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Is there a gamedev community here?
I'm curious to find out if there are others here who are either amateur or professional game developers.
I'm curious to find out if there are others here who are either amateur or professional game developers.
I'd love to follow some sort of gamedev dialog. I only have some relatively stupid programming under my belt. But I will say I was the first person to successfully make a lumberjack macro for ultima online.
I think game development is a great way to get in to programming as a hobbie, so long as games interest you at all. There are so many tutorials out there and so many game engines to make the process as simple as possible for you. Modding is another great option that can spark that interest, like making macros for ultima online :)
Lots of games have proper scripting for mods which is a great start. For instance I became interested in game development by making small lua mods for Garry's Mod.
I'm a software engineering student and for the past couple years I've wanted to work on a game project in my own time. Whenever I get started though I get bored or sidetracked pretty fast. I think the coolest thing I was trying to make was a text-based slasher/horror movie game. Basically a small rural town is simulated and you play as a serial killer or creature trying to kill people and survive. I got bored before I even got to the monster mechanics, but setting up the town simulation was pretty fun and interesting. I wish I had the time and focus to actually complete a personal project like that. If anyone has advise on how to find the motivation, I'd love to hear it.
I think we'd all like to hear more about that buddy system. Perhaps we can find a way to do something similar here.
I'm in a somewhat similar position, however my study is more about game development than anything else. I find that doing student projects is much easier than side projects due to the motivation to not fail, having peers around you doing the same work, and having clear goals and instructions from lecturers.
One thing I like to do is just have notepad open with some stuff I want to get done. I check it regularly and see what I feel like implementing the most today, then once I finish that one easier task I feel like doing more.
Graphics can also be a big motivator, getting stuff on to the screen is important for feeling like you're making progress sometimes. Have you looked at using any kind of 2D drawing library for your language?
I don't know how far it's gotten, but this kind of thing has come up before. https://tildes.net/~games/2mn/any_hobbyist_gamedevs_interested_in_working_on_a_project_together
Thanks :) a few of those users still seem active.
I'm more interested in general gamedev topics though, rather than collaborating on a project.
If the gamedev community on here were big enough I'm sure it could be an option, for now tagging with gamedev should be enough, as you can do subtags like gamedev.unity, gamedev.tabletop, etc.
If a question is technical in nature, it could be on ~comp with a gamedev tag. As long as the same tag gets used, perhaps if/when a subgroup is made for game development these topics could all be moved in to it.
Tabletop games are great fun to work on. I've never done a whole thing myself but I used to do homebrew for Dungeons & Dragons and the skills needed really put your game design abilities to the test.
What sort of P&P system did you create and how long did it take you? I've seen some people make very small simple versions designed for kids, but usually they tend to be very large projects which is quite Intimidating.
Pen & paper is great for that stuff though for sure. Board games are another nice thing to design when wanting to just do some pure game design.
Damn that's quite the accomplishment, even though it may have been a disaster. It's great to hear you're still working on a similar idea, but more refined.
My only experience with TTRPG's is D&D 5e, which is simplified compared to older editions. I personally enjoyed the simplification as it allowed you to focus more on roleplaying, but I would've loved to try out the more in-depth numerical systems that allowed more diverse character builds from say, D&D 3, so perhaps the number crunching is fine for more experienced groups.
Partial success for rolls sounds interesting as a mechanic when usually it seems to be under the DM's control, although it sounds like there is no DM or a different idea of a DM in your system as the players control the difficulty.
Tower defense games were basically popularised from WC3 maps. Maps like Element TD and Legion TD have even been developed as their own games now.
MOBA's were from Starcraft first, and then maps like Dota were created for WC3. You can definitely say Dota popularised it though.
Life of a Peasant was basically the predecessor to Roleplaying servers, as well as games like Guilds 1/2/3
There were also 3rd person shooter maps, in a similar way to the Smite MOBA, but more focused on the shooting. Not to mention a bunch of unique maps that never really became anything, like footmen wars or melee maps.
The impact WC3 had on the modding and gaming community just from their level editor was exceptional, with many genres being either popularised or created as a result.
I love playing Warcraft 3, every year or so me and a friend hop on and just play the crap out of co-op maps.
Modding is still very prevalent, but with how easy it is to make a game now compared to 10 years ago it's not really surprising that we're seeing more developers wanting to realize their work themselves.
I'd say games with monitization don't usually work when it comes to modding anyway, as mobile games aren't very suitable for easy modding, nor are multiplayer games without independent servers.
I suppose I'm a professional game developer at this point; though in the tabletop world, not video games. I have 3 published games, a bunch more on the way, and work for a publisher named Roxley. My whole day is games and game-related stuff, so I'm always happy to chime in to the occasional tabletop discussion.
It's great to have professionals around, how did you get started making them? Have you ever felt like branching your game design skills to video games, or is it a medium you don't care for?
I got started first just by playing a lot of tabletop games; experiencing what was out there, what had been done, and what was possible. I started tinkering with my own designs, playtesting with family and friends. The biggest step forward was finding a local design group that met weekly. The ability to have your games played by fellow designers, more harshly critiqued, and the chance to iterate and try out changes a week later... was enormous. I started entering and winning design contests, going to conventions, growing a network, and getting games signed and published. Now I'm working for a publisher as well as doing my own designs on the side.
