legacyzero
Banned
So much amazing work being done in here. Thought i would share a bit of a artstyle overhaul for my game
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Dat FX chip goodness!
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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Dat FX chip goodness!
I nearly have a chicken and egg problem. I need to find friends who like Advance Wars style turn-based gameplay. The problem is I need to playtest to help determine if the gameplay ideas I have are fun, but in order to do that I either need to already add AI, or play against myself, or find someone to help run it. 
It's a funny feeling to think "This may suck" "well how will I know" "I have to test" "but how can I test" "I have to implement it" "but I don't want to implement it if it's going to suck" "well how will I know"...*repeat*
Currently I don't have things ready for playtesting or multiplayer, but the problem will show up eventually!
It's a funny feeling to think "This may suck" "well how will I know" "I have to test" "but how can I test" "I have to implement it" "but I don't want to implement it if it's going to suck" "well how will I know"...*repeat*
Currently I don't have things ready for playtesting or multiplayer, but the problem will show up eventually!
Since UDK is now financially a more viable option for indie devs(than before), I'd like to ask how it compares with Unity in terms of ease of use when it comes to the coding/scripting, game design and documentation.
Also, does anyone know a way of adding g-buffers(deferred rendering) in Unity?
Also, does anyone know a way of adding g-buffers(deferred rendering) in Unity?
HellBlazer
Member
I think maybe this is the issue. How about if the default vertical speed is negative (or downward) instead of 0, to simulate gravity? If your character is standing on something, he shouldn't fall through due to step 5, but if he suddenly walks off a platform, he'll fall due to the default gravity.
It's harder than Unity for an individual or small team.
Get some basic networking in, and you won't have any problem finding opponents.I nearly have a chicken and egg problem. I need to find friends who like Advance Wars style turn-based gameplay. The problem is I need to playtest to help determine if the gameplay ideas I have are fun, but in order to do that I either need to already add AI, or play against myself, or find someone to help run it.
It's a funny feeling to think "This may suck" "well how will I know" "I have to test" "but how can I test" "I have to implement it" "but I don't want to implement it if it's going to suck" "well how will I know"...*repeat*
Currently I don't have things ready for playtesting or multiplayer, but the problem will show up eventually!
PS: Everybody likes paper prototypes. There's gotta be a board game club near you.
Aight, mind expanding on in what way? I guess there's source code modding and stuff like that involved?
So much amazing work being done in here. Thought i would share a bit of a artstyle overhaul for my game
Previous
New
I guess everyone is going in this direction artistically because I am doing something similar with my models. Tobal 2 is an influence for me.
There's a nice visual scripting language in UE4, but if you want to do something a little more low-level, you have to go all the way down to C++. In Unity, you get to choose from C# 3.5, a JavaScript derivative, and a Python derivative.
When things finally click, it's totally worth it. You're doing a fantastic job with Malebolgia
My man!So much amazing work being done in here. Thought i would share a bit of a artstyle overhaul for my game
New
Any chance of a pic with AA, or is that something you can't do with this (or unless it was a personal choice)?
Letterbomb
Banned
Just from what I've gathered in other threads, Unity is more user-friendly at the cost of being more limited as far as graphics and performance goes. Small teams or sole developers that are building games without intensive visuals will probably have a better ride with Unity. Other than that, it seems that UDK takes a 5% cut of your games' sales, whereas Unity simply has the subscription/license fee itself without further royalties.
Those seem to be the more notable points in difference.
I have a question in return, for anyone that can answer: Unity 5. When? What's coming with it?
I am going for a similar style, but I am going even more low poly! Restricting my models to combinations of polyhedrons w/ regular faces. Yes, I am crazy.
When things finally click, it's totally worth it. You're doing a fantastic job with Malebolgia
Jocchan... I feel like it's been ages since I've seen you on GAF. Must not be looking in the right places.
How goes Dudebro?!
WRONG THREAD
bumpkin
Member
They don't offer any sort of free trial, do they?
Hey man, what's up?
