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[Raonak]

Finally finished the second alpha for Nax of the Universe

It's a lot longer than the first alpha, it has 2 full levels, 3 weapons, 5 enemy types, shop/upgrade system, button remapping and various other new features.

http://dreammodule.com?nax=about

 

[Lissar]

Phew, wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I managed to do most of what I wanted to accomplish this Ludum Dare.

My game is "Process Journey". It's a first person adventure/visual novel made in Ren'Py. It has six endings (but most just add on to one ending, so three endings that are very different).

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=27179

You can check it out here!

Next month I'm going to take it out again and polish it up, add more content/puzzles/story, and give it an official release. I really like this one too much to let it sit in a barely finished state.

 

[timetokill]

Finally finished the second alpha for Nax of the Universe

It's a lot longer than the first alpha, it has 2 full levels, 3 weapons, 5 enemy types, shop/upgrade system, button remapping and various other new features.

http://dreammodule.com?nax=about

I tried it out for a bit. Maybe I'm just not dextrous enough with my keyboard but I found it kind of frustrating. I think it would be a lot more fun with a controller, or some more actions mapped to the mouse, or whatever. If there is controller remapping I'll probably give it another shot in the new year when I (hopefully) have a controller I can use with my PC.

On the plus side it's very fast, responsive, and clean, so I like that.

 

[SlipperySlope]

About how much do you guys pay for an Indian freelance graphical designer? I'm hiring one on to do 2D environment and UI work.

 

[HellBlazer]

Good work everyone who participated in Ludum Dare. I'm looking forward to the expanded version of yours, Lissar.

Here is mine: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=29335

It was a fun experience overall, though I'm a bit disappointed in the final result. The AI is pretty buggy still, and I wish I had time to make more levels. I wasted too much time on unimportant stuff or things that I ended up not really using. Ah well, my first attempt at a game jam and I did learn quite a bit so... it's good experience.

 

[Lissar]

Good work everyone who participated in Ludum Dare. I'm looking forward to the expanded version of yours, Lissar.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Raonak]

I tried it out for a bit. Maybe I'm just not dextrous enough with my keyboard but I found it kind of frustrating. I think it would be a lot more fun with a controller, or some more actions mapped to the mouse, or whatever. If there is controller remapping I'll probably give it another shot in the new year when I (hopefully) have a controller I can use with my PC.

On the plus side it's very fast, responsive, and clean, so I like that.

On keyboard it definitely takes some practise to get used to. I was horrible at it at first, but now I play like a boss (but that's hardly surprising as I made the damn thing)
Plus the default keyboard layout isn't really the best.
someone on reddit recommended mapping it like this: (the game has button remapping available via options menu)
w=jump
a=sub weapon
s=block
d=main weapon
l-shift = snatcher
space = direction lock

The controller support is broken right now, i'm gonna be putting an updated version tomorrow which'll fix that.
Controller is definitely the best way to play.

 

[2+2=5]

Ok gaf i'll try to make a game, no other details for now but gimme motivations please! XD

Another thing, i was searching for a free image editor for making pixel level editing(i have never liked Gimp), i tried various software and i found RealWorld Paint that looks really good imo from the really little time i passed on it, it has only few effects, but it's possible to make raster images, vectorial images, animations(both gif and frame containers), has an awesome polygon tool, javascript and so on and for my slow notebook it seems to be fast.
Anyone has an opinion about it?

Another good program for my tastes seems to be Paint.net(that has more effects).

I see that there's a blank reserved post in the first page, why don't we add suggestions for best free programs for 3d, 2d, music etc?

 

[Rimshot]

Ok gaf i'll try to make a game, no other details for now but gimme motivations please! XD

Another thing, i was searching for a free image editor for making pixel level editing(i have never liked Gimp), i tried various software and i found RealWorld Paint that looks really good imo from the really little time i passed on it, it has only few effects, but it's possible to make raster images, vectorial images, animations(both gif and frame containers), has an awesome polygon tool, javascript and so on and for my slow notebook it seems to be fast.
Anyone has an opinion about it?

Another good program for my tastes seems to be Paint.net(that has more effects).

I see that there's a blank reserved post in the first page, why don't we add suggestions for best free programs for 3d, 2d, music etc?

On the note of image editors, I must STRONGLY recommend the use of "Pixlr". It's a full fledge tool much like photoshop, but free and directly in your browser. It renders locally, so it feels as responsive as a regular desktop app.

Here is the link to Pixlr

 

[2+2=5]

On the note of image editors, I must STRONGLY recommend the use of "Pixlr". It's a full fledge tool much like photoshop, but free and directly in your browser. It renders locally, so it feels as responsive as a regular desktop app.

