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

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Burt

Member
I've always disliked doing UI related stuff (especially interfacing it with getting information from the game, been starting to employ a MVC approach for that which works out pretty well). Tried giving it UI a proper go to brush up my skills with design/layout, it uses basic shapes (which I prefer when it comes to UI usability, and I'm no artist).

(Separate unrelated windows. When you would click appoint it brings up another window that is not shown in these examples)
L1563Wo.gif


1p4ZUN1.gif


YVQ0WD4.gif
Looks good! UI is something I struggle an incredible amount with. Font choice alone is something that I can wrack my brain for hours over. Yours looks clean, cohesive, and immediately understandable.
 

Exuro

Member
Been a while since I've been able to work on my stuff. Added a block type(I'm dubbing it the invisiblock since it sounds cool) that shows up when you are next to it so I can make simple mazes more interesting for example.

I'll need to tweak the animation so it happens fast enough so my player isn't moving into a block mid animation, but I'm happy with the results so far.

Also rotations will bring up "escher position" neighboring invisiblocks. This is from my escher test level I posted a while ago with all of the blocks being invisiblocks.

 
Been a while since I've been able to work on my stuff. Added a block type(I'm dubbing it the invisiblock since it sounds cool) that shows up when you are next to it so I can make simple mazes more interesting for example.


I'll need to tweak the animation so it happens fast enough so my player isn't moving into a block mid animation, but I'm happy with the results so far.

Also rotations will bring up "escher position" neighboring invisiblocks. This is from my escher test level I posted a while ago with all of the blocks being invisiblocks.

I've seen this effect in quite a few games, and it's awesome every time. Looking great!
 

Jobbs

Banned
working on finalizing a design.

the goal of this giant robot is that he's creepy and imposing (the sounds he makes and the way he moves will help with this).

I scribbled the main char to the right to suggest the approximate scale.

conscale.png


any thoughts? is the smile working for or against me on this?
 

Jumplion

Member
working on finalizing a design.

the goal of this giant robot is that he's creepy and imposing (the sounds he makes and the way he moves will help with this).

I scribbled the main char to the right to suggest the approximate scale.

conscale.png


any thoughts? is the smile working for or against me on this?

I feel the smile might be a bit much, kind of veers onto stereotypical "creepy smile" method of scariness. Without the colors/shading it looks just a tad too friendly. Maybe no mouth or some cracks in the mask, little more deformation?
 

Jobbs

Banned
I feel the smile might be a bit much, kind of veers onto stereotypical "creepy smile" method of scariness. Without the colors/shading it looks just a tad too friendly. Maybe no mouth or some cracks in the mask, little more deformation?

Does not the smile become creepy when you see it and associate it with the mean things the wearer of the smile is doing? Isn't that dissonance what causes creepiness?

I had a blank expression before and I started thinking a weird smile might make sense, because it is disconnected from the way he behaves.
 

ZServ

Member
working on finalizing a design.

the goal of this giant robot is that he's creepy and imposing (the sounds he makes and the way he moves will help with this).

I scribbled the main char to the right to suggest the approximate scale.

conscale.png


any thoughts? is the smile working for or against me on this?

Don't care for the smile. I think a big thing with the creepiness factor in this case, is giving something that ISN'T traditionally sentient or "alive" the feeling of being alive. While I think a BIG part of that is keeping it looking.. human, but fucked up, in a kinda gothic horror kinda way? So, for example, a robot would have armor, protecting all this wiring and etc. But, over time, a lot of it has eroded, so perhaps one arm is tightly knit wiring around the rods that would serve as it's bones, very similar to what you currently have. But, where the face is, the "mask" has eroded, instead leaving a bunch of wiring that has kinda fallen about, kinda looking like messy, tangled hair, almost like the chick from the Ring. And it's LED eyes are still active in there, so obviously on sight they kick in, which looks fucking terrifying. I also like the hunching over, but perhaps it should be more hunched, in the way that an incredibly old man or woman would be. It can't feel pain, so it would be fine in such an unnatural position.

I think taking a bunch of these elements we see in every day life, and applying them in a twisted manner would really produce something that just.. is a tad unsettling. It's not freaky, it's not creepy, but it just makes you feel off, because you internally identify it as a human, or something LIKE a human, due to it's shape and presentation, but you can tell something is just "off." Sorry for the paragraphs!
 
