Congrats on the release. It looks really solid from the video, I'll probably pick up a copy soonish. I hope it does end up being a good financial decision for you. I used to be in the game industry a long time ago, and while I'm no longer in it I still try to work on game in Unity (turn based strategy game right now) with my very limited energy in my spare time. I've been out of the whole industry long enough I don't…
> Some Discord channels No affiliation, but when I was into gamedev a few years back, the "game dev league" discord was really amazing. There were a ton of knowledgable people in there, like fholm (who I think was the creator of Photon Bolt)
Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
261–270 of 289 posts
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#262Congrats on the release. It looks really solid from the video, I'll probably pick up a copy soonish. I hope it does end up being a good financial decision for you. I used to be in the game industry a long time ago, and while I'm no longer in it I still try to work on game in Unity (turn based strategy game right now) with my very limited energy in my spare time. I've been out of the whole industry long enough I don't…
Thanks! I haven't found any good game-dev-related Discord servers. You could try r/gamedev. Retarding "the leap", I was around 5 years in before quitting (crazy, I know!). I've had saved up enough for 2-3 years without salary. I have only considered quitting once we had a solid vision for the end-product and a working prototype that is "playable", although lacking content, balance, and some features. Before this stag…
Like I'm not in the board game industry, but people in the board game industry are pretty much all on Facebook in certain Facebook groups, and I'm friends with a decent number of them, and get notifications when they post, and then I can comment on their posts, so I've gotten to know several people in the industry fairly well over the years, and hang out with them at conventions or whenever they're in the area.
In comparison, despite having been on r/gamedev on and off over the years, I know zero people through that in person. I know a few game developers still but only because I used to work with them professionally (it's a fairly small scene where I live).
Yeah, I think I'm quite a ways away from going Early Access. Part of me also wonders if it may be more lucrative to focus on VR at the moment, with all the recent headset sales (>10 million Quest 2 headsets sold) and the dearth of new content on the platform.
But my game could work for pancake screens too, and was originally intended for that alone. I am currently developing the game with porting to VR in mind, like trying to keep it playable on VR, and sending builds to my VR headset periodically to make sure things don't crash and framerates are still decent.
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#263Does it run on Linux?
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has slowly become more optional - there's a bit that's necessary near the beginning with your weak little zapper... but if you've played before it's pretty easy to rush guns quickly enough that you never really have to seriously worry about it. It becomes a non-factor really quickly... and if it were like factorio (and they could destroy portions of your base) it'd be even worse since it's so hard to figure out wh…
Among the design decisions that Satisfactory made meaningless by poor balance, Weapons is solidly middling. It would make sense if you had to clear areas of enemies to unlock the ability to build on them, and/or if higher-tier weapons were required to defeat higher-tier enemies (the kittens). As it stands now, it's such a non-mechanic - You get Xeno Basher and are more or less set until enemies are made completely me…
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
The game is a one-shot purchase though, and Steam doesn't offer a per-platform pricing. It doesn't look like a game where micro-transactions would work either.
Per-platform pricing is easy: just release the Mac version on Gog, the PC verson on Steam, the Linux version on … EA? Then you can set separate prices for each :)
Nice trolling.
Linux would be of course on dev's own website, like for Factorio ? (Or Itch.io I guess ?)
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
> On average, one model is probably around $500. That's a pretty impressive budget, there must be hundreds of models in the game.
On a related note, how did you fund the development over such a long timeframe?
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aww, thanks! We heard lots of feedback about tutorials and it is our priority to improve them. > My only request would be to make it so you can click on a product and have it take you to the recipes involving it. Try right-click! > I also really like the design choice to not have to lay power lines everywhere. Haha, this was removed due to time constraints. We were thinking to have it introduced in some lightweight f…
As Tynan (RimWorld) said in his book, show, don't tell. Walk players through a tutorial without them realising its a tutorial. Look at Oculus First Steps for a great tutorial that doesn't feel like one.
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#268Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#269I never did game development but kinda wish that I started my career with that rather than apps. It must be really exciting to build words and implement all that complex algorithmic stuff, but I got too much momentum with apps, maybe in another life :)
Did you track your time? Can you share how much hours more or less you put into it, or at least how it changed when you went full time? Did you do more than 50% of the work in the last year of going full time?
Re: Show HN: A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released
#270My only real gripe so far is pipes, and how they can be fiddly about adding junctions or expanding them. E.G. you must install pipes in the correct sequence to be able to get junctions and elevation changes the way you want. Otherwise, trying to splice a pipe onto an existing one at the beginning of an elevation change will not work due to the existing pipe beginning to ramp. Yet if you do the junction first, and then tee-off for the ramp, it'll work fine.
E: Coal seems over-subscribed, at least early on. Needed for smelting, to make cement, to make diesel, and again to make rubber from diesel?