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Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

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Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#131

Post by bananabat »

muzani wrote: post #118

I love the rawness of games that are built by people who just want to make games. Today, we have tons of games that are made for money. Some are "fun" but missing that bit of soul. I haven't played this, but there's something appealing from the screenshots. The flat colored backgrounds, the slightly unaligned colors, the typo on the screenshot. It's like an alternative rock band.

I just hope that we are not the Smashing Pumpkins of indie game dev.

Thanks for your comment. Made me smile.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#132

Post by bananabat »

andy800 wrote: post #110

Nice. 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.

How come you didn't continue making games?

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#134

Post by bananabat »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #97
Osiris wrote: post #7

My son wants to learn how to make games but I have no game development experience. What path did you take to start learning game development?

Start with something that works, that has code, and that can be hacked on. When my kid was 9 we did the whole "decompile Minecraft" thing, and he made some pretty cool changes with no help from me. But I'm sure there are game tools with published repos that you can download and hack on. That's how I learned, except it was "typing in games from magazines" and modifying them. Starting from scratch (with "Hello World")…

Question: what is "typing games from magazines?"

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#135

Post by bananabat »

dqh wrote: post #117

Thanks for sharing your story. I am a similar age and a couple of weeks ago I took the somewhat scary step of quitting my CTO job to pivot to indie game development. Can't wait to get started after my notice period ends. It helps to know that i'm not alone starting game dev later in life :)

"One of us, one of us!"

Hey, there's a reason why the roller coaster is always the most popular ride! Best of luck and hope to see your WIP.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#136

Post by sabujp »

bananabat wrote: post #133
sabujp wrote: post #129

please make a free version with limited levels or whatever

Is this generally how you prefer mobile games? Free to try...or just a playable limited free version? How do you feel about ads or IAPs?

i absolutely can't stand ads or iaps so i would be happy with some other limitations.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#137

Post by bananabat »

sabujp wrote: post #136
bananabat wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this generally how you prefer mobile games? Free to try...or just a playable limited free version? How do you feel about ads or IAPs?

i absolutely can't stand ads or iaps so i would be happy with some other limitations.

Thanks, we're trying get a feel for what players prefer nowadays.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#138

Post by bananabat »

lamontcg wrote: post #120

I also started to get into game programming when I was 48 although I got distracted this year by programming language design

So glad to see that there are more and more people taking on new things whatever their age. Hope you find time for game development, eventually. It's fun.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#139

Post by freetinker »

harrisi wrote: post #109

I 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…

Just wanted to corroborate this. I think this feedback is spot-on! I was thinking of sharing my perspective, but that would be repetitive. This nails it!

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#140

Post by harrisi »

bananabat wrote: post #115
harrisi wrote: post #109

I 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…

Great and detailed feedback, thanks! - UI has always been my weakest point in the sense that what seems logical to me might be puzzling to others. I've been taking notes on what's confusing to players and will implement improvements on the next go-around - Floating aliens are just...that. I've thought about making it more obvious that they are part of the environment or just removing them altogether - The score HUD n…

I think the floating aliens are fun and add environment. I think it could be a fun way to add bonus points (or multiplier!) when hit!

There aren't many elements to the score HUD. It seems straightforward to just have a "pop up" at the top of the screen when a multiplier is increased and/or a big score increase happens. Maybe with a bit of a shake.

I don't know what "regular" planets are. Maybe different colored outlines akin to RPG item rating would be helpful.

The justification for the camera options makes sense. Maybe you could show the change when adjusted. Shake the camera or move it around when a change happens. That would at least make it more obvious, and the user wouldn't have to mess with it, play the game, and see what changes happened.

You've inspired me, and thank you for that!

Good luck.

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