Glad you enjoyed the read
That's funny indeed. The original prototype was made in GameMaker by the way, which has gone a loooong way since then.
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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That's funny indeed. The original prototype was made in GameMaker by the way, which has gone a loooong way since then.
To those whom it may concern, I've been in contact with Jon (who created Stencyl) and been doing tests over the past couple of months, and I'm now ready to say that Ghost Song for Windows is now being developed as a Stencyl project, and I feel very happy about it. I know I mentioned Unity in the past, and we do have a Unity version, but I had to make a decision that best served the game and my ability to actually get it done. There may still be console ports, I am still weighing my options in that area, but in terms of the Windows/Mac/Linux version, it's now being developed in Stencyl.
I'm posting this for the purpose of full disclosure, since I've talked so much about Unity in the past. As mentioned, this has been in the works for a while now, I just didn't want to go public until I knew for sure.
I won't put a huge diary in this thread, but if you want to know more, see my post I just now made on the Stencyl forums.
I'm posting this for the purpose of full disclosure, since I've talked so much about Unity in the past. As mentioned, this has been in the works for a while now, I just didn't want to go public until I knew for sure.
I won't put a huge diary in this thread, but if you want to know more, see my post I just now made on the Stencyl forums.
Daaaaaamn. Thats huge. Currently reading your Stencyl post now.
Alright, I was scared at first when I saw that you were forced back to Stencyl. I'm glad you got those features working.
I've never looked into Stencyl. Can you share a few highlights of what you like in Stencyl over Unity? I think I recall you were using unity up until now?
Thanks.
"Forced" isn't the right term, though, it was a very careful and calculated decision.Unity is somewhat obtuse compared to Stencyl, which is much easier and more approachable for designers/artists like myself. There's nothing really "wrong" with Unity, and to be clear it's a more powerful piece of software (although for the specific 2d gameplay I'm doing, Stencyl can cover it) The issue, as I described, was that I was relying on a separate programmer (a very skilled and awesome one, to be clear) to implement the game in Unity and programming it in C#. The problem was the process was too stifled, I needed to do too much experimenting and too much tweaking and cover too much ground and doing it via someone else's hands was just not working out for me as well as I'd hoped. The results were fine, the timeline was not.
If you are a programmer and fluent in Unity, then that's probably awesome, but for someone like me, using a program like Stencyl can be very freeing when compared to dictating the game to a programmer.
Great idea.
Here is my earliest animation attempt from our colored sketch art:
Here is the near final idle animation w/ newest art and ingame effects (note gif compression bands the gradients terribly):
Phenomenal!
I, on the other hand, have made a van: https://vine.co/v/MeYjeXDjYeQ
I know very well the pain of things not working out as expected with your tools, and having to wait for every change or tweak.
Switching over takes a lot of courage and effort, but sometimes it's a jump you have to take.
Can't wait to play your game
I, on the other hand, have made a van: https://vine.co/v/MeYjeXDjYeQ
I love how it leans in the turns. Looks fun.
Makes sense. I just did a quick glance at Stencyl. It reminds me of the promise of Torque2D back in the day.... but sounds like they actually pulled it off. Torque2D was a great idea but too buggy to really use (at least when I tried it years ago).
Looks fun!
How much counter-downforce are you applying so it doesn't just flip over like my tests always did?
Piercedveil
Member
Thanks, I will definitely take a look at this as well.
Total Secret of Evermore vibes, looks like a sweet boss scene from there as wellGreat idea.
Here is my earliest animation attempt from our colored sketch art:
Here is the near final idle animation w/ newest art and ingame effects (note gif compression bands the gradients terribly):
Messofanego
Banned
hours lost suck
Wooh! feels good to get a two player player working now with player 1 and player 2 being able to duke it out. Gotta head home to my lady for valentines but tomorrow I'll be making the basic versions of the three other character that all play differently. From there, all the menus and screens will be integrated and after that it's just making more art, polishing, adding sound and other things... should be good then.
Still mostly placeholders (and bad GIF framerate):
I'll need playtesting so don't be surprised if I ask help here for anyone who wants to do some input for me.
