Ah, Aussies can join the real men.

What about movies? Are R18+ allowed in there or only games were banned?

Like stated, creepyiness can be explored with the way they move but also with the sound they make while interacting.

One of the most freaky creatures I encountered were
The spiders and the Hunters from RE1. The spiders because of their silent movement and the hunters because of their sounds and speed.

Most recently are the enemies that cry in Dead Space, the Guardians, when they moan before the attack. Freak me out, alright.

I didn't even pay attention to the Guardians' design, just their cry put on alert. Later I look at one and found it mildly disturbing visually, but their cry stuck to me from the first encounter.

Again, in Dead Space the impaler (The Hunter) proved the dementia of the designers because it is fairly normal, but when he attacks and eventually kills Isaac, you can never be allowed to say that you are not disturbed by the vision.

You don't need to make disturbing designs, but make them act disturbing.

Do you remember the first encounter with Ridley in Super Metroid? He doesn't do anything when he awakes, but you know you're done for when he moves...

Round the bullets/missiles/lasers
Add some flare to the background
IMPROVE THE ASTEROIDS - They look like pieces of melting chocolate
Decide on the perspective
Switch hearts for mini ships

The hell is wrong with you, with all those flashy colory bars like that?!

I like the premise of your game. Too bad I spent 77.000 euros in a house.
 

True.
I like shopping malls during the weekday afternoons. Big enough to find a nice spot and be left alone, while having coffee shops/diners near.

The Power was just converted into flash. I think it's on Newgrounds now.

EDIT: Yep. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/597203

Thanks.

I'd like to see The Power, but alas, the website has recently been nuked.

Cool video, Paul, I can't figure out how I managed to miss it.

Heh, I got Mario 3D Land, PilotWings Resort and Ridge Racer 3D. Ridge Racer is my guilty pleasure, I seem to get it in every single console I own, for some odd reason.

What game is that, 3rd from the bottom? Is Shinobi any good?

i don't really enjoy programming so anything that helps me reduce the effort is good (gml is programming for idiots) and i'm not looking to get a job in the game industry or build a portfolio or anything like that. i just mak gams as a side hobby and gm is perfect for that.

Yup. Though I have ignored my GM 8.1 license for far too long, and getting Construct 2 for HTML5 anyways, I figured that the best approach is to get my hands on something quickly instead of reinventing the wheel every time.

That is exactly what I'm trying to do.
Trying and testing continuously.

I think your game is "almost there". I have a few questions, though.
Does it have any sound/music?
Does it have a clear definite objective?

I'd just add a background layer, something that would change occasionally, to symbolize level changes (it could just be a change in color), sound (if not present), on selecting the piece, play it and when there would be a collapse. Not much else, because minimal in these kind of games works well.

Take a look at Kurushi, for instance.

Just wanted to drop by and tell you that the art in the game is awesome.

I like this one:


Everything fits, the rainbow, the scenery... And looks kind of still, like abandoned. My art reading is crap, but this one clicked with me. I saved it and use now it as wallpaper.

It's kind of Metroid...

Pretty good premise in your game.
Very thought out. Care if I set a notification on your topic?

I'd kinda like to see a write up on how you ported it later.

The name, yeah, ok... Keep it. It's snarky, at least.

MOAR!

 
Give us!

Congrats on your return! Just take your time.

That, my friend, is a helpful hand indeed. I congratulate you.

It sounds like you have two separate problems:

How to design a good quality level on a gameplay level for your game.
How to decide on a visual aesthetic for your game.

Making a good level for your game of course depends hugely on how the game works, what you want the challenge to be, the feel, all that game deisgn stuff. I don't know your game so don't think I have much useful to say on that.

For aesthetics I find it very useful to trawl through images and build a collection that appeals to me. http://ffffound.com/ is pretty good for that, although you tend to see a lot of similar styles there. Add some paintings or sculpture for instant class. Just a couple of images can be enough to give the foundation for the look of a game.

Good call on the image browsing. My game is (hope will be) something along the lines of Ballance (gameplay) with a bit of Marble Blast (objective).

And yes, my main problem is the visual aesthetics. I keep hopping through styles, so your advice might just be what I need.

Level design, for me, relies mostly on playtesting. Drawing just helps organize my thoughts when I already know what I want to add.

Code:

def create_level():
    level = get_concept()

    while level.length < LONG_ENOUGH or level.size < BIG_ENOUGH:
        new_ideas = play(level)
        level.append(new_ideas)

    return level

So, you just make whatever you want and then play it to see if it fits? I'm also trying that, but not much success is coming this way. :p

Right, I'm making a marble game, mostly I've been scheming the controls up until now, setting up the camera, using only general "art" as placeholder, like simple planes, primitives and textures.

I usually, for a quick test, make a track to roll on, never feeling happy with it. Good thing: I can cook up a track real quick, with the amount of tracks I've created and discarded. Basically anything my brain can think of, I can make it fairly quickly.

Thing is, I'm having a really hard time finding out the setting of the game, if I should go towards a more organic setting (with grass, rock, wood textures, for instance) something abstract, using mainly colors and weird textures.

But one of the other issues is the inability to find/make tracks that are (for me, at least) worthy of being called a level.

Now I'm thinking of using pencil and paper a make a few scribbles (I'm terrible at that) and brainstorm, but I'm not sure if that will help me any.

How much help would I get from putting the pen to paper, make an item, and redo it until I'm happy with it and then put it up in my game?

I've even got a few blank sheets of paper and lots of IKEA pencils to spend.

Most art I see are character mock-ups, level parts, but because I'm planning something simple I'm not sure drawing would help me much.

Any advice?

The names of each game is great alright.

Though I'm knee deep in negotiations to buy my own house, I'll try to make it. I'll be late to the party, though.