Making Games Megathread: Congratulations on releasing the horniest game of 2022

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Making Games Megathread: Congratulations on releasing the horniest game of 2022

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Howdy fellow game makers, etc.,

I came across this earlier today via Reddit (yes, yes, I know) and thought people here might be interested. I haven't taken a deep look at it yet, but at a glance, it looks at least worth such a look, if not more.

Program Arcade Games -- Learn Computer Science

The course uses Python and Pygame, and has a complete YouTube playlist as well.

Check it out!

# ¿ Sep 18, 2012 01:25

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 12:20

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Ghost Head posted:

I've been interested in text adventure games lately but some of the ideas I have don't seem possible using the Inform 7 game maker. Just simple things like playing a song in the background or having a different font or display. Is it difficult to learn to program text adventures for someone with no programming knowledge? I'm guessing the text parser might be difficult.

You are probably going to want to start with TADS, or Hugo, or ADRIFT if you want different fonts and (especially) multimedia with sound. This may be possible with Inform, but I've never tried. I know different fonts are possible with TADS, especially if you end up using the HTML TADS interface for your games; sound is also possible, but again, I've not yet used it in my TADS games.

Disclaimer: I've used several versions of both Inform (including version 7, as well as 6 and earlier) and TADS, but I've never used Hugo or ADRIFT.

ADRIFT is for-pay software (possibly under a shareware license, I'm not sure; I know there are older freeware interpreters for ADRIFT games... check out the licensing details), and is probably the easiest for non-programmers to use (meant in the sense of drawing diagrams rather than learning any syntax).

Hugo is freeware, and is reportedly oriented more towards multimedia fiction than straight text adventures, so I'd recommend stating there perhaps.

TADS is the system that is most like other non-IF ("Interactive Fiction") programming languages in terms of syntax and in terms of expressive power (leading to some more end-user visible complexity in the language, esp. compared to Inform 7).

IF environments like all of these exist to make it comparatively simple to write your games compared to implementing your own text parser and library of nouns, verbs, phrases, etc. in some standard programming language, so you should find using one of them vastly more agreeable for writing IF than hand-rolling your own. You'll need to learn the conventions players expect though, and how to work in your own chosen system. All of the systems mentioned above come with tutorials. I can vouch for the quality of the TADS tutorials and documentation, as well as the Inform 7 tutorial and docs.

Also, the real benefit is they output game code that can run in an interpreter people already have (if they're IF fans/players), or can get for free, especially if you point them to one or distribute one. There are also some entirely web-based interpreters; check out Parchment (which can play Z-machine games) and the newest TADS version, which has a server-side option to make your games web available.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2012 01:40

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

If anyone wants someone to help out on sound effects/sound design/soundtrack work for some short term game projects, I'm game (ahem). My game projects have stalled currently (though most of them are still in the tech development yak shaving phase anyway), since I'm working heads-down on a (non-game) music project that I have to play live in early January.

That said, I'd still like to do something game dev related, albeit with less commitment required than a full-blown project; something that will keep me knee deep in my music apps, perhaps letting me experiment and exercise different creative workflows than I'll need for my upcoming gig.

PM me or reply here if you're interested.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2012 08:27

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Furret Basket posted:

You should probably be a little more specific about what music styles or genre you're able to produce. There's plenty of times I've seen people say they'll produce music for your game then to find out they can only produce 4/4 techno.

That sounds fair. I'm open to whatever ideas people have, but I guess I'm currently best suited towards electronic music in general; anything with live instruments I'm going to have trouble producing because at the moment, as I don't have any in working order. Also, all of my current musical work is laptop- and software-driven. I come from a classical strings background, so I can read sheet music, etc. (and I have long-standing fantasies of scoring music which I dabble in), but that was decades ago. I haven't touched a violin in over twelve years.

