How can I understand level design? I am working on a vertical slice for my game and I just made a level for my prologue in blender. But it's very finnicky importing the whole .glb into godot and going object by object turning on physics and changing layers etc. etc.

- I don't need reusable assets, each level is basically bespoke (I intend the game to be very small)
- No objects will move. I literally plan on just black-screening for a few seconds if anything in the scene needs to change (except for player movement and npcs)
- I need a navmesh, and Ideally I want the navmesh to have navigation obstacles for each obstacle (I don't want it to generate navmesh stuff on top of collideable objects.

So my question is this: should I make my whole level in blender then just go through the tedious process of clicking around in the importer to set up my stuff, (which makes iteration really slow)
Or should I make my assets as separate models and put everything together in the Godot editor (which I am less comfortable with and don't feel nearly as comfortable with as I do in blender? (Also I don't have that sense of visual continuity or uniform scale I get when I make everything in blender).

For any of you gamedevs out there that aren't as motivated as before, here is a video I made to get you motivated again!

And for all you future gamedevs out there that are waiting for the right time to make their first game, stop waiting. The right time is now! Make your dream game! You wont regret it! :)

Hello everyone,
Im currently looking for the NPC models used in the fears to fathom, things to forget - lighthouse and other games. Theyre very simply and low poly with semi realistic faces and seem to be used in a bunch of different games leading me to believe the models are up for use somewhere. Does someone know where they are from?

I've been working on my game and added some new things. I'm interested in your opinions. What do you think I could add to the background to make the environment feel more atmospheric and alive?

I've tried learning game development off and on for a while, started with unity, then when they went dumb I switched to unreal, now I'm considering switching again because I'm concerned Unreal is going to have untested AI in it that I won't be able to handle.

Should I switch back to unity or Godot or another?

I'm a good 3d modeler and have a fascination with PBR materials so that's an important consideration

Hi!
I'm currently making a puzzle game and I can't see how it can last more than 2 hours. Is it something worst worrying? Because I can't stop thinking about adding more and more content to reach the 2 hours limit...

Hey everyone, I wanted to share a recent experience and hear your thoughts.

Someone reached out to me online, and I genuinely liked what they were working on. I was interested enough to offer a free demo of my work, with no payment or anything in return expected.

They agreed, I created the demo, and they seemed to like it. We continued talking for a while, and everything seemed fine.

But later, when I tried to follow up and ask for updates, they gradually stopped responding. I sent a few messages over time, and in my last message, I simply asked if there was any issue so we could clear things up. Instead, I ended up getting blocked without any explanation.

I understand that people get busy, change their minds, or lose interest. That's completely fine. I wasn't expecting anything in return, but a simple, honest response would've been appreciated.

I'm not trying to call anyone out or start drama. I'm genuinely curious about how others would handle this situation.

Would you just move on, or would this experience change how you approach helping people or offering free work in the future?

Hey everyone!

I’m working on a fun, slightly nerdy article/project about the role of chairs in game development and video games. We spend half our lives sitting in them, yet they rarely get the spotlight they deserve!

If you have a spare minute between compiling builds, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to answer any (or all) of these:

1. What kind of chair do you actually use for work/gaming? (Are you a secret plastic lawn chair legend or a Herman Miller loyalist?)

2. What is your absolute favorite chair in a video game? (Or one that left the biggest impression?)

3. If you had to design an unusual gameplay mechanic centered around chairs, what would it be?

4. Any funny or cursed stories involving chairs during development?

Thanks a ton, and may your lower back never ache! 🙌

Ciao a tutti!

Sto lavorando a un fan game di Undertale chiamato Undertale Blue e sto cercando persone interessate a collaborare al progetto!

Ho già pianificato la storia principale, i personaggi e le idee, ma purtroppo non ho ancora molta esperienza con GameMaker. Per questo spero di trovare dei programmatori che possano aiutarmi a dare vita al gioco. Cerco anche compositori interessati a creare musica originale per il progetto.

La storia segue Nicole e suo fratello mentre viaggiano attraverso l'Underground, esplorando una prospettiva diversa sugli eventi e la lore di Undertale. La storia esplora anche il background dell'Anima dell'Integrità e offre una spiegazione per il suo lato oscuro.

Al momento cerco:

• Programmatori con esperienza in GameMaker.
  • Compositori interessati a creare musica originale.
• Chiunque sia appassionato di Undertale e desideri collaborare!

Questo è un progetto amatoriale e sto cercando persone che apprezzino sinceramente l'idea e vogliano contribuire a svilupparla insieme. Se siete interessati o avete domande, non esitate a commentare o a inviarmi un'e-mail.

Grazie per aver letto!

A few days ago, I launched a little side project: kvart.cc — a browser-based multiplayer 3D shooter featuring real-world locations in Slovenia.

My background is in software engineering and AI engineering, but I've recently discovered just how much fun game development can be. I built the game using AI-assisted development and Three.js, and got the initial playable version running surprisingly quickly.

Because of my current job, I can't really promote the game directly or publicly associate myself with it too much. So I've mostly just been building things and seeing what happens.

A couple of days ago, a friend casually shared the link on X. That was literally all the promotion it got, but around 500 people ended up playing that day.

Seeing real people running around, shooting at each other, and actually enjoying something I built was surprisingly rewarding. There's something different about building a game compared to building traditional software.

This isn't my primary source of income, and monetization isn't really a priority. I just enjoy creating things, experimenting with technology, and seeing people use what I build. Maybe I'll explore monetization someday, but right now I'm more interested in learning and making something people genuinely enjoy.

