I love this thread! I have been researching and designing a multiplayer game that I would like to see done in reality. I have all the details of the game in an extensive design document but there is one problem: I have no idea of how to make a game. I have little to no experience at all. I dont know what to do. Maybe I should learn at the same time that I make the game. Graphically is not an intense game, but has a lot of details. I think I will use Unity. Need to learn it!
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
- Start date
- Status
rohlfinator
Member
I'll probably do the same. I may wait it out a bit to see if Steam has it as a daily/flash deal (since it seems they are including software now).
Well I actually took away the blur again because I figure just the "perceived distance" of the objects will make it stand out more than actual depth of field blurring.
And what you're saying is that the closer tree should be drawn differently. Gotcha.
That's a lofty genre/goal to set on first game...
Unity?
Well I think I cant make it alone. First I need to learn. For do this I will break my game in different mechanics. I mean take my idea of a complete game and do only each part of it separate to learn.
Take a Mario game. a complete one. I will break its gameplay and learn first how to make a character jump, then how to make a character react with an enemy, after that how to make the character throw a fireball... you know, making small tutorials of a big idea.
At the end, I should have learn something... Maybe not to make my game, but to begin with it, at least.
But isn't Unity mostly used for 3d games ?
Teknopathetic
Member
"But isn't Unity mostly used for 3d games ?"
So is UDK. Still capable of being used for 2D.
So is UDK. Still capable of being used for 2D.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I always suggest Game Maker for a complete beginner.
E: Elaboration!
GM gets a lot of criticism for being "too simple" or "not powerful". Truthfully, it's a very versatile development option, particularly for 2D games. Studio is a great starting point given that it's the newest and most in-development piece of software they offer. GM8.1 is a very strong engine, but I suggest Studio over 8.1 simply because of the price point and potential future export options (iOS, Android, HTML5).
For starters, I ALWAYS suggest these tutorials. They create a basic Gradius game in a few short hours. If you want to start SUPER newb, the Game Maker's Apprentice book covers drag and drop game creation very well.
Game Maker offers two outlets for creation - drag and drop, as well as game maker language (GML). GML is said to be structurally similar to C, but people who code more than I do can give you their opinions on which language it more resembles. Read a little more about it and see some samples here.
Drag and drop game creation is sort of what it sounds like - you drag and drop various "events" and "outcomes". So you can drag the "collision" event and set it to object A collides with object B, and then drag the outcome of "bounce". It's very simple. It's definitely a limited environment, but you CAN create fully playable (and fun!) games with drag and drop. There's a book out there (The Game Maker's Companion) that fully recreates the engine for the old game Zool in drag and drop. The idea is to show that it is very possible to create something via drag and drop, but you'll soon discover that it's not the best way. It's still a fantastic learning tool.
GML, on the other hand, gives you SIGNIFICANTLY more freedom in design. Most people never get into GML when they try Game Maker, so most people forget that it's there or brush it off as being a lesser language. It's very capable and holds its own VERY well. Watch this video. The power of GM is there.
I know this sounds like a sales pitch for Game Maker, but I don't mean it to be. I simply want to make sure you realize it's a very viable alternative to the other coding environments people commonly suggest.
Especially if you want to learn through making 2D games / prototypes, I strongly suggest Game Maker.
It's easy and you should start by going with GML right away, ignore the drag and drop icons. GML is a very nice and forgiving scripting language and GameMaker is having all sorts of nice functions premade that will help you create whatever you want. I also endorse what previous posters said, like the different exports you can benefit with the Studio version.
It's easy and you should start by going with GML right away, ignore the drag and drop icons. GML is a very nice and forgiving scripting language and GameMaker is having all sorts of nice functions premade that will help you create whatever you want. I also endorse what previous posters said, like the different exports you can benefit with the Studio version.
Dreamwriter
Member
NGUI is my #1 suggestion for anything in the Unity store. Such a great, easy to use GUI system for creating menus, HUD elements and stuff. It's so great, that Unity Technologies hired the guy who made it to make the official replacement Unity GUI system, which'll probably be coming in Unity 4.1 or 4.2.
COCOS 2D is a really good one. It's a true programming SDK, not a drag/drop designer or anything, but as such it's easy to use and there's lots of support from other people using it.
