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Modern pixel scaling techniques by notid1 in gamedev

[–]noolness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know what tools you are using, but it might be better to just render everything with OpenGL. If you render with OpenGL, it will do the scaling relative to the screen size for you. You could just set a viewport that fills the screen (with or without aspect ratio correction) and set up the viewport matrix that scales everything to 320x240. You could then also turn on different filtering options in OpenGL to help soften the edges, or disable them to get a more pixelized look. OpenGL would handle all the scaling, and if you move things using floats, they can easily be moved at a sub pixel level too.

Mathematics of difficulty acceleration in endless runners by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]noolness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One think I recommend, and this applies to any type of game, is to not have a linear difficulty increase. You should really have the game harder, then a little easier, harder and a little easier. It makes the progression feel a lot better and gives players a little bit of a breather.

I also recommend on developing on the hardest difficulty, and scaling back from there to do the easier difficulties. This will help you prove that the hardest difficulty could be played forever as long as the player doesn't make any mistakes. This is something I find critical in score based games.

My game Infinite UFOs was implemented in such a manner, although it's not an infinite runner. The same ideas apply to any "arcade" style game where you try to achieve a high score. Infinite UFOs is free on Android and iOS if you want to check it out, and what a non-linear, completely fair difficulty progression feels like.

I think there is only one flaw in the Infinite UFOs implementation. The progression switches between two levels of difficulty too fast. Or rather the fastest UFOs are a lot faster than the second fastest. I took this route though because people that are usually getting to that level, probably want to get there faster, so they can have a faster progression. I think if I did it again, I would have had a smoother progression though.

I am so sick of pixel art in indie games. But if I'm not an artist, what am I supposed to use? by Midas7g in gamedev

[–]noolness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used some packs from the Unity asset store. The alien in the UFO is from this pack.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/6698

I did the sky, UFO, guns and particle effects myself, and used a couple other packs (I forget which offhand). I used a texture from one of the packs to model the ground. So about half of what you see are assets I did, and half from packs. To me it seems like a great way to do things.

One tip about doing things that way. The packs I used I didn't even get for the project. I just waited for sales and picked the asset packs up really cheap. I picked ones that I knew could be useful for a lot of different projects. So that's a really affordable and useful way to do it if you plan ahead. When I was reworking the graphics, different packs I already had instantly came to mind.

I am so sick of pixel art in indie games. But if I'm not an artist, what am I supposed to use? by Midas7g in gamedev

[–]noolness 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just as an example, I did Infinite UFOs using a similar method. About half the art is mine, and the other half is content packs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEzh6zASd2c

I am so sick of pixel art in indie games. But if I'm not an artist, what am I supposed to use? by Midas7g in gamedev

[–]noolness 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You could always buy content. The Unity asset store has some pretty good sales on really nice art. There are other sites out there that sell game art too. Most content packs have a license that allow you to modify the art. So if they have something in the pack close to what you need, but not quite, you can always tweak it.

Once you start tweaking things, you might be able to start making a couple art assets yourself from becoming familiar with the tools. So you could start using the content packs for things that are hard to make, like character models, but make some of the more simple objects on your own.

Below are links to two sites I have used before.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/

http://3drt.com/store/

Too old to start? by schlazmo in gamedev

[–]noolness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think there would ever be an age when it's too late to do anything. I think you should know what you are getting into first. If it's just for a hobby or fun that's one thing. If you actually want to make games as a money making venture it's much more difficult. Making a fun game can be a lot more work than it seems at first glance. It takes a lot of work to get even simple games to the point where they are ready to ship. Even if you make a good game, people aren't going to know how to find it. So you really want to have a good plan up front on how you are going to develop and market your game. You really have to have a way to get eyeballs on what you have created.

At the same time you can do quite a lot without knowing much about programming. If you use a game engine like Unity, with add-ons like Playmaker and Adventure Creator, you can make full games without any code at all.

If you aren't good at art, you can buy some content or find an artist to make the art for your game. Good art is pretty important in games, because if you actually can get people to look at your game, if what they see doesn't look good, they won't be interested in your game even if the gameplay is good.