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    Fake Steam Curators

    June 25, 2020

    Fake Steam Curators

    Fake Steam Curators

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 08:02 AM PDT

    I'm not really a conspiracy theories guy, but I have a knack for recognizing patterns. I think the majority of Steam Curators are fakes created by one person (okay, maybe a bunch of people) to milk Steam keys from developers.

    Starting after releasing my game on Steam I'm getting dozens and dozens of particularly similar emails from these curators. Here's what's similar:

    • Always asking for more than 1 key (3 most of the times)
    • The text is formatted (all use different fonts, like screaming "we're not the same person!")
    • All of them have some cute story (like "me and my gamer wife and our gamer son and our gamer dog" etc. )
    • Always making a follow-up message if I don't reply (some times I get multiple follow-ups from "different" curators at the same time)
    • Most of them have nearly 10K followers

    Maybe I'm overreacting and they actually do some useful job, but does the world really need this concept of "developers buying reviews"? The whole idea of Steam Curators seems useless to me.

    Another thing I'd like to point out to fellow developers is influencer impersonators: another category of 100% scammers who change a single letter in an email of some famous youtubers. Here's an example: https://twitter.com/OstrivGame/status/1254689178677325834

    Never heard of all this stuff before releasing my game on Steam, so thought I'd start a discussion. Did you have any experience with the things I described?

    submitted by /u/OstrivGame
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    Free Texture Pack: Photo Based Materials 01 (link in the comments)

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:53 AM PDT

    How I am staying motivated through a boring code refactor

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:49 AM PDT

    I reached a point on my project where the current organisation of things won't allow me to create a feature that I want. To unlock creating the feature, I have to go and refactor how the code is organised for each object/entity. Unfortunately the work is very dull. I try to avoid refactoring whenever possible as it has been a project killer for me multiple times in the past. My full time job is as a Software Engineer, so the last thing I want to spend my free time doing is cleaning up code. I'm currently about halfway through, and feeling very successful compared to past attempts.

    ​

    Some rules I followed this time to get through the refactor and stay motivated:

    a) Always keep the game in a playable state. This means no sweeping changes that break everything until the entire refactor is complete. Refactor one small section at a time instead of frontloading or batching refactor work. This means I effectively have two systems up and running simultaneously, one new and one legacy. While this is messy and more work overall, I personally find that having the project unplayable for long periods is a huge motivation killer. When the work feels too monumental, I tend to crumble and decide that this is not how I want to spend my free time.

    b) Work in many small sessions. I typically dedicate every Sunday to the game, but don't touch it during the week as I'm too tired from work and spend time with family/friends on Saturday. For this refactor I am breaking this rule and doing a small session every night. The way I motivate myself is I start by just opening the Unity editor, then rewarding myself with 10 minutes of random youtube videos or scrolling through reddit / twitter. After that I set a timer for 25 minutes, and promise myself I am going to give this my full focus for this duration and not check any social media, etc (pomodoro technique). I just do one or two of these sessions a night, but over a week they add up.

    c) Take a break from refactoring and work on other things in between each session. Because the game is in a playable state, I can drop refactoring for some time and work on some graphics, or polishing up some particles effects or something else. If I don't feel like working on the game at all, I do other things related to the game like look at other projects on here or on twitter to network and get inspiration. I look up tutorials on how to get certain art styles or game juice or really any informative or fun videos like devlogs. I read science fiction books for inspiration for the storyline, technologies, worldbuilding, etc.

    d) Share screenshots of the game and get motivated by the feedback people give. Honestly seeing all the lovely comments on here, twitter and tigforums are so motivating. The fact that other people care about something I am making is so huge, and really is my drive for why I make games. I read a few comments, get psyched up and crack through a refactor session.

    submitted by /u/locknic
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    A deeper dive into Mayhem in Single Valley's lighting system. Unity, 3D Environments, 2D Characters

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:29 PM PDT

    Steam Trading Cards: A Guide for Developers (2020)

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 05:16 AM PDT

    Steam Trading Cards: A Guide for Developers (2020)

    Introduction

    Recently I was approved for and today just launched Steam Trading Cards, for my title originally released in October 2019. During this process, I found that a lot of the public information on the topic was out of date or incomplete. So, here's a 2020 Guide for Steam Trading cards!

