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    Thursday, May 30, 2019

    A windsurf mechanic from my in-development game, Juda. Why use wings just to fly when they can be so much more? (description in comments)

    A windsurf mechanic from my in-development game, Juda. Why use wings just to fly when they can be so much more? (description in comments)


    A windsurf mechanic from my in-development game, Juda. Why use wings just to fly when they can be so much more? (description in comments)

    Posted: 30 May 2019 09:42 AM PDT

    Are there any good books on UI design that specifically focus on video game UI, especially about things more complicated than HP bars, like in the Civilization games?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 07:58 AM PDT

    What factors predict the success of a Steam game? (An analysis)

    Posted: 30 May 2019 08:27 AM PDT

    What factors predict the success of a Steam game?

    I've seen quite a few discussions, comments and questions on /r/gamedev about what determines a game's success. How much does quality matter? Is establishing market awareness before launch the only thing that matters? Does a demo help or hurt? If your game has a poor launch, how likely is it to recover? Is it possible to roughly predict the sales of a game before launch?

    In preparation for my game's launch, I spent a lot of time monitoring upcoming releases trying to find the answer to these questions. I compiled a spreadsheet, noted followers, whether it was Early Access or not, and saw how many reviews it received in the first week, month and quarter.

    I'm sharing this data now in the hopes that it helps other developers understand and predict their games' sales.

    First some notes on the data:

