General help for my game

[tender meadow]

🐾 Hi! Im Eon, an artist from the Netherlands. I've been trying to make games, but it's proven to be particularilly overwhelming for me, so any for of help is very appreciated

I'm calling it "Show Dogs'' for now but the title might change since it's more plush themed than circus...
It'll be a 2.5d isometric mobile (or multiplatform) town building game all about nostalgia, collecting characters and decorating/managing your town.
I have barely started on the technical side but here is what i have so far

Images show: example & placeholder art i made, the wip grid system (idk what im doing) & character concept art!

i will update here as i progress

dm's are open but feel free to chat here :]

features i'll be adding:
-isometric grid building system
-2d building/decoration sprites
-3d characters with ai
-pathfinding
-minigames to earn currency
-storyline
-side quests
-building upgrades
-character breeding with random genetics (only be worked on if the game mostly works as intended)
-multiplayer (?)
-probably more but i forgor

@tight elm you wanted to be notified ^^

[devout musk]

First things first, do you have Git set up for your project?

It's basically a requirement for a long-term software or game project. Doing programming without git is akin to doing 2D art without undo

Sure, it's doable, but why would you do that to yourself

[tender meadow]

ooh yeah that would be useful, thank you

[devout musk]

I'm going to sleep shortly so I can't go over this in full right now, but I'd recommend using Github desktop as your git client

If you need help with something, I'm sure there are also others here who can guide you through the setup & the basics of Git

but if you want to, you can ping or DM me ^^

[tender meadow]

alr thank you! ^^ have a good night!

[tight elm]

For now I'll just drop this in here for the gridmap: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/3d/using_gridmaps.html

If you haven't had a read yet, give it as much of a read as you can and I'll answer any questions

And for git/GitHub: when creating the repo, make sure to have it set private unless you would like to have your project be open-source 🙂

GitHub basics: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/start-your-journey/uploading-a-project-to-github
Just in case it's needed

[tender meadow]

Thank you, the text about gridmaps has a lot of images which i appreciate very much.

Would you mind explaining what github is used for exactly?

[supple fable]

Version control, it's used to create backups of your project so if anything ever happens (you accidentally deleted a file without realising, you saved over some script, you broke something, etc), you can just load the previous version.
You can back it up at any point, with comments explaining what changes you've made.
It also is online so you don't have to worry about losing your project if your pc suddenly dies.
IMO, it's not really needed for simple projects, but for what you've described, it's worth checking it out.

[tender meadow]

I see, thank you!

[winged plover]

If this is your first game then this piece of advice is crusual.

You don’t have to know all of Godot to make a game. Personally, I only learn what I need to learn. Meaning that I lead the engine as I add specific things to my game.

Also. Start slows if it’s gonna be a town builder game. Maybe first focus on a way to place the houses and buildings. Later add requirements to that. Like resources to build it. And after that you could give them a use when placed.
(this is mere an example)

Trying to do all these things at once gets chaotic and overwhelming. So focus on one thing and slowly move in

[tender meadow]

Good to hear. I was planning to do exactly that :)
I’m already overwhelmed again but I’m trying to stay positive

[winged plover]

Alright. What gives you an overwhelming feeling, if I may ask

[tender meadow]

Reading, learning, and anything non-visual is very hard for my brain to comprehend(autism/adhd). I get overwhelmed very easily, which has been the death of many game ideas ive had, I’m just trying to power through it, once i start to understand things a bit better I’m hoping it’ll be easier for me

[winged plover]

Gotcha. Feel free to ask us anytime. You don’t want to know how much I have learned and asked on this discord XD

[winged plover]

Im currently working on my first Tower defence with a cool twist to it. So I have a lot to learn as well

[tender meadow]

What’s the cool twist? :0

[winged plover]

But I have done some other small things

[winged plover]

So pretty much… it’s a game about a barbarian breaking into a Wizard’s tower and accidentally starting a demonic war ( Don’t ask how). So the enemies will be monsters.

