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

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liliththepale said:
Spine has a dozen different export formats. If your engine doesn't support the default JSON and atlas files, you can export a GIF of PNG strip or whatever.
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I may be overestimating the significance of my particular Photoshop animating quirks and nuances, but I always felt as though starting to add Spine produced units into the game would cause some some visual dissonance. I could be wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm probably wrong. Maybe I should do more Spine experiments.
 
Jobbs said:
I may be overestimating the significance of my particular Photoshop animating quirks and nuances, but I always felt as though starting to add Spine produced units into the game would cause some some visual dissonance. I could be wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm probably wrong. Maybe I should do more Spine experiments.
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Oh, I thought that might be what you were talking about. Just wanted to make sure.
 
LordRaptor said:
I don't know if its any replacement for dedicated software like Spriter or Spline, but when Unity released their 2D tools they did a talk on 2D skeletal animation and provided some 2D IK scripts to let you animate within the editor - obviously a major benefit of a dedicated tool is its probably functionally more useful and also doesn't tie you to one engine.
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I'll take a look for sure. I'm a little worried about feature parity (again, mesh warp is crucial) but if it's all there then it's probably worth using instead.
 
liliththepale said:
Oh it's a complete game changer. I love using it a lot. Like I'll often find excuses to use it instead of what would previously be programmatic or sprite animations. It saves so much time and it helps me make better animations. There are essentially no downsides from how I've animated in the past (usually photoshop like Jobbs and Orioto).

So a couple of things. When my previous partner and I first started using spine, other similar animation programs were not feature complete and missing things we needed a lot, especially mesh warp and individual bone scaling. I think this is no longer a problem, I just have no incentive to scout around. So in recommending Spine I'm not doing so to contrast against spriter or Puppet2D or whatever the competition is these days.

Other point. It works out of the box in GameMaker but you have to do a bit of finagling to get it to wor in Unity. To that end, if you go with it, I would learn to use it in GameMaker first so you can take baby steps. This is what I did (though that was because I didn't think I'd be changing engine) and I think it was helpful.
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Excellent, thanks for the insight! I'm going to start experimenting with it as I'm finishing up Super GunWorld 2, and I hope to be able to use it in my next game. If it works great in Game Maker I may stick around that engine for a bit, but Game Maker's lack of Nintendo platform support is really pushing me away from it.
 
Here are a few new gifs showing wallrun and ledge climb working together:

318yzA.gif


jRr0Xy.gif


Now I need to make different length reactions for different climb heights, which will eventually correspond to arm animations.

btw, let me say how excited I am to finally be participating in this thread after lurking for a very long time.
 
Getting to the point where I'm going to go need to go after some playtesters for balance. Problem is, since my game is local multi, that's always a difficult task for people to "just try", even if I ask nicely over the internet.

I guess I'll figure something out.
 
Timeaisis said:
Getting to the point where I'm going to go need to go after some playtesters for balance. Problem is, since my game is local multi, that's always a difficult task for people to "just try", even if I ask nicely over the internet.

I guess I'll figure something out.
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Have any local game shops around that do community gaming? There are lots of shops near me that sell either video games, comics, or tabletop games that also have become the host of local tournament scenes for Smash Bros, and another one that has regular fighting game tournaments. Any tabletop place that also regularly hosts Magic tournaments or DnD games, those types of places that encourage communal gathering and playing are a great place to ask.

If you have any shops remotely similar to that, ask the owners. There's always a crossover between different fandoms and that's how I've done the majority of my playtesting.
 
Timeaisis said:
Getting to the point where I'm going to go need to go after some playtesters for balance. Problem is, since my game is local multi, that's always a difficult task for people to "just try", even if I ask nicely over the internet.

I guess I'll figure something out.
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Have you mentally prepared yourself for the reactions and reviews when people ask for online multiplayer?

If you have, and you're dead set on local-only, then great. But I think most any local multiplayer dev needs to understand that frustrated reaction will happen.
 
