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[M0ti]

Today I finally sat down with a pen and paper and tried to map all areas and directions that I can focus on. There is the the exploration prototype, on which I worked this whole time. Then there is the vertical slice and IndieGoGo campaign.

DUNGEON EXPLORATION PROTOTYPE
The thing that I was working on the whole time. It can be labeled as a success. Whoever tried it at the Game Access 2018, had a great time with it and was interested to try even more.
The Goal is: get it to a state, when I can release it on itch.io

What needs to be done:

• Fixing bugs
• Insane polish so that it’s playable even without my assistance: add tutorial, keyboard controls (right now it works only with controller), tweaking the difficulty
• Major changes: probably rewriting the whole gui, because now it works only on my monitor
• Finish it: there is still no intro or end game conditions
• Promo materials: nice cover art, new gifs, texts, trailer

Estimated time:
   At least a whole month


VERTICAL SLICE
The main goal of this will be to create at least some representations of all 4 major parts of the game (tower: exploration, combat; city: resource management, town life) and then make to work together.

What needs to be done:
   Everything. New sprites, new code, need to learn a ton of the new stuff

What should be my first step:
   Now I have the basic understanding of the exploration, thanks to the exploration prototype. So the next think should be combat which will include: searching for the new color palette, drawing enemy animations, environment, playrs animation + coding.
   Or I can start with the city, which will includes learning how to use Ink for the Inkle Studio and how to import it to the game maker.

External Funds will probably be needed in some point, because the vertical slice should be a representative piece of software.

Estimated time:
   Who knows, at least a year?

INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN
Main Goal is: Learn and experience how to make the crowdfunding campaign, get at least some funds for the vertical slice.

What needs to be done:

• The Exploration Dungeon prototype
• Rewards for the backers
• Learn law and accountant requisites related to crowdfunding
• Promo materials, updates
• Making list of the gaming sites and email addresses to their redactors
• Useful twitter, youtube, twitch accounts …

Estimated time:
   3 - 5 ; not counting the 1 month for the dungeon prototype :D

[Alce]

So if I understood correctly, your plan is Dungeon Prototype -> Indiegogo campaign -> vertical slice?

[M0ti]

So if I understood correctly, your plan is Dungeon Prototype -> Indiegogo campaign -> vertical slice?

Yeah, at least that was the initial plan.
Firstly, create something playable, that will show at least the idea and the approach of the game. This is also important to demonstrate that I’m not just full of ideas but have what it needs to make them real.
Secondly, the IndieGoGo campaign, for small amount of money. Because in that moment I can point to what I’ve done and kind of illustrate in which direction I would love the project to move.
Thirdly, the Vertical slice. Representing all parts of the concept and most importantly how they work together.
And fourthly, big kickstarter / searching for investors, to fund the project.

I would like to stick with this plan, at least on the outside with releases and updates, but it’s not going to be that easy. Each of these steps needs a lot of work, and different amount of time. There are things that I can do on the vertical slice right now, even though it will be the main priority after the indiegogo campaign.

[M0ti]

Last two weeks were amazing. I quit the job and from there I was just enjoying myself. I worked on my project because I wanted to. I played games, watched movies, went for walks. It was amazing, but I was not as productive, as I would like the next few months to go. So I thought that for the third week I will try to mix the formula a little bit.
Based on the previous post I will pick one area and in it I will try to make as much progress, as possible. So from the 17. - 23.9 I will try to get as close to finishing the Dungeon Exploration Prototype.

[M0ti]

MONDAY
The week does not start the way I would expected. Had to visit some authorities and without money for the bus I spend three hours just walking into the city and back home.
What I still managed was to play the prototype for about an hour and then creating Trello board with everything I would like to do on it.
To normal categories like Debug/System changes, graphics and content I also added two Lists: DONE TODAY and PLAN FOR TODAY so that I don’t distract myself by going over the whole board too often.

TUESDAY
It seems that even though I have a whole day free I will not be able to work the whole day. The house, my stomach, wife … there are a lot of things that needs my daily attention. So what I could get out of tuesday were six hours.
The most important and also the most time consuming are the items from the debug/system changes. So I decided to tackle at least one of these per day. Today it was implementing a keyboard control scheme.

