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[Turfster]

I'm interested in making a 2D game.... Is Unity's recent 2D game support advisable? Or would I be better off with a different game engine?

It is a plus that I can probably adapt what I've learned making 2D games in Unity to making 3D games in the same program.

2D and 3D use different physics systems (box2D vs physx), so they don't match 1:1.
There were also a lot of other problems we had with the 2D side, but that was because we were mixing in 3D stuff (including the physics, natch. Yes, it was a bad idea =p).
Don't know how bad it would have been if we'd stuck to pure 2D.
Still, the basics of working with Unity's entity system stay the same.

 

[BocoDragon]

2D and 3D use different physics systems, so they don't match 1:1.
There were also a lot of other problems we had with the 2D side, but that was because we were mixing in 3D stuff (including the physics, natch. Yes, it was a bad idea =p).
Don't know how bad it would have been if we'd stuck to pure 2D.

I think I'll stick to pure 2D in that case. I'm really just diving in to learn skills at this point so if I run into problems, that's half the point

 

[Jobbs]

I think I'll stick to pure 2D in that case. I'm really just diving in to learn skills at this point so if I run into problems, that's half the point

knowing what I know now, if you want to make a 2D game:

if you have no experience with programming and/or are very visual oriented, stencyl's not a bad place to start. Construct 2 is also good, but in my experience not as intuitive for a visual person (me) as stencyl is.

if you are a smart cookie who can figure things out and/or have programming experience, game maker all the way.

 

[charsace]

Here are two good videos for people who make 3d models:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-q_dzJMLls&index=62&list=PLKKxG1OQzmSGDaJ3IEbn9xOP5OMLULQ4F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66aUmR0HoGo&index=61&list=PLKKxG1OQzmSGDaJ3IEbn9xOP5OMLULQ4F

I'm interested in making a 2D game.... Is Unity's recent 2D game support advisable? Or would I be better off with a different game engine?

It is a plus that I can probably adapt what I've learned making 2D games in Unity to making 3D games in the same program.

You can make a 2d game with Unity. Before that though you have to wrap you head around Unity's Entity/Component System.

 

[lashman]

Is this for the forward render?

not currently, but it is easily adaptable. Actually it will look better for unity's forward renderer because full specular color will be calculated and per-light fresnel effect will be used instead of an ambient approximation. Of course, at a cost with complex scenes.

 

[rSpooky]

So, these two days we've had a bunch of private showings for Dudebro II around PAX. Bringing along a playable build was decided at the very last minute, just a few days earlier, but it was rewarded by lots of invaluable feedback. Heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.

I've sent personal invites to a few GAFfers to try out the game, and I'd like to thank them, even those unable to participate, for their enthusiasm and kind words. I would have liked to get in touch with many more, but unfortunately it wasn't feasible. Hopefully next time we'll be able to do so

and whatever was breaking my cell and data reception the whole time was not helping either.lol thanks for the patience of those I got to talk to. And sorry for those I missed. BTW fellow indies here that were showing your stuff is great.so much talent..

 

[OccamsBlender]

Here's a video to better showcase Honey's latest progress, rather than a small GIF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELnkPXAhdE&feature=youtu.be

(and a small preview of one of the latest moves showcased inside)

All that earlier talk about amateur art has me kind of worried of where I'm heading with this?
I'm in the mindset of getting the bulk of the assets/game done and then tweaking what doesn't work during assembly, even if doesn't end up to be the prettiest/most fluid animation out there (I'm not an animator after all), but I'm not sure where I'm actually standing already.

I'd love to hear your feedback if you have any, fellow indie-dev-gaf !

I've still got at least a couple of weeks/months of work to go on that section of the game, and then it will be the visual novel segment, so expect lots of character dialogue boxes, backgrounds and the like, while I get the first player feedback on the 1vs1 fighting segments.

That's some pro-looking animation!

 

[Pehesse]

That's some pro-looking animation!

Waking up to that makes my day! Thanks a lot

 

[missile]

I've implemented the weirdest thing. ...

​

...

A funny thing about making 3d games is how they become the developer's very
own playground after a while.

 

[Jocchan]

A funny thing about making 3d games is how they become the developer's very
own playground after a while.

