Neat little puzzle game. I wish there was a way to turn off the music though. The music is okay for a bit, but gets repetitive pretty fast. Had to delete the music file to get around the absence of a mute option.
Christiaan Moleman
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I would like to submit 2D watercolour fish simulation Guppy for consideration: https://ninjadodo.itch.io/guppy
Somewhat related to this... just now I manually downloaded and claimed a game (A Mortician's Tale) without realizing I had already claimed it in a previous bundle, so now I have two entries for this game in my Things You Own library. Any way to merge these two entries into one? Not a huge problem, but would be handy.
I just bought a bundle that automatically added a 1000+ games to my "Things you own" list. Previously it was possible to hand curate this list by manually claiming games from purchased bundles, but since that didn't happen here it has rendered my library basically unusable for simple browsing. I pretty much have to switch to using only Collections now.
I would very much like the ability to hide unwanted games or perhaps even to unclaim them in bulk (though they should still remain available through the bundle purchase in that case). Also the library really really needs a Search by Name option, and sort by tags and price.
Basically, please just add all the filters from randombundlegame and maybe look at Steam and GOG Galaxy or Playnite for ideas. That, and hiding or removing games.
I would like to submit my 2D watercolour fish simulation Guppy for consideration: https://ninjadodo.itch.io/guppy
Thanks! That's great to hear. I've definitely thought about how I could incorporate the Iliad and perhaps the Odyssey or other stories... though in the interest of keeping the scope contained I decided to focus on the Twelve Labours of Herakles, and even that is proving ambitious, especially for one person.
The main constraint is time as this is purely a side-project since I can't afford to work on it full-time. I definitely plan to wrap it up in some form though, at some point, though I may have to reduce the scope further.
I would like to submit my 2D watercolour fish simulation Guppy for consideration: https://ninjadodo.itch.io/guppy
I think it's a compatibility issue with recent versions of OSX. Apple has extremely bad backwards compatibility and often intentionally breaks older software with new OS changes. The game no longer works as a standalone app on Mac (it used to work fine), but still works if you run it through the itchio launcher.
Please try downloading the Itch launcher app (https://itch.io/app) and install the game from there. That should work.
Game URL : https://ninjadodo.itch.io/guppy
Reddit Handle : https://www.reddit.com/user/ninjadodo
Discord Handle : ninjadodo#2961
For anyone wanting to learn animation or expand on existing skills I compiled this list of recommended books and websites, originally for Pixel Prospector, now updated here:
http://www.ninjadodo.net/animlinks.html
Thought you guys might find this useful. Applies to 3D animation as well, but I figured I'd post it here. Basically this is my "I wish I had these when I was starting out"-list.
I don't believe this one has been mentioned but I am suddenly very impressed with open source 2D digital painting software Krita, especially given that the next, currently pre-alpha, version can even do animation:
Will definitely be using that if I need to do any detailed colour 2D animation in the future.
I get a similar feeling from games that are close but not quite, or ones I mostly like but that have some aspect that just infuriates me... makes me wonder how I would fix it or approach the problem from a different angle. I actually make lists of positive and negative bullet points sometimes for games trying to understand what I like and dislike about them.
It started with playing King's Quest 1 for me: just the idea of creating a world that you could walk around in and interact with... I immediately started making my own games on paper with drawings and paper cut-outs, acting out the game by moving characters around on hand-drawn backgrounds. Via Gamebuilder and Superlogo, and later modding levels and tilesets for Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and 3D animation with trueSpace, I kept making things and I eventually ended up getting into the games industry as an animator, but always kept the urge to create my own games as well. Realized a couple years ago Game Maker could pretty much do everything I wanted for 2D games, and have been using that ever since.
These days I'm inspired by everything... art, museums, travel, history, mythology, books, cinema, and of course other games.
Generally I'll buy anything that seems cool for a reasonable price, but these days I'm reluctant to buy new games because my backlog is so enormous it would take a lifetime to play all the games I already have to completion. Not that I would want to finish every game, but it still comes down to "I could buy this new thing, or I could play the 5 games I bought in the last Steam sale that I still haven't touched". I still make an exception if something is especially cool though, or if I just want to support the developer.
As for convincing me a game is worth checking out: basically, have a great gameplay trailer... no cinematics, no endless logos and backstory... show me the game. Word of mouth helps, certainly, but the game needs to look interesting.
Well, above list is as much from things that have worked for me as from mistakes I've caught myself making. Getting lost in iteration, especially. My rule now is if I haven't made visible progress on new features (that were already on the list) in months, it's time to move on. I think keeping a video devlog helps, because if I can't make a new video of it it's probably just tweaking that can wait. Plus if you want to get a handle on the scope of your project, you need to have it all there before you can see how much work it will be to finish.
That said, for bigger projects my notes are somewhat longer, and I do design certain things, like levels, on paper first... and I tend to develop character movement in animation thumbnails.
I'm generally a fan of implementing spur of the moment ideas immediately while they're fresh (with the "iterate but move forward" caveat) as it keeps the energy and inspiration going, so I just implement them without even writing them down, or they go on the short list. If they're too big or I'm not at that stage yet I either break them down into smaller tasks or they go on the long list.
I don't believe in overly detailed prescribed design docs. I prefer to find the game as I'm building it and those lists are just there to give some direction, figure out the next step and to not forget any good ideas I have along the way. For my fish simulation game, Guppy, the long list was never more than a few pages of notes.