#game developement

[pixelfireplace]

CMYK

This new color command will be added to Pixel Fireplace in Update v1.2.4 tomorrow, Friday 19th!

CMYK was suggested by a few people in the community – shoutout to @ntlt10 for suggesting it here on Tumblr!

Thank you everyone for all the Pixel Fireplace support and feedback over the years!

[bloofbloofbloof]

The blobs!

[wendelin-utt]

POLL - FINALISTS!

We are at the finalists! Two of these four boys will join the game as romanceable options! Funnily enough, only one of the four has a brother still in the loser's bracket.

I'll include all four boys designs in this particular post just because I want to.

Ryūji VS Moe

Keigo VS Hikaru

I'll reveal this much: Keigo's color is his official color... unlike the other three. They aren't going to stay that color. Also will reveal this: you all got it to be Sans VS Papyrus. Won't reveal which one is the Sans and which one is the Papyrus of each poll.

Edit: I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING. I might have let Keigo's OG creator know about this poll...

[sweetlynightmarish]

Update - Back to Business

Ladies, gentlemen and mushrooms, greetings !

It's been a while since this blog was updated, wasn't it ? Three to four years based on the latests posts made before this one, in fact.

It's funny. I would have thought it had been longer... And that also means I actually abandoned this project when I was already out of high school... Hmm...

Though that doesn't change a previous statement I made on my main blog about starting to work on Sweet Nightmares since middle school.

Anyway, you're not here for a life update, you're here for the game !

This time I plan to work on it until it's done ! And conceptually, I'm close to completion !

That's right, this is a flowchart of the dream world. I don't really care if you can or cannot read what's on it at this point.

But the most important part is that 5 out of 8 branchings from the nexus are complete and ready to be integrated to the game.

There are only 3 branchings where I still don't know what to add, as indicated by the single questionmarks in orange bubbles.

As of making this post, I have already made a dozen of the maps with placeholder textures. So, because of their rudimentary states, I won't be able to show anything for now.

But I'd like to be more active in showing the progress I make, as I'd also like as much feed back and suggestions as needed for this game to finally see the light of day.

So here are the things I consider doing for the foreseeable future:

Smaller updates and spoiler-free content will be made available to everyone on this blog : @sweetlynightmarish.

Bigger updates and spoiler content will be made on my Ko-fi page, only available to members (link bellow).

Live streams where I show mapping and texturing process (among other things) will be held, which can be good for interaction but will also serve as archives.

I will draw a LOT of content involving Shichi and the other characters from this game.

Speaking of drawing, know that I happen to be open for commissions, so don't hesitate to hit me up on my main (@idril-la-wiccan) or on Ko-fi if you're interested.

If you have any questions, the askbox is open to all your queries !

May the Sweet Nightmares begin for real !

Cordially, Idril.

[uncannyforest]

I've got camera rotation working — and some 2D-image-in-3D-world mostly working. I just need to add a few lines to make it turn to face the camera. But in the meantime, seeing the sprite width effectively shrink to 0 at certain angles is funny to me

[bloodstonegoth]

Design insights with: meeeeee :3

I realized something about iterative design - that's the one where you're tasked to do "X of Y", such as coming up with quests, encounters, missions, etc. It is much harder to come up with things that are simple, rather than those that are complex - which feels counterintuitive. You'd think coming up with simple things is, in itself, simple and even perhaps "lazy". In fact, this is how it looks on the side of the recipient - when you find an NPC that gives you a lengthy quest, you believe it took a long time to conceive. Conversely, when you find a chest and, after opening that chest, a bunch of enemies spawn and attack you, you will consider this something as "easy to conceive" and perhaps "cheap". However, in both my personal and professional experience, I found that imagining something simple is much harder than imagining something complex. That is NOT the same as finding a "simple solution" - simple solutions are something every designer craves. This is specifically about iteration, a "make me X of Y" task.

If I ask you to come up with 20 random encounters the player might find, I am sure you will come up with 20 good ideas that feature elaborate elements. Maybe you'll send a player on a quest, maybe they'll encounter a unique mini-boss, or a special item that does something new and unexpected. What you will struggle to come up with is "the player finds a chest and, once they open it, they're set upon by enemies". Or "the player finds a book that, once they read it, it heals them slightly". These ideas feel inconsequential. They stop after just a few interactions and leave nothing behind. And yet they're much harder to come up with, while being more desired.

Why are they more desired? Because you have to consider how many lengthy and unique elements can you, or your team, produce. You are asked to design something iterative, not unique. It obviously needs to have something unique about it to stand out, but that is not the parameter you're asked to maximize. Moreover, not everything should, or even can be special. It's not bad to be formulaic, in fact it helps the actually special elements stand out even more. Iterative design is an art of finding the minimal amount of uniqueness to keep things fresh, but enjoyably repeatable.

