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

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Minamu

Member
How are you moving the rigidbodies? They're pretty picky at how it's done and I still don't get the correct way exactly, but as an example I do:

Code:
_velocity = movementDirection * speed;

// Preserve the rigidbodys y velocity for gravity
_velocity.y = _rigidbody.velocity.y;
_rigidbody.velocity = _velocity;

inside of FixedUpdate. This way we give it the desired velocity, but let the physics system handle transforms/collision correctly. If you did for example

Code:
transform.position += velocity * Time.deltaTime
or something similiar, it freaks the physics engine out and you basically fight against it with it trying to correct stuff, causing you to go through colliders, because the object has been translated directly into another collider. But this is assuming a scenario where the rigidbodies are being moved in a way they don't like and a problem I've had before due to this. As said they're picky and you gotta play nice with them :p

If it's not due to this though.... then that's new to me!
It's not actually my code, there's three of us and I've got the least coding experience ;) But I think we're doing a bit of both with addforce and translation manipulation. Character turning is bound to translating the camera from side to side for instance (don't ask me why, the programmers refused to use the standard assets and created their own third person camera system xD). Gonna look into it, I bet this explains whh our characters jump so poorly and get stuck in wall geometry while jumping too.
 

V_Arnold

Member
Blackthorne is that you? I take it there will be landing physics?

Haha, that animation is great. Reminds me of spending way too many hours dying over and over in Out of This World and Flashback. Is this going to be a cinematic platformer in that style?

Thanks for the compliments! (And to all other posts liking this gif too : )
Yes, it will have some sort of realistic traversal first, but will lean more to fantasy/sci-fi (both,actually, if all goes well), with quite a mix of different genres when it comes to gameplay. I shall share more info when a build is up and running. Which could take anything between 3 and 9 months : D
 
It's not actually my code, there's three of us and I've got the least coding experience ;) But I think we're doing a bit of both with addforce and translation manipulation. Character turning is bound to translating the camera from side to side for instance (don't ask me why, the programmers refused to use the standard assets and created their own third person camera system xD). Gonna look into it, I bet this explains whh our characters jump so poorly and get stuck in wall geometry while jumping too.

Translate doesn't use physics. It translates between vectors so colliders will pass through one another on collision since physics isn't moving them.

I use translate for all of my movement and most of my collision. You need to look ahead between objects in the direction they move using a raycast, get the distance, calculate how much you will move the next frame based on your speed - if it is more than the distance between two objects - move only the difference. If it is less than the distance between the two objects - keep going as normal.

If you are using RigidBody

//FixedUpdate
rigidbody.velocity = vector3;

You can use AddForce, etc.

Where vector3 is the speed on all 3 axis.

You'll also want to make sure your PHYSICS LAYERS are set to detect collision with each other and the colliders are NOT triggers.
 
How are you moving the rigidbodies? They're pretty picky at how it's done and I still don't get the correct way exactly, but as an example I do:

Code:
_velocity = movementDirection * speed;

// Preserve the rigidbodys y velocity for gravity
_velocity.y = _rigidbody.velocity.y;
_rigidbody.velocity = _velocity;

Save lines of code - write it like this:

Code:
_velocity = movementDirection * speed;
_rigidbody.velocity = new Vector3 (_velocity.x, _rigidbody.velocity.y, _velocity.z);

This makes it far easier to understand what's happening when you or someone else reads your code 6 months from now. X and Z are set via moveDirection and Y keeps RigidBody Physics.
 

Vanguard

Member
Save lines of code - write it like this:

Code:
_velocity = movementDirection * speed;
_rigidbody.velocity = new Vector3 (_velocity.x, _rigidbody.velocity.y, _velocity.z);

This makes it far easier to understand what's happening when you or someone else reads your code 6 months from now. X and Z are set via moveDirection and Y keeps RigidBody Physics.

True, being the only one on the project I tend to get lazy in areas (mostly programming) as I'm pushing myself in others that I'm not used to. Plus I think that code originally came from unity's assets as I was trying to solve the exact same problem xD It's weird viewing code I've not seen in months.



Also missed screenshot saturday, but recently redesigned/finalised the look of my central hub area. Still have plans to tweak it, but the clean look of it I really like, which is rare for me. (UI is trash, ignore it :p) Really need to concentrate on skills though...

