Benefits of Using Assets From The Unity Asset Store

Make games quicker: Using assets from the Unity Asset Store can save you a lot of time and effort by providing pre-written code and background assets that you can incorporate into your game. This can help you focus on the creative and unique aspects of your game rather than spending time on the more technical and time-consuming tasks.

Test out game mechanics: The Unity Asset Store is a great place to try out different game ideas and mechanics. You can experiment with various assets and see how they work in your game without having to spend time creating them from scratch.

Give your game extra polish

The Unity Asset Store has a wide range of assets that can help you add polish to your game, such as particle effects, baking solutions, and professional lighting add-ons. These assets can help make your game look and feel more professional and appealing to players. Similarly, by using the wealth of version control systems, you can ensure you have a faster workflow and fewer bugs.

Reverse engineer how they work

By using assets from the Unity Asset Store, you can learn how to code and create game assets by examining the code and comments included with the assets. This can be a great way to improve your skills and knowledge as a game developer.

Use assets for common actions, systems, and graphics

The Unity Asset Store also has a variety of basic assets, such as character controllers, enemy pathfinding, and repeatable assets like trees, that you can use in your game. These assets can help you create a solid foundation for your game and save you time on creating these basic elements from scratch.

Expand the reach of your game

By using the localization tools available on the Unity Asset store you can make your game more accessible for those who don’t speak the same language as you. Text-based adventures have a niche audience so adding additional languages means that you can reach that niche in more countries.

Make more games

Game developers are always coming up with new ideas, and the quicker you can produce games, the sooner you can move on to your next project. By using assets from the Unity Asset Store, you can save time and focus on creating more games and bringing your ideas to life.

While some people frown upon games that rely too heavily on third-party assets, using assets ethically and responsibly can help speed up game prototyping and development, resulting in more fun games for players. The Unity Asset Store is a great resource for game developers looking to save time and create better games faster.

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But first, let’s address the ever-interesting question of ‘How much does a video game developer make a year?’.

How much does a game developer make on average?

Along with other tech job roles, game development is also a lucrative career path with decent salaries and employee benefits. So how much does a game developer make? The game developer average salary differs widely depending on the country, as well as the type of game that is being developed.

According to popular job platforms such as Glassdoor, the most common salary range for a game developer in North America is between $61,000 per year with a maximum of $123,000. This makes sense considering that this region accounts for the widest tech job market, including video game development.

Now let’s see what it takes to forge a career path in this field and how to become a game developer at home.

Hard skills

There are many skills to build when you start your journey in web development. The good news is that some of these skills are fairly easy to pick up and others will take a lot longer. Hard ones fall into the second category of time-intensive endeavors.

Game Engine

A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games, just like an IDE for software developers. It won’t do all the art of creating a video game for you, but it can accelerate your development process by providing a suite of visual development tools and reusable software components. This gives game developers more time to focus on the unique game elements. 

Unity, Unreal, and CryEngine are some of the most popular game engines cited in a majority of job requirements. Moreover, Unreal and Unity are also iterating at a fast pace, meaning that you need to keep up with the latest updates to stay current.

Programming Language

Although there is a wide range of programming languages for game development, budding developers will be well-served by mastering core technologies like C++, C#, Python, and Java. C++, for example, is the scripting language used by Godot and Unreal Engine. At the same time, C# and Unity are a popular duo to start with for most beginners. If you’re aiming for mobile, you can also look into Kotlin, Swift, and other native mobile technologies.

Game Testing

All games should pass quality control before being released to the player. That’s why you also should have an understanding of the software development life cycle and how testing applies to game products. This skill can help you polish your code and understand the issues that typically occur in game programming.  

QA testing validates the gameplay from a tech standpoint, making sure it doesn’t have any glitches or crashes. Game developers can also set up playtesting sessions (or do it on their own) to gather the feedback of other players and refine a game.

Game visualization

Visualization skills, including prototyping, are one of the most critical skills a game developer can cultivate. A game coder worth their salt should be equally able to discern prototypes made by their colleagues and articulate game concepts by forging their own prototypes. Game mechanics, for example, can be expressed through paper (you sketch your ideas on paper) or code prototyping. These ideas can then be put to playtest to define the core game mechanics.

Soft Skills

But how to become a video game developer when you have already mastered the tech fundamentals? You can work your way up by nurturing soft skills. The latter goes hand in hand with technical acumen and can significantly ease the strain.

Time management

Every game developer has been in a situation where they have fallen behind on a project or deadline. Whether this is due to unforeseen circumstances, procrastination, or just not being organized enough, poor time management skills can result in missed deadlines and strained relationships with colleagues. To avoid it, you should set attainable and measurable goals for the day, keep away distractions and take regular breaks to boost your productivity.

