Anyone into doing indie games?

[Dumivid]

@abrakamowse @Chosendeer @BlackMaze

I kinda do indie games as a hobby. Right now I am working on solutions how to make a living out of them, and the first big step being just publishing and doing some basic marketing. Here is the Steam page and here are some older games I made (mostly game jam stuff). You can try the demo for my latest game (it's still not optimesed for Steam overaly so It might freeze at moments).

As for the engines and such, it reeeeeaaaaly depends on your scope. Unity is a bad choice for non-programmers and very begginers. Your goal when you start is to just make as many finished .exe prototypes as possible. When you only start, it's hard to learn everyhting at once, so don't make your life harder with comlicated game engines.

Something like Game Maker 1 or 2 can be very good (Undertale, Hyper Light Drifter, Katana Zero, Nuclear Throne, and many, many more extremely succeful indie games were made with it). Unity ofc is an industry standart, but it makes little to no sense for a indie to pick it unless he knows exactly why he does so. As for the Godot, I can't give any particular advice, but I am planing to move to it after I finish my current game (among many goodies like a more optmitezed engine for 2D games and hardware, Godot also has 0% revenue cut from your commercial games - that's why some gambling sites/studios invest money to keep this engine going on, lol).

Also, if I have to pick only one "advice", I wold suggest doing game jams AND finishing them no matter how "awful" your game wil turn out. Here is a huge list of game jams you can try (there are also HUGE jams like Ludum Dare, Global Game Jam, GMT Jam and so on, but I would not worry too much about them).

If you are also intrested in game design, this is one of the best game dev YouTube channel. Both the production and material quality are beyond the roof.

Just a as side note, for my game I am using Construct 2, but I can't really reccomend it at this point. The engine is very old (even Construct 3 feels outaded, but somewhat powerful for just learning or fast prototyping), but I am just used to it.

To summarize - Look for Game Maker 2 if you want 2D games. Try Godot if you want an underdog with potential. Pick Unity if you either have totally no idea what you want or you know very well what you are doing. And ofc, test for yourself and don't trust some random cats on the internet?.

@dharm4

Totally agree with your point. You do need some kind of marketing, and this is usually very seinsible to your personality/preferences/circumstances. After I will realease my game and move to a new engine, I am thinking of starting a community (by using my current game as a huge leverage).

I have started this as a hobby ~5 years ago, and ~3 years ago I took this dream of mine quite seriously. No idea how much time it will take me to get a sustainable profit, but I am very motivatred + the journey itself is already very good and is growing myself enormously (you not only need to learn how to make games, but also how to market them and basically be an entrepreneur). It does wonders for your self esteem and gives you a sense of purpose/belonging as nothing I've experienced in my entire life.


If anybody have more specific questions, feel free to @ me or DM.

[Leo Gura]

Unity is excellent for 2D games.

You can go buy 2D game templates on the Unity Asset Store for basically any standard 2D type: RPG, shooter, platformer, puzzle, strategy, farming sim, etc.

The Asset Store is one of the best parts of Unity. It lets to get started very fast. There as so many awesome plugins, extensions, and entire projects full of good code you can just copy & paste to get your game prototype running.

[Yahya]

@abrakamowse   I would advise you to make stage turquoise level games because its better than our current mainstream games.

 

[Hello from Russia]

@Yahya Nah, we need coral games and beyond, with turquiose games we'll quickly get tired off of them

[Yahya]

@Hello from Russia but the world is at stage orange and stage green. Stage coral games won't be able to evolve stage orange and green folks to stage yellow.

[Hello from Russia]

@Yahya Mate, the coral game will enlighten all the gamer's community once it's released and then gamers will become bodhisattvas and enlighten everyone else

You clearly underestimate coral, man

[Yahya]

@Leo Gura Will stage coral work in our current level of development which is stage orange and green?

Edited February 15, 2021 by Yahya

[Superfluo]

@Hello from Russia Man, are you still stuck on coral? Everybody knows that to elevate orange + green you need stage brown.

[Chosendeer]

awesome how many replies there are here already.

As i only getstarted i am still overwhelmed by the amount of information u are all providing here

@abrakamowse i will look into godot this week and tell you my progress in it.

