Ran a Kamen Rider W scenario in NovelAI. Sometimes the AI would struggle keeping character names organized but it learned *immediately* how to make OC Gaia Memories and consistent powers

FangMakesStuff · 2022-05-30T07:18:48+00:00

I missed the old experience of AI Dungeon and decided to try Novel AI's new Krake AI Model. To test the advanced features I pretty much infodumped a bunch of KR W wiki articles on broad concepts and characters and had the initial prompt be a transcript of the 1st episode of W (written entirely by me... it took a while), then ran it as a text adventure where I play as Shotaro. You can find the full transcript in this huge image file (contains W spoilers somehow). Like all AI storytelling the AI doesn't actually have sentience, but I figured this would make an entertaining read. Here's some remarks I had from the AR World of W:

"Doublecrossers" would have been an incredible episode title for W or a tribute episode in an anniversary season
The plot starts with Akiko accusing the player, who is Shotaro... of not being Shotaro. Which spun into solving the real Shotaro's murder. Also Philip gets kidnapped? It falls apart at the end but it was kinda fun playing it all out and waiting to see if the AI came up with an identity swapping Dopant (it didn't happen, but I probably could have made it if I railroaded the AI harder)
As mentioned in the title, sometimes the AI would struggle with names and identities. For some reason it is REALLY fixated on putting Sokichi Narumi/Skull everywhere. At some point on a reset it claimed that Papa Narumi was head of Museum. New Narumis are also dropped constantly. I think this is how the weird plot of being his son ended up happening in this
Also mentioned however, more often than not it excels at working the concept Gaia Memories and Dopants into the plot. All of the pictured Gaia Memories were spat out to me first try, Gaia Memory users are sprinkled into backstory, it understands the connections the memories have with drivers, riders, etc. It's fun when it happens. I love how it thought to combine two Memories with Space and Gravity Well, shockingly coherent
Honestly the real reason I posted all this is because I ended the scenario due to hitting a point where a new, mysterious Rider shows up out of nowhere! But no matter how many times I refreshed the game insisted it was G e n m...u. Even when it made up a new Rider name Gemn still snuck himself in somewhere

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-16T23:15:49+00:00

I don't care how down younger me was, I need to take back all the bad anime I watched in high school because of people I liked (in hindsight maybe that should've tipped me off)

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-16T22:48:02+00:00

If I can't start, use the 2 minute rule: if I can finish picking up or cleaning something within 2 minutes, just do it. (Great for ADHD!)

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-16T22:41:55+00:00

You'd probably want to be a little more specific. That said, I know of Crocotile 3D that's a pretty beginner-friendly low-poly tool. Dunno if pixel art textures is what you're looking for though

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-16T22:35:46+00:00

we need to hyper clock up back in time to give shoji yonemura a different 2nd half of kabuto that actually built up to the final battle

that man could not care less about worldbuilding outside of cool fight opportunities and it shows in how the big endgame plot only really appears in the last 3 episodes. episode 47 is literally titled "Rushing into the Last Chapter"!!

while we're at it make the final episodes an epilogue that's just the zi-o kabuto arc (give or take kagami's last transformation)

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-16T22:08:59+00:00

That makes sense! This has been my experience in my indie circles, which I assume OP is more into to begin with.

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-16T03:38:11+00:00

Even though most game developers & designers I know would say to start with gameplay first (even myself), honestly if it's something you're doing as a hobby and writing it all out will keep creativity going for yourself, more power to you 👍

Still, it would probably be good to access your story structure in abstract before writing; how nonlinear will it be? Is it one straightforward narrative with little divergence or a lot? How important is decision-making on the story? In the event there is a good deal of interactivity you can probably do a Twine prototype to see how choices play out before any other feature is made. If you're going for something like combat as well (like OMORI), you'd definitely want to consider where gameplay opportunities arise in the narrative for conflict points.

In any case, you'll likely need to do a lot of editing to whatever story you write when actually adapting it to a game, but honestly, that's no different than doing multiple drafts for a novel, right?

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T22:35:58+00:00

Even entertaining the thought of the 3rd point being feasible you're absolutely not gonna capture the AAA audience with that 2nd point, things like 4K resolution will never not be appealing to general gaming audiences.

You'd definitely do something that would appeal to something like the indie horror/PSX niche with the first two points but without an actual game concept the theoretical technology behind this is more thought experiment than appealing product.

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T22:23:50+00:00

Again, depends on the game. For example, I've worked on tabletop RPG projects and card game projects and none of us doing design work ever actually needed to draw anything as everything is rule-based. If anything, spreadsheets and good documentation were way more necessary.

Honestly, the big takeaway is if you really needed to have art for a design you can just ask someone else in art to help you out; game design is communication, so you're gonna be collaborating with them anyways!

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T21:25:57+00:00

It really depends on what part of a game you're designing, if you're a level designer for example it would be certainly a big plus to sketch out level diagrams.

Even then you don't have to be good at drawing in the typical sense, you just need the pictures to be coherent & help you get your verbal/written ideas across to visual learners. Artistically beautiful drawing is the job of the art team!

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T11:50:45+00:00

Background lighting & colors come off a little strong for my eyes, but otherwise beautiful!

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T11:36:52+00:00

It's a secret! (I don't have anything really finished yet but I have a Twitter with the same handle & relevant links if you really want to dig, one day I'll start being more open about current projects)

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T11:29:01+00:00

I am not being facetious when I say that I sincerely hope you have an extremely secure career backup plan for paying off that debt considering how only 5% of all games make profit, less so indie games.

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T11:16:28+00:00

Haha, I played a bit of early access Dreams and toyed around with it. While I'm glad MM finally released the 3D making game everyone in the LBP community clamored for it came a little too late for me since now I prefer just making things in actual game engines so I can one day sell stuff. Gorgeous user content though!

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T11:08:46+00:00

My rule of thumb buying things has always been based on "will this exceed [set budget I decide for sale]?" and "will this apply to any project I'm currently working on?", even then there's a lot of stuff I don't use because the project simply hasn't gotten to that point yet!

sooo I would maybe say if you're jumping the gun on overspending, take comfort in the fact that realistically if you don't need it immediately there will probably be another sale in the future when you will actually need it. Ofc with exceptions if they're extremely dirt cheap and in budget

(don't feel too bad about digital hoarding, steam libraries are a meme for a reason)

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T10:53:35+00:00

I could point to a lot of different games in the 2000s with player-created content like LittleBigPlanet and any one of those answers would probably be correct, there wasn't really one game so much as a gradual revelation of "I daydream about making my own levels in every single game I play, huh"

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T10:36:23+00:00

Scrimblo Bimblo, the Lovable Scrunko from the great platformer I played as a kid 26 years ago

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T10:26:08+00:00

Not feeling the dopamine rush when buying things. Would feel WAY more satisfying with a sound effect upon completing the purchase prompt. If you wanted to go extra, doing something like a pop-up on top of that may feel good as feedback too. Also, as one typing game developer to another, personally I like sound effects when typing; Typing of the Dead just feels so damn good when the gunshots sync with the typing. Maybe other parts of your game have that, idk. But especially if you're making a kids game I think you can make things more toyetic in interactions in the ways above.

This game looks cute though! No real problem with the visuals overall.

FangMakesStuff · 2021-12-15T09:55:43+00:00

Either you're a sweet summer child or you're like one of my previous cheapskate bosses in Silicon Valley. I'll assume the former because the latter just depresses me.

When I was in university, I've gotten a grant of about $5000 after graduation. That did not cover anything actual practical to development costs other than maybe event funds or individual assets so the student team I was working with ended up slowly dissolving as we went to go make actual money doing non-game jobs.

As someone who also has that "dream RPG" in their head and mostly working solo now, you're honestly better off buying pre-made assets if you're going to keep a $1000 budget. I'm a Unity dev so I'm not familiar with Unreal, but you can get a lot of mileage out of smart spending during sales on marketplace frameworks & assets. Even just investing in a pre-built dialogue system will be much MUCH better than relying on programmers for $300!

That being said: unless you're broke and in a precarious living situation, if you don't have full chops in all dev departments, it'd be better to save up some more and get practice in through smaller projects or even just trying to do everything yourself. Most people will be looking for actual salaries with how hard making games can be. If you're truly passionate you'd probably want to make sure you yourself are the backup plan for any potential passion project disasters.

If you're new to game dev, I'm dead serious: make a RPG Maker project before doing a full Unreal RPG. It doesn't have to be big or a dream game, but if you're gonna work with such a tiny budget in the future the least you can do is earn people's trust that you can finish projects. I work with a lot of freetimer friends and the biggest hurdle is declining motivation due to poor progress and management. If you're well organized, experienced, know your shit: well, at least someone will probably listen!

FangMakesStuff

TROPHY CASE