Creating a mobile idle game?

LatteIsHorse · Sep 2021

Hi,

I've been thinking of challenging myself with making a mobile game like Penguin Isle myself, but I need some advice on it.

My background is 3D modelling/environment art and has created FPS environment in UE4 before.

However, I don't really know where to start with idle games.

First, I think many idle games have a fixed landscape increase to certain levels, and I assume they add area asset to the levels.

But what I want to try is to randomly increase the size of the land to increase of the levels if it makes sense.

I'm sure there should be a way to achieve it, but I just haven't really set this kind of environment up before.

Second, I've done some research but people didn't really recommend creating idle games in UE4.

Is there any specific reason for this or would it worth taking the challenge in UE4?

I think I'm being a bit unclear, but what I need in the end is some advice on how it would work or some resources that I could access online.

Thank you!

LatteIsHorse · Sep 2021

To add more, I want to make something like Abyssrium or My Oasis, so just any advice on making games like these would be great!

sacboi · Sep 2021

To be honest on the face of it, not that much of a challenge...

Anyway to begin with:

https://www.gamedesigning.org/learn/clicker-games/

'Clickers' have been around for a while, hence a progressive saturation of 'Cookie Clicker' crap mobile clones floating about the ether plus using UE would be overkill for what essentially is a 2D sprite game also Unity would most probably more than suffice, as well.

Learning stuff:

Udemy or here.

LatteIsHorse · Sep 2021

sacboi said:

To be honest on the face of it, not that much of a challenge...

Anyway to begin with:
https://www.gamedesigning.org/learn/clicker-games/

'Clickers' have been around for a while, hence a progressive saturation of 'Cookie Clicker' crap mobile clones floating about the ether plus using UE would be overkill for what essentially is a 2D sprite game also Unity would most probably more than suffice, as well.

Learning stuff:
Udemy or here.

Ah ha! Yes, the scripting bit is where it would be challenging for me since I've only used blueprint before.

Time to switch into Unity then.

Anyway, your links for learning stuff are very helpful, thank you!

Alex_J · Sep 2021

I wouldn't necessarily jump to unity.

I've used both a fair bit but am still in the beginner zone, and I think unreal is much more beginner/artist friendly. Namely because of blueprints integration with the engine.

Unity does seem like the go-to choice for mobile and 2d games though that's not an area I know anything about. But with unity you don't have a robust, in-built visual scripting language. (technically you do now have bolt, but unitys tools in general aren't as battle-test as unreal, so then when you are a beginner and something unexpected happens, it is very difficult and time consuming to figure out if it's a bug or user error. In general I have found that Unreal keeps me productive 90% of the time, whereas in unity I spent more time troubleshooting and generally fighting the engine.)

Of course you can learn to write text code but if you are like me, that extra layer of abstraction plus the need to deal with a lot more pedantic detail makes the learning go much slower.

My problems with unity were related to 3d game performance but the general premise that "unity is the engine for noobs" I think isn't true anymore, or at least hasn't been the case in my experience.

Anyway, I can't give any specific advice for your case but I had to learn the hard way that the conventional wisdom about engines isn't necessarily true, so I just make a point so you might have more open mind when evaluating tools.

LatteIsHorse · Sep 2021

Alex_J said:

I wouldn't necessarily jump to unity.

I've used both a fair bit but am still in the beginner zone, and I think unreal is much more beginner/artist friendly. Namely because of blueprints integration with the engine.

Unity does seem like the go-to choice for mobile and 2d games though that's not an area I know anything about. But with unity you don't have a robust, in-built visual scripting language. (technically you do now have bolt, but unitys tools in general aren't as battle-test as unreal, so then when you are a beginner and something unexpected happens, it is very difficult and time consuming to figure out if it's a bug or user error. In general I have found that Unreal keeps me productive 90% of the time, whereas in unity I spent more time troubleshooting and generally fighting the engine.)

Of course you can learn to write text code but if you are like me, that extra layer of abstraction plus the need to deal with a lot more pedantic detail makes the learning go much slower.

My problems with unity were related to 3d game performance but the general premise that "unity is the engine for noobs" I think isn't true anymore, or at least hasn't been the case in my experience.

Anyway, I can't give any specific advice for your case but I had to learn the hard way that the conventional wisdom about engines isn't necessarily true, so I just make a point so you might have more open mind when evaluating tools.

That is really helpful!

I did do some research on Unity today since the last time I've tried to use it was ages ago and I've been settled with Unreal after I've got familiar with it easier than Unity.

I'm bit lost with how the engine works at the moment and your advice certainly helps.

And yes, productivity is what makes me keep going so I will definitely consider your points too.

Thank you!

Creating a mobile idle game?

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