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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Ashodin

Member
Terrific Tuesday GIF!

I got all the columns to finally work, check it out!

XWuS02m.gif
 
Posted our first screenshots today of Air Dash Online's early build.

Our programmers, animators, and designers will be working hard this week to prep the game to show at EVO. After retooling our foundation a few weeks ago, it might be a little more along the lines of a proof of concept than a full fledged fighter at this point, but we'll bring it regardless.

screenshot15lsim.jpg

screenshot24usw7.jpg


For those of you catching up, the game is built in Unity3d. I'm responsible for the all the dynamic lighting, shader programming, and now this environment. There's also a second character I built, but we'll see if he makes it in time for our EVO.

Wow, that looks pretty amazing. Is like something like smash bros with platforms but with complete 3D movement?
 

snarge

Member
Attn: Unity Pros

I posted a question on UnityAnswers a day or two ago, doesn't seem to have been answered by any of the pros there yet: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/484746/sendmessage-within-a-sendmessage-receiver.html

It has to deal with a SendMessage issue (if you couldn't tell by the URL), I would post the question here but it's kind of lengthy. If any Unity wizards here have some time I would appreciate some insight. :)

Without seeing much more, I can only guess a few things:
1.) There is another component on the gameObject "Party[CurrentPartyMember]" that has the method "PromptForCommands" on it? Keep in mind that SendMessage gets sent to ALL the components on this gameObject.
2.) The if / else structure on the GetCommand method might be sending it twice in code that is not posted?
3.) Same as 1.), but there is an extra parent somewhere that has the receiver methods on it (From SendMessageUp)?
Could you Debug.Log the name of the command in "CommandSelected" to maybe see where it's coming from? Or you could do a ton of Debug.Log steps to isolate where it is coming from....and I mean line by line, haha. That's what I do when a problem no longer makes sense. One other shot in the dark might be that you are using Unity's GUI functions somewhere in this, which could get called twice per frame?

One last thing, and I hate that I can't give you a direct answer, but you may want to consider using an event / delegate system for something like this if it gets more complex than it is currently. SendMessage is notoriously slow, and the events / delegates are amazingly elegant and powerful, once you get used to them.
 
Thought I would dig out an older screenshot of my current iOS project Loot Legends

enFbC5p.png


I have been working alot on more tiles to give the maps lots of variety, and also different dungeon types like lava, water e.t.c

Some of the current features which I'm hoping to turn into a very casual roguelike nd put in a few unique twists

- randomised dungeons layouts
- lots of loot, currently it plays similar to a mario style game with lots of coins to collect
- a few different enemy varieties such as skeletons, snakes with different attack patterns
- some maps having more traditional mario style platforming such as moving platforms, falling floors e.t.c
- some rpg elements like hp, shield and xl levelling
- random player, a new type of warrior every time you play
-random dungeons themes each time you play (which get progressively harder as you go deeper). For example one minute you might be playing the stone level which is more focused on dodging spikes and basic skeletons, the next time you might reach the lava levels which has more platforming elements

Some of the things I'm considering adding

- lots of randomness, beside random maps, random player (with perhaps random stats) but also random enemy types depending on your current xl level
- add some meaning to coin collection ( I like the idea of dishing out coins for everything and anything ) , but at the same time it needs some purpose
- I like the idea of resetting your player each turn so xp e.t.c would all be reset (however loot would remain)

Would love to get people's opinions on how to give some meaning to loot, like mario I want a levels purpose to be not only to survive but collect as much loot as possible, I also don't want permanent upgrades and like the idea of new super mario bros 2 million coins achievement . Basically I want to give users to keep returning and boosting there coins, dishing out weekly rewards of coins for continually returning and playing.
 

Duderino

Member
Wow, that looks pretty amazing. Is like something like smash bros with platforms but with complete 3D movement?
Thanks! I've put a lot of work into both the art and our graphics tech.

Movement will still be 2D, but that's not to say we won't be mixing things up a bit. Smash Bros Melee in particular is our primary inspiration. Really excited to learn the 12 year old game has 700 entrants for the EVO tournament in Vegas.
 
