Jacksinthe
Banned
Nicely done. I'm too much of a hot head to do this, personally. Will consider this in the future tho.
Good on ya!
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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay
- Thread starter Jacksinthe
- Start date
- Status
Good on ya!
nitekrawlwer
Member
I <3ed and retweeted if only because it's nice to see people not waving their fists angrily and instead trying to coopt anything positive that can come from the situation. It makes you seem very logical and cool-headed even in the midst of what many consider a travesty. Props to you ;-)
I think you should tweet this story @ various game media. This human intrest story might be more appealing and differentiated than another indie game at least from the press perspective.
Thom Yorke's Wobbly Eye
Member
It's been a while! I'll have some very exciting news to share about Stage Presence at the end of the month. In the mean time, here's some short gifs of a VERY WORK IN PROGRESS new environment. Hoping to have a bunch of different environments ready for launch - the festival stage, this indoor arena stage and a few others. The 360 nature of the this environment is ace in VR!
Cute Dragon Here
Member
It's been a while! I'll have some very exciting news to share about Stage Presence at the end of the month. In the mean time, here's some short gifs of a VERY WORK IN PROGRESS new environment. Hoping to have a bunch of different environments ready for launch - the festival stage, this indoor arena stage and a few others. The 360 nature of the this environment is ace in VR!
For a short moment, when I scrolled crazy fast down the thread, I thought someone posted photos of an event. Nice! (My network connection is a bit bad now, so GIFs load very slowly.)
As for potential piracy with your own developed games... I think I probably won't really think ill of anything. It will happen. Though, sometimes I think, so long as people get to play my game, and word of mouth does get around, isn't that even better?
Now back to implementing the title screen, and a gateway to the game's new game/load game system. I got my startup screen kinks worked out, and after fixing the title screen, well, more basic functionality done! Yeah, finally split out the fader and the loader. They now can invoked separately, by any part of the game.
As for the music, I think I've decided to just let a friend that I've known back when I was still studying CompSci in university... he has a knack of getting music done well. I'll handle the rest of the game and the music sketches, but he'll finish the music. Does this sound like a good plan? (Granted, the game won't be a solo effort from this point on.)
Yup, I think that code was good until Monday (unless it always just defaults to 3 days).
The Udemy app allows downloading the videos, which will be great for watching during daily transit.
Thanks for the comments, I don't really expect too much to come from this because I'm not the first to do such a thing but some extra visibility is always good.
At the end, the failure of my game rests on me because of my lack of experience but for my first "real" game I think its been a good lesson that should help me with my future projects.
At the end, the failure of my game rests on me because of my lack of experience but for my first "real" game I think its been a good lesson that should help me with my future projects.
I can't get behind this tacit endorsement of piracy. I imagine all the people nodding and clapping are just pirates who look for any justification to do what they do. "See? It's not stealing, we're helping with PR. Even the dev of the game agrees!"
If you steal a game, fuck you. I understand assuming publicly this posture as a developer may not be productive, so I wouldn't recommend it, but the idea of condoning the practice makes my skin crawl.
I'd consider seeding a version of my own game that contains gentle reminders to please buy the game because I worked hard on it and have bills to pay, but I would never give these assholes my blessing to steal.
No one will force you, I did it because I see no point in trying to fight against something I can't control and I would never ask other devs to do the same. But i think you should try to not generalize, that people think this is fine doesn't mean that they pirate games, easy with the strawman, dude.
I'm not condoning piracy and I think you need to chill, I know its hard because you are probably the most thin skinned dev in this thread but at some moment you'll have to realize that you are the face of your product and insulting potential customers is not nice.
Hey, missile! How are you doing?
I've been busy with my new job, and I've barely had any time to do any programming, but I'm trying to get back into the game again. It's been fun reading your technical posts.
First, I didn't say fight against it, I said don't endorse it. Don't give people something they can hear as justification to pirate.
People who steal games that someone worked hard on are assholes. It's not an over generalization; It's an entirely appropriate generalization.
You also didn't seem to even read my words, because I said my strategy would be to either say nothing or seed a version that includes politely worded requests to buy the game.
Not sure why I'm being attacked either with the baseless ad hominem! Baffling post.
Damn, why can't timers in UE4 continue counting when the game is paused. 
