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Whybird posted:A diver needs to be escorted to a sunken ship so he can swim down and recover the blueprints, and while he's doing that some waves of enemies will spawn. You have to protect him from them. These are all solid bases for a mission (or maybe a conduct while playing another mission, in the case of the last suggestion), but not really a secret, I feel. A secret ought to be something where the player is poking around, notices something, and is rewarded for it. Not so much something where some dialog pops up to explain what's going on and tell the player what to do. In any case, thanks for the suggestions, y'all! I have a few more ideas in my bag, thanks to you and Twitter. In particular, having seagulls circle above a treasure will make it possible for me to hide them in less clued positions. And having certain structures lit up, and/or having a line of buildings/buoys that you need to follow, should let me increase the "surface area" of the treasure, so the player has more opportunity to stumble onto things and follow the trail. In completely different news, the screen-space ambient occlusion I'm using breaks down when looking at round surfaces. For example, look at the barrel of this gun: Is this something that SSAO can plausibly deal with? Or is it just fundamentally not fixable?
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 21:22 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 17:05 |
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:In completely different news, the screen-space ambient occlusion I'm using breaks down when looking at round surfaces. For example, look at the barrel of this gun: This is pretty normal with low poly geometry unfortunately (maybe some more sophisticated algorithm could deal with it better). What tends to help with low-poly round artifacts is increasing "bias" if there is such setting. This usually means that some SSAO samples with some depth/height above surface difference from center (i.e. pixel being evaluated) will be ignored. If you set it to zero, there might appear some grain or something similar to shadow map acne, if you set it too high, SSAO will disappear entirely (your image also has bright edges, so bias may be set too low, so flat surfaces occlude themselves)
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 22:21 |
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commando in tophat posted:This is pretty normal with low poly geometry unfortunately (maybe some more sophisticated algorithm could deal with it better). What tends to help with low-poly round artifacts is increasing "bias" if there is such setting. This usually means that some SSAO samples with some depth/height above surface difference from center (i.e. pixel being evaluated) will be ignored. If you set it to zero, there might appear some grain or something similar to shadow map acne, if you set it too high, SSAO will disappear entirely (your image also has bright edges, so bias may be set too low, so flat surfaces occlude themselves) Thanks, I kind of figured it was a common issue. I've fiddled with the settings (including bias), but haven't been able to eliminate it entirely. One thing I noticed just now though is that a large part of this isn't the SSAO at all, but rather my material shader. Here's SSAO turned off entirely; you can still clearly see the edges of the gun barrel: I believe this has to do with how I'm handling shadows in the material shader: code:
My goal with the attenuation stuff is mostly just to limit how dark shadows can get, without having to muck around with carefully adjusting the lighting everywhere. _ColorMultiplierMinimalist is a global color multiplier I use to accentuate lighting changes...it's mostly a relic of an old material shader that I no longer use, but it doesn't hurt anything, so I've kept using it. EDIT: tweaking the shadow bias for the light source fixes it, of course The problem I have is that I use the same light to illuminate every part, from small anti-aircraft guns all the way through to giant ship bridges, and the same bias settings don't work for all of them.
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 23:00 |
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:EDIT: tweaking the shadow bias for the light source fixes it, of course The problem I have is that I use the same light to illuminate every part, from small anti-aircraft guns all the way through to giant ship bridges, and the same bias settings don't work for all of them.
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 23:29 |
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Here's almost final artwork for a new character. What do you think? My brain is feeling a bit numb at the moment so I'm not sure what feedback I want to give at this point.
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 23:48 |
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What the hell happened to that person they look like a cancer patient who rose from the dead. Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily.
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 23:52 |
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I don't know why but I'm getting old person face on young body vibes and it feels discongruous
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# ? Jan 18, 2022 23:56 |
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baby puzzle posted:Here's almost final artwork for a new character. What do you think? My brain is feeling a bit numb at the moment so I'm not sure what feedback I want to give at this point. This is not posted as criticism this is encouragement. I like the design!
