CAG Amateur Developer's Thread

[Josh1billion]

Over the past week, I accomplished something I've been wanting (maybe needing) to do for a while: setting up a complete scripting system to use in my games.  Not for scripting the logic of each entity in a real-time game, but for things like cutscenes, NPC actions in RPGs (what they do when the map is loaded, what they do when you walk up and talk to them, etc.).

It consists of two scripting languages: a C-like language for writing the scripts, and an Assembly-like language that it compiles into.  The former is for me to write, and the latter is for the game engine to read.  I wrote a compiler, based on a project I had to do in college, which compiles between the two, and an interpreter that the game uses to execute the Assembly-like code.  Writing an interpreter for a C-like language would have been much tougher, but interpreting a language that just amounts to a set of sequential instructions is easy, hence the compilation process.  It also supports continuations, which are pretty crucial and a big reason why I didn't go with something like Lua.

Beyond that, my whole month has pretty much consisted of composing music for my current project and learning a ton of [basic] music theory in the process.  Seven songs down, and somewhere around five left... might still have to go back and change some of them later, though.  Suffering music burnout right now. :X

 

[CheapLikeAFox]

Forgot to post this in this thread, but you guys might have seen it already since I posted a CAG blog post:

Super Blackout, my PS Vita game is finally out as of Tuesday of last week. $4.99 / 67.9 mb.

Not sure whether the link will work, because CAG's affiliate redirection was messing it up last time I checked, but maybe it'll work now:

https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/super-blackout/cid=UP0770-PCSE00784_00-SUPERBLACKOUT001

Screenshot:

Hey,
I asked in the psn thread but probably better to ask here, is this compatible with the PlayStation tv? That's all I have to play vita games. The store page says that some features aren't compatible, but would the have still be enjoyable?

 

[Josh1billion]

Hey,
I asked in the psn thread but probably better to ask here, is this compatible with the PlayStation tv? That's all I have to play vita games. The store page says that some features aren't compatible, but would the have still be enjoyable?

Yup, it's 100% playable with the PSTV. The only difference is the way it controls: on the Vita, you have the additional option of using the touch screen to select tiles and menu buttons, while on PSTV you'd control it with the D-pad + face buttons.

 

[Josh1billion]

This is pretty cool: I found a 2D framework for Unity whose goal is to reduce the reliance on the visual editor and replicate a more traditional C# programming environment.  I'm really strongly considering using it for my next game this fall, because I reeeaaally love C#, and the idea of targeting some more platforms (mainly XBox One) is a nice bonus.

For you Unity guys: is there any way to compile+run your Unity games from a command line?  I'm trying to speed up my workflow when writing C# code in Visual Studio, rather than having to alt+tab into the Unity editor and then Ctrl+P to run the game, because I do a lot of really quick iterations.  Hmm.. or if I could change the Ctrl+P to some other one-hand shortcut, that could be nice too, but some googling tells me that's not possible.

 

[Richard Kain]

For you Unity guys: is there any way to compile+run your Unity games from a command line?

If you love C#, and you love a more traditional, non-visual editing environment, and you want some nice multi-platform reach, why aren't you using Monogame? Especially now, of all times. Microsoft just announced that they are releasing Xamarin for free, and that it will now just be a part of Visual Studio by default. With Xamarin now being free-to-use, Monogame has unfettered reach across a huge swath of platforms with no money down required.

It uses C#. It can build to Windows, OSX, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Vita, iOS, and Android. And it's based on the old XNA, so it has lots of game-focused features without tying you down to a visual interface. I would think something like that would be ideal for your purposes.

 

[Josh1billion]

If you love C#, and you love a more traditional, non-visual editing environment, and you want some nice multi-platform reach, why aren't you using Monogame? Especially now, of all times. Microsoft just announced that they are releasing Xamarin for free, and that it will now just be a part of Visual Studio by default. With Xamarin now being free-to-use, Monogame has unfettered reach across a huge swath of platforms with no money down required.

It uses C#. It can build to Windows, OSX, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Vita, iOS, and Android. And it's based on the old XNA, so it has lots of game-focused features without tying you down to a visual interface. I would think something like that would be ideal for your purposes.

I would love to, and I've looked into Monogame heavily in the past year and you're right that it's really ideal for me, but there's one thing holding me back: it doesn't support Vita. I think you're probably thinking of the PlayStation Mobile support.

 

[Richard Kain]

I think you're probably thinking of the PlayStation Mobile support.

Yes, you are correct, and have clearly done your homework on the matter. I typed pre-emptively, based on what I read on the Monogame home-page. Their Vita support is contingent on PlayStation Mobile, a now defunct initiative.

Well, I certainly don't want to discourage you from using Unity. As a Unity-user myself, I heartily endorse the use of the engine, and will even happily provide you with what support I can. I just don't feel it's a good idea to circumvent the standard structure of Unity. That said, it is both possible and permissible. And if that will provide you with a development environment that you are more comfortable and productive in, then more power to you.

