Dynamite Shikoku
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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This time next week you'll be past this problem and stuck on the next
(laugh) Welcome to programming?
We're running a gamejam right now at the office. You can follow our progress on Protocannon or on Twitch. The name of the prototype is Bin Busters, a beat-em-up that takes place in a garbage dimension.
That sounds amazing but it's past 4am here. Please keep us updated!We're running a gamejam right now at the office. You can follow our progress on Protocannon or on Twitch. The name of the prototype is Bin Busters, a beat-em-up that takes place in a garbage dimension.
Prophet Steve
Member
I think it is possible, and I also saw some people offer solutions for those type of games. But when I found Construct 2 kind of limiting when working with a large amount of text. But try it out first, it is easy to get into.
Thanks for the response, I suppose I'll give it a try.
Feep, your Unity woes remind me of the ridiculous lengths I searched up in an attempt to find some sort of lightweight, high performance, always-facing-camera-sprite methodology for UDK. Like, you can make a plane 3D model and have UnrealScript rotate it to face the camera each tick, but that seems way overkill. And there are a few other ways to do things maybe, but each of them may have their own issues. It was one of those things where you're like "Surely this is in every engine ever and is really simple" and then you spend 6 hours digging through the depths of ancient forum posts.
That .gif program everyone's using lately is great, no more having to record videos with bad codecs that fuck up the colours and then convert to gifs.
Though they're all pretty low fps .gifs seeing as I post a lot on the AGDG threads over at /vg/ and the image size limit is 3Mb.
Though they're all pretty low fps .gifs seeing as I post a lot on the AGDG threads over at /vg/ and the image size limit is 3Mb.
There's probably a much better way to do this, but quickly off the top of my head (assuming your camera angle is fixed and isn't freeform, and I've correctly grasped what you're trying to do):
what about having 2 copies of your world, one for the main world and players and one just for the structure sprites? If you sync 2 camera's movements together (one for each copy) and then overlay the image of the second over the first, shouldn't that sort of give you what you want?
This would yield either all buildings over all units, or all units over all buildings. I think.
One solution I might try is giving each character a camera, rendering that soldier to a render texture, then using that texture with other building sprites and manually ordering everything.
Hm... Well, you're using Pro, right?
Render the structure camera to texture, project alphamask splats where your units are.
Or, alternatively, render some kind of cylinder to the depthmask first?
That should get you what you want, right?
(Yes, I know I'm not expressing myself too well, but I hope you grasp what I'm getting at
Render the structure camera to texture, project alphamask splats where your units are.
Or, alternatively, render some kind of cylinder to the depthmask first?
That should get you what you want, right?
(Yes, I know I'm not expressing myself too well, but I hope you grasp what I'm getting at
Yeah, I'm gonna try the render texture thing today.Hm... Well, you're using Pro, right?
Render the structure camera to texture, add alphamask splats where your units are.
Or, alternatively, render some kind of cylinder to the depthmask first?
That should get you what you want, right?
(Yes, I know I'm not expressing myself too well, but I hope you grasp what I'm getting at
Also, I just learned about the material.renderQueue property. I'll have to make a shitton of materials, but that looks promising.
barkers crest
Member
It is hard to tell from your screen what you are trying to do, but I have to ask, is it entirely out of the question to build your scenes with 100% 3D assets? It will give you much more flexibility moving forward.
Not only is this really not the look I'm going for, it would require a significant increase in budget. I am recreating the "effective" geometry of the level (useful for pathfinding, collision, shadows, etc.), but that geometry is invisible. It is aligned with the 2-D background beneath.
It's not completely out of the question, but it's certainly undesirable. I'll have to be failing a lot longer than ten hours for me to consider it.
Hi guys!
A few months ago an orchestra played the music from our first game Kids vs Goblins. I think some of you might enjoy the recording of the event: https://soundcloud.com/bartdelissen/kids-vs-goblins-medley-ludwig . It's so live it even has coughing people in it!
I find it maximum epic.
A few months ago an orchestra played the music from our first game Kids vs Goblins. I think some of you might enjoy the recording of the event: https://soundcloud.com/bartdelissen/kids-vs-goblins-medley-ludwig . It's so live it even has coughing people in it!
I find it maximum epic.
I don't really have any solutions to offer, but I can sympathize. For my current game I'm rendering everything with alpha and am unable to use the depth buffer at all. I'm pretty much running in to new sorting issues every day (well, every day that I'm actually doing any work on the game... I've been far too lazy lately).
MikeHaggar
Member
i haven't been active in the thread much since my game got cancelled, but i thought i'd pop in again and ask if there are any 2d artists/animators out there interested in teaming with a talented programming for a (relatively) small project. i'm open to any concepts and all release platforms. i also have examples of my work. pm me if interested!
replace with psm maybe, or monogame?