Blizzard said:
Have you mentally prepared yourself for the reactions and reviews when people ask for online multiplayer?

If you have, and you're dead set on local-only, then great. But I think most any local multiplayer dev needs to understand that frustrated reaction will happen.
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Not only that, but you're going to have a hell of a time selling it and making any sort of profit. Not everyone catches lightning in a bottle like Towerfall. That game didn't succeed because it was local only, it just happened to do so despite it.

EDIT: Not saying that to be discouraging or imply sales are all that matters (because we all know there's a personal passion that matters a lot to us and our projects), but Blizzard's point is really strong. Make sure you're ready for the reaction to that. I have had a game that was demoing really really well in its prototype form rejected for release based entirely on the fact that online multiplayer wasn't in the budget, and it was being marketed as a multiplayer game.
 
superNESjoe said:
Have any local game shops around that do community gaming? There are lots of shops near me that sell either video games, comics, or tabletop games that also have become the host of local tournament scenes for Smash Bros, and another one that has regular fighting game tournaments. Any tabletop place that also regularly hosts Magic tournaments or DnD games, those types of places that encourage communal gathering and playing are a great place to ask.

If you have any shops remotely similar to that, ask the owners. There's always a crossover between different fandoms and that's how I've done the majority of my playtesting.
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Yup, there are plenty. I just need an in. I've done it casually before, so maybe time time to go official and actually ask shops or venues. There's a few local multi meetups I'm thinking of trying, although I always feel like a shill if I'm like "hey, play my game!". Thanks for the advice.

Blizzard said:
Have you mentally prepared yourself for the reactions and reviews when people ask for online multiplayer?

If you have, and you're dead set on local-only, then great. But I think most any local multiplayer dev needs to understand that frustrated reaction will happen.
Click to expand...

I'm not dead-set on local only. I've actually done online multiplayer in the past with mixed results (the prototype was fully functional, but the game was later scrapped). So it's something I'm capable of doing. Issues is, the game is so twitchy and timing-based that I fear any online would completely dilute the experience to essentially blind luck. Maybe it's something I'll experiment with if I get any traction.

superNESjoe said:
Not only that, but you're going to have a hell of a time selling it and making any sort of profit. Not everyone catches lightning in a bottle like Towerfall. That game didn't succeed because it was local only, it just happened to do so despite it.

EDIT: Not saying that to be discouraging or imply sales are all that matters (because we all know there's a personal passion that matters a lot to us and our projects), but Blizzard's point is really strong. Make sure you're ready for the reaction to that. I have had a game that was demoing really really well in its prototype form rejected for release based entirely on the fact that online multiplayer wasn't in the budget, and it was being marketed as a multiplayer game.
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Eh, I'm not expecting it to go gangbusters or anything. It's been a side project of mine is all, and I want to get some exposure. I care more about releasing it to some people that will enjoy it than making a significant profit. Of course, if that comes, woo.
 
Timeaisis said:
Eh, I'm not expecting it to go gangbusters or anything. It's been a side project of mine is all, and I want to get some exposure. I care more about releasing it to some people that will enjoy it than making a significant profit. Of course, if that comes, woo.
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Hey, I totally get that. I don't think there's a single one of us here that are to the point where we're making a living who didn't start off with that mindset.

I'm still thrilled that some people are really enjoying some of my games even if they didn't sell well.
 
timetokill said:
I think your friend is crazy tbh.
You'll burn out just trying to accomplish simple things in Unity until you understand the fundamentals of programming. With Construct2 or GameMaker, programming is mostly "optional", and you can dig into it a bit as you go along and want to add advanced features.

Unity basically requires it from Day 1 unless you buy something like PlayMaker... which basically just makes it act more like one of the aforementioned things. It won't teach you great practices.

