Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Jobbs said:
I actually like how all the planes look together.

why not make this a game where you control not one but a bunch of planes on screen at once? like a big formation of planes.
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking that. A game mode where, instead of power ups, you die to to spawn another plane by your side, so you'd have double the damage but double the vulnerability. Seems interesting, I'd imagine it'll become extremely hard once your plane formation fills up the screen :D
 
Airan said:
I was actually thinking that. A game mode where, instead of power ups, you die to to spawn another plane by your side, so you'd have double the damage but double the vulnerability. Seems interesting, I'd imagine it'll become extremely hard once your plane formation fills up the screen :D
Click to expand...

nah, think of it more like wonderful 101, but a sidescrolling shmup instead. you have a bunch of planes, and that's your "character".

some of them can die, other times more are added, stuff like that. the fail state could be the last one dying.
 
Jobbs said:
how I tend to create a new environment is to draw an entire section all as one composition in photoshop, sort of like a mockup.

then I'll start using it to extract and touch up individual chunks or other elements to be used on its own as a "stamp" in the game. I can "test" it a bit in real time by placing the chunks together in photoshop to simulate what it would be like to do it in the editor.

I'll put the initial wave into the game and see how things look, and think about what else I need and then go create additional assets as needed. it's very iterative, but it tends to all begin with a mockup (if it's a brand new environment).
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's helpful.

I'm doing more or less the same. This is the stage I was talking about:

Stage1-1_zps8c9770e7.png


It's already simplyfied compared to the final version (il lacks several, secondary layers as in clouds, sky, buildings, foreground graphics...), but it gives an idea of the stage from start to finish. The light blue elements are interactive (breakable objects, stuff you can walk/jump over etc).

I asked my question because I now need to clean the whole thing up and chop it to pieces, in order to rebuild it and make it scrolling on Stencyl.
 
tumm said:
That's almost the exact code I have for changing the sprite while moving, and I thought to myself "if I just replace a couple of things for the sprint and copy/paste then surely it'll work?" and no amount of tweaking managed to work v_v Probably a really stupid question, but is there a way to tell it something similar but with 2 or more 'else' statements? like "if key_shift then sprite_run, else if key a or d then sprite_walk, else if hsp=0 then sprite_stand" and so forth with various states/keys being pressed? and if there are two states that are needed for an animation to play "if shift and a or d are press then ____" how would I word that? or is there a specific order to the if & else statements I have to place?
Click to expand...

I'm not super familiar with GML and I don't really have any background or experience with developing platform games, but if you're just trying to understand the basics of game logic, your examples could be writtenlike this (using pseudocode due to my unfamiliarity with GML)

Code: 
if (key_shift) { sprite_run } 
else if (key a || key d)  { sprite_walk } 
else if (hsp=0)  { sprite_stand }

where the double pipes is an OR statement, but in this case I guess you would play the run animation as soon as you press shift even though you're not moving? Or are you replacing the entire animset with a new animset that has runing instead of walking animations and a duplicate idle?

Logic always flows from top to bottom, and stops as soon as the first true statement is reached. If you're still learning the basics of logic, you can use nested IFs to create equivalent AND statements - the code will look messy, and actual programmers will have a stroke if they see it, but it is very easy to see what is happening while you learn;

Code: 
if (key d)
{
     if (key shift)
     {
          movementspeed = 2;
          anim=run;
     }
     else
     {
          movementspeed=1;
          anim=walk;
     }
}
 
I'm toying around with Stencyl currently. I'm liking the "visualness" of it, if you will. However, I must ask, will using the default systems (behavior, collision det., animation, etc) be a problem with developing a real game? Should one just make custom systems for it?
 
ZServ said:
I'm toying around with Stencyl currently. I'm liking the "visualness" of it, if you will. However, I must ask, will using the default systems (behavior, collision det., animation, etc) be a problem with developing a real game? Should one just make custom systems for it?
Click to expand...

You won't want to use premade behaviors, those are primarily for amusement/demo purposes for new or extremely casual users. you need to learn to make your own behaviors, which is basically a visualized version of programming.

I do use the animation manager for most things, since if you just want to set and play animations and set delays for frames, it works, but if I need more granular control I do sometimes use my own animation control behavior. for example, the player's run animations aren't managed by the default animation manager because I wanted to vary their delay in real time so the player's run animation would speed up with acceleration.

animationspeedbyvariable.png


this was my very first working version of it from many months ago, I have since made it a bit more refined but that's basically the jist of how it works. It advances the current frame with a variable delay (rundelay). I can therefore set the rundelay to anything I want at any time I want to achieve the stated purpose of real time adjustment of the animation speed.
 
Jobbs said:
You won't want to use premade behaviors, those are primarily for amusement/demo purposes for new or extremely casual users. you need to learn to make your own behaviors, which is basically a visualized version of programming.

I do use the animation manager for most things, since if you just want to set and play animations and set delays for frames, it works, but if I need more granular control I do sometimes use my own animation control behavior. for example, the player's run animations aren't managed by the default animation manager because I wanted to vary their delay in real time so the player's run animation would speed up with acceleration.

this was my very first working version of it from many months ago, I have since made it a bit more refined but that's basically the jist of how it works.
Click to expand...

BAH HUMBUG. This is why I have trouble transitioning lol. Oh well. I'll deal with the premades until I have a better understanding of what I'm doing. I understand the core concept of coding and how to translate from thoughts to code, but struggle with knowing the best way or sometimes the "calls" needed (which was why I dropped C++ and C#), so this should work out for me if I put in the time.
 
It took me a good ten minutes to realize that was a deal with it gif.

I need to go outside. Or to bed. Jeez. Is it possible to replace the default behaviors with custom ones or should it be on a "case by case" basis?
 
tumm said:
I managed to get as far as I did thanks to a couple of his videos, and he tends to be really good at explaining certain concepts in the coding. I will definitely check out the rest of his videos.

That's almost the exact code I have for changing the sprite while moving, and I thought to myself "if I just replace a couple of things for the sprint and copy/paste then surely it'll work?" and no amount of tweaking managed to work v_v Probably a really stupid question, but is there a way to tell it something similar but with 2 or more 'else' statements? like "if key_shift then sprite_run, else if key a or d then sprite_walk, else if hsp=0 then sprite_stand" and so forth with various states/keys being pressed? and if there are two states that are needed for an animation to play "if shift and a or d are press then ____" how would I word that? or is there a specific order to the if & else statements I have to place?
Click to expand...
You can use as many "else" statements as you like as long as the logic works out. Since you're already using the horizontal speed in your statement, an easy way to do it would be like this:
Code: 
if (hsp == 0)
{
[INDENT]sprite_index = sprite_player;
[/INDENT]}
else //if the horizontal speed is not 0 
{
[INDENT]if (Key_Shift)
{
[INDENT]sprite_index = sprite_run;
[/INDENT]}
else //if the Shift key is not pressed
{
[INDENT]sprite_index = sprite_walk;
[/INDENT]}
[/INDENT]
}
This is important to keep in mind:
MrNyarlathotep said:
Logic always flows from top to bottom, and stops as soon as the first true statement is reached. If you're still learning the basics of logic, you can use nested IFs to create equivalent AND statements - the code will look messy, and actual programmers will have a stroke if they see it, but it is very easy to see what is happening while you learn;
Click to expand...
 
ZServ said:
It took me a good ten minutes to realize that was a deal with it gif.

I need to go outside. Or to bed. Jeez. Is it possible to replace the default behaviors with custom ones or should it be on a "case by case" basis?
Click to expand...

not sure what you're asking. there are premade behaviors made by others, and you can apply them to things or not apply them to things. I'd generally recommend making your own behaviors, that said, I will admit certain premade behaviors have their uses -- for example, the "face direction of motion" behavior is a great one.
 
(edit: sorry for back to back replies, I know that's poor form, just wasn't thinking)

okay, I think I've figured out the best compromise for this... (so far)

http://www.gfycat.com/YearlyKlutzyGuineapig

I like that I'm spending all morning messing with an old FX that no one complained about instead of effecting forward motion. oh well. this is me.
 
Jobbs said:
(edit: sorry for back to back replies, I know that's poor form, just wasn't thinking)

okay, I think I've figured out the best compromise for this... (so far)

http://www.gfycat.com/YearlyKlutzyGuineapig

I like that I'm spending all morning messing with an old FX that no one complained about instead of effecting forward motion. oh well. this is me.
Click to expand...

Awesome!

Are you using the visual programming soley for the entire game logic? I have never used visual programming (although as part of my studies, i have drafted and implemented such a language PocketCoder almost nine years ago). If so, it either stands for Stencyl or yor skills. Either way: Astounding!
 
pixelpai said:
Awesome!

Are you using the visual programming soley for the entire game logic? I have never used visual programming (although as part of my studies, i have drafted and implemented such a language PocketCoder almost nine years ago). If so, it either stands for Stencyl or yor skills. Either way: Astounding!
Click to expand...

thank you. :) I use visual programming for almost everything. in a few specific cases codeblocks (basically a block on the visual palette where you can put in actual code) were required to achieve something. these are typically when you need to do something that's outside the basic toolset but still possible with the engine.

as far as the FX in the example above, that's just telling those orb graphics where to go and when, as well as some timed resizing and stuff -- pretty straightforward actually in terms of the concept, and tkaes some trial and error to make look cool.
 
MrNyarlathotep said:
where the double pipes is an OR statement, but in this case I guess you would play the run animation as soon as you press shift even though you're not moving? Or are you replacing the entire animset with a new animset that has runing instead of walking animations and a duplicate idle?

Logic always flows from top to bottom, and stops as soon as the first true statement is reached. If you're still learning the basics of logic, you can use nested IFs to create equivalent AND statements - the code will look messy, and actual programmers will have a stroke if they see it, but it is very easy to see what is happening while you learn;
Click to expand...
so1337 said:
You can use as many "else" statements as you like as long as the logic works out. Since you're already using the horizontal speed in your statement, an easy way to do it would be like this:
Click to expand...

Thank you guys so much, after a few hours I managed to finally understand and get the shift key animation to work as I wanted it to, as well as add another animation for when jumping and another for falling based on the principals of the other animation changes.
The code is probably overly convoluted but I'm happy with the result for now! It's similar to your example, so1337, but a lot more nested in if and else statements due to the other states (sorry if this breaks any programmers brains with stupidness)
Code: 
if (place_meeting(x,y+1,objWall))
{
[INDENT]if (hsp == 0) { sprite_index = sprMain; }
else
{
[INDENT]if (hsp == move * movespeed_sprint) { sprite_index = sprMainRun; }
else { sprite_index = sprMainWalk }[/INDENT]
}[/INDENT]
}
else
{
[INDENT]if (vsp < 0) { sprite_index = sprMainJump }
else { sprite_index = sprMainFall }[/INDENT]
}
but with many more line breaks and //notes for easier understanding and learning.

Thanks again guys!
 
Jobbs said:
how I tend to create a new environment is to draw an entire section all as one composition in photoshop, sort of like a mockup.

then I'll start using it to extract and touch up individual chunks or other elements to be used on its own as a "stamp" in the game. I can "test" it a bit in real time by placing the chunks together in photoshop to simulate what it would be like to do it in the editor.

I'll put the initial wave into the game and see how things look, and think about what else I need and then go create additional assets as needed. it's very iterative, but it tends to all begin with a mockup (if it's a brand new environment).
Click to expand...

I do exactly this. I make a screen sized(1920X1080 usually) photoshop file and paint it with several layers then make the layers as parallax layers in the game. The stamp tool is your friend ;) The photoshop offset tool makes seamless textures a cinch! Scaling assets in-game is also what I do like him.

My main inspiration was the last 2 Rayman games. It looks organic but if you try spotting out graphic patterns they are ALL OVER THE PLACE in the main layers that the characters climb on. They just scale them really well :)




Speaking of, got another level that I polished a little more last ngiht
desertfin.gif
 
Seems like there was another update to the Visual Studio Tools for Unity addon yesterday. Here's the changelog for 1.9.2.0:

New features:

  • Improve detection of Unity players.
  • When using our file opener, make Unity pass the line number as well as the file name.
  • Default to the online Unity documentation if there's no local documentation.
Bugs fixes:

  • Fix potential Unity crash when hitting a breakpoint after a domain reload.
  • Fix exceptions shown in the Unity console when closing our Configuration or About windows, after a domain reload.
  • Fix detection of 64bits Unity running locally.
  • Fix filtering of MonoBehaviours per Unity version in wizards.
  • Fix bug where all assets were included in the project files if the extension filter was empty.
Click to expand...

Fix detection of 64bits Unity running locally is kind of interesting. To my knowledge, only Unity 5 is going to support a 64bit editor, so perhaps Unity 5 is closer than one might think if they're supporting it already (as I don't believe there are enough closed beta users for them to worry about).
 
For those familiar with Unity and targeting consoles, should I be building my game with Unity 4.3 if I want to get it on a console in the near future? Only 4.3 is supported right now, and the next supported version is going to jump to 5.0 right?

Here I was happily (as happily as a grumpy programmer can be), learning 4.6 and the new GUI stuff when it hit me that I might not want to use this if I want to publish to consoles. 4.6 doesn't seem ready for prime time just yet, so I don't foresee 5.0 being out soon, and definitely not console ready. (Though I suppose they both could be released out of the blue tomorrow)

Now I'm lost when it comes to a GUI solution...

Edit: Apologies in advance if this is NDA territory stuff.
 
Popstar said:
I'll look into what I have to do get an extension into the Chrome web store once it's stable.
Click to expand...
NeoGFY 1.0.0 is now available on the chrome web store!

NeoGFY is a Chrome extension for GIF images hosted on gfycat.com inspired by their popularity in the Indie Game Development thread.

It detects when someone has embedded a large ( >3MB ) GIF hosted on on gfycat as an image within a post. It prevents Chrome from requesting the image from the server, and replaces it with the smaller video (mp4) version of the GIF that gfycat auto generates from uploads.

It correctly supports the image rescaling that GAF applies to oversized or quoted images including click to enlarge. It also detects when an image has been scrolled offscreen and pauses playback to preserve CPU.

Give it a try! Source code is also available on GitHub for the curious.
 
Popstar said:
NeoGFY 1.0.0 is now available on the chrome web store!

NeoGFY is a Chrome extension for GIF images hosted on gfycat.com inspired by their popularity in the Indie Game Development thread.

It detects when someone has embedded a large ( >3MB ) GIF hosted on on gfycat as an image within a post. It prevents Chrome from requesting the image from the server, and replaces it with the smaller video (mp4) version of the GIF that gfycat auto generates from uploads.

It correctly supports the image rescaling that GAF applies to oversized or quoted images including click to enlarge. It also detects when an image has been scrolled offscreen and pauses playback to preserve CPU.

Give it a try! Source code is also available on GitHub for the curious.
Click to expand...
need it for Opera now too lol
 
Jobbs said:
I was playing with this just now and tried making it more of a neon color and attempted to make it "blob" together more.

http://www.gfycat.com/RegularMeekAfricanpiedkingfisher

I sorta like how it blobs and lags behind player movement at the end. interesting..

thoughts?

edit: made a bigger/thicker version: http://www.gfycat.com/HardGlassAmazonparrot
Click to expand...

I like really like that effect. I think I like the first one better than the bigger/thicker version. The gaps show off more of the "flow".
 
bkw said:
For those familiar with Unity and targeting consoles, should I be building my game with Unity 4.3 if I want to get it on a console in the near future? Only 4.3 is supported right now, and the next supported version is going to jump to 5.0 right?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's teetering on the edge of NDA, but I can recommend you not to upgrade to 4.6.
 
Soooooooo I stayed up way too late last night writing a huge entry for today's devblog. It's all about our Landmark System in Beacon and all the wacky roguelike hi-jinks that we can control and fine-tune to get a desired but random/procedural-feeling outcome. 'Curated Chaos' if you will.

I'm making it sound far goofier than it actually is :P It's a pretty technical look at what we've built into the game and allows for pretty crazy flexibility down the line for NG+ scenarios.

It should be up sometime later today :)
 
TheHollowNight said:
Soooooooo I stayed up way too late last night writing a huge entry for today's devblog. It's all about our Landmark System in Beacon and all the wacky roguelike hi-jinks that we can control and fine-tune to get a desired but random/procedural-feeling outcome. 'Curated Chaos' if you will.

I'm making it sound far goofier than it actually is :P It's a pretty technical look at what we've built into the game and allows for pretty crazy flexibility down the line for NG+ scenarios.

It should be up sometime later today :)
Click to expand...

Just saw a screenshot floating by on twitter from Beacon and got to say it really stands out with the visuals. With how many are you working on it?
 
