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

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

This is looking great and absolutely marshy, good job!

# ¿ Jan 14, 2023 23:09

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 21, 2024 21:03

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

al-azad posted:

This is why I only make adventure games, I never have to worry about fiddling with systems I just design scenes and interactions and it always works as intended.

Until I try and get cute and create a roaming scissorman-like enemy then gently caress my life

Your Computer posted:

the "it's solved now so it's not interesting anymore" problem is real

see also: making a working prototype and the only thing left is "make the rest of the game"

Lucid Dream posted:

I think this is something where solo devs/small teams are at a significant disadvantage. There are people that thrive when making a game function, and there are people that thrive when making a game's content, and that Venn diagram has a lot of area that isn't overlapping. It's almost certainly why a lot of indie devs gravitate towards procedural stuff, because solving the "problem" is the content. I'm not building a dungeon (that's just content, blah, boring), instead I'm building a dungeon
generator.

I can relate so much with this right now.

I'm working on a RPG that involves a major computer hacking component, turn-based combat, an overworld map that's the living city and on-location scenes where you interact with NPCs, get missions from them, buy weapons/hackware from vendors, etc. Oh and there's a fake internet to feed the hacking part. You have no idea how exciting and quickly the subsystems for each came together, a lot of the esthetics and audio too... now I'm getting into the "making the game" part and designing the mission/contract system and inevitably a lot of the content needs to come together ASAP so I can move forward, specifically the adventure/on-location part.

What I found helps a lot is from the start make sure you design things according to what you know you can do and want to do. I'm ok with everything but characters. Initially and until this week the "on-location" part was going to be somewhere between point-and-click adventures of yore and top-down RPGs... I had to switch this to something a bit more "fixed" but where I know I can make it shine through basically pre-rendered stuff, a bit of animated flair here and there, and my characters are now mostly fixed with a mouse-hover pop-up portrait "box" with the dialog lines showing next to them, actions underneath... point is I just saved myself months of work that might've killed the project/my motivation. The on-location screens now just focus on the purpose of why you're there and these scenes can do more than enough for world-building, as with every other part. They basically serve to provide you with the offline world actions like "get mission", "buy hack", "hire gangmember", "sell stolen goods" etc.

I already have a shitload of stuff to do to make the turn-based combat as intense and exciting as it needs to be and each subnet you hack is a website/"multimedia app from mid-90's multimedia CD-ROMs" of its own, but to me this poo poo is fun. So I guess my point is make sure your scope is well-defined and takes into acount what you can, cannot, want and don't want to end up having to do. If you feel stuck at some point, reconsider every element you planned out see if that's really what the game asks you to be, on top of your capabilities. Is the game lesser if this is different or gone entirely? Remain open to the idea your game might be better off without something you were very much attached to and it might open to the door to something you hadn't considered that, turns out, works even better for the game and for you.

If you're ADHD avoiding coffee during the concept/design phase(s), and also most of the time really, also helps immensely. Seriously, that's another thing that could've killed the project, specifically for that "thought about it so now it's as good as done" process being amplified x10.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2023 00:14

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

A bit more on the "or nothing will get made"... don't try and conceptualize everything beforehand. Try and focus on getting the basics implemented first, step by step, little block by little block. There is so much that will come into place as you're doing the thing (rather than conceptualizing how you're going to do the thing) and I found this applies as much to filmmaking/editing, as graphic work as it does for game design and its implementation.

I suppose this works differently for different people but for me it helps to push the visuals (nearly) as much as I push the code as I go along. It's immensely gratifying to see what it can/should look like as you try it and expand it, make it better, rather than stagnate at a "eventually it's gonna look like [mental image]" level forever. It also avoids a mountain of technical debt rising every step you take. Of course you're gonna go back and polish it here and there, somethings can and most likely WILL change before the end but as soon as your game is more complex than tic tac toe technical debt is your worst enemy.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 15:12

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Odd Wilson posted:

If I didn't create random art assets for my projects, none of them would be as far along as any of them are. It keeps the inspiration going somewhat, and I just plain enjoy it most of the time.

Even if this does inevitably lead to me working on art for other projects than the one I'm currently on.

