Player and Targeting – Understanding Your Market and 6 Tips to Help You!

If you believe your game is for “EVERYONE” then you have already made your first major mistake and are headed for doom! Learn these tips in order to solidify a real market and increase your chance at success for your game!

1. EVERYONE IS NOT A TARGET MARKET!


2. YOU NEED MULTIPLE DATA POINTS!

3. CREATE A PERSONA
4. DO A/B TESTING TO HELP YOU CHOOSE!

5. DEVELOPERS ARE NOT YOUR TARGET MARKET!

6. BUILD A LIST OF PLAYERS IN YOUR TARGET MARKET
CONCLUSION
Game Flow – How To Guide A User Through Your Game

Game flow has several forms, but in this article we will be going over two of the most obvious ones, namely Game User Flow and Game Play Flow

GAME USER FLOW TIPS AND TOOLS


GAME PLAY FLOW TIPS


CONCLUSION
Pathfinding Basics, Concepts, Tips and Ideas

Pathfinding is the process of navigation that is used in moving an object from one point to a second distinct point in space and the logical steps to do so.
The simplest form of pathfinding is between two points with empty space in between. More usually however we generally tend to have objects (Such as walls, objects and other terrain) in between those two points. Pathfinding can get even more advanced when the computer has to detect moving objects (also known as dynamic objects) as end points or moving end points, as well as other more advanced situations where we need to simulate human style realism within the AI Pathfinding that we choose to use.
SEVERAL PATHFINDING METHODS

1. PLAYER NODE PATHFINDING

2. NPC NODE PATHFINDING

3. NPC NODE FOLLOW PLAYER VIA BREADCRUMBS

4. ENEMY NODE PATHFINDING

5. ENEMY AI STYLE NODE PATHFINDING

6. UNITY NAVMESH
7. UNITY ASSETS

CONCLUSION
Spawn Points and Object Pooling

In any game you may be making, more than likely you will run into times where you will need to spawn objects (Enemies, bullets, players, pick-up items, etc.). In this article we go over spawn points and object pooling and go over some tips that can help you in your game development!
CONCEPT OF SPAWN POINTS

INSTANTIATION
// Instantiates 10 copies of Prefab each 2 units apart from each other using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class ExampleClass : MonoBehaviour { public Transform prefab; void Start() { for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { Instantiate(prefab, new Vector3(i * 2.0F, 0, 0), Quaternion.identity); } } }
Once you have instantiated objects a lot of developers wonder how we get rid of them (Ex. an enemy that has been killed or a bullet that has been shot). The INEFFICIENT way would be to make sure we remove them from our scenes via a destroy command. This however does not help us with the issue of memory as it does return the memory to the computer to reuse, however over time if the computer decides to give that memory to another process, we wont have it available for our game to instantiate another object…This leads us to OBJECT POOLING!
CONCEPT OF OBJECT POOLING

CONCLUSION
Onboarding in Games – Learn 7 Tips For Onboarding and User Training

A good onboarding system can help build habits in your players that will keep them coming back to your game and enjoy it. Get it wrong and you’ll have players confused and even uninstalling your game!
Onboarding is the process of teaching or training users how to play your game. There are several types of onboarding and getting it right can mean the difference between a top title and a clearance rack!
TYPES OF ONBOARDING

1. FOCUS ON THE BASE GAME FIRST – STORE AND ADS LAST

2. THREE (3) TO SEVEN (7) ITEMS PER TRAINING!

3. REDUCE COMPLEXITY
4. NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO DIE

5. FIRST 30 SECONDS!

6. TEACH YOUR STORE LAST

7. MIX IT UP
CONCLUSION
Writers Block for Developers – With 7 Tips To Help You Overcome It!

This is one topic that we hardly talk about as developers but it will definitely come up.
As we are constantly writing code daily we get into times where we just cant go forward. It’s generally due to an issue that comes out in the book writing/authoring industry when writers are constantly trying to write out ideas and finally just get “stuck” or “blocked”. If you’re new to code, you will learn about this more as you start developing longer, but for those who have been coding for a long time, at one time or another you have or you definitely will run into this. The challenge is OVERCOMING this using helpful techniques. Unfortunately in our development industry we have not come up with great techniques for this and thus many a developer either gives up on great projects or literally leaves their own companies thinking they are just no longer good at code or have reached their peak.
REFERENCES

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE WRITERS BLOCK AS A DEVELOPER?

1. GO FOR A WALK

2. SIDE PROJECT

3. CHANGE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

4. USE THE POMODORO TIMED METHOD

5. CHUNKING / BREAKDOWN

6. DAILY CODE PROBLEMS

7. MIND-MAPPING
CONCLUSION
Mobile App Monetization Methods

7 Ways to Monetize Your Next Mobile Game or App!
1. Direct Premium Purchase
2. Paid Premium
3. Lite
4. Free
5. Free to Play
6. Subscription
7. Trial Subscription Model
Nav is a Unity Live Expert and Mobile Game and App Developer
5 Unity Tricks, Hacks & Secrets for Beginners (PC Focus)

Here are some AMAZING tips, tricks, hacks and secrets I learned over the years that I wish I knew when I first started out. They have saved me so much TIME and even some HAIR PULLING!!
1. F2 Key
2. Visual Studio – Mass Commenting




3. Visual Studio – Mass Variable Name Change


4. Unity Special Folders
5. Image Import Settings

Conclusion
Paper Testing – 7 Tips to a Better Game / App

We are so caught up in a “Build Build Build” world that we tend to forget the easiest and most cost effective way of testing out an idea…PAPER TESTING!! How often do you paper test an idea?

1. Start With CLOCKWORK
2. Throw It Away! (Don’t Fall In Love)
3. Do NOT limit the HOW!! (Drop Your Restrictions! Stop talking dev!)
4. Use Digital Tools To Test Ideas

5. Use Templates

6. Materials For Paper Testing
7. HAVE FUN!

6 Ways to Find and Interact and Collaborate with other people in the game industry
January 31, 2021
Game Development
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Nav from Academy Of Games
From making connections, getting jobs, learning new things, making friends in the industry, getting help and more! In this article we will look at how we can interact and connect with other game developers!
Many of us start our game development journey alone and it can be a challenge because we are so busy trying to make a game that when we do need help or advice or tips we rarely know where to turn. In this article I am going to dive into 6 (six) ways that you can find other developers and get connected more to the industry and thus collaborate, get tips, advice and more and become a part of it all!
1. Live Event Meetups and Social Groups
2. Linked In Professional Connections
3. Discord Channels
4. Game Jams
5. Game Colleges and Universities
6. Game Expos
CONCLUSION