Anybody get a real software job and no longer have the energy for personal projects?

---

• Anybody get a real software job and no longer have the energy for personal projects?
• My First Game: A Post-Mortem
• How we built an auto-scalable Minecraft server for 1000+ players using WorldQL's spatial gaming database. We want to make massively multiplayer development accessible to indies!
• Can you recommend me a game engine to teach a kid?
• Game Dev category is a thing again on Twitch! All thanks to some user feedback (supposedly)
• Programming question : Which techniques are used to achieve real-time between players in online openworlds ? (think wow, ff14, teso)
• Simple background music/sound for a simple Tetris-like game
• Valve is now accepting Steam Deck dev-kit requests!
• Large level with many npc’s optimization
• So scared, can't even move — part 2.
• Jobs interviews and design pattern
• How to create a good map on unreal engine
• How can I have my game "restart" and delete the player's save files?
• Advanced Paid Learning Resources?
• Can I Face Legal Issues If I have models of real airplanes in my videogame?
• We've decided to #giveaway some 3D models for FREE personal or commercial use (CC commons license) I hope it will be useful :)
• Finally attempting to make my always dreamt project
• Tutorial: AI - React to surroundings (EQS) 2/2 - Unreal Engine 4 + Unreal Engine 5
• Player Movement Around Pivot Point
• Move a released Godot game to Unity!
• Trying to create a blinking function for Unity (C#), not blinking automatically.
• Framerate Independent Gameplay/ How to make your game run as intended anyware (mainly using SFML)!
• Completing My First Game: A Solo Dev's Journey
• What's Gamedev entry level?

Anybody get a real software job and no longer have the energy for personal projects? Posted: 01 Sep 2021 03:23 PM PDT So, I used to work a fairly easy job for a large engineering firm, which meant that I had a lot of mental energy at the end of the day to program in my free time. However, a few months ago I switched companies and my new job is much more intellectually challenging. This is a good thing, and I really like the company, but it means that once my work day is over, I just don't want to use my noggin anymore. Can other folks relate? It's been weird putting my projects on pause, since I ultimately want them to be how I make a living. However, coding for 12+ hours a day just isn't sustainable for my mental health. Edit: I don't have time to reply to everybody, but I really appreciate so many folks weighing in. I'm surprised at just how many people have similar stories. Lots of good advice has been given on how to cope and adapt, so thank you very much! submitted by /u/YouHadItComing [link] [comments]