Hi folks,
we wrote a postmortem about our first release: Kids vs Goblins. Go check it out at Gamesauce.org
Enjoy the read and please laugh hard at our stupid mistakes
we wrote a postmortem about our first release: Kids vs Goblins. Go check it out at Gamesauce.org
Stolen Couch Games is a young Dutch game studio formed by six alumni from the Utrecht School of Arts who decided to continue working together after their college projects. A part of the team came together to make a multiplayer prototype for XBLA and PSN title Chime made by developer Zoe Mode in collaboration with the One Big Game initiative. Stolen Couch Games then reformed and expanded the core team with an extra programmer and artist. Their first big title fresh out of the Utrecht School of Arts was Kids vs Goblins.
Building Kids vs Goblins
The Kids vs Goblins team from left to right: Bart Delissen, Casper van Beuzekom, Arthur Koopmans, Daan Boon, Eric Diepeveen, Selma Oors and Bjorn Spies. Not featured in this image, but equally important, is sound designer Rutger Muller.
When we initially started out Stolen Couch Games, we wanted to make something that would appeal to a large audience and show our potential as a start-up game studio. It was important for us to use our first product as a kick start into full time game development. After a prototype and concept phase, we formed the core idea for Kids vs Goblins. We decided to go all in on it, and for eleven months we poured our time, energy, and above all love, into this project. We strive for high quality in all our projects, but this one was particularly important for the team. Unfortunately, attaining perfection is impossible. Sometimes things went right and sometimes things went wrong, and then sometimes things just went completely awful. We would gladly like to share some of these moments with you.
Most of this experience took place in a learning environment where many mistakes and blunders were accepted as a normal part of an educational project.
Our team has had plenty of experience with designing and developing videogames, from concept to completion. Most of this experience took place in a learning environment where many mistakes and blunders were accepted as a normal part of an educational project. Transitioning to the real world was hard, as commercial game development can be very harsh and unforgiving. Our team had experience with Unity 3D before starting the Kids vs Goblins project and the Unity engine was a logical first choice that fit our requirements neatly. We also worked with software such as Photoshop, 3DS Max, and SVN along with a free A* pathfinding plugin as well as a series of commercial plugins by Prime 31, such as the StoreKit, iCloud and Etcetera plugins. We worked on Kids vs Goblins for slightly more than eleven months in total. Pre-production, or the design period, lasted about one month.
A Light and Casual RPG is born
Kids vs Goblins is a bite-sized lite RPG action adventure game for iOS devices, but optimized for the iPad2. The story of the game revolves around a trio of young heroes that are in search of their kidnapped little brother. During a storm at sea they get stranded on a magical island. During the night their little brother is kidnapped by two goblins that take him to the evil goblin king. While the children are planning their attack they find a magical stone that transforms them into three powerful heroes. With magical spells and different tactics the player takes on the battle against all kinds of enemies in various surroundings.
The player controls the three characters with simple finger movements while attacking the enemies. Dragging spells on the enemies will give the player total tactical control over the combat situation. The goal of the game is to defeat the waves of enemies and surviving the different level conditions. For example the Roulette mode is a variant in which you get random spells which you need to use to win the game. But do not use too many because for each spell you use you pay a couple of stones (the in-game currency). You can use the stones you gather during the game to buy spells and thus customize your characters and define the strategy for the next battle. The RPG elements in Kids vs Goblins are very light and casual. With over 60 spells and 6 different levels and 30 missions, Kids vs Goblins gives the player at least 3 hours of gameplay.
Read the rest at Gamesauce.org
Enjoy the read and please laugh hard at our stupid mistakes
lordfroakie
Member
Heads up: unity is having a sell on assets. Get them while they're cheap
Hey folks
Somebody at Apple must have liked my game: Ultra Super Firework Planets: In Space, as it has just gone live on he AppStore! Hurrah!
All the details and link to appstore download on my supporting website here: http://handheldpixels.co.uk
If anyone fancies giving it a go, that would be great. I have put a massive amount of effort in over the last 3 months (entirely a 1 man operation) to get it from nothing to released on AppStore, hopefully somebody will like it :0)
Basically now I need to blitz the advertising and promotional side of things to generate some interest I guess, Facebook, Twitter, review sites etc.
