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    Home Unlabelled Tip: Secure your social media presence BEFORE registering your game's web domain

    Tip: Secure your social media presence BEFORE registering your game's web domain

    July 12, 2018

    Tip: Secure your social media presence BEFORE registering your game's web domain

    Tip: Secure your social media presence BEFORE registering your game's web domain

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 01:56 AM PDT

    TLDR: Securing account names on social media is free. You should do it before you proceed to register a domain name, which costs money.

    I've learned it the hard way that registering a domain name for your new game shouldn't be your first step: you should make sure you register and control the same name on most relevant social media sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and you should proceed to the domain registration only after these accounts are yours.

    Why? Here's what happened to me.

    I wanted to secure a web presence for my upcoming game (still in gestation phase), so I went ahead and registered a <mygamename>.com domain on GoDaddy.

    I've spent maybe an hour with configuring a placeholder website on DigitalOcean, when the thought has occured to me that the game should also be present on Twitter. (Obviously, I'm not a very experienced solo dev, and marketing/PR isn't my forte. ;)

    Alas, the name I've picked was already registered there -- the same day, and of course the account had no posts and no followers whatsoever.

    It's hardly a coincidence. It's much more likely that there are applications, created by malicious people, constantly monitoring the new domain registries (it's suggested by posters here that this can only happen at the registrar companies, which is an interesting technical detail but it doesn't really change what I'm recommending). Since creating a social media account doesn't cost a penny, they'll try to do this for every new entry on those lists, hoping that people would be forced to purchase these "kidnapped" accounts from them. Now, I don't negotiate with terrorists, so I just let that Twitter account rot.

    A few months have passed since, and the kidnapped Twitter account is now suspended without any detailed explanation. It's logical to assume I wasn't the first to experience a "fetus account name kidnap" and Twitter has disabled that account because it was indeed created by a bot. When I've tried to sign up with that name, I only saw a generic "error" message, so this particular account name is probably unavailable, maybe forever. I might check on it later again, but for now I'm simply focusing my efforts on actually producing my 2nd game and thought others might benefit from my case so that's why I've shared it. (If anyone has any tips on how I might recover this lost account name, please let me know.)

    Let's make games, and don't negotiate with terrorists! :)

    submitted by /u/SandorHQ
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    Epic Announces Unreal Engine Marketplace 88% / 12% Revenue Share

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 07:18 AM PDT

    It started as a hobby, now my robot battling game is launching on Steam!

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 09:46 AM PDT

    Launched my first alpha trailer to go with my steam page launch!

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 06:28 AM PDT

    "The shoemaker's children go barefoot", or, How can I work on my personal projects after 40+ weekly hours of programming?

    Posted: 11 Jul 2018 04:50 PM PDT

    Sorry for the verbose title, but I hope it helps me explain my situation a bit better. I'm a programmer at a mobile game development company, currently working 40+ hours a week on developing the company's products. I enjoy my current position, feel comfortable both in terms of responsibility and more so in terms of salary. However, this is not the peak of what I wish to achieve as a developer. I want to work on my own personal projects, however small they may be.

    There's a saying in my country, similar to the one on the title, that roughly translates to "The blacksmith only has wooden knifes in his kitchen". I work on programming most of my waking time. The very idea of sitting down at home and coding, even for my own beloved personal projects, tires me beyond comparison, although I know I like programming. This is no mystery, I'm just saturated from working on this area all day, and my mind simply can't take another bite of it once I'm resting at home.

    I believe that one line of code is better than none, and if I can slowly but surely get my projects going, the idea of sitting down and working on them may seem less daunting every time. All I need is the right tools to get started. My question to you, then, is how you have dealt with saturation like this (if you have), and what tools are at my disposal to retain some motivation after work, to make the concept of sitting down and coding at home a bit more friendly and not so tiring.

    Thank you for your time! :D

    submitted by /u/Naiduren
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    How User Interface of Game Development Tools is being produced

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 07:26 AM PDT

    Unity3d - Volumetric Light Tutorial

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 07:13 AM PDT

    David Bishop is doing an AMA. He has worked as a producer or designer on games like Bombuzal, Dune, The 7th Guest, Disney’s Aladdin, Jungle Book, Cool Spot and the mobile versions of Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, etc. • r/IAmA

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 09:47 AM PDT

    Ninja Theory dominates the Develop Awards

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 06:00 AM PDT

    Cambridge-based developer Ninja Theory struck it big last night at the Develop Awards, winning studio of the year and taking home three others.

