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I always dig the low poly flat shaded stuff you're doing. I wish I can be proficient in modelling like that. For my #screenshotsaturday, I'm working on rewriting Wolf3D in C#.  I've been reading through Fabien Sanglard's code reviews of id games and tried to follow along with the actual code. Eventually I fooled myself that I can learn better by writing a level renderer in C# and got it up in two days or so. I think I'm going to finish up and get the game over as well. I was able to batch everything in the game and render it out in a single draw call, which compared to the iPhone version that makes a draw call for every wall and sprite. I accomplished that by dynamagically creating an atlas texture at load time for all the graphics that'd be used in the level. It's a pretty naive algorithm but it's cool to see it working.
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Mar 2, 2013 23:47
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 I have a house! It's cute. 
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Mar 3, 2013 00:45
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SystemLogoff, I love the stuff you're doing. You've got the charming feel of Earthbound/Mother down pat while still being recognizably original. What kind of game are you looking to make with these assets?
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Mar 3, 2013 02:45
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With the assets, something tells me an RPG, especially with the house. Looking forward to it some more SLoff. I really got to get back to finishing MY assets. Sheesh.
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Mar 3, 2013 05:28
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Just to remind everyone, 7DRL (7 Day Roguelike Challenge) starts next Saturday. If you're doing #1GAM, the theme lines up nicely to boot. EDIT: VV if I read the rules right, that's only as a backup - or at least I hope that's right. Using a newsgroup for this kind of thing is downright anachronistic. Though I guess I'm giggling over making a roguelike, so, glass houses and all... Shalinor fucked around with this message at 06:00 on Mar 3, 2013 |
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Mar 3, 2013 05:50
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I'm working on a modernish RPG. I just want something that's not Swords and Sorcery for a change. It helps that I've hit some inspiration and have a bunch of planing done. Just curious about rec.games.roguelike.development, is there a web-based client I can post with? Edit: Huzzah google groups. SystemLogoff fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Mar 3, 2013 |
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Mar 3, 2013 05:55
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Shalinor posted:Just to remind everyone, 7DRL (7 Day Roguelike Challenge) starts next Saturday. If you're doing #1GAM, the theme lines up nicely to boot. If anyone is interested in having an artist make them really sweet sprites, I'm totally down.
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Mar 3, 2013 06:19
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Shalinor posted:Just to remind everyone, 7DRL (7 Day Roguelike Challenge) starts next Saturday. If you're doing #1GAM, the theme lines up nicely to boot. This seems like it could be fun. I've been passingly interested in playing around with T-Engine modules for a while; maybe I'll use this as an excuse to learn LUA and crank out something small.
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Mar 3, 2013 23:41
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Starting on some tiles for the tutorial level of Tim the Flazo. I decided to go with a carnival-esque theme. Comparing the placeholder to the new (unfinished, mind) tiles is real motivation. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do: Course I still things to do, like break up the underground part of the ground tiles to make it more interesting. The background isn't in yet either (all of them are going to be handpainted watercolours) but it's nice to finally have something from the game to show!
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Mar 4, 2013 02:49
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Just finished this week's prototype, it's sort of a hack and slash platformer. I wish I'd had more time to work on this, I wanted to add more enemy types and more elements of skill, but I'm still quite pleased with what it is for a week's work (well really just a day of actual development, spent most of the week just thinking of what I wanted to do). I also have some fantasies of adding an inventory/equipment system and turning it into kind of an actiony platformer roguelike. Of all my prototypes so far I like this one the most, though I'd have a hard time putting into words why that is. Maybe it's just the little weird elements of skill that pop up when trying to take on multiple enemies without taking any damage. I like it. Also, I'm getting a lot better with good design practices in GameMaker, for what it's worth. Looking back on what I made the last few weeks I'm not sure I'd want to touch them again, but this time I think I made something that's actually well-designed and quite extensible. I could easily add more enemy types, polish up AI, etc., without anything getting messy. Anyhow, here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5n4z7b82co4hluk/Casey-prot4-HackJumpSlash.exe?m (Windows standalone executable, no install required)  e: Also I'm not an artist and don't deign to become one, but I'm still pretty happy with the cutesy little graphics I managed to GIMP up  e2: undocumented feature, hit 'F' to toggle fullscreen on and off. It's not strictly necessary but, hey. speng31b fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Mar 4, 2013 |
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Mar 4, 2013 07:16
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octoroon posted:Also, I'm getting a lot better with good design practices in GameMaker, for what it's worth. Looking back on what I made the last few weeks I'm not sure I'd want to touch them again, but this time I think I made something that's actually well-designed and quite extensible. I could easily add more enemy types, polish up AI, etc., without anything getting messy.
