[www.indiegala.com] NASA's Perseverance rover is headed to Mars! This might be the ideal moment for you to build your very own spaceship in Kerbal Space Program, the physics-based Space Flight Simulation, and aim for the stars. https://youtu.be/-qM7XFx12I4
I reckon’ it’s about time to feature one of the fastest animators in the west. You may have recently seen some of his animation work in a pretty awesome montage, or in a few cool images floating about on Twitter. But if you’ve had the high-noon sun in your eyes and haven’t seen any of their work, prepare for some beauty.
Enter: Drexis.
Welcome to the Community Focus. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Drexis: I’m honored to be here. For starters, hello there! My name is Drexler, and I’m most known online for my Destiny themed animation projects and 3D art, like my cinematic video “Collapse”:
I love space, lore, memes, and music (little known fact, I actually play guitar!). I started playing Destiny in 2015, on Christmas day. Though, I had been eyeing the game for about a year before that. Once I got into it, my best friend and I would play almost every day. I’m still addicted! Other than my hobbies and Destiny obsession, I hang out with my brother and sister, and my doggo, Shasta. She’s super sweet.
While I admit I’d seen you around these parts for some time, you definitely caught my eye with a certain… Vex piece. How’d you get into animation?
Drexis: I started animation with Minecraft animations when I was 12 years old. I was so very bad at it in those early years. I made some friends online that were better than me at everything in 3D. A few of them are still my friends actually – shout-out to Harry, who participates in my present-day clan shenanigans in Destiny 2! Anyway, I was a ‘Minecraft animator’ until early 2018, when I saw a YouTube video featuring some Destiny animations by Sami Glitch. I had been playing Destiny for a few years so I leaped at the opportunity to make Destiny-themed animations. I started learning more about 3D, more about art and animation, than I ever had previously. Destiny inspired me to want to pursue a career in 3D art, and I still hope to someday soon.
Have any examples of your work from the early days? Show us how you’ve grown since you started.
Drexis: Back when I made the creations below, I was hand-texturing low-poly game models myself, and the quality suffered quite a bit from my lack of 3D knowledge at the time. Here’s some of my earliest Destiny renders and animations for your viewing pleasure. Warning though, you might need to bleach your eyes out after viewing:
“Ghost doesn’t like being called small” (Animation)
Ace
Guardian
These days, I have better stuff in my portfolio, but I couldn’t have gotten here without those ugly first renders, those wonky first animations. Here’s some more recent stuff:
“Emergence” Destiny 2 Montage
“Awaken” Destiny 2 Montage
And some renders:
Oh, and as Dmg called out above, I also put a tiny hat on a Vex.
One of our editors left a note during our approval process that “Emergence” is one of the “sickest” montages they’ve seen. Good work! What piece of Destiny or Destiny 2 has inspired you most while doing your work?
Drexis: Oh boy, there’s too much inspiration to even list it all. Dreaming City, Cosmodrome, the Nine’s pocket realm inside Drifter’s… what? Asteroid? Giant meatball? Not sure what it is, but it looks really cool in there. I love Destiny’s art direction and all the concepts presented, even the ones that didn’t quite make it to the game, I sometimes get lost browsing hundreds of concept pieces by Bungie’s talented artists. I know many have said it before, but it would be a dream to work at Bungie and get to know the folks behind the space magic.
At this point, it should be expected that we ask you about your loadout. I always love to see which tools of destruction are preferred by artistic minds.
Drexis: Falling Guillotine is my favorite weapon in Destiny 2, as Dark Drinker was in Destiny 1. It’s just the coolest thing ever. It will always be welcome in my loadout. For other weapons, I am currently really enjoying Ruinous Effigy. Slamming that ball into the ground and taking out multiple enemies is satisfying. I’m a Hunter Nightstalker main, and have been since I started playing. Though Arcstrider is my second favorite. As for Kinetic weapons, I like Redrix’s Broadsword, The Supremacy, and Witherhoard.
What’s the best place to find your work? Where can Guardians follow you?
Drexis: If you need to find me, I have a few places for you:
Any advice you have for aspiring artists in the community before you go?
Drexis: I’m not great at advice, but if I had to say something, I’d say stick with it. Motivation is fleeting, and sometimes it’s unreliable. Make yourself sit in front of the computer (or pencil and paper), put on the lo-fi Destiny beats, and move. It can suck, and you might hate what you make at first. But just getting those ideas down, materializing them into existence, is a breeding ground for the best thing you’ve ever made… woah, did I just say that?
