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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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hoverX

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

I'd say it's a good option if you don't want to write native code. Some decent games were produced with it. Including Bastion.
 

clashfan

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

If you have a xamarian license you need to try monogame. Porting game from xna is painless. Currently you still need xna for the content pipeline. They are fixing that. Monogame is great.
 

ThomasP

Neo Member
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!

Hey again mate. After release of TOB I will probably take a bit of time to do some "Making of..." on "The Other Brothers". I think that is probably best. Many have asked us how we do certain things so in order to answer many questions at once a write up or video should probably be best.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Finally got all 50 levels of my game done. Man, that took a long time. Didn't think I would ever get through it. But it's not over yet - next it's on to doing menus and other little things.

Here's a pic of the last stage I made (it's a difficult one):

iMKdFfH.png
 
Finally got all 50 levels of my game done. Man, that took a long time. Didn't think I would ever get through it. But it's not over yet - next it's on to doing menus and other little things.

Here's a pic of the last stage I made (it's a difficult one):

http://i.imgur.com/iMKdFfH.png[IMG][/QUOTE]

Looks great, love the star shine effect you have there.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!

Rafy

Member
EDIT: I removed the original text to avoid any more misunderstandings, I did not intend for it to be read as an advertisement.
 

Dali

Member
Hey guys, I just wanted to contribute by saying that if any of you are doing any 2d games, the Spine is the perfect tool for animations (even main menu GUI stuff) and it's going to be compatible with Unity and all the major game dev tools. I got my license today and I gave it a spin. It took me under 20 minutes to do a decent looking walking animation on one of the examples without having watched any tutorials and being my first time doing actual animation. It's a very versatile tool and so simple that even a programmer can use it.
They have some videos and documentation uploaded on their site and they are really helpful.

Why does this read like an ad? You wouldnt happen to be affiliated with the creator would you?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
http://www.humblebundle.com/ You can still get it and support charity at the same time :)
Well, now that I know what at least one of these is I guess I have to get it.
Bought! Donated!

Lol 3_1 is no joke, I instantly died to 12 enemies :'[. My auto shotty did nothing.
Loving the character variety. I was really confused on what Melt-guy did. Corpse Explosion!

Now I have to figure out how to attack 3_*. Thinking Fish might be the good choice, but I might be able to DAKKA my way through with Melt since the HP loss is made up for by 1 mutation from 50% EXP boost.
But I love Sledge cheesing with Crystal, and playing cautious and conservative with Snare.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
Here's a good Let's Play of our Mojam 2013 game Wasteland Kings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SREZEvzJdc

And the Main Theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNDfLCof7yc

We made this in the past four days (Wednesday - Saturday), about 12 hours of work every day.

I can't post a build sadly 'cause it's part of Mojam right now, but maybe later I'll be allowed to :)

I streamed this game last night and also uploaded my best run of the night on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41RwG1mEPXA

It's an awesome game. I hope we see it outside of the bundle maybe? Tempted to make a new thread for it since it's only in Mojam2 for a certain number of days, I think
 

Pietepiet

Member
I streamed this game last night and also uploaded my best run of the night on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41RwG1mEPXA

It's an awesome game. I hope we see it outside of the bundle maybe? Tempted to make a new thread for it since it's only in Mojam2 for a certain number of days, I think

Thanks, man! I'm actually watching back your recording on Twitch right now. It's nice to see people play it for the first time :)
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Thanks, man! I'm actually watching back your recording on Twitch right now. It's nice to see people play it for the first time :)
TROLL ASS GAME: www.twitch.tv/vggaming/b/371434103?t=22m50s
Using game mechanics smartly: www.twitch.tv/vggaming/b/371419046?t=19m00s
666 Kills, 13 Difficulty run. ^2_1 (Plant): http://www.twitch.tv/vggaming/c/1965670
729 Kills, 15 Difficulty run ^2_3 (Eyes): http://www.twitch.tv/vggaming/c/1965909

Things to note (Not sure what is going on in development):
  • Bullets don't seem to exactly come from the tip of the sprite barrel (Or projectiles instantly terminate on walls easily)
  • Bouncing on walls gets me killed as it's hard to exactly hug a wall
  • Each class is seemingly remarkably fun and balanced, much more than you would think! (But I still don't see the use of Dodge Roll unless the invulnerable frames on it are tight and I'm not noticing them)
 

Rafy

Member
Why does this read like an ad? You wouldnt happen to be affiliated with the creator would you?

Not at all I am just using it on my game, sorry if I gave that impression, I can edit and remove it, I was just excited after getting my license and posted about it.
EDIT: Original text removed.


On an other note, me and a friend decided to team up for a small indie game he had in mind.Right now we are in the brainstorming and concept stages but at some point I started to worry about some stuff and I though this might be the place to ask. Here is what is worrying me:

- Do we need to start a company to sell and market the game?

- If we do need to form a company , what are some basic guidelines about naming it?

We are both residing in the EU and we are Uni students.
We'd like to hear about people who already went through this.

Ultimately we are planning on releasing our game (if we make it that far) for PC,MAC,Linux .

