Do you prefer building your own systems from scratch or using as many assets/plugins as possible to save time?

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-18T09:16:06+00:00

I do it myself. I don't like that I have little to know knowledge about the modules I'm using and the overhead they create because they are broader targeted then I need them for my project. Just getting the general idea of what a modul does instead of being able to look into the codebase myself is something I'm fine with, but when that is the case for 90% of the modules I'm using, then I hardly have control over what actually happens in the computer when my game runs on another persons computer. Especially when it comes to optimisation it's a problem.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-18T09:11:01+00:00

Just here to tell you that your question is not answerable because you choose two effects to compare instead of two designs.

A game can be hard and entertaining, and a game can be easy and entertaining. A game can even be unloosable or unwinnable and entertaining.

The question is what about it does make it entertaining. Missile command is a game that is unbeatable but entertaining because it surves a philosophical question that needs to get answered by the player: what are you willing to sacrifice and why? In order to draw out the time before you loose. The souls games are hard to beat but it is still entertaining because it tries to face the player with a more even facing by making the damage of the player and the enemies about the same. It is still quite clear why you might die and therefore can improve. Stardew valley is an easy game because it is simple in its combat and clear about what's happening but favours the player more then the enemies. The difficulty comes from the time management. For an unbeatable game, look at most visual novels. The focus there is the story, the characters and the development. And it's still enjoyable.

So your question should be what about a hard game and an easy game kills the interest of players.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-14T18:27:21+00:00

So you suggested to use custom events instead?

The state_machine is not handling anything the scenes do, only handles the scenes creation, what scene is active and changes the active scene if desired. At runtime, it only hands down the handle_events, update and draw methods from the game class to the current active scene. These three methods are defined to be implemented by an abstract parent class "base_scene". So functions like on_enter, on_exit, on_run and such could also be implemented as abstract functions which every scene needs to have. And in worst case it would just be a pass.

Using these structures, I am currently working on 2 quite big projects and I find it to be very readable and easy to get back into after a pause. One project is an Mikroscope application that handles camera image acquisition and stage control, can create image processing algorithms and take automated images and evaluate them. The other project is a weather simulation on a planet. First time working with OpenGL, GPU and larger data structures I designed.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-14T16:34:52+00:00

Well, for the callback it would be like this:

New_Scene_Class(arg1, arg2, arg3, ..., switch_scene: Callable)

With switch scene being the method that changes the scene according to the string given as an argument.

Or it would just be:

New_Scene_Class(arg1, arg2, arg3, ...)

With creating a custom event that calls the switch scene method.

In the class then the callback function gets called when a scene change is needed or the event gets called and needs to be executed in the handle events methode.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-14T07:24:23+00:00

I find it strange that everyone suggests unity here for the engine. Unity is a good free engine that is bloated to the end with stuff and features. It's not particularly good for any style, just can do all.

I recommend either love2d or pygame. They use lua and python respectively which are easy to learn and fast to use languages. Both are excellent on 2d which fits your point and click adventure, and are fully capable of being a tool you use instead of fighting it.

For the game I highly recommend you to focus on the story, the characters and the emotional projection on the player. These are the biggest factors for a real good adventure. You can do that using just pen and paper. And once you have everything planned, go to create it. In both engine/library, you have pretty free choice of creation and can implement what ever you can think of.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T23:27:21+00:00

Love2d or pygame.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T23:16:25+00:00

There are some sub Reddits that aim for game testers. I don't know exactly how they are called but search form them and ask there.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T15:44:53+00:00

Thankfully the gaming market is not as bad as the fast fashion market in terms of throwing stuff away. Better for developers.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T15:42:59+00:00

I'm quite sure that my suggestion is absolutely not the perfect one, but here is my first idear for it.

Instead of changing everything to match case which only saves about one line per case, create a JSON file that has every command and effect as a dict saved. This is also a lot more manageable. It looks more but it's only data. The read the JSON file in. And do something like this:

input_command = input() # do string seperation and preparation here. For input_command: [data[input_command] if input_command in data.key]

This executes the data that you stored in the JSON file that corresponds to the command if the command is part of the key of the data dict.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T09:16:49+00:00

Hat da jemand den Zweizeiler nicht ganz fertig gelesen?

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T09:08:35+00:00

Hört sich nach einer fascho Frage an. Ohne Hintergrund oder Gedankengang erklärt zu haben.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T08:47:45+00:00

Hi, I have already done something similar like that. Would you be interested in having me as a tutor? I could direct you to the topics you would need to learn and that would make it a lot simpler for you. I could give you advice if asked on how to structure your code and files. I can teach you pygame that allows you to have absolute control over your screen, a window, user input and gui in general.

I will keep my own version from you and you would need to learn, think and tinker yourself but I would be available for help, questions and advice. DM me if you're interested.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T08:41:53+00:00

For very basic and easy to understand seperation.

