hello,
I currently work on a fantasy 2D RTS game. can't share to many details yet, due to pending trademarks and early stage of development etc...
but I'd like to get some feedback for the soundtracks I made so far for my game (more are comming, the soundtrack isn't complete)
just wanna be sure I am on the "right way" to make proper RTS music.
here you go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmVRUxzSPac
all the drawings and music you see in the video is done 100% by myself and should give you a rough idea for the artstyle I try to hit.
ofc nothing is final and everything is subject to change.
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I'm not sure what the right way is to say this, but I think you're naive about what it'll take to finish a game. RTS games are pretty dependent on your programming chops and on the capabilities of your engine, whereas it looks like you're focused on art and music. Have you thought about trying something more content-focused, like a VN or a dialog-focused RPG? You'd still be able to use a lot of the assets you've already made, and the project would be a lot more tractible for what you seem to be doing.
I work in IT for now 15 years. I already got the basic engine sorted out froms cratch in c# and dx11.
my main "issue" is the art. currently working on amimating the sprites and by god it's tedious.
in case you think I am LARPing
I got a game engine, I know to 2 do assets. I jsut wanna know if I I am in the "right direction" redoing THOUSANDS of individal frames years down the road would suck hard
This screenshot is definitely "good enough" visually for an independent strategy game (which is to say I've paid for worse-looking games and kept them). If you're worried about "future proofing" your assets, maybe use SVG and bake that to whatever your sprite size is? you're using flat colors anyways. Some people (think Dead Cells) go completely the other way and make 3d models for ease of posing and then bake those animations to 2d. This also lets you potentially mix up the style later by changing one shader instead of having to redo everything. You could do it without changing your engine, too - you'd just build a separate pipeline that renders glTF/FBX to png/bmp/whatever you're using. Both options could work for you and might be easier than hand-building thousands of single-resolution frames.
For the music, I think it's again, "good enough" for independent strategy. It's pretty campy and I'd probably just mute it / put on my own stuff, but I think a lot of people would be charmed by the "sound font orchestral" style. I do think you'll run into a wall if you want to go higher fidelity than what you've already made, but you can easily spend decades learning music production; probably not what you want to rat-hole on.
Personally, I really do think that RTS is one of those genres where you want the game to feel good/interesting to play if you replace all of the characters with circles and all of the terrain with random blotches of color. That's why I mentioned technical chops earlier. I've returned a lot of games that looked beautiful in stills and then had poor character control or awkward jittering or otherwise felt bad to play.
it's shit
You're climbing the tree ass-first. All the art investments will be wasted if your gameplay mechanics is shit.
Sounds good, kinda reminds me of the Warcraft2 kind of pompous OST that made it fun to sit around and keep on playing for long hours
yeah my creative goal is to make a "better" war2 in every aspect.
not a "we've got war2 at home" but a guinly better game with modern standards
Music's alright though a little bit generic. And you don't need good graphics to rake in money from autists if the game is good. You certainly don't need to finalise the visuals right now. Look at Dominions which has basically only 2 frames for each unit. Or AI war which basically doesn't even have animations. Might be best to stick to programming and game design and not invest too heavily into something you'll throw away. Just use them as placeholders for the next couple of years. Trust me you will be redoing the graphics and probably the whole art direction.
I noticed one thing when I started working it on like 6 months ago: code is the part the "ages" the worst. and making 2d assets takes a shit ton of time for me. to fully animate a infantry unit is like 4 weeks for me. I have arround 30 units planned. so yeah you can do the math.
instead of writing to much code, which I would have to port to newer versions of my development toolchain I rather do the art first which doesn't really age since I make it in a high enough("future proof") resolution in the first place.
Had it on in the background while reading other boards, it all sounds good, but there was nothing that really stuck in my head, or jumped out and made me replay that segment. Conversely there was nothing that made me skip a song, or annoyed me.
Having only passively listened to it once and remembering nothing special about it other than it had harps and bells in it (Both which I love), I would rate it a 6 or 7 out of 10 using the whole scale. If you want to improve it, I would tell you to study similar soundtracks that make use of the same instruments and "feels", like Heroes 2 (grasslands theme).
Just don't add Pianos (harpsicords or earlier are better) or accustic guitars if you redo the songs.
I'll give it a couple more passive listens and see if I can come up with something else.
yeah. the being "generic" thing probabbly comes from that I never learned music properly and a complete lack in music theory for myself.
all I know about music I taught myself when I started to study .midi files from old 90s era DOS games back in 2013.
still can't read sheet music to this day for example. only piano roll
nobody really gives a shit
make the gameplay good, art is secondary
Actually, the first thing RTStists on this board always complain about is muh graphix.
RTS gameplay is no rocket science either - you mine resources, train units, destroy enemies, complain about braindead pathing, struggle with glitches. Might as well make it look good.
>RTS gameplay is no rocket science
It's a dead genre with people still playing the same gaymes they have been playing for over 20 years. See how even games made by big teams with huge funding and marketing and even branding can fail massively, such as AoE IV, because all the little demand there is is already covered by two or three legacy games.
Honestly, I like it. It sounds nice and yea it's giving off Warcraft 2 vibes. But definitely agree that gameplay is the most important thing. Still I'm really looking forward to hearing more about your project!
I wonder, if you are trying to be a better game than Warcraft 2, do you intend on adding a naval component to the gameplay? Will there be air units? Basically I'd like to hear more about the big decision choices for the gameplay
naval units are cut. I have countless times tested concepts over the past 13 years via war3 custom maps to make naval units suck less, nothing really worked out. they are just kinda boring, and I rather focus on really good land combat.
I kinda throw the towel on that one tbh.
Air units will be there, but more as a ultimate engame unit.
one thing I really try to achieve is somewhat accurate representation of muzzle-loaded black powder weapons. so very slow reloads, accuracy depending on distance to target, but if it hits a unit the unit is pretty much dead (depending on the unit ofc you wont oneshot like a big magical dragon with a single musketeer)
also making cavalery matter. not just "faster" units but like actual charge mechanics á la a total war game.
also magic in the game is not mana based, but bound to a global (i.e. shared between ALL players/AIs) "magic" bar and if that bar fills up, the map goes into a "magical disturbance" mode special events can happen to magic users. also expect every single spell to have a cooldown since, no mana bars.
can't share to many details yet, because it can and will change.
My goal is to have a playable demo by december to show off those concepts. if it's done I gonna make a post here again.
I play my RTS games with the music off.
And visually speaking, I mostly concentrate on the strategic icons if the game has them.
Historia Civilis the videgoame
>archdutchess