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    WIP first game

    August 28, 2020

    WIP first game

    WIP first game

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:25 AM PDT

    Jake Birkett: 70% of Indies are not making enough money to cover Living Expenses (sample: 280)

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:38 AM PDT

    How to make a simple city builder in Unity

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 06:15 AM PDT

    Handpainting in Substance Painter needs more love, so I released a tutorial to show you how To Easily Create Handpainted Models in Blender & Substance Painter, all for 100% free. Enjoy!

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 05:42 AM PDT

    What can be done to make an illustration more expressive?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:01 AM PDT

    What can be done to make an illustration more expressive?

    Hello, everyone! SunStrike Studios creates graphics for mobile and computer games. Below you will find detailed feedback on one of the tasks performed as part of our open test assignment. The author of the work has given us permission to publish this information.

    Art of the artist Lisbeth Urp

    When an illustration is drawn, it always shows a portion of the story. Storytelling is a fairly complex process, so each element of the visual narrative must be related to what is happening in the image. You should start with a simple statement and then supplement as needed. In this example we tell the story of a young witch who performed a minor rite in the woods. This tells us that we need to show the witch, magic, and a ­forest. The witch is the most important character and should be portrayed in such a way so as to be easily recognizable even by a casual viewer in a small preview.

    Distracting scenery should be omitted in order to better complement the image: the stack of books presents an added complication without contributing to the overall story and should therefore be removed. The raven too was not mentioned and should be omitted. The forest behind the heroine needs to be simplified and be given a more generic look.

    "Wishlist" or the reason why the viewer got confused:

    • Expressiveness: the dynamic pose and active involvement of the character in the plot, layer development - the trees and the character are drawn with the same amount of detail, there is not enough bubbling magic in the cauldron and the overall indication that something magical is happening is missing:

    https://preview.redd.it/zj65u7zvipj51.png?width=612&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6130bcbd72b51335f58fb53f7607b026aa1a5d1

    • Silhouette: the witch blends in with the background making it difficult to tell where the character ends and the forest begins:

    https://preview.redd.it/16ennhjyipj51.png?width=614&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c13b12c737615dda2386e215be4029c0b425ef1

    • Scale: compared to the size of the character the trees look fairly small.
    • Perspective: the cauldron and the character are placed almost on top of each other and the cauldron seems to lean towards the character:

    https://preview.redd.it/pu9eopi0jpj51.png?width=621&format=png&auto=webp&s=73764d1fcef65343a5d8b88a3a3d823411d357d6

    • Composition: the objects are all squeezed together. There is not "enough air" or negative space around the character and there are too many objects for this simple plot. The books and the candles should be removed:

    https://preview.redd.it/r342a0t8jpj51.png?width=618&format=png&auto=webp&s=62c7844943dbede938a582beb45405aac23011a6

    • Rhythm: the lines are smooth at the bottom of the image and sharp at the top. The character itself has a chaotic mixture of both:

    https://preview.redd.it/p5aoup2ejpj51.png?width=611&format=png&auto=webp&s=4724b17457b5d9feac46a1995e8d1a4fa8bd9815

    • Lighting: there is a lot of focus on the stomach, chest and right cheek of the character. All of these areas are concentrated in the same portion of the image. It would be much better to divide the highlighted areas into multiple zones, and use the moonlight as part of the composition by letting it shine on the character's face:

    https://preview.redd.it/t2jxwis1kpj51.png?width=614&format=png&auto=webp&s=31efc08edc770266cecab81c8c32d28f8dc482e4

    • Colors: there are not enough clean, vibrant colors:

    https://preview.redd.it/4gvk88f6kpj51.png?width=488&format=png&auto=webp&s=80e86dfefd348c307ec239601a39b2e282f9947a

    • Anatomy and costume design: it would be much better to simplify the outfit, creating a general idea of an attire without being too specific as to what it actually is (for example, by removing the red stripes from the dress so that they do not divert attention and revealing the silhouette of the character by removing the cape). The positioning of the arms and wrists should also be improved:

    https://preview.redd.it/xanpi07ckpj51.png?width=656&format=png&auto=webp&s=d86d3598e322536f8bac5f9dc7fe55f3d0f1707a

    The intent behind these comments is to help make the work truly shine in terms of both story context and the overall impression it leaves on the viewer. Illustrations, and especially ones completed as a test projects, should catch the eye of the potential client and elicit as many emotions as possible. As a result, we get the following illustration:

    https://preview.redd.it/bq03dy4fkpj51.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=a1f994d3ac5d47db3df7b9d374d24c3c85d91efd

    What changed?

