Voxel Plugin Free is now available for Unreal Engine 4.24 - includes powerful voxel tools, world generation tools, multiplayer and more! |
- Voxel Plugin Free is now available for Unreal Engine 4.24 - includes powerful voxel tools, world generation tools, multiplayer and more!
- I released a game on Steam without doing any marketing beforehand, and it was a success.
- Valve adds new Steam DLC type specifically for Soundtracks, making them easier to sell for devs
- English is no longer the most popular language on Steam as Simplified Chinese takes over.
- microStudio helps you figuring out coordinates, exploring code changes with instant feedback
- State of Unity engine in 2020: 2019 LTS looks delayed (2019.3 is late), stability is shaky--is it worth switching to unreal as an indie dev?
- Vulkan 1.2 released
- 200+ game jam entries with source (GitHub Game Off 2019)
- What did you change when you realized your project was too ambitious (but didn't scrap the whole project)?
- WIP Wednesday #135 - Might not have wit, but here's my WIP!!!
- Are there any more modern physics engines than Box2D implemented in C++?
- The Two Types of Random | Game Maker's Toolkit
- Some Free Sound Packs I've made that you can use in your games.
- Basic VR FLIGHT SIMULATOR. Full [Beginner Tutorial] in comment section! I'm using oculus but it's easy to use other headsets as well!
- Cliffski's Blog | Trying to avoid the small indie valley
- Any good gamdev podcasts? I loved Game design zen but he only made like 20 episodes. :(
- Awesome tutorial on how to build Cel shading (Zelda like graphics)
- How did you become a game developer?
- Procedural Building Generator created in Unity3d and using real-time HDRP Raytracing capabilities in Unity 2019.3 RTX 2080 (Tutorial about the topic also available in comments)
- What engines allow editing on IOS or Android?
- Working on a new cutscene this morning. Needed a sound byte for testing so took a snip of an audiobook I'm listening to. I found the results to be humorous
- LoL dev team talks about a character's development
- Legality with game mechanics?
| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 01:20 AM PST
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| I released a game on Steam without doing any marketing beforehand, and it was a success. Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:03 PM PST I also made a video version of this post for anyone who would prefer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvShi_XVC1Q&feature=youtu.be So I recently released my first game on Steam, and did little to no marketing beforehand. Certainly nothing that had any significant impact toward getting the word out about my game. Before making this ridiculous move, I was obviously curious about what was going to happen at launch. I tried to gather as much information as I could about Steam sales, wishlist conversions, etc. Unfortunately most people aren't dumb enough to do this so there isn't really a lot of data out there on releasing a game without telling anyone about it. So why did I decide to do this? Well, like a lot of people I had been trying to make a game for years but ultimately gave up on all my projects. Sometime last summer I decided think of a project that was so small and simple I couldn't possibly fail. I decided to make a physics-based game about a bear from the soviet union who commutes to the circus on a unicycle. Maybe it would take a month or so to finish, and then I would finally release a game! So, I gave up on it... A few months later in October of last year, I had decided to take some time off work. I remembered the game and realized that if I didn't use this time to finish it, I probably never would and maybe I would never release a game at all. So I decided to use the week I had taken off to finish the game. Whatever state the game was in by the end of the week, I would release it. So that's why aside from a couple of reddit threads which didn't even include the name of the game and a few posts on my twitter account with 4 followers, I didn't do any marketing. There simply wasn't time for the game to gain any traction. So launch day comes around and I release the game. On the first day it sold six copies. I was actually ok with this. I figured that the big spike on launch day that most people get is from the marketing they did beforehand. Since I didn't get the spike, maybe this would be my baseline. If it continued to sell six copies a day, I would be perfectly happy with that. The next day... I sold 10 copies, which I was obviously even more happy about. On the third day a pretty big YouTuber made a video about my game and it ended up getting about 30,000 views. I was really excited about this, but unfortunately it didn't have any effect on sales and I only sold one copy that day. This sort of made me realize that sales were probably going to be a bit worse than I thought. I decided I wanted to have more than a handful of people play my game, so I did a giveaway on reddit. The giveaway was genuine but of course I was also hoping that it would raise awareness about the game. The post really took off and was on the front page of r/pcgaming for a couple of days. During this period there were over 100 people looking at my Steam page at any given time. The game started trending according to Steam Spy, and I it was on the top sellers list at least for a little while. So a "trending", "top-selling" game must be selling thousands of copies right? Well, I