#gamedev basics

[dogstomp]

Dogstomp #3315 - May 28th Patreon / Discord Server / Itaku / Bluesky

[roseverdict]

thinking about my frustrations with the current system we live under and realizing my experiences (constantly having very little money, thus preventing me from buying things except once in a blue moon unless there's a free option available) are not universal. however i am charging headlong down making a mobile game, and while i probably will put ads into it bc im a broke bitch i refuse to let it be just another of the hundreds of half-assed tutorial projects with a quadspillion ads in them apiece

but this leads me to a conundrum.

i want to have cute little skins for the player character that can be "bought" through one of two things: achieving a cumulative score high enough to unlock it, or by watching a certain number of ads willingly. notably, i refuse to use the ones that interrupt the gameplay out of nowhere and do nothing except pay me, even if they technically pay app makers more than any other kind of ad.

i'm just not sure exactly how to implement it:

should the "unlock via Playing The Game" skins be completely separate from the "watch x number of ads" skins?

should the "unlock via Playing The Game" option be available on the same skins that have the "watch x number of ads" option?

should the "watch x number of ads" thing be reworked into just "watch an ad to add x amount to your current spendable score"?

should i go the scummy route and implement flat-out in-app purchases for if someone doesn't want to watch an ad to get a skin??? does anybody actually do that????? i'm too broke to comprehend the existence of that kind of person but they have to exist if half-assed apps (and tbh whole-assed apps) keep on acting like they're real

should i forfeit my dignity and integrity and do lootboxes

[lutik327]

sorry for the lack of posts, i've been making a game for the past month. release on itch in ~2 weeks

[dimalink]

Bufcolor – this is a new word

Game about different colors. You need to collect/build columns with colors. Fill every column with its own color. Control with keyboard. Arrows and space. And, also, there is a buffer. It is additional little column, where you put a little cube, that you do not need now. Buffer contains only one little cube. It is need for exchange.

For a long time, I wanted to make lots of small games with Basic. And, this time, I achieve this point. It is, exactly this kind small game. About different colors. Little cubes. There are several columns. For example, 3 or 5.

And, also, there is little column number 6 – this is buffer. Withing this you put little cube for exchange. In buffer it can be only one little cube. And you need to set all the colors in columns, except buffer with same colors. First little column with green, second with red. This is about you. You select colors. But only one idea – each column need to be with its own color. With the result. In this case you complete the level.

This kind of entertainment can be with Ms Dos, Nes, MSX, other 8 bit computers in 80s. It is funny thing, entertainment for engineer at the evening. To collect columns.

There are several color palette. And two types of visual view. First – it is simple columns. Something like to down view. Everything is straight. Second - it is isometrical. Something like pseudo 3d. With some angle. So this way it is more beautiful. But  a little less with understanding. Amount of columns is different from 3 to 5.

I had for a long time lots of ideas. I think they are for Basic. Ideas for simple games. And so this is a moment of realization – it is here. With using of Basic. This is one more small game.

Title is consist with two words. But it is as a one word. New word. Bufcolor. This is after word buffer. And color. This is all the idea. You collect columns with colors. And you need one more little column as buffer for exchange. And here it is to appear a new word – bufcolor.

So, how it is cool to know how to programming with Basic. With suing this language you can do realization of lots your ideas. For example, computer games. Spirit of 80s. 8 bit computers. This is just amazing. Once again, little plus goes to side of the Basic. And dialects of Basic. Such as Free Basic. This time for this thing. And amazing code editor – Gvim.

Little columns and colors. And, also, a buffer for 1 little cube. To replace little cubes, when all of them are full in columns. With most beginning, they are filled with chaos order and random order. And you need to sort them. And to have a situation – that every column is with its own one color. You need this buffer. It is very valuable term. Without it - it will be impossible. And buffer -it is so minimal length little column with 1 little cube. You can put in buffer only one little cube. But this is enough. To start to make exchanges between little columns.  

Select little cube. Put in a buffer. Later, select little cube from columns and put it to the empty place. Later, take from buffer little cube, which is already there and put it at the empty place in columns. For example, this way.

