Man this is super complex, it sounds like it took forever to figure it all out lol. I'm glad you managed to get it sorted. This stuff makes me really glad I moved to Godot since both the engine and all the plugins I've used are completely open-source already. I want to make my games open-source, or at least very open to modding/researching in some way after they've been released for a while, so it's nice to know that I won't have to jump through as many hoops. But yeah this definitely makes your point on how even for a small game made in a modern engine, it takes a huge amount of work just to get like some solid level of official moddability available. If anything it makes me even more impressed by stuff like what ID Software recently did for Doom Eternal. Something even cooler with their modding support is they actually said they want to hire from the modding community as well, which is awesome.
Godot has a set of API functions in the Engine interface that return lists of the dozens of licenses for the various parts of Godot. (Which makes it really convenient to build a page in your game that complies with all those licenses.) Even if stuff is open source, you still have to be attentive when redistributing it. Copyright notices need to stay intact. Some open source licenses require you to make the source code available as part of your product, etc.
@@BenLubar Yeah I know there's still stuff to consider and be careful about, I'm just glad it's generally not as complicated as Unity or Unreal licenses. Thanks for the heads-up though still.
This is really complicated stuff you explained, (At least to me). No wonder why TRS never added Back 4 Blood modding support if it was the same with them. I guess most of us were blind by valve source engine modding and free allowence, we think it's that simple for the rest of other engine tools.
There's a thread on the Steam Discussions forum where people are refusing to believe that "just don't use any licensed anything" isn't a viable way to make a video game. And here I am with three games I'm (somewhat) actively maintaining and every single one of them is someone else's IP.
So is there no open source alternatives to those tools? Working in a different software zone, our organization goes out of its way to avoid licensed software for a lot of our work because of a lot of these issues, and it allows our org to pull apart any tool to tweak it if we need to. Obviously there is some stuff you have to license (Security), but I'd find it hard to believe that there's no open source alternatives for other big ticket items given how big the game developer space is these days. Or is the game dev space just so closed off that no studios/developers want to develop and share tools?
But then you are spending all your time not making games... and never make the game. You want mature proven tools to work, get done quickly - the game isn't a means to preservation, the game is to be played.
Are you considering going back and reworking some of the later episodes in the game? I feel like after episode 3 or so there's an extreme dip in quality. Like for example aside from a couple of the set pieces like the part where you travel through sections of vents it just looks so barebones and bland. Episode 1 generally had a good feeling throughout and my buddies and I could very much consider that the area looked lived in and believable. Also we ran into an issue during the crescendo event with the three generators in which after we finished all 3 and had access to the small room at the end where you had to hold out, the AI teammate couldn't path into the room and kept trying to jump into one of the areas that the aliens spawn from. We had to let him die to be able to progress. Edit: Also could you please lower the frequency of the characters spamming the voice lines about using their pulse? It honestly got kinda annoying later on in the game after you get used to the mechanics.
The messages to use your pulse go down as you play more - it's one of the ways to train people. I haven't heard anything similar to ep3 and it continues to be one of the most asked to be played - I am not sure the vents - do you mean ep4?
@@chetfaliszekYeah my mistake, episode 4 had the vents and then the part with the conveyor belt. That part just really lacked a lot of detail imo. Like I said my buddies and I really enjoyed the first episode a lot, and we'd like to see more of the polish in the later episodes similar to it. Are you thinking of adding anymore traits to the matter modulator as well? It'd be interesting to see more that would change up playstyles.
Appreciate the update. 👍 I miss the ones with you & Will from back in da day… a year ago. idk time flies but they were good. Thanks for the info & insight. 🫡
Between you and Tim Cain I have been gettng a real crash course on how games are made/maintained!
I thought you were going to say a crash course on how not to make/maintain a game. 😅 Chet your commitment to the game is honorable.
Man this is super complex, it sounds like it took forever to figure it all out lol. I'm glad you managed to get it sorted. This stuff makes me really glad I moved to Godot since both the engine and all the plugins I've used are completely open-source already. I want to make my games open-source, or at least very open to modding/researching in some way after they've been released for a while, so it's nice to know that I won't have to jump through as many hoops.
But yeah this definitely makes your point on how even for a small game made in a modern engine, it takes a huge amount of work just to get like some solid level of official moddability available. If anything it makes me even more impressed by stuff like what ID Software recently did for Doom Eternal. Something even cooler with their modding support is they actually said they want to hire from the modding community as well, which is awesome.
Godot has a set of API functions in the Engine interface that return lists of the dozens of licenses for the various parts of Godot. (Which makes it really convenient to build a page in your game that complies with all those licenses.)
Even if stuff is open source, you still have to be attentive when redistributing it. Copyright notices need to stay intact. Some open source licenses require you to make the source code available as part of your product, etc.
@@BenLubar Yeah I know there's still stuff to consider and be careful about, I'm just glad it's generally not as complicated as Unity or Unreal licenses. Thanks for the heads-up though still.
This is really complicated stuff you explained, (At least to me). No wonder why TRS never added Back 4 Blood modding support if it was the same with them.
I guess most of us were blind by valve source engine modding and free allowence, we think it's that simple for the rest of other engine tools.
There's a thread on the Steam Discussions forum where people are refusing to believe that "just don't use any licensed anything" isn't a viable way to make a video game. And here I am with three games I'm (somewhat) actively maintaining and every single one of them is someone else's IP.
So is there no open source alternatives to those tools? Working in a different software zone, our organization goes out of its way to avoid licensed software for a lot of our work because of a lot of these issues, and it allows our org to pull apart any tool to tweak it if we need to. Obviously there is some stuff you have to license (Security), but I'd find it hard to believe that there's no open source alternatives for other big ticket items given how big the game developer space is these days. Or is the game dev space just so closed off that no studios/developers want to develop and share tools?
But then you are spending all your time not making games... and never make the game. You want mature proven tools to work, get done quickly - the game isn't a means to preservation, the game is to be played.
Nice to know your game is doing well now! Hope other games have a chance to better themselves like yours…
Are you considering going back and reworking some of the later episodes in the game? I feel like after episode 3 or so there's an extreme dip in quality.
Like for example aside from a couple of the set pieces like the part where you travel through sections of vents it just looks so barebones and bland.
Episode 1 generally had a good feeling throughout and my buddies and I could very much consider that the area looked lived in and believable.
Also we ran into an issue during the crescendo event with the three generators in which after we finished all 3 and had access to the small room at the end where you had to hold out, the AI teammate couldn't path into the room and kept trying to jump into one of the areas that the aliens spawn from. We had to let him die to be able to progress.
Edit: Also could you please lower the frequency of the characters spamming the voice lines about using their pulse? It honestly got kinda annoying later on in the game after you get used to the mechanics.
The messages to use your pulse go down as you play more - it's one of the ways to train people. I haven't heard anything similar to ep3 and it continues to be one of the most asked to be played - I am not sure the vents - do you mean ep4?
@@chetfaliszekYeah my mistake, episode 4 had the vents and then the part with the conveyor belt. That part just really lacked a lot of detail imo.
Like I said my buddies and I really enjoyed the first episode a lot, and we'd like to see more of the polish in the later episodes similar to it.
Are you thinking of adding anymore traits to the matter modulator as well? It'd be interesting to see more that would change up playstyles.
VALVE❤
Oops!
Appreciate the update. 👍
I miss the ones with you & Will from back in da day… a year ago. idk time flies but they were good.
Thanks for the info & insight. 🫡