• Breaking News

    Sunday, June 20, 2021

    Home Unlabelled The Anatomy of Celeste

    The Anatomy of Celeste

    June 20, 2021

    The Anatomy of Celeste

    The Anatomy of Celeste

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 08:05 AM PDT

    If a solo dev is completely terrible at art, would it be a decent idea for him to create a game without "art" and only then contemplate on what to do with art and why yes/no?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 06:39 AM PDT

    All of my prototypes seem to end due to me being unable to create good enough-looking art. So after years of this hobby, I still haven't finished a full, proper game.

    I am thinking, what if I ignored the art completely before finishing the main game? Besides creating barebones placeholder assets in few minutes.

    Has anyone tried this?

    Sidenote: I am colorblind and creating good enough-looking art for me is practically impossible. I had graphic design classes in college, I have done a lot of experimentation and I am completely terrible at it. A toddler could learn as much in one hour as I could in 50 hours in regards to art.

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

    A useful framework to give you the best chance at delivering your indie game(s)

    Posted: 19 Jun 2021 06:20 PM PDT

    So a few years ago I published an indie game that went on to become a success. Back then I did the fairly cliche thing of quitting my job and focusing on building my game full time. I treated it as a sabbatical and I was lucky enough that it worked out for me.

    Before building games, I had a long career in corporate tech as a product manager. I knew that no matter how trash my game was before I completed my 'sabbatical' I needed to release something. If I didn't release anything then it would have been hard to explain what I spent the time doing on return to my corporate career. If the game was good, that was just a huge bonus.
    So I created a framework that helped me deliver based on practices I learned as a product manager. Upon reading a post here by u/Loonworks about stopping development on their game, I decided to write and share this post, after some deliberation - don't typically like offering unsolicited advice.

    By the way, I won't be mentioning the name of the game I made here because this is a genuine attempt at offering advice, with no ulterior motives (including marketing).

    ​

    Foundation: Your game needs to have a point

    With any successful game (or other tech product), you need to have a strong foundation. Every successful indie game has a 'point' and that 'point' is the game's foundation. This is essential to delivery because it will help you stay focused on what matters, and what matters is your game's 'point'.

    You're not gonna be able to create a standard action-adventure and manage to compete with a AAA studio, they will simply out-spend you. But if you have, for example, an interesting mechanic that you want to introduce to the action-adventure genre, then your game could still be worth pursuing.
    Your 'point' doesn't need to be related to game mechanics. It could be a great story, an interesting marriage between genres, amazing art, just something that means that you're not recreating a game that already exists.

    ​

    Build: Don't do anything you don't have to

    So now you have your point, you also have a core question you need to ask yourself every time you're about to do something - does this thing I'm about to do directly relate to the point of my game? Will players still 'get' the point of the game without this? If the answer is no, then you need to think hard about if it's worth doing.
    If you're not willing to let the 'thing' go - then you need to ask, can I depriotise this? How long can I wait till I absolutely must do this? This way, you can always depriotise it later if, for example, you're starting to burn out.

    One notable exception here is probably game art and music. These are fairly essential marketing tools for most games and players can spot store-bought assets.

    ​

    Buy: Before you do actually build, consider buying

    This ties in closely with my point about building. Assets are your best friend when it comes to speedy delivery. Don't waste your time reinventing the wheel by building a common system that doesn't push your 'point very far'. The less you have to build common systems that don't directly relate to your game's 'point', the less risk you take on, the faster you deliver. Again, art and music are a notable exception to this.

    ​

    Feedback: Release as early as you possibly can, then iterate, iterate, iterate

    Early Access releases, alphas, and betas are seemingly becoming less popular among players. However, I'd argue there is a definite type of player who loves to be an Early Access player and be a part of the build journey. The earlier you release, the sooner you can iterate and make improvements. Once you have a prototype that accurately displays the 'point' of the game, with a reasonable amount of content, I'd recommend at least an hour, it's worth releasing into Early Access.
    There is an important caveat here though - it's essential you accurately set expectations with potential players. If you only have 20 minutes of content, your art isn't completely done, or anything else that might make your Early Access period less impressive, set that expectation. The worst thing you can do is overpromise and underdeliver. Oh, and it doesn't hurt to give a steep discount.

    Overall, the Feedback step is essentially a de-risking strategy. It allows you to not buy in too deeply into concepts, systems, or really, your game's 'point' if players don't enjoy it. I'd also recommend floating the idea of your game through various advertising means, including a "coming soon" page on Steam, websites, social, teasers, trailers, explainers, dev updates, or gameplay videos.

    That being said, validation of your 'point' will lead to significant motivation, and thus, assist delivery.

