If I split the work up right, I'll essentially be able to make a bunch of smaller mini-games while culminating them into a larger game.
i.e. the process of developing this will provide me with the experience to pull it altogether?
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Indy Game Development: any GAF'er ever make their own game, or even make money on it?
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If I split the work up right, I'll essentially be able to make a bunch of smaller mini-games while culminating them into a larger game.
i.e. the process of developing this will provide me with the experience to pull it altogether?
I wrote Solar Hoops a couple years ago. Now I'm trying my hand at iOS.
AcceptableGhost
Member
http://depositfiles.com/files/baocpfycl
It is super rough and not particularly made for normal users (my new editor will ultimately be pretty user friendly and have all the features one would expect). I made this in a short time span, during that competition for that game. But if you are curious here you go I guess.
There is no undo/scaling/other stuff so keep in that mind.
Controls
WASD - Move around map
NUMPAD 1,2,3 (and only Numpad) - change tile layer (front, middle, back)
F12 - Fullscreen toggle
Press number key to change mode
1 - Vertice
Double click - set vertice
Left click - select / deselect
Hold Right click - move vertice
Delete - delete all selected vertice
Selection rectangle (hold left click) - select / deselect I believe
2 - Line (does nothing)
3 - Sector
Left click - left click on a series of vertices to make a "sector". It will seal off and become a sector once you link to the first vertice again.
The sector shows up as a red block which you can select / deselect and delete.
4 - Thing
Double click - place
left click - select / deselct (properties appear in windows form for a selected thing)
hold right click - move thing
delete - etc
mousewheel - up/down through all the entities
5 - Tileset
left/right click - place / unplace
left/right selection (hold click) - batch place / unplace
mousewheel - up/down through the tileset
---------
I decided to work on making my own editor (I used to use OgmoEditor - which is pretty nice) because when I am working on something and I need a feature right then and there it is generally easy to implement, specifically for my games. Also it is a nice learning experience. I am pretty sure I will keep reusing the editor I am working on as a base for pretty much any 2D game in the future.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Look forward to it, thanks!
Generally, what you wanna do to have your game speed independent of your framerate is to measure the time the current frame takes, and to use that as your timestep for the next frame.
(Fix your timestep! article by Glenn Fiedler)
In code it could look like this:
Code:
your_main_loop
{
deltaTime = getTime(); // get the current value of a timer
setTime(0); // reset the timer
this->update( deltaTime );
this->draw();
}Every movement has to be scaled by deltaTime. I haven't used Box2D directly, but the XNA port (Farseer Physics) and it's world.step() function takes a time value as a parameter.
Problem would be that the monster is too smart then. You wouldn't be able to properly hide or distract a human player, who knows exactly what you're trying to do.
I feel exactly the same way when I design a game.
(Except when I want to make a game of a particular genre because I love that genre)
There is a reason why those games costs 20 million dolars in development each... just saying
or by "demon souls" you say a very hard atari dungeun crawler ? =P
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
That's how I feel now.
I didn't start out wanting to do that, we didn't start out wanting to do that.
But now we do.
It's an incredibly hard task and goal. I'm not quite sure we'll do it with our first thing.
Haha... I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve to reduce 'development costs'. Too early to reveal anything...
But it's a game I want to make, because it's a game I can't play otherwise. So it's got that going for it.
Of course, the graphics will be much closer to minecraft than Diablo/Dark Souls or even Lego games.
But what do you mean 'atari dungeon crawler'?
The Dark Souls of it will be the combat mechanics. Simple, but solid, creating emergent complexity and depth. Hard as shit - because combat should be about surviving, and not so much grinding.
How does that gel with the Diablo side of it? Respawning enemies ala Dark Souls is a good way about it...
Man, with the talk of budgets, I know I have spent more than $4000 on this project (this does not include man hours of course), and I am dropping money on FL Studio today cause I am planning on not paying anyone for my stuff (except sound effects of course) and doing all on my own. But I digress.
Here is a basic 3 hit combos for Merik character:
I constantly go back and tweak every frame (cause I am a perfectionist) till it looks really good in gameplay (which it does right now - amazing actually since these GIFs are rather old compared to the tweaked animations in game).
Thanks.
Here is a basic 3 hit combos for Merik character:
I constantly go back and tweak every frame (cause I am a perfectionist) till it looks really good in gameplay (which it does right now - amazing actually since these GIFs are rather old compared to the tweaked animations in game).