    • One of the important sources of data are the number Steam reviews. There is good evidence that these correlate strongly with copies sold, with frequently cited ratios of 50 sales per Steam review, but there's a wide range. It seems likely that the majority of Steam games fall between 25 and 120 sales per Steam review, but there are outliers. Also, games with a very small number of reviews are much more likely to be outliers in this respect. My own game is the only game I have hard sales numbers for. You can read my lengthy Reddit post on its release, but the relevant numbers are that it sold 1587 copies in the first week and 3580 copies in its first quarter.
    • The total number of games in the sample was 115.
    • I selected games semi-randomly from from both Popular Upcoming and All Upcoming. This favors the popular upcoming tab somewhat and this was deliberate: I wanted a diverse sample but also one not completely dominated with titles that sold zero copies.
    • Games are ordered by their release date which range from 10/26/18 to 12/20/18.
    Game Price Launch Discount Week Guess Week actual 3 Month 3 Month/week Followers Early Access Demo Review Score
    Pit of Doom 9.99 0 7 27 43 1.592592593 295 Y N 0.8
    Citrouille 9.99 0.2 16 8 12 1.5 226 N N
    Corspe Party: Book 14.99 0.1 32 40 79 1.975 1015 N N 0.95
    Call of Cthulhu 44.99 0 800 875 1595 1.822857143 26600 N N 0.74
    On Space 0.99 0.4 0 0 0 4 N N
    Orphan 14.99 0 50 0 8 732 N N
    Black Bird 19.99 0 20 13 34 2.615384615 227 N N
    Gloom 6.99 0 20 8 17 2.125 159 N N
    Gilded Rails 5.99 0.35 2 3 7 2.333333333 11 N Y
    The Quiet Man 14.99 0.1 120 207 296 1.429951691 5596 N N 0.31
    KartKraft 19.99 0.1 150 90 223 2.477777778 7691 Y N 0.84
    The Other Half 7.99 0 2 3 27 9 91 N Y 0.86
    Parabolus 14.99 0.15 0 0 0 16 N Y
    Yet Another Tower Defense 1.99 0.4 20 22 38 1.727272727 396 N N 0.65
    Galaxy Squad 9.99 0.25 8 42 5.25 3741 Y N 0.87
    Swords and Soldiers 2 14.99 0.1 65 36 63 1.75 1742 N N 0.84
    SpitKiss 2.99 0 3 1 2 2 63 N N
    Holy Potatoes 14.99 0 24 11 22 2 617 N N 0.7
    Kursk 29.99 0.15 90 62 98 1.580645161 2394 N N 0.57
    SimpleRockets 2 14.99 0.15 90 142 272 1.915492958 3441 Y N 0.85
    Egress 14.99 0.15 160 44 75 1.704545455 7304 Y N 0.67
    Kynseed 9.99 0 600 128 237 1.8515625 12984 Y N 0.86
    11-11 Memories 29.99 0 30 10 69 6.9 767 N N 0.96
    Rage in Peace 12.99 0.1 15 10 42 4.2 377 N N 0.85
    One Hour One Life 19.99 0 12 153 708 4.62745098 573 N N 0.81
    Optica 9.99 0 0 2 3 1.5 18 N N
    Cybarian 5.99 0.15 8 4 18 4.5 225 N N
    Zeon 25 3.99 0.3 3 11 12 1.090909091 82 Y N
    Of Gods and Men 7.99 0.4 3 10 18 1.8 111 N Y
    Welcome to Princeland 4.99 0.1 1 15 55 3.666666667 30 N N 0.85
    Zero Caliber VR 24.99 0.1 100 169 420 2.485207101 5569 Y N 0.73
    HellSign 14.99 0 100 131 334 2.549618321 3360 Y N 0.85
    Thief Simulator 19.99 0.15 400 622 1867 3.001607717 10670 N N 0.81
    Last Stanza 7.99 0.1 8 2 4 2 228 N Y
    Evil Bank Manager 11.99 0.1 106 460 4.339622642 8147 Y N 0.78
    Oppai Puzzle 0.99 0.3 36 93 2.583333333 54 N N 0.92
    Hexen Hegemony 9.99 0.15 3 1 5 5 55 Y N
    Blokin 2.99 0 0 0 0 0 10 N N
    Light Fairytale Ep 1 9.99 0.1 80 23 54 2.347826087 4694 Y N 0.89
    The Last Sphinx 2.99 0.1 0 0 1 0 17 N N
    Glassteroids 9.99 0.2 0 0 0 0 5 Y N
    Hitman 2 59.99 0 2000 2653 3677 1.385978138 52226 N N 0.88
    Golf Peaks 4.99 0.1 1 8 25 3.125 46 N N 1
    Sipho 13.99 0 24 5 14 2.8 665 Y N
    Distraint 2 8.99 0.1 40 104 321 3.086538462 1799 N N 0.97
    Healing Harem 12.99 0.1 24 10 15 1.5 605 N N
    Spark Five 2.99 0.3 0 0 0 0 7 N N
