Indie Friendly Development Tools

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Does anyone know what's the most efficient way to make a 2d scrolling shooter on linux?

 

[revealer]

I don't want to start a new tread, so I'll just ask here.
Has anyone ever gone trough these tutorials for a "hack&slash rpg" in Unity?
http://www.burgzergarcade.com/hack-slash-rpg-unity3d-game-engine-tutorial
Are they worth the time for a beginner?

 

[J1M]

Does anyone know what's the most efficient way to make a 2d scrolling shooter on linux?

Install Windows.

 

[Niektory]

Does anyone know what's the most efficient way to make a 2d scrolling shooter on linux?

Use FIFE
http://wiki.fifengine.net/images/0/07/Fife_shooter_1.png

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Use FIFE
http://wiki.fifengine.net/images/0/07/Fife_shooter_1.png

Does it allow selling games made with it?

 

[Niektory]

Use FIFE
http://wiki.fifengine.net/images/0/07/Fife_shooter_1.png

Does it allow selling games made with it?

It's licensed under LGPL. So you can make a closed source/commercial game with it but if you modify the engine itself you have to share the modifications under LGPL.
It's not really made for shooters so there are probably better options out there.

 

[Davaris]

Does anyone know what's the most efficient way to make a 2d scrolling shooter on linux?

Pygame is the only one I can think of. I haven't tried to compile it under Linux myself, but apparently it is possible.

http://www.pygame.org

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Pygame is the only one I can think of. I haven't tried to compile it under Linux myself, but apparently it is possible.

http://www.pygame.org

Thanks, I'll try it out.

 

[Thane Solus]

well after playing with engines since like 2000, i got sick of it since after so many prototype it toke to much work for me to do alone. I never intended to be a programmer, so my skills are basic to advanced. I looked for a visual programming tool, since i worked on level design with similar tools, and i found a little engine called Constructor 2. Very good for 2D indie games. "it requires no programming" but you have to know how things work in programming to develop a logic.

So far after a week i started working on my first title. Choose something easy and fun to make.

Prototype, play online: http://lw-games.com/demo/

 

[Goliath]

Does anyone know what's the most efficient way to make a 2d scrolling shooter on linux?

LÖVE: https://love2d.org/

 

[Davaris]

C4 Engine is holding an Indiegogo for:

Design and specification of a new open file format for 3D model exchange and clean, stable export plugins for Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Blender.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/o...porters-for-popular-software/x/1165478?c=home

What the above means is easy asset import from the above programs into C4. Previously they were using Collada, but the Maya and Blender Collada exporters are unreliable, so artists say. They also say on the page this new improved export format, will be open source, so I assume other engine makers can use it as well.

For price comparison, the normal C4 prices and conditions are found here:
http://www.terathon.com/licensing.php

 

[baturinsky]

Which kind of gameplay should the hypothetical WRPG Maker support[--]?

I'd say something simple with the potential for additional complexity and polish in it.
I.e. simple 2D top-down sprite based engine. A few main features that at least I'd love:

No, decent looking sprites are hard to make, modify and animate. I think something like NWN is perfect - 3d graphics on 2d plane. Actually, NWN IS the WRPG Maker. Just make it open source and untether it from D&D.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

This is quite interesting: http://kivy.org/

Open source Python library for rapid development of applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps

What fascinated me most about this is that in conjunction with http://qpython.com I can build applications on an Android tablet (with an external keyboard, I'm not insane) and try them out there and then (and move sources to a PC to compile them of course). It is still noticeably beta state but does work in the basics. Definitely worth watching I think. I've been using Python at work for a while now and like it a lot.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

In case you are wondering: Multimedia Fusion 2 is on weekly sale on Humble Bundle.

 

[Davaris]

OpenGEX has been released.

http://opengex.org/

The Open Game Engine Exchange (OpenGEX) format is a text-based file format designed to facilitate the transfer of complex scene data between applications such as modeling tools and game engines. The OpenGEX format is built upon the data structure concepts defined by the Open Data Description Language (OpenDDL), a generic language for the storage of arbitrary data in human-readable format.

The OpenGEX format was created because the Collada, the open standard that we all hoped would provide a well-supported asset exchange format, has proven to be unreliable. The most common source of problems has been the poor quality of the Collada export plugins available for software such as 3D Studio Max and Maya.

