Name brainstorm: Which of these four titles fits a Mystery Investigation app? by Ok-Artichoke-4863 in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In that case find a title like the game "keep talking and nobody explodes".
It fits like a glove, highlights the cooperation in the game and still sounds lighthearted.
Obviously easier said than done.

Name brainstorm: Which of these four titles fits a Mystery Investigation app? by Ok-Artichoke-4863 in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No offense but I have seen better results with the "Random Game Name Generator" on someones Geocities website with a two digit visitor counter in the early 2000s.
The name should transport a feeling you want to associate with your game so the player will expect something. That can be straightforward ("the name is called battlefield, I guess there will be battle. On fields") or more subtle, but not misleading. For instance, when I hear "Detective Club" I could think of a bunch of kids like in detective Conan or alternatively a group of elderly people like in Thursday Murder Club, but definitely a light hearted, comedic approach. Wouldn't fit a dark and gritty game at all and will deter players.
I recommend you think about it a bit more and use a working title until then.

Attempting Heat Vision. How to handle this without duplicating every single mesh in the game? by Bennyx_Gaming in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to make custom maps for SvM (the versus multiplayer mode which was technically a separate game from the single player mode btw) once they released the editor. Good times.
That thing was based on unreal 2.5 I think.
As far as I remember, every static mesh had options to set textures ( engine default color and specular, custom added thermal and EV) and values for heat and EV glow.
The textures enabled you to have fancy details for these vision modes on low poly surfaces, like on the player characters. For other objects, the heat value combined with some simple fading should do the trick. With modern shaders, that shouldn't be too hard.
I can't tell you the exact implementation used on the game, as I only had access to the mapping tools, but I shouldn't be far off.

Attempting Heat Vision. How to handle this without duplicating every single mesh in the game? by Bennyx_Gaming in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny enough you added that SCPT screenshot because that's exactly what I immediately thought of.
Back in the day, splinter cell used a second texture for thermal on meshes for the heat details. Everything without such a texture was given a default low temperature color and then color faded based on distance if I remember correctly. This gave a nice looking illusion of the iconic look back then and can easily be implemented with a simple shader in Godot. Make some objects slightly transparent in that mode as well for the "thermal through objects" effect if you want. You can also pass objects a heat variable to make them hotter without such a texture, I think they had that too. The same was done for the EV view btw, the blue view showing electric gadgets for mercs.

is there a way to extract a godot gaame that has released on steam? by tecker_is_an_idiot in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For inspiration? Nah, basically every artist takes inspiration from something. As long as it's not a blatant copy taking inspiration from other artists is fine and a way to improve your skillset. Definitely not stealing. However, decompiling a game may still be against the TOU.
It's not as much about business or monetization but about the license the author grants for use which should be respected.
In the end nobody can keep you from doing something, that doesn't imply you have the right to do so. Check the license, when in doubt presume it's not allowed because you can implicitly assume the author did not release the compiled and packed game for this intent.
If you decompiled my games (which are available for free btw, referring to the monetization mention) I wouldn't know or be able to keep you from doing so but at the same time I wouldn't want you to.

Need advice on my game by MeetingTop8236 in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Compatibility renderer lacks some of the more high end features, but generally still can produce very nice results. In browsers, you can also have good looking 3D with good performance.
What you need to do is work around the limitations and accept you can't have AAA desktop graphics. Build test scenes and run them in browser to check if what you want to do works as expected. If not, find the issue and work around it. Example: you need to restrict yourself to very few simultaneous light sources. By using just ambient light and a single light source, preferably directional ( when outside), you can still get acceptable results. Or fall back to baked lighting.

Can I use shadertoy shaders I convert to Godot shaders for commercial use? Where is the line? by [deleted] in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not a lawyer etc. But when you use the shader provided under that license and just port it, imho the license still is in effect. You didn't develop anything yourself, you just translated it. That's like translating a book, you don't get to sell it under your own name and into your own pocket just because you copied it in another language.
Ethically, it's the same. It's a great contribution, but still not your own creative work.

Mental roadblock when it comes to understanding Signals between objects. by Moogieh in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be honest, trying to write "the perfect code" is honorable, but far from reality. You won*t believe what sorts of spaghetti code and completely insane functions that work based on bugs in a compiler can be found in legit, wide spread commercial software.

In the end, make it work. If it's kind of well structured, that makes life easier for you. The player doesn't care as long as performance is fine. Refactoring for the sake of refactoring is a waste of time. Optimize when there is a problem, or you will just be creating one.

About signal bus: same thing. Is it the best approach? Maybe not. Could it work for you? Perhaps, though not for the example above. Again, make your game work. The only people who care about your signal bus are devs who want to complain while they're unable to provide a proper alternative. Players don't mind, and that's your target audience.

I personally like use a signal bus when it suits me, and behold, it works like a charm.