I'd really suggest playing with Construct2 or something for a week and making something small with that (maybe a breaking bricks game or a very simple platformer), and seeing how long that takes you. Because doing it in Unity with no programming experience will take you MUCH longer.
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Thanks a lot for the info. I may pursue tinkering with Game Maker as when I started the tutorials and courses it seemed to me that it was much simpler than Unity. Will look into Construct as well. Thanks so much!
 
Blizzard said:
From the other thread, UE4 version 13 is out:

https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/unreal-engine-4-13-released

If I ever do a 3D game, I really want to try out UE4. I like the visual patchnote examples, and the shadowmap caching for dynamic lights is a super clever idea. I wonder if other engines have tried that.


I'd probably never use the feature, but spraypainting forests in VR editor mode just looks cool.
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Funny, I've installed the three latest versions of UE4 and haven't gotten the time to try either of them out, and here's a new version xD Have find the time for this :/
 
So, my partner and I are doing our best to keep all the work on our game between just the two of us until we can create some sort of crowdfunding page and as a result I'm having to write music for our demo stage. I've only written stuff as a hobby before, so would love to hear any feedback on the rough track I'm working with. The chorus definitely needs some work, but any opinions would be great and maybe even pointing me in the direction of some video game music that's similar for inspiration. It just loops at the 2 min mark:

https://soundcloud.com/user-464243136/stormy-clocktower

And feel free to be as honest as possible; I'd rather hear it now than later. Thanks!

(The game is a Mega Man/Shovel Knight-esque action platformer)
 
I'm getting a Megaman x Donkey Kong Country vibe from this. I like it a lot.

I guess my one criticism could be that you go from verse -> chorus -> alternate verse -> alt chorus kind of deal, adding different stuff and altering the base slightly as you go until you finally loop again, which is cool but maybe unnecessary? You could loop it even earlier, really. Just my two cents, though. Again, I really like it.
 
Timeaisis said:
I'm getting a Megaman x Donkey Kong Country vibe from this. I like it a lot.

I guess my one criticism could be that you go from verse -> chorus -> alternate verse -> alt chorus kind of deal, adding different stuff and altering the base slightly as you go until you finally loop again, which is cool but maybe unnecessary? You could loop it even earlier, really. Just my two cents, though. Again, I really like it.
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Thanks man! David Wise is my favorite video game composer, so that means a lot.

Not bad advice. I definitely have a tendency to over complicate stuff sometimes in the pursuit of making some more, for lack of a better word, sophisticated, so there's probably some truth to that. Thanks for the feedback!
 
Oh man... The dynamic mesh slicing in UE4.13 excites me greatly

Probably won't ever use it for much but it sounds super fun to play with.

Wonder if you can make it slice skeletal meshes... Be able to use it for cutting off limbs and such would be amazing
 
Blizzard said:
Have you mentally prepared yourself for the reactions and reviews when people ask for online multiplayer?

If you have, and you're dead set on local-only, then great. But I think most any local multiplayer dev needs to understand that frustrated reaction will happen.
Click to expand...

The worst part is that few people actually understand just how hard it is to actually implement good, stable netcode for most games. Like, there's nothing to compare among an online Tetris or Mario Kart compared to a Counter Strike, Street Fighter or Smash Bros, but of course players will often mistakenly group them together when asking for online features in a game.

I, for one, don't think I'm still at a level where I could be reliably implementing online gameplay for anything that requires frame-perfect synchronization or intensive use of techniques such as lag compensation.
 
The end of an era -- I got a Dropbox email saying that they will no longer render HTML pages past October. I'll finally have to find another hosting site if I participate in Ludum Dare again.


JulianImp said:
The worst part is that few people actually understand just how hard it is to actually implement good, stable netcode for most games. Like, there's nothing to compare among an online Tetris or Mario Kart compared to a Counter Strike, Street Fighter or Smash Bros, but of course players will often mistakenly group them together when asking for online features in a game.

