| Background with parallax effect in Unity! Posted: 08 Jun 2019 01:56 PM PDT |
| I created my first low-poly character in Blender, it looks like a character from an old 3D game, but nonetheless happy with the result! Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:07 AM PDT |
| 1000 Zombies at over 60FPS in Unity Posted: 09 Jun 2019 04:35 AM PDT |
| Throne of Lies Post Mortem Dump: Years of Knowledge Posted: 08 Jun 2019 10:33 PM PDT No fluff, just a dump of knowledge over the years. I have previous posts that are similar that... I'm too lazy to find, but Google should find it with "reddit xblade724 mortem". I use Unity, but not every aspect is about Unity. Note that when I say "The best", it's my opinion and experience - yours may differ. Let's get started: # Online Multiplayer - There is no "dreamy-like best" realtime or BaaS service in 2019, yet (sort of like how I'd say "Discord" is the "dreamy-best ideal" game chat service). One day, perhaps (Epic just announced their services, but are not yet ready).
- Realtime: Photon PUN is currently the best Unity realtime service. However, you almost require a BaaS to use it since features are lacking before you join a room. Eg, to deliver a string to someone with a room code requires a 3rd-party service (or a separately-priced-sub "Photon Chat" package). We currently use Photon.
- BaaS: GameSparks is still my favorite (despite the recent activity) We currently use GameSparks in a grandfathered package that no longer exists. The future is unstable, however, after some recent events -- and scripting is limited to ECMA5. They still have the best features I've ever seen, though, that others cannot compete with. No polling since socks... server-side disconnection handling since socks... web IDE with full intellisense and debugging features....PlayFab I believe is a solid 2nd place, but minimum $300/mo (even when you just launch). No nosql access, though (not many have this for likely monetary reasons).Epic seems promising for future BaaS/realtime -- but not yet. Keep an eye. However, ever since I had NoSQL access, I will never go with another BaaS unless they expose NoSQL -- I have been able to make AAA features with minimal limitations and learn nosql at the same time that benefits my future. Nosql is also portable, so if a company poofs, you don't have to rewrite your entire game's cloud scripting.We discuss BaaS (with staff inside from different companies) @ https://discord.gg/XVGXRzq -- See which one's right for you.
- Lessons Learned: Don't trust Unity's UNET unless Unity uses their own tech like Unreal does (more info in the Unity section below). Don't go with a BaaS without nosql unless you're super new or your project is low-scope. Ensure your BaaS uses socks to handle server-side disconnection (eg, a player leaves mid-match: You only get this notification with socks) - this also prevents the need for polling (makes your life wayy easier) and grants the ability to receive messages without polling. It's hard, but think distantly into the future when you choose your mplayer services. Map it all out - every aspect.Most BaaS pricing is also super obscure, nickel-and-diming you -- make sure you read their fair use policy and every small detail about their service fees. Some will be like "0.0001 cent per xxxx/bandwidth" which is just super difficult to read -- CONTACT them to ask about how much they'd project your game to be with your info. This is, again, where it's important that you have your own nosql structure. If you have 50 users/mo and you end up being charged $800/mo, you gotta abandon ship. Don't sign long term contracts unless you have to. There's always room to negotiate.
# Collaboration - Discord. This is the best. Have 1 for your public game, one for your private company. Assign roles. Have BOTs that help with bug repots + engage with users + integrate in-game with roles + have fun with it. It's 100x better than Slack and the API is super intuitive. Voice, chat, history, permissions, channels, user engagement, robust search -- it has it all. Start funneling all your links to Discord -- always put your Discord link and nothing else. Put your OTHER links in your Discord as the "central hub". Make channels for different languages -- then once you support an official locale, make a new server for it and find some passionate volunteer mods and spoil them (give them free keys, etc) - make it a win win and always remind them how much you appreciate them (they are your community's lifeblood)!
- Git Server: GitLab CE and DigitalOcean VPS. Oh yes. The best thing ever. It's free, open source, and has no restrictions - and comes with CI (although I haven't used that before) for automated builds/testing. You can 1-click create a DigitalOcean droplet to host it for 20 bucks/mo. Instead of paying that much for Collab, this gets you a full VPS where you can make your own API, have a Discord BOT, have a Discourse forum, whatever. I personally like GitLab better than GitHub, too, if you haven't used it before. Soo many features and so friendly.
