Topic: Dreams -OT-

@themcnoisy Making playing cards is such a brilliant idea. Once you have those cards, you can make all kinds of games with them.

Blackjack, etc., you can even invent your own card games.

@Kidfried We will start a project. I'm using the stick to line guides and doing it in 2.5d. There's probably a quicker way to do it but on the upside I'm learning as I go.

@RogerRoger @KALofKRYPTON do you fancy buying Dreams lads? Honestly I think with a bit of patience you will love it. You just gotta get over the first 5 hour hurdle.

@themcnoisy I'm absolutely terrified of Dreams.

My OCD-riddled personality is a nightmarish, life-destroying combination of "creative" and "perfectionist" which has already kept me chained to SHAREfactory for days on end before, editing a single two-minute clip until I'm utterly satisfied with it (and I'll still only ever call it "finished enough" rather than truly complete). Certain games' inclusion of a Photo Mode have claimed entire weeks of free time. That relatively unobtrusive, there-if-you-want-it addition during this current console generation has changed the way I game and as somebody who doesn't like change, that's no small feat.

Do I have billions of ideas that I'd love to develop in Dreams? Do bears carry light reading material into the woods? There are so many things I would kill to see playable. But I'm scared that pursuing any of them would devour my focus and lead to anxiety attacks if / when I just couldn't get a certain texture right, or if I created 90% of something only to subsequently discover that the last finishing touch isn't possible. Or worse, I actually made something I was proud of, only for me to make it available to others and the first comment is "this sucks".

Dreams is a far bigger game-changer than the SHARE button, and that's amazing, but it's also why I think I've got to stay away. I'm supposed to be pursuing a career as an author anyway, and that creative process can be frustrating enough, trust me!

Having said all of that, never say never. Under the right circumstances, I could bite.

@themcnoisy 'Patience' being the key word!

It looks amazing, but I really don't think I have the patience for it.

@Kidfried can you join my project please mate? I'm struggling with some of the basics.

For instance I can now adequately sculpt to make stuff - inadvertently understanding how to conserve memory when I ran out. 2d stuff is easy peezy now. I can make music and have written 2 tracks - one practice and 1 which I am actually quite proud of.

However some of the logic / animation stuff is beyond me. I ran the tutorials earlier and am completely befuddled, I understand how the logic works in the context of the platform game tutorials but can't see how it will help with my card game. The basic record animation is easy obviously as you just move whatever you want to animate around - but Its not accurate at all.

@Quintumply @Simon_Fitzgerald @get2sammyb @AdamNovice @Kyroki @Kidfried @octane.

OK so I released my first game Plop, Boom, Plink.

It's my first effort so go easy. I basically made a game which features 3 different coloured buttons, there's a head up display with various information being displayed. The main game is dead easy to play using your imp and RT to grab the buttons. During the game there are 4 locks and you need to discover how to open them. Lock 1 - How do you use the blue button (dead easy to unlock). Lock 2 - Turning on the music. Lock 3 - Turning on the Crazy Yellow point score. Lock 4 - Obtaining 250 Crazy Yellow points.

Search for it under my psn I'd mc_noisy and let me know if you can win the game!

@themcnoisy Can't wait to try! More people should share stuff here. Hopefully inspires me to put some more time into finishing my creations (haven't had too much time for it due to moving and plans in the weekend)

@Kidfried did you give it a go? Got 3 thumbs up so far. I will take any positive criticism, and where as a lot of the newbies are going for platform games - which is one of the primary gameplay templates - the game I made is a touch different. In many ways it's not a game at all just a way to learn the programming. You can remix it to see how I got the end result.

So I've been on dreams now for 2 weeks ish and compared to the majority of creators can't seem to get the basics down. For instance I have made a basic template for a tower defence game. I have the left turret controlled by the left thumbs tick and the right by the right thumbs tick. Thrown in some terrain and have plucked in some premade enemy assets from the community. The problem I have now is my control in 3d is a complete cluster. I want the enemies to pick up multiple paths which randomise their paths down the screen towards the turrets. I can do this easily if I had a 2d pinned view but it won't let me do that. So I am making like 70 zones the same size each with a randomised chip for the enemy AI to go either left, right or straight ahead (think the map screen in outrun). The programming for this is easy, the music and sound effects easy too. The bloomin positioning though is a nightmare. I think I've copied one and its either game metres higher or slightly eschew.

