Game Development

Almo

1:02 AM

@jon approved, but tax form issues

will update when I get this resolved

Jon

1:20 AM

ok

PearsonArtPhoto

1:36 AM

Let's see, which task to work on now...

Is it normal to have test scenes that I have no intent on ever including when making a build?

Jon

yes of course.

or... does a bear shit in the woods?

PearsonArtPhoto

Okay, I figured as much, but...

I have a scene dedicated to figuring out my procedural generation, which of course isn't a part of my game. It's purely to test stuff out. Just trying to understand best practices a bit more, that's all.

Jon

basically, do what you gotta do

PearsonArtPhoto

Well, I know that, but I often find that sometimes pounding a screw in with a nail doesn't work so well.

Jon

it really depends on what you are doing specifically -- but creating scenes to test and create is normal

PearsonArtPhoto

1:42 AM

If all you know how to use is a hammer, well, it will work, but it's a lot better to learn how to use a drill.

Jon

if you can't afford to buy a drill you make the hammer work

PearsonArtPhoto

That too.

Or at least buy a screwdriver and make it work.

Jon

i personally hate analogies

PearsonArtPhoto

LOL.

MickLH

2:39 AM

@PearsonArtPhoto I thought this was an alcohol joke for the last hour until I re-read it

PearsonArtPhoto

LOL. I don't do that kind of joke, so...

MickLH

"so..." like the awkward "so... <awkward pause>" or "so..." like [I wouldn't say that on "s"tack "o"verflow"..."]

no I'm just fucking with you at this point lol sorry

PearsonArtPhoto

Don't worry, I was just going to ignore that statement anyways.

Almo

3:37 AM

@jon hmm

they seem to have cleared it for sale after i put in the US tax info

Almo

4:57 AM

@jon Picross Touch iOS: itunes.apple.com/us/app/picross-touch/…

4

Aidan Mueller

6:05 AM

That moment when you are talking to yourself out loud, and someone is listening.

user92578

8:56 AM

user92578

WIP thumbnail previewing

user92578

10:19 AM

@Xriuk What happened to your rotation question?

Jon

11:17 AM

Cool it is alive

Why does it require ios7?

Why is your name under the app name?

Redeem code doesnt let you review?

I don't like that tour name is there like it is you made it that rubs me the wrong way

Even when you share the link it says picross Touch by Ethan Larson

Sharing to my friends and they think you made it.

Chris

11:48 AM

@jon @Almo Grats on the iOS version!

user92578

yeah grats guys

user92578

Hey @Chris, now that you're here, I have a question for you. At what point of the development did you put Tallowmere on Greenlight?

Chris

was like, 6 months into development

user92578

so quite soon?

Chris

and was shortly after I added in local co-op from memory

yeah. I had my bosses in, and pretty much the majority of the game, so made a trailer, gameplay vid, gifs, etc. enough content to show off

my trailer is pretty bad though haha

user92578

11:52 AM

aight, thanks

user92578

I've been trying to decide what to do with GunHero

user92578

now I'm thinking about making a list of must-do stuff that needs to get done before I can put the game to greenlight

user92578

and then working on those and nothing but those

Chris

people want to see gameplay
people want to see varying enemies, weapons, and environments
people want to know what the story is about (briefly)

like if you were to make a 30-second trailer

user92578

yeah basically I'm lacking content for a trailer

user92578

11:54 AM

there's very few sound effects in

user92578

I'd need to add more environments

user92578

I have a vague idea of the story

PearsonArtPhoto

I really have no idea what to do with my game...

Chris

go for it, make characters/enemies talk with dialogue, even if it's cheesy lol
if it makes your game more entertaining, add it in

user92578

Basically I'm looking forward to putting the game on Greenlight... but I'm scared that it will not succeed and I'll feel devastated and stop the development

user92578

11:56 AM

oh yeah I need dialogue boxes

PearsonArtPhoto

I could take a couple of different approaches. I guess I could try for Greenlight, but...

Look at is as a challenge. If you succeed, great. If not, you've learned something.

Chris

@Tyyppi_77 yeah, it took me 6 months to get greenlit. I was rather fed up with the slow UnityScript language at the time which didn't help

PearsonArtPhoto

What's the fee to submit a game for Greenlight?

user92578

100$

user92578

(or 90€)

PearsonArtPhoto

11:58 AM

Hmmm.

user92578

I think it's definitely worth it if I'll get greenlit

PearsonArtPhoto

Yeah, that's enough that I'd want to think carefully about it.

user92578

yeah, it's low enough to be able to afford it, but then it's not 10$ that you could just easily throw in

user92578

I'd really like to integrate steamworks stuff later to the game

user92578

(mostly level sharing)

PearsonArtPhoto

11:59 AM

It's a pretty good amount to set it at really.

user92578

yeah I think I'll start composing a list of stuff that needs to be done for a good trailer

PearsonArtPhoto

Well, considering I've got a total of 2 people on my mailing list...

