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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
beril said:
I woulnd't go so far as to say completely new tech, but I haven't really seen anything quite like it. Technically it's completely different from Gunman Clive at least, though it's also going for a rough handdrawn look but in a different style, somewhat inspired by Yoshis Island.

I'm focusing on 3DS for now; with potential ports later. I'm not sure if I'll get it to work on smartphones though with the heavy geometry shader use; I'd have to do everything on the CPU which I guess could be slow; it's also quite fillrate heavy so I might have some trouble running it in native resolution on those devices.
Click to expand...

Very intrigued now. Yoshi's Island has a great style.

Will probably get in day one then, I got GMC on Android but I couldn't beat it until I also got the 3DS version. Buttons rule. :)
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
Finally teaching myself how to do basic mapping in Unity--spent several hours on it this morning. I'm not really sure how to get items to snap together with the free version of ProBuilder, though.

Any ideas/any alternatives to progrids you'd recommend?

I can't even afford to replace my tires at the moment, so picking up the full version of ProBuilder 2 isn't an option. :(
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
"Finally teaching myself how to do basic mapping in Unity--spent several hours on it this morning. I'm not really sure how to get items to snap together with the free version of ProBuilder, though.

Any ideas/any alternatives to progrids you'd recommend?"


Isn't there a free version of progrids? Alternatively, you can just hold down V in the editor and hover over a vertex, then click and drag and snap to other vertices.
 
M

MikeHaggar

Member
Feep said:
In case you guys didn't see, my Kickstarter is up. = D

Now I finally get to post in this thread about stuff! There were a bunch of times when I wanted to, but could not. = (
Click to expand...

it's very well done, feep! best of luck on it!

as an aside, how do you do a kickstarter and say that the game will be released on steam? do you get approval from valve beforehand?
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Feep said:
Yeah. We confirmed with Valve. = D
Click to expand...
So this is a key question that we've been waiting to find out the answer to.

Were you able to get Valve's guarantee that you will be on Steam, bypassing Greenlight completely, since you had a previous game on the service? Or did they give you any grief about it? Or are you not allowed to say?
 
F

Feep

Banned
Blizzard said:
So this is a key question that we've been waiting to find out the answer to.

Were you able to get Valve's guarantee that you will be on Steam, bypassing Greenlight completely, since you had a previous game on the service? Or did they give you any grief about it? Or are you not allowed to say?
Click to expand...
I think it goes without saying that I would not definitively offer my backers a reward unless I were absolutely 100% sure I could deliver.

Valve's decision-making processes remain unclear to me in general, but that much is certain.
 
D

Dreamwriter

Member
Anyone have any tips on making a good game trailer that doesn't spoil things in the game? My game's got Zelda-style exploration, so of course I'd like to give away as little as possible about the various items you can get and the places you can explore... but that of course is the stuff that makes the game fun, that would interest people.
 
N

Noogy

Member
Dreamwriter said:
Anyone have any tips on making a good game trailer that doesn't spoil things in the game? My game's got Zelda-style exploration, so of course I'd like to give away as little as possible about the various items you can get and the places you can explore... but that of course is the stuff that makes the game fun!
Click to expand...

Here's my advice, for what it's worth. Indies shouldn't worry about spoilers in their marketing. You WANT as many people to see what's cool about your game as humanly possible. Unless you have tons of awesome cutscenes and high-budget art to 'fake' a trailer, there's no real advantage to hiding stuff away.

What that means is that you want to show off a clever secret to get people interested. Worry less about the "oh, I'm playing this and remember it was spoiled in the trailer" and more about the "hmm, never even heard of that game."

Show off the fun. There's not much to be gained by hiding it.
 
D

Dreamwriter

Member
I'm worried about this: "I bought this game for its fun exploration, but I already know what I need to do in this part because I saw in the trailer that all these trees standing around will be cleared using a beaver on a stick, and I bet that shovel I saw can be used to clear this huge pile of dirt, so this game sucks, there is no real exploration." It's the same deal as with a comedy movie that has all its funny moments spoiled in the trailer - sure it made you go see the movie, but the movie wasn't any fun.
 
D

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Dreamwriter said:
I'm worried about this: "I bought this game for its fun exploration, but I already know what I need to do in this part because I saw in the trailer that all these trees standing around will be cleared using a beaver on a stick, and I bet that shovel I saw can be used to clear this huge pile of dirt, so this game sucks, there is no real exploration." It's the same deal as with a comedy movie that has all its funny moments spoiled in the trailer - sure it made you go see the movie, but the movie wasn't any fun.
Click to expand...

I really doubt you would get many customers that would make that complaint
 
F

Feep

Banned
Noogy said:
Here's my advice, for what it's worth. Indies shouldn't worry about spoilers in their marketing. You WANT as many people to see what's cool about your game as humanly possible. Unless you have tons of awesome cutscenes and high-budget art to 'fake' a trailer, there's no real advantage to hiding stuff away.

