No coding experience required! 

We are researching game development, and we are looking for participants to evaluate a new graphical game development tool for 2D tile-based games. If you choose to participate, we will ask you to perform tasks using the tool, followed by an interview on your experience. We expect this to take no more than 90 minutes of your time, and there is minimal risk involved. You will be compensated with a $20 Amazon gift card for your time. 

Book a time here:  

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DYBbVpfw8VupPCMPkCqjNxfTLhGFTH49V75HD2DwwVk 

This research has been approved by the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board (Number 24-10-20). 

I am always taken back to Half-Life. The game had roaches on some of the levels, minuscule things of like 3 polygon tops, they crawl around on the floor, you step on them and they go "crunch", and that's all they do. Purely an inconsequential level decoration.

While any lesser gamedev would've just made them wander randomly in a Brownian motion and called that a day, Valve decided to give these roaches a whole-ass AI system that made them avoid lit areas and be attracted to corpses of the NPCs. And that's just one example, the game's full of little systems like that that are downright invisible. One type of enemy navigates via a sense of smell in addition to the usual LOS and hearing checks.

And then, of course, ATM there are people on Twitter having their minds blown by the fact that if you leave your buggy in HL2 for some time, seagulls start shitting on it.

I think I vibe with that approach to gamedev, and strive for it. No detail is too small, everything deserves depth and can influence how the game feels.

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a progress bar using Unreal Engine 5, and I’m running into some trouble linking a Dynamic Material Instance to a SetPercent function. Here’s a quick breakdown of what I’m trying to achieve: 1. I have a circular progress bar using a material with a scalar parameter named Percent. 2. The material instance is assigned dynamically using CreateDynamicMaterialInstance, and I want to update the progress in real-time through the SetPercent function. 3. I’m not sure if I’m correctly binding the Percent value to the material or if my logic in the blueprint is sound.

Here are the key steps I’m taking in my blueprint: • I check if the material instance is valid using an Is Valid node. • If not valid, I create a new Dynamic Material Instance from the ProgressBar_1_Inst material. • The Percent parameter is updated with a value passed into the function, clamping it between 0 and 1. • I also ensure the material is applied back to the progress bar widget using the Set Brush from Material node.

Hello people, recently I replayed Half Life 2 and it reminded me how immersed I feel when moving around in the Source engine, HL Portal, CS, gmod, etc. I can't really pinpoint why, I want to know if it's just nostalgia that clouds my judgment or if it's a more objective distinction.

When movement in a game isn't necessarily "human-like" but very responsive I tend to label it "Source-like". Minecraft would also fit this description. Snappy, translating your input almost instantly to your character’s actions.

It may be the movement, but it can also relate to movement in a very "true" or "geometric" environment, in both Source games and Minecraft, if you see something it is either static, or free moving but physics-abiding(HL walls vs props, and Minecraft blocks vs dropped items f.e.) Predictability of interactions may play a part.

The opposite of "Source-like" to me would be a game like RedDead2. Inputs feel like a suggestion to your Arthur, he does it, but he "lives" towards them with natural animations, making the world feel more lifelike. While this adds immersion in one sense, it also creates a bit of distance between you and the character. In a "Source-like" game, your inputs feel direct and immediate, more like you "are" (an unrealistic) character, rather than you are "controlling" (a realistic) character.

So, is this immersive quality about the movement alone, the environment, or a combination of factors? Have you noticed this, or is it just me? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Hi, has anyone use Hiro before? Do you need to pay the $600 per month just to have access to it even when the project is still developing?

Hey all, I'm making game that I'd like to be as much of a sandbox as possible, and I take opportunity whenever I can to put power and choice into the players hands. But there are some quirks to my game that separate it from others in the same genre. More and more I find myself expanding the beginning of the game into a tutorial state with pop-ups and simple directions forcing players to see some of the different systems in the game. I believe all of them are necessary, and the tutorial is both fairly brief (just a few minutes) and somewhat optional. At the same time I feel any amount of tell don't show is bad and harms the overall experience.

What are your thoughts on this? How expansive is your own games tutorial?

