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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Raide

Member
Progressing slightly now. After coercing my friend to try out Unity, we managed to get the fundamentals of my idea down. Mainly the rotating around a central point and being able to shoot at the middle. Now to tweak.

Also, any 3d model people or 2d art people that would like to make me 1 test object that I need? Still not 100% sure if I want 3d for this or go for a pretty 2D feel.

Cheers!
 
Been a little sloppy with my game lately but after playing blood dragon I made an optional, more tv looking filter for my game if you wish to use it :p

2FTXOji.png


Right now you can have zero filters, a basic one with very faint edges or this one which is suppose to look like a tube tv.
 
^That environment gives me a Zebes vibe from Super Metroid.

A few weeks back I wanted to recreate the landing zone from super metroid because my game is very much a metroidvania, after that I been evolving and changing things to turn it into it's own look so I can understand why you get those zebes feels :p There is even a raining mode I can enable later in the game for it.

I plan for outside areas to allow sunlight, rain, snow and night if I get far enough.
 

razu

Member
Been a little sloppy with my game lately but after playing blood dragon I made an optional, more tv looking filter for my game if you wish to use it :p

2FTXOji.png


Right now you can have zero filters, a basic one with very faint edges or this one which is suppose to look like a tube tv.


Now that, looks wicked :D
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Starting to put together the trailer for my game this weekend. Recorded some good footage. I bet it will take me longer than two days to complete though.

Here is a little gif of my perfect jump timing :p

C5EBdSQ.gif
 

Ranger X

Member
Been a little sloppy with my game lately but after playing blood dragon I made an optional, more tv looking filter for my game if you wish to use it :p

2FTXOji.png


Right now you can have zero filters, a basic one with very faint edges or this one which is suppose to look like a tube tv.


If the start of your game looks like that, I hope you are aware of what my expectations will become, consciously or not. :p
 

bumpkin

Member
I'm not sure how many of you folks are doing Android development, but it looks like the service razu used for letting us test Chopper Mike is now supporting Android Apps. I had heard that their Android stuff was in private beta a few months ago, but it looks like sometime within the last day or two it went live.

https://www.testflightapp.com/android/

Will definitely be helpful for folks like me who don't own a single Droid device.
 
Testflight works really well for Android (and iOS too). It is super easy with Android, it just sends the apk. No need for the device info and such. :)
 

razu

Member
be like these AAA companies. just do a random live action trailer that doesn't even relate to the game other than the logo at the end of the video.

Five minutes of me mowing the lawn, mostly out of frame... de-focus... fade out audio... fade in Chopper Mike logo... worth a go :D


I'm not sure how many of you folks are doing Android development, but it looks like the service razu used for letting us test Chopper Mike is now supporting Android Apps. I had heard that their Android stuff was in private beta a few months ago, but it looks like sometime within the last day or two it went live.

https://www.testflightapp.com/android/

Will definitely be helpful for folks like me who don't own a single Droid device.

TestFlight was good, but glitchy from time to time. Some people had no problems, some people could never install certain builds! Frustrating, but, overall, I got great feedback through it, and it's free. Dealing with feedback, fuuuuuuu... that's tough to begin with. Tip #1, don't answer questions, or enter into discussions. It's FEED. BACK. Just say thanks, and that you'll think about things. Trust me! I'm grateful for the feedback, but wasted a lot of energy arguing the toss over minor schmetails!!

I've spent this week tracking down a Nexus 10 bug. Which made it render a bit weird, just like someone mentioned just after launch. For those who write their own shaders, use float4 for SV_POSITION in the structure you pass between vertex and fragment shaders, not half4. Goes wrong on Nexus 10. Fine on Nexus 7!

That paragraph above, that's game dev. Nothing ever works! But you always find a fix :D
 

charsace

Member
Been a little sloppy with my game lately but after playing blood dragon I made an optional, more tv looking filter for my game if you wish to use it :p

2FTXOji.png


Right now you can have zero filters, a basic one with very faint edges or this one which is suppose to look like a tube tv.
What shader are you using for that? I think pixel art looks better on tube tvs.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
BTW, a question about test flight and beta testing. Are you expected to give testers a copy of the retail version of the game when it is finished?
 

razu

Member
I almost can't finish it myself :/

I went this track. I think you put some people off, but for those who beat the game, you create a lasting memory. I think that's worth more than mildly entertaining the majority.

Personally, for my next game, I'm going to go for a more relaxing title. Then, maybe go more abstract, and more hardcode with the difficulty and complexity for the third. As indies we can't compete with marketing spend, but we can compete in terms of controls and gameplay quality. Something that is often watered down in mainstream games, for fear of excluding people.

