archived-game-design

[late vapor]

The way you asked that question makes me think that you're newish to programming. Are you confident that you can make the main gameplay loop?

the gameplay loop is:
display one of a large pool of questions
prompt the player to make a selection
remove 1 life if the answer is wrong
end the game if 10 lives were lost, give the game a win state if you answered question 100 correctly
repeat

also this isn't a game design question I just realized

[night shoal]

It's called a "quiz". Plenty of tutorials for those.

[charred warren]

So I'm trying to flesh out some basic mechanics for a hack and slash and I feel there's more I can do with the basics so that combat even against an enemy with greater HP than you (like a boss) isn't just you mashing down the attack button until you win without even moving. Anyone have any ideas?

[tiny marsh]

force the player to dodge certain things, usually having them with less health than the boss will do that

[crystal spade]

Im trying to make a game where your on a planet and can break trees for resources and craft turrets to defend the planet. Is this a good starting point?

[charred warren]

The enemy already has more health. That's kind of the problem. In spite of this, the player is still able to beat the enemy without having to do anything other than press the attack button as is

[tiny marsh]

then your enemy doesnt have enough mechanics to make it interesting

[atomic anvil]

Increase the boss damage

[tiny marsh]

heres a mechanic i'm planning to use on a mid rarity enemy in my game
if it lands a regular attack, it immediently follows up with 2 special (additional) attacks in the same area

if youre dodging and moving around that pretty much does nothing
but if youre standing still and hitting youll lose

[charred warren]

The point is to try and make a system that's functional if forcing the player into an effective mirror match at first and THEN adding in unique boss mechanics

[atomic anvil]

Make the boss spam attacks as well then. In this case the first one to attack is gonna win. Not very interesting, is it?

That's why you add skills and mechanics.

Like blocking,parrying, dodging, etc.

If you only have an option to attack and not attack, there's only that much gameplay you can get out of it.

[tiny marsh]

your boss probably shouldnt also get stunned every time you hit it

[atomic anvil]

Ah, I see you have sort of a dodging mechanic in there. But it seems to be useless.

If you just attacking is better than dodging, there's not gonna be any motivation to use it.

Maybe add a delay to the character if they miss an attack(an opponent successfully dodges). This way the opponent would have some space to attack back.

[charred warren]

Something I'm being told is that the attack tracking I put in might be a problem. Should I perhaps be removing it or at least make it a lot slower?

[atomic anvil]

Wdym by attack tracking?

[charred warren]

The player rotates to face the enemy mid attack animation

What I have right now is that the speed it auto tracks (except during impact frames where tracking is completely disabled) is inversely proportional to the normalized time of the attack animation

[atomic anvil]

Aah, yeah, sounds like cheating. Either disable it during the attack animation, or slow it down.

I would disable it completely during an attack animation, to be honest.

This way the enemy would have a chance to strike back after dodging.

[tiny marsh]

if its auto tracking outside of attacks you cant just disable it for attacks cause if it misses thats not the players fault cause they had no control of where the attack went off in the first place

i think the main thing would be to sort out enemies getting stunned on hit, maybe a customisable variable for stagger so some small peon enemies can get stunned every hit but big bosses might only get stunned every 5th or 6th hit
so you cant just stand still and hit like you did in the video

[charred warren]

Right now what I have is an effective copy/paste of SSBM's hitstun mechanics. At one point I had a stun resist variable so that, at a certain point, successive attacks didn't cause hitstun anymore. I also thought about having hyperarmor values based on the normalized time of an attack animation (as in chances are they're not going to be hitstunned if hit at the start of an attack animation, but their ability to be hitstunned and for how long increases as the normalized animation time goes up)

[atomic anvil]

I'm not sure why you're so focused on that normalized animation time. I don't see why it should correlate directly to game logic.

[charred warren]

The idea here is that a character is more likely to take hitstun during recovery rather than windup, but this is only true for attacks with small windup times

Normalized animation time seems to be the best way of puzzling that all out

If it's later in the animation then chances are the character is either in or close to recovery frames

[atomic anvil]

So the animation time of the attacked character..? Not the attacking one..?

[charred warren]

If a character is attacked while attacking then the chances of them being hitstunned and for longer is supposed to increase the longer the animation plays (Not based on random chance mind you)

[atomic anvil]

Okay, but we're not even talking about it. Your boss doesn't seem to even have a chance to attack, so this mechanic is not even relevant in this case.

[charred warren]

I'd have to check again, but I think it at least tries quite a few times and gets interruped during windup

[atomic anvil]

Well, then it doesn't work. If the getting hit animation is longer than the opponent attack animation, they're gonna get stunlocked, which seems to be exactly what's happening.

If stunlocking is by design, then you need to give them some other way to retaliate or get out of it.

[charred warren]

I do remember finding something about splitting hitstun into hardlock frames and softlock frames

Maybe I might need to finally implement that and see what happens

[atomic anvil]

I think you're too focused on these specific vocab from some other games that you're missing the overall picture.

[ebon quail]

Hi, I want to create an enemy AI for a topdown zelda like game. I'm using a navmesh and I assigned multiple waypoints, so the enemy randomly walks between these waypoints. I'm thinking however to make the enemy AI walk randomly to any possible point on the navmesh, so I would no longer need waypoints. In addition to that I also thought about a certain area on the navmesh, that the enemy is allowed to walk on, so it won't just leave the area on a (very) large navmesh.
If the enemy is in combat with the player, then however it would make sense to leave the area (maybe return to its original area if no longer in combat).
So basically there are all sorts of possibilities on how to move the enemy randomly but have it stay at a certain area.
I guess I'm just brainstorming on which behaviour is best. What do you think? How do your enemies behave?

[sharp zinc]

The best is to, either define points or zone because otherwise you might get your enemies at place you do not want it to be. Also, implementation wise it is way easier this way.

[iron gazelle]

i have some questions about transferring momentum in a 2D platformer with respect to reference frames, if anyone is open to give advice

it’s easier if I pitch a scenario, and 2 possibilities, and you tell me which you think should happen

Scenario: Player (world vel.x = -5) is on a conveyor belt (vel.x = +5). (Player is moving -10 m/s left relative to conveyor). Conveyor disappears. Which should happen:

1. Player is moving left at -5 m/s (same world speed)
2. Player is moving left at -10 m/s (his what his speed would have been off of the conveyor)

[tiny marsh]

isnt momentum like this handled by default in unity

[iron gazelle]

custom physics engine. I can make it however I want. The question is “what feels best?”

i’m conflicted, because transfering momentum avoids suddenly slingshotting your speed, which feels weird. But not transferring momentum makes certain things more consistent because you don’t inherit velocity from arbitrary sources.

also, if you inherit velocity, that would let you avoid/restart the slow windup acceleration for player moving

[polar gull]

to me, 2 sounds more interesting as it adds an interesting mechanic whereas 1 sounds a lot more plain and boring

[uncut saffron]

I'm trying to work out the core design of my game and I have a detailed story outline all the way from opening cutscene to closing cutscene of this project. What should be my next step after the story outline? I feel like trying to derive game mechanics and core gameplay loop from this is jumping ahead. Should this be a beat chart perhaps?

[iron gazelle]

my man, that's how you design a novel. not a game

games are made from game concept first, story second

because the story needs to work with the mechanics of the game world

which you do not know, since you have not started that part yet.
To be clear, game mechanics needs to be thought out before any work on story can even begin.

[quartz osprey]

well Hideo Kojima thinks otherwise... some people start from story then go to core game design. It doesn't matter from which you start, only the final shape of your game matters. I'm personally not a fan of Hideo, and I prefer gameplay first, but just wanted to point out this is not how everybody make games.

[quartz osprey]

I would recommend, in your case, find a rough genre, to give you some already defined framework for your core mechanics. What kinda gameplay do you think best suit your story narration or etc.? I think you can start thinking about it now, if you are going story first, maybe find some cool elements already in your world, that can be aliened with some mechanics.

[iron gazelle]

1. Hideo Kojima made Death Stranding, the least fun AAA game in a long time
2. When you are making MetalGearSolid #X, you already know the core mechanics

snake isn’t going to suddenly turn into mario for #4 in the series…

[quartz osprey]

I didn't imply he doesn't know how to make core mechanics...

[iron gazelle]

my point is that mechanics come before story

[quartz osprey]

thousands of games are made otherwise already

[iron gazelle]

regardless, it is extremely foolish

what if the gameplay mechanics dictate his 6 character story actually needs to work with 2

what if the mechanics dictate outer space is a better setting than your medieval story?

what if the gameplay is only good for a 10 hour game, and you wrote a plot that is only appropriate for a 60 hour game?

the answer to all of these: you write the story after

or if you are writing for a platformer, which only allows little text. but you wrote for an RPG?
if you don’t even know the game concept, you have a novel, not a game.

which is fine. people write novels all the time

but that’s not how you write a game

[quartz osprey]

I simply disagree, how you make a game is and should not be that rigid. Only the final form counts, before that, it is nice to be malleable in every direction.

[iron gazelle]

i argue that it ceases to be maleable when the storyboard is done from the very beginning to the very end (meaning you don’t want it to change anymore).

because whoever wrote the story will be pissed that they have to hack it to make it fit something it was never made to fit.

[uncut saffron]

I agree. Thank you for the insight. I think I can create a story first while also laying down mechanics. I don't see a reason the story can't guide mechanics or a reason that mechanics cannot inform the story. It seems too rigid to say there is only one way to approach this. I was curious if folks typically follow an outline with a beat chart. For context none of this will involve concept art or storyboards so it's quite flexible to change. The lore and story are the core to this particular game, the mechanics are already generally known and not unique...but I'd like to pull a few unique ones from the story itself.

[true pagoda]

What type of game is it? Was the genre of game locked in before you started plotting out the story?

This is sort of similar to the question of Top-down design vs Bottom-up design.

Top down has you establishing an aesthetic or lore and then deriving game mechanics from them.
Bottom up has you establishing game mechanics and then deriving the aesthetic and lore from them.

You can do either, and what's "better" depends on the person.

But trouble usually starts to manifest when the two sides meet and can grow into the whole ludonarrative dissonance thing.

[true pagoda]

That being said I definitely agree with @quartz osprey. If you have a rough outline of how the story is going to go and what type of story it's going to be, settling on a game genre would be best.

[visual shuttle]

Can something written in Unity work for iOS and android?

[true pagoda]

For example let's say your story is linear but you decide to make a metroidvania. You're going to have a rough time reconciling your player being able to be anywhere with trying to tell a linear story.

It's why a lot of those games go with the "destroyed world" approach.

You go around exploring, picking up clues, and the story can be told in a non-linear manner.

[true pagoda]

yes

[visual shuttle]

how much would it cost to make a whack-a-mole game that speeds up as you whack them

but the moles explode

in 3d like fashion

[sudden pendant]

That quote is going to differ on many factors that it makes it impossible to give you an answer.

[visual shuttle]

where do I get quotes from?

and what kind of factors?

[sudden pendant]

Post online, or find a development studio that you think would be worth working with.

1. Where you're outsourcing to
2. Skill level
3. Independent or studio
4. What specifically you want made (everything, or are you supplying art)
5. Expected quality

[visual shuttle]

Quality: fruit ninja quality

[sudden pendant]

This wasn't an invite to answer those questions. Those are just examples. You need to find quotes yourself by reaching out to studios or freelancers.

[visual shuttle]

and does that mean if it is all done in unity, that it can go to iOS android and steam store?

[sudden pendant]

Unity can deploy cross platform yes

[visual shuttle]

is there an alternative to unity that may be worth considering?

[sudden pendant]

For a cheap hyper causal mobile game, nope. Unity is your best option there.

[visual shuttle]

I am a developer myself, how easy is it to make modifications once I get the project and redeploy to ios android and steam ?

I've never worked with unity before

[sudden pendant]

Depends on who made it and how easy they made it to modify.

[visual shuttle]

Also where would I post my project? fiverr?

[sudden pendant]

If you want cheap work, sure. But cheap work usually means cheap outcomes.

[visual shuttle]

what do you recommend?

[sudden pendant]

But that is one place sure. Otherwise, Reddit or other discord servers like GDN have posting channels.

Or you can look online for mobile game studios.

[glossy root]

is this a correct channel to ask for feedback?

[sudden pendant]

No, what. You've been told multiple times to use #1180170818983051344

[glossy root]

then what is this channel for

[sudden pendant]

Discussing game designs/narrative. If you want feedback on your game use your devlog.

[atomic anvil]

If you have a specific question related to game design.

[sharp robin]

I'm also going to just say, I agree with you. I think once they have more experience they will realize they can't apply absolute answers to sliding scale questions.

I.e. them saying a process is foolish, to me, means they haven't done this long enough to learn there are always successful examples otherwise. But they will learn it one day 🙂 I just appreciate that you always try to help people.

[sharp robin]

I have a suggestion in this regard, it's a pretty interesting approach... it raises an interesting idea in terms of when it can be beneficial to flush out different levels of detail

https://youtu.be/o5K0uqhxgsE?si=6ImkibgEFn4VaxhV

Not certain it'll help with the next steps per say, but it would suggest to do an ugly run at the base mechanics and try some variations to see what feels best before moving ahead

[flat bay]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3I5yDsomH8&t=3s

[uncut saffron]

It's horror in first person. There are already a bunch of inherent properties that work with this genre. I have my location, setting and genre already. I also have the rendering aesthetic. I was at a point where I didn't have enough detail in my story where I could lay down paths, sections, beats over my world. I have the outline complete and it works within this environment. My initial question might have been better phrased to ask: Do I need to go further than an outline and if so what document might that traditionally be?

[quartz osprey]

I have a thought on that. Do you think you game is challenging enough? Imagine player's second to second gameplay, what does he do? If it is just walking around and seeing things, I would say it's not challenging enough. So making mechanics basically boils down to that. Couple of things come to mind when you're talking about horror first person. Solving puzzles in the environment that requires players to remember map layouts? Inventory management, picking, prioritizing, discarding them? Or even shooting mechanics (like Resident Evil series). You can choose between a lot of different types of mechanics that you think best fit your narration. But something that is certain, that is thinking about second to second gameplay of the player and putting yourself in their shoes, what problem are they solving now?

[uncut saffron]

I think it can be, but I suppose that comes down to execution and landing a tight core gameplay loop, a secondary loop and those mechanics. I've been using Scott Rogers, Level Up as my dev bible. Brenda Romero's courses on core loops and mechanics have been gold too and I am referencing them now daily. I've shipped 20+ games over a 16 year career and oddly enough never had to fill these sorts of roles. I feel like I'm learning entirely new disciplines. Luckily I've worked alongside designers so I'm quite familiar with the constraints.

[quartz osprey]

that's wonderful! then I think the game is in the right hands! People like me also can help you (co-thinking maybe) with more specific things, if you found yourself looking for fresh ideas

are you making your first game now as the game designer, I'm guessing?

