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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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First try at Game Maker Studio:

game21sk8c.gif


I even added XBOX 360 controller support :D
 
First try at Game Maker Studio:

game21sk8c.gif


I even added XBOX 360 controller support :D

Wooh! Your on your way to a very good time.

Currently building the framework for my thesis project. Getting the mechanics for a decent looking and playing test your night style of game

Doing it in gamemaker. I will say the more I use it the better my workflow gets.

I might get an android license for it. Anyone here a Gamemaker export on ouya? If so , how well does it run usually?
 

anteevy

Member
Cool!

You can still add a shadow by using a projector. Beware! This causes any object that's hit by the projector to be drawn again with the projected texture on it. So, if your object fills the screen you'll get a whole screen's worth of overdraw. That's why Chopper Mike levels were split into tiles. Worse case: four tiles were overdrawn.

Second, write your own snazzy shaders. Check vamflax.com and scroll down to "Gem Materials". Custom Cg shaders kick ass!!

For music.. try Garageband auto-mode. With a bit of fiddling it can make some decent stuff!

Good luck!! :D
Thanks! I actually didn't know the projector component. It seems to be working great for blob shadows as well as adding a "glow" to the floor beneath objects like the yellow orbs - just tested it. I'm building my levels with Rotorz Tile System (great tileset editor plug-in), so that should help performance-wise.

Do you have any shader resources (tutorials, cool free shaders, ...)? I really like the art style you're going for in SCS. Not too far from my direction, but way better looking. :D

And Garageband ist OSX only, right? Any Windows alternatives to recommend?
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I spent the whole day adjusting the distance and colour of the fog in my scene :/
I'll probably wake up tomorrow, look at it, and think, 'What was I thinking?'
 

razu

Member
Thanks! I actually didn't know the projector component. It seems to be working great for blob shadows as well as adding a "glow" to the floor beneath objects like the yellow orbs - just tested it. I'm building my levels with Rotorz Tile System (great tileset editor plug-in), so that should help performance-wise.

Do you have any shader resources (tutorials, cool free shaders, ...)? I really like the art style you're going for in SCS. Not too far from my direction, but way better looking. :D

And Garageband ist OSX only, right? Any Windows alternatives to recommend?

I'm not that into PC music making lately. I did get into buzz while back, and it is excellent. However, there's no auto mode. So the learning curve will be steep. Worth tinkering around with music programs though, just so you can knock out a few bars to fill an empty space in your game. Even if the music is shit, the game will be better for having some rather than none. Then find some up and coming dude to make you some decent tracks later on if need be!

Just go careful with the projectors. As I said, each projector will cause each object it touches to be redrawn!! Could get expensive fast!!

I coded all the shaders in Chopper Mike by hand, but this time round I'm using a 3rd party "Image-Based Lighting" shader system called SkyShop, see here.

I want to create a nice, fresh environment with super high quality materials, and hardly any diffuse textures. All done with material properties. I'm going to remodel the red chopper soon to have lots more verts, add grilles, etc... Then split parts out into different materials. I'll keep you posted :D


Oh. It's from an article about how the game came about.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/180520/postmortem_humble_hearts_dust_.php

Good read.

That's really cool.

And the thing with the shot of "somehow this became this" is so true...

This:



Became this:




And there's lots further to go...

:D
 

razu

Member
In the meantime, here's some good advice you can bend into any discipline of your choosing. In other words, just do stuff!!

iHyXDog.png
 
So I'm having somewhat of a delimma. With the myriad of choices available to develop personal projects, I've spent more time looking at engines and tools than actually developing assets and story boards. I finally started my project two months ago, however, and I'm using......RPG maker.

A narrative focused game made in RPG maker. I couldn't feel more cliche if I tried. I do feel it's the best tool for me though. The game has an art style similar to Sword and Sworcery and the recent Titan Souls with a heavy focus on juvenile psychological and physical abuse.

It's the use of RPG maker that's killing my drive though. I feel like no one is going to take a "lol RPG maker" project seriously. Has anyone here faced a similar situation?

I'll be posting some screens Saturday regardless.
 
It's the use of RPG maker that's killing my drive though. I feel like no one is going to take a "lol RPG maker" project seriously. Has anyone here faced a similar situation?

