I do have a key configuration, but the game have only local coop, so even with key configuration you always hit a few key that's lock, since 2 guys are kinda squeezing on one keyboard.

So can I conclude that there's no way to avoid a key lock? Cause apart from that, the game been done for weeks.

Hi Guys, I'm actually working on a port for Tobe's Vertical Adventure. One of the game's feature is the coop play, but I was told by my programmer that the some keys might now work on PC for XNA.

Our current controls are
Player 1 : wasd, jkl
Player 2 : arrow key, 123

But when I play it with my keyboard, 2 and 3 don't work. When I play it on my bro's 1 don't work. Our understanding is that its subjective for each keyboard, which is really bad. Does anyone knows any info about this?

Thanks
Ray

You guys have Tobe's vertical adventure in there! It warms my heart

I was trying my best to hold myself back, but this thread is simply tempting me to pimp my coming soon game, so here it goes.

http://bitejacker.secretbase.com.sg/

To me, the reason why I usually avoid top down is because it's really hard to create nice visual. With a direct top down view, you can't see face, or most animation for that matter. But when I resort to a 3/4 top down like I do now, it means everything gotta be animate x 4 (x8 for the player)- which is a serious pain in the ass. By the end of the game, I was almost crying whenever I need new animation, because everything is in multiple of 4. Honestly, if I made it sideway, I could have 2 times more work done.

Yet on the other hand, if you try to make a full top down game to avoid workload on art, it's still hard to manage because it's so restrictive for the artist to express anything. Chances are, it will end up generic and rigid... unless you can come up with some really interesting art direction for that... anyone?

Damn... this sounds dump, but how do I submit something on twitter? Was gonna post my game, but I didn't know how.

Hey bobbyric, let me know how that goes I just sent them another mail last night, and there weren't any response either. Shall update the thread if I get some feedback so others who might be interested with their games on steam can follow.

Thanks for the advise, and sorry for the absent. I was really busy with my game almost completed... But back to the PC Port, I tried emailing Value ([email protected]), and there was no respond. Is that how it is? They only reply to emails they're interested in?

On the other hand, my game was developed in XNA, and we made an .msi installer. Whats kind of file type is necessary for putting games up on places like steam? Anyone with relevant experience?

I think I sort of phrased this wrong. I do understand that flash will eventually get crappy music. But what I don't understand is the file size. How can something smaller get bigger after compression, when something bigger get smaller instead.
I'm not a coder myself, so it might be something obvious that I don't get. But if we can understand it better, we can probably make better use of it.

I posted this on FGL too, but the audio section didn't look too active.Anyway, here goes...

I'm currently working on a game, that's quite audio intensive. By the end of it all, the size of the swf hit about 10 mb, and the fla is already 90mb. The audio we used were of high bitrate, a few wav(by accident), but mostly mp3.

So we went on to cut down the audio quality, converting all the waves to mp3, and dropping the bitrate. The fla went down to 20+ mb, but when we publish, the swf went straight up to 12mb.

I can't quite tell the rationale here, and I really want my musician to keep their wonderful music. Any idea what we might be doing wrong for such result?

Ray

[P.S: I've been checking out Steam, and there seems to be no contact link or faq for developer. Any one know how I can get to them?]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Glad theres some useful info here, I've been having a bad headache about this recently :/

Your other option is to try as hard as you can by selling copies off your website with a merchant service such as paypal.  But don't make too much money with paypal, otherwise they might freeze your account and semi-screw you over (Minecraft had some trouble with this.) Other than that, there's plimus and BMTMicro for payment options -- these systems all take a small percentage of your sales for using the service.

Sorry, how do I sell my game on my site to begin with? I know with paypal (probably other micro transaction service too) I can send the payee a message, and then send them a download link. But they could just send the link to anyone at all.

jrjellybeans : thanks for the links. Look really useful, and I'll look through in detail when I finish up the game.

As for the compensation to the site, I think 30% is more than fair. Afterall, if I'd make a flash game and use gamersafe/mochi, they'd be taking up more than 40% of the revenue. My main concern now is to have a place to sell the game, so when I (hopefully) get some publicity with the release, players don't stay away simply because it's too troublesome to purchase or sort.

P.S: I've been checking out Steam, and there seems to be no contact link or faq for developer. Any one know how I can get to them?

As some of you (1% of the Tigsource population) know, I'm porting my game Tobe's Vertical Adventure to the PC. We've made some enhancement and tweaks, and almost done with it, but I'm not sure about the PC market.

So now my question is, where's a good place for me to be selling my game, if my site generate 3 unique visitor a day?


I've thinking of putting it up on Steam, but I'm not sure if it's free for everyone to put up the game? Or is there gonna be a tedious process.

And what are the other similar channels other than Steam? I know they have it at Rev3 game store, but that's all I know.

Also, what other options do I have other than places like Steam?


The game didn't do well at all on XBLIG, and I really hope the PC port can do Tobe some justice this time round. So hopefully, some indie game business guru sees this, and help me out here.

Thanks in advance 
Ray

Haha, this took long enough. Shall give it a go once I'm done with my own

I was approached by a publisher to port my game to the PSN earlier this year. Though the deal didn't went through, I'm now considering if I should go the other way round, and approach other publishers instead.

Then again, I've been working quite a bit on flash and had been preparing for a mobile (iphone or Window Mobile) game... which set me wondering, is the sales on PSN or its equivalent better than the sales on iphone?

Iphone is so call the big thing for developers, with a much lesser risk (self publish, small game, small team, etc). But it's also satuated, and even harder to stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, I always had the feeling that most games on PSN and XBLA are at least profitable (completely groundless and probably untrue). Maybe it's because the user are all gamers, and more prone to make purchases.

But what do you think? Given the comparison, what would you rather work on?

I don't think the problem is this guy "exploiting" artists. I think the problem is artists not realizing what their work is worth or not doing the research to figure out what other artists charge.

Just because an artist has yet to realize his worth doesn't mean we should abuse it. It's like some underage teens want to try sex, but we don't agree and embrace it. We say no, and advise them the right thing to do

The thing is, it'd probably work for a while, but his method will eventually fail if he wants to expand the business. When you scrimp on every opportunity you've got, talents will not want to continue working with you, and that's probably a bigger lost.

You'll get stuck in the vicious cycle of always working with newbies, and always making crappy projects. And with so many crappy projects made, you don't dare to invest, and shit happens all over again.

That being said, I need to stop paying extra when I don't have to

Er.....what does creative license common means?
Btw, love those. I always had problems with bush and grasses. Any tips?

I'm probably getting assassinated for saying this, but I'm kinda disappointed myself. No doubt the atmosphere and feel are top notch, but like AshfordPride said, all you have to do is keep dying to find the right answer :/

It's almost like "keep dying and they will find the answer" is their core design mechanics. I don't know, guess it's not my kinda game.

It's gonna be tough to top that name later 

ok, i know this is maybe mean, but this looks a ton like cave story. 

from the gun mechanics to the enemies to the spike graphics to the blocks in the background to the stacks-of-background-blocks-with-one-foreground-block-on-top. 

 

not trying to belittle this at all, since it seems great.. but it's very cave-story-esque. 

Then again, if we look at games like that, the world probably have only less than 15 games, lol. I think though some games has really similar gameplay, having a different world/ setting alone can make the game tons of fun. That's really why there's so many JRPG to begin with.

Oh, and I respect Jajitsu for making something completely kid friendly. I would take note of that.....after I'm done with my own ultra violent game right now, lol.

Its a really neat piece of work., I'm sure someone will pick it up if you put it in the Jobs forum? Maybe cut a profit sharing deal if your intend were to go for flash licensing?