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Bert of the Forest posted:Hey errybody I made a snail! Dark Souls bosses are often two totally different animals (or things) mashed together. Rather than just give a snail a big mouth, try mashing together a snail with a creature that actually has a big mouth. Like, imagine a snail with an alligator mouth that juts out from the shell rather than a head, and four legs. And then for further Dark Souls inspiration, cover the shell in twisted braches and have the creature always be on fire.
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Feb 10, 2015 20:18
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Yodzilla posted:What Kickstarter level will the body pillow be available for?? the weird splayed out versions with a front and back? that actually would be funny
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Feb 10, 2015 20:18
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shs posted:the key is to make your characters out of tubes and circles so that they're so neutral nobody can get offended (and sometimes not tell the gender of) It works in 3d too! http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ecstatica/ecstatica.htm Bert of the Forest posted:Hey errybody I made a snail Needs cinnamon buns taped on to complete the Leia as Jaba the Hutt fantasy. Edit: Polo-Rican posted:Dark Souls bosses are often two totally different animals (or things) mashed together. Rather than just give a snail a big mouth, try mashing together a snail with a creature that actually has a big mouth. http://earthbound.wikia.com/wiki/Cattlesnake Bel Monte fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Feb 10, 2015 |
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Feb 10, 2015 20:22
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Polo-Rican posted:Dark Souls bosses are often two totally different animals (or things) mashed together. Rather than just give a snail a big mouth, try mashing together a snail with a creature that actually has a big mouth. Like, imagine a snail with an alligator mouth that juts out from the shell rather than a head, and four legs. And then for further Dark Souls inspiration, cover the shell in twisted braches and have the creature always be on fire. ZenVulgarity posted:the weird splayed out versions with a front and back? Between these two things, I think I know exactly what I need to draw in these next couple of days. Good feedback, ya'll. Time to get bus-ay.
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Feb 10, 2015 20:37
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Polo-Rican posted:Dark Souls bosses are often two totally different animals (or things) mashed together. Rather than just give a snail a big mouth, try mashing together a snail with a creature that actually has a big mouth. This. See also: the animals in Avatar http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Fauna_in_the_World_of_Avatar
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Feb 10, 2015 20:41
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Wow, that got intense! Sorry I missed out. I'm not ignoring your comments, I'm trying to read everything and take it in. And yes, we're discussing what we think could be best for our game. But really, it's up to our art guy in the end. I personally thought those girls were pretty cool and funny. Not completely in line with the aesthetics of the smaller fireman, but on the other hand they weren't inked and fully stylized yet. And yes, they were not realistically proportioned considering their job. However, it's a silly cartoon game where nothing is realistic. And if someone is worried, we were intending to portray her as strong and capable.  I mean, the main character is the idiot here. What really surprises me is that so many seem to be against the Hanna-Barbera style we're going for. Oh well. It was interesting to see that the sketches sparked so much discussion.
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Feb 10, 2015 21:29
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Zaphod42 posted:Hey it works for me I have gone on record that my skull people are all genderless. Problem solved
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Feb 10, 2015 22:00
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Also good if you have zero artistic talent too.
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I really like the HB style. It takes a lot of skill to make that work - and your guy seems to know what he's doing. It's something other than the usual fare and that's refreshing. I don't particularly think that your designs border on crassness, but I will say that the female firefighter is a bit bland compared to the the male counterpart. I really like snails and think they'd make cooler ninjas than turtles.
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Feb 10, 2015 22:11
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down with slavery posted:So Shalinor, how did you get Brad McQuaid to sign up for your Patreon? That's pretty awesome/hilarious. ... I'll be damned, he IS a patron for me. Still. That post was back in November, and he's still backing me, and I'm still the only one he's backing. No clue. Probably because I made a goofy self-promo post and Zoe Quinn RT'ed it - that's where about half my patrons came from. He doesn't follow me on Twitter.
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Feb 11, 2015 04:35
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Lol, did you forget that you already noticed that as well?Shalinor posted:
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Feb 11, 2015 04:53
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To be fair, if I were associated with Brad McQuaid, I'd act surprised every time it was brought up as well.