I can't really help with the Unity coder workflow. I think it's great that they've started more tightly integrating Visual Studio, as it is a more capable IDE as opposed to MonoDevelop. But I consistently work in a dual-monitor setup, so I habitually keep the scene editor open on one screen, and the code editor on the other. So I suppose my advice would be to get a second monitor, preferably one with a stand that easily allows for rotating it to a vertical orientation. I favor Dell, personally. (the monitors, not the pre-built rigs)

 

[Josh1billion]

edit: removed, not really looking to get into an argument over which engine/methodology is better.  

 

[Richard Kain]

Whooof, it's been several months since I've posted here. I had to hang up my development boots for a little while. I was assisting my parents as they moved into their new house. Shifting 20+ years of family detritus from one location to another is a lot more time-consuming than I would have expected.

But that particular project is drawing to a close. And it's time to put those boots on again. I started off by downloading several different versions of Unity, and installing them all on my computer side-by-side.

For those of you who may be interested in development, this step is not generally necessary, or even a good idea. For anyone who just wants to make a game, a single install of your engine is going to do you just fine. The best approach is to pick a version of your engine of choice that is reasonably stable, and has all the features you need, and just stick to that version. Changing versions mid-project is normally something to be avoided, no matter what kind of fancy new features are in the new release. Pick a version of your engine that works for you, and stick to it until your current project is finished, that's the way to go.

The reason I'm taking the multi-version install approach is because I'm currently working on Unity Assets. When working on modular Assets, having multiple installs makes a lot more sense. One of the more attractive features of a well-designed Asset is that it is compatible with multiple versions of an engine. That way a user doesn't have to worry about which version of the engine they are using, they can just download the Asset and have it work, no questions asked. That places a bit more of a burden on the developer, but that's just the way of things.

I have a couple of Assets that I'm working on right now, and want to make certain that they have a nice broad compatibility. More details later.

 

[Josh1billion]

Psssst, Humble Bundle is selling Game Maker and all of the non-NDA'd modules for $15:

https://www.humblebundle.com/gamemaker-bundle

I picked it up and, after messing around with it and stress-testing it on PC/PS Vita/Android, I'm seriously impressed with how performant the engine is.  I set up a really basic project to see if it could handle the heaviest cases my platformer might throw at it (huge parallax backgrounds + a large level with a lot of tiles + streaming a dozen mp3s from disk one at a time + some sprites), and it runs extremely well.  Even the weakest platform (Android, my Nexus 6) is running at a consistent 120+ FPS, and the others are running several times as fast, all while keeping an unusually low memory footprint.

It's working extremely well cross-platform, too: everything "just works", and the engine does a nice job of scaling the game to the various screen sizes.  No need to be conscious of different screen sizes unless you're planning to support multiple aspect ratios (which I'm too lazy to do since mobile is the lowest priority for me).

