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[timetokill]

What is the end goal here? I'm a little bit curious what the purpose of this practice is. I hope this doesn't sound too judging, because I'm just curious is all.

I'm working with a somewhat limited palette in my game, but it's 150 colors and I might add a few more in the future should I feel so inclined. The only reason I'm using a limited palette is to keep the art crisp and have clean lines, but with most art styles that's not really necessary.

Take a look at my palette for example. The leftmost one is what I'm working with, but that's only because it's vector art. There's no reason I shouldn't be doing digital painting in photoshop with something like the middle or rightmost palette. The color grading is still the same, so the mood would still be the same. There's especially a lot of dark browns, blues and purples to pick from, and then there's not a true red in the game (just different levels of pink). Because I don't like the color red

Anyway. Just food for thought. If this doesn't apply then please disregard! ♥

LEAVE ME ALONE LILITH STOP JUDGING ME ;_____;

Just kidding
I have a few reasons.

1. I'm doing a tile-based game using voxels, and I've found that voxels tend to read better with fewer colors.

2. Since I'm generating a lot of different individual pieces and then putting them together in various ways, I want to make sure I'm consistent with my color choices across various pieces.

3. I don't know a ton about color (I've been learning a LOT over the last month though!) and I want to understand color relationships. Making a palette is helping me do this. I'm making a western with fire as a central theme, and I've decided on mostly desaturated colors with a few that are meant to "pop" like yellow, orange, and red, as well as complementary colors that will help them pop.

4. I feel like deciding on a cohesive, smaller palette will help me focus on the art design of the game in general.

5. If I figure out the palette now, less chance that I have to go back through assets and make major fixes to everything.


In doing the palette swaps like I did above, I can see how my color choices are working out. A few main results:

- My "popping" colors are not saturated/bright enough. Red and orange especially.
- I feel like my browns look nice and dusty, I'm mostly happy with those.
- I probably need another green or two.
- Need a couple more highlight colors (very light blue, very light yellow).

I may end up working my way up to a 64 color palette, but doing a 32 color palette has been a pretty fun, challenging exercise that has really led me to focus on what the mood of my game is and how the colors make me feel.

 

[mStudios]

Got possibly an easy question for some of y'all. How would I go about incorporating a laser like the one in this pic:

I'm using Game Maker, btw.

By Uninstalling Game Maker.

Spoiler

It's a few square being spawn almost at the same time.
Think about this: A gun firing bullets next to each other in a 'x' amount of time..

 

[Oblivion]

Looks like it's just a bunch of individual, square objects being presented in a line.

Straight vertical and horizontal lines are easy (i.e. horizontal position is X+width of object, vertical is Y+height of object). Diagonals are a bit trickier, as you have to take into account the actual angle of the line.

Generally, I think these older games only had something like 8-16 specific angles (including horizontal and vertical, so that subtracts 4 angles right off the bat). If you're working with per-determined angles, you just have to work out the specific slope of that line (i.e. rise over run).

If you think about it like graphing a line, it should be easier to visualize. It may be easier to work out a formula that gives you the correct positions of each object at a specific line angle (for something like a smooth rotation) but it might not look very retro. If you go that route, you might want to lock the rotation of the line to something like every 15 or 30 degrees, if you want a more retro "snapping" look.

By Uninstalling Game Maker.

Spoiler

It's a few square being spawn almost at the same time.
Think about this: A gun firing bullets next to each other in a 'x' amount of time..

I used a terrible example, actually. What I wanted was not a series of squares/circle but just one long straight line.

 

[mStudios]

I used a terrible example, actually. What I wanted was not a series of squares/circle but just one long straight line.

You want a laser, dont you?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemaker/comments/3j9u0b/example_making_a_laser/

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

#screenshotsaturday

 

[Timeaisis]

Well, more effects work today for A Quick Death. I'm pretty happy with the night look, overall.

Full on Thunderstorm. Your accuracy briefly increases after a lightning strike.

This is just lighter rain with the fence mechanic.

