My new project for SMILE GAME BUILDER is entitled Confluction. This is a working title only at the moment, and it might change during the course of its development, but it’s kind of sticking!

Confluction?

Confluction is an obsolete word for "confluence", the "coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point".

Our destinies are fixed, but we forge our own paths. We might make choices that cause us to stray from the path of Destiny and deviate from its course, but we’ll always return to it at some point. And that’s the subtext for the game.

Many events in the game are loosely based on events in my own life; I’ve taken certain creative liberties with them. The choices you make in life do matter!

Custom Models

I’m aiming for high-texture models and assets, so this is what will probably take the longest time to create since I create many of them by hand.

The focus will be on most of the models first, then the game itself. And then most likely at that point, I’ll work on character animations as and when they’re needed. This will be the biggest challenge for me; I’m not good at animation.

So when it comes to the perfectionist in me, I’d want to make sure all animations are smooth and fit well with the game!

Subscribestar

I now have a Subscribestar account.

Patrons (subscribers) will start benefiting from additional perks, including tier-specific Discord roles/titles, and unique content, game dev insights, exclusive content, such as demos, and more.

If you would like to support me there, either as a patron or donator, it would be greatly appreciated. All moneys will go towards several goals and will give an extra incentive to continue with the project.

I will try and update this more regularly, with more regular content and some patron-only content soon!

What About Relationship Sim?

The project I was working on before Confluction is Relationship Sim.

However, I decided to continue on THIS project first, and then resume with "RSim" when the new SGB is officially released to take advantage of some of its new features! (At the time of this post, no, I can’t say what those new features are outside of what SmileBoom has already announced publicly!)

Jacob Mann has offered a comprehensive tutorial on using Mixamo with Smile Game Builder’s popular B-Style characters. And the best thing about this method is also compatible with Unity when exported with the Exporter for Unity DLC.

Video Tutorial

Support Tool for Making FBX Motions Files with Blender

There is a useful and necessary tool, called TimeSpanEndFixTool (provided by SmileBoom). It’s at the very bottom of the page.

What this tool does is fixes the end frame limit of 60fps so longer animations don’t play to the end.

It might come as no surprise that creating animated character models for SMILE GAME BUILDER is one of the commonest questions asked.

While this in itself isn’t as complicated as it may seem at first, there are a number of rules you need to follow to successfully create and import character models into SGB, notably with bones and armature.

Jacob Mann has produced a video that comprehensively explains the process from start to finish on YouTube. It’s well worth watching if you’re a relative beginner and wish to create your own 3D characters.

Although there is a plethora of tutorials on armatures, many are for more general creation and don’t take into account SGB’s especial bone structure and format, which may lead to some weird, undesired effects in SGB itself. Jacob’s video is tailored specifically to SGB and makes it easy to understand how animations are created and how they work in Smile Game Builder.