EDIT: we would also like to ask you about what kind/style of indie games you think the industry is in shortage of and demanding more.We have our unique style and ideas but were thinking of implementing them differently than most of the other games. In short we are not looking to reinvent the wheel.
 

Pietepiet

Member
TROLL ASS GAME: www.twitch.tv/vggaming/b/371434103?t=22m50s
Using game mechanics smartly: www.twitch.tv/vggaming/b/371419046?t=19m00s
666 Kills, 13 Difficulty run. ^2_1 (Plant): http://www.twitch.tv/vggaming/c/1965670
729 Kills, 15 Difficulty run ^2_3 (Eyes): http://www.twitch.tv/vggaming/c/1965909

Things to note (Not sure what is going on in development):
  • Bullets don't seem to exactly come from the tip of the sprite barrel (Or projectiles instantly terminate on walls easily)
  • Bouncing on walls gets me killed as it's hard to exactly hug a wall
  • Each class is seemingly remarkably fun and balanced, much more than you would think! (But I still don't see the use of Dodge Roll unless the invulnerable frames on it are tight and I'm not noticing them)

Hahaha, thanks for these vids! The end of that first one is just mean.

To answer your questions:
- The bullet thing is a result of the gun rotation and hitbox of the bullet, I think. Small things like this were not paid much attention to during the jam.
- Will forward this to JW if we continue development.
- The Dodge Roll has no invulnerable frames, I think. It's just a speed boost to quickly dodge away. You're not supposed to roll into bullets (though, if I'm correct, the Wasteland Prince powerup for the dodge roll lets you deflect bullets with it)

[EDIT] I wasn't sure if you found out in your videos (I didn't watch all of it yet), but Eyes' special also bends bullets away from you. It doesn't just attract enemies :) Upgrading it bends the bullets even more.
 

Dali

Member
Not at all I am just using it on my game, sorry if I gave that impression, I can edit and remove it, I was just excited after getting my license and posted about it.
EDIT: Original text removed.


On an other note, me and a friend decided to team up for a small indie game he had in mind.Right now we are in the brainstorming and concept stages but at some point I started to worry about some stuff and I though this might be the place to ask. Here is what is worrying me:

- Do we need to start a company to sell and market the game?

- If we do need to form a company , what are some basic guidelines about naming it?

We are both residing in the EU and we are Uni students.
We'd like to hear about people who already went through this.

Ultimately we are planning on releasing our game (if we make it that far) for PC,MAC,Linux .

EDIT: we would also like to ask you about what kind/style of indie games you think the industry is in shortage of and demanding more.We have our unique style and ideas but were thinking of implementing them differently than most of the other games. In short we are not looking to reinvent the wheel.

Hey I'm not a mod or anything. If it wasn't a disguised ad then you should have left it.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Hahaha, thanks for these vids! The end of that first one is just mean.

To answer your questions:
- The bullet thing is a result of the gun rotation and hitbox of the bullet, I think. Small things like this were not paid much attention to during the jam.
- Will forward this to JW if we continue development.
- The Dodge Roll has no invulnerable frames, I think. It's just a speed boost to quickly dodge away. You're not supposed to roll into bullets (though, if I'm correct, the Wasteland Prince powerup for the dodge roll lets you deflect bullets with it)

[EDIT] I wasn't sure if you found out in your videos (I didn't watch all of it yet), but Eyes' special also bends bullets away from you. It doesn't just attract enemies :) Upgrading it bends the bullets even more.
I would pay a two-figure sum for this with co-op and more polished.

Dodge Power up I noticed will damage enemies, but I ate two bullets when I was testing if it had invuln and died.

Thanks for the response. It's pretty crazy how much the game offers as is for the time you had. So many good design choices and... well... choices!
 

Zajora

Member
Not at all I am just using it on my game, sorry if I gave that impression, I can edit and remove it, I was just excited after getting my license and posted about it.
EDIT: Original text removed.

Your post was originally about Spine, right?

I backed that too. Even though I'm not really able to make use of it yet (I only started learning libGDX recently), I figured since it was only $30 through the kickstarter, it would be worthwhile.
 

Rafy

Member
I think there is a niche for tactic games like FE ,FTT or Disgaea in mobile. I might try it if I ever begin my first game.

Thanks for the suggestion, at the moment we are focusing on 2D so we can get some experience first but we will consider it if we decide to use any RPG making software.
I should have clarified that. We are using unity for graphics and probably inkscape because it's opensource.

Your post was originally about Spine, right?

I backed that too. Even though I'm not really able to make use of it yet (I only started learning libGDX recently), I figured since it was only $30 through the kickstarter, it would be worthwhile.

Indeed it was.
 
Hey again mate. After release of TOB I will probably take a bit of time to do some "Making of..." on "The Other Brothers". I think that is probably best. Many have asked us how we do certain things so in order to answer many questions at once a write up or video should probably be best.

Awesome, looking forward to it. :)
 

Nibel

Member
OH BOY

So my super awesome source (I'm special) just told me that an indie dev from this thread became a Wii U eShop dev today and that showing up here did its magic - the official announcement will be tomorrow.

