Category: Game Development

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Unity Launch Open Projects

The Creator and Developer Advocacy group over at Unity have just launched a new initiative called Open Projects, a Unity lead effort to develop a vertical slice of a game that is open source and community driven. If you are looking to get experience at working with a team, or perhaps are a student looking to build up your resume, contributing to an Open Project could be a good fit. The intention is to create open projects for multiple genres, but initially they are starting with an action-adventure style game. The final results will be published (assumedly for free) on Steam, with all contributors credited for their efforts.

There is a bare-bones project in place now you can download from GitHub. In fact GitHub is central to the entire process, as this is where the project will be housed and where all code and asset collaboration will occur. In addition to GitHub they are coordinating the project in a dedicated Open Projects forum, as well there is a Contribution Guide on Google Docs available here. Project management tasks are managed here powered by Codedecks, an online PM tool specifically for game developers.

You can learn more about Unity Open Projects in the video below (or on Odysee here).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R45KmvfIZc?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Humble Be A Creative Superhero Bundle on Now

There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, specifically the artists among us, in the form of the Be A Creative Superhero Bundle. The primary stars of this bundle are the suite of Corel graphics applications, specifically Painter 2020, Particle Shop and PaintShop, as well as Corel Draw Suite, which unfortunately is only a 6-month subscription. As with all Humble Bundles, this one is organized into tiers, and the tiers in this bundle are:

1$ Tier

  • AfterShot Standard

25$ Tier

  • PaintShop Pro 2020
  • ParticleShop + 11 Brushes
  • 6 extensions for PaintShop Pro

30$ Tier

  • Corel CAD 2019
  • Painter 2020
  • CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2020 6-month sub
  • 10 Brush packs
  • Light Leak Scripts for PaintShop Pro 2020

It should be noted earlier versions of Painter have been featured in prior bundles, but never 2020. PaintShop 2020 was also featured in a prior bundle so be sure to check your Humble inventory before purchasing. As with all Humbles you get to decide how your money is allocated between Humble, charity, the publisher and if you so choose (and thanks so much if you do) to support GFS by using this link. You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWjnAEg7LZs?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Cascadeur 2020.2B Released

The currently free animation tool Cascadeur (previously covered in more detail here) for Windows and Linux, just released a new beta update, Cascadeur 2020.2.

Key new features of the 2020.2b release include:

  • Quick Rigging tool for humanoid models – you can now create a simple humanoid rig much faster and with less hassle
  • Simplified Ballistics edit menu and new Ballistic ghosts options – you can now see ghosts of all the ballistic trajectories or only the selected one, but the ballistics in your old scenes will need to be created again
  • Improved Interval Edit mode – now with Linear and Bezier options 
  • Notification of a new version inside the program – as soon as the new version of Cascadeur becomes available, you will see the announcement directly in the program
  • Several minor bug fixes and improvements

You can learn more about this new release, including seeing the new Quick Rigging tools in action, in the video below. For more details on creating animations in Cascadeur, be sure to check out this earlier video.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqpYvXi428?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Miniaudio — Open Source Single File C Audio Library

Miniaudio is a cross platform open source C library for implementing low level audio functionality including playback and capture. MiniAudio is released under either public domain or MIT No Attribution licenses and amazingly enough is implemented as a single .H file with no external dependencies (except optionally stb_orbis if Ogg Vorbis format support is desired).

Miniaudio features include:

  • Your choice of either public domain or MIT No Attribution.
  • Entirely contained within a single file for easy integration into your source tree.
  • No external dependencies except for the C standard library and backend libraries.
  • Written in C and compilable as C++, enabling miniaudio to work on almost all compilers.
  • Supports all major desktop and mobile platforms, with multiple backends for maximum compatibility.
  • Supports playback, capture, full-duplex and loopback (WASAPI only).
  • Device enumeration for connecting to specific devices, not just defaults.
  • Connect to multiple devices at once.
  • Shared and exclusive mode on supported backends.
  • Backend-specific configuration options.
  • Device capability querying.
  • Automatic data conversion between your application and the internal device.
  • Sample format conversion with optional dithering.
  • Channel conversion and channel mapping.
  • Resampling with support for multiple algorithms.
    • Simple linear resampling with anti-aliasing.
    • Optional Speex resampling (must opt-in).
  • Filters.
    • Biquad
    • Low-pass (first, second and high order)
    • High-pass (first, second and high order)
    • Second order band-pass
    • Second order notch
    • Second order peaking
    • Second order low shelf
    • Second order high shelf
  • Waveform generation.
    • Sine
    • Square
    • Triangle
    • Sawtooth
  • Noise generation.
    • White
    • Pink
    • Brownian
  • Decoding
    • WAV
    • FLAC
    • MP3
    • Vorbis via stb_vorbis (not built in – must be included separately).
  • Encoding
  • Lock free ring buffer (single producer, single consumer).

