#gamedev progress report

[swolesanctum]

(I am combining two work sessions into one log) Learning a lot of substance on the way. It helps having a bit of art experience before starting, this is closer to learning CSP/Photoshop than it is w any 3D program thankfully.

I based the first pass off of some stylized crystals I found online. However the result was a lot more stylized than I wanted to go for. I basically used on of the concrete materials as the base texture, and gave it a similar saturated dark purple from the actual sol sanctum. I layered some gradients for the top color. I used the 3D linear generator with invert set to true to mask off the lower area of the column.

For this 2nd one, I did p much the same thing, except I used blur slope to give it a more painterly texture, and it worked out to make the column look more worn than my first pass did. For curvature I used the curvature map + levels, instead of a generator. I finished it with AO and one last color dodge gradient to give it a sort of unifying light.

A friend suggested to try making a kitbash instead of the idea I had where I would try to procedurally create the base mesh of the columns.

[quiet-cabin]

Progress Report 1/21 - 1/27

Hey yall!

Things are Happening™️ and I wish i could say they were all Good™️.

The engine I'm using updated a few days ago and with it quite a few things have broken. (I don't really begrudge them this, it happens.) Unfortunately one of the things affected has nerfed the save/load feature I've been working on the last few weeks..

I'm in the forums and we're trying to figure it out but nothing is solid yet.

In addition to that, Rob's hand isn't doing too hot and we're not yet sure on what the recovery plan or timeline fully looks like.

What this means is right now we're going to try and figure out the solution / work around for what's borked the save/load, get some more info on Rob's recovery plans, and reevaluate our timeline accordingly. In all likelihood the release date is going to be pushed back. We want to give Rob plenty of time to heal and ease their way back into work and there's absolutely no reason to rush that. (We're not about that crunch life here.) We'll have a more official decision before next week's progress report, likely with the January re-cap even.

Thanks for your understanding and support!!

[hazellight11]

Love when i stress about homework and then it takes a fraction of the time/pain that I expected (i'd rather not have stressed about it so much but it's better than being right about it)

[dysperdis]

The first 8 sprite are redone! Only... 7(?) more pages like this to go!

[gingerbravecookie]

devlog 1 - cursor and the horrors of game making. the agony and such of making a rewrite fangame

hello!! name's cursor/siffrin and i'm a poor loser making a fangame!! why did i commit to this i could have just made a fic but noooo i gotta pick up rpgmaker again

this devlog is made because. well. all devs do one ithink. also to write down my ocasional progress in this project!! this won't be monthly but whenever i have the time and got something to report yay. spare me from this hellhole

we begin 💥

ever since cookie run the darkest night got cancelled a few months ago and left us with only chapter 1 i did feel sad!! i liked the story!!! gingerbrave cool and fucking awesome moments. BUT!! because i am mentally ill,, i decided to rewrite the game myself and give it the ending it deserved to have!! will the ending be proper i dunno. i am still writing this stuff waugh. but hey it will have an ending at least

to gamedev stuff proper. i got rpgmaker mz around 2022 for the purpose of making a cr game still. an original one!! however after making a few stuff i left it in hiatus bc i had to focus on school (i still do. college is breathing on my neck dear lord). i still plan to continue that one but it will be after i'm done with this rewrite. in either way. i've been changing placeholder stuff for now,, such as menu icons and figuring out how to make the party have five members. also re learning how to use aseprite because i gotta make all sprites haha (breaks down)

i should remind folks that i am an artist/writer first and foremost. i will very likely go through pure trial and error while making and 'coding' all of this (why did i plan 14 chapters oh my godddd),, though i do have notes i took from the rpgmaker tutorial so i can refer to when i'm stuck whenever and hey!! forums are always a thing!! i wouldn't have figured how to have 5 party members if they weren't!!

to writing stuff. i've been planning the prologue and the locations of the first 3 chapters so far. as well as a vague idea of chapter 12 and the epilogue. with point A and point B set,, now i just gotta make the middle point. aka the rest of the game</3

the main party and a few relevant npcs and characters have already been set. as well as brainstoming stuff and showing said stuff to the gingerbrave council (personal friend server) for approval of sillyness. you guys are fucking awesome btw if you're reading this. also hi chat

mentally i've been setting a timeline of events. i plan to write these in a notebook so i can have them at anytime and not have to open my laptop whenever i get a cool idea. or dig through thousands of discord messages just to find an idea i wrote down in the moment. overall i believe writing (in comparison to art making and the game making process) will be the easier part for me. also i gotta decide for a proper name for the rewrite. naming it the same as the og is lame. i need something with more sauce. i'll figure it out. in the meantime. have this goober

i'm sure this should be it for this devlog!! hooray!! what have i gotten myself into!!!

in all seriousness i'm honestly pretty excited,, i really want to make this game work and for people to play it!! even if it might be a bit of a pain i really wanna finish this project so there's tgat

that's all. see you all in the next devlog whenever that might be 💥

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

What tf is “gamergate,” I keep seeing people bring it up and I didn’t read up on it because I was afraid it would be stupid

Hoo boy you don't ask the easy questions, do you?

Shortest possible answer, it was a movement that happened in 2014 exposing the incestuous relationship between gamedevs and the supposed impartial games journalists who covered them and reviewed their games. It was also the first time real proof was found showing that games journos from "competing" promotions would all get together to discuss how they would cover stories and what messages and narratives they were going to push, as well as the first real backlash against progressive left wing politics being shoved into video games. Unsurprisingly, games journos didn't like being exposed so they promptly labeled anyone who publicly spoke against them as a racist, misogynist, etc, etc. There were dozens of article published from games journos attacking gamers as a whole and the whole controversy was called GamerGate (a term coined by Adam Baldwin of Firefly and Full Metal Jacket fame on twitter, believe it or not), partially to make fun of the post Watergate trend of sticking a "gate" suffix onto the end of any controversy. To this day, salty, biased games journos will not stop reeing about being exposed as partisan hacks, which is why every once and a while one of them will bring up the GamerGate "harassment campaign" to deflect criticism of their own reporting or biases. And to be fair, there was harassment on both sides (far more from the "anti-GamerGate" establishment side, and all of it condoned up and down by mainstream games journalism and regular media), but at its core GamerGate was always about exposing dishonest, biased media, fighting back against political agendas being put into games, and defending gaming as a hobby.

For a longer summary that goes in depth, you can read through these

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 1)

I started the course i picked yesterday, and as part of one of its first lessons it asks you to write a short expectation(s) paragraph essentially about what you want out of programming and game development. Heres what i ended up writing

At the end of the day i want to learn to code in order to make silly multiplayer roguelike games similar to Lethal Company or REPO. To make that happen, ill need to know how to code. When i get where i want to be ill be able to bring people together around something ive created, and will be able to take pride in both my end products and progress ive made to get there. I'll practice pretty early in the morning. Make a coffee, wake up for 15-20 minutes or so, then get right into practicing. I intend to practice at least 15 minutes everyday. I'll set Discord to DND and close Unnecessary tasks. I'll also make sure to keep my desk clean and free of unnecessary things that could distract me. Ive started a Devlog on Tumblr where i intend to post about my progress everyday for the next 100 days (you're reading it right now!). This gives me something to look back on to measure progress, as well as some amount of extra accountability since its public.

I'm realizing its a little uncomfortable/embarrassing to post about stuff like this publicly, but it's alright.

Today was a light day otherwise as far as learning. learned some definitions about "The 4 pillars of Godot"

Scenes: reusable templates that can be used for most anything in your project.

Nodes: Building blocks of scenes.

Scripts: text files that give instructions to the computer, nodes, scenes, and Godot itself.

Signals: events that nodes emit to report whats happening in the project. you connect Signals to nodes in a script to make things happen essentially.

this isnt exactly how these things were described in the course, i've described them in my own words here. Both because i think it helps the learning process, and i dont want to get in trouble with leaking aspects of a paid course or something like that lol.

[micalpixel]

May Flowers Game - June 2024 Progress Report

Another month has passed, so here’s another update on my gamedev journey. The goal is to create my first video game using the Godot game engine.

(Prior Updates: May, Initial)

Research

The main goal for June was research. Play other character/exploration-focused games with no farming or combat elements and see what they do to keep things fun. Here’s what I played (or watched others play)

A Short Hike: A game about a penguin climbing a mountain. Finding new people, new areas, and moving/gliding were very enjoyable. The game’s 3D environment with pixelated graphics was also a new experience for me. A very nice cozy game.

Rakuen: I love this game. You play as a kid stuck in a hospital, trying to help other sick patients, while also exploring a fantasy world described in a book. Lots of exploration, puzzles, and focus on characters. Catchy music too. Kind of exactly what I was looking for. I think Undertale fans would enjoy this one.

The Stanley Parable: A choose-your-own-adventure game. No NPCs, just movement and a very entertaining and well-crafted narrator.

Potion Permit: You play as a chemist who just moved into a town, and must make a living brewing potions while getting to know the town, its people, and the wilderness. The first life-sim game I’ve actually beaten. The lack of time limits was greatly appreciated.

Shenmue (Watched not Played): An important piece of gaming history. I watched a playthrough of this one, just so I could see this game at its best, and not miss any important events.

Freddi Fish 2 (Watched not Played): A point-and-click adventure for children??!… What’s this doing here?!?! Well, this one wasn’t on my original list, but I realized the point-and-click game genre had many similarities with the walk/talk/trade-items gameplay I originally envisioned. Plus this one had no game-overs and no frustrating trial-and-error like many do. Studying how a different genre handled that kind of gameplay, while making it very accessible and entertaining, was a good learning experience.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits (WIP): I started this one, more for fun than research, but haven’t finished it yet. Beautiful game. As others have noted, it’s like playing a Pixar movie.

OneShot (Not Started Yet): Ran out of time. 😒 Next month. Really looking forward to this one.

All in all, I took 10 pages of notes. Things I noticed, liked, disliked, wanted to think about.

Prototype

On June 20, I began work on an actual prototype (“Prototype 1”). Code from my earlier Godot projects was collected, combined, and improved. The goal is to implement every important mechanic in the game. Everything the player should be able to DO in the game, the prototype should have at least ONE place where the player can do it. In a very condensed environment that's easy to test. Physics and graphics can be fine-tuned later. This prototype is all about functionality. For example:

Walk in 8 directions.

Talk to an NPC.

Choose an answer when the NPC asks a question which triggers different outcomes.

Walk to the edge of a room and appear in an adjacent room.

And overall, things have gone very well! I have a page-long checklist of everything I want to implement in this prototype, and it’s about half-done. :D

Except menus.

And except puzzles.

Puzzle mechanics aren’t added yet. I realized the mechanics I was planning did not have much synergy and were very simple. I also want to review the notes I took during research and study puzzles in general. So, back to the drawing board, for now. Puzzles are the next major step. And I think I have a pretty good idea how I want to change them.

Audio

I made a text-blip sound effect (hear it in the video above) and a placeholder “song” of 6 notes to use for testing music. Since this game’s art style is based on the Game Boy, I did some research on the Game Boy’s sound capabilities.

It has four “instruments” that can play sounds simultaneously, aka “channels”:

Channel 1 and 2: Pulse Channel. Each can emit a quadrangular wave

Channel 3: “Wave” channel with user-definable waveform

Channel 4: A noise wave (think static)

Channel 3 is the most fascinating imo. You can define your own timbre of the sound to be played. If you ever played a Game Boy game that had a unique-sounding song that, chances are it was a custom waveform via this channel. (Also, if you ever played Mother 3, the movie theater part with the retro-sounding music did in fact use the original Game Boy audio capabilities in the Game Boy Advance, and also includes these sounds.)

There is software that can reproduce the capabilities described above in order to create Game Boy-sounding music on a PC. I’d like to experiment with that in the coming weeks. The Game Boy was capable of some really good music. Limiting my scope to its capabilities for the same of my own sanity, plus the flexibility of that wave channel to create custom sounds, seems like it can produce some really nice results, which is very appealing to me.

Graphics

I made a font! It only includes English letters, for now, but it works! I used it in the “Save Pointy” art earlier this week and the prototype video above, and intend to use it for everything going forward.

Closing

And that’s June! Have a nice July, everyone!

[king-fae]

Introduction Post

Updated 12.22.23

name: Oberon

pronouns: they/he

occupation: CS student, gamedev hobbiest

misc about: 20 y.o, neurodivergent, transmasc, midwesterner, witch

what this blog is for: documenting my gamedev journey, as a form of both self discipline and fun. if i post about it: then it exists. otherwise: it lives in my head rent free. also sharing and saving queer videogame projects

what im passionate about: stories revolving around faeries, pirates, witchcraft, and otherwise fantastical and/or fictionalized elements. amplifying and creating stories by and about queer people.

programming details: primarily studying and using C++, Python, and Godot. currently a CS minor, will be a first-year CS major next year. general free-program and open-source enthusiast, and user of Krita, Pixelorama, Blender, Twine, and more to be added and/or discovered.

interests: worldbuilding, traditional art forms, fiber arts, videogames, psychology

tagging system: WIP

#kingsoriginal : posts made by yours truly, to seperate from reblogs

#kingsreblogs : vice versa of above

#kingsdesign : posts about design progress and processes, may post sketches and wips on occasion

#kingscode : posts about coding stuff im learning about or am writing

blog disclaimer:

NO "AI". no exceptions: no training, "inspiration", etc. all art of mine, posted or otherwise, is my own creation, and i will always credit my inspiration sources directly. anyone found to be disrespecting this boundary will be blocked and reported.

[jjeinn-tae]

Notice of Hiatus

Hello, followers of Jjeinn, J'ardscape, and Pulsonic Dreams I am Eibon, Jjeinn's close friend and roommate, and I have unfortunate news. A few days ago, Jjeinn was a victim of a Hit-and-Run while on a bike. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and is currently in the hospital. She will be undergoing treatment and eventually rehabilitation, and will not be online for the foreseeable future. For her privacy we will not be answering any questions or monitoring this account. If she wishes, we may post updates on her behalf, if she asks. J'ard has been a large part of Jjeinn's life for many years and its progress has brought her great joy, so thank you for your continued interest and support. -Eibon

[swolesanctum]

water shader 2nd pass DONE!!!!

took me a whole day to get the gerstner waves and experimenting w the shader to achieve the foam ripples thingy but I'm so happy that I pushed through to get sorta similar to what's in the octopath screenshot. I changed the colors again only for visibility, and changed the water normal map. for the foam ripples, I had just used a caustics jpg, masking out w the distance field node. the foam ripples are an emissive. it doesn't really look like much has changed from the last prog report but I learned a lot w trial and error alone and it's helping me remember a ton i've forgotten abt shaders. the outline fades out in the sharp corners but the platforms are going to be more organically shaped so I don't think it'll be an issue. might make the outline thinner as well but I kept it for now also for visibility.

I hate to say it but I'm not even sure if I will keep it in the end, I don't even know anymore how it'll all look when it's all done, I'm starting to really just play by ear. but I think the lighting pass is going to be very critical in helping me make judgements on some of the stylistic choices. but for now it's definitely staying!!