The same could be said for 2D games as well

 

[missile]

^ Indeed. I meant more in terms of the remains left behind while the developer
is on a new idea. Watching razu's picture above shows his history quite
clearly. And there is no need to clean up the "canvas" to make any room. (Not
saying razu wanted to remove any of them.) Anyhow, I observe this behavior a
lot in 3d development, since said objects can stay for quite long without
having any huge influence on any further progress. Whereas in 2d ones canvas
may get covered rather quickly.

 

[Dark Octave]

Here's a video to better showcase Honey's latest progress, rather than a small GIF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELnkPXAhdE&feature=youtu.be

(and a small preview of one of the latest moves showcased inside)

All that earlier talk about amateur art has me kind of worried of where I'm heading with this?
I'm in the mindset of getting the bulk of the assets/game done and then tweaking what doesn't work during assembly, even if doesn't end up to be the prettiest/most fluid animation out there (I'm not an animator after all), but I'm not sure where I'm actually standing already.

I'd love to hear your feedback if you have any, fellow indie-dev-gaf !

I've still got at least a couple of weeks/months of work to go on that section of the game, and then it will be the visual novel segment, so expect lots of character dialogue boxes, backgrounds and the like, while I get the first player feedback on the 1vs1 fighting segments.

Wow!

 

[razu]

^ Indeed. I meant more in terms of the remains left behind while the developer
is on a new idea. Watching razu's picture above shows his history quite
clearly. And there is no need to clean up the "canvas" to make any room. (Not
saying razu wanted to remove any of them.) Anyhow, I observe this behavior a
lot in 3d development, since said objects can stay for quite long without
having any huge influence on any further progress. Whereas in 2d ones canvas
may get covered rather quickly.

There has been no attempt to make anything make sense at the moment. I'm just implementing core mechanics. So what you say makes sense, it is a little playground right now

Having all the bits together lets me check I'm not breaking existing things as I implement the new stuff.

I pretty much forgot that I had implemented the homing turrets! I should probably make them shoot soon!

 

[missile]

Dot crawl.

 

[jrDev]

Cool!

GAC (Great Animation Combos) System is a tool to help add a combo system to your Unity3D 2D/3D games. Here is the Asset Store Link for a slew of information, docs and videos. Any gaffers interested can PM me for a 50% code on the Sellfy website, just for fellow gaffers.

Here is a simple Demo also that I created in just a few minutes with the system.

This looks cool. I was thinking about a beat'em up for my next game. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Thanks. Just PM if you need the 50% off code from Sellfy or when its on sale on Asset store I'll make a post about it. It's made my life easier of course. I'm adding a delayed animation to the system currently which basically means a delayed button press can lead into another animation.

 

[rSpooky]

Honey rose looks straight pulled from an 80is cartoon like he-man/Jam/etc. Wicked art style.

 

[Pehesse]

Wow!

Honey rose looks straight pulled from an 80is cartoon like he-man/Jam/etc. Wicked art style.

Thanks a lot to you both!
There was actually a He-Man beat-em all recently, too, wasn't it? It was looking pretty good, too!
I have to say I'm not too familiar with the show actually, apart from the youtube videos and memes, but I can still see the resemblance :-D

 

[missile]

Speaking about playground....

At times I abuse some of my algorithms to chill out a bit. From the last
picture to this one are only just three lines of raw C code manipulating
the composite video signal.

 

[Makai]

This is a simulation of viewing a CRT through a camcorder while high.

 

[ZehDon]

Here's a video to better showcase Honey's latest progress, rather than a small GIF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELnkPXAhdE&feature=youtu.be

(and a small preview of one of the latest moves showcased inside)

...

Outstanding work. I really mean that - that animation feels terrific, like older hand-animated films. Terrific stuff.

I thought I might show off something I've been cooking up. I've started messing around with HLSL, and whipped up something that I think might end up being pretty cool. I present: Gameboy shader!

It's not quite finished though. I'm looking into adding ordered dithering, for that really authentic presentation. I'm not quite sure how to achieve that via HLSL, though. If anyone could offer any tips, I'd appreciate it.

 

[friken]

Our thanks to the kind folks who have been helping us refine our intro story. We are a couple revisions in and it is feeling far more polished. Outside perspectives really are a golden thing, so thanks!

Our artist has been chugging along turning our alien concept sketches into game-asset-reality.

Meet the Cylmis:


And the Dravlac:

 

[friken]

Speaking about playground....