    ​

    Anyway, that's my advice based on my experience as an indie with a corporate background in delivery. I followed these principles. I took a year to build my game. I was in Early Access roughly five months after I started and released after about twelve months. I wrote very, very little code. Hope someone out there finds it helpful.

    How it relates to Product Management in my mind for those super niche people who are interested in both Product Management and indie dev:

    • Foundation and Build: Loosely based on the concept of a minimum viable product (MVP) and agile software development
    • Buy: Not based on anything in particular, but common product management practice
    • Feedback: Loosely based on 'fail fast'
    submitted by /u/malcolmcc
    [link] [comments]

    Blender Texturing Beginner Tutorial : UV Mapping

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 03:25 AM PDT

    As a gamedev, knowing your engine's features well is essential. After over a year, we still learn new things about Godot every day. In this video, we present 12 of these things! Hope it's helpful!

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 10:49 AM PDT

    Working at a AAA studio?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 10:17 AM PDT

    I'm a student learning programming and I have become interested in game development, more specifically developing game engines. I have read some stories online and from what I can gather working at a AAA studio as a game developer seems like a nightmare of a job (low pay, long hours). I was wondering if this was the same case for game engine developers?

    submitted by /u/Firm_Gur8224
    [link] [comments]

    Advise for OpenGL based UI development

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 10:18 AM PDT

    I have some ideas in mind. I want to create a comprehensive UI library based on OpenGL. This library is targeted towards developers of multimedia applications (like DAW, Animation, Video & 3D Editors), Next generation business intelligence tools, etc. I am an expert programmer in Python and Java. Any pointers or tips to start with?

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

    What to keep in mind when creating assets?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 09:37 AM PDT

    Beginner here. My computer isn't up to scratch to start with Unity - it goes haywire and I have no recourse from Hell--*cough cough* excuse me--Dell, to figure out how to make it work. Gonna buy a new computer soon, but it'll take a few weeks.

    I wanted to get started with animating some characters, before I start following the FAQ tutorials. Just wanted to know if I should keep anything in mind when creating the assets? I know some basic animation principles from a few college classes. I'll be making 2D character walk cycles basically.

    Or should I make stationary assets for now like objects and backgrounds?

    Thank you, -T

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

    Tutorial: Vector math - Unreal Engine 4 + Unreal Engine 5

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 08:15 AM PDT

    First Game Learnings

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 06:35 AM PDT

    I am new to game development and after going through the phases of curiosity, determination and defeat, I completed the first version of my game!

    I felt this is a good place to quickly put together my learnings. This is for other people like me who are still trying to get through their first project or have begun and parked it indefinitely. If I can do it, so can you :)

    1. Keep it simple

    First get the most basic stuff done so it's playable. I found myself easily distracted by all the cool possibilities that needed to be tried out. So, I made a digital note only for these cool ideas and put them out of my mind. I also had another note for a list of possible future projects.

    1. Take all the help that you can get

    If you see my game, the whole mechanics is based on this Brackeys tutorial. Most of the pieces are free assets I found online (mostly from the unity store). Most of the deal breaking bugs got fixed because of help from different forums. Every time I looked online for a solution, I was reminded of the passion and helpfulness of game development community.

    1. Find Inspiration from others but don't let it demotivate you

    I watched a lot of videos and read through journeys of these solo developers or small teams that got these amazing and beautiful games made. I was inspired but as I got caught in this loop of finding new things to be inspired each day, I felt worse about my capabilities. Well, we almost never really see where they started. All the effort they put to accomplish what they did is less public. We usually only get to see the end product or the journey after they have reached that expertise. I started looking at dev logs from lesser watched channels and it helped a ton.

    1. Don't treat your game like it's your baby

    I highly recommend watching this video from Thomas Brush. This mindset even hinders the feedback path. My unoriginal first game was becoming my baby and I didn't want my baby to be hideous. I am glad I got past that attitude soon enough.

    1. What's your goal?

    I started making a game to learn game development but as I worked on it more, I lost sight of this goal. My only focus became to make the best game [that I could make]. There is nothing wrong with that but it stopped me from finishing the project and there is only so much I could learn by not getting this game in front of people.

    ​

    It feels great to finally complete one iteration of making a game! I am grateful to be a part of this community and would love to hear your first time game dev stories.

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

    Is there any way to publish a GPL game on consoles?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 08:56 AM PDT

    As part of my porting projects from my company, i was looking into porting and remastering some old and abandoned open source games for the nintendo switch and other consoles. The problem is that pretty much all open source games save a few exceptions are licensed in GPL v2 or v3 licenses, and, as far as i know, GPL means its impossible to put it on a console.

    The GPL license says that all the code must be kept open source and publicly availible. That is completely fine, save the fact that the console APIs are NDA, which very directly conflicts. You cant release 100% of the source code because you need to call into the console platform apis which are private and not public.

    I was looking for a way to sidestep that, as im not sure if there is an exception to that rule, like having the API calls part of a separated library that can only be released if the people who request the sourcecode are developers of said console system. Im not really seeing any ways of sidestep that, which makes me think the GPL means impossible to put in any console. This is kind of a shame, as it means every single game made with quake or doom engines is not portable, and so is things like rust Veloren.

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

    How to code a Pokémon battle system?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 12:19 PM PDT

    I am trying to make a Pokémon clone and have most of it figured out but I have no clue how to implement the battle system.

    ​

    If you didn't know, in a Pokemon battle, different Pokemon can have different items, abilities, and moves that can interact with the battle itself or any Pokemon. I want to code a system like this but I have no idea how to do so.

    Let me give you an example of what I mean. Let's say you are having a Pokémon battle, with you having a Pikachu and your opponent having a Hitmonlee. You use an attack called Thunderbolt, which has a 10% chance of paralyzing the target. However, in the event that that 10% occurs, Hitmonlee's ability Limber will prevent him from being paralyzed.

    Another example: You are using a Squirtle vs a Vaporeon. You use a water-type attack on Vaporeon, however due to Vaporeons ability, "Water Absorb", it takes no damage and is instead healed by 25% of its max hp.

    Example 3: You are using a blastoise vs a venusaur. You use an ice-type attack on the venusaur, but the venusaur has the item "Yache berry", which halves the damage from ice-type attacks.

    ​

    How would I implement a system like this?

    submitted by /u/The-Freeze_YT
    [link] [comments]

    How do you think a large game (World of Warcraft for example) handles storing their quest data?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 12:10 PM PDT

    In a game like World of Warcraft that has thousands of different quests with various prerequisites, how do you think they handle that kind of data? All the plot, objectives, current status of completion (player has 5/8 items collected), requirements (level requirements or chain quests), etc. I imagine something like a JSON format where you might have different keys like:

    "Quests": { "zone_Fields" : [ "carrotQuest" : { "questGiver" : "Farmer Bob" (or NPC ID?) "requiredLevel" : 17, "plot" : "Oh no these bandits stole my carrots, they went that way", "objective" : "retrieve {x} carrots for farmer Bob", "rewards": ["Name of sword to fetch", "Mana Potion"], // adding a "requiredQuests" tag would get very annoying // for each quest, especially if there's multiple required quests or // if quest names get changed later down the line. } , [Quest 2] : ... ], ... }

    then pull the data into the GUI and quest manager when required.

    ​

    The way I would first think to implement player interaction would be as follows:

    When the player clicks an NPC, check if NPC has quests associated with it. Loop through all NPCs quests for first non-completed. Check prerequisites. If NPC has noncompleted quest and player meets prereqs, search the file for respective data by quest name. When found, load in the respective data to the GUI/quest manager and if the player accepts, add to current quest list. Upon completion, fetch and give the rewards from quest manager and remove quest from current quests, mark completed.

    ​

    Maybe not JSON, but I reckon they would use a similar object notation right?

    I'm not as concerned with how to manage the act of giving and rewarding quests, but more so the structure in which they store the data.

    What about a quest requiring multiple quest chain completions prior to allowing a new quest? (e.g. To be allowed to start a Civil War questline the player must've completed 2 different quest lines already)

    Looking at the organization I provided it seems horribly inefficient and doesn't cover requirements that well so I'd like to learn how you might go about storing data efficiently for such a complex system. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/Pleasant-String6715
    [link] [comments]

    OpenGL For Beginners - Tutorial #12: Perspective Projection Part 2

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 12:08 PM PDT

    Hi,

    I've published the second part of the tutorial on perspective projection in OpenGL on youtube: https://youtu.be/md3jFANT3UM. This one deals with the aspect ratio and the transformation of the Z coordinate.

    Enjoy,

    Etay

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

    Inspecting a 3d model from a highly acclaimed video game and I have a question about one of the design decisions made by the author.

    Posted: 19 Jun 2021 04:28 PM PDT

    Edit: Solved. Thanks for all the replies folks! Makes perfect sense now.

    Hello. I hope this is the right place to ask. I've recently discovered I really enjoy 3d modeling and, as an avid gamer as well, I've gotten curious about the way someone in a professional setting might have modeled a character to be used in a video game engine. So, I downloaded the giant model from Skyrim. I've learned a lot from /r/blenderhelp and youtube over the past months, but this question isn't really about using blender or how to model, it's about why something might have been done a specific way.

