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Indy Game Development: any GAF'er ever make their own game, or even make money on it?

Blizzard said:
I'm here at the global game jam, trying to see if I can get .NET 4, C#, and XNA 4 installed before the jam starts. =D

Sprites that are a power of 2 are great. If I recall correctly, modern graphics cards can use non-power-of-two textures, but back in the day they might not work on some cards.

HOWEVER, I would expect Game Maker to draw sprites out of a sprite sheet, and you could presumably make the sprites inside the sprite sheet whatever size you wanted. I don't know for sure though. I still need to run through the Gradius tutorials before the jam starts to refresh my memory.
Click to expand...

Doing the XNA thing, eh? I always hated just how convoluted the install process was for it. At one point their docs were a complete mess that lacked any semblance of checklist with links. So bad! Haha.

This year we're doing Flash for the first time. We did XNA for the first two years. Here were the projects from the last two years:

http://breakfall.ca/content/game-jam-2010-flimflam-fernandez
http://breakfall.ca/content/eats-shoots-leaves-ggj2011-warning-mature-content

Excited for this year again! Picked up a load of vegetables, fruits, and nuts for supplies.
 
JasoNsider said:
Doing the XNA thing, eh? I always hated just how convoluted the install process was for it. At one point their docs were a complete mess that lacked any semblance of checklist with links. So bad! Haha.

This year we're doing Flash for the first time. We did XNA for the first two years. Here were the projects from the last two years:

http://breakfall.ca/content/game-jam-2010-flimflam-fernandez
http://breakfall.ca/content/eats-shoots-leaves-ggj2011-warning-mature-content

Excited for this year again! Picked up a load of vegetables, fruits, and nuts for supplies.
Click to expand...
Are you using the full non-free tools to do Flash development, or are you planning to use something free like Stencyl?

I'm still not sure on XNA over GameMaker. I think the key thing is if we pick a game that fits one of the starter kits (RPG or platformer). I would like to think that most any sort of tiled/scrolling overhead game could work with the RPG kit, so I would be able to extract the tiled, drawing, etc. parts and work from there.

Someone here today warned me against doing things from scratch in XNA (like my failure last year when our team tried C++), so I am hoping that the starter kits make it feasible.


*edit* I still feel like HTML5 is more browser-dependent compared to Flash, but maybe that is changing.
 
We're using base Flash, however we may throw in some free libraries depending on the theme and idea.

Starting from scratch in XNA is lightyears ahead of starting from scratch with C++. The latter is suicide unless you are an ultra-machine coder. XNA you can render sprites, capture input, and move things in the main game loop in under an hour. That right there gives you a game!

Never used Game Maker so I can't comment on that either way!

I'm dying to see what the theme is this year :)

*edit* I still feel like HTML5 is more browser-dependent compared to Flash, but maybe that is changing.
Click to expand...

Definitely! However, flash is ultra rapid development. The only reason we're using it is that we don't have base tech in any usable spot right now. Flash is crazy rapid dev :)
 
JasoNsider said:
We're using base Flash, however we may throw in some free libraries depending on the theme and idea.

Starting from scratch in XNA is lightyears ahead of starting from scratch with C++. The latter is suicide unless you are an ultra-machine coder. XNA you can render sprites, capture input, and move things in the main game loop in under an hour. That right there gives you a game!

Never used Game Maker so I can't comment on that either way!

I'm dying to see what the theme is this year :)



Definitely! However, flash is ultra rapid development. The only reason we're using it is that we don't have base tech in any usable spot right now. Flash is crazy rapid dev :)
Click to expand...

Although to be fair, starting "from scratch" with C++ and the SFML library are fairly comparable to C# and XNA.
 
Blizzard said:
*edit* I still feel like HTML5 is more browser-dependent compared to Flash, but maybe that is changing.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by this? Naturally it's more dependent on the browser, since it's the browser doing the processing/rendering/etc., and not a plugin.
 
Blizzard said:
I'm here at the global game jam, trying to see if I can get .NET 4, C#, and XNA 4 installed before the jam starts. =D

Sprites that are a power of 2 are great. If I recall correctly, modern graphics cards can use non-power-of-two textures, but back in the day they might not work on some cards.

HOWEVER, I would expect Game Maker to draw sprites out of a sprite sheet, and you could presumably make the sprites inside the sprite sheet whatever size you wanted. I don't know for sure though. I still need to run through the Gradius tutorials before the jam starts to refresh my memory.
Click to expand...

I always stay with powers of 2 because of compression.
 
