Following the massive success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, every tech company is trying to jump onto the AI bandwagon.

Game developers are going to have access to some amazing tools that will help them create games that are even more immersive and engaging, with AI, non-playable characters (NPCs) programmed to behave more realistically, giving players a more interactive and lifelike experience.

Plus, AI algorithms can help generate game content such as levels, quests and entire worlds based on predefined rules and parameters, which will ultimately save game developers a lot of time and money.

AI can also help adjust game difficulty to match the player's skill level, which means you'll be challenged just enough without feeling like you're stuck or frustrated. And, if you need help or want to chat while playing, AI-powered chatbots can be there to answer your questions or provide hints.

With machine learning, AI can analyse player data to provide insights into behaviour, preferences and trends. This information can be used to improve game design, balance, and marketing strategies, making games even more enjoyable and appealing to players.

Overall, AI is going to be a game-changer for game development and should be something we all start to study and learn how to use and implement.

Well, we did it! GameGuru MAX left Early Access on Steam on the 26th April and is now released on Steam as V1. To achieve a stable version on release we instigated a feature freeze during the final dev stage and gave ourselves additional resources, plus a whole month of testing and release candidate builds with the community before release. It was the right decision and we’re happy with how everything went.

As all reported high priority bugs from the RC builds have been fixed, we’ve taken the decision to continue the feature freeze while we focus on medium and low bugs and get those numbers down to reasonably small levels. We can then look at your many feature requests for the game maker moving forward.

We hope you enjoy using V1 and are happy with the many features we were able to add during the 12 months of Early Access development. As part of the release, we have dropped all splash screens, water marks and requirements on exporting and selling your standalone games, so when you are ready, you are free to sell what you make, no strings, no royalties - just freedom to create.

In addition to the continued work by the internal dev team, we also have a small DLC team who are currently talking with any third-party artists who are interested in creating content specific to GameGuru MAX. We understand not everyone can 3D model, rig, animate, texture and assign game logic to your game assets, so it's fortunate we have some amazing artists and creators in the community to do that for you. Some of the most recent DLC are featured below – take a look ? and you’ll see some familiar names!

Once again, a massive thanks to the Steam community and TGC game-making community for making V1 possible.

Now, here’s a brief foray into just some of the great DLC produced by members of our community!

The post-apocalyptic wasteland is a dangerous place, and only a fool would venture forth without some kind of weapon! Created by 42Pixels, the Wasteland Weapons Booster Pack provides 10 fully animated, high quality improvised melee weapons, each with 2 texture variations, making 20 weapon variants in total. Place as pickups for the player character or use to equip enemies or allies. Each weapon comes with 2k and 4k texture maps for further flexibility.

The Cyberpunk Booster Pack - City Streets pack from MonkeyFrog is definitely worth a look if you want to create a perfect world of the future, design a dystopian nightmare or simply make a modern city! You'll find over 260 models, created uniquely for GameGuru MAX, including multiple road sections, modular buildings, street furniture, litter, streetlights, animated holographic advertising boards and loads more.

Created by artist WizardOfId, the Modern Day Booster Pack - Secret Bunker contains hundreds of custom-made, GameGuru MAX-ready assets, designed around the theme of an underground base. The pack includes multiple corridors and rooms which all snap cleanly together, allowing you to create hidden bunkers of almost unlimited size quickly and easily, and on multiple levels. There are also some great scenic items which will help you customize each and every room, including dividing walls, pillars, cables, barriers and lights.

Finally, if you’re creating games set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland or dystopian future then check out the HUD's Asset Pack - Wasteland DLC. It contains over 250 HUD custom-made images by Mattpainting.be, allowing you to design excellent, modern looking in-game HUD's using the GameGuru MAX HUD editor.

Aside from some great promotions, it's been quiet in the GameGuru Classic repository on GitHub, most likely due to the focus the team and community have given to the release of GameGuru MAX. Rest assured the update schedule for Classic remains on schedule, with one having left the camp in March and another one planned for the second quarter.

Any contributions from the community and our own team efforts in the repo will be tested, beta builds produced and then a final public release - as you have come to expect.

Remember if you do find an issue you would like us to fix in Classic, you can post this to our issues board ?

