Necesities of an early indie game

[AppleSauce]

Within a week of learning and applying my LWJGL skills I managed to make a pretty nice game. A friend of mine got me thinking about how I have a website, a game, and an early business. I’m currently working on a sidescroller but I’ve been busy this week. I know mainly basics, but I find them easy to learn depending on the subject.
I plan on releasing professional games as I go through my learning process. I don’t really know how to do any particle effects, so I’m not too close. Anyways, would something very basic like my game Flubber Space have a chance at going on steam(after updates)? Some friends found it fun and challenging to play.

Lastly, what book would you say would be good for game physics, and what books do you think would be best for OPenGL? (sepereatly answer them please)

[ctomni231]

Honestly, I’d post on a few indie based sites and see what the general reception is for your game before trying anything like posting onto Steam. If a game is good and entertaining, people will let you know through the comments you get. Friends, usually, try to make you feel good about your games for encouragement sake, so taking an outside lens usually shows your game for what people really think.

Umm… seriously…

Game physics has been implemented to death using Box2D. Since you are designing a platformer, you can get away with just a simple implementation of gravity and collision detection. There is no way you need a full robust physics engine in OpenGL to make objects within the world act in a realistic way. (Unless there is something I’m missing, and this is for a bigger project.)

OpenGL Resources

Actually, I’d just recommend going through the various tutorials online which I have found a lot more deep and direct than any book mentioning OpenGL. A lot of books use the old immediate mode which is like a step backwards when trying to get the concepts of what to use. There is a lot of techniques when it comes to OpenGL programming that takes forever to pick up and will keep you busy for hours. The link above goes over the tutorials and books that have been recommended over time.

[Nausica]

Not to sound pessimistic, but you might want to get your feet a little more wet before you think about tackling Steam Greenlight. Of course, you can always get away with making a barely playable game and posting up some concept art on Kickstarter, but speaking as someone who also wants to see better quality indie games on Steam (just look at the ‘Simulator’ cash-cow :/), I’d say focus more on learning how to design your own games and improving those designs. Don’t take this as an insult, but I think your game is more suited to the mobile market (after updates of course).

You shouldn’t try to pressure yourself into delivering a stellar game. Make something that is fun to you, and eventually someone else will love it as much or even more.

[AppleSauce]

@Nausica

Not to sound pessimistic, but you might want to get your feet a little more wet before you think about tackling Steam Greenlight. Of course, you can always get away with making a barely playable game and posting up some concept art on Kickstarter, but speaking as someone who also wants to see better quality indie games on Steam (just look at the ‘Simulator’ cash-cow :/), I’d say focus more on learning how to design your own games and improving those designs. Don’t take this as an insult, but I think your game is more suited to the mobile market (after updates of course).

You shouldn’t try to pressure yourself into delivering a stellar game. Make something that is fun to you, and eventually someone else will love it as much or even more.

I’m not offended, I just felt really proud of myself for actually making something playable. Games on steam do seem really good to me, the fact of having something on steam does excite me.

[Slyth2727]

@AppleSauce

I’m not offended, I just felt really proud of myself for actually making something playable. Games on steam do seem really good to me, the fact of having something on steam does excite me.

If you want to get a game on something like Steam, you have to think about what people want. You’re a game designer, think like one.
So you’re adding a new feature to your game? Now think, “If I was browsing and I found this game, would this feature be cool and make me want to play the game?”. That’s a big part about making a game that can sell.

However Nausica is correct in saying that maybe you should hold off until you have a bit more experience. But congratulations on making your first playable game, I know how good that feels.

[Grunnt]

I’d say: buckle up The last 10% is 90% of the work.

[AppleSauce]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D So I think I’ll try to use books, videos, etc. to learn more. At first I was thinking that anyone would play an early game, but I get it now. I’m actually not sure what to learn next, even though there is much to learn. Besides a basic scrolling effect, my game shows all of my lwjgl knowledge. I’m still not 100% knowledgeable on matrixes, before I hunt down tutorials, have any suggestions?

[ctomni231]

Yeah, brush up on your Mathematics and know as much as you can. You can’t know too much Math for learning OpenGL. However, the tutorials should be friendly enough to grasp without it. All that is important really is that you “start doing it.”