Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Making a cool looking icon is really hard :/
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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that looks so damn good. seriously. bloody excellent work.
OccamsBlender
Member
Post drafts?
Is Game Editor free now?
http://game-editor.com/
I don't see the license/purchase pages any more.
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I've got nothing. I really don't have much artistic ability, except to recognise when something looks like complete shit. My game's character is just a box, so I guess I'll do a really simple icon with a box and try to make it look good somehow.
NingenJanai
Member
Anyone has a tutorial on how to do animation on dx11? I've managed to load obj model with textures but I have no clue on how to animate it 
^ very nice. good water too.
I haven't worked on my metroidvania, Ghost Song, in any meaningful way in like two months. My obligations are about to be done with, though, and I'm about to go back into working on this thing in earnest.
To celebrate, here's some (possibly? can't remember) new screenshots. These are after the player obtains their companion (the little floating bot). He generally doesn't functionally do much, but he does enable maps. Originally I wanted to do a major, evolving virtual pet aspect to him, but I couldn't figure out how to balance abilities gained from him with abilities not gained from him, and decided focusing on this type of design may be best left to another game. There's still a bit of it, but scaled back compared to my original goals.
I haven't worked on my metroidvania, Ghost Song, in any meaningful way in like two months. My obligations are about to be done with, though, and I'm about to go back into working on this thing in earnest.
To celebrate, here's some (possibly? can't remember) new screenshots. These are after the player obtains their companion (the little floating bot). He generally doesn't functionally do much, but he does enable maps. Originally I wanted to do a major, evolving virtual pet aspect to him, but I couldn't figure out how to balance abilities gained from him with abilities not gained from him, and decided focusing on this type of design may be best left to another game. There's still a bit of it, but scaled back compared to my original goals.
Can't go back up, only way is down through that mysterious latch.
Aaand it's the pack rat's lair.
This is one of the consequences of falling from those platforms.
One well placed charge blast will wipe out this whole line of enemies.
Mysterious locked door.
Tread very carefully.
Ghost dash!
Hey buddy, didn't know you were on here. Great shots as well, really coming along nicely!^ very nice. good water too.
I haven't worked on my metroidvania, Ghost Song, in any meaningful way in like two months. My obligations are about to be done with, though, and I'm about to go back into working on this thing in earnest.
To celebrate, here's some (possibly? can't remember) new screenshots. These are after the player obtains their companion (the little floating bot). He generally doesn't functionally do much, but he does enable maps. Originally I wanted to do a major, evolving virtual pet aspect to him, but I couldn't figure out how to balance abilities gained from him with abilities not gained from him, and decided focusing on this type of design may be best left to another game. There's still a bit of it, but scaled back compared to my original goals.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Feeling a little shy about posting in here, so I haven't posted my previous projects. I'm pretty happy with the way this one is going though, so I really wanted to share. (Also I'm primarily an artist/writer/designer, with only enough programming knowledge to poke around in things.)
I'm currently making a visual novel (with a lot of adventure elements) set in the same world of a comic I also draw and write (with different characters and a different story, however.)
Pretty happy with that crane painting, actually. I've never done any ink painting before, so that was something new!
Another Ren'Py game! I'm not alone!
The background is great!
Nice, what engine?
Thank you!
Surprisingly that background only took around 7-8 hours. I'm working on the intro/character selection screen (they are one and the same) at the moment and it's taking much longer. The characters have to be perfect and it's just not there yet!
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Our backgrounds are all photos I took or public domain.
Our Innsmouth and Devil Reef are actually "Innsmouth" and "Devil Reef", in Massachucets.
Miskatonic University is UCSC.
Our Innsmouth and Devil Reef are actually "Innsmouth" and "Devil Reef", in Massachucets.
Miskatonic University is UCSC.
Thanks.
The game is made entirely in Unity Free.
It's suprising, what you can do even without realtime shadows and post-processing effects.
Light plays an important role and it's propably the most important thing that can make your scene look good.
Can't wait to share more... Hopefully I can release a trailer before the end of summer.
