Went part time indie 4 years ago, here is how it went for me |
- Went part time indie 4 years ago, here is how it went for me
- Sometimes I feel like my game is going to be the best game ever and sell a zillion copies, than two seconds later I think I'm making poo poo and my time would be better spent applying for a job at mc donalds.
- What is this rendering bug/effect called? When the visuals repeats itself?
- My friend released his first game to a steam front page and 100k downloads, here's how he did it
- Does anyone else have this issue: being bad at playing your own game?
- Startup, VR game dev studio, failed - advice appreciated
- My 6 Easy Steps for Making Levels for a Platformer(my thought process)
- Consejos para nuevos desarrolladores
- How to Make Tetris From Scratch
- I can't decide between Maya and 3DS max for these specific reasons, someone help
- request from a player for how to handle UI at wide resolutions.
- Creating a cutout alpha
- Got an interview at a AAA studio
- Who pays when a game gets postponed? Studio or publisher?
- What steps to take to determine if a puzzle game is solvable or not
- Absolutely beginner, more realistic movement
- Data protection laws for games
- Is it possible to make a game FOR PC made FROM an IPAD?
- Hi everyone! The final step in implementing the geometry pipeline is here. I think you should really save it! ;) https://youtu.be/DYBBtsKKHV0
- Are RPG Maker games even still relevant?
- Questions about Architecture (ECS vs traditional approaches vs ??) and why ECS isnt as popular as the design strategy seems like it should be in this space?
- Junior software engineer offered designer role - bad career move or no?
- Help with motivation letter
- Unity For m1 Mac
| Went part time indie 4 years ago, here is how it went for me Posted: 06 May 2021 06:27 AM PDT Four years ago I went part time indie because I wanted to make my own stuff with a friend. Hopefully the company I'm working for agreed to change my contract and now Fridays are about making some juicy indie games at home. Here's my experience. (also sorry if I make mistakes I'm for baguetteland) Context I'm making a small indie game that is basically a comedy platformer where you play an intern who's employed as a monster in a video game. It started as a Ludum Dare game jam where the theme was "You are the monster" and we had this idea where you're just the basic mob that gets stabbed on the first level. It went really well and had a lot of positive reviews! A few months later me and my friend decided to continue the adventure and make it a real game. The scoping problem During a game jam you work very fast and the results come quick so you think that actually doing a full game will not take a long time, right? That's what we thought and we couldn't be more wrong. We initially thought that the game would take about a year to complete but actually we're now 4 years deep into it and it's not even finished yet. But it's fine because I don't have a money problem since I'm still employed 4 days a week in the other company (and I love my work there, I still learn a lot of things). We already rescoped the game 3 times by cutting some chapters and merging others but if you want to do something good, it always takes time no matter what. Organizing time Eventually everything boils down to how many hours you cram into making your game. Working one day a week plus some time on the weekends is not great so you have to be sure that those hours are the most effective you can have. To boost my productivity I usually think about the design during my free time (before bedtime, during showers, when I'm bored, anytime) so that when I sit in front of my computer on Fridays I know exactly what I have to do which is very motivating. This is where Trello comes handy: everytime I have an idea I immediately write it down so I don't forget it. The next Friday if I struggle to find something to do, I just open Trello and pick stuff to do from there. Additionally my friend sometimes comes at my place for the weekend and we work together for 3 days non stop. We usually do about 35 hours on the weekend which is good (we're not married nor have kids, that helps). Using the right tools Working as an indie is so different than working in a regular studio, especially when the core team is only 2 people. I've been in the game industry for more than 10 years and I'm used to having a strict schedule with deadlines, tasks, JIRA bugs and so on… I really had to reinvent myself as an indie: experiment with tools, try new things and see what works for me. I discovered that I don't need more than just a text file and a Trello board to write ideas and stuff to do. Having multiple roles One of the things that I like the most about being part of a very small team is that there's no clear separation between roles. I'm initially a coder but I'm also doing game design, level design, some sound design and marketing too! I've learned so much in 4 years and the more I learn the more I discover new things. For instance I don't even consider myself an experienced game designer yet and I know I have a lot to learn before claiming that title! The tech part I'm the only programmer in the team so I have total control over the technical stack and that's refreshing compared to my corporate job where I sometimes have to deal with dozens of programmers around the world (I've worked 5 years on AAA games, clearly not my