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    Home Unlabelled Sharing how we made our super cute toon shader with Unity's Shader Graph

    Sharing how we made our super cute toon shader with Unity's Shader Graph

    April 08, 2020

    Sharing how we made our super cute toon shader with Unity's Shader Graph

    Sharing how we made our super cute toon shader with Unity's Shader Graph

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 05:55 AM PDT

    How to hire an artist

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 04:14 AM PDT

    For more than 5 years my team and I have been working with artists and gamedevs. Some of our artists have over 12 years of experience.

    So I took an opportunity to talk with our guys and highlight our recommendations on the best approaches on how to hire an artist, based on our experience and the experience of our colleagues. Hopefully, someone here can find these insights beneficial for their own projects and partnerships.

    Understand your needs

    Preferably, when contacting an artist, you should already have at least a vague idea about the story/setting of your game and game mechanics. If you want to help the artist to quote you on time and costs, and ensure that they can create something that suits your game the best, there are a couple of things that can help you achieve this:

    • Have a list of the assets you need produced (Doesn't have to be a full list featuring everything. Something just to get the ball rolling for a first milestone will suffice, especially when you're not sure about the scope of the content for your game)
    • References. You need something that will help the artist to understand how you imagine your game world or any important visual nuances that you want to implement. The setting could be described verbally, by showing some images, visuals of which you like, referencing other games or even by sending music that has that vibe that you want. And don't worry if you're really not sure what art style you want to go for. You can hire a concept artist who will help you to create a concept image of your world, so that it can be used for all further game assets production.
    • Prototypes with placeholder graphics. It's not something obligatory but can greatly help to understand the mechanics and/or any specific needs. Especially if the game has unique mechanics, or it's hard to show a similar game.

    Have options

    Don't contact just one artist/studio and go all-in with them. Contact a few that you preliminarily like, have interviews with them (by text, voice, video, pigeons. Whatever your kink is). This way, you can compare them to each other so you're making sure that you're picking the best of the best. It's not only their skills that count. How fast do they reply? Do they leave you hanging for days or weeks without any signs of life? How is their customer service? Do you feel confident that they can deliver? What are their policies for revisions? Do they have a proven track record of happy customers that you can take a look at (reviews)? What are their business processes like? For reference about how everything may be handled with care, here is an outline about processes in our own studio to get an idea of what kind of service can be offered.

    Is it their full-time job or is it just a hobby? All those inputs will affect what you get.

    Start small

    It's generally a good approach for a lot of situations when you're hiring a new to you contractor in any field. Do an initial, "test run" milestone, where you'll order, for example, only one concept art piece or one character model or anything else that would not require a lot of time to do and a lot of money to invest into. Once this test milestone is done, you'll have good data if you want to continue working with this vendor. You'll get an idea on their communication, business ethics, work processes and actual work quality that they will produce for you. If your budget allows, you can request a test task from a few vendors to secure your chances of getting the best final output.

    You get what you pay

    Want to get great quality, service, and reliability? Expect to invest market prices.

    There are also those weirdos who offer "exposure" as a payment method. Unfortunately, in most cases, they are not Disney. And even when Disney or similar giants do this nowadays — they are criticized by the community. Last time I checked, neither landlords nor supermarkets accept exposure points.

    Rev-share? Might work, If you already have a proven track record of shipped, commercially successful projects. Or if you're doing it for fun with friends.

    In other cases, professional artists won't accept rev-share, because, well, being honest, most of those projects fail. And again, people need to earn money to have a decent living.

    Alternatively, you can offer a rev-share as an extra part of your monetary payment. If you can negotiate this with the artist, this might be able to help you lower the required monetary investment.

    Contract

    Crucial. You can use your own contract or use the contract from the artist (the good ones always have a contract). Don't be afraid to negotiate terms and conditions if you don't like something there. Make sure that you're getting full IP ownership of the produced artworks (if you don't want the opposite, of course) and that the contract describes the process, the scope of the work, and the final result. As well as how things are gonna be handled if any disputes arise.

    Do your own due diligence

    Received an artwork? Use Google image and Tineye image search engines to research if you haven't got a copy of someone's work or a publicly available sprite. Note: this measure doesn't save you 100% from being scammed as some folks are reversing or slightly altering the image, so additionally, your best strategy would be to go with the artist/studio who has some reputation/whom you can trust.

