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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Ranger X

Member
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.
^_^

I actually think its smart do to that. Could be organised as "build reviews" hours. Its EXTREMELY important to check global progress regularly and stay in touch with the look and feel of the game.
 

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
What good resources are there for finding free music?

I've found this site: http://www.rengoku-teien.com/rule.html (that's their license info page)
They apparently make music for various games (and they're very, very good at it), and I'm 90% certain the mountain of music on their site is fine to use in a game, but I can't read Japanese...

8bc used to be. :( I think there's some successors but I haven't looked into it.
 
So I officially "opened" (if you can call it that), the development studio I'll be working on this project from. And the talk on the indie scene is pretty good (I think?) so that's good. Next is to start getting people on board and we can start making ourselves a game.

Well...once a couple of more months of narrative development and quest/dialogue writing happens. But hey, baby steps.
 
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

we had discussed approaching both microsoft and sony about trying to get deals for xbla and/or psn. we were kind of skeptical about either biting because of the farting hahaha. we were going to take the game to pax to demo it and explore options there.

the mash-up is perfect. i had wanted to do an epic, orchestral piece for the game's main menu screen. i'm kind of flattered that the people involved with dust: aet liked the footage enough to make that. very cool!
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
topbannerr.gif


Hey there everybody. We are working on a game called "The Other Brothers". The Other Brothers is a platformer that will have you running, jumping, collecting and racing against the clock in a modern take on that time-tested genre!

Please have a look at this video:

http://youtu.be/oHWqJwg1G3I


You can find our website at: http://www.tobgame.com

The game is published by: http://www.3dattack.us

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
Thanks guys! Well it's not on Greenlight yet but we will add it soon. Glad you guys like what you see. It's definitely even more fun once you actually get to play it. We are currently trying to wrap up things so we can release at end of March.
 

razu

Member
topbannerr.gif


Hey there everybody. We are working on a game called "The Other Brothers". The Other Brothers is a platformer that will have you running, jumping, collecting and racing against the clock in a modern take on that time-tested genre!

Please have a look at this video:

http://youtu.be/oHWqJwg1G3I


You can find our website at: http://www.tobgame.com

The game is published by: http://www.3dattack.us

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame



Super. Cool. Will purchase!

And... totally solves my trailer thoughts... Simple, effective. Nice one!
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
Super. Cool. Will purchase!

And... totally solves my trailer thoughts... Simple, effective. Nice one!


Thank you! Yeah I tried to keep it short and action packed :) Had a look at your site as well. I like what I am seeing there. Keep it up!
 

embalm

Member
Does anyone know the best place to get iPad's on the cheap to use for testing their applications. I'd like to test on more than the mini and 3rd gen, but I can't shovel out the funds for them.

Where did you get yours? What do you test on? Do you find them performing the same across the board for your touch apps?
 

razu

Member
Thank you! Yeah I tried to keep it short and action packed :) Had a look at your site as well. I like what I am seeing there. Keep it up!

Thanks!! Yep, nearly ready to release game #1! Excited :D



Does anyone know the best place to get iPad's on the cheap to use for testing their applications. I'd like to test on more than the mini and 3rd gen, but I can't shovel out the funds for them.

Where did you get yours? What do you test on? Do you find them performing the same across the board for your touch apps?

I have an iPad3, and borrow the GF's iPhone 4S.. I rely on Test Flight and friends to test on other devices.. not ideal, but I'm one dude! I have borrowed a 4 for an afternoon once, when it came to my attention that it is a terrible device to support when you aimed at 4S!!!
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
Does anyone know the best place to get iPad's on the cheap to use for testing their applications. I'd like to test on more than the mini and 3rd gen, but I can't shovel out the funds for them.

Where did you get yours? What do you test on? Do you find them performing the same across the board for your touch apps?

The best thing to do is to use https://testflightapp.com and get yourself a small group of people you can trust to test your app on various devices. In one of my earlier games there was a bug that only happened on latest generation iPad's which I do not own. The bug is fixed now but I wish we would have used testflightapp before and it could have saved us a few very bad ratings due to crash/bugs that hindered the experience.
 

Kikarian

Member
topbannerr.gif


Hey there everybody. We are working on a game called "The Other Brothers". The Other Brothers is a platformer that will have you running, jumping, collecting and racing against the clock in a modern take on that time-tested genre!

Please have a look at this video:

http://youtu.be/oHWqJwg1G3I


You can find our website at: http://www.tobgame.com

The game is published by: http://www.3dattack.us

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame
The game looks great!