[uncut saffron]

Yes co-thinking is a major benefit. One major downside to lone indie dev is isolation, and not knowing what you don't know. I can only draw from my own experiences and that can be limiting. Luckily I also have access to a pool of institutional knowledge on LinkedIn via my co-workers and former co-workers. Those relationships have been key. This is my first as the designer. It's humbling for sure, but I'm learning as I go. I'm starting from a place where I feel passionate about the genre/setting (been a paranormal nerd since my teens) and I think I started with an interesting question. What if the Montauk Monster were real and what if it spoke to something much worse? My wife is from Long Island so she was pretty excited to theme around something familiar. Then one night I was watching Thomas Brush give a dev talk and he said something that stuck with me. He suggested to start an idea or premise from a mixture of what's already been done. He posited something like: this game, but with elements of this other game. In one case he was with the dev of Choo Choo Charles who mixed a horror game with the innocence of a children's toy train. So I got to thinking to myself...this is pretty spot on. So much has already been done, that it's near impossible to make something entirely new. The better approach may be to mix a few things that had already been done and through that mixture you'd arrive at something entirely new. So my GDD starts with an opening note: "the atmospheric tension of Silent Hill with the psychological horror of Amnesia." and I think this perfectly captures two of the core pillars of what I want to do. An amazing, thick atmosphere and two, evoking a feeling of tension/anxiety in the player.

And I've worked up a GDD that I am working on today. I come from a studio background and working in that professional capacity, the GDD or TDD or things like that are familiar to me and allow me to compartmentalize the scope of work. I've been told by others that for an indie dev, the GDD is unnecessary and that is likely true. For me though I need it to keep track and remember important bits.

[quartz osprey]

@uncut saffron thanks for sharing! enjoyed reading it. Also damn, who would want to be scared sh**less and play that? (ME OF COURSE! :D)
There is a lot I can learn from people like you (experienced in game industry), even if it's not me the one who asks the first question, the mutual interest and discussion is what I'm all for here. If I'm wrong, I would know by telling to others, right? and that's one way to get better. And, please keep us updated on your future progress!
While at scary stuff, one of my favorite games of all time was stalker shadow of chernobyl. That feeling of atmospheric tension you're talking about was present a lot in that game, and specifically in stalker, the fact that it was open world and you would have to dare yourself to step in horrifying places (instead of going there just because, that's the way to go) added to the experience in a way that I'm still desperate to experience it again in other games. And I know that is only viable in games, not any other forms of Media. I'm personally designing turn-based strategy and tactical games, but I'm a huge fan of horror games. I might not make one, but I want to play them 😄

[upbeat basalt]

Hi! I have a general question about a theoretical 3d pixelart sidescroller game as a beginner to gamedev. So I had this idea that one could model a background scene in 3d then apply downscaling, toonshaders and outlines and all the 3d pixel art stuff and have the player in the foreground. This way you wouldnt have to hand paint the background and take in all the artistic depth and perspective into account, instead the 3d aspect does it for you. Then you could maybe even swipe the camera around for some cutscenes with different angles, is the idea atleast. So finally my question is, should this games camera be orthographic or perspective. I wonder this because and orthographic camera renders everything with the same visual importance and size despite how far away it is. I feel like this could get in the way of having the illusion of depth in the background, but i also think and an orthographic camera is important for 3d pixelart to look convincing. Would this idea work at all? Would be totally down to discuss verbally in a vc if anyones down or has time.

[tiny marsh]

wouldnt modeling a 3d background scene be significantly more difficult than hand painting it and just using parallax

[upbeat basalt]

Was thinking that the modeling wouldnt have to be so intricate since it has to be visually simple to look good with toonshaders and downscaling anyway. So instead of making great pixelart I could make okay simple models and have it look stylish

[sharp robin]

You can also bake it to a flat quad, and use a depth mask. It'll give the lighting, angles and illusion of depth without needing the geometry. But you can, I have to do some dark magic sometimes with background props for VR to make it seem like a real 3D backdrop but it isn't

But yeah you definitely can. I wouldn't go isometric as you would lose the benefit to 3D at that point

[upbeat basalt]

Ok thanks for your insight 🙂

[true pagoda]

When you think "energy" as a resource do you think of the color red, green, yellow or blue?

[vague wren]

But keep in mind that a lot of people are some kind of color blind, so using color alone as a core differentiator isn't great

[true pagoda]

The pickups will obviously look different but I do think color association is important.

My game is dark most of the time so something glowing a specific color in the distance can help.

[polar gull]

I'm trying to work out mechanics for my game and... it's quite a challenge. I have about 100-200 ideas but definitely can't go through them as quickly as I make them up, plus implementing each idea takes time, depending on the idea. It's hard to know what combinations to test, etc...

Given that, I feel like... iteratively tuning current systems feels like a much more effective way to refine the game than endlessly implementing more and more systems...

I've never really designed even a mildly complex game before so this is a tough but interesting challenge.

[fluid dust]

he guys!

[dawn trail]

My player is unable to move forward automatically how can I fix that?
https://youtube.com/playlist...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0WgRP7BtOez8O7UAQiW0qAp-XfKZXA9W

[night shoal]

Wrong channel, and we can't tell without seeing your code. Post it to #💻┃code-beginner

[dawn trail]

Okay

@night shoal

[polar gull]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o5K0uqhxgsE.

Fascinating video about how game design is a search algorithm…. I guess this sort of confirms that what I’m experiencing is normal but doesn’t make it any easier lol…

[sharp robin]

Yeah it's a great video !!!

Its actually changed how I'm tackling prototypes for our company now 🙂

[polar gull]

How do you mean?

[sharp robin]

With our prototypes - usually has quite a bit of work done on art/design and style. The videos convinced me to try separating the art and project workflows into separate prototypes, and to create less details prototypes but more of them, to get a wider net. And to take some of the prototypes that have less traction, and try inverting or doing something quite extremely different. It means instead of pumping out 4 prototypes this month, I'll probably pump out 16 less polished ones.

We are about 50% our own games and products and 50% client stuff. And so we usually deliver very high quality prototypes (with custom avatars, mocap, voice overs, etc). But it has me thinking of pulling back the design a bit.

[polar gull]

Fascinating

[polar gull]

This video has me rethinking what I’m doing but tbh I’m just not sure how to go about this. I’ve been thinking of systems and coding them up in a relatively robust way with the idea that I can switch on or off those systems or modify their parameters to test out different combos. But this has me rethinking putting any sort of robustness into coding efforts for a system that I might throw out.

I’m just a hobbyist so I’ve never really put a ton of effort into design. I’ve mostly made clones or very simple games in the past. Game jams but there’s very little design iteration in those things as there’s very little time…

[charred warren]

So what's the general consensus here on attacks that auto-track in melee hack-and-slash? By auto-tracking I mean that, during the attack animation, the attacker can still rotate to face the target to help the hit land. I've heard that people really hated this in Dark Souls, but I kind of like it (especially on bosses), though I can see why implementing it the way I have has made it difficult for the enemy AI to find an opportunity to counterattack the player

[vale condor]

if i am making an open world concept first person game, and i have completed movement, and got a mock settings screen up, what should I start to work on next? inventory system? Health or stats? i have no idea, it seems all of them depend on eachother

[lost merlin]

should have a minimal amount of stats probably

inventory itself is quite a large module

[vale condor]

yea i know, i started making one and it was working ish, but super basic and hard to understand

ill go with stats

[rancid raptor]

Should a game that cost money have micro transactions? Like in game currency or skins cosmetics etc.

[sharp robin]

If you are going for the EA model, charge per reload too

[rancid raptor]

Ok, so I guess you mean no transactions in a paid game. Which means you can unlock everything by playing. I like that a lot, going with that.

[sharp robin]

I'm not the best for guidance on monetization to be honest

Someone else can hopefully weigh in with more input:)

[quartz osprey]

That is a big question. As far as I know, there is no global rule for that. If you are asking from business point of view, it depends how micro transactions can actually bring money to the game? If you are asking from game design point of view, you should think if that helps with the experience of the player. My opinion is, they don't have to be in games unless it helps BOTH sides, players and developers. But I'm like @sharp robin , and probably a lot others here in this channel, are not the best fit to answer that question. And you should not also take that lightly, when it comes to real money, things get serious. But correct me if I'm wrong, when someone says micro transactions, I think of spending 'Real' money, not in game currency. If it's not real money, it's just resource management in my book 😄

[rancid raptor]

Alright, thanks. I will think about it and give it more thought. I got a lot of time till my game is complete. But thanks!

[quartz osprey]

you're welcome! Good luck with your game 😉

[rancid raptor]

Thanks!😊

[rancid aurora]

anyone wnna send me low poly gun?

[vale condor]

use 2 cubes

[sharp robin]

Or google

[vale condor]

when is a good time to implement good quality sprites or models/animations? I am having trouble deciding if i need to make my inventory system look good so it can stay organized, or find the correct layout for what i need

[sudden pendant]

@cold onyx We don't need the inappropriate commentary

[quartz osprey]

postpone things that can change to the latest, so you don't waste time on them every time something else changes that relates to them. I would say, implement the logic right away and use place holders (with no good quality), once you are satisfied with code base and how more abstract things work, you can start that. I would say have a roadmap and prioritize things based on their dependencies. For example, nothing is dependent on good quality assets other than our eyes :), but for example, the logic and layout of your UI, if they change, you might want to redo those assets because now they don't fit or whatever.

[cold onyx]

dont ping me from nowhere or from any msg that's gone sky above

and if u're taking it inappropiately , it still doesnt change the sad reality in steam or playstore.
that's how hardworked games are treated, less value for quality stuffs , and lots of hype for cheap partial nudity. ban me if truth is too much to tolerate.

[sharp zinc]

It is not the appropriate place for such discussion.

[hard fog]

!mute 1209087426757136384 7d Ignoring warnings, spam.

[desert marten]

nuke0313 was muted.

[quartz osprey]

I'm trying to name 'status effects' in my games. So originally I used the name 'buffs' but then I have to use 'debuffs' for negetive status effects. I want to use one name for them. Also I don't like 'status effects', I want it to be a single word. Can someone suggest me another name that is also self explanatory? (and by status effects I mean temporary modifications in states of entities in my game). Also I'm already using 'modifier' and 'modifications' for other concepts...

[lost merlin]

ailment

[hard fog]

Fallout has traits

Although if those are temporary, could be something more ephemeral

Borrow from a spiritual thing

[quartz osprey]

ailment is like buff/debuffs, it has (negative) connotation. And yes @hard fog they are temporary... hmm...

does 'condition' sound weird? it is too abstract but still might do the trick?

[hard fog]

condition sounds good, also could be affectation

[rare scroll]

general question:
would you prefer a point and click interface or a free movement controller for a smart phone top down action advanture game??

[sharp zinc]

Both works.

[gray jetty]

Depends on the game

[mighty geyser]

where can i get entry level hands on work on game design/writing
making my own things or is there a way to work on gamejams or voulnteer projects?

[sudden pendant]

Sure, find a game jam or a volunteer project. There are countless people looking for free help online (reddit, other servers)

[mighty geyser]

any useful sources?

[sleek phoenix]

https://itch.io/jams

or y'know, literaly googling "game jam"

[mighty geyser]

no no not that
i always thought game jam teams were too small to accept writing or design

so i thought there were special things i havent looked ad

[sudden pendant]

Find a jam for a virtual novel game, since those are all about the writing.

Or, you can just make your own mini virtual novels to showcase your work

[sleek phoenix]

then learn how to use an engine so you can contribute. Even making a basic thing in ren'py is super valuable experience for a job

[weary thicket]

#🕹️┃game-jams

[weary thicket]

Just making your own game is probably the best option to showcase your writing.

[worthy vortex]

is putting outlines meant to make a game more cartoony looking? Or is that not enough?

[sudden pendant]

@jolly nymph If you're looking for people to work with, use the forums !collab

[desert marten]

📢 Collaborating and Job Posting

We do not accept job or collab posts on discord.
Please use the forums:
• Commercial Job Seeking
• Commercial Job Offering
• Non Commercial Collaboration

[tiny marsh]

I used to do scratch like 7-8 years ago, made a lot of the basic stuff like platformer, top down fighter, etc
then made a minecraft server with mythicmobs up until like 2 years ago, YAML config so not code.... but a lot of the concepts still apply i think

for about 6 months now ive been properly getting into unity but havent made anything full yet.
Been working on the big main game i wanted to make for a while which is a singleplayer topdown 2d rpg
but a lot of guides say not to do something you care about a lot as a first game

i think im gonna work on some short horror game thing instead, so i dont get as caught up on the details while i learn stuff and maybe try to limit myself to 3 months
wonder if this idea is just as shit idk

[sharp zinc]

This is what you want to do in most case. However, you can also choose to make the dream you wants multiple time. (Version 1, 2, 3, etc.) The only things you need to know, is that your first game will most likely not turn into what you want to make due to your limited experience.

[clever finch]

How can i make an immortal MC fun in a dungeon crawler type game?

[sudden pendant]

Some code, some art, some sound

[rose kayak]

Objectives that aren't immortal, weapon upgrade, good sound design

[cold onyx]

hello

[neon jackal]

how do you guys like this idea battle royale with zombies on an island and the circle shrinks or it too complex of an idea just wondering becuase i never made an full fps game

[silent hull]

Rather than too complex it's just too vague of an idea.

[tiny marsh]

working on finalizing debuffs
2 for each element, fire, cold, wild, light, dark, mental

any ideas for the second wild ailment and the second light ailment? this is for a top down rpg like thing.

Currently, restrained (light debuff #1) reduces melee attack damage by 50%, and exhausted (wild debuff #1) prevents the use of mobility skills

[little lichen]

I don't know if this place is the right place to ask about my question: I admit I'm greedy hence asking this but how to get game design documents templates, from which place of Unity website, or here the links which I don't discover yet, or any recommedations of yours? (whatever suggestions)

don't mind this message if you think I'm a troll, I got called by lots in my experience, I just don't know.

[sharp zinc]

Having a template without knowing what each section means is useless. Create your own base on tutorial

[little lichen]

what if i know all of them tho

can create my own? that is nice, tutorial from YouTube?

[silent hull]

Also you can just use google and get hundreds of templates:
https://www.google.com/search?q=GDD+template

[little lichen]

GDD, noted, thx tho

[modest crow]

so im thinking of making a side scrolling platformer with is also a multiplayer rpg where you play as a skeleton

[tiny marsh]

very unusual combination of genres

whats the main inspiration behind this?

specifically platformer + rpg

[weary thicket]

restrained and exhausted sound like they'd match the effects of each other better.

[dry cliff]

I noticed there's a few ways to get a platform to move back and forth. Is there a "best" way or does it matter whether I use frames to animate or if I code it?

[tiny marsh]

@dry cliff not really, moving a platform is low effort for the computer so unless you find an extremely strange and long winded way to do it theres not going to be a difference. From what i understand, optimising things to do it the "best way" is only important if youre doing it loads and loads of times per second (like having 50 copies of an npc enemy all run something on update), or if its complex

@weary thicket maybe, though i didnt want two similar use case defensive mechanics on the same element
something like exhausted / unable to dash in my mind would be something a druid would curse you with
though i ended up with this. purify just removes buffs from a target. maybe boring but you can probably still do something with it

[cloud delta]

will recommend you dont if you actually want to sell this game

look at it like this, a game being dual genre was a big deal some 10s of years ago

and while yes the industry changed

you have to visualize yourself playing that game, and whether it'd be fun or not

because you will sink in more time than you most likely have into it

but maybe im wrong and this is GOTY material

[tiny marsh]

combining genres is fine
its just a very unusual combination

especially if its a first game

[cloud delta]

i never said it wasnt, it was just a retrospective

an action rpg may be the norm now but a "side scrolling platformer with is also a multiplayer rpg where you play as a skeleton" certainly isnt

and isnt realistically feasible for 99.9999% of people

[weary thicket]

Multiplayer anything is usually a bad choice for a first project unless your concept really benefits from it.

I say this as someone whose first game project was a multiplayer sidescrolling platformer.

