Ex WoW dev on why game ideas are worthless

I am programming a basic 2d pool game but am having some issues with the physics. All collisions work perfectly except in the circumstance when a ball only just grazes the edge of another ball, causing a sort of slingshot/curve effect or the still ball to move in the incorrect direction and I'm unsure why. Here is the code for correcting overlaps which i think may be the issue:

void PhysicsHandler::CheckForCollisions(std::vector < Ball * > &balls) { for (unsigned int i = 0; i < balls.size() - 1; i++) { // Only check unique pairs of Balls for (unsigned int j = i + 1; j < balls.size(); j++) { //check distance between balls float distance = DistanceBetween(balls[i]->GetPosition(), balls[j]->GetPosition()); float overlap = 0.5f * (distance - balls[i]->GetSize().x - balls[i]->GetSize().x); if (distance < (balls[j]->GetSize().x * 2) ) // If distance between Balls is less than 2* radius, collision has occurred { glm::vec3 ball1StartingPosition = balls[i]->GetPosition(); glm::vec3 ball2StartingPosition = balls[j]->GetPosition(); handleCollision(balls[i], balls[j]); balls[i]->SetPosition(ball1StartingPosition - ((overlap * (ball1StartingPosition - ball2StartingPosition) / (distance)))); balls[j]->SetPosition(ball2StartingPosition - ((overlap * (ball2StartingPosition - ball1StartingPosition) / (distance)))); } } } } void PhysicsHandler::handleCollision(Ball * A, Ball * B) { float Distance = sqrt((A->GetPosition().x - B->GetPosition().x) * (A->GetPosition().x - B->GetPosition().x) + (A->GetPosition().y - B->GetPosition().y) * (A->GetPosition().y - B->GetPosition().y)); float NormalX = (B->GetPosition().x - A->GetPosition().x) / Distance; float NormalY = (B->GetPosition().y - A->GetPosition().y) / Distance; float NormalA = A->getVelocity().x * NormalX + A->getVelocity().y * NormalY; float NormalB = B->getVelocity().x * NormalX + B->getVelocity().y * NormalY; float TangentX = -NormalY; float TangentY = NormalX; float TangentalA = A->getVelocity().x * TangentX + A->getVelocity().y * TangentY; float TangentalB = B->getVelocity().x * TangentX + B->getVelocity().y * TangentY; float MomentumA = (NormalA * (A->getMass() - B->getMass()) + 2 * B->getMass() * NormalB) / (A->getMass() + B->getMass()); float MomentumB = (NormalB * (B->getMass() - A->getMass()) + 2 * A->getMass() * NormalA) / (A->getMass() + B->getMass()); A->setVelocityX(TangentX * TangentalA + NormalX * MomentumA, A->spin.x); A->setVelocityY(TangentY * TangentalA + NormalY * MomentumA, A->spin.y); B->setVelocityX(TangentX * TangentalB + NormalX * MomentumB, B->spin.x); B->setVelocityY(TangentY * TangentalB + NormalY * MomentumB, B->spin.y); AudioHandler::getInstance()->PlaySound("ballscollide", 80.0f); }

There's also a gif here showing the problem:

https://i.redd.it/mt5f4i75mio21.gif

Any help would be massively appreciated!

submitted by /u/bamfdan
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Creating Characters And Abilities From Popular Video Games - Setup - Unity Tutorial

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 12:23 PM PDT

submitted by /u/natemi10
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ETHEREAL won an IGF award last week!!!

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 12:19 PM PDT

So yeah... this really happened last week at the IGF/GDC awards, held during the Game Developers Conference:

Tomi gave part of his acceptance speech in our native language - spanish!

The whole thing was truly amazing, just being nominated for Excellence in Audio, for us, was incredible.. and now we just couldn't be happier! Thanks to all of you that took time to vote for us!

