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[marvelharvey]

How do you guys go about hiring game designers?

For finding a programmer and artist, GAF has been a great source, but game designers have remained elusive. I tried Upwork and IndieTeamUp, but have yet to find a suitable candidate. I was quite surprised by Upwork, the job listing was for a PS4 RTS title, but the majority of those who contacted me only had crosswords/match three/Flappy Bird style game design experience. On the other hand, the people I spoke to on IndieTeamUp were perfectly skilled, but were already busy with their own projects.

 

[Professor Chaos]

Hey Indie Game Dev GAF. I've been lurking here for a while and I've been really impressed by what I've been seeing.

I'm an aspiring sound designer and I am looking for some more material to add to my demo reel. So I was wondering if any of you guys have some gameplay clips that I could do the sound for and use in my reel?

Clips under 1min would be ideal and I'd be really grateful for anything you send my way.

 

[Pehesse]

Here's a random questions for y'all:

When naming achievements (or the likes), do you think it's possible to reference actual existing names, for example titles of movies/songs/names of people? Specifically: is it possible to name an achievement after a song, or is that a legal issue?

 

[HandsomeCharles]

Here's a random questions for y'all:

When naming achievements (or the likes), do you think it's possible to reference actual existing names, for example titles of movies/songs/names of people? Specifically: is it possible to name an achievement after a song, or is that a legal issue?

Legally speaking, you're always better staying as far away from existing works as possible. That said, whilst I can't think of any off the top of my head right now, I'm sure that many games do this all the time. I mean, there must be an achievement out there somewhere called "Welcome to the Jungle"

(After a wee google, seems that particular example is the name of a Level in Starcraft 2. I'd say you're probably going to be safe )

 

[Pehesse]

Legally speaking, you're always better staying as far away from existing works as possible. That said, whilst I can't think of any off the top of my head right now, I'm sure that many games do this all the time. I mean, there must be an achievement out there somewhere called "Welcome to the Jungle"

(After a wee google, seems that particular example is the name of a Level in Starcraft 2. I'd say you're probably going to be safe )

Thanks! Though, I agree, staying far away from possible trouble would be best... Thought it'd make for some funny/interesting reading, but it might not be worth the potential trouble - even if said potential is low :-D

 

[MrHoot]

Finished the first pass of my idle for my 2d character action game, pretty happy with it !

 

[Jobbs]

Finished the first pass of my idle for my 2d character action game, pretty happy with it !

looks cool! you using spine?

my only crit is the hand further back (his left hand) is looks a bit loose/detached. The anal side of me wants to tighten that up, but I suppose it's not a big deal! nice work the sword looks amazing!

 

[MrHoot]

looks cool! you using spine?

my only crit is the hand further back (his left hand) is looks a bit loose/detached. The anal side of me wants to tighten that up, but I suppose it's not a big deal! nice work the sword looks amazing!

Yep, using spine, but also will be drawing looot's of different parts i'm inspired a lot by vanillaware for this particular project.

And yeah I know about the hand but I'm kinda basing myself a bit on jojo for proportions and poses so i thought it was fun to exagerate a bit but I might try to make it wobble less

 

[mStudios]

Full 3D? You're out to remake ZTD now, aren't you? :-D On a more serious note: is there going to be direct character control? So less VN, and more adventure with narration through text or something? Getting some earlier Resident Evil vibes from your camera angles, I think you might even have the right atmosphere for some survival-like elements!

Trials will be fully 3D, some of them have a RE-like control schemes. While others Trials will have ove-the-shoulder camera.

Camera test and textured room (provisional textures)

 

[RelaxedOtter]

Thanks! Though, I agree, staying far away from possible trouble would be best... Thought it'd make for some funny/interesting reading, but it might not be worth the potential trouble - even if said potential is low :-D

A lot of games use puns or references related to movies, books etc. Hell I named an achievement in Syndicate "Hurt Locker" for defusing grenades and no one blinked an eye.

 

[hampig]

Trials will be fully 3D, some of them have a RE-like control schemes. While others over the shoulder camera.

Camera test and textured room (provisional textures)

Looks great! I love that sort of PS1 feel it's giving off.

 

[Makai]

Hey Indie Game Dev GAF. I've been lurking here for a while and I've been really impressed by what I've been seeing.

I'm an aspiring sound designer and I am looking for some more material to add to my demo reel. So I was wondering if any of you guys have some gameplay clips that I could do the sound for and use in my reel?

Clips under 1min would be ideal and I'd be really grateful for anything you send my way.