I see posts every now and then talking about how players complain about Unreal Engine games running badly on their hardware with stuttering and graphical issues. I've personally been playing a lot of indie titles the last couple of years, and if I play AAA games, they are often games built with in-house engines. The only UE games I've played recently are Hellblade 2, Jedi Survivor, and Lego Horizon Adventures. I saved the horizon game for last, because I experienced intense blurring over moving game characters even after turning off motion blur (There is no option to disable TAA). I had the same/similar issue with Hellblade 2. With Jedi Survivor, I didn't play the game (I got it for my sibling) so I only run benchmarks and configured system settings, but never actually sat to play the game.

I've been getting youtube recommendations from a channel called Threat Interactive, and it is basically a game studio that appears to also use UE, but they release videos focusing on how UE games approach optimisations. Their analysis made in the videos seem very interesting, especially with how every UE update makes traditional optimisation techniques, especially for static environments, increase performance costs instead of decreasing it. It seems the main pain hammered in their videos is UE's rendering techniques, and over-reliance on "flawed" TAA that looks very bad in gameplay. Other points mentioned is how UE's lumen, and other new tech aren't optimised to handle polygon counts below a certain threshold (if I'm remembering correctly)

Now, I do not use UE in my projects, but in their video analysis on Jedi Survivor, they provided code that is meant to fix the "flawed" TAA implementation in the game, and when I applied it, I did see a visual improvement on the hair, and edges of models without any performance hit. This is the only case I have experienced from their videos

So now I want to ask devs who work with UE. Have you seen the videos? Are they right in their analysis? If so, does it fall on game devs, or Epic to ensure UE games run better and look cleaner?

For context, i am 99 percent sure i have undiagnosed ADHD and am trying to purse a diagnoses.

For a long tim, i've been super intrested in game dev. I love watching videos about it. Learning the stories behind them and how the industry works. Recently i've been trying to learn how to make games myself through courses and online material. However i keep finding my self losing intrest and drifting off with them, despite wanting to learn, it feels like my brain just doesn't want to pay attention and actually pick up anything. So i was wondering if getting a tutor would work out. I got one to help out with voice training and that has done wonders for me and i feel like im making actual progress with it. So i was hoping if there is one for game dev and if it would be a good idea to go with one.

Hi everyone,
I’m working on a project that involves creating an adventure map inspired by this image. I’ve been told that creating such a map is way too difficult, and I’d love to get some feedback from this community.

Here’s what I’m aiming for:

• A map with key elements: landmarks, resource nodes, castles, forests, and pathways.
• A style similar to a classic isometric RPG map.

From my perspective, I feel like the hardest part is creating the assets (e.g., terrain, trees, buildings), but once those are ready, the rest should primarily be layout and design. I’ve been told this is very difficult, so I’m trying to gauge the reality of it.

Asset List for Adventure Map (added based on comments )

Art Direction Options

• 3D/2.5D Style: Flexible, allowing for dynamic lighting, rotation, and perspective.
• Top-Down 2D Tilemaps: Simplified, grid-based design with hand-drawn

Asset Categories

1. Terrain Tiles

• Road: Dirt or cobblestone pathways.
• Grass: Base terrain for open areas.
• Dirt: Neutral ground or pathways.
• Forest: Dense tiles for wooded areas.

2. Structures

• Castle/Town: Main base for player factions.
• Resource Building:
  • Sawmill: Produces wood.
  • Ore Mine: Produces ore.
• Treasure Chest: Objects for rewards.

3. Environmental Details

• Trees: Pine, oak, or mixed varieties for variety.
• Rocks: Scatter small or medium-sized stones.
• Bushes: Low foliage for filler detail.
• Flowers: Optional for a touch of color.

4. Paths and Roads

• Dirt Path: Simple, winding dirt trails.
• Stone Road: Structured pathways near castles or towns.

Minimum Asset Count

• Terrain Tiles: 6–8 unique tiles (grass, dirt, road, forest, etc.).
• Structures: 5–6 (castle, sawmill, ore mine, chest, shrine).
• Resources: 4 (wood, ore, gems, gold).
• Environmental Details: ~10 decorative items (trees, rocks, bushes, flowers).

