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    Tutorial: How To Make Stylized Low Poly Game Art

    April 19, 2020

    Tutorial: How To Make Stylized Low Poly Game Art

    Tutorial: How To Make Stylized Low Poly Game Art

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 08:16 AM PDT

    Hi Everyone! I released new royalty-free foley apartment sound libraries with over 4GB of doors, buttons & switch sound effects recorded in kitchen, living room, dining & bedrooms! I hope it's useful for you as well! Greetings, Marcel

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 01:45 AM PDT

    Been working on some new textures. Among others a forest with some corpses, which is relevant for the story. What do you think, more corpses? #Mindfate [Mindfate.com]

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:42 AM PDT

    Need some ideas on how to structure my new engine.

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:44 AM PDT

    Hey guys, I'm writing a new game engine in C++ and I'm looking for ways to structure it. It was / is been inspired by babylon-js, The-Forge and Filament.

    It has the following goals * Remain lightweight 100kb-2mb * Fast * Crossplatform with modern graphics api (WebGPU) * Developable anywhere it runs * Downloadable modules * Live coding anywhere it runs

    So I say goals but those are all already met goals, I just need to keep them with my possible restructuring.

    Here is where my questions come in, mostly on GUI and the language to program the engine.

    Now I'm currently using Typescript as the core scripting language and it works fine however I'm thinking about writing a visual programming language, either block/scratch style or unreals blueprint style.

    Or I could keep it as just text based, does anyone see value in visual based programming? One of the potential uses for me is that I could replace the JavaScript engine(800kb) with a much simpler and faster web assembly engine (27kb)... But then I'd have to program everything in visual style as there is no good and small textual programming language compiler for wasm.

    My next question.

    I'm currently implementing GUI, does it make sense to use React, Vue or other web frameworks for this? I already have very powerful gpu vector drawing, so combined with a custom renderer for React I should be able to use that... Is there any better ideas on how to design GUI? I could use imgui but it just seems easier to design GUI using something like react and css.

    My one issue with using web frameworks like that, is that allot of time existing code will call browser functions like document.setinnerhtml or whatever but I don't have a browser embedded or process any HTML... So existing code on the web would have to be converted slightly to work with my renderer, I guess much the same way as React Native?

    Anyway, anyone have any ideas here?

    submitted by /u/warvstar
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    Giants are Hard to Slay: Do incumbents ever get dethroned by their own clones?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 01:47 AM PDT

    Giants are Hard to Slay: Do incumbents ever get dethroned by their own clones?

    Which game genre has been beaten to death by entries that bring nothing new to it? MOBA, Match-3, Battle Royale, Hero Shooter, Survival, Sandbox, Mobile Strategy, CCG, Metroidvanias, Platformers? No matter the platform or development budget, if a game is very successful, than fast follows are guaranteed to well… follow fastly. But why do strings of companies attempt to capture the success of a genre leader by shallowing copying it? And more importantly, does this fast follow strategy ever work?

    The why is easy to explain. Professional level games are very difficult to make and even more difficult to forecast revenue generation. Making a game with a completely original game design is risky both financially and executionally. Coming up with games that incrementally improve on a genre is still financially and executionally risky. Copying an exhisting game outright and swapping the art or story is viewed as much more predictable and safer.

    The idea is that a business can offset risk by taking existing games on the market and proxy measuring the success of those games to predict their own. Even better, you do not need to spend development cycles refining gameplay, forming content pipelines and forecasting marketing and revenue when copying an existing game. To a game studio or publisher, sadly, video games are solely about revenue in either top line net gross or bottom line net income form (this depends on the stage of the company and whether they are public or private). At most game companies, being creative, incrementing on a current design paradigms or chasing new types of fun is too risky and plainly not encouraged.

    NOTE: This blog post is addressing professional development studios. I have no judgement on passion projects, students or anyone creating a homage to their favorite genre or game.

    The real question is does this strategy truly work? It definitely varies from genre to genre, platform to platform and really studio to studio. Cloning games got Zynga very far during the days of social games; Mark Pincus has been allegedly quoted saying "I don't [expletive] want innovation, you're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."

