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GAF Indie Game Development Thread 2: High Res Work for Low Res Pay

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Can someone give me feedback on the animation? Have been working on this for last 2 days but still feel something isn't quite right. Maybe increase the arms swinging speed?

ezgif-4059908265.gif

(gif doesnt have perfect loop btw XD)
 
Can someone give me feedback on the animation? Have been working on this for last 2 days but still feel something isn't quite right. Maybe increase the arms swinging speed?



(gif doesnt have perfect loop btw XD)

For some reason my brain keeps seeing her weapon as a leg. Its movement behind her actual legs looks a bit jarring (it's hard to read). Also, when the weapon is pointing almost straight down, its movement back towards her front seems way too fast and sudden. Her arm holding the weapon wouldn't be moving so jittery like that, so the weapon shouldn't either.
 
Alright, so I made some adjustment, looks better now? (ignore the missing frame at the end, I missed it on import)

ezgif-251896192.gif


probably will adjust the hair movement now since I figure out how spine's path constraint works.
 
Unity 5.4 and PS4 works well. Haven't done any major tests with performance but everything works great with a cursory glance.

Alright, so I made some adjustment, looks better now?

ezgif-251896192.gif


probably will adjust the hair movement now since I figure out how spine's path constraint works.
I like that.
 
Unity 5.4 looks pretty good here, too. Nothing broke (at least, if it has I haven't found it yet) and performance seems slightly better.

This might be the first initial release since 5.2 (maybe even earlier) that hasn't had any major problems.
 
Unity 5.4 looks pretty good here, too. Nothing broke (at least, if it has I haven't found it yet) and performance seems slightly better.

This might be the first initial release since 5.2 (maybe even earlier) that hasn't had any major problems.
Same. I skipped 5.3

And now I get to use TrailRenderer.Clear() so I don't need my workaround XD
 

mStudios

Member
Thanks!! Looking forward to it :-D shouldn't take more than that anyway!

Im back :D.
Loved it overall, I think the text is very well done and the music fits perfectly with the scenario. Good job man!
Animations are pretty good too!

Although, I think I had a FPS drop at the beginning, I don't know if its intentional or not. I don't remeber exactly where (Maybe was a picture fading out or something like that)
 

Pehesse

Member
Im back :D.
Loved it overall, I think the text is very well done and the music fits perfectly with the scenario. Good job man!
Animations are pretty good too!

Although, I think I had a FPS drop at the beginning, I don't know if its intentional or not. I don't remeber exactly where (Maybe was a picture fading out or something like that)

Many thanks! A FPS drop, huh? Impacting playability you mean, or was it during one of the initial loads? Could I ask your computer configuration (especially OS and available RAM), either here or through PMs? Either way, thanks a lot for trying it out :-D

Any other impressions? I'd like to see if it works with a number of people/configurations before releasing it into the wild(er)!
 

Pazu

Member
are you guys playing VR games? what does everybody like a lot?

I was a cat in Catlateral Damage and I knocked a big screen TV on the floor with my giant paw!!!
 

Urishizu

Member
Just a few days over my first week on Steam Greenlight. For anyone coming up on that pat of the process, do not underestimate advertising. I've spent more time since launching on there advertising than developing the next stage of the game. Hit up all of the regular social media sites, reach out to blogs and just keep trying to generate foot traffic.

It's kind of crazy how difficult it can be to get noticed. There's just a sheer wall of other games out there and your visibility on the main page fades rapidly. I'm trying to focus on frequent dev updates, new videos and screenshots, but just don't underestimate the time investment.

Getting previews on news sites seems to help considerably though. Got my first preview on a decently trafficked site and it helped out a bit. If anyone is going through a similar process, shoot me a PM and I can let you know the steps I'm taking. It may help. Things are going well so far though, I'm happy with seeing the first ~week and comments have been pretty positive. It's just a marathon, not a sprint.
 
After days/weeks of head scratching, we finally nailed the character shader that we wanted(black and white outline).

Looks cool! This game was going to be like Silent Bomber, right?

I'm currently working on Cutscene systems. My game isn't going to be particularly story-heavy, but I'm going to need the odd scripted section here and there. Annoyingly, what I'm doing at work at the moment is incredibly dry and involves a lot of JSON reading/backend shenanigans, so I've been pretty unmotivated to do any additional programming at home. Especially when the core of this cutscene system is based around JSONs :p

It's actually a fairly gargantuan task... Aside from movement/animation changes I also have to deal with text boxes (which are going to be a whole issue in themselves), ways to "pause" the cutscene, ways to make it wait for user Input, ways to make certain sections loop. Just gotta break it down task by task.

