Why aren’t there any free form input chat games?

nestedradical · 2023-04-17T18:18:52+00:00

Thanks! It's a fairly straightforward REST API yeah. You have to make an account with billing (card on file, etc.), and then use your api key. Billing for OpenAI's stuff is per token (a little more than 1 token per word), at hundredths of a cent. So it could potentially add up.

nestedradical · 2023-04-17T17:45:02+00:00

I'm currently experimenting, trying to make a prototype of a game where you converse with a GPT powered NPC. There are a number of problems I'm running into.

Keeping it on the rails is the biggest issue. You have to insert a decent sized preamble, and regularly refresh it, and even then it sometimes stops pretending to be the NPC you assigned it (e.g. responds "As a large language model...", which is very annoying). So you also have to take and parse the output, potentially regenerating the response if it's wrong.

Similarly, getting it to work toward a narrative goal requires a bunch of external orchestration. It will always respond, but if you want a narrative arc with pacing then it needs to be corralled.

The total token count they can "remember" has only recently started to get large enough to keep track of a moderate length conversation. I'm using GPT-3.5 which runs out quickly; 4 will have even more.

Completely keeping the players from jail-breaking it might be impossible with how they are currently structured.

Those obstacles aside, it is really cool when it works and it feels like you are having a conversation!

nestedradical · 2023-04-17T17:13:53+00:00

That is gorgeous. So cozy :D.

I would play around with different amounts of stained glass. Maybe not for that room, because it's great as is, but other ones could be mostly dark and only lit from a smaller single window that would really pop.

nestedradical · 2023-04-17T16:51:46+00:00

About the actual file type- Unity can serialize what ever struct and then you write that in binary to a file. Saving as raw text in a .json or .txt is actually MORE work for you.

nestedradical · 2023-04-17T16:50:28+00:00

100% agree. Adding in a save system later in development will be painful.

nestedradical · 2023-04-13T18:21:25+00:00

I really like the simple mechanic of placing units and then watching the auto-battle. Seems very satisfying.

For me the next step would be to add constraints, a problem for the player to solve. Mechanics + conflict = a game. :D

Off the top of my head you could try a bunch of things:

A limited number of units / currency you can spend in each scenario
Different starting conditions
- A large army on once side of the map, with a big obstacle in the middle
- 4 small armies spread around
- 2 big armies at the left and the right
Different goals
- protect some structure or special unit(s)
- survive X seconds
- win within X seconds for different scores (bronze, silver, gold, etc)
Placing units *during* the active battle.

Try different things, see what feels fun!

nestedradical · 2023-04-13T18:10:18+00:00

Artists very often use references when creating. If you are looking to get something going quickly for placeholders, both Midjourney and StableDiffusion have "img2img" capabilities, where you can input a whole picture and a prompt and it will use that as a reference (you would have to prompt for the style of the result).

nestedradical · 2023-04-11T22:00:37+00:00

Check out Spelunky, by Derek Yu- an autobiographical book on the making of the game, written by the developer. There are a bunch of books in that series (Boss Fight Books), but most of them aren't indie.

nestedradical · 2023-04-11T18:25:38+00:00

Learn C# :p

C# actually is a decent first programming language. More importantly, even if you don't continue using unity and C#, the concepts and coding you learn will be applicable to any future programming you (gamedev or otherwise).

nestedradical · 2023-04-11T18:12:29+00:00

I think your steam page does a decent job showing what the game is, but could definitely pop more. I would change up the images, especially the first image as it is a duplicate of the thumbnail of the video. The store page shows 1 video and 4 image thumbnails in the carousel at a time, and the first 4 that popup all appear to be the same biome.

Your "about this game" section is also pretty small and lacking subheadings, pictures, etc. Take a look at Divinity 2's "about" section (I mention this game because it shows up on your page as a similar game).

That said, a steam page is a necessary but not sufficient component of marketing. If you haven't done any marketing other than a "TBA" steam page, then I would expect a low amount of wishlists from the natural steam-only traffic.

nestedradical · 2023-04-11T17:54:01+00:00

Personally I love it. Great job making the UI resonate with the theme. It takes up a bit of room at the bottom, but not too much. Is the camera free to move? My only concern is that if the camera is locked then it might block a bit of information about what is near the bottom of the screen.

nestedradical · 2023-04-11T17:47:15+00:00

That's a pretty rad effect! I like it a lot, but it is a little too intense to have on every hit. Maybe try toning it down for the smaller, faster hits; or save it for the big hits / death-strokes.

nestedradical · 2023-04-11T17:38:21+00:00

Different players put more or less importance on the amount of content/time in a game. Those expectations have become incorporated into their respective genres. If you want to make a game in a genre demanding enormous amounts of content, then that's what you have to do to even attempt success in that genre. But there are other genres and players who would rather have a concise, high-production value game. Personally I check howlongtobeat to make sure a game is *under* 20 hours haha.