    • The character's arm was raised over the cauldron, the fingers are now spread, and the bottle was removed. An empty opened hand is easier to read than the amount of contents left in a jar.
    • The character was moved further back from the cauldron to create some distance between them.
    • The silhouette of the witch was made more prominent. Her kimono was taken to a seamstress improving its fit, and the cape which previously concealed her shape was removed completely. To make the image even more legible the size of the hood was reduced and gravity was added, making the fabric follow the shape of the character's head. The hood itself was kept because it creates a negative space between the heroine's face and the book (two illuminated objects).
    • The book was made to look a bit more dynamic: it was left half-open to create a sense of depth for the space and one of the pages was highlighted.
    • The character was given more emotions: her eyes glitter, she has a more obvious smile and is looking towards the cauldron.
    • The cauldron itself was given more depth, its shape was simplified, and a handle was added to the bottom right corner of the image. The "magic" in the cauldron can and should be augmented to make the image stand out more - let it boil, spill, splash and behave like an awakened force of nature.
    • Guide lines were used to shift attention from the center towards the right side, which gave the image movement and a sense of airiness. The center of the composition is quite complex and detailed, which means that the background can be shown as large masses of trees, emphasizing the scale of the forest and making it more evocative.
    • The moonlight can be used to illuminate the main elements of the composition, break the scene into planes, indicate the size of the character, and add emphasis to the silhouette.

    Having established the foundation we can now shift focus towards the anatomy and the design of the costume. We can add elements of the environment, improve the contrast of the color pallet and continue making sure that the composition remains balanced.

    Overall the author of the test project managed to compose a pleasant creative illustration. The point of a test project is to gain confidence that the artist being considered for the role is able to work on a variety of projects and has strong design skills, that would allow this individual to adapt to the daily reality of the studio. In either case, it is very important to be able to approach the work holistically and the author of this seems to be able to do so very well.

    Stay tuned for more feedbacks on test assignments!

    https://preview.redd.it/xwgdcu0lkpj51.jpg?width=807&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49c58e518596e465c087b9687a6d118e6260e52b

    submitted by /u/Polina_SunStrike
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    Designed an asset pack with simple UI designs. Feel free to use it

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:55 AM PDT

    I made an update video on the progress of my endless runner game using Unity. I added a main menu and also explain what I do and how the UI works, so it's more a tutorial than a pure devlog.

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 06:58 AM PDT

    Do you think that's possible to make the game of your dreams as a first project?

    Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:57 PM PDT

    I personally think that maybe yes if you already have a background in programming for any other type of project.

    submitted by /u/thefrenchdev
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    A tutorial for an elastic building effect!

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:28 AM PDT

    The whole world is being modeled in high fidelity by Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. How will this change the future of gamedev?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:36 PM PDT

    This simulator is really incredible -- using satellite data and procedural texturing, Microsoft has simulated the vast majority of the planet with relatively high fidelity. In the simulator itself, they have highly realistic lighting, weather and sound, and you can actually go anywhere in the world. The world looks realistic from thousands of feet in the air or down on the ground when you land, meaning there's nothing really stopping them from applying this technology to creating a planetary-level open world game that models the actual Earth.
    Here's some footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3o-1X9B7io

    As someone not particularly interested in flying airplanes, I am still in complete awe at the level of technological innovation behind this simulator and the implications it could have for gamedev.

    submitted by /u/Jeremy_Winn
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    Find More Playtesters For Your Games | Pixar Movies Always Suck Early On | Free VFX Downloads in Unity. My first attempt at a weekly update for game developers, an exercise to review what has inspired me the past week and anything I've released asset-wise.

