julianh

(tldr, open source software has come a long way, and it's more than possible to create a full game without leaving Linux.)

So I've been a full Linux user for a couple years now, and a hobbyist game dev for way longer. I've always tried to make the most out of free tools, so I've used a lot of FOSS tools for game development before.

Going with that philosophy, Year Unknown's development has cost $0 (not counting store fees or my time), and the development is done with almost entirely FOSS software like Godot, Blender, GIMP, and Audacity. The only exception is Reaper, which is my DAW of choice (but to be fair, it's a really good DAW).

The game itself is a narrative-driven exploration game set in the very far future, where humanity has found a way to make the universe last forever. The game's story covers a lot of existential issues that come from the premise, revealed through two characters you can talk to through terminals.

I know there's other developers who have done the same, but I thought I'd share my experience, and I can answer questions about the workflow if you're curious, or trying to do something similar. Also, if the game seems interesting to you, a wishlist would be very appreciated!

EDIT: The solution was that it was freesync. Turned it off on my monitor, and that fixed it.

I recently picked up a used RX 6600xt, and ever since the screen will occasionally freeze for 1-2 seconds before returning to normal. As far as I can tell, input and sound work as normal during these. There's no real pattern either.

I'm on Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, on the 6.5 kernel (there was a sleep related issue for me in the default kernel version). Since getting the GPU, I've replaced the CPU and motherboard.

Any guesses as to what this might be, or where to look? I tried checking mint's logs app and there didn't seem to be anything associated with it.

WebCord is an "alternative client" for Discord, although it's just running the Discord webpage in electron. Recently it updated its electron version so it supports sharing audio as well as video.

I tried it out today on mint (x11, pulseaudio) and it works flawlessly.

In today's episode, commander Sisko grapples with the effects of the war and how far his morality can be stretched in the name of the greater good. Meanwhile, O'Brien has a winning streak at darts.

My music tastes are weird, I like a lot of music but the only two bands I've found that make stuff I really resonate with are 65DaysOfStatic and maybeshewill.

Are there any post rock bands (or of any of genre) that have a similar energy? I've tried the usual recommedations (Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, etc.) but it feels flat, with the same melody repeating for ages.

Bonus points if there's good use of electronic sounds.

(Please let me know if this counts as advertising and I'll remove it)

I'm a huge fan of weird "walking sim" type games - stuff like Naissancee, The Beginner's Guide, Inside, etc.. So now I'm finally making my own, with some more focus on story.

I've been working on Year Unknown for a few years now, and I've already made a couple devlogs if you want to learn more about the game. But now I've finally published a steam page!

I'm also kinda proud to have almost entirely used free, open source software to create it - Godot, Blender, GIMP, and Audacity.

Let me know what you think!

(For TL:DR just read the docs)

So you might know Godot has the ability to import blender files directly. (If not, well now you know!) This is nice, but I was trying to make some large levels and I found the workflow less than ideal. The import dialogue is a bit clunky, so it's hard to specify what objects have collision if there's a lot of objects.

Import hints help a lot. Basically, in blender, for each object you want to have collision, you can append -col or -convcol to the end of the object name and Godot will add it automatically!

You can use -colonly or -convcolonly to make the geometry only import as collision. This isn't even limited to geometry - you can add it to empty objects and it will create primitive collision shapes.

-noimp can also be used to simply skip importing an object. I actually found a really cool workflow tip with this: Lets say you have a large level file, and maybe you want to split it up into multiple .blend files for organization or convenience. (For me, it was due to lightmaps. I wanted to separate far detail so I could lower the lightmap resolution.) In Blender, for each file, you can go to File->Link, select the other blend file, and add its main collection containing everything else. Then, add -noimp to that linked collection. Now, you can view the entire level in blender but Godot will keep them all separate on import!

There's a few other hints and I recommend you check out the documentation for all the details.

Hopefully some of you found this useful!

(edit: vague spoilers for outer wilds + dlc!)

If I had a nickle for every time an exploration-based game partially inspired by the failure of skyward sword involved uncovering the ruins of an ancient civilization of goat-like creatures with three eyes, included time travel as both a major story and gameplay element, had a blue aesthetic for an advanced ancient civilization, and then had a follow-up with a new, previously unknown ancient civilization that has a green aesthetic, I'd have two nickles.

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