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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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TheHollowNight
Member
Got the status bar working along with all icons!
Some of the icon variations :
In the end, after playing around with and without it, I feel like it adds quite a bit to the VN segment... I'll probably keep the option to turn off the life bars in the fighting segments, and see if it's interesting to add this status bar to the "info mode" on/off aspect, but I might very well just leave it always on, plain and simple. That's what feedback will be for!
By the way, would you be interested in testing alpha/demo versions of the prototype as it progresses? Since I can make test versions available on web, that's pretty easy to pass around/test... I'll probably have a VN main features prototype ready in the next month or right after, would that be an interesting thing for you to see?
fuzzy_slippers
Neo Member
XML Notepad is the best I've found. If you're not on Windows I assume it'd run through Wine or something pretty easy.
TheHollowNight
Member
We had a pretty in depth interview with Cameron of 'Here Are Words'. It discusses a lot about the background of our team and some more interesting info about the game (I'm Arran in the chat 
)
http://www.herearewords.com/blog/monothetic-interview-beacon
)http://www.herearewords.com/blog/monothetic-interview-beacon
Just_myles
Member
Candescence said:
fuzzy_slippers said:
Second. When I want a general view of what i'm working with, I use xml Notepad. I handle a lot of variable data for print/email campaigns daily and sometimes even when using something like notepad ++ or even sublime, the xml wraps on a single line and I end having to reformat it in a manner that is readable. So definitely look into this.
Btw, how and why are you applying xml?
Got the status bar working along with all icons!
Some of the icon variations :
Have you considered tweaking the shade of green for the life bar? For the animated section, I mean. If it was the same shade as the bar itself it might look better. Just a thought.
Also you should tweak that head banging animation. It looks like someone violently puking while they hold their stomache.
As usual, my artist outdoes me
this one's not working either.
ashhhhhhhhh
I love the little flick he does with his hand to turn the light on and off.
Jacksinthe
Banned
Not sure if I'm 100% satisfied:
Rain is procedurally generated in the environment and each raindrop has its own set of instructions it carries out before falling.
Each drop has it's own physics and varies the weight of the drop for different fall speeds.
Each drop may or may not collide with things. I did this so when I kick up the storm a bit the screen doesn't get crazy with water splashes everywhere. Currently only collides with the player and surfaces as I tried it with "EVERYTHANG" and it was too crazy.
Each raindrop listens in to wind speed (activated by triggers) as you can see in the GIF and adjusts accordingly HOWEVER - I have not added interpolation yet so it goes from dead stop to moving straight away. It's a to-do to change the speed over time rather than instantly (I know I'm lazy, Mathf.Lerp blah blah. Done coding for the night).
Each raindrop spawns a trail of binary code behind it with random 0's and 1's.
Not in this GIF but changed:
Each raindrop varies it's speed from the next so no two raindrops move horizontally at the exact same rate. I vary the speed by +- 10.0000% because fuck it, why not go that deep with decimals, helps ensure no two can be alike almost always in my logs.
Will take another look tomorrow and see if I'm happy with it after the Lerp.
Rain is procedurally generated in the environment and each raindrop has its own set of instructions it carries out before falling.
Each drop has it's own physics and varies the weight of the drop for different fall speeds.
Each drop may or may not collide with things. I did this so when I kick up the storm a bit the screen doesn't get crazy with water splashes everywhere. Currently only collides with the player and surfaces as I tried it with "EVERYTHANG" and it was too crazy.
Each raindrop listens in to wind speed (activated by triggers) as you can see in the GIF and adjusts accordingly HOWEVER - I have not added interpolation yet so it goes from dead stop to moving straight away. It's a to-do to change the speed over time rather than instantly (I know I'm lazy, Mathf.Lerp blah blah. Done coding for the night).
Each raindrop spawns a trail of binary code behind it with random 0's and 1's.
Not in this GIF but changed:
Each raindrop varies it's speed from the next so no two raindrops move horizontally at the exact same rate. I vary the speed by +- 10.0000% because fuck it, why not go that deep with decimals, helps ensure no two can be alike almost always in my logs.
Will take another look tomorrow and see if I'm happy with it after the Lerp.
Gherid__lacksGPS
Banned
Could use some help indie gaf.