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:33 PM PDT

    Here's your weekly game dev productivity newsletter focusing on improving development workflow, efficiency, quality, and mindset of game developers.

    "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." -Babe Ruth

    📷Failure is a large part of the game development process, especially during playtesting.
    Leaders in creative industries always seem to be fanatical about receiving feedback, and more importantly, seeking out criticism. Pixar understands the value in feedback and creates an environment where it is valued from anyone in the company, regardless of title.
    They claim that even though they have a track record for extremely high quality work, it never starts out that way. It takes constant feedback and iteration cycles to get it right. I feel like they might know a thing or two about creating successful releases.
    Co-founder Ed Catmull even said "...early on, all of our movies suck." Think about how incredible their movies are (and how much money they make) and just remember that it always starts out bad. So don't be discouraged when someone says your game sucks, as you are right on track to an amazing game if you approach it with the right mindset.

    Free Game Assets

    📷As you may have seen in recent updates over the last 2 weeks, I have been converting standard unity particle effects into HDRP.
    Between the two .unitypackage files, there are Shader Graph VFX prefabs for explosions, fog, steam, rocket trails, and energy bombs. Here is a link to download them.

    What I'm Reading This Week: Finding More Playtesters

    📷Recently I have been looking into how I can get my prototypes and alpha builds to as many playtesters as possible.
    I've stumbled upon a few articles regarding the subject, and even though they aren't new articles, each of the articles below provided some valuable piece of information about playtesting:
    Design 101: Playtesting - The concept of "Scattershot Testing" caught my attention.
    "A Scattershot Test involves putting in a whole bunch of different mechanics into that faction all at once. While the final mechanic might be intended to show up on 20 different cards, try five mechanics that each show up on four different cards. Then you can figure out which of the mechanics were the brightest spots in gameplay."
    The Defin­i­tive Guide to Playtest Questions - A short list of valuable questions to ask playtesters.
    Go to the Finding Playtesters section near the bottom of this article. Most articles rely on using local communities, which is a great idea because playtesting is most valuable when done in person.
    Interview Questions
    Extra Credits - Entertaining Short Video On How To Get Good Feedback

    Unity Plugins For Productivity

    Bolt Super Units (free)

    📷If somehow you haven't heard, bolt is free.
    A brand new plugin just released August 26th adds a bunch of useful modules for Bolt.
    I know.. a lot of devs would rather code everything themselves, but Bolt can be really useful to add small or simple classes faster than creating a new script. Game development takes a lot of time, so anything to speed up the process can be beneficial.
    This enhances the effectiveness of Bolt, and it's free.

    Rainbow Hierarchy 2 (paid)

    📷This may seem like just a basic little feature addition(it is) but it has increased my productivity in a big way.
    Adding color and symbols to the hierarchy has led me to find assets much quicker and over time adds up to significant amounts of time saved. $15 is a small price to pay for a boost in efficiency.
    Hold alt and click anything in the hierarchy, then change the color or symbol. That's it.

    What I'm Watching: HIGH SCORE

    📷There is a new docuseries on different aspects of the video game industry that you can find on Netflix. Each episode covers a different topic from NES to Role Playing Games all the way to the origin story of shooters. Check it out for sure. Watch the trailer here.

    ​

    That's everything for this week. Follow me on twitter for more interesting game development stuff. @BigRookGames or if you have any interest in getting these weekly, join the mailing list for game developers.

    -Jake Jameson

    submitted by /u/BigRookGames
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    Designing Luck | Calibrating Loot Distributions with Statistics | Gamede...

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:19 PM PDT

    Added notifications that stay at the edge of the screen, is that a good UX thing?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:07 PM PDT

    I Made Fall Guys in 24 Hours!!

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:39 AM PDT

    How to Make An Easy Game That Still Poses A Challenge

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 09:06 AM PDT

    How 3 Indie Game Executives handle the Development and Publishing Side of their Business

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:01 AM PDT

    New Job Offering Tuition Reimbursements - College Classes in Game Development Worth A Shot?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:01 AM PDT

    Just landed a new role (IT, not game dev) that is offering $10k/year in tuition reimbursement. I already have a Bachelors in CS, however I do desire to learn about crafting games on the side from both a technical and artistic perspective.