People who are up for a challenge are always on the look out for the next one. Only 2 people have beaten all the target times on Chopper Mike. Not that all that many have tried ;D

But then, if I had the money for advertising, and every person who would buy it saw the adverts and bought it, I'd have no more sales, they'd all have bought it already. As it is, I still have a massive untapped audience who don't even know it exists yet.. positives, got to look for the positives... :D

I'm rambling.. your game looks cool :D
 

razu

Member
BTW, a question about test flight and beta testing. Are you expected to give testers a copy of the retail version of the game when it is finished?

Wouldn't say so. Most of my testflight people were just eager to help, and made a point of buying it for support afterwards. People are very supportive of someone going into business and making a new creative work, in my experience.

And besides, after playing all those half finished builds.. they've probably had enough ;D

I did put them all in the credits though, which is cool for people not in the games industry!
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I went this track. I think you put some people off, but for those who beat the game, you create a lasting memory. I think that's worth more than mildly entertaining the majority.

Personally, for my next game, I'm going to go for a more relaxing title. Then, maybe go more abstract, and more hardcode with the difficulty and complexity for the third. As indies we can't compete with marketing spend, but we can compete in terms of controls and gameplay quality. Something that is often watered down in mainstream games, for fear of excluding people.

People who are up for a challenge are always on the look out for the next one. Only 2 people have beaten all the target times on Chopper Mike. Not that all that many have tried ;D

But then, if I had the money for advertising, and every person who would buy it saw the adverts and bought it, I'd have no more sales, they'd all have bought it already. As it is, I still have a massive untapped audience who don't even know it exists yet.. positives, got to look for the positives... :D

I'm rambling.. your game looks cool :D

I'm happy with how the game has turned out. I know it won't be popular, but I really just made a game that I wanted to play more than anything. And yeah, there must be others as well who will like the challenge.

Next game I make will be a score attack game on a single level. Most of my development time for the current game was spent testing and tweaking the 50 different levels. It took so long. It was a good experience, but I won't be doing that again so soon.

And thanks for the testing info.
 

AlexM

Member
Well sony is making PSM licenses free for the next few months. For those of us who paid they are doing nothing though. They aren't even extending the length of our licenses to match the length of the new free licenses. For instance my license expires december 2013. If I were to have not paid and taken the free license it would expire september 2014.

The most annoying thing is the PSM forum mods are specifically avoiding every post related to what is gonna happen to existing developers who paid.

I don't think it's bad to ask that they at least extend our licenses to the expiry date of the new free licenses.

The funny thing is I COULD make another PSN account and then register a PSM license to it but I don't want to have to play the system like that.

It's just annoying they are ignoring us like this.


EDIT: That's looking awesome diablohead

EDITEDIT: There is a suggestion posted in the PSMDeveloper community. If there are any PSM devs here I would appreciate it if you could kudos it.

http://community.eu.playstation.com...dy-paid-to-match-length-of-new/idi-p/18913146
 

Limanima

Member
Fellow GAfers, I need some help.
My game is almost finished and now I'm trying to add some more languages to the game. I already have the game translated to english, portuguese and german.
Now I'm looking for french and spanish. Is there someone here that want to help translate the game to one of this languages? There's isn't much texts, it's mainly buttons, achievements and tutorial texts.

The game is called snails, and I've already posted some info about it here.
I'll just repost a screen grab.
If someone is interested in helping, please PM me. Thanks!!

Edit: I don't need italian. I already have it after all. I've removed it from the original post.

Edit2: We already got someone to translate do spanish and french. Thanks!

snails-grab4_sm.png
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
That is up to you, but giving them a code to download it would be a nice show of gratitude for them testing your game and giving you feedback. :)

Thanks. Yeah, I guess it would be nice.

Man, I've got to buy a new computer soon. I've been making my current game on my wife's old MacBook, and it's barely powerful enough to put together a trailer.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim


Well this has been a pretty fun and educational ride for me, the game is complete as it's going to get for my uni hand-in and while the game itself is pretty much trash I'm proud of myself for actually finishing something! Couldn't have done it without Unity PlayMaker either, that add on was worth every penny.

Click the image above to be taken to the final web-player I'll be making for the game! Now I can finally go through the last few pages and try out other gaffers stuff, really want to try out the MGS-like game a page or two back.

Also anyone thinking of entering the Construct 2 competition?
"Why is this so slow"
"That's better"
"Oh god it's every one"
"Shit shit shit"

Congrats!! Animation is very smooth and controls feel great.
31 points first go., but I think I screwed my head over when I did some loops to get my bearings which in turn did the complete opposite of that.
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman


Well this has been a pretty fun and educational ride for me, the game is complete as it's going to get for my uni hand-in and while the game itself is pretty much trash I'm proud of myself for actually finishing something! Couldn't have done it without Unity PlayMaker either, that add on was worth every penny.

