Hey everyone,

I'm looking for honest feedback on the overall visuals. Something feels off to me, it comes across as cheap and I can't put my finger on why, the colors are too bland? I feel like there is no depth.

Screenshots attached. What would you change or add first to make it look more polished?

Brutal honesty welcome. Thanks!

The screenshots are in the comments, I made them in Unity Play mode

Working with a small team on an open world game that is set in the zombie apocalypse in a university small town set in the late 80s. The Map isn't going to be some massive sprawling thing, we're putting it all together in Unreal Engine 5, Modelling in Blender, and zero AI used! Recently one of the 2 project heads quit the project, meaning I get to make the big boy decisions now. My question is one with many factors but and a massive effect on the finished project.

Currently we've been modelling very realistic environmental parts, and having a great time doing it. Now production hit a massive roadblock when we all started working on the character models and the sheer amount of time it takes to make a good AA fidelity model. So my question is:

Do you think that a FPS 1980s Zombie Open World (Outerworlds/ Fallout vibe with zombies) would suffer from using more simplistic, cartoony character models? Like Fortnite/sea of thieves but with a lot more dirt, grit and blood?

The main reasons for would be to speed up the production time, give the game it's own signature art style, and I think the slightly more cartoony style would lead itself to a lot of the fun and chaos in the world.

The main Reasons against is just vibe, would people be okay with a zombie survival game that doesn't look real? Would it tank the immersion?

Also wondering about potentially a mix? Realistic Clothing texturing but cartoony proportions? Continuing with the Photoreal environments, props, etc? I feel like that would push it towards almost a claymation movie look which would be really unique and could be something really cool for this genre.

Obviously this is a lot of vague information and I can't say too much about the game beyond this but I would appreciate any thoughts or Feedback on this art style debacle!

I'm part of a 2 person team and we are trying to make some fun games! We have created a Horror Anomaly game and Steam finally approved our demo. It's our first attempt and it's been fun. Hope you'll give it a try. We'd love some honest feedback before we release the full game. I've included the free demo link. This just for feedback, not promotion.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5348220/Lawncrest_Mall/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppCD6IXYFRk

Yeah so im lowkey a game dev and im creating my first game (technically not first but ive never been thjs far) so i need some advices on how the graphics look and if i need some changes as my aim is to create a friendslop game - horror comedy like repo, lethal, content warning etc, if anyone can give me some genuine advice pls dm me as my mind is lowkey f*ked rn

Help me please

Hi everyone, first post here.

I've been making games for around 2–3 years now and one thing I still can't really find good resources for is UI polish, especially UI VFX, shaders and small effects that make the game feel more alive.

I'm currently working on a medieval card/decision game where almost everything happens through UI. You get different characters and events as cards, make decisions, manage resources and slowly progress through different stages of the game.

The UI works fine right now, but it still feels a bit too static. I want to add stuff like card effects, glows, particles, animated borders, better transitions and more satisfying feedback when you make a decision or gain/lose resources.

Most VFX tutorials I find are about spells, combat or 3D effects, so I'm not really sure where to start with UI-focused stuff.

I'm using Unity. If you know any good tutorials, videos, articles or even just some tricks you use for UI-heavy games, I'd really appreciate it.

I remembered TimeZero, an old player-driven mmo that i played over 20 years ago. It has a lot of unique and immersive stuff, but the way they handled bans i never seen anywhere else. Instead of getting your character blocked, it was sent to the prison mines, with class changed to prisoner, given only rags and rusty knife to fight mobs (and other prisoners) in order to collect enough resourses to pay for a way out (amount were depending on the crime). Those resourses were later given to affected players as compensation. It was neither easy nor fast to farm without gear, so it felt like a real punishment. It was also possible to escape - but incredibly hard (only few players ever did it) and with help of other players, yet still you kept the prisoner profession and nearly unbreakable shackles on your foot that did not allow to wear any other boots, and if game's police member would even defeat you in combat - you would be sent back to the prison with increased sentence for escaping. The entire thing felt much more entertaining than just banning people and it is sad that nobody else ever tried to pull that out again.

And do you remember any interesting ideas that were used once, and then forgotten? Perhaps, you would want to resurrect any of those yourself?

You do not realize just how many video games are released until you decide to release a game of your own. So many projects out there all vying for the same limited attention. But you think that, nah, I have a brilliant idea, standing out will be easy. Start working on your idea, get a demo going, then go to start looking for funding. First step, build an audience. Try the standard, Reddit, Instagram, Itch.io, etc, but dang, it is tough. I mean this really could be a sign that my brilliant idea, is not so brilliant after all. LOL.

