anonymous_abc
Member
I will have to remember to use this come election threads.
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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I will have to remember to use this come election threads.
Our Hollow Knight Kickstarter has been going really well! Thanks a whole bunch to the GAF backers. The Kickstarter back-end shows there are quite a few! All our higher tiers are almost gone now. A bit concerned it'll really slow post that. We're considering offering a few other things at those higher levels, but its tough trying to work out the right thing that doesn't conflict or devalue the other options on offer.
More importantly though, quake gifs!
Well technically its called Tyrant's fist, but its basically a quake power-up. I posted these in the Hollow Knight thread, but I feel bad about constantly dredging it up.
More importantly though, quake gifs!
Well technically its called Tyrant's fist, but its basically a quake power-up. I posted these in the Hollow Knight thread, but I feel bad about constantly dredging it up.
Well technically its called Tyrant's fist, but its basically a quake power-up. I posted these in the Hollow Knight thread, but I feel bad about constantly dredging it up.
woh
SeanNoonan
Member
So the worst thing for me so far for my first indie game (Jack B. Nimble) has been post launch. After launch I quickly put out a Halloween update with plans to follow up with Thanksgiving and Christmas updates too... this hasn't happened. I just feel so burnt out and have been finding it so damn hard to work on the game since Halloween. Every day I open the editor/tools, but make minutes (if that) of progress.
So as a side note, at work, I shipped Watch_Dogs and Far Cry 4 really close together, so that might be the main source of my "meh" feeling... but my home project was always so disconnected to that AAA stuff it never mattered before.
Not sure what will unblock me...
So the worst thing for me so far for my first indie game (Jack B. Nimble) has been post launch. After launch I quickly put out a Halloween update with plans to follow up with Thanksgiving and Christmas updates too... this hasn't happened. I just feel so burnt out and have been finding it so damn hard to work on the game since Halloween. Every day I open the editor/tools, but make minutes (if that) of progress.
So as a side note, at work, I shipped Watch_Dogs and Far Cry 4 really close together, so that might be the main source of my "meh" feeling... but my home project was always so disconnected to that AAA stuff it never mattered before.
Not sure what will unblock me...
for me it's cyclical. sometimes I think my game sucks and it's harder to work on during those times, other times I feel pretty strong about it and so it's easier. the trick is to find ways to get *something* done even when you aren't feeling it, so as to keep chipping away.
if you're all blocked up, try playing a game that really inspired you then go make a new prototype.
the beta was so informative. I am implementing/testing an ability in the game, and instead of just testing it based on my own expectations, there's now another voice in my head telling me what people will probably say. "well, if you can't do this with it, people are going to say it should work that way" and then I can have a back and forth in my head all by myself.
Hah, I remember showing our game to guy from Nintendo and he was quite excited about it...until we mentioned it was made in Unreal Engine 4. I do hope that it would become available, but I'm not too optimistic as I'm sure the other platforms (with wider reach) still have some work to be done in the engine and I'm not if the ROI for Wii U -tools are there.
Couple more aliens getting animations and dialogue sequences. Still works in progress:
oh that looks awesome. how are you animating this, again?
The legitimate reason is that will it most likely cost them more money than it would make them.
I'm not necessarily happy about it, but these are realities. Unity makes money based on flat license fees. Unreal makes money from percentages, and therefore largely targets blockbuster games...ones that essentially do not exist on the Wii U outside of Nintendo, who wouldn't be using Unreal tech anyway.
It's a business, not a charity.
Mystic River
Member
So the worst thing for me so far for my first indie game (Jack B. Nimble) has been post launch. After launch I quickly put out a Halloween update with plans to follow up with Thanksgiving and Christmas updates too... this hasn't happened. I just feel so burnt out and have been finding it so damn hard to work on the game since Halloween. Every day I open the editor/tools, but make minutes (if that) of progress.
So as a side note, at work, I shipped Watch_Dogs and Far Cry 4 really close together, so that might be the main source of my "meh" feeling... but my home project was always so disconnected to that AAA stuff it never mattered before.
Not sure what will unblock me...
Keep in mind one and only one thing, you are not competing against AAA titles, you are competing against yourself only. You can't beat hundreds of people working to get a AAA title, but you can beat them on doing something new and innovative never done before because the only thing that holds you back is yourself, for them there are publishers and so on so many new ideas will not come alive, that's why Indie brings to life many weird unseen things, its just a pure work of love.