I'm going to tackle lighting next. it's probably the area in my to-do list that I have the least experience in. but I also think it's one of my favorite things abt visual dev. I hope to learn a lot from it.

[quiet-cabin]

Progress Report 11/19 - 11/25

Started & Finished chapters 11 and 12!

Just One chapter left!! (and a v short epilogue)

Jace feels really hopeful about getting the draft for the game's script done by the end of November and Rob has plans to start tackling some new sprites by mid-December!

That's extra exciting cause then maybe we'll have something more fun (and visual) to share besides me yelling wordcounts at you (Jace has written 20k this month and with the exception of a 1k or so, it's pretty much all been for Omamori!)

See ya next week!

[hummingbird-games]

Round of applause please for struggling to give you this rather...plain looking chart...thing LOL 😭🤣 (I couldn't figure out how to change the colors!!! We’ll tackle that another day I guess. Or go with a dummy-friendly program next time.)

Art assets category has an asterisk because one, 1) 3 backgrounds in particular look off to me so I gotta fix them and 2) I couldn’t decide if wanted to count [redacted] sprites because technically the game could release without them. But I don’t want it to. 

...Tumblr you’re special to me, [redacted] sprites are just the party outfits! 🤣 If you watched the trailer you know Billie mentions a party, and it just didn’t feel right to me to have everyone in their usual clothing. Also, some defining things happen at said party for MC, so it’s a pretty important scene in my opinion.

stay tuned for an actual Screenshot Sunday post today!

[misskindhearted-project]

Miss KindHearted on your smart fridge? - Technical progress report

I made a lot of progress building up all the back-ends needed to make the game in Godot, things you take for granted in VX Ace like game saving and pausing; it all had to be coded from scratch. In return we get a lot of freedom in what we can do, and hopefully we will be able to share some of the things we made next week, including (but not limited to):

* Title screen + intro animation * Scene switching (Transitioning between maps) * Dialogue system * The pause menu (partial) * Saving and loading the game * Animated player sprite (As seen in earlier posts)

All UI work will come with sweet animations and transitions, of course we’re trying our best to still stay true to the rpg horror style but there will a lot of small quality of life improvements and bits that will make you go “hey that’s not rpg maker!“ like the fact that we are not using grid based movements anymore.

~Here’s a picture of the game running in the browser for no reason at all, final game will ship as binary on Windows and Linux (Maybe MacOS too)~

Future plans: I will continue programming and plan on doing more game play focused things once the UI is finalized while Wilders is creating maps and assets and will continue doing so.

School is starting so expect less activity as usual. Have a good day.

written by @imrutha​

[meganutmega]

Hi tumblr! I'm nutmeg.

I'm an amateur gamedev and 3D artist. Here I'll upload short devlogs, progress reports, and various artwork.

You can find more of my work on my itch page:

Or my (relatively inactive) Newgrounds page.

Here are some pictures of my work:

[dinomelt-blog]

Let’s Remake Everything!

More than once (and specially on a looong project), as one grows and develops better and more efficient ways to make things (an evolving artstyle, a cleaner way to program, new approaches to world and level design…), it becomes reaallly tempting to just go back and re-do the whole thing.

During the 2+ year development cycle of Dinomelt, this has happened more than once: The protagonist, Gwrep, had a complete sprite-re-drawing halfway through the project. Also, recently, plenty of the main background assets and platfoms got a color, line and overal polish update, so that most aspects of the game had a more consistant line. As an example, take a look at this gif from version 0.4 (late 2015!)

It was looking and working fine, but the animations on the protagonist, Grwep, weren’t the most convincing, they were stiff, and the ‘run’ was a bit off... Months later I went over its whole group of animations to make them smoother with stronger poses, and a better sense of weight (specially on the runcycle).

In that sense, my current goal is to get this release DONE before I get the ‘itch’ of remaking everything again, otherwise, you may expect the game to take another year or even more!!