Game development

[Guest]

Video games! Zoop!

Do you develop them? Do you plan on developing them? Have you already developed them?

If so, let's see them!

I think video game development fits in super nicely with the web DIY subculture, especially when it's about smaller indie projects that can be completed by a single person in a reasonable time-frame without it becoming their job. There's engines out there these days that let you develop super small games for under-powered hardware like the Playdate. Or GBStudio, which lets you develop for the original GameBoy. Or plenty of other ways to make a worthwhile single-developer game!

[TheFrugalGamer]

One of my new year's resolutions was to finish developing a game, actually. I was doing some goal organizing last year I realized that having a finished game--NOT one I started and then walked away from :omg:k:--was something I'd always wanted to accomplish. So I've been working on a little thing in GBStudio about a goat who wants to eat everything. I've also been playing around in Bitsy game maker, which is even simpler, but I'll probably finish the GBStudio one first.

[Melooon]

I think video game development fits in super nicely with the web DIY subculture

No one remembers that this forum was created for game development (Thats why there are two games in the top left!!)

[sig]

No one remembers that this forum was created for game development (Thats why there are two games in the top left!!)

the melonland forum lore goes deep

I'm definitely interested in making video games! Haven't done it a lot though. What's holding me back the most, aside from a general 'not doing it', is my lack of programming knowledge. I might go and study computer science though, so I could apply the knowledge from there and be able to create my own things. I know that's not the only way to go about it but having the external motivation to get crackin' and get a degree at the end of it seems pretty sweet to me lol

I have joined a game jam once with a friend who did the art, so if anyone is interested in that you can find it here: https://sigmatic.itch.i:ha:demon-fishing-demo
It's a small little demo, barely even a game but it was still fun to work on so I'm glad we made it! (Also I still think the hand-drawn fish are the coolest )

Also as far as you can call it a videogame, I keep having ideas for a story to build in Twine which is an 'open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories'. I should probably actually get started on it but I keep trying to build on ideas in my head instead of actually doing something... Someday!

I'm curious to see what others on the forum have made, please share so I can play it!

[Guest]

No one remembers that this forum was created for game development (Thats why there are two games in the top left!!)

I mean, I do, the original battle plan was to spread around the "creating virtual worlds" thingy right? I just thought that generally there was no discussion at all on gamedev here and it's been an alt web forum for the longest time now.

[Gans]

Don't start with your own game. It will entangle you like a web spider and make you crazy. You still can decide! An ordinary life is still open for you!

I'm doomed on the other hand. Addicted to programming... typing commands and logical links will never me leave me, until my eyes stop opening. When I was younger, it even hit me at night, like a flash. Climbed from the bed like a zombie, switching on the machine, the monitor glow summoning me to type nonsense into the keyboard (proper code actually), and falling back into the grave... eh, bed I mean, like a zombie.

My game project started in school times. And now, ten years later, I still enjoy to improve stuff. It's now like 5 games in one big RPG world. It got ridiculously complex. Completly out of control. It's not even I have control over my own game. This cancerous beast got organic and I'm just the medium, that transports the message (and builds all that nonsense, that's required for a game to work, graphics, text boxes, maps, battle system, all the programming code). One month of work goes into a tiny little scene, that the player runs by in a minute! Can you believe that?! Can you believe, how that scales? If you don't want to go completly crazy by that thought, either keep your scale low, try to embrace the imperfect (and become capable of leaving things as they are), don't do an RPG that tells a story, or don't start at all.

That's my advice. Aaah, and if you want to start with game making, maybe try and build something with the programming language "Scratch" (wasn't there a thread about Scratch projects here on the message board?). It's good for logical thinking and has no impeeding dots, commas and brackets to remember.

[WingsOfImagination]

Don't start with your own game. It will entangle you like a web spider and make you crazy. You still can decide! An ordinary life is still open for you!

I'm doomed on the other hand. Addicted to programming... typing commands and logical links will never me leave me, until my eyes stop opening. When I was younger, it even hit me at night, like a flash. Climbed from the bed like a zombie, switching on the machine, the monitor glow summoning me to type nonsense into the keyboard (proper code actually), and falling back into the grave... eh, bed I mean, like a zombie.

My game project started in school times. And now, ten years later, I still enjoy to improve stuff. It's now like 5 games in one big RPG world. It got ridiculously complex. Completly out of control. It's not even I have control over my own game. This cancerous beast got organic and I'm just the medium, that transports the message (and builds all that nonsense, that's required for a game to work, graphics, text boxes, maps, battle system, all the programming code). One month of work goes into a tiny little scene, that the player runs by in a minute! Can you believe that?! Can you believe, how that scales? If you don't want to go completly crazy by that thought, either keep your scale low, try to embrace the imperfect (and become capable of leaving things as they are), don't do an RPG that tells a story, or don't start at all.

