• Breaking News

    Saturday, May 1, 2021

    Home Unlabelled Screenshot Saturday #535 - Premium Pictures

    Screenshot Saturday #535 - Premium Pictures

    May 01, 2021

    Screenshot Saturday #535 - Premium Pictures

    Screenshot Saturday #535 - Premium Pictures

    Posted: 30 Apr 2021 08:22 PM PDT

    Share your progress since last time in a form of screenshots, animations and videos. Tell us all about your project and make us interested!

    The hashtag for Twitter is of course #screenshotsaturday.

    Note: Using url shorteners is discouraged as it may get you caught by Reddit's spam filter.

    Previous Screenshot Saturdays

    Bonus question: Do you play video games with any of your close family members?

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

    +100 models with level design for free

    Posted: 01 May 2021 08:45 AM PDT

    I have made +100 FREE models with level design with any genre, compatible with any game engine.

    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Zsky

    Shop:https://zsky2000.itch.io/

    submitted by /u/Zsky2000
    [link] [comments]

    I think Survivorship Bias might be an issue here in /r/gamedev

    Posted: 01 May 2021 08:57 AM PDT

    Good morning /r/gamedev!

    For folks who haven't heard of this term, Survivorship Bias is when you analyze the projects/missions that survived (in our sense, succeeded), try to find the reasons for their success, and then try to apply the reasons on future projects; all the while ignoring the reason of failure of many other projects that didn't succeed.

    An example is Dwarf Fortress, a game that has successfully sustained a 100k+ player count based on download stats. I see it very often used here to encourage new devs to not worry about having bad graphics. This is a typical survivorship bias because one would be assuming that DF's success was partly due to the charm in its ASCII art graphics, or at least that players don't care about graphics as much as gameplay depth. The correct way to analyze this topic would be collecting the sales data of all games with gameplay similar to DF, and see whether ASCII art games or games with decent graphics have better sales. Even then, it's still not very valid because DF is free, and many people downloaded it just to see "what the heck is the hype all about".

    In reality, though, when most players choose a game to play, the visuals are usually the first thing that catches their eyes, way before gameplay does. They will skip an ASCII game, or a game without decent graphics altogether unless they are really into this kind of visuals. Even for DF players, the likelihood of them buying another ASCII game isn't necessarily high, because they might not enjoy DF for its graphics, but for the depth of gameplay - something not many devs are capable of creating.

    Therefore, telling new devs to not worry about graphics may not be the best advice unless they are simply trying to make game for fun with absolutely 0 commercial intention. As soon as you have the idea of putting your game on steam, selecting an attractive art style must be one of the top priorities to consider.

    Another survivorship-bias we often see here is Flappy Bird. I see folks often use it as an example to show that marketing is pointless because someone can just muster up something in one weekend and make millions from it. This opinion is using one extremely rare example to conclude that luck is the main factor of a game's success, without considering the other successful games that did so from good marketing - which includes good market research, good product quality, good looks, good publicity, and good promotion campaigns. It's like saying "running a business won't get you rich because someone got rich from the lottery".

    One last example I'd like to give is about indie games. We might assume a lot of players are into indie games because of Braid, Fez, and Super Meat Boy that were featured in the movie. But in reality, indie games on Steam only get a market share of 0.72% among all game sales globally. With tens of thousands of indie games on steam, the average gross revenue before Steam cut for each indie game can barely support a couple of months of one developer's salary. I would have assumed (and hoped) that more and more people would be into indie games over the last decade, but there were still just a handful that made big, which is grossly improportionate compared to AAA games that were well received.

    In conclusion, I believe it's a good idea to do a survivorship-bias-check before providing advice, which can mislead new devs.

    Edit: just wanted to also add that when we decide on which features to include in our game, we also need to be aware of survivorship bias. Example: we could be thinking, "oh Darkwood featured line-of-sight shading, and Darkwood is so successful, so I should also feature that in my game", while in reality the line-of-sight didn't add really that much more (my own opinion) to the gameplay than its other aspects like the resource management and day-night cycles. It's something we have to keep in mind when we do market research.

