[GRdev] Hobbyist game development

Now here is a thread I've been meaning to make for a while! I've recently started getting into game development as a hobby, and knowing that there are people here who also dabble to varying degrees it could be good fun (and perhaps even educational) to have a thread for general hobbyist game dev chat.

Game development includes many different art forms and disciplines, from programming through to pixel art and music, so feel welcome to post and discuss anything you like here. Seeing some cross-discipline discussion could be quite interesting!

And of course if you want to be inspired by a genuine professional game developer, look no further than the game Hyper Sentinel by GRcade's very own Starquake - it's really good <3

To kick off the topic, I'd like to share a game I've been working at over the last couple of weeks, called Wander Lonely As A King. Tonight I just finished this playable demo/proof-of-concept that covers the beginning of the game. Getting to just this stage was a lot more work than I anticipated, but I'm pretty happy with where it's at. The general concept for WLAAK is a text-only fantasy RPG where all locations are described as haikus and all dialogue/interactions are presented through rhyming couplets. I'm a big fan of using strict limitations to drive creativity, and this has been a really fun exercise in writing and quest design. If you'd like to give it a go it will take less than 5 minutes to play through, and I'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback!

This could be a terrific thread if a few like-minded folk take part, Orange.

I took a quick look at your game and it's certainly an avant-garde idea! I need to give it a proper go but it seems fun. What language did you use to cede it in, dude?

Gemini73

I haven't the faintest idea on how to develop a game. Like Blackadder once said "I'm happy to wear cotton, but I've no idea how it works".

Love the idea of this thread OR. Happy to participate too.

I’ve had a little play through your story game. It’s a very lovely and unique idea. Did you just use html and JavaScript?

As you develop the game, it would be nice if you could have a ‘take a rest’ option that saves your progress to come back to. Somehow fitting a day night cycle in where options might change depending on time of day might be interesting too.

I have an itch.io page with a couple of games on it, both made for game jams. Linky-poo

My current goal is making a (proper) game. I don't know how long it'll take, or what it'll end up being, but it's what I spend a lot of my free time doing now.

I got Game Maker Studio in the Humble Bundle a couple of years ago and I've had a tinker in that. I was working on a playground football game (Wembley Doubles, Goal to Goal etc). It kind of fell by the wayside as we had a child. I'd like to get back into it if I'm honest, but doubt I'll have the time in the near future.

Mentioned this over in the writing topic but I'm documenting my first attempt at Interaction Fiction here.

I'm also working on a proper game from a proper dev, which I'll hopefully be able to talk more about come June.

Starquake wrote:I’ve had a little play through your story game. It’s a very lovely and unique idea. Did you just use html and JavaScript?

As you develop the game, it would be nice if you could have a ‘take a rest’ option that saves your progress to come back to. Somehow fitting a day night cycle in where options might change depending on time of day might be interesting too.

It's just javascript, yes. The code isn't minified if anyone wants to view the source and see what dreadful mistakes I've made :toot:

Being able to save progress is something I'd like to add, which I guess means actually learning about cookies, as well as working out how to most efficiently save the game state (which code-wise is basically one big stateful object). I'm not sure there /is/ much of an efficient way of me doing that, given how I've written it, which is maybe unfortunate! "Take a rest" is a great shout for flavour text for saving, so I might use that!

The day-night cycle does already have some impact, but it's limited to special cased permanent changes, like waiting until sunset to be able to meet the stranger, or the captain leaving on the second day and guards arriving. I have an idea of expanding this slightly into allowing for periodically changing text and available options, so it is something I hope to better support. The day-night cycle was pretty much how I started off writing the game, but limited to changing the third line of the haiku to reflect the dynamic weather and time of day.

smurphy wrote:I have an itch.io page with a couple of games on it, both made for game jams. Linky-poo

That seems like a very cool genre mashup of asymmetric co-op. It's something I'd like to see more of in both co-op and competitive multiplayer - I really like ZombiU's multiplayer that pits FPS surivival against RTS, and I was disappointed that the mobile drone co-op never made it into the Division.

I also like the concept in the balloon fighting game of rising up as the balloon fills, and releasing air to dive down and attack, that's a neat central mechanic!

Tafdolphin wrote:Mentioned this over in the writing topic but I'm documenting my first attempt at Interaction Fiction here.

I'm also working on a proper game from a proper dev, which I'll hopefully be able to talk more about come June.

Make sure to post any updates on that interactive fiction project! Have you got any further on it?

#E3hype

So this is in preparation for design concepts to be implemented into Tales of Illusia right?

Seriously though, this is super cool, I'll try out the demo asap

Jezo wrote:So this is in preparation for design concepts to be implemented into Tales of Illusia right?