Unity 4.x
Messing with a rolling ball puzzler / platformer. Have a jump script attached to the ball - along with other rigid body controllers for movement - which is essentially just a velocity function:
----------------------------------
var isFalling : boolean=true;
function Update(){
if(Input.GetKeyDown("space") && !isFalling){
rigidbody.velocity.y=13;
}
isFalling=true;
}
function OnCollisionStay(collisionInfo : Collision) {
//we are on something
isFalling=false;
}
---------------------------------------------
I then have a "bouncy" material attached to the ball for a bit of secondary action; bounce upon landing, collisions, etc.
THE PROBLEM:
Jump input doesn't always register, and becomes even less consistent the more rigid body physics / motor's are in scene. I notice when I remove the bouncy material, jump inputs normalize and i never miss an input.
I want a bounce on landing / collision, so any idea's? Thanks homies.
Edit: Note that the missed inputs have nothing to do with the ball not beeing settled from landing. Even when just rolling, it will miss inputs.
Unity 4.x
Messing with a rolling ball puzzler / platformer. Have a jump script attached to the ball - along with other rigid body controllers for movement - which is essentially just a velocity function:
----------------------------------
var isFalling : boolean=true;
function Update(){
if(Input.GetKeyDown("space") && !isFalling){
rigidbody.velocity.y=13;
}
isFalling=true;
}
function OnCollisionStay(collisionInfo : Collision) {
//we are on something
isFalling=false;
}
---------------------------------------------
I then have a "bouncy" material attached to the ball for a bit of secondary action; bounce upon landing, collisions, etc.
THE PROBLEM:
Jump input doesn't always register, and becomes even less consistent the more rigid body physics / motor's are in scene. I notice when I remove the bouncy material, jump inputs normalize and i never miss an input.
I want a bounce on landing / collision, so any idea's? Thanks homies.
Edit: Note that the missed inputs have nothing to do with the ball not beeing settled from landing. Even when just rolling, it will miss inputs.
ninjaboyjohn
Member
Just a hunch, but try setting the rigid body velocity in FixedUpdate, not Update. Physics should be handled in FixedUpdate in nearly every case. You could set a bool upon input (jumpInput = true), then check for that in FixedUpdate and clear it after setting the velocity to keep the input call in normal Update().
timetokill
Banned
Looks like she's fucking rocking out on an air guitar!
Thanks!
I can change the shade of green, sure, but the bar itself changes color as it progresses - it starts yellowish, goes through several shades of green and ends up blue-ish. So no matter what, the animated effect won't have the same color, and isn't supposed to, to be able to be read over it.
As for the animation, you're actually reading it right :-D She's not headbanging, she IS tired while holding her stomach. It's supposed to look more like heaving/heavy breathing, though, not an extreme case, so I'll listen for more input on that!
Haha, there we go :-D Yeah, that's what I want to avoid, so I put it at a lower rhythm/longer pause for the ingame version, like so :
Candescence
Member
XML is pretty good for storing certain pieces of information I don't want to hard-code, such as dialogue scripts or choices. You can give each line particular properties, for example. And XPath isn't picky about how you go about constructing your nodes, as long as the XPath request is structured properly. While this method isn't entirely ideal for my purposes, it works fairly well.
Haha, there we go :-D Yeah, that's what I want to avoid, so I put it at a lower rhythm/longer pause for the ingame version, like so :. Is it any clearer?
You should have the head only move a pixel or two, while having the back expand and contract with the breaths. Still looks like she's head banging lol.
As for the health bar, hrm. Seems very placeholder-y. I'm definitely not trying to come off as a dick or anything, just not a huge fan of it. It doesn't necessarily convey "life" to me, if that makes sense? If your end color is blue, maybe make it blue. IMO the animation should be considered an extension of the meter itself. I'd consider making it a context sensitive animation. If it's gonna be always animating then have it be the current color of life, otherwise the color of the end result. That way they can know at a glance how they are.
Hmm, she's supposed to rest her hand on a surface, as if there was a curved surface inside of the icon, with the back of her hand visible, each finger outstretched, going away from us. Try as I might, I don't see the neck of a guitar... I'd like to see what you mean to be able to correct it :-/ Hopefully after a little time I'll be able to see that with fresher eyes and see the issue myself.
Thanks a lot for the input
The bar we're talking about isn't the health bar at all, actually :-D Sorry, I must have confused everything when talking about that in parallel to this status bar. Let me rephrase :
-this status bar only shows information relative to your stats in the visual novel segment, so you don't need to know "health" since there is no health to speak of during that.
-I mentioned health bars earlier, because in the fighting segment, I don't have actual health bars, but health portraits, and I'm wondering if I shouldn't add classic looking health bars as a togglable option - this question led to wondering if I shouldn't add a status bar for the VN segment, showing the stats you need to know about, which is what I'm showing here.