Wind particle effects. They change direction randomly, increasing accuracy. Not completely happy with these yet, but I think they sell for now.

And here's a fun screenshot of Unity simulating rain in 2D.

 

[Oblivion]

You want a laser, dont you?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemaker/comments/3j9u0b/example_making_a_laser/

Thanks.

 

[liliththepale]

LEAVE ME ALONE LILITH STOP JUDGING ME ;_____;

Just kidding
I have a few reasons.

1. I'm doing a tile-based game using voxels, and I've found that voxels tend to read better with fewer colors.

2. Since I'm generating a lot of different individual pieces and then putting them together in various ways, I want to make sure I'm consistent with my color choices across various pieces.

3. I don't know a ton about color (I've been learning a LOT over the last month though!) and I want to understand color relationships. Making a palette is helping me do this. I'm making a western with fire as a central theme, and I've decided on mostly desaturated colors with a few that are meant to "pop" like yellow, orange, and red, as well as complementary colors that will help them pop.

4. I feel like deciding on a cohesive, smaller palette will help me focus on the art design of the game in general.

5. If I figure out the palette now, less chance that I have to go back through assets and make major fixes to everything.


In doing the palette swaps like I did above, I can see how my color choices are working out. A few main results:

- My "popping" colors are not saturated/bright enough. Red and orange especially.
- I feel like my browns look nice and dusty, I'm mostly happy with those.
- I probably need another green or two.
- Need a couple more highlight colors (very light blue, very light yellow).

I may end up working my way up to a 64 color palette, but doing a 32 color palette has been a pretty fun, challenging exercise that has really led me to focus on what the mood of my game is and how the colors make me feel.

Cool! It sounds like you know what you're doing, or at least what it'll take to get to where you know what you're doing, so I'm happy

 

[timetokill]

Cool! It sounds like you know what you're doing, or at least what it'll take to get to where you know what you're doing, so I'm happy

No problem I didn't mind the question at all. Honestly a big part of what made me decide to take this path was my neurotic inability to move forward making assets when I'm not sure what the colors are supposed to be. It was making me really unhappy, so I figured I better try another path.

 

[2+2=5]

Palette stuff... original palette (246 colors) on the left, my palette (32 colors) on the right

Look rather good!

LEAVE ME ALONE LILITH STOP JUDGING ME ;_____;

Just kidding
I have a few reasons.

1. I'm doing a tile-based game using voxels, and I've found that voxels tend to read better with fewer colors.

2. Since I'm generating a lot of different individual pieces and then putting them together in various ways, I want to make sure I'm consistent with my color choices across various pieces.

3. I don't know a ton about color (I've been learning a LOT over the last month though!) and I want to understand color relationships. Making a palette is helping me do this. I'm making a western with fire as a central theme, and I've decided on mostly desaturated colors with a few that are meant to "pop" like yellow, orange, and red, as well as complementary colors that will help them pop.

4. I feel like deciding on a cohesive, smaller palette will help me focus on the art design of the game in general.

5. If I figure out the palette now, less chance that I have to go back through assets and make major fixes to everything.


In doing the palette swaps like I did above, I can see how my color choices are working out. A few main results:

- My "popping" colors are not saturated/bright enough. Red and orange especially.
- I feel like my browns look nice and dusty, I'm mostly happy with those.
- I probably need another green or two.
- Need a couple more highlight colors (very light blue, very light yellow).

I may end up working my way up to a 64 color palette, but doing a 32 color palette has been a pretty fun, challenging exercise that has really led me to focus on what the mood of my game is and how the colors make me feel.

Oh man i though you were making an amiga-like game, now i'm little disappointed lol, but voxel games are really cool!

What is the end goal here? I'm a little bit curious what the purpose of this practice is. I hope this doesn't sound too judging, because I'm just curious is all.

I'm working with a somewhat limited palette in my game, but it's 150 colors and I might add a few more in the future should I feel so inclined. The only reason I'm using a limited palette is to keep the art crisp and have clean lines, but with most art styles that's not really necessary.