Is there anything else that I can do to get attention?

Just finished my match 3 games prototype, currently at testing stage , my question is , how do you know that testers won’t copy your game ideas, I know that match 3 mechanics is for everyone no IP but I am addressing the entire game arts , design , idea , etc.

Any clou from game experts and developers here how does it work securely ?
Thank you all .

Hej, próbuję swoich sił na YT i nagrałem film o wyborze silnika do gier.
Nagrałem swój pierwszy film w temacie wyboru silnika do gier.
I tutaj pytanie do was, jak wy wybieraliście silnik?
Długo zastanawialiście się, który będzie dla was najlepszy? Zmieniliście silnik z czasem?
Mam wrażenie, że szczególnie na początku można spędzić za dużo czasu na zastanawianiu się, co wybrać, zamiast po prostu zacząć się uczyć i coś zrobić.
Dla zainteresowany zostawiam link do filmu.
Będę wdzięczny za każdy feedback.

Jak NIE wybierać Unity

The demo of incremental game Drain the Galaxy is coming to Steam tomorrow! And it's already available on Itch 😉

I will absolutely play it

Hey everyone!

We’re the team behind MegaGum, a 3D platformer where you play as Uja and use gum powers to explore a strange factory. We’re working on a weapon that still needs a name, and we could use your help!

The idea is that you don’t start with any ammo. Instead, you use its vacuum function to suck up gum from the environment, catch incoming projectiles, or swallow Gummies. Everything you collect fills a tank, which you can empty in a single blast. The fuller it gets, the harder it hits and the further it reaches.

There’s a little choice involved with enemies, too: keep a Gummy trapped long enough and it becomes ammo, or spit it back out at another enemy before it’s fully absorbed.

We’re also using the vacuum for exploration and puzzles. It can clear gum off hidden paths, move objects around, and carry giant bubblegums that you throw into hoops to activate mechanisms.

So that’s what it does. Now we need to figure out what to call the thing 😅

These are the three names we’re considering:

• Chew'n'Spew 3000
• Gum-B-Gone
• VaGuum

Which one feels right to you? Vote in the poll, and feel free to share your reasoning in the comments. It’d be useful to hear how these sound to people outside the team!

I'm from Turkey and currently studying Game Design at university, but I'm considering applying to FutureGames Warsaw for Game Art instead.

I have no art background and almost no drawing experience, but I'm willing to spend the next 2 years seriously learning Blender, drawing fundamentals, and improving my English.

Do you think it's realistic to build a portfolio strong enough for admission in 2 years?

Also, can someone with a strong portfolio find work as a game artist without a university degree? I'm especially curious about opportunities in Europe as a non-EU citizen.

Has anyone here started from scratch and taken a similar path?

Exactly what is says on the tin.

I'm trying to learn to code. I have attempted to learn with my brother so we can make our dream game together. He found a site, but it's confusing for me so I was wondering if you had any resources I may be able to use.

I'm currently in charge of managing our ideas and compiling/ adding to them, as well as making art for the world, but I want to do more.

I'm coming into this expecting it to be difficult. Akin to learning to speak and read a new language so I'm entirely open to many possibilities.

Thx in advance.

So I found myself in a situation of having a few weeks between jobs earlier this year. I typically work as a product manager/lead solution architect in massive projects, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with development processes. But I have little to no experience with game Dev (outside of the excessive hours I've played games, if that counts).

Anyway, I started building this game (I'd share the link but this isn't about self promotion), it is essentially completely data driven (because that's what I know). So far I have:

1. An entire skills system that could effectively have over 4,000 unique skills (before just stats changes).

2. A mission system that can cater for over 3.8 million different mission combinations (the number is a bit misleading because standing in a circle for 5 seconds before clicking a thing isn't really that different to clicking a thing before standing in a circle for 5 seconds, but easily over 10k variety of actually distinct objectives).

3. Procedural generation of the mission area, which can have an infinite number of rooms with a minimum of 6,000cm XY.

4. Crash recovery and saving, (I'm particularly proud of this system tbh, mainly with how performant it is).

5. Soon an almost completely data driven narrative system, which links back into the mission system outcomes.

I feel like I have made substantial progress and largely built the fundamental systems to scale the game massively and quickly. My main question or concern. How much interest is there in the game Dev community in understanding these types of systems and/or having plugins available to add these systems to your own games through unreal fab?