That really reminds me of Prince of Persia for some reason
540x338xprince-of-persia.gif.pagespeed.ic.7LweSKBiYo.png


Same perspective I suppose.

It is definety deliberate, the perspective is one thing I wanted to copy from the old prince games , I will post up a new screen soon which will have tons more brick variety and objects like spikes , water , lava , boulders etc which will differentiate it more .

In terms of gameplay though it is nothing like the slow deliberate pace of prince , it's very much a Mario game set in a dungeon with some roguelike elements of rpg and randomisation .

I plan on littering maps with tons of gold and treasure to get players to explore (hidden paths, multiple exits like Mario e.t.c)
 

Ashodin

Member
Here's another GIF, I've been messing with the temp graphics while working on finding an artist (which may have just happened!)

D073VBL.gif


Also, you can demo the game right now if you'd like at

http://65.188.187.138:50000/ ! I'm having it up to test while I work on it, so some things may or may not work.
 

Feep

Banned
Hey, look, I made my very first .GIF! Yay! (56k warning: It's like 3.4 MB)

This is a demonstration of basic lighting in There Came an Echo. Both the ground texture and the little wall thingy are *completely flat images*. We emulate collision, lighting, and shadows with "invisible" approximating 3D geometry. In this case it's not approximate, it's pretty exact, but you get the point.

One issue is that the invisible walls are taking light, but not the color of the light...it's always white (the nodes should be giving off a yellow hue). But I'll figure it out, I'm sure. = D

TCAEGIF.gif
 

Ashodin

Member
Hey, look, I made my very first .GIF! Yay! (56k warning: It's like 3.4 MB)

This is a demonstration of basic lighting in There Came an Echo. Both the ground texture and the little wall thingy are *completely flat images*. We emulate collision, lighting, and shadows with "invisible" approximating 3D geometry. In this case it's not approximate, it's pretty exact, but you get the point.

One issue is that the invisible walls are taking light, but not the color of the light...it's always white (the nodes should be giving off a yellow hue). But I'll figure it out, I'm sure. = D

TCAEGIF.gif

Looks dope, man! Seems like you're doing the same tech that Obsidian is doing with their Project Eternity. Or something VERY similar to make me think of it.
 

Feep

Banned
Looks dope, man! Seems like you're doing the same tech that Obsidian is doing with their Project Eternity. Or something VERY similar to make me think of it.
I'm not quite sure how they're doing it...their little peak into the Unity editor is different than what ours looks like...but I imagine it's something similar.

I'm just one guy programming, and I've never used Unity before. If I can get something even 40% of the way to what Obsidian's got, I'll be real happy. = D
 
Hey, look, I made my very first .GIF! Yay! (56k warning: It's like 3.4 MB)

This is a demonstration of basic lighting in There Came an Echo. Both the ground texture and the little wall thingy are *completely flat images*. We emulate collision, lighting, and shadows with "invisible" approximating 3D geometry. In this case it's not approximate, it's pretty exact, but you get the point.

One issue is that the invisible walls are taking light, but not the color of the light...it's always white (the nodes should be giving off a yellow hue). But I'll figure it out, I'm sure. = D

TCAEGIF.gif

Looks awesome, are the character models 3D?

My guess is that the lighting in unity is based on the typical old opengl implementation. Since your wall are invisible, the alpha value is 0 and therefore you don't se the color of the lighting. Try using a textured white wall and see if you can see the light color.
 

charsace

Member
I'm not quite sure how they're doing it...their little peak into the Unity editor is different than what ours looks like...but I imagine it's something similar.

I'm just one guy programming, and I've never used Unity before. If I can get something even 40% of the way to what Obsidian's got, I'll be real happy. = D

You're both most likely doing it the same way and the way I learned to do it through xna tutorials.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Thought I would dig out an older screenshot of my current iOS project Loot Legends

enFbC5p.png


I have been working alot on more tiles to give the maps lots of variety, and also different dungeon types like lava, water e.t.c

Some of the current features which I'm hoping to turn into a very casual roguelike nd put in a few unique twists