I, for one, don't think I'm still at a level where I could be reliably implementing online gameplay for anything that requires frame-perfect synchronization or intensive use of techniques such as lag compensation.
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And of course, even if you have the world's greatest netcode, some people will still blame the netcode when the actual fault lies with the network connections of the players involved, their ISPs, their routing, their ping, etc.
 
Blizzard said:
I'll finally have to find another hosting site if I participate in Ludum Dare again.
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I used itch.io for the first time this last LD, and couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Kicking myself for never actually doing more than signing up an account earlier tbh.
 
LordRaptor said:
I used itch.io for the first time this last LD, and couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Kicking myself for never actually doing more than signing up an account earlier tbh.
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It just feels weird and icky to me since that site is used to sell games, like I'm using a Ludum Dare game for advertising.
 
Blizzard said:
It just feels weird and icky to me since that site is used to sell games, like I'm using a Ludum Dare game for advertising.
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You can explicitly turn any possible means of monetisation off in your upload on itch.io - its GameJolt that's the vaguely scummy one, and I mutter to myself when I see someones put their LD entry there and the "wait for this ad before continuing to GameJolt" appears.
 
Pehesse said:

Bandicam!
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To second this, Bandicam is amazing. I used Fraps for video capture for years and was never totally happy with it. Tried Bandicam on a whim once and the difference was night and day. In addition to high-quality video footage, I also use a preset with uncompressed RGB24 video at 15fps that works great for converting to GIF in VirtualDub or other video-to-gif software.
 
LordRaptor said:
I used itch.io for the first time this last LD, and couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Kicking myself for never actually doing more than signing up an account earlier tbh.
Click to expand...

Blizzard said:
It just feels weird and icky to me since that site is used to sell games, like I'm using a Ludum Dare game for advertising.
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Same as LordRaptor - itch.io has been a fantastic experience and I'm really wondering why I never bothered to give them a real chance before. I'm pretty sure I tried them years back, which left me a poor impression, but they've certainly grown since, and they're my number one target platform now, even before steam itself. Wish it had more recognition!

Diablohead said:
Feels like it's been too long since I entered this thread, been busy.

trees.

jmOhHxn.gif
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Man, this looks real good!
And now the trees are behaving properly, too! :-D
 
Making a horror game has been a dream of mine for quite some time. Playing a haunted house game with the og Rift is something I'll never forget, it seems (though the name escapes me :lol). But I'm kinda struggling with finding a gameplay mechanic that brings depth to the concept :/ Alan Wake's flashlight and Luigi's vacuum have already been done obviously. I wonder if doing a genre mashup would work? Kinda how rpg elements are everywhere these days. I'm just thinking out loud here, but still.
 
Feep said:
All this secretive nonsense is no fun. I wanna share stuff with you guys...

Really cool stuff on this last page!

At least I'm finally getting reasonably proficient in UE4, though.
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Similar feeling here. I'm doing some stuff on my side with UE4, though right now it's just a personal project thing... I wish I could show it here, but it might take a while to get something out there and I don't want that gap to feel long for anyone.

I might start some development blog sometime for myself and give the link to whoever is interested tho.
 
Mik2121 said:
Similar feeling here. I'm doing some stuff on my side with UE4, though right now it's just a personal project thing... I wish I could show it here, but it might take a while to get something out there and I don't want that gap to feel long for anyone.

I might start some development blog sometime for myself and give the link to whoever is interested tho.
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I'd definitely check that out. I love any kind of developer log.
 
mStudios said:
It's an adventure game, with some VN elements here and there.

Question: Do you need any license to make a sport game?
I wanted to make a basic Tennis game, but I do not know if sports are "public domain" or not.
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I believe you don't need license unless you include real team/players in your game.
 
mStudios said:
It's an adventure game, with some VN elements here and there.

Question: Do you need any license to make a sport game?
I wanted to make a basic Tennis game, but I do not know if sports are "public domain" or not.
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Very cool, definitely want to see more about this.

And, yeah, unless you're including real teams or leagues, you should be fine.
 
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