ETHEREAL is currently available for PC and Mac! < click here to watch the trailer and/or find the links to the stores

Here you have a couple of screenshots from the game:

The whole challenge in ETHEREAL is to find your path in those intricate levels... you can think of it as a series of navigation puzzles...

Every world you are going to explore in the game has a series of distinctive mechanics, some of them are known mechanics with new consequences!

Those hand-crafted puzzles are based on a series of mechanics that you will need to learn in order to progress later on...

A mechanic that allows you to rotate the character movement 90°... basically you will find two levels in one!

If you want to know more, please ask! Or go to www.nonsensearts.com... you should find everything there!

Also, we are currently figuring out the possibility of launching the game on other platforms (is only available on PC and Mac for the time being)... so any advice / contact of interest related to that is also very welcome :)

So that's all! Thanks again!

submitted by /u/cabezotta
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Localizations Comparison (EN, DE, FR, PL) and Lessons Learned

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 12:05 PM PDT

Processing gif b0iwuspmgio21...

Hey Folks!

As we have recently localized our app into another language, I wanted to share some comparison GIFs and sliders for you to check out. It might come in handy when designing User Interface for your game, as not everything can be predicted from the start.

On the 10th of March, our game received an update that added French translations to the game. There's no voice-acting in our game, so we only localized the text. There were approximately 2500 words to translate. We were doing all localizations (DE, FR, PL) by ourselves so far.

https://i.redd.it/gqsgyqkpgio21.png

[EN/PL] Campaign Comparison Slider

In the beginning, we have created a Google Spreadsheet with all the keys and added a fancy summary sheet to keep track of the progress and make it easy for us and future translators to navigate.

[EN/PL] Localization Spreadsheet

One of the first things we've learned when testing the localizations is how important it is to choose an appropriate font. When designing UI, make sure that the font you're using supports other languages. Although our font looked like a proper one for fantasy games, it didn't support other languages than English. We could either choose another one or forget about ä, ö, ü and ß.

https://i.redd.it/hyzlcghvgio21.png

[EN/DE] Pick Screen Comparison Slider

It became clear pretty early that we also need to keep the length of the phrases similar. With languages such as German or French, it proved to be a real challenge and sometimes we had to slightly change the context of the sentence or make it more epic, so it could fit in the box and remain possible to read.

You also need to remember, that Google Play requires you to localize the store page and all of the future update notes into the languages that your app supports. So if your short description's amount of characters sums up to 79 out of 80, you might find it hard not to exceed the limit in other languages. Here's a summary of Google Play Store limits:

Title: 50 characters
Short description: 80 characters
Full description: 4000 characters

If your screenshots contain texts, we strongly advise localizing them as well. For the YouTube video, it might be better to add subtitles in the YouTube Studio not to split the potential amount of views into different videos.

Processing gif mfgkpe8zgio21...

One of the less obvious obstacles that we stumbled upon was localizing the Skip Turn button, which looked like this:

[EN] End Turn button

There were no issues with localizing Moves and Turn, but the End Turn text was made in Photoshop and exported as a .png file. Although we had decided that we were ready to commit some time to prepare additional .png files and add some kB to the app's size, the translations simply wouldn't fit into such limited space. It's a shame to admit but we have eventually opted for removing the text entirely from the button:

[FR] End Turn button with no text

I'm sure it's not a perfect solution and I'm curious to know what would you do in our place. Please feel free to share suggestions in comments. By the way, look how 5 characters long Moves gained 4 additional characters in French translation. That's 180% of the original length!

So, on the 10th of March, we were finally ready to release a French localization update...

https://i.redd.it/24w44zq6hio21.png

... and we were immediately surprised with positive feedback from players!

https://i.redd.it/m5n8tklbhio21.png

And only a few days earlier another review stated: A big plus for the German translation. We are still monitoring how will it affect the game's position on French lists in Google Play, but the positive response from players is a huge value itself.

Now let's sum up.

Lessons learned:

Choose an appropriate font to make sure that all those ä, ö, ü and ß are displayed.
Keep the phrase's length similar, even at the cost of its epicness.
You're not only localizing game's content, but also app store descriptions.
Refrain from transforming UI texts into a graphic form, no matter how cool it looks.
The community is awesome and will appreciate your efforts.

Thanks for reading! If you have suggestions for us or stories to share, let me know.

submitted by /u/KorzKorzanowski
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Which multiplatform C++ audio library would you recommend?

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 08:08 AM PDT

Requirements:

Supports Windows, Android, and iOS
Supports raw byte streams
Supports MIDI commands
Is free (or reasonable) to use for commercial projects

submitted by /u/DOOMReboot
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A guy on r/blender figured out how to turn blender animations into pixel animations

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 11:36 AM PDT

Here is their post https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/b5r6tl/i_made_pixel_art_with_blender_thoughts/

submitted by /u/TheClicketyBoom
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Fear of the job application process

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 07:39 AM PDT

-Nearly finished 3rd year games course at Uni

-Have a CV/portfolio

-Applied to game companies in the past but none responded

-Good grades, friends reassure me I'll get a job easily

-Deep down I'm scared I'll never get a job

-They can smell the fear.

-I'll end up living in my parents' basement or working a 9-5 for the rest of my life.

-It was all for nothing

-Please help.

Even as I write this post this fear feels dumb and irrational, while at the same time i can't get it out of my mind. Hell it took me an hour to write this post. I want to start applying to game companies again soon and I need to get rid of this fear.

submitted by /u/TheJammy98
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I Rewrote 80s Arcade Classic Zaxxon as a 3D Rail Shooter. Link to Play in Comments

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 11:24 AM PDT

submitted by /u/psychoclast
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Minimalistic OpenGL and Bullet example?

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 07:04 AM PDT

I'm having a hard time understanding how to integrate OpenGL and Bullet. I've been following learnopengl.com and got to render a couple of cubes and models. Now, after adding basic input handling, I've decided to try and integrate a physics engine.

I'm trying to make some as simple as possible: a cube falling on a plane. Does anyone know any good book or article that covers the basics of how one library interacts with the other?

submitted by /u/vacetowaj
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The Freedom Fallacy: Understanding Player Autonomy in Game Design

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 09:28 AM PDT

submitted by /u/unfoldgames_
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Steam Impressions - Glitch?

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 12:52 PM PDT

Hello!

Did anybody notice drastic changes in Steam Impressions?

Quick story short - developing my game [ Area 86 ] ( which is still in development and not released )

Have a steam page for it almost a year active and keep an eye on statistics from time to time.

The impressions were almost very low and nothing unusual.

But then from 22.03, some drastic impression numbers started to show up.

Checked deeper, found that impressions come from Recommended by a Suggested Curator

But I can't find where or from who could it come :(

( By the way - conversation rate is total crap ~1% )

Heres a pic to better explain the drastic change in past days:

Lifetime impression Area 86 received

Does Valve test some new features with curators or it's just a glitch?

Maybe you have some explanation or possible experience the same changes?

Have a nice day!

submitted by /u/SimDevs
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Why are these horror games scary?

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 04:43 AM PDT

I've been thinking about this for quite some time and decided to share out my thoughts here.

Have you ever wondered what makes games like Visage, Hello Neighbor and Among the sleep scary?

Some might say because it has a dark environment or jump scares but I believe those are just supporting features towards one core feature. I believe the one most important thing would be the Uncanny feeling

The Uncanny Feeling is the feeling that something is not right despite everything seems to be right.

ExtraCredits have a more tthorough explanation about it.

I've tried implementing this theory and tested it by suggesting my friend to make a game for his student project called House Of Ignotus which has a part in the game where the monster doesn't come out at all. I've seen players tried and is terrified despite not having any monster coming out, heck there isn't any jump scares and people are still scared as well.

What do you guys think? is uncanny valley the most crucial feature / design pillar to think about while making horror games? or could uncanny valley just be another way to make horror games?

