• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

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

I don't know that I have ever tried Unity before, but in 6.5 hours I downloaded it, looked at tutorial stuff, learned the scripting stuff, made my brilliant new game idea and got it basically feature complete except for a "you win" message and condition. Tomorrow if I somehow have time to create models/graphics instead of just spheres/cubes and buttons, I will try to finish it and put it up on webhosting somewhere.

I was just about to stop for the night when I ran into one more entertaining issue -- normal multi-dimensional comma arrays apparently don't work with the Flash export, like someArray[2, 3], so I used a crazy Array() of Array()'s solution.
 
Blizzard said:
I don't know that I have ever tried Unity before, but in 6.5 hours I downloaded it, looked at tutorial stuff, learned the scripting stuff, made my brilliant new game idea and got it basically feature complete except for a "you win" message and condition. Tomorrow if I somehow have time to create models/graphics instead of just spheres/cubes and buttons, I will try to finish it and put it up on webhosting somewhere.

I was just about to stop for the night when I ran into one more entertaining issue -- normal multi-dimensional comma arrays apparently don't work with the Flash export, like someArray[2, 3], so I used a crazy Array() of Array()'s solution.
Click to expand...

Saw something on that. You can use [][] syntax instead.
 
"What sprite editor is used in that video? Looks good, especially for animation."


The sprite editor is the thing I was talking about. It's an add-on that guy is making to make/animate/manage sprites within Unity.
 
How is it to make 2D games in Unity? You can go in sprites right away or it's obligatory to use a "trick"? ( like sprite being textures on panels and locking a camera to a certain angle to look at it or something along those lines)
 
Ranger X said:
How is it to make 2D games in Unity? You can go in sprites right away or it's obligatory to use a "trick"? ( like sprite behing textures on panels and locking a camera to a certain angle to look at it or something along those lines)
Click to expand...

From the little I think I know, i think it's more trick based than straight up sprites. not sure though.
 
Anyone here have any experience writing web-based MMORPGs? A buddy and I are starting to write ours, something we've wanted to do for years.
 
Ranger X said:
How is it to make 2D games in Unity? You can go in sprites right away or it's obligatory to use a "trick"? ( like sprite being textures on panels and locking a camera to a certain angle to look at it or something along those lines)
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'd say it involves tricks and/or finding (buying?) libraries that are set up to do sprites. It's probably simpler to use something like GameMaker or possibly even Slick/XNA to do plain old sprites.

I still don't care too much for the for-purchase model of Unity, but it does seem super simple to get certain game and camera types started, and the script debugging stuff and game relaunch speed are much faster than UDK. Even the 3D looked decent.

I imagine UDK has more complex graphical nuances and is better for large 3D games in general, but I wish UDK could improve so much in the ease of use department (such as being able to recompile UnrealScript without restarting the entire UDK). I hate that even some UDK users seem to react aversely when people suggest things like that. One person is like, it'd be nice to be able to recompile scripts with the UDK open, thus saving time. The response is (from USERS OF THE UDK), you shouldn't need to do that since scripts shouldn't change much...and/or, well it's only a minute or two if you launch directly in the game, and you shouldn't be using the editor much while changing UnrealScript.

But the point is, you silly people, it would make things so much nicer for some people and you could still keep things the way you do it!! ;_;
 
Blizzard said:
Yeah, I'd say it involves tricks and/or finding (buying?) libraries that are set up to do sprites. It's probably simpler to use something like GameMaker or possibly even Slick/XNA to do plain old sprites.

I still don't care too much for the for-purchase model of Unity, but it does seem super simple to get certain game and camera types started, and the script debugging stuff and game relaunch speed are much faster than UDK. Even the 3D looked decent.

I imagine UDK has more complex graphical nuances and is better for large 3D games in general, but I wish UDK could improve so much in the ease of use department (such as being able to recompile UnrealScript without restarting the entire UDK). I hate that even some UDK users seem to react aversely when people suggest things like that. One person is like, it'd be nice to be able to recompile scripts with the UDK open, thus saving time. The response is (from USERS OF THE UDK), you shouldn't need to do that since scripts shouldn't change much...and/or, well it's only a minute or two if you launch directly in the game, and you shouldn't be using the editor much while changing UnrealScript.

