Whether you love it or hate it, Git has proven to be the nearly ubiquitous method engineering organizations employ to ship code today. However, when you’re just getting started and building your team, you may be thinking about which strategy is the right one for you to choose based on your current and future needs.
Over the years, the little game studios have slowly turned into a big industry with a lot of high budget products. And despite some infamous AAA titles day-one patches and ridiculous bugs (yes, Cyberpunk, I’m looking at you), it’s impressive to see how much of this software works really well.
Over the years, the little game studios have slowly turned into a big industry with a lot of high budget products. And despite some infamous AAA titles day-one patches and ridiculous bugs (yes, Cyberpunk, I’m looking at you), it’s impressive to see how much of this software works really well.
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Developing games with Unreal Engine is a fantastic experience. You can go from zero to a complete game in just a few weeks. The key to fast development is the usage of the plugins: instead of reinventing the wheel, you can use these libraries (the plugins) that implement what you need (if you are lucky) or that expose functionalities that you can use as a starting point.
Developing games with Unreal Engine is a fantastic experience. You can go from zero to a complete game in just a few weeks. The key to fast development is the usage of the plugins: instead of reinventing the wheel, you can use these libraries (the plugins) that implement what you need (if you are lucky) or that expose functionalities that you can use as a starting point.
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If you’re a bit familiar with the world of game creation, you probably already know by now that games are not just about code. Writing scripts is essential to giving life to your character and your environments, but you still need visuals, and data to populate your scenes! In other words, asset management is just as crucial as coding if you plan on making a complex multimedia project like a game.
If you’re a bit familiar with the world of game creation, you probably already know by now that games are not just about code. Writing scripts is essential to giving life to your character and your environments, but you still need visuals, and data to populate your scenes! In other words, asset management is just as crucial as coding if you plan on making a complex multimedia project like a game.
At some point in the development phase of a project will come a time when you have to deal with a merge conflict. Whether that is due to conflicting changes from your work when compared to your main branch or having to roll back some changes. Technology has developed in such a way to make the process of merging much less painful than it used to be by utilizing IDE plugins and GUI Git clients.
At some point in the development phase of a project will come a time when you have to deal with a merge conflict. Whether that is due to conflicting changes from your work when compared to your main branch or having to roll back some changes. Technology has developed in such a way to make the process of merging much less painful than it used to be by utilizing IDE plugins and GUI Git clients.
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Any game developer knows that versioning the code and the assets of a game project is no piece of cake - whereas web apps are mostly big bundles of text files, games require both text and complex binary files. So you need to have a tool that does both version control and asset management!
Any game developer knows that versioning the code and the assets of a game project is no piece of cake - whereas web apps are mostly big bundles of text files, games require both text and complex binary files. So you need to have a tool that does both version control and asset management!
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If you have a bit of Unity experience, then you know that game projects are complex beasts that contain a wide variety of files - from source code to graphical assets, a Unity folder hierarchy is divided in quite a lot of subfolders with a plethora of file types. Yet those files need to remain structured and organised, otherwise it’s a recipe for disaster!
If you have a bit of Unity experience, then you know that game projects are complex beasts that contain a wide variety of files - from source code to graphical assets, a Unity folder hierarchy is divided in quite a lot of subfolders with a plethora of file types. Yet those files need to remain structured and organised, otherwise it’s a recipe for disaster!
Like many other game engines, Unity is known for continuously expanding, and it has evolved drastically over the years. While some updates were about bug fixes, optimisation or discrete editor tooling, there’s also been a few notable releases that introduced game-changing features. In particular, Unity 5, which was published in 2015, brought a lot to the Unity community. Among which, of course, an amazing feature that revolutionised the workflow of many Unity game developers: the multi-scene editing.
Like many other game engines, Unity is known for continuously expanding, and it has evolved drastically over the years. While some updates were about bug fixes, optimisation or discrete editor tooling, there’s also been a few notable releases that introduced game-changing features. In particular, Unity 5, which was published in 2015, brought a lot to the Unity community. Among which, of course, an amazing feature that revolutionised the workflow of many Unity game developers: the multi-scene editing.
Version control is key to software development of any kind and games are not different in that sense - any serious game developer (from indies to AAA) use some shape or form of version control as part of their development infrastructure.
Version control is key to software development of any kind and games are not different in that sense - any serious game developer (from indies to AAA) use some shape or form of version control as part of their development infrastructure.
Git, Perforce, Plastic SCM or SVN? Read this guide to compare and contrast the benefits of these version control systems.
Git, Perforce, Plastic SCM or SVN? Read this guide to compare and contrast the benefits of these version control systems.
