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[Blizzard]

What has often worked well for me with games (I actually do the same basic thought pattern for my daily work programming as well) is to have the concept of substitutions always at the top of my mind. For instance I'm currently working on an indie action / fighting game. To make sure that I keep my boundaries well defined between engine / display / input (pretty much what I map MVC to for games) I have an imaginary version of my game that instead of being controlled with a fightstick in front of an HD display it's instead done with text only display and inputs done by e-mail. As I add the interfaces to connect my controller to my model or my model to my view I have to examine them to make sure that this imaginary version of my game would still work. If not I can usually assume, with a few exceptions for an indie game some cheating is allowed, that I should reexamine the connection that I'm making. This really helps out for testing as well for my fighting engine I can actually test it from a console application, just feed in a set of two text files that list the commands that each player hits on each frame and I can simulate a full match of my game to 100% accuracy without ever displaying anything on screen. Not sure if that will help you, but thinking that way has always done the trick for me.

If you want a basic MVC overview MSDN patterns and practices site is pretty good. There are more modern variants like MVP which basically squishes together the view and controller and tries to reduce the UI layer to the smallest possible size and complexity. Not sure if any of that helps, but figured that I would throw in my two cents.

Thank you kind sir, that is actually a really interesting point of view. Test-driven development, and/or the possibility to have tests that simulate a match as you mention, are probably great practices that might be very rare to see in a game development world. That kind of thing is hopefully more common in the embedded systems (non-game) software development realm, presumably because people don't think of it for games or don't want to spend the time to write regression tests, and it's very clever.

I also appreciate the MVC link.

 

[IceMarker]

So I finally stopped playing video games for a second to actually look at making them again. I went head first as a total programming noob into 4 languages at once, XNA/C#, Love/LUA, Flixel/AS3, and GameMaker this morning. GM being the most friendly, but looks to be restrictive, I find LOVE to be easier on the eyes, and Flixel/AS3 looks tremendously crazy, and with XNA (my first programming experience from years ago) looks to be as complicated as AS3, but more so. I seriously don't know where to start still with all these options, I went with just writing a really complete GDD and now I'm sitting here wondering what the hell to look at or do without spending any money. Consider this post an update to the thread I created about it a couple weeks ago.

EDIT: Just found this out, looks like something to get me primed on the basics again. Yay or nay?

 

[MJLord]

So I finally stopped playing video games for a second to actually look at making them again. I went head first as a total programming noob into 4 languages at once, XNA/C#, Love/LUA, Flixel/AS3, and GameMaker this morning. GM being the most friendly, but looks to be restrictive, I find LOVE to be easier on the eyes, and Flixel/AS3 looks tremendously crazy, and with XNA (my first programming experience from years ago) looks to be as complicated as AS3, but more so. I seriously don't know where to start still with all these options, I went with just writing a really complete GDD and now I'm sitting here wondering what the hell to look at or do without spending any money. Consider this post an update to the thread I created about it a couple weeks ago.

EDIT: Just found this out, looks like something to get me primed on the basics again. Yay or nay?

XNA is a good one to go with IMO. Riemers tutorials are the best at getting you goin on it, If you sign up at ceate.msdn.com as well you can get loads of help on the forums.

Riemers
Creators Club

 

[Blizzard]

So I finally stopped playing video games for a second to actually look at making them again. I went head first as a total programming noob into 4 languages at once, XNA/C#, Love/LUA, Flixel/AS3, and GameMaker this morning. GM being the most friendly, but looks to be restrictive, I find LOVE to be easier on the eyes, and Flixel/AS3 looks tremendously crazy, and with XNA (my first programming experience from years ago) looks to be as complicated as AS3, but more so. I seriously don't know where to start still with all these options, I went with just writing a really complete GDD and now I'm sitting here wondering what the hell to look at or do without spending any money. Consider this post an update to the thread I created about it a couple weeks ago.

EDIT: Just found this out, looks like something to get me primed on the basics again. Yay or nay?

XNA should have some nice example code, has been used for Steam game(s), has been used for XBLA games (I think), has a standard programming language, and and has a reasonable number of people familiar with it.

GameMaker is very probably faster for prototyping ideas to find out if they're fun, however. You can use its own scripting language as well.

 

[benSks]

for anyone interested, a quick update on first week sales for my low budget survival horror iPad game End Night

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/end-night-hd/id498102948?ls=1&mt=8

Really had no idea what to expect, got really lucky with a feature in new and noteworthy on release and a touch arcade 4/5 review on friday.

Have actually tried dropping the price for the next few days to 99cents, which seemed to help bump up sales last night a little.

wed:78
thurs:436
fri:303
sat:359

so 1176 so far. Most at 2.99, probably 200 or so at 99cents

Not sure how i would ever calculate the games budget, since the 12months i spent making it was also to learn programming and to stumble around trying to figure out how to even design a game in the first place.