Take a look at my palette for example. The leftmost one is what I'm working with, but that's only because it's vector art. There's no reason I shouldn't be doing digital painting in photoshop with something like the middle or rightmost palette. The color grading is still the same, so the mood would still be the same. There's especially a lot of dark browns, blues and purples to pick from, and then there's not a true red in the game (just different levels of pink). Because I don't like the color red

Anyway. Just food for thought. If this doesn't apply then please disregard! ♥

I'm not an artist, i'm trying to make my first game so feel free to ignore me, but for a lot of time i made palettes like you without making anything good, if i can i would suggest you not to make palettes with successions of colors, start without thinking of the number of colors, just make sprites choosing the best colors and put them into your palette, if you used too many colors then optimize the palette removing or replacing colors that are too similar.
Another important thing is to not use RGB when choosing colors, use HSL(or HSV if you prefer) it's a easier and more natural way to choose the color you want and close ones(brighter, darker, more saturated, less saturated, similar hue etc) but even more important it makes you think in terms of colors and their proprieties, not on artistically meaningless RGB values.

 

[liliththepale]

I'm not an artist, i'm trying to make my first game so feel free to ignore me, but for a lot of time i made palettes like you without making anything good, if i can i would suggest you not to make palettes with successions of colors, do your sprites without thinking of the number of colors, just make sprites choosing what is better and put those colors into your palette, if you used too many colors then optimize the palette removing colors that are too similar.
Another important thing is to not use RGB when choosing colors, use HSL(or HSV if you prefer) because it's easier to pick the color because it's a easier and more natural way to choose the color you want and close ones(brighter, darker, more saturated, less saturated, similar hue etc) but even more important it makes you think in terms of colors and their proprieties, not on artistically meaningless RGB values.

It's fine if that works for you but if something works well for another person then please don't tell them to stop doing that. If it works well for someone then it's not a bad practice. There's no "right" way to do art.

I work with RGB because I'm used to it and I don't like thinking in the HSV color space, and because RGB is more readily usable in programming contexts. RGB has far more meaning to me than HSV does. I'm loathe to pull the seniority card because everybody has room for improvement, but after seventeen years of doing digital art I like to think I know what I'm talking about and what works well for me.

 

[2+2=5]

It's fine if that works for you but if something works well for another person then please don't tell them to stop doing that. If it works well for someone then it's not a bad practice. There's no "right" way to do art.

I work with RGB because I'm used to it and I don't like thinking in the HSV color space, and because RGB is more readily usable in programming contexts. RGB has far more meaning to me than HSV does. I'm loathe to pull the seniority card because everybody has room for improvement, but after seventeen years of doing digital art I like to think I know what I'm talking about and what works well for me.

Have you even read my post?
-seniority? I started with "I'm not an artist, i'm trying to make my first game", do those words sound like the ones of a senior?

-telling you to stop doing that? "feel free to ignore me" and "if i can i would suggest" sound like someone forcing you to do anything?

Another thing you didn't seem to understand is that i was suggesting you to use HSL on the paint program, not on your code, a color is a color, HSL and RGB are just different way to represent it, once you choose a color with HSL you can see its RGB components, so choosing colors with HSL doesn't change anything in your work.
Each paint program has something like this:

Again you are free to do as you wish, i just tried to tell you what completely change in better my way of doing things, sorry if i though to share it with you.

 

[BlizzKrut]

Thought this level looked better with some stars on it.

 

[JeffG]

Have you even read my post?
-seniority? I started with "I'm not an artist, i'm trying to make my first game", do those words sound like the ones of a senior?

Usually, people that start with I am not an artist are asking questions, not telling another artist how to do their shit.

-telling you to stop doing that? "feel free to ignore me" and "if i can i would suggest" sound like someone forcing you to do anything?