To confess, this would be much smaller issue, if I weren’t such an amateur. I was checking the input whenever I just needed it and so even just searching for all the places in the code that I need to change was a pain.
Thinking about at least functional layout and adjusting the games functionality for it was the second hassle.

For example, on the controller, the character speed is variable based on how much you tilt the analog stick between -1 to 1 on each axis. If you try to go diagonally it will produce something like 0.68 - 0.8 on each. But on the keyboard, moving diagonally would still produce 1 and 1 outcome, which will made him unnaturally fast. I had to reduce it in these cases internally, so that whenever two arrow keys are pressed, the input has to change from 1 to 0.8.
 
Lastly I’ve realized that I also need to be able to switch the prompts in the game itself according to the selected variant, which hadn't occurred to me before. And that was also all over the place and each time written differently. :D

[M0ti]

WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY
The rest of the week was really hard to grasp even while I was in it. My main focus was to make the game finally playable from the start to the finish. I knew before the Gameaccess, where I showcased it, that there will be no one willing to spent enough time to get there, so the last challenges were not done or properly tested. And so, the rest of the week turned into a confusing and uncomfortable mess, from which I remember only these:

Bugs
Not just ordinary bugs. Bugs in places with which I was done a long time ago. And because of it it was really hard to just identify, what was going on.

Level Design
I like level design, because it’s a part of the production, when you are really making the game. Game design on its own are just abstract ideas and rules. Only when you put them in use in the level design it became something, the player can experience. But until now I had almost no experience with it and it shows a lot. Especially because I don’t have any routine or process, which will help me to do it effectively. I spend a lot of time doing nothing, staring into space, moving things back and forth.
I would really love to improve in it, because the main game will be heavily about the level design so I have only two choices. Become better or finding someone else to do it. (In the best case scenario both, obviously :D)

Psychological slump
I’m glad that I have a lot of knowledge in this field, so I could recognize it quickly, but it’s still a theme that is not covered enough.
One of the things that I experienced could be called a social deprivation. My wife ware gone and I was most of the week at home, alone in absolute silence. One day, I think it was the Thursday evening, I experienced unreasonable and pure sadness. What helped me to found out what was going one, was the urge to go to the disco or the bar.
Even now, when I know what could happen, I cannot say that I’ve won and everything will be fine from now on.
It seems that being full-time solo indie developer will to the usual troubles with the progress another battlefront, where you have take care of your physical and psychological well being.

[Alce]

Sad to hear this last week wasn't too great RE: the last point, have you considered working somewhere outside your house? A place like a cafe, library, etc. You might not socialize with anyone, but you won't be as alone as you are in your house.

[M0ti]

Sad to hear this last week wasn't too great RE: the last point, have you considered working somewhere outside your house? A place like a cafe, library, etc. You might not socialize with anyone, but you won't be as alone as you are in your house.

Well, I’m glad about how things turned out. If there are bugs, they should be fixed sooner or later. It’s not a visible progress, but it’s a thing that had to be done. Level design … just needs experience, that’s all. And the social deprivation, I was thinking about it and I implemented few things:
I’m trying to get more in the contact with friends and family.
When I’m meeting them they have 100% of my attention so that I can enjoy their company as much as possible.
Visiting teahouse or cafe is possible, but I don’t have money for it right now. I used library before (which is free), but all these places are in the center of the city. To save as much as possible I'm walking everywhere by foot, which means spending 1 - 1.5 hours walking there. These 3 hours are not much of time, considering I have the whole day for myself, but it also cost me energy and will, which I can’t use productively afterwards.

[M0ti]

Thoughts about making a tutorial sequence.

The starting area of the dungeon looked the same most of the time. At least until the Game Access, when for the first time the game was played by the wider audience. After which I had to reconsider it. :D
You see, the idea was to let the player start the journey in any direction he desires.
Most directions contain only small areas, to make it easier for the player to find the right path leading him further into the dungeon.
And it worked, most of the players chosen the “main and most desirable“ path, but options were given and people used them.
The problem started appearing in around ⅔ of the game, where some players needed additional help from me. Without it they will ended up with a conclusion that they need to search for another path, even though they were on the right one, or even worse that the game was broken.
What was different? They missed one puzzle, the one highlighted by a blue color.

The scenario was simple. Player will saw a treasure chest. Knowing nothing he will triggered the floor tile button (1.). After which the treasure will hide, doors will shut and he will end up in a really small room with only interactive object, the lever on the wall (2.). The wall will let him to explore a bit larger, space, with multiple interactive objects.