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

    The BIG Steam Store Clean Up

    Posted: 01 May 2021 11:04 AM PDT

    Introduction

    How to improve your Steam store page. Have you ever stumbled across a Steam Store page, scrolled down to the 'About This Game' section and found it was messy? Are you thinking about the customers' reading experience by making sure your game's description is clearly communicated and properly structured? There seems to be a trend with a lot of developers where they think unless this section contains 10 GIFs combined with walls of uninspiring text and a massive checklist of non-prioritized features, then nobody will be interested in their game. But that's far from the truth. Here are my tips on how to present this section. But before we get started, I've created a template of how I think an effective Steam store page should look like. It includes everything I've spoken about in this blog. (Please note, it's not an actual game, I made it all up off the top of my head). Right, let's make marketing simple.

    You can view the template here. (Make sure to zoom-in)

    Contents

    1. About This Game

    2. Dimensions

    3. Overview

    4. Images & GIFs

    5. Key Features

    7. Call to Community

    9. Conclusion

    1. About This Game

    This section is used to further describe your game. If a customer has gotten to this space, it's a good thing. It means either your trailer, screenshots, or short description enticed them enough to scroll down to find out more. You've got their attention, great! All you have to do now is make their life easier by showing the right amount of organised information. Quality over quantity.

    2. Dimensions

    Let's talk about how much space you have to work with. My rule of thumb is that your content should not exceed 3,400 characters, or to be more precise, 600 words. This is because it will activate the 'READ MORE' section, forcing customers to click an additional button. Your copy should clearly communicate the best of what your game offers without the customer having to click and scroll down for even more information. Essentially, you want to tell the customer what your game is about as quickly as possible. You must be considerate of their time, because they don't have a lot to give you. Think of it as an unnecessary click. I understand some of you may be thinking "but there's so much to my game, I must include everything!", but this is exactly the point; you actually don't. If you cannot describe your game in 600 words or fewer, then your copy is too long and not properly structured. I realise that's not including content such as gifs, images or subheadings, but even with that in mind, there's still a lot of area to convey your games description. I found sticking to this rule helped my creative writing so much, because it made me think more about what to write, where to place it, and how much to include. The trouble is, sometimes when we're given so much space, we tend to fill it up just for the sake of it. I can't overstate the importance of quality over quantity.

    Example Image

    3. Overview

    This is where you'll briefly talk about your game. But first things first, do not just copy text from your short description. Nobody wants to read the same thing twice, especially after being encouraged to scroll down for more information. Now that's out of the way. Make sure not to write massive walls of text because this will probably deter customers from even reading it. A few paragraphs will suffice. Remember, Steam is an extremely busy place with millions of gamers. It's wise to assume a sizeable portion of them are short on time when browsing.

    Example Image

    4. Images & GIFs

    I wouldn't go overboard with the number of gifs or images. In fact, you might not even need to include any. I know what you're thinking, "but Joe, everyone includes gifs, you're mad!" Objectively, your trailer, screenshots and short description should do the talking. But more to the point, not everyone is blessed with fast internet. If some customers cannot properly load your store page, it's likely they'll walk away and leave. In fact, Valve even stated this way back in 2018. If a page has a large load size (e.g. 15MB+), they might remove any GIF's ensuring customers can actually visit it. You can read more about that here. My advice is to crop your gifs and images appropriately to cut down their size, (ezgif.com is a convenient tool). It's also important to make your gifs run at the highest frame rate (FPS) possible. If not, the customer may think you're gameplay is laggy, or that your steam page is making them lag. At most, I recommend placing two gifs and one image, but for goodness' sake, do not use the same image as your small capsule or footage from your trailer for your gif. It's completely unnecessary and only takes up space that should be used for something way more unique. GIF's can be very effective because they give motion/life to this section and allow you to highlight specific gameplay mechanics. Try to capture content that's striking, for example, your best-looking environments or a feature you'd like to put more emphasis on.

