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[Candescence]

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!

No problem. The problem with using collisions with animations only becomes pronounced when you actually have multiple animations or animations that change the collision considerably - in one frame, the player could overlap with the terrain, which could cause all sorts of havoc. It's a case where KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is ideal.

 

[Copons]

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.

Thank you very much! I feel super proud about it, especially because I didn't expect such speed in my development, after just a week or so of game dev spent in random GM/C2/Stencyl tutorials!

As for the sales, I noticed it and I'll wait for sure.

 

[Jobbs]

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):

beautiful, the star control 2/hyperspeed feelings are growing.

re. the gif, I actually LIKE the color banding that occurs in those, and frequently wish I could make my game look more like the gifs. and for my part, I actually think this alien looks MORE interesting at the gif's framerate, it makes him look more cinematic/strange/menacing. when you run this rig at 60 fps it won't look as cool to me. Again, maybe that's just me and I'm crazy, but I love the gif.

 

[missile]

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. ...

Spoiler

I apologize for being rude

...

No need to apologize. I didn't took it as a negative comment or something.

... 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. ...

That's not the way am going to do it. Am not going to make models or textures
more crisp in spending more pixels etc., which would defeat the point of being
retro to begin with. Well, let me explain it that way; if your are willing to
sacrifice resolution you will get something in return, in particular; space,
space which can be modulated. This extra space can be put to your advantage
in creating a very special aesthetic. High-res games don't have this space. So
the question in here is if the gained space can compensate for the loss in
resolution? Indeed. It just depends on what you do with said extra space.

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. ...

Wow, that's one of a support! I think your game also motivates some of the
Stencyl guys to take action having such a game build for their platform. :+

... 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. ...

Yeah. Difficult finding someone who is in-line with ones very own thoughts. I
somehow admire the two Johns (of id, i.e. Doom, ...) for their time they
had together. Must have been a blast.

 

[fin]

So I sent out a bunch of promo codes last night. First reply was listing of prices. From $0, which includes a news post and a social media promotion. Reviews starting at $99 then all the way up to $499 for videos...

While searching for sites I found a bunch that sell reviews, which I ignored. But it's kinda depressing how many sites do this. This one in particular doesn't seem to advertise that its reviews are paid...

 

[Turfster]

(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 ...)

If you just need like, a score or health value or something for one object like a player, you can do this easily with the property binding stuff. Just drag in your control and the GameObject that contains the script with the relevant data, then select that variable.
It'll now auto-poll and update itself.

For most "simple" stuff, it's still light years ahead of the stinking garbage that is the Unity GUI. We've turned a 300 line overview grid that looked okayish but was nothing special into a 20 line DFGUI version that actually looks competent and the same every time.

 

[friken]

Getting some major Vanillaware vibes from this. Awesome stuff !

Lol... Pre morning Coffee, I read "Vaporware".... not cool. But after looking up Vanillaware games, thanks for the compliment. I wasn't familiar with their games, but great looking stuff

 

[friken]

beautiful, the star control 2/hyperspeed feelings are growing.

re. the gif, I actually LIKE the color banding that occurs in those, and frequently wish I could make my game look more like the gifs. and for my part, I actually think this alien looks MORE interesting at the gif's framerate, it makes him look more cinematic/strange/menacing. when you run this rig at 60 fps it won't look as cool to me. Again, maybe that's just me and I'm crazy, but I love the gif.

The gif 256 color, banding, and overall 'giffing' does have a retro vibe that creates a lot of nostalgia. You've done a great job with Ghost Song blending that retro gif feel with higher end modern graphics. Very pretty stuff!

I've always thought that old 256 color (or less) in old games left a lot to the imagination and helped players minds engage in the wonder of the worlds they are visiting. We are attempting to use speed-painting style and find that sweet spot in adding detail at focus points but to leave a lot of the scenes low detail illustration for the same reason... leaving room for imagination to run wild. Hopefully as we pull the different parts together we don't have too big of style shift from the 2.5d ingame rendering to cutscenes and alien dialogues.

 

[cbox]

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):

So good, amazing work

 

[amanset]

If you just need like, a score or health value or something for one object like a player, you can do this easily with the property binding stuff. Just drag in your control and the GameObject that contains the script with the relevant data, then select that variable.
It'll now auto-poll and update itself.

For most "simple" stuff, it's still light years ahead of the stinking garbage that is the Unity GUI. We've turned a 300 line overview grid that looked okayish but was nothing special into a 20 line DFGUI version that actually looks competent and the same every time.