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Mar 4, 2013 07:29
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mnd posted:I think this is worth writing up, here or elsewhere, if you are so inclined. People (me included) would find it interesting. I like GameMaker for ease of use and speed to getting something made, but it seems hard (compared to other tools one could use) to really keep things clean and non-crufty. I'd definitely like to do this! I totally sympathize, coming from tools such as Unity it took me awhile to get my mind wrapped around good design patterns with GameMaker. I'll make a mental note to write a post up on this and include some GameMaker project files for reference. GameMaker is amazing at churning out prototypes, so if you can combine that with the ability to scale it becomes a really useful tool -- much more useful than I initially gave it credit for.
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Mar 4, 2013 07:37
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Shalinor posted:Just to remind everyone, 7DRL (7 Day Roguelike Challenge) starts next Saturday. If you're doing #1GAM, the theme lines up nicely to boot. As someone who doesn't really play roguelikes (but finds them fascinating), I might give this a go Came up a basic concept last night, will have to start fleshing it out over the week before this starts
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Mar 4, 2013 08:45
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Finally finished modeling a new player ship for my space game and here it is cruising around in unity.    I was surprised that texturing, uvs, normal maps, etc took far longer than the actual modeling. Now I gotta finish building in the player controls, write code for those, etc. I keep dithering on how much visible glass I want from inside the bridge. Too much glass effect might get annoying having to look around all the time even though there will be views running on those monitors, but I also don't want it to look like you can just stick your hand out into space. Looking at Privateer and such old games they never really had any kind of glass effect on the game window so I dunno.
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Mar 4, 2013 17:27
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octoroon posted:Just finished this week's prototype, it's sort of a hack and slash platformer. I played it. It's neat and clean. I find that taking an idea like "Hack slash + platformer" is neat. I bet with a little bit of work you can make this pretty cool.
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Mar 4, 2013 18:50
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blowingupcasinos posted:I played it. It's neat and clean. I find that taking an idea like "Hack slash + platformer" is neat. I bet with a little bit of work you can make this pretty cool. Yeah, I'd like to spend more time working on it. I'm still not sure what the core elements of skill should be -- I like the headjump->stun->attack loop I got going with the prototype, it's interesting when taking on multiple enemies or trying to avoid falling off a ledge while fighting or something. I also tried to add a timed block mechanic where attacking with your sword at the right moment could parry an enemy's attack, but I'm not sure how to implement that neatly without turning "randomly slash and hope for parries" into a viable strategy. Also convinced that adding roguelike elements will make it even more awesome. This is one prototype I will probably keep working on.
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Mar 4, 2013 21:07
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If anyone's been digging the music in the trailers for Jones On Fire, the soundtrack is actually out now: http://madsenstudios.bandcamp.com/album/jones-on-fire-ost/ ... on the one hand, I wish it was free, but on the other, I really wanted to make sure the musicians had a chance to make a more decent amount of money. They both cut me really, really good deals.
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Mar 4, 2013 21:09
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octoroon posted:Yeah, I'd like to spend more time working on it. I'm still not sure what the core elements of skill should be -- I like the headjump->stun->attack loop I got going with the prototype, it's interesting when taking on multiple enemies or trying to avoid falling off a ledge while fighting or something. I also tried to add a timed block mechanic where attacking with your sword at the right moment could parry an enemy's attack, but I'm not sure how to implement that neatly without turning "randomly slash and hope for parries" into a viable strategy. The game is definitely a good start, but you're going to have to figure out the mechanics better before you add roguelike to it. Maybe add some startup and cooldown to the attacks? Also, let the player bait enemy attacks so jumping on them isn't your only option. You can also make it so that when you're attacking you gain a different movement property (like a forward motion) that you either have to compensate for or take advantage of. I don't necessarily think you're at the point where you can talk about "headjump for a stun, attack" as a core skill because it's kinda the only skill. Adding in the parry mechanic would be neat, and would balance with the headjump approach, but you have to set up the game where the player is rewarded for choosing something that's easier for each particular encounter. Last criticism (sorry!): the enemy AI is too strict. It's nice and predictable, but it gets to points where you're just "gaming" the system. A lot of old games get around this by having a wide variety of enemies and placing them in ways where you don't see how bad the "AI" is.
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Mar 4, 2013 23:58
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If the windup to an enemy attack is long enough, the player should be able to understand the cue and successfully parry (so long as the window where a parry is accepted is reasonable). If you add parry, then headjump->stun should carry just as much risk as failing a parry.
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Mar 5, 2013 00:36
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blowingupcasinos posted:The game is definitely a good start, but you're going to have to figure out the mechanics better before you add roguelike to it. Maybe add some startup and cooldown to the attacks? Also, let the player bait enemy attacks so jumping on them isn't your only option. You can also make it so that when you're attacking you gain a different movement property (like a forward motion) that you either have to compensate for or take advantage of. I don't necessarily think you're at the point where you can talk about "headjump for a stun, attack" as a core skill because it's kinda the only skill. Adding in the parry mechanic would be neat, and would balance with the headjump approach, but you have to set up the game where the player is rewarded for choosing something that's easier for each particular encounter. Thanks for the ideas! Yeah, the attacks already actually do have a short startup. It may not be evident at first glance, but the first ~60 degrees of the swing do not have player collision, so in theory you could see a swing coming and react. You can actually play a "dodge" game right now if you jump the moment you see a swing start the enemy will miss. In practice, the attacks are still a little too fast for this to be a consistent tactic, so I will have to play with the timing. Adding a cooldown at the end of attacks is also something I was planning if I had more time. I also realize the AI is too predictable, and adding in a little bit of random patterns and speed would be a very minimal amount of effort. Adding more enemy types is also high on my list of things to do, which as you mentioned, should mask a little bit of the predictable single-enemy AI. And yes, roguelike mechanics are more of a pie-in-the-sky goal which I would attend to after getting the core prototype that I have here into a better state. I'm interested in adding elements that challenge player timing and reaction speed, which is why I am considering the parry mechanic. Wolfgang Pauli posted:If the windup to an enemy attack is long enough, the player should be able to understand the cue and successfully parry (so long as the window where a parry is accepted is reasonable). If you add parry, then headjump->stun should carry just as much risk as failing a parry. Yes, headjump->stun is not my favorite pattern because it seems to be very risk-averse in many situations; this could solved by keeping it situational. For instance, bouncing around on high ledges with fall damage enabled might be dangerous, and in areas with low ceilings it could be very difficult to pull off safely. In these situations parry would be clearly superior, but in open spaces with plenty of room to maneuver the headjump would be favorable. I do think I will experiment with a parry mechanic, I just have to test the timing to make sure it's not a superior option for every situation -- maybe a stamina meter of some sort to keep the player from spam-swinging hoping for parries? Just want to say thanks to both of you for playing my game and giving feedback, it's incredibly appreciated e: VVVVVVVVVVV That's one idea, they'd have to raise it up pretty high and keep it there for a long time to really be much of a deterrent. It's something I'll keep in mind, though. speng31b fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 01:00
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Actually, if the windup involves an enemy raising a sword or whatever above his head, that'd prevent headjump and require either dodging the attack or parrying it.
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Mar 5, 2013 01:10
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:Actually, if the windup involves an enemy raising a sword or whatever above his head, that'd prevent headjump and require either dodging the attack or parrying it. Yeah, that'd maybe work if the windup time were comparable to the stun time or jump time. When I say "startup" and "cooldown" I mean that the character is in a different state that normal. Normally you can walk left or right and jump and slash. The only thing that slashing does is deactivate the ability to start slashing. Things that happen because of this: a) You can proc multiple hits by mashing left/right while the slash animation is going b) You can't run away from enemies who are slashing because they move just as fast as you do while slashing. E.g. you can't bait enemies and then counter. c) You can attack and then dodge with a jump which is kinda cool but here it looks silly probably because the jump time is so long Here are a few ideas that might make this more interesting: maybe you can make it so that you can move forward while slashing, but not backward, and definitely not turn around. You could also add a delay after an attack where you can move but can't attack to reward players who successfully jump over a slashing enemy. You could also make it so that you can cancel your attack into another attack to encourage players to stay in one place - but once the attack is complete you start the delay. When you add extra weapons you can change all of these timings and/or the forward movement speed (spears have fast forward movement speed, daggers do not). Also, one button + arrow games are really hard to do well. I can't imagine that adding a second button for parry/shield would hurt - and it would help the player more easily understand defensive options. Also, I noticed that the AI works something like this (I don't know game maker syntax,sorry!): "Every frame, check to see if the player is to the left or right" > "Move accordingly" You literally can't jump over the enemy because their reaction time is so good they constantly let you jump stun them. I tried to fail, and it wouldn't let me. You can change it to something like this "Every .25 seconds, check to see if the player is to the left or right" > "Move accordingly" Or you can do it more randomly (so multiple enemies don't do the same thing) by adding something like this "Every .5 seconds, check to see if the player is to the left or right" + "Random chance 1 out of 5" > "Move accordingly" Ok this is too long and you probably didn't care for me to write this much! Hope some of this helped! blowingupcasinos fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 19:16
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blowingupcasinos posted:Lots of great analysis Thanks for the detailed writeup, I'm definitely going to use this! Just to address a few points: quote:a) You can proc multiple hits by mashing left/right while the slash animation is going This is currently true, if an enemy is to your left and right you can hit both of them if you're fast. You can't proc multiple hits on the same enemy this way, but it's still a weird oversight that I can fix by implementing your suggestion of locking your character's facing-direction during an attack. quote:b) You can't run away from enemies who are slashing because they move just as fast as you do while slashing. E.g. you can't bait enemies and then counter. Also true. This should also be fixed by limiting mobility during an attack. Enemies already move very slightly slow than the player as a base speed, but not enough so to allow dodging this way yet. quote:c) You can attack and then dodge with a jump which is kinda cool but here it looks silly probably because the jump time is so long Yeah, one major problem I have right now is that the jump distance is balanced for the platforming elements but not dodging or headstomping, it feels too floaty for that -- you spend too much time in the air. Not sure what to do about this. I guess I could scale down the platforming elements into smaller jumps, but that would feel like sort of a shame and might limit what I could do in terms of level design. Maybe make jump a charge-up mechanic? Longpress to do a full jump and tap for a small one? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. quote:Here are a few ideas that might make this more interesting: maybe you can make it so that you can move forward while slashing, but not backward, and definitely not turn around. You could also add a delay after an attack where you can move but can't attack to reward players who successfully jump over a slashing enemy. You could also make it so that you can cancel your attack into another attack to encourage players to stay in one place - but once the attack is complete you start the delay. When you add extra weapons you can change all of these timings and/or the forward movement speed (spears have fast forward movement speed, daggers do not). Also, one button + arrow games are really hard to do well. I can't imagine that adding a second button for parry/shield would hurt - and it would help