At times I abuse some of my algorithms to chill out a bit. From the last
picture to this one are only just three lines of raw C code manipulating
the composite video signal.

Pretty...... c o l o r s. ... m i n d w i p e c o m p lete.

 

[Heart of Black]

Here's a video to better showcase Honey's latest progress, rather than a small GIF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELnkPXAhdE&feature=youtu.be

(and a small preview of one of the latest moves showcased inside)

All that earlier talk about amateur art has me kind of worried of where I'm heading with this?
I'm in the mindset of getting the bulk of the assets/game done and then tweaking what doesn't work during assembly, even if doesn't end up to be the prettiest/most fluid animation out there (I'm not an animator after all), but I'm not sure where I'm actually standing already.

I'd love to hear your feedback if you have any, fellow indie-dev-gaf !

I've still got at least a couple of weeks/months of work to go on that section of the game, and then it will be the visual novel segment, so expect lots of character dialogue boxes, backgrounds and the like, while I get the first player feedback on the 1vs1 fighting segments.

I'm digging the shit out of this.

So, now that I'm back from demoing Treachery in Beatdown City at PAX EAST (anyone come and check it out?) I can start making the game again! And.. running the kickstarter!

 

[lashman]

Sonic Ether did a little bit more testing and optimizing ... and now it looks even better

 

[dancrane212]

Our thanks to the kind folks who have been helping us refine our intro story. We are a couple revisions in and it is feeling far more polished. Outside perspectives really are a golden thing, so thanks!

Our artist has been chugging along turning our alien concept sketches into game-asset-reality.

Meet the Cylmis:


And the Dravlac:

They both look fantastic! Reminds me how long it's been since I last played Starflight, something I should really remedy when I get a chance.

 

[EDarkness]

Thanks for the chat on the IRC channel, guys. I'm glad I joined up.

 

[Dark Octave]

Here is a concept of a small mountain village for our shooter.

Also it seems like #indiedevhour is gaining popularity if anyone wants to participate on Wednesdays. 11am-12am US (pst) and 7pm-8pm UK.

 

[Roubjon]

I'm digging the shit out of this.

So, now that I'm back from demoing Treachery in Beatdown City at PAX EAST (anyone come and check it out?) I can start making the game again! And.. running the kickstarter!

Hey man, just backed Beatdown City now. If any of you guys haven't checked it out yet, you need to. I got a chance to try it out at PAX and it's fun as hell and feels great to play.

Good luck with everything man. This is Rob from the Olympia Rising team btw lol.

 

[friken]

Here is a concept of a small mountain village for our shooter.

Also it seems like #indiedevhour is gaining popularity if anyone wants to participate on Wednesdays. 11am-12am US (pst) and 7pm-8pm UK.

nice art. It has a nice adventure game feel to it.

What's indiedevhour?

 

[cbox]

Some really good looking items on this page, nice work everyone!

 

[AusRoachman]

One of the great things about hobby game dev is if you are not happy with your game you can scrap it and start again , thats what i have decided to do. After playtesting whilst the core game mechanics were solid i found the actual game just wasnt that fun.

So what im doing is rebuilding from the core mechanics and inject some more fun into the gameplay.So some of the things that will be changing

- Stick to turn based gameplay
- Inject some FTL elements into the game. Every new game starts from scratch, random level generation/progression
- Add some upgrades to units to inject a sense of improvement
- Game will play on a single ship, and as you progress you go to new areas, cargo,bridge,medical,engineering,hydroponics.

This is a quick mockup of how i see it looking

 

[Blizzard]

Nice, you should make Notch's 0x10c for him since he scrapped it! I think there's a fan project or two that was trying to do it.

 

[HelloMeow]

I can't believe Unity doesn't have a basic in-game file browser or open file dialog. I just spent hours on making a decent file browser.

 

[RelentlessRolento]

got the PSM license but can't work on it till my windows PC comes back to me since it's currently in my thesis show -_-

 

[missile]

This is a simulation of viewing a CRT through a camcorder while high.

xD The bars you see (black ones) can also result from frequency instabilities
of the power line, or from fault circuit connectors etc. That's what I'm
going to simulate very soon. But for the time being the bars shown here
do only fulfill an artistic purpose.

...

It's not quite finished though. I'm looking into adding ordered dithering, for that really authentic presentation. I'm not quite sure how to achieve that via HLSL, though. If anyone could offer any tips, I'd appreciate it.

