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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Noogy

Member
Huge congrats Noogy!

The thread on reddit about the announcement is so damn positive about your game. Very well deserved. Love the game, and looking forward to whatever you are working on next.

Oh nice, I hadn't looked! To be honest at this point I tend not to read too many comments... on one hand supporters are always super awesome and supportive, but on the other hand you have the internet. I admit I can't wait to announce what I'm doing next, even if it isn't on the scale of Dust.
 

cbox

Member
No, sadly I've had to put that on slight hold while I work on the port. I'm having Dust:AET ported by Sickhead Games. XNA > Mono.PS4.

I'm dying to get back to my Unity game though. Might even try to announce it later this year, since it's a smaller scale title.

Grats! How's the transition from xna to mono? We;d love Shwip to be multiplatform in the future.
 

SeanNoonan

Member
It's not my type of game, but you nailed the style - great work.
That looks cool. I've always wanted to be a cloud.
I really love the aesthetics of this game, especially your cloud's vacuum animation. Not sure if I'm on board with the newly introduced lightning mechanic yet, but it looks great so keep it up!
Looks good, I like it. Reminds me of Kirby a bit.

Thanks everyone :D!

I was super inspired by HAL's Game Boy titles for this game, so I'm glad that Kirby vibes are present :)

Bonus:
cYo2tBo.gif

(I am aware the combo readout is wrong)
 

Five

Banned
Huge congrats, Noogy! Dust doesn't quite suit my tastes, but I'm floored by the quality of the work in it and people like you are an inspiration to us all! :)

On my front, I've been working on art/animations today and not making the headway that I wish I was. Everything takes 10x longer than the estimations I make in my head. Anyway, posting a couple animated gifs to help keep myself motivated!

This enemy I've been working on is a Berserker/Ogre. He's roughly twice the size of my hero. This one is his forward facing walking animation:
xWVslMa.gif


And here's his forward facing attack:
QxDp9kZ.gif


Slowly, very very slowly, my game "Champion Summons" is coming along. This is my first real attempt at anything beyond a prototype and man is it a lot of work for a single person! I hope to post some more game footage for everyone soon!

I think you've about done the best you can with only in-plane rotation of the articulations, but it's not working as well as it should. The walking ani looks like dancing, and the attack looks like he's cutting his toe off. It really needs to look like it's going in and out of the foreground and background. For that sort of foreshortening, it's probably going to take some redrawing of articulations at different frames or applying some scaling.

edit: something else I'd say is that it looks a bit flimsy holding the ax at the base with both hands. One hand or the other should be a little up the handle for better leverage.
 

cbox

Member
Oxrock, if you're looking for tips on how to animate - set up a phone or camera and record yourself making the movement. You'd be surprised how much it helps. I'm not an animator in any way, but I used that technique to draw the intro for my logo.

YOeK0v.gif


Keep up the work!
 

TheMink

Member
Is there a good place to read up on the details for Game Maker?

It seems very appealing to me, as i am just a humble man with zero programming knowledge. My actually field is Audio Engineering and Songwriting, and my brother is an Artist and Animator. I always felt we had a good dynamic as far as applicable abilities, video game tastes and ideas.

But neither of us wanted to put the time into learning programming, for something thats just for fun essentially and has no applicability for our actual fields.
 
Is there a good place to read up on the details for Game Maker?

It seems very appealing to me, as i am just a humble man with zero programming knowledge. My actually field is Audio Engineering and Songwriting, and my brother is an Artist and Animator. I always felt we had a good dynamic as far as applicable abilities, video game tastes and ideas.

But neither of us wanted to put the time into learning programming, for something thats just for fun essentially and has no applicability for our actual fields.

https://www.youtube.com/user/999Greyfox

This guy also has good tutorials. It's all platformerish but that can help with a lot of things too, especially since platformer collision is probably one of the more complex things in GM
 

Blizzard

Banned
Is there a good place to read up on the details for Game Maker?

It seems very appealing to me, as i am just a humble man with zero programming knowledge. My actually field is Audio Engineering and Songwriting, and my brother is an Artist and Animator. I always felt we had a good dynamic as far as applicable abilities, video game tastes and ideas.

But neither of us wanted to put the time into learning programming, for something thats just for fun essentially and has no applicability for our actual fields.
Full disclosure, I'm biased since I'm a software engineer.