- GitClient: GitKraken. Use no other. There will always be little annoyances, but this is the only one that does it all and with a modern dark theme to prevent burning retinas. Use ol' Git CLI for your little things, but use Kraken for everything else. Their only con is a tiny bug where stashing takes like 5 minutes. I'm sure they'll fix it soon. I tried Tower and all the other popular clients -- Kraken is the way. They used to honestly be horrible 3 years ago, but are powerful now.
- Dev Guide. If you are manager, make a dev guide. Map out your architecture. Most importantly, give code standards! I wish I did this long ago -- ensure your devs leave proper comments, use standard practices, split up functions, use proper naming conventions, be consistent, commit in small chunks only, etc. HAVE THIS WRITTEN ON PAPER! Have it in their contract, too. If it works, don't assume it's pretty code: Assuming is bad. Don't find yourself having to fix spaghetti-code (because a newhire won't be able to read it: Just you. Hopefully.).
- Trello. I've tried other things, but I don't like them. Asana is cool, but too overwhelming. Trello just works -- I have a public and a private one. Public one has a Discord BOT where users can type ".bug <title> <description>" and requires logs/screenshots to submit a bug report -- then we parse it and toss it in Trello to unconfirmed bugs. We then curate it to move to confirmed bugs, etc. Then drag to "done" when done (always have a done -- it's so satisfying).For your private Trello, have something like (from right to left): Resources | Icebox | Backlog | Soon | Now | DoneResources dump links, Icebox dump "had an idea for like 2 years from now", backlog is "eventually(TM)", soon is likely for the next patch, now is what you're literally working on now, and done? Drag that crap in there. Use Butler bot to add a giant satisfying checkbox. Good for morale and reminds you how much you've accomplished (it can be easy to forget when times are tough). Most importantly, this makes it so you don't have to ask other devs what they're up to -- you should just know. Put this in your dev guide. And in their contract to require Trello updates.
- Lessons Learned: Unity's "Collab" feat is great for just getting started, but isn't robust and you can get a free version of this with GitLab CE, for example.
# Tools - Patch notes got tedious, so I made an open-source (MIT) patch parser that parses from rich text to bb to TextMeshPro: https://gitlab.com/dylanh724/tol-patch-parser (screenshot within). Edit to your own liking.
- WinSCP is the best free tool for SFTP access to your VPS and is free (...open source, too, I think?) -- FileZilla has some privacy issues you can Google about.
- PuTTY is the best free/open source tool for SSH access.
- POSTman is the best API tester -- some cool companies will even offer a package to "preload" your API with testers. Set environmental vars for secrets and replace with {templates}, etc. If you are working with API's, this is amazing.
- Audacity is free/open source and super intuitive for newbie audio editing. Let's say you just wanna fade in/out or extend a sound -- or something simple. Grab this.
- Visual Studio 2019 Community - free and has some resharper features in this new version. Super intuitive and works well with Unity (except for anything to do with Async - Unity has issues with async stuff).
- Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code are great "small editing" programs that are super modular. Regex find+replace, easy formatting, can close without having to save and it'll remember what you have, tabbed files, etc. Sometimes I don't want to bother with a giant Visual Studio 2019 opening to do simple tasks.
- TexturePacker - Costs like $100/year, and I'm only just experimenting with it, but it's pretty awesome. Packs sprites into a single sprite that's auto-configured with Unity. Has some small issues, but overall is decent. Works with TextMeshPro's <sprite> features for unicode-like inclusions of sprites. That means aligning them, etc. Great for localizations where alignment of headers with a sprite will always look different. Eg, "[Sprite] Some Centered Header".
- Discord.js -- Technically a library, this is the easiest Discord API out there and it's incredibly intuitive + always updated + has a giant community to help you.
# Unity - worth it? - Unity is incredibly intuitive, their new native Prefab system rocks, their newb tutorials are great, C# with .NET 4.x is very fun, and decent performance when you first start is rockin. However....
