i have an infection in my butt, a game design infection

Anzekay

Well specific lines of discussion are just as valid as more general ones, I think. They're certainly much easier to apply directly to things.

Fearghaill

hey

hey

Who wants a 270-part video tutorial on making an action RPG in Unity?

I've got some sorely underused programming training under my belt, but every time I open up a new Unity project my brain seizes up trying to figure out where to start, even if all I want to make is a basic prototype. Hoping this will help both as a programming refresher and to give me ideas on how to structure a project.

LaCabra

Fishman wrote: »

Also, @LaCabra, get in here and show off.

oh, alright

Hey dudes, I am a game developer, the first notable game I created was Shotgun Sunrise, which is a Source mod (a TOTAL CONVERSION, as they were once known) that was a community project on these here forums to which a whole bunch of people contributed odds and ends. Mostly it was me, @Remington, and @Slapdash, and also @thejazzman did some great stuff but most of it didn't get into a released version. It took about a year. Gabe Newell calls it the World's First Co-Op Zombie Western but I don't know if that's true or not. My favourite thing about it is how almost all the youtube videos of it were not made by us and are filled with dudes laughing non-stop.

After that everyone got super busy and couldn't do anything for a while so I made a custom Left 4 Dead 1 campaign which a lot of people think is the best one, even though the SDK got broken to the point where I couldn't finish it. The first two maps are out though and you can go play them. The attached flying Gabe Newell to Australia so he could playtest it thing is how I know that guy.
Then we faffed about trying to make a game that was too big for us in a disorganised way for a while, then put that on hold, and started making a physics puzzle game on UDK for a bit, and then iOS support came out and we diverted for about four months onto a Shotgun Sunrise iOS game called Vroom. Here is James Benson talking about it.

It's temporarily fallen off the app store but it'll be back in a few days and you can go spend a dollar on it.

Now we (some of the same guys from Shotgun Sunrise and Vroom, and also other guys) are back on that physics puzzle game, and I just recently got funding from Film Victoria so I'm able to work on it for money, and pay guys, and it's all very exciting and somewhat intimidating. Here is an old trailer for that game and a newer flythrough of some of the environments, and some concept art.







sorry if this is an overlarge post, I merely come when the Fishman calls

Moriveth

What about Velociraptor Job Interview

Veretas

Hot damn dude that looks awesome

LaCabra

Moriveth wrote: »

What about Velociraptor Job Interview

Then we faffed about trying to make a game that was too big for us in a disorganised way for a while

We'll probably still do something with that concept eventually as older and wiser men but it will be different.

Also congratulations on baby dude. <3

Veretas

Oh my god you're behind Velociraptor Job Interview?

LaCabra

Simulator Pro

LaCabra

Also, Vroom just went back up on the app store so you can spend your dollar now.
here it is

Buttlord

what do you model your games after

i model mine after titties

LaCabra

asses. i feel our styles could be complimentary

LaCabra

Oh hey, I should actually post this in here: I'm looking for a modeller to pay to work for me for a bit, the catch is you have to live in Victoria, which is in Australia. This probably excludes all of you but what the hell.

Darric

Ken Levine (Thief, System Shock 2, Bioshock) and Amy Hennig (Legacy of Kain, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted) talk about game writing and creative directing:

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-interviews-11-amy-hennig/

PwnanObrien

I am currently (impatiently) waiting on this.

T4CT

@TheStig @Buttlord I want to make a design doc for this game

I actually think it's a neat idea

Melding

T4CT wrote: »

TheStig Buttlord I want to make a design doc for this game

I actually think it's a neat idea

what iphone game are you ripping off this time?

Orikaeshigitae

I can

Darric wrote: »

Ken Levine (Thief, System Shock 2, Bioshock) and Amy Hennig (Legacy of Kain, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted) talk about game writing and creative directing:

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-interviews-11-amy-hennig/

thanks for this, although the amount of nasal in this soundfile makes me grit my teeth a bit

@t4ct you should! design docs are great practice

T4CT

Melding wrote: »

T4CT wrote: »

TheStig Buttlord I want to make a design doc for this game

I actually think it's a neat idea

what iphone game are you ripping off this time?

talk to me when your podcast is on iTunes

Melding

That's a better reply then i was expecting, good show.

TheStig

T4CT wrote: »

@TheStig @Buttlord I want to make a design doc for this game

I actually think it's a neat idea

ummm
have at it?

Orikaeshigitae

Orikaeshigitae wrote: »

I can

Darric wrote: »

Ken Levine (Thief, System Shock 2, Bioshock) and Amy Hennig (Legacy of Kain, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted) talk about game writing and creative directing:

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-interviews-11-amy-hennig/

thanks for this, although the amount of nasal in this soundfile makes me grit my teeth a bit

@t4ct you should! design docs are great practice

this is a really decent listen. i don't agree with most of it but i value any opportunity to hear people talk about their job

Anzekay

I'm pretty sure opinions on game writing vary hugely from person to person. It's just the sort of topic that has a whole bunch of different facets that lots of people are going to feel stongly about. I mean, I'm pretty sure my opinions on the topic are really weird compared to others' as well.

agoaj

Ten wrote: »

Kuribo's Shoe wrote: »

Ten wrote: »

I am not a game designer, though I have ideas for games. If I learned more game design, I could probably get closer to making them a reality, because then I could code up a prototype and start iterating. I get frustrated too quickly though, and need people to bounce ideas off and to give me art, because I lost motivation when I'm just looking at my dumb programmer art for weeks.