Well , I am sure not many people thing or feel like that, but if you start comparing your game with AAA you will stop for sure your own, that's why I use sometimes AAA to give me some fresh ideas sometimes they have a few items I would like to see on my game, or millions of things I would like to see, so that gives me inspiration.
In my case, one of my inspirations is Dwarf Fortress, and the many other studios that are trying to compete against Dwarf Fortress and fail in doing so, because they focus on money and not on the experience, probably a few of you may guess what I am talking about...
the ghost blast can be used for killing, but it can also be used to push yourself around. any way you aim it, you get nudged in the opposite direction.
this is particularly notable in the air:
http://www.gfycat.com/GaseousWelloffCrocodile
which means you can do shit like this:
http://www.gfycat.com/PolishedAshamedDungenesscrab
Lord_Balkan
Member
I have a question for you guys..
What do you use to make 2D games? I'd like to use C++ or something similar (but not Java) and I don't exactly want to write a 2D game engine from scratch. I found these two things:
Oxygine
Gosu
Angel 2D
Allegro
Any other recommendations or comments on the two libraries above?
What do you use to make 2D games? I'd like to use C++ or something similar (but not Java) and I don't exactly want to write a 2D game engine from scratch. I found these two things:
Oxygine
Gosu
Angel 2D
Allegro
Any other recommendations or comments on the two libraries above?
Quick noobie question here, I'm using D3DXCreateEffectFromFile to import uncompiled shader files, do I need to compile these before releasing a binary? Because I'd quite like to release them uncompiled so people can mess with them, but if it's gonna cause issues, that's another extra thing that I have to think about and that's annoying.
Most of the stuff I make for myself, so the whole releasing thing is fairly foreign to me. The last time I tried, shaders seems to be a fairly big issue, was it because of the whole uncompiled thing?
Most of the stuff I make for myself, so the whole releasing thing is fairly foreign to me. The last time I tried, shaders seems to be a fairly big issue, was it because of the whole uncompiled thing?
Muskieratboi
Member
Friend of mine requested I give this game being crowdfunded a bit of a Signal boost, I apologise if this is against thread rules or anything..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtRak1zVSIE
Skybreakers is a Starfox-Like 3D Shmup with Audiosurf/Beat Hazardesque Music-based Procedural level generation, and up to 4 player simultaneous Co-op.
It's being made as part of Creative England's Queen Of Code initiative, allowing Female and Transgender developers by matching the amount of money they crowdfund to further development of the title. (Lead Dev is Transgender,I believe..)
IMO it seems a bit rough, but I can see where it's headed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtRak1zVSIE
Skybreakers is a Starfox-Like 3D Shmup with Audiosurf/Beat Hazardesque Music-based Procedural level generation, and up to 4 player simultaneous Co-op.
It's being made as part of Creative England's Queen Of Code initiative, allowing Female and Transgender developers by matching the amount of money they crowdfund to further development of the title. (Lead Dev is Transgender,I believe..)
IMO it seems a bit rough, but I can see where it's headed.
Oh my goodness. We have done something quite similar to this.
the ghost blast can be used for killing, but it can also be used to push yourself around. any way you aim it, you get nudged in the opposite direction.
this is particularly notable in the air:
http://www.gfycat.com/GaseousWelloffCrocodile
which means you can do shit like this:
http://www.gfycat.com/PolishedAshamedDungenesscrab
Great minds etc. etc.?
I have a feeling that if I ever finish a game and get it on Greenlight, I'll sit staring at the screen going THE NUMBERS, MASON, WHAT DO THEY MEEEEAN.
I'M COMING FOR YOU, AMBIGUOUS PURPLE LINES
it doesn't help that steam gives you these fuckin numbers and graphs but doesn't actually bother to contextualise them in any meaningful way. As far as I'm concerned the entire process of greenlight is magic.
Like, why is the order of those lines, from top to bottom, #100, #20, me, #5, #15, and #10?
Also I have no idea if those other lines are games that are currently in those spots on greenlight, or if they're past examples that aren't relevant anymore, or what.
Even the most promising metric, which is the "48% on the way to the top 100" one, doesn't actually seem like any kind of guaranteed measure to judge if your game is gonna get greenlit, just that you have a better chance of it.
