Does anyone here make video games?

SimonCharlesHanna said:

Yeah it's a bit overwhelming at times - especially the math stuff.
How long have you been doing it for?

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I started about 2 years ago but for at least a year of this time I didn't touch Unity as I have been developing a Touch Screen Controller for CUbase/Nuendo and it sucked up a lot of my time.
I'm totally hooked back in game dev stuff now though

Amazing how much progress you're making as a non-programmer! Have you had to do much C# so far?

Meanwhile, my team of two programmers is still figuring out basic character controller stuff...

visiblenoise said:

Amazing how much progress you're making as a non-programmer! Have you had to do much C# so far?

Meanwhile, my team of two programmers is still figuring out basic character controller stuff...

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Character controllers can be tricky to get right. You could use some 3rd party package from the asset store for instant results and later discover it won’t do this one crucial thing for your game or is hard to extend.

I don’t know what your programmers are up to of course, but in programming in general, a solid foundation can take time up front with not much to show for it.

jononotbono said:

Its been a while... Currently making a first person perspective video game and thought I'd share a couple of work in progress videos. One of an interior area I'm making and one of an outside area. The game takes place in Bearback Mountain. A harrowing, yet beautiful place. Like the Isle of Wight (but more mountainous

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Omg Half Life 3… :D

Nice level design btw.

visiblenoise said:

Amazing how much progress you're making as a non-programmer! Have you had to do much C# so far?

Meanwhile, my team of two programmers is still figuring out basic character controller stuff...

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Thanks man! I've had to look at quite a bit of C# and also had some help from a few people I've meet through this journey. All the game logic so far is done with Visual scripting but I've had to hire some people to make me scripts to get the visual scripting to work with various things.

mopsiflopsi said:

Omg Half Life 3… :D

Nice level design btw.

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Half Life 3! I'll take it!

I've been filming work in progress videos and actually quite like filming them so I can look back on progress so I'm gonna keep making them all throughout the process! So here's another WIP video on my video game I'm developing!

jononotbono said:

I've been filming work in progress videos and actually quite like filming them so I can look back on progress so I'm gonna keep making them all throughout the process! So here's another WIP video on my video game I'm developing!

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<UNQUALIFIED OPINIONS>

Looks great - I love the snowy vibe - it has a slightly soothing yet menacing exploration / survival horror feel to it.

If there's one thing I can offer, it's that more than anything, the story (however you choose to tell it) will make or break your game. It's often the vibe, music, and little glimpses of narrative in a trailer that sell me on a game. Of course there has to be a fun game to play also, which, as is the way of things, will probably involve collecting items, shooting things and avoiding being shot / stabbed etc.

As everyone knows, almost all games, from Beat Sabre to Dark Souls, are centred around a trade off between fun and vulnerability, a feeling of expertise, of being effective, adept, and a feeling of being vulnerable and exposed. It's a sense of jeopardy that propels most games forwards... that forces the player to act... but you also will want to reflect on how your player will feel good when they are playing, or, it could be like that time when I fired up Doom 3 and just went - d'you know what? This is just too horrible HAHA.

Two things I wanted to warn you of (hopefully you are well aware of both and can laugh at these):

1. Technical Debt: This is what kills me on every coding project. It's a silent creeeping killer, like diabetes for software development projects - here's a random link https://www.productplan.com/glossary/technical-debt/

2. The name: I just wanted to check you are aware that the term bareback has various meanings and you should google it if you aren't aware of those - if you are - no worries!

</UNQUALIFIED OPINIONS>

One more thing, as an indie developer, your superpower is that you do not have to conform to the standard gaming templates. Take The First Tree as an example:



(A great deal on that right now BTW ahaha)

In 2017, there was way on gods green earth that EA would make this game. Not a sausage. Now look at Stray:



In 2022, this is a game that EA desperately wishes they could make.

