New dev Barnyard Games formed to make games within Fortnite
Game Developer
DECEMBER 14, 2023
With Fortnite now focusing on user-generated content, industry devs have formed Barnyard to get in on the trend.
Column • The Pure Product – Every video game ultimately becomes a story
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 30, 2024
That moment of interaction, whether it be a button press or a joystick move or whatever, taps the potential of the dev teams hard work and lets it spring to life. Then and only then is the game realized, as it becomes something active and vibrant as the player journeys through the content, each in their unique, own way.
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Trending Sources
Wrapping up 2024 • Celebrating the life and works of solo developers
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 24, 2024
Financial success Solo dev Tuomas Auronen , operating under the name Redbeak Games , looks pretty relieved three days after the launch of his game Mortal Glory 2. The game is developed by Californian solo dev Michael Cosio, working under the name of Tainted Pact. Here Below is an attempt to pool resources between small devs.
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Valve sets new guidelines for devs selling season passes on Steam
Game Developer
NOVEMBER 21, 2024
If you aren't ready to clearly communicate about the content included in each DLC and when it will be ready for launch, you shouldn't offer a Season Pass on Steam.'
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Solo dev Esteban Hernandez spent 7 years on Creo God Simulator: “I’ve learned perseverance”
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 5, 2025
I can really implement my vision, and I have the flexibility to add in content and mechanics that Creo’s fanbase and others would like to see. The toll on your mental health can be quite high for solo devs. I think the biggest advantages of working solo is that I have full freedom and control over every aspect of my game.
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 1
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 16, 2025
Normally our Beta 1 release notes summarize all the most exciting changes from the previous dev releases. This adds parity with Ogg Vorbis audio tracks, and will be a welcome addition for users who want to load user-generated content at runtime (including non-game audio applications). dev cycle slightly too late to be included in 4.3.
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Solo dev Vladyslav Pidiashenko “I hope IHAS will inspire players to better their lives”
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 30, 2024
I produced a lot of content and had some success, but it wasn’t all that sustainable. Eventually, I burned out and decided to end my content creation career in early 2021. After finishing IHAS, I will start to build a strong team to work on games that are beyond my scope a solo dev.” How did you get the idea for IHAS?
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Valve says "legal uncertainty" surrounding AI models behind Steam pushback
Game Developer
JULY 3, 2023
The company said it doesn't want to "discourage" the use of AI content on Steam, but reiterated that devs must ensure they have the "appropriate rights to ship their game."
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Dean Gichukie’s studio Kunta Content delivers authentic African stories
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 30, 2023
Welcome to Dean Gichukie ‘s world, where history comes alive through Kunta Content. The Kunta Content team Dean’s creative journey began at age 8 when he started drawing and painting. Dean recently returned from France, where Kunta Content clinched a prestigious award in the gaming category at the Creation Africa Forum.
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A follow up to your answer about veilguard (was really hoping you would touch on that one). Why do game companies that have a “bad” release always seem to start from the bottom of the pyramid when it comes to restructuring and recouping losses? Why fire low level devs who did their best with what they had, when the companies have people in senior positions making hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not more) that they could just cut from? Why do the trenches always get the punishment first?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 3, 2025
The next factor is that each major experience level up a dev attains tends to be a geometric difference in productivity. [ A large task that would take a junior dev two months to complete might take a mid-level dev one month and a senior dev only a week or two ].
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Hi, Veilguard dev here. Your analysis of the “”“restructuring”“” is pretty spot on. One small clarification: not doing DLC wasn’t a game team decision, it was an executive or business decision. A lot of us were begging to do DLC and longer term support.
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 5, 2025
DLC and continued support is a great training ground for juniors and mid-levels to level up their skills on lower-stakes content and features and post-launch content has a notably less brutal delivery schedule. I thought it was a big gamble when Veilguard marketing announced that there wouldn't be any post-launch content.
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Solo dev Jason Nicot on his new project Sanctua “A more mature party game”
PreMortem.Games
MAY 24, 2024
If it’s necessary to maintain a high level of quality, offer regular content, and respect the players who are loyal to the game, I would do it. The post Solo dev Jason Nicot on his new project Sanctua “A more mature party game” appeared first on PreMortem Games. You just have to remember that!”
