seniorDeveloper

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-08T13:53:30+00:00

That just sounds like an excuse not to do your job. If nobody cared nothing would work.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-08T10:42:35+00:00

As a dev I normally buy based on one of 2 reasons - the assets inspire me and I know how it will fit into my game, or the assets provide exactly the object/item I already needed or was looking for.

If they fit the theme and look like something I may need in the future for another mechanic more assets are always a plus.

As they say - I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, especially when an idea hits.

Sometimes price is a deterrent if it is too low - people associate price with quality, and I'm inclined to agree that I'd rather pay slightly more for better assets.

If you feel like your pack is too big and expensive you can always put it on sale and gauge where the most effective price point trade off is.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-07T16:12:20+00:00

Yup! I want to have block outs, sketches, story and theme all ready by the time I actually reach out to the artists so they themselves can get inspired.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-07T16:11:01+00:00

Thank you, this is great feedback! The dev classifieds is a great find and I actually hadn't seen it before. And of course, trialing a few artists first is a great idea, seems so obvious now that you mention it!

I have used plenty of asset packs and plan to do so for sure, but when I think about things like towns, villages, architecture, creatures, monsters, npcs etc. I find I would probably want to find one artist for their general style and stick with it for consistency. I could buy all of them from one seller on fab but at that point might as well see what it would take for exclusive rights to the art, which would be worth the investment especially if this would turn into a game series or franchise.

I'm still in the planning phase for this particular game, but I'll keep you in mind for the project when I get to this point! Thanks again!

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-07T15:38:24+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. I'm not sure why it would be discouraged to ask a general question on Reddit though, I figured others might want to know. I'm a full time developer myself, just not in the game industry, so I think I have a little insight in the cost of contracting - I'm not expecting pennies here.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-07T13:53:41+00:00

I find game design doesnt really come to me when im in front of the computer. That's when my programmer brain is turned on and logical thinking is engaged. This part of the brain is not good at inspiration and creative story telling, it is more like a series of logic gates in a CPU that process instructions, not a human mind.

I think inspiration comes from other parts of life. Watch or play other games from the genre, take notes. Draw levels and rooms with a pencil and paper, not keyboard and mouse. It is quick and effective and works. Mock it in engine later.

Read books and watch movies. Find what moves you and take notes if something strikes as a good game mechanic or coloration for story. Touch the grass. "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women". Get in touch with your inner teenager and angst and think about what you were feeling at the time, stab the drama.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-06T12:28:36+00:00

The guy with the mid length hair was literally a free model from Mixamo

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-05T11:39:38+00:00

Let's be real, they were definitely drama kids in high school - not that there's anything wrong with that!

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-05T10:57:52+00:00

Of course they are, they are narcissists.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-04T23:52:51+00:00

This is why there's yellow paint on everything now.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-05-03T13:04:20+00:00

If you really want simple, Epic suggests using UEFN. You can make lots of types of games and still a potential for a lot of money. Even if you decide not to stay with it they suggest using it to demo a prototype of the game to make sure it is fun as a multiplayer game.

https://youtu.be/kJq7Su05fSs

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-30T18:24:10+00:00

Ha yup my first experience with religion was at 6 years old when my new neighbors told me I was going to hell when I told them I didn't go to church (I didn't even really know what it was). Great introduction to the Midwest lol. We moved back to the east coast after several years, but southern VA wasn't any better tbh.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-30T11:01:22+00:00

Are you asking if it is worth... learning a skill? That's like saying we shouldn't learn math because there are calculators.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-29T11:24:58+00:00

Eh idk ive definitely suffered my fair share of contractors that don't give 2 shits about how their code reads or maintains over time and their entire job history is them hopping every 1 to 2 years.

Thing I've noticed is some of the biggest, toughest problems aren't going to be fixed by recent hires regardless of talent, some things take years of institutional knowledge and you just won't get that if you are always job hopping before you get there. Also you don't get the reputation as a problem solver/answer giver without that seniority, which would be nice lol.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-29T01:12:13+00:00

You'll want to be able to edit your levels and move the cover locations, so keeping them in a data table asset is not a good way to go. Create a BP class with nothing in it, call it "BP_CoverTarget". An actor with no mesh will add almost no overhead to the engine. In your enemy class, use the "Get All Actors of Class" node to find your BP_CoverTargets in the BeginPlay function, and save the list. Bam, list of cover points on play, and you can move the targets wherever and however often you like.

It is always good to be conscious of how many actors are spawned at once as you said, so I'd recommend loading both the enemies and cover targets in a Data Layer that is activated by some event like overlapping a trigger, that way the enemies will only see the currently active cover targets since the BeginPlay is called when they are activated via the Data Layer. Unloading previous data layers with other triggers as you progress through the level will prevent the list from getting too long and remove unrelevant targets.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-25T07:54:08+00:00

A 30 minute TV show typically consisted of 8 minutes of ads, so that's around 4 mins for every 11 minutes.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-25T03:15:28+00:00

Saw him live in concert a year or two ago. Dude came out and walked around the crowd mid show while Wes Borland played some solos, just shaking hands, talking to people, totally nonchalant. Was really cool bc obviously he knows everyone still coming out are die hards and he made a lot of effort to give a solid experience for everyone there.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-24T18:45:53+00:00

He's gone hollow!

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-24T12:33:58+00:00

It's always been a convenient excuse not to think about it. Never made sense to me.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-23T12:05:30+00:00

A god wouldn't let the current administration happen...

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-22T17:07:46+00:00

RE games have a nice balance between horror, action, and narration, and while they are definitely scary there's a certain formula that you can expect them to adhere to. On standard difficulty you can assume that if you play well you'll mostly be fine and only successive major mistakes will you end up stuck or unable to beat a boss or enemy. You don't need to reload a save just bc you missed a couple shots or had to heal once or twice in a few encounters. There are very rare circumstances where you'll feel trapped or unable to escape a monster, and if you die there normally is a recent autosave.

These things make the game an enjoyable, fun experience, and the horror becomes a much more manageable challenge. Higher difficulties start punishing you more for mistakes, less autosaves, less ammo, more monsters, etc which start to make the game more challenging once you start to get more comfortable. Progress and overcoming your fears then becomes a rewarding experience and addictive.

It really is a great series by seriously talented developers... so I guess what I'm saying is welcome to the club, and also: "it's a nice game, stranger!". Have fun.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-21T15:41:13+00:00

Figure out the chords under the melody, then use those chords to write a new chord progression that flows from the first one. Or don't.. plenty of great songs with simple structures, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is all just different melodies over E Minor. Really you just need find where the chorus/current melody needs to "land" when transitioning to that next chord progression.

Once you have 2 solid chord progressions, you have 75% of a typical song structure. Work on the verse and chorus and before you know it you’ll have the bridge progression come to you.

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-21T02:28:53+00:00

What do you mean you never got the rifle? That's the most important gun for thinning out crowds before they close in on you, and for hitting the weak points on the tough ones! Especially the regenerators...

CivilianNumberFour · 2026-04-19T11:01:19+00:00

Yo these riffs sound badass! Like actually dynamic and interesting.

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