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[Yoshi]

After designing the first level (not necessarily the first level of the final game or even a level that gets into it, just a first demo level for my concept demo) for my SRPG I must say, the mission design will probably take a whole lot of time. Even though it's just a small 29*16 level with 14 enemies, it took me more than half a day to get it done. Considering later missions will be way more complex, I really hope I can manage designing the game within a reasonable time (a year?). I'm very happy my fiancée volunteered to make the graphics and help with the story writing, but even still, it will be hard to find a good balance for different team-set-ups in later levels, even if I were solely concerned with the level design (and its corresponding character design).

I hope I can find the time, skill and passion needed to design later missions without repeating any of the mistakes I was so quick to judge in Fire Emblem games . Hopefully the base mechanics and AI algorithms I have programmmed so far continue working as intended, I already now dread the potential bugs only found in half a year while knee deep in designing levels instead of programming...

 

[Barryman]

Tweaked my shader quite a lot. Color and lines are now mostly stable and the line thickness is bound to world. I could not get rid of distortion artifacts because I can't actually manipulate world position in a post processing shader, just pixel position but with the outlines set on those artifacts are very hard to see. I also added color blur as faked depth of field.

So cool!

I actually like the movement of the shading, although the transition between your character moving and coming to a rest is a tiny bit jarring. Maybe you could add some subtle ambient motion to the shader, so it feels a little more fluid? It also might smooth over the discontinuities when your camera position changes.

 

[Jobbs]

Can anyone suggest any herbal teas that might help with mental clarity and focus?

 

[Jacksinthe]

Can anyone suggest any herbal teas that might help with mental clarity and focus?

Red Bull. Has all the Ts you need.

On a serious note, for your game, I would choose a nice oolong and listen to Paganini - it is amazeballs for your ears. The man was denied a Catholic burial by the church because they believed he sold his soul to the devil to play the violin like he could. Turns out, he just had really long fingers to hit notes others couldn't concurrently. Lots of his music played to this belief jokingly. Women used to faint at his recitals. Dude is baller. My favorite violinist.

 

[cbox]

Can anyone suggest any herbal teas that might help with mental clarity and focus?

Whenever I get creative block I go for a walk in a forest, helps a lot.

 

[Jobbs]

I did manage to fool around with some particle effects.

This is supposed to look warm. Maybe not fire per se, but warm.

This is a plant that you can drain things out of for a certain effect, and I needed a particle effect to represent it. (Another example) Looking at this now I think mabye I should increase the spawn rate to thicken it up.

Whenever I get creative block I go for a walk in a forest, helps a lot.

I don't know if it's so much a creative block. I just notice in general lately my mind is increasingly full of noise and I have difficulty settling in and just focusing on the matter at hand. If I changed my diet or my health in such a way that could decrease the noise maybe that would lead to a boost in productivity.

Red Bull. Has all the Ts you need.

On a serious note, for your game, I would choose a nice oolong and listen to Paganini - it is amazeballs for your ears. The man was denied a Catholic burial by the church because they believed he sold his soul to the devil to play the violin like he could. Turns out, he just had really long fingers to hit notes others couldn't concurrently. Lots of his music played to this belief jokingly. Women used to faint at his recitals. Dude is baller. My favorite violinist.

That's cool.

 

[liliththepale]

This is a plant that you can drain things out of for a certain effect, and I needed a particle effect to represent it. (Another example) Looking at this now I think mabye I should increase the spawn rate to thicken it up.

I love how the goo clings to the body rather than get absorbed instantly. Minor gripe: it looks a bit off when the player turns around and everything is in the exact same place. Maybe flip the relative position?

 

[Jobbs]

I love how the goo clings to the body rather than get absorbed instantly. Minor gripe: it looks a bit off when the player turns around and everything is in the exact same place. Maybe flip the relative position?

Thanks. I'm thinking about if there's any relatively easy way to flip them. Hmm. May be doable.

Edit: Okay, that actually wasn't hard at all. Maybe I don't need the tea after all.