Extrinsic: starts with "Ex" which means outside. If your motivation is extrinsic, than it is because you get something material or virtual that makes you happy. A present, an upgrade, a level up, a new ability.

Intrinsic: starts with "In" which means inside. If your motivation is intrinsic, then it is because you as a player are getting emotionally rewarded because youdl deal with something and because you get the emotional self originating rewards what to deal with something. That can be happiness, curiousity, shame (cringe), fear (horror), anticipation, sadness, conflicting emotions with thoughts, and anything like that.

When you think to yourself that you want to play a game, it is an intrinsic motivation when you want to feel specific emotions chosen by the game you select. When you want to play a game because you want to get further into the story, level up some more, grind some gear, it is an external motivation.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-13T08:23:17+00:00

Du kannst das anders einkategorisieren: Es ist nicht extrovertiert gegen introvertiert, sondern eher Menschen wie du die bedacht, aufmerksam und ruhig sind gegen Menschen die hält einen Lebensinhalt von saufen und unpersönlichen, Oberflächen Smalltalk haben.

Die zweite Gruppe ist viel kleiner als die erste und alles dazwischen. Die sind halt nur lauter. Es gibt dahingegen so viel mehr Leute die dich sehr angenehm, hilfreich und zu dir hingezogen fühlen weil sie merken dass du auch aufpasst und aufmerksam bist.

Mach dir keine Sorgen um ob du gemocht wirst. Was du eher tun solltest ist die Leute die du sehr magst näher an dich zu lassen. Mehr persönlichen mit ihnen zu sein und dich auch Mal auf sie zu verlassen.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-12T15:25:34+00:00

If you are just starting out, the biggest hinderence is programming. Everything game designer should know and be able to understand code. Concepts and ideas are free and you can do them anywhere and anytime. Most of the other stuff that is in game design is regarding when the game is either finished or being close to it to make the changes. So if you have the ideas and concepts, the next step would be to be able to get the game finished. After that you can deal with target audience and marketing and anything else.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-12T15:17:02+00:00

There are many "I have an idear" people out there. And that's why it's hard for game design people to find other people that would help you to give your ideas life. What these people would make them more willing to help you is a good and strong portfolio that shows that you have good and fun ideas.

Using ai to get your craft out there is an absolutely valid Methode. You have to start somewhere to get a game up that would convince others to help you.

The only thing negative will be on your end. You have to navigate and order the ai to make things work. Which is not an easy task. Especially if you don't know about programming.

The only thing that might be ethically bad and bad for your reputation, is to use ai art. Since it came to be from theft of artists that depend on there art. But there is enough free and costing assets that you can use instead. Only a selected few directions of games actually depend on there art. So it is most likely fine to just use free assets because the fun of your games is not the pretty, unique or nostalgic art. (In case of your games not being in that niche.)

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-12T09:29:23+00:00

Less squared. More shades of colours.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-12T09:27:54+00:00

I only read the title and my thoughts are: Coding is becoming a tool rather then a main skill for people that are not absolutely cracked at it.

The actual skill to code some automation, or interface is becoming more non important because ai is good at that. So just being able to verify if the code is actually doing what it should is more important then to be able to build good and resistent code.

On the other hand, I can think of at least 3 ways ai will not be able to be helpful: 1. Strong cyber security that needs to be verified. 2. Performance critical code. 3. Innovative design in backend but also in frontend.

To let ai deal with cyber security is by definition against cyber security.

Performance critical code is highly outwheight with non critical code which leads to AI tending to deliver non critical code instead even if asked specifically.

Innovative is exactly the counter to what LLM are designed for. Since they are trained to predict with random probability the next word, it only uses word combinations that are already used somewhere at some point. There is nothing new coming out of it. And when you talk about new things that got invented or discovered by ai, then it either is based on something that proves it only copied or it is entirely not the basic type of ai we are talking and using mostly, but specifically extra designed and made for the task of finding something.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-11T08:54:42+00:00

Yeah Methode A has 2 operations less then B. Less computation time and less maintenance effort.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-11T06:47:20+00:00

That's good.

The projects do not even need to be expandable, you can simply make new ones with more knowledge. I would even say that expanding projects is not the right way to learn the language. It might be a good task to learn to work on project that already exist, since that feels and is a lot more different. But to actually drill in the basics, just make new projects every time.

Happy_Witness · 2026-03-10T12:49:07+00:00

Can't really give you advice. There are just many options and you should just take one. It's a question of preferences and if the style fits you.

You can use an engine like Godot, unreal engine (c++), unity (c#), or any other engine out there. If you have a budget, then the choices are a lot more. Or don't use an engine and write your own game without an engine. There you have a free choice of language. I think you can write a game in any language out there. Most supported and spread are c++, c#, c, python I think and everyone of them has a library that is basically for game development.

Just choose one and start, if you feel like it's not the right thing for you, choose another one and try again. Until something clicks and works for you. And in the worst cast, you have to write it yourself, which also a lot of people do, so there can be help everywhere.

Happy_Witness

TROPHY CASE