SypirZH.jpg

wpGQ9E3.gif
 

Minamu

Member
Great responses, I'll relay the info tomorrow and compare solutions :) It's for our global game jam 2016 project we want to finish asap.
 
True, being the only one on the project I tend to get lazy in areas (mostly programming) as I'm pushing myself in others that I'm not used to. Plus I think that code originally came from unity's assets as I was trying to solve the exact same problem xD It's weird viewing code I've not seen in months.



Also missed screenshot saturday, but recently redesigned/finalised the look of my central hub area. Still have plans to tweak it, but the clean look of it I really like, which is rare for me. (UI is trash, ignore it :p) Really need to concentrate on skills though...



wpGQ9E3.gif
Oh I get stupid lazy sometimes - I know that feel. Half my code is //TODO hahahaha! Hahaha hah heh heh :(

:(

Also, intrigued at that hub.
 

Jobbs

Banned
It has its limitations, but that's a positive if you think about it. Working within limitations gets you more creative than without sometimes.

Using Stencyl + not being very savvy technically in general, so many decisions around my game design were done in such a way to maximize what I can do and minimize what I can't do.

It's fine, but next time I'd like to change it up.
 

Sàmban

Banned
A game I've been working on for a bit. I hope to god I can actually finish this one.

ASI_PROSPECT.png

ASI_PROSPECT2.png


It's a top-down shooter that I'm trying to blend the tactical/cyber abilities of Deus Ex with the fluidity/speed of games like CoD. The goal is that you should be able to beat an entire level by hacking everything, shooting everything, or using special abilities like teleporting into enemies to kill them.

It's pretty much feature complete now. You can hack sentry guns to make them shoot enemies, or you can hack enemies to make their guns explode when they fire.
 

Razlo

Member
7N7PyJs.png


I wrapped up that one-level vertical slice milestone of Gunmetal Arcadia Zero I was working on a week or two ago right before leaving for PAX South, and I'd love to get some feedback on it if any of y'all have a few minutes to spare!

Download links for Windows, Mac, and Linux are here, along with more detailed notes on specific features of this build.

A gamepad is recommended but not required. Default controls for the Xbox 360 are:
  • Left stick / d-pad: Walk, aim up/down
  • A: Jump
  • B: Throw bomb
  • X: Primary melee weapon
  • Y: Secondary thrown weapon

This build contains a single level with a number of enemies, an end boss, shopkeepers, etc. There are a few known bugs and plenty of rough edges, but I'm looking for any and all feedback. Thanks!

I really dug it, it feels authentic and controls well. Really like the variety of weapons and level design of that one level anyway.

Will definitely buy when it comes out
 
I have a second monitor now! Does that make me a game developing pro ?! Also, I feel like I want to reply to every image people post of their games with "Wow, that looks awesome!" but I'll get annoying real quick. But seriously---everything everyone is posting looks amazing.
 

Kalentan

Member
So sort of update to my game! I actually made some progress. Mainly in my UI department.

Introducing the Morale Bar!

ZRGb.gif


I decided to add this function into the game. Essentially, it works like tug a war. The more actions you do (kill enemies, do objectives, etc), will raise the bar towards the blue for the player to retrieve the bonus. However when enemies attack you or use specific enemy skills (Banner men for example), will be able to raise it towards the red. Some levels may begin in the red or the blue.

Since some levels will actually begin with some effects on the field. Typically these will be side missions. Some easy missions may give you benefits, while harder (high risk, much better rewards), will have debuffs. Such as starting enemies out will their morale max.

Buffs and Debuffs:

bSGb.gif


[Note: It won't actually go off the character portrait in the real version. :p]

But yeah, currently these buffs do nothing. They're just visual. However I managed to make an array and be able to sort this array (buffs come first, debuffs second.)
I'm not actually sure how I'm going to make the buffs work. I have a system in place that does allow for more to be added to a character (as seen in the gif.) Thus far I even have the buffs working. Though I haven't figured everything out yet.

Also introducing the Resilience System. Essentially everyone (even enemies) at the start of the level will have 100 Resilience, and normal attacks reduce it by 5 and some skills by 10. When it reaches 0, it will give the character an injury that can only be cured by an item or high level skill. (Removed auto by end of level.) However these injuries don't have a set amount of time. Either you remove the injury or you keep with it till the end of the level. Injuries can be anything from reduced movement/no sprint, reduce damage, health, and others.

I hope these can add a bit of depth. More so since both these new systems (Morale and Resilience) can be interacted with the skill modifications and the such. You can technically spec towards more Resilience damage to enemies. At the cost of downsides (as there will be for most builds.) Enemies, however, at higher levels, will be able to actually cure themselves of injuries.
 

correojon

Member
7N7PyJs.png


I wrapped up that one-level vertical slice milestone of Gunmetal Arcadia Zero I was working on a week or two ago right before leaving for PAX South, and I'd love to get some feedback on it if any of y'all have a few minutes to spare!

Download links for Windows, Mac, and Linux are here, along with more detailed notes on specific features of this build.

A gamepad is recommended but not required. Default controls for the Xbox 360 are:
  • Left stick / d-pad: Walk, aim up/down
  • A: Jump
  • B: Throw bomb
  • X: Primary melee weapon
  • Y: Secondary thrown weapon

This build contains a single level with a number of enemies, an end boss, shopkeepers, etc. There are a few known bugs and plenty of rough edges, but I'm looking for any and all feedback. Thanks!

I enjoyed the game, the level of polish everywhere is very evident, specially in little things like being able to go back in menus by pressing B in the controller without having to select the "Back" option. The controls of the player were responsive, even though it felt a bit off when trying to jump and do the downwards attack, but that was probably because the XBOX controller´s DPad sucks. However, there was one time where I got hit by an enemy and the inputs seemed to buffer while the hit animation was running. This only happened once.

The game is very enjoyable and I can see myself running around and revisiting locations to find treasures. I think this game will benefit a lot from a Dark Souls/Shovel Knight approach to death: make the player loose some loot and place it where he died, so if he can get back there without dying he can collect it back.

I loved to discover there were some shortcuts, so all progress wasn´t lost when dying. You should add more of this.
Most enemy encounters were good but simple, specially that first blue guy in a room. With the music change and everything I expected a boss fight or something and the encounter was a bit anticlimatic. It was a nice way to introduce that enemy, but I feel it´s lacking something as there was no challenge at all.

There is a green enemy at the bottom of the first pit with player-controllable platforms that is not visible before jumping down. This is the only complaint I have level-design wise, as even if you know he´s there there´s no way to pinpoint it´s location before jumping down. I would get rid of him or place him on a higher platform so he can be seen from above.

Good game, even if the graphics make it look like a NES game it plays like a modern game, so great job!
 

shaowebb

Member
Oy. Just started doing 12 hour shifts and swing shifts again at the plant. Plus 2 more fighting games launched. Got another stage and it'll be built soon. Don't get too excited though...its a training stage. General layout is simply KI style of block primitive stretched into a rectangular walk area for fighters to go at it, with a plane wall background. Only thing holding it up is just experimenting with what textures to run on it. I like Tron stuff, but I keep feeling I need more than the simple grid thing. Problem is its a training stage and its meant to have as little visual as possible so that folks can focus on their performance and not get distracted as they practice.

Guess I need to just keep experimenting with vector patterns and see what looks alright.
The last pattern I made was just a neat bit of glass filters on a grid.
VRNGxPD.jpg

It'd be alright if I added beveling to each square and possibly more textures for them once I create a depth map and such so that it has a little bit of contour in game. I just keep feeling I can add character without being distracting in the training mode though. Its kind of a problem for me to design ANYTHING simple and training mode stages is sorta hard for me due to that. I can't dumb it down a notch even when the point is to be simple.Maybe I'll go with larger tiles with patterns on the floor and a few large plate images along this grid to break it up and add some sort of life without distracting the player...
 

SeanNoonan

Member
It has its limitations, but that's a positive if you think about it. Working within limitations gets you more creative than without sometimes.
Are there Construct plugins for the additional gamepad functionality, etc?

Has performance been okay?

I'm still waiting for my call back from Nintendo.
 