The psychedelic colours and number font totally reminds me of Sesame Street, maybe that's just me! hehe
Looks fun!
How much counter-downforce are you applying so it doesn't just flip over like my tests always did?
You know, the funny thing is I did this so long ago, I've forgotten how it works. But it does have roll limits as parameters, so I must be applying some. The main thing with Unity wheel colliders is reducing the stiffness. That determines the transfer of load to grip, and it's super high by default.
Wheel colliders in general are tricky. I might write an article on it. Y'know... when I get time ;D
Once they announced their new version and everything, I thought you might slip back into the fold
Engines like Stencyl are a huge boon for artist/graphically oriented creators.
Mister Chippy
Member
Well feel free to do whatever you want, but diving in to any C language without prior programming experience will probably kick your ass. Maybe try messing around with Java and Python first.
If you are excellent in another field you can try joining a team, or if you really want to do it yourself C# is not a bad way to go (I started with XNA, but I guess now Unity would be better) tutorials directly for the intended purpose is much better than learning it raw from the language IMO, a good book is better to be used as a reference guide
Thanks.
Unity is somewhat obtuse compared to Stencyl, which is much easier and more approachable for designers/artists like myself. There's nothing really "wrong" with Unity, and to be clear it's a more powerful piece of software (although for the specific 2d gameplay I'm doing, Stencyl can cover it) The issue, as I described, was that I was relying on a separate programmer (a very skilled and awesome one, to be clear) to implement the game in Unity and programming it in C#. The problem was the process was too stifled, I needed to do too much experimenting and too much tweaking and cover too much ground and doing it via someone else's hands was just not working out for me as well as I'd hoped. The results were fine, the timeline was not.
If you are a programmer and fluent in Unity, then that's probably awesome, but for someone like me, using a program like Stencyl can be very freeing when compared to dictating the game to a programmer.
I bought Game Maker Pro and Construct 2 and found that Construct 2 was easier to learn. But I ultimately plunged into GM to learn its programming language for a more powerful tool set.
I hope you can do everything you want to do in the game with the new engine.
I've found C2 to also be quite good, though Stencyl is not without its strengths, especially now with the new engine. Game Maker is obviously top notch and capable of doing anything -- I just don't know it, and I have years of Stencyl experience, so this time it's a no brainer.
Huh, very interesting... up until now I didn't even realize what Stencyl was.... for some reason I thought it was simply an animation tool.
Good on you for moving to whatever makes you feel comfortable. I've only shipped one title, but I can't imagine having to rely on someone else to bring my ideas to fruition.
ohblahitsme
Member
Hey dudes and ladies,
I just decided to start developing for Android and am developing an arcade skiing game called Avalanche Escape. If you're willing to beta test, let me know by PMing me your email so I can add you to the testers group. Don't worry, I promise no spam.
The graphics in the game are temporary and I have a real graphics person doing them, but here's a tree I'm pretty proud of drawing (that will likely not make it into the final game):
I just decided to start developing for Android and am developing an arcade skiing game called Avalanche Escape. If you're willing to beta test, let me know by PMing me your email so I can add you to the testers group. Don't worry, I promise no spam.
The graphics in the game are temporary and I have a real graphics person doing them, but here's a tree I'm pretty proud of drawing (that will likely not make it into the final game):
Well, it's easier when they're sitting next to you.
LSauchelli
Member
Huge news Jobbs. Hope everything goes smoothly.
BTW, do you still have your programmer friend helping? Or is it just you again?
I hear you
Yeah, my main problem with my unity wheel collider car, was that the whole mass setting doesn't work in any of the 5 different ways it's described in the documentation. I lost so much time futzing around with different masses to stop npcs that ran into a car from making it roll away while not making it actually undriveable that I eventually gave up on the whole concept.
Go for it! That's what I did. C# + XNA. Migrated to Unity after a couple of years.
ZehDon
Member
Great idea! Every time I come by this thread, there's always something awesome to check out. It's really motivating, in my opinion.
