To be original, or not to be original |
- To be original, or not to be original
- The IndieGamesPlus Guide to Contacting Games Press
- Public domain music
- GPU programming comparison: OpenCL vs Compute Shader vs CUDA vs Thrust
- Is this mechanic too nauseating?
- What AI methods did you use in your own games?
- Eliminating Feet Shuffling for Bodily Rotation while walking (moving in Arcs in VR) to alleviate Motion Sickness in VR
- Photon us-east servers have been down for 2 hours @ peak with NO RESPONSE!
- Horror Inspired Pixel Art Twitter Competition - #iDevGamesComp
- Collateral Damage: Battle Over Tyzanite - kickstarter Launch Development Blog
- Game Asset Pipeline : 3D-Coat Auto Retopology
- Screenshot Saturday #403 - Top Class
- Resources on implementing translation gizmos
- INVERSUS: Two Years of Sales
- Do you need music for your game?
- Unity C# | Simple FPS Character Controller (E04)
- Making images for a 2D game - what do you suggest?
- Gamedevs of reddit, what "mind-blowing" features would you expect from an "Exclusively Couch Co-Op Metroidvania"?
- What are the MUST PLAY games that show emergent gameplay? Trying to understand and how these systems interact.
- Steamworks mature content
- My first forray into game development went like this...
- Does anyone need music? SoundCloud included. Custom. Electronic. Analog. Whatever.
- What is the safest way to make an online contract?
| To be original, or not to be original Posted: 20 Oct 2018 03:33 AM PDT Since 2014 I have been a full-time independent game developer. For the duration of 2014, I spent time making Android games and published them on the Play Store. This yielded very poor results, but I considered the whole thing a learning experience, since I obviously had a lot to learn to even get something moving on-screen. Starting 2015, I started making PC games exclusively, mainly releasing on Steam, and sometimes itch. My first PC game on Steam was called Eron, and it did surprisingly well considering my level of skill at the time, as well as other factors like time spent etc. It was one of the happiest days of my life, not because of any specific amount of money, but rather the fact that I can do what I love, from a place I feel comfortable (I have social anxiety), and actually make a living doing it. One of the most powerful experiences I've had to date, strange as it may or may not be. Anyway, today I have 14 games on Steam, granted they are small-ish games. I tend to spend 2-4 months per game, with some exceptions like Prime Shift, which took me about 6 months and around $2000 (All my savings up to that point). With these past few games, since Eron, I've noticed a sharp decline in sales, especially recently. One of the main reasons would be marketing. Since the advent of Steam Direct, new titles on the storefront get very little exposure. This is partly because of a more crowded marketplace, but also because Steam now tends to favor games which bring in eyes from outside, more. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, this world is constantly changing. I merely want to provide more insight into the matter with people less familiar with this current predicament the game industry faces. At this point it might seem like the obvious factor contributing to this decline is the lack of marketing on my part. This is definitely a big part of it, but I can't help but think something else is a miss. Making a lot of small games, vs less, bigger ones, does provide a much faster feedback loop. After the release of each game, I analyze, compare and theorize before even considering the angle I will approach the next one with. Specifically genre, idea, market, angle, USP etc. My most prominent approach to making games, is to make something very familiar, and then simply offer a new twist to the experience. This seems to be the approach many devs take, and it yields some pretty impressive results from time to time(enter gimmicky-platformers). For my latest game (Weirdest Thing, Steam), I took a different approach. My starting point wasn't a genre, but rather a feeling. See, after a recent visit to friends a haven't seen in quite some time, we each found ourselves sharing funny, embarrassing stories. Some of them even tagged by the ominous phrase: "a friend of mine". Uh-huh... You can actually find a lot of these stories in the game itself. Telling and listening to these stories made me feel more human than I've ever felt in my life. I felt this warm feeling, unlike happiness based on opinion, justified by the brain and psychological programming, but rather a more primal feeling from deep inside my physical body. Now obviously I've had similar interactions, I'm not a complete hermit ;3 But this time I had a genuine appreciation for it, and subsequently, a change in my reality (the way I personally see the world). Maybe I'm