FA+
Shop
Game Dev - My thoughts so far
7 years ago
For many, New Year is a time of reflection. I do that all the time anyway so no difference here. Still, a quick overview of my current thought procress with the games I'm working on.
-Krystal 2D-
Drew a couple of sprites for an enemy. They are not good. I'm kind of tempted to just use them for now, and either re-draw them later, or commission someone to make them pretty once the game is more complete.
I'm beginning to think I over complected the jumping physics somehow, but on the plus side the game already controls much better than more of the "platform game jumping tutorial" type things I've seen. For example, you can vary the height of your jump by releasing the jump button mid jump. Sounds simple but a bunch of games I've seen tutorials for don't have that.
Still not sure what to do with the game mechanically though. I'm tempted to rip off/remake a level from some DOS game like Bio Menace, Jill of the Jungle, or Duke Nukem (the 2D ones).
-3D Level Creation-
One of the issues I've had with 3D engines I've used so far is level design. The stock answer is "Do it in a 3D modeling program" which is slow, clunky, and far from ideal. Others like Godot and Unity say you should make 3D objects that snap together on a grid. This kind of works, but has limitations.
I'm kind of sort maybe perhaps tempted to make my own. I know I've said that before but it really is daunting as I've never done it before. The alternative is to design levels on paper so I have a few ideas for how I want the tiles to be.
-Leanna Game/Classic Survival Horror Games-
One of the "easier" to make projects is the Leanna game, or classic Resident Evil style survival horrors in general. A small number of assets compared to other games and mechanically quite simple, though requiring a lot of polish to work right. Outside of grapples (enemies that grab the player) I have a rough idea for how the game would work on a programming level.
One mechanic I'm thinking of messing with is the weapons. No knife or other melee weapon, and instead having the handgun be infinite ammo. The shotgun would be the "standard" weapon and is usually the gun in those games that's fun to use and doesn't require careful planning. My rational for this is that unless you're on hard mode or are trying to kill every monster, handgun ammo isn't really a concern. Also, most horror games are designed with more than enough ammo to kill everything in the game if you're effiecent. While I will maintain that tradition, this change could allow me to be more stingy with ammo overall.
I've had lots of variations on the Leanna game in mind for years. School setting, mansion setting, office setting, village setting, sea side town setting, multiplayer, and the most recent variant is mini quests. Basically the same game but on a smaller scale. A great example would be the Silent Hill 2 Maria scenario which is half an hour long, and 15 minutes of that is cutscenes, and is set mostly in 1 house.
-FPS and Mech Sim-
I'm kind of tempted to jump in at the deep end and try to find my way. As with platforming, bare bones FPS movement can be made pretty quick but there's a lot of subtle things that players expect that can be tricky to make.
The first problem is levels. I'd need a lot of them and while the model based tile system can work, I don't know how well. Godot did include a brush editor for prototyping, but it's not intended for the final game and unlike the horror game I can't hide things behind clever camera work. However, I'm confident I can make levels at a decent standard due to my Half-Life mod.
A second problem is assets. I'm bad at 3D models, though that might be me being too close to it, or having high standards because while many classics of the era have great models, others have really ugly models. Again, I could have the game be ugly then pay an artist later on to make it look pretty.
The final problem is mechanics. I keep going back and forth on specific important decisions. eg. Regenerating health, or not, or health + shield. These would have important knock on effects for the gameplay.
-Krystal 2D-
Drew a couple of sprites for an enemy. They are not good. I'm kind of tempted to just use them for now, and either re-draw them later, or commission someone to make them pretty once the game is more complete.
I'm beginning to think I over complected the jumping physics somehow, but on the plus side the game already controls much better than more of the "platform game jumping tutorial" type things I've seen. For example, you can vary the height of your jump by releasing the jump button mid jump. Sounds simple but a bunch of games I've seen tutorials for don't have that.
Still not sure what to do with the game mechanically though. I'm tempted to rip off/remake a level from some DOS game like Bio Menace, Jill of the Jungle, or Duke Nukem (the 2D ones).
-3D Level Creation-
One of the issues I've had with 3D engines I've used so far is level design. The stock answer is "Do it in a 3D modeling program" which is slow, clunky, and far from ideal. Others like Godot and Unity say you should make 3D objects that snap together on a grid. This kind of works, but has limitations.
I'm kind of sort maybe perhaps tempted to make my own. I know I've said that before but it really is daunting as I've never done it before. The alternative is to design levels on paper so I have a few ideas for how I want the tiles to be.
-Leanna Game/Classic Survival Horror Games-
One of the "easier" to make projects is the Leanna game, or classic Resident Evil style survival horrors in general. A small number of assets compared to other games and mechanically quite simple, though requiring a lot of polish to work right. Outside of grapples (enemies that grab the player) I have a rough idea for how the game would work on a programming level.
One mechanic I'm thinking of messing with is the weapons. No knife or other melee weapon, and instead having the handgun be infinite ammo. The shotgun would be the "standard" weapon and is usually the gun in those games that's fun to use and doesn't require careful planning. My rational for this is that unless you're on hard mode or are trying to kill every monster, handgun ammo isn't really a concern. Also, most horror games are designed with more than enough ammo to kill everything in the game if you're effiecent. While I will maintain that tradition, this change could allow me to be more stingy with ammo overall.
I've had lots of variations on the Leanna game in mind for years. School setting, mansion setting, office setting, village setting, sea side town setting, multiplayer, and the most recent variant is mini quests. Basically the same game but on a smaller scale. A great example would be the Silent Hill 2 Maria scenario which is half an hour long, and 15 minutes of that is cutscenes, and is set mostly in 1 house.
-FPS and Mech Sim-
I'm kind of tempted to jump in at the deep end and try to find my way. As with platforming, bare bones FPS movement can be made pretty quick but there's a lot of subtle things that players expect that can be tricky to make.
The first problem is levels. I'd need a lot of them and while the model based tile system can work, I don't know how well. Godot did include a brush editor for prototyping, but it's not intended for the final game and unlike the horror game I can't hide things behind clever camera work. However, I'm confident I can make levels at a decent standard due to my Half-Life mod.
A second problem is assets. I'm bad at 3D models, though that might be me being too close to it, or having high standards because while many classics of the era have great models, others have really ugly models. Again, I could have the game be ugly then pay an artist later on to make it look pretty.
The final problem is mechanics. I keep going back and forth on specific important decisions. eg. Regenerating health, or not, or health + shield. These would have important knock on effects for the gameplay.