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:00 |
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baby puzzle posted:Here's almost final artwork for a new character. What do you think? My brain is feeling a bit numb at the moment so I'm not sure what feedback I want to give at this point. I like it! Unique and a little grotesque (not in a bad way)
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:01 |
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leper khan posted:I don't know why but I'm getting old person face on young body vibes and it feels discongruous It's just Fingers
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:04 |
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dhamster posted:I like it! Unique and a little grotesque (not in a bad way) Thanks. I think I agree that the body looks too young for the face. I was going for an "anti-loli" type character and I came up with the character idea around the time that Lady Dimitrescu was popular.
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:15 |
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Sininu posted:Could you show what the fixed one looks like because I'm confused about where the gun barrel edge shadow is in the no SSAO image. It's the lines running the length of the gun barrel. Here's what it looks like when fixed (with both shadows and SSAO turned on): You can still see the lines, but you have to look a lot more closely.
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:21 |
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:It's the lines running the length of the gun barrel. Here's what it looks like when fixed (with both shadows and SSAO turned on): Oh.. I thought those were intentional because of the low poly aesthetic and your other edges looked the same. In Blender it's the difference between smooth and flat shading.
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:32 |
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Sininu posted:Oh.. I thought those were intentional because of the low poly aesthetic and your other edges looked the same. In Blender it's the difference between smooth and flat shading. I am using smooth shading, that's why I was annoyed that the edges were visible
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 00:44 |
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edit: ?????????? I'm having a hard math time e: oh I got hypotenuse and theta mixed up baby puzzle fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Jan 19, 2022 |
# ? Jan 19, 2022 01:08 |
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baby puzzle posted:e: oh I got hypotenuse and theta mixed up Started typing and glad I previewed. I still have to bust out a napkin for any kind of trigonometry or even half o' algebra. Something about doing it on computers or in my head just doesn't click, where as soon as I can draw a little triangle I know exactly what I'm after.
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# ? Jan 19, 2022 01:14 |
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(Crossposted from the Game Development Megathread) I need to be working more on promoting my game. Thing is, I have neither the time nor energy to really give that task the attention it deserves. Who should I talk to about exchanging money for promotional work? Specific goals: - Build community - Increase word of mouth - Get press and streamer attention
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 01:08 |
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:(Crossposted from the Game Development Megathread) Investors? I'm only half joking. If I had something like you have, I'd be talking to all the wealthy a/o money people I know in and around the industry to help me figure out a strategy for selling it or additional contacts for someone who might help me with that.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 01:53 |
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leper khan posted:Investors? I'm only half joking. If I had something like you have, I'd be talking to all the wealthy a/o money people I know in and around the industry to help me figure out a strategy for selling it or additional contacts for someone who might help me with that. I do need to follow up with my contacts, but they're very nearly all small-time indie devs, barely bigger than I am. Hell, the reason I posted in this thread is because y'all are part of my contact network! I am incredibly fortunate to be in a position where I don't need money to finish the game. I mean, if someone wants to hand me a chunk of cash in exchange for reasonable terms, I won't say no, but that's not my priority right now. I'll finish the game either way. What the game needs most to succeed is to get put in front of people who are interested in playing it. Basically I'd like to view this like hiring a musician or artist or something, except that instead of paying them for game content, I'm paying them for exposure.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 02:22 |