cup of tea). It's a 2D game with some 3D in it but nothing hard so I made my own engine for it in C#. I'm not a fan of using third party engines, especially Unity and its "putting things under the rug" philosophy, I prefer to spend a little more time on low level programming rather than having unexpected bugs that I can't do anything about. The engine part clearly took some time but 1) you're way more productive after it's done because you know exactly how it works 2) you don't have to worry about licensing, especially if you're porting the game to a console which I will probably do, 3) the time that you spend making the engine at the beginning is time that you save at the end of the project because fixing a bug on your engine is so much easier than trying to figure out why the bug happens in an engine that you don't know (and generally you end up updating the engine which implies having news bugs that you don't know about). Conclusion The last four years have been really wild and going indie was the best decision I took in my career :) Next steps, I finish my game and quit my regular job to go full indie! edit: some people asked for a link to the Steam page, here is it Super Intern Story [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 05 May 2021 06:55 PM PDT | ||
| What is this rendering bug/effect called? When the visuals repeats itself? Posted: 06 May 2021 09:43 AM PDT
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| My friend released his first game to a steam front page and 100k downloads, here's how he did it Posted: 06 May 2021 09:36 AM PDT
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| Does anyone else have this issue: being bad at playing your own game? Posted: 06 May 2021 09:19 AM PDT
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| Startup, VR game dev studio, failed - advice appreciated Posted: 05 May 2021 10:44 PM PDT The guys from r/Entrepreneur were recommending me to here. I hope, I am not violating the rules, I lurk here, but normally this is strictly only game mechanics. I found no violation of the rules. So I try my luck. I founded a small game dev company in GER, that had few employees <10, and unfortunately my plans failed. I took a high risk, and now face the consequences. My team and me still want to fight. There have had been unforseeable setbacks, these setbacks stoped production. I could sincerly use your advice. The Story So, I was founding a company back in 2019, purpose gaming dev. There was a new federal grant, I applied, and the grant was not successful (Bank loan failed, although subsidy was ok, so subsidy opportunity gone). Unfortunately i lost a lot of time, nevertheless, i had already assembled a team, that was ready to go for an alternative high risk venture. To apply for another subsidy was no option, since the grants application would take another six months minimum, we already waited over six months for the first subsidy (to fail), my countries bereaucracy is slow, and not versatile. We decided together as a team to go full risk, to dev&write a very small VR title: we calculated the duration, I calculated the budget. I used my own private funds I had on my bank account, that was still there from the subsidy funding plans, to be used as collateral for bank loans. I tried to raise more money from a bank, no chance at all. They said, come back with full customer base and rev. Additionally they added, they do not understand much about gaming, and could not calculate the risk, still "software" is no collateral for them. So with this tiny budget, we started, and everything looked great. Until one day, unforseeable events took place, personal fate struck (no one died, all are ok again). The production was set back about three months. We increased the effort, every team member went into a small crunch, still, it was not enough. My private fund ran out. Several weeks ago I terminated all contracts, to avoid legal consequences. The employees refused to stop working, since we are ~85% finished. At the moment they work on their private funds (I will pay great compensation). Still we would need around two-three months. In my country there is no fund, no grant, nothing, to help young startups in need. I have no chance to raise any money whatsoever fast. My risk, my problem. No whining. Since my private equity ran out, I am broke as well. Normally I would just come up with a freelance contract as a project manager, to raise my personal income. But, you guessed right, Rona made it impossible. At least for me. All the top experts are cheap as chips, there are very few PM projects. I tried last six months, no success. I had developed (and produced) also two additional product strategies, since i did not want to go 100% risk on the game client only. Same thing, Rona closed the pockets of potential clients, they go with the major brands to have no risk themselves. It looks like I try to blame Rona, I dont, I blame myself. Had three products, all three failed. What Now We all knew the risk. We accept the current situation. All are still working. Still motivated. We believe in our products. We wanted to publish ourselves, are now open for alternative route. I am now looking for publishers (I have a list and contact them now), but since this is our first title, probably chances are near 0. I want to prepare parallel for other options, thus i also ask you guys. I am currently awaiting some publisher offers, they