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Feb 11, 2015 04:56
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Gotta spend that money he ran off with somehow 
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Feb 11, 2015 04:57
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Patchwork Shaman posted:To be fair, if I were associated with Brad McQuaid, I'd act surprised every time it was brought up as well. Also I've been pulling 93 hour weeks for over a month now, so I'm... kiiinda punchy. So yeah. Incidentally, that whole "start your own studio, that way you don't have to crunch!" thing? Hah.
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Feb 11, 2015 05:36
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Shalinor posted:"start your own studio, that way you don't have to crunch!" Who would ever say this. oO Entrepreneurialism is 100 hour crunches to avoid 80 hour crunches.
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Feb 11, 2015 05:43
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Polo-Rican posted:Dark Souls bosses are often two totally different animals (or things) mashed together. Rather than just give a snail a big mouth, try mashing together a snail with a creature that actually has a big mouth. Like, imagine a snail with an alligator mouth that juts out from the shell rather than a head, and four legs. And then for further Dark Souls inspiration, cover the shell in twisted braches and have the creature always be on fire. 
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Feb 11, 2015 06:39
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Ain't nothing to see here folks. Nothing suspicious about that cactus at all.
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Feb 11, 2015 06:45
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goku i won't do what u tell me
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KRILLIN IN THE NAME posted:Ain't nothing to see here folks. Nothing suspicious about that cactus at all. This should have been the final stage in Desert Golf. Just a giant phallus-cactus covering the hole.
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Feb 11, 2015 06:46
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KRILLIN IN THE NAME posted:Ain't nothing to see here folks. Nothing suspicious about that cactus at all.
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Feb 11, 2015 06:46
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Polo-Rican posted:Dark Souls bosses are often two totally different animals (or things) mashed together. Rather than just give a snail a big mouth, try mashing together a snail with a creature that actually has a big mouth. Like, imagine a snail with an alligator mouth that juts out from the shell rather than a head, and four legs. And then for further Dark Souls inspiration, cover the shell in twisted braches and have the creature always be on fire. I done did the deed. Gorilla + Sloth + Cookie Monster = 
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Feb 11, 2015 07:22
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"Oh my god! How can we defeat such a monster, it's impervious to our attacks!!" "Type 'cookie' you idiot."
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Feb 11, 2015 07:58
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This is such a stupid question, but... I'm trying to do a simple business sim game for practice. How do I stop everyone from buying a product? All you do right now is make a product, and it's score on how well you did making it is rated against competitors to get more or less sales. I got all that worked out. The problem for my scenario is: 100 consumers want to buy things. Company 1 releases product X before company 2. Company 1 ends up selling 100 units, because company 2 was too slow, even if product x is the worst thing ever made. I can always make sales take longer, but that doesn't solve a problem where if I only have one product on the market, -everyone- will buy it regardless of quality. How would I prevent this? It's unlikely to happen, but in the case it does, I don't want zero effort on the part of the player to be rewarded. I've been wracking my brain for a while and haven't turn up much with web searching. If anyone knows any sort of formulas and stuff, or articles, I'd be super appreciative. Maybe I'm just confusing myself a lot, I don't know anymore. 
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Feb 11, 2015 09:00
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Bel Monte posted:This is such a stupid question, but... I'm trying to do a simple business sim game for practice. I think you're mostly just confusing yourself a lot. Add a randomized value to track how much a consumer wants a product, and compare that to the quality of the product and the number of companies producing it. If a consumer has a very high desire, then have them buy it right away with less regard to the quality or price, but if they have normal to low desire, have them hold out until the quality reaches some sort of minimum value? I'm not sure how well this all fits in with the logic you have going on already, but that was my first idea. I'm sure there's all sorts of Official Economics Formulas to describe this behavior but they're probably way more complex and model way more factors than are worth it. Just bang numbers together until you get behavior that feels right, would be my intuition.