Would like to hear your experiences and knowledge. Thanks.

submitted by /u/joonzaii96
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What could be an appropriate task for undergrad level hobbyist game developers to perform in 6 hours

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 12:13 PM PDT

I want to shortlist some groups (of 1 to 3 members) for a game jam, and to do that; what tasks could they be asked to perform that they can do within 6 hours, on basis of which we can shortlist people to actually go and compete in the main event.

submitted by /u/Lieut_
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Best Developer Talks (GDC or otherwise)

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:52 PM PDT

Hi everyone! This is my first post on r/gamedev but I've been designing games for over 10 years and I've always been interested in gathering as much information as possible about game development across all the disciplines. I typically scour the GDC talks as they come onto the vault each year, but every year there is more and more places to find good talks. So, I want to know, what are some of the best talks you've found, that you would recommend for other game developers? I didn't get to see anything from GDC 2019, because I was an exhibitor this year, so if you have recommendations for things you saw there last week, even better!

Also, I do keep a list of talks that I've enjoyed in the past, and although I've not been on top of keeping it up to date every time, there are quite a few talks I'd recommend to others. Here are some of the talks I've thought were particularly good.

Note: Some of these talks are available for free online, while others you need a membership to either GDC vault or another service. I thought it would still be useful to list them for people that have a membership.

Good Talks from GDC

Animating 'Dauntless': Slaying AAA Animation on the Indie Scale (47:17)

Speaker(s) Simon Unger

Company Name(s) Phoenix Labs

Track / Format Visual Arts

At Phoenix Labs they knew early on they would need AAA quality animations to deliver a pixel perfect combat experience. This talk will cover the animation best practices they've learned so far, mocap workflows, and building out your own mocap studio. Imagine concepting an attack animation in morning standup, capturing it before lunch, integrating it in the afternoon and having it ready for feedback in your evening playtest."

Improving the Culture of Critique: Communicating Across Disciplines (1:02:39)

Speaker(s) Jeff Hesser

Company Name(s) Harmonix

Track / Format Visual Arts

This talk will dive into the challenges that arise when game professionals give each other feedback across disciplinary lines. How can artists effectively give and receive feedback with designers, engineers, producers, musicians and QA testers in ways that maximize value and minimize miscommunication and friction? Through the analysis of multiple real-world examples, specific strategies will be described that can improve the effectiveness of interdisciplinary communication. When people are given tools to share ideas, feelings and concerns about each other's work in helpful and effective ways, the resulting increase in communication can build relationships, strengthen team cohesion and improve overall morale. As teams get smaller and more agile, the need to improve conversations across disciplinary lines increases.

Board Game Design Day: Board Game Design and the Psychology of Loss Aversion (1:02:52)

Speaker(s) Geoffrey Engelstein

Company Name(s) Mind Bullet Games

Track / Format Design

Loss aversion is a core effect in human psychology. Simply stated, losses make people feel worse than gains make them feel better. In other words, the negative emotions from losing $100 are stronger than the positive emotions from gaining $100; about twice as strong according to a variety of experiments. The fundamental aspect of loss aversion to human psychology is very deep, and touches a wide variety of phenomenon, most of which are directly relevant to game design. This talk from veteran tabletop game designer Geoff Engelstein ('Space Cadets') examines board games and other relevant game-like experiences to explore framing, regret, competence, and other effects, and their relation to players' relationship with the game experience.

Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose - Building a Hyper-Engaged Team

Speaker(s) Alex Mole

Company Name(s) Criterion Games

Track / Format Production

Overview Criterion Games is convinced that the way the industry has built AAA games is incredibly damaging to people, quality, and innovation. After a change of leadership in early 2014, Criterion started to build a process aimed at maximising efficiency through a highly-motivated team with enough big-picture context to make great decisions all the time. As well as taking inspiration from other AAA studios and Indie developers, the company is making use of science to motivate people through Autonomy, Mastery + Purpose.