    Example Image

    5. Key Features

    Next, make a concise list of features that best show off your game. But, let me be very clear, features are features for a reason. If you have a massive list of them, then they stop becoming a feature. I believe four to five is a good fit. This list must be easy to read and contain compelling copy. What parts of your game stand out? Try to make it sound intriguing, with each word having a desired effect. Don't repeat features that are already displayed above the Languages section, such as Split Screen, Full Controller support and so on. Leave this area to do its job, it's there for a reason.

    Example Image

    6. Call to Community

    This is where you'll include your Call to Action, but I like to think of it as Call to Community. I recommend creating a Discord button because it gives interested consumers a chance to ask either you or your fanbase questions in real time. Should they join, they'll be able to tell how active your server is, and if you've been putting in the effort to interact with your players, it shows that you care and listen to your fans. Overall, Discord is a fantastic platform to champion your community. As for tips concerning the image itself:

    • Make it a clickable link. Think about it, why should someone have to go off your store page to scour the web to find your games Discord? It's just not practical.
    • Always include this text within your design "Click Here to Join" - Seriously, if you're not making it super obvious that people can join with just a single click, many won't even bother trying and you potentially lose out on lots of new members.

    Example Image

    7. Conclusion

    Next time you're having a browse through Steam's endless catalogue of games, have a look at how developers design their 'About This Game' section and think to yourself; "can this be structured better?" Keep in mind, I'm not saying that my way is the deciding factor whether your game sells well or not. There are many Steam store pages out there with the complete opposite to what I have suggested and have sold thousands of copies. What I am saying is that you can at least improve the consumers' experience whilst they're browsing your store.

    Cheers for reading and good luck. What are you waiting for? It's time to clean up your Steam store page!

    If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or drop me a tweet.

    @IndieGameJoe

    full article

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

    I starting trying out Unity

    Posted: 01 May 2021 05:33 AM PDT

    After many months even years of wishing to get my hands on unity, I was finally able to do so this week. I didn't have a computer so I just watched people make awesome games using the Unity Game Engine. But my father got me a new laptop as a present and I want to thank him for that. I instantly downloaded Unity and started messing around in it. I followed the tutorial of a youtuber name Brackeys(whose youtube channel i've mention down below). I can't wait to start making some pretty good games using the resources I have.

    ​

    Brakeys youtube channel = https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYbK_tjZ2OrIZFBvU6CCMiA

    submitted by /u/PaperStudios44
    [link] [comments]

    Humble Bundle creator brings antitrust lawsuit against Valve over Steam

    Posted: 30 Apr 2021 05:10 PM PDT

    Lawsuit against Steam

    Posted: 30 Apr 2021 10:30 PM PDT

    How can I create a fair payment model for our small team?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 08:52 AM PDT

    Hey GameDev! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

    I'm the Co-founder and manager for a studio that is in the process of incorporating as a real company.

    We have a small and talented team and we are beginning work on our first original IP. I'm consulting with lawyers about our legal stuff, but I'm hitting a roadblock about how to go about paying everyone.

    We are not making any money right now, and anything that costs money is coming out of pocket for everyone. We all have our own software, gear, etc.

    But once we release our first game, I want everyone to get paid fairly for the work they contributed. I've heard good and bad about a revenue share model, but I am not sure how else to structure our employment arrangements as we have no income.

    If anybody has any resources or experience in this type of issue I would greatly appreciate hearing what you have to say.

    Thanks!

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

    I'm trying to find this script / vfx I saw on tw where the player camera was inside a train, and the inside furniture (windows, poles, chairs) would change if the player was not looking at that area. So that once he looked at it again, the furniture would swap.