Cat ghost!

working on finalizing a design.

the goal of this giant robot is that he's creepy and imposing (the sounds he makes and the way he moves will help with this).

I scribbled the main char to the right to suggest the approximate scale.

conscale.png


any thoughts? is the smile working for or against me on this?

It looks like I'm in the minority, but I like the smile. It would lower the player's guard and possibly trick them into thinking it might be friendly, which then would make any ensuing hostile behavior more shocking and disturbing.
 

DNAbro

Member
Spent the last week or so working on a game for my Object Oriented programming class. I posted the first iteration awhile back, we had to scrap our original design and build it again from the ground up with more features with things like AI and skill trees with corresponding abilities. Making a game in Java has made me appreciate Unity so much cause my god does it make it easier to make simple things.


Unrelated to that, I've begun a tiny a bit of work related to a project I've been planning for awhile. Felt like drawing out a very simple version of the main character so I can test some things. This is very much a work in progress.

G6oJoDa.gif
 
working on finalizing a design.

the goal of this giant robot is that he's creepy and imposing (the sounds he makes and the way he moves will help with this).

I scribbled the main char to the right to suggest the approximate scale.

conscale.png


any thoughts? is the smile working for or against me on this?

I think it's fine, but I totally want to see it in a darkened room where only the face is lit. As the player approaches some lights flicker on and you get to see the rest of it. I'd be even better if it was bent over so the smiley face was near the player's height level, and it straightens up slowly, with a bit of robotic jitter.

That may just be me, though.
 

Jobbs

Banned
I think it's fine, but I totally want to see it in a darkened room where only the face is lit. As the player approaches some lights flicker on and you get to see the rest of it. I'd be even better if it was bent over so the smiley face was near the player's height level, and it straightens up slowly, with a bit of robotic jitter.

That may just be me, though.

oh that's a good idea. making the face glow in the dark... so you just see a face walking towrads you initially. I like it.
 
Looks good! UI is something I struggle an incredible amount with. Font choice alone is something that I can wrack my brain for hours over. Yours looks clean, cohesive, and immediately understandable.

Thanks! Yep I know that all too well myself. The font I am currently using is called Terminus TTF which is entirely free and well designed in my opinion.
 

correojon

Member
Small GIF showing resizable semisolid platforms:

ApstqSs.gif


Also in the gif:
  • Use of the customizable palette
  • Adding blocks in lines and columns with autotiling
  • Flood fill of blocks with autotiling
  • Player shadows when exiting play mode (great to determine jump distances and such)
 
working on finalizing a design.

the goal of this giant robot is that he's creepy and imposing (the sounds he makes and the way he moves will help with this).

I scribbled the main char to the right to suggest the approximate scale.


any thoughts? is the smile working for or against me on this?

Personally I don't think the smile works. I like the idea of only having his head initially visible and then revealing the actual monstrosity behind it, but I think you could achieve that with a different face. It's mostly just because I haven't seen anything else in your game (thus far) that has that similar "dolls face" style. It just feels a bit out of place to me. The rest of it looks really cool though :)


Small GIF showing resizable semisolid platforms:

Also in the gif:
  • Use of the customizable palette
  • Adding blocks in lines and columns with autotiling
  • Flood fill of blocks with autotiling
  • Player shadows when exiting play mode (great to determine jump distances and such)


This is looking pretty fleshed out already! Nice work!
 
I finished the core combat prototype of my game and sadly I'm gunna put i on break. I like the IDEA of the core loop but playing it it simply isn't working atm. Needs some rethinking.

For now I've started on a prototype of a new idea - very, very souls-like but with some differences. So far i've got some basic combat working :)

11e2e32173.gif
 
Thinking of modifying my warp collider logic so that the warp (basically colliders where when the player walks in, trigger scene change, with appropriate player positioning) won't activate until the player is fully in the collider.

Right now, the player has a 0.5x0.5 Unity unit block collider, and all warp tiles are guaranteed to be at least 1x1.

I'm going to guess I can't use OnTriggerEnter2D any more, no? Guess I probably should start using a different check... something that checks if the player is completely inside.
 