    Bad Dream: Fever 9.99 0.2 30 78 134 1.717948718 907 N N 0.72
    Underworld Ascendant 29.99 0.15 200 216 288 1.333333333 8870 N N 0.34
    Reentry 19.99 0.15 8 24 78 3.25 202 Y N 0.95
    Zvezda 5.99 0 2 0 0 0 25 Y Y
    Space Gladiator 2.99 0 0 1 2 2 5 N N
    Bad North 14.99 0.1 500 360 739 2.052777778 15908 N N 0.8
    Sanctus Mortem 9.99 0.15 3 3 3 1 84 N Y
    The Occluder 1.99 0.2 1 1 1 1 13 N N
    Dark Fantasy: Jigsaw 2.99 0.2 1 9 36 4 32 N N 0.91
    Farming Simulator 19 34.99 0 1500 3895 5759 1.478562259 37478 N N 0.76
    Don't Forget Our Esports Dream 14.99 0.13 3 16 22 1.375 150 N N 1
    Space Toads Mayhem 3.99 0.15 1 2 3 1.5 18 N N
    Cattle Call 11.99 0.1 10 19 53 2.789473684 250 Y N 0.71
    Ralf 9.99 0.2 0 0 2 0 6 N N
    Elite Archery 0.99 0.4 0 2 3 1.5 5 Y N
    Evidence of Life 4.99 0 0 2 4 2 10 N N
    Trinity VR 4.99 0 2 8 15 1.875 61 N N
    Quiet as a Stone 9.99 0.1 1 1 4 4 42 N N
    Overdungeon 14.99 0 3 86 572 6.651162791 77 Y N 0.91
    Protocol 24.99 0.15 60 41 117 2.853658537 1764 N N 0.68
    Scraper: First Strike 29.99 0 3 3 15 5 69 N N
    Experiment Gone Rogue 16.99 0 1 1 5 5 27 Y N
    Emerald Shores 9.99 0.2 0 1 2 2 12 N N
    Age of Civilizations II 4.99 0 600 1109 2733 2.464382326 18568 N N 0.82
    Dereliction 4.99 0 0 0 0 #DIV/0! 18 N N
    Poopy Philosophy 0.99 0 0 6 10 1.666666667 6 N N
    NOCE 17.99 0.1 1 3 4 1.333333333 35 N N
    Qu-tros 2.99 0.4 0 3 7 2.333333333 4 N N
    Mosaics Galore. Challenging Journey 4.99 0.2 1 1 8 8 14 N N
    Zquirrels Jump 2.99 0.4 0 1 4 4 9 N N
    Dark Siders III 59.99 0 2400 1721 2708 1.573503777 85498 N N 0.67
    R-Type Dimensions Ex 14.99 0.2 10 48 64 1.333333333 278 N N 0.92
    Artifact 19.99 0 7000 9700 16584 1.709690722 140000 N N 0.53
    Crimson Keep 14.99 0.15 20 5 6 1.2 367 N N
    Rival Megagun 14.99 0 35 26 31 1.192307692 818 N N
    Santa's Workshop 1.99 0.1 3 1 1 1 8 N N
    Hentai Shadow 1.99 0.3 2 12 6 14 N N
    Ricky Runner 12.99 0.3 3 6 13 2.166666667 66 Y N 0.87
    Pro Fishing Simulator 39.99 0.15 24 20 19 0.95 609 N N 0.22
    Broken Reality 14.99 0.1 60 58 138 2.379310345 1313 N Y 0.98
    Rapture Rejects 19.99 0 200 82 151 1.841463415 9250 Y N 0.64
    Lost Cave 19.99 0 3 8 11 1.375 43 Y N
    Epic Battle Fantasy 5 14.99 0 300 395 896 2.26835443 4236 N N 0.97
    Ride 3 49.99 0 75 161 371 2.304347826 1951 N N 0.74
    Escape Doodland 9.99 0.2 25 16 19 1.1875 1542 N N
    Hillbilly Apocalypse 5.99 0.1 0 1 2 2 8 N N
    X4 49.99 0 1500 2638 4303 1.63115997 38152 N N 0.7
    Splotches 9.99 0.15 0 2 1 0.5 10 N N
    Above the Fold 13.99 0.15 5 2 6 3 65 Y N
    The Seven Chambers 12.99 0.3 3 0 0 #DIV/0! 55 N N
    Terminal Conflict 29.99 0 5 4 11 2.75 125 Y N
    Just Cause 4 59.99 0 2400 2083 3500 1.680268843 50000 N N 0.34
    Grapple Force Rena 14.99 0 11 12 29 2.416666667 321 N Y
    Beholder 2 14.99 0.1 479 950 1.983298539 16000 N N 0.84
    Blueprint Word 1.99 0 12 15 1.25 244 N Y
    Aeon of Sands 19.99 0.1 20 12 25 2.083333333 320 N N
    Oakwood 4.99 0.1 32 68 2.125 70 N N 0.82
    Endhall 4.99 0 4 22 42 1.909090909 79 N N 0.84
    Dr. Cares - Family Practice 12.99 0.25 6 3 8 2.666666667 39 N N
    Treasure Hunter 16.99 0.15 200 196 252 1.285714286 4835 N N 0.6
    Forex Trading 1.99 0.4 7 10 14 1.4 209 N N
    Ancient Frontier 14.99 0 24 5 16 3.2 389 N N
    Fear the Night 14.99 0.25 25 201 440 2.189054726 835 Y N 0.65
    Subterraneus 12.99 0.1 4 0 3 #DIV/0! 82 N N
    Starcom: Nexus 14.99 0.15 53 119 2.245283019 1140 Y N 0.93
    Subject 264 14.99 0.2 25 2 3 1.5 800 N N
    Gris 16.9 0 100 1484 4650 3.133423181 5779 N N 0.96
    Exiled to the Void 7.99 0.3 9 4 11 2.75 84 Y N