    Posted: 01 May 2021 08:52 AM PDT

    If anybody knows of the person that did this and where I can see this effect again I'd be very greatful

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

    Youtuber NorthernLion talks about how to reach out to streamers to market your game. GDC 2014, but most of it is still relevant.

    Posted: 01 May 2021 01:39 AM PDT

    2D Zelda Game Engine - game ideas?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 03:33 AM PDT

    2D Zelda Game Engine - game ideas?

    Hi everyone - a couple of weeks ago i posted a video of my game engine on here. It's written in C++ and uses openGL for rendering and GLFW for user input, it accepts JSON files exported from Tiled to load levels from (with one or two things also needing to be added to the json files by hand). Since I last posted it here I've added quite a bit to including:

    • Lua scripting for game objects with unity style "update" and "init" methods
    • a UI overlay
    • text rendering
    • a dialogue box system
    • better rendering with objects being drawn in front of or behind the player depending on where he is

    As it progresses I find myself wondering what game I should make with it - does anybody have any ideas for good settings or game mechanics in a game like this?

    https://github.com/JimMarshall35/Zelda-RPG-Engine

    Here is the code. I hope one of you might find it useful or informative in some way (although i think it's far from perfect). Or perhaps somebody might even have something to contribute to it. Next i plan to re-implement all of the classes I've derived from "GameObject" such as Player, DialogueTrigger, ect in lua and use the ScriptableGameObject class for them instead to fully test out my integration of lua.

    https://reddit.com/link/n2fro5/video/nvror9iwjhw61/player

    submitted by /u/Jimmy-M-420
    [link] [comments]

    How to limit game CPU consumption?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 04:35 AM PDT

    I'm making an engine in C an OpenGL, and in various conditions my game is consuming between 10 to 25% of my cpu (it's maxing out one of the 4 threads). Most games I tried can idle at 5% cpu and 60fps.

    When I disable vsync (wglSwapIntervalEXT(0)) I get 4000 fps, 17% cpu on my game and 18% cpu on dwm.exe. When I enable vsync the game runs at 60fps and uses 25% cpu.

    What do games usually use to not max out the cpu in the main loop? I looked on the internet but didn't find a definitive and clear answer (most of the answers just say that Sleep() isn't accurate and shouldn't be used)

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

    Newbie questions on hiring artist for commission

    Posted: 01 May 2021 10:43 AM PDT

    Hi dev friends,

    If I ever wish to hire an artist to do a commision for steam page capsule (art includes charater, background and maybe game title design), for example:
    - https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/41243274
    - https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/89016445

    I have a couple of questions:
    1) What is the market rate / average cost?
    2) How long does it usually take for commission to be done?
    3) Is there any common issues that could arise? And how to prevent them? (E.g. artist took too long, expecation not met, legal issues? Any more?)
    4) What are the common issues artist face? (E.g. not knowing what customer wants? Customer didn't pay? Any more?)
    5) Any tips on finding the right artist?

    submitted by /u/fishwind12
    [link] [comments]

    Why so many lines?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 04:57 AM PDT

    I know that the Witcher 3 has like 1.5 million lines of code, and most triple A games have similar amounts.

    What accounts for this? -How much of it is the game engine -How much of it is AI -How much of it is for the player only -etc.

    Is it all completely hand written or is some of it automated?

    Edit: Thank you for the answers guys!

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

    Help with game touch smoothness

    Posted: 01 May 2021 08:53 AM PDT

    hello everyone I just started learning how to code, to get into game development, so I started a micro project in Unity where I want o build a space shooter(Android), so with some tutorial I've written a simple piece of code which make the user move the ship by touching the screen, but if feels strange and delayed, is there a way to make it more responsive

    here is the code I used (I'm Using C#):

    using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; using UnityEngine; public class ShipMovement : MonoBehaviour { private void Update() { if (Input.touchCount > 0) { Touch touch = Input.GetTouch(0); Vector3 touchPosition = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(touch.position); touchPosition.z = 0f; transform.position = touchPosition; } } }
    submitted by /u/Dwanted07
    [link] [comments]

