CAG Amateur Developer's Thread

Kain said:
Sucks bad. What a birthday.
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Ah man, sucks you missed it for that reason. Hope you get in the next one!

Richard Kain said:
If any of you use Unity, I recently posted a new editor extension to the Unity Asset Store.

Cheshire Lip-Sync plug-in

It's just a little tool for getting some basic lip-sync animations into Unity. (shameless plug)

Right now I'm working on programming some basic network server detection in Unity. You have to use Sockets to get this done on a LAN, as opposed to a full-on internet game.
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Wow, that looks pretty great! Now to make some characters and write some dialogue...

 
Dr Sasquatch said:
Wow, that looks pretty great! Now to make some characters and write some dialogue...
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Thanks! Yeah, it's free for now. (I don't have any plans to charge) But it does require a bit of set-up on the part of the user. It comes with a sprite resource and a 3D model resource for testing and demonstration. If you want to use your own model or sprite, you will have to create the various sprite frames and shape keys yourself. Depending on the complexity of the model, it shouldn't take that long. Once you have the shape keys you want, you just import the model into Unity, apply the script, and then select which shape key you want to apply to which mouth shape. (for the 3D models there are 9) The plug-in does the rest.

It's similar to how Valve handles lip-sync animation in Source, but much more simplified. Their solution requires the user to create a whole bunch of little shape keys, and then they create each individual phoneme based on a combination of those various keys. This allows for more subtle blending, but it takes a lot longer for the initial setup. My solution is quite a bit more straight forward, but not nearly as powerful or general purpose. It's more of a quick-and-dirty solution to get obvious results fast. It's intended for smaller developers on a budget who just need their characters to talk with as little trouble as possible.

Also, if anyone is interested a new game engine was released as open source recently. The Godot Engine is a cross-platform engine with a visual editing environment. It is fairly bare-bones, but has a lot of nice features and advantages. It is similar in its general structure to more robust systems like Unity or UE4. While still a little rough, there is much to recommend it to the amateur developer on a budget.

One of the biggest advantages is that it has a Linux release. Any Linux enthusiasts out there can run Godot in their OS of choice as a native program. Linux users don't get many options for game engines, so this is pretty big for them.

Another big plus is the 2D support that Godot features. Engines like Unity and UE4 often have tacked-on 2D support that is really just 3D with an orthographic projection. Godot features full support for a pixel-native 2D solution, where game logic itself can be measured and updated in pixel values as opposed to world units. This can be a big advantage for retro developers looking to make titles focused on this older style of game. It also has full 3D support for those who want a more modern look.

And last but not least, Godot is compatible with iOS and Android. Godot was originally designed with mobile platforms in mind, so it features solid support for mobile OS in its current state. Mobile platforms are only becoming more significant to small developers, so this support is a strong recommendation.

 
MrNinjaSquirrel said:
I'm surprised some people still don't know about dropbox.

Sorry you missed the deadline though, that sucks.
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I'd actually recommend Mega over Dropbox. Dropbox is nice for just syncing a folder on your computer to your online account, but Mega gives you loads of space and allows you to upload stuff that stays on their servers. Dropbox only works as long as your files are still on your computer in the synced folder, afaik.

Also, download/upload times between Mega and Dropbox are night and day for me. Mega is WAY faster.

 
I've been setback a bit for the past week thanks to a favor I was doing for a friend. (a little bit of dog-sitting) I did get to play some Dragon's Crown, but I only got a little bit of development done.

On the plus side, I was able to sort out some bugs I had managed to create in my Unity networking solution. Now I have the UDP broadcasting working like I want it to. This is going to be a core component for several LAN multiplayer games that I want to make, so I am very happy about that. It still requires a Unity Asset Store purchased component, so for the time being I won't be releasing this project. Perhaps some time in the future.

 
So maybe you guys can help me in the right direction. So basically what I want to do is make 2D style games. Something that can work on mobile (Android specifically but if iOS isn't hard to adapt for that's good as well, just have more testing devices for Android). PC's are a plus but I would like to focus on mobile. Now I do know Java, Objective C, C++ and I do spend my day job doing Mobile Apps for iOS and Android (nothing game related just standard apps so I don't know anything in the area of game physics and such).

