Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, the game isn't in any real playable state so letting people "play" it would just leave them pissed off since it's all cobbled together as I get the systems perfected. I do have an idea, though.
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, the game isn't in any real playable state so letting people "play" it would just leave them pissed off since it's all cobbled together as I get the systems perfected. I do have an idea, though.
We just went through that process recently. We posted our 'wanted' ad on:
Deviant art
unity3d dev forum
tig
gamedev
We were almost flooded w responses. I would guess aobut 30-40 portfolios via email came in, about 1/2 were really good too for the style we were looking for. send me a pm w/ your email and I can forward some of the better portfolios if you would like. We were looking specifically for speedpaint style concept artists doing sci-fi but a wide range of artists replied.
Heart of Black
Member
Ah, word. I hear you. I know how that is. Though I'd say try to get something that's a vertical slice of it running.
Not saying you need to get it out to everyone, just streamers.
How will the graphics resp. art style end up for the game? I think puttingNot shown in these screenshots, but I have planets orbiting the Earth epicyclically. I cannot get it to look right in perspective, so I am switching to an orthographic projection. This also gives polyhedra a more refined look. The only problem is orthographic projection makes the Earth look supremely weird to me when rotated. I'm planning to keep the Earth in perspective and use orthographic projection for everything else.
Perspective:
...
the sphere off-center does waste valuable space, but it depends on how the
game is ought to be played, I guess.
BurritoBushido
Member
Man, I miss this thread...
Earth is off center in that picture just because I cropped the shot to reduce filesize. Earth is dead in the center. Field of View is smaller, so the Earth takes up more of the screen. I pulled the perspective camera back from the Earth, so you can see more of the tiles at once as in the orthographic projection but without the weird "warped" look. Sun/Moon on left or right side, depending on player handedness. The Sun/Moon has thought bubbles which explain what will happen if a hovered tile is clicked (e.g. move unit, attack). Clicking the Sun/Moon ends your turn. On the other side of the earth might go a map or other such UI elements.
Finally gave Unity a fair go. A mobile game concept popped into my head on the way home last night and I decided to try and learn Unity by prototyping it.
... well, 24 hours later and I have a pretty decent prototype, with the core game mechanics already implemented. The amount of abstraction in Unity is bloody amazing.
Can't wait to begin refining the concept and making it enjoyable to play. Best part is the scripting mechanic. I just can just keep on reusing a bunch of my scripts again and again, no matter the project
... well, 24 hours later and I have a pretty decent prototype, with the core game mechanics already implemented. The amount of abstraction in Unity is bloody amazing.
Can't wait to begin refining the concept and making it enjoyable to play. Best part is the scripting mechanic. I just can just keep on reusing a bunch of my scripts again and again, no matter the project
Here is a quick look at my procedural generated bunny masks of the Easter event:
Careful, you could get hypnotized by the hypnobunnies!
Here is more about the Last Knight Easter event: http://steamcommunity.com/games/262210/announcements/detail/1280455199447015565
Careful, you could get hypnotized by the hypnobunnies!
Here is more about the Last Knight Easter event: http://steamcommunity.com/games/262210/announcements/detail/1280455199447015565
Finally gave Unity a fair go. A mobile game concept popped into my head on the way home last night and I decided to try and learn Unity by prototyping it.
... well, 24 hours later and I have a pretty decent prototype, with the core game mechanics already implemented. The amount of abstraction in Unity is bloody amazing.
Can't wait to begin refining the concept and making it enjoyable to play. Best part is the scripting mechanic. I just can just keep on reusing a bunch of my scripts again and again, no matter the project
Yeah, Unity is pretty great. Being from a programming background the abstraction thing threw me off at first, but now it's awesome. I can just write some code and throw it on multiple things. It's one of the few engines I've used that has abstraction but doesn't really limit your coding in any way. It's "scripting" in name, but honestly, it has the power of straight C# in most cases. And this is coming from a .NET/XNA developer.
show me your skeleton
Member
so here's something i'd like some advice on:
as a composer my programming knowledge is pretty much zero. i have dabbled in unity for my degree project but it was mainly music-based. i'd really like to experiment with fmod though and so i would like to create a project, based around the idea of dynamic music. basically, the project would be a showcase of an idea, a working prototype.
what i'd like to create is a turn based system, something incredibly simple. the player and 'a.i', each of which take turns to attack each other. the player just needs to press a button to attack, the enemy just needs to attack back. no physics or anything, simply a.i and u.i.