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Feb 11, 2015 09:10
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hailthefish posted:Add a randomized value to track how much a consumer wants a product, and compare that to the quality of the product and the number of companies producing it. If a consumer has a very high desire, then have them buy it right away with less regard to the quality or price, but if they have normal to low desire, have them hold out until the quality reaches some sort of minimum value? If that desired quality decayed over time it would also help with the spacing out purchases problem, though putting some floor on it is probably a good idea. Or you could just always have a competitor selling minimum-quality goods; depending on what the product is, "nothing at all" might be a viable competitor. Economics has a lot of formulas and theorizing around price elasticity of demand, but quality (and marketing etc) is harder to quantify and so they wind up hand waving a lot.
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Feb 11, 2015 09:32
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Bel Monte posted:This is such a stupid question, but... I'm trying to do a simple business sim game for practice. Add a slight simulation of 'awareness.' Company 1 releases their version of product X with no fanfare. Ten percent of the people who want product X 'find out' about it every time period. Then, Company 2 releases their version of product X with a massive ad campaign (Now with 30% more!). The remaining Y people who want product X but 'don't know about it' flock to Company 2's version of product X, and several loyal consumers of Company 1 switch to Company 2.
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Feb 11, 2015 10:00
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Shalinor posted:Incidentally, that whole "start your own studio, that way you don't have to crunch!" thing? Hah. I think of it more like 'I don't have to crunch because someone else is incompetent/lazy/desperate to keep this huge studio afloat/wants to foster or maintain a long work day culture so you're conditioned to think it's normal'. I find it much easier to work long hours now a) because of my own project plan called for it / my own mistakes or laziness brought me here, b) I'm working on a project I care about instead of whatever poo poo a publisher sent over. So basically you probably can't escape crunch but if it's a decision you made yourself i think it's much more palatable. I understand you wrote what i quoted after 93 hours work and so please don't take this as intending to contradict how you might be feeling, just a poor attempt at a positive outlook! (with a smidge of venting personal bitterness)
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Feb 11, 2015 10:57
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Somfin posted:Add a slight simulation of 'awareness.' Company 1 releases their version of product X with no fanfare. Ten percent of the people who want product X 'find out' about it every time period. Then, Company 2 releases their version of product X with a massive ad campaign (Now with 30% more!). The remaining Y people who want product X but 'don't know about it' flock to Company 2's version of product X, and several loyal consumers of Company 1 switch to Company 2. I was wondering if the simulation calculates demand for individuals or market for whole segments? Both are possible. Yeah, you can have demand be influenced by marketing spending, so that if you don't market your product, almost no one will buy it. Or you can have some more complex systems with segments' or individuals' preferences for different product attributes having an effect on how much a particular product is demanded. If general demand is really high (driven up by marketing or stage in the market maturity curve), everyone will buy it. If you read the market wrong, you wont sell. That's how it works in the old simulation we use at my school.
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Feb 11, 2015 12:42
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Track per-customer utility and preferred price (a.k.a. budget). Utility = customer's need for product * product quality. If utility > budget, then customer buys the item. So if you have a massive need for a hammer and don't care much how much it costs, then you'll buy even a lovely one because you really need it. If you only kind of need a hammer, and you don't want to pay that much, then you'll wait until a really good one comes along at a similar price before you buy. So the first-to-market with a lovely product at high prices will only get the desperate customers; as they drop their price they may pick up more customers, but when the better product comes along they'll have a market advantage among the remaining consumers. Whether that's enough to make up for not being first-to-market is where the game comes in, aye?
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Feb 11, 2015 16:42
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Is there any kind of automated sale tracker for professional software? I've been wanting to learn ZBrush for quite a while but I don't currently earn any money from 3D concept design. Sinking $800 bucks into a flight of fancy doesn't seem like a great idea right now. I know that some pro tools will have flash sales or promos and getting an email reminder about something that pops up in the future might just get me to shell out some bucks for Zbrush.
