Making Games

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  • mantrakid21

    Yo dudes! Sorry i missed this thread when it dropped. Im down to answer any questions at all.. i started from NOTHING in 2014... basically taught myself Construct 2, prototyped, kickstarted and made: Cosmochoria

    www.cosmochoria.com

    After launching that in 2015, I was hired at a studio: Blue Wizard Digital and helped make (creative director) Slayaway Camp (made in Unity)

    www.slayawaycamp.com

    Just last year we were hit up by the Friday the 13th license holders to take a stab at making a Friday the 13th mobile game, so we built off Slayaway Camp to make Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle (made in Unity) Dropping April 13th worldwide..

    www.f13killerpuzzle.com

    Currently taking a short break to make some beats then will get back into the marketing and worldwide launch of F13!! Exciting times!

    • If you have passion in it, just do it. Its the best way. I waited my whole life passively hoping i would get into the industry one day...mantrakid
    • I finally realized FUCK IT i just gotta do it myself... In the process of making Cosmochoria I basically became part of the industry.mantrakid
    • nice! fairplay for making it all happen.fadein11
    • way to go man, followed the saga from day one. This is the mentality we all need these days, we have everything at ourfingertips, no excuses_niko
    • +1Maaku
    • way to go!notype
    • yeah i think i remember you posting about cosmochoria back in the day. i remember thinking that it was an awesome effort...hans_glib
    • Hey! thanks for this man! I absolutely love to see your passion translated into real projects! Thanks for this amazing push and sharing your stories with us!Fabricio
    • Slay away camp on sale on Steam right now. Everyone go pick one up!pango
  • cannonball19784

    If you are learning to make games, you will fast approach the "eyes bigger than the plate" effect where your ideas for your game vastly exceed your scope and ability to make a game.

    Start with the goal of making a game. A really, really small game, not the epic idea you had for one. Then move up in scale.

    • +1
      And don't try to reinvent every wheel, nor code the perfect wholly-comprehensive environment first. Just make a game...
      detritus
    • This 100%. I did the same recently with an app in Xcode. Scaled back heavily and got 'er done. Plan for iteration and keep 1.0 as simple as possible.ideaist
    • +1 if you can make a v.simple game entertaining and with your own little stamp on it it will drive you onwards to your more ambitious ideas. You need to be asfadein11
    • hooked on making it/them as the end user will be playing it.fadein11
    • Gold advices right here. Thank you so much guys!Fabricio
    • no shit, sherlocksince1979
  • kingsteven3

    2 weeks in to Unreal Engine and I'm switching back to Unity. The Blueprints system in Unreal is crazy good (entire games constructed visually, no code) but if you are a coder it adds another layer to the learning curve (almost all tutorials on UE 4 use blueprints).

    Other gripes included: bad experience with a few Unreal APIs (incl. metahuman) and 3rd party plugins. Accessing UE and Marketplace through the slow/buggy Epic Game Store is maddening... And well, the Unreal Engine IDE is just ugly.

    When I got a bit further in to researching the things I want to build I found there wasn't much between Unity and Unreal in terms of assets with better paid plugins on the Unreal side but more advanced tutorials and more open source code on the Unity side.

    In hindsight I probably would have been better just learning how to better import and export assets between blender and Unity (rigging and lodding and the like) which is what I'm doing now and not as much of a melt (to get the basics down) as I thought.

    • Oddly enough, I was just yesterday wondering why you'd gone a bit quiet recently - now i know! :)Nairn
    • Hah, lost in a sea of browser tabskingsteven
    • I know Tom Francis (game dev) has some tutorials about unity:
      https://youtube.com/…
      Nutter
    • I don't know if I'm tripping... but Unreal engine games have a certain 'look' to them.inteliboy
    • I see that glowy HDRI effect in a lot of their demos. I don't know if that's an option you can disable though. Maybe it's just on by default.monNom
    • heh, all engines have a look for sure. from what i've read the Unreal look is as much down to why the studio picked Unreal (big games, big teams) and that theykingsteven
    • are trying to use every new available feature of the current gen graphics cards. oh and probably a FPS :)kingsteven
    • like I've been trying to balance out using low poly models with high quality weather and FX and most games I know with that aesthetic are Unity.kingsteven
  • mugwart2

    Thanks for all the advice. Been thinking jumping ship from VFX into game development. Some great advice here to think from.

