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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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P

Paz

Member
CMZinac said:
I started playing around with this idea of shifting the perspective matrix to give my game's stages a more 2D feel. Here's a few test videos I put together. I'm sorry about the frame rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDpcvQvsIBI&list=UUi7k6HLO4JFYg6X_L6Uq3yw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIA6QD3ZRjo&list=UUi7k6HLO4JFYg6X_L6Uq3yw
Click to expand...

Interesting, what's the reasoning behind it? Is it just aesthetic or do you think the 3D feel was distracting/unnecessarily busy?

I'll have to go back and watch the old videos but it definitely feels focused on the foreground elements now, but will you run in to trouble if you decide to have moving background elements?
 
K

kingPenguin

Neo Member
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later

Edit: Added Ito, Lo_Fi, Pehesse, Show Me Your Skeleton
Edit: Added BlastProcessing, Burt, CMZinac, diddykong13, fin, F-Pina, JasoNsider, studioMDHR

Click to expand...

Great list!

mine's https://twitter.com/dickpoelen Woking on Rain Reverse and Wormhunter at the moment and I just released Zero G Golf om itch.io.

CMZinac said:
I started playing around with this idea of shifting the perspective matrix to give my game's stages a more 2D feel. Here's a few test videos I put together. I'm sorry about the frame rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDpcvQvsIBI&list=UUi7k6HLO4JFYg6X_L6Uq3yw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIA6QD3ZRjo&list=UUi7k6HLO4JFYg6X_L6Uq3yw
Click to expand...

I think I really like the 2D feel of that. Nice!
 
C

CMZinac

Neo Member
Paz said:
Interesting, what's the reasoning behind it? Is it just aesthetic or do you think the 3D feel was distracting/unnecessarily busy?

I'll have to go back and watch the old videos but it definitely feels focused on the foreground elements now, but will you run in to trouble if you decide to have moving background elements?
Click to expand...

It's mostly aesthetic. I have been experimenting with getting just the right amount of parallax by modifying the depth of stage mesh and wasn't getting quite the effect I wanted. It also gives me more fine tuned control over where the horizon line is. I don't foresee any problems with animated background elements, but if there are any I'll address those when they come up!
 
B

Burt

Member
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later

Edit: Added Ito, Lo_Fi, Pehesse, Show Me Your Skeleton
Edit: Added BlastProcessing, Burt, CMZinac, diddykong13, fin, F-Pina, JasoNsider, kingPenguin, studioMDHR

Click to expand...

Oh hey, thanks! Nice list. But I'm not working on HFA anymore, new project's called Days of Ruin at twitter.com/RuinousA
 
M

MauMau

Banned
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later

Edit: Added Ito, Lo_Fi, Pehesse, Show Me Your Skeleton
Edit: Added BlastProcessing, Burt, CMZinac, diddykong13, fin, F-Pina, JasoNsider, kingPenguin, studioMDHR

Click to expand...

Can you please add me to the list? https://twitter.com/RolansQuest
 
G

GulAtiCa

Member
Paz said:
I
Edit cos I'm at the top of a new page here's the banner artwork we made for our PAX Aus showcase booth (Yay for free booth :p I'll remove this if it's too advertising-y but I'm really proud of how it turned out, we've been trying for a while to find the right style for our promo art)
1519330_721820987884160_2820849207544311613_o.jpg
Click to expand...

That poster looks awesome.
 
C

CMZinac

Neo Member
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later

Edit: Added Ito, Lo_Fi, Pehesse, Show Me Your Skeleton
Edit: Added BlastProcessing, Burt, CMZinac, diddykong13, fin, F-Pina, JasoNsider, kingPenguin, studioMDHR

Click to expand...

Awesome I'm on a list! If you'd like to replace shobugames.com with my twitter account, @CMZinac, people are more likely to see updates related to the game.
 
A

AusRoachman

Member
Been taking a break from unity for a little while (damn you destiny) , but I've decided to try and get back into it. I enjoy building lots of little prototypes until I find something I like. This time it's an FPS using various art assets off the store.

