WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)

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I'm currently looking for my next Ruby, C or C++ project. How long will I need to wait here in the scripting / compiling void, such darkness, till I get some fresh inspiration? :(
author=kyonides
I'm currently looking for my next Ruby, C or C++ project. How long will I need to wait here in the scripting / compiling void, such darkness, till I get some fresh inspiration? :(


You're welcome to try to make DynRpg plugins.
"marketing" is such a drag. man why do games have to be marketed? why can't you just finish a game and it reaches out its tendrils through the internet and finds everyone that might like it and drags them to the game's page/site like a big memetic octopus? that's how things should work.
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Thinking of a story for a game I'm working on. Finally cracked down and am giving MV another try, and I'm finding the assets I've got to work with refreshing and inspiring.

Am planning out a sci-fantasy post-apocalyptic game, and just figured out how to tie the four dungeon-crawls together into one concise narrative. I won't spoil what I came up with explicitly, but let's just say the song "Vats of Goo" from Fallout is stuck in my head thinking it over...
Total creative block.

Screw this, playing Oolite.
Got stuck on some dynamically chosen dialogue for the end of level one so I'm gonna be working on the tileset and layout for the port town in the prologue.
Kinda hard to summarize a day when the beginning of it isn't put together all the way.
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
I have elected to release my game on a separate blog first, then moving it to RMN if it gets enough positive responses.

It's just that the subject matter may not be appreciated by everyone. No, it's not porn, it's mostly social issues.
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Giving my game some thought, as it's still in the planning/screwing-around-with-the-database phase, I'm thinking of trying something a bit different. Going the route of the original Wasteland, I'm tempted to make the game a tile-based adventure with simpler map graphics and being more prose-intensive.

I figure it can be something a bit unique, especially as my flop of a first completed RM game also had more narration than dialogue. Besides, it also means I can have original graphics that I feel I can legitimately create myself. This would be a boon compared to using RTP graphics or commissioning/hunting down other pixel assets.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Seriously considering cancelling Baclyae Revolution, and have been for some time. I dunno. It's a combination of knowing I can't work on it anytime soon with any kind of consistency (not that I've been working on it at all in the last few months or so), and bouts with depression.
I'd put it on hiatus instead, Marrend. Nothing lasts forever, not even busy-ness & depression (I also struggle w/ depression as I've probably mentioned at least a couple times).

Anyway, I was thinking about this (open question to everyone):

A) How do you resist the junk-food like chocolate high of starting a new game in favor of the diligence-and-consistency needed to "eat your broccoli" and actually follow-through to finish a game you started and haven't worked on or been enthused about in months? Or am I alone in finding starting new projects a party and following through on established projects a drag?
B) How do you stay in the editor and off the website(s) long enough to get shit done? Especially because at least once an hour when actually devving, you run into something (a resource, a script, a focus-group opinion, w/e) that sends you back to the site(s)?
@stormcrow
A)It's a constant thing that affects the majority of creatives in projects that can take months or years to complete. Imagine the countless endeavors on the internet or irl that haven't been followed up on or continued due to the lack of interest, the same applies to games as well. It's a normal thing to go through.

The easiest solution is obviously if you already had a personality (or discipline instilled in childhood) for it, most people with this sort of quirk reason that if they don't finish something, the existing work they put into it would all go to waste. Almost like a perfectionism within progress as opposed to a perfectionism in the end result. Or whatever the reason, it's really about a mindset or habit you've grown up with.

The harder more longer answer is to probably just practice completing smaller projects and work your way up (and if you've already done so, pick something a little outside your range). That's what worked for me and what I've observed in some others. I guess there's a mindset of "I'm so close to the finish line I can't give up now" The problem that comes up is that you might only be able to finish small projects and it becomes hard to finish medium projects or some such thing. RPGs are a pretty bad genre to start with when it comes to making games when you think about it lol. But yeah the only thing at the end of the day is to practice discipline to the point where it's not longer artificially instilled and turned into a habit.

B) Tbh, I just run out of shit to look at. I subscribe to very little things and I am unable to procrastinate very well these days. Which I know is such a curse woe is me. But the takeaway is to just to limit your "feeds" so that you just run out of interesting shit to check out. I also have a habit of getting a new podcast to listen to and being unable to listen to it til I have some busy work to put on. Idk about the specifics of having to use the internet for resources as I consider that part of the work. I pretty much have tabs open on tutorials or coding help forum topics at all times.

Disclaimer: Forcing yourself to complete something you don't want to actually complete can be unhealthy. But it takes some personal self analysis to identify that.
Hard to focus on making a game when im trying to play all these games other people made 6 years ago
I just hate feeling bored, especially if I am out of ideas for new scripts or features for existing ones. It is not like I hate being lazy, but I still feel desperate to get new ideas, I do not know why... :S
Just doing some work on my game, planning what I want to happen in the story later down the line. Sometimes I'll think up a scenario in my head, think it'll work well in whatever game I'm working on and write it down/plan it out in my trusty notebook.

