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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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2D Toolkit doesn't allow you to do this, and I was looking at SpriteTile for the same reason. However, since you can manually place objects natively into Unity, I figured I could use a mix for my current title.

I couldn't do something like my last game with 2D Toolkit's tile editor, but it works well for simple tiling, and seems pretty efficient. And I believe you get the source code anyway, so if you want to get down and dirty you can edit the code.

Edit: I should clarify, you can flip tiles, and rotate them at 90` angles. You can't say, scale and add a slight rotation to a single tile. Another nice thing about the tile editor is that you can easily 'paint' over a region to add tint or shading.

Thanks! You've convinced me to get 2DTK. I've been wracking my head trying rolling my own.
 

Vark

Member
Super late notice but if you have a video of your game you should totally submit it to Fantastic Arcade: https://drafthouse.wufoo.com/forms/fantastic-arcade-2014/

After crunching all weekend to hit the deadline, I'm going to go to sleep. But before that here's the video I cobbled together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtauZdLiARI

They originally had the wrong submission date on the site so up until a bit ago I thought I had a few more weeks, but that's life I guess. It doesn't have any of the new content that's not ready to show but it's done a pretty decent job forcing me to focus on a few things.
 
Hey I had a quick question. I have some sketched drawings that I'm trying to scan and clean up in Photoshop or whatever. I saw that some used illustrator and used a trace tool. I was wondering what you guys do to import a sketch to your game.
 

Five

Banned
Hey I had a quick question. I have some sketched drawings that I'm trying to scan and clean up in Photoshop or whatever. I saw that some used illustrator and used a trace tool. I was wondering what you guys do to import a sketch to your game.

I always draw over it, or draw it digitally to begin with. For the sketchy look, I'd use a Wacom tablet in PhotoShop.

I draw over it because it'll get a nicer image and fix a lot of the problems with the original image, or make them easier to fix.
 

hoverX

Member
I wouldn't really be much help, since I was incorporated and had the static ip and company email ready to go.

At least for me though incorporation was a breeze. I filled out the forms online and

My business partner makes it sound like there is a lot more work involved when there are multiple people as shareholders. We will eventually incorporate but I think he wants to do it when the time is right.

Can you do the static IP using dyndns or does it have to be a legit static IP from your internet provider?
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
Anyone here have experience with mocap through the Kinect?

I'm trying to learn how to use it for some animation, but have been running into dead ends with drivers, Maya, MotionBuilder, and the like.

Attempting Unity integration at the moment.
 
I always draw over it, or draw it digitally to begin with. For the sketchy look, I'd use a Wacom tablet in PhotoShop.

I draw over it because it'll get a nicer image and fix a lot of the problems with the original image, or make them easier to fix.

Thanks again man!
 
Anyone here have experience with mocap through the Kinect?

I'm trying to learn how to use it for some animation, but have been running into dead ends with drivers, Maya, MotionBuilder, and the like.

Attempting Unity integration at the moment.

I've never personally used it, but this seems like it'd be right up your alley.
 
Hi, IndieGAF

So, I'm sorry in advance for sounding like a broken record.

There have been two games I've been wanting to put together for some time now and I feel it is the right time to get started on it. This will be on ios/Andoird platforms with iOS first. They will both use only two button touch inputs.

Problem is I have never developed or programmed anything. I'm a fast learner and will do all that's necessary to get it done but need to be pointed to the right software to help me get there.

1) I need something that is easy to use and can give me simplistic graphics. Think of the recent Timberman on ios and you get a gist of the simplistic art style I am looking for.
You have a lot of options. Unity and GameMaker instantly come to mind. Unreal Engine 4 also might be useful if you make a blueprint only game.

2) Will I need a MAC and if so, will any inexpensive entry level MAC suffice?
If you do, I believe you can use one of those Mac Minis. Though, I would look into the tools I listed. I'm sure Unity or GameMaker may be able to help you

3) Do you split any proceeds with the owner of the engine/software?
That is completely dependent on the software you choose. Unity and Gamemaker have their own licensing policies. There is usually some monetary involvement wether it is royalties, or a fee for entry (or both). Atleast for the good tools.

4) for those of you with a small team, how did you decide on how each individual gets paid. I will need a co-programmer and a musician and have some candidates in the works.
This one is a tough question. You have two choices honestly, you either pay them up front for work you expect them to do (contract work), or split royalties. In terms of splitting royalties, people generally seem to want royalties proportional to how much work/effort they did vs all the work/effort as a whole

Thanks so much for any input. I have all the other information I need to get work on iTunes but feel free to include any other useful information you think may be relevant.

