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Finally getting off my proverbial ass and doing something about the lack of games I like. Going to focus on making an engine for the kind of games I want to play.

No, I am not starting from scratch. Going to base my engine on Godot and use it for my own titles. I am not insane. Making it from scratch is too much work these days. But the indies are shifting from Unity to other engines right now. So a lot of wanted attention will be placed on better alternatives. This means more content and plugin choices will be available to Godot devs.

I kept making excuses as to how hard it will be or it will take forever. It only ended up taking me further away from what I wanted. I have my wishlist of features and I will focus on modularizing them so they can be used as needed. If it makes sense I will make these modules available to the community at Godot. This will help get feedback on what can be improved and generalized further. It will also reduce development costs in the long run. I want to take the approach that No Man's Sky has taken for content and generate as much as I can. I am fascinated by generating objects using algorithms. This seems to be a trend in games.

The struggle I have with games: I want to build things like structures in game (aka Minecraft), I want to build characters in game (aka RPGs), I also want to deform terrain (aka organic voxels), and I want a mixed genre (guns and dragons). Nothing like this exists in a form I want to pay for. I also want to be able to mod the game and for other people to be able to mod the game. That really narrows the list of games down to nothing. Sure there are few games that hit these bullet points, but not all in the same game.

I am finding I struggle to be engaged intellectually at work. I do what I have to for a paycheck. I think having a side project will help with this. One that is radically different than what I do at work is going to be helpful. I need to be realistic about expectations. I probably shouldn't expect any real progress for at least 2 to 3 years and probably more likely 5 years. I have some experience with the tool chains from other engines I have worked with. I also want something that I own and is mine. Even if it sucks.

Comments
  • 8
    Another problem I don't like in existing games. Every solution is about killing some enemy to solve some problem. The art of persuasion and manipulation are completely ignored. Kinetic solutions are not the only solution. Violence isn't the only answer.
  • 6
    that's why i started working on one half a year ago maybe?

    But i might be, what you call an insane person. I took bevy as an engine-framework and am building the tooling around it. So far i'm making good progress, and also grow a little community around it. Because that's also something you need to do: start advertising early, get your idea out, because otherwise nobody will know, your project exists, and it will fade into the depths of steam's garbage (or similar)

    * Note to myself, i still need to make a video about the project 🤣
  • 5
    Well you've announced it publicly to your peers so you have to follow through now
  • 5
    Try fly for fun. You get a hover board. Fuck dragons with their overrated pointy tail. Most of them don't even live in dungeons but in a den
  • 3
    @thebiochemic I see people making a few K per month with Patreon and video games. So it might be an option.
  • 7
    Does anyone else find yourself in a position where learning anything is huge mental effort for motivation? I find myself lacking even motivation to learn about fun things. It took me a few days to figure out how to properly compile Godot to use with .Net. Once I got it compiled I was like hellz yeah. But up to that point I felt like it was easier to stare at my phone than actually build something. I think this is affecting my job as well. It has been taking huge effort to consume new information lately. I feel like a lazy ass bitch.
  • 2
    You will be rewarded with a bunch of asset packs that have already transitioned to server Godot Engine versions as well! Integrated UI library is also sick.

    And if you disable the ever-ticking step loop in favor of events and signals, it's gonna make for a good multiplatform SDK, too.
  • 1
    @Demolishun Try to make some communities on Gamejolt, Itch. You never know how income would originate!
  • 1
    @vintprox yeah, one project I want to work on is a synthesizer for creating sounds with multiple sound inputs and outputs. The existing sound system is not going to work for that, but it has some nice mixing code in their. I will mainly focus on PC, but yeah, it is a nice kit.

    I was also thinking about creating a generic wrapper for open62541 for Godot. So if people want to make a house automation system they could.
  • 3
    @Demolishun Oh, mental effort is quite big with videogames when you've got one or another perfectionista shtick from software development area... I tried a few game on Itch and I never finished a single game. Found out that I give too much credit to 3D graphics than it's worth, it keeps blocking my potential with algorythms, particles and animations.
  • 1
    @Demolishun same. And i came to basically the same path. Video games may be the only motivation strong enough for me to actually get off my butt and do something about. Anything else doesn't do it.

