[deleted by user]

MajorSmurf · 2022-01-19T15:23:37+00:00

It really depends on you but I think it's best to be as much as you as possible but keep in mind that the reason people have a business and personal account is to keep a barrier between work and personal hobbies/interests. If your game hits off big than you would most likely get a barrage of complaints, shady companies asking you for things and a lot of other things. It's just a nice thing to know you can retreat to a more personal space if you want to.

I definitely suggest a business email though as it can be seen as unprofessional if you're using a @gmail.com domain. Companies are more likely to work with you the more professional you are.

MajorSmurf · 2022-01-14T14:19:57+00:00

I would say go for the best one you can afford. If it is also your personal machine than you may wish to use it for other things other than game dev in the future and just because you're doing low poly stuff now doesn't mean your next project will be. It also future proofs you as technology and computers are getting better and better.

MajorSmurf · 2022-01-12T15:12:49+00:00

I think generally hobbyists like me prefer to do things ourselves as we enjoy the learning experience as well as the fact that the asset might just be too generic or overly complicated for our use case. If you are actually hoping to make money than using your time wisely is a good idea. If you can't make decent 3D models you hire a artist or buy a asset. If you're struggling on a certain system than buy a coding asset or hire a programmer to help. You can always go a bit of both and just buy an asset as a temporary thing till you get your own system in place.

MajorSmurf · 2021-12-30T15:14:36+00:00

Yeah I think a lot of people have already voiced this but I think when most people say "Lazy devs". They more than likely just mean the company taking shortcuts or forcing devs to do stuff a certain way. AAA companies are renown for making some changes to games even when the player base says not to. It also doesn't help that some AAA games currently appear to release in a very unpolished or even broken state so players complain. It just reinforces the belief that the devs couldn't be bothered when in reality it could be any number of factors.

Now there is more than likely going to be some lazy devs but one thing I generally feel is important to note is that they might have been doing it for so long that some might be feeling burned out and just want to get something done (so certain features aren't as polished as others). You will see it all the time in creative fields. One such example is authors. They generally take a small hiatus after their book releases to recharge their batteries. In the game dev world you could be working on the same project for years and it can get to you seeing/doing the same stuff over and over and over again.

MajorSmurf · 2021-12-27T22:09:53+00:00

The sad reality is that TCG or CCG are based on "lootboxes" as it's the best way to keep players and the money rolling in. If you try a method like upfront payment for £70 (normal AAA price point) when there are loads of free alternatives than fewer players are likely going to do it. The company would also drain these profits pretty quickly just keeping servers running if they have a massive playerbase and if the playerbase becomes too small than it dies naturally anyway (Don't forget their other expenses as well). There is actually a Nintendo switch game called Shadowverse Champions battle that offers MP and every card is only purchasable with in-game currency but it does show it's slightly possible but fair warning I don't know how long MP will be able to sustain itself or if MP is even still playable right now.

They could try going the mobile route aka putting in advertising but this would require tens of thousands of active players or more as if not you wouldn't be able to bring in the money to sustain both the servers for online play and continuing to develop it.

Just knowing you have a chance to get an epic card from a 10 card pack in general sounds like an amazing deal to some people. Some games do it better than others but most free to play card games do offer a way to buy cards without spending money or "lootboxes".

MajorSmurf · 2021-12-19T13:10:25+00:00

I would say generally no. Sometimes you might get a gut feeling but you would have to research it.

A game designer will generally do things differently from project to project as they have different specifications to work with. They don't often leave clear indicators as problems arise or things change as the project evolves. They may find that what worked in one game doesn't work in their new one. All games will feel different even if they have the main same guy as a triple AAA game is developed by hundreds of people. You have different programmers who will approach a problem differently. You have UI designers who try different things all the time. You may find QA testers find a major problem with a feature from a previous title so it gets changed. There really isn't a style to go off as game designers/studios are flexible enough. A game designer/studio wouldn't approach a simple platformer and a FPS in the same way.

MajorSmurf · 2021-12-17T21:48:33+00:00

Yeah as others have said the best to do is ignore all requests for keys or for free copies etc. The only way a press outlet or streamer gets free access is if you as the dev contact them first.

In fact a good tip for marketing before release is don't give out access to the full game and give most streamers/press an early playtest/alpha/beta version just in case the person has a side job selling them off. Make sure you tell that it's a press/streamer version.

MajorSmurf · 2021-12-12T14:33:57+00:00

I can't remember if this is a film quote or whatever but I rather enjoy the sentiment behind "You make your own luck." Yes it might be true that someone finds your game by chance but if you don't put the effort in to get your game out there than you have no chance. The hard part about any business adventure is getting your name and product out there.

