/m/ - media

First time making a thread, really missed the previous one >>170049. I feel like I haven't had much time for my own project since starting a full time job to pay the bills, and I miss working on it. If anyone else has projects they're working on or dream of working on, it would be interesting to hear.

>>242911
>The Sundew is a dark adventure game set in the aftermath of a devastating future war, in development by one-woman studio 2054.
Haven't played it yet but I usually like these types of games so I am looking forward to it. Reminds me of some of the stuff wadjet eyes released.

Not sure if on-topic, but I spent two whole years of my lifetime building, drawing and animating a RPG Maker game in the early 00s. I got to 4-5h at the end but never finished it since it was some longer RPG and it was mainly the tilesets/backgrounds that made me lose all hope since I wanted or had to draw everything myself since the stock tilesets were all fantasy or didn't match the style of the others.
I wish I could go back to such a hobby since I even have an idea for a shorter game that's mainly PoC but I fear I will never get that motivation back, today I have even trouble starting small tasks and I am tired all day even on weekends.

>>242916
Samefagging, sorry. I mistyped, I meant PaC not PoC. Point and Click.
Well I am becoming a NEET again next month so maybe there is a ray of hope and I will at least try to do something again as long as I have the time.

I'm currently working on a project with renpy (dumb choice but it's simple and I'm not great at coding). I feel like I'm at a good point, the thing's going to be a point and click.
I started the project because I'm just so sick of all the moid-made VNs and indie games. For some reason it always feels like they love sniffing their own farts and take themselves way too seriously (with the writing I mean).

>>242916
>I fear I will never get that motivation back, today I have even trouble starting small tasks and I am tired all day even on weekends.

Ugh I feel that, anon. Makes me wish I started this hobby when I was a teenager so I could have done it when I had more free time. It does help that game dev is only getting easier to learn/get into as time goes on with the all the tools getting released though.

>>242920
Good for you, anon! I agree that games by moids just feel completely different and they're harder to enjoy when they're too scrotal. And even when female-led/-written games are good, gamers are way more apprehensive to give it a chance. I know gamers are the lowest common denominator but I still want good projects to have success, darn it.

thanks for making this anon. feels really fucking isolating

>>242921
Yeah we should try. The new RPG maker looks promising too and there are even some point and click engines. It was incredibly fulfilling everytime I scriped a new event, map or story arc back then. I kinda want that back, maybe it's related to my daily life schedule and I will get used to work more once I force myself to do a little bit everyday instead of sleeping and scrolling when I come home from my office.
>>242920
I am always in for point and click and VNs. VN elements are a great thing I think because they allow you to make scenes without animating anything, which is impossible for low budget games. I semi-animated a few scenes in my old game for some special parts and it was fun as fuck, but it wasn't much animation. More like characters moving/walking and backgrounds scrolling past them, mouth movements and such. Not much, but it was satisfying to see it when the scenes started.

Was curious what any anons thought about the Bigmode announcement Dunkey made previously. I wonder what kind of devs/games they'll pick, purely because Leah is also running it. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't just choose projects that gamers like Dunkey would like, and that Leah will be helping to diversify what gets made. I submitted a pitch but I'm not holding out hope. I mainly wish that some of their projects are done by women, but either way I'm curious to see how this could affect the indie scene.

>>243012
I loved their announcement video about it and tbh i trust them. Leah and Dunkey are a good couple, so no way Leah wouldn't have a say in it.

>>243012
i assume their first few releases might have some issues but they'll eventually find their footing.

>>243012
tbh the video announcement (rightfully) got some flak because of dunkey acting like he's responsible for making ~indie gems~ like undertale and cuphead famous when most of his videos are on whatever game is currently trending lol. Overall it came off like he's got a big ego from his popularity. I think it may have a rough start while they learn the ropes of publishing but I do genuinely hope it works out well if it means more chances for small indie devs to find success. Dunkey seems to have a pretty limited taste in genres so I'd expect only a certain type of game to get published though.

>>243066
I feel the same as you about it, very unsure based on the video but also cautiously optimistic. I do want it to work out not only for Dunkey/Leah but also for all the people involved in development. I do think that they can do it, plus their branding has been very good so far with their website.