I'm also trimming down some of the dialogue so that the player isn't swamped with exposition.
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Finally stoked to mess around with my game again. Am thinking of giving three of four characters in the party an element, and using an Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic between Fire, Dark and Arcane elements. Using a spell or attack item of the same element one's aligned with will do half damage, but using the weakness would deal x1.5 on already higher-damage things compared to normal attacks.

The thing I'm pondering is pulling weapon proficiencies akin to Dragon Quest 8 and up, where you get to choose between weapons for different builds. Nothing too drastic right now though; not sure if I wanna give characters an exclusive skill that requires a type of weapon right now. However, I do like giving the players choice over a character's combat skills, especially as I'd prefer one to have to be more stingy with their skill usage due to lower MP values.

As such, characters would either choose a one-handed or two-handed weapon for three of them right now, with the thief choosing between a knife and either a sword or claws (not sure which). As expected, the two-handers would be more powerful damage-wise but deny their users a shield.
So I’ve haven’t talked about my game that much in quite a while now since my last post about it back around a year and a half ago, sooo…might as well talk about it!

I’m still in the process of working on things here or there whenever I get the time to do so behind the scenes, but I’m thinking of possibly changing and / or adding a couple of things to it in the future, so might as well share some of my incredibly stupid lovely ideas with you people and see what you guys and gals think:

Time / Turn Limit:
Obviously, this is a no-brainer carry over from the original build where you can set a time limit that counts down and reminds everyone every 5 to 15 minutes or so how much time is left remaining in the match. But there are two other things that I would like to try and add in this particular version: Number 1 is the ability to set a set number of turns that each player can make before the game officially ends (rolling doubles excluded). And, number 2 is in regards to a problem that’s recently come up during some of my playthroughs with other “live” opponents:

You see…if one of your opponents is currently in the lead and there’s like…a few minutes left before the match officially ends and they’re about one roll away from coming up to a set of houses or hotels that might determine whether they win the match or not, some players will like to “stall” in order to have the timer run out and they happen to win the match that way (– which is NOT cool, BTW.)

Although I did put something in place recently that whenever the time limit happens to run out and it’s during a player’s last turn before the game ends, that the current player MUST finish their last move beforehand, I had another idea that might make things a LITTTLE bit more interesting:

Sooo…say you decide to set a Time Limit for 60 minutes and 3 players are playing in that particular match, right? Well…what I’m thinking about doing is to cut that time limit into thirds, in this particular case, and give each player 20 minutes total (because it’s a 60 minute match, divided by 3) of how much total time that they are allowed to take action in the game.

When a player’s said time limit then runs out, that said player will then be officially eliminated from the game. All of their properties, items and such, are then returned to the bank, or auctioned off, depending on your settings.

By potentially doing it this way, it will not only speed things up, since you have to make moves and decisions very quickly now, but it will also cut down on players trying to stall in order to win the match.

I did have another idea that involved players taking penalties where if they took too long to make a decision in-between a turn that they would either lose money at the end of a match or have a three strike system in place, but I might go with the above method and leave the penalty system for maybe a Monopoly 2 someday (…if that ever happens…). Either way, I’ll play around with it a bit and give this a try and see how everything goes.

Adding a Turn Limit is simple enough, though; I can do that no problem.

Random Rules:



Sooo…way back during 2016’s: Release Something Day (or much earlier than that, because I think I mentioned it before), I had implemented a Rule Variation screen that would allow the user to select between setting up Classic Rules, Custom Rules, and a Random Rules variant which would set every single rule to random, creating some very wacky combinations.

Well…turns out that I don’t really particularly like the Random Rules option and how everything is handled with it selecting combinations that would be...otherwise…quite difficult to win in certain said conditions. Sure, I might just keep in there for the hell of it… But I might have found a much better idea instead:

So, for the proposed Random Rules now, I’m thinking of doing it where every couple of minutes or so, a notification box will pop up telling players that one random rule selected has now changed to something else for the rest of the duration of the match. (Of course, it could always change back). So, for example, say you set the rules at the beginning of the match to have it where you pay 10% interest in order to unmortgage a property back, like in Monopoly’s original rules, well…now because of Random Rules option, that Interest Rate just changed to 40% now, just like that! Oh, and that rule that you set that gives you $300 for Passing GO? That just changed to now having you LOSE $300 every time a player passes GO now. (God damn it!)

