Author Topic: Game Design Megathread (Read 443215 times)

ultimamax · June 15, 2014, 11:43:15 AM

Quote from: Camera on June 15, 2014, 11:37:38 AM

The second requires that you are already decent at drawing

Okay. How do I get better at drawing then? I don't want to draw more realistically per say, just in a way that's more pleasing to the eye.

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otto-san · June 15, 2014, 11:54:34 AM

Quote from: ultimamax on June 15, 2014, 11:31:43 AM

1. I want to learn C++ to use the Polycode engine. This would mostly mean learning the syntax. How should I go about learning this? Most of the good C++ books are $30-$50 and they seem to go in depth about the standard library. I'm not sure how much relevance the std library would have to game development but maybe it'd be good to learn anyway? What do you think?

Learning the syntax is the easy part, so don't worry too much about that. This is a pretty good website to learn C++: http://www.cplusplus.com/

The main challenge (and fun) is going to be getting the code to actually work [well]. Just don't rush into it and you'll do fine. Take your time and make sure you're understanding all the individual elements.

Zay · June 15, 2014, 12:13:32 PM

Quote from: ultimamax on June 15, 2014, 11:43:15 AM

Okay. How do I get better at drawing then? I don't want to draw more realistically per say, just in a way that's more pleasing to the eye.

To explain this I'll use a character for example, like an OC. First you should think of what your character is like in form of personality, whether he is arrogant, evil, good, a hero, and other qualities like that

Then try coming up with your own visual design for this character, by thinking of how you would see a person like this. This'll help you picture what he is like in your own personal way

This leads you to subconsciously creating your own artstyle once you take it to a piece of paper, as you are expressing what you see in your head to paper in your current state in a possible way. This process'll lead you to get better at drawings in all sorts of aspects as you continue

hope that helps

ultimamax · June 15, 2014, 12:43:42 PM

Quote from: Zay on June 15, 2014, 12:13:32 PM

To explain this I'll use a character for example, like an OC. First you should think of what your character is like in form of personality, whether he is arrogant, evil, good, a hero, and other qualities like that

Then try coming up with your own visual design for this character, by thinking of how you would see a person like this. This'll help you picture what he is like in your own personal way

This leads you to subconsciously creating your own artstyle once you take it to a piece of paper, as you are expressing what you see in your head to paper in your current state in a possible way. This process'll lead you to get better at drawings in all sorts of aspects as you continue

hope that helps

Thanks for the advice. I'll try that.

Quote from: otto-san on June 15, 2014, 11:54:34 AM

Learning the syntax is the easy part, so don't worry too much about that. This is a pretty good website to learn C++: http://www.cplusplus.com/

The main challenge (and fun) is going to be getting the code to actually work [well]. Just don't rush into it and you'll do fine. Take your time and make sure you're understanding all the individual elements.

Okay. Do you know of a C++ tutorial that is targeted at people who already know a few programming languages? I always get tired of the inane explanations about variables and stuff

Buu · June 15, 2014, 12:47:16 PM

A good way to start pixel art is draw a sketch of the character, then make basic pixel outline/silhouette, add more detail from there, color it, then shade, and repeat until you get used to it. that's how i do it.

.:FancyPants:. · June 15, 2014, 01:10:40 PM

Quote from: Camera on June 15, 2014, 11:37:38 AM

The second requires that you are already decent at drawing

i personally was working on pixel art before i started drawing. i may not be great at either but i'm definitely better at pixel art than drawing.

otto-san · June 15, 2014, 01:27:46 PM

Quote from: ultimamax on June 15, 2014, 12:43:42 PM

Okay. Do you know of a C++ tutorial that is targeted at people who already know a few programming languages? I always get tired of the inane explanations about variables and stuff

Most tutorials will probably like to assume you know nothing. Just deal with it and draw what you can about syntax and stuff from the basic lessons. There may be some things specific to C++ in them.

Char · June 15, 2014, 01:33:30 PM

I think pixel art can be easier than regular drawing since you can fine-tune details more easily since you can draw a pixel at a time rather than a brush/pen/whatever stroke at a time.

idk how to say it, likehahaican'tdothat if you draw a curve or something,you'd have to keep redrawing the curve or erase and add-on to it if you messed up. But with pixel art, you can just do it like that, and it's not much trouble at all.

Camera · June 15, 2014, 01:37:19 PM

Yeah, pixel arting is much easier than drawing because of the size factor.

It helps to make a good color palette (2 colors, both of 5-7 shades or hues or intensity)

Then decide the resolution of each sprite.

For bigger ones, knowledge of shading will apply here

Buu · June 15, 2014, 01:40:14 PM

In the process of making a tut cause summer.

Tonkka� · June 15, 2014, 01:58:19 PM

Is this thread only about coding and graphically designing games, or is there any game mechanics related discussion going on?

Buu · June 15, 2014, 02:04:39 PM

Since this was originally supposed to be posted here might aswell do it

Quote from: Buu on June 14, 2014, 03:49:21 PM

in any game were you could choose between magic/projectile and melee that i've played, the former always seems to progress exponentially while melee tends to either rely on extreme stat amplification or else it'd gimp the player. what i want to know is how you guys would handle this issue, and i don't mean as in the eyelander in tf2 where you get rewarded for beheading people, i mean as in making the melee mechanics both simple to understand yet deep as a whole.

one idea that i had was a simple three button bar system:
theres three basic actions for each weapon (or less) and depending on how long you've held on, you'd get either three results: a brief attack, a basic attack, and a delayed attack, and some weapons, like a mace, requires to held down to the basic or delayed stage to attack. you can also attach magic effects to each one aswell: you could apply a corrosive acid effect on a sword's brief attack (a swift stab) to puncture armor, or an electric effect on a knife to effectively make a taser.

Any thoughts?

otto-san · June 15, 2014, 10:27:13 PM

the fix for progression would have to exist in the nature of the progression systems, not in the mechanics

Tonkka� · June 16, 2014, 01:03:49 PM

A game that bases its ending on how far you made it without "losing" would be pretty interesting.

Like if you lose midway, you will get the medium good ending and if you get it all trough you get the good ending.

Plastiware · June 16, 2014, 01:33:24 PM

Quote from: Tonkka� on June 16, 2014, 01:03:49 PM

A game that bases its ending on how far you made it without "losing" would be pretty interesting.

Like if you lose midway, you will get the medium good ending and if you get it all trough you get the good ending.

The Madcap Minecart game I made for Flappyjam sort of did something like that, but very, very simple. It's an endless, high score type game, and when you finally wipe out you get a different message depending on how many points you got.

Fewer than 30: "FAILURE"
30-99: "NOT BAD!"
100-249: "GOOD RUN!"
250-999: "MAD SKILLS!"
1000 or more: "GREAT! NOW GO OUTSIDE"