Andrex said:
What do you mean by this? Naturally it's more dependent on the browser, since it's the browser doing the processing/rendering/etc., and not a plugin.
Click to expand...
It doesn't work in some browsers as far as I'm aware, even recent ones. Does IE9 properly work with HTML5 games? If this is true, are there some games that only work in one browser despite this?
 
Making things from scratch in XNA (plus some middleware for physics and other stuff) is awesome :)
 
Blizzard said:
It doesn't work in some browsers as far as I'm aware, even recent ones. Does IE9 properly work with HTML5 games? If this is true, are there some games that only work in one browser despite this?
Click to expand...

Since the HTML5 spec is still a work in progress (although, it is scheduled to be finalized this year), the answer is, "It depends."

Internet Explorer 9 supports the HTML5 <canvas> and <audio> elements, meaning it can play 2D games like those made with Construct 2. It does not support WebGL (since Microsoft hates Kronos, nache), so 3D games are not possible with IE9 at this time. However, IE9 has great hardware acceleration, so 2D games perform very well.

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera support WebGL as well as varying levels of the open web stack (things some games might need like the File API, Audio API, Web Workers, Web Sockets, Full Screen API, and Gamepad API.) When playing a Construct 2 game in these browsers, the game switches rendering to WebGL (2D mode) for even better hardware acceleration.

Chrome in particular is on the cutting edge of these features so many games are optimized for Chrome at the moment. This is also because Chrome has an easy path for deploying and monetizing HTML5 games via the Chrome Web Store. If you think of Chrome as a platform unto itself, like Android or iOS, then you're looking at over 200 million users who have immediate access to your game, and you don't have to waste time and money coding fallbacks or worrying about other browsers until they catch up.
 
There was just a guy in here talking about XNA development for Windows phones, giving away a free Windows phone for each team if they were going to make a Windows phone game. Apparently you can also use Silverlight to do controls if you're developing for Windows phone.

Now there's a Hirezstudios guy talking about Global Agenda (was that well-received? I forget), Tribes Ascend (free beta keys), and SMITE, their take on the MOBA genre. He's here to tell us why our game designs suck, so the topic says.
 
Ranger X said:
So websites like Kongregate are taking games directly made in Flash or HTML5 or there are libraries of I dunno what to implement?
Click to expand...

I think there's an add on you can use to integrate with Kongregate's score/ad platform. In Construct 2, there's a dedicated object for managing this.
 
It's almost the same as Kickstarter, but when people donate you immediately get their donations. You don't have to wait, nor do you have to meet a minimum.
 
The theme for this year is
an image of a snake eating its tail
.

Heads up for anyone who missed it, you can get the free HTML5 version of GameMaker if you get a code from your event organizer. I -think- this is actually the full Windows version as well.
 
Blizzard said:
The theme for this year is
an image of a snake eating its tail
.

Heads up for anyone who missed it, you can get the free HTML5 version of GameMaker if you get a code from your event organizer. I -think- this is actually the full Windows version as well.
Click to expand...

can i have the 50% game make studio code please? use my email lol.
 
Blizzard said:
The theme for this year is
an image of a snake eating its tail
.

Heads up for anyone who missed it, you can get the free HTML5 version of GameMaker if you get a code from your event organizer. I -think- this is actually the full Windows version as well.
Click to expand...

I THINK you only get it for the duration of the Jam though. That's the way I understood it at least!
 
Spend 4 hours at the local game jam site .... looks very fun ! =D

Awesome to see so much brainstorms and how some people can have SO MANY diferent ideas with the same theme !

Also, brazilian people here got a litle mad because of last months's São Paulo Jam had the theme
"Infinity"
and this is a close one, since the
Orobouros
is some kind of specification of the other one
 
By the way, apparently a site in Brazil was the #1 biggest site in the world. I'm at the Atlanta game jam, which is only #2 in the world with like 190 people signed up.
 
Ayo said:
Has anyone here ever made a fighting game or know what software would be good for making one?
Click to expand...

Yes. I worked on a couple. They came out loooong ago on the PS1. I don't want to sound disparaging, but they aren't the easiest types of games to make.

Anyway, if you're just looking for something to mess around with. I remember there being a fighting game maker for the PS2. It was made by a Japanese studio.. they also made an RPG maker. I'm not familiar with any sort off the shelf engine, like Unity3D, that's set up for such a thing, but now that I think of it M.U.G.E.N might get you where you want to go.
 
Just a random addition: If you're developing a game, particularly programming, make a habit of including gamedev.stackexchange.com on your daily reading list. There's tons of good stuff on there, and while most of it won't be directly applicable to your efforts, you'll just start gaining a lot of knowledge by osmosis. It's also a great place to ask questions if you're stuck on something specific.
 