That was deep.
Alright, alright, alright! Thanks for featuring me! I hope to see all you Guardians out in the wild, sporting Falling Guillotines and shredding through the enemies of the Last City. Cheers!
That was deep! Maybe someday I’ll graduate from stick figures and start drawing Vex, Fallen, or even Cabal with tiny hats.
Many thanks to Drexis for stopping by, and we’ll see you all again next week for a fresh Community Focus.
Have you been keeping up to date on the latest combat news? There are some more changes and adjustments since the last Combat Test Snapshot was released. Be sure to let Mojang Studio’s know your thoughts and suggestions as they continue to develop these changes.
Redesigned aim assist again. A different approach this time, NO LESS CONTROVERSIAL!
Removed “Coyote Time”
Entities with bounding boxes that are smaller than 0.9 of a block are inflated (for targeting purposes) to be 0.9 of a block (rabbits, bats, etc)
Swords always have sweeping attacks again, axes have it with the Sweeping enchantment
Missing now only puts a 4 tick delay until the next attack regardless of weapon.
Increased base reach to 3 (was 2.5) and removed bonus reach for delayed attacks
Changes to shields:
Shields now only protect up to 5 damage for melee attacks (still 100% against projectiles)
Shields recover faster after an attack
Changes to axes:
Renamed Chopping to Cleaving
Removed other weapon enchantments from the enchanting table. The axes simply had too many possible enchantments. It also feels a little bit fitting with a rare Cleaving enchantment than a common Sharpness enchantment for axes
Changes to bows / projectiles:
Player momentum is added to thrown projectiles, but only in the direction you are aiming
Bow and arrow accuracy now slowly decreases the longer you pull the bow
Changes to food and hunger:
Reverted eating time to 32 ticks
Eating is now interrupted if something hits you
Natural healing is even faster (2 seconds, was 3 seconds)
Natural healing drains food 50% slower
By popular request – Reintroduced the rule that sprinting requires more than 6 points of food
Other changes:
Removed the attack indicator completely since it is no longer used by any systems
Fixed knockback calculation
Fixed damage value on items being off-by-one client-side
Fixed bug that caused players to be unable to attack/interract after respawning
Nerfed Sweeping Edge enchantment to 25/33/37.5 percent (was 50/66/75%)
Character TDs at Insomniac are responsible for working with the talented team to design, implement and maintain the animation and rigging pipeline. This role creates character setups, Python tools and basic animations as needed, and works with other departments to solve art related production needs, creates production systems and methods to attain production goals. Go teamwork! Read on if this sounds interesting-
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:
Creates high quality animation rigs, systems, setups and workflows that help to define the standard for the industry
Designs, develops and continuously improves character set-up process and systems, including facial setups and animation transfer tools, as it relates to the animation pipeline
Rigs characters in preparation for animation in Maya. This includes creating skeletons, smooth-binding character models, rigging character faces for lip-synch and facial performances, writing Python tools, and creating custom rigs as needed
Writes Python scripts that expedite character setup and animation processes
Works with the Core Dept on improving engine and tools features to advance the state of character performances
Works with the Art Department on modeling practices to facilitate the set-up process and to advance the visual fidelity of the character performances
Acts as an intermediary between the animation and programming teams to elucidate the workflows, needs, and terminologies of each team
Understands (and assist when technical needs arise) the entire process of creating cinematics including set construction, camera setup, character blocking, character animation, animation troubleshooting, and help ensure that scenes run properly on the real-time game engine
Maintains an expert understanding of skeletons, facial animation methodologies, constraints and other Maya tools and systems used for character animation
Maintains expert understanding of the Facial Action Coding System and corresponding facial anatomy
Possesses strong shape-sculpting abilities for both facial rigging and corrective shapes
Maintains strong understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy
Maintains awareness of industry leading performance capture and solving techniques, including machine-learning based approaches
Assists Leads with supervising/mentoring with more junior level Character TD’s
Other duties may be assigned
Education/Experience:
Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) from a four-year college or university; or five to seven years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience
One to four years of experience in character setup, Python scripting, a familiarity with MEL and a comprehensive understanding of all technical aspects of Maya animation
One to two years of animation training covering all basic animation principals
Extensive knowledge of Maya
Other Skills: The ability to articulate thoughts and ideas effectively both verbally and in writing.