Questions

1. Cost:
   • What would be a reasonable cost for something like this, say 1 Large Map the size of Heroes of Might and Magic 3?
   • Are there ways to lower costs (e.g., reusing assets, starting with a smaller map)?
2. Finding Artists/Team:
   • Where would you recommend looking for passionate and skilled artists or map designers?
   • I’ve had trouble finding the right fit—either the style isn’t quite right, or communication is a struggle. Any advice?
3. The Process:
   • For artists/designers: What’s the hardest part of creating a detailed map like this?
   • Are there tools or workflows (e.g., Blender, Tiled, Godot) that could simplify the process?
4. Recommendations:
   • If you’ve worked with artists or teams before, how did you find the right match?
   • Any platforms, communities, or specific people you’d recommend reaching out to?

Additional Info

I’m aiming for a polished but manageable demo to start. I’m fully capable of implementing the underlying mechanics (e.g., pathfinding, interactions, etc.), so this is primarily about creating the visual design and assets. If you’ve worked on something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to approach it effectively.

Thanks so much for your time and advice!

I mean as a programmer, not just artist.

My game "The Last General" has just hit 20000 outstanding wishlists on Steam! (Steam page | Wishlists chart)

I started developing the game in March 2023, and released a few videos showing the progress over time, with limited success and single digit daily wishlists. It was still very early in the development, and the videos were lacking any kind of gameplay, using placeholder units and mostly showcasing the very basic procedural generation I had back then.

Two months ago I released a new video that was way more polished, showed a very small glimpse of gameplay and a lot of action, combat, much better procedural generation, cities, effects, destruction, etc.
Without changing anything in my ad campaigns, the wishlists per day exploded to 500 initially after the trailer release, and then stabilized around 160-220 per day.

A few days ago the game was featured for the first time by a youtuber in a list of upcoming RTS games, and that triggered another 570 and 350 wishlists in the last two days, finally pushing the game over the mark of 20000 total outstanding wishlists. That youtuber (perafilozof) joined the discord and told me he saw the game in a Facebook Ad and also searching for new games, so that was some indirect benefit from the advertising too.

WHAT WORKED
* Very targeted ads specifically targeted at strategy gamers on Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram.
* Leaving the comments on in my reddit ads and answering every comment to clarify any questions. As the game is still in development and it doesn't show that much gameplay yet, it was really important to explain what the game is about and what differentiates it from other RTS games.
* Creating a Discord community early. It grew very fast since the release of the video and they provide great feedback, ideas and help spread the word about the game.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK
* TikTok Ads: For some reason TikTok ads didn't get me any tracked visits (people logged into steam) while the other campaigns do (even for users using mobile).
* Showing more gameplay would probably have been a good idea, I didn't want to show gameplay that is still subject to change, but I think it would have been fine anyway. My next video will be focused on that.

Hello, everyone!

A year and a half ago, I graduated with a university degree in a field related to game development. During my final year, I had the opportunity to work at a real company, gaining practical experience in the industry.

Since graduating, I’ve been focusing on learning a new language as I prepare to move to another country soon. My goal is to work as a game developer in the future. However, due to my relocation plans, I can’t commit to a full-time job or release my own game at the moment.

To stay active and improve my portfolio, I’ve participated in several game jams and currently have five games published on itch.io. From an employer's perspective, does this type of experience carry significant value during job interviews? Or should I focus on developing and launching a complete game to gain more market-oriented experience?

Thank you for your advice!

Hey, I might be moving to Canada soon and I was wondering what can be my salary expectations. Ixm a middle 2d generalist artist with 3 years in the indindustry (ive mainly worked with mobile games and gamgambling spheares before) but i did a wide variaty of stuff from character design to environmebts and UI. What should be my realistic ssalary expectations? P. S. Im gonna be based in Calgary but will probably prioritise finding remote jobs

I am expected to write a research paper on something relevant to my semester project (a creature collection and resource management game, similar to Slime Rancher). I have until 10th of December to pitch my idea and end of February to present a finished paper. I just can not come up with something that is a popular research topic, simple and easy to conduct research on for 1 semester.

I initially wanted to experiment with ECS but learning it from the ground up to a point where I can conduct research on it seems to be a huge task in itself.

Please keep in mind that I am the lead game designer and the only programmer for the semester project. I am the only programmer in my semester.

