Interesting resources for game development and study

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One particularly interesting thing I found, was a sample of an action RPG game that epic released with Unreal Engine 4.20. This, IMO, is extremely valuable, because it implements many of the systems required by an RPG, and all the code and blueprints are there for you to inspect, and learn how the sausage is made.

Won't do you much good on its own, of course - you still have to do a lot of learning about Unreal first. But, at a certain point, when you know your way around, you start to ask, "I wonder how they do that?" At that stage, having a working model you can dismantle is very useful.

This is the only video I could find about it, and it waffles a bit, so I skip to the point you can see it in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVDcN4TVOoM&t=3m25s

Documentation here: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Resources/SampleGames/ARPG
 
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Another thing I've stumbled across, is that there are actually a lot of good resources on the topic of making survival games, as they so popular these days. They actually implement very similar systems to an RPG, and there's a lot that can be figured out from them.
 
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I tend to disagree. They implement roguelike systems which is basically a random generator. A constant game of chance is not really RPG, it's closer to lootboxes.
 
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Yes, of course, there are huge differences. But there are some big similarities in terms of managing lots of stats, a complex inventory system, crafting, etc. Also, dealing with large environments and how to break worlds into levels, and stream them into memory without loading screens. That side of things has a lot of transferable knowledge, in terms of how to implement it in the engine.
 
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Interesting tool I've been looking at, for generating fully rigged 3d character models.

https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/default.html

Potentially very useful for indies, allowing you to quickly create multiple NPCs and enemies, without costing nearly as much time in hand-modeling each one, or relying on a handful of pre-built models from the assets stores.
 
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The Lumberyard engine is coming along quite nicely. There are very limited resources available for learning its workflow, but it brings a lot to the table, and is entirely free to use for single-player games. Out of the box it provides water shaders, ocean simulation, day and night cycle, weather, and nice terrain tools. It's a pain set up, and building a new project is slow, but it's becoming a lot more usable. It also has a new entity system, quite similar to Unity, and an improving visual scripting system, like Blueprints.



 
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The Lumberyard engine... is entirely free to use for single-player games.
I wish this was repeated over and over on gaming sites. If true.
 
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One particularly interesting thing I found, was a sample of an action RPG game that epic released with Unreal Engine 4.20. This, IMO, is extremely valuable, because it implements many of the systems required by an RPG, and all the code and blueprints are there for you to inspect, and learn how the sausage is made.

Had a long informal chat with interns recently, and I realized that such stuff could be very dangerous for wannabe game developers.

Despite all the good intentions of these tutorial releases, most of the newborns are just simply aping instead of understanding and customizing it.

The result? ALL THE SAME STUFF OVER AND OVER without a trace of originality.

So, here's my 6 Wise Words for up and coming game developers:

1. Have an idea first
- No idea whatsoever? Go play CoD and don't ever return.
2. Assess your capabilities for your idea
- Unsure? Have another idea then. Bonus points for admitting your inadequacy.
3. Find the necessary tools for your idea and your capabilities. Choose wisely.
- Can't find? You are blind. There are tools for EVERYTHING.
- Fear of meaningful choices? Sorry kiddo, that's life outside Snapchat.
4. Learn this tool
- Can't learn? You don't fool me, you are just lazy.
5. Use this tool
- Can't use? How unwise (see pt. 3)
6. Deliver
- Can't deliver? Then why you even started all this sh*t? Go dream of being filthy rich by streaming Fortnite videos.

Hope this purposely aggressive rant may help youngsters to to start their development career.
 
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I wish this was repeated over and over on gaming sites. If true.

They seem pretty clear that this is the case. From their FAQ:

Lumberyard is free, including source. We make money when you use other AWS services to power your game. We built Lumberyard to make it faster and easier to build fantastic live, multiplayer, community-driven games – which naturally connect to the cloud to provide these features to players. If your game doesn't connect to the cloud, that's ok too and you pay us nothing. There are also no seat fees, subscription fees, or requirements to share revenue. You pay only for the infrastructure resources you choose to use.

...

If you own and operate your own private servers, you do not need to use AWS. You can also use Lumberyard without AWS if your game does not use any servers. For example, if you release a free-standing single‐player or local-only multiplayer game, you pay us nothing.

I haven't been through the fine print with an IP lawyer, but their position seems pretty straightforward.
 
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http://www.world-machine.com/

Here is another tool I've found very interesting. I knew about it as a tool for procedurally generating landscapes, though that's beyond my requirements for the moment. But, I saw that someone was using it not for direct use in a game, but for creating fantasy continents as an aid to his stories. I've been playing around with it, and I find it really helpful - when you have a geography to work from, it's great fun thinking about the climates, the cultures, and naming the features.

It's also not just randomly procedural - you can sketch out where you want features to be, and then it generates the natural, eroded landscape around your layout. It's actually the most satisfying gamedev tool I've played with.
 
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Godot 3.1 is a major new release for the open source game engine. Many fine improvements, but we'll have to wait a bit longer for the new Vulkan renderer.

https://godotengine.org/article/godot-3-1-released

If I were looking to make a low-budget RPG, I think this would be my choice of engine, with absolutely no strings attached. As I mentioned before, that also means you can fork the engine - perhaps collaborate on making a version to easily facilitate RPGs.
 
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Even better is it is designed for usage on linux - for us folks that prefer linux development.

Godot 3.1 is a major new release for the open source game engine. Many fine improvements, but we'll have to wait a bit longer for the new Vulkan renderer.

https://godotengine.org/article/godot-3-1-released

If I were looking to make a low-budget RPG, I think this would be my choice of engine, with absolutely no strings attached. As I mentioned before, that also means you can fork the engine - perhaps collaborate on making a version to easily facilitate RPGs.
 
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Even better is it is designed for usage on linux - for us folks that prefer linux development.

Yeah, it's also beautifully free from bloat - just one small binary.

I'd say that for limited-scope RPGs, this is becoming a tempting choice. Its 3d capabilities are coming along well, but it's somewhat limited for larger-scope games. They haven't included a terrain or LOD system yet, so it would make hard work for anything but simple 3d levels.

EDIT: Interesting course I found for implementing 2d RPGs in Godot: https://gumroad.com/l/godot-tutorial-make-professional-2d-games
 
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I found this quite impressive - an RPG that's been one guy's hobby project for three years. Shows what can be done, even if a little rough around the edges. I'd be quite happy with that level of graphics.

 
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I don't care what can be done, I want that game! :D
Assuming it ain't mmo.
 
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I think he'd probably need a kickstarter or some investment - building a decent sized game in that style would probably take some more manpower to make it feasible. I think it could make a great case for a KS. I wish more projects got their game to this sort of stage - systems and gameplay complete - and just needed cash to complete the content.
 
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