This Week in Game-Guru - 8/6/2018

Lots to cover this week!

Official Game-Guru News:

Things are really making a lot of progress.

For a long time, the Game-Guru market was fairly stable.  Fairly calm.  We had a crappy boat on fair waters, so to speak.  Sure, the thing had a five horsepower engine, but the seas were as easy as could be.  The past year has been a rocketship to the moon, by comparison.

Each week I'd write up my little report and think "well, that was easy".  I'd hunt down the 1-2 lines of detail about what is going on, put up some stuff from the store and cover the bases.

Then TGC went to github and we never came back.

There have been a whirlwind of changes done over the past year and honestly if you HAD Game-Guru at one point and dismissed it, we're now safely at a point where I can say you should give it another look over.  Literally EVERYTHING is different.

We have dynamic lighting (up to 38 simultaneously, up from 3!).
We have functional PBR.
We have memory issues fixed.
We have modifiable projectiles.
We have quality of life fixes, like needing to press shift-f1/2/3/4 to go to the lightmapper.
We have better weapons systems code.
Almost every single DLC pack has been overhauled.

Seriously, it's a lot to take in.  I highly recommend you give it another go, if you have the time.

Full details on the update can be found here: https://www.thegamecreators.com/post/gameguru-launches-monster-update

The big takeaway here is this isn't the first major update in the past year.  It's more like the third.  Seriously.  There's been a lot of changes and appear to be more in store.

What's New In The Store

Recently there was a new kit released, specifically a weapons package.
There's very few times when I have to list something as a 'must buy' but you're insane if you don't pick up this kit.  This ultra-high quality kit is as good as I've seen for Game-Guru and really amplifies your options for game-making.  Some minor changes to the textures and you'll have more than enough to change the game to your liking.  Even if you don't, these are superb weapons.  Check out the demo reel here:


So yeah, that's pretty much the first 'must buy' thing I've seen in a while and frankly I'm not surprised.  I've long maintained that EAI (Errant AI) is the best artist in the Game-Guru community.  This new pack sort of underscores that point.

Not that other artists aren't any good - it's just if you are looking for the absolute best of the best in terms of item/set quality items - he has no real equal (especially since his only real competition has moved on).

Speaking of must buys, there are some other really great items this week on the store.
Notably we have another top shelf artist (BSP) who created some fantastic PBR trees.  If you absolutely must have the best looking trees possible, accept no substitutes!

We've also got a great city pack from Lafette (whose work has been growing leaps and bounds lately) and a very non-ninja oriented set of NPC turtles.  While I can't imagine Gtox is going to see a lot of demand for the turtles, I have no doubt they will be of the same high quality as most of his creatures are.

Random Acts of Creativity

I want you all to know that what follows here is.. unusual for me.  I go out of my way to not ever be derisive or condescending but seriously, this can't be helped.

In literally one of the most baffling things I've ever seen, there's something for sale on the TGC store that.. I don't know what it is.
Seriously.
It's called 'Data Bafticomputer'.  It's by a 'Drstewart8klar' though if you google around you'll find he goes by drstewart2klar, 4klar, etc etc.. there's a million aliases.  You also find two books on smashwords.com which are of .. questionable english usage.  I mean I found a read-along on youtube and I literally lost all understanding of what the hell was going on.  My inner Gordon Ramsey is standing around asking "What the $@%! is this pile of *** ****?"

So yeah.  I think this qualifies, probably, as an act of creativity.  I guess.  I mean it's got some pretty fantastic ms paint art... it's marked as 'adult content' but there's nothing even indicating why or what this is... and yeah.  I mean this is a train wreck spaghetti-plate disaster.  It's worth looking at, if only as a cautionary tale as to how not to release a game.

So in a more meaningful set of reviews - Bugsy appears that he's done with Direct Action 2!  Looks great.  His minimalist "high speed low drag" approach to game design is worth taking a peek at - he is a ruthlessly efficient developer and while it's not for everyone it has some serious purpose behind it.  Moreover the cutscene work is pretty impressive, considering the limitations of the engine.

Youtube video of his work can be found here (Don't want to bog down the page with more than one video, sorry!)

Another super interesting one (to me, at least) is Bod (you know, the super prolific free-stuff guy) is making a game and model pack.  It's a different style but honestly I'm ok with that - I like seeing the variety in people's artistic visions.  This medieval style game has promise.  As it is refined it should really clean up well. 

A very Bod-style game, interesting to see it all put together!

