shaunjs

patreon

shaunjs posts

Posts: 693 Files: 511

Action RPG series - Episode 1

Yeah it's finally here! YouTube is going to take a while to process the higher resolution, at time of writing we only have 360p. Source code: https://shaunjs.itch.io/shauns-action-rpg-tutorial Assets: http://shaunspalding.co.uk/ARPG_Assets.zipFull project source code will be uploaded asap for $20 supporters and I'm also going to hand it out to wide swathe of long term $5 and $1 supporters as I discussed previously.This episode will release to the public on Friday. Hopefully by which time the subtitles will also be ready.Thank you all so...

Week 50 - Episode 1 progress

Editing part 1 has gone very smoothly. My new processor has paid off enormously and working in after effects and premiere is many times more productive than it was previously.I have been very careful in the editing of episode 1, it will be the most viewed episode of the series by a large margin and I wanted to make sure it was well explained, clear, and gets as many people through to part 2 as possible.I wish it didn't have to be 30 minutes long, but that's the nature of the work that I do. We cover setting up our game's resolution ...

Week 49 - ARPG Demo now live!

https://shaunjs.itch.io/shauns-action-rpg-tutorialYou can now access the free demo for the ARPG series! This is representative of what we're going to make by the end of the series.As I've said before, this isn't necessarily *exactly* the end result as features will likely receive adjustments, tweaks, and improvements as we proceed with the series and hopefully when we finish off the series, we might add a few features via "bonus" videos.It is also possible said bonus videos will be patron exclusive (as well as their topics d...

[Mini Update] Saving & Loading & Title screen

Simple but effective! I'm a little behind where I wanted to be as of my last update, but work on video one is underway.Before you see video one, I'll be getting the demo up for people to download and play around with, and the early source code for $20 supporters.As I said previously I also want to bring this to other supporters who've built up $20 worth of support over several months but I just need to work out... how to do that first. Bear with me!-S

Week 47 - Making a start on Video One.

Hello everyone!Hopefully some of you managed to catch my live streams last week where we were putting some of the last touches on the ARPG codebase. I've decided to finish up two more features this week and then simply get started on scripting and producing the first episode.This skips out some steps I had originally wanted to complete prior, but that just aren't necessary for me to get started and I'm still committed to getting this thing started by the end of the year.My current intention is to release the first video to $5+ Patro...

The Quest Giver™

I want to take another moment just to thank you all for your patience while I work on this thing. It simply wouldn't have been possible for me to build a tutorial project of this size and complexity without all of you.

ARPG Tutorial Update - What remains

Marked in dark grey is everything that has been finished so far. This is the code side of what remains to be done for the ARPG tutorial. Today I finished up a title screen and basic "Signpost" style NPC objects that turn to face the player and can have branching dialogue.The art side is more or less the same. Simply requiring a couple of quick assets for two NPCs and a shelf for the items to sit on inside of the "Shop" and while I want to revisit the cave assets, I think there's a long enough stretch of time before that need...

Week 44 - Arrows & Death

I've been keeping my head down and grinding last week and I'll be doing the same this week. Popping in to give what I consider important reminders that I'm alive during these quieter times with some gifs of more features to look forward to in the ARPG series.While that death spin above might need a bit of a speed up, I'm pretty happy with all of the 'Action' parts of this action RPG now. Some of it is simplified from original plans but I think that works for the best.It's really now the last "RPG" bits. A sho...

Week 42 - Hooks and Chains

This is probably the most superfluous thing to be added to the tutorial project. It's also about as complex as the series is going to get (Next to the dialogue stuff that's already in).It was a slow but careful first pass and for once I'm pretty happy with the first draft of the code on this! Hope you all like switch statements, as this demonstration will be a hefty exercise in their use.As a result this is available now for $20 supporters to download, explore the code and play around with: Clicky - Password: LulusAdventureIf you&#3...

Ludum Dare 45 Timelapse

The game I built for ludum dare 45! This video will be public at the end of the week.The game and it's source code (spoilers!) are available here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/click-the-balloons

Week 41 - ManyManyThings

Ludum Dare 45This weekend was Ludum Dare 45! I took part, streamed it live over twitch, and built a video game! It was a simpler game than many I've made before. Less ambitious, with the scope dialled way back over my LD44 entry. I think a lot of this was an attempt to correct over how over-scoped that game was but also it was a very tricky theme. Quite refreshing to do something simple!It's bizarre and weird and intentionally a bit frustrating. Give it a shot and tell me your scores! Half the game is working out how it works or how to ...