So what are your skills / plan to contribute to the project? Sorry, I don't mean to seem negative, I am just genuinely curious. I may be able to help.
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
I've never personally used it, but this seems like it'd be right up your alley.

Thank you for the link. I ended up finding this site with a Unity package that included scripts and prefabs for some basic mocap testing. From my first inspection it seems like the interaction is built into Unity. I could be wrong though, since I haven't taken much time looking through the code yet. Seeing that there is a similar product on the Asset store leads me to believe that there is some sort of lower level integration to help with Kinect development though. TBD.

I'm guessing a Mac Mini would struggle with UE4 performance, but I have zero firsthand experience with that combination.

If it is a 2D game, it probably should be fine. But I forgot if apple requires you to have an apple ID, or both an ID and a mac.

From what I've heard, UE4 demands a discrete GPU that can handle the power of the engine. But that's just based off of the UE site, and not personal experience with the engine.
https://www.unrealengine.com/register
The UE4 Editor requires a desktop PC or Mac with a fast NVIDIA or AMD GPU
 
Thank you for the link. I ended up finding this site with a Unity package that included scripts and prefabs for some basic mocap testing. From my first inspection it seems like the interaction is built into Unity. I could be wrong though, since I haven't taken much time looking through the code yet. Seeing that there is a similar product on the Asset store leads me to believe that there is some sort of lower level integration to help with Kinect development though. TBD.





From what I've heard, UE4 demands a discrete GPU that can handle the power of the engine. But that's just based off of the UE site, and not personal experience with the engine.
https://www.unrealengine.com/register

I'm not surprised, the editor is pretty heavy. I just remember the demo where they made a flappy bird game within the editor for mobile platforms.
 
Hey guys,

Any artists here on Indie GAF? I am working on my own personal project, you can look at my posts in this thread if you want to check it out. My skills mainly lie in programming and mechanically realizing ideas. I'm looking for someone that may want to partner up and help visually realize our ideas.

I'm not going to lie, I have been feeling really held back by that. I can get all these cool mechanics working and implemented, but nothing obviously feels impactful because of programmer or placeholder art. PM me if you are interested or even just wanted to talk.
 

Anustart

Member
Messing around with some fun stuff lately. Just now implemented it so asteroids can have their trajectories changed by the player flying into them. Math isn't right at the moment, but whatever! It's fun to slam into these things and seeing progress :3
 
Any artists here on Indie GAF?
[...]
I'm not going to lie, I have been feeling really held back by that. I can get all these cool mechanics working and implemented, but nothing obviously feels impactful because of programmer or placeholder art.
I know that feeling all too well. So many ideas with no way to properly execute them!
 

wwm0nkey

Member
So I switched my original idea from a FPS to a horror co-op game that eventually pits you against one or more of your team mates as the game progresses. Got a lot of inspiration from Betrayal at House on the Hill board game and wanted to do a semi adaption of it but minus the random generation since I am not that experienced.

Its not a looker at all yet and its not using any custom textures, but hopefully I will have the map done in a few weeks and then I can start on gameplay mechanics :)

Super early screens!
10473324_10204352726199146_8564959206457766923_o.jpg

10476330_10204352726279148_559109146178009757_o.jpg

10518319_10204352726319149_890465042203055066_o.jpg

10372949_10204352726239147_1174760667030355020_o.jpg

10379883_10204352727079168_4893552603456508665_o.jpg

Pretty excited as its my first game project ever!
 

fuzzy_slippers

Neo Member
Yeah there's a guy on the Unity forums that has a sig that says "You can't play an idea" that I've always liked. Implementation proves the mettle of an idea.

As a programmer that is a bad artist I do feel you on how prototypes with bad art feel pretty limp but I think that's common for a lot of creative endeavors. First drafts read poorly, unedited video looks silly, etc.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Yeah there's a guy on the Unity forums that has a sig that says "You can't play an idea" that I've always liked. Implementation proves the mettle of an idea.

As a programmer that is a bad artist I do feel you on how prototypes with bad art feel pretty limp but I think that's common for a lot of creative endeavors. First drafts read poorly, unedited video looks silly, etc.
That's a cool quote.

Speaking of being a bad artist, here's what I did tonight. I did some more updates and refactoring under the hood, but as a result I almost have the attack selection system ready. I'm not super happy with the graphics, but I hopefully it conveys the intent enough at the moment.