My question is what would be the best development tools to do the job or recommendations on ones that will get me started. Something that I wont have to shell an arm and a leg to get and of course has a license where I can sell my game.

Thanks

 
Unity is going to be the solution with the least amount of hassle. Since you already know Java, switching over to C# scripting in Unity would be simple. (the two languages are structurally and syntactically very similar) Perhaps more importantly, Unity has gobs of documentation and an immense, active user base.

The 2D toolset in Unity is fairly new. But it is decently capable, and should suffice for most purposes. I've already used it myself in one project. Publishing to different platforms is one of Unity's biggest strengths, and is as easy as it can be. Unity's free license does not require any down-payment for commercial projects. You can make and sell games with it without paying a dime. You are only forced to upgrade to the Pro license if you need a feature that the pro-license provides, or if you have earned more than $150,000 with one of your Unity projects. This model makes the Unity free license very attractive to small developers.

If there was one weakness in Unity I would say it is the user interface library. The user interface of the application itself is fine. But the scripting for GUI elements is a bit backwards, and can be a bit of a pain, especially when starting out. Despite this, I would still recommend it for most indie game projects.

Godot is a newly released engine that also has some very nice features, but it's community is much smaller. It is worth looking into, especially if you are interested in low-level source code access. Unity allows for coding of C++ plugins, but does not allow source-code access to the engine itself. Godot is an open-source project and allows full source code access.

Unreal Engine 4 is a commercial engine that requires a monthly subscription. It is very reasonable, but I wouldn't suggest going with it unless you are looking to push high-end graphics. It is more of a show-pony when it comes to graphics, and most indie devs will never be able to take advantage of all its bells and whistles. I've heard that the logic tools have improved significantly, but Unity is also known for its strength at rapid prototyping. Unreal Engine 4 is a better fit for small to mid-sized dev teams who have members dedicated to the production of high-end art assets. (and obviously, large commercial teams)

 
Thanks for that. Yeah Unity looks like what I need then. I didn't realize it was free but that's great.

My goal is make something to just make. Something I can show people say hey I did this, like a portfolio piece of sorts. If I make a few bucks along the way, that's fine too.

 
Still having a little bit of trouble getting back into development-mode. I've been really busy at work with some necessary tasks, so no extra time to dapple then. And in my off hours I've been working hard to re-organize and mothball the majority of my DVD collection, and that's been eating up all my extra free time.

On the plus side, I found something useful while I was getting binders at Office Max. I got my hands on a portable WiFi router. The local multiplayer software I'm working on relies on having an easily accessible WiFi network. For use in most people's homes, it is fine. But this focus makes it a lot more difficult to put on demonstrations. I have to log into whatever local WiFi network is available with multiple devices, and pray that they don't have port blocking enabled. It's a hassle and makes it hard for me to show anyone what I'm working on.

The portable WiFi router I found solves this problem handily. It's very small, compact, and convenient. And it's an all-in-one solution, its power adapter is built into the unit itself. It also has the option of being powered by USB, which is perfect for pairing it with my laptop. With this little gizmo I can take the show on the road, and perform demos with as little fuss as possible. It is also really great for impromptu testing.

 
Shifting back into development-mode now. When I'm compiling software at work, I have a few minutes where I can work on experimenting with my prototypes. The portable WiFi router that I acquired is working out GREAT! I just plug it in when I come in and then I have a nice wireless network for testing. Smooth as butter.

I was also able to get the basic functionality for networking running in Unity. It takes a little bit to wrap your brain around Unity's networking classes. But the testing environment I set up helps considerably.

 
Got a question. What do you guys recommend tutorial wise for learning Unity. The programming part wont be hard for me to learn, it will just be learning the functions and programming flow, etc. More so it's tackling the editor, making models, terrain, etc.

I been dabbling into the editor but I am looking for a good tutorial series that teaches me a little bit of game design with how to use Unity, or tips I can use to get started in the right direction.

Thanks.

 
I don't have any tutorials on tap for general Unity approaches. Most of the tutorials I've found pertain to specific functionality. I can provide you a few pointers from my own experience, however.

Unity is component-based. A lot of programmers come from a procedural or object-oriented background. (or some combination of both) The component methodology is simply an extension of those earlier coding disciplines. But it requires you to think about how you handle code differently.

