

If Stencyl isn't for me, is it safe to say that learning a programming language won't be for me either?

Not at all. I don't find Stencyl very straightforward.

Have you tried Scratch?

 

[tamaster92]

I know nothing about programming but I tried out Stencyl and found it to be completely confusing and not intuitive at all.

If Stencyl isn't for me, is it safe to say that learning a programming language won't be for me either?

Let me put it like this:

I found UE4s blueprints more intuitive than stencyl

 

[LordRaptor]

Right now, the system does work, but I'm a bit concerned about sustainability and performance. Things might end up becoming a clumsy mess if I have to refer to the text file's line number to produce the correct lines, and I was wondering if there's a neater way to store text data using things that allow easy input (so something like a plain text editor, or Microsoft Excel...)

I like using .csv for data, because you can edit directly in Excel and combine variable types easily.
Your example code should work for csv imports just by changing linebreak to a comma

 

[JeffG]

snip

How big are the files?

What are you coding for? PC or mobile?

If PC I would just hold the entire thing in memory.

Somewhere you probably have a relationship between dialogue lines. How is that stored?


Personally, I wouldn't structure it like that because there are relationships between entities. And that is not stored in your model.

(But maybe it isn't required???? Not sure, not enough info to judge)

I know for my project. A Location has relationships and attributes


Edit: Also. Since it has Dont destroy on load. Its going to hold the text for the entire game. You can remove that and load new text files per scene.

 

[Blizzard]

Substance Painter 2 just came out. People who owned it on Steam have a 50% off coupon, so it's $75. I'm tempted...but I never used Substance Painter 1 so I guess I should hold off for now. =P

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

if people knew how disorganized my design stuff is for a game that's so large with so much to keep track of they'd be shocked and figure anyone could be a better game designer

I want to show you Army of Tentacles' code.

 

[Ashodin]

Hey Nintendo!~ Gimme an NX dev kit plz.

I would so make a sweet indie launch game

 

[Blizzard]

Hey Nintendo!~ Gimme an NX dev kit plz.

I would so make a sweet indie launch game

Me too. I assume I have to wait 6 months to apply again though.

 

[timetokill]

A guy upthread posted a pixelart renderer, not sure if you missed it.

Uh, holy shit, thank you for posting this. Might actually work!

 

[Kalentan]

Yeah, it's good to keep a realistic and attainable project scale. I know DiabloHead recently talked about having to scale down the graphics in his game so that finishing would be feasible. Just keep in mind that if there's a talent or skillset you want to improve, you don't have to do so through a full-fledged project. Experimenting in mini projects can be super helpful!

I will say. Looking at the YoYoRPG... I am wondering if I should make a new project and merely use it as a reference. Since while granted the website does say you're allowed to swap things and build upon it. I am almost having an issue of like: "Where to start?" because there is so much done.

Granted there's much to add to the YoYoRPG as well, but I'm thinking I should just start blank and reference it as I make similar systems or hints on how to make new systems.

 

[tamaster92]

I really got into making my map layouts today o.o

 

[Kalentan]

I really got into making my map layouts today o.o

Holy shit that is A LOT of areas! Is your game also a Souls-like game? Cause I'm getting reminded of those fan world maps for the Souls games that people make.

 

[JulianImp]

Just implemented something in my game that can grab text from TextAssets and display the correct line, since I finally needed that to work to even have dialogue without hardcoding everything, and started work on de-hardcoding strings now that I finally can do so.

Thing is, right now, the text is implemented in the form of plain old text files, with each new line in the text file signifying a "chunk" of text that can be grabbed wholesale. So something like GetUIText(1) would return the second line of the text file.

Right now, the system does work, but I'm a bit concerned about sustainability and performance. Things might end up becoming a clumsy mess if I have to refer to the text file's line number to produce the correct lines, and I was wondering if there's a neater way to store text data using things that allow easy input (so something like a plain text editor, or Microsoft Excel...)

Also, right now, the function call to produce text actually grabs the TextAsset, splits the entire thing based on the actual newlines in the file, puts the resulting array in a buffer, and then returns the string based on the line requested. Would this have severe performance implications?

For reference, here's the code. (I think TextManager probably should be renamed, but your call?)

I kind of handle text in a similar way for my LN toolset (WIP since forever):

1. The text manager loads the text file using a text InputStream
2. It searches for custom separator strings (ie: I use double line breaks for script files) and stores their initial position index into a generic long int list
3. Once it reaches EoF, it moves the list into an array for faster access
4. Whenever a script reader wants a specific segment, it passes the message index to the text manager
5. The text manager opens the InputStream, seeks to the starting position, reads until the next item's starting position and passes the resulting string back to the script manager
6. The script manager does whatever it has to do with the text (ie: display it, apply effects, etc.)

I'm not sure whether this is the optimal way, but I think it works better than keeping a TextAsset on memory at all times and using string methods to search for specific parts and where they end.

Also, I generally have two suggestiongs regarding Unity C# code: One, the SerializeField modifier on private properties is great for things you can change in the editor, since it encapsulates properties and prevents outside classes from accessing and modifying them. You declare it like "[SerializeField] private int myInt;".

Second, you can write a variable that can be read publicly but only written to in a protected/private scope by declaring it like "public int myInt { get; private set; }".

 

[SouSouRocket]

Have any of you guys exhibited at or attended TGS? I'd like to go but with the express purpose of meeting with some Japanese companies to find a publisher for our stuff in Japan... but I'm not even really sure where to start. They don't seem to have a tool for connecting companies like E3 does... and while I plan to look into this at E3 I want to have my travel and lodging reserved ASAP.. and of course to do so I need to have a plan... argh.

Our liason at Sony has maybe one referral for us but I'm not sure if that'll be a good fit for a VR game anyhow.

 

[JulianImp]

Have any of you guys exhibited at or attended TGS? I'd like to go but with the express purpose of meeting with some Japanese companies to find a publisher for our stuff in Japan... but I'm not even really sure where to start. They don't seem to have a tool for connecting companies like E3 does... and while I plan to look into this at E3 I want to have my travel and lodging reserved ASAP.. and of course to do so I need to have a plan... argh.

Our liason at Sony has maybe one referral for us but I'm not sure if that'll be a good fit for a VR game anyhow.

I went there two years ago with a game I made and met the Assault Android Cactus team during Sony's indy party. They do have a system for arranging meetings with other companies if you're an expositor, but I don't know if you can request meetings yourself. It also means you'll need to have multiple people so that some of you can take care of the stand while others go on meetings (something I learned the hard way). You'll probably want to get the full four-day pass that includes the two non-public expo days where you'll only meet up with press and other companies.

It was a great learning experience for me, but I ended up getting lots of feedback from the general public (they loved my game) and not any contacts from companies that could or would be interested in publishing my game. Going there all alone was a big issue since I couldn't take care of attracting people and showing them the game at the same time, and it took me two days before I got the time to make an attract mode-style video and print some stuff from the game to make my stand more attractive to the public.

My biggest gripes were that I was right in front of Capcom's huge MonHun 3DS stand, and to my left was a small stand with a couple Oculus demos, making it hard to compete with my indie mobile game. The people who played it liked it quite a bit, but I never managed to catch as much attention as I would've liked. It all boils down to trying to bite more than I could chew on my own, but it was still amazing and I'd definitely do it again, only I'll make sure to be a lot more prepared for when the time comes.

You should also ask the guys at WitchBeam for their version, since they were showcasing at Sony's indie booth rather than a private one, so things were probably a lot different around there.