Anyone Doing Gamedev? (Game Development, Modding & Sandboxing Thread)

[Slime_Punk]

I started a few months ago and I love the noob struggle so far. I finally managed to create Snake in Processing.py without any handholding or tutorials (very small accomplishment, but it felt pretty great) and I've got a little work-in-progress platformer going on in Pico-8 that I will hopefully make less-janky in the future by getting better with physics.

I figured we could just discuss whatever related to gamedev, modding, sandboxing and the like all in one thread if there are more people here doing the same. Maybe even sharing and demoing each other's projects in the process!

 

[Outdated]

I got fairly involved with development of a game called MineTest for a while. www.minetest.org

Open source projects are a good place to start for people that are curious about programming, especially if you find a game that you like playing. Being able to modify the game adds another layer to your level of interest.

The engine for MineTest is written in C++ but the actual game is just a colection of LUA scripts. Those LUA scripts are (within reason) fairly easy to understand with very little programming knowledge. Start by just editing a few parameters inside the scripts then start a new game to see your changes.

If it catches your interest then it's easier to learn more about the language. And you have the dev team to question when things confuse you.

P.S. The current leader of that project is also autistic.

 

[Slime_Punk]

I got fairly involved with development of a game called MineTest for a while. www.minetest.org

Open source projects are a good place to start for people that are curious about programming, especially if you find a game that you like playing. Being able to modify the game adds another layer to your level of interest.

The engine for MineTest is written in C++ but the actual game is just a colection of LUA scripts. Those LUA scripts are (within reason) fairly easy to understand with very little programming knowledge. Start by just editing a few parameters inside the scripts then start a new game to see your changes.

If it catches your interest then it's easier to learn more about the language. And you have the dev team to question when things confuse you.

P.S. The current leader of that project is also autistic.

That is so cool! I've actually looked into this when I started learning Lua and it looks awesome (especially the minecraft clone that exists within it)! Have you made your own game inside of it yet or are you mostly modifying scripts so far? I'd definitely love to check out whatever you've got going on, if you're willing to share!

I had no idea that the project leader is autistic, either. That makes it even cooler to me!

 

[Outdated]

OldCoder is a coding freak, a guru, an incredible man to learn from.

I got upset with the original dev team back in 2017, a very toxic culture there. But I loved the game so I searched looking for another fork and found OldCoder, he had also been shunted out by the main dev team.

Between the two of us we reverted the game right back by about 3 years, then added each new commit 1 by one and checked for bugs. Over a 6 month period the pair of us put in around 4000 hours of work to get the game back to it's modern state but without the bugs.

Then we started on improvements. My nic in there is slopsbucket, and I built the life size model of Angkor Wat amongst many other things.

My interest waned for a while but there's a chance I'll come back to it. And if you like MineCraft then you'll probably like MineTest as well.

Myself, OldCoder, and Poikilos are more than happy to help anyone that wants to know more about the game or the scripting. We pride ourselves on being one of the most inclusive dev teams around.

 

[Outdated]

@Silhouette Mirage

I just had a look at minetest.org and it looks like OldCoder's reorganising his server and website so downloads aren't available just at the moment. I've written to him but he hasn't got back to me yet.

If you are running Linux I can provide you with a copy of the developer's build kit from 20220510 but I don't have a windows copy I'm afraid. The buildkit is rather large, >650 Mb, but it builds both servers and clients for both MineTest and MineClone.

Note that this copy is outdated. Like me.

Cheers,

Andrew.

 

[Outdated]

Update:

I spoke to OldCoder and he's going to dig out copies of the different dev kits for me. I can host those on my server and I will also be able to compile a windows version for people.

OldCoder seems a little distracted at the moment, probably got a lot on his plate, but I'll probably have those up in the next 24 hours or so.

And some people will query my statement above about two people committing 4000 hours in six months, Yes, that's 16 hours a day 7 days a week. Two hyper focused autistics on a coding binge.

 

[Outdated]

@Silhouette Mirage Apparently they're in the middle of reworking their whole system at the moment, not the server but the way in which they present and offer files. OldCoder said he'll be putting everything back up soon but didn't give me an ETA.

In the interrum you can have the copy I mentioned above but it's Linux only, not Windows.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/9wz61hjv616gr8w/linux-minetest-kit-220510.zip/fileInstructions in the linux-minetest-kit.txt file.

 

[Misery]

I didnt even notice this topic before.

Anyway, I was part of the team on this game: Starward Rogue on Steam

I did the bullet-hell stuff, and balancing of the rooms and such in the game. Contracted work.

This was XML scripting, mind you. I'm not actually a programmer. But that was fine. The contract was offered to me not because of any programming skill, or any previous experience, but instead just because I knew the bullet-hell genre so bloody well and they didnt know anyone else that could handle that type of design.

I also was involved with the same roles with the game's expansions. And another game by the same developer, The Last Federation, I did the bullet-hell stuff there too. And THAT was a process. A turn-based yet real-time multidirectional shmup battle system with ship that moves on inertia and has a giant hitbox? Dunno how I managed to make THAT work.

I am intending on doing my own entirely solo project though, generally using things like Gamemaker or whatever.