Specifically Interesting Enemies

Gabes Game

There have been countless platformers made. In many of those, there are a wide variety of enemies. So if you couldn't count the number of platformers made, you really can't count the number of side scrolling enemies in existence. So while you're not counting, how do you find originality? 

You don't. You find what makes your specific game fun, then you push the player to experience that. I've found that the coolest moments in my game, are when I'm doing sweet air combos. Jumping from one enemy to another, or sending one enemy flying into his buddy. Essentially, the game is most fun when the player isn't touching the ground.

One-Man Team: Focus vs. Split Development

Week 9

William's Game 

Last week I found myself working hardcore on two different things: enemy AI and a home-built developer console I could use to manipulate the game during runtime (something that there's not much native support for in Game Maker, unfortunately).

So I had to ask myself: which do I write about?  Still unfinished AI or an unfinished developer console?

The answer was neither because my car broke down and I spent the whole week fixing that and visiting family who came in from out of state; but I digress.  My point is: I need to take a serious look at what I've been doing development-wise to be missing crucial but simple milestones.

What Steam Direct Means For Indies

As many of you no doubt know, Steam is undergoing some pretty drastic changes very soon. Greenlight is nixed and replaced with a per game fee, no voting process. Unpopular games are going to be buried away, with the intent being to have fewer shit games visible to the average user. Users can sign up to be explorers, giving them special privileges in exchange for trudging through shit games to find the diamonds in the rough. All games are going to show public sales records and other statistics. Curators are going to have more power over games popularity.

So, what does all that mean for independent developers? Was Greenlight trash or misunderstood? Is direct better, worse or just different? As two solo developers, with Greenlit games on Steam, we are going to discuss how we think these changes impact the indie community.

How to Camera System

Week 7

Gabe's Game

Its easy to forget how important camera systems are. In good games, you don't even notice them. If you're thinking about the camera system while playing, it's probably because it's annoying or disorienting. A good camera does two things: The first is to clearly show information in the world pertaining to gameplay. The second is to move as seldom and as smoothly as possible because brains get pretty confused when presented with the illusion of movement.

As a disclaimer, I have worked as a designer on multiple shipped titles. Not a programmer. I've never actually done the legwork on a camera system, but how hard could it be?

I started with a horizontal camera movement set up similar to Mario.