The only major downside I'm seeing right now is with the scripting language's limitations.  Because of those limitations, it looks like it'd be necessary to take a lot of hacky approaches when it comes to writing and organizing code.

~~~

In unrelated news, thanks to the fine people who purchased Super Blackout on PS Vita, I built a new office PC and swapped out my triple-monitor setup with one big 40" 4k monitor.  It's helped a lot with boosting development speed.  Also bought a PS4 devkit, so I can finally get that version of my game going.

 

[Richard Kain]

In unrelated news, thanks to the fine people who purchased Super Blackout on PS Vita, I built a new office PC and swapped out my triple-monitor setup with one big 40" 4k monitor. It's helped a lot with boosting development speed. Also bought a PS4 devkit, so I can finally get that version of my game going.

Awesome! Good to hear things are working out for you. In indie dev, any gain is worth celebrating. I won't inquire too heavily into the PS4 devkit, as that is probably NDA in some regards. But kudos on picking one of those up.

And it's good to hear that GameMaker seems viable. It's been a while since I've looked closely at that engine. I'm still using Unity.

 

[Josh1billion]

Thanks.  I'm strongly considering switching to Game Maker now because of the cross-platform support (the engine I'm using now is cross-platform too, but I keep running into inconsistencies here and there that have slowed me way down lately -- that and C++ can make things tricky at times).  Unity is very possibly an even better option at this point due to its much, much better scripting capabilities, but I'm leaning more toward GM since I have a lot of familiarity with it from ~2001-2003 that surprisingly still applies with the modern version.  My opinions are changing such that I'm thinking more about checking out Unity more as time goes on, though.

 

[Richard Kain]

My opinions are changing such that I'm thinking more about checking out Unity more as time goes on, though.

A big part of it should be about what style of game you are planning on making. The engine serves the game, not the other way around. If you are focused on making a 2D game, GameMaker might be a better choice. While Unity has gotten plenty of good 2D tools, it is still more of a 3D-focused engine. If GameMaker is running really well in 2D on the platforms you are targeting, it might be a more appropriate choice. As long as the scripting language isn't too bad, it could be a viable option. Goodness knows there have been a number of successful indie games that have come out in the past few years that used GameMaker.

I've been putting together a few tools and graphical assets in Unity, to help speed up future developments. I'm investing a little time and energy now to save time later. I'm in the middle of creating a checker piece. I'm specifically creating one that will take advantage of level-of-detail to scale to multiple resolutions and platforms, making it easier to use it numerous different contexts. A cylindrical, coin-shaped object with UV-mapping, and effectively scaling LOD support could have a lot of different applications.

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

Thanks. I'm strongly considering switching to Game Maker now because of the cross-platform support (the engine I'm using now is cross-platform too, but I keep running into inconsistencies here and there that have slowed me way down lately -- that and C++ can make things tricky at times). Unity is very possibly an even better option at this point due to its much, much better scripting capabilities, but I'm leaning more toward GM since I have a lot of familiarity with it from ~2001-2003 that surprisingly still applies with the modern version. My opinions are changing such that I'm thinking more about checking out Unity more as time goes on, though.

I checked out a few of the development studios such as Unreal, Unity and Game Maker and I would like to say that Game Maker is both a good choice and not a good choice, depending on your situation.

Game Maker is of course great for 2D games. Now with that said, I also feel like you really need think to yourself I want to make a few 2D games to really dive deep into Game Maker. What I mean by this is Game Maker has it's own language, own way of doing everything. It's not bad, but as a developer myself (not professional game developer but general developer as my day job), I know that Game Maker doesn't teach you some of the programming practices other good studios would. Now like I said, if you just plan on making 2D games, this is perfectly fine, but if you want to dive deeper into 3D, I would look more so at Unity because a lot of the stuff you will learn in Game Maker will not translate to Unity, and there will be a huge re learning curve of how to do everything. So take that into consideration before you decide on a game studio.

Not hating on Game Maker but just be warned that Game Maker is it's own thing and switching from Game Maker to Unity will require a learning curve so I would pick a studio based on what games you want to not just make now, but in the future. A little bit of Unity hell now if you do want to do 3D will pay off later. Otherwise Game Maker is fine.

 

[Josh1billion]

I checked out a few of the development studios such as Unreal, Unity and Game Maker and I would like to say that Game Maker is both a good choice and not a good choice, depending on your situation.

Game Maker is of course great for 2D games. Now with that said, I also feel like you really need think to yourself I want to make a few 2D games to really dive deep into Game Maker. What I mean by this is Game Maker has it's own language, own way of doing everything. It's not bad, but as a developer myself (not professional game developer but general developer as my day job), I know that Game Maker doesn't teach you some of the programming practices other good studios would. Now like I said, if you just plan on making 2D games, this is perfectly fine, but if you want to dive deeper into 3D, I would look more so at Unity because a lot of the stuff you will learn in Game Maker will not translate to Unity, and there will be a huge re learning curve of how to do everything. So take that into consideration before you decide on a game studio.