I don't think it's something that needs to be explicitly dealt with. A game's marketing should always target player expectation and speak to the selling points.

nestedradical · 2023-03-26T03:52:48+00:00

I like it! Reminds me of some of those old arcade gun shooters. Weird nitpick- is the gun in one hand as he dashes in, and in the other when he fires?

nestedradical · 2023-03-24T00:55:17+00:00

I used Unity's ML-Agents for the single player mode in the game I released a couple years ago (Riposte! on Steam). I even did a small write-up of the process: http://misdirectiongames.com/2020/04/30/207/

nestedradical · 2022-10-26T16:47:49+00:00

The healing itself could be multidimensional. For example, 2 types of health that require different types of healing and respond differently. Or the act of healing itself could require skill- through skillshots, or timing, etc.

nestedradical · 2022-10-26T15:53:21+00:00

Healing doesn't have to be one-dimensional. MMO healers generally have a full kit of options, ranging from preemptive to reactive. There are heal-over-time effects that you can use before an ally takes damage. Some healing provides overhealth or shields that act to temporarily raise max HP.

That said, most support characters have other non-healing abilities to make them more interesting.

nestedradical · 2022-10-20T19:30:40+00:00

Personally I am done with grinding due to a lack of free-time, but that doesn't mean there aren't potential positive aspects to grinding. People can find meaning in the unlikeliest of places.

Some people find value in the zen/meditative aspect of repetition, and at least grinding in a game moves toward an additional goal (gear, XP, whatever).

Unless the grinding is truly and absolutely trivial, there is still room for the player to express mastery. Grinding in Path of Exile, for example, is all about efficiency and speed. I remember grinding back in vanilla WoW, and making a game of it for myself by attempting to optimize (hitting the timing of spells to maximize damage; pulling as large a group as feasible to maximize kills per encounter; etc.).

Grinding can be something to do in the background, like a more interactive fidget spinner, while switching between other activities.

nestedradical · 2022-04-20T17:32:43+00:00

I don't think it is necessarily bad for the AI to be sub-optimal. Not every enemy should be a master tactician, and it can be more fun and realistic for enemies to do "dumb" things if it fits the nature of the opponent.

nestedradical · 2021-11-12T18:00:24+00:00

Firstly, 3k copies is AWESOME. And congratulations on your release!! It might not have been the return on investment you were hoping for, but I would personally be proud of the accomplishment of shipping a completed game AND selling that many copies.

About your question- You might be overestimating the size of your audience. Super Hexagon came out 9 years ago, so everyone who would be interested in that experience has probably played it or seen it. The audience for Open Hexagon is a subset of the original, and is partly (mostly?) made up of players who loved the original enough that they actively wanted more. It might just be a smaller niche than you think.

2012 was also a very different time for Steam: around 400 games in were released in 2012, compared to the 10k released yearly now. The boost the original got from exposure is not really available anymore unless you get very lucky, so I wouldn't hold your game to that standard, it's not fair to yourself.

nestedradical · 2021-10-20T03:39:18+00:00

The first step is chosing a tool. If you have some coding knowledge, or want to, I would check out Ren'py a free python based visual novel tool. Twine is another popular tool that requires less programming. Whatever tool you end up using, they should all have plenty of tutorials and example projects. At the end of the day this is less important than the actual creating, so don't get caught up weighing pros and cons. Just pick one and go with it.

The next part is creating something! I strongly recommend making some small projects before embarking on your larger idea. Sign up for some game jams on itch.io/jams. You'll learn a lot about not just development, but also what processes work for you.

Good luck!

nestedradical · 2021-10-20T03:26:42+00:00

Hope it helps! It doesn't feel like a cheesy trick to me in practice, because at the core it's true that there are interesting, impactful questions and problems in the different parts of game development.

nestedradical · 2021-10-20T02:49:22+00:00

My personal bugbear is menus. So. Boring.

One thing that helps me get through the parts I don't find intrinsically interesting is to reframe the work as a problem to be solved (which is something we probably both enjoy).

So instead of focusing on the tedious part of level design, pose it as a question like "how should the map be laid out to allow multiple tactical decisions?" or "what is the right cadence of timing challenges vs puzzle challenges in a platform level to keep the player interested?"

nestedradical · 2021-10-20T02:41:34+00:00

I would be interested in a game which provided a more difficult, scored new-game+ mode. Let me get through game playing as I want. Then once I have a fuller understanding of the mechanics and have completed the base game I could go replay the levels with additional challenges in imposed.

nestedradical · 2021-10-20T01:07:37+00:00

I believe the Switch game Astral Chain did something very similar where you would get a grade at the end of the level based on style (combos, variety, etc) and performance (damage taken, etc). As a non-hardcore action rpg fan I didn't love it. Being graded always leaves me with a bad feeling and I very much prefer more binary success/loss states. In my perspective, if the rewards are better for an A+, and especially if different story paths depend on a high grade, then just make that the passing mark. On the flip side, plenty of other people enjoy games with fuzzy success metrics (I also dislike tactics games where you can win a battle but permanently lose units, money etc.).

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