    Column Explanations

    For the columns that are not self-explanatory:

    • Launch Discount: Percent first week discount, 0.25 = 25% off
    • Week Guess: This is my guess, made before the game launched as to how many Steam purchaser reviews it would have after exactly one week.
    • Week Actual: The number of reviews that the game had after 1 week.
    • 3 Month: The number of reviews that the game had after 3 months.
    • Followers: The number of group followers the game had prior to launch. In some cases this recorded just before launch, in some cases up to a week before.
    • Review score: The percent favorable score on Steam at the one month mark. Games needed a minimum of 20 reviews to be counted.

    Question 1: Does Quality Predict Success?

    There was a recent blog post stating that the #1 metric for indie games' success is how good it is.

    Quality is obviously a subjective metric. The most obvious objective measure of quality for Steam games is their % Favorable Review score. This is the percentage of reviews by purchasers of the game that gave the game a positive rating. I excluded any game that did not have at least 20 user reviews in the first month, which limited the sample size to 56.

    The (Pearson) correlation of a game's review score to its number of reviews three months after its release was -0.2. But 0.2 (plus or minus) isn't a very strong correlation at all. More importantly, Pearson correlation can be swayed if the data contains some big outliers. Looking at the actual games, we can see that the difference is an artifact of an outlier. Literally. Valve's Artifact by far had the most reviews after three months and had one of the lowest review scores (53% at the time). Removing this game from the data changed the correlation to essentially zero.

    Spearman's Rho, an alternative correlation model that correlates rank position and minimizes the effect of huge outliers produced a similar result.

    Conclusion: If there is correlation between a game's quality (as measured by Steam review score) and first quarter sales (as measured by total review count), it is too subtle to be detected in this data.

    Question 2: Do Demos, Early Access or Launch Discounts Affect Success/Failure?

    Unfortunately, there were so few games that had demos prior to release (10) that only a very strong correlation would really tell us anything. As it happens, there was no meaningful correlation one way or another.

    There were more Early Access titles (28), but again the correlation was too small to be meaningful.

    More than half the titles had a launch week discount and there was actually a moderate negative correlation of -0.3 between having a launch discount and first week review count. However it appears that this is primarily the result of the tendency of AAA titles (which sell the most copies) to not do launch discounts. Removing the titles that likely grossed over a $1 million in the first week reduced the correlation to basically zero.

    Conclusion: Insufficient data. No clear correlation between demos, Early Access or launch discount and review counts: if they help or hurt the effect is not consistent enough to be seen here.

    Question 3: Does pre-launch awareness (i.e., Steam followers) predict success?

    You can see the number of "followers" for any game on Steam by searching for its automatically-created Community Group. Prior to launch, this is a good rough indicator of market awareness.

    The correlation between group followers shortly before launch and review count at 3 months was 0.89. That's a very strong positive correlation. The rank correlation was also high (0.85) suggesting that this wasn't the result of a few highly anticipated games.

    Save for a single outlier (discussed later), the ratio of 3 month review counts to pre-launch followers ranged from 0 (for the handful of games that never received any reviews) to 1.8, with a median value of 0.1. If you have 1000 followers just prior to launch, then at the end of the first quarter you should expect "about" 100 reviews.

    One thing I noticed was that there were a few games that had follower counts that seemed too high compared to secondary indicators of market awareness, such as discussion forum threads and Twitter engagement. After some investigation I came to the conclusion that pre-launch key activations are treated as followers by Steam. If a game gave away a lot of Steam keys before launch (say as Kickstarter rewards or part of beta testing) this would cause the game to appear to have more followers than it had gained "organically."

    Conclusion: Organic followers prior to launch are a strong predictor of a game's eventual success.

    Question 4: What about price?

    The correlation between price and review count at 3 month is 0.36, which is moderate correlation. I'm not sure how useful that data point is: it is somewhat obvious that higher budget games have larger marketing budgets.

    There is a correlation between price and review score of -0.41. It seems likely that players do factor price into their reviews and a game priced at $60 has a higher bar to clear to earn a thumbs up review than a game priced at $10.

    Question 5: Do first week sales predict first quarter results?

    The correlation between number of reviews after 1 week and number of reviews after 3 months was 0.99. The Spearman correlation was 0.97. This is the highest correlation I found in the data.

    Excluding games that sold very few copies (fewer than 5 reviews after the first week), most games had around twice as many reviews after 3 months as they did after 1 week. This suggests that games sell about as many copies in their first week as they do in the next 12 weeks combined. The vast majority of games had a tail ratio (ratio of reviews at 3 months to 1 week) of between 1.3 to 3.2.

    I have seen a number of questions from developers whose game had a poor launch on Steam and wanted to know what they can do to improve sales. While I'm certain post-launch marketing can have an effect on continuing sales, your first week does seem to set hard bounds on your results.

    Conclusion: ALL SIGNS POINT TO YES

    Question 6: Does Quality Help with a Game's "Tail"?

    As discussed in the last question while first week sales are very strongly correlated with first quarter, there's still quite a wide range of ratios. Defining a game's Tail Ratio as the ratio of reviews after 3 months to after 1 week, the lowest value was 0.95 for "Pro Fishing Simulator" which actually managed to lose 1 review. The highest ratio was 6.9, an extreme outlier that I'll talk about later. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the worst tail had a Steam score of 22% and the best tail had a Steam score of 96%.

    The overall correlation between the Tail Ratio and Steam score was 0.42.

    Conclusion: Even though there is no clear correlation between quality and overall review count/sales, there is a moderate correlation between a game's review score and its tail. This suggests that "good games" do better in the long run than "bad games," but the effect is small compared to the more important factor of pre-launch awareness.

