Game Development

Game development and other polite discussion. Game development...
Apr 28 17:18
A mix of encouraging and scary. 😅
Apr 28 17:18
> Nonetheless, our user study participants still preferred ChatGPT answers 35% of the time due to their comprehensiveness and well-articulated language style.
Apr 28 17:18
> Users overlook incorrect information in ChatGPT answers 39.34% of the time due to the comprehensive, well-articulated, and humanoid insights in ChatGPT answers.
Apr 28 17:17
> More than half of ChatGPT answers contain incorrect information, 77% of ChatGPT answers are verbose, and 78% of ChatGPT answers contain inconsistencies with human answers. However, ChatGPT answers are comprehensive and cover different aspects of the questions and answers.
Apr 28 17:15
Apr 28 17:14
Interesting study a colleague just linked me to, examining ChatGPT answers vs StackOverflow posts: arxiv.org/pdf/2308.02312
Apr 28 17:14
Probably.
Dec 12, 2024 16:48
For a goto that takes you forward without jumping into a loop or conditional body, the coordinate of an action in execution is pretty much just its coordinate in the text, maybe with an asterisk to denote some steps we skipped over. So it doesn't add too much extra overhead.
Dec 12, 2024 16:46
In Dijkstra's "Go To Statement Considered Harmful", he mainly argues against cases where a goto confuses the mental coordinate system we use to think about points in a program's execution.
Dec 12, 2024 16:18
Exiting scopes is usually easier to reason about than entering or re-entering them via an unexpected route.
Sep 27, 2024 22:06
In situations like these, there's a saying I like to remind myself of: "I am defeated, and know it, when I encounter someone from whom I can learn nothing". So, at the very least, they're teaching you what kind of teammate to not be. 😅
Sep 27, 2024 21:56
That's not very constructive. Did they suggest any criteria they're using to make those assessments?
Sep 27, 2024 21:53
"Hell is other people", as Sartre put it. Teamwork can be challenging. 😅
Sep 27, 2024 21:52
Heads-up that this chat log is public, so it's usually best to not disparage folks here.
Sep 27, 2024 21:50
Dang, sorry to hear that. Is something the matter?
Sep 27, 2024 21:49
Well enough, though a bit behind on my course prep. 😅 Yourself?
Sep 27, 2024 21:48
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand.
Sep 27, 2024 21:46
Then I start looking at "okay, now what can I DO with my toys?" and add challenges to use that core interaction to complete, or friction to overcome.
Sep 27, 2024 21:45
That could be the code and animation that moves your character around. So then I can start running around and getting a sense of how it feels / what's interesting to try to do with these movement controls.
Sep 27, 2024 21:44
It varies a lot from game to game. When I work on solo projects, like for a game jam, I usually follow the mantra "make the toy first". I try to identify what core interaction the player is going to be doing most of the time, and build that so I can start playing with it.
Sep 27, 2024 21:42
Check the answers on that thread ☝ for some discussion of why it's important to build up your skills gradually before trying to make your dream game.
Sep 27, 2024 21:41
9
Q: Should I make my "big idea" first?

MediocreFantasyI have one game idea that has stuck with me for a long time that I'm using as my inspiration for getting into game design, and I want to make sure I make it to the best of my ability. Aside from the tutorial projects and "Hello World"s of the engine I plan to use, I want this idea to be my first ...

Sep 27, 2024 21:40
The trick is to start small. Like, REALLY small. Smaller than a free mobile game. If you jump into the deep end, you're likely to get overwhelmed and frustrated, and that will hamper your learning.
Sep 27, 2024 21:39
Absolutely. One of the game programmers I respect most used to joke that half of all game code is copy-pasted from StackOverflow. 😂
Sep 27, 2024 21:32
I've had good experience with C#. I've also been pleasantly surprised by GDScript, the programming language in Godot (though you can also use C# there).
Sep 27, 2024 21:30
Everyone learns differently. What worked for me was to try to make a game I mostly knew how to make, except this one thing. Then I'd put in the work to learn how to do that one thing. Then, for my next game, I could try doing something a little bigger, and uncover a few more new things to learn...
Sep 27, 2024 21:27
Since these engines are free though, the best way to find out whether you'll find them easy / friendly to work with is to pick one, install it, and try working through a tutorial or two in it. Then try another if you weren't sold on the first one you picked.
Sep 27, 2024 21:25
Both Unity and Godot have similar UI complexity. You can look up images to assess them for yourself.
Sep 27, 2024 21:22
Unfortunately, that's as tough a question to answer as "how beautiful is this poem?" - difficulty is a subjective experience, so what one person finds hard, another person finds easy.
Sep 27, 2024 21:20
For that you'd want a general purpose 3D engine. Unity and Godot are both popular options, and free (Unity is free for personal use, Godot is free for all uses).
Sep 27, 2024 21:13
@PenguRoxy It depends what you're looking for. Are you interested in making text games, or something more graphical? Are you looking for something with a friendly scripting tool, or would you prefer something as close to "no code" as possible?
Sep 27, 2024 19:18
No trouble. I hope you enjoy it. 😁 Feel free to ask here or on the Q&A page if you need help with any particular game programming topics as you continue to build your skills.
Sep 27, 2024 19:03
@ApoorvaShukla If you enjoy geeking out about comp-sci, you might like this free book on Game Programming Patterns - it's one of my favourite resources. It's written very approachably, with clear examples and motivations for each concept.
Sep 27, 2024 19:00
Sort of. While I was at Ubisoft, Far Cry 6 and Starlink: Battle for Atlas were both built on proprietary engines - Dunia and Snowdrop, respectively. But we didn't build the engine for those games from scratch. They already existed from prior projects, and we continue to enhance them and build new games on top of them, with the help of a centralized tech team maintaining the core. So, even if the engine is "made in house", it doesn't necessarily mean the people making the game made that engine.
Sep 27, 2024 18:54
Engine programming roles tend to be quite senior and more rare than gameplay programming, if you're considering this from an angle of job prospects.
Sep 27, 2024 18:54
So, you don't have to know how to make an engine to make a game.
Sep 27, 2024 18:53
Keep in mind that a lot of games have moved away from bespoke engines toward more standardized tech stacks, like Unreal/Unity/Godot, as well as "in-house" engines like Snowdrop and Frostbite.
Sep 27, 2024 18:51
@ApoorvaShukla If you're interested in an "engine programmer" role, that's likely to be a lot of C++ programming and hardcore computer science, software engineering, algorithms and data structures, that kind of thing. Linear algebra will be important for engine systems describing space and movement, and calculus crops up in physics and rendering engine components.
Sep 27, 2024 18:49
Myself, I'm a game designer, specifically a systems designer. And I teach in a Bachelor of Game Design degree program for folks who want to learn game design.
Sep 27, 2024 18:46
@ApoorvaShukla The first thing to do is identify what kind of game developer you want to be. There are many different roles in game development, and it's rare for one person to do them all (and very rare for them to do so successfully).
Sep 12, 2024 15:59
"Free to Play" as a general term includes games like Genshin that have no up-front cost but do have optional in-game purchases.
Sep 12, 2024 15:55
My read was they were trying to cash in on Genshin's success (or the next big free-to-play made with their engine), without adequately considering how nervous that would make anyone smaller than Genshin.
Aug 23, 2024 12:57
I'll bet! Any favourite take-aways?