Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Agesilaus]

Humble Bundle is offering a huge array of game development graphic/sfx assets right now:

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/rpg-game-dev-bundle

I'm not in love with all of them, but it looks interesting and I imagine people here might have a use for it.

 

[Harkin Hails]

Humble Bundle is offering a huge array of game development graphic/sfx assets right now:

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/rpg-game-dev-bundle

I'm not in love with all of them, but it looks interesting and I imagine people here might have a use for it.

I wonder how many asset flippers buy these discounted and spam Steam a day later. Players are going to tag these assets instantly after asset flip games burn them into their memory.

I'd stay away from them (for commercial use).

 

[Lord Andre]

Early version of a weather system I'm adding to my game. Shows rain and lightning.

Same dungeon as before (though with a different backdrop to make it appear to be outdoors for this test). That's why the walls appear to be interior rock walls.

I'm wondering if it's possible for you to add the rain effect per square so that the squares that are further out have smaller drops going through and ending at that square's bottom line. Maybe that would help with the illusion of depth for the effect. Just a thought. Looks really cool.

 

[ProphetSword]

I'm wondering if it's possible for you to add the rain effect per square so that the squares that are further out have smaller drops going through and ending at that square's bottom line. Maybe that would help with the illusion of depth for the effect. Just a thought. Looks really cool.

Thanks. This is something I was already working on, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that it didn't look quite natural. As I mentioned in the original post, it's an early version of the system (enough to get it working, basically). Always appreciate feedback, though.

 

[Agesilaus]

Humble Bundle is offering a huge array of game development graphic/sfx assets right now:

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/rpg-game-dev-bundle

I'm not in love with all of them, but it looks interesting and I imagine people here might have a use for it.

I wonder how many asset flippers buy these discounted and spam Steam a day later. Players are going to tag these assets instantly after asset flip games burn them into their memory.

I'd stay away from them (for commercial use).

Do you think players tag the sound effects, too? At any rate, I agree that the commercial release shouldn't use them if they become too common, but when making the game they definitely kick the hell out of programmer art. At least, when it's drawn by me.

 

[ProphetSword]

Do you think players tag the sound effects, too? At any rate, I agree that the commercial release shouldn't use them if they become too common, but when making the game they definitely kick the hell out of programmer art. At least, when it's drawn by me.

If you want to use them, use them. I've seen indie-developed commercial games use some of the free and public domain art assets available here: https://opengameart.org/

If someone doesn't like something you've done because you used assets they recognize...oh well...

 

[Ninjerk]

Humble Bundle is offering a huge array of game development graphic/sfx assets right now:

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/rpg-game-dev-bundle

I'm not in love with all of them, but it looks interesting and I imagine people here might have a use for it.

I wonder how many asset flippers buy these discounted and spam Steam a day later. Players are going to tag these assets instantly after asset flip games burn them into their memory.

I'd stay away from them (for commercial use).

Do you think players tag the sound effects, too? At any rate, I agree that the commercial release shouldn't use them if they become too common, but when making the game they definitely kick the hell out of programmer art. At least, when it's drawn by me.

DavidBVal's game has been mistaken for, what was it, Flare? He seems to be doing okay in spite of the overlap in assets.

 

[ProphetSword]

If Neverwinter Nights 2 can steal the music and sound effects from Neverwinter Nights, then you can certainly get away with it.

 

[Mustawd]

I don’t think the average consumer really is aware of all the free assets out there. Sure a lot of spergs here might be able to recognize assets from the Unity store, but it doesn’t mean the rest of us waste our time looking at that stuff.

 

[Terra]

I've always been of the opinion that at least as far as game artwork is concerned people would be significantly less willing to spend money on a game that is re-using assets, be they from a pack or a previous game.

I recall seeing some whining over Bioshock 2 because it was "reusing art assets from the previous game" (not really an argument in my eyes given it's a completely different story, especially with how outfits like Spiderweb successfully reuse their assets for multiple games). Likewise with RPG Maker's infamous RTP assets, but on a much more pronounced scale, it's a situation that I feel was amplified by asset flips from places like the Unity asset store. It definitely made me steer away for pursuing mini-projects in my spare time.

I dunno, it just feels like if I were to use assets like that, I'd just be waiting to be called out on it, rendering them as placeholder assets until I forked over more dough I suppose (I'd feel like a used car salesman waiting for the customer to ask me about the conspicuous bright pink door on the white car I was trying to sell them). But maybe you're right and the general audience wouldn't care or even be aware, you'd probably get a smartass or two in the steam community page and that'd be about it. But I just think back to Sterling's regular crusades against asset flippers and I guess it's the guys that do that ruin it for everyone.

 

[ProphetSword]

There’s a big difference between assholes flipping assets to make fake games to pocket a few bucks and earnest indie developers who use the assets to try to create real games. For example, the game “Low Magic Age” is great, but uses a ton of free assets that I immediately recognized from mobile games and even my own collection of assets. But the game is good, so no one cares about that (don’t think I’ve seen a single complaint about it).

 

[Harkin Hails]

Humble Bundle is offering a huge array of game development graphic/sfx assets right now:

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/rpg-game-dev-bundle

I'm not in love with all of them, but it looks interesting and I imagine people here might have a use for it.

I wonder how many asset flippers buy these discounted and spam Steam a day later. Players are going to tag these assets instantly after asset flip games burn them into their memory.

I'd stay away from them (for commercial use).

