This Week in GameGuru - 08/21/2019

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

Apologies for the late update.  Life has been ... crazy, to say the least.

For those who attempted to purchase copies of the book and use the promo code from last week, my publisher advised you must use this site to purchase it for the code to work:

https://www.routledge.com/An-Introduction-to-GameGuru/Messina/p/book/9781138612631

More details about the book and secondary materials will be found at the bottom of this posting so read it all the way through!

GameGuru News

Teabone has sent over his list of fixes to Lee and we're waiting for inclusion in the main release: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220853#msg2619317

Github has seen more work on convex hulls by Preben as well as a major merge into 'PO60' by Lee from the master.

This commit includes a lot of interesting updates you can find here:

https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commit/59aff06cb3ec442997a5582f64e6cab636b982fb

So I'd say expect another sizeable update at this rate in the next month or so.  Don't hold me to it though as I haven't heard anything yea or nay - it's purely speculative.

What's Good in The Store

TeaBone put together some great clutter objects for the store in large quantity:

The quality is fairly good as usual so check out his store here: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/45855

SounDesign also has a pack of clutter objects in the store that could see some use depending on what you are looking for in your projects: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11146

Free Stuff

Unfortunately nothing new in the free sector.  Better luck next week!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials.

https://forum.game-guru.com/board/2 also has a ton of great info this week, lots of details on many Lua related functions for the coders among us.

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week bod made one of his cars driveable: https://youtu.be/FEiXEwu09Rc

Schneeky put together a goofy spaceship video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ta78EP6aNE

KitaKazi's project 'Screos' has some new screenshots.  He says his first two levels are complete:

More info here - https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220691?page=1#msg2619169

Scienceboy's epic "Twin Worlds" has a new tantalizing screenshot with a beholder in it.  I'm still curious if he's using a heightmapping shader or not!

DJPulson's survival game has a screenshot as well as some updates here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220691?page=1#msg2619169

DenZelik came back after nearly a year to talk about his game 'Neir'  and post some screenshots which showed some excellent control of the Lua system for a fantasy-style game.

I'm particularly impressed by the above inventory picture, which looks exceptionally well crafted.

Relative newcomer Trollbae posted this beautiful work using the EBE on discord recently.  It uses several EBE boxes close together to create an excellent indoor environment.

 

 

Honkeyboy's project 'A tall tale' has some excellent updates with new models he's been building.

A project called Dietara popped up with lots of in-progress shots as well as some interesting details on a rather detailed post.

It's nice to see someone trying their hand with pushing the built in lighting system.

In My Own Works

So even though the book is out I've been very busy.  I've gotten numerous questions and the book has created a lot of interest though my publishers have been admittedly not moving as fast as I'd like on certain elements.

I'm fine-tuning one of my artists work before releasing it.  It will be reasonably priced on the store but for purchasers of the book you will receive it for free - simply send me an email, text, discord message is probably best honestly, or private message on the forums.  As soon as I see it and we can verify your purchase I'll send you voucher codes for the products so you can receive them for free.

There are also a number of 'included' free materials such as maps and the like for the book that the publisher hasn't posted on the site yet (despite me having submitted them over a week ago).  As soon as that is available I'll make sure that info is clearly listed and known.

LASTLY - I WILL BE ANNOUNCING A CONTEST FOR MY BOOK THROUGH SEVERAL CHANNELS BUT EXPECT IT TO BE ANNOUNCED NEXT WEEK ON THE REPORT.  THIS WILL BE DONE DIRECTLY THROUGH THE GAMEGURU FORUM CONTEST SECTION (Special thanks to Deb @ TGC for arranging this).


Thanks again to everyone for your well wishes, support, and purchases!

This Week in GameGuru - 08/12/2019

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

As you can see, this week I've included a disclaimer as I've received feedback that the way this blog is syndicated on www.game-guru.com, www.thegamecreators.com, blogarama, and gamedev.net can lead to some confusion as to the nature of these news releases. I will be including this disclaimer going forward to help clarify for those who are not familiar with my work.

While I realize that some people may disagree with my methodologies, at the same time you are free to do so.  I do reside and live in the United States of America and our rights of free speech are important to me.  I make every effort to ensure that I do not denigrate or diminish anyone's work.  If you take issue with the way I portray YOUR PERSONAL PRODUCTS then please contact me.

Thanks for your time, everyone - I now consider that issue at an end.  Also, a special note at the end so make sure you read all the way through - big news about my book! :)

GameGuru News

Per GitHub the latest information is that there is a trial version being added to GameGuru where you can use it for around 7 days before having to purchase it.  This will likely add a number of new potential buyers to the product so keep a close eye out for those new guys and gals!

Also it appears there is a relatively minor change that will allow standalones to be exported without encryption so as to allow entity sharing?  I'm not sure what that one is for but I'm sure it'll make sense eventually.

I can also soft confirm that ... other interesting things are going on with GG.  That's the most I'll say for the moment!