Lautaro said:
I was working in the tutorial of my game but (IMO) making a tutorial is even more boring than playing at one... so I took a break and made some bombers:

http://gfycat.com/FlakyPhysicalCopperbutterfly

I also made some fixes to the pooling (but that's not something that I can show in a gif).
Click to expand...

Looks great! Loving that camera angle. Does it stay at that angle the whole game?

Some new screenshots of Shutter: don't think I'm going to be ready for IGF edition.

Shutter%20-%20Oct10_small.png

Shutter%20-%20Oct10.2_small.png


Hoping to find some playtesters, not sure if the puzzles are too hard, and would love to know if any new bugs pop up. PM me if interested, would really appreciate it!
 
Aww crumbs! Totally forgot about IGF. Guess I'll just submit whatever I have the day before the deadline. That should be something close to a vertical slice.

Also, whoever was talking about Unity for consoles, I've heard the plan is to merge each of the separate console branches at Unity 5.0, but would also echo what was said about holding out on upgrading. I'm sticking with 4.2, then when it gets close to submission time, I'll look at what the latest version is for the specific console, try an upgrade, and if it works and I can add a few new shiny effects, then great. If not, then can just revert back to the old version and know it's good.
 
Well more ups and downs with the whole Trailer-editing process and even had to come to the Uni to do some work on the weekend, but it's hopefully coming together. I'd appreciate if someone could take a look at it though, just pm me and I'll share our really roughcut without audio.
 
Once again crossposting from the screenshot saturday thread:

BriskReliableAvians.gif


It's still early and wonky stuff since there aren't that many animations done yet. She can only react to your hits, and do some of her own. There are also some other additions not showcased here, such as a redone special attack cut-in.

It's going to take quite a while to get her up and running completely, but it should be a lot faster that the first character since I can reuse plenty of script, and I'm more familiar with the situations that arise and need checking during the fights :-D Next week is probably going to be focused on her jumping/air hit animations, and afterwards will be the special motions like the match intro, outro, etc... and then the grapple animations when I've gathered the courage for that :-D
 
Ashodin said:
I admit seeing the enemy hop out of screen might be a good clue-in in what's down there.
Click to expand...

okay, this is what ended up happening. I was too lazy to design an enemy from scratch, so I made a variant based on an existing enemy.

http://www.gfycat.com/WhiteGiganticAlaskajingle

jump, shoot, jump, shoot, forever...

this is a bit counter to my usual enemy design philosophy, but I'm trying to be open to things that make the game more engaging to play.

I might make his delays and shoots variable, so he might wait and shoot a few times before jumping again, but for now I left it in this predictable way.

kingPenguin said:
That looks great as well (as usual with your stuff).
Click to expand...

thank you! :)
 
Zotty said:
Just saw a screenshot floating by on twitter from Beacon and got to say it really stands out with the visuals. With how many are you working on it?
Click to expand...

Thanks :) I think I saw your profile and the game, Horizon Danger I think? I recognize the art in your avatar! The aesthetics reminded me of Capybara style visuals.

We have 6 people working on the game as the core team right now. The only person we're likely going to bring on board is a dedicated animator!

Anyhoo, here's the my blog entry for today as promised!

http://devblog.monothetic.com/post/99715599690/curated-chaos
 
TheHollowNight said:
Anyhoo, here's the my blog entry for today as promised!

http://devblog.monothetic.com/post/99715599690/curated-chaos
Click to expand...
Thank you, I really liked the inside insight into the development and it felt much more in-depth than most of the development blogs that I read.

Is there a list of NeoGaf developer twitter handles somewhere?

I've been trying to follow majority of you, but going through the thread again is bit bothersome and some I couldn't find even though I remember someone mentioning their own handle. You can find me through @AncestoryGame even though I do have my own personal one, but I just rarely use it because of all my stuff is pretty much related to our game.
 
it was a long week, but lot of small things changed in my game.

So far until now all screenshots have shown crew members in space suit only, but that just changed and now your crew will be visible in their own clothes inside ships, only space suits will be needed when being in space or while going to places without life support.

CrewClothes.png


Still need to implement lots of features but at least I can see now different colors for each crew member, skin, hair, clothes, etc, spent many days working with shaders to get a good color swap technique working and was able to get easily more than 300 crew members on screen without slowdown, but having those many will be too tedious to handle for just one player :)
 
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