Here's my latest vid showing off my new low poly weapons. No idea what will come of it, but I am a huge fps fan so I enjoy just shooting stuff :)

May just do a basic death match level and see how it goes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siTO6o45-CQ&list=UUrPrKy4VmbDR8PSR7H6W5Ow

Also would like to be added to that list www.twitter.com/ausroachman
 
K

kingPenguin

Neo Member
AusRoachman said:
Been taking a break from unity for a little while (damn you destiny) , but I've decided to try and get back into it. I enjoy building lots of little prototypes until I find something I like. This time it's an FPS using various art assets off the store.

Here's my latest vid showing off my new low poly weapons. No idea what will come of it, but I am a huge fps fan so I enjoy just shooting stuff :)

May just do a basic death match level and see how it goes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siTO6o45-CQ&list=UUrPrKy4VmbDR8PSR7H6W5Ow

Also would like to be added to that list www.twitter.com/ausroachman
Click to expand...


Looking good. Next up: low poly explosions and smoke :)

More_Badass said:
Oh, I didn't realize you were the same dev who was working on Wormhunter! Or Zero G Golf! Been seeing your Screenshot Saturday tweets for Zero G for a few weeks
Click to expand...

Yup, that's me :)
 
M

MauMau

Banned
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later

Edit: Added Ito, Lo_Fi, Pehesse, Show Me Your Skeleton
Edit: Added BlastProcessing, Burt, CMZinac, diddykong13, fin, F-Pina, JasoNsider, kingPenguin, studioMDHR
Edit: Added AusRoachman, Gameboy415, MauMau

Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks for adding me. Great list. Followed everybody :)
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
I put my FPS game up online if any of you are interested in running around in it. It would help me out to test the networking. It should handle up to 20 users concurrently.

Right now it's pretty rough function wise, but here's a quick rundown of what you can do.
  • Run around with WASD
  • Click to shoot, aim with mouse.
  • Boxes can be shot. (particle effects aren't coming through on build, so right now the boxes just disappear with booms)
  • Central green sphere is a powerup placeholder. Go grab it!
  • If you fall off you will die humilatingly. (No respawns yet. Reload the page to get back in)
Respawns, teleporters to upper levels, animations, and player hit detection still needs to be added. But I wanted to share this with you guys and also get some feedback on networking to see if it can handle itself.

http://alexpersian.github.io/slaughterfest99/slaughterfest99.html

Thanks, and have fun!
 
B

Burt

Member
Feep said:
Submitted to IGF...

*fingers crossed*
Click to expand...
Good luck!

Anyone else have problems with Construct 2 lagging hard after being open for a while? I'm talking 3-4 seconds before clicking on something and having it register. I think I read somewhere that it's a bug with the Steam version, but I'm not sure.
 
F

friken

Member
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later
Click to expand...

Thanks for putting this together.


I've been adding more ships and tweaking the engine system. Here is the Benev race ship w/ propulsion:

SatisfiedKindheartedIndianskimmer.gif


Next up, I've been working on weapon systems I can tweak heavily to use between multiple ship types while maintaining each ship feeling extremely different. The zapper weapon on the Benev ship (gif below) is an example. This one weapon script will be able to make lightning type weapons, lazer weapons, tractor beans, and more that look very different by tweaking setup and material used:

BlissfulGratefulFairyfly.gif
 
M

MauMau

Banned
friken said:
Thanks for putting this together.


I've been adding more ships and tweaking the engine system. Here is the Benev race ship w/ propulsion:

SatisfiedKindheartedIndianskimmer.gif


Next up, I've been working on weapon systems I can tweak heavily to use between multiple ship types while maintaining each ship feeling extremely different. The zapper weapon on the Benev ship (gif below) is an example. This one weapon script will be able to make lightning type weapons, lazer weapons, tractor beans, and more that look very different by tweaking setup and material used:

BlissfulGratefulFairyfly.gif
Click to expand...