 

[theSavant]

For Linux users maybe Shiva 2.0 is a good choice and might come closest to Unity. Shiva was dead, but now they live again and continue their work on the engine. Don't know they maybe got an investor or so. I'd still wait for 2.0 because this will feature a total UI overhaul (really necessary) but it'll probably arrive in the next coupe of months...

Edit: wait they made even an update about 2.0 recently http://www.shivaengine.com/developer/2859-a-very-special-shiva-2-0-christmas-
part-1

 

[Dim]

indiedb 's most popular engine
I bet there is a 'most modded game' list as well
Some graphs on languages
brofist for more googlefuq

 

[kaizoku]

Don't know where to post this, so I'll leave it here.

Open Source Game Clones
http://osgameclones.com/

(a lot of classics there)

 

[Dim]

In every forum. EVERY SINGLE ONE.

 

[Shadenuat]

Kickstarter for realistic firearms and medieval weapons free sound libraries,
Firearms: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bjjaszcz/the-firearm-sound-library
Medieval weapons, founded 3 days ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bjjaszcz/the-medieval-weapons-sound-effects-library

 

[LESS T_T]

Kickstarter for realistic firearms and medieval weapons free sound libraries,
Firearms: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bjjaszcz/the-firearm-sound-library
Medieval weapons, founded 3 days ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bjjaszcz/the-medieval-weapons-sound-effects-library

Thanks for the links.

For those looking for the result of firearm sound Kickstarter, they released them here: http://freefirearmsfx.com/

 

[Davaris]

C4 Engine has just been updated to version 4.0. Biggest update in its history.

Release notes here:
http://www.terathon.com/wiki/index.php/Release_Notes_for_Version_4.0

He's also joined the big game engine price war. You get the engine to use forever, plus free updates for 1 year, for $88.
http://www.terathon.com/licensing.php

Latest demo videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/C4Engine/videos

Cross platform demos here:
http://www.terathon.com/download.php

The videos make it look like a corridor shooter game engine, but you can also use it for isometric style games. You can test that for yourself, if you get killed in one of the demo levels, since it lets you fly around.

 

[QuestionMan]

I recall C4 being one of the most shiny game engines some 7 years ago. It looked very futureproof and modern... but when I look at it now, I can hardly see any progress since then. As if it were stuck all these years. Even Unity has meanwhile hugely outstripped this engine. Seems like being a one-man-army (even if the engine developer is a genius) is not the way to go for the demands of the industry.

 

[JMab]

It might be because the creator (Eric Lengyel) concentrates on tech rather than art. It probably has all the tricks of other modern engines (e.g. displacement mapping, post-processing, fancy AA, etc), but it doesn't look like he has created or acquired the art to show it off.

Also, all of the demos show a FPS. It would probably be worth his while showing other game types, to appeal more broadly.

There is a big quality difference between Unity Free and Pro. You don't have access to a post-processing framework in the free version, so the quality is going to be limited - i.e. I think most Unity Free demos and games coming out at the moment look like 8-10yo tech. With the Pro version, you can get your game looking as good as most current titles, as long as you have the art and shader development skills...

 

[Davaris]

I recall C4 being one of the most shiny game engines some 7 years ago. It looked very futureproof and modern... but when I look at it now, I can hardly see any progress since then. As if it were stuck all these years. Even Unity has meanwhile hugely outstripped this engine. Seems like being a one-man-army (even if the engine developer is a genius) is not the way to go for the demands of the industry.

I can't play Wasteland 2 on my PC, because Unity is such a resource hog. That would be fine if the game looked AAA, but the game looks pretty out of date. Yet I run Eric's demos and editors just fine on my old PC. The only demo I have difficulty with now, is the new cemetery level. Could be he's added new effects my old card can't handle, or because the new level is so dense compared to the previous ones. At any rate he found a new optimization, where the more nodes you add to a level the more gains you get. So perhaps without that, I would not be able to run that level at all.

And Unity isn't a safe bet any more. They have 300 employees and just fired their CEO. You don't fire an iconic CEO unless the company is in big trouble. Are they still charging 1500 a seat for a pro? Their business model is not looking too good anymore, when everyone else is charging < $200 a year. The industry has changed and they are facing fierce competition.

I'm expecting a 1980s Atari like crash in the game engine industry and it won't be little guys going broke, it will be one of the big 3. There is only room for two monster companies at the top of any industry. A market leader that makes the lion share of profits and the second which is only just profitable. The rest are competing for 1st or 2nd place and they are going broke doing it.