This Week in GameGuru - 02/03/2020

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.

GameGuru News

If you've not been living under a rock the past few weeks, you know about the VR Update being done to GameGuru.  Opinions are mixed but at the end of the day we're getting additional functionality so I suppose that's probably good.  Bugfixes continue on one of the branches done by Preben ... notably this right here:

https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commit/56037907e098f6e5df71f3194f3ea57846712af1

Hallelujah! I cannot even begin to tell you how long I've been complaining about this particular quirk in GG!  I'm extremely excited to see the 'warp-speed' widget multiply issue being fixed!

Also Lee recently posted something called 'Operation Bug-Free' so it seems like this is going to be the primary focus for the next few months after they add all the features from the VR Quest branch of GG. He's shooting to resolve all 74 bugs listed in Github by March!  Should be interesting, if nothing else.

From a community standpoint - Defy has a full-mem-clearing build that he's working on which we can hope to see integrated soon into GG!

A new TGC branded DLC dropped too - the walled garden: https://www.thegamecreators.com/post/gameguru-walled-garden-dlc-on-sale

What's Good in The Store

Wolf's game, Amytric Pulse is *FREE* on the store.  You are doing yourself a disservice not gettin this and playing the heck out of it.

Get your copy here:  https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33873

Sula has released a Euro Truck pack.  There's a large quantity of beautifully made, fully PBR enabled European trucks in this pack.

This is just a fraction of what you get!

Get your copy here - https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11180

Fredgames77 has put together a beautiful bedroom set here:

Get your copy here - https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11181

There's plenty more. The truth is this section takes so long for me to do I can't spend as much time as I'd like these days checking the store out. Thankfully the Jason's been doing great work improving the interface steadily so I have less work to do as a whole here.  It's much easier for everyone to find what they need than it was even a year ago!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

BOTR continues his work on his heightmapping utility.  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221333?page=2#msg2625210

He's notably added youtube links and squashed many bugs.  So it's really coming along as a more mature utility at this point and is definitely worth a look!

Amenmoses is working to solve a long standing issue involving ladders in GameGuru - https://vimeo.com/388717781

Random Acts of Creativity(WIPs)

Wolf's current fantasy project is looking better and better as he fine tunes the details:

You can really see the lighting come together, along with the design of the actual map itself.

Teabone's 'wizardry style' GameGuru RPG is a pretty amazing piece of work.  Duchenkuke did a little demo runthrough of it in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3d3Re9eek

The above screenshot gives you a good idea of what you can expect, though if you're a fan of the genre you already know what to expect.  I know he did a significant amount of rewriting for the Lua controls to get it to function as he desired.  It's impressive stuff and I'm happy to see people doing new and interesting things in GameGuru.

Mav3r1ck continues work on his fantasy-based game, which also is coming along impressively.

A user named JALambert came out of the woodwork, apparently a long-time lurker, with two projects that look pretty impressive. One is an open-world style project:

Featuring some unique HUD elements and a beautiful set design.

The second is a Quake-inspired multiplayer Arena game, which is definitely speaking my language as a former ranked Quake III Arena player :)

To be honest, many people upon seeing his screenshots didn't even believe these were made in GameGuru!  That's probably the highest compliment you can give a GameGuru designer.

Free Stuff

The past few weeks have had a number of freebies posted on the free stuff forum for GameGuru. 

You can peruse them yourself here:https://forum.game-guru.com/board/25

In My Own Works

Well, I finally got enough money socked aside to purchase a tool I need to make some truly fantastic skies.  I've been happy with my products to this point but I really want to make some mind blowing stuff so here's to everyone who has purchased my products on the store!  2020 should be a landmark year for space skies and some code releases.

This Week in GameGuru - 01/13/2020

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.

GameGuru News

Not much, unfortunately.  Work goes on behind the scenes, so I hear from those in the know. I cannot divulge the specifics, unfortunately.  Nothing on github but some excellent stuff is coming, near as I can tell almost a generational leap for GG. Time will tell from a public view but all I can say is that from my viewpoint I see a lot of things clicking together right now in a way I haven't seen since early 2016 or so.  