I lament the loss of punch rumble

We were on to something!

I'm still determined to make a side scrolling beat 'em up one of these days, I think there's a lot of novelty still in the genre that could be tapped.

I am also working on my own beat em up from scratch.

Orikaeshigitae

man. nice work. I mean that.

Orikaeshigitae

This dude's really good. http://www.errantsignal.com/blog/

Ten

agoaj wrote: »

Ten wrote: »

Kuribo's Shoe wrote: »

Ten wrote: »

I am not a game designer, though I have ideas for games. If I learned more game design, I could probably get closer to making them a reality, because then I could code up a prototype and start iterating. I get frustrated too quickly though, and need people to bounce ideas off and to give me art, because I lost motivation when I'm just looking at my dumb programmer art for weeks.

I lament the loss of punch rumble

We were on to something!

I'm still determined to make a side scrolling beat 'em up one of these days, I think there's a lot of novelty still in the genre that could be tapped.

I am also working on my own beat em up from scratch.

Nice work, I didn't get to the point of putting in multiple levels and stuff like you have there - I started on the punching bits and that was about as far as we got:

Buttlord

T4CT wrote: »

TheStig Buttlord I want to make a design doc for this game

I actually think it's a neat idea

make it

i don't know farts from poops about design

RubberAC

haha my programmer buddy has decided he's going to make a game. This is basically the same story as when he was like 12 and up and decided he would learn to program. I feel like he won't be such a great learner this time, but i've told him i'd do sprite work for him.


so in like two years when he finally has something that resembles anything i have work

Orikaeshigitae

Do you do spriting, AC? I've been thinking about putting something together.

Edcrab

RubberAC wrote: »

haha my programmer buddy has decided he's going to make a game. This is basically the same story as when he was like 12 and up and decided he would learn to program. I feel like he won't be such a great learner this time, but i've told him i'd do sprite work for him.


so in like two years when he finally has something that resembles anything i have work

Yeah, I know this feeling. It was all the rage back in the glory days of mods- especially ascended mods getting picked up by the likes of Valve- to put together a team based around The Illusive Idea Man's grand vision for "I don't know, something, it'll be cool"

Fortunately, I've also written things for people that are working on/actually made a game, so shouldn't complain!

CowShark

I have a CS degree, but haven't used it for the past 6 years. Though a month or so ago I got a copy of Beginning Android Games, read it in a couple weeks, and then made this.

It's very small, and kind of doofy, but I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Next up I wanted to make a 2D jump and bump game with just a guy who runs around with a briefcase and bops things with it. But the art takes up lots of time, and I'm not sure how I should store level information. Does anyone know good resources for basic ideas on good practices for storing info like "where are the enemies, platforms, and misc objects in a level"? I can think of a few ways to do it, and with the processing power afforded even by a phone these days--it wouldn't be a problem. But what are good practices on these types of things--where do I learn that kind of info?

Legba

I've been typing away at an Inform 7 game, making mechanics from scratch so that you can go to various areas of a room and have the room description vary depending on where you are.

After a bunch of work on this, I've realised that I could actually do what I'm trying to do with minimal work just by using Regions as rooms and rooms as areas.

But hey, at least I'm getting better at typing stuff up in Inform 7.

Orikaeshigitae

Hmm. Messing up semantics is dangerous, Legba. Can I peek at your source code? Also, have you investigated the extension library?

Legba

Yeah, the extensions library is a godsend.

I'll post the source code as soon as I clean out a few bugs that are currently stopping it from working at all. It's in kind of a proto state at the moment.

Legba

@Orikaeshigitae

I'm almost embarassed to show this. It's very early days stuff.

"Mechanics test" by Emanuel Nordrum

Volume - Core

Book - Extentions

Include Version 9 of Plurality by Emily Short.

Book - Rules

Part - Proximity and bordering

Bordering relates various things to each other. The verb to border (he borders, she borders, they border) implies the bordering relation.

Proximity relates various thing to each other. The verb to proxy (he proxies, she proxied, they proxy) implies the proximity relation.

Spotting relates various things to each other. The verb to spot (he spots, she spotted, they spot) implies the spotting relation.

Part - Ambling

Ambling is an action applying to one visible thing. Understand "go to [something]", "walk to [something]", "run to [something]", "crawl to [something]" and "move to [something]" as ambling.

Check ambling:
	if the noun is off-stage, say "You don't see that." instead;
	if the noun is not visible, say "You don't see that." instead;
	if the noun is not a thing, say "You need to go to something." instead;
	if the noun is not a major thing, say "You're already next to it." instead;
	if the noun proxies the player, say "You're already by [the noun]." instead.
	
