Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Woh. My game (while free) got downloaded 55,000 times on Tuesday.
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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SpacePirate Ridley
Member
More_Badass
Member
How diverse is this? What kinds of games can I make (on mobile, so can't watch any videos)Small shout out again:
If you guys wanna try Gametracer go here (in your browser): https://www.gametracer.net/?mod=editor&promo=CODE and enter SPILLEXPO. This will add 2 weeks of free Premium and unlock everything
Also super thankful for any feedback you guys might have
You can create and play levels on your iPad or Android tablet as well as in the browser
You can play but not create games on your iphone or android.
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Is it possible to teach yourself how to code? I "took" a beginner's programming class in high school, which meant I played games most of the time and learned nothing. Kind of regret that now. Anyway, I was thinking of using Stencyl or GameMaker but I think actually knowing how to code would open many more doors for me.
But reading some of the posts here and just seeing glimpses of programming elsewhere, it seems like such an overwhelming daunting task. What do you think about this?
It's a very simple approach - a bit like little big planet superlite meets Minecraft?
We do have a programming part which you can use to create some pretty complex stuff with (puzzles with led lights, complex triggers if you know how to use Boolean Operations (And, or, not - gates, patterns, delays etc). It's very visual and drag and drop.
Best to just download it and try (basic version is free and with the code you unlock other stuff such as the monsters etc).
You can't really sell your games, it's not an engine.. more like a gameification tool / game.
I was able to refresh my boolean knowledge with it though, maybe that helps
We also had a guy create an 4bit calculator in it (I think the level is still listed, too).
I haven't tried the gentleman's game tool here, but I have a lot of experience with Stencyl. I learned it to make various prototypes and eventually the partly-done Ghost Song OG flash game. It's quite flexible if what you want to do is make 2D games. It's quite intuitive, and you'll learn a lot of general programming concepts (variables, booleans, data handling) that will put you in the proper mindset to learn actual programming. In my opinion, while some such tools may be more powerful on the whole (e.g., Construct 2) nothing matches Stencyl in terms of ease of use and intuitive logic building.
Even coming from knowing basically nothing, if you have the desire and check some tutorials, you can pretty much dive right in.
You'll find yourself learning a lot of programming concepts that will be applicable to actual programming -- It'll just become a matter of learning the actual given syntax.
Simple ambient lighting done in Stencyl:
In the future, after Ghost Song is wrapped, I may return to Stencyl or C2 for my next project. C2 is quite capable and powerful to make full featured 2D games; Stencyl is getting there (the main issue being it just isn't optimized well enough for higher resolution games the way I make them -- as of now. solutions may be forthcoming). I love these programs. I'm a very visually oriented person, I appreciate the more visual approach, and there's something really empowering about self sufficiency.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
All these rumblings have got me to play around in Game Maker Studio again. I had to take a long break for work, but now that all of that is done, I'm back to playing around. It's fun learning new things again! And I don't care what anyone says, I find GML to be a really fun language to learn, haha.
More_Badass
Member
Knowing that you made those impressive scenes in Stencyl, Jobbs, is great to hear. Definitely excited to dig into the program now. Any other programs that you would suggest for a total neophyte like me?
I don't have much experience with GM. Just from peaking in and toying around a bit, I found it to be a bit convoluted to use compared to Stencyl and C2. That said, it's clearly pretty capable. Legend of Iya is made using that.
Thanks.
Just based on my own experience, Stencyl and C2 are my favorites. Stencyl is the easiest and most enjoyable to use, and C2 is a bit less simple but has more features and is more powerful in general.I don't know anything about Tash's program and am just hearing of it for the first time today. I would be curious to know more about it. Is it more "casual" than things like Stencyl/C2, as it seems to be suggested?
eot
Banned
I don't have an iPhone so I looked up your game on youtube, it's a neat concept. Any idea why the same video is copied and uploaded like 20 times though?
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I'm always a proponent of Game Maker for total newbies. It's incredibly user friendly and is much more capable than some people give it credit for. The most recent GM Spotlight had a FANTASTIC looking Metroidvania that was recently put on Greenlight.
What's it called?
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I'll need to check out GameMaker, can you make 3D games on it or is it just used for 2D?
More_Badass
Member
Valdis Story was made in Game Maker? Very impressive,
Oh, and Gunpoint was Game Maker too
With the free versions of GM and Stencyl, would I be able to put flash games online? Or would I need to buy one of the other versions?
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
You CAN do 3D, but it's definitely not optimized for it. GM is primarily a 2D tool.
I have valdis story.
Stencyl lets you publish SWFs and do anything you want with them, using the free version (albeit with a Stencyl logo on the loading screen). Stand alone windows exe is not in free version, which is no great loss because in my testing the stand alone export is still really buggy. IOS exporting also requires a pay version.
Stencyl lets you publish SWFs and do anything you want with them, using the free version (albeit with a Stencyl logo on the loading screen). Stand alone windows exe is not in free version, which is no great loss because in my testing the stand alone export is still really buggy. IOS exporting also requires a pay version.
More_Badass
Member
Great. As long I can share stuff online, that's fine with me.I have valdis story.
Stencyl lets you publish SWFs and do anything you want with them, using the free version (albeit with a Stencyl logo on the loading screen). Stand alone windows exe is not in free version, which is no great loss because in my testing the stand alone export is still really buggy. IOS exporting also requires a pay version.
Just got to finish my powerpoint for Psych Junior Seminar (it's on Video Games and Violence) and then I'm digging into Stencyl
Good eye! I completely agree and we spent some time playing with this issue. We finally found what we think feels good but syncing the particle colors to the sun colors better so there isn't a big overlay difference when it spawns trails as you 'splash' through the sun.. I'll post a video or new build when I can but here is a couple stills:
Mikado
Member
We finally found what we think feels good by syncing the particle colors to the sun colors
Oooo. Pretty.
I like how there's a well-designed color scheme for each of the areas. Looking forward to seeing it in motion.
More_Badass
Member
Okay, so I did the first tutorial in Stencyl (yay,I can follow instructions!), now how do I get back to the main screen with the different game tabs and where you could click "Create New Game"?
Edit: figured it out. So...learning the movement and events basics is kind of confusing. A lot of info to take in at one time. Never learned about if-then and other aspects.
Edit: figured it out. So...learning the movement and events basics is kind of confusing. A lot of info to take in at one time. Never learned about if-then and other aspects.
Here's the series of tutorials I did to start off with way back when I was starting out. Stencyl has had new updates since then so there may be minor differences, but it's the same basic thing.
By the time I finished these I was off on my own experimenting. It runs you through the basic concepts pretty efficiently.
Link: http://www.stencyl.com/help/view/abigayl-1/
More_Badass
Member
Thanks for the link. I'm doing their Crash Course tutorials. How do those compare?
I think the hardest part is learning the actual Stencyl imputs. I mean, in the most recent tutorial, making a ship move left and right, the basics itself seem pretty intuitive. If this is always pressed down, this happens. If this, then that. If neither, then this. But remembering about attributes and what modules do what, seems comfusing
But it is kind of weird seeing games from the other perspective. Something as simple as moving left and right...is not so simple anymore
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
IntoTheBush
Neo Member
IndieGaf, I have experience in both visual-based programs such as MMF and GameMaker, and I also have some inkling in c++, at least enough to finish a product if i started. Though my understanding of certain concepts isn't that great. Would you recommend just sticking with C++ and just cramming it until I know the important concepts I need to know, or would you suggest a more visual approach. What are the pros and cons of each system? Do recent versions of GameMaker, CM2, and Stencyl have support for multiple platforms? That would be one of my greatest concerns. I will be doing 2D games as I have no knowledge of 3D concepts. Thanks!~
So why is the attack range of the towers filled in? The towers themselves are a different enough color such that the ranges overlapping doesn't make them hard to see, but the space station/planet in the middle does become obscured. It makes it a little hard to tell when I should be taking chances with my towers and let money build up, or when I should start upgrading asap.
See below for an example:
Yeah, I've noticed that issue as well. I plan to change the render a little to help fix the visual issue soon.
The answer I often hear to this question is "Do you want to make engines or games?" People who try to roll their own engine often get stuck in that step for so long, they don't even manage to start on the game itself (just making a game is hard enough, making both a game and its engine is obviously even harder). Learning C++ is a good skill to have, but if you are more interested in just making a game, I would recommend a tool like C2 instead.
Had my game 'Gleamer' for free on iOS for the past 24 hours and its now ranked 12 in the most downloaded puzzle games (US store). Ranked 64 in overall games, and 198 in overall apps. Pretty cool...even though I don't get any money.
Take that Tetris!
Wicked! Great job!
One thing I'd add is, if you want to write games for a living, like a job.. make sure your C++ is razor sharp.
Messed around with the new Unity. built a platform from a few 2d boxes and a simple character with a simple rigidbody controller. I used a box for the character so he gets stuck on corners for now until I figure out how to get a motor going just to use a circle with a joint. I can't figure out how to get the 2d animation going in it. Making a sprite sheet was easy enough.
Has anyone done a 2d animation yet?
Has anyone done a 2d animation yet?
Impressive work ! The game is fun and beautiful. The only thing for me is that the learning curve escalades too quickly. The gap between the 4th and 5th game is huge in my opinion. Did you do this with Unity ?Hey fellow devs,
Dunno if you guys saw in the iOS thread, but I finally released my game that I've been working on FOR YEARS!
PRICE: FREE | Download iPhone Version | Download iPad Version
I'd really love any feedback you guys have.
BTW, does anyone know how to get into the FlightPath beta? I submitted my e-mail (and we've been using TestFlight for over a year), but I haven't received any information on how to activate it for a retail build. It would be great to have real-time crash reports instead of iTunesConnect's periodic unsymbolicated crash reports.
I did a skeletal type one. Was pretty simple. Still no way of copying keyframes by the looks of things..
I dragged a few sprites that I selected to a sprite object just now and it created an animation. When I run the game with my controller all it does is loop an animation with all the sprites and Physics doesn't effect it. I can't believe they didn't explain this in the documentation.
SHARKvince
Neo Member
My studio officially opened yesterday! The plan is to make PS Vita and PS4 games. We already had a meeting with SCEE (they were lovely), and we're hoping to get the PhyreEngine soon to start prototyping. <3
I'm just super excited and wanted to share it. I'm usually more of a lurker, but this thread looks pretty damn good. And it's probably better to get involved here, instead of secretly working on games without having anyone know what we're doing... we're working on two games; one is a 3D action adventure, and the other one is difficult to stick in a genre; it plays like a combination of a 2D platformer/point'n'click, and has somewhat non-linear stories. Looking forward to more discussions, there's certainly not a lack of talent here.
(Also, I'm sorry if this post seems a bit awkward; I'm still sort of newish to actually posting on here!)
The plan is to make PS Vita and PS4 games. We already had a meeting with SCEE (they were lovely), and we're hoping to get the PhyreEngine soon to start prototyping. <3 I'm just super excited and wanted to share it. I'm usually more of a lurker, but this thread looks pretty damn good. And it's probably better to get involved here, instead of secretly working on games without having anyone know what we're doing... we're working on two games; one is a 3D action adventure, and the other one is difficult to stick in a genre; it plays like a combination of a 2D platformer/point'n'click, and has somewhat non-linear stories. Looking forward to more discussions, there's certainly not a lack of talent here.
(Also, I'm sorry if this post seems a bit awkward; I'm still sort of newish to actually posting on here!)
toddhunter
Member
My studio officially opened yesterday!
Great stuff. Where are you based?
Found some Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qS7DD5Tz_A
Watched a little of this and it had some keyframing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1F6fi04qw8
Haven't watched this yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qS7DD5Tz_A
Watched a little of this and it had some keyframing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1F6fi04qw8
Haven't watched this yet.
SHARKvince
Neo Member
We're based in London (UK), 8 core people on the team everyone working from home, since these are our first games and we've barely got any funds... but we can get our games done nonetheless; the tools, knowledge and creativity are here.
We've even got an acting school (and potentially an orchestra) on board for some VA and "real instruments" music on the action adventure.toddhunter
Member
Edit. double post? I blame COD.
More_Badass
Member
Need some help:
I'm doing this tutorial in Stencyl and basically this section is teaching you how to keep the player actor from going off the screen
But it doesn't really work you through where to find those modules. I have the first part okay, it's the "otherwise if" section I'm having trouble with
Edit: finally figured out that was a "minus" module. But I don't understand exactly what its function is. What does subtracting the widths do? Following the steps and plugging something in is easy, but what is the actual purpose? What am I exactly doing?
I'm doing this tutorial in Stencyl and basically this section is teaching you how to keep the player actor from going off the screen
But it doesn't really work you through where to find those modules. I have the first part okay, it's the "otherwise if" section I'm having trouble with
Edit: finally figured out that was a "minus" module. But I don't understand exactly what its function is. What does subtracting the widths do? Following the steps and plugging something in is easy, but what is the actual purpose? What am I exactly doing?
toddhunter
Member
We're based in London (UK), 8 core people on the team everyone working from home, since these are our first games and we've barely got any funds... but we can get our games done nonetheless; the tools, knowledge and creativity are here.
Sounds good. Look forward to seeing how you go.
Need some help:
I'm doing this tutorial in Stencyl and basically this section is teaching you how to keep the player actor from going off the screen
But it doesn't really work you through where to find those modules. I have the first part okay, it's the "otherwise if" section I'm having trouble with
Edit: finally figured out that was a "minus" module. But I don't understand exactly what its function is. What does subtracting the widths do? Following the steps and plugging something in is easy, but what is the actual purpose? What am I exactly doing?
I forget the particulars of the tutorial, it's been a long time. The image you're showing is asking if the X coordinate (left to right) of self is less than 0 (which would put it off the left boundary of the screen, because 0 is the leftmost coordinate). There is no instructions for what to do if that condition is met, those would go inside the wrapper. If you put things into the "updating" section (called "always" in that version of stencyl) it's a loop that checks everything every frame. so imagine an eyeball going from top to bottom looking at everything in order, rapidly, many times a second.
The "othewise if" wrapper will only be checked if the first "if" wrapper wasn't true. In other words, if the actor (self) is left of the screen, what's inside the if wrapper will be executed (which is currently nothing). If it's not true, (ie, if you are NOT to the left of the screen) then the "otherwise if" wrapper will be checked. This one is checking to see if you are to the right of the screen. Is x coordinate of self greater than (ie, to the right of) "screen width" (which is a preset block which will always be the screen width, so if your game's dimension is 640x480, screen width will mean 640). It's just checking to see if the actor is to the right of the screen.
If your game's dimension is, for example, 640x480, then "screen width" means 640. That's what it means. "width of self" is similarly a number -- whatever the width of the self actor is. Let's say it's 20 pixels wide. What this means, in effect, is 640 - 20. So now the logic will check to see if you're passed 620 pixels before telling it to stop moving or whatever it's going to do to keep you on screen. The reason for this is when it is checking "x of self" it will be checking the leftmost coordinate of self. (There are other options, though, like "x center of self" which puts that point in the middle.) So subtracting the width of self from the scene width will make sure that your actor visually never leaves the screen, because that point it's checking is the left most point of the actor. If the left most point of the actor meets the scene width (640) that means your actor would be passed the boundary of the screen. The offset means that it never leaves the screen.
That's not necessarily the best way to do it, there are probably even built in behaviors to keep you on screen. The point, though, is to learn how to do things in general.
Building logic in stencyl boils down to outlining conditions to be met and specifying what happens if they are met, or what happens if they are not met. "if" starts a new condition, which, if met, the things inside the "if" wrapper are executed. "otherwise if" are checked only if the wrapper above them is not true. "otherwise" goes at the end of an if/otherwise if chain (or just after if) and will make things inside of it happen if the above stuff isn't true. You can also embed if wrappers inside of other if wrappers to make the logic as granular as it needs to be. Once you start to grasp all this basic stuff things will rapidly fall into place.
if you have more questions specific to stencyl behavior I suggest using the stencyl forums. That's where I learned a lot. I asked questions and got answers.
More_Badass
Member
Thanks, Jobbs. Your explanation helped.
It's like...I was always good at math. But knowing a formula isn't worth much if you don't understand what a formula is doing. Get what I mean? Same here. The tutorial is wonderful (well that part wasn't well explained IMO) but if I don't understand the mechanics underneath the module, I'm just filling in empty slots, not really learning how to make a game work effectively.
It's like...I was always good at math. But knowing a formula isn't worth much if you don't understand what a formula is doing. Get what I mean? Same here. The tutorial is wonderful (well that part wasn't well explained IMO) but if I don't understand the mechanics underneath the module, I'm just filling in empty slots, not really learning how to make a game work effectively.
The pallete to the right has categories with different types of functions you can execute. It's a big playground, you can specify conditions or specify things to execute in all kinds of creative ways. It's pretty flexible.
More_Badass
Member
Vertical on a computer is a negative value?! (In Stencyl only or is that universal?)
Why? Seems counter-intuitive
Why? Seems counter-intuitive
Top left of the screen is 0,0. Just remember that and you'll keep it straight.
More_Badass
Member
Okay, that'll help a lot. All those years of graphing and pre-trig will actually come in handy!
...until you start using shaders or OpenGL or something, and the BOTTOM left of the screen becomes (0, 0).
I'm a little disappointed a horde of shader experts didn't appear and recommend an approach for me about my shader question last page, haha. Tonight I might try adding rotation/scaling/translation as shader arguments if I can get the view and projection matrices working.
More_Badass
Member
So this stuff seems more math-heavy than I expected. Could I use X-Y equations to create angled paths and arcs?
Also, if 0,0 is the top left and -1 is straight vertical, are all other coordinates decimals?
Also, if 0,0 is the top left and -1 is straight vertical, are all other coordinates decimals?
IntoTheBush
Neo Member
That is a fantastic question Amirai, I of course want to make games, but I have worked on engines here and there and I really never got anywhere as you stated. I do feel it would be important to atleast know how they function though. Will give Stencyl and C2 a go though as they seem to be fairly popular around these parts to see which I prefer. Its about time I actually created something instead of just fiddling. Thanks for the advice.
EDIT: I did mention I used Multimedia Fusion in the past, does anyone have any thoughts on Multimedia Fusion 2?
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