Control is simple. With arrows from the keyboard. And space to select a column. Or cancel your selection. Select you made and next do move. This is a fantasy, dream about little columns and different colors. There are max columns with 5. And number six for buffer, always 6 -it is buffer. So, palette is with 5 colors. But colors for little cubes are random way to go. So, every time you launch -you see different color picture.  Firs little cube was green.it is now red during next start. And alter blue. So, neat again – some else color.

And yes - have your excellent Basic day!

Basic Pascal version 1.18 "Duckling" – most newest version. In this version there are 4 new games! Puddles at Countryside, Duckling Pseudo 3D, Road to Countryside, Duckling Goes 2D. And even more retro games! It is a pack of retro games with modern versions of Basic and Pascal.

It is now in development new version Basic Pascal pack games. This game will be included in a new version.

Basic Pascal: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/games/basicpascal/index_eng.html Website: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html Itchio: https://dimalink.itch.io/basic-pascal

[rudnitskaia]

After finishing working on A Tale of The Crystal Mountains I hoped to put my efforts into two small games (the possibility of that happening depends on some criteria connected to AToTCM and currently tends to zero, but nevertheless). One of them is presumably planned to be a puzzle adventure called l𖦹g.OS about a bunch of funny sugar skeleton folks in the afterlife. I rarely sketch them, and this character line is no exception, I just slowly occasionally draw them, usually to steam off my head. I love them and decided not to keep it to myself as I did with AToTCM. So here they are.

For the history.

P.S.: Speedpaint is under the cut.

[broadsiderenegade]

I have a possible idea for a project I can see the full scope of in my head.

The bad news is, it requires a decent lighting system.

I shall soon descend into shader hell once again.

[zoeythebee]

Well I call this a resounding success

[illusorybread]

Hello everyone, I contributed art to two games for the recent Touhou Game Jam 13, get them from the links below!

[silentstaresfanficandfanart]

^w^ if you guys want a turn based combat game in godot, I've got the skeleton all set up! if you go to the github link in the desc you can get the repository! I hope this helps some folks get started! + a little video explaining how it works and why it works! I tried to cover things I got stuck on when I was first starting Godot and keep it as simple as possible! Let me know if you wind up using it (if you want!) so I can see how it goes :D

note: made in godot 4.4

[mikmikbrody]

Spent a couple weeks making a forest for Hops! @・ꈊ・@

[scey-art]

Fenigma: environment from Scene I, lamb & snake collectible emblems

A digital interactive installation dealing with demystification of womanhood. It is aimed at computers and includes optional virtual reality support.

[just-write-studios]

2023 Celebration and Recap

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It is so good to round out the end of 2023 by looking back on the overwhelming amount of progress that has been made. I've been gathering up devlogs and progress reports over the last week and am sincerely shocked by (and very emotional about) just how much was accomplished!

Thank you all so much for joining me on this insane journey. I have so many plans for 2024 and could not be more motivated to press on with the development of Catalyst: Blind Faith! I'd love to recap all of this progress with you today. I'm going to break this into categories to help with navigation.

Without further ado! The recap is under the cut.

JUST WRITE STUDIOS 2023 RECAP

ART - BACKGROUNDS

Pictured: The second background for Catalyst: Blind Faith.

Pontos: A ramshackle fishing village, and the first location in the game.

Enchanted Stairs: A mysterious and unlockable location in the demo.

ART - CHARACTERS

Pictured: An early concept for Celegwen, a main character/party member/potential love interest for the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith.

Father Richard Anscham: A polytheistic human priest—our young, troubled, and compassionate antihero.

Malimos: An easily-amused, spider-like mass murderer, and the first demon seen in the game.

Offala: A treacherously beautiful and unbearably violent monstrosity; the second demon encountered in the game's demo.

Orgoth: A gregarious orc warchief, one of the main characters in the demo.

The Goddess of Time: All of space and reality.

Celegwen: A venerable elvish sorceress, who loves knowledge and anarchy almost as much as her immense Magical power.

ART - GRAPHIC DESIGN

Pictured: An audition lines card I made for our upcoming, live performance of Catalyst: Blind Faith.

