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Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

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Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#271

Post by bitwize »

kmeisthax wrote: post #69
Ferret7446 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, those games are very simple code wise. A high schooler could do it (source me). You could make a bullet hell game engine as a project in an intro CS course. The hard part is the content in the game, and ZUN was already a composer. That just leaves the code which is easy, and the bullet patterns, which ZUN clearly improved at through his earlier games. (and the art, which is famously bad though endearing)

By modern standards, yes , writing a bullet hell shooter game is not hard. But ZUN started on the PC-98. To put that platform in a western context, imagine if IBM had gone with planar graphics for VGA. Or an Amiga with no coprocessors, sprites, or scrolling[0]. You have a lot of pixels to fill and no help to do it with. It can't even run DooM[1]. Most other developers threw their hands up and shipped RPGs, erotic vis…

What you described is even better: an Atari ST :)

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#274

Post by ffsm8 »

QuantumGood wrote: post #258
ffsm8 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, nothing is easier then adding constraints. Removing them is what's difficult - so why don't you add them back if it makes you a better programmer and you enjoy doing it more? Personally, I think the reason you enjoyed it more as a teenager is just down to the fact you were fully in control of what to do and had no external pressure to earn money etc, so if anything you had less constraints - at least from my po…

Simple and easy are often conflated a bit, but measured by outcomes, are quite different. Comments offerring humorous parallels of common simple and easy conflations will follow.

That's true, I just wanted to maybe add a new perspective to 101008 view that if he enjoyed working with technical constraints, he can still target eg embedded systems with massive resource constraints - and also to force an acknowledgement that the reason for his likely nostalgia to this kind of coding is likely more related to the mental freedom he enjoyed while working back then ... Because that too can be done, albeit with the caveat of time constraints because life doesn't go away no matter how much someone may want it to.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#275

Post by danielbarla »

busfahrer wrote: post #24
dash2 wrote: post #3

> including support for the Zuiki MASCON, a bespoke peripheral for train driving sims. This just makes me feel so glad to be alive today!

I'm on the fence because I have a TSC-X controller and it's unclear if it's supported. Somebody on the forums posted a tool that converts generic joystick axes to keypresses, but not sure how well that works.

> Somebody on the forums posted a tool that converts generic joystick axes to keypresses, but not sure how well that works.

I don't have a TSC-X, but did frown a little bit that there wasn't a generic support for controllers with plain axes. I have a VKB STECS, and basically a 85% of train sims need a workaround.

The good news: Claude Code threw together a working prototype for me in a few minutes that had me mapping the two axes (power / brakes) perfectly. It's really a low barrier to entry these days. Can confirm that this game is amazing with it.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#276

Post by stateoff »

oalae5niMiel7qu wrote: post #237
stateoff wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I depends on the background. I'm 2 years into solo developing a game and all programming, artwork and animation is my own. I had to invest into quite some learning to make it possible, but I figured it's a worthwhile investment. I do work with a composer, though. Point being, it depends on which skills you bring to the table, which ones you are willing to learn and which ones are worth collaborating on. I still think…

If a project is far more work than one person can do (as this train simulator obviously is), the term solo developer is no more justified than it would have been if Steve Jobs claimed to have solo-developed the iPhone, even if he could have justified saying he "brought the iPhone from idea to the finish line."

I don't know about this particular developer but I don't think there is anything "obviously" out of scope. I've worked in the animation industry and creating hard surface models with this quality is not really that hard for a skilled artist. As such I still stand by the opinion that it could be a solo effort depending on the developers background/skill.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#277

Post by wccrawford »

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #70
wccrawford wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started playing Farm Simulator 2025 recently because a friend wanted me to. Even now, I really long for a proper game with progression, etc. But it's really just a way to drive machines. And I find myself wanting to do that, even without the progression I crave from a game. But then I also feel like I'm massively wasting my time, and I could be playing other games, getting stuff done around the house, or just readi…

What would progression look like in a farming simulator? I tried it a few times but have had a similar feeling.

I've been trying to figure that out myself, and I think it involves things being locked away at the start, and unlocking them as you meet certain criteria.

Currently, the only criteria is money. You can literally just buy anything at any time, if you have the cash. Tractors, land, buildings... Anything. Almost all of it is instant. The few things that aren't instant are just annoying and not worth the effort.

There is a mod that unlocks tractors according to the year, matching them up with when they were released. That's at least a kind of progression, but still not what I'd enjoy.

In short, I think I want it more gamified and less of a straight simulation. Unlocking better tractors would mean reaching certain goals while using lesser tractors, etc. Motor Town has this. You need to do a certain amount of work with lesser machines to unlock the later ones. You also need the money.

But it would also go beyond what the game has. For some reason, you can be hired as a contractor for things, and rent the necessary equipment for fairly cheap. But as a landowner, you have to micromanage that situation. It's up to you to have the equipment and actually be ready to do the work before you can hand it off to an AI worker. And they're often terrible at it, especially with the lesser-used machines, like (according to a bug report I saw) carrot harvesters.

The game absolutely nails simulating driving a tractor. But as a "game", it fails.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#278

Post by thesuitonym »

therobots927 wrote: post #53
shermantanktop wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the part that is visible to everyone else, so that's the part that an LLM can see. That means someone else can clone your ideas and aesthetics. The ol' double-edged sword.

It only works when starting with open source to show to LLM. To monetize my modification, I would not make mine open source. If the licensing allows for it I’m fine.

If the LLM does the work, why should someone pay you when they could use their own tokens?

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#279

Post by casey2 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #74

Game looks amazing from a solo dev but this article is terrible, like the journo didn't even play the game they just watched the game.

The job of a games journalists isn't to play games or explain games to gamers. It's to explain the social context of a game to a general audience.

If you want a review service or consumer guide then pay for it.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#280

Post by simondotau »

paxys wrote: post #133
simondotau wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something of a self-reinforcing statistic. Steam is rarely installed on Mac because there’s hardly any point doing so.

Macs have a single digit market share globally, so even if people started installing games on them the needle wouldn't move much.

Mac market share is closer to 20% when you exclude machines installed in offices and enterprises. Some estimates put the number as high as 30% in North America.

The fact that the Steam number is as high as it is, despite the extreme lack of compatible content, is noteworthy.

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