Issue #253 - The Need For Speed

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

I've got a need, a need for speed. This issue has lots on performance, but also a lot more. Enjoy!

Determinism In League Of Legends: Implementation - Taking the League of Legends game server from a nondeterministic process to its current state required almost a full year of effort from multiple engineers. As a side benefit of this effort, we holistically improved the codebase’s robustness, discoverability, and maintainability.
technology.riotgames.com

How to Create Glass Blocks with Realistic Cracks - Veronika Shirochenkova provided a comprehensive guide on creating the glass blocks material with a fresh and cold feel and realistic cracks. The material was textured in Substance 3D Designer and then rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 4.
80.lv

Launching Your Game Demo: Setting Up for Success - Your demo is one of the biggest marketing beats you can have. This is the first time your game is publicly playable. That’s huge! You owe it to yourself and your game to have a plan beyond “push the big green launch button and make a tweet” to ensure it’s as visible as possible, and as big a deal as possible, to drive engagement and wishlists. Here are some (free!) things you can do to make that happen.
heyitsdora.com

Most gamers prefer single-player games - MIDiA's latest gaming report looks at the growing viability of(re)allocating resources towards single-player games.
midiaresearch.com

Breaking down GTA V's pedestrian dialogue system: An analysis with speculative examples - Grand Theft Auto 5's ambient pedestrian dialogue system makes its game world feel alive, and this article breaks down the basics of how it works.
gamedeveloper.com

Social Media Tips For Junior Trailer Editors - How do you use social media to get work and market yourself when you're a fledgling game trailer maker with little to no professional work, and you want to do everything "correctly" so you don't turn people off?
derek-lieu.com

Budget-Friendly Serialization & Deserialization - Problem is: choosing the wrong serialization & deserialization technology inexperienced devs tell you about will only bring you pain.
thegamedev.guru

A Modern Renaissance: The Rise of Indie Games - Download the Summer 2024 edition of The Xsolla Report to learn what aspects of indie games make them so popular. _[Here's the direct link to the pdf] _
80.lv

Videos

Performance tips & tricks from a Unity consultant | Unite 2024 - In this video, you'll learn proven best practices from Nicolas Borromeo, a highly experienced consultant and author of the Hands-On Unity book. He’ll cover some of the most consequential performance issues he sees regularly and tell you how to avoid or resolve them. You’ll learn about basics like UI and scripting performance as well as advanced areas like memory consumption, Addressables, and URP.
Unity

Using Octrees and A* for Efficient Pathfinding - Octrees in Unity offer an efficient way to optimize large 3D spaces, and in this video, we dive into implementing an Octree and using it in combination with the A* algorithm for pathfinding. We'll show how Octrees help divide space to manage objects and obstacles, making A* pathfinding more efficient in complex 3D environments. You’ll learn how to avoid obstacles, calculate the best routes, and leverage the power of Octrees to improve performance.
git-amend

Game Development Books you MUST READ - I've been reading a lot of Game Development books recently and made this video to share my recommendations. Learning from videos and courses is great, but books can teach you specific expert level knowledge you won't find anywhere else.
Cobra Code

What Makes a Game Feel Mysterious? - What makes a game feel mysterious? And how do we make a player feel like an active participant in solving the mystery? Let's dig in to some amazing games.
Game Maker's Toolkit

Take Control of Unity's Editors for Ultimate Customization - Ever wished you could add extra functionality to Unity's editor?
Warped Imagination

The O3DE Game Engine Takes a MASSIVE Leap Forward - Normally I dread new O3DE releases. It generally means 12-24 hours of me fighting with the build system, the installer and the project to even get a demo up and running. With the release of O3DE 24.09, all of that is a thing of the past. This release is the biggest step forward of this open source AAA game engine, based off Lumberyard and CryEngine before that, and is the closest to being ready for prime time the engine has ever been. …
Gamefromscratch

Better in a browser: Big advances for gaming with Unity Web | Unite 2024 - Recent advances in web technology are a boon for anyone developing browser-based games. Watch this video to learn best practices for setting up web games in Unity 6 – including time-saving and optimization tips – and how to reach browser audiences without being blocked by hardware requirements or mobile marketplaces. Plus, Josh Loveridge from Stratton Studio will give you a sneak peek at the future of web graphics with their latest WebGPU project.
Unity