Plot twist - EA probably secretly own Annapurna don't they ahahahahha

Haha! Funny enough I have spoken to David (indie dev of the First Tree) and have done his video game course.

The name Bearback Mountain is no accident. I’m from the Isle of Wight after all

Im very much looking forward to the story of my game. And Im doing all music and audio using Wwise. Dealing with dialogue is going to be super fun as I’ve never done that before.

Not gonna talk about story yet but this game has already become something way bigger than I thought I could ever make so I’m excited to keep making progress. Been working on the intro of the game for the past couple of days. Loving it!

I haven’t played Stray yet but it’s one game I desperately want to. Looks amazing. Maybe I’ll have a play over Christmas time… but then again… I’m laser focussed on developing my game so it may have to wait unfortunately!

How hard are you going into the story side of things? My dream result for my own project is something story-heavy (e.g. I'm a big fan of Hideo Kojima), with facial animation and cutscenes and all that, but I haven't even begun to think about how to do that. I wonder what tools you're planning on using?

Thought I'd film a new work in progress video showing the latest. A custom footstep audio system (that reacts with surfaces and terrain layers, interactive ladders and yesterday I implemented mantling/ledge climbing! Very stoked with how things are slowly shaping up! Only another 20 years to go before Bearback Mountain is open for business. Need some Jurassic Park type main gates I think!

Jono

visiblenoise said:

How hard are you going into the story side of things? My dream result for my own project is something story-heavy (e.g. I'm a big fan of Hideo Kojima), with facial animation and cutscenes and all that, but I haven't even begun to think about how to do that. I wonder what tools you're planning on using?

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Sorry man, I missed you had commented. This game is definitely going to have story. There's no way I could make anything as big as something like Hideo Kojima can do because I don't have the experience or budget (you are aiming very high - which is good but be prepared to realise that will take an enormous amount of work and money to achieve what you want).

I'll do some stuff on story as I get deeper into this. Its all a huge amount of work man!

I worked as art director, concept artist, and texture artist in the video game industry, as well as volunteered as concept artist on the Black Mesa project (any Half-Life fans here?). One of the subjects I teach now is game design, along with art, music, creative writing, and photography.

Lunatique said:

I worked as art director, concept artist, and texture artist in the video game industry, as well as volunteered as concept artist on the Black Mesa project (any Half-Life fans here?). One of the subjects I teach now is game design, along with art, music, creative writing, and photography.

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You teach game design, art, music, creative writing and photography? That's a lot of skill! (Not forgetting the level of skill to teach).

Shit, I could teach someone how to shoot a gun, drink, and never give up on their dreams! That's about it. Maybe the odd Cubase Macro

Would love to see some examples of your insane skill set!

Till then, here's more progress on my attempts of making a game...

Ho Ho Ho... Now I have a machine gun (Technically an Assault rifle but as its Christmas and I love Bruce Willis)



First pass at a 9mm Handgun (Specifically a Browning Hi Power)



Its not just about guns! With so much to see and do, how are you going to explore Bearback Mountain?



Anyway... Loving this Rabbit hole

I've done a couple of game jams and have a long-term game project kind of running in the background. I like solo game development because there are so many disciplines involved in it. It doesn't ever get boring.







The Divine Camaraderie was done in Unreal Engine for the Epic MegaJam in August. I've been learning UE since maybe February, but this is the first complete game I've made with it. It's an arcade-y sort of game -- you control an angel and a demon, and you need to spur Dante forward with fire via the demon while constraining the spread of the fire with rain via the angel.






Another Castle was my first and so far only experience in Unity, created for the GitHub Game Off last month. It's a Zelda parody where you play through the game backwards as the wrong character.

jononotbono said:

You teach game design, art, music, creative writing and photography? That's a lot of skill! (Not forgetting the level of skill to teach).

Shit, I could teach someone how to shoot a gun, drink, and never give up on their dreams! That's about it. Maybe the odd Cubase Macro

Would love to see some examples of your insane skill set!