Need them for the "main interval loop" to keep the game in sync with the music. Alternatives are making a loop with delay nodes, or using timelines, and enabling "set tickable when paused". Both work fine in theory, but actually they are not looping correctly. If I create a looped timeline that should reset every second, it actually resets every 1.0001 seconds or whatever, which results in the loop and music getting noticably async after around a minute. Only timers can loop correctly, but they stop when pausing the game.
So I need to create a custom pause system and rework each and every class in the game so that it stops when I pause the game. Awesome.
Need them for the "main interval loop" to keep the game in sync with the music. Alternatives are making a loop with delay nodes, or using timelines, and enabling "set tickable when paused". Both work fine in theory, but actually they are not looping correctly. If I create a looped timeline that should reset every second, it actually resets every 1.0001 seconds or whatever, which results in the loop and music getting noticably async after around a minute. Only timers can loop correctly, but they stop when pausing the game.So I need to create a custom pause system and rework each and every class in the game so that it stops when I pause the game. Awesome.
art devs, thoughts on this for start screen text/buttons? I'm making the menus look just like my levels with the platforms, so I want to keep with the whole 45 angle thing. I figure I'll put a few under it with options and whatnot, but I'm messing around with what I want it to look like atm.
HidingMyThunder
Member
I think it looks great! I assume you will drop the menu content after a selection and bring up the next menu content (or actually gameplay) similar to how you transition between levels.
Exactly. Everything on the current screen will rise up and the next menu or level will rise from the bottom. Hopefully sometime soon I have a gif showing a demo of transitioning from menus to levels, but I'm in the middle of building and hooking them up. Should look pretty slick. Still have a lot to do though. There's some more platform gameplay components I have planned that I haven't started, but right now I feel my time is better vested in getting the rest of the "architecture" of the game finished rather than adding more gameplay stuff as those are pretty isolated pieces of code.
Jacksinthe
Banned
As the supreme oversoul, the current captain of this mighty ship - I, Jack-O-Fucking-Lantern, King of Kings, Primary Operations Officer, command you all to calm the fuck down and get back to your duties!
I'm really not all those things but I can pretend until OT3
Got my first enemy up and running:
Though there are some... oddities. Like where it will be doing the attack animation but no health will be taken. It also made me realize that I'm starting to become unsure of how I will be doing attack animations for the player character. In fact... I swear the only time I take damage is if I walk into it...
Though there are some... oddities. Like where it will be doing the attack animation but no health will be taken. It also made me realize that I'm starting to become unsure of how I will be doing attack animations for the player character. In fact... I swear the only time I take damage is if I walk into it...
SeanNoonan
Member
Went back to an old gamejam game to see what I could do to polish it up. It's got too many colours and is quite high resolution so it doesn't gif well D;
You said " I imagine all the people nodding and clapping are just pirates who look for any justification to do what they do."
I just disagree with that, you can't possibly know if all the people nodding actually pirate games.
And the thin skinned comment was more of a criticism than an insult, I mean is kind if funny how you explode with every comment you don't like.
Menu components animated.
I think it looks pretty spiffy.
An extended gif showing my transitions http://i.imgur.com/B6G2uwL.gif Not sure if I want to reverse the order so new stages come from above instead of below. I like the visuals of the platforms going up from the bottom of the screen, but at the same time the player is relatively moving down since the platforms move up.
I think it looks pretty spiffy.
An extended gif showing my transitions http://i.imgur.com/B6G2uwL.gif Not sure if I want to reverse the order so new stages come from above instead of below. I like the visuals of the platforms going up from the bottom of the screen, but at the same time the player is relatively moving down since the platforms move up.
Nice work, but I find it a bit hard to read. Maybe makes the letters less thick or change the rotation?
Yeah I'm trying to come up with a way to make it clearer without changing those things. I like the rotation as that's how everything is in the game and the thickness is similar to the platform. I think the inside of the model is obscuring the side. Need to figure out how to make that side more distinguishable. Making it large makes it look a lot better. Lighting helps too. I tweaked it a bit and think it makes text side stand out more. Thoughts? I'll keep playing around with it but I think it's good enough for now.
Yeah I'm trying to come up with a way to make it clearer without changing those things. I like the rotation as that's how everything is in the game and the thickness is similar to the platform. I think the inside of the model is obscuring the side. Need to figure out how to make that side more distinguishable. Making it large makes it look a lot better. Lighting helps too. I tweaked it a bit and think it makes text side stand out more. Thoughts? I'll keep playing around with it but I think it's good enough for now.
