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[Feep]

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 .

I'm putting around an eighth of a million dollars of my own money into the game...but it's surprising how not-very-far that goes, even for an indie. I've already dropped for two composers, the sound studio, the actors, and a programmer. I want to hire two fulltime artist-folk as well, if I can, thus the KS...

But thank you for your support anyway ^^

 

[Roquentin]

I'm putting around an eighth of a million dollars of my own money into the game...but it's surprising how not-very-far that goes, even for an indie. I've already dropped for two composers, the sound studio, the actors, and a programmer. I want to hire two fulltime artist-folk as well, if I can, thus the KS...

But thank you for your support anyway ^^

Can you say what the budget was for your first game (with breakdown if possible)?

 

[Feep]

Can you say what the budget was for your first game (with breakdown if possible)?

Ahahah. Like, five thousand dollars. Licensed music for $500 (+ free), paid a freelance artist around $3200 for static backgrounds and sprites, $600 for a recording studio (some dude's house) + mixing, $400 for actors (many worked for free), a few miscellaneous costs here and there.

 

[Diablohead]

I feel the pain of spending money too, not to that level but if I add up everything in the last 16 months I'm at about 2.2k in uk pounds spent on my game. I just hope it does ok on iOS and some indie pc sales wherever I go.

 

[Feep]

I feel the pain of spending money too, not to that level but if I add up everything in the last 16 months I'm at about 2.2k in uk pounds spent on my game. I just hope it does ok on iOS and some indie pc sales wherever I go.

After conversion and subtracting voice acting (almost no indie games have or need it), you're running pretty close. I feel ya = (

 

[Roquentin]

Ahahah. Like, five thousand dollars. Licensed music for $500 (+ free), paid a freelance artist around $3200 for static backgrounds and sprites, $600 for a recording studio (some dude's house) + mixing, $400 for actors (many worked for free), a few miscellaneous costs here and there.

Thanks. That's quite a jump. When will we learn more about your new game?

 

[Feep]

Thanks. That's quite a jump. When will we learn more about your new game?

Kickstarter day, most likely. I'd like to get it up within the month.

 

[Sadsic]

reposting: i'll make video game music for you guys! i'll do it pro bono, i just want the bones

 

[Diablohead]

I actually have a kickstarter one click away from going live but decided to hold back on it, i'm in a different boat then feep but it is tempting, just need to supply the right information, footage and rewards for people to take interest.

Kickstarter is growing more popular all the time it's a bit like passing up early sales by not using it.

 

[Warm Machine]

Testing the final build of Arcadecraft right now. Should be going to Peer Review this evening! 10.5 months of my life coming to an end. Feels great!

 

[BomberMouse]

I actually have a kickstarter one click away from going live but decided to hold back on it, i'm in a different boat then feep but it is tempting, just need to supply the right information, footage and rewards for people to take interest.

Kickstarter is growing more popular all the time it's a bit like passing up early sales by not using it.

There's nothing wrong with kickstarter. You are simply sharing the risk and giving them rewards in exchange. An early demo would be a great way to show people good your game could be.

 

[Diablohead]

Testing the final build of Arcadecraft right now. Should be going to Peer Review this evening! 10.5 months of my life coming to an end. Feels great!

Awesome, I can't wait to play it once it's released. It's looked great since the day you first showed it off here.

 

[eot]

reposting: i'll make video game music for you guys! i'll do it pro bono, i just want the bones

do you have a soundcloud or something?

 

[xillyriax]

any of you need a modeler? Looking for some work

 

[Popstar]

any of you need a modeler? Looking for some work

I'm sure no one would mind if you posted an image or two of your work or a link to your portfolio. You'd probably see more interest that way.

 

[Kamaki]

any of you need a modeler? Looking for some work

I too wouldn't mind doing such stuff for free, I really need to make some kind of portfolio filled with stuff
I'd do it once my final project is handed in and away though.

Some stuff if anyone's interested.
UDK Test
1st year human model, 2k poly limit. You'll just have to believe I'm better now.
A monster model I used in the 2nd year.
My final year project I'm currently working on.

