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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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I think it looks cool. I don't think games need a logical literal reason for every presentation choice.
StickSoldier
Member
So do any of you guys ever worry about people using your ideas when showcasing early footage of a game on different sites? I know it's a silly question, but it's always something my paranoid ass thinks about when I'm about to post ideas that I want to use in my game..
I guess the easy answer is just to not post anything about the game lol
I guess the easy answer is just to not post anything about the game lol
I'm kinda doing that for my next game... It does feel silly though, once you remember how much work goes into a game, and if that many people will really find out about it.
You should read up on Vlambeer and how they dealt with cloning in the past, I think they make a good case for why getting your stuff out in the open as much as possible is the best way to deal with this - Although it will always suck
That said, cloning is a very specific issue for certain types of games in a specific ecosystem, if you're worried about general ideas being stolen and not the act of your whole game being cloned then I think you should just bite the bullet and get the word out there! It's not nearly as big a problem as you might think, part of it being how execution plays a HUGE role in any idea being good.
There's no way to escape this. Best you can do is to not post anything if you're worried about it. I used to worry, but now I just don't care. If someone wants to steal an idea, they'll do it regardless. I would guess that getting your name out there is more important than worrying about someone using your ideas.
StickSoldier
Member
Haha yeah, I'm not making a game like Flappy Bird or anything. It'd take a lot longer to copy something I have in mind.
You should read up on Vlambeer and how they dealt with cloning in the past, I think they make a good case for why getting your stuff out in the open as much as possible is the best way to deal with this - Although it will always suck
That said, cloning is a very specific issue for certain types of games in a specific ecosystem, if you're worried about general ideas being stolen and not the act of your whole game being cloned then I think you should just bite the bullet and get the word out there! It's not nearly as big a problem as you might think, part of it being how execution plays a HUGE role in any idea being good.
Yeah makes sense. I'm not creating a small project like Flappy Bird or anything. It's like you mentioned, I was just skeptical about some ideas being taken. I'll probably start posting gifs and other tidbits of my game because I want others to see it grow from scratch. It also seems like it'd be a good way to get people following my game before I actually have a alpha/beta.
I think a casual, open, humble approach to this is good. First, I just assume no one's going to think my idea is so brilliant that it must be copied. Second, if I'm getting images from my game out to more people, then more people will know what the original is. If I keep teh game secret then someone copies it, well, that's worse.
Piercedveil
Member
Apologies if this is a really dumb question. But I'm trying to set the height and width of my main camera independently of each other, but I can't exactly figure out how to do that.. I tried messing around with the viewport values but that didn't seem to do the trick. I'm just starting to really learn how to use Unity so I'd love some tips.
So here is an image of my camera right now..
..and this what happens when I adjust the height. It messes up the width too. Is there an easy fix for this or will I have to write a script to achieve what I want? I basically want the camera to surround the black square perfectly.
So here is an image of my camera right now..
..and this what happens when I adjust the height. It messes up the width too. Is there an easy fix for this or will I have to write a script to achieve what I want? I basically want the camera to surround the black square perfectly.
Is "Make it So" obvious enough an example of a "custom alias" for a command?
I'm currently using "Get to the Choppa!" but it's so silly, it kind of destroys the serious vibe of the trailer.
Anyone with any cool pop culture lines that don't sound silly? Notably ones that would correlate to "take cover", "open fire", or "go"...
I'm currently using "Get to the Choppa!" but it's so silly, it kind of destroys the serious vibe of the trailer.
Anyone with any cool pop culture lines that don't sound silly? Notably ones that would correlate to "take cover", "open fire", or "go"...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxqHVoZ0fzc
I don't think there exists a pop cultural reference which is free of cheese
here's a 6 second video of a little game i'm making for Vita:
http://vine.co/v/MiPUr0KB13z (early WIP)
it's a sequel to my three years old game Forget-Me-Not. don't know what i'll call it yet... at the moment it's the quite boring 'Super Forget-Me-Not'. i only really work on it on weekends so it's slow going. spent the last couple months getting my head around coding for Vita, lots of fun now everything is in place except audio code.. i'm in the midst of adding all the monsters from the original game, then it's on to adding heaps of new stuff, whee!
having released my first couple games on iOS, i'm *loving* working on a platform with dpad and buttons now. my game only needs the dpad so far but i have some ideas which buttons might come in handy for... so many ideas... *surfing along a rainbow sinewave infinite todo list*
http://vine.co/v/MiPUr0KB13z (early WIP)
it's a sequel to my three years old game Forget-Me-Not. don't know what i'll call it yet... at the moment it's the quite boring 'Super Forget-Me-Not'. i only really work on it on weekends so it's slow going. spent the last couple months getting my head around coding for Vita, lots of fun
now everything is in place except audio code.. i'm in the midst of adding all the monsters from the original game, then it's on to adding heaps of new stuff, whee!having released my first couple games on iOS, i'm *loving* working on a platform with dpad and buttons now. my game only needs the dpad so far but i have some ideas which buttons might come in handy for... so many ideas... *surfing along a rainbow sinewave infinite todo list*
Apologies if this is a really dumb question. But I'm trying to set the height and width of my main camera independently of each other, but I can't exactly figure out how to do that.. I tried messing around with the viewport values but that didn't seem to do the trick. I'm just starting to really learn how to use Unity so I'd love some tips.