Good trailer also!
 
Hey there everybody. We are working on a game called "The Other Brothers". The Other Brothers is a platformer that will have you running, jumping, collecting and racing against the clock in a modern take on that time-tested genre!

Please have a look at this video:

http://youtu.be/oHWqJwg1G3I


You can find our website at: http://www.tobgame.com

The game is published by: http://www.3dattack.us

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame

Beautiful looking game, I love your art style. I want to eat your spicy brains to get your skills! ;)

Are there any bored programmers and a bored 3D artist here on GAF? I know that's asking for a tremendous amount, but my team recently fell apart. I'm going to try and record some video of the prototype we made(we did NOT get very far at all) and post it. Hopefully that will generate some interest...I can only hope and pray...
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
Beautiful looking game, I love your art style. I want to eat your spicy brains to get your skills! ;)

Are there any bored programmers and a bored 3D artist here on GAF? I know that's asking for a tremendous amount, but my team recently fell apart. I'm going to try and record some video of the prototype we made(we did NOT get very far at all) and post it. Hopefully that will generate some interest...I can only hope and pray...

Hey again and thanks everybody!! SanaeAkatsuki - What engine are you using? Probably best to ask for collaborators on a specific forum such as the Unity or UDK forums or whatever engine you're using. It's not easy finding the "right" people and it can take time but never stop looking :)
 

Miruhoggu

Neo Member
To those of you who enjoyed their games : Arkedo (Big Bang Mini, Hell Yeah!, Nervous Brickdown) has officially been disbanded. Aurélien (art director, game designer and jack of all trades) is explaining why on his blog.

Basically, they made two little projects with their own money after HY, but couldn't find steady contracts to continue to run a studio which got bigger than expected. Since they also wanted to go back to smaller indie projects and even personal projects in the future, they decided to stop before having debts. No one is working there anymore, but Arkedo still exists so that they can try to release their last two small games under the studio's name.

Camille (boss and chef) is taking a break from videogames because of a hitch with it's Nice Guys project. Aurélien is making a game on his own, from coding to visuals and music, with the creation of a new small studio in mind in the coming years.
 

Spierek

Member
To those of you who enjoyed their games : Arkedo (Big Bang Mini, Hell Yeah!, Nervous Brickdown) has officially been disbanded. Aurélien (art director, game designer and jack of all trades) is explaining why on his blog.

That's awful, I really liked Big Bang Mini and would like it if they continued to make that kind of small, fun titles..
 

NewFresh

Member
Hey there everybody. We are working on a game called "The Other Brothers". The Other Brothers is a platformer that will have you running, jumping, collecting and racing against the clock in a modern take on that time-tested genre!

Please have a look at this video:

http://youtu.be/oHWqJwg1G3I


You can find our website at: http://www.tobgame.com

The game is published by: http://www.3dattack.us

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame

Backed the game when you guys were on kickstarter, glad to see it's still alive and in progress. It looks amazing.
 

BlueMagic

Member
Beautiful looking game, I love your art style. I want to eat your spicy brains to get your skills! ;)

Are there any bored programmers and a bored 3D artist here on GAF? I know that's asking for a tremendous amount, but my team recently fell apart. I'm going to try and record some video of the prototype we made(we did NOT get very far at all) and post it. Hopefully that will generate some interest...I can only hope and pray...

Show us what you got! I probably won't be able to help due both to time and incompetence :p, but there's great talent here.
Also, you should give more details on the project, like engine/language, type of game, scope of the project, etc. to generate more interest.
 

cbox

Member
Recorded some gameplay footage last night!

Check it out :) This is our "dev" mode where all the enemies are there at once, and I've fully upgraded the ship and its weapons. You can see our upgrade menu when you burst outside the playfield. Right now we're tweaking the gameplay modes, and starting to think about music and SFX.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDSVhQ2smmw
 
If anyone wants to watch someone using Graphics Gale to do sprite stuff, I just noticed that it is up on the stream for the Mojam (the game jam with Mojang and other developers):

http://www.twitch.tv/mojang

yeah saw that earlier... i turned it on quick and was like "what program is that?" then he popped the text up what it was... forgot I have the program already, just have yet to learn to use it.

I use to use Pixen for all my pixel stuff but it got super buggy for me.
 