I might have to wait a bit.

user92578

:)

user92578

yeah marketing stuff is definitely not a strenght of mine

user92578

I have 70 something followers on twitter

user92578

12:01 PM

and you guys

user92578

that's it :)

PearsonArtPhoto

I actually have a decent number of followers on twitter.

Chris

slow and steady is all good
like anything, marketing comes with experience, you get better the more you practice

PearsonArtPhoto

I'm going to have to decide when I want to put the work into graphics. I might not do anything until I've actually finished the game.

I am getting better, slowly.

Chris

when in doubt, look at what other big successful and cool developers/publishers do
find the best website, trailer, whatever that you can draw inspiration from

Yeah, piece by piece. nothing wrong with placeholders

user92578

12:05 PM

oh right I probably should have a website up before greenlight?

Chris

nothing is required
but if you want the biggest impact, you want to make the most exciting and comprehensive first impression you can

I mean, I assume the average greenlight voter just looks at the trailer, a couple screenshots, and clicks Yes or No

you don't have to have anything outside of your game
but typically you might have a website with a blog.. youtube account, twitter, indiedb, tigsource forum thread, facebook

I've been making good progress on my menu systems the past few days
wife's been in hospital for early labour (so I've been sitting with her a lot, and coding a bit on the laptop hah)
daughter born 24 hours ago finally
but my sleep is all whacked, I've had like five one-hour naps today lol

user92578

12:25 PM

@Chris congrats!

Almo

1:41 PM

@Chris thanks :)

@Jon I have no choice about the name. You must publish to the store under the name they pay the money to. The only way to change that is for you to register as an apple developer. If you do that, I can transfer the app to your account.

when I tweet about it, or post on facebook, I always say that it's your production.

user92578

2:04 PM

Working on a desert environment:

user92578

Almo

cool

user92578

looks horrible so far

user92578

but the systems for these things are quite nice, and I got the stuff in pretty fast

Almo

:D

Almo

2:32 PM

holy shit just put the select sounds in to cognizer... they're awesome!

Alexandre Vaillancourt

2:47 PM

Adding the appropriate sounds to a game makes a huge difference!

Great!

Almo

yeah it really does

user92578

The backgrounds still need a ton of work, but I like the sand:

user92578

maybe a little bright still

Almo

lookin cool

user92578

2:59 PM

Those background layers tough...

user92578

what should there be?

Wardy

3:10 PM

Is it meant to be sand dunes or like a town in somewhere like Egypt ?

user92578

no idea, currently it seems like both :D

Wardy

I guess you could have like sand dunes (flatter more rounded mounds of sand) then every so often put like a small hut or something on one in the distance

You could be smart about it and match how built up the foreground is with how built up the background is ... I'm assuming of course that you have some sort of tiling mechanism for both

user92578

The parallax layers are made of 320 pixels wide pieces that just tile as much as necessary

Wardy

Ok so it's possible then :)

hasherr

4:05 PM

Morning folks

Almo

4:15 PM

hay

looks like Cognizer will come in at 245 MB, unless I start compressing the sound effects.

will have to see about that

woops

imgur.com/FTWFL9y

Jon

5:09 PM

wonder why my new pc keeps rebooting

i bet people would love to have a tutorial on how to do this shit..

user92578

really cool

MickLH

6:05 PM

@Almo If you can't bear to compromise quality, libFLAC has a free license

Jon

6:45 PM

@Almo can you add a video for the listing?

reddit.com/r/iosgaming/comments/45ly9q/…

@Almo send me more codes.. I want to also publish to /r/ios

and I want 50 codes

Aidan Mueller

@Tyyppi_77 The foreground of the parallax is too dark. It's not that dark in a desert. You should also make the back layer of the parallax lower, since deserts are very flat.

user92578

Good points

Aidan Mueller

I think you should get rid of the spikey things in the background too.