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Broke: Paying someone with exposure. Woke: paying someone FOR exposure. Had a breakthrough on how I’m gonna handle the mechanics of my RPG and make the classes feel more unique than just “generic wizard, generic warrior, etc.” I’m gonna give every class different techniques/“””spells”””, two that can be used basically any time for almost no energy/mana (one might be weapon-type specific, maybe), two that costs a bit of energy (one of which is CHARACTER specific, but class independent) and one that costs a lot of energy, with more skills unlocked as they level up. The canny among you may recognize this system: It’s basically the At-Will/Encounter/Daily system from D&D 4e.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 03:25 |
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Quick update on the marketing/PR thing -- I reached out to GlassBottomMeg, a.k.a. Shalinor, developer of SkateBIRD, and she said she used Stride PR for SkateBIRD. I'm still interested in other recommendations y'all might have, so I can do some comparing.girl dick energy posted:Had a breakthrough on how I’m gonna handle the mechanics of my RPG and make the classes feel more unique than just “generic wizard, generic warrior, etc.” I’m gonna give every class different techniques/“””spells”””, two that can be used basically any time for almost no energy/mana (one might be weapon-type specific, maybe), two that costs a bit of energy (one of which is CHARACTER specific, but class independent) and one that costs a lot of energy, with more skills unlocked as they level up. Yeah, this is an excellent approach. In particular, giving martial classes (fighter, rogue, etc.) Cool Buttons they can press goes a long way to addressing the common power imbalance between martials and casters. Another thing you can do is let characters recover energy by performing their basic class action. This is basically how the Tales games handle it -- special abilities cost TP, and you recover TP by using basic attacks (and also by winning fights, eating food, resting at inns, etc). But you could make it so that e.g. the cleric's basic class action is a minor healing spell, or the rogue's basic action is to hide, increasing their next attack's power.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 04:06 |
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I do need to follow up with my contacts, but they're very nearly all small-time indie devs, barely bigger than I am. Hell, the reason I posted in this thread is because y'all are part of my contact network! Look into the costs of local radio ads in various metros. Anywhere you have enthusiasts about something that might translate, look into niche media (navy zines?) and how much they charge for ads. The only way I know how to get a return on influencers involves tons of money. Ideally you're looking for highly engaged demographics that other people aren't trying to monetize. Ask a marketing person how to track effectiveness of your various campaigns. If you can figure out what's working, you know where/how to burn more cash. But you're probably going to need a pile of cash, especially if you need help putting together the creative/ad stuff. Scale of budgets I'm used to in commercial dev often spends significantly more on marketing than dev, unless the initial numbers are so bad the thing gets cut.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 04:15 |
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I'm not going to try to do the marketing myself. I do not have the time and energy to put into it, nor do I have the skillset. I'm explicitly looking to hire someone else to do it for me, and therefore looking for recommendations for which people to hire.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 05:08 |
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https://supercombo.gg/2022/01/20/mega-knockdown-taking-its-my-turn-now-too-literally/?s=09 Woke up to see this, pretty cool. Guy really went in depth into the game system and did a thoughtful writeup.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 14:55 |
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dhamster posted:https://supercombo.gg/2022/01/20/mega-knockdown-taking-its-my-turn-now-too-literally/?s=09 Yeah that's really cool, love how they had to finish with a comment on how you are one of the few games that don't need rollback netcode.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 15:18 |
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That's great! Here's hoping it gets you some extra visibility. If a streamer wanted to play the game right now, how hard would it be for them to find someone to play against?
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 16:49 |
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My artist added some more details to her body. Does it look a bit more cohesive now?
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 18:25 |
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i think it's a really cool design!
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 18:31 |
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baby puzzle posted:My artist added some more details to her body. Does it look a bit more cohesive now? Face matches much more easily with the body now. My immediate read on the character is that they've gone too deep down the well of technology and it has taken a toll on their very being, and that they aren't particularly upset about that fact.