Nice! Don't know about HLSL, but you may start implementing simple constant
thresholding first. Having done this, ordered dithering results by just
replacing the constant threshold with a value from a dither matrix indexed
by position (x,y), i.e. dither2x2[x&1][y&1] with dither2x2 a 2d matrix (or
an 1d array if you want) filled with some threshold values (after Bayer for
example) for generating 5 halftone patterns.

...
Meet the Cylmis:


And the Dravlac:

Looks quite different from what I have to look at on a daily basis! Well,
the interesting thing about those pictures is that they look rather strange,
but in a way that one has to look at them again and again. Good job!

Pretty...... c o l o r s. ... m i n d w i p e c o m p lete.

Looks a million times better on 24bit colors.

...

Monkey Island, anyone?

 

[Jobbs]

Our thanks to the kind folks who have been helping us refine our intro story. We are a couple revisions in and it is feeling far more polished. Outside perspectives really are a golden thing, so thanks!

Our artist has been chugging along turning our alien concept sketches into game-asset-reality.

Meet the Cylmis:


And the Dravlac:

Looks great, and if you need someone to test who grew up playing star control 2 (late friday nights with my cousins doing melee.exe!) count me in.

 

[Dark Octave]

nice art. It has a nice adventure game feel to it.

What's indiedevhour?

Thanks.

#Indiedevhour is a showcase for anything you've got from your game. I guess kind of like screenshot saturday.

Monkey Island, anyone?

lol

 

[Pehesse]

Outstanding work. I really mean that - that animation feels terrific, like older hand-animated films. Terrific stuff.

I thought I might show off something I've been cooking up. I've started messing around with HLSL, and whipped up something that I think might end up being pretty cool. I present: Gameboy shader!

It's not quite finished though. I'm looking into adding ordered dithering, for that really authentic presentation. I'm not quite sure how to achieve that via HLSL, though. If anyone could offer any tips, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks a lot!!
And as a fan of Gameboy games, may I just say : you nailed it, and I can just picture an Aliens game, or horror thing, using that kind of look. I'd love a remake of the GBC Resident Evil Gaiden with that kind of effect! What kind of game are you going for?

I'm digging the shit out of this.

Just to say, I'm digging the shit out of what I've seen of Treachery in Beatdown City, and I'm keeping a close eye on what it's going to become. I've had a few discussions about making "new" beat'em all with some people, and your game is generally the first I refer to when the subject goes to evolving/remixing the concept.

Good luck with the Kickstarter!

I considered if it was feasible making one for a while for Honey, but in the end, it's too complicated when you're not based in the US or UK, or at least from what I've seen. I've settled for a Patreon instead, hopefully it will help in the long run

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

I found out today that halving the enemy health in my game made it doubly fun. More explosions.

 

[ZehDon]

...Don't know about HLSL, but you may start implementing simple constant thresholding first. Having done this, ordered dithering results by just replacing the constant threshold with a value from a dither matrix indexed
by position (x,y), i.e. dither2x2[x&1][y&1] with dither2x2 a 2d matrix (or an 1d array if you want) filled with some threshold values (after Bayer for example) for generating 5 halftone patterns...

As it works at the moment, my pixel shader samples the pixel, retrieves the appropriate luma value for the colour, compares it to the luma of the four shades of my palette and returns the closest, and sets the pixel to the corresponding palette colour. Simple, but powerful. I've attempted to incorporate a bayer matrix into the calculations, but it just doesn't work. I can't find an appropriate example to follow along with, so it's hard to tell where I'm going wrong. Any suggestions where I might start looking for answers?

edit:

... What kind of game are you going for?

Thanks, glad you liked it! The games proper 32bit colour sprites, so it's just an optional shader players can use for a retro aesthetic that's just a little bit different. My game is a science fiction horror rogue-like inspired by the films Aliens and The Thing, so atmosphere is a major component. Glad you mentioned Gaiden, that and Alien3 were the games I was thinking of when I decided that a gameboy shader might be pretty darn cool.