I'm really hoping there is a different control scheme for the full release.

@Quintumply @Simon_Fitzgerald @Kidfried @Octane @ApostateMage @get2sammyb

I'm quite far into a pool game. I decided to make a proper game rather than the rubbish I have been toying with which has been building my knowledge up. I'm almost there but need some help with the endgame logic if you fancy jumping in and helping out?

I've got the table, balls, logic when it goes into a pocket, countdown clock, a nuclear explosion when you win which actually throws the balls to the other side of the table, props and a rough Ui. What I don't have is a way to finish the game if you lose - no idea how the logic can recognise the timer has elapsed! Or a mini film as the ending which would be cool.

@themcnoisy I'm certain there's a Timer Ends output you can use. I confess to having not played Dreams for a while (other than just now to play your pool game), but there must be a way to use that output signal to end the game. I suppose you could set it up so that when the timer ends, control of the cue ball is removed, UI pops up saying "You Lose" or whatever, and players can press a button to reset/retry?

I love that you're knees deep in Dreams, by the way!

@Quintumply balls deep you mean. Coz pool balls.

@Quintumply What did you think of my song? Funky bass in your Funky face?

That's me singing lol.

Honestly @kyleforrester87 me and @Quintumply will make a game together one day.

We will hire you for the puns.

@themcnoisy Haha I loved it. Great job

@themcnoisy I was thinking about what I’d do when I one day retire, and Dreams could be a good shout 😂 I will pick it up in the future to be honest, it looks like there will be some good content.

@Quintumply A youtubers brother played the riff on a bass guitar. They then sent out a plea for dreamers to make a song! That was the result.

Crazy I've swapped my mini studio, DAW licences, laptop and soundproofing stuff which cost about £1500 for a £15 mono gaming headset and a £30 game. I've sacrificed accuracy for the ability to trade ideas and it's worth the punt for anyone with an artistic side.

Back onto the game and I've hit a great idea. I will have the timer set against a different counter which when it's full (hits 100) the game will open a doorway the size of the room and transport you to the game over screen. That way I don't need to have the player lose control of the cue ball.

@Quintumply so I fixed the end game logic. I found a workaround. It's inefficient but works.

So there is the main timer which you have seen. It Auto starts at the start of the game and counts down from 1 min 39 seconds (99 seconds) which is just shorter than the length of the backing music track, This timer is connected to all 6 pockets via an 'and' gate. When a potting ball goes into a pocket a sensor picks that up and when all 6 pockets have a ball inside the 'and' gate is complete which sends a signal to the timer freeze function - as well as the big explosion, the you win text and the exit game logic. That is the win state.

I have set a second background timer which runs at 1 seconds then resets, connected it to a counter which counts the pulses from the background timer. Once that is full (99 seconds) it goes into the fail state. I have set up a camera which is pointing away from the pool table towards the main timer which kicks in at this point. The theory behind this was if you fail to pot 6 balls within 99 seconds this timer would elapse anyway without needing to know the actual games logic. I've setup the camera to take the viewpoint away from the cue ball - which is still under player control you just can't see it.

Ok so an unforseen problem I then had, you could win the game going to the win state but the background timer would still elapse sending you to the fail state. I have fixed this by sending another wire from the win state 'and' gate to a second 'and' gate which is also wired to the background timers counter. When both things are true then it just resets the background timer perpetually.

Anyway if you understood any of that. I didn't 4 hours ago.

@kyleforrester87 I may just have made the game to make you a dreams convert pal. The pool game I was working on has taken on a life of its own the last 3 days. Got mad animations all over the place. Sod the sun I've got logic to learn.

The last comment I made to @Quintumply I was struggling but made something playable at least. Well now the second level to that same pool game is absolutely brilliant. I would go as far as saying its better than any pool game ever! But you wouldn't understand unless you played it!

@Quintumply @Simon_Fitzgerald @AdamNovice

I may actually become a movie director after this;

https://indreams.me/dream/mPeUWhUMPZL

I can't believe I made that!