gamecreator

So I take it you could rotate on the Y axis too, like some games and their UIs do?

Oh OK, I didn't know that.

I don't know about CC0 but there are a ton here available for free even for commercial use: https://sketchfab.com/search?features=downloadable&q=motorcycle&sort_by=-pertinence&type=models

Sure it's a tool but a better tool gets better results. If you can write 10 lines of code instead of 1000, that's hours of work saved and usually more likely that you'll end up with something nice to show off.

Appreciate it. And I think you know I'm not trying to bust your balls. I just feel like if there's sacrifices to be made, it should be for a good cause, which it sounds like it will be. And I also appreciate that building a good foundation now, even if the rewards aren't immediately seen, is still a good thing. Was mostly just curious about what Turbo might be shaping into.

Curious: is there a reason this isn't all done under the hood to keep the commands as simple as they are now? In other words, getting back to my previous question, what extra functionality does this offer the end-user? What practical things will you be able to do with images and text that you can't now?

Ok, it's just a Vulkan limitation that makes things more complex. So, to draw the layers of a clock in the proper order, for example, we'd have to assign proper Z coordinates to the back, the hour hand, minute hand and second hand? Is that how the engine would know what goes on top of what?

I'm curious what this would allow the end-user to do in exchange for making a straightforward system more complex. I know in the past people wanted to play movies on textures and map cameras to textures. And a lot of games do 3D-ish UI (font and images on textures). I wonder if this system would let us do them with reasonable ease.

I thought you could also put them into and encrypted (password-protected) zip and read them (your own, not one Leadwerks creates): https://www.leadwerks.com/community/topic/17491-loading-from-the-encrypted-data-file/?do=findComment&comment=113628

Try not to compare your game to those of AAA studios who have dozens of workers and millions of dollars to spend on development and marketing. Your situation is different. But just because a game is smaller doesn't mean it can't be popular. There are a lot of single-man or small-team developers who have had hundreds or thousands of players, some having made millions. Even a relatively simple game like VVVVVV sold over a million copies. Sure, you won't make the next GTA or Witcher because you don't have the resources but you can still make a similar, enjoyable game.

That's fair. It's not for everyone. I prefer developing to advertising too. But the more people you want to play your game, the more you have to get out there and show it off and remind people what you have going on. If you never share your game, you'll never get others to be interested. And it's good to see it that way too. Sure, some people won't care and won't want to play it. That's normal for every game, indie or AAA. But others will. And those are the people you focus on, who want to hear from you, assuming you have interesting progress to show. Just be honest about what the game is and what the game isn't.

To play devil's advocate as you have: you don't need a team to make a great and successful game. A lot of people fall into the trap of wanting to make the next World of Warcraft or Call of Duty or whatever. You need to either seriously reduce your scope or accept that you won't finish your game (as you seem to have done). There have been a ton of single-man developers and especially two-person teams that have been wildly successful. Also, if you have money, you can always hire artists, musicians, coders and others to help. To address your second point, yes, there's a good chance that not many people will play your game. Even completed, far more games fail than succeed. That's the nature of the business. It happens to big companies too. Then there are random little games like Minecraft that one person starts as a hobby, shares on a forum or two, the community goes wild and the game makes millions. There are a ton of factors that contribute to this but a big one seems to be that you're connecting with your fans early on. Minecraft and Spelunky (original) were released early as hobbies and communities enjoyed them and it grew from there. Then there are companies you can hire (somewhat like publishers) that can work on getting your game out there for you (just be careful of shady ones that demand too much - I've seen devs screwed over). How much of the marketing side have you read up on and tried implementing?

This exactly. There have been quite a few show-stopping bugs for me too. A character controller that was buggy that still isn't completely fixed (though Josh tried), navmesh generation by code that is broken on large maps (though navmesh isn't even dynamic so it doesn't support basic things like doors opening), glitchy vegetation, broken vehicles, etc. I used to start a game with fingers crossed that things will be OK. Now I mostly just use Leadwerks for its clean C++ commands, renderer and simpler projects. I don't try to do anything fancy. If I did this for more than a hobby, as much as I love Leadwerks and have been a fan and active community member since version 2.x, I would use another engine as well. As far as I remember, the subscription model may only be here for the beta. There was talk about it being a one-time purchase on release but I don't think a final decision was made.

Try removing everything from your project except for main.cpp if you only want to use C/C++.

You can do it through either Windows commands (I'm guessing Linux has equivalent) or try through the Leadwerks GUI (though I don't think it's documented still).