Game Development
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A lesson learned: Without experience, overambition, over-eagerness and burnout can become very real very fast
abnormalhumanbeing.itch.io How To Smile - Prototype Release Log - How to Smile - Now that you can(?) by AbNormalHumanBeingAh, what should one do after finishing their second game and doing well at their first game jam ? That's right: Just join the next jam , start work on a completely overambitious project, fail to intro...
Check out a story about thought processes going awry after ecstasy born from early successes and personal issues hitting.
Still, I decided to release the result of my work so far as a prototype for Fuck Capitalism Jam 2024, to be worked on in the future until it is done. Alongside part 1, which was basically developed within the time frame anyway, and is more than fitting for the theme as well.
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My first game just entered Open Beta Test - turn based strategy with toy army men - Bedroom Battlegrounds
store.steampowered.com Bedroom Battlegrounds on SteamStrategize epic battles and conquer opponents in the imaginative settings of a child's bedroom. Recruit units, move them around the battlefield and use their unique abilities to outsmart your enemy. Experience the joy of childhood warfare again – play now!
cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/16600744
> My first game just entered Open Beta Test - turn based strategy with toy army men - Bedroom Battlegrounds > > Hello all, > I'm happy to announce that I've just opened beta test for my first Steam game release, which will be available between 30.05 and 02.06. > > This is a turn based strategy game, where you play with toy army men trying to conquer your opponent on the other side of the room. Available in single player mode against the AI, or local multiplayer, also via Steam Remote Play. > > Steam page: > https://store.steampowered.com/app/2776110/Bedroom_Battlegrounds/ > > I'd be very happy to hear your feedback, which you can send over here, or through a dedicated feedback form. > https://forms.office.com/r/nvt7vAz9kF > Your feedback will play a crucial role in enhancing the game before releasing the demo for the upcoming Steam Next Fest, and subsequently full version of the game later this year. > > Looking forward to hear your feedback. > Happy conquering!
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Let's talk gamedesign blunders (pre MTX)
As most of us play games, we sometimes encounter elements or routines that suck all the fun from a shipped product. They can be a dealbreaker, so it's better to be aware of them. I'd exclude platinum challenges and MTX as they are their own beasts, and start with a couple of examples I hated in older titles:
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NFS: Hot Pursuit (2010). Before and after you enter a race, there are motivational unskippable cutscenes about your rating and unlocked vehicles. Instead of inspiring me to play more, it felt like visiting the web without an adblocker. Although it plays nice on Linux and I liked how vehicles drive, I deleted it after a couple of hours.
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NFS: Underground. Besides a difficulty slider you have before every track, there's a trend to make every other race longer. 6+ 1.5 minute laps become a chore and make you notice how broken and random it is under the hood. The strenght of the game in the short flashy arcade runs, but as devs couldn't find any way to make it more difficult, they make it a useless test of endurance.
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TES: Skyrim. Lots of quests are built on a premise of making you explore the global map more without any means of transportation, unlike Morrowind. They probably assumed there'd be some, or that fast travel would solve this, but I remember this one time I was to take the head from the witch and this region was completely unexplored at that time, and there was no obvious way but going there by foot.
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CoD 2+. Replenishing health is a cool mechanic, but it isn't followed by a repercussion for sitting and recharging. Finite number of enemies makes it trivial. I feel like something akin to WW2 southern front could've used the mechanic of endless onslaught before you complete the objective.
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FarCry. It've began as a tacticool shooter where you can choose where to start your infiltration, and it was good at that, but after introducing aliens it went weird. The latter levels are close-quarter skirmishes where only savescumming is a viable strategy. Game loses it's primal value to scale the difficulty in a wrong way once again.
What's your examples of wrong decisions?
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- brodybrooks.com Switching to Linux as a Game Developer
I recently found that modern Linux distros are actually up to speed for almost all game development tasks and also gaming! Some notes on my experience transitioning.
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Placed 3rd at my first game jam!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15508679
> Had to share with this community, I decided for my second game to just rip off the band-aid and I entered a game jam targeted at beginners. I placed 3rd - with 1st and 2nd going to more seasoned game developers. I never imagined that, going in, I would be on the pedestal. I just have to thank everyone that participates in game development and indie gaming as a community - including you, reading this. > > If you are curious and want to check it out: > > The games ranked by overall score > > The game itself > > A devlog looking back at my first jam experience
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The Mirror Godot Powered Engine Goes Open Source
gamefromscratch.com The Mirror Godot Powered Engine Goes Open Source – GameFromScratch.comThe Mirror, a Roblox/UEFN style game engine built on top of the Godot game engine has just gone entirely open source at GDC 2024.