I'll check that out, cheers.

 

[RicoTheMad]

This week involved me fighting with my git repository because it somehow managed to corrupt itself on my local machine.

Not very fun times :-/

 

[Blizzard]

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.

In the interest of being honest, I kind of feel this way myself. It reminds me of the situation with chromatic aberration where you have a camera flaw that people work to eliminate, which people then bring back AND force to an obnoxious degree into games that may not even involve any cameras or lenses for the player character, with the result that you feel like you have a detached retina or something.

 

[friken]

So good, amazing work

Thanks for the feedback!

Shwip is looking like a ton of fun! I remember playing a lot of geometry wars and often thought they could have had more clever weapons. I think you guys nailed it with clever fun weapons to play with.

How is the greenlight process going? I added my yes vote.

 

[missile]

In the interest of being honest, I kind of feel this way myself. It reminds me of the situation with chromatic aberration where you have a camera flaw that people work to eliminate, which people then bring back AND force to an obnoxious degree into games that may not even involve any cameras or lenses for the player character, with the result that you feel like you have a detached retina or something.

Chromatic aberration is the new lense flare! xD There was a time I could't see
them any longer.

Yeah, indeed, chromatic aberration is a little bit abused in games. But Blizz,
don't go over board with the cross color bleed seen on the banner. It is
nowhere near finished, not even remotely. In the end it's going to be a very
smooth shimmer appearing on certain edges which will add to the retro feeling.
And contrary to the existence of chromatic aberration in games without lenses,
the cross coloring I showed is an inherent effect in composite video which
cannot be fully eliminated, only toned down to some degree. And since I do
decode composite video for real it's not even an effect I artificially
introduced to the engine, yet I did nothing to tone it down. Currently I'm
working on a PAL decoder, an ancient one, i.e. PAL-S, which sort of has no
good filters whatsoever, not even a delay line to average alternating lines
(PAL-D) to smooth the hanover bars or the phase/color errors (left to the
viewer). Unless otherwise stated, everything should be considered under
development. :+

 

[Jobbs]

Chromatic aberration is the new lense flare! xD

is this the thing that happens in battlefield 4 all the time?

 

[missile]

Well

 

[razu]

Dat van!

Cheers dude!

Dat abberation! ;D

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.

Yeah, the mass is weird in unity/physx. It's more to do with the size of the collider than the mass you set... I just play until it feels right. Can take a while, and lots of dead-end prototypes!


Me and my boy made some foliage tonight! Going to try and make it flutter when the chopper is near Looks a bit like weed, but, who cares?

 

[bumpkin]

Cheers dude!

Dat abberation! ;D





Yeah, the mass is weird in unity/physx. It's more to do with the size of the collider than the mass you set... I just play until it feels right. Can take a while, and lots of dead-end prototypes!


Me and my boy made some foliage tonight! Going to try and make it flutter when the chopper is near Looks a bit like weed, but, who cares?

Nice! Lookin' good, razu!

You worked on Sega Rally Revo, right? You totally should put in some terrain deformation for wheeled vehicles.

 

[HellBlazer]

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.

Well, that seems like a big change. How much work do you have to do over? I hope this works out and that you don't run into any unforeseen limitations. Sounds like you did a lot of testing and you're confident with your choice though, so that's good. Doesn't Stencyl lack gamepad support though?

 

[Lo_Fi]

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and thank you all for the help with the feedback on the Four Sided Fantasy Kickstarter page.

The campaign launched yesterday and we just got to 100 backers! You can follow our progress here: http://kck.st/1jZ3Hmo

 

[razu]

Nice! Lookin' good, razu!

You worked on Sega Rally Revo, right? You totally should put in some terrain deformation for wheeled vehicles.

Thanks man, but that would clash with the day job... (next gen racer at Codemasters).

 

[Jobbs]

Well, that seems like a big change. How much work do you have to do over? I hope this works out and that you don't run into any unforeseen limitations. Sounds like you did a lot of testing and you're confident with your choice though, so that's good. Doesn't Stencyl lack gamepad support though?

thanks. gamepad can be put in by extension right now, and there's planned official support down the line.

 

[eot]

Chromatic aberration is the new lense flare!

I notice it instantly now. This is off topic, but I was at the optician the other day getting my eyes checked. I put on those awkward test glasses with switchable lenses and my first reaction was noticing chromatic aberration out the ass! Apparently no one had commented on it before so maybe I just subconsciously look for it now.