Miniaudio is available on GitHub and has solid documentation available here and several examples available here. Installation consists of downloading and #include’ing the header and that is it, making this a remarkably simple library to get started using. There are also unofficial language bindings for Go, Rust and Python available as well. You can learn more about the Miniaudio library in the video below (or view here on Odysee).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIye2LeLLUc?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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MagicaVoxel 0.99.6.2 Released

The popular free Voxel application MagicaVoxel just got a new release, 0.99.6.2. This release isn’t just significant for adding a large number of features added, but also because it may be the last release we see for quite some time.

A tweet sequence from @ephtracy, MagicaVoxel’s creator:

Now back to the release, details from the release notes:

New Unified Material System[06/30/2020]

  • Blend Material: weighted blending Metal/Plastic/Glass/Cloud materials (similar to Disney Principled BRDF).
  • SSS Material: sub-surface scattering. transparency tp control light transmission. density to control light scattering.
  • Aborb/Scatter/Emissive Media Material: emissive cloud. can be contained in the glass with ior > 1.
  • Improved Alpha Blending: glass material, absorb media type, density = 0, ior = 0, transparency > 0

New Transform and Voxel Shader Brushes[09/26/2020]

  • Refactored the brush menu and add icons.
  • Voxel Shader Brush to use Voxel Shaders interactively and directly.
  • Transform->Scale Brush : live scale models, point sampled, low quality but fast.
  • Transform->Wrap Brush : live wrap/crop models with mirroring and spacing modes.
  • Geometry Mode->Line/Square/Circle: the old center mode is combined with the old line mode
  • World Editor->Pattern and Wrap Brush: can create patterns from selected object (check the pattern model menu on the right panel).

Rotate Transform Brush [09/26/2020]

  • Axis rotate : press any inner circle.
  • Screen rotate : press the outer circle.
  • Sphere rotate : press any point inside the outer circle.
  • Snap rotate : press SHIFT or SHIFT+ALT to snap angle to multiple of 5 or 15.

Voxel Shader[09/13/2020]

  • no need to define id for arguments.
  • use var to define alias of arguments. same as float var = i_args[id];.
  • can import and export arguments values.
  • can display compile errors in the console window.
  • can get color selections via: color_sel().
  • can get palette color via: palette().
  • increase number of arguments to 16.
  • add interation number to the interface.

Editing[09/26/2020]

  • Boolean operations for groups and objects.
  • Modify->Mask/Texture: mask and texture models with pattern models.
  • Sort: only sorts selected colors if number of selection is greater than one.
  • command log: display count of models, scene size, count of voxels for each color, etc.
  • command shear [axis] [scale] [scale] shear model, e.g. shear z 0.2 0.2 .

Camera Control Panel[09/26/2020]

  • click the arrow on the bottom bar to show the camera control panel.
  • can change camera global/local position, pitch/yaw/roll angles, save/load camera slots, etc.
  • press SHIFT to change values in smaller steps.
  • the nine values can also be modified by cmds cam x/y/z tx/ty/tz rx/ry/rz

Pattern Pack[09/26/2020]

  • can load all the models in a project as a pattern pack.
  • can create pattern pack from multiple selected objects.
  • use left/right mouse button to rotate the preview model; use mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
  • use 1/2 to select previous/next color in the palette.
  • use 3/4
  • use ctrl+alt to switch to pattern tool.
  • use ctrl to switch to free move tool.
  • use ESC to switch between pattern/move brush and select brush in the world editor.

You can learn more about the release in the video below. Hopefully this doesn’t mark the final release and after a long well earned pause, MagicaVoxel development will resume!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hpQGpNFJM?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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LEd — Awesome New Level Editor From Dead Cells Creator

LEd is a new open source level editor written in the Haxe language by a developer at Motion Twin, using lessons learned creating games such as Dead Cells. LEd is designed to be user friendly and from my experiences it succeeds.

Key details of LEd:

  • Easy to use: modern UI with a strong focus on ease-of-use and quality-of-life features.
  • Universal and agnostic: compatible with all languages (not only Haxe) and game frameworks in the world
  • JSON: easy to parse file format for any game-engine out there (I promise it’s actually really easy). Haxe isn’t required.
  • Customizable layers: Integer grid layers, Tile layers and Entity layers support
  • Auto-layers: paint your collision map and see the grass, textures and all the small details being drawn automatically!
  • Entities: fully customizable Entity with custom properties (ex: you can have a “Mob” entity, with a “hitPoints” field, which is an Integer limited to [0,10] bounds).
  • Enums: you can define an enumeration (ex: an “ItemType” enum with “Money”, “Ammo”, “Gun” values) and use this enum in your entity custom fields.
  • External enums: enums can be imported and synced directly from Haxe source code files (HX file)!
  • HTML5: LEd is built around modern web standards.
  • Auto update: you get notified as soon as a stable update is released and it’s up to you to install it when you’re ready, with a single click.
  • LEd loves Haxe: a powerful Haxe API which gives you access to fully typed values from your levels. It avoids mistakes like mistyping, renaming or removals: you see errors during compilation, not at runtime.

You can see LEd in action in the video below. The project is open source under the MIT license and hosted on GitHub.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYBWGt8wbsU?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Epic Games Have Acquired Super Awesome

Epic Games have just announced the acquisition of Super Awesome, a company dedicated to the protection of children online. Super Awesome make a number of products for creators, game developers and advertisers to be able to collect information on children in a manner that is compliant with major laws such as COPPA and GDPR.

Details of the acquisition from the Super Awesome announcement:

That question was the start of a discussion which began many months ago at a (pre-lockdown) dinner in Cary, North Carolina. It concludes today as I’m delighted to announce that we have agreed to be acquired by Epic Games, joining their family while continuing our mission as SuperAwesome (see the announcement here).

Tim Sweeney and his team understand the importance of responsibly engaging with kids and parents. They’re also incredibly serious about privacy. It’s a set of values that instantly became apparent when Tim and I began discussing a partnership. 

Joining Epic Games means many things. It means continued (and indeed greater) support for our customers: developers, content-owners and brands who want to do more for kids. It means continued investment in kidtech solutions to help the overall ecosystem. Ultimately (and crucially), it’s a step-change in making the internet safer for kids. We have always been proud of our mission. We’re even prouder to do it with a principles-driven company like Epic Games.

You can learn more about the acquisition and Super Awesome’s products in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sy0Qm4hV0o?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Unreal Engine 4.26 Preview 1 Released

Epic Games have just released the first Preview version of Unreal Engine 4.26. UE4 preview 1 releases are extremely important as they highlight the new features that you can expect in the final 4.26 release, as well as adding several new experimental features. Unreal 4.26 is no exception, with the biggest new feature being the fact the Chaos Physics and Destruction engine is now enabled out of the box replacing the existing PhysX physics, although the new experimental water system taken from Fortnite is a close second.

Details of the release from the Unreal Engine blog:

Experience the latest features coming to Unreal Engine with Unreal Engine 4.26 Preview 1—available now. 

Test drive the production-ready Chaos Physics and Destruction System—the now default physics system—and take the new experimental Chaos Vehicle system for a spin. Virtual production pipelines also receive a boost with added movie render queue controls, Sequencer updates, and DMX improvements. If that’s not enough, check out the brand-new water system, the Chaos Ragdoll system (beta), production-ready hair and fur, and more!

You can learn more details about the release on the Unreal Engine forums. While Chaos is now enabled out of the box, it isn’t immediately obvious how to get started using Chaos Physics and Destruction. Therefore in the video below, in addition to covering what is new in the 4.26 release, we also have a getting started with Chaos tutorial to get you up and going quickly.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSe7prXzP2w?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Wick Editor Hands-On Review

The Wick Editor is a surprisingly capable free and open source tool that defies categorisation. At it’s core it’s a 2D graphic and animation tool, but it also has programmability features making it capable of creating simple games. It supports publishing animated GIFs, movies, soundtracks, sprite sequences and even single click html applications.

Wick Editor is described as:

The Wick Editor is a free and open-source tool for creating games, animations, and everything in-between. It’s designed to be the most accessible tool for creating multimedia projects on the web.

The Wick Editor is a hybrid of an animation tool and a coding environment, heavily inspired by similar tools such as Flash, HyperCard, and Scratch. It was developed in response to a growing need for such a tool for the modern web.

As mentioned the project is open source with the code hosted on GitHub under the GPL v3 license. The Wick Editor runs entirely in the browser and can be run by visiting https://editor.wickeditor.com/. You can also install locally and run using node and npm. You can learn more about Wick Editor and see it in action in the video below (or watch on Odysee).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xy_J9ZgJ3Y?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Epic Games Lead $15M Round of Funding For Manticore Games

It was announced today that Epic Games was leading a $15M round of funding for Manticore Games, the creator of the Core game creation platform. Core is a member of a growing segment of “games for making games”, similar to other titles such as Dreams and Roblox. Core is built on top of the Unreal Engine and provides most of the tools required to make modern online games in an easy to use package.

Details of the investment from Manticore Games:

Manticore Games has closed $15 million in funding, led by Epic Games and validating the vision and the progress of Core toward an endless gaming multiverse.

Manticore’s mission is to unleash a new wave of creativity in games by radically lowering the barriers to game making and publishing the same way that YouTube revolutionized video creation.

“Core is very impressive,” said Adam Sussman, President, Epic Games. “At Epic we believe the industry is ultimately headed to games becoming more like open platforms where creators can build their own worlds. Built in Unreal Engine, Core exemplifies this future and goes one step further by providing the environment for anybody to create great multiplayer games, and a metaverse playground where players discover endless entertainment.”

You can learn more about the acquisition and get a brief overview of Core in action in the video below (or watch on Odysee here). For more details on Core be sure to check out our previous coverage here when they announced alpha, and here when monetization for creators was announced.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wxMxuTIzpI?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]