My earliest screen:
This is actually a few months into development, I seem to have lost the first few screens I took. This is from when 'As You Wake' was a Windows Phone game. I remember this day specifically, as it's when I got the realtime lighting system working. Felt really impressive at the time. I loved working on Windows Phone
And this is one taken today, now on PC. I just finished adding in the last of the major systems, so my game is, essentially, "feature complete", and can actually be played properly. Well, at least the first level can, anyway. Content complete is many, many, many months way :'( Time to start spreading the word!
I've been meaning to look into Unity. I love C# and XNA. How difficult was the transition?
If anyone else has used Tile Studio, is there a way to do partial transparency in it? I see an option to "Use as Alpha Channel", but I can't figure out what it does. Using the opacity slider at the top of the screen doesn't seem to work if you're drawing on an already-transparent region.
I could always use another tool to add partial transparency, and maybe partial transparency is considered evil for sprites, but I thought it might be nice for a window glass effect.
I could always use another tool to add partial transparency, and maybe partial transparency is considered evil for sprites, but I thought it might be nice for a window glass effect.
Painless. Here's the easiest way to port from XNA to Unity: Make an empty GameObject and attach a MonoBehaviour script to it with your gameloop. You might be able to port everything to Unity in under a day with this approach.
I later broke my code up into independent MonoBehaviours, but this took me time to figure out.
Jobbs said:
Now you do the game in Stencyl on your own? So Unity nor the programmer was
the problem, just the communication between both of you? Or was the programmer
not fast enough in producing results even while using Unity? What's the take
of the programmer on this matter? Does he now also program for Ghost Song
using Stencyl?
Dat van!... I, on the other hand, have made a van: https://vine.co/v/MeYjeXDjYeQ
Sylverstone14
Member
Holy hell, that's amazing.
Every student dev at my college seems to hate Stencyl for various reasons, but I've stuck to it since it's really one of the few tools that I can really get into.
This kinda gives me hope for Stencyl in some way, although my game is pretty low-budget at hell.
(Do you recommend the Indie or Studio upgrade, by any chance?)
Ha nope, the only other one I kinda liked was Instantian, which makes sense as your this person spawning instances. But I just went with Intantion, if people pronounce it instant-ion or instan-tion I'm ok with it. The whole 'Instance' thing came about was early you were shooting more than just clones. But I cut it. The code is still in there however, I'd just have to turn it on again and test it again. Plus more levels to design... I'll probably do a history video to show some of the earlier work.
I've never heard of stencil before. But your game looks super rad, so looks like it's doing the trick. I can understand wrestling with Unity, it can get pretty gnarly.
Yeah, I bought it in the recent sale and ... well ... it looks nice but the documentation is a joke. It is also responsible for my game not running on a device, despite being happy in the editor (which is nice). My game has a co-routine-based FSM handling flow and I updated the GUI (score etc) via methods within those co-routines. On the device it crashed whenever I tried to do this, but in the editor everything was fine.
I also have an issue where touch events are working fine in the editor, but not on the device. I think this is a layermask thing, but it is irritating that it works fine in the editor.
So yeah, I have been somewhat less than impressed. You can get something good looking out of it, but the general feel is amateurish, which isn't helped by the extremely poor documentation.
(For the record, my plan with the co-routine issue, although I haven't had time to implement it, is for the co-routine to just update a value in the object and then use Update() on the object to update the GUI object when there is a change. It should work ...)
StickSoldier
Member
What up guys!! I think it's safe to say that I'll be joining yall as I've recently discovered the joys of game creation. I started messing around with C2 about a month ago and for some reason it just clicked with me unlike the typical programming languages which have failed to do so.
I've been working on a idea for a game with my brother, using almost all my spare time to slowly build up something that's playable. My current build contains all the animations and coding that I've learned from the past month of self teaching. I'd like to start posting updates and progress of how my game is coming along, plus I'm really excited to show it when there's actual characters in the game.
Anyways, could someone please recommend a good program for creating clips, similar to what's used in this thread?