No idea what your game is, but that alone makes me want to buy it. lol
Hello again fellow developers, streaming in 15 at 7:30PST. This time I'm texturing one of the characters for Air Dash Online, Tesla:
I'll also be going over the benefits of our custom shaders I wrote for us in Unity:
Thanks again Clash Tournaments for hosting:
(Click Here to Watch)
I'll also be going over the benefits of our custom shaders I wrote for us in Unity:
Thanks again Clash Tournaments for hosting:
(Click Here to Watch)
Hello again fellow developers, streaming in 15 at 7:30PST. This time I'm texturing one of the characters for Air Dash Online, Tesla:
I'll also be going over the benefits of our custom shaders I wrote for us in Unity:
Thanks again Clash Tournaments for hosting:
(Click Here)
Oh, I missed it!
Is there any way to watch the presentation now that it has ended? I tried to follow the link at your site, but it seems the video's nowhere to be found. I'd love to learn more about creating cool shaders in Unity and see how other people work with it for stuff such as texturing models since I'm really new to anything 3d modelling and graphics-related, and your stream sounds like it could be really interesting to watch.
Thanks to Nabs for the heads up. For anyone with a Greenlight developer account, even if you don't have a game yet, you can now download the Steamworks SDK and read the documentation to try some compilation and preliminary testing. Check the Greenlight development community group on Steam for the details.
thanks usea for sharing the link.
Just as a note, I do rush through trying to explain things. Consider it more of a demonstration of what is possible.
I definitely recommend starting with writing simple shaders in Unity first, like these. The engine's surface shader coding approach makes it relatively easy to get into.
Just as a note, I do rush through trying to explain things. Consider it more of a demonstration of what is possible.
I definitely recommend starting with writing simple shaders in Unity first, like these. The engine's surface shader coding approach makes it relatively easy to get into.
^^^ That looks awesome.
Man, I feel like it's really hard to work on my own stuff when I have so many games to play. I hope to have more completed with my game by this weekend. I also have an idea for a new game, a Zombie survival tower defense like game. Might start building that this weekend as well.
Man, I feel like it's really hard to work on my own stuff when I have so many games to play. I hope to have more completed with my game by this weekend. I also have an idea for a new game, a Zombie survival tower defense like game. Might start building that this weekend as well.
Why not post something you have, something you are interested in and write
something about it? Perhaps that may tell an artist who you are or what you
are interested in.
ZONE: I switched gear and have now put the development of the board-computer
and its firmware on hold, since it has proofed its feasibility a few days ago.
Since the game puts a major focus around 'anti-gravity' speed crafts, I'm now
ready to develop a physics engine to simulate the dynamics of such a craft.
The dynamics will be physically based, i.e. the craft will have real weight,
momentum, inertia, torque, etc. requiring me to integrate Euler's equation of
motion, computing rates of change of linear and angular momentum gaining the
six-degrees of freedom. Later the dynamics will be adapted to satisfy the
aesthetic of the game. The goal is to arrive at a unique feeling for each
craft making their handling stood out leading to an awesome gameplay. It's
quite an undertaken, I know, and I have to read quite a lot of physics stuff,
but I'm up to the task and deadly committed. The engine will be written in
plain C.
I'm still looking for some (math) coders who feel the breath behind all of
this. And an artist designing some prototype crafts and later, if everything
works out quite well, the heavy ones. As I've told some posts back; the
crafts' aesthetic should be kind of engineered, rough, and bladed. So no
polished curvy stuff for the time being.
Also be very careful with projected textures if you plan on releasing the game on multiple platforms. What will line up correctly on your PC, for example, may be a couple pixels off on say an iPad. I was facing a similar problem about 6 months ago with a different project.
Not sure if this will work either, but you might be able to mask the models instead by building some holdout geo (wiki page).
Diablohead
Member
So after all this time I am now in my last 30 days before I have to have a submitted app for iTunes, and I am far from being done! It's good though as it's now making me pull my finger out.
If anyone has an iphone or ipad with at least an A4 processor and would like to do some testing for me at the end of the month, let me know, you'll get a pre-release build on iTunes at the end of june so you get the game for free while I finish it up, I only have so many keys to give out however.
If anyone has an iphone or ipad with at least an A4 processor and would like to do some testing for me at the end of the month, let me know, you'll get a pre-release build on iTunes at the end of june so you get the game for free while I finish it up, I only have so many keys to give out however.
More gif.
Looks great, but I'd suggest using a different tone for the snow on the platforms in the background. Some of them seem to give the impression of being walkable.
Diablohead
Member
#ScreenshotSaturdayFriday
A Tree! it will gently flex and move with the wind, looks rather cool.
A Tree! it will gently flex and move with the wind, looks rather cool.
I feel oddly proud of you. I just do.#ScreenshotSaturdayFriday
A Tree! it will gently flex and move with the wind, looks rather cool.
Looks awesome, man.
It's at moments like these that I really wish I had more artistic talent (or at least had a couple of artists chained up in the basement... ahem) so I could create my own assets instead of temporarily "borrowing" from others (or just work on the amazing adventures of red rectangle versus the blue cylinders)...
BomberMouse
Member
It worked for thomas was alone.
BomberMouse
Member
Then you should reconsider your current projects. Play to your strengths, don't make a graphics heavy game if you can't draw or hire an artist.
You can always try to convince one later on, but I think it's better if you stick to what you do best.
EDIT:
That looks simply increible Diablohead. How far do you feel you are into your game?
Diablohead
Member
*edit* tinypic is banned? aie
have a 4MB gif of the tree in action I wanted to show.
*edit2*
Art wise I used to make sonic fan games and 99% of the assets in those were just ripped, but after trying to make my own visuals for the last 2 years it's really become quick and easy to do now, the tree leaves were made by painting random leaves with my mouse before print-screening the result and turning it into a texture with alpha layer (made from using the same image with a BW high contrast applied)
The character sprite is original too but that has been 2 years of work on and off, and i've become faster in making new frames for her each time.
If I did that, I'd create nothing but intricate text adventures
I've got a plan though. Of course, it would involve re-importing my own animation suite stuff in Unity, which defeats the point of Mecanim, but eh... if nothing else, I'll be able to rampage through the city with the Tomb Raider T-Rex again when I'm feeling stressed
EDIT:
Holy crap that's awesome, Diablohead. Incredibly atmospheric.
I've got a plan though. Of course, it would involve re-importing my own animation suite stuff in Unity, which defeats the point of Mecanim, but eh... if nothing else, I'll be able to rampage through the city with the Tomb Raider T-Rex again when I'm feeling stressed
EDIT:
Holy crap that's awesome, Diablohead. Incredibly atmospheric.
BomberMouse
Member
If I did that, I'd create nothing but intricate text adventures
I see nothing wrong with that. Keep at it, anything with a T-Rex has my interest.
Diablohead's work motivates me and depresses me at the same time. That looks awesome.
Sadly, the T-Rex isn't really meant to be in the game, per se (altho maybe as an easter egg... if I, you know, replace it with another model).
It's just a by-product of me building an old-school rudimentary animation system and porting Tomb Raider 1 & 2 models to it to have an animated player character and NPCs, and it came as a bonus, so to speak. Still, it was a lot of fun to switch to it, turn up the fear radius and watch all the civilians scatter as I pounded down the streets
BomberMouse
Member
Sadly, the T-Rex isn't really meant to be in the game, per se (altho maybe as an easter egg... if I, you know, replace it with another model).
It's just a by-product of me building an old-school rudimentary animation system and porting Tomb Raider 1 & 2 models to it to have an animated player character and NPCs, and it came as a bonus, so to speak. Still, it was a lot of fun to switch to it, turn up the fear radius and watch all the civilians scatter as I pounded down the streets
Go on...
*edit* tinypic is banned? aie
have a 4MB gif of the tree in action I wanted to show.
*edit2*
On low settings they are static to save cpu hopefully.
Art wise I used to make sonic fan games and 99% of the assets in those were just ripped, but after trying to make my own visuals for the last 2 years it's really become quick and easy to do now, the tree leaves were made by painting random leaves with my mouse before print-screening the result and turning it into a texture with alpha layer (made from using the same image with a BW high contrast applied)
The character sprite is original too but that has been 2 years of work on and off, and i've become faster in making new frames for her each time.
Love the falling leaves, even if they don't appear to do anything but moving diagonally they add a lot to the animation.
I used to do a bit of pixel art myself, but since I began using Unity I nearly stopped practicing (now I'm learning Blender). I think that playing to your strengths is cool and all, but you really should try new things every now and then, since the only way you'll learn to do new things well is by practicing them.
Anyway, I think I've finally nailed an important part of the player movement code for the joint project I'm working on, so now all that's left is to find a way to simulate physics and momentum in local space (ie: using left and right directions relative to the player's rotation rather than simply using -X and +X) and tune player acceleration and deacceleration and it'll be done! Afterwards, I'll get to work on the other player and platform mechanics and we'll be ready to build the first game level.
By the way, I'm really hyped to finally be working with an artist (and a talented one at that), and it's amazing how hyped I get when even the placeholder models and art have more character than my good ol' spheres and cubes. It lets me get in the mood of the game a lot faster and helps me design around the graphical themes, which I can't do as easily when my eyes are numbed by having a single crappy texture applied to every single solid wall/floor (which are, obviously, cubes or half-cubes).
Now that I think about it, I probably got burned on Quark Storm's level design for that very reason. It's hard to come up with novel environments when all I see are black cubes and half-cubes with a colored border around them. Having models, textures and concept art that already puts me in the mood of what you'd be expecting to see in the levels makes actually designing level layouts a lot simpler, as you already have an element you could center the layouts around.
EDIT:
Why not save what you have up to now and split the game into Non-Shooty Police Procedural and T-Rex Rampage World Tour? If you noticed that adding the T-rex model creates some fun and/or interesting things, you really should keep them in mind and experiment a bit, or spin the T-rex mode into its own game, and the same should hold true for any "genius mistakes" you make.
BomberMouse
Member
Time to pivot.
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