What's Good in The Store

Wolf has released a massive 2019 Sci-Fi pack and I own many of these already. I use them with regularity but a few new items also appeared in the form of a 'booster kit'

Just one of many of the superb assets in the booster pack!

You can get your copy here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33832
On to another favorite - a fantastic 'torch light' script by Teabone.  I have to say as someone who wrote up a whole LightKit of my own, I'm impressed by the simplicity and function of the torch kit. Check out this video for an idea of what I mean:

           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoFImeQK2w

This script is a total bargain at $2 for any fantasy project: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33858

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

           It bears reiterating that 'Bored of The Rings', a forum user, has been developing many excellent tools that are pretty much a required faire for anyone serious about using GameGuru at this point.  They are reasonably priced and I highly recommend picking up your own copies.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221333 - This is the heightmap importer he's diligently worked on which is now up to version 5!

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221285 - This is the FPSC autowelder tool which can LITERALLY IMPORT ENTIRE LEVELS FROM FPSC INTO GAMEGURU.
It also can pull dynamic entities, weapons, etc over.  It fits a critical pipeline for those building indoor scenes - you can build your indoor scenes in FPSC and import them into GameGuru.  Really quality stuff.

In the interim, I know cybernessence (another GG user) has been working on some amazing things of his own.  Per his words:
"Just added wake effects for ships and water and sky (sky scroll clouds) transparency based on configurable co-ordinates so airships can punch through cloud layer and subs can dip below the waterline without texture plane intersects. Looks pretty good. Added numerous lua lcommands such as getting limbs for HUDs, so can add particle effects to FP hands and weapons. Loot chests are now populated by 'add entity' commands - so money (or any asset) can be dynamically loaded at run time ... lost count of all the changes made to make the game better now to be honest"

I for one am still praying he'll include some of those in the core branch of GG on Github.

Free Stuff

Nothing I could find this week, sorry!

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

New user Mav3r1ck has been building some really excellent fantasy dungeon crawls:

The above is apparently a boss fight arena.

I love the dark and red look he's put on using some custom assets and lighting.  Great work!

Avenging eagle's interesting game with torches and lighting as a core mechanic is coming along splendidly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmKBugPxWPM 

And lastly we have more teasers from Duchenkuke's fantastic Dark Skies game:

 https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221314?page=1#msg2625068

   

In My Own Works

I've been getting back into the swing of working GameGuru intermittently now that life is making more sense!  I want to thank everyone who has purchased my book, I want you to know it's been very fulfilling to provide something that so many are able to own and appreciate!

My more current works will involve some scripts being released on the store (two of them for free) in the near future.  So keep your eyes peeled!

This Week in GameGuru - 1/6/2020

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.

Happy new year everyone - I'm back!  I realize it's been an extended absence and for that, I do apologize.  I cannot be 100% sure that I will not have further absences but at this point I will do my level best to continue this project for the time being.  Unfortunately life sometimes simply gets in the way as it did the past few months for me. I've got a lot to catch up on as December was a highly productive month.

GameGuru News

TGC produced a 'december update' which was a welcome change from many years of long holidays with no communication from them.  This welcome change fixed a lot of persistent code issues including one of my own issues - that of projectile caching not working properly and causing erratic behavior with projectile systems like the ones included with my "Cybernoir Weapons Kit".

What's most encouraging is a renewed focus on attempting to improve the engine.  I'd liken this to the ~2015-2016 era when we had a number of big fixes and changes on a fairly regular basis.  It's an exciting time. Moreover they appear to be hiring freelancers to help bugfix.  If you are interested in this position, see this post here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221436

What's Good in the Store

AlexGCC's 2019 pack - this combines many decent elements into a well priced pack worth a look:  https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11169
I really love Sula's City Construction pack as well for its wide variety of PBR assets with just the right amount of 'grunge' to them: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11163
Lastly I have point at belidos isometric kit, which looks positively awesome: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11161

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

There are few people in the GameGuru community who don't know Wolf; he's a long standing member stretching back over a decade or so with tons of experience putting together many tutorials on lighting.  He's recently come back to GameGuru and found the static lightmapper is working to his liking again and as such has written an updated and fairly expansive guide on how to use it: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219206

A new version of BOTR's superb and pretty much 'must have' heightmap utility can be found here:
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221333 

Free Stuff

December is usually overwhelmed with 'free stuff' due to the infectious Christmas spirit. This December was no exception with a huge mass of free models and media available.

