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‘It took over my life ’ How one man made his dream 90s video game on his own

82 pointsby dan1234over 2 years ago

17 comments

NiagaraThistleover 2 years ago
In middle school (late 80&#x27;s, early 90&#x27;s ?), me and a couple friends used to sit around in class and dream up custom JRPGs like Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy type games. We&#x27;d draw maps and build out stories and wish we could build out the actual games.<p>Today with tools like Godot and RPG Maker (regardless of how good or bad compared to others), I realize it is actually possible to build these games I used to dream about. But like the title of this article, I fear falling too deep down a rabbit hole now that i have a family and adult responsibilities.<p>But man does that inner 12-year fet super excited at the thought of building an 8-bit Dragon Warrior clone based on the old Middle Earth Role Playing TTRPG adventures.
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yamtaddleover 2 years ago
Wishlist of games I want but will probably never make myself:<p>- Warzone taxi &#x2F; ambulance driver. I discovered this with GTA San Andreas: cheats &quot;all pedestrians armed&quot; and &quot;all pedestrians fight&quot;, then run taxi and ambulance missions. I guess this could just be a game mode in GTA. Putting in the cheat codes is tedious, especially since it&#x27;s usually nice to also do the 100% armor code so you have <i>some</i> chance of actually completing multiple drop-offs, so a separate game or a dedicated game mode that wrapped it all up together would be cool. Courier, et c., would also be cool roles. Crazy chaotic urban warfare in which you&#x27;re not a main target, but you&#x27;ve got to get around the city, is the point.<p>- Tailspin &#x2F; Tales of the Gold Monkey &#x2F; Archer Danger Island flight&#x2F;business sim. You run a scrappy barely-getting-by flight service in some fictional Pacific island chain with a backdrop that&#x27;s more-or-less the late 1930s. Survive, upgrade your plane, buy more planes, hire more pilots, et c. Indiana jones vibes (one mission type could be flying Indy-like characters to and from whatever ruins they want to explore, in fact). Maybe some Sid Meyer&#x27;s Pirates! elements, to a degree—but you&#x27;ve got a flying boat, not a pirate ship. But, yes, pirates should be there, and all kinds of other unsavory characters. Spies, simple cargo runs, smuggling, the occasional military skirmish. A little like some of those trade-oriented space sims, but the planets are islands and the space ships are planes. Presence of plot(s) optional but encouraged. Big extra points if there&#x27;s some element of first-person play outside the planes. I&#x27;d be OK with the flight being anything between pretty-damn-realistic and fairly-arcadey-but-not-so-arcadey-you-can&#x27;t-stall.<p>Then the ones that are just &quot;why the hell is there no modern equivalent of this game?&quot;:<p>- 4+ player (including at least 4 for local play) Return Fire for modern consoles.<p>- Battletanx for modern consoles, w&#x2F; local multiplayer (um, feel free to rewrite the setting....)<p>- A tower-defense type game even half as ambitious and weird and genre-mashing as Dominus was.
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dmonitorover 2 years ago
I was really hoping this was about Pizza Tower [1]. Game in the article looks a bit like an asset flip crazy taxi clone.<p>There&#x27;s a lot of game recently that have been trying to capture the late 90s aesthetics without the late 90s technical limitations. The Big Catch [2] and Cavern of Dreams [3], for example. I&#x27;d love to see an exploration of the appeal to that aesthetic, because I think there&#x27;s something more to it than just the nostalgic &#x2F; vintage appeal.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Wlq6fFOqI28">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Wlq6fFOqI28</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=zHeJBfqf9d4">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=zHeJBfqf9d4</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=pDjZl1EZaBc">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=pDjZl1EZaBc</a>
weekendvampireover 2 years ago
I desperately want a project like this to take over my life for a few months. I&#x27;m in grad school so am juggling job hunting with coursework and other part time job duties, but I miss the feeling of giving 100% of my time and energy to one thing.
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everyoneover 2 years ago
In fairness this is a typical indie game dev story.. There are 100&#x27;s maybe 1000&#x27;s like this released every year. I&#x27;m curious why this one got a Guardian article. The creator must have some pull at the Guardian somehow.
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causiover 2 years ago
Hmm, this seems less fun than Crazy Taxi. A huge part of Crazy Taxi was trying to keep track of the upcoming terrain and gauge how it&#x27;s going to affect the momentum and trajectory of your car. With a flying taxi there is no terrain, no ramps, etc you just fly around obstacles.
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h2odragonover 2 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;1366560&#x2F;MiLE_HiGH_TAXi&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;1366560&#x2F;MiLE_HiGH_TAXi&#x2F;</a><p>That looks cool.
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hawskiover 2 years ago
Does anyone remember or played Crime Cities: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Crime_Cities" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Crime_Cities</a> ?
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uejfiweunover 2 years ago
Does anybody else have the following issue? I&#x27;ve worked on many personal game projects and the beginning is always very fun. But as the complexity scales and my ambitions grow, I end up so deep in the weeds that it renders me incapable of objectively judging my game. I can&#x27;t tell whether it looks good, whether it&#x27;s fun, etc.
petodoover 2 years ago
I can&#x27;t believe nobody in this thread mentioned Quarantine (1994). I never played Crazy Taxi, but remember Quarantine being fun, something in likes of Carmageddon.<p>You can play it here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;playold.games&#x2F;play-game&#x2F;quarantine&#x2F;play&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;playold.games&#x2F;play-game&#x2F;quarantine&#x2F;play&#x2F;</a>
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r721over 2 years ago
Screenshots reminded me of BHunter, obscure 1999 game:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mobygames.com&#x2F;game&#x2F;26238&#x2F;bhunter&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mobygames.com&#x2F;game&#x2F;26238&#x2F;bhunter&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;obscuritory.com&#x2F;action&#x2F;bhunter&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;obscuritory.com&#x2F;action&#x2F;bhunter&#x2F;</a><p>Image from the article: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.guim.co.uk&#x2F;img&#x2F;media&#x2F;d6f1660ab7a8096e3239a7a33c081da64938cb1b&#x2F;0_0_1756_1054&#x2F;master&#x2F;1756.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.guim.co.uk&#x2F;img&#x2F;media&#x2F;d6f1660ab7a8096e3239a7a33c081...</a><p>BHunter: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.mobygames.com&#x2F;screenshots&#x2F;10634620-bhunter-windows-first-glimpse-of-the-city.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.mobygames.com&#x2F;screenshots&#x2F;10634620-bhunter-windo...</a>
jrootabegaover 2 years ago
Even if this game turns out weak, this guy is gonna cash in on a huge ripe nostalgia market. People who played the original Crazy Taxi have also been consistently upset that the later releases didn&#x27;t have the same music, so they may buy this just to stick it to whoever published those.<p>I think he&#x27;ll regret the lack of kb&#x2F;m support, though. And I wonder if releasing this as a personal product (instead of a corporation) is wise, considering it very closely imitates two separate IPs, and references others like Total Recall&#x27;s Johnnycab.
karaterobotover 2 years ago
What I remember most about Crazy Taxi was the extremely 90s pop punk sound track.<p>If the main monetary expense for him was hiring voice actors, I assume he didn&#x27;t license any Offspring songs or anything like that. Does that mean the game has no sound track, or that it has a sound track of free songs, or that he made all the songs himself?<p>Anyway, wish him well. Making a full game by yourself is a ton of work, and most people just give up on it after a few months, so that&#x27;s especially impressive.
AndrewOMartinover 2 years ago
The game seems to have an arrow at the top middle of the screen pointing you in the direction to go. This is basis for a lawsuit.<p>Video on the subject: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;EmyCy5pRMSg?t=520" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;EmyCy5pRMSg?t=520</a> The patent in question: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US6200138B1&#x2F;en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US6200138B1&#x2F;en</a>
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JohnDeHopeover 2 years ago
If you&#x27;re afraid of falling down a rabbit hole of complexity, look into Pico 8. It gives you everything you need to make a game, but also very solidly caps the level of complexity you can inflict on yourself. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lexaloffle.com&#x2F;pico-8.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lexaloffle.com&#x2F;pico-8.php</a>
shanebelloneover 2 years ago
Terraria might be the most successful example from a 1-2 person dev studio. Does anyone know of a more successful example?
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ggambettaover 2 years ago
I dreamed of exactly that game since The Fifth Element came out in 1997. Can&#x27;t wait to play this :)