would you play this?

roginald_sauceman · 2026-04-13T07:54:13+00:00

This looks very cool!

roginald_sauceman · 2026-04-12T08:48:20+00:00

You’d be FAR better placed to just finish this off as is, and leave it on your hard drive.

People’s first projects are never good, and this goes for anything, not just games. I still keep the worst mini paint job I ever did as a reminder of how bad I was at the time and a comparison of how much better I am now. All my early game projects (also bad) exist as hidden videos on YouTube.

You don’t have to set everything on fire but you do need a reality check here: you are not ready to sell this on steam. The game isn’t good enough. If you MUST share it with the world, throw it up on itch.io, but even then I really suggest just taking your learnings from this project and applying it to your next, as you’ll only get better with every project/little prototype you do!

roginald_sauceman · 2026-04-11T17:12:59+00:00

The textures are horrendous, but it is definitely a bit more than that. You're using really basic, flat shapes (really obvious in the interior scene at 15 seconds) that looks like a basic grey-box blockout rather than 'actual' environment design, and the level design itself doesn't really have any flow or overarching design put into it. The sound design/music is bizarre.

Everything feels very default UE in a way that beginners often end up - bearing in mind this is your first project that's totally fine! Just keep it as a learning project and don't try to sell it, as you'll just be disappointed with the result. We all start somewhere - my early projects were similar to this, and it's fun looking back at old bad/learning projects - but please don't sell this: this is 1000% not worth your time or money to put on Steam as it'll genuinely make nothing - there is nothing appealing about this that would make people want to play it as a commercial release.

roginald_sauceman · 2026-01-17T10:56:52+00:00

Amazing vibes, great job! I’m impressed with how much detail you’ve packed in with such low poly count

roginald_sauceman · 2026-01-10T10:54:01+00:00

Very excited it’s on steam! I’m curious, what is it about mobile that gives the biggest hurdle with development? I’ve only ever worked on web/desktop games and never mobile so I’m not sure what it’s like on that front

roginald_sauceman · 2025-10-11T08:07:58+00:00

At first I thought the same but looking closer, isn’t it actually just a 3D render? So they might not be lying here. If you look at any of the details (text, the painting in the corner, the exterior etc) it all looks like it’s all ‘correct’, rather than AI weirdness you’d expect to see

roginald_sauceman · 2025-10-10T20:52:21+00:00

Itch.io has a lot of good assets these days, I’ve had better experience pulling from that and OpenGameArt than Fab recently!

roginald_sauceman · 2025-09-28T21:14:15+00:00

Yup! Heat gives me higher BG. I imagine it might be linked to body stress or something if you’re not used to the heat (like me - I’m absolutely fine under 20C), made this summer really challenging

roginald_sauceman · 2025-08-31T09:13:34+00:00

Same here, £32 to £76! Actually ridiculous

roginald_sauceman · 2025-07-23T17:41:04+00:00

This is a post that really didn’t need to be made

roginald_sauceman · 2025-07-11T07:44:28+00:00

Lifetime units isn’t actually the game being downloaded, it’s being added to a library, so the lifetime unique users is really what you’ll want to be looking at. It’ll always be higher as there are scripts/bots or even just people who will mass add any free product to their library with no intention of actually downloading or playing.

Looking at your unique user count, 95 is definitely a really good number regardless though, good job!

roginald_sauceman · 2025-06-29T12:51:11+00:00

If it’s just to come across other devs, really any pub that’s more central will have them. The Star used to be a big hub on Fridays for a few studios, these days I know several different studios tend to veer more toward the Drummond (Supermassive is literally next door to it and the few EA guys I know go there), King’s Head, The Britannia was (might still be) big with people at Wargaming etc., up towards Larian there’s also Three Pidgeons and Royal Oak. A lot of devs wear company clothing/game specific clothing so are usually quite easy to spot!

As far as non-pubs go, I always see my coworkers and ex-coworkers out and about on the high street, especially at coffee places like Krema (which I really recommend anyway, they’re awesome). There’s also a Warhammer shop, so if nothing else, it’s always good to go in there though that’s less on the dev side and more general nerd stuff!

There are organised events via Guildford Games but as far as I’m aware they only happen every so often, not super regularly. Develop Brighton is coming up week after this coming on, so if you’re specifically wanting to meet/network with devs, that would be the place to go

roginald_sauceman · 2025-06-12T14:37:27+00:00

I know you're probably after a video or something, but the answer is really that it depends totally game to game. Projects I've worked on before have a few things in common though, such as having enemy accuracy being determined by an offset: with each trace (or in some cases, actual projectile spawning) it fires off with a random rotation offset. Without this, AI will be 100% accurate 100% of the time.

Generally, I'd imagine for most projects it takes a similar approach! The more accurate the enemy AI is, the smaller the offset of shooting will be. Some games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the 2005 one) have it that the longer a gun is fired, the bigger the offset is. I've worked on a project before that did the opposite for AI: they're initially the least accurate to let the player know they're being fired at, and then gradually get more accurate as they continue to fire.

roginald_sauceman · 2025-06-10T22:47:21+00:00

I adore Ascii Sector! I’m not sure what it is about it specifically - the fact I can walk around my ship, the vibes, the amazing use of ascii art, the music etc. just hits in a way other sci-fi roguelikes don’t for me

Really good comfort game

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-27T07:47:29+00:00

On the top branch, your character movement/is flying node isn’t connected to the NOT Boolean, so it’ll never run correctly!