What's Good in The Store

FredGames77 continues to pump out high quality assets at a record pace.  While we've all likely got a huge stash of boxes, the quality on his recent submission is definitely worth a look:

You get 10 'pack cases' (boxes) for $10 (currently on sale for $5!) - a very reasonable offer.  These are high quality to boot with low poly count and excellent PBR texturing.  Get yours here: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11145

There's also this interesting grub enemy creature by Gtox:

Get yours here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33376

Free Stuff

Honkeyboy added some horns to Character Creator: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220945

Not bad work.  I will admit my book's materials ALSO include some donated Character Creator attachments so keep an eye out for that as well. He's got additional ones here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220945#msg2618825
They include a rice farmer's hat, knight's templar's helm, skeleton warrior, and another set of demon horns.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

 

This week I caught wind of a pretty interesting blog tutorial on the best mods for Blender 2.8 (which recently dropped).  If you use Blender actively check it out here:   https://cgcookie.com/articles/the-top-10-modeling-addons-for-blender-2-8

The latest official GameGuru tutorial video was posted online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMqPsVpy2Ag

There were actually a number of non-english tutorials being posted.  Some work reasonably well enough with youtube's auto-translate function if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYebtk_SETs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEova6DMa5Q

Work continues on the '3d Asset Manager' program for GG - it has come such a long way in such a short period.  The latest info can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220822?page=5#msg2618874

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Bod this week made a really serious Taxicab..which turned into a police car... which turned into this awesome street racer with neon lights and alpha-planed headlights.  https://youtu.be/dw8mi4z7isg

Bonesy also made more forward momentum through steady refinement of his cyber-fi game:

One of the more interesting bits is a new user named "Trollbae" posted one of his friends creations from amateur work in the EBE and it's an impressive manor house:

I have to admit this is quality work for someone who is just trying out the EBE and GameGuru.  It shows a pretty clear ease for new users and I proves a bit to some of us older hats that maybe the EBE is worth using from time to time after all!

Tarkus1971 posted an update to his 'Urban Histories' game that I am personally very interested in seeing - apparently he's reworking it from scratch.  More info here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220589?page=1#msg2619135

Solar is working on a side project called "Zombie Central".  It's a suburban zombie city crawl.
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220974#msg2619073

This is because his other project, Kaboom Foxie is apparently nearly complete.

In My Own Works

And lastly, in my own big news (if you even made it this far to the end of this report) ... is my book is FINALLY released!

https://www.crcpress.com/An-Introduction-to-GameGuru/Messina/p/book/9781138612631

That's right!  The first start to finish guide for making and selling a game in GameGuru is finally here! The book is 426 pages in print with a significant error index, Lua, FPI Guide, 20+ chapters on GameGuru and Game Development in general.

The assets for this (demo maps, character creator addons, custom weapons,  custom static entities, some generously donated other materials, all my scripts, skies and textures...) are all going to be uploaded TONIGHT by 12PM EST.

I will also be giving away some promotional copies for FREE in the coming week.  So keep your eyes peeled on Discord and on the Forums for more details.

For those interested, there is a special 20% off discount code I have through my publisher you can use that is valid until the END OF THE YEAR - AITGG230 

FOR THOSE NOT PURCHASING THE BOOK, THE ASSETS WILL BE POSTED TO THE STORE IN THE COMING WEEK OR SO FOR PURCHASE.  

This Week in GameGuru - 08/05/2019

Sorry for missing last week guys.  Life got in the way. Life is trying to get in the way this week as well, but I'm going to quickly blast this report out before another dumpster fire breaks out in my near periphery.

GameGuru News

One - Lee continues to make adjustments and updates.  He's improved makehuman compatibility and FBX imports are now a thing.  I'd love to see a video tutorial of these updates to better know what this all means for us, perhaps some live examples.  See the github log below:

Also Preben added a new physics shape - convex hulls to GG's github commits - https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220961

What's Good in The Store

Well, this week we have a lot of really good stuff.  Fredgames continues to impress though I'd argue his pricing is a smidge high for this market.  Or heck, maybe it isn't.  Maybe he's selling like hotcakes.

Either way, it's quality work if you're looking for decent models. Lafette's robotic's lab and steam engine are also pretty fantastic, so definitely give that a look. Gtox has gone on from fish to birds, now having a number of stork/crane/herons on the store.

Free Stuff

Sorry guys, time doesn't permit me to break this down but there's a lot of great free stuff on the forums.  Check this link to head there directly: https://forum.game-guru.com/board/25

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

If you haven't been paying attention the official youtube channel of GameGuru has been posting MANY short, easy tutorials. Some good stuff there, check them out here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1q1e3Q9IKMk4nDlAGb_5Jg/videos

The third party asset manager is still being worked on, check out the progress here:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220822/newest

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Bonesy has posted some really interesting screenshots with some community feedback and it's looking better all the time:

 

Solar has a new project (I still want to see his other one, Resist: Revolution finished though!) called 'Kaboom Foxie' - looks like a revamp of some of the cartoon and easter egg assets.  Smart use of existing components, in my opinion:

 

I'm always a fan of clever re-use of assets.  Check out the progress and videos here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220951 

Cogwheel Chronicles (By Cybernessence) has a new screenshot of the dragon from last week.

Wow, the shader updates made this monster look very impressive!

Scienceboy's epic "Twin Worlds" is coming along beautifully.  The latest screenshots are incredible and I'm really looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition.

In My Own Works

What a busy week. Aside from dealing with a newborn, a toddler, and a nine year old with some learning disabilities... it's been an absolute mess.  My book's deadline for production got pushed up to the 7th. So good news, everyone - the book will be available very soon.  However, please hold off on purchasing until next week's GameGuru report as I will have a special 20% coupon with it.

For the record, I asked for the chunky, blocky look.

I've also been putting together the book's materials at the last minute and have some screenshots to show you all.  The idea here is fast, low poly models that look good but run very well for a number of projects.  I will be including them with the book but you will (if you prefer) be able to buy them separately on the store for about 29.95 (this will include many of my existing works as well).  

The book itself will be priced rather high for the GameGuru community.  Regrettably I have no control over the final price.  However, the 20% coupon will help mitigate it and the included materials will also make it much more attractive.  I have something on the order of 30 or 40 maps included with it as demonstrations of concepts straight out of the book.

Keep your eyes open because next week I'll have all the full details!