 

[HellBlazer]

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and thank you all for the help with the feedback on the Four Sided Fantasy Kickstarter page.

The campaign launched yesterday and we just got to 100 backers! You can follow our progress here: http://kck.st/1jZ3Hmo

Cool, backed.

 

[Bit-Bit]

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and thank you all for the help with the feedback on the Four Sided Fantasy Kickstarter page.

The campaign launched yesterday and we just got to 100 backers! You can follow our progress here: http://kck.st/1jZ3Hmo

Love the artstyle. I'll have to back this when I get paid on the 15th.

 

[friken]

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and thank you all for the help with the feedback on the Four Sided Fantasy Kickstarter page.

The campaign launched yesterday and we just got to 100 backers! You can follow our progress here: http://kck.st/1jZ3Hmo

The project is looking great! Congrats on getting the ks campaign launched. I bet it does really well.

 

[fin]

Well I'm releasing Instantion on April 10th. Woohoo! So crazy to be done.

http://www.indiedb.com/news/instantion-release-date

 

[Kalnos]

Well I'm releasing Instantion on April 10th. Woohoo! So crazy to be done.

http://www.indiedb.com/news/instantion-release-date

congrats!

 

[Burt]

We're launching Heart Forth, Alicia's Kickstarter sometime next week... was wondering if anyone had any hard-and-fast rules about page design? I feel like I've read tomes about it, but so much seems anecdotal and/or unreliable. Not gonna lie, imagining pressing the "launch" button only to hear about a glaring flaw afterwards keeps me up at night. Should have a preview page ready within the next few days if anyone's interested in taking a peek.

Also, got worn out on giffing today and just had to

"Now you're thinking with portals"

Also, I know it's a crazy month for Kickstarters, so if anyone else is launching in the same window and wants to do something together, feel free to send a PM

 

[HellBlazer]

We're launching Heart Forth, Alicia's Kickstarter sometime next week

Oh nice. Good to hear, and good luck. I think someone posted gifs from your game on here before, and it looked great. Feel free to post your preview page here when it's done, and knowledgeable folks (can't say I'm really one of those though) will critique.

 

[bumpkin]

Thanks man, but that would clash with the day job... (next gen racer at Codemasters).

Ah! Well then.

Chopper Mike was rad. I'm definitely looking forward to Super Something Squad! I tried out the little playable alpha you posted a few weeks ago where you can fly around and pick up/drop the box. Very, very cool.

 

[missile]

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and thank you all for the help with the feedback on the Four Sided Fantasy Kickstarter page.

The campaign launched yesterday and we just got to 100 backers! You can follow our progress here: http://kck.st/1jZ3Hmo

Looks sweet! Btw; What's the degree the guy in the video is doing or has done?

I notice it instantly now. This is off topic, but I was at the optician the other day getting my eyes checked. I put on those awkward test glasses with switchable lenses and my first reaction was noticing chromatic aberration out the ass! Apparently no one had commented on it before so maybe I just subconsciously look for it now.

That's similar in having bought a new car. Suddenly you see many of these
around you. Hah! Once you get to know about something, you will lock for it.
Cheers to those who know nothing about graphics and can play a game without
seeing many of its shortcomings. :+

Cheers dude!

Dat abberation! ;D

Yeah, the mass is weird in unity/physx. It's more to do with the size of the collider than the mass you set... I just play until it feels right. Can take a while, and lots of dead-end prototypes!


Me and my boy made some foliage tonight! Going to try and make it flutter when the chopper is near Looks a bit like weed, but, who cares?

Dat foliage! Do the trees have collides as well? What about are forest
under fire while using the heli to extinguish the flames using whatever is
nearby? Would be cool.

 

[ZehDon]

Hey everyone, just wanted to pop in and thank you all for the help with the feedback on the Four Sided Fantasy Kickstarter page.

The campaign launched yesterday and we just got to 100 backers! You can follow our progress here: http://kck.st/1jZ3Hmo

Wow, that looks great! Congratulations on getting your Kickstarter off to a great start!

 

[Galdelico]

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?

Doing fine in general, thank you. Day job is taking some major hit recently but other than that it's all good. You too I hope.

And since we are in this thread, this is what I'm doing with the huge support of a couple of fellow friends (Mdk and Gek).
Also, sincere congrats on your project... On a serious note, it's absolutely impressive.

 

[Copons]

Doing fine in general, thank you. Day job is taking some major hit recently but other than that it's all good. You too I hope.

And since we are in this thread, this is what I'm doing with the huge support of a couple of fellow friends (Mdk and Gek).
Also, sincere congrats on your project... On a serious note, it's absolutely impressive.

Wah! Looks amazing! I hope artwork is yours and not Mdk's, because I totally hate that guy!!

Spoiler

As for me, I'm going to be unemployed in a month or so, after 5 years of struggling with my own web-dev business, so all this sudden interest in game dev is just because I want to be "professionally poor" x2 (and also because we don't have ads on Gioca Giuè, so I have zero income on that front too... :'( ).

And really, thank you for the appreciation, even if it's not a real project (probably Dennaton would want to say a couple of words about it ) but just something I'm doing to learn C2!
So far it's super funny and surprisingly easy, but I know that when I'll start doing better animations, multi-sprite objects (as in: separated sprites for body/head/weapon/ecc), and a dialogue system, everything will fall apart.

 

[cbox]

Thanks for the feedback!

Shwip is looking like a ton of fun! I remember playing a lot of geometry wars and often thought they could have had more clever weapons. I think you guys nailed it with clever fun weapons to play with.

How is the greenlight process going? I added my yes vote.

Thank you sir! The game feels incredibly fluid, and the whip really adds a new element to the game. Can't wait for people to get their hands on it and give it a try.

Greenlight, I have to admit that I messed up the launch by accidentally making it public instead of private without any videos. It just had a small description. I had the game up when greenlight launched, and it got a bunch of negative comments and NO votes, which really sucks. I'm thinking of deleting and relaunching, but we'll see how everything else goes first.

Here's a screen,

We currently have 3400 yes votes which isn't TOO bad, but I imagine it'd be much higher had I not messed up!

 

[Wawahead]

How do you correctly convert pixel size to screen coordinates in unity? Say I have a 32x32 pixel object, how would I space these so they stay correctly spaced no matter the resolution?

Gotta be something simple I'm over looking here.

 

[razu]

Ah! Well then.

Chopper Mike was rad. I'm definitely looking forward to Super Something Squad! I tried out the little playable alpha you posted a few weeks ago where you can fly around and pick up/drop the box. Very, very cool.

Thanks dude!

Dat foliage! Do the trees have collides as well? What about are forest
under fire while using the heli to extinguish the flames using whatever is
nearby? Would be cool.

Yep, trees are collideable. Fire rescue a definite possibility!

 

[friken]

Greenlight, I have to admit that I messed up the launch by accidentally making it public instead of private without any videos. It just had a small description. I had the game up when greenlight launched, and it got a bunch of negative comments and NO votes, which really sucks. I'm thinking of deleting and relaunching, but we'll see how everything else goes first.

Here's a screen,

Thanks for sharing your greenlight info. I have been watching others closely to try and understand the process and hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls when we get there. I'm pretty worried about timing... too early hurts the chances, and then others wait too long and have a game ready to ship with zero community or buzz for the title.

We just put up a concept page on greenlight, but we are a long ways from really being ready to show enough for the full greenlight and/or a kickstart. I just recently even noticed Steam had a concept section for stuff in early dev.It is a neat section, but it doesn't seem like much traffic visits that area.I thought we were getting a great % of yes to no votes until I noticed the AVG TOP 50 is 99% yes/no ratio and WAY more traffic. I'm not sure if the top50 info is for full greenlight or the concepts though.

Our page:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243445287&searchtext=

Here is our first 6 days on the concept area for anyone who is interested:

 

[_machine]

Here are a few tips I gathered and got from my friends at TJR for a few guys I met CCEU14 regarding Greenlight:

How Interplanetary got greenlit (if you have any questions shoot me up and I can ask the development team):

http://tjrdev.blogspot.fi/2013/12/inside-interplanetary-how-to-greenlight.html

http://tjrdev.blogspot.fi/2014/01/interplanetarys-greenlight-stats.html


Some articles we used or have since been published that have some good points as well:

http://firflams.com/blog/view/we-have-been-greenlit-and-here-are-our-stats

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com...g-greenlit-on-steam-greenlight--gamedev-13938

http://indiegames.com/2012/10/greenlight_tips_and_tricks_for.html

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Artu...NLIT_Here_are_our_stats_thoughts_and_tips.php

 

[Tonidayo]