With regards to helping out on audio for short-term game dev projects:

Sound effects-wise I think I'm interested in retro low-fi sounds (so yes, chiptunes [though not exclusively just that] -- for the haters, whatever; I still like well-done chiptune work and I was around for when that sound wasn't just a style, it was the best we could get out of video games, and the best stuff blew you away). I like to play around with raw waveforms, and yes, I use things like sfxr, LabChirp, chipsounds, but not just those. Sometimes I like to nerd out in trackers and Octave/MATLAB, for instance.

Soundtrack work could be out of any number of electronic genres (not just chiptunes); if someone wanted to do a goofy not-too-serious ridiculous dubstep wub thing, I could be very up for that, as long as everyone was having fun and taking the piss out of it (not to say I don't like dubstep honestly, but I also like being less solemn with genres from time to time). More generally, I'm also a fan of recent layered melodic work from artists like Tycho, Yppah, Pantha Du Prince, Amon Tobin, etc., but making anything that sounds like that (and sounds good) is likely way more work than would be feasible for short-term projects. Some game soundtracks I've liked a lot in the recent past include Module's soundtrack to Shatter (http://sidhe.bandcamp.com/album/shatter-official-videogame-soundtrack), DannyB's Super Meat Boy soundtrack, Fez, Hotline Miami, etc.

I feel like this response takes a stab at what I can do and what I'm interested in/up for within the constraints of the offer, but is also vague and meandering, so please let me know if you have any specific questions or requests.

minidracula fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Dec 27, 2012

# ¿ Dec 27, 2012 07:46

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Hey timeandtide,

timeandtide posted:

As a fiction writer, I'd really like to experiment making a few simple text games, but I have 0% programming knowledge. Are there any recommended programs/methods to start out with? (I'm hoping there's an RPG Maker style program for this.)

If there's one that I can tool around by putting in audio, visuals, etc. (I'd love to do a text game with a visual novel flair to it- music tracks cuing up for certain rooms, etc.) but that still keep it simple would be even better.

Also, if anyone has any must read interactive fiction/text games I need to check out, feel free to link them.

timeandtide posted:

Thanks for the quick, and very informative, reply. Something like Inform sounds fantastic to start with, but will I at least be able to do text trickery? (Think House of Leaves/experimental things, like making text bigger, different colors of font, etc.) If not, can you also recommend something slightly more advanced that I can grow into after playing around with Inform?

I know you already received some good replies from abraham linksys, HelixFox, Ol Uncle Anime, and others I've forgotten here, but figured I'd chip in with my $.02. Ghost Head asked a similar question a few pages back, and here's what I said then; hope this helps. Also, regarding doing House of Leaves-style typography/typesetting/page layout in interactive fiction: to really do it the way Danielewski does it in House of Leaves essentially removes you from being able to use the traditional IF tools AFAIK. If you really want to go that route, you might want to follow the goon who suggested using raw HTML-based tools (e.g. HTML5 and JS, DHTML, etc.). This will involve more work in having to craft the "presentation layer" of your IF work, since it'll essentially be custom, but I expect that was true of the layout and publishing of House of Leaves as well.

mnd posted:

You are probably going to want to start with TADS, or Hugo, or ADRIFT if you want different fonts and (especially) multimedia with sound. This may be possible with Inform, but I've never tried. I know different fonts are possible with TADS, especially if you end up using the HTML TADS interface for your games; sound is also possible, but again, I've not yet used it in my TADS games.

Disclaimer: I've used several versions of both Inform (including version 7, as well as 6 and earlier) and TADS, but I've never used Hugo or ADRIFT.

ADRIFT is for-pay software (possibly under a shareware license, I'm not sure; I know there are older freeware interpreters for ADRIFT games... check out the licensing details), and is probably the easiest for non-programmers to use (meant in the sense of drawing diagrams rather than learning any syntax).

Hugo is freeware, and is reportedly oriented more towards multimedia fiction than straight text adventures, so I'd recommend stating there perhaps.

TADS is the system that is most like other non-IF ("Interactive Fiction") programming languages in terms of syntax and in terms of expressive power (leading to some more end-user visible complexity in the language, esp. compared to Inform 7).

