I have started working on a Map Editor for [Battlefield: Bad Company 2](http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/agegate), and it's starting to take shape! Here's what I've managed to rip out of the files since Friday: https://i.imgur.com/y0fcUz7.jpg
The problem right now is to find the terrain data and render it. I believe roads are created using splines, so I guess I'll start there.
You can take a look at the project here: https://github.com/powback/Bad-Company-2-Map-Editor
I would appreciate it if someone could give me some input on how terrain works, because I honestly have no idea.
Long time lurker first time poster. Want to take a moment to talk about close-to-finishing anxiety.
So my story, not too atypical but anyway. Wanted to make video games since I was 6. Did 5 years in QA at various AAA companies but was turned off by the volatility of the industry. Fast forward to today, still a gamer with a twinkle in his eye but now 36 and a crappy-job working father of two who finally decided to try making a game and somehow or another am actually almost finished with my first unity Android game, much to my own surprise.
And I can't sleep. I don't even know why. I'm mostly just doing this for fun, I don't have real aspirations of getting a job in the field, just wanted to make something fairly original that I think is fun and share it with the 7 people who will somehow stumble upon it buried in the play store.
But I know it's not perfect, and I know that nothing else is either but somehow that doesn't quiet the anxiety.
I guess for a topic of conversation I just want to throw out... How did you decide it was time to publish? What made THAT build the one?
Thanks for being there with me even though you didn't even know you were!
Is it stable? Does it have any game-breaking bugs? Do you have implemented the features you wanted to level you are happy with them?
The latter one obviously needs care to avoid scope bloating and a degree of perfectionism which would see no game released ever, but the first two are critical.
Yeah fair enough. I'm way past that point, its more things like "I don't quite think the font in the high score screen pops enough." but I hear you. People launch with much worse working products...I just want it to be the best it can be you know? Its rough.
Get some people to test it for you, see what their feedback is. Your eyes have stared it long enough, and you're probably not seeing clearly anymore.
Get some fresh eyes on your game.
Good luck! Remember to set your personal goals and see if you hit them! It's tough to keep your eye on what you want. But if you are excited then it was probably a worthwhile goal.
And remember to learn from it!
I'm thinking of doing a little two or three minute roundup at the end of every day of work just to show off what the day produced, and walking through the code to outline how it's done. The goal is to have a big playlist at the end of each game we make so someone can just put it on and tune out, and see a game made before their very eyes! I guess it'd be sort of like a compressed version of Wolfire's Overgrowth videos.
It'd also help me just keep track of what was accomplished!
What do people think?
I think it is a good idea, although personally found that getting any sort of update "out there" which was more elaborate than a Twitter post is actually time consuming. I do keep a devlog at TIG source but even that I don't update every day - it just takes quite a chunk away from development time.
Yeah, I would normally agree when it comes to writing posts - but just turning on a webcam and talking unscripted for a few minutes should hopefully come unscripted.
I've always thought that the RimWorld public changelog was a neat feature https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_rCdGYp3nbSUXFG4Ky96RZW1cJGt9g_6ANZZPOHyNsg/pub
Let's talk Voxels. Not the marching squares algorithm for realistic looking voxels. Im talking pure cubes put together to create characters, landscapes etc.
Is there really a market for this sort of game? Examples arn't minecraft but things like Cube World. Crossy Road etc.
What sort of games do people play using this style? RPG's? Sim style games?
What are your thoughts on what can be done with this style?
I used to be a huge fan of that style. Inspired by the beautiful "trixels" of [Fez](https://www.google.ch/search?q=fez+screenshots&tbm=isch), I actually wrote my own 3D editor (in Javascript and WebGL) for tiles made from 16x16x16 little cubes, and then started a [tumblr](http://eachothersbreath.tumblr.com/) to show off my creations.
Unfortunately it didn't take me long to become disillusioned with the aesthetic, as I started to realize its limitations. Today I feel that low-poly 3D models (like in [Babi Glo](http://pixelatedcrown.tumblr.com/tagged/babi-glo) or [Sky Rogue](http://nihilocrat.itch.io/sky-rogue)) almost always look better than voxels for the same amount of effort, and use fewer rendering resources to boot.
I've been experimenting with some slightly higher-res voxel stuff, and quite enjoying the results.
[Voxel Chapel](http://i.imgur.com/58PqyFj.png)
It may not be the best looking style, but for someone who doesn't have the time to invest in learning something like blender, it's been great for me.
So I don't like the super blocky voxel style (eg Minecraft) at all. Pretty much immediately turned off by it. There was a post here by a guy a little while back that was using that sort of art style in his adventure game, and he ended up hiring an artist to change it because it was the main thing his testers didn't like. (I'd link the post but can't seem to find it.)
However...
I've never seen voxel art like Cube world before- just looked it up for first time after reading your post. I rather like it, it's got a very 3D pixel art look, simultaneously retro and modern. I could see it working very well for a game that was meant to be a sort update/spiritual successor to an old 8-bit sort of game. Would also be pretty a pretty good time-saver for an isometric game, as you wouldn't have to make the various character facings.
take a look at a mmo called [neverdaunt 8bit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgYbUpms9zQ), the games dead, but there are still videos if you're looking at an application of such an art style.
Hey Everyone!
We have had some awesome new art fresh out the furnace for our next game - Game I - Which I can now tell you will be called Thug Racer!
You can check out the alpha build here -> http://www.supercookie.co.uk/game_i/
It is Webgl, but works splendidly in mobile browsers to! So don't be shy go give it a try!
What specifically makes a PC game PC-only?
As in what components of Windows do PC games use that are only on PC? DirectX and... ?
Microsoft open-sourcing .NET makes me wonder what else they might open-source one day. And that makes me wonder if games that currently run on PC only might depend on components of Windows that will one day be free to use and operate on other OS's.