Probably close to breaking even on the cost of motion capture, sound effects, music and unity though which is pretty awesome.

 

[Raide]

Working on my idea, mainly trying to get gamemaker into my brain and write down more of the design doc. I was thinking of posting up an image that describes the basic idea. Do you think that would be a good idea and might get people interested if they can roughly see what is happening? This would be before I get my prototype working.

Cheers!

 

[fin]

for anyone interested, a quick update on first week sales for my low budget survival horror iPad game End Night

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/end-night-hd/id498102948?ls=1&mt=8

Really had no idea what to expect, got really lucky with a feature in new and noteworthy on release and a touch arcade 4/5 review on friday.

Have actually tried dropping the price for the next few days to 99cents, which seemed to help bump up sales last night a little.

wed:78
thurs:436
fri:303
sat:359

so 1176 so far. Most at 2.99, probably 200 or so at 99cents

Not sure how i would ever calculate the games budget, since the 12months i spent making it was also to learn programming and to stumble around trying to figure out how to even design a game in the first place.

Probably close to breaking even on the cost of motion capture, sound effects, music and unity though which is pretty awesome.

Congrats! That good to hear that your hard work has paid off.

I'm also stumbling through Unity. Now making a racing game. I've basically got the gameplay nailed down completely scripted and a test level with all the features in it.

Now I'm making a game out of it. Just finished a prototype menu system. I'm not too sure how I'm going to be saving progress, limiting access to tracks based on progress. Looking into persistent objects between scenes (DontDestroyOnLoad) and the player pref file....seems pretty daunting but I think I can hack through it, any good resources you could recommend?

 

[Somnid]

Bleh, refactoring a ton of code just to add a new feature because I kinda painted myself into a wall.

 

[Blizzard]

Well that took ages, but I finally got my old game test code ported and rendering with the in-progress SFML port of my in-progress engine. I think SFML may actually let me throw out the tons of crazy filtering and smoothing code I had experimented with and keep a cleaner game loop, but we'll see.

One main problem at the moment is that when I ported my pipeline image-processing tool, I apparently reversed color channels or something, since some colors are like crazy half-inverted. XD

 

[MJLord]

Okay the link below goes to my "first" game. I'v had little bits here and there but nothing that doesn't fall under learning exercises. It doesn't really have a name yet because it was for a module that I took at Uni recently.

It's a 2D top down space shooter, So far it has Score, Timer, Healthbar, Increasing Difficulty levels as the timer counts down and two types of weapons. So pretty standard really, all the art assets and sound were open source from the internet but all of the sprites had to be altered in some way to get them how I needed them. I'd say it's pretty standard but I'm proud of it so I thought I'd show it to you guys.

There are still things that need to be added to the game and I still have no goal to sell the game because I don't feel anyone would want to buy it on PC. If I get around to porting it over to Windows Phone then I would consider getting onto the App Marketplace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Bbkyrp68g

 

[Raide]

Okay the link below goes to my "first" game. I'v had little bits here and there but nothing that doesn't fall under learning exercises. It doesn't really have a name yet because it was for a module that I took at Uni recently.

It's a 2D top down space shooter, So far it has Score, Timer, Healthbar, Increasing Difficulty levels as the timer counts down and two types of weapons. So pretty standard really, all the art assets and sound were open source from the internet but all of the sprites had to be altered in some way to get them how I needed them. I'd say it's pretty standard but I'm proud of it so I thought I'd show it to you guys.

There are still things that need to be added to the game and I still have no goal to sell the game because I don't feel anyone would want to buy it on PC. If I get around to porting it over to Windows Phone then I would consider getting onto the App Marketplace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Bbkyrp68g

Looking good. First thing I thought was you need to do something to split the background from the enemies. They all blend in a bit, so it might be harder for people to target the right things.

Keep up the good work! At least you have a working version!

 

[Nemo]

Anyone know or hear anything about Kickstarter letting in non-US projects in the near future? Is the current way only to have a friend living in America?

 

[bumpkin]

Okay the link below goes to my "first" game. I'v had little bits here and there but nothing that doesn't fall under learning exercises. It doesn't really have a name yet because it was for a module that I took at Uni recently.

It's a 2D top down space shooter, So far it has Score, Timer, Healthbar, Increasing Difficulty levels as the timer counts down and two types of weapons. So pretty standard really, all the art assets and sound were open source from the internet but all of the sprites had to be altered in some way to get them how I needed them. I'd say it's pretty standard but I'm proud of it so I thought I'd show it to you guys.

There are still things that need to be added to the game and I still have no goal to sell the game because I don't feel anyone would want to buy it on PC. If I get around to porting it over to Windows Phone then I would consider getting onto the App Marketplace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Bbkyrp68g

That is so funny... I used that exact same ship sprite in a SHMUP prototype I was working on last year, too.