IF environments like all of these exist to make it comparatively simple to write your games compared to implementing your own text parser and library of nouns, verbs, phrases, etc. in some standard programming language, so you should find using one of them vastly more agreeable for writing IF than hand-rolling your own. You'll need to learn the conventions players expect though, and how to work in your own chosen system. All of the systems mentioned above come with tutorials. I can vouch for the quality of the TADS tutorials and documentation, as well as the Inform 7 tutorial and docs.

Also, the real benefit is they output game code that can run in an interpreter people already have (if they're IF fans/players), or can get for free, especially if you point them to one or distribute one. There are also some entirely web-based interpreters; check out Parchment (which can play Z-machine games) and the newest TADS version, which has a server-side option to make your games web available.

minidracula fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Dec 27, 2012

# ¿ Dec 27, 2012 08:04

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Vankwish posted:

I still haven't decided on the genre of music for my game Neon. You can watch a video of it by clicking on the 'Game Dev' link under my avatar.

If you think your style could fit with the game I'd be interested in hearing a test piece. Maybe make something to fit with the video if you are interested?

Incidentally, I'm working towards starting closed alpha in a couple of months and an alpha demo hopefully soon after.

Hey there!

I took a look at the video on the Steam Greenlight page. Looks interesting. I'll admit it didn't immediately hook me, but I'm interested in seeing where it goes. I'll start thinking about a piece of background music to go with that video and maybe making some audio doodles and throw something over the transom to you when I have a thing for you listen to. Sound good?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2012 23:21

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

PDP-1 posted:

For anyone who's interested, Mo_Steel started up a thread for the One Game A Month not-really-a-contest game making thingy.

Aww jeez. I just got done saying I wasn't going to have time to work on my extant game dev projects at least for January, but now this thing is making me want to use it as a convenient excuse to experiment with a bunch of tech choices on extraordinarily simple games. F it, I'm in. I'll post over in Mo_Steel's thread to that effect.

PDP-1, thanks for cross-posting this!

# ¿ Dec 30, 2012 23:24

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Shalinor posted:

Kind of a cross-post from the screenshots thread. Our game, Jones On Fire, hits the market this Thursday!

I'm super excited. It's the studio's first "real" game to hit the market, and it's blowing up on Twitter quite nicely. Hit Kotaku this morning, and hopefully it'll make the rounds throughout the day and up to release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQlrH16WeJI

To borrow from Beelzebub (and adapt his phrase slightly), Conga Rats! on Jones On Fire. The video looks way cool. I appreciate all of it, especially CATULATING.

Is it just my system or is the "blur" that happens at around 0:45 in the video happening for everyone?

Except for the fact that it'd be a ton of work, you should totally make a Harlem Shake video with Jones and the cattes. It'd be too cute. (And yes I know this meme is already well on its way out. Still.)

minidracula fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Feb 20, 2013

# ¿ Feb 20, 2013 03:54

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

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.

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.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 07:29

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

StevenM posted:

Is there a more effective way to create 8-bit sound effects than sfxr or bxfr? They're good programs but they're like glorified lists of settings. It'd be great to be able to craft sounds like the juicy sword-slicing from the NES TMNT - like that sound, and not the actual sound, since I don't have the spare funds to get sued up the butt.

It depends on what you mean by effective, but as Rupert Buttermilk said later in the thread (and quoted below), you can get away with any synth that has the basic bits and pieces you want. To me, "8-bit" sound can encompass a lot, including sounds made with and by chips that were 8-bit, but were in consoles other than the NES, so unless you want a specific NES aesthetic, don't feel you have to limit yourself to that to be "8-bit".

As a specific recommendation for something that no one has yet mentioned, and in the vein of "there's more to 8-bit than just the NES", and though it costs money (unlike sfxr and pals), I like Plogue chipsounds bunches. Those guys are doing it right, studiously recreating and accurately emulating sounds chips from the era, and I respect that.

