Pretty much a hobbyist developer but I've been coding for a good while.

Hi,

I'm doing an scientific survey for my university and all game developer inputs would be appreciated!
The subject is on the reasons that influence the decisions regarding the selection of different software tools in the game industry.

These software’s include things such as: game engines, design programs, 3D modelling tools, etc. If you use or have acquired any of such software’s from an outside source to be in the final product or to help in the development, your input would be greatly appreciated.

If you wish, you and/or the company you represent, or the game you are working on, can be made anonymous in the study and thus would not be identifiable. The results of this study will be used purely for scientific purposes.

The questions:

1.Your name? (can be left blank if you wish not to be identified)
: Bunny Blake


2.Name of your company or the company you are working for? (can be left blank if you wish not to be identified)
: Discolingua Productions


3.What type of game(s) are you developing and on what platform(s)?
: arcade + action RPGs in Unity, primarily for browser/PC/Mac


4.Name(s) of the major game(s) that you are developing? (can be left blank if you wish not to be identified)
:


5.What software tool(s) have you bought or otherwise procured for the final game or to help in the development process?
: Unity, Photoshop, GNU Emacs, Ableton Live, Tiled


6.What were the main reasons you selected this/these particular products?
: Unity for its cross-platform ability and variety of built-in tools.


7.What was the main need that the product(s) had to fulfill?
: Ease of development and deployment


8.On 1 to 10 and 10 being the best, how well would you rate their functionality?
: 8.5


9.Was the possible price of these products a major concern?
: Yes, especially if I decide to get into mobile development, but for where I'm at now the Unity licensing is very reasonable.


10.Did the type of game you are developing have a major effect on the choice?
: somewhat


11.Did you consider on making at least some of the things yourself, that you have procured from outside source?
: I've been mostly producing my own assets (2D art and audio). If I branched more into 3D I'd definitely use more assets from other sources. I have no problems using code/libraries developed by others.


12.If yes, why? If no, why?
: For the games I'm making, developing the presentation is very much part of the fun and what I want to communicate.


13.What was the main reason why you chose to get the software from outside source(s)?
: Not sure this question is relevant to me


14.If you are able to, can you name few things that need special attention in the selection of software’s that you have acquired?
: What platforms will the game run on and what are the system requirements? How big is the executable? Can it support e.g. fullscreen, game controllers?


15.What are the major effects of the software that can be seen the final game, if any?
: nothing major/specific


16.In your opinion, how would these effects differ compared to a use of a possible alternative software?
:



Thank you for responding. If you have any questions dont be afraid to ask me!

Bitsmacker is terrific, though it's Mac-only.

Hi all,

I've tooled around with gamedev a little bit, but making music is the focus of my energies and I'd love to get involved more with game music. I make electronic music in a variety of styles (house, breakbeat, techno, trance, atmospheric), I also play guitar and bass and record everything from rock and punk to a little jazz and blues.

I just released an electronic album that's pretty representative of where I'm at these days, you can listen at:

http://seven4seven.bandcamp.com/

Also my soundcloud has some bits in other styles, including some guitar-based tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/discolingua


I hope you'll have a listen and enjoy it, and if you're working on something that you think I might be a good fit, please hit me up at discolingua @ gmail.com.

Thanks!

Consider chess, do you get to skip a go in chess?

Well, unless you are down to just your king, you can have a specific piece hold it's position. I'd also argue that chess isn't a representation of tactical combat in the same way that a roguelike is; chess is more abstract.

Not having a skip turn action means that instead there is a "wiggle back and forth" action that feels fiddly and doesn't add much tactical depth.

That's opinion, of course, but I DO think that if you are going to leave out a skip turn button, the game narrative should explain it somehow ("this isn't a dungeon explorer, it's a flying robot").

I thought about adding a skip turn, but cant really see anything in favor of it. a lot of times I feel like its in there the same way food clocks are. that people put them in because Rogue had them. I think with such a small level that the skip turn does nothing to make the game more challenging. in a lot of roguelikes the player will mash skip turn until the monster gets next to them and then the battle starts. its just used as a way to get the monster closer so you ge the first strike.

Well, yeah, pretty much every turn based tactical combat game has a "wait" command, because "stand your ground and let the enemy draw closer" is a useful thing to do. Plus it feels weird and frustrating having to run back and forth from square to square, it doesn't make any sense that a guy with a sword can't stand still for a moment. If you do decide that element is central to your gameplay, you should at least think of some little bit of narrative hand-waving to explain it.

But I can think of a number of ways to make skipping a turn a less attractive option. Maybe have some evil black mist that follows you down the staircase from level to level, creeping closer every x turns. Or have a speed/initiative mechanic where moving into melee range doesn't always mean the other side gets the first attack.

Yeah I wanted to keep it easy to finish, but leave a little room playing for score; I think my best is around 650k. There's a bit of room for strategy in letting a bunch of fans spawn to combo all in one lap.

The character designs are adorable!

My only suggestion is to maybe change the rocks to birds or something? It looks sort of weird having all of these rocks just floating through the sky. Also maybe have them move vertically at different rates?

http://discolingua.com/sextank/

This is a simple little game I wrote using Flashpunk. It's the first game I've finished, and it was an enjoyable "getting comfortable with the tools" sort of project. I also made the music for it.

I like it! Nice visual style.

I'd love to see keyboard controls and a way to skip (wait) a turn without moving.

These are great tutorials. I've been interested in dipping more into both Unity and C#, and these are really helpful -- a great balance between accessible and in-depth. Thanks!

Ooh very cool; I could imagine doing some Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy esque things with this :D

Thanks for posting this!

I really like the concept and the graphics, though the controls aren't doing much for me, there's too much of pieces zooming past one another trying to land a hit.

This is coming along nicely. I like the whole Aztec theme, it is random enough to be funny but still cool and cohesive in its own right.

I'm really glad somebody is doing this one, I seriously considered it but couldn't come up with any kind of gameplay that wasn't basically a "Showgirls" parody (as much as I do love "Showgirls").

1) I don't seem to be able to move; neither WSAD nor arrow keys seem to have any effect.

2) wow this is a CPU hog.

When I saw that first screenshot I immediately thought "I'll bet that's the same person who made that funky eye toy (Deconstructivism) a couple of months ago.  

I have uploaded the latest version (demo 1) which now has more polish and gameplay. The goal is still to land (gently) on the landing pad, I'm hoping everything else will be evident from within the game.

I toned down the enemy shot speed a bit, and I'm thinking what's there now will probably be representative of about halfway up the game's difficulty curve.

I spent a good deal of yesterday re-acquainting myself with POVray (freeware raytracer) + Moray (modeler for same), with the aim of making some slick looking ships and gun bunkers, but I still haven't decided if I want to go with a rendered look for the sprites, or something more simplistic and pixelart-y. So there's still a lot of placeholder graphics there.

Also I still haven't decided to do about the on-foot segments (right now I've definitely got moon combat, I want to spice it up with something a little more wild & groovy) -- in an ideal world I'd like something like the 2D Metal Gear games and the old 2D Castle Wolfenstein. But given time constraints, I'm not sure whether this will be a fully developed gameplay mechanic, or closer to a handful of interactive cutscenes.

I do have some awesome voice acting talent lined up, and was playing around with some animations of protagonist Ivana Supernova:

This is a really neat concept and I like the presentation. I do have a couple of comments:

- I don't like the way some of the rooms don't line up horizontally, like how the side doorway to the kitchen (orange room) doesn't line up with most other horizontal doors -- this does add a lot more challenge, to keep track of which rooms fit with others, but it gives the game less of a satisfying modular click-together-ness, if that makes sense.

- I've occasionally had, say, a blue sim spawn in a blue room which makes the room immediately disappear -- not a problem per se but a little pointless.

- It would be tougher to program, but how about having the sims wander around from room to room while the gameplay is going on? This would add challenge because when you make a complete path, the connected rooms wouldn't disappear immediately. Also, having a pause of 2-4 seconds every time you get a clear is going to get old after a while, and break up the flow of the game.

dog vomit
grandpa's hemorrhoids
soldering iron
electric fence
band saw
rat trap
contents of a clogged toilet
dirty spittoon interior

Unreal 2 had one of the very few well-done tutorials I can think of. After a short cutscene of an intro briefing, your CO tells you "your ship is fueled and ready, but you might want to stop off at the armory if you're feeling rusty."  Your buddy in the armory gave you a little 5-10 minute intro to the different weapons in the form of a shooting range and botmatch. It was totally optional, fit seamlessly into the game's narrative, and actually gave you something engaging to do.