python-b5.com
https://python-b5.com
- hobbyist game developer; particularly experienced with @gamemaker.io
- lead programmer for @undertalewildfire.com
- working on Raspberry Resort with @samgorman.ca, an RPG / puzzle game about helping unusual people in a hotel
93 posts
38 followers
55 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
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you did a great job on it! music minigames elsewhere can sometimes feel like an afterthought, but this one actually feels good to play, and that makes all the difference. I also loved how even the original chart in chapter 3 doesn't feel dumbed down - there were some fun rhythms in there!
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🎮 Get the game here: berry-games.itch.io/key
📋 See the changelog here: berry-games.itch.io/key/devlog/9...
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my most recent jam game, for example, has several minigames that each run within a single object. that makes it much easier to control the execution order, which otherwise can sometimes be difficult in gamemaker. doing that would be a lot harder if I couldn't just draw sprites without intervention.
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in 3D, the "call draw functions manually" approach doesn't work anyway, so it's useful to have an existing structure to work within. but for a 2D game, it's possible to have near-total control, and I don't want to give that up. gamemaker provides abstractions, but I'm not forced into them.
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yeah, definitely agree. I could see people enjoying godot's nodes as a more high-level view of assembling a game, but most of the time I don't subscribe to the idea that game logic should be split into a billion tiny predefined components, when a single readable code file would do just fine.
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yeah, this is why I didn't click with it myself. it's an impressive project and I'm happy so many people enjoy working with it, but the node-based system doesn't mesh well with how I like to think about making games. I think it's a good thing that we have multiple options in this space, though!
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slopes just automatically working gives me pause, though; if it's using transparent pixels that's usually not a great choice for terrain. ideally you would be able to customize the collision mask of each individual tile. otherwise I personally would not use this, as I need control over my collision.
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don't know how I missed this, this is great! I have many older projects from years past with various versions of custom tile_collision functions; it always felt like a bit of a gap in the engine to me. it's a very common thing to need, especially for platformers.
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it's got its quirks like all engines, but the lighter-feeling structure of the engine gets out of my way and doesn't feel overbearing. I can work faster in gamemaker than in anything else I've tried. I don't know of a better engine for pixel art games, and I wish it were more popular than it is...
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gamemaker is a lot less prescriptive than other engines, which I appreciate. I don't have to "attach a sprite component" or whatever - I can just call draw_sprite. I can run the whole game in a single object if I really want! the abstractions that exist are fairly lightweight.
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it only becomes a problem when that critique stops coming from a good place, and is used to attack others who enjoyed those parts of the work. unfortunately that has happened far too much in this fandom, and it does need to stop.
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but, I still think it's good to be able to criticize things, even things you love! I have plenty of critiques of the new deltarune chapters, mostly involving pacing, but I still really enjoyed playing through them. constructively critiquing things can be useful when taking lessons for your own work.
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I don't think the graphical inconsistency issue is completely invalid to bring up, it's just deltarune does it sometimes too now lmao (ignoring definitely intentional contrast like the 3D renders in ch3)
the room outside noelle's house has some disconnect with the rest of hometown, for instance
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definitely agree with you on the ib remake. the original game's ui was imo very nicely done, and the charm it had was lost in the new design. the higher resolution art also makes the game feel "cheaper" to me, in some sense, though I'm not sure why it does, exactly...
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1:1 and 2:1 isn't too bad - that's what undertale/deltarune do! my main issue is when pixel art games aren't really running at a true low resolution internally, as does seem to be the case with the off remake. (though, that can be done tastefully too, like with celeste.)
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most noticeable example is the dust particles, but even the text is slightly misaligned! a lot of stuff in the battles was a bit off, too. definitely not a huge deal, but I always enjoyed the pixel-perfection of rpg maker 2k/2k3 games, and it's a bit of a shame to see that has been somewhat lost :(
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the new ui looks quite nice, and all the little details are great! I am a little disappointed with the high frequency of mixels though. it could be my nonstandard resolution, but there's a lot that isn't aligned to the pixel grid, which is odd considering there's a "pixel perfect" scaling mode...