- itch.io The Great Winter Tower Defense Game Jam
A game jam from 2023-12-15 to 2023-12-19 hosted by Armen138 & @[email protected]. Build a Tower Defense game! For the purposes of this jam, a Tower Defense game is defined as follows: A game featuring a tower or another tall structu...
Hi everyone, I feel like making a little tower defense game next weekend, and I figure I'll see if anyone wants to make it a party - join the jam and get in on the fun :)
- godotengine.org Godot 4.2 arrives in style!
Godot 4.2 brings more rendering features and better platform support, it's also faster, easier to use, and more reliable!
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Roguelike games could have a Hardcore mode where the character gets weaker after every successful run and is deleted on death
A comment on one of those "What's a good game concept you wish existed?" posts got me thinking. It described a game where you start out as OP and slowly lose your stats and gear as the game progresses. They suggested a Fallen champion type theme. This got me thinking about roguelikes, speed runners, and hardcore mode together. If a roguelike added a hardcore mode where you create a character and the character is deleted on death, that wouldn't last very long. However, if the hardcore mode was flipped and a new character had every stat and item maxed out then the player would almost certainly beat the game. Now the goal is to see how many times you can beat the game without dying. The catch would be each time you beat the game you are allowed to reduce your stats or delete your gear. This will mean a Run tracker would be impressive for 2 reasons: how fast it was and how little gear was used. The hardcore aspect would take into account the number of runs risked with the same character. If the amount of power reduction was capped for each run then it would take a few times to get low enough to be impressive and each consecutive run gets more and more risky. Anyway, this seems anxiety-inducing enough to be fun to play and watch. Then the "God Gamers" (ft. Sp4zie) would compete with each other to see how weak you can be to beat the game.
Xposted on the other site
- bevyengine.org Bevy 0.12
Bevy is a refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open-source forever!
- godotengine.org Dev snapshot: Godot 4.2 beta 3
We continue iterating quickly on beta snapshots for Godot 4.2 to ensure that we can solve regressions before the stable release.
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Request for Map-Making Tips
Anybody have tips for planning linear/dungeon maps? I'm currently trying to create a metroidvania map and so far, I've done a rough map of my start and my hazard areas. I'm mainly concerned with how to guide players through the map with minimal ui aid, but any help is great!
- godotengine.org Dev snapshot: Godot 4.2 beta 1
With all planned major and minor features implemented, Godot 4.2 is ready for beta testing!
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Are there testable demos for alternative game engines?
Are there testable demos for alternative game engines?
Hello everyone.
I am getting interest in alternative game engines like Open3D Engine, Godot, Flax, Stride, Bevy, etc... But I'm surprised how hard it is to find any "playable" demos of these. The only things I was able to find were screenshots and videos, but no proper executable that shows off their performance... Do you know any demo for any alternative engine (by alternative, I mean, not Unreal or Unity) ?
Thank you :-) (this is my first post on an ActivityPub community, sorry if I didn't post it the right way)
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Are there testable demos for alternative game engines?
Are there testable demos for alternative game engines?
Hello everyone.
I am getting interest in alternative game engines like Open3D Engine, Godot, Flax, Stride, Bevy, etc... But I'm surprised how hard it is to find any "playable" demos of these. The only things I was able to find were screenshots and videos, but no proper executable that shows off their performance... Do you know any demo for any alternative engine (by alternative, I mean, not Unreal or Unity) ?
Thank you :-) (this is my first post on an ActivityPub community, sorry if I didn't post it the right way)
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Steam Visibility: How Games Get Surfaced to Players [official video from Steam, also available as a PDF]
YouTube Video
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The discovery mechanisms at work behind the scenes on Steam, which inputs matter, and how Valve approaches the operation of a PC platform where any kind of game can find its audience.
PDF version available here.
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Unity apologizes and updates their infamous Runtime Fee
blog.unity.com An open letter to our community | Unity BlogAn open letter from Marc Whitten to the Unity community in September 2023.
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A discussion on LGBT+ inclusion in game dev and how game devs view the topic themselves.