That's a lot better
. I'm really digging the style.I feel like real-time synchronization is HARD on PCs -- anything that isn't a realtime OS.Damn, why can't timers in UE4 continue counting when the game is paused.
So I need to create a custom pause system and rework each and every class in the game so that it stops when I pause the game. Awesome.
Okay, maybe that came out more presumptuous than I intended, I take it back.
Your last part.. I do not understand what planet you are on. I am fine with any criticism of my work. I've been exposed to far greater criticism and heckling than the majority of people in this thread, and I take it in stride. It's a baffling statement.
RazorbackDB
Member
3D Modeling is no joke, I shouldn't have gone from a low poly house to this
Just keep practicing I guess.
Just keep practicing I guess.
shaowebb
Member
This. Just like with drawing a picture everyone sees your finished work but have no idea how many off looking ones you had on the way to it. 3d Modeling takes a lot of testing tools and taking tutorials before you are ready to go all in on your models.
I'd suggest not using triangular mesh near any joints. When they bend during animation along those areas the model crumples like tin foil instead of folding and stretching smoothly. Also always add a few more loops and polygons around joints. Gives them better flex.
I suggest taking some modifier tutorials after you play around a bit more with the basic modeling your doing. It'll teach you how to merge seperate models or use one shape to cookie cutter punch a hole in another model. Good shit.
RazorbackDB
Member
Thanks a lot for the tips, I'm really just starting and it is kinda daunting seeing the amount of tools and what other people can do, I'm going back to some basic stuff to practice more and maybe come up with an artstyle for my game idea.
Of course, at this point everything helps, also it looks very complete, i'll take a look at it, thank you.
Back when I did 3D modeling (so a lifetime ago), this was one of the best humanoid modeling tutorials I could find:
http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.php
I think most of the methodology and tips still apply, hopefully this should be of use to you?
HidingMyThunder
Member
Yeah I'm trying to come up with a way to make it clearer without changing those things. I like the rotation as that's how everything is in the game and the thickness is similar to the platform. I think the inside of the model is obscuring the side. Need to figure out how to make that side more distinguishable. Making it large makes it look a lot better. Lighting helps too. I tweaked it a bit and think it makes text side stand out more. Thoughts? I'll keep playing around with it but I think it's good enough for now.
It seems a little busy when there is a platform next to each menu option. Perhaps the platform should only be placed next to the highlighted menu option? That would also make navigation with the keyboard more intuitive (i.e. providing good feedback to the user)
I'm really not all those things but I can pretend until OT3
You are and will always be our great leader and commander.
Everyone, bow to the Master!
Yeah, it is. But OMG I just found out (after 2 years of thinking it wasn't possible) that you actually CAN find out the current playback time of a music track (audio component) and it's really easy:
Code:
FAudioDevice* AudioDevice = GEngine->GetAudioDevice();
FActiveSound* ActiveSound = AudioDevice->FindActiveSound(AudioComponent);
return ActiveSound->PlaybackTime;Had to piece this together just from digging into the API, everyone in the answerhub says it's not possible. No idea how something essential like this isn't provided by the blueprint. Now I can simply check if the playback time reaches certain intervals and then trigger my custom event that updates the gameplay to fit the next music interval.
Got my first enemy up and running:
Though there are some... oddities. Like where it will be doing the attack animation but no health will be taken. It also made me realize that I'm starting to become unsure of how I will be doing attack animations for the player character. In fact... I swear the only time I take damage is if I walk into it...
Not sure if youre using unity or not, but if so, it might be because of how you are handling the collision with the enemy sword.
You might want to set a bool that tells it when the enemy is attacking and when its just walking or idle and only subtract health from the player when that bool is true.
Jacksinthe
Banned
I would honestly just use a collider as a trigger and enable/disable it for the duration of the attack or when the attack strikes. Then set a damage timeout. Using OnTriggerEnter2D, check the tag it collides with, get the health component of the object it collides with, call the damage function on that object and pass whatever damage variable through to that object.
You can enable/disable the collider in an animation or using code. In an animation allows you to enable/disable the collider at exact animation frames.
I wouldn't personally recommend using a bool to dictate damage because now you check if you are colliding and a bool is true when you can just check if a collision occurred by having the collider enable/disable. No need to flip bools on and off when just checking for collision works as intended.
Even if a collider is enabled while overlapping another collider it will trigger as an Enter event.
