Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Oh, and Duke Nukem Forever is finally available, or something. I feel like this is a moment that should be observed somehow.
PC Gaming = World of Suck
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
In 200 hours, you cannot make any of these games (excepts perhaps Starflight). You could try Wolfenstein 3D with simplistic level designs or a platform-based game, but nothing with complex textures and physic effects. Making a game is supposed to be very time-consuming. But hey, you're the programmer, you're the one who knows this. Feel free to try to re-create Master of Orion or any of the other games mentioned here and finish it within 200 hours.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Regarding Master of Orion, there's already FreeOrion: http://www.freeorion.org/index.php/Main_Page
I'm starting to think about a platform game or puzzle like game, due to the time limitation.
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
- Messages
- 667
Would a relatively simple arcade game like Star Castle fit your criteria? It certainly isn't textually complex with its vector graphics.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I really liked the original Escape Velocity, it was Mac only.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
It certainly would. Just mapping line vector drawing to 2D display can be difficult to do efficiently. (Remember the original hardware drew in line vectors, it had no idea about pixels).
Something else I was considering is a top-down FPS, like a mix of "Z" top down, but with FPS style game play, rather than RTS game play.
I could get a basic single player done in the time frame, with allowing for LAN play later on. The hardest bit would be the AI, in that regard. For the basic version, just use shades of green (grass), blue(water) and yellow (sand) to denote height, and buildings/obstacles in brown or dark green. The player could be a circle. So virtually no textures, but something that could be playable. (The ground would look like the Satellite/Terrain view in Google Maps).
tazwegion
Learning Storage Performance
ddrueding
Fixture
If you are looking for a top-down FPS, woudn't looking at the original Zelda be the way to go?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Or the original Castle Wolfenstein, which beat Zelda by a few years at least.
Sol
Storage is cool
Do you have a platform in mind? Or a language of choice? If you use an existing 3D engine then you can move straight in to the guts of the game you want to make and the hardest part will be the art work. If you're running on a PC then you can afford to throw an insanely detailed graphics and physics engine at a simple pong game just because the horse power is there, so if it makes your life even slightly easier you may as well use it.
If you're trying to make an Android or IOS game then your resources are much more limited, but then so is your audiences expectations. (Assuming you expect to have one at some point)
I've just started building an Android game in my spare time so I've been running in to the some of the same issues myself. (Although I don't have any family in the same country and few in the same continent so my spare time is entirely my own)
One guy I work with recently released an Android rogue-alike game with retro 8-bit style graphics which he found available under a creative commons licence, so if you don't plan to charge for your game or you're happy to work out a licensing deal if you get to that point then that might be a better option than just coloured blocks or geometric shapes.
If you're trying to make an Android or IOS game then your resources are much more limited, but then so is your audiences expectations. (Assuming you expect to have one at some point)
I've just started building an Android game in my spare time so I've been running in to the some of the same issues myself. (Although I don't have any family in the same country and few in the same continent so my spare time is entirely my own)
One guy I work with recently released an Android rogue-alike game with retro 8-bit style graphics which he found available under a creative commons licence, so if you don't plan to charge for your game or you're happy to work out a licensing deal if you get to that point then that might be a better option than just coloured blocks or geometric shapes.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Duke Nukem Forever was given the thumbs-down by ArsTechnica.
Full Review: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/revie...-playable-unfunny-and-rampantly-offensive.ars
So it's try, PC gaming does suck... At least this time PS3/X360 owners get to share the love.
Full Review: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/revie...-playable-unfunny-and-rampantly-offensive.ars
So it's try, PC gaming does suck... At least this time PS3/X360 owners get to share the love.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Any POSIX based system, that has libSDL available. I'll be using C/C++ for it, with possibly using Lua embedded for scripting. Initially it'll be built on Solaris**, then ported to Linux, *BSD, Mac and then Windows. I haven't really thought about iOS or Andriod. I know with iOS, you're limited to using ObjC, and any dev has to be done on a Mac (which I don't have access to). For Andriod, is it possible to apps to be written in anything other than Java?
On of the goals, is to maintain a playable system in a Atom-based netbook. (eg 30fps+ on 1024x600). Considering games like Total Annihilation could do that on a P-MMX w/64MB RAM, I don't see I couldn't do similar on an Atom-based netbook. Why an Atom? Well, my netbook for Uni is Atom based, so would be nice to game on it. (Plus I can code while at Uni during breaks, when not studying/working on assignments).
