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Thanks ... Frog?... Hope to see you around the forum

Hi Rick,

Love your art style; I can help part time at the moment, and would be happy to see if we could work together. I am familar with Godot.

FYI; I live in the UK timezone so if you need direct real-time chat, that is a factor

Thanks for the feedback. Personally, abit of both - I'm enjoying doing it as a hobby but moving it towards either being a secondary source of income/maybe oneday a full time job would awesome.

As happens, I don't think either idea is going to be the indie hit of the world or anything, but there are genres of games that I enjoy. As happens, there's been little feedback on the forums at all, but the discord has been positive in there feedback of the individual pieces of work I shared.

Thanks again.

So, I've been working on my first game concept (see my latest dev log: https://itch.io/t/957732/space-factory-week-4-the-namaning-luxury-semi-automated...)

Next week I have my declared deadline to go/no-go on further work, as commiting to a firm decision point forces me to really think about if its worth switching to something new or not. 

As happens, I have doubts about the concept as executed and am edging towards ditching it in favour of a new idea I have that seems like it'd be better.

I guess my question is how do you determine if a prototype needs to be killed for now at least, or if your doubts are too premature.

Previous devlog: https://itch.io/t/946208/space-factory-week-3-trials-and-tribble-ations

So, a somewhat unfocused week this week where I spend too much time on a menu system for the game that would really have been better spent at this stage in prototyping more gameplay than garnishes like the menu. Nevermind, we live, we learn, and we probably repeat the same mistakes, but hopefully not as badly.

Regardless, I have managed to add some of the in game UI to select between laying transport belts or work stations - at present the stomping workstation is the only one available, but thats ok for now - more can be added.

I also added the exporters to remove processed items, and the flow of material through the factory is a loving thing to behold.

So, in my original post, this would be the first decision point, whether to continue for another 2 months or abandon the game.

Due to the engine change in week 2, I decided to push that out one more week to be fair to the prototype. So, for next week I want to have done the following:

1) MONEY: Add a money counter, with items coming in costing cash, and exporting items adding cash back.

2) Item types: At the present, I only have the boxes and their crushed forms - I would like at least one more item, i.e. iron ore, which can be processed into iron for export.

3) Related: Another station type, probably an iron smelter.

And finally:

4) Clean up that station/belt selector and make it themed into something nice looking.

See you all next week.

So, after my previous devlog (https://itch.io/t/925663/space-factory-week-1) alot happened and last week I was supposed to post another devlog but didn't feel it was a good time as I was transitioning the project quite significantly.

Summary version:

* I trialed some isometric-type tiles and didn't like the way they were looking - my pixel art skills are basical and I do need to work on that in future for 2D games.

* I switched to 3D and it didn't take long for things to start looking pretty nice.

* Unfortunately, Blender and Unity are harsh mistresses, and I actually ended up switch game engine completely - I jumped ship from Unity to Godot. Madness, I know, though having done it, I do feel Godot is actually a better choice for me personally, and it was simple lack of knowledge that meant I didn't start in Godot.

* I've rebuild things up to an interesting point

* This is based on an idea I have in my head that this will be a more wacky factory game, set in some form of parody 1980's style world, where other factories have outsourced even the crushing of boxes for efficient disposal.

*Obviously, the animation isn't perfect, but its sufficient I think for getting the point across.

* The camera has free rotation but no zoom in-out.

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So, this has me in abit of a bind at the moment - the backend of code is 'evolutionary' ... as in it evolved each time I needed it to do something and has become abit of a mess. Not unsolvable, for certain, but I feel it'll need fixing before moving on.

Which then brings up the question of "Is it worth carrying on at this stage?" I think the 3D work is actually pretty nice, but I'm wondering if my idea has any real legs to it - factory games do already exist and does my idea of the wacky parody 1980s with themes of waste and over capitalism (2020 influencing me? probably) actually separate the concept from the crowd enough to be worth completing? Doesn't help that I saw this (https://store.steampowered.com/app/923710/uFactory/) come up in Steam the other day and it does look to be a very well put together factory game.

Geniuely interesting to hear what people think.

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Goals for next week:

So, having gotten the state of play out their, the next question for me is 'what's next'? I feel that aside from the code needing a cleanup, the GUI is non-existent. So...

1) Cleanup the code (first establish a local git to keep the current code and allow reverts on breaks) - limit to 3 days at this stage.

2) Add a UI for picking to what stations to 'plop' onto the floor - at the moment this would be limited to just the boot-stomping station, but should be able to handle more as the game processes.

--- Note: I'll be looking up 80's graphics and styles to see about theming the UI

3) Stretch goal(s): Add an exporter to the game (can just be a copy of the importer with the rollers facing the other way) that destroys items within.