I've been working on a idea for a game with my brother, using almost all my spare time to slowly build up something that's playable. My current build contains all the animations and coding that I've learned from the past month of self teaching. I'd like to start posting updates and progress of how my game is coming along, plus I'm really excited to show it when there's actual characters in the game.
Anyways, could someone please recommend a good program for creating clips, similar to what's used in this thread?
So, as you're talking about Stencyl I'm gonna hook into the conversation like a pro indie dev.
(It came out longer than I expected so I put a tl;dr somewhere, and anyway sorry in advance.)
A little bit of context: I'm a web developer (so my knowledge of PHP and UI-oriented Javascript means shit here) with a huge amount of unfinished game design documents scattered around basically the same amount of backup disks since I installed RPG Maker something in the 90s.
Now, as of course the very dream of every gamer is to create a game, I'm loving this thread and the atmosphere here, and everything. Guys you're amazing.
So, my questions: I eventually grew tired of RPG Maker, because my ideas grew away from the JRPG format, and my screen resolution grew bigger too. And I'd love to fully use a gamepad, and eventually to integrate Steamworks.
Recently, as my real job started going awry, I started checking out the current tools available. Namely: Game Maker Studio, Construct 2 and Stencyl.
GMS is clearly what I need, but I hate its interface, and my RPGM-based tiles mindset despise its level editor.
Construct 2 instead seems super good, with a very easy gamepad integration, a good level editor and a somehow possible (via a plugin yet to be officially included) Steamworks.
Stencyl, for me, was kind of the winner of everything: I felt really comfortable with the UI and everything seems exactly where I would like it to be. But: it being Flash-based (and the web dev inside me HATE Flash!) doesn't allow gamepad (without Joy2Key or similar) and Steamworks (AFAIK).
(tl;dr starts here)
So, as I'm about to buy one of these three to get serious about at least learning something, I don't know what to do and I'm asking you: would you pick a better tool (for your skills) over a tool that allows you every feature you'd like to implement in the game?
In other words: would you pick Stencyl, being the one you love using the most, over Construct 2, the one allowing you gamepad and eventually Steamworks?
BONUS CONTENT YOU COULD TOTALLY SKIP BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUT I'M PROUD OF IT ANYWAY:
this is a Hotline Miami ripoff I made yesterday in basically 10 hours of tinkering with Construct 2. All sprites are mine (obviously copied from HLM), it lacks lots stuff (like a sprite for dead enemies) and the Construct 2 Free limitations are kinda obvious here and there (I had 4 layers top to build my level, so I was kinda forced to put blood particles in the topmost layer).
Oh, and texts are just jokes for a friend of mine, so disregard those.
http://www.copons.it/hlvg/HLVG/
(It came out longer than I expected so I put a tl;dr somewhere, and anyway sorry in advance.)
A little bit of context: I'm a web developer (so my knowledge of PHP and UI-oriented Javascript means shit here) with a huge amount of unfinished game design documents scattered around basically the same amount of backup disks since I installed RPG Maker something in the 90s.
Now, as of course the very dream of every gamer is to create a game, I'm loving this thread and the atmosphere here, and everything. Guys you're amazing.
The OP is amazing+1, but just because his last game managed to stale my girlfriend, allowing me to play his game and anything else with no relationships issues.
So, my questions: I eventually grew tired of RPG Maker, because my ideas grew away from the JRPG format, and my screen resolution grew bigger too. And I'd love to fully use a gamepad, and eventually to integrate Steamworks.
Recently, as my real job started going awry, I started checking out the current tools available. Namely: Game Maker Studio, Construct 2 and Stencyl.
GMS is clearly what I need, but I hate its interface, and my RPGM-based tiles mindset despise its level editor.
Construct 2 instead seems super good, with a very easy gamepad integration, a good level editor and a somehow possible (via a plugin yet to be officially included) Steamworks.
Stencyl, for me, was kind of the winner of everything: I felt really comfortable with the UI and everything seems exactly where I would like it to be. But: it being Flash-based (and the web dev inside me HATE Flash!) doesn't allow gamepad (without Joy2Key or similar) and Steamworks (AFAIK).
