Mark Duncan

Hello friends. Last month, I was looking for more work and finally secured some on Reddit from a guy who needed help with preproduction on his Tabletop RPG / Card Battler. After a meeting with him, he showed me what he had and it was quite impressive. He had a prototype of a card-battler using a tabletop RPG battle system, but he had little to no documentation or planning—he's been chiseling away at his game for a few months in his spare time after work. I suggested that before I dive into art, we flesh out the game design and the rest of the game up to around an 80% mark and let the last 20% be changes, additions, and that sort. As your game evolves, it'll come into it's own and you'll find things that need changed or added, this accounts for that. He agreed and I asked if I could work on all this since I did that with my game Alligori and lead the team from start to finish with our vertical slice, and I know tabletop RPGs very well. He agreed and we did the whole song and dance with paperwork, and he sent over a retainer and I began work the following Monday. Three weeks go by and we're working great together. I'm fleshing out his game, adding some meat to the backbone of his prototype with classes, abilities, etc. My goal was to write out as much as possible and then trim content to fit it into a 1-year development cycle. So I flesh a bulk of his game out, and then categorize it more into a game design document that clearly conveys concepts, ideas, and mechanics. Catching up, last week was the final week of my first month and payment was due. He just up and disappears like a fart in the wind, I have no idea if he's alive, incarcerated, on vacation, or what. He didn't remove me on Discord, so I don't entirely suspect malicious intent, but he gave no notice. That's the risk you run with working 1-on-1 with a client remotely, one day they can just up and disappear. I do have paperwork, so I may pursue legal action. If he doesn't log on by Friday, I'm going to publicly release all my documentation and the GDD I wrote on here.

44

32 Comments

Some great tips from Alex Gombos on how to write a resume that helps you get past the filters of an ATS!

6

Physics can be expensive to render in game and yes we have powerful engines that can handle much more than they used to, but we should still try to create performant assets where possible, things like jiggles on a character, props in the world baked down or things that shouldn't be simulating where possible. #gamedevelopment #humanik #motioncapture #performance #physics #secondarymovement

2

New video up on @EstebenXR! My first tutorial on my personal experience modding the Witcher 3 utilizing the RedKit/RedEngine! #thewitcher3 #leveldesign #worldbuilding #RedKit

1

At the heart of EVERYWHERE is ARCADIA! ARCADIA is our building tools, self-publishing system, and library of assets and community-made content. Check the basics of building in ARCADIA out in the video below! #gamedev #UGC #gamedevjobs

58

6 Comments

Dave the Diver is getting a Godzilla DLC, and it is free!! This new DLC will see Dave come face-to-face with the might Godzilla himself, though in keeping with the true spirit of Godzilla you won’t be fighting the big lizard so much as helping it overcome one of its adversaries, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, from the 1966 live-action movie of the same name. Players will need to pilot the G-Force submarine to take Ebirah on, and work alongside Godzilla to protect the planet from the mighty crustacean’s threat. You can claim this DLC right now from the below digital console and PC storefronts, and you’ll need to do so before November 23rd, 2024, because it’s only available until then. After that point it will seemingly either become a paid DLC or completely unavailable, so make sure you scoop it up: 💾 PlayStation Store: https://lnkd.in/eHPjPi4C 💾 Steam: https://lnkd.in/eFGy6_Y5 💾 Nintendo Switch eShop: https://lnkd.in/ehr7r3zH

51

3 Comments

TOP-LIST NEWCOMERS ”ZENLESS ZONE ZERO”, “MINESWEEPER NETFLIX”, AND OTHERS. Last week was filled with new games on the top charts. 🏅 I'll talk about some of them below. ✅ “Zenless Zone Zero” by HoYoverse The developer of the big hits “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail” released its new action RPG for iOS, Android, PC, and PS5 last week: “Zenless Zone Zero”. As with previous HoYoverse games, ZZZ begins with incredible numbers. 🤯 In five days the game reached almost US$20MM in IAP revenue on the Apple store alone. Among the game reviews, I recommend Harshal Karvande's excellent article on the Naavik blog. 👉 🧠 ✅ “Schoolboy Runaway - stealth” by Linked Squad “Schoolboy” is a life simulator in which the player is a young man unhappy with his parents. As it says in the store description, “immerse yourself in the role of a schoolchild whom the parents punished for a bad grade at school, and try to escape from home without being noticed by father and mother.” 😕 Despite its ethical dilemmas, the game has become a trend in Russia 🇷🇺 and is spreading around the world. In the last two weeks, the game has accumulated more than 2MM downloads. ✅ “Wasteland Life: Survival Idle” by SayGames I mentioned "Wasteland” in my list of releases and transfers from the last half of May. It is an Idle Arcade with a Mad Max-style desert survival narrative. 🏜️💦 Developed by Tinkles Games, “Wasteland Life” started the growth stage on June 4th, reaching over 1MM so far. 📈 ✅ “Minesweeper NETFLIX” by Netflix Developed by Smoking Gun Interactive Inc. (a Keywords Studios company), this streaming giant's version of a classic puzzle Minesweeper📍💣 is amazing! And it wasn't just me who liked the game. 🤩 In just a couple of days since its release, the game has already surpassed 200k downloads. 📈 Swipe through the slides below and you'll find out about games from Supercent, Goodroid, Inc., Wonder Group, Fanatee, Ateam Inc.（株式会社エイチーム）, and others that are also on the rise. - X - This research was supported by Cost Center. Cost Center is a tech company that offers a powerful suite of tools for Mobile Publishers to optimize UA campaigns. 💪 Its portfolio includes amazing clients such as Amanotes and Lihuhu. 🏆 Do you like it? 🤩 Call my friend Yi Ting Ho. She'll show you a demo. 😉 #netflix #gaming #gamedevelopment #HypercasualByCarlosPereira

