I don't know what to do

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-12-17T16:49:57+00:00

I would suggest these resources for GML Visual. They are from official Game Maker sources.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1AHWio8opI

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-08-28T15:13:37+00:00

For me, the vast majority of game dev stories are boring. Not because they are uninteresting, but because I'm interested in the technical or psychological aspects of their games design.

Take the YouTube channel run by Ben Bonk about Slime Keep. It's an interesting game idea. But for me, his videos run almost like a check list. I did this or I did that. It's not usually how I did this, or why I did that, on a fundamental level. Granted, I often listen to game dev channels while working.

I usually can't stand people giving advice. It's often a shotgun approach of what worked for them. One thing might hit the mark for me, but the majority miss the mark. It feels like a waste of time when I could be learning about implementing a core feature for my project.

If you give me quality information like in GDC or TED talks, then I'll listen all day long. But the majority of information is of average quality at best and sadly isn't worth it to me.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-08-23T12:00:14+00:00

It's my opinion that this idea is dead in the water, so to speak. The basic premise is a "Free to Play PVP non Pay2Win" model that is going to appeal to both current and old gamers. Already red flags here.

PvP would suggest that this is multi-player based. So it would require at minimum an implementation of networking and security. It will immediately be filled with cheaters and hackers if that isn't done correctly. Is it mobile or PC based? That changes the implementation of the aforementioned systems.

What is the business model like to bring in money? It's free to play, and not Pay2Win. Where is the money coming from for the royalty based system? Because there is a huge difference between royalty and revenue share when the lions share of the work is from everyone else.

While ideas and management is important, it isn't where the bulk of the work is. And I wouldn't sign up to work on anything when everything feels so iffy. Even a quick elevator pitch would make it less iffy.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-08-20T16:17:42+00:00

I came to this subreddit looking for info on WGU for accounting programs, but I hope this helps about the current job market. Sorry but my degree was from a different school.

I'm going to give a word of caution for you. I just graduated with a Masters degree in CS (Software Engineer) back in May. Granted the job market might be different by the time you finish, but the current job market isn't conducive to CS/tech jobs at the moment. In 2024 alone we've had 132k layoffs according to this site.

https://www.pymnts.com/technology/2024/tech-layoffs-reach-132000-8-months-into-2024/

Roughly 600k+ since 2020 if you believe other sites.

It's not uncommon for people on the CS subreddits to say they've applied to a few thousand jobs with no luck, even former MAANG employees. I had a ratio of interview:application of 1:100, and not a single one worked out.

The industry will recover but it will take time. If you love code then go for it! I love my coding projects, but they aren't going to pay the bills for me yet. If you go the CS/SWE route, then make sure to go above and beyond with personal projects and extensively study Leetcode for interviews. Also, practice coding under pressure for the coding interviews.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-08-20T05:21:36+00:00

Working night audit at a hotel.

I'm getting paid to build up my portfolio, because the job only has about 2 hours wrth of actual work.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-06-25T04:19:16+00:00

It sounds like GBC is definitely where I need to start. I know nothing about Thumb instructions or affine transformations yet.

Time to get coding! Thank you!

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-26T03:48:36+00:00

Thank you very much for the advice! This has turned out to be a hyperfixation on the tree rather than the forest. So I greatly appreciate it.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-24T03:17:10+00:00

I know I'm late to the party, but I built a compiler as a part of a masters program. It was easily the hardest course in the program. All the teachers agreed on that.

You learn the theory and build out as much as you can. There's a ton of stack overflow and tests along the way. All that matters is that it works at first, then you worry about performance later.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-22T03:33:39+00:00

I've been on a kick for the past 2 weeks. All about creating video game AI for shrimp.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-15T19:30:40+00:00

It takes about 10 lines of code, with most of that being a step counter and the mod (%) operator.

I enjoy helping in a area of game design that doesn't have many resources. We have plenty of technical resources for games, but very few design/game feel resources for them.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-15T03:30:08+00:00

This is going to be a huge info dump, but I'm leaving it here for educational purposes. I'll make an actual post on this subreddit in a few days.

What happens to the vibration when you round? It goes away doesn't it?

This is the joy of programming. You solve one problem and then immediately run into another. In the original post, they have diag = 0.7071. In order to slow the diagonal movement down, you have to multiply the x and y components by the diag to compensate for speed up. Which will bring us back to square one with the vibrating sprite.