Thanks.
Anyone know a decent 3D modeling and animating program that isn't exorbitantly expensive like the professional stuff? I've been using Milkshape 3D, and while I'm fine with how basic it is, its horrible glitchiness makes it frustrating as hell to use.
Surely there exists a basic MSPaint of 3D modeling that doesn't break every three clicks.
Surely there exists a basic MSPaint of 3D modeling that doesn't break every three clicks.
The most commonly used open source modeller is Blender. It's very feature complete and worth checking out.
Wings 3d is a great, easy to use software for modeling. Then you can use blender for animation or modeling if you like.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I actually thought of upgrading to the new 8.1 after having made some random shit in the older versions. There's a huge amount of power in GM if you spend the time getting to know the software.
I know it was brought up a few pages ago, but are there a good number of GM users here?
Blender is probably the most well-known free modeling and animation software, with lots of information available. Its interface can be confusing at first until you learn keyboard shortcuts or other techniques to speed things up. I guess my three biggest pieces of advice for learning Blender would be:
1. Get the latest stable version on the website. The main thing is not to get the old interface (2.4 whatever), but to get the new one. Some tutorials still use the old one but the new one is the way to go for the future presumably.
2. Start by going through something VERY simple, like modeling and texturing a cube so you learn how to do simple UV maps, and then modeling a blocky straight chair with different colors/materials.
3. Idle in the #blender IRC channel. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll try to look up the one I used. If you are polite, patient, and don't spam questions constantly, the people there are very nice, very knowledgeable, and it can be a HUGE help. It's great to be able to ask "where is the button to duplicate some face in the X direction bla bla bla" when google is failing you or you are having to spend an hour digging through video tutorials to find out the same thing.
1. Get the latest stable version on the website. The main thing is not to get the old interface (2.4 whatever), but to get the new one. Some tutorials still use the old one but the new one is the way to go for the future presumably.
2. Start by going through something VERY simple, like modeling and texturing a cube so you learn how to do simple UV maps, and then modeling a blocky straight chair with different colors/materials.
3. Idle in the #blender IRC channel. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll try to look up the one I used. If you are polite, patient, and don't spam questions constantly, the people there are very nice, very knowledgeable, and it can be a HUGE help. It's great to be able to ask "where is the button to duplicate some face in the X direction bla bla bla" when google is failing you or you are having to spend an hour digging through video tutorials to find out the same thing.
Did you buy the full thing? I've just been messing with 8.1 lite or whatever they refer to it as. I don't know how much I'm actually missing out of yet because I haven't gotten very deep.
Ok I just got two ideas and some motivation :
First one will be a puzzle game in 2d isometric view a bit like edge but with different rules obviously. I can't draw so it's perfect for me and I already have a 2d isometric code in C with SDL.
At the end I will like to port it to iPhone but my level in C++/Objective C is still not very good... Someone have a tutorial for Cocos2D ? One with isometric view, will be even better.
I have another idea for later, still a puzzle but this time a bit like lemmings.
First one will be a puzzle game in 2d isometric view a bit like edge but with different rules obviously. I can't draw so it's perfect for me and I already have a 2d isometric code in C with SDL.
At the end I will like to port it to iPhone but my level in C++/Objective C is still not very good... Someone have a tutorial for Cocos2D ? One with isometric view, will be even better.
I have another idea for later, still a puzzle but this time a bit like lemmings.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I had the full version of 7. The new version of 8 between lite and full:
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/windows
The biggest thing a new user will lack is modification of resources during runtime, and maaaaybe particle effects. Otherwise, for learning purposes and getting a feel for the program, lite is fine.
prodystopian
Member
For music I listen to a lot of soundtracks (without vocals). Sometimes I listen to more aggressive electronic music if I need to get started and keep getting distracted, but once I'm going I generally like something more ambient.
Sequence spoiler:
Sequence spoiler:
but what if the dream is for the good of humanity?
Thanks! I wish I would have gotten into some of this stuff back in college. Having a full time job, house, and fiancee to go home to really cut into the amount of time I can spend hands-on.
I bought GameMaker Pro and GameMaker HTML5. I love it so far. I work primarily with that engine so far because I am still a noob in scripting and GML is the only language I can actually do something worthwhile.