28

1 Comment

Play the game in your head before you code a single line. You must imagine every detail: gameplay, flow, visual style, UI, etc. ↳ The clearer your vision, the smoother the development. ↳ If you can't picture it distinctly, development will be chaotic. Because every new game starts in your head, in your imagination. So push it to the limits before spending any resources on development.

123

16 Comments

Hi all. I want to share another magic item I've created for an upcoming D&D 5th edition supplemental item module that I'm working on. This item is called Viridis, which loosely means Green, and is inspired by Emerald Dragons. Since I'm not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, I'll be removing any Forgotten Realms lore I desribed when it's included in my upcoming module—it's just for my current campaign haha. About the weapon, I wanted to make it a Halberd because 5th Edition D&D doesn't currently have any unique magic halberds ha. I've always been interested in some of the less used weapon types in D&D. D&D Beyond Link to the item: https://lnkd.in/eex9H2mP

7

2 Comments

Learn how to create road Splines in UE5 with this episode of Brushify: Bootcamp.

38

Creating games is very difficult. And building games is challenging. The process of build requires to compile the code and all the data required in the game in a specific sequence involving many dependencies. As such monitoring the outcome is essential, but not sufficent. What if we were able to predict the outcome of a build ? What if we were able to decrease the required computing resources while increasing our iteration capability ? #Ubisoft #Ubisoftlaforge #innovation

80

Hey all! #TrailerTuesday here, so I shared a post on my studio page discussing how feedback even the most critical can help improve your game and make it better. Overall its about making players feel connected and immersed with your game. https://lnkd.in/etiu3PQJ Let me know what your thoughts are. What do you think? Thank you for reading! #studiodev #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #RPG #RiseoftheVillageHero

1

The cloth simulation is so good.

11

Hey folks, I'm looking for some interesting game development trivia. Stories that are weird, funny and a bit unknown. Like the coconut.jpg in the Team Fortress 2 game files, which prevents the game from starting if you delete it. Does anyone know similar stories? Let me know, things like these will likely make it into my next book :)

11

9 Comments

Steve Lejeune of Evil Empire uses a Stream Deck for game capture to quickly and efficiently punch in debug options literally with the press of a button! He showed me how in this video collab which will make you want to talk to your programmers and get a Stream Deck (or similar competing device) #gamecapture #gametrailers #gametrailer #gamemarketing

30

4 Comments

There's no single right approach to a feature or a game. I learned this lesson early on at Playrix. Years ago, I reviewed a new feature prototype for Fishdom. It was complex, experimental, and heavily inspired by another game. After playing, I felt the prototype missed the mark. The feature didn't evoke the desired emotions like its reference. So, I prepared detailed feedback: • Pointed out the flaws and differences • Suggested changes to align it closer to the reference I was confident my feedback was perfect. I thought I found the only "right answer," as if it was a math equation. Later on, my mentor looked at my feedback and said: 💬 "Anton, your feedback boils down to remaking everything from scratch to get closer to the initial reference. While that may be valid, did you consider finding something that works well and could be developed in a new direction, even if it’s not like the reference?" 💬 I was stunned. I hadn't considered another way except following the reference. And in the end, the team indeed found a different path for the feature. Since then, I've always reminded myself: There are always multiple paths to solve the problem. None are absolutely right or wrong.

77

5 Comments

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is brilliant. But this new Proteus snap-together controller seems like a new level of accessibility. https://lnkd.in/e8v6s36d

4