You can either disable the collider immediately after delivering damage if the player is allowed to take damage from multiple sources per frame or just use a damage timeout on the player and the collider can remain active for the duration of the attack if the player has a limit to how many times he is allowed to take damage in a single frame or over time.
Chaos
Member
Blenderella is a good character modelling tutorial.
https://youtu.be/KNJKZz6YrPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=375LkBKnXy0&list=PLx4T6z-60-M0T_3oO6uiPr76wGQlIsASl
Nah, it's Game Maker. But thanks anyway!
It does seem like a case though where they need to hit my characters upper body to actually do damage. I had a scorpion enemy that I tested it out on and they couldn't damage me if they attacked me from the front but if I was facing the side and let them attack the upper portion of my character, it registered the damage.
That might be the issue, I had no problems with shorter GIFs, I´ll look into that, thanks!
Try drawing the collison mask of both the player and the enemy, that way you´ll see if the collision is really happening or if the masks aren´t set correctly. Put his code in the Draw events of both the player and the enemy objects:
Code:
draw_sprite_ext(sprite_index, image_index, x, y, image_xscale, image_yscale, 0, c_white, 1);
draw_sprite_ext(mask_index, image_index, x, y, image_xscale, image_yscale, 0, c_white, 0.6);Or even better, don't use the collision masks to register damage. Instead, create separate objects and vinculate them to your character objects.
It's usually a bad idea making all of your character's collision box vulnerable to attacks. Usually you'll want your character's "damage area" to be smaller than the sprite to favor gameplay.
Hitboxes and damage boxes should be flexible and match the animations. Unless you're making a new Smash Bros, that is. In that case you can just fuck them up
It's usually a bad idea making all of your character's collision box vulnerable to attacks. Usually you'll want your character's "damage area" to be smaller than the sprite to favor gameplay.
Hitboxes and damage boxes should be flexible and match the animations. Unless you're making a new Smash Bros, that is. In that case you can just fuck them up
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Well, instead of keeping TRACK of all of the friend/enemy variables in the DLC (which replaces the Party menu but basically has all the same flags attached), I'm just going to have some base code that I'm going to simply pipe in before every friend flag.
So we'll see how that works.
Nice as fuck.
So we'll see how that works.
It's been a while! I'll have some very exciting news to share about Stage Presence at the end of the month. In the mean time, here's some short gifs of a VERY WORK IN PROGRESS new environment. Hoping to have a bunch of different environments ready for launch - the festival stage, this indoor arena stage and a few others. The 360 nature of the this environment is ace in VR!
Nice as fuck.
The clipping is real! The screens are looking really great but the audience clipping would get anyone out of their immersion.
So yeah... Is this because I have the origin at 32 x 70? Cause the actual collision on the sprites is the full sprite. As for why the weapons suddenly changed direction... No idea.
Or even better, don't use the collision masks to register damage. Instead, create separate objects and vinculate them to your character objects.
It's usually a bad idea making all of your character's collision box vulnerable to attacks. Usually you'll want your character's "damage area" to be smaller than the sprite to favor gameplay.
Hitboxes and damage boxes should be flexible and match the animations. Unless you're making a new Smash Bros, that is. In that case you can just fuck them up
So I'm guessing you said this because I get problems like above?
Really inspiring thread. Been a lurker for ages now and it's been amazing to see projects go from a germ of an idea to release.
It's probably early to start showing my work, but here goes. My brother and I are in the (very, very) early planning stages of a top-down narrative adventure game based on a series of comics we created set in and round a futuristic version of Morocco. (Outcasts of Jupiter and Under a Jovian Sun)
We've fleshed out the plot and are busy writing the branching story (our primary selling point) and doing some early rendering tests, nothing to show on that front for quite a while, but here's a sketch of our main character, Amina, a quick-witted deep explorer who's recently returned to earth after 30 years exploring the black.
It may be quite a while before I post more stuff (realistically, we're thinking it'll take 2 years to finish the game), but I'll keep following everyone elses work in the meantime
It's probably early to start showing my work, but here goes. My brother and I are in the (very, very) early planning stages of a top-down narrative adventure game based on a series of comics we created set in and round a futuristic version of Morocco. (Outcasts of Jupiter and Under a Jovian Sun)
We've fleshed out the plot and are busy writing the branching story (our primary selling point) and doing some early rendering tests, nothing to show on that front for quite a while, but here's a sketch of our main character, Amina, a quick-witted deep explorer who's recently returned to earth after 30 years exploring the black.
