lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
hahaha xD thanks, guys ... I'm glad you like it
so, here's a little bonus for you http://robotbrush.com/screenshots/welder.webm
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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hahaha xD thanks, guys ... I'm glad you like it
so, here's a little bonus for you http://robotbrush.com/screenshots/welder.webm
RelentlessRolento
Member
Cool. Yeah, I was planning a prototype before even considering a kickstarter. I have to see if I can actually make the thing first.
The Boy Scout in me forces me to be nice 98% of the time, but I'll wear my extra responsible pants during and after the kickstarter till development finishes.
I'm going back to one of the games I built a prototype for that I had no idea how to figure out making (due to skill level) but now found a better option for it. I'll post as development grows as I'm sure I'll have questions as usual
loving everyones' hard work! go go go!
Unless you're me, I'm hilarious
Ps.- Nah, hit me with your worst, that's what really helps to get better!
I'd say try applying some more blur on that "middle" layer as well to get a more convincing depth effect. I'm not a camera expert, but I don't think it's possible for both the fore and mid to be in focus while the most distant one one isn't (although it could happen if the blur is caused by fog). See how it feels, anyway.
That scarf reminds me of old school music visualizations for some reason. Need a "hype scarf" mode where the thing is synchronized to your in-game music, heh
I finally got around to adding music and fixing the sound effect glitches in Olympia Rising. I had no idea how much they would add to it, the whole game feels way more complete and enjoyable to play.
Especially because I've been playing and replaying the same levels over and over again for the past 6 months, so seeing them all with new shit added just makes it more tolerable to bug test lol.
Here's a bonus SNEAK PEAK of the HOTTEST LEVEL of 2014:
Especially because I've been playing and replaying the same levels over and over again for the past 6 months, so seeing them all with new shit added just makes it more tolerable to bug test lol.
Here's a bonus SNEAK PEAK of the HOTTEST LEVEL of 2014:
I know that feel!
Thanks man!
What's going on here in this screenshot? Is this just a regular level BG? How many layers is this? It almost looks like it has 3D elements. What's the context of this screenshot?
And working on a game alone is EASY stop complaining!
At this moment there's not much going on there. I'll probably put some cutscenes there later...
This screen is from a very huge level that as for now I'm calling "The Valley". Hibari has to cross half of it on foot to get to the forest area. The regular level BG looks like this, but without the river. I'll probably save this cute composition for some special event, like a cutscene with dialogues, or maybe to find an special ability there.
It's a bunch of layers that move creating a parallax effect... no 3d, only good old 2d. There are 10 background layers if I recall corectly, plus the tile layer where the player is, and the foreground layer. Foreground and main layer trees are composed out of different sprites of branches and stems so I can make a variety of different trees with limited resources.
Answering your question on TIGSource: Not too long ago I made a gif of another room of this level:
http://a.pomf.se/kxywib.webm
(dont mind the sloppy frame rate and the blurriness, im terrible at making gifs).
It's from a previous version, so you'll see that some layers are missing (clouds, their shadows, character shadows, etc). Yet you get to see the "parallax" effect.
Finally, I'll probably lock the camera movement on that scene with the river in the background, unless I find a way to make it "skew" propperly to emulate perspective.
Thanks for your interest!
Thanks, Raticus79, I didn't notice how weird it looks like it's right now. Definitely going to try it.
HellBlazer
Member
Alright, as expected the Ludum Dare theme is "Connected Worlds". Good luck to everyone participating, and feel free to join us in the IndieGAF IRC chatroom (details in OP).
BlastProcessing
Member
I finally got around to adding music and fixing the sound effect glitches in Olympia Rising. I had no idea how much they would add to it, the whole game feels way more complete and enjoyable to play.
Especially because I've been playing and replaying the same levels over and over again for the past 6 months, so seeing them all with new shit added just makes it more tolerable to bug test lol.