It's not you looking in the wrong places, it's me posting very rarely. Unfortunately I have had very little time, so I mostly lurk whenever I get a chance to.
It's going pretty well
We're still sharing updates once in a while, mostly through website updates, but there's been a lot more going on.
No, but it's only $20/month, a far cry from Unity's one-time charge of $1,500. And my understanding is that if you cancel after one month you get to keep UE4 and just lose access to updates.
That's exactly it. Sign up, download UE4 and cancel renewal, you can keep using whatever the latest version out at the time you downloaded. Couple months down the line when there is a good update, renew your membership and dowload that one and repeat as necessary.
It makes sense to be on monthly sub when you are deep in production and you can use the monthly builds but for learning/prototyping no need to pay $20 every month.
It is absolutely awesome of Epic to do it like that with no catch.
Bomber Bob
Banned
If you have Pro, you just turn it on. It's good for lots of little light sources, (lighting cost becomes a function of the number of pixels that are affected by lights).
Super Something Squad is using deferred, linear lighting, with hand-painted vertex Ambient Occlusion landscapes, rendered with dual lightmaps generated by the built-in Beast light mapping system... All this for less than a month's pay.. and it would take me decades to implement something nowhere near as good... These engines are pretty rad when you look at them that way!
For around $100/month you can have UE4, Cryengine, and Unity! If your hobby is making games you'd be spending less than most of the people on these forums spend playing them!
Any of you guys know anyone with Xbox Creators Club accounts anymore? We're trying to push Shutshimi through the approval process right now but it's not what it used to be. We could definitely use a hand if anyone can help. I'm not above offering a free copy of the game to anyone who does haha (probably PC until we figure out how those XBLIG codes work?)
Here's the game's page: http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-US...dc8fb41&type=1
Here's the game's page: http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-US...dc8fb41&type=1
electroflame
Member
I'd help but my sub ran out 6-8 months ago. I don't know if anybody I still talk to has an active sub, but I'll check for you.
Really, though, the best way to push a game through approval was always the omnipresent-but-never-officially-recognized "reciprocal reviews". It always came down to "if you review mine, I'll review yours".
The best thing to do is to review a ton of games and hope that you can get the 8 or so passes that you need. There will be a few jerks that take your review and run with it, but that was always there too.
Thanks man, I really appreciate the help. I think our programmer has started reviewing games in hopes other will reciprocate. Is that something he should message them about? I'm kind of in the dark on the whole process, but I can pass it along to him.
electroflame
Member
The XNA forums are really, really old school so there's no private messaging on them. You can't post "begging" for reciprocation reviews either, or else you'll get flagged and modded.
About all you can do is review other games and hope for reciprocation. I've heard that Twitter is also a decent outlet to get ahold of XNA devs with active subs, although I never used it myself.
Good luck! If anyone I know still has an active sub, I'll pass your link along.
So, some youtube channels did a video or two on my shitty burger game. Which is neat. It's kind of odd to now have people who seem to care about the game's development? Something I've never experienced before.
I also threw up a not-really-playable build of it up on my website, and it's kind of neat to log into the game and see two or four people running around the restaurant doing things. The downside to this, is that I don't have much time for development work over the next... year or so. So I'm probably going to see the game fade into obscurity again while I very slowly work on it in hopes I can get it kickstarted, let me work on the game fulltime for a year or something.
I think I'm just rolling the dice and seeing how they land, because I have no idea how to get people interested in things, I have no idea how to manage some loose definition of a brand. I'm just kind of, responding to stuff on Twitter, paying attention to YouTube comments (and being surprised at how few negative comments there are?), and trying to make sure everyone's on the same page about the game's current functionality. And some point I need to decide if I'm making an actual restaurant simulator, or if I'm making QWOP / Surgeon Simulator / Jazzpunk / Frog Fractions in a restaurant.
I wonder if I should be worried that the defining feature of my game is how little it works.
(also these are the youtube vids)
I also threw up a not-really-playable build of it up on my website, and it's kind of neat to log into the game and see two or four people running around the restaurant doing things. The downside to this, is that I don't have much time for development work over the next... year or so. So I'm probably going to see the game fade into obscurity again while I very slowly work on it in hopes I can get it kickstarted, let me work on the game fulltime for a year or something.