Cool new tile sets - your current map does look like a town now rather than a city, but I'm totally aware this is a prototype.

The idea of the equipment being noisy and making it so the offices have to be separated to reduce annoyance is a good idea to expand the management challenges. The UX is coming along nicely, and your concept does seem solid.

So I posted a declaration to myself (and the world) to actually motivate my ass into doing something around game dev (https://itch.io/t/913100/first-dev-diary-concept-and-plan-of-action-space-statio...)

So, here's my work in progress so far: (try and ignore the huge watermark)

The starfield and rotating asteroids do look ok, I think, though I'm wondering if a more pixel art approach to the whole game would be best - maybe the low res look will make it easier to make the factories look busy and dirty without hampering gameplay

At some point I need to add click and drag for laying conveyer belts.

Anyway, onto the goals for next week:

* Switch to isometric for the factory and conveyor belts.

* Have the importing object (representing the supply of materials to the factory) actually spit out items periodically.

    -- Relatedly, have queues form from items blocking the conveyor belts.

* Add at least one work station, for example to convert ore into refined metals, and have that exit the station

Stretch goal:

* Add a start screen and menu.

I can imagine that the final system could be super complex if you went far enough; my advice if you want it is to keep a simple system as you can for as long as you can and only make it more complex when it'll improve the gameplay experience.

Nice, you seem to be making very good progress on this - does the game allow multiple connections to the same point yet?

Looks like a ready good concept and a good start to the execution. Looking forward to seeing more :)

Ok, two things:

1) I saw that you can add optional donations for projects, so failed/rejected projects can go up for free with an option to donate if the person feels like making it rain on me (and not in the golden shower way).

2) Modified the idea to be smaller and more achievable I think -

Space factory - you get raw materials in via some kind of asteroid miners, and you have to produce the right products per-level for export - alittle similar to the Zachtronics games' but I think it different enough.

Thanks for the feedback.

Re the idea of working on a few smaller games for a month each, that is probably a good idea.

As for experience, my game dev experience is pretty low, though my programming experience is very high (its my job and something I am passionate about).

As for the 'only as long as people enjoy it', it was more about how I feel about it and whether it seems like potential is still there or if some fundamental issue has been revealed via the execution of the concept. Obviously, feedback from people is a factor, but it wasn't want I'm planning to base continued work on necessarily.

My impression is alot of games dev is done via the 'iterative' approach of some planning and then iterating a concept/prototype to completion; it was why I was setting a goal of having something functioning even if its only minimal - after all, the first word on a blank page is the hardest to write.

I'll have a think about smaller ideas to try for now.

Hi all, I've been a failed game dev hobbist on and off since, well, high school

And I've had enough of trying and failing to go anywhere or complete anything.
So, here's what I'm doing: I want to take an idea, prototype it for a month with what freetime I have, and then post a dev log update per week. If the idea still seems to have legs at the end of a month, give it another 2 months, check again, and if it still seems good, try and complete something worth actually playing as a full game inside a year, dev logging each week to try and keep my bum focused and to try and get useful feedback.

If at the two checkpoints the game is rejected, package it and put it up for, I dunno, a small amount of cash or free (undecided at this point); at least then its finished and someone else might get a good idea from it.

So, my first idea to prototype is a space station game: you are the adminstrator of the first space station on earth that is attached to the planet via a space elevator - the primarily game style concept is to build facilities for manufacture, tourism, and servicing space missions (launch probes, ships, repair & refuel ships, etc) and keep the station in the green, eventually expanding it. Resources for manufacture can be imported via the elevator or later from passing spaceships.
My first aim to be dev logged next thursday is to have a basic station where you can plop stations which deduct from your account. Small step I know, but I don't have a good idea of how much time I can put into this per week yet, and I want to underpromise at this stage and over delivery if anything. Once I have a better idea of my available time I'll actually be able to set better goals.

I would like to get feedback on the concept and the idea of the dev cycle. I have to admit to being inspired to get into gear from Yahztee's dev diary series.

Hi, played in (not in co-op so bear that in mind in my feedback); I have a few suggestions - it's hard to predict where the boxes will drop and it could do with alittle notification where the boxes will drop - maybe 1-2 seconds of an arrow flashing where the box will go?

Also, its not clear how far the plank can go before it'll break, maybe something in the background can hint at it? Like a line on the ship that seems to match where it breaks?

Finally, the plank seems alittle too sensitive to me, but again, I was playing single player so I dunno if thats just the fact I have to try and control two characters at once.

Liked the idea, and the game is well themed from what I saw and heard.