mostly good, a couple sounds I didn't like as much... like the one where she kinda goes "yeahhh!" sounds out of place to me.
that's just knitpicking though. great work!
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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay
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mostly good, a couple sounds I didn't like as much... like the one where she kinda goes "yeahhh!" sounds out of place to me.
that's just knitpicking though. great work!
Ah, I see. Indeed, it becomes so dragging later on. Arrgh!
Oh, thanks, but I agree! Not all voiceclips are final, and I intend to retake/redo some of them later on - in fact, I'd be interested to know the timestamps of the ones you feel are out of place, see if we have the same feeling overall (for instance, the ones before the slides are the ones I notice the most, but maybe there are others!)
Still, overall, for a first attempt, it's been a fantastic experience, especially considering I had never done something like this before (and it's a bit weird directing someone through text only, might need to move on to voice chat at some point for some of the finer details!) - and all the credit goes to the voice actress, Sandra Espinoza!
Those last 10%...! Though I still have a way to go before I reach them, I'm more at the starting 10 for now :-D
SouSouRocket
Member
You should try skype or whatever preferred app for your next session! Can't beat real-time instant feedback.
I'm getting ready to do some VO sfuff for my game and we'll be recording via Skype for some out of town folks for sure. Girl sounds great, tho I do agree that yeah is a tad shaky.
You should try skype or whatever preferred app for your next session! Can't beat real-time instant feedback.
Girl sounds great, tho I do agree that yeah is a tad shaky.
Haha, yeah, thinking back, it was probably dumb of me not to go direct chat directly for directing - let's chalk that up to inexperience :-D Good luck with your own VO work!
(for the "yeah!" before the slides, there are actually a few different ones with some much better than others, but I didn't have good luck with the random draws in the video - that's the game, though, and it shows some of them need more work than others!)
sure, I'll do that later when I get the chance to listen over it again.
Just incidentally, I've cast and recorded about ten actors for my game. Most were directed live, but in a couple instances it was done non-live for convenience sake. The overall timeline might be a bit longer, but it's easier on scheduling. We bounced back and forth a few times, got several takes per line, and cobbled something together.
Live sessions can be fun and rewarding but also pretty exhausting.
Not sure if it will work but my first idea would be to try ClipCursor.
Since a long time ago I've been checking this topic everyday, it's really nice to see people improve and how games evolve from its first prototype to a fully fledged game. So guess my surprise when i open Gamasutra today and i find T H I S!!! I'm really glad for you Pehesse!! Get all that well deserved exposure man : )
I'll definitely have to try live-directing for the next time, at least to some extent for detailing some of the retakes, though I can imagine how it'd get exhausting fast :-D Since I wasn't in a rush this time, we worked off a spreadsheet where I described the kind of sounds I was hoping for alongside each animation, and sent each individual anim as reference material.
Oh wow, thanks *a lot*!
I often get worried I'm spamming the thread, but I'm glad to hear it's of interest to some at least :-D
The article on Gamasutra came completely out of left field! I saw it this morning and I'm super thankful to Joel Couture for it! He's been super supportive of the project for a long while, and I heartily recommend getting in touch with him to talk about your games.
I'm indeed hoping the article'll lead to some increased exposure for Honey and in turn Pacha - I have kind of made my peace that it most likely won't turn into any significant short term revenue (not even the current steam sale looks to have any kind of effect), but I'm hoping it'll at least build awareness, and eventually help grow support when it's time to crowdfund Pacha (or at least, for a punctual "big crowdfunding campaign" thing - Patreon's crowdfunding also, but it's a tougher sell).
On that note, there was a conference on Gamasutra relinked just yesterday about "surviving as an indie for 10 years without shipping a hit", I recommend giving it a watch also! Some words of wisdom to be found there :-D
EDIT: found the link! http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...e_dev_for_10_years_without_shipping_a_hit.php
Ooo, thanks!
I did a quick listen and here are examples of ones I didn't quite like as much.
0:09 huh
0:17 sheyaw
0:21 yeah!
0:32 haw
"yeah!" is the only one I'd consider really out of place, though, the others are kind of knit picky.
