Thomas Claiborne 🎮💻’s Post

🎮 Exciting Milestone: My First Game Development Project! 🎮 I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve successfully developed my very first game using Unreal Engine 5.4.4! 🚀 The game, a crate knockdown challenge, is built entirely through Blueprints and features a simple yet fun level design. Players have 20 bullets to knock down as many crates as possible, and when they run out, a 5-second delay restarts the level automatically. Throughout this project, I gained hands-on experience in: Blueprints logic Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles Level design Unreal Engine 5 fundamentals Lighting and positioning Custom functions creation Physics and vectors I’m really proud of how far I’ve come with this project and excited about the journey ahead in game development. Looking forward to exploring more advanced features and techniques! Stay tuned for future updates! For Free : https://lnkd.in/dmvqDdsw #UnrealEngine #GameDevelopment #Blueprints #OOP #LevelDesign #Lighting #GamePhysics #IndieGame

Why Lua is a Game-Changer for Performance in Game Development In game development, where performance can make or break the player experience, every decision about technology matters. From responsive gameplay to immersive mechanics, the scripting language you choose is a cornerstone of success. Enter Lua, a language that’s lightweight, versatile, and built for speed. 🔥 Blazing Fast Execution Lua is designed with efficiency in mind. Its interpreter is compact, written in C, and optimized for high-speed execution. This makes Lua ideal for managing critical in-game tasks like: Game Logic: Whether it’s determining NPC behavior or controlling dynamic environments, Lua ensures that logic executes smoothly, even in complex scenarios. Real-Time Systems: Games demand low latency, especially for physics calculations, AI pathfinding, and combat mechanics. Lua delivers responsiveness without taxing the system. Resource-Constrained Platforms: On devices with limited memory (like mobile or handheld consoles), Lua’s small memory footprint ensures that performance doesn’t take a hit. 🛠️ Ease of Integration One of Lua’s strongest advantages is its ability to integrate seamlessly into existing game engines and custom frameworks. It’s often used as a scripting layer that complements the performance of C, C++, or C# codebases. Engines: Lua is supported by major engines like Unity , CryEngine, Godot , and custom in-house engines for AAA games. Flexibility: Developers can script gameplay mechanics, tweak parameters, and prototype new features without recompiling the entire game. This flexibility accelerates iteration and development cycles. 📈 Scalability in Complex Projects Lua is the unsung hero behind some of the gaming industry’s biggest successes. It has been used in games and platforms like: World of Warcraft: Lua powers the add-on system, enabling players to customize their gameplay without compromising core performance ROBLOX: Lua drives the platform, allowing millions of creators to script and deploy games seamlessly CryEngine: Lua handles game scripting, ensuring smooth integration with the engine’s high-performance rendering pipeline Its scalability ensures that Lua can handle everything from small indie projects to massive online multiplayer games without introducing bottlenecks. If you’ve worked with Lua, I’d love to hear your experiences! How has it impacted your projects? Let’s discuss and learn from each other! #GameDevelopment #PerformanceOptimization #Lua #GameDev #Programming #ScriptingLanguage

🔍 Understanding Unity's Execution Order 🔍 For Unity developers, knowing the execution order of lifecycle methods can be crucial for ensuring proper initialization and performance. Here's a quick guide on how methods like Awake, Start, Update, FixedUpdate, and LateUpdate execute in different scenarios: Execution Order When Script Component is Enabled 1. Awake(): Called when the script instance is being loaded. 2. OnEnable(): Called when the object becomes enabled and active. 3. Start(): Called before the first frame update, only if the script instance is enabled. 4. Update(): Called once per frame. 5. FixedUpdate(): Called at a fixed interval, used for physics calculations. 6. LateUpdate(): Called once per frame, after all Update methods have been called. Execution Order When Script Component is Disabled - When a script component is disabled, Awake, and Start do not get called. - Update, FixedUpdate, and LateUpdate are not called either. Execution Order When GameObject is SetActive(false) but Script is Enabled - Awake(): Called when the script instance is being loaded. - OnEnable(): Called if the GameObject is re-enabled. - Start(): Called if the GameObject is re-enabled and only before the first frame update. - Update, FixedUpdate, LateUpdate: These will not be called because the GameObject is inactive. Understanding these sequences helps ensure your game objects and components initialize and update as expected, optimizing game performance and behavior. Feel free to share your own tips or experiences with Unity’s execution order in the comments! #Unity #GameDev #ExecutionOrder #Awake #Start #Update #FixedUpdate #LateUpdate #GameDevelopment

--Resuming My Unity Journey! After almost a year away, I’m excited to dive back into Unity development with my latest project: Monster Chase, a 2D game following a helpful tutorial by fahir mehovic. Through this project, I revisited C# programming fundamentals and Unity 2D game development diving into: -Basics of C# scripting (player controls, collisions, game mechanics) -Managing sprites and game objects -Building simple but fun gameplay dynamics Monster Chase is a fun and engaging game where the player navigates a character to dodge monsters and survive as long as you can! testing reflexes and strategy. Check out the game here: https://lnkd.in/dg5SmZjf This marks a small but meaningful step toward my bigger goal of exploring the AR/VR development space. I’m thrilled to keep learning, experimenting, and creating in this field! Grateful to be back on this learning journey!

Hello Everyone, I'm excited to show you the gameplay of my latest project, CryptRaider! 🎮🚀 It's a short game where you must steal a Gold Statue from a Dungeon by solving puzzles along the way. You’ll need to explore the Dungeon, solve puzzles, and open secret doors to reach the Gold Statue. Lessons Learned : -> Level Design: Environment lighting, dungeon creation. -> Game Design Principles and Mechanics: Character movement, rotation, and interactions. -> Unreal Engine 5 C++ Programming Techniques: Implementing game logic like opening and closing secret doors based on actor collisions. -> Troubleshooting and Debugging: Overcoming challenges in game development. This project has been an incredible learning journey, combining Blueprint concepts with C++ programming in Unreal Engine. I'm excited to continue improving and expanding my skills! #GameDevelopment #GameDeveloper #GameProgramming #FirstPersonGame #GamingCommunity #UnrealEngine #UnrealEngine5 #UE5

Unity's Data-Oriented Technology Stack Today, I became familiar with the DOTS framework, introduced by Unity to improve performance and scalability in games. If you've worked with Unity, you know that performance issues and its single-threaded nature have always been significant limitations. It seems that using DOTS, which doesn't appear too complicated and can be integrated alongside existing code, offers some incredibly useful capabilities: ECS (Entity Component System): Helps you program in a data-oriented manner, so you don't need to define a heavy GameObject or MonoBehaviour for every entity in the game. C# Job System: Enables multi-threading in your projects. Burst Compiler: Converts C# code into highly optimized C++ code for improved performance. Unity's Native Collections: Provides data structures that improve memory and multi-threading performance. From what I've seen of projects shared online, this framework could significantly boost performance in heavy games, VR applications, or any game requiring complex simulations. This article could serve as a great starting point for diving deeper into it. If you have any experience with DOTS, I'd appreciate it if you shared it with me! #unity #DOTS #game_development #AR #VR #Data_Oriented_paradigm

The following is my independent game project implimented with C++ and Blueprint in Unreal Engine 5. Game description: “With friends or against the computer, players scramble to reach the platform matching the majority color of the display screen. Fail to make it, lose a life. Last one standing is the winner!” As a technical artist and designer, I believe it is crucial to land on a game loop that is rewarding, fair, and fun to the player before investing time into art asset production. Therefore, this current iteration is focused on proving the feasibility and replay value of the core concept. Red and Blue are human controlled (keyboard and controller) while Green and Yellow are controlled with UE’s AI Behavior Tree systems. Project breakdown: https://lnkd.in/gdz_8rju #UnrealEngine5 #GameDesign #cpp #TechnicalArt

🌟 Exciting Update! 🌟 I've recently started diving into visual scripting in Unreal Engine, exploring the power of Blueprints for game development and interactive experiences. Here’s a snapshot of one of my initial setups, where I’m experimenting with functions, macros, and logic flows to bring complex behaviors to life without writing traditional code. 🖥️🎮 Visual scripting opens up a world of possibilities for rapid prototyping and fine-tuning game mechanics, and I’m already amazed by how versatile and intuitive Unreal Engine's Blueprint system can be. This journey is helping me build skills in logic design, gameplay programming, and problem-solving. Looking forward to sharing more of my progress as I continue exploring Unreal Engine! 🚀 #UnrealEngine #GameDevelopment #VisualScripting #Blueprints #SoftwareEngineering #GameDevJourney

Excited to Share My Latest Project! I'm thrilled to announce the completion of my latest project: a 2D space shooter game developed in Unity! 🚀👾 This game has been a fantastic learning experience, allowing me to dive deep into game development, enemy AI scripting, and creating a dynamic and engaging player experience. Here's a quick rundown of what the game includes: 🔹 Enemy AI: Two types of enemies—rocks that spawn and move towards the center of the screen and spaceships that follow the player, loiter between points, and shoot when within range. 🔹 Player Mechanics: Smooth controls, challenging obstacles, and exciting gameplay that keeps you on your toes. 🔹 Dynamic Spawning: An enemy spawner system that ensures a balanced and fun challenge throughout the game. This project has not only honed my skills in Unity and C# but also in problem-solving and game design. I can't wait to share it with you all and get your feedback! Special thanks to my mentors and the supportive community who provided valuable insights and encouragement along the way. Stay tuned for a gameplay demo and a behind-the-scenes look at the development process! A huge shoutout to Abdullah Noor , he is my senior and I made the whole game by following his course on Udemy . It was a great and comprehensive course indeed I loved it. #GameDevelopment #Unity3D #IndieGameDev #SpaceShooter #GameDesign #Programming #CSharp #Gamer #Tech #Innovation

𝙒𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙨 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙡𝙮 rely on tools like Unity's Physics, But 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙨... understand the underlying workings of a tool and then use it to achieve whatever results they want. For a game like Angry Birds, that is basically a physics simulator, it does not matter if you use Unity's Physics or create your own physics. More important is, if needed, can you play with the existing tool without blindly playing with properties in inspector and praying🙏🏻 for good results. 📐 Trajectory Prediction: 🔹 Powers that handy trajectory guide 🔹 s = ut + ½at² 🔹 Calculates exact bird position 🔹 Accounts for acceleration 🎯 Projectile Motion: 🔹 Creates a parabolic paths 🔹 Separates horizontal & vertical motion 🔹 Horizontal: x = vx·t 🔹 Vertical: y = vy·t + ½gt² 🎯 Slingshot Force: 🔹 More pull = More force! 🔹 F = -kx (Hooke's Law) 🔹 x = pull distance 🔹 k = slingshot stiffness 🚀 Yellow Bird's Boost: 🔹 That speed burst! 🔹 Δp = F·Δt 🔹 Precise momentum change 🔹 Calculated over time interval 💥 Impact Damage: 🔹 Damage based on kinetic energy 🔹 Faster hits = More destruction 🔹 Mass affects impact force 🔹 KE = ½mv² ⚠️: Don't use these equations as finality, but use them to control the feel of the game!🎯 There is so much to learn about making games that gets overlooked by most. Jump here to learn the best practices: https://lnkd.in/gNUCUVKi #GameDev #GamePhysics #Programming #MobileGames #AngryBirds *** Mayank Grover, Mridul Agrawal, Malhar Devasthali, Aryan Khera, Aryan Saxena