Hey there everybody. We are working on a game called "The Other Brothers". The Other Brothers is a platformer that will have you running, jumping, collecting and racing against the clock in a modern take on that time-tested genre!
[/url]

Oh, nice! I've seen some of your or your members' posts on the Unity forums, I think. You guys use the ex2D plugin to drive the spritework in your game, right?

I'm making use of that as well, but I don't have a great handle on anything beyond some the basic features, and the posts I read seemed to have a really good handle on how to get a lot of mileage out of it. Mind sharing some tips?
 

Blacklion

Member
Hi everybody

We got Our Serpent Boss started :)
...It's still a W.I.P and the idle frames are half of what they will be.
We were able to render him @ 512 x 512 with a max sheet size of 2048.
G9QcdGk.jpg


Here is our "Danger Room Footage" where we test out new enemies and environment obstacles.
The actual Lair will be rendered and lit in 3d max / Z brush.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTPnRTkW79Q

voice over commercial one more edit to go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApI8gd2t1Io


We Have a playable DEMO for PC!! :)
controller recommended
wCkL1SGl.jpg

http://www.gamefront.com/files/22940838/FulgrimsQuest.zip

Please; give it a shot and let us know what you think.
113 meg download zipped with installer XNA 4.0 installed

Have ideas for bad guys or special combat maneuvers? Please share
We are very much still in content creation and planning for later levels (8 planned).

Fulgrim 1st concept
barbarian.jpg


Slaver Boss
v6p24zbl.jpg
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
Oh, nice! I've seen some of your or your members' posts on the Unity forums, I think. You guys use the ex2D plugin to drive the spritework in your game, right?

I'm making use of that as well, but I don't have a great handle on anything beyond some the basic features, and the posts I read seemed to have a really good handle on how to get a lot of mileage out of it. Mind sharing some tips?

Hey Darkblade,

Yeah most team members are on the Unity forum including me. We are indeed using ex2D to help with the sprite atlas/animations but we extended and wrote quiet a bit ourselves. What sort of tips are you after? What are your main issues with it?
 
Hey Darkblade,

Yeah most team members are on the Unity forum including me. We are indeed using ex2D to help with the sprite atlas/animations but we extended and wrote quiet a bit ourselves. What sort of tips are you after? What are your main issues with it?

I'd like to extend the animation editor, but it didn't seem possible without investing in the Pro version--so I ended up slowly building an editor that just cycled through SpriteAnimations and overlaid collider/trigger areas on specific frames of animation(the main part I wanted). But it feels like a cheap fix right now, and I'm wondering if there are ways I can improve on the editor without forking over a lot of cash.

Some things I don't really get with the plugin that I'd like to know...
  • If there's a way to specify an offset that can be changed on a frame-to-frame basis for a given animation
  • How the 'execute code on frame [x]' thing in the animation editor actually works
  • How to grab and use SpriteAnimations by reference rather than feeding the component a string every time I play one
  • If there's a way to create animations that inherently branch into various other animations upon some conditional checking out(I can do this manually, just wondering if there's some derivative of Play() that may do this or extra arguments it accepts, etc)

I was also wondering if procedurally modifying a given animation as it's displayed is a good way to go for creating effects(like flat shadows, classic afterimages, palette/color area chanigng, lighting in general, etc), or if that is more shader territory, or both...? I don't have any experience in those areas right now(effects, shaders, etc), and I'd like to know if there's a proper direction to get started in, assuming I'm working with mostly 2D assets. Seeing Diablohead's progress certainly did not hurt my interest there...
 

usea

Member
Has anybody looked at Wave yet? It's a free cross-platform engine. You code in .net against their assemblies. There's no export to browser, and if you want to deploy to phone you have to pay for the monotouch license since it uses that.
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
I'd like to extend the animation editor, but it didn't seem possible without investing in the Pro version--so I ended up slowly building an editor that just cycled through SpriteAnimations and overlaid collider/trigger areas on specific frames of animation(the main part I wanted). But it feels like a cheap fix right now, and I'm wondering if there are ways I can improve on the editor without forking over a lot of cash...

I think those questions are for Robert, our programmer. I am mostly responsible for Level design of TOB and using ex2D from an artist point of view which is mostly preparing sprites, creating atlases, animations etc. So, a technical artist if you want to call it that. ex2D has some quirks which can be hugely annoying and forces you to rebuild atlases more than you would like to. Maybe ask your specific questions on the Unity forum. The ex2D guy has a thread there and you could perhaps get answers from the dev himself.
 