Problem-solving

The very branch of game development is a perpetual cycle of issues and their effective resolution. Therefore, the ability to tackle problems and stand up to challenges is essential for anyone engaged in game creation. Alongside solid programming skills, you should foster analytical thinking to brainstorm the right solution. This skill can be promoted by solving basic programming questions or participating in contests and hackathons.

Creativity

Out-of-the-box mindset is also a salient component in a code-dominated field. When it comes to forging innovative game concepts or programming the game’s terrain, game developers must have an open mind and be able to think outside the box. Thus, according to a study by Microsoft Research and North Carolina State University, game developer success hinges on creativity and interpersonal communication skills more than on traditional programming skills.

Positive attitude

Positive thinking helps you land emotional balance in the workplace, which, in turn, makes your brain perform at its peak. With a bright outlook, you have more chances to remain calm and concentrated and as a result, you can make effective decisions in challenging situations. Therefore, instead of focusing on negative reinforcements and a horde of tasks, keep the scope small and preach positivity to remain productive.

Wrapping Up

Game developers are core team members that vitalize game concepts and turn prototypes and sketches into playable experiences. So how to become a professional game developer in 2022? A powerful combination of hard and soft skills can trail the blaze in the gaming career. As a beginner, you should commit to mastering game engine fundamentals and look into core gaming technologies like C++ or C#. Time management and creativity will also become valuable assets to your game developer persona.

Bio:

Yuriy Denisyuk is Game Production Lead at Pingle Studio. He’s responsible for successfully managing the Game Production pipeline. Yuriy is this lucky person who plays the best games for work in order to keep up with trends and creating new ones. He likes writing, reading Manga, fantasy and professional literature in his free time.

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On May 26, 2021, the “Early Access” version of Unreal Engine 5 was released. Game developers all over the world finally got to tinker with the long-awaited platform and see all it had to offer. As you might know, Unreal Engine is one of the most popular game engines available today, with UE4 (released in 2014) being used for millions of projects, and not just games.

Though there have been plenty of updates to Unreal Engine 4 over the years, none were as large in scale as version 5 – a giant leap forward in game design. For anyone curious about this new release, how it compares to the previous one, and what it means for the industry, we are breaking it all down for you.

What are the main changes in Unreal Engine 5?

Unreal Engine 5 was in development for several years (and you could say is still being perfected), but many of the additions were conceptualized 7-8 years ago. Thus, many of the new features are truly groundbreaking and designed with the proper care and time. Let’s examine some of the changes:

Rendering/Performance

UE4 had a pretty great rendering system based on Direct X 11 & 12, but it was quite a chore to manually set up levels of detail (LOD) for each mesh.  UE5 completely changes the mesh system from a static to a dynamic one. In other words, it allows you to maintain a very high poly count in each scene, only processing the details that you can perceive.

This new system (called Nanite) largely eliminates loss of quality during LOD transitions, and also supports the import of high-detail 3D sculpts as well as photogrammetry scans. Finally, in terms of performance monitoring, version 5 mostly keeps the existing system (Unreal Insights) intact, while adding oft-requested features like memory leak detection and profiling support.

Physics

At first glance, you might think that UE5 has the same physics system as the previous version. This is partly true, especially when it comes to rigid-body mechanics, collisions, and friction. However, the devil is in the details, and there are a few goodies that are sure to make the work of developers easier.

Firstly, we can point to new support for Asynchronous Physics Simulation, a feature that allows individual physics systems to function separately from the overarching game physics. This is best exemplified in the new Physics Fields system, which you can use to create many physics simulations in the game, each with its own rules and properties. These features are considered helpful for receiving predictable results in game situations (so the player avoids absurd scenarios).

World-building

One of the issues with UE4 and other current-gen engines is that there are hard limits to the size of the maps you want to create, connected with memory and performance issues that occur as you scale up. While version 5 does not remove these limits, it pushes them much farther, thanks to optimization and compression.

With the new World Partition system, you can make gigantic levels without splitting them up into sublevels and hundreds of load points. Now, you get a much smoother loading system based on distance, and the file system for actors has been streamlined to single files instead of a whole jumbled mess.

Lighting

The things that UE5 has accomplished with lighting and shadow are spectacular, and certainly worthy of their own article.  The new Lumen illumination system is at the very center of these accomplishments. For one thing, it is incredibly responsive, immediately reacting to scene and light changes. The same thoughtful and realistic approach has been applied to shadows, with major improvements to shadow resolution.

While UE4 had nice features like Screen Space Illumination and Ray Tracing Illumination, they were not very reliable. This has been fixed in the new version, providing truly next-gen visuals. At the same time, we must mention that the Lumen system is very demanding, and can be successfully deployed on only powerful PCs and next-gen video game consoles.

Gameplay frameworks

For those who love the Blueprints scripting system, don’t worry! It is still around in Unreal Engine 5. While most of the gameplay settings like input have been carried over from v 4, there are some bright new additions, including support for radial dead zones, contextual input, and chorded actions.

