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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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Gameboy415

Gameboy415

Member
My team's first game, Anomaly 1729, is now live on both Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight! :D

MZyRHSm.jpg


If anyone would be willing to help back us, vote for us on Greenlight, and/or help spread the word, I would greatly appreciate it!

Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/624788817/anomaly-1729

I'm the goofball in the sombrero in the team pic, haha. :)

Steam Greenlight page:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=330057006
(the current video on the Greenlight page is from an old build but will be updated soon!)

Also, I added everyone on Twitter and will gladly help support/promote as many of your projects as possible! :)
 
C

cbox

Member
friken said:
Awesome... fingers crossed for SHWIP! Are you done w the game?
Click to expand...

Thanks man! We're probably 95% done at this point. We're waiting on our new and improved soundtrack from our awesome audio guy. After that we have a few more tweaks to do and the game should be complete.

Right now we're looking into the indiemegabooth at pax east 2015, trying to justify the costs since we're quite far away. Excite!!
 
F

friken

Member
ConvenientBox said:
Thanks man! We're probably 95% done at this point. We're waiting on our new and improved soundtrack from our awesome audio guy. After that we have a few more tweaks to do and the game should be complete.

Right now we're looking into the indiemegabooth at pax east 2015, trying to justify the costs since we're quite far away. Excite!!
Click to expand...

ah..... what it must feel like to be 95% complete.... envy! I hope to take stardiver to some indie events when it is far enough along.
 
L

Lord_Balkan

Member
Hey guys,

How do you guys come up with a name for your indie dev company? Also, what are the business side of creating a game solo? I'm not exactly sure where to start in related to the logistics. I would like to make a website, but I'm not sure what else I need to do to be legit.

Thanks!
 
E

emperorspride188

Member
Hello,

Is the new version of unity 4.5.5 different from previous version? Should i download the new one or use the older one, as all the tutorials are based on the older version..

Thanks!!
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
emperorspride188 said:
Hello,

Is the new version of unity 4.5.5 different from previous version? Should i download the new one or use the older one, as all the tutorials are based on the older version..

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Download the 4.6 beta version so you can work with the new GUI.
 
H

HellBlazer

Member
hunchback said:
I hope this doesn't sound odd. I'm looking for a mentor I guess. I had great success with Source and was able to make MP map's. I also taught myself early Unreal Tournament map's.
Flash forward to now and I'm struggling with the new UE4 engine. I'm not sure if it's because I have become disabled since then and unable to sit for long periods. I know we have a current thread about UE4. I have attempted a few questions but get ignored or it doesn't get read. Maybe because I'm on a Jr member.
I'm just looking for someone who wants to either mentor me or work with me. I'm not finding the right tutorials. I want to step out of MP map's and focus on a small FPS. And I mean learning small.
If this is inappropriate I apologize to everyone. You seem a bit friendlier, which is why I asked. Thank you.
Click to expand...

We're friendly alright. :) Unfortunately... I don't think there are many regulars here who use Unreal Engine, so I'm not sure if you'll find what you're looking for, but hopefully someone can help.

Gameboy415 said:
My team's first game, Anomaly 1729, is now live on both Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight! :D

If anyone would be willing to help back us, vote for us on Greenlight, and/or help spread the word, I would greatly appreciate it!

Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/624788817/anomaly-1729

I'm the goofball in the sombrero in the team pic, haha. :)

Steam Greenlight page:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=330057006
(the current video on the Greenlight page is from an old build but will be updated soon!)

Also, I added everyone on Twitter and will gladly help support/promote as many of your projects as possible! :)
Click to expand...

Congrats and good luck! But... I can't help but notice that some tiers on the Kickstarter are listed twice... Worse, the Royal Penguin tier is listed for both $90 and $180. That will be quite confusing to backers I'm afraid, and I don't think you can modify tiers after the campaign starts. :(

emperorspride188 said:
Hello,

Is the new version of unity 4.5.5 different from previous version? Should i download the new one or use the older one, as all the tutorials are based on the older version..