So then, about that animation/bar : it shows your current reputation. Higher is of course better, but it's something that starts out at 0 and slowly fills up over the course of the game. The animation of the green overlay only plays when there is an increase in your stat - other wise, it's only the bar that's visible, as you can see in the .gif with the whole status bar displayed. I think this is what you mean by context sensitive animation, so if that's the case, then yes, that's what it does :-D
And again : thanks a lot for your criticism, that's what makes posting here valuable :-D
We've got some new stuff brewing for Screencheat. Also first time we've done Screenshot Saturday for the game, yay!
superNESjoe
Member
Don't forget, we have an actual Screenshot Saturday thread on GAF! You should post there as well.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=853735&page=3
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Can anyone recommend some hardware for capturing HD game footage from computer?
AusRoachman
Member
Decided to try out a spherical voxel asset that recently came out and put it into an older space prototype I was using. Very happy with it and plan on expanding on it.
They great thing with doing lots of little prototypes is you can pull out bits of each to suit your needs . This is just a simple photon demo but I plan on expanding it more and probably focussing more on single player.
Here is a quick fly through. Planet is small but I plan on randomising it with different texture sets, sizes, water bodies e.t.c in fact there resources will play a large role
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=7_PvLSrokF8&u=/watch?v=aIT8PKe0PXI&feature=em-upload_owner
They great thing with doing lots of little prototypes is you can pull out bits of each to suit your needs . This is just a simple photon demo but I plan on expanding it more and probably focussing more on single player.
Here is a quick fly through. Planet is small but I plan on randomising it with different texture sets, sizes, water bodies e.t.c in fact there resources will play a large role
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=7_PvLSrokF8&u=/watch?v=aIT8PKe0PXI&feature=em-upload_owner
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
I like the effort you've put into your rain effect. When l was uni l was writing a score/text zoom out of screen/explosion effect where l put so much effort into it l never finished the game lol.
Jacksinthe
Banned
As already suggested, FixedUpdate for all things physics. Also, I will nitpick a bit, isFalling looks like its set by jumping and not by leaving a surface of contact since you are using OnTriggerStay to change to false. I use OnTriggerEnter/Exit to check for grounded/!grounded. Technically, jumping should not be changing that bool, it should be changed based on whether or not the object is actually grounded or not
I find it cleaner and easier to read, at least. Just Sayin.Edit: didn't even notice the squiggly lines on my phone. Looks like Update just sets isFalling every frame to true and is not handled by anything else. That is your problem. You are checking for !isFalling and it will always return true since it is always being set to true every frame no matter what your OnTriggerStay tells it. Use as I suggested. Check for grounded using TriggerEnter and Exit. Change the bool there and only there. Let jumping just handle jump.
Hello!
Finally a bit of results, after three weeks of stead work.
A "full" working 2 minutes test zone with increasing difficulty, upgradable player ship weapon, several enemies with solo/wave semi-variable patterns. Furthermore a bit of work on the main menu (ie keyboard controls remapping).
Finally a bit of results, after three weeks of stead work.
A "full" working 2 minutes test zone with increasing difficulty, upgradable player ship weapon, several enemies with solo/wave semi-variable patterns. Furthermore a bit of work on the main menu (ie keyboard controls remapping).
Jacksinthe
Banned
Whoa! I get some serious Truxton vibes from this. Looks ace!Hello!
Finally a bit of results, after three weeks of stead work.
A "full" working 2 minutes test zone with increasing difficulty, upgradable player ship weapon, several enemies with solo/wave semi-variable patterns. Furthermore a bit of work on the main menu (ie keyboard controls remapping).
Thank you! ^___^
Hello!
Finally a bit of results, after three weeks of stead work.
A "full" working 2 minutes test zone with increasing difficulty, upgradable player ship weapon, several enemies with solo/wave semi-variable patterns. Furthermore a bit of work on the main menu (ie keyboard controls remapping).
I'm currently also doing a, simpler, shmup! ahah
Those ship designs look great.
Hmm, she's supposed to rest her hand on a surface, as if there was a curved surface inside of the icon, with the back of her hand visible, each finger outstretched, going away from us. Try as I might, I don't see the neck of a guitar... I'd like to see what you mean to be able to correct it :-/ Hopefully after a little time I'll be able to see that with fresher eyes and see the issue myself.