Firstly we have wolf's beautiful 'Sci-Fi archway': Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221444

Belidos put up a number of cartoon-style assets for free you can retrieve here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218362?page=2

Mav3r1ck1981 made a fantastic sci-fi medical table here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221371 

Lafayette put out this awesome butcher store horror-style pack: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220474?page=3#msg2623695.

Random Acts of Creativity

This is where I saved my bandwidth, folks.  Lots of really good projects have started to creep their way into the daylight and it's definitely worth showcasing a few.

Let's start with Wolf's own project since returning.  He sent me several screenshots and elected to let me pick the best one.  I settled on this beauty:

I like the style and design; he uses a lot of the same techniques I illustrate in my book to reuse common assets intelligently as well.  Overall the lighting and contrast is a classic RGB wheel blue and yellow which works exceptionally well.


Duchenkuke's project, Dark Skies, the Nemansk incident, is another prime example of what can be done with competence and a good eye for artistic flair.  It's got a brutal, dark, gritty feel that really gives you a sense of Metro-style depth which really pops in this engine.

He's using some excellent Sepia tones and great modelling choices to help accentuate the atmosphere along with a completely custom HUD that looks fantastic!

Other big hitters have dominated the scene as well with Cybernessence posting a significant December update showing his own work with the engine and the heightmapper by BOTR:

I like the touch he has there of calling his build the 'cogwheel engine'.  Seems accurate, given the massive amount of updates and changes he's made to GameGuru essentially drives it to be it's own entity at this point.

That's not all either.  There are many dozens of project updates this month so swing on over to the forums and check them out!

In My Own Works

I got to see a cool 'present' of my own this month - someone who purchased a hardcover copy of my book!  I don't even have one of those - I'm a touch envious!  So far reviews have been positive though with the rate of change in GameGuru, I may have to write a revised copy in a year or so.

A few final notes - if you HAVEN'T received your free models and media as a purchaser of the book, contact me on discord or via the forums and I will see to it you receive it promptly.  Purchasers of the book get free demo maps, models, character creator assets, my cybernoir entities, and my cybernoir weapons pack - and much more!
Lastly - please leave a review at amazon for me.  This greatly assists in online sales of the book and will help boost my visibility to others who are looking for it.

This Week in GameGuru - 11/06/2019

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.

GameGuru News

If you haven't seen the newsletter, it bears repeating what was mentioned in there.  Notably TGC is in a bugfixing cycle so it's important you take any bugreports you have and post them over on the issues log on GitHub.

What's Good in The Store

This week's totally subjective analysis of the store reveals not much new.  Fredgames continues to pump out products, so check out his store here: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/250424

Other than that though there a number of notable sales at the top of the page.  Give it a look!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

BOTR released the final version of his autowelder FPSC to GG pipelining tool. Grab it while you can! https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221285

Similarly BOTR released his final version of his Heightmap tool! https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221100?page=1#msg2622936

Free Stuff 

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220055?page=2#msg2622953 Amenmoses put together some sound control scripts you can get for free.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=2#msg2622903 3 Sci-fi animated objects by JPH.
A video can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F93CJmXtgyg

 

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Naelurec  got some more interesting updates and custom models.  I'm truly interested in seeing where this one goes.  The latest update shows a toxic-looking planetscape:

A favorite of mine, the Cogwheel Chronicles had it's creator Cybernessence dropping more hints and clues about his current work including a heightmapper tool: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2622957

The old master of lighting, Wolf, put up some powerful looking screenshots of a yet unnamed game.