Almost forgot it was #screenshotsaturday
Did a good bit of work the past week and added in some elements. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the cape. At the very least I will edit the model a bit more. But the big problem is Unity's skinned cloth system, which isn't working all that well at the moment. It would be great if they fix it up soon, so I could use it more frequently, even to simulate hair and fur movement.
Did a good bit of work the past week and added in some elements. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the cape. At the very least I will edit the model a bit more. But the big problem is Unity's skinned cloth system, which isn't working all that well at the moment. It would be great if they fix it up soon, so I could use it more frequently, even to simulate hair and fur movement.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Lissar,
Have you run into the music loop problem when messing with "scenes" that are broken up all across the code? And if so, how did you deal with it?
Have you run into the music loop problem when messing with "scenes" that are broken up all across the code? And if so, how did you deal with it?
#screenshotsaturday !
Visually not many changes from the last screenshots I posted but this time we've also made a trailer that shows a little more of the game as well as the music and rhythm elements that go with it:
http://youtu.be/URLiLaweeio
Its my first time recording gameplay footage so the video may seem a little choppy but the game runs much smoother than that. On that note, which application would you recommend for recording?
Also we've made a much more mobile friendly version of our web: http://missingdragonfly.com/ there are still some little details to fix but its up and running. And from now on we are going to be using our twitter account so if anyone here needs followers for their game/group/studio/younameit we are happpy to follow and be followed back! (https://twitter.com/Missingdf)
Visually not many changes from the last screenshots I posted but this time we've also made a trailer that shows a little more of the game as well as the music and rhythm elements that go with it:
http://youtu.be/URLiLaweeio
Its my first time recording gameplay footage so the video may seem a little choppy but the game runs much smoother than that. On that note, which application would you recommend for recording?
Also we've made a much more mobile friendly version of our web: http://missingdragonfly.com/ there are still some little details to fix but its up and running. And from now on we are going to be using our twitter account so if anyone here needs followers for their game/group/studio/younameit we are happpy to follow and be followed back! (https://twitter.com/Missingdf)
Diablohead
Member
A few days away from submitting a lite build of generations, it won't feature a lot of stuff but give you a good 30 minutes of gaming to test the engine, it won't be for sale but I will have some itunes keys to give out hopefully at the end of this month.
#screenshotsaturday
Been improving animations for shooting and how it all works so it's all nice and solid for real gameplay.
*edit* everything is looking great in the last few pages, keep up the hard work everyone!
#screenshotsaturday
Been improving animations for shooting and how it all works so it's all nice and solid for real gameplay.
*edit* everything is looking great in the last few pages, keep up the hard work everyone!
I'm halfway through the derivation of the formulas and equations necessary for
physically simulating the motion of the AG crafts I'm going to build, hoping
to finish the equations next week such that I can start implementing it all
and start to compute some motions of some simple objects like cubes,
cylinders, blades etc., all carrying a weight, moving around depending on the
forces applied. Well, actually, getting the forces right isn't going to be
that easy, esp. if you want to have some sort of cool lifting forces generated
while moving some fancy blades/wings though the air. But thanks to NASA for
making the NACA airfoil data public (lift/drag relations with respect to angle
of attack for certain airfoil shapes)! With this data I think it shouldn't be
too hard to compose some of those wings together making them fly. That would
be awesome! Since this would prevent me from tweaking the forces out of thin
air.
physically simulating the motion of the AG crafts I'm going to build, hoping
to finish the equations next week such that I can start implementing it all
and start to compute some motions of some simple objects like cubes,
cylinders, blades etc., all carrying a weight, moving around depending on the
forces applied. Well, actually, getting the forces right isn't going to be
that easy, esp. if you want to have some sort of cool lifting forces generated
while moving some fancy blades/wings though the air. But thanks to NASA for
making the NACA airfoil data public (lift/drag relations with respect to angle
of attack for certain airfoil shapes)! With this data I think it shouldn't be
too hard to compose some of those wings together making them fly. That would
be awesome! Since this would prevent me from tweaking the forces out of thin
air.
A few days away from submitting a lite build of generations, it won't feature a lot of stuff but give you a good 30 minutes of gaming to test the engine, it won't be for sale but I will have some itunes keys to give out hopefully at the end of this month.
#screenshotsaturday
Been improving animations for shooting and how it all works so it's all nice and solid for real gameplay.