Some quick links for those too impatient to scan my site:
AppStore link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ultra-super-firework-planets/id577111315?ls=1&mt=8
Facebook page: http://facebook.com/handheldpixels
Twitter page: http://twitter.com/handheldpixels
I could reeeeeeaaaallly do with all the help I can get to spread word of mouth etc. Thanks in advance to anyone that helps out in anyway.
Also... Merry Christmas all!
Cheers,
Tank
Somebody at Apple must have liked my game: Ultra Super Firework Planets: In Space, as it has just gone live on he AppStore! Hurrah!
All the details and link to appstore download on my supporting website here: http://handheldpixels.co.uk
If anyone fancies giving it a go, that would be great. I have put a massive amount of effort in over the last 3 months (entirely a 1 man operation) to get it from nothing to released on AppStore, hopefully somebody will like it :0)
Basically now I need to blitz the advertising and promotional side of things to generate some interest I guess, Facebook, Twitter, review sites etc.
Some quick links for those too impatient to scan my site:
AppStore link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ultra-super-firework-planets/id577111315?ls=1&mt=8
Facebook page: http://facebook.com/handheldpixels
Twitter page: http://twitter.com/handheldpixels
I could reeeeeeaaaallly do with all the help I can get to spread word of mouth etc. Thanks in advance to anyone that helps out in anyway.
Also... Merry Christmas all!
Cheers,
Tank
I always suggest Game Maker for a complete beginner.
E: Elaboration!
GM gets a lot of criticism for being "too simple" or "not powerful". Truthfully, it's a very versatile development option, particularly for 2D games. Studio is a great starting point given that it's the newest and most in-development piece of software they offer. GM8.1 is a very strong engine, but I suggest Studio over 8.1 simply because of the price point and potential future export options (iOS, Android, HTML5).
For starters, I ALWAYS suggest these tutorials. They create a basic Gradius game in a few short hours. If you want to start SUPER newb, the Game Maker's Apprentice book covers drag and drop game creation very well.
Game Maker offers two outlets for creation - drag and drop, as well as game maker language (GML). GML is said to be structurally similar to C, but people who code more than I do can give you their opinions on which language it more resembles. Read a little more about it and see some samples here.
Drag and drop game creation is sort of what it sounds like - you drag and drop various "events" and "outcomes". So you can drag the "collision" event and set it to object A collides with object B, and then drag the outcome of "bounce". It's very simple. It's definitely a limited environment, but you CAN create fully playable (and fun!) games with drag and drop. There's a book out there (The Game Maker's Companion) that fully recreates the engine for the old game Zool in drag and drop. The idea is to show that it is very possible to create something via drag and drop, but you'll soon discover that it's not the best way. It's still a fantastic learning tool.
GML, on the other hand, gives you SIGNIFICANTLY more freedom in design. Most people never get into GML when they try Game Maker, so most people forget that it's there or brush it off as being a lesser language. It's very capable and holds its own VERY well. Watch this video. The power of GM is there.
I know this sounds like a sales pitch for Game Maker, but I don't mean it to be. I simply want to make sure you realize it's a very viable alternative to the other coding environments people commonly suggest.
I will try GM. It seems a good way to begin...
I made a new tree. I don't know if it looks good though (leaning not). This one took me about four hours to work on.
hmmm, style generally better. Not sure about the bottom of the leaves.
Forgot to come back in. Cheers!
I would choose foreground tree but thats because I think the background one looks a little too busy? I do like the detail it has but I think its too much
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVlOgQn13ME
I figured I'd post some stuff about this game so people know it's not dead.
Mainly just a really cool ninja trick. For the record, I implemented this idea WAY WAY before the cicada surge showed up in Ninja Gaiden 3. I was very shocked when I saw it in NG3 and I was like "Oh shit I did that first!"
I figured I'd post some stuff about this game so people know it's not dead.
Mainly just a really cool ninja trick. For the record, I implemented this idea WAY WAY before the cicada surge showed up in Ninja Gaiden 3. I was very shocked when I saw it in NG3 and I was like "Oh shit I did that first!"
AusRoachman
Member
Some more race mockups
Humans
Goblins
Spirits
Now onto animating them.
Humans
Goblins
Spirits
Now onto animating them.
Wow this is visually stunning! Great job!
Foreground tree, got it. Thanks for the feedback!
