Artist's game dev journey

Rene / Raptor

  • Weird artist
  • Chronically ill != school compatible
  • Formal education != accessible
  • You can teach yourself

Jam Journey

Infinite Sorrow

Jam #1 – Artist

The Incubator

Game #1 – Solo dev

Wild Thyme

Game #2 – Solo dev

Kakakop

(Homemade) Jam #2 – Artist

Trips

(SFA) Jam #3 – Art / Design / Dev

Live, Laugh, Lift

Jam #4 – Art

Kelp Helper

(Girly) Jam #5 – Lead Dev

FROGS

(kinda) Game #3 – Solo Dev

Arachnoise

Jam #6 – Art / Dev

Rapid Iteration ♡

  • Join meetups
  • Get jamming

Cool things I've learnt

Use resources

  • Great plugins and scripts available
  • It's not cheating – they're tools
  • Until you can write your own, you can learn from others

State Machines

plugin - Godot State Charts
  • Managing NPCs & effects without one = spaghetti
  • Rudimentary: signal connections in a script
  • Sophisticated: State Charts plugin, nice UI

Behaviour Trees

plugin – LimboAI
  • Forces modular, separated code
  • Reusable scripts (e.g. find_navigable_position)
  • Visual debugger!!!

Auto Tiling Maps

built in
  • You will spend more time on maps than you think
  • Set it up properly – even in a jam
  • Then you can just draw your levels

Dual Grid System

plugin: TileMapDual
  • Artists at jams
  • Standard 3x3 bitmask: up to 47 tiles
  • Dual-grid: only 15 tiles

Scalable Vector Shapes 2D

plugin
  • Vectors inside Godot
  • Scale and animate easily
  • Feels like Moho or Rive

Tips and stuff

Git Good

  • Version control == essential
  • Even for solo devs
  • and artists

Get used to code

  • Write your code to be read
  • Don't be afraid of the wall of text
  • Build it incrementally
  • You can do it!
code wall of text
(even this presentation is code)

Explore Godot!

  • Great internal docs
  • Discord community
  • Tutorials
  • GDQuest game

Strongly type things

  • Tell your function what to expect
  • Makes auto complete work
  • Reduces bugs

Quantity over quality

  • 10 illustration > 1 great illustration
  • 20 variations randomized is interesting
  • Teaches you what "modular" means for your engine

Thanks for the skillshare ♡

  • Maker's Massive
  • All the jammers
  • Go to meetups, go to jams, get involved, and make something!

Try Godot ♡

  • Free
  • Open source
  • Even if not game dev, maybe game dev?