[tiny marsh]

dont know if this is a popular take or not but i think 2d platformer is probably the worst possible game to make
theres an unbelievable amount of competition and its very limiting imo

[cloud delta]

most people who make them arent expecting anything out of it imo

its making a game for the sake of making a game

unless its super innovative

but i also dont believe a lot of people have the necessary skills to make a polished product thats i.e. an RTS

[tiny marsh]

i mean even if you arent looking to make something commercial i think its still good to avoid a genre that practically dooms you from the start

[cloud delta]

there arent many easy genres to develop in(technical aspect) other than platformer though

its better to complete a game at least first and then move onto more ambitious projects

not that i disagree with your POV though, seeing as my first game wasnt a platformer lol

[tiny marsh]

mine was to if you count scratch

i guess its probably the best if youre literally full on new at dev

but i wouldnt commit to it and try to keep expanding on a beginner platformer game and try to make something out of it like some people do

[cloud delta]

ngl an amature game jam where you have around ~7 days

is probably best for someone new to complete a project, although

you should probably have some sort of programming experience (very loosely used) before hand

but ill cease since this is a bit off-topic

[fading grail]

Hi team. I need feedback in terms of matching some Assets together - not sure if they fit or not. Specifically, trying to fit the character/pilot to the Mech.

I'm hoping the low poly Synty style looks OK enough. Any feedback is really appreciated!

[tiny marsh]

looks fine to me. you could outline the character with a shader more cause the otherline widths are different if thats what youre woried about but i dont think its needed

[sharp robin]

I don't like the initial polygon synty asset as much. But the second one was better.

[tiny marsh]

oh true i didnt even notice the face of the first

[sharp robin]

I definitely agree on the outline style if possible

[fading grail]

Thanks for the feedback! It was quick to try to blend everything to the middle

[fading grail]

Did it look BAD or just not as good as the other?

Really, I have synty assets spiced for modularity from another project that went nowhere so I want to reuse instead of buying new assets :). But there's a sale on so if I'm going to, now's the time

[sharp robin]

In a touch biased as I'm not a big fan of synty as a company.

The problem for me is the first character is squared off / flat surface textured. And cyberpunk style

Where the ground and mech seem more mechanical style, and more realistic style coloring.

So it stands out as out of place to me

[fading grail]

Heh that's fair

Ok thank you. Yeah that's my issue. Looks like the second one will have to do

[sharp robin]

But, you absolutely could use it and consider swapping it out down the road

[fading grail]

Thanks for your feedback!

That's true! There will be more sales in a year

Ok thank you all

Sounds like I got my answer but I won't need to really worry about it for 8-12 months

I appreciate all your feedback!

[tiny marsh]

some items
I wonder if the bottom right 2 body armours read to similar
even though theyre different effects they look pretty similar in terms of text box because theyre both just stats

[pine comet]

i dont think so, one is blue and the other is purple (ronin and kimono)

I personally can tell the difference

the formatting for each of the characteristics is about equivalent

[frigid brook]

Any tips for getting started on a 3D RPG survival project? A template would help a lot and save a lot of time.

[tiny marsh]

hmmm.. (rpg singleplayer thing)

the belt equipment slot in my game was going to modify the number of hotbar slots you had access to... but i changed it so theres no hotbar slots now.

wonder if i should remove it or if theres another use?... maybe make it so you can put instant use consumables there like potions

though thats not really enough variety to justify an entire equipment slot

[blazing bone]

not sure if this counts as game design but i will ask anyway so for my game the combat feels kinda dull all you do is m1 the enemies and use your 2 abilities mostly is just a dash and 1 other one depending on the character any ideas on how i can make combat better

[tiny marsh]

2 things to consider

1. Do the enemies react in time to player attacks? (If the player is stand still hitting them, do they return hits or act differently? or do they just get stun locked)
2. Do the enemies have different attack patterns or different things to consider or are they just blank slates that walk at you and deal contact damage

@blazing bone
literally even the slightest abilities on enemies can make them play differently. If the combat feels dull its not neccesarily just because of the players abilities, it can also be because the enemies dont have many abilities either

[final kiln]

I drew some new tilemaps for the game (ignore the tree & rocks which aren't drawn in the new style yet), but I feel like it looks a little weird against the player for some reason, any tips/opinions?

[sharp robin]

I think it looks good, game is coming along, nice work 🙂 Ground looks fine to me

[tiny marsh]

i think its a difference in style between the tile textures, fox and ui thats giving it that look
all 3 seem to be different styles, specifically different amounts of outline is making them look different

[final kiln]

Well I personally don’t think UI has to be in the same style as all those things. It just has to contrast well. As for the difference between the player and the tile map textures do you have any suggestions to fix that?

[final kiln]

And thank you!

[fair fog]

is there anyone that could help me with my problem when i press E or mouse0 on the weapon i want to pick up it just goes invisble when its picked up and it still shoots and stuff

[tiny marsh]

coding issue probably and also the wrong channel

[hybrid adder]

Looking for some feedback on my player movement design. Current I designed it to work like a homing missile from Pix and Dev tutorial. But for a spaceship fighting game, idk how it would perform. But I also am struggling to find a way to get it just right.

[hybrid adder]

My biggest issue is that many times the ship won't adjust to where the mouse is. Sometimes it will circle the cursor, or not turn to the area I wanted it to face

I like and want to keep the design of it following where the mouse points. And velocity being based off it, but I need it to follow better

[silent hull]

The circling issue is actually fairly easy to resolve.

Given the formula v = ω * r, where:

• v is linear velocity (defined as Speed in your case)
• ω is angular velocity (defined as Steer in your case I suppose)
• r is the radius of the circle the object moves along when rotating at these given velocities

1. From this you can easily calculate that r = v / ω (for v=30, ω=50 we have r=0.6)

2. Let's name the moving object O and the mouse M.

3. Let's get the vector from O to M: OM = M_pos - O_pos

4. Let's get the magnitude of that vector: OM_magnitude

5. Let's get the angle between the objects forward vector and OM vector: angle = Vector2.Angle(forward, OM)

6. Let's bring that angle from the value range of [0 ; 180] to a value range of [0 ; 90] (we do not care if the mouse if in front or behind the moving object, so let's 'mirror' it): if (angle > 90) angle = 180 - angle

7. Having this angle we can now calculate the length of the chord in that circle, spanning from object O and going towards mouse M. We construct a triangle with these 3 points: the middle of the circle, object O, chord midpoint. With this we get a triangle with angles: 90, angle, 90 - angle. Now using trigonometry we have: sin(angle) = 0.5c / r which gives us c = 2*r*sin(angle)

And this concludes any needed calculations (as long as I didn't make any mistake along the way, which is often the case).
We can now simply compare OM_magnitude with c. If the OM_magnitude is >= than c then M is either on the edge of the circle that O is moving along or beyond it. This means that the moving object O can collide with M. Otherwise, if OM_magnitude is < than c then M is within the bounds of the circle that O is moving along, and thus O will never reach M. In this case O should continue moving forward without rotating until M goes out of range.

[midnight panther]

yo guys

whenever im using a pivot its not showing it

like even when i move it with rect transform i cant see where it is

[flint flicker]

When creating a turret that shoots a projectile, is it better for the proj to destroy itself when colliding with another game object, or is there a more optimal way to treat it?

[lost merlin]

Object pooling

deactive it and stuff it in a container to be reused

[modest crow]

so im thinking of making a 2d pixel shooter but idk if i should do top down or side scroller

[lunar canyon]

house

[sharp robin]

You could do it from behind. Everything is 2D, so it'll just be everything in a single line / row. It'll be weird but at least very unique

[misty marsh]

the synty model looks super out of place imo

works for for production though

[fierce walrus]

can some one give me a random game idea

[sharp robin]

Butterfly simulator

[runic heath]

keyboard game, to proceed to next level, have to input correct keyboard key x times, but is assigned random, so you need to smash the keyboard

can also be case sensitive if ok

[tiny marsh]

Break into a shopping mall as a fantasy wizard who can summon swarms of rats

[misty marsh]

an app where you talk to people in servers

[weary thicket]

Pool table, but in hyperbolic space.

[dusky hamlet]

Guys, alert
I need some 3D, car platformer, go from A to B then back to A type of levels ideas

I ran out of ideas after level 4 T_T

[sharp robin]

a mode where you play as a butterfly

😄

[dusky hamlet]

Wait, actually...

[north pasture]

I wanna make a 2d puzzle platformer game that uses inversion mechanics. What should I do to improve the concept?

By inversion mechanics, I mean mechanics where certain elements of the environment can be inverted or flipped, leading to new pathways, obstacles, or solutions to puzzles

How do I turn this concept into an actual game idea?

[iron badger]

3D is so funky

[hybrid adder]

COnsole gamers. Need some design help. If you had to use controller buttons to change Velocity or rotate a ship. Which ones would you assign to those?

[silent hull]

Not a console gamer but I do have a gamepad which I use fairly often.
The left thumbstick feels like a natural choice for any kind of rotations. I recon the right thumbstick would also be in active use so I wouldn't use any of the buttons on the front of the controller to change the velocity as that would require me to let go of one of the thumbsticks. So that leaves out L1 L2 R1 R2 on the back. Personally I'd go for either L2 or R2 (or both, for both acceleration and deceleration) since these have a similar feel to using a pedal (gas/brake) so it just feels natural to use those (and leaves L1 R1 for any potential button press actions which would otherwise require the use of A B X Y buttons which again require me to let go of the right thumbstick) - and more so if you make the velocity change pressure-sensitive, so the more you press the trigger, the faster it happens, which gives a greater sense of control over what you're doing.

[prime pagoda]

My first instinct is to put pitch and yaw on the left stick and roll on the shoulder buttons

wait, is this a naval vessel or a spaceship?

[hybrid adder]

Its a spaceship

[mild dew]

Opinions?

[sharp robin]

Many 🙂

[modest crow]

someone give me a random idea

[modest crow]

so i was on a random idea generator and this seems cool

[weary thicket]

That is just starfield. Especially that last bit.

[feral turret]

Making a simple realistic backrooms game for some practice, but it looks a bit like roblox, anyone got any suggestions to make it look better?

[lost merlin]

spiders, hundred of spiders chasing after you

[finite geode]

what do you think of a capstone project horror game a good idea or not

[hoary shore]

honestly i disagree. i don’t think it bears any resemblance to roblox besides roblox also having a backrooms-esque game.

i think it looks great so far. the headbob and the camera glitching are excellent touches

[feral turret]

Thanks for the feedback, I just think that it looks too simple that’s all

[weary thicket]

The camera is shaking so hard you'd think they were running as fast as Doomguy or something, but they seem to actually be going at a brisk walk at most. How much does your head bounce around when you're taking a stroll on a perfectly flat surface?

And why are the walls floating off the floor?

[worthy vortex]

wait, so there are different pixel art styles?

Are there more styles?

of course, not just "different bits"

[solemn stump]

Hi
How would you make your menu background animation play as long as the player is on the menu screen without causing audio/music mismatches etc

[sudden pendant]

Time your audio to your background? This isn't a game design question

[hoary shore]

you could add more elements, like decorations or variations in the architecture, but that diminish the “backrooms” vibe i’m assuming you’re going for

[uncut hollow]

Hey, so I mentioned this in my dev log, but I just wanted some feedback before I clock in for work, how does this look for a first boss? Idk if this is even the right place to ask this question but I wanted a better idea of what I could fix, if anything, about this design.

[hoary shore]

idk i think it’s supposed to emulate a handheld camera rather than a head bounce. is hard to keep your hand steady if you runnin

[hoary shore]

only thing i can think to suggest is altering the proportions of the arms so the forearms and the biceps are similar in length. maybe you could give the guy a longer base that tapers down to kind of emulate a buff guy

[sharp zinc]

There is hardly anything we can say without knowing the rest of the game.

[uncut hollow]

Okay, I can try that.

[uncut hollow]

Yeah, I guess I should say more, the game is kind of a tongue-in-cheek game about a basic enemy who strives to become the game’s final boss. There are some serious things planned for the story, but the game’s overall gonna be a little silly.

I was moreso just looking for design feedback, since I’m not the best artist.

[sharp zinc]

I mean, what feeling you are aiming for. And what style you are already working with.

[uncut hollow]

I’m aiming for a more simplistic style, if that makes sense. Something amateur to match my mediocre art skills, as well as kind match the overall silly tone of the game.

Cards on the table, I thought of this guy a while ago while I was bored at work.

[lost solar]

Is that the final sprite or concept

[sharp zinc]

Then it looks fine. If the objective is to be simple, amateurish and has a bit of comedy. At least, as far as I know given that I am terrible artist.

[uncut hollow]

Concept for now, I’m gonna probably edit it after work, depending on feedback.

[lost solar]

shading makes the center look like a mouth imo

idk if thats what youre aiming for

but i like it

maybe add something with color on it? like boxing gloves, or bandages?

i think the reason why king slime works is because the crown creates good contrast

[uncut hollow]

True, true. I’ll think of something, probably a bandage or something to show how tough he is.

[uncut hollow]

It kinda does, now that you mention it.

[hoary shore]

to follow up on parallax, it might be a good idea to add the dark shading to the biceps too

[waxen owl]

Hi all why does the text look much lowr quality in the game mode than the scene mode?

[sharp zinc]

#💻┃unity-talk

[feral turret]

Im working on a simple backrooms game, and i just implemented a system where the camera effects change depending on how close the player is to the monster, any feedback on how it looks?

[tiny marsh]

Seems good, though maybe too dark up close but idt that matters cause the player wont see it up close for long

[proper rose]

i really wanna get into the game business and make my game later but i wonder if the industry will ever stop bcs eventually we will run out of game ideas right?

[sudden pendant]

No

[proper rose]

why dont u think so?

[sudden pendant]

Because popular games and genres are rinse repeats of the past already? And new generations of gamers are experiencing them as their first intro to those genres regardless of how many of the same game was made before they started.

[proper rose]

hmm ait, u see it that way, okay i get it.. i hope so, i love the business

[sudden pendant]

Your argument would be the same for any creative medium. But people haven't stopped making movies, stories, plays, dances, etc. 🤷‍♂️

[quartz osprey]

as long as life exists, playing games exist. Playing a game is an activity. Well I can understand that in past few years, the appeal of other atheistic and other forms of art fused in games made people confused what is a game in the first place.
So, if you make humans think and solve problems, games just make a step further and reward them with pleasures, while in not a hostile environment (by that I mean in real world, because the fear of death exists, even if there are rewards like earning money, it's harder to establish a direct reward for human's brains, unlike video games). Because humans can generalize learned experiences from playing "games", it's even vital from the evolutionary standpoint.

[quartz osprey]

But long story short, don't worry, and feel free to invest your time

[clever finch]

King Slime lookin good

[lost solar]

thats corekeeper

[clever finch]

King Slime can keep my heart ngl, looks super huggable

[full tangle]

Anyone here have game recommendations for examples of good wallrunning platforming? I already know of Titanfall 2 and adore that game haha

[lost merlin]

mirrors edge probably

[hallow thunder]

Honestly any fps shooter where you can hop off of walls a little is fun.

[solemn furnace]

Hey guys I wanna make a new project in unity a 2D horror but have 2 names I cant decide on if you wanna help to choose one them please do names are "Harvest of Fear" or "Fear harvest"
My game is about a child who got lost in a corn maze and the scarecrows are alive trying to get the child

[sharp robin]

I like Fear Harvest a bit more.