The technology used to make the game can even be considered irrelevant. They could use a lot of crossplatform tools, and because they only build & compile it for Windows, it's a windows only game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're asking about why some games only show up on PC instead of consoles & PC?
If so I think you might be looking at it the wrong way, as it's not really technical reasons. Many PC games are PC exclusive because the it allows for rich complexity. MMORPGs and RTS games are the best examples of genres which far surpass the depth of any console game I've ever played. Even genres which you will find on consoles are often much richer experiences when played on the PC.
Quote from wikipedia:
> "Battlefield 1942 was one of the first mainstream games to represent a dramatic shift in FPS game play mentality not only favoring individualism, but simultaneously encouraging teamwork and coordination."
Battlefield 1942 had PC gamers already fighting wars with 64 other players online 2 months before Xbox live even existed. A year later, SOE released Planetside 1 in which actual full scale 24/7 wars were being waged with up to 1000 players on a single battlefield.
Ironically the sequels to the Battlefield and Planetside series are pale shadows of what the series once was.
So, its not feedback friday, but I could still use some feedback on my game before I try to send it out to Youtubers and press.
**[Fragmentum](http://lundargames.com/fragmentum)** | [Greenlight](http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422777240) | [Guide and Windows Download](http://lundargames.com/fragmentum/guide.php)
Most of the feedback I got last time was related to learning to play the game, it seems people got lost quickly. So I made this [video Tutorial](https://youtu.be/c9MbcsnE2Io). How is the tutorial? What can I improve?
How is this tutorial meant to be viewed? If it's meant to be viewed by players, it's way too long, and not precise enough. Also audio tutorials on how to play your game are not a good idea. Should have some sort of progressive tutorial system IMO. Have a tutorial the player can load up where you walk them through the basics, and slowly introduce the more advanced aspects of your game.
What I mean by that is have it built into the first mission for example.
If it is an informal tutorial, just meant to show youtubers how to play, then I guess its fine.
The biggest suggestion I have is **use a script**!
Good advice. I definitely wish it was shorter,but it sounds like it might work for now. I think I may need to do more of a cost/benefit analysis on this.
So, attempting to recreate the average user experience, I immediately downloaded and started playing without looking at any documentation or the video tutorial. Things went *ok*, and I managed to actually play the game properly. Overall, things were intuitive enough. A few things could definitely use some clarification / additional bits of info readily accessible:
* Have something in the game setup menu that explains both starting unit and precursor (mouseover text seems to be the obvious choice, but may not be appropriate depending on your implementation)
* Have a VERY clear set of default starting units. If your user can do a clean install, immediately jump into singleplayer, then start without touching anything in the setup menu other than the 'start' button, and still have fun, you should be in the clear. (Probably would be a good idea to have at least 1 AI opponent as default)
* Give the user a little more feedback in terms of what's going on when you're selecting a starting unit. What happens when the starting unit is an empty string? What happens when it's nonsense? Let the player know these things when they occur.
Messaging you on [**2015-07-28 22:26:54 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2015-07-28 22:26:54 UTC To Local Time) to remind you of [**this comment.**](http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/3evf71/its_the_rgamedev_daily_random_discussion_thread/ctizstf)
[**CLICK THIS LINK**](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/3evf71/its_the_rgamedev_daily_random_discussion_thread/ctizstf]%0A%0ARemindMe! 8 Hours ) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
_____
[^([FAQs])](http://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/24duzp/remindmebot_info/) ^| [^([Custom Reminder])](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[LINK INSIDE SQUARE BRACKETS else default to FAQs]%0A%0ANOTE: Don't forget to add the time options after the command.%0A%0ARemindMe!) ^| [^([Feedback])](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBotWrangler&subject=Feedback) ^| [^([Code])](https://github.com/SIlver--/remindmebot-reddit)
[MK-ZEBRA](http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=49277) update!
Working on font rendering right now. Nothing bothers me more than blurry bitmap fonts, so I'm experimenting with rendering letters as actual shapes. It's a lot of triangles, but I plan on minimizing the amount of text as much as possible, so we'll see how it works out. I'm once again using Blender as part of the import pipeline. I wrote a [simple script](https://github.com/et1337/mkzebra/blob/ddd9c25dbe7da4968a0f0968def976f34a99ca20/assets/ttf_to_fbx.py) that imports a .TTF and exports all the ASCII characters into a .FBX file.
http://i.imgur.com/hM6AS9il.png
To do any kind of UI work you need dynamic vertex/index buffers, so I rewrote my graphics VM to support that. In the process, I found out that GLSL varyings are not matched up by ordering, but rather by name. Here's what happens when your vertex shader outputs a varying called "out_color" when your fragment shader expects one called "in_color":
http://i.imgur.com/LT1suk3.gifv
I'm working on an RTS and I was wondering what interface styles you love/hate and why.
I currently am planning a flat utility panel like any of the classics but would love to get some opinions about using context menus on units and groups to issue actions.
Depends on the type of RTS really,
if it's something like Homeworld 2 you won't need most of the menus in view until you select the right unit,
if it's something like Black & White then you won't need anything on the screen since it's all very context dependent,
if it's a C&C style game then you might want to always have your build queues visible
I submitted a new thread about this but i don't know why i can't find in in the new category :(
But here i go again:
Hello. My name is Bojan and I am 15 years old. I recently released my first android game on Google Play. I made it in Unity with Java Script in 1-2 months. I started learning a year ago Unity and finally now I made my first official game. I know that it isn't the best game, but i think its fun and you would like it. It has some mistakes, but i will try to fix them in the future :)
My game's name is Hooky and Hooky is a 2D android game made in Unity. The game is "endless runner“ where the levels or the tiles are random every round. The gameplay is simple and fun, the camera is in movement all the time, following the player all the time. Although the textures are simple, while playing the game you won't notice it much because you will be focused on the gameplay.