That said, I respectfully suggest that one or both of you try at least SOME mild experimentation with programming. This might mean you learn some GameMaker scripting, or the graphical GameMaker script stuff, or Unreal Engine 4 and its Blueprint graphical scripting system.

The benefit is that, especially for artist and animator tasks, one will at least be aware of some of the things involved with making art for a game and bringing it into an engine. Your brother might find himself scripting basic animations in a scene without needing to ask a programmer for help, for example.
 

Blizzard

Banned
where do you guys get the motivation from? I've been sitting on an idea lately and it's just so overwhelming on where to begin.
I don't work nearly as often as I should. Once I make myself get started, I usually find it easier to keep going.

If you are truly passionate about an idea, you may be able to do almost anything. The tough price can be that you have to start smaller and pick up skills are you go along, though. Game jams (or for a more relaxed pace, small game projects) are a good place to start.
 

belushy

Banned
where do you guys get the motivation from? I've been sitting on an idea lately and it's just so overwhelming on where to begin.

I'm the same way. I look at this thread daily and am impressed beyond believe at the great stuff everyone posts here. I'm like you, I have so many ideas for games but I just don't know where to start either. I definitely have the time, but when I sit down and try to start it I realize that I don't have the skills to do anything. I have no coding experience, have absolutely no skill in drawing or pixel arting. I lack the motivation to actually learn the skills, so I have nobody to blame but myself lol
 

SeanNoonan

Member
where do you guys get the motivation from? I've been sitting on an idea lately and it's just so overwhelming on where to begin.
For me it comes in waves.
I work 9-5 (or a lot more than that) in AAA, so sometimes I can be a bit too burnt out on games to carry on plugging away at my own indie efforts at home, but then sometimes it can be more of an inspiration and provide motivation. Always changing!

I find threads like this and similar ones on TIG are a great kick in the ass too :)
 

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
I think you've about done the best you can with only in-plane rotation of the articulations, but it's not working as well as it should. The walking ani looks like dancing, and the attack looks like he's cutting his toe off. It really needs to look like it's going in and out of the foreground and background. For that sort of foreshortening, it's probably going to take some redrawing of articulations at different frames or applying some scaling.

edit: something else I'd say is that it looks a bit flimsy holding the ax at the base with both hands. One hand or the other should be a little up the handle for better leverage.

I just wanted to thank you for the constructive criticism. Sometimes it's hard to put my finger on what exactly looks out of place and having some pointers as to what might make an improvement is invaluable. That being said, I've made some alterations! Honestly not sure how effective my changes have been, but the attempt was made!


old walking:
xWVslMa.gif
New walking:
h5gKFRJ.gif


With the new walking animation I lessened his body's back and forth sway while scaling his arms and legs as they go forth and back. Hopefully he doesn't quite look like he's enjoying a hoedown anymore.


Old attack:
QxDp9kZ.gif
New attack:
px5hb5M.gif


With the attack animation I change scale on the legs to help show depth at his change of stance and also increased the axe's scale as it swings down which hopefully gives the illusion of it coming closer. I also tried to modify his grip placement on the axe so that he'll have more lethal looking attacks, without chopping off his toes.

Obviously leagues and leagues away from professional work, but I think it's improved, and sorry for turning this thread into my game blog. It's just fun to show off what you've been working on.
 

Venfayth

Member
This is more of a programming question, and I dunno if it's weird. I just have never really encountered this thought before and I'd like some insight.

How does rendering work for a game? I'm trying to write my own animation code and I just want to make sure I understand how it works logically. Let's say I want my game to be 60 fps locked.

If I push an input, the game detects that through my global logic loop, which happens I assume (I don't really have this planned yet) more often than 60 times per second, how does this translate into the render? The way I ended up thinking about it is that there is kind of a reality that the computer sees in realtime, but only displays to us once every 60th of a second. I don't know how to describe it any better.

So, we have truthworld, and then the render. Truthworld is updated instantly (read: as fast as the computer can process) by our actions, but is only rendered on to the computer screen every 60th of a second.

Then I started thinking, do I need logic to tie in to the duration of time passed for the time it takes to render each frame? Or how long it took to get through a cycle of my global logic loop in case it took too long?

Maybe this is all way over my head or ultimately superfluous; I really want to start from the ground up. Every time I start with something like Gamemaker and Unity I feel like power is being taken away from me, even though I know the reality is not like that. I have thousands of questions about how stuff is being done and how it all works, so I want to try building this kind of thing myself.