 

[xillyriax]

not much of it is "game ready" since I came from the Computer Animation side
http://johngulledge.com/demo

some low poly (all under <500 tris) models I'm working on
http://p3d.in/u/xillyriax
No diffuse (color) at the moment but to view the Wires, go to the ball looking icon and select "Wire on Shadeless"

 

[missile]

not much of it is "game ready" since I came from the Computer Animation side
http://johngulledge.com/demo" ...

That 'Once in a Lifetime' movie looks like the start into a huge adventure. gj

 

[razu]

Nice article on using Unity for 2D: http://pixelpaton.com/?p=5591

 

[RelentlessRolento]

Nice article on using Unity for 2D: http://pixelpaton.com/?p=5591

thanks... been considering going into unity for 2D stuff but undecided since I'm pretty good with GameMaker... sorta

 

[Bamihap]

We made Ichi in 2d in Unity. Works great. But you got to know what you should and shouldn't do. 2d games can perform just as badly as 3d games.

 

[RelentlessRolento]

We made Ichi in 2d in Unity. Works great. But you got to know what you should and shouldn't do. 2d games can perform just as badly as 3d games.

Yeah. FOr now I'm using Unity strictly for 3d stuff and GamMaker for 2d stuff. I may try some 2d work with the new Kinect stuff on the Unity Asset store. I'm going to give it a test run later today.

 

[xillyriax]

That 'Once in a Lifetime' movie looks like the start into a huge adventure. gj

thanx, that rope toss.........I still have nightmares animating it :/

 

[Miutsu]

I am kinda stuck right now >_< has anyone here had to implement palette swapping for a modern 2d game? I have got it working now but I am having trouble with the coloring of blended pixels since I'm using vector art instead of pixel art.

 

[AlexM]

Finally posted up a screen of my Vita/PSM project. It's running on my custom 2D engine RushEngine (not gameendingin2D) which I plan to release for the public to use when it's more mature.

The game is called NekoRush and it's a continuous runner.

more pics here :

http://levelism.com/preview-01-of-my-new-psmvita-game-neko-rush/

 

[Popstar]

I am kinda stuck right now >_< has anyone here had to implement palette swapping for a modern 2d game? I have got it working now but I am having trouble with the coloring of blended pixels since I'm using vector art instead of pixel art.

I've done colouring in a pixel shader using the alpha channel to indicate where the colour goes. But I'm not sure that applies to your situation.

 

[Miutsu]

I've done colouring in a pixel shader using the alpha channel to indicate where the colour goes. But I'm not sure that applies to your situation.

Well, a pixel shader is what I'm using too, I have my source images colored using only the range of colors of 0-255 from the red channel and a palette texture of 256w with the corresponding colors that I want to use, I still use the alpha channel from the source image and apply it to the output pixel in the shader.

The thing is that because I'm using vector art, I'm not controlling exactly what color corresponds to each pixel when I export the whole image.. with this I mean that if I make an object corresponding of two shapes with two different colours each, when the two objects intersects there are going to be pixels with alpha from the top shape combining with the color of the bottom shape.

And well.. because I'm only using red, those pixels I'm not controlling still have corresponding indexes in the palette but in a totally different order that will output some ugly stuff color wise.

What I'm doing right now to solve it is making a bigger texture of each object and separatting its parts so that I can render and colour them in-game individually and the pixels with alpha will fit in naturally, of course I'm not sure this is the best path or if it will become taxing in the future, or how the hell am I going to do when I want to add animations.

Ehh.. I suck at explaining things so sorry about that, also my mother language isnt english, in any case, here is a good explanation of what I'm doing here for anyone what needs to do it in the future, this is also my first time dipping my toes into shaders so I'm going slow with it.

 

[Popstar]

I think I understand what you're doing. Since you're using vector art where two shapes overlap the anti-aliasing is changing your colour index.