Week 40 - Ludum Dare 45

It's that time again. First time from the new home! I'll be taking part in Ludum Dare 45. For those who don't know: Ludum Dare is a 48 hour game jam that has become something of a tradition for me to enter, livestream and produce a time-lapse for. I have to build a game from scratch in just 48 hours.Here are some of the games I've made in the past:https://ldjam.com/users/shaunjs/gameshttp://ludumdare.com/compo/author/shaunjs/And a timelapse from an early one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw7ML6a24j0I'll be streaming at twi...

Week 39 - The Greenest Screen

While it needs a second coat I'm pretty happy with how this chroma key wall has turned out! I don't do a lot of green screen content but it's nice to have and I love the color. Our living room now almost um, exists, too:It's all... getting there. Moving house it turns out is quite hard.In actual GameMaker related news the ARPG now has cuttable grass:Entities like this are getting much easier to add after the time spent on the base system. Maybe all this extra work was worth it after all? It's mostly quest flags and meta feat...

Week 38 - A New Era & Topic idea request

I'm finally moved in. Mic Arm set up. Both monitors are live. I'm still living out of boxes for the most part with many walls to paint, lots of furniture to build and bags and boxes to empty, and organize, but I can finally start to return to some semblance of a routine. We finally have all of our worldly possessions removed from the old house, and have mostly cleaned and emptied it with hopefully just one more trip needed on Wednesday.Last week I somehow managed to make a new video about a very simple but often requested topic, this we...

Health bars Tutorial

Here's something that came second in a topic poll (by one vote!) a long time ago. It's only a quick piece and the more advanced among you won't get much out of this, but I think it's something a lot of people struggle with and ask for often. Might be something to follow up with advanced tips and tricks later down the line!Out to the public next Friday. At that time we'll hopefully have subtitles and source code up too.-S

Week 37 - Moved in!

Finally.We're in the new house (and today is also my 30th birthday!). I'm living out of boxes and bags but the internet is running and the PC is set up in a barebones, single monitor, essentials only kind of way. (The start of the new office, pictured!)We just about built our new bed yesterday in time to sleep on it.Sorry to be dragging you along a very personal journey, you guys signed up to support tutorials not hear my life's unfolding narrative. But I thought it was important to give you all the context to the lack of #Content. ...

Week 36 - Moving!

Last week I put together a review of Tilesetter, it's a pretty cool tool so go and check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBch5ovcxBkThis week is being largely dedicated to clearing out the house and moving. Emma is stuck at work so it's down to me to get a lot of the house packed up and it turns out we've accumulated... a lot of stuff, over the years.Planning to get the wall of the new office painted in chroma key for fun green screen gimmicks. =)Excited but also can't wait for all this to be done. Internet transition sh...

GameDev Tools: Tilesetter

Another review of another cool tool. Also, today I picked up the keys to my new house! Sorry for the lack of an update this week, as you might imagine I've been a bit preoccupied!Hope you enjoy this one, Tilesetter is a really handy piece of kit.-S

Week 34 - Back in England

I'm back! I had a mostly wonderful time on holiday, exempting some house-purchase drama creating some very not needed stress on the first couple of days. This resolved fine though and now it turns out me and my partner are completing our house purchase on the 30th of August!The 'office' we have planned out for the new house is going to make my video work so much easier. Consistent lighting, no awful neighbours, easy noise control and just more *space*. This house has taken almost a full year to buy and it is such a relief to finally...

What can (should) you make with GameMaker?

It's that video I was talking about!Also please note the giveaway in the video description, I'm giving away 3 copies of GameMaker Studio 2 provided by YoYo!See you all in ~10 days =)-S

Week 32 - Holidays, Homes & Future plans

A whole bunch is going on at once this and last week. There's been more movement on the house purchase front (We're finally getting ready to complete! I might even move by the end of the year!) and also a holiday to Spain I booked with a group of friends and my partner at the start of the year has snuck up on me. I'll be flying on Thursday and will return ten days later!As much as I've been looking forward to this holiday (despite being together for 5 years, this is me and my partner's first ever time abroad together!) I fee...