    The specific thing in question is this.

    As shown, it's just a Skyrim giant model, and he has a hide loincloth-esque thing on that hangs down and probably flaps and dangles when animated.

    I somewhat understand why the seams were used where they were, but upon further inspection when I started pulling apart the loin cloth, and found this. After exploding it a little bit, it seems to be 2 shaped planes for the front half of the loin cloth, and 2 shaped planes for the back half. They weren't connected to one another and did not need to be separated to pull apart in this manner. The 'outer' most planes fit perfectly on top of the innermost planes, and even appear to be the same texture.

    So, I had to wonder "why did the author use 2 planes on each half of this loin cloth, instead of just using the innermost planes which appear to 'do' everything by themselves?"

    What could be the reason behind this authors method? Just to give it a more 'full' look once physics or animation are applied? Like, instead of one available 'flappy thing' per side there would be two flappy things per side?

    A feature or limitation of creation engine that required this extra mesh?

    I know it's a rather specific question, but I figure if I enjoy 3d modelling I should at least be trying to understand why professional video game assets were done the ways that they were, and try to mold my workflow in a way that allows for me to produce assets in a manner that will be more video game ready.

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

    How do you go about making UI for pixel art games?

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 11:36 AM PDT

    As per the title, what is the best way to make UI for pixel art games? Should the UI also be pixel art? What should I do for text?

    submitted by /u/mbt68
    [link] [comments]

    Progression

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 05:27 AM PDT

    I'm new to gamedev and I just want to share how exciting it is to learn even the smallest thing. I finally understand how to implement a water mechanic after watching a few tutorials, and it's got me pretty pumped. So far I've only done some basic landscape, lighting, foliage, movement (changing settings to get what I want for my game and adding water), creating some basic scenes using assets, and a very teeny bit of tinkering with blending animations. 

     I think what I want to work on next might be getting some AI going for some NPC interactions before I start thinking about creating my own animations. Animations kinda terrify me. Did you guys start learning things in any particular way, or did you just jump right in with whatever excited you the most? If you have a favorite YouTuber or tutorial website I'd love to hear about it!
    submitted by /u/Maoticana
    [link] [comments]

    I spoke with 9 other devs to get you some top tips for making games

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 10:49 AM PDT

    What are some features that will undeniably make your game better?

    Posted: 19 Jun 2021 02:08 PM PDT

    I've already got a few in minds such as responsiveness and game feel. Is there anything else?

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

    YouTube Tutorial To Make an Easy 2D Infinite Game In Unity ! ( Free assets included )

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 10:11 AM PDT

    Hey everyone :)

    I made a playlist of 6 parts on youtube, for a total of total of about an hour. This tutorial will teach you every step to making an infinite game like flappy bird.

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe14nNaaiSTES3qEpAvdn6mW6Un_WcdU0

    In the tutorial, I made a game like flappy bird, but most of the mechanics shown can be used to make an endless runner or other similar games. I think it's great practice for beginners & semi-beginners, because it will show how to do a lot of things like spawn objects, change scenes, use coroutines, etc. Hope someone enjoys it ! :)

    Feel free to check my other playlists if you like this one or you are looking for an other type of game tutorial like an idle game or an angry-bird like game I'm currently uploading :D

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

    Godot Tutorial: Shooting hats off like in Goldeneye in 5 minutes.

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 08:45 AM PDT

    Having trouble

    Posted: 20 Jun 2021 08:33 AM PDT

    I have been working on a game for seven years. And am having trouble learning unity. And am running out of options to were I can find help. I want my game to see the light of day and not be swept away. So if you're willing to help me just send me a message. Thank you

    submitted by /u/Staticplanet744
    [link] [comments]

    A Jam for Everyone: The One Hour a Day Jam!

    Posted: 19 Jun 2021 05:43 PM PDT

    Hi everyone!

    I love the idea of Game Jams, but between my day job and my family, I can't commit to a big time sink over a weekend or a week or whatever.

    So I made a Game Jam with the goal of being accessible to everyone: Parents, caretakers, students that also work full-time, or people that are just busy!

    The idea is that you get 30 hours to make your game over one month. You're free to break up that 30 hours however you want: one hour a day all month, maybe 5 hours a day on 6 different days, or whatever works for you!

    Come sign up, the first one will Start July 1st!

    https://itch.io/jam/one-hour-a-day-jam

    I'm also happy to have any feedback or suggestions, as I've never hosted a Game Jam before.

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

    No comments:

    Post a Comment