- randomised dungeons layouts
- lots of loot, currently it plays similar to a mario style game with lots of coins to collect
- a few different enemy varieties such as skeletons, snakes with different attack patterns
- some maps having more traditional mario style platforming such as moving platforms, falling floors e.t.c
- some rpg elements like hp, shield and xl levelling
- random player, a new type of warrior every time you play
-random dungeons themes each time you play (which get progressively harder as you go deeper). For example one minute you might be playing the stone level which is more focused on dodging spikes and basic skeletons, the next time you might reach the lava levels which has more platforming elements

Some of the things I'm considering adding

- lots of randomness, beside random maps, random player (with perhaps random stats) but also random enemy types depending on your current xl level
- add some meaning to coin collection ( I like the idea of dishing out coins for everything and anything ) , but at the same time it needs some purpose
- I like the idea of resetting your player each turn so xp e.t.c would all be reset (however loot would remain)

Would love to get people's opinions on how to give some meaning to loot, like mario I want a levels purpose to be not only to survive but collect as much loot as possible, I also don't want permanent upgrades and like the idea of new super mario bros 2 million coins achievement . Basically I want to give users to keep returning and boosting there coins, dishing out weekly rewards of coins for continually returning and playing.
Just be careful if you are planning to sell it, because some of the sprites do look pretty similar to the Gameboy version:

pop8vsew.png
 

Feep

Banned
Looks awesome, are the character models 3D?

My guess is that the lighting in unity is based on the typical old opengl implementation. Since your wall are invisible, the alpha value is 0 and therefore you don't se the color of the lighting. Try using a textured white wall and see if you can see the light color.
Well, maybe, but if that's the case, why is even white showing up? It does receive light, it just isn't colored properly. I may post the shader code here in a week or two if I can't figure it out.

Also, charsace, what way is that? o_O

The character models are in fact 3-D. Our 3-D guys are just getting started, so I've been using that placeholder.
 

Ranger X

Member
On photoshop change the animation speed to 0 or 0.03 on all frames. Save for web and it should lower the size a bit. Also resize image if too big.

I own CS4 and it warn me when I open the .gif
It tells me I can see only one frame and if I save, I lose all the others. What gives?
 
Well, maybe, but if that's the case, why is even white showing up? It does receive light, it just isn't colored properly. I may post the shader code here in a week or two if I can't figure it out.

Sorry, from your picture it's hard to assume there's "white" light. I though it was the default color of the background.
 

Anustart

Member
Posted our first screenshots today of Air Dash Online's early build.

Our programmers, animators, and designers will be working hard this week to prep the game to show at EVO. After retooling our foundation a few weeks ago, it might be a little more along the lines of a proof of concept than a full fledged fighter at this point, but we'll bring it regardless.

screenshot15lsim.jpg

screenshot24usw7.jpg


For those of you catching up, the game is built in Unity3d. I'm responsible for the all the dynamic lighting, shader programming, and now this environment. There's also a second character I built, but we'll see if he makes it in time for our EVO.

That looks really good! Congrats on your work!
 

charsace

Member
Well, maybe, but if that's the case, why is even white showing up? It does receive light, it just isn't colored properly. I may post the shader code here in a week or two if I can't figure it out.

Also, charsace, what way is that? o_O

The character models are in fact 3-D. Our 3-D guys are just getting started, so I've been using that placeholder.

Your game is 2d, but for the lighting you generate geometry to calculate the light? And the geometry you generate has width height and length so you have 3 dimensions. Alundra 1 was a 2d game that uses 3 dimensions.
 

missile

Member
Can anyone develop a platformer like GODS and even improve on it? I would
really pay some good kickerstater bucks! Damn!


@Feep: Glad you made it going! Am really curious how it all turns out. Shadows
done, what's next?


Pretty good! Can't wait seeing some non-stationary images. ;) Btw; I once
asked you how long do you need for modeling such characters on average...?


Rockets:
I've now split the rocket into two parts to detach the booster (nozzle +
propellant) form the cargo bay. Technically, I did this for two reasons.
First, the cargo bay's mass will remain constant during ascent whereas the
booster will lose almost all of its mass. On the other hand I need a momentum
arm to make the rocket turn (once I've implemented the angular momentum
equation), since otherwise everything will be just moving like a particle. In
fact, currently, the simulator isn't much more than a particle simulator
(linear momentum equation) going by the visible representation, but internally
I do already consider the volume (distances), which makes the simulator more
sophisticated than a standard one. So one could simulate simple particles
(point masses) just fine using the current simulator.

