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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Servbot24

Banned
There was a japanese indie game I played sometime back that may be like what you're talking about. It had some badass sprite work, but I can't remember the name. Really small title. Free to download. Shit I wish I could remember. I think the title started with a X, Y, or Z. One of those last letters in the alphabet.

edit:

Iwanaga! I was waaaay off, lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyX6RJJBaFs

This is actually quite close to what I was thinking, though the idea I had in mind would be more of a platformer.

Also Contra is another obvious reference that I've never played, lol

Now that I think about it Outland is a very good reference for me. The game I'm imagining is like Megaman meets Outland meets Super Stardust or something. Anyways thanks for the help guys, I'm going to toy around with Unity and see if I can get a basic set-up going. :)
 
iOS and PC for sure, maybe within a week of each other once the game is done. No idea how I would sell the PC version.

That's wise, since iOS is really popular with so many games. This is very premature obviously, but any chance that it may see the light on 3DS or Vita?
 
I think we will get to know more when the plan for indie development on Ps4 will be unveiled, maybe at GDC?


Anyway, after another break of one month, I'm back working on my basic scene editor, a beta is expected in few weeks.

In this screenshot I imported an heightmap of a very famous game world, the height scale is wrong, but it's easy to guess.


http://pinasterware.tumblr.com/post/44297812923/guess-the-heightmap
https://twitter.com/pinasterware


The editor will be released for free and the source code too but later. It's made using Ogre3d engine.

I want to say Morrowind
 
That's wise, since iOS is really popular with so many games. This is very premature obviously, but any chance that it may see the light on 3DS or Vita?
All depends on the MMF2 exporters by ClickTeam, this game could come to several different formats, I believe VITA is possible.

what kind of game are you developing? I've seen only the stats bar, my bad.

2D Metroidvania.

HfWvm16.png
 
Hey indieDevGAF, I read the OP and done some brief research on game development. I'm wondering if you can give me a proper direction of where to begin.

Background: I'm currently working in the industry(commercials) as a character animator. Over my life i've always had an interest in coding. going back to highschool, over the years i've learned visual basic, Java, MEL, Python, Actionscript - but nothing past the extent of a basic knowledge. I typically can read and comprehend it all do some small programs/tools, but i never took anything too far past that. And retaining much of that information has always proved a challenge since i take long breaks inbetween coding.

Ambition: Now I know I need to start small. real small. and build from there. The main things i'm looking to do is pixel art (maybe vector), a platformer, and probably needing decent physics ( unless i can fake certain things). not really sure what my first platform would be. i assume desktop. i have a mac though. so i guess i'd be making it to run on mac first. But whatever i make the game with i hope would be easy to convert for other platforms.

Current Goal: right now i just want to know what i need to get to dive in, start scripting and learning whatever language i need to make a square move around as a game on my mac.

Any help would be much appreciated. Hopefully this is the start of my official game devving

Cheers.

(btw all your projs here are pretty rad!)
 
Hey indieDevGAF, I read the OP and done some brief research on game development. I'm wondering if you can give me a proper direction of where to begin.

Background: I'm currently working in the industry(commercials) as a character animator. Over my life i've always had an interest in coding. going back to highschool, over the years i've learned visual basic, Java, MEL, Python, Actionscript - but nothing past the extent of a basic knowledge. I typically can read and comprehend it all do some small programs/tools, but i never took anything too far past that. And retaining much of that information has always proved a challenge since i take long breaks inbetween coding.

Ambition: Now I know I need to start small. real small. and build from there. The main things i'm looking to do is pixel art (maybe vector), a platformer, and probably needing decent physics ( unless i can fake certain things). not really sure what my first platform would be. i assume desktop. i have a mac though. so i guess i'd be making it to run on mac first. But whatever i make the game with i hope would be easy to convert for other platforms.

Current Goal: right now i just want to know what i need to get to dive in, start scripting and learning whatever language i need to make a square move around as a game on my mac.

Any help would be much appreciated. Hopefully this is the start of my official game devving

Cheers.

(btw all your projs here are pretty rad!)

IMHO, coding is a big part of making a game but it's still just a part. There's so much more to it that you should use a tool that makes you code as little as possible. You should try GameMaker for starters.

As long as it's good, the general public won't mind on which framework it's made.
 