What about using additional channels? Where you have overlap put one index in red, and the second in green. Also store a blend factor in blue/alpha. Do lookups for each channel separately and then blend?

 

[Miutsu]

I think I understand what you're doing. Since you're using vector art where two shapes overlap the anti-aliasing is changing your colour index.

Yeah, thats basically it.

What about using additional channels? Where you have overlap put one index in red, and the second in green. Also store a blend factor in blue/alpha. Do lookups for each channel separately and then blend?

That... actually sounds like a pretty good idea, the thing is that I was wanting to avoid thinkering with the raster itself because I plan to output assets for different resolutions but I might try to do what you suggested anyway, today I'm leaving it as it is because I'm tired already

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[Dali]

Finally posted up a screen of my Vita/PSM project. It's running on my custom 2D engine RushEngine (not gameendingin2D) which I plan to release for the public to use when it's more mature.

The game is called NekoRush and it's a continuous runner.

more pics here :

http://levelism.com/preview-01-of-my-new-psmvita-game-neko-rush/

Your nekos look like nezumis.

 

[Heart of Black]

Finally posted up a screen of my Vita/PSM project. It's running on my custom 2D engine RushEngine (not gameendingin2D) which I plan to release for the public to use when it's more mature.

The game is called NekoRush and it's a continuous runner.

more pics here :

http://levelism.com/preview-01-of-my-new-psmvita-game-neko-rush/

Definitely interested in the engine, just to see what someone else did. Working with Game Engine 2D can be challenging at times.

 

[AlexM]

Your nekos look like nezumis.

Heheh yeah they do look a little roddent-ish. I think the faces need to be a little pointier or something.

Definitely interested in the engine, just to see what someone else did. Working with Game Engine 2D can be challenging at times.

Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of it. I started reading the source code for the engine and it seemed to be a little to broad for me.

I'm going for a state-sprite style model but the sprite is made of components so if you want to make your own sprite or different type of entity class you can build it yourself.

Here's example code for loading a spaceship on the screen and moving it.

using System;
using RushLib;

namespace ExampleLand
{
	public class ExampleLandMainMenu : RsState
	{
		RsSprite spaceShipts = new RsSprite(192,192,"/Application/art/spaceships.png"); 
		public ExampleLandMainMenu () { }
		
		protected override void Init ()
		{
			base.Init (); 
                        //A one frame animation can be used to get a section/subrectangle of an image. If the framerate is zero it cancels animation
			RsAnimation idle = new RsAnimation(spaceShipts);
			idle.AddFrame(0,0,67,67,0);
			spaceShipts.AddAnimation("idle",idle);
			spaceShipts.PlayAnimation("idle"); 
			this.AddEntity(spaceShipts);
		}
		
		protected override void Update (int milliseconds)
		{
			base.Update (milliseconds);
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadLeftDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.X -= 11;
			}
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadRightDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.X += 11;
			}
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadUpDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.Y -= 11;
			}
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadDownDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.Y += 11;
			}
		}
		
		protected override void Render ()
		{
			base.Render ();
			//no need to actually call this but if you want to do some custom rendering you can do it here
		}
	}
}

and you startup the state in your main method like so :

RsEngine.Get().State.PushState(new ExampleLandMainMenu());

 

[shaowebb]

Wow...so I think I just did most of the combat game design bible and found out last week I did the bulk of the concepts for my indie studio. Now Im doing modeler work and am told I'll likely be the lead QA dude since I understand fighters too. Here's hoping I can use all these things in my portfolio to garner some studio work.

 

[missile]

Spoiler

LMAO

 

[Heart of Black]

Heheh yeah they do look a little roddent-ish. I think the faces need to be a little pointier or something.



Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of it. I started reading the source code for the engine and it seemed to be a little to broad for me.

I'm going for a state-sprite style model but the sprite is made of components so if you want to make your own sprite or different type of entity class you can build it yourself.