I also like 'Lost in the Harvest' and 'Terror in the Corn`

[solemn furnace]

So is possable to make it so in a 2D unity game the map doesn't cutoff and the next section just doesnt have to pop up its one big map or can I only do that in 3D?

[arctic walrus]

Hi, im creating my chess card game, and soon i will be finished with all the systems needed, so only cards will be left to apply. I plan on setting internet multiplayer. Is there any good tutorial about general rules about how to transform a working hotseat project to be an online game?

[lost merlin]

you start by deciding to use multiplayer before developing the systems usually

luckily it's probably not the hardest to change over with turn-based input

[arctic walrus]

Any tutorial or something similar so i will have an idea how to set it?

Is there a difference vs online and LAN?

[proper rose]

question is, will we ever stop producing games? will there be an end?

[lost merlin]

LAN is still networked (hence the name), but splitscreen/local play would not be.

[quartz osprey]

I guess someone can argue, that at some point in the far future (maybe hundreds of years), we'll might have found the 'perfect' game, where any iteration on top of that would be meaningless and would add nothing new to it. Thus, no more game will be produced. But we are nowhere close at this time and you can contribute on that journey of getting there! It also depends on advances of AI. I'm afraid at this rate, they can crack the code far sooner than us ourselves. Specially with generated AI, if they can automatically produce never ending, and always fresh missions and quests with high quality and unpredictability, that develops with the mind of gamers and rules change to keep the meta fresh...

[arctic walrus]

Well, i wanna do it for LAN and online games. I just hardly know how to handle 2 different screens and information handling between the players

[lost merlin]

https://docs-multiplayer.unity3d.com/netcode/current/about/

start reading the docs

[arctic walrus]

As one would have other point of view as the other, i may simplify managing it so the cards will not be scripted for this and will just lookin reverse for other player

[arctic walrus]

Kk, thx

[lost merlin]

#archived-networking for when you read it all and need help

[arctic walrus]

Thanks

[quartz osprey]

Maybe a nice step before getting into real networking, is how to decouple your game's logic from input layer (players, either local or remote). Also, from game-design standpoint, there are bunch of things you should think about (real time or turn based, player's input latency requirements, game-state confidentiality, like should all players know everything or there are things that only one player should know? etc.)

[arctic walrus]

Well, i think ill handle the same screen, bcs cards won't be a problem as they will be facing other way. It is chess with cards, so everything is turn based.

Time is secondary thing, ill set a limit but it will be one of the last things to do

[grand cloak]

I've got a question. Is it illegal to use soundfonts from other games? Cause like, Toby Fox made Undertale with Mother 3 soundfonts

https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts?license=wtfpl

I'm searching in this website, and despite the license, I'm not sure if it works like that

[arctic walrus]

Depends if the autor has gave his/her permission. If not, it is.

Or sounds have no copyright claims stated by the autor

So it still a permission, but global

[grand cloak]

Wdym by that?

Cause in this website, the license it says it has is wtfpl. So I'd be safe even if I got sued because the license I was told it had was wtfpl?

[arctic walrus]

Well, autor can say that he does allow everyone to use it for commercial and uncommercial products

Remember that Im not a lawyer, but from what i know it looks like that

[arctic walrus]

Information from wiki says that it os a license that allows all work. You should be safe

[lean knoll]

Hiyaaa, just brainstorming and theorising right now.i want to make a 2d platformer where the player can grapple and swing but I don't have the skill or knowledge to manually program the mechanics and physics.

I'm brainstorming a way to do it where perhaps when the player is grounded, it uses a kinematic controller, and then when not grounded or grappling, it switches to a physics based controller and uses a hing joint at the grapple point.

Does this sound suitable? Any other recommendations would be welcome!

[analog granite]

helo, i need help

[strange sable]

I have been working on a simple platformer game for the past few days. It has come to a point where I just program random characters and see if they work well with the game, but they don't. I have spend hours on doing this and seem that my time working on the game is pointless. I am wondering what you guys do when you are looking for game mechanics, where do you look or reference?

[amber delta]

A reference for your game is dependent on quite a few things but a good place to look into are in games that have a similar end goal.

[strange sable]

I'll try that, thank you!

[amber delta]

What kind of a platformer are you making? I'm quite literally stuck on the same exact area atm. I'm practicing enemy behavior (more like learning) in a clone of 20 minutes till dawn im making

[oak wind]

Could you introduce and list some games in genre simulation + defense?
For example simulation of a police station + defense

[strange sable]

Just a ordinary 2D platformer. The player just needs to get to the end flag, but spikes a obstacles are stopping you.

[amber delta]

Ah ok, I immediately think of geometry dash and mario-esque type games. If you want to think slightly outside the box refer to the mechanics Mirrors edge uses (I know it's a 3d parkour game, but the principle remains) the game gives you obstacles in the form of people you have to disarm that impedes your momentum while not completely stopping you, it was pretty cool to keep the player engaged like that.

That's my 2 cents lol, I'm pretty new to unity and game dev as a whole

[strange sable]

I appreciate the help. I actually came to this discord chat to ask for exactly that. Thank you!

[sudden pendant]

@wintry cargo Same answer when you asked this months ago: !collab

[desert marten]

📢 Collaborating and Job Posting

We do not accept job or collab posts on discord.
Please use the forums:
• Commercial Job Seeking
• Commercial Job Offering
• Non Commercial Collaboration

[tired vessel]

Anybody know a good beginner modeling software I need models for a small project I’m working

[sharp robin]

Blender 🙂

[steady crest]

yo guys I m making a boss model(angel) for my low poly game, and I m wondering if you guys know any tricks or have ideas to make this look good but keeping it simple at the same time, it should feel more impressive as a boss (any tricks that solo devs use to make simple models seem more interesting?)
I want it to be easy to animate too

[winged badge]

maybe keep it as just an eye with wings (if i recall thats a type of angel)
image for reference:

[steady crest]

That removes the personality of him I think, since he will be important to the lore

[modest crow]

after a while i finally thought of a game idea a retro style 3d fast paste first person shooter

[weary thicket]

Add an angry eyebrow

[uncut hollow]

I went ahead and redesigned Protein Slime a few days ago, decided to make his body taper up like a buff dude, and also gave him bigger muscles for funsies.

Personally, I like it way more than the original design because I think it looks more slimy with the drips.

Idk if I should make music for my game or just have it be silent. I wanted to try and make some evil-sounding classical music in 8-bit, but the first one didn't work out well, and the second one I just couldn't do justice.

Side-note, if y'all haven't heard Chaconne in G-minor, the second song I tried covering, and you're a fan of violin pieces, do so, it's super good.

[sudden pendant]

@uncut hollow @mortal mountain @brisk gale Make #1180170818983051344 for showcasing your work. This channel is for discussing game designs.

[mortal mountain]

there was a question at that post, insede that, i ask here again, does webm play in unity video (like mp4)

[sudden pendant]

Yes

[mortal mountain]

nice to have webm as unity video, can existing gif (with old animations) be loaded as spritesheet

[mortal mountain]

webp has layers/animations like gif, gif can be converted to webp https:// developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/gif2webp
because gif is not supported, is webp (is webp: full supported with multi layers/animatios for spritesheet or textures ? )

[worthy vortex]

idk where PR/Advertising would fall under, because I don't find a single channel suitable for this. But whatevs.

The question here is... Isn't this possibly the worst thing you can send out to your audience as a game developer?

Also, I will ask something myself in #archived-code-general

[tiny marsh]

i mean its an indie dev complaining about something they have to fixi dont think its the worst thing ever lol

[arctic walrus]

What makes the game more popular on the start? I know that good product will defend itself, i get that alsi ads are important. But what else?

[sharp robin]

It depends a lot on the game, the platform, and the brand. Brand strength is important. What you go through for steam is different than switch, which is different from android, and also iOS.

But everything from the game loops and fun, to visual impact, uniqueness, rewards for repeatability, a good fun game.

Intent, genre popularity, and audience. If people are playing the game on twitch, reviewing it on YouTube. Is the content worth their time to review, etc.

And then of course all of that is soft rules. So you may intentionally do the opposite, which may also be successful. And being non unique and building Zombie Sniper 100 targeting a specific demographic can also be successful in its own way.

[sharp zinc]

Games that are popular at launch have, most of the time, not all the time, gained a lot of traction in media. Either through build up hype or mouth to ear.

Objectively bad game can be a success such as New World.

[arctic walrus]

And how do i, as unknown dev, can exploit that?

[sharp zinc]

You can't.

It requires a medium to large scale project to start with.

At least, from what I see, I have never seen an indie game as popular on launch as Palworld or Helldiver 2.

[arctic walrus]

I have an interesting idea that goes well with rising popularity of chess. But i can't predict if chess cards will be a success. I want to follow graphical gwent footsteps.

Especially since i work solo with programming, it will be ready in half the year or so

[sharp zinc]

As solo developer, should not aim for instant success.

The safest way in my opinion, is to make tons of game as a solo developer.

[arctic walrus]

Well, i have a good idea, well balanced game rules. It might work. Im still in school, so i will achieve nothing with many small projects. I need to put things on one card for now

Also how law works with game created by teenagers?

Do i need to formally make an adult a creator?

[sharp zinc]

For some platform, you might need an adult.

[arctic walrus]

It will be mostly an app for both steam and google play

[sharp zinc]

Most creator I have seen succeed as solo dev are people that are making tons and tons of game. Note that the opposite can work also, but it is way harder. Mostly because creating a bigger required exponentially more polishing.

[arctic walrus]

Well, my idea doesnt take much work. The only hard things are making it online and actual card mechanics

As i plan all tarot cards to be present, and if everything goes right i will also publish reverse tarot cards

Almost 200 cards in total

For now im ending systems like drawing cards, turns and all that, then ill make 96 cards, then make it online game and i will be releasing

I estimated it on half a year of solo work

I have someone who will handle graphics, but in programming im alone

[tiny marsh]

new world isnt a good example i think
someone heres not going to be a multi million billion company producing an mmorpg
that got a lot of traction due to marketing and the company that was producing it

[tiny marsh]

doesnt take too much work > 200 cards and half a year of work

anyway i personally dont think going all out on an online chess card game is a good idea- if someone wants to play chess theyll play chess, and if someone plays online card games theyll probably be sticking with one of the big established ones from when that type of game was possible.

If you really want to do it start with a barebones version- not sure if youre doing deckbuilding or whatever but like, dont make all 200 cards. make enough to play the game and test it out

[arctic walrus]

Rules are ready for 96. No deckbuilding, but 20 are events playing automaticly. Average game-time is around 50 mins in real world version, but in internet it should be much faster, for someone who knows the cards around 15-20 minutes

I would share the rules but im afraid of them being stolen

[tiny marsh]

my thoughts on this is that if its a passion / forfun project or a learning project then awesome, go for it.
but if your goal is to make something financially viable then i wouldnt put all my efforts into a chess card game because i think the genre + baseline idea dooms it from the start

maybe if you do some crazy theming you can get away with something but

[arctic walrus]

Its for learning, competitions, passiom and money at once

[arctic walrus]

That is why i wanted to do it with tarot cards

More controversy==More fame

I have played offline with some players, all of them said it is great game, and were really enjoying it, but it had 2 downsides: overcomplicated and too long. PC fixes both of those.

As players do not need to look to pdf for cards rules, and system handles rules for them

Also there is no card or tarot chess games on the market

[sharp zinc]

That was my point. Instant success is not really achievable consistently by solo developer.

[sharp robin]

I read that as their point.

[sharp robin]

I also just want to add, there is no reliable formula for this. If there was, you wouldn't see studios of all sizes experiencing downsizes or financial issues. Additionally, you are competing with millions of other indies in the space (including competing with million+ dollar studios).

It's ultimately on each of us to assess what we think the best path forward is.

There are some techniques to improve those odds, and some things that are more financially reliable - but that isn't always the path someone wants to take.

To put it into context though, discoverability will be your main issue. Google play, for example, seems to shows less than 1% of its catalogue to 99% of its users. So knowing how to break through that barrier is pretty important.

[arctic walrus]

What do you suggest to change with game design?

[sharp zinc]

If you are still talking about having success, there is nothing to change with what you have shown at the moment.

[arctic walrus]

Then i shall return to the topiv once i release the demo that i should do in 2 months

[dry summit]

anyone know why this happens? when i move the lighting changes...

[night shoal]

Not a game design issue. Ask in #archived-lighting

[sharp robin]

I'm a purely visual person, unless you have a video or demo to look at, I can't make any meaningful suggestions

[arctic walrus]

Well, i will release demo in 2 months, so thrn i will surely be there again asking for suggestions.

[desert crag]

hi

anyone got a game idea

[sharp robin]

Awesome --- my advice is to get something stupid simple together first, that way you can click around and see how you feel about it and get some feedback from others

You'll know you are on the right path when you find yourself playing it for fun and wanting to play with it.

You'll know it's a really good path when your testers won't put the game down.

[quartz osprey]

I would add another aspect to this discussion which I personally thing is more important. It is not an answer to your question. A game being popular on launch is not and should not be even a factor from game design stand-point. It's only a greedy corporation criteria in my books. The better thing to aim at, for a game success overall, is whether if you are 1) adding anything new that is also 2) good executed, that will 3) satisfy the need of the gamers. All of them should be at the same time. If you do for example the two later but not first, no one will come over (something that happened to LawBreakers for example). If the game is not just an hit and run, you'll gain your audience, the true audience you can actually rely on.

[sinful hazel]

The controls for the 4 extra attacks
Shooting star: P1 - right click, P2 - K (shoots magical shooting stars with a limited range)
Light smash: P1 - left and right click together, P2 - J and K together (Light smash is an ability that star uses her key weapon to hit on the ground taking splash damage enemies around her)
Bright dash - P1 - shift and right click together, P2 - shift and K together (Bright Dash is an ability Star uses hey key to magically dashes and hits enemies)
Star flash - P1 - S and right click together, P2 - down arrow and K together (A rechargeable power is a star flash. like a flashlight beam it stuns enemy and takes a little damage)
What do you all think?

[tiny marsh]

Is there any context for this
Without it its just a random assortment of controls for names that no one else onows anything about

[uncut hollow]

I don't know if this is really a design question, but should an idle game even have music? Like I tried making a song for it in my dev log, but is it necessary?

[tiny marsh]

Games are extremely hard to get invested in zero music

Can always hire someone to make a couple songs if youre not gonna learn how, thats what im gonna do

I cant even think of a (non board) game that doesnt use music

[uncut hollow]

That’s true. Then again, I typically listen to outside music while playing games, so perhaps I’m in the minority.

But yeah, I’ve got a boss theme planned, so I can cover that field, if I decide to.

[arctic walrus]

Well, i plan on adding new cosmetics, and i have plan for twice as much cards. I tested the balance for few months, people liked it. Im not sure what the need of gamers is, can you elaborate?

