Messages

16

User-Made Creations / Re: My first game

« on: October 18, 2015, 08:26:08 PM »

Pretty much have to agree with everyone here, especially about using the same tile for parts you can go through and parts you can't, and the save balance. I think those were the weakest points about your game.

Also, other than trying to stay away from too bright backgrounds, I would recommend picking ones where there's little going on in them, like, instead of using an actual picture people might use for their desktop images, get a single color and then maybe add some tiles (different from the ones you're using for platforming of course :p) to make it nicer.

And I think in some saves you tried to balance the fact you could save without reaching the actual save by putting things like the invert. (at least that's what it felt like you were doing for me, nevermind this part if I'm wrong) Personally I think that's bad practice, especially when save blockers are so common nowadays that some people might not even try to save it before getting past the jump, like people recommended, use save-blockers as well and preferably change your saves to z-saves, I think there was a post in the game design section with the codes for a z-save if you want to copy them. And those are more pet peeves but avoid putting saves that require you to jump or that you have shoot when you can only do it within the block they're on (although this second one is not an issue if you change your save type)

All in all though it was a nice first attempt imo, I would recommend you to stick around more with people of the community and maybe get someone to show you the ropes to improve a bit faster, and know what kind of things the community likes and dislikes, and don't be discouraged, good luck with your next projects, you seem to have the right attitude towards criticism and that's a really strong point :o

17

Programming Questions / Re: Advice on how to keep the Game File size small

« on: October 18, 2015, 07:51:24 PM »

For tilesets, it does help in working with static things like the blocks you stand on, but I'm not sure if it makes any relevant difference in size, and afaik PNG is better. You want to use separate sprites for things you want to use as objects though :o

And the thing with externally loading is that it makes your exe lighter, but you still need the actual sound file to go with it, so the file size in the rar would still be affected by using wav instead of a compressed format, so stick with using mp3 or other formats like that for the bgm.

18

Programming Questions / Re: Advice on how to keep the Game File size small

« on: October 15, 2015, 09:11:57 PM »

In general, anything you can use code for instead of resources, do it with code.

Afaik without extensions gamemaker had issues with playing multiple mp3s and oggs at the same time, but never use .wav for your bgm. If you want real optimization for sound, look up zanto's method in IDWBA2, that game is really well optimized in that regard, although for your usual fangame that's not really needed, just choosing the type of sound file carefully should suffice :o

Try to learn a lot about the draw functions though, they can save you quite a bit in sprites if you know how to use them well, like not having to do different sprites for an HP bar that changes color or basic examples like that (I'm not good with gml so I can't give you fancy examples :p but you get the idea)

19

Meet and Greet! / Re: now I am become forum

« on: October 11, 2015, 12:54:54 PM »

YOU DON'T LIKE NEEDLE?!







Fair enough, welcome.

20

Off Topic / Re: Pancakes or Waffles

« on: September 27, 2015, 01:50:54 PM »

I see the oppressive fangame regime is moving to the food industry now huh, trying to create food drama :o

First the waifus, now the waffles, TJ is trying to start a war.

21

Game Design / Re: Boss Rush

« on: September 14, 2015, 01:33:09 PM »

Tbh drawing directly from boss rushes of other styles of games is kind of a possible trap for yourself, even if you were doing it with a game that's closer in style to fangames than FF, like megaman, which is at least a 2D platformer.

For instance, FF is a turn-based game relying merely on strategy and no execution, where you can level up your characters, while megaman is a more action-based platformer than your typical fangame, so it gives you more movement/attack options and by the boss rush you have the weapon each boss is weak against, and most importantly, in these games making one mistake doesn't mean insta-death. I at least always thought that in these style of games a boss rush was more for the purpose of giving the player a confidence-boost with "look at all these bosses I had so much trouble with before and now I'm making short work of them" before the true finale of the game. In some cases you can go the other route and make the revisited bosses actually harder than before, but that takes more careful planning, to avoid making it feel like unfair buffs with grindy learning to them, or just uncreative and repetitive.

If you want to use a style similar to this in fangames, I think it should go together with an idea like this to be enjoyable, it can't be just "fight the bosses again" with no kind of difference to it, or else it's just annoying.

For fangames though I think the best idea for boss rush is taking a bit from each boss and remixing them into one fight, without making it longer than a boss fight normally should be, like having an actual boss that summons previous bosses you fought to borrow their attacks, maybe tweaking the attacks a bit, but it's not them that you're fighting, although other ways to do it can be good too, if you take care to not make them a huge roadblock for the player and not just a repeat of already beaten-bosses.

22

Gameplay & Discussion / Re: Introducing Delicious-Fruit.com!

« on: September 03, 2015, 02:48:42 PM »

This would be a good time for the oppressive fangame regime to do some oppressing, yall need to chill.