*edit* everything is looking great in the last few pages, keep up the hard work everyone!
looks amazing. is there a way to let me check it out without having an IOS device?
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I love the look of this
nukembashi
Neo Member
Man, I hope I'm not in the wrong thread asking this question. I know that you guys are talking about development tools and how to effectively use them, but what I want to know is: Are you guys already employed, or are any of you currently looking for work?
I'm looking to hire a coder to do some simple work.
With the kind of stuff I've seen on this thread, I'm wondering if I'm in a thread full of truly indie developers, or am I stumbling into a place that other mid-level managers would go through to steal employees from other companies?
I'm looking to hire a coder to do some simple work.
With the kind of stuff I've seen on this thread, I'm wondering if I'm in a thread full of truly indie developers, or am I stumbling into a place that other mid-level managers would go through to steal employees from other companies?
pretty sure this is all truly indie developers. speaking for myself, I'm really winging it and I've (so far) never made money from games.
Diablohead
Member
looks amazing. is there a way to let me check it out without having an IOS device?
I can do a pc build but not until after the iOS one is submitted bug free, already pulling my hair out when something works on one but no the other
Right now her gun does not rotate on iOS so it looks really odd, got a fix going though.
Big problem is the controls, aiming your weapon is reliant on the mouse to emulate touch currently, on keyboard you only shoot directly left and right megaman style and i've not got working twin stick joypad support in yet.
I work part time at a store and over 2 years funded everything myself, no kickstarter crap, probably spent close or over £ 2000 so far for a mac, original music and art, all that kind of stuff.
Do I hope to make money? of course but it's not going to end me if it flops or only covers a foot of the bill, if I can get my 2000 back I would be very happy.
Diablohead
Member
oops double post.
I must admit I've thought about doing KS crap on many occasions, so far I haven't, but a successful KS would allow me to do this game so much more properly. I could spend much more time on it and bring my friend on who is a legit programmer. it's a very intoxicating thought, obviously getting something funded successfully is a big question mark for the little guy.
Mystic River
Member
in my case I work during the day in another kind of job, then at nights I am 100% indie and trying to publish my first game , well, whenever I finish it
Hi, I'm glad to inform that the Snails Trial for Windows is now available for download online.
Together with it, we are launching the new webpage for the game.
You can visit the page at www.snailsvideogame.net and download the game from there.
Don't also forget that the Windows Phone version is already available in the
Windows Phone Marketplace. It's the full game and it has also a trial. At the moment the game is bombing real hard, just like Fuse! hehehe
Please send any feedback to 2brainsgames@gmail.com.
Together with it, we are launching the new webpage for the game.
You can visit the page at www.snailsvideogame.net and download the game from there.
Don't also forget that the Windows Phone version is already available in the
Windows Phone Marketplace. It's the full game and it has also a trial. At the moment the game is bombing real hard, just like Fuse! hehehe
Please send any feedback to 2brainsgames@gmail.com.
Thanks!
Well, we certainly would love too. But we have to pay for Mono licenses. Let's see what will happen. We are already having some trouble with the Mac version.
So you are a mid-level manager, managing what?
The Team
Hi, so quickly to get it out of the way - we are Hatchlight, a group formed from long-time game industry grunts.
Hatchlight is our outlet for creativity and for trying things just to try them.
Our team has worked on AAA games, indie games, mainly iOS in the last few years.
Plus we were behind the Bank Heist game that predated Payday, yet had an untimely death due to things out of our control.
Follow our dev updates via hatchlight.net and @hatchlight.
_______________________________________________________________________
The Game
The game I present to you today is Rescue Love Revenge. It's a platform game by the looks of it, and set in the Old West. Our storytelling jumps from character to character, to and fro on the timeline - to the effect that when fully realized, the game will feel very Tarantinesque. Actually it sort of already does.
Our game, #RLR, is divided into three ACTS, roughly characterized as "Rescue", "Love", and "Revenge" (oooh). Each ACT has numerous CHAPTERS, which we use to fill in distinct story elements as well as variations in gameplay. (More on this later).