So here is an image of my camera right now..
..and this what happens when I adjust the height. It messes up the width too. Is there an easy fix for this or will I have to write a script to achieve what I want? I basically want the camera to surround the black square perfectly.
in the inspector for the camera there should be a viewport rect with both width and height. height and width can be changed there independently of each other.
Yeah I really like sharing what i'm making as I go.. sittiing at home, working in isolation, I regularly begin feeling down on my stuff.. or overwhelmed with how much work there is left to do.. I find posting it up on screenshotsaturday, forums etc, along with everyone else who's making games, keeps my spirits up and renews inspiration.
You should read up on Vlambeer and how they dealt with cloning in the past, I think they make a good case for why getting your stuff out in the open as much as possible is the best way to deal with this - Although it will always suck
That's probably good practice, if you feel confident that you can get enough exposure. A game was recently announced that had a similar idea to something I had been working on for years, and now I regret not talking about it sooner.
I think if your game's hook is a mechanic, with simple or limited assets, you'll have more trouble. It's why so many iOS games are easily cloned over a weekend.
Diligently doing minimum weekly devlog updates on TIGSource.
Setting up a website for the game before it's finished, allowing for downloads of development builds.
Making sure those development builds phone home to check for new updates.
Do some research of indie games press to find a couple writers that like the style of game that I'm making and target them.
Reach out to youtubers who covered Umbragram and show them what I'm working on/what I finished.
Give talks at local gamedev meetup groups about tangential stuff that I've done for the game (e.g. I wrote my own language).
So all in all fairly standard stuff. I think the only changes in plan are the devlog/dev builds and getting in touch with youtubers.
lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
thanks, glad you like it
there's still a lot of work to be done on the general look of the game and whatnot, but I just wanted to show the stuff we've done already there really isn't much to the game at this point - we barely started working on it like 2 months ago
Saw this on Twitter. Looks great.
Need to get Markiplier playing it
thanks, man
well ... yeah, I know it doesn't make much sense, but the good news is - nothing is final at this point in time
so I can always change anything I want ... and if we decide to leave the CA in there will definitely be an option to turn it off - I know a lot of people hate it immensely Just a little follow up to my entrance in this thread of a couple of days ago (the Hotline Miami rip-off), as I don't want to steal space to the your important things going on.
I've been struggling all weekend with line of sight and pathfinding, and fuck if it's hard!
I've got a room with a dozen of enemies, correctly turning toward the player on LOS, but just some of them start following him, while the others stay still doing nothing, and those who move eventually all pile up in the same path. If I have them not solid, it sucks, and if I have them solid they collide with each other sort of "crashing" themselves: they get stuck and stop every other action (no more following, turning and shooting).
Meanwhile, every single second I wasn't in front of a PC with Construct 2 opened, I was thinking about ways to avoid all those bugs.
And worst of everythng is that, even though I've refactored all the code (well, the events) in functions, I'm getting near the 100 events limit of the free version, a thing that will probably screw me when I'm going to put there doors (and even the simple idea of doors turning on touch makes me scream ).
Point is: shit got addictive.
I'm loving this, way way way way way funnier than building websites!
I've been struggling all weekend with line of sight and pathfinding, and fuck if it's hard!
I've got a room with a dozen of enemies, correctly turning toward the player on LOS, but just some of them start following him, while the others stay still doing nothing, and those who move eventually all pile up in the same path. If I have them not solid, it sucks, and if I have them solid they collide with each other sort of "crashing" themselves: they get stuck and stop every other action (no more following, turning and shooting).
Meanwhile, every single second I wasn't in front of a PC with Construct 2 opened, I was thinking about ways to avoid all those bugs.
And worst of everythng is that, even though I've refactored all the code (well, the events) in functions, I'm getting near the 100 events limit of the free version, a thing that will probably screw me when I'm going to put there doors (and even the simple idea of doors turning on touch makes me scream
).Point is: shit got addictive.
I'm loving this, way way way way way funnier than building websites!
Perhaps the best sentence in here.
Personally, I think that games in here are criticized quite less. The reason
might be that no one wants to step on the tooth of others. Part of the reason
is that many developers are quite involved with their work/game such that any
negative yet constructive critic seems like an offense to them.
