Issue #305 - Game Design and more
This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com
Enjoy!
Game design is simple, actually - So, let’s just walk through the whole thing, end to end. Here’s a twelve-step program for understanding game design.
raphkoster.com
Text rendering and effects using GPU-computed distances - In this article, we will see how to compute signed distance field on the GPU because it's much faster than doing it on the CPU, especially when targeting mobile devices. We will make the algorithm decently fast, then after lamenting about the limitations, we will see what kind of effects this opens up.
blog.pkh.me
The Optimistic View That Indie Games Are In A Golden Age Right Now - It has been a rough couple of years in the games industry with layoffs and studio closures. However, from the perspective of a single-I or small team, we are in the middle of a golden age and most developers don’t realize it.
howtomarketagame.com
Unity Studio (previously Unity Lite): Web-Based, No-Code 3D Design Editor - Sign up today to receive Beta access to Unity Studio, a web-based editor that empowers anyone to build and share in 3D, without any coding or complex workflows.
Unity
Unity 20th Anniversary Game Jam - Celebrate 20 years of the Unity Engine by doing what you do best; Making games. [Only a couple hours left to join at time of publish!]
itch.io
Videos
Indie Devs Suck at Making Water. Here's How to Improve - As simple as something like water is, you might see water in like a bunch of different games. It actually uses some really complex concepts in computer graphics that might not come naturally to a beginner.
Murray
Super Simple Unity Car Controller – Naive AI But It Works! - Dev Vlog 36 - In this video, I showcase a key mechanic behind my custom vehicle AI system in Unity, where the car’s steering logic follows the Ackermann principle (as explained in an earlier devlog).
Prototype Everything
Grow Your Game Dev Success Gradually - This is a conversation with Stephen Huang from @isto_inc. They made games such as "Get to Work" and "Atrio: The Dark Wild", each game more successful than the last. Sptephen tells his story and shares his best advice on how to grow your game dev success long term.
Jonas Tyroller
Benchmark Any C# Code Like a Pro - Learn micro-benchmarking techniques to measure code performance with nanosecond precision.
Gamedev Engine Room
RTS Pathfinding Explained (and Why It Feels So Good When It Works) - In this video, I’m breaking down how RTS pathfinding and crowd simulation work together - and why it’s one of the hardest problems in real-time strategy games.
PlayZeroSpace
Unity Extension Methods You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner - In this video, we explore how C# extension methods can make Unity development cleaner, faster, and more expressive. Starting with practical utilities like Remap and BlockCopy, we move into more advanced async patterns like WaitUntil, AsTask, and AsAwaitable, which let you await conditions or Unity events directly. Each method is explained line by line with real gameplay use cases, showing how small, reusable extensions can simplify your codebase and help you think about Unity programming in a more modern and efficient way.
git-amend
Key Art Lighting in Unity (Tutorial) by #SyntyStudios - In this tutorial we cover how to set up lighting and post processing in your Unity projects using Unity 6 and the Universal Render Pipeline.
Synty Studios
What's the Point of Prototyping? - With a game idea under your belt, it's time to test it out. And the best way to do that is with a prototype. Find out why, and get tips for making your own, in episode two of Game Dev 101.
Game Maker's Toolkit
How To Price Your Game - Join us as we chat with CEO of IndieBI Tom Kaczmarczyk about the hidden complexities behind a deceptively simple question: Just how do you price your game?
Unity
Assets
Massive Unreal & Unity Asset Bundle - Create the perfect setting for your next game wherever your heart desires with a massive Unreal Engine and Unity asset bundle by hivemind. Your project’s potential is limitless with easy-to-use modular assets that save you time and effort. Transport your players into epic fantasy battles with the Duskbane: Modular Medieval Castle and Dungeon Forge: Modular Dungeon Building Kit packs for Unreal Engine—or create an Eastern vibe with Mountain Temple: Japanese Shrine / Temple! Get the assets you need to achieve the look you’re seeking, and help support Make-A-Wish with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate
Shop up to 50% off Threepeat Games - Publisher Sale - Threepeat Games is best known for Toon Movement and Parkour Animation Sets and the Motion-Matching Locomotion Controller assets. They provide foundational assets to help developers ship products featuring dynamic movement and motion realism. PLUS get Parkour Animation Set for FREE with code THREEPEATGAMES
Unity Affiliate
Retro Pixel Image Editor - TL;DR There are lots of per-pixel bitmap image editors out there but this one is mine. No installation. No signup/registration. Instant access. Ad-free.
retrogamecoders.com
VatBaker - A tool to bake VAT (Vertex Animation Texture) from AnimationClip with sample shaders for Unity.
fuqunaga Open Source
JigglePhysics - A unity addon for adding stretchy bouncy physics to bones and meshes.
naelstrof Open Source
frame-rate-booster - Optimizer for Unity's Mono assemblies
tool-buddy Open Source
BlockMaps - Unity framework to create detailed, 3D, grid-based worlds with real-time navmesh generation and integrated pathfinding, vision and movement systems.
p-svacha Open Source
Noodled-Events - Visual Node-Based Editor for Unity Ult-Event setups, with a bonus node category for the BoneLab MarrowSDK.
holadivinus Open Source
Unity_6_HDRP_Outline_CustomPass - Easy outline shader and custompass for Unity 6 (and 6.1) HDRP
LoisGalicia Open Source
Unity-Polytube - Polytube is an analytics tool that records gameplay sessions for playtesting and debugging. It uses GPU duplication for high performance and minimal impact on system resources, and can automatically upload recordings to the cloud when valid credentials are provided.
AmirSolt Open Source
UnityWebGLSpeech - Unity WebGL Package for Speech Detection and Synthesis
tgraupmann Open Source
UnityInspectPlus - Speeding up your Inspector workflow in Unity 3D
yasirkula Open Source
animation-auto-assignment - Unity Editor Extension that tracks changes on hierarchy and automatically repairs animation property paths.
natsuneko-laboratory Open Source
Multi-Terrain-Generator - A procedural terrain generator written in C# for Unity.
benjamin-wiemann Open Source
All Affinity Products Now FREE - The suite of graphics applications from Serif, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher have long been viewed as the perfect alternative to Adobe’s subscription only suite of tools.
gamefromscratch.com
Spotlight
Subsequence - Subsequence is a story-driven adventure that blends old-school charm with clever logic puzzles, immersive world exploration and hidden secrets waiting to be uncovered.
[You can wishlist it on Steam and visit their website]
Zoemi Games
My game, Call Of Dookie. Demo available on Steam
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