THE PLAN for RLR is a long, slow build that will hopefully give players what they want, and arrest our need to weave this tale we've been weaving. Though the game appears like a Mario Clone with cowboy hats, anyone playing long enough will get to the "heart"....of the matter. We like puns too, unfortunately.
_______________________________________________________________________
History
CHAPTER 1 was made and released in two weeks, back in March. We released it for free, with a lucrative "donate" option. Chp1 follows a cowboy and his search for damsels. The gameplay is autorun, tap to jump, hold to jump higher, double tap to jump twice.
CHAPTER 2 was released a month or so later, and follows a new character, called THE GRIZZLE. Griz' is pretty much a badass. Chapter 2 has additional gameplay which builds off of chp1's intense retro reconnoiter. It gets nutty.
CHAPTER 3 is being worked on now. It is hinted within the game, via screenshot. Game Changer.
The overall vibe of RLR is funny, weird, sad, difficult, "Wild West", and definitely bloody. We wouldn't dare make a Tarantinesque game without making it bloody. In fact, our internal codename for the project was "Django", and many late nights were spent blasting the Django theme song at each other from various corners of the internet.
_______________________________________________________________________
RLR Updates
Now on that 'variations in gameplay' clue I mentioned earlier- the game will most likely end up being one that if (ever) reviewed, would be called 'genre-bending' in the least. Kotaku [will] rave that "we were unafraid to break boundaries just to get more clicks". The staff of Polygon [will] "weep like Tom Mix at Wyatt Earp's funeral". We hope the story ends up vicious, ruthless, and poignant. In future updates you'll see us move away from one-touch gameplay and towards more normal platforming, then into some other areas that we'll keep secret for the time being.
_______________________________________________________________________
Moment of Truth
Though initially free with a donate button, we added a shop and many worthless hats and weapons that no one bought. We then picked ourselves up off of the couch, tossed the whiskey bottles away and looked at our unshaven selves in the mirror. "Is f2p what we want to be known for? A game that is designed to eek money out of people? Indie-game-lovers?" We realized that what we had worked on for the last few years skewed our morals like an Air Force Drone pilot during a tour (not judging). We took out the f2p crap and made the gear earnable through modest playtime. The game is now a dollar on iTunes and has no internal IAP scheme. It will remain a buck until we realize that we have provided "a dollar's worth" of content. It's a long-tail sort of thing.
Please, by all means, check out Rescue Love Revenge.
TL;DR: https://itunes.apple.com/gw/app/rescue-love-revenge/id611082442?mt=8
_______________________________________________________________________
One More Thing!
We also have a teespring campaign up and running. We are already over our minimum, but there's only a few days left. If you want a LEGIT INDIE TEE this is your chance. ---> [[[RLR Limited Edition Tee]]] <---
Hi, so quickly to get it out of the way - we are Hatchlight, a group formed from long-time game industry grunts.
Hatchlight is our outlet for creativity and for trying things just to try them.
Our team has worked on AAA games, indie games, mainly iOS in the last few years.
Plus we were behind the Bank Heist game that predated Payday, yet had an untimely death due to things out of our control.
"pioneers get slaughtered...and settlers prosper"
Follow our dev updates via hatchlight.net and @hatchlight.
_______________________________________________________________________
The Game
The game I present to you today is Rescue Love Revenge. It's a platform game by the looks of it, and set in the Old West. Our storytelling jumps from character to character, to and fro on the timeline - to the effect that when fully realized, the game will feel very Tarantinesque. Actually it sort of already does.
Our game, #RLR, is divided into three ACTS, roughly characterized as "Rescue", "Love", and "Revenge" (oooh). Each ACT has numerous CHAPTERS, which we use to fill in distinct story elements as well as variations in gameplay. (More on this later).
THE PLAN for RLR is a long, slow build that will hopefully give players what they want, and arrest our need to weave this tale we've been weaving. Though the game appears like a Mario Clone with cowboy hats, anyone playing long enough will get to the "heart"....of the matter. We like puns too, unfortunately.
_______________________________________________________________________
History
CHAPTER 1 was made and released in two weeks, back in March. We released it for free, with a lucrative "donate" option. Chp1 follows a cowboy and his search for damsels. The gameplay is autorun, tap to jump, hold to jump higher, double tap to jump twice.
