giwake

game developer, I think?

  • they/them

i make games and music, sometimes.

profile picture by @thewaether!!!

moving to https://bsky.app/profile/giwake.bsky.social


I am lazy. I guess it's why I like using engines like Fusion or gzdoom. somebody else has done the hardest work for me and I can focus on building a place or the things inside it or a mechanic. sure, fusions default movements are buggy as hell, gzdoom is extremely limited if you want to make something that isn't first person, but they've got so many easily accessible tools that I keep using them.

and for some reason I guess that's why I'm apprehensive about switching engines. for some reason I don't like using asset stores. I don't like the idea of making a game that requires a beefy computer to play. I don't like the idea of coding basic functions like collision detection or physics. it feels a lot better when I'm given a variety of tools straight out of the gate and let loose, as opposed to having to make things the traditional way.

I remember watching a video a while back where someone was talking about making a game in a holistic way, and I guess that's kind of the same way I view games. I enjoy making each part of a game, even if it's not the best. but I also like not working on the same thing over and over again.


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in reply to @giwake's post:

I've been thinking about this post the last few days because it mirrors my exact experiences with game design. Despite having basic coding skills and immediate access to high quality tutorials, engines, and engine docs right now, I've made more games in a bargain copy of Klik & Play my dad got me as a child than I ever have with modern tools. I've also made a ton of unreleased Doom maps and mods since childhood, too, mostly just for the sake of it.

I've often wondered how child me, whose vocabulary didn't include the words "game design", could manage something I have difficulty with now, and I realized it came down to three things:

  1. Having "good enough" game movement and scene setups out of the box instead of having to make something "perfect" from scratch.
  2. Community made tools that are focused solely on designing specific aspects of a game (ie Slade 3 for Doom).
  3. You can open up other people's projects and immediately see how they were coded.

I feel like a lot of modern gamedev is industry focused, hence the obsession with doing things the "correct" (read: industry standard) way where everything starts from a bespoke clean slate. So many modern game tutorials never get past the "here's how you do a basic player controller" because of that, something that you have immediate access to from the word go in GZDoom or a dedicated game making tool like Fusion. That third point also means that if you get stuck, you can see how someone else fixed a given problem. As a result, you can immediately focus on the fun parts of game development, ie the actual design.

Ultimately, there's no shame in sticking with what's familiar to you. GZDoom and Fusion have been used to make a ton of great games, and them being "easy game making tools" doesn't take away from the actual craft involved, which is the most important part of game design.

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