Still, making little progress here and there. It'll all add up in the end!

Edit: @Urishizu, gave you a vote :)
 

LordRaptor

Member
I'm not sure yet or not but has either UE4 or Unity gotten their animation toolset yet?

What do you mean by animation toolset?
Unity has a built in graph-based animator called mecanim, which can be used for Spriter style 2D IK bones / joints animation, or traditional spritesheet animations, as well as support for traditional 3D animations either directly imported or within an FSM
 

Urishizu

Member
Looks cool! This game was going to be like Silent Bomber, right?

I'm currently working on Cutscene systems. My game isn't going to be particularly story-heavy, but I'm going to need the odd scripted section here and there. Annoyingly, what I'm doing at work at the moment is incredibly dry and involves a lot of JSON reading/backend shenanigans, so I've been pretty unmotivated to do any additional programming at home. Especially when the core of this cutscene system is based around JSONs :p

It's actually a fairly gargantuan task... Aside from movement/animation changes I also have to deal with text boxes (which are going to be a whole issue in themselves), ways to "pause" the cutscene, ways to make it wait for user Input, ways to make certain sections loop. Just gotta break it down task by task.

Still, making little progress here and there. It'll all add up in the end!

Edit: @Urishizu, gave you a vote :)

Thanks for the support, it is much appreciated! Things are still trucking along. I just need the survival horror crowd to latch on. :D
 
Looks cool! This game was going to be like Silent Bomber, right?

Yep. Still long way to go though.

I actually found a tutorial online last week for doing something similar. I wish I had bookmarked it.
It feels satisfying. When I made the concept art months ago, I only added those black and white outline to look pretty. Yesterday, seeing it actually work in 3d makes me want to work more. Seeing progress like this is amazing.


Here is the how the game currently look btw.

http://i.imgur.com/3WVzvDy.gifv

Longer video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6XcIlF00c
 
Yep. Still long way to go though.


It feels satisfying. When I made the concept art months ago, I only added those black and white outline to look pretty. Yesterday, seeing it actually work in 3d makes me want to work more. Seeing progress like this is amazing.


Here is the how the game currently look btw.

http://i.imgur.com/3WVzvDy.gifv

Longer video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6XcIlF00c

Maybe just me but seems like the characters are floating? I think the outlines around their foot give the illusion that they are not directly touching the floor.
 
Maybe just me but seems like the characters are floating? I think the outlines around their foot give the illusion that they are not directly touching the floor.

Yeah. they are actually floating because when I made the test level, I never bothered aligning the collider to the ground properly lol. but that will changes once we start working on the proper level. but for now, that we are still working on gameplay/art related things, that test level will stay that way. :D
 

Blam

Member
What do you mean by animation toolset?
Unity has a built in graph-based animator called mecanim, which can be used for Spriter style 2D IK bones / joints animation, or traditional spritesheet animations, as well as support for traditional 3D animations either directly imported or within an FSM

I remember when the full ADAM video came out they said that it was made with a animation tool that wasn't out yet. I was wondering if that was finished. And UE4 has had talk about something like that too. Being able to animate full cutscenes in the engine.
 

Vanguard

Member
I remember when the full ADAM video came out they said that it was made with a animation tool that wasn't out yet. I was wondering if that was finished. And UE4 has had talk about something like that too. Being able to animate full cutscenes in the engine.

Unity's is Director: Sequencer and is still in Alpha according to the roadmap so might not make it into 5.5 (there's still a chance as it's not finalised yet, but once 5.5 hits beta then the feature list is more or less final for that version from what I read on their forums) https://unity3d.com/unity/roadmap, so it could be 5.6+ yet for all we know :\

UE4 uses Matinee I think? Which as far as I'm aware is in: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Matinee/
 

bumpkin

Member
Yep. Still long way to go though.


It feels satisfying. When I made the concept art months ago, I only added those black and white outline to look pretty. Yesterday, seeing it actually work in 3d makes me want to work more. Seeing progress like this is amazing.


Here is the how the game currently look btw.

http://i.imgur.com/3WVzvDy.gifv

Longer video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6XcIlF00c
Nice, thanks for sharing. Looking good so far!

I found the tutorial I mentioned, but it's geared specifically toward 2D. Here's a link for anyone curious:

http://blogs.love2d.org/content/let-it-glow-dynamically-adding-outlines-characters
 

mStudios

Member
Many thanks! A FPS drop, huh? Impacting playability you mean, or was it during one of the initial loads? Could I ask your computer configuration (especially OS and available RAM), either here or through PMs? Either way, thanks a lot for trying it out :-D

Any other impressions? I'd like to see if it works with a number of people/configurations before releasing it into the wild(er)!