The idea there was:
Ok, now he knows that there could be a lever on the wall. Obviously he will go straight up, because there is something on the wall, and if that was not enough, there is the skeleton next to it. With this logic I intentionally put the floor button (3.) close to the right wall, to minimize the odds of stepping on it unintentionally.

I couldn't be more wrong.
First of all, now it’s clear why people who didn’t get through this particular challenge got stuck. Without the knowledge of the existence of the interactive objects on the walls and the floor buttons, you can get quite far but not the whole way through.

But even when they got into the puzzle, nothing went as I planned.
Without exception everyone fell into the trap. That’s the only thing that worked.
But then no one saw the anomaly in the form of the lever on the wall. People just started systematically trying every wall, until something happened.
Yes, they went straight up to the skeleton, but after that, with their previous knowledge, they just tried to interact with every wall until it clicked again.
No one thought that the next wall opened because they stepped on the floor button. They thought that they just found another secret button on the wall!
So even though they got through this “supposedly” tutorial-like sequence, they didn’t know about the floor buttons. On the other hand they even acquired a wrong assumption that the wall lever is invisible and that they will have to try every wall in every room.

With the limited time and even space (the level was mostly done) I had to use more explicit approach. So when you got trapped, the game will show you what’s interactive. After that, the main character will explicitly say to himself, that there are stuff hiden on the walls and buttons on the floor and that it would be a good idea to be more aware of them.

It was supposed to be a Indiana Jones like moment. Trapped in a room, withou an exit. Where you had to find a way out on your own. I would still like moments like this in the main game, but it’s clear to me now, that there has to be some things done beforehand.

Bonus trivia: in the process of making the space more readable I also implemented a floor tiles that reflect light from time to time, to hint the player about their existence. Not all of them do this. Only in the more crucial moments and after awhile, so that the player has a chance to figure things out on it’s own.

[M0ti]

This blog post turned out very differently, than what I’ve planned. :D

The main idea which I originally wanted to convey was very simple. I’m starting to feel confident in my programming skills. That's it. I’m working with Game Maker Studio for almost two years now. I know what the engine can and cannot do and even though I know that it’s not fitting all my needs for 100% I feel that if I work hard, I could make the whole Epocha Tower in it.

What that means is, that the money I previously intended to spend on programmer, could be spend differently and the absolutely minimal budget I calculated for 2,5 years of development will now be enough for 3,5 years. I felt really good about it.

Last week (when this blogpost was almost done) I was thinking, researching and planning a lot. Not just how to proceed from now on, but also looking into new GMS2 features, plugins and other tools that could help me.
When I was in it, I’ve found one youtube video from Heartbeast (probably the most famous creator of the tutorials and learning courses for the Game Maker out there). The video was not a standard one. It was not a tutorial or useful suggestion. It was a confession. Confession that even though he works with the Game Maker for many years, the engine which occupies his hart the most right now is something called Godot.

I wanted to look into it and almost immediately felt in love. Everything I feared in the GMS, everything that I knew will be quite pain in the ass in it, was solved here. And now I don’t know what will be the right course of actions anymore.
There is this engine I don’t know, engine that frankly almost no one knows. But it feels like absolutely amazing, professional tool that is ready to help me make my game reality. :D
So I spend the rest of the week in tutorials. And I’m planning to continue with it for at least few more. I hope that it will help me to see more clearly which way to go.

What do you think? Does anyone hear has an experience with the Godot engine? Or were you in similar situation with different tools?

[M0ti]

My first week of learning the Godot Engine

Last week I started learning the Godot engine. It was a lot of fun and I want to continue for a little bit more. But before I get to it I would like to share the process and informations I’ve accumulated on the way.

VideoTutorials - When I was learning GameMaker I’ve become a big fan of the video tutorials. You don’t have to figure out where the buttons are in the editor or if you are writing the code to the right place.
   There are only 3 really useful youtube channels so far: HeartBeast, GDquest and Gamefromscratch. There are bits of content here and there, some of it useful, but a lot of it is redundant or too amateurish to my taste.