    Although recently acquired by Microsoft, the formerly independent developer was also won best indie studio award, along with best narrative design and best music design for Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

    Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris were the only others to receive multiple awards, winning both best animation and best visual design for Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

    Electronic Arts executive Jade Raymond was recognised for her trailblazing endeavours across her 20-year career with the inaugural Vanguard Award.

    Creative Assembly was recognised as the best major studio, while Runner Duck Games won the best new studio award, and Team17 the publishing hero award.

    Supermassive Games won the award for gameplay innovation for their PlayLink title Hidden Agenda, and DICE won the best sound design award for Star Wars Battlefront II.

    The award for best engine went to Epic for the Unreal Engine, and Amazon Web Services won the best technology provider award.

    Finally, Amquis won the award for best recruitment agency, while the awards for best creative outsourcer went to RealtimeUK (visual and development), and Soundcuts (audio); Testronic won the award for QA localisation.

    submitted by /u/Dark_Crystal_Games
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    When is a games dialogue (or motion capture scenes) typically recorded?

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 07:23 AM PDT

    Might be a bit of a silly question but I was wondering when these things would take place? Before, during, after main development? I know a rough idea of the story/dialogue would already be made prior to recording.

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/Windmill-
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    Thought: We should take advantage of our icons and update them more frequently to promote special events.

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 05:46 AM PDT

    The game, Fortnite, on Nintendo Switch has updated their game icon to promote Season 5.

    This is the original icon upon release:

    https://nintendowire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FortniteSwitch.jpg

    And this is the current icon that was updated recently:

    https://i.redd.it/wafkbeyg9h911.jpg

    That got me thinking, why aren't we taking advantages of our own game assets that are front-facing towards the users, and update them more frequently so they would know the game is receiving some updates, and the developers are promoting special events?

    It's a good way to entice the users.

    Just throwing my thoughts out there.

    submitted by /u/asperatology
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    Implementing player knock-back without losing complete control over the character?

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 09:09 AM PDT

    Hi /r/gamedev,

    I'm trying to figure out how to introduce a knock-back system where I get to keep my snappy player movement. The snappy behaviour I'm talking about: https://imgur.com/a/wdCT431 (player character can change direction without the need to lose/gain momentum, character will come to a complete stop when directional input is released)

    I would like to have a knock-back system where the player's input has only about 10% effect on the velocity at high speeds (this happens when initially knocked-back) and regaining control of the character when the character nears it's "normal" moving/jumping speed. This is lot like the knock-back system in Super Smash Brothers: https://imgur.com/a/DTCkndg

    Currently if I apply a force to the player character it will only move vertically, because I overwrite the x-velocity each frame according to the player's input. Only if the player itself tries to move to the left or right it will move horizontally.

    I tried using a boolean that is true when the player character is being knocked-back. During this knock-back period the player loses complete control over the character so that I can apply a force without it being overwritten by the player's input. Demonstrated here: https://imgur.com/a/oNPDIxr However this is not the desired effect.

    Any ideas on how to achieve this? There's no need for code. I would love to hear how you'd implement this!

    Kind regards, Jake

    submitted by /u/JakeFlavour
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    4d snake game

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 12:06 PM PDT

    Publishing my first (HTML5) game. Where to publish and how to proceed?

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 12:44 AM PDT

    I have a puzzle game that I've been working on and I'm getting close to finishing it. I'm wondering what resources to use to gain an audience and perhaps earn some (modest) revenue. I've heard of gamepix, itch.io, and gamejolt as places to publish but I'm not sure what the community thinks of them. This is my first time publishing any game, so any advice will be appreciated.

    (Also as a sidequestion: my game has a level editor included. If I end up publishing using one of these third party sites, will there be a way for users to 'share' and play each others created levels?).

    submitted by /u/itBlimp1
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    Weapon Table

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 10:56 AM PDT

    Hello everyone!
    I'm working on a little game project this summer. RPG-style and all that. Now cause there are multiple weapons you should be able to pick up in this game with different stats. So i've been wondering how and where the best way to approach like a constant table between the weapons visual asset idx and its path. So that i can load the correct prefab each time.

    The weapons are generated randomly so theres no specific weapon with a specific visual, it's all random, hence why id like to pick a random from a range and check the idx with the tables path to that idx.