Not hating on Game Maker but just be warned that Game Maker is it's own thing and switching from Game Maker to Unity will require a learning curve so I would pick a studio based on what games you want to not just make now, but in the future. A little bit of Unity hell now if you do want to do 3D will pay off later. Otherwise Game Maker is fine.

Hmm, I appreciate the advice, but like you, I do have a pretty extensive background in programming (~13 years of game/web/desktop/mobile programming, CS degree, full-time non-game development job), so my concern at this point isn't "what is GM going to teach me about programming?" but "what's the best choice for this particular project at this time?"

But I absolutely agree with you about GM defying conventional programming practices, and that is a huuuge reason it was a difficult choice to switch from C++/PhyreEngine to GM for this project. GM's scripting engine pretty much requires developers to write hacky and unorganized code, but all things considered, I predict the benefits will pay off for this project in development time and generally a better end product. It's going to be a harder decision when I start up my next game (either a roguelike or an RPG) though, because GM's scripting engine's lack of flexibility is going to be a much bigger issue there...

 

[Josh1billion]

Here's a really moving blog post by Thomas Happ, developer of Axiom Verge: http://www.axiomverge.com/blog/the-indie-special-needs-dad

I'd been waiting patiently for a sale to buy Axiom Verge, but ended up paying retail after reading.

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

Here's a really moving blog post by Thomas Happ, developer of Axiom Verge: http://www.axiomverge.com/blog/the-indie-special-needs-dad

I'd been waiting patiently for a sale to buy Axiom Verge, but ended up paying retail after reading.

Hmm, looks like I will be buying it again. Bought it on PS4, for full price and enjoyed it. Hearing this I will have to rebuy it on another platform.

 

[CheapLikeAFox]

Any of you active devs, what is your opinion on something like this:

https://www.udemy.com/unitycourse/

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

Any of you active devs, what is your opinion on something like this:

https://www.udemy.com/unitycourse/

It seems like a decent enough course. 52 hours of content for $13 isn't bad at all. I can't comment on the instructor but I think the source material will be decent enough to do what you need.

So after a bit of searching I think I am going to start learning LibGDX. I know I can probably get similar results on Unity, but I am just looking to make a 2D game for Android and LibGDX looks like it will teach me how to build a game from scratch instead of using a tool to make a game. Not saying that Unity is bad or anything but I would rather learn to do things from scratch just so I have a better understanding of things.

That and LibGDX is open source so I don't have to pay licensing fees just in the off chance I have a game that makes money.

 

[Josh1billion]

LibGDX is great. It's what I used originally when writing Super Blackout.

Something very similar worth considering if you haven't already looked into it is Monogame. Similar language (C# instead of Java), and the framework is really similar from a programmer's perspective. It supports a few more platforms than LibGDX, which gives it a slight edge in my opinion, all other things being pretty much h equal.

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

LibGDX is great. It's what I used originally when writing Super Blackout.

Something very similar worth considering if you haven't already looked into it is Monogame. Similar language (C# instead of Java), and the framework is really similar from a programmer's perspective. It supports a few more platforms than LibGDX, which gives it a slight edge in my opinion, all other things being pretty much h equal.

Did not know about Monogame. I will have to check that out.

Just looking for an environment that is powerful enough to make a 2D game but without all the hand holding of Unity. Nothing against Unity, but I am a how does it work kinda of guy and making something from scratch really appeals to me. At this point I just started getting my feet wet with LibGDX so I might be switching to Monogame because of the extra support.

 

[Josh1billion]

Did not know about Monogame. I will have to check that out.

Just looking for an environment that is powerful enough to make a 2D game but without all the hand holding of Unity. Nothing against Unity, but I am a how does it work kinda of guy and making something from scratch really appeals to me. At this point I just started getting my feet wet with LibGDX so I might be switching to Monogame because of the extra support.

Right on, I'm the same way (enjoying working with somewhat low-level stuff). I'm using GM Studio right now, but I'll probably use Monogame for my next project because I really like that low-level workflow, now that Monogame is supposed to be getting native Vita support soon.

On a related note, if you plan to use Tiled as your level editor, here's a really good library for loading Tiled maps in C#/Monogame: https://github.com/marshallward/TiledSharp

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

Right on, I'm the same way (enjoying working with somewhat low-level stuff). I'm using GM Studio right now, but I'll probably use Monogame for my next project because I really like that low-level workflow, now that Monogame is supposed to be getting native Vita support soon.

On a related note, if you plan to use Tiled as your level editor, here's a really good library for loading Tiled maps in C#/Monogame: https://github.com/marshallward/TiledSharp

Nice, I am defiantly switching to Monogame (assuming VS 2015 wants to work). Just having Xbox and PS Support out of the box is nice. Thanks for the level editor. Right now my first project wont really involve levels but I hopefully plan to create a full game sometime with levels. Since Thanksgiving is over I can start learning it.

I fiddled around with game creation in the past but I am serious about it now. Reason being is I want to potentially make some side money to help build my future. I mean I have a job as a developer but I want to some day afford a house with my GF, and just be able to live comfortably and happily in life. Not that I am a big spender or anything but I want to have a future where I don't need to worry about money. Game creation is something where I will be doing what I enjoy and can potentially make money, a win win for me.

 