Has any of you ever taken part in a game jam? I love these but feeling too old to participate anymore (meaning I don't think I could go 48h without sleep anymore). There are so many incredible ideas coming out of these events, and it's so satisfying to start a project from nothing and see it come together, even if just barely, in only two days

>>243193
Never had the confidence to do it and I now regret it a little bit. Also hate the idea of having to work with strangers & mostly men

>>243193
I have but yes it sucks to go alone and have random male teammates. You don't have to stay up the 48 hours, it's up to you to decide how much you can work on it and people are pretty understanding about that. You can always try and do it, the global one is at the end of jan, you could get a team by then

>>243218
fuck off

>>243218
This is off-topic, this thread is about women.

Do any nonnies have recommendations for what I should learn in order to make point and clicks and ultimately an open world rpg? I’m learning html, css and JavaScript with a little php, is there anything else that might be worth sinking my time into?

>>243193
Never participated in a game jam before, but what's stopping you from putting together a personal project where you limit yourself to a certain amount of hours to challenge yourself? That way it wouldn't have to be a consecutive 48 hours that it took, but 48 hours of total work? I'd be down to participate in a more lax game jam like that if other anons wanted to try something like it. Like if we had a week or two to put something small together.

>>243273
I really like working in a team, solo projects are not my thing. In general though i think my post was misunderstood; I'm not really looking to do game jams again, just were curious if any other anons had that experience and liked it as much as I did!

To any anons currently working in game dev, is the industry really that much of a meat grinder? Reading interview advice online makes it seem like you have to be prepared to answer insane low-level C++ optimization, rasterization, OS design, etc. type question even at no-name mobile game studios because the market is just saturated with applicants. On top of that it seems like you're expected to continue researching and preparing for even harder interviews because most jobs only last like two years. I'm doing a fucking master's in the math side of some of these things and frantically buffing my hobbyist programming skills but it feels like it will never be enough.

>>243622
Not a game dev so feel free to ignore me but why wouldn’t it be? Being a game dev is the 21st century equivalent to saying you wanna be an actor. “I like playing video games and they say computer jobs make money so I guess I’ll make games!” yeah you and every other kid who’s got no hobbies or passions besides their computer.

>>243622
I've only really had poor experiences with interviews. One fairly big company had me in for 4 hours of interviews with 7 people (all in one go), this was after submitting a homework task. Didn't have the decency to send a rejection afterwards. Another noname no portfolio company drilled me over math formulas in an interview. I'm not much of a mathematician but I can figure out and use the maths needed for creating gameplay elements. They said I'm not good enough to join them but later e-mailed me asking to discuss how I'd implement a particular gameplay system. I rejected it because it was very obvious they just wanted to try and get some diversity points on their entirely male company. I can't keep my nerves together in interviews so I guess it doesn't help when I have to solve problems on the spot.
>>243626
People in gamedev have shit hours, shit pay, and normally really poor company/work culture. This is well known now, yet some of these employers will make you dance like a monkey for a chance to interview, meanwhile their seniors are leaving gamedev for other types of dev jobs to double their salaries. Their expectations are way too high and compensation way too low to treat people like this.

I’m a lead artist for an indie vn group for 2~ years and the games they release are free but the writing is top-tier with a lot of work being put into it.

I love VNs and it’s one of my life’s aspirations to make art for them but it’s a pain in the ass to find people that you’re cool with and keeping the momentum until the finished product. I have no desire to be part of the game industry personally but it’s very rewarding to be part of a team that loves the medium and the work they put into it.

>>243821
Good for you, anon! I'm an indie dev and I agree, I wouldn't work in games if it came down to working in a company. I think that working in a group of 5 or smaller is what keeps it fun. I worked alone for the beginning of my journey and now collaborate with a couple other people for help with music and art, and I really like it.

How do you guys make a living in the indie scene? I'm a game designer for AAA studio but nonas im so tired of men. I can go solo since I can program and art but idk, I don't know if I wanna be in this industry anymore. I wish I had the money to not work and make games for fun rather than income.