Here's a bonus SNEAK PEAK of the HOTTEST LEVEL of 2014:
My go to example for the importance of sound is the first Star Wars movie. As an experiment watch it on mute sometime (bonus points if you watch the pre special edition version). It looks hilariously dinky. Sound design is why that movie works.
Dreamwriter
Member
Hey Indie GAF, I'm now working with some other guys as Pixel Worm, a new indie working full time in our game. We're a few unknown developers with a LOT of industry experience, making a sci-fi side-scrolling game with Metroid-style exploration and 2D, non-retro art:
So here's my Kickstarter question: say we've got what we think is a slick 1.5 minute storyline trailer with good animation, music, and narration, that explains what the game's all about. Do you think it would be better to open with that before going into our gameplay trailer, or show gameplay with no explanation and then the storyline trailer? We've heard differing opinions - some people say you should get to the gameplay as soon as possible, but others say to concentrate on what makes your game unique, which in our case is our story/main character, and then get to the gameplay.
Also, what do you think of us asking for $60k? I know it's hard to make that kind of judgement without too much more info, but $60k is literally the least money we could possibly ask for and still ship the game we want, and we're not sure if it's realistic or not.
So here's my Kickstarter question: say we've got what we think is a slick 1.5 minute storyline trailer with good animation, music, and narration, that explains what the game's all about. Do you think it would be better to open with that before going into our gameplay trailer, or show gameplay with no explanation and then the storyline trailer? We've heard differing opinions - some people say you should get to the gameplay as soon as possible, but others say to concentrate on what makes your game unique, which in our case is our story/main character, and then get to the gameplay.
Also, what do you think of us asking for $60k? I know it's hard to make that kind of judgement without too much more info, but $60k is literally the least money we could possibly ask for and still ship the game we want, and we're not sure if it's realistic or not.
I would say that you should "show the product". Naively that would mean showing gameplay but if the story/character is a big part of the game that should be part of it.
After watching either trailer would I be able to answer the following questions?
1) What kind of game is it? first-person shooter? a 2D sidescroller?
2) What's the hook? You can time travel? Procedurally generated? Deep story?
3) What's it look like? 3D modelled? Hand-drawn? Pixel-graphics?
It sounds like part of your "hook" is the storyline. So maybe neither trailer really fills all your needs.
Hey Indie GAF, I'm from Pixel Worm, a new indie working full time in our game. We're a few unknown developers with a LOT of industry experience, making a sci-fi side-scrolling game with Metroid-style exploration and 2D, non-retro art:
So here's my Kickstarter question: say we've got what we think is a slick 1.5 minute storyline trailer with good animation, music, and narration, that explains what the game's all about. Do you think it would be better to open with that before going into our gameplay trailer, or show gameplay with no explanation and then the storyline trailer? We've heard differing opinions - some people say you should get to the gameplay as soon as possible, but others say to concentrate on what makes your game unique, which in our case is our story/main character, and then get to the gameplay.
Also, what do you think of us asking for $60k? I know it's hard to make that kind of judgement without too much more info, but $60k is literally the least money we could possibly ask for and still ship the game we want, and we're not sure if it's realistic or not.
Don't ask for less than you need. Take all the fees and taxes into account and make sure you'll have enough money. Otherwise you're doing everyone a disservice because you won't be able to make the game, and you're just wasting time. If the number is 60K, so be it.
Matt White (Jobbs / Ghost Song) asked for 15K and got 54K, which is pretty close to the 60K you need. Alex Nieves (Darkfalzx / Legend of Iya) had the much higher goal of 75K and barely scraped by to 77K, making the last 10K or so due to a large Twitter push at the end. Some people need less and get more. Some people need more and barely get it. 60K doesn't sound unreasonable.
But it's hard to predict where you'll end up. Some people are just getting used to Kickstarter, but others have grown tired of it already. Lots and lots of Metroidvanias are saturating the market right now, both on Steam and Kickstarter. Will as many people want to support another one? It's not easy to say.
I happen to think gameplay is king. In a world where hundreds and hundreds of devs have told their stories on Kickstarter, have promised games that are yet to come out, or have released bad games, I think seeing what you're going to be getting will be more enticing to most viewers.
If it's the story and character that make the game unique, why is that story and character best told through the vehicle of a game? Is there a way to display both simultaneously? Can gameplay footage be adequately narrated? Or is there passive dialog going on while the game is being played?
Sell the experience. Show, don't tell. If the story and character are really the star of the show, then do your best to display that. Give a sample of what experiencing the story will be like. Don't just say it will be awesome: show that it will be awesome.
Anyone got tips/tricks on how to implement screen wrapping? That is, when the character runs off the right edge of the screen he appears back on the left? Ideally there'd be no "hidden" area or visible popping, and you'd be able to see half of the character on each side if the screen.
I'm using Unity (2D) and physics/rigidbodies. I imagine that'd complicate things a bit. Thinking of having multiple colliders for a player, offset by screen width.or something like that,
I'm using Unity (2D) and physics/rigidbodies. I imagine that'd complicate things a bit. Thinking of having multiple colliders for a player, offset by screen width.or something like that,
You'd probably require a duplicate instance of all actors that can screen wrap, and you'd keep them a screen away to the side which is farthest to the center from where the player is standing. That way wherever the character is, the other character maintains an offset of a whole screen to the right. Also, the duplicate would probably have to remain unaffected by gravity, more like just a dummy graphic that mirrors the original's animations and position, and relays all collision events to its original character controller. Then, whenever the player wraps across the screen, you'd have to flip the dummy and the real character's positions so that the one that is affected by physics doesn't fall off the sides of the level.
I've thought this up real fast, so there might be holes, and some suboptimal things in my algorithm.
I'm not sure how Unity does its draw culling, but this is the easiest method as far as I'm aware. Granted, you actually have to do four draw calls (x1y1, x1y2, x2y1, x2y2), but it's not that complicated to do. There's probably a shader you can write that does modulus on the screen space coords, but that might be more work to implement. I'm not sure.
Mate thank you so much for the feedback
I'm actually nerfing justice (SLIGHTLY) in the next update, I don't want his first phase to be such a hard barrier to figuring him out and I think the missile spam is a tad much, we're also looking in to the speed powerup/battery collection stuff - I dunno if I'll change it yet since I like making people think about their positioning but it can be frustrating.
Makes me happy to read about people playing the game and having a good time, even happier that some of the updates we're doing have improved things! It's at that point in dev where every step feels like it takes a hundred years but I'm so looking forward to finishing this, and finishing strong.
Oh if anybody's gonna be at PAX come say hi I'll be in the Megabooth, always so many stealth GAF folks at these things
HellBlazer
Member
Does anyone use UnityVS (well, "Visual Studio Tools for Unity" now)? I'm having an annoying issue with the watch list, it basically won't let me watch something outside the local scope, from what I can tell. Like, I can watch the various properties of "this" fine, but if I try to add, say, "Input.mousePosition" to the watch list, it goes " Could not find a member `mousePosition` for `` ". Seems weird? Likewise for watching method return values, it can't seem to find the correct method. A very simple example, trying to watch "Mathf.Abs(1)" results in "Failed to find a match for Abs(System.Char[])". What? Why a Char array...?
Has anyone had a similar issue before? I'm hoping it's a misunderstanding on my part, and not a limitation of UnityVS...
Has anyone had a similar issue before? I'm hoping it's a misunderstanding on my part, and not a limitation of UnityVS...
Right before UnityVS became part of MS, there were known issues with watching. I haven't spent much time with the newest version, but perhaps there are issues not fully ironed out? The last time I chatted with the team they were on it. You might try contacting them, from my experience they have been very supportive.
electroflame
Member
I haven't tried that with Visual Studio Tools of Unity, but I did try it when it was UnityVS. I had the same problem you describe, and from what I remember it seemed like it was a problem with the usage of Mono. I never found a fix.
EDIT:
Seems like it's a known issue then.
