Just lemme know ^^
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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor
- Thread starter chubigans
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I'm now a licensed Nintendo Wii U developer as of today.
I'm really quite excited actually. Once I order my dev kit, I plan to port over my HTML5 prototype Tower Defense game ( http://games.gregthegamer.com/towerdefense/ ). I already have a theme for it's look/style that I've been working on a little. (think a retro looking, in terms of simple pixel themes, space tower defense game)
I don't think development, code-wise, will take me too long to port it into the Nintendo Web Framework. I estimate 1 to 2 months in my off-time to make it a complete game (outside of music/sounds, so just looks and functionality). Just depends on how much time I put into it. Really, the main game itself is essentially done. I really only have to skin it and add menus/leaderboards/etc. I plan to recode it as well, not that there is much to recode of course.
My only really unsure-ness comes from getting music/sounds. I've bookedmarked different artists that have posted in here or have made threads that make sound effects/music, so I'll prob look into them or ask for help here if anyone has any ideas. But that will be at least a month before I consider that.
Anyways, I really look forward to all this. Got a lot of reading to do to read up on this library and practices with the Wii U. Should be fun!
Question for you, if you can answer it. Did you get the email from them about wanting a phone meeting then get the call? I just gave them my number and best time to reach me. Wondering if it goes through, do I get a free devkit, unity pro or something? If not, I won't be able to afford the stuff :/
I got same email. Took them about 3 or so weeks to call me. Was quick 5 minute call. Check out this post here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=79115013&postcount=412 About my convo with them.
And they are offering 2 dev kits. A cheaper one for just HTML5 (Nintendo Web Framework) programming to get started, and the other, the main one, for main development, including Unity and main programming (as well as HTML5 too).
I know I can't mention price. Not even sure if I can say the following, but this info kinda already on the web anyways, so.. (and nothing really against their NDA anyways) But they are offering a program to get a dev kit (either of them) for free and pay for it later on. You can even return it within X days (< 200) for free and not pay anything if you decide Wii U development not for you. Else, you get an extra X days (< 200) to pay off. So basically you get it for free for a long while before you have to pay anything.
And they are offering 2 dev kits. A cheaper one for just HTML5 (Nintendo Web Framework) programming to get started, and the other, the main one, for main development, including Unity and main programming (as well as HTML5 too).
I know I can't mention price. Not even sure if I can say the following, but this info kinda already on the web anyways, so.. (and nothing really against their NDA anyways) But they are offering a program to get a dev kit (either of them) for free and pay for it later on. You can even return it within X days (< 200) for free and not pay anything if you decide Wii U development not for you. Else, you get an extra X days (< 200) to pay off. So basically you get it for free for a long while before you have to pay anything.
Thanks man, that's perfect. As long as I have a bit of time to pay it off. Though I still dunno if I can afford a Unity Pro license (If it's 1,500$ through Nin as well), but I really want the license as I'm very comfortable with Unity's work flow.
Lots of progress happening now, squashed some bugs, found some new ones..I did up all my game save data:
One of these days I'll replace the NGUI backgrounds
Here's some handy scripts I found:
Read Scene Names
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/33263/how-to-get-names-of-all-available-levels.html?sort=oldest
Array Prefs2
http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/ArrayPrefs2
Using these two scripts I can automate building level select screen and loading correct levels, calculate game progress, show level names, save level scores all based on the scene name, build size and build order. Super pumped. Last game I made I was manually adding player prefs for each level...
Also if you haven't checked it out yet (posted a while back near the end of a page) here's the teaser trailer:
http://youtu.be/qv4nMgS_3yU
One of these days I'll replace the NGUI backgrounds
Here's some handy scripts I found:Read Scene Names
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/33263/how-to-get-names-of-all-available-levels.html?sort=oldest
Array Prefs2
http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/ArrayPrefs2
Using these two scripts I can automate building level select screen and loading correct levels, calculate game progress, show level names, save level scores all based on the scene name, build size and build order. Super pumped. Last game I made I was manually adding player prefs for each level...