If you make something like To The Moon or Cherry Tree High Comedy Club I'm sure you will be taken seriously. Where the issue probably comes from is people saying "I'm making a RPG like Final Fantasy!" getting RPG maker and of course completing about 0.001% of it.

So just make it good and get it done and you'll be doing great.
 

RawNuts

Member
Mountain range as a reeeeally faraway background asset; 180 polys:


I suck at sculpting things, but I think this turned out acceptable.
Sculpting really nice rock objects is like the pinnacle of what I strive to be. The day I'm able to produce a nice looking rock is the day I know I've really made it in my career.
 

Ashodin

Member
Mountain range as a reeeeally faraway background asset; 180 polys:



I suck at sculpting things, but I think this turned out acceptable.
Sculpting really nice rock objects is like the pinnacle of what I strive to be. The day I'm able to produce a nice looking rock is the day I know I've really made it in my career.

First, I saw it as "produce a nice looking rack"

Then, I saw it as "produce a nice looking rock" as in Crack cocaine. Been watching too much Breaking Bad.
 

Anustart

Member
I posted about the artistic influences/style decisions on my site

Featuring some of my old animation as a way of showing that pixel art is a choice, and not an act of laziness.



Also my wife is working on the "cover" art. -



She posted this update today. All water color, about 2 feet tall.



I am super stoked, personally.

Like the art! With the exception of what looks like a black guy with an 'amputated-at-the-knee' leg with a shoe placed on the stump lol.
 

Jarekx

Member
Okay, time to play a little less Dark Souls and get back to coding my combat system. Once I have that, most of the backend stuff will be done( I hope).

Seeing the noogy picture from above, I just took a screenshot of my current playground to look back at when I finish this. It'll be nice to see how different it looks when I finish my first game.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I keep monthly builds of my game, and even just looking at a build from a month back shows me how much progress I have made. The first build I made was so bad it's hilarious.
 

Servbot24

Banned
Hey guys! Me, JulianImp and Bel_Air_Jeff have been working on a game and here is our first post about it!

It is tentatively titled Slide, and is a sidescroller with elements of action, puzzle-solving and exploration.

Here is some concept art that represents what the game will hopefully end up looking like. They are both rooms from the opening stage.


Here is a sample of the music by our super-talented composer Jeff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTjvCCZQQCM&feature=youtu.be

And here is a very early gameplay test...

iLX3GVjlcUu92.gif


One key element not shown there is that the robot can quickly swivel to other side of the pipe. This is a huge key to getting around and exploring the world.

Follow our development blog here! (Of course we'll also be posting on gaf!)

ALSO, we are currently looking for a little extra help! We are looking for someone with experience with C# and Unity, as well as someone with experience with 3D animation. Send me a PM if you're interested. I'm coming to GAF with this first because it would be great to keep the game fully GAF-developed. :)
 
Hey guys! Me, JulianImp and Bel_Air_Jeff have been working on a game and here is our first post about it!

It is tentatively titled Slide, and is a sidescroller with elements of action, puzzle-solving and exploration.

Here is some concept art that represents what the game will hopefully end up looking like. They are both rooms from the opening stage.



Here is a sample of the music by our super-talented composer Jeff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTjvCCZQQCM&feature=youtu.be

And here is a very early gameplay test...

iLX3GVjlcUu92.gif


One key element not shown there is that the robot can quickly swivel to other side of the pipe. This is a huge key to getting around and exploring the world.

Follow our development blog here! (Of course we'll also be posting on gaf!)

ALSO, we are currently looking for a little extra help! We are looking for someone with experience with C# and Unity, as well as someone with experience with 3D animation. Send me a PM if you're interested. I'm coming to GAF with this first because it would be great to keep the game fully GAF-developed. :)


:) check it out guys :)
 

RawNuts

Member
First, I saw it as "produce a nice looking rack"
If I can get a nice rack, then I'll know I really made it in life. ;P

Hey guys! Me, JulianImp and Bel_Air_Jeff have been working on a game and here is our first post about it!

It is tentatively titled Slide, and is a sidescroller with elements of action, puzzle-solving and exploration.