Thinking of modifying my warp collider logic so that the warp (basically colliders where when the player walks in, trigger scene change, with appropriate player positioning) won't activate until the player is fully in the collider.

Right now, the player has a 0.5x0.5 Unity unit block collider, and all warp tiles are guaranteed to be at least 1x1.

I'm going to guess I can't use OnTriggerEnter2D any more, no? Guess I probably should start using a different check... something that checks if the player is completely inside.

There's multiple ways around this issue. I think the simplest one for you would be to have your OnTriggerEnter function change a state, rather than actually activate the warp.

What you should do is set a flag when the trigger is entered. Whilst this flag is active, calculate the distance between the center point of the trigger (or whatever object it is attached to) and your player character. If that distance is with a certain threshold (Which would be defined as a distance at which your player could be deemed "fully inside" the trigger) then you activate the warp.

Of course, if the player exits the trigger (OnTriggerExit) then you simply just revert that flag back so it stops doing the calculation.

I think that would do the job :)
 

JeffG

Member
I finished the core combat prototype of my game and sadly I'm gunna put i on break. I like the IDEA of the core loop but playing it it simply isn't working atm. Needs some rethinking.

For now I've started on a prototype of a new idea - very, very souls-like but with some differences. So far i've got some basic combat working :)

11e2e32173.gif

Are you using unity?

Animation: Using Root motion? or is all the movement done by script?

I backed out of all my combat work due to movement control and animations. I didn't like where it was headed, so I cut it all out. I will revisit it after a bit
 

Jumplion

Member
Does not the smile become creepy when you see it and associate it with the mean things the wearer of the smile is doing? Isn't that dissonance what causes creepiness?

I had a blank expression before and I started thinking a weird smile might make sense, because it is disconnected from the way he behaves.

I could see that argument if the point is dissonance between what it looks and how it behaves. Like, if it stands still and when it sees you it starts chasing you and absolutely flailing its arms like a kid or a dog after not seeing their parent for a day, that'd be creepy as all fuck.

Like, you see Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist;
char-alphonse.jpg

And he looks pretty cool, all that and a bag of chips. And then you listen to what he sounds like, and then that creepy, sorrowful disconnect comes into play. A child trapped in a hollow sheet of iron. It's probably not exactly what you're going for with your dude, but I think it's relevant.

If that's the kind of thing you're going for, the smile might work along with how it behaves and the lighting and all that. electroflame's idea is really good, if you want to creep the player out and keep the smile stuff it'd be interesting to have the game (lighting, camera angles, etc...) oddly focus on the head and disconnect it with it's more grotesque body, like the monster/game itself is trying to distract you.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Early colors (may tweak more.. in fact I'm sure I will)

I'm a little undecided still on the cloth aspect. I like how I can animate cloth to make it move and accentuate motion and that's the main argument for it.

construct-c1.png
 
Early colors (may tweak more.. in fact I'm sure I will)

I'm a little undecided still on the cloth aspect. I like how I can animate cloth to make it move and accentuate motion and that's the main argument for it.

It makes the character design feel fuller, but it also doesn't necessarily make sense as an adornment that character would choose.

Also this character's name should definitely be Rollback.
 

Jobbs

Banned
It makes the character design feel fuller, but it also doesn't necessarily make sense as an adornment that character would choose.

Also this character's name should definitely be Rollback.

There's a link between three characters in the game, one of them being the suit you play as. I think I was also trying to find some small design continuity between them -- the tear drop cape thing.

Definitely creepy

that's what I hope, and a lot of times it's the context/sound/pacing/etc that really makes something sell as creepy or not
 

Jumplion

Member
Early colors (may tweak more.. in fact I'm sure I will)

I'm a little undecided still on the cloth aspect. I like how I can animate cloth to make it move and accentuate motion and that's the main argument for it.

construct-c1.png

That looks a lot better, I think. Definitely like how the "smile" is just something that cuts the face in half, kind of makes me wonder what's behind that. I'd imagine a really creepy detail could be in, like, a death animation, a piece of the bottom half falls off and you get a peek of some weird thing behind it. Would be uber creepy.
 
