-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
- Start date
- Status
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Kinda what I figured. I've downloaded C2 and Unity, but I never find the time to fiddle with them. Some of the things like Flixel and Starling seem like they never get mentioned, so I was just wondering.
A lot of your text feels
crammed in. I find it hard
to read.
Bigger dialogs and more attention to line breaks would help!
Yeah, I also find it annoying when menus are super large. Personal preference.
This is possibly a bit of a weird question (and as a design related one, it's probably difficult for anyone else to answer), but this seems like a reasonable place to post it:
I'm making a 3D platformer in Unity, sort of a cross between Spyro ("collectathon" style levels) and Ratchet & Clank (third person shooting/strafing in between platforming sections) in terms of gameplay and I'm going for a very minimalist style of level design, where it's possible to fall off the world in most places. I plan to have checkpoints placed fairly liberally throughout the levels and if the player dies they go back to the last checkpoint and regain their health, but all the enemies they previously defeated come back.
My problem is that I'd like the player to know when they've triggered a checkpoint (if only through a little "autosaving" icon on the screen), but since the levels will mostly be pretty linear, it won't be a real problem for the player if the enemies behind them respawn. So if they've lost a little bit of health, there isn't any downside to them just jumping off the edge of the map to get all their health back, since they know they'll just respawn safely right where they were.
Is there anything I could do to discourage this, without hiding the checkpoints? It wouldn't normally be a huge problem, but due to the level design it will probably almost always be possible to find somewhere to jump off within a few seconds of hitting a checkpoint, so even if you've got 90% health it would still be worth doing to get to 100%!
I don't really like the idea of giving a limited number of lives, although one idea that has occurred to me while typing this is to give a set number of lives for the first playthrough, then unlimited for later attempts to find hidden collectables. Does that seem like a reasonable idea? Or should I rethink my level designs? Or just ignore the problem and let people jump off if they want to?
Also, while I'm posting this I might as well ask if my minimalist style looks good enough. I have no experience or ability with 3D modelling, texturing, animation etc, so I was hoping to just have everything as simple single-coloured shapes as a sort of "art style" and hope that Unity's nice rendering and lighting would help pull it off without looking like I'd just left placeholder assets in the final product! The below screens give a rough idea of how it will look, though the levels shown are just testing/in development areas and the lighting needs fixing in the second two, to make it more like the first one. The blue cuboid is the player, and I was hoping to keep that for the final version.
Does this look like something you'd pay money for as a PC game, or do I need to get proper models and textures etc if I want to sell it when it's done? All the amazing art in the games it this thread definitely makes me feel that my rather basic attempt isn't really good enough!
I'm making a 3D platformer in Unity, sort of a cross between Spyro ("collectathon" style levels) and Ratchet & Clank (third person shooting/strafing in between platforming sections) in terms of gameplay and I'm going for a very minimalist style of level design, where it's possible to fall off the world in most places. I plan to have checkpoints placed fairly liberally throughout the levels and if the player dies they go back to the last checkpoint and regain their health, but all the enemies they previously defeated come back.
My problem is that I'd like the player to know when they've triggered a checkpoint (if only through a little "autosaving" icon on the screen), but since the levels will mostly be pretty linear, it won't be a real problem for the player if the enemies behind them respawn. So if they've lost a little bit of health, there isn't any downside to them just jumping off the edge of the map to get all their health back, since they know they'll just respawn safely right where they were.
Is there anything I could do to discourage this, without hiding the checkpoints? It wouldn't normally be a huge problem, but due to the level design it will probably almost always be possible to find somewhere to jump off within a few seconds of hitting a checkpoint, so even if you've got 90% health it would still be worth doing to get to 100%!
I don't really like the idea of giving a limited number of lives, although one idea that has occurred to me while typing this is to give a set number of lives for the first playthrough, then unlimited for later attempts to find hidden collectables. Does that seem like a reasonable idea? Or should I rethink my level designs? Or just ignore the problem and let people jump off if they want to?
Also, while I'm posting this I might as well ask if my minimalist style looks good enough. I have no experience or ability with 3D modelling, texturing, animation etc, so I was hoping to just have everything as simple single-coloured shapes as a sort of "art style" and hope that Unity's nice rendering and lighting would help pull it off without looking like I'd just left placeholder assets in the final product! The below screens give a rough idea of how it will look, though the levels shown are just testing/in development areas and the lighting needs fixing in the second two, to make it more like the first one. The blue cuboid is the player, and I was hoping to keep that for the final version.