the idea will be then to tie this in to fmod, which hopefully will allow me to create dynamic music that will change in real time depending on whether it's the player's turn or the a.i's turn.
how easy would this be for a programming idiot? any middleware you'd suggest?
as a composer my programming knowledge is pretty much zero. i have dabbled in unity for my degree project but it was mainly music-based. i'd really like to experiment with fmod though and so i would like to create a project, based around the idea of dynamic music. basically, the project would be a showcase of an idea, a working prototype.
what i'd like to create is a turn based system, something incredibly simple. the player and 'a.i', each of which take turns to attack each other. the player just needs to press a button to attack, the enemy just needs to attack back. no physics or anything, simply a.i and u.i.
the idea will be then to tie this in to fmod, which hopefully will allow me to create dynamic music that will change in real time depending on whether it's the player's turn or the a.i's turn.
how easy would this be for a programming idiot? any middleware you'd suggest?
RelentlessRolento
Member
Got back into unity for a small project this weekend... so far it's just going to use one model in the game and the arm is animated and they clink and meow when collided..... I just have no idea what it'll be. might be nothing more than a playbox to knock these things around
what's good advice to optimize the models? I want to get as much as possible on screen without slowdown or chugging... any tips? I'm using Playmaker for the triggers and etc.
what's good advice to optimize the models? I want to get as much as possible on screen without slowdown or chugging... any tips? I'm using Playmaker for the triggers and etc.
One behind the kitchen and maybe another one...oh, and one to split the room in the upper rightI assume a wall or two will be added to that two room mansion
But it's just a chill-ass vacay home, lots of open space (how convenient in case a chaotic firefight breaks out)
Got back into unity for a small project this weekend... so far it's just going to use one model in the game and the arm is animated and they clink and meow when collided..... I just have no idea what it'll be. might be nothing more than a playbox to knock these things around
I'm feeling lucky!
BUILDING A HOUSE YO
A FUTURE HOUSE
Holy shit, Feep! I wouldn't have guessed you'd want a navmesh that granular. I'm guessing the automation too you have saves more time than a lower-fidelity mesh would save on computations?
Probably stuff you're already aware of, but...
Use .sharedMesh instead of .mesh
Use mesh.Optimize()
Enable Static/Dynamic batching
RelentlessRolento
Member
The idea behind it is to make a really lucky game room
nice work feep! wish I could model better
wish I could do better so I stick to a style within my limits ^_^
I'm not a pro with unity or rendering stuff (art person) so I didn't think of this really. I'll hop into it
where do I find this? in the script or what? sorry for the basic questions
It all seems to run fine on our machines, so I'm rolling with full automation for now. If we do spec testing and optimization and it turns out the navmesh is causing a big issue, I'll go back and clean things up. For now, though, in building and testing, it's fine. = D
Sounds great. Can't wait to play it!
Sorry, I mostly use script so I won't be much help if you set this all up in GUI. I am sure there are GUI equivalents, though. There is a GUI checkbox equivalent of mesh.Optimize() somewhere. Static/Dynamic batching are in preferences - read up on these, they're what you're looking for.'m not a pro with unity or rendering stuff (art person) so I didn't think of this really. I'll hop into it
where do I find this? in the script or what? sorry for the basic questions
RelentlessRolento
Member
awesome thanks this is a huge help.
I want to script more but I think once Graduate school is finally over with in a month I can get better at my scripting.
https://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/DrawCallBatching.html
You're using the same model and material so you should be able to batch all of them. You might have to adjust your lighting scheme.
You're using the same model and material so you should be able to batch all of them. You might have to adjust your lighting scheme.
RelentlessRolento
Member
lighting isnt a problem so this seems like a solid solution. I'll report back once things get figured out more. major thanks
Got back into unity for a small project this weekend... so far it's just going to use one model in the game and the arm is animated and they clink and meow when collided..... I just have no idea what it'll be. might be nothing more than a playbox to knock these things around
what's good advice to optimize the models? I want to get as much as possible on screen without slowdown or chugging... any tips? I'm using Playmaker for the triggers and etc.
I don't know playmaker. If you are instantiating those models when the game is running it will cause slow down. You also have to optimize your draw calls. Since that is all the same model they can be instanced.
RelentlessRolento
Member
I realized this around when you posted though I didn't see your post till now.
But yep, you are totally right. I removed all my cats save for one, and then spawned them over time rather than initially all at once and it runs great
I'll probably be done with it tomorrow. It's an art project so don't expect it to be very gamey other than interface. I'll post it up once it's all good.
