Jacksinthe
Banned
Incredibly zoomed in junk:
Document 1 releasing tomorrow.
Document 1 releasing tomorrow.
-
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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay
- Thread starter Jacksinthe
- Start date
- Status
Jacksinthe
Banned
Hehehehe. The pullbacks are amazing. I'm stoked to finally show off what me and my partner have been doing in just mere weeks.
Will either be glorious or crash and burn - we will see how the early reception is in the weeks after the announcement.
Will either be glorious or crash and burn - we will see how the early reception is in the weeks after the announcement.
liliththepale
Banned
Jacksinthe
Banned
Thats a plus. I'm nervous as fuck but we are ready.At least it's pixelated/censored
I used hollywood movie computers to unpixelate it. I won't post it here. How dare you, sir. How dare you.
Jacksinthe
Banned
Unpossible. No such software exists outside of our hands.
Incredibly zoomed in junk:
Document 1 releasing tomorrow.
Nice.
Oppo
Member
SquirrelWide
Member
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
I thought it was a little hard to control the trajectory and strength of the shot. I tried the polished version and I could get to 5-10 consistently.
Jacksinthe
Banned
Nonsense. I am sure my junk is safe and thanks!
Everyone has been on point. Another reason for me to be highly judgmental of my work ha!You guys have been killing it the past few pages. Hope to have my own announcements soon aswell
zeioIIDX
Member
Ugh. Okay, so I've been on the fence for months regarding posting what I'm working on...partly out of fear that someone else will swoop in and create the game I want to make and do it much faster and way better...and partly because I just feel like development is going nowhere and I'm really self-conscious about my idea. I'm using Game Maker Studio by the way. The game is called Bounce Brawlers and it's basically a sort of fighting game for Android phones/tablets as well as PC. The gist is that you've got two fighters who perpetually run back and forth in an arena bouncing off the walls and when they intersect, that's the moment you either punch/kick or dash/jump. It sounds odd but in my mind, I can totally envision how it would play. I like the idea of having a simplistic, bite-sized fighting game for mobile devices where you only need to focus on the action buttons rather than controlling your fighter with a virtual d-pad. Yes, it sounds odd...maybe even counter-intuitive or just plain dumb. But I just wanted to try something different and see how it turns out!
Here is a mock-up of a general style I'm aiming for. As you can see, I have a border around the screen to emulate playing on a handheld (the Handy Boy Deluxe!). I want to have different borders you can unlock and customize your screen with and I also want the player to be able to customize the button layout to his/her liking. The reason I have the playing field slightly smaller than the actual phone/tablet screen you'll be playing on is because I hate having virtual buttons and virtual d-pads cover the actual playing field. It's obtrusive as hell when you have translucent virtual controls on the screen or my fingers are covering the action. So I figured I'd alleviate that problem by adding that old-school handheld border and keeping the buttons on that rather than the actual fighting area. I was originally worried about the playing field being too tiny but I've tried out my prototype on my LG G3 phone as well as my Nexus 7 tablet and it looks just fine. I do plan on having more than just two characters and the character designs were going to be placeholders but I've kinda taken a liking to them. I figure each fighter will be a different color and have a different face/personality. Brawler Blue, Brawler Red, Brawler Green, etc. The prototype features a junkyard sort of arena but if I ever finish the game, I imagined having arenas that are kinda fun and leverage the idea of having to bounce off the walls. There would be a bouncy house/moon jump arena, boxing ring, Candyland-esque arena where the walls are made of gelatin, maybe even a padded room in an asylum.
This is a screenshot of my prototype I've got going. No health bars yet because...well...I haven't implemented a fighting engine or hit detection yet. It's what I've hit a wall on for the past several months (on top of finishing up my computer networking degree). I have looked up tutorials on making a fighting game engine and I've tried using others that I've come across and tweaking them but I can't quite figure it out. Plus I get overwhelmed with tasks. It's like...if I get hit detection and stuff working, I'll have to then create animations for the characters being hit as well as proper sound effects. Creating one thing almost always means altering other stuff or creating something else which compliments it lol. Don't even get me started on A.I. Oh man, I honestly don't know how I'm going to code that or even how to create an A.I. opponent for a fighting game who fights fair lol.