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How to Use Content Marketing to Sell Board Games
Brand Game Development
MARCH 26, 2018
One of the greatest forms of marketing, my personal favorite, in fact, is content marketing. The term “content marketing” gets thrown around carelessly on the Internet way too much and with little meaning attached, but the basic idea is simple. The Wikipedia definition I’ve included below is even more insightful.
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Bungie recently revealed that the red war campaign in destiny 2 is unavailable, even internally. They said its due to outdated code. How often does that happen in live service games? And what sort of decisions are made that leads to all the work seemingly being put down the drain?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 27, 2025
Most content built during a particular hardware generation is available and functional during that hardware generation because things don't change too much. Red War was launch content back in 2017, on the Xbone, PS4, and Windows. That's what I suspect happened.
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Wrapping up 2023 • Celebrating the life and works of solo developers
PreMortem.Games
DECEMBER 22, 2023
Solo dev Graham Reid: “Being part of a like-minded community is really important” Young Dutch indie developer Lente is something of a free spirit. Solo dev Lente lives and works on a boat and that shows in her game Spilled! Despite being a solo dev all that time, he never really struggled with his motivation. “I
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sorry this is 2 questions in 1 on very different topics haha. but im not a game dev nor am i likely to get the skills in game dev- i am very in marketing & analytics though as well as a mix of other stuff. would you know if, size of studio asides, do aa/aaa studios or publishers have good sized non game dev teams? i really want to get involved in the creatives industry (wether it be games or something like shows) outside of direct creation but i dont know what the market for that is like, especially as someone in the global south. the 2nd unrelated thing is DATV has a weird (?) save limit on console. pc has 100 saves unli characters, but console is currently hard capped at 3 characters. would you have any ideas or insights as to why that might be the limit they chose?
Ask a Game Dev
NOVEMBER 13, 2024
For your first question about what kind of non-creation teams there are: Game dev studios typically have internal support teams - back end, build, IT, user research, etc. that are primarily there to support game development and content creation efforts.
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Dev Diary: 03/17/17
Brand Game Development
MARCH 17, 2017
That’s the purpose of the Dev Diary. I want you to see the specific challenges game devs encounter and conquer. I have only a few days of content up, but you’ll like what I’ve got so far. The post Dev Diary: 03/17/17 appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Are you into travel?
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Yep I'm at GDC 2025 (links / presskit / dance card)
Radiator Blog
MARCH 16, 2025
and you need content to feed the Machine -- contact me (see above) and I'm happy to talk about whatever to help you: General video game opinions / GDC gossip. A lot of the dev team will be hanging around GDC too. It's not for nice normal game devs -- it's for real sickos (educators / teachers). social event. social event.
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Is Gameplay Programmer some form of specialization? I always see people who work as gameplay programmer have some secondary skill, like tools, graphics, etc. In order to create a game you need these guys, but when it comes to layoffs, are they considered high-priority?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 2, 2025
Gameplay programmer goals tend to be building systems that allow designers to create new content. This often involves building and supporting tools to allow the designers to create, edit, and tune many different individual instances of a specific kind of content - abilities, spells, items, enemies, quests, etc.
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Two part question. 1) Where does a decision like taking DA4 from single player to live service back to single player most likely come from? Do studio leads make that kind of call, or project leads? Or is it a publisher-side “mandate” based on market trends? 2) Rebooting like that must come with significant costs given all the “wasted” dev work, so what needs to happen to make them that confident that staying on course will result in smaller returns than starting over?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 13, 2025
Live services exist for single player game - any game with regular content updates and patching is a live service. Those content updates and patches are the "service" part - we have to build them, they go live and get pushed out to the public. I think you've misunderstood the "single player vs live service" thing.
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Do you think the projects that you shipped as a indie developer have the same impact as the ones you worked on at game studios when applying for jobs?
