#unreal engine 5 assets

[astropharias]

project 1 ✦ hard surface: interior w/ a hero asset

Here's an update on my interior assignment!

Today, I submitted a couple of rendered still images and a cool video showcasing my finished greybox for my assignment. I played with some lighting, moved a camera around... Pretty cool stuff, I think.

Will work on this further, of course - I plan to sculpt my hero asset in ZBrush, so I'm very excited.

[noneedtofearorhope]

same energy, applicable to many fields, not just geochemistry

[perplexingly]

I've been working on this little scene in Unreal Engine 5; it initially started as a modelling exercise but then I used the opportunity to learn UE5 as well

The focal point is based on the black hearse of the Habsburgs, and I actually did try to replicate all the details, even if not visible on the final render.

Programs used: Maya, ZBrush, Substance Designer, UE5 Most of the assets in the scene are hand-crafted, though I used some megascans as a base for the ground foliage

[paxlight]

I spent the last two days making a clan camp in Unreal Engine 5, using assets from Stylized Landscape 5 Biomes + Stylized + Low poly forest : Orasot Bundle. I'm really proud of how it turned out!

[demifiendrsa]

The Witcher IV — Cinematic Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2024

The Witcher IV, the start of a brand-new The Witcher saga, is currently in development. Platforms and a release date were not announced.

“We’re kicking off a brand-new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story!” said Sebastian Kalemba, Game Director. “It feels so good to finally be able to say those words—for the longest time we knew that we wanted Ciri to be the protagonist of The Witcher IV; it just felt natural to us and we believe that Ciri deserves it. In this game we want to explore what it means to truly become a witcher by following Ciri on her Path. This trailer is a taste of both that, and just how dark and grounded the world of The Witcher can be.”

First details

During this year’s The Game Awards, CD PROJEKT RED offered a first look at The Witcher IV, previously known by its codename Polaris. The game, a successor to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—considered one of the most acclaimed games of all time—marks the beginning of a new Witcher saga with Ciri stepping into the role of the protagonist. In the nearly six-minute trailer, viewers were introduced to Ciri, the adopted daughter of Geralt of Rivia, as she takes on a witcher contract in a remote village that has been terrorized for generations by a fearsome monster demanding human sacrifices. Framed as a short, self-contained Witcher story, the trailer showcases Ciri’s new abilities and tools, including a chain and advanced magic powers. At the heart of the trailer is Ciri’s perspective as an outsider to the village. As the villagers say goodbye to one of their own — a young girl they are preparing for a traditional ritual sacrifice—Ciri chooses to intervene. Aiming to slay the beast and save the girl at the same time, Ciri finds herself at odds with the prejudices and superstitions of the people she tries to protect, leading her to confront a painful witcher lesson: that monsters come in all forms. The trailer is pre-rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. Powered by the same tech that The Witcher IV is built on, using assets and models from the game itself, it aims to provide players with a cinematic look at the kind of experience the game is aspiring to provide. The trailer was created through a close collaboration between CD PROJEKT RED and Platige Image, who are no strangers to The Witcher universe, having been responsible for intro cinematics in the previous installments of the series. The Witcher IV is a single-player, open-world RPG from CD Projekt RED. At the start of a new saga, players take on the role of Ciri and embark on a journey through a brutal dark fantasy world. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, it aims to be the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date.

[eliyips]

Xisuma's Helmet 💜

My 3D final for the fall quarter! 4 assets made from scratch, modeled in Maya/Zbrush, textured in Substance Painter, and rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

Detail shots and some rambling about my process below the cut! :)

The helmet! I've talked about it a lot before, but my design for X's helmet is very heavily inspired by Motocross! :) this model was done with an AHR motocross helmet as my main reference, as well as my own art of Xisuma. The tubing was the main addition!

The pedestal was the final asset I made. I designed, modeled, and textured it in one day, and I'm very proud of how it turned out! I wish I could have shown it off better in the final render, but alas, the composition didn't allow for it. I still think It's pretty neat :) The decals along the top and at the center were designed by myself as well. At the top, we have some text art. It's hard to read (deliberately) but it spells out "XISUMA," repeating four times on each side. The front decal is dragon wings, framing an end crystal.

The flowers I selected are Asters! I was under the impression when I started this project that these were Xisuma's birthflowers, but it turns out his birthday is in October, not September, LOL. I was thinking of the his Youtube anniversary... I still associate these flowers with him either way though!