HellBlazer
Member
Ah, so it's not just me, damn. That's annoying, I was hoping to get out of the dark ages of debugging with this. It's probably due to Unity using an old version of the Mono compiler or something. I guess I'll try to check with support but... the support page on unityvs.com now just tells you to go ask on Microsoft Connect, which is for Visual Studio as a whole. Not really ideal.
Hey Indie GAF, I'm now working with some other guys as Pixel Worm, a new indie working full time in our game. We're a few unknown developers with a LOT of industry experience, making a sci-fi side-scrolling game with Metroid-style exploration and 2D, non-retro art:
So here's my Kickstarter question: say we've got what we think is a slick 1.5 minute storyline trailer with good animation, music, and narration, that explains what the game's all about. Do you think it would be better to open with that before going into our gameplay trailer, or show gameplay with no explanation and then the storyline trailer? We've heard differing opinions - some people say you should get to the gameplay as soon as possible, but others say to concentrate on what makes your game unique, which in our case is our story/main character, and then get to the gameplay.
Also, what do you think of us asking for $60k? I know it's hard to make that kind of judgement without too much more info, but $60k is literally the least money we could possibly ask for and still ship the game we want, and we're not sure if it's realistic or not.
ooh, I dig it. I'm making a similar game (in some ways) and find man made interiors to be challenging to design. have any more screenshots? I wanna steal/reference them.
edit: also, to your substantive questions -- I ran a kickstarter that raised nearly that much, and I feel if I knew everything I know now I'd have been able to raise a lot more. To take your questions on directly -- I recommend opening with gameplay, because you need to establish the terrain first. Show what we're talking about first, so we're all on the same page, and then say or show whatever else -- after that.
$60k is certainly very doable and not unreasonable to ask for a slick looking vania, (I know that making a game is very time consuming) addressing the question of whether you can raise that much is very difficult without seeing more of the game -- but even if I did see it would be very difficult, because Kickstarter can be a crapshoot. Sometimes nice games don't raise as much as you'd think, and less nice games raise more than you'd think.
It should be noted that -- while at the time my plan was "I'm making this anyway, I just need some money to get my friend to help me, so $15k is enough" -- I think that, even though I was being sincere at the time, I think if it only cleared $15k this would have been far more challenging than it is, and while I'd still be determined to finish the game hell or high water, it'd have both imposed a lot of hardship on myself and probably lessened the scope/quality of the game compared to what it is now.
Hi Indie GAF,
Here is my entry. No More Probes is a project I have been working on for almost a in my spare time for almost a year and I am so close to a public alpha.
The game can be best describes as a Survival with RTS elements. It has a huge random factor as well. There is a quick day-night cycle and enemies behavior sometimes change depending on it. Collect stuff from junk piles - research new gadgets and fight back.
You play as a little crazy homeless war veteran who happens to be humanity last stand against the robot ( reptile people ) invaders from space.
If you want to check some more of the game please visit www.nomoreprobes.com or you can follow me on twitter @atomoso
One last thing. I will be more than happy to read what you guys think about the game so far.
Here is my entry. No More Probes is a project I have been working on for almost a in my spare time for almost a year and I am so close to a public alpha.
The game can be best describes as a Survival with RTS elements. It has a huge random factor as well. There is a quick day-night cycle and enemies behavior sometimes change depending on it. Collect stuff from junk piles - research new gadgets and fight back.
You play as a little crazy homeless war veteran who happens to be humanity last stand against the robot ( reptile people ) invaders from space.
If you want to check some more of the game please visit www.nomoreprobes.com or you can follow me on twitter @atomoso
One last thing. I will be more than happy to read what you guys think about the game so far.
Hi Indie GAF,
Here is my entry. No More Probes is a project I have been working on for almost a in my spare time for almost a year and I am so close to a public alpha.
The game can be best describes as a Survival with RTS elements. It has a huge random factor as well. There is a quick day-night cycle and enemies behavior sometimes change depending on it. Collect stuff from junk piles - research new gadgets and fight back.
You play as a little crazy homeless war veteran who happens to be humanity last stand against the robot ( reptile people ) invaders from space.