[Josh1billion]

Started learning Unity this week, here's a noob question:
 
Is it possible to configure Unity to run a different scene (when you press Play) than the scene you're currently editing?
 
I want to have an "initializer" scene that contains a bunch of universal startup code (which, when it's done initializing things, would then transition to the level I'm actually working on -- or, in the final product, to the title screen or whatever).
 
EDIT: Yay, found a script that mostly does the job: https://coderwall.com/p/gm4_iw/autoload-your-start-scene-everytime-you-press-play
 
That script is supposed to do everything I described, but it looks like Unity 5 must have changed some things such that there's a small bug in it now: after quitting the game, the editor will be stuck on the "initializer" scene rather than whatever scene you were editing.
 
But I wrote an extra function inside of it that allows me to reload it with Ctrl+G after quitting the game, so it's not too big of a deal.
 

 
    [MenuItem("File/Scene Autoload/Reload previous scene %g")]
    private static void ReloadPreviousScene()
    {
        if (!EditorApplication.OpenScene(PreviousScene))
        {
            Debug.LogError(string.Format("error: scene not found: {0}", PreviousScene));
        }
    }

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

So I am looking for either course/book/something on either Monogame or Game Development in general. I don't know exactly which one I need or what would be best or both.

Let me explain the situation first. So I am reading through some Monogame tutorials and I am understanding the C# portion of it (as I understand what is going on with C# language), but what I don't understand is why they did that. What I mean is like for example I get that you need to put a sprite on the screen but I don't understand the whole function to put it on the screen (like with all the math and stuff involved). I can read the code fine but I still am lost on some of aspects related to the whole game development process. Also with cameras and scrolling is another area that I can feel I will have trouble with.

So my problem is a tricky one since I get C# but the whole principals of game development are confusing to me. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I don't care if I need to spent a few dollars to get some material, if it will help me learn it.

Thanks

 

[Josh1billion]

So I am looking for either course/book/something on either Monogame or Game Development in general. I don't know exactly which one I need or what would be best or both.

Let me explain the situation first. So I am reading through some Monogame tutorials and I am understanding the C# portion of it (as I understand what is going on with C# language), but what I don't understand is why they did that. What I mean is like for example I get that you need to put a sprite on the screen but I don't understand the whole function to put it on the screen (like with all the math and stuff involved). I can read the code fine but I still am lost on some of aspects related to the whole game development process. Also with cameras and scrolling is another area that I can feel I will have trouble with.

So my problem is a tricky one since I get C# but the whole principals of game development are confusing to me. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I don't care if I need to spent a few dollars to get some material, if it will help me learn it.

Thanks

I don't know of any specific resources, but I'd be more than happy to chat and explain some of those concepts / answer any questions. Although I haven't used Monogame in a full project myself yet, I'm really familiar with the game programming/structural concepts behind it, because it's really similar to the style I've worked with in most game dev libraries in the past (stuff like LibGDX, Allegro, PlayStation Mobile, CDX, etc.). I'm assuming you mean concepts like having a game logic loop and a rendering loop, setting up spritebatching, organizing your code, etc.

If you want, you can PM me on the Game Development slack here: https://gamedevslack.herokuapp.com/ or add on Steam or Skype (Josh1billion on both). I'll be online most of today probably.

 

[Josh1billion]

Does anyone have experience using Tiled with Unity?  I see there are a handful of Tiled-to-Unity converters, and then there's the option of using something like TiledSharp to import Tiled's files directly at runtime, etc.  Looking to hear whether anyone has opinions on the various exporters out there.

 

[Josh1billion]

Does anyone have experience using Tiled with Unity? I see there are a handful of Tiled-to-Unity converters, and then there's the option of using something like TiledSharp to import Tiled's files directly at runtime, etc. Looking to hear whether anyone has opinions on the various exporters out there.

I ended up trying out Tiled2Unity, and it works really, really well. I did some stress testing on Vita tonight, and the Unity + Unity2Tiled combo is very performant. Never ran into any framerate issues, and maps load in a fraction of the time compared to the scripts I'm using in GameMaker: Studio. Pretty sure I'm going to use Unity on my next project now.. mid-2017.

 

[Richard Kain]

Pretty sure I'm going to use Unity on my next project now.. mid-2017.

Let me know if you need a hand on anything. I'm still working on some Unity Assets. I'm currently creating a checkers-style playing piece 3D model with normal mapping and full level of detail support. I should be able to re-purpose it for other round, flat objects, such as coins. I'm also in the middle of re-factoring the board-game/named linking Asset that I was working on to be compatible with a broader swath of Unity distributions. A good exercise for an Asset developer. Supporting multiple Unity versions is very appealing for frequent Asset Store users.

 

[Richard Kain]

​Oh holy crap! Today Valve announced that they are shutting down Steam GreenLight, and replacing it with a new service called Steam Direct.

For those of you not familiar, Steam Greenlight has for years been a service that allowed essentially any prospective developer to get their games on Steam with relative ease. So long as you participated in the community and its curration, getting your game playable on Steam was essentailly a foregone conclusion. For some developers this was a boon, allowing them access to Steam's community and customers that they had previously only dreamed of. And some less scrupulous developers used it as a mechanism for flooding Steam with ill-conceived cash-grabs. The GreenLight service did a lot for Steam, but it also flooded the service with a quantity of sub-par work that no curration seemed capable of keeping pace with.