Criterion has been using this approach to develop a brand new game, as well as assisting two other titles within EA. On all three projects,we've found that we are the happiest and most productive that we've ever been! This talk will cover the reasoning behind the processes Criterion has built, and go into some detail of the findings of what worked well and what didn't.

Quest for Progress: The Math and Design of Idle Games (53:58)

Link to Blog

Link to Spreadsheets

Speaker(s) Anthony Pecorella

Company Name(s) Kongregate

Track / Format Design

As the third in a series of popular talks on "self-playing" games, this will increment on the previous ones, unfolding new insights, and tapping into a wide range of data to learn about this strange new, often-idolized, genre. The talk will look at how the genre has grown, evolved, and expanded recently. New trends will be explored and new games will be analyzed, focusing not just on how they work but hopefully inspiring new games and mechanics from attendees. Prepare to get bizarrely, inexplicably excited about watching numbers go up!!

History Shaping Design: Gender Roles As Shown In Centuries of Game Design (46:57)

Speaker(s) Julia Keren Detar

Company Name(s) Untame

Track / Format Design

While gender has always played a role when it comes to games and toys, those lines have not always been clearly defined. From western Chess to Mall Madness, we'll explore how game mechanics can change who gets to play, and how marketing pressure and seemingly unrelated TV deregulation can restructure a whole industry. We'll examine some surprising parallels between more recent games like Twister and older parlor games, and see how gender roles have changed through the years - and stayed the same.

Awesome Video Game Data 2016 (1:00:00)

Speaker(s) Geoffrey Zatkin

Company Name(s) EEDAR

Track / Format Design

EEDAR co-founder Geoffrey Zatkin presents a tour de force romp through video game industry data, patterns and trends, covering everything from next generation consoles to the maturation of mobile games to the diversification of monetization methodologies and everything in-between. Guaranteed to raise your game industry IQ.

Attendees will gain a better understanding of recent macro and micro trends of the video game industry - not anecdotal, but trends based on actual objectively quantifiable data. A broad range of timely industry topics will be presented.

Three Statistical Tests Every Game Developer Should Know (27:26)

Speaker(s) Elan Ruskin

Company Name(s) Insomniac Games

Track / Format Programming

"How much does this optimization really speed up my game?" can be a difficult question to answer when you're measuring differences of microseconds in highly variable framerates. "When I changed the minimap, 15% fewer playtesters got lost" might have been a fluke - or not - depending on how many testers you tried. Fortunately, statistical techniques exist to turn noisy, real-world sources of data like these into confident answers.

This talk is a succint how-to on statistics for answering questions like "does this new camera control scheme make players happier?", "how many players do I need to test this design change on to prove whether it works better?" and "does the framerate really get faster when I do this thing or is it just a fluke of measurement?" We skip past the mathematical background and cut directly to the practical how-to you can use in Excel today.

Twenty Years, Twenty Lessons (1:00:47)

Speaker(s) Mark Rosewater

Company Name(s) Wizards of the Coast

Track / Format Design

Mark Rosewater is the Head Designer for Magic: the Gathering. Last year he celebrated his twentieth year working at Wizards of the Coast. Come listen as Mark shares his wisdom on game design from twenty years of working on the same game. Fans of his column ("Making Magic"), podcast ("Drive to Work") or blog ("Blogatog"), all dedicated to game design, should expect plenty of stories and humor as he walks through his twenty lessons such as "Restrictions Breed Creativity", "Fighting Human Nature Is a Losing Battle" and "If Everyone Likes Your Game, But No One Loves It, It Will Fail".

Game Studio Management: Making It Great (59:25)

Speaker: Jesse Schell

Company Name: Schell Games LLC

Track / Format: Business, Marketing & Management

Management is difficult, managing a game studio is incredibly difficult, since most studio management has no formal training, and no one ever seems clear on the "right" way to run things. In the last 12 years Jesse has grown a game studio from a solo operation to a thriving enterprise of 100 developers working on 6-8 titles simultaneously. In this nuts and bolts talk, Jesse will share the concrete methods he has found to keep a studio happy, healthy and producing great games. Topics covered will include:

What meetings are the right ones?