Here is some concept art that represents what the game will hopefully end up looking like. They are both rooms from the opening stage.



Here is a sample of the music by our super-talented composer Jeff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTjvCCZQQCM&feature=youtu.be

And here is a very early gameplay test...

iLX3GVjlcUu92.gif


One key element not shown there is that the robot can quickly swivel to other side of the pipe. This is a huge key to getting around and exploring the world.

Follow our development blog here! (Of course we'll also be posting on gaf!)

ALSO, we are currently looking for a little extra help! We are looking for someone with experience with C# and Unity, as well as someone with experience with 3D animation. Send me a PM if you're interested. I'm coming to GAF with this first because it would be great to keep the game fully GAF-developed. :)
Holy shit I love it; I know nothing about the gameplay and I already love it. The colors remind me so much of Blood Dragon, I love the vibe.
I also totally love the first track; so experimental.

as well as someone with experience with 3D animation
MUST... FIGHT... urge to... assist on project; already doing... too much... work.
 

Empirion

Neo Member
Hi guys!

It's my first time posting on neogaf (although I've been lurking for a while).

Two years ago I decided to turn my dream of being a game designer into reality. Starting from absolute scratch (I had very limited programming knowledge, having built a couple of websites using nothing but html/css) I ended up choosing a game engine to build my game for iOS.

I chose iTorque2D, which has now been abandoned.

So, a couple of months ago, I finally finished the game. It's a very simple, match-3 puzzle game, with a dynamic edge to it.

Unfortunately, after all this time, I can't actually "finish" the game, and publish it, because of changes caused by iOS7. Basically, the sound implementation in iTorque2D doesn't work at all in iOS7. After a very frustrating month or so, I did manage to contact a very nice, very helpful american developer who had in turn been helped by another developer to find a workaround to this sound problem.

The workaround, well... worked. Unfortunately doesn't work properly, and the game ends up going mute in the middle of any level and then crashes. The workaround involves using the Avfoundation framework, but it seems to have a huge limitation on the number of sounds it can play without stop working.
I couldn't find any solution for this problem, nor could the guys that helped me, and this is way beyond my skill level.

And so, after two years of effort and work, I ended up with a finished game, that doesn't work, and will probably never see the light of day.

But I won't give up. I've decided to switch to Unity, and start other game projects, in the hopes that one day I can call myself a game designer...
 

Makai

Member
Hi guys!

It's my first time posting on neogaf (although I've been lurking for a while).

Two years ago I decided to turn my dream of being a game designer into reality. Starting from absolute scratch (I had very limited programming knowledge, having built a couple of websites using nothing but html/css) I ended up choosing a game engine to build my game for iOS.

I chose iTorque2D, which has now been abandoned.

So, a couple of months ago, I finally finished the game. It's a very simple, match-3 puzzle game, with a dynamic edge to it.

Unfortunately, after all this time, I can't actually "finish" the game, and publish it, because of changes caused by iOS7. Basically, the sound implementation in iTorque2D doesn't work at all in iOS7. After a very frustrating month or so, I did manage to contact a very nice, very helpful american developer who had in turn been helped by another developer to find a workaround to this sound problem.

The workaround, well... worked. Unfortunately doesn't work properly, and the game ends up going mute in the middle of any level and then crashes. The workaround involves using the Avfoundation framework, but it seems to have a huge limitation on the number of sounds it can play without stop working.
I couldn't find any solution for this problem, nor could the guys that helped me, and this is way beyond my skill level.

And so, after two years of effort and work, I ended up with a finished game, that doesn't work, and will probably never see the light of day.

But I won't give up. I've decided to switch to Unity, and start other game projects, in the hopes that one day I can call myself a game designer...
Good luck! I bet you could port your old game to Unity quickly and it might be a good way to become familiar with the engine.
 

Empirion

Neo Member
Thanks ActionRemix... But after staring at the game for two years, If I can't solve the problem with the current engine, I don't think I could stomach having to port it to Unity. I would rather just let it die, and serve as my shaky first step into game making.
 

Servbot24

Banned
MUST... FIGHT... urge to... assist on project; already doing... too much... work.

Haha, well animation isn't a huge priority til later on for us and it will mostly be very simple since all the characters will be non-humanoid robots. So keep us in mind if you ever find some extra time on your plate. :)
 
I thought this might be useful to drop down here. I did not know there were professional indie game trailer people, but here you go.

Kent Gartner (Spelunky, Hotline Miami 1 and 2, Hundreds, Monaco, Luftrausers, Guacamelee, Ridiculous Fishing)

He has a guide to make the perfect trailer, when you guys are further along the process of marketing the game.
 

RawNuts

Member
Thanks ActionRemix... But after staring at the game for two years, If I can't solve the problem with the current engine, I don't think I could stomach having to port it to Unity. I would rather just let it die, and serve as my shaky first step into game making.
Do you at least have some cool media of it to share? The first paying game project that we did is completely lost since it was on an obscure web-based engine that is updated on their end at their discretion; their updates ended up breaking our game, but we captured some sweet footage from the time it did work at least and it's nice to have.
I would love to see what you pulled off for your first game and you'll probably want some media to reflect back on later.


Haha, well animation isn't a huge priority til later on for us and it will mostly be very simple since all the characters will be non-humanoid robots. So keep us in mind if you ever find some extra time on your plate. :)
Hella yes
 

Phandy

Member
Our project isn't far enough along yet for screenshots. Its mostly a bunch of gameplay, shader, style tests etc. But I've done a decent amount of documentation and early concept work.
Here's and overall atmosphere test.
The art style might be quite light harded, but I think with atmosphere and music I'm hoping it will be quite sombre.

iS4S1NsAIEpnL.jpg
 

Empirion

Neo Member
OK, so here are 4 screenshots from my game currently in development limbo.

The title is Lazy Santa, as you can tell. You have to tap 3 houses of the same color and finish the level with a minimum score to pass to the next level (if you can score high enough you can win from 1 to 3 stars as well).

The houses appear from the right, and move to the left, as Santa is flying over them. When you tap a house, some of the presents in Santa's sleigh are removed. To "recharge" the sleigh with presents, you need to pick up a power up. There are other power ups, to make the game slower, to add extra time, etc.

There's a total of 10 levels (I know, it's very little), but all the backgrounds and houses are unique to any given level.

I did all the art, except the main menu background (which I asked a friend of mine to paint), and the main theme song (which I also asked a friend of a friend to compose). The sound effects are all creative common licenses.

2KuGXVu.jpg


rjX6RfA.jpg


Oxun4jn.jpg


pX1SHO1.jpg
 

Tiu Neo

Member
Hey guys, did any of you join GGJ?

I was in Curitiba, there where something like 400 people here. Awesome event.

Me and a musician friend made a game, and had some help from two other programmers on the second day, working on the details, like the particles and little texts the characters say. Musician art is not that different from programmer art, heh.

http://www.diogomuller.com.br/files/games/zombie/

First time any of us used flashpunk.
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Our project isn't far enough along yet for screenshots. Its mostly a bunch of gameplay, shader, style tests etc. But I've done a decent amount of documentation and early concept work.
Here's and overall atmosphere test.
The art style might be quite light harded, but I think with atmosphere and music I'm hoping it will be quite sombre.

iS4S1NsAIEpnL.jpg
Love this

How much of a time commitment is there for shading like this versus regular texturing?
 

Five

Banned
There's a GameMaker jam going on right now with about 25 hours left in it (of 72). This is what I've made so far:

valerie-recording.gif
 

Phandy

Member
Love this

How much of a time commitment is there for shading like this versus regular texturing?

We basically plan on doing most of our work with lighting and shaders if we can and keep hard texturing work to a minimum. Most stuff will be done with a sculpt, baked down and then a small amount of work on the diffuse (like main colours and gradients). Hopefully it'll look good. We're using a toon ramp so we can more effictively bash objects together without visible seams, low amounts of texture information helps with that too.

But you need the know how to do the shaders etc. to start with, which my buddy can do bits of (so lucky he can do programming!). So he can do cool shit like sand blending and stuff. I could never do it myself and probably would of tried normal texturing. In the long run it probably will save time over trying to do it regularly which is great.
 

Anustart

Member
Wondering if my code is wrong or what.

