March, 2025

article thumbnail

Webinar Recap: How Mobile Game Developers Are Using IP Collaborations to Enhance LiveOps

Game Refinery

From PUBG x Dragon Ball to Goddess of Victory: NIKKE x Nier: Automata and State of Survival x Resident Evil , collaboration events with renowned franchises have consistently demonstrated their ability to significantly enhance mobile game performance. These events can drive UA by tapping into an existing fanbase, potentially bringing in thousands of new players who might not otherwise have considered hitting the download button.

article thumbnail

'It's okay to make a small game:' Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet says tiny ideas contain huge potential

Game Developer

'As game designers we always think that more is better, but it's not the case.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Gatera Studio’s ANTRO turns beats into gameplay

PreMortem.Games

For Barcelona-based Gatera Studio , their debut title ANTRO is more than just a game, its a statement. Set in a dystopian future where humanity has been forced underground, ANTRO combines 2.5D platforming, parkour mechanics and puzzle-solving, all tightly synchronized to a pulsating urban soundtrack. The game follows Nittch, a courier rebelling against La Cpula, a totalitarian government that censors art, music and freedom of speech.

article thumbnail

Jackbox Games unlocks new opportunities with Amazon GameLift Streams

AWS Games

Jackbox Games is a Chicago-based game studio best known for its lineup of popular party-game hits such as Quiplash , Fibbage , Drawful , Trivia Murder Party , and more. With 50 games and counting in its catalog, Jackbox Games offers something for everyonewhether its a drawing game, a trivia game, a hidden identity game, or beyond. Jackbox Games north star is accessible gaming, which means meeting customers where they are.

Games 115
article thumbnail

Awesome Free Game Development Tools

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Awesome Free Game Development Tools Today we look at some of the amazing free game development tools available in 2025. We start of quickly with the most commonly used applications, then we move into perhaps more obscure but no less awesome and FREE tools available to game developers. In the video we also mention to The post Awesome Free Game Development Tools appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

article thumbnail

Godot XR update - February 2025

Mircosoft Game Dev

Announcing the Meta Toolkit extension We are pleased to announce the release of the Godot Meta Toolkit , a GDExtension plugin that exposes Metas Platform SDK and provides other tools to simplify and accelerate XR development on Metas platform. The project is Open Source (MIT license) and maintained by W4 Games with sponsorship from Meta. Contributions from the community are welcome!

Collision 102
article thumbnail

How Mobile Game Developers Are Using Anime to Boost Engagement and Revenue Across the Globe

Game Refinery

Anime has always had an immense following in Japan and Asia, but its popularity in the West has grown significantly over the past decade. The rise of streaming services has made it easier than ever for fans worldwide to appreciate one of Japans biggest cultural exports, leading to the likes of One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen having millions of fans worldwide.

Animation 130

More Trending

article thumbnail

Fruit Ninja-creator Luke Muscat on the highs and lows of solo development “I’m just super motivated” 

PreMortem.Games

Luke Muscat is no stranger to success in the mobile gaming world. As the creative mind behind Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja , he helped define an era of pick-up-and-play hits. But after more than a decade leading teams at three different companies, Muscat felt his personal growth stagnating. I didnt feel like I was learning that much with each new game, he says.

article thumbnail

AWS to showcase tools for breakthrough gaming experiences at GDC 2025

AWS Games

Experience first-hand how Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Games helps build breakthrough gaming experiences at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 17-21, 2025 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Visit the demo-packed AWS booth (#S927): Engage with purpose-built solutions from AWS that span the entire game development lifecycle. Get hands-on within our Games Showcase area and stream games built on the new AWS game streaming capability, Amazon GameLift Streams.

AI 100
article thumbnail

Overload C++ Game Engine

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Overload C++ Game Engine Today we are looking at Overload, a C++ powered open-source game engine with a Lua scripting interface for game logic. Overload started life over 6 years ago as a graduate project and has since turned into a growing open-source game engine. It has a shocking number of features including a The post Overload C++ Game Engine appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

article thumbnail

Maintenance release: Godot 4.4.1

Mircosoft Game Dev

We released Godot 4.4 in early March and we are delighted to see the reception, with so many users upgrading to it on day one and sharing their favorite new changes on social media! If you havent seen the 4.4 release page , its well worth a read! Since then, weve started the development phase for Godot 4.5 at full speed (with a first dev snapshot released last week!