eventually want to fund. But i suspect major hooks attached to their offer, if i get the contract anyhow. We calculated the chances for crowdfunding success near 0%, since unknown company, and no major marketing budget available. I am open to moving to another country, my guys are willing to follow. I looked for other countrie's grants, i have to bring at least 25% private equity. Eventually i could borrow this cash from friends. Borrowing cash is connected with more risk for me, i would take. The Team Full Stack devs, backend devs, C# devs, 2D/3D artists, marketing, cats, open for projects. The Question Might you guys have an idea, I am open to weird stuff, how to raise funding around 60k$ for finishing a VR game, outside the following: VC, win the lottery, marry Queen Lizy. What countries do have a good (fast) grants system for startups? I found Canada is having a good game program, is it fast? Maybe a technology park fund? I would found a new company, transfer IP, finish the game in few months, start making rev in their country? Win win situation? Or do you say, no choice, take VC? Or stop gaming and reorganize? But new project needs cash upfront... [link] [comments]  | ||
| My 6 Easy Steps for Making Levels for a Platformer(my thought process) Posted: 05 May 2021 08:48 PM PDT
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| Consejos para nuevos desarrolladores Posted: 06 May 2021 11:07 AM PDT
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| How to Make Tetris From Scratch Posted: 06 May 2021 11:04 AM PDT
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| I can't decide between Maya and 3DS max for these specific reasons, someone help Posted: 06 May 2021 09:05 AM PDT So basically I am a long term user of maya lt but I was thinking of upgrading to maya indie as its not much more expensive and it gives me full maya, but 3ds max is also the same price and I have heard it s better for creating scifi ships. Basically I do mainly 3D modelling of the following: - Scifi spaceships internal and external - character modelling, rigging and animation - environments - buildings - in game objects, e.g. a barrel or something like this Am I right to continue using Maya, the only advantage I can see for 3DS max it might be more accurate for building ships but can I achieve the same in maya? [link] [comments]  | ||
| request from a player for how to handle UI at wide resolutions. Posted: 06 May 2021 09:01 AM PDT hey my dudes. im not a dev or anything, just a gamer with a general request for all game developers. i just started playing with a triple screen setup (5760x1080) and ive noticed something a lot of games seem to do wrong (imo). for example, in normal resolutions, a UI element, lets say a health, hunger, thirst bar window, might on the bottom right of your only screen. in triple screen, most games would put this element of the bottom right of the right screen. yech. this is not a good place for it. imo, it (and other UI/player aid/info) type elements should still be on the center screen, in their normal places. its awkward to have to look so far to the left or right to see health bars, minimaps, vertical action bars, etc. i would suggest keep these things on the center monitor, and let the side monitors (or just extreme edges of really wide monitors i guess) just be for peripheral vision. i guess ideally, it would be an option. game resolution = total screen area, then have UI size that doesnt have to match the game resolution. for games that have a UI resolution option, this might be different than UI size. for example, you could have a 640x480 resolution UI, that is stretched to 1920x1080, displayed in the center of a 5760x1080 display for the whole game. i get that this is complicated, maybe a mess to code, and maybe only benefits a niche group of your player base, so likely isnt a priority, but maybe the feedback is useful to some game devs. if you want to be really snazzy, then resizable/movable UI elements are also awesome, though i understand thats also more coding time and has performance costs, but at least thats something people with all resolutions can use, and benefit from, and lets players with wide resolutions fix the issues themselves to their preferences. thanks for making games, and thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 May 2021 08:35 AM PDT Hi Not sure if I'm going to get a reply to this, but I can't think of anywhere else to ask... Is it possible to include an opacity mask, or a cutout alpha, as part of the main diffuse texture? Or does it always have to be its own separate texture that's dropped into an opacity channel, either in a game engine, or a 3D package? I've made an alpha using the Channels tab in Photoshop, and I have one very specific area of my texture that needs 'cutting out'. Is it possible to include this cutout in the texture and then just add this diffuse map to my character and the area will be transparent? https://i.imgur.com/WrlAnBl.png https://i.imgur.com/hs6uzlI.png https://i.imgur.com/mW9zZRq.png Thanks [link] [comments]  | ||