Another thing you didn't seem to understand is that i was suggesting you to use HSL on the paint program, not on your code, a color is a color, HSL and RGB are just different way to represent it, once you choose a color with HSL you can see its RGB components, so choosing colors with HSL doesn't change anything in your work.
Each paint program has something like this:

Again you are free to do as you wish, i just tried to tell you what completely change in better my way of doing things, sorry if i though to share it with you.

If at first you don't succeed...double down on being a condescending prick.

 

[2+2=5]

Usually, people that start with I am not an artist are asking questions, not telling another artist how to do their shit.


If at first you don't succeed...double down on being a condescending prick.

Yes i'm not an artist so i guess i'm not allowed to share my little experience right? I found a way that made everything better for me and i thought to share it trying to be as honest and humble as possible(i said i wasn't an artist, implying that i'm not an expert so i can be wrong, and that she was free to ignore me, implying again that i could be wrong and that there could be better or more suitable methods, what else should i have said?) hoping to help someone without forcing anything to anyone. Does this make me a condescending prick? Then yes i'm a condescending prick and proud of it, but i wouldn't be so sure i'm the condescending prick here.

 

[Jobbs]

I don't see where he acted like a condescending prick

just move on, sounds like a misunderstanding

everyone here means well

 

[LordRaptor]

It's hot out so don't get stressed... heres a kitten massage

 

[2+2=5]

I don't see where he acted like a condescending prick

just move on, sounds like a misunderstanding

everyone here means well

Thank you, i agree that everything sounds like a misunderstanding.

As a sign of peace and good will and to bring back the thread on topic i'll post a WIP sprite(the only almost finished frame i have and it still lacks feet and other things lol) of one of the characters while defending + its palette

EDIT:
obviously i'm open to impressions and suggestions!

EDIT2:
for more clarity i added a 2x version

 

[JeffG]

hoping to help someone

Did she ask for help?

 

[Jobbs]

Did she ask for help?

you're not helping at all

 

[JeffG]

you're not helping at all

Really?

and its my opinion that you are not either.

If someone is totally oblivious to how they communicate with people and insist it isn't them...it others.

If you don't see it. You have the same issue.

I am trying to point it out to you and #5


What's different here, is that I know I am being an asshole.

 

[Jobbs]

Yeah, really. You're trying to further inflame the situation after he already wanted to move on...

 

[Undead Hero]

Hey guys. Totally new to this but this community is cool.

How do you guys record gifs? I've been using ScreenToGif but it makes everything look like butt

 

[Jobbs]

Hey guys. Totally new to this but this community is cool.

How do you guys record gifs? I've been using ScreenToGif but it makes everything look like butt

For simple things I use gifcam. If I need something better I'll record with fraps, process the frames through virtual dub, then re-assemble them into a high quality gif in photoshop. This is for making the highest quality possible clips.

 

[JeffG]

Yeah, really. You're trying to further inflame the situation after he already wanted to move on...

Some situations need to be pointed out.

 

[timetokill]

All right, everyone calm down. There's nothing to be gained arguing over this. I don't think 2+2=5 meant anything by his post, he was just sharing what he knew. It wasn't applicable to Lilith, no big deal. I understand where 2+2=5 was coming from, though, and is the kind of post that would've been helpful to me a few months ago, actually.

This community has been very warm and helpful to each other and bickering about it right now doesn't gain anybody anything. Jeff's just trying to make sure nobody is being condescending to another person and preserve that feeling. I understand that, too.

Everyone just swallow your pride or whatever and let's move on. Nobody is at fault, everything is cool.

Now hug it out, you two.

 

[Pehesse]

All right, everyone calm down. There's nothing to be gained arguing over this. I don't think 2+2=5 meant anything by his post, he was just sharing what he knew. It wasn't applicable to Lilith, no big deal. I understand where 2+2=5 was coming from, though, and is the kind of post that would've been helpful to me a few months ago, actually.

This community has been very warm and helpful to each other and bickering about it right now doesn't gain anybody anything. Jeff's just trying to make sure nobody is being condescending to another person and preserve that feeling. I understand that, too.

Everyone just swallow your pride or whatever and let's move on. Nobody is at fault, everything is cool.