That looks sweet. What's the objective?
 
T

TheChewyWaffles

Member
Vark said:
You probably need to update the rate at which you're polling the physics system. For simple 2d stuff I usually want the physics system running at twice the rate of the graphics update. You'll get finer motion on position updates.

Edit: this is also highly dependent on your engine btw. What're you using?
Click to expand...

Using Unity.

Abe Bly said:
Make sure it's running at a decent frame rate. 60 hertz or more is ideal. Add a curve to the motion so it doesn't simply slide down, but start slow and end faster. If it still looks choppy, which it shouldn't, you can add motion blur. The only time motion blur should be necessary is if something is moving ridiculously fast, like a powerful melee attack or the wings on that beetle Jobbs posted.
Click to expand...

Yep, my rate of descent is an acceleration curve that should mimic real gravity. Still looks choppy because the jump in distance between frames is too much.
 
F

friken

Member
MauMau said:
That looks sweet. What's the objective?
Click to expand...

making a game :) You know... space... ships.... lasers... aliens....explosions...planets... mining.... story....rpg...action... now if I could clone myself and work on all parts at the same time. Until then, I'll have to post one small coding victory at a time. In 10 years I swear it will be a really fun game ;)
 
F

Five

Banned
TheChewyWaffles said:
Yep, my rate of descent is an acceleration curve that should mimic real gravity. Still looks choppy because the jump in distance between frames is too much.
Click to expand...

Could you take a video to show us what you're working with? What frame rate are you running? How large are the game elements in relation to screen space? Is there a comparable example that you can look to that you think animates smoothly?

edit: to add, there are potentially a couple of external problems. Maybe the screen isn't being updated in your game as often as it's supposed to for some reason. Maybe the refresh monitor is bad or looks bad because it's not being illuminated well. I still want to see it, though.
 
T

TheChewyWaffles

Member
Abe Bly said:
Could you take a video to show us what you're working with? What frame rate are you running? How large are the game elements in relation to screen space? Is there a comparable example that you can look to that you think animates smoothly?

edit: to add, there are potentially a couple of external problems. Maybe the screen isn't being updated in your game as often as it's supposed to for some reason. Maybe the refresh monitor is bad or looks bad because it's not being illuminated well. I still want to see it, though.
Click to expand...

Currently targeting iPad. I'm not sure how to capture a native vid on that platform. Any suggestions on how I could go about doing that or best illustrate the problem?

Maybe it's one of those problems that I should work on later in the dev cycle and not up front? There's plenty more to do in my game, but the choppiness on a minimalist animation kind of took me by surprise.
 
F

Five

Banned
TheChewyWaffles said:
Currently targeting iPad. I'm not sure how to capture a native vid on that platform. Any suggestions on how I could go about doing that or best illustrate the problem?

Maybe it's one of those problems that I should work on later in the dev cycle and not up front? There's plenty more to do in my game, but the choppiness on a minimalist animation kind of took me by surprise.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it then. Have you tried looking at other Connect-4 style games? These won't work on your iPad, but you can check them out on a computer:

http://www.mathplayground.com/connect4.html
http://www.mathsisfun.com/games/connect4.html

Note that I don't think the animation is good in either of those cases, but I don't think it's choppy in either one. Neither have any acceleration simulation to speak of, although the second has a fake bounce effect. But neither are running at 60 fps nor employing motion blurring.

I often find it's helpful to have ample reference material, even if it's bad reference material. Knowing what you don't like is half of making what you do like. I'm sorry I can't help you more.
 
X

Xtra Mile

Neo Member
Paz said:
In my experience Unity handles most o the work building between PC platforms but you will want to ensure some stuff like inputs work correctly, along with in some cases the way you set resolutions/cursor locking and even some graphical effects will look a bit different.

I would not suggest ever officially supporting a platform you can't test yourself because there are too many "gotcha's", but if you know someone with a mac or linux you should be able to sort out a working version pretty quick. And yeah most modern linux builds will be fine with Unity, though if you rely on shadows there is a known bug where Intel HD GPU's have shadows forcibly disabled by Unity on Linux (It's a performance thing from a few generations back that's unnecessary now, so hopefully goes away soon).

Edit cos I'm at the top of a new page here's the banner artwork we made for our PAX Aus showcase booth (Yay for free booth :p I'll remove this if it's too advertising-y but I'm really proud of how it turned out, we've been trying for a while to find the right style for our promo art)
1519330_721820987884160_2820849207544311613_o.jpg


Double edit - Oh one additional thing with Linux is I don't think Unity sets up the executable's properly by default (because you're building to windows and it sort of can't), Tim handles this step so I'm not 100% sure what the exact scenario is but look in to making sure the executable is set up properly if you're having trouble running a build on Linux.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the info! Very helpful. Congrats on the booth. I'm in Aus as well, where are you based?
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Please let me know if this is off-topic, but I thought it would be a good place to ask pertaining to the business side of independent development.

1. My current assumption is that an LLC is the best way to inexpensively make a personal business for a single person, or maybe two people. Is this correct?

2. If I make an LLC, I am considering contract/consulting work occasionally in addition to the normal game development activities. Does anyone have suggestions about whether it is better to create two LLC's for this -- a game company and a consulting company (since consulting activities may or may not be game-related)?

3. Are there any good general guides to read about things to do / pitfalls to avoid in setting up your own company? I am currently still working on company name(s), and I know I will have research to do there to avoid hitting someone else's name.
 
F

friken

Member
ConvenientBox said:
We're submitting tomorrow, good luck man!

Friken, I'm so damn jealous of your propulsion look and feel :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words.... I'd love to submit, but just no where near ready :(

"You may also submit an early/demo version of the game, but please note that the rules stipulate that it must be "substantially feature-complete", and that your game will be in competition with games nearly- or already-available. If you're unsure whether your game is "substantially feature-complete enough" by the deadline, you may wish to wait until the following year's festival!"


So I finished up for the day -- pretty pleased with the Benev (race in the game) weapon script I made. I am trying to make all weapons in the game extremely customizable so I can get several in-game upgrades at a minimum, maybe even the same script customized to be weapons for several different ships without looking/feeling reused or general. I think I will be able to use this one for several types of laser weapons, lightning, tractor beam, scanning beams, etc just by using different materials and settings for it. I recorded a video showing me toy a little with it. Note the benev ship will use three of these or more but in the video I have only one enabled so you can easily see the customization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VpPn5e8k1o&feature=youtu.be

After toying w it a while, I thought one bolt coming off of each nose prong looked good -- a whiter/fatter bolt in the middle and two thinner ones on each side. I think this will be the config used for the Benev primary weapon but hopefully from the video you can see some settings that would look good for other ships without feeling generically reused.

Benev-lightning.png
 
F

Five

Banned
Friken, I'm glad to see everything continuing to look amazing for you. It doesn't look like sprites and it doesn't look like 3D models, it just looks good in every frame. Top quality stuff there!

Sadsic said:
I just got done with a soundtrack for Abe Bly a bit ago and would love to work on another one. anyone want cool guy music
Click to expand...

I can vouch for this. Really awesome guy and fantastic music to boot if anyone is looking for a musician.
 
P

pixelpai

Neo Member
More_Badass said:
This isn't a complete list, but the most I could find for now. I'll add more later

Edit: Added Ito, Lo_Fi, Pehesse, Show Me Your Skeleton
Edit: Added BlastProcessing, Burt, CMZinac, diddykong13, fin, F-Pina, JasoNsider, kingPenguin, studioMDHR
Edit: Added AusRoachman, Gameboy415, MauMau

Click to expand...

*thumbs up*

i'd like to be an that list too: pixelplant studios. It's still the name of the prototype, but for now my project is called "PixelAI"
 
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