Can my dream become a reality? (maybe?)

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Mothra
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Mothra » Tue Apr 14, 2015 9:35 am

Pretty rad so far.

re: Tomatoes: Obviously you should figure out how something works before throwing it in the mix, otherwise you don't learn anything. You COULD make it like a short-term goal to figure out how to make the tomatoes splat, which I imagine would involve knowing the program pretty well.

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Spram
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Fri May 01, 2015 12:11 pm

I'm still working on the game, here's some silly people:

https://youtu.be/qRTyDTKX4Zk

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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Mothra » Fri May 01, 2015 12:19 pm

Look, some people get really into trains, you know? Some people love cooking or hiking or whatever! He's the same way! Dude really appreciates poo on a level none of us can pretend to understand.

I like how all of the related videos are about poo.

I like the bottle-glasses onion at the lighthouse.

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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Thu Nov 19, 2015 3:08 am



Unemployed again so I'm going back and I don't know what to do! I should make the intro and endings (I got two in mind) buuuuutt... I don't like making cutscenes! I also don't know how to do them... after effects using 2 drawings would be the easiest way. Making 3D models and animating them would be too much time consuming and I'm lazy and it will look crap. Just text would be horrible!

I also added a few things not in this video like some clouds and a new piece of beach but I don't have a video of it yet.

I've sent the game to two people so they can tell me what they think but none have answered me and I think maybe the game is either horrible or blew up their computers! noooo

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Spram
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Thu Nov 19, 2015 3:18 am

Oh and I hate how pressing the jump button makes the character jump to the highest point (like Castlevania) instead of making it jump higher depending on how long you press the button (almost every other platformer). I don't know how to do that without ruining the code I got. Does anyone hate when pressing "jump" makes the character jump all the way up? It feels cheap.

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sei
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby sei » Thu Nov 19, 2015 4:54 pm

It takes platforming precision control away from the player and isn't something most platformers feature or get away with.
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Spram
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:32 pm



That video is old and there are a few new things going on.

Some thoughts:

1. I just saw Jim Sterling play "Poi" which is a 3D platformer game and it's also much better than mine but he didn't seem like he liked it that much. Maybe it's because he's always like that but I lost a lot of morale.

2. My game is way too small. I don't know if I should make it bigger because then it would just be filler stuff and not too fun. Not that it's too fun already.

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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Thu Jun 09, 2016 7:04 pm



New video. It's long (18 minutes). I haven't given up yet.

I bought the music for 15 bocks and it's supposedly royalty-free which is a good deal and I think fits the game very well. Added menus and a few options. I need to fix some minor things. I'm feeling it's a perfectly acceptable mediocre game, don't know if it's good enough but it's something.

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sei
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby sei » Thu Jun 09, 2016 11:23 pm

Since the MC is cartoony, Spram, would it be possible for you to make him squish down a little when first jumping or landing from a jump?

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Kazz
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Kazz » Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:02 am

how can someone shit on himself so much and yet be so productive?

your world is alive and populated and polished and expansive and exciting and your assets are gorgeous. i love the day-night cycle, the castles and towns, the mountain, NPCs, particle effects, animations, physics, needless chicken harassment. the game looks really explorey and varied.

i love the bottle at the bottom of the ocean, i love the soccer field. it's like a game made entirely of affectionate little touches, like a Bob Ross painting.

follow-up question: how is your stuff so maniacally cheerful?
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Mongrel » Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:27 pm

This looks legit playable and very close to saleable, Spram. Like Sei, I think a few more action/activity-based animations for the hero would help flesh him out. Compression on jumping or landing, maybe even more compression on landing much higher jumps. Also maybe have bubbles when he's underwater, maybe a throwing motion when he shoots (though the shooty one isn't so important)? All those little actions will help flesh out the character.

At this point the gameplay seems solid, so the main questions would be level/area design, progression, and to a lesser extent story or writing.
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:43 pm

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

Sei: I will look into that. I actually made a much better walk/run animation after the video and will probably do more tweaking and adding simple details from now on.

Kazz: Thanks! I have horrible self esteem. Anyway, I got a boost when I played a demo of a similar gamethat used the same platform engine and while it is better than mine in some ways, it was made by five (or more) people and I pretty much made this myself (except for Unity, the platformer code which I modified a lot and the music) so I'm pretty proud of myself for this. Thanks for the kind words.

