Issue #209 - Retro, Multiplayer, and more

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Retro discussions, multiplayer tools and tips, plus a lot more. Enjoy!

The Best Darn Grid Shader (Yet) - For as long as I’ve been writing shaders, there’s been one specific shader I’ve always tried to write. And I’ve always failed at it for reason I could never fully understand. I’d wait a few years and try again with my new level of knowledge, get closer, and fail again. That goal? To make a grid shader that mimics, but looks better than, a texture based grid.
Ben Golus

Custom SRP 2.2.0 Camera Textures - In the previous tutorial we used renderer lists to draw geometry, which allowed the render graph to cull passes that had nothing to draw. This time we will do something similar with render textures. We will rely on the render graph to provide and manage texture handles for us, instead of explicitly allocating render textures ourselves. This allows the graph to reuse texture memory when possible and potentially cull more passes.
catlikecoding.com

What Does It Take To Get In The Discovery Queue? - I surveyed a bunch of developers who had been featured in the Discovery Queue to see what metrics they needed to hit to be featured.
howtomarketagame.com

Two Stop Bits - Two Stop Bits is a discussion web site about retro computing and gaming.
twostopbits.com

George Broussard interview - If you’re exclusively an adventure gaming diehard, the name might not immediately strike a chord. But for fans of 90s action games, George Broussard is a living legend. Among his many notable career accomplishments, he’s the co-founder of Apogee Software and its subsidiary 3D Realms, a key player in the shareware movement, and perhaps most famously, the co-creator/designer of the iconic Duke Nukem series.
adventuregamehotspot.com

Videos

Navigation in a Procedurally Generated World | Unity NavMesh Surface and NavMesh Agent Explained - In this tutorial we're going to look at how we can use NavMesh pathfinding on a procedurally generated level. Using a randomly generated maze, we’ll have an agent be able to find the quickest route from one end to the other.
Ketra Games

Just How Smart Are the AI Characters in Inworld's 'Origins'? - Earlier this year, the AI company Inworld released their tech-demo 'Origins': a detective game built in Unreal Engine in which you try to solve a mystery by speaking directly with your suspects.
AI and Games

How to create a Squash and Stretch effect in Unity with code (2D, 3D, UI) - Adding some squash and stretch to your GameObjects can really make them come alive. All you need is a bit of code in Unity! Let's learn how!
Christina Creates Games

P2P or Dedicated Servers? What's the best for your unity game? - Which type should you use for your unity game and why? There's actually an answer for everyone, depending on your game type, so watch and let me know what you think :)
Jason Weimann

Creating Rope Objects with Physics | Unity Tutorial - This is a really fun Unity tutorial where we'll create swinging rope objects using 2 different methods: 1) - chaining multiple sprites together 2) - breaking one sprite into multiple peices using bones
Sasquatch B Studios

Create more with splines | Unity 2022 splines - Quick basics of how to use the new official Unity 2022 Splines packages.
Octodemy

How Indie Games Texture EVERYTHING - Today we are looking at Pixel Art and why this one art style has started to appear in almost every game!
Smeaf

Blender Geometry Node Tools Are Awesome! - Added in Blender 4 beta, Geometry Nodes Tools could be a game changer for Blender users. They enable you to make editing tools, for both meshes and curves, using visual programming in the form of Geometry Nodes. In this video we show you how to create a new tool using Geometry Nodes, then how to share it using the Asset Library.
Gamefromscratch

Assets

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

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

Computational-geometry - Computational Geometry Unity library with implementations of intersection algorithms, triangulations like delaunay, voronoi diagrams, polygon clipping, bezier curves, ear clipping, convex hulls, mesh simplification, etc
Habrador Open Source

facticus-deploy - Deploy is a Unity package that allows you to build your game for multiple platforms and deploy them to various stores, remotely (rather than on your workstation) and with a single click inside Unity. It uses GitHub Actions and GameCI under the hood to run the builds on GitHub servers.
mnicolas94 Open Source

SpacetimeDB - You can think of SpacetimeDB as both a database and server combined into one. It is a relational database system that lets you upload your application logic directly into the database by way of fancy stored procedures called "modules."
clockworklabs Open Source

Ica_Normal_Tools - A Super Fast Normal and Tangent recalculation library for Unity. With power of Burst Compiler, Job System and Advanced Mesh API.
burak-efe Open Source

Unity.Package.FigmaToUnity - Unity plugin for importing entire Figma pages into Unity UI Toolkit files.
TrackMan Open Source

UIEEx - UIEEx(UIElement Extension) is an extension library of Unity UI Elements package. UIEEx improve the workflow of creating editor & runtime UI with UI Elements.
blightue Open Source

SplatVFX - SplatVFX is an experimental implementation of 3D Gaussian Splatting with Unity VFX Graph.
keijiro Open Source

Unity-async-await-tcp - This is an async/await tcp communication (client and server inside) in unity.simple yet powerful！
Bian-Sh Open Source

better-attributes - This package provides following features: Select Dropdown, Select Attribute, Dropdown Attribute, Preview, Readonly Field, Icon Header, Draw Inspector, Rename Field, Gizmo, Editor Buttons
techno-dwarf-works Open Source

KNOT-Localization - Lightweight, scalable and extensible texts & assets localization system for Unity.
V0odo0 Open Source

SqlCipher4Unity3D - SqlCipher made easy for Unity3d
netpyoung Open Source

Obfuskeer - A Unity obfuscator tool made with Mono.Cecil
ZeynelKoca Open Source

Unity3DPortals - A seamless portal implementation inspired by Valve's Portal and Demruth's Antichamber
codand Open Source

Raymarching-Engine-Unity - A raymarching engine for Unity that supports 25+ primitives and various operations.
aniketrajnish Open Source

lazy-sprite-extractor - The Sprite Extractor Tool allows you to extract individual sprites from a larger sprite sheet.
Lazy-Jedi Open Source

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

Rising Spire - Rising Spire is a turn based RPG inspired by the classics. Play as Atlas, a young Nephilim whose world is on the brink of destruction at the hand of Divinity itself. Explore, forge deep relationships and hone your powers in this immersive coming-of-age story.

[You can get it in Early Access on Steam and follow them on Twitter]
LFB Studios

You can subscribe to the free weekly newsletter on GameDevDigest.com

This post includes affiliate links; I may receive compensation if you purchase products or services from the different links provided in this article.