    Question 7: Is it possible to predict a game's success before launch without knowing its wishlists?

    While I was compiling the data for each game, sometime prior to its scheduled launch date, I would make a prediction of how many reviews I thought it would receive in its first week and add that prediction to the spreadsheet.

    The #1 factor I used in making my prediction was group follower count. In some cases I would adjust my prediction if I thought that value was off, using secondary sources such as Steam forum activity and Twitter engagement.

    The correlation between my guess and the actual value was 0.96, which is a very strong correlation. As you can see in the data, the predictions are, for the most part, in the right ballpack with a few cases where I was way off.

    Based on my experience, multiplying the group follower count by 0.1 will, in most cases, give you a ballpark sense of the first week review count. If a game doesn't have at least one question in the discussion forum for every 100 followers, that may indicate that there are large number of "inorganic" followers and you may need to adjust your estimate.

    Conclusion: Yes, with a few exceptions, using follower data and other indicators you can predict first week results approximately. Given the strong correlation between first week and quarter sales, it should also be possible to have a ballpark idea of first quarter results before launch.

    Final Question: What about the outliers you mentioned?

    There were a few games in the data that stood out significantly in one way or another.

    Outlier #1: Overdungeon. This game had 77 group followers shortly before launch, a fairly small number and based solely on that number I would have expected fewer than a dozen reviews in the first week. It ended up with 86. Not only that, it had a strong tail and finished its first quarter with 572 reviews. This was by a wide margin the highest review count to follower ratio in the sample.

    Based on the reviews, it appears to basically be Slay the Spire, but huge in Asia. 90% of the reviews seem to be in Japanese or Chinese. If anyone has some insight to this game's unusual apparent success, I'm very curious.

    This seems to be the only clear example in the data of a game with minimal following prior to launch going on to having a solid first quarter.

    Outlier #2: 11-11 Memories Retold. This game had 767 group followers shortly before launch, ten times as many as Overdungeon. That's still not a large number for even a small indie title. It had a fair amount going for it, though: it was directed by Yoan Fanise, who co-directed the critally acclaimed Valiant Hearts, a game with a similar theme. It was animated by Aardman Studios of "Wallace and Gromit" fame. Its publisher was Bandai Namco Europe, a not inexperienced publisher. The voice acting was by Sebastian Koch and Elijah Wood. It has dozens of good reviews in both gaming and traditional press. It currently has a 95% positive review rating on Steam.

    Despite all that, nobody bought it. 24 hours after it came out it had literally zero reviews on Steam. One week after it came out it had just 10. Three months later it had demonstrated the largest tail in the data, but even then it had only climbed to 69 reviews. Now it's at about 100, an incredible tail ratio, but almost certainly a commercial failure.

    This is a solid example that good game + good production values does necessarily equal good sales.

    Final notes:

    The big take-aways from this analysis are:

    • The success of a game on Steam very strongly depends on its first week performance
    • A game's first week performance is strongly correlated with its pre-launch market awareness
    • Quality does not seem to strongly impact first week performance, but may have some positive effect on a game's "tail"
    • All inferences regarding sales are dependent on the relationship between review counts and sales

    Thanks for reading!

    submitted by /u/justkevin
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    How to use Nostalgia and the Psychology behind it. Thought this might be useful for you devs. Cheers :)

    Posted: 30 May 2019 07:41 AM PDT

    Please tell me it's an incredibly small universe of players that thinks 70 hours of gameplay doesn't justify a $25 price point

    Posted: 29 May 2019 10:48 PM PDT

    So I was reading reviews of a recently released game on steam and read this review:

    I will say the game is pretty fun to play but the cons outweigh the pros. My biggest problem was that I completely beat the game solo in 70 hours played. If I was in a duo for that time, probably could have been 40 hours, with 3 people could have been in a weekend... I don't see the value in a 25$ game that you, or any decent gamer, can max out so quickly... And its not like I can go back and keep playing because there is no point, I'd just be farming stuff for no reason and that's not fun.

    Please, please tell me this is the 1% mindset. I'm just completely shocked that there are people that enjoy 70 hours of gameplay for $25 but then complain that isn't enough content/gameplay to justify the price!

    submitted by /u/Nitin-M
    [link] [comments]

    Unity 2D finished hair physics

    Posted: 29 May 2019 01:49 PM PDT

    Unity announces Linux support for Unity Editor

    Posted: 30 May 2019 11:51 AM PDT

    Making my first game! What do u guys think?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 10:51 AM PDT

    How to make a Star Fox 64-style somersault function for planes: A tutorial.