 

[Copons]

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/

I'm hooking here just to show off my super dope skillz (not really ) with the last revision of my Hotline Miami clone, finished almost a week ago, after basically a couple of weeks since my first Construct 2 download.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12429139/Games/HLVGdemo/index.html

This time I added more rooms, a short text introduction, enemies running and firing against you and a revised graphic system.
I'm super proud of what I'm getting from C2 (still free edition, so still with loads of limitations), and I already started a couple of new study-projects: an isometric city builder - isometric is hard as hell!! :'( - and a mobile-oriented clickety-clickety mini game (with a full fledged design doc because I'm such a pro (not really #2))!

 

[Makai]

Not shown in these screenshots, but I have planets orbiting the Earth epicyclically. I cannot get it to look right in perspective, so I am switching to an orthographic projection. This also gives polyhedra a more refined look. The only problem is orthographic projection makes the Earth look supremely weird to me when rotated. I'm planning to keep the Earth in perspective and use orthographic projection for everything else.

Perspective:

Orthographic:

Earth Perspective/Others Orthographic

BONUS: Orthographic projection might make for a decent twinkle effect with a little tweaking.

 

[rottame]

Not really a screenshot. Just a little animation for a "character" in out upcoming puzzle game Heads Will Roll:

I'm just a beginner with animation, but this feels kind of good.

 

[missile]

As it works at the moment, my pixel shader samples the pixel, retrieves the appropriate luma value for the colour, compares it to the luma of the four shades of my palette and returns the closest, and sets the pixel to the corresponding palette colour. Simple, but powerful. ...

Which is called quantization, indeed.

... I've attempted to incorporate a bayer matrix into the calculations, but it just doesn't work. I can't find an appropriate example to follow along with, so it's hard to tell where I'm going wrong. Any suggestions where I might start looking for answers? ...

Yeah right, it's a different story to dither out of an indexed table.
I will put it in form of a quest; Guess for example we have about 6 buckets of
shades/luma aligned in increasing order and uniformly spaced from each other
in value. Now lets have a shade which doesn't fall exactly into any of these
buckets. How would you determine the bucket's number that best represents the
given shade? Assume the shades are integers from 0-255 and the buckets are
numbered from 0-5. Hint: integer division and the modulo operator are your
friends. The passage to dithering lies in how to decide when to choose the
next bucket and when to stick to the current one, which can be answered by,
well, constant thresholding. Yet who says that the threshold needs to be
constant? And this is where dithering comes into play by its very meaning,
i.e. by dithering the threshold. There are many ways to do this, one is to use
a dither (Bayer) matrix full of predefined thresholds. But keep note that the
thresholds in such a dither matrix need to be scaled with respect to the
problem at hand. Good luck!

 

[missile]

Meanwhile....

 

[Raide]

Just got my UE4 Sub. Time to have a play and get started on some of my ideas.

 

[oxrock]

I'm just a noob programmer dipping his toes into the world of game development. Only been working on this current game about a week or so I think but I thought it'd be fun to share. My programmer art is bottom tier even for programmer art I think, and everyone's level is obviously above mine, but the show must go on and without further ado... Deadly Dungeoneers

 

[Raide]

I'm just a noob programmer dipping his toes into the world of game development. Only been working on this current game about a week or so I think but I thought it'd be fun to share. My programmer art is bottom tier even for programmer art I think, and everyone's level is obviously above mine, but the show must go on and without further ado... Deadly Dungeoneers

Good work. Are you going for a Diablo style game or something else? Also, did you make the zombie death noise?

 

[oxrock]

Good work. Are you going for a Diablo style game or something else? Also, did you make the zombie death noise?

Diablo style is almost exactly what I'm going for although I didn't know that until you brought it up! I plan on doing a lot of the noises, the way I see it, that's half the fun

 

[Heart of Black]

Thanks a lot!!
And as a fan of Gameboy games, may I just say : you nailed it, and I can just picture an Aliens game, or horror thing, using that kind of look. I'd love a remake of the GBC Resident Evil Gaiden with that kind of effect! What kind of game are you going for?



Just to say, I'm digging the shit out of what I've seen of Treachery in Beatdown City, and I'm keeping a close eye on what it's going to become. I've had a few discussions about making "new" beat'em all with some people, and your game is generally the first I refer to when the subject goes to evolving/remixing the concept.

Good luck with the Kickstarter!

I considered if it was feasible making one for a while for Honey, but in the end, it's too complicated when you're not based in the US or UK, or at least from what I've seen. I've settled for a Patreon instead, hopefully it will help in the long run

Thanks, I hope all works out for you as well!