actually only sold 42 copies during those two days. Much better than before, but it turns out that even having a "trending" game isn't enough to sell a significant number of copies. This wasn't really surprising to me. Most of this traffic was just random users from reddit and it's a pretty niche game. After this, sales died out pretty quickly and I only sold a copy or two every other day for about the next month. Fast forward to Christmas, and I decide to put the game on sale at a large discount. I figured this might increase sales slightly and maybe I could get a sale or two a day instead of a sale or two every other day. It actually increased sales by over 6000% and I ended up selling 10 copies a day on average for the two weeks the game was on sale. I still don't know exactly why this happened. Obviously I expected an increase in sales while the game was discounted, but 6000% is a huge increase. Maybe it was the size of the discount, or the psychology of thinking that you're getting a bargain, or maybe I just priced the game way to high originally. Needless to say, I was really excited about this. The sale ended about a week ago and the game has been out for roughly two months now. So what was the outcome? Well, the game has made about $500. I'm sure most people would consider this a huge flop, but I'm actually pretty happy with that. The way I see it, it took me about the equivalent of one full work week to complete the game, and I made $500; Roughly the median weekly income for someone in the US, and the game is still selling. So I'm perfectly happy with the time/income ratio from this project. Anything I make from it from it now is just icing on the cake. I learned a lot along the way, and more valuable than the money is the belief I now have that I can make a game and receive a return for that investment. If I can make a game in a week and make $500, maybe I can make a game in a year and make $50,000. I'm not exactly sure what the take away is from this, but I thought it might be interesting for some. Long story short, market your game before release, but if it doesn't go crazy on launch day, there may still be hope. Have realistic expectations and start small. Steam really does a fair amount to get your game selling, and YouTubers, the front page of reddit, and trending on Steam are not free passes to success. Edit: For everyone asking, I had about 175 wishlists at the time the game went on sale. During the sale there were 43 wishlist conversions. Thanks for all the support guys! [link] [comments]  | ||
| Valve adds new Steam DLC type specifically for Soundtracks, making them easier to sell for devs Posted: 15 Jan 2020 07:44 AM PST
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| English is no longer the most popular language on Steam as Simplified Chinese takes over. Posted: 15 Jan 2020 04:44 AM PST | ||
| microStudio helps you figuring out coordinates, exploring code changes with instant feedback Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:38 AM PST
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| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 06:29 AM PST Apparently, Unity the company is in the midst of a lot of drama at the executive level (senior execs pulling unprofessional shenanigans); reports of toxic work environments lower down. In an effort to pull off a 2020 IPO the leadership is trying to rush as many engine features into the release candidates as they can, even when they're not actually ready for release. Unity forums/blog comments are reporting regressions in version 2019 all over the place. And, they're like in the middle of reimplementing their rendering engine, scripting approach (DOTS), but have been for like, years now?? I have like $1k tied up in Unity assets I invested in for a big project a few years back, so leaving the ecosystem isn't exactly ideal-- But Epic on the other hand: Builds their engine features to meet the needs of fortnite, a real mass-market game, so all of their release candidates are actually stable and reliable, and battle-tested. Epic isn't trying to IPO, so none of those shenanigans (they have other issues--like creeping Chinese ownership of the company). Unreal is heavier on a computer than Unity, seems to have potentially longer build times. But its ecosystem isn't fragmented; you get a lot out of the box without having to pay for third-party functionality. Its package system isnt as much of a nightmare. Last thing is, most mid-size indie jobs I see listed are for Unreal (e.g. Velan studios). I work in a tiny team (like 2-3 devs, a couple artists). Unity used to be a given, but now I'm not so sure. It increasingly looks like a slow-moving trainwreck. In 2020, is it worth the investment for a tiny indie to switch over to Unreal, for the engine stability? Have any of you guys taken the plunge? How was the transition? People who have stuck with Unity--what version do you use? (2018 LTS?) Thank you!! [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:38 AM PST
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| 200+ game jam entries with source (GitHub Game Off 2019) Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:54 PM PST