The new proposed Steam Direct service will allow access to Steam for general developers, but will require an up-front monetary deposit. If a certain given number of sales are met, the deposit in question will be reimbursed to the developer. If it isn't reached, the deposit will become the permanent property of Valve, thank you very much. Such a system places a greater commitment and risk on the developers. Flooding the service with low-quality titles will no longer be an option, as such titles aren't guaranteed to see their deposits returned. Or at least, that's the current theory.

There are going to be some issues with this approach. Some developers are already speaking out against it, while others seem to welcome the limitations this will place on the Steam development community. I think it clear that this is designed less for developers than it is for customers. A steam store flooded with sub-par dross is unrfriendly to end-users. Time will tell how this affects the development community.

 

[Sir_Fragalot]

​Oh holy crap! Today Valve announced that they are shutting down Steam GreenLight, and replacing it with a new service called Steam Direct.

For those of you not familiar, Steam Greenlight has for years been a service that allowed essentially any prospective developer to get their games on Steam with relative ease. So long as you participated in the community and its curration, getting your game playable on Steam was essentailly a foregone conclusion. For some developers this was a boon, allowing them access to Steam's community and customers that they had previously only dreamed of. And some less scrupulous developers used it as a mechanism for flooding Steam with ill-conceived cash-grabs. The GreenLight service did a lot for Steam, but it also flooded the service with a quantity of sub-par work that no curration seemed capable of keeping pace with.

The new proposed Steam Direct service will allow access to Steam for general developers, but will require an up-front monetary deposit. If a certain given number of sales are met, the deposit in question will be reimbursed to the developer. If it isn't reached, the deposit will become the permanent property of Valve, thank you very much. Such a system places a greater commitment and risk on the developers. Flooding the service with low-quality titles will no longer be an option, as such titles aren't guaranteed to see their deposits returned. Or at least, that's the current theory.

There are going to be some issues with this approach. Some developers are already speaking out against it, while others seem to welcome the limitations this will place on the Steam development community. I think it clear that this is designed less for developers than it is for customers. A steam store flooded with sub-par dross is unrfriendly to end-users. Time will tell how this affects the development community.

This is interesting but I can already see a problem with this service. I am talking about developers where this is their first ever game. Like someone puts their heart and soul into a game and did it in their spare time for free. What if they don't have the money to upfront steam where they need to be to get the highest sales. I really can't see this going over well. Sure you are going to get the worst of the crap off Steam greenlight but there are a few good games going to go under the radar.

I kinda wish Steam had the option for the down payment for guaranteed access or maybe go through an approval process where Steam would take a much higher cut for the first x sales and they would have to be approved by an actual group of people. (where if your game is not approved you get banned by steam for x amount of time from submitting games)

 

[Richard Kain]

The "ideal" solution to Steam's current submission issues is large-scale human curration. But this is the least efficient and most costly approach for Valve, so it will almost certainly not happen. It would require permanent staff that specialize in community interraction and critical evaluation. And with the volume of submissions they would be likely to get, we're talking about a permanent, full-time team of no less than 30 people. And even a team of that size would be drastically understaffed, and probably need to be expanded at some point to reduce the workload. The cost of assembling, training, and maintaining such a team would be considerable, which is why Valve has been relying on automated systems and user community involvement up to this point. Those things cost very little.

It's easy to see why they've been handling things the way they have. They do what's best for Valve, first and foremost. And I can't even fault them for that, it's not an unreasonable approach. But at the same time, it is not what is best for the general public, or the development community. We will see how all of this pans out.

The funny thing is, by not handling this sort of thing themselves, they are actually opening up the door for someone else to handle it for them. A third-party rating/reviewing system that effectively "sifts" Steam's library of titles could easily accrue a community around itself.

 

[Richard Kain]

After spending the holiday months focused on family activities, I've finally gotten some time to devote to getting back into my development. The past couple days have actually been very productive. The Unity tool I was working on for constructing simple game object links has been coming along really well. Part of the challenge was construcing an efficient tool that would use the component to construct quick-and-dirty game boards. Using a basic linking system for construcing a board-game, such as for chess or checkers, is entirely possible. But it would take far too long to construct something like that in the scene editor. A simple GUI tool to automate the process seemed appropriate.

I had a partially working version previously, but over the past few days I was able to rework it to be cleaner, more efficient, and considerably less error/bug prone. I streamlined the interface for it a bit too. I even successfully added and tested a few new features that I had been meaning to include. My attempt to add a staggered board option have worked, and I'm even through most of the tile link assignment logic. I also successfully added an alternating color assignment option, with Materials you can select and dynamically add to the board pieces in the interface.

 