Why is it hard? Because a designer brain is drawn towards vast design spaces. You want to have the freedom to come up with whatever you want. Working with constraints is hard, while self-imposing additional constraints is even harder. In iterative design you're trying to reuse as much of the existing stuff as possible, and each of these is an additional constraint, because these elements already have been designed - and you have to adhere to it.

[amazingmagda]

hmm, idc about children in video games/movies/shows. only irl - like my nieces. I want all the kids to get proper attention and care... but in games... I have chaotically abusive mom and mostly absent dad... what do u want me to feel or enjoy here, devs? ;p

[hurgablurg]

actually yeah that screenshotted post makes a great fucking point as well

HOW ARE THE UNITY OWNERS GOING TO KNOW WHETHER YOU'VE INSTALLED A GAME OR NOT?

What things are they putting in their engine that tells them what .zip files you're opening and what .exes you're running? Is the Installation Wizard connected to the internet? To unpack files already on the drive? What in the sam hill of surveillance.

Fuck Unity (The game engine, not the concept)

They want up to TWENTY CENTS per game install, once you reach a certain number of installs.

TWENTY CENTS

Just imagine, 100 people install your game and you suddenly owe Unity 20 fucking dollars. Chances are, you haven't even made that much in profits from 100 sales.

It's time for unity to fucking die. How fucking dare they demand royalties from game devs for an engine THAT ISN'T EVEN FREE?

In case you don't know, here's a list of a few bigger games that use the Unity engine:

Hollow Knight

Rimworld

Subnautica

Pokemon Go

Cities: Skylines

Rust

Hearthstone

Pillars Of Eternity

Cuphead

[i-am-the-egg-to-rule-all-eggs]

anyway heres what ive been working on

[deception-united]

Writing Tips Master Post

Edit: Some posts may be deleted

Character writing/development:

Character Arcs

Making Character Profiles

Character Development

Comic Relief Arc

Internal Conflict

Character Voices

Creating Distinct Characters

Creating Likeable Characters

Writing Strong Female Characters

Writing POC Characters

Building Tension

Writing Grumpy x Sunshine Tropes

Plot devices/development:

Intrigue in Storytelling

Enemies to Lovers

Alternatives to Killing Characters

Worldbuilding

Misdirection

Consider Before Killing Characters

Foreshadowing

Narrative:

Emphasising the Stakes

Avoid Info-Dumping

Writing Without Dialogue

1st vs. 2nd vs. 3rd Perspective

Fight Scenes (+ More)

Transitions

Pacing

Writing Prologues

Dialogue Tips

Writing War

Writing Cheating

Worldbuilding:

Worldbuilding: Questions to Consider

Creating Laws/Rules in Fantasy Worlds

Book writing:

Connected vs. Stand-Alone Series

A & B Stories

Writer resources:

Writing YouTube Channels, Podcasts, & Blogs

Online Writing Resources

Outlining/Writing/Editing Software

Writer help:

Losing Passion/Burnout

Overcoming Writer's Block

Fantasy terms:

How To Name Fantasy Races (Step-by-Step)

Naming Elemental Races

Naming Fire-Related Races

How To Name Fantasy Places

Ask games:

Character Ask Game #1

Character Ask Game #2

Character Ask Game #3

Miscellaneous:

1000 Follower Post

2000 Follower Poll

Writing Fantasy

[eggdrawsthings]

dead pixel

[prokopetz]

The constant rolling disaster that is Overwatch's game development aside, what really perplexes me about how Blizzard is handling the broader franchise is their continual insistence that a canon narrative exists in spite of their equally continual refusal to tell anyone what it is.

Like, okay, the events of the games aren't canon. Fair enough: the games are multiplayer-only, and you can't account for player actions.

Oh, and the animated short films aren't canon either – they're properly understood as in-universe propaganda, not depictions of actual events. That's a little high concept for you guys, but fine.

But surely the comics are canon, right? Well, no; some of the comics (we're not telling you which ones) were canon at one point, but the writing team has decided to go in a different direction.

My dudes, what is left? The weird Source Filmmaker porn? Is that canon? Well, apparently it's at least as canon as anything else!

[bloofbloofbloof]

I promise to post more screen grabs of the game, I was just perfecting a blob that randomly produces 7 different unique blob sounds effects, this is really important.

[wendelin-utt]

Finally! The Last Poll for hopefully a while!

This is going to last the whole week. Also, sorry, lost track of time. I'm an hour late for this post. Anyways, Ongaku VS Shiori.

I'll... update this to include little art pieces of these two. Eventually.

[devsgames]

Just this week in games:

- EA laid off 700 workers

- Sony laid of 900 workers

- Rockstar announces in-person work mandates for all employees (a 'soft layoff' that will force some staff to quit, which likely means that actual layoffs are forthcoming)

In 2023 6,000 games workers were laid off. Now in 2024 over 10,000 workers have been laid off, and there's still 10 months to go.

Not to be hyperbolic, but I think this is perhaps the worst year for video games ever if we're measuring by number of layoffs.