The flowers were probably the most difficult asset, but the skull might be the one I'm least satisfied with. Skulls are weird and complicated. If I were to do this over again, I'd go for a skull that I can find more precise reference for, rather than a sailfin lizard :') I picked out a lizard because I wanted to invoke dragons a lot in my imagery, but felt like choosing an extinct animal, like a dinosaur, wasn't appropriate for what I was going for? The sailfin lizard is a species which is vulnerable but not extinct, which I decided was more in line with my vision. Again though, if I were to do this over, I'd pick a skull which is more readily documented.

To conclude, some WIP screenshots! :] My initial sketch for the composition, two Maya screenshots, of the high poly helmet and pedestal, and an early screenshot from UE5, figuring out the composition, before I'd finished the pedestal model.

Happy to talk more about this, or answer any questions that people have! :D my ask box is open. I've been considering writing a short fic about the concept behind this piece as well... It's a little fuzzy, the details, but I do have a concept, and most of my choices for this project did have intention behind them. :)

Thanks for reading! 💜

[theomeganerd]

Halo Moving to Unreal Engine 5 as 343 Industries Rebrands, 'Multiple Projects' in Development

Halo Studios: New Name, New Engine, New Games, New Philosophy

Ahead of the final match at today’s 2024 Halo World Championship, we saw an unexpected video. It depicted landscapes you might expect from the Halo series – Forerunner architecture jutting from dramatic landscapes inspired by the Pacific Northwest, gorgeous fields of ice, even a vista blighted and consumed by The Flood. We of course saw glimpses of the Master Chief, and his iconic enemies, even a Banshee arcing past the camera. But what we saw wasn’t a look back – this was something entirely new.

We’re entering a new dawn for Halo. Those new visuals were created using Unreal Engine 5 – and we learned that all future Halo projects will use the engine, and that multiple new games using it are in development. Alongside the engine change, the studio is seeing changes in culture, workflow, and how its teams are organized. To match that new approach, franchise stewards 343 Industries are changing their name – Halo Studios is here.

The First Step Switching from the studio’s proprietary Slipspace Engine to Unreal is a key part of that change. Previously, 343 Industries needed a large portion of its staff simply to develop and upkeep the engine its games ran on. “We believe that the consumption habits of gamers have changed – the expectations of how fast their content is available,” says Hintze. “On Halo Infinite, we were developing a tech stack that was supposed to set us up for the future, and games at the same time.”

As gaming evolves, and players increasingly point out how long it takes to see new games from their favorite series, the team at Halo Studios felt the need to react. As COO Elizabeth van Wyck puts it:

“The way we made Halo games before doesn’t necessarily work as well for the way we want to make games for the future. So part of the conversation we had was about how we help the team focus on making games, versus making the tools and the engines.”

Alongside the wider changes to how the studio is set up (which you can read more about below), adopting Unreal means Halo Studios is more able to create games with a focus that can satisfy fans – even setting up multiple teams to create different games simultaneously. But Unreal also comes with in-built benefits that would have taken years of work to replicate with Slipspace:

“Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old,” explains Studio Art Director, Chris Matthews. “Although 343 were developing it continuously, there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been developing for some time, which are unavailable to us in Slipspace – and would have taken huge amounts of time and resources to try and replicate.

“One of the primary things we’re interested in is growing and expanding our world so players have more to interact with and more to experience. Nanite and Lumen [Unreal’s rendering and lighting technologies] offer us an opportunity to do that in a way that the industry hasn’t seen before. As artists, it’s incredibly exciting to do that work.”

There’s another in-built benefit – Unreal is familiar to huge parts of the wider gaming industry. Where developers would have to spend time learning how to use Slipspace when joining 343, Halo Studios’ adoption of the industry-leading engine makes it a far smoother process to bring in new talent (and the studio is indeed hiring for its new projects now):

“It’s not just about how long it takes to bring a game to market, but how long it takes for us to update the game, bring new content to players, adapt to what we’re seeing our players want,” says Van Wyck. “Part of that is [in how we build the game], but another part is the recruiting. How long does it take to ramp somebody up to be able to actually create assets that show up in your game?”

With the move to Unreal, the on-ramp is shorter, the experience is there, and the series can grow far more quickly and organically than ever before.