    Shame everything seems to be leaving London/UK. I get the reasoning just sucks when you have family here.

    • Why do you think 'everything is leaving the London/UK'?detritus
    • VFX is getting larger in Vancouver and northern Europe is getting really innative.
      major companies are moving away from soho etc
      mugwart
    • rent and people skills.mugwart
    • seems from my perspecive, we (as a people) have been burnt out with work load and now they are moving away to cheaper places. Fucking grim but that might bemugwart
    • Ah, 'away from Soho' - sure. One of my main clients has just set up a studio off Holloway Rd, because inner city rents are ludicrous.detritus
    • I must admit, I've always found the concentration of that sort of business around soho a little peculiar (read: ego-inflating) anyway.detritus
    • jadded from the places I've worked. Been looking at unit9, they look cool. Know any other good places?mugwart
    • yeah its fucking huge egos. ironically i've meet the best as well as the worst people in that area.mugwart
    • Lisbon is where Europes new creative scene and tech valley will be. When you can work anywhere. You choose somewhere sunny, good food, beach.shapesalad
    • Portugal? Pfft, in your dreams. You want to be surrounded by some level of civilisation at least.detritus
    • ^ hahahamugwart
    • Says the man in London...shapesalad
    • Lisbon is a great city.fadein11
    • Worse, shapesalad - Haringey. Fuck all civilisation here!detritus
    • Lisbon is a great city and so is London. I love you all.MrT
    • I'll buy you a drink if you're in Vancouver.
      With you're concent of course.
      pango
    • *your...pango
    • I'd like that a lot. Go grab a bit a Meet on Main as well.mugwart
    • I thought I would know every restaurant you suggest. Nope. Then of course it's a vegan restaurant. Lolpango
    • I wouldn't oppose. Just never had to. :)pango
    • haha ^ def o check it out. Dragged a lot of moaning meat eaters along and they loved it. Just didnt want any photographic evidence of it!mugwart
  • detritus1

    I'm ankle-deep in starting a game that is absolutely 2D and have been using Godot3 as my basis.

    Does anyone here have any input about what the best *2D* game making engine is? I've downloaded a few and dabbled, but Godot's the only one I've spent many hours in.

    When I google for 'best 2D game engine' Godot barely features.

    Any advices?

    .

    - I'm not a hardcore programmer
    - I need something with lots of youtubes and forums
    - My game is not a platformer, but is mostly easily-figurable...
    - ...but I want the option of some complex interactions
    - It'll be pixel art-based - important, because..
    - Some of the characters will be Lemming-sized, so 4x10 pixels:

    • I'm wondering if i should start a 2d-specific game thread?detritus
    • cool man! make thread i followGuyFawkes
    • (I think Godot3 can do everything I want to - I'm just angling for advice before I commit)
      x
      detritus
    • If I get to knee-deep, I'll start blogging it somewhere :) At the moment it's a resolution with a few-to-many hours investment.detritus
    • I'd prefer to be candid about it until there's something of consequence, but I really need to know I'm not starting off down a stupid pathdetritus
    • https://www.apple.co… ?shapesalad
    • No idea over the "best" but unreal does have a 2d component.mugwart
    • @shape - I need a game-specific framework to work in, as I'm not great at programming - Swift is a bit above my pay grade :)detritus
    • I'm under the impression Godot3's marginally better than Unreal for what I need. Think I'll stick, as all but really complex stuff seems covered.detritus
    • Thanks, both!detritus
    • I'm a fucking moron. ^ "I'd prefer to be candid" was supposed to be "I'd prefer not to be candid", which is also not what I actually meant.detritus
    • What I meant is "I'd rather just stfu until I've actually got something to show, but...".
      I am thick as shit sometimes. Often.
      detritus
    • hows it going?fadein11
  • fadein113

