Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[bionicman]

imo it doesn't matter if something you're coding seems pointless (although I'd say this game engine isn't pointless...), it's the process that matters... I've learned a lot on all the projects I've never finished

 

[Bester]

If it will take 10 years to finish or not, doesn't matter.

Nobody has 10 years. It'll be over before. E.g. after 5 years, an AI bot will be able to do exactly what you did in 10 seconds. Then what was the purpose of it all? All of a sudden, you have nothing, because everyone else has it too.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

imo it doesn't matter if something you're coding seems pointless (although I'd say this game engine isn't pointless...), it's the process that matters... I've learned a lot on all the projects I've never finished

And that's fine. All you have to say is that you want to do it that way. But it's wrong to say that Unity can't do it.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I want to find an old Apple 2 and learn to make games the way that John Romero and others used to back in the day. I don't need to pretend that modern engines don't exist to justify doing so.

 

[Viata]

an AI bot will be able to do exactly what you did in 10 seconds

If that is true, stop making your game and go do something else with your life. But you won't, because you either don't believe in it or don't care. I prefer to assume the first case, otherwise you wouldn't be posting this.

All of a sudden, you have nothing, because everyone else has it too

Well, if everyone else has it, so do I. Thus, how can I have nothing? You mean money? If everyone can easily make their game thanks to AI in 5 years, great, this means the industry will burn itself since why pay for someone else's game if I can have AI to make one for myself?

Then what was the purpose of it all?

Literally why even learn something if it will takes years and someone else can already do it because they learned it first? Mate, a lot of people are better than I at thousands of things, it didn't even stop me from learning anything I want. I already accept that I'll never be as good as [best X player] at playing some musical instrument, yet it never stopped me for trying to get better everyday. Having an AI being able to do that too doesn't change anything to me, it's just one more thing better than I at something.

 

[Bester]

Literally why even learn something if it will takes years and someone else can already do it because they learned it first?

You learn something most of the time because it can bring social usefulness, i.e. you can sell it. Unless it's a hobby that doesn't take more than an hour/day.
You don't learn painting now, because this is over. If you're learning painting "for yourself", uh huh, yeah right.

I'm not going to quote and debunk the rest of the drivel.

 

[Viata]

Well, I forgot that you are the person that thinks everyone does something because money. No reason to waste my time on this anymore.

 

[Bester]

If you're not doing something for society, you're not doing anything useful, and it's not worth discussing. What you do in the privacy of your toilet room, for example, doesn't interest others.

 

[Viata]

Doing something for society doesn't mean doing things for money, though.

 

[Viata]

Besides, society is doing their best to replace you with some AI, so go on caring about doing something useful for those that want you removed kek

 

[Bester]

Doing something for society doesn't mean doing things for money, though.

The only measure of society's wants & needs is this thing called money. If society says "thanks dude" but doesn't actually want to pay you for what you did, it means you did something so utterly useless that nobody even values it 1 cent worth. You wasted everyone's time. Like now. Welcome to my ignore.

 

[Viata]

As if you were important enough to remind people you ignored them

 

[bionicman]

we'll see... I'm cautiously optimistic that AI will only help programmers and that programming skill will matter even more, that it will just be a higher threshold to make money as a programmer (perhaps it will be more about design and software architecture/engineering)... I 'feel' the same way about art generation, since I'm no artist I feel like I can't really leverage these AI tools as well as someone who is, they can define prompts better by visually guiding the AI with composition, color, etc. In a world of AI art and AI software, I feel it will be obvious which art and software is guided by a human who is more knowledgeable and experienced in these topics

I'm sure there will be generators, services which generate a complete product, but I'm guessing it will never be as good as human-assisted AI generation...

when it comes to pessimism... I agree that there is a possibility that programmers and artists and alike will become completely obsolete, I feel like it's unproductive to believe this will 100% happen just as it's unproductive to think that AI will not replace anything programming/art-wise, it will replace some things, but new things will arise, and the experience and skills I have accumulated as of now will probably be transferrable in some form

 

[Justinian]

I released my game on Steam


Thanks to everyone here for your advice

Best of luck with your launch!

Thank you, launch hasn't been mind blowing so far, I think it's too expensive

Insufficient advertising is far more likely to be an issue than price.

 

[bionicman]

Marketing is overrated, I don't think it's the problem here, nor the price, it's the art style. I like rpgs (not all tbh), but I find this too retro for me. pumpkinteractive maybe you should try your next game to have modern interface and gameplay but imitating the retro look? E.g. I really liked the skald demo https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069160/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory/ this game looks retro, but feels modern somehow. But I'm a zoomer so idk... I get intimidated by such low res and huge pixels :D

also, btw steam algorithm catches up after first 10 reviews: https://howtomarketagame.com/2022/01/25/why-your-first-10-reviews-are-the-most-important/

 

[std::namespace]

There are zero functional 2.5D isometric engines in 2024. Admit it and move on.

