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    Monday, November 30, 2020

    Home Unlabelled This is our disintegration shader, it is available for free. Also, we've made a breakdown video (link in comments), hope this is helpful!

    This is our disintegration shader, it is available for free. Also, we've made a breakdown video (link in comments), hope this is helpful!

    November 30, 2020

    This is our disintegration shader, it is available for free. Also, we've made a breakdown video (link in comments), hope this is helpful!

    This is our disintegration shader, it is available for free. Also, we've made a breakdown video (link in comments), hope this is helpful!

    Posted: 29 Nov 2020 05:54 PM PST

    Water Mask in Project V! Equipped with a Custom Shader and Shaped from the Inner Hull it hides any Water that clips through the Ship!

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 10:04 AM PST

    Godot's 2D engine gets several improvements for upcoming 4.0

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 06:41 AM PST

    How to develop a flash game in just 10 years: an indie post-mortem of my mental health (long)

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 05:35 AM PST

    So, a few months back I released my latest game (Cosmic Logic). The game has sold fairly poorly (five sales is not great), but I'm not going to discuss that. Considering the circumstances surrounding the game, I'm considering the fact that the game was released at all a success.

    I'd like to talk about my game development journey; not just the mistakes I made in development, but how the game affected me, and how that compounded into further issues.

    Work started on my new Flash game, Cosmic Logic, back in 2010. I'd made a few flash games before - the largest of which, Infected (a sortof Reversi like board game), was frontpaged on Kongregate and received 4,000,000 plays across ~200 websites. Cosmic Logic was going to be bigger, better, and make me stacks of cash. After about 4 months of development, the game was pretty much ready to be released.

    So, here's where I'd like to talk about my first mistake. If I had continued with development and released the game, I could've easily earned somewhere in the region of $5,000 to $8,000. At this time, I was a semi-regular on FlashGameLicense.com, a website where flash developers could essentially auction their games to sponsors. While I don't want to discuss exact numbers, Infected had pulled in several thousand $ from multiple sponsors, and was by my standards, a major success.

    Instead of releasing it however, I had the genius idea to port the game to Android and iOS. The idea itself isn't terrible: being able to advertise to sponsors that the game wasn't just a flash game should have significantly increased its value. This was at a time when multiple flash sites were trying to promote themselves to the mobile gaming crowd, so the decision seemed like a no-brainer.

    However, I never really account for one thing: porting the game was so goddamn boring (converting vector graphics to bitmaps, for example). And because it was boring, I started putting it off. And putting it off. And I found other things to do. I actually managed to make and release an entirely seperate game, Starbyte.

    At this point, I quit my full time game development job. I kinda hated the 9-5 life anyway; for the most part the places I worked at were great, filled with amazing people. But spending 90% of my waking hours at my work were just too much for me, so I decided to go full indie.

    This would have been fine, if I had been able to release any games. Instead, Cosmic Logic just sat there - a huge, impassible mountain, blocking any progress in my life. The longer I put it off, the more I didn't want to do it. The game became a millstone around my neck. I would lie awake at nights, thinking about the game, promising myself I would spend the next day working on it. I would wake up, sit in front of the computer, and just be filled with an overwhelming dread. I stared at the computer for hours, not moving, like some sortof dystopian deer caught in the pale light of a monitor, until my brain broke and I spent the rest of the day playing videos games to cheer myself up.

    At one point, I moved to a new city, made a little progress, then broke up with my partner. All my old friends were in a different city, and all my new friends weren't speaking to me. This, along with an asshole flatmate, meant my life for the next 6 months basically meant I spent the entire time in my room, commuting from my bed to the computer chair 2 feet away, not speaking to anyone, barely going outside, locked in an eternal battle of staring at my screen hoping somehow, magically, the game would complete itself.

    Now, I don't want to go into too much detail here, because I don't think a games development forum is really the place to describe my mental unravelling, but suffice to say I entered a very dark place. I stayed like that for a while, until eventually, somehow, I managed to struggle through it.

    I moved city again, picked up a bunch of new hobbies and interests, found some part time work, started trying to talking to people, and got myself outside interests. I started feeling better, but never made any progress on the game. It loomed in the background, like some sortof spectre haunting me and reminding me of my failures. I started work on it again, but because of the time that had passed, the environment had changed:

    1) FlashGameLicense no longer existed (at least, not in a form that was useful to me). This meant traditional sponsorship was impossible.
    2) I contacted a bunch of mobile publishers. None were interested. This meant I would have to self publish, and I had no intention of purchasing a mac/iphone, so I decided to stick to Android.
    3) I looked at integrating Google Admob into my game. However, because I was using an actionscript codebase, doing so by myself would be impossible.
    4) I bought an Ads package, pushed to Google, and found that google required 64bit versions of APKs. The ads package I was using had no 64bit version, and the developers were no-where to be seen.
    5) Eventually, I realised the only way to make money was to charge for the base game and release demo versions, which wasn't really what I wanted, but seemed like the only way I would see any money at all.

    These all, again, destroyed my desire to finish the game.

    Eventually, in 2020, covid hit. I was feeling better overall, and because of lockdown I now had extra spare time on my hands, and eventually I managed to push through and finish the game. Eventually, through much wailing and gnashing of teeth, it was done. I had a complete game.

    At this point, the tale takes a twist: during a conversation with a friend, I was discussing my general issues with the game. How it was frustrating, because despite me being capable, I just struggled to get any work done - how it reminded me of school, where I often found work easy, but was often chastised by teachers for being lazy.

    "Maybe you have ADHD".
    "Lol, yeah maybe."
    "No, really".
    "Well, shit."

    So, yeah. Turns out, my perception of ADHD - the hyperactive kid running around - was completely wrong. It presents itself in a numerous ways, one of which is the inability to complete simple tasks. Doing a bit more research - yeah, I totally have ADHD.

    So, while it doesn't change who I am, and it doesn't change the time wasted, honestly it changes everything for me. I used to beat myself up all the time for being lazy, for wasting my time, for wasting my artists time on a game that might never get released, for never being able to do simple things. This guilt fed into depression, which fed into not getting any work done. But its not (entirely) my fault. Suddenly, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me. In a weird, sortof TV end of season special kindof way, I felt angels coming down from on high singing their celestial chorus, and saying "it's ok".

    And so, I know this is long, but here's the key takeaway: I believe that everyone has something like this. Not everyone has ADHD, sure, but we all have things in our lives that change our circumstances. For years I blamed myself, comparing myself to successful indie devs and saying to myself "why am I not succesful yet?" And, of course, many succesful indie devs have their own problems. But the game was rigged from the start. I'm not running the same race, just like many people out there. It's easy to come up with some trite happy message, saying "oh it'll all be okay in the end", but for me the end very nearly wasn't ok. A lot of us suffer in silence.

    So, my own personal takeaways from all this;
    1) Sitting inside all day in the dark isn't helpful. I tried a bunch of different things, and found some ways of excercising that I actually enjoyed. (And, as a bonus, I also now sideline as a Poledance instructor. No, really)
    2) Its important to be able to have human connection. I mean, the whole "mental health" thing isn't news to anyone, but being able to talk about how your feeling is really key. Shoutout to /r/MensLib for being a great sub which encourages discussion of mental health topics.
    3) You're not competing against anyone else. Sometimes we get dealt a crappy hand. Its not fair, its just life. Do the best with what you've got, and take pride with the fact that you're still in the game.

    And, just to finish off, I'm in lot better place now (thanks). Getting a diagnosis has been a catharthic transformation for me, and now the game is done the weight is off my neck. I think there's a lot of us that are still carrying weights though, and I hope that this post, in a small way, alleviates some of that. Any questions, I'll do my best to answer (about the game, the development, ADHD, whatever).

    TL:DR; My game kinda sucks and I'm okay with that.

    submitted by /u/darranjamieson
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    How to model a Shield in Blender (new low poly tutorial series!)

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 08:24 AM PST

    You dabble in a dynamic language like Phyton, but so far shun C++ even though you would love to know more about it? willnationsdev creates a fantastic series walking you through the basics. (Primitives and Pointers):

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 09:25 AM PST

    Hey guys, I run a small channel that focuses on teaching 3d stylized art. I've recently reached out to an extremely talented artist who shared a breakdown of his incredible 3D scene. As usual, all of it is available for 100% free on our youtube channel. Enjoy!

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 05:53 AM PST

    Can I use a 100 Year Old song in my Indie Game?

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 07:01 AM PST

    So I'm making a Horror Game, and some of Edna Hick's and Ted Daffan's Music really fits my game, that too in a surprisingly Beautiful way, they're the kind of sounds which were recorded on vinyl records and have that crackling sound. Can I use the song in my game? Edna Hicks - Poor Me Blues (1923-Document Records) Ted Daffan's - Born to Lose (1940-Cowgirlboy Records)

    submitted by /u/shashwatsuthar
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    A detailed look at the development of Among Us and why the developers almost quit. It also explores how the game became a massive success for the small indie studio and what kind of impact it had on the game itself and the developers.

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 09:46 AM PST

    2D METROIDVANIA-LIKE TUTORIAL IN GODOT 3.2

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 07:02 AM PST

    How do I connect to people?

    Posted: 29 Nov 2020 05:48 PM PST

    I've been writing a game for a bit. My question isn't about the game, but about the community.

    Everywhere I go online, I hit groups with outrageous rules trying to PREVENT me from talking about what I'm doing or get other people interested in my work. "No posts about incomplete games" "No posts about works in progress" "Nothing that could even be vaguely consider promotion" "Only post about your game on the second Friday of every month unless there's a full moon" "If we think your question is hiding a promotion we'll ban you from the entire Internet"

    I'm just trying to get some people to talk to me about the work I'm doing to see if I'm on the right track.

    I understand that the Internet is full of spammers and there's ungodly effort in place to try to protect things from degrading to nothing but spam.

    But, that leads me to my question: How does one actually communicate to people, then? I mean, the systems designed to stop spam are literally preventing me from discussing my work. It is insane how difficult it is to actually find people to have a conversation with.

    submitted by /u/william_moran
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    Im trying to find some information on digital art 2d/3d online courses

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 09:28 AM PST

    My fiance likes doing digital art, she wants to get into art and animation for games.

    Shes used a few udemy courses, some youtube videos, but shes wanting a structured online environment, with tests, projects and portfolio building.

    I havent been able to find but one course from ed2go "digital game artist certificate".

    Is it garbage? Can anybody here recomend something for her.

    I understand you can find everything for free on the net, I get that. She, needs structure or the learning/progression falls apart.

    Any help would be great.

    submitted by /u/Glasshalfnot
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    Looking for literature on Game Balance

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 06:36 AM PST

    Hi all,

    I'm a Game Development student in Spain and I'm working on my end-of-degree project. I've decided to design and prototype a micromanagement RTS, something along the lines of Age of Empires and Warcraft 3.

    One of the most difficult tasks I can foresee is having to balance the different civilizations the players will be able to play. So, I would really appreciate it if you could recommend me any books and papers I can read to have a good outcome and to use as reference.

    Thank you very much.

    submitted by /u/cesena96
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    Looking for a new indie game... What are the best of 2020?

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 11:56 AM PST

    So, i am creating an MMORPG.

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 11:49 AM PST

    13 high quality orchestral tracks free to use in your commercial projects

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 11:31 AM PST

    unity 2d color pallete switch effect with a mask(switching color palettes with a circle mask transition effect)

    Posted: 29 Nov 2020 04:01 PM PST

    Substance Painter vs Marmoset tooolbag 4 vs Quixel Mixer

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 11:18 AM PST

    Which of these pieces of software is the best for texturing models?

    submitted by /u/CaptainAwesome134
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    Use IKs To Manage Different Weapons And Integrate With Animations; Link To Tutorial And Scripts In Description

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 11:00 AM PST

    What is a general simple logic (game loop) for a 2 players online board game (like risk)? / unity+photon.

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 07:14 AM PST

    Hi,

    I have some broad questions, and would love some pointers.

    Disclaimer :I am a very bad coder and most my projects are built upon tutorials and trial and errors. Small scope.

    I already have a fully functional local 2 players game working. With turns (coroutines).

    What would be the general logic for an online 2 players turn based game (let say a board game like risk)?

    For the local version, I implemented coroutines (turn playerA, turn playerB, end turn screen). That's my game loop.

    Now, I want to try and make it online. I used photon pun2, and I have my 2 players matchmaked, in the room, ready to start.

    I felt like creating a online game manager script, with a coroutines game loop. But what should this do?

    I guess this online manager will run on "masterclient" only.

    If I understand pun2 correctly, this script will be present in all clients build but I can restrict some of its actions (only on master client)

    All my game data (the state of the game) are in Scriptable Objects.

    What can the game loop be? For simple coder like me, something easy to grasp....

    Coroutines with yield that waits until a boolean is true (that the current player will send once he ends his turn?)?

    Thanks so much!

    submitted by /u/Nimralkindi
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    Buying assets Vs hiring people to make them: which one is better and when?

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 10:49 AM PST

    My thoughts:

    1. Buying assets is better when your needs aren't unique. If you need a generic NPC model, you can just buy one.

    2. On the contrary, if you're aiming for an uncommon artstyle, you probably won't find fitting assets premade. I'd argue that if you managed to make your game entirely from premade assets, then you are either super resourceful or your game isn't unique.

    3. Searching for assets is a huge time sink. Take SFX for example. It's impossible to describe variations in sound to a search engine. And you also need to spend some time listening to every plausible clip since you cannot instantly determine usability from a thumbnail like art assets.

    4. Using bought assets also requires some skill. No matter how many 3d level props you buy, you still need to design those levels yourself. And make it aesthetically pleasing.

    5. On the other hand, you can delegate art work entirely to someone else by hiring an artist.

    6. Buying assets has zero commitment outside of payment. Hiring someone means collaborating with them until their work is done. And that can be exhausting/time consuming as well.

    7. You can get further use out of bought assets by modifying them. But this is more of a coin flip. It might be that your beautiful 3d model was sloppily textured and you need to redo that work anyways. And their is never a guarantee that someone else's code will be modifiable or even readable.

    8. On the other hand, if you're hiring somebody, they'll probably want to reuse their assets anyways. If they made things sloppily, they'll deal with it themselves.

    9. Typically, hiring people will be costlier. And it rises over time too.

    What has been your experience so far?

    submitted by /u/Krons-sama
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    How can I define the relationships between every two factions mathematically and set them in the inspector (Unity)?

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 10:30 AM PST

    Hi fellow devs. I have the following enums:

    public enum Faction { Neutral, Kingdom, Villagers, Bandits }; public enum Relationship { Ally, Neutral, Hostile };

    I want to define the Relationship between every two Faction, like Kingdom is hostile with Villagers, Bandits are hostile with all etc. I am trying to write a reusable code for this and want to be able to set relationships easily in Unity's inspector. But I cannot find a good way to do this.

    First thing I thought of was to use Relationship[,] (2 dimensional array of Relationship) and set Relationship for corresponding indexes, like 0 (Neutral) and 3 (Bandits) are hostile / ally / neutral. But you can't show two dimensional arrays in the inspector.

    Do you have any ideas?

    submitted by /u/epiphanyatnight
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    Working/Converting Scriptable Objects to Blob Assets

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 10:24 AM PST

    Hi everyone! I want to share what I learned while studying blob assets and using them with job systems. I also included a utility class at the end for making the blob asset generation code easier to read. Hope it helps!

    https://neilmarkcorre.wordpress.com/2020/12/01/working-with-scriptable-objects-and-blob-assets-and-creating-a-utility-class/

    submitted by /u/neilcorre2k6
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    Creating Main Menu With Multiple Cameras in Unreal Engine 4

    Posted: 30 Nov 2020 10:13 AM PST
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