Sound effects are integral to how your game is perceived by the player, and you’re here to make an explosion for your game today. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have a car that we can blow up to get that perfect, license-free explosion sound. Fortunately, there is a free tool called Audacity that allows you to edit sounds on your computer, and you know what we’re going to start with? A clap. That’s it. We’re going to start with a clap and end with a believable explosion sound. So let’s get to it!

Step by Step Instructions to Make An Explosion Sound with Audacity

• The first step to make an explosion for your game today is to install Audacity if you have not already done so. Click here to go to Audacity’s download page.
• Once you’ve installed and run Audacity, you should see the following.

• Next, we’re going to record your clap which we will convert into an explosion. To do this, click the record button (the red circle highlighted below) and then clap somewhat near your microphone. After your clap, click the stop button to stop the recording. You should end up with something very similar to this. It sounds… like a clap. 

• Let’s do some preparation work. Leaving about a third of the trailing sound, select the rest and then press delete to remove the sound. Then, select from the beginning of the track until just before the clap starts, and then press delete. This will ensure that your explosion occurs on demand. 

  

   

• Press CTRL+A to select your whole track and then we’re going to click the “Effect” menu, and select Paulstretch as shown in the next two images. If the settings are not already as below, adjust them.

• Next return to the Effects menu, and select “Change Pitch…” Ensure that the settings are as below, and apply the change. It is important to make sure that “Use high-quality stretching (slow)” is selected.

• Click the effects menu again, and select “Bass and Treble,” set the settings as below, and click apply.

• For the second last time, click the effects menu and select “Add Echo” and set the settings as below.

• Two more steps, now that the sound is stretched out, we want to get rid of some of the noise. This part may be up to your discretion a bit, but select about where you see my noise jump up about 60% of the way through the sound, and then highlight until the end. Click the Effect Menu and select “Noise Reduction…” You have to have the section you are working selected with before you click this option and you’ll have to click “Get Noise Profile” and then the window will close. Open it again and click “OK.”
• There you have it, you’ve turned your clap into a passable explosion sound. You can play with the settings above, and other settings too to tweak it, but this should be a great place to start.

To the trained ear, of course, you will know it’s not a major explosion, but it’s a passable one if you don’t want to expend too much time or energy on your game at this point. You can also use these methods to produce other sounds, such as bubble popping, add bass to a knock on the table to make it scarier, you can do a lot with Audacity to help you make your game today. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial to make an explosion for your game today!

Here’s the end result from above!

An Alternative to Make an Explosion for Your Game Today – Plugins for Audacity

I made this guide relying on methods that involved only the Audacity program as downloaded, however, if you do some searching online you will find that there are many plugins for the program, and I even stumbled across one which allows you to generate an explosion sound on command. You can find many plugins on the Audacity Wiki here!

More Home Made Solutions For Even More than Making an Explosion

Audacity certainly isn’t the only free program available to help you with your game making adventures! Check out my article on Medium about various tools you can use to get started making games! For even more reading check out my guide here with even more information!

The Easier Way, The Ultimate Sound FX Bundle from the Unity Asset Store

Of course, when you’re looking to get your game done today you have to consider the total amount of time you’re going to invest. When it comes to making each sound using the above methods you’re going to be spending a lot of time, and if you’re like me you’ll be using the microphone on your computer, or your phone, and the end result won’t exactly be professional quality. It’ll be close, but not quite there.

You can save yourself a lot of time by grabbing the Ultimate Sound FX Bundle from the Unity Asset Store. This bundle contains 1370 different sound effects that you can use in your games. I spent about 45 minutes just trying to come up with the tutorial above and I’ve used Audacity before, not a lot, but I have. If I had to make each one by hand, well let’s just bump that release date back now.

Save yourself the trouble. Seriously.

Until next time, keep at it, game development is a long game, and every day you put in more effort, the closer you get to your goal!

I stumbled upon a question on Quora not too long ago asking “is the Unity 3D game engine as good as other engines?” I thought the question was kind of entertaining, to say the least, but then I stewed on it for a couple of days. Some of the answers seemed to imply that Unity isn’t as feature-rich. That it can’t compete, and that if you want to make a AAA quality game you’d best look elsewhere.