>>257644
I'm not in the scene myself but from observing other women who are, it's super hard to make a living and most do it as a passion project or hobby. it helps if you are good at different skills because then you can rely more on yourself - ie art, programming, voice acting, making soundtracks, marketing, etc. if you have any good game ideas you might have some luck making a demo and then creating a kickstarter to try and fund the full game? depends how ambitious and how much of a risk taker you are I suppose

omg I desperately needed this thread. I've joined several groups for women in games that have slowly transformed into "gender minorities in games" I'm so tired there are so many men in these groups and not just tims but men with full on beards proclaiming they are "they/thems"

i'm so late to this thread but i hope that people are still about for it!

i'm currently between jobs (the gamedev job market sucks atm) so i'm working on a tiny lil PS1 inspired horror atm (very original i know)

are there any groups/discords etc for women in games that aren't super… political? i know that's not the right term but i just wanna find a place to chat about this sorta stuff & bounce off ideas without it getting all messy :')(:'))

Like this nona >>242920 I'm also making a Ren'Py game, though mine is going to be a dating simulator. It's not meant to be anything too ambitious or complex, just intended as a sort of "practice" project for bigger and better stuff. I chose an adult otome dating sim because all the Japanese R18 otomes, save for a couple of extremely niche doujin games, feature the female protagonist being raped or abused, and the really good ones are all-ages, among other issues I have with them. In other words, I realized that I hate most otome games despite me claiming for years that I love the genre, so I want to bring a bit more variety to it.

I started playing around with Ren'Py when I was a teenager, and tried to make some VNs with very basic features, but never finished a single project. Now that I'm more familiar with programming languages in general, I'm finding it very easy to learn new stuff, and even solve some problems myself with OOP, which I love because it provides efficient and elegant solutions that involve reusable code, instead of having to copy-paste everything and make your code 2 times longer than needed. Python is not as hard as I thought, I'm learning the basic stuff through tutorials and my own experimenting. It's mostly been fun and not as frustrating as expected, learning a bit of programming beforehand really helps. I've made more progress in less than a month than my past self did in years.

This experience has taught me that the key to completing a project is breaking it down into the core mechanics and breaking those down into steps, as well as avoiding feature creep, cutting corners as necessary, and designing a clear, basic idea of what's really essential to focus on from the beginning, setting small goals, etc. It helps that the story isn't important in this genre, it's all about the characters. While I work on the program and its essential features, I'm writing ideas for locations, story, dialogue, character development, events, etc. and creating concept art for when I eventually make the graphics on PC. The only thing I don't think I can handle myself is the music, but if I try composing a track and it doesn't suck, I might make all the soundtrack myself, kek (otherwise I'll just have to find appropriate free music, which is going to be hard because I'm extra picky). Once I finish coding all the features in I can finally start writing and drawing.

I think I might actually finish this game and release it, I'm so excited. Even if it doesn't get a lot of publicity it'd be so fulfilling if only a couple of people liked it. I might release it on itch.io as pay-what-you-want and if all goes well, add new characters and features. But for now, it's only going to last 2 in-game weeks or a month, and have one or two love interests.

After this dating sim, I want to try making a TRPG/SRPG.

>>242944
>it was fun as fuck, but it wasn't much animation. More like characters moving/walking and backgrounds scrolling past them, mouth movements and such. Not much, but it was satisfying to see it when the scenes started.
Yeah, that's one of the things that keep me motivated too. Seeing your ideas come to life whether it's in the form of animation or as a program that works, it just feels awesome when you see it in action. I remember the first time I added blinking and lip sync to my characters in Ren'Py, it blew my mind, kek. That's why I never get tired of testing my game every time I add something.

>>243248
IDK if you're still around or still need an answer, but I believe it's generally recommended to first choose a game engine oriented towards the kind of game you wanna make (better yet, if it has good documentation and an active community), and then learn whatever language it uses. Some game engines even use JavaScript, and others use Python, which is easy to pick up if you already know the former. A lot of engines use C++ and/or C#, but again, only learn a new language if necessary, I don't recommend wasting time learning something you're not gonna use yet vs. learning what you actually need right now.

>>269407
Hey, nonna! At least you weren't as late to the thread as me!
Maybe "PS1 horror game" isn't as unique or whatever, but trying to find a brand new idea is stupid anyways. I'm super interested in your game! How is work on it going?
>>285971
I'm glad you wrote up your experience with Python! I was nervous about learning it, but you made me feel so much better. I'm mostly web/server oriented right now, but I told myself I would start Python this month no matter what. It's supposedly one of the easier languages to learn. Everyone says learning to program in new languages gets easier the more languages you already know, and since I need to learn C++/C# eventually… Python. You should come back and update us on your progress towards releasing your game!