 

[benSks]

Congrats! That good to hear that your hard work has paid off.

I'm also stumbling through Unity. Now making a racing game. I've basically got the gameplay nailed down completely scripted and a test level with all the features in it.

Now I'm making a game out of it. Just finished a prototype menu system. I'm not too sure how I'm going to be saving progress, limiting access to tracks based on progress. Looking into persistent objects between scenes (DontDestroyOnLoad) and the player pref file....seems pretty daunting but I think I can hack through it, any good resources you could recommend?

I put off saving anything in my game for a long time, due to having no idea how the player prefs thing worked and thinking it would be pretty complicated, but turns out it's actually really easy.

For your racing game, say the player completes a race to unlock a new track you could do:

PlayerPrefs.SetInt("Track2",1);

Then on the button to play the locked track 2, something like:

var LockedTrack2 = PlayerPrefs.GetInt("Track2");

if(LockedTrack2 == 1){

//do whatever to unlock that button
}

You could do the same for any player stats you wanted to save, for my game i have a bunch of upgrades on my player character, with buttons that just do the playerPrefs.SetInt to different values, then at the start of the game i just read those values with GetInt

 

[brettchalupa]

Anyone know or hear anything about Kickstarter letting in non-US projects in the near future? Is the current way only to have a friend living in America?

It is quite possible to use Kickstarter outside of the US. All you need is a credit card that can be used in the U.S.

I believe a GAFer and his friend (both from Italy) just successively funded their indie project.

 

[Blizzard]

Someone on a different forum was asking about downloading tons of information since they will be out in the middle of nowhere for like, months at a time and they want to give game development and/or programming language stuff a try. I typed up a big reply to them, and I know we've probably been over nearly all of this in this thread already, but I figured I would post most of it here just in case anyone new finds it useful.



I would say GameMaker Lite (or the full version if you can afford it) if you've never used it, but (like any tool) it's probably most effective if you can occasionally use Google to look up forum posts with people having the same problems you are.

There are one or two NeoGAF threads that should have information and/or links. I think one guy was specifically collecting links on all sorts of game development topics, but I don't know if I can find that.

GameMaker means you can prototype something FAST. It's easy to use, and the IDE lets you both edit the scripting language code and manage all your image/sound/etc. resources. You might be able to download/wget/whatever the scripting API reference from the website/wiki/whatever, and that along with some example games should be enough to let you experiment. You may be able to find sample game projects you can download and work with, as well.

Other similar tools to GameMaker include Construct2 (HTML5 games?) and Stencyl (Windows, Flash games). I haven't tried Construct2 and didn't care for Stencyl much.

For sound editing, Audacity. For music, there should be some open source mod tracker stuff if you want to take the time to download and learn it. For simple 8-bit-esque sound effects, if you won't have internet then google for SFXR (downloadable tool) and BFXR (website but also downloadable) to generate sound effects. There may also be some tools to make sound effects that aren't so silly, lol.

For 3D games, I'd say go with Unity (there should be a free version) and/or UDK. Heck, download them both with examples. UDK has a ton of versions but as long as the latest version runs, you should be fine. If you have a crappy computer, UDK may be out, but Unity might still work for you. Unity MIGHT be able to export to a web player and/or Flash, but I don't know if that's in the free version.

If you have a nice computer I believe there's a MyCryEngine SDK as well. I know very little about it though.

I know there is a lot of official online documentation for the UDK, and maybe for Unity as well, but I don't know if there is an easy way for you to download it.

If you go with 3D, download the latest version of Blender and a bunch of tutorials, guides, videos, and/or whatever to learn how to use it to make 3D models.

For images, make sure you have GIMP (despite its interface, search for Gimpshop if you want it to have a better interface) and Paint.net. Maybe get Inkscape if you want to experiment with making vector art without using GIMP's crazy path stuff.

If you want to stick with 2D games and you're stubborn and don't want to use a tool like GameMaker, I would recommend Java, C++, or C#.

With Java, you can download API stuff for Java itself (in complete HTML form, this is something nice about Java), and also look up information (hopefully with examples) for Slick2D. That's the library I'd recommend with Java, though there are other ways to mamke games with Java. Java has NetBeans and Eclipse for IDE options (code editing, code completion, project management etc.). NetBeans has a really nice GUI designer if you are laying out list boxes and buttons in a Windows application, but it comes down to preference.

With C++, I've worked with SDL and SFML, though there are probably like 10 other random game libraries you can find with various levels of complexity. I'd say that SFML is a good mix of utility code that doesn't force you into a game structure, without requiring you to be TOO low-level. SDL seems like it might be a little more low-level to me. I think both are cross-platform for at minimum Windows/Linux/Mac. If you get SFML, get the 2.0 stable snapshot and figure out how to build it on your system. There's API documentation online and maybe a way to download it too.

