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WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)
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Closeauthor=Barrettorbix
Have you ever stopped and thought about just how many unique skills are required to make a game? As a newbie solo dev, it's been on my mind a lot lately, and it's pretty daunting. I mean, to make a decent, full game by yourself, you likely have to have at least some proficiency in:
visual art
animation
writing
music/sound design
and coding
And that's not to mention the actual game design itself. There are definitely work-arounds for some of these (thank goodness), but I kind of feel obligated to at least be somewhat competent in each of these areas. That's not SO bad, because I have some degree of interest in all these things, but, like... it's pretty overwhelming, you know? I'm a total newbie in most of these fields. Learning any one of these skills alone can be a huge task, and I only have so much time to split between these things.
How do you guys handle it? Have you felt any obligation be a jack of all trades? And if you have, how in the world do you juggle so many new skills at once?
Participate in groups for game jams, take from public domain sources (or buy assets), use engines that do a lot of the work for you (tools, base game movement, an entire template even). In general just make small games with very minimal styles and you'll at least have a format to practice in. By using a bunch of crutches you eventually peel them away to realize you can do it yourself at a decent rate. Make a text adventure, a walking simulator or some clone of a simple existing game to cut one entire medium out.
You can also attempt several highly ambitious projects that eventually fail and gradually absorb multi-faceted skills through osmosis. That's the fun path.
StormCrow
2877
@Barretorbix:
Thank God I dove in when I was a teenage idiot with no idea what I was getting into. I think if I'd actually been a rational adult and applied any analysis to the decision, I never would have gotten into solo/amateur/insert euphemism for RPG Maker here game design.
Thank God I dove in when I was a teenage idiot with no idea what I was getting into. I think if I'd actually been a rational adult and applied any analysis to the decision, I never would have gotten into solo/amateur/insert euphemism for RPG Maker here game design.
author=Barrettorbix
How do you guys handle it? Have you felt any obligation be a jack of all trades? And if you have, how in the world do you juggle so many new skills at once?
I'm gonna make the best game I can with the software I have, which would be RM2k3 and Graphics Gale. The stuff I can't do/don't have time for, like the sound and music, I'll find free resources for or find someone to help. I also have to keep telling myself that my game does not have to be by any means perfect.
That, and I have other non-game projects that I do if I get burnt out or whatever.
author=Barrettorbix
How do you guys handle it? Have you felt any obligation be a jack of all trades? And if you have, how in the world do you juggle so many new skills at once?
I'm the kind of person that uses the default graphics/sound effects/animations, and generally use ripped music. I'm totally okay with that, and I do not intend to sell my stuff. This allows me to focus on other matters of game-dev, such as story, game balance, and mechanics. I seem to have been delving a tad deeper into mechanics of late.
Rukiri
0
For me lately I've been deciding on moving on to something else, but learning a new workflow isn't so difficult it's finding the time to do so.
Is there such thing as a game's plot being too serious about real life issues? I'm kind of afraid of crossing the line on certain topics I'd like to bring up in my current project. You know, racism, censorship, stuff like that.
SuikoProject to-do list:
-Make recruitibles in Staerdale Palace
--Fix the events in Imperial Palace for said recruits
-New areas: Sraphyhl Peak? Glikx Heights? Blils Wood?
-Chincirorin???
-I can't keep calling this "SuikoProject" ;_;
-Make recruitibles in Staerdale Palace
--Fix the events in Imperial Palace for said recruits
-New areas: Sraphyhl Peak? Glikx Heights? Blils Wood?
-Chincirorin???
-I can't keep calling this "SuikoProject" ;_;
Hoping I can get the skills for my 5th party member done by today or tomorrow, I really wanna move on to the 6th guy and mapping already lol
author=Gretgor
Is there such thing as a game's plot being too serious about real life issues? I'm kind of afraid of crossing the line on certain topics I'd like to bring up in my current project. You know, racism, censorship, stuff like that.
I think the important thing is whether those topics feel appropriate for the setting and tone of your story. Even in a more lighthearted story, you can get away with quite a bit as long as you handle it with tact. In my own experience as a writer, it's much easier to go from lighthearted to serious than vice versa. So even in a story that doesn't start very serious, it can give a natural sense of progression to delve into more and more serious topics as you go. On the other hand, it might feel cheap or out-of-place to start with something really serious and de-escalate from there. So I guess keep that in mind when deciding how to start your story.
StormCrow
2877
Is there a simple script call (VX Ace) that will cause it to wait for a random number of frames? There's no convenient way to tie the wait command to a variable using just eventing.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=StormCrow
Is there a simple script call (VX Ace) that will cause it to wait for a random number of frames? There's no convenient way to tie the wait command to a variable using just eventing.
sleep(x)
x = number of seconds. Can take a decimal.
EDIT: So in your case, it'd probably be something like:
sleep($game_variables[y])
Haven't tested it, but I'm sure that's the right command.
I found that Graphics.wait(x) would cause the game-engine to wait for x frames, but, if sleep(x) works too...
sleep tells the executing thread to sleep for X duration. Something like
would keep the thread executing and you can put other updates in there as needed. This is from memory so something might be a bit off and Ruby will get cranky
60.times do Graphics.update end
would keep the thread executing and you can put other updates in there as needed. This is from memory so something might be a bit off and Ruby will get cranky
I'm in a bit of a design conundrum right now: how to ask people for hints on how to make a certain puzzle mechanic understandable without simultaneously describing the mechanic to a bunch of potential players? The problem is, if someone played the game after reading my comment asking for hints, they'd already know what to do since my comment would have described it, so I wouldn't be able to use their gameplay experience as valid data do determine whether I managed to convey the puzzle mechanics in an understandable way (that is, the players are supposed to eventually understand the mechanic by playing the game, not by reading something external to it).
Maybe I could restrict the number of people I talk about those mechanics with, but then I end up cutting into potential testers, since I don't exactly have that many close people I can ask for help with game dev.
What would you guys do in this situation?
Maybe I could restrict the number of people I talk about those mechanics with, but then I end up cutting into potential testers, since I don't exactly have that many close people I can ask for help with game dev.
What would you guys do in this situation?
That's a puzzle, alright. The only thing I can think of is not to describe it to the testers, see if they can figure it out on their own. I'm sorry I can't give better advice, but I'm no puzzle designer.
StormCrow
2877
Is it okay to restrict Save Points to increase tension (a la the Ink Ribbons & Typewriters in Resident Evil, the Dark Souls' franchise's extremely frugal placement of checkpoints) or is "save anywhere, anytime" an absolute maxim of good game design? Is it okay to expect players to get through a medium-long section of gameplay (towards the end of the game if it matters), starting over at the beginning of that section if they get game over?
I don't take issue with being restricted in where I can save, usually. However, restricting the number of times I can save (such as being required to use items, such as the Ink Ribbons of the game-world) just kinda seems like a dumb restriction to me?
I dunno. I know that, when I played RE and RE2, I used an inventory hack to have myself more Ink Ribbons than I'll probably ever use. Same kind of deal with Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter: I use an inventory hack to have a bunch of Save Tokens. I'm probably a corner case, though.
I dunno. I know that, when I played RE and RE2, I used an inventory hack to have myself more Ink Ribbons than I'll probably ever use. Same kind of deal with Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter: I use an inventory hack to have a bunch of Save Tokens. I'm probably a corner case, though.
