Simon Kandah

And back to single-player projects, well never expected I would be jumping between so many types and genres for my studies. This one is mostly focused on a point-and-click movement controller. With my current system setup, the left mouse button is mostly focused on movement and interaction, whereas the right mouse button is focused on combat and attacking. Currently, there are no attacks set up yet, however, I have made it so that the RMB will interact with objects tagged as Enemy only as opposed to the ground layer for movement on the LMB, this also includes setting different stopping distances between the two actions. The RMB stopping distance is determined by the attacking range of the player, which the weapon would later on determine typed that the player has equipped. I have also set it up so that the player would follow the target selected by the RMB action, however, this can be canceled via the LMB action, I have not yet implemented the enemy response to being attacked, however, I have started setting up the states for it within the NPC controller script. Mostly I am planning to have two different states for NPCs that are being attacked, one that would fight to the death, and another that would fight up to a certain percentage of HP and then attempt to flee from the player. #studentGameDev #madeWithUnity #indieGameDev #gameDev

2

Yea... I know I haven't being consistent in posting my progress on the UE market place projects. 😫 This the semi final summary of the project on Unreal Engine Link to ful project: https://lnkd.in/eMX6W7jT

2

We are underway with our next assignment, which is local split-screen multiplayer. I had thought there would be far more complex systems for creating a split-screen game, however, it turns out it is fairly easy when using the new input system with its built-in input manager. There was no need to set up any special coding for managing the two cameras separately, or a need to set up different render planes to render each camera to an individual render texture, just select the allow split-screen option and set up keys in the control map as joining actions. And enable the option to join the game via said actions. And then we have a split-screen multiplayer, well a very basic one, now we need to focus on the rest of the systems and mechanics that need to be added to the system. #srudentgamedev #indiegamedev #madewithunity

1

Hey folks ! I've been putting in place a small proof of concept / example on how you can use the Python remote execution in Unreal, to link a DCC ( in that case, Houdini ) and Unreal. 🎞 Here is the video: https://lnkd.in/eKir8JyC In this example, I apply a very simple hda on a selected asset(s) in the content browser directly (no Houdini engine involved here). It runs a hython session under the hood to process the hda, spawn an UI blueprint widget to show the progress of the process and automatically closes it when done. See a quick summary of the pipeline in the attached picture 😊. I'm thinking about maybe doing a in depth tutorial on how to do it with a more complex example, how to set up the pipeline as well as customizing the command and its parameters. If you'd be interested in that, let me know in the comments !😊 ⬇ #unreal #python #pipeline #videogamedev #houdini

240

17 Comments

Hi, Do you want to go back in time to see where the animation layers or the speed curve we have in Maya are coming from? This is the Motion Warping paper from 1995. As usual the code is available on Github : https://lnkd.in/euwivcux @python @gamedev @animation3d @gameprogramming @animation

51

2 Comments

What do Lethal Company, Skyrim, Helldivers 2 all have in common? They are designed to be broken. Dig into what this even means in my recent video, which you can find on my channel here: https://lnkd.in/gDPk_8E6

24

5 Comments

Animating with Cascadeur: Physics-based animation software is pretty wild. That’s 8 keyframes there. The one on the right is my first rough animation “Keyframe prompt” and the green dude on the left is the interpretation.

31

3 Comments

For my current scene, I had to choose between different types of wind, the Pivot Painter, Speedtree Game (.st9) or UE (.st). After several tests, the Speedtree UE (.st) seems the most interesting in terms of rendering/performance. There's still room for improvement, but the basis is there and already solid. I can't wait to work on the other planned biomes! 😀 #wip #unrealengine #speedtree #wind #vfx #ginkgo #forest #ghostoftsushima #inspired #scene #fanart

212

6 Comments

Fog of War. Turns out there are lots of ways to achieve the effect so we are going to be exploring a bunch of them. Todays stream has it all, materials, blueprints, blueprint interfaces used to create the "cheat" cutout version for your top down or side scroller style (more ways to do this coming for sure). https://lnkd.in/gTdnpTu5

26

1 Comment

Which game engine should you choose for your game? Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 game engines in 2024: 1. Unreal Engine 🔹 Complexity: High 🔹 Price: $$ 🔹 Pros: AAA graphics, photorealistic rendering, robust tools. 🔹 Cons: Steep learning curve, not optimized for low-end devices. 🔹 Best for high-end 3D games on PC and consoles. 2. Unity 🔹 Complexity: Medium 🔹 Price: $$$ 🔹 Pros: Versatile 2D/3D support, cross-platform deployment, huge asset store. 🔹 Cons: High licensing fees, some features gated. 🔹 Best for indie to mid-size games, mobile, and VR/AR projects. 3. Godot Engine 🔹 Complexity: Low to Medium 🔹 Price: Free 🔹 Pros: Open-source, lightweight, node-based architecture. 🔹 Cons: Limited 3D features, fewer third-party tools. 🔹 Best for indie developers, 2D games, and learning projects. 4. GameMaker 🔹 Complexity: Low 🔹 Price: $ 🔹 Pros: Drag-and-drop interface, custom scripting with GML, great for rapid prototyping. 🔹 Cons: Limited for complex games, paid export modules. 🔹 Best for beginners, 2D indie games, and prototyping. 5. Construct 3 🔹 Complexity: Low 🔹 Price: $ 🔹 Pros: Browser-based, no coding required, fast prototyping. 🔹 Cons: Limited customization, harder team collaboration. 🔹Best for hobbyists, educators, and simple 2D projects. 6. Ren’Py 🔹 Complexity: Low 🔹 Price: Free 🔹 Pros: Python-based, simple scripting, open-source. 🔹 Cons: Niche focus, limited graphics for other genres. 🔹 Best for visual novels and interactive stories. 7. Cocos Creator 🔹 Complexity: Medium 🔹 Price: Free 🔹 Pros: Supports multiple languages (C++, Lua, JavaScript), great for mobile. 🔹 Cons: Smaller community, limited 3D capabilities. 🔹 Best for indie developers and mobile 2D games. 8. RPG Maker 🔹 Complexity: Low 🔹 Price: $ 🔹 Pros: No programming required, extensive built-in assets. 🔹 Cons: Limited to RPGs, performance issues with large projects. 🔹 Best for aspiring developers focused on RPGs. 9. CryEngine 🔹 Complexity: High 🔹 Price: $$$ 🔹 Pros: Advanced graphics and physics. 🔹 Cons: Minimal updates, heavy system requirements. 🔹 Best for high-fidelity 3D games (consider Unreal as an alternative). 10. Phaser 🔹 Complexity: Low 🔹 Price: Free 🔹 Pros: Lightweight, fast, large community. 🔹 Cons: Requires JavaScript, limited to 2D games. 🔹Best for 2D browser-based games and HTML5 projects. -------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. Which game engine do you prefer and why?

246

40 Comments

Bit late talking about this one but huge news coming from 343 Industries, both a re-brand to Halo Studios and confirmation that they are switching development to Unreal. 🗞️ This comes off the back of 343's struggles with development of Halo: Infinite. We've seen many other studios move away from their own engines to Unreal, notably CD Projekt Red! Are proprietary engines going out fashion? 🤔 For those who have worked on both proprietary engines and Unreal, what have you found to be the key advantages of working with Unreal? #gamedev #unreal #halo

11

Good post - talks about engineers killing solutions based on biases. This isn’t specific to engineers, I’ve found. Game designers can use this kind of thinking to shut anything down too. Game design combines both art and science. Either of which can be weaponized against new ideas. It’s destructive and unhelpful in achieving the design goals. It’s very easy to kill new ideas - they must be protected and the designer allowed to experiment and yes possibly FAIL to obtain value. Everyone should learn from failure - designers need to know why they failed so they can propose all new ways to fail. Oh, and the good news? If you didn’t fail, you just might have something brand new no one else has, with value to the right players! The best possible outcome to surprise and delight them with. “Oh, we tried that, it doesn’t work.” “Pfft no one will think that’s fun!” “But (edge case x, y, z) might happen!” “(other dismissive personal value judgment)” Support your designers. They won’t always get it right, because if they are doing their jobs right they shouldn’t be.

32

7 Comments

Hey folks ! Back from from a wee holiday🌴, I took a bit of time to package a Unreal project example, which gathers what is needed for the generation of the PCG data asset from Houdini that I showed in my previous post: https://lnkd.in/ey7XmmSg Feel free to have a look here: https://lnkd.in/eXaqNTx5 And direct link to the zip file: https://lnkd.in/ebjiaS2E The Houdini data (digital asset, python module and hip file) are located in the Houdini sub folder. You can open the uproject (Unreal 5.4) and you'll see a short description of the project and where to find the needed data ( blueprint etc. ). The hip file has also few comments to explains how it works. I might update the project with other example in the futur, don't hesitate to star the github depot 😀.

