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Hello everyone

Boy, it was a long time I posted here.
No, I'm not dead. Far from it, it's never going better. (Considering the state of my life 2 years ago, it's not that big of an improvement... still solo, sob sob)
Long story short, last year I've finally finished my Bachelor course and got Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering. And right now I'm pursuing Master's in Programming Engineering, so between all the classes, homeworks and assignments, plus some exctra things I took (being a demonstrator - basically assistant - and starting to train fencing), university time leaves a little time to rest. Most of the time, I keep myself to Steam and Skype, rarely visiting other pages - and thus often forgetting to check what's going on here and to say "hi".

In short, I'm very well and alive, and busy as heck XD

With that little apolodate out of the way, I'm glad to present the first game I finally managed to actually finish AND publish in my 8 year career as a hobbyist game dev:



You control the little alien who tries to collect as many gems as possible. Blue gems bring the most points, while other gems provide boost to alien's abilities (life, passive power and active power for red, green and yellow gem respectively). It's an endless type of game, so the high score is the main and only point of the game - but that might change in the future.
The game is currently in the beta phase, so feedback will be appreciated so that I can iron out at least the critical things. Game will stay in beta until I implement online leaderboards using Google's services, at which point I'm releasing for real if the game is in usable state.
I also have other updates in mind (multiple aliens, each with own set of passive and active, different tile sets etc.), but I'll leave that for gradual updates otherwise I'd never release the game.

Video preview:

Link to Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aurioch.aliengemcatcher

Any feedback is appreciated, and those who want, can fill out this quick survey: https://goo.gl/forms/fQyUarhnVWZKSB313

Thanks for reading!

Overheating is a pain - what sort of machine are you using?

Right now it's Asus K53S laptop, and after opening it, it's apparent that I need to replace the vent as it doesn't dispose hot air efficiently enough anymore. It either turns too slow or is completely stopped.

Well, at least I got my bachelor degree now, so I have week or two to fix all the things (I'm planning to get my desktop PC back in action) until my master's course starts.

A small milestone, but still a milestone: this weekend I reached 50 followers on Twitter. Which is kinda 30 followers since I started working on current project.



As for the progress, right now, to reach the point where 2D version is, I need to finish city tiles, hot spring tiles, and 3 units. Modelling is going painfully slow, especially since my machine has problems with overheating.

That moment when you want to join but have absolutely no decent idea what to write... X)

Nice, this does bring out that nostalgic feeling (though first game that came to my mind was Ikari Warriors, thanks AVGN). Good luck with the kickstarter!

This all sounds rather dank my good dude.

Umm... thanks, I guess?

Note for the uninitiated: this is probably the nicest welcome Pentagathus has ever given anyone on this site over the past nine and a half years

Ah, that explains it. Still... erm... yeah, I'm still not sure how to react XD

In any case, I've made a lot of progress (I hope), and this time I decided to make a video about it instead of screenshot, since it's more visible that way. There's still a long way to go...

Well, a small update...

Sadly, there's no much progress. I managed to set up the basic 3D world, but the performance was abysmal (camera was stuttering around), so I went to rewrite it properly using shaders.
And after struggling with it for like 8 hours and only recently realizing what a dumb mistake I've made, I managed to get the ground terrain on order... and what's more important, have the whole thing run fast. Then I went to write a decent lighting shader... ambient light, diffuse light, etc. (especially emissive light which I've used before to simulate water tiles) without any knowledge about it.

And the result?




(Gotta joke a little about myself X) )

I know for Eric's library, been using some tunes in one of my previous projects (which is close to completition, can link if interested). More or less I'm snitching such things, or make em myself. Minus is that what I make looks subpar, plus is that I learn new things ^^

And heh, I know that feel when it comes to lore, especially when new ideas start surging up and you simply can't stop ^^

Also, to try and minimize the effects of programmer art (and because I'm horrible when it comes to 2D art), I've slowly started to transition to 3D and learning how to model things with Blender. I usually make better things if I have a base to work with, rather than making it all out of my head.

EDIT
Here's what I whipped up quickly, grass texture thanks to Eric Matyas ^^

Thank you

All videos I have are uploaded on Twitter, which I found more practical when I do a lot of small videos (shorter than minute and a half). I could upload them on YouTube, but I'd rather have something more... substantial there.

I'm writing the game in C#, using MonoGame as a base library and supported by MonoGame.Extended library (to avoid reinventing the wheel) and GeonBit.UI (for user interface). Both of those have saved my time immensely, especially GeonBit.UI which comes with 2-3 interface skins, complete with all the necessary assets, so I didn't have to draw anything myself. A huge time saver... and it looks good.
Other than that, everything is on 0$ budget, so unit (temporary) sprites are taken from Kenney, and everything else is hand drawn. So yeah, pretty standard programmer art

As for lore ideas, thanks for offer! It will certainly help to have someone to throw my ideas at and see what sticks, especially when I start designing units/buildings/research to fit the lore. Problem is that I'm fired up, but at the same time am not sure how much I'll be able to implement... after all, ideas are cheap, but putting those ideas into something concrete is not.

Hello

I hate writing introductions, so I'll keep it short and simple:
I'm Computer Engineering student and an (aspiring) hobbyist indie developer. Aside from my love for (obviously) video games, my other hobbies are playing piano and writing short stories, with Pen and Paper Roleplaying included. I have 3 projects ongoing, but unfortunately, thanks to burnout and lack of motivation, all of them are shelved. For now.

Right now I'm working on a 4X game which currently has no name yet, heavily inspired in certain mechanics from both Civilization and Pandora: First Contact. However, unlike those two, the idea of a plot is to be put into a fantasy world (kinda like Master of Magic), with factions being various races with different strengths and weaknesses. Each unit will also be customizable, with the choice of weapon often dictating a "class" of unit. There's also an experiment with a research system I'd like to try, but what exactly it is, I'll keep it a secret for now.

For videos of game in action, please check out my Twitter, where I try to post things at least once a week. I don't know if it's possible to embed videos here; if it is, I'll edit the post.

Screenshots of current development phase:



What's done right now is unit command card (together with move, attack and worker orders functional), city screen (with unit production, resource overview, and citizen management), basic combat, day transition cycle (day, dusk, night, dawn) and equipment changing (with 3 "classes" avaiable: Settler, Worker, Warrior). Progress is going slow as there's no lore yet so that I can properly work on units, buildings and research system, so I'm trying to find minor tidbits here and there that I can work on. One of those is learning how to model so that I can prepare 3D assets.

Just a side note which might be interesting: originally, this wasn't supposed to be a game since I have 3 currently frozen projects (combinations of burnout and lack of interest). It's just something I made on a whim when, after reading one blog post about procedurally generated maps using noise algorithms, I wanted to try it for myself. After 10-15 minutes of work, I got my first result:

and from there, it just... kinda became full-fledged project.

In any case, every feedback and question is welcomed. I'm sorry I don't have a playable demo or anything more concrete, but the game is in early phase of development. I'll try to supply one as soon as I can.

Thank you for reading!