It may be quite a while before I post more stuff (realistically, we're thinking it'll take 2 years to finish the game), but I'll keep following everyone elses work in the meantime
liliththepale
Banned
Really inspiring thread. Been a lurker for ages now and it's been amazing to see projects go from a germ of an idea to release.
It's probably early to start showing my work, but here goes. My brother and I are in the (very, very) early planning stages of a top-down narrative adventure game based on a series of comics we created set in and round a futuristic version of Morocco. (Outcasts of Jupiter and Under a Jovian Sun)
We've fleshed out the plot and are busy writing the branching story (our primary selling point) and doing some early rendering tests, nothing to show on that front for quite a while, but here's a sketch of our main character, Amina, a quick-witted deep explorer who's recently returned to earth after 30 years exploring the black.
It may be quite a while before I post more stuff (realistically, we're thinking it'll take 2 years to finish the game), but I'll keep following everyone elses work in the meantime
Wow, this artwork is top-notch! ♥
Welcome to the thread, and please feel free to share more in the future.
Thanks, I definitely will!
Game Maker allows you to use animated collision masks. These masks can be anything you want (the full sprite, a rectangle, even a different sprite) and you can change them at any time. For example, in my game when the player's crouching he uses a smaller mask, but when he wants to stand up I change the mask to the standing one, check for collisions and then change back to the crouching mask if he can't stand up, all in the same step (frame). Besides, masks are necessary to use GM's collision events and functions. So in this case, I think he will be ok using only 2 objects, 1 for the player with a collision mask a bit smaller than the sprite to register when the enemy hits him, and one for the weapon which could be precise or another rectangle, for when the player attacks. He could disregard all masks and use the xx_in_xx functions (point_in_rectangle, rectangle_in_rectangle,...) but that would be reinventing the wheel. In general you should always try to keep the instance count low because in GM every instance does a lot of things on it´s own, but 1 object for the player and 1 for the weapon is a nice compromise between performance and simplicity for development.Or even better, don't use the collision masks to register damage. Instead, create separate objects and vinculate them to your character objects.
It's usually a bad idea making all of your character's collision box vulnerable to attacks. Usually you'll want your character's "damage area" to be smaller than the sprite to favor gameplay.
Hitboxes and damage boxes should be flexible and match the animations. Unless you're making a new Smash Bros, that is. In that case you can just fuck them up
Really inspiring thread. Been a lurker for ages now and it's been amazing to see projects go from a germ of an idea to release.
It's probably early to start showing my work, but here goes. My brother and I are in the (very, very) early planning stages of a top-down narrative adventure game based on a series of comics we created set in and round a futuristic version of Morocco. (Outcasts of Jupiter and Under a Jovian Sun)
We've fleshed out the plot and are busy writing the branching story (our primary selling point) and doing some early rendering tests, nothing to show on that front for quite a while, but here's a sketch of our main character, Amina, a quick-witted deep explorer who's recently returned to earth after 30 years exploring the black.
It may be quite a while before I post more stuff (realistically, we're thinking it'll take 2 years to finish the game), but I'll keep following everyone elses work in the meantime
Definitely looking forward to updates, that looks and sounds lovely :-D
In other news, since I did basically nothing this week end, I wrote a little recap of the story so far, if you're interested/want to play catch up: http://www.indiedb.com/games/honey-...extraordinaire/news/the-history-of-honey-rose
If anything, it helps keep me on track... otherwise it's easy to get stuck in a neverending loop of "this is never going to get finished, isn't it"!
So yeah... Is this because I have the origin at 32 x 70? Cause the actual collision on the sprites is the full sprite. As for why the weapons suddenly changed direction... No idea.
I´m not sure, it may just be that we aren´t accounting for the sprite offsets in the drawing code so we aren´t drawing it correctly. To be sure, try replacing the previous code with this:
Code:
draw_set_alpha(1);
draw_sprite_ext(sprPlayer...);//This line is the same as before
draw_set_alpha(0.6);
draw_set_color(c_red);
draw_rectangle(bbox_left, bbox_top, bbox_right, bbox_bottom, false);//but now we draw the collision boundariesEdit:
For reference, this are my collision masks when the player is standing and crouching:
(I have pending to make a taller crouching sprite so it can fill the whole crouching mask). Note that this mask is used for collisions against the environment, for collisions against enemies I´ll use an even smaller mask so the sprite overflows it in all directions.
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