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| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 04:07 AM PST At some point most people realize that their idea was too ambitious. But that doesn't mean that they have to scrap the whole idea. Often we can make some adjustments and still get close to our dream game. So what elements did you change to achieve that? An example: My dream game is similar to modern Fallout games. But such a project is obviously way too ambitious. So instead of a First/Third-Person Shooter I made it a Top Down Shooter, which is much easier to handle. And instead of a big open world I made a big map like classic Fallout games, where you reach a place on the map it opens the level of that place. [link] [comments]  | ||
| WIP Wednesday #135 - Might not have wit, but here's my WIP!!! Posted: 15 Jan 2020 05:48 AM PST What is WIP Wednesday? Share your work-in-progress (WIP) prototype, feature, art, model or work-in-progress game here and get early feedback from, and give early feedback to, other game developers. RULES
Remember to use #WIPWednesday on social media for additional feedback and exposure! Note: Using url shorteners is discouraged as it may get you caught by Reddit's spam filter. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Are there any more modern physics engines than Box2D implemented in C++? Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:05 AM PST I haven't really been following physics engines specifically for a while but just curious if Box2D is still the standard? [link] [comments]  | ||
| The Two Types of Random | Game Maker's Toolkit Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:00 PM PST
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| Some Free Sound Packs I've made that you can use in your games. Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:54 AM PST Hello everybody, hope you are doing well. I've been doing sound design and music for a while. Mostly as a hobby. I guess the most "famous" sound design and music was the one I've made for the "One Late Night" games (long time ago, nothing to brag about). I mostly record and produce sound effects for the fun of it and the sound effects just ends up collecting dust on my harddrive afterwards so I thought I might as well give them away for free. The only thing I would gratefully ask for in return is for you to sign up to my newsletter (You'll only get a newsletter when I upload a new free sound pack). Other than that, use them as you wish, commercial or non-commercial. I've compiled 8 "Sound Packs" so far (it ain't much but it's honest work) that you can download for free from my website. "Fistfight" - 18 files of swishes and hits for your next Street Fighter game!. "Gore'n'Blood" - 22 files of gore, bones breaking etc. You know, if you want to make the next Resident Evil. "Stab'N'Cut" - 18 files of stabs, cuts and singing blades that would make Michael Myers tear up of joy. "Card Player" - 22 files for anyone who want to make their own "online poker" game because that's still a thing right? Right? "Footsteps" - 22 files of... footsteps. Don't know what else to say here. "Doors and Locks" - 17 files of doors opening, closing, locked doors, doors getting locked, unlocked etc. "Submarine" - 6 files of submarine sounds like the propulsion, torpedo launch, hull creek, sonar and underwater explosion. I made this just to challenge myself. I obviously couldn't record a real submarine so this is mostly made in my sink. Yeah. "Ice Cracking" - 18 files of ice cracking. If I would have made this before 1997 then maybe Joel Schumacher would have downloaded it for Mr. Freeze in the travesty "Batman & Robin". Now, who knows, maybe someone needs this. Hope you get some use of the sound effects I made. If you have any questions on how I made them or any other questions, feel free to ask. Regards, /Pontus [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:55 AM PST
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| Cliffski's Blog | Trying to avoid the small indie valley Posted: 15 Jan 2020 01:03 AM PST
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| Any good gamdev podcasts? I loved Game design zen but he only made like 20 episodes. :( Posted: 15 Jan 2020 10:42 AM PST | ||
| Awesome tutorial on how to build Cel shading (Zelda like graphics) Posted: 14 Jan 2020 08:00 PM PST
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| How did you become a game developer? Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:06 AM PST I've been wondering what path I should take in order to become a game dev for a while, but I have no idea how to find it. [link] [comments]  | ||
| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:44 AM PST
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| What engines allow editing on IOS or Android? Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:39 AM PST | ||
| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:36 AM PST
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| LoL dev team talks about a character's development Posted: 15 Jan 2020 01:02 AM PST | ||
| Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:31 AM PST I'm working on a game with some game mechanics and with alpha testers. If I implement a suggestion from an alpha tester, are there any legal implications? [link] [comments]  |
![Basic VR FLIGHT SIMULATOR. Full [Beginner Tutorial] in comment section! I'm using oculus but it's easy to use other headsets as well!](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/mRp2B3tEoZyh7AmYUeHyNfzXd9C-EYdQxXVREjLTPpE.jpg "Basic VR FLIGHT SIMULATOR. Full [Beginner Tutorial] in comment section! I'm using oculus but it's easy to use other headsets as well!")
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