You should probably also look up some OpenGL reference material, since with both SDL and SFML, you can mix in OpenGL calls if you need advanced stuff to happen.

Lastly, with C#, there's XNA (get the 4.whatever version if I recall correctly). You download it from Microsoft and look up some examples. I think there's a big RPG example, should be a sidescroller example, maybe others, but make sure you get the ones for the latest version.

If you don't know Java/C++/C# very well, try to find some general language references for those that you can download in HTML form or whatnot.

As far as I'm aware, the free Visual Studio Express C++ and C# versions will work great for basic game development stuff with the libraries I mentioned above, or XNA for C#. Visual Studio has nice debugging and breakpoint support as well.

VERY IMPORTANT: With any of the options I have mentioned above, make sure that you can run everything involved. For instance, if you want to go with C++ and SFML, make sure you've built the SFML 2.0 snapshot on your computer, you know how to set the library path and link to the libraries, and that it runs. With XNA, make sure you can build a sample program without any errors due to missing .NET libraries or whatever. With Blender, make sure you can run it and export a model into Unity/UDK/both, especially since you -might- want a specific export plugin for Blender to UDK. Or that might be fine now, who knows.

This might be helpful for getting SFML set up: http://sfmlcoder.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/creating-a-first-sfml-project/

This example looks like it was for SFML 1.6, but I imagine it can be ported to SFML 2.0 pretty easily:
http://blog.petermares.com/2011/08/16/picking-a-library/

The point is, if you are going to try to do this with very little internet access, you need to make sure your stuff is working ahead of time or you will be both offline AND sad.

Best of luck and let me know if you have any questions!

 

[beril]

I'm incredibly bored and can't seem to get any work done today so I thought I'd give a little update. Don't really have anything interesting to add to the discussion, just pimping my game really.

I've finally settled on a name for my game (unless I change my mind really soon). Not really sure it's a very good name but it's less lame than my other ideas. I've called the game GMC (short for Generic Megaman Clone) up until now and after struggling to come up with any decent names I thought I might as well keep that abbreviation and Gunman Clive was the first thing that popped into my head and somehow it stuck (I know it's technically just GC but whatever).

Mostly I've been doing leveldesign and coding menues lately but there's not that much left now. I've got 5 more levels planned and one more boss, plus some other small things until I'm mostly content complete, which will be in about one month hopefully.

Also uploaded another boss video a while ago. This will be the third boss in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHRifWayQA
I'm assuming most of you can figure out were the inspiration came from for this one, and I actually worked on that game; so yeah, I'm really lazy with coming up with ideas. Still it was fun making a bionic guy as a boss rather than a playable character.

 

[brettchalupa]

I'm incredibly bored and can't seem to get any work done today so I thought I'd give a little update. Don't really have anything interesting to add to the discussion, just pimping my game really.

I've finally settled on a name for my game (unless I change my mind really soon). Not really sure it's a very good name but it's less lame than my other ideas. I've called the game GMC (short for Generic Megaman Clone) up until now and after struggling to come up with any decent names I thought I might as well keep that abbreviation and Gunman Clive was the first thing that popped into my head and somehow it stuck (I know it's technically just GC but whatever).

Mostly I've been doing leveldesign and coding menues lately but there's not that much left now. I've got 5 more levels planned and one more boss, plus some other small things until I'm mostly content complete, which will be in about one month hopefully.

Also uploaded another boss video a while ago. This will be the third boss in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHRifWayQA
I'm assuming most of you can figure out were the inspiration came from for this one, and I actually worked on that game; so yeah, I'm really lazy with coming up with ideas. Still it was fun making a bionic guy as a boss rather than a playable character.

Is Gunman Clive a GMC with a western Cowboy feel? :3

If it is, I started working on something very similar over the Summer. I want to finish it in the future.

In regards to the image, I love the aesthetic. Awesome job. In regards to the video, I love the way the game looks and feels. I look forward to seeing more of it.

Looking at some of your other videos, I see that it's for the iOS and Android. How does it control? I am always interested in hearing about touch screen mechanics for traditionally controller based games.

 

[Dilli666]

Gunman Clive Vid

I'm really digging the fluent animations - looks great!

 

[MJLord]

That is so funny... I used that exact same ship sprite in a SHMUP prototype I was working on last year, too.

Aha yeh, I found it on a forum somewhere, the guy said it was cool to use as long as credit was given ! The best part was its an easy sheet to add your own animations, I think it had about 5 different states by the time I'd finished modifying it xD

 

[Blizzard]

I don't think many people here are using SFML, but does anyone know of a GUI library to use with it? I ran across SFUI and SFGUI, and both of those can apparently be used in a commercial product.