Forging Ahead Of course, Halo Studios needed to be confident in the switch to Unreal – this isn’t a decision taken lightly. The team had to be sure that the first Halo games to come out of a non-Slipspace engine would look, feel, and sound right. The team began experimenting, and it resulted in a research project known as Project Foundry – the source for all the new clips we saw today.

“When we decided to do Foundry, it wasn’t, at that point, in our plan,” says Van Wyck. “But we needed to pause and – ‘validate’ is not the right word, but educate and understand what our capability is, and assess it, so we actually know we’re on the right path.

“We’ve intentionally been really quiet up to this point, but I think [today] is about just sharing where we are, what our priorities are as a studio, and where the team is. We’re really proud of what came out of Foundry.”

So what does Foundry represent? The team is clear that this is not a new game – but nor is it a traditional tech demo. It isn’t just an exploration of what’s possible with this engine – it’s a true reflection of what would be required for a new Halo game using Unreal, and a training tool for how to get there. Foundry has been made with the same rigor, process, and fidelity as a shipped game would be.

“Where this type of work’s been done historically, across the industry, it can contain a lot of smoke and mirrors,” explains Matthews. “It sometimes leads players down paths where they believe it’s going to be one thing, and then something else happens. The ethos of Foundry is vigorously the opposite of that.

“Everything we’ve made is built to the kind of standards that we need to build for the future of our games. We were very intentional about not stepping into tech demo territory. We built things that we truly believe in, and the content that we’ve built – or at least a good percentage of it – could travel anywhere inside our games in the future if we so desire it.”

Hintze goes further: “It’s fair to say that our intent is that the majority of what we showcased in Foundry is expected to be in projects which we are building, or future projects.”

And what we’ve seen of Foundry promises incredible things. Named after the Foundry within Halo’s lore – the central forge of the megastructure used to create the Halo Rings themselves – the project saw the team set out to create three distinct biomes in the style of Halo. The goal was, as Matthews puts it, to make something old, something new, and something truly alien.

For something old, we see a biome inspired by the Pacific Northwest – a staple of the series – but in dramatic new form. Waterfalls crash over mountains, a running creek becomes the site of a tableau pitching the Chief against two Covenant Elites, and the team pushed Unreal to include as much foliage as technically possible.

For something new, we see the Coldlands location, a region locked in a deep freeze, with snowdrifts covering plateaus, and ice reflecting what’s above and refracting what’s below. And for something alien, we see the Blightlands, a brand new take on a Halo location – a world consumed by the parasitic Flood. The express purpose of the Blightlands was to see how this new-look Halo team could push the world itself farther than previous Halo games – the results speak for themselves.

Even the familiar looks new in Foundry. The Chief’s armor has been modelled with extreme care, down to individual panels on his combat gloves. An Elite’s energy sword now feels less like a solid object and more reflective of the name – a crackling swoosh of dangerous energy. The aim wasn’t just to push the studio, but the engine itself – Foundry is designed to do things that we haven’t seen in games using Unreal across the industry, Halo began its life as a graphical showcase for the original Xbox – the goal is to make that so again.

Halo Studios has worked closely with Unreal’s creators, Epic Games, to ensure they can reach that lofty goal.

“Halo is such an incredible franchise and it’s awesome to see Halo Studios already pushing the boundaries of Unreal Engine 5,” said Bill Clifford, Vice President and General Manager of Unreal Engine at Epic Games. “We’re honored to support the Halo team in realizing their creative visions through Unreal Engine. Project Foundry’s work demonstrates how they can bring Halo to life with beautifully detailed, uncompromised worlds.”

Of course, the soul of Halo isn’t just in how it looks, but how it feels – the intrinsic dance of its combat, the thud of the weapons, and the sense that you’re inhabiting the Master Chief’s armor. While Foundry may be a primarily visual project, Halo Studios is deeply invested in retaining the essence of what players love about Halo.

“I think it’s pretty well known that [switching engine] has been a topic that the studio has thought about for a long, long time,” says Van Wyck. “[The release of] Unreal Engine 5 was when we felt like we could make Halo games that respect and reflect the true soul of Halo while also being able to build games that can deliver on the scale and ambition of content that players want.”

“The spirit of Halo is more than just the visuals,” agrees Matthews. “It’s the lore. It’s the physics. Playing as the Chief, you’re this huge tank of a soldier – it’s the way that he moves, he feels. We’re all really obsessed about what our players love about Halo. We’re constantly listening to this feedback – and that’s at the core of any initiative like Foundry, or any intention that the studio has about how we move forwards.”