Now that the masses are split, the center of mass averages between the two
masses. The following animation shows the lift-off of a rocket that is about
7m in length and has a diameter of about 1.2m. The cargo bay, the upper
section, is about 5m in length and has a weight of about 460kg. The booster,
the lower section, is about 2m in length and has a weight of about 930kg. The
booster burns propellant at a given rate while pushing the rocket upwards
against the acceleration of gravity, i.e. against the total weight if the
rocket. For now the booster never burns out nor loses any mass. Hence, the
rocket will ascent forever;

4iWiU9Y.gif

white: center of mass
yellow: center coordinate of the booster and cargo bay, respectively
RGB-coord: angular coordinate system (orientation of the rocket, fixed)


What I've shown so far is nothing special so to speak. For sure, having the
nozzle burn at a given rate (derivate in parts from the rocket equation) is
way cool, but overall it's nothing you haven't already seen so far from
somewhere else. But the next thing I'm going to implement will be something
new. I'm going to incorporate variable mass into the linear momentum equation
(angular still pending), i.e. F = d/dt(m(t)*v(t)). Notice the dependency on
time for the mass. Hence, one can no longer take the mass out of the
differentiation treating it like a constant like it is done in 99% of all
simulators. This little tiny difference has a huge effect on the entire
computation.
 

Feep

Banned
Your game is 2d, but for the lighting you generate geometry to calculate the light? And the geometry you generate has width height and length so you have 3 dimensions. Alundra 1 was a 2d game that uses 3 dimensions.
For the most part, yeah. Had to use some custom shaders on the geometry to make it invisible but still catch light and shadows.

@Feep: Glad you made it going! Am really curious how it all turns out. Shadows done, what's next?
Our 3-D animator starts on Monday, so we're gonna suss out how the rigging and animation systems work inside of Unity and how to handle those elements. In between those I'm gonna be working a little more on squad AI behaviors and maybe throw together a placeholder "energy shield" effect, though heck if I know how I'm gonna do that.
 

missile

Member
^ Can't help, but energy shields are way cool.

Who here uses NeoGAF's dark theme?
I do. Pictures, gifs, etc. look much better due to the gain in contrast.
 

qq more

Member
Duderino, those screen shots totally reminds me of Smash Bros. I love those games.

Oh wow, forgot I've posted the GIF. Sorry for the late replies, everyone!

that looks really slick. nice work.
Looking nice.
I'd like to see how the movement trail would look if it was a bit more transparent.
Thanks, you two!

Lots of jumping confirmed! Looks cool though.
You seem to be working on it quite for a while. How is it going in general?
Yep! The game has a strong focus on platforming with shooting elements added in. Like Mega Man but more platformy I guess!
I've been actually working on this game since 2005... many months before the 360 came out in fact. It has gone through many changes. Lately the game has been getting on and off with progress. I've made 3 levels in 30 days, so that's 11 out of 35ish levels (including boss fights) down now. I've hired someone to do sound effects so the content of the game will no longer have ripped stuff. The SFX will sound like it came from the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive, whichever you prefer).

Looks really nice. I'm always up to try out a new megaman-ish game.
Thanks! Me too, Mega Man is my top favorite video game franchise, so the inspiration here is clear. (You might notice some Sonic inspiration when you play it)

Looks great. Good looking assets and what seems to be very good character physics.
Thanks! The physics have been tweaked many times during the development of the game. I made sure the controls feels tight and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

This looks rad. Where are you releasing it?


I'm working on the GUI for my current project today. Our photoshop guru is busy working on character portraits and such so I have learned a lot in the process. :)

43YTVvr.png
PC only. Vita release is sounding possible since MMF2 is going to support that system in the future but 2 problems:

Don't own a Vita (which can be easily fixed)
Resolution doesn't match it. I could just change it, but the problem is that the level design is made strictly with the resolution the game currently has in mind. But this is a subject for another day.


By the way, nice GUI!

^ Can't help, but energy shields are way cool.

Who here uses NeoGAF's dark theme?
I do. Pictures, gifs, etc. look much better due to the gain in contrast.

I was wondering why certain games looks more pleasing than previously before. The theme really made a difference in this thread! I like it.
 
Hey there,

I've been thinking about working on a programming project to make sure I keep up on what I learned while I was in college (I'm currently working with PL/SQL at an internship so I'm a little divorced from it right now). I was wondering what tool/engine/framework offers the most actual coding rather than just using built in tools?

The only real game "thing" I've done was a very simple OOP Gradius clone done in C# with GDI+ in Visual Studio so I’ve got a decent understanding of good programming practices to use that I’d like to expland on/put into practice. I'd like something with more documentation/resources than GDI though.
 

snarge

Member
Hey there,

I've been thinking about working on a programming project to make sure I keep up on what I learned while I was in college (I'm currently working with PL/SQL at an internship so I'm a little divorced from it right now). I was wondering what tool/engine/framework offers the most actual coding rather than just using built in tools?

The only real game "thing" I've done was a very simple OOP Gradius clone done in C# with GDI+ in Visual Studio so I’ve got a decent understanding of good programming practices to use that I’d like to expland on/put into practice. I'd like something with more documentation/resources than GDI though.

90% of the work I do in Unity is C# coding, so that's a good place to start.
Torque 2D or 3D are both scripting intensive as well, and available as MIT open source software.
 

HelloMeow

Member
I'd say Unity is a good choice. Unity requires as much programming and OOP as you want, and it's well documented.


5uJljLT.gif

I've made a new beat/onset detector from scratch. It can detect beats, or any other onset in a song. It works pretty good for most songs.
This time, it'll work real time, with an arbitrary head start. So no 10-20 seconds of analyzing an entire song, before the data can be used ingame.
 

charsace

Member
Hey there,

I've been thinking about working on a programming project to make sure I keep up on what I learned while I was in college (I'm currently working with PL/SQL at an internship so I'm a little divorced from it right now). I was wondering what tool/engine/framework offers the most actual coding rather than just using built in tools?

The only real game "thing" I've done was a very simple OOP Gradius clone done in C# with GDI+ in Visual Studio so I’ve got a decent understanding of good programming practices to use that I’d like to expland on/put into practice. I'd like something with more documentation/resources than GDI though.

Unity and Monogame/xna are good choices. You can create a game without much coding in Unity, but you would have to do a lot of coding if you want to make something like a 2d game. Indie games like Edge of Space, dead state, and a whole lot of others are made with Unity. With Monogame/xna would have to build the engine and gui yourself which Unity already provides for you.
 

missile

Member
... Yep! The game has a strong focus on platforming with shooting elements added in. Like Mega Man but more platformy I guess!
I've been actually working on this game since 2005... many months before the 360 came out in fact. It has gone through many changes. Lately the game has been getting on and off with progress. I've made 3 levels in 30 days, so that's 11 out of 35ish levels (including boss fights) down now. I've hired someone to do sound effects so the content of the game will no longer have ripped stuff. The SFX will sound like it came from the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive, whichever you prefer). ...
At least you are right one track. How long do you expect until, well, finish?

... I was wondering why certain games looks more pleasing than previously before. ...
Yeah, certain games look better! Now imagine a theme colored fully black! xD
 

educator

Member
Interwoven in the environment are occasional networks (big or small) of "bug tunnels", where zerg like creatures live and nest. Going through them can be risky, as visibility is low and you might be rushed at any moment.

In this case, we find a mysterious mechanical door that seems to be looking back at us. Hopefully the player makes a mental note to check back here when he has more abilities.

droiddoor2.gif

That looks incredible! Any news on when you might finish it and where you'll publish it? Im a rookie at coding myself (it's frustrating wanting to do so much but only being able to accomplish so little), but seeing stuff like this, and all of you other guys work in this thread, makes me want to try even harder. What program are you coding in?
 

charsace

Member
I don't quite understand what you are asking here. Just find the package folder and delete it?

There has to be a better way than that. The game package also adds character models and other things that are outside of the exe for the game. I don't want to have to go through a bunch of folders just to get rid of one package.
 

ctothej

Member
Anyone here ever use Okashi RPG Kit for Unity? It looks like a major time saver for games with RPG elements, but I want to do more research before I drop 100 euros on it.
 
I guess this is the place where most game programmers/developers are.
Can you guys give me some leads on how to program an engine that can use animation or motion capture stuff.

Links are okay just throw everything at me. Recommended books are also nice.
I'm looking for information sources to do some research this summer for my next minor project i want to do.
 

snarge

Member
There has to be a better way than that. The game package also adds character models and other things that are outside of the exe for the game. I don't want to have to go through a bunch of folders just to get rid of one package.

There is no way, aside from going through the folders and deleting stuff. A unity package is basically a zip file. So once you extract it, it's...extracted. There's no way to undo it cleanly.
 

Limanima

Member
I'm still trying to find a good solution for secure user account leaderboards, if anyone has a suggestion or war stories please shout! Third party services like Scoreoid are interesting but seem geared towards things I don't have any intention of dealing with (micro transactions, user acquisition stuff), I'm happy to roll my own mysql db and php scripts for the actual data but I really don't want to handle account authentication. Using google/facebook/twitter login seems interesting but also seems to be a major pain in the butt to implement inside the application.
Hmmm...

Me too!! I have exactly the same problem...
 

taku

Member
As I've been following this thread for a while now, a certain ponder has continually been lingering in the back of my noodle..

For the fellow ladies and gents who are working on these wonderous creations on your "free time", do you also have a full time job?
If yes, how do you find the time and motivation to work on your projects in between the constant daily living/work/social routine?
 
Posted our first screenshots today of Air Dash Online's early build.

Our programmers, animators, and designers will be working hard this week to prep the game to show at EVO. After retooling our foundation a few weeks ago, it might be a little more along the lines of a proof of concept than a full fledged fighter at this point, but we'll bring it regardless.

screenshot15lsim.jpg

screenshot24usw7.jpg


For those of you catching up, the game is built in Unity3d. I'm responsible for the all the dynamic lighting, shader programming, and now this environment. There's also a second character I built, but we'll see if he makes it in time for our EVO.

Wow, looks great. Good work.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
As I've been following this thread for a while now, a certain ponder has continually been lingering in the back of my noodle..

For the fellow ladies and gents who are working on these wonderous creations on your "free time", do you also have a full time job?
If yes, how do you find the time and motivation to work on your projects in between the constant daily living/work/social routine?

Yes, full-time job. I usually work late nights on my game after my wife goes to bed. I try to not work on it on weekends to give myself a break.
 

jrDev

Member
As I've been following this thread for a while now, a certain ponder has continually been lingering in the back of my noodle..

For the fellow ladies and gents who are working on these wonderous creations on your "free time", do you also have a full time job?
If yes, how do you find the time and motivation to work on your projects in between the constant daily living/work/social routine?
It's HARD! That's why it takes so long to finish. I usually get in the dev hours after GF goes to bed/I have a day off. I make sure I solve one piece of programming puzzle before I end the dev session...
 

Jobbs

Banned
That looks incredible! Any news on when you might finish it and where you'll publish it? Im a rookie at coding myself (it's frustrating wanting to do so much but only being able to accomplish so little), but seeing stuff like this, and all of you other guys work in this thread, makes me want to try even harder. What program are you coding in?

Thanks. :) Progress has been slow lately, I've been apathetic. So I don't have an answer other than it's a little while off, at least.

Right now I'm thinking I'll initially release it as a flash game. It's being made in stencyl 3.0 (see the OP for my summary of stencyl).
 

Servbot24

Banned
As I've been following this thread for a while now, a certain ponder has continually been lingering in the back of my noodle..

For the fellow ladies and gents who are working on these wonderous creations on your "free time", do you also have a full time job?
If yes, how do you find the time and motivation to work on your projects in between the constant daily living/work/social routine?

I haven't posted my game in this thread yet, but I have a part time job that pays my life essentials. I do freelance illustration whenever I can to earn extra money, and the remainder of my time goes to illustrating my own game and my graphic novel. Not to mention I do personal studies all the time in order to improve my drawings. Schedule is a bit ridiculous.
 
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