I was originally intending to write a simple GUI system myself, but I imagine that could set me back another month at least. *shrug*

 

[beril]

Is Gunman Clive a GMC with a western Cowboy feel? :3

If it is, I started working on something very similar over the Summer. I want to finish it in the future.

In regards to the image, I love the aesthetic. Awesome job. In regards to the video, I love the way the game looks and feels. I look forward to seeing more of it.

Looking at some of your other videos, I see that it's for the iOS and Android. How does it control? I am always interested in hearing about touch screen mechanics for traditionally controller based games.

The western theme didn't really come into the picture until a few months ago when I completely changed direction for the project. I had a lot of robot enemies and hightech elemets already made; so the game will take a bit of a turn in the later parts, just so I can still put those in.

As for touch controls; I have to admit I haven't really payed it very much attention. I just tend to want to make games with traditional controls so I just try to make the best I can with the obvious limitations of the platform. I have an Xperia Play myself, but it works decently with a virtual gamepad. I'll probably release it for PC as well though. I'll try submitting it to Steam sometime soon, though I'm not very optimistic about my chances of getting approved there, but there are still other services were it might be easier to release it.

I'm really digging the fluent animations - looks great!

Thanks! With this artstyle the models and textures are very fast to make but the animations still require a lot of time, so I'm happy people like it

 

[The Friendly Monster]

Anyone else sick of working on their own? Obviously there are many upsides but during times of low inspiration it really is a slog.

Here's my latest G+ update on Total Pool.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102125939868619879455/102125939868619879455/posts/L5Rqf7PePyi

GMC looks great, visually it's a treat.

 

[brettchalupa]

As for touch controls; I have to admit I haven't really payed it very much attention. I just tend to want to make games with traditional controls so I just try to make the best I can with the obvious limitations of the platform. I have an Xperia Play myself, but it works decently with a virtual gamepad. I'll probably release it for PC as well though. I'll try submitting it to Steam sometime soon, though I'm not very optimistic about my chances of getting approved there, but there are still other services were it might be easier to release it.

I see, that sounds good. Owning an Xpheria Play makes a lot of sense then.

What technology are you using to build it (if you haven't said so already!)?

Anyone else sick of working on their own? Obviously there are many upsides but during times of low inspiration it really is a slog.

This is something I've thought about a lot. I think part of it is working with the right person(s).

Part of why I make games on my own is because it's super flexible, and I know the vision I have in my mind. I think finding the right person to collaborate with is difficult, but it can definitely help motivate. I would suggest taking a break if you're not feeling motivated or working on another feature of the game. There are definitely times, though, were motivation is at different levels dependent on the current task!

 

[beril]

Anyone else sick of working on their own? Obviously there are many upsides but during times of low inspiration it really is a slog.

Here's my latest G+ update on Total Pool.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102125939868619879455/102125939868619879455/posts/L5Rqf7PePyi

GMC looks great, visually it's a treat.

Yeah it can definitely take is toll. It's been almost a year since I left my last job and I'm starting feel a bit like gollum. Doing everything by yourself can be great but also excrusiatingly slow, and not having anyone to bounce ideas with can be rather limiting; you can only bug your friends about it so much before they grow tired of talking about your game.

Teaming up with someone is a very big step though and it's not an easy one to take. All the talented people I know seem to have pretty demanding jobs already and I'd never partner up with a some random guy from from the internet; except maybe for a few specific tasks that I could pay for up front but I can't afford that anyway. Currently my brother is composing some music for my game, so that helps a bit

I see, that sounds good. Owning an Xpheria Play makes a lot of sense then.

What technology are you using to build it (if you haven't said so already!)?

It's my own custom engine that I've been working with on and off for a few years.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Just want to put in some of my own thoughts.

I haven't tried Construct2 and didn't care for Stencyl much.

Construct 2 is fantastic. Even beyond HTML5, it's easily one of the best visual game making program. If not the best. And it's not even final yet. They update it like twice a week too, it's insane. So good.

For images, make sure you have GIMP (despite its interface, search for Gimpshop if you want it to have a better interface)

Actually Gimp 2.7 includes a great single-window mode, and there are Windows installers for that here. These installers also default to a nice dark theme that looks pretty good. (Also it has inline font editing and performance is better, by my observations.)

If you want to stick with 2D games and you're stubborn and don't want to use a tool like GameMaker, I would recommend Java, C++, or C#.

I would say the web is the best platform for 2D stuff. Biggest reach of any platform out there (now and forever), and most 2D games don't need the performance that native/semi-native offers. JavaScript, Coffeescript, Dart, and more, you have a good choice of languages and libraries.

I'm incredibly bored and can't seem to get any work done today so I thought I'd give a little update. Don't really have anything interesting to add to the discussion, just pimping my game really.