My First Game: A Post-Mortem Posted: 02 Sep 2021 07:15 AM PDT Hello! I made a game and launched it yesterday. This is my post-mortem. Geared toward new developers, this is (most of) the lessons that I learned along the way: Proper planning is essential; need a clear vision, organized documentation and a roadmap. While you cannot plan for every circumstance or issue, you can form a coherent idea, build a strong foundation & execute much easier than hacking away at it randomly. Learned to prototype basic mechanics first. Spent a lot of time doubling back, or performing tasks out of reasonable order because of my approach. Learned that I can still learn and apply that knowledge to create something useful for other people. A full game is a good start to a portfolio that shows hard work and aptitude level. Made something that other people can experience! This game may be less than 20 minutes long (if you don't die), but it's still a complete game. Utilized the slowdown of the pandemic to create a video game (And a skillset). Finishing things is so important, and this turned into a pretty epic undertaking for one person who is just starting to learn. Need a better software than notepad for keeping track of goals, tasks, needed changes, etc. Tool choices are critical, but the tools are less relevant than the art & science itself. Glad that I took plenty of time to research what would work best for my needs and vision. Everyone has their own process in the creation of art. I chose to embrace my process, while still incorporating what seemed useful from the materials I used to learn from. Other people and their support / interest / guidance / help along the way are the only reason that this project existed in the first place. So thankful for Molly, Mom, everyone who listened to me talk about making the game, everyone who has worked on making games and those who helped by creating the tools, systems, and answering questions / posting solutions / creating free content / posting tutorials / making videos – they are how I've arrived at this point. Enjoy working in the 3D-Action type genre. Towards the end of the project, began thinking more and more about what's next for the world of Nidra & game development. Project became much more time-intensive as one necessary task after another cropped up, and postponed challenges (especially coding) added up to create a ton of work to wade through. They were right when they said that "The last 10% of the game takes 90% of the time!" One issue after another came up in balancing. Made the most of my time when doing test runs by using a written document keeping track of everything that needs changing or fixing, then going through and resolving those issues, then repeating. Careful with backups, data storage, data security & prefabs. Some kind of formatting issues on my computer's hard disk caused me to almost lose every bit of work that I had done on the project (along with some other stuff that wasn't backed up) – it was kind of like my life flashing before my eyes. Hotkeys save so much time, and I know so few. I have spent hours battling Unity / Blender when there are easier, more efficient ways to do the same work with the proper knowledge and setup. Tutorials made this project possible from the start; in fact, the entire project is based off of the Unity: Junior Programmer tutorial set. However, overuse of tutorials led to a setup that was (in many ways necessary) and again, time-consuming to wade through. "Tutorial hell" it's called, relying solely on the solutions of other people to every problem or mechanic that pops up is a sure way to stagnate with the growth of your craft and it's related considerations. It cost me many hours using other peoples' solutions and not understanding how they work. Default to using your tools' documentation first, then use other peoples' solutions. Keep a log of how much you work, a timer solution would be best. I did not do this, so I only have estimates. (Wish I had kept that time log at this point) Game development has been cathartic and healing, gave fulfillment and meaning to how I spent my time. This has been truly an amazing experience that has also been rife with concerns, doubts, fears, loss of momentum, long periods of not working on any form of real self-improvement (or the game), etc. Many times I thought that the project would never be finished, just thrown in the garbage of the other old projects. Even making a simple 20 minute game took me from my estimates about 800 hours. Now, I tried to do as much of it myself as possible (as opposed to using other peoples' creations)... and had to learn how to program, how to use Blender to make 3D art, how to navigate Unity and a hundred other things from scratch, with no previous experience. But, it was my choice to scale the project as such and add in the extra time-consuming tasks to learn & make it better. I would be able to create this game again in much less time, because of having already mentally worked through the major issues to tackle in order to make it. There are now some fairly easy methods of extending the length of the game now too, because it is in a (relatively) complete state. Games are not easy to make; I would not say Insectotron 3D is a "good" game but I will say it's "fun" (to me, gotten no feedback from others so far) and was mostly about learning from & finishing a game project anyways. I have heard this called "Effort Shock." Push through, finishing a game feels amazing. Well, that's really all for now. Greatly appreciate all of you who help people on here & on other internet sites. Hopefully, (especially if you are new to game dev!) this summary has helped you in some way or shown you something from a new perspective. Enjoy the day! submitted by /u/Astralnaught_3D [link] [comments]

How we built an auto-scalable Minecraft server for 1000+ players using WorldQL's spatial gaming database. We want to make massively multiplayer development accessible to indies! Posted: 02 Sep 2021 11:58 AM PDT Hi, My name is Jackson and I've been working on WorldQL, a universal and *free* backend for building multiplayer games. We're launching soon and I wanted to show off our tech demo to the /r/gamedev community! WorldQL is a real-time object database that acts like a multiplayer server. We used it to build a horizontally scalable Minecraft server that can fit 1000s of players without lag! Read all about it at https://www.worldql.com/posts/2021-08-worldql-scalable-minecraft/ Our mission is to make massively-multiplayer development accessible to ALL developers, not just big studios. Let me know your feedback. If you're interested in using WorldQL to build your game when we officially launch, join our Discord! https://discord.gg/tDZkXQPzEw Thanks! submitted by /u/Jaxkr [link] [comments]

Can you recommend me a game engine to teach a kid? Posted: 01 Sep 2021 10:09 PM PDT Hi, I've been teaching a kid (age 9/10) some programming and he really like games. I'm trying to dive down deeper into programming concepts but I think in any context apart from games he doesn't show any interest. I want to keep it fun so that he'd be eager to learn and apply the things I show him. He also picks up stuff quickly if he's interested - so far he can do variables, conditional statements and a little bit of loops. He's used Scratch before, but I'd like to move on to something more coding based. I have experience with PyGame and Unity - but I feel like OOP is a bit of a stretch in Unity, whereas PyGame is too low level and doesn't have any abstractions. Is there a game engine that has simple-ish scripting but also has good abstractions? e.g. if object collides other object p.s. it's ok if he doesn't understand all of the source code, my goal is to have him understand some of it and have fun submitted by /u/Snoo61231 [link] [comments]

Game Dev category is a thing again on Twitch! All thanks to some user feedback (supposedly) Posted: 02 Sep 2021 12:38 PM PDT submitted by /u/kryzodoze [link] [comments]

Programming question : Which techniques are used to achieve real-time between players in online openworlds ? (think wow, ff14, teso) Posted: 02 Sep 2021 01:04 AM PDT Specifically to notify the character's position has changed. For me it seems mqtt would be the best choice here. It's lightweight and allows to broadcast information fairly easily. The only thing that gives me doubts is that mqtt polls are not exactly real-time like sockets. Or is there some other, more suitable solution ? submitted by /u/SkywalkingBear [link] [comments]

Simple background music/sound for a simple Tetris-like game Posted: 02 Sep 2021 09:39 AM PDT Hello! I am making my first game. It is a game that is similar to Tetris. I am looking to add some simple background music/sound to avoid awkward silence. How hard is it to make something like this one in the link below? I have very little musical knowledge. Would it be overkill to hire someone to make this kind of music? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9mQIVitZtc&ab_channel=pink submitted by /u/Pascal_By_m2 [link] [comments]

Valve is now accepting Steam Deck dev-kit requests! Posted: 02 Sep 2021 12:49 PM PDT submitted by /u/JawDroppinAwesome [link] [comments]

Large level with many npc’s optimization Posted: 02 Sep 2021 12:28 PM PDT I've so far only been working on small scale apps and games in Unity that were easy to manage. But now I'm working on a new top-down game project and want to get a clear picture on how to approach the NPCs. What is the 'standard' way for game development to keep the cpu unoccupied with NPCs? I'm guessing I will need to disable all NPC game objects that are a certain distance away from my player at the cost of them performing their routines. Is such an optimization actually really necessary? And what is the way you would approach this? I would love to hear your opinions! submitted by /u/plokkum [link] [comments]

So scared, can't even move — part 2. Posted: 01 Sep 2021 01:42 PM PDT Hello! Well, it's been two months since I first came to Reddit with my problem. Here you can find the original post. I am unable to express in words how much support I received! Since then, I have had panic attacks very rarely. And I must say they are pretty light compared to the older ones! The old ones... oh my! Thank you so much for all your advice and kind words! To show my gratitude, I really wanted to do something nice for the developer's community too. And I came up with this game lowpoly character tutorial series. https://youtu.be/e4lO9-1G6z4 It will be a tutorial on the complete game character creation workflow. From the beginning - sculpting, retopology to texturing. To cover different game styles, I plan to make two types of textures: handpainted and PBR. I will be posting new videos every week on Thursday. I hope I will succeed in making valuable videos for you! If you have any tips or tricks, I will be happy to hear them! Kind regards, Yolu. <3 submitted by /u/HT_Yolu [link] [comments]

Jobs interviews and design pattern Posted: 02 Sep 2021 09:45 AM PDT Hi, I've had a couple of interviews in the past weeks (mobile game developer), and after the first HR call, and passing the first technical test, there is a call with a programmer from the team and they all ask about "what Design Pattern do you like to use", and my answer is usually: Component pattern, Observer Pattern as well as respecting the SOLID principles as much as possible, I also usually have one or two Singleton objects in my project. Is there anything else I should mention ? because my portfolio clearly shows that I've been exclusively working on small/medium mobile games, and I am not applying for a "project manager" position, but also not applying for a junior position either (I have +5years experience) I just wonder how was your overall experience regarding this, and for the game test you did, how REALLY important was the design patterns ? because I'm currently in a week-long test where I have to re-create a simple game of theirs and add one feature of my choice. Note that i am not talking about clean code and how understandable the whole project architecture is (I believe mine its pretty clear) I am talking about the deliberate implementation of some famous design patterns, cause the way i work in my current job is that: First make sure it works (solve problem, test gameplay, etc...) If patterns emerges, or pretty obvious to use for some system, then refactor the code and implement the better pattern. I almost never decide on what pattern to use before hand, unless its a pretty common system like i said.   Thanks! submitted by /u/alaslipknot [link] [comments]

How to create a good map on unreal engine Posted: 02 Sep 2021 08:41 AM PDT Me and my friend wanted to make a game in Unreal Engine 4 located in Augusta (Sicily) and other towns around it in 1848, this is the lore: In the aftermath of the 1848 revolutions, to stabilize the Peninsula the states are organized by Franz Joseph of Austria and Napoleon III of France into a federation headed by the Pope, with the Catholic Church having management of a great deal of the national administration and social services (and it just so happens, the Church ranks are open to Catholics of any nationality... and seem to have more French and Austrians in charge of Italian regions than really fairly should be). Only in the South is there sufficient legal wiggle room and social tolerance for the Revolutionaries to properly organize, and even King Ferdinand himself and his government give it leniency and occasional support (quietly of course, mostly "looking the other way") as he's hoping to potentially make a break from the Italian State and wants to use the Revolutionaries to help. How we can make an accurate map (I mean in heightmap terms) to make the map, and eventually build structures, roads and things like that? submitted by /u/Any_Telephone6843 [link] [comments]

How can I have my game "restart" and delete the player's save files? Posted: 02 Sep 2021 11:32 AM PDT Uhhh I'm sorry if this isn't the right subreddit to ask this question. I'm really new to game development and I'm making a game on rpg maker and at a certain point of the game I wanted the game to close and restart in a different way, deleting the existent save files in the process. The game would change title screen and everything. The thing is I don't have any idea how to do it?!?!?!?!? The only game I know that did something similar was Doki Doki Literature Club after (spoilers) Sayori's death. Does anyone know a way to do something similar on rpg maker? I literally have no idea. submitted by /u/tiredferret [link] [comments]

Advanced Paid Learning Resources? Posted: 02 Sep 2021 07:36 AM PDT Hi! My company gives me a learning stipend to spend yearly, and I was thinking I could use it for game dev resources (already talked with my manager and she's ok with that). So I'm looking for paid and advanced resources. Honestly I don't have an idea what I'm looking for, so any recommendation is welcomed. The format doesn't matter, could be books or videos. For context, I'm a senior web developer and I've been a hobbyist game dev for a few years now (using Unity mostly). Thanks! submitted by /u/dreaminblack [link] [comments]

Can I Face Legal Issues If I have models of real airplanes in my videogame? Posted: 02 Sep 2021 11:21 AM PDT hello good people, I have been thinking of making a game that has planes in it, was thinking if i will face legal issues if i include 3d models of airplanes the real world. I dont want to get into any trouble. help. submitted by /u/Mammoth_Cause3286 [link] [comments]

We've decided to #giveaway some 3D models for FREE personal or commercial use (CC commons license) I hope it will be useful :) Posted: 02 Sep 2021 10:52 AM PDT submitted by /u/Guandique [link] [comments]

Finally attempting to make my always dreamt project Posted: 02 Sep 2021 06:50 AM PDT Hi everyone, this post may become a bit long to read so, first of all, sorry for being such a boring writer. To the point, since I was a teen I've always dreamt to make a videogame, you know how It goes, you feel like you'll be able to do every single part of its development, you dream about becoming famous and successfull, blahblahblah. You know how childhood dreams go. Some years ago I entered a Computer Science grade on my university and I understood the very basics of low level programming and many other topics, my dream became more realistic and I put the idea aside for some time. After some more years I am now starting to feel energetic enough to give it a try, my current idea is to simply make some sort of technical demo so that I can learn properly without having to sacrifice a very long time. My main idea has always been to make a hack N slash videogame, so I applied the technical demo idea to that concept and I decided to make a project that has the following aspects: A main character and maybe two or three different types of enemies, all of these fully animated. This enemies would simply attack and receive damage, nothing complicated about the AI, I mainly want to focus about the game animations and pace. The main character would have a simple combo system so that I don't take much time with the animations, this is the only aspect that I may expand if everything goes smoothly. The way that I want you to help me is about which software to use and what should I focus more or what should I sacrifice for the sake of time saving. I am using Blender for the 3D models and so far so good, I even have one of the enemies fully rendered, textured and assembled. About the animations, I haven't started touching that field yet, but I feel like this one is where I want to focus mostly, I'd really like to learn how to anímate properly even if I need to take lots of time. Lastly, I wanted to say that I am using Unity as my engine, this is because my best friend knows a thing or two and has used It countless times before, so that way I can focus harder on the other fields (animations and modeling), knowing this maybe you'll be able to tell me where should I animate (Blender, Unity or using another software). This is the main idea wayyy downsized so that you don't have to read that much, feel free to ask me more so that I can clarify whatever doubt you may have. I simply need some advice about what software to use or how to handle this Mini project. Needless to say I want it to make it look as good as possible even if It takes lots of effort and time, I am fully decided about that. That's all, thanks submitted by /u/PochiJr [link] [comments]

