Todd Perkins

ASGC + GDC Festival of Gaming: 9 Days Of Good in Games Day 1 Spotlight: Take This, Inc. Take This is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting mental health in the games community. This post is Day 1 of 9 Days of Good in Games, a GDC spotlight series highlighting organizations creating real positive impact in our industry. Take This works at the intersection of games and wellbeing, helping reduce stigma, providing research backed resources, and supporting both players and developers in building healthier relationships with games and work. You may know them for their AFK Rooms at conventions, quiet safe spaces where attendees can decompress. Their impact goes much further, including industry guidance and tools that help studios think more intentionally about culture, burnout, and psychological safety. In an industry that has experienced intense pressure and instability, their work is more essential than ever. Please take a moment to watch their video below and hear directly from them about their mission and their presence at GDC.

104

4 Comments

🎉 Jellyfish AI Impact now supports Windsurf, a leader in AI-powered coding solutions, offering tools like the Windsurf Editor that blend collaborative, continuous AI assistance with developers' workflows. Together, Windsurf and Jellyfish are changing how AI and humans work together.  Through our robust integration with Windsurf, Jellyfish AI Impact allows joint customers to:  🤖 Measure Windsurf’s impact on overall developer productivity: Analyze how Windsurf solutions like Windsurf Editor impact different engineering workflows and use cases – whether it's building new features, reducing technical debt, or reviewing for code quality and security improvements. 📈 Scale Windsurf adoption across the organization: Identify teams with high engagement to further accelerate development, automate testing, and streamline deployment, then replicate these best practices and implementation strategies company-wide. Learn more about what this integration means for your engineering organization here: https://lnkd.in/ghNguE47

54

Get all 100 Unity Tips in your email: https://lnkd.in/g68tMiaT You most know these quick tips! Perfomance Matters! 🔸 MH 1: Use StringBuilder for String Operations String concatenation with += creates a brand new string object every time! In loops, this generates massive garbage collection overhead. StringBuilder modifies the same memory space, eliminating these allocations and dramatically improving performance for text-heavy operations. 🔸 MH 2: TryGetValue for Dictionaries Using ContainsKey followed by dictionary access performs TWO lookups for a single value! TryGetValue performs just one operation, making dictionary access far more efficient. This seemingly small change can have a huge impact in data-heavy games when dictionaries are accessed frequently. 🔸 MH 3: Minimize Debug.Log in Builds Debug logs run in release builds by default - slowing down your game and potentially leaking sensitive information! Wrapping logs in UNITY_EDITOR conditionals ensures they only run during development. This prevents unnecessary string processing and file operations in your final build. 🔸 MH 4: Object Pool over Instantiate/Destroy Instantiating and destroying objects constantly hammers both CPU and garbage collector. Object pooling pre-creates objects and recycles them, eliminating runtime allocations. Essential for bullets, particles, enemies, or any frequently created/destroyed objects in your game! 🔸 MH 5: RaycastNonAlloc vs RaycastAlloc Standard Physics.Raycast creates new arrays with every call - devastating in "hot loops" that run every frame! RaycastNonAlloc reuses the same pre-allocated array, completely eliminating these allocations. This technique is critical for games with frequent physics checks, like shooters or racing games. ⚠️ PS: Some tips may seem trivial when it comes to performance, but small perfomance practices have a compounding benefit. *** 🔖Get all Unreal Cheat Sheets in your email 🔗Link: https://lnkd.in/gA5hxaji All Unity's Cheat Sheets 🔗Link: https://lnkd.in/gZ7xUH33 Game Dev Quizzes 🔗Link: https://lnkd.in/gzsG79Mq Learn Game Dev with Outscal by building 20+ Game Projects. 🔗Link: https://lnkd.in/gUQk_FBv Mayank, Mridul, Malhar, Aryan, Aryan Saxena #Unity #GameDev #Optimization #GamePerformance #MobileDev

154

5 Comments

Why Go Retro? And How I Recreated the VHS Look from Scratch (FX breakdown in under one minute) While working on my prototype, I wanted to add a VHS-style post-processing effect for a retro, analog vibe to evoke a sense of nostalgia, something gritty, unstable, and imperfect. The kind of mood you get from old surveillance footage, lost tapes, or 80s sci-fi intros. That’s where the VHS effect comes in. A good retro look isn’t just visual polish, it helps set tone. It instantly tells the player: this world is aged, haunted, and strangely familiar. I explored the asset store and found a fantastic one, but at a pretty high price point, it felt too much for this stage of development. I also checked several free and open-source implementations on GitHub, but many lacked documentation or even basic instructions on how to integrate them. And since I prioritize development speed, it turned out building my own was faster than reverse-engineering someone else's code, especially with the help of AI to speed up shader prototyping and testing. So, I created a custom VHS effect from scratch. I broke the look down into key components: 🔹 Scanlines – flickering lines to mimic CRT displays 🔹 Color grading – slight desaturation with a soft blue tint 🔹 Color bleed – RGB channel separation (chromatic aberration) 🔹 Noise/static – analog-style grain 🔹 Wobble/distortion – horizontal offset to simulate tape playback Each of these can be toggled on/off and fine-tuned in real time, and when combined, they recreate the familiar imperfections of VHS playback. Sometimes building your own tool not only saves money but keeps you in flow and gives you full control over the result. Have you ever skipped a third-party asset or library in favor of building your own because it was faster, cheaper, or gave you more control? What tipped the scale for you: budget, speed, or flexibility? 🚀 Want more tips, insights, and cool game dev finds? Join my Telegram channel and stay updated! https://t.me/everydayUnity

