Digital

Haha, now that is the spirit!

I am not a huge mobile game fan, but every once in a while I will download and play one. Any out that people are into recently?

Hello all,

This is an open forum for any member to suggest any competition or contest they would be interested in TGL having. We are always open to new contest ideas, and would love to have very regular contests and competitions here on the boards for our members as we think they provide fun and allow our members to compete in a fun and engaging way!

So please, do not hesitate to suggest any competition or contest that you would love to see us have!

So a game I am working on is a RPG a-la JRPG in a very retro pixel style. I am not terribly skilled artist but I want to try to see if I can at least do some of the art myself.

Anyone have any input for a starting out pixel art wannabe?

What games do you think have the most memorable plots? Games where the plot and stories were so good that you can still remember all the twists and turns?

How did the plot affect your overall impression of the game?

Do you have any furry friends? They don't have to be furry, they can be scaly or really anything else. I am referring to pets though!!

We have four furry dogs, a Maltese, Toy Poodle, Pit/Beagle Mix, and a Terrier Mix. It's never a dull moment!

I would have to say mine is an old Windows game called Tzar. It was produced by an Hungarian game publisher and I can recall spending an entire morning on 56k dialup downloading it (50mb demo). I spent hours playing it.

It was a RTS medieval game that came with a map creator.

What is your all time memorable or favorite PC game?

The first thing that comes to mind is that your being denied because Adsense cannot see the member or login protected pages. You should only protect member specific pages. If you have any lore or non login required pages that are protected, opening those up may help.

Ironically I recently watched Sword Art Online on Netflix (I am not terribly into anime in general) and felt inspired by classical RPG and MMO type games.

Intelligence is to me the ability to consume information that is given to you. That information can be in any form. Granted some is easier to process and consume then others.

I also think intelligence is also closely tied to ones ability to communicate and relay information. Not only in spoken or written but through any form, creative or technical. 

I totally agree with takents and people having skills that they are more specialized in then others. 

I have found breaking work into manageable little parts help, and even attacking the parts that I find more interesting while adding in more boring parts in the middle can help make it a little better.

Motivation is always about dedication and discipline to me. I have to force myself into doing it to keep myself motivated about it!

Welcome to the forums, and we can always welcome new artists!

I am sure being legally blind and being an artist is difficult work, but makes the results even more rewarding! I would love to see some of your work!

I personally am no good with art, my artistic skills ended at the sites logo.

Welcome!

Ahh, Elder Scrolls. I started back in Morrowind.

I still have not really played Skyrim all the way though. It's on my list of things to do.

I would love to hear of a new one coming out! Skyrim was amazing, and Morrowind still holds a spot dear in my heart. It will probably be a good while before any news or anything. They seem to be focusing on other franchises and also working on content for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). I am happy to see Morrowind return in ESO, even if it is hundreds of years before the Ash Blight.

What do you use to keep your writing focused? How do you practice your writing skills?

I find when I sit down to write, I tend to go off on tangents quite a bit, and wondered how actual writers can stay focused on their stories?

This is a guide to help new game designers work out how to plan and execute a level design that works. Often I found that simply trying to hop into a new level and build it based off a loose idea in my mind leads me to almost immediate failure almost every single time. It is frustrating. So I have over time developed a clear process that helps me successfully work out how to do level design that works for me by breaking it down into steps.

The Idea

Obviously every level starts as an idea. This idea will be spontaneous or deliberate. Either is perfectly okay! This is where you dig out a notebook and keep these written down, or even better drawn down in rough form. Don't worry we will refine them later. These game level ideas should be organized into their own notebook or sketchbook so you can find them later.

If you cannot come up with ideas, the best ideas are to look around your environment. If you live in a city, maybe that city corner you drive or walk by is a good environment for a game, or if you live somewhere more rural - that old barn in that field? The point is to make yourself more observant of what resources are around you to generate new ideas. Remember, ideas right now are rough concepts, not full blown levels.