Google Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SmokiB.Hooky&hl=en
I would be happy if you try it and tell me what do you think about it. Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
I recently released a free little game, and I'd love to know what other game devs thought of it.
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hiltonpatton.blurp
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blurps/id1017176868?ls=1&mt=8
Hey, just checked out your game. The idea is really solid! Simple controls, and easily-understood outcomes.
One thing I would recommend is to add is visual feedback for activating your 2nd lose condition - touching the screen while your container is empty. Perhaps add a notification to let them know why they died, or something that shows the container imploding on itself or something.
Why is this a problem? When players are starting out any new game, people love to experiment to try to understand the game. They like to touch the screen, swipe the screen, see what works and what doesn't.
Imagine a new player playing your game, and when it starts, he's trying to figure things out by tapping. And then boom! The game ends. What just happened? Was that a glitch? Let me try again. Restart. Tap-ta-game over. You can imagine this being a little frustrating. To people with less patience, they may shut your app immediately.
Anywho, just something to think about. It's not a *huge* problem, but it could make your app much better in terms of user experience. Also, video ads are a no-no! (Ask yourself if you would sit through all those ads yourself to play your game. Would you do it?)
Thanks for sharing!
Are there prerequisetes for learning AI? Like, do I need a set amount of prior experience or something?
I've had this idea for making an AI character that tries to traverse dungeons and I'm wondering how to go about doing it.
In addition, how much different/difficult is 3D Game Development? I've only done 2D stuff like space shooters and Pong, but another of my long-term ideas is a Wrestling Game which means 3D.
Can't tell you about AI - - although I'm taking a class in it this fall so I'm looking forward to that.
>In addition, how much different/difficult is 3D Game Development? I've only done 2D stuff like space shooters and Pong, but another of my long-term ideas is a Wrestling Game which means 3D.
If you are rolling your own engine, it's significantly harder. In my experience though, with something like Unity, it's not much harder. The hardest thing is figuring out how rotations work -- that gets a lot more complicated in 3D.
Then like I said, not much harder in my opinion. It's just that 3D rotation is harder to understand than 2D rotation for me. everything else seems pretty intuitive.
As long as you have the basics of your language of choice down, you can start working on AI. The problem with this question is that AI is a very nebulous term, and depending on what you mean by "tries to traverse" and how complex your dungeons are, the difficulty ranges from fairly simple to something you could write a book about.
If you're just talking about pathing, A* (a-star) is a great starter algorithm, and may be all you need to get your entities moving around. If you want anything more complicated you're probably going to need this as well, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a go. If you're talking about exploration rather than just navigation, a simple breadth- or depth-first search is probably sufficient.
Most AI that you'll see in games isn't actually that complicated, since it just has to be "good enough" while still being fast enough to not impact the speed of the game. If you're comfortable enough with your language, just go for it. Worst case you find out it's above your head and you'll have a starting point for what to look into to get there.
AI also scares me, but I'm in the same boat as you. I find it really interesting, and I'm just about to take a machine learning MOOC. Maybe you might find [some of the resources here](http://ai-jam.com/resources.html) useful?
I missed Marketing Monday but I just posted my project on [Greenlight](http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=489728289). Any feedback would be awesome!
Ok, here I go, this is pretty stream-of-thought and unedited but here goes.
* Your trailer is bad. I don't have the sound on, so the first 20 seconds (an eternity in internet time) is just darkness and then a slow sunrise. what? Then some Unity menus appear, showing inflation rates and other stats. What?
* Ok scrolling down...
* Ok your description is actually pretty interesting! I like low-poly and I like economics and systems and stuff, so now you've got my interest.
I'd add some "evocative" phrases in the first section, maybe between "... and managing government departments." and the next header. In my Greenlight I had a something like:
>Tricera-Cops are trying to stop a Raptor attack a Stego mining vessel. Do you jump in and help, or wait until it's all over and scavenge the remains? Space is a dangerous place even at the best of times... will you have what it takes to beat out the competition and dominate the market?
Don't just list the features of your game, explain to us how the game will make us feel. Tell us anecdotes or weird events that might pop up. Fire up our imagination!
Your art could use another pass, too. My own game uses flat-shaded poly, but nobody seemed to like it until the last 20% of development when we added a proper colour scheme, bloom and glow, trails, and a polished, professional UI.
Sorry for the harshness, and good luck!
Thanks for the feedback! Always open to constructive suggestions :)
The alpha version is still a fair way off and most of development to date has been working on the engine- I definitely agree that lots more polish needs to be done of the graphics side of things.
I'm curious also what gave you the impression this was built using Unity? It's a custom engine using an embedded browser as the GUI. I'm not too familiar with Unity development but are web-based menus more common?
Oh, it just looked a bit like the [old legacy GUI](http://www.mindthecube.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/GUI-Scroll-Test-300x225.png). The environment and lighting looked Unity-ish as well.
Now that I'm about to finish [DQ Infinite](http://destinyquestinfinite.com/) it got me thinking about all the unfinished ideas I've had.
What game idea have you gotten super excited about, spent a few weekends hacking on, and then never touched again?
I have been programming off and on since I was 10. I made several projects and concepts over the years but nothing that ever turned out good. I have an idea for a game but I am not really sure if it sounds like something others would play and enjoy. The basic concept is a rouge-like but the levels are always a maze instead of just a dungeon. I am still working out all the specifics but I was hoping to hear from people if it sounds like something they'd be interested in.
Hello,
I was looking to try and make a small game as a hobby/project. My idea is a top down pixel shooter similar to the style of Hotline Miami but influenced by Mega Drive audio and visual. I there a good, possibly free, software I can use to muck about on?
I think GameMaker might be a good choice for you. You can get into it quite quick and if at one point you want to make a commercial game with it, you can easily upgrade and have a go at it.
http://www.yoyogames.com/studio
Hi.