Solved my problem, partially. Thx!
I just wanted to code a quick code fragment to be able to continuously aim
with the mouse using plain Windows SDK. What I do is the following; if the
mouse/cursor is about to leave the window, I will reset it to the middle of
the window and go from there. However, the problem is that the cursor may move
quite fast with the code not able to catch the cursor in time with the cursor
then leaving the window. To prevent this I used a much tighter guard band.
If the cursor enters this band it gets a reset using SetCursorPos, which will
then send a WM_MOUSEMOVE message again. Increasing the guard band results in
much more SetCursorPos calls sending WM_MOUSEMOVE messages much more
frequently making the rotation of the world judder for a split second each
time.
Code:
case WM_MOUSEMOVE :
...
int guard_band = 50;
if(mouse_pos.x < guard_band
|| mouse_pos.y < guard_band
|| mouse_pos.x > (window_width - guard_band)
|| mouse_pos.y > (window_height - guard_band))
{
mouse_pos_old.x = window_width/2;
mouse_pos_old.y = window_height/2;
mouse_pos = mouse_pos_old;
ClientToScreen(hwnd, &mouse_pos);
SetCursorPos(mouse_pos.x, mouse_pos.y);
break;
}
...
// compute camera aim
...
break;ClipCursor helped to remove the guard band, because it brings the cursor to a
dead stop at the client's rectangle's extremes in an instant;
Code:
case WM_MOUSEMOVE :
...
if(mouse_pos.x == 0
|| mouse_pos.y == 0
|| mouse_pos.x == window_width-1
|| mouse_pos.y == window_height-1)
{
mouse_pos_old.x = window_width/2;
mouse_pos_old.y = window_height/2;
mouse_pos = mouse_pos_old;
ClientToScreen(hwnd, &mouse_pos);
SetCursorPos(mouse_pos.x, mouse_pos.y);
break;
}
...
// compute camera aim
...
break;This code fragment will be called much less frequently, yet still needs to
call SetCursorPos.
Noted, thanks a lot!!
Don't worry ^^ my knowledge of artist things is so limited that i dare not comment on your awesome gifs, and i'm really sure you will indeed get a bunch of exposure from that article, you won't get rich or suddenly get a bunch of revenue but you will be on the radar of many people and that is good :'D
I sincerely hope you're right, and I'm humbled that you're saying and thinking so either way :-D Thanks a lot!
In fact, here, as a token of appreciation: a preview of what I'm getting ready for tomorrow's Screenshot Saturday!
Thanks for the input, we finally decided and the right one was the winner!
In the meantime I worked on one of our terrain materials . It can now blend between quite a few materials, has distance based tessellation procedural puddles that can be added on top. They conform to the underlying textures and have a few controls for depth, color and edge wetness.
Quite happy with the result:
Same scene without puddles:
Im getting a weird x3004 compile error every now and then tho, its not permanent and doesnt prevent the material from working but id really like to know what causes it. Anyone experienced something like this before?
The material takes forever to compile so searching for the problem is giving me a headache...
superNESjoe
Member
Been busy getting this ready for cert on PS4, but here's the trailer for Super GunWorld 2. I took a lot of the feedback from the vanilla version of GunWorld 2 and used it to improve the difficulty balance and some of the criticism regarding the flow of the game and keeping objectives clear.
There's some new content, new features, a new playable character, and about 70% of the game's artwork has been redone to look better. I figured since I was bringing the game from Xbox One over to PlayStation 4, it was a good excuse to give it a spitshine for that rare second first-impression.
There's some new content, new features, a new playable character, and about 70% of the game's artwork has been redone to look better. I figured since I was bringing the game from Xbox One over to PlayStation 4, it was a good excuse to give it a spitshine for that rare second first-impression.
Fancy death thingie. Not quite final/a a bit fast (i also want him to cover in roots after he kneels but that'll come in a bit)
I feel a bit bad this week. I was low energy, had to nap so much and I wanted to do so much more. NExt week i'm planning a new youtube vid just to show off all the move list
TheHollowNight
Member
this gif got a stupid amount of attention today on Twitter, so I might as well also share it here!
we've been almost entirely focused on polishing the combat for the last month, redesigning enemy attack patterns, abilities, animations, a whole new 'stun' system for you to interrupt certain attacks with windups...pretty much everything has been revamped as we head towards the new year!
we've been almost entirely focused on polishing the combat for the last month, redesigning enemy attack patterns, abilities, animations, a whole new 'stun' system for you to interrupt certain attacks with windups...pretty much everything has been revamped as we head towards the new year!
I can see why it got so much attention, looks really cool! Combat looks really fast and fluid.
Fancy death thingie. Not quite final/a a bit fast (i also want him to cover in roots after he kneels but that'll come in a bit)
I feel a bit bad this week. I was low energy, had to nap so much and I wanted to do so much more. NExt week i'm planning a new youtube vid just to show off all the move list
I know what you mean by having low energy for dev. It's definitely a grind. Trust me. Been working on the same game for years and some days it's just blehhhh
For the death animation, that one lacks impact/shock IMO. I spent so much time trying to figure out a death animation for my game that would work (and not spoil anything too much since the nature of the main character is a mystery). Ultimately I took away something from The Last of Us, of all things -- Something violent and sudden happens, and then the came cuts to black so you don't have a lot of time to soak it in. It works really well to make the death feel like it mattered.
If you just want to go basic, you could just have him fall down, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I just think taking a knee lacks finality or impact.
Fancy death thingie. Not quite final/a a bit fast (i also want him to cover in roots after he kneels but that'll come in a bit)
I feel a bit bad this week. I was low energy, had to nap so much and I wanted to do so much more. NExt week i'm planning a new youtube vid just to show off all the move list
Low energy sounds about right! We're supposedly getting near the end of the year but there's still a few weeks to go, feels like an eternity.
I'm also running on fumes, but I try to make progress everyday no matter what (with exceptions sometimes on Sundays) - constancy is what feels most important inthe long run
(funnily, I think I heard that one somewhere else!).
I kind of second Jobbs' comments in regards to the death anim, but I also think it looks nice as it is - a bit stoic, but if that's what you're going for, it can work! Maybe with the roots growing out, as you said, it'd add a touch of finality? What mostly feels "off" to me is that I see the animation starting after he recovers on the ground, rather than directly after the enemy impact.
I won't crosspost everything I posted about for gifturday on twitter (if you want to see it all, it's here: https://twitter.com/lavantdapres/status/802433842405666816), but since we're talking death anims, here!
...and some kicking action for good measure because I'm so glad I got it working:
NAh I definitively agree with you and Jobbs. I want to keep him rather stoic (since it's his character) but he could definitively use more impact. The "hit chaining into death" for starters is unintended and will be fixed when I port it to the final engine to just go into his death animation straight away. I have a rather idea of how I might do this but since it's really purely art and i'm late on some mechanics I will postpone it later ^^; but thanks for the feedback guys ! Kinda confirms what worried me in the first place anyway
TheGuardian
Member
So this isn't exactly related to a game, but it's still related to indie development, and affects games in the same way.
I've had an app in the iOS App Store for like a month now, and for several reasons I've made it in Metal only. Because of that it only runs on A7 devices or newer. The problem is that the App Store only tells users that in tiny text at the bottom of the product page (that no one reads) and still lets you buy it even if your device isn't supported
So I've tried putting a massive warning at the top of the app description, but even then I'm getting lots of people buying it and then leaving nasty 1 star reviews because the app doesn't run. It's extremely frustrating especially since the other reviews have been very positive and it's dragging my average rating down.
The question is: how do you guys deal with this? Has anyone had the same issue before?
I've had an app in the iOS App Store for like a month now, and for several reasons I've made it in Metal only. Because of that it only runs on A7 devices or newer. The problem is that the App Store only tells users that in tiny text at the bottom of the product page (that no one reads) and still lets you buy it even if your device isn't supported
So I've tried putting a massive warning at the top of the app description, but even then I'm getting lots of people buying it and then leaving nasty 1 star reviews because the app doesn't run. It's extremely frustrating especially since the other reviews have been very positive and it's dragging my average rating down.