    Mantrakid
    Here is the thread:
    http://www.qbn.com/topics/684151…

    • Thanks man!!Fabricio
    • time flies... it's 2 years old now but that thread was one of my faves on here.fadein11
    • agree, followed that thread also, great one!uan
  • mantrakid1

    @lvl_13 Im gonna write this here instead of 1000 short posts in the side. Sorry for the bump.

    Actually now I feel like it's safer if i post my comments here so that I can remove them if i have to...

    https://pastebin.com/aFpe1aWi

    Long story short, the business side is ruining it for me badly.

    • sorry to hear :\
      heading to your pastern now.
      lvl_13
    • *pastebin
      and just read it. in all honesty, you are like one dude on here that seems to have so many creative outlets. maybe just take a backseat to the games
      lvl_13
    • Yeah youre totally right, ive been trying to spend more time with music and drawing to feel like im being creative again but still hard not 2 b bummed/depressedmantrakid
    • ...for now. focus on music/illustrations... even shift to graphic novels or comics? you got this! :Dlvl_13
    • hugs dude, i do feel like something totally unrelated might be the answer. i appreciate your support <3mantrakid
    • best to you, man. :)lvl_13
    • sorry to hear the biz sucks. The pastebin is down, and short summary of your thoughts?robotinc
    • i took the pastebin down cuz i had nightmares of someone finding it and sending it to my boss. :|mantrakid
    • long story short. MAKING GAMES IS FUN! SELLING GAMES IS NOT MY IDEA OF FUN!mantrakid
    • IN FACT ITS SOUL CRUSHING!mantrakid
  • Fabricio1

    So many great advices here!
    I feel I have so much to learn still, specially maybe making a move to Maya from Cinema 4D, since its the industry standard.

    Its a shame Maya now is a subscription based, and doesnt seem super how they deal with it...

    But I will look into these, and all the advices are amazing!!!
    Thank you so much!

    • You can just use Blender if you don't want to pay for Maya. It's free. I use it to build 3d assets.cannonball1978
    • I wouldn't worry about Maya right now. Use what you know for content creation until you find a real reason to switch.monNom
    • there are others out there, modo for one, some even like houdini for modeling.
      Maya is a horrific beast but it is industry standard, its great to have on CV.
      mugwart
    • though it seems everyone using it spends their life swearing at it.mugwart
  • prophetone2

    What I learned from 1650+ hours of game dev in a year

    https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev…

  • detritus1

    Godot V.3 is released and is receiving some fine praise...

    https://godotengine.org/

    • interesting, thanks. it's one of my goals this year, make a game however simple/small.fadein11
    • Interesting! I've invested time into Unity, but this seems to be moving in the right direction.section_014
  • prophetone2

    Check out Construct 3, build a quickie game in-browser, move up to something more complex later. www.construct.net

    • I will definitely check it out! Thanks prophetone!Fabricio
  • kingsteven0

    I'm working on a concept for a game that I would like to prototype, I have no 3d modelling experience which i have treated as a barrier to getting in to 3d dev for years but i'm good with the code (i've been modding games and building 2d games for 22 years or so now)

    Now: I've been building a lot of Rust mods recently, so i'm familiar with the Unity platform (the code not the ID) and I quite like CSharp, I haven't used Unreal since UnrealScript days but C++ doesn't really intimidate me.

    The big thing attracting me to Unreal over Unity is metahuman and the gigapixel libs/ terrain generation. My concept is very trippy but needs to have a root in a sparse realism... I would like to spend as little time as possible on terrain, models & animation so I can concentrate on the gameplay mechanic and dedicated server/ client code.