Here's hoping bumping the thread also revives it. Come talk, nonnas! You don't need to be an expert, just have an interest!

>>285971
I'm the renpy anon you mentioned and I'm glad there are other women working with renpy and especially making a dating sim, because most of the ones going around are either cringy enby bullshit or straight up moidy porn games.
You also mentioned making music and that's what I would like to start doing too at this point (I'm focusing on completing a demo first, and the only things left to do are a bit of writing and music). What would you recommend to someone who doesn't know how to use "composing" programs? I think I could make a few nice songs but I just don't know what tools to use and how to use them.

>>296035
NAYRT but what do you mean by composing programs? If you're talking about DAWs, the only real answer is that you have to pick one unless you can live record some instruments or commission someone. Picking one is entirely dependent on what kind of game you're making. If you're making a cute game, especially a pixel game, you can't go wrong with beepbox/jummbox. Otherwise, your best bet is to fuck around in FL or Ableton. It can look really intimidating at first but it gets easier with time. FL is good for beginners and is good at making songs really quickly, but Ableton is better at making fuller sounding songs, if that makes any difference to you/any other anon.

I don't know much outside of basic music theory but I've practiced in FL for half a year and I'd say I can make some simple, decent songs. If any anon is interested, I'd be down to make soundtracks for you, although I can't guarantee Hans Zimmer quality kek. Also unrelated, but what happened to the female gamedev Discord server? I'd love for that to make a comeback.

>>296049
Omg anon thank you for telling me about Beepbox/Jummbox! The game I'm making has pixel graphics so this kind of music is perfect, I'll have fun playing with it for a while kek. I checked out FL too and it looks a lot more complex and it's also an expensive program (I'm sure you can crack it but I'm not good with that) so I'll probably settle for simpler stuff. But thank you so much again!!

Sorry if this creator is nonbinary but I believe it's a woman. One of my favorite artists, nekozneko has been developing a game called Roza Kopriva for quite a long time now and I think it looks pretty cool and interesting. I really love her art style, character designs and pastel aesthetic. I hope one day to see this game come to light.

Should we create a discord for women by women? I do not want to see a single tranny. There are no such thing as a tranniless game dev discord channel.

>>296620
I would join but only if there's voice verification or something

>>296620
that sounds interesting, can it be for tech/coding as a whole? i would love a terf-adjacent discord for women into tech and stuff

>>296620
>>296634
I've heard of a women's gamedev discord from somewhere else. Unfortunately I don't know where to find it, but it did sound like it was for actual women only.

Is it ok to post here as an artist? I've been trying to build my portfolio and join in with various projects but every time I've tried arranging a game jam with friends they've lost interest immediately and when I've tried advertising on the forums I've had a bunch of scrotes contacting me with either coomer shit or derivative bland concepts. I've managed to find a team to work with for now but I'm nervous about what I'll do after we finish this game.

>>296620
How would you verify it? It would be a good idea but it would eventually attract trannies. Personally I don't really want to show my face or voice, and they can be faked anyway.

>>296635
Sounds like a great idea! We can have different channels dedicated for tech fields, but in the early stage it's not a necessary.
>>296707
I'd probably do like what the LC forums did previously, and just voice activate. I understand your issues, but I really don't want trannies and I can't think of anything else.
Besides, trannies never shut the fuck up about coom shit/trannies shit, most will reveal themselves anyway.

>>242911
so glad this thread was revived! I'm in my final year of a CS degree and am planning to start working on a game this summer as a personal project. For those who have made games before, how do you go about getting art? I'm really bad a digital art myself and it's caused me to stop working on all of my previous because they're so ugly lol. I've asked a few times online to see if any artists want to collaborate and always get yelled at for "not paying artists for their work"

>>296819
Well if you want to commission an artist you're going to have to pay them, and it's often very pricy, especially if you want fully rendered backgrounds and a good amount of assets. Very few artist are willing to work on a game without being paid. Same for music or additional programmers.

>>296620
>>296707
Take it from me you WILL want to do voice verification at minimum. It’s not worth catering to people’s shyness when the risk is trannies ruining the entire server. It’s not foolproof but it raises the barrier to entry, always do it over call because live voice changes still have delays and quality issues and don’t take shitty edited recordings.