I've finally settled on a name for my game (unless I change my mind really soon). Not really sure it's a very good name but it's less lame than my other ideas. I've called the game GMC (short for Generic Megaman Clone) up until now and after struggling to come up with any decent names I thought I might as well keep that abbreviation and Gunman Clive was the first thing that popped into my head and somehow it stuck (I know it's technically just GC but whatever).

Mostly I've been doing leveldesign and coding menues lately but there's not that much left now. I've got 5 more levels planned and one more boss, plus some other small things until I'm mostly content complete, which will be in about one month hopefully.

Also uploaded another boss video a while ago. This will be the third boss in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHRifWayQA
I'm assuming most of you can figure out were the inspiration came from for this one, and I actually worked on that game; so yeah, I'm really lazy with coming up with ideas. Still it was fun making a bionic guy as a boss rather than a playable character.

Again, looks great.

Yeah it can definitely take is toll. It's been almost a year since I left my last job and I'm starting feel a bit like gollum.

How much did you save up before you did this? (curious)

 

[Blizzard]

Actually Gimp 2.7 includes a great single-window mode, and there are Windows installers for that here. These installers also default to a nice dark theme that looks pretty good. (Also it has inline font editing and performance is better, by my observations.)

I don't like running installers not linked from the official site, but I imagine it's probably legit. Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know there was a new GIMP version, and it feels like I've been using 1.6 or something similar for ages.

I would say the web is the best platform for 2D stuff. Biggest reach of any platform out there (now and forever), and most 2D games don't need the performance that native/semi-native offers. JavaScript, Coffeescript, Dart, and more, you have a good choice of languages and libraries.

The web is nice for some things, but for a guy (my friend) who's going to be holed up in the middle of nowhere for say, 2-4 months with nothing but offline reference material, I don't see too much appeal for javascript development. *shrug* I think he wants to do this as semi-education as well and potential career stuff, but the point is well taken, and javascript could be helpful for career purposes too.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I don't like running installers not linked from the official site, but I imagine it's probably legit. Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know there was a new GIMP version, and it feels like I've been using 1.6 or something similar for ages.

1.6 is stable, 1.7 is dev, 1.8 will be the new stable when it's released (should be soon.) They use the Linux versioning system where even numbers are stable releases and odd numbers are dev versions.

The web is nice for some things, but for a guy (my friend) who's going to be holed up in the middle of nowhere for say, 2-4 months with nothing but offline reference material, I don't see too much appeal for javascript development.

It's really not much different from offline anything else development.

*shrug* I think he wants to do this as semi-education as well and potential career stuff, but the point is well taken, and javascript could be helpful for career purposes too.

It's more helpful if you want as many people as possible to play your game.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

Mojo Bones, I had a question a few pages back that you've gotten done: a video capture of the running game. How?

It is quite possible to use Kickstarter outside of the US. All you need is a credit card that can be used in the U.S.

I believe a GAFer and his friend (both from Italy) just successively funded their indie project.

Huh? Really?

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creating%20a%20project#AmIEligToStarAKickProj

To be eligible to start a Kickstarter project, you need to satisfy the requirements of Amazon Payments:

Be a permanent US resident and at least 18 years of age with a Social Security Number (or EIN), a US bank account, US address, US state-issued ID (driver’s license), and major US credit or debit card.

 

[brettchalupa]

Huh? Really?

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creating%20a%20project#AmIEligToStarAKickProj

Hmm, I guess I am wrong! I know of some foreign projects that got funded, so I directed the OP about foreign Kickstarters to them.

Sorry!

 

[Blizzard]

Well, I fixed my messed up color problem. Apparently SDL had been loading images in BGRA pixel format and SFML loads them as RGBA (or vice versa). My text display calls and one transparent overlay still don't work, but I'm making progress.

 

[beril]

How much did you save up before you did this? (curious)

I had 150.000 SEK saved which is about 22000 USD. I have no idea how it's possible but somehow I have almost the exact amount now, though I haven't done my taxes for last year yet.

While my sales have been generally underwhelming there was a time when my first android game, Trouser Trouble (more of a gag than a proper game), sold 40-50 copies a day, and I live very cheap.

 

[The Friendly Monster]

This is something I've thought about a lot. I think part of it is working with the right person(s).

Part of why I make games on my own is because it's super flexible, and I know the vision I have in my mind. I think finding the right person to collaborate with is difficult, but it can definitely help motivate. I would suggest taking a break if you're not feeling motivated or working on another feature of the game. There are definitely times, though, were motivation is at different levels dependent on the current task!

Oh absolutely, it's far worse to work with the wrong person rather than no-one at all. I'm more of an experimenter than a visionary though and I miss bouncing ideas off people or even just the simple pleasure of helping someone out.

I can't really take a break as this is my living. Plus it all has to be done at some point.

It's tricky not to be a perfectionist when you set your own deadlines. Things that would be waived or cut at a studio can take up an awful lot of your time, and it's tempting to work on things that you would find more fun.