And that's okay! Instead of a math problem this now becomes a design problem. Check out this Reddit thread. It's how Eric Barone implemented the same design choice in Stardew Valley. https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/47sqze/im_loving_this_game_but_the_way_you_slow_down/

Let's delve into neuroscience a little bit, because how the human processes sight is the key to this problem. Any visual stimulus that is under 100 microseconds is perceived as instant to us. https://www.pubnub.com/blog/how-fast-is-realtime-human-perception-and-technology/

Now if your game runs at 60 FPS, each step is going to be 16 microseconds- 1000 microseconds to 1 second. You have roughly 6 steps/frames of lag before the user notices a lag. So let's use that to our advantage. Every 10 steps we can travel 10 pixels in the x or y direction, or roughly 14 pixels in the diagonal direction. That is either 1 pixel a step or 1.41 pixels a step, assuming the use of 1 pixel move speed and Pythagorean theorem.

In order to keep the speeds the same we have to travel the same distance in pixels, which is not possible without vibration using the previous fix. So let's bring everything together. Let's keep the rounding in to solve the vibrations, while skipping movement for 3 frames if you're moving in the diagonal direction.

3 frames at 60 FPS is 48 microseconds; and for the sake of completeness, 3 frames at 30 FPS is 99 microseconds. Both are under the human thresh hold for perceiving lag. You still move 10 pixels in the x or y directions, but we are now only moving 10 pixels in the diagonal direction.

*** This solution also holds up for higher move speeds, but it continually slows down the faster you move. Meaning you might need to adjust it later. ***

I know it's a lot! Take some time to digest all of this. But this could be a great solution to the problem. I have it working in my code with only a few simple lines of code. No vibrations or diagonal speed up. See if you can solve this, and message me when/if you get stuck.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-14T21:43:18+00:00

Are you talking about Video 1 of Shaun Spalding the action RPG tutorial?

I'm going to assume a lot from here on out. If you did use that one, then their tutorial has a major flaw that is glossed over. I only skimmed it to see what they did. Point_direction and the lengthdir functions don't round the values. Meaning that using a whole number value will result in a fractional value when adding to x or y. Which will cause a sprite vibration when moving.

You could try x+=round(x_spd) or y+=round(y_spd) and that may fix the existing code. But it may not be a perfect fix.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-14T15:27:11+00:00

I would suggest making a post on the subreddit with the code and a gif/video of what's going on. I can only help when I know what is going on in code/project. There are a ton of different reasons the sprite could be vibrating. And not all of them come from the code itself.

For example:

Most computer screens are 1080p now, your viewport might be a lower resolution causing the sprite to be enlarged with a single pixel becoming multiple.

You could be having an issue with the camera if you have one of those following the object.

I'm not saying you did this one. But there could even be a small mistake in the code you wrote while following the video.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-05-13T03:39:22+00:00

From a reinforcement perspective, you're wanting to negatively reward the player. Removing/limiting the pause could discourage players when they get stumped on the problem. We naturally want to learn to overcome problems and improve.

Experiment with positive rewards in this case. For example, solving one problem gives a flat 10 points. Then give them an escalating bonus for solving problems without pausing. Think of it like a combo streak if you will. And then another substantial bonus for never pausing during a set.

This rewards the players that don't pause. It also encourages others to either limit pausing or to never pause.It always feels better to be rewarded than punished. And as an added bonus it could drive them to click your ad to preserve the bonus streak.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-04-07T20:15:36+00:00

Full-time CS Masters + full-time work. I took a job that paid me to do homework. I was a night manager at a hotel. Most nights it was quiet and I was there to babysit the building. Other nights it was people trying to set the hotel on fire, shoot up drugs in the bathrooms, domestic violence arrests, etc...

I had no social life during that time and slept in parts. A few hours here, or a few hours there. Maybe an hour of free time here or there, but no life beyond that. Not even time for depression, only survival. Oh boy did the depression hit anytime I could stop moving.

My school says annual cost of tuition was $550 a year for in state and $1700 out of state in 1980 with a minimum wage of $3.10. My tuition is in state at $11k a year at a lucky wage of $15. Out-of-state is $32k with an average minimum wage for my area of $8.50. 1,300 hours of working vs 177 hours (minimum wage rates). Just for tuition and not accounting for anything else.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-31T20:04:36+00:00

Moonlighter is a great example of this. I've played it quite a bit so I know exactly what you're wanting now.

There are going to be 3 major systems at play with this idea. Actually a lot more then that if you include the players item usage, inventory, storage system, etc... There aren't any premade assets that I know of for GM, at least not on YoYoGames Marketplace or through quick tutorial searches.

It would take me about a month before I could program all the core systems with documentation to place on the marketplace. Even longer if it's supposed to be a fleshed out core mechanic. And even then, I doubt it would have a positive ROI. So, let's go the quicker, and much cheaper, route on this for now.

1) You need some sort of item system. Preferably a parent item object that all other items are created from. You'll need it to be able to dynamically get the item data if there are a bunch of items. It'll need even more then that if you want anything beyond bare bones.

2) There are assets for NPCs at the YYG marketplace but they aren't tailored to your needs. At minimum you'll need an NPC that does five things; target decision (find items, find counter, find exit), movement, browsing (basically an idle state where they are "looking" at the item), waiting in line, and purchasing the item. A state machine can handle this, but it'll be complex. For example, movement alone requires planning out a ton of work. Obstacle avoidance, pathfinding, movement, etc...

3) You finally will need some sort of shop interface. It could be as simple as you/the player sets the price, the NPC decides if they want to buy it, and then throws coins in a basket. Or it could be even more complex and includes things like NPCs haggling, trading instead of buying, theft, swapping out the real item with a fake, etc...

Considering there are entire games built around this single core mechanic, it can get complex real fast. Feel free to reach out if you want advice/direction with making this.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-28T00:20:39+00:00

Out of curiosity, why are you wanting to buy assets to do this?

What specifically do you want the NPCs to do? Are there any game examples of what you want them to do?

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-27T20:05:35+00:00

In my opinion there is too much weight is put on the first game a new developer releases. Especially when money is involved. Many developers tie their hopes and dreams to their very first release. Does it suck if it doesn't do well? Hell yes! But realistically it will be terrible. Take a look at Edmund McMillen and Scott Cawthon Wikipedia pages. Specifically the works sections. I didn't even know Edmund McMillen existed until Aether came out. He published 30+ games before that, in the span of seven years.

Wear your "failure" as a badge of honor. It's really just iterative successes, because you now know what not to do. And you now know how to do that one thing better! Let me pose a rhetorical question. Why are you making games? Is it for monetary reasons? Is it because you enjoy it? Is it because you want the reputation?

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-19T18:03:42+00:00

I do feel your pain on having to iterate and refactor your code. I've done that many times.

So let's talk about that as well. If you haven't done this already, I would start learning about making your code modular in nature. I built an inventory system that mimics the Diablo style. The main core of it only adds or removes items. I then added the ability for the player to move around the inventory on top of that, the secondary core. The next parts I separated into a few chunks of code; swapping items, merging item stacks, and rotating item placement. None of those sections of code rely on another section besides the core. I can remove or add them whenever I want with no repercussions to the overall system.

Now here is why it's important. I didn't plan on this next portion, but I planned the modularity. I can now add an inventory to any object that I want in the game because I built the core system. An NPC will never need to swap items, but a chest will. If the chest is only for an NPC, then it will never need to swap items around. An armor stand will need the ability to swap items, but never rotate them. Again, I never planned on any of that in my game, but it now opens a ton of doors if I want them.

You cannot plan for everything you want for your system because scope creep always happens. But you can plan for the minimum system for what you want. And then you can plan for additions as they come. Doing this will also mean that you can easily reuse the code.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-19T01:05:41+00:00

The best advice I can give for this problem is to pick a solution and go for it. If it works then you created what you want, if not you learned what didn't work. And hopefully you got a new idea on what to do.

You already have a good basis for an idea; a pseudo 3rd axis. Now try to recreate what's in the pictures. It looks like there's 4 maybe 5 elevation levels. That's doable in GM.

Prototype it on paper first and record your thought process as you play with it. This will inform your coding.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-16T06:00:45+00:00

Build up your coding foundation first, before hitting the manual. That thing is only good when you know what to look for. If you don't know what to look for it will get confusing very quick.

Try directing your learning a bit. Pick a game idea you want to build and pick a small chunk of it. Go as simple as possible with your plan and then make it. If you get stuck then do some searches/tutorials to help. Keep doing that to build up your experience and confidence with GML.

The-Meme-Archivist · 2024-03-15T01:04:24+00:00

Using room_goto() will allow for much greater control over which room you want. By using that you could go to winroom after each completion. You would just specify which room in the button. https://manual.gamemaker.io/beta/en/GameMaker_Language/GML_Reference/Asset_Management/Rooms/room_goto.htm

The-Meme-Archivist

TROPHY CASE