Once I'm able to select attacks with all units, I need to animate units moving as part of a turn, units attacking as part of a turn, and units becoming disabled once they've attacked. Then I'll need to start cooking up player turn order so I can start testing ideas locally, playing as multiple sides by myself.
 

celsowmbr

Banned
Is anyone here using Unity to make a 2D-tile based game?

I'm trying to figure out how to do large 2D tile maps, but most tutorials I've been able to find encourage using a separate game object per tile, and that seems like it could get inefficient really fast. Ideally, I'd like to just use one canvas and draw tiles to it during run-time.

2D toolkit catches my eye, but I'd like to know what their solution is to 2D tilemaps before I pay the price. So yeah, anybody?

Try Tiled + Tiled2Unity
 
Cool stuff, bro!
Thank you. We've begun recording stuff for our debut trailer which will include a few story elements and gameplay footage. It is a bit daunting to record fast-paced gameplay sequences that give enough information to the viewer without going overboard. Showing the gameplay a few moments at a time doesn't leave much room to show complexity of, say, AI, but I wouldn't be happy with largely static-looking characters in a split second of footage. I will need to adjust segments and music to match.

Choosing the right footage to show we mean business with our design and execution I am finding difficult. I don't want to send the wrong message with elements that look crazy difficult or elements thats just running and hitting things. There's a depth of combat and platforming that need to be showcased and I need to do it carefully.
 

missile

Member
Thank you. We've begun recording stuff for our debut trailer which will include a few story elements and gameplay footage. It is a bit daunting to record fast-paced gameplay sequences that give enough information to the viewer without going overboard. Showing the gameplay a few moments at a time doesn't leave much room to show complexity of, say, AI, but I wouldn't be happy with largely static-looking characters in a split second of footage. I will need to adjust segments and music to match.

Choosing the right footage to show we mean business with our design and execution I am finding difficult. I don't want to send the wrong message with elements that look crazy difficult or elements thats just running and hitting things. There's a depth of combat and platforming that need to be showcased and I need to do it carefully.
Looking forward. Godspeed!
 
My business partner makes it sound like there is a lot more work involved when there are multiple people as shareholders. We will eventually incorporate but I think he wants to do it when the time is right.

Can you do the static IP using dyndns or does it have to be a legit static IP from your internet provider?

Well incorporating varies a lot state by state, and I had prior experience with it. Good luck though.

For the IP, I think it'd be best to just get a legit static IP. I doubt a workaround like that would work, and more importantly the static IP is used for security reasons.
 
Question about Unity's Move method and what would be a better alternative for character movement. I do have translate but, it seems like it is a bit more code, but not hard at all to deal with.

Also in regards to jumping, I am using move with a jumpSpeed variable, would it be better to use translate? I'm sorry I don't have my code available as I am at work (lol). Just wanted an idea because using unities physics in conjunction with the move method seems really floaty and it's really annoying. I wonder should I just do this from the ground up?

If you need me to elaborate I can provide my code later. Thanks IndieDevGaf!
 

Rubikant

Member
My business partner makes it sound like there is a lot more work involved when there are multiple people as shareholders. We will eventually incorporate but I think he wants to do it when the time is right.

Can you do the static IP using dyndns or does it have to be a legit static IP from your internet provider?

We managed it with a static IP from StrongVPN. Once we explained our situation to the Sony guys (Comcast charges exorbitant fees for a static IP) they seemed okay with it. Sucks to have to pay for the service purely for access to Sony platform development though, but hopefully at some future point our static IP will be useful for something else.
 

SeanNoonan

Member
jack_promo.gif


I know it's not a big game or anything, and maybe the platform isn't what people want, but I'm just about finished on production of my first indie game, Jack B. Nimble. Should be out end of the month.

I'll be announcing other platforms once they're ready :)

jackbnimble_ingredients.gif
 

Gazunta

Member
Hey guys, hope it's OK that I follow up the post about Ninja Pizza Girl with a note saying the Kickstarter is now live!

Great to see your game progressing, definitely going to check out the demo tonight. I had posted about it in the Indie Thread last August, it's really come a long way since then. You're definitely welcome to come by the July thread and shower us with GIFs and info :)

Edit: and a Kickstarter? I'll add your game to the 2014 KS thread. Good luck!

Thank you! It is a nerve wracking experience.

LOL Sounds like a cool game!

It's piping hot out of the oven :)

Did Tim Buckley do the art for this?

Hahahah no but I'll pass on that comment :p

This looks awesome! I'll be partaking in a KS for sure.