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

You should use 4.6 beta (http://unity3d.com/unity/beta/4.6) actually, it includes the cool new UI stuff! Well, unless you plan on shipping the game soon, in which case a beta version is not advised... but I assume you're just starting if you're asking about this? I think most tutorials for the Unity 4 line should probably still be applicable, except in regards to the aforementioned UI module. There are some tutorials for that part already on the Unity site.
 
S

superNESjoe

Member
Just uploaded a video of the intro sequence from GunWorld. We're hoping to be done with development soon.

Any feedback on the current version of the intro would be massively appreciated. Since we know the story and world inside and out it can be difficult for us to know how it gets presented to new faces. Does the short sequence make you feel like you know what's going on and what your goal is?
 
wondermega

wondermega

Member
superNESjoe said:
Just uploaded a video of the intro sequence from GunWorld. We're hoping to be done with development soon.

Any feedback on the current version of the intro would be massively appreciated. Since we know the story and world inside and out it can be difficult for us to know how it gets presented to new faces. Does the short sequence make you feel like you know what's going on and what your goal is?
Click to expand...

My mind fills in the blanks and expects a late-80s NES styled platformer or run n gun

That's about alli can glean given there's no gameplay shots or anything
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
in the bug tunnels, anything goes.

http://www.gfycat.com/LameHalfBettong#

requires retreating and kiting while recovering ammo/armor and timing your evasive moves and not wasting them -- and making sure to duck under or jump over the rifle shots, because those will nearly one shot kill you.

it's pretty intense, but possible. which is the way of the bug tunnels, particularly when you're way off the beaten path, doing map that's not required to finish the game. anything goes.
 
F

friken

Member
Jobbs said:
in the bug tunnels, anything goes.

http://www.gfycat.com/LameHalfBettong#

requires retreating and kiting while recovering ammo/armor and timing your evasive moves and not wasting them -- and making sure to duck under or jump over the rifle shots, because those will nearly one shot kill you.

it's pretty intense, but possible. which is the way of the bug tunnels, particularly when you're way off the beaten path, doing map that's not required to finish the game. anything goes.
Click to expand...

Looking damn fun! You need some testers right? riiiight? ;)


----

Odd thought to throw out there for other devs and see if there is any interest... Swap-a-Project(tm)

What is Swap-a-Project!?

Well.... I'm sure I'm not the only dev on a longer term project that every few weeks thinks of an idea for a totally different game and have to force myself to get back to work on my project. I've participated in gamejams a couple times to scratch the itch. But how about this -- Swap-a-Project(tm) for a day or weekend? I know, CRINGE someone else messing with my project and ultra-secret sauce!? NO WAY

Here is what I'm thinking for my project as examples of project swapping:
I have ~25 aliens, all but a handful need photoshop processing, output and rigging. The rigging could be into a new scene and I have the process all laid out and could train someone on it in an hour or less. Ships... similar thing... now that I have the system setup I could have a test scene I could share for getting a ship setup etc. Of course only share what you feel comfortable sharing. Usually there are LOTS of things that could be offloaded to a project swappie that don't reveal the secret-sauce. I'm betting we could all learn a lot from eachother and their projects too.

CRAZY IDEA I know... but could be fun to try for a day or two.

<putting on my straight jacket and entering the padded room>
 
S

superNESjoe

Member
wondermega said:
My mind fills in the blanks and expects a late-80s NES styled platformer or run n gun

That's about alli can glean given there's no gameplay shots or anything
Click to expand...

Yup, it's an NES style action platformer. I didn't want to bog anything with gameplay shots since I've uploaded plenty before and this was specifically to tease the plot. We'll have a launch trailer up next week that shows what the final version of the game is like.

HellBlazer said:
I like it, superNESjoe. It seems suitably to the point, and NES-like.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
desu said:
Thats pretty damn funny.

Anyway looking forward to you beta next week, this will look amazing on 55" TV. I think this will be the first game I'll be playing in like the last 6-9 months.
Click to expand...

well I've never tetsed it on a display nearly that big, (biggest I use is 42 inch, where it looks good to me) but I sure hope you're right -- and I look forwrad to getting that kind of feedback.

the game is 900p (1600x900 natively) but full screens fairly well because of a mild sharpening shader. That said, you can still definitely tell it's 900p. The silver lining for me is that it is sort of "low fi charming" in its slight blurriness when upscaled and oddly fits iwth the game's 80's motif --- but if I do a second game I think it'll be 1080p native from the start.
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
ConvenientBox said:
haha I love this, great sfx too - did you make em yourself?
Click to expand...

thanks :)

as for sound -- music is mostly done by my friend roger, and so far I've done the majority of the sound FX myself (with a few notable exceptions) with the idea that roger will probably redo a lot of them later on.
 
F

friken

Member
Ok.... bucketlist item checked off. I've REALLY wanted to make a ship that can punch through another ship for a loooong time :)

Sarlirth doing what it does:
RingedRadiantBlackcrappie.gif
 
Gameboy415

Gameboy415

Member
HellBlazer said:
Congrats and good luck! But... I can't help but notice that some tiers on the Kickstarter are listed twice... Worse, the Royal Penguin tier is listed for both $90 and $180. That will be quite confusing to backers I'm afraid, and I don't think you can modify tiers after the campaign starts. :(
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Yeah, I mentioned the thing about the tiers to the guys who set up the Kickstarter but I guess they didn't clarify things as I thought they would. :S
The two $20 tiers are actually slightly different - one includes the soundtrack while the other includes the digital comic and the $90 tier is supposed to be a limited, early-bird version of the $180 tier.

In other news, I just got laid off from my day job (tech support) about an hour ago so now I'm *just* an Independent Game Developer. What a day!
ralph3.png
 
H

HellBlazer

Member
Gameboy415 said:
Yeah, I mentioned the thing about the tiers to the guys who set up the Kickstarter but I guess they didn't clarify things as I thought they would. :S
The two $20 tiers are actually slightly different - one includes the soundtrack while the other includes the digital comic and the $90 tier is supposed to be a limited, early-bird version of the $180 tier.
Click to expand...

Aah, I see. Sorry, I didn't read the Gentoo and Humboldt tiers attentively enough. :) But yeah, it would have been nice to have a slightly different title for each.

In other news, I just got laid off from my day job (tech support) about an hour ago so now I'm *just* an Independent Game Developer. What a day!
Click to expand...

Hmm, sorry to hear. It can be a good opportunity to increase your productivity on the game, but of course that depends if you have some money saved up... :\
 
I

Ito

Member
Jobbs said:
with sound + ridiculous placeholder death animation that's been in place for the past 6 months that you're all about to be the first to see....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFS6E46VIRE&feature=youtu.be

XD
Click to expand...

Placeholder? If this doesn't make it into the final game I'll want my money back, sir.

Gameboy415 said:
In other news, I just got laid off from my day job (tech support) about an hour ago so now I'm *just* an Independent Game Developer. What a day!
ralph3.png
Click to expand...


You know what they say: when a door closes, a window opens! Good luck!


And thanks to everyone who commented on my previous gif and cheered me up, you're amazing :)
 
C

cbox

Member
Jobbs said:
thanks :)

as for sound -- music is mostly done by my friend roger, and so far I've done the majority of the sound FX myself (with a few notable exceptions) with the idea that roger will probably redo a lot of them later on.
Click to expand...

Awesome, very impressive sounding :) They really nail the atmosphere.

friken said:
Ok.... bucketlist item checked off. I've REALLY wanted to make a ship that can punch through another ship for a loooong time :)

Sarlirth doing what it does:
RingedRadiantBlackcrappie.gif
Click to expand...

Hnnnnggggggg

Now i wanna make our ships dynamically break apart............... hehe
 
E

electroflame

Member
Granadier said:
desu posted this in the Unreal thread, but if any of you are looking at UE4 and shying away from C++, there is now Mono support for UE4 to write C#.

http://mono-ue.github.io/
Click to expand...

Interesting. It sort of makes me question my Unity 5 Pro that I bought a little while ago, but it still looks pretty basic.

It'll be interesting to see if it grows into supporting a decent amount of the engine, though. Definitely makes UE4 look more appealing, especially if Unity implodes with the new CEO.
 
Raonak

Raonak

Banned
good luck on your kickstarter gameboy, sucks about being laid off :(

----
So i've been prototyping a new game which i've been thinking about for a while. The graphics, extremely simple and minimalist. a topdown game about a black square named Dot.

But instead of being a normal game, it would be a collection of games, the "Dot HD Collection". It would consist of multiple games in the dot series, which would be relatively short. each individual game taking aorund 30 mins to complete. (but with lots of optional extras).

each game would have their own story which strings together into an awesome saga. And each successive game would add additional features (sometimes replace features too). Plus there would be spinoffs that take place in the same universe but be more flexable with the features.

DOT HD Collection

Dot - classic topdown game with zelda like combat.
Dot 2 - added stealth elements
Dot 3.0 - RPG mechanics and more openworld.
Dot Shooter - a shooter spinoff
Dot Heroes - JRPG spinoff with turnbased battle system
Dot 0rigins - a prequel
etc.

It would be avaliable as 1 game/app.
On mobile, Dot 1 would be free, with the rest of the games avaliable as in-app payments.
Or you could buy the whole collection for a discounted price. Sorta like the Doom shareware model.
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
electroflame said:
Interesting. It sort of makes me question my Unity 5 Pro that I bought a little while ago, but it still looks pretty basic.

It'll be interesting to see if it grows into supporting a decent amount of the engine, though. Definitely makes UE4 look more appealing, especially if Unity implodes with the new CEO.
Click to expand...

The small amount of stuff I've built so far using UE4 just blows Unity out of the water. It's genuinely surprising how easy it is to get a gorgeous scene running in UE4.

That said, Unity is far easier to work with, (not sure if that is because I'm used to it, or because of the complexity of UE4), and the Asset Store makes UE4's Marketplace look like the corner lemonade stand.

I'm excited to see how the C# support grows.
 
F

fuzzy_slippers

Neo Member
How is UI in UE now?

I'm definitely interested in moving over to UE after this project and I had planned to just buckle down and work in c++ but if I can stick with c# that makes it a lot simpler.
 
K

Kritz

Banned
So I just found out this exists - Super Game Jam (currently 25% off, at $15 US)

CastGraphic.png


I think I remember hearing about it nearly a year ago, but it appeared on the front page of my Steam recommendations. So instead of studying for my exam on Monday, I bought it and started watching the first two episodes.

It has this really clever packaging where the first part is a series of five episodes, 30 minutes each, where the camera hovers over a pair of developers as they go through the familiar roller coaster of a 48 hour game jam. In addition to that, though, you can also play the final prototypes as they are at the end of each jams.

I think it's really neat. There's not actually much insider baseball depth to the development of each prototype - but I think it's way more engaging just having it be about the more personal, human element of a jam.

I guess episode 5 just came out, which is why it's on sale? So I suppose the series is now complete. I'm going to binge through the next three episodes instead of studying, because I truly love stuff like this. I totally recommend others to check it out if they're interested.

I'm tempted to start a thread on it, as I can't find any significant mention of this project on NeoGAF at all. So maybe I will once I finish watching.
 
F

fog

Member
Just stumbled across this thread. So much talent and inspiration in one place. Amazing

friken said:
Ok.... bucketlist item checked off. I've REALLY wanted to make a ship that can punch through another ship for a loooong time :)
Click to expand...
That's fantastic.
 
R

RiggyRob

Member
I asked this in the GAF Learns: Unity thread, but it's been inactive for about 3 months, so hopefully I'll get an answer here instead.

Is there a script or prefab that allows you to 'snap' two objects when a collision is detected in Unity? My idea is to make an archery game, but as you can imagine controlling the two objects with your hands (I'm using the Leap Motion) is extremely fiddly, so being able to snap the objects together would be very useful.
 
L

Lautaro

Member
RiggyRob said:
I asked this in the GAF Learns: Unity thread, but it's been inactive for about 3 months, so hopefully I'll get an answer here instead.

Is there a script or prefab that allows you to 'snap' two objects when a collision is detected in Unity? My idea is to make an archery game, but as you can imagine controlling the two objects with your hands (I'm using the Leap Motion) is extremely fiddly, so being able to snap the objects together would be very useful.
Click to expand...

I imagine there must be something like that but I haven't seen one.

That said, when you make a collision you get the point of the collision and the normal so with those two vectors what you can do is to destroy the original arrow on collision and instantiate a new one in the point with the right rotation based on the normal.
 
F

friken

Member
Ashodin said:
Final SageScrolr video

http://youtu.be/h143yb8md6M

Release date trailer later!
Click to expand...

Looking really fun


fog said:
Just stumbled across this thread. So much talent and inspiration in one place. Amazing


That's fantastic.
Click to expand...

thanks!


----

Question for those who have signed up w m$ or Sony for xbox1 or ps4. How long did the signup process take? I just did the online app for sony today, but I did the m$ ID program signup.... gee must be a year ago and still awaiting full signup/devkit.
 
C

cbox

Member
friken said:
Question for those who have signed up w m$ or Sony for xbox1 or ps4. How long did the signup process take? I just did the online app for sony today, but I did the m$ ID program signup.... gee must be a year ago and still awaiting full signup/devkit.
Click to expand...

I did the id@xbox when it first released, but we aren't a registered biz or anything like that. I noticed they sent an email the morning stating that it was required. Not sure what to do yet, being on xbone or ps4 would be huge.
 
J

James Coote

Neo Member
friken said:
Looking really fun

Question for those who have signed up w m$ or Sony for xbox1 or ps4. How long did the signup process take? I just did the online app for sony today, but I did the m$ ID program signup.... gee must be a year ago and still awaiting full signup/devkit.
Click to expand...

I signed up for PS4/X1/WiiU around this time last year. Wii U was the quickest (under 8 weeks), though largely because I had to wait a month for my ISP to switch me to a static IP needed for PS4 dev (and also ended up straddling Christmas, so it probably took about the same time discounting those two things).

Got nowhere with ID@Xbox, but going to give them another try soon if I decide not to stay Wii U exclusive. Edit: MS have been really selective with ID@Xbox. I know a couple of people who have been trying super-hard to get on the program and only just got accepted this week (having signed up over a year ago initially). Seems like they might be taking on more devs at the moment(?) so could be a good time to (re)apply

-----

Anyone else heading to gamecity festival in Nottingham? I'll be there all week, though not going to be demoing every day
 
F

friken

Member
ConvenientBox said:
I did the id@xbox when it first released, but we aren't a registered biz or anything like that. I noticed they sent an email the morning stating that it was required. Not sure what to do yet, being on xbone or ps4 would be huge.
Click to expand...

I really want to get StarDiver in one of them (ps4 would be my slight preference but either would be amazing). From what I understand, for small indies both will want/demand exclusivity otherwise both would be awesome.


James Coote said:
I signed up for PS4/X1/WiiU around this time last year. Wii U was the quickest (under 8 weeks), though largely because I had to wait a month for my ISP to switch me to a static IP needed for PS4 dev (and also ended up straddling Christmas, so it probably took about the same time discounting those two things).

Got nowhere with ID@Xbox, but going to give them another try soon if I decide not to stay Wii U exclusive. Edit: MS have been really selective with ID@Xbox. I know a couple of people who have been trying super-hard to get on the program and only just got accepted this week (having signed up over a year ago initially). Seems like they might be taking on more devs at the moment(?) so could be a good time to (re)apply

-----

Anyone else heading to gamecity festival in Nottingham? I'll be there all week, though not going to be demoing every day
Click to expand...

I get [email protected] emails still and they have acknowledged my application -- basically a 'we are slammed w tons of apps we'll get to you eventually maybe' response. I received an email this morning asking if I'm still interested to request a game id form, which I responded to this morning. So we will see. Considering how hammered m$ has gotten from game press about the xbox1 launch and such, seems m$ would be trying to sign up devs as fast as they are interested.
 
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