    Good 3d Graphics Library

    Posted: 01 May 2021 11:54 AM PDT

    3d game dev: Heyyy guys, I am just into using graphics library in game dev. and I want you to recommend a bunch of 3D graphics library with Programming Languages like c c# c++ Python and more that you can recommend and pls recommend some tutorials (and courses if you could)

    audio game dev: The same thing but recommend some softwares too and graphics library (as I just said)

    animation: Samee thinggg(and recommend some softwares too)

    Art: Same thing

    Thanks Mucho muchos guys

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

    Unity mirror not connecting locally.

    Posted: 01 May 2021 11:03 AM PDT

    My son just created a game in Unity and we are trying to connect through our network so we can play together. He used Unity mirror and it "seems" like it's fairly simple to configure in game. He's tried to put in localhost, and the ip address assigned to each computer. But it never connects.

    Does anyone know where to start on trouble shooting? I am having a hard time finding anywhere for help and never get responses on the official unity forums.

    Thank you so much!

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

    framework/engine that supports browser and mobile?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 10:53 AM PDT

    i want a framework, or something like a framework, where i can do everything in code. i used actionscript 3 to make games before like this, and i liked it.

    I looked at monogame, it looks like the only way to build for browser is with something called bridge.net. would this be hard to do?

    i looked at raylib too, it has html5 support, but it looks confusing to set up.

    whats the workflow like between these 2, and how hard are they to set up different builds for? i would want something where you can easily just build for another platform.

    and are there any other options?

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

    Hello, I would want to know if a Playstation Net Yaroze is a great option for me to start practicing developing video games.

    Posted: 01 May 2021 10:30 AM PDT

    Hello! I am a 16 year old 11th grader high school student! I have an HP Pavilion 7900 Windows Millenium Edition computer tower (128MB RAM) along with a Gateway EV700 CRT monitor (1280x1024 max resolution). My family has been using them since 2001 (and still to this day) and I am wondering if me getting a Playstation Net Yaroze is a great option for me to start practicing on developing video games. Now I will first need to learn c coding as I don't know much about it.

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

    Rigging a cartoon character's ears to orient towards the camera - How did Disney's Epic Mickey made Mickey's ears behave like they should while still on gameplay?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 10:26 AM PDT

    Hello there! I'm currently working on a personal 3D project where the main character is heavily inspired by animation mascots such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, and I'm mostly a self taught general artist.
    I wanted to give the character's ears a similar effect to that of Mickey Mouse, where they're always oriented towards the viewers, but I got stumped on how to do it in a dynamic gameplay environment.
    I recalled that the 2010 game Epic Mickey managed to do it pretty seamlessly back on the Wii, but I'm currently at a loss on how that effect was achieved, since his ears were 3D models, and not a texture like, say, the spheres and bob-ombs in Super Mario 64.
    Would anyone have any suggestions on what could be done to achieve a similar effect? Thank you so much in advance.

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

    Quickest and Easiest Way to create Dissolve/Disintegrate Material Function to use for any objects in UE4. Less than 4 minutes long.

    Posted: 30 Apr 2021 11:05 PM PDT

    UE4 Tutorial: Curved Hud and Widgets

    Posted: 01 May 2021 10:15 AM PDT

    What function to make a game progressively faster feels natural?

    Posted: 01 May 2021 03:40 AM PDT

    Hello,

    I'm currently working on a project that involves a gameplay loop that gets faster and faster over time until it tops out. A little like these endless runner mobile games but very different gameplay. My question is: What function/progression have you used and which one feels natural?

    Maybe a linear one with a discontiuous first derivative? Or more something like a scaled arctan function? I'm mainly wondering if there is some common knowledge of a certain function that is like an "industry standard" when it comes to game speed increase.

    Thanks and have a nice weekend.

    submitted by /u/Xacalite
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment