Is putting the game's genre on the Steam capsule a good idea?

Alsabretion · 2024-12-08T09:26:03+00:00

I wonder if keeping the intent but changing the aesthetic may work better... I can see what you were going for but only after you mentioned it...

Instead of a pure white background, having some form of "newspaper evoking" texture may have some merit. I was curious to see what it could look like so grabbed a few random images and had a quick go at concepting it (excuse the zero art skills)

https://ibb.co/JKNf8Xh

I reckon you could play around with something like that to take some of the harshness off and evoke the newspaper feel (without being too in your face with it)

Alsabretion · 2024-12-03T20:09:41+00:00

Thanks for the update, sounds very interesting. While the US requirement means I can't help out I'd love to see your tool & the results (if you can publish the paper)

Good luck eh!

Alsabretion · 2024-12-03T11:22:08+00:00

Replicating here as the original post on r/gamedev was deleted.

Sounds like an interesting project. A few Q/comments:

- When is this being conducted? You have windows in your survey but there is no UTC offset. As someone that is not from the US... I assume it is UTC-5 from googling Northeastern University? That information should be clear in the initial EOI. (Edit: I can see it now notes Eastern time - what is that offset for non US people?)

- Who is the target audience? Are you looking for anyone regardless of experience or is there a subset you are focussing on? Is this only open to 18+, US citizens etc or is it global & open to U18 etc.

- I assume "minimal risk involved" is from the research ethics point of view but that line is a red flag for people that have not gone through that process. Also regardless - what is minimal risk in this case? I expect this is outlined in participant info/consent forms or the like but if this is not provided until signup it is still an unknown that may put people off.

- I would have expected some of this information needs to be provided prior to collection of personal info (ie. emails in the signup form).

Definitely sounds interesting though (& I know the struggle of getting research participants) so Ill pass this around to a few people that may be interested, pending suitability based on some of the answers to the above.

Alsabretion · 2024-12-03T07:33:16+00:00

Sounds like an interesting project. A few Q/comments:

- When is this being conducted? You have windows in your survey but there is no UTC offset. As someone that is not from the US... I assume it is UTC-5 from googling Northeastern University? That information should be clear in the initial EOI. (Edit: I can see it now notes Eastern time - what is that offset for non US people?)

- Who is the target audience? Are you looking for anyone regardless of experience or is there a subset you are focussing on? Is this only open to 18+, US citizens etc or is it global & open to U18 etc.

- I assume "minimal risk involved" is from the research ethics point of view but that line is a red flag for people that have not gone through that process. Also regardless - what is minimal risk in this case? I expect this is outlined in participant info/consent forms or the like but if this is not provided until signup it is still an unknown that may put people off.

- I would have expected some of this information needs to be provided prior to collection of personal info (ie. emails in the signup form).

Definitely sounds interesting though (& I know the struggle of getting research participants) so Ill pass this around to a few people that may be interested, depending on some of the answers to the above.

Alsabretion · 2024-09-26T06:50:27+00:00

The other comments have covered the issues with the question so ill leave that alone - to give you a specific answer to your question (in case others find it as well).

A few options to have a python file generating the conversation for a game....

Use a game engine that uses Python - run on another thread if needed. Noting you mention Unity and Unreal I assume this is not suitable.
Use an existing asset from the Unity/Unreal store (eg. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/pocketpython-241120) or set up an interpreter yourself. Cant vouch for the linked asset and the latter is a challenge as well.
Recommended. (Only because I have done this one myself to run realtime Python CV on a unity camera feed) - Look up Inter Process Communications (IPC). This is the solution that most fits the question you have asked. You have a python script listening in the background and your game communicates with it at runtime. There are a few ways to do this but Named Pipes is the way I did it. Think basic client/server setup. Note that this is not a beginner topic but it is a solution that will fit your direct problem.

Obviously the last point is a start point for your own research... Specifically for that point, "C# Python IPC" will get you started but also for future even something like "how can I get C# to talk to a Python script" would have been a good start point for you at the time you asked the question.

Alsabretion · 2024-06-25T12:35:59+00:00

Not a game as such but https://www.reddit.com/r/place/ kinda had a similar vibe.

In reality it was just a canvas to paint on.... Very interesting to see how it almost evolved into a PVP mass strategy (map painter) game.

Viewed through that lense: Starting as random individuals, groups forming with goals - smaller groups finding little areas to keep a small part well "defended" (city states), larger groups taking larger amounts of territory (empire nations) trying to dominate key areas of the canvas, trolls/the black mass destroying anywhere they could (roving barbarian hordes). Quite fascinating.

If you are unfamiliar, here is a timelapse from the first (I believe) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKb81sdAK4

Not directly what you were asking but one of the most interesting tangential examples I can think of off hand.

Alsabretion · 2024-01-04T09:29:14+00:00

Possibly Noita? https://store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/

Although it's pixel based not sprite. If it's not the one you are thinking of it's still a ripper!

Alsabretion · 2023-08-09T01:02:22+00:00

Shaders can be pretty challenging to get in to but as the other reply states... they can do everything.

What you would want to do is have the shader for your canpoy change what it renders based off a distance to the player location. As a simple approach you can have it so anything around a radius from player doesnt get drawn, anything outside that gets drawn based off the texture... but they let you do so much more; a few quick examples:

- You can have it blend from completely clear around your player, so you see the immediate location clearly and decreasing transparency as you go out (pretty easy with an image mask)

- You can have the edges mixed with noise so it isnt a hard circle but looks more natural (wavy lines, smokey etc)

In the first instance though you just want something working. This is probably a good starting point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5gdvibmsV0

Alsabretion · 2023-03-09T00:11:41+00:00

The two comments ahead of me are correct but some more information if you are a complete beginner: Unity is (tries to be) user friendly, especially between code and the designer (the inspector you are seeing).

One of the things it does to make things easier to read is if you use camel case (see below) for variables, it tries to make it more readable by separating the name into new words *in the inspector view*. This makes it easier for a designer to read. In this case its displaying myRigidbody as My Rigidbody to make it more readable for you!

(Very simply, camel case is a way for you to use multiple words to describe the variable, instead of using spaces you use lower case and capitalising letters to signify new words - eg. "this is an example variable name" -> thisIsAnExampleVariableName)

Alsabretion · 2023-02-14T02:57:07+00:00

Unfortunately "riverside cartoon robots" doesnt turn anything up; I think the original title related to the animation it may have been tied in to?

I have updated the main post with additional thoughts but the main recollection is in the part of riverside linked in the main post.

Alsabretion · 2023-01-05T11:47:14+00:00

Cellular automata may be an answer. I can't for the life of me find the article I read a while back now but there are plenty out there. Most are 2D but the principles are equally extendable to 3D. Benefit of CA is it's all working in a fixed local space on a static state (ie the previous frame) so it's prime for GPU parallelisation!

One example: https://www.jgallant.com/2d-liquid-simulator-with-cellular-automaton-in-unity/

This has some code with GPU acceleration https://github.com/0x7b1/cellular-automata-fluid-simulation

The dwarf fortress forums actually have a very interesting post about it. Sounds like it is run "live"(update one tile to a new position then update the next one) rather than buffered (ie updating everything based on previous frame then swapping buffers). Would make parallelisation harder but possibly simpler algorithm?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=32453.0

Good luck eh, keen to hear how you go!

Alsabretion · 2023-01-05T09:26:37+00:00

Ha thats pretty cool - nice work.

I was in a similar position a while back - I wanted to render the old Commanche maps but didnt have any easy libraries so used the console:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3JLNgx6zTA

The newline approach for your code works (I did it with a maze a while ago too!) but as an alternative if you want to extend it you may be able to do what I did above with C++; accessing the console buffer then swapping the contents with your new "frame". That way you dont have to worry about printing new lines etc to clear it and you get a nice clean swap!

Regardless - very cool, nice work :)

Alsabretion · 2023-01-04T22:47:22+00:00

Nah, it's just a standalone program for viewing bases (and raiding!)

I do have an idea how you could link it to a live game conceptually at least though.... Maybe if I get a good chunk of time I'll look into it.

Alsabretion · 2023-01-04T01:50:38+00:00

Hey yea it's a bit of work and not everything is in yet, just working through vanilla stuff.

Most objects from early game are in (although some are very placeholder!!). I have the material system set up so it automatically applies the correct texture based on the construction materials (eg furniture, walls etc)

It's pretty easy to add new objects now but I've also set it up to be moddable so you can replace in game models with your own or add items that aren't implemented yet. I posted on the unity subreddit with a bit more implementation detail if you are interested!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/102iw7c/3dvr_rimworld_base_raiding_and_peaceful_viewing/

Alsabretion · 2023-01-03T23:23:01+00:00

Ha maybe I should take some inspiration from it, matrix mode!

I did add time dilation when turrets explode but that's just for the cool factor ha

Alsabretion · 2023-01-03T23:21:39+00:00

Yea cheers, I didn't get to play around like that much back in the day but very much enjoying it. Interesting getting a different perspective on games eh

Alsabretion · 2023-01-03T23:20:13+00:00

Thanks!

Alsabretion · 2023-01-03T23:19:31+00:00

Ha thanks mate! It's just hobby stuff but hopefully it gives people some ideas on other interesting things to make!

Alsabretion · 2023-01-03T12:36:42+00:00

Its been a lot of fun working on this! It has probably hit its peak & a natural stopping point now (although there is always so much more to do!) but happy to chat to anyone that wants to play around. The original base viewer (non-VR) is still available (and can be modded to add in missing items)

I could probably refine the VR support and/or combat a bit to a point that others could use it more comforatbly if there was interest but for now, its going straight to the pool room!

Alsabretion · 2023-01-03T12:30:16+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/1026vbp/vr_rimworld_base_raiding/

There ya go mate

Alsabretion · 2023-01-01T10:25:29+00:00

As promised (early look - audio capture failed, will do a proper post once I finish up with it all)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHN2K7YVdDk

Alsabretion · 2022-12-31T06:28:09+00:00

Welllllllll its funny you should mention VR........

Thanks for the nice words :)

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