SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

BEWARE

Quotealso i am not interested to make many primitive games. each his own approach...

most new games are really just old game with a fancy new look. Almost every FPS is really a topdown flat 2d shooter.

GTA 5 is (at it's heart) just a reskinned GTA1. And GTA 1 is really just a top down maze chase.

But to try and create GTA 5 thinking only in 3d with high polygon/texture/model counts with full animation, etc and you will fail hard. Think about the data, the basic game play as gta1 or even better a SIMPLE MAZE game. and you will at least begin to think you could write something similar.

The biggest issues with most devs is scale - they only think big and then fail.

Think small, think gameplay, think grab the user and make them WANT to play again

I'm not saying your game has to be simple, but I am saying 'learn' how to make a great small game and build from it.

Go back to 1978 and 1980 and look at which games were hits and work out why.

Think you can do 3d. then do 3d without using any graphics card commands - write the 3d routines yourself. You will soon learn what can be done and what might make your approach stand out

Making primitive games is the best way to learn both the discipline to get a game done and also for coding fundementals that will help you so much as you go on to the more advanced stuff. I can't believe you'd dismiss that idea as not interesting to yourself, remid?

Whenever I had even the most basic idea for a game as a teenager my first approach was always to jump on the computer and just start working on it before I'd even given it more than 10 mins or so of actual proper thinking. Of all the games I ever started - I'd estimate around 200 or so - I think I probably got to some stage of completion on maybe 10%.

Every game can be broken down into very basic elements at the core. A lot of complex 3d games are probably working off a simple 2d map system and just drawn 3d, for example. Things like basic AI, control systems and a solid game idea are far more important than a massive 3d world that's taken 5 years to build and is used to play a dog shit game that's no more complex than breakout.

Graphics are hugely important at the end, but it's just window dressing if your game hasn't been worked out properly right from the start, and is a solid idea. The old games had no choice but to get that right as they had nothing else to sell themselves due to the technology of the time. Even new gamers who weren't around in those glory years are aware when a game stinks and they've just bought it based on how it looked on the box. And you can't get away with that now anyway due to YouTube playthroughs and the public having the ability to review games themselves.

There's no downside to looking at the older games for the perfect example of how to get it right, I think.

Thought I'd throw in a couple of very early screenshots

Not much to see yet but I have the overall style / atmosphere I'm aiming for of a nighttime cartoony type environment.

Got loads of 3D modelling and coding to do but having a lot of fun with this one

"They thought the pandemic was over.. They were wrong. In a sleepy village town, not far from where you are, it hid, it waited, it evolved. Now able to control both man and machine you are tasked with finding the mystery of this mutation and overseeing it's destruction once and for all. Welcome to Virus Valley"

oooh - purdy...

I got a name: Retroviron
I've even got an idea: it's 1950 and those pesky test tubes need cleaning! Shrinky-dinky where's the plasma bombs!

Cute 3D cartoon graphics - very nice.   

@Qube

OMG! - Thats awesome and I'm looking froward to playing it already!

Very nice qube.

@Qube>>colorful and nice lighting shading. 


@Adam and Xerra>>
i am still coding because i am interested in solving technical problems, and achieving results, i find it rewarding to make it work.
but i am not interested in making/playing games for hours anymore, i did that a lot when i was younger. it is a waste of time imo.

in this case the theme "virus" is not purely fiction/fantasy, so yes i am interested.

@qube, love the graphical style. Some interesting submissions already in this compo 

Changed the name but now got a concept
https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,8349.msg347048486/topicseen.html#new

I count at least 6 cracking looking entries so far     Game on 

Quote from: iWasAdam on March 02, 2021, 11:43:18
Changed the name but now got a concept

Nebulus meets Donkey Kong?

Get it done, dude. Oh and let us have a play on the racing game while you're at it

@iwasadam, loving the 3d tower look.

Quote from: iWasAdam on March 02, 2021, 11:43:18
Changed the name but now got a concept
https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,8349.msg347048486/topicseen.html#new

That looks great, don't change the chunky pixel aesthetic!

Quote
@iwasadam, loving the 3d tower look.

Yeah the tower looks very solid.