- For larger-scoped projects, doing anything async/remotely advanced, or desktop projects that may be bigger... you spend more time waiting on Unity editor performance than anything else. Bugs, crashes, hangs, waiting up to 2 mins with an i7 for your entire project to recompile (even up to 1 min in an empty scene but with a big project).I read that Unreal is butter-smooth in the editor since they use their own game engine. Unity, however... their features are mostly about marketing rather than dev QoL: Until they focus on dev quality of life in the editor. Don't get me wrong, Unity features are AMAZING -- it's literally just editor performance/frustration/waiting -- SO MUCH WAITING -- ALWAYS WAITING.... and their Async issues.
- Async/Additive scene loading will 100% be necessary for any professional project: You don't want to just FREEZE and unfreeze with a teleport whenever you load a new scene, after all. You want a fade in/out and "loading..." or a spinny circle.... Well, Unity bombs on this. They have so many Async issues that I cannot even list here.You can't debug them with VS2019 (any form of async: AsyncOperations, coroutines, what have you). AsyncOps has issues loading and unloading a scene at the same time, even with a 3rd buffer scene -- which defeats the purpose of async. It has issues with 2 asyncs going at once.When you debug with async with step-throughs, expect crashes and random step-outs as if you stopped stepping through completely (with the workaround of placing 100 break points one-after-another).While coroutines don't do this, AsyncOperations (async scene loading) will prematurely fire you to a new scene whenever you simply click out of Unity and click back in (may only happen with bigger projects). This includes debugging, alt tabbing over to chat/google/git stuff or visual studio ... anything - you click outside, then in, and it skips to the next scene: EVEN WHEN PAUSED. This bug has persisted for years and is repro'd on both my several desktops over the years and my laptop.
- Whenever you make a change to cause Unity to recompile, it scans the entire project for changes -- all of it. While this happens, all threads are frozen and you cannot continue. This means when your project gets even remotely large, expect up to 1-minute compiles with an i7 on an empty scene. Why does it freeze threads for scripts that are not even connected to your scene? Good question -- Unreal does not do this, I am told. Apparently they had a project to circumvent this, but it was abandoned. Google more info or I'll rant all day about this.
- UNET. Oh, UNET.... In 2017, I actually used this. Enterprise-level networking function heavily advertised and even a premium paid -- 3 pages of docs for it. Yep, 3. High-level fluff. 0 support. In the end, they admitted it was only like 2 devs working on this, seemingly outsourced since no one else knew anything about it. I spent months trying to get a question answered "How to properly disconnect a user" and eventually a mod replied "I can't FORCE them to answer your question" after following up once every couple weeks. Then, they shutdown. I'm glad I ditched that feature. However, even if they bring it back, I'll never trust Unity again for mplayer services -- they're so important, so critical, so complex, and so time consuming. To abandon it instead of fix it for an enterprise-level game engine? That's incredibly unprofessional, IMO.
- TL;DR about Unity: LOVE it, yet I hate it because their features are clearly for marketing to make money rather than make a great game with love to devs. If I make a low-scoped game, I'd use Unity every time for sure. However, if I need to do anything complex -- even remotely complex (multiplayer, online, desktop where files can bloat up)... I'm going to try Unreal next. I know the grass is always greener, but when I spend more than 50% of my day waiting on the gd app to recompile, crash, skip over breakpoints, and prematurely shoot to next scene every time I do anything (which combos with other bugs such as recompiling after clicking stop, waiting, waiting, WAITING....) .... it's clearly not dev friendly, only optimized for onboarding experiences. It's the most furious love-hate relationship, that could easily be fixable if there was more voice to demand editor improvements.