Actually looking forward to running it on Vita to see how it holds up. I can do so after the weekend.
Oh man this has been fun. Just released my first game on the AppStore, what a fun process that has been!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ballflip/id861900329?mt=8
It's called BallFlip, it's pretty simple but addictive endless runner type game. Though it has enough differences to be something of it's own kind made it in Unity which is absolutely freaking amazing to use!
Big focus on instant play, 60fps, vsync, practically no load times, instant restarts, all the ingredients that I think are so important for mobile games. And any game in general where time is a bit short and you have to scratch that itch to play something! Anyhow, let me know what you guys think, I'll answer any questions for anyone!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ballflip/id861900329?mt=8
It's called BallFlip, it's pretty simple but addictive endless runner type game. Though it has enough differences to be something of it's own kind
made it in Unity which is absolutely freaking amazing to use!Big focus on instant play, 60fps, vsync, practically no load times, instant restarts, all the ingredients that I think are so important for mobile games. And any game in general where time is a bit short and you have to scratch that itch to play something! Anyhow, let me know what you guys think, I'll answer any questions for anyone!
fmod is something I've been meaning to learn too, so I'm also interested in any responses you get. I don't know enough about
Since it sounds like your main interest is in "showcasing" your music ideas, it might be valuable to simplify your game even further. It doesn't sound like you're building a game, you're building a music system, and so at a certain point, why bother with a GUI? If your audience understands your project's goal, you don't need to waste time with tangential stuff.All you'd need to start is a boolean (true/false) variable. "myTurn = true;", or something. Make it so that when you press spacebar, myTurn changes from true to false, or vice versa. There, that variable is now modeling the game as it relates to your showcase. Now you can focus on fmod, your music, and your idea.
If you want to go deeper with your music's interactivity, you can just add to this abstracted combat system. Music changing with the player's health? At the start of the game, myHealth = 10. Now, spacebar changes myTurn AND, when myTurn is changing from false to true, myHealth is deducted by 1.
If this is all way below your skill level, I'm very sorry! It's hard to detect what someone means when they say they're new to programming.
I'm sure you can use the FMOD Unity editor and Playmaker to do what you want without needing to program. Honestly, I haven't played with Playmaker, but I hear from friends it's not bad to work with.
Here's the FMOD editor if you need it.
http://www.fmod.org/download/
I just started messing around with FMOD, so I can't say much about it, but it seems easy enough to use. You should test it out since it's free.
Oh, and you should be able to get DFGUI (I hear it's easier to get started with than NGUI) which should help with your GUI situation.
Mystic River
Member
I've been working on illumination module as well as fire, this is just a screenshot of the latest addition of my 2d game
more information at http://mysticrivergames.blogspot.com/2014/04/lights-and-fire.html
still lots to do but it is getting closer and closer to a release date
more information at http://mysticrivergames.blogspot.com/2014/04/lights-and-fire.html
still lots to do but it is getting closer and closer to a release date
show me your skeleton
Member
fmod is something I've been meaning to learn too, so I'm also interested in any responses you get. I don't know enough aboutanythingUnity to helpanyoneyou, buuut...
All you'd need to start is a boolean (true/false) variable. "myTurn = true;", or something. Make it so that when you press spacebar, myTurn changes from true to false, or vice versa. There, that variable is now modeling the game as it relates to your showcase. Now you can focus on fmod, your music, and your idea.
If you want to go deeper with your music's interactivity, you can just add to this abstracted combat system. Music changing with the player's health? At the start of the game, myHealth = 10. Now, spacebar changes myTurn AND, when myTurn is changing from false to true, myHealth is deducted by 1.
If this is all way below your skill level, I'm very sorry! It's hard to detect what someone means when they say they're new to programming.
yes, you've got the right idea. i'm definitely not interested/skilled enough to be creating my own game (... yet) so the 'gameplay' aspect can be pretty much nil. i think your idea of simplifying that part as much as possible is definitely the way to go. thanks!
i would love to mess with playmaker but it's a bit out of my price range unfortunately, especially as this is only for prototyping/showcase work. i shall look into DFGUI as well though. thanks for the input!
Diablohead
Member
I decided to add in more pieces which change the characters looks in generations, it will add more time to get everything right but hey i'm already a few years in, what's a little more
Since you get a better jump and an electrical shield attack in the game i've been messing around with her boots and kevlar design for the upgrades.
Since you get a better jump and an electrical shield attack in the game i've been messing around with her boots and kevlar design for the upgrades.