Tips:

• By previews it seems that on the Udemy there is no course better than what you can find free on the youtube.
• Godot 2.0 was different. The editor looked differently, workflow was a bit different and even the GDScript has evolved and some functions have different names now. They are still usable, but you have to understand the 3.0 version first.

Official Documentation - After I consumed the three main channels I had to hive up on video tutorials, If I wanted to remain the quality of the materials.
Godot has a bunch of nicely written tutorials on their website. There I read everything in the GETTING STARTED section. Some videos also pointed me to this documentation before it, so I also read about the vectors in the math section or some 2D materials.

Tips:
To this point I consumed the content almost without filtering. I know, that I will never need 3D or network funcions tutorials, so I didn’t bothered with them. I also know that some topics will not be relevant in the first few months, like for example saving files, background loading or steam workshop implementation.
But except for these obvious fields I was learning indiscriminately. Everything 2D I watched, or at least started watching. Because what I've learned in life is, that you never know in advance, what information will turn out useful in the end. Even though you will forget them in a week, you still at least know that there was a function or a solution like that :D

Write your own notes - that's always helpful. You repeat the information you just learned, which helps it to stick in the head. Also when you try to formulate them using your own words, you can test how much you really understand it.
After few months you will probably never open the notes again, but now they can be really useful.
I neglected it this time and I regret it already. I'm trying to code on my own now and I sometimes feel like I've saw how to solve my problem, but I don't know where. Yes, the information is still somewhere out there, but now I have to re-watch a lot of materials, just because I though taking my own notes is pointless.

[Devilkay]

like an improved version of tower of druaga. do you know it?

[M0ti]

like an improved version of tower of druaga. do you know it?

Yes I do! :D I even mention it in the first post as a one of the main inspirations for the project. Both the game and the anime based on it. Never played it for a long, though. That game is hard to today's standards. :D

[M0ti]

After the initial dosage of tutorials it is time to test it!
The best way to test new knowledge is to try to apply it on your own. So if the ultimate goal is to judge if it is possible for me to make the Epocha Tower in the Godot engine, why not do so by trying to make the Epocha Tower itself. :D
So I started recreating the previous prototype. At least the mechanics and features that would be universally present even in the final product. Things like basic movement and collision, sorting depth based on the y position and camera.

The sorting was a bit tricky. In game maker every object has an depth property. This property tells the game in which order to draw stuff. After a little bit searching I found out there are numerous ways to control sorting in godot and after some tweaking the game can sort properly both instances and tiles together. And without any code. Only by checking some boxes and sorting stuff in the node tree.
That’s probably the most new experience I’ve got from the engine. Because the room editor in GM is very limited, I learned to do most of the stuff via code. Here a lot of things is done for me already. Don’t get me wrong, this does not make things easier. I just spend more time searching different tabs of preferences instead of coding. :D

What I had to code on my own was the camera movement. Nothing fancy, just simple movement by using lerp() function. Not sure why it’s that, but the godot engine is not favoring pixel art games. At least not by default, but everything worked out in the end. If you want to make an pixel art game in the Godot, remember:

To prevent visible lines between tiles:
Project settings - Rendering - Quality - Use Pixel Snap = check

To prevent blury sprites:
Inspector - Filter = unchck
And then click on Preset… and choose “Set as default”

To prevent jittering 1:
In CameraNode, uncheck the Smoothing

To prevent jittering 2:
This will not solve everything. As you can see on the gif, even when the smoothing is off and the character is standing still, when the camera moves, the sprite is not still. The reason is that the character x and y coordinates are not rounded pixel numbers, so wrote in your character code, to round position when he stops moving.

[M0ti]

fighting

Fighting is actually going to be the next thing I'm going to aim for! How did you know?

[M0ti]

Dungeon Exploration Prototype is almost done!

The final proofreading, bug-testing and some visual materials still needs to be made, but after that, it’s ready for release. After that I will move to the Godot engine, in which I will start making the vertical slice.
I also have to ditch the idea of the small indiegogo campaign to support my work. The plan was to design most of the rewards for other game developers. For example offering source code for both the Dungeon Exploration Prototype and even for the vertical slice once it’s done.
The problem is, that the DEP is absolute mess that the unexperienced me barely put together. I will not be able to sleep properly under the weight of all the curses from everyone who paid for it. :D
The second problem is the change of the engine. I have experience with the gamemaker not the Godot. Why would anyone pay for source code from someone with zero experience.