If you want to check some more of the game please visit www.nomoreprobes.com or you can follow me on twitter @atomoso
One last thing. I will be more than happy to read what you guys think about the game so far.
I saw the image and just had to hit reply before even researching the game -- but this looks awesome. I really love this visual style. makes me want to know more about it, which hopefully I will in a bit. XD
taku
Member
Hey Nelson,
I've been following your game on tigsource and it's just oozin' with style. If I could add one thing to your game I'd recommend adding backside-sprites for the crazy veteran hobo.
I'm not sure how many animations you already have for him but I think it would be worth it.
yeah, I checked out more of the game and it's really looking great. I love the car bonus state. XD
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
What l need help on is implementing the camera when using matrices. If anyone has a guide on this that would be great.
Also can you expand on the frustum/culling or point me to a tutorial?
Many thanks for your comment on the painter algorithm
Mystic River
Member
Wondering how others are managing this...
let's say you are working on a 2d platformer and you draw all the different character animations and put everything into spritesheets, how long and how much automation do you use to get all of that?
I use many scripts but still, cleaning and working on all the sprites used to take me about +10 hours only aligning, trimming, exporting and redrawing some parts, (it used to take me more than +20 hours when i didn't have the sprite sheet atlas builder) . It is really a waste of time, this week I did it 2 times to the same character after I finished, because I found some weird stuff when the animations were running together, by mistake some of the animations didn't really fit into the same scale and had to redraw everything, but finally found a way to automate almost the whole process so it will take me less than 30 minutes now to do the same stuff, but wondering if there are good tools to do 2d in sprite sheets easier. For example the astronaut in the screenshot below had that problem but finally the sprites look ok.
On the other hand, I added some more textures to my game...
let's say you are working on a 2d platformer and you draw all the different character animations and put everything into spritesheets, how long and how much automation do you use to get all of that?
I use many scripts but still, cleaning and working on all the sprites used to take me about +10 hours only aligning, trimming, exporting and redrawing some parts, (it used to take me more than +20 hours when i didn't have the sprite sheet atlas builder) . It is really a waste of time, this week I did it 2 times to the same character after I finished, because I found some weird stuff when the animations were running together, by mistake some of the animations didn't really fit into the same scale and had to redraw everything, but finally found a way to automate almost the whole process so it will take me less than 30 minutes now to do the same stuff, but wondering if there are good tools to do 2d in sprite sheets easier. For example the astronaut in the screenshot below had that problem but finally the sprites look ok.
On the other hand, I added some more textures to my game...
That makes a lot of sense. I'm sure there are a bunch of edge cases to look out for, but I'll deal with it when I get there. Thanks!
So I discovered Alchemy... and its amazing
some more concept art
some more concept art
Have any of you built a "Live camera feed" for a plane without using Render Textures? edit: in Unity*
I'm getting a portal system set up for my game, and I would like to have a feed of the destination displayed on the plane that the portal is attached too. This seems like something that would be trivial with Render Textures, but sadly I don't have a Pro license.
ie: Similar to this.
I'm getting a portal system set up for my game, and I would like to have a feed of the destination displayed on the plane that the portal is attached too. This seems like something that would be trivial with Render Textures, but sadly I don't have a Pro license.
ie: Similar to this.
Dreamwriter
Member
Unfortunately, that's the only one we have so far, and the next is gonna be a group of outdoor backgrounds. Note that the environment art is all 2D illustrations, not 3D backgrounds like it may appear.Hey Indie GAF, I'm now working with some other guys as Pixel Worm, a new indie working full time in our game. We're a few unknown developers with a LOT of industry experience, making a sci-fi side-scrolling game with Metroid-style exploration and 2D, non-retro art:
So here's my Kickstarter question: say we've got what we think is a slick 1.5 minute storyline trailer with good animation, music, and narration, that explains what the game's all about. Do you think it would be better to open with that before going into our gameplay trailer, or show gameplay with no explanation and then the storyline trailer? We've heard differing opinions - some people say you should get to the gameplay as soon as possible, but others say to concentrate on what makes your game unique, which in our case is our story/main character, and then get to the gameplay.
