Issue #188 - The Creative Journey

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Get some inspiration for creativity even when you are in a slow period. Enjoy!

Escaping creative downturns - If I'm stuck in a creative downturn, there's usually only one remedy: keep going. That is, accept the downturn, but continue to stare at the computer, waiting for it to pass.
David Heinemeir Hansson

60 Game Marketing Mistakes And How To Avoid Them - Almost 5 years ago I released my book Email Marketing for Video Games as a lead magnet to join my mailing list. I thought it was time for a refresh: so I wrote a new book: 60 Game Marketing Mistakes And How To Avoid Them.
Return To Adventure Mountain

Game Development Resources for Intermediate Developers - Hi. I'm trying to compile a comprehensive list of youtubers/blogs/courses etc in game developement. Please help me populate this list, or guide me towards other lists. Thanks!
reddit.com

The MOST DETAILED database of indiegame publishers (PC/Console ONLY) - I have now created a database of all the publishers that I approached for my game. I have tidied up the data and have added more details. I thought this would be useful for fellow devs who plan to go to publishers in the future. This would essentially save you hours and days, as I have consolidated all the relevant info and links.
Seyed

A conversation with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s creative leads - By Charles Pulliam-Moore, a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
theverge.com

Anchors aweigh: The creative journey of designing a game to float everyone's boat - In this guest post (some of which first appeared on Discord), the Fika Productions art and animation team details the artistic journey toward developing its seafaring roguelite title, Ship of Fools. The team uses the Unity Editor 2D tools, Universal Render Pipeline (URP), Cinemachine, Netcode for GameObjects, and more to bring this 2D, coop game to life. First up, Ariane Petitclerc, 2D artist and co-art director, shares how the team approached boat design (and game design, in general).
Unity

Compute Shaders in Unity: GPU Computing, First Compute Shader - In this blog series, we'll go on a journey to discover what compute shaders are, create your own ones and explore their use in a variety of applications. We'll dive not only into the technical details, but also provide examples and real-world use cases to help you see the potential of this exciting technology. All the relevant results will be generated in Unity to demonstrate the concepts.
Danil Goshko

Videos

Unity VFX Graph - Arrow Projectile (Ashe Ultimate) - Tutorial - Today we have an Arrow Projectile inspired on Ashe Ultimate from League of Legends!
Gabriel Aguiar Prod.

Simple DASH Mechanic in Unity - You can setup a player dash in like 7 lines of code. It's super easy.
BMo

How to Track your Path (like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Unity Tutorial) - Here's a fun simple system to keep track of where your player has been, very much like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and I'm guessing also in the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom. It just requires tracking a List of positions where the player (or any object) has been, then combine it with a simple Minimap camera and render it either with a Mesh or a LineRenderer.
Code Monkey

8 Common Problems with Level Layouts / Blockouts - Somehow I've been making level design videos for over two years now and have yet to make a video on level layout and how to improve your layouts so here's a checklist of eight of the most common problems that I see in level layouts and blockouts that need more work
Steve Lee (Level and Game Design)

Configuring Unity Gaming Services directly through the Unity Editor | Unity at GDC 2023 - In this session, you will learn how to make real-time configuration changes to your game, efficiently and securely, directly from the Unity Editor, using our authoring tools for Unity Gaming Services (UGS). Beyond the Unity Editor, you can integrate with your CI/CD pipeline to automate and manage UGS services simultaneously.
Unity

Grid Placement System in Unity P1 - Calculating Grid Position - In this Unity tutorial start creating a Grid Placement System. We will use Grid component to calculate a cell position for our mouse pointer position. Next we will expend the system with a custom grid shader and an object placement and removal system. At the end of this tutorial you will have a grid placement system that you can use in your own project.
Sunny Valley Studio

5 Amazing Indie Games (and Developer Tips) from the Ask Gamedev Community! - Earlier this year we reached out to the Ask Gamedev community to send us elevator pitches! There were countless amazing submissions - thank you again to all the devs who shared their games! In this video we're taking a closer look at the top 5 games as voted on by community!
Ask Gamedev

Assets

Unity Spring Sale - This is the perfect opportunity for users to get the assets and tools on their wishlist to take their work to the next level. More than 500 of our most popular assets will be available at 50% off for the duration of the sale and we will also have a series of Flash Deals on select assets at up to 70% off for a limited time.

Some highlights of the assets on sale: Magica Cloth 2, A* Pathfinding Project Pro, Mesh Baker, TopDown Engine, UMotion Pro Animation Editor, Text Animator For Unity, Rayfire For Unity, plus a lot more.

Plus, don't forget the Flash Deals update daily, with new assets going on sale for 70% off!
Unity Affiliate

Doomsday Creation Kit Bundle - Assets for the End Times. Craft your own video game apocalypse with the Doomsday Creation Kit! This collection of visual and sound assets features tilesets to construct wastelands, packs of pieces to create characters, music and SFX to score the end of the world, UI elements and icons, and more. Plus, your purchase helps support JDRF!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

DotRecast - C# Recast & Detour is a navigation mesh toolkit for games, Unity3D and servers. Recast is state of the art navigation mesh construction toolset for games.
ikpil Open Source

Anjin - This is an autopilot tool for games made with Unity. It consists of the following two elements
DeNA Open Source

Toon Render Pipeline (Unity SRP) - A Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) designed specifically for toon/stylized visuals.
Delt06 Open Source

Darktide 40K in Unity - Full Body FPS Controller - A completely Open-Source, Full Body FPS Controller for Unity. Build upon it however you like!
TCKingCeryn Open Source

Unity volumetric black hole - Compute shader approach for rendering a volumetric black hole
MangoButtermilch Open Source

Vertx.Debugging - Fast editor debugging and gizmo utilities for Unity. Uses instanced rendering to draw shapes efficiently.
vertxxyz Open Source

JCSUnity - JCSUnity is a component driven framework built to allow the user to quickly generate commonly used game mechanics and features such as UI functionality and player movement. This will allow for a faster initial development. Most components work individually while other components must be used in tandem with others. Individually components can be combined to create new behaviors.
jcs090218 Open Source

Unity Material Timeline - This is a Unity Timeline extension to animate and blend material properties.
D4KU Open Source

I've made a Sushi Restaurant Kit with 100+ models you can use in any project for free! - 100+ models with everything you need to make your own cooking game! With food ingredients and dishes, animated characters with 30 animations, and modular interior models.
QuaterniusDev

Step - A simple text planner for use in Unity games
A simple text planner for use in Unity games Open Source

Computer Graphics And Data Imaging Book Bundle - Graphics for programmers & engineers. Explore the world of graphics and data imaging technology with this library for CRC Press. Learn how to program for 3D games, and discover techniques for modern image processing. Understand the theory and practice behind illumination and shaders, and dig into how stunning renders are made in tools like 3D Max. Whether you’re interested in the fundamentals or advanced topics, this bundle will help you take your skills to the next level. Plus, your purchase helps support First Book!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Eldamar Studio Ultimate Unity Assets Bundle - Amazing assets for Unity game devs. Turn your creative vision into gaming reality with the help of these assets from Eldamar Studio! Curated for Unity developers, this bundle features stylish low-poly environments, high-quality materials packs, visual effects, ready-to-go weapons, and lots more for a wide range of genres and styles. Get a versatile game creators’ variety pack, and help support Save the Children with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Spotlight

Tiny Atolls - TINY ATOLLS is a minimalist building strategy game Build bridges across colorful islands, unlock new tiles and complete quests to expand your world!

[You can wishlist it on Steam, and follow them on Twitter]
MONKE

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