Logo for Just Write Studios created!

Logo for Catalyst: Blind Faith created!

Made the audition line cards for a vtuber live performance casting event! If you are interested in keeping up to date with this event, check out our Catalyst Discord or MiMoMedia's official server!

Placeholder, animated credits screen!

Redesigned all 8 holy symbols for the Gods and Goddesses in the pantheon!

Concepts done for all 32 achievements!!

Revamped all of my social media!!

COMMUNITY

Pictured: Sweet mousepads!!

Hosted the 4 Year anniversary stream in the Catalyst Discord server in September!

Featured in the PARANOIA festival in October!

Partnered with mimomedia for a live vtuber performance of Catalyst: Blind Faith (this will take place on January 20th)!

Selected as a speaker for the upcoming VN Conf on January 27th, you can get tickets and more info here!

Monthly updates for our incredible Patrons.

Over a dozen Tumblr posts.

120+ new Twitter followers!

50+ new Discord members!!

8000+ new views on Catalyst: Blind Faiths' game page on itch.io!

800+ new downloads!!!

7 new glowing reviews on the game's page! (This is a great way to support the game, feel free to leave us a nice review if you have played the demo!)

Got the opportunity to make some merch from Vograce, a lucky Patron and we now have matching mousepads featuring Richard and Orgoth!!

DIRECTING

Pictured: The logo for Just Write Studios!

Founded Just Write Studios. <3

Brought together 7 of my strongest warriors (our art director, background artist, lead editor, quality assurance team, and composer)!

Created a studio compendium for Catalyst: Blind Faith!

Managed our 4 year community anniversary event!

Coordinated streams for PARANOIA and throughout the year!!

Partnered with mimomedia!!

Oversaw and picked from auditions from 146 vtubers for the live performance!!!

Participated in a research discussion regarding choices in interactive fiction!!

PROGRAMMING

Pictured: Our robust save and load system!

Timelapse animation with a pause and play button!

Scrolling credits screen

Toggle for any SFX

Toggle for quick menu

Slider for textbox opacity

Revamped inventory system!

Unlockable save system

Robust save and load screen

All splash screens and ending screens for the demo

Pimped out History menu

Sleek functionality for the entire players Journal

Functional gallery (will be finished in 2024)

Learned how to use the action editor in Ren'Py and incorporated tons of camera movement into the demo!!

TIME TRAVEL

SOUND

Pictured: A short sample of the MANY sound effects used in Catalyst: Blind Faith!

Harvested over 160GB of SFX and music.

Laboriously picked out placeholder music for the entire demo

Mixed many sound effects, including custom noises for gore

Unique SFX provided by Amidst None and Addigale Stewart for the JWS logo, choice menus, and more!!

Balanced EVERYTHING

WRITING

Pictured: The completed flowchart for the demo of Catalyst: Blind Faith. The full game's flowchart is way too long for here lol

Beat NaNo twice

Outlined, wrote and edited 545k+ words

Which completed almost three full passes through the script of Catalyst: Blind Faith (70 chapters, 66 chapters, and 49 chapters respectively)!

Mapped every single choice and variable across the script so far in a flowchart in Twine

Finalized choices for two more routes (the remainder of the script will be written in 2024)

Finished the 45k word script for the demo

Brought onboard 16 beta readers, editors, quality assurance leads, and reviewed a cumulative 185 chapters together.

Began a critique group and have reviewed 27 chapters together.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Pictured: Our new logo.

Made it through an awful health scare that had me in and out of the hospital (as a result of medication and many misdiagnoses). Luckily I am totally recovered!

Also made it through COVID for the first time (due to aforementioned health issues this was particularly difficult)

Got outstanding support for my long-term sleep issues

Fully upgraded my motherboard, CPU, and graphics card!

Lined up for a nice raise at my day job (I'm working 45-50 hours a week at a day job, on top of all of this, to fund the demo).

Celebrated my nine year anniversary with my partner. Without her support I could not have done any of this. 

We made it! That's the entire recap. I can hardly believe that this year was so remarkably productive, despite everything.

Thank you so much for reading this far and joining me in 2023! This coming year I have BIG plans for development. All of us at Just Write Studios are working incredibly hard to complete the demo of Catalyst: Blind Faith. My goal is to complete the script for the full game, and to get as many art assets commissioned as possible. We still have a lot of work to do, but I am more motivated and determined than ever to get it all done!

Patrons will be getting sneak previews at art assets as they are made, script excerpts, and a whole lot more. Keep an eye out on our socials for updates! You can find us on Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, Itch.io, Ko-Fi, and here on Patreon.

I hope you have a fantastic new year. Here's to a bright and productive 2024! See you soon!

[dimalink]

Now you can open the doors. And you are inside the room.

And game has more dynamics – it is weapons and monsters. Game as quest. But this is for interest.

Three types of weapons. Pistol. Auto rifle. Flamer.

Several types of monsters. There are casual monsters. For them it is any weapon. There are monsters only for auto rifle. And there are monsters only for flamer.

Auto rifle shoots with pack of ammo. With five ammo. Everything else with one ammo. It is enough 1 shot for every monster.

Monsters are static kind. They are like obstacles. You can go back.

 Dynamics of game rises!

Basic Pascal version 1.18 "Duckling" – most newest version. In this version there are 4 new games! Puddles at Countryside, Duckling Pseudo 3D, Road to Countryside, Duckling Goes 2D. And even more retro games! It is a pack of retro games with modern versions of Basic and Pascal.

It is now in development new version Basic Pascal pack games. This game will be included in a new version.

Basic Pascal: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/games/basicpascal/index_eng.html

Website: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html

Itchio: https://dimalink.itch.io/basic-pascal

[amaiguri]

🎭EXPRESSION TEST🎭

A fire swelled in my chest. I clamped my teeth. It couldn’t come out. It would pour out like an inferno. It was to no avail.

Ar: Let me go with you! I promise I’ll be of use!

Di: Arlasaire, we have been over this: I don’t need you to be “of use.” I need you to stay alive.

I knelt in front of him. I scooped up his hand and squeezed.

Ar: You need me to see the door!

Di: I have a consultant for that.

Ar: But… I…

Words left me. I tried to swallow. My throat cracked. He waited. I barely understood my own insistence. A week ago, I would have let him burn himself on this trash fire. But I was burning… I didn’t know why. I just knew: he couldn’t go alone.

Ar: …You’ve been doing too much to protect me —

Why did I care so much?

Ar: —and I haven’t done anything to repay you!

I threw myself into his chest. Burrowing there. I was burning. I was going to burst.

The words finally formed.

Ar: Why won’t you let me protect you?!

He sighed. He pat my back.

Di: You don’t need to protect me — such is the nature of a parent-child relationship.

He pulled me in close and I melted into him. I willed him to change his mind through my stupid, weak tears. He squeezed. Sighed.

Di: *sigh* Alright, Arlasaire, listen very closely: You can come BUT—

I gasped and beamed up at him. The fire quenched. My chest light.

Di: BUT — you cannot cry to get everything you want, alright? I want you to use your words to ask for things and respect if I say, “No.” Do you understand?

I nodded.

Ar: Yes.

[broadsiderenegade]

Worldbuilding

So thinking on the mech tactics game (in my head "Mechscom"), I'm deciding what the enemy will be, and what the world will be like. The vibe I want is "desperate" and "existential," regular people in the most dire of straights fighting for survival. I want something more unusual for creative freedom, so I'm still deciding if it should have fantasy elements, magic, gothic/religious themes. Some ideas include, the necromancer won (mecha vs undead), God(s) left (demons won), spores from an unknown invader changed the Earth (bugs/aliens are always fun, and good environmental possibilities, but also cliche?).

I like Phoenix points vibe but I am also taking inspiration from their combat (no % chance to hit but actually firing weapons and taking their actual hits as is, now that I've gotten down hitscan weapons and systems around that) so i don't wanna be too similar.

[zoeythebee]

Me: oh god this feature is gonna be super wonky to impliment. This code is about to look like shit.

Me 5 minutes later: