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TooMuchAbstraction posted:So my question is: is there a way to do the bag-of-tokens generator (which functionally guarantees that there will be, at worst, a repair crate every N kills) while also being reactive to the player's current state? I'd approach that by having a generic bag of tokens (so 2 ammo, 2 heal, 2 tech) that is "stateless" and always present in the pool, and then specific bags that unlock based on state (e.g. the "badly damaged" bag has (1 ammo, 4 heal, 1 tech) and the "out of ammo" bag has (4 ammo, 1 heal, 1 tech). Your ship kill reward algorithm would then be to pull a token from the combination of the generic bag and any state-based bags they qualify for. So in the case where they're full up on health and ammo, you pull a token from the 2A/2H/2T and are left with 5 remaining tokens (2A/1H/2T in the case where you pull a heal). If you're battledamaged badly, you can approach it one of two ways - either pick a bag first (generic / battledamaged) and then pull a token (so in this case you'd have 2A/2H/2T in one pool, 1A/4H/1T in the second pool), or add the total tokens together and pull one out, prioritizing entries in the state-based pool first (so one pool of 3A/6H/3T for the pull, then leaving the two bags at 2/2/2, 1/3/1 if you pull a heal). If you really wanted to, you could also have the state-based bag be the only thing you pull from, but players will recognize that pretty quickly. Each approach will give you different game feel, so you'll want to test it out experientially and see what works for you. The other warning I'd offer with token based systems is that humans are really really good at pattern recognition so if you tune your bagsize too small they'll see through it and start playing around it.
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Aug 1, 2022 20:04
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:So, this is a design question I have for my game. Every time you sink an enemy ship, it has a chance to drop a crate, which can be a repair crate (instant healing), ammo crate, or tech crate (i.e. new ship/part unlock). Right now these are mostly random. I sometimes flag a few ships in each mission as always having repairs, and cargo ships always drop techs, but otherwise the game determines the drop at the time the ship is sunk. Now, I do have a system in place to say "oh, you're badly-damaged, okay, repair crates are more likely", and similarly if any of your weapons are low on ammo. For the most part it seems to work, but there's still the occasional mission where you gradually get whittled down and repairs just don't ever drop. You could make the system dynamic so it takes different parameters into account and adjusts the odds accordingly after every drop. Let's say that at full health your odds for health drops is 0%. If you are damaged, every non-health drop increases the odds by 20% so the fifth one will be guaranteed health and the counter will be reset to 0. There's still randomness but it pushes towards a predefined result. Edit: Or maybe another way to think about it would be there are three outcomes with 1/3 chance each. So if one of those comes out it loses a percentage of that and distributes it among the other two. So A B and C = 33% If A comes out it loses 20% and then you have A 13% / B 43% / C 43% Chernabog fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Aug 1, 2022 |
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Aug 1, 2022 20:04
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wodin posted:I'd approach that by having a generic bag of tokens (so 2 ammo, 2 heal, 2 tech) that is "stateless" and always present in the pool, and then specific bags that unlock based on state (e.g. the "badly damaged" bag has (1 ammo, 4 heal, 1 tech) and the "out of ammo" bag has (4 ammo, 1 heal, 1 tech). Your ship kill reward algorithm would then be to pull a token from the combination of the generic bag and any state-based bags they qualify for. So in the case where they're full up on health and ammo, you pull a token from the 2A/2H/2T and are left with 5 remaining tokens (2A/1H/2T in the case where you pull a heal). If you're battledamaged badly, you can approach it one of two ways - either pick a bag first (generic / battledamaged) and then pull a token (so in this case you'd have 2A/2H/2T in one pool, 1A/4H/1T in the second pool), or add the total tokens together and pull one out, prioritizing entries in the state-based pool first (so one pool of 3A/6H/3T for the pull, then leaving the two bags at 2/2/2, 1/3/1 if you pull a heal). If you really wanted to, you could also have the state-based bag be the only thing you pull from, but players will recognize that pretty quickly. Each approach will give you different game feel, so you'll want to test it out experientially and see what works for you. Yeah, this is a really solid approach. (wodin is a good designer lol) I don't really have a ton to add - there are other approaches you could take (for instance, you could also potentially have 1A/1H/1T and then have three "pull from my situational bag" tokens, and then the situational bag gets swapped every time you enter/leave the situation you're looking for). Like wodin said all of this is purely about what play experience you want and then testing to see how they feel. Also, to be completely honest, I don't think it's a huge deal if you just literally used a 6 token bag with 2/2/2 (or like a 7 token bag 3/3/1 or whatever weighting works for the tuning of your game) and cut the reactivity. I could absolutely see a world where the primary reason you needed the reactivity is that bad streaks were possible under a traditional RNG. And so the token system might be addressing the root cause in a way that obviates the need for reactivity based on the player's performance (depends on if the reactivity is there to help less skilled players, or if it's mostly there to paper over bad RNG streaks). And, if the reactivity's there to help less skilled players, that might be better achieved through like, a tiered pickup system that randomly drops *more* tokens instead of just dropping a different type. (e.g., just because you've taken a bunch of damage doesn't mean you suddenly need less ammo!)
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Aug 2, 2022 00:48
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Chernabog posted:You could make the system dynamic so it takes different parameters into account and adjusts the odds accordingly after every drop. Yeah, this is a solid way to approach randomization as well. One type of RNG that I think is pretty clever is how Etrian Odyssey handles encounter chances (or at least how I think it works in my mental model of the game). Instead of separately rolling every move for a random encounter, whenever you move it adds a random amount to an encounter total, and whenever the encounter total passes a threshhold, a battle starts. If you make the roll size large enough, that can still give you a random encounter after a single step, or maybe you tune it so it's between x-y steps for each encounter. But that ends up with a much better encounter pacing than pure rng, and is more tunable and mathematically predictable than "rng + cooldown" or something.
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Aug 2, 2022 00:51
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Thanks, y'all! My goal with the system is mostly that you should get drops that you need, but not in a way where you can rely on getting drops that you need. If every time you were low on health, you knew that the next ship you killed would drop repairs, that'd change the gameplay in a way that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like. But at the same time it sucks if you're gradually scraping by, getting lower and lower in health, and just never get the chance to heal. The wholly-reactive non-bag-based system I have currently mostly works, but it doesn't fix that latter issue. Plus it kind of irks me that it's possible for you to just straight-up never get drops, like, that feels like a poor design from some fundamental aesthetic standpoint.
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Aug 2, 2022 02:19
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On topic of adaptive difficulty systems and drops, I actually ended up really liking the one in Enter the Gungeon, which works in exactly the other way than most people usually think of. In EtG, you get more rewards for playing better (or rather less rewards for playing badly). The thing is, EtG is a loop game and even when you run through all secret floors you are likely done in <hour, and there are some mechanics that keep you at some baseline of progression, unless you flat out die. The one thing that I don't like about EtG drops is that for a game that is based around guns and over the top presentation, has a stat named "coolness", and a ton of environment weapon, the drop system is all about mechanically good play, rather than showy play. If I had a magic wand, I would make it so that dropping enemies into pits, exploding them with barrels and so on, would add extra drops. Xarn fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Aug 4, 2022 |
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Aug 4, 2022 14:44
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Thanks, y'all! My goal with the system is mostly that you should get drops that you need, but not in a way where you can rely on getting drops that you need. If every time you were low on health, you knew that the next ship you killed would drop repairs, that'd change the gameplay in a way that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like. But at the same time it sucks if you're gradually scraping by, getting lower and lower in health, and just never get the chance to heal. The wholly-reactive non-bag-based system I have currently mostly works, but it doesn't fix that latter issue. Plus it kind of irks me that it's possible for you to just straight-up never get drops, like, that feels like a poor design from some fundamental aesthetic standpoint. A fun design twist might be random events or looting offering the player repairs / ammo / tech at a lower fixed quantity, or letting them "gamble" on a bigger haul (double or triple resources), so players can throw dice up front, and eke out a win towards the end
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Aug 4, 2022 14:56
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smarxist posted:A fun design twist might be random events or looting offering the player repairs / ammo / tech at a lower fixed quantity, or letting them "gamble" on a bigger haul (double or triple resources), so players can throw dice up front, and eke out a win towards the end For sure, that kind of push-your-luck decision making can be a ton of fun in a game like FTL, where you have time to consider your immediate needs and your potential future payoffs. I'm making an action game, though, so it's much more about instantaneous decisions like "is it worth diving into that mass of enemies when I'm low on health, to get that repair crate that dropped in the middle of the group?"
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Aug 4, 2022 17:22
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:For sure, that kind of push-your-luck decision making can be a ton of fun in a game like FTL, where you have time to consider your immediate needs and your potential future payoffs. I'm making an action game, though, so it's much more about instantaneous decisions like "is it worth diving into that mass of enemies when I'm low on health, to get that repair crate that dropped in the middle of the group?" Nuclear throne lets you push off loot pickups in favor of a guaranteed better loot pickup later
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Aug 4, 2022 23:48
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I was identified as a goon at work. Do I quit immediately out of shame, or put in 2 weeks notice (out of shame)?
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Aug 9, 2022 05:19
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Studio posted:I was identified as a goon at work. Do I quit immediately out of shame, or put in 2 weeks notice (out of shame)? Own it but never reveal your handle. Talk vaguely about threads you're not in to throw them off the scent.
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Aug 9, 2022 13:12
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My work slack has a looooot of SA emotes. I still haven’t found the goon
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Aug 9, 2022 13:22
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giogadi posted:My work slack has a looooot of SA emotes. I still haven’t found the goon  is a very good emote and you should add it if it's not there
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Aug 9, 2022 13:25
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That’s the top-used emote by far
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Aug 9, 2022 14:08
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I'd always add  to Work Slacks. And if I couldn't I'd just upload the image
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Aug 9, 2022 16:53
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we use teams 
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Aug 9, 2022 17:16
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Studio posted:we use teams *starts looking closely at the new hires*
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Aug 9, 2022 19:21
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Hughlander posted:I'd always add Someone on my work slack uploaded 3 different versions of this one; starting to suspect there's goons in game dev......
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Aug 10, 2022 16:49
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foutre posted:Someone on my work slack uploaded 3 different versions of this one; starting to suspect there's goons in game dev...... Someone I work with has  as their Teams/Outlook profile picture.
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Aug 10, 2022 16:53
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more falafel please posted:Someone I work with has Power move is to use 
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Aug 10, 2022 17:05
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Studio posted:we use teams Teams is the worst. I cannot understand why anyone, anywhere, uses Teams.
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Aug 10, 2022 17:13
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Discendo Vox posted:Teams is the worst. I cannot understand why anyone, anywhere, uses Teams. Because you moved from your old on-prem Outlook instance to Office365 a decade ago, and it's literally free
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Aug 10, 2022 17:15
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Discendo Vox posted:Teams is the worst. I cannot understand why anyone, anywhere, uses Teams. Teams is very good if you’re all in on the Microsoft stack
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Aug 10, 2022 19:36
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Captain Foo posted:Teams is very good if you’re all in on the Microsoft stack I used to not mind teams, but they keep changing random little things for no good reason, and now something has made scrolling through history a jumpy nightmare. I don’t remember that always being the case, and it’s really annoying.
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Aug 10, 2022 19:47
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Studio posted:I was identified as a goon at work. Do I quit immediately out of shame, or put in 2 weeks notice (out of shame)? I assure you this wasn't a case of stalking and more a case of me recognizing you from speedrun/GDQ stuff. Nevermind that I'm also replying to your post here too oh god maybe I am stalking you and I just haven't realized it yet Uhh Anyway teams sucks and we used to use store-brand Slack but we moved away from it and I don't know why! It was much better than teams, which is just the worst.
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Aug 10, 2022 19:53
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Pseudoscorpion posted:I assure you this wasn't a case of stalking and more a case of me recognizing you from speedrun/GDQ stuff. Can both of you please get off SA on work hours and get the deliverables (you know which ones) to UX so they aren't sending me thirty emails a day about the missing assets, thanks.
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Aug 10, 2022 23:30
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more falafel please posted:Because you moved from your old on-prem Outlook instance to Office365 a decade ago, and it's literally free So's Zoom, and the version of it that covers everything almost any company would need is like $150.
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Aug 10, 2022 23:35
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Discendo Vox posted:Teams is the worst. I cannot understand why anyone, anywhere, uses Teams. I said this somewhere on this thread. For video calls of 8+ Teams was far better than slack at the start of the pandemic. We switched to it for standups when everyone went remote. Now in Hybrid it has better hardware support. We got weird rear end bluetooth hardware with cortana in conference rooms. Walk into a room pull out your phone open up teams with a meeting and it'll be like, "Hey you're in Conference room <crap> wanna join the call from here?" Don't think Slack/Zoom has cool hardware poo poo like that but I could be wrong.
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Aug 10, 2022 23:44
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Hughlander posted:I said this somewhere on this thread. For video calls of 8+ Teams was far better than slack at the start of the pandemic. We switched to it for standups when everyone went remote. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207483343-Getting-started-with-Zoom-Rooms They have Zoom Device Management stuff, which absolutely sounds like the kind of working most of the time but sometimes you need to call IT who also doesn't know what the deal is system you're talking about.
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Aug 10, 2022 23:50
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VelociBacon posted:Can both of you please get off SA on work hours and get the deliverables (you know which ones) to UX so they aren't sending me thirty emails a day about the missing assets, thanks. At least I'm not the only one waiting. UX indeed!
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Aug 11, 2022 01:11
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Someone in here ought to know: I’m restarting my quest to find work and I’m struggling to find what would be the job title for someone that knows Unity well enough to integrate assets, work with third party programs (like Dialogue System Manager from Pixel Crusher) and code intermediate level C#. Asset integrator? Designer? Programmer? All these feel somewhat too specialized. I’m trawling job boards but having massive impostor syndrome with everything I’m seeing and thinking perhaps I’m not looking at the right things. I was told by an artist I know to look at technical artist, as in someone that can take an artist’s work and implement it in the engine, but I thought a technical artist was much more someone that code complex mods or UI for the programmers/artists in the work engine? Pretty sure she had it wrong. In any case, I thought SA might know what title name to search for… Thanks in advance.