Carry out ambling:
	If the noun does not proxy the player:
		Say "You go to [the noun].";
		Repeat with unproxy running through things that proxy the player:
			Now unproxy does not proxy the player;
		Now the noun proxies the player;
		Repeat with unsee running through things that spots the player:
			Now unsee does not spot the player;
		Repeat with see running through things that spot the noun:
			Now see spots the player;
		Repeat with see running through things that border the noun:
			Now see spots the player.

Before entering:
	If the noun does not proxy the player:
		Repeat with unproxy running through things that proxy the player:
			Now unproxy does not proxy the player;
		Now the noun proxies the player.

Part - Major and minor items

A thing can be major or minor. A thing is usually minor.

Part - Locations

An entrance is a kind of thing.

Every turn when entering a room:
	Repeat with unproxy running through things that proxy the player:
		Now unproxy does not proxy the player;
	Repeat with hi running through entrances in the room:
		Now hi proxies the player.

Part - Looking

Before listing nondescript items:
	Now every marked for listing thing is not marked for listing.

After looking:
	Repeat with nextto running through things that proxy the player:
		Say "[if the player is inside a thing][otherwise]You are standing next to [the nextto]. [end if][if the number of things that borders nextto is greater than 0][A list of things that border nextto] [is-are] here.[end if]";
		Say "[if the number of visible major things that do not proxy the player is greater than 0][A list of visible major things that do not proxy the player] [is-are] nearby.[end if]"

Part - Names

A thing has a text called name. The name is usually "[The item described]".

Part - Disovering things

Revealing relates various things to each other. The verb to reveal (he reveals, they reveal, she revealed, it is revealed, he is revealing) implies the revealing relation.

A thing has a text called first impression. The first impression is usually "[An item described] catches your eye."

After examining a thing (called the target):
	if the target proxies the player:
		if the target reveals a thing (called the grabee):
			if the grabee is off-stage:
				say "[the first impression of the grabee]";
				move the grabee to the location of the target;
				now the grabee borders the target.

Book - The Game

Chapter - For testing purposes

When play begins:
	Repeat with hi running through entrances in the room:
		Now hi proxies the player.
		
Chapter - Test Room

Empty Room is a room with the description "[if the player proxies the bookshelf]A solitary bookshelf is propped up against the wall, with a lonely little table next to it[otherwise]A large couch dominates the room[end if]. Other than that you see [a list of visible major things that do not proxy the player]."

Section - Inventory

A couch is in Empty Room. It has the description "A comfortable couch." It reveals a penny. It is major. It is an entrance.

A penny is a thing with the description "Just a penny."

A pillow with the description "A pillow." is in Empty Room. It borders the couch.

A bookshelf is a major scenery in Empty Room with the description "It's filled with books."

A table is an open container in Empty Room with the description "A table." It borders a bookshelf.

Buttlord

someone make a better op for a king of the hill thread
this is a thread about designing things

design it

or @bogey is gonna kick your ass

Legba

The idea is for play to follow this pattern:

Enter room
Visit major sets & reveal the objects in that set
Examine setpieces & discover clues & find thingymajigs
Use clues and thingymajigs to unlock new major sets and rooms
Go to new room

One room I have in mind a gambling hall, with the major sets being the individual tables and the thingymajigs being anything from a hand of cards to individual gamblers who you can talk to.

Right now the code just decides whether or not to list the item depending on where the player is. In the future, each setpiece will have it's own descriptions depending on where in the room the player is. Something like

When the player proxies table A, the description Table B is "Table B is far away". When the player proxies Table C, the description of Table B is "Table B is close by."

Etc. Keeping the number of major setpieces in any given room down to a reasonable size is going to be pretty darn crucial to my sanity when writing the actual game.

Also, minor things will have line of sight (the spotting relation, which currently does nada) to indicate whether it stays described to the player or not. A gambler who at Table A might be important to keep in mind when the player is somewhere else, so he'll have LOS and be added to the "name" of Table A when the player is at Table B, but a fork on the same table is less important and won't be.

I tried doing a measurement of distance (table A is near table B. Table A is far away from table C. Table B is close to table C, etc) but it got really complex really fast.

Orikaeshigitae

Oh, I see. That's a pretty major restructuring of Inform logic, but it looks decent so far. keep the thread updated, I'm interested to see how it develops. You might check out 17.27 and Aaron Reed's Making stuff with inform 7.

Legba

Creating Interactive Fiction With Inform 7 is a great book. I bought the Kindle version, and kind of regret it because it doesn't read as well as it would in hardcopy, but it's still been a huge stepping stone to figuring this stuff out.

Basically, I just really don't like the "go north", "go south" etc mechanic of IF. I want to structure it more like a point and click adventure in text form.

Also, if you put the code into IF7 again, I made some minor adjustments to the room description that'll hopefully give a better idea of what it'll look like once it's done.

Legba

Also, "in scope" may be exactly what I need. I tried taking things off stage and on stage but it was causing the game to crash whenever I tried going to that object (because I knew it was there even when it wasn't).

Thanks!