If anyone has any insight on this type of thing, or anything I mentioned here, I'd really appreciate some input or just general advice / knowledge. Thanks for listening to me ramble!
 
Then I started thinking, do I need logic to tie in to the duration of time passed for the time it takes to render each frame? Or how long it took to get through a cycle of my global logic loop in case it took too long?

Exactly this. Use frame-independent values, such as units/second, and scale them according to frame time so that you get an accurate snapshot of the world. You mentioned Unity, so using that as an example, you'd give an object a velocity and then update its position each frame with "position += velocity * Time.deltaTime".

Different things can also happen at different intervals depending on the engine - input callbacks might happen whenever, physics usually run at a fixed frequency and so on - so you need to calculate the state of the world at rendering time. There's a lot of interpolation and extrapolation involved in a game.
 

TheMink

Member
Thanks guys, sorry for the late reply.

Game Maker seems to be what I'm looking for.
My ultimate goal is to make a metroidvania (cliche i know) but i actually think that i might be able to pull it off now haha.

My only programming knowledge is from a program called Darkbasic, i wrote about 1000 lines of code to get from character creation to menu navigating (all text based) and it wasn't too hard so i think with these tools i might be able to do it.
 

charsace

Member
Oh nice, I hadn't looked! To be honest at this point I tend not to read too many comments... on one hand supporters are always super awesome and supportive, but on the other hand you have the internet. I admit I can't wait to announce what I'm doing next, even if it isn't on the scale of Dust.
Congrats Noogy. Though your game would have been better served as the crown jewel in my upcoming console.
 

Ran rp

Member
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.

Stuff_Preview_27.gif


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.

Oh man, I'm loving the colors and animations.

Been playing around with the "super saiyan" mode

EmbellishedInsecureGull.gif

Ha, that's awesome.
 
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.

Stuff_Preview_27.gif


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.
Hey, welcome to GAF! I had been following your devlog on TIGForum, since when it was still called "Stuff". Game is looking great, really like the aesthetic and animations
 
Late '80s beat'em up-like. From time to time appear the guy in black, who kidnapped some kids (you have to save them like in Shinobi) and runs randomly through the screen.

You have to kick him quickly before he leaves the screen (like the elves in Golden Axe).

Bv5-4n0IEAAwHLR.png:large

wow this look fantastic, what engine are you using?
 

Five

Banned
@Sadsic
What kind of work are you looking for? Paid? Profit sharing? Full OST? Single track? If you're just looking for something to do to pass the time, or bolster your portfolio, I could throw some work your way. I'm basically broke right now, though. :(

edit: I want to clarify that this question is more for you than it is for me. I'm not trying to freeload, but it's helpful to both parties if they know what's what. There are other portals that are better for advertising your capabilities and pawning your services, if that's your interest. TIGSource is one such place. This thread is mostly for sharing and getting help with various questions.


Obviously leagues and leagues away from professional work, but I think it's improved.

This is a good summary. Both animations are a step in the right direction, especially the walking one. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much more can be done with your animating style, but I like the changes you made.
 

Popstar

Member
i really want to compose for a video game again. anyone want weird guy music?
It wouldn't be for another couple months, but any interest in making music for a Wipeout-style racing game?

Although instead of futuristic it might have a colourful 1930s Teslapunk think going on. Still up in the air.
 

Sadsic

Member
@Sadsic
What kind of work are you looking for? Paid? Profit sharing? Full OST? Single track? If you're just looking for something to do to pass the time, or bolster your portfolio, I could throw some work your way. I'm basically broke right now, though. :(

edit: I want to clarify that this question is more for you than it is for me. I'm not trying to freeload, but it's helpful to both parties if they know what's what. There are other portals that are better for advertising your capabilities and pawning your services, if that's your interest. TIGSource is one such place. This thread is mostly for sharing and getting help with various questions.

personally i was just gonna do it for fun, but i guess if it was a really huge project id either want a really big window to make it all or some sort of compensation really

ive never really tried to look for actual composition work, i just usually leave a post here every couple of months when i want to try something new with my music really
 

daedalius

Member
Some stuff from tonight - bunch of thumbs for a battler pack I am doing for RPGmaker, and a couple quick enviro sketches

tumblr_nb3sdusfj11s4ir3yo1_1280.jpg


tumblr_nb3yasmQyY1s4ir3yo1_1280.jpg


and a slightly more refined piece inspired by the amazing John Liberto

tumblr_nb1skmNFFu1s4ir3yo1_1280.jpg

wish I was at PAX!
 

