*This post was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Stuck inside? Might as well be productive, and this week's issue is here to help. Tons of How-to guides and tutorials to get your game going.

Also, some posts on how to tune your games in a few different ways. There are some generous asset deals and straight up free releases below, so check them out.

Unity Overdraw: Improving the GPU Performance of Your Game - There is a single thing that has killed the GPU performance of thousands of mobile games: the famous Unity Overdraw. Do you know what overdraw is and what is doing to you? Don't let overdraw ruin your game... Prepare for it.
The Gamedev Guru

Optimize your game balance with Unity Game Simulation - Unity Game Simulation is a cloud service that enables game studios to complement their pre-launch playtests through the power of simulation. Supported by Google Cloud’s infrastructure, Unity Game Simulation helps you evaluate your game balance at scale. Unity Game Simulation is now available in beta. Get started for free.
Unity

Shaders For People Who Don't Know How To Shader: Smooth blending with Sine - Last time we learned about bitmasks! Now we're going to learn about using sine functions to smoothly blend between colors!
Team Dogpit

Tutorial: How Normal Maps Work & Baking Process - In this article, read about what normal maps are and the process of baking them.
80 Level

Baking Lightmaps per Prefab - Baking Lightmaps per Prefab/Asset? Took me a whole day to figure this out. Save some time, watch this 2 minute clip. The mentioned script is in the thread.
Jan Löhr

Find stuff in a Unity project with grep - I’m going to share with you two tips that I use to easily find stuff in a Unity project. I’m using the grep command, a very powerful text search tool.
oktomus

iOS Static Libraries - If you have an iOS static library and you want to support other Apple platforms it's possible by changing platform in build_version_command in a mach-o file using hexedit.
Radek Paszkowski

Active/Inactive Keyboard Shortcut - Have you ever wanted to set a gameObject inactive or active in scene quickly without having to go to the inspector window? Well you can! Alt+Shift+A works as a SetActive switch for gameObjects selected in scene!
Polygonal Mind

How to export a video sequence from Unity - This guide will help you to record videos of your Unity project.
Pixelmatic

How to remodel your project for asmdef and UPM - In this article I will guide you to adopt asmdef and (internal) Unity Package Manager in your existing project. It will be harder than if you do it from the beginning, but that's why I have written this guide.
gametorrahod.com

Burst Function Pointers vs. Switch Statements - A couple weeks ago we took a look at the performance of function pointers in Burst. In doing so, we left out an alternative: good old switch statements. Today we’ll put those to the test to see how they stack up next to Burst’s newfangled function pointers!
JacksonDunstan.com

Using Android Studio to profile the Unity app on the Android platform - People often complain that the Android platform does not have a unified and easy-to-use profiler tool. This post mainly introduces the CPU Profiler to check the performance of Unity native functions. Just like instrument on the iOS platform.
Jiadong Chen

Unity 2020.1.0 Beta 3 - Version 2020.1.0b3 has been released.
Unity

Videos

Unity Roadmap 2020: Core Engine & Creator Tools - This is the first installment of our 2020 roadmap, Unity 2020: Core Engine & Creator Tools.
Unity

Creator Kit Mod: Mini-map! (Tutorial) - Ready to expand on the Creator Kit project? In this video, we'll show you how to add a simple minimap to your RPG project!
Unity

How to make 2D GLOW in Unity! - In this video we create an awesome Glow effect for extra flare!
Brackeys

More 2D Water Shader in Unity - Source for this project is also available.
gamesplusjames

Realistic Glass Material in Unity HDRP - Let's make a photo realistic glass material in Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP).
Unity Guruz

How to Make Grappling Gun in Unity (Tutorial) - hey you slobs heres how to make a grappling gun.
DanisTutorials

How To Create a Cool Loot Box - Unity Tutorial - I created this crazy Loot Orb effect with a Gemstone surprise inside. And I'm gonna share with you my process so you can create your own Loot Boxes. Enjoy!
Gabriel Aguiar Prod.