Now hug it out, you two.

timetokill
"I call'em death hugs"

You loveable bear you!

Spoiler

(and agreed with what you said!)

And just to post a bit of news: I'm basically done with my big "to-do" list. All that's left are edits/fixes and changes/adds based on feedback from the demo

Spoiler

and steam integration, that's totally a small thing

. The game isn't "done done", but it's... well, it's basically done. And it sure feels a bit surreal.

To expand on that: I think I'll be exporting a complete test version next week/the week after, to finally test through the whole thing uninterrupted. Any takers? I need to stress that while the game will be complete, it's not a version intended to play through for fun: I'll be asking and looking for feedback - though if you're here, you probably know and understand all of that already! So if you're interested in helping me iron out the final release starting real soon... well, hit me up!

 

[Jumplion]

For simple things I use gifcam. If I need something better I'll record with fraps, process the frames through virtual dub, then re-assemble them into a high quality gif in photoshop. This is for making the highest quality possible clips.

Speaking of gifcam, if you get green boxes everywhere like I do sometimes, the solution is to go into "edit", right-click and make the "green-screen" color something other than green. Such a simple solution that I keep forgetting about that everyone should know.

 

[Makai]

Got possibly an easy question for some of y'all. How would I go about incorporating a laser like the one in this pic:

I'm using Game Maker, btw.

Draw two skinny triangles in 3D space. I dunno if GameMaker can do that but it surely has some sort of sprite transformation capability.

 

[ephemeral]

Thank you, i agree that everything sounds like a misunderstanding.

As a sign of peace and good will and to bring back the thread on topic i'll post a WIP sprite(the only almost finished frame i have and it still lacks feet and other things lol) of one of the characters while defending + its palette

EDIT:
obviously i'm open to impressions and suggestions!

EDIT2:
for more clarity i added a 2x version

I like the art style and it looks great imo. I don't like the shield being so perfectly straight though.

 

[gabbo]

The rig is completed. Took me quite a bit:

Hopefully this same rig works on all characters D:

You may have posted it at some point, but what are you using to create and rig this model?

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

So.

Today I scrapped 80% of Paper Shakespeare 'cause it just was me trying to force gameplay. Trying to make a $4 idea a $10 idea.

So now it only has ONE character path (Hamlet).
The main scenes I already wrote are still in the game, just with the gameplay taken out. No dialogue choices for Othello, etc.

Because honestly, what would Kate's choices consist of? "Submit to my forced boyfriend" or "Choose to stay strong"? Taming of the Shew does not translate to an adventure game.

New full title is Paper Shakespeare: It's Hamlet (Again)!, to better go along with the theme of literature adaptations.

Thought this level looked better with some stars on it.

A+.

 

[ThePhotoshop]

Speaking of gifcam, if you get green boxes everywhere like I do sometimes, the solution is to go into "edit", right-click and make the "green-screen" color something other than green. Such a simple solution that I keep forgetting about that everyone should know.

Oh my GOD thank you!

 

[MattyG]

I'm going to sound super ignorant, but I could use some guidance. I've tinkered around with game development before, but I've never really understood it fully. I'm kicking around an idea for a game that I feel really strongly about, but I don't know where to start/what engine to try to use/etc.

I always try to start these projects, but I can never get past screwing with the engine. I never make anything that works at all without just straight up copying other peoples' tutorials, I just get discouraged that I don't understand the basics and give up. I've watched the video series on GameMaker by the guy who made Gunpoint and feel like I got a tiny bit of an understanding from that, but I still have no clue what I'm doing otherwise. So a beginner, where should I start to (particularly with a focus on 3D games)?

 

[fengshuifever]

Finally finished making our early build and pitch stuff and holy hell, I feel like I really accomplished something.

We'll see what happens from here on out but right now I'm gonna celebrate haha

--

Started tooling around with Unreal a bit more over the last couple of days and I'm super surprised how quickly c++ is to pick up after using c# for so long.