At this point the whole thing is just a weird skinner box experiment as I keep refreshing the page to see all the new shiny numbers.
Like, why is the order of those lines, from top to bottom, #100, #20, me, #5, #15, and #10?
Also I have no idea if those other lines are games that are currently in those spots on greenlight, or if they're past examples that aren't relevant anymore, or what.
Even the most promising metric, which is the "48% on the way to the top 100" one, doesn't actually seem like any kind of guaranteed measure to judge if your game is gonna get greenlit, just that you have a better chance of it.
At this point the whole thing is just a weird skinner box experiment as I keep refreshing the page to see all the new shiny numbers.
The graphs and numbers have lost meaning more and more over time. Many, many of the projects in the top 100 are simply the ones that have been there the longest, not the ones that have the most positive or popular reception.
Right now, don't worry about Greenlight. Don't worry about getting into the top 100, it's meaningless and unreliable. Simply focus on your game, try to market it on sites, and Valve will greenlight because they've either seen it on other sites or because it simply looks more competent than the "my first rpg maker project" entries. They're probably going to have a look at every project in Greenlight at some point, let those that look halfway competent through, and then migrate the entire culling process to a new system.
Edit: You've been featured by PewDiePie? Hah, what on earth are you worried about.
BlastProcessing
Member
Yeah, the numbers don't seem to mean much. I think they are just there to give us something to look at. Our game was not near 100% when we got Greenlit.
Thanks for the advice - it's quite helpful. And yeah, I'm in quite a privileged position having been featured by a lot of youtube heavy weights. Still, this is my first venture into games, and I'm still pretty nervous I'm gonna fuck it all up. Just gotta focus on making a cool game, I suppose.
I've been using Unity with 2D Toolkit for the past little bit, but the new UI system in 4.6 looks pretty baller and I haven't really taken a look at the native 2D tools. Gonna give those a shot and see how I like them. It bugs me how things can get a bit 'hacky' when I use 3rd party tools.
Really want to spend some time with unity's new gui stuff - it's honestly exactly the kind of thing I want for my game, so I can start making a range of in-world gui elements. Does anyone know what kind of options it has for the zbuffer layering? By default unity throws all its 3D text into the gui layer so it always draws on top of everything else, which makes it a pain because when you move text to the transparency layer instead you get a bunch of z fighting and painter's algorithm bullshit of transparent elements not knowing what order to draw. So if the new GUI has a way of throwing text and graphical interfaces within the game in ways that can be placed on televisions or monitors, that's really the ideal for me.
edit:
edit:
taku
Member
Bianco Hills?Level-entering effect for the game I'm currently working on:
Hehe yep and behind its bomb-o-omb battlefield from mario 64. I use this level just for testing and obviously wont be part of the e game. Here you can check how one of the actual level looks like http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YogwhDAHHvc&feature=youtu.be&a=
Oh wow, you're just smashing through!
I'M COMING FOR YOU, AMBIGUOUS PURPLE LINES
From what I've heard from a couple of others you're about to get greenlit really soon. Valve have been picking games that haven't even passed the 50% mark, but have gotten great traction at the start.
Wish I could say the same for us; we're tracking the #15 which apparently has gotten a boost much later on and I would like a better yes/no ratio, but I guess going this early to Greenlight has it's consequences and we haven't exactly been prominent in the media. I have to say that a part of me wants to pull it down and redo it when we are doing public alpha tests and have the game looking more polished, but I don't know if that's really wise either.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Wow are doiunf also a N64 style platformer, and let me tell you it looks really great right now. The guy in the video said you are a studio based on Spain? We are also from Spain! YAY!
Hehe really? Yep, I'm currently living in barcelona
, I wanna see some content of your game, show it to us!Wow dude, this looks like it will be fantastic with some polish. The main mechanic is ingenious.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Hehe really? Yep, I'm currently living in barcelona
The programmer is also from Barcelona, although he is now living in the UK. The otgher two, including me, are from Valencia.
Theres still some things we want to polish before showing it, maybe I can get something cooked up for the next sceenshot saturday in this thread.
I'M COMING FOR YOU, AMBIGUOUS PURPLE LINES
Whatever the graph lines mean, you are looking to beat the comparisons. Congrats. I can only hope to see greenlight #s like that when we launch.
---
Working to get more alien animations and dialogues going. Gif bomb...any chance of neogaf supporting inline gfycat videos?
