SolarLune's Content

#86987 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 07:07 AM in Introduction Central

Hey. I'm a wannabe game developer who goes by the name SolarLune. I'm currently working on a top-down Gameboy Color-style 3D action adventure title not unlike the retro portable Zelda titles named "Soldier Of". I took a break from that, though, to work on an FPS to finish in 7 days for the 7DFPS challenge that's currently going on.

Follow me on Twitter if you have an account and want to see the progress that I'm making.

Here are some pics.

Spoiler

I like to make music with the free cross-platform tracker SunVox, and I also like to attempt to make games (obviously, ha ha) with the free, cross-platform Blender Game Engine.

Nice to meet ya.

#86991 no online multiplayer for Pikmin 3

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 07:11 AM in Wii U Games and Software

Not sure why people think that it's because Nintendo's lazy that they don't want to do online. I think that it's not really possible for Pikmin 3. Given that each player can have 100 Pikmin max, even for just two players, that's a lot of data to send. If you send the individual data for each Pikmin, it probably wouldn't play close to smoothly, and if you just 'fudged' the positions for them, it could cause game inconsistencies. The only games that have so many objects being synced across the network are RTS titles, which take place in turns. Pikmin doesn't take place in turns - it's an action title, so each object position would need to be synced as often as possible. That would be really difficult to do.

#87004 no online multiplayer for Pikmin 3

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 07:28 AM in Wii U Games and Software

Sorry about that - most RTS titles that I remember are turn-based. Even so, units in the RTS titles I'm familiar with generally don't move sporadically like Pikmin. Pikmin can decide to pick up objects, attack enemies, get flung in different directions, get eaten (several at a time), etc. They do a lot of different actions. In RTS titles, units usually head in specific directions until they approach their target directly and then attack, or do AI pathfinding to get there, but do so slowly.

I'm just saying that there's shortcuts that you can take for online for RTS titles, and since the action is slower, you can afford for something that the player does now to be transmitted to the other players in a few seconds. For a game like Pikmin, though, that can be a huge difference.

I don't play many RTS titles, though, so I'm not particularly versed in the topic.

In any case, I'm glad to see local multiplayer, at least.

#87008 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 07:30 AM in Introduction Central

Thanks, everyone.

#87023 no online multiplayer for Pikmin 3

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 08:05 AM in Wii U Games and Software

"RTS" is real-time strategy, but the RTS games that I recall playing took based in turns. Battle of Wesnoth is an example of a turn-based RTS game. There are differnet kinds of RTS games - Pikmin is an action game, but definitely has RTS elements.

Maybe I'm not giving technology credit, but we're already experiencing lag with online multiplayer titles that have 16 players - do you think that it could handle 100s of characters syncing with playable lag?

#87024 Epic uses for the Wii U gamepad! (mockups and concepts)

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 08:11 AM in Wii U Games and Software

Player-specific Information (i.e. Crystal Chronicles)

That sounds really interesting. I think the pad would be really useful as a personal game screen, a la Zelda Four Swords. Three players maximum without split-screen - one player on the TV, the others on the GamePads. Each person gets their own menu, inventory, etc. It'd be even more interesting if the GamePad could store a bit of save data, like the Wiimotes held Miis. That way, your GamePad is kind of like a portable device - bring it to a friend's house and play with your profile, with your data from your game. That'd be pretty cool, I think.

#87030 Hinkik's 3D renderings

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 08:22 AM in The Museum

Wow, you've really got great modeling skills. Keep it up - everything looks pretty awesome!

#87032 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 08:23 AM in Introduction Central

Hey. Glad to see people using Blender. I saw that Pikmin you made. He's a bit flat (I think), but as far as I can tell, he's well proportioned.

I'm not really that much of a fan of Unity - too much money for the pro version, and the free version's too limiting. UDK is probably good, but it seems a bit heavy for my purposes.

And thanks!

#87037 Project P-100

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 08:33 AM in Wii U Games and Software

Project P-100 is being made by Platinum Games, and is, as far as I can tell, a launch title for the Wii U. I didn't see any thread here, so I thought I'd post about it. It's looking like Viewtiful Joe + Pikmin, but more action oriented.

Thoughts?

#87058 Project P-100

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 09:27 AM in Wii U Games and Software

For Youtube videos you can just copy the URL and paste it on your post.

Wow, that's simple. Thanks.

Yeah, it's a unique game, to be sure.

#87193 no online multiplayer for Pikmin 3

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 07:07 PM in Wii U Games and Software

Huh, my mistake. I thought that there was only RTS - I forgot about Turn-based strategy games as a game genre. I guess it's possible to do for sure, then. I'm not sure why Nintendo wouldn't do it.

#87207 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 12 June 2012 - 08:13 PM in Introduction Central

@Hinkik - Thanks. I saw your graphics - you've got real skills!
@Sportsgamer - Ha ha, I wish. If they were willing to give individuals dev kits / software, then maybe. Something like XBL's Indie Games service, but a bit more cross-platform would be awesome.

Anyway, I also wanted to post a video of the progress of that 7DFPS thing I'm working on.

#87310 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 13 June 2012 - 07:32 AM in Introduction Central

Thanks!
@Hinkik - I wasn't going to add enemies, actually - I was going for more of a Portal-esque puzzle FPS.

#87542 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 13 June 2012 - 06:22 PM in Introduction Central

Ha, I'd like to bring it to Steam if possible. I think Desura's easier to get your game into, so I would probably go for them first, but if Steam would allow it, I'd love to have Soldier Of there.