I also don't like the behavior of people criticizing the view of others instead
of just giving their own critic about the game.
That's called overheat, right? Yet sounds plausible. Thank for pointing out!
Holy fuck, Feep, you've forgotten to mention the release date of the trailer!Trailer done. Probably put 80+ hours into this thing.
For reference, I'm hoping to make someone say "Holy fuck, Feep." I'll quote this post if they do.
My sense of the "community" of this thread is that it's here primarily for encouragement of others. Immediate critique, when the creator isn't mentally prepared for it, can be a huge demotivator. I think that if someone posts their finished game, or requests feedback on a particular aspect of the game, then all criticisms are fair. But if it's just a "hey everyone this is what I've been spending a couple months on!" I'm not sure that critique fits the overall tone of the thread.
^ I guess by now it's the way as you say. But isn't this thread about
development? From my point of view part of all development is giving critic.
Critic is almost always most encouraging -- a driving factor -- yet shouldn't
be applied arbitrarily, indeed. Well, I prefer to get critic about every
picture I post instead of people saying nothing while finding out in the end
that what I thought was good for the player was only my imagination. So
getting critic along the way is the best thing that can happen to me. It
works as a balancer, verifier, etc. It's irreplaceable!
development? From my point of view part of all development is giving critic.
Critic is almost always most encouraging -- a driving factor -- yet shouldn't
be applied arbitrarily, indeed. Well, I prefer to get critic about every
picture I post instead of people saying nothing while finding out in the end
that what I thought was good for the player was only my imagination. So
getting critic along the way is the best thing that can happen to me. It
works as a balancer, verifier, etc. It's irreplaceable!
Most people use version control such as GitHub. I just upload source code to SkyDrive. I got 100GB from a promotion.
I was thinking about a ( maybe automated) local Backup solution, my upload speed is very slow.
FYI to all: I haven't posted much on my game yet, but I will be ready for people to take a dump on it when I unveil it. Will help prepare me for critics and consumers
BlastProcessing
Member
Even with slow uploads, you need remote backup. There are too many disasters that could also take out your local backup. We have our stuff on github and backblaze in addition to our local backups. I am on a mac so I use Carbon Copy Cloner for my daily local.
All my code for just about anything is done in my Dropbox folder. I then use Bitbucket for projects once they have started to take any sort of shape (as I find that before then so much changes things gets a bit ... messy. I also have a tendency to restart things but copy over large bits of code from the older version).
You make a game? Hah!FYI to all: I haven't posted much on my game yet, but I will be ready for people to take a dump on it when I unveil it. Will help prepare me for critics and consumers
Am eagerly waiting for your game to be unveiled to shred it into a million pieces. Beware, my friend!
Critic: Looks good. xD
Not sure about anyone else, but I use Assembla. Probably better solutions out there, but I found it when I was in need of a solution for multiple people to access my project. Seems to work well enough so far.
Should be Tuesday morning.
Yaaaaaaaaaay !
We did it ! We finished our Kickstarter for Planets³ !
Now the hardest/funniest part begins, thanks for everybody who shared or donated here !
The art is absolutely gorgeous. Congrats!
I'm trying to prototype a simple top down shooter in GM Studio and I'm having a problem with the projectiles.
I have an enemy that's moving towards the player in random movements, in order to destroy it, you click on it and a torpedo is launched from the player towards the enemy ship.
The code I'm using is this.
move_towards_point(obj_enemySM.x, obj_enemySM.y, 5);
My problem is, the enemy ship have already moved from that spot so the torpedo just goes towards the coordinates that the ship was at, not where its currently at.
How do I make it hone towards the enemy ship in its current location?
I have an enemy that's moving towards the player in random movements, in order to destroy it, you click on it and a torpedo is launched from the player towards the enemy ship.
The code I'm using is this.
move_towards_point(obj_enemySM.x, obj_enemySM.y, 5);
My problem is, the enemy ship have already moved from that spot so the torpedo just goes towards the coordinates that the ship was at, not where its currently at.
How do I make it hone towards the enemy ship in its current location?
You should be able to apply that code in every step to have its direction keep updating. Don't only set that at the creation of the projectile.
lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
apparently a lot of people have been posting WebM videos lately here on NeoGAF (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=107247131) ... so I guess I'll just leave this here then (in glorious 60fps - since it's all the rage right now I've heard )
http://a.pomf.se/suugda.webm
)http://a.pomf.se/suugda.webm
apparently a lot of people have been posting WebM videos lately here on NeoGAF (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=107247131) ... so I guess I'll just leave this here then (in glorious 60fps - since it's all the rage right now I've heard
http://a.pomf.se/suugda.webm
The fuck is that? When the plant in the corner
uuh... witness stand?
In the office.
lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
but, but, but ... but it didn't appear ... it was there all along *dun dun dunnnnn*
Thank you for saying this just to let me have some sleep tonight, but I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!!