Thanks a lot for the input
Thanks for explaining. I see what you see now. It wasn't immediately obvious, though. I think, especially because you can't see all of her legs, it looks more like she's cropped in a circle than trapped in a globe. But, now that you mention it, I can see the digits facing just the right way to have her palm on an imagined surface.
Jacksinthe
Banned
A bit vague. Can you be more specific? Uploading/publishing are very different things so I am unsure if you are having technical issues uploading (which are best asked of Valve) or publishing issues which there is no definitive answer for any one project due to variances in almost everything.
Details and specifics, pls.
I don't have any particular issue or question yet, actually.
I've gotten through Greenlight, signing some contracts now regarding NDA and payment.
But I'm wondering/anticipating what the next step will be. Is it just as easy as clicking a button 'Upload' and select my Unity .exe and everything is fine, or, more likely, will I have to dick around with Steamworks and do some more programming? Right now I just want to upload a simple beta build, so it's not even a problem if I don't have Steam overlay. I also don't know if I will need Unity Pro.
So, I'm trying to prepare a bit. And it would be good to know if there's someone here that could give me help when I actually run into a problem.
I think I see what you mean as well - I'll see if I can't make things more immediatly clear! Like resting the hand with more of a profile view, against the circle, or something? I don't know. I'll leave it alone for a while and get back to it when I do a second graphics pass
Again, thanks a lot for the feedback, since I see this stuff all day long, it's hard forming a clear view of what it "actually" looks like :-DLukasTaves
Member
Some good friends of mine put their game on Steam Greenlight.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=294510663
It's a match 3 with some twists. It can get pretty chaotic on later levels.
Hope you guys like it and make it available on steam!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=294510663
It's a match 3 with some twists. It can get pretty chaotic on later levels.
Hope you guys like it and make it available on steam!
timetokill
Banned
Haha, there we go :-D Yeah, that's what I want to avoid, so I put it at a lower rhythm/longer pause for the ingame version, like so :. Is it any clearer?
Here's what I'm seeing:
I think the issue is the hair/head "whipping back" a bit. Her entire upper body should be heaving, not just her head.
Here's what I'm seeing:
I think the issue is the hair/head "whipping back" a bit. Her entire upper body should be heaving, not just her head.
Actually i think that the problem is that the left hand is supposed to look like it's connected to a wall, but since we cannot see any wall, we interpret it as being turned toward the character.
I am pretty sure doing something else with that arm would solve the issue.
Otherwise, great job !
Gherid__lacksGPS
Banned
Fantastic, thanks for the input. Really helped tighten up the movement / physics across a number of my scripts. I"m a complete scrub when it comes to coding; learning everything as I go from example scripts/ tutorials. Again, thank you.As already suggested, FixedUpdate for all things physics. Also, I will nitpick a bit, isFalling looks like its set by jumping and not by leaving a surface of contact since you are using OnTriggerStay to change to false. I use OnTriggerEnter/Exit to check for grounded/!grounded. Technically, jumping should not be changing that bool, it should be changed based on whether or not the object is actually grounded or not
Edit: didn't even notice the squiggly lines on my phone. Looks like Update just sets isFalling every frame to true and is not handled by anything else. That is your problem. You are checking for !isFalling and it will always return true since it is always being set to true every frame no matter what your OnTriggerStay tells it. Use as I suggested. Check for grounded using TriggerEnter and Exit. Change the bool there and only there. Let jumping just handle jump.
Lots of good feedback on this already. Here's some more. =)Haha, there we go :-D Yeah, that's what I want to avoid, so I put it at a lower rhythm/longer pause for the ingame version, like so :. Is it any clearer?
The left hand is definitely weird. I think your idea of having it more profile is good. It looks like it's turned awkwardly right now. Also, if she's tired/exhauseted, maybe the left arm should be more or less straight, so there's some weight on it and the wall. For the right arm, maybe don't have it on the stomach/abdomen? (Unless she's clutching a wound or something). If she's just winded, perhaps straight and on the thigh. Maybe also adjust the entire pose and try to find a gap/triangle/negative space between the right arm and the body so it reads better. Hair might be moving a bit much as well (or it's very silky, smooth, and soft hair).
Hope this helps.
Here's what I'm seeing:
I think the issue is the hair/head "whipping back" a bit. Her entire upper body should be heaving, not just her head.