    Unfortunately, this scam is rather popular lately, mostly among cheap artists. But don't be discouraged! Most of the artists and studios are all awesome and creative people. It's just this small fraction of individuals who are poop.

    And finally, a few general tips for a better experience:

    1. Have deadlines? Tell the artist an earlier date of the release of the required assets than you will really need. This way, if anything takes longer than expected, you still have some time to fix the timing, hiring extra power, etc.
    2. If your contract allows the artists to showcase the produced works in their portfolios and ads, you may want to add a clause that every such exposure should have your project's name and link to your website. The extra audience never hurts and it's not a bad thing for an artist as well.
    3. If you're on a tight budget — consider asking your artists if they have some personal works from their portfolio, that they can sell you as assets for your game. This way you can get some content cheaper, since they won't need to draw it from scratch.
    4. Don't be afraid to ask about different options. If you're tight on time/money/resources or just not sure about something — ask your artist's opinion. Different games require different approaches. It's often that the artists with whom you'll work might have had a client/project with similar challenges and they have successfully solved them. For example, if you have a lot of 2D characters with similar anatomy that would require a lot of identical animations, your artist/animator might suggest animating characters with the bone-based animation software like Spine. This way, you can save a lot of money and tons of time because you won't need to animate each character separately from scratch as you would do with the hand animation approach in this case. Bone-based animation has its own limitations of course, but this is just an idea that there are alternative options and you might not be aware of some of them.
    5. Enjoy. You're on a fun ride and getting stunning visuals will bring so much benefit for increasing your game's potential success in sales and your motivation to continue working on it! I often hear from gamedevs that once they get rid of placeholder art they get a second breath of motivation, now seeing that their game actually looks so cool. So yes, while being serious, keep it enjoyable!

    ​

    Hope it was helpful.

    submitted by /u/altermethod
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    Got my hands on Unity VFX Graph and made some pretty cool Orbs. Tutorial in comments.

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 08:53 AM PDT

    Finally I made a non-lagging endless list!

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 03:14 AM PDT

    Why is Unity recommended so often for beginners?

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 08:42 AM PDT

    I am not a professional game developer, just a hobbyist. I am a professional software developer which may color some of my opinions here. When people on the internet ask for game engine recommendations, I see Unity recommended the most. Unity is also used a lot in Indie game companies.

    The issue I am having is two fold. After using Unity for some small hobbyist projects, and comparing it with other game engines, I just don't see the reason its so highly praised. Comparing Unity with Unreal engine for example, I feel like I can get something that is not only functional, but also has a high quality far easier and with less difficulty than Unity. Its usually seen as a very beginner friendly engine, but I think Godot, Unreal, Game Maker and RPG Maker all just more intuitive and "make sense". Unity if anything seems like the most counter-intuitive engine of the bunch. There also seems to be quite a bit of work to put in to get things in a good place.

    The only reason I can think of people using Unity over Unreal is that they are that afraid of C++, though blue prints seem to get you 99% of the way there.

    If anyone who is more knowledgeable I would appreciate to point out what I am missing.

    submitted by /u/nerga
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    Everyone this repository is now available as open source to everyone in GitHub (Url in comments)

    Posted: 07 Apr 2020 01:44 PM PDT

    My wife did some minimalistic 32px overworld pixel graphics and now share it for free (CC BY SA 4)

    Posted: 07 Apr 2020 02:20 PM PDT

    Shiro's Game Tech -- Amazing, Battle Tested & Relatively Unknown Game Engine (YT - GamesFromScratch)

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 05:25 AM PDT

    Godot 3.2 global variables / Autoloads / Singletons (How to video)

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 08:49 AM PDT

    Coronavirus Ended My Game Dev Journey

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:24 PM PDT

    For almost a year, I have been traveling around countries with low cost of living, which allowed me to spend my time on making my games. However, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, my journey had to abruptly come to an end. I made a video about it here, if you want to check it out! https://youtu.be/MnuJE7VNKzM

    Are any digital nomads or other people currently living abroad? If so, what's the situation like for you?

    submitted by /u/donostev
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    Looking to start an IndieDev team?

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:06 PM PDT

    Hi there folks,

    I'm a Game Design and Production Management graduate looking to start a team of developers who'd be up for developing a Nintendo Switch title with me. I'm fairly well versed in game dev as I've worked with teams throughout University and I've played around with quite a few engines.

    I'll be working mostly with 3D Modelling and Animation so i'm predominantly looking for:

    Front end DevelopersUnity DevelopersTechnical ArtistsTexture ArtistsCharacter ArtistsProp ArtistsRiggersAnimators

    You by no means need to be experienced or fully qualified but I would prefer if you have a skill you can provide and some ambition to work in indie game development.

    THIS IS NOT A PAID POSITION. The industry is extremely volatile at the moment so I am not able to pay out of my own pocket. I'm really just a guy wanting to get a hobbie game dev team together to create content during these messy times. I am qualified, however, so getting funding if needed for marketing may be possible in the future.

    IF YOU'RE INTERESTED:

    Private message me what you'd like to do and how often you're available.The design, although I have a couple ideas, is by no means concrete so everyone will have a say in the final product.

    I look forward to hearing from you!

    p.s If anyone can point me in the right direction to find more developers it'd be much appreciated.

    Cheers

    Danny

    submitted by /u/state_champion
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    Starting your first game

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:28 AM PDT

    As a 3D artist, do you prefer working in Unity or Unreal Engine?

    Posted: 07 Apr 2020 08:10 PM PDT

    I am looking for an explanation of the reasons why 3D artists prefer Unity or Unreal Engine for game development.

    If you have experience working professionally with both engines, your opinion is highly valued.

    Many artists talk about how they prefer certain tooling in one engine or the other. If you could break down which tools you prefer and why that would be helpful!

    submitted by /u/WesAtUnity
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    Anatomy of A DOOM Eternal Fight | Game Maker's Toolkit

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:05 AM PDT

    room generation

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:52 AM PDT

    Hey guys im trying to make a room generator. Basically Im looking for links that explain different ways of creating rooms. Now mark my words rooms, Im not looking for dungeon creators im looking for independant rooms. For example creating walls and exits and trees, rocks... Thanks in advance m8s

    submitted by /u/ojsnojs
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    Raycasting Portals - a from scratch portal render engine

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:42 AM PDT

    Speech recognition implementation on quest

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:42 AM PDT

    I'm trying to make a unity VR project that implements a speech recognition program. Any help towards API's or other research papers about implementation would be helpful! If you've done something similar and would explain how could you post it here or message me if you want it to be private. Thank you for reading!

    submitted by /u/Markisonreddit33
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    WIP. Any ideas for power ups or weapons? How does the game look so far?

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:31 AM PDT

    Evolving Path of Exile's Renderer

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:20 AM PDT

    GGG has posted their graphics talk from ExileCon last year: Evolving Path of Exile's Renderer

    Topics discussed:

    • Integration
    • PBR
    • Converting POE to PBR
    • How it's made
    • FAQ of Creating unique tech
    • Point Light Shadows
    • Structure of Shadows
    • SSHV (Screenspace Hierarchical Variance)
    • GI (Global Illumination) in screenspace
    • SSHVGI
    • Rendering Equation
    • Temporal reprojection
    • Horizon-based Screenspace
    • Interleaved sampling
    • HBVSSGI
    • Subsurface refraction
    • Simulating water flow
    • Algebraic Multigrid
    • Grass and Fur: Precalculated Raycasting
    • "Infinity Noodles"
    • Grass Uncanny valley
    • Texture Bombing
    • Bonus Content
    • Synthesis Iteration
    • Synthesis Fracturing
    • Atlas (Dynamic Boundaries)
    • Scalar Field Vectorization
    • Curvature adjustment
    • Burning Grass
    • Abyss
    • Automaton Wings
    • Q&A
    submitted by /u/mysticreddit
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    How easy it is to develop a small game in Godot than in libGDX?

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 10:02 AM PDT

    I have learnt libGDX but I want something like Godot and want to learn it too. I wanna know the basics before starting that is it easier in Godot? Just think of a low-poly open world game. Which one will u prefer, Godot or libGDX? I want open source engine and not something like Unreal or Unity.

    submitted by /u/SingerLuch
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    This is my new devlog video for my indie game :)

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:56 AM PDT

    Just finished a Skype call/interview with Austin Wintory and was inspired again - sharing a link to my SoundCloud because I’d love to write music for your game. Especially in this hard time of Covid19 - I just want to work together on projects with other people again so here I am!

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:46 AM PDT

    Kivy Tutorial - Building Games and Mobile Apps with Python

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:32 AM PDT

    Grand Theft Accessibility – A Mod to make GTA V blind friendly

    Posted: 08 Apr 2020 05:41 AM PDT
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