Game Design Jar

Garbage Collection, Explained: Why Your Game Stutters Every Few Seconds

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What garbage collection actually is, why it causes a hitch instead of running quietly, and how to spot the allocations causing your Unity game to stutter.

Your Steam Short Description Is Doing the Work of a Sales Pitch: How to Rewrite It in an Hour

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Your Steam short description is a sales pitch, not a summary. Here's how to rewrite it in an hour using a three-pass method, with a worked example.

My failed Kickstarter campaign and how I am bouncing back

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A breakdown of why my April 2024 Kickstarter for my Unity JRPG failed: the goal, the unplayable demo, the art mismatch, and what I'm doing differently now.

Playtesting Tools for Solo Devs: How to Collect Feedback, Bug Reports and Session Data Without a QA Team

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A practical rundown of playtesting tools for indie devs: build delivery, feedback forms, bug widgets, crash reporting, analytics, and where to keep it all organized.

Nine-Slice Sprites, Explained: How One Small Image Stretches Into a Panel of Any Size

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What a nine-slice sprite is, how the nine regions stretch differently, and how to set it up in Unity 6, plus what to watch for when it goes wrong.

Smooth 2D Camera Follow in Unity 6 with Cinemachine 3: Dead Zones, Confiners and Pixel-Perfect Snapping

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A step-by-step Unity 6 tutorial for 2D camera follow with Cinemachine 3: dead zones, Confiner2D bounds, and pixel-perfect snapping that doesn't jitter.

Build an Indie Game Press Kit in an Afternoon: The Files Journalists and Streamers Actually Ask For

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

How to build a press kit journalists and streamers actually use: the exact files, screenshot rules, fact sheet format, hosting options and email template.

Six Aseprite Features I Ignored for Two Years, and Now Use on Every Sprite

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Six Aseprite features that quietly fix the slow, messy parts of pixel art workflow for game dev: tags, layer groups, onion skinning, palettes, export and reference layers.

Capture Tools for Your Steam Trailer: OBS, ShareX, Unity Recorder and the Free Editors Worth Using

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A practical roundup of free and paid tools for recording gameplay footage for your Steam trailer: OBS, ShareX, Unity Recorder, GPU capture, and free editors.

Pixels Per Unit, Explained: Why Your Pixel Art Looks Blurry or the Wrong Size in Unity

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Pixels Per Unit explained plainly: what it does in Unity, why the wrong value makes pixel art blurry or the wrong size, and how to pick one and stick to it.

Grid-Based Movement in Unity 6: Tile-by-Tile Player Movement With Collision Checks

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Build tile-by-tile grid movement in Unity 6 with Tilemap collision checks, smooth stepping between tiles, and held-key repeat. Full commented C# script included.

Crafting my perfect Turn-Based Combat System: The Risks and Challenges in My Unity JRPG

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A devlog on the Zone Shifting turn-based combat system in my Unity JRPG: four zones, the camping problem it created, and the zone-targeting fix I'm testing.

Version Control for Solo Game Devs: Git With LFS, Unity Version Control, Diversion and Perforce Compared

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Git works great for code but breaks on game art. Compares Git with LFS, Unity Version Control, Diversion, and Perforce Helix Core for solo devs and small teams.

Object Pooling, Explained: Why Instantiate and Destroy Cost You Frames

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What object pooling is, why Instantiate and Destroy cause frame stutters, and how to build a pool in Unity 6 using ObjectPool.

Build a Dialogue System in Unity 6 with ScriptableObjects (Typewriter Text, Portraits and Branching)

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Build a branching Unity 6 dialogue system with ScriptableObjects: typewriter text, speaker portraits, choice branching and an NPC trigger, step by step.

Steam Tags Are Doing More Work Than Your Trailer: How to Pick the 20 That Actually Get You Seen

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A practical, step-by-step method for choosing Steam tags that actually drive discovery, with a worked example using a pixel-art turn-based JRPG.

Author Spotlight - How I became a Software Engineer/Game Maker

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

No degree, no shortcuts: how a stockroom job, pizza delivery, and a call center desk led to a career in software - and what that path teaches about learning game dev.

Game Audio on a Zero Budget: Free SFX Libraries and Editing Tools

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A practical, no-budget guide to indie game audio: where to find free SFX, how licenses actually work, and how to edit them in Audacity.

Delta Time, Explained: Why Your Game Runs Faster on a Faster PC

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What delta time actually is, why frame rate isn't a clock, and the exact spots in Unity (and other engines) where multiplying by it helps or quietly breaks your game.

Build a JSON Save System in Unity 6: Save and Load Player Progress the Right Way

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A complete Unity 6 tutorial for building a JSON save system with JsonUtility, ISaveable objects, save slots, autosave, and versioning.

Best Pixel Art Software for Game Dev: Aseprite, LibreSprite, Pyxel Edit, Krita and Pixquare Compared

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Aseprite, LibreSprite, Pyxel Edit, Krita and Pixquare compared for real game dev work: animation, tilesets, export, and engine import settings.

Coyote Time and Jump Buffering in Godot 4 (With Full Code)

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two small input tricks that make Godot 4 platformer jumps feel fair instead of frustrating. Complete CharacterBody2D script, tuning values, and common pitfalls.