Best I got

 

[Jobbs]

Yep, using spine, but also will be drawing looot's of different parts i'm inspired a lot by vanillaware for this particular project.

And yeah I know about the hand but I'm kinda basing myself a bit on jojo for proportions and poses so i thought it was fun to exagerate a bit but I might try to make it wobble less

I haven't gotten much into Spine yet (I have a license but just haven't really messed with it yet because my current project isn't using it) but what'd you do to get the lightning changes on the sword?

 

[MrHoot]

I haven't gotten much into Spine yet (I have a license but just haven't really messed with it yet because my current project isn't using it) but what'd you do to get the lightning changes on the sword?

You can change the colour/darken/transparency of the slot in the timeline. Simply select the slot and key the changes accordingly

 

[correojon]

Finished the first pass of my idle for my 2d character action game, pretty happy with it !

The sword´s animation is really well done, it almost seems 3D. Great job!

 

[JackelZXA]

First of 3 slashes for Ashe's basic combo slash in my game, Pioneer One, done! (Still need to fix some things next time i sit down..)

Here's the wip of all 3 slashes for comparison:

(meant to work on this sooner...but I got sidetracked by...replaying MGSV again...)

 

[Professor Chaos]

Best I got

Thanks. The link is broken for me, but I'm on mobile at the moment so I'll check it out after I finish work.

 

[MrHoot]

The run, not 100% convinced yet but it's a nice first pass. I'll have to see it in game once i start prototyping tomorrow. Also we'll need a start up and a slow down animation

EDIT: Actually immediately done a second pass which looks better

 

[TheKroge]

New shield system which operates on a weapon firing frequency. Your shield will actually resonate at the same frequency as your weapons so they can pass through, but if your enemy discovers it and matches it, they will blast through and hit you!

 

[Makai]

Thanks. The link is broken for me, but I'm on mobile at the moment so I'll check it out after I finish work.

Whoops

 

[Makai]

The theme better be Inconvenient Superpowers

 

[Blizzard]

The theme better be Inconvenient Superpowers

That theme shows up every time (it feels like) and I downvote it so hard. I don't like playtesting 50 games with irritating controls.

It's kind of silly that they reveal themes 1 day at a time though. People start dreaming up ideas from the very first day, the last days get voted down harder, and everyone basically has an illegal headstart. At least there aren't ratings this time so maybe people will be less competitive.

 

[LordRaptor]

I'd... actually sort of prefer if after the theme culling whatever the actual theme is going to be was entirely randomly picked from the list.
Bam, there's your theme, roll with it.

 

[Dlink16]

Finished the first pass of my idle for my 2d character action game, pretty happy with it !

Really cool stuff. Just downloaded Spine yesterday actually. How you finding the workflow speed?

 

[MrHoot]

Really cool stuff. Just downloaded Spine yesterday actually. How you finding the workflow speed?

It's honestly a life saver. Spine is really fast to get a hold of, although the most optimal way to use is really to understand how meshes, weights and organisation stuff works so that you have a nice work flow for all your future skeletons. But honestly, I love it

 

[liliththepale]

I'll echo that. Spine workflow speed is astounding, and it's pretty easy to learn especially if you've ever done a little bit of 3D animation or even just watched vids of other devs do 3D animation. It's all the same principles, only way easier because it's flat.

Obviously this brings the difficulty of figuring out how to animate something that looks like it's coming into or away from the screen, but it's not an impossible thing to learn and everything else is a breeze.

 

[LuffyZoro]

I've kept playing around with Pico-8, and my main problem right now is that building a robust collision system that isn't just a mass of special cases is a nightmare.

 

[Dlink16]

It's honestly a life saver. Spine is really fast to get a hold of, although the most optimal way to use is really to understand how meshes, weights and organisation stuff works so that you have a nice work flow for all your future skeletons. But honestly, I love it

Glad to hear. I've never animated before so to have something that isn't too intense to learn is ideal. I only picked up the essential version now to try out, but plan on getting the pro once I tackle the basic features.

 

[Makai]

No ratings for Ludum Dare noooooooo

 

[Makai]

Nice theme

 

[LordRaptor]

Ancient technology... okey dokey.

No ratings for Ludum Dare noooooooo

Its got bigger and people are completely missing the spirit of the thing... tricky situation to resolve. As soon as you have a system some dick is going to try and game it eventually.

 

[Jobbs]

boring theme. passsssssss

 

[Makai]

boring theme. passsssssss

Cmonnnn. Do itttt

 

[KOCMOHABT]

so I finally thought about fixing the colors and adding a good environment map grading.

Here is what I came up with first

I then noticed, that, again, I had F.Lux turned on, which was a bit silly.