Mooshee... who doesn't love sentient shrooms!?
gfycatlink
youtube for those who'd like to hear the cool new tunes
Moknon...
gfycatlink
new tunes for this one too
electroflame
Member
I haven't played around with the new GUI tools much, but there is an option to have UI elements "in the world" and not render on top of whatever a camera is rendering. This allows for them to actually be present in 3D space, and is probably what you're after.
I've no idea how easy it would be to stick stuff on a monitor using the new GUI tools, but if you have Unity Pro you can use a RenderTexture/RenderTarget to render all of that stuff out to a texture you can slap on the monitor object.
I made a Mac version of Where Is My Hammer now but I can't guarantee that it works, I was not able to test it myself because my old macbook sucks.
http://tocogames.itch.io/where-is-my-hammer-destroy-everything
If anyone here gives it a try let me know if it works fine.
Here is a new gif:
Today is the last chance to vote on it:
http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games/where-is-my-hammer/39931
Looking pretty good currently but not sure.
http://tocogames.itch.io/where-is-my-hammer-destroy-everything
If anyone here gives it a try let me know if it works fine.
Here is a new gif:
Today is the last chance to vote on it:
http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games/where-is-my-hammer/39931
Looking pretty good currently but not sure.
Reminder to everyone, Ludum Dare 31 starts next weekend!
The first two rounds of themes are available for voting: http://ludumdare.com/compo/
The first two rounds of themes are available for voting: http://ludumdare.com/compo/
looking forward to it. have a few local friends joining for a group ludum. none of the themes have really grabbed me yet. you?
I'm normally picky but I +1'd like 9 of the themes in the second round. A friend of mine said they had to refrain from +1'ing everything from that round.
I demand a game jam full of kittens.
very nice work. I love that you're going the extra mile on what could be a simpler portrait. it brings everything to life. shows that it's a project of passion.
I don't know how many of you guys remember old dos space games, star control 2 in particular, but we don't get a lot of games like that anymore. I'd buy star driver.
lol.. I did +1 kittens
Jobbs said:
Thanks a ton! It is certainly a project of passion. We are inching our way closer to having enough content to make a solid greenlight/ks video. Streaming my development over the last week on twitch, it is odd how I don't take breaks and stay focused when I know someone is watching (even as few as my stream has attracted so far).
Disorientator
Member
What up guys.
I've been working on this (in Unity) for the last couple of months and while it still needs a lot of work, I decided it wouldn't hurt to show some of it off. (everything you see is WIP - even/especially the name).
It's my first game project and a WiiU exclusive btw.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to make progress as fast as I want (day-job is to blame - not a professional dev) but nevertheless everything is slowly coming together nicely I think.
I spent most of this time setting-up the world,objects,lighting, player controls, etc - goals/objectives are still being worked-on. (no real plan to be honest - hope it doesn't turn into a boomerang)
It's actually a very simple concept (at this point) - destroy all the cubes to proceed to the next level/world, as fast as you can. (record locally saved - no leaderboards atm)
Controls are the usual FPS affair (left stick move/strafe, right stick aim), but of course you can move in 3D space (ala Descent - but outdoors )
Alternatively, I'm also including gyro controls (ala Nintendoland - Metroid Blast) which turned-out really, really well.
Think of VR-like view/controls (like Wii U Panorama) but with lasers...and missiles. (and thus Off-TV is of course supported)
Anyways, here are some off-screen pics and please excuse the bad quality. (no capture device yet just a -bad- smartphone camera - getting a capture device soon)
(Cockpit was added a few days ago and still being worked-on)
Latest vid (off-screen - running on WiiU): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5auve6INu0
Oh and 60fps @ 720p is what I'm going after and already -mostly- achievable.
I've been working on this (in Unity) for the last couple of months and while it still needs a lot of work, I decided it wouldn't hurt to show some of it off. (everything you see is WIP - even/especially the name).
It's my first game project and a WiiU exclusive btw.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to make progress as fast as I want (day-job is to blame - not a professional dev) but nevertheless everything is slowly coming together nicely I think.
