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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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Liking this a bit more. I do agree that the foreground might look better darker. Maybe swing it further to blue for the whole complementary colours thing. Or towards brown? Or maybe that super dark tree is throwing things off.
If you like the ground this colour, maybe the mid ground needs to be push lighter?I hear what you're saying. How about this?
Just throwing out ideas.
If you're looking to help players intuit the difference between foreground and background in a regular landscape, it might be worth looking up a term called aerial perspective.
Like people are suggesting, if you make the background lighter/bluer/desaturated it tends to naturally register as being further away.
Edit: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ is a great site for adjusting your screen's black levels and roughly calibrating the gamma.
Like people are suggesting, if you make the background lighter/bluer/desaturated it tends to naturally register as being further away.
Edit: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ is a great site for adjusting your screen's black levels and roughly calibrating the gamma.
oxrock
Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
The swirl has you!
This will be the vehicle by which the hero progresses to the next level in my game. Doors are too ordinary, hooray for nauseating swirling portals!
Edit: The more i thought about it, the more I absolutely hated my portal. Here's my updated version.
anonymous_abc
Member
The swirl has you!
This will be the vehicle by which the hero progresses to the next level in my game. Doors are too ordinary, hooray for nauseating swirling portals!
Will you be playing Dr Who tunes while this spins?
cebri.one
Member
Mystic River
Member
I hear what you're saying. How about this?
maybe you can add a border around the floor, for many people it will be hard to distinguish the green floor against the background, and vision impaired people will not have any clue at all. Adding shade or double border will help a lot or you can add a dark green on the border so you can see an outline of the floor, but that is just my 2c.
I am having some troubles too to define floor and characters since in my game is top down view and I use random generated floor tiles so some combinations of colors make it horrible hard to distinguish, I may have to create some palettes to avoid that
Apparently I solved the issue by signing out of Google Play Services if I can't authenticate.
After doing that if I open the app while offline I get no error message and I still can access the leaderboards (or an offline version of them). I also submit the highscore I have every time I can log in so if you make a new highscore while offline it gets updated.
I have no idea why this solved my issue but it apparently did so it's best not to over think it.
SeanNoonan
Member
Got bored. Added a secret.
https://vine.co/v/Oaz5EihaveL
https://vine.co/v/Oaz5EihaveL
Wyndstryker
Member
Doesn't look like much, but having actual enemies chase the player down and something like an intro feels so rewarding.
I just really need to get away from so many placeholders lol.
zero shift
Banned
As I've said in this thread I have been using Game Maker lately. I previously have had very little to no experience in making games. I've been watching tutorials and messing around a bit but this is what I have so far. The file is an executable file so anybody can play it. It's obviously unfinished, there is no effort in level design, there is a problem with jump clipping, and etc. So far it's basically a test chamber of me learning how to use the engine. Personally though I'm proud that over the course of a few days I have learned enough about Game Maker that I can now make some sort of game if I wanted to.
Crossposting from the screenshot saturday thread!
Almost done with the animation reworks/additions planned for Honey, only four more to go... for now.
As for the rest, plenty of stuff in the background: style point management, collision boxes displacement on hit/collision, a rework of Honey's attack manager and Little Sun's AI, and some groundwork for some visual effects stuff... A bit disheartening when after all that, it still looks *mostly* the same, but it should hopefully feel a lot better to play when all is said and done.
Almost done with the animation reworks/additions planned for Honey, only four more to go... for now.
As for the rest, plenty of stuff in the background: style point management, collision boxes displacement on hit/collision, a rework of Honey's attack manager and Little Sun's AI, and some groundwork for some visual effects stuff... A bit disheartening when after all that, it still looks *mostly* the same, but it should hopefully feel a lot better to play when all is said and done.
Wyndstryker
Member
In a nutshell the clipping is mostly due to gamemaker's horrid default collision detection. I ended up overhauling the whole thing for my game because I wanted something pixel perfect.