I think those questions are for Robert, our programmer. I am mostly responsible for Level design of TOB and using ex2D from an artist point of view which is mostly preparing sprites, creating atlases, animations etc. So, a technical artist if you want to call it that. ex2D has some quirks which can be hugely annoying and forces you to rebuild atlases more than you would like to. Maybe ask your specific questions on the Unity forum. The ex2D guy has a thread there and you could perhaps get answers from the dev himself.

Okay, sure thing.

But I guess while I'm at it, can I ask you about how you go about the bolded tasks? I'd love that kind of perspective (both as an artist having to go through these steps rather than a programmer, and as someone trying to work with/around ex2D) if you're willing to offer it.

I'm also interested in level design, but I'm not quite at a good place where I could absorb/apply that information--so if you're willing to talk about your working process there, I'd still be happy to listen to that too!
 

.nimrod

Member
After lots of engine planning/coding i decided to do something a bit more fun for a change. I started playing around with SSAO again, and i finally got results i'm really happy with:

There are still some kinks to work out and it needs to be a lot faster, so it probably won't look as nice in the end. But the general look will most likely (hopefully) stay the same.
 
Screenshot saturday, today I bring you... old stuff.

Sometime in 2008 when I first got an ipod touch and the app store was just launched I fell in love with it and ever since wanted to make a game for it, which right now is Generations, but some of my first attempt at ideas included Velocity Fighters which was going to play a lot like After Burner Climax does, but this was designed before I was able to actually play ABC myself.

Hh251k8.png


Looking back at this work now it really looks like a rip off, but I was aiming at getting some cool water effect after playing someone made a raccoon shooting biplane game in unity3D and I wanted to have my own attempt at such a thing.

---

In other news I have come up with a plan for sales with my game, I wanted to charge an up front cost on all formats but after months of thinking I decided to go for a low cost up front price on PC (and OUYA if I ever get to port it over) but on mobile it will be free with some IAP currency stuff.

Before you go beat me with a stick let me explain :p you get credits for doing side quests in Generations, the IAP stuff is just a boost to that pool of credits and will break nothing.
 

Dali

Member
Did some basically fruitless prototyping today. Maybe in a couple of months I'll have made enough assets to feel comfortable showing a screen. :'(


Screenshot saturday, today I bring you... old stuff.

Sometime in 2008 when I first got an ipod touch and the app store was just launched I fell in love with it and ever since wanted to make a game for it, which right now is Generations, but some of my first attempt at ideas included Velocity Fighters which was going to play a lot like After Burner Climax does, but this was designed before I was able to actually play ABC myself.

Hh251k8.png


Looking back at this work now it really looks like a rip off, but I was aiming at getting some cool water effect after playing someone made a raccoon shooting biplane game in unity3D and I wanted to have my own attempt at such a thing.

---

In other news I have come up with a plan for sales with my game, I wanted to charge an up front cost on all formats but after months of thinking I decided to go for a low cost up front price on PC (and OUYA if I ever get to port it over) but on mobile it will be free with some IAP currency stuff.

Before you go beat me with a stick let me explain :p you get credits for doing side quests in Generations, the IAP stuff is just a boost to that pool of credits and will break nothing.

Looks really good, especially for a first attempt. Was it playable? Are the wind/speed line HUD effects just like a photoshop overlay for a composite target image or did they actually appear when you hit the "afterburners" or whenever they were triggered during gameplay?
 

asa

Member
Tried to learn some C# scripting in Unity today, I've been mostly using Playmaker visualscripter with Unity, and I'm slowly learning to do stuff "proper" way. Playmaker is nice as long you don't need to do too complex things, lately it seems that I've been only doing complex stuff, so I've been trying to transfer to C#... Anyways, I did this little shooter as an C# exercise today, took about 6 hours all in all and I learned a lot!

Check it out:

http://www.kaipaamo.fi/make3d/someshooter/WebPlayer.html
 
Did some basically fruitless prototyping today. Maybe in a couple of months I'll have made enough assets to feel comfortable showing a screen. :'(




Looks really good, especially for a first attempt. Was it playable? Are the wind/speed line HUD effects just like a photoshop overlay for a composite target image or did they actually appear when you hit the "afterburners" or whenever they were triggered during gameplay?

sadly it was just engine renders.

The lines were a textured tube polygon model and what I would have done is made the texture pass along and loop, causing the effect.

My C# knowledge is really poor, I was trying to brute learn it from a book the size of a bible but I also had the last year of uni to finish at the time.
 