EDIT: I'm just reading up on some Unity tutorials on how to pull off 2D.
EDIT2: Downloading XNA because it seems a hell of a lot simpler to grasp for 2D game development. In addition, I've used it before a long time ago.
 
Blizzard said:
By the way, apparently a site in Brazil was the #1 biggest site in the world. I'm at the Atlanta game jam, which is only #2 in the world with like 190 people signed up.
Click to expand...

I heard about it ... but this one was in another state .... the one where i went had not even half of that

Also, if anyone is curious, the group that i went to see (wich i know some people) is the same one wich has the Ludum Dare winner dude... and here is the game they did for the São Paulo Jam : Down goes the Phoenix

And you can see pics from that jam and a video of the timelapse from the programers computer here
 
Godamnit, this is what I get for trying to recompile the Box2D libraries for release. I've borked something and now I've just got unresolved external errors.
 
Free Game Maker tip!! (discovered this tonight and it fixed my image resizing prob!)


At first, I wanted my 640x480 game to be displayed in a 1280x960 window when you play therefore I did put "1280x960" in the "port on screen". Well, when you resize your game like this it looks like it creates errors.

The solution was to make my "port on screen" 640x480 and to go into the "global game settings" under "scaling" and put the display at "200%". When you resize your game this way, it's perfect!!
 
Blizzard said:
By the way, apparently a site in Brazil was the #1 biggest site in the world. I'm at the Atlanta game jam, which is only #2 in the world with like 190 people signed up.
Click to expand...

The brazilian big site posted this one in the twitter .. it says a lot xD
favbI.jpg


Also, more pics on their flickr

i like these ones :
Nnr7Q.png
qEap1.png
31oRx.png
EKC8V.png
 
Bollocks said:
Dig the art style :)

Anybody here released a game with Unity on Android/iOS?
Anything I should look out for?
Click to expand...

I am currently doing one.

It depends on what type of game you are making, but probably gonna have to cut corners and optimize, optimize, optimize for mobile platforms to get at a decent FPS.
 
Does anyone know if there's a way to avoid tearing if a game has both horizontal and vertical scrolling? Turning on the global option to use synchronization to avoid tearing seems to fix the tearing that my horizontal scrolling background had, but if the view height is changed, there's tearing at the top of the screen, maybe in the top 32 pixels or so.

If it matters, I'm changing the view Y offset in a step event of the player object.

*edit* It doesn't matter about the Y view offset, if I make horizontal and vertical scrolling speeds of a background, it tears near the top at 60 fps no matter what.

*edit again* Room speed doesn't matter either. The tearing happens at 30 fps or 72 fps.

*edit* After some research, apparently the administrator ("Lemming"?) feedback from the forums is that screen tearing will never be fixed in Game Maker, they're of the opinion that it's like impossible to do windowed vsync (I could have sworn this worked when I did it on my own), and the horizontal + vertical scrolling thing is "judder" and nearly impossible to fix too.

That would be pretty much enough reason for me not to use Game Maker for serious games. I'm using the special-event full version for the competition timeframe, too. For now, my workaround is to use a 64-height bar at the top of the screen. It lets me put UI stuff there, and since that bar itself does not scroll it may completely hide it.
 
Blizzard said:
Does anyone know if there's a way to avoid tearing if a game has both horizontal and vertical scrolling? Turning on the global option to use synchronization to avoid tearing seems to fix the tearing that my horizontal scrolling background had, but if the view height is changed, there's tearing at the top of the screen, maybe in the top 32 pixels or so.

If it matters, I'm changing the view Y offset in a step event of the player object.

*edit* It doesn't matter about the Y view offset, if I make horizontal and vertical scrolling speeds of a background, it tears near the top at 60 fps no matter what.

*edit again* Room speed doesn't matter either. The tearing happens at 30 fps or 72 fps.

*edit* After some research, apparently the administrator ("Lemming"?) feedback from the forums is that screen tearing will never be fixed in Game Maker, they're of the opinion that it's like impossible to do windowed vsync (I could have sworn this worked when I did it on my own), and the horizontal + vertical scrolling thing is "judder" and nearly impossible to fix too.

That would be pretty much enough reason for me not to use Game Maker for serious games. I'm using the special-event full version for the competition timeframe, too. For now, my workaround is to use a 64-height bar at the top of the screen. It lets me put UI stuff there, and since that bar itself does not scroll it may completely hide it.
Click to expand...

