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 - 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 - 06/03/2019

This will likely be my last update for 2-3 weeks.  This is due to the imminent delivery of my third child.

GameGuru News 

This week we had an info-drop on github with an update from Lee.  You can see the full details of it here but the latest essentially confirms that he's got a heavy focus on multiplayer and VR:
 https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commit/243fbd39d2085a9265a67810a232c481150c69ed

While this is disappointing from a bug-fixing standpoint, it is at least some form of development so I'm curious to see when this thing is planned on going live. 

Lastly if you haven't taken a look at the thread on the forums about the lack of official word (I don't count, sorry!) then check here:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220783?page=2

What's Good in the Store

Nothing new this week, sorry guys.  My camerakit is still on sale at half off, so pick it up now before it falls off sale!

https://www.tgcstore.net/product/31048

Free Stuff 

Graphix made a free cubemap skybox of a winter forest: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217932?page=14#msg2615957

JPH made a six-pack of free PBR skyscrapers.  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=2#msg2615961

Third party Tools and Tutorials 

BOTR continues his impressive work on an FPSC to GG importer.  This pipeline could really save some of the level creation of GG, considering the terrain engine is the biggest slowdown for the system.  TGC would do well to leverage projects like this.  

Defy is looking at putting together a dev log, but continues some important off the books work on saving and loading.  He may have a solution to some very serious problems with the current setup.  Time will tell!

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week we saw a great demo of Slaur3n's cowboy survival game. 

The video shows a fairly high level of refinement for a GameGuru Game and I recommend all GG developers watch this for a good idea of some interesting new gameplay considerations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ZfYsLA_dA&feature=youtu.be

Meanwhile, Bod has been plugging away at getting functional vehicles more functional by adding a working speedometer!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHf6EjWIGxE

My 'Silent Hill GG-Style' Game is available for download after having been updated to DX11: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/216959#msg2615894
Be gentle, it reflects my game design from 3 years ago and I did little to actually change it beyond making it work in DX11.

DenZelik updated his game Neir:

While the asset use is fairly tame, I do like seeing that he's worked on custom inventory and HUDs so keep an eye on this one!

In My Own Works

This week I got sick of the stumbling blocks I kept hitting with the projectile system.  Between talking to EAI, Preben, and others I came to the conclusion I would need to dig into GG's root source code to figure out what was happening. My goal was to create a tennis-ball like weapon that would do no damage but interact from a physics standpoint with the game engine.  So in short, a very similar weapon to what's in Unreal.

https://youtu.be/6N2OSD-COt4 Thankfully I was able to find the problem and will make sure that my tutorial (to be posted soon) will have this information in it! 

This Week in GameGuru - 03/25/2019

GameGuru News

I'm going to change the title of this from 'official' GameGuru news to GameGuru news.  This is for several reasons.  One, I am not an official news source of GameGuru.  Everything I do, I do without compensation as a service to the community at large.

Second, my blog/report is not here to parrot what is already out there officially from TheGameCreators.  As such, expect editorial-style analysis and things out of the box of the usual - along with a nod towards whatever actual news is out there. I do, however, appreciate their good graces of putting my blog/report on their site through blog syndication.

So with respect to 'official news' - There isn't any. Nothing new has been posted.

Unoffically?

It appears that a recent update broke encryption in standalone games.

This is only affecting the Feb 28th+, PP, and Beta builds.

This is a massive bug that has been marked as urgent on github.  Unfortunately the fixer of things, Lee, has not yet commented on this issue. What this means for you, as an end user, is if you make a game with custom assets or the like - when you make a standalone using the newest client it will make your _e file that is encrypted... except it isn't. Assets can be stolen/ripped from your standalones.  The solution is to either not make a standalone at all, or to use a previous version until the issue is rectified.

What's Good in the Store

The store hasn't changed much this week.  Mad lobster continued to add to his studio kit, as he frequently does.  As a result, you can expect even more high quality assets to trickle their way into this very well made set.

Third party tools and tutorials

Big apology to Corno_1 whom last week I accidentally missed an update with respect to his 'EBE Editor 2.0'.  You can use the editor to make new shapes for the EBE, to allow for some fairly interesting variations on the usual fare inside of GameGuru's editor.

You can obtain your copy of this free utility here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220618

Someone recently pointed me at a new site called 'www.scriptguru.net' - I cannot comment much on it other than it's nice to see a new resource in the community.  They do have some interesting tutorial videos, however, so it may be worth a trip there to check those out.

Free Stuff

Graphix made a grappling hook.  Looks great though I honestly have no idea what I'd use this for.
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217932?page=14#msg2613556

Gtox made a hilariously weird dog with a man's head that's available for free: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220642#msg2613678

Grobyken made a massive tome of all of his free works in one location.  Get them all here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217711?page=5#msg2613666

Side note... people with a name that starts with G apparently are (G)enerous :) 

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

A new challenger appears!  This user built a relatively rare isometric shooter.  While I love these types of games for GameGuru, I know the limitations are going to seriously box him in.  I do wish him the best of luck though!  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220643

Cogwheel Chronicles is just.. man.  This guy is something else.  I'm really impressed at your level of work Cybernessence.

In My Own Works

So having wrapped up my book it's so hard to not go back and try to feature creep it.  I want to consistently go back and edit things, but alas, that's in the hands of the publisher until we do a revised version.  I'm sure I missed things.  I KNOW I missed things.

One interesting tidbit I'd love to have included was a user (Defy) recently posted this beautiful screenshot illustrating some problems with GG's memory usage.

Make sure you look at the full size image.  This in a nutshell captures the problems with memory usage and GameGuru.  When I put my book together, fully 1/10th of the book was on testing, troubleshooting, and optimization.  That's a minimum of 14,000 words on those subjects.  Serious work needs done to get GameGuru cleaned up and I hope that work like this will spur fixes in the right direction.

In my own works, I'm still putting together a nice 'freebie' sky to go with the pack.  Thank you everyone who purchased it while it was on sale.  Maybe it will find it's way into another sale in the future.  Enjoy the skies and make sure you leave a comment!