Here's example code for loading a spaceship on the screen and moving it.

using System;
using RushLib;

namespace ExampleLand
{
	public class ExampleLandMainMenu : RsState
	{
		RsSprite spaceShipts = new RsSprite(192,192,"/Application/art/spaceships.png"); 
		public ExampleLandMainMenu () { }
		
		protected override void Init ()
		{
			base.Init (); 
                        //A one frame animation can be used to get a section/subrectangle of an image. If the framerate is zero it cancels animation
			RsAnimation idle = new RsAnimation(spaceShipts);
			idle.AddFrame(0,0,67,67,0);
			spaceShipts.AddAnimation("idle",idle);
			spaceShipts.PlayAnimation("idle"); 
			this.AddEntity(spaceShipts);
		}
		
		protected override void Update (int milliseconds)
		{
			base.Update (milliseconds);
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadLeftDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.X -= 11;
			}
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadRightDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.X += 11;
			}
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadUpDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.Y -= 11;
			}
			if (RsEngine.Get().Input.DPadDownDown)
			{
				spaceShipts.Y += 11;
			}
		}
		
		protected override void Render ()
		{
			base.Render ();
			//no need to actually call this but if you want to do some custom rendering you can do it here
		}
	}
}

and you startup the state in your main method like so :

RsEngine.Get().State.PushState(new ExampleLandMainMenu());

Hey, thanks for posting that. Looks neat, going to have my programmer look over it.

 

[Feep]

So, a little soldier is moving smoothly to the right, at a (coordinate) speed of 100 pixels/second.

Humans, unfortunately, do not move in a nice smooth way. Walking (and running) causes human motion to be a little jankier.

Does anyone know what kind of function I can use here to simulate that? Couldn't get a simple sine wave to look right, no matter the parameters. Basically, this:

offsetPosition = //What?

spriteBatch.Draw(soldier, actualPosition + offsetPosition);

 

[Blizzard]

So, a little soldier is moving smoothly to the right, at a (coordinate) speed of 100 pixels/second.

Humans, unfortunately, do not move in a nice smooth way. Walking (and running) causes human motion to be a little jankier.

Does anyone know what kind of function I can use here to simulate that? Couldn't get a simple sine wave to look right, no matter the parameters. Basically, this:

offsetPosition = //What?

spriteBatch.Draw(soldier, actualPosition + offsetPosition);

Is this pure sidescrolling view? Either way, a sum (or product) of sine/cosine waves might get what you want. Experiment with different scaling factors for the sine(s) parameter.

Try playing with something like this, for instance: http://fooplot.com/#W3sidHlwZSI6MCw...sImNvbG9yIjoiIzAwMDAwMCJ9LHsidHlwZSI6MTAwMH1d

 

[Popstar]

So, a little soldier is moving smoothly to the right, at a (coordinate) speed of 100 pixels/second.

Humans, unfortunately, do not move in a nice smooth way. Walking (and running) causes human motion to be a little jankier.

Does anyone know what kind of function I can use here to simulate that? Couldn't get a simple sine wave to look right, no matter the parameters. Basically, this:

offsetPosition = //What?

spriteBatch.Draw(soldier, actualPosition + offsetPosition);

You want a sort of inverted pendulum. {Google search}

 

[Feep]

Cool! Thanks, guys.

Went with: walkingOffset = velocity * 0.8f * (float)((Math.Sin(0.075f * Utility.getMagnitude(velocity) * gameTime.TotalGameTime.TotalSeconds) - Math.Sin(0.1875f * Utility.getMagnitude(velocity) * gameTime.TotalGameTime.TotalSeconds))) / maxSpeed;

Fuck your readable code

 

[Blizzard]

Cool! Thanks, guys.

Oh and for any of the sinusoidal shapes, you can also take the absolute value to get sharp points like the "Impulsive run" from the nature.com picture.

For example: http://fooplot.com/#W3sidHlwZSI6MCw...jb2xvciI6IiMwMDAwMDAifSx7InR5cGUiOjEwMDB9XQ--

 

[kevinski]

Nice article on using Unity for 2D: http://pixelpaton.com/?p=5591

Thanks for posting this. I searched for this thread specifically to ask if it made sense to use Unity for making 2D games, and the article that you linked to answered that question quite nicely.