MrKayle

Member
Not bad. Once i got the hang of it it was pretty fun. The graphics and sfx took me back like 20 years to Windows 3.x and Commander Keen, lol.

warping war pig is out! still hard as hell to get noticed though. and i think even with my fairly thorough tutorial, people still don't understand how to play properly to have the most enjoyment.

got a japanese writeup here, pretty neat: http://tamagoloop.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-52.html

iphone/ipad: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/warping-war-pig/id590069443?ls=1&mt=8

flash: http://warpingwarpig.com





 

fin

Member
Been a while since I posted on here, so I'm going to show some stuff. After my clone game for the GITHUB Game Jam (which failed even a honorable mention, but you can play it here, ugh I just played it for the first time in a few months...I must've fixed the controls too since then :p) I started on something else. Something pretty ambitious and for mobile only. I worked on it for a couple weeks got a pretty good start on it, and also 100% C# instead of UnityScript. But then I played The Cave. It really inspired to go back to the clone game. I first had it playing exactly like The Cave. Switching between the clones, and controlling them separately. But I found it was too easy to solve puzzles that way. So I made it so you controlled them all at once... But yeah so now I'm going to work on this project through to completion. Here's what I've been doing.

First thing I did was experiment with art styles. My initial ambition was realistic sci-fi, this is as far as I got:

Needless to say it wasn't ending up like I was imagining in my head :p. Even if I could get it looking the way I wanted it would take a long time to create the assets. So back to the drawing board... (or Google in my case). After days of pondering and searching I found this:

Hexigons, they are everywhere these days. Tron is also cool. I thought something like this would look good on a phone or tablet. So I went with it and this is where I'm at now:

Before:

After:

Still need to figure something out for the background though...probably going to do something like the Crysis 3 training level.

Also been adding other stuff in the game, click for full view:
Jump Pads


Doors with Locks and Keys


Time Webs, that slow down anything that enters it. Like Braid...


Sentries that shoots and kills stuff in it's view. Complete with a recharge rate that is shown by the 4 lights on the front.


The new bridges and doors now are floating hexigons then animate into place


And yeah it's all working on Android now, got a Nexus 4 and Galaxy tablet. Gonna have to buy a MAC soon with a Ipod and Ipad to test sometime soon.
 
If anyone is going to GDC or will be in the bay area then, I highly recommend pitching your game to Devolver Digital for their Pitch Fork Parker Contest. My game Dungeon Hearts was a winner last year, and after working with them for a year now, I have nothing but good things to say about them.

On a somewhat related note, I'll be showing the game at PAX East next month!
 

Dali

Member
sadly it was just engine renders.

The lines were a textured tube polygon model and what I would have done is made the texture pass along and loop, causing the effect.

My C# knowledge is really poor, I was trying to brute learn it from a book the size of a bible but I also had the last year of uni to finish at the time.

Aw too bad. The jet model is excellent. That's an interesting way of doing that effect too.
 

hoverX

Member
The game I've been working on for the past while will be in the app store next week. Might not appeal to a lot of you. It's an educational game for kids learning to count and add. If you've got kids that age I hope you will check it out when it's available

Here are some images:

As the kids progress through the game they earn puzzle pieces as rewards. Here is one of the images
http://imgur.com/Kefcxmz
Kefcxmz.png


and a gallery of some more gameplay:

http://imgur.com/a/N5vLR
 

AlexM

Member
More work done on my PSM/Vita engine and game.

Got most of the game logic basically working and some more art done. Now I have to decide whether this game should have 10 levels like originally planned or go the procedural endless route.

Not sure exactly. I suppose I could do the levels and have the result of getting a good rank an unlock to a procedural endless mode. I do have time constraints though because I would like to get this engine out for other psm/vita developers to play with.

2013-02-24_01.png
 

Ydahs

Member
Does anyone have any opinions on Monogame? I have a Monotouch and Monodroid license so I thought it might be worth a try.
 

razu

Member
As of tomorrow I am working full time on VAMflax for 3 months. I have given myself 10 working days to complete Chopper Mike iOS and Android..

I have a few levels to create, and a few How To Play screens to make, and a bit of achievement code to write. Get that done in the first week, then play and polish the second week.

I am... super excited!! :D
 

Dali

Member
As of tomorrow I am working full time on VAMflax for 3 months. I have given myself 10 working days to complete Chopper Mike iOS and Android..

I have a few levels to create, and a few How To Play screens to make, and a bit of achievement code to write. Get that done in the first week, then play and polish the second week.

I am... super excited!! :D
Good luck
 
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