TheOrange posted:

I've been playing around with Linux Multimedia Studio (which works on Windows, despite the name) and its built-in Gameboy instrument, as far as I know there's plugins to hook in proper NES/SNES effects as well. You could also try Famisynth, but I never really got the interface for that one.

I still find bxfr great for making those little blips and bloops, and usually will tweak them a little bit in Audacity to get them sounding closer to what I need.

Another thing you might look towards, to go along with TheOrange's mention of using bfxr and tweaking in Audacity: LabChirp. It's like sfxr or bfxr but has more/different tweakable parameters, allows for custom waveforms, and supports multiple channels. I find it tons of fun to play with and tweak, and I often do dump WAVs from LabChirp into an audio editor (usually first into GoldWave, in my case) for even more tweaky fun.

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

To make actual tracks (like rendered audio), any synth can do. You have to remember that the NES soundchip and 5 channels:

1 Triangle wave
1 Noise wave (which used basic filtering to really craft some nice sounds)
2 Square/pulse waves
1 Sample channel (very primitive, but that's where you get 'BLADES OF STEEL!' coming from).

All channels were monophonic, you couldn't play more than one note on them at once, but you could play some or all channels together. Echoing was simulated with the two square/pulse channels by having them play simultaneously and one of the two being quieter and a few samples behind. Personally, I use Logic's ES1 plugin (Logic is a Mac-only digital audio workstation). You can literally find any synth to recreate the NES sound, you just have to limit yourself in the right way.

Minor self-promotion (I don't make money from it whatsoever, so is that cool?) I made an album of 8-bit-inspired tunes that you can check out here -> http://www.robotcousin.com/audio/nothing-fancy-8-bit-album

I say '8-bit-inspired' because it doesn't actually follow the same rules as I posted above, but almost all 8 bit sounds were from using the ES1 (and a little bit of reFX's Commodore 64 soundchip emulator, quadraSID).

I'm tinkering and toying with a ton of music and sound design stuff (when I ought to be doing any number of other things, including cranking out a game a month for 1GAM, which I have failed on four months and counting now...), so if you're interested, I could always play around and make some sounds for you, get your feedback, and then iterate. Only if you're up for it, of course. But if so, let me know.

Edit: StevenM, same offer applies to you as well. And to anyone else looking for sounds for their games (esp. 8-bit/lo-fi, not because that's all I like, but because I'm doing a lot in that style right now anyway, for fun and projects).

minidracula fucked around with this message at 19:20 on May 8, 2013

# ¿ May 8, 2013 18:35

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

Always up for it. PM me, or email me at jordan at robotcousin dot com.

Just PM'd you!

# ¿ May 8, 2013 19:19

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Shalinor posted:

... god drat. and I live with a DJ.

Thinking it's time to figure out MIDI integration for Unity.

I don't know for certain about MIDI, but I've had an OSC bridge into Unity projects for a few years (originally via Max/MSP, pulled from elsewhere, I believe originally found on createdigitalmotion.com). More or less the same idea.

# ¿ May 17, 2014 02:53

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Haven't posted in this thread in yonks, but is anyone here using Haxe? Particularly, is anyone here using Haxe + Heaps + HashLink? Just curious to see if there are similarly crazy likeminds in the thread.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2018 02:24

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

CodeAndWeb appears to be running an "Indie Discount" for the next three days: 50% discount for 1 license of TexturePacker, SpriteIlluminator, and/or PhysicsEditor. Qualifications are "you are a single developer with a yearly revenue below $100.000". Applies to either yearly subscription pricing or lifetime pricing.

I'm thinking of getting the full bundle of all three apps on a lifetime license since I was thinking of getting just TexturePacker and was figuring I'd have to pay stock lifetime price (because gently caress subscriptions); with this discount that pack of three apps ("Master") comes in at $99.50 (or $34.99 if you opted for yearly), which is $0.49 less than what TexturePacker alone on lifetime non-indie pricing costs. (With more than one app, the discount changes: 50% off on TexturePacker & PhysicsEditor, 63% off on TexturePacker & SpriteIlluminator, and 60% off on all three.)

