Congrats! Game developers are the only subset of developers / software engineers worth paying money to / for :)
Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
101–110 of 258 posts
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you! How's your experience with GMS2?
I'm really enjoying it so far. It seems to fit with my mental model of making video games, which basically ended when I was 15 and writing games in MBASIC on my Heathkit (and later QuickBasic on MS-DOS, but I sort of stopped making games at that point) Obviously the language is very different and it's object-oriented, which MBASIC definitely was not, but it sort of feels... similar somehow? I can't really explain it.…
I just looked at your blog post. Artwork is amazing for your original game. I wouldn't say great for a 15-year old...it's super well-done, period.
And it's adorable that you had stuffies on your monitor.
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#103Congrats! Game developers are the only subset of developers / software engineers worth paying money to / for :)
What are the other subsets? :-\
And thank you very much.
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#104Great read. I always want to start in my project (game) but something comes up and I push it. I quit my job so I can focus a bit more on things I love. I have installed all the dev tools and started working on the story line. Work always got in the way. Finally I get to fuckin do it. My kid is working on the characters and they look dumb as shit but it brings such interesting side to the story.
I'm super glad that you're doing the thing you love. My son helped out in game dev. He's credited as "best ideas ever" and he is also demanding a cut of profits.
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#105This is very inspiring - I started out life as an artist and then became a programmer in my late 20's. I'm now 37 and feel that I could have been a game developer but that I'm a bit too old to start.
I don't think it's ever too late to start. And really, even just a few years back, barriers to entry for anyone who wanted to be an indie dev were a bit high.
I was born and raised in a 3rd world country. And while we had consoles and devices thanks to being in Asia, hardly anyone had a computer. I first touched a PC when I was in university. Before that, personal computers might as well have been alien technology.
Nowadays, there are lots of free/affordable game engines to choose from. Soooo many game devs who are also great teachers (I'm not one of them) and they put out a lot of content.
If you're an artist who knows how to code, you are already way ahead of the game. So many indie developers are hampered by being a specialist in one domain or another. Give it a go!
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#106[flagged]
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#107Congratulations! Game development is what got me interested in programming in the first place. Once I put my first pixel on the screen and I figured out how to interact with it blew my mind, limitless possibilities. Since the pandemic started my wife and I have published one game [0] and currently have a second one [1] in a pre-release phase (probably going to make a separate SHOW HN post once it is live). Keep up th…
How has your experience with Unity been? It overwhelms me for 2D work. Thanks for the links, I'm gonna check out your games!
The curve is a bit steep but once the things start clicking you productivity goes through the roof. You'll be able to make game prototypes in a few short hours.
I admit that building 2D games with unity is a bit of an overkill but the fact that everything just works across different platforms makes it well worth it. I originally developed games using Java and a cross platform framework called libgdx. It was fun till you needed to implement things like cross-platform advertisements and IAPs. With unity you know that the support will be there for the foreseeable future and no other engine comes close in terms of the available free online resources.
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
How has your experience with Unity been? It overwhelms me for 2D work. Thanks for the links, I'm gonna check out your games!
The curve is a bit steep but once the things start clicking you productivity goes through the roof. You'll be able to make game prototypes in a few short hours. I admit that building 2D games with unity is a bit of an overkill but the fact that everything just works across different platforms makes it well worth it. I originally developed games using Java and a cross platform framework called libgdx. It was fun till…
I love the Unity asset store and I use it a lot for graphic assets. I intend to get back to Unity when I feel a little more competent and not feel like I need a whole bunch of third-party programming assets to do what I want to do.
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#109I couldn't find a comment addressing my gameplay recommendations, so apologies if this was already stated.
- Replaying shouldn't take two taps. I just want to get back into it! I now know the middle button replays, but it's not immediately obvious.
- I don't understand what the floating aliens are for. I keep trying to get them but they don't seem to do anything.
- My score doesn't stand out, it took several plays to notice it, and I still don't feel better about reaching 20 planets as opposed to two planets.
- It feels awkward that each planet has quite strong gravity when you hit it, but if you barely miss there's nothing. (This ties into the next point.)
- There's no incentive to do anything, as far as I can tell. I can wait ten minutes to rocket off to the next planet and my score is the same. Along with the previous point, maybe make the score decrease while orbiting, or make gravity weaken.
Just messed around a bit more and I realize now that the score does decrease after orbiting, but it's not obvious. Maybe make the score multiplier show decimal points and/or be more prominent.
I also discovered the autopilot button, which is fun, but I don't understand when or why I can use it. It also wasn't clear that it was a button - I thought it was some godot logo. That might just be because I know of godot but not very well.
While using the autopilot I noticed my multiplied going up, but then it drops immediately. Dropping it all at once feels bad since it's such a towering mountain to climb - maybe drop it every orbit or two (maybe drop it more frequently based on current multiplier) so you can still climb.
I don't understand what the last two options are in the options menu.
All of this is to say I had fun, and I'm glad you made this. I hope this didn't sound bad. Good job!
Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer
#110Nice. I turned 50 this year, I created a custom Tecmo Super Bowl ROM (for original NES) with my college friends as the players and a bunch of custom graphics and mods referencing our jokes and incidents from back in the day. There is a community dedicated to the game that helped with some of it, but I definitely had to dive deep into hex editing to add all the elements I wanted.