“We’re thinking about the intangibles,” Hintze adds. “The interaction with the Master Chief, or your Spartan, or the enemies. We are very careful about the decisions we’re making in that space – down to the precision and authenticity of the weapons, the authenticity of the animations. There are a list of nuances which we use to verify that we’re on track.”

Beyond the Visor So, let’s talk about what’s coming beyond Foundry. As you might expect, the team isn’t talking about exactly what those new games will be right now – we’re at the beginning of this new chapter, not the final stages, and it’s fair to say that a new Halo game isn’t imminent. Halo Infinite will still be supported through the Slipspace Engine – you can expect more Operations, and updates to its Forge mode. In esports, Year 4 of the Halo Championship Series, using Halo Infinite, has just been announced. But in the background, the next steps for Halo will be taken.

The quietness is by design. Hintze makes clear that the priority right now is on doing the work, not simply talking about it:

“One of the things I really wanted to get away from was the continued teasing out of possibilities and ‘must-haves’. We should do more and say less. For me, I really think it is important that we continue the posture which we have right now when it comes to our franchise – the level of humility, the level of servitude towards Halo fans.

“We should talk about things when we have things to talk about, at scale. Today, it’s the first step – we’re showing Foundry because it feels right to do so – we want to explain our plans to Halo fans, and attract new, passionate developers to our team. The next step will be talking about the games themselves.”

What is clear is that, yes, it’s Halo games – plural – in development right now. Where Halo Infinite saw practically the entire studio focused on a single, evolving project, Halo Studios has recalibrated:

“We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite,” says Hintze. “[But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”

A major part of this shift has been in reorganizing the structure of Halo Studios as a whole, in order to give development teams what they need to make something new.

“At the end of the day, if we build the games that our players want to play, that’s how we’ll be successful,” explains Van Wyck. “That’s what should motivate what we build. That’s also what this structure has done – we want the people that are day-in-day-out making the games to be the ones to make the decisions on the games.”

The team will also be seeking more input from outside the studio on those decisions:

“We’re seeking earlier and earlier, wider and wider feedback from our players,” she continues. “We started that with The Master Chief Collection, and carried that on with Halo Infinite, and we want to do it even more for our next projects. At the end of the day, it’s not just how do we evaluate, it’s how do our players evaluate it?”

343 Industries was founded to create Halo games but the impression I get is that, in its new incarnation as Halo Studios, the studio has been retooled to put the focus entirely on that goal – without distraction, without impediment, to create better games with players’ hopes and wishes at the heart of the endeavor.

“You asked why we consider this as a new chapter,” says Hintze. “We want a singular focus. Everyone is in this place is here to make the best possible Halo games.”

[merkygloom]

My first finished environment made in Unreal Engine 5. This is a jungle themed restaurant set in the game world I'm working on. All assets modelled by me. I used Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Photoshop 🌴

[satoshi-mochida]

The Witcher IV announced - Gematsu

CD Projekt RED has announced The Witcher IV, the start of a brand-new The Witcher saga. Platforms and a release date were not announced

“We’re kicking off a brand-new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story!” said Sebastian Kalemba, Game Director. “It feels so good to finally be able to say those words—for the longest time we knew that we wanted Ciri to be the protagonist of The Witcher IV; it just felt natural to us and we believe that Ciri deserves it. In this game we want to explore what it means to truly become a witcher by following Ciri on her Path. This trailer is a taste of both that, and just how dark and grounded the world of The Witcher can be.”

Get the first details below.

During this year’s The Game Awards, CD PROJEKT RED offered a first look at The Witcher IV, previously known by its codename Polaris. The game, a successor to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—considered one of the most acclaimed games of all time—marks the beginning of a new Witcher saga with Ciri stepping into the role of the protagonist. In the nearly six-minute trailer, viewers were introduced to Ciri, the adopted daughter of Geralt of Rivia, as she takes on a witcher contract in a remote village that has been terrorized for generations by a fearsome monster demanding human sacrifices. Framed as a short, self-contained Witcher story, the trailer showcases Ciri’s new abilities and tools, including a chain and advanced magic powers. At the heart of the trailer is Ciri’s perspective as an outsider to the village. As the villagers say goodbye to one of their own — a young girl they are preparing for a traditional ritual sacrifice—Ciri chooses to intervene. Aiming to slay the beast and save the girl at the same time, Ciri finds herself at odds with the prejudices and superstitions of the people she tries to protect, leading her to confront a painful witcher lesson: that monsters come in all forms. The trailer is pre-rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. Powered by the same tech that The Witcher IV is built on, using assets and models from the game itself, it aims to provide players with a cinematic look at the kind of experience the game is aspiring to provide. The trailer was created through a close collaboration between CD PROJEKT RED and Platige Image, who are no strangers to The Witcher universe, having been responsible for intro cinematics in the previous installments of the series. The Witcher IV is a single-player, open-world RPG from CD Projekt RED. At the start of a new saga, players take on the role of Ciri and embark on a journey through a brutal dark fantasy world. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, it aims to be the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date.