Even egypt doesn't have that many pyramids :)

user92578

yeah there's only one pyramid anymore

Aidan Mueller

The top soil in the foreground looks a bit gold. You know what I'm saying?

user92578

6:54 PM

Yeah, definitely, and I actually already turned the saturation down

Aidan Mueller

Now I'm not sure how it is else where, but in my dessert, the sand goes quite a ways down. It doesn't just cover the surface.

user92578

I think the bad guys like sweeping a lot, so they only have a thin layer of sand

Aidan Mueller

I think it would look great of you replaced the dirt with a sort of cracked hardened sand texture, like minecraft's sand stone.

Haha.

user92578

Yeah I probably should tweak the base dirt more

user92578

Currently I just changed the color a bit

Aidan Mueller

6:57 PM

Cool.

BTW, the dessert as a hole does already look pretty good.

user92578

Yeah it kinda surprised me how just quickly throwing content in made it look okayish.

Aidan Mueller

What kind of dessert are you going for?

Because google images has a lot of very very different images for desert.

user92578

Well I like ice cream

user92578

more seriously just sand, not going for those "canyon" style deserts

MickLH

I take it that that means any desert during night time + cows

Aidan Mueller

7:04 PM

Does the game have any explanation why you are in the desert?

user92578

Basically there's an evil master mind that is taking over the world, so you kinda chase him trough the "world", destroying his local enemy camps while doing so

user92578

Really original, I know

Aidan Mueller

Nobody cares, it just needs to be fun.

@Tyyppi_77 I would say that the majority of desserts aren't massive rolling dunes, so yeah; I would go for a flatter look. Now one way you could make it look flatter, is by dropping all of the tiles in the map itself down one block.

Jon

7:28 PM

my mom reviewed my game

2 stars

MickLH

Getter - SHAPOW! [Free Download]

►

Play this for her as a response

Jon

sound is broken on this laptop... sometimes it works.. then if i plug in headphones, it stops for a random set amount of time

but if I don't plug in headphones it is fine

i plugged in headphones yesterday

MickLH

oh well the song basically goes "weee ooooo melodicssssssssssss ss lessssss melllooodddiiiccccssssssss click click bitch! WHAT? WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB... etc"

Jon

cool

MickLH

but it wubs hecka hard tho!

it's so far over the top, it's more like a raspy shredding sound not much vocal quality left

Jon

7:32 PM

needs more bacon

Aidan Mueller

I recently read the book of a movie that I had watched. They were essentially the same story. So no, the book is not always better than the movie.

Jon

they need to make a movie of this trilogy

at least caramon's storyline

However, there is that love story between the dark mage and the paladin

dark mage manipulates the shit out of her

the movie script should follow caramon -- and make the paladin chick his sister -- and you would go through the story through his eyes

oh wait.. the wizard is his bro.. forgot about that

MickLH

That's fine these days

Jon

8:02 PM

so am i

Almo

8:21 PM

@jon 50 moar codes sent to your email

@Jon mail me about video details

Aidan Mueller

8:49 PM

@Jon Picross? Why 2 stars?

Wait, Picross is almo.

What game?

Jon

9:07 PM

thanks

my mom rated me 5 stars, i was joking

my mom bitches

MickLH

I call corruption! JON USES BIASED/INCENTIVIZED REVIEWERS!

He has people play his game before reviewing, how could you expect a fair review after being wooed like that?

Martin Sojka

9:47 PM

@MickLH That's nepotism, not corruption.

Kevin van der Velden

I'd say nepotism is a form of corrupt behaviour, so why not both?

Jon

got like 12 sales today

PearsonArtPhoto

Sigh, trying to come up with a clever way to make this work is proving to be a pain.

12 sales, nice.

I don't think I've ever had 12 online sales in the same day...

Jon

all friends.

PearsonArtPhoto

Still...

Jon

10:00 PM

i got like 20 sales in one day on christmas of 2013

sorry 1024

2014

PearsonArtPhoto

LOL, I was going to ask how you got sales in 1024.

Jon

the week of xmas.. is my highest sales

because of gift cards

PearsonArtPhoto

Interesting.

Jon

my kid is playing rust

its awesome lol

Almo

headin out for dinner talk later. let me know about the video thing you were talking about

Jon

10:10 PM

i put a video up for android

but I think I need to show the gameplay immediately

i dunno..

i start with the options, and I think most people probably just close the video

took him a while, but he met 2 guys

they are now building a fort

he is still completely naked

holy shit

he just recruited two strangers

ok now he is dead

Lokkij

10:43 PM

What an emotional rollercoaster

Jon

man, this game is fun lol

he is currently is a 5 man tribe

i should be recording him

4 or 5 things he said.. holy shit i was pissming myself laughing

he would be a youtube star

Aidan Mueller

Does Champ play rust?

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