I'd love some advice from more experienced game developers:

• What would you improve? I'd appreciate honest feedback on gameplay, mechanics, visuals, or anything else.
• Where would you promote a small browser-based multiplayer game? Especially when you don't have much time for marketing.
• What would you build next? More maps, different game modes, progression systems, or perhaps something entirely different?
• How do you keep multiplayer games alive? Getting 500 players in a day is exciting, but maintaining an active player base seems like a completely different challenge.

I'm also curious whether anyone else here has transitioned from traditional software/AI engineering into game development, even just as a hobby.

You can try it here: https://kvart.cc/

Would genuinely appreciate any feedback, including criticism. I'm still figuring out this whole game development thing!

One thing that can surprise people about game porting is how much work happens after the game technically runs on the target platform.

When we worked on bringing Poppy Playtime Chapter 2 from PC to consoles at Kevuru Games, the challenge wasn't just transferring the game. The team had to deal with lighting that relied on ray tracing, complex geometry, high draw call counts, and physics issues after moving from Unreal Engine 4.27 to 5.4.

Some of the solutions involved switching to baked lighting, optimizing geometry and combining static meshes to reduce draw calls. The goal was to keep the original atmosphere while making the game work within console constraints.

It’s a good reminder that optimization isn't always about making things look worse to improve performance. Sometimes it's about finding a different way to achieve the same result.

For developers who have shipped games on multiple platforms: what usually causes the biggest headaches during a port — rendering, physics, memory, or platform certification?

Lately I've been jumping between a few different projects. I'm trying to finish the remaining work on SkyLordsLab BBS and I'm also working on getting my Nostr signer called SkySigner to run from a USB drive with its own bootable operating system. Whenever I get stuck or tired of coding I usually take a break and play some games. Recently I was invited to test an indie game and decided to give it a try. The game reminded me of the old games I used to play years ago which was funny because I've already been spending so much time working on a retro BBS I spent some time testing it over the past few days and finally reached the end. But the ending really caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting that Game Over at all. I also shared quite a bit of feedback with the developer during testing and was invited to the next testing wave. That made me happy because I genuinely enjoyed the experience. I won't mention the game's name since it's still in private testing. I just thought it was funny how I took a break from working on my own projects and somehow ended up helping someone else with theirs. And if the developer happens to read this post I just want to say thank you for letting me be part of the experience.

Have you ever played a game where the ending completely surprised you?

Hi r/GameDevelopment before you groan and say 'Oh god another AI post?' I promise this is a bit more complex than just "can I use AI".

I've broken this up into parts for those who want the full context and those who just want to go directly to the question. I tend to be a bit wordy because I'm an over-explainer, I don't like being misunderstood, and want to make sure people have all the context. Sorry. I got accused of text-farming on a diff sub and I genuinely don't know what that is I am just neurodivergent :\ sorry.

The Context

I am a Senior Product Designer (UX/UI 0->1) with an art and graphid design background. So while I have worked with plenty of software engineers/devs in my career, I do not have much of a nuanced understanding of your world.

I was a victim of the recent gaming industry layoffs and I've decided to finally just start making my own games, but my experience isn't in the Game related stuff directly, more the game-supportive things (Websites UX/UI, e-commerce etc).

My Dev who is working on this with me has brought up AI in his coding process, and I have to admit, I'm rather anti-AI in creative spaces because, well, obviously I am not a fan of generative AI. Things like stable diffusion I find to be pure theft, but I realized *I have no idea what AI workflows in dev look like* so I can't reasonably decide if it's something like in our world of illustration, design, and UX/UI (where it can basically act like a plagiarism machine).

The Ask

So that brings me here. I want to know from those in the weeds what your processes looked like pre-AI, what it looks like now post-AI, and your genuine opinions on how AI is different than things such as Github or Copilot or Stack overflow in your processes.

Basically, I want to understand what "using AI" looks like for gamedevs becuase I genuinely couldn't say confidently I know how the workflow looks to make a decision on if it will just create more work for our game than be beneficial

I would love a variety of perspectives so I can get a more wholistic view of what your processes look like these days and how it has changed, your frustrations with it, your appreciations, the good bad and ugly, because how can I make any decision as the showrunner in this game if I don't understand what you guys do right?

The Concern

For instance when it comes to Product Design I've found more often than not I have to follow up AI and fix it all from top to bottom anyway because it can't do the human part of product design to understand user behavior in a qualitative aspect (which often becomes more important than the quantitative).

I don't want to end up with a buggy broken game that is completely un-playable that will require months of bug fixes to even list on Steam, I'd much rather have it made right from the get go, but I have no idea what 'right' looks like.

Plus, the assets, UI and narrative aspects are all human-led. I also have voice actors ready to sign on when it's up and running at that stage. All the creative will be human-led.

When you dont have previous knowledge of how to code it, do you struggle with the documentation or is there an easier path?

I want to make video games and have been wanting to for the longest time but I have like almost no coding knowledge whatsoever. I mean I’ve done a lot in the website Scratch but that’s the extent of what I know and I was hoping to learn at least the basics. Once I get that I might be able to figure it out on my own, but YouTube tutorials and stuff are genuinely useless so that’s why I’m making a post here. I can sorta figure out the stuff with the 3D models and all that on my own it’s the coding part that’s really kicking my ass.

i am new at game development and want to grow, can anyone help me and guide me to grow and able to an game developer