For the past year and a half, my team and I built gameplay systems that had to scale to thousands of concurrent players in the same zone. Backend and frontend, across multiple different game modes. We were not allowed to write a single line of C++. Instead, it had to be done all in blueprints. 😭 We were working in a heavily modified custom Unreal Engine build with a very unique networking system. Nothing like what you're used to. External plugins weren't an option, and neither were the useful built-in ones like GAS or Choosers. And since the custom engine was in its alpha state, there were many opinionated implementations we had to painstakingly work around. So if you've wondered where my recent fascination with blueprint utilities and blueprint optimization comes from, that's the reason. I personally built several of the gameplay systems from scratch as what we needed to build wasn't a part of the custom engine's implementation. - A simplified version of GAS with attributes, gameplay abilities, and more - A highly optimized projectile system that works for any weapon or projectile type (pure math, no built-in physics) - A fully customizable weapon system - An inventory, item, and world item system - Plus many others And that's not counting everything the rest of the team built. These systems had to support wildly different game modes and gameplay types. Which forced us to build as abstractly and as optimized as possible. Again, only in blueprints. And at scale. I won't romanticize it. Working in pure blueprints was painful and a massive time sink. My team and I wished for C++ constantly as it would have literally saved us months of work. But with that said, we pulled it off. Multiple successful open betas and a public tournament (which was a pretty cool experience). Now, I've spent over 10 years developing in Unreal for a wide variety of projects from games to extensive aerospace training simulations. But I have to say that I learned more about blueprint optimization in this last year and a half than in any project before it. Anyways, regardless of what people say. It's entirely possible to build complex games using just blueprints. And sometimes, you don't have a choice in the matter. Do I recommend a blueprint-only project? Absolutely not. Build the core in C++, iterate in blueprints. But if you ever end up without the choice, blueprints can carry a lot more than people give them credit for. Remember, most Blueprint nodes are thin wrappers around native C++ engine code. The cost is the VM stepping between nodes and copying values across pins, and that overhead unfortunately ships with your game. Blueprints run as bytecode even in a packaged build, and with nativization gone since UE5 there's no cook step that saves you. You pay that tax per node executed, so one heavy call beats a long chain of small ones. Keep your graphs highly structured and organized, stay event-driven instead of tick-heavy, and blueprints will scale further than most people ever really push them.

Directive Utilities 2.0 is out (previously UDCore)! I built this from the Blueprint nodes I kept wishing Unreal Engine had. It now includes 195 runtime and editor utilities, and the whole thing is free and open source. Now supports UE 5.6 - 5.8 github.com/UnrealDirective/D…

After many months of work, I’m happy to (finally) announce the release of EasyWaterscape for #unrealengine! With realtime ocean/water simulation, dynamic foam & shorelines, underwater transitions, buoyancy, and one-click presets, it is what I think is the easiest water tool to use and get fantastic results with. You can get it right now on @fab Full tutorial here: youtu.be/dXuwb4PpodQ #gamedev #ue5

Development continues on Melkhior's Tower for Playdate. Here's a quick fire selection of clips. Pixels by @hot_piping and music by @alberto_mcalby. bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-t… #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

The "improve CAD support" project continues. Edge snapping will be coming to the Tweak Brush as well as Relax.

ColecoVision was three times more powerful than Atari 2600 and Intellivision. The games actually looked like they did in the arcades. Sadly the video game crash of 1983, and their computer Adam, killed the system.

This is called RadialZ. A radial brush menu for ZBrush! Keep an eye out... Launching this week. 👀

Last call to all immsim sickos! 🪩 RETROSPACE DEMO TOMORROW 🪩 #retrospace #indiegame #steam #demo

yesterday we announced our debut game Bad Magpie and we are so grateful for all the support - hit 26k+ wishlists in 24hrs!! - made lots of people laugh and cry (sorry) - joined the "horrible bird game" genre HUGE THANK YOU from our little team our reveal trailer once again:

Imagine creating a single game that allows you to retire at 28... River Raid (1982) was special for more than one reason. Obviously the game is an all-time cult classic. It wasn't just "good for its time" - it was legitimately excellent in terms of design and pushed technical boundaries. However, what stands out the most is who created it. Carol Shaw, a solo female creator delivering a million-selling classic in a male-dominated space. To give you a better context: In 1982 the gaming industry extremely male dominated, only 3% of the developers were women - and only a fraction of that in leading roles. Shaw started at Atari in 1978 (one of the first ever women in such a role) and moved to Activision. River Raid is her most famous work, and she's widely recognized as one of the earliest professional female video game designers/programmers. River Raid became hugely successful - lucrative enough for her to retire early - and helped normalize women in game development. It was a quiet but significant milestone in an era when the field was just forming and considered to be "just for guys". Today's gaming industry is still male dominated but the ratio is not 3% women to 97% men anymore, but around 25% women to 75% men. Carol Shaw didn't just push technical but also social boundaries, normalizing women in the gaming industry.

The saddest thing about indie games? Some of the most creative projects ever made will never be discovered by most players. Not because they’re bad. Because nobody talks about them. That’s why supporting indie devs — and each other — matters 🎮 #IndieGames #IndieDev #Gaming

Remember, game dev is easy to everyone who has never attempted to make a game. If you're struggling right now, you're already doing what most people only ever talk about. Keep going, keep learning. ❤️