GameMaker might be picky sometimes but when you give it some time, the results are definetely there. I personally started thinking perfect collisions for a platformer character was impossible and then some week later I totally pulled it off. Very satisfying.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I bought GameMaker Pro and GameMaker HTML5. I love it so far. I work primarily with that engine so far because I am still a noob in scripting and GML is the only language I can actually do something worthwhile.
GameMaker might be picky sometimes but when you give it some time, the results are definetely there. I personally started thinking perfect collisions for a platformer character was impossible and then some week later I totally pulled it off. Very satisfying.
Yeah, accomplishing something in GM is just as satisfying as in C++ or something for us non-coding types. GML is a great introduction to coding, too. I'll probably wait a bit on Pro 8 for a bit - I'd like to know what the situation with Studio and GM9 are before dropping the cash.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Like any game, without art, you don't have a lot to work with. There's enough "free" art and sprite work out there to at least have functioning graphics, though. If you have ANY ambition to create a game with no coding knowledge, you'd be hurting yourself by not at least downloading GM Lite (which is free and can create complete games).
But what do you mean 'atari dungeon crawler'?
I mean in the way that developers need to start simple to get experience after trying to do "the next demon souls" =P
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
I used to make MUDs. Does that count?
Also Onlineworlds.org years ago (if anyone ever played those browser-based rpgs).
Also Onlineworlds.org years ago (if anyone ever played those browser-based rpgs).
Just make colored blocks jump around if you don't have any art. If you focus too much on the fact that you don't have everything already figured out, then you'll never get anything out.
I mean, when you're making a full game, yeah, you should probably have a plan. But your first few projects aren't gonna be full games. You're just gonna be dicking around and figuring out how to make it do what you want it to do. You'll figure the art thing out when you need to.
Anyway, I've been programming today for the first time in a while, and I have remembered two big things about coding:
1) How fun it can be.
2) How frustrating it can be.
Because I know I typed it right, why isn't it working, just do what I typed, why won't you-- Oh, my bad, I put a Y where there should have been a Z. But now that's fixed and it does exactly what I want and that is AWESOME!
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Pretty much this. Don't try to make something that looks beautiful from the get go - it should be about the experience and the enjoyment of the finished product. Art and sound come after.
Jumping in to the deep end never seems like a good idea. I played around with xna for around 2 months before starting on an engine. First I learned how to display sprites then played around with their properties. Then I messed around with collision detection and sound. Then I messed around with one screen games without any type of enemy AI. Then I moved on to one screen stuff with simple AI and a tilemap engine. Then I started working on my own engine for a side scroller.
Slowly building up like that over two months can be great for people who want to write an engine and learn everything, if they have the discipline and time to do it. I got a good bit of stuff written into my engine framework for loading and displaying things, scrolling (mostly?) smoothly, ALMOST displaying fonts in a pixel perfect fashion, and so on. But it took forever and I have hardly any motivation to work more on it.
Now, that's speaking as someone who has been doing software development in various forms for say, 10+ years. I may not be a good programmer, but I've been exposed to that sort of thing for a long time. For people who have not done ANY programming, making a game can look so daunting that they may never leave the paralyzed stage of "this seems complicated, I could never do it".
Instead of taking two months to learn XNA and get to a side-scrolling engine, an artist could probably go through a GameMaker (or Stencyl, or Construct, or whatever) tutorial and have a very simple sidescrolling Mario-style screen or two going within one or two WEEKENDS, in my opinion. Now as Ranger X has pointed out, collision might not be perfect, and it takes time to figure out Game Maker's quirks (such as fixing the collision in his case). But you can still get from "I can draw sprites but have nothing" to the "super simple sidescroller" stage like 30 times faster by using one of those high-level tools, and in my opinion, that's why people should jump in. It's not jumping into the deep end, it's jumping into a manageable level, after which they can start going deeper by scripting in the tool, moving to a different tool, or even working with a lower-level language.
Now, that's speaking as someone who has been doing software development in various forms for say, 10+ years. I may not be a good programmer, but I've been exposed to that sort of thing for a long time. For people who have not done ANY programming, making a game can look so daunting that they may never leave the paralyzed stage of "this seems complicated, I could never do it".