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 7, 2025
At the typical AAA studio, they're probably hiring for expertise in a specific field - somebody who's an expert at AI, or procedural content generation, or in-game economies. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Solo dev Matthieu Houllier lets you take a paper plane on an adventure in Paper Sky
PreMortem.Games
MAY 6, 2024
French solo dev Matthieu Houllier , operating under the name Brute Force , has been making games by himself for five years. I prioritize creating content based on what I believe will facilitate the game’s marketing efforts”, he explains. In that time he has released the 3D platform game Crumble. “It
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 4
Mircosoft Game Dev
FEBRUARY 17, 2025
In practice, this means that all further changes will be strictly regression fixes, so the content available here will be largely reflective of the 4.4 As such, you can expect this to be our final beta release of the 4.4 period, with release candidates set to come out shortly after.
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On premium non-lifestyle games: As a success metric for the developer/publisher, how much does playing a game matter compared to purchasing it? If I like a game’s premise and decide to buy it, but have no intention to play it any time soon, is my purchase less valuable to them?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 21, 2025
The most valuable players are the evangelists, the hard core players who will engage with the community, make content about the game, and serve as volunteer brand ambassadors to the community at large. These are players who will play the game regularly, maybe they'll read the patch notes as they drop or engage with new content that appears.
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One week of Stars Reach Kickstarter
Raph Koster
MARCH 3, 2025
It’s a mad scramble to get everything done, make sure you have all the content ready, to answer the huge inflow of questions, find all the spots where you weren’t quite clear enough… but you just survive on little sleep and keep pushing. We will try to be good about reposting this content on Reddit and Steam as well.
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Do you have any advice for people who are unable to put their experience on their CV because of NDAs?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 4, 2025
IP, release date, features or content you didn't work on, etc.). If you are unsure and willing, feel free to drop in to our discord server or reach out via twitter or bluesky and we can do a CV review. Join us on Discord ] and/or [ Support us on Patreon ] Got a burning question you want answered?
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How open are hiring managers in the game industry about what they are specific requirements they are looking for? In my industry I often find them looking for a generic position without listing what specialized task they are specifically looking for. Any suggestions on how to handle unclear hiring criteria?
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 10, 2025
They use proprietary tools to build content. They want technically-minded applicants to work in a mature environment making content for a live service. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Oscar Salandin, developer of BOTSU Ridicuous Robots: “Solo dev can be lonely”
PreMortem.Games
JULY 29, 2024
Working in Mixed Reality, I met many ex game devs and artists, who I learned from and was greatly inspired by. Although we weren’t making games, the tech for Mixed Reality was identical to making games, so I picked up a lot of technical ability with Unity, game dev, shaders and more.” It’s made a huge difference.
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At what stage of the developing process of a game mocap is recorded? How much time does it usually take? And in case of expansions/DLCs are actors called again or they record this content together with the content for the main game?
Ask a Game Dev
OCTOBER 23, 2023
For DLC/expansion content, we usually try to reuse as many assets as we can, and schedule any new recording sessions as soon as we get the green light. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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20 New Year’s Resolutions for Board Game Devs in 2020
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 30, 2019
Content creators such as podcasters and bloggers often enjoy working with guests. You can read more about that in my article here: Setting Up Social Media as a Board Game Dev: A Primer Course. The post 20 New Year’s Resolutions for Board Game Devs in 2020 appeared first on Brandon the Game Dev. Happy New Year!
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A twofer but they’re related. Why in games, where nothing needs to be shipped, do shops “rotate” things in purely digital storefronts as if they can’t exist for sale perpetually? And why can’t battle pass items just be bought outright in most cases? F2P games make it so arduous to get things you want today even if you just want to pay up front and it’s infuriating. It’s always lottery and long term investment to get a single thing now. I don’t buy cosmetics often but sometimes I see something I want and *would* buy but woops! Sorry, you missed the battle pass! Why is this the meta?
Ask a Game Dev
NOVEMBER 18, 2024
Creating rewards that players want is the point - we want to make content players want to engage with. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ
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Nuverse lets AI do all the talking and moving of NPCs in Earth: Revival
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 22, 2023
He says it helps artists to free up their time and produce content more efficiently. Currently, our system is designed to address highly repetitive and mechanical content production problems, such as matching lip movements. By utilizing these systems effectively, we can definitely present high-quality game content to players.
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How to Build up a Facebook Page as a Board Game Dev
Brand Game Development
APRIL 23, 2018
Much like my old staple How to Get Big on Twitter as a Board Game Dev , I’ll be covering everything you need to know to get started on Facebook as a board game developer. New game devs: don’t write off Facebook because it’s expensive. Making Early Content. The first is what I call Content Mix.
