Games WIP Small Works Game / Programming Thread

I'm no artist but I like the one on the left. I don't really like the pixelated look though. I get what You're going for but it seems to me it would've looked better with just straight lines.

But again, i'm no artist

 

Testing a hyperspace jump effect:

 

I see what you're doing with this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you trying to do "JK" because if you are then I would have to agree with @(tahir)teamINOV about it being too pixilated. It's a nice concept, but like teamINOV, I'm am no artist. From personal experience, I know that doing straight diagonal lines like what you're trying to do with the k are very difficult, or nearly impossible, if you're using a cheap or small art program. What program are you using to make this in? I would highly recommend something like Photoshop or Inkscape for 2D sprites. I would use Blender for 3D objects and animations.

-- Chris

 

Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it.

Yes, I tried to match the J and K letters in an original way. I'm also using Inkscape.

Well, I thought the pixelated look would refer to the 8-bit games, while these fading squares could symbolise motion from game mechanics of Arcanoid games (like the dot bounces off of the block and destroys one spot).
Anyway, I'll probably need to do something about it anyway since the logo might not be entirely clear based on your feedback. I also want to avoid it looking like a CK, DG, LV or any other clothing brand logotype.

Any idea on how to correlate the logo with a gaming concept?

 

I would like to create a logo for my soon-to-be company, Blue Bean Apps, but I'm having a hard enough time with that! I want a picture of a blue bean, but it's too hard to draw for me, so I'm just going to hire someone to make it when I start making money!

About an idea, I think you should stick with the simple concept you have, of just using your name. I like how your logo makes sense with what you will be doing (apparently, 8-bit games with motion). My blue bean will have nothing to do with my games, so it is entirely random in that aspect!

-- Chris

 

Write me a PM with some details and maybe I'll be able to help you out

 

As a child of the 80's (old guy lol) I quite like the one on the left. its clean and the K has the feel of an 8-bit pallette.
just as an observation, with the size of the bottom of the 'J' its kind of feeling like there should be something in there. what about shortening the base of the J by one square see how that looks.

the black one i can see being used for badges, mugs, small T-Shirt logos, letterheads etc.. as it draws the eyes into it, whereas the right one would lose that effect on white paper.

just my tuppence into the mix

nice tho Konrad

 

I would imagine that you know your way around marketing, OboShape, or at least graphic design. I agree about the one with the black background being better used for merchandise.

-- Chris

 

Just a little update here visibly anyway.

Internally, I did a lot of refactoring the code and setting up the collision system.
Now, I can once again focus on the actual game-play.

Added the Attack state and control routines.
Just for this little W.I.P. presentation you begin with 50 stones to throw.

Left and Right arrow keys to walk.
X to Jump.
C to throw a stone.


Next update will contain much more actual game-play progress.

 

I've been working on a nice little 2D camera system + editor



Red bounds are the bounds your camera is restricted to.
Blue is your cameras view frustum
Green represents the margins; you can move around this area without the camera moving.

The system currently does all the nice crap you'd expect a camera to do, it's pretty smooth, it has other things like points of interest that it will focus on aswel as it's main target.

 

looks sweet! It looks like it only handles horizontal scrolling. Planning to add vertical as well?

 

It already does vertical aswel, that screen shot was just set up to work horizontally I probably should have mentioned that

 

Could come in handy! I could actually use this for the game I'm currently working on. It is pretty pathetic that Unity's camera doesn't do all this, it's just common sense.

- Chris

 

New monster mode added, discussion thread:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/mobile-arena-old-school-fps-inspired-arena-shooter.267313/

 

0:35 Why did you have to go so hard on Steve? What did he ever do to you?!

What gun are you using at 0:48?

- Chris

 

That's the plasma cannon

 

So... the past few days I have been using my free time to locate artists and discuss contracting out some graphics work.

While I wait to hear back from all of them with quotes I thought I'd spend some time tonight overhauling the graphics myself.