I suggest you read through this:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=22054.0

It gives a little more insight on vsync in GM. It may or may not help answer your question, but it at least gives some discussion on the topic from people who have run into similar issues. :)
 
I see a lot of questions about programming and work environment but not a whole lot design and mechanics. Just wondering why that is. Do you guys have an image of the game in your heads during development and resolve any differences between the ideal image and your actual product by constantly tweeking and iterating? If that is the case do you find that continual roll over a optimal design process? Do you believe someone outside of the project could provide good advice on the nuts and bolts of a game they might not have played? Is game language not developed enough to communicate such things? Details would be too long for a snappy post?

On a separate note does anyone think a smaller take on some of the ideas in the "If two games could have a baby" thread is doable?
 
nicoga3000 said:
I suggest you read through this:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=22054.0

It gives a little more insight on vsync in GM. It may or may not help answer your question, but it at least gives some discussion on the topic from people who have run into similar issues. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link, but unfortunately my issue was tearing rather than stuttering.

I also disagree with the person in that thread if they were saying that turning the synchronization option on makes tearing worse in game maker. In my case, I had tearing midscreen without, and only at the top of the screen with.

And by tearing, I don't mean judder/stutter as far as I undderstand the terms. I literally mean a box will be drawn something like this (I forget which way it leans but you get the idea)

Code: 
 |===|
 |   |
|   |
|===|
 
Blizzard said:
Thanks for the link, but unfortunately my issue was tearing rather than stuttering.

I also disagree with the person in that thread if they were saying that turning the synchronization option on makes tearing worse in game maker. In my case, I had tearing midscreen without, and only at the top of the screen with.

And by tearing, I don't mean judder/stutter as far as I undderstand the terms. I literally mean a box will be drawn something like this (I forget which way it leans but you get the idea)

Code: 
 |===|
 |   |
|   |
|===|
Click to expand...

Ah ok, sorry - I misunderstood the problem! I can't say I've run into it necessarily, but I imagine it could pose some interesting problems. You said admins stated it was unfixable, too?
 
The_Technomancer said:
Yay, that worked! Although it will make actual debugging a pain.
Click to expand...

I think he said that SFML 2.0 final (or near final... maybe fixed already in SVN) would fix that? I think he said he was going to be changing up the graphics rendering behind-the-scenes. I read that while I was working on that SFML game with a earlier SVN 2.0 snapshot.
 
Satoho said:
Please tell me what Library or Engine you used to make these games for PC, especially SuperCrateBox >_<
Click to expand...

I know they used Flashpunk for Celestial Mechanica.

First post in this topic! I'm currently working on a Flash Metroidvania-ish game myself, currently trying to tweak the physics to work like I want them to. After that I'm going to get started on combat and enemy AI. I'll post screenshots up here when it looks presentable!
 
nicoga3000 said:
Ah ok, sorry - I misunderstood the problem! I can't say I've run into it necessarily, but I imagine it could pose some interesting problems. You said admins stated it was unfixable, too?
Click to expand...
I think Lemming said that. I think it's something to do with the way they understand/implement vsync in windowed mode. I guess they use DirectX/Direct3D behind the scenes?
 
Kyuur said:
I know they used Flashpunk for Celestial Mechanica.

First post in this topic! I'm currently working on a Flash Metroidvania-ish game myself, currently trying to tweak the physics to work like I want them to. After that I'm going to get started on combat and enemy AI. I'll post screenshots up here when it looks presentable!
Click to expand...

Thanks Kyuur, that's interesting :) still curious about SuperCrateBox though, Hmm
 
Blizzard said:
I think Lemming said that. I think it's something to do with the way they understand/implement vsync in windowed mode. I guess they use DirectX/Direct3D behind the scenes?
Click to expand...

And you sure your tearing problem isn't possibly caused by the resizing bug I posted about earlier? I suppose that bad resize + scrolling could actually make tearing worse...?
In my current game I don't have any tearing (so far).
 
Ranger X said:
And you sure your tearing problem isn't possibly caused by the resizing bug I posted about earlier? I suppose that bad resize + scrolling could actually make tearing worse...?
In my current game I don't have any tearing (so far).
Click to expand...
It was set to the aspect ratio scaling thing. I changed it to 100% just in case, but I wasn't trying to resize anything so I don't think that was the issue...who knows.
 
I just joined GAF today. I'm an indie developer and made a point and click adventure game called the white chamber, and my first commercial game Kairo should be coming out in a few months.

Good to see so many other indie devs on here working on what looks like a lot of cool projects.
 
Another Game Maker question: Does anyone have tips for reducing CPU usage? On a title screen at 60 fps that polls keyboard and mouse to detect a press (to go to the game from the title screen), it seems to use practically the entire CPU core, for 40-50% of total CPU usage. I assume this is because of the polling in the Step event, but the game is much more complicated than the ultra-simple title screen, and it seems to run fine.

I'm mostly curious what is causing it and if there is a way to turn it down.
 
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