Lack Of Fun Games

[Alex.]

********* > have a look how many people donated to the community contest, and now tell me that they deserve anything like a perfect game or tool.
********* > even half baked stuff is too good for the community.

Unless there has been a huge number of donations since it was last updated, I can see his point.

I'm sure that if there'll be some decent entries (and there will be ), and if Psymastr and Magnulus will be willing to undertake this again next year, more people will donate. Everything about the GP2X is in its infancy, that's the beauty of it, it has a whole load of unexplored future ahead of it.

- Alex

 

[fargo]

I think GPH should act asap and puts 3D accelerator in GP2X.

I think you've misunderstood the GP2X

So, could you please explain to me then?! Before you answer, just have a look at psx, gpa, snes, and other emulators suffering from the lack of 3d acceleration. Believe me, 3D accelerator is coming to GPH's consoles sooner or later, if not in GP2X then in GP3X !! The market demands this and the market is not you and some other members in the forum!

Hes interested in it as a business thing, its not too easy to hire devs to make a psp game then distribute it. The gp2x however is incredibly easy to create and distribute a game for. He is saying hed rather have a 3d proccesor, but this is the only system where he can do what he just proposed

Yah, I'm interested in it "as a business thing". I just want to hire a coder and a designer to develop commercial games for GP2X.

 

[Alex.]

The market is what users dictate, at least that's what it should be. A 3D accelerator means higher production costs, and quite frankly I'm getting sick of 3D games. Everything and their grannie are 3D now, it's ridiculous. I want to see a modern platform with 99% 2D games for a change, and the GP2X it is.

- Alex

 

[gmiller1018]

The problem with some 3D games is that they are all graphics and no content. You can create "shit" with any set of tools just like you can create a "gem" with minimal tools. It is the game concept that generally drives the fun part, the graphics are nice but not always the best part.

Of course I used to play "star trek" on a teletype so I am older than dirt. I don't need graphics to enjoy a game so my view is different than some.

 

[fargo]

Sure, there are users who like to play 2D and some other old games and all that. These users make small part of the market and 3D accelerator won't harm them!! As for the cost, GP2X is "not" cheap and believe me GPH can manage to include some sort of 3D acceleration in hardware without raising prices.

Let me ask one thing, what features should have higher priority "3D Accelerator" or "WiFi & Touch LCD" ?

 

[Shikaku]

"WiFi & Touch LCD"

Make it more like a PDA.

Actually we might be able to squeeze a 3D accelerator out of the MPEG decoder in the GP2X if we knew how.

 

[Parkydr]

The state of homebrew is easily explainable, it just mirrors the Linux game scene. Not everyone is having ideas for original games and those you do seem to make them commercial (and why not). If anyone has any ideas for games, may be they should post them in "Cool Ideas and wishes". Most suggestions there are for ports/remakes another reason the lack of original games is hardly surprising.

Designing and coding a game takes a long time (especially when you have school/a day job), ports are quick as someone else has already put in a lot of time to get them to that state, therefore ports are obviously going to be the first games to appear.

The same reasoning goes for the tetris/shump games, these are relatively quick to code. Payback took a long time (11 months?) to develop.

Graphics/3D aren't the problem either, if the game's crap, giving it good graphics is just polishing a turd.

More original games will come, but it'll take time.

 

[fargo]

Actually we might be able to squeeze a 3D accelerator out of the MPEG decoder in the GP2X if we knew how.

Coders get afraid when they hear something like that! Many consoles failed because coders found them difficult to develop.

 

[gmiller1018]

What you are looking for is more in line with the XGP not the GP2X. I agree that not having wireless was a minus for me but with the development environment I was hooked.

The emulator were a big plus as well. You can see the companies like Nintendo bringing their old games back with the wee and XBox with XNA allowing games to be written for lots of platforms. In the hand held market battery use and hardware features are always fighting each other because the more hardware "generally" the more power you use. Until battery technology gets better (or we get good small fuel cells) features like what you are asking for will make the play time shorter.

I look at the unit from a play/develop point of view so the lack of commercial games is not a big thing. I will get a PSP only to do home brew on, which can be done today. I do home brew for GBA and DS. I am working up to doing it with the Game Cube. The XNA development kit looks good as well, but I won't buy an Xbox yet.

My guess is to shoot for the XGP and forget the GP2X if you must have the other features. There have been a lot of GP2X's sold and that does give a market to sell to if you wish to pursue it. That market is not your usual consumer so the approach will be different.

 

[Parkydr]

Coders get afraid when they hear something like that! Many consoles failed because coders found them difficult to develop.

The GP2X won't fail because of this, it's got to be one of the easiest console to develop for ever with it's Linux OS and SD card.

 

[art1080]

Thanks WhiteFalcon and sehs33!

What I think would really help is visibilty.. like a nice website to promote homebrew games. Maybe even coin a fresh term to call games intended for the gp2x and market it. Once you say something is 'homemade' some ignorant casual users get turned off. Indie Games?

I'm certainly not ripping on current websites, but being a newbee in the scene I don't know where to look for them. Something needs to grab people's attention more to raise awareness to the avg user, not just the hardcore. Maybe this already exists, I don't know.

 

[Goemon4]

ok, after reading/skimming through most of the posts it seems most of the opinions posted are that most people are interested in emulators more than homebrew, yes i understand playing tons of games is more benificial, and deving them is more rewarding, but if there were good homebrew games coming out, then mabey more people would get excited over them... yes emus please everyone, but still im sure the percentage of those people wouldnt mind something new and addictive to play on their 2x! i liek the idea someone pointed out about a section to help devs (for things like music, designing, coding, testing, and ideas) cause ithink that will help the production of may good games (hopefully) and what someone said about the 32's begginings, i hope your right, and they do run out of emus to port (not that i mind them) id just rather have one or 2 great homebrew games, then a slew of emu's that i barely know about (im not saying to stop making emu's im just saying slow down on the releases and perfect your old/in development ones)

also about the hardware... look at the 32, it was less powerful than the 2x, and it has tons of great games/emus/apps, the 2x hardware shouldnt really limit a dev's capabilities to make a great game imo

and yes, art1080, very nice work, you should definatly start making/helping people with game designs (cause your stuff is very nice, from what i can see) and indie games? i like the ring to that, but hombrew means the same thing... but it could attract more people to the homebrew scene (idk what do all you think?)


(i hope i covered everything said, cause i barely read anything (im at school) and seeing how this grew 2 pages overnight i cant really sit down and read all of it while trying to do work)

 

[art1080]

Thanks man, i really apreciate the support.

People could suggest name ideas, something that is general since I'm sure each game designer/company also has a name. I noticed there is already a www.indiegames.com .. for me, i think of semi carbonated beer when I hear 'homebrew'. I know it's been used for years (and it's great) but it's a word that invokes thoughts of 2nd rate or subpar and not something you would pay money for. Especially since you can already get high quality comercial games for free. I just thought of Indie Rock/Movies because that's a scene people like to support and actually holds some of the best works on the planet. The idea that these people are too good to sell out to corporations and can do it on their own.

I'd like to play some good homebrew games to get a feel for what's possible. I'd also like to know methods of graphic creation or translation - content management .. and most importantly how well the gp2x can handle vector sprites, or mixing vector and bitmap. If that can be done the sky's the limit!

Could someone please provide a list of good homebrew? I'm mostly into games that you can get right into, shoooters, platform etc.

 

[b._.o._.b]

Could someone please provide a list of good homebrew? I'm mostly into games that you can get right into, shoooters, platform etc.

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=33341
For a nice on-topic discussion

When I bought the gp2x I was only interested in its emulating capabilities. It still is my main use of the GP2X, almost every day I discover new games that are great to play. These games are not new and not innovative (anymore), but for me they feel that way. I've recently played for the first time on the nes emulator "a boy and his blob", great game. A less known game but very good (if you like puzzle games) Flappy. I'll bet most readers haven't played it yet. I guess if development would stop for the GP2X you still can play games on it until your last breath.

Eventhough emulating is my main use of the GP2X, there are some terrific homebrew games. I love beat2x, spout, vektar, poker2x (and more). Great games that I judge on their gameplay and not if it is made for the GP2X in 2006 or for a C64 in 1985.

 

[art1080]

Thanks b._.o._.b that's perfect, I'll have to check those out asap. Also this fire whip game I keep hearing about.

I also bought mine for emulation and can't get enough.. I think the games are very inspirational.. and hope the homebrew games are too. Just being able to call up any 2D shooter game on demand is just amazing, and will provide a lot of help if I can get a shooter project in the works.

 

[Goemon4]

yes, firewhip is GREAT!!! see, these are the games i like seeing on the 2x! and the 2x's homebrew is good (depending on the game) there just arent enough good quality games out there (but i forgot, that games like RapidRacoon are on their way so im going to be patient) also anyone play WeHaveBalls? i just tried that game and its really good! (mabey my rant have been to pre-mature?) ehh still we need more good quality homebrew!!

 

[moxie]

To me, the top indie games (I like that term - lets use it!) are

Noiz2sa

- For sheer style. Beautiful, beautiful, pure. Excellent combo of graphics and music, together with very finetuned gameplay. Brill.

Extender

- Not stylish, sorry. But very addictive and one-more-go-ish.

FloboPuio

- The puzzle fix. And also nice looking.

I do want to like Spout more than I do, I very much like the consequent style. I just don't play it as much as I like the idea of it The Minigame Project has some boring ones and some absolutely brilliant - Squares32 is totally brill in its simplicity, more or less the old Worm concept (eat stuff, grow, become more difficult to maneuver), but transposed. Can you tell I like abstract games?

Then, of course, there are a lot of the indies that I haven't played at all, and I play the others I have on my SD quite some, too. But for a indie show-off, I would pick those.

Then again, of course, originality is a hard thing. This field of videogames has seen so many different directions that almost whatever direction you aim your game design, someone with a corncob is going to pop around and say "Oh, so it's another clonegame, but with ugly graphics, eh?" :-/ The difficult part is to come up with a game design that is original enough, yet not too impossible to implement. That is the great draw of coding emulators - The design is already done, literally set in stone (or at least silicon), so you only have to be minute about the details in the spec and then write good code. "only"

We should be less quick to call devs names on "clone games" - because with enough effort, I'm sure we could call anything from the last 6 years a clone. Almost. - and maybe rather point in the direction of games that would be worthwhile to reimplement. I, personally, would go gaga over an up-to-date Xeno game, as in "the best bloody futuristic sports game ever, and on the spectrum to boot" It's a rhomboid playing field, and the players are represented by two pucks or saucers and...well, it's quite abstract, really

 

[Guyfawkes]

Moxie - you will love my next game which should hopefully be mostly ready for the coding compo, a proper version will be released at a later date. its another version of Squares but I have expanded on the original game with some new features. More info at http://www.emuboards.com/guyfawkes/squares.htm

I also done a quick WIP video showing some of the games modes at http://207.44.176.77/~admin28/squares-beta-video.wmv. I am currently working on a multiplayer knockout mode (currently upto 3 players, two on gp2x, one on usb joypad) which is quite fun. I might add more players if it turns out to be popular along with full multiple usb joypad support. Oh you can also play using a mouse via the BOB if you have it.

 

[moxie]

Moxie - you will love my next game...

*checks video*

*drools*

Indeed I will

 

[psj3809]

There are simply tons and tons of games for various systems thanks to all the great emulators. I love 'discovering' new games for systems i never had, so many hidden gems i havent played before.

Must admit any new original games which arent used by emulators i dont really bother with, emulation all the way for me.