Are you using unity?

Animation: Using Root motion? or is all the movement done by script?

I backed out of all my combat work due to movement control and animations. I didn't like where it was headed, so I cut it all out. I will revisit it after a bit

UE4

and its a mix, the dodges are done via script/programming, the other stuff is done via anim states and motion
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
Early colors (may tweak more.. in fact I'm sure I will)

I'm a little undecided still on the cloth aspect. I like how I can animate cloth to make it move and accentuate motion and that's the main argument for it.

construct-c1.png

Really liking the version with the cloth cape. I think it brings the character together really well. The cape-less version has a little too much discontinuity between the body and head.
 

Noaloha

Member
Early colors (may tweak more.. in fact I'm sure I will)

I'm a little undecided still on the cloth aspect. I like how I can animate cloth to make it move and accentuate motion and that's the main argument for it.

construct-c1.png

I'd like the 'jaw' section of the mask to be the tip of an extendable.. let's call it a fifth limb.
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
To be honest they all looks like they have tiny penises coming out of their centers.
 

Dystify

Member
To be honest they all looks like they have tiny penises coming out of their centers.

Now that you mention it... Can't unsee.

Edit: I worked on the bushes a bit and ended up with #7 like this:

gXd6WLs.png


It's the one I like the most I guess. And it doesn't look like... that anymore (as much).
 

Jobbs

Banned
I tweaked the palette a bit more and tried to come up with something a bit more unified.

Here I attempted to simulate what the tranluscent glow effect I intend to produce in the game might look like.

Also simulated some CA because I just need it in my life at every moment

construct-c2b.png
 
I finished the core combat prototype of my game and sadly I'm gunna put i on break. I like the IDEA of the core loop but playing it it simply isn't working atm. Needs some rethinking.

For now I've started on a prototype of a new idea - very, very souls-like but with some differences. So far i've got some basic combat working :)

11e2e32173.gif

That looks incredible. I'm pretty confident with coding side of stuff but I am dreading doing any animation/modelling work. In any case I could buy/commission models, but seeing your gif I'd actually really like to learn to get to that level of animation.
 
That looks incredible. I'm pretty confident with coding side of stuff but I am dreading doing any animation/modelling work. In any case I could buy/commission models, but seeing your gif I'd actually really like to learn to get to that level of animation.

If it makes you feel better the only animation I personally made there were the dodging ones :)

The rest are from the couch knights example game in the epic launcher

(Though I am secretly proud of how good the dodge looks already)
 

SeanNoonan

Member
Early colors (may tweak more.. in fact I'm sure I will)

I'm a little undecided still on the cloth aspect. I like how I can animate cloth to make it move and accentuate motion and that's the main argument for it.

construct-c1.png
This is excellent.

Cute/creepy combo.
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
I tweaked the palette a bit more and tried to come up with something a bit more unified.

Here I attempted to simulate what the tranluscent glow effect I intend to produce in the game might look like.

Also simulated some CA because I just need it in my life at every moment

construct-c2b.png

The idea of that floaty yellow head showing up in a dark level, and then some form of light quickly showing the monster's whole body... That would be so creepy and awesome.
 
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but hopefully you guys could point me in the right direction. I have an idea for a game and have been creating concept art for it, but am not a programmer and honestly don't see myself learning how to program. Any suggestions on what the best way to find programmers to work with? I live in LA, so I feel like this must be one of the better cities to meet people for that, but I just don't know where to start looking or how to approach that.
 

Jobbs

Banned
This is excellent.

Cute/creepy combo.

Thanks =D

The idea of that floaty yellow head showing up in a dark level, and then some form of light quickly showing the monster's whole body... That would be so creepy and awesome.

That's a good idea, and I think doable.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but hopefully you guys could point me in the right direction. I have an idea for a game and have been creating concept art for it, but am not a programmer and honestly don't see myself learning how to program. Any suggestions on what the best way to find programmers to work with? I live in LA, so I feel like this must be one of the better cities to meet people for that, but I just don't know where to start looking or how to approach that.

What do you bring to the table? What's your skillset?

Collaborations can be hard to arrange, and it depends greatly on what you can bring to the table. If you have money and are paying then anything is obviously possible.
 
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