I come from a software engineering background, but these days video games just don't really interest me. Tabletop provides interesting challenges and restrictions, but also benefits. Undertaking a solo-effort game design is much easier in the board game world than it is in video games - I have complete control. I can scrap mechanics or the game entirely and move onto something else if it's not going the way I want. I don't need to understand graphics, sound, and all kinds of other related systems in order to design a successful game. I'm focused only on mechanics and player interaction, with just enough graphic design to make the thing playable.
Maybe the biggest thing I like about board games over video games are the permanence. You have your entire experience right there in the box. The rules to create an experience with friends around the table is included inside. Better games might come along in the future, but nothing within that box is going to become obsolete or unplayable.
That's a very organic path, I like it. Peers can definitely be a big factor in growth.
I agree, video games can feel hollow sometimes. Creating one can be a painfully long process with very little iteration happening to feed in to that development loop that you get when making a board game. I'm lucky that my university course allowed me to experience creating one, it was very tricky yet enjoyable working on game design and constantly iterating in an attempt to make it fun. I'd say it's the most purest form of game design.
I never thought about board games and their permanence, that's really interesting. The feeling of actually owning a physical game that is right there is very gratifying compared to the now common abstract game libraries, even owning a disk doesn't quite feel the same.
Dont code so techincally not a gamedev, but I've freelanced on pixelart for ages and I can animate anything you want.
One thing I've come to realise is that Tildes doesn't have much support for posts that center on visual content, but I imagine there's a lot of room for talking about pixel art techniques and such.
I'm a systems engineer by trade. Likely going to be doing some game development over the coming year. Got some ideas for an isometric combat strategy game that plays on tabletop rpg mechanics.
That's great, I'd love to hear about your progress as you work on your game. Sounds similar to Divinity Original Sin as I found it was reminiscent of table top rpg's, but a bit more abstracted.
Have you done any game development before? It could be quite the project, I find creating small parts of the game mechanics in little projects allows me to finish bits one at a time so I don't get overwhelmed by how much there is to do.
I've done a few ludum dares and some gamedev in my spare time.
The game is still very much in it's early design phase, but I have some friends onboard to take away a lot of the trouble of doing everything yourself. I'm in charge of mechanics and programming, but I have other people to help with story, art, area design, and things like that.
Best of luck with it. Let us know how things go.
I suppose I'm technically an amateur game developer. I design TTRPGs and board games in my free time, but I don't usually think of myself as a developer. I feel like "game dev" specifically relates to video games but maybe I'm wrong.
I did originally mean video games, however TTRPGS and board games are very much in the realm of game development too. It would be great to hear about stuff you're working on in your free time, or read articles you find useful.
Not really a gamedev, but i would like to learn more about godot and do an actual game, but meh, for some reason i don't feel motivated
I've been playing around with godot for a while now but also seem to lack the motivation for it. I'm way more motivated when I work on a game from scratch but it never amounts to anything.
you mean like with low level languages?
Yeah. I mainly use C++ and like building the architecture myself but I never get anything done that way despite enjoying it more.
I'm just a hobbyist. So take my advice with a large grain of salt.
When doing solo gamedev; full game suites like GoDot and Unity don't click with everyone. Some people prefer to get down and dirty with the code in a simple editor like VS, VSCode, or Sublime. Maybe that's why you jumped to C++?
There's an ocean between C++ and GoDot. Maybe find a framework that does the heavy lifting for you without the overheard of a GUI. I love (no pun intended) LÖVE (http://love2d.org), a Lua based framework.
Same here. I'm about to start my final year of studies centered on game development.
I definitely feel lost sometimes with full game engines, however I can logically see how much quicker it would be to use one (and for 3D there's no question about it). If I want to make a game and put in the same amount of hours either way then a fully featured solution is usually the better option when compared to something else.
I started with C++ years ago and I love it, but it's just slower to reach that end goal. I like using SFML which is really just a window/graphics/sound API. The rest of the architecture I can build myself and it's so much more fun, even when I inevitably hit a design issue with no desire to fix it.
I have tried things like love2d and libgdx very briefly in the past and found them okay to work with, but I end up getting frustrated having to learn how to do things their way. It's the same with UE4, Godot, and Unity, and likely anything else. I seem to lack whatever it is that makes me want to learn the tools to make the game, rather than make the tools myself.
I take it you mainly use love2d then? Have you read the BYTEPATH tutorial? https://github.com/SSYGEN/blog/issues/30 I found it really interesting.
You are correct, I've played around mostly in Love2d. Though lately I've actually been more productive in TIC-80 (its a fantasy console like PICO-8).
I have seen the BYTEPATH tutorial and it's probably one of the best game tutorials ever!
I've heard good things about PICO development so I can see why an even more restrictive version of that would result in productivity for you too; limiting the range of whats possible seems to allow for more focused work for some reason. I assume it allows for Curses-style(NCurses, PDCurses) text manipulation
I agree, it was really nice to read a tutorial that went from the first step to the last step in completing an entire game; I can't think of any others like it.
I have a 2d adventure game engine somewhat sketched out conceptually, hopefully will start writing it soon.
That sounds like a fun project, good luck. I've never been one to plan out stuff, much more enjoyable to just get stuck in and fail fast and hard.
I'd just like to say that the response here has been great, I never expected such a large and diverse discussion. I'm looking forward to seeing the occasional gamedev topic once in a while.