Oh man. That's such a simple solution. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback. The gameplay is similar to some old classics (20+ y/o games) like starflight, sundog, starcontrol games. We are only about 25-30% into the project, but some gamplay stuff can be seen on our steam concept page:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243445287
Piercedveil
Member
Hey, got it working! Thanks a lot.
So far I think the balance is pretty good. I want realistic and helpful critique but at the same time I have a bruisable ego like most folks. I think we can all agree that the last thing we want to hear is nothing but praise until release to find all our dev buddies online were just blowing sunshine up our ever lasting. And on the other hand, I too get a lot of motivation by sharing what I am doing to get a 'way to go', 'looking great' etc to fuel the dev fires.
I don't think anyone should stop giving their honest opinion. In the end I think it will balance itself out. A good example was the use of awards in promo videos. The author now has some valuable data to consider. You didn't care for the use of awards to sell a game promo (or over use of it) and I found it valuable to see they have received some positive press. In the end I think the forum is working well to give multiple points of view -- just as we all have to face when putting out projects out there for the masses to critique, and no they won't all be kind
I do highly agree that we shouldn't all provide only positive feedback just for the sake of being nice. Each of us will have to decide how to best deliver honest feedback while being helpful instead of hurtful. Luckily, so far I have not seen anyone be purposefully hurtful.LSauchelli
Member
Why isn't tuesday already? I kinda want to watch that trailer and go "Holy fuck, Feep!"
Well said.
I wanted to share w/ the group an example of ego bruising I went through recently that was much needed. We had spent countless hours working and reworking our aliens from concept sketches to something usable in-game. WAY WAY too much time per alien in hopes that once we figured out the first one the process would be easier the next. Here is where we were:
We received some positive feedback, 'cool aliens', 'I like it' etc but a friend I've known a long time had quite different things to say. 'looks really pasted', 'really clashes style with the 2.5d in-game art', 'looks like you are shooting for AAA art and getting a B', 'When shooting for AAA art and not hitting the mark you get zero credit for the effort', 'You'd be better off with a pixel art style or something you can pull off', 'maybe keeping the art a family endeavor isn't a good idea?', 'while the art concepts are good, the end result will just have people say amateur art'.
Man.... if I wasn't friends with him for the last couple decades I may have told him where he could stick his opinions. We had spent soooooo much effort to get to that stage from sketches (100s of hours). In the end I started trying to step back and compare where we were to the best art of aliens we could find on google images. Yep... he was right, our best wasn't good enough. Ego bruising indeed.
I was depressed, and frustrated for several days. Our 3 person, family only, team didn't have the skill to pull off what I really wanted to do. We had to make the very hard call to expand our 'family only' project and recruit an artist with the skills we lacked. The feedback we are receiving with more professional art has been night and day different than before. Far more retweets, more users following the project, we have even gotten a little press interest. We may still not have the most amazing AAA art I've ever seen, but we are at least a lot closer and hopefully within reach as we improve and tweak stuff.
super-heated plasma
Member
Well guys, if anyone has experience working in Unity and would like to join our team or at least help us out please let me know. We are developing a 2D isometric view Tower Defense Game. Unfortunately my friends don't have the time to commit or the Unity experience. We have been working for several weeks now.
I have a fellow GAFfer who has been great getting us to a certain point, but he can't do all the programming himself. Please PM me if interested in helping us to finish this game off.
I have a fellow GAFfer who has been great getting us to a certain point, but he can't do all the programming himself. Please PM me if interested in helping us to finish this game off.
You are a modern-day hero.well ... yeah, I know it doesn't make much sense, but the good news is - nothing is final at this point in time
I am gearing up the Scribblenauts-style backlash campaign as we speak.Trailer done. Probably put 80+ hours into this thing.
For reference, I'm hoping to make someone say "Holy fuck, Feep." I'll quote this post if they do.
lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
lol
well - it's all about giving people choice ... seriously - everything that can be turned off or tweaked (that doesn't somehow completely change game mechanics, naturally) - will be in the options menu that being said - it'll most probably be DX11-only
tons of sweet-sweet tessellation inbound Pasta_Soup
Member
Haven't posted in a while, been busy working (though I have been lurking a bit, and there's been a lot of great stuff here) , but just wanted to let everyone know that we'll be showing Olympia Rising at PAX East this weekend! We'll be in the Kickstarter Arcade area, room 105. So if you're attending PAX, stop by if you're interesting in playing the latest Olympia Rising build. Hope to see some of you guys there!
Some random gifs!
Some random gifs!
I like the rhythm and movement on these. Just based on the visuals I feel like the game is going to be responsive and fun to control.
Looks great, Edit: great slicing action. I hope to stop by and see it in action. Good luck regardless though
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