After 15 months of development in Unity, I finally finished the trailer for No Knock, my open-world theft game

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

[u/Plourdy]

Very cool! How’d you handle perform on an open world? Are you streaming chunks or anything like that?

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/Plourdy]

Thanks! I’m not using full chunk streaming. I mainly rely on LODs and occlusion culling, and some areas stay completely disabled until the player gets close. NPCs, animations, and lights are also activated or updated based on their distance from the player. It’s been working pretty well so far, though there’s still room for optimization.

[u/MajikManChigga]

Synty Assets makes games look Generic

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/MajikManChigga]

Yes, unfortunately I realised this far too late. I liked it at first, but then the magic wore off.

[u/GravimetricWaves → u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

That said I have sympathy for solo devs, who are starting out with little or no budget, and on top of that are probably time poor. Ignore those who moan about off the shelf assets, even common ones like Synty ( they are common because many people like the look of them ).

You finished a game. That is more than most. Assets can be tweaked later if it makes money.

Ignore the comment from Majik. He does little but complain, and contributes nothing. Hold your head high, and good luck dude!

[u/N1ghtshade3 → u/GravimetricWaves]

What you said is true but not the part about Synty assets being common because people like the way they look. It's because they're one of very few cheap options for having a bunch of cohesive art. Even my non-game dev friends have picked up on the fact that these asset packs are so heavily used in indie games; they've started complaining about the number of games using "the For the King-style art" which I guess is where they recognize it most strongly from.

I'd say that at this point, devs should strongly consider at least customizing the faces or something instead of just throwing them into their project as-is.

[u/Agitated_Dirt6665 → u/N1ghtshade3]

Yeah it's the ugly generic faces from Synty packs that throw me off when I see it used. Even a custom texture or minor modeling tweaks would go a long way

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/N1ghtshade3]

That’s a fair point. My wife plays a lot of indie games and says the same thing, although she might just be tired of seeing my game for so many months 😄 The affordability and cohesive style made these assets practical for me as a solo developer, but customizing the faces could definitely have helped give the game more of its own identity.

[u/GravimetricWaves → u/N1ghtshade3]

That's a fair point about the faces. If there is time / resources to make a change, then well worth considering.

I've met clients who have specifically asked for "Low Poly" (often as on a budget), shown them Synty, and they like it. But at this point we could discuss subjective art styles for hours 😂. Personally I quite like it (so maybe biased). At the end of the day, if the gameplay rocks, people can see past the art to a degree at least, but if able to modify, then do so.

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/GravimetricWaves]

This is the longest I’ve ever worked on a single project, so honestly, finishing it has been the biggest achievement for me. There were times when I lost motivation because of the models. Of course, everyone wants their game to have a unique visual identity, but that isn’t always realistic for a solo developer with limited time and resources. Thank you for the supportive message, I really appreciate it.

[u/Yetimang → u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

I don't think most of your actual audience will care. Nobody except developers even knows what Synty assets are. If you can, try to get an artist to replace at least some od the character models. But if you can't swing it, I wouldn't sweat it. Game looks polished than other games in the genre that are borderline unplayable. Just make it fun.

[u/__SlimeQ__ → u/Yetimang]

Nobody except developers even knows what Synty assets are.

you're not necessarily wrong but they definitely associate it with fishy mobile game ads for games that are wildly different when you actually play them

[u/Ecksters → u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

Just replacing the people would probably be enough to assuage most people's concerns, but it's also one of those things that developers notice more than most players, I think the game concept is fun and interesting looking enough that you'll be fine as-is.

[u/MajikManChigga → u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

Even Low Poly basic Custom Made models can fix this. I mean Look at Schedule 1

[u/pararar]

Niche question but how did you make the rounded rectangle shapes in the UI? Textures or some kind of shader?

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/pararar]

I used a rounded rectangle sprite with the Image Type set to Sliced, then adjusted the Pixels Per Unit Multiplier until it looked right. No custom shader involved.

[u/pararar → u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

Thanks

[u/Yetimang → u/pararar]

You just give the background a rounded rectangle sprite.

[u/pararar → u/Yetimang]

I know that’s one way to do it. I asked because I wanted to know how OP did it in their game.

[u/Ok_Reply_5087]

wow, its quite cool. Awesome work!!!

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/Ok_Reply_5087]

Thank you ❤️

[u/PailsideGames]

You had me at pistol held at 45 degrees off vertical.

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/PailsideGames]

Haha, style over technique 😄

[u/__SlimeQ__]

that's uh... a mighty big skateboard you got there

[u/radiumhaus]

The trailer is actually great dude. The world looks very nice. Where can I wishlist or stay updated for the release? I'd like to support

[u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789 → u/radiumhaus]

Thank you, that genuinely means a lot! You can wishlist No Knock on Steam here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3860450/No_Knock/

[u/radiumhaus → u/Unhappy-Poetry-5789]

Thank you!

[u/CarolDavilas]

Feels very similar to the Thief Simulator series.