Setting, Location, and Theme

The next step after you have an idea to come up with the setting, location, and theme to frame your idea in. This further takes the idea and gives it greater bounds, allowing it to grow in your mind into it's own environment. The three points here are:

• Physical location of your level. Is it a city? Rural town? Indoor or Outdoor? Past, Present, or Future?
• Actual location of your level, the more specific location of your environment within your physical location defined above.
• The theme of the environment, this is abstract and defines stuff such as time of day, weather, atmosphere, mood, and other elements that bring your location into focus and what makes it feel the way it does.

Purpose

Quite simply put, why are you set on doing this level? What drives you?

Features

What features does this level have for the player? Questions to ask will be:

• How does this level stand out visually or technically?
• What game elements are the focus of this game level that make this environment unique?
• What will the player experience in this environment?

Make a list

Research and Reference Studies

Take some time looking around and studying architecture and environments that meet your above needs. Collect, study, and constantly refine your ideas based on research. Remember, now is the time to refine and improve your concept. What you are looking to collect are references of the following things:

• Anything that matches your location
• Anything that matches your environment
• Anything that matches your style design
• Props that match your style design

Now is also the time to start to start sketching out unique design ideas and putting these on paper for later reference. These studies allow you to ask questions about props or designs now rather than later.

The Story

Now that you have your environment, what is it's story? How is the player entering the environment and what story leads them there? What story shaped the environment before the player got there? These are important questions to jot down in your notes.

The Goals

Goals come in three real forms:

• Objectives
• Obstacles
• Set Pieces

What objectives will the user have to complete?

What obstacles will be the players way?

What events will happen (set pieces) along the way?

Focal Points

Focal points are used in any environment to orient your player. What focal points can you use to keep your player feeling directed and not lost while in your environment?

Mapping (on Paper)

Take some paper, and draw simply a top down view of your environment, make sure to note all objectives, obstacles, set pieces, as well as focal points. Also note any unique sections. This is your visual guide when building your level out.

Mapping (a List)

Now take your map you drew, and make a list of all the elements on it. This list is your working list of things to do.

Now are you are armed with an organized blueprint of a level design!

Now you can finally sit down and execute that wonderful level design! Let me know what you thought of this rather succinct guide on level design

This is a compiled list of current game engines and game making tools to help any indie game developer get started with their project.

General Game Engines

General Game Engines may or may not require programming experience, but are tailored to make game development relatively easy for the new developer. These engines are generally genre agnostic, which means that you can create a wide variety of games with them.

Genre Specific Game Engines

These game engines are more specific towards specific styles of games, but have the added plus of having no programming skill required for new game developers who feel that programming may be beyond them.

Game Frameworks

These game frameworks require programming knowledge in the language they are written for, but provide a ton of useful utility to get your game off of the ground quickly. If you love programming, you are probably looking for one of these to get started.

Please feel free to reply with any other frameworks or engines that you feel should be mentioned here.

Every game developer or artist has to start somewhere, one of the first questions is what art programs are good for what type of art, or where to begin. This list is intended to help you figure out what program you feel will work best for your game. Feel free to add any not listed, but this is a start!

Raster (Bitmap)

• Photoshop
• The GIMP
• Paint.NET
• Pyxel Edit
• aseprite
• Pixelmator
• Grafx2 
• GraphicsGale
• ProMotion 
• PD Pro
• UltimatePaint 
• Pixen 

Vector

• Adobe Illustrator 
• Adobe Flash 
• Inkscape 
• Corel Draw
• iDraw

Animation

• Spine 
• Spriter

Welcome to The Gaming List! The Gaming List is a forum dedicated to discussion of indie game development, community game development, and game development marketplaces.

So if you are creating a game, whether it be for a console, pc, browser, handheld, atari -- doesn't matter, we want you to join us and participate in our discussions on game design and development.

So on behalf of The Gaming List, I would like to be the first to welcome you!