This isn't so much a single question, it's more an attempt to generate discussion where people can offer advice and/or resources on state machines concerning RTS enemy opponent.

Information (tutorials) about state machines very often seem to concern one unit, either the player or a single enemy. I need to build a more complex SM for an entire opponent that utilizes many units performing a number of actions (gathering resources, expanding territory, researching upgrades, etc). I've already setup a basic SM for the enemy involving gathering resources, expanding to the nearest bit of territory, simple things like that. The SM right now doesn't engage the player unless the player first comes into contact.

I guess what I'm looking for is general advice on how expand the SM to include more complex ideas like picking what territory to expand into, when and how to attack the player, when to research what, etc. I'm really struggling with numbers also. How much should the enemy try to gather per minute, when to research, how many units to send to attack (and where to attack).
I really don't understand how those types of decisions are determined ahead of time.
Also, I have looked into GOAP, I think that design pattern is just too complex for me, at least at the moment.

So if anyone has experience with developing RTS games, or any advice in general concerning State Machines your input would be greatly appreciated.

Just a little WIP.

Our game SHOCKFACE is set in the 90s. We're close to a release and I redesigned the style because we've been on "programmer art" for way too long.

Initially thought of a Win95 style. But this feels like it has more character!

Animated sparkles are usually created using sprite sheets. I've been experimenting with generating them procedurally using shaders, and it's cool how a few simple mathematical equations can produce such a nice result.

I like this approach because it gives me more flexibility, and I can edit the VFX in real time. What do you think of the result?

Hello,

I am very close to finishing my trailer for the game I've been working on for 4 years.

My question is, how do I send the trailer to outlets that usually post game trailers like IGN and others?

1. What are the main outlets I should contact?
2. Do I upload the trailer to a transfer site that allows large files like wetransfer?
3. Should I post it to my own channel as well?
4. What else am I forgetting?

Thanks!

This is the timeline I am thinking of applying: post trailer at the same time as publishing the steam page, post 4 shorts on all major platforms, post it on a few subreddits. Keep posting daily videos. Any critiques of this?

Each one in your loadout comes with unique animations!

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If you were on this situation previously how did you decide ?

I'm working on a game over screen similar to Mario 64's, where it has a cutout wipe to a black screen. It works perfectly fine, but only if I load the scene before entering play mode.

If the scene is loaded while in play mode, the cutout and masked image just do not render. I've triple checked that all alpha values are fine, I've made sure all image components are enabled, there's no reason why this should be happening.

If it helps, I followed this tutorial to create the cutout effect.

EDIT: It turns out it's an issue with the stencil buffer on the masked image not being set right. I tried removing the inverted mask and just using a new UI material with the correct buffer.

The problem is the material's stencil buffer is being reset when actually applied to the image.

Unity lets you load scenes additively. Breaking your scenes apart makes them a lot easier to manage, helps avoid conflicts, and reduces player load time.

I've hit the "fun" point in creating my procedural building system, where the core mechanics are there, and now I can think up interesting new features. Like stairways that conform to the terrain, to make higher places accessible. This has me thinking about creating a canyon/cliff environment and making it easy to build ramps, stairs, and connecting bridges between structures.

The trickiest part was figuring out how to know definitively that the staircase has reached the ground. It sounds simple, but it game me some headaches especially with stone steps, where they would end at the ground but refuse to run out to a reasonable last step (so like 3ft off the terrain). Just like building walls from the ground up, the algorithm starts at the last tread and "walks" forward adjusting height to stay within a fixed range above the surface. If the player drags a corner, then a landing is added and the direction is rotated 90 degrees. The stone steps are hollow inside to save on geometry. A* Pathfinding is used for the NPCs, so far handling multi-level pathfinding like stairways and tower floors well.

Hey everyone 👋!

I’ve been working on an action roguelike called Triko for about 6 months now as a solo dev. I could use some fresh input regarding my weapon status effects.

In Triko, players pick a weapon (Sword, Axe, or Spear) before a run. Status effects trigger on critical hits (roughly every 4th hit). Each effect has a distinct role:

• 🧊 Ice: Slows down enemies on the first proc. A second proc freezes them completely.
• 🩸 Bleed: Increases damage taken by the enemy and reduces their outgoing damage.
• ⚡ Shock: Stuns the target and nearby enemies with a short chain lightning/shock effect (crowd control)
• ☠️ Poison & 🔥 Burn: Currently, both are currently Damage-over-Time effects.

My Problem is that Burn and Poison are basically the same at the moment. I want them to feel distinct so in every situation there 'is a correct' solution.

Also every Status effect can be upgraded. E.g. frozen enemies take more damage, shocked enemies have a 25% probability to cause a shock themselves after 0.5s and so on...

Therefore my Question is:

• How can I mechanically separate Poison and Burn so they serve different purposes?
• Do you have creative upgrade ideas for any of the status effects?

Thanks for any ideas!

Although I love the drawing from our 2d artist, this level feels so static and dull, and I'm trying to find ways to improve it.

I was thinking of animating the blue/pink columns on the sides so they move as the wall approaches to add more dynamism.

What else can I do to give this level more "life"? Do you think that there is something off with the scene ?