Click the image above to be taken to the final web-player I'll be making for the game! Now I can finally go through the last few pages and try out other gaffers stuff, really want to try out the MGS-like game a page or two back.

Also anyone thinking of entering the Construct 2 competition?
that was fun!
 

Raxious

Member
About a year ago i released my first game on ios, it was a survival horror game called 'End Night' for iPad. Wasn't completely happy with how it turned out but ran out of money and so had to release what i had.

Since it's release i went back to work in visual effects briefly on the film 'Jack the giant killer' but pretty soon wanted to make a new game.

And so a year and a half later i've just released the greenlight for my new game called 'The Forest' This time for PC and Oculus rift.

It's an open world survival horror game inspired in part by films like 'The Descent' and 'Cannibal Holocaust'

Here's a link to the greenlight if anyone is interested in seeing it on steam:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=143803558

and here's an image from the game:

4720p.png

This looks really amazing, nice job.

I have a question for u guys, the past 9 weeks I've had classes at school teaching me how to use the basics of UDK, and as I've always dreamed of developing a game, this felt like a great opportunity. However, the classes felt short, most of the stuff could be learned within the first week.

Now I'd like to start working on my own games, and looking for some stuff to begin with. As I got some experience with UDK, it might seem to be the best option, however I've been hearing from a lot of people that Unity might be a better option. What would u guys advice me to choose?

Also, I'm guessing that programming is gonna be a part of it, and I don't have a lot of programming skills to actually be able to do stuff. With UDK I was capable of solving most of the things I wanted through Kismet, however even Kismet has it's limits. Are there any books, sites etc. u people recommend me to read / look through etc.?
 

ViRiX

Neo Member
Starting to put together the trailer for my game this weekend. Recorded some good footage. I bet it will take me longer than two days to complete though.

Here is a little gif of my perfect jump timing :p

C5EBdSQ.gif

Oo that looks fun... and hard.

I have a question for u guys, the past 9 weeks I've had classes at school teaching me how to use the basics of UDK, and as I've always dreamed of developing a game, this felt like a great opportunity. However, the classes felt short, most of the stuff could be learned within the first week.

Now I'd like to start working on my own games, and looking for some stuff to begin with. As I got some experience with UDK, it might seem to be the best option, however I've been hearing from a lot of people that Unity might be a better option. What would u guys advice me to choose?

Also, I'm guessing that programming is gonna be a part of it, and I don't have a lot of programming skills to actually be able to do stuff. With UDK I was capable of solving most of the things I wanted through Kismet, however even Kismet has it's limits. Are there any books, sites etc. u people recommend me to read / look through etc.?

I think Unity is a bit easier to manage and if you really don't want to code, there are alternative solutions (uScript, UNIVERSE) that let you do it through node based programming. You'll still have to understand how programming works though.
 

omg_mjd

Member
I love using 8-bit style pixel art for my games. It's so simple yet aesthetically pleasing (at least to me) that it's given me a way to mock up games quickly without feeling self-conscious about "programmer art".

Here's one that I made recently:

p2POrZ6G


I was inspired by this game: Heroine Dusk. (Sorry can't hotlink their image.)

That game's banner image appealed to me at first sight so I knew I had to at least try to make my own version. I failed though--my version is clearly derivative. I'm still working on finding my own style.
 
I love this screenshot! As long as you we can use alternate gamepad skins and/or transparency settings I'd gladly get the game (I just can't stomach controls getting in the way of nice pixel art).

you can set transparency, I understand how annoying on screen buttons can get and I usually make things more transparent in games myself.

What shader are you using for that? I think pixel art looks better on tube tvs.

It's mostly done with 2 layers of transparency textures, one has static and those streak lines on it and one is the tube tv look with scanlines, in motion the static moves slightly so it looks a lot better in action.

And to remind people, it's optional.
 

Bollocks

Member
e: I'm an idiot, of course I figured it out right after posting.
Just need to set the y component of the forward vector to 0, doh

Need some math help, this should be simple (I think) but 3D math keeps my head spinning.