Five

Banned
@daedalius
Hold on, give me a moment. I'm just picking up my jaw over here. Wow, that's good!

personally i was just gonna do it for fun, but i guess if it was a really huge project id either want a really big window to make it all or some sort of compensation really

ive never really tried to look for actual composition work, i just usually leave a post here every couple of months when i want to try something new with my music really

Cool. I'll send you a PM. If it's not to your liking, or someone else sends a more interesting offer, no hard feelings.
 

JMargaris

Banned
Hello friends.

Some of you may recognize me from some Nintendo-specific forums. I'm making a game, here's some stuff about it: (self-promotion is my specialty, can you tell?)

http://www.dark-roast.com/presskit.html

Here's a picture:

pbs.twimg.com/media/BsZHKIlCYAAnPVB.png:large

I've become pretty knowledgeable about Unity for Wii U so if anyone has questions hit me up in secret identity-verified locations. We also also have a bunch of code for Wii U specific stuff that we share, so again hit me up if you're interested.

Edit: Oh, can't embed Twitter image. Hmm.
 
This week I worked on lights and shadows, and here is an animated version. First there is a door and no light goes through the door until my character opens the door, on the other side there are 2 more characters illuminating each other in opposite sides, then my main character goes around to show up some shadow dancing, prepare to be scared of the darkness...

LightsAndShadows.gif
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
I just wanted to thank you for the constructive criticism. Sometimes it's hard to put my finger on what exactly looks out of place and having some pointers as to what might make an improvement is invaluable. That being said, I've made some alterations! Honestly not sure how effective my changes have been, but the attempt was made!


old walking:
xWVslMa.gif
New walking:
h5gKFRJ.gif


With the new walking animation I lessened his body's back and forth sway while scaling his arms and legs as they go forth and back. Hopefully he doesn't quite look like he's enjoying a hoedown anymore.


Old attack:
QxDp9kZ.gif
New attack:
px5hb5M.gif


With the attack animation I change scale on the legs to help show depth at his change of stance and also increased the axe's scale as it swings down which hopefully gives the illusion of it coming closer. I also tried to modify his grip placement on the axe so that he'll have more lethal looking attacks, without chopping off his toes.

Obviously leagues and leagues away from professional work, but I think it's improved, and sorry for turning this thread into my game blog. It's just fun to show off what you've been working on.

if youre creating a walking-towards-the-camera animation i would work off of a template:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3u4tnKk0f8
 

Jobbs

Banned
dude, you make some good ass art. like damn. its people like you that keep me from showing my game D':

While I agree Jobbs' work is fucking fantastic, this should be no reason to not show off your own game :)

I'll take the compliment, thank you. :)

I assure you there are no shortage of people out there way better than me (such as noogy, among others) that make me not want to show my face, but it doesn't stop me. XD
 

Xtra Mile

Neo Member
Hey guys. new indie dev gaf member! I hope to show some stuff soon on the game we've been working on for a while. What's your software recommendation for capturing game footage?

Not exactly a screenshot for screenshot saturday, but here's a badguy I've been working on over the past few days.

ExhaustedIlliterateBrownbutterfly.gif

Looking great as always, Jobbs!
 

Jobbs

Banned
Hey guys. new indie dev gaf member! I hope to show some stuff soon on the game we've been working on for a while. What's your software recommendation for capturing game footage?



Looking great as always, Jobbs!

thank you -- I used fraps for my actual videos, and to capture short clips as animated gifs or gfycats I use gifcam.
 

Miutsu

Member
Got distracted again...
laddergym.gif

Are the numbers and colors just for debugging purposes or is that the actual artstyle of the game? because I like how it looks right now (maybe I'm biased for time spent on Photoshop).

------

I would like to show some of the progress that has been made over the last couple of weeks on Beat Beat Shooter.

First off a Custom Path Editor was added for enemies in the Level Editor, now you can alter their movement behavior however you want, in case you can't find what you want on the other predefined patterns:


We also changed the ship's design here's a comparison between old and new:


The new design comes with more dynamic wings that move depending on the direction and speed you're going and a trail for the rockets, making it easier to locate your ship on screen:


And lastly a GIF showing the trail's movement:
 
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