How to build branching narrative without breaking the bank
Game Developer
APRIL 12, 2024
Freelance game writer and narrative designer Nessa Cannon wants devs to know they can craft meaningful narrative choices without overscoping.
Solo dev Rohan Nowell of Doggy Don’t Care “Just start building and ideas will come”
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 15, 2024
Just start building and the ideas will come.” The post Solo dev Rohan Nowell of Doggy Don’t Care “Just start building and ideas will come” appeared first on PreMortem Games. What’s the biggest lesson learned from this project? “An An idea doesn’t need to be perfect or even completely known before you start.
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Steam devs will need SMS verification to release game builds
Game Developer
OCTOBER 11, 2023
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.
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Owlchemy Labs CEO Andrew Eiche thinks devs should be bullish about AI
Game Developer
MARCH 8, 2024
The choice is to figure how to make them work for you, to figure out where the workloads actually fit best, and to build them in an ethical way." "These tools exist, and they aren't disappearing anytime soon.
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Solo dev Tuomas Auronen (Redbeak Games) “Hardest part is financial uncertainty”
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 20, 2024
Solo dev Tuomas Auronen , operating under the name Redbeak Games , looks pretty relieved three days after the launch of his game Mortal Glory 2. Building upon a successful predecessor gave Auronen confidence during development. The toll on your mental health can be quite high for solo devs. How do you deal with that? “I
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Under a Rock - Dev Blog #1
Indie DB
OCTOBER 25, 2023
Our very first dev blog with more to follow. Hope you like it :) The first dev blog focus on creatures and building.
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Solo dev Feryaz Beer’s debut Super Fantasy Kingdom “A weird mashup of genres”
PreMortem.Games
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
The Hanover, Germany based solo dev describes his creative process as ‘a mix of perfectionism and empathy’. Or city-building games like The Settlers that I love so much, but tend to only play once – never really applying all that I’ve learned. Beer has been learning some valuable lessons along the way.
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Solo dev Lente lives and works on a boat and that shows in her game Spilled!
PreMortem.Games
NOVEMBER 27, 2023
On Twitter , she’s known to her 13K+ followers as ‘dev on a boat’. I went to school twice for game dev, both times did not work out. For me personally, it’s not only development I’m interested in, but also the process of building a community and business. I make something new, and I use that for building community and marketing.
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Solo dev Evan Polekoff of Critter Crossfire “Motivation is a limited resource”
PreMortem.Games
JANUARY 8, 2024
With the game now announced for a 2024-release, the part time solo dev is motivated to finish the game. After that, if you want to ship something, you need to build discipline.” After reaching larger milestones, I send playtest builds to friends to get feedback and polish things up. Why are you working as a solo developer? “In
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Two engineers build the physics-driven engineering parody The Enjenir
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 9, 2023
With the game’s 100% physics-based building system, players can solve each mission in infinite ways. What originally started out as a treehouse building simulator prototype, slowly evolved as the duo gradually added different mechanics. “It From the building mechanics, all the way to the third person character movements.
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Solo dev Dr.Kucho fights for true video games: “People play guided tours now”
PreMortem.Games
MAY 8, 2023
Spanish solo dev Daniel Manzano (aka Dr. Kucho !) As I was trying the builds, the game itself was telling me what things would be interesting to add, so I added them. How much did the project and your way of working change in the 8 years it took to build Moons of Darsalon? “I likes working alone. I don’t know.
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Developer Shares Building Fabrics, Ropes, And Soft Bodies
Cocos
JUNE 14, 2023
A dev, Night by Night 00, shared his work on building warpable and wearable materials for games. Though not fully complete, the demos already show a lot of progress, and the developer is selling their findings on the Cocos store for Chinese developers.
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Wrapping up 2023 • Celebrating the life and works of solo developers
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 22, 2023
Solo dev Graham Reid: “Being part of a like-minded community is really important” Young Dutch indie developer Lente is something of a free spirit. Solo dev Lente lives and works on a boat and that shows in her game Spilled! Despite being a solo dev all that time, he never really struggled with his motivation. “I
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Roblox thinks subscriptions could help devs foster "recurring economic relationships"
Game Developer
JULY 20, 2023
The company is building new monetization tools that will let Roblox developers create subscriptions within their experiences.
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Solo dev Simon Taylor saw his game Smash Dungeon fail “The journey comes to an end”
PreMortem.Games
NOVEMBER 10, 2023
I made a few J2ME games as a solo dev and also collaborated on a couple with another solo dev -which did ok- but I mostly got by with contract work.” I saw someone else mention a work life balance and being a solo dev can become all consuming. For now the journey feels like it’s come to an end as a solo dev.
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How to Build a Mailing List and Send Newsletters as a Board Game Dev
Brand Game Development
AUGUST 24, 2020
As such, this guide will be split into five parts: Mailing List Basics Setting up a Mailing List on MailChimp Creating a Landing Page that Works Creating a Template that Works Building Your Mailing List. You’ll be asked to enter the following: List Name – I use Brandon the Game Dev Newsletter. Building Your Mailing List.