I turned it off and suddenly everything looks gray. So I went with more gamma correction.

BONUS

Swarm rocket prototype. Because who doesn't love some good ole' swarm rockets. Yes, I will change the chroma distortion, it's not really balanced for so many explosions at a time.

 

[Blizzard]

boring theme. passsssssss

There really are a lot of options, but I think people are being uncreative. Even in the discussion thread people don't seem willing to think about it.

Current computers would be ancient technology in the future.
Board/card games are ancient compared to electronics.
Steampunk is sort of ancient.
There's tech trees, tomb exploring, caveman tech, alien tech, studio Ghibli stuff, etc.

Lots of genres can be done with those too.

 

[Makai]

That's why you gotta play up the lost technology trope. I know exactly what I'm doing.

 

[Thom Yorke's Wobbly Eye]

Finally got Vive support working in Stage Presence's multiplayer.The gifs didn't come out great so click them to watch the original videos.

In Stage Presence's multiplayer, you become a member of the crowd in another player's game.


Where you can do mean things like throw bottles of piss at the player on stage.


Or shine a laserpen in the other player's eyes

 

[orioto]

It's been a while

Old jumping anim

New one

The jump is meant to be higher than that obviously, thus the longer fall.
Thx correojon for the feedback!

 

[Minamu]

The theme is "lost technology"? Site is blocked at work (goddamn 32 work hour friday through sunday...)

Edit: Not sure if I've posted my latest pictures in here. Holy Sheep is moving along slowly but steadily; being three guys with full-time jobs is a pain in the ass for getting somewhere fast :/

http://imgur.com/a/YRdFa

Here are some stylized pictures of the latest maps and our current menus. We're still having a lot of fun while play testing, and we're still trying to figure out online multiplayer and the balancing of abilities. We've made our Warper move faster and longer distances, and we're gonna try to add a portable shield to our Techie. Seems like a great addition for making the class more viable.

We've finally managed to get the camera collision working fairly okay, I have no idea why it took so damn long, seems like the most basic of things to get done first in a third person game...

 

[bsp]

Decided to try out Lexie Dostal's (Hitbox programmer) volumetric lighting plugin for Unity. I set up a quick test room and it's really good. Not pictured is the noise that drifts through the volumetric cones to simulate air motion (no longer need to fake it with billboards or something).

Excited to get more familiar with it over the next couple weeks as we work on this mini-project.

 

[Minamu]

Decided to try out Lexie Dostal's (Hitbox programmer) volumetric lighting plugin for Unity. I set up a quick test room and it's really good. Not pictured is the noise that drifts through the volumetric cones to simulate air motion (no longer need to fake it with billboards or something).

Excited to get more familiar with it over the next couple weeks as we work on this mini-project.

Can't see your pictures at work but those videos in the link are awesome :O Just what I want haha.

 

[Blizzard]

The theme is "lost technology"? Site is blocked at work (goddamn 32 work hour friday through sunday...)

Close, "Ancient Technology". Some sort of technology, some sort of relation to time, that's it.

 

[Makai]

Sheep is an ancient technology

 

[Ontoue]

is 16k polys (quads) too high for a character model? Real time rendering is a bit of a new magic to me

 

[Makai]

is 16k polys (quads) too high for a character model? Real time rendering is a bit of a new magic to me

No

 

[MrHoot]

I really should get back to 3D once i'm done with my projects, feel like I could do so much more too

 

[HandsomeCharles]

is 16k polys (quads) too high for a character model? Real time rendering is a bit of a new magic to me

Depends on what platform and specifications you're targeting. I'd say (IMO) that it's probably OK if you're targeting mid-range PC's or consoles. Certainly not suitable for mobile though.

For reference, a rough approximation of the Triangle counts for the character models in Overwatch is 30-56k per character. I guess that puts yours in the same kinda range.

Can we see it?

 

[mStudios]

When doing 3D (for example, designing a room) do you have a material for each different object (for texturing purpose)? or you just throw everything on the same UV?

 

[LordRaptor]

When doing 3D (for example, designing a room) do you have a material for each different object (for texturing purpose)? or you just throw everything on the same UV?

Like most things its a trade off - materials are 'supposed' to represent, well, actual materials, so multiple materials per model aren't uncommon, especially with PBR because the refractive properties of, say, cloth are vastly different to say, armour.

Each material is usually its own drawcall though (this is definitely true in Unity) and requires additional VRAM, so to stay performant you want to use as few textures / materials as possible.

 

[LuffyZoro]

I like it well enough so far. I'm thinking of it a little bit like chess.