What that means is that you want to show off a clever secret to get people interested. Worry less about the "oh, I'm playing this and remember it was spoiled in the trailer" and more about the "hmm, never even heard of that game."

Show off the fun. There's not much to be gained by hiding it.
Click to expand...
A woman once went to the editor of a trailer for feature films.

"You ruin movies for me," she yelled indignantly. "I see all the fun bits, but then when I go to see the movie, nothing is fresh or exciting!"

The editor simply replied, "You went to see the movie, didn't you?"
 
C

charsace

Member
Dreamwriter said:
Anyone have any tips on making a good game trailer that doesn't spoil things in the game? My game's got Zelda-style exploration, so of course I'd like to give away as little as possible about the various items you can get and the places you can explore... but that of course is the stuff that makes the game fun, that would interest people.
Click to expand...

I think only a developer that has built up a good rep can show a trailer for their game without showing much. And some developers still get backlash. Show gameplay if you can.
 
R

Ranger X

Member
Chaotic Kitten said:
I've been wanting to post about my game here for a bit, but because it's so far along I felt like the cool progress aspect would be lost, and that's half the fun! So I put my ladybrain to work and solved my silly problem. Here is a quick time travel for you all, in images.

The game is something my husband and I are working on, It's called Legend of Dungeon, and it's a single player/co-op Roguelike "Crawl&Brawl" with Dynamic shading on pixel sprites.

An early test of the dynamic lighting on our 2D Sprites:
cgV1w.png


Getting some texture in to test more dynamic lighting and stuff.
bcPni.png


Better dungeon blocks, a lot closer to what we imagined:
tumblr_mbdwr69IFq1reta3vo1_500.png


And this was a Kitten test from just last week:
tumblr_mhz84baCrh1reta3vo2_500.png



It's been about four months in progress, and we are feeling really good about where it's headed. Almost every time we go in to test something, we end up playing through it, which is both good and bad >.>

That's about it for the recap!

Thanks for looking ^_^ I'll post more videos and stuff if anyone is interested.
Click to expand...


Oh wow, seriously I LOVE the looks. Too charming.
Please make this play good! :p
 
R

razu

Member
O

OccamsBlender

Member
beril said:
I finally made a breakthrough with my new game and found a pretty cool artstyle.

After Gunman Clive I initially felt quite a lot of pressure for the visuals for my next game to have the same uniqueness, but after some rather unsuccessful rendering experiments I had pretty much settled on using a much more traditional style. I haven't really been able to get started on the game until very recently though and struggled with making decent looking assets. Then the other day I got a somewhat crazy idea involving very heavy geometry shader usage, and the results so far are very promising.

If I can really pull off this style it will mean that creating the assets might be even easier and faster than for Gunman Clive, and I think I can get away with some pretty sparse environments without it feeling cheap, and the game will definitely look unique.

I think I'll wait a bit longer before I show anything though.
Click to expand...

Definitely looking forward to this. Also, congratulations on your Nintendo E-Shop success! I'll grab it for my 3DS if it hits the JP shop. Need help with JP localization?

Also to ChaoticKitten: LOVE the Legend of Dungeon screens!
 
A

asa

Member
razu said:
In amongst some skateboard maintenance this morning I managed to get some time to try out... Chopper Mike on Ouya, via a Philips PicoPix projector! It's only.. SUPER RAD!! :D

Click for big...



​
Click to expand...

Whats the exact model? That looks nice enough for showcasing games on the go.
 
M

MikeHaggar

Member
the project i've been working on for two years has been cancelled. my partner left and took all of the funding with him. it's a bit devastating...

we never showed the game publicly. i'm going to share it with neogaf now. this is an early video of one of the opponents in the game. he has no AI pattern, there's a teleportation effect that is missing (he disappears and reappears after attacking), his dodge animation is a place-holder, and his health is purposely set very low for the purposes of the video. additionally, the hud is all programmer art.

I recommend watching the video in 720p if possible. with that said, i present to you: Battle Farts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_XFmobgq4
 
M

missile

Member
MikeHaggar said:
the project i've been working on for two years has been cancelled. my partner left and took all of the funding with him. it's a bit devastating...

we never showed the game publicly. i'm going to share it with neogaf now. this is an early video of one of the opponents in the game. he has no AI pattern, there's a teleportation effect that is missing (he disappears and reappears after attacking), his dodge animation is a place-holder, and his health is purposely set very low for the purposes of the video. additionally, the hud is all programmer art.

I recommend watching the video in 720p if possible. with that said, i present to you: Battle Farts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_XFmobgq4
Click to expand...
That's funny! (the game I mean)

Chin up! What's next?
 
M

MikeHaggar

Member
missile said:
That's funny! (the game I mean)

Chin up! What's next?
Click to expand...

glad that you got a kick out of the game!

i'm already prototyping a smaller game. if things go smoothly i think i can release it in june on xbox, windows phone, and iOS. i have to find work though before i start focusing on that. i ended up unemployed rather abruptly and unexpectedly.
 