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# ? Jan 20, 2022 19:46 |
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Alright, so here's an island: It's got two forests, two open grasslands, a marsh and a hill. Which of these do you think makes the most sense: A) There are 4 biome types and 6 different biomes, and the entire island is a region. B) There are 4 biomes and 6 different biotopes, and the entire island is a region. C) There are 4 biomes and 6 different regions, and the entire island is... a sector...? D) There are 4 biomes and 6 different habitats, and the entire island is an ecosystem. E) something else? Since the game I'm working on is "A game about building biomes/biotopes/regions/________" I kinda feel like I need to get it right. Up until recently I've happily gone with option A, since that's what Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress seems to use, but a tester was quite adamant that this is wrong, and ideally I don't want to be a big dumb baby. Option B seems to be technically correct, or at least the Wikipedia article for biomes says that biotopes are "a concrete geographical unit", but apparently biotopes can also just mean a rock or a garden or whatever, and I'm not sure how common that word is. Option C could work, but "A game about building regions" doesn't sound very exciting, and I'm already using that word for the entire "map". Please help, I've run out of Wikipedia articles and I'm not getting anything done. Edit: added option D. LoboFlex fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Jan 21, 2022 |
# ? Jan 21, 2022 10:52 |
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I think calling the island a region and the environmental types biome makes sense so finding a good name for the parts that make up a region is the issue right? Zone could work but is bit artificial/ gamey, would District work? "A game about building/developing districts" could work depending on what type of building you mean. But really I'd suggest looking at names for administrative areas rather than environmental for that section. Hel fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Jan 21, 2022 |
# ? Jan 21, 2022 11:06 |
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no matter what you do some nerd will be mad somewhere, I'd just go with the jargon that's commonly used in popular games because it will probably get the concepts across more clearly to your average gamer than the scientifically correct terminology
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 11:11 |
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Hel posted:I think calling the island a region and the environmental types biome makes sense so finding a good name for the parts that make up a region is the issue right? Zone could work but is bit artificial/ gamey, would District work? "A game about building/developing districts" could work depending on what type of building you mean. There are no buildings in the game (at the moment atleast), it's all about building the landscape itself. Here's a quick video, its all placeholders for now: https://i.imgur.com/7LFXDKI.mp4 districts would be a great name, but since it's all about building the biomes/biotopes/whatever, and not administrative regions I'm not so sure. It'd be nice to hear what others think though, even if yeah, I might just go with "biomes" since its accepted in videogames and that's it.
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 11:48 |
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LoboFlex posted:There are no buildings in the game (at the moment atleast), it's all about building the landscape itself. Here's a quick video, its all placeholders for now: drat that's slick
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 12:46 |
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Oh. Oh no. Oh nonono, I have other things I need to do every day you know. Do you know what this sort of game could do to my available spare time? So where do we throw money at you and when can we have it?
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 12:58 |
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I'll toss into the mix 4 biome types with six different biomes, the island is an ecosystem. When you tell people the game is about building ecosystems they'll either envision something cool as hell (which should be a pretty accurate description of your game!) Or they'll think you're some kinda cyber hippy and stop listening.
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 14:07 |
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LoboFlex posted:There are no buildings in the game (at the moment atleast), it's all about building the landscape itself. Here's a quick video, its all placeholders for now: This looks like catnip to me, an autist.
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 14:57 |
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If I wanted to be a huge grognard about terminology while still being understandable and leaning heavily on the nature terminology, I would say you have 6 habitats, 4 biomes and one ecosystem. But 99% of players aren't going to care.
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 15:47 |
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Aw shucks you guys reignofevil posted:I'll toss into the mix 4 biome types with six different biomes, the island is an ecosystem. When you tell people the game is about building ecosystems they'll either envision something cool as hell (which should be a pretty accurate description of your game!) Or they'll think you're some kinda cyber hippy and stop listening. Hey, thats good! I've generally been calling the whole thing a landscape building game, but there are some animals involved (and possibly a human element when I get that that far), so ecosystem is a better fit! I imagine that each player has an overarching world that's divided into regions, and that the regions fit into a grid on a world map. Each region would be of a certain size, but if the player has "unlocked" two neighbouring regions then they might grow into each other somehow. The goal being that each game played is kept, and that you have a reason to revisit old games (if you want). It might just end up being feature creep though, so if all games are one-off then I'd much rather call them ecosystems like you suggested. KillHour posted:If I wanted to be a huge grognard about terminology while still being understandable and leaning heavily on the nature terminology, I would say you have 6 habitats, 4 biomes and one ecosystem. There are animals in the game, each of which have a distinct "AoE" which might be considered their habitat, and they don't necessarily follow the same lines as the biomes. Then again, habitat is probably a more familiar word than biotope and wikipedia does say the two often mean the same thing, so... it's valuable input, I'll add it to the list.
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 16:30 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 17:05 |
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LoboFlex posted:Aw shucks you guys I'd call the AoE their 'territory'
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# ? Jan 21, 2022 19:30 |