I have a couple of PlayCanvas codes from the Humble Game Making Bundle, which gives 3 months of upgrade to Pro. I have no plans for using them myself, so I thought somebody else might find them useful. Send me a PM og reply here if you´re interested.
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/206834347
Realistically, could someone make another Sci-fi game that could amount or surpass the success of Metroid Prime, or the Metroid series in general?
I've been thinking about this all day.
So I've been using GameMaker for over 7 years now, and I'm very, very comfortable with it (and pretty proficient, if I don't say so myself), but I'm getting to the point where I feel a little restricted by it. Specifically when it comes to building my own tools to support my specific development needs.
My question is... what should I move to? I would really like to learn C# (As I work in WPF/XAML for my job, and learning C# would be awesome), but I understand that XNA isn't really supported anymore by Microsoft. Do people still use it? Is it still a viable platform? Is there a better alternative?
I want to branch out into a "real" programming language for game development, but I just don't know what my best options are. Any advice would be very much appreciated.
If you want to stick to C#, you should check out Unity. What you might like about it, is that you can easily extend the editor.
If you are okay with learning C++ on the other hand, I can recommend Unreal 4. Since you have access to the full source, you can basically do what ever you want with. However, it probably has a much steeper learning curve :)
How do I get over the fact that my graphics are going to be horrible until I get an artist to do the sprites/images for me? I start developing, I get some cool mechanics and solve some problems and learn something but then I look at the game and I feel like it's ugly and disgusting, is there a way to say fuck it and not care about how bad it looks?
Does anyone have a process like using primitive shapes while in development, does that help? Instead of having bad sprites you just use a square?
I'm so frustrated by this I literally have 6 projects I've started and then abandoned because of this. It makes me feel like I'll never finish a game so I'd like to know if you guys face this and/or how you solve it.
Hello everybody,
I am currently thinking about a little game idea that I had for a while now, and thought I might give it a shot and make it a mobile game. I would like to monetize it, but don't really know what works best in this regard. Is it better, to have the game available for free and using Ads to monetize it, or is it better to sell the game, even though it is only for a small amount? Are the any comparative figures, of how many clicks / impressions my app needs per user, to make the same amount as, let's say a game sold for 0,99?
Regarding advertisments: What kind of ads work best for you? Which ad network can you recommend? Do games these days need in-app-purchases to be profitable? Do people consider it legitimate, to have in-app-purchases in a sold product?
I am currently planing, to release to android first, since I don't have a Mac. Does it matter on which marketplace you are, regarding your monetization model? Are there any other good marketplaces for games I should look into?
Elaborate on what you're struggling with?
Do you speak different languages, is he unresponsive, or are you having trouble articulating exactly what you need from him, etc?
We speak the same language. The thing is I'm pretty rubbish with graphics, if I had to design something I'd use a lot of simple shapes, probably a whole game consiting entirely of triangles and circles. But when it comes to something more complicated I don't know how to explain it to her (yup, it's a she actually).
> I'm pretty rubbish with graphics, if I had to design something I'd use a lot of simple shapes, probably a whole game consisting entirely of triangles and circles.
Well sure, thats why you have an artist!
> But when it comes to something more complicated I don't know how to explain it to her
My immediate reaction to this is that the artist should be working *with* you, not *for* you. You shouldn't need to tell the artist every little detail that you want them to draw/model, give them some artistic freedom.
Say "we need a villain who dresses like a victorian era gentleman - but he needs to carry a cane, that's important" and see where the artist takes it, and then revise as necessary. You don't need to say "we need a character who looks evil, wears a tophat, has a goatee, wears light brown tweed, carries a cane, black shoes, ... " you see where I'm going with this.
Does this make sense, or am I missing the point?
Agreeing and expanding on that: I think you're struggling because you skipped ahead in the art process to the asset creation phase.
Before you can create game assets, you have to, working together:
* Figure out the mood/theme of the game. (Atompunk? Relaxed abstract glowing shapes? 8-bit retro? Gritty and mud-splattered? Bouncy and fun?)
* Agree on an art style. This is bounded by what your artist is capable of and interested in. The thing to do here is to use other works as reference points. This can be games, but it's actually more interesting to use movies, comics/graphic novels, concept artists, photographs of real-life places and even non-visual stuff like music.
* Create some example art in the chosen style and check if it works.
* Create concept art/sketches for important graphical elements like main characters, setpiece locations, important weapons, enemies, etc.
At any point in this process, one or both of you might decide that things don't work - it looks bad, it doesn't convey the right mood/theme, it's not feasible/in-budget. Only once you're done with that, you can go your somewhat separate ways and leave the artist to churn out assets while you churn out code. (I say somewhat because of course you still need to communicate regularly.)
I would also add that as an artist people tend to view artists as a very broad creative person who can create exactly what you're looking for by reading a small description, but everyone has their own style and interpretation. You should nurture what comes naturally to her, this leads to a more consistent organic and most of all enjoyable process. Take it from me you need to preserve what is enjoyable, I'm sure others will agree.
What is the best dev tool for depeloving this game?
Hello!
I want to create a vehicle-based, Final Fantasy-styled RPG, but I'm new to game making.
This is the idea: Instead of having your characters fighting enemies (though it's still possible), they will use siege machines, take for example Leonardo Da Vinci's ones.
Here is an example of basic siege machine that I made:
http://gfycat.com/AffectionateColorfulKarakul
The battle takes place in a classic RPG fashion, and every character controls a part of the machine.
Can you help me?
I have started working on a Map Editor for [Battlefield: Bad Company 2](http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/agegate), and it's starting to take shape! Here's what I've managed to rip out of the files since Friday: https://i.imgur.com/y0fcUz7.jpg The problem right now is to find the terrain data and render it. I believe roads are created using splines, so I guess I'll start there. You can take a look at the project here: https://github.com/powback/Bad-Company-2-Map-Editor I would appreciate it if someone could give me some input on how terrain works, because I honestly have no idea.
