What I Want To See On My Pandora

[Awakening]

I found this movie on YouTube. I tried a few of those games yesterday and I'm just amazed by the original stuff that all these indie developers do, check out Auditorium it's playable online. I also played through Star Guard yesterday, the gameplay feels a bit like Mega Man mixed with CaveStory. If the Pandora turns into an indie game platform it would be fantastic. Beyond the fact that the Pandora is open source I really think a good appstore and a somewhat large userbase are required. If games like these are made for the Pandora and available in the appstore for a low price, I would buy at least a few of them.

 

[Mr.Confuzed]

Cool story bro!

Seriously though, given the open nature of the project, the best way to get what you want is to do it yourself.

Yeah, saying that just made me a hypocrite.

 

[Awakening]

According to Engadget Google's new Nexus One phone has a 480x800 screen, same as the Nokia N900 and of course the Pandora. This, combined with the fact that these phones uses ARM CPUs, makes me more hopeful about seeing indie games on the Pandora. Sadly only the Pandora have game controls.

 

[Jourdy288]

@Mr. Confuzed:
I'm trying to learn C++ ATM so that I can follow your advice and do it myself.

Awakening, I don't think you should worry about a lack of original games on the Pandora though, it's going to happen. But please keep in mind you have to harvest the apples before you can taste the pie

 

[JayFoxRox]

Jourdy288: For embedded systems C is usually the preferred choice because its not adding as much overhead. With C++ you have to be more careful (Also C++ is less logical and cryptic to me, slowing me down instead of allowing me to work faster).
Though, seeing how advanced embedded systems are already, this might have changed. Also I can't speak for myself here because I only heard other people saying that. However, I also noticed that compiling my C programs using a C++ compiler usually results in larger executables (probably more code).

Most of the more popular indie games are probably going to be in the iPhone AppStore and on XBL soon, the devs bought by Apple and Microsoft.
However, most of these games are not too good anyway imo.
And I don't think its good to hype indie games only because they are indie. Usually the arguments are like: "Wasn't done before - completly new idea!" while the same idea appeared 20 years back or its actually in a less known game or popular mini-game with 3D graphics - just put into a 2D world.

 

[Mr.Confuzed]

And I don't think its good to hype indie games only because they are indie. Usually the arguments are like: "Wasn't done before - completly new idea!" while the same idea appeared 20 years back or its actually in a less known game or popular mini-game with 3D graphics - just put into a 2D world.

Here's a reason to hype indie games: more competition. Although the hype can lead to disappointment...

 

[Awakening]

There are a lot of indie games developed every year and I just think it would be really nice if the Pandora would become a standard platform to develop for, or at least to port your games to. It got so many advantages over all other systems being portable, open source, game controls, touchscreen and all of them having the same hardware.

BTW, I think it was Craig that mentioned that development for the Wiz have already slowed down. I know we all want to emulate all our favorite old games on our Pandoras but I really want to play all these new games on my Pandora as well, it definitely got the power needed as most indie games are not very power hungry, instead they focus on gameplay.

I have programmed quite a lot myself over the years, mostly using Dark Basic. I'm planing on learning C++ and SDL once I get my Pandora. While I have a 2D puzzle game in the works for Pandora I plan on restart development on my game making software. I learnt so much working on that in the past but I got really sick and tired of it. I have so many new ideas for pretty much everything and having a game making software directly in my Pandora would be a blast to work with.

 

[Awakening]

People who say that games are not art should play games like Icycle or Small Worlds. Icycle combines simple gameplay with brilliant level design and amazing looks. Small Worlds is just all about the art.

 

[dentrado]

Jourdy288: For embedded systems C is usually the preferred choice because its not adding as much overhead. With C++ you have to be more careful (Also C++ is less logical and cryptic to me, slowing me down instead of allowing me to work faster).
Though, seeing how advanced embedded systems are already, this might have changed. Also I can't speak for myself here because I only heard other people saying that. However, I also noticed that compiling my C programs using a C++ compiler usually results in larger executables (probably more code).

I think the overhead is quite neglectible, you have already seen pandora run several games and apps written in C++, for example firefox, without problems. I can understand people being a bit sceptic to Python (even if i think it will work fine for smaller things) on the pandora, but C++? People even use C++ on arduino and avr.

edit: fixed spelling.

 

[twent4]

Short answer to the title:
My hands.

 

[barzoule]

I agree with Amakening: we need more native games on the Pandora. Emulation is all cool and stuff but you can do so much more on the plateform when you go native!

There's also some true gems among indie games. Stuff like World Of Goo or Crayon Physics, or others. The nice part is that when the team (or lonely guy) behind the game isn't paid to do it, the game will less likely turn into a quickly hacked sequel or clone. The game industry with its triple-A titles is getting quite repetitive. I don't care of a God Of War with a slightly different theme or a Tomb Raider with a guy, or a Devil May Cry with a girl, even less yet another military 'simulation', be it either WW2 or Modern.

If the idea has been done once 20 years ago, then it's already better than those that are being done 300 times every year, don't you think?

 

[grasshoppir]

what a *** jackass

EDIT: language

 

[Awakening]

Man, now I'm getting all excited thinking about redoing my game development software from scratch, customized for the Pandora. I'm quite set on doing it as a sidescroller this time, got two interesting game ideas myself that will evolve the software in two separate directions. Focusing first on making playable stuff, that way people can have fun with it early on. I'm quite inspired by Star Guard in starting up simple. As soon as people can start jump around and fire on things that can fire back it becomes interesting. But I'm also inspired by CaveStory in terms of story telling, weapons etc. Previously I started on a Zelda inspired creation software and put a lot of effort into the visuals and never even got around to add simple AI, making a platformer will be so much easier. There are some platformers out there that I really love, CaveStory is one of them, my favorite would have to be Flashback and I got fond memories of The Lost Vikings.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Just like to say thanks to Awakening - Small Worlds was great, and I'm currently in the middle of Star Guard. I love games like these! Got any more?

 

[Awakening]

Just like to say thanks to Awakening - Small Worlds was great, and I'm currently in the middle of Star Guard. I love games like these! Got any more?

You should check out Bytejacker, among other things he shows off 3 free games each week. So far Star Guard has been my favorite. It just does everything right, although there are no powerups but the game is short enough anyway. The movie I linked to in the first post lists the top 10 of the year, voted on by the viewers.