I tried again, and I think it was on my end (I had 3ds max, photoshop and VLC opened haha).

Low poly
YNfv4o3.gif


Anyone having problems with 3DS Max? The program keeps crashing everytime a move a bone -_-
 

Pehesse

Member
I tried again, and I think it was on my end (I had 3ds max, photoshop and VLC opened haha).

Oh, yeah, the game doesn't really handle having too many other things opened well :-D You can have pretty weird/interesting side effects if you fill the memory banks before/while playing it!

Low poly
YNfv4o3.gif


Anyone having problems with 3DS Max? The program keeps crashing everytime a move a bone -_-

Wow, that looks great already!
And the face already looks miles better than ZTD's! :-D
 

orioto

Good Art™
I said i would post something to show how it works when in motion. With my different progresses the animation is visible, it's not too subtle. The sprite is still really compact so the shape doesn't change a lot but that's what you want for a precise plaformer with tight maneuvers right. You can't have a hit box going all over. I used a gif capture soft so there is a loss obviously.

HampooAnimDemo.gif


I want it to feel natural and with some weight.
of course i have still no idea what to do with the fucking arms :p
 

LordRaptor

Member
Back in the day, HL mods were expected to keep base character models at around the 600ish mark.

Modern polycounts are almost redundant, if only because you can bake so much model information from a high poly cage and put that into a texture.
 

correojon

Member
As I´m still totally stuck with some bugs, I´ve added some details to the running animation so at least I have some progress:
nzZ5oWw.gif



I said i would post something to show how it works when in motion. With my different progresses the animation is visible, it's not too subtle. The sprite is still really compact so the shape doesn't change a lot but that's what you want for a precise plaformer with tight maneuvers right. You can't have a hit box going all over. I used a gif capture soft so there is a loss obviously.

HampooAnimDemo.gif


I want it to feel natural and with some weight.
of course i have still no idea what to do with the fucking arms :p
I´d try moving the arms behind instead of to the front when falling and also add more movement to the hat. Take a look at Mario sprites (specially in SMW) and see how Mario´s cap is left behind when falling, I think that would add a lot to the animation. The same with the piece of cloth around the neck, make it go upwards when falling. Your sprite is very detailed, but the small movements you´ve put into the animations are too subtle and difficult to appreciate if you´re not looking for them.
Also, check the jumping animation for Aladdin (SNES or Megadrive) it´s one of my favorite jumping animations and it could give you some ideas.

All of the above is regarding the jumping animation, I think your running animation is really cute and have no complaints about it, great job!
 

mStudios

Member
Oh, yeah, the game doesn't really handle having too many other things opened well :-D You can have pretty weird/interesting side effects if you fill the memory banks before/while playing it!

Wow, that looks great already!
And the face already looks miles better than ZTD's! :-D
Hahah thanks!

Nice! Is your game going to be 3d now?
The adventure/text mode will be 2D, while the rest is going to be in 3D.

Haha, apparently we have different definitions of low-poly ;P

It looks really good though!
Thanks!

Those boobs look way too smooth to be low-poly ;)

Priorities, man. Priorities.
lol
 
Priorities, man. Priorities.
lol

lol, I know how it is!

Even in voxels you have to really be conscious of doing curves like that. I'm looking at my voxel characters and looking where to shave down voxels so there are more flat surfaces, and it's like the boobs and butt take up 50% of the tris in my characters
 

mStudios

Member
lol, I know how it is!

Even in voxels you have to really be conscious of doing curves like that. I'm looking at my voxel characters and looking where to shave down voxels so there are more flat surfaces, and it's like the boobs and butt take up 50% of the tris in my characters

Quick question. How is Turbo smooth for games? I heard due to the increase of the polygons ain't worth doing it. That true?
 

correojon

Member
After being stuck with a nasty bug for 4 weeks and making almost zero progress with the game I finally found the cause and killed it yeaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!

Now I have to solve a lot of other errors but the hardest part is done, I think I can bring the game back to life in a few days. This was a nightmare and I was thinking of scrapping everything and starting the game from zero, I´m so happy right now!!! :D :D :D
 

mStudios

Member
After being stuck with a nasty bug for 4 weeks and making almost zero progress with the game I finally found the cause and killed it yeaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!

Now I have to solve a lot of other errors but the hardest part is done, I think I can bring the game back to life in a few days. This was a nightmare and I was thinking of scrapping everything and starting the game from zero, I´m so happy right now!!! :D :D :D

Correojon todo lo puede!
 
Quick question. How is Turbo smooth for games? I heard due to the increase of the polygons ain't worth doing it. That true?