I'm pretty impressed with how far he's come even given his already somewhat legendary status in the community.

Schn33ky posted a game called Dilly Dally Derby, which is actually a complete work at this time: 
It's a betting game where you choose a horse and it randomly runs them out.  It's interesting to me because this is actually a game very similar to one I made back years ago in school. I used monster trucks myself, but I can appreciate the work that went into this.

The biggest news is that Duchenkuke revealed a secret project he's been working on that is now available for public consumption.

Note the custom interface, impressive lighting, use of a powerful vignette and just overall professional feel of the work.

A perhaps better example is this gem:

The atmosphere is intense and palpable. He put a lot of work into the sound design and environments, it features a variety of enemies and is available to be wishlisted on steam (Which I personally recommend doing!) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/657480/Dark_Skies_The_Nemansk_Incident/?beta=0

In My Own Works

This past week was a flurry of getting people their free products as book purchasers.  If I missed you, please contact me on discord, send me a ticket on tgcstore, or send me a message on the forums if all else fails. 

This Week in GameGuru - 10/27/2019

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.

Another week, another belated TWIGG report.
Unfortunately this is turning into the norm for me as I am consistently overwhelmed by real world factors that hopefully will slow down come early next year.
In the interim I will crank these out as often and as on time as I can manage.

GameGuru News

 

This week we've seen a significant amount of activity on 'project V3' on github.  Some of what I'm seeing there is very exciting!

https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commits/ProjectV3

Notable elements include an update to Character Creator, load time tweaks, GUI updates and more.
Very exciting stuff!

The SUPERB enhanced weapon pack is on sale this week as well for as low as you will likely ever see it - definitely pick it up now if you are ever going to pick it up!

What's Good in the Store

Finally got my Cyberpunk Noir guns up

If you are a book purchaser and haven't gotten a redemption code for them, please let me know!

Book sales have obviously tapered off; like games they have a really big front end and a longer back end.  If you haven't purchased a copy, try using this code to save 20%:  AITGG230
Use it at this link here:
https://www.crcpress.com/An-Introduction-to-GameGuru/Messina/p/book/9781138612631

You can also find the additional book resources there for free under 'additional resources'.

This week also had several great packs show up:

Gtox added a prehistoric critter pack (GameGuru Ark clone, anyone?)

And Fredgames77 continues rapidly cranking out high quality models, this time in the form of a building tool pack!

Free Stuff

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221251 Mipastu put in a pretty clever fix for AI getting stuck on walls and corners by making an 'AI wall' which essentially allows you to keep them from getting to problem areas.  Definitely worth the download.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

Looks like BOTR is integrating his heightmap importer INTO GameGuru's github code as a branch.  This is very exciting to me and I'm really hoping we see that additional functionality implemented sooner rather than later! Additional details can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221100#msg2622732

Random Acts of Creativity(WIPs)

Synchromesh has added some new music to his excellent Protascope game (by DuchenKuke): https://youtu.be/9qDAmpCIb-4

Cybernessence put up a new screenshot for his epic GameGuru work "The CogWheel Chronicles":

And this blurb about the latest changes he's made:

"I've re-written the player swimming to use the physics capsule, it's much better now - though it did need a new lua command to fine tune it (SetWorldGravity) - which will come in handy for the barsoom levels too.

I also updated the in-game terrain loading to load associated entities (it was only loading terrain and grass before from the fpm and positioning anywhere in the world) and added the DCO to it, to keep silky smooth play. The memory seems to be paging in and out properly, so if I load one terrain/level part then delete and load another the memory is smoothing out. Still got a lot of testing to do to make sure this holds up with 16 different fpm's loaded on the fly, and I did hit a 'random' crash bug that took me days and days to find (this was in my added mods not GG stock code) ."

He's done incredible work which I hope to see integrated by middle of next year at the latest.  Time will tell though!

