Making Games Megathread: Congratulations on releasing the horniest game of 2022

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Making Games Megathread: Congratulations on releasing the horniest game of 2022

Toastline: Dec 7, 2005; Chain Chomp

Mug posted:

How often do you guys have an idea for something to put in your game, but you have to create a little prototype of the idea working stand-alone before trying to put it into your game?

I am slowly building up a little folder called "Prototypes" and its just got a ton of programs in it that perform basic routines that I've eventually moved into my game code after I got it the way I wanted. I have a little program that is just a black screen demonstrating bullets flying around, one that generates vision cones and draws them, and I'm making one now where you just click on a black screen to spawn an explosion.

Do youse sometimes make prototypes in programming languages other than the one your game runs in so you can quickly bang something out to see how it feels before integrating it? I'm just interested to hear how other people go about this kind of thing.

I do that all the time! Mostly with complex-looking visual effects or really basic gameplay things. I was actually considering to gather up around 40-something of my prototypes and experiments, and make them into a single program and see if I could sell it, because people seem to like them. But I don't know if that's such a good idea. Anyone have thoughts on that?

edit: here's an example of a thing. It slowly draws procedurally generated mathematical figures whenever you press r. (It's a windows executable and you'll want to be sure to extract it before running it)

Toastline fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Sep 23, 2012

# ¿ Sep 23, 2012 22:42

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:30

Toastline: Dec 7, 2005; Chain Chomp

8's executables run considerably faster than 7's or 6's, and they load faster as well. Also, 8 pro has some great features for graphical things that I use regularly. Oh, and you can't use extensions or DLLs (which you'd need to make netplay viable, for example) without the pro version. Some parameters for pre-existing functions have been changed in 8, too, so if you have old code you may need to make some adjustments. Also, it still says "made in Game Maker" whenever you open an executable made in the not-pro version.

You can just download the free version, and the manual will tell you what the pro features are.

I didn't use pro features in the program I demonstrated in my previous post, but I'm going to mention it anyway because nobody even took the time to tell me that it sucks, and I'd appreciate any thoughts about it.

Toastline fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Oct 3, 2012

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 01:20

Toastline: Dec 7, 2005; Chain Chomp

Bovineicide posted:

I take it that 8 is a lot more efficient with RAM as well? I remember 6 loading all assets from the game into RAM at once for some reason. I'll probably mess around with the trial for a bit and see if what I want to do will work with Game Maker.

I don't remember if 6 did, but I believe 7 gave you some control over when specific assets were loaded. I don't see the options for that in 8, for some reason. It may have been replaced with some more efficient stuff under the hood, but I'm not certain.

Bovineicide posted:

I tried out that test application in your older post. It will render just fine sometimes, and other times it will give me nothing or just a single line. Not sure if that was an issue you were aware of already or not. Of course I'm a dumbass, and forgot to take screencaptures for you.

Alas, that's just a danger of procedural generation that I should probably have warned you about! I could try to make a boring-shape-detector and make exceptions for those things, but users can just press the button again. Thanks for trying it for me!

Bovineicide posted:

I just don't have the time or the energy to try to write a ton of code with the job I've got right now, unfortunately Thanks for the input, guys!

It might be worth noting that I almost exclusively use the "execute code" drag-and-drop item in Game Maker, and stick lots of code in those. I find that it's the fastest and most powerful way. Of course I don't have to write my own collision detection, texture interpolators, etc. from scratch, which might also be the kind of thing you're talking about not having the time or energy for (and which is a large part of why I like Game Maker).

Toastline fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Oct 3, 2012

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 07:26

Toastline: Dec 7, 2005; Chain Chomp

I'm working on a board game where the character that each player chooses determines what moves they can make. There are character portraits, which react to how the game is going. Since I'm doing most of the sprites, here are several "neutral" ones for Swhatever Saturday!

In order: Tzyhr, Deys, Iybujf, Moloch, Procyon (We have permission from Elizabeth Maxwell to use an Albategna! :D ), Quincy, and Mo (A secret character!)

Four characters currently have no portrait sprites. Tzyhr's were the first to be completed (but they were done by someone other than me), and they may be redone to fit with the other ones that aren't Iybujf and Mo, both of whose are intentionally done in separate styles.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2012 19:19

Toastline: Dec 7, 2005; Chain Chomp

Here's a mockup of one of the Tutorial screens for the game I'm currently working on. It seems relevant!

# ¿ Jan 30, 2013 23:09

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:30

Toastline: Dec 7, 2005; Chain Chomp

Vino posted:

Humble suggestion:

Players tend to gloss over or skip tutorials. Even if they do read it, reading is hard and players want to play a game, not read stuff. I would keep the tutorials short and scatter them throughout the game itself, introducing each concept just as it happens for the first time in the gameplay. Then players can learn one thing at a time instead of all at once, which is overwhelming.

The trouble there is that it's a rather simple game. There just aren't many concepts to explain (though I don't know if I can explain them concisely, the tutorial at least tries).

We have this warning to pop up, though I'm not sure how much it will help:

(this image is also a mockup)

# ¿ Feb 1, 2013 06:55

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Making Games Megathread: Congratulations on releasing the horniest game of 2022