My team is preparing for a KS and reveal at the end of the month for our game GunWorld as well. On that note, I'd also like to put my vote in for a GAF Screenshot Saturday. GunWorld is going into Alpha at the end of the month so I should be able to produce some pretty nice shots of the game.

Thanks! I hope you like the KS. And good luck with yours!
 

eot

Banned
Just tidy'd up some physics today for the wall stick/jump mechanic. I am taking the wall bounding slow in this GIF. I made sure to tweak every little damn thing so it's spot-on perfect feeling in every way. You can ascend walls a lot faster than shown here. Took a while to tweak the perfect hold times vs button presses and get the feel of timing just right so that it is predictable, persistent and precise. Quality of control is a huge priority for me.

wall_jump.gif


EDIT: Just noticed a bug ;)
EDIT2: Fixed said bug :D

Looks great! :D
 
We managed it with a static IP from StrongVPN. Once we explained our situation to the Sony guys (Comcast charges exorbitant fees for a static IP) they seemed okay with it. Sucks to have to pay for the service purely for access to Sony platform development though, but hopefully at some future point our static IP will be useful for something else.

I also have comcast so for me I set up secondary internet and my static ip with Centurylink.

Those Comcast prices were just NOPE!
 

razu

Member
So I switched my original idea from a FPS to a horror co-op game that eventually pits you against one or more of your team mates as the game progresses. Got a lot of inspiration from Betrayal at House on the Hill board game and wanted to do a semi adaption of it but minus the random generation since I am not that experienced.

Its not a looker at all yet and its not using any custom textures, but hopefully I will have the map done in a few weeks and then I can start on gameplay mechanics :)

Super early screens!


Pretty excited as its my first game project ever!

I'd say you're on the right track as that dude looks creepier than shit!! :D


Item pickups! Ohh baby
CreepyResponsibleAmphibian.gif

Very nice!! :D
 

Anustart

Member
How would I go about making an object change direction intelligently if I collide with it? My trig knowledge tells me adding two vectors together would do this, but I can't get it to translate well in my game.
 

popyea

Member
jack_promo.gif


I know it's not a big game or anything, and maybe the platform isn't what people want, but I'm just about finished on production of my first indie game, Jack B. Nimble. Should be out end of the month.

I'll be announcing other platforms once they're ready :)

jackbnimble_ingredients.gif

Love the art style. It's pretty and cute.
 
For Anyone Interested:
Draw an 8x8 or 16x16 px image (i will scale these, myself) using white and gray on black background (2 colors only, any shade of white or gray). It can be a symbol, face, letter, icon, anything you like. I will take said image of yours and hide it in our first trailer (as many as I can if there are a lot, I won't be able to use all of them) and in various areas of our game. If you are picked your GAF name will be in our credits.

Anyone is able to contribute, not just devGAF.

Have fun!

Example:
8x8.png
 

Makai

Member
For Anyone Interested:
Draw an 8x8 or 16x16 px image (i will scale these, myself) using white and gray on black background (2 colors only, any shade of white or gray). It can be a symbol, face, letter, icon, anything you like. I will take said image of yours and hide it in our first trailer (as many as I can if there are a lot, I won't be able to use all of them) and in various areas of our game. If you are picked your GAF name will be in our credits.

Anyone is able to contribute, not just devGAF.

Have fun!

Example:
8x8.png

0NtQV6T.jpg


 
For Anyone Interested:
Draw an 8x8 or 16x16 px image (i will scale these, myself) using white and gray on black background (2 colors only, any shade of white or gray). It can be a symbol, face, letter, icon, anything you like. I will take said image of yours and hide it in our first trailer (as many as I can if there are a lot, I won't be able to use all of them) and in various areas of our game. If you are picked your GAF name will be in our credits.

Anyone is able to contribute, not just devGAF.

Have fun!

Example:
8x8.png

Cool. :)
wWprd9T.png
KmKBMCV.png
n0Uzo8j.png
 

Blizzard

Banned
For Anyone Interested:
Draw an 8x8 or 16x16 px image (i will scale these, myself) using white and gray on black background (2 colors only, any shade of white or gray). It can be a symbol, face, letter, icon, anything you like. I will take said image of yours and hide it in our first trailer (as many as I can if there are a lot, I won't be able to use all of them) and in various areas of our game. If you are picked your GAF name will be in our credits.

Anyone is able to contribute, not just devGAF.

Have fun!

Example:
8x8.png
Sure, here's a 16x16 image.

16x16uwc8s.png


Regarding my own development, every day of making a little game system progress seems to be associated with adding a bunch more things to the list to do. That's life though. :p
 
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