I spent most of this time setting-up the world,objects,lighting, player controls, etc - goals/objectives are still being worked-on. (no real plan to be honest - hope it doesn't turn into a boomerang)
It's actually a very simple concept (at this point) - destroy all the cubes to proceed to the next level/world, as fast as you can. (record locally saved - no leaderboards atm)
Controls are the usual FPS affair (left stick move/strafe, right stick aim), but of course you can move in 3D space (ala Descent - but outdoors
)
Alternatively, I'm also including gyro controls (ala Nintendoland - Metroid Blast) which turned-out really, really well.
Think of VR-like view/controls (like Wii U Panorama) but with lasers...and missiles. (and thus Off-TV is of course supported)
Anyways, here are some off-screen pics and please excuse the bad quality. (no capture device yet just a -bad- smartphone camera - getting a capture device soon)
(Cockpit was added a few days ago and still being worked-on)
Latest vid (off-screen - running on WiiU): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5auve6INu0
Oh and 60fps @ 720p is what I'm going after and already -mostly- achievable.
I made a Mac version of Where Is My Hammer now but I can't guarantee that it works, I was not able to test it myself because my old macbook sucks.
http://tocogames.itch.io/where-is-my-hammer-destroy-everything
If anyone here gives it a try let me know if it works fine.
Here is a new gif:
Today is the last chance to vote on it:
http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games/where-is-my-hammer/39931
Looking pretty good currently but not sure.
Works like a charm. It's damn fun, thanks for the mac version.
Edit: This page of the thread is totally crashing my browser. And i'm on a desktop. strange.
Yeah me too, maybe we finally reached a critical mass of awesome animated .gif's possible on a single thread page?
It might be worth people keeping it to one GIF per post, or linking them if it's one of those crazy 50+ MB GIFs.
If you use Chrome try my NeoGFY extension to deal with all the huge Gfycat GIFs.
Neat, thanks!
Here's something I've been working on recently:
This is Steel Assault, a 2D side-scrolling action platformer. It's set in the year 2040, after revolts and fascist uprising have shocked the United States. You play as a resistance soldier equipped with a powerful robotic suit (one of the last of its kind), dropped into a long-abandoned enemy-occupied Washington, D.C.
The aesthetic is essentially "what if the NES had no sprite or memory limitations"? It's a style inspired by late NES games such as Batman or Shatterhand, which utilized heavy dithering and details in negative space to create a dark atmosphere within the system's limitations.
I'm also composing the game's music using Famitracker, a NES music creation program, and my aim is to be a bit more ambitious than standard retro-style Megaman chiptunes. Here are two sample tracks in that vein:
To find more, you can follow our Tumblr devblog, @SteelAssault on Twitter, or check out the game's official press kit site that we just launched!
Also, we're aiming for a Kickstarter launch in mid-January. More on that as it approaches, hopefully!
I'm actually programming this in C++, using SFML. An awesome little library, especially for smaller-scale sprite-based games like this one. I think another popular alternative is SDL, though I haven't used it and it looks more opaque than SFML.
This is Steel Assault, a 2D side-scrolling action platformer. It's set in the year 2040, after revolts and fascist uprising have shocked the United States. You play as a resistance soldier equipped with a powerful robotic suit (one of the last of its kind), dropped into a long-abandoned enemy-occupied Washington, D.C.
The aesthetic is essentially "what if the NES had no sprite or memory limitations"? It's a style inspired by late NES games such as Batman or Shatterhand, which utilized heavy dithering and details in negative space to create a dark atmosphere within the system's limitations.
I'm also composing the game's music using Famitracker, a NES music creation program, and my aim is to be a bit more ambitious than standard retro-style Megaman chiptunes. Here are two sample tracks in that vein:
- Boss Fight #1 (Club), the song for the first boss fight. Notable for maybe being the only chiptune track ever to sample Kanye West and LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem.
- Regret, a song for a climactic late-game sequence which I'm not going to spoil. In this song I use the NES’s terrible-quality DPCM channel to sample, among other things, Jason Robards’ regret monologue from the movie Magnolia and the chord from that one Swans song which repeats the same damn chord 800000 times.
To find more, you can follow our Tumblr devblog, @SteelAssault on Twitter, or check out the game's official press kit site that we just launched!
Also, we're aiming for a Kickstarter launch in mid-January. More on that as it approaches, hopefully!
I'm actually programming this in C++, using SFML. An awesome little library, especially for smaller-scale sprite-based games like this one. I think another popular alternative is SDL, though I haven't used it and it looks more opaque than SFML.
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