How to manage multiple simultaneous projects

How to grow without destroying your culture

The importance of a mentoring culture

How to see the invisible information flow in your studio

The connection between morale, purpose and great games

Infinite Play (1:06:55)

Speaker: Richard Lemarchand

Company Name: USC

Track / Format: Design

Join Richard Lemarchand, former Naughty Dog lead game designer and associate professor in the USC Games program, for a talk that investigates the game design potential of "open play" - play that does not necessarily result in an outcome of victory or defeat. Using the lens of James P. Carse's "Finite and Infinite Games," a book that is widely influential outside of game design circles, but is not well-known among game designers, Richard will examine the recent revolution in experiential, reflective and expressive games with the goal of expanding our thinking about game design of all kinds, and the personal and moral value that can be found in games.

More Science Behind Shaping Player Behavior in Online Games (32:39)

Speaker: Jeffrey Lin

Company Name: Riot Games

Track / Format:Design

The next evolution of multiplayer game design and community building is to give players the tools to build their own online communities and moderate them. To show the impact of this philosophy, Riot Games will use social network analysis to map out how player behavior spreads in League of Legends and what we can learn from player interactions to make the Internet a better place. We'll discuss how Riot leverages machine learning to "learn" at massive scale what players believe is OK or not OK in the community and deliver feedback to players, and how these cutting-edge techniques can be applied to curate any online community.

game < design (57:25)

Speaker: Stone Librande

Company Name: Riot Games

Track / Format: Design

Game designers frequently emphasize the "game" part of their title. In this inspirational talk, Stone will focus on the "designer" aspect. How is game design similar to other forms of design, such as fashion design, automotive design or industrial design? What can we learn from these other disciplines that will help us grow as game designers, both personally and professionally? Stone describes his own personal design journey and the lessons he has learned along the way. Topics will include design history, the lives of famous designers, techniques taught in design schools, and the philosophies of world-class design studios.

The Art of Hearthstone: Playing the Cards You're Dealt (26:20)

Speaker: Ben Thompson

Company Name: Blizzard

Track / Format: Visual Arts

How do you make a game built around collectible cards in a digital space that is visually compelling and still feels anchored in the World of Warcraft universe? This talk will discuss how a clear set of guiding principles, relentless iteration and a healthy dose of creativity made all the difference in Hearthstone's pursuit of a new way to play digital card games.

50 Camera Mistakes (1:00:53)

Speaker: John Nesky

Company Name: thatgamecompany

Track / Format: Design

The entire experience of playing a game is framed by its camera, but the addition of the third dimension has brought more than a few twists that torment players to this day. Cameras have potential as a powerful storytelling tool, but before they can realize that potential, they must meet the player's needs. Undermining sense of direction, impairing judgment of distances, breaking line-of-sight, triggering simulation sickness, or simply being useless are just a few of the failure cases we've all seen in game cameras. John Nesky, the dynamic camera designer for thatgamecompany's award-winning PSN title Journey, takes attendees on a tour of all the poor choices that he and other game developers have made, and most importantly, how to fix them.

Concurrent Interactions in The Sims 4

Speaker: Peter Ingebretson, Max Rebuschatis

Company Name: EA (Maxis)

Track / Format: Programming

In real life, people often do several things at the same time, but games typically limit agents to performing actions sequentially. For The Sims 4, we developed a system for authoring interactions that allows simulated people (called Sims) to express multiple concurrent behaviors. Interactions are largely data-driven and are defined in terms of constraints, which specify the state a Sim must be in to perform the interaction. Constraints are used to test whether interactions are compatible, and to drive decisions that Sims make about whether, how and where to perform an interaction. This system allows Sims in The Sims 4 to convincingly eat, watch TV, chat with other Sims, express emotion, and perform many more behaviors simultaneously. We believe that this powerful and simple technique could be applied to a similar effect in your game too.

Enhancing Sportsmanship in Online Games (57:20)

Speaker: Jeffrey Lin

Company Name: Riot Games

Track / Format: Design

Sportsmanship helps players win games, but win or lose, sportsmanship also helps make games more fun. Sportsmanship already widely exists in online games, and online gaming communities like LoL are filled with players who exhibit sportsmanlike conduct. We believe that the next evolution of online game design involves making sportsmanship the path of least resistance - supporting sportsmanlike figures among everyday players. In this talk, Jeffrey will discuss the lessons we've learned trying to create features and content that facilitate and amplify positive player interactions inside and outside an online game. For example, the talk will present the latest findings in group dynamics and social psychology to show how different compositions of players can greatly affect the level of cooperation. By combining the latest research from online games with classic psychological theories, Jeffrey will show how to guide and shape the development of features that can enhance sportsmanship in online games.

What You Don't Know IS Hurting You: How Aggressive User Research Improved Resistance 3

Speaker: Drew Murray

Company Name: Insomniac Games

Track / Format: Game Design

Watching a formal usability test of Resistance 2 was an eye-opening experience for developers at Insomniac Games. Players were struggling with FPS basics such as aiming and navigating, as well as hallmark Resistance features such as exotic weapons. The game was simply not being played the way we expected or wanted.

After this unpleasant surprise, Insomniac committed itself to ensuring that real gamers could enjoy Resistance 3 the way it was meant to be played and that doing more user-research was the best way to accomplish this. Resistance 3 Lead Designer Drew Murray will explain the methodologies and techniques Insomniac used to conduct user-research on Resistance 3, including specific examples of how core controls, weapons and pacing were improved.

You Own the Game but the Community Owns You (27:35)

Speaker: Bob Holtzman

Company Name: Squad

Track / Format: Business, Marketing & Management

Gamers believe they own the brands, which is a bit of a dilemma for the developers and publishers who have to make decisions based on a much broader need base than a vocal minority. Ideally, game companies won't make or need to make decisions that go against this outspoken group, but often there is a need. So gamers feel jilted, like the game cheated on them, when they never understood the nature of their relationship.

Environmental Audio and Processing for VR (57:13)

Speaker: Nicholas Ward-Foxton

Company Name: Sony Computer Entertainment

Track / Format: Programming

Environmental audio requires differing approaches in virtual reality to standard surround and television-based game design. This talk will center on these differences to try and show people how to alter their usual approaches to get the best VR experience and help achieve "presence" in the virtual world. It will focus on audio processing and cover topics such as obstruction/occlusion, reverberation, distance modelling, binaural processing, ambiance and the human auditory system. Examples will be shown for each, and techniques used will be explained to help guide others down this new pathway in interactive audio design.

Good Talks from Valve Dev Days

Valve Dev Days talks are all available on Youtube! Just follow the links.

What VR Could, Should, and Almost Certainly Will Be within Two Years

Speaker: Michael Abrash Company Name: Valve

YouTube | pdf | ppt

We've figured out what affordable VR hardware will be capable of within a couple of years, and assembled a prototype that reveals that that level of VR hardware is capable of stunning VR experiences. That hardware is almost certainly going to appear in that timeframe, and it will be worth starting to develop for it now. This talk will discuss what that hardware is, and what it makes possible. A few attendees will be randomly selected to try out the prototype after the talk.

Community and Communication in Games-As-Services

Speaker: Robin Walker Company Name: Valve

YouTube

Although there has been a robust discussion in our industry about how the transition to games-as-services affects the way we build products, we feel there hasn't been enough focus on how that shift changes the ways we all should interact with customers. This talk will cover the methods, reasoning, and philosophy behind Valve's communication and customer interaction. Areas of development we'll be examining will be everything from feature design to community management to marketing. Recommended for anyone working on living / iterating products (which we think is pretty close to everyone in attendance at Steam Dev Days).

