Issue #206 - Let's Make More Games

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

A look back at game dev back in the day. Plus some great stuff on getting your game noticed, and actually making the games! Enjoy!

The Missing Middle In Game Development - There was no Unity, Gamemaker, Godot, or Unreal so if you wanted to make a game you had to have a full-time person (in their case John Carmack) crafting your game engine from scratch (usually in C or machine code) every time. There was no widely accessible internet or cloud-based source-control or storage so you couldn’t work remotely. Yet, despite all the limitations of the 1990s, the guys at id Software could make 13 games in 1 year. How is it that we have better tools which should make us more productive, and better communications that should increase collaboration, and digital distribution which has, essentially, 0 marginal cost, and yet games take longer to make? [Also read John Romero On His Book Doom Guy And Developing Games At A Small Scale]
howtomarketagame.com

Guide To Game Jams - I wanted to create a guide for game jams specifically aimed at those interested in pursuing a career in game audio. Whether you've never heard of a game jam before or you're simply starting out and feel a bit lost? This guide is here to help you navigate game jams, learn more and get the best experience you can out of them!
virginia-leo.com

40 years and I'm still here - Looking back at a long and fortunate career in game development.
Warren Spector

Enemy Design in Death of a Wish - Next to what the player character is capable of, enemy design is the most important feature for defining the combat of a character action game.
Kevin Wong

Maze 2.1.0 - In this tutorial we'll add occlusion culling to the maze, so that we can avoid rendering cells that are not visible. This is beneficial besides frustum culling and depth sorting because it reduces the amount of draw calls and the amount of geometry that needs to be depth-tested. It will also allow us to disable shadow-casting lights that are fully occluded.
catlikecoding.com

Omnidirectional Squash & Stretch Now in 3D - The basic idea remains the same: use numeric springs to track speed and movement direction. A stretch factor is computed via clamped interpolation from the tracked speed. Scale the object in the movement direction by the stretch factor, and scale the off axes by 1 / sqrt(stretch) for volume preservation (note it's no longer 1 / stretch because it's now in 3D instead of 2D).
Allen_Chou

Videos

Matte Painting in Games - Remedy Entertainment's Patrik Rosander helps make matte painting for games accessible and broaden use. It's a simple and powerful technique that is underutilized in game development, mainly because it is inaccessible. In this GDC 2023 session, gain a thorough understanding of the possibilities afforded through the use of matte painting.
GDC

What Makes Jack Baker and Lady Dimitrescu so Terrifying? - Resident Evil Biohazard and Village transform the Resident Evil franchise into first-person horror, but what makes it all so compelling? Let's find out.
AI and Games

C# Generics - Write Clean And Reusable Code - Generics in C# allow you to not specify the data type of input or output values directly. They can be used with classes, methods, interfaces, and delegates. Using Generics, you will be able to write clean and reusable code, so you should definitely know about them!
Freedom Coding

C# Adapter Pattern Explained: Easy-to-Follow Tutorial for Beginners - Are you new to C# and looking to understand design patterns? Look no further! In this beginner-friendly tutorial, we dive deep into the Adapter Design Pattern in C#.
campbelltech

What IS it About These Games? - Hollow Knight, Celeste & Stardew Valley, have all sold well over a million copies each and hold a special place in the hearts of gamers worldwide. But what truly sets these games apart? Contrary to common advice that games need a unique hook, these titles don't rely on groundbreaking gaming mechanics. Whether you're a gamer or a game developer, this video is for you.
Sasquatch B Studios

How To Make The Press Pay Attention To Your Game - With almost a decade in games journalism AND game development, I can tell you exactly what the press are looking for, and give insights into how indie game coverage works. There are no magic, one-size-fits-all solutions to the problem of how to get coverage for your small game, but you can increase your chances of coverage significantly if you play your cards right.
IndieGameBusiness®

Assets

The Best Of Synty Game Dev Assets Remix - Incredible 3D game art by Synty

Prepare to embark on a game development journey like no other with this bundle from Synty Studios, a leading asset publisher creating 3D low poly art game development assets for Unity and Unreal. Synty creates asset packs that share cohesive art styles, allowing you to mix and match modular 3D models to create the game of your dreams. Their packs also come compete with demo scenes to help get you started. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned developer, this bundle can help elevate your projects and bring your game to life—and you’ll help support Girls Who Code, too!