The idea came to me because…well, you know how when you play Monopoly at another person’s house and they try to change the rules on the fly, because that’s how he or she plays, and it seems to come out out of the blue sometimes, especially when they’re losing? Well…this kinda simulates that.

Team Matches:



I was actually going to save this piece of news for later on, but - what the hell.

Yes, I am implementing Team Matches in this game as an option for four players if they happen to do so. So, basically, 1P and 2P will make up one team while 3P and 4P will form the other team, and you each will share the same amount of money, properties collected, and items that you both carry with one another. If one player on a team happens to get knocked out - then you both get knocked out!

Playing around with it thus far…it’s pretty interesting, actually...! Because you’re a team and you both have your own tokens on the board, you do cover a lot more ground than you usually do by yourself, but you’re also two times more susceptible in landing on more hazardous spots on the board. You also need to communicate with each other once and a while about what you plan on targeting on the board and among other strategies when it comes time to it. It’s pretty interesting, actually.

Of course, you can also form a team with a CPU player as well, just in case you want two humans being on a team together and you don’t have another player on hand to form a second team with the other human player. You can also - if you really want to speed things up in a match - just have one player control its own team while the other controls their own team and have a two token battle instead, if you wish. That will certainly speed things up!

Procedure Additions:



The last thing that I’m trying to adjust and add in (for now) is two more Procedure Options to the standard Ring Menu that’s shown above when you’re not in Jail and currently not in Bankruptcy. The image above, besides the removal of the Jukebox Option, is for when you’re currently in Jail, but they are:

  • Scroll Board:
    Basically, by selecting this procedure option, a player can scroll around the board freely, using the Pan Screen feature in 2k3, to look around their surroundings if they need to. However, if you are currently in Jail (since you’re stuck behind bars), you won’t be able to use this option because…well… you’re behind bars! But, yeah - you can now look around the board if you want to.

  • Forfeit:
    Sometimes…life just doesn’t go your way, you know…? So, with this procedure in place, if you feel like winning at this point is pretty much a non-likely outcome – you can always just end the pain (and not to mention your opponent’s pain) by dropping out of the match entirely if you so do wish! By forfeiting the match, all of your money, properties and items will be returned to either the bank or auctioned off to other players who are still participating depending on your rule settings.
I'm thinking about a game idea I've had for a while, but I haven't started on, and I don't know if I ever will. It could be potentially pretty fun if executed well, but I probably lack the artistic talent to pull it off, and I don't know if I'll ever find someone who has the talent who would be interested enough to join the project. It wasn't my intention to copy Mount and Blade: Warband's gameplay (and maybe Mount and Blade, I haven't played it so I wouldn't know), since I wasn't consciously thinking about it at the time its similarity is coincidental.

Story
Basically imagine a game that's similar to a 2D Mount and Blade (Warband), except instead of taking place in a fictionalized Medieval setting, it takes place in a fictionalized setting based on the Golden Age of Piracy (probably the Caribbean). Whereas M&B:W started you off as some random nobody with a sword, like many pirates this game would start you start off as a privateer with a letter of marque. You can then betray the crown and be naughty, or continue to be a good little boy and bring those naughty pirates to justice.

Gameplay
Where Mount and Blade (Warband) had castles and villages, this game would have towns, ports, and islands. Like Mount and Blade, you would switch between the overworld and a closer view, but unlike Mount and Blade, this game would use a side scrolling view for the towns/ports/islands and overworld battles. Obviously there were no horses on the high seas (I think?) so the battles would be on ships. I'd like to have ship to ship combat with cannons and such, but I'm not sure how that would work, so instead I think it would be more fun to just have boarding. To make things more interesting, if the game ever does get off the ground, I might use the Godot engine, which has a built-in physics engine, and the ships themselves would be dynamic objects, rocking with the waves, along with the boxes, barrels, and loose stuff on them, as long as it doesn't cause too much lag.

What do you guys think? It isn't my intention to rip off Mount and Blade. Like I said, when I got the idea, I wasn't even thinking about it. please don't sue, Paradox!

I realize the image is really ugly, but this is sort of what I had in mind for the ship battles, but not to scale. If you've ever played Starbound, that's sort of what the side scrolling would be like, but maybe with parrying.
@Eggbertx

Sounds a lot like Sid Meier's Pirates, so I like it.
I haven't played that one. Also I forgot to mention that like Mount and Blade (Warband) you'll have a leveling system, booty, and crew, but with a game like this I don't think that counts as copying because that should sort of be taken for granted. The leveling system will obviously be tailored more towards piracy related skills (e.g. sailing instead of horse riding). And maybe if you piss off your crew enough, they'll maroon you on an island and you'll have to survive somehow.
Found some old screenshots of a viking RPG I was making in 2008ish

shit was dark


also you went into the future