In-Game Economies in Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 (38:58)

Speaker: Kyle Davis Company Name: Valve

YouTube | pdf | ppt

A look at the multi-year history and development of the in-game economies and microtransaction systems in Team Fortress and Dota, including some of the surprises we encountered and some of the lessons we've learned that we think are applicable to a wide range of products.

Good Talks from Oculus Connect

Oculus Connect talks are all available on YouTube. Just follow the links!

OCULUS CONNECT: INTRODUCTION TO AUDIO IN VR

Speaker: Brian Hook

YouTube

Audio Engineer, Brian Hook, discusses introducing Audio in Virtual Reality at Oculus Connect.

Good Talks from Unite

Unite talks are all available on YouTube. Just follow the links!

The Reality of Authoring in the Virtual Frontier (1:01:29)

Speaker: Panel Discussion (Unite 2014)

YouTube

This panel discusses the challenges of creating content for the new and upcoming virtual reality hardware.

Good Talks from AI Game Dev

Biomechanically Animated Dolphins in Shark Eaters (1:26:54)

Speaker: Omar Ahmad and Promit Roy, posted on January 31, 2015 (AI Game Dev Interview)

This interview with Omar Ahmad looks at the animation technology in mobile game Shark Eaters: Rise of the Dolphins. The game features a different system that animates skeletal rigs — inspired by neurology and learning of motor control. The result is smoothly animated fish and water mammals whose behavior partly emerges from the animation.

The Technology Behind Versu: A Simulationist Storytelling System (1:15:40)

Speaker(s) Alex J. Champadard, Richard Evans

Track AI Programming

Date March 14, 2014

This interview with Richard Evans (to be scheduled) will dig into Versu's text-based interactive dramas. You'll learn how the simulation models social practices as a way to coordinate between multiple agents, implemented using reactive joint plans. You'll see how this enables purposeful deliberative behavior while not taking away control from any of the characters in the simulation.

submitted by /u/Dahaka102
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How can I improve the business card for my first game? (Theme: renewable energies)

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 11:04 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Claudio_A
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First adventure in gamedev

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 10:58 AM PDT

Hi all. I have quite some experience as a programmer, but never ventured into game development. As a hobby project, I would like to explore this area. My idea was not to come up with something new, but instead start by making my own version of an existing game. In my case, I would like to recreate Mini Metro! However, I have no idea of the different ecosystems for game development in different programming languages. That's why I am looking for some recommendations. What would be a good framework to start a project like this? Programming language-wise, I do have some programming languages in mind that I could learn or gain more experience in, such as Python, Swift, Rust, Scala or even Haskell or Common Lisp!

submitted by /u/jnevens
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Struggling to create a personal project

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 10:53 AM PDT

Hi all,

I'm currently doing a full-time internship for game design, but I'd also like to spend some time each day to work on personal projects for fun and also to expand my portfolio. Problem is that When I come home I'm usually too tired to do more gamedev.

Does anyone have any tips for scheduling and motivating a personal project?

submitted by /u/Rustywaffles
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Finally finished a game I'm really happy with. Any way I could get some advice/feedback/playtesters?

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 10:29 AM PDT

Hi everybody!

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday. I've been doing hobbyist gamedev for around a month now and finally submitted my first jam game that I'm legitimately proud of. It's a bullet hell shooter that I've called Time Ship (the theme for the jam was time). Obviously I'm super happy but I know there's always tons of room to improve, so I was curious if some people a bit more experienced than I could maybe point out some things I'm doing that might be poor design, or just give me feedback on the game in general.

Game in question.

Youtube channel where I post my devlogs.

Hope to hear from you guys:) Please let me know if you'd like any of your games tested as well, as I'd love to help.

submitted by /u/hockeylife17
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