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Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

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Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#81

Post by cupofpython »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #74
cupofpython wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>we have spent time looking into other game engines besides our own to see if we could move faster on established products while minimizing risk, but the landscape is amazingly poor. i hadnt done a real deep dive yet, but from introductory readings on a few engines this was my impression too on what we are looking for in general. Glad to know im not the only one to feel it. >So ideally you and I would have access to…

I am happy to send you an internal build. It's an unreleased product on Steam. Edit: It's probably just easier to mark our private repository as public for today. It contains copyrighted material as well as some assets from commercial games we use for internal testing so I'm essentially leaking an internal codebase, but we just don't have enough eyeballs on this for it to matter. I'll mark it private by the end of th…

thats awesome, i appreciate it. im mostly just going to poke around to gauge level of effort, update my internal checklist on things that need to be accounted for and such. also make sure i dont try to reinvent a wheel youre already building. Will be following you guys for sure. maybe ill get competent enough to contribute, but my skill level is more towards making use of a game engine than building one at the moment

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#82

Post by cridenour »

amitmathew wrote: post #77

Our company is building a community for solo devs and small teams around the Godot game engine. We’re a few months away from launching, but I’d love to hear what indie devs would want in a community and what resources would speed up their development (email is in profile). We’ll have tutorials, game templates, and art assets to that will help people get started. We’re also sponsoring open source plugins and tools for…

Sounds really cool - glad to have you guys in the Godot space.

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#83

Post by cridenour »

meheleventyone wrote: post #64
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe consider https://github.com/Planimeter/game-engine-2d ? We have multiplayer with client-side prediction out of the box. Example code is included to demonstrate the ease of networking entity fields, and there is an included payload abstraction for creating networked events. You can set the tick rate for your game based on your needs as well. And prediction is robust, supporting exceptional packet loss and smooth…

FWIW Godot has had multiplayer support for a while. Albeit without some of the elements you include built in. https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/networking/...

I think Godot 4.0's new multiplayer nodes get closer to what they're promising but even then, you still have to write some code around it to use it.

I prefer Godot's approach but it's not as ready to go as they're describing.

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#84

Post by cupofpython »

reidjs wrote: post #63
cupofpython wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give me some advice on a related problem I have? I want to make a "game" which is more of a game environment sandbox. something kind of in-between game engines and actual games. I want to be able to create the feel of different game types like FPS, RTS, top-down adventure, side scroller, whatever - within a certain set of consistencies of my choosing. Like something to toy with different ideas for game mech…

This is why I’m making an html5 game, they just go to the URL which is the most recent version of the game.

this was my next step. webassembly? what engine are you using, and do you still need to code the multiplayer networking yourself?

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#85

Post by allenu »

YesBox wrote: post #28
lijogdfljk wrote: post #11

I might be interested, but this group sounds too "serious" for me. Ie i'm serious, but i have a full time job, and i'm obsessive so i'm yakshaving the foundations of my projects. I'm less concerned with the final game, and more concerned with building a platform that helps me efficiently create. While the game is my goal, i focus on the platform because i feel solo devs have a ton of overhead. I figure if i can optim…

Seems like a lot of people like your approach, so I'll clarify. I am focused on releasing my game because I want to continue working for myself and having the opportunity to choose/direct my creativity every single day. The journey is important, you'll probably have a hard time making it in this industry and/or burn out if you aren't deriving joy from the day to day work. For me, not releasing my game ASAP is not an…

> For me, not releasing my game ASAP is not an option. I'm living off of my savings. That's why I prefer other full time devs because survival mode is very different than safe mode.

I think you have the right mindset here, so you will probably be successful in actually shipping. Kudos to you. Looking for another person with that mindset for your group, I think, is the right one.

I'm not a game developer by the way, but I am doing the solo indie dev thing, as of a few months ago. I think a lot of people who are dabbling in game dev or indie dev, like the idea of one day doing something with it, but what they really enjoy is the craftsmanship of building an engine, setting up their tooling, creating a process, etc. In my opinion, that's fun, but it doesn't really get you closer to shipping code and seeing what the market likes or dislikes. No disrespect to anyone who likes that aspect, but I think it's way different from actually needing to ship a product.

So yeah, if you ended up including tinkerers in your group, I can see how that would change the nature of the conversations.

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#87

Post by cableshaft »

yesthisiswes wrote: post #33
cableshaft wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the best tag to set if you're streaming your development on Twitch? I think I used Science and Technology the few times I did, but maybe that's not the best one. Been meaning to get back into doing that again.

There is a category called Software and Game Development on Twitch now. It’s more focused than when everything was in Science and Technology. I watch PirateSoftware stream about their game heartbound on there it’s pretty cool.

Awesome, thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#88

Post by 15charslong »

Wish you all the best on completing your city builder game!

Last year I started my own indie studio. [1] The game I have released right now, is an interactive fiction game. Its pretty short - just 15 minutes. I originally created it because I wanted to release a game jam project I had been working on. A first person 3D adventure set in a retro inspired world that was evolving as you played. I ran into a lot of problems because I realized I architect-ed the game poorly in Godot.

But thankfully messing around in Godot leveled up my skills there, so I've been hard at work on a new game. I am trying to launch it right on steam. I'm not really ready to show this one off to the public just yet.

Its honestly been pretty challenging doing all this by myself, I've been trying to release a commercial-grade game since I was maybe like 12 (I am now in my late 20s).

For the other solo developers in this thread, its absolutely hard, but don't burn yourself out, and don't forget about the world around you. Its tempting to pour every single waking moment into your work. Sometimes taking a step back is enough to solve that issue you've been having in your game's logic.

[1] For the Heart, For the Soul - https://heartsoulgames.itch.io/

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#89

Post by zemo »

astlouis44 wrote: post #69
zemo wrote: post #67

here's a solo game project I just stopped working on, a short puzzle-platformer: https://jordanorelli.itch.io/the-seal It has a full game loop but is very small. It takes 10-30 minutes to play through depending on how quickly you see through the puzzles. Right now I only have a Windows build :\ I worked on that for a few months full time, but have to get back to earning an income so I'm not working on it at the momen…

You should do a web build! Is this made with Unity or Unreal?

it’s Unity with the HDRP render pipeline, which isn’t supported in WebGL.

Re: Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?

#90

Post by bemmu »

telchior wrote: post #58
bemmu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your game? I spent a similar amount of time to port one of my Roblox cat games to Steam to see how it would do. Just released it a week ago: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1652120/Find_the_Cats/

How did the porting process go? For scripts, models, etc -- were you able to use any automation? What platform did you use for the Steam release?

Here’s an interview I did about it: https://boilingsteam.com/porting-roblox-game-to-steam-find-t...

It’s mostly a recreation of the entire game in Unity, not much got reused.

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