4tnGameDev [comrade/them]
The fundamental cancer at the heart of the project is the glorification of war and conquest itself.
I think this is really good criticism, it’s possible I need to double-check my pre-made single-player campaigns (which will all be cartoony goofyness) or even consider pivoting my project’s aesthetics away from war gaming. There’s going to be a lot to think about there and it’s technically not too late for a lot of pivoting.
My intent with the campaigns though is to let historically literate individuals make campaigns that players will learn by playing. Make the USSR look good in some conflict, tell the story of a specific revolution, make up a new story without any historicalbaggage, etc., they’d be able to setup the maps/dialog to tell that story via my user friendly UI. There’s an uphill battle in preventing reactionaries from doing the same though. Glorifying is not the intent, but I feel that I cannot refute your allegations, which is troubling.
If you’re trying to make a game that Nazis aren’t going to piss all over, you’re going to end up with Undertale. Which is, of course, fine. Everyone loves Undertale. But its a game in which the conflict isn’t always resolved by the guy who can push out bomber jets the fastest.
I’m very unfamiliar with Undertale and don’t know how to interpret this.
I’m working on an indie advanced wars clone where one of my lead features is that users can create their own campaigns and share them.
One thing that discourages me is that I know there are people out there going to make pro-wrong-side-of-history campaigns and glorify fascists. It’s easy enough to ban all pro-Hitler content, but every country, region, era, etc. has their own lesser-Hitlers to glorify.
My special skill set is programming, not historical literacy and lore mastery. These people will probably flank every fair and principled moderation stance I attempt. I’ll probably both-sides something I shouldn’t, or be on the wrong side of history on something. Not to mention the burden of moderation itself when my passion is to work on the non-content aspect of the game.
It’s tempting to cancel that feature. Either way, just not looking forward to it. Thanks for reading my rant.
Anyone shopping around in the last 1-2 years for which game engine their first/next indie game should be already sees a ton of “just use godot, especially if you’re making a 2d game”. Unity’s future as a legacy engine was already set in stone in the eyes of the wider indie gamedev community before this announcement.
Open Source Javascript stuff is also kind of hot, considering that mobile devices are getting fast enough to side-step how slow JS (for 2d games at least).
Also Open Source Rust stuff is also going to be popping up on less esoteric radars soon.
Unreal Engine (not libre) is getting easier for indie devs to make higher-end projects.
Any way you look at it, Unity is surrounded by all sides. It’s just a matter of time for the momentum to manifest as actual games/studios.
Thanks for making this thread and sharing those games. From the screenshots on steam the first one looked like a cozier simcity 2k clone which is an instant wishlist item to me.
I’m aspiring to release my first game sometime this year. Always looking for ways to add anti-capitalist ideology and dog whistles in. If anyone has any specific advice for an Advanced Wars 2 clone or an NES Gauntlet clone that would be much appreciated.