That's a 3ds max plugin/tool, right? Unfortunately my 3ds max knowledge is pretty slim, as I use Maya (and even that I barely scratch the surface of).

That said, from what I recall you can select which faces it actually "smooths" so I'd imagine it's probably great for isolated cases, and you can change how many iterations it does to mitigate the amount of polys added. But I definitely wouldn't apply it to everything, I'd probably use it mostly to speed up doing larger curves on otherwise low-poly items (like breasts!)
 
We're going to switch all our materials over to use the new GPU instanced shader in 5.4, since the entire game is built on modular assets that pool from just a handful of materials. So we should see some pretty decent performance gains!

In other news, we had to switch over to nGUI as Coherent UI just gave us too many issues. Massive pain in the ass but that's gamedev for you.
Coherent was the source of all our crashes, soft locks and issues, proving that the more expensive option isn't the best. We couldn't apply shaders to the UI, as it uses HTML5, it ran it's own separate sound output (outside of Unity entirely), meaning I couldn't control or route audio from the UI through an audio group. Just a big steaming mess basically. Also our current subscription licence is about to run out and we simply can't afford their new one.

nGUI turns out to be far far better, everything is built to work inside the editor, we can use our CRT/scanline, glitchy shaders, I can add sounds super easy. And most of all, it took our programmer almost the best part of a week to port everything over with no fuss. Way more straightforward for everyone, so we've had next to no downtime. Plus no more weird crashes!

I'm sure Coherent works great for other folks, but it simply wasn't making our life very easy, just a shame mostly, because it seemed like the most powerful option.
 

JulianImp

Member
Testing the game's first boss in the action game I'm doing freelance programming for:

The ground hasn't been dressed appropriately yet with props and other stuff to cover the raw polygon shapes, but I'm quite happy with how things are going. The fight will have the player dodge the giant sand worm's acid spit, body slams, burrowing attacks and bites from below while it's burrowed. Most animations are actually ready, so I'm now implementing and adding game logic to them.

I'm amazed with how much progress we've made with this game in the span of two weeks and a half of development, after we had to throw the previous game away since it was a mess of outdated Unity 3 systems and very hack-y programming the two previous programmers (who both quit midway through the project) had made, and then I went on to building the movement, shooting, GUI and enemy systems up from scratch.

Animators have been a godsend so far, and flipping characters' local X scale has been great as well, since it allows me to place 2D box colliders for wall/floor/sight checks, and they get flipped properly whenever their entity turns around.

Can't wait for 2D capsule coliders, though, since using a circle and a rectangle for player collisions is a bit of a pain.
 

orioto

Good Art™
As I´m still totally stuck with some bugs, I´ve added some details to the running animation so at least I have some progress:
nzZ5oWw.gif




I´d try moving the arms behind instead of to the front when falling and also add more movement to the hat. Take a look at Mario sprites (specially in SMW) and see how Mario´s cap is left behind when falling, I think that would add a lot to the animation. The same with the piece of cloth around the neck, make it go upwards when falling. Your sprite is very detailed, but the small movements you´ve put into the animations are too subtle and difficult to appreciate if you´re not looking for them.
Also, check the jumping animation for Aladdin (SNES or Megadrive) it´s one of my favorite jumping animations and it could give you some ideas.

All of the above is regarding the jumping animation, I think your running animation is really cute and have no complaints about it, great job!

Thx for the feedback! The funny part is that all you suggest is actually kinda here already but too subtle. i'll have to make it more obvious, the floating hat, the scarf indeed. I'll try for the arm, thx!
 

manoelpdb

Neo Member
Hey guys, I finished making a little game project I had started some time ago. It's a simple platformer-puzle-ish single screen that you play using a toy car that plays music while is moving. You can download it in the link below. I'd love see people feedback so I can improve in my next games!

Here is a gif of the game:
t%2BNPSw.gif


And the download page: https://manoelpdb.itch.io/magicalsoundcar
 

Jumplion

Member
Hoo boy, been a while since I've checked out the thread, awesome stuff going on here.

Work on my own project has hit a standstill, unfortunately. Combination of summer work, personal troubles, and not knowing how to do most of the things that I could be doing making me freeze up, makes it hard for me to muster up the energy to work on it.

Right now I've been going through my design document and trying to flesh out certain portions, mostly in figuring out my overall approach/tone with the game. The "official" production starts by Fall semester, so I have time before I really need to kick my ass into gear. I want to take this time right now to explore some options I have with software, workflow, asset creation, etc... and figure out a specific schedule for the progress I should expect.

I tend to work better when I have accountability to someone and consistent work structure which school tends to help with.
 
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