Last semester, I had to take a web design course and our final project was to build a website so I took the opportunity to make one for Bounce Brawlers...I never actually intended to get it hosted, I just thought that maybe if I worked on a website dedicated to my game in development, it would get me hyped to continue work on the game itself. If you do happen to visit my site, keep in mind it was really just a school project so don't mind the "Design Survey" page lol. Anyway, I told myself next time I saw this thread, I would jump in and finally post about what I'm working on. I used to make little games back in high school with Multimedia Fusion all the damn time and it was so simple it seemed...but maybe my creativity is gone these days. I look at everyone else's projects in here and I'm like, "Wow...why can't I be talented like that?".
www.quietleaf.com
Crappy prototype video
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
heh, i'm actually the same way but i know the fear is mostly irrational. my belief is that unless your zynga, you're probably making the game that you want to make. anyone else who's just doing it for a dollar will probably fall back to tried and true money makers. even zynga waits until something is successful before emulating it
your reasoning for the border is fair, and im probably telling you what you already know, but the G3 is much larger than your average phone. the iphone 6 is just 4.7 inches and a lot of cheaper smart phones are around 4.5 inches. maybe, you can get the best of both worlds by building the arena around the buttons into some kind of non rectangular shape? it would limit your button layout customization idea, but the default button placements look mostly optimal, i doubt most people would want to deviate from that. those are the spots that our thumbs like to reach.
for example, maybe you could elongate the arena and push your buttons down (which, admittedly, youve probably already thought of):
ooooor, maybe you could stick them in your bouncy walls and reclaim the whole screen:
the handheld device screen may also be something that aesthetically works well on mobile, but less so on PC. and if that were true, and you ditched it for the PC version, then that would be a lot of energy gone to waste.
that said, i actually really dig the concept for your game. it reminds me of games like flappy bird and endless runners in the sense that its about easy touch input and twitch responses, but it has a nice layer of strategy on top and takes that type of gameplay somewhere i haven't seen before. just polish up the graphics and make it flashy. i feel like nice crunchy hits with flashy particle effects on the run bys is what will really make it.
also, thanks for overcoming your fears and showing off the game. it's the unveiling more than anything that i visit this thread for. good luck!
About the sci-fi story, I fully agree with you. Creating shapes out of nothingI 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
(considered as place which has no shape) could be the place of birth of all
our thoughts. A fine plot of the interaction if this very place and the things
you get out of it (everything) could make up a very interesting sci-fi story
with you discovering it, i.e. your innermost self without any shapes or forms
attached. Heh?
Cool. I'm curious.... 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
Nice. What are you up to at the moment?
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I can only talk about the programming side of things and I'm not an expert on game design, however, if you want to program your game yourself, i.e. you are using no pre-made engine, or you are using something like Unity or UE4 which is meant to give you full access to the programming side of things, you will probably need to learn programming. What you do not need is to learn two programming languages in parallel - it might actually be counterproductive. As long as you stick to imperative, object-oriented programming languages (like C++, C#, Java, you can also use Python in that way), the concepts are also basically identical. I personally like the comfortable environment of Microsoft's Visual Studio, so I think C# is a good point to start, though syntax might be a tad more easily readable in Python or even Pascal / Delphi (which I think is a particularly comfortable starting point for object oriented programming, though it is not used commercially anymore).
If you plan on using Unity, be aware that you use C# there, so you wouldn't have to relearn the syntax. However, learning exactly the language you are going to use is not so important. The important thing is to learn the concepts like basic datastructures, how method calls work, the difference between call by value and call by reference, iterative structures (while-loops, for-loops), recursion (potentially not so important, but it's a versatile and elegant technique) and branching strcutures (if then else). Also you should get a basic understanding of the object oriented paradigm, because it helps structuring your program nicely and in Unity, the scripts you write, are always classes.
On top of that I'd take a look at basic algorithms like Dijkstra, A* and search sorting algorithms because algorithmic thinking can help you program in an efficient way. If you cannot program at all yet, but still want to start working on your game as quick as possible, you could also stick to more accessible development environments, I think Game Maker Studio could get you a bit further without real programming than Unity or UE4.
I found and corrected something inefficient I had in that was causing more stuttering than necessary when enemies die... now I can do more...
http://www.gfycat.com/PlaintiveLoneAngwantibo
okay, time to go pass out
http://www.gfycat.com/PlaintiveLoneAngwantibo
okay, time to go pass out
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Some of those artstyles looked great, same as some of the designs. The ones you are using are still cool though.
A pity about the first vision being scraped, it looked incredible.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Pick a really basic game idea - like a game and watch game, or asteroids, or doodle jump, or arkanoid, download a bunch of different engines free trials (because you should be able to make a really basic single 'level' game in any of the trial versions where the engine isn't just free) and follow various tutorials to see how to do each part of that simple game - movement, collision detection, a UI that counts your score, etc.
See which engine suits what you are doing best.
Bear in mind that the engine that has this simple game up and running fastest might not be it - as you do each part, imagine how a more complicated version of what you are doing might be like to implement working in this engine and if its little quirks are things that you can live with longterm, or constraints you will find yourself fettered by.