    ​

    What are Steam Trading Cards?

    'Steam Trading Cards' is the catch-all term for a set of custom art assets that take the form of trading cards, badges, emoticons and profile backgrounds.

    By playing a game that has them enabled, players receive a partial (50%) set of its trading cards in their Steam inventory. By collecting all of them (which typically requires purchasing the remaining cards on the Steam market from other players), players can unlock the associated badges, emoticons, and profile backgrounds. These can then be used to customise and ultimately 'level up' players' Steam profiles.

    The public Steamworks developer page for Trading Cards is here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/tradingcards

    And the customer page: https://steamcommunity.com/tradingcards/

    ​

    What are the benefits for Developers?

    When a seller sells one of your Steam Trading Card items, 10% goes to the developer, 5% to Steam, and 85% to the seller. With a minimum payout of $0.01 for each, this also establishes a minimum price of $0.03 for all items on the market.

    Probably more importantly, Steam Trading Cards are a big indicator of quality for the game overall, and the ability to unlock them (and sell them) is attractive in their own right. Their existence may help players justify purchasing your game.

    ​

    How do I get access to them?

    Steam Trading Card functionality is disabled by default, disabled soon after the opening of Steam Direct to $100 submissons. To access them for new games since 2017, your title needs to pass a certain revenue or sales threshold. This seems to occur at about 5,000 x $10 units sold based on my experience and that of others.

    Its possible that developers/publishers with a successful track record can request to have them enabled at launch, without waiting for the sales threshold to be met.

    The availability (or not) of Trading Cards thus serves as an indicator of quality for savvy Steam customers, since very roughly only about the top 10-20% of new titles will go on to meet this threshold. It also indicates that the (Indie) developer has continued to support the game post-launch.

    ​

    What are the requirements for their design?

    In addition to the requirements listed on the Steamworks page (linked above), since Trading Cards are accessed globally you will need to minimise any use of text, and focus purely on graphics. Some badges which incorporated my game's title were rejected, for example.

    ​

    What trading card art did you create, and how did you do it?

    Its a good idea to re-purpose as much of your existing 2D and promo art as possible, since players will be familiar with it from playing the game, and it also showcases your art and game for players who come across the items on the Steam market.

    For the trading cards, I decided to use the HUD weapon art from the game, with a custom background and unique blood spray effects for each card. This square image is then placed in the centre of a standard Trading Card border, with your logo on the bottom, and a border color of your choosing. (These standardised elements are added automatically, you just provide the 206x184 PNG image)

    Trading Cards

    For the badges, Achievement art was repurposed:

    Badges

    I also submitted 5 emojis, which were already available and had been created previously for the Discord channel of the game.

    The Profile Backgrounds (one of them) can be viewed on a live Steam Profile here: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198849587765

    ​

    All of this art was created by the talented freelance 2D artist Engels Fernandez /u/EFDesignz, who also created the Achievement Art, Roadmap and HUD art for the game.

    For more references, you can browse the Trading Cart art for all other games that have them here: https://www.steamcardexchange.net/index.php?showcase

    ​

    Any final tips?

    Take you time to carefully check each piece of art that you submit - they cannot be changed once released. Ensure that you are taking advantage of each available pixel to maximise image size, and that there are no artifacts in the final images as a result of things like compression or conversion from PNG to JPG.

    When your Trading Cards have been approved by Valve, you can release them immediately - there is no additional waiting time. Its a good idea to synchronize their release to a large update (I synchronized the release to Update 1.5 of my game)

    You will need to add the 'Steam Trading Cards' feature manually to your Store Page list of features.

    Players that have played your game in the past will be given cards immediately when you enable the feature, even if they only played the game before the cards were actually enabled.