 

[ZehDon]

It's all there, I just give shape to it. :+

I once met a really, really good professor (well, I saw him quite often to say
the least, he really taught me a good (one of the best) lesson). Well, once
he said to me; "Mr. Missile, I did nothing. I've just put things together.". He
wrote a pretty good book (out of print by now) the US military wanted to
republish on their own expense, worldwide. He denied "thankfully". xD

Edit: Btw ZehDon, are you working on a new small game?

I like the way he, and yourself, put it. Discovering form for what's already there. I think there's a cool sci-fi story concept in there somewhere

And yes, I'm always tinkering. Worked on a stencil shadow system for 2D sprites for a while, now I'm back working on Windows Phone stuff. I'll share something here soon, get some feedback from the cool kids

 

[liliththepale]

Thanks. I'm thinking about if there's any relatively easy way to flip them. Hmm. May be doable.

Edit: Okay, that actually wasn't hard at all. Maybe I don't need the tea after all.

Awesome! Looks really good.

 

[SquirrelWide]

For everyone who wants to build an anti-gravity racer one day; in another
thread I wrote the following (see quote below) and I want to reiterate it here
such that some of you know that one of my longterm goals is building an
awesome new racer.


.

I have too much on my plate now, but otherwise I'd be interested. Definitely keep the board appraised. I'd love to at least follow progress.

Re: German thing: I can you tell you from the perspective of someone who is learning German and speaks English natively that any peculiarity in your sentence structures doesn't come from your native tongue.

 

[mStudios]

All three protagonists:

Click for highest resolution ever

(Those noisy shadow lines were made on purpose)

 

[Noogy]

Man, it feels SOOOOO good to be back in the trenches, coding and doing art. I've spent the last couple years with my business hat on, which, while lucrative, has been creatively deflating.

I don't like PR. I hate managing contracts and sales. Development is where it's at.

 

[desu]

Man, it feels SOOOOO good to be back in the trenches, coding and doing art. I've spent the last couple years with my business hat on, which, while lucrative, has been creatively deflating.

I don't like PR. I hate managing contracts and sales. Development is where it's at.

I can totally imagine, congrats and I hope you're having tons of fun again .

 

[Davision]

Holy shit man, is the same game as those painting gifs you were doing? It abosolutely looks fantastic!
So good, it looks like real watercolors!

Yea, the main particles painting mechanic works with it too. Still need to embed it more though, so that distortion is more near the edges of the paint.

So cool!

I actually like the movement of the shading, although the transition between your character moving and coming to a rest is a tiny bit jarring. Maybe you could add some subtle ambient motion to the shader, so it feels a little more fluid? It also might smooth over the discontinuities when your camera position changes.

Well, it is just a test gif, there is lots of compression going on. Ambient motion should be interesting though.

Man, it feels SOOOOO good to be back in the trenches, coding and doing art. I've spent the last couple years with my business hat on, which, while lucrative, has been creatively deflating.

I don't like PR. I hate managing contracts and sales. Development is where it's at.

Was it lucrative enough to hire someone for all that stuff now?

 

[Jobbs]

Man, it feels SOOOOO good to be back in the trenches, coding and doing art. I've spent the last couple years with my business hat on, which, while lucrative, has been creatively deflating.

I don't like PR. I hate managing contracts and sales. Development is where it's at.

Mind if I ask what you've been up to? Have you been doing Dust stuff for this long? Or is there another game..?

 

[Mystic River]

Been quite busy doing AI stuff and modeling more game mechanics.

Added alcohol consumption a few months back but didn't have much time to model and balance it, now after a few days of work, finally made it to work, half of my crew is drunk and sleeping on the floor, while the other half is still drinking

having fun in space to improve your crew mood is very important, alcohol consumption is only one of the ways to do it, but hope that no pirates attack my ship while everyone is drunk on the floor...

More info at http://mysticrivergames.blogspot.com/2015/05/party-time-alcohol-consumption.html

wish I had more time for better graphics, but what I want to have is better game mechanics, something closer to dwarf fortress in space.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

All three protagonists:

Click for highest resolution ever

(Those noisy shadow lines were made on purpose)

Im accostumed to her frowned face and it surprises me seeing her with a happy face now. Though I need to say she looks really good with that face.