Does this look like something you'd pay money for as a PC game, or do I need to get proper models and textures etc if I want to sell it when it's done? All the amazing art in the games it this thread definitely makes me feel that my rather basic attempt isn't really good enough!
Maybe checkpoints only restore HP up to the value that the player had when hitting that checkpoint, and getting up to full HP requires health packs. So jumping off a cliff can help, but wouldn't put the player in a better position than he was in when originally arriving at the checkpoint.
As far as the art style, I think it looks fine, but it's really hard for me to care about block people. I think Thomas Was Alone was the only game that succeeded in doing so, unless you count Super Meat Boy.
As far as the art style, I think it looks fine, but it's really hard for me to care about block people. I think Thomas Was Alone was the only game that succeeded in doing so, unless you count Super Meat Boy.
AxiomVerge
Neo Member
Billsmugs:
First, about the gameplay question. I think that you would want to discourage people impending their progress by jumping back a bit (and dying, regaining hp if I understood it correctly) by actually impending their progress if they jump back/down/suicide. What I mean with it is that under no circumstances would I, a player playing a platform game, would want to be a place that has been put behind me if there is nothing there. Give them an insta-restart button if they want to master the level, but initially, I would say that simply placing checkpoints in a way that would simply set you back is discouragement enough. Just think back to all good platformers to see what that means. One or max 2 checkpoints in a big 2d game, and not more than a few in a 3d one.
About graphics... No, I would not buy it on that premise alone. I would have to see a gameplay demo, I would need something to draw me in. It looks like it is missing several passes that make them "stylistic". It is just barebones at this point - to me, anyway.
How about placing some non-crucial elements that visually enhances the game without needing resources to create detailed distractions? Think about some spots (literally, just spots), bolts, lines on the wall, (even colored one), some color variation. If you go the super simplistic route, I would need a few more effects, but if you add some non-detail detail (like stuff I just mentioned), then I would be okay with the lack of textures and so on. (Btw, I am planning to go the same route, textureless 3d action/platform/puzzle incoming, or at least a prototype by spring)
First, about the gameplay question. I think that you would want to discourage people impending their progress by jumping back a bit (and dying, regaining hp if I understood it correctly) by actually impending their progress if they jump back/down/suicide. What I mean with it is that under no circumstances would I, a player playing a platform game, would want to be a place that has been put behind me if there is nothing there. Give them an insta-restart button if they want to master the level, but initially, I would say that simply placing checkpoints in a way that would simply set you back is discouragement enough. Just think back to all good platformers to see what that means. One or max 2 checkpoints in a big 2d game, and not more than a few in a 3d one.
About graphics... No, I would not buy it on that premise alone. I would have to see a gameplay demo, I would need something to draw me in. It looks like it is missing several passes that make them "stylistic". It is just barebones at this point - to me, anyway.
How about placing some non-crucial elements that visually enhances the game without needing resources to create detailed distractions? Think about some spots (literally, just spots), bolts, lines on the wall, (even colored one), some color variation. If you go the super simplistic route, I would need a few more effects, but if you add some non-detail detail (like stuff I just mentioned), then I would be okay with the lack of textures and so on. (Btw, I am planning to go the same route, textureless 3d action/platform/puzzle incoming, or at least a prototype by spring
)Jobbs (Matt White; Ghost Song) knows the guy who is, but I don't think he posts here.
How about switching off 'health regen to max at respawn' when you hit a checkpoint, and then having a trigger further in that turns it back on (when you would judge it fair for it to start happening again), if your levels are linear?
KurtGutierrez
Neo Member
Hi guys my name is Kurt and I am part of a 10 man remote working team making our first free-to-play mobile game. Our core team is made up of guys that have worked at Activision, Neversoft and Rare.
We're about two-three months from soft launch and looking for a Level/Game Designer to help us out. Since we dont have funding yet, we are looking for someone who is willing to help us get there. I would say we are about a week or two away from pitching to publishers. The job will require the building of modular gameplay pieces in Maya or Max, and creating levels with them in Unity, as well as general game design stuff.
Here are some screenshots of the game, and one of the character models. Contact me if interested and I can give you more information about the game-play etc.
Skype: kurtlosangeles
Thanks,
-Kurt
We're about two-three months from soft launch and looking for a Level/Game Designer to help us out. Since we dont have funding yet, we are looking for someone who is willing to help us get there. I would say we are about a week or two away from pitching to publishers. The job will require the building of modular gameplay pieces in Maya or Max, and creating levels with them in Unity, as well as general game design stuff.
Here are some screenshots of the game, and one of the character models. Contact me if interested and I can give you more information about the game-play etc.