Apple has changed their requirements for iOS apps so we’re updating both  AppGameKit Studio and AppGameKit Classic later this month to ensure users can continue to submit updates and new apps on iOS ?

AppGameKit GAME JAM!

After a challenging 3 months the AppGameKit Finish it Game Jam drew to a close on 30th April and we now enter the judging stage.  

This jam was an unusual one, in that we asked the entrants to not create a game or project on a theme, but to actually finish a project they had already started. This proved to be an uphill struggle for some, but we're excited about the enthusiasm and quality shown by our entrants, and are looking forward to reporting on the results in the next newsletter ?

We took a look into The Game Creator Store and thought it was worth checking these out if you’re looking to add some Sci-Fi to your games!

First up is this excellent ramps, stairs and platform pack from popular artist MonkeyFrog. As we've come to expect from Monkeyfrog, these assets are extremely high quality, and snap together cleanly, so anyone can quickly create their own futuristic levels.

Continuing the sci-fi theme, here's a reminder of the excellent Futuristic Weapons Pack from BSP.  This great value collection gives you 5 new weapons to add to your collection and works with both GameGuru Classic and GameGuru MAX.

Lastly, we all need somewhere safe to keep our valuables, even in space, and these GameGuru MAX-ready Sci-Fi Keypad Safes from artist Pek allow you to add a little more security to your games! Ideal for puzzle games!

Our guest dev in this edition is Necrym59

Necrym59 (aka Steve) is a semi-retired systems engineer and programmer living in Australia, with a diverse background ranging from large database work in online game systems to specialized solutions in automated digital and lighting engineering. He also owned a small multimedia company and to this day still gets called upon for a variety of tasks from specialist application design and programming to some robotic assistance software for the disabled.

In his early work years, he was working for a publishing company then, having some experience in programming, was introduced to computers in the workplace and was led into the area of business applications and specialist projects. His journey into game development started by accident! He was asked to help develop a multi-user database system for a client he was working for at the time, for a project they were working on with another company in the US. The project formed the database basis for an on-line RPG game and being fascinated by the intricacies of data movement and game mechanics, his passion for game development was born.

Steve tells us more, “Like Lee, I was programming on the first generation of home computers Spectrum, Commodore. I also was working with larger corporate computers and networks and eventually in print/media/publishing, which then created a mixed bag of work-related tasks from specialist programming work to media and film related work. I worked on elements such as lighting cues and spaceship console displays on the film set of Alien Covenant - an interesting experience!

Over the years I had come into contact with Lee’s work in games such as "Relics-of-Deldroneye on the Amiga", that being the first one I recall (I should have refunded that one Lee ?) and other software products too. I already had FPS Creator Dark Basic and GameGuru Classic, which I dabbled with, but alas back then work stopped a lot of nice play time. Over the years I have used many and varied game development tools. Then came GameGuru MAX, which I believe has amazing potential as a deceivingly easy to pick up game-maker with advanced capabilities. Of all the game-making communities I’ve dealt with over the years the TGC community stands out as one of the best. I have met many excellent people, from old school people like me, to young creators with some outstanding potential working together, it’s quite something to experience.

I am not, by any means, a professional game-maker or, for that matter, a super brainiac programmer, although I have worked on, and with, game development teams and projects over the years, but I enjoy bringing ideas to life whether that be an electronics project or computer project. I especially like making tools and things others use to bring their creative ideas to fulfilment.

Hopefully I have helped in a small way on some things to help TheGameCreators with extending the RPG game-making capabilities in GameGuru Max and created some practical behaviours that indy game developers can use to create games as they climb the ladder and grow their own expertise and portfolio.

As to what’s next, I have a lot of ideas now for GameGuru MAX – whether the guys (and girl!) at TheGameCreators will entertain them I don’t know, but it’s been an excellent partnership so far and one I’d love to keep going (Ed. He’s a keeper!). I also keep busy with other types of programming and music - another passion of mine that I have neglected a lot since my early years.

The future of games, I think, will see growth in all styles and genres of games, all mixed together in different and innovative ways and we’ll for sure see an increased use of virtual reality technology. Game Guru MAX is perched on the crest of these new developments, and I can see it growing further in the future.”

You can find Necrym on Discord: @Necrym59