Why did a game like Ludo succeed? It has been repeated a lot by different companies. I read about a Chinese company based in the Emirates that has only two applications, including the Yalla Ludo application, and it achieves huge revenues monthly. How can a game like this succeed? Its first release of the game that I noticed was in 2011 and it was From an isometric perspective and great designs for employees in the office instead of pieces that did not succeed , what exactly makes the games work?

Where would an Environment Artist go to find freelance work, even volunteer projects to get the dust off??

robertozavala3d.com in case anyone has any insight

Hello r/gamedev!

My brother and I have been developing a game for over 2 years now.

Over that period of time, I feel that we've done a lot in the "experimenting" phase of development to define what uniquely identifies our game.

I think we've strongly solidified both our core mechanics and art direction to the point where we can start to make (hopefully) accurate predictions of future systems and content we will add as we move into the production phase.

Throughout the process, how we will handle marketing has been in the back of my mind.

We've been highly secretive about the project's details to keep it safe, but we recently shared what we have so far with trusted family and friends.

We really enjoyed seeing their reaction and collecting feedback, so naturally, we pondered the logistics of what we'd need to do to start sharing it with more people.

I'd love to start doing what I'm referring to as "soft marketing" i.e. things like starting a Discord server, posting short-form content like GIFs of gameplay, sharing demos at events, creating a Steam Page, etc.

Essentially, forms of (relatively) low-cost community engagement that could help make a name for the game in the minds and hearts of players early on as opposed to a full-on marketing campaign that would normally precede a full launch.

Our cause for hesitation is of course the risk assessment of putting our work out there.

To mitigate this risk, we contacted a law firm about what we'd need to do to trademark our game.

They mentioned that as a requirement to trademark the software, we'd need to have a basic form of it accessible to players first, such as a demo (or possibly a public beta?).

Given that we're still in the early stages of transitioning to production, it feels like having to wait until we're already in beta would effectively mean my "early" marketing wouldn't actually be that early in my opinion.

What continues to puzzle me about the supposed requirement of a demo is that I'm fairly certain you don't need a demo for a Steam page, and I don't think you even need a hard-set release date!

So this either means:

1. There is another way to protect your game while marketing it early

or

2. There isn't, but the reward for marketing a game early as I have described outweighs the possibly nominal risks (at least in the eyes of devs I am taking for example)

So my question is, what in your opinion are the necessary legal protections for the type of early marketing/community building I've described?

TLDR: I want to start forming a community following for my game, but I don't know what to do legally beforehand.

I'm an average but hardworking cs student. I noticed that my 12yo little brother asks me a lot about programming and how to make video games, I told him to learn c++ as a start, can yall suggest some way and sources in order to help him start learning without being overwhelming.

I'm trying to learn unreal engine for the first time, coming from webGL, blender and GLSL.

I'm picking up a good amount of the basiccs quickly, but I'm curious about some good resources where I can learn exactly how the render pipeline works- and how I can modify it and add post processing shaders.

This is my first time working with a deferred renderer.

also, I'm reading a lot about complaints involving newer features like Lumen and TSR, I'm curious about resources on how to optimize these features. I'm thinking my first game idea doesn't need Lumen, but is there maybe a way to implement a probe based lighting feature like in Unity?

Hi all, I'd like to discuss the topic of management, specifically how to analyze and improve workflow management in a 2-4 person indie studio. It would be interesting to hear from people who have experience in both large and small teams, and how the approach differs.

When I was younger I hated math but as I grew and started programming, I've realise that I hate general Math not specialized Math.

For example, I love Vectorial Math and Binary Math but hate trigonometry and calculus.

I'm soon to be starting an internship and my math skill are pretty low, And currently I must choose to either do calculus II or wait t'ill I get into university (In Quebec we have Cegep which get you pretty good jobs without getting to uni)

What do you guys think ? Is Math really that important, because I have some of my dad friends who have been in the field for 10+ years and they told me that math isnt that all important.

