Issue #311 - Better Performance, and more
This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com
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Our 2025 advanced technical content recap: Upskill your game development with these resources - In this blog we wrap up the year by giving you an overview of new technical resources released in 2025. We hope that you find these helpful and that you’ll bookmark them for the holidays and beyond.
Unity
Renderer Shader User Value: Customize your visual per renderer - In certain scenarios, games may need to manage a large number of objects (e.g., MeshRenderers) while applying unique visual customization to each instance. Prior to the introduction of the Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP), the most efficient method for achieving this was through the use of Material Property Blocks (MPBs). With the advent of the SRP Batcher, however, a more performant approach has been to generate a dedicated Material for each customized renderer. This method has demonstrated significantly better runtime performance compared to MPBs.
discussions.unity.com
“Players are selfish”: Fallout 2’s Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy - Chris Avellone wants you to have a good time.
arstechnica.com
The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure - Play was central to the formation of personal computer culture. For the early hobbyists who were fascinated by the guts of the machine, the computer was a plaything in and of itself.
technicshistory.com
Better Steam Regional Pricing - Set fair regional prices for your game in seconds
hushcrasher.com
Find creators to play your game - Spend your time building your game, not hunting for creators. discover niche creators perfect for your game.
marketingforgames.com
Videos
Understanding Unity memory | Unite 2025 - Getting the best performance for your game can depend heavily on the way you're using memory, and C#, while a language with many great features, wasn't initially designed around the performance needs of game developers. Understanding the way your C# code uses memory can unlock significant performance gains and provide deeper insights into your Unity projects.
Unity
Advanced performance tips and tricks from a Unity consultant | Unite 2025 - The advanced version from last year's Performance Tips and Tricks talk. This time we will dive into more nuanced performance topics, like how to measure and improve loading times, including scene loading and streaming and a variety of performance-intensive Unity features, like UI masking.
Unity
Optimizing smarter, not harder with Unity's performance tools | Unite 2025 - Watch Peter Hall from our profiling team demonstrate our recommended profiling and optimization workflows in Unity 6.3. We’ll show you how to use the now fully released Project Auditor to analyze your project and find issues with assets, settings, and scripts to improve game performance. We’ll also demonstrate the new Overview Page in the Profiler to help you identify where to start profiling faster, and learn how to use the Unity profiling tools together.
Unity
Goodsprings Is A Masterclass In Game Design - Watching this video almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter....
Zomboman
Making it shine: Advanced visual techniques in Unity | Unite 2025 - Ready to make your card game pop? In this session, we’ll explore how to create a stunning loot box opening sequence inside Unity. Along the way, we'll learn about custom shaders, anisotropic highlights, parallax depth, VFX, and more. Whether you're building a digital TCG or a flashy UI-driven experience, this talk will show you how to blend technical artistry with gameplay. Demos, tips, and plenty of visual flair included.
Unity
Glow up your graphics with Unity 6.3LTS and beyond | Unite 2025 - Learn how to maximize graphics performance on different platforms with Unity 6.3LTS. Leverage modern graphics APIs like DX12, Metal, and Vulkan, and utilize in-Editor level-of-detail generation. Discover multiple optimizations added since Unity 6, such as the new Renderer User Data for the SRP batcher and optimized post-processing effects. Get practical insights on how to improve visual fidelity, leveraging recent improvements like Adaptive Probe Volumes and rotated reflection probes in URP, or upcoming ones like High Definition Render Pipeline support on portable consoles and Surface Cache real-time diffuse global illumination.
Unity
Unity 6.3 – What’s ACTUALLY New? - Lets look at Unity 6.3, including 3D as 2D, graphics settings, lighting, new hierarchy, URP and more. We'll look over the FREE demos and packages and all it's uses. Use and implement Mesh LOD, look at all the new features inside Unity 6.3. So you never miss out!
SpeedTutor
Unity Features You Didn't Know Existed - Unity API features hiding in plain sight that can make your life easier. Learn how to run code automatically without MonoBehaviours using RuntimeInitializeOnLoadMethod attribute and control object visibility with HideFlags for cleaner scene hierarchies and protected configurations.
Gamedev Engine Room
The World Design of Hollow Knight: Silksong - Team Cherry returns to the world of Hollow Knight with Silksong - a new game, with a new character, in a whole new world. In this episode of Boss Keys let's look at how the developers designed Pharloom and the Citadel, and how they thought about topics like progression, backtracking, and optional content.
Game Maker's Toolkit
Dependency Injection in Unity Without the Complexity - Dependency Injection is one of those architectural topics that’s often discussed in theory but rarely feels practical in real Unity projects. In this video, I walk through how Init(args) approaches Dependency Injection in a way that works naturally with Unity’s component model, replacing common patterns like singletons and manual lookups with explicit, type-safe dependencies. We’ll look at concrete examples, interface-based services, local vs global dependencies, and where these ideas fit in a professional Unity codebase.
git-amend
CTR Is Why Your Steam Page Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It) - Steam isn’t a storefront — it’s an algorithm.
Freaking Cool Indies
Better Tile Breakup - Terrain Shaders - Episode 7 - In this tutorial, I show a better method for breaking up tiling artifacts so terrain looks more organic and less repetitive. I show how to create the technique in both Unreal and Unity.
