Steve's Blog

August 23, 2021 Pokemon Randomizers Resources Title: Universal Pokemon Randomizer By: Dabomstew Github - Repo #1 Description: Original top level pokemon randomizer for generations 1 through 5. Title: Universal Pokemon Randomizer ZX By: Ajarmar Github - Repo #2 Description: Extended work from original universal pokemon randomizer that works for all original handheld generations 1 through 7. Title: pk3ds By: kwsch Github - Repo #3 Description: Randomizer for the 3DS pokemon games, which were generations 6 and 7. Overview I have always been a huge fan of pokemon randomizers for their ability to add replayability to games I am always looking to replay with different variations. I wanted to collect and archive some of the best current tools for doing so in one place to make them easy to reference, especially through their github repos since I am interested in seeing if I can make any contributions to add fun and exciting r

August 12, 2021 Adobe Photoshop Game Art Tutorial List Title: Total BEGINNERS guide to drawing in photoshop 2021 By: Trent Kaniuga Youtube - Tutorial #1 Description: Quicker coverage of just a lot of general tools and what they do in Photoshop. Title: Learning the basics of drawing in Photoshop By: Michael Clarida Arts Youtube - Tutorial #2 Description: Shows a drawing example within Photoshop to show some of the tools at work to create a piece. Title: HOW TO PAINT 2D GAME ART IN PS - STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL By: Blackthornprod Youtube - Tutorial #3 Description: Very quick example on some tips for drawing 2D game assets. Title: How To BLEND COLORS Like A Pro (For Beginners) | Photoshop Digital Painting Tutorial By: The Geek Artist Youtube - Tutorial #4 Description: Quick example of how to blend colors in Photoshop. Title: Lava Potion Game Asset Tutorial in Photoshop - full game design tutorial By:

August 9, 2021 Shader Graph Unity Title: ART 200: Creating an energy Shader in Shader Graph in Unity By: Casey Farina Youtube - Tutorial Description: Tutorial on creating an energy effect on a surface with Unity's Shader Graph. Introduction This tutorial covers the creation of a shader in Unity's Shader Graph which covers the surface of an object with a glowy, plasma-like effect. Further in the tutorial they cover how to make the less pronounced parts of the effect actually completely transparent, which gives a cool effect on its own, or allows for this to be placed over other effects or surfaces to apply the effect with gaps showing the surface below. Fig. 1: My Results of the Energy Shader Along with Shader Graph View Quick Notes HDR Color and Emission It starts with HDR color with significant intensity into Emission to create glowing, radiant effective. Voronoi Noise in Layers Use Voronoi noise to create moving globules effect wit

July 28, 2021 Modding with Harmony Monster Train Title: My Monster Train Custom Unit Synthesis Patch By: Steven lilley (Me) Github - Link Description: Link to my github page leading to my patch for adding custom units and syntheses to Monster Train. Overview Monster Train modding suffered from a lot of issues when the latest large DLC was made, the Last Divinity. Trainworks, a modding API created to help with modding Monster Train, was created before this DLC, and its addition broke many of its features. One of the large additions from the DLC itself was unit synthesis, which let you break a character down into a unique upgrade for another character. This however was impossible to implement with Trainworks since it encountered new bugs because of unforeseen interactions with the new content. Originally, it would not even run if using new content, but a few updates to Trainworks at least made using them possible. However, unit syntheses continued to be

July 20, 2021 Software Options Digital Art Title: What’s the best software for a Wacom drawing tablet? By: Bruno Brasil - Drawing Tablet World Drawing Tablet World - Link Description: Gives a list of softwares to use with Wacom tablets, with descriptions of what they offer. Overview I recently received a Wacom One tablet, and wanted to look into which art softwares work with it and work with it best. As far as I can tell it seems that most general digital art tools will translate decently to greatly when working with a tablet in this day and age, so it doesn't seem limited in that aspect at all. Now I just need to figure out which one(s) make the most sense for what I want to use it for, and this resource seems like a decent starting point. After this, I want to work it down to one or two softwares and start to round up some tutorials to get my footing with them. Most likely I will look to start with Adobe Photoshop since I have a little experienc

July 14, 2021 Modding with Harmony Monster Train Title: Harmony ParDeike - Reverse Patch By: Harmony Harmony - Documentation Description: Harmony documentation on patching with the Reverse Patch. Overview I was investigating ways to use Harmony to access private methods and fields from classes within the Unity target game itself, Monster Train in this case. One of the first direct options I came across was using reverse patches. Basics of the Reverse Patch "A reverse patch is a stub method in your own code that 'becomes' the original or part of the original method so you can use that yourself." Typical use cases: easily call private methods no reflection, no delegate, native performance you can cherry-pick part of the original method by using a transpiler can give you the unmodified original will freeze the implementation to the time you reverse patch Implementation After seeing its first use case being calling private