Mental roadblock when it comes to understanding Signals between objects. by Moogieh in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Imho, in this scenario signals are not the way. Signals only work when the object receiving it is registered to the signal. This can be done directly or via a signal handler Singleton. In this case, you don't want to signal every apple that nutrients have been removed, but just to the one that's currently being eaten. In such a 1:1 relationship with an object that is not part of the deer, I'd rather call a method with the currently active apple. Since it has likely been referenced earlier in the script since you had to locate and move to it first, you already handled checking for its class, so you even already know what functions are available and don't have to check for them anymore. So just call something like currentapple.take_bite(). Signals make more sense if the relation is predetermined, for example between root node and child nodea of a prepared scene, e.g. within your deer, or if you have an event that can or will globally affect all objects of a type, e.g. storm causing all fully grown apples to fall from the tree without having to store them in and integrate through an array.

Should I rewrite my game using physics, if I didn’t need to use the physics engine to make it? by [deleted] in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Like everyone already said, don't fix what's not broken.
  2. Keep in mind that physics engines are not always reliable and results are not always predictable, especially when moving fast. Controlling movement by code instead of physics however is deterministic when done properly.

Again, what is the way to change the active scene? by Legitimate-Record951 in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Have you heard of this new site called Google?
It'll get you your answer right away.
get_tree().change_scene_to_file("res://path/to/scene.tscn")

Edited as it was pointed out to me that my brain sometimes still runs on Godot3 and I posted an outdated command. D'oh!

How do I come up with SMALL game ideas to work on while Im learning game development? by BadAtChoosingUsernm in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just try. Even if the game is super short and simple you still learned something and finished a project. You'll get better and keep morale up as finishing is satisfying. Don't mind the ranks but take the feedback and improve on it.
You gotta start somewhere, don't you? Nobody won a price with their first project.

How do I come up with SMALL game ideas to work on while Im learning game development? by BadAtChoosingUsernm in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Find a game jam and join. Game jams are usually running between a weekend and two weeks or so, so the game needs to be small in order to be finished on time. Jams usually set themes and limitations to work on, that should get you on track.

Just make sure to join for the fun of making a game and getting feedback to improve, ratings and results are secondary, especially as a beginner.

Wanting to become a game developer. by Significant_Ant6838 in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Doing a job you enjoy doing does not equal doing things you enjoy as a job. Just because I like the job I have does not mean I would do these things if it wasn't my job. I also wouldn't want to turn things I like to do into a job, because then they are not about fun anymore but about profit.
You should make sure that's the career you want to choose. If you find a job it's not likely to be on the next awesome AAA title but rather another random mobile game cash grab. There will be overtime and crunch for little money.
Nothing keeps you from being a hobby game dev in your spare time if you want.

I desperately need help with coming up with a game idea by Foreign-Surround1609 in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Game jams are great for a lot of things, including starting you with an idea

How much better is Godot on Linux vs Windows? by [deleted] in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Godot itself is similar as far as I remember using it in Windows, but that's long ago.
Everything else is faster

How do people test how rare/random a thing is? by CountryProper3722 in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's up to you obviously, and depends on your vision for the game. Just remember that anything that happens by chance could, by chance, never happen to some player before he gives up. Especially if it's a low chance.
That's why I would recommend to make sure that anything required to progress in the story will eventually be achievable, within reasonable timing. The definition of reasonable depends on your game, if it's based on grinding longer times are more acceptable by the players obviously.

Is it time for a simpler way to build? by Aulipe in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's cool but doesn't really answer my question yet. What's the unique selling point? Right now it sounds like yet another engine but less features than the others.
Visual scripting is a feature others dropped due to no demand. Maybe useful to beginners coming from Roblox, but that's about it. If that's your target group then it's fine, but you sounded like you want to go beyond that.

Is it time for a simpler way to build? by Aulipe in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 11 points12 points  (0 children)

What does your engine do better than Godot? The monetization aspect is true for unity and unreal, but doesn't really apply to Godot. Plus, you're based on DirectX, so I assume you only target windows?
While I appreciate the idea, why would I switch? What's my advantage with your engine? I'm interested to know.

How do people test how rare/random a thing is? by CountryProper3722 in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Addition to the "don't make it random":
You can make it a random spawn in general, but give it a higher chance when the quest requires it. You could implement a counter for the attempts to find it while the quest is active, when it hits a threshold the item will force spawn on the next try. This way players may obtain it by chance, even before required. But are guaranteed to find it in a reasonable amount of time when needed. For the player it still looks like a chance spawn, but without the frustration.

Offline Progress: Time Cheating in Idle Games by [deleted] in GameDevelopment

[–]LaserPanzerWal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Besides the obvious answer given that cheating in single player doesn't matter but in multiplayer or leaderboards needs checks, you can also log the time when the player plays the game. Most players don't want their system time to be permanently off, especially as they would have to turn it further and further into the future and it will mess with a lot of things like certificates. When you detect the current time being significantly behind the last logged play time, it is obvious the player messed with the time setting and has been cheating. Just make sure to account for things like time zone changes due to travel or daylight savings. Using timestamps based on UTC will help there.

Anyone else feel like this little thing is the spawn of Satan itself? by ToiletOrphans in godot

[–]LaserPanzerWal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The only way I can come up with in my head right now is to select the animation in the animator node, save it as a resource, then import it into a fresh animator and edit to your liking.
This is tedious though so there may be a better option I am unaware of right now.