If this sound like the opportunity that you have been looking for- we want to hear from you. Please use the link and apply directly to the role. Also remember to attach your reel. Thanks!
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
To jumpstart creativity or your game dev career, focus on finishing something
Tribe Games founder Charles McGregor appeared at GDC Summer today to talk about how would-be game creators can better fuel their creative fire, and perhaps turn a hobby into a profession.
“Before I even start, I do want to say that there is nothing wrong with wanting to just be a hobbyist developer, or a hobbyist at anything in life,” McGregor said. “You don’t always have to try and make a living off of everything that you do. Doing things just for you is valid.”
His goal was to share some advice with fellow game makers about how to best overcome that feeling of always starting new projects, but never finishing them.
Notably, McGregor brought a fresh perspective to this common problem; he’s a young game developer still in the early part of his career, and he described a childhood full of passionate attempts to learn how to design, code, and flesh out his own games.
After years of never finishing anything, he stumbled across a Unity forum post with some advice for would-be game devs who are struggling to make headway: scope out a small project, set a reasonable deadline, and ship it. Even if it’s not great (and it probably won’t be), the act of finishing a game will propel you to finish more projects.
McGregor said the post goaded him into taking on a small project: develop a game for an upcoming school fair where clubs would be showcasing work.
Deadlines are important
“The catch? I had two days to finish it,” said McGregor. He buckled down and managed to ship something; “it was rough, but it was completed. I showed it off at the event, and it went amazingly; sure there were some bugs, and it wasn’t the most amazing game out there, but it was something that was actually finished.”
Elated, he decided to release it to the public and gave himself a strict two-week deadline to get it out. It took two months and a few added features (“discovering that adding in polish took that much time really helped put things in perspective”), but at last McGregor released his first game: a 2D twin-stick shooter called Glitch in the System.
Releasing Glitch in the System opened up the “floodgates” of opportunity for McGregor; he ported the game to mobile, did some public talks, won an award, and got his first paid contracting gig because of it.
More importantly, he says, he began to see how game production works, and how projects can sputter or spiral out of control before the finish line.
“I started to understand what went into finishing a game, because I now had the experience of doing it,” he said. “It was no longer a hazy area…I was able to start working on projects that were much more reasonable in scope, and I better understood what caused my games to bloat.”
McGregor continued to make small games, taking part in game jams and making games with friends in an effort to learn more and experiment with new mechanics.
After two years he’d finished 8 projects of varying sizes, a “stark contrast” to what he’d accomplished before. At some point he was asked to speak in front of a class, and had four days to design a game for the presentation, so he scoped out a game (that would become HyperDot) that he figured would take about four days to finish. It ended up taking four years.
“So…yeah. It doesn’t always work out perfectly every time,” he admitted. “The difference was that I had much more experience dealing with each part of the game.”
Another key difference is that HyperDot is now for sale across PC and console. It’s a well-reviewed minimalist arcade action game with a $20 price tag, and it shows McGregor’s skills have come a long way since that day he was browsing the Unity forums for inspiration.
When you’re stuck, focus on shipping something
Releasing his first game was the big push that helped him get there, and he exhorts fellow devs to do the same thing when they’re feeling stuck. Release it anywhere you like: on a storefront, on a forum, among your friends or family, anywhere.
“When you feel like you’re getting nowhere in your projects…when you feel like you aren’t making progress…when you want to take the next step, try to finish a game,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how small you think that idea is; go through the process of releasing a game.”
Limit scope by setting time limits, not game design goals
McGregor also recommends you use time to limit your scope, suggesting it might be easier to tell yourself “I’m going to make and release a game in one week” or “one month” instead of trying to tell yourself you’re only going to make a small game. Small projects often balloon, but deadlines are only ever met or broken.
Break big game ideas into smaller, more manageable game projects
If you have an idea for a game you’re really excited about, but it seems too big to tackle all at once, great! McGregor recommends you try and break that big idea down into smaller, more manageable game projects you can complete in reasonable amounts of time.
“That way, when you do go back to that big idea, it’s more refined…and you have a better idea of how the entire game will be scoped out,” he said. “The big game will be better in quality.”
“It’s okay for whatever you make to not be the greatest thing,” he concluded. “Glitch in the System wasn’t the greatest thing ever…but I learned from the process of making [it], and you can learn from the process too.”
Ultimately, McGregor hopes this talk can be for others what that forum post was for him: a good reminder, and a kick in the pants to take the next step and finish that game.