EDIT: Oh, and I was thinking of releasing Soldier Of in episodes (chunks). I'd hope that I could make the first one by the end of the year, but I'm not sure. It's kind of hard to get a definite time frame for game devving.

#87796 Wannabe Game Dev Says Hi

Posted by SolarLune on 15 June 2012 - 12:23 AM in Introduction Central

Yeah, it was easy to pick up, at lesat to me. I chose it over other engines because it was easy, I suppose.

I started out with Game Maker years ago, and thought that the engine in Blender was just a toy, and wasn't really a 'real' game engine. So, I didn't really get into it. Then, for some reason, I just started to pick it up, and after I found out that you could program with Python, I started learning. At least, this is my memory of the whole thing, so I don't quite remember.

#87913 Super Mario Sunshine 2

Posted by SolarLune on 15 June 2012 - 02:35 PM in Wii U Games and Software

I think they should look into taking Mario into a different direction, like they did with Super Paper Mario. Maybe make a 3D Mario adventure title with more of a storyline like SPM - it was pretty impressive if I recall correctly.

#87925 Super Smash Bros. 4 Discussion Thread

Posted by SolarLune on 15 June 2012 - 03:38 PM in Wii U Games and Software

I'd personally like to see Knuckles, particularly as he seems to be better suited to battling than Sonic.

#88203 Dual gamepad support coming 'well after launch'

Posted by SolarLune on 16 June 2012 - 11:09 PM in Wii U Hardware

Sounds less like "Dual Gamepad Support's coming later," and more like "no launch titles support dual gamepads." The support for it to work probably will be there, but it seems like the first launch titles won't use two gamepads for local multiplayer. But then again, who's to say? None of the games are out, so devs could slide in dual gamepad support.

#88204 Multiple Gamepads Slowdown

Posted by SolarLune on 16 June 2012 - 11:18 PM in Wii U Hardware

Just wanted to see what people thought about multiple gamepads slowing down games' FPS for the Wii U. Do you see it being a huge problem? It's not that noticeable on the 3DS when some games get capped when playing in 3D mode (not all games do it), but you can tell the difference. Being that not every game gets slowdown on the 3DS with 3D mode on, it would be safe to assume that it's not just the fact that the 3D is on that the FPS gets capped, but it has more to do with what's actually being drawn on-screen.

If the Wii U's the same, then wouldn't it stand to reason that you would have to be running a fairly graphically intensive game for 2 gamepads to slow down the FPS (and not just using the console)? It seems to me that there are a couple of ways to work around this without actually solving it, like turning off the TV display and just showing the screens, or turning off the gamepad screens and just showing the TV screen. It sounds weird to me that if you've got a map on the gamepad screen, the game will run at 30 FPS, and if you don't, it will run at 60.

#88555 Wii U Experience

Posted by SolarLune on 18 June 2012 - 08:42 PM in Wii U Hardware

( why no longer, I would stay all day if I came)

Probably because of that. If they allowed everyone to stay as long as they wanted, nobody would leave until the end of the day, causing major congestion from people milling about. By capping people off at a couple of hours, they ensure that everyone can see and play the games. This is just a guess, though. Anyway, it sounds interesting. Hopefully they'll show some new games there.

#88557 Everyone says Nintendo is behind the times...

Posted by SolarLune on 18 June 2012 - 08:59 PM in Wii U Hardware

Note that good graphics does not mean cutting-edge. The Wii was somewhere between the GameCube and the 360 (or at least, those two generations) and still managed to output great graphics, and enough to impress. Zelda: Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Brothers all had great graphics. Just because they weren't exceptional doesn't mean that they weren't good. Now the 3DS looks pretty close to a Wii, so I don't think people should worry about the U's graphical power.

#88790 Nintendo Offering "Insane Incentives" To Publish on Wii U eShop

Posted by SolarLune on 19 June 2012 - 06:11 PM in Wii U Games and Software

This is good news. I'm surprised that they said that they'd release all retail games digitally. I can't imagine that would make their games particularly popular with game stores.

EDIT: And oh, please give indie devs (and wannabe indie devs) a crack at the Wii U like Microsoft did with the 360 Indie Games service. Please?!

#89454 Why is it "pro" to not have a screen?

Posted by SolarLune on 22 June 2012 - 03:57 PM in Wii U Hardware

Just a thought on the names of the two gamepads. The only difference between them is that one has a touchscreen with a lot of really cool features. Yet, the one without the screen is called the Wii U gamepad "pro". Any thoughts?

After all of the responses, I thought somebody would have brought this up. The pro controller has no screen, which means that it probably has a much better battery life than the gamepad. This being the case, "Pro controller" = "Sit in front of your TV for hours without charging", as opposed to the Gamepad's five hours (which is still pretty good). Also, while the gamepad probably won't be heavy, it's a bit oddly shaped, and holding it from the top, while not uncomfortable, is not the same as holding a controller from the bottom, so that's something else to take into account.

#90331 Since Namco Bandi is helping with NSSB do you think it will be released sooner?

Posted by SolarLune on 27 June 2012 - 08:01 PM in Wii U Games and Software

I think it's doubtful that this will be released sooner with Namco's help. It was probably planned for them to get help from an external company like Namco before they even started.

#92226 Nintendo customer service says Wii U/3DS to have unified eShop account setup

Posted by SolarLune on 05 July 2012 - 11:21 PM in Wii U Hardware

I do wonder if there could be some 3DS / Wii U cross-compatability? Maybe not 3D titles on your Wii U, but I could see playing some Virtual Console games on your Wii U, or WiiWare titles on your 3DS. Although, I think I'd like to see a Lost Winds sequel in full 3D. Anyway, this is cool news.