Ben Cloward
Basic Framework - Physics For Game Dev #1 - In this video we setup an initial physics framework and use the laws of motion to update the position of our particle.
OGLDEV
Unity Tutorial: Easy Steps to Create Scary Game Environments! - In this video I walk you through my full process of creating a horror environment in Unity using the simple assets we made in the previous tutorial. This is not a speedrun or a technical checklist. It’s the way I actually think about space, storytelling and atmosphere when building levels for my games.
PitiIT
NIMRODS x DOTS: Scaling to 100k+ bullets - Join us for a deep dive into Unity DOTS with the developers behind NIMRODS, a gun-crafting bullet heaven survival roguelike. We’ll talk through how the team ported a GameObject-only demo into a full-fledged DOTS game - one that can handle thousands of projectiles, modifiers, and enemies on screen at once. Along the way, they’ll share what worked, what they learned the hard way, and what they’d do differently next time.
Unity
Assets
New Year Sale - New year. New projects. Endless possibilities. Save 50% on over 1500 popular assets!
UInity Affiliate
Santa's Phat Sack - Royalty Free Music Bundle - Unwrap Santa’s royalty-free music. Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up, let’s go. Let’s look at the savings on Santa's Phat Sack of Royalty-Free Music from the audio experts at Phat Phrog Studio! Unwrap the gifts of RPG battle tracks, lo-fi, ambient, action, and countless other music collections for your next project. Never worry about renewing licenses or subscriptions when you pay what you want for audio assets from Humble Bundle. Plus, feel the holiday spirit and help support Save the Children with your purchase.
Humble Bundle Affiliate
Frosted Falls: Winter Wonderland Asset Pack (FREE) - A cosy collection of stylised winter props, scenery… and four fully-rigged woodland animals ready for animation.
gamedev.tv
TabbySheet - A C# library compatible with Unity and Godot Engine that downloads Google Sheets and exports/imports them as json assets.
MyNameIsDabin Open Source
Meshia.MeshSimplification - Burst accelerated mesh simplification.
RamType0 Open Source
unity-addressable-importer - A rule-based addressable asset importer
favoyang Open Source
Unity_Geometry_Sequence_Player - A package for Unity to stream large Pointcloud and (textured) mesh sequences from disk
BuildingVolumes Open Source
Forms - Infinite, procedurally generated world with procedurally generated flora and fauna and other mysterious items.
skooter500 Open Source
PolygonMapGenerator - Unity project to create 2D polygonal maps. Includes a fully configurable map editor to create maps, and also some games using the map generator.
p-svacha Open Source
object-snapper - This is a Unity Editor tool that provides a radial snap menu for quickly snapping selected objects to surfaces in 6 directions
AFreoN Open Source
Unity_ProceduralButterflyAnimation - Butterfly animation
XJINE Open Source
VisualStateMachineV2 - A Unity C# Visual State Machine
PaulNonatomic Open Source
Shop up to 50% off NOT_Lonely - Publisher Sale - NOT_Lonely is a 3D artist originally who is now also a developer of specialized tools for the Unity Engine. His solutions, based on deep experience in creating 3D scenes in Unity editor, help artists solve complex technical tasks efficiently. PLUS get HQ Apocalyptic Environment for FREE with code NOTLONELY2025
Unity Affiliate
BitonicPixelSorter - GPU-accelerated pixel sorter with bitonic sorting for Unity
ruccho Open Source
blua - bLazing fast native Lua for Unity!
shadyasdf Open Source
asset-relations-viewer - Plugin to display dependencies between assets, files, assetgroups, etc. in a tree based view within the Unity editor.
innogames Open Source
Datra - Datra is a comprehensive data management system for game development.
penspanic Open Source
uLayout - A simple UI layout system for Unity uGUI.
pokeblokdude Open Source
BAD ASSet Bundle Unity Mega Pack - Unlock a BAD ASSet or two. Add a little spice to your holiday whether you’re naughty or nice with the hottest, BAD ASSets, around! This Unity-exclusive collection has everything you need to build stylized settings that are perfect for a variety of genres—run your own theme park with the Carnival, explore the dark and moody Gothic Interior Megapack, or a horror-ready Apocalyptic Hospital, and much more. Unlock endless possibilities with these badass assets and help support Stack Up when you shop with Humble.
Humble Bundle Affiliate
FAB.com Free Assets - Including Realistic Lab, Mechanic Girl, and Medieval Village
fab.com
Learn Unity In 2025 Bundle - Unleash the creative power of Unity. Go from gamer to creator with the Learn Unity in 2025 Complete Course Bundle! As the name suggests, this curated collection for the Unity Engine is a complete roadmap for your success. Each module covers a different genre of interest—take advantage of expert-led courses like Construct a Micro-Farming RPG in Unity, Create a 3D Turn-Based RPG in Unity, Build an Arcade Kart Racing Game in Unity, and more. Get the expert guidance and knowledge you seek, and help support buildOn with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate
Spotlight
Fowl Legacy - What the cluck?! Ricardo was sent to Hell! It's time for revenge. Explore different landscapes, jump, run and dash past deadly obstacles, search every corner... and defeat the ultimate evil keeping you from returning to your world!
[You can buy it now on Steam]
André Tavares
My game, Call Of Dookie. Demo available on Steam
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