In Unity, all the objects are GameObjects. That's the class that pretty much everything extends from. When you create anything in the editor, it's an instance of GameObject. This is important to remember. No matter how an object in your Unity project comes to be, it's going to be a GameObject.

Components in Unity are all derived from the MonoBehaviour class. Any script you want to attach to a GameObject will have to extend from the MonoBehavior class. It is possible to write your own custom classes that aren't extended from MonoBehavior in any way. But in order to attach code to GameObjects, a MonoBehavior script will at some point be needed.

All of Unity is based around creating game objects, and augmenting their abilities by adding components to them. Don't ever bother trying to make a script that encompasses all of the functionality of a particular object. The script components you code should all be focused on providing little snippets of functionality.

Take the concept of health. You might be tempted to incorporate health-related code into a "Player" class. This is not how Unity works. It's much better to simply create a script that encompasses all the functionality of health. Then you apply that script as a component to whatever game object represents your player. Because of the way it is structured, you can then apply that exact same script to any enemy objects that also need to have "health."

All scripting code in Unity works this way, right down to all of the built-in object types. If you create a Sprite in the Unity editor, you're just creating a game object with the "SpriteRenderer" component applied to it. You can remove that component any time you want, and alter that game object's functionality. Using this, you can easily change a 2D sprite into a 3D model, all on the fly. Components can all be accessed and altered at run-time, allowing the user a lot of flexibility.

Remember, everything is a game object. Components simply extend the functionality of game objects, they never define what a game object is. If you create a Player script and apply it to a game object, that game object does not become a player. It is simply a game object with the functionality of a player applied to it. Thinking of things in these terms will help you to understand the strengths of the Unity engine.

 
Thanks for that, yeah I learned that early on about Game Objects. I been doing a lot of iOS and a little web lately and scripting in Unity is very similar.

I guess what I need to find is some sample scripts and stuff on movement, and other game objects or reverse engineer how people did things to learn. I found the Unity API's which is nice.

Another thing, is there any huge advantage to using C# over Javascript? I ask because I will switch to C# right away if there is benefits. Wont be hard for me to transition since I know Java, C++ and Objective C among other languages.

 
Sir_Fragalot said:
Another thing, is there any huge advantage to using C# over Javascript? I ask because I will switch to C# right away if there is benefits. Wont be hard for me to transition since I know Java, C++ and Objective C among other languages.
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Not particularly. I personally use C#, mainly because I like the strict typing. But in terms of performance any advantage in using C# is minimal. The majority of the real resource-intensive tasks in Unity are handled by the engine itself. And the engine is coded in C and C++ to allow for some decent performance. The scripting language you choose generally has minimal impact on performance. And the Unity documentation provides samples in both Javascript and C#. It's just a matter of personal preference. If you're already comfortable with Javascript, feel free to stick with it.

The only area where scripting could drastically effect performance is in the shaders. And those are written in shader language anyhow. (which is neither C# or javascript)

For movement, your first stop is the InputManager. This is accessible through the IDE, so you are going to want to set it up specifically for each project. It is where to go for mapping various controls. (including mouse, touch, keyboard, and joystick/pad) While it isn't strictly required for getting input, it is the best way to abstract and assign controls. Even if you don't use it in the prototyping phase, you definitely will in the final polishing stages of your software.

Movement can take place however you define it. You can use Unity's built-in physics engine, or just roll your own movement controllers. It's a good idea to use Unity's collision system one way or the other. Tie it in with the InputManager, and don't forget to keep it all defined by time deltas. Unity has a built-in class for retrieving elapsed time as well.

What general style of game are you looking to work on? I'm getting a general sense that you're leaning toward the action side of things.

 
Richard Kain said:
Not particularly. I personally use C#, mainly because I like the strict typing. But in terms of performance any advantage in using C# is minimal. The majority of the real resource-intensive tasks in Unity are handled by the engine itself. And the engine is coded in C and C++ to allow for some decent performance. The scripting language you choose generally has minimal impact on performance. And the Unity documentation provides samples in both Javascript and C#. It's just a matter of personal preference. If you're already comfortable with Javascript, feel free to stick with it.

The only area where scripting could drastically effect performance is in the shaders. And those are written in shader language anyhow. (which is neither C# or javascript)

For movement, your first stop is the InputManager. This is accessible through the IDE, so you are going to want to set it up specifically for each project. It is where to go for mapping various controls. (including mouse, touch, keyboard, and joystick/pad) While it isn't strictly required for getting input, it is the best way to abstract and assign controls. Even if you don't use it in the prototyping phase, you definitely will in the final polishing stages of your software.

Movement can take place however you define it. You can use Unity's built-in physics engine, or just roll your own movement controllers. It's a good idea to use Unity's collision system one way or the other. Tie it in with the InputManager, and don't forget to keep it all defined by time deltas. Unity has a built-in class for retrieving elapsed time as well.

What general style of game are you looking to work on? I'm getting a general sense that you're leaning toward the action side of things.
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Thanks for the advice. The game I am looking to make is a simple 2D platformer type game. Nothing really grand in scale, but I had the idea of making a platformer for some time. It was just finding a good editor where I did not need to pay to get because it's a hobby thing for me.

I can see Unity will be strangely relaxing for me. Just get lost building my own world which is nice.

 
I've run into some issues recently. After upgrading to the latest version of Android, my phone has stopped working for testing builds. Thankfully, I recently acquired some new devices for mobile testing, and those still seem to work. I'm hoping that this issue will be fixed by the next Android or Unity update. But for the time being it's a bit of annoyance.

 
Some sad news, my current contract day-job has come to an end. This is going to place some financial pressure on me to get a new job.

On the plus side, it means I am going to have some more free time to work on my personal development work. And that personal development work has been going pretty well recently, so I am encouraged. I'll be using some of my time off between jobs to put together a functional prototype.

 
I've been craving RPG Maker lately, so I'm going back to it. Have a strong urge to finish what I started several months ago and take out all the inside jokes so everybody can play it. Since that still has probably 100 hours worth of work left to finish, I've decided to make something completely new and very small with a focus on story. I'm using a generic and predictable story for my testers. I'll have to completely re-write it later. That might be difficult. Maybe different endings depending on how many collectables are found.

EDIT: l made such a noob mistake with my doorways and now I don't know if I want to fix it lol

 
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So I was wondering, since I just bought a Game Stick for $20, what is the best or at least few good options for Android game development? I know Unity is there but I am looking at either a full 2D game or a top down game that has the same 2D top down style as Zelda games.

 
Sir_Fragalot said:
So I was wondering, since I just bought a Game Stick for $20, what is the best or at least few good options for Android game development? I know Unity is there but I am looking at either a full 2D game or a top down game that has the same 2D top down style as Zelda games.
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I would either say Unity (the obvious choice, and it's 2D support has been improving), or I would say HAXE + OpenFL.

HAXE is an open-source programming language, and OpenFL is a library of different tools that allow you to target any number of different platforms using HAXE, including Android. It also provides support for hardware-accelerated 2D, so your games should run quite well on Android. It's programming is very similar to Actionscript 3.0, so it is often the go-to choice for old Flash developers. It also has full support for Flixel and Flashpunk, two of the most popular game engines from Flash. Because of its open-source nature, the entire toolset is free to use.

If you don't mind a slightly larger footprint, Unity 3D is still a good option. It's 2D support has improved, and the latest version (4.6) has a vastly improved GUI system for in-game menus. While it isn't geared toward 2D, it is now quite capable of it.

 
Richard Kain said:
I would either say Unity (the obvious choice, and it's 2D support has been improving), or I would say HAXE + OpenFL.

HAXE is an open-source programming language, and OpenFL is a library of different tools that allow you to target any number of different platforms using HAXE, including Android. It also provides support for hardware-accelerated 2D, so your games should run quite well on Android. It's programming is very similar to Actionscript 3.0, so it is often the go-to choice for old Flash developers. It also has full support for Flixel and Flashpunk, two of the most popular game engines from Flash. Because of its open-source nature, the entire toolset is free to use.

If you don't mind a slightly larger footprint, Unity 3D is still a good option. It's 2D support has improved, and the latest version (4.6) has a vastly improved GUI system for in-game menus. While it isn't geared toward 2D, it is now quite capable of it.
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I looked at Unity 3D and it's not bad. There is just a ton of different options and things so it's quite a challenge to wrap my head around (actually kinda overwhelmed with how it all works). I am an ios/android developer so I have the skills to learn whatever, I just never programmed a game before so learning all that logic is a new thing for me. I guess I need some type of course or book that teaches me game physics/the overall process of how a game works so I can understand what goes on behind the scene of a game and then translate that into code. Coding wont be a hard thing for me, I often switch around 2-4 languages daily, it's just getting that mindset of how a game works.