the player more easily understand defensive options. I'm definitely going to implement your forward-not-backward movement and facing lock during an attack. I'm probably also going to add a short cooldown after the attack. I'm also going to change the linear interpolation of the swing speed to an accelerate interpolation so the windup takes longer relative to the damaging portion of the attack arc -- this should help with any future reaction-based mechanics I add, such as parry or dodge. I also agree that parry probably needs to be a separate button. I want to avoid adding extra controls just for the sake of having them, and roll as much into the one-button as possible, but you're right that two buttons plus arrows probably isn't over the top and may just be necessary to add the sort of complexity I have in mind. quote:AI stuff Yeah, I'm totally on the same page as you with the AI stuff. I have a number of ideas in mind for making the enemy movement patterns less predictable, the way it works right now is just the simplest-implementation placeholder for creating a melee enemy that poses a threat. For what it's worth the actual logic is: 1) If you're stunned, do nothing. 2) Otherwise, face the player. 3) If you are close enough to attack, do so. 4) Move towards the player. If that movement would bring you into contact with an obstacle, try to jump over it. quote:Ok this is too long and you probably didn't care for me to write this much! Hope some of this helped! No I actually love that you wrote this much, it got me thinking and I came up with a lot of ideas where before I felt like I'd kind of hit a creativity burnout-brickwall after churning out the initial prototype so quickly. I'm definitely going to be making some of these changes this week, and when I do I'd be happy to hear more of your suggestions Just hope I'm not cluttering up the thread too much with all my stuff.
speng31b fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 21:12
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quote:Yeah, one major problem I have right now is that the jump distance is balanced for the platforming elements but not dodging or headstomping, it feels too floaty for that -- you spend too much time in the air. Not sure what to do about this. I guess I could scale down the platforming elements into smaller jumps, but that would feel like sort of a shame and might limit what I could do in terms of level design. Maybe make jump a charge-up mechanic? Longpress to do a full jump and tap for a small one? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I would definitely recommend tap for hop and press for jump. I've got several puzzles that already rely on that distinction and they're some of the most well-liked for their challenge. And after all, what is combat in a video game than puzzling out "How do I get past this with the least amount of damage?"
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Mar 5, 2013 21:51
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GetWellGamers posted:I would definitely recommend tap for hop and press for jump. I've got several puzzles that already rely on that distinction and they're some of the most well-liked for their challenge. And after all, what is combat in a video game than puzzling out "How do I get past this with the least amount of damage?" Thanks for the encouragement, I'll definitely give that one a try. The only concern I have is that changing jump from the pressed event to the released event in order to detect chargeup time might make it feel somewhat laggy. Hopefully this will not be too bad, but if it is, I can always solve it with the good old double-jump. speng31b fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 23:37
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Octoroon, here's how I do variable jumps in GM: - Make the player jump when the button is pressed - say, set their vspeed to -5 or whatever. - Set the player to something like -.5 vspeed when the button is released, as long as their current vspeed is still higher (or technically less than) that value This has the effect of "choking" the jump when the player releases the button. Originally I just set the vspeed to zero when the button was released but this makes the jumps really unnatural. If the player just holds down the button the whole way they will get their maximum jump arc; if they release it asap they'll get a little hop, the minimum size of which you can control with the choke value. Give it a try.
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Mar 5, 2013 23:41
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octoroon posted:Thanks for the encouragement, I'll definitely give that one a try. The only concern I have is that changing jump from the pressed event to the released event in order to detect chargeup time might make it feel somewhat laggy. Hopefully this will not be too bad, but if it is, I can always solve it with the good old double-jump. You could take a page from either the original Super Mario Bros or Super Smash Bros:
I don't know the actual game physics behind SMB's jumping off hand, but Alcoholism's description sounds basically (if not exactly) the same.
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Mar 6, 2013 00:04
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Thanks guys, both of those solutions sound really promising. I'll give them a try. e: vvvvvvvvvvvv Yep, I've got a pretty good idea how to proceed from here. I'll update when I have a new playable build, sometime within the next few days. speng31b fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Mar 6, 2013 |
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Mar 6, 2013 01:02
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octoroon posted:Yeah, one major problem I have right now is that the jump distance is balanced for the platforming elements but not dodging or headstomping, it feels too floaty for that -- you spend too much time in the air. Not sure what to do about this. I guess I could scale down the platforming elements into smaller jumps, but that would feel like sort of a shame and might limit what I could do in terms of level design. Maybe make jump a charge-up mechanic? Longpress to do a full jump and tap for a small one? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. You have a variety of options. I like the idea of longpress for a full jump and tap for a small one. I'm sure there a lot of ways to do this, but here's what I would do in a platformer: Start a variable when the player pushes the jump button. While the jump button is being held AND the counter is under a certain value, keep setting the vertical velocity to your jump speed. Obviously the counter is still going up while the button is being held, but if it goes over a certain value or if the player lets go of the button, you start to let gravity have its influence. This doesn't confer perfect arcs, but it'll look good enough and I know a few games do it this way. quote:I'm definitely going to implement your forward-not-backward movement and facing lock during an attack. I'm probably also going to add a short cooldown after the attack. I'm also going to change the linear interpolation of the swing speed to an accelerate interpolation so the windup takes longer relative to the damaging portion of the attack arc -- this should help with any future reaction-based mechanics I add, such as parry or dodge. I also agree that parry probably needs to be a separate button. I want to avoid adding extra controls just for the sake of having them, and roll as much into the one-button as possible, but you're right that two buttons plus arrows probably isn't over the top and may just be necessary to add the sort of complexity I have in mind. As far as the swing animation goes, you have a lot of options. Don't think about it so much as how slow and how fast, think about it in sections. The startup is usually the pullback or windup. Think about a comic book frame. The cool down is the next comic book frame. The actual swing - the part where you hit - that's actually really, really quick, and players don't even think about it too much. I hope this helps you with your game! There are a lot of interesting things you can do with a platformer roguelike.
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Mar 6, 2013 02:14
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Here's a forum thread I found from https://www.explodingrabbit.com that gives an in-depth analysis of the SMB/Lost Levels/SMB3 movement physics, gleaned from the ROM code itself: http://www.explodingrabbit.com/forum/threads/original-smb-and-smb2j-player-physics-exhaustive-guide.14607/
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Mar 7, 2013 04:22
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I haven't been posting in here as much as I used to because I just try to spend all my time in front of my PC working towards shipping the playable demo lately. But I took a screenshot of my "Campaign Builder" today and you guys probably like looking at technical stuff like that so here's what it looks like when I make levels for my game. Slightly more relevantly though, is there anyone new here that I need to add into the OP's list of cool indie game dev goon people? Or anyone I should be following on Twitter/liking on Facebook that I haven't yet? I'm worried I'm falling behind all your projects a little.
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Mar 7, 2013 12:00
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Looks awesome, are you planning on bundling this with your game so people can make their own levels? I'm looking forward to playing this one because (I don't mean this as a dig) we've seen lots of gameplay vids and stuff but I'm still not sure what the game really is - a stealth game, a combat game, a hacking game, all three? etc The worst-looking thing about this is windows 8. It boggles my mind that they're putting a 10 pixel border around windows in desktop mode.
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Mar 7, 2013 15:03
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Mug posted:I haven't been posting in here as much as I used to because I just try to spend all my time in front of my PC working towards shipping the playable demo lately. But I took a screenshot of my "Campaign Builder" today and you guys probably like looking at technical stuff like that so here's what it looks like when I make levels for my game.
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Mar 7, 2013 15:19
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Mug posted:Slightly more relevantly though, is there anyone new here that I need to add into the OP's list of cool indie game dev goon people? Or anyone I should be following on Twitter/liking on Facebook that I haven't yet? I'm worried I'm falling behind all your projects a little. When I'm not rolling deep at Nexon I'm working on https://www.cameraobscuragame.com  Looking forward to picking up some good info from the Indie Summit at GDC this year...
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Mar 7, 2013 15:19
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Wanted to get a few opinions about a prototype I've been working on this week. The basic gameplay is controlling a laser beam that rotates around in a circle in order to kill enemies that attempt to reach the center. You control the radius it rotates in with Up/Down or W/S and can change the direction it rotates in with Left/Right or A/D. You can change the direction every two seconds and the laser hitbox will change colors to indicate when it is available, red meaning on cooldown and green meaning it is available. I'm mostly struggling with making the controls feel good and not confusing, the first iteration I created allowed you to change direction whenever you wanted and it made targeting the enemies awkward. The second iteration took away the ability to change direction but felt like if you only had a one chance to get an enemy in a rotation and if you missed there was no second chances. For this iteration the ability to rotate is on a two second cooldown and seems to work a bit more to me. Here's the initial diagram I whipped together to provide some sort of insight into what I planned. Any particular observations or suggestions that pop out after playing it?  Play it: Here
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Mar 7, 2013 18:44
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I feel like the frustrating thing about the controls is the enemy type. They're all really fast zergrushers, and it could use some variety. Also, they all start really god drat fast. I think I noticed the amount increasing over time, but you might want to consider starting them out slow. Give the player a chance to get accustomed to the controls and learn how to target in a safe environment. If you want to get really tricky, send enemies out in waves and time how long it takes a player to complete it. If they're clearing them pretty quickly, start ramping up speed and number. If they're getting their poo poo kicked, maybe back off a bit.
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Mar 7, 2013 18:51
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Started fleshing out a prototype for my next project Feels good to get back to this point in development after releasing a game. I also wrote a blog post now Take My Machete has been out for a while - http://www.rhysd.com/blog Do people think creating a basic prototype of the game, with polished graphics, sounds etc is better than a bare-bones dealio? I've always had the thought that part of the enjoyment and fun of a game is the visual aspect, alongside the gameplay, and wondered if I should polish both before getting people to give it a try/offer feedback.
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Mar 8, 2013 03:35
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RhysD posted:Started fleshing out a prototype for my next project In my humble opinion: it depends on how much time you have and what your goal for the prototype is. The first priority should always be gameplay and you should never sacrifice polishing core features of a prototype in favor of graphical/sound bells and whistles, but the real answer is that you need to do both. If you're asking someone else's opinion of your prototype and you want them to take you seriously enough to give it a proper try, it's always good to polish it as much as you possibly can. On the other hand, more often than not with a prototype you find out that YOU don't like it very much before you ever get to the stage of wanting someone else to try it out, so from that perspective it doesn't really matter much how it looks or sounds until you're sure you care enough to pursue it. Or alternatively just read this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2438/how_to_prototype_a_game_in_under_7_.php?print=1 for a lot of great thoughts about prototyping. speng31b fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 8, 2013 04:06
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GetWellGamers posted:When I'm not rolling deep at Nexon I'm working on https://www.cameraobscuragame.com
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Mar 8, 2013 04:31
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octoroon posted:In my humble opinion: it depends on how much time you have and what your goal for the prototype is. The first priority should always be gameplay and you should never sacrifice polishing core features of a prototype in favor of graphical/sound bells and whistles, but the real answer is that you need to do both. If you're asking someone else's opinion of your prototype and you want them to take you seriously enough to give it a proper try, it's always good to polish it as much as you possibly can. Thanks for the link, i'll give it a read. And yes, my first priority is always going to be gameplay and how fun it is. I think I'm too worried about people taking it seriously enough to give it a go, which is why I think polishing a short example prototype will be my focus.
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Mar 8, 2013 04:40
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