The other characters also look really good. Love the watercolor touch at the end of the drawing.

 

[KarasuEXE]

All three protagonists:

Click for highest resolution ever

(Those noisy shadow lines were made on purpose)

Love the art style!

 

[Jacksinthe]

Man, it feels SOOOOO good to be back in the trenches, coding and doing art. I've spent the last couple years with my business hat on, which, while lucrative, has been creatively deflating.

I don't like PR. I hate managing contracts and sales. Development is where it's at.

Good to have you back doing the creator's work, Noogy!

 

[Jobbs]

You know what's going to be an absolute design directive in my next game (which will likely be a sidescroller action RPG of some kind -- I have a few concepts in my head already)? Time passage.

I want a clock. I want a day night cycle. I want stuff to happen sooner or later even if you stand still. I'm so tired of how static my game (and most games like it, of course) is. I want the game world to feel like a place where stuff happens. A place that's real. I want you to feel interested in visiting the same location to see what's new.

That's going to be an imperative from the very start. Baked into the design.

 

[SquirrelWide]

You know what's going to be an absolute design directive in my next game (which will likely be a sidescroller action RPG of some kind -- I have a few concepts in my head already)? Time passage.

I want a clock. I want a day night cycle. I want stuff to happen sooner or later even if you stand still. I'm so tired of how static my game (and most games like it, of course) is. I want the game world to feel like a place where stuff happens. A place that's real. I want you to feel interested in visiting the same location to see what's new.

That's going to be an imperative from the very start. Baked into the design.

Sounds like you might be needing to expand beyond GameMaker? I think you had mentioned a lot in previous posts hitting the upper limits of its capabilities.

 

[Jobbs]

Sounds like you might be needing to expand beyond GameMaker? I think you had mentioned a lot in previous posts hitting the upper limits of its capabilities.

Yeah, I think I'll be using Unity. My composer (the guy who did all that beautiful music for Ghost Song) is also a Unity expert and a god tier programmer. I may possibly be working with him on it (it's very unclear, to be sure, it depends on what he's doing and if he's free). Either way I'll probably need to enlist help.

I'll be targeting a more Ghibli type asthetic (dark Ghibli!) going for a more animated film look to the game. Ori was a great inspiration too.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Teasers start rolling out this week.

 

[Jobbs]

Teasers start rolling out this week.

Nice!

So how does this work? I've never quite understood how marketing stuff like this is made to catch on.

 

[ken_matthews]

Added a run animation + run stop. Also started messing around with some test materials and PBR just to see how stuff looks (I haven't spent much time on textures yet)

Anybody familiar with character movement in UE4, I am attempting to add momentum to the run to stop transition animation. Currently, as soon as the character stops receiving input, all movement stops and the run to stop animation plays in place. Anybody know how to fix that?

 

[Jobbs]

Contacting the stuff from those pods gives your regular gun a different effect for a certain number of shots.

http://www.gfycat.com/ImperfectJovialGavial

This is used for various things. Things and stuff.

 

[JulianImp]

Because my larger VN project is will take a while in pre-production while the scriptwriter finds the time to write. I've realized that actually asking people to help when they aren't entirely into the project isn't the best course of action, since they'll probably want to stick to jobs that actually pay the bills unless they downright fall in love with your project. Even if that were the case, they'd have to do it in between paid jobs, so the man-hours they could possibly devote to the project aren't too many right from the start.

I guess it's one of the woes of still not having formed a team I can work with, and trying to do it alone is one of the things I've learned takes way too long for anything but the smallest of projects.

In the end, I've decided to start a way smaller VN project so that I can actually do most of it myself, with the theme of supernatural events and set in Argentina's capital city. One of the things I'm puzzled by is how the Argentine society nowadays tends to not care at all about superstitions or supernatural stuff, so I felt I should experiment a bit with that.

That said, my goal isn't to thow obvious supernatural events into the reader's path, but rather exploit uncanny and possibly unsettling situations that shouldn't be happening according to reality. I feel like writing that kind of stuff might be a bit of a tall order, but since VNs tend to rely on having a good script, it isn't like I could do a half-assed story anyway.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Been trying out magicavoxel for the aesthetic of a single-button touchscreen focussed racing game - being shit at pixel art translates well into being shit at modelling too! who knew?