 
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Sir_Fragalot said:
Coding wont be a hard thing for me, I often switch around 2-4 languages daily, it's just getting that mindset of how a game works.
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With Unity 3D, the biggest hurdle is wrapping your brain around the design methodology that it uses. It's like stepping up from procedural to object-oriented coding for the first time. It can be a bit of a struggle, but once it clicks, you're off to the races.

Unity 3D uses a component architecture, so you don't have to do very much object-oriented coding. Most of the scripting is actually fairly simple. And one of the nice things is that a lot of it is done ahead of time. There are existing components for most game tasks in Unity. You want physics? There's a component for that. Rendering? Component. Audio? Component. A lot of game building in Unity is just assigning existing components to game objects.

Some of the more advanced functions require a bit more custom code, and you might have to dig into the API a little deeper. I'm writing a custom tool at the moment, and I have to get a bit more intense in my coding. But the end result is that I'm making some custom components that other people will drag-and-drop onto their game objects. It takes a little practice to "get" Unity, but once you do it becomes fast and easy to prototype.

 
Richard Kain said:
With Unity 3D, the biggest hurdle is wrapping your brain around the design methodology that it uses. It's like stepping up from procedural to object-oriented coding for the first time. It can be a bit of a struggle, but once it clicks, you're off to the races.

Unity 3D uses a component architecture, so you don't have to do very much object-oriented coding. Most of the scripting is actually fairly simple. And one of the nice things is that a lot of it is done ahead of time. There are existing components for most game tasks in Unity. You want physics? There's a component for that. Rendering? Component. Audio? Component. A lot of game building in Unity is just assigning existing components to game objects.

Some of the more advanced functions require a bit more custom code, and you might have to dig into the API a little deeper. I'm writing a custom tool at the moment, and I have to get a bit more intense in my coding. But the end result is that I'm making some custom components that other people will drag-and-drop onto their game objects. It takes a little practice to "get" Unity, but once you do it becomes fast and easy to prototype.
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Thanks, I will need to look up resources on Unity. OpenFL looks easier to get into from the gate but Unity3D looks more advanced for it's feature set.

 
Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
Bundlestars has an RPG Maker sale:
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Those are some great prices. I picked up RPG Maker VX Ace off of a Steam sale last year. But I've never bothered to really dig into it. It is commonly considered to be the gold standard for classic JRPG creation.

I've mainly not been using it because I'm already so invested in Unity 3D development. But if I was looking to put together a classic JRPG, it would be my first stop.

Does anyone here have any experience using RPG Maker?

 
Oh snap! Yesterday, Epic announced that Unreal Engine 4 is now free-to-develop!

Last year, when they launched Unreal Engine 4 for the first time, they also rolled out a new subscription-based licensing fee. For $19/month anyone could get a valid Unreal Engine 4 license with full access to the source code. The royalties owed to Epic were also reduced from around 30% to just 5%. This was a huge step for bringing UE4 to a broader user-base. For the first time, smaller indie teams could actually afford to use one of the more powerful game engines on the market.

Yesterday, on the first day of GDC 2015, Epic announced that UE4 would now be free for development purposes. The $19/month subscription fee would henceforth be dropped. Anyone who had already sent in their fee for next month would be reimbursed, and those who had been actively subscribing to the service would receive $30 of free credit to UE4's asset store. Anyone wanting to download and use UE4 can do so simply by signing up at UE4's website, no further charges.

The 5% royalties to Epic are still in place for monetized projects. If you make some decent money off of a game you make with UE4, Epic will still be taking their cut. But if you just want to grab UE4 and learn how to make some games, there is now zero out-of-pocket cost. This is a huge boon to the indie and hobbyist communities. One more barrier to entry has vanished, and people looking to try their hand at game making have another powerful tool at their disposal.

 
Wow, that's pretty cool.  Even the 5% royalty seems pretty small.  Probably way too advanced for me at the moment, but I will probably try to work my way up to it.  They probably want to compete with Unity.  

 
It was a very smart move for Unreal to go free. I am going to try UE4 for a 2D style game because I absolutely love the level editor I seen of UE4.

My biggest hurdle right now is art. I guess part of the problem is I need some type of art to make a practice game. Does anyone know of any good free 2D asset packs I can use for testing purposes?

 
Sir_Fragalot said:
My biggest hurdle right now is art. I guess part of the problem is I need some type of art to make a practice game. Does anyone know of any good free 2D asset packs I can use for testing purposes?
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Sorry, but no. I'm a graphic designer by training, so I've always handled my game art myself. If you're not confident in your art, going with programmer art is usually a good move, especially for testing purposes. Simple shapes with basic shaders attached to them should give you everything you need to get basic gameplay down. You can always swap them out with animated sprites later.

Art and final-pass polish always takes up the most time and expense for game development. If at all possible, you shouldn't sweat those details early on in the process. Focus on basic graphical representations that will allow you to provide your players with capable feedback, that's what's important for the time being. A more advanced or artistic graphical presentation can come later.

The news out of GDC this year has been very thrilling. First UE4, than Unity 5, and now even Source 2! It's a free-to-develop game engine extravaganza! And all of the VR news has also been thrilling. It's going to be a productive year for hobbyist developers. We're finally spoiled for choice on the tools we get to use!

 
I've been hard at work on my lip-sync project every night for the past week. And I've made lots of progress. It's been slow going, but very steady. Every night I learn new tricks. Last night, I even rolled up my sleeves and started in on some of the art I needed to make. So I finally have something visual I can share...

sml_gallery_100232_8572_20187.png


It's a 3D model of a kitty cat that I sculpted! It's a bit of a rough sculpt, I didn't spend all that much time on it. And my 3D modeling skills are very rusty. But I'm going to be using retopology to produce a lower-resolution of it for in-game use anyhow. The sculpt is just to serve as a base, and for some minor normal mapping. The final version is going to be used to animate various phrases.

 
Richard Kain said:
The news out of GDC this year has been very thrilling. First UE4, than Unity 5, and now even Source 2! It's a free-to-develop game engine extravaganza! And all of the VR news has also been thrilling. It's going to be a productive year for hobbyist developers. We're finally spoiled for choice on the tools we get to use!
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Did you attend GDC? If so, any tips for a first-timer attending next year?

 
Lieutenant Dan said:
Did you attend GDC? If so, any tips for a first-timer attending next year?
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I did not get to go this year. But I did get to attend on an Expo pass several years ago. Pack light, wear really comfortable shoes, bring a jacket, but also bring a way to store the jacket. (San Fran can get extremely cold with all the wind, but the inside of the conference center can get warm) You might be tempted to pick up a lot of the swag, but don't. A little swag here and there is fine, especially if its something nice, but you'll just be toting a bunch of extra weight around if you try to get everything. Also, the people presenting look down their noses a little at swag hounds. They'll take you a little more seriously if you listen to them, and don't immediately ask about the swag.

Talk to everyone. One of the big positives about an event like this is to establish relationships. Don't be shy, and ask as many questions as you like. Most of the people attending there for business are supposed to be answering questions, and most of them are going to want to talk about what they're presenting anyway. It's not going to be hard to strike up a conversation with pretty much anyone. If you go on an Expo pass, you'll be limited on how many panels you can attend, so a lot of your time there will be on the show floor. You should spend a significant amount of that time talking to a bunch of different people.

I'm hoping to be able to attend next year. It all depends on my job situation.

 
I finished this prototype last week: http://reinfeldx.itch.io/hey-aliens-get-off-my-gram-gram

Have been meaning to throw this on Kongregate as I don't think Itch gets a lot of discovery traffic.

It's a reworking of an old Scatch project using Unity. My first time digging into the tool and doing any significant programming. Used C# and really enjoyed it. Would love to get some criticism or feedback of any kind, positive or negative.

I'm itching to ramp up a second project. The trick is setting a bite-sized goal that I can learn from!

 
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Lieutenant Dan said:
I finished this prototype last week: http://reinfeldx.itch.io/hey-aliens-get-off-my-gram-gram

Have been meaning to throw this on Kongregate as I don't think Itch gets a lot of discovery traffic.