I'm pushing to get my game done as well. The artist has run off to the bahamas for the week so we may be done sometime in January instead.
eot
Banned
I really like Cocos2D but I think you need at least a little iOS programming experience first.
I made a new tree. I don't know if it looks good though (leaning not). This one took me about four hours to work on.
Tell you what, I think this is really cool because it's unique and if you see a screenshot you immediately would recognize the game from the trees alone.
We did a lot of 2D stuff as well, such as this:
Unity is great for both 2D and 3D and most indies are mostly doing 2D.
Grats!!
Remember to add a press kit to your page. It's really important. For next time, it's a good idea to have all the pages up before you release and build up some hype and attention month before your game is available.
Make sure to send promo-codes to sites. It's also a good idea to contact big sites earlier and offer them exclusive early preview codes.
eot
Banned
I was having a little bit of delay getting my PSP-VIta PSM developers account setup (live in japan with a canadian account, had to get a family back in canada to enter gift card numbers so I could pay)
Anyways during that time I made this game in Flixel. It's kind of a love letter to older shooting platformers like nam1975
here's a pic
and you can play it here:
http://levelism.com/lil-commando-episode-1/
Anyways during that time I made this game in Flixel. It's kind of a love letter to older shooting platformers like nam1975
here's a pic
and you can play it here:
http://levelism.com/lil-commando-episode-1/
I was having a little bit of delay getting my PSP-VIta PSM developers account setup (live in japan with a canadian account, had to get a family back in canada to enter gift card numbers so I could pay)
Anyways during that time I made this game in Flixel. It's kind of a love letter to older shooting platformers like nam1975
here's a pic
and you can play it here:
http://levelism.com/lil-commando-episode-1/
How are you liking the PSM dev kit? I'm thinking of starting something up for it as well.
Multimedia Fusion 2 is coming to Steam and apparently they revealed that three of the upcoming Runtimes are HTML5, Mac AND Playstation Vita. Holy shit :O
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=111278363
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=111278363
Overall it's great. There's been a few hiccups during the beta but that's to be expected.
I didn't like their 2D game engine though and am writing my own. I do plan to open source it for anyone to use (zlib license or something at least as open as that). The plan is for it to be simple like Flixel but much more robust and without any of the extra game stuff like a health property for sprites.
Should have the first version up in a month.
The only thing I'm worried about is I think I have to buy a sony tablet or phone to fully test my code. I'll have to confirm on their forums but I need to test on some actual touch hardware anyways so maybe this is a good kick in the butt to finally get a tablet.
Also if anyone is interested I'm writing a PSM/OpenGL tutorials series for beginners. After that's done I'll move on to the more advanced stuff.
You can see the first two here:
http://levelism.com/tutorials/
Oh man Vita? That's awesome
OccamsBlender
Member
Whoa, PS Vita? I hope people make cool stuff for that Playstation Mobile or whatever it is.
I got your PM, been meaning to reply but my day job seems to want me to die of overwork. Will post something constructive over winter break.
The hair looks really off... I think something is off about the shading. Parts of it look too flat (top of the hair especially). Keep going at it, I'm sure it'll turn out great!
Same character, different style.
I really want a Vita now for that, I just hope it'll turn out great. I would not mind porting my game to the Vita. I always wanted my game to be on a handheld system.
Ah, I see. It's okay.
VariantX04
Loser slave of the system :(
Hey guys. Whiskers here from Saudi-based indie dev Derelikt Games. I'd really appreciate any input you guys might have on our new arcade survival game titled 'Simudroids'. I put up the official thread today so please swing by and share your high scores and thoughts with me. Thanks!
Simudroids OT
Simudroids OT
More Polling!
Background tree, or foreground tree?
I figured I'd go for something clean and symmetrical, all my assets have that symmetricality about them.
A bit late to this one but I would go with what I think is the foreground tree (the one on the right) but I would also like to add that to me it kind of looks like a big tree on the right and a small bush on the left, both in more or less the same plane. You may want to work on a way to make it more obvious that the one on the left is further off in the distance. I'm thinking the problem is that they're both just behind that one grass graphic; if you put the "background" tree behind the other line of grass it would look better.
I googled that with no relevant results. What is it exactly? Some sort of framework on top of unity?
- Status