The default collision is great for RPG's/Adventure/Shooters but not for platformers that need precise movement.
However gamemaker does help in easing the process in so you can then understand and work towards more complex things, like said collision detection.
So I watched a talk one of the guys that made Little Inferno made about mistakes they made during the development of their game, and realised that my game had a pretty similar setup (single screen environment that the player spent 80% of the game looking at.) They mentioned that they tried to overcome this problem by adding slight changes to the environment as the game progressed (the fireplace gained curtains at one point, then the curtains burn up later on). After realising my game would probably suffer the same problem, I brainstormed and came up with some ways I could spruice up the attic environment as the game progressed.
Here's a WebM of the attic in its "final" state, i.e. after all the background additions have been added.
http://a.pomf.se/hgnbmq.webm
And here's a shot of the attic without all the stuff visible.
Now I'm just worried that it's too much
Here's a WebM of the attic in its "final" state, i.e. after all the background additions have been added.
http://a.pomf.se/hgnbmq.webm
And here's a shot of the attic without all the stuff visible.
Now I'm just worried that it's too much
Crossposting from the screenshot saturday thread!
Almost done with the animation reworks/additions planned for Honey, only four more to go... for now.
As for the rest, plenty of stuff in the background: style point management, collision boxes displacement on hit/collision, a rework of Honey's attack manager and Little Sun's AI, and some groundwork for some visual effects stuff... A bit disheartening when after all that, it still looks *mostly* the same, but it should hopefully feel a lot better to play when all is said and done.
This is rad.
Jacksinthe
Banned
We are making a combat platformer for PC and SHMUP for mobile.
Indeed. It's one thing to be proud of the work you do, it's another to get a big head about it and start dictating what happens in development and holding the code hostage.
I concur. I find everyone's opinion valuable more than they think it can be but when it comes time for discussion on X mechanic or Y system, "too bad" is not something any of us should come across from another team member. Either play with everyone or you can see yourself out the door!
Thanks, naumov!
WOW. Is this the same programmer that was working with me? LOL. The whole DRM thing is crazy similar. I don't want DRM, period, for various reasons. I've never been a fan - but our programmer wrote a complete DRM always-on authenticated client when I wasn't looking and merged the fork on me one day and BAM - got this vitriolic email from him. I'd gladly link everyone the email but I'll give a hint: you can find it in a subdomain on absinthegames.com that shows eveyone.how not to game dev
--
I can't begin to thank you guys enough for your support. Feels good to be a part of IndieGAF
The funny thing is, while he is a jackass and acted like one, he is still a good programmer. He doesn't view me as such since I'm always looking for the simplest solution to the problems we create ourselves. He generally likes to over complicate things and over engineer. It's fancy and I was OK with most of it but I feel he did most of that to make the code unreadable in case we booted him. Which is my guess why he started acting the way he did. He does not think I'm capable. I'm not the best programmer but my logic consists of getting the exact end result I am looking for without compromise the easiest and cleanest way possible. If that means exploiting built-in Unity systems, then by all means its there for me to take advantage of. If the flipside also means I have to "LOLUNITY" and build my own systems to run things, by all means I'll do what I have to to gain functionality I need.
This happening is all OK in the grand scheme of things. This was what I consider a "known unknown". I knew somewhere down the line someone would be "that guy" but did not know the proper course of action. Now I have a better idea of what to look for, signs of danger, etc. Live and learn.
--
In other news, here's a screen of the mobile SHMUP we are working, super simple concept and execution, nothing fancy, very pick up and play:
zero shift
Banned
I see. How do I fix it? Do I just screw around with the player's mask?
Mystic River
Member
I had quite hard time this week trying to figure out many bugs and rewrote a lot of code so I can switch between space ships, dock/undock ships and other things, didn't have much time to draw new art but have a lot of new mechanics in-game.