    Release only 5 (the minimum) or 6 trading cards, since the market value is split across them. More cards will make the collection process more burdensome for players, and if each individual card is less valuable, they will be less likely to be transacted on the Steam Market. 6 cards seems like the most common number, since each player will unlock 3 cards.

    ​

    Hope this is helpful! As you can see the effort is mostly for the art, the administration is pretty straightforward. I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments.

    submitted by /u/RichardEast
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    Share the GDC talk that completely changed your perspective on something in gamedev.

    Posted: 24 Jun 2020 10:33 PM PDT

    This doesn't mean it is the "best" talk you've ever seen. This is a talk that had a very different point of view from you or approached a concept in a completely different way. Despite the difference, you were still able to adopt their perspective and therefore grew as a developer.

    submitted by /u/Mystic_Mak
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    r/deckbuildingroguelike

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:03 AM PDT

    In face of the success of Slay the Spire, many games have been/are being made that also combine deckbuilding with rogue-like. I created the subreddit r/deckbuildingroguelike for players and creators of games of that subgenre alike. You can discuss deckbuilding rogue-likes there, find new games to play and show off the progress of your game.

    submitted by /u/Orange_Hour
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    is it ok if I'm still kinda lost?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:20 AM PDT

    hello,

    I'm a database developer that recently wanted to make games for a hobby :)

    I've been taking some udemy courses. but I feel that I'm low level in what it comes to C#.

    I'm using Unity.

    I wanted to know what courses maybe you could recommend that I could take to improve on my "object oriented" thinking since the ones I'm taking have me a bit lost on the programming part of the game (use of classes and connection between them, OOP programming).

    I took the courses from GameDev.tv and I was thinking if the courses of not game oriented C# such as from Mosh Hamedani could be good to take (even though they're not Unity related)

    ​

    any recommendations? I want to get better at it. :)

    submitted by /u/Baldie47
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    A high school teacher looking to provide testing opportunities for his students in October/November.

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:01 AM PDT

    Hello,

    I'm a high school digital media teacher and I run a gaming club.

    I'm always looking for opportunities for the students to beta test upcoming games for feedback.

    The chance for students to interact with devs, provide opinions and find bugs, is great for them to work at being more professional, using industry language, practice writing and work on looking at things constructively.

    They are also aged 14 to 18 and the kids who take my class are often frequent gamers - So they might be perfect for your target audience.

    If you're interested, please shoot me a message and I'll provide you with my professional email address for further contact.

    I often post this message every few years in this sub and get quite a few responses and am not able to get back to everyone who is looking for feedback - So I'll apologize in advance if we don't get to you.

    Thanks.

    submitted by /u/tazz131
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    Steam unveils new Points Shop - permanent feature.

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:52 AM PDT

    Advice for someone wanting to be independant

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 01:28 AM PDT

    Hey,

    I'm currently working for a big AAA Studio, where I'm a gameplay programmer and working with a custom engine.
    In my life I've studied at a gaming high school, where I've made previous games with a team of other students and it was amazing.
    After school, I've applied at my local AAA Studio and got accepted and here I am, five years later.

    Some could call me experienced but for me, I don't feel like this.

    I dream of creating my own game and making my own game company. So I started working on my game, wrote my ideas after work etc and recently began working on it.

    But the more I work on it, the more I realize I lack knowledge. I'm trying to do stuff like procedural destruction, but struggle understanding algorithms for that. Am I aiming to high?

    I'm questioning myself, if I'm capable of those stuff. I've managed everything so far until now, but somehow I feel like I can't do this.

    Did you experience the same? What did you do?

    submitted by /u/IndependantGameDev
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    Help with Stealth Elements in Text Based Adventure Game

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:59 PM PDT

    Hi! I (16M) am a beginner in programming with Python. I am making a text based adventure game so I can learn how to program and design a game, as well as to build a portfolio. I'm building a small prototype of what I want my game to be. It's heavily inspired by Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Basically, it's supposed to involve real-time stealth mechanics. For example, here is the opening description:

    "You are in front of the enemy base. To the far north, you see two SOLDIERS are standing at the gate. There are also some BOXES to your northwest."