Noogy

Member
iOS and PC for sure, maybe within a week of each other once the game is done. No idea how I would sell the PC version.

You shall sell it by taking my hard-earned cash. But seriously, with the way it looks I'm hoping you'll be able to find a good portal, Greenlight or otherwise.
 

chris-013

Member
Hey indieDevGAF, I read the OP and done some brief research on game development. I'm wondering if you can give me a proper direction of where to begin.

Background: I'm currently working in the industry(commercials) as a character animator. Over my life i've always had an interest in coding. going back to highschool, over the years i've learned visual basic, Java, MEL, Python, Actionscript - but nothing past the extent of a basic knowledge. I typically can read and comprehend it all do some small programs/tools, but i never took anything too far past that. And retaining much of that information has always proved a challenge since i take long breaks inbetween coding.

Ambition: Now I know I need to start small. real small. and build from there. The main things i'm looking to do is pixel art (maybe vector), a platformer, and probably needing decent physics ( unless i can fake certain things). not really sure what my first platform would be. i assume desktop. i have a mac though. so i guess i'd be making it to run on mac first. But whatever i make the game with i hope would be easy to convert for other platforms.

Current Goal: right now i just want to know what i need to get to dive in, start scripting and learning whatever language i need to make a square move around as a game on my mac.

Any help would be much appreciated. Hopefully this is the start of my official game devving

Cheers.

(btw all your projs here are pretty rad!)

You can learn Java or C# if you want a easy way to convert for other platforms or if you prefer scripting Unity is very good.

The funny thing is, I'm a programmer but I can't really draw or animate. ^^;
 

Dali

Member
In a little bit I may finally be able to contribute to "Screenshot Saturday" with very early images of "Path of Razu"(working title)!
 

Dali

Member
And here it is. First media of any sort for "Path of Razu"(working title). Will likely look totally different upon release and will most definitely not have the epic scale or gameplay the working title hints at, lol.

*redacted*

Obviously a lot of work to do but it's something.
 

Noogy

Member
Castlevania SOTN's ost is amazing to listen to while working, an hour just flew by without even realizing.

I'm a massive Yamane fan, her Castlevania stuff is so powerful. In fact, I referenced her a ton when working with HyperDuck to handle my OST. I sort like to think we came up with a great long-lost Castlevania track:

http://hyperduck.bandcamp.com/track/the-sorrowing-meadows

HyperDuck is actually wrapping up the OST to Penny Arcade Rainslick Ep. 4, by Zeboyd Games, and I'm looking forward to ramping up production with them for my next games.
 

IndianElephant

Neo Member
Oh wow, this is my first GAF post in probably ten years (I was Misogynator back in the day for old-timers)..

But anyway, here's my game debut (free for iOS devices, best on iPad):
Icon@2x.png

Lexi: Destroy All Words!

I actually made this game in XNA as a learning project after doing some tutorials, then realized it belonged on the web or an iPad, so I rewrote the whole thing using Unity and 3D letter tiles instead of sprites. I am now addicted to game programming.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
And here it is. First media of any sort for "Path of Razu"(working title). Will likely look totally different upon release and will most definitely not have the epic scale or gameplay the working title hints at, lol.

*redacted*

Obviously a lot of work to do but it's something.

Aw I missed it
 
For the next 3 days I have to work 10 hours a day scanning shit at my store for stock counts, kind of need a break from my game though it's starting to hurt my brain, getting rather annoyed at some minor but nasty bugs appearing in play tests.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I showed my game to my sister and her boyfriend last night, and I had them try a random level (pictured below). She has never played games before, and he has played a bit. It was interesting to watch because I've been testing so long it's hard for me to gauge the difficulty of the levels. The level is number 23 of 50, and in my opinion not all that difficult - there is no real puzzle to it, but you do need some quick reflexes and timing to make the jumps. My sister kept hitting the first red beam and dying and couldn't complete it. Her boyfriend did better and was able to complete it after about 15 restarts. I'm betting (hoping) though that if she had started the game from the first level she would have had the experience to complete it by the time she reached level 23.

Anyway, my wife is out today so I'm taking the opportunity to work for a few hours in silence. I want to get a functioning level select menu done by this afternoon.