    Every video on youtube is telling me that Unity and Unreal are fairly matched and I can see advantages of both, but is there any basis in my assumption that I may get better realism with Unreal with less work?

    • *megascans not gigapixelkingsteven
    • *Unity IDE not IDkingsteven
    • I personally do think you can get higher quality easier in Unreal. This is after working in Unity for the past 5 years but never working in Unreal...mantrakid
    • But seeing lots of work.mantrakid
    • nice! yeah the more i read, the more i'm in to it. just ordered a new drive, hoping if i toe the line with tutorials i'll get to a reasonable starting point.kingsteven
  • mugwart0

    Anyone here dabble with c++ and Unreal?

    I got sick of QT for my app and thought I could have a go at rebuilding it with Unreal. Its not that user friendly from the get go.

    All tutorials I have seen seem to have been outdated since the last release which is annoying as fuck.

    Any advice/pointers (excuse the nerdy pun) / tutorials?

    • ya i have started building my own little app framework. It is basic right now but i can load in different pages and overlaysBabySnakes
    • all using Blueprints with UI widgets and a plugin called vaREST to work with JSON data.BabySnakes
    • cool thanks. Prefer YAML over JSON but I'll look into thismugwart
  • since19790

    I just use Unity for prototyping.

    • C# though. Made to much headway with cpp to jump on another language. My brain can only take 2 languages!mugwart
    • C# is def good to know.since1979
    • Sure is. Just dont have the brain power .mugwart
  • section_0140

    I'd start with Unity if I were you. I've started a few projects, and it's pretty intuitive. Unreal Engine is a an option too, but it's no where near as noob friendly.

    • Yeah, I will try Unity def! Thanks! :)Fabricio
    • Yes Unity is easy and exports to everythingsince1979
  • fadein111

    Oh god I keep forgetting his name but there is a member here and a great thread on exactly this. He made a lovely game and he posted his progress from early days to completion.
    Help anyone?

    • Oh i wonder who downvoted an attempt at a helpful post... Oh i wonderfadein11
  • cruddlebub1

    mantrakid has made quite a few games now... he's pretty good at it! im sure he can give you guys some pointers

  • face_melter0

    Most people start as QA grunts to learn how the industry works, if you want to be part of a large studio then peel off into an area that interests them. But more and more folk are learning through Unity or Unreal and building their own titles, then using that as experience to get into various positions.

    Like anything skill-based, you should research what you want to do - environment art, character design, audio design, texture building, and work at it.

    Check out DICE's (and others) recruitment pages to see the requirements. Lots of Maya and experience.

    http://www.dice.se/jobs/

    • Yeah, I feel i will need to move to Maya...Fabricio
    • ^ yeah sadly one has too. not the nicest of packages I must admit.mugwart
    • < @face, you work at dice? was looking there yesturday. Shame no UK branch.mugwart
  • ideaist1

    Been meaning to play around with:

    https://gamesalad.com/developers…

    OR

    just jump right into Xcode:

    https://developer.apple.com/game…

    I started in the app world by doing tutorials on YouTube relevant to specific functions of my project and than kind of mashing them all together as cleanly as possible.

    Godspeed Fabricio! Keep me/us updated and i'll/we'll point you in the right direction.

    • Thank you so much!!!
      I will take a look into these! Thanks Michael!
      Fabricio
  • detritus0

    What sort of games?

    I've downloaded and prodded loads of libraries for 2d and 3D games and last year resolved exactly what my first starting game would be (a remake of a favourite from when I was a kid), but I've just never managed to eke a broad enough expanse of time to really commit.

    Anyway, I ask the above question because there are quite distinct routes you can take depending upon the scope of your intent.

    • 'libraries' = 'gamemaking software, etc'.
      Sorry, half asleep.
      detritus
    • Have you played one called Oxenfree? That kind of game, minimalistic, etc..but so deepFabricio