And the twist is, in between the waves of enemies you have to leave the tower and go in the woods to gather materials and other things. Kind of an RPG mechanic. Back in the tower you can use those materials to craft new turrets for the tower and around it. Keeping you alive.

Sounded pretty fun to me 🙂

[tender meadow]

That sounds super fun. I want to play it hahaha

[winged plover]

XD

But I’m already struggling with the turrets rotation towards the enemies. Since it kind of just rotates 50%? But I decided to save that for later and first make it shoot things

[tender meadow]

Oof that does sound quite difficult

[winged plover]

I’m sure it’s an easy fix but I choose to leave it for now. Don’t want to spend too much time in such a “Visual”

[tender meadow]

Makes sense ^^

[winged plover]

Yeh. Good luck on your game. Sounds fun and the art looks amazing in my opinion

[tender meadow]

Thank you! You good luck as well :]

[winged plover]

Ik ben trouwens ook Nederlands.

Thought you needed to know.

[tender meadow]

:O nice

[tender meadow]

Not sure if anyone is following this thread but i thought id give an update:

Its becoming more and more clear that coding really is just not for me. With my health not really getting better i think im going to start looking for someone to hire to code for me. Not sure where to find the right person for my project so if there are any places/people you’d recommend please let me know :]

in the meantime i will continue to work on what i can!

[tight elm]

I'm certain you can do it, if it's difficult sometimes a break can help - I'm sure the community will be here if you'd wanna give it a go again

As for the question: sorry but I'm not familiar with any websites like that - might just be a thing to do research on

[devout musk]

@tender meadow Do you mind if I DM you? I won't be able to commit to coding your project, but I can provide tutoring-level help with it

suggest solutions, give example implementations, explain stuff in detail

that sort of stuff

And, to be clear, I'm not looking for payment for this ^^

[winged plover]

Coding is a matter of practice and time.

I’m sure you can do it with the right amount of time. There are a lot of programmers out there who make complex as hell code, but that doesn’t mean you have to do that. Just keep it simple and slowly improve.

You don’t need to know everything about Godot. I can make a descent game but I still have so much to learn about Godot.

Take time to learn the Engine and watch tutorials where you need.

There is one fun saying in the Game Dev world; If it works. It works.

Pretty much meaning, if you code something in a simple way that works the same as a complex script. Than you should stick with the simple way.

There are so many ways to code the same things. All it takes is practise and simplicity.

[azure dragon]

literally me rn, it sucks because everyone else seems to be having a much easier time than me and I just keep getting stuck on things one after the other, I want to do this so badly but its so hard for me, i cant make any progress at all (I am not diagnosed or anything but i feel like im very likely on the neurodivergent side,,) but i dont want to give it up aghhhh im so frustrated

I just want to make silly games this sucks

[strange marten]

Fellow neurodivergent (AuDHD) here 👋 I get what you mean. 🫂

I have similar challenges as you. When learning or doing literally anything— struggling with transition paralysis and get easily overwhelmed with non-visual information 🌱

I’ve been learning Godot for about a week now. And i know what i achieved within this timespan may not be as great as what others achieve, given neurodivergent struggles. It is a harsh truth but it’s also what makes our journey special and rewarding for us, imo.

I’ve seen your art and i think you’ve got great ideas! 🌼 I know whichever you decide to do, you got this 🥳

My english is not that good but if you ever want a fellow neurospicy to parallel-play and learn together, I’d be happy to do so ^^

[tender meadow]

thanks everyone for your positive messages! like i said im defelitely not quitting, just focusing on the parts that are easy for me, like the art ^^
It's nice to hear i'm not the only one struggling with this

[tender meadow]

i think that would be a great help if you wouldnt mind helping me like that, i would be very grateful
:0
my dm's are open!

[azure dragon]

we should maybe make a gc together to show our progesseses

[azure dragon]

You're art is super cute 🩷

[tender meadow]

We could totally do that!

[tender meadow]

Thank yous :3