[strong ravine]

why not use some osts used in anime or other places

[tiny marsh]

Because if theres copyright youre not allowed to and can get in trouble with it

U can use them as placeholders for the type of style u want tho but when u actually publish u cant use them

[waxen barn]

https://youtu.be/y_vw-jzuNs0?si=T3Kg4Q4YzyP2HVZ7

[quartz osprey]

let's say that you are making a card based game that is based on the lord of the ring lore. You can categorize people that play your game based on their needs. And because it's a unison of two topics (card game and lord of the ring lore), you would have a higher chance to satisfy them both. What are needs here, roughly speaking, perhaps is to feed the curiosity of lord fans with new story bits and interesting twists and known characters. But more importantly, needs of a card gamer, like, unpredictability of the gameplay, a reasonably large freedom within strategies/tactics that is feasible by your mechanics etc. I would identify them carefully, and try to meet them wherever I can. It would be a gamble to satisfy irrelevant needs, like, survival horror elements? cause it's not granted your audience have any connection to that, but you can make calculated gambles, like if you can guess you have a male dominant audience, add some sexy lady with BIG BOOBS on the cover 😄 (I'm sorry but it's truth I'm just saying what I've been seeing), it's a very cheap tactic that is sadly still used by all big companies, feeding irrelevant needs that help the game to be more attractive. But, shortly put, by needs I mean how you refer to your gamers by categories that decouples individuals and demographics from objective elements that all humans share.

[arctic walrus]

Ok, so in my example i have 3 groups: Card gamers, chess gamers and tarot enjoyers. I tried to make very single card be similar to one of its meanings in tarot. I will add some interesting quotes on the cards, and this should satisfy tarot group. If there is one thing i can say about gameplay - it is fucked up in good sense. You wont see exploding your units coming lol. Or chessboard becoming smaller and smaller till it's gone. You won't expect sudden transformation of your units lol. All this are events that are cards in the deck that are played once drawn, and caster draws ajother card. Yet still there is very big ammount of strategy (i somehow only lost 1 of 15 games i played, and it was bcs i played on 4am lol, and it wasnt due to lack of understanding the rules of my opponents.) So i think card players will be satisfied. Now coming to chess players, they will get a new, complicated but fun game mode to their favorite game, this should be enough. And for the players that like spooky themes or such they will be added as paid cosmetics. For players that love gtind there will be missions and goals. I even think of adding characters that alter rules of the game, so players can get personalized experience. Am i lacking something?

[cold onyx]

did something in manner of hollow knight, quick practice just inspired a bit by alien movie, had thoughts about making cherry vibe sunny platformer for mobile platforms, just unsure how it would work with performance if I drop too many assets on scene... been always nitpicking about these

[quartz osprey]

I think you're on a good track then! it seems like you've sorted things out in your mind already. I don't know if you're lacking something, but you know better on that matter. I like that 'fucked up in a good sense' in the gameplay. If there is one thing everybody loves is surprise. So back to your original question, launch date success, as others also said, marketing, hype, all sort of things are involved, it's pretty hard to nail it that's for sure. But I can wish you a good luck with that

[arctic walrus]

Thx. In around 1.5 month i should post a demo. It won't be a full spirit of the game as cards are connected for balance, but it will be a quick overview of what can be released in half of the year (or year if thing will go badly)

Also

If i set the page on fb about it, it won't get much recognition. Is there a way to get some hype without money involved? I don't think spamming ads on tarot, chess and card groups would be good for the game. Even i would have done this flawlessly, the game grapchic will leave much to be desired in demo version, which may reduce the hype.

[wise shell]

Hey guys! I am working on a product that I think would be useful for game developers in the ideation stage but I am trying to find actual devs/designers to get opinions from.

How do you guys normally brainstorm and build your game design documents?

[tiny marsh]

Google docs

[wise shell]

Do you ever find yourself going back & forth with chatgpt to refine ideas?

[tiny marsh]

Story yeah mechanics no

[wise shell]

We've gotten really solid feedback for our tool from folks who use it for stories/writing. Would it be alright if I link it? I can link a youtube video demo as well if that's easier. Would love to hear feedback from you personally

[sharp zinc]

Google docs as well. I've seen people use Miro too.

[wise shell]

Yeah docs and/or miro seems to be a popular combo. Mind if I also link you what we've built to hear your thoughts?

[tiny marsh]

Go for it

[sharp zinc]

Link here, no dm.

[wise shell]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPL1k-FJXgg

Here you guys go! Would love to hear thoughts & opinions

[sharp zinc]

What type of Game Designer you are targeting ?

[wise shell]

We're trying to narrow that down right now. Kind of just generally showing it to people in the game dev/design space to see who it appeals to the most

[tiny marsh]

Ill watch the vid when im home

One thing i havent seen on any of these planning / worldbuilding apps is the ability to link words to pages.

Etc if i create a page for the character selenius
And set list of links to the word selenius and overseer
Then whenever those words show up in another doc, they link to that page

Would make it super easy to navigate if showing other people the doc and have concepts explained imo

[sharp zinc]

From a quick glance, I have a hard time understanding how that would be better than our current workflow.

Here is the 3 main activities we do:
Pitch - (~1 per weeks when searching contract) most be shareable in non editable format and contains similar feature of Google Slides.
Brainstorm - (Usually only useful for the pre-preduction 1-4 weeks before converting into a GDD)
GDD - (1 per project, project are usally between 6 months and 2 years) most be accessible by anyone and must have a comparable text editor that you can find in Word or Google Docs.

It seem like we could only integrate it in the brainstorm phase. However it seem to lacks the accessibility of Miro and the flexibility of it. You have not demonstrate the ability to work with others on the same document which is a most in any workflow we use.

While the AI part is interesting, I feel like it is the one driving the design instead of the designer. I would have appreciate a tool that can complement what has already been done.

[wise shell]

This is awesome feedback, I really appreciate it.

We have gotten similar responses. We actually had a multiplayer/collaborative feature in our previous iteration & we're working on adding that to this version + making things easily shareable. We have also gotten feedback that our product feels a little more "rigid" compared to something like Miro, so we're also exploring an option to give users more flexibility in what they can do. Integrations with existing products like Miro is also on our list of possible todos

[sharp zinc]

Integration in Google Docs, Google Slides and possibly Office would be awesome as well.

[wise shell]

Specifically what kind of integrations would you like to see? The ability to import documents in & out of MindScribe into those other tools? Anything more unique/specific you'd like to see?

I ask because the product you're looking at right now was built over the last 2 months, so we can add features like this pretty quickly and move very fast depending on what our users want

[sharp zinc]

Bring MindScribe into Google Docs would be something. Not having to paste the whole document into ChatGPT each time and being able to keep track of idea that do not work.

I believe that the ecosystem of Google and Microsoft will always be better for writing GDD or Pitch and using the application (MindScribe ) as a replacement would not be something I would do.

At best, I would use it side by side.

[sharp robin]

I agree with the above - I wouldn't use it myself. We do have a bunch of AI tools but they don't get used outside of temporary voice overs rough translations or placeholder text.

I use AI for proposals, but it's mostly just for minor content cleanup. I put out probably 3 to 5 a week. Those proposals need to match our brand and styling, so this couldn't be used for us.

For our GDDs/EDDs - we use Google docs templates. The devs collab to fill out the yellow boxes, and out it goes to the clients. Once done the GDD is 95% static for the life of the project, especially once approved. I think this tool would slow us down, which is a concern as we don't want crunch culture. I prefer the look of our sketches, so the AI art isn't something I'd want in the GDD. We also have stable diffusion and llms trained on ethical datasets that we can just use (advantage of being a VR studio is everyone has RTX). Im probably the only one using them though. I also want to-the-point no fluffy, so long rambling AI sentences would get deleted and cause work. A lot of what I see in the video is unnecessary content, and looks like AI generated paragraphs. So I'd be cutting a lot of it out.

With that said, we get pretty crazy volume at times. So we may be creating 10+ in a month. And then none for a few months as we are at capacity.

This would probably be more helpful for smaller studios, new devs or people figuring this out for the first time.

[sharp robin]

But yeah, might be something to sell on AppSumo as lots of niche AI stuff can do quite well there. I'm sure it's helpful for some people or different types pf projects. In our specific case though I think it's faster with better quality and content for us to use Google docs.

I should add we also have access to generators like this with other AI platforms, and the team seems very uninterested to touch it.

Anyway, just my two cents. Tried to put some detail where I could.

But being XR, and having a complex team, we probably don't fit the stereotype audience very well.

I also should say, I think it's good you are looking to get user feedback a bit earlier in the process. As I'm sure there are a lot of perspectives for this.

[sharp robin]

I'm curious to see where you go with this 🙂 I like strong and dark art themes. I wouldn't worry too much about 2D art assets. I think it would take an unreasonable amount to slow you down. What's slow you is more like post processing and particle effects.

[wise shell]

Thank you for this, really valuable insights here. I think we definitely need to work on making a mode more similar to just a standard google doc. Maybe a mode where it's just a blank document that the user can type on and they can ask the AI fill things in as they go (using the context of their whole session). Either that, or some sort of google doc integration where we make the process easier for folks who aren't quite ready to make a full switch.

Also worth noting since you briefly mentioned it, we are actually in the process of moving to stable diffusion and have some really cool ideas on how we can utilize that

And yes, generally speaking, our target audience right now are individual devs or small game studios. We've gotten pretty good feedback from those groups

[sharp robin]

A blank document wouldn't work for us. We have very strong templates, with branding, etc. And maybe 70% of content doesn't really change between GDDs.

[wise shell]

What if you could easily import those templates & use them as you usually would and be able to have AI fill in gaps wherever needed to help speed up your process?

[sharp robin]

There are really only 3 sections they need to fill (which is mostly for their creative process) and one section to keep updated as it goes.

[wise shell]

Maybe not even fill in gaps, but just being able to bounce ideas off the AI

Just trying to get an idea of how this might fit into the workflow of a bigger, more organized studio

[sharp robin]

I don't think it would, most of those fillers are sketches of the map layouts etc. The idea process is done via a team meeting using Google jamboard.

I don't see anyone using or needing or wanting AI for those in our case

[wise shell]

What if we offered some sort of super hands off approach that required minimal effort? I'm sure as you saw in the demo, we have the active listening/voice feature. What if you could just toggle that on in your meetings and the context of the entire vocal conversation could be fed into the AI and you can have it passively suggest quality ideas (either as you go or only when you ask it)

That's been something some studios have shown interest in

[sharp robin]

I think maybe its important to mention that there isn't a lot of word heavy content.

Like, the team post their stickies with their ideas on jamboard, as we talk through them. And then it's just done.

[wise shell]

Got it

[sharp robin]

Then one of the game designers copy pastes the template, copies those into a few boxes and sketches up some level designs.

Like the most tedious part is a copy paste, and it's not worth automating for us.

[wise shell]

Is there anything that you noticed in the demo that you might see potential for as a fit within a studio like yours? Even if you didn't see anything in the demo that would be super valuable to you right this particular moment, did anything stand out as showing potential?

Don't be afraid to say no if that's your answer haha

[sharp robin]

I'd say, not in our case, to be honest. I'd like to say yes, but there really isn't at this point.

The story is built with the client. The voice lines are usually provided by them or our story writer, and I love their work. We do use AI to generate the first voice overs.

I think the best space is more in the proposal space. But then we have firm templates that are deeply branded, and we mostly just move the content around.

And in that case, how it looks is very important to me. All the images are sourced and referenced to our projects. The content has to have that red iron look and flow.

[wise shell]

Is it common for studios to have deeply branded templates like yours or is that just a thing that you guys do?

[sharp robin]

That's a good question, I'm not sure, we are weird.

So probably not hah

We do a lot of 1-3 month projects, so unique with fast turnarounds. We probably don't fit the mold well

[wise shell]

Totally understandable, your feedback has been super valuable nonetheless!

Do you happen to know of any smaller studios or individual developers who this might appeal to more?

[sharp robin]

Let me think on this more. I don't want to rush to a no. I think if it was google docs, letting us bring in word templates, with AI support - it would get good use. But I suspect Googles working on that somewhere.

I do think these are important

• templates for new devs to follow
• collab, must have collab
• exporting to PDF
• custom branding
• sharable links
• comments/editing
• indication of where the AI models came from (as some people are quite polarized)

• Sections that are under review / final complete
• document versioning

[wise shell]

Love it, I'll relay this info to my cofounders and we'll see if we get similar feedback from other folks. The consensus is that people definitely want a collab feature and the ability to import/export documents

My DMs are always open, so feel free to message me anytime if you can think of anyone who you think would find this valuable

Really appreciate it, this has been super helpful

[sharp robin]

The last thought I've had, is most B2B studios get about a 30% success rate on grants, funds, proposals. So for every GDD they do, they do ably do 3-4 proposals. But that needs statistics, prices, timelines, links to third party sites and portfolio pieces. So not easy to integrate. We also usually have a script template and story board template.

Some have project charters, agendas and meeting notes.

And mood boards

[wise shell]

Got it. We might stay with trying to target smaller studios with more flexible ways of working (or just individuals) to start

[stoic gorge]

i am making a 3d platformer with like seing from the side and i wanted to add some depth in the background like a parallax effect but for a 3d game how to do it in unity any youtube video or resources that can help

[cold onyx]

I wouldn't go far with it.. as It may break copyright laws as it is such is too much similar to hk, sunny vibe platformer on other hand would make perfect option for mobile game, maybe with some levels where you travel underneath the surface... similar to these, had idea about making like game where you have two options "in a mirror darkly" where it changes mood of videogame from cheerful color vibe to dark mood ones, like parallel universe of star trek... had example of sunny vibe levels made also in godot, but didn't save it locally, only on former dropbox account, and now I am kind of in dilemma, which engine to pick to compose such thing, unity has fine tools such as playmaker for these things.. while i did whole sunny thing in godot..

jokes aside programming isn't really my strongest side, while making assets and composing them in engine is really where I enjoy the most, specially learning all new stuff about engine

[little lichen]

what are game design websites i can use? i don't know any one of them, maybe just the introduction to their site names? for example

[little lichen]

what is "blog"?

or something like the tables or the boxes with texts inside them, with the arrows among them, kind of

[little lichen]

chart/diagram but not flowchart for the programming

game design blogs* for the "what is "blog"" part

tools for outlining a game system / set of choices / plot progression? << probably this says more than mine

something like this? https://milanote.com/ , any more of them? would appreciated to know more than that

can zoom in and zoom out from the zone of writing descriptions into the boxes and placing the arrows whatever u like

what are the things i miss apart from GDD, (Game Design Documents) Game Design Blogs, Game Design flowchart/diagram, and any other

what are the differences among them

i think that's it a fullstop right here

[lost merlin]

Trello I've seen people used and it's alright but I've a habit of not keeping it updated

and for diagrams, usually like draw.io since it's light weight enough for me

[little lichen]

alright i see, it would be badass if i can somehow print them out, i printed my microsoft words' pages and make it a file but it is not game design documents, i mean it would be epic to be able to print the diagrams out

just plain texts of mine for the printed parts*

i mean is it possible to print them out?

nvm just skip mine if u think im a troll, in my internet experiences most ppl called me that; i can see the print option, alright i see thx appreciated lots

[primal stone]

Is it possible to maintain an object location like it is set in Blender but for Unity?

[lost merlin]

You can make an empty gameobject as a pivot

[weary thicket]

You can't copyright an art style.

[tiny marsh]

Main drawback of using another games very distinct art style is that no matter what you do with the story or gameplay youre going to end up labeled as the inferior copy 99% of the time

[sharp robin]

It's also a lot more fun to make your own style I think.. can't hurt if you are using it for.learning though

[weary thicket]

Yeah, that's why everyone is playing Infiniminer instead of Minecraft today 😛

[cold onyx]

thanks for information, 🙂

[weary thicket]

Trademark, on the other hand...

[waxen barn]

Hello, im doing a talent tree for my game.
If you see this, is it understandable, that the point i marked with an error would need 1 and 2 skilled before you can skill it?
Or do you think its hard to read?