Make your own assets. Figure out how long making an asset takes, and what kind of time investment making more assets will take. Figure out if you want to one man band everything, or pay the cash for outsourcing assets.
When you've chosen your engine, make the whole game from your prototype.
Not just a playable level; make an actual game that has a start screen, a failure condition, a game over screen, and that can be restarted, has sound effects and music, has animations, everything you can imagine that would go into an actual game if this was actually being released.
This game will suck by the way, but that's not the point.
You're teaching yourself how to make a game.
If you were really struggling with the coding, you should at this point know if you want to stick with simple designs that you can code yourself, and expand your knowledge over time, use a non-code based visual logic system (most popular indie engines have these), or find someone to program for you.
If you were really struggling with the assets, you should at this point know if you want to go abstract with simple geometric shapes or BEEP BOOP sound effects, use off the shelf free assets like a magpie, or outsource your art / music.
If you loved the coding or the asset creation, but really struggled with the game design part of things, you should know whether you want to make games in well trodden or well defined genres that look beautiful or do clever things in code, or work with someone else who is strong where you are not.
Now make another game that adds something that wasn't in the first one. Maybe AI. Maybe different levels. Maybe powerups. Maybe move from 2D into 3D.
Keep doing this until you feel you know enough of making the basic elements of a game to combine those into a thing you actually want to make.
The most important thing you can learn is knowing when something is good enough; any game making discipline if left to themself will navel-gaze and keep redoing the same work over and over again, even when it isn't necessary.
Coders will constantly try and keep refactoring their code to make it more efficient and elegant, artists will constantly want to go back and rework their first products to bring them up to the same standard as their newest efforts, designers will constantly want to go back and rework systems to fit better with newer systems and create an elegant unified design, or add new features.
Knowing when 'done' is 'done' is the hardest thing you will ever learn, and the end user will never know what isn't there, only what is.
Jacksinthe
Banned
SquirrelWide
Member
At the risk of TMI, here's a sampling of what I do:
- Programmer for government contractor. Want to switch to games, but this pays the bills and isn't entirely uninteresting. (and flexible schedule + school = yay)
- Going back to school for cs - almost done. False started career in a different field/degree. The formal education augments what I've been doing on my own time.
- Worked as a cs research assistant for most of the last academic year.
- Lots of side projects to up skill level.
SeanNoonan
Member
Made a title screen and updated the game a little:
Click for updated version
Reckon I'll put a slight time curve so the first few are easier to get - might think about some alternate control methods too...
Click for updated version
Reckon I'll put a slight time curve so the first few are easier to get - might think about some alternate control methods too...
Oppo
Member
Hey indie devs. I could use some advice.
Here is a mockup of the thing I'm working on.. it's a strategy game, similar vein to spaceship "management" games:
That main "shaft" towards the front of the ship was originally an elevator. I ditched that for "transport pads" (not shown) that will simply zip the crew sprites between floors. But I'm not sure how to do the logic to reach the appropriate floor first. Essentially it needs to be something like: if room trigger clicked is on a different than current crew floor, run to nearest elevator pad and execute that to correct floor, then run to target.
Just curious how some of you would handle it. Bonus points for a Playmaker based solution (I love it!). Thanks!
Sorry - just bumping this in hope of maybe getting a better idea.
I've figured out a couple of ways to do the above but they feel a bit hacky to me. What I really want to do is set a variable attached to the room triggers, such as a Floor# Int, so when I get clickedObject it can simply give back what object was clicked, and what floor it is on. I'm not happy with the methods I've seen for this so far, anyone have ideas? I guess I could just attach a simple script with a private var but I feel like there is probably a better way to create a "custom Porperty" for the floors. thanks.
chromatic aberration! nooooooSeanNoonan said:
SeanNoonan
Member
Jacksinthe
Banned
Made a title screen and updated the game a little:
Click for updated version
Reckon I'll put a slight time curve so the first few are easier to get - might think about some alternate control methods too...
I dig this. It's almost perfect for what it is but I do have one slight beef - the first few times I swore I hit the square while it was still clearly a visible size and not disappeared to oblivion but I quickly realized that the square disappears before it shrinks all the way.
My first logical jump after seeing them shrink is that I expected them to just shrink to nothing, vs disappearing when they don't look like they should. Perhaps if going that way you can make a small color shift from yellow to red over no more than 1 second. This way there is more of a sense of timing to the blocks disappearing and will be easier to judge time with color and size.
Just my .02
Attaching the script makes the most sense to me, but make the variable public instead of private. This way it can be assigned a value in the inspector (if the value is constant), otherwise making it public also makes it available to PlayMaker where you can access it via the GetComponent and GetProperty actions.
Slight caveat to this: In the modern day of AAA games with trailers that have stuff the final game is missing, sometimes end users DO end up knowing what's not there.
Tap?
Jacksinthe
Banned
Rub
Lick
Squeeze
Brush
Tease
Whip
Feather
Slap
Those should do.
Edit: I just realized you guys were talking about a different kind of touching.
zeioIIDX
Member
Thanks so much for everything you said! The arena and button layout idea is one I honestly didn't think of but I dig it. I think I'll alter it, toss it onto my phone, and test it out to see how that feels.
Haha, as far as it being developed for PC, I agree the aesthetic fits more for a mobile game. The only reason I even considered putting it on PC is because Game Maker Studio allows you to export your game as a .exe file to play on PC so I figured, "Eh...why not?". You're right though, if I ditched that, it would definitely alleviate some added pressure/stress since I'd most likely have to alter the way the PC version looks by removing the border (or at least the buttons on the screen).
You get exactly what I had in mind as far as the hits and style of play. I'm toying around with the idea of having little micro-pauses as the characters' attacks land and definitely planning on having particles. Possibly a slight screen-shaking effect as well. I need to get around to putting in power-ups too because the Dash move is going to have a meter underneath your health bar which is exhausted the more you dash so it'll have to be replenished somehow. But maybe power-ups in a fighting game of this style wouldn't be the way to go, it isn't Power Stone or Smash Bros. so I suppose I can always just have the Dash meter slowly refill over time so it can't be spammed.
Again, thanks a lot for the encouragement and ideas! I know I shouldn't expect everyone to like my idea or give kind words, that's just life. But every little bit helps and your reply has actually made the gears in my head start turning again! I'll make sure to pop in here when I've made progress.
Oppo
Member
thank you. I did just that. wiring it up now.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
I'll take the last two in conjunction: "feather-slap". feather-slap it is.
right on my man, right on.
HellBlazer
Member
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
This is really hard, unless I'm misunderstanding something. :|
By the way, do you intend on developing your Ludum Dare 32 entry further? I loved the style of it.
VisceralBowl
Member
I'm back with some more refined teases of our project's movement.
Hoverboot landing WIP
Hoverboot landing WIP
Does anyone know of and good ways to learn 3d modeling, animation and texturing? Are there any Unity like programs for those tasks (free version, easy to use)?
I've tried using Blender but it's a bit difficult to find any good tutorials on building game levels.
Im just looking to make primitive designs similar to ps1 graphics. Most of the level layouts would be flat with textures. I'm thinking if I can't get 3d modeling down I'll just use quads or something in unity and texture them and use sprites for everything else ala duke nukem 3d.
This is just a personal quest to make the game I want.
I've tried using Blender but it's a bit difficult to find any good tutorials on building game levels.
Im just looking to make primitive designs similar to ps1 graphics. Most of the level layouts would be flat with textures. I'm thinking if I can't get 3d modeling down I'll just use quads or something in unity and texture them and use sprites for everything else ala duke nukem 3d.
This is just a personal quest to make the game I want.
Blender (or any other modeling tool) can be used to create textured models, either simple or complex. There is a learning curve to it, certainly.
I am not a professional but I think the normal flow is for tools like Blender to create "assets" -- modular walls, stairs, windows, doors, computers, monsters, guns, etc. Then, an actual game engine (Unity, Unreal Engine 4, etc.) is used to combine a bunch of those assets. Think taking LEGO pieces, and placing them to form a "building", which is your level.
If you want to make a game with very straight, blocky environments, you might be able to use BSP blocks/quads created in the engine itself and apply textures to them. Otherwise, you'd model those in a modeling program, and import them into the engine.
There may be special cases for things like landscapes...I'm not very familiar with how you would import those, and at least in the case of Unreal Engine 4, I think there are some built-in tools for creating them.
SeanNoonan
Member
Yeah, it was lacking a difficulty curve - I just put one in: http://sean-noonan.com/development/dev_noonantap/1_5/
And regarding my Ludum Dare entry, yes, I plan to go back to it and add the additional floors I had planned. It'll still be a short game, probably 5 or 6 times the length of that teaser. PC, Mac and iOS probably (platforms I can reasonably port to).
What would you like doing the most, or what are you interested in the most
when programming games given your cs/research interest? Did ever post
something about your side projects?
lolThis thread is actually the reason I did it
Will I be send to jail having access to such hot material? xD
HellBlazer
Member
Well, I made it to 10 points this time. <_<
Ah cool, good to hear.