What this means: support this thread even more! Work more on your games! Present them here! People are watching and good work will be rewarded :)

Bring it TeamIndieGAF
 

JulianImp

Member
Amazing! Congratulations to whoever managed to get there with Ninty.

For better or worse, I'm currently indulging in random non-game-related stuff, like growing my japanese vocabulary through helping with fansub translations (of stuff that has not and probably will never be released outside of Japan, of course). It's been quite fun so far.

I'll probably get back on track soon, though, since it's been about a month and a half since I last worked on Quark Storm. I really want to finish the game, but doing everything on my own has taken its toll on my ability to actually keep on going after two years of nearly-continous work, although I guess I could take the creator of Cave Story as an example; I heard it took him five years to make everything in the game, from coding to levels to sprites and music, so two years doesn't seem like that much in comparison.

I've already learned a few things I'll be able to do to speed up the development of later games, but for now I think I've got to hold onto Quark Storm and polish it until it becomes the game it deserves to be.
 

Rafy

Member
OH BOY

So my super awesome source (I'm special) just told me that an indie dev from this thread became a Wii U eShop dev today and that showing up here did its magic - the official announcement will be tomorrow.

What this means: support this thread even more! Work more on your games! Present them here! People are watching and good work will be rewarded :)

Bring it TeamIndieGAF

Congrats to whoever it is that managed to be on the WiiU! Keep posting here your updates.
 

Dali

Member
Congrats to whoever it is that managed to be on the WiiU! Keep posting here your updates.

It's Razu. Gotta be Razu. Choppa Mike is perfect for Wii U and the aesthetic is very Nintendo like (not that that really has anything to do with it).
 
Overhead work tonight, just a little bit.

bKyy1TP.png


For over a year the map was planned to be laid out like a honeycomb to keep it original but it's a math nightmare, had to resort to the plain square grid for this release.
 

Feep

Banned
Overhead work tonight, just a little bit.

bKyy1TP.png


For over a year the map was planned to be laid out like a honeycomb to keep it original but it's a math nightmare, had to resort to the plain square grid for this release.
Nah, plenty of games use hex maps. It's cool.
 
"Question - how easy to use is Unity Engine? And how well does perform if someone were to build, say, a 2.5D fighter with it?"

Easy depends on your prior experience with programming, IMO. That said, out of the handful of engines I've mucked around with, I've found Unity to be the easiest to learn and get accustomed to. It's performance depends on what you do with it, but it runs pretty fast in general.
 

JulianImp

Member
Question - how easy to use is Unity Engine? And how well does perform if someone were to build, say, a 2.5D fighter with it?

Using Unity requires knowing how to code some stuff by yourself (in either C#, JavaScript ot Boo), but isn't that hard to get used to, and it's really easy to prototype things with it.

Fighting games, however, could be a bit hard to do. After all, you have to use animations, add frame data to them (foe each hitbox and hurtbox), build a system to handle clashing attack priorities and special, character-specific moves and states... and building a decent AI is not a walk in the park, either.

If you don't have any experience with game development, you should try to learn the basics that will make your game work, like working on a simple platformer to get some basic knowledge of movement and state-based actors, and a beat-em-up to test the combat mechanics in an environment that's whay easier to design and manage than a full-fledged one-on-one fighting game.

If you want to make something like Smash Bros or PSASBR, you'll have to do quite a bit more, since that kind of games requires learning the physics engine and working with way more platform game-related mechanics than normal fighters.
 

Dali

Member
Question - how easy to use is Unity Engine? And how well does perform if someone were to build, say, a 2.5D fighter with it?
Unity is very easy to get into and has s LOT of community support. As far as msking a 2.5D fighter, I'm not sure hiw feasible it is. You can only apply one type of collider (what id imagine youd use as a hitbox in your game) to each object so youd have to come up with a work around like attaching a bunch of invisble cubes with their own colliders to your character's bones for each area you want a hitbox. I dunno. Im sure you can do it unity. Just depends how much work you want to put in. The thing that gives everone trouble is getting collisions to behave properly and youre talking about a game built around complicated collisions.
 

Uhyve

Member
Not gonna post much but after working on this for so long, kinda wanted to show it off. It's pretty far away from being finished, so there's not a ton to see. It's coded entirely from scratch by myself, with my brother doing most of the graphics, so I'm pretty proud of it... but yeah, feel free to give criticism, if you can from the single screenshot (there's really not much to see).

Note: Can you tell that it's fake lighting? Practically unlimited "lights" and it's not deferred.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Hey guys, just as you guessed Another Castle is coming to the Wii U!!!

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...r_another_castle_is_coming_to_the_wii_u_eshop

I'm really excited to be working on the Wii U, and it wouldn't have happened without GAF, and especially Emily Rogers!

I just launched the Kickstarter as well, you can check it out here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncadedave/another-castle


:D :D :D
You made Blast Soccer too? That's a nice Kickstarter page.

Owl alone easily worth 50k.
04fd6da9aac0f23da2c7bc70151a7573_large.png
 
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