But the point is, you silly people, it would make things so much nicer for some people and you could still keep things the way you do it!! ;_;
Click to expand...


Well, I am using Unity in school and for a "end of certificate project" and man, I love it. At least for 3D games. I actually like everything about it more than Unreal. No wonder it's becoming the new engine of choice right now. My only barrier right now is that to make a 3D game you almost need a team no matter what. People to make models (I have some 3DSmax knowledge but to make something beautiful and animate it, I would lose tremendous time) and stuff like that. I also need to get better at Javascript (well, Unity script but it's so similar...)
 
Any suggestions/ideas for building a TextureAtlus for text rendering? I've been testing with Hiero as a free alternative, and with my current custom fontset, I ended up mucking with texture ID just to make it look reasonable.
 
Yeah it seems nice for small 3D games. Does anyone have feedback regarding the free versions of Unity vs the paid versions? I'm using the pro trial version for the contest of course.
 
The primary reason Unity is a real go-to these days is because it takes a minimal amount of time to take a project and move it to another platform, especially when juxtaposed with Unreal, or all-too-specific frameworks (XNA). That said, you are expected to pay for that kind of freedom, but the PC version of the editor is 100% free, and you can make money building PC/Mac games on it, trying to get them on Steam or what-have-you, and then evaluating whether or not you want to move to other platforms from there (and with Unity or not).

For me, my favorite thing about Unity, as a programmer, is that I'm spending comparably little time working out specifics of the engine to writing 300-400 lines of code every time I sit down that just generally work. And if I need something, even a very specific something, there is (generally) a helper class or static call I can use to get it in few steps without having to sit on a whiteboard and recall Calc III or Lin Algebra.

Also, I'm no artist (if you tried http://www.givenx.com/unity you'll see that), but I find that even with just Unity's primitives and the non-pro version of the suite, I don't feel like I'm making an ugly game. 99% of Indy devs wanna make sprite games, but they aren't the kind I take to, really. Unity scratches that itch, I guess.
 
AlphaTwo00 said:
Any suggestions/ideas for building a TextureAtlus for text rendering? I've been testing with Hiero as a free alternative, and with my current custom fontset, I ended up mucking with texture ID just to make it look reasonable.
Click to expand...
Are you just trying to generate fixed-width characters so you can index them easily to draw from a large texture, or are you trying to worry about very precise kerning etc. like with Windows fonts? I got close on the kerning stuff but not perfect. I believe I used freetype and I can't remember exactly but I -think- I may have found some way to get the font offset stuff without actually requiring freetype to redraw the pixels every time. I could be wrong.
 
Blizzard said:
Yeah it seems nice for small 3D games. Does anyone have feedback regarding the free versions of Unity vs the paid versions? I'm using the pro trial version for the contest of course.
Click to expand...

Pro nets you a profiler for your code, special lighting models (deferred renderer), additional scripts / more advanced shaders, and a few other things that I know of. During Dudebro II we were dying for a Pro version, because the end result was generally 100 times better with real-time lighting.
 
Stencyl...damn. I wish I knew about that a year or two ago. Awesome hybrid of GM/coding. If I wasn't knee-deep in LUA I would be all over that. The fact that it's basically outputting C# is also really exciting.

Alts said:
Check out Love2d. No love game has made it to steam (yet), though.
Click to expand...

Wow. That's pretty cool. Would still take time to rework some Corona specific calls, but it's awesome to know something is there if I ever want to transfer what I know of LUA into a PC-based project! :)
 
Looking at the license page (http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses.html), it seems that the main graphical things that are missing from the free version (besides global illumination with Beast) are these:

Render-to-Texture Effects
(Create water with realtime reflections & refractions, surveilance cameras, or use it to create your own full screen post-processing effects.)

Full-Screen Post-Processing Effects
(Use our built-in image post-processing effects like Glow, Motion Blur, Color Correction, and others, or create your own custom ones.)

Low-Level Rendering Access
(Need to use custom rendering techniques, bypassing Unity's rendering pipeline? The Graphics and GL classes give you access to the bare metal.)
(my own observation: that almost sounds nicer than UDK...a pro UDK license would be much more expensive to get rendering pipeline access right?)

Occlusion Culling
(Wield the performance optimizing power of Occlusion Culling, powered by Umbra, to make your games run as fast as possible.)

Realtime Shadows
(Unity Pro supports realtime shadows with self-shadowing that just work.)

Without Unity Pro it is of course still possible to use lower-end shadowing techniques, like Lightmaps or Projectors.

Deferred Rendering
(Take advantage of the latest in AAA rendering technology. Deferred rendering will allow you to create much more realistic scenes at the fraction of the performance cost.)

I seem to recall hearing that you can do some really easy road creation with Unity too, something that's not in the UDK (and a thread got locked down because someone mentioned a non-UDK engine in the UDK forums when people were discussing it).


I'm also not sure the free version of Unity supports calling into a native DLL or whatnot, like you can do with UDK.
 
Blizzard said:
Are you just trying to generate fixed-width characters so you can index them easily to draw from a large texture, or are you trying to worry about very precise kerning etc. like with Windows fonts? I got close on the kerning stuff but not perfect. I believe I used freetype and I can't remember exactly but I -think- I may have found some way to get the font offset stuff without actually requiring freetype to redraw the pixels every time. I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
A little of column a, a little of column b. I'm working on iOS (cocos2d), and I started off using TTF fonts, but clearly running into a performance issue on 3G devices. The nice thing with TTF on iOS was that the scaling and kerning worked pretty much as I expected, but by going to a texture, the anti-alised fonts isn't as clean as I wanted, and I ended up adjusting the fnt file. I've played with the file enough and it works well enough for now, but I don't want to deal with it again if I need to redo additional text.
 
I should pay attention to this thread more. Some of you GAFfers are insanely talented and the fuel for motivation and innovation is good for the soul! I need those high spirits
to eat OM NOM NOM NOM
.

We've got a few games lined up to release soon; one is a sequel to our popular game Time4Cat, and another is a game about manufacturing butter.

I have to wonder, though; what do people use in general to animate pixel art? I've been using TileStudio for about 8 years now, and while it really suits me to a tee, I've recently felt that I'm not making the most of what's out there, and the program has several quirks that I kind of adjusted to over the years. It's not even meant to be used for animation, after all!

I tried GraphicsGale and, honestly, I didn't take to it at all... I think this is going to be tough, haha.
 
so im going through minimalist game ideas in my head that a one person newbie could finish. would anyone here ever consider playing a free text based detective game or is that too minimal that no one would bother?
 
-COOLIO- said:
so im going through minimalist game ideas in my head that a one person newbie could finish. would anyone here ever consider playing a free text based detective game or is that too minimal that no one would bother?
Click to expand...

I would try it, but I think you should focus more on a project that you'll be able to see to completion, rather than a project that others will enjoy.
 
Alts said:
I would try it, but I think you should focus more on a project that you'll be able to see to completion, rather than a project that others will enjoy.
Click to expand...

ya thats what im goign for, but at the very least i want to make something worthwhile

that question lead me to looking up 999 and wow that game has an awesome story
 
This thread is cool.

Revisited my platformer engine prototype for the first time in three months. Resolved some input confusion issues, then started to investigate why I was having trouble with the "jump" key while moving sideways. Turns out to be a slight (understandable) imperfection in how Box2D handles continuous collision detection, so I have to scrap my previous "contact with the ground" criteria and use their dedicated collision monitor, which will actually be better in the long run.

But man, I stared at that documentation for like an hour tonight trying to get up the energy to try a few experiments, and I just couldn't do it.

@Blizzard: I really recommend you check out SFML again. Its proven to be extremely easy to work with, giving me essentially all of the image and sprite control I need, as well as an extremely simple interface for handling multiple threads. I haven't experimented with loading data yet, but I have some good ideas about that.


-COOLIO- said:
so im going through minimalist game ideas in my head that a one person newbie could finish. would anyone here ever consider playing a free text based detective game or is that too minimal that no one would bother?
Click to expand...
If you want to do text-based games, check out a program called Inform. Its a really neat experimental interface for making text based games without much programming.
 
Yeah I've been using unity for about 4 months now, loving it. Never thought I'd get so far. If I never had a job I might have had something ready for the contest. Try not to get suckered into all the user made add-ons. Alot of the beginner stuff you can find online and in tutorials. Checkout:

http://answers.unity3d.com/index.html

http://www.moddb.com/groups/unity-devs/tutorials

http://forum.unity3d.com/

This is a multi part video series, really useful if you're starting from scratch with no clue at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-X-Ebh1kYA

Yesturday that I did buy this $100:
http://www.arongranberg.com/unity/a-pathfinding/

This pathfinding works really well and is easy to use. He offers a free version as well which I used for the last 4 months. Which I probably could've stayed with. But I was trying to write some local avoidance scripts and wasn't getting anywhere. Haven't had time to try his solution yet but the demo vid look great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOymX-NpN4&context=C320de87ADOEgsToPDskITY9b9VPjjjWlm5HW5J_Tm

Also if anyone wants to talk shop or ask any questions let me know my Steam name is Finjitzu.
 
SovanJedi said:
I should pay attention to this thread more. Some of you GAFfers are insanely talented and the fuel for motivation and innovation is good for the soul! I need those high spirits
to eat OM NOM NOM NOM
.

We've got a few games lined up to release soon; one is a sequel to our popular game Time4Cat, and another is a game about manufacturing butter.

I have to wonder, though; what do people use in general to animate pixel art? I've been using TileStudio for about 8 years now, and while it really suits me to a tee, I've recently felt that I'm not making the most of what's out there, and the program has several quirks that I kind of adjusted to over the years. It's not even meant to be used for animation, after all!

I tried GraphicsGale and, honestly, I didn't take to it at all... I think this is going to be tough, haha.
Click to expand...


Well, I was to suggest GraphicsGale to you... :/
 
Man, would really like to make a small game/ personal project. But I don't know a darn thing about coding/ programming. I can barely understand what you guy are talking about.

If I (serious newbie) wanted to break into this, what would be a good place to start?
 
So, I'm taking part in an Asperger's Study over the next month. They will be sticking needles in BOTH my arms and drawing blood four times day for a total of eight times. They will be paying me, and those funds will go directly into my game company as well as my play for the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

I can now say that I have bled for my art.
 
SovanJedi said:
I tried GraphicsGale and, honestly, I didn't take to it at all... I think this is going to be tough, haha.
Click to expand...

GraphicsGale is the one I use on a daily basis, but if you don't like it, maybe try out ProMotion. It's the one other Pixelart tool out there that's often used.
Personally, I like Gale better, but ProMotion might suit you more.

http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php

Also, a friend of mine made a tool called Pixothello a while ago. It's free, and has some nice tiling and animation features:

http://teknopants.com/pixothello/

For people that still want to try out GraphicsGale, you can get it here:
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

It's my favourite Pixelart tool. I started writing a guide for it a while ago, but never finished. Here's what I had so far, which covers some basic issues people have:

http://pietepiet.net/random/galeguide.pdf
 
Acrylic7 said:
Man, would really like to make a small game/ personal project. But I don't know a darn thing about coding/ programming. I can barely understand what you guy are talking about.

If I (serious newbie) wanted to break into this, what would be a good place to start?
Click to expand...
Downloading the free GameMaker Lite 8.1 version and following a couple of tutorials shouldn't require programming and will let you play around with simple stuff. That's what I recommend, and you can decide form there if you want to go further. :) Then ask questions here if you have problems with the tutorials (or with finding the tutorials).
 
Last minute Unity question. I am importing FBX files and they do not seem to bring my textures in with them. I have to manually import the textures, then link that to the meshes. Does that mean I'm probably just setting up the FBX wrong in Blender, or is this process normal?
 
Acrylic7 said:
Man, would really like to make a small game/ personal project. But I don't know a darn thing about coding/ programming. I can barely understand what you guy are talking about.

If I (serious newbie) wanted to break into this, what would be a good place to start?
Click to expand...

I'd say GameMaker. I had this for an intro that opened my mind to a whole new world!
 
tumbledrop-screenshot1.jpg


I made a game called Tumbledrop which did fairly well on iOS. :)


pirouette.png

Made some other collaborative works too, although not always for profit.
Pirouette was a recent collaboration with Stephen 'Increpere' Lavelle, which you can play for free on iPad or in browser.


nyannyanstack2.png

I also make 'jam' games in a few days sometimes, as part of Ludum Dare or other events.
Nyan Nyan Stack was my most recent game.

Most of my work is done in Unity.
 
Pietepiet said:
GraphicsGale is the one I use on a daily basis, but if you don't like it, maybe try out ProMotion. It's the one other Pixelart tool out there that's often used.
Personally, I like Gale better, but ProMotion might suit you more.

http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php

Also, a friend of mine made a tool called Pixothello a while ago. It's free, and has some nice tiling and animation features:

http://teknopants.com/pixothello/
Click to expand...

Thanks, I really like both of these! I'd heard of Pro Motion before but never thought to try it out until now. It's right up my street. :D

Thanks again! A ramekin dish full of salted peanuts have been put aside for you as a token of gratitude.
 
dock said:
I made a game called Tumbledrop which did fairly well on iOS. :)


Made some other collaborative works too, although not always for profit.
Pirouette was a recent collaboration with Stephen 'Increpere' Lavelle, which you can play for free on iPad or in browser.

I also make 'jam' games in a few days sometimes, as part of Ludum Dare or other events.
Nyan Nyan Stack was my most recent game.

Most of my work is done in Unity.
Click to expand...

Those are some really good looking games. If you don't mind me asking, do you have any good resources about getting pixel art games looking really good on unity like that? I was just poking around with various game making tools myself for a 2D pixel art project and I was about to rule Unity out as it looked very 3D focused and I didn't think that it would suit my game. But from your post it looks like it can actually handle that quite well.
 
Well with about 14 hours of work in the last two days, I installed Unity, taught myself how to set up the scripting and stuff, realized I had forgotten a TON of stuff about Blender, decided that textured meshes are unnecessary, and made a game.

This of course isn't a serious contest entry, but I'm crazy and I figured it was good practice for the global game jam.

Here is the splash screen for my incredibly creative and amazing game, Mime Sweeper:
mainmenu_800x60078yo9.png


You can play it in a web browser with a recent Flash version here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/55797038/mimesweeper.html

Please tell me if it works, with sound, for anyone else. Thanks!
 
Blizzard said:
Well with about 14 hours of work in the last two days, I installed Unity, taught myself how to set up the scripting and stuff, realized I had forgotten a TON of stuff about Blender, decided that textured meshes are unnecessary, and made a game.

This of course isn't a serious contest entry, but I'm crazy and I figured it was good practice for the global game jam.

Here is the splash screen for my incredibly creative and amazing game, Mime Sweeper:
mainmenu_800x60078yo9.png


You can play it in a web browser with a recent Flash version here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/55797038/mimesweeper.html

Please tell me if it works, with sound, for anyone else. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Works great and is a pretty good idea :)
 
That link about different pixel apps is really interesting. Been 5+ years since I did any serious pixel pushing. (more tempted to ask dock's rates if I have any hope of releasing a project this year ;)
 
IAmMonodi said:
Starting Android development this year for sure with a friend. At least I hope the cogs finally get moving.
Click to expand...

My news years resolution is to put out at least one on the Market. Concidering how much I hate touch gaming, I thought it would be a nice ironic twist.

Of course, I hope this resolution gets further along than my weight set, pasta maker, and 'give more to charity' ones did.
 
For people looking to improve their java and maybe even C# programming, Head First Java is great book. I suggest you use something like Emacs to code in while going through the book. I'm halfway through and feel better about my java and C# already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

With the uptake in retro styled 2D games lately which games would you like to see make a return to 2D or even make their 1st entry into 2D?
34
424
Hudo replied
Japanese developer says they don't make games for Xbox because the console is 'not even stocked in major retail stores'
2
59
294
DavidGzz replied
  • Locked
> PlayStation makes a game exclusive: “dO thEy HAte mOnEY???” > PlayStation releases game on PC: “PS5 hAs nO gAMes”
13
601
Moondoggy replied
  • Poll
What if Capcom makes their own console?
Poll  2
93
907
BennyBlanco replied
[Gameranx] Why a SUPERMAN Video Game Is So Hard To Make
2
69
508
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt replied
Top Bottom