• NormalHumanLikeYou [undecided]
    ·
    1 year ago

    i've tried to look into making games, and i don't even know where to start, i do shitty drawing tablet art sometimes but every time i look into learning how to code or what engine to use its like an infinitely expanding labyrinth of advanced hyperdorks proselytizing their particular software or programming language. the last time i did programming it was in Visual Basic. I'll probably just keep smoking weed and working instead since i'm not one of the chosen select few with enough free time/resources/connections/natural talent/social support/mental stability to have or learn any real skills, and even if i did it would probably take hundreds of other people working in concert to even make a graphically simple game that works, and there's no way i could ever get into a position of leadership or decisionmaking in that scenario. the working conditions in the industry are so bad i wouldn't even want to do it professionally, i just want to make stupid indie games about robot explosions and lasers as a hobby (or maybe as an exercise in existential dread)

    • da_gay_pussy_eatah [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I mean look, I can't promise I'll actually follow through to help you with anything bc I'm a mess, but I'm a pretty good programmer (not game dev but whatever), and I love helping people, so feel free to pitch your artistic vision to me and if we vibe then maybe I can help with that?

      • NormalHumanLikeYou [undecided]
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        edit-2
        1 year ago

        idk how feasible it is to actually work on something like this over a lefftist forum with people that likely live in different countries or parts of the country but i'll elucidate my idea for fun. incoming leftist meme of text.

        the basic concept is to make an FPS game that intentionally de-emphasizes graphical fidelity to focus on gameplay. I'm talking like, original DOOM style sprite graphics, where the characters (and maybe vehicles) are 2d rotating images in a relatively low-poly 3d world. I'm a huge nerd for vehicle combat, mechs, and combined arms gameplay, so the end goal would be something just about battlefield scale with relatively large player (or just NPC if multiplayer is unfeasible) counts and enterable vehicles. It seems like a game with primarily 2d sprite graphics for characters and vehicles would make it easier to implement this, any vehicle is just a different first person HUD/cockpit screen with different movement rules and scales and weapons and controls and art assets (lol 'just'). A lot of this is inspired by Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (neat game with trash politics, a major planet or system is named 'Thatcher' if that tells you anything), which was an FPS game focusing on power armor pilots, that had the aforementioned sprite graphics in a 3d world. That game had jumping, sprinting, and jetpack boosters, all improvements over DOOM which couldn't even have floors of a level on top of each other. I don't really have any specific ideas for a story or anything yet, just ideas about aesthetics, as I think the game's development should primarily focus on getting gameplay to work well and feel good before anything else, few people play FPS action games primarily for plot. Another inspiration for this is Brigador, which has an amazing pixelated art style for an isometric tank combat game, and while i doubt i could pull off even a fraction of that games style (i read an article about how they did it, it was wile, they had to convert 3d models into 2d lighting data or something), it has activated in me a hunger for similar graphics but in FPS form.

        for gameplay specifics, i would focus on movement abilites (like going prone, leaning, crouching, sprinting, jumping, and ledge mantling for both infantry and humanoid mechs; traditional vehicles would handle as expected, depending on whether they are wheeled or tracked or hover or fly), as well as weapon use. i have several ideas for weapon types and which one should be the 'bread and butter' of the setting, but i think playtesting with experimental builds may be necessary to come to final conclusions regarding this. I've always been intrigued by the idea of an FPS that heavily features 'smart guns' like the smart pistol in titanfall, which would force players to focus more on ranging and maneuvering around their opponents sightlines, rather than just the ability to move a crosshair and click on reflex, which is the central skill in most FPS games. another idea would be to focus on laser weapons, which would all be hitscan weapons (they impact instantly where aimed with no ballistic flight time) and could hypothetically allow for unique gameplay like cutting through buildings/doors, reflecting off of reflective surfaces, or unique damage mechanics like needing to keep a continuous laser beam on target for a while to take it out. Another possibility is emphasizing the use of explosive projectiles with large area of effect, like grenade/rocket/missile launchers or artillery guns, which would focus the gameplay on stealth and awareness (different vision modes? zoomable camera pods? drones?) and would encourage units to spread out farther instead of clustering up. I haven't really decided this and perhaps all these weapon types along more conventional weapons would go well together. I also haven't decided how exactly aiming should work, whether it should be classic FPS style with a immobile (or mostly immobile) crosshair in the middle of the screen, where the screen view is moved with the mouse to change the aim point, or whether more old school RPG controls where keys control both turning and strafing movement as well as angling up/down, and the mouse is used to move an aiming cursor on screen freely, or even to interact with cockpit/HUD elements like periscope covers or light switches or vision modes, etc. Maybe different schemes would be ideal for different classes of playable character/object type (whether infantry or vehicle), or could be separate toggle-able modes for everything.

        theres a lot of more specific ideas floating around in my head but this is my attempt at summarizing. i think multiplayer and networking would probably be the hardest task to achieve, with enemy and friendly AI being a close second, and even more mundane parts of the game would likely take a team to accomplish. i could probably do a bunch of the sprite art myself, idk anything about 3d graphics and lighting and animations though. i've dabbled in blender and flash to not much avail. I don't know how much easier game dev has become with new programs and computers, i'm vaguely aware of how much work and people it took to make the games i've referred to, and i'm sure it would be much harder than anticipated especially for an indie dev or even group without much experience.

    • Riffraffintheroom [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Just do a babby's first game tutorial series on youtube that will take you through the basic concepts and practices of game-making. Use unity or unreal because they'll have the most and best quality documentation. Just enjoy making micro-games for the time being, the key to getting good at anything is to start with small, finishable projects.

    • SerLava [he/him]
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      1 year ago

      Apparently basic games are relatively really fucking easy to make now because of Unity, and don't even necessarily need programming but it's still complicated enough that I haven't dipped into it.

      I have wanted to make a joke game that is just a menu and like 5 seconds of gameplay though, I think I could do it. I think most of the work would be making the sprites

      • Riffraffintheroom [none/use name]
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        1 year ago

        I have wanted to make a joke game that is just a menu and like 5 seconds of gameplay though, I think I could do it. I think most of the work would be making the sprites

        Sort of like There Is No Game?

        • SerLava [he/him]
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          edit-2
          1 year ago

          So basically it's an animated intro screen, a character select screen with 4-5 characters, and then a rudimentary fighting game with like 2 moves per character and a simplistic walking back and forth animation for each character.

          The characters are all average people, and one of them is like an old guy with a pistol.

          The enemy is a 20 foot tall 4 legged winged demon.

          When you play the game the demon waits like 3 seconds before swinging a giant green-flaming weapon down and in front of him and turns you into dust. There are 3 rounds and you automatically die every time

          The vast majority of the work would be manually animating like 30 frames of this demon. It wouldnt even need any kind of hitboxes or anything like that. All the attacks do nothing

          I actually already animated a weird sort of fighting game character select screen with breathing pixel art characters and faked dynamic lighting and stuff, was pretty fun. It was in html/CSS/js though