| Got an interview at a AAA studio Posted: 06 May 2021 11:47 AM PDT I tagged question but mostly looking for advice! I'm currently a barista and finally applied for a job I wanted and got an interview! It's just the initial screening but I REALLY want this job. It's at arguably the best studio/most well known. I have never had a "big girl" job interview before. I perform very well in interviews for my current job area because I've been doing it for 8 years, but this is all new territory. The opportunity is exciting enough and I know the chances I get it are pretty low, but I still want to be as prepared as possible. It's a video screening tonight, I plan to set up an area with a blank wall behind me and dress myself as if it's an in person interview. Any other thoughts? Should I do a follow up email even though it's just a video screen? [link] [comments]  | ||
| Who pays when a game gets postponed? Studio or publisher? Posted: 06 May 2021 11:40 AM PDT I'm wondering what happens behind the scenes when a game studio asks a publisher for "more time". I'm working in a software company - not games related - and after our fixed price quote got accepted it's basically our own risk if we get a software done in time and quality. There are no major bugs allowed from a legal perspective. If we don't meet the deadline or quality standards of the initial quote, our client doesn't need to pay us at all. So wondering if this is different in the games industry? Can studios just ask for more time/money for meeting the quality criteria that was defined before the project started ? [link] [comments]  | ||
| What steps to take to determine if a puzzle game is solvable or not Posted: 06 May 2021 07:35 AM PDT Good morning. A little backstory for my question. I make a puzzle game. Myself and others have tested and played the game 100's of times. I have tried many combinations and have solved every pattern that I can think of. I have another dev I work with who says that my game shows signs of soft/silent patterns that indicate there are combinations that are unsolvable. I debated that I do not believe it is unsolvable and requested any patterns to prove it(haven't got one). What steps or research can I do to determine if there is in fact soft/silent patterns in my game and it has unsolvable patterns? Any help and info is appreciated. Game: 2D 9 cube puzzle game( think rubics cube look). Each cube, when pressed, cycles between 3 colors. one color change per press. Red to blue to green then back to red. Each cube pressed also cycles neighboring cubes. so if top right, then top middle and right middle will cycle colors. If middle pressed then top middle, left middle, right middle and bottom middle will cycle as well. Right middle will cycle top right, bottom right and middle. This is for every cube. There is a goal block with the color needed to solve it(goal will be a random color between red, blue and green). each cube is a random color. It's like an iteration on lights out. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Absolutely beginner, more realistic movement Posted: 06 May 2021 07:08 AM PDT Hello, I'm new to this and coding. One of the first things I'd like to learn is how to make 3rd person player movement feel like it has weight and impact. Like when you play with the default unreal engine 3rd person preset, the movement responds instantly and it feels so artificial. What do I have to learn to achieve my dream movement which would involve acceleration, deacceleration, inertia and all that physics crap that I ignored in school? [link] [comments]  | ||
| Data protection laws for games Posted: 06 May 2021 10:36 AM PDT Let's say I'm making a non-online mobile game, but I want to gather some user statistics through an online service. For example I might want to know how much time players spent on each level, when they rage quit, maybe a little performance stats, etc. How much can I get away without requiring users to opt in? As far as I understand everything is fine as long as the data gathered is anonymous, but I guess the big question is "when is something truly anonymous?". Like, what if I track installation IDs, so I can get further insights into how people play across multiple sessions? The IDs would be random numbers, but since it would also be stored on the user device, would it be considered personal data that's not anonymous? I suppose it would be similar to a cookie, in some regards. What about geographic location? Is that a total no-go? I hope someone has some insights or can point my in the direction of more information about best practices. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Is it possible to make a game FOR PC made FROM an IPAD? Posted: 06 May 2021 09:26 AM PDT I genuinely want to start making things after I learn to code/program. Is this possible? I know there are apps out there but Im not sure if I need a keyboard for serious programming + idk what apps to use to make my own game. Could someone help? [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 May 2021 09:14 AM PDT We spent the last couple of episodes setting up the asset pipeline and started with the geometry asset. We created the content tools to generate and process meshes and also made a control in the editor to visualize the generated geometry. The last remaining part of the pipeline is the ability to save the geometry to asset files so that we can eventually load them in the engine, and that's the subject of this video. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Are RPG Maker games even still relevant? Posted: 06 May 2021 05:20 AM PDT I tend to have a lot of ideas for different projects. RPG Maker was the first engine I had contact with through VX Ace, and now MV is my favorite engine. Even though its limited, I found it easy to use and considerably powerful enough to make a good game. The thing is, most of my projects are being thought of or already began development on RPG Maker, and I don't even know if people care about RPG Maker games in 2021 (or will care around 2023 when I maybe release one of the games). One of my games has been resetted back to planning stages when I found out the story was bad and now that it is better I can start remaking it, but maybe remaking it on other engine would be better? My computer can't play Unreal Engine, and I haven't tested Unity yet. Game Maker is too expensive for me, I still have no job, but RPG Maker's tend to be more accessible to me. I really like using RPG Maker, but I don't want to dedicate years of effort and time for my game to just be completely ignored. I'm not talking about being the new Undertale, but I dream of having some fans and people talking about my game. Can this be achieved with RPG Maker in 2021? Os has the age of this engine already ended years ago and I should try to migrate? [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 05 May 2021 06:22 PM PDT I swear this question is about architecture and discussion based and not just a pick my engine for me post. I prototyped my game in unreal because originally I was planning on a much larger scope (namely 3d graphics and having content be hand made rather than procedural). Ive also pivoted to a more iterative approach rather than wholesale development. Essentially start with a really small core gameplay loop but make it solid and easy to add to incrementally. Additionally, I expect high performance demands despite being 2d. I'm used to developing with a traditional MVC or MVVM type architecture, but even when you approach this from a very AGILE type way, the process doesnt lend itself to iterative game development easily. Ive been aware of ECS for a bit, and I thought this might be an approach that would work better for my requirements. Both unreal and unity dont support actual ECS though. And unity DOTS/Entity package does support it but very badly; you cant even use the newest tech from unity with it. And everything is looking like theyll have a hybrid monobehavior conversion based approach eventually when they release a stable version of DOTS. Given that the two biggest commercial game engines dont support ECS, makes me think that ECS must not really be as good as I think it is? The one engine I found out there that seems to be the most popular (for ECS based engines) is Amethyst, which doesnt seem like it has reached a stable release point yet (nor do i see any popular indie games being released under it). So I guess my core questions are:
Thanks for any help you can provide! [link] [comments]  | ||
| Junior software engineer offered designer role - bad career move or no? Posted: 06 May 2021 04:28 AM PDT Hey everyone. I used to work in the games industry in a role that provided me with some game-design experience. I've been out of the games industry a few years, as I have been retraining as a software engineer and am currently working on generic software applications.* The thing is I applied for a programming role with a game studio in a city I wanted to move to (Barcelona). They said my experience wasn't enough for the software engineering role, but they wish to put me forward for consideration for a game designer position. Design is something I really enjoyed, and the job offer will possibly be a pay raise and in a city that's cheaper than where I currently live (Dublin). The only thing is I wonder if it's a bad career move long-term. I've put a lot of time into retraining into software engineering, and I do generally enjoy that also. I fear that in the long run I would limit my career prospects by switching to design, where jobs generally pay lower and are much harder to find, and that the experience I am currently getting (Java development on a generally unfulfilling project) is more valuable. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Any programmers on here made the switch to design? If so, any regrets and/or how easy is it to switch back to programming if things don't pan out? I really enjoyed my time in the game industry in general (especially the people I worked with), and I really wanted to move to Barcelona, so I am tempted by their offer. *I'm currently doing a part-time diploma in computer science at night (all online) while at work I have been transferred to a project (of indefinite length) in a junior software engineering role to get some practical experience. [UPDATE] Thanks everyone. I've decided to accept an interview with them, so fingers crossed! [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 May 2021 08:06 AM PDT Hey there, I'm trying to sign up for a Videogame Design course at a university and they asked me for a motivation letter. I have most of it done, but I'm having some trouble with the intro. I'd like to make a good point (1 paragraph long) on how game developers are meaningful to modern society. By other words, what makes it an important profession, worthy of motivation, in a relatable manner. Any ideas? :3 [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 06 May 2021 07:33 AM PDT just wanted to check did unity release a native version for apples silicone chip and if so is the performance good. also tell me which version your on [link] [comments]  |
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