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Solo dev Diego Ras of Raccoo Venture “Everything starts with paper and pencil”
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 2, 2024
Between one job and another I always tried to include some type of content related to games. The post Solo dev Diego Ras of Raccoo Venture “Everything starts with paper and pencil” appeared first on PreMortem Games. Many years passed and, after graduating, I started working in the advertising field.
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Addendum to cut content: people find remnants of cut content in game files often enough. So/but is there any even rough estimate you could give of cut content that’s dug up versus cut stuff that could never be found?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 10, 2024
The kind of games that have the least cut content are annual sports titles - they have the most stringent schedules and know exactly what they are committing to with each annual cycle, so they have significantly less wiggle room than a project with a longer schedule and bigger scope (e.g.
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Say we’ve got a live service game, and we’re at the beginning of the current content cycle. The next batch of big character class changes aren’t expected for the next year or more, although smaller tuning passes and targeted reworks might occur in the mean time. Some of the class designers will be working on those smaller tasks, and possibly some are doing exploratory design for further future changes. What do the rest of the class designers work on?
Ask a Game Dev
NOVEMBER 4, 2024
Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ If we have enough class designers, we're probably doing both. Join us on Discord ] and/or [ Support us on Patreon ] Got a burning question you want answered?
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 16
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 27, 2023
Match RichTextLabel minimum size calculation with Label (proper content fitting) ( GH-71330 ). GUI: Match RichTextLabel minimum size calculation with Label (proper content fitting) ( GH-71330 ). Now content margin properties are respected, just like in any other control, and you need to use those to give your stylebox a min size.
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SenAm Games is developing Al-Sirah, a game that educates young muslims about the Islam
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 28, 2025
He continues, Video games are the most influential media of our time, but Islamic content has been painfully neglected. Plus, a smaller indie dev team should be able to handle the scope. The game is also very well suited to non-Muslims, who can learn new things about the history of Islam in a fun way.
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How to Get Big on Twitter as a Board Game Dev
Brand Game Development
MAY 22, 2017
I am thrilled that many of you enjoyed Setting Up Social Media as a Board Game Dev: A Primer Course. Getting Started Getting Noticed Refining Your Approach Using Twitter for More than Just Tweeting Key Takeaways for Game Devs. The first is what I call Content Mix. Having great content is half the battle. Talk to them!
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Hello! I currently work as an Assistant Narrative Designer for a tiny studio developing a live ops/free-to-play mobile visual novel. I’m learning a lot about monetization points and player retention strategies, but I’d like to eventually transition to bigger studios working in paid games (my personal interests lie in RPGs and simulators a la Stardew Valley.) Are the skills I’m learning transferrable to these fields of work? I worry I’m learning so much and yet it won’t actually help me. Ty!
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 10, 2025
Veilguard's developers actually wanted to do post-launch content; it was an executive decision not to do it. Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on BlueSky Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr Frequent Questions: The FAQ That's a situation where everyone loses.
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When developing a live service game, is there a standard for how far into the future your team plans in terms of content like say a preseason and first season worth of content outlined. If there’s a story/plot attached to your game, is there a planned “ending” that you deviate from based on how successful the game is?
Ask a Game Dev
OCTOBER 2, 2024
Most in-development live service games plan ahead for one year's worth of post-launch content from the jump. Typically this is planned to follow a quarterly schedule, so that we have sufficient development time to build a sizable amount of new content for players.
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How to Build a Mailing List and Send Newsletters as a Board Game Dev
Brand Game Development
AUGUST 24, 2020
You’ll be asked to enter the following: List Name – I use Brandon the Game Dev Newsletter. You’ll very soon be receiving updates from Brandon the Game Dev. Once you’re happy with the basic colors, fonts, and spacing of your template, click on the Content button to see all the things you can put into your mailer.
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Indie dev studio Wikkl Works takes virtual rock climbing to New Heights
PreMortem.Games
MAY 19, 2023
There would be an almost infinite amount of awesome content. Intricate mechanics The dev team faced two major challenges when translating the physical act of climbing to gameplay mechanics: replicating the intricate mechanics of grip, support, weight, and motion, and ensuring user-friendliness.
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