Here is the link to Pixlr

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll try it later.

 

[timetokill]

On keyboard it definitely takes some practise to get used to. I was horrible at it at first, but now I play like a boss (but that's hardly surprising as I made the damn thing)
Plus the default keyboard layout isn't really the best.
someone on reddit recommended mapping it like this: (the game has button remapping available via options menu)
w=jump
a=sub weapon
s=block
d=main weapon
l-shift = snatcher
space = direction lock

The controller support is broken right now, i'm gonna be putting an updated version tomorrow which'll fix that.
Controller is definitely the best way to play.

Nice. Do the text prompts change to match the current controller mapping?
Anyway, I'll probably give this layout a shot in the coming days.

 

[Ashodin]

So in recent development, I figured out how to make a stable and awesome mouse-hover-tooltip thing. It's going to work so awesome on other parts of the game, too!

 

[Lissar]

Ugh, I've had to do so much bug squashing post submission! I really wish I could test more thoroughly.

 

[Jobbs]

Here's the new crash site. Finally did the new high res art for it. (The original for this is 1080p, I downsized it to 720p to make it easier to look at on a forum screen.)

It's not 100% final, there may be some tweaks/additions. For one thing, environment particles are missing right now and the HUD will likely be redesigned later. I also continue to debate the overall colors and color levels, as well as the strength of the overlay.

There's a conscious design choice to make the world more green and the overall design of the world more consolidated, whereas before it was a bit more of a shotgun blast of different ideas I came up with as I went along. If you're curious, this is what this area looked like in the original version of the game. I anticipate *some* controversy as I'm sure there are those who liked the warmer colors. For my part, I've been working on environment art for so many hours straight that I'm losing my ability to be the judge of any of it. The game is also much, much, much higher res than the original game, which was actually a flash game, and designing for this size with the ability to put in so much fine detail changes everything and even after all these months I'm only starting to get used to it.

I'm using Stencyl as the level editor for the game, even though it's a Unity game now. Roger wrote a script that imports the graphic data from a Stencyl "scene" into the game project.

More screenshots soon.

 

[HellBlazer]

Looking awesome as ever, Jobbs. Hey, there's a bonus of subscribing to this thread, now I get Ghost Song updates between Kickstarter e-mails.

Did you end up making something for Ludum Dare after all?

Ugh, I've had to do so much bug squashing post submission! I really wish I could test more thoroughly.

On your LD game, really? Minor bugs? I didn't encounter anything anormal in 3 or 4 playthroughs.

 

[Jobbs]

Looking awesome as ever, Jobbs. Hey, there's a bonus of subscribing to this thread, now I get Ghost Song updates between Kickstarter e-mails.

Did you end up making something for Ludum Dare after all?

Thank you

I started doing art for my Ludum idea, but after a few hours I realized I'd never do the concept in a way I find satisfying in 2 days... My idea got too big. I'm not really good at coming up with simple and brief game ideas and then making them. It's a skill I'd like to learn.

I really liked my concept, though, and I may prototype it yet!

 

[V_Arnold]

Jobbs: I have to say that there will be no controversy, simply because your new vision seems to be much more focused, much more coherent. That is not to say that the more colored, more "bright" version was not good, but compared to the new one, it is not even a contest

Just do not forget to put those particles that are now not present into the later parts of the game. Maybe a natural furnace somewhere deep down? ^^"

 

[EDarkness]

Jobbs, your game is looking great. Keep up the good work.

 

[Lissar]

On your LD game, really? Minor bugs? I didn't encounter anything anormal in 3 or 4 playthroughs.

The game was perfectly playable, just not as intended!

Spoilers for how the game is supposed to go (in case anyone still wants to play it!)

Spoiler

You're supposed to go through the game and get near the end and have the other two characters say they need a Corsaen to activate the computer. Well, the puzzle was that you were supposed to go back to the beginning of the game and say that your species is Corsaen so then you'll be able to activate the computer. But unfortunately, the game was flagging everyone as Corsaen and so you didn't actually need to solve the puzzle to get the good ending! As you might imagine, I was a bit horrified by this. I had to go through several different fixes to get it right. This was all introduced because I decided to add in the ability to spell words/phrases with varying punctuation, but I didn't program it right and didn't have the time to thoroughly test so this wasn't caught until WAY after the fact.

At least it's fixed now!

 

[Bamihap]

New addition to the team.

 

[HellBlazer]

The game was perfectly playable, just not as intended!