romanticizing too much. ;p We tend to keep things to ourselves, mainly out of fear. You won't notice it, it won't happen in an instant, but if you suppress things like this, no matter how insignificant they may seem, eventually you'll end up in an entirely different reality. So this was basically were I was at. I was judging every little thing, in myself and others. I got toxic and very, very unhappy. With each action I took, I wanted, nay needed, to justify it somehow, or render it irrelevant. Anyway, soon after this visit, I relentlessly set out to craft this experience. Doing it would be easy, doing it right and having the same feelings vibe, seemed like a far harder task though. With each day, not only did I succeed at what I set out to do that, creatively speaking, but I also felt the process bending me towards this less judgmental, more human-like mindset. Usually I would judge the !#*@ out of any piece of work I do. I'd spend a few minutes adding something, and then the rest of the day judging it, going back and forth as I try to find perfection. All the while, beating myself up, every step along the way. Feels like I'm sorta going in circles here, so I'll do my best to cut to the chase. I had an enlightening conversation/experience with friends, which inspired a new mindset in myself. I was way too uptight, judgmental and critical. I've since changed my ways, and the whole process made me more in-tune with myself and reality for what it is, not what it "should've been". As an artist I feel more compelled to making experiences like this in the future, BUT... I look at trending games and notice certain similarities, none of which I can morally bring myself to agree with. I'm referring to psychological tactics as more prominently used in the mobile game industry, but I feel like the same is the case for PC, it just another devil. In my opinion, what it comes down to is exactly what was my problem. I judged everything based on ideas in my mind. As if these ideas were factual, without any reasonable doubt. There was no MY REALITY, and YOUR REALITY. Only reality as it factually is, and then an "misinformed" one. Obviously I subscribed to the former. Gravity is 9.81ms^2. I'm smart, your dumb, this is right, that is wrong. Back in school i was taught that it's pretty much 10ms^2. Gravity actually fluctuates, but yeah, I'm no physicist. My point is, we assign too much value/credit to certain ideas, then we go forth building other ideas around them, based on inputs that might have been taken up as raw data, only to then be judged, to tremendous effect, before being added to the mix. So we form this collective, and affirm it's beliefs to each other, as this provides a far greater sense of security, vital to a comfortable life. The benefits being vast, I have no doubt in this. Yet, the approach we take seems to not be for the greater good, but rather the greater comfort. I feel like we're motivating a world in which resources are spent to keep things(dysfunctions) the same, while progress takes a backseat. My intention is not to attack the conformity of society, but rather just to scorn it, if even. The better way obviously being not fighting against too much conformity, but rather fighting for, more creativity/discord. Don't set out to destroy any single idea, but challenge the $#@% out of all of them. My dilemma now being, I have to eat, but I can't help but stay true to my deeply ingrained beliefs. Should I go against all my beliefs, in favor of a responsible, grown-up life, in which I contribute what is expected, without any intervention from the things that I have learnt, experienced and the person it shaped me to be. I am at a loss, I would joyfully continue creating more games that aim at new experiences, but my psychology is letting me down. 26, living with parents, broke, is not a nice tag to have echoed around in your head. I desperately need change, I have a ton of drive, but zero direction, at least in regards to something sustainable. I'd love to hear what you guys think, not a lot of game devs in my zip code. :3 For reference, you can look me up on Steam as David Mulder. Thanks for reading, and may games live forever, David Mulder [link] [comments]  |
| The IndieGamesPlus Guide to Contacting Games Press Posted: 20 Oct 2018 06:18 AM PDT |
| Posted: 20 Oct 2018 08:05 AM PDT |
| GPU programming comparison: OpenCL vs Compute Shader vs CUDA vs Thrust Posted: 20 Oct 2018 09:58 AM PDT Hi fellow gamedevs, [link] [comments]  |
| Is this mechanic too nauseating? Posted: 20 Oct 2018 09:10 AM PDT Been working on a 2D platformer where the idea is you, as a fly-man, can walk on walls and ceilings like floors. And the camera rotates so the LEFT/RIGHT controls make sense. Is this idea, the way its implemented in the link above, fun or sickening? Should it be changed? [link] [comments]  |
| What AI methods did you use in your own games? Posted: 20 Oct 2018 09:39 AM PDT I'm a student currently planning my final year development project and intend on focusing my efforts on implementing as interesting and engaging an AI I can create in the time I have. Part of this project is researching the currently used methods, so I'm curious as to what you used in your development for enemies, teammates, dynamic difficulty, or anything else you find notable. Also if you know anything about past, present and possible future methods used in the mainstream industry that would be helpful, although I haven't started looking into that quite yet. Thanks <3 [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 20 Oct 2018 06:29 AM PDT Here's something I feel is absolutely crucial to VR games. Especially games in which you are standing while playing. When you're standing and you wanna change directions, you shuffle your feet and rotate your head and body. When you're walking forward while doing so, you'll move in curved arcs in the VR environment. Of course, IRL, you're still stuck in the same spot. This causes motion sickness. Nausea, tiredness, vomiting. This could ruin any VR experience. So, feet shuffling and bodily rotation should be stopped. And instead, the controller should be used for rotation control. I think a wheel of sorts, like a mouse-wheel, or a tiny steering wheel, could be used to control bodily rotation freely. [link] [comments]  |
| Photon us-east servers have been down for 2 hours @ peak with NO RESPONSE! Posted: 19 Oct 2018 09:38 PM PDT It's been countless hours (since Fri @ 9:50pm EST) since Photon's US-East servers went down and NO response from them (tried email, their Twitter, and their forum). Anyone else using Photon us-east? There's a thread here: http://forum.photonengine.com/discussion/12762/cant-connect-to-photon-server#latest The response time has been inexcusable, ahhhh.... what do you guys do when your dedicated servers are down? Or is that a paradoxical question that dedicated servers shouldn't go down ;P Sadly timed, too - we just upgraded to Unity 2018 and working out the kinks. I gotta pull out a 5.6 backup to change the region. I find it crazy that there's been no communication/acknowledgement from staff or redundancies from US east to US west at least. Went down while hundreds of players were playing on a Friday night. EDIT: It was unfortunately timed - we recently started porting from Unity 5.6 to 2018 (developing -- NOT published live), so it's sort of difficult to throw out a build right now. Pulling out a 5.6 backup and changing the servers >> Rebuilding >> Throwing that back on Steam. I shouldn't have to do any of this - the sheer amount of time just not communicating, I'm forced to do this. EDIT 2: Managed to change the region and rebuild + threw out a patch for our Windows users (sorry mac/linux, for now), but the damage is done. This is a bit sad: How do you guys handle reliance on a 3rd party when it's down and that 3rd party is unresponsive? EDIT 3: Yeah, it's not so much the service going down (which was really bad for that long time during peak hours), but more so the 0 communication, even after all this time later. And, again, during peak hours. [link] [comments]  |
| Horror Inspired Pixel Art Twitter Competition - #iDevGamesComp Posted: 20 Oct 2018 08:21 AM PDT |
| Collateral Damage: Battle Over Tyzanite - kickstarter Launch Development Blog Posted: 20 Oct 2018 05:16 AM PDT Jak from Artisans Games here. After 3 years so far of development we are finally launching our kickstarter for Collateral Damage: Battle Over Tyzanite: (please message me if interested in link, forgot that part XD) So thought I'd make a post here to both share and to answer any questions people may have about the game. For anybody in Australia we will be at PAX AUS and Perth Game Festival in the next couple months if you wish to have a hands on play of the game yourself. Quick Common Answers: Made in Unreal 4 Splitscreen and online multiplayer 3 years development between the three of us (Myself, Matt and Chris) Expected Release: August 2019 Open Beta Planned Release: February 2019 This is our first commercial release title We would like to release on every console atop steam we can but obviously that's the platform holder's choice if we can get on each console. My role in the company is one of the business partners, game developer, animator and writer. . Major Challenges during development: The biggest challenge thus far during the development process has been the implementation of both splitscreen multiplayer and online multiplayer and allowing the two to run simultaneously. After a year in we worked how much these two things actually conflicted with one another between the local and network display and what data need to be stored on either end. At the one year mark we had to rebuild the game almost entirely from the bottom up to allow for the online functionality. (a tip to other developers, if you intend to have online functionality get the base of that in as early as possible). The design has also dramatically changed since it was first envisioned. Once upon a time it had a lot more shooting and abilities used cool downs. The reason we shifted away from this as we chose to go with a more high octane gameplay and also we really didn't want to compete with Overwatch which was announced around that time (cause we'd have zero chance of competing vs blizzard). The Artstyle has also changed significantly from it's early days where it started honestly quite gritty and now has a more styalised cartoon aesthetic (a juxtaposition to the story of the game). This also came both with the gameply shift and the target demographic. In regards to target demographic we learned after the first round of Perth Game Festival, Avcon Adelaide and PAX AUS that children and young teens seemed to be the largest sources of interest as the gameplay has more of a party feel than a hyper competitive feel. Acknowledging this we've progressively altered the game to be both aesthetically appealing to the audience but also in how the action is portrayed. The somber reality story still exists it's just not so in your face. . Things that have been changed/cut during development Initially the game was designed team focused but very early testing proved that just free for all brawling was a lot more fun. While we do plan to have a team based mode we decided to gear the game to focus on free for all and single-player skill expression and just party fun competitive. Once upon a time Oblex actually had a shield ability, this at first was hard to make feel mega fun or balanced as an entire ability slot and was also more centered around the team based design at the start. As we transitioned away from that after some testing people suggested a block ability for all and the shield was moved to a button every character could use. Oblex still has cool shield hands though. With the hover system we once had a jump ability - because every game has a jump ability. However with the hover system it was hard to make the jumping fun and typically it's use was non existent. Instead we removed this in favour of launch pads for vertical levels and instead added a boost button that allows players to get in and out the combat quicker and move around the map in general faster. Less skill to hit melee and more player friendly helpers came into play about a year ago. With the knowledge our core audience was not competitive and more just people wanting a chaotic action brawler with a more party dynamic we started making it much easier for people to hit each other. Ultimates as a catch up mechanic. Typically in games an ultimate ability can be very useful in expanding your lead however we chose to take a different approach. Since we made a lot of ults these over the top wow abilities we noticed that players that fell behind often ended up far behind. When implementing the ultimates we added the ability to earn more ultimate for killing people above you on the leader board making shutting down the player on top even more rewarding and making the players struggling get a chance to get on the scoreboard a little more. UI has been condensed down as well (although it's not in it's final version still) . Feel free to ask me anything about the game and I'll try answer. I'll be flying to Melbourne Australia for International Games Week on Monday for those who may want to do a developer meetup. :) [link] [comments]  |
| Game Asset Pipeline : 3D-Coat Auto Retopology Posted: 20 Oct 2018 10:02 AM PDT |
| Screenshot Saturday #403 - Top Class Posted: 19 Oct 2018 08:04 PM PDT Share your progress since last time in a form of screenshots, animations and videos. Tell us all about your project and make us interested! The hashtag for Twitter is of course #screenshotsaturday. Note: Using url shorteners is discouraged as it may get you caught by Reddit's spam filter. Bonus question: In games that offer a variety of class or character builds, do you usually pick the strongest options? [link] [comments]  |
| Resources on implementing translation gizmos Posted: 20 Oct 2018 03:31 AM PDT As the name suggests are their any resources on how to implement a translation gizmo. I am using OpenGL and reached a point where I need to build a 3D level editor. I have found www.nelari.us/post/gizmos However it's not as detailed as I would like and tried implementing it without success. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2018 12:12 PM PDT |