    Some game genres are more winner take all; MOBAs have League of Legends which, according to SteamSpy back in 2019, has a larger audience than the entirety of Steam combined (which includes LoL's closest competitor in DOTA2). Sergey Galyonkin, currently Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic, wrote an amazing article (link) back in 2015 titled "Your target audience doesn't exist". In it he describes how certain games ARE the genre, and the audience that exist outside of the top one or two games within a genre, i.e. the people who hop from game to game within a genre, is incredibly small.

    A good example here would be the success of World of Warcraft that, as analysts explained to us ten years ago, has "vastly expanded MMORPG market beyond all expectations".
    Except it didn't. It created a new market, World of Warcraft market, gathered new audience from other games in different genres, attracted quite a few people that haven't played before, but haven't expanded MMORPG market much. There were no big successful MMORPGs after World of Warcraft not because WoW took all the audience, but because there were never too many people in "MMORPG but not World of Warcraft" market to begin with.
    "Your target audience doesn't exist", Sergey Galyonkin

    This is insight I couldn't agree with more. Please read the article, it's short and very informative (link again). A decent number of MMORPG developers either copied WoW outright or pivoted the unique game they were building to be more WoW-esk (i.e. Vanguard, R.I.P. Brad McQuaid). Companies comp'd WoW to get large budgets, but never had a chance at dethroning WoW by building well… WoW minus Warcraft.

    So let's answer the question, does cloning the incumbent game ever work? For this I'm going to choose one of the simplest, most cloned sub-genres: mobile Match-3 games. Let's take a look at US Top 15 grossing Puzzle game on iOS and further define Match-3 into three incumbent sub-categories:

    • Popcap derivatives where the game consist of 1-3 game modes where the player continues clearing game boards until they lose
    • King derivatives where the player clears nodes on a map and includes meta-game progression and side content events
    • Playrix derivatives that removes the node map and replaces main progression with a story that normally involves player choice

    I'll be ignoring Match-RPGs of any variant (Puzzle Quest, Puzzles & Dragons) and collapse games (Toon Blast, Toy Blast). Let's see if Popcap, King or Playrix are ever dethroned by their own derivatives?

    Measured every 6 months, here are all the US Top 15 grossing Puzzle games on iOS for the last 5 years:

    US Top 15 Grossing Puzzle Games iOS

    That just looks like a giant mess and really doesn't help us. Let's break it down to the games that fit into one the three Match-3 subcategories:

    Match-3 games from the Top 15

    Just eyeballing the data, Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Fishdom, Gardenscapes and Homescapes all appear present and dominant.

    Let's break down the data into each of the derivatives:

    Only two data points, not really useful

    Maybe if I extended this back 20 years we would see more Bejeweled-esk games, but there are only two data points in the last 5 years, making this category useless.

    Let's try King derivatives:

    King is very dominate with very little competition

    2012's Candy Crush Saga spawned a Match-3 gold rush, with what seemed like, every mobile developer under the sun spitting out their CCS clone. Cookie Jam and Gummy Drop! both have strong showings early on only to fade to King's top 2 titles. Candy Crush Saga can generate millions a day, yet none of its clones are present on the top grossing charts.

    Let's look at Playrix derivatives:

    Very similar to King, Playrix owns their story Match-3's

    Very similar to King, Playrix has two strong competitors in Matchington Mansion and Lily's Garden. However also like King, Playrix's competitors lose steam and appear to be heading towards the Top 15 exit. Again, there are lots of recent high quality offerings to compete with Playrix, yet none of them have slowed the dominance of Playrix's three titles.

    King and Playrix both have two competitor games compared to their respective dominate games. What this doesn't show is that there are hundreds of mobile studios that either took shots at or are currently taking shots at both of these games (less so at King these days). Companies like Zynga, Jam City, EA and Big Fish Games appear on these charts but they represent the tip of the iceberg of millions of dollars in development cost, IP leasing and user acquisition that studios and publishers have spent to try to reach the top grossing Match-3 games on mobile without appearing here.