 

You mentioned u would like to do some point and click adventure. While i do not like the games as a player, they leave a lot of creative freedom in the writing. Do you hae a setting you would like to explore? I thought it would be interesting t have a Adventure in the south american setting, similar as the 10000 BC movie, where you start as the Son of a Tribal chief and your first puzzles would resolve around the cration of your own weapon and tools so you can do a initiation test of your "Adulthood" and porve worthy of being the next leader of the Tribe. This would serve as a tutorial into the Game. After you have become the leader we could have branching paths in the story wehe decisions lead to differnent outcomes and endings. A neighbooring Tribe is a cause of concern, do you go to war or try to merge through marriage? going to war could lead to a better survival at first for your tribe but leads to a path where you would be vurnerable to future sotypoint where you meed bigger tribes while the merge could lead to desasters like famine because there are to many people now to feed. The puzzles would be liked to historical innovations like farming and crafting of tools, which would make for a interesting learning expirience for the player as he has to figure out what people had to figure out 10000 years ago to survive. A mulitseries of this game would be possible with each installment following the next Heir, leading to the discovery of more advanced people and the invasion of the spanish.

 

Just as a thought process

 

@Dumivid Cool that you have already done games, i will gladly play them. Do you do them solo?

 

If we are to do a project then how would we divide the work? How i think about it if everyone knows a bit of everything that would be way less effective then if we would specialize in the different aspects of a game like programming, design, music, marketing etc. But that only as a thought of somebody who doesnt yet know enough about what it really takes to create a quality game.

 

 

 

 

[Chosendeer]

Ah and doing a 2D Game is a idea i also had in mind for the start, best would be if it is playable on mobile.

@abrakamowse maybe we could do some simple jump and run? or something more stupid like flappy birds which sells millions of copies

[abrakamowse]

@Dumivid  I was checking your game in Steam and looks good! Nice that you are already publishing, that's great. And I see that you have a lot of game on itch.io So you have a lot of experience doing games. Nice!

Thanks for your suggestions! I already subscribed to that youtube channel, looks good. I was just looking at the making of Celeste, that's a good game and it's a good resource that channel to know how to generate ideas for games, thanks a lot!

@Leo Gura I will be installing Unity this weekend and I will try it definitely. Thanks for your recommendations!

 

@Yahya @Hello from Russia @Superfluo  I have the idea of placing some wisdom on those games, not sure if I will get to turquoise level hehehe but I will definitely will try to do a game like that... but first we need to learn to do games hehehe... thanks!

 

4 hours ago, Chosendeer said:

You mentioned u would like to do some point and click adventure. While i do not like the games as a player, they leave a lot of creative freedom in the writing. Do you hae a setting you would like to explore? I thought it would be interesting t have a Adventure in the south american setting, similar as the 10000 BC movie, where you start as the Son of a Tribal chief and your first puzzles would resolve around the cration of your own weapon and tools so you can do a initiation test of your "Adulthood" and porve worthy of being the next leader of the Tribe. This would serve as a tutorial into the Game. After you have become the leader we could have branching paths in the story wehe decisions lead to differnent outcomes and endings. A neighbooring Tribe is a cause of concern, do you go to war or try to merge through marriage? going to war could lead to a better survival at first for your tribe but leads to a path where you would be vurnerable to future sotypoint where you meed bigger tribes while the merge could lead to desasters like famine because there are to many people now to feed. The puzzles would be liked to historical innovations like farming and crafting of tools, which would make for a interesting learning expirience for the player as he has to figure out what people had to figure out 10000 years ago to survive. A mulitseries of this game would be possible with each installment following the next Heir, leading to the discovery of more advanced people and the invasion of the spanish.

 

Just as a thought process

@Chosendeer This is a great idea!!! I like it... but as you said when I mentioned Point and Click adventures, I think of it is a long term goal after we learn to develop some simple games. The problem with those Adventure games is that they need a lot of animation, and that's a lot of art work.

I agree we have to try first with a simple game, and you were talking about Flappy Bird, Ok... I am now creating one clone of Flappy Bird to understand more about game programming... hehehe..

If you want I found some free classes at udemy that I think will help you to understand how games work. They also have Unity classes, not only Godot. But if you want to try with Godot first, here you have a good one about Godot fundamentals

https://www.udemy.com/course/godot-101-game-engine-foundations/

 

I think the instructor is also an expert in Unity and other game engines, he has a website that has a lot of tutorials and they have an academy where they teach programming for games and for other kind of apps.

https://godottutorials.pro/

4 hours ago, Chosendeer said:

Ah and doing a 2D Game is a idea i also had in mind for the start, best would be if it is playable on mobile.