    Thank you for reading and possibly awnsering!

    submitted by /u/Hocat
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    Trying to pick a game engine for rapid prototypes of a 2d game

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 10:36 AM PDT

    I'm working my way through "The Art of Game Design" and really liked the idea of rapid prototyping as an essential part of game development. I'm trying to figure out what game engine to use for this purpose. I've done quite a bit of searching to get some ideas and what people think about various engines. One of the main challenges I've encountered is that this space seems to be evolving quite rapidly, and most of the search results seem to be somewhat older (a year or more). Now, I realize that at some point I'm just going to have to pick one and go with it, and I've probably already spent more time thinking about this than I would've saved by finding the "optimal" choice, but as a newbie to game design I'm really curious to get a sense of what is the state of the art (or even just flavor of the month) in game prototyping at the current moment, so I'm not looking for a "stop thinking about it and just make a game!" sort of answer.

    Here's my situation:

    • I'm a software engineer so I don't care if I have to learn a language. I mainly work with Java and JS but I already have experience with Python, C#, and C++. However, I would like to avoid Lua as a primary language because I've become so accustomed to certain language features that I think are lacking in Lua (as wonderfully portable as it is).
    • Targeting desktop (Windows, OSX, Linux)
    • It only needs to support 2d.
    • I want something well suited for rapid prototyping, even if it means giving up things that I would want in a "final" game.
    • I'd like the engine to be able to access to certain native OS abstractions, such as being able to launch a command-line script like batch or bash. If that's not possible, then at least being able to do some sort of inter process communication such as a local socket or named pipe would be nice. For my particular game, I need to be able to launch an external application (which can be started using the command line) and switch focus to it, and then switch back once the external application exits. If the engine itself does not support the ability to launch a child process (such as executing a command-line script), then I can certainly write a "parent" process which performs that task on behalf of the engine as long as the engine supports the ability to do inter-process communication, but I would prefer to avoid having to do this. If the engine supports the ability to execute a command-line script (batch on Win, bash on Linux / OSX) it would save me some time.

    Here's some of the things I'm looking for / not looking for as I've been evaluating engines. Let me know if any of this seems wrong:

    • GUI-based tools as opposed to being purely scripted.For example, being able to quickly put together UI / scenes / laying out stuff in general. I get the impression that a GUI based engine will make prototyping much faster, but I am open to being convinced that a pure code engine can achieve similar results. I just find it hard to believe that manually positioning things in code (setting X and Y coordinates, size, etc...) could actually be faster than being able to do that sort of thing visually (as you can in Game Maker, Unity, etc...)
    • A very fast loop for making and evaluating changes. Ideally, being able to make changes while a game is running, but I can give this up if as long as the engine makes it really easy to tweak things without having to wait a long time to evaluate the result
    • Engines / languages which are highly used in game jams seem like good candidates (assuming that people are using them because they are suitable for rapid development and not just because they want to learn them)

    Here's what I've encountered so far and my analysis. Feel free to let me know if I have the wrong impression of any of these:

    • GameMaker Studio 2. I like how much stuff is already built into it (sprite stuff, collision stuff, etc...) but I don't like the price nor GML. In particular, I dislike how GML lacks a notion of objects or even structs.
    • Libgdx. I like that it is Java based (that's my best language) and seems to have a good-sized community and lots of info, making it easier for me to pick up. It also supports JVM hot swapping so I theoretically should be able to change things as the game is running (though I have no idea how well that actually works in practice). However, it seems to be purely code based. I worry that this will really hurt my ability to work on the more visual aspects of my game, like UI stuff. Libgdx would also make it easy to launch and switch focus to an external app (java Executor class). I also think that I will use libgdx as my final game engine, so it might be easier to develop my game if I use this for prototyping.
    • Cocos2d. I like that it has cocos creator for a GUI tool, but I am put off by the apparent lack of quality documentation and I get the impression that the framework is somewhat buggy. I am not sure how feature rich cocos creator is relative to the UI tools in Godot, GameMaker, etc...and I suspect it is probably less feature rich than those.
    • LÖVE. It's lua based and purely scripted. The lack of GUI makes me suspicious, as does the fact that I would have to use Lua. I've seen it recommended for prototyping in a few places, however.
    • Godot. It seems to have a lot of stuff built in, including a wealth of GUI tools. I haven't looked into this one as much as the others but my initial impression makes me really lean towards it. However, through all of my searching, I only just found out about it in like one discussion. And I'm not sure if all of that functionality is suitable for prototyping. So I'm just not sure why I haven't seen it recommended very much.
    • Unity / Unreal. I don't think these are the right fit for a 2d game. I get the impression that it is well suited for 3d games but it would be a little hacky to use it for a sprite-based 2d game.