    Yes, there are a lot of factors at play here. Once Playrix had a hit with Fishdom, it was easier to leverage those existing users to also play Gardenscapes and again with Homescapes. However, the point still stands, millions and millions of dollars were spent battling over top grossing Match-3 games on iOS, only for the incumbents of each sub-category to stay. Also remember, this is just rankings and not absolute revenue which would show even more dominance by the incumbents.

    Going back to Sergey Galyonkin, Candy Crush Saga was the genre and Homescapes/Gardenscapes is the genre. If you want to create a tent pole, top grossing game on mobile, console or PC, bring something new to the table. Bringing something new doesn't mean a new art skin or an IP wrapper; new means the difference between Candy Crush Saga and Gardenscape. They are both Match-3 games expressed in completely different ways.

    I didn't write this to shit on specific games. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, has had different life experiences and brings a totally unique point of view on games to the table. The games that studios produce should be no different. Nobody got into the video game industry to make a Wizard of Oz wrapped Candy Crush Saga clone (I worked on this game so I speak from experience). We can't let fear and insecurity stop us from taking risk or creating something that is different. If you want to have a hit game, you can't copy existing hit games.

    https://gamedesignafterhours.com/?p=353

    submitted by /u/emcconnell11
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    Do people just crave voice acting?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:19 AM PDT

    Is it possible to make a rich in content game that will be considered AAA, but has no voice acting? Seems like a stupid question, but if you look at games regarded as AAA, no matter how broken their gameplay turns out to be (or how bugged they are), the single most common feature among them would be voice acting with many people. Is it just a coincidence?

    I kind of see a connection here with things like those stupid youtube thumbnails where youtubers make dumb - but overly emotional - faces, reaction videos, streamers etc. People in general receive emotions easier than objective, "dry" information. Voices have a large capacity of transmitting emotions, which may cause games with extensive voice acting be easier to process, understand, and hype for.

    submitted by /u/ned_poreyra
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    How long did it take for you to develop your game?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 03:59 AM PDT

    Hi fellow game developers! I'm curious to know if you can share your finished game, how long did it take to develop the whole game? and how many people were working on it?

    submitted by /u/juelle
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    Tutorial: How to recreate the smoke effect from Diablo 3 in Unity using Shader Graph and Visual Effect Graph

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 12:35 AM PDT

    My Bot Motivates / Humiliates When I Die In a Game (Dota 2)

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:41 AM PDT

    Question regarding a wall painting system

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:40 AM PDT

    So i have been playing alot of a game called House Flipper lately and in it they have a system that allows you to paint the walls of a house different colours and i am curious how they might be doing such a thing.

    ​

    Incredibly new to the game dev scene and would love to know how to accomplish something like that as its rather cool.

    submitted by /u/MrHeavyMetal
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    [HELP!!!] Why doesn't a gameobject register trigger colliders in unity?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:40 AM PDT

    Here is the inspector on the object that is supposed to detect the trigger collider: https://imgur.com/a/P7xLxMQ

    It doesn't detect ANY trigger collider! I don't know why, the physics work normally, it's just the trigger colliders.

    Here is the code: https://imgur.com/a/P7xLxMQ

    Please help me, I need the answer quickly, this game is for a game jam, idk if it's even by the rules to ask for help, but I can't find anyone with the problem like mine.

    submitted by /u/zZEpicSniper303Zz
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    Design patterns in game development

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 05:42 AM PDT

    Hyper Casual Game Publishers - 2020 Update

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:36 AM PDT

    As of now the most informative post about hyper-casual game publishers is this 1.5 year old post:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/9ouse5/hyper_casual_game_publishers_a_complete_list/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

    Voodoo is still going strong in terms of downloads per publisher. But now SayGames and Good Job Games have a comparable number of downloads.

    I am curious if someone can provide more up-to-date details about publishers mentioned in this post(just like the top comment there). Is it still relevant? Or things have changed?

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/O4karitO
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    Swap chain technique with directx

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:32 AM PDT

    Regarding a simple 2D game, using only one monitor, in C/C++ language for windows desktop.

    An experienced game programmer just told me:

    1. (directx5) swapchain technique is setup/done manually
    2. (directX9) it is automatic
    3. (directx11) swapchain technique is setup/done manually

    He is basically telling me that no extra code is required in directx9 to actually write to off screen buffer, then flip it to the screen buffer.