I think I'm just rolling the dice and seeing how they land, because I have no idea how to get people interested in things, I have no idea how to manage some loose definition of a brand. I'm just kind of, responding to stuff on Twitter, paying attention to YouTube comments (and being surprised at how few negative comments there are?), and trying to make sure everyone's on the same page about the game's current functionality. And some point I need to decide if I'm making an actual restaurant simulator, or if I'm making QWOP / Surgeon Simulator / Jazzpunk / Frog Fractions in a restaurant.
I wonder if I should be worried that the defining feature of my game is how little it works.
(also these are the youtube vids)
ZehDon
Member
Very nice stuff. Are you going to update the ship models to match the landscape?
Silly Sausage Simulator is my cart life clone about the day to day life of Silly Sausage's silly sausage sausage. The plot twist is that Silly Sausage's sausage is his penis, which is presented in its full featured supple glory during all the erotic showe-
sorry I shouldn't be giving away the ending this early in development.
Mystic River
Member
probably this has been asked before but still struggling a little bit around this area, sound effects, how do you usually handle that?
I use simple tools like my microphone and audacity , labchirp, Bfxr , but still can't figure out how to make my sounds better, like explosions, that something you can't just fake or create out of nothing, or gun sounds, any ideas of ways to do that? or point out to good sound cds? I know about many sound fx sites too, but wondering how you create those sify sound for example
I use simple tools like my microphone and audacity , labchirp, Bfxr , but still can't figure out how to make my sounds better, like explosions, that something you can't just fake or create out of nothing, or gun sounds, any ideas of ways to do that? or point out to good sound cds? I know about many sound fx sites too, but wondering how you create those sify sound for example
Any Mac users have any suggestions for a good video recorder? I've been using Quicktime, but the videos are all choppy, even though the game is running at 60FPS. It's too late to do anything about my Kickstarter video, but in the future I'd like to record better videos for trailers and such.
Can I see the video!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!12345567
electroflame
Member
You can check out http://freesound.org/, as they have a lot of stuff.
Honestly, though, the best sound effects come from sound effect CDs, but even then you've got to have some decent editing skills to get them to sound just right. Sound Forge is great for editing, and Audition is great for layering multiple effects.
I've used Audacity before in the past, and while it was great for free, it still isn't as nice as a paid option (duh!). Don't worry about not being perfect at sound design -- I only got "decent" after spending probably hundreds of hours editing sounds. It's probably the worst part of game dev -- and it's definitely one of the most thankless. It also helps a lot if you have an ear for it, but that's one thing that can't really be acquired easily.
lordfroakie
Member
About U4, can I pay the $20 fee ( is there a grand total fee as well?) and cancel my renewal?
That's what it looks like, if you just want to download the current verison and play with it, you can pay and cancel. Then later if you hear about an update you really like, you can subscribe again and get the new stuff.
It doesn't sound like there's any other fee unless you sell what you make.
lordfroakie
Member
Cool. I though there was a $100 whatever fee along with the $20 fee. I'm tempted to purchase it for the hell of it :x
However, if you are working with a team, I -think- (someone correct me if I am wrong) that each member of the team also has to have the $20 subscription for that particular engine version. As in, a two person team would be $40, three people would be $60, etc. and then you could all cancel your subscriptions.
But if you're just interested on your own, I agree $20 does sound like fun to be able to poke around at everything. I've probably wished I could change tiny details about the editor (like adding keyboard shortcuts) many times...and now I guess I can, haha.
Hey guys, I'm getting ready to launch a Kickstarter for my game soon, hoping you guys could give me some feedback. Mainly looking for feedback on the video(s):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lofi/311062933?token=be8ae6e2
Things I know I still need to fix:
-The volume at one point in the video
-Change "Ludo Land" logo to "Ludo Land presents"
-Cut down on gif size on the kickstarter page
-Update "repeats" on the kickstarter page to match the new content
-Update the budget pie chart
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lofi/311062933?token=be8ae6e2
Things I know I still need to fix:
-The volume at one point in the video
-Change "Ludo Land" logo to "Ludo Land presents"
-Cut down on gif size on the kickstarter page
-Update "repeats" on the kickstarter page to match the new content
-Update the budget pie chart
lordfroakie
Member
Nah Im just going to mess with it for fun.