Skype: kurtlosangeles
Thanks,
-Kurt
Saving the player's health when they hit the checkpoint seems like a good idea, though there is the risk that they could end up saving themselves into a position that they can't escape from. I could possibly make it so that dying by falling restores you to the health you had when you fell (or when you hit the checkpoint), but dying from enemies gives you full health?
I might have to try giving the character a bit more expression/features, rather than being a plain box.
Billsmugs:
First, about the gameplay question. I think that you would want to discourage people impending their progress by jumping back a bit (and dying, regaining hp if I understood it correctly) by actually impending their progress if they jump back/down/suicide. What I mean with it is that under no circumstances would I, a player playing a platform game, would want to be a place that has been put behind me if there is nothing there. Give them an insta-restart button if they want to master the level, but initially, I would say that simply placing checkpoints in a way that would simply set you back is discouragement enough. Just think back to all good platformers to see what that means. One or max 2 checkpoints in a big 2d game, and not more than a few in a 3d one.
About graphics... No, I would not buy it on that premise alone. I would have to see a gameplay demo, I would need something to draw me in. It looks like it is missing several passes that make them "stylistic". It is just barebones at this point - to me, anyway.
How about placing some non-crucial elements that visually enhances the game without needing resources to create detailed distractions? Think about some spots (literally, just spots), bolts, lines on the wall, (even colored one), some color variation. If you go the super simplistic route, I would need a few more effects, but if you add some non-detail detail (like stuff I just mentioned), then I would be okay with the lack of textures and so on. (Btw, I am planning to go the same route, textureless 3d action/platform/puzzle incoming, or at least a prototype by spring
I might limit the frequency of checkpoints a bit, and maybe place the checkpoint trigger a bit further on from the checkpoint itself, after some small platforming elements, to give more of a feeling of being set back by falling. Your comments on small detail elements are definitely interesting (and I could easily create some simple pattern textures in Inkscape to liven things up). I might also look into shader programming to get a more unique and visually interesting look (rather than what I'm using at the moment, which is Unity's built in Toon Lighted shader, with a simple gradient ramp texture). I'm not sure whether that would be enough, since I don't know how much you can do with shaders in Unity Free, or how easy it is to learn how to make them well.
This is quite a nice idea, but it might be hard to communicate to the player how it works? I might try it with a timer, rather than a trigger location perhaps, but it's definitely something that would work well to offset the problem, without punishing legitimate deaths.
HellBlazer
Member
Maybe... have each checkpoint allow only a limited number of respawns? So you don't have limited lives per se because your respawns are reset at each checkpoint, but if you screw up too many times in one section, you need to restart... hm, either at the previous checkpoint, or the whole level; whatever seems appropriate for your level design. This is similar to how it works in LittleBigPlanet.
Hmm, honestly the graphic style is a bit off-putting to me, as far as first impressions go. That said, I would definitely still get it if I'm told the level design/gameplay is really great or whatever, so it's not entirely a deal-breaker but... Still, first impressions count for a lot, and I would say most people are generally less tolerant graphics-wise than I am, so I kinda doubt it would get that much interest on something like Steam. The minimalist approach is not necessarily bad, but I think you need something to give it more charm and personality. Interesting shaders could possibly go a long way here. Maybe some cell-shading with really thick lines, or a much higher light/shadow contrast...? I'm not sure, I'm hardly an artist myself, admittedly.
Nice! Reminds me of LTTP. Complete with what looks like the Triforce in the last few frames.Improved my stylized 3d map and added the way selection and transition fx:
Maybe... have each checkpoint allow only a limited number of respawns? So you don't have limited lives per se because your respawns are reset at each checkpoint, but if you screw up too many times in one section, you need to restart... hm, either at the previous checkpoint, or the whole level; whatever seems appropriate for your level design. This is similar to how it works in LittleBigPlanet.
Hmm, honestly the graphic style is a bit off-putting to me, as far as first impressions go. That said, I would definitely still get it if I'm told the level design/gameplay is really great or whatever, so it's not entirely a deal-breaker but... Still, first impressions count for a lot, and I would say most people are generally less tolerant graphics-wise than I am, so I kinda doubt it would get that much interest on something like Steam. The minimalist approach is not necessarily bad, but I think you need something to give it more charm and personality. Interesting shaders could possibly go a long way here. Maybe some cell-shading with really thick lines, or a much higher light/shadow contrast...? I'm not sure, I'm hardly an artist myself, admittedly.