Guys, I'm still a junior and henceforth still am restricted from erupted no threads on here. May anyone post a topic on the practice of copying other games and resources for the development of mobile games, and the solutions to prevent them and protected oneself. For instance, I have just learned that the 2048 phenomenon turns out that I be a copycat from one title name THREES. And it turns out that it is simply one amongst a myriad of other examples are here a game has been ripped and published, witnessing the original game fall into somber darkness whereas the copycats reaching the apple store / Android top 3. I am therefore curious about those practices, why they exist and why and how to prevent others from ripping a game published my myself for instance, and whereas it is possible or not to sue them. An informative topic dedicated entirely to that matter would most certainly be very practical and would prove incredibly useful to many. A list of different games and studios that witnessed such unfortunate experience could be listed as well to expose dangers ans safety measures. Thanks.

 

[Burt]

Guys, I'm still a junior and henceforth still am restricted from erupted no threads on here. May anyone post a topic on the practice of copying other games and resources for the development of mobile games, and the solutions to prevent them and protected oneself. For instance, I have just learned that the 2048 phenomenon turns out that I be a copycat from one title name THREES. And it turns out that it is simply one amongst a myriad of other examples are here a game has been ripped and published, witnessing the original game fall into somber darkness whereas the copycats reaching the apple store / Android top 3. I am therefore curious about those practices, why they exist and why and how to prevent others from ripping a game published my myself for instance, and whereas it is possible or not to sue them. An informative topic dedicated entirely to that matter would most certainly be very practical and would prove incredibly useful to many. A list of different games and studios that witnessed such unfortunate experience could be listed as well to expose dangers ans safety measures. Thanks.

Not much to be done, unfortunately

 

[amanset]

Guys, I'm still a junior and henceforth still am restricted from erupted no threads on here. May anyone post a topic on the practice of copying other games and resources for the development of mobile games, and the solutions to prevent them and protected oneself. For instance, I have just learned that the 2048 phenomenon turns out that I be a copycat from one title name THREES. And it turns out that it is simply one amongst a myriad of other examples are here a game has been ripped and published, witnessing the original game fall into somber darkness whereas the copycats reaching the apple store / Android top 3. I am therefore curious about those practices, why they exist and why and how to prevent others from ripping a game published my myself for instance, and whereas it is possible or not to sue them. An informative topic dedicated entirely to that matter would most certainly be very practical and would prove incredibly useful to many. A list of different games and studios that witnessed such unfortunate experience could be listed as well to expose dangers ans safety measures. Thanks.

IMHO 2048 has enough differences in its game mechanic to not be classed as a rip-off or clone.

 

[friken]

Here are a few tips I gathered and got from my friends at TJR for a few guys I met CCEU14 regarding Greenlight:

Thanks so much for the links! There is some fantastic info on them. One thing I noted and am quite curious about is the yes/no ration difference in the concept to full greenlight section. I can understand users being a bit more kind to early dev stuff in concept, but not by 50%. The avg top 50 in the concept section shows 99% yes ratio where successful greenlights are showing 45-55%.

Should I be pleased with the concept % I see, or is it really that different for concept/full greenlight? I was a bit bummed when I saw we were not hitting the 99% shown as average top 50, but oddly on the other hand very pleased that we are currently #2 on the weekly most popular concepts page. I have to admit, all the data is confusing :/

 

[friken]

May anyone post a topic on the practice of copying other games and resources for the development of mobile games, and the solutions to prevent them and protected oneself.

I'll preface my 2cents with acknowledgement that there are some games that shamelessly rip off others. In the mobile space for example, I'm strongly against the 'pump and dump' of template games. Ie.. for not much $ numerous people sell candy crush and other template games source code for others to reskin and release. Many people make a living doing a 2-4 day reskin and release 6-10 versions of the same template hoping to get $200-500 each in sales. Rinse, Repeat, and cash the checks. That sorta stuff sucks!

But.. here is my 2 cents on the more normal side of game dev. There are very very very few games that were not inspired by games that came before. I see it often where gamers will give a new game a really hard time for ripping off a favorite of theirs while they seem to have no knowledge that the favorite they are trying to stand up for ripped off another game that came before it. I use the term 'ripped off' very loosely and could be replaced with 'flattery' in many cases. A good example of this is how many reviews of angry birds 'like' games get nailed on being ripoffs when angry birds itself ripped off the flash game 'crush the castle'. However, did angry birds really run with the idea and make it their own? In my opinion, yes they did. Crush the castle didn't do so well on ios because the art wasn't up to par, the theme wasn't as mass market, and polish wasn't to the same level. Rovio did a great job taking a fun concept and expanding it greatly. It also would not surprise me in the least if Crush the castle was an improved clone of several flash games before it.