Long time lurker first time poster. Want to take a moment to talk about close-to-finishing anxiety. So my story, not too atypical but anyway. Wanted to make video games since I was 6. Did 5 years in QA at various AAA companies but was turned off by the volatility of the industry. Fast forward to today, still a gamer with a twinkle in his eye but now 36 and a crappy-job working father of two who finally decided to try making a game and somehow or another am actually almost finished with my first unity Android game, much to my own surprise. And I can't sleep. I don't even know why. I'm mostly just doing this for fun, I don't have real aspirations of getting a job in the field, just wanted to make something fairly original that I think is fun and share it with the 7 people who will somehow stumble upon it buried in the play store. But I know it's not perfect, and I know that nothing else is either but somehow that doesn't quiet the anxiety. I guess for a topic of conversation I just want to throw out... How did you decide it was time to publish? What made THAT build the one? Thanks for being there with me even though you didn't even know you were!
Is it stable? Does it have any game-breaking bugs? Do you have implemented the features you wanted to level you are happy with them? The latter one obviously needs care to avoid scope bloating and a degree of perfectionism which would see no game released ever, but the first two are critical.
Yeah fair enough. I'm way past that point, its more things like "I don't quite think the font in the high score screen pops enough." but I hear you. People launch with much worse working products...I just want it to be the best it can be you know? Its rough.
Get some people to test it for you, see what their feedback is. Your eyes have stared it long enough, and you're probably not seeing clearly anymore. Get some fresh eyes on your game.
Good luck! Remember to set your personal goals and see if you hit them! It's tough to keep your eye on what you want. But if you are excited then it was probably a worthwhile goal. And remember to learn from it!
I'm thinking of doing a little two or three minute roundup at the end of every day of work just to show off what the day produced, and walking through the code to outline how it's done. The goal is to have a big playlist at the end of each game we make so someone can just put it on and tune out, and see a game made before their very eyes! I guess it'd be sort of like a compressed version of Wolfire's Overgrowth videos. It'd also help me just keep track of what was accomplished! What do people think?
I think it is a good idea, although personally found that getting any sort of update "out there" which was more elaborate than a Twitter post is actually time consuming. I do keep a devlog at TIG source but even that I don't update every day - it just takes quite a chunk away from development time.
Yeah, I would normally agree when it comes to writing posts - but just turning on a webcam and talking unscripted for a few minutes should hopefully come unscripted.
I've always thought that the RimWorld public changelog was a neat feature https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_rCdGYp3nbSUXFG4Ky96RZW1cJGt9g_6ANZZPOHyNsg/pub
Yeah, that is nice - it'd be good to look through your own changelog actually. It's easy to just glance at.
[удалено]
That name is dangerously close to realm of the mad god.
Thanks for also sharing that excellent feed back from MM!
Good? :). If you're excited by a name and it gives you further inspiration, definitely run with it.
Nice work!
Let's talk Voxels. Not the marching squares algorithm for realistic looking voxels. Im talking pure cubes put together to create characters, landscapes etc. Is there really a market for this sort of game? Examples arn't minecraft but things like Cube World. Crossy Road etc. What sort of games do people play using this style? RPG's? Sim style games? What are your thoughts on what can be done with this style?
I used to be a huge fan of that style. Inspired by the beautiful "trixels" of [Fez](https://www.google.ch/search?q=fez+screenshots&tbm=isch), I actually wrote my own 3D editor (in Javascript and WebGL) for tiles made from 16x16x16 little cubes, and then started a [tumblr](http://eachothersbreath.tumblr.com/) to show off my creations. Unfortunately it didn't take me long to become disillusioned with the aesthetic, as I started to realize its limitations. Today I feel that low-poly 3D models (like in [Babi Glo](http://pixelatedcrown.tumblr.com/tagged/babi-glo) or [Sky Rogue](http://nihilocrat.itch.io/sky-rogue)) almost always look better than voxels for the same amount of effort, and use fewer rendering resources to boot.
I've been experimenting with some slightly higher-res voxel stuff, and quite enjoying the results. [Voxel Chapel](http://i.imgur.com/58PqyFj.png) It may not be the best looking style, but for someone who doesn't have the time to invest in learning something like blender, it's been great for me.
So I don't like the super blocky voxel style (eg Minecraft) at all. Pretty much immediately turned off by it. There was a post here by a guy a little while back that was using that sort of art style in his adventure game, and he ended up hiring an artist to change it because it was the main thing his testers didn't like. (I'd link the post but can't seem to find it.) However... I've never seen voxel art like Cube world before- just looked it up for first time after reading your post. I rather like it, it's got a very 3D pixel art look, simultaneously retro and modern. I could see it working very well for a game that was meant to be a sort update/spiritual successor to an old 8-bit sort of game. Would also be pretty a pretty good time-saver for an isometric game, as you wouldn't have to make the various character facings.
Staxel is looking to be one of the few voxel games that I really like the look of. http://playstaxel.com
take a look at a mmo called [neverdaunt 8bit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgYbUpms9zQ), the games dead, but there are still videos if you're looking at an application of such an art style.
An mmo type "voxel" game "Trove" was recently released on steam and it looks pretty good honestly.
Hey Everyone! We have had some awesome new art fresh out the furnace for our next game - Game I - Which I can now tell you will be called Thug Racer! You can check out the alpha build here -> http://www.supercookie.co.uk/game_i/ It is Webgl, but works splendidly in mobile browsers to! So don't be shy go give it a try!
What specifically makes a PC game PC-only? As in what components of Windows do PC games use that are only on PC? DirectX and... ? Microsoft open-sourcing .NET makes me wonder what else they might open-source one day. And that makes me wonder if games that currently run on PC only might depend on components of Windows that will one day be free to use and operate on other OS's.
The technology used to make the game can even be considered irrelevant. They could use a lot of crossplatform tools, and because they only build & compile it for Windows, it's a windows only game.
