Programming

Game production consists of many stages, which may differ depending on the specific company or team. Here is how the process works according to Tim Cain, acclaimed developer and one of the creators of Fallout.

GameMaker has a special Thanksgiving surprise for its community by announcing major changes to its pricing model. And the team decided to do the opposite of what some other engine makers do.

No game engine is perfect. And sometimes developers may have a hard time working with specific frameworks due to a large amount of legacy code or lack of good documentation.

Unity has announced the new major version of its engine that will feature various improvements such as performance optimization and accelerated multiplayer game creation. However, the biggest highlight is the new AI tools for developers.

Jason Hall, currently an indie developer and former Blizzard employee, has been sharing some really interesting stories from his long career in the industry for a while now. Some of them are truly insightful, while others may seem depressing.

Gaijin Entertainment has decided to open-source its Dagor Engine. However, the War Thunder developer seems surprised by reports that the Nau Engine team, financially backed by Russian tech giant VK, plans to use parts of it for its upcoming framework.

RE Engine is an integral part of Capcom’s production pipeline, powering games ranging from Street Fighter 6 to all the latest Resident Evil titles. The company has no plans to abandon the engine, as it has now announced the next-gen version of its proprietary technology.

Much in the games industry has changed beyond recognition over the past 40 years. But one specific thing that might be an issue not obvious to non-developers is what co-creator of Fallout Tim Cain calls the “decline of generalists.”

In this article for Game World Observer, ZiMAD artist Andrey Novikov shares his insights on how to interact with AI tools and explains which parts of the work can be delegated to them without compromising quality.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney addressed the recent mass layoffs during the first day of the Unreal Fest 2023 conference. He also discussed the company’s Metaverse ambitions and the changes to the Unreal Engine pricing model.

Mobile marketing and monetization platform AppLovin has launched a new project to help Unity developers switch to other engines like Unreal and Godot. It can already speed up code translation, and tools for asset and plugin migration are also in the works.

Tim Cain, co-creator of classic RPGs like Fallout and Arcanum, has opened up about AI and its role in game development. Here is what he thinks about how LLMs and other technologies can benefit humans rather than replace them.

The enhanced version of Quake II came out last week, offering updated graphics and even new content. Looking at all the technical and QoL improvements, it is safe to say that other companies would be better off taking a similar approach to rereleases and remasters of their old games.

History is cyclical, and this is true for the games industry as well. Veteran developer and former BioWare producer Mark Darrah has shared his thoughts on companies that repeat the same mistakes over and over again when trying to make their own Ultima Online or Destiny.

Generative AI is increasingly penetrating game development. Writing for Game World Observer, Nexters art producer Alisa Roz has detailed how the company started using Midjourney in the art creation process for its titles.

The Godot team has officially released version 4.1 of their open source game development engine. Here are the key features and improvements.

In a series of videos on his YouTube channel, Mark Darrah recalls the games he contributed to while working at BioWare. Here are the lessons he learned from the development of Jade Empire, which at the time was the studio’s first original IP since Shattered Steel.

Unity is one step closer to building its own AI ecosystem. The company has now rolled out new tools and a dedicated marketplace to help game developers leverage artificial intelligence technologies.

It is always great to see professional developers share some knowledge and personal experience. Here is a test map that level designer Steve Lee created with Unreal Engine 3 to get a job on BioShock Infinite at Irrational Games.

Fallout co-creator Tim Cain has detailed the process of writing design documents and how to avoid situations where people are making different games despite working on the same team. Here are some professional tips from one of the most recognized RPG developers.

Playkot 2D artist Tatiana Mironova has detailed how the studio implemented image-generating tools into their pipeline to create UI elements for Spring Valley. Here is what the team learned during this process and what are the clear advantages and pitfalls of training your own models.

Prominent game developer and former BioWare producer Mark Darrah has shared his memories of creating the first Baldur’s Gate. Here are the lessons he learned during the process, including the importance of not chasing imaginary perfection.

Epic Games has officially launched Unreal Engine 5.2. Here are the key new features and the main improvements available in the latest version of the engine.

