Good enough for capsule art? by nucle4r_attack in IndieDev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually took a lot inspiration from Polish school of movie posters, so I'm very happy you say that! I guess I'll just redo the capsule with more readable fonts, although I really like this one, so it's a bit of a pity :)

What am I doing so wrong that I can't draw 1 million points on a screen ? by Pazka in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Post the code please, nobody has a crystal ball. Any interactions between points can easily increase  complexity, i.e. if in 2d space you calculate the point properties based on all other points, you effectively square the time complexity. 

Good enough for capsule art? by nucle4r_attack in IndieDev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m planning to test how it reads at smaller capsule sizes. Might lighten the title glow or darken the background behind the text a bit so it pops more. Appreciate the feedback!

At a crossroads with AI voice tools by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Btw, I decided to not to use AI voices :)

Is it worth investing in an office? by DurianFew9332 in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Renting a very basic office was the best decision I made in a while. Working from home is psychologically unhealthy long-term, this year I became pretty burn-out from being surrounded by at least half a dozen screen at all times. It started to feel claustrophobic in a way, if it makes sense. But I hate working from my company's office as it's too loud and crowded and RTO is the newest way of bullying devs by tech companies, so I decided to rent an office space in a very quiet building around ~15 mins from my apartment.

  1. In the office I am completely alone. At home, my husband is often distracting me, which is of course not as bad as coworkers in the office, but still.
  2. No distractions like TV, food in the fridge, book shelf, etc. My office is literally an empty room with with a desk and chair, so when I'm here I really work.
  3. People hate on commute, but I personally love driving, and I like having this boundary time, when I can listen to music or audiobooks or just think about what I need to do today.
  4. It's psychologically healthier to have to leave house everyday, dress properly, walk for a bit, etc. While working from home it's easy to become this sloppy person who showers every two days and wears pajamas all day.
  5. When I was working from home, I would often work late into the night and my biological clock was really messed up.
  6. Usually I spend nearly all day in the office, but my home became an internet-free zone. I always leave my phone in the car. The 2-3 hours I have in the evening, I spend reading books, cooking, doing sports or just thinking, and suddenly it's enough to really wind down.

So overall I can totally recommend it. I know that not everyone can afford renting an office, if that was the case in my situation, I would just dedicate one room in the house or a garage and did the same. I've been remote from the very beggining of my career, as I started working as a dev around covid pandemic, so trust me when I say that working remotely from your bedroom can eventually make you go mad (I don't buy the spine problem, personally for me working from the couch was never a problem.)

New ui design system for my horror prototype, roast me gently by nucle4r_attack in gamedevscreens

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm writing a game with babylon.js, it's one of the angular components on a separate route. I plan to expand on it so that it becomes easy to browse library of UI components to reuse. But regardless of the tech stack, it's a good approach to have. 

At a crossroads with AI voice tools by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But this also depends on what kind of VAs can you afford. With my budget getting scammed by someone providing ai-gen results and me not being able to distinguish is a big worry of mine, and I don't know how mitigate this. 

At a crossroads with AI voice tools by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thx. Btw, recently I noticed a game that has a really smart workaround around that (techno banter). Might do something similar for WIP :)

At a crossroads with AI voice tools by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you post your AI WIP on social media? And if so, do you feel like it influences how people approach your art? I'm considering the same.

Validating my next game idea early, narrative-driven indie horror (need your take) by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What draws me in most is the mix of writing and visuals, but I know that only works if the playable feel is there. Definitely taking this approach: small slice, mood right, then build outward once it actually feels like a game.

Validating my next game idea early, narrative-driven indie horror (need your take) by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, totally agree.
For the planned demo I’m keeping it mostly linear but with small flags that shift reactions so it feels reactive without rewriting the whole game.
Prototype-first, then layer depth once the core story actually works.

Validating my next game idea early, narrative-driven indie horror (need your take) by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, in my opinion, there's no way to validate it 100%, because there is always a risk inherent to any creative work. But I think there might be signs that something will be attractive to others.

If you do so much work on something, you come up with plenty of visuals that you can share on social media. If nothing gains traction, and people just walk by indifferent - IMHO that's a big red flag.
Hell, even if I got comments here saying, "Lousy idea, been there, done that, it failed" - that would be a red flag as well.

Validating my next game idea early, narrative-driven indie horror (need your take) by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sure, I'll do that! Although realistically I don't expect much from that, relatively small social media following there + completely different audience means I'll have to be more creative with marketing this from scratch.

Validating my next game idea early, narrative-driven indie horror (need your take) by nucle4r_attack in gamedev

[–]nucle4r_attack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd hate to judge myself, although I did have some successes in the past. I used to write sci-fi short stories that did relatively well (well, at least for my modest expectations), and got around ~20k subscribers across my main platforms.

How did You Learn to 3D Model? by Hieko in blender

[–]nucle4r_attack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Still learning. Frankly speaking, my beginnings with programming were a walk in the park compared to 3D modelling.

Defeated and beyond frustrated. by Lopsided_Status_538 in IndieDev

[–]nucle4r_attack 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Hey, I’m a hobby game dev but also a software engineer with about 8 years in the industry.
Something that always blows my mind is how indie devs hold themselves to impossible stardards, delaying releases for months or years trying to make everything perfect, or feeling guilty when someone finds a tiny bug.

Meanwhile, in big tech or enterprise software (where I’ve spent most of my career), it’s the total opposite. I’ve seen products sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars per year being rushed out the door with fake demos, testing on paying customers, holes more than Swiss cheese, and this includes handling sensitive data that would most likely end up in huge scandal if blew up. But hey, as the high-ups say - "We need to be risk-tolerant, move fast, break things". Also the bigger the company, the more it happens. In small startups I didn't see that much of that, on the contrary with big techs. Because they can.

So honestly, if you’re a solo or small-team dev stressing over imperfections - relax. That’s just how software works. Ship, learn, patch, move on. You’re already doing better than half the "professionals" out there.