 
Bit of an update from my project: The "studio" I was sort of/kind of opening up happened, and then blew up (not huge, but there was some steam behind it on some game dev forums). Then I started getting in touch with publishers who expressed some interest in it.

So right now I guess we're still in early pre-production, and trying to get a team together. I got some people I've worked with professionally on board in the creative team and we've gotten a lot of work done in the past week alone so really excited to see where this goes.

It's a mixed bag of feelings at the moment: Super happy and excited that something is happening but apprehensive about the future. I'm hoping it'll all work out but something that is this ambitious with minimal funding which means not being able to pay people up-front is a tricky thing to put together.

Anyone got any tips for tracking down programmers and artists? Been on a few of the major game development forums and asked around, but would love some tips from others who may have been in my shoes before.
 

Servbot24

Banned
Anyone got any tips for tracking down programmers and artists? Been on a few of the major game development forums and asked around, but would love some tips from others who may have been in my shoes before.

There are some talented artists on NeoGAF.

One guy in particular.

*Ahem*

don't ban me mods :(
 

chris-013

Member
...Anyone got any tips for tracking down programmers and artists? Been on a few of the major game development forums and asked around, but would love some tips from others who may have been in my shoes before.

Interesting, maybe I can help you, I'm a programmer.
I sent you my email via PM.
 

Fitz

Member
Anyone got any tips for tracking down programmers and artists? Been on a few of the major game development forums and asked around, but would love some tips from others who may have been in my shoes before.

Hey indie GAF, want to hop on the back of this question really. Where do people begin looking for artists? It seems like a lot of indie developers start with some art skills/experience and go from there. However a friend and I have been working on a game for a couple of months now which is going along quite well, however we have zero artistic skill between us and don't really know where to even begin looking.
 
I'm working on a game for Android and PC that's basically a word game where you slide tiles around and make words. I'm using libGDX, allowing for some extremely easy cross platform Android and PC development.


Today, I released a version for others to test, so if you want to check it out, you can here on PC or here on Android.



It's actually the first time I've finished something to this level, so I'm pretty happy. Unfortunately, even though it sometimes looks like I'm almost finished with the game, it's actually far from complete...

For me, the hardest part of creating a game is the graphics. I don't have money to spend for an artist, so I need to create everything myself, which pretty much sucks if you're not an artist.

The second hardest part is motivation. Creating the beginning of a game (just the game logic or just a character moving around on screen killing enemies) is the easy part. Creating the menus and adding polish sometimes requires a LOT of motivation.

Here is a blog post that helped motivate me:
http://www.exobyte.net/2/post/2012/10/smash-and-graph.html?
This is someone's success story on Android. While my main goal for making games isn't success (I actually started making this game for my mother who likes word games, lol), I figured that maybe I could make something good of it, so I started planning. If I am successful, I can spend money on an artist for my next project, which I already have in mind.


Anyone got any tips for tracking down programmers and artists? Been on a few of the major game development forums and asked around, but would love some tips from others who may have been in my shoes before.

I actually found out about this site on the blog post I linked above, a site called odesk which allows you to hire artists (among other people) for anything. I think it wouldn't hurt to look there, especially since the price people will work for is displayed.
 

jillytot

Member
Supe Indie Gaf,

I am new to this thread, but it seems pretty cool.

I recently left my job to do indie game development full-time. In fact, we are almost done with our first game, and we need help beta testing it before putting it out on the app store.

Anyone interested?

The game is called 2Bix, and it's a 2d puzzle game inspired by the Rubix Cube.

All you need is an ipad, and to get set up with testflightapp.com, which you can do by applying at the following link:

http://tflig.ht/XfzkuW

The beta test is free to play, all we are looking for is feedback and scores. If your interested to know more, go ahead and sign up, and we’ll fill you in on the rest.

Here are a couple of screen shots (art still in progress):

If your interested in more news, you can follow us on twitter: @AyloGames
or my blog: http://jillianogle.tumblr.com/
 

Servbot24

Banned
Hey indie GAF, want to hop on the back of this question really. Where do people begin looking for artists? It seems like a lot of indie developers start with some art skills/experience and go from there. However a friend and I have been working on a game for a couple of months now which is going along quite well, however we have zero artistic skill between us and don't really know where to even begin looking.