    At the time of writing, I am leaning towards Godot (the amount of tools it comes with seems like it would be really useful for prototyping, but I'm not sure how well they actually support that particular usage or if they're only really useful for "final" development and I'm not sure how well Godot supports being able to execute command line scripts) or Libgdx (I like Java, it supports executing command line scripts, and the wealth of documentation / community, but I am hesitant about the lack of GUI tools and not so sure how well JVM hot swapping will work out for being able to rapidly iterate).

    Any suggestions from people who have worked with these for prototyping or done a similar analysis? Does Godot's toolchain work well for prototyping? Does libgdx even make sense as a prototyping engine, or is the lack of GUI tools a dealbreaker?

    submitted by /u/chairbendr
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    Teaser for my upcoming space themed endless runner for iOS. Been working on this for over a year. Hoping to get some feedback.

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 06:42 AM PDT

    Is cocos2d still a thing? If not, what do you recommend for JS based casual mobile gamedev?

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 04:25 AM PDT

    Hi. Trying to get started on cocos2d (JS version) but I wonder whether it's a worthwhile time investment. There are hardly any tutorials to get you started - the Dr Mario one that ends after 2 pages or the snake and ladders one from 2015. There is no documentation. In fact the links to the JS section of the docs are broken. I consider not caring about the main links in your homepage as a red flag that tells me the project is in a downwards spiral.

    Am I right in thinking that cocos2d's best days are behind it, or is there a lot of documentation I have missed? And if I am right, what do you recommend as a JS-based platform for developing casual games (Candy Crush or card trading games, no involved 3d). Thanks

    submitted by /u/our_best_friend
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    Drawing and writing app for making Game Design documents?

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 06:34 AM PDT

    Looking for something like Google Docs that maybe lets me draw like Im using a real paper pencil.

    Keeping it organized, online, and easily editable is a priority.

    Tried Trello and Google Docs mostly just want a docs with draw support.

    Thanks and sorry if its in some super obvious place i missed.

    submitted by /u/Cowsepu
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    Steam Blog :: Improvements to the "Upcoming" tab on Steam

    Posted: 11 Jul 2018 03:00 PM PDT

    Google Play put my game on #7 in Trending Arcade games with only 15 downloads.

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 09:26 AM PDT

    First i want to introduce myself, before i tell you what happened.. I am Alex and i finished second year of computer science college. I browse r/gamedev , r/Unity3D and r/unrealengine every day and i still think of myself as a beginner. Since i was a kid i loved playing video games and after I finished High school i decided i want to become a programmer and start working in the game industry. So i knew that I must start making some games in order to have nice portfolio when i finish college.

    So long story short, i published few games on Google Play, and they were pretty bad and they didn't get many downloads. So I decided that I am going to put a lot more effort and hours into the next game i publish, which i did.. I worked on this game for about 4 months in my free time and 4 days ago i finally published it on Google Play. I only shared it with about 15 good friends of mine and about 13 of them gave me 5 star review.. So i went to Google Play page of my game and i saw this

    So i first thought it was just some weird bug in their algorithm and i refreshed the page couple of times, but it stayed there.. So I decided i want to still be in trending so i made post on 9gag and my game got downloaded 250 times in the next 24 hours (that was about the number of upvotes on my post, so i think all of those downloads came from 9gag users).. They gave me great reviews and showed great support, but now my game is on #13 place..

    I hope this was interesting story to some of you, because i never thought you could get promoted in Google Play store with only 15 downloads. Every game in top 10 had between 10k and 10 million downloads.

    submitted by /u/alleksar
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    How did they program the ball in the new iOS game "I'm ping pong King"?

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 09:06 AM PDT

    I can't post the link to the game here due to the subreddit roles, but a quick search will show you a video of the game. I'm really interested in how the programmers of the game were able to make such a fluid and dynamic (in terms of physics) ping pong ball in a completely 2D environment. How did they get it to know where to bounce, and what parabolic trajectories it should take?

    Does anyone have any idea how they were able to program/design such a ball? I'd like to learn.

    submitted by /u/Wiggleman45
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    Stylus Pen

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 08:34 AM PDT

    Hey everyone, first time posting here. I am a programming who is looking to start developing a game. I am taking a course on digital art and was wondering what people use here. I have a Dell Inspiron 15-7579, and it folds into a tablet, so I was going to use that to draw on, but I don't even know where to start when it comes to stylus or even software to use. My minimal photo editing skills allow me to use GIMP, can that be used as far as software or is there something else I should be using?

    submitted by /u/ddmac__
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    cupball party

    Posted: 12 Jul 2018 08:04 AM PDT
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