It's a reworking of an old Scatch project using Unity. My first time digging into the tool and doing any significant programming. Used C# and really enjoyed it. Would love to get some criticism or feedback of any kind, positive or negative.

I'm itching to ramp up a second project. The trick is setting a bite-sized goal that I can learn from!
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That was awesome! I love the voice acting. I rated three toasted cheese sandwiches.

 
Sir_Fragalot said:
So I was wondering, since I just bought a Game Stick for $20, what is the best or at least few good options for Android game development? I know Unity is there but I am looking at either a full 2D game or a top down game that has the same 2D top down style as Zelda games.
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It's been a couple of months since you posted this, but I'm going to strongly recommend Libgdx if you like working with Java. It's a very popular, cross-platform, easy-to-use library which runs on PC, Android, and some others. The cross-platform features are really great: you generally don't have to change a single line of code to deploy to a new platform, aside from updating a few platform-specific configuration files.

 
For the past two weeks, I've been revisiting a Unity component I had been working on for automatically calculating and rendering aspect ratios, as well as the letterboxing that goes along with them. I'm much more experienced at Unity this time around, and yesterday I finished all of the main features.

Tonight, I figured how to use ShadowPlay to record a quick tutorial video. Why didn't anyone tell me about this ShadowPlay beta thing?! NVidia basically put out a free version of FRAPS that kicks most other video capture software in the testicles! True, you do have to have an NVidia 600+ card to install and run it. But my gaming rig was already rocking dual GTX 660s in SLI, so no problems there. ShadowPlay is basically the video capture software I've always dreamed of, and it comes by default with my 3D card!

 
Richard Kain said:
Tonight, I figured how to use ShadowPlay to record a quick tutorial video. Why didn't anyone tell me about this ShadowPlay beta thing?! NVidia basically put out a free version of FRAPS that kicks most other video capture software in the testicles! True, you do have to have an NVidia 600+ card to install and run it. But my gaming rig was already rocking dual GTX 660s in SLI, so no problems there. ShadowPlay is basically the video capture software I've always dreamed of, and it comes by default with my 3D card!
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What were you using before ShadowPlay? Know of any good software that does internal audio + video capture at the same time?

I stumbled on this today: Qubicle. Was used by the Crossy Road devs for their art assets. I'm in love. Super-easy to create voxel models.

 
Lieutenant Dan said:
What were you using before ShadowPlay? Know of any good software that does internal audio + video capture at the same time?

I stumbled on this today: Qubicle. Was used by the Crossy Road devs for their art assets. I'm in love. Super-easy to create voxel models.
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I was always trying to configure one open-source screen capture solution or another. None of them ever worked particularly well. I used FRAPS a few times in the past, but it always drastically killed performance. ShadowPlay is easily the best video screen-capture program I've ever used. It captures audio from whatever you're running, and even gives you the option of providing microphone narration while you're recording. It's everything I've needed.

 
Anyone have any recommendations for free project management software?  Self-hosted or otherwise.

I'm looking for something really basic: just organizable to-do lists and perhaps commenting, in a nice interface.  I really like Basecamp, but $20/month adds up quickly, and I don't need or use 90+% of the features.  The free ("classic") version of Basecamp is my best option right now, but the limit of one project at a time is sometimes a pain.

I've tried Trello, but I don't like the organization, with the card system and everything.

 
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Josh1billion said:
Anyone have any recommendations for free project management software? Self-hosted or otherwise.
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Sorry man, I've never really used project management software. I usually play it by ear. A bit slap-dash, but I'm not trying to do this professionally at the moment.

Going has been a little slow over the past week or so for my lip-sync project. However, I have been keeping it steady, working on it diligently at least a little bit each day. This past week, I worked on being able to load and parse external data files. It's a bit of a chore to do that, but it makes the plug-in less reliant on just one lip-syncing solution. It's good for people to have a few different options.

Papagayo turned out to be the hardest text-file format to support. Papagayo is a fairly basic lip-sync timing tool released by Lost Marble, the company behind Anime Studio. It's not as fast as the command-line program I'm using in my plug-in, but it's reasonably easy to work with, it's free, and it's cross-platform. (so Mac developers can use it) So I really wanted to be able to give users the option of importing those files if they wanted to. Their file format is not designed for easy parsing, so I had to do a few mental back-flips to get it working properly. But where there's a will, there's a way.

 
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