The world of software development has changed and evolved significantly over the last two decades from when Git was introduced. The world of cloud and microservices, CI/CD and automation have introduced scale, efficiency and velocity made possible through as-a-service models for both software and infrastructure. However, there is an entire industry that could not derive the same benefits that traditional software has seen, due to its own unique complexities. Much in the world of game development has not significantly or sufficiently evolved, due to its inherent limitations of size, performance, and collaboration that look quite different in the game development world.
The world of software development has changed and evolved significantly over the last two decades from when Git was introduced. The world of cloud and microservices, CI/CD and automation have introduced scale, efficiency and velocity made possible through as-a-service models for both software and infrastructure. However, there is an entire industry that could not derive the same benefits that traditional software has seen, due to its own unique complexities. Much in the world of game development has not significantly or sufficiently evolved, due to its inherent limitations of size, performance, and collaboration that look quite different in the game development world.
At Diversion, we are building a next generation Version Control tool, with a strong emphasis on addressing the unique challenges faced by game developers. It’s no secret that the games industry is underserved by existing solutions (see here), but we wanted to hear first hand from game developers about the tools they are using, how they use them, and what challenges they encounter. With that in mind, we ran a survey among professional game developers.
At Diversion, we are building a next generation Version Control tool, with a strong emphasis on addressing the unique challenges faced by game developers. It’s no secret that the games industry is underserved by existing solutions (see here), but we wanted to hear first hand from game developers about the tools they are using, how they use them, and what challenges they encounter. With that in mind, we ran a survey among professional game developers.
While the gaming industry is booming, standard software tools and processes for this industry are still lagging behind - including Source Control Management (SCM) tools which are tables stakes for software development. This ought to change.
While the gaming industry is booming, standard software tools and processes for this industry are still lagging behind - including Source Control Management (SCM) tools which are tables stakes for software development. This ought to change.
The widely adopted SCM tools we use today, Github and Gitlab, are built on the dated architecture and design of git. I recently happened upon this thread on HackerNews that talked about a lot of the pains we’ve spoken about in our article On Git and Cognitive Load. These aren’t the only issues with Git, many of them are just really simple missing features that are no longer aligned to our current engineering practices, take this post on Folder (Non)Tracking, and today I want to talk about common workarounds (AKA hacks) for secure storage with today’s SCMs.
The widely adopted SCM tools we use today, Github and Gitlab, are built on the dated architecture and design of git. I recently happened upon this thread on HackerNews that talked about a lot of the pains we’ve spoken about in our article On Git and Cognitive Load. These aren’t the only issues with Git, many of them are just really simple missing features that are no longer aligned to our current engineering practices, take this post on Folder (Non)Tracking, and today I want to talk about common workarounds (AKA hacks) for secure storage with today’s SCMs.
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GitHub’s recently commercialized offering of Copilot, which delivers AI-powered code composition/auto-completion, was built upon the sourcing of code from millions of open source projects hosted in GitHub. This was done in spite of many OSS developers disagreeing to this use of their creation, and prompted Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and Free Software Foundation to recommend OSS developers to cut ties with GitHub.
GitHub’s recently commercialized offering of Copilot, which delivers AI-powered code composition/auto-completion, was built upon the sourcing of code from millions of open source projects hosted in GitHub. This was done in spite of many OSS developers disagreeing to this use of their creation, and prompted Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and Free Software Foundation to recommend OSS developers to cut ties with GitHub.
Aside from the complexities of using git as a source code version control tool (you can read this post about it), there are other aspects with the way that git works that still require workarounds and hacks, even as they are known issues for many years.
Aside from the complexities of using git as a source code version control tool (you can read this post about it), there are other aspects with the way that git works that still require workarounds and hacks, even as they are known issues for many years.
The hierarchy of tests as they relate to quality assurance are from unit tests through E2E testing, so just so we’re on the same page––I’ll briefly dive into each, and why the ultimate goal is to reach E2E testing of your product.
The hierarchy of tests as they relate to quality assurance are from unit tests through E2E testing, so just so we’re on the same page––I’ll briefly dive into each, and why the ultimate goal is to reach E2E testing of your product.
Git itself as a system, while it has its benefits, is known to come with a lot of complexity that ultimately translates to cognitive load for developers. This post is going to dive into that a bit, and how we can improve upon previous source control systems to deliver improved developer happiness in the future.
Git itself as a system, while it has its benefits, is known to come with a lot of complexity that ultimately translates to cognitive load for developers. This post is going to dive into that a bit, and how we can improve upon previous source control systems to deliver improved developer happiness in the future.