    Do you recommend I utilize this and look for either a county college or public university to take some classes? I feel like I do better in a university based environment, so I really want to look into this option.

    submitted by /u/niceguy7326
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    (25) Computer Science degree with multimedia design minor, want to be environment artist in game industry

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:21 AM PDT

    Unfortunatelly it took me a fair bit time to understand that I dont want to be a software developer. Its not that I dont like coding; but I want to "create" and be "artistic", so programmimg all day simply not fullfil my artistic desires at all. I want to create visually tempting stuff, like 3d art; especially environment art for gaming industry. Unfortunatelly when I look up entry level jobs in environment art, they require BA, mostly fine arts. That means should I go to 4 year school to pursue my dream career? Start from beginning? The options I have is pursuing some vocational educations that is 2 years, or Associate in digital arts. Its more affordable, and I have already have a minor in arts so just because it is not "Bachelor of Arts" that means I will be disadvantaged while applying?

    I would love to see suggestions if you have a program that I might apply. My grad GPA is 2:2, so If there are some master programs in digital art that does not require revelant grad degree, I can consider them too. To be honest Im pretty sure that I want to be environment artist, even if that means I should go back to university. But I dont want to spend 4 year, and be in lots of dept. Do you think vocational schools would be enough for me to get my foot into junior level jobs? With dedication and hard working of course. The thing is, I have no traditional art background but have a lot of passion

    submitted by /u/ElfLadyMorgana
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    What can cause pixels with an Alpha value below 0.5 to become invisible?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:09 AM PDT

    Dear fellow game developers,

    I am having a hard time with a strange issue. I am working on a new Pixel Shader effect and I noticed that my meshes become invisible, if the alpha value in the Pixel Shader gets lower than 0.5. The following code from my HLSL Pixel Shader is super simple: If the pixel is inside a certain radius, show it semi-transparent, otherwise we do not need to show it. 

    float4 PS(PS_IN input) : SV_Target { if (input.impactDistances.x > 0.0f && input.impactDistances.x < 2.0f) { return float4(0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.5f); } return float4(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); }

    Now, here is the thing. If I change the alpha value from 0.5 to 0.48, the pixels are invisible. I edited other Pixel Shaders of mine and as it turned out, I seem to have a general issue in my game (engine). Whenever the alpha value is below 0.5, the pixel is invisible.

    I reduced my complex render code (several render stages for Soft Shadowing, glow and laser effects, etc.) to an absolute bare minimum, but I cannot find any reason for that behaviour. Transparency itself works perfectly fine for alpha channels between 0.5 and 1.0. That means alpha blending itself works and is enabled for Render Target View or DirectX Blend State Description.

    That being said, does anyone of you have any hint what could cause my pixel to be rendered invisible? Any help is gladly appreciated!

    submitted by /u/Masabera
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    I want to photoscan food. What do I do?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:05 AM PDT

    Let's say I want to photoscan that lemon that is on my table. What exactly do I do now? How do I photograph it from the bottom? How to make it receive light evenly and have no shadows? How to setup a scene for that? What do I buy?

    submitted by /u/International-Ad3398
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    We analyzed 100k+ mobile game ads, and here’s what we learned

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 05:20 AM PDT

    We analyzed 100k+ mobile game ads, and here's what we learned

    Make your copy more engaging:

    Effective words

    Although users are mostly attracted to Facebook ads based on their creatives, we can't neglect the value of titles and headlines. Why? Because they work!

    Words made with urgency such as Now, Hurry, quick, are also widely used because they induce a sense of urgency among users to download a game. Similarly, some other words that induce users to click on an ad include Top, Best, Now, download, etc

    Suitable Length

    An excellent copy is when you can convert a user without writing paragraphs. It's all about saying something without telling it wholly. The length of the title should be appropriate and should be able to catch the user's attention in the first read.

