game dev resources

click for LEARNING

• Stay In the Know - Game Development News, Advice/Tutuorials, Reviews, Job Listings, etc.
• Gamasutra is your best friend
• Extra Creditz Youtube channel has a lot of helpful & thoughtful game design videos!
• GameCareerGuide.com, like Gamasutra, is a great resource for helping you learn about & get into the industry
• World of Level Design is great for both level designers AND environment artists(!!!!!)
• 80 Level is kinda new to me so just click it & see for yourself
• IndieDB has news on indie games, plus resources and articles for indie devs as well!
• Polycount has some great tips & info!
• MobyGames is an awesome database of games if you want quick info or screenshots!


• JUST NEWS (and Reviews 'n Stuff) - not for devs but written for a general gaming audience
• Indie Games Plus showcases new indie games, often games made by new, small, up-and-coming teams
• Polygon USED to be game-specific news iirc but now it's like, entertainment in general...
• Gamespot is another big one
• Kotaku, too
• IGN is still big but has expanded/diverged a lot into other entertainment mediums, like movies
• Siliconera is a sweet little game news site for niche games, especially JRPGs and the like
• ArsTechnica is a tech news site - not just games BUT it does have a game-centric category
• Destructiod is a gaming blog with news and reviews
• Giant Bomb
• mentioning IndieDB again :>


• Major Events - Expos to show off your game at, and maybe win prizes, recognition, jobs & internships/networking, etc.


• E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) used to be a big event that took place every year in USA Los Angelos, CA, in June. It's mostly a consumer-focused commercial event, but there IS a college game competition as well! Its future is uncertain due to 1) the pandemic and 2) major developers ditching the event as times change. Bummer.


• GDC & IGF (Game Developers' Conference & Indie Games Fest) take place in USA San Francisco, CA, every year in March. Unlike E3, these events focus on developers/those working within the industry and have many talks focusing on development techniques, postmortems, etc. as well as shining a spotlight on newly-released or upcoming indie games. GDC is also a FANTASTIC networking opportunity for up-and-coming game devs and students. It's really expensive to go, BUT you can cut the cost if you apply for a CA (volunteer) position, register in a 10+ person group at a 10% discount, or are selected to represent your school's game development program. IGF, held during GDC, is specifically a competition for indie games, and awards games in several categories for $3k each, plus the Seumas McNally Grand Prize of $30k. Some games duly honored by IGF include Hyper Light Drifter and Night in the Woods. Also at GDC is the Indie Megabooth, a showfloor for 24 selected indie games; the Megabooth also has a PAX East branch, with different entry requirements.


• Also it seems that alongside the conference, GDC has an expo that takes place during the same weekend, which includes an event called GDC Play wherein emerging developers can showcase their newly-released or in-progress games in order to connect with publishers and distributers, as well as be selected for "Best of Play" awards chosen by Gamasutra editors. Here are some examples of "Best of Play" winners.


• PAX: Prime, East, etc. (Penny Arcade Expo) in VARIOUS LOCATIONS (North America)


• Gamescom in Germany is a HUGE game show held in August, which has an indie games showcase called Indie Arena Booth.


• GDEX is a gaming expo in the Midwest (Columbus, Ohio, USA) held in October


• MAGFest, the Music and Gaming Festival, is held in National Harbor, Maryland (USA) in January
• The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) has some interesting events (requires membership I think??)


• IndieCade are two indie games festivals, one held in California in the US and the other in Europe. IndieCade 2019 in Santa Monica, CA will be held in October and the submission window for games is between January-March (there is also a late deadline extension into April for a higher fee). Currently it costs $75 for a game entry, or $100 to submit to both the US and Europe festivals, though IndieCade also has membership/patronage options which may lower the entry fee, and limited financial assistance is available. There isn't any prize money but getting into IndieCade is a great way to show off your game and connect with other developers. Also, if you're a member/patron you can opt-in to get written feedback on your game submission. (I wrote this in April 2019, so check IndieCade's website to see if any of this info has changed in the future).


• The annual Rookies awards! Submissions open in March & close in May, and the awards are given in July (as of 2018)


• If you live near Savannah, GA, check out the Geekend and quarterly GDX (Game Developers' eXchange) talks (Geekend requires a registration pass but some workshops are free to the public, GDX is typically free for Savannah College of Art & Design students) as well as the annual January PULSE festival at the Jepson Center Museum. The festival celebrates art, innovation in technology and learning in STEAM for all ages, and often showcases but is not limited to games. Special speakers include the director of Katamari Damacy, Keita Takahashi, who visited and spoke in January 2019 about his new exhibit at the museum, which will be open until July.