Also if you haven't checked it out yet (posted a while back near the end of a page) here's the teaser trailer:
http://youtu.be/qv4nMgS_3yU
Hey guys, I have a question about a specific game engine. My friend is starting up development for a game and is considering the Impact Engine. Do any of you know much about it? I'm kinda just curious to hear some first hand impressions.
Here is the main site: http://impactjs.com/
Here is the main site: http://impactjs.com/
We are using Impact on a desktop/tablet browser game but it's still early days, so no impressions to give quite yet. I should be able to give an update in a week or 2. Also interested in hearing anyone else's experience with it.
BlastProcessing
Member
I was testing my game today and it hit me, "hey this isn't bad". Turns out video games can be fun and stuff. Who knew!
So i twitter this preview of the level-editor for my project pixelAI yesterday:
I am not an artist, so this surely isn't the prettiest level one could create, but i am somehow proud of my icons...
as you can see a level may consist of 16 different colors. the 16th color (indicated by "BG") determines the background color of the level. the playfield will automatically adjust to that color.
the editor will be a part of the game itself, so a level can also be play-tested at any time by pressing the green play button.
the whole ui-system is based on my own input-framework. which - honestly - did take up way too much time to develop... arg.
I am not an artist, so this surely isn't the prettiest level one could create, but i am somehow proud of my icons...
as you can see a level may consist of 16 different colors. the 16th color (indicated by "BG") determines the background color of the level. the playfield will automatically adjust to that color.
the editor will be a part of the game itself, so a level can also be play-tested at any time by pressing the green play button.
the whole ui-system is based on my own input-framework. which - honestly - did take up way too much time to develop... arg.
As some may have seen earlier. I am not a developer, but a reviewer on youtube. And just like some historical figure said in his life "I have a dream!", and that is to give indie games and developers more atenttion that they deserve for all the hard work that they are doing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcEJNbveyFY
About a month ago we had the idea to set up a website dedicated to indie games and indie developers. Where we promote new and upcoming indie games who are currently seeking help in there campaign or crowdfunding and where the gamer can come and find new games to experience aswell as a growing community and fun features to play with like ScreenShotSaturday votes and contests.
For this we created the IndieGoGo project and we are happy to inform that it launched this week! Now we will not ask you to just go and back us, but what we do wish to ask you is if you could share this with your fanbase on twitter, facebook or any other platform you are on. In the end the website will be catered to all of us, so the more people that get to know about the project and the website, the bigger and better the indie community will become.
If you wish to view or share the project, you can do so on the campaign or by using the following link.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indiespotted-because-developers-deserve-it/x/4286026
Or the short url
http://igg.me/at/IndieSpotted/x/4286026
Again sorry for just posting this here, but seeing that we are all gamers and developers by passion I taught I could share this with you guys, and perhaps in the future I will also see your names popping up over at our website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcEJNbveyFY
About a month ago we had the idea to set up a website dedicated to indie games and indie developers. Where we promote new and upcoming indie games who are currently seeking help in there campaign or crowdfunding and where the gamer can come and find new games to experience aswell as a growing community and fun features to play with like ScreenShotSaturday votes and contests.
For this we created the IndieGoGo project and we are happy to inform that it launched this week! Now we will not ask you to just go and back us, but what we do wish to ask you is if you could share this with your fanbase on twitter, facebook or any other platform you are on. In the end the website will be catered to all of us, so the more people that get to know about the project and the website, the bigger and better the indie community will become.
If you wish to view or share the project, you can do so on the campaign or by using the following link.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indiespotted-because-developers-deserve-it/x/4286026
Or the short url
http://igg.me/at/IndieSpotted/x/4286026
Again sorry for just posting this here, but seeing that we are all gamers and developers by passion I taught I could share this with you guys, and perhaps in the future I will also see your names popping up over at our website
Orbis Tabula
Member
Hi. I've always been interested in Game Development and I'm wondering sort of how I should get started. I thought "Who better to ask than the Indie Developors on GAF?"
So a little background. I just graduated college with a Bachelor's in Math but a minor in computer science. I really fell in love with programming, even thought I know that I am still, at best, a pretty poor programmer. I can make things that work, for the most part, but certainly not something that's "optimized" or "ideal." Most of my experience is with Java, but I also know a fair amount of C.