SeanNoonan
Member
Really, I'm curious to see where my design intentions aren't being understood. The biggest problem I've seen so far are when people don't have much vertical space around the game (the majority of the game control happens in the void rather than within the game window).
If I can port this to iOS I'll be changing the control scheme for sure.
I always feel bad not posting any updates in here and I read this topic constantly. The balance of showing stuff and doing work is a difficult one in my experience.
I have been hard at work on redesigning some aspects of Horizon Danger and finally feel that it's getting somewhere that feels close to how I imagined it. I redesigned most of the menu stuff and slowly started working on new graphics and music for the stages.
Had some luck in recording some gameplay footage this weekend, main problem I have with this project is playtesting and recording footage since it's a local mp game and it's a solo project. Never going to do that again!
https://youtu.be/sl_7TabsamQ
I have been hard at work on redesigning some aspects of Horizon Danger and finally feel that it's getting somewhere that feels close to how I imagined it. I redesigned most of the menu stuff and slowly started working on new graphics and music for the stages.
Had some luck in recording some gameplay footage this weekend, main problem I have with this project is playtesting and recording footage since it's a local mp game and it's a solo project. Never going to do that again!
https://youtu.be/sl_7TabsamQ
liliththepale
Banned
I always feel bad not posting any updates in here and I read this topic constantly. The balance of showing stuff and doing work is a difficult one in my experience.
I have been hard at work on redesigning some aspects of Horizon Danger and finally feel that it's getting somewhere that feels close to how I imagined it. I redesigned most of the menu stuff and slowly started working on new graphics and music for the stages.
Had some luck in recording some gameplay footage this weekend, main problem I have with this project is playtesting and recording footage since it's a local mp game and it's a solo project. Never going to do that again!
https://youtu.be/sl_7TabsamQ
That looks and sounds so great! Really cool. Thanks for sharing.
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I always feel bad not posting any updates in here and I read this topic constantly. The balance of showing stuff and doing work is a difficult one in my experience.
I have been hard at work on redesigning some aspects of Horizon Danger and finally feel that it's getting somewhere that feels close to how I imagined it. I redesigned most of the menu stuff and slowly started working on new graphics and music for the stages.
Had some luck in recording some gameplay footage this weekend, main problem I have with this project is playtesting and recording footage since it's a local mp game and it's a solo project. Never going to do that again!
https://youtu.be/sl_7TabsamQ
Looking good
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Made a title screen and updated the game a little:
Click for updated version
Reckon I'll put a slight time curve so the first few are easier to get - might think about some alternate control methods too...
This game is crazy hard
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
As mentioned above, Blender very much can beyour one stop shop for modelling texturing and animating, its just... sorta really clunky to learn.
For making levels, theres actually a few different ways you can do it that Unity supports, and which one you go with is pretty much your choice. They all have different Pros and Cons.
First off, is the giant mesh level - you build the entire level as one huge model and then import it, then just add it to a scene with collision, and there you go. This used to be pretty common in game development (at least one of the GTAs is built this way IIRC, and a lot of Q3 maps were too) but isn't so common anymore as levels become less "made by one guy" affairs.
Second is the terrain tool - just add a terrain gameobject, and then use unitys built-in terrain tools to modify it (or other terrain tools from the asset store). You then import specific models as static props and place them where you want on the terrain. This is the method Unity was clearly designed around using, and is extremely common to see in game development.
The third most common way - and the way a lot of random and pseudo random level layout games like diablo do it - is building sections of a level as 'building blocks' that can be attached to each other. In Unity, you would probably use a Plane of a fixed size, and then drop models on it as though it was a tile for a diorama, then either manually or procedurally add tiles together to create levels. For games based on tile based movement especially you can get really good results this way.
Mystic River
Member
I am wondering about one thing, if you have a game with hundreds of variables, classes, dependencies, let's say a RTS game for example, how do you handle your save game?
how do you make sure every single variable, etc is saved and loaded correctly in an easy way? I am thinking if there is a way to dump all the memory allocated in your game into a file and load the game state from it, any good ideas how to do that or something better?
I really don't want to write a save game class since there are so many classes, variables and dependencies that I will get old trying to save everything, probably will take a month or more
how do you make sure every single variable, etc is saved and loaded correctly in an easy way? I am thinking if there is a way to dump all the memory allocated in your game into a file and load the game state from it, any good ideas how to do that or something better?
I really don't want to write a save game class since there are so many classes, variables and dependencies that I will get old trying to save everything, probably will take a month or more
Jacksinthe
Banned
It is a possibility. I hope the NSA isn't watching!
- Status