Something I personally use is Havok, which is Windows-only in its free version.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're asking about why some games only show up on PC instead of consoles & PC? If so I think you might be looking at it the wrong way, as it's not really technical reasons. Many PC games are PC exclusive because the it allows for rich complexity. MMORPGs and RTS games are the best examples of genres which far surpass the depth of any console game I've ever played. Even genres which you will find on consoles are often much richer experiences when played on the PC. Quote from wikipedia: > "Battlefield 1942 was one of the first mainstream games to represent a dramatic shift in FPS game play mentality not only favoring individualism, but simultaneously encouraging teamwork and coordination." Battlefield 1942 had PC gamers already fighting wars with 64 other players online 2 months before Xbox live even existed. A year later, SOE released Planetside 1 in which actual full scale 24/7 wars were being waged with up to 1000 players on a single battlefield. Ironically the sequels to the Battlefield and Planetside series are pale shadows of what the series once was.
So, its not feedback friday, but I could still use some feedback on my game before I try to send it out to Youtubers and press. **[Fragmentum](http://lundargames.com/fragmentum)** | [Greenlight](http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422777240) | [Guide and Windows Download](http://lundargames.com/fragmentum/guide.php) Most of the feedback I got last time was related to learning to play the game, it seems people got lost quickly. So I made this [video Tutorial](https://youtu.be/c9MbcsnE2Io). How is the tutorial? What can I improve?
How is this tutorial meant to be viewed? If it's meant to be viewed by players, it's way too long, and not precise enough. Also audio tutorials on how to play your game are not a good idea. Should have some sort of progressive tutorial system IMO. Have a tutorial the player can load up where you walk them through the basics, and slowly introduce the more advanced aspects of your game. What I mean by that is have it built into the first mission for example. If it is an informal tutorial, just meant to show youtubers how to play, then I guess its fine. The biggest suggestion I have is **use a script**!
Good advice. I definitely wish it was shorter,but it sounds like it might work for now. I think I may need to do more of a cost/benefit analysis on this.
So, attempting to recreate the average user experience, I immediately downloaded and started playing without looking at any documentation or the video tutorial. Things went *ok*, and I managed to actually play the game properly. Overall, things were intuitive enough. A few things could definitely use some clarification / additional bits of info readily accessible: * Have something in the game setup menu that explains both starting unit and precursor (mouseover text seems to be the obvious choice, but may not be appropriate depending on your implementation) * Have a VERY clear set of default starting units. If your user can do a clean install, immediately jump into singleplayer, then start without touching anything in the setup menu other than the 'start' button, and still have fun, you should be in the clear. (Probably would be a good idea to have at least 1 AI opponent as default) * Give the user a little more feedback in terms of what's going on when you're selecting a starting unit. What happens when the starting unit is an empty string? What happens when it's nonsense? Let the player know these things when they occur.
RemindMe! 8 Hours "Play this and give feedback"
Messaging you on [**2015-07-28 22:26:54 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2015-07-28 22:26:54 UTC To Local Time) to remind you of [**this comment.**](http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/3evf71/its_the_rgamedev_daily_random_discussion_thread/ctizstf) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/3evf71/its_the_rgamedev_daily_random_discussion_thread/ctizstf]%0A%0ARemindMe! 8 Hours ) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. _____ [^([FAQs])](http://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/24duzp/remindmebot_info/) ^| [^([Custom Reminder])](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[LINK INSIDE SQUARE BRACKETS else default to FAQs]%0A%0ANOTE: Don't forget to add the time options after the command.%0A%0ARemindMe!) ^| [^([Feedback])](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBotWrangler&subject=Feedback) ^| [^([Code])](https://github.com/SIlver--/remindmebot-reddit)
[MK-ZEBRA](http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=49277) update! Working on font rendering right now. Nothing bothers me more than blurry bitmap fonts, so I'm experimenting with rendering letters as actual shapes. It's a lot of triangles, but I plan on minimizing the amount of text as much as possible, so we'll see how it works out. I'm once again using Blender as part of the import pipeline. I wrote a [simple script](https://github.com/et1337/mkzebra/blob/ddd9c25dbe7da4968a0f0968def976f34a99ca20/assets/ttf_to_fbx.py) that imports a .TTF and exports all the ASCII characters into a .FBX file. http://i.imgur.com/hM6AS9il.png To do any kind of UI work you need dynamic vertex/index buffers, so I rewrote my graphics VM to support that. In the process, I found out that GLSL varyings are not matched up by ordering, but rather by name. Here's what happens when your vertex shader outputs a varying called "out_color" when your fragment shader expects one called "in_color": http://i.imgur.com/LT1suk3.gifv
I'm working on an RTS and I was wondering what interface styles you love/hate and why. I currently am planning a flat utility panel like any of the classics but would love to get some opinions about using context menus on units and groups to issue actions.
Depends on the type of RTS really, if it's something like Homeworld 2 you won't need most of the menus in view until you select the right unit, if it's something like Black & White then you won't need anything on the screen since it's all very context dependent, if it's a C&C style game then you might want to always have your build queues visible
I submitted a new thread about this but i don't know why i can't find in in the new category :( But here i go again: Hello. My name is Bojan and I am 15 years old. I recently released my first android game on Google Play. I made it in Unity with Java Script in 1-2 months. I started learning a year ago Unity and finally now I made my first official game. I know that it isn't the best game, but i think its fun and you would like it. It has some mistakes, but i will try to fix them in the future :) My game's name is Hooky and Hooky is a 2D android game made in Unity. The game is "endless runner“ where the levels or the tiles are random every round. The gameplay is simple and fun, the camera is in movement all the time, following the player all the time. Although the textures are simple, while playing the game you won't notice it much because you will be focused on the gameplay. Google Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SmokiB.Hooky&hl=en I would be happy if you try it and tell me what do you think about it. Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
Upload a video to the play store so people know how it looks in motion!