Week 31 - Pausing & Modularity

I'd put off implementing a pause in the ARPG until I was sure of how I wanted to do it. This turned out to be a mistake because I ended up implementing the simplest pause possible and because the later in a project you implement this kind of thing the longer it takes.The system was just wrapping the step of most objects in a "if (global.gamePaused)" check and being careful not to run per-step logic in draw events.The only other issues came from objects that had used per step logic managed by GameMaker internally, such as "speed&...

Week 30 - Cleaning up & YT Streams

Some of you might remember from 18 weeks ago me and my partner had an offer accepted on a house. Yep, it's been 18 weeks since then and we still have not moved. It's been an agonizingly slow process (Yeesh, in many ways that's a summary of my whole year of work so far, haha.) but we're finally, finally starting to see glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel.It's been really hard for me and my partner living in a state of limbo, in a home we're mentally checked out of, not wanting to commit to new furniture, new routin...

Fading Tiles - Devlog

A new PokePoke devlog showing the simple approach I took to a tile layer that turns transparent on contact; allowing for fake walls and secret areas.By the time it finishes processing, it'll be in 4k too! Hope it was worth it because these files am big:You might notice the credits mention subtitles that don't exist, because they will be present on the video by the end of next week when the video goes public!-S

Week 29 - Pots & Drops

Last week we got collectables going and a tiny bit of (not yet perfect) UI that shows both your coins, your equipped item, and that item's ammunition (if any).Collectables have a bit of magnetism about them and will vacuum into the player when they're close enough, because it's 2019.Enemies drop things, including coins and bombs (which have a separate 'collectable' icon so as to not confuse them with live bombs).It's not demonstrated perfectly here given this particular slime refused to pick anything else but its "on...

Week 28 - Art takes a long time

I posted this gif up last week, showing both the bombs (which now function, by the by. Killing slimes, destroying the cave-blocking-boulder™, etc) and also you may have noticed new artwork for the cliffs and cave and boulder itself. Even some new pink flowers sneaking their way into that gif.Not to mention the fancy explosion effect itself!Some more code work has been done on handling 'damage' to enemies in general. Thrown items (of all kinds!) can now damage slimes on impact, bomb explosions damage them, etc.Also not seen in this GIF...

Bombs!

They're not currently very effective! But they otherwise work now.And yeah that is a cheap knock-off of Minish Cap's explode animation that still took way too long to make thanks for noticing.Been chopping a lot of art ("art") off the to-do list. It's the biggest time sink by far. I've still got a lot more character animations left to do in different directions but other than that much of the hardest stuff is done.Code will go up next week for those with access. Livestream tomorrow as always!

Week 27 - $1500 Goal reached!

So after a few weeks not super-closely tracking my Patreon income due to the anxiety it often causes, you guys have snuck up on my goal seemingly out of nowhere and pushed us over the line!$1500 is my goal for transcriptions and subtitles and I'll be starting the work immediately. I said I wanted to pay some folk to help with this (And I will do that! especially for going through and updating older videos) but the first signs you'll see of this will probably be from me. Perhaps on one of my shorter videos, while I try and keep the engin...

Week 26 - $20 tier update, RPG Choices

Few things to go over this week!$20 Cap & DescriptionThe most pertinent for some of you is I have upped the cap on $20 tier supporters from 40 to 45. The reason I keep a tight cap on this is because my free time is a (very) finite resource, and I do not want to over promise in regards to the personal, 1-1 help that comes with this tier. This hasn't been too demanding of late, and some patrons had expressed the desire to move up to this tier but for it being capped.So I have decided in my great benevolence to allow you the privilege of givin...

GMS2 Animated GIF Tutorial

As of 2.2.2 stable runtime release you can now record GIFs in game using any surface. Here I show setting that up in a simple way using the application surface to record the whole game.Attached to this post is the script as run in the post-draw event. You'll need to swap out the size macros RESOLUTION_W and H for your own sizes and remember to declare gifRecord in the create event.Hope you enjoy this! Public release on Friday.