This is progress, but also a rant. I’ve been working away at a character editor and its been the bane of my existence lately. It’s a lot of UI, its difficult to add more customization features, and I’m never quite happy with the result.
Eventually it will get there though.
Random story on bows:
One of the first DnD experiences I had I was told not to worry about counting arrows. We had an encounter down a long corridor where I had a particularly advantageous spot I could use my bow at. I got some great rolls, got sneak attack bonuses, and ultimately carried the entire encounter.
The party was happy, the DM was not. Next session, I had to count arrows, none of them could be recoverable as they ‘always broke’, the DM ruled they no longer got a sneak attack bonus, and every merchant in town was always ‘fresh out’ so I could never restock.
This was years ago and I still have never made another character with a bow.
That’s a pretty broad question and it really depends on what you’re trying to do.
A pro (and a con) of the engine is it’s meant to be for a broad range of uses, like arch vis, virtual production, and obviously many game types.
I can, and have, run into engine limitations but it’s usually due to wonky game design requirements rather than a hard engine issue.
You might wait at least a few weeks before throwing everything down - There’s been a lot of backlash, so much that Unity might walk this back or change it entirely.
I’m not a lawyer who can properly interpret the legalese but I don’t think this is the case.
Selling your game to a publisher or a third party to distribute it counts as the developer making revenue off the game.
Edit: Actually I may be incorrect - The apparent wording of the license says the publisher or distributor would pay the per install fee. I’m not sure how that would work, unless they’re planning to send a bill to Steam/Microsoft/EA/etc. I will have to reread the terms.
There are a lot of cases where this might suck if you’re a full time Unity dev. Getting on Gamepass was already a bit dicey as it cannibalizes sales, but now you got an extra Unity tax on that. (And you may get a LOT of installs on Gamepass)
Give a bunch of keys to a charity auction? Guess you’re paying extra. Got a demo that’s doing wonders on Steam NextFest? Those are installs. Is your game being pirated? Those look like installs, gotta pay up.
I don’t think this will bankrupt any dev, but all those above decisions will hurt.
Poorly summarized: People have already voted with their wallets, which is why live service games and microtransactions are prevalent - They’re catering to a market that buys them.
Oblivion was 2006, Morrowind was 2002.
Regardless, your point still stands.
It’s pretty soul crushing - For some its ‘walk away from the game industry forever’ levels.
There is a lot to dissect about this whole topic but in short, yeah.
Bullets go through normal cars fairly easily. This armored vehicle isn’t equipped with a LMG on top, it’s intended to get a swat team close to a situation without risking everyone getting picked off by small arms fire.
A little disappointed - I wish there was a bit more variety in the communities. There are some smaller ones but there are very few people there, so it’s not much of a conversation.
The only other complaint I would have is seeing an article and then 3-4 communities in each of the big 3-4 instances all talk about the same thing. So you’ll be scrolling and see over a dozen conversations about Linus, which is a little annoying.
I had a player who pitched a backstory like this.
We changed it so on their last big job, it went sideways and they barely survived. Now they’re recovering and slowly getting back on their feet, which is why they’re level 1.
The player likes it because they can have a cool backstory.
As a DM, I like it because I tied their reputation and fame to the campaign.
Cicada
Age of Empires 2.
I like the mix of challenges the enemy factions bring, the randomness of the levels, and the flexibility of how I build up my army.
Not to be blunt, but there are no ‘ethical’ companies. But at each of those companies, there are good people and good devs who don’t agree with the unethical decisions their management has made.
If there is a game you strongly feel you would enjoy, you can get it knowing you’ll be supporting at least some good people.
All that being said I do still draw a line and there are some microtransaction-hells I refuse to touch.
These are all a little broad. Hand drawn like darkest dungeon, Hades, or like Cuphead? 3D as in realistic or low poly?
Art style should go hand in hand with game thematics. Celeste’s precise platforming goes well with it’s pixel art style, and if they made another version with very high fidelity 3D graphics it would likely hinder gameplay. Likewise, Hollow Knight would lose much of its charm if it went 8 bit pixel art.
All that being said, low poly art can look really good but can also feel really cheap. The same for low bit pixel art. Those aren’t deal breakers for me, but if I was judging purely based on art direction, I would (probably) vote those out.
Edit: Almost forgot, I’d probably lean towards hand drawn for most desirable as it can look very, very good and is usually highly unique.
Yeah I love those diagetic menus/UI elements.
I don’t care if flipping out a lighter is necessary to see what your objective is on a notebook, it just feels better than scrolling down a quest log.
I wish my players would remember to use their cool magic items.
If it doesn’t do direct damage, it gets stuffed into a pocket and is never seen again.
I once worked at a place with a ping pong table. I got a lot of ugly stares from managers if I actually tried to use it, so it was mostly left alone.
Now whenever I see jobs that list something like that as a perk, I usually see it as a negative.
They’ve sort of moved on to mod.io, leaving Moddb on the back burner.