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Aug 27, 2022 16:02
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Popoto posted:Someone in here ought to know: Tech Art can cover a lot of things, including what you mentioned, but also the skills you listed for yourself depending on what the studio needs. Your skills would also lend well to any outsource efforts that need someone to be to go-to person for integration and managing those pipelines. I know that doesn't help narrow down "look for this title", but you really just have to look at them all and see what the studio needs. Consistency in job duties varies wildly studio to studio - I would recommend looking at indies as well, where you'll have a better chance of someone actually reading a cover letter explaining just that. Bigger companies will just toss it if it doesn't match their filtering.
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Aug 27, 2022 16:11
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Popoto posted:Someone in here ought to know: Sounds like a Gameplay Engineering, or a Technical Designer. It depends a lot on how good your C# is, and what the expectations of the studio are. E: From where I am, Technical Artists have always been, 'I take models and build rigs.' It's a super specific discipline and isn't really a generalist role.
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Aug 27, 2022 16:12
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:Sounds like a Gameplay Engineering, or a Technical Designer. It depends a lot on how good your C# is, and what the expectations of the studio are. Technical Artist is a very large umbrella and varies quite a bit from company-to-company and even within companies. Some tech artists are riggers, some make shaders, some are tools, some are art pipeline engineers, some are artist tech support, some are just engine-specific art specialists, and some are a big mixed bag of all of those. Your best bet to figure out what kind of specialty they're looking for is to look at the job descriptions and look for keywords that gives you a sense of what they're looking for.
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Aug 27, 2022 16:23
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Dinurth posted:Tech Art can cover a lot of things, including what you mentioned, but also the skills you listed for yourself depending on what the studio needs. Your skills would also lend well to any outsource efforts that need someone to be to go-to person for integration and managing those pipelines. Canine Blues Arooo posted:Sounds like a Gameplay Engineering, or a Technical Designer. It depends a lot on how good your C# is, and what the expectations of the studio are. Thank you both /edit/ and Gearman too /edit. I’m going to look these things up. If anyone else have things to add, please do so. Any wisdom is welcome right now. <3 Popoto fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Aug 27, 2022 |
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Aug 27, 2022 16:23
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Popoto posted:Someone in here ought to know: We had a job description at one point for literally that. And I argued a lot that it should be a technical designer because I didn't want to use an engineering head on it. Eventually we settled on it being the duties of an Associate Engineer fresh out of internship and we'd rotate the duties for that at least yearly if not more frequently.
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Aug 27, 2022 17:28
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Hey thread, me again. Portfolio is online (and happy that the two industry insiders that I personally know thought it was quite decent and didn't look amateurish (my -biggest- worry)), LinkedIn is updated, and I've settled on trying to discover "Technical Designer" as the researched title. Hopefully, somewhere out there, an entry level post will pop up. Now, I wanted to ask: what are the current avenue for searching for work, other than going directly on a company's website? There's linkedIn, of course, then also indeed.com. What about monster.com, is that still a thing? My usual motto before for job boards was to always check the company website after to see if the offer is shown there, and if possible use their own contact form instead of the job board one. There's also r/gamedevclassified, but it seems mostly for contractual work for indie devs (might still do that if nothing shows up in the other channels). Basically I just want to make sure I'm not missing an extremely obvious website that everyone knows about and post online, but because of my outsider status I wouldn't know about. Love to look for a job during a giant economic downturn lol. I guess despite all hope is sort of up, as I saw one posting that asked for basic C# and Unity3D knowledge to integrate gamedesigners/artists work, meaning there might be a place somewhere out there for what I can do, unfortunately the job wasn't remote. I'll keep looking.
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Oct 1, 2022 12:45
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Popoto posted:
This is a great resource for jobs; https://gracklehq.com/jobs
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Oct 1, 2022 14:19
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Unemployment is virtually zero. It's tougher to get a big tech job due to hiring freezes but if the companies aren't in a freeze there's more listings than I've ever seen (in my area) and it looks like people are filling them.
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Oct 1, 2022 15:15
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Popoto posted:Hey thread, me again. Portfolio is online (and happy that the two industry insiders that I personally know thought it was quite decent and didn't look amateurish (my -biggest- worry)), LinkedIn is updated, and I've settled on trying to discover "Technical Designer" as the researched title. Hopefully, somewhere out there, an entry level post will pop up. Now, I wanted to ask: what are the current avenue for searching for work, other than going directly on a company's website? There's linkedIn, of course, then also indeed.com. What about monster.com, is that still a thing? Depends on where you are. In the UK there are 3 or 4 dedicated games industry recruitment agencies in addition to LinkedIn and going to studios directly.
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