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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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At least you made something, heck you made something successful. Others just mope about being talentless hacks :<
Chopper Mike is running on the OUYA!! Pics/videos to follow!!!
Running on Ouya and running on Android is not the same thing ?
A lot needs to change besides controllers ?
If you make it .. sure, why not ?
I'm really enjoying my vacation, but during some of my spare time I've also been thinking about my tilemap system implementation... I guess I'll work a bit on it when I get back home.
Also, playing some games on my DS, mostly Bowser's Inside Story, has given me a few interesting ideas I'd like to use sometime (mostly how both brothers are controlled separatedly).
By the way, could anyone recommend a free pixel art editing program and a NES-like music tracker for my Samsung Galaxy Tab? I've been searching the android store for something, but so far all I've gotten were cheap PC ports that barely manage to work. I don't even want anything fancy, just basic programs for sketching up simple tunes and pixel art on the go.
Also, playing some games on my DS, mostly Bowser's Inside Story, has given me a few interesting ideas I'd like to use sometime (mostly how both brothers are controlled separatedly).
By the way, could anyone recommend a free pixel art editing program and a NES-like music tracker for my Samsung Galaxy Tab? I've been searching the android store for something, but so far all I've gotten were cheap PC ports that barely manage to work. I don't even want anything fancy, just basic programs for sketching up simple tunes and pixel art on the go.
Since we''re all Indies here I'm sure there's one or two blender masters around. I've logged a good few hours on lightwave years ago and the interface for blender seems so cluttered and busy in comparison. Anyway my question is simply how do you pan and move the viewpprt camera using your mouse? The keyboard shortcuts are something like ctrl alt num pad numbers, but I'd like to able to move and pan with the mouse like on lihhtwave.
PlebeGames
Neo Member
Just wanted to say, as a long-time lurker and someone who loves fiddling around with Unity and other game stuff, thanks for this thread! I hope to be visiting and posting here more often, but already you guys have given me lots of motivation. Keep up the incredible work!
I can't help you, but I should say I too have had issues with Blender. Basic navigation stuff even. It doesn't help I'm used to Maya, but Blender just mystifies me. And I need it (or a different and free alternative) because Maya student version won't allow me to commercially distribute anything I've made in it (legally at least). Can't really afford to legitimize myself with the real thing
I can't help you, but I should say I too have had issues with Blender. Basic navigation stuff even. It doesn't help I'm used to Maya, but Blender just mystifies me. And I need it (or a different and free alternative) because Maya student version won't allow me to commercially distribute anything I've made in it (legally at least). Can't really afford to legitimize myself with the real thing
pettersson
Member
Hi,
yes, writing the editor was totally worth it, it speeds up level design a lot, especially placing game entities and things like that. Usually we used 3dcc Tools with Plugins to do that.
It's somewhat hard to say how much time we spent on the editor, since we developed it in parallel to the game. But the editor was finished long before the game was. And we keep and kept updating and improving the editor.
How do you pan and move in lightwave? Yes I think the ctrl/alt modifiers make it happen by default in Blender, and maybe the middle mouse button, but if I recall correctly there's also a setting or two that changes the key bindings around to be more like other editors.
Also, if you ever find yourself completely stuck on how to do some basic movement etc. thing, and googling for the answer is failing you, look up the Blender IRC channel (on freenode I think) and ask. They're pretty nice.
Well, we are a team of 8 working on this, keep that in mind
. But yeah, Henning who made all the assets and 3D models is not only super good but also super efficient. It's crazy.On another note, as long as you created something you are still better than anyone else who didn't. Not to mention Most of us have been working in the industry for quite a while in one way or another
I hope my post didn't discourage you, that would have been the least thing I wanted to do.
We are working with Ouya right now. The controls are the trickiest part actually. Some weird stuff going on there. Other than that it's easy to port android mobile builds for example.
Oh, no, I'm not discouraged. But it's nice to be humbled, sometimes. = D Really, though, amazing work. Looks like a full-scale XBLA game, *easily*, and with so little time and resources.Well, we are a team of 8 working on this, keep that in mind
On another note, as long as you created something you are still better than anyone else who didn't. Not to mention Most of us have been working in the industry for quite a while in one way or another
I hope my post didn't discourage you, that would have been the least thing I wanted to do.
I wish I could talk more about my game in this thread...but I should be able to soon, I think...
I think Sunvox is on android. Not sure if that qualifies as a tracker but it's a great music making program that is pretty well oriented towards making chiptune style music.