I have to say, that has me completely shocked. Not because it was asked, but rather because some of the answers seemed to imply that it was true. Sure, there were those that quickly came to the defence of Unity, but that’s not what you want to see in a community. Regardless, I wanted to set the record straight with this article today. I really love the Unity 3d game engine, and I like Unreal too. The only other engine I’ve ever used was SpriteKit as part of Swift, and I enjoyed it well enough.

Is the Unity 3D Game Engine as Good as Other Engines?

Well, the perfect place to start with this question is with the Unity 3D game engine itself of course. The folks over at Unity are maintaining a page showing off the best games that have been made with Unity. Just take a quick scroll through the list of games made with Unity! Of course, it’s not a complete list, but just take a look at some of these amazing creations! There’s Coco VR, Cities Skylines, and Praey for the Gods! The variations in these games are astounding, and they show the extent of the variability in the use of the Unity 3D Engine!

There are plenty of different games in development, many of which you can see in development live on Twitter with the #IndieGameDev. Many of these games are using Unity and you don’t see a lot of complaints. You see, Unity and Unreal compare to one another like Krita and GIMP which are both digital art programs. An artist can use either of these programs to create amazing works of art, and in the same way, a talented game developer could use either of these engines to create a very enjoyable game for their players! 

The internet is full of people asking if they should switch from Unity 3D game engine to Unreal, or from whichever engine they’re using to whichever engine they just found. I’m here to tell you that you’re looking too far into this. If you’ve started with one engine unless you’ve run into a technical limitation of which you are not able to get around, keep going. Just get your game done, you can do it! 

Unity, Unreal, Godot, the games they produce will be the sum of the assets, and talented developers’ efforts to assemble their games. Gold can be found anywhere.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve stuck around this long, I really want you to know, whatever game you’re building, with whatever engine you’re building it with, if you put in the time, and the work, you’ll make something you can be proud of. Getting a game to the point of commercial success is a test of your patience. It won’t happen on your first, third, or maybe even fifteenth game, but with each, you’ll learn something. 

For more tips and thoughts on Game Development, check out our blog!

You’ve been plugging away in Unity for a few weeks and you want to get done your game today? It’s time to check out these essential Unity assets that can speed your development along and get you finished your game today! I won’t be focusing on characters as those tend to steal attention and if your characters look like everyone else’s your players are going to know. No, instead I’m focussing on the little things in your game that you can rely on assets for and not compromise your game’s “look!”

2D Hand Painted Tilesets BUNDLE

Click here to view the 2D Hand Painted Tilesets Bundle on the Unity Asset Store

When you’re less focused on designing terrain for each individual area, you focus more on creating more levels and content for your game. If your player has more to explore, they’ll go tell their friends how much fun your game was. This pack contains several different tilesets that will help you create a world that your players can’t wait to explore. Check it out!

GUI PRO Kit – Casual Game

Click here to view the GUI Pro Kit – Casual Game on the Unity Asset Store

This is the first of two GUI sets that I’m covering in this list. While you don’t need both of them, having either can cut down your work on your GUI. This UI kit is geared mostly towards the casual game market, but depending on your game’s feel it may still fit. You need to check this package out and compare it to the other assets you’ve made or bought, to determine if this is a good fit for your game.

Ultimate Clean GUI Pack

Click here to view the Ultimate Clean GUI Pack on the Unity Asset Store

Here is the other GUI pack that I’m going to recommend. This pack, while still fitting with most games even if they are more cartoony, can also be used with a variety of other game styles and genres. Between the two of these packs, you will be able to use one of them with your game and any other project you can imagine. Remember that you can use these packs in more than one game you develop for Unity. These become a longer-term investment in your game development career. 

118 sprite effects bundle

Click here to view the 118 Sprite Effects Bundle on the Unity Asset Store

Even if you built all of your sprites from scratch this package could be an excellent game-enhancing asset. Go and take a few moments to scroll through the various effects this game adds and you’ll see from explosions to magical effects you’ll be able to quickly implement a variety of different gameplay mechanics with minimal effort. When you’re done your game will be ready to go, and you’ll have saved yourself countless hours. The various animations are well designed and ready to be implemented quickly. Get these assets in your game today!

500 Skill Icons vol.2

Click here to view the 500 SKills Icons vol.2 Pack on the Unity Asset Store

With this pack, you’ll find hundreds of different icons that you can use to represent skills in your games. You’ll be able to design a skill tree, spells, or abilities, and show them off in style with these icons!