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You can check out all of that at my website: https://www.ethereality.info/

I started out in the early 90s as a comic book artist/writer, then worked as a songwriter for pop-stars and played in a band. Then I went into video games as texture artist and worked my way up to art director and concept artist. During that time I also worked in film and animation as storyboard artist, associate director of photography, and contributing screenwriter. Then I worked as writer, director, and art director for animation. I became a professional photographer around that time, then went back to art directing for video games. I started to teach around that time at art schools, and also started to moonlight as a composer for film/games. Later I started to focus my creative passion on writing novels.

I basically went through phases in the last 31 years of my professional career. I would focus on one or two things for a few years, then move on to something else, and so on. And sometimes I would return to something I did previously, and sometimes I would leave something behind and never do it again. But the main passions in my life have always been constant: storytelling through fiction, music, and visual art. When life gets hard, I'm grateful that my various experiences allow me to have multiple income streams, so if one income stream dries up, I can fall back on other things I can do professionally.

Lunatique said:

You can check out all of that at my website: https://www.ethereality.info/

I started out in the early 90s as a comic book artist/writer, then worked as a songwriter for pop-stars and played in a band. Then I went into video games as texture artist and worked my way up to art director and concept artist. During that time I also worked in film and animation as storyboard artist, associate director of photography, and contributing screenwriter. Then I worked as writer, director, and art director for animation. I became a professional photographer around that time, then went back to art directing for video games. I started to teach around that time at art schools, and also started to moonlight as a composer for film/games. Later I started to focus my creative passion on writing novels.

I basically went through phases in the last 31 years of my professional career. I would focus on one or two things for a few years, then move on to something else, and so on. And sometimes I would return to something I did previously, and sometimes I would leave something behind and never do it again. But the main passions in my life have always been constant: storytelling through fiction, music, and visual art. When life gets hard, I'm grateful that my various experiences allow me to have multiple income streams, so if one income stream dries up, I can fall back on other things I can do professionally.

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Checked out your site. Congrats man. You have a website. Looks cool. Where's the client list? Even HZ has a client list and he really doesn't need one.

This is the funny thing with music isn't it. There's no faking it. Music is music. You can be as poor or rich as anyone regards but when all is said and done, the music does the talking. I feel the same about many creative things but I know music better so have to use it as example. Glad you're doing well

pmcrockett said:

I've done a couple of game jams and have a long-term game project kind of running in the background. I like solo game development because there are so many disciplines involved in it. It doesn't ever get boring.







The Divine Camaraderie was done in Unreal Engine for the Epic MegaJam in August. I've been learning UE since maybe February, but this is the first complete game I've made with it. It's an arcade-y sort of game -- you control an angel and a demon, and you need to spur Dante forward with fire via the demon while constraining the spread of the fire with rain via the angel.






Another Castle was my first and so far only experience in Unity, created for the GitHub Game Off last month. It's a Zelda parody where you play through the game backwards as the wrong character.

Click to expand...

This is amazing! Stop giving up and start giving a shit! haha! Forget what I say. You made your choice. Who am I to influence anyone's decisions haha!

Love it

jononotbono said:

Checked out your site. Congrats man. You have a website. Looks cool. Where's the client list? Even HZ has a client list and he really doesn't need one.

This is the funny thing with music isn't it. There's no faking it. Music is music. You can be as poor or rich as anyone regards but when all is said and done, the music does the talking. I feel the same about many creative things but I know music better so have to use it as example. Glad you're doing well

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I don't do songwriting and composing professionally anymore (I stopped about 10 years ago). These days, I just do music for personal fulfillment. But this isn't to say I'm not open to future opportunities. I've been focusing on writing novels in the last ten years, and getting established as a novelist is my main priority. I'm working on some new music that I might pitch to some record companies down the line, but I'm not very serious about it--just something that will happen naturally if I think the stuff I'm doing has a chance in today's market.