Thanks for the reminder
but what about bureaucracy for an indie developer in general? I mean, a single developer that wants to make his first commercial project(whatever the platform) has some obligations to his country? I know that each country has different laws but in general do i have to register myself as a professional or as a software house, declare my eventual incomes or other things?I don't want troubles with the law! lol
Yes, why not?
hahah I'll tell you if I ever get anything released on PSM
That's said in Canada if you don't register as a sole proprietorship then you still act as one on your taxes. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is when you pay the 45$ to register your company except that you can better organize your taxes.
I dont know about other countries but in Canada we have these government run offices that will give you free information and even classes on how to start a business and pay your taxes correctly.
That's said in Canada if you don't register as a sole proprietorship then you still act as one on your taxes. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is when you pay the 45$ to register your company except that you can better organize your taxes.
I dont know about other countries but in Canada we have these government run offices that will give you free information and even classes on how to start a business and pay your taxes correctly.
Indeed! I have a helicopter flying around, but I need to convert the touch-based UI to work with buttons... *sigh*
You press 't' then you move the mouse around to position the viewport camera wherever you want, iirc. It was easy and intuitive to get good views and angles on whatever I was trying to do. I tried clicking middle mouse and it didn't work and the ctrl alt seem to only work with keyboard numpad. I want to be able to move it freely with the mouse instead of incremental jumps left, right, up, or down with the numpad keys. Ill try to get on irc. Not really an irc user though.How do you pan and move in lightwave? Yes I think the ctrl/alt modifiers make it happen by default in Blender, and maybe the middle mouse button, but if I recall correctly there's also a setting or two that changes the key bindings around to be more like other editors.
Also, if you ever find yourself completely stuck on how to do some basic movement etc. thing, and googling for the answer is failing you, look up the Blender IRC channel (on freenode I think) and ask. They're pretty nice.
John Carmack tweeted about whether people would like games which used dual monitor setups to do local multiplayer the other day.. Sounds cool enough.
That does sound kind of cool actually. But I'm thinking more along the lines of single screen multiplayer.
There's a demand on the console for it. People obviously like to play with or against each other locally. I can't see any arguments against other than "PC traditionally has ignored it".
Technobabel
Member
Almost done with my JRPG/Puzzle hybrid Dungeon Hearts (images earlier in this thread). Made an initial submission to Apple earlier this week to nail down a release date, will do one update before it goes live. Then started on the PC/Mac/Linux versions which will go live at the same time as the iPad version, which mostly just entails changing the layout for non 4:3 aspect ratios, keyboard/mouse controls, and other details.
Was very impressed with what you showed us initially. Congrats.
Technobabel
Member
Thank you sir!
I don't think I mentioned it before, but the game comes with 5 (!) completely original soundtracks, each in a different musical style (orchestral, j-pop/rock, chip tunes, noise/glitch, and heavy metal). Each one after the first has to be unlocked in-game first though (or through one in-app purchase to bypass having to unlock them individually). Whenever you start a new run you can then choose which soundtrack to play to.
I don't think I mentioned it before, but the game comes with 5 (!) completely original soundtracks, each in a different musical style (orchestral, j-pop/rock, chip tunes, noise/glitch, and heavy metal). Each one after the first has to be unlocked in-game first though (or through one in-app purchase to bypass having to unlock them individually). Whenever you start a new run you can then choose which soundtrack to play to.
I just want to say that with this X/Y craze, I went looking at past pokemon stuff ... and lookig at Pokemon Black/White 2's sprites, I noticed lots of the same problems people said about my industrial sprite technique ... wich is really interesting to see in another people's work.
Some are worst than others but .. you get the idea xD
Some are worst than others but .. you get the idea xD
With me personally, there isn't any interest. But I do notice a lot of interest both as players and developers in the indie game crowd (twitter, forums, etc). People talk about it a lot. But for the random consumer who buys indie games on steam? Probably not.
I just want to say that with this X/Y craze, I went looking at past pokemon stuff ... and lookig at Pokemon Black/White 2's sprites, I noticed lots of the same problems people said about my industrial sprite technique ... wich is really interesting to see in another people's work.
Some are worst than others but .. you get the idea xD
You mean this is extremely sad to witness. Expecially from such a quality dev as Nintendo. Color me flabergasted.
I suppose its also related to pixel art soon to be a lost art only some old people will truly understand...
Chaos
Member
Its been a while since I used blender but when ever I was in camera view numpad 0, I used to right click to select the camera, press n for the menu to pop up and tick the box lock camera to view, and used the camera view with the mouse to set up the scene.
Diablohead
Member
Just a quick update on my game, I finally finished most of the water physics and how I want it to work in the game, at first it was rather bright but I ended up making it a little more 'real' and harder to see into, the deeper you go in to the water the darker it will get up to a certain limit.
You can also obtain a shine-spark style move and when in use, run across the water's surface like so:
Also with a value change the water becomes lava, think super metroid style where you take damage while in it but you can still move around.
