Game Dev Digest Issue #79 - Lighting, Creating, VR and more!

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

To distract you from the stock market, how about reading up on the latest Unity game dev news? Some VR related content and assets to help you on your way, as well as theory and how-tos covering VFX and game creation, plus much more. Hope it helps!

Creating Stylized Combat VFX in The Legend of Zelda Style - Soenke Seidel discussed step-by-step how he made a stylized combat effect in Unity based on the swirling cloud dissolution FX in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
80.lv

Generating meshes procedurally in Unity - Making a mesh is not always the right solution, but in Unity, it is surprisingly easy, and in this post I describe the basics.
code-spot.co.za

Developing a dependable client-side WebSocket solution for Unity - Since demand for realtime data is growing steadily, and with Unity being an established and widely used engine and framework, I think it’s worth looking at some of the many challenges of implementing a dependable client-side WebSocket solution for Unity.
ably.io

Designing a Versatile Planet Shader for Crying Suns - I was given the task to build a shader for planets and stars. We are a small team, so the shader was meant to be easily maintainable and extensible, as well as explicit and versatile enough for the artists to work on their own most of the time.
chsxf.medium.com

Color Theory for Game Art Design – The Basics - When you make your game from scratch it is usually a good idea to stick to certain self-imposed rules in order to prototype faster. It may sound like a counterproductive idea but working with a limited set of colors and graphical constraints will make your assets development much easier. In this article I’m going to describe some crucial guidelines I came across during my research on color theory.
pavcreations.com

Unity-Built-In-Attributes - A list of built in Unity Attributes.
teebarjunk

Unity Lerp - Using Unity’s Lerp methods can be quite confusing and error prone if done incorrectly. Despite this they are a vital part of creating a game. Allowing for smooth movement and transitions between things like positions, rotations, and even colors. You may want to use a lerp to fade the screen to black, rotate NPCs to look at the player, or transition a character sprite to green when they are poisoned.
monkeykidgc.com

PreferBinarySerialization - Unity Tip – Use binary serialization on a ScriptableObject using the attribute [PreferBinarySerialization]. Useful for types that contain large amounts of data. Can improve read/write performance and produce more compact disk representations.
Adam Graham @Zigurous

IK Rigging In Blender - IK rigging super basics in Blender- just wanted to share the most useful thing I finally bothered to learn last year, and was seriously a great slippery slope towards learning more about rigging in general!
Ian Hubert @Mrdodobird

LEGO Ideas - Build Your Own Game - Running until March 15, LEGO Ideas has opened up a contest for Unity x LEGO Microgame creators to submit their games to the platform and show them off to the world. In addition to receiving the limited edition Minifigure, two grand prize winners will receive an incredible collection of LEGO and Unity goodies.
LEGO Ideas

Unity 2021.1.0 Beta 4 - Unity 2021.1.0 Beta 4 has been released.
Unity

Videos

Creating a City Builder | Prototype Series - In this episode of the Unity Prototype Series, we demonstrate how we created a prototype that showcases the implementation of a City Builder using most systems of an RTS Game!
Unity

BForArtists 2.70 -- The "Easier" Blender - bforartists is a fork of Blender, that just released version 2.70. The 2.70 release brings bforartists up to date with the very current Blender version, while adding a layer of UI aimed at making Blender easier and more consistent to learn and use.
Gamefromscratch

5 Tips to Improve Performance - Unity 2020 2D Lights in the Universal Render Pipeline - Unity 2020 2D Lights Tutorial - 5 Tips to dramatically improve performance in your 2D universal render pipeline project!
Arcbound Games

Interior Lighting in URP (Universal Render Pipeline) | Unity 2020.2 - Learn how to render an Interior Scene in Universal Render Pipeline (URP) in Unity 2020.2. This method can also be used for mobile devices.
UGuruz

Rim Light Shader Graph in Unity URP! Moody and Atmospheric Lighting! - Rim lighting is a shading technique that highlights the edges of a model. It's useful to add a moody atmosphere or help an object stand out from a dark background. This effect gets the main light in a custom function node to emphasize the shadowed side of a model.
Ned Makes Games

Unity Tip - Input Envelope/Curve - This is a quick Unity C# tip for how to improve game feel using input envelope management.
Luis Zanforlin

What's new in Unity's Shader Graph? - In this video, we are going to show you the most recent changes in Shader Graph that were implemented in Unity 2020.2. This includes the changes from Master Node to Master Stack and how you can successfully upgrade to the new version of Shader Graph.
Unity

Make an Endless Runner in Unity 2020 / 2021 - part 1 of 2 - I'm going through the process of making an Endless Runner in Unity. The pace of this video is a little bit faster than my other tutorials, so if you are new to Unity, I recommend that you watch my LEARN UNITY video before watching this video:
Imphenzia

Assets

HUMBLE SOFTWARE BUNDLE: LEARN TO CREATE GAMES IN UNITY - Kickstart your game development career with GameDev.tv! Get courses like Complete C# Unity Game Developer 3D, Unity Multiplayer Coding & Networking, RPG Core Combat Creator and Complete C# Unity Developer 2D. Plus, your purchase will support Girls Who Code!
$1,369 WORTH OF AWESOME STUFF.
PAY $1 OR MORE.
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Toon-Me - Mission- A fun project to toon portrait images.
vijishmadhavan Open Source

Unity-Code-Snippets-For-Visual-Studio - Snippets for Visual Studio.
mnkasikci Open Source

Tilt Brush - Tilt Brush, the popular VR painting application was just open sourced by Google. [video description by Gamefromscratch]
googlevr Open Source

Humble Book Bundle: Programming Fundamentals - We've teamed up with Mercury Learning for our newest bundle! Get ebooks like Game Testing, Third Edition, Python Basics, Intro 3D Game Programming DX 12, Cybersecurity: A Self-Teaching Introduction, and Programming Fundamentals Using MATLAB. Plus, your purchase will support Whales & Dolphin Conservation!
$1,081 WORTH OF AWESOME STUFF.
PAY $1 OR MORE.
DRM-FREE.
Humble Bundle Affiliate

LayerMaskExtensions - I have these simple extension methods for LayerMask that can be useful when you need to list the layer names, especially when creating a custom PropertyDrawer.
Diego Giacomelli Open Source

Camera movement with the new input system - Transitioning editor-like camera movement from the old to the new input system. Context handler functions may create some overhead, but you can configure input through unity input settings and never touch the code again.
Binary Impact @BinaryImpactG Open Source

GameBoardGenerator - Chess VR - procedural game board generator in Unity. Check the full video on YouTube
ToughNutToCrack Open Source

UnitySerializedReferenceUI - The UI for Unity's SerealizedReference attribute. It allows to change the instance type of field right in editor.
TextusGames Open Source

Asymmetry - Free, Open Source Asymmetrical VR Repo
swirllyman Open Source

Spotlight

Sea of Stars - A retro-inspired turn-based RPG.

"If The Messenger was a love letter to the likes of Ninja Gaiden, Sabotage's follow-up, titled Sea of Stars, is an adoring nod to the likes of Chrono Trigger." - Destructoid

Engaging Turn-Based Combat.
Unshackled Traversal.
Prequel story set in The Messenger’s Universe.
Sabotage’s take on the turn-based RPG genre
Sabotage

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