Essential Unity Assets for 2D Games

Using these assets, you’ll make progress on your game much more quickly. You will be ready to show off your game sitting on the various app stores. So what are you waiting for? Go make your game today!

If you need more inspiration, check out our latest #YGTInspiration Post!

When you’re past wondering how to get started with game development, and ready to jump in, you’re going to quickly realize some things. One of these things is that if you try and do everything yourself, you won’t get anywhere fast. Fortunately, in 2021 we have access to a plethora of assets from a variety of sources. If you’re using Unity you’ll want to check out these 5 essential Unity assets for 3D games!

Dynamic Nature – Starter

As the name implies, this is a starter pack that you can use to quickly get yourself up and running! Because you used this pack your game environment will be much more fleshed out and immersive for the player. Seriously, visit this asset on the asset store and just watch some of the Youtube videos showing it in action. They look fantastic! Your game will too. You’ve gotten started with game development, now it’s time to get your game release ready! With this asset we’re coming out of the gate strong with 5 essential Unity assets for 3D games.

Mountain Trees – Dynamic Nature

You’ll notice a pattern with my suggestions today. Buying 3D assets from a store can save you considerable time, but you really don’t want your game to look like every other game right? The things that stand out most to the player, such as the player character, interesting locations, and special weapons you should put the effort in to build yourself. However, rocks, trees, and the environment? If it’s trying to resemble real life, and it succeeds, technically it’ll look like every other game. As a result, you’ll be done building your game today… or very soon anyway! 

Eyes Animator

This is probably the cheapest asset on this list but one that will have a profound impact on your players. As humans, we tend to focus on the eyes, with this package you’ll be able to get the eyes of your characters and NPC’s behaving as you want. Whether you’re running a more cartoony or realistic game this pack boasts options for either. You really need to check this out and bring some realism to your game today! This is another great compliment to the 5 essential assets for Unity games that you should have.

Crafting Mecanim Animation Pack

It will take you so much time if you decide to build all of your character’s animations from scratch. You can certainly save yourself some time by buying a few. Ensuring that your character is compatible with the mechanim skeleton can save you a ton of time and your characters will be crafting away in no time. Player’s expect crafting to happen a certain way, whether they are fishing, smashing a hammer, or cutting down a tree, familiar animations such as these will help immerse the player in your game today.

RPG Character Mecanim Animation Pack

The RPG Character Mechanim Animation Pack is one of the most effective assets at saving you time if you’re building an adventure or RPG style game. Saving you from building over a thousand animations all by yourself, this pack will have your character moving, attacking, and sitting in no time at all. Even if you build your own character models, as long as they are compatible with the mecanim skeleton you’ll be able to rely on this package. This is a serious time saver. Building your game today has never been easier! Of the items on this list, this is perhaps the best of the best. With so many animations you’ll be given an insane amount of content to build up the variability in your game.

These are our 5 Essential Unity Assets for 3D Games

Remember, variability helps the player to feel immersed, and prevent them from feeling as though they are tied to a specific track. With these 5 essential Unity assets for 3D games, none of which would take “center stage” so to speak, your game won’t stand out for the wrong reasons, and the amazing game you’ve built will come to life. Variability is important, for more information see my article on maximizing the replayability of your game or see my home page for more guides and ideas!

When it comes to new people wanting to dip their toes into the world of game development, there are always going to be a few questions. If you’re wondering about some of the more common questions for game developers, you’re in luck, we’ll be discussing a few of them here! Trying to get you more and more answers so you can get building your game today!

Do I Need to Have a Degree to Get Into Game Development?

This one’s an extremely easy question to answer. No, you absolutely do not need a degree to get into game development. Many children are even developing games using a variety of engines available to the public today. Whether you want to use Unity, Unreal,  Godot, or whatever else you can imagine, there are thousands of tutorials available to help you get your game done. With Unity and Unreal you’ll have access to the Asset Store where you can purchase assets to help fill in the gaps that you may have in your development toolkit, or you can simply put your nose to the grindstone and build those skills up. No matter your background you can definitely find a spot in Game Development!

Are Some Programming Languages Better to Learn Than Others?

This is an interesting question and you’ll come across a variety of different opinions on the matter. When it comes to game development, there are plenty of tools available that would let you entirely avoid coding if you were interested in that sort of thing. In the current game development environment, there is no need to learn any programming language at all, let alone a specific one.