Naelurec has some updates with details and technical information but also these great new menu screenshots:

Really simple, clever, and clean.  I like it a lot.  You can get more info here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221152?page=1#msg2622551

In My Own Works

I've recently begun putting together another HQ space skies set, but run into some snags.  Expect a few freebies of my throwaways along with a new pack on the store in the near future!

This Week in GameGuru - 10/21/2019

GameGuru News

Some of the secret squirrel sleuths found this gem buried in GitHub - make of it what you will:
https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/pull/631/commits/c570fedd8cd8ccac8e5652f8bfd4b293a775d458

What's Good in The Store

There's a lot of good one off products this week:

Corrosion's Survival Scripts are in a pack.  https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11155

Fredgames77 made some highly detailed zombie garden gnomes. https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11154

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

<This space for rent>

Sorry guys, nothing new here :(

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Galaxy Hauler (By Honkeyboy) had a video put up that is fairly enticing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-GaQHaQZ4A

Zelick's project "Neir" had some updates here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220415?page=1#msg2622300

Naelurec by Old Flak has put up some more great screenshots:

I love seeing a project with custom modelling. This kind of thing is what this community needs - more homebrew stuff with consistent art direction and quality design.  It should really stand out once it's completed.

Robert Hindle (Bod) and AmenMoses's latest work on a flyable spitfire looks great, as one could reasonably expect! https://vimeo.com/367610915

Free Stuff

If you didn't get Granada's excellent free shotgun last week, get it this week! https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221213

https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33551 AlexGCC made a free 'Russian Sign'!

In My Own Works

Life is still hectic with the basement remodel, work issues, new baby, etc.  However I've been slowly nicking away at getting minor things taken care of as well as outstanding issues.  I've recently begun making new skies for space settings again - but none of the newest batch has been up to par.  I'll probably release the failures as freebies once again.

Lastly, my Cyberpunk Noir weapons kit is FINALLY fixed and on the store.  If you are a book owner, ask me for a free key so you can get a copy of these for free.

This Week in GameGuru - 10/14/2019

My apologies for the late updates.  It's been an absolute nightmare dealing with some of my recent work changes so this has unfortunately dropped massively in priority.

GameGuru News

The Monthly newsletter discussed my book being available. Thanks TGC - I appreciate it greatly.
There's also a free version of GG now, though it's a test version with a limited time of access.  Should help entice new users.
There were some minor fixes to the PP edition, which is essentially using the latest, most up to date version. Notably there was a load/save Game Stats fix which should help games that make it into production.

What's Good in The Store

Lots of new things are available!  One of which is of course some of the Cyberpunk Noir assets from my book materials!

If you are NOT a purchaser of the book but want some of the static assets (weapons are on the way, once I untangle a few things with free time I don't have currently) then feel free to puchase these! If you do own the book - hit me up on discord for a free code to download it.
 

Valentin321 put together this great looking motorboat:

 

There were also some scripts by corrosion, check his store page here: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/221852

Teabone made some really well priced scripts as well: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/45855
Sula made some great looking PBR trucks - https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/157895
Fredgames77 has put up some excellent cemetery models: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11153
Pasquill put up a really superb armored vehicle - https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33517
AlexGCC put a number of great models up but I really like his apocalypse truck: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33532
Northern put out a very nice VIP model with a decent array of scripts and animations making it a good value: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33528

And for 'most interesting/innovative' item on the store in the past month or so, we have Erart's impressively weird ghost mirror. You have to watch the video to see what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFqdz1ZKZtQ

How cool is that?  Anyways, you can get your copy here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33521

Free Stuff

Granada made this fantastic free shotgun!

 https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221213  - get your copy at that link.
Tarkus 1971 made some pretty excellent music available for free:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213190/last
Some great scripts found their way onto the net as well such as
smallg's 'racing script' https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/207801?page=25#msg2622028
And Amenmoses's 'cold breath' script: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221215#msg2622148

Notably for me though is the Airplane script he posted to discord.  There's a video in the 'random acts of creativity' section of it.  It's really good stuff!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

This week there's some interesting Russian Language videos (I love auto-translate) on youtube for GameGuru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3QE9rGxKVw