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the save names are merely for organization, to help keep track of multiple playthroughs. think of it like an alias. the video shows an example of this, with a save being named "BRAVERY" (the name of our pacifist route). it's just a quality of life feature. riley's still riley, that doesn't change!
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glad to see the enthusiasm, but I should clarify - you are not naming the human here! riley is named riley no matter what, they are not a self-insert. notice how, when a save is selected in the menu, the file name fades out and is replaced with "Riley".
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we've got @waterinc.bsky.social to thank for the visual design - I only did the programming!
I suppose the renaming screen was all mine but it just copies the undertale naming keyboard anyway...
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is it just the screenshot or is that font being rendered at the wrong size? some of the strokes appear a little too thin, which suggests an incorrect size to me
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🎮 play or download the game here: berry-games.itch.io/scares
📋 see the changelog for the new update here: berry-games.itch.io/scares/devlo...
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that's the case for most 2D game renderers in my experience - it would feel weird to me if an engine _didn't_ do that. it feels pretty natural when you're working with the screen directly, I think.
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awesome, I didn't know about that! will probably switch the web builds for this game to wasm at some point, then.
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can you use the opera gx export outside of gx.games? the whole opera gx integration thing is an obvious marketing ploy, and the games would obviously run in other browsers just fine, I'd assume
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was very careful with this one to make sure the web build worked correctly. the html5 gamemaker export can be quite temperamental... (as seen by my last game drawing as mostly black in the browser due to some shader incompatibility)
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man I remember being terrified of imscared from youtube videos as a kid
can't confirm if I still find it scary since I never actually played it... cool that it's one of the rare 3D gamemaker games, though!
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I guess some people's mileage may vary, but I set up my install once and it's just kept working for over a year now. and that's on arch, which is supposed to break all the time! there's still a ways to go (I'm still on windows on my laptop), but we're getting there. almost everything I need works.
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I guess I'll have to go back to Dropbox for uploading large files. 8 MB is pretty much nothing :(
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I currently have one solely for the higher upload limit, but will probably cancel after this month (too expensive for me). I only got it in the first place because I forgot to cancel a trial...
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just did myself! hope as many people as possible do...
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I mean, this is pretty predictable. the average UTDR fan has zero reason to care about gamemaker by itself, and they shouldn't be expected to. I use gamemaker every day and don't follow every release online - I just install updates when they're presented to me (provided they don't break my game...).
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also, a correction: linux does not have a singular "interface". one of the best things about linux is that there are several options for these kinds of things you can choose between. if you don't like the interface you were using, pick a different one!
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while it is true that linux can take some extra setup work, it really is getting better all the time. there are distributions that hardly require you to ever drop to the terminal. there are still some issues, but a lot of the time I find linux more friendly than windows, now.
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this really isn't true - if it was it isn't anymore, at least. my current install, with nvidia, is over a year old with no major issues so far. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to have recent versions of software; it even has an installer now, it really isn't all that bad.
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this game has so many hours of content... only playing it through once would be a shame, I think! after a single playthrough you've only scratched the surface. complaining about lack of content while purposely not engaging with most of it feels a bit unfair to me.
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they used to be BGR so the function would be your only option to keep your colors in a sane order. but, they eventually fixed it, luckily.
(now, "$xxxxxx" uses BGR, and "#xxxxxx" uses RGB. how intuitive! thanks, gamemaker!)
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I suppose, yeah... but even make_color_rgb() I don't think I've ever used. I just type colors as hex codes!
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also some stuff about random functions I've never had to use (why would I want to use hsv? still got that one right though with an educated guess)
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anyway fun quiz, though some of these were general programming questions and not specifically about gamemaker
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gamemaker has a package manager??? how did I not know this...?
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transphobic utdr fans will never cease to baffle me. how can they enjoy these games and be part of this community with those beliefs? haven't they noticed the content of the games, and the overwhelming sentiment of the fandom? like, just get out already, we don't want you guys here...
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this sounds awesome! excited to see which projects are involved