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Feb 11, 2015 17:42
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Scut posted:Is there any kind of automated sale tracker for professional software? I've been wanting to learn ZBrush for quite a while but I don't currently earn any money from 3D concept design. Sinking $800 bucks into a flight of fancy doesn't seem like a great idea right now. I know that some pro tools will have flash sales or promos and getting an email reminder about something that pops up in the future might just get me to shell out some bucks for Zbrush. cgriver currently has it for $648, but I have no idea how trustworthy they are. I don't think Pixologic has ever sold ZBrush directly at a discount. To date Pixologic hasn't ever charged for an upgrade so their only income is new licenses. Paying $400 for ZBrush 2 in 2004 was probably the best deal ever. They've been hinting that ZBrush 5 may be different though.
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Feb 11, 2015 18:12
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Yeah I saw cgriver and it didn't really fill me with confidence. I guess I need to hustle for some surplus cash to save up for Zbrush. I was gonna buy it in the mid 2000's as a student but held off because at that time it wasn't so clear it would become the industry standard it is now.
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Feb 11, 2015 18:21
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Well, I can't fall asleep, so I guess it's as good a time as any to whine. I realized today that I spend about 5 hours every day on my hobbies consisting of learning several languages and a couple of natural sciences. I would like for it to be half procrastination which I could get rid of, but it kind of doesn't compute. Fortunately, I only work part-time and from home, so I still should have plenty of time for programming... except it doesn't work out. Part of it is because it's not the last hobby, and indie devs here would probably understand, at least I like to think that my writing and musical aspirations fit a general theme (although to be honest it's mostly by accident). So what's been happening for a while is a happy intense evening of programming followed by a week or more of other activities or sheer inactivity (compounded by poo poo with work or at home). And it seems like it kind of has to be a dedicated evening because first I need to get into the groove, search for solutions on the Internet, work it out, have several eureka moments, then try to fall asleep but get up with another revelation... or worse, ask for advice on SA. So, if it seems like there's not enough of an evening left, I'd do something else instead. I mean, could I do it for half-an-hour every day instead? It would certainly be better than nothing, but not much of an improvement on the general morale, recalling my previous attempts at this approach. Half-an-hour simply isn't enough time for me to get my thoughts together, to do more than clean up the code a little, and sometimes you need to do a big task. So perhaps my situation as it is right now is not suitable for being a hobbyist game developer? That would be rather disheartening. Well, I think I can go to sleep satisfied now, because from experience I'm going to have a lot of "invigorating" feedback to help me wake up tomorrow. Love you all! 
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Feb 11, 2015 21:24
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^^^^^^ I'm just a hobbyist too. I have a job that eats up a lot of my time, mostly because I'm the one they call when people don't show or things get busy. So if I'm not too tired from work, and I feel like "working", then I do something. My feeling is that it's not the end results that matter as a hobbyist, so much as the journey and experience. Maybe I'll make a really good game one day that sells a ton! ...but I'll probably just make games for myself and friends. The important thing is that you're enjoying it. If you keep plugging away at it, eventually you will make a game you've wanted to make. It doesn't matter how long it takes, what matters most is that you enjoy what game designing is in your life. Unless you're in this for the money, in which case I don't have any advice on that. Seriously, you all helped me so much and gave me plenty to work with and think on! I don't know how you thank you all, this thread is golden. I feel like I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what the heck economists were talking about that I just got lost in formulas. Actually talking about these things gave me some clarity along with your inputs. I don't think I can implement all of these solutions, but I can try them out! Oh precious katana posted:I was wondering if the simulation calculates demand for individuals or market for whole segments? Both are possible. Yeah, you can have demand be influenced by marketing spending, so that if you don't market your product, almost no one will buy it. Or you can have some more complex systems with segments' or individuals' preferences for different product attributes having an effect on how much a particular product is demanded. If general demand is really high (driven up by marketing or stage in the market maturity curve), everyone will buy it. If you read the market wrong, you wont sell. That's how it works in the old simulation we use at my school. It's several large demographics right now. I don't think it would be worth calculating individuals or increasing the granularity for similar end results. With enough tweaks and processing of numbers, you'd get a believable market without going to paradox's Victoria series level of detail. You do make me want to rethink my method for doing marketing though. Right now the plan was to make sales very low naturally, advertisements would just increase sales... I still hadn't figured out how to simulate "burned customers", but