Topic: The Developer Thread

Best of luck @nacho_chicken! See you on the other side.

Another reveal coming fairly soon!

Out of the developers here, I was wondering if you guys are going to E3?

_{I will be there but just to have fun}

Nope. Maybe next year though

I am looking into making a GBA FE and DnD 3.5 minis inspired game, which engine based on the experience you guys have would be the best engine to go with? I was told Unity was a good engine in general for starting out with.

Unity is a great, powerful engine. There's also Construct 2 and GameMaker.

Not this year for me. Maybe next year!

Unity is great. Construct 2 is a little limiting from what I've heard and does have issues, though can still work perfectly fine.

I personally code things in HTML5 without any engine (besides my own custom stuff)

Unity is great but Construct 2 and GameMaker are easier to jump into. It really depends on how much you know. Also I wouldn't recommend that be the first game you make, try something simpler.

I've tried Construct 2 and I agree it's limiting. I found it easier to develop a simple game I was going to (re)make with it by just making my own engine for it. It may be easy to get into, but you'll learn more from starting with a programming language with a tutorial and you get the larger freedom.

Okay thanks for the suggestions, I had another idea for a game so I could try that as my first game then.

I highly recommend starting with something simpler for a game, as others have before me. If you're new to game development, try to remake classics (Pong, Tetris, Space Invaders) before you go and make your own game. You'll learn a lot about how game logic works and you'll lrean the ins and outs of whatever engine you're working in as well.

I recommend starting with Unity if you want a 3D game, and GameMaker Studio if you want to make a 2D game. Fantastic games have been made for all different systems in both, but you're going to have to put in work either way.

One problem with Unity is that you either have to program your own engine, or edit the existing one to Zimbabwe and back; otherwise it has a strange, generic, "this game was made in Unity" feel. It does do a lot of the work for you if you're making a first-person game, though.

GameMaker Studio takes a bit of getting used to the UI, and you're going to have to learn some programming if you're going to want to work in it. It's very flexible, though. Over the years, I've played everything from a level-based Metroidvania with System Shock-style upgrades (Look up "Iji". To not play it is a sin) to a Horror-Adventure-RPG made in GameMaker. You can do anything you want, as long as it's 2D. It technically CAN do 3D games, but it requires very low-level knowledge of how 3D projection works. The best 3D game I've seen made in GMS is GlassWing by From Soy Sauce (of Touhou Smash fame), and that looks like a Dreamcast game.

Thanks for all of this info, I will be looking into what I could do.

udemy.com is a pretty cool site for tutorials, but there are also free tutorials.

@Nacho_Chicken is streaming

If you feel like talking about game development, or anything, really: feel free to make a Twitch account and stop on by the chat!
This last stream was pretty hilarious. Monty Python, Tommy Wiseau, and Sonic were quoted many a time while I coded in some menus and ate dinner. Also, thanks to @Tommy_Wiseau's idea, this is a thing that now exists in my game:

I'm a sucker for HUD customization, and I couldn't resist the reference. Other "flavors" include Original, Vanilla, Banana, Chocolate, Strawberry, Grape, Blueberry, and Cool Mint.

The dungeon display changes dynamically with the menus as they open and close. Graphics are all placeholder.

And now that I have (most) player stats out of the way, all I need is equipment and I can start work on the battle system! It's going to be pretty smooth sailing once I finish work on that, so you'll definitely want to see when that gets going. I'm hoping to get most of the menu work out of the way this week, then start on the battle system next week.

As for the game itself, it's pretty old-school, but without the old-school sensibilities. (E.G. There will be a minimap, enemies won't decapitate your entire party every five seconds, players can't perma-die, no ridiculously obtuse puzzles you need to win the game) Menus are keyboard-based (it's an option in the PC version, at least), and you can manage things ridiculously fast if you know the commands. There is a story, as well - not just an excuse plot, but a full-on story. Exploration is very encouraged after the game's intro, and there's a giant overworld with several dungeons.

I can't wait to get finished with the alpha demo! Definitely check back here, because NLifers will be the first to get to play it

The license loosens it up quite fairly, but the free version really is bogged down by the 100-events limit. Even so, I know there are tutorials that slip under that threshold.

Some of the games I've made with it (on my itch.io gallery) are rather event heavy, and generally wouldn't fly if I still had the free version (which initially turned me off from C2 in the beginning).

Also to agree, learning a programming language goes a long way. C2 is a gateway for me to not worry so much about coding.

Event limits suck. GM:S Free had one until about a year ago. It was terrible. There's better ways of doing free versions, but that's not one of them.

@RCMADIAX Are you still working on Blok Drop X Ping Plus?

OK, thanks.

One of my followers on Twitch volunteered to do temporary wall graphics for my game. It looks amazing so far!

Battle system is starting to shape up. Have some basic formulas already cooking. This is (most of) what happens behind the scenes when you push "Attack":

Basic Attack Damage:
(pLVL / 10) * (BaseDMG + (wATK - [eDEF * eDEFMods]) + random_weighted_high[sqrt([(pSTR * 50) + ([(pDEX * pAGI) + random(pLUC)] / [eDEF * eDEFMods])]

Yeah, I don't really know what's going on there either. Stay in school, kids!

I also did more work to the HUD and menus. Items menu is (almost) fully functional and the HUD looks more "sci-fi" now. Much more "Wasteland" than "Might and Magic".

Some code showing what goes on behind the menus. This screenshot was from one of my tweets showing potential switch-statement fallthrough use.

Along with some slight alterations to the movement engine for extra polish, it's shaping up quite nicely!