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

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caffeware

Banned
Here's the second character of Rodas Cross: Taube!


characters_taube.png
 

TheKroge

Neo Member
I've finally realised how stupid I am with my graphics.

Three years ago when I started development as a dinky demo my game looked like this.

That looks WAY better, like a completely different game (that I would buy). I the neon looks toned down, while still maintaining that tron-like aesthetic.
 
So, for a few months now it has become clear that we're not going to be able to start on Dick Whitman, our bigger better game we wanna make in UE4, unless we start getting in real money real soon. We're crossing our fingers for a lot of DLC resales, but who knows.

So we want to do a smaller game in Ren'Py again to bide the time to the summer sale, but I'm both 1) hungry and 2) want something that will give level up screens more fidelity.

Ren'Py is fast, simple, we already know how to use it, and we already have multiple ideas for more VN-other genre hybrids.

We're not even thinking of the GL requirement at this point.

Primarily, I want Game 1.5 to have more RPG elements.

I've been looking at the small engines like Game Maker and RPGMaker.

What does GAF suggest?
 

neko.works

Member
ChpBnCNWUAA7hhU.jpg


I've updated my stereo 3D gallery on Phereo with recent screenshots from Light Fairytale:
phereo.com/nekodotworks

The cool thing about Phereo is that you can output the image in the format you need: Anaglyph, side by side, 3D vision, rift, ect.

I know that most people hate stereo 3D, probably because most (or all?) 3D displays are full of issues such as cross-talk, blurriness, low-res, poor image quality ect.

I have a Sony HMZ T3 and might be the only person in the world actually enjoying stereo 3D on my games :3
 

ephemeral

Member
I´ve almost finished the overhauling of the background (left=old, right=new):

DFhgYMF.png


Any suggestions?

That's some major improvement! It's gone from looking like a flash game to something I literally can't wait to see more of. I really like the art style and the use of colors, and the slight glossing from the lighting brings some life to the scene.
 

ephemeral

Member
So, for a few months now it has become clear that we're not going to be able to start on Dick Whitman, our bigger better game we wanna make in UE4, unless we start getting in real money real soon. We're crossing our fingers for a lot of DLC resales, but who knows.

So we want to do a smaller game in Ren'Py again to bide the time to the summer sale, but I'm both 1) hungry and 2) want something that will give level up screens more fidelity.

Ren'Py is fast, simple, we already know how to use it, and we already have multiple ideas for more VN-other genre hybrids.

We're not even thinking of the GL requirement at this point.

Primarily, I want Game 1.5 to have more RPG elements.

I've been looking at the small engines like Game Maker and RPGMaker.

What does GAF suggest?

It's very hard to keep track of who made what game in this thread with so many active posters, do you mind sharing a link to your game?
 
ChpBnCNWUAA7hhU.jpg


I've updated my stereo 3D gallery on Phereo with recent screenshots from Light Fairytale:
phereo.com/nekodotworks

The cool thing about Phereo is that you can output the image in the format you need: Anaglyph, side by side, 3D vision, rift, ect.

I know that most people hate stereo 3D, probably because most (or all?) 3D displays are full of issues such as cross-talk, blurriness, low-res, poor image quality ect.

I have a Sony HMZ T3 and might be the only person in the world actually enjoying stereo 3D on my games :3

Nice.

I love stereo 3D also, so there's at least two of us!
 
Depending on how you derive something, you might need a class for each individual item. For example you can have a class called HealingPotion that takes in a number and depending on that number, it heals you by that amount. Or you could have multiple classes like SuperPotion, HyperPotion that each have a set number of how much you can heal.

It can be debated on which is better, I say if it has different functionalities such as healing HP versus Mana, make it it's own class.

I hope this is what you are asking and I didn't make it confusing.

If you are not writing the code, then documenting the "things" and their actions/consequences is a good start.

I wouldn't go into details about items/spells until other stuff is done. (Mind you...if you have already decided, then fine, document it.) But I wouldn't get boiled down in details if big gaping holes exist in other parts.

But it really depends on how you work to create the game. I am coding/designing at the same time. Every once in a while I end up having to refactor a whole bunch of code. (Code tends to reflect the clarity of vision of the solution. If you are unsure how or what you want done, the code tends to be kinda crappy. lol)

Thanks for the help.
 

KOCMOHABT

Member
With meshes like that, I think the rpeeating sand texture you use for the floor works much better with your current aesthetic than the faux-low poly squares one did, although given your screens don't use that anymore I guess you came to the same conclusion

Yeah, plus it's something my friend and artist Tobias, who did the model, is rather looking to do. We'll see, I think when it comes to work flow it's not that difficult to go this slightly less stylized approach.