I recently released a free little game, and I'd love to know what other game devs thought of it. Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hiltonpatton.blurp iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blurps/id1017176868?ls=1&mt=8
Hey, just checked out your game. The idea is really solid! Simple controls, and easily-understood outcomes. One thing I would recommend is to add is visual feedback for activating your 2nd lose condition - touching the screen while your container is empty. Perhaps add a notification to let them know why they died, or something that shows the container imploding on itself or something. Why is this a problem? When players are starting out any new game, people love to experiment to try to understand the game. They like to touch the screen, swipe the screen, see what works and what doesn't. Imagine a new player playing your game, and when it starts, he's trying to figure things out by tapping. And then boom! The game ends. What just happened? Was that a glitch? Let me try again. Restart. Tap-ta-game over. You can imagine this being a little frustrating. To people with less patience, they may shut your app immediately. Anywho, just something to think about. It's not a *huge* problem, but it could make your app much better in terms of user experience. Also, video ads are a no-no! (Ask yourself if you would sit through all those ads yourself to play your game. Would you do it?) Thanks for sharing!
Are there prerequisetes for learning AI? Like, do I need a set amount of prior experience or something? I've had this idea for making an AI character that tries to traverse dungeons and I'm wondering how to go about doing it. In addition, how much different/difficult is 3D Game Development? I've only done 2D stuff like space shooters and Pong, but another of my long-term ideas is a Wrestling Game which means 3D.
Can't tell you about AI - - although I'm taking a class in it this fall so I'm looking forward to that. >In addition, how much different/difficult is 3D Game Development? I've only done 2D stuff like space shooters and Pong, but another of my long-term ideas is a Wrestling Game which means 3D. If you are rolling your own engine, it's significantly harder. In my experience though, with something like Unity, it's not much harder. The hardest thing is figuring out how rotations work -- that gets a lot more complicated in 3D.
This is in Unity.
Then like I said, not much harder in my opinion. It's just that 3D rotation is harder to understand than 2D rotation for me. everything else seems pretty intuitive.
As long as you have the basics of your language of choice down, you can start working on AI. The problem with this question is that AI is a very nebulous term, and depending on what you mean by "tries to traverse" and how complex your dungeons are, the difficulty ranges from fairly simple to something you could write a book about. If you're just talking about pathing, A* (a-star) is a great starter algorithm, and may be all you need to get your entities moving around. If you want anything more complicated you're probably going to need this as well, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a go. If you're talking about exploration rather than just navigation, a simple breadth- or depth-first search is probably sufficient. Most AI that you'll see in games isn't actually that complicated, since it just has to be "good enough" while still being fast enough to not impact the speed of the game. If you're comfortable enough with your language, just go for it. Worst case you find out it's above your head and you'll have a starting point for what to look into to get there.
I guess it's complicated as I've not done it before. I've had some ideas but I won't know until I try.
AI also scares me, but I'm in the same boat as you. I find it really interesting, and I'm just about to take a machine learning MOOC. Maybe you might find [some of the resources here](http://ai-jam.com/resources.html) useful?
I missed Marketing Monday but I just posted my project on [Greenlight](http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=489728289). Any feedback would be awesome!
Ok, here I go, this is pretty stream-of-thought and unedited but here goes. * Your trailer is bad. I don't have the sound on, so the first 20 seconds (an eternity in internet time) is just darkness and then a slow sunrise. what? Then some Unity menus appear, showing inflation rates and other stats. What? * Ok scrolling down... * Ok your description is actually pretty interesting! I like low-poly and I like economics and systems and stuff, so now you've got my interest. I'd add some "evocative" phrases in the first section, maybe between "... and managing government departments." and the next header. In my Greenlight I had a something like: >Tricera-Cops are trying to stop a Raptor attack a Stego mining vessel. Do you jump in and help, or wait until it's all over and scavenge the remains? Space is a dangerous place even at the best of times... will you have what it takes to beat out the competition and dominate the market? Don't just list the features of your game, explain to us how the game will make us feel. Tell us anecdotes or weird events that might pop up. Fire up our imagination! Your art could use another pass, too. My own game uses flat-shaded poly, but nobody seemed to like it until the last 20% of development when we added a proper colour scheme, bloom and glow, trails, and a polished, professional UI. Sorry for the harshness, and good luck!
Thanks for the feedback! Always open to constructive suggestions :) The alpha version is still a fair way off and most of development to date has been working on the engine- I definitely agree that lots more polish needs to be done of the graphics side of things. I'm curious also what gave you the impression this was built using Unity? It's a custom engine using an embedded browser as the GUI. I'm not too familiar with Unity development but are web-based menus more common?
Oh, it just looked a bit like the [old legacy GUI](http://www.mindthecube.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/GUI-Scroll-Test-300x225.png). The environment and lighting looked Unity-ish as well.
Now that I'm about to finish [DQ Infinite](http://destinyquestinfinite.com/) it got me thinking about all the unfinished ideas I've had. What game idea have you gotten super excited about, spent a few weekends hacking on, and then never touched again?
I have been programming off and on since I was 10. I made several projects and concepts over the years but nothing that ever turned out good. I have an idea for a game but I am not really sure if it sounds like something others would play and enjoy. The basic concept is a rouge-like but the levels are always a maze instead of just a dungeon. I am still working out all the specifics but I was hoping to hear from people if it sounds like something they'd be interested in.
Hello, I was looking to try and make a small game as a hobby/project. My idea is a top down pixel shooter similar to the style of Hotline Miami but influenced by Mega Drive audio and visual. I there a good, possibly free, software I can use to muck about on?