So in Unity I have the forward vector. I want a vector that points in the same direction but runs parallel to the ground (the ground for simplicity being a level plane)


Problem illustrated with awesome ascii art.
Here the player is looking upwards, but I want the vector that runs parallel to the ground, in 3D space.
Code:
    (looking upwards - forward vector)
   /_ (vector level to the ground)
 o
 |
/ \
-------------
ground

I need that vector because I have to do raycasts to determine the height of obstacles and if I can jump up and grab the ledge
Code:
  __________
 |_______      ------------------------
 |_______      |
 |             |
 |             | 
 |             |  Obstacle
 o             |
 |             |
/ \            |
----------     |

And for that I need a vector in the direction I'm facing but level with the ground
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Hey guys, just as a reminder. Feel free to hop in the Indie thread and tell us about your game if you have something playable or something playable coming up soon:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=551216

Also, someone mentioned an MGS like game being posted here? Can someone link me?
 

Jobbs

Banned
I've been hesitant to go "public" in front of a lot of eyeballs with my game, but.. There's really no reason why not. So what the hell.

I've been developing my first game, on my own, for the better part of a year now. About two years ago I gave up on trying to "make it" illustrating my own comic books/graphic novels, and turned my attention to games which seemed more interesting and with more possibilities. I began with knowledge of how to draw comics but little knowledge of animation or how to format art for games or how to make games. Been through a lot of growing pains as I came up with my own ways of making animations and so forth, having no formal training, but at some point I started to "get it".

My game is inspired heavily by my favorite game as a child: Super Metroid, not just in terms of its visuals, but in its lonely, minimalist atmosphere. Part of the reason I wanted to make this, beyond my own love of "metroidvania", is the lack of any "true" Metroid games (in my opinion!) coming out in about a decade.

Now, it does have significant departures from SM in terms of how the game plays (such as some mild RPG elements with floating damage amounts and stuff, and a very simple virtual pet type thing), and the story is quite different from Metroid, but some basic similarities are there and that's fine by me. I hope to have it finished by the end of the summer, but who knows. I'm approaching this like Valve or Blizzard -- whenever it's ready. :) I'm just working on it on my own time. Stints of productivity between stints of not having much chance to do anything.

Anyway, here's a couple screenshots.

gsre-01.jpg


gsre-03.jpg



If anyone wants to see some more screenshots, here are some text links. I don't want to hog up all the space in the thread with my stupid embeds.

http://www.ghostsonggame.com/screens/gsre-02.jpg
http://www.ghostsonggame.com/screens/ngs01.jpg
http://www.ghostsonggame.com/screens/gsre-04.jpg
http://www.ghostsonggame.com/screens/ngs02.png

The website for the game doesn't really have much on it yet. I've been busier with the actual game than worrying about how to do the website up right.
 

Jobbs

Banned
That looks great, Jobbs. What platforms you aiming for?

Thanks guys. It's running on haxe nme so there are some options. It plays nice in a browser, actually -- at least, if your computer isn't a dinosaur.

I haven't decided yet how to deliver it in the end. I'm not even too concerned about monetization. Maybe there will be none at all. I just feel like I have to get the game off my chest and see what happens next, assuming anyone likes it. I believe in the game strongly, but I'm also firmly, deeply in the bubble right now. A bubble shared by myself and me.
 

Paz

Member
Jobbs that game looks super moody already, awesome work man! I just want to see how it moves now :D

--

Not a lot of new visual updates for Cactus, but we're finishing up the PC, Mac, and Linux versions of our preview build. Feels good man, hopefully we can get some indie sites interested :)

Here's a screenshot of the games first unlockable character, Starch:


Her primary weapon is the Laser and her secondary weapon is Micro Missiles (think: Macross)... We did a small tournament night last week and she was a big hit with our friends, hopefully that bodes well!

Also, our world first preview was done right here on Neogaf :p we sent the game to Toma who wrote up a quick piece in the Indie Games May thread http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=56921042&postcount=201
 

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
All your games look awesome, i can't even decide the genre of my game and for sure it will not look as good as yours :(
 

Jobbs

Banned
thanks kindly :)

Been a little sloppy with my game lately but after playing blood dragon I made an optional, more tv looking filter for my game if you wish to use it :p

2FTXOji.png


Right now you can have zero filters, a basic one with very faint edges or this one which is suppose to look like a tube tv.

I remember seeing this game somewhere before, I'd love to know more about it -- gameplay details, story details, etc. :) Looks great.
 

Dascu

Member
Looks great Jobbs.

---

May as well present my work here too.

I've been making a horror game, called "Malebolgia" lately. Here's a screenshot that I put out for #screenshotsaturday. I'll keep posting screens for that every week I suppose.


Quote from the Indie Games (May) thread:
I've been working on it for a few months now, in Unity 4. It's just me, though I would love to get some help from people with skills in animation (mine are quite wooden) and making sound effects. I get everything from Freesound.org and it's a bit messy.