I only redrew the playfield graphics. Certainly not amazing like, you know, real artists but definitely a step closer to the way I envision the game looking... here it is "hot off the press" so to speak.

Left and Right Arrow keys to move
X to Jump (hold to jump a little higher)
C to Attack. Currently this is only throwing stones. You start with 50 of them in this demo W.I.P.
P to Pause / Resume the game. The game starts out paused so PRESS P TO START.

Enjoy!

 

I'll say one thing and that's brighten the background a bit. Sure, it's got to be contrasting to the platforms, but also it needs to be readable.

 

Thanks! I noticed that in the screenshot. Oddly I never noticed in the "game". Usually I don't care much about graphics especially this early on. Anyway, I am gonna brighten it up tonight.

 

I agree with @Fishman92. Looking at the background is the equivalent of looking into an abyss, which is boring. In my opinion, you could use a little pizzaz in your background. Maybe try adding stars or something? About the readability, you could always change the color of the text to stand out from the background and other objects.

Out of curiosity, how are you contacting the artists you're looking for? I could really use some graphic artists for my upcoming game, but I don't know how or who to hire.

By the way, the improved graphics look much better! I can't complain because I got all of my graphics for my current game from openstockproject.com because I can't even make decent geometric shapes! Keep up the good work!

- Chris

 

Check out my thread for my current work in progress here! It is near completion!!

- Chris

 

I brightened the background a bit. I uploaded the new screenshot with the same name as the one last night. So just scroll up and that is how it looks now.

ha ha! Yeah maybe I shouldn't have released photos and such here so early on. Basically, I was doing a kind of development journal of my small Work In Progress. This thing is very early in its development. The pizzazz and such will come later after I actually have the game-play implemented and tweaked.

My initial version for prototyping consisted of a yellow circle for the player. Triangles for the treasures. Red stars for the enemies. Normally, I would approach it like that but since everyone here seems so obsessed with graphics and such I decided to take some time to create actual images and animations before posting. lol

I just did a search online. I found there are tons of great artists and animators out there. Prices vary dramatically and seem to have no relationship to the art quality. For example, I have had quotes ranging from $150 to $900 to create pro quality graphics for everything currently in my WIP demo. This would allow me to swap in the new images giving the game an instant facelift. I am all for paying a decent wage but I also need to work with something reasonable. So, I am going with the ones eager to do the work and charging what I feel are reasonable rates. This way I can pay them little bonuses here and there for speedy response and otherwise going beyond the call of duty.

Thanks. I actually spent 90 minutes redoing all of the background graphics last night. That is 22 tiles each 32x32 in size. I think they are more than adequate for WIP graphics. I always intended to hire out the artwork eventually although I am a firm believer that graphics and "gee whiz" effects don't make a great game. They do, however, help with first impressions and catching a person's interest.

 

Ohhh people...I have something evilfun for you to test!

This is a prototype of a level for my new project, Sara the Shieldmage. In it, your goal is to get to the treasure chest and back to the entrance. Can you do it in one go?

Controls:
A: Left
D: Right
F: Enter spellcasting mode/Cast Spell
X: Cancel casting
Z/Left Mouse: Interact with object

Right now there is only one spell: Summon Block. It summons a block that fades after about five seconds. I've not implemented any other spells or mechanics yet. The main thing I want to ask from this is - does this idea of a mage whose gameplay relies around summoning objects have any potential that you can see?

 

I can see some uses with magic. The thing with magic is that it is limitless, as long as you have a good imagination to go along with it. Even if you just limit yourself to magic involving summoning objects, you still have a lot of potential. For example, you could summon moving blocks. I'm not sure what kinds of things to summon you have in mind, but just for blocks alone, you could implement moving blocks and/or blocks that don't fade away over time or have blocks that could stack on top of one another. More detail on what you want to achieve would be helpful in any further ideas. I have a very creative imagination, so if you'd like, I would be more than happy to give you some ideas.