At least now, when one thing is almost done and the second one was rejected I can fully focus on the vertical slice. With no funds my full-time indie development will have to stop sooner after which I will have to search for a paid job again. On the other hand with most of the stuff out of the way, the development could go a bit faster.  :D

[MegaTiny]

Nice progress. Pretty brave to swap engines halfway through so well done for going through with it 

Why would anyone pay for source code from someone with zero experience.

You should pay a visit to Unity asset store. People buy poorly coded prototypes sight unseen every day.

(Not calling your prototype poorly coded!)

[M0ti]

Nice progress. Pretty brave to swap engines halfway through so well done for going through with it 

It’s not halfway through, not even closely. :D It actually is the perfect time for the swap. The Dungeon Exploration Prototype was an amazing learning experience for me and going through it I think I’m starting to understand of what I actually have to do and how.
That’s probably why I switched the engine in the first place. Because Godot is what my project needs. :D

(Not calling your prototype poorly coded!)

The prototype actually is coded really poorly. :D Every individual part is working properly, which is fine, even though I know I could do better now. But the whole structure suffers from such a tight coupling that it became insanely hard to change or add anything. That’s also a reason why I was ready to start all over again. :D
(If that's how the Unity Assets Store looks like than it's a hell :D)

[M0ti]

Godot vs Game Maker

I’m not 100% ready, but I’m 100% convinced that the leap of fate that I’m doing from the GameMaker to the Godot Engine is the right decision. Here are the main reasons why.

What Godot has and the GameMaker doesn’t

Better scene editor and the existance of an inspector
This is probably the biggest reason for me to switch. It’s very easy to make miraculous stuff in it. Any variable, being it build-in or your own, can be changed in the inspector.
The Epocha Tower is going to have all the levels created by hand. It will have a quest system, rpg system, narrative system. To have direct control over triggers and making connections between instances visually will save me months that I will otherwise spent struggling with the Creation Code.
Also, any script that starts with the command Tool will run in the editor, so it’s ridiculously simple to make your own tools and plugins to support your development.

Node tree
The hierarchy from which the scene is made. Anything can be nested and anything can be constructed as an individual scene. The level is a scene, the player is an individual scene, the enemy, GUI element or the camera could be one as well. It’s amazingly intuitive and it emphasize reusability.
The biggest advantage that this brings to the table in the eyes of the former GMS user is the power to construct each object individually. In the GameMaker even though each object can do different things, it’s inevitably constructed from all the elements like any other. If the object has a sprite, it automatically also has a collision mask no matter if it needs one or not. Here the object does not have a collision until you attach a collision shape to it. You can just as easily have an object with multiple collisions if that’s what you need.


What I already miss

Documentation and the amount of the tutorials
The in-engine documentation is so much better in the gamemaker. It’s easier to navigate and each command is described enough, that even beginner like me can easily learn from it.
And you don't even need it that much, because every topic or problem already has ten youtube videos dedicated to it.
The Godot is still very new to have this amazing base of tutorials. After three weeks I consumed most of the free materials out there. Now I just have to figure things on my own using that not-as-amazing documentation and a lot of trials and errors. But I’ve always managed so far, so it’s not as bad as it sounds. :D

Sprite editor
Most of the people, me included, use some external tools for the actual drawing. BUT!
When you start a new project, to start coding all you need are few rectangles. Why to leave the engine for that, right? Many times I needed simple edits, like resizing the sprites, flipping them, erasing or redrawing few pixels that I missed. It’s not an essential feature, but now I know how convenient it was. :D

Success stories
It’s not something directly related to the engine or your own development. Knowing that someone was successful before you will not make your game better or easier to make. But it’s still important.
The GameMaker has Hyper Light Drifter, Spelunky, Undertale, Risk of Rain etc. Amazing, well-known, highly-regarded games.
It’s a proof. It tells us that it is possible to make a full-fledged, commercially successful game in it. For me personally that’s a big deal. The Godot has a potential. I feel it every time I work with it, but there is no guarantee that this transition between engines will pay off in the end. At least not now.

[TheArtistJiii]

Hey there. I read the entirety of your blog in one setting. Just wanted to say that I like what i see, and that I have been working in Godot for the past few months, and if you have any questions regarding it, feel free to pm me. I am still technically a novice, but maybe I could give you some insight.