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Author Topic: How to make an indie game  (Read 2604 times)

Hyndis

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How to make an indie game
« on: July 03, 2010, 07:29:23 pm »

DF got a mention over at Cliffski's blog. He's the guy making Gratuitous Space Battles, another indie game.

Quote
6) Stay aware how high the bar is (know your competition)

Don’t forget that for most gamers, the competition isn’t other indie games, but AAA games, or even other activities, TV, movies, etc. When I worked on the battles for GSB, I spent very little time looking at rival games, and virtually no time looking at indie space games. I compared it to the best sci-fi battle scenes I knew of, by ILM. Yes, you have to pick your battles, and graphics might not be one of them. Spiderweb compete on game length, Dwarf fortress on gameplay depth. Whatever it is that you are competing on, you need to ensure you aim as high as you can. Also remember that your game isn’t measured against the best game there is right now. It’s measured against the best game when your’s gets released…

http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/?p=753

GSB is an awesome game in of itself. Very pretty too, with pseudo-3d graphics. I enjoy reading his blog since he provides some interesting perspective on making an independent game, something which DF is also. Both are one-man shows, and both games are awesome in their own way.

Also GSB has a demo! I highly recommend at least trying out the demo. Fun times. Lots of omglaserspewpewpew.  :D

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/demo.html


And now back to our regularly scheduled magma induced booze explosions and tantrum spirals...   :D



BTW, has anyone figured out how to make seeds in a reaction? My lumbermill was lost due to an Unfortunate Accident involving my HDD, and I forgot how I got seeds working.  :(
« Last Edit: July 03, 2010, 07:31:09 pm by Hyndis »
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Untelligent

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Re: How to make an indie game
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2010, 07:45:19 pm »

The trick to getting reactions for unruly things like plantoids is to check them in the embark profiles (data/init/embark_profiles), which use the same syntax whenever possible.

Try something like

[PRODUCT:100:20:SEEDS:NONE:PLANT_MAT:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:SEED]

It has five arguments instead of four, but all of the plant things seem to have an extra thing on the end. If this doesn't work, I doubt seeds are reactionable.
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The World Without Knifebear — A much safer world indeed.
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Hyndis

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Re: How to make an indie game
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2010, 07:53:19 pm »

Thats a good point about the embark profiles. I never looked at them too closely in the .txt file, but they do have the proper syntax for each type of item.

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Creamcorn

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Re: How to make an indie game
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2010, 08:27:47 pm »


Also GSB has a demo! I highly recommend at least trying out the demo. Fun times. Lots of omglaserspewpewpew.  :D

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/demo.html


Oooohh... pretty pretty explosions.
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Hyndis

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Re: How to make an indie game
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2010, 10:10:39 pm »


Also GSB has a demo! I highly recommend at least trying out the demo. Fun times. Lots of omglaserspewpewpew.  :D

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/demo.html


Oooohh... pretty pretty explosions.

Yup! Its sort of like a tower defense game. Design your ships, assemble your fleet, give your fleet its orders, and then watch the pretty explosions.  :D

Inspiration for the game are the various awesome space battles of things like Star Wars and Battlestar Galatica (the new one). Thats all the game is. Just a space battle.

No plot, no story, just space battles.

Entirely gratuitous space battles.  :D
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