As for the cheerful stuff.. I don't know because I'm not that cheerful in real life but maybe being raised on so much Nintendo made me like this?

Mongrel: It's a girl because she's pink.. Haha, just kidding.. kinda. She's magenta and female to make her different from the Blimpo Warrior guy (Joe) since they're like the same type of creature. Magenta contrasts nicely with the green grass and blue waters. She also has a sterotypical girly bow.

As for level design... I (erroneously) chose to make the game open-world and I'm afraid people will get lost and dislike the game. It also limited how many things I can have in the one level the game takes place in. It is also a simple Metroidvania in that you can access new places by getting/buying items but I'm afraid that again people will get lost. I wanted to make a game about exploring and that's not everyone's cup of tea. The platforming is not so good and not very challenging since the game is more about exploring and not very linear.

The story is simple: Find pearls to make a pearl necklace for you grandma. But if you take too long she dies of old age (see the "dead grandmas" counter on the high-scores display on the video). (spoilers kind of?)

As for saleable, I hope to get this on Greenlight. The good thing is that the comment posters in Greenlight seem to like 3D platformers (since they are so few of them), but it's scary having to fork over $100 and then get trashed by cynical asshole kids. And if it gets accepted then it would be cheap (like $5?) because it's short and not a Mario quality game and gamers today are so entitled.

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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Mongrel » Sat Jun 11, 2016 11:57 pm

That, uh, seems a little dark for such an otherwise-cheerful game.

One idea would be that you want to get the necklace for her birthday and the timer is ticking down to that day.
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby François » Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:07 am

I really dig the scale of the environments, and the fact that you're putting this together on your own is legit mind-blowing yeah. There's a sense of vastness that I thought was really compelling, and it's a hand-crafted, living-feeling vastness that makes you want to see what's around the next corner, not the kind of empty-feeling vastness of, say, a new Minecraft world, that means nothing until you put something in it yourself. All along that video I kept thinking "man I want to spend like a week in that place". Is just super charming.

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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Kazz » Sun Jun 12, 2016 2:28 pm

Mongrel wrote:That, uh, seems a little dark for such an otherwise-cheerful game.

One idea would be that you want to get the necklace for her birthday and the timer is ticking down to that day.


Nah, I disagree. I do think you should kill off grandma if you take too long. Don't be afraid to put a few subversive elements into your game.

Francois: My thoughts exactly.
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby sei » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:49 pm

Measuring time in dead grandmas is funny. Keep it!
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Mongrel » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:59 pm

Okay, you guys like that bit fair enough!

I guess it was really sort of a "Who is the target market?" sort of thinking on my part.
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Mon Jun 13, 2016 4:18 pm

Thanks again for the feedback.

The dead grandma thing is actually something that happened to me. I remember that I didn't send my grandma a mother's day card and I was thinking of sending a late one but then my mom calls me to tell me that she died. It's dark, but it happens. Grandparents are usually the first important family members to die and in a way they kinda ease you into the spiral of death that becomes your later years when your parents, siblings and other people start dying too.

As for the "target market"? I really don't know. I like this type of game but I'm an immature old and most people care too much about their image to play a game like this.. but I just made a game that I would like to play (Ironically I've played it so much I'm sick of it) but within the limits of my talents.. otherwise it would be more like Wind Waker but with bigger islands.

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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Mongrel » Mon Jun 13, 2016 4:44 pm

Spram wrote: but I just made a game that I would like to play


This is actually a decent criteria for making a good game. It's not the only one, but it matters.
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Re: Can my dream become a reality? (no)

Postby Spram » Thu Jul 07, 2016 1:36 pm

I think I'm pretty much done with the game and I want to put it up on Steam Greenlight... But I don't know if it's going to be a waste of money. Anyone knows anything about Greenlight?

Anyway, I want to write about my game a bit.

I managed to make a 3D platformer which was my dream, but now I feel empty. I don't think the game ended up being as good as I wanted it to be. I wanted to make an exploration-based game with an open world but couldn't make the world big enough not only because of hardware limitations but also because I didn't have enough things to put in it. I learned a lot about scripting but I still can't program (or script? is there a difference?) good.

I'm thinking of selling the game cheap, like $5 or $2, but judging from Steam reviews and Greenlight comments, even $1 is too much... and to be honest I don't know if people really want to play a generic platformer that is not as good as Mario 64.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Advice?

Here's the video I want to use for the Greenlight page:

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