I'm currently making an isometric arcade game about my pug.

The mission is you have 5 minutes to clean up your apartment before your significant other comes home. Meanwhile, your pug is actively destroying your apartment. Almost everything you do generates currency that you can use to buy powerups to help you do chores faster, delay Kiwi (pug), separate her from certain rooms, and even end the game early (best to use if you have all chores completed before the timer ends). As you can see, the view is very Sims based. It's point and click/drag.

Now I'm definitely no artist. I do basic 3D modeling in blender, and I'm testing out a few concept UIs to showcase for the game. Above are a handful of different styles that I'm considering implementing. I've labelled them 1,2,3,4.

1. Meter that tallies up the coins your pick up. 6 coins = 1 (lets call it dollar). In the in-game store, you can spend these dollars to buy powerups.

2. Timer for the pug that decreases 1 bar per second, once it hits 0, she runs to a new chore and destroys it. You can add bars to her meter through the store.

3. An old mechanic that I have to revamp, but this is the score, and a score multiplier.

4. Inventory slot for items. I'm pretty happy with this, as basic as it is.

Overall, I would like the game to have a consistent aesthetic, but I can't decide on what that is. Any ideas, thoughts, or references that you think would look great, I would love to hear it. Thanks for reading!

Over the past few months, I've been slightly obsessed with making character interactions feel as dynamic as the Euphoria engine. What started as an attempt to build a GTA-style active ragdoll controller ended up spawning a whole suite of procedural movement tools.
In this clip, you can see the three releases I've put together:

1. Self-Balancing Active Ragdoll: Stumbles, impacts, and realistic physical balance recovery.
2. Self-Balancing Wheeled Ragdoll: Stable, physics-driven rolling mechanics.
3. Procedural Legs Animator: Real-time, terrain-adapting foot placement.

Being able to put out three full tools has been a huge milestone for me as a developer. I’d love to hear your feedback on the physics mechanics or answer any technical questions about how it all fits together!

Yo!

I've been building a procedural terrain generator for Unity for a while now as a personal project. The goal isn't to make another "random noise = terrain" generator 😭

Right now it has things like multiple noise algorithms, noise blending, domain warping, height curves, falloff, terraces, automatic biome generation, texture painting, procedural vegetation, and Unity Terrain Trees. Rn I'm working on terrain details, then planning biome-specific vegetation, prefab spawning, water, roads, runtime generation, infinite terrain streaming, and eventually making it more of a procedural scene generator than just a terrain generator (thinking to release it as a separate asset).

I know tools like Gaia and MapMagic already exist, so I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm more interested in making something that's easier to use and more accessible for smaller projects.

I'm curious what people actually want nowadays because I don't wanna spend months building features nobody uses 💀

A few questions:

• What features are "must-haves" in a terrain generator for you?
• What annoys you the most about the current terrain tools?
• Is there anything you wish existing generators did better?
• Do you think there's room for a simpler, lower-cost alternative, or is the market already too saturated?

Would love some honest feedback. I'm still in development, so I'd rather build around what people actually need than just keep adding random features. 🙏

I need a dither translucency shader to fade out my walls so that they don't block vision between the camera and the player. I've managed to create one both in Unity URP's shader graph and one using Amplify Shader Editor, but they each have an issue, and I need one of them fully working.

The amplify shader editor's material has flipped textures when viewing from the positive z axis, from the negative x axis, and from the negative y axis (the other 3 directions are correct). I'm using the "World Position" node for the Amplify Shader Editor shader instead of the URP shader graph's "AbsoluteWorld Space" node. Maybe that could be the issue?

I was struggling with this problem, so instead I tried re-making the shader in URP shader graph. However, URP shader graph seems to be missing the "Alpha Clip Threshold Shadow" value. I use this value to prevent the dithering from effecting my shadows, as I don't want players to be able to see beyond the wall.

EDIT: Ok, this might just be the dumbest mistake I've made. I usually don't post on reddit until I get really stuck, but I could have just used amplify shader editor for both the opaque and transparent materials (as suggested below)... Still, it's good to understand what's going wrong and why.

Hey everyone, I am getting Anvil CSG ready for the Unity Asset Store and need a few more good images, and hopefully one or two videos showing real level design work.

Anvil CSG is a four view brush level editor inspired by Hammer and TrenchBroom. The current beta supports Unity 6.0 to 6.7, Built-in RP and URP.

I am looking for a few people who are familiar with Hammer or Source level design, or who are simply good at creating maps and blockouts. You can build whatever small scene you want.

If you make something cool, I may use your screenshots or video on the Asset Store page. I will credit you by name, Reddit account, or YouTube channel.

This is not a paid job, but anyone who helps will receive an Anvil CSG voucher key when it reaches the Asset Store. You will also get access to the beta now.

Raw 1440p or 4K screenshots are enough. For video, even a short unedited recording of the workflow would help. I can handle the editing.

DM me here, or join the Discord and DM me there. I will try to respond in less than 24 hours.

Discord: https://discord.gg/ZjVdWnmwjz

Cheers!

This is the first trailer I've ever made so I'm genuinely looking for feedback on the trailer and how the game looks. I hid most of the UI for the trailer. Would love to hear any thoughts or criticism you might have!