42

3 Comments

🎉 Two New Career Resources Just Landed on Our Community Site - With Huge Thanks to Scott Millard and Tim C.! https://lnkd.in/d3z__2sV If you’ve ever wanted to understand how video game publishing actually works - not the surface-level stuff, but real, on-the-ground global strategy - you now have one of the best free guides in the world, permanently, thanks to Scott Millard. Scott is a veteran industry leader, best known for his time as Managing Director of Bandai Namco Southeast Asia and Korea. He helped launch Tekken, Dragon Ball Z, and even brought Skyrim to market in the region. His publishing knowledge spans regions, formats, and decades - and he’s gifted our community his Guide to Video Game Publishing for all to access at Amir Satvat's Games Community. Also, I’m thrilled to welcome Tim Cullings as a contributor - someone I’ve admired for years. You may know Tim from his leadership at Global Game Jam, Seattle Indies, or his earlier work with Oculus VR and in engineering. He’s kicked things off by sharing a curated list of top game dev events and jams - something many have requested. But this is just an amuse bouche. Tim has big ideas, and we’re excited to build this space with him and for him. We’ve heard your feedback loud and clear - you want more Tim in the community, and so do we. 🔹 In sharing these, I also want to recognize the 20 amazing individual contributors behind the career resources on our site, in addition to our Discord moderators and 2,400+ community coaches. I’m proud to say that 10 of the 20 are female - 50%, which is double industry gender representation. And we’re equally proud of the diversity across many other dimensions, which we take seriously in every aspect of our work. Here they are - please join me in thanking them: • Sarah Thomson (Mentorship Guide) • Alex Gombos (Interview Guide) • Jasmine Coppin (Art Portfolio Review Guide) • Hailey Rojas (#OpenToNetwork) • Mayank Grover (New Games Roles Partnership) • Eva Tucker (Support Your Indies) • Alexander Rehm (MVP Resources) • Johnathan Vance (Indie Marketing Guide) • Aïda Figuerola (Early Career Guide Lead) • Ali Farha (Early Career Guide Lead) • Chris Mayne (Games Art Resources) • Seth S. (Guide To Games Startups) • Corey Neuman (Homelessness Resources) • Michelle Fuzari (Mental Health Resources) • Jessica Lindl (Career Resources Suite) • Renee Gittins (Game Dev Foundry - External Resource Partnership) • Lex Parisi (Ask Lex Career Questions) • Tim W. (LinkedIn Premium Trials Resource Ownership) • Tim C. (Events And Jams; And More To Come) • Scott Millard (Guide To Video Game Publishing) • Thank you also to Fitzgerald Lewis, Tim Wood, Will Morgan, Max Bowser, Alex Gombos, and Michelle Voillot for their contributions to the Early Career Guide 💙 Never forget - this is a total team project of 10,000+ lifetime contributors. "We Help Gamers Get Hired. Zero Profit, Infinite Caring."

83

12 Comments

🎮 Gaming is for everyone. Always. 💙♿ Long before “#inclusiveDesign” became an industry buzzword, #Nintendo quietly created something extraordinary: the Hands-Free Controller for the NES. Released in 1989, this device was developed in partnership with Seattle Children's Hospital, designed specifically for gamers with limited or no hand mobility. It strapped around the player’s chest, used a chin-operated joystick for movement, and even featured sip-and-puff controls to press buttons. Nintendo didn’t mass-market it. Instead, they sold it at cost through customer service, because the mission wasn’t profit—it was access. Today, when we celebrate advancements like the #XboxAdaptiveController or ongoing strides in #accessibility across the #gamingindustry, it’s worth remembering: • Accessibility is not new—it has always been part of the gaming journey. • Inclusion comes from listening to real users and building with empathy. • Small steps toward equity can create ripples that last for decades. It reminds us that gaming should be for everyone, always. Accessibility isn’t an add-on. It’s the heart of play. #GamingForEveryone #VideoGames #GamIndustry #RetroGaming #Inclusion #AdaptiveTech #HumanCenteredDesign #TechForGood

334

21 Comments

I'm excited to announce our new short courses at CG Spectrum! These courses aim to expand our offerings in alignment with how CG Spectrum educates, connecting students directly with industry professionals to learn from those actively using these skills. To kick off, we are offering beginner and intermediate courses in Unreal Engine, Blender, and Twinmotion, as well as insights on running an independent game studio. If you're interested in learning directly from a specialist in an intimate environment, take a look here: https://lnkd.in/eJUh39JZ As we introduce additional courses in the coming months, we welcome your feedback on topics of interest and what should be prioritized next.

30

1 Comment

New changes on the Perforce Puppet Forge! We have 2 new Puppet Edge premium modules and some updates to the #Puppet Core EULA to help cover Puppet Edge scenarios. Forge News article has the details: https://lnkd.in/gxa5ccbY

19

Most RPG teams obsess over combat, but it’s the economy not the core loop that quietly determines whether the game thrives or collapses. To audit any RPG economy whether Idle RPG, Squad RPG, Hero Collector, or even hybrid casual I rely on a 5-layer diagnostic structure I call SSSAV: 1️⃣ 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦 — 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 (𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲) Every RPG prints value constantly: battle rewards, idle income, gacha shards, daily quests, guild donations, premium packs. The question isn’t what you give players. It’s how controlled, effort-based, and scalable the faucets are. Uncontrolled passive income → inflation. Over-rewarded active loop → trivial progression. 2️⃣ 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 — 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀 (𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀) True economic stability comes from meaningful destruction: leveling, ascension, gear reforging, energy costs, rerolls, event crafting. Without strong sinks, even a good economy eventually collapses into:  • wealth concentration  • endgame glut  • meaningless progression RPGs get into real trouble when “SSR → 1.2” (Sources : Sinks Ratio) goes out of balance. 3️⃣ 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 — 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘃𝗲) Scarcity is not about slowing players. It’s about shaping their journey through bottlenecks: time-gates, RNG, limited entries, rare mats, shard pacing, inventory pressure. Too tight → burnout Too loose → boredom, devaluation Scarcity is the pacing engine of every long-term RPG. 4️⃣ 𝗔𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 — 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗣𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘁) RPGs survive because players want something bigger:  • stronger heroes  • perfect sets  • competitive edge  • seasonal chase units  • prestige cosmetics Aspirations drive both retention and monetisation. If there’s no dream to chase → the economy becomes hollow. 5️⃣ 𝗩𝗘𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 — 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲 Velocity is the most misunderstood part of game economies. It determines:  • time to upgrade  • gacha pull cadence  • event completion pacing  • weekly net currency flow how quickly new players catch up Too fast → content exhaustion Too slow → churn Just right → sustainable multi-year retention 📌𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: I’m posting this AI-generated illustration because it visualises the hydraulic interaction between all five layers extremely well. To be honest, it’s far cleaner than anything I could draw manually despite a few small AI typos and line misalignments. The real value is the framework, not the picture. This model has helped me audit dozens of RPGs by revealing:  • inflation points  • broken sinks  • scarcity failures  • misplaced aspirations  • velocity imbalance If you're building or tuning an RPG economy, mastering these five layers is non-negotiable.

84

10 Comments

Chapter 7 of my book, Data-Oriented Design for Games, published by Manning Publications Co., is now available in the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP). This chapter discusses how to reduce code complexity and enhance the game development workflow by separating dynamic and static asset data. The example in this chapter is how to add a menu system to a survivor/bullet-heaven style game. You can check out the book and read the first chapter for free in the link below: https://lnkd.in/dYvM32zc

25

6 Comments

Jason Schreier: The Problem of the Video Game Industry — Too Many Games. September highlighted the oversaturation of the industry. Major releases kept dropping one after another: Hollow Knight: Silksong (7 years in development), Hades II (5 years in the making), the Trails in the Sky remake, a new Borderlands entry, another Silent Hill, and more. But behind this abundance lies a serious issue — there are simply too many games. In 2024, 18,626 new titles were released on Steam — nearly double the number from 2020. Accessible dev tools and digital distribution have made entering the market easier, but now even high-quality projects risk disappearing in the flood. Competition is not only with new releases but also with evergreen hits like Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and PUBG. The problem is that even games scoring 80+ on Metacritic are struggling to break through, while studios spending hundreds of millions face an almost impenetrable barrier of player attention. Players cannot find the time or money for all these titles, and sometimes the sheer variety makes focus disappear. P.S. Regarding claims that “there are few good ones.” Statistics show otherwise. Out of 1,431 games with more than 500 reviews, over 260 achieved 90% positive ratings, and more than 800 reached 80%+ (user score). #gaming #videogames #gamedev #indiedev #steam #pcgaming #gamercommunity #gamingnews #metacritic #hollowknight #silksong #hades2 #borderlands #silenthill #gamesindustry #trendinggames #newreleases #gamepass #playstation #xbox #nintendo #esports #dota2 #counterstrike #pubg #gaminglife #gameculture #gameeconomy #gamingtrends #overgaming #saturation

16

7 Comments