Spoilers for how the game is supposed to go (in case anyone still wants to play it!)

Aaaah, yeah that makes more sense. I did wonder why

Spoiler

the girl would ask my character to speak the password when they just said it needed a Corsaen

on my first playthrough. I did try

Spoiler

saying I was Corsaen

later on, but it didn't change much to the flow of the game without your fix.

My idea got too big. I'm not really good at coming up with simple and brief game ideas and then making them.

Ugh, yeah, definitely a problem I have too. I can never keep my ideas simple, then I get discouraged about making the game because it's too big and daunting. -_-

 

[EDarkness]

Ugh, yeah, definitely a problem I have too. I can never keep my ideas simple, then I get discouraged about making the game because it's too big and daunting. -_-

Same here. I had to pair down my current project quite a bit. Even so, it's still pretty hefty. Once I finished the design doc, I told myself that I wouldn't add anything else. I've actually been good about keeping that rule, so I'll be able to finish this project compared to others. Heh, it's too easy for things to get ahead of you when designing a game.

 

[FormallyMegadrive]

I find it really hard to come up with ideas for games. I seem to be a lone in this regard

 

[Jobbs]

I find it really hard to come up with ideas for games. I seem to be a lone in this regard

I'm the exact same way, but I have been nurturing an idea for a while. it involves platforming action/rpg/adventure where various things can be collected and used to cast spells (alchemy). I could elaborate more, but I have the same narcissistic irrational fear that most creators have that someone is just dying to steal their idea.

I had an idea about how to spin above concept for a mini-game Ludum Dare deal, but I just wasn't happy with what I could get done in 2 days.

For the look, it'd have a decidedly Miyazaki-esque appearance.

I don't exactly have time for this right now with Ghost Song occupying my waking and unwaking life, but I've been itching to make a prototype. Maybe sometime.

 

[Tiu Neo]

I find it really hard to come up with ideas for games. I seem to be a lone in this regard

You're not alone. Sometimes inspiration takes a long time to come, for me. Sometimes it never comes.

Once in a while I have a good idea, but it never started as "OMG THIS IS IT", it's more like "that sounds cool, I'll try it".

 

[Lautaro]

I find it really hard to come up with ideas for games. I seem to be a lone in this regard

I have the opposite problem, too much ideas so little time (and money).

Now, something that inspires me are art assets. I use Unity so when I download something from the Asset Store I tend to imagine a lot of things that I can do with it.

"Oh, I have a female warrior model and a goblin model, I should make an RPG... or a hack n' slash... or better something like a roguelike" etc.

Now, if you have no ideas or your ideas doesn't inspire you to work, you could try to team up with someone else.

 

[cbox]

I find it really hard to come up with ideas for games. I seem to be a lone in this regard

Damn I'm the complete opposite in regards to ideas. I just get bogged down by limitations, which is unfortunate.

 

[HappyBivouac]

Hey guys, I've been writing up a game concept recently that's not terribly complex at its core, but is meant to be infinitely expandable content-wise in the long run. Basically it's a procedurally-generated multiplayer boardgame. (removed some details from the post here) I'd probably start with just local multiplayer support and expand from there, with the eventual dream to have hosted multiplayer.

I have a lot of experience with art, design and music. I have minimal experience coding and scripting, but I think I have good skills with logic and I'm quick to figure stuff out. Obviously it's going to be a learning process and I'll be doing a lot of throwaway stuff in the process.

My question is: what software should I pick up to achieve the above listed functions in a game? Like I said, I'm not gonna jump immediately into trying to make my masterpiece, but I want to pick the right development platform to familiarize myself with. The game will at the very least be sprite based. Environments could go a 2d or 3d direction. I lean towards Game Maker Studio or possibly Unity, but I wonder if I could work the stuff I need into RPG maker somehow.

Any advice is appreciated! I fully expect this to be a long, hard, grueling process. That in itself has me excited.

 

[EDarkness]

I find it really hard to come up with ideas for games. I seem to be a lone in this regard

Sometimes I wish that was me. Unfortunately, my brain is a constant stream of "wouldn't this be cool?" Heh, hard to tune it out sometimes and focus on one thing.

 

[FormallyMegadrive]

I have the opposite problem, too much ideas so little time (and money).

Now, something that inspires me are art assets. I use Unity so when I download something from the Asset Store I tend to imagine a lot of things that I can do with it.

"Oh, I have a female warrior model and a goblin model, I should make an RPG... or a hack n' slash... or better something like a roguelike" etc.

Now, if you have no ideas or your ideas doesn't inspire you to work, you could try to team up with someone else.

