Ed Mech Games

#PitchYaGame Take a look at my first Steam game that just released a couple of days ago! It is an old school style pet battler with semi-random stats and movepools. There are 5 different rare variant forms you can find that have big gameplay effects!

@cemukadev Thanks! I’ve never used the json utility, I will have to take a look. Good talking to you!

@EdMechGames Alright, I got you. So far I used to 2 solutions on saving and loading any data and none them involves into SO at all. Unity's JsonUtility for json or c# binary serialization for raw binary values.

What is your preference for core definitions like skills and items? I tend to use scriptable objects but I don't like it's unity editor locked nature. #gamedev #unity

@cemukadev I worded that poorly. I mean when you load your character how do you load their spell list since you can’t save a scriptable object? Do you have your loading system search for it by name in your resources? Not being able to serialize scriptable objects really sucks for spells

@EdMechGames I reference any prefab into a scriptable object in my projects. I think it’s best to go this way for any unity related asset.

@cemukadev While we are talking about this, do you kind if I ask how you go about saving your abilities? That is always a pain point for me. I usually save the name of the spell prefab as a string and then find it by name in the resources folder to restore it but I know that’s not optimal

@EdMechGames I would consider using raw json files to invest in modding further but in development phase I think it's better to stick with editor, so or monobehaviours. Ultimately, it's faster with built in options in my case.

@cemukadev Wow. That is way more advanced than I was thinking haha. Solid idea but sounds like a lot of work to get off the ground

@cemukadev If I don’t need anything too robust I can ill often use monobehaviors like this. You can also have a “skill list” empty game object and make prefabs of empty game objects with an ability script attached to each and add those prefabs as children of the ability list object

@cemukadev Honestly, unity doesn’t really have good support for abilities. Scriptable objects are the go to. You could also have mono behaviors that inherit from an ability base class then have an ability manager that stores known and currently equipped abilities.

@darkwoodsgame Wow! This is like .001% of indie game numbers. Huge congrats! That’s amazing

Some numbers, one day after launch

What do you guys think when you go back and play your very first game?

In case anyone wants to give the game a shot store.steampowered.com/app/2645110/Xe…

Started a playthrough of my first game since it has finally been long enough since development and I can play it with fresh eyes. I was a little disappointed on release. Sales were low and I felt like I made an awful game. But I am actually having a lot of fun #gamdev #indiegame

@mazestalker There are so many things I should really go back to and refactor in my game. Big props to you for just getting to it. Refactoring is definitely not on my list of favorite gamedev activities but I have yet to write anything that hasn’t needed a refactoring later haha

Third complete rewrite of this feature. In order to make this look right I had to rip open the entire inside of the state machine of my character controller. What a waste of time, but as they say, what doesn't kill you... #gamedev #indiegame #solodev #mazestalker

@shapesandlines Conan is one of my favorite series of all time. I have all of the L Sprague De Camp books. If you have any more Conan art I am always happy to see it on my feed!

Speaking of Bruce Timm, his style had a little bit of influence on me when I did this cartoony sculpt of Conan several years ago.

@zenny12shaun Keep it up man. As soon as you figure one thing out, ten other things will pop up to drive you nuts haha. No game engine is anywhere near perfect. Just keep at it!

so i was able to optimize my project a little i still need to learn to optimize it more (as i learn UE) i will get beter at this! thank you so so much for everyone that commented and tried helping much love to the community over on X and other game devs!!

@shapesandlines Futurama is an all time great show! Love the art work. I still have to get my gamedev skills up anyway. Maybe by the time I’m in a good spot you will be back open for commissions. Keep up the awesome work man!

Thank you very much! Rick and Morty and Futurama were big influences on the style. Normally I do take commissions but I've been head down working on my dungeon delving story book. That's what all of these character designs are from, or most of them. I would love to do a monster manual sort of book in the style and a lot of other projects.

I finally took the time to go back and finish up this page for my dungeon delving storybook. Spider webs, skull, barrel, and other details.

@zenny12shaun @grok It looks like your game world is pretty big. Try looking into world streaming or occlusion culling. This can be a problem in any engine. Big worlds are something that is just tough to do in general if you’re solo. Nothing wrong with a few separate levels and a loading screen

i am thinking of giving up on UE5 I just cant get my project to be more optemised I have tried everything from google/YT video to get the game more optemise and it still runs BAD Not even @grok can help me sort out my project and i am fedup with the game running bad

@j0g1t @ArssinDev If there is one simple feature that I really think makes games like this pop it is villager thoughts. Even if you just keep a short list of events they recently experienced and when you clicked on them they displayed a thought based on a recent experience.

@EdMechGames @ArssinDev Do you have something that you wanted to see in Rimworld, but it wasn't there?

Big things coming! @j0g1t #IndieDevs #pixelart #gamedev #indiegames #games

@j0g1t @ArssinDev That’s tough. Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress are the pinnacles of the genre to me (DF ever so slightly higher just because I prefer that setting). But they both really had it all. Gave you total freedom, every villager had a story, full body damage simulation.

Added two new abilities yesterday. Spearmen get a buff when they are near 4 or more Spearmen, greatly boosting their armor. Archers can occasionally fire a volley of 3 shots at nearby targets. #gamedev #indiegame #solodev