Issue #208 - Publishing Your Game, And More

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Useful info and insights when publishing your game. Plus a lot more. Enjoy!

Visualizing Equations - If you are a student, a technical artist or a Unity enthusiast, the Visualizing Equations book can be helpful! Elevate your understanding of mathematical equations by creating visualization tools using Unity’s ‘EditorWindow’ class.
jettelly.com

The glEnd of Zelda(): Automatic 3Dification of NES Games - Hi! This is my software for SIGBOVIK 2016, an April 1 conference that usually publishes fake research. And as usual, my contribution is real! This about an emulator that renders NES games in 3D (with some manual steps), and techniques that can automate those manual steps. It's a sidebar to my work on Nintendo AI.
tom7.org

Horror Games 101 (with multiple guests) - It's the first-ever "Nice Games Panel," in which we invite multiple guests on the show to discuss something interesting! Our panelists today include multiple creators who are known for their work on horror games: Schera Wyss, Conner Rush, Henry Hoare, Samuel Guglielmo, and Nick F. We discuss the fundamental nature of horror as a genre (or maybe a theme or an "orientation"), and what devs should consider if they're looking to make horror games that haunt players long after the end credits roll.
nicegames.club

What it's like making games in Unreal Engine for Fortnite as an indie dev - If UEFN is the future for Epic 5.0, what's it like making games for it? Cabbage Systems co-founders Kevin Cancienne and Margaret Robertson have some ideas.
gamedeveloper.com

Async method chaining in C# - TL/DR: We recently had a large amount of fairly procedural logic performing multiple tasks in an API request handler, we wanted a way to split it up, but maintaining a really obvious flow and ease of code navigation.
Andrew Poole

First part of the Shape Keys tutorial! - Learn to create and save your characters expressions, next part is all about rigging them!
Quaternius @quaternius

Steam devs will need SMS verification to release game builds - Developers will have to register a phone number by October 24 if they ever want to update their game or add new users to their Steamworks account.
Justin Carter

One Game, By One Man, On Six Platforms: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - I feel it is beneficial to write down some of my “lessons learned”, hopefully, that will help fellow indie developers choose which platforms to support.
ruoyusun.com

Videos

Steam Visibility: How Games Get Surfaced to Players - This video focuses on how Steam works to connect players with games they are likely to enjoy. Learn about 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. [Also read Killing the myths behind Steam’s visibility from howtomarketagame.com]
Steamworks Development

Gaussian Splatting Is Awesome! - In a graphics paper released at SIGGRAPH 2023 Gaussian Splatting is taking the graphics world by storm. Similar to NeRF, a way of recreating scanned real world objects from video or photo with stunning results, the major difference with Gaussian Splatting is a big deal for game developers... it can work in real-time!
Gamefromscratch

Unity Shader - GPU Instancing | Material Property Block | Tutorial | English Captions - Have you ever wondered how game developers manage to render hundreds of objects such as grass, leaves, bricks, or other massive amounts of objects and still maintain good performance within the game?
Game Slave

Fast Moving Game Objects - NetCode & Extrapolation - When you're building a multiplayer game one of the hardest things to do is to keep players in the correct position and now with unity's latest Network system this isn't as difficult as it used to be
Jason Weimann

The Best Game Development Frameworks - In the world of game development, game engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot tend to take up a lot of the spotlight. For those out there that prefer to work at a bit lower level or want to roll their own game engine built on existing technology, this is the realm of the game framework. Today we look at about 2 dozen of the best (arbitrary statement for sure... most popular might be a better choice) game frameworks available for a variety of programming languages including C#, C/C++, Lua, Haxe, Rust, JavaScript/Typescript and more. …
Gamefromscratch

How to Create a MAP for your game | Unity Tutorial - For this Unity tutorial, I'm going to show you the simplest method I know to create a map for your game. When I was first working on Veil of Maia, I was frustrated by the abundance of MINImap tutorials, but I couldn't seem to find one for an entire map system. So I figured it out and created this system. Since it was originally designed for a metroidvania, I'll show you how to only display a room once you've actually entered that room.
Sasquatch B Studios

Unity ScriptableObject Singleton & Custom Editor Window with UIElements | Global Variables Tutorial - In this in-depth tutorial, we delve into the world of Unity development, focusing on two essential aspects: ScriptableObject-based Singletons and Custom Editor Windows with UIElements. If you're looking to enhance your Unity skills and streamline your project management, this is a must-watch.
Doozy Entertainment

Standing out: How to pitch your game - This is an overview of what you need to consider if you’re pitching your game to funds or publishers. It will give you an idea of how to prepare, what kinds of questions to be ready for, and some tips on how to make your game pitch really shine!
IndieGameBusiness®

Coding Adventure: Simulating Fluids - Let's try to convince a bunch of particles to behave (at least somewhat) like water.
Sebastian Lague

How Games Used to Look: Why Retro Gaming on a CRT Looks WAY Different - In this video we will discuss how pixel art is displayed on a CRT TV. I'm using a Sony Trinitron that is honestly a bit too fancy, but it still has the same underlying tech. Pixels become dots on a CRT... and the dots are not as precise as pixels on an LCD TV or monitor. Check out the video to learn why it's so different. I'll also talk about some good CRT filters you can use to emulate the look on your modern LCD/OLED TVs and monitors.
Tek Syndicate

Gamecity XP Boost: How to Create a Compelling Game Trailer - No game release without video content: trailers may be the single most important asset for advertising a game. But how to get them right?
Gamecity Hamburg

SAMPLING in Video Game Music - A deep-ish dive into how sampling in video game music worked, my most ambitious & researched project yet! Delving into the methods that game composers used to make sound, how they sourced their samples, and how they were implemented from the NES, SNES, etc onwards. This video took many months to create, so I hope you enjoy! Fun fact, I don't actually own any MIDI Modules. Everything I demo'd was either a VST or soundfont version!
ToffeeBun

Assets

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!
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30 for $30 Mega Bundle - 30 for $30 Mega Bundle Build your creative toolkit with this incredible collection of curated assets, and save up to 95%. Including: Aurora FPS Engine, Action-RPG Starter Kit, Dialogue Anims, Surforge, UModeler, Third Person Shooter Bundle and much more!
Unity Affiliate

PSX Style Modular Low-Poly Dungeon - Hello! I know you guys love PSX aesthetics, so here is another PSX style asset pack. Features: 45+ low poly models. Completely textured (512x512) with PSX aesthetics. Free for personal and commercial use. Just credit me, that is all. (CC4.0). Includes FBX and GLTF files.
BlenderVoyage

LayredGlow - Layer-based Glow for Unity
nobnak Open Source

better-joystick - Simple UIToolkit joystick
techno-dwarf-works Open Source

AnimationAuthoring - Controlling AI-driven Quadruped Character in Unity.
pauzii Open Source

MultiSceneTools - Unity Multi Scene Management Tools for faster and easier development
HenrysHouses Open Source

unity-update-manager - Simple to use Update Manager pattern for Unity + Jobified Update for MonoBehaviours and pure C# classes alike.
gilzoide Open Source

BetterStreamingAssets - Better Streaming Assets is a plugin that lets you access Streaming Assets directly in an uniform and thread-safe way, with tiny overhead. Mostly beneficial for Android projects, where the alternatives are to use archaic and hugely inefficient WWW or embed data in Asset Bundles. API is based on Syste.IO.File and System.IO.Directory classes.
gwiazdorrr Open Source

MemorySnapshotAnalyzer - Analysis tooling for memory snapshots of managed code runtimes, specifically, Unity Memory Snapshots.
facebookexperimental Open Source

Unity-Android-Bluetooth-Low-Energy - A Unity Android plugin to support basic Bluetooth Low Energy interactions
Velorexe Open Source

50% off Synty Studios - Publisher Of The Week Sale - Get 50% off Synty Studios assets – now until October 19.. Synty Studios is a leading Unity Asset Store publisher that focuses on stylized art packs for game developers. Their low-poly packages are fun, easy-to-use, and great for beginners to start prototyping. With over 70 art packs, covering themes like City, Fantasy, Sci-fi, and more, you’ll be ready to kick-start your next game – no matter what genre you’re building. PLUS, get POLYGON Battle Royale - Low Poly 3D Art by Synty for FREE with code SYNTY23
Unity Affiliate

Level Up Remix - Software Bundle - Get Fear, Caverns, Soul Trip and more! Get an instant, complete music production suite with this value-packed bundle—featuring a pro-level DAW (digital audio workstation), virtual synths & instruments, SFX, and an epic library of thousands of loops and samples! Record and mix tracks with the powerful, easy-to-use Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio. Recreate sounds of legendary instruments with Mercury-4, Eight Voice Synthesizer, and more. Tap into loops, vocals, one-shots, and MIDI for a huge variety of styles and genres. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional already deep into production, this bundle’s got everything you need. Plus, your purchase helps support Music Will!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Open-Ski-Jumping - Open Ski Jumping is a free and open source ski jumping game.
Jonek2208 Open Source

EntitiesEvents - Provides inter-system messaging functionality to Unity ECS
AnnulusGames Open Source

HonkaiStarRailToonShader - This is a Honkai StarRail ToonLike Shader for unity（for URP)
Gaolingx Open Source

StatefulUI - A library for structured state-based UI development in Unity.
dmitry-ivashenko Open Source

MotionMatching - Motion Matching implementation for Unity
JLPM22 Open Source

Yogurt - Async Managed Component-Oriented framework for Unity
Hoodrij Open Source

unity-rumor - Rumor is a free, open source narrative content framework meant to be integrated into any Unity3D game that needs a dialog system. It is easy to diff, easy to read, and it is very flexible!
exodrifter Open Source

KayKit : Halloween Bits - This pack has a bunch of halloween game assets for adding some spooky vibes to your game, like a creepy cemetery!
kaylousberg.itch.io

Cube World Kit - Create your own cube world with animated characters, animals, enemies and environmental models. In FBX, OBJ, glTF and Blend formats, free to use in personal and commercial projects.
quaternius

Data Visualization book Bundle - Turn raw data into tangible insights. Transform your data into visual models that spark new insights for your project or organization with the help of the experts at Taylor & Francis. The library of 20 ebooks explores multiple facets of data visualization. Learn to tell stories with your data, and uncover graphics techniques to aid in analysis. Explore the world of modern input devices, and derive meaning from your data using R visualizations. Translate your data into more human terms, and help support Direct Relief with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Game Asset Compendium - Cosmic Sagas And Urban Legends Bundle - Creatures, heroes, and locations for your game. Create science-fiction worlds, fantastical adventures, and much more with this vast and varied collection of game assets! This far-reaching library features 2D tile sets for retro-styled role-playing games, character creation kits to help assemble your cast, monsters ready-made to slay, UI elements, music, and more. Gear up to make games from a range of genres, and help support JDRF with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Spotlight

CASTILLO: Shattered Mirrors - Castillo Shattered Mirrors is a Gothic FPS and Collectathon. Battle legions of the undead in your quest to defeat Dracula with an arsenal of mythical weaponry. Enter dimensional gates through Dracula's castle and decide which worlds to enter, shards to collect, and bosses to defeat.

[You can get it now on Steam and follow them on Twitter]
Jackson "TheSmashers" Clayton

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