I'm working through an Unreal RPG book (The code is super broken in this book holy shit) and hitting tonnes of errors but just feels nice to not have pressure to finish something, just dicking around in an engine.

I'm going to sound super ignorant, but I could use some guidance. I've tinkered around with game development before, but I've never really understood it fully. I'm kicking around an idea for a game that I feel really strongly about, but I don't know where to start/what engine to try to use/etc.

I always try to start these projects, but I can never get past screwing with the engine. I never make anything that works at all without just straight up copying other peoples' tutorials, I just get discouraged that I don't understand the basics and give up. I've watched the video series on GameMaker by the guy who made Gunpoint and feel like I got a tiny bit of an understanding from that, but I still have no clue what I'm doing otherwise. So a beginner, where should I start to (particularly with a focus on 3D games)?

I was in this exact position a few years back but the only answer I can give...keep doing what you're doing. No seriously.
While I was watching tutorials, I would always have two different projects; one for the tutorial and one that I would tinker and break things with.
By always trying to change something in the tutorial to something completely different, helped to bolster the knowledge of the possibilities of what they were trying to teach rather than the single context they would teach in.

Good luck!

 

[missile]

I'm going to sound super ignorant, but I could use some guidance. I've tinkered around with game development before, but I've never really understood it fully. I'm kicking around an idea for a game that I feel really strongly about, but I don't know where to start/what engine to try to use/etc.

I always try to start these projects, but I can never get past screwing with the engine. I never make anything that works at all without just straight up copying other peoples' tutorials, I just get discouraged that I don't understand the basics and give up. I've watched the video series on GameMaker by the guy who made Gunpoint and feel like I got a tiny bit of an understanding from that, but I still have no clue what I'm doing otherwise. So a beginner, where should I start to (particularly with a focus on 3D games)?

Cut down on all the possibilities, ways to do things etc., and on the amount
of information. You need to limit yourself to a small set of tools/information
and go from there, because this will make your mind work much more efficient
while looking for ways to get the most out of a few things. Well, that works
best for me at least. Having lots of choices is nice to have, but only if you
know why to make any in the first place! Second. Stop watching/copying work of
others if you are a beginner! This may sound counterintuitive, but you will
prevent yourself from thinking up your own solution. It's important to do the
most basic steps all by yourself. Your solution may be bad whatsoever, but you
will learn the most out of it, which is exactly what you need, i.e. to learn
how to improve on your own thoughts and not on the thoughts of others and also
not by trying 10^32 ways of modifying others people code until it works for
you. You may buy a book about game programming and work with it through the
end. It's not about the book per se, its about getting focused on just one
thing without getting interrupted. Books don't have links, don't have flashing
animation, don't make any sound whatsoever. Third. Make a few simple games
first using said tools to get to know all the basic things like game-loop,
input/output, texturing, some physics etc. This may sound way to simple
considering all your wishful thoughts about teh game you really want to make,
but it's very important to make all these basic steps all by yourself. If you
get more advanced, you can start to skip more and more things and relay on the
work of others. Anyhow. Keep it as simple as possible at first. Build a Pong
game. 3D? Build Pong in 3D. Build another simple game with the code you did
before. Iterate a couple of times. And when you feel comfortable with the
process and confident thinking up your own solutions if needed, build some
more complex games.

 

[ThePhotoshop]

I'm going to sound super ignorant, but I could use some guidance. I've tinkered around with game development before, but I've never really understood it fully. I'm kicking around an idea for a game that I feel really strongly about, but I don't know where to start/what engine to try to use/etc.

I always try to start these projects, but I can never get past screwing with the engine. I never make anything that works at all without just straight up copying other peoples' tutorials, I just get discouraged that I don't understand the basics and give up. I've watched the video series on GameMaker by the guy who made Gunpoint and feel like I got a tiny bit of an understanding from that, but I still have no clue what I'm doing otherwise. So a beginner, where should I start to (particularly with a focus on 3D games)?