How to Make UI If You Don’t Know How to Draw - lots of developers feel uncomfortable when it comes to making UI including me
AlexDev

Insanely FAST Spatial Hashing in Unity with Jobs & Burst - Unity's Jobs System and Burst Compiler are powerful tools for optimizing performance in your projects. In this video, we build a dynamic spatial hashing system from scratch, demonstrating how to efficiently partition space and reduce unnecessary calculations. Learn how to set up parallel jobs, manage native memory, and visualize the grid-based spatial hash. This step-by-step guide is perfect for anyone looking to improve performance in their Unity projects.
git-amend

How to Make Games when you SUCK at Coding - In this video, we'll focus on how artists can overcome the hurdles of learning to code for game development. We'll cover game engines and why it doesn't really matter which one you use, rather the key skill is actually learning to think like a programmer.
Sasquatch B Studios

Getting the best performance with UI Toolkit | Unite 2024 - In this video, Unity expert Nicolas Borromeo leads the discussion on topics like the chained draw-calls implementation and the implications of buffer sizes, dynamic atlasing best practices, and dealing with limitations like custom shaders and 3D UI.
Unity

Tapping the Entity Component System for Cities: Skylines II | Unite 2024 - Building on the success of its predecessor, Cities: Skylines II offers an even more immersive and detailed city-building experience. Join Damien Morello from Colossal Order to learn more about the benefits and challenges of using Unity’s Entity Component System (ECS) for game development and enhancing performance.
Unity

Prototype mobile games faster with the Input System in Unity 6 | Unite 2024 - Want to quickly see your mobile game concept come to life? Watch this video to learn how to get moving fast with Unity’s Input System, featuring handy templates and project-wide actions. We’ll show you the recommended workflow for implementing on-screen controls as virtual gamepads and how to add sensor-based input bindings for immersive experiences.
Unity

Assets

Arcade Paradise - Game Dev Treasure Chest Bundle - Amazing assets for your unique projects.

Dive into the ultimate game development experience with the Arcade Paradise: Game Dev Treasure Chest! This all-in-one bundle is perfect for both aspiring and seasoned developers, featuring the acclaimed game Arcade Paradise alongside an impressive collection of top assets from Unity Asset Store. Whether you're crafting stunning 3D environments, dynamic characters, or immersive gameplay mechanics, this bundle equips you with everything you need to bring your creative visions to life.

Get the bundle and help support Girls Who Code with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

TinyTween.cs - A Complete and Easy to use Tweens library in One File.
FronkonGames Open Source

ImmediateStyle - Allows you to interact with Unity UI GameObjects in an immediate Style and fashion
hopeforsenegal Open Source

50% off Off Axis Studios - Publisher Sale - Off Axis Studios has been making thousands of low poly stylized art assets since 2015. They also create editor and code utilities that help developers prototype and ship their titles faster, with style. PLUS get Low Poly Prototype Pack - Polyworks for FREE with code OFFAXISSTUDIOS
Unity Affiliate

The Best Of Synty Game Dev Assets #3 Bundle - Picture perfect polygon packs. Game developers—we're here to help you build vibrant polygon worlds with the Synty Studios Polygon Bundle, featuring 20+ asset packs. Bring your creativity to life with modular fantasy hero characters, tropical jungle biomes, pirate packs, dungeon packs, and more! Get the assets you need to bring your polygon-based game projects to life, and support Safe In Our World with your purchase.
Humble Bundle Affiliate

rhythm-game-utilities - A collection of utilities for creating rhythm games.
neogeek Open Source

Lattice Modifier for Unity - Adds a Lattice Modifier to Unity, allowing you to deform both static and skinned objects to create otherwise advanced animations with ease.
Harry Heath Affiliate

ShaderGraphVariables - Adds 'Register Variable' and 'Get Variable' nodes to Shader Graph, allowing you to link sections of a graph without connection wires.
Cyanilux Open Source

Unity-SDF-UI-Toolkit - UI components for Unity that render shapes with outlines, shadows and rounded corners using signed distance functions (SDF). And an SDF texture editor that allows users to edit Bezier curves and convert them to SDF textures within the Unity editor.
TLabAltoh Open Source

TLabWebView - Plug-in to use Android WebView as uGUI (Texture2D)
TLabAltoh Open Source