This isn't even a big deal, and the funny part is even if it was, I don't think any of the sides actually doubt that TJ and klazen would manage it well, so this discussion is even more meaningless. Some drama now and then is funny to watch, but you gotta feel sorry for both of them, they were just trying to do something nice and they get this shitstorm holy crap.

23

User-Made Creations / Re: I Dun Wanna be Anything 2 v1.0

« on: August 08, 2015, 06:23:03 AM »

Not sure if this was a known issue or not but I'll share anyways:

If you kill the spider boss during the time it's summoning those electric webs, this happens:

(click to show/hide)

The game will pop that message up, then the boss death scene will play out and immediately after it ends, the player will automatically die and the death counter will reset, also commands were frozen for me after that so I had no choice but to reopen the game (when reopening the death counter was normal though)

(click to show/hide)

I managed to reproduce it 5 times so I'm sure it's not a one-time error, and killing it before that phase made the boss die without problems, so I think the reason is killing the boss during that attack.

24

Gameplay & Discussion / Re: Xbox 360 controller problems

« on: August 07, 2015, 08:15:17 AM »

Huh, is xpadder not free? Never heard about that.

But yeah, most games on steam have built-in controller support, while fangames usually don't, for games that don't have support directly you have to use something like joy2key or xpadder, both should work just fine. Most people I know use xpadder, but I use joy2key and it also works, and it's free (although it does occasionally pop-up a message asking if you wanna support the product)

Hope this helps, and good luck have fun with your fangaming

25

Game Design / Re: On Originality In Fangames

« on: August 03, 2015, 10:16:18 PM »

Wow this got heated :o

To add some more opinion on that, I don't really think the reason you put out as to why people make games... or stuff in general is really universal, some people might really make it just for themselves, but then criticism isn't even that accepted by them because they're not making it for people to like, others make entirely for the purpose of making something popular and I think most people are a midway meeting between those 2.

Also this community really doesn't try to sugarcoat criticism at all, but in general I think the criticism about experimental gimmicks is the application of or the idea itself, but not the fact that the maker experimented, even if you say the game is absolute garbage and the gimmicks are terrible, that doesn't necessarily mean you're discouraging the experimentation itself, and I don't think that happens much here, although we are picky about the physics in the fangames when they're different, usually.

26

The Lounge / Re: memes

« on: July 27, 2015, 10:24:02 AM »

Who is champ?

27

Tournaments / Re: FGM Wrap-Up/Future Considerations

« on: June 07, 2015, 02:15:40 PM »

The event itself went fine imho, and I think that most of the issues that happened can be chalked to lack of experience, which is completely understandable considering it was the first time for most, if not all of the people involved, and if we do more of such events it'll get better as long as there's enough communication and preparation time.

Now for specific topics:

Game Blocks: Huge blocks sound like a bad idea, but smaller blocks throughout the event could work, although with the size of the marathon currently, the way it was done was a good form. But there are some types of blocks that could probably work, such as the bad games block BBF said, but not only those, I think making small avoidance blocks would work not only for covering the variety of genres issue, but to also remedy the scheduling issue that some avoidances could present, as they are usually harder to estimate because you either beat it all or not at all, so making something like time-slots for a player to do multiple avoidances, not necessarily having to beat them all, but just to show some avoidances they like, this way the estimate would be easier to make. Lastly on this topic, since this is about fangames, and not just speedruns, I think it's fine to add more segments (although I wouldn't want them to be blocked all together) like shadesbot and geezerbot, maybe segments specifically intended to show gamemaking, tutorials and previews of big projects like the cultured 2, being officially part of the schedule, as they're pretty interesting in their own right and easier to keep on schedule since you don't have an end to reach, and can just go with it until the time is up.

Spam/Meme Overload/Unprofessional behavior: First of all I'd like to apologize if I went too far with the spam and memes, but I tried to follow chat's mood and only do it at times where it seemed like it'd be ok, but if anyone thinks I went too far, I sincerely apologize, no harm was meant. And although going overboard with the casual/free for all mood is a serious concern, going too far to the opposite side sounds bad too. It shouldn't be sloppy, but there  is no need to go in as strictly as the GDQ events currently do.

Understaffed/Communication: Personally I think that was the biggest issue, because despite the event having turned out nicely, you can tell that the main organizers ended up overworking themselves from having to do most of the work alone, and that sometimes there wasn't a clear understanding between the runners and the organizers on what to do and how to act, which I think was the main reason for the scheduling issues and some of the random issues with filler material. So for the next possible events it would help a lot to have more people helping and more preparation time/communication beforehand.

That said I really enjoyed the marathon, and while I think it can get better, everyone still did a really good job helping it out and I hope more events like this can happen, because it was really fun

28

Meet and Greet! / :o

« on: June 07, 2015, 02:14:57 PM »

Hi :o