Watch the announcement trailer below.

Announce Trailer

[lysolstrider]

i didn't know you were making a game thats really cool, can you tell us more about it?

yes!! just for you my dearest mutual axolotlworld… sorry I took forever to respond I really had to think about what to say!

our game is (tentatively) called COLLEGEBOUND.. or SCHOOLBOUND… or CLASSBOUND.. we are indecisive. it revolves around concepts of change, willpower, and the drive to keep going. it is tangentially related to the COVID-19 pandemic though a physical sickness is not present anywhere in the game… quite the opposite

you play as atlas, a tired sophomore who’s ready to just leave school altogether. what’s crazy though is that you can’t leave. nobody can. you’ve all been on campus and its extended neighborhood for a year straight without any contact with the outside world. your college is floating in the sky, cut off from the outside world. it’s time to fix that.

it is based VERY heavily in paper mario style combat, and is heavily inspired by games like undertale and persona 5, i would go so far as to say i hope this is an appropriate love letter to those games!! if you enjoy making friends and avoiding class, you will love this game. we are trying a lot of new things outside these games’ scopes

ideally, we get the kickstarter launched sometime after having a workable demo in mid 2025. at the moment, the majority of the demo’s soundtrack is finished, the character designs are mostly complete, and the demo’s story is 90% done. though not programmed enough to have anything tangible, the combat system is 40% complete and the UI is about 5% done. the only reason i wouldn’t be like HERES THE DEMO SCRAPS is just because i hate reading devlogs where nothing happens 😭😭

there is a secret i cannot say, but it is the reason development isn’t as quick even though it’s a two person project. just know it’s a popular mechanic for indie games to do this lately and i’m wanting to take it to a logical extreme in the most intense way possible!!!!!! which is really challenging in Unreal Engine but it is possible!

the environments and such are extremely easy and not a concern because tbh most of that is free assets we have permission to edit mixed with my hand drawn or modeled things. unironically i’m really digging the amazing world of gumball style it gives the game. i’m a huge huge perfectionist and even refuse to answer texts unless i have a perfect response so i’m polishing things as i go and am really enjoying making it!

also, we’re going to apply for multiple scholarships dedicated to things like this— with what we have so far visually we actually have a shot maybe????!!!!! i dont have any good videos on hand but the paper style is PERFECT for my art and it’s really endearing to look at and play as

i wish i could be more specific but it’s such a novel idea and i told shems i can’t talk about it anywhere for a while ugh 😭 i can’t remember my login for here on the computer but when I post some of the soundtrack snippets I will tag you in them!! the music is coming along the best so far lol

here’s some screenshots of concept art tho!! theresa and anya. theresa is an HR management major and anya is an illustration major. we thought about Anya’s color changing when she performs certain skills but that’s up in the air rn

us messing with the lighting in unreal lol (we’ve since changed the filter on it as well as making the textbox different)

[atariforce]

80's Retro Arcade Created in Unreal Engine 5 by Luke Thompson

Photorealistic 1980's arcade built in Epic's UE5, with hand-made assets created in Blender and through RealityCapture.

[tacko3d]

WOWZA WOWWIE I DID A GOOD REMASTER

YO! Whats up dawg? Nothing much.

Other day I uploaded an update for the Unreal Engine 5 version of one my favorite Asset packs. Originally released in 2021, I thought it was time for an update.

You can catch the details here

Basically, Mike has given a greater level of fidelity, more details, improved textures. New Props and even a whole new skeleton of which features 40 animations!

THATS A LOT OF ANIMATIONS! (The most I've ever done for a single asset pack)

And now hes running on Materials 3.1

The latest version of my material system, featuring hue shifting lights!

A change I've been wanting to add for a long time until I had an epiphany during THIS LIVE STREAM!