Unity-DiscordWebhook - Send messages and files to Discord channels using webhooks. It provides a simple API for sending text messages, capturing and attaching screenshots, and even compressing and attaching log files for bug reports.
qwe321qwe321qwe321 Open Source

Dissonity - Open source project that makes it easy to interact with the Discord Embedded App SDK using Unity
Furnyr Open Source

YNL-Simple-AI-System - Implement basic AI behaviors effortlessly using this straightforward toolkit. It’s designed to handle object behaviors and interactions.
Yunasawa-Studio Open Source

EasyTab - Just install and get the navigation functionality by pressing the Tab key in Unity game
dav-sea Open Source

BetterStreamingAssets - A plugin for Unity that lets you access Streaming Assets directly on Android.
gwiazdorrr Open Source

SpriteSlicer - Tool to export Unity sprite sheet slices as individual images
fadookie Open Source

Constellation-Plexus - Simple, beautiful ribbons VFX for Unity (URP).
MirzaBeig Open Source

UniGame.UniBuild - Command based scriptable build pipeline for Unity 3D
UnioGame Open Source

AltTester-Unity-SDK - AltTester Unity SDK is an open-source UI driven test automation tool that helps you find objects in your game and interacts with them using tests written in C#, Python, Robot or Java.
alttester Open Source

BetterPhysics - BetterPhysics improves the functionality of Rigidbody Physics in Unity. Bring complex physics systems to life quickly without messing around with complicated physics code.
SadnessMonday Open Source

HelixSoundPhysics - Simple approximated dynamic sound physics (occlusion and reverb) for Unity.
Helix128 Open Source

CraUnity - A cheap and simple runtime Animator for skeletal meshes in Unity.
Ben1138 Open Source

LLMUnity - LLM for Unity enables seamless integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) within the Unity engine. It allows to create intelligent characters that your players can interact with for an immersive experience. Runs locally without internet access. No data ever leaves the game!
undreamai Open Source

UnityExtensions - Some C# Extension functions for common Unity problems.
Faulo Open Source

Unity-URP-Volumetric-Light - Unity package for versions 2022.3 and Unity 6. Adds support to render volumetric lighting for both the main and additional lights in URP. Compatible with URP render graph in Unity 6.
CristianQiu Open Source

UIMaterialPropertyInjector - This package provides a component that allows easy modification/animation of material properties for Unity UI (uGUI) without the need for shader-specific custom components.
mob-sakai Open Source

QuickBin - A C#/Unity tool for quickly and easily serializing to and deserializing from binary.
abledbody Open Source

ConfederateAI - 3D logic based AI for Unity. Unity Navmesh compatible. No Plug-ins required. Player and AI detection. Random waypoints, set waypoints, and path system. Ragdoll + animated deaths. Melee Combat system. Companion system. Spawning system.
CursedPrograms Open Source

tools-motion-kit - MotionKit is a Unity engine tool that animates anything. It is very similar to DOTween, but with inspector super powers and a few tweaks that makes it simpler to use and learn.
cocodrilodog Open Source

unity-project-template - This repo represents the ideal starting point for new OOP Unity projects. It includes best practices for project structure and C# coding standards.
SamuelAsherRivello Open Source

ViewFinder - Real-Time World Cutting in Unity : recreating an inspiring Game Mechanic | Created with Unity 2022.3.31f1
ToughNutToCrack Open Source

Audio Alchemy - A Premium Collection Of Sound FX, Music, And Game Engine Plugins From Ovani Sound - Audio alchemy with no strings attached. Create the perfect audioscape for your next game or creative project with the Audio Alchemy Bundle of subscription-free sounds from Ovani Sound. Highlights from this extensive library of commercial-ready assets include the Melodic Mayhem Bundle, Animals Sound FX Pack, Short Phrases Voice Over Pack, Epic Music Pack Vol. 2, and more! Explore a variety of genres, from lo-fi to classical and everything in between. Get the assets you need to achieve the sound you’re looking for, and support Children's Miracle Network Hospitals with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Spotlight

Powerplay - Powerplay is an RTS with a focus on resources and industry. Create supply chains, transport, and explore in this thrilling base builder. Grow into a powerful industrial nation, but don't spread too thin! Resources are finite and "the others" can reclaim what is theirs at any time.

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

My game, Call Of Dookie. Demo available on Steam

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