I'll have to try the art asset thing. maybe go through ffffound or something for inspiration. thanks for the idea

 

[jillytot]

Is there like a consolidated list of projects people are working on? It would be cool to get a better sense of who is doing what.

 

[Throwaway123456789]

So, uh, here's something quite different, and I'm not even sure if it fits in here, but here's a wall of text anyways!

I've always wanted to do something like this, and through my new job I got the opportunity, so myself and a couple of others have made an indie game portal that focuses on the Norwegian indie scene.

We're a part of a pretty large media corp here in Norway (called Dagbladet), and we have a couple of gaming sites already (both editorial and commercial), but we wanted to see if we could do something to help the somewhat struggling dev scene here.

It's still in beta and we're currently testing things and ironing out some bugs, but the response has been fantastic, so we think we're on to something here. It's a self publishing platform, where the devs upload the games, sets the prices and uses our systems to manage the product page and, well.. get paid.

As a nice bonus, the games there will be featured heavily in ads in all our channels (newspapers, online sites with millions of users and events) for free, so there's a pretty good chance lesser known indies will get that vital "first bump" they need.

We're not in it to become rich, really, but we know that a strong industry here will benefit us in the long run. That means we can give most of the money back to the devs (80%, in fact), while we use most of the money left over to pay for hosting and administration.

We just released the Norwegian part of the site, which works just fine, and have started to push a few games there out in our channels. We actually have over 40 games on our list for 2014, and we hope more will join in. Who knew this tiny country was making that many games - I sure didn't when I started this!

Things we're working on right now is getting the english part of the login working (with payment) and stuff like Steam code support and demo support. If you would like to buy any of the games you can check out the price on the english site, but remember to switch language before you register or buy (which should be pretty easy even with the language being in Norwegian). All games are DRM free.

Please check out the site at http://www.newgame.no/en/ and tell us what you think

 

[EDarkness]

Is there like a consolidated list of projects people are working on? It would be cool to get a better sense of who is doing what.

Someone should put together something like this.

 

[OnPoint]

We put a demo of our game Shutshimi together if anyone in here wouldn't mind giving it a spin? I'd appreciate some feedback. You can get the build at the following link:

http://neondeity.com/shutshimi/

Here's a screen

 

[Popstar]

Hmm, I think I forgot to initialize a variable.

 

[HellBlazer]

Hey guys, I've been writing up a game concept recently that's not terribly complex at its core, but is meant to be infinitely expandable content-wise in the long run. Basically it's a procedurally-generated multiplayer boardgame. (removed some details from the post here) I'd probably start with just local multiplayer support and expand from there, with the eventual dream to have hosted multiplayer.

I have a lot of experience with art, design and music. I have minimal experience coding and scripting, but I think I have good skills with logic and I'm quick to figure stuff out. Obviously it's going to be a learning process and I'll be doing a lot of throwaway stuff in the process.

My question is: what software should I pick up to achieve the above listed functions in a game? Like I said, I'm not gonna jump immediately into trying to make my masterpiece, but I want to pick the right development platform to familiarize myself with. The game will at the very least be sprite based. Environments could go a 2d or 3d direction. I lean towards Game Maker Studio or possibly Unity, but I wonder if I could work the stuff I need into RPG maker somehow.

Any advice is appreciated! I fully expect this to be a long, hard, grueling process. That in itself has me excited.

Hmm, well admittedly I'm no RPG Maker expert (I only messed with it a little a long time ago, so I'm not sure what it's capable of these days) but from what I heard and what I know of programs like that, you'd probably hit severe limitations eventually - especially for something fairly ambitious like an "infinitely expandable procedurally-generated multiplayer" game.

Personally I like Unity a lot, and I think it's versatile enough to be a solid choice for most projects. There's a big community for your support needs too. I'm not really familiar with Game Maker so I can't really comment on that option.

 

[Makai]

Hey guys, I've been writing up a game concept recently that's not terribly complex at its core, but is meant to be infinitely expandable content-wise in the long run. Basically it's a procedurally-generated multiplayer boardgame. (removed some details from the post here) I'd probably start with just local multiplayer support and expand from there, with the eventual dream to have hosted multiplayer.

I have a lot of experience with art, design and music. I have minimal experience coding and scripting, but I think I have good skills with logic and I'm quick to figure stuff out. Obviously it's going to be a learning process and I'll be doing a lot of throwaway stuff in the process.