For previous owners of the Robot Pack 2, they'll recieve the update for free! Check it out on the Unreal Engine Marketplace! (my favorite material version are the prismatic ones in the back, and the cool pink and blue one upfront)

And on Sketchfab!

HE HE! COOL ROBOBOT!

[catonator]

You hear about video game development?

Well. I wouldn't say I expected such a catastrophic implosion from Unity.

Now, I can't say that I didn't laugh at the situation. It's a hilariously terrible case of bad management coming up with bad ideas in desperation. But it's also a somewhat scary indication of the sorry state of the industry.

Unity controls about 40% of the engine marketshare (according to a linkedin post I found anyway). Unity dominates the engine scene by a large margin, followed by Unreal at around 30% and Cryengine by around 5%. Unity forms such a large part of the entire game development industry, that it's difficult to really even understand just how much they control the concept of games as a whole!

Most people are jumping to some paid alternatives, like the aforementioned Unreal and, to a lesser extent, Game Maker, but my suggestion is this: don't!

Within the last decade, all-encompassing closed super game engines have become less of a side venture and more of an expectation. Back in the 2000s, there were a few engines like this, mostly amateur ones. Game engines were less creation stations and more of a loose collection of middleware and tools. Purchasing the rights to the engine meant that you also got the responsibility of also tying the engine into something resembling a game yourself. I feel like this art has been lost.

Game engines nowadays are more of a purchase of a passing right to use and incredibly specific, closed set of tools. You don't get to define the tools, and you don't get to really own the tools. It's yet another example of the tradition of the games industry fucking over the customers, and the customers just going with it. Because of this, while Unreal got some free dunks on Twitter for this, I can assure you Epic is planning something equally terrible as Unity's PR faux pas, and it'll come into to play in about 3 years when everyone's just accepted that Unity sometimes financially screws you over.

But, game developers are indeed developers. They know software, and they can learn to make new software.

If you're a game dev and still reading this, I'd recommend taking a peek beyond the curtains of corporate cockfighting, into the realm of DIY game engines. It's a… somewhat janky world full of strange characters with unusual ideas on how much time it's acceptable to spend not working on a game, but it's also a place where you're not being sat on by fatcats.

Just as game engines have progressed in the past 20 years, so have libraries, middleware and resources for independents. Making your own engine isn't just picking up ANSI C and toiling for a year in software rendering hell. Open tools like Pygame, Monogame, LÖVE and Cocos2D (among many, many others) are far beyond just simple rendering libraries and border on being game engines sometimes. The difference is, these tools are open source, and they do not restrict you with what you can do with them.

There are several games you may have played made using these frameworks. Streets of Rage 4 (MonoGame), Celeste (MonoGame), Fez (XNA, aka. MonoGame), Miitomo (Cocos2D), Geometry Dash (Cocos2D)… I got tired of looking up more. There are a lot of games.

The future which I hope to see for game developers is one where you have a large assortment of simple tools you can pick. Level editors, asset converters, entity systems, all small chunks of a game engine you could drop into your own project to slowly build up your own collection of workflows to make games your own way, completely independent of any larger forces on the market.

The support for these frameworks is still somewhat barren compared to Unity, but I believe, that if more people jump to alternatives like this, more tools, tutorials and middleware built for them would start showing up. This is how Unity also got its start, about 15 years ago. You also really don't need all the power in the world to make your simple 2D Megaman clones. The fog created by the monolithic engines we have now have obscured just how simple the building blocks for your favourite games can really be.

It just takes some bravery and willingness to learn a new way to approach making games, but I think the outcome is worth it, even just for you.

[askagamedev]

This is more of a technical question, but what version of C++ is most used in AAA nowadays? Is it still very much C++11/14 or has it transitioned to C++17/20?

It's a pretty broad mix. Most devs are still using C++11/14 to my knowledge, with several ongoing legacy titles continuing to use C++03 to support them.

One of the biggest pillars of development is that the ability for devs to work (stability) is paramount. If we were to make a change like an engine or software upgrade (e.g. Unreal 4 to Unreal 5), a major tool switch (e.g. Max to Blender), or a C++ version (e.g. C++11 to C++17), we will render a large number of developers temporarily unable to work. This is because most upgrades or switches no longer support the things the previous software or version supported perfectly, and those small breakages require time to identify and time to fix - during which those devs who depend on that software to work can't.

This kind of time cost eats a portion of the budget - we won't get extra dev time added because we're upgrading our tools and need time to iron the resulting issues out. This is why the decision has to be made - are the benefits from making the switch worth the cost of fielding all of the issues that could be caused by it? This varies on a project-by-project basis. If the project is early in development or only has a small number of affected developers, the cost is much lower than if there are hundreds of devs affected or thousands of finished assets that could be affected.

Live games, especially old established live games, only make these kind of changes when absolutely necessary because they have tons of existing resources and assets already live and can't sacrifice the dev time to go back and bring them all up to spec. Many well-established MMOGs are still using C++03 for this reason - they just have too much built on it and can't afford the change. SWTOR is still using the licensed Hero engine and are still using the build from 2012.

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[daryatalia]

Completed my Second Game Jam!!

I completed Brackeys second game jam of 2024! The theme was Calm Before the Storm, and I was one of 1500 submissions!

I cannot fully express how happy I am to have finished my second game jam! The team I worked with were super amazing and I will go into their skills and what I appreciated later.

The game we made was a resource management, mobile defense, hack n' slash. While the submission build is not 100% functional, it still shows off some really cool systems and designs, and I'm very happy with how it turned out! I am continuing to do post-release updates and any new builds will be submitted to our Github while the Game Jam voting is ongoing.

Please check out Automik Breakers and submit your rating and thoughts if you can! All feedback is welcome because I may be fixing/completing it or need to know if it needs fixing.

Designing and programming this game was really fun! This was a week long game jam with a secret theme that was revealed on Day 1. Before the jam, I wasn't sure if I would work solo or as a team, so I drafted some ideas ahead of time for each theme that I was confident I could independently make systems for. Some of those ideas were an endless "swimmer", house break-in incremental horror, and helping neighbors with tasks around the neighborhood.

Ultimately, I decided to find a team. I'm still quite new to game jams and really enjoyed meeting people last time. I searched within Brackey's Discord server to find open teams looking for a programmer, either for Unity or Unreal Engine. I reached out to many cool people and ended up creating a team of my own! I made a Discord server for us to collaborate it, as well as the GitHub repo, Google Drive, and Miro. I focused a lot on making sure everyone was comfortable with one another and that everyone could contribute their skills to the project the way they wanted to.

Once the theme was announced, we started workshopping ideas day one. With team members in multiple time zones from NA to Europe, we met several times over the next two days to hammer out the main game genre, game loop, and systems. There were many ideas and possibilities, so talking through how we would implement each aspect of it and what assets would be needed for development helped us land on our chosen game. We made sure to keep the theme in mind throughout the development of systems, design, narrative, and artwork.

The biggest challenges for me as both a developer, designer, and team lead were managing scope and schedules. We knew what systems we wanted, but getting them to interact properly was already going to be a challenge, and we were essentially developing two "Game Modes" to function as one. As such, we were mindful to keep a list of minimum viable features and to knock additional features into "if we can" territory. When it comes to scope, to improve I would say I would start digital prototype development and systems design even a day sooner, and to build certain features one at a time until completion rather than bouncing around a bit (this is my experience). Using User Stories was especially helpful for helping me organize what the goals of development were, even more so then the task list I made for the team.

When it comes to scheduling, we have 9 team members in 5 different time zones, so making sure work and delegations were queued up for when I was offline and others were up was very important. Task lists as well as morning "hi-hello-today we will-" really helped with managing expectations and updating the whole team on development progress. It was really satisfying seeing the whole team interact and work together. I was actively learning from my fellow programmers, Spoon, Necron, and GraphicEdit, and I hope everyone else can say the same. Also, I think having a diverse time zoned team also helped us with maximizing production development without burning everyone out. Knowing something was being done around the clock without forcing anyone to crunch or sacrifice IRL activities was really nice.

Scope ultimately led to our game being less than 100% complete. We didn't have much time the last 2 days to tune the enemy strength, add greater significance to delivery items, attach power-ups to each resource item, or to fine-tune additional bugs. The story also wasn't able to iterate correctly, the random deliveries queue is still in-production, and the custom deliveries option could be more clear. I'm satisfied that these are aspects that I know can be improved and lead to a satisfying and complete game with replay value.

As for contributions, personally, I worked on a few different things throughout the jam. I managed onboarding team members, creating and updating team resources, and developing task lists for async development. I supported the team by reviewing sounds and music, artwork, and game systems. I developed the Cargo Controller ( the script that controls the movement and inventory of the cargo vehicle), the Hub Manager (the script that controls the inventory of the Hub during "Calm Mode", as well as the assignment of deliveries), and the Storm Mode Journey (which controlled the "Storm Mode"s game loop). With assistance from Spoon, I also worked on the Game Manager, making sure that it had access to both game modes and could keep track of persistent objects and values like our currency, story deliveries, and delivery items. With his assistance I also created the scriptable objects for the various resource and delivery items based on Spoons SO script.

I worked on the UI for the Hub, designing potential layouts, finding references, coordinating with the team on colors and fonts, and laying out the structure and prefabs using Unity's UI system. It was a bit of a headache but only because the nesting got so deep and the layout groups were a little unpredictable. Still, a much more satisfying and improved experience than my last game jam. Thank you to Rusty for the beautiful UI panel art!

Most days, I would start work off by connecting with the team, seeing what they needed to be successful, updating docs as necessary, all before digging into my code or UI responsibilities. My experience in project management really helped me succeed in this, as well as the dedication and talent of the team I was working with.

Thank you to RatDrum for developing the music for this game, as well as additional sound effects. Thank you to JollyGoodFriend for developing sound effects, as well. Thank you to Rustyscreech for designing the UI art and backgrounds and the Cargo Cart, as well as the concept art for the characters. Thank you to Danieluxx for designing the character animations. Thank you to Necron for developing the enemy systems. Thank you to Spoon for developing the background pooling system, the Base Item scriptable objects, and the inventory system, and for helping to optimize my and Necron's code. Thank you to GraphicEdit for developing the main menu and pause menu UIs, for developing the for-now unutilized save system, and for supporting Github commits and troubleshooting. Thank you to SirSunstone for writing a captivating story for our game world, and integrating it piece-by-piece into the Story missions, as well as for coming up with a cool list of items for us to implement.

THANK YOU to our team! Could not have done this without you all!

I'm so excited for my next game jam and to see what else I can do!

[jaisrakesh]

Game Software Development: From Concept to Code

Game software development is an intricate process that combines creativity, technical skill, and strategic planning to bring engaging virtual worlds to life. From the initial concept to the final lines of code, every step requires meticulous attention to detail. Whether you're an indie developer or part of a large studio, understanding the game software development process is crucial to creating a successful game. Let’s explore the journey from concept to code and the key steps involved in game software development.

1. Conceptualization and Planning

The journey of game software development begins with a concept. This is where the initial idea is born, often inspired by personal experiences, popular genres, or unique storytelling angles. During this stage, developers outline the core mechanics, gameplay elements, and overall theme of the game. A Game Design Document (GDD) is usually created, serving as the blueprint for the entire project. This document details the gameplay, characters, story, and technical requirements, ensuring that everyone on the team is aligned.

2. Designing the Game

Design is a critical phase in game software development where the concept starts taking shape visually. This stage involves creating sketches, storyboards, and prototypes to visualize the game's environment, characters, and user interface. Tools like Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot are popular for building game prototypes that help developers test ideas quickly. Level design is also crucial, defining how the player will interact with the game world, navigate challenges, and experience the storyline.

3. Development and Coding

Once the design is finalized, the game moves into the development phase, where coding takes center stage. Developers use programming languages like C++, C#, or Python to build the game’s mechanics, controls, and AI behaviors. Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine provide a solid framework, offering pre-built assets, physics, and lighting to streamline the coding process. Collaboration between developers, artists, and sound designers is key to integrating visuals, audio, and gameplay seamlessly.

4. Testing and Debugging

Testing is an ongoing process throughout game software development but becomes particularly intense as the game nears completion. Quality Assurance (QA) testers play through the game to identify bugs, glitches, and gameplay issues. Debugging involves refining the code to ensure the game runs smoothly and provides an enjoyable player experience. This phase is crucial for fixing performance issues, balancing gameplay, and polishing the final product.

5. Launch and Post-Release Support

After testing, the game is finally ready for launch. Developers release the game on chosen platforms, whether it’s PC, console, or mobile. However, the journey doesn’t end there—post-release support is essential for addressing player feedback, releasing updates, and fixing any remaining bugs.

Conclusion

Game software development is a complex but rewarding process that turns creative visions into interactive experiences. By following these stages, from initial concept to final code, developers can bring their ideas to life and create games that captivate players worldwide.