We have had a couple people mention the similarity of what we are making to StarControl. I always find it entertaining as starcontrol was highly (understatement) based on the starflight games that came before it. But starflight for whatever reason was a bit less known and older and is very rarely mentioned anymore.

To sum up my 2 cents:If a game's inspiration is a single game that came before and starts looking like a 100% reskin... it crossed the line. If the new game has several influences and really tries to take the ideas forward to new territory then it is the highest form of flattery to the games that inspired it. It is a harsh truth but the best way you can protect yourself is to make a GREAT game with GREAT polish and GREAT marketing. There are a ton of examples of games that were fun without the marketing, polish, etc and then someone else runs with the idea, adds the polish and the marketing to the great idea and has a run away hit.

 

[_machine]

Thanks so much for the links! There is some fantastic info on them. One thing I noted and am quite curious about is the yes/no ration difference in the concept to full greenlight section. I can understand users being a bit more kind to early dev stuff in concept, but not by 50%. The avg top 50 in the concept section shows 99% yes ratio where successful greenlights are showing 45-55%.

Should I be pleased with the concept % I see, or is it really that different for concept/full greenlight? I was a bit bummed when I saw we were not hitting the 99% shown as average top 50, but oddly on the other hand very pleased that we are currently #2 on the weekly most popular concepts page. I have to admit, all the data is confusing :/

It is quite different and be prepared for to have lots of negative votes (it just happens, no reason to get bummed about it) with the real campaign, but I wouldn't worried about the % the concept page has had. Definitely aim to get your game featured in some publication, RPS was a huge thing for Interplanetarys campaign. Here's a good video for that: www.gamasutra.com/view/news/201192/Video_Getting_your_indie_game_noticed_by_the_press.php

 

[friken]

It is quite different and be prepared for to have lots of negative votes (it just happens, no reason to get bummed about it) with the real campaign, but I wouldn't worried about the % the concept page has had. Definitely aim to get your game featured in some publication, RPS was a huge thing for Interplanetarys campaign. Here's a good video for that: www.gamasutra.com/view/news/201192/Video_Getting_your_indie_game_noticed_by_the_press.php

What is your take on how far into development a game should be before greenlight? I have been thinking we need to be much further than we currently are (20-25% maybe), but some of the greenlight stuff I've been reading says as early as you can. It seems like a big risk to go up with too little to show.

 

[Roubjon]

Do any of you guys have any experience with GameMaker? I'm having trouble doing something that should be incredibly easy but for some reason it isn't working.

Whenever I'm trying to access a number from another object file, it's giving me a compiling error. For example, I want to set the animation speed of an object based on the bpm value stored in the level_01 object.

In the level_01 create event:

bpm = 120.2;

In the object trying to access bpm create event:

image_speed = (1/(level_01.bpm/2));

But for some reason it isn't working. If I just hardcode the value 120.2 into all the spots where level_01.bpm is, it works fine, but that's shit code. Any ideas? Thanks if anyone feels like reading this lol.

 

[Five]

Do any of you guys have any experience with GameMaker? I'm having trouble doing something that should be incredibly easy but for some reason it isn't working.

Whenever I'm trying to access a number from another object file, it's giving me a compiling error. For example, I want to set the animation speed of an object based on the bpm value stored in the level_01 object.

In the level_01 create event:

bpm = 120.2;

In the object trying to access bpm create event:

image_speed = (1/(level_01.bpm/2));

But for some reason it isn't working. If I just hardcode the value 120.2 into all the spots where level_01.bpm is, it works fine, but that's shit code. Any ideas? Thanks if anyone feels like reading this lol.

My guess is the second object is being instantiated first. If you go into the room editor, under the settings tab, there should be a button that opens up the instance order list.

edit: mouse over an object that you've placed down in the room. At the bottom of the window it will tell you what that instance's ID is. Find that in the instance order dialog and drag it to the top of the list.

 

[Roubjon]

My guess is the second object is being instantiated first. If you go into the room editor, under the settings tab, there should be a button that opens up the instance order list.

edit: mouse over an object that you've placed down in the room. At the bottom of the window it will tell you what that instance's ID is. Find that in the instance order dialog and drag it to the top of the list.

Boom. It worked. Thanks man.