Topics

1

Skill Needed Adverts / Looking for artists [Paid]

« on: March 23, 2021, 03:10:34 PM »

We need some more help working on Empires of the Undergrowth and other future projects. There's lots of scope for creative freedom given how small our team is.
If you want to work in games, are familiar with UE4 & like drawing foliage or designing menus (or both), then this is for you.

These are full time work-from-home positions (unfortunately UK only though):

https://slugdisco.com/position-ui-technical-artist/
https://slugdisco.com/position-environment-artist/

2

Skill Needed Adverts / Marketing content creator / strategist and general all round helper [PAID]

« on: October 14, 2020, 04:35:10 PM »

We're hiring for our first external employee at Slug Disco to help take some of the pressure off, particularly in the marketing department.

The job is full time and will be permanently remote so we can consider applicants worldwide. A part time option might be possible.

Here's the post:
http://slugdisco.com/marketingcontentcreator/

You don't need a background in marketing, but an appreciation of what it takes for a post to get to the front of /r/gaming on reddit would be helpful.
We need someone quite organised ideally who can take a bunch of jobs on and prioritize what to work on themselves on any given day.
An interest in gamedev, and playing RTS/management games would be good.
If you can handle a bit of PHP from time to time, that would be fantastic (but really not necessary to apply).

Hope it's okay to post this here, feel free to shift it otherwise 

3

Bigosaur / EGX Rezzed 2019

« on: April 10, 2019, 09:16:26 PM »

Hi Bigosaur,

I just wanted to thank you for sponsoring the RPS mixer.  I had 3 pints of stout and a gin and tonic.

Were you there?  After I saw Son of a Witch on the RPS poster I thought you might have a booth in the show. 

4

Creative and Project Hub - The River Docks / Text based RPGs on Amazon Echo or Google Home

« on: March 01, 2018, 03:35:34 PM »

Is anyone here working on or has finished a text based RPG that might work one one of these new voice recognition devices?

There are helpful tools for building apps and I just noticed this code for an echo adventure game on Github:
https://github.com/alexa/skill-sample-nodejs-adventure-game

I don't actually have an echo but I think things can be developed without the hardware using Echosim.io

It might be a good opportunity to get content out there whilst the market for this sort of thing is uncrowded - especially if you have something already made.

5

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Empires of the Undergrowth: A game about ants

« on: April 22, 2017, 10:39:44 AM »

I have been working on an ant colony management game for a while now and posted around here a few times in relation to that.  We just put out a new demo (with some much overdue performance enhancements) and so it seems like a good time to do an announcement about it in the indie alley.  You can grab the demo (0.064) for Windows here: http://www.indiedb.com/games/empires-of-the-undergrowth/downloads

It's a bit like the original dungeon keeper, crossed with sim ant. I stress "a bit like", I don't know if we can truly do either of those immortal titles justice. 

You start each level with a queen and a couple of worker ants, and you have to build up from there.  You need to gather food, build more workers and soldiers, and most importantly, defend your queen.  Currently in the demo, you can only explore underground maps - but you can see overground in action on our steam "coming soon" page. http://store.steampowered.com/app/463530

This is how the underground looks (after a lot of digging)


And here is a shot of the overground (the beach)


Our team is really small, there are just three of us, and only one gets to work on the project full-time (slowly eating away at our modest kickstarter pile). We have to try and do as much as we can on a tiny budget. That includes making our own sound effects:

If you have any trouble with the demo or have any feedback or anything else, let me know 

6

Creative and Project Hub - The River Docks / Building a community forum around an indie game

« on: February 15, 2017, 10:39:44 AM »

I think it makes sense to put this here...  I am in the process of putting together a forum to function as a community hub for followers of our insect-themed indie game "Empires of the Undergrowth".

The basic framework is in place (using simple machines like exilian does), but I am wondering what boards should be available at launch.  I hope the community will build over time, but in order to do that, we need our initial visitors to stick around.

At the moment I think it makes sense to have a "suggestions" board for ideas about the development and a "bugs / troubleshooting" board for reporting and fixing problems with the latest builds.  But what else do you think would be useful, particularly for a fresh forum.  So far we have a "Newbies" board for introductions and an "open" board which I am not sure is appropriate (or appropriately named).
Forum (WIP): http://forum.eotugame.com/

I would like to use the forum to post lets-plays of the game, and relevant things that might indirectly impact the game (news about our game genre and distribution in a wider sense).  We currently do this on Facebook but it rarely leads to conversations between followers.

We also have an added spanner in the works.  Up until this point we have been collecting peoples' comments, bugs, ideas etc on a social media platform called Stomt.  This allows people to make comments in 120 characters or less and they don't have to sign up to use the service.  It works surprisingly well for feedback and spam is rare.  I feel that our forum strategy should account for Stomt as there is going to be a definite overlap, but also a definite difference, I don't want to abandon our Stomt due to its accessibility. 
Stomt page: https://www.stomt.com/empires-of-the-undergrowth

I am not expecting an epiphany here, I will just try to approach the situation with common sense.  But if anyone here experienced in small community management has any advice to offer, I would appreciate it. 

7

General Gaming - The Arcade / Dune 2 & tablet RTS games

« on: November 17, 2016, 12:35:55 PM »

It looks like there are quite a few RTS players here.  Does anyone here remember playing Dune 2?  I think it was probably my first proper game as a kid. 

A friend told me some time ago that there was actually an android version available that someone had ported independently and so I had to download it.  I installed it on my old 2012 Nexus 7 (which is a piece of junk as far as tablets go really) and it runs perfectly.  Given that it was produced in 1992 (considered by many to be the father of the modern RTS genre), it pre-dates the 'boxing' (with the mouse) and grouping features that are pretty much a given with any new RTS.  This simplification means that when playing on a touchscreen device, you don't feel disadvantaged over playing on a pc (like you would with say command and conquer).  In the original you had to click and move everything individually, so the touch screen actually feels a bit easier.

I have lost countless hours to it since installing on my tablet now.  It is great for long distance travel - especially if you don't have an internet connection.

The .apk was on google play for a while but apparently EA shut the dev down after they were trying to make money from the unofficial port.  You can still get it from very dodgy looking websites though by searching for "dune 2 android".  I can confirm that it exists, and is real - but depending on where you find it, might be best to give it a wash with your anti virus first.

I have nothing to do with it personally, I just thought I would shout out about it here as I have had so much fun with the thing. 

I am working on an RTS myself, but moved away from tablet to PC last year after a significant amount of "no one wants a mobile RTS" feedback.
 

8

The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Good morning

« on: November 04, 2016, 09:52:08 AM »

A friend of mine pointed me here and said "have you seen this, it looks like TIG source".  I thought to myself, "what it TIG source?" and then registered here. 

In the evenings and weekends I am a game developer.  During the day I have a job where no one can see my screen.

I clicked on "Exilian on Youtube" and now I want to know what muffin hell is.