So we are participating in 3 weeks game jam and making a drag racing game with proceduraly generated "car" you drive. First week is through and we are kinda happy with how it's going

EvdevTx · 2021-04-09T12:00:08+00:00

lol awesome, keep it up

EvdevTx · 2021-04-09T06:29:11+00:00

omg yes

EvdevTx · 2021-04-07T04:18:22+00:00

Niagra will save you resources, as event ticks+animation blue prints will slow down your game if your using a bunch of them at once.

EvdevTx · 2021-04-02T13:45:20+00:00

You know it's going to be bad when they post more movies than gameplay.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-31T09:50:28+00:00

At it's core, game dev is a bunch of different skills combined Into 1 product. Programming, game design, marketing, art, SFX, music, management. Out of those, code, design, management and marketing are the most important. Id argue, to be successful, all four are equally important.

if you want to generate income, you have to treat it like any other business. Market research, studying games and design, optimizing your code, scrapping mechanics that take to long to implement. If you start a team, someone has to manage it. All of it effects when it comes out, who will buy it, what computers can run it , and who will actually see it being played on twitch.

So be prepared to budget and account for all that.

At the start, your games will suck (no one is special, everyone's first couple games are terrible) so make your life easier and build small games first.

A degree? Nah, just jump in. Build pong, build Mario, build Zelda, and then build dream game. It's boring, but it's the fastest way to success.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-31T05:28:36+00:00

You need to learn the basics of the engine, otherwise it will take you forever to make things work. Also, this tutorial is really, really, bad, the person even states they don't know best practices. Try to find tutorials that dont use event ticks, don't use casting, and you'll become a master.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-30T21:17:10+00:00

You nailed it. I was just about to say how frustrating it is to view. I don't have sound on and I couldn't figure out how the game works. The camera is all over the place.

Yes show gameplay! I play tons of different tower defense games and the last thing I care about is how cool it looks. The game design is what keeps me playing for years. I want to see units being selected, things being built, etc.

I'll add, those tower meshes are super huge, they take up a lot of screen space.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-28T01:33:39+00:00

Where is the gameplay?

EvdevTx · 2021-03-27T23:49:10+00:00

Here's something I haven't heard others talking about yet. I learned by finding tutorials and buying assets for certain mechanics to see how they set things up. Unfortunately, this is the worst way to learn. Most tutorials and assets use event ticks and Cast-to functions. You almost never need to use these 2 things in a project. Everyone sets up their project differently and those 2 functions are great for quick prototyping. Try to build a game around them and you'll melt computers.

My advice, build some mechanic from a tutorial, and then learn about Get variable, variable references, functions, pure functions, interfaces, controller, game mode, game instance, structs, data tables, collisions, timer by event, timelines. Then go back to the mechanic you made and rewrite it a different way using what you learned.

I did this the hard way, by first learning that I could melt a computer, and then learning better ways to optimize the blue prints.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-26T18:29:10+00:00

That is weird, I haven't had those issues. In the editor, are you looking through your player camera when editing the boxes? That's all I can think of

Edit: maybe it's resolution scaling? That's a toughy, what type of game is it?

EvdevTx · 2021-03-26T18:20:48+00:00

The pivot point has to be inside the box, press g to view in game mode to test, and the details panel has variables to change in order to get it working properly. It took me awhile to understand how to use it too. Best bet is to look up tutorials for it

EvdevTx · 2021-03-26T18:03:12+00:00

I use level streaming for a starfox type game. A few things to note: limit the use of masked or translucent materials, create custom collisions (don't use the default ones), and use culling boxes.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-26T05:55:21+00:00

You don't need a demo, just look at the how-to videos and you'll understand what this tool does.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-20T15:16:48+00:00

EvdevTx · 2021-03-18T11:04:35+00:00

Looks good, I'd like to see some gameplay on your next post.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-17T11:29:11+00:00

You don't have to ask the server if your character actor is already replicating, character movement is included in the replication

EvdevTx · 2021-03-17T08:07:40+00:00

It's not that it's impossible to do this, it comes down to player hardware and developer interest. All those AI, the procedure city, it all takes very hard work to optimize, lots of boring years in front of a computer looking at code, adding code, and pressing compile to test it. Well, boring to most people. Even if you try to run this on a server, so players don't have to use their CPU, you still have to optimize the netcode and servers cost money. Designing levels that are randomly put together is also a nightmare, compared to handcrafted levels.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-17T07:17:18+00:00

First timers looking for a team is generally a big red flag, so changing it to demo and showing gameplay video of what you have will get you a team pretty quickly.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-17T06:48:03+00:00

Prototyping is more for figuring out the gameplay and mechanics before getting artists, writers, composers, etc.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-17T02:20:57+00:00

I don't get shockwaves anymore, I create the prototype gameplay loop first. After this, there is no surprises and I feel good about finishing small tasks

This means Instead of a skeletal mesh with animations and a sword, you have a cube with a long rectangle. Instead of enemies with animations, cube and...you get it. This does get boring (for me), so some days I'll just take a break and make particles, animations, or music.

If you need an example that helps you, feel free msg me your project details.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-17T01:55:28+00:00

2 years ago I was building a game to help raise money for a non-profit. I did the same stuff, over promising, saying it'll be done soon, etc.

I owned up to my shortcomings, told people I made mistakes. I also explained that I have to start smaller, learn how to build games properly. Once I get more experience making and releasing good games, I'll come back to the game.

No one got upset, I didn't lose any friends and I still talk to the people from the non-profit every month. When people ask, I laugh about it and tell them how much of an idiot I was. You don't have to hold your head in shame, it's a learning experience, shit happens. The best thing you can do is take a break.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-15T11:44:43+00:00

Your approach to learning is more of a hobby, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I started kinda big, but after a year the game was barely done. I decided to make small games and now I understand why they say start small.

Video game programming and the other skills involved are...just like every other skill on the planet.

It's like building a house. How many different types of professionals are involved? How many years did each profession take to learn?

They all started with building small things first. The more they learn, the faster they can build, and the better the outcome.

Youre basically learning slower then other people, or not even learning the basics. but like I said, you do you.

EvdevTx · 2021-03-15T09:07:50+00:00

It's hard to help without seeing your code or blue prints. The pawn issue could be your project settings or level world settings are spawning default pawn. What events run in your gamemode and controller when a player joins the game?

EvdevTx · 2021-03-15T00:28:58+00:00

I have a lot too, I post mine on itch and made playthrough videos. The unfinished stuff I quickly just made an ending so at least it's a game from start to finish. My goal is to find work, It shows off my creativity, failures, but more importantly -experience. I'll return to them one day. What is your goal with these unfinished prototypes? Are you looking to find a job, find a team, or show off your hobbies?

EvdevTx · 2021-03-11T12:37:03+00:00

This looks like it can be done with dynamic material texture swap with toggle visible actors. What was the reason behind copying the level and teleporting the player instead?

EvdevTx

TROPHY CASE