LÖVE

My first game ever was a simple pong game, but I started getting into lua and Love2D in general and want to make many more simple games and experiment with some of my ideas. I would like to know how you guys got started with love and how you get your inspiration to fuel you're imagination.

At the staring I've learned the cellular automatons then neural networks and than just normal classic games with interesting mechanics.

For me it has boiled down to a single question: If I don't do it, who will?
For quite some years, I tried to get involved in group projects, or build teams to make games. However, because no money or real commitment was involved, those projects fell apart, so I just picked up the slack and started doing most everything myself. I just wanted to program, but had to learn to do the visuals myself, too. Later I had the funds to bring more people on board, but that was only after I had laid down the groundwork, and had something to show for it.

H.P Lovecraft's CommonPlace Book is a great source for ideas for adventure games, it has brief descriptive paragraphs with a story idea.
https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Commonplace_Book

There's a Flash game we did for a Lovecraft themed contest in 2007 called Handyman Wanted based on entry 135..

Hideous world superimposed on visible world—gate through—power guides narrator to ancient and forbidden book with directions for access.

The game has pretty much disappeared now but ever since I have planned to re do it.. I keep saying that, there's been many attempts in various game engines over the years!

I usually make projects to see what I'm capable of. It usually starts with a new discovery (like learning how to do networking) and then I think about how I can implement this new found knowledge into something "usable".
As for other ideas for game themes, I'm often inspired by other games I play, music I listen to and often I look for favorite moments from my childhood. If I would to make a story based game, it would probably take place around the same time of me growing up, but with certain elements amplified to get a unique theme (for example: a game that takes place in early 2000's, but the culture and technology went a different way).
Those ideas are much bigger in scale, so I don't have enough time and resources to finish any of these, so for now I'm sticking with pushing my limits with simpler games.

GreffMASTER wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:23 pm I usually make projects to see what I'm capable of. It usually starts with a new discovery (like learning how to do networking) and then I think about how I can implement this new found knowledge into something "usable".

Yeah I do that, I have a load of test projects, trying to combine them has been on going for over a decade, in different engines, it's current state done in Love2D is probably the most refined, but now I'm thinking a simple ide would be nice, but that's probably more down to the fact I have no story or art work to expand the idea beyond the graphics I already have and I no longer have the 3D scene I originally rendered.... DOH!
I enjoy the challenge of getting an idea working and share if it works
My game is a early Myst style adventure, I've refined the ui control scripting and scene handling so it's as simple as possible... I just added hotspots using rgb values rather than polygon shapes, similar to AGS or Pipmak

I make things I like to pay. I like games that involve simple recursive systems with simple rules that produce complex results. Sometimes I'll be reading a book (fiction or non-fiction) and that seems to be the source of most of my ideas. recently became interested in markets and financial systems.