Tutorial: AI - React to surroundings (EQS) 2/2 - Unreal Engine 4 + Unreal Engine 5 Posted: 02 Sep 2021 10:07 AM PDT submitted by /u/LeafBranchGames [link] [comments]

Player Movement Around Pivot Point Posted: 02 Sep 2021 09:36 AM PDT Hello, I'm needing help with how to go about trying to get the player to move around a center pivot point. I'm trying to have just 2 inputs, left and right arrows to move the player in a circle around a center point. I hope I have explained that well? Anyways thank you. submitted by /u/RyanDaden [link] [comments]

Move a released Godot game to Unity! Posted: 02 Sep 2021 09:27 AM PDT Is it possible to redevelop a released simple Platformer game from Godot to Unity and update it with the new Unity build? If yes, is it possible to maintain the saved game progress encrypted file for the current users? submitted by /u/Electronic_Screen_54 [link] [comments]

Trying to create a blinking function for Unity (C#), not blinking automatically. Posted: 02 Sep 2021 05:28 AM PDT Hello, I am creating a game and have gotten stuck on a really simple script. I am trying to get the player to blink every 10 seconds with the option to blink sooner by pressing the spacebar. The manual blinking works, but the automatic one doesnt activate the plane. The script works by activating a 3D plane every 10 seconds then disabling it less than a second later. When I press space in-game, the blinking works, but when I wait for the timer to run down and it reaches 0, it doesnt activate the blink plane. Please help explain why, cause I have no idea haha. Code: using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; using UnityEngine; public class PlayerBlink : MonoBehaviour { public float blinkTimer = 10; public GameObject blinkPlane; public bool isBlinking; private void Start() { blinkPlane = transform.GetChild(0).gameObject; } private void Update() { #region Blinking blinkTimer -= Time.deltaTime; if (blinkTimer <= 0.1) { isBlinking = true; StartCoroutine(BlinkReset()); } if(Input.GetAxis("Blink") >= 1) { blinkTimer = 0; } else if(Input.GetAxis("Blink") <= 0) { isBlinking = false; } if(isBlinking == true) { blinkPlane.SetActive(true); Debug.Log("Blink"); } else { blinkPlane.SetActive(false); } IEnumerator BlinkReset() { yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.001f); blinkTimer = 10; } Read more Popular Malware prevents its victims from going to illegal download sites Security News & Discussion Malware prevents its victims from going to illegal download sites Security News & Discussion Malware preve... Interview Discussion - January 04, 2018 CS Career Questions Interview Discussion - January 04, 2018 CS Career Questions Interview Discussion - January 04, 2018 Dai... Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla united for web developers web developers Apple, Google, Micr... This company sent my client this misleading "bill" for web hosting. web developers This company sent my client this misleading "bill" for web hosting. web developers This company sen... Stanford University's Computer Science department is holding a unique MOOC called 'Code in Place.' This is a free course to learn python. It is a live class environment and not a typical video-based curriculum. programming Stanford University's Computer Science department is holding a unique MOOC called 'Code in Place.' This is a free co... Firefox’s New WebSocket Inspector – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog programming Firefox’s New WebSocket Inspector – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog programming Firefox’s New WebSocket... Blog Archive March 2022 (25) February 2022 (141) January 2022 (151) December 2021 (168) November 2021 (266) October 2021 (296) September 2021 (293) August 2021 (304) July 2021 (294) June 2021 (294) May 2021 (293) April 2021 (291) March 2021 (286) February 2021 (270) January 2021 (307) December 2020 (306) November 2020 (293) October 2020 (307) September 2020 (295) August 2020 (309) July 2020 (306) June 2020 (287) May 2020 (210) April 2020 (298) March 2020 (301) February 2020 (289) January 2020 (307) December 2019 (308) November 2019 (294) October 2019 (304) September 2019 (297) August 2019 (304) July 2019 (303) June 2019 (299) May 2019 (304) April 2019 (325) March 2019 (335) February 2019 (294) January 2019 (339) December 2018 (334) November 2018 (324) October 2018 (337) September 2018 (326) August 2018 (328) July 2018 (337) June 2018 (327) May 2018 (340) April 2018 (328) March 2018 (341) February 2018 (304) January 2018 (336) December 2017 (331) November 2017 (105) Copyright © Programming29