(tl;dr starts here)
So, as I'm about to buy one of these three to get serious about at least learning something, I don't know what to do and I'm asking you: would you pick a better tool (for your skills) over a tool that allows you every feature you'd like to implement in the game?
In other words: would you pick Stencyl, being the one you love using the most, over Construct 2, the one allowing you gamepad and eventually Steamworks?
BONUS CONTENT YOU COULD TOTALLY SKIP BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUT I'M PROUD OF IT ANYWAY:
this is a Hotline Miami ripoff I made yesterday in basically 10 hours of tinkering with Construct 2. All sprites are mine (obviously copied from HLM), it lacks lots stuff (like a sprite for dead enemies) and the Construct 2 Free limitations are kinda obvious here and there (I had 4 layers top to build my level, so I was kinda forced to put blood particles in the topmost layer).
Oh, and texts are just jokes for a friend of mine, so disregard those.
http://www.copons.it/hlvg/HLVG/
:|? xD
Ohh ... there are many, many reasons. Here are just a few;
Away from many of the technical and programming considerations, one of the
main motivating factor is the aesthetical aspect resulting from (engineering)
imperfections. Well, we are still too close to the past of the CRTs and
friends to see this type of graphics as an art form, but in ten to twenty
years from now, when virtually nobody has seen a CRT in action, retro graphics
will become an art in itself. It's sort of similar to what steam punk is
today. Virtually nobody uses steam machines the way they were used about 100
years ago, today. However, the constrains and the imperfections engineers had
to deal with have lead to a certain aesthetic because many of the
constructions were built from ingenuity, which, while put into perspective,
form a certain aesthetics pleasing to watch. Same holds true for retro graphics
if set into proper perspective. Certainly, the banner isn't really soo
pleasing. It's just not set into perspective. It's a result I got from further
tinkering around with signal theory. Sort of a progress. Here is another one;
Another reason for doing so is that imperfections leave room for people to
fill in their phantasy. This is a very important point. The imperfect
representation of retro graphics give the player room to draw a much richer
world in his head than any image/artist can ever do. Best of all, everybody
draws his own world and lives his own phantasy. So you are not enforced so
strong of a phantasy which isn't yours.
Yet another reason doing so is the way I see art. Art, for me, is to show you
something you won't expect, you're not familiar with, something which seems
a little wrong from your perspective. Some people are irritated while
watching what is supposed to be art, because it differs in a given why from
what they know. However, this irritating element draws you in, in one way or
another. Showing you something you already know is like showing you nothing at
all. What separates the artist from one another is how good/subtle they can
set such irritating elements, which is very pleasing to find out and the
message encoded in there. Speaking out of signal theory
the irritatingelement is sort of a carrier wave around which a message is modulated. Guess
for example why some of the most well known pictures do have a slightly wrong
perspective? Or why apples are drawn with a slight irregular boundary?
It's done on purpose. And the insight is far reaching.
Done right, low-res graphics with many of the retro imperfections applied can
rivial high-res polished graphics on an aesthetical level. This seem non
intuitive. But thrust me, technologie plays in favor of this. The higher
display resolution won't add anything special to modern games. Whether you
play in 1080p or 4K isn't much of a difference. Many of the additional
pixel won't be put to good use. However, it's an entire different story for
retro graphics. The higher resolution displays (esp. the 4K one) are godsend
for retro graphics. With such high resolution displays one can make retro
graphics look real stunning. And by that I don't mean simply scaling a 320x240
picture to 4K. Ha, no! That won't work. How to actually do it is all the hard
work. I hope I can turn your :| into a fukkin awesome!!!1 someday.
taku
Member
I am in the same boat as you, I started fiddling with C2 a while ago and it's just very easy to work with.
There is one thing that I am a bit worried about when it comes to creating bigger games using C2.
As of now, as I understand it, there is no manual control for loading of assets at all.
I know that there is an open discussion for maybe extending the loader layout system a bit, and I really hope that they do, otherwise C2 is more fitting for smaller scoped games.
Missile, I get you and I believe you. I hope to have my :| transformed as well! But man, it is impressive how tough that banner is to look at. I feel like I might hurt myself if I stare for more than a few seconds. Please show some high-res examples in the future so I can catch a glimpse of how resolution can improve upon retro aesthetic. I have seen how resolution gives low-res sprites and low-poly models a crisp look, but have not seen it combined with color-shifting.
I apologize for being rude
GIFcam might as well be the official gif creation tool of this thread. (aka GAFcam).
Candescence
Member
Game Maker can do a lot because of its scripting, but holy crap, its interface for everything else is horrifyingly bad. C2 may or may not be quite as flexible, but it can certainly do a lot, and its one of the few game makers/engines out there with a visual scripting editor that's actually good. Plus, it doesn't force you to pay more for additional exporter options.
As far as overall interface and tools, workflow and 'scripting' is concerned, I prefer C2 over all else. It helps that it has a Javascript-based plugin system. It's just a great overall package for 2D game making, and the way its set up is very suited for collaborative efforts, including version control.
As far as C2 is concerned, generally assets are downloaded on startup, and loaded into memory on the fly on a layout-by-layout basis, as far I as know. So as long as you're not working with ridiculously large layouts with lots of unique objects, you'll be fine as far as VRAM is concerned, though if you're working on smartphones, it's wise to keep VRAM usage as low as possible at any given time anyway.
I'm creating the game myself in Stencyl, although I have plenty of backup from the stencyl folks which is the extra bit that gave me the confidence that it could be done (if you read my post, you'll see the owner of stencyl has already modified the program multiple times for my benefit just in this past couple of months, and another expert stencyller helped me put in a pretty complex door system which improved on my old system dramatically). So I'm doing it "sorta" alone.
Programmer is fine with it. The writing's been on the wall for a while. There's nothing wrong with Unity or with his skills as a programmer. This is my project that I have to micromanage, and doing this second hand was too full of inefficiencies. The amount of energy I was spending just on documenting and communicating things was absurd. It was time and energy I could better spend actually making things.
if I decided it's needed, he'll be able to port the game to unity at a later time, which is a lot of work, to be sure, but he can do that on his own and go at his own rythm.
That was a hugely inspiring read, thanks.
Definitely one direction I want to try and follow with higher priority, now.
BONUS CONTENT YOU COULD TOTALLY SKIP BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUT I'M PROUD OF IT ANYWAY:
this is a Hotline Miami ripoff I made yesterday in basically 10 hours of tinkering with Construct 2. All sprites are mine (obviously copied from HLM), it lacks lots stuff (like a sprite for dead enemies) and the Construct 2 Free limitations are kinda obvious here and there (I had 4 layers top to build my level, so I was kinda forced to put blood particles in the topmost layer).
Oh, and texts are just jokes for a friend of mine, so disregard those.
http://www.copons.it/hlvg/HLVG/
Are you THAT Copons?
(reads those 'notes' on the game's backgrounds...)
You are THAT Copons! XD
jpeg from old nextgame times, here! Ciaooooo!!!
Candescence
Member
BONUS CONTENT YOU COULD TOTALLY SKIP BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUT I'M PROUD OF IT ANYWAY:
this is a Hotline Miami ripoff I made yesterday in basically 10 hours of tinkering with Construct 2. All sprites are mine (obviously copied from HLM), it lacks lots stuff (like a sprite for dead enemies) and the Construct 2 Free limitations are kinda obvious here and there (I had 4 layers top to build my level, so I was kinda forced to put blood particles in the topmost layer).
Oh, and texts are just jokes for a friend of mine, so disregard those.
http://www.copons.it/hlvg/HLVG/
Why didn't I notice this? This is pretty sweet. There is one thing I should probably advise, though, for the player's collision, you should have the actual player object be a simple, invisible 'box' handling actual movement, with the animation object attached to it in a container. This prevents animations from causing problems with collision, because the box doesn't change size or shape, and it's less likely to cause the player to 'snag' on terrain, for example. Generally, it's best to keep collisions as simple as possible within reason for performance reasons, and it's usually very good practice to use a simple shape like a box, circle or ellipse for character collision, in both 2D and 3D - character collisions with the environment in 3D are usually in the shape of an ellipsoid, for example, and collisions involving determining which body part is hit can be solved with a simple 'skeleton' made of basic shapes, usually boxes.
almost missed your post. and yeah, Stencyl's a game making tool, and, in fact, is the original way the game was being made, back before the kickstarter (all the kickstarter videos are of that version of the game). It was actually pretty far along.
Stencyl has a bit of a history/rep as a game tool for simple flash/mobile games with an emphasis on approachability, but in recent times, since the adoption of Open FL, Jon's taken an interest in moving the program towards more serious development. He's been adding features relatively rapidly, and with more on the horizon.
If you're a talented programmer already, or a game maker wizard already, then I can't say if Stencyl would be of much use, and it's hard for me to A/B since I'm not a game maker wizard. What I can say is that it's working for what I'm doing, and I've found its method of building logic to be extremely approachable and easier for me to get my head around than other things I've tried. I don't know if any of you guys have heard of the MIT Scratch project, but it was some kind of thing devised to introduce programming concepts to children (correct me if I'm wrong). Stencyl's visual programming method was inspired by it.
incidentally, noogy, I just bought a modest/lowish end laptop primarily for the purpose of testing my game (previously, the only computer I actually owned myself was this desktop, which is quite capable, so it's hard to know when something I add into the game is going to hurt performance too much) It has an intel HD 4400 integrated graphics whatsamahoo. First thing I did was load up Dust to see how it'd run, then I'd have a baseline of what's acceptable.
It runs your game at 20 to 30 most the time, it seems, which I was glad to see because that means it's a good baseline. Damn, though, the screen on this thing is IPS 1080p and really nice and Dust looks *amazing*. I've played through Dust in the past, but seeing it now I instantly got new ideas about what I should be doing in my game art-wise. It's good to keep the ego in check.Are you THAT Copons?
(reads those 'notes' on the game's backgrounds...)
You are THAT Copons! XD
jpeg from old nextgame times, here! Ciaooooo!!!
Hell yeah I'm THAT Copons!
Good to read you again man! So many years since NG times! Where have you been? What have you been doing?
Ah! I learned about containers like 2 minutes ago, when trying to spawn particles from each enemy (a simple text sprite, like they were shouting something), and I needed them to be destroyed per-instance at the relative enemy death.
At the moment, I have a single animation for the Player (just a couple of frames per side for legs movement) and the collision box is more or less the shape of the idle frame, so the guy + the gun.
And yes, I wasn't really ok with the collision behaviour against walls, especially corners, because it trembled a little when "pivoting" with the gun point.
I'm totally gonna try with the invisible box trick! Thank you!
Meanwhile I updated the game at the same address (so it will take several refreshes to get it to un-cache), adding the particles I mentioned earlier and a death sprite! Yay it feels so good, that I'm probably gonna buy C2 asap
even tho I'd more like to wait for some kind of sale, as I'm totally out of cash atm
BONUS CONTENT YOU COULD TOTALLY SKIP BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUT I'M PROUD OF IT ANYWAY:
this is a Hotline Miami ripoff I made yesterday in basically 10 hours of tinkering with Construct 2. All sprites are mine (obviously copied from HLM), it lacks lots stuff (like a sprite for dead enemies) and the Construct 2 Free limitations are kinda obvious here and there (I had 4 layers top to build my level, so I was kinda forced to put blood particles in the topmost layer).
Oh, and texts are just jokes for a friend of mine, so disregard those.
http://www.copons.it/hlvg/HLVG/
Damn, that's a really great job you did there for just 10 hours of work. One of the best thing about C2 is its templates that can get you off the ground very quickly.
BTW, Scirra has sales all the time for C2. I'd just wait if you're strap for cash.
Great idea.
Here is my earliest animation attempt from our colored sketch art:
Here is the near final idle animation w/ newest art and ingame effects (note gif compression bands the gradients terribly):
Getting some major Vanillaware vibes from this. Awesome stuff
!- Status