Yeah programmers have the lamest jokes in the whole universe

Oh man, my print statements when I'm looking for bugs are usually terrible jokes of some kind.  Especially when its late at night and a deadline is approaching...

Not to mention the goofy variable names I'll use to keep myself entertained.

Today I made a trailer video!  And then uploaded it and started spreading the link before realizing that the encoder had left out my music-fade at the end, but meh, that's minor, I guess.  (Naturally YouTube doesn't let you change videos after they have been posted...)






Turns out that microsoft movie maker that comes with XP is actually a surprisingly useful editor, for those of us who are cheapskates and don't have real video editing software laying around.

I like it!  You have very neat effects using black/white and the music fits perfectly.  I'm surprised Microsoft Movie Maker could handle all of that...I've never tried using it.

For me, difficulty is a big part of the fun. :D These days I find myself just pushing games to the hardest difficulty level that is allowed without even playing the game first to see how hard it is. I like a good challenge.

Of course completely unfair difficulty is just frustrating. Something like playing a whole game of VVVVVV and accomplishing everything without dying once and if you die you have to restart from the beggining with nothing would just be stupid.

But people do that sort of thing.  I remember seeing no death runs for cave story.  Or no hp runs, where you weren't allowed to pick up any health items.  Sometimes people make interesting challenges for themselves.

Wow.  I couldn't even beat Cave Story normally, much less doing it without getting hit.

I assume people who do that need to practice tons before they get it right.  Which to me implies that they aren't concerned with the music or artwork (any song gets old after the 1,000th playthrough).  I guess KM is right, it's more the challenge in-and-of itself that drives the entertainment for such gamers.

I like to be rewarded by interesting art/music.  If that final boss fight is insanely difficult, then hopefully it is accompanied by catchy music and detailed spritework.

Look at La Mulana (a game well noted for its difficulty) - some of the best music in the game is during the final boss fight.  It makes you feel suitably epic for finishing.

I spent the week working on school projects:  a Phong Shader in C++ and an implementation of the Minimax algorithm with alpha-beta pruning.  I really liked coding the pruner, I think I want to get more involved in AI design.

I'll go for a jog in the morning.  If I don't schedule my exercise as the first thing I do in the day, it tends to be forgotten.

Neal Stephenson.  A Deus Ex style game but set in Snow Crash's world?  Or a recreation of his vision of cyberspace?

 

I also agree with Miyazaki.

Brie.  So good with French bread.

So, the best way to find out if you like programming games or not is to try it and see.

Make a few "clones" first.  Build Breakout (whenever I learn to program in a new language I make Breakout over again), Pong, and the first level of Super Mario Brothers.  Breakout is especially good because:  (1) the collision detection is simple, (2) there is no AI to worry about, and (3) there are lots of tutorials online (http://reinebold.com/popcap-games-framework-breakout-clone/ is my remake of Breakout in C++ using the PopCap game engine).  Once you have remade the game, start tweaking things.  Add sound and visual effects.

After you have made a few clones, then start coming up with your own ideas.  I'd recommend keeping them as simple as possible at first.

As far as languages go, C++ is fine.  It's the "industry standard."  But also check out Java, Python, and C# with XNA.  If you do use C++ it might be wise to use a framework such as the PopCap game engine or SFML.

Learning PHP and MySQL for some hobby web development stuff. After years of rolling my own tech in C++, it's kind of nice to use a language where everything's already done for me and just works. (Same goes for Python, which I've been using for automating some project setup stuff recently.) It is kind of annoying that PHP will let you use variables that haven't been declared yet, though.  Makes it hard to track down bugs when I change a variable name but miss one instance. 

Look into using Python for other tasks too.  I use Python w/ Pygame to prototype every game I make.  Taking a break from things like memory management and rolling your own data structures frees you up to test new ideas and algorithms.

Real cool!  The idea is solid and I can't wait to see what this plays like finished with sound and whatnot.  I love the zoom out effect and getting to see the world at large.

A couple of UI things to look at:

• Clicking the arrows on the Avatar selection screen should work too.
• Clicking on the Avatar image should select it.
• Is there a way to get the help screen to appear again?  I couldn't find the hotkey.

Saw it on Gamasutra this morning:  http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30754/Katamari_Damacy_Creator_Announces_New_Company_Uvula.php

His homepage is www.uvula.jp.

I'm excited for this - Takahashi is one of the most creative people in the industry.  I wonder what he and his wife will make.

You could ask them if it's alright for you to develop it on the Android for them.  Not copy the idea for your own game, but make a port for them.  You never know, they might be up for it.

I use my real name because I couldn't think of a clever forum name.  Plus I saw others using their real names so it seemed like it was kosher here.

That's actually the same reason I use my last name for my website.  I couldn't think of a clever game company name.

Gourmet White from Mellow Mushroom.  With a glass of Sweetwater.    

Congrats - best of luck on the charts. Do we get a link?

So, I don't want to overadvertise by reposting it, but the link to the game's homepage is in my signature.

A couple of things I noticed about the process for those of you going through it:

• Read through the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.  They are very particular about the way icons should be formatted.
• Use Xcode's memory leak detection tool early and often (Run->Run With Performance Tool -> Leaks).
• Scale down a large icon to get your small icon instead of the other way around.
• Time to approval is about a week.
• My App didn't have any networking, but I expect that networked Apps take longer to test.

Advance Wars, Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics might be the scope you're looking for.

Also check out Shining Force and Shining Force 2 for the Genesis.  It might be fun to expand on them and give each of your party members an extended storyline (rather than just a few lines here or there), such that your playthrough of the game changes substantially based on the makeup of your party.

Yeah, the problem is any game that uses the "quest" archetype is usually on a quest to find something.  And that something turns out to be a MacGuffin.

Maybe Deus Ex?

Firstly, I investigated the input problem to the extent I could. Unity seems to double up the movement axes, one version for keyboard input and one for joystick input. reinebold, any chance you have a joystick/gamepad that you use? I might try removing those axes for the next build I guess.

I don't have a joystick, but I tried again today.  I was able to move successfully.  Not sure why I couldn't before - maybe because that was the first time I had downloaded Unity on this computer?

Anyway, I love the disorientation feeling.  It's very easy to get confused and lost but that's the point of the game so it works.  It does feel like you're rolling around inside of an Escher painting.

I would say that you want to be a little clearer on where the mist is, I found it hard to tell in which direction I was supposed to run.

My app was approved as of this afternoon!

Thanks all for the advice.