@abrakamowse maybe we could do some simple jump and run? or something more stupid like flappy birds which sells millions of copies

I hope we can do that!!! I am working on the flappy bird clone! If you have any simple idea for a game, we can try that one! No problem!!!

This is the tutorial, is also free in Udemy:

https://www.udemy.com/course/flappy-bird-godot/

I will post more updates soon!!!

 

[Superfluo]

@abrakamowse You could also create a turquoise simple game that focuses on paradoxes. Flappy bird goes turquoise and puff... hyperbolic geometries.

[abrakamowse]

6 minutes ago, Superfluo said:

@abrakamowse You could also create a turquoise simple game that focuses on paradoxes. Flappy bird goes turquoise and puff... hyperbolic geometries.

Yeah, the most important thing is doing it with LOVE... that's going to raise any vibrations

I am planning to check some of the games mentioned here, about High Consciousness video games to get some ideas about that. Anything that helps to raise collective consciousness will be great !!

 

[Dumivid]

@Chosendeer

Before you divide the work, you need to find out what you are the best at, and this requires a lot of trial and error. You can literally try every hat possible, but for that alone, it can take you a year or more.

It depends what you how much you can call "solo". If you mean "doing most of the heavy lifting and getting shit done", then yes. If you mean "making a game in total isolation until release", not really. With time you realize how everything is connected and how much even people that tested your game have influenced its production (mostly applicable for games that are made for more than 1 week) and how every little preference has shaped it.

For Ultra Resonance I found a musician who did all the OST and SFX for the game (the rest I did myself). For April Snowfall I got some help with the main character and the cover from an acquaintance of mine. For Muerna, the art/sound was made by a dude I randomly meet on itch.io when we've talked about some game jam stuff. Usually, for projects bigger than 1 week, I outsource the stuff I am the most inexperienced (mostly audio). However, I also finished like ~8 games completely alone (in around ~48-72h each, as those are quite common rules for game jams).

To be fair, after working for 1 year on my latest game, I have realized how important a fresh perspective can be. A team of 2-4 ppl is the perfect setup, but I can talk only about my own needs/boundaries/limitations/desires/experience/perspective. Thus, I can't advise you to make games completely alone, try to work with at least 1 person at a time and find out with whom you vibe. However, if you struggle to find a partner, this in itself should not be an excuse to not start and try your best.

If you want an easy way to find like-minded people, try big game jams events (a new Ludum Dare will start in about 2 months) or join a game dev Discord server and introduce yourself (GLD is a good start).

 

@abrakamowse
You are welcome. If you need more resources, I can advise later other channels/books/tools/websites, etc. For now, it might be best to just find an engine that suits you the best. Still, I consider the game jam advice one of the best places to start, more information might only confuse you at this point. Just ground yourself in experience and you will be good. Some people here are already drawn to the idea of making a project together, so maybe you can give it a shoot. Also, the GLD server I've mentioned is a good alternative.

[abrakamowse]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:39 PM, Dumivid said:

If you want an easy way to find like-minded people, try big game jams events (a new Ludum Dare will start in about 2 months) or join a game dev Discord server and introduce yourself (GLD is a good start).

Thanks @Dumivid I will definitely check that Discord Server and thanks again for the advice about the game jams, I think I still need to learn a bit more before getting into one of those, but I will have them in mind. I found a page that lists a lot of those events. 

I didn't know there were those kind of events! Really cool... this is the page. Probably you already knew about it.

http://www.indiegamejams.com

Edited February 20, 2021 by abrakamowse

[abrakamowse]

I learn a lot about programming this week.

I know now how to move a character in the screen, how to use gravity. I will post more things in the afternoon. I'm working right now.

[slev1111n]

Actually, I want to start game development someday. But I think it's not that easy. I tried Unity back in the days and it wasn't difficult but when it comes to graphics, design, and such art things I get stuck fast. Even now for designing my websites, I use Awesomic's services. And I think designing a website is much easier than designing a game visuals. Even if it's a small indie one.
Anyways, this is quite an interesting field and the electronic entertainment market is still growing. I hope to dive into it in the near future.

[integral]

Master the formula. 

A added note about unity, it has the largest community and so the most learning resources, its matured to the point where wtv you want to do there is a tutorial for it in detail, can get it up and running quickly. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by integral

[Leo Gura]

Don't make clone games, make something new.

FlappyBird is shit. Your mind is 8 years behind the curve.

[Naviy]

Speaking of indie games, check out Loop Hero