The big game idea that's been buzzing around my head lately would be sort of close to the classic Zelda games. Top down view, 2d, pixelated, exploring dungeons and such. I realize that getting a game from "idea in my head" to finished product that people actually play (and god forbid, pay for) is nearly impossible, and it's very unlikely I'd actually do it. But I know I'll have better odds if I actually ask for help and get started, so this is step 1.
What would be the best way to sort of get started? I've heard a lot about Unity recently when reading about indie game development. Would that be something worth looking into as a tool for making my game? Or would I be better off polishing my Java or C skills? Thanks for the help, guys.
So a little background. I just graduated college with a Bachelor's in Math but a minor in computer science. I really fell in love with programming, even thought I know that I am still, at best, a pretty poor programmer. I can make things that work, for the most part, but certainly not something that's "optimized" or "ideal." Most of my experience is with Java, but I also know a fair amount of C.
The big game idea that's been buzzing around my head lately would be sort of close to the classic Zelda games. Top down view, 2d, pixelated, exploring dungeons and such. I realize that getting a game from "idea in my head" to finished product that people actually play (and god forbid, pay for) is nearly impossible, and it's very unlikely I'd actually do it. But I know I'll have better odds if I actually ask for help and get started, so this is step 1.
What would be the best way to sort of get started? I've heard a lot about Unity recently when reading about indie game development. Would that be something worth looking into as a tool for making my game? Or would I be better off polishing my Java or C skills? Thanks for the help, guys.
Secret Fawful
Member
Someone explain to me why games made with Unity require Unity to run. Some of my programmer-savvy friends absolutely hate the engine due to this.
Huh? Web browser games do require the Unity Web Player, which is kind of like the Flash Player, to be downloaded, but executable games made with Unity don't require the user to have Unity installed at all. For Android and iOS, Unity outputs an APK (and whatever file iOS uses), which don't require any additional setup, either.
Secret Fawful
Member
Fabulous. I knew if I asked Gaf I'd get the truth. They told me that Unity is required to be installed by all players, and that it sucks for that reason, and should never be used.
I really didn't think that sounded right at all.
I really didn't think that sounded right at all.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
Oooooooo circlesssss
ohh nice circles.
Yeah I was really into Clickteam products a few years ago. Pretty powerful stuff, and I always preferred it over GameMaker.My first Screenshot Saturday gif! ...and first real showing of my game
Any other MMF2 users here?
And whoa, those plane sprite animations are smooth! Flawless transitioning as well.
Oooooooo circlesssss
DAMNS THEM SOME CIRCLES SON
My first Screenshot Saturday gif! ...and first real showing of my game
Any other MMF2 users here?
Looks good dude.
Ok, so a little update here.
We are lauching our first trailer next week and with it comes the opening up for pre-orders. The count-down is up on the website and nothing stops this train!
I am currently editing the thing and keeping in line with the low-res pixel aspect of the game, the trailer will be completely made in 256x192. Unfortunately Adobe Premiere doesn't like to render all this to x2 or x4 it's size without blurring everything so I am trying some tricks to have a final video at 720p but with all the original assets resized without any stupid bilinear filters.
This also means that I am building more GIFs that will be used as "screenshots" for the game. Here is one from the main street.
You can enter any one of those doors or stop and call for a taxi. At the end of each side of the street the scenery ends and you "enter" the next street.
The idea is to always have traffic circling around to give it a sense of motion of a living city withouth complicating the game too much. if I have time I will also try to ad people walking randomly on the sidewalks like the cars.
The problem is the extra people cannot look like the main characters like Detective Case or it will be too confusing for the player to see and click, for example, on the hobo asking for money. But I don't a bunch of dark grey crow like the cars.
Any design ideas to get this right would be great
We are lauching our first trailer next week and with it comes the opening up for pre-orders. The count-down is up on the website and nothing stops this train!