The graphics are cel-shaded and I've gone for the 3rd-person perspective, as there are enough first-person horror games out there already. I like the cel-shaded style myself, but I know it's a curious look and not everyone would enjoy it as much as I do. But it's simply too much work for one person to texture a game like this. (Plus, I hear minimalism in graphics works great to get indie cred, haha.)

The game is set in a 19th century castle and stars an old general. I'm not going for historical accuracy, but Otto von Bismarck and Giuseppe Garibaldi have been sources of inspiration. It is also inspired by Dante's Inferno and the game will feature this text and classical music to accompany it.

The world is randomly generated and has several areas. I couldn't quite achieve the mind-bending aspects of House of Leaves, but it'll do. I think structurally it's similar to a dungeon crawler minus the RPG and loot aspects. You are tasked with exploring this dark castle and unlocking the exit. There are savepoints though, so it's not a roguelike with perma-death.

There are several enemy types and I hope players will find them creepy and original. I didn't go for the typical deformed humanoid/fake zombie of so many other horror games. The focus is on avoiding these enemies, but don't be alarmed, it's not Amnesia. There is a form of defensive combat and enemies are not insta-kills. If anything, compare it to Siren (without the sight-jacking).

Progress is going well and I plan to have it out this Autumn. Assuming it actually turns out decent: Desura and/or personal site are good bets. Steam seems like a high goal for a one-man first venture, but I will try to get a Greenlight page up and see what happens. I may also look into crowdfunding (Indiegogo or Kickstarter if I can get a UK liaison), for a minor sum. Namely paying the Unity Pro license costs and hiring a few other people to do the sound and tighten up the graphics on level three. I would of course also be interested in a WiiU or even Vita/PSN release, given how open these platforms have become. But again, high goals and I would need the devkit money (and time).

Wish me luck!
 

GulAtiCa

Member
Since I've started working on Unity, I've been going back and forth on what my current first Unity test game should be. Originally it was going to be a VVVVVV like clone. But I eventually went with a simple 2D platformer. I decided on a drawings with crayons like atmosphere and look for the game. Mainly, since I can't draw. lol. I haven't started on the levels yet, mostly been working on drawing some of the enemies and working on the scripts. (which is why the flyers don't move yet)

I used that GifCam to take a small loop of it. Check it out: http://simimage.com/f/gWpz.gif (10 MB warning)
 

missile

Member
e: I'm an idiot, of course I figured it out right after posting.
Just need to set the y component of the forward vector to 0, doh

Need some math help, this should be simple (I think) but 3D math keeps my head spinning.

So in Unity I have the forward vector. I want a vector that points in the same direction but runs parallel to the ground (the ground for simplicity being a level plane)


Problem illustrated with awesome ascii art.
Here the player is looking upwards, but I want the vector that runs parallel to the ground, in 3D space.
Code:
    (looking upwards - forward vector)
   /_ (vector level to the ground)
 o
 |
/ \
-------------
ground

I need that vector because I have to do raycasts to determine the height of obstacles and if I can jump up and grab the ledge
Code:
  __________
 |_______      ------------------------
 |_______      |
 |             |
 |             | 
 |             |  Obstacle
 o             |
 |             |
/ \            |
----------     |

And for that I need a vector in the direction I'm facing but level with the ground
Let n be the normal of a plane running through the origin and let v != 0 your
forward vector. Then

v' = v - [(v,n)/(n,n)]n

is a vector pointing in the same direction as v while being parallel to the
plane, with (·,·) denoting the dot-, scalar-, or inner product (make your
choice). Essentially, you're projecting v onto the normal vector n and take
differences.

Yet another approach.
Let v' = nx(vxn) with x denoting the cross product. Then v' points in the same
direction as v while being contains in the plain given by n.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Looks great Jobbs.

---

May as well present my work here too.

I've been making a horror game, called "Malebolgia" lately. Here's a screenshot that I put out for #screenshotsaturday. I'll keep posting screens for that every week I suppose.

Looking very nice :)
 

KNT-Zero

Member


Well this has been a pretty fun and educational ride for me, the game is complete as it's going to get for my uni hand-in and while the game itself is pretty much trash I'm proud of myself for actually finishing something! Couldn't have done it without Unity PlayMaker either, that add on was worth every penny.

Click the image above to be taken to the final web-player I'll be making for the game! Now I can finally go through the last few pages and try out other gaffers stuff, really want to try out the MGS-like game a page or two back.

Also anyone thinking of entering the Construct 2 competition?
Loved it! Specially the music :) Did you do everything yourself? If so, amazing! :O
About the contest, I might as well enter... the prizes are juicy :p
 
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