Hahaha, thanks :-D I see it now :-D Well, okay, that was not at all what was intended but I understand the problem better. The hair is actually the crest from the mask and is supposed to whip a bit wildly because that's what it does and is a part of her visual signature, but there is indeed something about her upper body that I could change so it's clearer. There's also rhythm to consider, as well. All in all : thanks! :-D
Yeah, that's about it - changing the view of the hand to a profile view, and the arm to be more straight would help solve many issues here, I'll try it out and see!
Lots of good feedback indeed :-D
I had actually considered what you're saying for the right arm (straight, on the thigh, or just resting in the air) and found that it made the shape a bit more uninteresting and somewhat harder to read, too... The original animation had a larger gap as well, with the hand resting on the side of the body, but I thought it gave off a bit more of an energetic look, as if she had something left, while this is supposed to look like she has nothing more to give (and it's your cue to go to sleep, soon). The left arm being bended instead of straight comes from that same logic, but in the end, the pose is maybe indeed not that great. I'll go back to some of that previous stuff and your suggestions and see how it looks
As for the hair, as mentioned above, yeah, it's exaggerated because it kinds of flows wildly on all of her moves, since it's a mildly long crest that has little resting support. So any small move will have it tumbling forward and backwards, to create trailing movement, like the same kind of animation stuff that we love scarves and capes for, or at least, that was the intention :-D
That's an interesting thought as well! Maybe there's something to try out there. Thanks!
Yeah, there's maybe some of that to try as well - actually when I posted the second gif I made an error recording it and the second cycle has a bit of a shorter pause, making the two cycle look a little dissymetric (while the cycle itself actually is), and the result is definitely interesting. At the very least, that's something I can try and test.
And once again : thanks a lot for your thoughts on the matter, everyone :-D Have a happy Honey to share a bit of the excitement of that much feedback :
timetokill
Banned
No problem! I'm glad I could help. I know that when you've made something and you KNOW how it's supposed to look it's hard to see it from a different perspective.
My comment about the hair is really about momentum. I don't think it whipping around is too bad, it's just that it can look like "backward momentum" that contributes to the headbanging look. The upward motion should be slow, and the downward motion should be fast, giving a heavy "heave" motion. A fast upward/backward motion makes it seem energetic.
Anyway, good luck with it
I love your art so it's great to see progress on your game!No problem! I'm glad I could help. I know that when you've made something and you KNOW how it's supposed to look it's hard to see it from a different perspective.
My comment about the hair is really about momentum. I don't think it whipping around is too bad, it's just that it can look like "backward momentum" that contributes to the headbanging look. The upward motion should be slow, and the downward motion should be fast, giving a heavy "heave" motion. A fast upward/backward motion makes it seem energetic.
Anyway, good luck with it
Thanks a lot! And yeah, your mockup helps a lot with seeing what's wrong
As for momentum, yeah, the movement was too strong and energetic, and I see now how it looks completely different as what was intended.So in the end, I tried those different approaches :
Tried simply fixing the hand on the original animation - it works, I guess, but it doesn't address the other issues. I tried moving the right arm to a vertical position, but I don't like how it looks. So I tried this :
Went for a general change all around the board, with a lot less emphasis on movement, crest movement, but more visible breathing, a profile hand resting on the frame, and a clearer right arm with negative space. There's no assymetric cycle there yet, because this is just the sequence played in flash, I have much more control when I put it inside C2 and I'll go for the assymetric breathing idea - but I can't record the end result as easily as I can in Flash.
How does that look to you already?
timetokill
Banned
Thanks a lot! And yeah, your mockup helps a lot with seeing what's wrong
So in the end, I tried those different approaches :
Tried simply fixing the hand on the original animation - it works, I guess, but it doesn't address the other issues. I tried moving the right arm to a vertical position, but I don't like how it looks. So I tried this :
Went for a general change all around the board, with a lot less emphasis on movement, crest movement, but more visible breathing, a profile hand resting on the frame, and a clearer right arm with negative space. There's no assymetric cycle there yet, because this is just the sequence played in flash, I have much more control when I put it inside C2 and I'll go for the assymetric breathing idea - but I can't record the end result as easily as I can in Flash.
How does that look to you already?
That looks much, much better! The thumb resting on the frame looks a bit weird (it looks disjointed from the hand) but overall it looks a lot better. The concept of resting on the frame is good, just the execution of the thumb looks a bit off to me.
Great job! the animation is already looking significantly better, too. With better timing in C2 I think it'll look perfect.
It's thanks to you all that I went back to it, and I gotta say, I like the new one better, so thanks :-D
I'll try plugging it in C2 today and see how it looks and I'll make an ingame capture of it and the newly worked timing
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