It has become much easier to develop standalone, encapsulated features, which should reduce the number of bugs and let developers learn the new workings of the system faster. The security of game frameworks has also been strengthened, and it has become near-effortless for developers to share completed features among one another.

There is a lot more to cover on the topic, and we took a skimming approach. If you want to go more in-depth regarding the additions and systems introduced in UE5, you can start with this guide from the creators of the engine Epic Games.

How Unreal Engine 5 will impact the gaming world

UE5 is slated for release in early 2022, and we expect it to have a massive impact on the gaming industry:

High poly counts in nearly every game

UE5 ends the decades-long belief that there are only so many high-poly models you can fit in a level/game, and that the use of many such models is reserved for AAA titles. With its groundbreaking geometry system, the floodgates for creating unlimited geometry have been opened, and this is something small and indie studios will surely take advantage of.

Old hardware gets left behind

It is inevitable for engines as powerful as this one to require powerful hardware, and the specs truly are a doozy: a GTX 1080/Vega 64 graphics card or higher, 8 GB of VRAM, and 32 GB of system RAM.  Thus, many developers working from their basement or with some outdated hardware will need to upgrade to take advantage of the new version.

Finally, a worthy tool for next-gen consoles

2020 was a big year for Xbox and Sony, as they both released their next-gen consoles, which promised to make gaming substantially better and more convenient for users. While the consoles are spectacular, the big story of the year was the shortage of games that take advantage of the powerful hardware. Now, with UE5 at the disposal of developers, we can expect many truly next-gen titles to begin popping up.

More incentive for UE moviemaking

We have already seen Unreal Engine used in TV shows like The Mandalorian and movies like Rogue One. This trend should continue as the engine becomes friendlier for filmmakers. The tools for cinematic levels of lighting, detail, and VFX are now available, and we’ll see how many of our favorite shows and films take advantage of them in the years to come.

Takeaways: Is it time to upgrade?

As excited as you may be to upgrade to the newest version of Unreal, you should consider the needs of your project first. Keep in mind that the full functionality of the engine will become available in 2022, so if you prime it for release based on UE5 in 2021, your game may miss out on some amazing stuff. Additionally, the current “Early Access” stage is much like a beta – full of bugs, underdeveloped options, inconvenient interfaces.

It will take some time for the engine to become fully usable, but you can already start introducing your developers to it and begin planning projects that will use it. If you have no developers or they are unfamiliar with this engine, you can always hire a capable partner to help. Even if you start your project with UE4, it should be possible to upgrade following a few simple guidelines.

Related: Advanced Game Development Tools 

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Despite the many tools at your disposal, diving into 3D graphics designs requires patience and dedication. Check out our tips to learn how to get started.

Using 3D Software by Daz 3D for Gaming Graphics 

One of the best ways to get your feet wet with 3D graphics designs is by using free video game software like Daz 3D. Here you can create an entire 3D universe using a library of vibrant, detailed 3D content. You can discover new skills by watching design tutorials, building custom scenes and characters, or even render realistic-looking images.

Here are five tips on how to make the most of Daz 3D for gaming graphics:

Start Simple

Learning 3D graphics design can be overwhelming at first, which is why it’s crucial to start simple. Daz 3D is an easy 3D animation software that’s perfect for beginners like yourself. By starting out with simple designs, you can learn the essential principles of design and work your way up from there. 

Try Incorporating Your Own Touch

If you want to be a great 3D graphics designer, it’s important to incorporate your own touch into your designs. Fortunately, Daz 3D offers a huge, versatile library of 3D models for you to build upon. This makes it one of the best 3D animation software choices for new designers. Whether you’re looking for characters, hair, creatures, vehicles, environments, or anything else, you can customize the library models from Daz 3D and make them all your own.

Don’t Get Discouraged

As with any skill, learning the art of 3D graphics design takes time to master. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t able to create detailed, complex designs right off the bat. You’ll need months (and years) of dedicated practice in order to create the best video game art—and Daz 3D will help you get there.

Use Daz 3D Wiki Documents

You’ll likely have many questions along the way as you’re learning these new skills. Maybe you wish you had an experienced video game artist there to guide you. Well, if you don’t, there’s still no need to worry. Daz 3D offers advanced instructions on how to use the software so you can always find answers to your questions as you continue to build upon your skills. 

Watch Free Video Tutorials from Experts

Wish you could learn from the best video game artists? Luckily, you can! Thanks to the internet, there are many free video tutorials from expert 3D graphics designers. You can find free tutorials on any topic by using Daz 3D. Watching these tutorials will give you helpful insights and put you on the fast track to success as a video game artist.

