mid_gen's Launch a Game Studio Thread

[Noxia]

It’s a shame you struggled with the isolation, it’s something I prefer and although I recognise that some things work better in person, I am far more effective away from distractions.
We’re all different in this regard but social interaction just wears me out, probably an introvert thing.

 

[mid_gen]

It’s a shame you struggled with the isolation, it’s something I prefer and although I recognise that some things work better in person, I am far more effective away from distractions.
We’re all different in this regard but social interaction just wears me out, probably an introvert thing.

It’s an interesting one. I have ASD and need my time away from too much stimulation. But I also don’t like interacting with people solely through a screen, it’s much easier to read and deal with people in person where you can pick up all the non-verbal cues. It’s also far to easy to misconstrue people’s intentions when it’s text chat.

I’ve found it really motivating and been a lot happier since I’ve been going into this co-working space. I am the world’s worst small talk merchant but I do get a lot from being around people, even if like last week, just sitting down in the lunch area with a table of strangers and starting up conversation is quite an effort, have to properly force myself to do it.

Tis a complex one…I don’t know if introvert is the right description for me, although I know most people would instantly label me it. I like being around people even it takes a lot of very conscious effort to socialise, which can leave me mentally exhausted and needing quiet time, but sticking some tunes on my ANC headphones is enough to make a noisy workplace bearable.

 

[Noxia]

Oh I have that too, formally it was Asperger’s but it’s high functioning whatever it is called now. I think I know what you mean, like sometimes I’ll do something solo but with people around, and even if I’m not interacting with them it’s more enjoyable in the moment.

 

[mid_gen]

Anyway, I have another rare free weekend day today. Not sure if the gist of the gameplay loop is visible in that video, but the idea is :

There's a previous loop to this, which is the classic roguelike map setup, like the map in FTL, where you have a destination and you have to pick a path take to get to the next point towards the goal. There are no question marks about that working, so I'm not working on it yet, instead concentrating on the main loop which consists of these phases :

1. You deploy your fleet in a formation on the the hex grid
   1. Different ship/weapon systems have different weapon ranges and capabilities
   2. Different ships go BOOM in exciting ways when they die, so just lumping them all together is not the answer
2. When you're ready, you engage warp, and have a super badass star wars style transition to near light speed
3. Fleet is travelling through hyperspace (realtime)
4. Threat warning appears....trouble ahead (game pauses)
5. Time slows to a crawl as the threats start appearing ahead (bullet time), all the automated weapon systems go nuts, big pew pew time....combat plays out for maybe 30 second as the threat passes (or doesn't make it past)
6. Fleet drops out of warp and arrives at destination

So the priority right now is to just get that loop functional. I got the guts of it working yesterday. Today I'm gonna add a couple more weapon systems, projectile and missile.

My plan is that the combat phase plays out mostly unattended, but during the planning phase, you can allocate a limited number of Quantam AI Core macguffin tokens to specific ships to be able to take control of the targeting during combat phase....but it's going to take some playtesting to see what level of interactivity works. My thinking here is that watching the combat play out in games like Homeworld is super satisfying, but you can't really enjoy it half the time because you've got to pay attention to giving orders, I'm trying to split that up so you do the tactics up front, and then get to watch it play out.

That's the rough plan anyway....

 

[throwaway4372]

Sounds like endless space

 

[mid_gen]

Sounds like endless space

Had a look at it, that's definitely not what I'm aiming for, it's a 4x strategy game, and the combat looks pretty bland.

I'm not super bothered about other titles in the same area, I have my idea that I want to execute on well and go through the whole process of getting it launched. I've bigger and grander concepts to follow up after this one.

 

[mid_gen]

Got the weapon systems refactored, but got a bit sidetracked with particle systems, so got some starfields and trails so the time dilation effects across the phases is communicated properly. Looks kinda neat! Anyway, clocking off to watch the football now. Happy with the progress for first couple days.

Oh and smashed through 300 subs, channel is doing great.

 

[wesimmo]

Not sure if this is relevant or not but I'm a member of a Facebook group for 'midlife' gamers.

One of the members has been developing his own game for a while now, might be a good contact for bouncing ideas off?

Titan: Infiltration - The War Games

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