You can switch between different locations while exploring and taking care of your crew and ship, you can have some crew members flying other ships too and dock them into your main ship for additional defense and offensive tactics, or have an assault team in another location while your ship protects your squad.
In this screenshot I have some of my crew members inside a starport while the rest is still in my main ship.
You can switch between different locations while exploring and taking care of your crew and ship, you can have some crew members flying other ships too and dock them into your main ship for additional defense and offensive tactics, or have an assault team in another location while your ship protects your squad.
In this screenshot I have some of my crew members inside a starport while the rest is still in my main ship.
(neogaf/tigsource/facebook/blog SSS crosspost)
(Game: Ghost Song)
The dash skill is performed with the bumpers. Left always dashes left, right always dashes right, regardless of what way you're facing. The subtleties here are that you only dash max distance if you hold the button the entire time, you can let go at any point for the preferred dash length, and landing with pinpoint accuracy as seen here takes some skill.
The other bit of subtlety is that a backdash (not seen here -- but it's a different dash animation and it happens if you dash left while facing right or vise versa) has a bit less distance than the forward dash.
click for full size webm.
Being a "metroidvania", obstacles such as this are natural things you encounter while exploring. You may wonder what's on the other side, you may wonder enough to try and bumble your way through without even having the requisite ability (in this case, dash) which leads to that odd sense of not quite belonging...
(Game: Ghost Song)
The dash skill is performed with the bumpers. Left always dashes left, right always dashes right, regardless of what way you're facing. The subtleties here are that you only dash max distance if you hold the button the entire time, you can let go at any point for the preferred dash length, and landing with pinpoint accuracy as seen here takes some skill.
The other bit of subtlety is that a backdash (not seen here -- but it's a different dash animation and it happens if you dash left while facing right or vise versa) has a bit less distance than the forward dash.
click for full size webm.
Being a "metroidvania", obstacles such as this are natural things you encounter while exploring. You may wonder what's on the other side, you may wonder enough to try and bumble your way through without even having the requisite ability (in this case, dash) which leads to that odd sense of not quite belonging...
This is rad.
Many thanks :-D
Wyndstryker
Member
Unfortunately no. The main issue with gamemaker is that it doesn't do pixel by pixel detection so you need to have something that does it.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPRT_JORnIur3eKIaD-IayrdEt8pOor18
I pretty much followed this guys video almost to the letter with some of my own modifications. Proper sprite origin/masking + this code fixed ALL the collision issues. He also explains why. In a nutshell I find his tutorials very useful. Although I only used his tutorials for the platformer collision his other stuff is handy also.
SeanNoonan
Member
I'm compiling a version for the iOS app store today!when's the release? will buy!
I'm not sure how long submission takes - but I'll be sure to post a link when it's up
Only because I cancelled this, lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0w6PrL6s3s
I miss my ancient greece-themed zelda clone... Hopefully I'll be able to work on it again.
TBH, I started working on it on Game Maker: Studio. Working with this "simple" art style sure is fun -and quick!
Whenever I'll be able to get to it seriously, I'll have to work a lot to make it more different from Zelda, gameplay-wise.
I'm not sure why, but people often like this future-project (Olympos) better than my current one, Spirit Huntress. Perhaps I made a bad choice and I should have started with this one.
So cute
I love me some precise moveset on my Metroidvanias. Good work!
The GB pallete looks charming on this one
Nice!
zero shift
Banned
That's who I watched. I guess my jumping was fine until I created a jump sprite like this.
Wyndstryker
Member
Need to keep your collision box and origins the same on your sprites to avoid clipping issues with that code
after thinking about it, I added my "teaching flowers" to this spot to draw attention to where to stand and how far your dashes can go.
I've used these moving flowers in a number of spots, particularly near the beginning, to draw attention to things. closest thing to a tutorial in the game.
I've used these moving flowers in a number of spots, particularly near the beginning, to draw attention to things. closest thing to a tutorial in the game.