[sharp robin]

I wouldn't understand the point of the gray dots or white diamonds. I would assume I need 2 stars to unlock the middle thing but not clear on the purpose of the blobs

The darkened icon also makes it hard to understand what is being unlocked

[sharp zinc]

I believe that it is not that clear.

If the icon was filled partially when it is partially unlocked it would be better in my opinion.

At the moment, I read it as Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3

[sharp robin]

I would argue that's the exception, not the rule. And infiniminer was not overly well known and is a really outdated example.

If it was that easy the tens of thousands of minecraft clones would be more successful.

In a more recent example, take gorilla tag. Thousands of clones, but only gorilla tag matters.

[waxen barn]

right now i am thinking about adding a third color (light grey) that shows which ways can be skilled.
Orange are already skilled and light grey can be skilled next.

[sharp robin]

There is a potential value for using someone else's game for sure, stealing the audience, or using theirs as a beta concept for example. But even you just kind of alluded to minecraft being a copy, and people did rightly judge it for that and I'm sure it influenced people's opinion of him as a creator at times.

[sharp zinc]

That would be better, but in the case of star you would need to partially light it grey to make it more readable.

[waxen barn]

the stars just represent the Tier-Levels of the Towers.
T1 is the lowest with 1 start there.
But maybe the stars are also not the best idea there, if its not clear for you guys

[sharp zinc]

Oh I see, that was what I though at first.

I was thinking you said that it required 2 previous unlocked nodes to unlock it.

Which was that I felt being badly communicated.

[waxen barn]

i see, maybe i implement the stars into the icon instead of them beeing shown on the outer radius of the talent point

[sharp zinc]

Nah, I believe it is fine. I though it was the Tier level.

I misunderstood your first statement

[formal apex]

Hi, you know an app to draw pixel art ?

[sharp zinc]

Aesprite

[formal apex]

Ty

[sharp robin]

I have a tutorial for this on my channel 😄
https://youtu.be/xVLdJsBgUVI?si=cricKBLNblUy0Dna

[formal apex]

I need to do Sprite can moove

[sharp robin]

You usually move the sprite in Unity, but create the frames in your fav tool. In seriousness I usually use aseprite or gimp

[patent smelt]

Has anyone done a deep dive analysis in what the average person wants out of a Collectible Card Game ?
Like Hearthstone, MTG, etc.

I find it interesting how Hearthstone has very little removal spells, and the majority of the gameplay is who can drop the larger threat onto the board.

Magic the Gathering is like the opposite, where you basically want removal and answers. It is rare for a creature in Magic to pass the "vanilla test" where the stats are equal to twice the mana cost

Then there are experimental card games like Krosmaga where creatures have 1-3 turns of "Summoning Sickness"
(Majority have 2, but some cards in Krosmaga have 3 turns of Summoning Sickness...)

Like you play a creature and it legit does nothing for 3 turns

(It can block but can't attack until turn 3)

Magic the Gathering must have had a shift in design philosophy.
Back when I used to play in 2014-2017, a lot of cards were very very overstats.
(3 mana 5/5, 4 mana 8/8) etc.

But also Removal was very plentiful and cheap. (2 mana, destroy a creature, 3 mana destroy a creature, 1 mana destroy a creature if you have 4 cards in your graveyard, etc)

Modern MTG feels more like weak creatures, lots of Equipment and "pump spell" . A ton more Equip cards now than before.

[sharp zinc]

@patent smelt, I do not believe you are going to find what you are looking for in such discord. You should try your luck in card game fan discord/redit.

My opinion is that what you are looking for might not matter that much. Hearthstone and Magic The Gathering both have considerable different rules and both works pretty fine. I believe that what is important in such game is how you are able to have high retention of people. Such as keeping the game fresh with a considerable amount of content drop like Hearthstone or have in IRL dedicated fan club and tournament that you find with MTG.

[patent smelt]

Dark patterns/predatory patterns.
A free loot box every login.
A free bonus after completing a collection to incentivize pulling for that final piece of the set.
Deceptive probabilities, rarities aren't reflective of print count

For player retention.

[lean knoll]

How do people general go about making levels for platformers, I have a solid character controller made, works absolutely perfectly for what I want

Is there a form of greyboxing for platformers?

I dont think tiles would work, so either If theres a grayboxing system I use that, or I make my own greybox assets and place them for the level.

[sharp zinc]

2D platforming can be easily done by paper.

After, you can use Tilemap and put gray tile to form your level.

Or, if you are a solo dev, you can do the art while doing the level.

[lean knoll]

Im entirely solo, so Im having to learn pixel art at the same time haha

I could use tiles though you're right I have an idea

altough rigidbody with tile collider isnt very good#

[fickle niche]

Ping me when you answer.

Does the aerial view of what will be my swamp look good so far?

[tiny marsh]

Would strongly recommend using a program like gaea instead of manually drawing all the terrain

Takes 2 days to learn it

Rn theres nothing really to comment on imo

[fickle niche]

@tiny marsh okay, tell me more. But what if I want to manually make the swamp?

[tiny marsh]

If you want to manually make it from complete scratch good luck lol

Most people would start with a heightmap and edit it from there
Still requires a lot of work

[fickle niche]

@tiny marsh I can edit or do things manually in Gaia, right?

[tiny marsh]

Gaea produces a heightmap which you can then import to unity and do all the normal terrain things with

The main difference is youll be starting with functional terrain rather than a flat plane

I can post an example when i gethome in like 8 hrs

Theres a gaea discord and also a #⛰️┃terrain-3d channel which is prob better to check

[novel bobcat]

how do i make this actually Glow
Thats an Emmisive texture

[waxen barn]

you have to use the "bloom" post processing effect to get a glow.

[novel bobcat]

Thanks

How can i easily convert this Blender scene and all materials to unity?

[waxen barn]

hmm, well.
You could export of all them as FBX (as one pice or the several single pieces)
I have got a tutorial that explains the export workflow and some troubleshooting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-dcBY1-YS8

[novel bobcat]

Thanks the materials kept getting really messed up it wasnt great

[waxen barn]

Yeah. The better way is to create new Materials in Unity, assign the textures to them and then assign the material to the Mesh.

[novel bobcat]

instead of doing it in blender?

[fickle niche]

@tiny marsh cool, please do that. I'll check out the place. Ping me when you answer.

[tiny marsh]

oh yeah i forgot

[fickle niche]

@tiny marsh do it when you can.

[tiny marsh]

i have it in a folder somewhere here

[mental wing]

Hello My name is Krish, I started learning Unity last week. Im developing a game for VR and need a little help.. Im getting very low framerates on the Quest 1 (my only device to test) Im looking to hire someone for a few hours to help me...

[waxen barn]

We have a small gamedev community discord for beginners, if you like.

[mental wing]

Yes please I'd love to expand on my connections in this regard!

[sharp robin]

I dont do one on one support, cuz busy, but quest 1 is very difficult to be performant. It is a a very narrow window. We had to do some dark magic to get muffin fight running on it at full fps.

It's also no longer really a requirement for oculus, so a lot less titles going there

[mental wing]

No problem, I have got someone now who MAY be able to help...

[sharp robin]

Quest 2 is half price on fire sale now though.

[mental wing]

The Q1 is only for testing, the launch will be for Q2 and up..

[sharp robin]

But we are loving our Q3s.

Perfect

[uncut hollow]

Hey, I’m currently brainstorming some challenges for my idle game, and I wanted to run them by y’all to see if these quick ideas need major tweaks. The two big ideas I have right now are Chalice of Wealth and Chalice of Wisdom. Chalice of Wisdom makes it so Magic (heals you by magic^.5 when you attack) has no effect on you during the challenge, with the reward being a 10% increase to the healing magic gives, up to double the base amount with ten completions. Chalice of Wealth divides your copper gain by 6 for the duration, and upon completion, copper gain outside of the challenge is doubled, up to five completions.

It may be too early to be asking this question, but I just wanted to know how these sound on paper.

[summer lake]

is sending a video recoridning allowed?

[hoary shore]

i believe it is, so long as it’s relevant to the channel topic/a question

[patent smelt]

Has any game got around the problem with "lack of empathy for other specializations"?

Like in League of Legends, a Mage player will say all Assassins are Griefing. If a player hit a high rank on ladder playing only Mage, that player begins to believe that their method is the only method.

-Mages need to farm 8-10 CS per minute, they scale with Income.

-Assassins tend to focus on denial, their job is to make it so enemies do not scale, they want 6-8 CS per minute early, and then late their goal is to deny the enemy carries causing them to lose 3-4 CS per minute.

-Then Healers have kits that have high utility and do not need gold to function. Their job is to be present at fights .

I've been doing this sort of survey/experiment where I ask a bunch of high ranked players for coaching. I've yet to find anyone who acknowledges another playstyle as valid. Mages will say Healers are "griefing", Healers will say Assassins are "Griefing"

You can even see this in Card Games. Initially in the schoolyard, the Magic the Gathering Green Player doesn't see the validity in playing Blue. Eventually after five years and playing all colors, they will understand what each color does and begin to emphasize with them; at the drawback of losing the connection to the New Player's perspective.

--
I think it can be solved with communication ? Just for the Game Designer to say directly to the player the goal of each Class.
Overwatch and Valorant kind of did this by making it so if you buy a Sniper and want the "Anchor/Sniper" Specialization, but miss all your shots (do not hit a shot within a round) you sort of just lose the weapon and have to play a different role.

[lost merlin]

won't stop me from calling mid and carrying with a support

[split dirge]

Won't stop me from going sona on all positions

[quick scaffold]

Hello! I am currently working on a game with four classes. The ranged class uses a bow and throwing knifes but my brain can’t create any interesting bow skills. Any ideas?

[lost merlin]

arrow stab

[tiny marsh]

chaining arrow (hits a target and chains to a nearby)
pierces all enemies and bleeds
knocks back first enemy hit carrying it along with the arrow, explodes if it hits a second enemy
rain of arrows (circle on ground where arrows fall for a few seconds)
fire 3 arrows at once
leap away from the targeted area firing a slowing arrow
arrows hitting a target causes thorns to fly out from them, more recent hits means more thorns
arrows fire extremely fast, near instant projectiles
arrow that blinds the target, making them take double damage from next melee attack
arrow that can bounce of walls and gains additional damage each bounce
arrow that converts its damage to the element of the last spell you used and gains different effects based on
arrow that creates a degen poison field where it lands
holy down attack charges arrow for longer = more dmg pierce speed
arrow that freezes enemies it kills, leaving a statue. if arrow hits a statue it shatters, shooting ice splinters

theres 2 minutes of vomit for ya

[quick scaffold]

Thank you so damn much

Its for an survivor game with a teeny tiny twist

[tiny marsh]

could try role specific reward paths for newer players

how something like legends of runeterra has a reward path for each different region to encourage you to try each different area and learn how they play, newer players are convinced to try it because rewards but it teaches them how they play. getting a few games in as another role usually helps a lot

overall though i doubt its something you can actually get rid of its just gamer nature to complain

[patent smelt]

I'm still on my Quest to find a League of Legends Coach (Masters+ player) who can see from multiple perspectives.

Like Mage players call Assassins or Healers "trolls" in the Mid Lane.

I met 3 players who are coach and play the Ahri Orianna Viktor Syndra and said if you pick Katarina you are griefing / or have zero clue how Katarina alters the fundamentals of the game (because she is a different class specialization)

[patent smelt]

Probably you need to have a reward quest for new players to play each role -- along with the fundamental win con for the role

Like a new player who plays League and picks up Viktor or Ahri should be given a quest of "Reach 9 CS per Minute"

[tiny marsh]

[lost merlin]

Players don't even get to decide the meta in LoL anymore. You try to be sly and do duo top or jungle and you get banned.

[patent smelt]

A new player who picks up like Katarina should be given a quest of "Reach 6CS per minute pre 14 minutes and learn your breakpoints"

A new player who picks up [insert non scaling supportive mid] (malphite? twisted fate? i dunno) shoudl be given a quest of "Participate in 5 takedowns before 14 min"

Then they'd learn the fundamental for each of the mid lane classes (Scaling Mage, Supportive Mage, and Assassin)

[patent smelt]

I dunno if meta is the correct word, but it is just how when I ask for coaching for the game, if you don't mimic the exact playstyle then you are "trolling"

Some characters do not want 9/10 CS per minute, they are more supportive and want to help allies

Or they literally can't get 9/10 CS because they are a Melee Assassin like Katarina Fizz

If a Coach is telling you to play Katarina Fizz like a scaler like Viktor then the coach doesn't know whats happening...

You should be required to play all Specializations in your role

[lost merlin]

And the reason why Dota will always be the more interesting game to watch when it comes to eSports because when you let the players develop strategy that isn't based sorely on the units picked, it keeps the game more interesting.

because otherwise you're watching two players duke it out on bottom for 15 minutes of the game until something interesting happens

don't get me wrong, LoL is still a fun casual game (if you're caught up on the patchnotes), but the game is developed in a way that you can't diverge off the path already set by the devs

[tiny marsh]

i dont think throwing quests at the player is important per champ
theyre already told how to play the game in the 3 tutorials and the rest is learnt through experience vs other clueless players

u dont need a third extra tutorial

[daring rampart]

hey everyone, I ahve a problem with my College project and its due for tomorrow, I need Help witha very veyr basic shooting system problem

[tiny marsh]

Unitu support or coding support not here prob

[tiny marsh]

Looking for feedback on the weapons for my game.
any feedback appreciated before I move on- if something seems too strong/weak, if a textbox is ugly, suggestions for better flavour text, visuals / colour choice or errors etc.
lemme have it

flavour/lorewise, the area is set between sakuros (oni/japanese area) and abyssus (human highlands area)

[trail star]

Guys i have a problem, my friend sent me a labyrinth but as a single block so i can't put modifications or destroy some walls. is there a way to separate walls from a single block?

[sharp robin]

You could in blender if you needed to. Whatever generator they used may already have that option in it though

[glossy root]

currently im not using any step logic

its just the force pushing the player onto the steps

with this do i still need to implement my own step logic?

what do you guys think

for staris im gonna use ramps

[lost merlin]

seems fine, but could be a little jarring with multiple steps

because then it's forcing a pseudo head-bobbing effect

[sharp zinc]

People that do not understand the variety of game style are stupid. However, you would be pretentious to know more than people that are doing this for a living.

[surreal canyon]

hey, just a general question, what technical limitations of the Unity engine have when making a large game that takes place in outer space where players can have a space travel system similar to No Man's sky?

definitely not as graphically complicated and on a scale thats a lot smaller

[lost merlin]

you turn into spaghettis when passing about 5k units

so there's quite a bit more to making these large open games

[surreal canyon]

thats a given no matter what? even if you load the map in chunks?

[sharp zinc]

Every Engine is subject to precision issue. Not only Unity.

Usually, the solution is to have Floating Point of Origin.
https://manuel-rauber.com/2022/04/06/floating-origin-in-unity/

Other things you might find yourself struggle with is LODs, Dynamically Loading Resources and reduce the amount of script executing at the same time.

[surreal canyon]

yeah, i figured the amount of operations occuring at once would be an issue

this is definitely not something i'm planning to execute any time soon lol

[sharp robin]

Size, effort, keeping it interesting, floating point precision, player data sync, models and view distances, cheating, consistent art, art management, performance, consistent brand and ui style, team collab on large projects, building a robust codebase, art lods, animations, audio, voices & dialogs, questing systems and mgmt, polygon limits, batch calls, handling out of view events, interesting inventories, spawnable stuff, storing large amounts of frequently changing data... Mostly just general issues with large scale games.

Not impossible of course, but you want to plan it out more then usual

[trim cipher]

I have a 3d model in 3 wheels and one belt there.
When 3 wheels rotate as per that my belt has to rotate.

Could you please help anyone?

[tiny marsh]

is this a riddle

[silent turret]

to

yo

I tried importing a model from blender to unity

and it got all messed up

the walls are hollow

like most walls are fine

but some are totally messed

[night shoal]

Not a game design question but https://unity.huh.how/models/inverted-normals

[silent turret]

thx

[novel bobcat]

How do yall use Github for Games ?
Ive got 50000 Files being commited and been at here for a good 40minutes

[waxen barn]

Try Unity version control.
GitHub needs way more configuration to work good with Unity.

[novel bobcat]

i was told never to use unitys one?

[sudden pendant]

There's nothing wrong with Plastic, but most use third party.

Are you using the gitignore file?

Also, this isn't a game design question

[novel bobcat]

Yea git desktops "unity" preset

[sudden pendant]

I don't know if that includes it. But if you say so, then there's not much else you can do but hope it ends.

[keen egret]

would it be easier to make a touhou clone or an fps?

[crystal spruce]

really struggling here, new to unity. Anyone know why im not being able to change the speed? made a variable for it in visual studio

[night shoal]

Not a game design question but you have to fix all compiler errors before the fields appear in the inspector

[fickle leaf]

if you make it private you can't see on the inspector, you have to add [SerializeField] beginning of the speed code for example " [SerializeField] private float moveSpeed; " or you have to do " public " for example "public float moveSpeed;" and then you will see on the inspector or you have to fix all compiler error

[humble jewel]

Is it public?

[rugged talon]

"and after a while of struggling he finally got up to an unfinished part of the rage game map"

[arctic walrus]

How do i make it look better (i don't mean white and green cards lol)

The Sun doesnt look good

[tiny marsh]

Resolution is stretched is prob the biggest thing

[orchid lodge]

hello. does any1 know any good site to download sound effects? i searching for a sound effect for moving platforms (platform suspended in the sky and moves back and forth)

[pine comet]

My game uses simple sounds so I just pop up YouTube and if it says royalty free I get it and slap the link and attribute author or username

With regards to moving platform most game I play use no sound

But I’m sure u can find something like searching moving part

Or, loading pinball, long beep, whoosh, etc in search bar

[pine comet]

I make the edges curved for sun card and maybe add a visible border

Like what standard playing cards use

[patent smelt]

If playtesting a card game, what sort of thing should be done first?
-> Two 30 Card Decks versus each other. (Although the rules to this game will be decks of any size)
-> A pile of "200" Cards for a simulated "Limited Draft"
I assume for a first playtest it would be two 30 card decks vs each other ?
(Or is there a different suggestion for a first playtest of the rules ? )
I will probably just be playing both decks against each other to see how it plays.
I guess it could also be tested:
-> Aggro vs Control
-> Control vs MidRange
-> MidRange vs Aggro
Although the Timmy/Johnny/Spike test for Card Game may be more important to build decks around. MTG's study showed three types of player:
-Timmy: Simple efficient cards with high stats (Lightning Bolt: deal 3 damage, Gigantosaurus: 5-mana 10/10)
-Johnny: Cards that combo with one another to generate value
-Spike: Lots of "removal cards" and "answer cards" to control the board

[hallow thunder]

Add a little frame as an outline to the image

Or you can make a separate PNG as a frame, and then attach it atop the image you already have

[arctic walrus]

Im not sure if you answered to me, but if yes, then i must tell this at the start. This is not a deckbuilder nor stat based card game. You have 96 cards where around 20 are events that play on draw, and each player draws a card at the start of the round + on special effects. I have many reaction cards planned. Not much simple cards, but you will find few out there. I have also a lot of value generating. It is chess after all, so its hard to expect simple solutions. The goal is to combine cards, pieces, and your brain (unless null) to kill the king by decreasing his lives to 0. Once you capture the king then instead of capture you just decrease his lives by 1.

[arctic walrus]

Ok, any tips about frames? Should they be consistent or different per card....?

[arctic walrus]

Ok, i may try

[hallow thunder]

consistent yes, but it depends on what yu want to convey per card

say theres a super rare and beneficial card

it should be more decorated than the rest

[arctic walrus]

Tarot cards come in 5 groups

The sun is one of major arcana, most important cards and events that resolve on draw

[hallow thunder]

then perhaps you can make 5 different frames, one per each group of cards, and then, idk, add some very minor changes to convey which one is cooler / more important than the rest

examples of card frames

[arctic walrus]

4 other (swords,cups,pentacles and wands) are equal, and those are actual playable by players cards.

Different spirits ofc, swords are deceptions and agressive, cups blessings, pentacles card utility, wands more of piece utility

And i forgot about nobles

That are basically meant for certain pieces on the chessboard

Like queen of cups can only be played if you have a queen

[young oasis]

Hey ima be making a card boxing game and I can’t think of what cards the game could have it’s a turn based battle with cards any ideas? Idk if this is the right channel for dis correct me if I’m wrong

[arctic walrus]

Explain your idea for the game

[young oasis]

The game would be a boxing game where you use cards to fight the opponent every opponent defeat u get to pick a new card which gets added to ur deck ect: simple game loop first mini game ig for itch.io cause I wanna test my skills and see if I can do it

Yk dat kinda genre

[sharp zinc]

A playtest should be done with as close as possible to a real scenario.

It seem like you are also not aiming for the right thing. You should be trying to know if your game is "fun" with as little as external help. By example, you could start by designing 3 decks of card have a 2 people play against each other for 3-4 rounds (Given that you have starter decks), instead of pre-defining what deck people are going to use. (do not do: Person A (Aggro) vs Person B (Aggro), Person A (Aggro) vs Person B (Control), etc.)

[stoic sphinx]

Hello, I have an idea for a game that I have had for a long time and I finally have the motivation to start this project. I would like to premise this with: I understand this is a huge undertaking and I know I will fail countless times and that this may be too ambitious of a project for a solo first time indie game Dev. I believe the beauty of the human spirit is with enough will and persistence you can achieve anything. So I'm not interested in any advice that suggests that I should not pursue this goal, as this is the only goal that interests me with game Dev, I don't care for being a game Dev in general, but rather I want to make this specific game and that's it. With that being said, and without muddying it with too many details, I will now give you the base premise of my game idea. I am looking for any helpful advice or suggestions that can further my goal of developing this game. Even more specifically would be a roadmap of development checkpoints to get the fundamental core mechanics of like a character that can move around correctly. This is my idea:

-At its core the game I want to make is a third person PvP fighting game, like for honor, absolver, or even dark souls.

-I want a dynamic combat system, like said games, for honor being probably the closest to what I imagine.

-I want advanced movement mechanics, something similar to rain world.

-I want character customization and build making, similar to dark souls.

-Lastly Id also like to have PvE elements, a dynamic environment and AI ecosystem similar to rain world.

-Note that I want to movement to be one of the core elements of mastery, and like rain world i think procedural animations is exactly what I'm looking for, I know this may be much more complicated to implement but rain worlds AI creatures are something special and this is one of my biggest inspirations for animation, so ideally I would like to make a game entirely procedural animated.

So my question for all of you is: how do I start something like this. I assume id have to tackle multiplayer networking and procedural animation first, then move on to movement. Can anyone give me a simple road map of the first core steps to getting to the point where two players can move around in the same world? (Please ping me or DM me your response, as I don't often check the servers for responses) Thank you for you time

[sharp robin]

It might be better to ask chat gpt, as I'm not really a create someone a roadmap kind of person...

But I'd start with

• multiplayer sync
• accounts
• movement
• test npcs
• test animations
• test UI

And use that to get some user testing done first

I suspect you know the rest from there though. Environments, proper characters, level designs, audio, stories, mocap, voice overs, rewards, etc. Etc.

[stoic sphinx]

thank you

[young oasis]

Usuing chat gpt doesn’t help you learn and many ideas they give may be copy righted ect:

[young oasis]

That’s sounds hard af but gl ig btw

[chrome jetty]

Ideas aren't copyrighted, implementation and details are

[young oasis]

Ya know what I mean but he concepts could be very similar to enough since chatgpts looks online it ain’t it’s own ting

[chrome jetty]

I don't know what I mean, because nothing chat gpt could possibly suggest would violate copyright

[cold onyx]

can someone help me in unity please

[chrome jetty]

https://dontasktoask.com/

Can't know if we can help if you don't say what you need help with

[cold onyx]

sorry

[chrome jetty]

Nothing to he sorry about, but I see you crossposted and are already getting help in the right channel

[cold onyx]

its not working

[sharp zinc]

My guiding principle when doing roadmap is to start small and expend. You want to always have something that can be showcase and is working.

With that in mind I would start there:

1. 3C (Character, Controls, Camera) -> You have a Game with an avatar that move arounds. (The movement is basic)
2. Multiplayer -> You have multiple connected player that move around.
3. Combat -> You are able to "fight" each other.
4. Level Design - Environment Gray Blocking. -> You have your fundamental layout built for your movement and procedural animation testing. (It means that you clearly defined it also)
5. Implementation of the "core" movement of the game. Slide, Double Jump, Wall hopping, etc. (Technically, that would mean to use a considerable amount of time to master Inverse Kinematic tooling)
6. Integrate Combat and Movement together.

That would be a sensible path towards a "prototype".

[quartz osprey]

do you intend to make a game as you described that others would enjoy, or you just want to make it? I'm just curious, don't mind me

[pseudo osprey]

so ive noticed games like outcore utilize the desktop as well, is there a specific method they use in order to leave the border of the game and go into the desktop?

[acoustic hound]

What are these things called that pop up while you're playing a game?

[young stirrup]

Notifications?

[lost merlin]

words

[sharp robin]

!collab

[desert marten]

📢 Collaborating and Job Posting

We do not accept job or collab posts on discord.
Please use the forums:
• Commercial Job Seeking
• Commercial Job Offering
• Non Commercial Collaboration

[orchid wedge]

so guys i buliding my own 2d game and i want a rocket thats fall from the sky in time
what should i learn as a beginner

[summer lake]

whatwould be the best way to make a skin system?

[eager elk]

what do you mean by in time? is there a deadline when the rocket must be at a certain point? It also depend on how you are controlling it or is it preset

If preset, you can learn parabolas and how rocket can fall under tha trajectory. also look at basic projectile motion

[eager elk]

For the timer, you can place it at the center top of the screen, and make it count down. So if you set timer at 60 just subtract 1 each second and if the timer is at 0 then show a time out popup

[eager elk]

I would make an inventory, or add that as part of a larger inventory if you already have one. You can make each skin have its own game object under the category "Skins" which is parented by "Inventory"

If you want to manage adding and removing skins, I would probably add a script inside Inventory or hard reference the inventory GO, then you can easily reference the skin you want to add/remove/change

[tiny marsh]

Id make a list to store unlocked skins
And then have the objects (buttons?) that allow the player to select the skin be hidden or shown based on if its in string is in the list

But for multiplayer youd probably have to do some more secure shit than that

[lofty fiber]

Tell me, everyone says that all games use one asset from the unity store, do you know which asset?

[sharp zinc]

What do you mean and how does it relates to game design ?

[lofty fiber]

I didn't know where to write, so I wrote here, suddenly they found it in the store

[mossy sky]

i have an ethical question about a game i'm making.
so I've been working on a game I want to publish to steam for about 10 months now.
I've been putting a lot of time and effort into it, but I still think it's just not really that entertaining yet.
so I was thinking that maybe it needs some humor factor in it somehow.
well one idea I was thinking about is making a 711 type store with an indian/arabic man in it that will say random and possibly vulgar stuff to the player from time to time.
like "get out of my store you stinky bastard".
so here's my question, would that be racist or frowned upon in any way?

[sharp zinc]

Yes, it will be. Does it matters, I do not believe but you should take note of Steam policies on the subject.

[mossy sky]

I kind of figured but it seems i've seen plenty games do crazy stuff like that. probably games you would find free to play on itch or something though.
alright well I guess I will reconsider that and look into steam policies as well

[tiny marsh]

kinda depends on the game, though if youre just adding a random indian guy in that says shit and doesnt really do much else then youd prob be better off looking too add humor in other ways

[sudden pendant]

If your solution to making your game fun/entertaining is to sprinkle some racism in, then you are extremely off the mark.

[olive jacinth]

Explain to me why this would be funny. If you really do think that "humor" is the missing ingredient you're going to need to add some actual humor. What is the joke here? What actually makes this funny?

[glossy mountain]

@mossy sky thats not racism, its a stereotype, which last time I checked wasn't a crime or against any policies

frowned upon sure 😂 but im british, we like tea and talk posh. I wouldn't be offended if you added a cockney taxi driver that swears like a trooper sipping tea with his terrible yellow teeth.

[tiny marsh]

yeah same level of humor as characters like apu or british teeth bad innit
hopefully chat doesnt go full frenzy mode someone change the subject

[desert prism]

Guys, I've been workin on it for like a week (my first game) and all drawings are made by me (I suck at drawing 😦 ), can you suggest something to add because I don't have a lot of ideas rn, maybe with some help I'll know what to do

[fathom cypress]

i think the handmade graphics are charming

just need more of em 🙂

[thin lily]

You could add some enemies that will follow you

What kind of game u wanna make? @desert prism

[desert prism]

a game where your goal is to survive as most rooms as possible

so I'll add some barriers when you pass a room so you can't go back, but I'll do that later

[desert prism]

to do so (correct me if I'm wrong) you have to like do something with pitagora right?

[thin lily]

You could also add some spikes that pulse up and down

[desert prism]

yeah that souns actually sick

[thin lily]

I’m not sure what pitagora is but there is a built in method called pathfinding agent

It is really easy to set up

You can just look up a video

[desert prism]

oh actually no @thin lily , I looked it up and there's a function for vector2 you can use (MoveTowards), I think I'll do it like that, anyway thanks for the ideas, I'll sure implement them, have a great day

[thin lily]

The one thing with using MoveTowards is that it won’t avoid walls. It will always chase the player no matter what is in front of it

The pathfinding agent will walk around walls and other obstacles that you set it to

[desert prism]

ohhh, alr, I'll look up that pathfindinf too, tysm @thin lily

[thin lily]

Np 🙃

[weary thicket]

My friend, what your game needs is puns. Atrocious puns, ideally.

[wind spear]

have you guys ever seen a game where the main character is an AI? Just the concept, perhaps different from the modern idea of having AI as just an enemy, is that interesting in any way? Would love opinions on this.

[plush orbit]

Some idle games come to mind, and there was a post on /r/indiedev the other day about someone with a project with an AI main character. It's an Idle game set in an open world essentially.

[tiny marsh]

Once you get the pathfinding explored a little i think you should take the time, maybe a week or so to come up with ideas / the concepts of the actual game you want to make.

Is it a roguelike? Give it an interesting backstory. Is it an exploration game? Who are you and what are you exploring and what game mechanics compliment it?

Would highly recommend planning the start of something like this out before getting to far into making stuff even if youre just learning basics since it gives you a direction and makes kt much easier to think of new related ideas

[weary thicket]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mind_Forever_Voyaging

[placid kindle]

Ultraleap@Plugins

[hard fog]

@gilded nest There's no promotion here if you want to post a log use #1180170818983051344

[hard fog]

@sly flame Please read #📖┃code-of-conduct , there's no advertizing here.