    But since I like doing it. I don't care if i show no progress. Or if the tech gets outdated, I can just keep working on it. for fun
  • 2
    @iceb I keep wanting to mod games to make them the way I want. Why not mod my own thing?
  • 2
    @Demolishun go one step further, and make YOUR games moddable.

    Sounds like burnout in any case. Sometimes working on your own stuff can bring renewal.
  • 2
    @Demolishun how will you get graphics for your game? Will it be 3d? Maybe there's some AI renderer for it
  • 5
    I'm not engaged at work as well. I was working on a programming language but magically lost all source. That was the only thing i'm doing in my free time and i was very happy with it. It took around ten rewrites. It supported:

    - classes

    - arrays

    - "a" * 3 (resulting in "aaa")

    - 3 * 3 + 3 = 12

    and some standard fso .

    It was an endless fun thing to work on.

    But now i lost it, i fell in a minor depression. I can't write all that again.

    I have a new version but find myself too lazy to write all those micro parsers a parser contains.
  • 1
    @Wisecrack yes they will be moddable. I feel like first class modding (like the TES) series is important.
  • 1
    @retoor Godot can do either. I want to focus on 3D. I am thinking an NPC system with a common skeleton that can be adjusted from a base mesh or set of meshes. Will make this available in game customize player and characters. There are already some examples available for Godot on github.

    I am not sure how realistic I can make all content procedural. I will try to see what can be done. I am guessing there will be a base set of primitives and artwork. Other wise it may look like generated trash.
  • 3
    @Demolishun its be cool to have a game-engine-as-game or engine-as-sandboz with a focus on modding specifically. Call it modbox or some shit. Idk, dont ask me. But something that's like roblox, except not shit. And not blocks shit specifically.

    Like the steam workshop of games.

    Just remake Garry's mod, but for this generation. And make it not gay and lame.

    Can you tell I'm a total fucking champion at this deal-making thing? Total pro! /s
  • 1
    @Wisecrack that actually crossed my mind. That is part of the reason I am going to use C# instead GDSCRIPT. There is so much stuff to use that is C# based. I think when my engine gets mature I will look into an authoring system. One thing that I don't want to do is networked games right now. I want to focus on people tailoring their personal experience. But I was thinking of adding a way to interact with people in a chat system. It just seems like networked games attract a lot assholes. I see this after watching Ark and NMS communities experience with multiplayer.

    One thing I wanted to do is staged approach to my engine. Make a game that exercises say the first/third person controls. Have it be all about that. Like a test game. So I can be play testing the mechanics of a piece of the game while working on something else. Another thing I want to do is randomized simulations of game mechanics. Find out algorithmicly how game mechanics can be exploited.
  • 1
  • 0
    @MammaNeedHummus confused, me too what?
  • 3
  • 2
    Space station 13
  • 2
    @jestdotty gets stabbed with a needle by the traitor scientist, horribly mutated into a monster, then shot out of the airlock after going on a rampage.
  • 2
    @Wisecrack I think you're the imposter
  • 1
    @MammaNeedHummus who me? An imposter? Never.

    Only on saturdays.
  • 1
    @Wisecrack I mean this type re the talk of space stations
  • 0
    The very fact you're blabbing about it means you haven't even started yet and you probably never will. :(
  • 0
    @Demolishun You don't need to compile Godot yourself to use it with .NET - there's a perfectly fine working binary ready to use: https://github.com/godotengine/...
  • 2
    @cprn what the fuck is wrong with you? seriously, eat a dick and fuck yourself.
  • 0
    @Demolishun What? Why? Did you start?
  • 1
    @MammaNeedHummus oh, lol.

    I guess he shouldn't have tried to steal your hummus.
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