We need your game ideas!

[TheDuckbunny]

Hey guys, perhaps you can help me out.

Me and two of my classmates will be working full time on a videogame of choice for the next two months. The problem is that it's (very likely gonna be) just us, three 2D artists with only the bare minimum of programming skills.

Now I've got no doubt we'll be able to produce some really neat looking artwork but it means we're kinda limited on the technical front.

So are there any pre-made game engines you'd recommend? Any game genres that would require limited programming yet would benefit from high quality art? Easy to follow tutorials on making a simple yet fun game? Any and all ideas are welcome! We're open for anything and knowing us we've probably overlooked some really obvious ideas.

 

[Erana]

2D games with a fair number of artists?

Have you looked into Flash yet?

Also, look at Adventure Game Studio has good resources: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/acres.shtml and is free.

While you say "any genre" do yall really have no preferences? What kind of art do you do?

Also, I'd ask around and see if CoG http://www.choiceofgames.com/category/user-made-games/ has implimented image support with ChoiceScript yet.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Could try RPG maker, if your interested in making an RPG. It's pretty easy to use and programming for the most part is purely optional, for people who don't like the defaults.

Your pretty much unlimited on the art side though, as long as you follow the upload requirements.

 

[targren]

Hey guys, perhaps you can help me out.

Me and two of my classmates will be working full time on a videogame of choice for the next two months. The problem is that it's (very likely gonna be) just us, three 2D artists with only the bare minimum of programming skills.

You say "2D," I think "Metroidvania!"

 

[Bad Jim]

You could try programming in Blitz Plus. It's very easy to do simple things, like loading sprites, setting up a screen and playing sounds etc. It is still programming, but it is possible to make a game with very little code if you keep it really simple. It does cost $60 though there is a demo.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/

Genre wise, think 80s arcade games. Do a schmup, platformer or a beat em up, maybe a puzzle game. They're fairly easy to do. Avoid RPGs, they require too much work to make anything worthwhile.

 

[WoW Killer]

Maybe look at Pygame [http://www.pygame.org/news.html] as a simple sprite engine. All the complex stuff gets done for you, but it'll still teach you a thing or two about programming as it's proper code and not drag and drop.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Roguelikes. They're simple enough that people make them in 7 days as a contest, and there's an amazingly open community and wealth of game design discussion re: how to do them.

I'd advise starting here for examples and design tips:
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/

And here for in-depth discussion of game mechanics by several roguelike devs:
http://roguelikeradio.blogspot.com/

 

[TheDuckbunny]

Thanks for all the great ideas so far, I'll definitely be checking them out and hopefully the other two will be inspired as well. Keep 'em coming if you've got any more recommendations!

Hey guys, perhaps you can help me out.

Me and two of my classmates will be working full time on a videogame of choice for the next two months. The problem is that it's (very likely gonna be) just us, three 2D artists with only the bare minimum of programming skills.

You say "2D," I think "Metroidvania!"

Now if I say "Metroidvania", what do you think of?

 

[targren]

Now if I say "Metroidvania", what do you think of?

Um... "Yes, please?"

Seriously, though? Lots of stuff for completionists. 100% map, 100% enemies killed, 100% item collection, that sort of thing.

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

You can try doing a 2D side scroller beat' em up/tower defense hybrid or something if you're feeling bold. Otherwise, I got nothing 2D wise.

Oh, a 2D game engine? I would say Gamemaker from YoYoGames. I don't know that much about it but it does primarly 2D and has a simplifed UI. Then there's the advance stuff you can do too if you prefer pure code.

 

[WoW Killer]

I would say Gamemaker from YoYoGames.

The only problem I have with Gamemaker (unless they've changed it since I've last played) is it has trouble with images using alpha channels. The only art style I can feasibly make for myself that looks any good is scaled down pre-renders from Blender used as sprites, and without the pseudo-anti-aliasing of cubic resizing it kinda looks stupid. On the other hand if you're hand drawing sprites it's probably going to be ok. I had no problems with Gamemaker until I hit this particular glitch, and the actual performance of it as far as game logic goes seems to be ok.

 

[TheDuckbunny]

Now if I say "Metroidvania", what do you think of?

Um... "Yes, please?"

Seriously, though? Lots of stuff for completionists. 100% map, 100% enemies killed, 100% item collection, that sort of thing.

Yea, it'd be really cool to do a Metroidvania style game but I'm thinking it won't be easy. There's alot of stuff to take into account and I'm not sure we could manage with the technical side of things. I'll look into it though.

 

[Esotera]

Pygame is great if you want to get into the programming a bit more, and it's much more powerful than anything like GameMaker. You need to think about how you'll structure the program a lot more though.