I suppose I could have been more specific in the subject, but the point of this thread was to discuss team motivation, not personal motivation, specifically when the realities of running a business hit, not just when you're feeling unmotivated. It's a slightly different beast.

The tunes in AAAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAA!: A Reckless Disregard for Gravity are pretty good too. And this is a totally unbiased opinion.

It all comes down to life's big question:
Would you rather have Bievber Fever or would you rather be playing Minecraft?

Minecraft please.

We've been working for zilch for a year and have had to come into money via our own devices (contract work, other jobs). It's just hit the point where it's contract time so that's been holding things up. God willing it'll all be over later today or tomorrow (before team members go visit families for Thanksgiving), but I'd like to at least get the creativity flowing again before Thursday so they're inspired to crank out this mofo come next week.

Trust me, I'm more than familiar with that engine's limitations, especially with our current project. Having one line of AI code that starts with 30+ separate conditions all to end with the AI changing directions? Grrrr...

Either that or I'm just a really bad coder.

We get that a lot, but we know a concept alone won't sell a game. Finding those 15 minutes of fun has been a particularly interesting task, especially considering the challenges we've presented ourselves (playing as kids, recreating Boston in 2D, enemies you can't kill, etc.). We've been doing a lot of honing in lately, though, so we're optimistic.

I didn't mean "your" in a personal sense. We're a partnership, a really close-knit team. I meant "your" in a United sense. It's just tricky switching pronouns.

To all my fellow indie startups: how do you keep yourself and your team motivated when your team's current focus is on starting up and dealing with legalities, but all you really want to do is make your game?

When you figure out how to use Spread Values (for example, spreading a value on an enemy NPC on each NPC creation loop), and not Fixed Values, the headaches go away. Then it's just a matter of figuring out which events need them and which don't. If you need to alter conditions of any objects related to the NPC on an event, or are referencing any related objects - like a collision box - you'll need to reference the NPC's spread value. If you just need to alter the object's values and aren't referencing anything else, then they're not usually necessary. Just make sure all related objects store the same spread value as that of the NPC and you'll be able to call on them when you need them.

My team is currently working on a stealth-based platformer that takes place on the eve of the American Revolution entitled Children of Liberty.

Hopefully the idea of playing as awesome kids, hiding from redcoats in the shadows, and then throwing smoke bombs in their faces appeals to you as a lover of the stealth genre. If it does keep up with development on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/lantanagames

The bosses were CRAZY! I agree that most of the game required you to turn your brain off, but you GOTTA switch 'em back on for the bosses. Was not expecting the spike in difficulty they present, but I greatly appreciated the thought put behind them.

I played on XBox and... it was just beer. But anyway, loved the game from start to finish, even the bosses. They were cheap, but they were what bosses are supposed to be: puzzles, not just enemies. The multiplayer bosses especially made for some very interesting teamwork combos. Overall felt like a solid package on 360 and I'm sure the PC version will be just as solid, if not more so.

Sometimes it's also for gameplay purposes. Castle Crashes, for instance, would be difficult to get working on a PC due to the multiplayer aspect. Yeah you can play it online but it thrives from its local multi. Tougher to get people to crowd around a computer screen then in front of a TV on a nice, comfy couch.

Good to hear, It's amazing what lighting can do for a scene.

We actually got a full lighting engine to work in Multimedia Fusion. If you check out some of the other screenshots on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/lantanagames) you can see we're already able to dynamically vary up the shading and color of a scene as a whole. We're going back and manually adding in shading to give some depth the world/characters, however, which will hopefully make each asset stand out a bit more individually. Fingers crossed.

@dsilvers: It seems quite flat. Add shading, perhaps?

Already in the works. We have some big style improvements on the way.

I'm a devoted user of Multimedia Fusion Developer, but ever since the Flash exporter there hasn't been any news on the upcoming iPhone exporter, or supposed XNA exporter. Both would be very welcome.

Soft.

Make more bullets.

Agreed.

As for me, always always always working on Children of Liberty. Screenshot, anyone?

Just took the survey. In summary, don't use the built in functions like Movement controllers, because, ironically, you don't have much control over their functions. It is best to hard code what you need because Fusion gives you a lot of breathing room in the coding due to it all being plain English. You can achieve some pretty amazing results using the Hardware Accelerated version too, HD graphics and all.

Be forewarned, though, like Noyb said, it does have its up-front limitations, especially when it comes to Object Focus, certain extensions, and every once in a while trying to achieve something that by all means should be possible but you are unable to come up with a solution or find one at Clickteam forums, The Daily Click, or in any tutorial (due to NDAs I can't list any specific examples). Suffice it to say sometimes the final code results feel very hacky, but if it works, it works.

Overall Multimedia Fusion is a very impressive engine, good for beginners and professionals alike. It'll usually go as deep as you need it to, but push it too far and it will start crying (usually in the form of massive framerate slowdown). It's a balancing act between what you want to achieve and what is technologically possible, moreso than some engines, but less so than others. My main issue with Fusion is the inability to go into the source of the engine itself and modify it, like Unity, but overall it is an excellent tool.

Nice stuff! Looks liken it would be great separated into individual screens, ala Machinarium. How were you planning on handling the sledding? Our current game originally had a sledding mechanic but that one aspect has since been scrapped.

Here's an article from BostInnovation.Com on the last Boston Indies meeting: http://bostinnovation.com/2010/07/20/boston-indies-provides-monday-night-action-for-the-boston-game-development-community/