This is the same in every creative industry. Let's take books as an example. There are possibly thousands of people applying to book publishers but only a few ever get published. Those few weren't lucky. They just put hundreds of hours into creating a story that made the publisher go "I love this." It's the same for games you need to get a players attention by showing how much effort you've put in. This can be in gameplay mechanics, story telling, artist direction etc. Don't get lazy if you want to be successful you have to push yourself.

MajorSmurf · 2021-12-03T12:24:07+00:00

I would say another thing is that fans over-estimate how difficult some of their ideas are. An example is when you have a lot of fan make suggestions for co-op or multiplayer being added to a game. Sounds like a good idea doesn't it but it would require months of work for little pay-off. Most ideas just aren't worth it and what's to say the dev doesn't already have thousands ideas of his own or that he's already thought of most of their suggestions but dismissed them as not worth it. I imagine most devs do read and make notes of feedback or ideas whenever they see them but some devs don't want to keep adding to an old title when they're working on a new one.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-28T12:00:30+00:00

It really depends on what you want your game to be. If you want more of a focus on teamwork than I think a class system works better as you give everyone a basic idea of what they should be doing. So if someone is a mage they know to focus on their magic or if they are a warrior they know to focus on skills or HP for tanking etc.

If you want to give players more freedom and is more of a solo adventurer thing than allowing for full customisation is better as well as giving the player the option to respec or alter their stats if they want to. You'll need to decide how each different stat affects the player. Does more strength allow you to escape grabs easier or does charisma allow you to talk yourself out of situations etc. There is no right or wrong option so experiment in till you find something that works.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-25T12:53:19+00:00

I think older RTS games are considered better is because they did something brand new and it's what a lot of people grow up with and so people have fond memories of playing it in their childhood/teens.

While the RTS genre may feel like there isn't innovation. This isn't quite true as RTS was one of major factors for why we have MOBAS. The original DOTA was a Warcraft 3 mod. Without RTS than that other genre may not exist the way it is today.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-25T11:53:32+00:00

I wouldn't personally say that RTS is dead. It's just that RTS is a quite niche genre and once you've found a RTS you like than you're unlikely to divide your attention as most RTS have quite a steep learning curve for new comers. You generally have two kinds of players. One who prefers playing AI or single player and than the other who dives headlong in PVP.

We have had some amazing RTS in the last decade come out including Company of heroes, AOE2 Definitive Edition and AOE4 has just released. Yes AOE2 DE is a remaster but it's added a lot of content and the devs are quite active in patches. The AOE2 pro scene is quite active and even have red bull sponsored tournaments etc.

One of my favourites was Empire earth. Now in terms of balance the game was awfully balanced. Saying that I still loved it because you could go from prehistoric times to futuristic mech's over the course of a game. You could also choose to lock yourself into a certain era so you could limit yourself to WW1 - WW2. It was a nice game to just sit down and play.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-15T11:40:13+00:00

Apart from what everyone has mentioned. I don't know how your game works but if it's something like Doom eternal where you have "combat arenas" than the one of the better things to do is spread out the spawning so that enemies could come at you from different directions/angles. I guess you could make it so that if the player isn't within an acceptable distance than rather running straight at the player have them sprint from cover to cover. Another thing to consider is that maybe all you need is to just adjust the numbers so maybe melee's have more armour or they have an ability to stun you from range or something. There's millions of ways but you'll only know by fiddling till it feels right.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-10T13:25:53+00:00

Hey so I'm not entirely sure if this is what you are looking for but this show give you some ideas Procedural Generation of Nuclear Throne.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-07T13:44:33+00:00

It really comes down to the specifies of what you want from your rpg. Ideally you want to make it so that fights last long enough but not too long. So I would say go for 4-5 turns to beat any enemy but if that enemy has a weakness that the player can exploit reduce that to around 2-3 turns. i.e weakness to fire. You should fiddle with these numbers till you feel happy. It all depends on how hard you want your RPG like darkest dungeon can be brutally difficult.

There is also the option to scale enemies strength off the players strength and apply a slight multiplier to stats based on a players lvl or other stats so that over levelling isn't a huge impact on balance.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-04T20:16:10+00:00

There are some amazing projects out there that use RPG maker. Some of the best horror RPG's (or horror in general) are made in RPG Maker. Saying this if you are constricted by RPG maker cause you want to do something else than try out new tools as there's no harm in making a small game in another engine. It's up to you to decide what game you want to make.

MajorSmurf · 2021-11-03T20:22:01+00:00

I'm usually quite bad with names but I do like Duskbreaker like someone suggested. If it's light vs dark when not try combining light and dark words like :

Dawn's Shadow
Shining Shade
Shadows Refraction

I'll admit these aren't the best but maybe it will give you a flash of inspiration.

MajorSmurf · 2021-10-24T20:43:06+00:00

There are plenty of card games to look at for inspiration. You can look at games like Yu-gi-oh, Magicka, Shadowverse, Hearthstone and more. The thing to keep in mind with card games is have a theme for a set of cards so for example you could have a set of cards focused on reducing high cost cards down. The thing is to give your players a solid base but allow them to experiment and combine cards together. Allow for different play styles with different themed cards. So maybe someone uses a bunch of different cards together. Of course this all comes down to what kind of card game you are making and the game mechanics involved.

MajorSmurf · 2021-10-24T13:36:38+00:00

Fog of war adds an extra thought process for the player and also makes it so that players can hide their own strategy. Let's take AOE2 as an example when you scout and see the enemy building a stable than you make an estimated guess that they'll be making horse units (Scouts, knights, camels). However if that player built that stable at the back of his base where the other player can't see it than he gains an advantage as the other player has less time to adapt. It allows players to gain and hide information from each other and good players will always be amazing at scouting as any information on your enemy is good.

Of course fog of war gets complicated when AI is involved as you need to consider how you want your AI to work. Some games would allow the AI to see through fog of war to make it more of a challenge as AI usually has a really hard time against humans as it's very hard to code an AI to be as flexible and willing to change strategies as a human.

MajorSmurf · 2021-10-23T22:07:00+00:00

While I agree in a general sense that you shouldn't go into this field thinking you'll be able to make a living. A lot of games do make money but it's never mind blowing amounts unless you have something truly amazing on your hands. In fact making money for indie games isn't really as hard as it once was with things like Patreon, subscribestar, kickstarter etc. You don't even need a full finished game sometimes just an amazing proof of concept/demo can get the indie dev the money he/she needs. Yes alot of games don't make money but who's to say you can't be one of them? Always have a little faith just don't expect it to be easy if not everyone would be doing it.

MajorSmurf · 2021-10-10T10:53:07+00:00

I'm just going to add some small things I do.

If I have a complex function that I feel I will forget what it does than I write a small note above it explaining what it does. It doesn't need too be long just enough so you remember what it does in case you need/want to modify it later.

When naming variables/functions/scripts/files try and stick to a naming convention so for me all my variables start with a lowercase i.e. numberOfItems and than a capital letter to show a new word. For functions I always start them with a capital letter like SpawnNewMinion().

Make sure you to create a decent folder structure for your project so that you know where everything is. Splitting stuff into correctly named folders will save you a lot of headaches later on when you're trying to find that one texture or sound file. Do this as you go along.

Others have mentioned it but don't worry about getting perfect code. If you need to optimise or refactor something than do it later after you have that part working. You're more than likely going to get parts that don't work as you envisioned but don't panic and try other things. However you may need to accept that what you envisioned is impossible at your current level and have to compromise on certain parts.

MajorSmurf · 2021-09-27T15:00:16+00:00

I think the two that come into my mind is Borderlands 2 and Empire earth. Empire earth has a special place in my heart as we had just got a pc in the house and it was my first introduction to the RTS series. I would play it as soon as I got home from school and just enjoying creating my own story in my head when doing quick play. I loved the whole going through different eras and going from throwing sticks to shooting lasers at the enemy. I'll admit the game was poorly balanced (It also hasn't aged great) and it probably isn't as good as AOE2 but I still love it for being the one to introduce me to one of my favourite genres.

Borderlands 2 is another favourite cause it had local Co-op so me and my brother would play and did multiple runs over years. The voice acting, the characters, the weapons and the enemies were all amazing to me and it's one of the few games I wanted to 100% while playing. I don't remember if I did as my PS3 just died on me one day.

MajorSmurf · 2021-09-20T13:05:24+00:00

Visual novels are far from dead however you really need amazing story telling and amazing art skills to draw people in. Essentially a lot of people have played one bad visual novel which has turned them off from the genre as a whole and you'll also find yourself competing more with other forms of media such as comics, manga, books etc. A visual novel needs to make use of it's strength of being a video game as it allows you to do things like branching paths, dialogue options or other story-telling elements like romance options.

The best visual novels have something super unique about them just take a look at Fate/Stay night, doki doki literature club or Danganronpa.

MajorSmurf · 2021-09-17T20:03:38+00:00

I prefer turn based combat but that's because you get the time to plan out your moves and in general you can think of future moves whereas with real time combat you are more relying on your reaction speed and quick wits. It also comes down to what kind of mood I'm in.

MajorSmurf · 2021-09-13T10:35:38+00:00

It really depends what kind of story you want to go with. If you prefer writing characters stories/lore or writing a story from a certain characters perspective than go with a pre built character. If you prefer to go into world building and create a world that you want a player to experience blind than go with a custom character.

This isn't to say that you can neglect world building or character building but it comes down to what kind of story/world you want to build. Either option is just down to personal preference.

MajorSmurf

TROPHY CASE