I appreciate the gay, nonbinary and trans inclusion in gaming, but never forget: just because it was added to the game, doesn't mean the people who worked on it were in for it. I've been working in video games for about 3 years in Quality. A friend from past job shared their office had to fire an employee, because he stopped a trans person in bathroom doors, demanded to see their genitals before letting them in and would complain about pride flags in the office on employer's desks.
Also, Cyberpunk 2077 lacking a fleshed out bisexual romance option comes off as bit biphobic to me. The weirdest thing is, the gay male option character literally has a daughter. I'm not saying gay men never pretended to be straight and had children, but afaik Kerry had a daughter with a woman and homophobia isn't a thing in 2077.
I also personally find adding pronouns a less-than half measure. You're still only allowed to choose between either a very masculine male body or a very feminine female body. Not to mention, unless I've missed something, you cannot even opt-out of the voice selection (again, either a feminine female or a masculine male voice). I played games with body sliders as a child and could make my character to my liking. I don't understand why character body customization feels less and less like a thing. The armors absolutely do not look and behave better to warrant this as an excuse.
I wish they'd add the option to choose between a feminine and masculine body, but then make body hair and breasts a separate option, and then also allow to have no voice selection so your character makes no noises (Dragon Age Origin allowed that, if I recall correctly, and I remember other RPGs where I was able to opt out of noises, I think even Larian's games). I feel like these would be rather low effort, while having a high amount of inclusion towards nonbinary, intersex and possibly other people. I personally don't care about my pronouns at all, but really wish I was able to represent myself body-wise.
- gamefromscratch.com Unity Price Change Fallout Keeps Getting Worse
Following their price change and Unity Runtime Fee announcement, things for Unity Technologies keep getting worse and worse.
Unity frustrates devs with extra fees.
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SAG-AFTRA Calls Interactive Media Strike Authorization Vote
www.hollywoodreporter.com SAG-AFTRA Puts Video Game Makers On Notice With Strike Authorization Vote Plan"SAG-AFTRA is standing up to tyranny on behalf of its members,” stated president Fran Drescher.
- bevyengine.org Bevy's Third Birthday
Bevy is a refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open-source forever!
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Anyone using Love2D/Lua?
Just out of curiosity: is anyone here using Love2D and Lua for game development? I have some experience with Unity but sometime ago started learning Love2D. Lua seems to very simple language to code in and since Love2D doesn't have any graphical UI it sort of forces you to make everything work through code. As a beginner hobbyists, I really love this.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about Love2D and what it's capable of. Currently I am interested in doing asmall Snake-like puzzle game and a demo for classic Ultima type crpg. Not really full games, but I am sort of interested in seeing how well certain concepts and ideas work in practice. Lua seems to be very good for doing just that.
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A Type System for Scripting ECS
cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/1086370
> This time on my arbitrary blog: Entity component systems. > > Also, highlight.js should degrade more gracefully without JS activated than last time. Note that I can't process syntax highlighting in my build step, because I don't have a build step.
EDIT: improved phrasing
- www.gamingonlinux.com Godot Engine has a new funding platform and they're calling for help
With Godot Engine moving over to being supported by the Godot Foundation directly, they've begun pushing for people to support their efforts via their new funding platform inspired by Blender.
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Can you guess what the theme of the level I'm working on it?
Can you guess what the theme of the level I'm working on it?
Wishlist us today and make a dev team happy! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2069260?utm\_source=fediverse @[email protected] @[email protected] #indiegame #games #gaming #WishlistWednesday
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ACOS.games – Middleware platform for ReactJS multiplayer web games
Hi Devs,
I engineered this platform to support building multiplayer games for competitive gamers. Game development uses JavaScript for both client and server, and focuses on Trivia and Board game genres, but all played in real-time.
The platform manages all the functionalities outside of your gameplay and user interface, which includes: networking, matchmaking, rankings, timing, replays, deployment, and many other features.
There is an SDK and Simulator that helps speed up development tremendously, but you as a developer will remain focused on authoring gameplay via the JSON game state and displaying the changes to that state on the browser.
Many hours were spent ensuring the website is supported on most devices, with tough resiliency to ensure users can get back into matches when traveling on degraded cell service. This will allow perhaps having a battle royale with 100s of people playing in a single match of a trivia game. It always bothered me how online trivia games only allowed up to like 8 or 16 players.
I'm about halfway on my roadmap, but the core foundation of the platform is settling in. Now, its time to expand into the more community focused features.
That is where you can help, by pushing the limits of my systems. Break things, enhance things, all is welcome.
The platform behind the website will be open-sourced in the near future, but you can access the ACOS simulator and existing games on GitHub.
Play or develop a game on: https://acos.games
Read the documentation at: https://sdk.acos.games
Learning to code? We can help you build your first game. Simply join us on Discord. https://discord.gg/ydHkCcNgHD
Happy Coding!
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Bevy 0.11: ECS-driven game engine built in Rust
bevyengine.org Bevy 0.11Bevy is a refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open-source forever!
- godotengine.org Godot 4.1 is here, smoother, more reliable, and with plenty of new features
Four months after the release of Godot 4.0, we are excited to bring you Godot 4.1 — an update with a focus on stability, performance, and polish.
- reticulated.net Adventures in AI Programming: Daily Experiments with GPT-4
Discovering the advantages, disadvantages, processes, and use cases for coding with GPT-4 by building something different every day
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Synchronization in Vulkan
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1442017
> An important part of working with Vulkan and other modern explicit rendering APIs is the synchronization of GPU/GPU and CPU/GPU workloads. In this article we will learn about what Vulkan needs us to synchronize and how to achieve it. We will talk about two high-level parts of the synchronization domain that we, as application and library developers, are responsible for: > > - GPU↔GPU synchronization to ensure that certain GPU operations do not occur out of order, > - CPU↔GPU synchronization to ensure that we maintain a certain level of latency and resource usage in our applications. >
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Anyone here use Monogame?
Curious what others think of the monogame framework and what successes you may have had with it.
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Gbstudio
www.gbstudio.dev GB StudioA quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favourite handheld video game system.
A handy tool for developing vn style games for the Gameboy and Gameboy colour.
Great for people starting a game dev journey.
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Gamejam for terminal-based games: LibreJam 2023-06 [x-post]
sopuli.xyz Gamejam for terminal-based games: LibreJam 2023-06 - SopuliThis jam has some special rules: Instead of having a set theme and giving you free reign to use whatever tools you want, the roles are reversed: Your game can have any theme, but it must fit the following criteria: * Runs in a terminal * Only ASCII characters * No more than 72 columns and 20 rows * ...
This jam has some special rules: Instead of having a set theme and giving you free reign to use whatever tools you want, the roles are reversed: Your game can have any theme, but it must fit the following criteria:
- Runs in a terminal
- Only ASCII characters
- No more than 72 columns and 20 rows
- No colours or text formatting
- Source code smaller than 1MiB
You have until July 1st — if you have time to kill, this might be a fun way to use it. :)
- godotengine.org Dev snapshot: Godot 4.1 beta 1
Switching gears into the bug-fixing mode, here's the first beta of Godot 4.1, and a great opportunity to try the new version of the engine ahead of the official release.
I am new to Godot, but I am looking forward to the new multi-monitor features.
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First time coding a game question
I am currently working on a game I was told by one friend to use the language I am most comfortable in. However others have criticised me for not using their preferred language or environment.
Should I switch or keep going?
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Godot Engine 4.0 stable release
github.com Release 4.0-stable · godotengine/godot4 years of development. 12,000 merged pull requests. 7,000 fixed issues. 1,500 individual contributors across engine and docs. The Godot 4.0 release is by all metrics our biggest release so far. No...
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How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation | War Stories | Ars Technica
YouTube Video
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Isometric Pixel art
www.slynyrd.com Pixelblog - 41 - Isometric Pixel art — SLYNYRDIntro Isometric pixel art is based on the isometric projection, which is a method for accurately ‘projecting’ 3D objects into fancy 2D. Unlike perspective drawing, there is no vanishing point in isometric projection. Furthermore, the 3 coordinate axis have equal foreshortening, eliminating the need
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LibreJam 202212
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/602665
> Next LibreJam upcoming! > > Jam Version: 202212 > Theme: TBA > Theme announced at: 2022-12-01 00:00 UTC > Submissions end at: 2022-12-14 23:59 UTC > Ratings end at: 2022-12-21 23:59 UTC > > More info at: https://jamgaroo.xyz/jams/1 > IRC: ircs://leagueh.xyz/#librejam > Webchat: https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient /?settings=ea63ab40970bce06b2aa2a25b6185b2d > > InfoPage also on gemini: gemini://bytecrab.org/librejam/index.gmi ;) > > Theme suggestions welcome!