God I love the look of your game. Great work!
Thank you!

What about the dust? DO YOU LIKE IT YET? DOES IT NEED MOAR FX?
Am pretty happy with it now ^^

qGfU2bH.gif




Has anybody used MonoGame? Thinking about ditching UnityEngine for it.

Yes, I am using Monogame. I think for 2D it's really perfect, a lot of freedom but doesn't take long to set up stuff.

Things like being pixel perfect or sort are really trivial and drawing and updating is very clean.
You don't have a lot of baggage up front and will probably know all your game code, which can be a big positive.
On the other hand you would have to integrate a library or (like me) write your own physics and/or AI etc., but I guess Unity doesn't have everythign up front either.

The monogame documentation itself is a bit lacking, but luckily it's almost identical to XNA so just google everything with an XNA appendix and you'll find answers to everything, especially 2d. Apotheon, Fez, Transistor, Axiom Verge etc. were made with Monogame.

For 3d, like I do, it's a lot of work setting up the engine, with the obvious realization that it won't ever look as good as Unity or Unreal. But yeah the good feeling to know that most of the engine is made by you (and your good friend google) is pretty satisfying.
 

Makai

Member
Cool. I started with XNA but switched to Unity when Microsoft killed it. I want to go back because I need to produce a ton of garbage every frame, which would be fine if I had access to the newer garbage collector. It uses the latest version, right?
 
Progress is being made... I really need to finish alot between now and next week and it's getting there... (GIFcam makes everything look worse, but at least it records great ^_^)

rKiWjhU.gif


FVIJRmX.gif


first one is for a special attack that if executed, alters the storyline based on how many times you do it. It's my way of somewhat incorporating the brawler combat into the visual novel elements.
 

senahorse

Member
Looking nice, though with the first shot when it goes from face pan to eye close-up it looks a little weird. On second look, it looks like the face is stretching not zooming.
 
Looking nice, though with the first shot when it goes from face pan to eye close-up it looks a little weird. On second look, it looks like the face is stretching not zooming.


Thanks!

There's frames that make it cleaner looking that GIFCam didn't grab since they are so quick. I'll try and clean it up more, but I doubt it'll show in the gif unless I run GIFCam at a higher framerate.

It's partially because too I am animating and running the game at 60FPS >_<
 

senahorse

Member
No worries, thought there might be more to it, but thought it best to say something just in case :). It's looking really nice, keep it up. I wish I could art like some of you guys, I will just keep on keeping on with my very basic programmer art, good thing I am only working on a shapes game at the moment haha.
 

Jumplion

Member
Progress is being made... I really need to finish alot between now and next week and it's getting there... (GIFcam makes everything look worse, but at least it records great ^_^)

rKiWjhU.gif


FVIJRmX.gif


first one is for a special attack that if executed, alters the storyline based on how many times you do it. It's my way of somewhat incorporating the brawler combat into the visual novel elements.

I'm diggin' it, yo
 
Cool. I started with XNA but switched to Unity when Microsoft killed it. I want to go back because I need to produce a ton of garbage every frame, which would be fine if I had access to the newer garbage collector. It uses the latest version, right?

Wait, you need to as some kind of self-imposed requirement, or you feel as if you have no other choice but to generate garbage based on what you're currently doing?

If it's the former, I'm afraid that you're some kind of coding masochist. If it's the latter I'm sure I, or someone else, can help you brainstorm a way to lessen or eliminate the garbage-per-frame impact.

Either way, that's a really strange reason to switch engines -- especially as a newer C# garbage collector still won't change the fact that you're cleaning up garbage. It'll be faster, but it'll still be slower than not having to clean up garbage in the first place. Mono's garbage collector is still fairly sucky anyway, so I'm not sure what kind of boost you'd get by upgrading (aside from having things that currently generate garbage in Unity not generate garbage, i.e. foreach edge cases).

Can you explain the issue you're having? I'm pretty curious now, as I've never come across something like this.
 

correojon

Member
That's some major improvement! It's gone from looking like a flash game to something I literally can't wait to see more of. I really like the art style and the use of colors, and the slight glossing from the lighting brings some life to the scene.
Wow, thanks! The glossing was a happy accident and the color usage has improved a lot thanks to the suggestions I´ve got in these thread, so it all thanks to you guys!

Nice work, I think the new version looks much better.
Glad you like it :)

Only suggestion I could give, is keep doing what you're doing :). It looks really nice, I assume you have a lot of parallax scrolling going on there?
Thanks for the nice words! Yes, there are indeed 9 planes of parallax scrolling (10 counting the fixed background furthest away from the camera), both vertical and horizontal. The vertical parallax makes the scene totally different whether the player is at the top or at the bottom of the level. The screenshot was taken at the bottom where all planes are visible and hide most of the furthest background, but at the top only the mountains and clouds can be seen and the furthest background will dominate the scene. It took me a while to organize everything but once it clicked I think it will look great (if I can manage to make a worthy fursthest background, that is).

Progress is being made... I really need to finish alot between now and next week and it's getting there... (GIFcam makes everything look worse, but at least it records great ^_^)

rKiWjhU.gif


FVIJRmX.gif


first one is for a special attack that if executed, alters the storyline based on how many times you do it. It's my way of somewhat incorporating the brawler combat into the visual novel elements.

I´m digging a lot the special attack animation :) Also, the "problems" I told you about the animations seem to vanish due to the different artstyle and character nature, I´m no longer getting that vibe from Cody. BTW, that´s a really original and awesome artstyle you´re rocking, it really gives your game a lot of personality and looks great. The only thing I´m not sure about is the white border around the trash cans and the fire hydrant, it makes them look somewhat "flat". On the other hand, the birds, which don´t seem to have that border (or maybe they do, but as they´re white it´s not that evident) look awesome. Nice detail, I love it when games with "simple" graphics add those kind of things.
 

JeffG

Member
Cool. I started with XNA but switched to Unity when Microsoft killed it. I want to go back because I need to produce a ton of garbage every frame, which would be fine if I had access to the newer garbage collector. It uses the latest version, right?

Man...you are funny.

I wish I had your sense of humour.
 

missile

Member
...
What about the dust? DO YOU LIKE IT YET? DOES IT NEED MOAR FX?
Am pretty happy with it now ^^

qGfU2bH.gif
...
I like these techy add-ups. :+ It comes together, I guess. However, I think I
would try to nerf the dust a lil (it's quite pronounced to say the least) to
not take too much emphasis away from the cars, the action /arnoldsvoice.
 

Makai

Member
Wait, you need to as some kind of self-imposed requirement, or you feel as if you have no other choice but to generate garbage based on what you're currently doing?

If it's the former, I'm afraid that you're some kind of coding masochist. If it's the latter I'm sure I, or someone else, can help you brainstorm a way to lessen or eliminate the garbage-per-frame impact.

Either way, that's a really strange reason to switch engines -- especially as a newer C# garbage collector still won't change the fact that you're cleaning up garbage. It'll be faster, but it'll still be slower than not having to clean up garbage in the first place. Mono's garbage collector is still fairly sucky anyway, so I'm not sure what kind of boost you'd get by upgrading (aside from having things that currently generate garbage in Unity not generate garbage, i.e. foreach edge cases).

Can you explain the issue you're having? I'm pretty curious now, as I've never come across something like this.
I'm using F#. No variables, so no bugs. I need to generate a lot of garbage every frame because of the functional style. No significant performance hit if this is collected immediately. Newer compiler will immediately collect garbage that persists for less than a frame.
 

TheKroge

Neo Member
Progress is being made... I really need to finish alot between now and next week and it's getting there... (GIFcam makes everything look worse, but at least it records great ^_^)

rKiWjhU.gif


FVIJRmX.gif


first one is for a special attack that if executed, alters the storyline based on how many times you do it. It's my way of somewhat incorporating the brawler combat into the visual novel elements.

So the aesthetic really appeals to me... but...

The white outlines on everything, is there a reason for it? To me it looks like you were trying to pull the images off of a white background and what was left was white artifacts around everything. Have you tried a version without that? I think it would flow much better and be a little less jarring.
 
I'm diggin' it, yo

I´m digging a lot the special attack animation :) Also, the "problems" I told you about the animations seem to vanish due to the different artstyle and character nature, I´m no longer getting that vibe from Cody. BTW, that´s a really original and awesome artstyle you´re rocking, it really gives your game a lot of personality and looks great. The only thing I´m not sure about is the white border around the trash cans and the fire hydrant, it makes them look somewhat "flat". On the other hand, the birds, which don´t seem to have that border (or maybe they do, but as they´re white it´s not that evident) look awesome. Nice detail, I love it when games with "simple" graphics add those kind of things.


So the aesthetic really appeals to me... but...

The white outlines on everything, is there a reason for it? To me it looks like you were trying to pull the images off of a white background and what was left was white artifacts around everything. Have you tried a version without that? I think it would flow much better and be a little less jarring.

Thanks guys and thanks for the input :)

The white outlines were suppose to be a stylistic choice, and again they look way better in gameplay than the gif implies, but I'll try a test of it all without outlines and see how that looks. I'll probably get rid of them for the trash cans and the other elements but unsure if I will for the characters.

It feels good to finally be "someplace" with what I'm making compared to a week or even a month ago >_<
 

JeffG

Member
I can't help but feel that this statement is going to come back and haunt you...

What? He is using F#

Changing the high level language will make all the difference in the world.

Man...think of all the issues that he would have if he was using VB.Net
 
Progress is being made... I really need to finish alot between now and next week and it's getting there... (GIFcam makes everything look worse, but at least it records great ^_^)

rKiWjhU.gif


FVIJRmX.gif


first one is for a special attack that if executed, alters the storyline based on how many times you do it. It's my way of somewhat incorporating the brawler combat into the visual novel elements.

I like the look of this alot. What's the gameplay hook? I haven't played a good 90's arcade brawler in a long time.
 
I like the look of this alot. What's the gameplay hook? I haven't played a good 90's arcade brawler in a long time.

Right now it's still getting alot of the basics working properly (almost there!) but it's a brawler + visual novel based on norse myth.

Your actions in the brawler portion of the game carry over to the visual novel aspects changing the story. You also have an ability to instantly kill any enemy (including bosses), but the more you abuse it the more it alters the story. I'm also hoping to implement the ability to befriend/not fight bosses if you make the right dialogue and gameplay choices (you murdered NPC#1, so NPC#2 likes you more because he hated NPC#3, etc.)

Still working out the kinks, but I'm shooting to have it up as a Kickstarter by the end of the month. I need to still make a few enemies, since that's the next big thing on my list of things to do.


so, I need some input on which looks best (again, GIF is grainy as hell, normally super sharp):

T6GDBIG.gif


No Outline - Black Outline - White Outline



XRdLUoM.png


Compared in scene for background reference


also, I removed the white outline on street objects and yes, you guys were right, looks way better. I still want to keep white on my characters since it tied into the environment more, but wanted input.
 

TheKroge

Neo Member
Right now it's still getting alot of the basics working properly (almost there!) but it's a brawler + visual novel based on norse myth.

Your actions in the brawler portion of the game carry over to the visual novel aspects changing the story. You also have an ability to instantly kill any enemy (including bosses), but the more you abuse it the more it alters the story. I'm also hoping to implement the ability to befriend/not fight bosses if you make the right dialogue and gameplay choices (you murdered NPC#1, so NPC#2 likes you more because he hated NPC#3, etc.)

Still working out the kinks, but I'm shooting to have it up as a Kickstarter by the end of the month. I need to still make a few enemies, since that's the next big thing on my list of things to do.


so, I need some input on which looks best (again, GIF is grainy as hell, normally super sharp):




also, I removed the white outline on street objects and yes, you guys were right, looks way better. I still want to keep white on my characters since it tied into the environment more, but wanted input.

Black outline looks a lot better
 
I'm using F#. No variables, so no bugs. I need to generate a lot of garbage every frame because of the functional style. No significant performance hit if this is collected immediately. Newer compiler will immediately collect garbage that persists for less than a frame.

Oh, well, that makes more sense. Still, as much as I like F# in theory it still seems a bit masochistic in practice. Best of luck to you, though. MonoGame would probably be a better fit, if there's F# support (I'm not sure if there is, though).
 
White outline, definitely.

Black outline looks a lot better

That has my vote too

Yeah, I´d go with that or no outline at all, tough maybe in movement it´ll look different...

I agree. Have you tried a dark grey outline? Might look nice.

Black looks best for me too.

I'm in the minority here, but I like the white outlines.

Massive thanks for everyone's input <3 It's more than appreciated!

lol it looks like the majority of the votes go towards black, but I'm going to go the non popular route and stick with white due to how necessary it is to tying into the visual novel aspects of the game as well as most of the game will be filled with black space (think undertale battle screens).

I want something close to the old stuff I have done for shirts (like below) as it will work good for dialogue and showing emotion between characters

Jesus-Santos-Bear-TEST-02.png
 
First mockup attempt for my mecha RPG project (click to enlarge):



It will probably change a lot (also the anime portraits are placeholders, I already hire a freelancer to make new ones).

The world needs more mech games (I'm being honest), so yes this is awesome! I always love it when games that you mech or kaiju it up you get a good sense of being in a very 'city' city if you get my drift :)
 

Jumplion

Member
Woo! Finally got my laptop back, now I can really dive into my project. I'm going to be using the summer as a sort of preproduction work for my capstone for university (which I can hopefully due since some complications came up), so expect some animations and some test visuals from me since that's what I struggle with the most and what I'm going to spend most of my time on.
 
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