Yeah it can definitely take is toll. It's been almost a year since I left my last job and I'm starting feel a bit like gollum. Doing everything by yourself can be great but also excrusiatingly slow, and not having anyone to bounce ideas with can be rather limiting; you can only bug your friends about it so much before they grow tired of talking about your game.

Teaming up with someone is a very big step though and it's not an easy one to take. All the talented people I know seem to have pretty demanding jobs already and I'd never partner up with a some random guy from from the internet; except maybe for a few specific tasks that I could pay for up front but I can't afford that anyway. Currently my brother is composing some music for my game, so that helps a bit

We seem to have a very similar story, I quit 9 months ago and moved city, working from home on my own now. I saved up some money and have a great quality of life for cheap living here (Berlin).

I fortunately also have a great contact who is working on the audio with me, but really want to find an artist to collaborate with in the future. It is probably a little easier here as there are a lot of artistic people and few jobs but yeah it will be a massive step.

Random internet people are an absolute no-go for me, anyone who could do a job to my standards would be too expensive, anyone else is a waste of time.

 

[Mojo Bones]

Mojo Bones, I had a question a few pages back that you've gotten done: a video capture of the running game. How?

We use a program called FRAPS. It's great and is definitely the best capture solution we've found. Buy a copy from here...

http://www.fraps.com/

It's easy to set up too. No hassle. Give me a shout if you have any troubles and we can talk you through the settings we use.

On a side note, I haven't been on here in a couple of days as we're getting the teaser trailer for our next game ready. Should go live tomorrow. Would you guys be interested in a shameless plug when it's done

Oh, and congrats to CiroContinisio who actually got his game funded via Kicktarter. Great job!

 

[bumpkin]

I'm incredibly bored and can't seem to get any work done today so I thought I'd give a little update. Don't really have anything interesting to add to the discussion, just pimping my game really.

I've finally settled on a name for my game (unless I change my mind really soon). Not really sure it's a very good name but it's less lame than my other ideas. I've called the game GMC (short for Generic Megaman Clone) up until now and after struggling to come up with any decent names I thought I might as well keep that abbreviation and Gunman Clive was the first thing that popped into my head and somehow it stuck (I know it's technically just GC but whatever).

Mostly I've been doing leveldesign and coding menues lately but there's not that much left now. I've got 5 more levels planned and one more boss, plus some other small things until I'm mostly content complete, which will be in about one month hopefully.

Also uploaded another boss video a while ago. This will be the third boss in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHRifWayQA
I'm assuming most of you can figure out were the inspiration came from for this one, and I actually worked on that game; so yeah, I'm really lazy with coming up with ideas. Still it was fun making a bionic guy as a boss rather than a playable character.

That looks really cool, man! It kind of reminds me a bit of Bionic Commando: Rearmed; probably mostly because of the boss swinging from a grappling hook of sorts.

 

[Yanksfan]

Gunman Clive looks pretty cool..my only concern is how it will control on the iOS and my big fingers. I still will give it a shot though when it sees the light of day.

 

[brettchalupa]

We use a program called FRAPS. It's great and is definitely the best capture solution we've found. Buy a copy from here...

http://www.fraps.com/

It's easy to set up too. No hassle. Give me a shout if you have any troubles and we can talk you through the settings we use.

On a side note, I haven't been on here in a couple of days as we're getting the teaser trailer for our next game ready. Should go live tomorrow. Would you guys be interested in a shameless plug when it's done

Oh, and congrats to CiroContinisio who actually got his game funded via Kicktarter. Great job!

I'd also recommend FRAPs. The paid version is also very affordable, under $50.00 I believe.

I also wanted to say, I am writing a pretty big blog post about how to get started making games. It goes over the tools (all free) needed, some strategies, some communities, the mindset needed, and what to expect. I will definitely share it here when it is done!

 

[beril]

That looks really cool, man! It kind of reminds me a bit of Bionic Commando: Rearmed; probably mostly because of the boss swinging from a grappling hook of sorts.

Thanks. And yeah as I said that boss is a rather obvious reference and just overall lazy design as I was running out of ideas. There might be a lot of other more subtle similarities with BCR though as you mention it. I was at Grin for two years and coded a lot of the core gameplay in BCR, and in fact I think I started on the first version of GMC on my vacation right after BCR had shipped. I pretty much just wanted to make a traditional platformer where you could jump.

 

[bumpkin]

Thanks. And yeah as I said that boss is a rather obvious reference and just overall lazy design as I was running out of ideas. There might be a lot of other more subtle similarities with BCR though as you mention it. I was at Grin for two years and coded a lot of the core gameplay in BCR, and in fact I think I started on the first version of GMC on my vacation right after BCR had shipped. I pretty much just wanted to make a traditional platformer where you could jump.