Review: Swimsanity! – A Wet And Wild Multiplayer Experience
For a game evoking insanity in its title, Swimsanity! feels rather sedate at times, even when it’s casually erasing you from the face of the planet. It’s unforgiving, you see, but not in the positive, challenging sort of sense. Often, we’d see our entire team wiped in a matter of seconds by the unexpected appearance of a whale. We can’t recommend even trying to clear any of Swimsanity!’s Adventure Mode missions in single-player; this is a multiplayer experience through and through, but even with a full set of four players you’re going to spend a lot of time being demolished.
Yes, this is a game you’ll want to play with friends, if at all. Thankfully both local and online options exist, and it boasts full cross-play across all formats. Laudable, but we question whether or not people will be interested in what Swimsanity! offers compared to more established games.
First up, there’s the co-op Adventure mode, which sees you and up to three additional divers taking on any one of a handful of levels, each of which sees you traversing a different undersea stage and outmanoeuvring various entirely-too-big breeds of sea life. It’s sort of like The Little Mermaid, but with a lot less singing and a lot more death. Controls are ostensibly twin-stick, with the ZR button used to fire your basic laser gun. You can acquire explosives and fling them with ZL, while the B button offers a limited, short-range teleport that will get you out of dodge, saving your life more than once if used properly. Finally, as you play you’ll fill up a little bar that allows you to use your “Unleash”, a powerful skill that can turn the tides of battle. Pun intended.
You’ll gather power-ups as you play, but you’ll need to be coordinated to make almost any headway at all. Seriously – we can’t stress enough how challenging this game can be, and that’s just on the default difficulty. There’s a second, harder go-around if your first attempt wasn’t punishing enough, but alternatively, you can hop into the versus modes, of which there are plenty, and which hold a lot more appeal.
While none of the versus games on offer are especially unique, they are enjoyable. Besides your standard sort of Deathmatch modes (DM, team DM and “Last Mooba Standing”, which is exactly what it sounds like), there’s a rather great take on Capture the Flag where you must grab an on-screen orb and ferry it back to your capture point. Of course, taking a hit causes you to drop it, so things get silly in a hurry and it’s hard to imagine a group not having fun with it. The chaos reminded us most strongly of the under-rated Heavy Burger, which had a similar to-and-fro tug of war feel and was also strangely compulsive.
Playing these games will gradually see you achieving in-game challenges that award Gold Orbs, which will eventually unlock new Unleashes that let you experience the game in different ways – effectively giving you new character classes to try out until you find what works best for you. It’s not the most driving of video game structures, but you’ll reach many of the intended goals simply through playing, and local play is well-represented in the list if for whatever reason you’re limited to couch gaming.
Graphically, it’s just adequate. It simply gets the job done, but never really impresses. Thankfully it’s more to the game’s advantage that it looks fairly plain; you need to be able to tell what’s going on at all times, and there’s no danger of getting lost in the visuals here. The animation is a little poor with its “motion tweening” look, but movement and performance are both smooth so it doesn’t really matter that much. The music stands out – the work of composer Joshua R. Mosley, it’s a marvellously exciting and cinematic score that enormously enhances the game that it soundtracks. An eminently impressive effort.
While Swimsanity! is plenty of fun in local, not everyone has the capacity to play in any way besides online, and we’d love to see the game find an audience; crossplay should help with that, but even if you’re totally friendless and disconnected you can still play the versus modes with AI bots. Though we wouldn’t really recommend it be played that way.
Conclusion
A full-featured multiplayer effort, Swimsanity! excels in its frantic competitive gameplay, with a co-op experience that we found critically lacking in enjoyment. Skip the adventure mode and dive straight into Orb Rush with three friends for a good, fun time. The package holds together well despite some blandness to the visuals, and there’s certainly plenty to do if it gets its (fish) hooks into you. Swimsanity! holds up well in a crowded market and we truly hope to see it succeed.
Feature: Uncle Creates Amazing Super Mario World Play Set For His Niece
Tom Robertson
The recent partnership between Nintendo and LEGO has produced a number of quality play sets based on Super Mario, and there have been other sets of various sizes (and quality) available in the past that recreate the characters and setting of the Mushroom Kingdom.