Pehesse

Member

Finally, stuff to show! All of the latest animations are plugged in and (as far as I can tell) working correctly. Now all that's missing (apart from everything else) is actual AI to make the goons move around and... you know... hit stuff. (Though I can still test my losing scene with the press of a button, unlucky for you, Honey).

Figuring out how to neatly manage the layer depth for everyone is going to be fun :v
 

bumpkin

Member
Sàmban;194090841 said:
A game I've been working on for a bit. I hope to god I can actually finish this one.

ASI_PROSPECT.png

ASI_PROSPECT2.png


It's a top-down shooter that I'm trying to blend the tactical/cyber abilities of Deus Ex with the fluidity/speed of games like CoD. The goal is that you should be able to beat an entire level by hacking everything, shooting everything, or using special abilities like teleporting into enemies to kill them.

It's pretty much feature complete now. You can hack sentry guns to make them shoot enemies, or you can hack enemies to make their guns explode when they fire.
Nice! It gives me a Loaded for PSOne vibe.
 
Mission Accomplished!

Last month my friend and I had a talk and learned that the company his working on is closing soonish. And I asked if he's willing to make a game to show on his job hunt.

We always wanted to make a game together(since forever) and since we have a more urgent reason to make one, we decided to make even a simplest game game we could think of and something we could finish in a very short time, especially since we are just doing it on our free time.

So after a month or so, the game is finally done and it already did it's job(My friend got a new job :D ). Though I doub' this game helped him that much since, he is already amazing even without showing this stuff.

I did all the art, both the 3d, particles and the (godawful) UI and my friend did all the programming from scratch.




 

Lautaro

Member
Looking good. I agree it is saturated, but as a huge fan of the genre I feel like there are more bad than good out there.

Thanks, yeah I'm also fan of the genre (more of the roguelites than roguelikes though) and I think there's still untapped potential there. Also using procedural levels is ideal for a one man studio like me because creating lots of content is always a challenge.
 
I'm starting to work in a "roguelite" prototype. Roguelikes are becoming kind of a saturated genre IMO but I think I have all the tools needed to make one so I'll give it a try, check this gif:

https://gfycat.com/ResponsibleAgonizingFlickertailsquirrel

I <3 Roguelikes and I agree with you, saturated or not, fans of the genre are STILL waiting for the swan song, maybe its yours!

Looking good man, can I make a suggestion? Is there anyway to add force to the particle system in the direction of the projectile? I think it'd really sell the effect! I'm teaching my self Unity/C#, If you crack that I'd be interested to know how its done.
 

Jumplion

Member
Mission Accomplished!

Last month my friend and I had a talk and learned that the company his working on is closing soonish. And I asked if he's willing to make a game to show on his job hunt.

We always wanted to make a game together(since forever) and since we have a more urgent reason to make one, we decided to make even a simplest game game we could think of and something we could finish in a very short time, especially since we are just doing it on our free time.

So after a month or so, the game is finally done and it already did it's job(My friend got a new job :D ). Though I doub' this game helped him that much since, he is already amazing even without showing this stuff.

I did all the art, both the 3d, particles and the (godawful) UI and my friend did all the programming from scratch.

Nice! Glad your friend landed another job, and don't sell yourself short. It's better you both have something now rather than having nothing.

I'm hacking away at my own game, I'd like to say it's about 80% complete;


Finished most of the UI and added some small flourishes. Need to now set up stuff for PlayerPrefs, leaderboards, and keep trying to add some "pop" to the visuals.
 

Lautaro

Member
I <3 Roguelikes and I agree with you, saturated or not, fans of the genre are STILL waiting for the swan song, maybe its yours!

Looking good man, can I make a suggestion? Is there anyway to add force to the particle system in the direction of the projectile? I think it'd really sell the effect! I'm teaching my self Unity/C#, If you crack that I'd be interested to know how its done.

You mean the impact explosion? yes, I think it can be done by tweaking the settings of the particle system itself, no need to apply physics directly (I think). I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

I also need to detach the projectile on impact so it doesn't just disappear... well, all of that is part of the polishing so I'll probably deal with it after setting the core systems (AI, dungeon generation, pathfinding, UI, etc).
 

ekim

Member
If someone needs music, a score or sound effects for his or her game, shoot me a PM. I'm currently growing my demo reel and would do the work for free. (don't expect mega professional results)

some details:
- making music for 14 years now
- using Logic Pro X with lots of libraries
- Orchestral/Pop/Rock/Ambient/Electronica is my specialty.
- I'm better at composing than mixing (not that my mixes sound too bad)

If you need any demos, I can send you tons of links via PM.
 

Minamu

Member
If someone needs music, a score or sound effects for his or her game, shoot me a PM. I'm currently growing my demo reel and would do the work for free. (don't expect mega professional results)

some details:
- making music for 14 years now
- using Logic Pro X with lots of libraries
- Orchestral/Pop/Rock/Ambient/Electronica is my specialty.
- I'm better at composing than mixing (not that my mixes sound too bad)

If you need any demos, I can send you tons of links via PM.
I might be interested :) The project I wrote about above is currently completely soundless which is all well and good for a prototype but it could sure use some effects for mood. It's a slow-paced class-based arena 3D multiplayer "brawler". The goal of the game is for one of up to four players to use their class skills to reach a special weapon which turns them into a hunter, who must hunt the other players and turn them into sheep. Last man standing wins :)
 

ekim

Member
I might be interested :) The project I wrote about above is currently completely soundless which is all well and good for a prototype but it could sure use some effects for mood. It's a slow-paced class-based arena 3D multiplayer "brawler". The goal of the game is for one of up to four players to use their class skills to reach a special weapon which turns them into a hunter, who must hunt the other players and turn them into sheep. Last man standing wins :)

Sure thing. Just write a PM once you've decided whether I can help or not :)
 

Bit-Bit

Member
Here's the prototype for that game I'm making. It's going to be a very peaceful, zen-like game about a Koi fish swimming upstream.

mm0bAzJ.gif
 

GulAtiCa

Member
My new graphic's person (spazchickens) is really awesome. She has done a great job with graphics for my new Rocket! game. I'm really impressed.

Some new screenshots of her work in action.


The Player Ship won't actually be that large, was just for visual testing/detail/etc.
 
Here's the prototype for that game I'm making. It's going to be a very peaceful, zen-like game about a Koi fish swimming upstream.

mm0bAzJ.gif

This looks cool but I feel portrait might not work well for a game like this since you have little to no advance notice due to limited horizontal space as the objects enter from the sides. That doesn't leave much time to react, IMO.

This assumes that the frequency of the obstacles and speed will increase as time progresses to increase challenge for the player.
 

Bit-Bit

Member
This looks cool but I feel portrait might not work well for a game like this since you have little to no advance notice due to limited horizontal space as the objects enter from the sides. That doesn't leave much time to react, IMO.

This assumes that the frequency of the obstacles and speed will increase as time progresses to increase challenge for the player.

Yeah, I thought about that. At first, I wanted to make a challenging game for sadists and hardcore gamers. But then my wife wanted me to make something that she can enjoy.

So I thought about it long and hard and came to realize that us gamers make games for gamers. But what about the people that sees our beautiful art and wants to give it a try?

So instead, I'm making a game that's more about sound and art and not so much about the challenge. As a part of that, there will be no music since my wife mutes the music of any game she plays. Instead, there will be sounds of a steady stream and the occasional splash of the Koi fish when players tap more than three times in a .25 second time period.

And thanks for the feedback!
 

Koralsky

Member
Our debut game, Project Elea:

giphy.gif


It is a first-person interactive storytelling adventure title, inspired from the books of classic Sci-Fi authors like Stanislaw Lem, Arthur C. Clarke and Frank Herbert.

Three more GIFs:

giphy.gif

---
giphy.gif

---
giphy.gif


Debut teaser will follow early next week.
 

Ashodin

Member
Nah man, it takes all types of people to imagine different stuff, you have your own niche, they have theirs. It doesn't all have to be atmospheric space sims.
 

Dascu

Member
0FLu9vx.gif


Been doing work on shaders lately. Real-time grass displacement taking into account up to 10 moving objects (I could scale it up higher even with probably minimal performance cost). Also adapted the gradient colour shader to the grass. The deer herd further has AI to avoid and run around the player, though it's not very noticable in this gif.

Also the grass is a combined mesh on build, so it's only like a handful of drawcalls.
 
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