Do you think players tag the sound effects, too? At any rate, I agree that the commercial release shouldn't use them if they become too common, but when making the game they definitely kick the hell out of programmer art. At least, when it's drawn by me.

I mean, you can use any excuse to make yourself feel better about using them. The fact remains that people these days have a habit of labeling games which use pre-made assets as "ASSET FLIPS OMG" and that can affect your sales and reputation. Hell most RPG's using RPG maker already look similar (I've seen only a few that stand out and their visual style is usually different) and the reviews usually start with pointing out the "generic" style with "default" assets. If all that doesn't bother you, good for you.

Or you can save up money instead of wasting it on pre-made assets and get proper custom visuals for your game done when you're nearing release, to stand out.

Anyway, I am no visual expert. Just commenting based on what I've seen from players these days.

 

[ProphetSword]

As someone suggested, I've added multiple layers to the rain (may not be obvious in a small size GIF). The main reason I'm posting something about this here is that I am also experimenting with allowing the graphic effects of weather (like rain) to show during picture-based events. In this example, it's to show that the NPC the party interacts with is also in the rain. I have fed him a bunch of nonsense dialogue for this example, so don't take any of the dialogue too seriously. Just curious if this looks as intended or if it's something I should skip altogether.

EDIT: I will also point out that this GIF does not capture the full frame rate of the game. That's probably a limitation of the tool used to capture it or convert it. So, if the rain or text scrolling doesn't look smooth, just know it looks better in the actual game.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Here's what's wrong with your rain.

When you are looking at the hallways in the world, all the rain falls straight down the front, the different sizes of rain drops don't help or solve that depth issue.

If you want to make it better, you need to bounce some rain (little splashes here and there) off the floors towards the back, preferably the smaller rain drops. This will give you the depth of the rain you are now missing.

Zep--

 

[ProphetSword]

Here's what's wrong with your rain.

When you are looking at the hallways in the world, all the rain falls straight down the front, the different sizes of rain drops don't help or solve that depth issue.

If you want to make it better, you need to bounce some rain (little splashes here and there) off the floors towards the back, preferably the smaller rain drops. This will give you the depth of the rain you are now missing.

Zep--

See if this looks better (hopefully the shitty frame rate of the GIF won't make it hard to see what I've done and that there are more splashes to the back than in the front). I'm just walking around randomly in this video to get an idea of what it looks like in each direction.

EDIT: I just realized that some of the splashes in the rear are up in the sky. I will fix that.

 

[Zep Zepo]

See if this looks better

Yup! Looks better. You could probably tweak it some, but now it has the appearance of depth.

Good job.

Zep--

 

[Mustawd]

See if this looks better

Yup! Looks better. You could probably tweak it some, but now it has the appearance of depth.

Good job.

Zep--

Agree. Looks better.

 

[Harkin Hails]

I think everything is too straight.

Rain and halls, all lining up. Need to vary it up a little. Make the rain fall sideways.

Also, the raindrops look like they are falling from umbrella of the character or drain, too thick (and too blue, make it greyish a bit).

 

[Mustawd]

I think everything is too straight.

Rain and halls, all lining up. Need to vary it up a little. Make the rain fall sideways.

Also, the raindrops look like they are falling from umbrella of the character or drain, too thick (and too blue, make it greyish a bit).

It fits with the FRUA/Goldbox aesthetic IMO

 

[Harkin Hails]

I think everything is too straight.

Rain and halls, all lining up. Need to vary it up a little. Make the rain fall sideways.

Also, the raindrops look like they are falling from umbrella of the character or drain, too thick (and too blue, make it greyish a bit).

It fits with the FRUA/Goldbox aesthetic IMO

Maybe, but personally, I think it clashes with the visuals. Rain should blend in and not distract from the rest of the scene, it's a small part of the aesthetics.

 

[Viata]

It really depends on what he is going for there.

 

[ProphetSword]

Of course, with all this discussion of depth of the rain, no one answered the original question...which is whether it looks okay to have the NPC images in the rain effect or if it's going too far and should be skipped. I feel like an old school game wouldn't have done that, but then again, most of them didn't have weather effects, so it's kind of new territory.

Anyway, I'm sure others want to get back to discussing other games too, so don't let me monopolize the thread.

 

[Mustawd]

Of course, with all this discussion of depth of the rain, no one answered the original question...which is whether it looks okay to have the NPC images in the rain effect

Looks good to me tbh.

 

[Otay]

yeah the npcs do look better with the weather effects

satisfied that he has informed you of the obvious, otay turns and leaves

 

[Ninjerk]

Of course, with all this discussion of depth of the rain, no one answered the original question...which is whether it looks okay to have the NPC images in the rain effect or if it's going too far and should be skipped. I feel like an old school game wouldn't have done that, but then again, most of them didn't have weather effects, so it's kind of new territory.

Anyway, I'm sure others want to get back to discussing other games too, so don't let me monopolize the thread.

Depending on how much overhead you're willing to have for rain effects, you might also consider visual abstractions. Consider:

The rain here does not appear to be effected much if at all by wind, but it is quite heavy and adds something like atmospheric perspective (phenomenon of very far away things getting lighter and turning pale blue e.g. mountains at a distance).

World of Warcraft weather effects from vanilla were quite good with regards to abstractions (watch for the little gray clouds):


The intro to MGS2 is quite good, too, especially in that they added small gray "clouds" or masses where the rain drops impact characters and splash upwards:


How and whether you might implement these visual phenomena is up to you, but I thought it might be helpful to consider how some of the best have tackled the same problem.