There's also a lot of your best ideas that come from being able to actually interact with the thing instead of trying to imagine it. That and watching other people interact with the thing, this will help you immensely and as early as possible.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 22:08

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

An SA game jam would be very cool. If someone wants to organize such a thing, ~~I'll make the website~~ I would join in.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2023 02:55

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

LoboFlex posted:

Still working on landscapegame, just bad at ing about it

https://twitter.com/loboflex/status/1629414104132616192

After struggling under an exponentially growing number of tile meshes I've made something of a breakthrough by dividing them into "layers", and I was able to make simple transitions for the two remaining ingame biomes in about 10 minutes. I'm a huge dumbo compared to someone like Oskar St�lberg, but it still feels like I'm doing bleeding edge indie 3d tilemap work, which feels kinda good (even if I'm wrong).

How about something volcanic or otherworldly? Go nuts with it... craters, little peaking mounds, geysers/lava sprouts, fungus shooting green puffs...
There could also be more interaction with the water... waterfalls between different heights of water, geysers again.
Also it seems vegetation at this time is limited to mostly trees and the swamp stuff? Adding smaller-scale deco like plants, flowers and shrub type of things would make it even more appealing for that type of relaxing, building game.

In any case you've got something really nice going there, congrats!

Xibanya posted:

[game jam]

gently caress yes, I'm in.

Bronze Fonz fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Feb 25, 2023

# ¿ Feb 25, 2023 23:48

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Maxwell Lord posted:

I've been using Gamemaker, and it's been an interesting experience. I'm aware that it does a lot of lifting in the way it's presented and organized- you put the code that governs an object's behavior in that object (or rather you can, it may be more efficient to do it elsewhere), you put objects in the room, etc.

My code's still pretty messy and I'm probably still doing stuff I don't have to. But I do find myself at the stage where I'll work something out in text, put it into the game, and be surprised that it works. I think that means I'm improving?

Soon you will find yourself putting a lot of that code in custom functions you write in scripts and call those functions in the object's events.

Get familiar with macros and also making your own versions of the native functions so you reduce on average half of what you have to type.
For example, instead of instance_create_layer(....) I just write create(....), or instead of keyboard_check_pressed(....) you can make a simple keypress(....) function or whatever works for you.
Instance variables like image_xscale and image_yscale can become xs and ys. Dir and spd instead of direction and speed. Just "sprite" instead of sprite_index. "cam" instead of view_camera[0], roomw instead of room_width and so on.
If I need an objPlayer it's gonna have a macro that's just p1. Mouse X and Y coords are just mx and my.

Drawing text in GML is often split in separate functions for font, color, horizontal/vertical alignment, etc.
You can combine those into one custom function that will replace the native way of doing it and you'll never go back, ie. a "drawtext" function that combines all the properties you need like:

code:

function drawtext(font,color,halign,valign,xx,yy,strng,sep,w){
	
	draw_set_font(font);
	draw_set_color(color);
	draw_set_halign(halign);
	draw_set_valign(valign);
	draw_text_ext(xx,yy,strng,sep,w);	
}

I loving love GML but sometimes it's just too verbose and I have a hatred for underscores so there's no way I'm typing position_meeting/place_meeting when I can just type pos/place instead.

# ¿ May 23, 2023 16:12

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

LoboFlex posted:

I shaved a second or so off the beginning by reducing the number of rotations:

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

I tried with various other sounds for the end slate, but they were either a bit too monotonous or too attention grabbing, so I think I'm just gonna stick with the unassuming rotation sounds.

And thank you! <3

I would do something like this with it if it were my teaser:

https://i.imgur.com/4NF7pEt.mp4

Just a bit faster paced, adjusted to contemporary attention spans and a bit more driving music for the sake of this presentation.
I had to mute the game sounds as there was game music with it but this is a quick example.

Bronze Fonz fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jun 21, 2023

# ¿ Jun 21, 2023 15:56

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Definitely, the logo over several rotating landscapes would do wonders!

# ¿ Jun 22, 2023 23:39

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I threw together a thread on Mastodon that goes over how Waves of Steel has done since launch. I don't really want to recap it all here, plus there's images and alt text and so on if you click through. tl;dr is that the game is pretty deeply in the red, which was 100% the expected outcome.

Scoss posted:

Thanks for this peek into the financial side of things.

If you don't mind my asking, do you feel that paying for influencers and other marketing was worth the expense? Are you able to correlate those efforts directly with boosted sales or is it more murky?

