• Breaking News

    Thursday, February 27, 2020

    GoG will now give refunds out for any reason, for up to 30 days after purchase

    GoG will now give refunds out for any reason, for up to 30 days after purchase


    GoG will now give refunds out for any reason, for up to 30 days after purchase

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:48 AM PST

    Hello Devs! A little tip :). More specific but powerful. Have a good day!

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 05:53 AM PST

    Unity pulls out of GDC 2020

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:14 AM PST

    Plague Inc. removed from China app store.

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:57 AM PST

    Pixel Art 101: Bush

    Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:56 PM PST

    Epic pulls out of GDC

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:07 AM PST

    How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:43 AM PST

    I've encountered further shady business practices from Indieboost. They made a developer they're marketing for look bad.

    Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:29 PM PST

    Indieboost's marketing tactics are shady, and could potentially bring bad PR to the devs that they work for. This post is to explain what I mean from my own personal experiences with the site.

    ...Also, this is something of a follow-up to a couple of posts I made here about Indieboost a few months back. You don't need to read them, but here they are.

    My first post. My second post.

    To summarize?

    Indieboost is a key distribution platform, one of a few available to both developers and content creators to connect up. I'm not a professional developer, but I have been growing as a content creator, so I signed up for this site a while back.

    I've proceeded to have bad experiences with Indieboost staff. I've received game keys that didn't work, and when requesting new ones, was told by them that I would have to do it myself, and then threatened to stop making such a big deal of the issue or I might get an account suspension/ban over the other games I hadn't reviewed yet. (I had already reviewed over 30 games by that point, showing my reliability, but they targeted at a couple games I'd not reviewed in the first week of getting them.)

    The site is buggy multiple ways too. For instance, the reason I came into conflict with them on the key issue was because they really wanted me to use the 'report key' button on my profile...which didn't exist. Beyond that, time deadlines for their Gigs (paid reviews) have wonked out on me and almost caused me to miss deadlines due to the date suddenly updating to a different (sooner) date. And there have been other bugs beyond these.

    But that's old news. Let's get to the new stuff.

    I both stopped doing Gigs and greatly reduced my involvement with Indieboost since these incidents. I withdrew my Gig earnings early from the site (normally payouts are at $100+) and when asked why I was doing so, I simply told them 'I don't feel safe here after you threatened me with account suspension.', and explained that I thus do not feel comfortable doing any more Gigs and will be not pursuing them further. (Important to note for later.)

    I received my payout with no response, and I assumed this would be the last I spoke to this staff member. ...They were the main 'problem person' of all of my interactions, as Indieboost help staff seem to only consist of two people. I'll refer to this problem-person as Scammy Individual (SI) from now on.

    Fast forward a few months. I've still gotten many emails about new Gigs I could pursue, but they were something I simply ignored. They came in a stock format, a general automatic site notification like this. Easily ignorable.

    Then I got what seemed to be a personalized email from SI... You can read this email, as well as the rest of our conversation, here.

    I was directly asked to apply for a particular gig, being told that the game was a 'great fit' for my channel and that I needed to just state a price so that SI could get my bid approved. I was instantly cautious, being that I didn't like SI and this situation was odd. They knew I had sworn off doing gigs, as I'd told them before. But, if the dev behind the game was interested in seeing me review it...well, I was willing to make an exception. (I am still on Indieboost because I want to work with devs, after all; even if I don't like the Indieboost team.)

    I cautiously proceeded forward, careful to make my intent clear about bidding only if I was specifically desired. I bounced a number off of SI for my price to see if they could approve that amount, being ready to haggle down if need be; SI offered no resistance and simply wanted me to place the bid, so I did.

    And then I waited a while. And eventually...the bid got rejected.

    I went back to SI asking what was up with this. I was casually told that I had been outbid, that I'd bid too high, and that many other people were vying for this Gig too. SI had completely dropped the tone he'd had at the beginning; I was now just one in the cog, and not anyone who was specifically desired as he had so strongly alluded to in the first place.

    It was just before this point that I asked SI a direct question: "When you asked me about covering this game, were you in contact with the devs about me and my channel? Were they the ones who wished to have my gig?" SI confirmed this, though shortly. "They did but unfortunately it appears you got outbid by other channels."

    It was at this point that I contacted the devs directly. Here is that conversation.

    I asked the devs: Hey, did you guys ask SI to contact me? Were you guys interested in my channel? The developers were very friendly and professional sorts, and very clearly stated "I was not aware that you were contacted by Indieboost staff and I did not specifically ask them to reach out to you." These devs had clearly never heard of me before, and rightfully pointed out that my channel was in fact not a great fit at all. I barely ever cover RTS-style games like the one they were developing, and it made no sense for them to be specifically requesting me for a Gig.

    I absolutely agreed with them. It was partly why SI's emails had seemed rather fishy to me from the get-go.

    I thanked the devs for their time and gave them a full log of my conversation with SI. I stated that I wasn't asking for any help with this, but I wanted them to know what Indieboost was doing with the money they paid them for publicity. (Given how nice the devs were, I imagine they had no idea this was happening.)

    It was pretty clear at this point that SI had reeled me in with false promises, implying I was desired for a Gig so that I would place a bid on it - and drum up popularity on the Gig. I would not be surprised if SI had sent the exact same email to many other content creators on Indieboost, trying to generate a dishonest hype on the game they were paid to publicize.

    ...I went back to SI and called him out on his lie in the most professional way I could think of responding. I have not gotten any response back, nor do I expect I will.

    In conclusion.

    I don't think I need to say this, but this is the wrong way to publicize a game. If I'd not contacted the devs myself and gotten the full story, I'd have assumed they were being dodgy with me themselves. :/ And this leads me back to my first sentence: I very much encourage devs to take caution with Indieboost. I've never run into this sort of crappy, scummy behavior from staff on other key distribution platforms, like Keymailer or Woovit or Terminals.

    I'm lucky. As a content creator, I get to use all these sites basically for free. But I know it's a different story for the devs on them. They have to pay to have their games represented on such a platform, pay more to have it publicized on front-pages, pay even more to have additional emails and publicity sent out. I know that this PR can add up in cost. So it's important to invest that cost in the right sort of PR.

    I wouldn't have pursued these emails and gotten to the bottom of things if it wasn't for the fact that I honestly care about developers, especially the indie developers typically trying to get their name out there on key distribution sites like this. I wanted to make sure I knew what was going on, even if it risked me gaining bad favor with SI, so that I could go here to r/gamedev and report on it. (Quite frankly, I'm surprised that my account has not gotten suspended for my comeuppance on this matter. ...Not that I'd be terribly torn up to lose my Indieboost account, at this point.)

    I'm happy to answer any questions anybody might have. And if you have your own Indieboost problem-stories, I'd be interested to hear them too. I feel it's important to share information about this website, and shed transparency on what they do.

    But, yeah. Sorry I'm super wordy, but... I hope this post helps somebody out there.

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

    How To Make A Multiplayer Game In Unity - Client-Server - Mirror Networking

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:23 AM PST

    THE EYE is watching...��‍�� Added animation to our eye cluster. I think it will make a good atmospheric moment for KAPIA. Some eyes will follow a character as he or she (we have two) walks around. #indie #pointandclick #adventuregame #indiedev

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:34 AM PST

    A puppet being controlled live with a groom applied!

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:38 AM PST

    Introduction to Interactivity ~ Chris Crawford

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:03 AM PST

    I think we finally made it. But still wondering if these robot warriors feel guilty to be so cute!!!

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:41 AM PST

    Need help

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:39 AM PST

    I'm trying to get into game development and was wondering on what engine to use that's the easiest to get used to

    submitted by /u/Witsend771
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    OpenGL book?

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:32 AM PST

    hello,

    im trying to learn c++ opengl (or 3d graphics in general) so do you guys know a good book to learn the basics of opengl and 3d graphics?

    submitted by /u/CatSauce66
    [link] [comments]

    Great Looking Wonder Boy-Like Game

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST

    Vector vs Raster for 2D animation

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:23 AM PST

    Hello everyone!

    I'm currently starting out in game animation and a I wondered whether someone happens to know if Ari Gibson worked with Vector or Raster images when animating the characters in Hollow Knight as the overall style looks very painterly and handcrafted.

    (On a side note, if someone has recommendations for which resolution, frame rate & dpi setting to use for creating a 2D game in such a style, that'd be highly appreciated as well :) )

    Thank you!

    submitted by /u/fox-with-sox
    [link] [comments]

    THE EYE is watching...��‍�� Added animation to our eye cluster. I think it will make a good atmospheric moment for KAPIA. Some eyes will follow a character as he or she (we have two) walks around. #indie #pointandclick #adventuregame #indiedev

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:00 AM PST

    OpenMMO - The OOpen Source MMO Framework

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:00 AM PST

    Would a service for super early game feedback interest you?

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:59 AM PST

    Hello!

    We are a small team developing an affordable service for getting super early measurable feedback from players on games concepts, art, characters, mechanics, and marketing material. Right now we are a bit unsure of which direction we should take our service and are looking to hear some feedback on what developers would like to measure.

    We noticed that all existing game testing services are relevant only when the development of a game has moved to the alpha or beta stages. The idea of our service is to enable developers to get feedback on their games already in the earliest pre-production stages before everything is locked down. Below are some of the things we can measure, we would like to know if would you find any of these ideas useful?

    Potential features:

    • Asking players for opinions on your game idea/concept before starting development. You describe a game concept in a few lines of text and provide a few concept art images. You get back statistics saying what

      percentage of players likes the concept and statistics of how well the idea performs compared to other ideas.

    • Asking players for opinions on your art: art style, characters, themes, icons. You supply the art and get feedback on whether players like the art or not.

    • Asking players for opinions on mechanics. You provide a short video showing the game mechanic, players give feedback on whether they would like to play a game with such a mechanic.

    • Asking players for opinions on marketing material. You provide marketing material, players rate the material and you get statistics for it. An easy way to get feedback from real players on your steam page video before posting it.

    • Help finding your audience. You provide material about your game, we give you results on which type of player is most likely to play it and where they are from.

    submitted by /u/madnessone1
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    Steam sales case study: 'Academia: School Simulator'

    Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:03 PM PST

    Welcome to Babylon.js 4.1!

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:41 AM PST

    Suggestions on Nintendo Switch press contacts for game release

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:30 AM PST

    Hello,

    In the coming weeks I'll be releasing my first Switch game! Do you guys have some tips for Press Magazines, Websites, Reviewers etc. that I should contact?

    So far I have:

    • Switch Player
    • Nintendo Life
    • IGN
    • Kotaku
    • Rock Paper Shotgun
    • GameInformer
    • GamesRadar

    Any suggestions and tips are welcome :)

    submitted by /u/Doomgriever
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    text based game engine for questions and answers

    Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:27 AM PST

    so im trying to make a game where it gives you backwards text and/or binary and you have to type out the text the right way for example: "siht daer uoy nac" then the answer would be "can you read this" but i cant find an engine that i can use (i dont code very much and i know i probably could do this with code) i made a test thing in scratch just to test the concept https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/371404514

    submitted by /u/Bmaster_gamer456
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