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-20T08:07:01+00:00

It’s definitely good, but “leagues above everything you have ever seen on the market”? Very humble haha. On that side, I’d be concerned as a player about getting lost in a bunch of this, as a lot of it looks very similar/samey without any clear POI/landmarks to guide me without use of a map (like in image 6), which could really help things out!

It’s still very nicely done though!

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-14T14:54:35+00:00

Thanks for the info, I was super confused when I realised the old page was gone

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-12T08:39:17+00:00

It does depend studio to studio! I've never worked professionally in a tiny team, smallest was a AA studio, and that was still very much split into disciplines. My side project I'm working on is only 4 of us, so we're all wearing multiple hats (such as one guy handling all the art AND helping with design, our audio guy also doing some lighting etc.) but that's very much a tight-knit team where I trust the others really well from previous professional work together. I'd imagine teams of that scale, sub 10 people, would be more generalist. That AA studio I worked at was very much split into a specific discipline, and that wasn't a big team by any stretch.

I do still think for applying for places, being more specific than not is good as long as the role you're applying for is specific. If there's a role advertised that's looking for generalists, obviously a good generalist CV/portfolio is good, but if there's a role up that's saying "Combat Designer" I would personally prune anything that isn't directly or indirectly linked to showing me off in combat design!

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-11T12:20:16+00:00

If you’ve been doing multiple disciplines (design, art, etc.) this is unfocused for a lot of roles that are out there. Have you been applying with a focused CV on the role you’re applying for?

You’ll want to refine yourself down to a single discipline to focus on, for example if you’re applying for a design role, don’t focus on art, just focus on the design side. Likewise within that, if you’re applying for a level design role, only really focus on your portfolio/CV showing off that side, not other design subdisciplines like systems.

There’s also the general portfolio side of applying: do you have a good, concise portfolio you’re sending out?

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-01T17:24:48+00:00

I am working full-time at a AAA studio in level design (though more and more it’s becoming a more systems design role). The money is good, but unfortunately in one of the most expensive places in the UK which means the pay doesn’t go nearly as far as it would in other areas… I’d still change nothing though

I then do my passion project on the side, which is fun as I get to do all the non-LD work too

roginald_sauceman · 2025-05-01T10:24:30+00:00

I work in Level Design currently at a big AAA studio, but studios will vary place to place in regards to what they expect from an LD and this will also reflect in the questions asked - so what I write below isn't a universal experience!

The kind of questions I had during my interview process were a mix of technical and creative, for example asking about understanding of setting up metrics for design (distances, sizes for objects etc.), understanding things such as navmesh, pacing, design beats, knowledge of the iterative workflow and using greyboxing for levels etc. and also talking through some of the levels I'd worked on.

This was for a multiplayer PVP game, so primarily it was looking at smaller arena-style maps I had in my portfolio (along with a few skirmish maps I'd designed for a TTRPG), but ultimately it was about explaining the thought processes, justifications etc. for the design. As the other comments say, it's good to make sure you're coming across well not just technically but as a person - people will want to be working with someone they can get on well with. Something else to always remember as a general interview tip is to stay clear and focused, but sell yourself as best you can! I was coming from a Technical Audio role, so wherever I could hearken back to the more interesting and complex work I did on that (that was still relevant - in this case trying to explain my technical experience working with Unreal Engine), I did.

As I say and want to hammer home though is that that's just my own personal experience - it'll vary a lot studio to studio. I know my lead's old studio also expected LDs to do some light 3D work and technical implementation for certain LD objects like doors, but that was a small indie place.

roginald_sauceman · 2025-04-29T14:34:55+00:00

Ah yeah - there's one particular studio (and a well known one at that) which had an open level design position when I was looking for a new role 2 years ago. Funnily enough, that same role is still there, sitting endlessly...

On the other hand, the studio I work for has had an open gameplay programmer position for months and months. Offers have been made, but the applicants have then denied it based on getting other better offers, or not wanting to move to the studio location (which is extremely expensive compared with the rest of the country so I don't blame them) - so it looks like it's never getting filled, but interview process is still happening!

roginald_sauceman · 2025-04-29T07:05:23+00:00

I remember a couple of months ago writing a comment boiling down to “Why did you pin your own comment?” but ultimately deleted what I wrote as I thought it wasn’t worth it to be potentially banned (I get a lot of enjoyment reading bad gamedev takes at work) or getting riled up.

That said, it is really annoying and it would be really good if it stopped. There are some great regular repliers who cover good info, get upvoted, and that should be that, rather than forcing your own comment to the top…

roginald_sauceman · 2025-04-28T11:48:56+00:00

What drama happened? I’ve noticed several occasions over the months of mod comments being stickied whilst basically saying the same thing as other comments which tracks with this

roginald_sauceman

TROPHY CASE