Any release will be GPLed, even though I normally release my stuff under the BSD Licence. Once it's at a decent point, I might ask for donations, or release pay-only maps/content but that is certainly a far way off.
** Why Solaris, it's my main OS on my desktop, and the dev tools available make debugging easier. Also I've got access to SolarisStudio (used to be called SunStudio) and GCC, so I can test building in 2 different compilers. And I've found anything that builds on Solaris, builds on Linux, BSD and Mac with little issue. But anything that is built on Linux first, can be painful to get working on BSD, Mac or Solaris due to the extra GNU stuff that often gets used. (And most of the extra GNU stuff isn't available on others, out of the box). And for Windows, I've got access to VS 2008 and VS 2010, so it'll get build with that on Windows.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Yes, check out the Android NDK. You may not be able to build the entire application in C/C++, but you can embed the compiled binary in a simple Java wrapper to make it work.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Cool, thanks.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I still occasionally play a game of Nethack. Not often, because it's very hard to get started in a game with proper conditions for actually having a chance to win, but I've played enough to have won it around 20 times, one of those times using a Wishless Tourist.
I've recently started playing Dwarf Fortress, which endeavors to be the Simcity-like reality simulator strategy companion to NetHeck's dungeon crawling adventure. The graphics are just ASCII characters on a black background, but the game itself is goofy and satisfying; my dwarfs puke if they spend too much time underground then visit the surface and the damage location system is detailed enough to cover combat damage to lips and eyelids. How cool is that?
I've recently started playing Dwarf Fortress, which endeavors to be the Simcity-like reality simulator strategy companion to NetHeck's dungeon crawling adventure. The graphics are just ASCII characters on a black background, but the game itself is goofy and satisfying; my dwarfs puke if they spend too much time underground then visit the surface and the damage location system is detailed enough to cover combat damage to lips and eyelids. How cool is that?
ddrueding
Fixture
Bought Duke Nukem Forever, just 'cause. I knew it would be bad...that is the whole point. But it is really awful. Even the gameplay mechanics are terrible. Like these guys had never seen an FPS before.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
They had 15 years to get it right. What a shame.
So ArsT were right. That's unfortunate. 2011's Daikatana.
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
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- Messages
- 667
A bad game is still a bad game at $9.99
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Enough people buy it and all you'll do is encourage them to make another one.
That's true for anything. Doesn't matter to me if they make another one. In fact I'd like them to learn from these mistakes and try to make the Duke Nukem that should have been. Sometimes trying something that is rated so bad is worth it just for the experience to see why it was so bad. People go an pay to see bad movies for the same reason. If they've discounted it down to the price I'm willing to pay, it's likely clear to them why they're willing to sell it so low. Look at old Blizzard games. I rarely see them at a discount many years after they've been out.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm not the person to talk to about the relative worth of Blizzard games either.
ddrueding
Fixture
I love tower defense games. Bought it, but "The steam servers are too busy" to install at the moment.
For under $4, it's worth checking out.
For under $4, it's worth checking out.
ddrueding
Fixture
That is a lot of fun. I wouldn't call it a great game; there are some balance and variety issues, but it is a lot of fun.
Even better multiplayer with three friends.
tazwegion
Learning Storage Performance
Maybe you need to shop down here in our food retail chain stores, I picked up Warcraft I & II for $10.00 each back in 1996/97 (when they were still relatively new) which led to my addiction for various RTS games... curse you Blizzard! LMAO :lol:
ddrueding
Fixture
Sanctum is kicking my butt. Beat the game on "Easy"...but can't manage even one level of bridge on "Medium". Time to put more thought into weapon selection; the sale penalty on the towers is colossal.
ddrueding
Fixture
My best on Sanctum so far:
Mine, Casual, Endless
48 Waves, Score 175673, Time 1:45:55
Wow.
Mine, Casual, Endless
48 Waves, Score 175673, Time 1:45:55
Wow.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
The sample videos looks reminiscent of Quake.
To my uneducated eye, anyway.
To my uneducated eye, anyway.
ddrueding
Fixture
It started life as a mod, then became popular enough that they decided to release it as it's own product. The graphics are not it's strong suit, though it looks decent even at 2560x1440. The strategy is really the impressive part.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Well at least the New York Times cares about Dwarf Fortress, even if the rest of you don't. 
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
The pictures at the top of that article looks like a before/after picture of you, except the after is shown prior to the before.
The new humble bundle 3 is available if this interests anyone.
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