DEV Community: ShinyEmeraldGames

My first 3D game will release soon (free)

ShinyEmeraldGames — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 17:35:09 +0000

In late December last year I started working on my first 3D game in my free time. It's a parkour platformer game settled in space. Your on a space station that is still in the building process. Because Aliens have invaded it and sabotaged its systems, you need to fight your way through the levels, find a secret colour code and enter it at the end to repair the systems of the space station, to exile the Aliens.

The game will release on Friday for free on Itch. I've made a short Trailer, which you can check out here: https://youtu.be/0BITALAyRHM
Consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel to not miss the release of my game.

The mistakes I've made in my first year of learning Unity Game Dev

ShinyEmeraldGames — Thu, 13 May 2021 09:08:10 +0000

Hello. Today I'd like to tell you, about the mistakes that I've made and things I've learned after making games in Unity for 1 Year. I hope this will be helpful to some of you. One year might not seem like a lot, but I thought I'd share my experiences with you guys. In the last year, I've made 7 games in total. Some where smaller projects, created in a weekend, and on others I've been working on for multiple months (part time, because I have school).

Here's what I'd like to tell you:

1.When learning a new game engine, don't approach a big project right away. My first Unity game was made in 1 week. It wasn't anything special, it was just a simple 2D Platformer, you've probably seen tons of them before. I did not publish the game, but it was a great learning experience for me, because I've learned incredibly much about the Unity game engine in that one week. I recommend doing this to anybody learning a new game engine.

2.Take breaks, especially during game jams. I had to learn this the hard way. I participated in a one Week game jam. It was really fun, but I made a huge mistake: The HTML just didn't work. However, I really wanted to get it working, because many people don't download game jam games and I feared that nobody would even play my game. I spent 7 hours straight trying to fix the bug (and yes I asked google and stackoverflow but they couldn't help me). I didn't solve the issue in these seven hours and I felt ill afterwards and I even needed to puke. The next morning, I solved the issue in a couple of minutes. Just don't do too much, I was burned out. Take a break, go outside. It's the most important thing this game jam has taught me.

3.Participate in bigger game jams. The game jam I participated in had only 100 participants. I got one feedback comment, so it was really not worth it to risk my health for that. While there is more competition in a bigger game jam, there are more people and if you play other peoples games, they will also play your games (like in Ludum Dare).

4.Don't compare yourself to others. This is one of the worst things you can do. You will always envy other game developers on reddit or youtube doing lots of incredible stuff. It might be hard but don't compare yourself to them. Especially when you don't have that much experience with an engine (in my case Unity). You're just starting, you can't be the best game developer in the world right away. There will always be people better than you. Be proud of what you are creating and keep going! My games are not the best as well and I even hate some of them I've made. You'll probably agree that they are nothing compared things you see on Reddit sometimes: (I made a little documentary of the games I've made in the last year. (It's 4 minutes long) https://youtu.be/5GMxYyk8kfM). But you'll always improve. One year ago, when I made the 2D Platformer Game, I couldn't have guessed that I'd be making a 3D game right now.

You guys are probably way more experienced than me, but I hope these tips where helpful to some of you. What did you learn in your first year of using the game engine you're using right now? Please tell me in the comments. :-)

Have a nice day!

Learning Unity Game Dev for 1 Year

ShinyEmeraldGames — Tue, 11 May 2021 18:04:36 +0000

1 Year ago, I downloaded Unity and began my game making journey with it. Here's a quick overview of the games I've made in the past year:

2D Platformer Game: I made this game in one week, to get familiar with the Unity game engine.
2D Top Down Shooter (Powershot): This game took me 2 Months to complete and was the first game that I published
Mape: Mape is a 2D maze defense game which took me about 5 months to complete
Game Jam game: I participated in my first game jam, which lasted one week.
I made a flappy bird clone in 1 Hour, that was pretty fun as well.
Game that helps you to memorize the first 100 Digits of the Number Pi.
Since december I am working on Skyhop, which my first 3D game. It is a parkour game settled in space.

You can watch a video about my 1 Year experience here: https://youtu.be/5GMxYyk8kfM

Have a nice day!

I added a Story Mode to my Game

ShinyEmeraldGames — Sun, 02 May 2021 08:02:58 +0000

Hello fellow game developers,

I am currently working on a 3D FPS Parkour Game settled in Space. Of course, I want to tell a story with the game. To do this, I made an NPC (Non-Player-Character), that tells you a piece of the story whenever it's relevant for the player.

The goal of the player is to exile the aliens, so the people can continue to build their space station. Because it's not completely finished, there are blocks everywhere, which allow the player to do parkour.
You can watch my four-minute devlog about it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jIhRNOPyP-4

Any feedback is appreciated! Have a nice day!

I added a spaceship to my game

ShinyEmeraldGames — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 17:55:43 +0000

I'm currently developing my first 3D game in Unity. It's a parkour FPS game. Recently I added aliens as enemies into the game. But it didn't make much sense to have aliens on a parkour map.
So I added a spaceship to the game. But how can you do parkour in a spaceship? Well... the spaceship consists of multiple parts which are connected with parkour. The game is settled at the edge of space, that's why there is gravity. I also made an FPS arm and a weapon switching system for the player. You can watch the full 7 minute devlog video here: https://youtu.be/ZPChXCuhpx8
What do you think about the game so far? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.