The only time this may come into play is if you have your heart set on a specific game development framework. For example, if you use Unity, it would be best if you had at least the basic understanding of C#. If you want to use SpriteKit I’d hope you understand and know how to work with Swift. In the end, however, there is no set path for a game developer, and if you wanted, you could build a game using html and javascript. A game is what you make it, and you can make it however you want.

If I Make A Game Will I Need to Translate it Into Every Language?

I mean, if it’s really successful you may want to, but don’t tie yourself up with the things you’ll need to do long off into the future. First prove that you have a successful product by marketing it in your native language. If you happen to be bilingual keep in mind that stretching that bilingual muscle can sometimes double or even triple your potential audience, so maybe spend some time on it. If not, don’t worry about it, make your game in your language, and see how the reception is. If the reception is amazing, then turn around and work out then how much you’re willing to spend to have it translated – or how much time you’re willing to spend with Duolingo to do it yourself. 

My Games Suck, How Do I Get Better?

I’m going to leave it here because I stumbled upon this three times today on Quora in a couple of different forms. I want you to remember that the first video game developed was basically two sticks and a square that bounced off one another. Technology got better, sure, but so did the techniques used in game development. Take the time to nurture your skill. Practice making copies of games already available. Try out new ideas without even fleshing out entire games. Before you know it your doubts will fade away, and a game developer will stand in your shoes. Practice, practice, practice.

If you’ve got any more common questions for game developers, ask them in the comments below, I’ll try and answer as many as I can!

Picture Credit: Photo by hitesh choudhary from Pexels

One of the most difficult aspects of game design is ensuring that you’ve got all of your bases covered. Maybe you’re great with the art, you’re a whiz with the programming aspect, and you can even do up the plan, but you’ve fallen apart when it comes to making or finding some music for your game. Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered. When it comes to making your game today, and making it well, you can rely on some of these solid choices while finding music for your game.

I’m going to cover some of the ones I’ve had the best luck with first, but don’t be a stranger to the bottom of the list as many of these options are quite viable. Do keep in mind that it is entirely possible that your music will be used by others when you rely on these options, and most likely the free options will be more popular, however when it comes to game design, if you really hit it out of the park, that tune will be tied to your game forever in the hearts of those who have played it.

The Ultimate Game Music Collection (Paid)

Over 200 different tracks suiting a variety of genres, and often enough on sale when Unity is running their special, this collection is a must-have for independent game developers. Even for those with the musical chops to build their own tracks, this can help you build up, prototype, and even cut down on your own workload when you find a track that suits your needs when finding music for your games.

ccMixter (Free, with Credit Given)

I’ll be quite honest, when I first landed on ccMixter it took me a few seconds to orient myself, however, it has proven quite popular with the Unity Game Development Community. There are tons of different musical artists that contribute, and a wide selection. It’s worth noting that they do specify that you must give credit to the composer, though, at least in my opinion, if your game has a credits section, this is the right thing to do even if you’ve paid for it. Certainly, a great option when finding music for your games.

Total Music Pack (Paid)

This is another of the larger music compilation packs that you can purchase through Unity. This pack boasts over ten gigabytes of high-quality audio files and over five hundred different tracks. If anything this pack might slow down your game creation rather than speed it up, but once you’re familiar with your purchase you’ll have no problems when it comes to the musical side of your games!

If that one seems a bit expensive, and trust me I know some of these packs can be, the same Studio also offers a Lite version! Either pack is a great option for when you’re finding music for your games.

FreeSound.org (Free)

FreeSound has a wide selection of various music tracks and sounds. Certainly another site for you to add to your collection. Sorted by various tags representing genres, instruments, and more, you could spend hours jaunting your way around this site, though with this kind of a selection, finding music for your games is bound to be fruitful. To make things even better, this site even provides some sound effects that you could use to make your game.

Colossal Game Music Collection (Paid)

A final one from the Unity Asset store. Five gigabytes of Horror, Action, piano tracks and so much more for a really reasonable price. You’ll be able to quickly and easily get your game the ambiance that it deserves and find great music for your game.

There are plenty of other options available online as well, but these are some of the ones that I have the most experience with. Do you have any to suggest? Comment below!

Finding Music For Your Game Doesn’t Have to Be a Pain

There are thousands of other options other than what you see here. Everything from hiring a composer, to using a free option are available to you. Don’t let the music be what prevents you from making your game today!

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