Lastly we have Len the Man's 'Cowboy Shooter'.  I feel like this is a really good example of what a really concerted new game developer can do with the Game-Guru engine.  His patient and steady improvement of his levels is really showing some promise and I truly hope he keeps at it!.

Tutorials and Third Party Programs

With a lot of third party programs being integrated into the core build due to it being accessible via Github, we have a lot of potential loss for this particular section.  There was a great article a few weeks back that if you map over Game-Guru's development, it takes a very similar tract.

https://medium.com/@eigenbom/how-to-take-7-years-to-ship-a-beta-4fcfc2428d88

Of course, that's all mute now because we're seeing real progress now that the engine's been opened up.

In My Own Works

<REDACTED>

There's a lot going on right now.  Keep your eyes peeled for an old project I never released to make the light of day.  Some interesting code, for sure.  A while ago I uncovered/developed a really impressive algorithm for creating certain randomization within Lua. 

I think it's about time I showcase them!  Also, as an aside my complete time day and weather kit, along with all skies package is on sale at 14.95 this week!

BSP's SCI-FI weapons pack

My original BSP weapons (pack 1) review is here.

I have been waiting a long time for something like this.  I've had a Sci-Fi project on the back burner which I have wanted to do for a long... LONG time.  Years before even doing anything with FPSC:R.

So without hesitation, I purchased the kit.

  Hot damn.  Sci-Fi always gets the blood pumping.

 I was not disappointed.

This kit cost a meager 8 dollars; that's a pittance for what you get:

5 guns, one low price.

Lets review the 5 weapons given:

You get the IronFist Shotgun.  I have to say as a firearms owner and enthusiast - this thing is awesome.  It behaves EXACTLY as I want a "Space Shotgun" to behave.  It fires out of an eight round drum magazine and the animation is smooth as butter.  It's easy to handle and frankly just feels good.  

Next up is the Quasar Gun; this is a full-auto carbine which has a good bit of recoil.  Of the bunch, its my least favorite aesthetically though it does have a pretty nice alien feel.  I really enjoy watching the drum rotate as it fires.  It features a thirty-two round box magazine which then feeds into some kind of accumulator drum that rotates.  There's one minor flaw and really my only complaint here.  If you really go frame by frame on the box magazine it shows some pretty gigantic bullets.  I don't really care honestly because it happens too fast for the user to notice but it is a fault and bears mentioning.  That said, ejected shell casings are PERFECT on all weapons - no more full cartridge ejections! 

The S4-VC6 pistol is a fantastic weapon; it's a nice all around weapon with good visibility of the gloved hand.  Now normally I'd complain about how you can see the hands but honestly I don't plan on using non-standard weapons and if I do, I will simply reduce the weapon's visibility via configuration files.

 

A pre-alpha WIP screenshot of my upcoming space-shooter.

The Sniper R400 Panther is a well rounded sniping weapon.  I have a confession to make - I hate sniping weapons in this game engine.  They are quite simply too strong.  They make the game exceptionally easy on a number of levels.  This gun, however, feels balanced and decent with it's twelve round stick magazine- unlike the base level 'remington hunting rifle' that comes with gameguru.  It's a good weapon in most circumstances and basically acts as a long range 'upgrade' to the pistol.  It's also gorgeous in the right lighting.

The Typhoon is straight out awesome.  At first I thought "oh great, another full auto gun."  But in truth, it's a weapon unto itself with a fifty round magazine of what are effectively pistol rounds.  It does less damage than the Quasar but slams out the rounds so fast and cleanly it is my preferred weapon of the bunch.  This little monster feels fantastic and is right at home in any Sci-Fi game.

One important note: All of these guns actually come with an alt-fire mode.  Literally press left-alt and you get a melee attack animation that's not shown in the video or really documented at all.  Your character lowers his gun and throws out a quick right hook.  It's a nice freebie and makes the 'what do I do if I have no ammo' situation less difficult to work around.

Overall opinion and observations: This pack is extremely well priced.  You get 6 weapons for the price of 4, effectively, which is a helluva deal.  The weapons all feel unique enough and their respective weapon boxes/ammo boxes look great too.  The muzzle flash on all of these guns is SPOT on and looks fantastic.  The minor flaws of the other weapon packs (recoil, gun feel, ejected weapon cartridges, etc) have all been clearly lessons that were learned from.  BSP has outdone himself.

If I had to buy just one: It's 8 dollars.  Just buy the pack.  There's really no reason not to.  But if you are absolutely trying to be as cheap as possible - get the Typhoon.  It's too fun not to have.