Hello guys, I have no idea about game development and I want to develop a game, where do I start, the game is based on Ludo game mechanics, I will quote some of its rules, there are no houses, only pieces more than 4 per player with attack and defense characteristics, the game starts with rolling dice, if the number of attack is greater than the number of defense of any piece on the track, the piece can Pass, there will be a huge number of pieces inside the game, 500 in the beginning, certainly there will be artificial intelligence and multiplayer, I have already made a preliminary design for the game and it is 2D, I want to know from experienced people here how much time, effort and money to develop something like this, I am completely ignorant game development and I know it's a difficult field, I just want to know how feasible it is to implement such an idea, am I unrealistic in my ideas, I try to find simple ideas that are viable.

*Not the original author of the video.

The potential of AI being used to enhance games in real time is mind-blowing to me. I would think a game with lots of NPCs being AI enhanced on the fly would make a GPU glow bright red, but mobile social media filters render in real time with barely a hiccup. Would the load be distributed a different way if it was a NPC heavy game like Cyberpunk? Could we see a surge of smaller studios putting out larger titles given the ability of AI to (eventually) generate detailed 3D assets or are we still a ways off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmVdfI9JXwU

Hey! So long story short I have 1.5 year experience as a 3d generalist in a mobile game studio. Unlucky for me my country is mobile game only and I wanted to go bigger so to learn more and also with the benefits of networking, intership, etc I manage to get in a game art school in Sweden Malmö. While studying I don't want to stay idle and keep working if possible but the thing is I have never seen a part time job post in linkedin so where people find them ? only networking ?

Any recommandation or tip in this matter would be amazing. Thanks in advanced!

Hello All! I've always loved games and finally want to try and make one of my own. I've been struggling to decide which engine I should use, and thought asking those more experienced than I would be a good decision.

I want to make a survival game, reminiscent of Subnautica or Planet Crafter (I will start with smaller projects, but want to start learning the right engine now). In addition to things in these games, I want to add a combat system and a little bit of tower defense. I plan on it being on an Ice-age planet.

I have zero programming experience. They say unity is more beginner friendly, running C# instead of C++, but wouldn't blueprints be even easier than C#? I might just be uneducated here, and maybe blueprints wouldn't be able to create the game I'm imagining.

I'm not perfectly set on the visual style. As this game would be just me and a couple friends (all beginners), the more asset flipping we could do the better. Of course, a photorealistic game using all of Unreal's features would be amazing, but I'm not sure if it is feasible to create an alien world with only existing assets. I'd be happy with more of a stylized cartoon style, but I worry the assets might not already exist. Although, with a cartoon style, It would be much easier to create my own.

TLDR: Game Engine recommendation for a Subnautica-esk (above water) game for a complete beginner.

I am developing a video game to which I want to add items to sell on the steam market. I want that in my game, when you kill an enemy you get an object and from what I have read on the steam website, to do this I must get a "secure server", but I can't find any site that talks about said servers, no. I know if I'm understanding it wrong or there are no manuals on it. Any developer who can help me on this issue?

Hey gamedev community!

I'm researching how indie studios handle multiplayer infrastructure, particularly matchmaking and player tracking/analytics. I've noticed a gap between basic Steam integration and enterprise solutions like PlayFab, and I'm trying to understand the challenges studios face.

If you're working on/have shipped a multiplayer game, I'd love to hear about your experience:

1. What's your current setup for:

• Matchmaking
• Player stats/rankings
• Game/Lobby analytics

2. What are your biggest pain points? (costs, technical issues, missing features)

3. Roughly what's your monthly spend on multiplayer infrastructure?

• What features do you wish existed but can't find/afford?

Some context: I'm a novice game dev and was surprised by the lack of support for common multiplayer needs, I'm wondering if others feel the same way and if there's room in the market for a service that solves some of them.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Few days ago I stumbled upon a “Scripter wanted” for a game studio. I would like to work in gamedev one day, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to since I don’t know how to do programming, at all.

So if I wanted to apply for the job, what should I know, what skills should I have?

And how to get them?

hello reddit, im making a game thats halfway done and wont stop until i am done with it, my idea is to post the game on steam for a few bucks, my isseu arrives on 2 main things of posting a game, building interest in it by my target audience, and getting funding, becose i live in brazil, and im not in a place to give a lot of money to peoplo to do the music and art.
So what the best way for em to promote the game to generate interet?
And whats a good to fund it along with my own money?

taget audio is speedrunners and peoplo who like challenging games like celest and super meat boy.