    Words that are in all caps represent what the player can interact with and such. What this is telling the player is that the the two soldiers at the gate are far enough to where they can't see the player. If they type "Northwest" or something, there will be a new description:

    "You quickly make your way and duck behind the boxes. The two soldiers didn't seem to notice you."

    And this is where I need help. I want the enemies to switch between two different states, which are "cautious" and "clueless". If the player rushes toward their position to the boxes (which are closer to the enemies) while they are in a "cautious" state, the enemy will see the player and go into combat alert. If they are in a "clueless" state, they won't see the player and continue doing what they were doing. It's simple stealth, but it's a start.

    What I want to know is how exactly to program these states for the enemies into the game. I've tried looking on the internet, but I think I would get the best results if I sought help for my specific situation. Especially since there I haven't seen any other text based game use these kinds of mechanics.

    Another thing I'm having trouble figuring out is how the game will deal with encounters. As I said, the enemies will enter combat alert when they spot the player, but they won't start shooting right away. In order to give the player time to type a command, I am planning on implementing an aim mechanic. Once the enemies are preparing to shoot, the game will say, "Zulu 10 beginning to aim" (Every soldier will have "Zulu" and a number so the player can identify them). Once the player types their command, such as "Cover behind boxes", and presses enter, whoever was aiming will now be firing. From here, the player can simply type "Shoot Zulu 10". But while they are shooting, the other soldier could've been aiming before and can now shoot the player since they are out of cover. This can add a lot of strategy to fights. This is similar to those puzzle games on phones where the enemies only move when you do, like Rust Bucket.

    I originally wanted to have a body-hiding feature, but eventually decided to have the enemies just deleted from the game once they're shot, like the original Metal Gear on the MSX.

    So to recap, here's what I need help with:

    - How to implement the two different "cautious" and "clueless" states for enemies.

    - How to have enemies keep switching between aiming, firing, and reloading everytime the player
    performs an action (aiming is the only time the enemy can be shot by the player).

    If anyone is familiar with Python, then any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Reddit!

    submitted by /u/Jay-Robinson
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    101: Funding Your Indie Game

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:21 PM PDT

    Do you know what is the system used to connect and communicate devices used for Digimon V Pet?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 08:25 AM PDT

    This devices can send and receive a little data and it seems that's a simples system used. But I can't find which system is this or how to copy it.

    submitted by /u/Allucasfa
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    What is a normal visit/wishlist conversion rate for a "coming soon" indie game?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:02 PM PDT

    Hi, everyone.

    I am planning to release "Ecchi Jack" - an erotic anime-style gambling game soon. But I am not sure if my steam page is good enough or not. Right now my visit/wishlist rate is somewhere between 6%-8%.

    Is not it too low? How do you think? What is a normal conversion rate for indie?

    View Poll

    submitted by /u/Grim_Ork
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    Opinions on modern OpenGL vs Vulkan?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT

    I recently started learning the pipeline for modern OpenGL, then came to find out about Vulkan. I have already made quite a bit of progress on my engine using modern OpenGL, but I am curious what the general populace of /r/gamedev prefers. I have heard Vulkan is a little more complicated to work with, but can also more efficient.

    submitted by /u/roflsausage
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    How to juggle making and playing games (question)

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT

    Hi!

    I've been making games since I was 8 years old but every time I needed to learn something new I ran into a problem where I had to choose between making a game by learning from tutorials or playing games (the problem being that I always chose to play games)

    I want to get out of this habit but I find it very difficult to just settle on making games, so I was wondering if there's something you guys suggest I should do, like planning out one or two hours every day where I'll be learning about making games with no option to do anything else.

    Do you have any suggestions ? :D

    submitted by /u/HurriedBadger2207
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    I want to implement an automatic deadzone/sensitivity system in my Unreal Engine games - is it possible?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:08 AM PDT

    I'm going to start learning C++ and Unreal Engine 5 next year in my free time.

    I have had an idea for an automatic deadzone and sensitivity measurement system for my future games for quite some time.

    Is something like this doable in Unreal Engine? Could I design my own code that could perform such a task? Basically I have about 10 steps of analogue stick measurement/testing logic that helps players set up their controls perfectly. It's all supposed to be an automatic, minimal effort system.

    How easy would that be to design and code?

    submitted by /u/MetalingusMike
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    What are some nice "quick battle" UI styles for strategy games?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:02 AM PDT

    We need help coming up with better UI for our battle screen and I hope you all can hope.

    Quick description

    In our game, battle is very simple: you give the amount or units you want to attack with and then there's immediately a result based on the opponent's army size and the amount of units you attack with. The reason for this is that battle is mostly "offline": your opponent is unlikely to be online at the same time you are.

    If this had been text based then it would have looked something like this:

    You attack Lord Frey's army of 327 elves with your 123 dwarves. You lost! Your 123 dwarves are all dead. Lord Frey lost 126 elves.

    Due to the "offline" style of game play the amount you actually lose is fairly easy to predict and will only differ by a few %.

    There are no different army units. They may only differ in army race. Even so, all army races are roughly equal in terms of battle effectiveness.

    Current UI "Card battle" style

    Currently we display each army using cards on either side. The card displays the army race and the amount of units. "Your" card then moves and "hits" the opponent card for damage and then the "defending" army does the same. The "Win" or "Lose" popup is shown and the battle is over. So it's similar in how a simple card battle game typically animates their battle.

    Other possibilities that we've discarded:

    • Animated battle with large amount of units on screen: weird given that the underlying battle is so predictable. Requires a lot of extra work. Makes people expect that they can affect battle through strategy.
    • Animated battle with "representative" characters: doesn't really match how the game works. Since there's usually only 1 "unit type" it isn't visually interesting either.
    • Animated numbers (representing army units) ticking down until one side is gone: might feel static. Again because there are no diverse unit types, it's not very interesting.
    • Advance Wars style battle: quite a bit of undertaking adding all those animations and so on. Uncertain benefit for that investment in time and resources.

    Are there any UI styles we should investigate that we've overlooked? Any favorite battle UI that was both extremely simple and at the same time nice that works for a single unit on either side?

    Grateful for all ideas.

    submitted by /u/Nuoji
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    As promised - here are some details about the Facebook Ad campaign for my Android game - Monster Hits. The campaign has been running for one day now. AdMob says there are 10 active users, Google play says 10+ installs.

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:00 AM PDT

    Frame Animation vs. Skeletal Animation for physics-heavy 2D action game?

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:48 AM PDT

    Long time developer just getting into game design here. The project is a Lovecraftian 2D action platformer. Game play will require strong physics and collision detection. As I'm educating myself and starting to play with the code, I need to decide whether to go with Frame or Skeletal Animation. My understanding based on what I've read:

    -Frame Animation is stronger for collision detection and physics

    -Frame animation is more time intensive

    Is that correct? How much more time intensive is Frame Animation? Are we talking a fractional increase in hours or something more exponential? Are the physics and collision detection disadvantages of Skeletal significant enough to justify expending the extra time? The physics need to be rock solid for this thing, and I'd like to know if that's a realistic aim if I go skeletal

    Any and all guidance/experience/information on the topic would be much appreciated!

    submitted by /u/AbysmalAndUnsettling
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    MY.GAMES Game Jam welcome party tonight!

    Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:25 AM PDT

    Hey guys,

    The MY.GAMES team just want to remind you all that our Games Jam kicks off from tomorrow, and we'd love to see as many of you involved as possible.

    We'll be hosting a virtual welcome party this evening, starting at 18:45 CEST, where you can get all of the information on the jam including rules and guidance. You can find out more information here.

    Our Head of Hypercasual Development Andrei Dubinin was also on the Level Design Lobby podcast this week discussing all things hypercasual ahead of the jam. You can find a link to the episode here.

    We're incredibly excited to connect with new and returning faces in the development space and look forward to seeing your unique ideas!

    All the best,

    The MY.GAMES team

    submitted by /u/BenAtBastion
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