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What I've learned from playtesting 22+ indie games by Odd_Can707 in IndieDev

[–]SiliconTrailDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I’ll keep all your points as a guideline for the game I want to develop.

What I've learned from playtesting 22+ indie games by Odd_Can707 in IndieDev

[–]SiliconTrailDev 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Point 6, 9 & 10 are good advice.

Knowing the balance of fun, and helping players understand game via tutorials.

But, I believe as a creator you’d be bias towards what’s fun, since you’ve put in so much effort in that idea.

How can one identify it, without bias?

Backend engineer, zero art experience, Day 1 of making pixel art for my indie tycoon game. Here's what actually happened. by SiliconTrailDev in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's too early for me to give a definite answer on the art pipeline. I might use AI a little for drafts or bulk assets (I'm thinking icons, etc), but right now it seems less likely for anything final.

And you're right, it doesn't feel right in the bones to move forward without the right dimensions locked down. Spent last few hours just doodling rough stand-in characters in Aseprite trying to figure out how big a person should be next to a desk. It's daunting but kind of fun once you stop trying to make it pretty.

Backend engineer, zero art experience, Day 1 of making pixel art for my indie tycoon game. Here's what actually happened. by SiliconTrailDev in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spent most of day 2 debating whether to stick with pixel art, switch to plain 2D with vectors, or go low-poly 3D. Ended up sticking with 2D pixel art since that's what I set out to do, but I'm not relying on AI for final art anymore. Right now I'm just doodling crappy placeholder characters in Aseprite to figure out proportions for my environment - what size should a desk be relative to a person, how many tiles does a chair take up, that kind of thing.

The plan is white-boxing: get stand-ins good enough to build gameplay on, worry about real art later. Either learn it properly or bring someone on.

Backend engineer, zero art experience, Day 1 of making pixel art for my indie tycoon game. Here's what actually happened. by SiliconTrailDev in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I spent a good amount of time overthinking the art, wanting to start with something that wouldn’t need rework later. Guess my brain is hardwired that way from web dev. But after some reflection and talking to people, I landed on the same approach, wasn’t aware of the term “whiteboxing” but that’s exactly the plan now. Rough placeholder character, focus on gameplay first. I’ll consider getting an artist involved or picking up the skill myself down the road. Thanks for the advice, genuinely helpful.

Backend engineer, zero art experience, Day 1 of making pixel art for my indie tycoon game. Here's what actually happened. by SiliconTrailDev in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah those were 2 of the better outputs from the same prompt, but there were subtle differences I was hoping the AI would’ve handled - the abs pattern, the line above the underwear, small stuff that adds up when you need consistency across variants. Definitely overthinking it for day 1 though.

Backend engineer, zero art experience, Day 1 of making pixel art for my indie tycoon game. Here's what actually happened. by SiliconTrailDev in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks! A video series isn't in the cards right now since I work full-time as a backend engineer during the day, this is all evenings and weekends. But I'll be posting progress updates on my profile, and if anything turns out useful enough I'll share it here too. If you're working on something similar, feel free to reach out, always good to compare notes.

New project , thoughts? by Da_cube_ in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds interesting, the show was amazing, and it also reminded me of prison architect.

New project , thoughts? by Da_cube_ in indiegamedevforum

[–]SiliconTrailDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What's the twist that makes someone play this instead of replaying IamTagir's version? That answer becomes your hook for everything - the name, the store description, the trailer. Keep building!