My question is: what software should I pick up to achieve the above listed functions in a game? Like I said, I'm not gonna jump immediately into trying to make my masterpiece, but I want to pick the right development platform to familiarize myself with. The game will at the very least be sprite based. Environments could go a 2d or 3d direction. I lean towards Game Maker Studio or possibly Unity, but I wonder if I could work the stuff I need into RPG maker somehow.

Any advice is appreciated! I fully expect this to be a long, hard, grueling process. That in itself has me excited.

This is specific enough that there is probably a program that will let you do this mostly through a GUI. I haven't checked the following out, but the description sounds like it's powerful enough to make a prototype at the very least.

http://www.vassalengine.org/

 

[Makai]

Someone should put together something like this.

I wouldn't mind putting one together. It would be really easy if people messaged me a short summary, a GIF or screenshot, and relevant links. Is the OP still active?

 

[Nätso]

Is it generally frowned upon to seek collaboration in this thread?

 

[Makai]

Is it generally frowned upon to seek collaboration in this thread?

Surely not.

 

[Nätso]

Surely not.

That's good to hear!

I graduated this past year with a Bachelor's in Game Design...Only one person from my graduating class (that I know of) has gotten any job in the Game Industry. This "breaking into the industry" stuff is no-joke-difficult.

I'm hoping to form a small development team to create a game. Nothing overly ambitious, but something tightly designed. If any artists, programmers, sound designers, etc. are interested in it, I welco-- no, I encourage you to join me.

Edit: I've worked on similar projects before, but sometimes life gets in the way. People lose motivation, things move too slowly, the scope is too large, etc. All I ask is that if this project picks up off the ground, that each member holds a sense of dedication to the team, and to the project.

 

[Ashodin]

Such encouraging and somehow Dark Side sounding words from a junior.

Sounds like you have something specific in mind!

 

[Nätso]

Such encouraging and somehow Dark Side sounding words from a junior.

Sounds like you have something specific in mind!

We all have our ideas!

I just wouldn't want to propose a concept right out of the gate. Depending on the game genre, or the focus, it may scare people off from the get go. Not everybody likes science Fiction, and not everybody likes Racers. (That's not to say that this is what I had in mind)

I'd rather assemble a team, and propose a number of ideas, and see the general reception to each one. If one of them clicks, then great! If none of them click, then that's okay too!

Game Development is more often than not, a group effort. I wouldn't want my partners to feel like they had no control over the work they were producing. I want the passion to be present in each of us.

 

[Lautaro]

Do you have a portfolio?

 

[Kysel]

Hmm, I think I forgot to initialize a variable.

Personally I think you set

reggaeMode = true;


In all seriousness, Computer Science student here. Best way to get into some simple game development that will not limit me too much?? (I have experience in XNA but its now dead )
I know Java, C++, C# etc etc... I also know a little openGL, but im currently tearing my hair out on some 3D catmull-rom spline stuff.

 

[Nätso]

Do you have a portfolio?

I did, but my site has been showing up as a blank page lately (convenient excuse, right?).

I have plenty of individual pieces to show you.

Give me a moment.

 

[Kysel]

That's good to hear!

I graduated this past year with a Bachelor's in Game Design...Only one person from my graduating class (that I know of) has gotten any job in the Game Industry. This "breaking into the industry" stuff is no-joke-difficult.

I'm hoping to form a small development team to create a game. Nothing overly ambitious, but something tightly designed. If any artists, programmers, sound designers, etc. are interested in it, I welco-- no, I encourage you to join me.

Edit: I've worked on similar projects before, but sometimes life gets in the way. People lose motivation, things move too slowly, the scope is too large, etc. All I ask is that if this project picks up off the ground, that each member holds a sense of dedication to the team, and to the project.

Im a Computer Science student in the UK , half way through my second year.
I am a programmer at heart, but much more on the logic side of things over the graphical manipulation of objects.
I would love to collaborate on some stuff

 

[timetokill]

Natso, to top things off PERFECTLY right now, you just need to say that your idea is a MMO and that you have the idea all done but you need somebody to help you code it

 

[Nätso]

Natso, to top things off PERFECTLY right now, you just need to say that your idea is a MMO and that you have the idea all done but you need somebody to help you code it

Because with a five man dev-team, that wouldn't take upwards of 22 years

 

[Popstar]

Personally I think you set

reggaeMode = true;


In all seriousness, Computer Science student here. Best way to get into some simple game development that will not limit me too much?? (I have experience in XNA but its now dead )
I know Java, C++, C# etc etc... I also know a little openGL, but im currently tearing my hair out on some 3D catmull-rom spline stuff.

Any reason not to jump to MonoGame since you have XNA experience?