Game Dev Stream

[Derf]

Hello, my name is Derf (NitrogenNautilus on Twitch, and many other things across the web) and I'm relatively unknown in this side of the fangaming community (though somewhat infamous on the other side but oh well). I'm one half of the team behind the contest game known as PSIFT which Paragus played on stream last night. In the stream some people expressed interest in watching the process of how this game was made.

As it is an ongoing process, I ask this: would anyone genuinely be interested in a game dev stream? It'd be a fun way to show the community some of my tips and tricks regarding graphics, coding, level design etc; but on the other hand I don't exactly want to be self-important or anything. If it would just be a self-satisfying task then I'd rather work alone if you understand me. I'm planning on releasing the PSIFT gmk when development is complete so people can learn from it anyway, so if the stream would be a waste of time then that's that.

The only real problem that exists is logistics - I've never streamed before and am unsure how long I would last (though I could always skype call some friends to give me company & whatnot). And I also live in the UK which means I would have to stream much earlier than a lot of you a probably used to (probably around 3pm in your time).

Just writing really to ask people's opinions on this. I'm by no means an expert and there are a wealth of programmers in the community far superior to me; I believe people were probably interested in the idiosyncrasy of our game and the gimmicks involved.

I make no promises. Just testing the waters.

[ShadowsDieAway]

Dev streams are always good, you just have to keep in mind that interactivity is key with them as there won't be the normal game action to keep viewers engaged. Whenever I do a dev stream I have music on, either YouTube or though moobot's music requests, interactive text, and chat on screen. I also have a mic and webcam but I know not all streamers have them. The mic especially helps so you don't need to have nothing going on the screen while you type to respond to them.

Just keep it interesting and you should be fine. Most of the time it'll be Q&A so the best thing to do especially if you have a mic is explain your thought process when you're developing to give the stream more depth.

[Derf]

Thanks for the reply! That's all really solid advice - appreciated.

Unfortunately my computer's internet doesn't work anymore and I'm unsure how long it will take before I can get a dongle. I was going to record some videos just running through some things people were interested in knowing how to do and upload them on my laptop (which unfortunately I can't put game maker on). Only snag is, every screen capture software I've encountered needs to connect to the internet to install, and I have no built in screen capture software.

So unless I can find one that has an offline install I won't be able to provide and game dev content for a while.

[pieceofcheese87]

I'm always interested in seeing how other people code/design games. It's better to see it live than to look over a gmk, in my opinion.

[Derf]

I agree, hopefully that will be possible in the near future. I'm kinda antsy to get something recorded because there's coding and then there's coding; e.g. right now I'm coding a lot of fun stuff (gimmicks, bosses etc), but in a few days when that's done it will just be level design and tweaking etc which imo isn't nearly as fun or benefiting to watch.

[Kyir]

I've found stage creation to be the most entertaining thing to watch in terms of dev streams. I don't usually watch at a high enough quality to actually be able to read code.

[Derf]

Well in that case as soon as I get a dongle I could do some level design streams for sure. That's something I've had an issue with before actually so I might need to think of a way around it; maybe just changing the size of the font in game maker.