We bring you another update to one of our DLCs! This time it's the GameGuru Buildings Pack improving the overall look and feel of 19 assets, thanks to the hard work of community member GraPhiX. It specifically focuses on fixing the geometry, rather than the textures, and we hope you like what you see.  Models that have been improved are:

• Concrete Bunker 1, 2 and 4
  
• Gothic Building 1 to 4
  
• Grunge Building 1 to 4
  
• House 2 and 3
  
• Sandstone 1 to 4
  
• Shed 3 and 4

This will be the last update of 2018 from all of us here at TGC, as we're starting our Christmas holidays!  The community, however, will be active as ever and you only need to visit the GameGuru forums to get your fix of GameGuru news while we are away.  As previously mentioned, 2018 has perhaps been the most transformative of the GameGuru development years which saw the successful launch of the GitHub repository and the joining of forces with extremely active members of the community.  Let's hope 2019 is half as good as this year was, with many exciting things for us to play with!

We'll be looking at the way we release DLC updates in 2019, as requested by the community recently, and in the meantime, if you want to get your hands on the new and improved GameGuru Buildings Pack, it's available at the following link:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/365520/GameGuru__Buildings_Pack/

Welcome to the update of the GameGuru Enhanced Weapons Pack; bringing with it more top quality game-ready assets for your next game-making project. In addition to an amazing collection of weapons we have added three additional hand textures, including a fully metallic varient for all your dystopian post apocolyptic future cyborg needs.  The human versions are complete with both dark and light skinned varients.



Instructions on how to change the arms/hand textures of the weapons can be found in the file "Docs\EAI Enhanced Weapon Pack DLC\EAI Enhanced Weapon Pack DLC README.txt".

Back in core GameGuru land, we've added a new pot to the donations system called 'Asset Fixing', which has been created to help fund requests and community feedback on any existing DLC assets you would like to see modified and improved. A hot topic at the moment is the old legacy models and their lack of smoothing groups that can make the best use of the new PBR textures created for them. The good news is that the pot is already filling up and an artist has bravely stepped forward to take on the challenge, so expect more cool DLC update announcements well into 2019.

If you don't yet have the GameGuru Enhanced Weapons Pack DLC, we are currently running a promotion on Steam with a great discount. So there is no better time to buy and add some of the best weapons you will find in any game maker:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907510/GameGuru__Enhanced_Weapons_Pack/

The GameGuru Melee Weapons Pack has been updated and now has five deadly blades to slash, parry and pierce your way to victory! In keeping with finding every melee weapon from every FPS game from the last 20 years, we introduce you to:

• The mighty Longsword
  
• The exotic Falchion
  
• The swashbuckling Cutlass
  
• The evil Demon Sword
  
• and the cunning Dagger!

On the engine side, now that the big November update is out the door and live, we turn our attention to the many small tweaks that follow a huge release, and one of the areas we are looking at is the way in which files are written to the local system. Since GameGuru was first launched the software writes into the root folder of the product, which is functionally fine but has some disadvantages, not least of which is keeping tabs on exactly what has been auto-generated, such as temp and log files. It also prevents a user from running GameGuru in a non-elevated system, such as a protected network or standard Windows user account. By moving all write activity away from the root and into a new 'My System' folder inside the existing 'Game Guru Files' folder located in your documents area, you will be able to lay your hands on any core writable files much quicker and improve compatibility with newer versions of Windows, such as Windows 10.

We'll continue to upgrade existing DLCs in the background and, in the meantime, if you want to get your hands on the GameGuru Melee Weapons Pack DLC it's currently on promotion right now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/822010/GameGuru__Melee_Weapons_Pack/

We bring you another update to one of our Mega Pack DLCs! This time it's the huge GameGuru Mega Pack 3, featuring improved Physically Based textures for office equipment and a large metal container. In this update, you will find:

• Large Metal Container
  
• Water Cooler
  
• 2 Printers
  
• 2 Phones
  
• LCD Monitor
  
• Desktop Scanner
  
• Fire Alarm
  
• Mobile Phone

The PBR assets show up the metallic metals and the shiny plastics giving a modern edge to these classic graphics.



Work still continues on GLTF support, and we are working through several reference models, both static and animating to make sure that GameGuru offers good support for this relatively new 3D format. We look forward to bringing you more news on this and perhaps some nice renders soon!

We'll continue to upgrade more entities to PBR assets in the background, and in the meantime, if you want to get your hands on the GameGuru Mega Pack 3 DLC, it's currently on promotion right now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/321142/GameGuru_Mega_Pack_3/

If your game levels require a bunker-dwelling cold war feel, then look no further than this pack! You get a great selection of large bunker tiles to assemble in many various ways to create maps with a truly dark and unique feel. You will also find objects you can place to add further definition to your scenes. With these assets, you can create a wide variety of room layouts to create mazes, military compounds or refugee centers allowing the player to explore, one corner at a time.



Containing over 200 items, this pack includes:

• 40 Varied Bunker Sections
  
• 9 Atmospheric Decals
  
• 78 Furniture Items
  
• 63 Ladder Variants
  
• 24 Environmental Light Sources
  
• 16 Pipes
  
• 11 Signs

All assets are fully PBR textured, complete with correct material and collision assignments and ready to drop into your next game making project.

To use this pack, when you run GameGuru and click on Add New Entity in the Library you will see a category called "Cold War Pack". Click on this to start browsing through your new game assets. All the assets in this pack are royalty-free, meaning any game you make with them can be legally sold by you.

We are running a special launch promotion for this brand new DLC so grab yourself a limited-time bargain and equip yourself with some of the best assets in the GameGuru universe.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/996910/GameGuru__Cold_War_Pack/

We are pleased to announce that the SciFi pack has received a PBR update from its Collectables folder, bringing 10 new items to you.  From engineering to medical, these assets will go a long way to help to create the perfect scene!  Included are as follows:

• Toolkit
  
• Drill
  
• Hammer
  
• Energy Cell
  
• Medical Kit
  
• Food Rations (Single and Several)
  
• Health Vials (Small, Large and Open)

Most of the items can be collected, and the health collectibles even grant the player a health boost when picked up. Of course you can use LUA scripting to change the behavior of these items but it's nice to know a default logic has already been created for them.



For engine news, you may now be enjoying the new November update which contained a huge number of tweaks and additions. You can learn more about this massive update here. We also recently released a brand new top quality DLC to help you furnish your game interiors, the awesome Abandoned Apartment Pack.

If you don't yet have the GameGuru Sci-Fi Mission To Mars Pack DLC, we are currently running a promotion on the TheGameCreators site (and on Steam) with a great discount, so there is no better time to buy and add an alien element to your game making collection. The discounted DLC is available here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/404570/GameGuru__SciFi_Mission_to_Mars_Pack/

We are very pleased and excited to announce the release of a new GameGuru Abandoned Apartment Pack.  This pack contains over 110 high-quality, PBR ready assets for your next game-making project.



You get a large selection of home furnishings and kitchen items.  With these assets, you could create the interior of a studio apartment, bedsits, hotel rooms and hostels.  

The 110 models in this pack includes:

• 15 Modular Cabinet Items
  
• 14 Cardboard Box Stacks
  
• 11 Refuse Bags
  
• 7 Cardboard Boxes
  
• 5 Clock and Clock Parts
  
• 5 Refuse Bag Piles
  
• 4 Sofa Beds
  
• 4 Radios
  
• 4 Wall-Mounted Shower Items
  
• 4 Bowls
  
• 4 Cups
  
• 4 Plates
  
• 3 Dishes
  
• 3 Small Plates
  
• 2 Pillows
  
• 2 Mugs
  
• 2 Laundry baskets
  
• 1 Electric Heater
  
• 1 Bathroom Sink
  
• 1 Calendar
  
• 1 Dresser
  
• 1 Pantry
  
• 1 Fridge
  
• 1 Cooker/Stove
  
• ...and even the kitchen sink!

You won't find a collection at this price and quality in any other game maker! All assets are AAA quality, fully PBR textured, complete with correct material & collision assignments and ready to drop into your next project! You are also free to use them in your own games royalty and license free. 

We are running a special launch promotion for this brand new DLC so grab yourself a limited-time bargain and equip yourself with some of the best assets in the GameGuru universe.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/989810/GameGuru__Abandoned_Apartment_Pack/?beta=0

We are proud to announce the release of the November update to GameGuru!  As always we depend on our community to let us know what they want to see next and a resounding vote for better AI has been the inspiration for this update. But for those more interested in other aspects, read on for what is another bumper update of features across the engine.



Aside from the usual myriad of tweaks and fixes, we have focused on a number of areas this time including models, importing, physics, particles, and of course A.I, all of which are geared to making sure you can make better games.  Here is what we have for you this time:

New Physics Shapes

We have added sphere and cylinder physics shapes to the options you can specify when defining the shape of your model via the FPE file, allowing barrels realistically and spherical objects to roll away if subject to gravity.  We also took the opportunity to fix an issue that caused physics to change its simulation speed based on the FPS, which caused some unstable collision activity.

Model Handling

As we worked on importing many types of model, we expanded compatibility with models which might have erroneous constructions so now GameGuru can load in a model file that only contains animation data, allowing such data to be appended to the master entity object. In addition, the importer:

• Now supports the 8-system where bone weights are spread over a unit of 8 (FBX), as opposed to an overall weight of 1.0 (Fuse)
  
• Can detect spine and spine 1 limbs/frames to allow the "isspinetracker" FPE field to allow movement to be controlled the animation data
  
• Added SetEntityAnimation(e,slot,start,finish) command to override or assign animation sequences via LUA script
  
• Added IGNORECSIREFS to entity FPE so that old CGI animation references can be skipped in favor of original animation fields
  
• Fixed ragdoll bone structure so feet and hips no longer twist into unrealistic angles
  
• Added GetEntityAnimationFound() command to determine if entity pre-assigns animation sequences to a specific slot
  
• Non-Ragdoll characters no longer disappear at end of their death sequence process

The benefits of the above improvements can be seen with the new and improved character AI detailed below and helps users wishing to take their scripting furthermore control of the models and how they load into the engine.

New and Improved Importing

In addition to the 8-system support we have extended bone count support for GameGuru models to 170 bones per mesh, allowing for a wider selection of character models to be imported into the engine, including iClone and MakeHuman characters.  The new support also extends the system to support 8 bones per vertex, using a new APBR_ANIM8BONE shader. Most games use 4 bones per vertex, but if your game needs characters with moving fingers or talking faces, then you need 8 bone support for the best results.

As well as improving the geometry handling, we now scan for additional material and texture references to make importing models with unusual texture assignments easier and quicker.  In some cases, a texture reference can be generated even if the model only contains material names and no original textures as the source model file.

Finally, to ensure all textures imported via the importer make it to the standalone of your games, special texture references are recorded in the entity created from the import process to ensure that even unusual or non-compliant texture files are still retained for the final game build.

Save Standalone

The F11 mode to view PBR texture stages can now be disabled in the SETUP file of the standalone executable for the final shippable title. In addition to the above improvements to retaining model textures, we have also fixed the issue of incorrect FOV when modifying it within the game via a script.

New Script Pre-Exit System

A new way to handle entity demise has been added to the script system and allows the scripter to control exactly how the entity is removed from the game. Previously, the entity would either turn to ragdoll, disappear or explode. Now you can intercept the final moments of an entity removal with additional script code, allowing all manner of last minute tasks such as extra animations, changes to game logic, score handling and even resurrection.

A.I

A good portion of time for this update has been on the A.I of the characters, making sure they deliver the kind of gameplay you would expect from a modern shooter.  Here are the highlights:

• Added new 'ai_melee_animmove' script which allows models that include movement info inside their animation data to take effect in the game
  
• Changed default CONE ANGLE of all default characters to 270 degrees total so they can 'see from the corner of their eye' better
  
• Vastly improved character cover zone detection, so placing a cover zone marker down will attract a soldier engaging with the player
  
• Added additional behaviors for A.I soldiers including strafing, ducking, crouch running, rolling and avoiding - harder to hit a moving target
  
• The A.I now picks up on the players gun sound origin rather than where the impact of that bullet happens - more engaging battle
  
• Added GetMovementDeltaManual command so can detect actual speed of progress of any entity, good for animation speed control
  
• Improved character A.I rotation code so more behaviors use smooth curving angles - see new movement progress of Zombie A.I characters
  
• Reduced the 'circling' effect when A.I gets close to their final destination by increasing rotation speed as they get closer to target
  
• Improved handling of 'very fast' A.I bots that would get ahead of the logic that directed their pathfinding navigation
  
• Relegated all CharacterControlX LUA commands as they are redundant in the new external script-based system (open better than closed)
  
• Activated detection of dynamic obstacles for moving A.I bots that rely on physics
  
• Added additional cover zone markers to the Big Escape level to provide a good example of how they should be used

We are also pleased to report that this A.I includes code contributed from the long-standing master of GameGuru scripting, "smallg" and we are excited to see this level of participation in the development of GameGuru AI by the community.

Improved Particles

Speaking of community contributions, another power-giver in the community, "AmenMoses" has generously given of his time to improve the particle system of GameGuru, here are some of the highlights:

• You can now create particle emitters for entities with new ParticleAddEmitterEx command (move the emitter with your entities)
  
• Specify custom particle image and frame count of image animation (choose 4, 16 or 64 animated frames for your particle)
  
• Added SetHoverFactor command to override hover height on entities that use the hover factor value in the FPE (see Scifi Drone Ally)
  
• Vastly expanded access to attributes of a particle emitter to give you full real-time control of what particles do
  
• Added particle commands documentation in the appropriate section of the global.lua file
  
• Added command to control the gravity setting of particles

With the addition of custom particles, we also expanded the standalone export process so all the extra media you might use to construct your particle effects are included in your final game build.

New FPP File Behavior

You can now include a '.FPP' file to accompany '.FPM' files to specify extra folders and file to add and remove from the final standalone executable. For many updates, users have wanted a way to control exactly what gets added to the final standalone game and what stays out. This FPP system allows full control of this, from whole folders all the way down to specific files. 

Other Fixes And Additions

The actual list of fixes and tweaks is a little too onerous to make into entertaining reading, but a full chronological history of every single change can be found in the GitHub repository which tracks the continual development of GameGuru, which you can find at https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commits/master. We do have some highlights, however, to give you a flavor of the improvements that have been made so far:

• Added a flag to the SETUP file which forces GUNSPEC files to be reloaded without having to restart GameGuru - ideal for weapon artists
  
• Invisible walls once again repel players from walking through them
  
• Replaced hand models with a proper magic staff when the player is armed with this magic weapon
  
• Fixed the 'black weapon' issue caused by old multi-texture DNS textures under the new PBR, also added illumination texture support back in
  
• Fixed issue of weapons picking up dynamic light information for the correct lighting of the HUD model
  
• Added default behavior which boosts albedo of old weapons denoted by them not specifying a shader
  
• Multi-texture DNS textures now carry over to the final standalone game build
  
• Great SetFont fix by "cybernescence" to ensure you can use your own fonts in your finished game
  
• Fixed issue with the behavior of LoopNon3DSound so that re-entering the zone is handled correctly
  
• Added SetEntityString command to override data and also to trigger a new sound be loaded into a slot in real-time

As always, if you find an issue of your own, you can report it right away by visiting our GitHub issues tracker and posting the problem you have, and as always, the more detail you can provide the better. Here is the link to our issues tracker: https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues

Community Collaboration

As you may know, at the start of the year we opened up GameGuru source code into a GitHub repo, that while not open source, would give you the ability to download, compile and run the very source code that makes the product. It could be used to enhance your own game project, or we hoped, help some of you contribute to the very engine and improve things faster. That hope came true, and much of what you play now is partly thanks to the community that surrounds it.

At the request of the community, we also opened up a Donations System so that we may administrate the paying of freelancers to accelerate this effort even more, and we have already had some success there too. Feel free to check out the page which details how the system works, what the donation pots look like now and where we have spent your contributions. Check out the Donation System at https://www.thegamecreators.com/donate/project/1721.

We can reveal that one freelancer is currently working on GLTF importing, and although we would have liked to have seen it in our November update the task has grown into quite a beast, especially with the different variants of GLTF animated and textured models out there, so please bear with us while we make sure this feature is solid before we add it to GameGuru. To see how GLTF support might fit into your game making universe, check out the Sketchfab store which is one of the places we are using to export GLTF models for testing: sketchfab.com

We hope you are finding GameGuru to your liking and, as always, if you have any suggestions on how we can improve things further for the next update, you can contact us through a variety of channels, including Facebook, YouTube, GameGuru forums, Steam forums, and our direct support system. Best of luck with your game-making projects and keep an eye out on the news feeds for more announcements from GameGuru land!

Welcome to the third update of the GameGuru Construction Site Pack, bringing with it more top quality game-ready assets for your next project. In addition to the huge collection of construction props currently available you will find:

• The Porta-Potty
  
• Gas Canisters x 2
  
• Hard Hat
  
• Wire Reel
  
• Lunchbox
  
• Petrol Can
  
• Shovel
  
• Roadsign
  
• Dark wood table

Back in the main engine, you may have noticed the recent PublicPreview build we just released, which is your opportunity to find any niggles that need attending before we make it live to all GameGuru users. The preview contains everything we intend to release for the next major update and its quite a comprehensive list of changes, so definitely check out the news feed to find out what you can expect around the corner.

For the Construction Site Pack DLC, we are currently running a promotion on Steam with a great discount, so there is no better time to buy and add an abandoned work site or scrapyard area to your next level:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/854050/GameGuru__Construction_Site_Pack/

We bring you another update to one of our DLCs! This time from GameGuru Mega Pack 1, with 10 upgraded models to make full use of PBR which expands the Mystic Library range for your game building needs even further!

In this update you'll find columns and pillars to frame your scene, with a cabinet and two tables to hold all manner of exciting things, such as a veiney plant and an iron candlestick (candle included!)



Meanwhile back in the core engine, you may have read the recent announcement of the public preview build and the many improvements that have been made since the last update. If you have a game project, we highly recommend you switch to the public preview to see if there are any issues that crop up so we can resolve them for the final public update later in the month.  The improvements cover model importing, particles, physics and a good deal of A.I improvement, so definitely worth checking out!

We'll continue to upgrade more entities to PBR assets in the background, and in the meantime, if you want to get your hands on the GameGuru Mega Pack 1 DLC it's currently on promotion right now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/321140/GameGuru_Mega_Pack_1/