I'm totally ignorant about this, but I'm also surprised to see that a one-person garage developer had significant legal and PR expenses. I would be curious to hear more about that.

Thank you for this indeed, very interesting. Would love to know more about the legal expenses also was crowdfunding considered at all at any point?
Ditto on whether paying for influencers was worth it?

I'm looking at getting funding for a game myself and at this point the only way I can see of funding development is start with a Patreon, try and create engagement and a modest following on my way to a crowdfunding campaign.
It's been almost a year of constant work and I'm looking at a release for holidays 24... I'm not in the same position you were though and will definitely need to get some money coming in for this as that dev timeline depends on a full-time work schedule just to release my MVP in over a year. :stare:

# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 14:43

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Juiced-up clickables on the map, a mouse-over text can clarify what the click does if necessary. Keep the right side for info on what's going on at a higher level.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2023 03:47

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

The free version is the full feature set and yes, you can 100% only get the license to export your executable.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2023 04:13

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Been on this crazy project for over a year now and the time has come to start getting some outside looks into it, as absolutely terrifying as this is.

*screams in paper bag, forgetting to breath*

If you've somehow ever wanted to play a mix of Crime Fighter, Uplink and Hypnospace Outlaw then I might be working on something just for you!

First look at the game, early but in-engine footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fGNZMEkAls

Closer look at the game (with pictures!):

https://www.patreon.com/collection/311946

# ¿ Jan 11, 2024 19:38

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

bredfrown posted:

Oh drat, I didn't even see this! lmao
I've been in bugfix land today, but this is absolutely nuts. I wasn't expecting this at all!

Congrats and it's well deserved!

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 04:25

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Made a bit longer video showing more of my game's internet and gameplay/interactions with the overworld... check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEm4VgX6YiY

# ¿ Jan 19, 2024 06:29

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Thanks a lot!

Yeah, we'll need to talk because as much as it's still early I do need to really tone down some stuff, there's a LOT of flashing in this thing.

I should've been more careful with that for a public video. :haibrow:

# ¿ Jan 19, 2024 14:44

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

TW0 posted:

Seeing retro OS interfaces and web pages reminds me how much fun just messing around with computers was. Even without any programs it was fun to discover all of the weird screensavers or design your own mouse cursors and icons.

Then you might enjoy POS98's weird screensavers and games you can find on netservers and warez sites! Sorry, no custom cursor though... yet?

You already can customize POS' theme so why the hell not? Hmmmm...

# ¿ Jan 19, 2024 17:07

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

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.

Golwave is a name I haven't seen in decades! Blast from a shareware past, I didn't know it was still around. I still use Sound Forge version whatever from ages ago for basic stuff and when I need multi-track I just go into Premiere as Premiere is 2nd nature to me now. Whatever works for you and gets you where you need to be!

# ¿ Jan 22, 2024 17:21

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

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.

Assuming gm2 is GameMaker, something is wrong here because there's no reason it should limit you to 512 or anything else.

The image editor in GM has a "Convert to frames" menu option that gives you a spritesheet-to-animation tool that should be more than excellent for this purpose.

Check your Game Options in GM and see if your texture pages aren't set to 512x512 though I'm not sure GM cares about the size of your sprites even then.

How exactly is it limiting you to 512, are your imported sprites getting resized on import?

# ¿ Jan 22, 2024 19:27

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

I've made an explainer/presentation for my hacking RPG that's playable in-browser after being rightfully informed my videos don't explain poo poo and nothing is clear about what the actual game is, so until I have a website up and running this goes into the game's world and gameplay in a lot more detail, in-engine :

cymerc64.itch.io/

Took great care re: photosensitivity but unless Serth says otherwise it's probably best to avoid for now!

# ¿ Feb 5, 2024 05:35

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Yeah, as soon as you start explaining what's going on, neurons start firing off.
You can use a cat it also works great.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2024 21:43

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Pixel Game Jam 24 starts today:
https://itch.io/jam/-pixel-game-jam-2024

Theme is Aqua, you got 10 days.

# ¿ May 11, 2024 15:10

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 21, 2024 21:03

Bronze Fonz: Feb 14, 2019

Yeah, either that or Making Games Megathtead: I realize just how sloppy my code is, but not too much

# ¿ May 20, 2024 13:13

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