Redfall didn’t look impressive during its marketing campaign, but it was hard to imagine that the game would turn out to be so fundamentally flawed. Let’s dive deep into its systems and compare them to some of the core pillars of Arkane’s game design.

YoYo Games is another company trying to integrate AI technologies into its products. Here are the main changes coming to the GameMaker engine this year.

Growing competencies within a team is a challenging issue, often seen as costly and not easy to approach. However, Anton Danko, the lead artist of Solitaire Cruise project at Belka Games, shares his successful experience in this matter.

Dozens of game developers took part in a special online showcase that was held as part of the Game Developers Berlin event on April 5. Let’s take a look at the contest’s results and its winner, 3D platformer Boti: Byteland Overclocked.

Programming is one of the areas where large language models (LLMs) and new AI technologies are being implemented now. Here is a tool that one developer created to fix the wrong code elements.

There is a wide variety of game engines, from the most all-around and popular ones like Unity to more niche ones like RPG Maker. Here is what can happen when an indie developer tries to make the same game using eight different engines.

There is a special program in Argentina that teaches prisoners different game development skills. Some of them have already made simple HTML5 titles.

Stuttering… a word that has become synonymous with a painful experience for PC gamers. Today we are diving into what shader compilation is, why it leads to hitching, what Unreal Engine and DX12 have to do with this issue, and how developers can address it.

Epic Games has released a preview of Unreal Engine 5.2 and detailed its key features at the GDC 2023. Here are the main new tools and improvements that could change the way developers and artists create worlds and materials.

In the era of ever-evolving language models and chatbots, many are wondering how AI technologies will influence various areas, including game development. Here is an example of a possible use case for ChatGPT in Unity.

Epic Games is now one step closer to realizing its metaverse ambitions. The company will release the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, so players can release their own experiences directly into the world-famous battle royale game.

Tales of Syn is an isometric RPG in the style of classic Fallout titles. The twist is how it uses the power of Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT to create game assets, backgrounds, character models, and dialogues.

Godot 4.0 has finally been released after four years in the making. Here are all the key features and improvements of the new version of this open source game engine.

A group of Danish researchers have created a model to generate Super Mario Bros. levels. Here is how MarioGPT works and what limitations it has.

Even two decades after its launch, the original Fallout has a large fan base around the world. There is now a new open source project that allows players to run the classic game on their phones natively.

Morality is a great tool for game designers that adds depth and complexity to player decisions. So how do we transform morality into game mechanics? Let’s take a look at a few games that have done this well.

The Dead Space remake not only carefully recreates the original game, but also uses modern technologies to breathe new life into certain scenes. Here is how EA Motive reworked the famous transformation sequence.

The game development studio Lost Lore has shared with us some tips for using AI in making art for mobile games.

Up-and-coming game developers often use ready-made assets in their first projects. And this Argentine artist offers indie creators thousands of free models and assets for a variety of genres and styles.

Using ready-made 3D assets can save time and money for some teams, but there are also a lot of pitfalls. Maksim Nikifarovich, lead artist at Belka Games, has opened up about the key challenges that game developers may face.

Counterplay Games has made its now-closed card battler Duelyst open source. This means everyone can now use its source code and assets to make their own projects based on it.

The infamous development of Duke Nukem Forever and the sad fate of 3D Realms have become the talk of the town in the games industry. However, not many people know about the game’s early 2D version from 1996 that was recently leaked online.

Scott Thunelius, programmer and 3D artist known for his work on Subnautica, has shared with us the key principles behind creating retro-style graphics. As an example, he used Warpips, a tug-of-war strategy game he made with his friends in the spare time.

Havok Physics for Unity has now officially become supported for production. Developers will be able to use the physics engine for free and implement its features in their games.

VFX editor Pixel Composer has been officially released. The tool for creating animated effects for pixel art is now available for purchase, with 100+ various nodes to experiment with.

Ryan Smith, tech art director of R&D at Gearbox, has opened up about how the studio is already using AI in its work. He encouraged other artists to learn these tools, because they can help in solving routine tasks.

Why do players consider some events and details in the game more significant than others? This is directly related to the so-called narrative weight. Andrei Medvedev, game designer at Friday’s Games, breaks down what this term means and why it is critical for game designers to be able to adjust the importance of certain elements.