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Solo dev Jason Larabie of Rodent Games works after hours on Artificer’s Tower “I live a dual life”
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 13, 2024
Operating under the name RodentGames, Larabie has taught himself the necessary skills to create his upcoming game Artificer’s Tower, a happy mix of base building, management sim and boss battles. “I After building out the systems for AI/building/crafting, I had a bit of the game prototyped out, but it was missing something.
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Solo dev Rutger van Dijk on his debut game Oakenfold: “I forgot about marketing”
PreMortem.Games
MAY 15, 2023
Understanding that a game wasn’t going to build itself, I quit my job and just went for it.” He spent two years building Oakenfold after a successful Kickstarter campaign got him part of the necessary funds. So, realizing that the game wasn’t going to build itself, I quit my job and just went for it.” I really did not.
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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora devs on crafting their own corner of James Cameron's sci-fi universe
Game Developer
OCTOBER 30, 2023
Game director Ditte Deenfeldt and senior narrative designer Chella Ramanan discuss expanding Pandora, and why building up Na'vi culture was important.
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Solo dev Jonathan Barbosa Dijkstra “Learning new skills is a great motivator”
PreMortem.Games
SEPTEMBER 28, 2023
He took some online courses on programming and he was in business, as a solo dev operating under the name of Frambosa , only six months later. So, his solo debut game Billy Bumbum might be the first and last game he made as a one-man-dev-team. I had literally just started programming 6 months prior and now I’m building a full game?
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Solo dev Josh Salley (HALbot Studios) “I believe in keeping a good work life balance”
PreMortem.Games
AUGUST 3, 2023
How do you know that the game you are building is genuinely scary? “It’s The post Solo dev Josh Salley (HALbot Studios) “I believe in keeping a good work life balance” appeared first on PreMortem Games. “I would love to work with a team at some point. The Nightmare Escape is a horror game.
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Don’t Just Build a Board Game, Build a Business
Brand Game Development
MARCH 11, 2019
The only trouble is that many of the people who see board games as a vehicle to get rich quick don’t realize that you have to build a business along the way. It takes a long time to build a business. However, if you want to make money and you have to build a business, you have to see gamers as customers. Think long-term.
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Solo dev Diego Ras of Raccoo Venture “Everything starts with paper and pencil”
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 2, 2024
Building an online presence, engaging the community, and creating expectations can generate interest even before the launch, which is crucial when you don’t have extra miles to invest in marketing. The post Solo dev Diego Ras of Raccoo Venture “Everything starts with paper and pencil” appeared first on PreMortem Games.
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Dev snapshot: Godot 3.6 beta 4
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 25, 2024
This snapshot updates toolchains for official builds and adds official Linux ARM binaries, among other improvements. is still in development, slowly but steadily!
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Sent this ask a while ago but I think Tumblr ate it so here it is: In which stage of game development are relationships between characters decided? Asking this because I recently found an old Final Fantasy VII relationship chart and originally some characters were supposed to have completely different bonds compared to the ones they ended up having in the actual game. These seem to be quite important plot points, so I assume that final decisions should be made before creating cutscenes? Or you can change stuff later if devs come up with better ideas?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 8, 2024
The important thing to think about when it comes to development is that we can't build the game sequentially, we have to build as much of the game in parallel as we can. building environments, creating animations and rigs, building the technology), and then do the things that take less time to complete later.
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 10
Mircosoft Game Dev
DECEMBER 23, 2022
Beta 10 will be the last dev snapshot of the year 2022, as a lot of our contributors will no doubt be slowing down for the end of year celebrations and some quality family time. Thank you for being an integral part of the dev process with your rigorous testing and timely reports! NET 6 build (C#, GDScript, GDExtension).
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How to compile shaders with CMake
That One Game Dev
FEBRUARY 19, 2024
In this article I will give you an insight on how to include compiled GLSL shaders into your project build step using CMake. The post How to compile shaders with CMake appeared first on That One Game Dev.
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[Cocos Creator 2.4.x] build custom cocos2d-x engine on Mac?
Cocos
MARCH 19, 2024
cache/dev/cocos2d/core/platform/CCNative.js:164:34) cache/dev/cocos2d/core/platform/CCNative.js:257:21) cache/dev/cocos2d/core/platform/CCNative.js:266:25 cache/dev/cocos2d/core/platform/CCNative.js:273:19) cache/dev/cocos2d/core/platform/CCNative.js:273:19) 266:25 at Object. 273:19) at Module._compile
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Game dev coworking space The Gaming Hub opens in Portugal
GamesIndustry.biz
JANUARY 3, 2024
Known as The Gaming Hub, the building is divided on two floors with 13 private rooms and 12 coworking spaces, as reported by GamesBeat. Tech startup Unicorn Factory Lisboa has launched a new coworking space in Portugal's capital, in partnership with Fortis Games.
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Especially with so many projects that were never announced probably getting canceled right now due to layoffs and studios dissolving, how risky would it be for devs to keep personal copies of their work/builds? I always thought NDAs were generally time limited, and at least that way the work wouldn’t be entirely lost for ever. Is that even something devs generally want?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 18, 2024
Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ In my opinion, the real value in old project assets is in the educational content it can provide. Join us on Discord ] and/or [ Support us on Patreon ] Got a burning question you want answered?
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Skyrim-dev Nate Purkeypile goes solo and makes a heavy metal horror game
PreMortem.Games
JUNE 19, 2023
He had been building giant open-world games like Fallout and Skyrim in large teams for years. But now with stuff like Unreal Engine 5, it’s far more possible as a solo dev. But as a solo indie dev, I can take more risks. The Axis Unseen is a heavy-metal open-world horror game. “If It’s a really deliberate choice.
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 8
Mircosoft Game Dev
DECEMBER 9, 2022
Porting: Enable raycast/embree module build for Web and Windows x86_32 ( GH-69169 ). Rendering: OpenGL: Expose emulated *Unorm4x8 GLSL functions in non-Android builds ( GH-69521 ). The downloads for this dev snapshot can be found directly on our repository: Standard build (GDScript, GDExtension).NET Requires.NET SDK 6.0
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 12
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 13, 2023
iOS: Check Xcode output and display errors if code signing, project build or.ipa export failed ( GH-71212 ). The downloads for this dev snapshot can be found directly on our repository: Standard build (GDScript, GDExtension).NET NET 6 build (C#, GDScript, GDExtension). This release is built from commit 3c9bf4bc2.
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Solo dev Jonathan C Haman created “the glorious Drift Type C – which no one is buying”
PreMortem.Games
JUNE 7, 2023
My first game, called Averish , was a city building game where you could build entire cities out of plastic building blocks. I put in car building as well, and downloaded every vehicle physics asset to make it easy. What inspired you to make Drift Type C? The problem was that the cars just wouldn’t drift. WHAT THAT MEAN?
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 11
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 10, 2023
They've been building upon Godot 4.0 Buildsystem: Allow building X11 without Vulkan ( GH-70677 ). GDScript: Register enum type names in release build ( GH-64253 ). Import: Fix usages of mesh simplification functions in float=64 builds ( GH-67853 ). NET 6 build (C#, GDScript, GDExtension). What's new.
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What is the most boring common work you see commonly as a game dev?
Ask a Game Dev
JANUARY 31, 2023
ALT By far the most common boring common work as a game dev is “waiting for the game or level to finish building”. Build times are probably the greatest time period of lost productivity and boredom among game developers the world over. That is easily collective years across the team lost to waiting for the game to build.
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 7
Mircosoft Game Dev
DECEMBER 1, 2022
The downloads for this dev snapshot can be found directly on our repository: Standard build (GDScript, GDExtension).NET NET 6 build (C#, GDScript, GDExtension). XR: Add partial support for Pico 4 ( GH-68023 ). This release is built from commit 0ff874291. Requires.NET SDK 6.0 installed in a standard location.NET 7.0
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Dev Error 7186 in Warzone 2.0 DMZ: Fixed [PC, Xbox, PS5]
Game Errors
JULY 19, 2023
Is dev error 7186 popping up in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 Suddenly, the frustration will kill your excitement if it shows the dev error code 7186 in Building 21 or Koschei Complex or at any state. What causes the dev error 7186 in COD DMZ? How do I fix dev error 7186 in DMZ? How to fix DEV Error 7185 PS5?
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 15
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 25, 2023
There are a few known regressions which we’ll aim to address in a later build ( GH-71891 , GH-71913 ). Linux: Include headers for dynamically loaded libraries to simplify build dependencies ( GH-71263 ). Downloads The downloads for this dev snapshot can be found directly on our repository: Standard build (GDScript, GDExtension).NET
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Welcome to the weird and wonderful hand-build world of Harold Halibut
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 1, 2023
So our solution was to 3D scan all the things we built in order to then process them in a more conventional game dev sense.” The post Welcome to the weird and wonderful hand-build world of Harold Halibut appeared first on PreMortem Games. The group finds itself submerged in an alien sea though, trapped in their sunken ship.
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Final Factory by Never Games takes automation into space and adds bullet-hell
PreMortem.Games
APRIL 19, 2024
Final Factory blends factory building and spaceship design with RTS-style troop commanding and classic bullet-hell gameplay. Hence the premise of the game is that you are a Von Neumann probe, sent to consume all the resources in the Universe and build the ultimate (final) factory. Pretty impressive for a largely solo-developed game. “At
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 14
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 20, 2023
Downloads The downloads for this dev snapshot can be found directly on our repository: Standard build (GDScript, GDExtension).NET NET 6 build (C#, GDScript, GDExtension). As well as many improvements to the documentation. This release is built from commit 28a24639c. Requires.NET SDK 6.0 installed in a standard location.NET 7.0
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Out Now • Solo dev Pat Naoum of the handpainted The Master’s Pupil: “Creativity is a tool”
PreMortem.Games
AUGUST 9, 2023
But those notes create a basis of a project to build on, ideas being grouped and solidified. So next time I begin daydreaming, I’m not remembering my last idea, I’m building on it.” All advice for new game devs is to work on small projects, and make as many as you can. ” “Big goals are vital for me.
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