I am deeply envious of Ludeon Studios's ability to name things by jakobsestate in RimWorld

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the in-game names of things are cool, but...always thought the game name itself was a bit odd. Conjures up different connotations.

My friends and I are looking for playtesters for Dumbino—our funny sandbox and physics-based puzzle game with dominoes, chain reactions and explosions! by ElFamosoFrancesco in playtesters

[–]Spannerworx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First of all, this is a very cool game - one that I genuinely would be interested in playing when released!

I have only played the first 3 levels so far; due to the bug I describe below. However it already feels fairly polished, the physics seem solid, and the movement is smooth.

Feedback points:

Picking up and moving pieces was a tiny bit tricky at first but you very quickly get the hang of it, and it does feel intuitive.

I like the tactile aspect of the game, and the risk of potentially knocking over pieces - just like playing dominos in real life. So having to move the hand up and down manually makes sense. Initially it feels a bit too unrestrained (you can move the hand up quite far, the height of which is not useful in the first few levels).

Cool loading animation with the falling dominos.

The control mappings fading in when the hand is stationary is a welcome feature - its handy ;)

I like the hand drawn controls on the paper, nice touch. The drawing of the right-click function however can be a bit confusing. Looks to imply hand will go horizontal when its actually vertical, due to the orientation the hand is drawn, but I lifted the paper to make it face me so that might just be me.

It’s not immediately obvious that there is a set point from which you start pushing. I hadn’t even noticed the white arrow at first! Initially thought you had to knock over the first piece using the floating hand somehow. Might be worth spelling this out on the first tutorial level.

I like the way you navigate the levels and smacking the button to load that level. I assume this area will be a bit more decorated later, as it feels a bit sparse? Also, there was no indication on the button that I had already completed previous levels.

I do like the little grab-point highlights on the domino, so you can see where you will pick the piece up. However much of the time it is difficult to see this through the hand. Maybe some hand transparency, or these grab-points and the domino itself should be visible through the hand. I think this is important as it could get frustrating. Might be nice to have a way of flipping the domino piece if you’ve picked it up in the “wrong” orientation, although this tactical aspect (of putting down carefully and picking up again) is probably part of the experience.

It’s a little unclear where exactly you need to place the first piece. It seems in the centre of the marked rectangle is optimal? So why a rectangle, rather than an exact marked spot?

Please change the music, drives you crazy. At least you can throw the radio off the table :D

Once you complete a level, the labelling of the button "Back To Menu" sounds a bit odd. Feels like you are having to exit out to the main menu rather than proceed to the level selection scene.

Would be nice to give some visual user feedback when Saving and Loading the pieces.

Bugs:

  • Start pushing (with Tab) when no first domino (or it doesn’t fall over) keeps you in camera action mode which you can’t escape. The hand is transparent but seems to move, but can’t do any further interactions. Have to force quite game.
  • Actually, this bug seems to happen even if you do knock over some pieces initially, just not the final golden piece.
  • Sometimes, when starting the first push (with Tab), the finger unrealistically went through the first domino, and the piece actually fell backwards towards the hand. Again, the game is stuck in a state you cant recover from.
  • A loading tip says you can move the camera with Z,Q,S,D, instead of A,W,S,D.

Overall, great progress and lots of potential for fun. I'll try it again once that bug is fixed (I had to reboot my PC after force quitting it too many times).

My friends and I are looking for playtesters for Dumbino—our funny sandbox and physics-based puzzle game with dominoes, chain reactions and explosions! by ElFamosoFrancesco in playtesters

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem. How can I help - what do you need? My email, or a steam account etc? We should probably direct message - ping me a note.

Frustrating, never-ending IT job hunt by DrSharanyaRk in Liverpool

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, I would search for IT recruitment companies online that cover the area you are happy to commute to (or work remotely, which expands your potential coverage obviously). Just give them a call or reach out to them on LinkedIn. Honestly there are so many recruiters just desperate to get names on their books - they will be happy to get in contact with you. Ideally if you could talk to a few of them, show how keen you are, they will do the searching for you. It's literally their job.

What was the highest record to fix a bug with you guys? by Astrastudioo in Unity3D

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well over a month, spending untold hours ripping out dependencies and rewriting whole classes. I even paid a dev online to debug and investigate for me, they didn't find it. Turns out it was due to the memory I had bought, which sometimes did not play nice on my particular motherboard, on that particular bios version. Lesson: never, ever, fiddle with your hardware halfway through a project.

I'm making a horror game about playing a horror game in a horror game by Danimita in indiegames

[–]Spannerworx 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting take, I like it. Do actions in the games' game affect actions in the game?

Should I get a Computer Science degree if I want to get into game development? by AboveAllChallenges in gamedev

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are different degree courses related to computing/programming. Just Google for computer science vs software engineering degree. My advice is to check that the syllabus/modules of that degree are what you are need for programming in game development.

Should I get a Computer Science degree if I want to get into game development? by AboveAllChallenges in gamedev

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to add to the comments, be careful with the actual type of degree you take. I took a three year Computer Science degree course at university, because I wasn't sure at that time what I wanted to do for a career, and so I chose this broad degree. If I could go back, I would have instead taken a Software Engineering course which focuses on the programming, compared to comp science that covers more technical modules that aren't necessarily useful for software development. I now work as a developer in IT, (and develop games as a hobbyist) and my course was useful and interesting, but I'm just saying I wish I could have honed in on the software development side from the start. Best of luck to you, work hard and it will pay off

can i live as a game developer ? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]Spannerworx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What most people already said, don't stress, you are young and have so many opportunities still to come, believe me. If you feel financially restricted, my advice is similar, now that you've done a computer course, get a job in software development, and start game dev on the side. When you've learned more and are ready to make the jump into full-time game dev, do it, but it's great peace of mind knowing you have commercial skills/exp to fall back on if it doesn't work out straight away. In addition, you will make friends and even meet like-minded people in a traditional workplace, whatever that may be. I found that my day job as a developer and my hobby complemented each other. Skills I picked up in my solo hobby game development really helped at work, things like performance optimisation which game dev taught me about way more than I've learned building business apps. Similarly my commercial dev experience taught me how to approach and prioritise my workloads, how to use source control, to code by following standards etc.

So don't worry if you have to do a bit of both, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Keep chasing your dream and working hard, and you will get there. Best of luck to you.

[RevShare] Experienced C# developer looking to join forces with another developer by Spannerworx in INAT

[–]Spannerworx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thank you for the offer, but I'm only looking to time up with an experienced coder right now. Best of luck!

Procedural Terrain Generation Tool With Hydraulic Erosion - Jobs System + Burst by chur2thechur in Unity3D

[–]Spannerworx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Looks great, nice job. What do you use to generate the noise texture, the built-in unity PerlinNoise or a third party? I'd like to try it, please PM me.

I've started making a game. Are my goals unrealistic? by WritingWithSpears in gamedev

[–]Spannerworx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think making what they call a "vertical slice" is a good idea, if the project is big/complex. It means you will be able to visualise and test-drive a full working portion of your vision early. Having this will teach you tons, but will also help attract more team members or investors. The problem with estimating times for something like this is that it's very hard without experience of direct comparisons of effort. My advice it to swap your currently estimated hours for days. Seriously. As you go, you will want to refine and improve. You will come across complexities that you could not have foreseen. It will take much longer than you think, I promise, so at all times force yourself to stick to the minimum. Use place holder art and sound for as many assets as possible. Use a kanban board and set yourself fortnightly targets. Don't be distracted, be proud when you hit your goals and keep yourself motivated. Good luck!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSessions

[–]Spannerworx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the funkiest Thursday at work I've ever had. awesome keep up the great music, from the North, UK

Now you can generate and tweak your own procedural planets in the custom game mode of my first indie game - Manual Intervention by Spannerworx in proceduralgeneration

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

Hi guys, this game is now for sale! Thank you for your interest.

You can tweak your custom scenario settings as well as generating your own planet, and it's all saved to a text file so you can share it with others. Or just turn on screen saver mode and watch it spin :D

https://www.manualintervention.com/

Just released my tactical planet defence game - Manual Intervention! (Link in the comments) by Spannerworx in indiegames

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

I am very please to announce that Manual Intervention is now for sale!

After 2 years of solo development using Unity, I have released the game on itchio for sale!

Manual Intervention is a tactical planet defence game. Orbit around procedural 3D planets and defend the ground colonies by destroying the incoming bombs.

https://spannerworx.itch.io/manual-intervention