Bonus! Get $10 off Synty assets at SyntyStore.com, where you’ll find dozens of asset packs with similar visual styles to add even more variety to your library. Coupon expires October 31, 2024.
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Capture, Edit, Create! Video & Gameplay Tools Software Bundle - A content creator’s workshop. Bring your ideas for videos, gaming streams, and other creative content to life with this bundle of software from Movavi! Make movies with filters, transitions, and style using the powerful Movavi Video Editor Plus 2022, plus 9 sets of effects. Capture your best gameplay moments and share them with the world using the lightweight Gecata game recording software. Take your photo editing to the next level with the AI-powered Picverse. Bring your creative vision to life, and help support Oceana with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

UnityBoneVisualizer - Visualize your character's bone.
Shaun-Fong Open Source

unity-code-executor - A front-end interface where you can create, edit, save and dynamically execute code snippets.
ichenpipi Open Source

UnityBuildRunner - This tool enable you stdout Unity Build log on windows, and control Timeout.
guitarrapc Open Source

GameObject-Brush - A simple and completely free editor extension for the Unity game engine. It allows you to paint prefabs and gameobjects. This small extension to the Unity Editor allows you to paint gameobjets/prefabs onto other gameobjects and terrain. It has a variety of features that allow you to easily control the brush.
Kellojo Open Source

entity-to-playerprefs - Plugin for Unity game engine. It helps to store entities in PlayerPrefs.
nubick Open Source

rmc-mini-mvcs - Unity Mini MVCS (Model-View-Controller-Service) Architecture. This has NO dependency on MonoBehaviours.
SamuelAsherRivello Open Source

ZeroAllocJobScheduler - A high-performance alloc free c# Jobscheduler. Schedules and executes jobs on a set of worker threads with automatic pooling of internal handles.
genaray Open Source

ParallaxerSystemForUnity - A parallax system created to speed up parallax effects implementation in Unity projects.
PixelRubro Open Source

UnityAssetManagementTools - Small collection of tools for Unity used to manage your assets. Part of the DevLocker project.
NibbleByte Open Source

LutLight2D - Stylized pixel art lighting shader for Unity2D using a color replacement technique. It keeps the original colors of the palette and can create unusual stylization effects.
NullTale Open Source

asset-relations-viewer - Plugin to display dependencies between assets, files, assetgroups, etc. in a tree based view within the Unity editor.
innogames Open Source

Labyrinth - Network Library For Unity. Allows for networked level streaming. Dedicated Server or Clients (Not at the same time).
maelishere Open Source

util - BURST compatible collections, math and utility functions
bassmit Open Source

LineRenderer2D - Scripts for rendering pixel-perfect GPU-calculated lines in 2D (Unity URP 2D Renderer). It allows: Single line or multiline (different script). Dotted line. Usage of any material, lines can be affected by 2D lights. The single line allows the usage of different colors for both endpoints. Any thickness. Local or world space points.
QThund Open Source

Goap - A multi-threaded GOAP (Goal Oriented Action Planning) system for Unity.
crashkonijn Open Source

MonoCache - MonoCache is a Fast Update Optimization-Caching Framework for Unity by Night Train Code
MeeXaSiK Open Source

AudioFX Plugins & Royalty Free Sounds Mega Bundle - Take your sound to the next level. Create music, craft SFX, and make your sound even more spectacular with this awesome audio bundle! This eclectic collection features plug-ins like Obsidian and Outlaw designed to make it easy to transform your sound with spectral delay, reverb, gain leveling, and more. You’ll also get a library of dozens of royalty-free sound packs, including music samples and loops for K-pop, hip-hop, synthwave, or EDM styles. Get the sound you’re seeking, and help support Child’s Play with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Audio Odyssey Software Bundle - A universe of royalty-free audio
Get all the audio you’ll ever need for your games, films, and other creative projects with this jam-packed bundle of royalty-free music and sound FX! Regardless of the vibe you’re trying to weave, you’ll be covered when it comes to music, with dedicated packs that span themes and genres—from fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, to ambient, classical, and chiptunes. Get ready to paint soundscapes with sound FX including creature sounds, combat clanks, futuristic beeps and chirps, and much more.
Embark on an audio odyssey, and help support American Cancer Society with your purchase.
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Game Programming C++ & Unreal Book Bundle - Crack the code to game development. Learn the secrets of scripting and best practices for programming with this bundle of books from Packt! This game developers’ library focuses on C++ and its coding applications in Unreal Engine and Blueprints visual scripting. Level up your skills through hands-on game dev projects, explore creating characters and animation, and much more, and help support Room to Read with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Spotlight

Doggy Don't Care - Unleash adorable chaos as a mischievous pup! Explore, collect, and smash your way around the house & beyond in this cheeky adventure. Fetch the approval of your feathered friend, Rocko the Parrot, by digging into a list of fun-filled tasks. It's sure to be a pawsitively unforgettable day!

[Download the demo on Steam]
Rohan Nowell

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