I got started making Wildfire by doing the in-built GameMaker tutorials, then watching Shaun Spalding's tutorials on making a sidescrolling platformer: https://www.youtube.com/user/999Greyfox

I found this introduced stuff very slowly and clearly and was great to get a general understanding of just how games actually work on the programming side. I'd like to add I'd never programmed before so this method should work for total beginners if you stick with it.

 

[TheHollowNight]

I got started making Wildfire by doing the in-built GameMaker tutorials, then watching Shaun Spalding's tutorials on making a sidescrolling platformer: https://www.youtube.com/user/999Greyfox

I found this introduced stuff very slowly and clearly and was great to get a general understanding of just how games actually work on the programming side. I'd like to add I'd never programmed before so this method should work for total beginners if you stick with it.

Crazy how much Shaun's tutorials get around! Speaking of which his first video just crossed the 1 million view mark :O

Used to sit next to the guy up in Newcastle at Ubi Reflections

 

[mStudios]

You may have posted it at some point, but what are you using to create and rig this model?

Maya 2017. I was using 3DS Max 2017 on windows, but it was glitchy as fuck.

 

[trugs26]

Started dev'ing my first serious attempt at a game recently. Aiming for mobile platforms. Hard to fit time in for it considering I work/study full time, but I'm making it happen. I hope to share progress and other things soon

 

[Loginius]

I havent posted an update on our project here in forever but since we started to update our unreal and polycount thread more often I thought I just post the same stuff here.
We recently redesigned all our characters, almost done with the MC:

Working on 4 other characters at the same time and still need to get two environments done by the end of december. Busy times.

 

[timetokill]

timetokill
"I call'em death hugs"

You loveable bear you!

Spoiler

(and agreed with what you said!)

I have been tag-quoted FAR more than I expected I would lol

 

[MattyG]

I was in this exact position a few years back but the only answer I can give...keep doing what you're doing. No seriously.
While I was watching tutorials, I would always have two different projects; one for the tutorial and one that I would tinker and break things with.
By always trying to change something in the tutorial to something completely different, helped to bolster the knowledge of the possibilities of what they were trying to teach rather than the single context they would teach in.

Good luck!

Cut down on all the possibilities, ways to do things etc., and on the amount
of information. You need to limit yourself to a small set of tools/information
and go from there, because this will make your mind work much more efficient
while looking for ways to get the most out of a few things. Well, that works
best for me at least. Having lots of choices is nice to have, but only if you
know why to make any in the first place! Second. Stop watching/copying work of
others if you are a beginner! This may sound counterintuitive, but you will
prevent yourself from thinking up your own solution. It's important to do the
most basic steps all by yourself. Your solution may be bad whatsoever, but you
will learn the most out of it, which is exactly what you need, i.e. to learn
how to improve on your own thoughts and not on the thoughts of others and also
not by trying 10^32 ways of modifying others people code until it works for
you. You may buy a book about game programming and work with it through the
end. It's not about the book per se, its about getting focused on just one
thing without getting interrupted. Books don't have links, don't have flashing
animation, don't make any sound whatsoever. Third. Make a few simple games
first using said tools to get to know all the basic things like game-loop,
input/output, texturing, some physics etc. This may sound way to simple
considering all your wishful thoughts about teh game you really want to make,
but it's very important to make all these basic steps all by yourself. If you
get more advanced, you can start to skip more and more things and relay on the
work of others. Anyhow. Keep it as simple as possible at first. Build a Pong
game. 3D? Build Pong in 3D. Build another simple game with the code you did
before. Iterate a couple of times. And when you feel comfortable with the
process and confident thinking up your own solutions if needed, build some
more complex games.

I got started making Wildfire by doing the in-built GameMaker tutorials, then watching Shaun Spalding's tutorials on making a sidescrolling platformer: https://www.youtube.com/user/999Greyfox

I found this introduced stuff very slowly and clearly and was great to get a general understanding of just how games actually work on the programming side. I'd like to add I'd never programmed before so this method should work for total beginners if you stick with it.

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I'm going to start researching, studying and experimenting as per your advice as soon as I can!

 

[Undead Hero]

I started learning GML a couple years ago, and I found that the best way to get comfortable was to watch tutorials like Tom Francis' and write out the code alongside him. It gets you comfortable with actually writing code, even if it isn't your own, and after a while I'd find myself getting ahead of him and writing things out on my own.

 

[correojon]

Speaking of gifcam, if you get green boxes everywhere like I do sometimes, the solution is to go into "edit", right-click and make the "green-screen" color something other than green. Such a simple solution that I keep forgetting about that everyone should know.

Thanks, I´ve been having this problem for moths!

Got possibly an easy question for some of y'all. How would I go about incorporating a laser like the one in this pic:

I'm using Game Maker, btw.

What do you need help with? Drawing the laser or detecting the collisions? You could use collision_line() and use a for loop to make it longer progressively until it finds something. For drawing, you can use primitives and draw 2 triangles with pr_trianglestrip using the coordinates you found with collision function.

timetokill
"I call'em death hugs"

You loveable bear you!

Spoiler

(and agreed with what you said!)

And just to post a bit of news: I'm basically done with my big "to-do" list. All that's left are edits/fixes and changes/adds based on feedback from the demo

Spoiler

and steam integration, that's totally a small thing

. The game isn't "done done", but it's... well, it's basically done. And it sure feels a bit surreal.

To expand on that: I think I'll be exporting a complete test version next week/the week after, to finally test through the whole thing uninterrupted. Any takers? I need to stress that while the game will be complete, it's not a version intended to play through for fun: I'll be asking and looking for feedback - though if you're here, you probably know and understand all of that already! So if you're interested in helping me iron out the final release starting real soon... well, hit me up!

Count me in

I got started making Wildfire by doing the in-built GameMaker tutorials, then watching Shaun Spalding's tutorials on making a sidescrolling platformer: https://www.youtube.com/user/999Greyfox

I found this introduced stuff very slowly and clearly and was great to get a general understanding of just how games actually work on the programming side. I'd like to add I'd never programmed before so this method should work for total beginners if you stick with it.

You mean you didn´t know how to code before starting Wildfire? Wow, that´s really impressive considering all the interconnected systems you have in the game.

 

[gabbo]

Maya 2017. I was using 3DS Max 2017 on windows, but it was glitchy as fuck.

Makes me want to try my hand at modeling a person.

 

[LuffyZoro]

After I saw Pico-8 mentioned in that "Best purchases under $50" thread, I checked my Humble account and found I had it too. So, for the past week or so I've been working on stuff in it. First a little squash game recreated from the internet and then improved, and right now I'm working on a platformer. The limiting toolset can be frustrating, but it definitely helps me focus.

So.

Today I scrapped 80% of Paper Shakespeare 'cause it just was me trying to force gameplay. Trying to make a $4 idea a $10 idea.

So now it only has ONE character path (Hamlet).
The main scenes I already wrote are still in the game, just with the gameplay taken out. No dialogue choices for Othello, etc.

Because honestly, what would Kate's choices consist of? "Submit to my forced boyfriend" or "Choose to stay strong"? Taming of the Shew does not translate to an adventure game.

New full title is Paper Shakespeare: It's Hamlet (Again)!, to better go along with the theme of literature adaptations..

You might have already seen them, but check out "To Be or Not To Be" and "Romeo and/or Juliet" by Ryan North. They seem pretty similar to what you're trying to do.

 

[Pehesse]

Count me in

Sweet, thanks a lot :-D

 

[fengshuifever]

Anyone here with Unreal or C++ knowhow?

I've hit a snag and I've posted around to get a solution but still haven't figured it out yet ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[2+2=5]

I like the art style and it looks great imo. I don't like the shield being so perfectly straight though.

Thanks a lot!
Yeah the shield isn't final, it needs to be modified, it's one of those things you say you'll do later and never do lol, but i guess it's time!

As a thank you here the unfinished standing animation(the face goes left and right and no feet here too lol, actually it also lacks a short cape)