• In Kyoto, Japan, A Fifth of Bitsummit is an indie game expo with some AAA developer sponsors. Here is a list of features games from the 2017 event, and here is a list of participating developers and companies for the same 2017 event. Some games featured at this event include Oneshot (with its publisher, Degica games) and Iconoclasts (Joakim Sandberg). Also, here's their twitter.


• Game Distribution Platforms - (besides Steam & the Google Play Store/App store)
• Itch.io is a great place to host your indie game, and join in their myriad game jams!
• GameJolt is a lot like Itch.io, but with a different flair (more Twitch-y?)
• GOG.com (Good Old Games) is a nice alternative to Steam that doesn't require a seperate app to run the games you play like Steam does - you can choose to run GOG's, or just run your games directly! freeeeedom, dude
• also recognize how useful Twitch & Youtube Gaming can be for promoting your game through streaming/let's plays


• Showing off your work - Professionally!
• ArtStation is a MUST for game art portfolios if, y'know, you wanna get hired! You can even load/view/rotate/inspect 3D models right in your web browser
• CGSociety is a lot like ArtStation, both are really good!
• Sketchfab is useful, too :>
• LinkedIn is also very important for networking and job-hunting.


• Dev Communities
• TIGSource is an indie game forum founded by Derek Yu (Aquaria); it's a great place to communicate with other indie developers and get feedback on your work!
• trying joining a Discord server! I'll add some later but it really depends on what kind of game dev circle you're looking for. For example, a couple servers I belong to are for RPGMaker horror devs & fans, and also the Hat in Time server (which is a joy for fans who want to gush & share fan works for the game they love, but also it encourages mods and asking the devs questions! DIRECTLY!! a dev may even play and review your mod, how SWEET and RIDICULOUSLY NICE is that???)
• Mapcore!!
• I HIGHLY recommend participating in Game Jams! Itch.io hosts a lot of 'em
• GLOBAL GAME JAM: check it out!
• Ludum Dare - game jams!
• Did you know? Hollow Knight got its start as a Ludum Dare game jam entry as Hungry Knight!


• Join a Modding Community if you're into Level Design
• Check out ModDB to help you find modding communities for games you're interested in! They also have groups for developers and hobbyists, etc.
• Personally, I want to check out the Hat in Time modding community first! And then maybe VRChat or Garry's Mod.


• Dev Tips & Tricks
• Simon Schreibt has some neat articles for game artists and designers!
• for those using RPG Maker, PinkUboa on tumblr (view on desktop to see all the sidebar links!) has lots of resources (especially if you're trying to make a Yume Nikki fangame (YNFG)--there's a community of fans for the surreal horror rpgmaker game Yume Nikki who enjoy trying to make their own games about traveling through dreamworlds, they're very encouraging to new devs and sometimes run a dream diary jam, too! kind of an offshoot of the rpgmaker horror community)

Professional Tools

• Resumes & CVs:
• Enhancv
• Good Resume Examples (for game artists):
• Personal Website: https://www.gannonfj.com/resume
• Artstation Page: https://www.artstation.com/xiaopengshen


• Making your Website (to complement your ArtStation portfolio, share thoughts on your design process, and postmortem reflections):
• Squarespace for a free and professional-looking website (via templates)
• please don't use wix (I won't stop you but I haaaate wix)
• weebly is okay. not great but okay
• neocities I LOVE but if you're gonna use it for your website I'd recommend paying for your own url and also, only if your coding level is like, this level at least
• for blogs (devlogs), try wordpress! tumblr is also useful (but more social media-connected)


• Behance
• what is Behance again?? I forgot (oops)


• Training/LEARING(!):
• Lynda.com is an awesome extensive library of video tutorials on industry software! Not free, but chances are your school or local library has a subscription you can use!


• Extra Credits is a Youtube channel with hundreds of videos' worth of didactic learning. In other words, they're not tutorials but short, snappy discussions on MAAAANY topics in game development, analysis, & more! I'd say they're particularly helpful to game designers, but really, anyone! check it out I implore you


• GamesPlusJames is a Youtube channel I found that has some great scripting tutorials for the Unity engine. In other words, he'll walk you through how to work with the engine and get your first games running in Unity! He was a lifesaver for me when I became frustrated with Unity's outdated official tutorials. There are a few blips in the scripts he walks you through, but he usually shows you how to solve it right away in the next video, OR I managed to figure it out myself. I guess, having a little coding knowledge going into it helps? He hosts his own game jams, too.

for helpful articles and interviews about becoming an environment artist/level designer (such as interviews from those in the industry), check out this page!

And here is a page about indie dev articles, success stories, etc.

software

so soft you can use them as pillows

• Screencapture Software:
• OBS (free!)
• FRAPS (not free)
• LICECap (free, makes GIFs)
• GIFCam (free, makes GIFs)


• Audio Capture & Basic Sound Editing:
• Audacity (free, dude!)


• Sound Design - Make some TUNES:
• LMMS (freeeeeee)
• I've also heard good things about FL Studio??? Nightmargin, developer of Oneshot, likes to use FL Studio 8 (an older version)


• Illustration/2D Visuals
• Clip Studio Paint
• Paint Tool Sai
• free: FireAlpaca, Krita, and GIMP
• Try Aesprite (not free) for pixel art (also see: GraphicsGale)


• Industry Game Art Software: Check with your school, you may be able to download a student license/copy of these.
  • Autodesk Maya (3D modeling and animation)
  • Autodesk 3DS Max (3D modeling, similar to Maya but less buggy - each have their uses/specialties)
  • Autodesk Mudbox (3D sculpting)
  • Adobe CC (Creative Cloud, featuring Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, etc.)
  • Substance Painter and Substance Designer (can be bought on Steam, and it even goes on sale!) for texture painting & baking
  • Quixel Mixer (texture painting & baking) -- not sure about discounts/licenses but it's inexpensive
  • Marmoset Toolbag (baking) -- not sure if this one has student licenses/discounts
  • 3DCoat (sculpting, UVing, texture painting) -- can buy perpetual licenses
  • Z-brush


• Discounted Industry 2D Animation Software: Doesn't seem there are free student licenses, but there ARE student discounts.
  • Z-brush
  • Toonboom
  • TV Paint
  
  
• ANYONE can download a personal copy of the Unreal or Unity engines directly from their websites (but if you want to publish your game, each engine's company has its own system for charging licenses or royalties). Gamemaker is widely used, too, but not free (apparently)?? ren'py for visual novels is free, and RPG Maker (MV, VX ACE, and other versions) is available on Steam for a low price (goes on sale a lot, too!). (Not sure about the legalities of RPG Maker games but some examples of RPG Maker games released on Steam are Oneshot, Heartbeat, To the Moon, and 1bit Heart. There's also the 2D Construct engine; Iconoclasts developer Joakim Sandberg uses Construct Classic for his games. Did you know you can also make web games in HTML5 and bitsy?


• I recommend learning how to use Blender whether you're a student or not, too, because it's a free yet powerful 3D modeling software. Useful if you lose your Maya license for whatever reason, or your school doesn't have Maya access.
• Substance Painter and Substance Designer are some of the best tools for texture painting.
• You can texture paint in Photoshop, too, but you need a really good computer or else Photoshop will lag HARD. I think you can texture paint in Blender, too, but a lot of people prefer Substance Painter if they have access to it.
• Marmoset Toolbag for high-quality baking and real-time rendering
• Z-brush is very expensive but a fantastic tool for creating 3D models by sculpting them. However, you must also be knowledgeable with re-topologizing meshes in software like Topogun, because the models you make in Z-brush have high polygon counts. Basically they're too detailed and too demanding for game engines, so if you just put 'em in directly without re-structuring them and making them more computationally efficient, then your game will be slow at best and unplayable at worst. So, yeah, this is operating at a pretty technical and professional level, not for beginners, but the payoff for experienced game artists is profound.

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NOTE TO SELF: Should I start putting subscript sources on my pages? This website is, yes, built for me, but if it's of any benefit to others, that would make things more credible. But is it worth the effort? Does it matter? As an example, I learned that the Iconoclasts dev uses Construct Classic from the Wikipedia page, which cites Sandberg's twitter. So, yeah, I'm not pulling facts out of thin air, but does proving that MATTER to any(?) readers, when I'm just trying to share what I know and not, say, argue or discuss things? My hope is that the information on my site serves as a starting point, and readers can learn more through their own research. I sure don't retain much information without investigating things for myself, over and over. *shrug*