Teasers start rolling out this week.

you totally want a coffee cup stain on that XD

 

[JulianImp]

Been trying out magicavoxel for the aesthetic of a single-button touchscreen focussed racing game - being shit at pixel art translates well into being shit at modelling too! who knew?

The first car looks cool, and it obviously has Ken Masters driving it, so it's even better. The only thing I'm puzzled by are the white lines in the front... are they supposed to be an exposed engine?

I think the silhouettes for the second and third cars are a bit too alike, so you may want to change things a little bit to differentiate between them. I don't know exactly what kind of racing game you're looking to make, but maybe you could use the following car types:

• Sport cars (roof-less)
• Jeeps (you got it covered with car #1)
• Boxy car designs, like the Ford Falcon
• Monster trucks (larger wheels)
• Muscle cars (large exposed engines)
• Vans/SUVs
• Long vehicles (which would probably stray from being made for racing, such as limos or buses)

I'm just throwing out ideas, though. Hopefully you find at least something of use in these comments.

 

[mStudios]

Contacting the stuff from those pods gives your regular gun a different effect for a certain number of shots.

http://www.gfycat.com/ImperfectJovialGavial

This is used for various things. Things and stuff.

I'm curious, what engine are you using to make your game?

Love the art style!

Thanks!

Im accostumed to her frowned face and it surprises me seeing her with a happy face now. Though I need to say she looks really good with that face.

The other characters also look really good. Love the watercolor touch at the end of the drawing.

Yup, that's the only portrait/art where she has a happy face.
These are all the artstyle that we went through first:

Oh, and by the way. This is how the game looked a year ago:

Had to stop doing it (the second part, for sure will be like this) because the game budget would reach 200k and I only had like 5k on my pocket, haha.

 

[Noogy]

Mind if I ask what you've been up to? Have you been doing Dust stuff for this long? Or is there another game..?

It's mostly been Dust stuff. Launched XBLA late 2012, did a PC port for 2013, and then commissioned Mac/Linux late 2013.

I then started learning Unity mid 2014 and was getting some nice progress done on a second game, but then got wrapped up porting and launching a PS4 version. I'm just NOW getting back into Unity but hope to launch my next game (something smaller) this year.

I completely underestimated just how much work it takes to support, port, and handle the business of a game that's already completed. It's certainly not as fun as actually making a game from scratch.

Was it lucrative enough to hire someone for all that stuff now?

If I were smart this is what I should be doing. Having a full time secretary/accountant/marketer/biz person would free me up big time. I guess I still see myself as indie and feel the need to handle all of it myself, but maybe one of these days it'll be time to grow a little.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

maybe you could use the following car types:

• Sport cars (roof-less)
• Jeeps (you got it covered with car #1)
• Boxy car designs, like the Ford Falcon
• Monster trucks (larger wheels)
• Muscle cars (large exposed engines)
• Vans/SUVs
• Long vehicles (which would probably stray from being made for racing, such as limos or buses)

I'm planning on having a shitload of cars, including most of your list above, and especially including non-conventional racing game cars (so yes, buses, mopeds, tanks).

I'm trying out magicavoxel pretty much as a means of realistically being able to get enough assets done in a realistic timeline.
Cars 2 and 3 actually have a very different silhouette from a pseudo-birds eye view (which is where the gameplay camera will mostly be), and of course I'm not going to lock every vehicle as red, I'm going to have recoloured vehicles.

 

[Jobbs]

I'm curious, what engine are you using to make your game?

Stencyl.

These are all the artstyle that we went through first:

For what it's worth, I like the one in the middle with the plain sweater. This design looks more original, despite being plain, because it's less animed/femmed up, it looks like she has a personality and a history. Also has a more unique artstyle in terms of the rendering of the face than the others, some of which tend to look a bit more generic anime with the anime eyes.

 

[Yoshi]

I actually think she looks more "attractive" (meaning welcoming) in most older concepts (not in the upper left one though), in the newest she looks quite repellent and a tad arrogant - though of course this need not be a problem if that's what you intend her to be (or my perception is just skewed).

 

[Jacksinthe]

Nice!

So how does this work? I've never quite understood how marketing stuff like this is made to catch on.

The documents I'll be posting up will be a lead-in to the actual game, itself. It hints at the events leading up to where the gameplay starts with subtle drops of who is and who isn't the real enemy. Some of these will be teased before the announcement and the rest will be trickled out during a lead-in to the kickstarter.

Everyone will get a chance to see the redacted documents online, but I am holding a contest for 3 winners who will receive in the mail the original, non-redacted documents.
Inside these documents there are clues, a riddle of sorts, as how to proceed with the information you are given and if you can solve that riddle it will ultimately lead you directly to me, where we will dish out your real prize.

The non-redacted documents contain a lot more info that is less vague that paints a clearer picture of the events, while still being just coy enough to leave room for error.

It won't be an impossible riddle, we want the 3 winners to be able to contact us to get in on the action. Any information gleaned from the documents that the general public is not privy to can be handled at the discretion of the winners, if they want to divulge and talk about the events that take place.

It's fairly campy and slightly naive, I want to maintain that sort of childish innocence of storytelling like "THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY NINJAS" - too awesome so I am trying to hold onto that while being dead serious about everything.

It's 100% not needed to pay attention to any of this, as it does not affect the game at all, but it's something people may be interested to read and figure out - as many a gamer (I include myself, here) enjoy reading backstory if it is relevant to current game events or not. Just some fun fluff.

Helps get me off the code for a while and change channels in my brain.

you totally want a coffee cup stain on that XD

There are many redacted documents that have been scanned in various conditions and styles, from simple typewriter style diary entries to Government style Teletype. Coffee stains are already in

 

[Tomohawk]

Sorry if this questions been answered already, but I looked through the OP and couldn't find anything. Is there any good websites or resources for learning game design theory or stuff like that. I'm working on a 2d platformer and got a lot of the systems I want in place, now I want to start designing levels, but would like to know some stuff about level design before doing so.

 

[JulianImp]

I'm planning on having a shitload of cars, including most of your list above, and especially including non-conventional racing game cars (so yes, buses, mopeds, tanks).

I'm trying out magicavoxel pretty much as a means of realistically being able to get enough assets done in a realistic timeline.
Cars 2 and 3 actually have a very different silhouette from a pseudo-birds eye view (which is where the gameplay camera will mostly be), and of course I'm not going to lock every vehicle as red, I'm going to have recoloured vehicles.

Oh, my bad. It was probably the angle of the render playing tricks on me, then.

I have fond memories of playing Micro Machines-like games a long time ago, and your post just now made me think about how I'd actually make one, like making modular track parts and how I'd go around connecting them with the rest of the level geometry and stuff. Level design's a fairly scary thing at first, and even more so in 3D, IMO.

Right now I'm listening to creepy but not downright scary music to get in the tone I'm looking to use for my VN script. I really like how matching the music I'm listening to to what I want to do tends to help me more than just listening to random stuff on the radio or nothing at all (having only my own thoughts for company while doing creative stuff tends to end up with me boxed so deep withing my own train of thought that productivity quickly flatlines after a while of struggling).

Despite the fact that I liked writing stuff over a decade ago I only did it for fun, so I can't say if my writing's actually any good, as well as still not having learned most things related to scriptwriting theory. I guess I could always show my draft to a proper scriptwriter to get some criticism once I'm farther ahead with it.

 

[Makai]

Cool cars

 

[Jobbs]

Okay, we're pretty much done here.

http://www.gfycat.com/KeenBadGrebe

Did this whole thing in mostly one day (all the spore plant interaction and new bullet types and stuff that comes from them). Phew.

 

[JulianImp]

Okay, we're pretty much done here.

http://www.gfycat.com/KeenBadGrebe

Did this whole thing in mostly one day (all the spore plant interaction and new bullet types and stuff that comes from them). Phew.

That looks much better than the earlier gif! I was going to comment that just coloring your shots like the particles was a bit hard to read, but this huge particle shot neatly fixes that.

Okay, now that I've written a bit of text I'm going to try and use my tools to put it into the game and play a bit with backgrounds, music and SFX.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Okay, we're pretty much done here.

http://www.gfycat.com/KeenBadGrebe

Did this whole thing in mostly one day (all the spore plant interaction and new bullet types and stuff that comes from them). Phew.

Very nice. Love the huge blast.

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

Been trying out magicavoxel for the aesthetic of a single-button touchscreen focussed racing game - being shit at pixel art translates well into being shit at modelling too! who knew?

Voxels are so hot right now

 

[mStudios]

Okay, we're pretty much done here.

http://www.gfycat.com/KeenBadGrebe

Did this whole thing in mostly one day (all the spore plant interaction and new bullet types and stuff that comes from them). Phew.

Isn't Stencyl supposed to be a basic engine? How the hell you get those nice shaders and such a nice framerate.

I stopped using gamemaker because its becoming shittier and shittier with every update.

 

[Jobbs]

Thanks guys.

Isn't Stencyl supposed to be a basic engine? How the hell you get those nice shaders and such a nice framerate.

I stopped using gamemaker because its becoming shittier and shittier with every update.

Stencyl is basic in some ways, sure, but I've identified what it is able to do and have attempted to get the most out of those things. I can script logic together and use full screen shaders (no single object shaders just yet, but that may be coming) and it's therefore possible to make a game look and play well with some effort.

If you haven't seen the trailer, feel free to check it out, since it shows a bit more variety.

 

[mStudios]

Thanks guys.



Stencyl is basic in some ways, sure, but I've identified what it is able to do and have attempted to get the most out of those things. I can script logic together and use full screen shaders (no single object shaders just yet, but that may be coming) and it's therefore possible to make a game look and play well with some effort.

If you haven't seen the trailer, feel free to check it out, since it shows a bit more variety.

I backed the project when it was online on Kickstarter

Good to see that you're getting the most out of Stencyl!

For what it's worth, I like the one in the middle with the plain sweater. This design looks more original, despite being plain, because it's less animed/femmed up, it looks like she has a personality and a history. Also has a more unique artstyle in terms of the rendering of the face than the others, some of which tend to look a bit more generic anime with the anime eyes.

I mostly choose the anime style because of the backgrounds. I can animate object/characters by myself because mostly they have plain colors and soft shadows.

I actually think she looks more "attractive" (meaning welcoming) in most older concepts (not in the upper left one though), in the newest she looks quite repellent and a tad arrogant - though of course this need not be a problem if that's what you intend her to be (or my perception is just skewed).

Well, you mostly described her. She's pretty serious and hardly laugh.

 

[Comfort Jones]

Mod's at almost 40 downloads and 14 trackers in less than 2 days, pretty nice!

If anyone here has played it I'd love to get some feedback so I know what total strangers like/dislike about it.

 

[EmptySpace]

okay so i am now on my path to make my video game, whatever it is. i just decided on it about 2 weeks ago.

what do i need to learn? i literally do not know how to program, or do anything.

i signed up for free online introductory courses on both python and c#, just to start.

also, i signed up for introductory oracle and sql for work opportunities, btw.

what other resources should i read? i can draw/sketch on paper, but i do not know any software. i'm most clueless on sound/music.

i just decided that i will try my best at life from now on, if that would mean working harder than anyone and being able to be promoted as fast as i can, then that's what i'm going to do. at the same time, i also want to start making video games just to see what it's like and just to have some form of fulfillment that is mine (though helping family financially and being a responsible person already give me enough fulfillment).

 

[Jobbs]

OKay think I'm gonna finally call it a day.. Got it all completely hooked up, and stress tested:

http://www.gfycat.com/CelebratedAdmiredEmu

Not 100% perfect, but it'll do for now... Running fraps actually made it stutter more.

 

[SeanNoonan]

There was a one hour game jam this weekend - I entered and decided to spend the rest of the evening polishing it up...

Polished version: http://sean-noonan.com/development/dev_noonantap/1_2/

Original 1 hour version: http://sean-noonan.com/games/tapgrid_1hrjam/

Hope you enjoy it - feedback is encouraged