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This is hard to do in a one-size-fits-all fashion because there's a wide range of 2d techniques, tools, and processes available, depending on a multitude of fac

This is hard to do in a one-size-fits-all fashion because there's a wide range of 2d techniques, tools, and processes available, depending on a multitude of factors, some example ones being: - Game genre / mechanics - Your team size/skill sets/experience - Game engine - Target platform(s) - Monetization strategy 2d games in particular support a wide variety possibilities. If you narrow it down I can more easily point you in the direction of specific helpful resources.

throwaway894345 6y ago
Yeah, I guess I'm thinking "hobbyist", so team size of 1 and no monetization strategy. Simple game engine (preferably in Go or Rust or some similarly approachable language; my hobby time is to precious to be writing C/C++ again), but maybe getting into the nitty gritty of game engine is too low-level for the write-up that I'm thinking about. I don't have a specific idea for a game, but I'd probably like to putz around with top-down tilers a la Pokemon or Zelda.
- yumaikas 6y ago
  So, for that, I can easily recommend Godot/GDScript and using Asperite for Pixel art, if that's the aesthetic you're going for. Godot has a little bit of a learning curve, but easily justifies it. I've made some games in it: https://yumaikas.itch.io/ https://yumaikas.itch.io/. Godot, for 2D games, for me, has been a force multiplier in terms of what I can get done in X hours. For Hobbyist work, that just means you can take on more ambitious projects without having to do as much groundwork. Barring that, you could look into bindings in your language of choice to Raylib. I've used a tiny bit of it with Janet via Jaylib. If Lua or Fennel aren't hateful to you, there's always Love2D, TIC-80, or PICO-8. But, tbh, I really recommend learning Godot.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- dmwallin 6y ago
  If you goal is to work on a top down Rpg-style game, as a single developer I would HIGHLY recommend using a tool like RPG Maker (https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/ https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/) Games like Pokemon/Zelda are very content driven and usually don't have any sort of complex systems that require deep access to game engine internals. As someone working solo, you are going to want to spend most of your time creating fun/interesting content. Tools for this genre have been built many times before by people with far more experience building them. If you spend your time rebuilding them yourself, it's a recipe for stalling out without having much to show. If your goal is really to just have fun building out gameplay systems as a programming challenge, I recommend using a lightweight code-oriented scripting language engine. Some good examples in this space are LÖVE (Lua, https://love2d.org/ https://love2d.org/) or Phaser (Javascript, https://phaser.io/ https://phaser.io/). These will allow you to jump right in to building games without needing to learn a graphical UI and are usually more agnostic about how you build your game than fully featured environments. If you prefer the latter, but still want to end up with a finished game at the end, I recommend scoping down from an RPG to something like a Sokoban-style puzzler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban). Use a tool like Puzzlescript (https://www.puzzlescript.net/ https://www.puzzlescript.net/) to prototype your mechanics. Once you've finalized your mechanics you can then recreate it in the engine of your choice and add any polish. Having a playable prototype will make it much clearer what systems you will need to build. Best of luck building!
mattgreenrocks 6y ago
For me, I'm interested in static typing, ECS-ish, fast feedback loops, and 2D games. I've used Unity in the past and mostly liked it, but it is infuriating that they haven't fully solved the problem of feedback loops (slow refresh times in the Unity editor with a small project after code changes) given that they're operating in a fully managed context.

throwaway894345 6y ago

Yeah, I guess I'm thinking "hobbyist", so team size of 1 and no monetization strategy. Simple game engine (preferably in Go or Rust or some similarly approachable language; my hobby time is to precious to be writing C/C++ again), but maybe getting into the nitty gritty of game engine is too low-level for the write-up that I'm thinking about. I don't have a specific idea for a game, but I'd probably like to putz around with top-down tilers a la Pokemon or Zelda.

yumaikas 6y ago
So, for that, I can easily recommend Godot/GDScript and using Asperite for Pixel art, if that's the aesthetic you're going for. Godot has a little bit of a learning curve, but easily justifies it. I've made some games in it: https://yumaikas.itch.io/ https://yumaikas.itch.io/. Godot, for 2D games, for me, has been a force multiplier in terms of what I can get done in X hours. For Hobbyist work, that just means you can take on more ambitious projects without having to do as much groundwork. Barring that, you could look into bindings in your language of choice to Raylib. I've used a tiny bit of it with Janet via Jaylib. If Lua or Fennel aren't hateful to you, there's always Love2D, TIC-80, or PICO-8. But, tbh, I really recommend learning Godot.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
dmwallin 6y ago
If you goal is to work on a top down Rpg-style game, as a single developer I would HIGHLY recommend using a tool like RPG Maker (https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/ https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/) Games like Pokemon/Zelda are very content driven and usually don't have any sort of complex systems that require deep access to game engine internals. As someone working solo, you are going to want to spend most of your time creating fun/interesting content. Tools for this genre have been built many times before by people with far more experience building them. If you spend your time rebuilding them yourself, it's a recipe for stalling out without having much to show. If your goal is really to just have fun building out gameplay systems as a programming challenge, I recommend using a lightweight code-oriented scripting language engine. Some good examples in this space are LÖVE (Lua, https://love2d.org/ https://love2d.org/) or Phaser (Javascript, https://phaser.io/ https://phaser.io/). These will allow you to jump right in to building games without needing to learn a graphical UI and are usually more agnostic about how you build your game than fully featured environments. If you prefer the latter, but still want to end up with a finished game at the end, I recommend scoping down from an RPG to something like a Sokoban-style puzzler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban). Use a tool like Puzzlescript (https://www.puzzlescript.net/ https://www.puzzlescript.net/) to prototype your mechanics. Once you've finalized your mechanics you can then recreate it in the engine of your choice and add any polish. Having a playable prototype will make it much clearer what systems you will need to build. Best of luck building!

mattgreenrocks 6y ago

For me, I'm interested in static typing, ECS-ish, fast feedback loops, and 2D games. I've used Unity in the past and mostly liked it, but it is infuriating that they haven't fully solved the problem of feedback loops (slow refresh times in the Unity editor with a small project after code changes) given that they're operating in a fully managed context.