>>296885
NTA but would something like a voice call interview/introduction prevent moids from paying random women/getting their female relatives or girlfriends to do the voice verification for them? Some questions I had in mind are
>programming experience/field
>reasons for getting into programming/game dev
>personal projects (finished, as well as planned)
>hobbies (and ask to elaborate about random things)
This would probably make it easy to filter out scrotes later on if they somehow managed to get a woman to get voice verified for them.

>>296958
NTAYRT but that questionnaire sounds good. How anons have found LC should be added too though, imo. Also I agree with the other anon, voice verification is a must.
I won't be able to start this server but I'd be willing to help moderate it if that's a concern. I hope something actually comes of this, as it'd be great to have a female-only space to discuss programming and games. I'm so sick of males.

>>296958
I'm on board with the questions & verification! As long as it doesn't allow beginners/noobs out of it! I'd like it to be for everyone.
Not sure if the questioniare will stir moids away, but it's a nice conversation starter

>>296974
AYRT yeah the goal of the introduction is to filter out, not noobs, but moids. Just to make sure what you say when verifying lines up with what you say later in chat (to make sure someone is being honest and not just a moid who gave a script to a woman during the interview, it's pretty hard to fake a backstory on the spot and keep up with it later)
You could even change up the questions a little for everyone so it's even harder for scrotes to lie

Sorry to necro, but is anyone actually going to make the server? I want desperately to collaborate with some women, as I have a very strong concept for a game but I'm not sure I can handle it alone.

>>304281
I second this, I'd love to see a server. I'm not the most skilled, but I'd love to help.

I’ve been learning unity for a while because the internet told me it’s friendlier for beginners and non-programmers since it uses c# but lately I noticed a number of artists and non-programmers using unreal because of visual scripting
It’s left me feeling so confused
I know that the important thing is actually completing the damn game/project

>>304281
Someone will have to make it and find a way to invite women in
I think the main challenge will be keeping it on topic

>>304339
AYRT. I'm not capable of hosting a server, but I'm leaving my email in the field if anyone wants to reach out by any chance. It's a shot in the dark, but I've got an idea for a dark fantasy pixel RPG and I'd love some help with art assets or programming (I can do one or the other, just not both out of fear of burn out.) Hope this isn't against the rules, I'm just desperate.

>>304341
So I really suggest against unreal. Although it usually tends to be more visually stunning than unity, overall, it is much much more buggy than unity. I've done some software development, and I watch a lot of game demos from indie devs… A big problem with unreal is you may have a game using unreal that works fine on your computer, you go to export the game and have someone test it on their computer, and it's a buggy mess, almost unplayable. Unity has a lot more support to prevent and work through these issues. Unreal also seems to cause a lot of frame rate issues, unless you know how to really optimize your games, and you know how some OS works.
Not that unity's perfect but as a tech fag I have some issues with unreal.

I mean, I can make a server on discord. I just need to know how to share the link. It feels a little risky sharing it directly to this thread. Also I'm not the best at clocking troons, sadly.

>>304964
the best way would be to have people email you, then ask for their discord and voice verify before sending a link.

>>304985
Okay, that sounds doable and smart. I am going to sleep so I will check in the morning and make the server.

Alright, I've made the server, just email me your discords and we can voice verify. It'll also verify me in the process, unless there's some other way to verify myself. russkel @ proton . me

>>305060
how long will you keep the email open for? I'd really like to join, but I have nothing to contribute right now and I was thinking I'd join later on when I have gained some experience
for now, best of luck to all the nonnies starting your collabs!

>>305067
I don't plan on closing it, so probably until I forget about it. Which will be hard considering I get notifications from it.

>>305060
I've sent an email! my discord is based off a vegetable! If you need a hand making the channels, I can do that

Anyone else working on games as a hobby while keeping a regular job? I used to dream of being a full time dev for a short time but it feels like my stuff is just too niche to be feasible financially. And like another anon mentioned, I would rather not work in games than work for a company. It feels like I never get enough time to work on my projects and it gets demoralizing seeing other people finish stuff much quicker.

>>311289
I’m doing that. There’s no industry for game development where I live so it has to be a hobby.
I’m still learning as well so it can’t be a full blown professional thing unless I get super lucky

is the discord still active? Ive sent an email but didnt get a reply

>>314376
same, maybe it went to spam…