CHAPTER 2 was released a month or so later, and follows a new character, called THE GRIZZLE. Griz' is pretty much a badass. Chapter 2 has additional gameplay which builds off of chp1's intense retro reconnoiter. It gets nutty.
CHAPTER 3 is being worked on now. It is hinted within the game, via screenshot. Game Changer.
We reserve the right to add new levels to old chapters, add new chapters between old ones, and generally screw with your head.
The overall vibe of RLR is funny, weird, sad, difficult, "Wild West", and definitely bloody. We wouldn't dare make a Tarantinesque game without making it bloody. In fact, our internal codename for the project was "Django", and many late nights were spent blasting the Django theme song at each other from various corners of the internet.
_______________________________________________________________________
RLR Updates
Now on that 'variations in gameplay' clue I mentioned earlier- the game will most likely end up being one that if (ever) reviewed, would be called 'genre-bending' in the least. Kotaku [will] rave that "we were unafraid to break boundaries just to get more clicks". The staff of Polygon [will] "weep like Tom Mix at Wyatt Earp's funeral". We hope the story ends up vicious, ruthless, and poignant. In future updates you'll see us move away from one-touch gameplay and towards more normal platforming, then into some other areas that we'll keep secret for the time being.
_______________________________________________________________________
Moment of Truth
Though initially free with a donate button, we added a shop and many worthless hats and weapons that no one bought. We then picked ourselves up off of the couch, tossed the whiskey bottles away and looked at our unshaven selves in the mirror. "Is f2p what we want to be known for? A game that is designed to eek money out of people? Indie-game-lovers?" We realized that what we had worked on for the last few years skewed our morals like an Air Force Drone pilot during a tour (not judging). We took out the f2p crap and made the gear earnable through modest playtime. The game is now a dollar on iTunes and has no internal IAP scheme. It will remain a buck until we realize that we have provided "a dollar's worth" of content. It's a long-tail sort of thing.
Please, by all means, check out Rescue Love Revenge.
TL;DR: https://itunes.apple.com/gw/app/rescue-love-revenge/id611082442?mt=8
_______________________________________________________________________
One More Thing!
We also have a teespring campaign up and running. We are already over our minimum, but there's only a few days left. If you want a LEGIT INDIE TEE this is your chance. ---> [[[RLR Limited Edition Tee]]] <---
I have my game for a week now on the Windows Phone Markeplace, the game costs $0.99
and at the moment the only copies I sold, where bought by the team members and a friend.
People want free stuff it seems, and are not willing to pay not even $0.99. That or my game is pure crap. I'm thinking about creating a free version of the game with ads in it and see what will happen.
I'm going to check your game.
From my experience, it seems that a free game with ads will not generate much revenue unless it is getting, like, hundreds of thousands of impressions. It depends on what your goals are with your app - naturally a free version will attract more players, but note that it might not necessarily mean more revenue.
nukembashi
Neo Member
I've never been a big fan of middlemen and escrow services, but in this modern day and age, where most producers or anyone of importance works for AAA companies, it's become a necessity that there is no easy way around.
In any case, how much would a small-time programmer ask for for a small job? Small artists and musicians will usually work on a commission basis, and individuals in the acting business will oftentimes work on a similar basis, since there is far, far more supply than there is demand. But what about the independent programmer market?
Should I think about hiring a team first to get a larger project going, or are small, piecemeal type jobs something that many programmers are comfortable with?
vladimirdlc
Neo Member
This is not so strange as you may think. Did you do any marketing, at least in forums? Is your game attractive to a niche so it can get spread by word of mouth?
@nukembashi: Hard to answer since most of the things you write about are quite
relative, i.e. "how much would a small-time programmer ask for for a small
job". The question is, what are you up to? That's why I wrote 'managing
what?', i.e. define the two 'smalls' in your sentence. I think this will help
some people here in given a suitable answer.
relative, i.e. "how much would a small-time programmer ask for for a small
job". The question is, what are you up to? That's why I wrote 'managing
what?', i.e. define the two 'smalls' in your sentence. I think this will help
some people here in given a suitable answer.
SheikRattleEnroll
Banned
The quality of art in a lot of the titles here is amazing.