Ex-Fucking-Actly!!! (except openxcom)
you know why? cause there is no fucking advantage to it! only pain and wasted time
if you are writing a renderer, a lighting system, all the ai, all the tooling for it, for something that should see the light of day: you - are - a - moron
the pseudo 3d just adds a ton of non-functional worthless work on top to make it look proper
you either go rudimentary 2d and focus on innovative, interesting features that dont exist on the market or you grab an engine that has at least all the visuals functioning so that you can focus on kewl features
retarded faggot

 

[Justinian]

Marketing is overrated, I don't think it's the problem here, nor the price, it's the art style. I like rpgs (not all tbh), but I find this too retro for me. pumpkinteractive maybe you should try your next game to have modern interface and gameplay but imitating the retro look? E.g. I really liked the skald demo https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069160/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory/ this game looks retro, but feels modern somehow. But I'm a zoomer so idk... I get intimidated by such low res and huge pixels :D

also, btw steam algorithm catches up after first 10 reviews: https://howtomarketagame.com/2022/01/25/why-your-first-10-reviews-are-the-most-important/

You're not getting to 10 reviews without some advertising.

 

[bionicman]

Yes, but indie devs can only do so much advertising. Most of the marketing for a game stems from the game itself, the graphics, how in depth it is, how good it plays, whether ppl want to play this sort of game, whether it's fun to play... I dunno... maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Justinian]

Yes, but indie devs can only do so much advertising. Most of the marketing for a game stems from the game itself, the graphics, how in depth it is, how good it plays, whether ppl want to play this sort of game, whether it's fun to play... I dunno... maybe I'm wrong.

If nobody knows it exists none of that matters. And any indie can buy ads on reddit/facebook, and other social media sites. I genuinely recommend having a marketing budget. This is also where having a game over 10 dollars helps.

 

[Viata]

Send your game to any youtuber that plays similar games. At worse, you are just giving the game for free to someone.

 

[bionicman]

Yes, but indie devs can only do so much advertising. Most of the marketing for a game stems from the game itself, the graphics, how in depth it is, how good it plays, whether ppl want to play this sort of game, whether it's fun to play... I dunno... maybe I'm wrong.

If nobody knows it exists none of that matters. And any indie can buy ads on reddit/facebook, and other social media sites. I genuinely recommend having a marketing budget. This is also where having a game over 10 dollars helps.

Have you tried buying ads on social media sites? Did it work out for you? (Asking since you've got experience with indie dev)

btw I just bought temple of aeryn and left a review so it gets to the 10 reviews faster, but for some reason steam doesn't show it... I guess it only shows reviews after you spend certain amount of time playing the game.

 

[Hobknobling]

Marketing is very tedious in today's Internet. Most people spend their time in walled gardens with very strict rules. For example, you cannot just go to Reddit, find the relevant subreddits and post your work there. No matter what you are marketing or how you do it. You have to be "part" of a subreddit's "community" (=suck everyone's dick) for weeks before they allow you to make even a single post about your work there. Even then you are fighting an opaque algorithm box and it just randomly might shadowban your posts.

This is why the influencer economy is so valuable. Going through these people is one of the few ways to actually make people aware of things existing.

This site used to be better, but here are some idea's that might be valuable:
https://draft.dev/learn/marketing-checklist

 

[bionicman]

I'm guessing a publisher can also help get your game noticed faster.

 

[Justinian]

Yes, but indie devs can only do so much advertising. Most of the marketing for a game stems from the game itself, the graphics, how in depth it is, how good it plays, whether ppl want to play this sort of game, whether it's fun to play... I dunno... maybe I'm wrong.

If nobody knows it exists none of that matters. And any indie can buy ads on reddit/facebook, and other social media sites. I genuinely recommend having a marketing budget. This is also where having a game over 10 dollars helps.

Have you tried buying ads on social media sites? Did it work out for you? (Asking since you've got experience with indie dev)

No, I had no money my game was extremely cheap at launch, but I've seen lots of other indies do it. Would probably even be a good idea to use it to get wishlists before the game is even out. I very much intend to do it for my next game. The alternative (if you're a nobody) is to spam your game like it's a full time job.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Marketing is very tedious in today's Internet. Most people spend their time in walled gardens with very strict rules. For example, you cannot just go to Reddit, find the relevant subreddits and post your work there. No matter what you are marketing or how you do it. You have to be "part" of a subreddit's "community" (=suck everyone's dick) for weeks before they allow you to make even a single post about your work there. Even then you are fighting an opaque algorithm box and it just randomly might shadowban your posts.

This is why the influencer economy is so valuable. Going through these people is one of the few ways to actually make people aware of things existing.

This site used to be better, but here are some idea's that might be valuable:
https://draft.dev/learn/marketing-checklist

Are there any infuencers for 90s style 2.5D isometric RPGs?