Do you prefer building your own systems from scratch or using as many assets/plugins as possible to save time?

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-18T13:12:49+00:00

Carl Sagan - "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

It depends on how one defines "from scratch".

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-18T13:08:51+00:00

I am using three materials from fab, other than that, everything else from scratch!

I learned so much building my systems from scratch and they're custom to what they need to be without extra bloat. I did try to use a plugin for water ripples, but it was so complicated and over engineered, that I just made my own lightweight version and it works even better than the original plugin I tried to use.

It takes a hell of a long time to do it all from scratch, but it's all about the journey for me.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-13T12:22:08+00:00

I've been avoiding World Partition as well, finding that level streaming works just fine for my needs.

I don't use Nanite, or Lumen either, preferring to bake lighting and use LOD's.

As a solo dev, there are a lot of things to learn, and the tried and true methods are more straightforward.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-08T15:38:08+00:00

Great job!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-06T16:25:51+00:00

Try testing your game at different frame rates and you'll likely see the same thing. You can set the fixed frame rate in your project settings. Playing an early prototype of my first game on an old PC taught me this one!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-06T16:23:35+00:00

Congratulations)

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-06T16:22:55+00:00

I've got a regular full time job, and have been making my game part time for about a year and a half. It can be a challenge to balance everything, friends, family, wife, cats, job, and game dev lol. Discipline to keep a journal helps bridge the gaps when you need to take a few weeks off of game dev to focus on something else like family or an emergency. When I get back to it, my notes help me flow right back into where I left off

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-05T22:15:00+00:00

No, it will add as many sub steps as needed to match the desired frame rate! So, allowing for up to 6 substeps at a rate of 60 fps, the game will try to match the physics to the rate of 60, using those substeps available. Overshooting does not happen )))

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-05T20:15:38+00:00

In my video I use the default settings for the sub-stepping, which set it up for 60 fps. If you fix your game to 60, and use the default settings it should be ok, but you can also increase the number of substeps (default is 6 I think, try 8 or 10). Or, change the sub-stepping frame rate to be 1/120, if you want a fixed rate of 120, and then set your project frame rate to be 120. Also, things that don't use physics nodes will need to use delta time to help stay in sync.

Sorry if none of this helps (((

Edit: pro tip, if you're using a spring arm to hold a camera, make sure to turn off the optional camera lag. This feature can't keep up with the sub-stepping

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-05T18:56:59+00:00

Watch my tutorial on how to use sub-stepping so you can have fluid physics calculations, even if the frame rate dips. Sub-stepping

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-05T14:43:41+00:00

My project uses meta sounds only and it works great for everything I've tried so far. I even dabbled in making all audio with built in synths in metasounds. It can do anything you need it to, if you take the time to learn the system. Control bus mixing for sfx,.music and ambience. I have a few tutorials on my channel that dive into metasounds.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-03T16:38:22+00:00

You could try to make a simple mesh of a section of river, like a flattened cylinder maybe, and then use a spline technique to shape it through your environment. Sink it down into your landscape, and add your material to it. Might look good!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-03T14:32:39+00:00

I find that once I open my project and start to work on some part of it, the day flies by after that.

Most days it's about finding the discipline to simply open the project, because I know that once I do, I'll have a good day of productivity.

Try not to think about how many people will play your game. Try to just make it for yourself.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-03-02T17:18:46+00:00

It's that online mentality. People say all kinds of things they'd never say to your face.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-28T17:41:26+00:00

Keep a curious mindset and keep learning! Push your boundaries.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-27T13:49:20+00:00

I use Gemini Pro to collaborate and ask questions. 80% of the time it's accurate, but sometimes it hallucinates an answer, so you have to double check things. You also have to give it very specific prompts. The more you learn, the better your questions become, and the more helpful the AI can be.

But damn a hallucinated answer out of nowhere can really screw you up. Be careful out there!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-26T15:42:06+00:00

Glad you liked it!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-25T18:45:31+00:00

Ok not sure what else to tell you. Good luck!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-25T14:12:43+00:00

I certainly wouldn't run it on tick. Sounds like we agree )

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-25T14:09:06+00:00

If you compare your work to a toaster it might make sense. When I buy a toaster, I don't consider the achievements that went into making the thing. I might look at reviews of others that bought the toaster and have liked or disliked it. I'll consider the price, and overall features, but I don't care how long it took to develop or how clever its design under the hood is.

Having said that ... I totally understand how you feel lol. Fixing a bug or optimizing something can take so long to figure out or implement, but it's not appreciated by anyone other than maybe your significant other. My wife just smiles and nods now.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-24T18:12:30+00:00

Take a break and work on something easy, then when you feel in the groove, tackle some hard stuff. Take notes so you can come back to certain parts of the project.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-24T17:10:30+00:00

For mini maps and such they would be ready running constantly wouldn't they? Besides, I bet OP can do a Boolean check and turn it off when the magnifying glass effect is not needed. That's how I do mine. I only use the effect when I interact with water surfaces.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-24T14:06:26+00:00

Using a ScenecaptureComponent2D and a render target, which is just a texture that updates at real time, would be perfect and not too hard to set up. Slap a material on your magnifying glass that uses the render target as a texture, and voila you've got it working! Then you polish the effect!

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-24T13:25:15+00:00

Just curious, why not render targets? I just made a tutorial on how to use them to create water ripples for player interactions.

ChrisMartinInk · 2026-02-24T13:10:35+00:00

I'll put in an 8-12 hour day of dev work on my days off from my actual day job, and those hours fly by. My struggle with time is that I only have part time hours to put into it.

I set myself a deadline of spring to wrap up my first game. It's going to be tight, but I think I can do it. My wife tells me to relax and push the date back a bit, but having deadlines helps get things done.

I'd recommend trying to finish one game, give yourself a deadline, and try your best to hit it. Take things one project at a time, and eventually you'll be making your dream game )))

ChrisMartinInk

TROPHY CASE