The idea of flowers to show you where to go or how far you can go is a cool one.
thanks guys -- it's never called out. I don't do pop ups or instructions or Navi or whatever, it's not my style.
These flowers are conspicuous in that they move in a very deliberate way, whereas other flowers either don't move or perhaps move with the wind or something like that. I have used them a few times to gently direct the player's attention early in the game. Like, go this way, stand here, shoot here, whatever. It's not really a firm rule as to what they mean, I have just tried to use them to, again, subtly direct what the player is paying attention to.
That looks pretty conspicuous, right? Almost like goal posts. There won't always be visual clues where a secret is, but being that it's early in the game, the goal is to teach the player about this concept (breaking walls) without resorting to handholding explanations or other things I personally don't like.
Couple of thoughts:
- You might be surprised at how many obvious things players will pass up.
- Level of conspicuousness depends more on the rest of the scene not shown in that GIF. If the path terminates there, then it's definitely pretty clear signposting.
- Wait, are those fucking cheap bats that are going to swoop in on me?
hopefully the demo will provide me with some insight on how players respond to this as well as other design choices.
For example, I don't think the game is overly difficult, but I am starting to suspect based on a couple of people close to me trying the game that maybe it's actually pretty hard. We'll just see.
I'll tell people what the controls do, nuts and bolts stuff that it's only fair to tell, but that's the extent of anything popping up or explaining.
Yep as to be expected from your game. On the flipside, I'd like to make my game as accessible as possible to anyone for maximum playerbase.
show me your skeleton
Member
EVERYONE'S GAMES ARE BLOWING MY MIND.
so much so that my grammar skills may have taken a hit.
so much so that my grammar skills may have taken a hit.
Mystic River
Member
I've been wondering about how much to put in the tutorial, in the old times there was a manual that I almost never read, and just played the game, very few times got stuck with the UI or the game itself in the past, so I was thinking why not eliminate the tutorial and let the player figure out things... maybe have some advice from time to time but very little or almost nothing and see people play.
I am thinking to release a demo in the next few months and see how people react to no tutorial and guess everything and die millions of times on the way
I am thinking to release a demo in the next few months and see how people react to no tutorial and guess everything and die millions of times on the way
Sword Familiar
178% of NeoGAF posters don't understand statistics
Screw it, I went full DKCR mode on this level
This would be extra shameless if you made the scarf red as well.
show me your skeleton
Member
DO IT
Got something out of the OST for psyscrolr for you guys to enjoy: https://soundcloud.com/maumaumusic/sets/psyscrolr-ost
Also check out show me your skeleton's stuff of course
Also check out show me your skeleton's stuff of course
god damn, jobbs you're making me horny for your game
IT LOOKS SO GOOD. My Super Metroid comparison was *spot* on.
Although I'm sure you're aware of this, audial cues are just as crucial as visual. Perhaps instead of visual cues for hidden secrets you could have audial cues? Wind blowing near a cracked wall that has a secret room behind it, or a beeping computer for that extra health kit, whatever, stuff like that.
IT LOOKS SO GOOD. My Super Metroid comparison was *spot* on.
Although I'm sure you're aware of this, audial cues are just as crucial as visual. Perhaps instead of visual cues for hidden secrets you could have audial cues? Wind blowing near a cracked wall that has a secret room behind it, or a beeping computer for that extra health kit, whatever, stuff like that.
Dude, I love the way your game looks.
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
Was in this thread before but didn't have as much time as I have now. I need some help with the game I'd like to do. It's my first game ever, no programming experience at all.
I've already designed the game (in my head). It's a simple 2D game I want to put on phones and use their tilt controls.
A high score game with about two things to do. Pretty simple in my head, but I don't know where to start. What engine would be best for this kind of small, easy game?
I've already designed the game (in my head). It's a simple 2D game I want to put on phones and use their tilt controls.
A high score game with about two things to do. Pretty simple in my head, but I don't know where to start. What engine would be best for this kind of small, easy game?
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