    How accurate is this?

    submitted by /u/JackButler2020
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    C++ boot camp/certificate

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:31 AM PDT

    Does anyone know where I can find some good ones ? Hope this is the right page to ask .

    submitted by /u/has90342
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    Standalone animation tool like in Godot engine?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 07:42 AM PDT

    I've been watching tutorial videos of the Godot game engine and I really like their 2D sprite animation editor for its ease of use and speed. I like to make my own engines however so I can't use Godot but visualizing animations without a proper tool is extremely tedious and slow.

    My question is, does anyone know if there are any third part standalone animation editors that I could integrate into my toolset? I use Tiled map editor and TexturePacker which are engine agnostic but it would be a huge productivity gain to have an animation editor like Godot. If nothing's available I'm almost considering making my own since I figure this must have some demand in the market.

    Related question, has anyone been able to leverage Godot animation system outside of the Godot IDE? I imagine it may create some data files we could perhaps reverse engineer ourselves.

    ​

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/genericptr
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    Pay What You Want Low Poly 3D Model Pack I Made for Developers Stuck at Home.

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:09 AM PDT

    Simple First Game in 2D

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:52 AM PDT

    I decided to make a small platformer, the purpose of which is to get from point A to point B, for your assessment

    ​

    https://reddit.com/link/g4c0t1/video/8vzosd7ndtt41/player

    submitted by /u/Funtop32w
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    First jump into the Inverse Kinematic world using the FABRIK algorithm. Still work to do but first look seems cool :

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:18 AM PDT

    Different biomes for rabbit/fox themed game?

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:03 AM PDT

    Different biomes for rabbit/fox themed game?

    Hey everyone! I am curious about your opinion on having different biomes beside forests in a rabbit/fox themed game. I think the "low-poly fantasy forest theme" has become pretty popular nowadays and was thinking of exploring different biomes to make it stand out more.

    Please let me know if you think the setting could work in other landscapes, here an example of a desert themed world:

    https://i.redd.it/185ci7ep2tt41.gif

    submitted by /u/monkeydance26
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    Tutorial on how to procedurally generate a town

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 01:08 AM PDT

    Mechanics Sandbox: A platformer/8dir template.

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 08:16 AM PDT

    Hey everybody, Henri here!

    Some days ago I published this game template (for Construct#) on the Scirra Store: Mechanics Sandbox! It'd be amazing if you folks could give me a hand on sharing and checking it out (even if not going to buy it!)

    I'm really starting and have no social reach on the internet.

    Thanks, in advance.

    As of now, it just went on sale for a great discount because I'm excited! Also, for the first sales...

    This game template is designed in a quasi-modular system; easy to expand and discard features!

    Including basic AI, Dialog, Controls, Platform Animations and Mechanics, Juicy FX, 8 Direction movement with support for animations and holding things like guns, and the best system: Movement Routes.

    It's designed in a way that you can use it for Platformers and sidescrollers, as well as RPGs, Dungeon Crawlers (8 dir games), Stealth, etc.

    Every one of these systems is expandable, and if I get some sales I'll very likely update it and make other templates/modules!

    Here's the link to the Scirra store page if you want to check it out for yourself (please) or even consider buying it!! Think about it, game developing is cool and um... yeah.

    https://www.scirra.com/store/royalty-free-game-templates/mechanics-sandbox-5388

    Have a good night, thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying home <3!

    submitted by /u/Auralinkk
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    I am doing a research and need your humble opinion

    Posted: 19 Apr 2020 04:15 AM PDT

    Hello everyone,

    I am a student doing a small research on how Environmental systems in turn-based strategy wargames will impact gameplay for a university project. I have a document describing my plans on conducting this research here -
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wGoACJ1--eqCysN6bvzNCiExHL3Lh9W0INKyzG_1VPo/edit?usp=sharing
    Anyway if you are interested and would like to help I would greatly appreciate your answer to this question -
    How does the environment define the course of the game?

    submitted by /u/nasetor
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