The question is: how do you guys deal with this? Has anyone had the same issue before?
So this isn't exactly related to a game, but it's still related to indie development, and affects games in the same way.
I've had an app in the iOS App Store for like a month now, and for several reasons I've made it in Metal only. Because of that it only runs on A7 devices or newer. The problem is that the App Store only tells users that in tiny text at the bottom of the product page (that no one reads) and still lets you buy it even if your device isn't supported
So I've tried putting a massive warning at the top of the app description, but even then I'm getting lots of people buying it and then leaving nasty 1 star reviews because the app doesn't run. It's extremely frustrating especially since the other reviews have been very positive and it's dragging my average rating down.
The question is: how do you guys deal with this? Has anyone had the same issue before?
I'd expect most everyone who dealt with their audience encountered that same issue, to some extent. Most don't like to read or intake information, and then blame the developers. I don't think anyone has any concrete solution to this, else it'd have been widely applied by now, since the phenomenon is so widespread... For what it's worth, I'm sorry you have to go through it, and I sympathize *very much* :-/
TheGuardian
Member
It is heartbreaking when you put so much effort into something to have someone write a review saying "doesn't run, don't buy it" when you know it's their fault (or Apple's fault, they should at least show a pop up warning when you try to buy it).
I'm using Fabric to get metrics and crash reports (highly recommended btw), and I all the fatal crashes are always in old devices.
I'm using Fabric to get metrics and crash reports (highly recommended btw), and I all the fatal crashes are always in old devices.
Blame who ever you want. The reality is that you have to take care of it
yourself -- no matter what. It's just an issue slipped through your testing.
(You've built a game using new libs without even testing how it behaves on
some older devices, really?) Fix it to the best of your knowledge and move on,
I would say.
Wok
Member
I don't know if it is of any interest for some of you, but I thought this might be the place to post that link. So I was at IndieCade Europe this year, and there was a talk by Pietro Righi Riva (Santa Ragione), and he explained his (controversial, in my opinion) manifesto for making games for non-gamers. It is called REJECTA and prones some kind of tabula rasa.
http://actofplay.com/rejecta/
This in particular:
http://actofplay.com/rejecta/
This in particular:
It´s been a while since I posted anything so here is something:
As Kitsune wears a mask and can´t show her face and there won´t be text or speech in the game I have to try to convey her joyful personality through the animations. Here is an in-progress sprite for when you reach the end of the level and find all the collectibles; let´s celebrate!
As Kitsune wears a mask and can´t show her face and there won´t be text or speech in the game I have to try to convey her joyful personality through the animations. Here is an in-progress sprite for when you reach the end of the level and find all the collectibles; let´s celebrate!
Too much talent here. Awesome stuff.
I'm starting a project today for a game, still looking for the exact genre but could be kind of Sam&Max adventure game(not like the last Telltale games) with some action scenes. 3D with a cartoon style.
For now is basically a police game set in animal city. Hope I can have some 3D concept of some character for today/tomorrow, I have in mind one easy to make and want to use it as kind of an experiment character to set the style of the game. We'll see if "luck" smiles me back.
I'm starting a project today for a game, still looking for the exact genre but could be kind of Sam&Max adventure game(not like the last Telltale games) with some action scenes. 3D with a cartoon style.
For now is basically a police game set in animal city. Hope I can have some 3D concept of some character for today/tomorrow, I have in mind one easy to make and want to use it as kind of an experiment character to set the style of the game. We'll see if "luck" smiles me back.
It´s been a while since I posted anything so here is something:
As Kitsune wears a mask and can´t show her face and there won´t be text or speech in the game I have to try to convey her joyful personality through the animations. Here is an in-progress sprite for when you reach the end of the level and find all the collectibles; let´s celebrate!
Haha, those are getting pretty elaborate! She looks much more elastic than she did before - was it the intent all along, or are you veering towards a more cartoony style? Either way, I think it looks energetic and fun!
TheGuardian
Member
That's not really the case though. I was well aware that it doesn't work on older devices, it's not supposed to. There's nothing to test/fix because it simply doesn't run.
The problem is poor signaling from Apple's side on the App Store (and the fact that users don't read the very first line of the app description somehow).
A good comparison would be people buying a DX12 only game on Steam and complaining that it doesn't work on their Windows XP machine.
Thanks! Yeah, I´m trying to use more exaggeration, squash and stretch to make it look more cartoony, I like the bounciness the sprites have since I´ve started doing this, so glad it shows!
I can´t say this was the intent all along, as I pretty much had no idea what I was doing with the first sprites lolTheGuardian
Member
Yep, that's been like that from the beginning. It reports it correctly on the list of supported devices in the App Store product page, it still lets you buy it though
I got invited to a Unity talk (in Chile) to showcase my game but I'm not sure if I should bother doing it. I would need to worry about having a playable prototype in a week, at least take one PC to show it, some crap to decorate the stand... not sure if its worth my time if I'm going to only show it to other devs, its not a consumer oriented event after all (and even in that case, the chilean market is tiny).
Ah, okay. I haven't done iOS stuff in awhile.Yep, that's been like that from the beginning. It reports it correctly on the list of supported devices in the App Store product page, it still lets you buy it though
You can buy stuff off-device through the App Store on iTunes so just checking the device at purchase wouldn't be a solution. Although Apple must have a list of your provisioned devices so it could check that and give a warning to people at purchase.
@missile, certain new APIs like Safari Content Blockers are only available on new hardware. There is no reasonable fallback if running on older hardware the way you could in theory fallback to OpenGL|ES from Metal. It's something Apple should address.
Sure, it does not run, but can be accessed. And as such there is the
possibility that the "wrong" people will do so. That's something which needs
to be addressed ahead of time/release, if you ask me.
No question about it. But did you know about the 'bad signaling' before
releasing the game?
Indeed. But if I know this ahead of time I can take counter measure. If the
vast majority use the proper DX12 version and only a few try to run it on XP,
who cares? But, given your example, if I'm going to go with DX12 yet the vast
majority is on XP while my game will be released on the same market for those
XP people to try, then it appears pretty obvious to me that I'm up for a
shitstorm to arrive, no? So, if there isn't any fallback, like Popstar said, I
have to think about whether I should go with the new lib or not. And you have
decided to go with Metal-only for some very good reasons of yours. But given
that your game's success may struggle given all these 1 stars "... I'm
getting lots of people buying it and then leaving nasty 1 star reviews because
the app doesn't run. ...", then the decision to go Metal-only was either wrong
or the benefit of going Metal-only outweigh all these 1 star reviews. Tell me.
Don't get me wrong. I know it sucks getting rated that way for an issue which
isn't yours (technically) and which could be addressed easily by Apple (as
Popstar has indicated). But what's important for me is knowing whether the
problem was known ahead of time (or not) and how the decisions were made to
use one system resp. library over the other facing all the consequences.
TheGuardian
Member
I didn't know that Apple would allow unsupported devices to buy the app, but even if I did, there's really nothing I could do beyond adding a strong warning in the app description, which I did (and the original post was looking for any suggestion beyond that). I never imagined people would buy something without even reading the first line of the description (or choosing to ignore it).
In the end, it is a very tiny amount of users that are doing this, but given how hard it is to get people to review an app on the App Store, it's hard to drown out these negative reviews with positive ones.
In regards to using Metal or not, I didn't really have a choice, what I've done is only possible through heavy use of compute shaders which isn't available through other mobile APIs (except for Vulcan, but that's not available on iOS).
Isn't your fault,it's Apple. Google Play doesn't allow unsupported devices.
Man, what's your age? Isn't this the default behavior? xD For, you click on
the app, play the video, look at the images, buy the game. Why reading any
text if you are already inline with the game and willing to buy?
So much about the review system.
Oh, performance, of course. Always a good reason to reach for the next better
system.
Yeah I know, compute shaders, better for implementing more sophisticated algorithms and stuff not possible on old. Btw; when will there
be Vulcan on iOS, any idea?
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