    Posted: 30 May 2019 06:41 AM PDT

    Hello! My name is VenomousWoe, and I'm currently working on a GZDoom-based flight game. Over the course of development, I've added many features to my game's planes and flight engine. One of the most significant was the ability to do somersaults a la Star Fox 64. In this tutorial, I'll cover the method I used to implement it, and show you a general methodology for implementing it in your game as well.

    Do note that you need to have a functioning plane with proper pitch and velocity dynamics implemented in your game in order to take advantage of this tutorial. It's different for each engine, so I can't cover that here.

    To start, you will need to implement functionality to grab whatever pitch the plane is currently at. This is important, as you want the plane to do a vertical 360 loop and return to the bearing it started at. Here's some code for how that would look:

    if (buttons & BT_SPEED && somersaultup == false)

    `{` `somersaultup = true;` `curpitch = pitch;` `targetpitch = pitch - 360;` `}` 

    This code does a couple things. When the player presses the BT_SPEED button (it's mapped to LShift in my game's default bindings), it sets a variable called "somersaultup" to tell the game that the plane is performing a somersault. It also sets a variable called "curpitch" that takes whatever pitch the plane is currently at, and stores it. Additionally, a variable called "targetpitch" is initialized with the value of where you want the plane to be at the end of the loop (which is 360 degrees away from the start, or a full circle). The pitch is subtracted here because GZDoom interprets negative values as upwards motion, so adjust that bit according to engine requirements.

    Next, we need to execute the actual loop. Create or utilize a function that is executed continuously as the game is running, and in it, use code like this:

    if (somersaultup == true)

    {

    `if (pitch > targetpitch)` `{` `pitch--;` `}` `else` `{` `pitch = curpitch;` `somersaultup = false;` `}` 

    }

    This conditional will execute the loop as it is continuously run. Note that in this example, pitch is altered by one degree per execution. This may be undesirable as it can make the loop too slow, so adjusting the rate is a good idea.

    The danger with doing this is that you may throw the player into a continuous loop that never stops, as the pitch never reaches the target pitch you set earlier. That's where the nested conditional comes in. With this logic, the actual pitch adjustment occurs only if pitch is above (or below, depending on engine) the target pitch. Once that barrier is broken, the curpitch variable is employed to reset the pitch back into position.

    With a little tweaking and modification, this GZDoom-based pseudocode will look like this:

    Processing gif t5dgoworqc131...

    Let me know if you have any questions! Happy flying!

    submitted by /u/VenomousWoe
    [link] [comments]

    Three different tiers of the same ability (players can upgrade their loot by fusing copies together). Thoughts? :)

    Posted: 30 May 2019 11:04 AM PDT

    2 Questions

    Posted: 30 May 2019 12:04 PM PDT

    1, How come most Game devs charge 50 an hour, yet almost all i hear is most devs are broke and penniless.

    2, Has there ever been an Indie "Partnership" where a bunch of guys just decide to make a video game? like, where they dont care who gets paid, they just get reimbursed by the money (Or lack of it) made by the game once it releases and sells by like an equal share thing.

    submitted by /u/SilverStar1999
    [link] [comments]

    Animating a fish with Vertex Animation can be quite useful.

    Posted: 30 May 2019 08:36 AM PDT

    Ways to foster a player's attachment to NPCs?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 07:21 AM PDT

    Hello everyone,

    I am currently in the process of narrowing down a plot for a Rune Factory/Harvest Moon inspired game. Similarly to those games you build affection with characters through gifts and friendship/love events. One of my goals though is that I would like to give the characters, especially the marriage candidates, more of a role in the storyline. I was thinking maybe this would be one way I could foster attachment to the characters?

    What do you guys think?

    I'm trying to find ways to make the player invested in the town and town folks while they grow their farm but also find themselves embroiled in a mystery that has them fighting supernatural creatures.

    submitted by /u/justloveme94
    [link] [comments]

    Amazing gif of multiple pieces assembling into an arm and attacking the player. Any ideas on how this was done?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 09:54 AM PDT

    Looks incredible... https://imgur.com/a/tz1aR9B

    Does anyone know how stuff like this would be achievable? It's so cool, it seems like the next level of videogaming.

    Would be awesome if you could even shoot off parts of the arm and it would get smaller and smaller. Not sure if that is a feature here.

    submitted by /u/linkgamedev
    [link] [comments]

    I made an open source virtual console for making text adventures.

