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

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J

Jacksinthe

Banned
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...

-

Working on more stuff today on my day off and we are getting sooooooooo close to showing off the new hotness now that old busted is old busted. A few issues with coloring we are working on for readability since we expanded the palette. I quake just thinking about how difficult the scale my artist is working with but man he just bulldozes through it all.

I have also rewritten my physics (yes, I know, I can't leave well enough alone) specific to consoles so I can achieve greater flexibility with console and PC builds. Performance took a few hits and drops into the 150s on console when a lot of things are blowing up but thankfully those are just stress tests. I can probably streamline things further but will leave it alone for right now. Simply staying above 100 on consoles is my target to guarantee a perfect 60 sync'd at all times no matter what.

And now I take the rest of the day off to game :D
 
M

Mr. Luchador

Member
Davision said:
Finally got something game dev related to show again, I'm not so sure what will come out of it. I'm experimenting with painting with particles in UE4:
houOtN9.gif

Dm6q5Il.gif

FbGPvrP.gif


It was by accident that I discovered a way to do this. More on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/TocoGamescom
Click to expand...

This is sweet!

AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...

-

Working on more stuff today on my day off and we are getting sooooooooo close to showing off the new hotness now that old busted is old busted. A few issues with coloring we are working on for readability since we expanded the palette. I quake just thinking about how difficult the scale my artist is working with but man he just bulldozes through it all.

I have also rewritten my physics (yes, I know, I can't leave well enough alone) specific to consoles so I can achieve greater flexibility with console and PC builds. Performance took a few hits and drops into the 150s on console when a lot of things are blowing up but thankfully those are just stress tests. I can probably streamline things further but will leave it alone for right now. Simply staying above 100 on consoles is my target to guarantee a perfect 60 sync'd at all times no matter what.

And now I take the rest of the day off to game :D
Click to expand...

Great news :)
 
P

Pehesse

Member
AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...

-

Working on more stuff today on my day off and we are getting sooooooooo close to showing off the new hotness now that old busted is old busted. A few issues with coloring we are working on for readability since we expanded the palette. I quake just thinking about how difficult the scale my artist is working with but man he just bulldozes through it all.

I have also rewritten my physics (yes, I know, I can't leave well enough alone) specific to consoles so I can achieve greater flexibility with console and PC builds. Performance took a few hits and drops into the 150s on console when a lot of things are blowing up but thankfully those are just stress tests. I can probably streamline things further but will leave it alone for right now. Simply staying above 100 on consoles is my target to guarantee a perfect 60 sync'd at all times no matter what.

And now I take the rest of the day off to game :D
Click to expand...

Very good news :-D Good to hear!
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Davision that feels like the sort of creative technology and mechanics that some people came up with before getting hired by Valve for Portal 2. So who knows, maybe you'll end up there. :D

Ludum Dare day 3/5 of voting is up:
An Unconventional Weapon
Beautiful Monsters
Butterfly effect
Captive
Dimensions
Discovery
Distorted
Food Chain
Hide From The Night
Illusion
Indirect Control
Metamorphosis
Negative Space
Shrinking World
Simplicity
Symmetry
Take One, Leave The Rest
There is No Right
Time Loop
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Click to expand...

I made my planned-tools and lessons learned posts for this round, made sure my FlashDevelop build and test setup is working, and ran most/all of my tools besides music. Once I do some test runs in Sonar X3 I should be ready.

*edit* Congrats Absinthe, good luck on continued healing!
 
D

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...

-

Working on more stuff today on my day off and we are getting sooooooooo close to showing off the new hotness now that old busted is old busted. A few issues with coloring we are working on for readability since we expanded the palette. I quake just thinking about how difficult the scale my artist is working with but man he just bulldozes through it all.

I have also rewritten my physics (yes, I know, I can't leave well enough alone) specific to consoles so I can achieve greater flexibility with console and PC builds. Performance took a few hits and drops into the 150s on console when a lot of things are blowing up but thankfully those are just stress tests. I can probably streamline things further but will leave it alone for right now. Simply staying above 100 on consoles is my target to guarantee a perfect 60 sync'd at all times no matter what.

And now I take the rest of the day off to game :D
Click to expand...

Congrats. Great news.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Does anyone else like the feel of jotting rough diagrams, designs, etc. on physical paper instead of an electronic device? I just wanted to sit down and do that for a bit, avoiding the distractions of a computer, and I can't find an old little sketchbook / note book that I was sure I had. I guess I'll buy a new one.

Out of curiosity, has anyone heard of successful developers, independent or otherwise, using physical notes occasionally?
 
D

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Blizzard said:
Does anyone else like the feel of jotting rough diagrams, designs, etc. on physical paper instead of an electronic device? I just wanted to sit down and do that for a bit, avoiding the distractions of a computer, and I can't find an old little sketchbook / note book that I was sure I had. I guess I'll buy a new one.

Out of curiosity, has anyone heard of successful developers, independent or otherwise, using physical notes occasionally?
Click to expand...

If I'm trying to figure out something difficult I will usually do it away from the computer. I can concentrate better if I'm not staring at a bright screen.
 
M

_machine

Member
AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers!
Click to expand...
That's great to hear!

In other news, our friends over at Vasara Entertainment have booted up their company and their game Stardust Galaxy Warriors got through Greenlight. Check it out if you're interested in local couch coop shooter.

I've been personally getting my hands dirty with UE4 working on getting our balance reworked, getting all the necessary placeholder art in and working on some graphics quality issues. Mainly our main problem is separating AA pass (whether it's FXAA or TXAA) from the 3D cards and trying to make text renderers in 3D world look good. Really hard to get it right since we can't use UMG for the card texts because you can't draw UMG behind normal 3D objects.
 
Z

zero shift

Banned
I was working on making a platformer on Gamemaker months ago. I quit in the middle of it, but I recently picked it up again and managed to finish it.

It only consists of a single level but I think it makes for nice practice.

What do you guys think for someones first game ever?

Download link.
 
Z

ZServ

Member
zero shift said:
I was working on making a platformer on Gamemaker months ago. I quit in the middle of it, but I recently picked it up again and managed to finish it.

It only consists of a single level but I think it makes for nice practice.

What do you guys think for someones first game ever?

Download link.
Click to expand...

It's nice enough. If you hop and land in a corner though, it breaks until you move again. :)
 
G

gundalf

Member
I was thinking about canceling my Maya LT subscription since I don't see any real benefits in comparison to Blender. What do you guys think?
 
S

SpacePirate Ridley

Member
AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...

-

Working on more stuff today on my day off and we are getting sooooooooo close to showing off the new hotness now that old busted is old busted. A few issues with coloring we are working on for readability since we expanded the palette. I quake just thinking about how difficult the scale my artist is working with but man he just bulldozes through it all.

I have also rewritten my physics (yes, I know, I can't leave well enough alone) specific to consoles so I can achieve greater flexibility with console and PC builds. Performance took a few hits and drops into the 150s on console when a lot of things are blowing up but thankfully those are just stress tests. I can probably streamline things further but will leave it alone for right now. Simply staying above 100 on consoles is my target to guarantee a perfect 60 sync'd at all times no matter what.

And now I take the rest of the day off to game :D
Click to expand...

Thank god.
Congrats man!
 
Oppo

Oppo

Member
Anyone doing work with Playmaker and Unity 4.6/5.0?

I've got a very UI-heavy project I'm working on, lots of sliders and buttons, and I'm just trying to suss out the best approach. Even though Unity's new built in UI system seems quite good, there are some that say using the old GuiText etc. type objects with Playmaker is still a better result. The proxy component to hook PM up to the new native uGUI control is a bit weird. Makes looking up answers convoluted.
 
Z

ZServ

Member
zero shift said:
Thanks. It is Gamemaker so I have heard it is difficult to have games have good physics. But I did the best I could do with the amount of time I put into it.
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert by any means, but I think it depends on how you approach the physics. If you're going for real-time actual physics or something, yeah, it will probably be more of a pain than with UE4 or Unity, but unless you have a mechanical reason for it, I find it unnecessary to go through such hassle.

With your next experiment, try and focus some more on how the player interacts with the world. The 3x jump sign was an easy way of telling the player what to do, but the natural intuition of a player in a platformer is to move right. So, when you make the leap and then have to jump up and go left, that's against the players natural intuition. Now, you also put an enemy up there, so not only were players purposefully "going against the grain" if you will, but had to deal with their first enemy at the same time.

Granted, you eventually reach a point where you don't want to be spoonfeeding the player, but I personally feel there's a nice middle-ground between letting the player get used to the game, and hand-holding them :)
 
Z

zero shift

Banned
ZServ said:
I'm not an expert by any means, but I think it depends on how you approach the physics. If you're going for real-time actual physics or something, yeah, it will probably be more of a pain than with UE4 or Unity, but unless you have a mechanical reason for it, I find it unnecessary to go through such hassle.

With your next experiemtn, try and focus some more on how the player interacts with the world. The 3x jump sign was an easy way of telling the player what to do, but the natural intuition of a player in a platformer is to move right. So, when you make the leap and then have to jump up and go left, that's against the players natural intuition. Now, you also put an enemy up there, so not only were players purposefully "going against the grain" if you will, but had to deal with their first enemy at the same time.

Granted, you eventually reach a point where you don't want to be spoonfeeding the player, but I personally feel there's a nice middle-ground between letting the player get used to the game, and hand-holding them :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice. I can't believe I didn't make the connection of putting the first enemy at a place that wasn't a smooth transition for the player.

Again, it was just a quick prototype. Something that I could make and say "Yeah I actually 'finished' a game."

What is the best Game Maker tutorial out there?

I've been watching Shaun Spalding.
 
Z

ZServ

Member
zero shift said:
Thank you for the advice. I can't believe I didn't make the connection of putting the first enemy at a place that wasn't a smooth transition for the player.

Again, it was just a quick prototype. Something that I could make and say "Yeah I actually 'finished' a game."

What is the best Game Maker tutorial out there?

I've been watching Shaun Spalding.
Click to expand...

Whichever tutorial gets you the furthest is the best. There is no "best" way to learn, in my experience. No matter what, you'll make something, and then 6 months later look at it and go "what in the fuck was I doing?"

So.. the best tutorial is the one that has you trying to push your boundaries. Thus learning, and taking new angles to tackle your problems.
 
C

Candescence

Member
While my own stuff is woefully behind on actually being able to show visually, there is progress. Aside from implementing Rewired, I've also tightened the character movement significantly - it's not 'ideal', but I'm focusing on function over form right now. And, the player can both properly take damage and deal it, and the dive-shot is a much easier to perform now. I'm gonna focus on the secondary items and the tutorial stage, which should have a couple turrets and a boss fight.

Unfortunately, I need to focus on uni projects for the next couple of weeks, so, yeah.

AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...

-

Working on more stuff today on my day off and we are getting sooooooooo close to showing off the new hotness now that old busted is old busted. A few issues with coloring we are working on for readability since we expanded the palette. I quake just thinking about how difficult the scale my artist is working with but man he just bulldozes through it all.

I have also rewritten my physics (yes, I know, I can't leave well enough alone) specific to consoles so I can achieve greater flexibility with console and PC builds. Performance took a few hits and drops into the 150s on console when a lot of things are blowing up but thankfully those are just stress tests. I can probably streamline things further but will leave it alone for right now. Simply staying above 100 on consoles is my target to guarantee a perfect 60 sync'd at all times no matter what.

And now I take the rest of the day off to game :D
Click to expand...

That's good news, mate! Congrats!
 
M

Mr. Luchador

Member
zero shift said:
Thank you for the advice. I can't believe I didn't make the connection of putting the first enemy at a place that wasn't a smooth transition for the player.

Again, it was just a quick prototype. Something that I could make and say "Yeah I actually 'finished' a game."

What is the best Game Maker tutorial out there?

I've been watching Shaun Spalding.
Click to expand...

I've been getting to grips with GameMaker since Jan, and I'm liking it so far (it seems to be able to do a lot more than I first realised). I've been watching Shaun Spalding youtube videos, as well as:

https://www.youtube.com/user/uheartbeast
https://www.youtube.com/user/rm2kdev

On top of that I've bought a few books, which has been an eye opener as they explain and open up GML in nice staggered amount of detail. There's a few of us who hang out in the GameMaker group on Steam and help each other out now and again too.
 
L

liliththepale

Banned
zero shift said:
Thanks. It is Gamemaker so I have heard it is difficult to have games have good physics. But I did the best I could do with the amount of time I put into it.
Click to expand...

I'm on my phone right now, so I haven't tried your game yet (although I fully intend to), but the default collision handling in GameMaker is indeed pretty bad. Setting up your own movement and AABB isn't very difficult, although admittedly more than the novice is usually going to want to do. I can give you some help over PM if you want, unless you're satisfied with the performance already and just want critique on the game design (which I'll add in a bit).
 
R

RollingTorque

Neo Member
I dug deep in my pockets to buy some music for my DemoBuild.

The new build is available at http://kirushuwassa.com/

This week i am doing a small cinematic trailer.
At this point all i got is a How to play kind of Video.

If you like my game, please vote for me on my Steam Greenlight Page
Steam Greenlight Page

btw, i have a small Twitch Channel, where i am going to stream the making of the trailer
come say hi if you like ^_^
Kirushuwassa

Trailer teaser picture
1PSBhnK.jpg
 
L

liliththepale

Banned
zero shift said:
I was working on making a platformer on Gamemaker months ago. I quit in the middle of it, but I recently picked it up again and managed to finish it.

It only consists of a single level but I think it makes for nice practice.

What do you guys think for someones first game ever?

Download link.
Click to expand...

Some things I'd change:

- Make the view centered on the player, not lagging behind a little bit. In the view tab of the room editor, set the Hbor and Vbor amounts to half the size of the screen or more. An even better way is to make the view stick out ahead of the player a little bit, but the best method for doing this is up for debate and in any case involves more sophisticated methods.
- Don't put platforms out of sight and ask the player to take a leap of faith. Having a better camera will alleviate some of this, but right now it's unfair to ask the player to guess if she can make the jump or not.
- Make the moving platform a little larger so it's easier to land on, and have it move the player along with it instead of letting the player slip right off.

Don't be disappointed! My first game wasn't half as good as this.

RollingTorque said:
Trailer teaser picture
1PSBhnK.jpg
Click to expand...

I love how that looks.
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
SeanNoonan said:
Quick pixel daily - with all the shooting I've been doing, I needed to do something cute.

140415_egg_colour_big.png
Click to expand...

cute :)

Been having an art heavy couple of days myself, and it's so friggin hard -- the main thing holding me back is my hand. It gets sore as all shit after a few hours of continuous drawing. Not sure there's any solution. Maybe I need a lighter touch.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Jobbs said:
cute :)

Been having an art heavy couple of days myself, and it's so friggin hard -- the main thing holding me back is my hand. It gets sore as all shit after a few hours of continuous drawing. Not sure there's any solution. Maybe I need a lighter touch.
Click to expand...
One of my friends killed her hand(s) from doing art, and so did my brother playing guitar. DEFINITELY take breaks like once very hour at least, stand up, stretch, dance, whatever. Try to find good ergonomic positions and techniques.

It's sort of stating the obvious, but once you get something like carpal tunnel it can take a lonnnnng time to recover.
 
B

Burt

Member
Jobbs said:
cute :)

Been having an art heavy couple of days myself, and it's so friggin hard -- the main thing holding me back is my hand. It gets sore as all shit after a few hours of continuous drawing. Not sure there's any solution. Maybe I need a lighter touch.
Click to expand...

I hear that. I try to keep it stretched, but there's only so much you can do when you're clicking for hours. Almost done animating this

7LKwQhx.png
Click to expand...

and the back glow and fire have me wanting to ice my hand right now. Just started the top half tonight, but that shouldn't be too bad considering it won't have anything nearly as monotonous.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
"Companion" was the top theme in round 1 of Ludum Dare voting, and I think that's a decent theme.

Round 4 is up to vote on:
1000 Years
Abandoned
Avoid The Light
Blue and Black? / Yellow and Gold?
Choose Wisely
Foreign Worlds
Freedom Is An Illusion
Grow
Harvest
Hive Mind
Hunted/Hunter
Lesser Of Two Evils
Opposites
Out of Control
Playing Both Sides
Rapid Expansion
The Rules Have Changed
Transformation
Traps
Underworld
You Are The Power Source
Click to expand...
 
Z

zero shift

Banned
Mr. Luchador said:
I've been getting to grips with GameMaker since Jan, and I'm liking it so far (it seems to be able to do a lot more than I first realised). I've been watching Shaun Spalding youtube videos, as well as:

https://www.youtube.com/user/uheartbeast
https://www.youtube.com/user/rm2kdev

On top of that I've bought a few books, which has been an eye opener as they explain and open up GML in nice staggered amount of detail. There's a few of us who hang out in the GameMaker group on Steam and help each other out now and again too.
Click to expand...

ZServ said:
Whichever tutorial gets you the furthest is the best. There is no "best" way to learn, in my experience. No matter what, you'll make something, and then 6 months later look at it and go "what in the fuck was I doing?"

So.. the best tutorial is the one that has you trying to push your boundaries. Thus learning, and taking new angles to tackle your problems.
Click to expand...

liliththepale said:
Some things I'd change:

- Make the view centered on the player, not lagging behind a little bit. In the view tab of the room editor, set the Hbor and Vbor amounts to half the size of the screen or more. An even better way is to make the view stick out ahead of the player a little bit, but the best method for doing this is up for debate and in any case involves more sophisticated methods.
- Don't put platforms out of sight and ask the player to take a leap of faith. Having a better camera will alleviate some of this, but right now it's unfair to ask the player to guess if she can make the jump or not.
- Make the moving platform a little larger so it's easier to land on, and have it move the player along with it instead of letting the player slip right off.

Don't be disappointed! My first game wasn't half as good as this.
Click to expand...

Wonderful posts! Thank you all!
 
K

kiguel182

Member
So, I want to make the game I'm working on as a paid app on the Play Store. But since I work from home that whole "you have to have your public address here" really puts me off of doing it.

My question is, how strict is Google with that? Because I did a little search and it seems some devs just put their city there, or even just their email address. How likely is Google to suspend your account if you put an incomplete address? Do they check it against the one on your Google Merchant account?

Just curious to see if anybody has experience with this.
 
J

Jacksinthe

Banned
Thanks for all the well wishes, folks! 2014 sucked and I'm glad 2015 is just coasting right now :D Mentally in a much better place so that might mean I will actually stop rewriting my fucking physics and let that shit go so I can finish other things XD
 
J

Jacksinthe

Banned
kiguel182 said:
So, I want to make the game I'm working on as a paid app on the Play Store. But since I work from home that whole "you have to have your public address here" really puts me off of doing it.

My question is, how strict is Google with that? Because I did a little search and it seems some devs just put their city there, or even just their email address. How likely is Google to suspend your account if you put an incomplete address? Do they check it against the one on your Google Merchant account?

Just curious to see if anybody has experience with this.
Click to expand...
I have a UPS mailbox and haven't received a single piece of mail since getting it in Feb. I say just throw anything there.

That policy is backwards, IMO. Its supposed to help curb malware apps by forcing a physical location to be displayed with apps for sale. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell Google that most malware are in free apps, which do not require an address :|

Back asswards.
 
K

kiguel182

Member
AbsintheGames said:
I have a UPS mailbox and haven't received a single piece of mail since getting it in Feb. I say just throw anything there.

That policy is backwards, IMO. Its supposed to help curb malware apps by forcing a physical location to be displayed with apps for sale. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell Google that most malware are in free apps, which do not require an address :|

Back asswards.
Click to expand...

So the address doesn't have to be the same as the one on your Google Merchant account?

I know the possibility of something bad happen is slim but I'm not the only one living in my house so that makes things harder.
 
E

EDarkness

Member
AbsintheGames said:
Wooooooooooo benign motherfuckers! Tumor hasn't grown and my lymph nodes show no signs of fuckery. I have a few more small nodules beginning to grow but they aren't dangerous as of now! FUCK YES! Last year's removal of a tumor was cancer and THANK FUCK it didn't spread to my lymph nodes but the few I have left are just masses of tissue at this point. 4.2 more years to hit my 5 year survival rate and this shit can fuck right off! I have new meds to take so hopefully I can start getting back on track which is a good thing since...
Click to expand...

Dude, that's awesome. I think you've earned a little R&R, so enjoy it. Take care of yourself, man.


Anyone know of any good tools for Unity for laying down mass amounts of models? Like grass, trees, etc. I'm trying to avoid Unity terrain, so I need something for putting things down on modeled terrain. I tried looking on the Asset Store, but I don't know what something like that would be called.
 
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