Also, what do you think of us asking for $60k? I know it's hard to make that kind of judgement without too much more info, but $60k is literally the least money we could possibly ask for and still ship the game we want, and we're not sure if it's realistic or not.
ooh, I dig it. I'm making a similar game (in some ways) and find man made interiors to be challenging to design. have any more screenshots? I wanna steal/reference them.
Thanks for the Kickstarter advice.
Instantly gave me a Red Alert 2 vibe, nice work!
Been testing out some new bullet looks, going from a triangle to an animated sprite really changes things
http://www.gfycat.com/CornyHauntingIrishwaterspaniel
hahaha xD thanks, guys ... I'm glad you like it
http://robotbrush.com/screenshots/welder.webm
oh MY, sexy!
@ConvenientBox Fun fact - RA2 is the game that convinced me I should get a PC for gaming. I remember seeing the graphics and thought that it almost looks real. Good times.
@Granadier Thank you.
@Nibel Thanks.
@Jobbs I am planning on doings some more "bonus stages", so I can revisit favorite games from my childhood. Galaga meets Cornholio!
@taku Yeah, I can do that. Sounds like a good idea especially for the running animation. Thanks.
Thanks all, much appreciated. Working on a project like this can be a very isolated experience and comments like these sometimes just make the difference.
@Granadier Thank you.
@Nibel Thanks.
@Jobbs I am planning on doings some more "bonus stages", so I can revisit favorite games from my childhood. Galaga meets Cornholio!
@taku Yeah, I can do that. Sounds like a good idea especially for the running animation. Thanks.
Thanks all, much appreciated. Working on a project like this can be a very isolated experience and comments like these sometimes just make the difference.
Hi Indie GAF,
Here is my entry. No More Probes is a project I have been working on for almost a in my spare time for almost a year and I am so close to a public alpha.
The game can be best describes as a Survival with RTS elements. It has a huge random factor as well. There is a quick day-night cycle and enemies behavior sometimes change depending on it. Collect stuff from junk piles - research new gadgets and fight back.
You play as a little crazy homeless war veteran who happens to be humanity last stand against the robot ( reptile people ) invaders from space.
If you want to check some more of the game please visit www.nomoreprobes.com or you can follow me on twitter @atomoso
One last thing. I will be more than happy to read what you guys think about the game so far.
Looking awesome! Love the old dudes animations
lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
awwww ... thanks :3
This looks really great!
Hah, is a finger hidden? His right hand has 4, while his left has 5.
My pixel artist fucking rocks
Plugged in an XB1 controller and was playing my game on it -- And I really feel this highlights what I already didn't like about the XB1 controller. My game uses the bumpers frequently, for dashing (which is a very important mechanic). And, wow, the XB1 bumpers just feel wrong. They require far too much force to push in, and they have this hollow texture to them.
In addition, the face buttons feel too "squishy".
I wonder why they messed with things that were already perfect (the face buttons and bumpers on 360 pad).
In addition, the face buttons feel too "squishy".
I wonder why they messed with things that were already perfect (the face buttons and bumpers on 360 pad).
Time to tell the artist!
taku
Member
Any Construct 2 tinkers out there experienced some Gamepad issues as of late?
Also, here's a smaller side project (yep, it's "pong"),
http://dump.respotting.com/impulse.webm
I rarely have time to work on this one but I am looking forward to making a proper tournament mode soon.
Also, here's a smaller side project (yep, it's "pong"),
http://dump.respotting.com/impulse.webm
I rarely have time to work on this one but I am looking forward to making a proper tournament mode soon.
Nothing too exciting, but here's the pause screen I've been working on for Turnover. I had to redesign the screen to hold the perk selection and level up information since I recently implemented an experience system into the game.
I feel like I struggle on UI/UX stuff, but this is simple and clean and it works for me.
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