XShadows69
Member
Unity is probably one of if not the best thing to make games right now. Support for C#, JavaScript and even Boo. It also supports 3D and 2D. The documentation is superb with videos.
Do bear in mind that while a lot can be done without any programming, a lot of the programming will be for scripting meaning that if you know any C language, you will be able to script. The documentation goes over the functions you need to use.
I've only been messing about with it but it has proven to be very powerful while still being user friendly and easy.
Do bear in mind that while a lot can be done without any programming, a lot of the programming will be for scripting meaning that if you know any C language, you will be able to script. The documentation goes over the functions you need to use.
I've only been messing about with it but it has proven to be very powerful while still being user friendly and easy.
* Except where it's just plain wrong, or refutes what another section told you.
I mean, don't get me wrong, Unity is great and all, but the docs can be frustrating =p
I haven't had any issues like that, and I have gone pretty deep.
I decided to add in more pieces which change the characters looks in generations, it will add more time to get everything right but hey i'm already a few years in, what's a little more
Since you get a better jump and an electrical shield attack in the game i've been messing around with her boots and kevlar design for the upgrades.
Looking good.
EDIT: missile, your retro filter and GB dither effects look fantastic.
You know, I'd love to see a Dudebro II screenshot with your retro filter applied.
I decided to add in more pieces which change the characters looks in generations, it will add more time to get everything right but hey i'm already a few years in, what's a little more
Since you get a better jump and an electrical shield attack in the game i've been messing around with her boots and kevlar design for the upgrades.
Looks great and definitely recognizable as upgrades.
Quick examples off the top of my head:
Capsulecast's information is totally wrong, as is some of the other physics stuff. I dare you to figure out which of the 5 different explanations for mass you can actually trust.
I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I keep trying to optimize the Canvas(HTML5), but it is not going to be any faster than it is now on slow machines.
I mean....
- Only redraw changed surfaces
- Using buffer canvases depending on needs
- Juggling 5 canvases, distributing layers between them
- Creating a draw/clear pipeline that renders without ever needing to assign new variables mid-cycle
And yet, on a medium PC (say, something from 2005-2006), it struggles.
So I need to get on with OpenGL ES/WebGL, which should not be a big deal, but I just got familiar enough with my own canvas camera solutions -.-
Well, the best feeling in the world is knowing that you do not know anything, eh? Let us jump in once more.
I keep trying to optimize the Canvas(HTML5), but it is not going to be any faster than it is now on slow machines.
I mean....
- Only redraw changed surfaces
- Using buffer canvases depending on needs
- Juggling 5 canvases, distributing layers between them
- Creating a draw/clear pipeline that renders without ever needing to assign new variables mid-cycle
And yet, on a medium PC (say, something from 2005-2006), it struggles.
So I need to get on with OpenGL ES/WebGL, which should not be a big deal, but I just got familiar enough with my own canvas camera solutions -.-
Well, the best feeling in the world is knowing that you do not know anything, eh? Let us jump in once more.
I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I keep trying to optimize the Canvas(HTML5), but it is not going to be any faster than it is now on slow machines.
I mean....
- Only redraw changed surfaces
- Using buffer canvases depending on needs
- Juggling 5 canvases, distributing layers between them
- Creating a draw/clear pipeline that renders without ever needing to assign new variables mid-cycle
And yet, on a medium PC (say, something from 2005-2006), it struggles.
So I need to get on with OpenGL ES/WebGL, which should not be a big deal, but I just got familiar enough with my own canvas camera solutions -.-
Well, the best feeling in the world is knowing that you do not know anything, eh? Let us jump in once more.
What os/browser are you testing on? Chrome/chromium/node webkit doesn't support hardware acceleration for anything at all on XP and vista anymore (including webgl, so that wouldn't help either), so you might be getting software rendering instead.
The "bad" PC that I can try it out uses WinXp indeed. Fresh firefox installs though.
I was under the assumption that at this point, all canvas renderings are hardware accelerated, but if not...it is time for dat OpenGl "fallback" indeed
BigWeather
Member
I'm in a bit of a quandary deciding what platform to commit to for my next development effort.
Background: Coding for 30 years, 20 professionally, last 12 in C#. Hobbyist programmer mostly with C#/XNA for the last couple of years.
Goal: No interest in 3D, 2D is fine for anything I want to do. I'm mainly interested in playing with new gameplay ideas, almost everything else (visuals, for instance) is secondary. However, there is appeal in a platform that allows for easy beefing up of the visuals and distribution on a variety of devices if the opportunity presents itself.