That's my advice. Aaah, and if you want to start with game making, maybe try and build something with the programming language "Scratch" (wasn't there a thread about Scratch projects here on the message board?). It's good for logical thinking and has no impeeding dots, commas and brackets to remember.

One advice about game development which I remember reading about somewhere around the web - You don't have to completely give up your cool ideas or ambitious gameplay features, you can do just a little this time around, and save the rest for your next games! Don't think about your current project as the one to end it all.

[Stonehead]

I used to make little games on my family pc when I was in highschool.

I never gave up the hobby and eventually, after about 4 years of development in my free time, I put something out on Steam.

The game development aspect was really fun, and I don't regret any of the time I spent developing the game, or drawing the art, or making music. If you have higher aspirations about your project though, you really need to be good at the self-promoting, social media shilling game. I wasn't, so only a few dozen people ended up playing it. Part of that was that it was a one-man passion project with very obvious programmer art, I can't pretend I made some masterpiece that the masses just don't understand. The reality of the situation though is that making a good game is not the only skill you need in order to release a game.

I really enjoyed making a game, but promoting it was pretty stressful, and I'm not sure it was worth the effort. The problem is though, making something that you know is never going to be played just feels pointless.

[Gans]

@Stonehead: You could put your game onto one of these niche game sites. Glorioustrainwrecks (https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/) comes to my mind, as a site for "trashy" games.
A good German site for home-made games would be Pewn (https://pewn.de/).

Because then you will actually never know, how many people will find and download your game. So then you can put that worry away, as the big void may respond... or probably not.

The total freedom of doing whatever you want is the best about being a 1-man-show. And especially if you don't have to please an audience, you can do whatever your crazy imagination can think of!

@WingsOfImagination: You're somewhat right, but if you have all the graphics and characters ready, I must say that it's tempting to use them on side-projects. Also with enough determination, a big project can be realised too with limited ressources, it just needs a lot of time.

[BananaBoots]

I'm a game dev! I don't currently have anything online but I've made a handful of games and am actually studying to go into game design I am currently working on 2 different games but both of them are very early in development and I have a terrible habit of underestimating how long projects will take

The more "complete" of the two is made in a little engine called Bitsy. If anyone's familiar with Tumblr "mythology" it's based off of the God of Arepo Here's a couple of screenshots of some of the rooms I have finished:

[Cobra!]

I've been on and off developing games since 2005, and have only recently released my first commercial game!

It's called Operation: Pinkeye, and I'm starting development of a spin-off game in the series as well as preparing for a physical run!

I also love dipping my toes into homebrew development, and have been learning SDKs for all sorts of old platforms.

I did 3D models for some Nintendo 64 games as part of contests, most notably Telocation: Gemini and Spirit Harvest.

If you wanna see other stuff I've made, here's my game dev website.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

We do games, allrdy linked "The Vaults of Minos" in the game cafe :).
Doing game development for over 15 years now; was a bit active in various modding and mapping communities before.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Sometimes I toy with the idea of building worlds with the RPG Makers. Less of a plot-oriented game and more like the first Hylics: a loose excuse for your character/s to go around, explore and interact with things. Combat focusing more on the aesthethics than mechanics. I'm a very visual-oriented person  but I also have a few notions on what makes a game not want to pull your hair out. 

[shevek]

I plan to create 1-2 smaller ones, just to practice Lua in löve2d; I also wanna try out the tiny engine.

I think to keep the scope small at first, it's just gonna be based on a fun day with a group of friends. Like us all going through a little adventure that can be played through in like 15-30 minutes I have the overall plot and some scenes ready on paper (or rather, notes app).

What I would love to add afterwards is the option to choose who of us to play as, and having access to their ingame phone like you do in GTA; being able to read their latest message or emails that I make up that fit to them and their character irl or are injokes :)

[Snow]

I've only just very recently had the idea to start creating my own game(s)! I've tinkered around with it a little bit when I was a lot younger, did a short after-school "game design club" thing for half of 2013, back when I was in high school and I got to make a very simple side-scrolling shoot 'em up game in Flash. I have always been fascinated with level editors which are sometimes included as part of a game (ie Lemmings, Super Mario Maker), and I've had aspirations of being a game developer... but I've never fully pursued this endeavour.

But that might change soon. I recently installed Godot and have been following a tutorial on making a simple 2D platformer game. I'm hoping with enough time and patience I can try and make something akin to one of the classic Wario Land games on the Game Boy. My mind is full of ideas! I've also considered trying my luck with making a 3D platformer/racing game as well but I think I need a lot of practice and better familiarisation with programming, physics and how they apply to the game I wish to create, and more. I would probably use Unity if I were to try and make that kind of game.

For the rest of this year I'm aiming to create a 2D platformer game. I might share my progress in this thread over the following months!