___________ ...That's all the time I have, folks. Hope you found something useful. submitted by /u/xblade724 [link] [comments] |
| The Making of Quake Tells the story of how the classic was made. Posted: 09 Jun 2019 04:41 AM PDT |
| Are there games with a similar "transform into enemy" game mechanic? Posted: 09 Jun 2019 08:19 AM PDT |
| Is it possible to make a 2d dress up game without learning how to code? Posted: 09 Jun 2019 05:45 AM PDT I'm not entirely sure where to start. What engines would be the easiest to use? I have no prior experience at all if that hasn't been obvious yet. submitted by /u/pseudosomeone [link] [comments] |
| Resources to learn Vulkan Posted: 09 Jun 2019 08:59 AM PDT Hi, I have some experience with java, C++ and OpenGL, but I'd like to use Vulkan in my projects. Do you know any good resources where I can learn from? submitted by /u/MichaelObvious [link] [comments] |
| visual novel engines that work on the web? Posted: 09 Jun 2019 08:27 AM PDT im looking for visual noveks engines that ae non download and free? i look for online but i get downloads -_- i tried cloudnovel Bassnovel any suggestions of engines that work online? i even tried web, but it still gave me download things, submitted by /u/Sayori-Bookworm [link] [comments] |
| Tips on finishing a game faster? Posted: 09 Jun 2019 08:23 AM PDT Hello I have been doing game Dev for abit now and recently I started to find it difficult to finish a game jam(s) any tips? submitted by /u/DayHam [link] [comments] |
| Our humble June Devblog Posted: 09 Jun 2019 05:43 AM PDT |
| Designer Notes 45: Rami Ismail (Soren Johnson interviews Rami podcast) Posted: 09 Jun 2019 11:35 AM PDT Link: https://www.designer-notes.com/?p=1534 Good podcast. Within he mentions three Vlambeer signatures: Screenshake towards the action Bounce on collision Explosions are black circle, white circle, then particles Does anyone have the sample code for the above? I am curious to see the actual implementation or more conversation about submitted by /u/samdiesel [link] [comments] |
| Bazooka carnage with explosion by Pixel FX Designer Posted: 09 Jun 2019 11:27 AM PDT |
| Panda3d First Person Not So Shooter Posted: 09 Jun 2019 10:29 AM PDT I'm attempting to make a first person shooter in panda3d. I've been working on how to get my player to shoot an instance of a bullet at the direction I look, and it's been working out for the most part, except I'm an error message that looks like this. AssertionError: !is_empty() at line 993 of panda/src/pgraph/nodePath.cxx
I have no idea how to fix this, but I do have a good idea on what this error might mean. It's trying to find a node that doesn't exist, and when I try to do something to that non existent node (like change its position) it gives me this error. Does anybody know how to fix it? Here's the code. def updateLaser(self): if self.keyMap['fire'] != 0: self.laserRotControl = self.laserContainer.attachNewNode('laserRotControl') self.laserRotControl.setZ(4) self.laserRotControl.setP(self.camera.getP()) self.laserRotControl.setH(self.camera.getH()) self.bulletCounter += 1 self.laserPosControl = self.laserRotControl.attachNewNode('laserPosControl' + str(self.bulletCounter)) self.laser.instanceTo(self.laserPosControl) for i in range(self.bulletCounter): print(self.laserContainer.findAllMatches('**/laser.ply')) rot = self.laserContainer.find('**/laserPosControl' + str(i)) rot.setY(rot.getY() + 1) if rot.getY() > 40: rot.removeNode() continue
submitted by /u/QuakAtack [link] [comments] |
| Game Design Lessons: Storytelling Posted: 09 Jun 2019 10:26 AM PDT |
| Just found a possible artist but... Posted: 09 Jun 2019 10:24 AM PDT |
| Just some clips from my game called duality that was built with the godot engine. Any suggestions on how to improve are much appreciated. Posted: 09 Jun 2019 10:15 AM PDT |
| Almost graduate, bushiness card help needed Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:47 AM PDT Hi, I've just finished my University studies in game development and am now just awaiting graduation! I'm going to an event soon we're there are going to be career scouts from some a variety of studios, some that are very well known and other networking for job opportunities, so i'm making some business cards to make this a bit easier. However I'm having some trouble on what exactly to put on the card! On the front I'll have my name, but should I put Game developer? Game programmer? Gameplay programmer? Generalist? I do not know. And on the back i have contact info and a link to my portfolio, but should I share any other info? that I'm a recent graduate etc? If it's of any help, I have a pretty strong understanding and competency in Unity and C# but also lots of experience with C++ and some in Python as well as other engines like Unreal. I'm mostly interested in gameplay programming, although I've done some systems programming(DirectX rendering, not really for me), and some interest in procedural methods and AI programming. Any help would be appreciated! submitted by /u/promenade_green [link] [comments] |
