I don't get the line of thought, neither here nor in Writer's Block, that the potholing is anything other than a way to expedite one's explanations.
I mean, I honestly doubt anyone at all is strictly using tropes.
Remember that discussion we had on more realistic sword combat?
Umbran Climax◊Yeah, I saw that last week. Should be interesting, though I'm not sure it'll feel too different from Skyward Sword.
—
Remember when I started a thread specifically about my current project?
For some reason, I'm getting huge amounts of views, but only one person bothered to say anything.
I was thinking that maybe if you release your game as a beta to say, a select few tropers here, or maybe share more about it if you don't want to, you could garner more replies. That's also my problem, but at least I got one person to comment on it and all.
Okay, I'll post a discussion thread for my game so you can comment from there. Thanks.
the thing about talking about a game is that you get more discussion when there's something concrete. A mechanic is concrete, but a picture says a thousand words, and a demo has a million.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterI've actually said quite a bit about it and have a picture of my main character up (courtesy of my 2D artist - 3D models will probably be the very last thing done).
I can't reveal a demo just yet for the same reason that I don't have screenshots. It's not presentable yet, despite being functionally quite far along, and I can't get 3D models just yet. Since the models aren't done, I doubt most people would even consider an alpha release.
Oh, the delicious irony.
I've uploaded a pre-pre-alpha of the game to get people's opinions on something.
Full details here
.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/
August 24. One weekend, one theme, one game, not much sleep.
I'm doing this. Not my first game jam deal, but my first where I'll have to program. Anyone else here think they will?
Considering it; me and some friends did the last Ludum Jam, which was fun, even if we didn't finish.
Mainly depends on what is happening in life that weekend.
The advantage of the rushing is knowing it won't be your best work, so you have more excuses to not worry.
edited 7th Aug '12 7:35:48 AM by Tangent128
Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?^^that's sometimes a dangerous mindset that ends up meaning one gets nothing out the door. I'm not too worried about you since you've got the ball rolling in your thing already, but for most people, they need to learn the fast prototyping mindset and method.
I'll think about doing it since I don't think I have anything planned that weekend yet.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterIf its not your thing, that's cool, but yeah, it's an exercise in rapid prototyping, it gives you a chance to play with ideas you might not otherwise, and its a lot of fun. And some people have successfully taken game jam games, polished them up after the event and launched them in a professional capacity.
yeah, one of the things you gotta remember is that just because the jam ends doesn't mean you need to be done, too. All you need by sunday is a working prototype. Then you have the rest of your life to polish the prototype if you so choose.
I mean hey, look at the Skyrim game jam where the devs had just a week to go hogwild with the engine. Several months later, half the things they did got rolled into the Dawnguard DLC.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitteryeah that's why after my first jam, I came with my groups pre-made. That was in the Atlanta area, though, where the indie scene wasn't too good.
On the other hand, molyjam in San Francisco was ridiculous in regards to the level of talent. We went with a premade group, just lacking an artist, but next year we're probably going to form groups out of entropy because we know that the majority of the people who went into the scene came out with something tangible, unlike what we saw every year in ATL where like half the groups realized that making games was a lot harder than they thought and gave up by saturday.
So yeah, I guess the key to these things is also having a good group of talented people to work with, but that's really the key to every endeavor in life.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterThat's pretty awful, but at least you didn't collapse before leaving the drawing board. That means you don't have to reinvent the wheel, and more importantly, once you start shopping for asset creators, you have a concrete prototype.
So yeah, good on you for picking it up and moving forward anyway. Screw those guys. You don't need them—you can make your own game, with blackjack and hookers.
(and by that I mean you can shop around for asset creators once you have the mechanic nailed down. A lot of indie devs who have their stuff published tend to work this way so they don't have to have a dedicated artist on payroll. programmer art and crappy levels and lorem ipsums are completely acceptable during the dev period since most of that can just be commissioned later)
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterI actually managed to pinpoint and fix the main problem with the mechanic almost immediately. People's complaints about not understanding what was happening or not seeing any reason to not just repeatedly switchnote actually gave me all the information I needed to clean that up. My main worry now in terms of that note is how it could be too big an effect per switch now.note
Main things I have left to handle are more in the realm of AI, interface, and the specific stuff regarding each individual attack, enemy, and obstacle, as well as specific story effects on the characters. I have the basic version of almost everything in place already, so you could say the prototype is almost done as it is.
But I wouldn't know the first place to start looking for serious people to collaborate on the rest. :/
edited 7th Aug '12 6:39:44 PM by burnpsy
yeah, unfortunately I don't have connections there. The only thing I can think of is you do a straight up hiring thing where you post wanted ads on the internet and do interviews or somesuch over skype and/or ask for portfolios and rates.
There's probably a couple gaming-centric hubs on the net, too, but I don't know of any specific ones.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterI'd say just contract out the art and music, and if the people you use are super quality, just have them on speed dial whenever you have another project.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterThat is also a good idea. I'd need money up front for that, though.
I have art skills but also too many other irons in the fire. ;P
I would go to places like the Ludum Dare community, or any of these communies
and ask around, once you're confidant enough in your code that you can show your demo to people and have them "get it". Treat it like a job interview; have people show past work and finished projects, have them give references for other people they've worked with.
Actually, the artist seems to have turned up again
, so I should be fine for now.
He gave me a few excuses, and they all seem to check out. Especially the Olympics, since he's in the UK.
Still working with very few people here. At present, it's just me with all the design and code work, the artist (who lacks self-confidence, it seems), and a musician who needed to go on indefinite hiatus. :/

It's textbook sized, about 500 pages. The cheap price probably has more to do with it having been published in 2001.
edited 9th Jul '12 12:39:00 PM by Elle