    Posted: 30 May 2019 09:36 AM PDT

    UE4 Raytrace | Alejandro Burdisio Concept | Testing & Training DXR features

    Posted: 30 May 2019 11:47 AM PDT

    Wanna create a game like planetside 2 and arma 3. Kinda like mag but taking over large maps. How does it sound

    Posted: 30 May 2019 11:20 AM PDT

    How do I find music for a rhythm game?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 10:26 AM PDT

    I'm creating a rhythm game in the same spirit as greats like Guitar Hero or Beat Saber (although there's another big gameplay twist to this I'm not ready to reveal). While playing the game myself, I have the most fun with upbeat dance/EDM tracks around 2-3 minutes within a 100-120bpm range.

    How do you find music for a game like this? Some options I'm exploring/considering:

    • Just buy royalty free tracks from places like AudioJungle or Premium Beat. Even though the focus is on the gameplay (due to the aforementioned gameplay twist) I'm still not a huge fan of this option because the tracks are pretty stock/generic.
    • Try to find CC0 licensed music and give credit to the artists. This has been more difficult than it sounds, so maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. But the Free Music Archive is essentially dead (streams and downloads have been broken for weeks with no end in sight) and places like SoundCloud don't really let you search by license.
    • Reach out to artists on places like BandCamp or audio production subreddits and see if they'd be willing to license tracks (I can't pay much, maybe like $25-$50 per track, since this is a hobby project)

    Am I on the right path? Any other suggestions or resources?

    submitted by /u/nickpettit
    [link] [comments]

    Investor wants a budget for a small mobile game based off mines(but with a team).

    Posted: 30 May 2019 10:05 AM PDT

    Hi,

    An investor who took interest in my game(he's not the first person/group to take interest in the game, but he's the first through my known contacts rather than an e-mail from out of the blue).

    Although I made the previous game solo, he wants to know the budget for the game if I got assistance from say somebody taking over the programming/game engine handling side, a musician, and any other roles possible.

    I personally handled the 2D and 3D graphics of my game, as well as the game engine work, (although stuff like multiplayer might be too time consuming and advanced for me, so I think I would need help in that if it proves to be challenging). I can do better 3D graphics now than I could when I made the game(which the models for where made in late 2016, I just didn't update it since I was saving it for the sequel once I saved up enough money). Yeah, I was trying to save up money for my next gamedev venture, which I wouldn't have the money for another 1 to 2 years with the way things where going. After all I've been through, is my luck suddenly reversing?

    So this time, if I get the help of this investor, what would you recommend I put together as a team budget? It won't be a for a while anyway is what they said, but they are considering it.

    I do have the contact info of a few game-based musicians(two of them gave me free music for both my games, as they both liked the respective game they made the song for).

    I spent 5 hours researching the subject, and small app teams usually need a budget of around 30k to 50k from what I've seen, although I have a hard time finding the exact breakdown of these costs, would anybody have an example document(s) showing what goes into the budget of a small mobile app game made by an indie team?

    submitted by /u/Fradno
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    Hacknplan vs nTask vs Trello

    Posted: 30 May 2019 09:13 AM PDT

    I'm starting a new project and want to find the best PMS for the job. I have previously used Trello but often things have gotten messy with many unfinished checklists in vague cards.

    I'm wondering if Hacknplan (specifically made for game development) would be better for me.

    or maybe nTask which boast about being able to do things for free that Trello and others cannot. such as Gant charts.

    Ideally I would like to get the most out of a free version as possible until the project gets bigger. End goal would be a team size of max 8 people. but for now it's solo.

    Also any tips on better game project management would be greatly appreciated.

    submitted by /u/ThefitzyG
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    Give your users a reward in return for writing a review for your game

    Posted: 29 May 2019 01:21 PM PDT

    I had an issue 2 days after releasing my game where I was getting a few 1 star reviews (only on the Spanish store, idk why) and my average rating was 3.2 stars at one point. I wouldn't have a problem with this if they were leaving genuine feedback, like some user were, but they were just saying stuff like "bad do not download" or "terrible". I could see from my analytics that I had a lot of returning users playing my game and these reviews were clearly a minority as my retention figures looked healthy, so I thought my average rating was a bit unfair.

    Human nature is to speak when you are extremely satisfied with something or fairly dissatisfied. As a result, the players who were just "enjoying" my game weren't leaving reviews, so I came up with various plans on how to get more reviews for my game.