You joke, but I'm actually doing this. I took second place in the last Game Maker Community jam, which means I get to choose what the handicap is for the next one in a couple months. I've already decided I'm going to force people to use the Wilhelm scream in their game. The idea is that since people don't think about sound design enough, especially in a short jam, this will force them to stretch, to grow as developers.
Hey guys, I'm getting ready to launch a Kickstarter for my game soon, hoping you guys could give me some feedback. Mainly looking for feedback on the video(s):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lofi/311062933?token=be8ae6e2
Things I know I still need to fix:
-The volume at one point in the video
-Change "Ludo Land" logo to "Ludo Land presents"
-Cut down on gif size on the kickstarter page
-Update "repeats" on the kickstarter page to match the new content
-Update the budget pie chart
It looks pretty good. The page is a bit long; probably too many images.
As you're mentioning Thomas Was Alone and Sword & Sorcery as inspirations, the video is showing cutscenes. While each of those games had their share of cutscenes, most of their atmosphere was built while you were playing it. Most of TWA happens by the narrator explaining things while you're jumping around and getting stuff done. S&S was largely about walking around and taking in the environment for me. So it feels disingenuous to me to be watching non-interactive parts of a game be compared to what were mostly interactive experiences for me.
Is that pointed wipe supposed to be an example of transitions seen only in film? Because when I think of wipes, I think of arcade games, YouTube videos and Star Wars. Wipes don't seem super filmic to me.
When you mention that you want to do this game because you can do new stuff using Unity, the player character starts teleporting into the near frame and back. This is confusing from a gameplay standpoint because teleporting between frames isn't going to gel with most people's concept of screen wrapping, and also because it's uncertain whether you're trying to express that this specific depth effect is something you couldn't have done without Unity. Changing depth doesn't come across as complicated (whether or not it is in your engine), so it doesn't seem like something that only the power of Unity would permit but the voiceover suggests otherwise.
My immediate reaction to "see it in every stage of development" is that puzzle games with "no filler" don't lend well to that transparency. I have faith that you know what you're doing, but I as a potential backer and as someone interested in the game don't want to see all of the secrets, don't want to see levels as they're being developed. I feel like that would spoil a lot of the entertainment value of actually playing the end product. Then again, people who don't want to be spoiled aren't being forced into it. I just don't know what portion of people will be interested in behind the scenes of puzzle building for puzzles they haven't solved yet.
There's another scream you hear all the time. The only specific example coming to mind is when you fall to your death in Dark Forces 2 Jedi Knight. I've heard it hundreds of times in other things.
Mystic River
Member
thanks electroflame,
Indeed I also use a lot freeSound, but still there are many sounds I would like to add to my game that can't be found on freeSound. Still is a good source, I can tell somehow when a good sound fits but I can't make good ones yet, just very few ones myself but in general making them from recording stuff is very hard... are there any good tutorials around? I can do almost all of my game stuff except the sound I want and probably that is around 30% to 40% of the game experience.
Maybe as you mention what I am really missing is a good editing tool, for me is more like mix sounds to get something good, but Audacity may not be having what is needed for good sound effects, i don't know since I haven't used many others for special effects editing.
Anyone knows also if the Wilhelm scream is copyright free now? couldn't find a good reference about it, found it on freesound website...
SOOOOOON
Prophet Steve
Member
I needed to work with UDK for school, make a simple multiplayer level, but would Unreal Engine 4 be suited for this? Does it still have that easy Unreal Tournament like template with the weapons and mechanics?
And possibly bots or multiplayer? Or am I better off just using UDK for this.
And possibly bots or multiplayer? Or am I better off just using UDK for this.
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