How to deal with SLOPES! in Unity 2D using built in Physics - We are taking a look at how we can get our character to react to the slope of the ground he is walking on. This is a good simple way to handle slopes that does not require custom physics.
Bardent

How To Make A Multiplayer Game In Unity - Player Movement - Multiplayer tutorial series.
Dapper Dino

4 Ways to Interact with Doors in Unity! (Key, Button, Auto, Pressure) - Let's check out 4 different Methods to Interact with Doors. These can be abstracted to Interact with any object. [also check out Resident Evil Inspired - Themed Key System by SpeedTutor].
Code Monkey

Wall Interactions in Unity : Grab, Climb, Slide and Jump (2D Platformer Tutorial Part5) - In this video we will show you how to deal with all kinds of wall interactions and how to code wall grab, wall climb , wall slide and wall jump in addition to related animations.
Binary Lunar

Unity Learn Premium For Free! (Useful to non-Unity Devs Too) - Due to... that which shalt not be named, Unity have decided to make Unity Learn Premium free for the next few months. The learning platform has tons of courses, tutorials and projets based on Unity (plus, Max, Maya and more). Plenty of content to pass the time!
Gamefromscratch

What I Learned from Making Games for 1 Year (Unity in 2019) - What have I learned in 2019 from using Unity and making games? Let’s talk about some crucial things I learned!
Sykoo

Fixing Grid Layouts in Unity with a Flexible Grid Component - Learn how to build a menu with switchable panels and a flexible grid layout tool in Unity!
Game Dev Guide

Easily Control Cameras with Cinemachine in Unity! - Let's check out Cinemachine in Unity, it's a Camera System that enables you to create complex camera behaviours with ease!
Code Monkey

Using Interfaces in Game Development (Unity Tutorial) - In this video, you'll learn how to use interfaces in Unity3D and Game Development.
Infallible Code

Assets

Grow Your Skills Mega Bundle - Save up to 90% when you expand your Unity skills with a curated toolkit of top-quality Editor add-ons and art assets for building amazing games and experiences. These Mega Bundles are perfect for anyone looking to level up their Editor abilities or master something new. For the first time, we’re also including a twelve-month subscription to Unity Learn Premium so you can access interactive live sessions and learning content created by Unity to grow your skills.

Get the most out of your assets with 12 months of Unity Learn Premium ($99 value) and save 90%. This package includes popular assets like Playmaker, DarkTree FPS, graphics packages from Synty Studios, and much more. Valued at $1056.92.
Unity Asset Store Affiliate

HUMBLE BOOK BUNDLE: SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT BY O'REILLY - Expand your software development skills and transform your bad code to good code with our newest bundle! $670 WORTH OF AWESOME STUFF. PAY CA$1.50 OR MORE. DRM-FREE MULTI-FORMAT.
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Amplify Color - Happy to announce that AmplifyColor, Advanced Color Grading is now FREE on GitHub! Amplify Color, previously known as Color3 Advanced Grading, brings industry-level color grading to your game by mimicking the color transforms made inside a tool like Photoshop; e.g. change contrast, color curves, exposure, saturation, hue and more, or a combination of all transforms at once. So fast, it runs on mobile.
Amplify Creations Open Source

Spritedow Animator - Spritedow Animator is a simple and standalone alternative to Mecanim to animate sprites frame by frame. Just drop your sprites or spritesheets to the editor and you will have an awesome animation in a jiffy (hehe).
100% off until tonight!
Elendow

Parallaxium Beta Sign Up - I am looking for users to participate in a beta test for Parallaxium which is a tool for Unity that enables game developers to easily implement parallax scrolling in their 2D games. By participating in the beta test you will receive an early version of Parallaxium which you are free to use in any of your own projects.
Iain C

Released "Effekseer 1.50" Visual Effect Tool - Effekseer is a tool for creating visual effects for use in games and other applications. You can create a variety of visual effects such as explosions and flash by simply specifying various parameters. The tool runs on Windows and macOS.
Effekseer Open Source

Zippy Lights 2D - ON SALE -50% (Ends Apr 15, Regular Price $10).
Zippy Lights 2D is a simple and easy to use 2D dynamic light system. It uses particles to enhance the lighting and create unique effects.
Unluck Software Affiliate

arfoundation-demos - Demo projects that use AR Foundation 3.0 and demonstrate more advanced functionality around certain features.
Unity Open Source

BurstFFT - BurstFFT is an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) implementation in high-performance C# with Unity's Burst compiler.
Keijiro Takahashi Open Source

.gitattributes for Unity3D with git-lfs - A handy starting place for git-lfs tracked files in Unity.
João Borks Open Source

Spotlight

Noise Hunters - Noise Hunters is a stealth video game where noise is your tool, but also your enemy. Don't let them hear you, HUNT or be HUNTED.

[The following is an excerpt from their devlog Level Design in the Dark].

Level design is key factor in a game's success, you can have the greatest mechanic of all time but if you don't have a level where the player can fully experience it, then there is no game. While developing Noise Hunters we had to keep this in mind, however, we had a twist, the darkness.

As we seen in previous posts, in Noise Hunters we visualise the environment with sound waves and when there is silence, the player can't see anything. Through trial and error, thanks to the play-testing we where capable to define some "guidelines" to follow and create compelling levels.

[follow along on the devlog].
Noise Hunters

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