I think I have some ideas now. dreamless posted:If that desired quality decayed over time it would also help with the spacing out purchases problem, though putting some floor on it is probably a good idea. Or you could just always have a competitor selling minimum-quality goods; depending on what the product is, "nothing at all" might be a viable competitor. Adding a minimum quality competitor that can't go out of business is something that crossed my mind, but I felt like that wasn't going to solve my problem necessarily. I was never sure, but it seemed like it fixed on problem without solving symptoms that could butterfly over time and bugs/hiccups crop up. Somfin posted:Add a slight simulation of 'awareness.' Company 1 releases their version of product X with no fanfare. Ten percent of the people who want product X 'find out' about it every time period. Then, Company 2 releases their version of product X with a massive ad campaign (Now with 30% more!). The remaining Y people who want product X but 'don't know about it' flock to Company 2's version of product X, and several loyal consumers of Company 1 switch to Company 2. That pretty much coincides with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations I always thought this would only work with sales, but applying it to product awareness (too/instead?) would add a lot more realism. Thank you! TooMuchAbstraction posted:Track per-customer utility and preferred price (a.k.a. budget). Utility = customer's need for product * product quality. If utility > budget, then customer buys the item. So if you have a massive need for a hammer and don't care much how much it costs, then you'll buy even a lovely one because you really need it. If you only kind of need a hammer, and you don't want to pay that much, then you'll wait until a really good one comes along at a similar price before you buy. This may be the best way to handle the consumer demand versus price versus quality I have been concerned with. Right now, every product gets ranked based on quality and the higher your rank the higher your potential sales (slowly selling over time). From there, those potential sales are reduced or increased by marketing and price. All these suggestions are making me rethink how I'm doing this, but in a good way. This in particular is partly what I'm looking for, and combining it with the other suggestions folks have made will really bring it all together. Seriously, this thread rocks. I have so much more to think about and try than when I came in. 
Bel Monte fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Feb 11, 2015 |
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Feb 11, 2015 21:29
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Feb 12, 2015 03:34
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10/10 GOTY
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Feb 12, 2015 03:46
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You did it. You made something rad. Send it to @KirbyKid.
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Feb 12, 2015 05:26
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I can't stop laughing at this.
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Feb 12, 2015 05:59
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MLG airhorn playing every time there's a goal
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Feb 12, 2015 06:17
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Has anyone done the planning for an adventure game before? I thought I'd write something fast and silly for fun, but even managing a planned 30-minute game with 4-5 decision nodes is becoming a nightmare to manage. I should probably be using visio, but I've resorted to index cards with colored string and meeple to track characters and decision points.
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Feb 12, 2015 07:19
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Omi no Kami posted:Has anyone done the planning for an adventure game before? I thought I'd write something fast and silly for fun, but even managing a planned 30-minute game with 4-5 decision nodes is becoming a nightmare to manage. I should probably be using visio, but I've resorted to index cards with colored string and meeple to track characters and decision points. Point and click or text based? I love looking at Maniac Mansion's design notes which are penciled scrawls of each room, the items in the room, and how they fit with the rest of the map. You can also look up the original Zelda's design documents which were pixel-by-pixel hand drawn on graph paper.
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Feb 12, 2015 07:35
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I'm working on an adventure game of sorts and I haven't really hit that stage yet (still putting together the basic systems it'll use), but I can see where you're coming from. Something that might be helpful is to look at your puzzles in the game as a sequence of locks and keys, where you can say with certainty that anything gated behind a puzzle will be inaccessible to the player without having all the necessary keys to solve that puzzle, whether the keys are items or specific character decisions or whatever. Then you arrange your scenes/plot points in groups separated by puzzles which the player will have to complete to advance to the next group. The main point to all that is that it allows you to break up your game into smaller logical segments, where you know for sure that when a player is in a particular part of the game that they will have seen all the stuff in the previous parts of the game (unless you have some optional branches, but even then you can set those up as kind of parallel tracks). That way when you're working on a particular section, you only have to care about what happens in that section.
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Feb 12, 2015 07:44
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