    The first thing I tried was asking in the caption of an instagram post from my game's insta page, but there was only 1 rating in over the period of time that I has traffic going towards the post, which may have not even been written beacuse they saw my post.

    Then I (and I don't advise this, it's against the play store's TOS) considered buying ratings. I looked at the prices, but then I re-read the TOS and realised I didn't want to risk getting slapped by the Google Play ban hammer.

    My final idea was to ask users in-game for ratings. I wanted to do it in a non intrusive way, so I put a small message on the advert boards in the back of my game (similar to the one shown below) and tracked my reviews. Only 1 review this time and again, it may not have been as a result of the board.

    https://i.redd.it/nsed96j7f7131.png

    So then I tried my next idea, to have a popup. I didn't want bad reviews by putting it in, so I made sure to include a "do not show this again" option to ensure that it would not irritate anyone. But the key part of this was to only show the popup to players that are "hooked". I have a boolean in my user's save file called "hooked" which is set to true if they have clocked 8 minutes of pure gameplay. Once they are "hooked" I can show an interstital advert to them every 2 minutes (the ones that pop up after you fail) and, most importantly, I can show them this popup (spare my UI design, I know it's ugly XD):

    https://i.redd.it/gf6e4ud1g7131.png

    24 hours after adding this popup, my average rating had gone from 3.6 stars to 4.2 stars, and now I am getting a constant flow of positive reviews being written about my game. And the funny thing is, you don't actually have to review the game to get the coins. Once you click the link you get the coins, as there is realistically no easy way of me instantly crediting a user after reviewing. But the main things about the popup are:

    1. I'm not asking for good reviews, just reviews. Asking for 5 star reviews is strictly against iOS terms of service, and may be against google play's TOS too
    2. It's not annoying, a user can never see the popup again if they don't want to
    3. There is an incentive, so user's won't just instantly dismiss it
    4. Once I've got the user's attention, there is a small message justifying why the user should leave a review
    5. The buttons to close the popup only display after 3 seconds (2 seconds after the "Sure" button pops up"). This means the user is forced into at least reading the heading, and they won't instantly dismiss the popup.
    6. It doesn't show up as soon as the user goes into the game. They have to at least play a bit before it is shown, even if they are "hooked", and it shows once every 5 hours (5 real hours, not 5 hours that the game has been open)

    This simple message brought my "satisfied" and above (60%+ satisfaction) players out of the cracks and now their praise is louder than the criticism. I drew a small graphic to explain what I mean:

    https://i.redd.it/ws5ueiw0j7131.png

    Of course I'm not claiming this is a 100% legit "make your app successful with 6 simple steps" technique, but it certainly worked for me, and if you know you have players that are genuinely enjoying your game (mobile or PC) but the few reviews you have are bad, this can definitely help out.

    submitted by /u/kerds78
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    Hi-res version of shadow casting in an excel workbook

    Posted: 29 May 2019 02:08 PM PDT

    C++ Related Projects?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 12:06 PM PDT

    Hi,

    So I've taken several college courses in C++ already and I want to start doing my own independent projects (aside from the CS lab programs assigned by college professors) so I have something to show to future interviewers when I try and go for an internship. I've always wanted to work for a game company (like Riot Games, Blizzard, etc) as a game developer or software engineer. Note that the only C++ projects I've done so far are the ones assigned by the professor in class, we've only ever had to code programs where we are manipulating data in some way using algorithms and data structures, then displaying things using the console. So I've never had experience with actually making a "visual" program using a window that didn't involve printing to console. I've dabbled in 3D modeling using Blender, have some pretty decent experience in working in C++, and want to get some projects under my belt.

    So my question for y'all is, what are some projects I can make that would be impressive to show off in a portfolio? I've heard of using Unreal Engine 4, SFML, OpenGL, which one of these should I focus on using? Should I be using either? Pros and cons? Is learning either of them more transferable of a skill than the other? What are some projects that would be best for me to do given what I've said about my interests and background? Any additional recommended resources?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/PvtCabooseRTRvB
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    week 2 progress. should i consider using other peoples assets for art, or should i keep going with my own?

    Posted: 30 May 2019 11:47 AM PDT

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDZG9woHQ34

    im starting to feel like i should use other peoples art to make my game. but right now i cant find one that i like. i dont know if my art is bad.. i just look at games that are sucessfull, like undertale, overture, oneshot, and im like "my art cant be that bad to finish the game like that. as long as i make a good story and gameplay. is only week 2 but i wanna do it right. i am a complete beginner. can i get some feedback , thank you!!!

    submitted by /u/Geca37
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