 

[Tash]

We use Unity for both 2D and 3D but frankly it's a bit of a pain to use for 2D.
However, the article linked is very informative and one additional important, positive point to mention is the cross-platform deployment.

 

[Legato.Reborn-]

Cool! Thanks, guys.

Went with: walkingOffset = velocity * 0.8f * (float)((Math.Sin(0.075f * Utility.getMagnitude(velocity) * gameTime.TotalGameTime.TotalSeconds) - Math.Sin(0.1875f * Utility.getMagnitude(velocity) * gameTime.TotalGameTime.TotalSeconds))) / maxSpeed;

Fuck your readable code

Okay, so regarding this

What is your process of coming up with this kind of process?

Is it tacked on from all parts of Google, then painstakingly f5'd over and over until it has the desired effect or did you completely know what it's doing in the first place?

I just can't make sense of that.. :/

 

[RelentlessRolento]

We use Unity for both 2D and 3D but frankly it's a bit of a pain to use for 2D.
However, the article linked is very informative and one additional important, positive point to mention is the cross-platform deployment.

While Unity does have nice platform deloyment, GameMaker has those options as well now, though possibly not as elegant, but still integrated damn well.

 

[Subtle]

So I really want to make a game. I was reading the op and I'm wondering if I should learn how to program or use something like GameMaker. Any recommendations?

 

[AlexM]

game tool

If I were starting from scratch today I would definitely use a tool. Hell I still consider it frequently.

 

[Tash]

So I really want to make a game. I was reading the op and I'm wondering if I should learn how to program or use something like GameMaker. Any recommendations?

It depends how serious you are about it - if you only look at it as a hobby you can very well use a tool but if you want to actually pursue it as a career I would strongly suggest to learn coding and/or programming. Tools will only get you that far and you'll be always restricted to do what others have done before you. If you know how to program you can use the tools as base but also vastly improve and expand on whatever engine you are going to use.

 

[Feep]

Okay, so regarding this

What is your process of coming up with this kind of process?

Is it tacked on from all parts of Google, then painstakingly f5'd over and over until it has the desired effect or did you completely know what it's doing in the first place?

I just can't make sense of that.. :/

Well, I actually used the suggested sin(x) - sin(2.5x), believe it or not. XNA uses Math.Sin, and I needed to cast it to a float. The 0.8f is just a scaling factor (how big the steps are), which I got by messing around with.

I also wanted to scale the step size by how quickly the unit is moving, and it has to be in the correct direction anyway, which explains the velocity (which is a 2-D Vector) / maxSpeed factor.

I *also* wanted to scale the step *speed* by how fast the unit was moving, so that explains the scaling factor inside the Math.Sin of Utility.getMagnitude(velocity), which just returns the unit's speed, basically. The 0.075, when multiplied by the maximum velocity of 80, will return 6. The 0.1875, when multiplied by the maximum velocity of 80, will return 15. So, sin(6x) - sin(15x), which is an equivalent function to sin(x) - sin(2.5x), I just sped it up. Got the "6" factor from just messing around.

It looks complicated, it isn't. A real coder in a team environment would get shot for making something this unreadable, but I'm the only coder, so whatever. = D

 

[neoemonk]

I'm putting around an eighth of a million dollars of my own money into the game...but it's surprising how not-very-far that goes, even for an indie. I've already dropped for two composers, the sound studio, the actors, and a programmer. I want to hire two fulltime artist-folk as well, if I can, thus the KS...

But thank you for your support anyway ^^

Looking at that amount of money is just soul crushing. Holy shit. That's more than I've ever had at one time in my life.

 

[Noogy]

Looking at that amount of money is just soul crushing. Holy shit. That's more than I've ever had at one time in my life.

You can do things pretty cheap the more you do yourself. I think I spent less than $25k on outsourcing for Dust:AET up front (music and VO). Compared to the costs of localization/console cert, that's nothing.