Gotta get some practice in to give that game justice

I actually want to make a little web app for putting together maps from tilesets, then Create a Zelda World can come back for the long overdue sequel

I bought Game Maker Studio a few years ago, and have recently been getting back into it. Following some tutorials, and I'm probably going to buy Game Maker Studio 2. It's a lot of fun.

OrangeRakoon wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:Mentioned this over in the writing topic but I'm documenting my first attempt at Interaction Fiction here.

I'm also working on a proper game from a proper dev, which I'll hopefully be able to talk more about come June.

Make sure to post any updates on that interactive fiction project! Have you got any further on it?

#E3hype

No, not yet

. Things are super busy at the moment but I do need to get back to it.

smurphy wrote:I have an itch.io page with a couple of games on it, both made for game jams. Linky-poo

My current goal is making a (proper) game. I don't know how long it'll take, or what it'll end up being, but it's what I spend a lot of my free time doing now.

Oh cool, I'll take a look at weekend!

OrangeRakoon wrote:Being able to save progress is something I'd like to add, which I guess means actually learning about cookies, as well as working out how to most efficiently save the game state (which code-wise is basically one big stateful object).

If it's just a js object, then json.stringify it and send to a back end server would probably be best, then it will re-load back into your object perfectly.

So, I am currently working on a new game. While I can't say what it is - even the genre, I should be able to at least comment on how I'm going about doing the design.

As I like to make arcadey/action games then the very first thing I do in a project is to work on character control. As the player(s) will be spending most of their time doing this, it's the most important part of the game. So I start by creating a playground and trying different movement options. The techniques would depend on the game type e.g. Asteroids you may choose a physics engine for control, but something like a platformer, you would create more bespoke code as a physics engine is likely not going to get you a precise enough jump \ ledge mechanic.

I try not to tie myself into a detailed design at the start. I may have 3-4 possible avenues for the game and over time the one that is most fun will tend to emerge. I think it's easy to be a slave to an idea, so I like to think in terms of what a player is actually going to enjoy instead of what I want them to enjoy.

So, right at the moment I'm building lots of micro ideas in a playground, many will be thrown away. The fun ones will remain and a more focussed concept will start to emerge. I try and always scope down as well, it's far too easy to get carried away with an idea, and that's a sure fire way to never finish anything!

Well that sounds exciting!

Did you see that the source code for the character class/movement in Celeste got publicly released? That and the comments alongside it make for a very interesting read into how they approached character control and iterated on it over development.

It got a lot of slagging for being a 5000 line behemoth, but in a comment I saw a really great saying: "They successfully released a game, which is 10x harder than writing nice code", which is absolutely true.

YouTube

I've made two games in two person teams at global game jams. They only last two days and I usually only show up to half of that.

Art
https://globalgamejam.org/2016/games/grave-concerns

Play text game: http://philome.la/siobhangx/grave-concerns/play

Music and sound
https://globalgamejam.org/2017/games/pingsong

Download Unity build for Windows: https://ggj.s3.amazonaws.com/games/2017 ... utable.zip

On that one the waveform is generated from my music in realtime and also the microphone input so you can really jack up the other player. But it becomes basically impossible after about 30 seconds.

I know a bit of game maker, unreal and code too. I'd like gms2 as its been released for Mac but can't justify the upgrade price I'm probably never going to use it. Unity is more flexible and free. So is UE4 but I can't be arsed to learn either really. I quite enjoyed mapping in UE2.5. I think I prefer the subtractive BSP to additive.

There's also something I made a billion years ago in game maker which is my mate flying over town destroying New York taxi themed ships and helicopters by firing his quiff. I stole all the code but I managed to add a life system and I'm quite impressed I did it all in mspaint. I have a screenshot somewhere. In fact I think it still runs as an EXE.

Oh I've learnt some text games in Python. And made something in Flash where you shoot little guys running around with a giant syringe. That was actionscript 2.

I just need to commit to something in one language and one engine, but with about 10 hobbies and a business it's hard to sit down with it. I've dabbled and in some cases mastered so many mediums it's not just making games or a game I have commitment issues with.

I've made a few interactive art exhibits I probably find more interesting. I'm quite interested in making a game that's predominantly 3D sound and virtually no images.

I'm pretty interested in making some games, I'm currently slowly working my way through this course.

https://www.udemy.com/unitycourse/learn/v4/overview

I'm currently around 50% of the way through it. Qutie tempted to get the 3D course, physics and Unreal courses but trying to stop myself until I get to the end of this one and put something simple together for myself.

[GRdev] Hobbyist game development

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