- Chris

 

Ohh I've got ideas.

One planned item will allow you to weaponize the Summoned Block by pushing it (as well as interact with some more static blocks, similar to the Earthbane Gauntlets in The Hero's Journey. Another spell is an obelisk that you can auto-jump off of at a nice velocity. Another item will allow you to make a super-dash that cloaks you in a damaging/protective shield by hitting a lower part of the obelisk instead. Obelisks and Summoned Blocks can be detonated for AoE damage. Summon Shield could be Sara's way of repelling and slightly damaging enemies that wander too close (as well as defending against projectiles.) I'm adding in double-jumping mechanics, through the Perseus Boots. (And, I intend to retcon the Perseus Boots in The Hero's Journey to use such a mechanic in a later patch, but that's besides the point.)

Since the game is called Sara the Shieldmage, the game will encourage a mindset of patient defense, and absolute control of the battlefield. I call the game in its current shape (as much as it has one) an Action Puzzle/Platformer with RPG elements (sort of like Zelda 2 again), but in a way I see its final form as more akin to a weird form of an RTS. Sara's Mana also regenerates at a generally slow rate, so you can't just spam spells, either; just like this demo scene, I intend to make a key component the player determining when to cast a spell.

What's more, since a shield is to protect, I would like to do something similar to the final battle of Shovel Knight, where you and an AI companion (who's not a 'dumb' AI companion, mark you) have to cooperate to defeat a boss or achieve an objective. Yes, the companion can die (and, it's a 'death' if they do), but they can do things that help you win, too.

How many of these plans will come to pass, as well as what other cool plans the future holds, I don't yet know. This is a mechanical prototype. Still, I'm glad you like what you see. When I create a WIP topic for this game, I hope you'll drop in once in a while.

 

I would.

- Chris

 

Just wanted to show off this small feature I added to my game Infested Land

What do you think?

 

Looks great! I'd love to play it! I like the graphics! Just one thing I noticed on your site and on your game: there are some grammar mistakes, quite a few on your website. It's nothing too big, just something I would look in to if I were you. Still, it's a great game. How will you trigger the fighting combos I see you use in the video (like the slash slash jump attack thing)? And what's the thing you use to cause the sort of explosion to damage multiple enemies at once?

- Chris

 

Just a small update here to say I woke up to an email from the artist with the initial frames for the Idle animation.

This was a sort of proof of concept to give feedback or approve to continue on with the other animations.

Just thought I'd let people know, this is the quality the player, enemies and other objects will be ultimately.

I will probably just do my own playfield (background) graphics because I think they are certainly good enough for the game. If not, then I will keep them (along with my original player sprite animations) and use it for another simpler game project in the future.

Anyway, here is the screenshot. My original player sprite on the left and the artist's new player sprite on the right.
I think he did an outstanding job.

Okay, now to do a quick read of the forum postings then time to get some work done on the game! Current objective is knocking out the snakes with a stone to the head. That will be simple to do so I may go on to the next task as well.

 

If you want truthful criticism/feedback, the artist's player sprite is far better than yours. The new player sprite looks like an adventurer, which would fit with your game. Your player sprite looks like he just finished a workout or is going out for his morning jog! I would say the adventurer goes better with your game because the snakes and the items give off the vibe that they are sort of dungeon-dwellers, as in a cave or something. For this, the adventurer fits better with the snakes and items while the jogger seems misplaced. When I see this game (mainly the snakes and items), my mind instantly goes to thinking of Indiana Jones and your adventurer looks like Indiana Jones, so it fits.

During the development of my current game, which is my first game, I've come to realize that you need sprites/graphics that go together. Even the music and sound effects have to make sense. If too much stuff doesn't go together, it makes the player feel as though they're not inside the game. For example, look at the Legend of Zelda series. In Zelda games, all the graphics go with the particular dungeon and the music goes with each area in the game. When playing a Zelda game, the player feels as though they're in the game, as though they are Link. That is what I am referring to here. I'm not sure what you want your players to feel when they're playing your game, but when playing my game, I want them to feel like they are the fish and not the person that controls the fish, and I think I've achieved that feeling.

- Chris

 

I absolutely agree! I told the artist to give the dude a hat or backpack so he had a sort of explorer / adventurer look to him. I think he did an outstanding job on the character.

Please remember all of my graphics were just placeholders. Just something I knocked out to have something visual to work with as I developed the game.

 

Oh my bad I'm not english native, my english is not good enough.
For the combos all you have to do is wait until the animation is done then play the next one and so on.
Thank you, glad you like it.

Here is another video of Infested Land

 

Looking good! The best part of the video is "I will kill you..." Out of curiosity, where do you get the sounds, such as the one that plays when you collect a coin or the one that plays when you open a chest? Do you make them yourself?

- Chris

 

Updated version of my prototype

I got a little further with this in my last Dev Livestream. I didn't get as far as I would have liked though. One of the things I'll be working on is figuring out how to get Sara's left/right spellcasting animation to show up. I also need to make the spellcasting mode only a thing when F is held down, and let LMB spawn the effect (by default, modifiable by altering key bindings.)

Also, I'm always going to be updating this link, so if you're seeing this from the future and it's different, that's why.

 

Testing the jump to tactical map:

 

Looks nice!

- Chris

 

Here is a recent video of our project, Usagi no Charade.
UnC is an Alice-inspired adventure/platforming blend with some artificial life.

Does it count as a small project anymore (3-4 months into it)?

>> Live in dev section on Wooglie.

Current NPC behaviour:

A fun one with behavioural grass:

Note: I'm thinking of releasing some of the code to help us fund the project. Considered options: private licensing or a crowd-funding campaign. Code is very modular so would be extremely easy to re-use.
To help work out the details, it would be nice to see who might be interested. So...
- Write a PM if you can think of a good thread to talk about this...
- Write a PM anyway if you have some interest.
- I don't know whether replying to this thread would be appropriate.

And if you're looking for a tech resource I've been writing a lot on my unity tech blog, unibbl.

 

I like the 3D visuals, as they have a nice sense of simplicity. About the thread, you could make your own thread for your WIP. You can see mine by clicking the link for Swimmy in my signature. The more time you spend on a game doesn't mean that it is a larger or more complex game. What makes a game larger is the number of various features your game has to offer.

- Chris

 

I have been glancing at some of my previous work on my git repository, and I found a project which some of you could find of interest. Its a demo that shows how to create deformable bodies in the Unity engine using the incorporated springs in Unity. This approach allows for creation of "goo" and other liquidy objects, however this is poorly optimized and I am not intending to use much time on it.
The source code is available for all interested parts, and feel free to steal / borrow as much as you want.
Ps. This is my first public repo, so if there is anything, shout out!
Repository access: https://bitbucket.org/mpilgaard/goo

 

Cool. I like the scene of the rocket traveling through space.

 

Rocket?

 

The spaceship that looks similar to a rocket (thinking NASA). Probably should have said rocket ship.

 

Just released my first personal app to the appstore, small but its an achievement to get my head around the ropes of Itunes connect and such https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alan-the-alien-rocketeer/id918884645?ls=1&mt=8

 

Just a quick update here to say "grab some treasure and along the way go ahead and knock out a snake"

This is my little platform game that I am developing with the intent of kind of capturing the feel of Genesis / SNES platform games.

And remember this is a Work In Progress which means things may and likely will change over time. Sometimes ideas don't work out as well as they look on paper.

 

Now I'm testing fighter AI:

 

Working on something. Still not sure what it is.

​

 

Keep on working because it looks very cool whatever it is.

 

New character

 

I'm not sure if I'm the only one with this problem, but when I tried to play your web player demo, as soon as the game started, it froze, so I am unable to play it.

- Chris

 

I agree!

- Chris