I am currently editing the thing and keeping in line with the low-res pixel aspect of the game, the trailer will be completely made in 256x192. Unfortunately Adobe Premiere doesn't like to render all this to x2 or x4 it's size without blurring everything so I am trying some tricks to have a final video at 720p but with all the original assets resized without any stupid bilinear filters.
This also means that I am building more GIFs that will be used as "screenshots" for the game. Here is one from the main street.
You can enter any one of those doors or stop and call for a taxi. At the end of each side of the street the scenery ends and you "enter" the next street.
The idea is to always have traffic circling around to give it a sense of motion of a living city withouth complicating the game too much. if I have time I will also try to ad people walking randomly on the sidewalks like the cars.
The problem is the extra people cannot look like the main characters like Detective Case or it will be too confusing for the player to see and click, for example, on the hobo asking for money. But I don't a bunch of dark grey crow like the cars.
Any design ideas to get this right would be great
CoconutTank
Member
Hi Joe! Congrats on graduating! Math is a pretty important in nearly all of game design, not just for video games (physical games too!), so I imagine your choice of major will be useful
I think, if you want to think of things in the long term (and you have time to spare), brushing up on Java and C would be what I recommend. Practicing your programming is great, because not only will you be more confident in code that you write on your own, you will also be able to read code from (most) other developers and have a better sense of causality/consequence with programming. The latter will be very helpful when you're working with someone else's code, whether it's to customize it for your own needs or to test/debug. Additionally, most procedural languages have very similar grammar, so learning and practicing Java and C can help you transition to other procedural langauges more easily (this is not a guarantee that mastery will be smooth).
On the other hand, games are pretty complicated and require significant investment, not only from a programming perspective. If you don't mind getting right into it and using tools or engines that make some choices for you, it's much faster to just use code and media that's available instead of doing a game from the ground up. Game development tutorials are all over the internet if you want to do a game step by step and play around with the result after that. The TIGSource forums have a lot of tutorials in case there are any particular engines, tools or frameworks you want to try:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=16.0
As of now I've used Unity3D for the past 3 global game jams and I'm doing a tutorial for a 2D game in Unity3D (which I found from the forum I linked). My experiences with Unity3D have been very positive so far, although the games I've worked on are single player with no online component, so I don't know how well Unity3D handles online connectivity or multiplayer.
Ok, so a little update here.
We are lauching our first trailer next week and with it comes the opening up for pre-orders. The count-down is up on the website and nothing stops this train!
I am currently editing the thing and keeping in line with the low-res pixel aspect of the game, the trailer will be completely made in 256x192. Unfortunately Adobe Premiere doesn't like to render all this to x2 or x4 it's size without blurring everything so I am trying some tricks to have a final video at 720p but with all the original assets resized without any stupid bilinear filters.
This also means that I am building more GIFs that will be used as "screenshots" for the game. Here is one from the main street.
You can enter any one of those doors or stop and call for a taxi. At the end of each side of the street the scenery ends and you "enter" the next street.
The idea is to always have traffic circling around to give it a sense of motion of a living city withouth complicating the game too much. if I have time I will also try to ad people walking randomly on the sidewalks like the cars.
The problem is the extra people cannot look like the main characters like Detective Case or it will be too confusing for the player to see and click, for example, on the hobo asking for money. But I don't a bunch of dark grey crow like the cars.
Any design ideas to get this right would be great
Aw man. That's a really charming art style you got there! The cars work great without being (too much) distracting at all. No plans for parallax backgrounds though?
You could have people on the street in a monotone-ish style. Not greyscale, but close to a single colour. It should give the player a better idea of who can't be interact with. And people who can be interact with will stand out much better due to their wider array of colours. But I'm sure this was one of your initial ideas anyway... heh.
Do you have After Effects? You can import Premiere sequences (projects, even) into an After Effects composition. Set its quality to draft and then render the composition at 'draft quality'. This will remove any sampling for scaled footage! Otherwise, no idea how to do it in Premiere.
Looking forward to seeing more!
Hi Joe! Congrats on graduating! Math is a pretty important in nearly all of game design, not just for video games (physical games too!), so I imagine your choice of major will be useful
I think, if you want to think of things in the long term (and you have time to spare), brushing up on Java and C would be what I recommend. Practicing your programming is great, because not only will you be more confident in code that you write on your own, you will also be able to read code from (most) other developers and have a better sense of causality/consequence with programming. The latter will be very helpful when you're working with someone else's code, whether it's to customize it for your own needs or to test/debug. Additionally, most procedural languages have very similar grammar, so learning and practicing Java and C can help you transition to other procedural langauges more easily (this is not a guarantee that mastery will be smooth).
On the other hand, games are pretty complicated and require significant investment, not only from a programming perspective. If you don't mind getting right into it and using tools or engines that make some choices for you, it's much faster to just use code and media that's available instead of doing a game from the ground up. Game development tutorials are all over the internet if you want to do a game step by step and play around with the result after that. The TIGSource forums have a lot of tutorials in case there are any particular engines, tools or frameworks you want to try:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=16.0
As of now I've used Unity3D for the past 3 global game jams and I'm doing a tutorial for a 2D game in Unity3D (which I found from the forum I linked). My experiences with Unity3D have been very positive so far, although the games I've worked on are single player with no online component, so I don't know how well Unity3D handles online connectivity or multiplayer.
A quick question on Unity, its free until i want to publish right? No features will be locked from me.
Ingueferroque
Banned
My first Screenshot Saturday gif! ...and first real showing of my game
Any other MMF2 users here?
Great stuff. What is MMF2?
Multimedia Fusion 2. It's not just specifically for making (2D) games, but also applications in general.
Some features are locked, such as dynamic real-time shadows, a profiler to see CPU and GPU usage, image post-processing effects and some others.
There's a 30-day trial of the full version though, that you can activate at any time.
Ok, thanks
Aw man. That's a really charming art style you got there! The cars work great without being (too much) distracting at all. No plans for parallax backgrounds though?
You could have people on the street in a monotone-ish style. Not greyscale, but close to a single colour. It should give the player a better idea of who can't be interact with. And people who can be interact with will stand out much better due to their wider array of colours. But I'm sure this was one of your initial ideas anyway... heh.
Do you have After Effects? You can import Premiere sequences (projects, even) into an After Effects composition. Set its quality to draft and then render the composition at 'draft quality'. This will remove any sampling for scaled footage! Otherwise, no idea how to do it in Premiere.
Looking forward to seeing more!
Thanks man.
No parallax backgrounds. Most of the time the sets have little to no view of sky or other things behind them. It is more about the foreground with the extra things like the cars or the audience that pops up to laugh, cheer and buh you.
Yes, non interactive people will be 1 or 2 grey colors. In the bar for example, they are like that but they are just there standing still. Here in the streets they have to walk. Will try later when I have extra time.
Yes, I have After Effects. Render to draft you say? I was thinking of trying first some other tricks, but it they don't work I will try this, tks!
Confirming here, looks circular.Oooooooo circlesssss
(looks nice, name clearly stolen from Mass Effect, scandal etc.)
Added support for flexible renderscripts to our Canto engine.
Added a deferred lighting setup for fits & giggles.
So moody.
Damn. looks really good
Miranda is, in fact, a real name
Thanks for the encouragement
For anyone wondering, MMF2 is a great tool for people that really want to make games but can't wrap their head around coding.
They've also just announced a major update coming in the next month or so that makes it a lot easier to work with and introduces a bunch of features that the community were asking for (physics for all exporters, iOS, Android etc, easy screen zoom/shake.)
If you've used Construct before, MMF2 is kind of on the same mark. Klik & Play, MMF's predecessor was the original "create your own game using no code" tool. The two are very similar.
As for the guy asking about GIF creation, check out this Reddit post - http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1am0do/howto_make_a_gif_of_your_game_screenshot_saturday/
For anyone wondering, MMF2 is a great tool for people that really want to make games but can't wrap their head around coding.
They've also just announced a major update coming in the next month or so that makes it a lot easier to work with and introduces a bunch of features that the community were asking for (physics for all exporters, iOS, Android etc, easy screen zoom/shake.)
If you've used Construct before, MMF2 is kind of on the same mark. Klik & Play, MMF's predecessor was the original "create your own game using no code" tool. The two are very similar.
As for the guy asking about GIF creation, check out this Reddit post - http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1am0do/howto_make_a_gif_of_your_game_screenshot_saturday/
Mystic River
Member
screenshot Saturday!
Well this is the first video of my summer challenge game that was supposed to end after 2 weeks but already 1 month into it, hope to finish this soon since I have my main game waiting for me
This is about a modular spaceship game, build/design your ship while you play, explore, escort or help transport ships, exterminate pirates and use the remaining modules as part of your ship or recycle them for parts for upgrades or repairs with more than 20 different module types, more than 10 different missions and many different environments that affect how you maneuver and survive, black holes, white holes and many other space anomalies , choose the power distribution of your ship between weapons, shields, thrusters, tractor beams, and many modules
The game is physics driven so expect things to behave like in space, you just drift in space, get your thrusters damaged and you will have challenges flying/turning your ship, mass of modules and many other factors affect how your ship fly and how fast it can accelerate with many different weapons like lasers and energy weapons, vulcan and others with limited ammo/missiles/torpedos and you can upgrade any module up to 5 levels, with only one life expect to have a though time trying to get to the end, get your command center killed and you are done.
Most of the texture modules are just placeholders for now just to test how it works, but it is a 2d game.
Well this is the first video of my summer challenge game that was supposed to end after 2 weeks but already 1 month into it, hope to finish this soon since I have my main game waiting for me
This is about a modular spaceship game, build/design your ship while you play, explore, escort or help transport ships, exterminate pirates and use the remaining modules as part of your ship or recycle them for parts for upgrades or repairs with more than 20 different module types, more than 10 different missions and many different environments that affect how you maneuver and survive, black holes, white holes and many other space anomalies , choose the power distribution of your ship between weapons, shields, thrusters, tractor beams, and many modules
The game is physics driven so expect things to behave like in space, you just drift in space, get your thrusters damaged and you will have challenges flying/turning your ship, mass of modules and many other factors affect how your ship fly and how fast it can accelerate with many different weapons like lasers and energy weapons, vulcan and others with limited ammo/missiles/torpedos and you can upgrade any module up to 5 levels, with only one life expect to have a though time trying to get to the end, get your command center killed and you are done.
Most of the texture modules are just placeholders for now just to test how it works, but it is a 2d game.
GIFCam! It's the new hotness.
bumpkin
Member
Only if you're on Windows.
BurritoBushido
Member
Any way to get 60FPS out of it?
Do you mean UnReal World? Finnish game set in Iron Age Finland and first released in 1992 but it's still getting updates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnReal_World
http://www.unrealworld.fi/
No this isn't it. The game I was thinking about was made by a guy that I think use to work at Sir-Tech. I think he tried to get indie funding months ago. I just can't remember the name of the game. I'm just curios if he finished it.
I just found it! Dude is just nuts. Good luck to the guy!
http://indierpgs.com/2013/02/grimoire-heralds-of-the-winged-exemplar-demo-released/
Mystic River
Member
none that I know, but adding more frames per second makes the gif file to ballon too much! my initial gif was at 30 FPS and it was 55 megs for a couple of seconds, so I had to reduce the screen size of it and turn it to 10 FPS to get something that everyone can see
You should mess with the color encoding as well. I usually don't, but if you want 30 FPS, it helps a lot.
Gnnnnn...
Just lost 2 hours trying to debug a totally impossible bug (logger call failing where exactly the same logger call in the other part of an if block that was used 100 times before didn't)
Apparently, code put in a constructor for a monobehavior gets called twice, which usually isn't a problem, unless you're registering your class with a messenger and passing a delegate function to it, and the messenger calls the 'dead' instance too...
Just lost 2 hours trying to debug a totally impossible bug (logger call failing where exactly the same logger call in the other part of an if block that was used 100 times before didn't)
Apparently, code put in a constructor for a monobehavior gets called twice, which usually isn't a problem, unless you're registering your class with a messenger and passing a delegate function to it, and the messenger calls the 'dead' instance too...
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