Where do you guys find your artists?
Where do you guys find your artists?
^ very nice. good water too.
I haven't worked on my metroidvania, Ghost Song, in any meaningful way in like two months. My obligations are about to be done with, though, and I'm about to go back into working on this thing in earnest.
To celebrate, here's some (possibly? can't remember) new screenshots. These are after the player obtains their companion (the little floating bot). He generally doesn't functionally do much, but he does enable maps. Originally I wanted to do a major, evolving virtual pet aspect to him, but I couldn't figure out how to balance abilities gained from him with abilities not gained from him, and decided focusing on this type of design may be best left to another game. There's still a bit of it, but scaled back compared to my original goals.
Wow, that looks and sounds awesome! I really like Metroidvania games. Will you have an item/inventory system? Will maps be randomly generated or designed?
Looks great.. i really like that "clean"-look. the "evolve"-effect in the trailer also looks ver nice. Great work.
OccamsBlender
Member
VERY impressive. I love looking at your screenshots, you're an amazing developer.
Ah. Graphics aren't everything, Thomas was Alone kicked arse without them.
We posted in some forums yes. We have 250 downloads in a week and 5 sold. 3 of this downloads are "real" sells. The other 2 are from me and my friend.
Today I just found out that the game is crashing in Windows Phone 8 making it unplayable.
.I'll have to correct this ASAP. I don't know exactly how, because I don't even own a Windows Phone 8.
Am just curious about how Sony is going to support the indies on PS4 from a
programmers point of view. I think it's going to be kind of a sandbox. Has
anyone got some more information? And did someone over here made an attempt
in getting a real PS4 devkit, or even thought about it?
programmers point of view. I think it's going to be kind of a sandbox. Has
anyone got some more information? And did someone over here made an attempt
in getting a real PS4 devkit, or even thought about it?
Mystic River
Member
I am also looking for PS4 info, so far looks like Unity is one of the options, no idea about other solutions yet, but I heard that Mono may be also available in the future, if that is true then C# with Mono can be a very good thing to use since both are free
you find new abilities and weapons and can increase your stats, but there's no inventory per se. I have my eye on my next game down the line where it'll be even more of an rpg and have a traditional inventory.
the map is all static, it's done in a traditional metroid-style way. thanks for checking it out.
Am just asking here since it would had been a good question to ask for any
indie developer at E3. Perhaps someone did.
Real devkits won't be as sheep, esp. not if Sony doubled the amount of RAM as
they always did. A 16GB (GDDR5) PS4 devkit + licenses may put the kit in the
5-10k range.
Would be cool if there could be any solution using the retail PS4 for indie
development.
Another time for good measure:
Everyone who has some screenshots/videos to show, or even something playable, is welcome to step into the Indie thread and may feel free to post about it/ask for impressions/just talk about concepts! Use some common sense to avoid spamming, but otherwise we'd LOVE to read about your games as well.
Here is the thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=572913
ALLLLL of you are welcome over there, so please dont be afraid. Personally I am looking at every single game that gets posted in there and we have built a small community that feels similar. If you got something to show, dont be afraid to crosspost in both threads! Let us know over there too!
A lot of the very creative folks making games on their own are busy, shy and considerate people seeking legitimate fan attention/feedback while trying their best not to feel like "douchebag spammers", which is how most of the press make them feel by ignoring them, forcing the situation. This in turn leads to a hesitation to "spam" their home, GAF, especially in the absence of demand. This is where it's up to us indie fans to seek them out and make them feel welcome, over and over because they're just people, not big corporations
My message to indie GAF is be brave, be confident, use common sense/good judgement and let the members here decide where that line is. You want fans and they're potentially here and right now all I'm hearing is demand
Everyone who has some screenshots/videos to show, or even something playable, is welcome to step into the Indie thread and may feel free to post about it/ask for impressions/just talk about concepts! Use some common sense to avoid spamming, but otherwise we'd LOVE to read about your games as well.
Here is the thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=572913
ALLLLL of you are welcome over there, so please dont be afraid. Personally I am looking at every single game that gets posted in there and we have built a small community that feels similar. If you got something to show, dont be afraid to crosspost in both threads! Let us know over there too!
- Status