G

Genji

Member
MikeHaggar said:
glad that you got a kick out of the game!

i'm already prototyping a smaller game. if things go smoothly i think i can release it in june on xbox, windows phone, and iOS. i have to find work though before i start focusing on that. i ended up unemployed rather abruptly and unexpectedly.
Click to expand...

Funny game, looked like it could have been fun when everything was completed. Best of luck with the job search and also with your new game.
 
R

Raide

Member
MikeHaggar said:
glad that you got a kick out of the game!

i'm already prototyping a smaller game. if things go smoothly i think i can release it in june on xbox, windows phone, and iOS. i have to find work though before i start focusing on that. i ended up unemployed rather abruptly and unexpectedly.
Click to expand...

Need a good subtitle to the game. May I suggest.

The Fart of Combat.
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
Teknopathetic said:
"Finally teaching myself how to do basic mapping in Unity--spent several hours on it this morning. I'm not really sure how to get items to snap together with the free version of ProBuilder, though.

Any ideas/any alternatives to progrids you'd recommend?"


Isn't there a free version of progrids? Alternatively, you can just hold down V in the editor and hover over a vertex, then click and drag and snap to other vertices.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the free version is stuck at 0.25m, and you can't change that.
 
bumpkin

bumpkin

Member
Hmm... So has there been any new information regarding the cryptic Adelman tweet regarding Nintendo dropping the office space requirement for eShop dev applicants?
 
H

harrypmgaga

Member
bumpkin said:
Hmm... So has there been any new information regarding the cryptic Adelman tweet regarding Nintendo dropping the office space requirement for eShop dev applicants?
Click to expand...

Looking on the Warioworld dev application page, it does seem like they don't need an "office/business" space.
 
D

Dreamwriter

Member
Yeah, they've definitely updated the info there - it no longer sounds super strict about having a business location and financial stability. However,

Nintendo said:
an Authorized Developer will have demonstrated to Nintendo's satisfaction that it has (a) a stable business organization, (b) a secure, lockable area within its workspace to ensure the security of all Nintendo confidential information (including, without limitation, all development tools provided to Authorized Developer by Nintendo), and (c) an effective environment for working with Nintendo and/or its Publishers.
Click to expand...
 
Chaotic Kitten

Chaotic Kitten

Member
Sorry I'm not faster at replying, I am seriously crunching to get the game in a good state for PAX East, We got a booth last minute, and are kind of panicking :p

Ranger X said:
Oh wow, seriously I LOVE the looks. Too charming.
Please make this play good! :p
Click to expand...
Thanks!
If it's any indication, when testing out stuff, we usually get carried away and play through it >.> not great for productivity, but I like to think that means it's fun.


SanaeAkatsuki said:
Also to ChaoticKitten: LOVE the Legend of Dungeon screens!
Click to expand...

Arigatou ^_^
 
O

OccamsBlender

Member
MikeHaggar said:
the project i've been working on for two years has been cancelled. my partner left and took all of the funding with him. it's a bit devastating...

we never showed the game publicly. i'm going to share it with neogaf now. this is an early video of one of the opponents in the game. he has no AI pattern, there's a teleportation effect that is missing (he disappears and reappears after attacking), his dodge animation is a place-holder, and his health is purposely set very low for the purposes of the video. additionally, the hud is all programmer art.

I recommend watching the video in 720p if possible. with that said, i present to you: Battle Farts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_XFmobgq4
Click to expand...
Seconded that the Fart of Fighting as a new title. Certainly better than Voltage Farter Gocabbage! ;)

Feep said:
In case you guys didn't see, my Kickstarter is up. = D
Click to expand...
Good luck and keep updating! If you thought putting it up was crazy, keeping the momentum going is nuts:
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/iridiumstudios/there-came-an-echo-0/
This site might help, IDK what tools Kickstarter gives you.
 
P

Pietepiet

Member
Me and JW from Vlambeer will be participating in this year's Mojam starting later today! So excited. It's been a while since we jammed :)

Will post progress when I can!
 
N

Noogy

Member
MikeHaggar said:
the project i've been working on for two years has been cancelled. my partner left and took all of the funding with him. it's a bit devastating...

we never showed the game publicly. i'm going to share it with neogaf now. this is an early video of one of the opponents in the game. he has no AI pattern, there's a teleportation effect that is missing (he disappears and reappears after attacking), his dodge animation is a place-holder, and his health is purposely set very low for the purposes of the video. additionally, the hud is all programmer art.

I recommend watching the video in 720p if possible. with that said, i present to you: Battle Farts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_XFmobgq4
Click to expand...

That looks great, I'm sorry to hear things turned out that way :p Do I remember you once saying you had a deal to get something on XBLA at some point?

Anyway, keep at it, you'll come up with something new!

BTW, my cowriter also loved this concept, but he thought it a shame it was silent. So he presented this mashup: http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?vide...watch?v=LckJTjGtz2M&start2=115&authorName=FAV
 
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