However, one man found the available options unsatisfactory and thought he could do better himself. So he did! That man was Thomas Robertson and he set out to construct a Super Mario-themed play set for a young relative. The results speak for themselves, and we recently caught up with Tom to find out more and get a more detailed look at the project. Without further ado, we’ll hand over to Tom…
My niece is six tomorrow and obsessed with all things Mario (like me). She has so many action figures but the play sets on the market are pretty low end and not that exciting. She watches an American family called The Heywoods on YouTube who built their own play sets and inspired me to make this one. I wanted it to resemble a Mario platformer as much as possible, so it has a “bonus” cloud level on the top shelf, a classic “Acorn Plains” on the middle and a “Bowser’s Castle” on the bottom, complete with Peach being held hostage by Bowser. The pipes between levels are functional and allow Mario to travel from one to the other, the flag moves up and down the pole and Bullet Bill & the lava are on springs to bring the set to life even more.
I hope you guys like it, I’ve been asked by many people from the Nintendo UK Facebook group to make one for them but I think I’ll keep it as a one off!
What was the idea behind the project?
The idea came from my niece, Phoebe who saw a similar playset on YouTube and said she wanted something similar. She has so many action figures but the play sets that Nintendo offer aren’t that great so I thought “why not give it a go?”.
Do any parts move / are there any interactive parts?
The set has a few moving parts. The flag goes up and down the pole, Bullet Bill and the Lava are on springs so they wobble back and forth and Peach is in a suspended cage that open up for her to be rescued. My favourite part though are the pipes that are fitted between the shelves and allow Mario to travel from one level to another just like he would in the games.
How big is it?
The set is about 3ft tall x 2.5 wide…..it wouldn’t go in the car so had to use a minibus to get it home. I’m lucky enough to work at a centre that has a large art room I was able to use to make it.
What is it made of?
The set was originally an Ikea bookshelf unit. The props are made from all different things. The clouds and mushrooms on the top level were cut out of MDF and sanded into shape. The pipes are all heavy duty water pipes that we cut to size and spray painted. The “rocks” on the middle level are custom made from solid oak thanks to a very talented friend. The walkways on the bottom level are all made of Jenga blocks glued together and painted.
Which games did you use as reference material?
I’m a thirty-year fan of Mario myself since I got my first NES aged eight. The look of the set was mainly based on the newer Super Mario Bros games as that’s what my niece is more familiar with. The backgrounds were all hand painted by an incredible artist and friend of mine Lee Clark. He helped me design and make the whole set. I have had requests from friends to make a Pokemon and a Zelda one too.
How long did it take you to make?
All in all it took about three months to make. Obviously I work full time so it was mainly on weekends. There was a lot of trial and error involved, especially with the pipes, so we got through a few cans of green spray paint.
Huge thanks to Tom for reaching out and taking the time to answer our questions – we’re sure you scored some amazing brownie points with this project. What do you make of Tom’s effort? Have you ever made anything similar? Let us know in the comments below.
Microsoft Explains Why xCloud Won't Be On iOS After Prematurely Ending Testing
Update: Microsoft has provided a response to CNET outlining their position, and explaining that there's currently no solution for bringing Project xCloud to iOS.
"Our testing period for the Project xCloud preview app for iOS has expired," the statement reads. "Unfortunately, we do not have a path to bring our vision of cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to gamers on iOS via the Apple App Store. Apple stands alone as the only general purpose platform to deny consumers from cloud gaming and game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass."
The statement points out that non-gaming apps operate under different rules on Apple's store. "We are committed to finding a path to bring cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to the iOS platform," it continues. "We believe that the customer should be at the heart of the gaming experience and gamers tell us they want to play, connect and share anywhere, no matter where they are. We agree."
For now, at least, it seems that xCloud will be much easier to access for Android users.
The original story follows.
Earlier this week Microsoft confirmed that xCloud, its games streaming service that will be bundled with Xbox Games Pass Ultimate, will be launching in September on Android. Apple devices were completely omitted from the announcement, with their testing apps pulled from devices shortly afterwards.
Microsoft has chosen to prematurely end its iOS testing for xCloud ahead of the previously communicated September 11 date, when Android test users will migrate over to the officially launched product. In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft say its attention now is focused on a smooth launch across Android.
[www.indiegala.com] NASA's Perseverance rover is headed to Mars! This might be the ideal moment for you to build your very own spaceship in Kerbal Space Program, the physics-based Space Flight Simulation, and aim for the stars. https://youtu.be/-qM7XFx12I4
Be sure to create an account on Humble Bundle in order to claim it.
Afterwards click GET THE GAME and check your email account for the key. Or alternatively you can click Preview Email to access the key directly on the humble site.
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