And also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErNFM-AoKhE

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Amenmoses is working with Bod on making GG into a flight sim.  This has to be seen to be believed at this link:  https://vimeo.com/366328897
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zgarg-algM - Bonesy's Cyberfi updates look good but the colors are still painful to me.  I realize it's the style, of course, it's just hard for me to watch. That said, it has potential so hopefully he'll keep refining it
I'm happy to see Honkeyboy has revived his galaxy-hopping game. While it lacks polish the core components look really great and I'm looking forward to seeing his future work on this! 

 https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221222

Dietara got some video updates.  This blog post is already really saturated though so I can't post much more safely - so here's a link to where you can find some more:     https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220994?page=1#msg2621936

In My Own Works

I want nothing more than to work on GameGuru projects I have outstanding but between the end stages of a basement remodel, a new baby, work woes, and the myriad other things clutching me I simply can't spare the time.  On my list of things I want to get done by the end of the year:
   - Some new script releases for the store
   - Get those @#$% weapons posted to the store
   - Make some new space skies
   - Work on my own game project

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has supported me by purchasing my book.  I'm going through some hard times right now and it's good to know that the year  of time it took me to make that is seeing some use by more people than I expected.

This Week in GameGuru - 09/09/2019

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.

GameGuru News 

This week in GameGuru, TeaBone made a contest for the discord which has since been cross-posted on the forums.  I had intended to run my own contest but it makes zero sense to run two separate contests.  As such, I am going to have to hold off on my book contest until this one runs its course.  Otherwise things will be, flatly put, a mess.   I am still considering whether to add my book to the literal PILE of prizes available to the contestants.  If you are a GameGuru creator, it really behooves you to check this out!
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221084

Things have slowed down from the record pace on GitHub but I can confirm some behind the scenes action continues so keep your eyes peeled for further improvements and additions to the engine in the coming months.

The usual spate of fixes tends to be batched in february, may, august, and november.  We're a little off from that pace but I'd expect a big drop around Oct-November.

What's Good in the Store

Valentin321 has added to his excellent Carousel on the store by making a whole pack for an abandoned playground.  These are great looking models and if you are looking for a moody, abandoned park feel it will fit right in!

Free Stuff

Lafette provided a bonus for owners of his mystical dark age pack.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

The official GG channel continues pumping out videos (good for them, with an engine like this it's helpful info for most people who don't want to wade through thousands of hours of livestreams like certain blog writers did for a book they recently wrote). The new 20 minute vignette format works much better for the average user, I suspect.  Though if you want to get into the meat and bones, I do highly recommend watching some of those multi-hour streams.  Some really good info can be found in them.

The patcher DannyD is working on has gotten additional love too as seen by this interesting screenshot:

 Of particular note is the 'Asset Manager' being worked on by Graphix.
 I cannot stress how absurdly impressive and necessary this tool is.  It does everything the former 'styleguru' did, only better and much more of it.  You can manage your menus, your graphics, you can control your 3d asset library, and more.  It's really an incredible tool spearheaded by someone who is doing a fantastic job of putting together a third party supplemental component.

I can't even cover all the pieces this thing has.  It's a huge boon to the community and we should all be enormously thankful and appreciative of Graphix's hard work on it.

Check it out here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220932

A video demo can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkU5dUNIEQ0

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Duchenkuke put together this clever intro for a game he's working on.  Cutscenes are always interesting to dissect, see if you can figure out all the little methods he used! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5zpdAtG1u8

Amenmoses put together a pretty impressive bit of physics in a nice video clip for us.  I'm reminded of a certain game that shall not be named - really impressive stuff.  https://vimeo.com/345560130

In My Own Works

I've been fielding question after question with relation to my book.  I've received dozens of private messages, discord chats, personal messages on the forums and the like.  I'm super happy everyone has purchased it seems to be enjoying it.  It's been quite a ride and I'm happy that people are already extracting value from it.

Life's not been kind to me but for the moment I have an artist cleaning up some of the original cybernoir assets I had made up so that I feel comfortable with their release.