Design 3D Graphics Today

Now that you’ve learned some basic tips on getting started with 3D graphics design, it’s time to dive in. Head to Daz 3D to start creating. Whether you borrow from the extensive library of 3D characters, accessories, and environments, or build your own, you’ll be well on your way to building realistic, detailed 3D graphics.

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GameSalad

This tool allows a developer to create a game quickly and easily without writing a line of code. Features include:

• Wide behavior library
• Visual drag and drop interface
• Integrated physics engine

The behaviour library allows a developer to create the actions that he prefers from a library of advanced and basic game behaviours. Students can use simple logic to determine the actions and behaviours of game objects. For example, if you wanted to make a player graphic move left on the press of a button, users need only drag the behaviour onto the button.

The free version of GameSalad allows creating, previewing and publishing games to the iOS and web platform. The pro version allows monetizing the game and publishing it to Windows 8 and Google Play Store.

Stencyl

Stencyl offers a wonderful toolset and vast platform support. It does not require coding and it has an excellent drag and drop interface that is inspired by MIT Scratch project. Developers remodeled MIT’s project through adding other features. Code blocks dragging and dropping has never been this simple.

The software allows innovative game developers to write code, import libraries and develop their own games. They can also build worlds and design scenes with the software’s nifty Scene Designer. Apart from the world editor, there is an Actor editor. This is a tool that allows one to create NPCs and characters and alter their look and behaviour. With Stencyl one can create wonderful games like slot machine online 2017.

Stencyl Basic allows creation and publishing of games to their site. Publishing a game to Windows, iOS, Google Play and Mac requires one to pay 199 dollars per year.

GameMaker: Studio

This is the widely used tool for both newbies and professional developers that can create beautiful 2D games assisted by its built-in script library (game creator language). Developers can import character sprites, animations and fonts and thanks to a large community of artists and developers, there are a plethora of resources available online.

GameMaker can produce solid, high-quality physics-based games with the help of its Box2D physics engine and shader effects.

Its export modules let developers create a game and several executables that can be exported to several platforms by just pressing a button.

FlowLab

This tool allows budding developers to create iOS and browser games directly in the browser itself. It has every tool that a student would need and since the toolset is kept online developers can share their games easily.

FlowLab has a unique programming that allows the user to connect behaviours in order to come up with refined game logic. It also contains built-in drawing and animation tools that let users create animations, characters and NPCs.

The free version of FlowLab contains fifty objects and five levels and it allows users to create three games only. Its pro version has unlimited levels and objects and it allows the creation of an unlimited number of games. It also allows publishing games to iTunes.

Sploder

This is an online tool that allows amateurs to develop web games with several toolsets. Users can create space adventures, arcade games, shooters or platformers. Every genre has its own tools and there is a physics game developer for developing physics-based games. There is also a graphics editor for creating pixelated characters.

Sploder allows publishing games to the site to have them rated by others.

The Choice is Yours 

It is worth trying out the different programs and creating a simple game in each. This way you can get a feel for the engine, its behaviours and pick the one that suits your skillset. Either way, these will give you a taste of game design and development that can lead to more advanced programs and a career in game creation.

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Free Game Development Tools

Unity (Free / $75 a month for Pro)

Unity is not only my favourite, but also the most extensively used 3D game engine currently on the market. The latest version is packed full of features including new dynamic lighting updates and a fantastic standard shader. The new audio mixer allows you to change the audio on the fly, to muffle or alter sounds and time them perfectly to the character’s actions.

Unity is free to use for the personal edition and the professional version starts from $75 a month. Amazingly, the free version does not have a limited toolset but lacks support, reporting, analytics and cloud builds, which can easily be added at a later date. Three development languages are officially supported: C#, UnityScript (basically JavaScript with type annotations) and Boo, so it’s quite versatile (however, Boo is deprecated). As this is hugely popular, it has a large number of assets and plugins available to help you create your first game. The fact that it deploys to multiple platforms also means you widen the reach of your games.

URL: www.unity3d.com

Unity Asset Store – A huge range of assets and models to use in your games.

Unreal Engine (Free for all with 5% royalty share)

The Unreal Engine powers hundreds of games as well as real-time 3D films, training simulations, visualization and more. Unlike some of these engines, it works on both PC and Mac. I love this engine and it is going from strength to strength with each update.

My favourite part is the blueprints; the visual scripting editor section that means you can do so much without coding a single line. However, when it comes to coding, you need to know C++ which is not a great one for ‘beginners’.

Unreal Engine is currently free to use, but there is a catch. A 5% royalty starts after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. You don’t pay royalties on film projects, or contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualizations.

This is a very popular engine that produces some stunning results and has been used for games such as Final Fantasy VII remake, Street Fighter 5, Hellblade, Eve, Rocket League, Ark and so many more.

URL: https://www.unrealengine.com/

CryEngine ($10 a month)

CryEngine’s award-winning visuals make this a very tempting development tool to start making your games in. With such games as Ryse: Son of Rome, FarCry and Homefront: The Revolution under it’s belt it is a hugely popular engine. Its array of lighting, reflection and depth of field options help make stunning-looking games (if you have the right artist). Cryengine uses C++ and LUA and can create games for PC, Mac, Consoles, and VR.

However, its recent troubles have left many worried about its future. Recently, Amazon bought the code (or licensed its software) and Cryengine is enjoying a new lease of life in Lumberyard. However, Lumberyard is a different fork for the software and is essentially another product. Support for the standard CryEngine may be phased out over the coming years if they encounter further issues and Lumberyard may be pushed to the forefront.

My favourite part is the Designer tool provides an easy-to-use interface for manipulating geometry. Not only can it be used for prototyping levels, but the user can also create complex shapes and meshes which triangulate automatically. Anything can be created in-engine without the need for external DCC tools.

It also works on PC and Mac.

URL: http://cryengine.com/

Shiva 3D (Free with a $200 pro package)

ShiVa3D is a 3D game and application development suite that comes in an easy to use, yet very powerful WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. ShiVa can export games and applications for over 20 target platforms, including Mobile, desktop and consoles. The web version is currently free with additional packages at $200 for pro (where you can publish to everything) and $1000 for complete with bug tracking and reporting tools. It uses a Lua like code language and my favourite part is its real time ‘in-game’ editing where you can makes changes to the assets mid-game. Games of note include Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame,  Atomic Ninjas and Babel Rising 3D.

URL: http://www.shivaengine.com/

Torque 3D (Free)

Torque 3D is a free, open-source game engine with no costs for starters or professionals. Torque 3D comes equipped with a full suite of tools to allow you to produce high-quality games and simulations. Sadly, there have been some complaints about art imports and if you use Blender for your 3D models you may come across some issues. However, there is a thriving community and recent updates which might have improved upon this. As it is open source there is no limit to where this engine might grow.

Torque 3D is a PC program and can work on a Mac, but not officially supported.

URL: http://torque3d.org

O3DE – Open source, real-time 3D engine

URL: https://www.o3de.org/ 

Advanced 2D Game Engines

Cocos 2D

Cocos2d-x is a suite of open-source, cross-platform, game-development tools. Developers can publish from a single code base to mobile, desktop, web, and now even console.  The core used C++ with additional JavaScript and Lua bindings.

My favourite part is the brand new graphic renderer: The Cocos2d-x renderer is optimized for 2D graphics with OpenGL. It supports skeletal animation, sprite sheet animation, coordinate systems, effects, multi-resolution devices, textures, transitions, tile maps, and particles.

Some games you might have heard of include Badland, Tales of Asteria, and Dragon City.

Best of all, it’s completely free and available on both Mac and PC.

URL: http://www.cocos2d-x.org/

Monogame (Currently Free)

Monogame currently supports iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, Windows, Windows Store, Windows Phone, and PlayStation 4 with more platforms on the way. According to my research, it says “By leveraging C# and other .NET languages on Microsoft and Mono platforms you can write modern, fast, and reliable game code”.

I haven’t tried this one myself, but have heard good things. With games such as Bastion, Towerfall: Ascension, and Skulls of The Shogun it’s one to consider.

Update: Xamarin, the company behind Monogame has recently been bought by Microsoft so we should start to see some changes happening with this engine in the coming months.

URL: http://www.monogame.net

Solar 2D (Used to be Corona SDK)

https://solar2d.com/

Solar 2D (previously Corona SDK) is a cross-platform framework that allows developers to create 2D games and apps very fast using easy-to-learn Lua. It is currently completely free and has produced thousands of games.

The tool lets developers create a game and publish it to iOS, Android, Kindle, Nook, TV and desktop without paying anything. Through this, developers are allowed a limited number of plugins, such as for ad monetisation – as in-app purchases are not supported by the Starter SDK.

Features available in the starter pack include basic shapes, lines, text, custom polygons, anchor points and groups and containers, as well as the ability for users to create their own splash screens.

There are so many out there to choose from and some others include:

• Contruct 2
• Source SDK
• Gamemaker Pro
• Gamesalad
• Havok
• Fox
• Monkey
• Fusion 2.5

These are great engines and many are covered in my ‘beginners video’ as some are drag-and-drop engines and do not require programming knowledge

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With rumors flying around about the Xbox One being able to monitor our gaming and watch our behavior (and possibly more), there has been a surge of anti-Xbox posts, rants and images. Why is everyone so paranoid? So what if Microsoft collects data on you? The government does, Google does, Facebook does your phone provider does, your web browser does, your subscriptions do and now even your running shoes do. We live in a world of digital information that is growing exponentially and most of us are not spies, activists, terrorists or fugitives. Much of the populous eat, sleep, work, play (video games), watch TV, have a hobby, go on vacation and generally have a standard run-of-the-mill life.

Imagine this scenario (slightly boosted from the book ‘The New Digital Age‘)

You wake up in the morning, not by your alarm clock, but naturally, as your curtains open automatically and your back is gently massaged by your bed. The television that you watch is tailored to you. You drink the coffee that has been chosen for you whilst reading your own personal newspaper before embarking on the most efficient route to work.

Your bed has monitored your sleep pattern and detected when you are outside of a REM (rapid eye movement) cycle and uses this opportunity to wake you up gently and naturally. It signaled the curtains to open (based on your settings) and you jump into the shower. The TV shows the morning news whilst offering you other suggestions such as American Sitcoms (which you sometimes watch in the morning) and an array of cartoons (which you watch when woken by the children). By the time you reach the kitchen, a cup of coffee is waiting for you and the smart kitchen’s screens tell you that you are low on the coffee you like and give you three outlets that currently have special offers on that particular brand. The screen also offers suggestions on other coffee-based on what your friends and family are currently drinking and talking about. You add your regular brand to your virtual shopping basket and open your tablet which has aggregated all the types of news, articles, features into a customized newspaper. As you gesture your way through the news, drinking your coffee you are shown a message from your car. The message tells you that based on current weather, traffic and season you will need to leave for work in 15 minutes. As you talk to your family and eat your breakfast, a nip in your shoe tells you to leave now. Finally, your driverless car takes you to work as you go through your to-do list ready for a productive day.

All of this needs your data

For your home, office, and devices to truly work with you they will need comprehensive data on you and your behavior. Many share their antics on social networks without a second thought, and yet if your games console wants your details it’s all of a sudden an invasion of privacy. We live in a world of glasshouses where our entire lives are documented, recorded and archived. The age-old of everyone getting ’15 minutes of fame’ will be flipped on its head and people might be lucky to get 15 minutes of privacy instead!

Whats One more device

The apps on your console, your tablet, your phone and your TV already monitor your behavior so what is one more device. Especially if that device is trying to bring them all together to work seamlessly.

The post Why the Xbox One monitoring is nothing to worry about appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

The Good:

Achievements Carry Over:

A sigh of relief from all the long time Xbox gamers, your achievements will carry over from your Xbox 360. So all those thousands of points you garnered mastering the hardest difficulties of games and carrying out the most impossible tasks to perfection? No problem; you can still show those off to everyone.

Another achievement bonus?

They won’t be confined to single games. What does that mean? Well, say there’s 3 more Assassin Creeds lined up for the Xbox One. You could unlock achievements for playing all 3, or for completing certain tasks in 2 out of 3, or so on. It really brings some more originality (and probably a bit more difficulty) to the achievement system.

Possible TV achievements

Microsoft recently submitted a patent for TV achievements so as well as playing games and earning points you can also gain them for TV related tasks. Although details about these are sketchy we guess that if watch entire series of show you earn additional achievements or if you take part in a talent shows voting you can up your ‘Watcher Score’.

Auto Resume Games

Since Microsoft was really toting the all encompassing entertainment experience (say that three times fast), some were concerned with switching from a game to TV or to check out the weather or whatever you might want to do in the middle of your run through Watch Dogs. But the system will allow players to seamlessly auto resume where they switched off, thanks to it being saved through the cloud. Not only that, but you can switch between consoles when watching movies or playing a game seamlessly as well. Nice for multiple consoles in the home or logging in to a friend’s console.

Blu-Ray Player

It’s about time and maybe this comes a little too late, but finally, the Xbox One will have a built-in Blu-ray player. It was Sony’s big one-up in the last console race but now that blu-ray is becoming a staple, if Microsoft didn’t include this in their upcoming console, they’d be out of the race for good.

Built In game DVR

You can record gameplay moments and share them via the cloud. How it can be shared is still lacking detail, but it might end up being an easier way for people to upload “Let’s Play” videos and the like to YouTube. Of course, it’ll all be dependent on how long you can record and how much of a file you can save, so maybe the old fashion way will be better for those doing longer videos. Still, to easily share your tips and tricks for beating a boss or getting a special item is pretty neat.

The Bad:

Not Backwards Compatible

Although not any different than the PS4, the Xbox One will not be backward compatible. That means all your awesome Xbox 360 games will now sit and collect dust, unless you keep your 360 just to play them. Annoying for some, not a big deal to others, but it definitely hurt some people’s view of the console (and of Sony’s new console as well).

No TV DVR

Although there will be gaming DVR, it has been said by a Microsoft spokesperson the Xbox One will not offer any built-in TV DVR capabilities, which is what some people were really hoping for. After all, if television is such a big part of the marketing of the new console, wouldn’t DVR make sense? You will, however, be able to access your own DVR service via HDMI, so it’s not out completely.

No Self Publishing

Indie developers cannot self-publish on the Xbox One. Not that this is anything new; it’s the same setup as the Xbox 360 where indie developers need to strike a deal with Microsoft and cannot just release games on Xbox Live Arcade without prior approval. But in the age of systems like Ouya coming out, it might not be the best choice for them to make. On the other hand, it does keep some quality control on games developed.

XBLA May Be Phased Out

The key word here is “may” as it has yet to be confirmed. But the XBLA as we know it may be gone, come Xbox One release day. Obviously, it will still be available on the 360 (for how long, that will remain to be seen) but we could see big changes with the new console.

Only 500GB Hard drive

For next-gen, 500gb really isn’t a lot of space. Especially when you consider how easy it is to buy or upgrade a PC with a terabyte or more these days. And when you also think of everything that might be saved on it, outside of just games, your 500GB could fill up a lot faster than expected.

The Ugly

Pre-Owned Game Fees

It’s been confirmed that if you want to play a pre-owned game, you’ll have to pay a fee. Some are saying the fee will be the price of a new copy of the game. Whether that’s true or not, people are up in arms about not being to buy used or borrow a game.

Price Rumors

It’s rumored the system is going to be close to $600, which is the price that hurt the PS3 the first time around. Sure, it’s offering a lot, but no one wants to pay $600 for a console. It could really cut out a lot of potential buyers.

The dreaded fan

The new Xbox is said to have no power block which is a great move for the console, however this will then place additional heat pressure inside the console meaning a the fan will have to work overtime to compensate. This has the possibility of being rather noisy.

The post The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Xbox One appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

Minecraft

Minecraft has been the latest game to be modded for the OR, not that it wouldn’t be a smart idea for it to be released for the device. There’s a long video on Youtube depicting his experience with “Minecrift” (a fun little combination of the game name and “Rift”); Kotaku calls it a “blocky head-trip”. The controls are pretty great in that you can actually lock the headset so that its movement won’t move you in the game if you’d prefer for certain moments of the gameplay. It’s interesting because head movement equals mouse movement, so if the player looks the wrong way, they might find themselves break a block they didn’t mean to. Still, it looks pretty fun if not very trippy.

Team Fortress 2

This was the first game to be made compatible with the headset. It looks fantastic; there’s now been tracking added as well for running which could really change everything. It might be a bit of a work out to actually “run” when you need to move in game, but maybe it’s that right avenue for turning video games into a way to get fit, like Nintendo tried so hard to do.

Half Life 2

Half-Life 2 has recently been confirmed to now be compatible and already working. It is “more raw” than Team Fortress 2 support, according to Joe Ludwig of Valve who is the lead developer on bringing many Valve games to Oculus Rift. It’s one of the newest additions revealed.

Skyrim

Skyrim was another modded addition, letting players take on the epic RPG as if they were in the skin of their hero. Again, direction and movement relies on the headset position, but it works really well. To think that maybe the next Elder Scrolls could automatically have this in the works upon release is very exciting.

Doom 4

It’s recently been confirmed that id Software, who is a big supporter of the Oculus Rift (Doom 3 is part of the developer pack), will be planning on Doom 4 being compatible with the headset upon release. The only problem is, Doom 4 has been a developmental mess and pushed back far too many times. So, although the intentions are there, we might not see an OR version of Doom 4, or any Doom 4, for a long while.

Mirrors Edge

Mirrors Edge and the Oculus Rift are just made for each other. This free running, building jumping romp is the ideal candidate to be ‘Rifted’ (is that a real term or did I just invent it?). The game sees you delivering packages and escaping from bad guys across a sprawling metropolis and is one of the better first person platform games. The early versions of this game seen through the Rift look impressive and we hope to see more of it over the coming months.

Those aren’t the only 6 games to be supporting the Occulus Rift, with many other Valve games already adapted and future releases on board. But they are some of the major players and ones that have interested gamers the most.

The post 5 Games That May (Or Already Do) Use the Oculus Rift appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

[Update] Below I have listed a number of programs that can help beginners. However, I have also written a number of other features that focus on more advanced software tools for beginners as well as the top 3D modelling programs should you want to look beyond Blender 3D.

Scratch | Mac | Windows | Linux

Developed by MIT Media Labs, Scratch is ideal for creating stories as well as games that are interactive. The use of animated content makes it especially appealing for children as young as 8 years old. The programming ‘language’  it uses encourages children to learn computational, as well as mathematical concepts and to make games that hold their own individual stamp.

Sploder | Flash Enabled Browser

Sploder is a browser-based creation tool that uses flash to create games very quickly. This software really is for the novice developer as it’s more of a level builder than a creation tool. There are four game types to create and plenty of assets to drag and drop but your creation is limited to what the software can create. However, it’s easy to use and you can create a platforming hack-and-slash in a matter of minutes.

Alice | Mac | Windows | Mac

Meant for older children learning computer science, this object-orientated programming language has been developed by Carnegie Mellon University. In Alice’s interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production-oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. This is a great tool for designing 3D video games.

Gamesalad | Mac (Mainly) | Windows 

Gamesalad is a great tool for game development as it requires no prior programming knowledge. It has an easy-to-use drag and drop interface and movements and interaction are all controlled by ‘behaviours’ where the user adds rules to govern what each element will do. This game is free to try and publish online but also has a powerful compiler in order to create games for iPhone, iPad, Android and Nook. This feature, however, does come with a small price tag. For those with a talent for art and animation, this is definitely one to start with.

RPG Maker | Windows

This is a great resource for role-playing and can turn out amazing games. It is not only free but also quite easy to master. You can use this extremely popular software to produce games that have your own music, characters, story as well as dialogues. Over the years, various versions of RPG have been created and you can expect to pay around $25 for the standard software.

Stencyl | Mac | Windows

This flash-based games engine is growing in popularity and has created many great indie titles. This tool is very similar to Gamesalad in many respects, in that, it uses behaviours to control the different elements of the game. It does, however, use tile-based levels which is great for creating large complex levels but with low file size. This has both a free model to get you started and a paid version for additional features and the ability to export games to mobile devices.

Game Maker Studio | Windows (mainly) | Mac

This is probably the most advanced software on the list offering a wider variety in the types of games that can be created using it. It has both a drag and drop system along with its customised programming language. The feature list is vast and if you are willing to spend around $300 per platform you can create builds for everything from iPhones to Xbox One. This would be a great starting program for those truly serious about game development.

Phrogram

If you are familiar with Visual Basic or even Microsoft.NET, then Phrogram is the best option for you. It can help you to gain knowledge about traditional programming by way of easy to comprehend examples and tutorials. It is not a freeware but you can utilise a 30-day trial period.

Pygame

This makes you familiar with the Python programming language which is used by large corporations like YouTube and Disney. It is more appropriate for those people who seriously wish to get more knowledge on technical aspects of programming rather than just the fun of creating one’s own games.

Construct 3 | Mac | Windows

Construct 3 supports a number of platforms but it seems geared mainly towards HTML5 development. There is a free version to get you started and a tiered price range that goes up to around $400. Construct 2 is ideal for 2D games and there is a thriving community supporting it.

Adventure Game Studio | Windows

For those looking to specialise from day one why not try Adventure Game Studio to create a point-and-click adventure like the classic Monkey Island series. It’s only on PC and obviously, you are limited to one game type but if you have a passion for story and point-and-click adventures this is really fun.

Recommendations

Obviously, you can choose any of the above for your next game project but if you wanted my opinion I would say that you can’t go wrong starting with Gamesalad or Stencyl if you want to create mobile games or simple browser-based games or Game Maker Studio if you have your eyes on the consoles.

Next Steps

Once you have your program of choice then you not only need an idea but graphics to work with. If you are not skilled with art programs then here is a handy list of places to get game art and graphic assets.

Conclusion

All of the above game design software offers a simplified and interesting introduction to the world of programming along with providing the satisfaction of creating customised games. The added advantage is that it helps to form the basis for a more advanced career in computers and programming. One can easily access a number of tutorials that can help the novice game maker to become an expert in this field. A career in game development can be one of the most rewarding if one has the requisite knowledge and expertise in the various programming languages. This software can be the first step forward in this field. Besides, you can even learn to make your own 3D video game at summer camps being organised by professional companies such as ID Tech. The camp organisers also provide you the software you will need to design your own games. The basic game-making fundamentals that you learn in the camp or build through software paves a strong foundation for the future.

The post Game Design Software that can Help Beginners Create their Own Games appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

The appeal of Ouya is that it is run on the Android Jellybean OS, something that many developers are familiar with. It allows even the smallest of companies (or maybe even single game designers, dreaming of making it big) to use the system as a development kit. Anyone can, from the 12 year old kid down the street to Bioware. This opens the console to a plethora of potential new games and exposing smaller companies to a larger audience at a fraction of the price it takes to develop for the PS3 or Xbox 360.

Who are the big guns on board? Square Enix has announced Final Fantasy III will be a launch game for the console. The former Creative Strategist at Infinity Ward, Rober Bowling, announced that his new studio Robotoki would be the first developer to commit to creating a game exclusively for the Ouya. If the Ouya can carry some appealing exclusives, it could give people a reason to buy one.

Will the Ouya replace other consoles? Maybe not. For the small price, it might be a good addition to a household but may not end up the primary console of choice. Still, their sales could be potentially huge, so we’ll have to wait and see how much of a dent they can make in the market. But it might be the step forward that other console companies will have to follow if they want to stay relevant.

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