I hadn't thought about the LBP system, that could work pretty well too. Going back to the previous checkpoint could be a nice compromise, possibly if you then got unlimited lives at that one until you get back to the more recent checkpoint.
I'd love some nice thick outlines, but the default Unity outline toon shader is a bit rubbish and doesn't really work on cubes, so I'll have to look into making my own. I think learning how to make Unity shaders definitely needs to go on my to do list if I'm going to try and carry off the minimal aesthetic.
So I'm going over display resolutions for Unity. I am not using the default splash that let's you config display settings and controls before the game launch, I'm just scripting it to my options menu... Should I include every conceivable resolution or just stick with 800x600 or 1024x768 and up? Making sure to hit 16:9, 16:10 and 4:3. The game defaults to native fullscreen but I want to give people options including windowed.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
HellBlazer
Member
Hmm, is there any way to query available resolutions from the system in Unity? 'Cause that would definitely be the optimal way to do it. Otherwise Durante will smack you.
Screen.resolutions looks like it should work, but I just tried it and it doesn't seem to work in the editor, it just gives 640x480 as the only option (so at least Anustart will be happy!) It might only work if you build the game first?
EDIT: yes looks like it only works in the built game, not in editor: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/132067/screenresolutions-problem.html
EDIT: yes looks like it only works in the built game, not in editor: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/132067/screenresolutions-problem.html
Aye. I will look into it. Otherwise I can just use an array and do a bit of math based on aspect so I don't have to address every resolution individually.Hmm, is there any way to query available resolutions from the system in Unity? 'Cause that would definitely be the optimal way to do it. Otherwise Durante will smack you.
I'm familiar. I was just curious as to how many resolutions I should support
Thanks tho Aye. I will look into it. Otherwise I can just use an array and do a bit of math based on aspect so I don't have to address every resolution individually.
I'm familiar. I was just curious as to how many resolutions I should support
All of them. From 1x1 on up!
Thaumaturgic Tomato
Member
Improved my stylized 3d map and added the way selection and transition fx:
Don't know anything about what you're making but opened the page and saw this image. Instantly hooked me. Good job. Nice style. Makes a stranger to the game want to learn more.
The problem with Screen.resolutions (assuming the docs are completely accurate) is that it only shows what the fullscreen possibilities are. Maybe my monitor is 1920x1080 but I want to game in 1280x800 windowed, but that wouldn't show up because it's not a valid fullscreen resolution for me.
So I'd tackle this two-fold. For fullscreen, I'd list everything that Screen.resolutions gives. For windowed, I'd only give common resolutions for 16:9 and 16:10 (and 4:3 if you're being generous) that fit within the confines of the current screen resolution.
Actually, that's how I'd tackle it if I were you. Personally, I'm making a 2D game and am just planning on scaling (from native 1920x1080) and letterboxing.
So I'd tackle this two-fold. For fullscreen, I'd list everything that Screen.resolutions gives. For windowed, I'd only give common resolutions for 16:9 and 16:10 (and 4:3 if you're being generous) that fit within the confines of the current screen resolution.
Actually, that's how I'd tackle it if I were you. Personally, I'm making a 2D game and am just planning on scaling (from native 1920x1080) and letterboxing.
I don't know a damn thing about what you're working on, but this gif is seriously pretty; tell us more about it!Improved my stylized 3d map and added the way selection and transition fx:
Roger that, thanks! Makes sense.
SlipperySlope
Banned
I've been wanting to prototype one of my game design documents. (I write them as a hobby).
I bought Playmaker for Unity a while ago and still haven't use it. I'm gonna watch some tutorials this week and see if I can't get my core idea prototyped.
Think Hotline Miami meets Frozen Synapse.
I bought Playmaker for Unity a while ago and still haven't use it. I'm gonna watch some tutorials this week and see if I can't get my core idea prototyped.
Think Hotline Miami meets Frozen Synapse.
It is for my game Last Knight, it is part of a new game mode for the upcoming Steam release: http://www.lastknightthegame.com/
On the start of this gamemode a world gets randomly generated in the shape of this map. You start at the castle and can then go where ever you want. The light trail shows the way you made, every triangle tile is also a branch. When selected a tile you get sucked in and the actual gameplay starts. The tiles symbolize different environments, the world of the actual gameplay is also randomly generated but of the type you selected. When you manage to get to the next branch the map opens up again. Tiles close to you will get revealed and you can then select the next tile/way.
I also made some sounds now and put them under the recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFybcQWy8w that is also in a much better quality.