[Richard Kain]

I was able to finish up the link assignments. It took a little extra logic, getting the various conditions for the staggered tiles wasn't easy. But I got through it. Now I just need to do a small amount of clean up, create a standardized example scene, and then cook up some marketing materials and a few tutorials. I was planning on making some basic written tutorials for basic browsing, a basic API breakdown for the code-monkeys, and two or three video tutorials for the YouTube-crowd. It will take a little while, but I'm looking forward to putting my new microphone through its paces.
 
On the broader industry front, this is GDC week! I'm not in attendance, just watching it from the internet sidelines this year. But we're already getting some pretty interesting news out of it. Microsoft announced today that they are resurrecting the Creators program that quasi-began on the XBox 360. It will now be possible for anyone with an XBox One to test home-made UWP programs on their XBox One hardware, as well as a special area of the XBox store to sell such efforts. For standard indie developers who already have an XBox One SDK, this is not relavent. But for hobbyists developers who aren't already licensed XBox developers, this is actually pretty sweet.
 
Just a heads up, this option is probably going to get a lot of run-off form Valve closing down Steam Greenlight. I would expect a lot of extremely low-quality cash-in efforts to show up to the XBox One Creators party. It will fill up with shovelware quickly, so if you're interested in joining, get used to the idea of handling your own promotion and marketing.

 

[Josh1billion]

Microsoft announced today that they are resurrecting the Creators program that quasi-began on the XBox 360. It will now be possible for anyone with an XBox One to test home-made UWP programs on their XBox One hardware, as well as a special area of the XBox store to sell such efforts. For standard indie developers who already have an XBox One SDK, this is not relavent. But for hobbyists developers who aren't already licensed XBox developers, this is actually pretty sweet.

This sounds awesome. I wonder whether existing UWP exports like the one in GameMaker: Studio can be used for it.

I've been making a lot of progress on my game lately. A few weeks ago, I signed up to demo it at a small indie gathering at the Midwest Gaming Classic that's coming up in April, so that gave me a kick in the butt to get it to a showable state. Within the next couple of weeks, I'll finally be putting out an official announcement post/trailer.

Also looks like I might wind up doing some Unity work at my day job (software consulting) soon, so that could be cool.

 

[Josh1billion]

Any CAGs developing games lately?  Let's get this topic going again

I'm working on a game right now called Eternal Exodus, a game that looks a bit like Pokemon and plays like a Shin Megami Tensei with a few twists, like the addition of item crafting, a Final Fantasy-esque world map to explore, a heavy emphasis on sidequests, and minigames.

I've taken a lot of care in writing the story and assembling the soundtrack too, because those are two of the most important factors for me personally in playing a JRPG.  I worked on the story for close to a year before I sat down to start programming the game.  The soundtrack is a mix of some licensed music and some custom tracks I've been writing.

Multi-language support is coming, too.  On every system and region, you'll be able to play in English or Japanese, and hopefully some other languages if budget allows (Chinese is a hope of mine, because the game's website gets a lot of traffic from China).  I'm planning to add support for showing multiple languages at once, so if you're learning a new language, you can play in it while still having the English text on-screen if you need a translation.

Release is looking like late 2021 on Steam, PS4, Switch, and hopefully Xbox.  Pricing will most likely be $14.99 or $19.99.

Here are a few screenshots:

If you're interested, please consider wishlisting it on Steam, because that helps me out a lot.  Other devs have told me that games show up higher in Steam listings if they have more wishlists, making it easier for other peeps to find the game.

 

[elessar123]

The art style change is a little weird, ngl

 

[Grey Swordsman]

My first thought was that the art style change is a massive improvement from when I saw it last time (about a year ago now). Take that as you will, but this is looking promising. I typically shy away from first person dungeon combat type stuff, but I'm willing to try it out for a fellow CAG's own freaking game!

Even though it's not out yet, I'm excited and happy for you bro!

 

[Josh1billion]

The art style change is a little weird, ngl

Different tastes I suppose. I like the new style 100x more, but I have a friend who also prefers the old style. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My first thought was that the art style change is a massive improvement from when I saw it last time (about a year ago now). Take that as you will, but this is looking promising. I typically shy away from first person dungeon combat type stuff, but I'm willing to try it out for a fellow CAG's own freaking game!

Even though it's not out yet, I'm excited and happy for you bro!

Thanks man, really appreciate the support. I'll have a demo up here soon as part of the Steam Game Festival (not the one that just started, but the one coming this summer) if you wanna give that a try.

 

[elessar123]

Different tastes I suppose. I like the new style 100x more, but I have a friend who also prefers the old style. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I didn't say I didn't like the style (though I like the new style more). It's just too glaring a style change from one to the other. Like there should be something in common between the two?

 

[Richard Kain]

Are you using RPG Maker to craft this, or is it using a different engine?

I'm still doing my own development, but only pursuing it in a hobbyist capacity. Right now I'm trying to get a viable demo running for a voice-recognition tool for streamlining lip-sync animation. I'm using Sphinx to get it running, and C++ is a pain in the neck for me to work with. But I'm hopeful that the cross-platform support will be worth it.

 

[Grey Swordsman]

Different tastes I suppose. I like the new style 100x more, but I have a friend who also prefers the old style. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks man, really appreciate the support. I'll have a demo up here soon as part of the Steam Game Festival (not the one that just started, but the one coming this summer) if you wanna give that a try.

Yeah, definitely interested to trying it out and I'm looking forward to that.

 

[Josh1billion]

Are you using RPG Maker to craft this, or is it using a different engine?

I'm still doing my own development, but only pursuing it in a hobbyist capacity. Right now I'm trying to get a viable demo running for a voice-recognition tool for streamlining lip-sync animation. I'm using Sphinx to get it running, and C++ is a pain in the neck for me to work with. But I'm hopeful that the cross-platform support will be worth it.

Nice, good luck. Lip syncing sounds tough but rewarding.

Nope, RPG Maker can't support most of what I'm doing in this game, so I built it all in Unity. All of the gameplay + battle system etc. is built from the ground up.

 

[Richard Kain]

Nope, RPG Maker can't support most of what I'm doing in this game, so I built it all in Unity. All of the gameplay + battle system etc. is built from the ground up.

Nice! Building it in Unity will definitely give you more flexibility and elbow room. It's likely meant more work for you, but if you had specific requirements and targets its understandable that you would go for the more custom approach. I imagine the mini-map is one of those features. It's possible to achieve something similar in RPG Maker, but it is not easy or built-in.

This is a fairly small preview, with just a few images. If there was any critique for me to level at it, it would be that the monster graphics clear higher-resolution sources create a bit of a stylistic clash with the lower-resolution art that's being used throughout the rest of the world. But then, those could easily be placeholders for all I know. Overall, it's looking very good, and I like the pixel style you're using.

Lip-syncing animation is notorious for being time-consuming. That's mainly why I'm working on a work-around. I'm less concerned with quality than I am with speed. My main objective is just to have a good-enough solution by automating the process of getting the timing data for words and phonemes while getting relatively close to accurate. This will primarily be used for creating voice-heavy things like cut-scenes, and for web-toons. I need something that can get reasonable lip-sync animations as quickly as possible, so it can be used to iterate on very text-heavy animations in a rapid time frame. It also needs to be extremely portable, which is my I've switched over to using PocketSphinx. Once I've gotten a reasonably efficient solution, I should be able to integrate it into other systems. I'll likely create a Unity Plug-in for it at some point, so you might get a chance to use it in one of your titles eventually.

 

[Josh1billion]

I commissioned an artist named Nightberry who drew the cover art for my game:

lovin how it turned out

 

[Grey Swordsman]

I commissioned an artist named Nightberry who drew the cover art for my game:

lovin how it turned out

DAMN he's good!

In all seriousness, that artist is talented asf. Nightberry nice with them hands lol.

Also, I'm in the process of deleting my all of my Steam accounts, just letting you know incase you see the number of wishlisted users drop more than just a little bit. I have like... 9 Steam accounts. I don't even remember making half of them-- me that's not the point I'm trying to make. The point is, I'm drawing this message out just to let you know that last time I checked, all 9 accounts had your game wishlisted lol.

Also I'm lonely... and kinda horny too tbh. That Golem starting to look a bit extra T-H-I-C-C aaand I'm officially bored. Onto the next thread!

Spoiler

Ahahaha sorry for wasting your time.

 

[Josh1billion]

DAMN he's good!

In all seriousness, that artist is talented asf. Nightberry nice with them hands lol.

Also, I'm in the process of deleting my all of my Steam accounts, just letting you know incase you see the number of wishlisted users drop more than just a little bit. I have like... 9 Steam accounts. I don't even remember making half of them-- me that's not the point I'm trying to make. The point is, I'm drawing this message out just to let you know that last time I checked, all 9 accounts had your game wishlisted lol.

Also I'm lonely... and kinda horny too tbh. That Golem starting to look a bit extra T-H-I-C-C aaand I'm officially bored. Onto the next thread!

Spoiler

Ahahaha sorry for wasting your time.

Hahahah that was great. I will pass your message onto the Golem Thanks for wishlisting it on those 9 accounts while you had em, daaamn that's some good support right there

 

[Josh1billion]

It's been a long time coming -- the development demo for my game Eternal Exodus is finally on Steam.  About 1-2 hours long & although release is still a long ways away, this gives a good preview of what the game will be like compared to the earlier demo (which used placeholder art and was much much earlier in development)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1009410/Eternal_Exodus/

 

[Grey Swordsman]

It's been a long time coming -- the development demo for my game Eternal Exodus is finally on Steam. About 1-2 hours long & although release is still a long ways away, this gives a good preview of what the game will be like compared to the earlier demo (which used placeholder art and was much much earlier in development)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1009410/Eternal_Exodus/

How goes the development?

 

[Josh1billion]

How goes the development?

Never as fast as I'd like lol. But still chipping away at it. Here's a cool minigame I did recently in it:

https://twitter.com/Eternal_Exodus/status/1421282678217875459

inspired by the Sewer Surfin' level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time

Been focusing a lot on the soundtrack lately too, got around 20 tracks done so far. uploaded a bunch of em to YouTube if you wanna take a listen to some:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5maIufuf9k&list=PL21qVe8Fx9PvMOkOgrotZrtrJMoA_rmzy&index=16