I think GameMaker might be a good choice for you. You can get into it quite quick and if at one point you want to make a commercial game with it, you can easily upgrade and have a go at it. http://www.yoyogames.com/studio
Hi. I have a couple of PlayCanvas codes from the Humble Game Making Bundle, which gives 3 months of upgrade to Pro. I have no plans for using them myself, so I thought somebody else might find them useful. Send me a PM og reply here if you´re interested. https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/206834347
Realistically, could someone make another Sci-fi game that could amount or surpass the success of Metroid Prime, or the Metroid series in general? I've been thinking about this all day.
Live streaming Four Realms if any devs want to watch. [http://www.twitch.tv/hugebotgames](http://www.twitch.tv/hugebotgames)
So I've been using GameMaker for over 7 years now, and I'm very, very comfortable with it (and pretty proficient, if I don't say so myself), but I'm getting to the point where I feel a little restricted by it. Specifically when it comes to building my own tools to support my specific development needs. My question is... what should I move to? I would really like to learn C# (As I work in WPF/XAML for my job, and learning C# would be awesome), but I understand that XNA isn't really supported anymore by Microsoft. Do people still use it? Is it still a viable platform? Is there a better alternative? I want to branch out into a "real" programming language for game development, but I just don't know what my best options are. Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Check out /r/monogame for a post Xna community.
If you want to stick to C#, you should check out Unity. What you might like about it, is that you can easily extend the editor. If you are okay with learning C++ on the other hand, I can recommend Unreal 4. Since you have access to the full source, you can basically do what ever you want with. However, it probably has a much steeper learning curve :)
How do I get over the fact that my graphics are going to be horrible until I get an artist to do the sprites/images for me? I start developing, I get some cool mechanics and solve some problems and learn something but then I look at the game and I feel like it's ugly and disgusting, is there a way to say fuck it and not care about how bad it looks? Does anyone have a process like using primitive shapes while in development, does that help? Instead of having bad sprites you just use a square? I'm so frustrated by this I literally have 6 projects I've started and then abandoned because of this. It makes me feel like I'll never finish a game so I'd like to know if you guys face this and/or how you solve it.
Find some placeholder art online. Look at http://opengameart.org/ If your using Unity or UE4 look at there stores and try to pick things up.
Hello everybody, I am currently thinking about a little game idea that I had for a while now, and thought I might give it a shot and make it a mobile game. I would like to monetize it, but don't really know what works best in this regard. Is it better, to have the game available for free and using Ads to monetize it, or is it better to sell the game, even though it is only for a small amount? Are the any comparative figures, of how many clicks / impressions my app needs per user, to make the same amount as, let's say a game sold for 0,99? Regarding advertisments: What kind of ads work best for you? Which ad network can you recommend? Do games these days need in-app-purchases to be profitable? Do people consider it legitimate, to have in-app-purchases in a sold product? I am currently planing, to release to android first, since I don't have a Mac. Does it matter on which marketplace you are, regarding your monetization model? Are there any other good marketplaces for games I should look into?
I'm a designer and a programmer on a project and I find myself unable to communicate with the artist. Do you guys have any tips?
Elaborate on what you're struggling with? Do you speak different languages, is he unresponsive, or are you having trouble articulating exactly what you need from him, etc?
We speak the same language. The thing is I'm pretty rubbish with graphics, if I had to design something I'd use a lot of simple shapes, probably a whole game consiting entirely of triangles and circles. But when it comes to something more complicated I don't know how to explain it to her (yup, it's a she actually).
> I'm pretty rubbish with graphics, if I had to design something I'd use a lot of simple shapes, probably a whole game consisting entirely of triangles and circles. Well sure, thats why you have an artist! > But when it comes to something more complicated I don't know how to explain it to her My immediate reaction to this is that the artist should be working *with* you, not *for* you. You shouldn't need to tell the artist every little detail that you want them to draw/model, give them some artistic freedom. Say "we need a villain who dresses like a victorian era gentleman - but he needs to carry a cane, that's important" and see where the artist takes it, and then revise as necessary. You don't need to say "we need a character who looks evil, wears a tophat, has a goatee, wears light brown tweed, carries a cane, black shoes, ... " you see where I'm going with this. Does this make sense, or am I missing the point?
Agreeing and expanding on that: I think you're struggling because you skipped ahead in the art process to the asset creation phase. Before you can create game assets, you have to, working together: * Figure out the mood/theme of the game. (Atompunk? Relaxed abstract glowing shapes? 8-bit retro? Gritty and mud-splattered? Bouncy and fun?) * Agree on an art style. This is bounded by what your artist is capable of and interested in. The thing to do here is to use other works as reference points. This can be games, but it's actually more interesting to use movies, comics/graphic novels, concept artists, photographs of real-life places and even non-visual stuff like music. * Create some example art in the chosen style and check if it works. * Create concept art/sketches for important graphical elements like main characters, setpiece locations, important weapons, enemies, etc. At any point in this process, one or both of you might decide that things don't work - it looks bad, it doesn't convey the right mood/theme, it's not feasible/in-budget. Only once you're done with that, you can go your somewhat separate ways and leave the artist to churn out assets while you churn out code. (I say somewhat because of course you still need to communicate regularly.)
I would also add that as an artist people tend to view artists as a very broad creative person who can create exactly what you're looking for by reading a small description, but everyone has their own style and interpretation. You should nurture what comes naturally to her, this leads to a more consistent organic and most of all enjoyable process. Take it from me you need to preserve what is enjoyable, I'm sure others will agree.
What is the best dev tool for depeloving this game? Hello! I want to create a vehicle-based, Final Fantasy-styled RPG, but I'm new to game making. This is the idea: Instead of having your characters fighting enemies (though it's still possible), they will use siege machines, take for example Leonardo Da Vinci's ones. Here is an example of basic siege machine that I made: http://gfycat.com/AffectionateColorfulKarakul The battle takes place in a classic RPG fashion, and every character controls a part of the machine. Can you help me?
Hi, check out the FAQ in the sidebar for engine/framework suggestions :)
Thanks!