An example is here:

This flying car has been updated to PBR and yet still retains much of the original artistic style.  I'm really looking forward to getting this stuff out the door!

Once I get that all ready to go I'll post the final version on the store for everyone to give a whirl.  As usual, book purchasers will receive it for free, non purchasers will need to buy it on the store.

Thanks again and see you next week!
Mike

This Week in GameGuru - 09/04/2019

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.

I wish I could describe the absolute chaos of my life right now.  It is impressive, in a biblical sense.  This unfortunately has impacted my ability to do these updates.  I will continue to attempt to get these out in a reasonably timely fashion.

As such, this week the work almost didn't get done.  I have a lot of ground to cover and a limited amount of time to dedicate to this so let's get to it.

GameGuru News

Let's just say some interesting things are going on behind the scenes.  I am not at liberty yet to discuss but I think many of you will be pleased with the end result of it.

Cybernessence has continued his excellent modifications to the engine which I still eagerly anticipate seeing added to the main engine branch.  Some of the changes he's made are monumental in effect.  One big update is a draw call optimizer that he's used by Preben that seems to make enormous impact on the engine's ability to batch draw calls and improve speed.

Currently a great number of big items are in the pipeline or implemented:

1. Draw Call Optimizer
2. Convex hull shapes
3. FBX importer
4. Makehuman pipelining
5. Trial version of GG
6. Other known/discernable updates (If you check github it's clear there's a VR/Multiplayer angle being worked in the background just by gleaning little bits and pieces). 

There's also more beyond that I'm aware of but not at liberty to discuss.

What's Good in the Store

Unfortunately can't do this this week.  This is far and away the most time consuming part of my weekly updates and as such I cannot afford the time for it at the moment.  I hope to get back on the train for this next week. This week it was 'do this and delay until monday or don't do this and get it out this week late'.  I chose the latter.

Free Stuff

Belidos posted some free medieval characters (always nice to get characters!): https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221044

A track I accidentally  overlooked was added for free by tarkus1971: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213190?page=5#msg2619604

Third Party Tips and Tutorials

TGC keeps posting more tutorials, now in a second more detailed series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oHsxCMoD9g

Random Acts Of Creativity (WIPs)

In by far the largest component of this, I have a huge amount of updates to cover.

Bonesy is continuing work on his Cyberfi game, now including some of the assets available to purchasers of my book.  Nice to see this stuff finally filtering down.  I'm still working on getting it on the store but if you have purchased it and want the assets early, please let me know.

Teabone posted a beautiful forest screenshot in which he's tuned and optimized his forest using many of the techniques I outline in my book to get a smooth 58-60 FPS with many trees:

Synchromesh has evolved his Protascope game to include Dagored's excellent drone entity from his sci-fi set (I own it myself and love it).

Also newcomer Maverick put together an awesome looking airship out of what looks to be a mishmash of EBE and free assets. Nice work!

Maverick also made this great looking waterfall and used a clever solution to do it - an inverted smoke decal! 

Peri32 made a fantastic video literally as I was typing this of his walkcycle for a Taxi-Driver inspired game based I assume on the movie from the 70's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22mDKiP5DE

The environment is top notch and it's a great use of GG's abilities near as I can tell.

In My Own Works

Well, the publisher posted the files online... then removed them.  So now I have to get them to add them back in.  *shakes head*.  Like I said, my life is pretty chaotic right now.  I have final touches being done to the art for the 'Cyber Noir' pack that is free for book purchasers.

A teaser of what to expect for assets:

And some weapons too:

So keep your eyes peeled and make sure you keep some info on your purchase so I can validate it to give you a code :)

Lastly, I'm working out the final details with TGC on my book giveaway contest.  There will be some minor stipulations but three copies will be up for grabs.  I should have this finalized for next weeks report!

Thanks again to everyone who purchased a copy of my book.  I deeply appreciate your support on this labor of love. I've recently started getting pictures from purchasers:

This to me is the coolest part of this whole process - seeing an actual copy in hand for purchasers!

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.