Overall it will be really hardcore since when you die you have to start over again in a whole new generated world at the castle. There is also no health at all in the game, when you bump into something you are dead! I also plan to add some simple survival elements as well as loot and shops.
Sadly, we all know the Unity docs are... bad and full of rather dangerous errors.
Today's "Why, Unity, why do you do this to me?" is brought to you by: Mecanim.
Load a blend/fbx file with mesh and animation, rig it up to a humanoid, it works in the preview. Drag the animations into the AnimationController and boom, everything goes back to T-pose and is lost until you reimport the damn thing and rerig it... until you add an animation to the controller and... you get the idea.
Can't due to NDA issues. He can film the TV screen though.take pics of the controller with the game on it
Can't due to NDA issues. He can film the TV screen though.
NDA bounds me!
We can't take pics of the gamepad from the devkit? That I didn't know, and probably just saved me some trouble later on down the road.
Edit: In other news, I'm having some fun now. I'm just coding up possible abilities I might want the player to have and it's a blast just playing around with them and seeing what's fun!
Edit: In other news, I'm having some fun now. I'm just coding up possible abilities I might want the player to have and it's a blast just playing around with them and seeing what's fun!
SeanNoonan
Member
I'm starting to put out these silly little games quite regularly now: http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/bad-mood-rising/21627/
This one was for the Global Game Jam
This one was for the Global Game Jam
Yup, I'll PM you the forum link. Good work on the game you two!
Lower your bills (liabilities). What you wrote can't be any excuse. If you
want to make games you have to reorder things in favor to it. And if you
can't cut on things, then it is your very decision not to do so.
Perhaps your are way too ambitious with your requirements on graphics for a
small indie game supported by a low budget. Part of the story is that you are
doing a whole bunch yourself. Well, I think you should improve upon your
graphic skills even if you won't reach any superior level any time soon. Many
cool things can already be done while composing simple things together. And on
another hand, acquiring some graphic skills may also help you in explaining
your vision to a possible artist, an artist you may met further down the
road.
ExFalsoQuodlibet
Member
Thanks for the suggestion, it's really appreciated
Off topic here, but had to get this off my chest. Is anyone else bothered when people use =/= to state not equal when your brain is screaming at them to use the normal != and then realizing that you're the odd one out?
I tend to forget that != is probably not that well known outside of coders lol.
I tend to forget that != is probably not that well known outside of coders lol.
I Kickstarted that. It's now part of my Metroid Trifecta, which also includes Ghost Song and Axiom Verge.
ExFalsoQuodlibet
Member
This
I'm entering game business, too. Working on my R&D codebase (written in F#) and juggling game ideas, mostly AI based stuff.
My 3-D procedural texturing engine is looking good, here's a 1-liner example - can you count all the alien faces?
http://imgur.com/a/vrFL3
Source code (it's many octaves of a procedural noise-like function "cone" mangled by a "Swiss knife" fractalizer, then fed to pseudo-random color map number 42):
color 42 (swiss 0.8 2.0 2.0 0.2 Fade.downarc 1.2 0.2 1.1 150.0 8 3 (cone 0.5))
My 3-D procedural texturing engine is looking good, here's a 1-liner example - can you count all the alien faces?
http://imgur.com/a/vrFL3
Source code (it's many octaves of a procedural noise-like function "cone" mangled by a "Swiss knife" fractalizer, then fed to pseudo-random color map number 42):
color 42 (swiss 0.8 2.0 2.0 0.2 Fade.downarc 1.2 0.2 1.1 150.0 8 3 (cone 0.5))
Have you tried selecting "Legacy" as animation type in the import settings/rig tab? I had a similar problem with animations from blend files in Unity and that's how I solved it. It had nothing to do with mecanim, however.
That's seriously pretty. I like how natural it looks despite the triangular tiles.Improved my stylized 3d map and added the way selection and transition fx:
More on unity resolutions... So adjusting resolution from in-game requires a few parameters like (width, height, BOOL), bool represents windowed/full screen.
I can't just "bool windowedMode = false;" then make a check box and use windowedMode as the BOOL for display parameters and alter the bool depending on the checkbox? Shit HAS to be true/false for every resolution? I just can't use the bool as a state? FML, Unity. FML.
I can't just "bool windowedMode = false;" then make a check box and use windowedMode as the BOOL for display parameters and alter the bool depending on the checkbox? Shit HAS to be true/false for every resolution? I just can't use the bool as a state? FML, Unity. FML.
Noogy, why so tight lipped on whatever your next project is? You vaguely alluded to some upcoming project back ages ago, so, cmon, man. Bone. Throw one.
- Status