So I am making a video game.....

The Predaking · May 22, 2023

So I am making video game. The general idea is that I wanted to make a game that shows my kids what gaming was like when I was kid.

I wanted to take the gameplay mechanics of several games from the Commadore 64/Atari 2600 era, and weave a story through that. Then the story will progress to more advanced game play such as games from the NES Era, and keep the story going through this era and into the 16-bit Console Wars era, and finally end in the early 3D era of the 32 bit (Well 64 for one) era with a few 90s PC games mixed in.

I feel that this will be an ambitious game to make, but for the past 22 years, I have been wanting to make a video game. I feel that this will be the perfect thing to make and something that I can show my kids what it was like in the 80's and 90's gaming.

I will try to keep this thread updated with my progress.

Pocket · May 22, 2023

I recommend making it in Godot, then. It's the only engine I know that has purpose-built development tools for both 2D and 3D.

CoffeeHorse · May 22, 2023

Good luck. I've been working on a project of my own and it has been a miserable experience.

My experience with Godot was not good. My project is 3D though. I've heard nothing but good things about Godot's 2D tools, so maybe their 3D side is just comparatively underdeveloped.

Ungnome · May 22, 2023

I second the Godot recommendation. The 2d stuff in it is top notch. Granted I've only released one game jam game with it so far, but I've got a directory full of unfinished ideas and quick tinkering projects.

The idea sounds similar to what the Evoland games did(action-rpg with graphics and gameplay switching up based on the "era" of that part of the game)

Good luck, btw. I do recommend limiting the scope of the project, though.

Pocket · May 22, 2023

The 3D side of things in Godot has been lagging behind the leading brands, but since you only need it to ape early 3D games with no shaders or fancy effects, it shouldn't be an issue.

Tm_Silverclaw · May 22, 2023

Good luck!

Ungnome · May 22, 2023

If you go with Godot, I recommend using viewports for your scenes, that way you can easily simulate accurate resolutions across the eras without having to worry to much about native screen resolution(the engine has some built-in options for this, but they are best suited for games that run in a single resolution across all scenes). I think there are even some shaders available to simulate NTSC video artifacts, if you want to go for the super accurate experience.

The Predaking · May 23, 2023

Currently, I am writing out the story, and setting that up.

Thanks for the suggestion of Gadot. Unreal, Gadot, and Gamemaker seem to be popular choices these days. I will have to look into which one will work for me once I am further along.

CoffeeHorse · May 23, 2023

I don't think Unreal is recommended for 2D at all. For 3D it looks phenomenal.

One critical factor that gets overlooked is, how comfortable are you as a programmer? Godot assumes a beginner game developer is already an experienced programmer. It's not a crazy assumption because you almost certainly will have to do some coding to make your game, but some engines are making the effort to accommodate the rest of us with visual scripting tools. Godot killed their visual scripting because no one was using it, because it wasn't very developed, because no one was using it. These things can be a vicious cycle. If you don't require visual scripting though, Godot may be fine.

One thing I can give Godot fullhearted praise for is that it is unbelievably lightweight. It opens faster than a web browser. I think even my old computer could have run it.

The Predaking · May 23, 2023

My day job has me working mostly in C#, SQL, and MVC. I am a Programmer Analyst Senior, with a BS in Computer science and a minor in Information Systems. I have been into coding since my older brother taught me Q basic back in 1995. I hope to pick it up fairly quicky which ever one I use. I am sure that Google will help along the way too.

Ungnome · May 23, 2023

Very lightweight indeed, the editor clocks in at around 120mb for the Linux build and doesn't require an 'installation'. You can simply run it from the directory you plop the executable in.

As far as the visual scripting goes, I wasn't a fan of Godot s implementation and quickly went back to GDScript. Unreal does visual scripting much better.(not sure about Unity's system, haven't really messed with Unity in awhile)

GDScript is very python-like in syntax, though you can use c# with the mono build.(or pretty much any other language via the GD native bindings, but I haven't really touched those)

I think Unreal is C++ or their visual language and Unity is C# and their visual language.

CoffeeHorse · May 23, 2023

If you have that much experience coding, just go with Godot. You can expand it if you need more features than it has out of the box (if the 2D side is even missing anything at this point), and you'll be making those expansions on a lightweight and stable base. It wasn't for me but it's a good tool.

The Predaking · Jun 27, 2023

Still writing out the story, but I am a good ways into it now. There are a lot of NES games that the gameplay isn't as good as I remembered it being.

CoffeeHorse · Jun 27, 2023

There aren't many NES games I really like if I'm honest with myself.

You're doing this the right way, doing all this planning. I'm doing nothing but level design. But that is the part I enjoy, so I'm happy.

Ungnome · Jun 27, 2023

NES games were largely made before most designers had any real idea of what good gameplay WAS, so that's rather understandable.

The Predaking · Jun 27, 2023

Ungnome said:
NES games were largely made before most designers had any real idea of what good gameplay WAS, so that's rather understandable.

There are some great game designs out there, but then there are some like Rygar, which I remember loving as a kid, but as an adult its basically go right to trigger infinite enemy spawns until you reach the end of the level. Then get new item to go to new locations to do the same thing.

Ungnome · Jun 27, 2023

Yup. Devs were figuring out what worked and what didn't during that era. I LOVE the experamentation of the era, but a LOT of the games did NOT age well in the slightest. Even the early installments of the franchises still with us today can be a chore to play these days.

It's kinda like the early 3d era(PS1/Saturn/N64) in that regard.

CoffeeHorse · Jun 27, 2023

The Legend of Zelda is kinda bad. It does a lot right, but the solution to every puzzle is "Just somehow know this exists." There is no excuse for the designers ever thinking that was okay. They didn't know what worked yet, but kids never had clairvoyance.

Ungnome · Jun 27, 2023

A lot of the early Sierra adventure games had the same flaw. Lot of just trying a bunch of random stuff until you lucked out on what you actually needed to progress. Didn't help that the localization of the original Zelda game was abysmal so that the few in-game hints that were provided ended up mistranslated.

Pocket · Jun 27, 2023

CoffeeHorse said:
The Legend of Zelda is kinda bad. It does a lot right, but the solution to every puzzle is "Just somehow know this exists." There is no excuse for the designers ever thinking that was okay. They didn't know what worked yet, but kids never had clairvoyance.

The goal, I think, was to get them to buy the magazines that just told them the solutions. "Pay-to-win" is not remotely a new phenomenon.

So I am making a video game.....

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