Instead of taking two months to learn XNA and get to a side-scrolling engine, an artist could probably go through a GameMaker (or Stencyl, or Construct, or whatever) tutorial and have a very simple sidescrolling Mario-style screen or two going within one or two WEEKENDS, in my opinion. Now as Ranger X has pointed out, collision might not be perfect, and it takes time to figure out Game Maker's quirks (such as fixing the collision in his case). But you can still get from "I can draw sprites but have nothing" to the "super simple sidescroller" stage like 30 times faster by using one of those high-level tools, and in my opinion, that's why people should jump in. It's not jumping into the deep end, it's jumping into a manageable level, after which they can start going deeper by scripting in the tool, moving to a different tool, or even working with a lower-level language.
Exactly. And there's no urge to move on. You go your speed and each accomplishment actuallly feels like a true step forward. By the way, when I'll get tired or not optionated enough with GML, I was thinking about going javascript or action script. Do you think it would be a good "next step" ?
I think it really depends on what you need it to do. Unity has great scripting support with its semi-Javascript, as well as C#. I think Stencyl supports ActionScript for Flash games.
I would hesitate to recommend Java/C++/C# and libraries to you unless I knew what you needed it for.
You can do scripting in GameMaker. If you are wanting to learn a programming language for the sake of the language itself then by all means do so, but doing it from scratch is not likely to make your lack of sprites/graphics any easier to deal with, I would guess. On the other hand, you might enjoy the learning process. *shrug*
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
What are you wanting to create?
Also, what Platy posted is something you could aim for. Graphically, that's not something you go crazy over, but the gameplay could be amazing. Dwarf Fortress isn't pretty, but have you ever played it? You lose yourself in how much there is going on.
And what Blizzard posted is correct. GML is perfect for someone who wants to create games while also getting their hands dirty with a bit of coding (without going crazy with books and books of reading books, tutorials, etc).
Well, the good news is that drinking this White Hot Chocolate at Starbucks has clearly been the impetus I needed to come up with some great ideas.
The bad news is that this cake pop is underbaked. Fuck you, Starbucks.
Stealth edit: For anyone pissed off that fonts look like crap in XNA 4.0, use Nuclex's font renderer instead (just a Google search away)! Much more accurate recreation of fonts, and better anti-aliased.
The bad news is that this cake pop is underbaked. Fuck you, Starbucks.
Stealth edit: For anyone pissed off that fonts look like crap in XNA 4.0, use Nuclex's font renderer instead (just a Google search away)! Much more accurate recreation of fonts, and better anti-aliased.
Legato.Reborn-
Member
XNA man, it needs to much studying!
I mean in the way that developers need to start simple to get experience after trying to do "the next demon souls" =P
Ah. Funky.
But yeah, I plan on breaking up the work load into various playable chunks.
I'll get a basic combat system prototyped, then build additional moves and functions into it - releasing it as a barebones melee combat based game.
Then a block building game.
By the time I have 2 games under my belt, I should be able to move on and start marrying the two together.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
This just popped up on the LD blog: pickleeditor.com
The big thing for me is the "nudging" to see hard lines, I've always had trouble making repeating backgrounds because of that. With this, I may have finally found a replacement for Paint (although I will always <3 Paint.)
The big thing for me is the "nudging" to see hard lines, I've always had trouble making repeating backgrounds because of that. With this, I may have finally found a replacement for Paint (although I will always <3 Paint.)
This thread is amazing, just read thru the whole thing. Tried making one of my game ideas back in the day in flash but programming just wasn't my thing. I would spend endless nights trying to figure out why my code wasn't working and it would usually be a misplaced comma or something silly like that. I did get some basic platforming mechanics working though it was super buggy. Was a good learning experience but went into the art side of game dev, character modeling and texturing.
Love seeing the work in progress some of you are posting. Will definately be keeping up with this thread.
Love seeing the work in progress some of you are posting. Will definately be keeping up with this thread.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
I'm the main guy in charge of designing everything we're making at Project Legends (http://www.project-legends.com/forum). Been active in the community ever since the Devroom opened (I go as General Specific with these guys), and made myself the big politician of that placethen I migrated to this project. Most of us are either too busy to get stuff done, or some of us can't get stuff done without assets. I think we're truly suffering the usual problems associated with developing a fan-game: lack of care for making a game; lack of dedication to the project; lack of perspective and undertaking; and a general lack of programmers and artists. No big deal.
Right now, I've done the most work in organizing the design part of the project. A lot of theory threads and a lot of forum organization, so that we might get things done one day. But I'm getting apathetic.
Right now, I've done the most work in organizing the design part of the project. A lot of theory threads and a lot of forum organization, so that we might get things done one day. But I'm getting apathetic.
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