60

1 Comment

Sumo Digital Ltd acquired Pipeworks Studios for $100M in 2021 and made Timbre Games a part of it, but now Timbre will shut down as SUMO wants to be future-ready. Yet again, a studio falls prey to closure while in the middle of developing two games, one an ARPG and the other a sim-like RPG. And to be fair, RPGs require a lot of effort to build. But by the looks of it, Timbre possessed a strong group of talent who could’ve easily accomplished these RPGs, so it’s hard to imagine how they are feeling after putting in years of hard work only to lose all of it. In addition, they were on a mission to build a world-class network of game studios across Canada. It's hard to digest that more and more studios are being forced to quit crafting their video games every day. Support for the game devs is much needed, in fact, now more than ever! So, I am back to highlight a few of the folks who were impacted with an intent to support and bring visibility from recruiters. Kat Neale — A Women in Games ambassador who was Timbre’s Principal Gameplay Designer. Kat is an excellent team player because if you check out her feed, she has been supporting her team nonstop since the closure by reposting jobs and resources. Before Timbre, she worked for Blackbird Interactive as an Associate Game Director on an unannounced title and Homeworld 3. Zach Williams — He was Timbre’s Lead Core Gameplay Designer and has shipped 17 titles in his 14 years of experience in the industry. Before Timbre, he worked for renowned studios like Relic Entertainment, Smoking Gun Interactive, and BlackBird Interactive. Emmalyn Rynard — A Materials Artist for Timbre Games, Emmalyn also has experience developing VR games and prototypes for Oculus Quest. Her love for 3D drove her to become a 3D Artist, making her skilled in modelling, texturing and lighting. Jonas Roth — The Principal Software Engineer of Timbre Games with a hardcore 15 years of software engineering experience. Before Timbre, he was Offworld Industries’ Principal Software Engineer working on Starship Troopers. Jaclyn Adair — Another Women in Games Ambassador from Timbre Games who was their Lead Talent Acquisition Partner. Previous to Timbre, she was also Beamdog’s Technical Recruiter who helped ship their title, Mythforce. Yan Chatel — A bomb Level Designer who has worked on titles like Far Cry 5 & 6, For Honor, Transformers: Beyond Reality, and Hitman: Sniper. He has worked for studios like Rovio, Ubisoft, Compulsion Games, and The Sandbox. #layoffsupport

337

19 Comments

Creating games is very difficult. And building games is challenging. The process of build requires to compile the code and all the data required in the game in a specific sequence involving many dependencies. As such monitoring the outcome is essential, but not sufficent. What if we were able to predict the outcome of a build ? What if we were able to decrease the required computing resources while increasing our iteration capability ? #Ubisoft #Ubisoftlaforge #innovation

80

I finally found the time to create and share something that has been on my backlog for a while! I often encounter confusion (my own included) when trying to use math to develop more efficient solutions than simply relying on built-in tools in 3D software. In particular, this post dives into object orientation in Maya—a task that can range from straightforward to quite complex. I understand how hard it can be to approach this kind of problem without a strong technical background, but solving these challenges programmatically can provide much greater control and performance. It’s definitely time well spent, and your workflow will improve significantly as a result. I’ve provided both the code and a brief (though not exhaustive) introduction to key linear algebra concepts. I hope this helps shed some light on the topic and offers clarity in an area that can often seem tricky. A special thanks to Marco D'Ambros — without his patience, I would still be a long way from understanding any of these concepts! Any feedback is more than welcome.

93

In the past, I've often seen PvP projects developed by teams that typically use ELO as their primary matchmaking solution.📝 This always seemed a bit as a risky choice because ELO is certainly a great system, but it was created for other purposes. 🌟First of all, good things about it (in games): — It can work and cover a couple of MM basic requirements — For games with 1vs1 PvP, with some custom adjustments, ELO can work really good But in my opinion when MM systems are going to design & development phases, it should be built based on detailed requirements from the game perspective. Otherwise it may be hard to adapt games and ELO to each other, to make it work really well. 🔖What else is important to consider when there is a task to make ELO-based MM (or similar system): — If the game is about a bigger format than 1vs1, it should be handled in some way by additional logic (e.g. based on weighted averages). — Some calibration mechanics can be useful. Because some players can be very good from the start or learn to be that way very fast. — Rating “degradation” through inactivity time could be handy. Some players may leave the game with a high rating and return to it when they forgot how to play at the same level. — Some kind of “Seasons” with rating downscaling at the start (in proportional way) may be useful. — Custom rules for onboarding of new players. For example, average rating gain at the start could be higher than zero. It will help to differentiate layers with players of different skill levels. — If the game is based not only on the skill, but on the power progression as well, it also should be handled (e.g. in the form of the gearscore, affecting the ELO rating in direct or indirect form). ⚒️At the end of design, it is helpful to ask yourself: is the final system transparent and flexible enough? Is it easy to operate? After reflection about these questions some simplification needs could appear in your head. Or some other rating systems may be taken into consideration.

12

10 Comments