| Do you need music for your game? Posted: 20 Oct 2018 10:19 AM PDT I'm a musician/producer and I'm looking to get more into creating tunes for games. I have examples of my work and done tracks all ready to go. I can make electronic chip tune sounding tracks to all out rockers with real instruments. Contact me for more info. Willing to work relatively cheap in order to build my portfolio. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Unity C# | Simple FPS Character Controller (E04) Posted: 20 Oct 2018 09:06 AM PDT |
| Making images for a 2D game - what do you suggest? Posted: 19 Oct 2018 11:50 PM PDT Hello, So I am really terrible at drawing and art but good at coding. I have developed a gameplay system for a mobile game, and the graphics should be very simple, such as balls/spikes/etc. Any idea where I should get started? What software would you recommend that is very easy to learn/use? Or should I hire a graphics designer? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 20 Oct 2018 08:23 AM PDT Lurking in this subreddit often, it is amazing how varied and insightful some of the threads&replies are. Meanwhile, I'm making an "Exclusively Couch Co-Op" game and I truly wonder what would get "hardened veterans" to lose their minds, or generally hooked into such a game! Edit: 53% downvoted, what. I have almost finished the game, and I have no plans (or time) on implementing any of the ideas. This is a discussion, not an "give me ideas/features". After all, I'm just curious what fellow gamedevs would expect [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2018 06:26 PM PDT Hello! I'm extremely interested in emergent gameplay, and the systems that make up said games. I want to study a list of games and understand what makes them tic, and how to properly and thoroughly create my own emergent systems. What are the MUST PLAY examples within this game design genre? What I have gathered so far as prime examples -Dwarf Fortress -Cataclysm DDA What I might recommend to people going down a similar route as I am, Shiren the Wanderer(I played the DS remake). This game is full of unpredictable and moments, and "generative" story telling. It can take a while to get to the good parts, the beginning part of the adventure is a far less emergent, but later on its filled to the brim with interesting choices and unscripted gameplay interactions. I believe brogue offers a similar experience, but I find it less enjoyable. And again I dont think it really shows its true nature of emergence until the later dungeon levels. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 20 Oct 2018 01:58 AM PDT Hey, guys, just a quick question. If I have a game that mentions sex (but there are no visuals, just a few barebone descriptions without many details), do I mark it as mature? Thanks :) [link] [comments]  |
| My first forray into game development went like this... Posted: 20 Oct 2018 11:41 AM PDT (Originally on Newgrounds by me) I made a game in Google Slides when I was a sophomore. I was inspired to make this game after downloading a mobile game that seems like I've tried the same thing too much. It was isometric 2.5D based, kingdom building, war themed, and had too many brazzenly displayed women in the advertisments and the game itself. I was fed up with those games and wanted to change that genre of game forever. However I couldn't because I didn't know any C++ or HTML for my own game, so I made a mockup of an invisioned game in Google Slides. The game is called Conqueration. I even started a GoFundMe page to try to get a little money to back the project, but I got $260 out of our $3000 goal. That $260 went to my programmer's first computer, who later ditched the project. He's now a furry so I dont even want to try to get back ahold of him. The game was designed to be completely sandbox, but it ended up being a linear shortstory about taking over the world. The game is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OBF41TulotM5F4u1Fu3v9Lz7i8_xs-7g_eCK_SyItgI Also if you're interested in reading the design document that I sent to game publishers. They tried to let me down nicely... by not responding at all after a "Thanks for sending, we will get back to you". Namely; Armor Games, 505 Games, and Team 17. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tAXWgFiM2BBeselEtem56ATX0uyBBYITllyHFANex_0/edit?usp=sharing [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone need music? SoundCloud included. Custom. Electronic. Analog. Whatever. Posted: 20 Oct 2018 09:41 AM PDT |
| What is the safest way to make an online contract? Posted: 19 Oct 2018 04:53 PM PDT The title almost say it all, but here's elaboration. I work with music composers, modelers and others whom I only know from the internet. I trust them, and that's not the issue. I just wonder if there's an online service to document every bodies rights like (fee and shared revenues) for any future disagreement. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
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