No kidding? Well at least I know someone I can bug (I hope) if I have any questions about coding 2D platforming.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I had 150.000 SEK saved which is about 22000 USD. I have no idea how it's possible but somehow I have almost the exact amount now, though I haven't done my taxes for last year yet.

While my sales have been generally underwhelming there was a time when my first android game, Trouser Trouble (more of a gag than a proper game), sold 40-50 copies a day, and I live very cheap.

Good to know, I was thinking 20k myself.

 

[BlueMagic]

I don't think many people here are using SFML, but does anyone know of a GUI library to use with it? I ran across SFUI and SFGUI, and both of those can apparently be used in a commercial product.

I was originally intending to write a simple GUI system myself, but I imagine that could set me back another month at least. *shrug*

I came accross a new one in the Projects section of the SFML forum. It is this one:

http://www.sfml-dev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7023

I'm not sure how it compares to SFGUI (which also seems to be quite slick and very functional), but both websites have examples and some documentation (I believe) so that you can compare which one will fit your needs better.

 

[Blizzard]

I came accross a new one in the Projects section of the SFML forum. It is this one:

http://www.sfml-dev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7023

I'm not sure how it compares to SFGUI (which also seems to be quite slick and very functional), but both websites have examples and some documentation (I believe) so that you can compare which one will fit your needs better.

Thanks for the reply. It sounds like sfgui is the most complete right now, since the project you linked is newer, and sfgui still seems to be updated as well. Maybe I will give sfgui a shot if I don't do write something myself.

 

[Dark Octave]

Gunman Clive looks so good.

 

[JasoNsider]

So since I've been doing a ton of development at home now, I thought I'd start a video development journal of sorts. I get tired of writing after working on projects so video is a bit more relaxing. Anyway, I've made it public if anybody feels like following

Dear Dev Diary #1 - The Beginning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOt3zhjOeW0

Dear Dev Diary #2 - The Journey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gh7jrwZMb8

 

[jrDev]

Hey guys, I got a program that can suffice for my recordings for now. Here is a quick video of intro test and the video also shows off the default 3-Hit attack combo. The video also shows off quite a number of animations and effects I currently am working on in the game, some of the game controls and a peak at some enemies:
Intro Video Test

I'll post more about the art style I went for in my next update.

Also, I am still looking for testers that have iOS devices if anyone is interested PM me!

 

[charsace]

So since I've been doing a ton of development at home now, I thought I'd start a video development journal of sorts. I get tired of writing after working on projects so video is a bit more relaxing. Anyway, I've made it public if anybody feels like following

Dear Dev Diary #1 - The Beginning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOt3zhjOeW0

Dear Dev Diary #2 - The Journey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gh7jrwZMb8

I watched them. I like em.

 

[bumpkin]

So since I've been doing a ton of development at home now, I thought I'd start a video development journal of sorts. I get tired of writing after working on projects so video is a bit more relaxing. Anyway, I've made it public if anybody feels like following

Dear Dev Diary #1 - The Beginning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOt3zhjOeW0

Dear Dev Diary #2 - The Journey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gh7jrwZMb8

Neat! I'll have to keep an eye out for future entries. I like that you acknowledge what a load of crap the "learn in 21 says" books are. There are so many intricacies to programming - games especially - that it's impossible to learn it all in 3 weeks, certainly not with any sort of comprehension. A block of code is only as good as your understanding about what it's doing; especially when it something breaks.

 

[(._.)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEhu_d3SR0Q&feature=youtu.be

here is a game myself and a group of classmates are working on for this semester. I think for except one person in the group this is every bodies first project in game development. we are all new but show promise in the field. this is the prototype for our game, Space Fly Boy. It is being developed in unity and should be done in about six weeks. It is going to be kinda like wing commander and star fox. youtube link is the prototype of the game.

 

[Ihateyouchris]

Here's the game I'm currently working on titled Kid Vector. It's a retro vector styled 2.5d platformer. I'm currently trying to figure out exactly how large in scope I want to make the game, as well as figuring out if I want a bunch of mini levels, or a few thought out levels. Right now I'm leaning toward having just 8-10 well thought out and larger levels.

Also, if anyone has any tips on using moving platforms in Unity I would greatly appreciate it. Every once in a while the character will randomly fall through a platform. So frustrating...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-LMrBkzLo

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Here's the game I'm currently working on titled Kid Vector. It's a retro vector styled 2.5d platformer. I'm currently trying to figure out exactly how large in scope I want to make the game, as well as figuring out if I want a bunch of mini levels, or a few thought out levels. Right now I'm leaning toward having just 8-10 well thought out and larger levels.

Also, if anyone has any tips on using moving platforms in Unity I would greatly appreciate it. Every once in a while the character will randomly fall through a platform. So frustrating...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-LMrBkzLo

Those graphics are spectacular.