Ignore lack of background tiles and the stars, this is the test stage I use to build the engine before moving on to stage design for real.
*edit* lava mode:
You can also obtain a shine-spark style move and when in use, run across the water's surface like so:
Also with a value change the water becomes lava, think super metroid style where you take damage while in it but you can still move around.
Ignore lack of background tiles and the stars, this is the test stage I use to build the engine before moving on to stage design for real.
*edit* lava mode:
What's that? Can you explain?
rohlfinator
Member
There are a handful of games that support it. Off the top of my head, Trine/Trine 2 and some of the Worms games. I played through most of Left 4 Dead splitscreen (not officially supported but there's a console command to enable it). The Civ games have hot seat multiplayer.
I could see it taking off more if Steambox gets a lot of traction.
It is some tests that i'm making to process modular animation in flash into pixel art. In Page 38 (50 posts per page) you can see the examples that i made to test it.
It is BASICALY a mix of the right line size in flash, exportation without smooth, small color corrections in photoshop and image size with Nearest Neighbour ... but i'm still evolving the technique to get better results that need less manual frame by frame fix =3
This is kind of what I was thinking. If it were to take off and they had some sort of dedicated controller for it, would we see more games, maybe from the indie crowd, include that feature. Local co-op, though I doubt it was ever really huge on PC, has kind of gone away for the most part with most multiplayer being online. It seems like it's a very niche thing now and I was wondering if a developer foregoing traditional online multiplayer for local was even worth it.
The LEGO games are one noteworthy set of games that support local co-op on PC, though people's typical response is "they don't have online co-op yet?"
It would be nice to have both as options, of course.
PlebeGames
Neo Member
Also as part of my Final year at Uni I'm making a game in Unity, I'm actually an animation student so really the end game doesn't have to be totally playable as long as I get some nice animations going but I think I'd like to finish it. Hopefully get a demo up here soon. This is what it looks like at the moment. This is also a test scene.
This looks really good! Are you using the standard shaders or did you write your own for this?
The LEGO games are one noteworthy set of games that support local co-op on PC, though people's typical response is "they don't have online co-op yet?"
I guess because LEGO games are perfect for kids playing with parents. And that 'demographic' doesn't tend to post online
In my humble opinion it's mostly a niche. Local multi-player is something for the couch and consoles. PCs are still mostly in the office rooms or at least rooms which hardly have anything very comfortable to lazy in (unless you play from your bed
).If anything the steambox might be an option for this since it brings the PC to the living room, so to speak.
We got it to work but the touch pad is giving us some headaches since it can crash the game easily for some reason. Even if it's not calibrated to anything.
We just tested the Shiftlings Prototype (Unity based) on Ouya and it works like a charm. Now just need to figure out some issues with graphics not displaying.
Looks great. I really love the graphics
hahah I'll tell you if I ever get anything released on PSM
That's said in Canada if you don't register as a sole proprietorship then you still act as one on your taxes. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is when you pay the 45$ to register your company except that you can better organize your taxes.
I dont know about other countries but in Canada we have these government run offices that will give you free information and even classes on how to start a business and pay your taxes correctly.
Ok, thanks, i guess i'll have to deal with ton of bureaucracy...
I think it's strange that no one covered this argument before, anyone else want to say something about starting a development studio?
I guess because LEGO games are perfect for kids playing with parents. And that 'demographic' doesn't tend to post online
They mostly play on consoles though I would assume?
And hey Razu!
They mostly play on consoles though I would assume?
And hey Razu!
Yeah, true that! Forgot the PC bit.
Hey
I had forgotten about the trackpad, I could hook that up and have all my menus working again!! Cheers!!
This is an indie game thread. I think if it is indie, you can. Doesn't really matter if it's original or not.
Diablohead
Member
Interested in knowing what your next game is feep, if there is a kickstarter then best of luck to you!
Thanks. I''ll have to give this a try.
Castle Crashers PC would sell SO MUCH if had an easy way to make local coop with controllers or in the same keyboard
Just marvelous. I really dig those lighting effects.
Looks slick, but I'd like to see them used in context (or rather, in-game).Quick UI elements I made tonight. Probably not final. Needed to put something in for the Kickstarter video. ^^
Diablohead
Member
If anyone wonders why my game is at a low resolution it's on purpose, it's suppose to be a throwback/lovechild to 16 bit gaming and modern filters, and things which glow pretty colours
Why oh no? = D
We're getting it all together soon. And we have a nice surprise coming to open up with a bang.
Dunno, it's kind of a like/dislike thing at the same time.
Anyway will back your project no matter what, if only because you gave away your first game for free here
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