Check out ConceptArt.org and CGHub.com. They both have job boards that people check regularly. You can also go to game development boards like Gamedev.net and look for artists there.
 

IndianElephant

Neo Member
It's actually the first time I've finished something to this level, so I'm pretty happy. Unfortunately, even though it sometimes looks like I'm almost finished with the game, it's actually far from complete...

Word game bros! Actually, could you explain how the word recognition works exactly? I couldn't figure out (after an admittedly short time trying) how to consistently make words, and the instructions didn't seem to be available yet.
 

r1chard

Member
My little free Android match 3 game has hit 100 active installs. Whee! Not bad for zero publicity (posts on here and G+ don't count ;-)

It's been a really good learning experience. Looking forward to making more and trying to make some money out of it.
 

Servbot24

Banned
My little free Android match 3 game has hit 100 active installs. Whee! Not bad for zero publicity (posts on here and G+ don't count ;-)

It's been a really good learning experience. Looking forward to making more and trying to make some money out of it.

I don't have Android, but the interface looks great. :)
 
Oh man it's Code Pro Demo font!

It's technically Code Free (the download link under the images). :p Great font, though I may have overused it a bit...

Word game bros! Actually, could you explain how the word recognition works exactly? I couldn't figure out (after an admittedly short time trying) how to consistently make words.

It checks the rows and columns for words, forwards and backwards. For example, in the screenshot, I slid the "E" tile up and it made the word "DAME" on the first row.

Unless you meant that you wanted an in-depth explanation... I used Java's HashMap to store the words since it allows for a close to O(1) word look-up speed. In other words, it's usually instant. If I weren't lazy and took the time to understand it, I would create and use a perfect hash function which would guarantee instant lookup.

I'm sorry I can't check out your game because I don't have an Apple device, but if it is any solace to you, I saw the screenshot and thought, "Man, I have to try that!" and was pretty disappointed I couldn't. haha
 

IndianElephant

Neo Member
It checks the rows and columns for words, forwards and backwards. For example, in the screenshot, I slid the "E" tile up and it made the word "DAME" on the first row.

Unless you meant that you wanted an in-depth explanation... I used Java's HashMap to store the words since it allows for a close to O(1) word look-up speed. In other words, it's usually instant. If I weren't lazy and took the time to understand it, I would create and use a perfect hash function which would guarantee instant lookup.

I'm sorry I can't check out your game because I don't have an Apple device, but if it is any solace to you, I saw the screenshot and thought, "Man, I have to try that!" and was pretty disappointed I couldn't. haha

Oh, cool, I got confused when I tried to make 3-letter words I guess. Nicely done so far! It's good to see more word games that aren't just Boggle 2. And thanks for wanting to play my game! I can probably get a Windows build with a few adjustments.

Speaking of, here's a prototype for another word game of mine (Windows only atm):

***LexiQuest***

It's actually more like Boggle than my first, just in the spelling mechanism, but it's also sort of a dungeon crawler. It's also unforgivably ugly since it's visually composed of a random mish-mash of free art assets.
 

Dali

Member
I showed my game to my sister and her boyfriend last night, and I had them try a random level (pictured below). She has never played games before, and he has played a bit. It was interesting to watch because I've been testing so long it's hard for me to gauge the difficulty of the levels. The level is number 23 of 50, and in my opinion not all that difficult - there is no real puzzle to it, but you do need some quick reflexes and timing to make the jumps. My sister kept hitting the first red beam and dying and couldn't complete it. Her boyfriend did better and was able to complete it after about 15 restarts. I'm betting (hoping) though that if she had started the game from the first level she would have had the experience to complete it by the time she reached level 23.

Anyway, my wife is out today so I'm taking the opportunity to work for a few hours in silence. I want to get a functioning level select menu done by this afternoon.

Lookin good. Glad the QC is coming along ok.

8rkV54Y.png


Sprite Frenzy Day 2 continues unabated, only a few more objects left

So it's like a space invaders sort of game?
 
Oh, cool, I got confused when I tried to make 3-letter words I guess. Nicely done so far! It's good to see more word games that aren't just Boggle 2. And thanks for wanting to play my game! I can probably get a Windows build with a few adjustments.
Oh yeah, maybe I should have made that more clear. Thanks for trying it out.

Speaking of, here's a prototype for another word game of mine (Windows only atm):

***LexiQuest***

It's actually more like Boggle than my first, just in the spelling mechanism, but it's also sort of a dungeon crawler. It's also unforgivably ugly since it's visually composed of a random mish-mash of free art assets.

That was actually pretty cool. I was playing it for the last 30 minutes, very much enjoying myself. lol

A couple things, though. It is often hard to see the letters on the tiles, especially the "starter" tiles on the floor. Also, I can't figure out what the wand item is for.

One thing I noticed is that the tiles don't use a lot of common letters, so it's pretty hard to make anything more than a three or four letter word. On the flip side, it made it much more satisfying when I finally did find a 5 or 6, or 7 letter word. It made the game's pacing slow for me, as I would sit and try for a minute or two to find the longest word I could.

The game feels low-key, calm, and slow paced, which is probably what you were going for. However, if you wanted a more fast-paced, action-y game, then maybe you can do something to push the player to make words faster, whether it's a time limit, an enemy closing in, or just easier letters. (Not that I'm saying you should make it fast paced... I like it the way it is!)

Besides that, I really think it has potential to be something great. It really is something I'd play over and over again.

My little free Android match 3 game has hit 100 active installs. Whee! Not bad for zero publicity (posts on here and G+ don't count ;-)

It's been a really good learning experience. Looking forward to making more and trying to make some money out of it.

Congrats.

I noticed in the menu of your application that you use Kivy. I've never heard of it until looking at your application... How is it?
 

r1chard

Member
Congrats.

I noticed in the menu of your application that you use Kivy. I've never heard of it until looking at your application... How is it?

Thanks.

Kivy's neat. I'm an old-school Python programmer and have used pretty much all the frameworks Python's had for game dev. Kivy's the first to be really feasible for opengl-based game dev on Android (I've previously developed the same game in pygame 4 android but it's not opengl so the game was less fancy - you can't even alpha fade.) iOS is supported but they're still working on improving the build system. I can't justify the $100/year to put up my free game so I've not even tried iOS yet.

I've been contributing some PRs back to Kivy and the android project behind Kivy which has improved it a bit. The devs are quite receptive. The android part needs a little more work but gets the job done.

Kivy itself has a pretty good feature set and is pretty robust. Its documentation could be more thorough.
 

IndianElephant

Neo Member
That was actually pretty cool. I was playing it for the last 30 minutes, very much enjoying myself. lol

A couple things, though. It is often hard to see the letters on the tiles, especially the "starter" tiles on the floor. Also, I can't figure out what the wand item is for.

One thing I noticed is that the tiles don't use a lot of common letters, so it's pretty hard to make anything more than a three or four letter word. On the flip side, it made it much more satisfying when I finally did find a 5 or 6, or 7 letter word. It made the game's pacing slow for me, as I would sit and try for a minute or two to find the longest word I could.

The game feels low-key, calm, and slow paced, which is probably what you were going for. However, if you wanted a more fast-paced, action-y game, then maybe you can do something to push the player to make words faster, whether it's a time limit, an enemy closing in, or just easier letters. (Not that I'm saying you should make it fast paced... I like it the way it is!)

Besides that, I really think it has potential to be something great. It really is something I'd play over and over again.

Thank you for the feedback! I've tinkered with the game so much that the letters on the starter tiles are clear as day to me, but you aren't the first person to tell me they had a hard time making them out. Maybe a simple darkening of the letters would solve that.

There have been a few attempts at putting pressure on the player - originally there were mummies wandering around that would chase you if you got too close and raise the tiles around you if you touched them. This ended up being more annoying than anything. Then I added a ghost that would start slowly chasing you if you took too long. That wasn't satisfying either, so I've just left it empty for now. The game is in a bit of limbo as I mull over how to continue it. I expect there will end up being some kind of threat, or at least a mode of play with one, whether it's an enemy or simple time pressure.

As for the letters.. well, it uses the same letter frequency as Scrabble, so I'm not sure how I would adjust that to make words easier. It's also another case of being so accustomed to the game that I can make long words all day, while first time players have a lot of trouble. Balance is hard!

So is your game, btw! Actually, I suspect I just really suck at sliding puzzles.
 
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