My question is: from the users of one or more of these apps, are they worth it? Especially TexturePacker, when compared with other options (e.g. Sprite Sheet Packer, Aseprite, etc., etc.)?

minidracula fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Feb 13, 2021

# ¿ Feb 13, 2021 04:47

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Omi no Kami posted:

I've used a Huion H610 Pro for a year+ with zero complaints. It's very bare-bones, and I get the feeling if I were a better artist I'd want more pressure sensitivity and some additional bells & whistles, but it does everything I need for around fifty bucks.

I picked one of these up off Amazon based on this post and the preceding not-a-Wacom tablet chat, as my current "needs" :airquote:

are super basic. It got here today, but so far I haven't had time to do much other than make it sure it works out of the box with SmoothDraw, EverNote, and SketchBook, which it does (or seems to; buttons don't, but I think that's to be expected with just the default inbox Windows driver).

I'm mostly interested in a larger surface, low cost (for the surface space) compared to Wacom options, and some particular basics, like having the drawing/writing surface being physically distinct from the non-recognized area/rest of the body of the tablet, so I can feel when I move past it or bump up against the boundary, unlike on the low-end entry point Wacoms I have (small Bamboo models of various generations).

minidracula fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Feb 19, 2021

# ¿ Feb 19, 2021 04:47

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Faxanadus posted:

Does anyone know of a good program for editing sound effects using multiple tracks? Like something that lets you have multiple different wav files, etc, to layer on top of each other, and would keeps track of changes made to each file/track?

REAPER will do that, for sure, but might be intimidating and diving in at the deep end. Audacity will also let you do that and... I'm not sure if that's any less intimidating, but in a different way. It certainly is less of a packed swiss army knife for that task than REAPER, but that's not saying much given how jam packed REAPER is.

Basically any multi-track audio file editor. Audacity is free and open source, so you could start there and if you bounce off it for any reason, I (and others) can help triangulate you from there.

What OS/platform(s) are you on?

# ¿ Jan 21, 2024 11:11

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

Faxanadus posted:

Thanks! Using Windows (10) , I've been using this program called Goldwave forever, it's pretty basic and it looks like it does actually have support for multiple tracks, but it's very clunky. I've used Audacity before and it seemed even more clunky so maybe I'll give Reaper a try.

Hah! I actually also use GoldWave and thought about mentioning it (and then thought I might depending on what your replies were; ironically here we are!), and I quite like it, but I haven't updated it in a while. Seems like the last version I grabbed and what I have installed here is... 6.55. Anyway, yes, GoldWave will totally do this as well. GoldWave will actually do quite a bit, depending on what you're looking for. But whereas GoldWave and Audacity are first and foremost audio file/"wave file" (e.g., WAV) editors, REAPER is a DAW (digital audio workstation), and has a lot more going on, but also includes audio file editing. And, of course, depending on the particular programs we're comparing, the line can be fuzzy between the two categories.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2024 19:14

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 12:20

minidracula: Dec 22, 2007; boo woo boo

cash crab posted:

i'm learning how to build a game, and i'm working on a top down rpg

i'm stuck in the asset building phase right now because i'm working with pixel studio and while it does what i want, exporting images means it won't let me load them to gm2 without resizing it to 512px (??), and i can never work on the same asset twice because it won't let me load back into pixel studio on a 32px grid. i can't automate lines, i can't flip images. basically the only thing it has going for it right now is the colour palette wheel. i spent like 2.5 hours making my little character into a walking sprite and i'm not 100% happy with it but trying to replicate it makes me want to walk into the ocean.

what programs are people using to animate pixel art? i don't want to animate directly in gm2 because i want to be able to back up the assets.

I'm unqualified as a pixel artist of any stripe really, but I'm using some mix of GrafX2, GraphicsGale, and Aseprite, FWIW.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2024 19:15

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