Mainly torn between C#/XNA, GameMaker (have Professional due to that really nice deal a few months back), and Unity.
C#/XNA
* pros: C#, code-centric, already have some nice pathfinding classes I built on top of generics so that it can swap between pathfinding on squares vs. hexes vs. even graphs on the fly, also have a window class and other stuff already. OO.
* cons: No longer really supported, dwindling community, supported devices is small, lack of drawing primitives, physics, etc.
GameMaker:
* pros: Healthy community, reasonable price to output to devices in the future, tons of devices, decent built-in classes, drawing primitives, physics, focused on 2D.
* cons: Lots of the C# OO stuff is gone, no generics and such, the UI is so daunting.
Unity:
* pros: Healthy community, tons of devices, physics, C# support (how deep?)
* cons: UI again, more focused on 3D, some devices a bit pricey to deploy to.
Maybe I'm odd, but there is something comforting about the code-centric model. Basically I have a blank editor and just start building. I know there is a loop that I don't control that (after game initialization) is just calling update and draw as fast as possible. Everything else is in my control. I love that update and draw get timing information so I know when it was last called and can optimize on the fly if the frame rate is dipping.
With GameMaker and Unity I feel like I'm giving up control. Like in GameMaker you can set the number of steps per second, like 30. That's great, except... What if it can't achieve 30? Will I know? The whole "room" thing to me is just odd. And I'm a bit worried about not having my OO toys. Is Unity's C# at least fully featured (C# 2.0 -- if not 5.0) at least?
Any advise is appreciated. I'm in this horrible fish or cut bait scenario where I am making way too many false starts then start second guessing myself. =/
Background: Coding for 30 years, 20 professionally, last 12 in C#. Hobbyist programmer mostly with C#/XNA for the last couple of years.
Goal: No interest in 3D, 2D is fine for anything I want to do. I'm mainly interested in playing with new gameplay ideas, almost everything else (visuals, for instance) is secondary. However, there is appeal in a platform that allows for easy beefing up of the visuals and distribution on a variety of devices if the opportunity presents itself.
Mainly torn between C#/XNA, GameMaker (have Professional due to that really nice deal a few months back), and Unity.
C#/XNA
* pros: C#, code-centric, already have some nice pathfinding classes I built on top of generics so that it can swap between pathfinding on squares vs. hexes vs. even graphs on the fly, also have a window class and other stuff already. OO.
* cons: No longer really supported, dwindling community, supported devices is small, lack of drawing primitives, physics, etc.
GameMaker:
* pros: Healthy community, reasonable price to output to devices in the future, tons of devices, decent built-in classes, drawing primitives, physics, focused on 2D.
* cons: Lots of the C# OO stuff is gone, no generics and such, the UI is so daunting.
Unity:
* pros: Healthy community, tons of devices, physics, C# support (how deep?)
* cons: UI again, more focused on 3D, some devices a bit pricey to deploy to.
Maybe I'm odd, but there is something comforting about the code-centric model. Basically I have a blank editor and just start building. I know there is a loop that I don't control that (after game initialization) is just calling update and draw as fast as possible. Everything else is in my control. I love that update and draw get timing information so I know when it was last called and can optimize on the fly if the frame rate is dipping.
With GameMaker and Unity I feel like I'm giving up control. Like in GameMaker you can set the number of steps per second, like 30. That's great, except... What if it can't achieve 30? Will I know? The whole "room" thing to me is just odd. And I'm a bit worried about not having my OO toys. Is Unity's C# at least fully featured (C# 2.0 -- if not 5.0) at least?
Any advise is appreciated. I'm in this horrible fish or cut bait scenario where I am making way too many false starts then start second guessing myself. =/
The "bad" PC that I can try it out uses WinXp indeed. Fresh firefox installs though.
I was under the assumption that at this point, all canvas renderings are hardware accelerated, but if not...it is time for dat OpenGl "fallback" indeed
How would you use OpenGL as a fallback? I'm making HTML 5 games with construct 2, and am curious because the lack of hardware acceleration on XP and vista through node webkit has been frustrating. Currently I'm using the --ignore-gpu-blacklist flag to get around it, but it only works when launched from a shortcut with a modified target, but that's still better than no solution at all (of course, that's not going to help playing a game over the internet in chrome, I can't ask users to turn off the blacklist to play it). So yeah, I'm interested in hearing about any other options available.
Unity is based on an older version of the Mono C# implementation. It's very much the native language for programming it. But based on what you've written I'd take a look at adding MonoGame to your evaluation before making a decision.
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