    If there is something to be added to the title or headline or whatever available space, the amount of space needs to be considered. As in the below screenshot, we can see that the ad copy is not up to the mark, making the title lengthy, uninteresting and frustrating at the same time. So, it's better to keep things comprehensive and catchy.

    ​

    Data from SocialPeta

    Which Ad Type Works?

    Video ads

    video ads work best in the case of FB game ads. As the video ads contain both the graphics and audio as well, so this combination helps in the better delivery of the message. According to research, people remember and perform action much more quickly if it is a video ad.

    Moreover, video ads show a high click-through rate and are more likely to be shared by the viewers. Also, a good gameplay capture can help in creating more curiosity among viewers.

    Image Ads

    Cleverly created images with minimum text convert better than those containing a lot of text-based information on them. Image ads are popular because of the reason that they are easy to create, and one can try many times with different types of images to find which one converts better.

    Thus, we can say that even though video ads are at the top of digital marketing, still image ads work great and can do wonders if used appropriately.

    ​

    Data from SocialPeta

    Carousel Ads

    Carousel ad is an interactive type of Facebook ad where users can add multiple (up to 10) pieces of media (images or videos) in a single ad. These ads allow the advertisers to display multiple dimensions of a product in a single ad. In the case of mobile game ads, different types of gameplay capture, screenshots or call to action buttons can be used. Also, testimonials or user experiences can be shared in each card of the carousel.

    Carousel ads are also one of the best types of ad formats that actually work because users prefer something moving and interactive instead of only static stuff.

    Playable Ads

    These are the type of ads where users can access the preview of an app or game while scrolling through Facebook. Playable ads are available on Facebook Stories, Facebook Newsfeed, Audience Network Interstitial, and Audience Network Rewarded Video.

    These ads are more converting for the users based on the fact that users try the game a little before committing to download or buy. This means that the playable ads give a good retention rate in comparison to other ads. Facebook is continually adding new features to the playable ads to enhance the user experience.

    ​

    Data from SocialPeta

    Mobile Game Ad Creation Tips:

    Know Your Audience

    It's a fact that not everyone is the audience for a particular project. An Olympic player may not be interested in a mobile video game. On the other hand, there might be some person who is just waiting for a new casual game to try. So, the first thing is to find the right audience for your targeting.

    If you can find the right audience, you can surely get the right amount of conversions with good ROI. It would be best if you also kept the demographic data like age, sex, interests, hobbies, gender, location and other similar characteristics into account before starting a campaign.

    Follow Trends

    Facebook, undoubtedly is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools in the industry. To maintain its position and to provide the best service to its users, it continually keeps making new improvements and introducing new features. At a certain point, there are certain patterns that top advertisers in the industry adopt. To keep pace with them, you also need to focus on those trends and patterns and follow them in order to get massive success like the industry leaders.

    You might be thinking that it's not easy to find top competitors and follow their trends, but in today's world of Artificial intelligence and data science, it's no more difficult. You can use advertising intelligence and spy tools like SocialPeta not only to find your potential competitors but also to follow them for keeping a track. With the help of SocialPeta, you can access millions of ad creative and ad-copy ideas with a detailed analysis of the audience as well.

    All you need is to see what your competitors are doing and replicate it creatively by adding your own colors.

    Test and Optimize

    After setting up the campaign, you need to perform testing for a better understanding of the audience. You can either perform built-in A/B testing from Facebook or create different campaigns for testing the audience with a different angle. The process will help you in learning about the rate of conversion with different types of ad-sets or campaigns. You can then optimize your campaigns according to the highest conversions.

    submitted by /u/FionaLooong
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    A quick 10 minute survey about your role in Game Development

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:42 PM PDT

    Its a survey through NewtonX about what you do at your studio, and what 3rd party services you use(firebase, AWS, etc) . Took me maybe 10 minutes. It pays a $100 reward as a digital gift card via Rybbon.net.
    https://www.expertsmarketresearch.com/refer?refId=76cdd4f7-5482-4918-9e1b-1309156ee360

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

    Which one do you guys think is better? Hiring a freelancer or get an employee to develop 3d multiplayer mobile games?

    Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:40 PM PDT
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