Say a bullet hits my player and this is detected via OnTriggerEnter(Collider c)

To send a message to the object that hit my player, is it c.SendMessage?

I'm trying this, and have a debug.log in the method I've supposedly sent the message to but I'm not picking up anything as if the method is firing.


Edit: I'm an idiot, I forgot to attach an important script to the object lol.
 
I posted about the artistic influences/style decisions on my site

Featuring some of my old animation as a way of showing that pixel art is a choice, and not an act of laziness.



Also my wife is working on the "cover" art. -



She posted this update today. All water color, about 2 feet tall.



I am super stoked, personally.

This is looked great when you showed it at the IDGA plaything in NJ over the summer, and it's just looking better and better.
 

Anustart

Member
Got something cool working in my game tonight!

Got a system up and running in my game so enemies can apply status effects with unique effects, strengths and durations.

Took a couple hours, but now adding new effects will be relatively simple and easy to implement. Currently only have an effect to slow the player, but it's progress baby!
 

Noogy

Member
Nice.

dustaet_00.jpg


Judging from this image, you're halfway to being Noogy. :D

Haha so true :) Seriously, whenever I see someone's first programming steps I smile to myself. I remember how incredible those moments felt.

Seeing the noogy picture from above, I just took a screenshot of my current playground to look back at when I finish this. It'll be nice to see how different it looks when I finish my first game.

Seriously, I recommend everyone do this. Take screenshots of your work so you can look back and see how your project has grown. I regret that I didn't take more screens during development, as it's always fun to reminisce the various stages of development, good and bad.
 

Anustart

Member
Boo! Slow doesn't work as intended for some reason.

For testing, I'm making the slow effect last 5 seconds. To achieve this I set the slow duration to Time.time + 5 but this only works once.

Once the player gets out of the slow effect 5 seconds after application, he's immune to being slowed again...

It will slow me twice if I get slowed near the start of the game starting, but not anymore than twice... Really scratching my head here. here's the code that pertains to slowing the player:

Code:
float thisStrength = slowStrength -= playerSlowResistance;  // Deduct resistance from strength of the effect.
        float slowChance = Random.Range(0f, 101f);  // Value to beat to apply Slow.

        if (thisStrength > slowChance && !player.GetComponent<PlayersStats>().SpeedIsChanged)
        {
            player.GetComponent<PlayersStats>().SlowPlayer(slowDuration, slowPercentage);
            //// Set players new (slowed) movement speed.
            //player.GetComponent<PlayersStats>().PlayerCurrentMaxMovementSpeed = (player.GetComponent<PlayersStats>().PlayerMaxMovementSpeed * slowPercentage);
            //player.GetComponent<PlayersStats>().SpeedIsChanged = true;  // let PlayersStats.cs know that the speed is changed.
            //player.GetComponent<PlayersStats>().AlteredSpeedLength = (Time.time % 60) + slowDuration;  // The time when speed will return to normal.
        }

AND:

Code:
public void SlowPlayer(float duration, float slowPercentage)
    {
        Debug.Log("Blah");
        speedIsChanged = true;
        alteredSpeedLength = Time.time + duration;
        playerCurrentMaxMovementSpeed *= slowPercentage;
    }

But again, this only works twice at most!

EDIT: GAH IM STUPID!

But, posting that code here helped me solve the problem lol.

The problem line: float thisStrength = slowStrength -= playerSlowResistance; // Deduct resistance from strength of the effect.

For some reason I accidentally placed that slowStrength -= playerSlowResistance, which was continually lowering the base chance of the slow effect happening until it went sub-0, which then made slowing impossible. Fixed it by changing it to:
float thisStrength = slowStrength - playerSlowResistance; // Deduct resistance from strength of the effect.

I'm such a noob.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Seriously, I recommend everyone do this. Take screenshots of your work so you can look back and see how your project has grown. I regret that I didn't take more screens during development, as it's always fun to reminisce the various stages of development, good and bad.

This is one of the earliest earnest versions of ghost song. It doesn't get much earlier than this.

zombie1.jpg


I had almost no idea whatsoever how to approach many aspects of art design for games, environment art in particular.

here's the game now, and I'm very proud of how far it's come.


BTW, should be new stuff soon. Hopefully a video soon, too.
 
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