| Alpha testers needed for old school 8-bit indie game. Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:43 AM PDT Hello, we are HomebrewGames, a new game development company releasing the alpha version of our first game, 8-bit Purgatory. It is a 2d 8-bit style turn based rpg in which you are a tactician sent to purgatory to spend eternity leading warriors in frugal battles. We need your help to find any bugs, give us advice, critique, and give us feedback on our game. It can be downloaded for free at https://www.patreon.com/HomebrewGames, or through google drive at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dd4qeQl71j5BGdyTUzofxISVk3slyRhF We look forward to hearing your suggestions, click on the in game discord button to chat directly with us and give us your feedback. submitted by /u/HomebrewGames [link] [comments] |
| Advise on game framework Posted: 08 Jun 2019 10:26 PM PDT Hello all, this could be yet another question about which eninge/framework should I choose, but I really want to hear some opinions and see where are mine in comparision. So... I'm C++ addict, have secret, but not important relationship wiht Python and I avoid the rest. Have some knowledge on games and the pain it is for solo dev. Also I'm pretty stubborn and when I stop on something it will be for long time, hence I choose carefully and ask here. What I target is something for hobby work, with few hours each day available. I have been thinking and did some progress on 3d, using a plugin for UE4 - I almost didnt touch any code there, as my plugin was just generating terrain. But at the end, I started to consider some 2d+ view as a bit more relaxing in terms of art & 3d math capabilities. Hence, I started to investigate a choice for a platform: - Cocos* - an asian, JS, and lately IDE, oriented, have slowed down the 2d dev. C++ approach - I like it. I'm not sure how viable they will stay with it though and their feature set and plans. GitHub has like 1k+ issues...
- Godot - arising, seems promising. Circulates around Python for main language - no go for me. Has C headers API project with bad documentation. I'm not sure how flexible it is in that matter.
- Panda3d - I dunno, I like it for some reason. Nothing special for 2d, Python / C++ which is okay. Easy to setup. Messy, in terms of features spread over other projects (e.g dereferred)
- raylib - my style, minimal, clean, just drop and compile. Cons: a bit too low level, basically have to know how the gl/dx stuff is working and I want a bit more abstraction. Also its one man-army, wish him all the best o/
- UE4 - rock star, so and it has a dark life behind the curtains. Havent seen such a mess of code, not very much concerned about the 5% $3k+/Qn, but is kinda heavy just to look at.
Following up from comments: i search for higher level draw, audio and physics features. AI might be nice too, but not prio, as are low prio networking, threading, input and math api. I target mid level PCs, no mobile, no console, no vr. Win and if possible Linux. I checked and several others, but they seem likely not steady, or not in fitting in my style. Forgot to mention that I'm more found of coding under Linux/WSL with cross-compiling whenever needed. Thank you in advance everybody! submitted by /u/ryobg [link] [comments] |
| Blogging question Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:42 AM PDT It's been suggested to me by several people that I should create a blog to help improve my written communication skills and to track my hobby gamedev experience. I'm not an amazing dev, in fact I'm just learning Unity the last month or so, and I don't expect that I'd have anything valuable to offer others. Is this still something that you all think would be useful for me to do given that? What kind of things would you record on a blog like that? Stuff like "I couldn't find a good way to implement line of sight for this mechanic. After a lot of trial and error I got it working like this <pseudocode ensues>"? Are there any other blogs in a similar vein that I should take a look at? submitted by /u/oldark [link] [comments] |
| Thanks for all the great feedback on my latest post Posted: 09 Jun 2019 05:21 AM PDT I posted on Friday, June 7 about the one year anniversary of my game, Survive Or Die. I got a lot of good feedback about how to use Git and I appreciate it. I looked into it this morning and it looks very easy to use, and very convenient. Thank y'all so much. submitted by /u/TheOnlyJolt [link] [comments] |
| Where to advertsie for a concept artist? Posted: 09 Jun 2019 09:04 AM PDT So my dev team is currently looking for concept artist for 2D sprites with anime influence. Where would I go to look for artists? 75% of the channels I've looked at for artists will remove any advertising posts. The Hiring subreddit does not allow Profit Share so I'm SOL there as well. If anyone is interested, message me for details. submitted by /u/Ultragamershiko [link] [comments] |
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/z8sgc3m0jd331.gif){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment