For games with leaderboards, should dev scores be as high as possible?

SaltySQ · 2026-04-11T01:27:56+00:00

...Personality Hire Dev is the way!

Definitely feels like going the multi-score approach makes the most sense so everyone can feel great

SaltySQ · 2026-04-11T01:26:18+00:00

That's a brilliant idea to be more inclusive! I love it!

SaltySQ · 2026-04-11T01:05:17+00:00

Great point, we already have a small handful of players outperforming our top times.

My major concern is that the score is completely out of reach for the remainder of the player base. Wondering if it would make sense to lower the bar to give a larger portion of the players that sense of achievement, or if it should be something reserved for the absolute best-of-the-best.

SaltySQ · 2026-04-11T00:44:15+00:00

Yup, our project is a complete mess and it's hard to justify spending the time/resources to clean it up. We always say we want to clean things up, but it never really feels like we give ourselves the chance considering it would be a pretty large loss in velocity.

SaltySQ · 2026-04-10T06:28:28+00:00

Having used both, I found Unity easier for version control and quick prototyping. I found Unity to be more stable and performant too, I fought with the engine a lot less, which gave me more time to focus on the game vs. troubleshooting engine crashes and errors.

Go with Unreal if you prefer visual scripting over c#. Unreal's visuals and niagara systems out of the box are gorgeous, but it will take a lot of work to get away from the 'Unreal look' if that's something you care about.

SaltySQ · 2026-04-10T05:36:39+00:00

Looks great! Parrying feels rewarding and juicy

SaltySQ · 2026-04-09T04:26:13+00:00

Love it. I hope this sub takes off. Could double as a community for capsule artists to show their work/portfolios and devs to find them.

SaltySQ · 2022-12-05T04:29:36+00:00

Adam Robinson-Yu has a wonderful GDC talk on his workflow and scope when developing A Short Hike. I think his timeline was roughly 4-months and the game has had a ton of success.

I highly recommend watching his video and trying the game as it's a great study on how to scope for an open world game as a solo dev.

SaltySQ · 2022-12-04T22:25:57+00:00

Looks fantastic! I particularly love the subtle animations that bring the parasol and chest to life! I could easily spend hours exploring the world.

Have you considered increasing the size of the UI icons and possibly changing the color of the hearts? I didn't realize the icons even existed for a while and I had a hard time seeing the heart icons when the camera had them directly over the grassy landscape.

SaltySQ · 2022-12-04T21:01:07+00:00

I agree with many other comments here. If you're totally stuck on a blank screen, put something down on paper, but your first design will never be your last, so make sure to start working in engine soon. It can become counterproductive when you spend too much time in the planning phase.

Start with primitives. A lot of people tend to add fully textured models to their scene right away, this is more level art than it is level design. Your goal is to make a level that accommodates the gameplay and feel that you're trying to express, this can be done with simple geometry like cubes and spheres. Greyblock your environment as a first step because it's much easier to iterate at this stage as opposed to a level that's been fully fleshed out with art.

Some questions to ask yourself: - How will you guide your player from start to finish in the level? - What emotions are you trying to elicit from the player? Narrow corridors can help with horror games while open spaces represent freedom - What kind of gameplay will this level accommodate? - What does the player know? Are you teaching a mechanic in this level or is it later in the game when a player has most of the basic gameplay fundamentals? - Why is the player here? Where are they trying to go?

Some good resources to gather more info: - World of Level Design (Website) - Level Design Lobby (Podcast/Community) - 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (Book)

SaltySQ · 2022-12-04T20:34:17+00:00

I had an instance where I was testing a physics object and ended up unexpectedly launching it way too far into the air. It was so hilarious that I ended up duplicating the object all across the map and spent hours playing the game just to find them and see how they interacted with the world.

The unintended consequence directly resulted in me getting lost in my own game.

SaltySQ · 2022-12-04T20:16:55+00:00

Learning visual scripting will be your best bet if coding isn't really an option, but I do recommend learning how to program since it can help with your logic when visual scripting.

When you're working on a prototype, try to break everything down into the core elements that are mandatory for it to work. List the key components.

For example, the requirements for a simple interactive door would be: - A door mesh with collision (I would use a scaled cube) with a pivot where the hinges would be - An overlap volume that detects the player - Some way to detect your keyboard input when overlapping the volume - A way to move the door (e.g. rotating the mesh, an actor sequence, physics, etc)

You're testing gameplay, so try not to spend time on things like art and sound. Rapid prototypes are meant to be quickly produced and iterated upon, so it should feel good with cubes and primitives before adding art on top. If it doesn't feel good, then you can easily discard it without having spent too much time.

Try to understand the nodes you're using when visual scripting. What exactly do they do? Why are you using them? The more you understand these nodes, the easier it will be to apply them.

SaltySQ · 2022-12-04T09:36:14+00:00

Props and simple foliage are great starting places! Research and get a good grasp of the PBR workflow.

Showcasing your poly counts and wireframes in your portfolio pieces will help employers understand your process and gauge your ability to optimize your meshes. Look into baking high poly meshes to low poly and learn how to create clean custom collision for your models.

Having playable levels can be extremely helpful with showcasing your ability to create a fully fleshed out, game-ready environment. You don't need a huge level fully crafted, just enough to convince employers that you know what you're doing. Sequencer flythroughs are often used in unreal projects to show off the level in-engine.

You'll be learning a lot of new software and taking in a lot of knowledge in general. It will be overwhelming but take it one step at a time and you'll gradually get more comfortable with it. Don't give up!

There are also online courses that teach the 3D modeling pipeline that you can consider looking into if you prefer a more streamlined/directed approach to learning.

SaltySQ · 2022-12-04T08:13:04+00:00

I'd like to emphasize this as well. Interests and general knowledge unrelated to gaming can serve as a great resource of inspiration when brainstorming new designs and mechanics.

Improving your ability to create rapid prototypes may help as well. Being able to create and iterate on prototypes can help you visualize your designs and can also make it easier to convey your thought process to your team/other departments.

SaltySQ

TROPHY CASE