[night shoal]

Not a game design question. Ask in #💻┃unity-talk

[fervent badger]

oh ok sry

[cold onyx]

Red White or Purple? (The game is a dark purple dungeon)

[red jay]

My current project is a Retro FPS and I'm thinking of what kinds of secrets the player can find while exploring levels.

In Doom and Doom Eternal, one kind of secret that the player can find are challenge rooms.
Basically, Player is taken to a new level and they are required to complete a objective.
Doom 2016 had the player complete an objective with a specific requirement/restrictions whereas Doom Eternal was a challenging combat arena.

For my game, I'm thinking of using that challenge room but instead of a simple challenge, the player is given an original mini level instead.
The mini level would function like a classic FPS game Pre-Doom (2D sprites) and upon completion rewards the player with a significant reward.
Level would have a vaporwave like aesthetic to them to make them stand out visually as well utilise a unique mechanic for the challenge of navigation.
Upon Completion or if the player dies, they gets send back to the previous level. No progress lost. no Penalty except that the entrance is gone and that they'd need to find another entrance to try again.

My question is: Does this sound fun or would it be too intrusive?

[elder birch]

which software do you recommend to make 2d art and animations?

not pixel art, but stuff like flash animation and so

[sharp zinc]

It is always hard to judge something only base on a description. Personally, I like to navigate in term of Design Pillar and uniformity.

In your case, that would be to follow the "Retro FPS" vibe which I am not really familiar with unfortunately. In that aspect, I would think it should make sense to have sort of secret area or bonus area. However, I'm afraid that the visual difference/gameplay might drive you out of your original direction.

[sharp zinc]

On top of my head, photoshop, spine, illustrator.

[elder birch]

i see, thank you for the information

:)

[red jay]

I should have mentioned it in the main post but the game's general aesthetic is very late 80s inspired so the vaporwave aesthetics isn't a complete juxtaposition however you bring up a good point to ensure they shouldn't contrast the main games style and at least be consistent.

[weary thicket]

Retro fps levels often had a clashing style deliberately; like the wolfenstein secret level in the original doom.

[patent smelt]

How do y'all think about perfect imbalance as a form of balance?

Take DotA and League for example. I'd argue DotA is more balanced with clearer counterplay and more teamfights emphasis.

Meanwhile League of Legends seems to operate on "if everything is broken then nothing is"

A lot of the times if you don't have the "broken hero" that answers the other one in League you can't really play. It has more of a rock paper scissors feel.

I guess true perfect imbalance is Rock Paper Scissors

Like Perfect Imbalance is when something is clearly overpowered, to balance it they just make more stuff also overpowered.

League becomes a one hit kill game often .

You can do Perfect Imbalance in card games too. A lot of modern Hearthstone feels this way of who can dump the larger value stats or remove it.

Compared to MTG which doesn't do it this way

[stoic canopy]

i think the entire gaming community hates this concept 😂 its exactly why games like overwatch and LoL are so widely hated and have so many negative reviews

[stoic canopy]

i feel like its completely fine when it comes to hearthstone unless new fun-killer metas pop up like discard warlock did a few months ago. Or in overwatch with the addition of Mauga a few months ago where he was broken on launch

its the same unoriginal thing again and again and it gets so boring

losing to something that takes 0 skill will always feel unfun, just like counterswapping in LoL and overwatch because of how powerless the player feels until they "abuse" the same game mechanics

[formal apex]

How can i draw a simple sprite 2d with animation ?

Im bad with it

[quartz osprey]

not a game-design question. Yet, while I'm here, should point out that you can either do frame animations, which means have a sprite sheet, and draw every frame and play them (Unity has tools for that). You can also do 2d rigid bones, basically, draw your 2d 'thing' with its elements separately, like hands and legs etc. Then tie them to bones so when you move bones they move accordingly. Then you can animate that.

[formal apex]

Its a pixel project

In dont need physics

[quartz osprey]

Then I think simplest way is to draw 10 frames for each animation (like moving, idle, etc.) in sprite sheets. There are also other options but again, not the place to ask here. Head over #🏃┃animation or #🖼️┃2d-tools

[formal apex]

Ok

[tiny marsh]

this part is not true yet a lot of people still feel like that

league isnt designing to be imbalanced or perfectly imbalanced or whatever you call it
theyre designing champions along multiple different axis

stuff like zed is balanced around low elo, and stuff like corgi is balanced around pro play
and certain champions do counter others by nature of kit. so if you play taliyah into zed in silver 2
you might think zeds the most broken shit in the game and carry that belief up until gm
and still in gm might think zeds broken
when hes actually awful- its just a result of what people play

anyway you shouldnt need to worry about most of this since you probably shouldnt be aiming to make an everything is broken so nothing is game

[sharp zinc]

Terrible idea. It leads to what we call power creep which makes the game feel really overwhelming.

[patent smelt]

An example recently was we had nobody to answer Yorick so he was broken into our composition. We got 4 Dragons and I was playing Jinx. But I found myself being forced to match Yorick in 1-vs-1 because we had three tanks and no duelist or fighter.

Yorick is extremely busted versus low Waveclear low DPS tanks but near useless against fighters or duelists

(Tahm Kench, Sejunai, Tristana, Jinx, Bard)

Tristana insisted on being the one who grouped for teamfights. Tahm Kench couldn't match Yorick. So I basically had to or else we lose the game.

And like Jinx vs. Yorick, or Jinx vs. Yone in a 1-vs-1 in the side feels awful

Jinx really only functions with another teammate in front of her acting as peel or shield. Jinx has near no mobility and no survival, she wants to front to back fight.

But apparently if a team drafted around Jinx she is turbo busted.

Probably 54% WR if drafted around and maybe 46%? If solo?

Similar with Yorick to be honest. If they didn't pick an answer the champion feels busted beyond belief.

Another example is Illaoi vs 4 melee champs. Or Briar vs no %Max HP or Burst.

Often you win the match because of a hero selected

[steady crest]

so how exactly make you things pop? Like the gun looks really flat currently, actually everything looks really flat(colored) lol

I want to make it look less like the "standard cheap unity look"

[sharp zinc]

The champion selection is part of the game.

[stoic canopy]

Add height and different textures to your terrain and add post processing to you camera. Maybe also a wind zone for your trees

[patent smelt]

This is weird to me because there is "Dodging". If you do not like the team compositions there is a plugin that tells you estimated winrates of other teams of 5-vs-5

You can just close Champ Selection if you don't like your team. I think you get to do this twice a day

[sharp zinc]

The champion selection is still part of the game. Not sure how a limited dodge system would affect that.

[slim pier]

you need to mess around with material and textures. Maybe change material shader to Standard instead of Flat vertex lit etc. Use Unity's post processing stack, get some good assets. That'll get the job done ;D

[steady crest]

I m trying but it looks so so hard like unity lmao xd It looks washed out but I have no idea what the cause is

I would want it to look like this (game name: muck)

[slim pier]

post processing bro

that's the case

[steady crest]

but what effects? My main problem is everything looking dull I dont need for example bloom yet

[slim pier]

go to window > package manager > unity registy in left corner > download post processing

[steady crest]

I have that

[slim pier]

what effects? well

I see here

give me a sec

ambient occlusion for sure,

some bloom

and anti aliasing

[sharp robin]

Colour correction too most likely

[slim pier]

yeah color grading too

probably NCES and a little bumped temperature

and exposure

[steady crest]

aight will try all of that thanks!

[storm cloud]

Okay so i'm making an open world top down game, and I plan to cut the world up into x^2 chunks, where the player will walk into a barrier at a given edge to enter the next chunk, kinda like is shown with the attached picture. My question is, should I program an enemy spawner that instantiates enemy prefabs when a chunk is entered, or should I bake the prefabs into the chunks? I want the enemies to respawn every ingame day

also i haven't got to the part where i even program the chunk system, but this feels relevant as i am working on the enemy programming right now

[sharp zinc]

Outside of chunking, spawner are pretty useful. They enable you to quickly adjust what spawn (Random by example) and implement location specific data such as way point, ambush behavior, etc.

After spawning, the activation and deactivation of an enemy should be done considering its current chunk to prevent enemy that follows you to become unresponsive unexpectedly.

[tiny marsh]

layers of post processing
best example i can think of is lethal company

Look what that games maps look like without post processing, theyre actualyl hideous
but ingame theyre incredibly good and immersive

[silver wadi]

We've got one of our games going to be streaming on Youtube, anyone want to join in and do a few rounds in a Sci-Fi shooter? It is definitely a work in progress but would be happy to have you with us?

[sour venture]

logs with my friend chatting about my game that im designing any thoughts?: its multiplayer up to 16 people 1 monster you can chose to be in a group orrrr split up the monster will go for the person furthest from a group or on your own every time the monstar comes and kills takes the skin of the person who got taken and joins up with the group (practically skinwalker game ig) like it would act as one kf them or the person switches teams and becomes the monster until it takrs someone and then they die and let someone else take control i should add flares aswell

[buoyant storm]

I've been working on this horror game project for a while and finished the few basic fundementals but haven't found a base story or other essentials for it. Any ideas on what I should put/add in the game? This is what I got so far

[sharp zinc]

Usually, the menu is not really the priority in a game...

Take a step back and try to design the game before making it. At least, define what are the core attribute of your game.

[sharp robin]

It isn't really far enough along for me to make any recommendations. It just looks like a lowish poly cabin. I think you know better than I do what you want to do with it.

I prefer to build with intent. So having a clear objective and plan before getting too far into it.

I suppose I do have one piece of advice - animate that menu. But how and why it is animated doesn't make much sense without the purpose of the game flushed out. Otherwise it's just animation for animation sake

[buoyant storm]

My fault, I didn't explain much from my text. It's a horror game open world based in a forest. I had an idea to make it similar to DBD, but since this was a warm-up project I didn't put much thought on it to make it as a full game, however now that I continued I decided to put more effort into it and actually make it a game. I hope this video helps a bit more... I apologize for the bad introductions I'm making.

[buoyant storm]

Well noted. Thank you for the advice, I'll work on animating the whole menu after I polished my base idea. Thank You

[buoyant storm]

I see your point... Thank you for the tip, I'll definitely have a clear objective and plan before getting too far into it next time.

Here's the video

[north jetty]

yo guys need opinions, building a dungeon generator, does this give you guys any apeal?

[sharp robin]

I also want to add, in not saying it's bad by any means, it's got a great start on atmosphere. But if I say recommended a ghost, or zombie or systems etc and you were going for a serial killer vibe - it just wouldn't help. That core concept needs yo be there first fie advice is all 🙂

[sharp zinc]

Not really.

[sharp robin]

Purple on green can be off putting as a colour combination

[austere gate]

What algorithm as you using for that?

[north jetty]

Delaunay triangulation

[north jetty]

thanks for the input

[lost merlin]

I'm not a big fan of those small corridor designs and empty space, but I guess it depends on the game you're doing

kinda looks like old rogue dungeon generations

[north jetty]

yeah you can make big corridores and wider

[lost merlin]

yeah that's better

[north jetty]

and the room size can be changed as well

[lost merlin]

that doom/wolfenstein feel

[north jetty]

or even bigger if you want

and ofc the items that populate the rooms need to be adjusted for the room size

[desert prism]

@thin lily wanted to show you that the game is actually evolving, I already have a mini backstory for it and I added some enemies and solved some bugs to it (don't mind the music lol)

[storm cloud]

Im just starting to code, so I've found outlining the intention for my scripts is always helpful before I begin making something. Based on your suggestion, here's the idea:

enemy spawner - regular
notice player enters an instance/chunk
spawn enemies in the right places
reaches into library and finds tilemap containing spawn locations
reaches into library and chooses enemy ID's or names
insantiates enemy prefabs in spawn locations
destroy all enemies when player exits chunk
do not create item drops or exp reward
enemy scripts need to tell the enemySpawner when they have died, and declare in void Start() that they are alive. So, the enemySpawner only resummons the ones still declared as alive if the player re-enters the chunk before the map reset timer

enemy spawner - special
event occurs & resolves (eg dialogue finished, player walks into specific area, item is used)
spawn enemies in the right places
reaches into library and finds
reaches into library and chooses enemy ID's or names
insantiates enemy prefabs

I understand I will have to make the spawners a part of each chunk map, nothing will be random & I will put together every chunk myself. One more question, should I make each chunk its own scene, or how should I go about that?

[rotund plume]

I'm a teacher and game developer on the side. Working on a game with a partner about tattooing. Players will be applying tattoos to clients (think Mario Party tracing games). I brought up how we might want to handle various skin tones. I'm a light skin Mexican with darker skinned cousins, and our tattoos look different cause of the tone differences. Curious what yall would suggest in how we approach tattooing onto clients (in game) with darker skin tones?

Option A: more realistically and tattoos might not be as visible or color might not show up as well on darker skin tones

Option B: treat it like a sticker and colors pop regardless of skin tones.

[buoyant storm]

If your aiming for a realistic feel to the game, option A will be the best. However if you want to make it enjoyable option B will be the best. However another approach to this would be implementing a system where the colors of the tattoo dynamically adjust based on the client's skin tone. Lighter skin tones may allow for brighter and more vibrant colors, while darker skin tones may tone down the brightness but still maintain the integrity of the colors. This way, tattoos would appear differently on different skin tones, mimicking real-life variations.

[sharp zinc]

If you do not intent to use procedural, it is advantageous to use additive scene to edit the scene. If your level is not extremely huge, it might be better to use only 1 scene to reduce editing overhead. (cannot reference between scene, has to load additive scene, needs a bootstrap that support loading from a specific additive scene, etc.)

[thin lily]

Looking sick! I do have a question. How r u spawning the enemies?

[desert prism]

every 1 second with Instantiate 2 x and 2 y away from my player

[polar gull]

When evaluating mechanics, it is difficult to distinguish between a mechanic that is difficult but in a way that is good for the game versus a mechanic that is difficult in a way that is bad for the game. Is there any insight into how to approach this type of problem?

The problem can perhaps be restated as... how can I determine whether my initial impression that a mechanic is not good due to difficulty is because I am not skilled enough to play properly with the mechanic versus being because the mechanic is not a good idea in the first place?

[sharp zinc]

By play testing with player that you are targeting for your game.

[sharp robin]

User testing and questions / observation

But my current process (when thinking mechanics in terms of interruptions) is always to ask two questions

• is it slowing the player down from the core of the game
• is the benefit worth it

Take puzzle segments for example in say bethesda. It literally interrupts the player from exploring the world and all the other mechanics. So the question is: is it stopping them? And if so is it worth it?

Maybe yes because its more fun. Or yes because it is more rewarding than doing the puzzle. Or no, it provides no meaningful value. Or worse, no it provides no meaningful value AND stops them from playing the game further.

That last one is what gets people closing a puzzle game just removing it.

There is more to it than that (game loop / adult learning theory). And ensuring it matches accessibility and self managed stimulation (neuro diverse) etc. Etc. It's a field all to its own

But the easiest way to learn at the onset is to test it, observe it, and inquire.

That aside, I think it's also important to research fun, and what people enjoy, and why they enjoy it. And how you to get diverse rewards that attract different player mindsets (extroverted, introverted, etc).

[polar gull]

alright, thanks guys

[uneven arrow]

Just my simmple workout of my MMO game more pics to come

[vague estuary]

looks pretty cool

[sudden pendant]

@uneven arrow you can use #1180170818983051344 to share your game

[vague estuary]

yeah I think this channel is for getting help on game design not showing yours xD