Render 86
article thumbnail

NVIDIA Demonstrates GeForce NOW for Game AI Inference and Streamlined Hands-on Opportunities

Nvidia

NVIDIA cloud gaming service GeForce NOW is providing developers and publishers with new tools to bring their games to more gamersand offer new experiences. NVIDIA cloud gaming service GeForce NOW is providing developers and publishers with new tools to bring their games to more gamersand offer new experiences only possible through the cloud. These tools lower local GPU requirements to expand reach and eliminate cost by offloading AI inference tasks to the cloud.

AI 108
article thumbnail

Why your next game needs a babygirl

Game Developer

No wait stop come back where are you going?

Games 309
article thumbnail

Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori reaches Kickstarter goal in just 19 hours

PreMortem.Games

The upcoming Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori marks a significant departure from the familiar settings of this long-running horse-riding series. Traditionally set in modern-day Germany, the new game transports players to 13th century Mongolia. Here, they will build and cultivate their nomad camp and undertake missions as an ancient courier rider, delivering packages across the diverse Mongolian landscape.The recent Kickstarter campaign for the game reached its 60.000 goal in just 19 hours!

article thumbnail

One week of Stars Reach Kickstarter

Raph Koster

W ow, it has been an intense six days. We launched on Tuesday, which feels like an eternity ago. 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.

article thumbnail

Noesis Studio Beta Released

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Noesis Studio Beta Released Noesis, the creators of the Noesis GUI (learn more here) have just released a completely new and free game UI design application called Noesis GUI Studio. This application replaces Microsoft Expressions Blend and provides all of the functionality to design and implement stunning and fully functional game UIs.

Beta 97
article thumbnail

Godot XR update - March 2025

Mircosoft Game Dev

In the second half of February 2025, the Godot XR Community held their latest Godot XR Game Jam. It was organised by Bastiaan Olij and Malcolm Nixon acting in their roles as representatives of the general Godot XR Community. This was a week-long event in which developers had to create an XR application using the theme Enchanted. XR has great potential on this topic, whether you interpret this as physical spell casting, a magical environment, or something else, and the entries did not disappoint.

Puzzle 76
article thumbnail

NVIDIA RTX Advances with Neural Rendering and Digital Human Technologies at GDC 2025

Nvidia

AI is transforming how we experience our favorite games. It is unlocking new levels of visuals, performance, and gameplay possibilities with neural rendering. AI is transforming how we experience our favorite games. It is unlocking new levels of visuals, performance, and gameplay possibilities with neural rendering and generative AI-powered characters.

Render 86
article thumbnail

Feedback and experimentation: the foundations of Ghostrunner 2

Game Developer

Ghostrunner 2 was a challenge, and not just for players. One More Level shares their journey of crafting a sequel to a successful game.

Games 319
article thumbnail

Yep I'm at GDC 2025 (links / presskit / dance card)

Radiator Blog

Yep I'm attending GDC 2025. (For better or worse , I've made too many commitments to cancel.) The best way to contact me is to @ me on BlueSky or email me ( yang.robert.w [AT] gmail ). You can also probably just find me lounging in the Yerba Buena Gardens on most non-rainy noon-afternoons. If you're press / journalist / podcaster / creator / TikToker / YouTuber / writer etc. and you need content to feed the Machine -- contact me (see above) and I'm happy to talk about whatever to help you: Gener

article thumbnail

Some Scattered Thoughts About Hades

The Bottom Feeder

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. I finally got around to playing Hades, the megahit roguelike from Supergiant Games. It did well enough over long enough to get a sequel, but I'm still writing about the old original one. It takes me a long time to build up the energy to pour in the number of hours a game like this requires. It's a 2020-vintage roguelike, which means: A bunch of rooms with fights.

Indy 71
article thumbnail

Blockbench Easy 3D Modelling

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Blockbench Easy 3D Modelling Today we revisit Blockbench (we first reviewed this application back in 2020) a powerful, but completely free and open-source 3D modelling application for Mac, Windows, Linux and even the Web. It is one of the easiest to use 3D modelling applications in existence and in addition to modeling also is The post Blockbench Easy 3D Modelling appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

83
article thumbnail

Release candidate: Godot 4.4.1 RC 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

We released Godot 4.4 in early March and we are delighted to see the reception, with so many users upgrading to it on day 1 and sharing their favorite new changes on social media! If you havent seen the 4.4 release page , its well worth a read! Since then, weve started the development phase for Godot 4.5 at full speed (with a first dev snapshot released yesterday!

Bug 76
article thumbnail

The Struggles of Onboarding gamers

Game Wisdom

The Struggles of Onboarding gamers Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com There are many frustrating aspects of game development, each one more soul-destroying than the last. For today, I want to talk about one that not only hurts developers but consumers as well — onboarding and tutorials and how despite for … The post The Struggles of Onboarding gamers appeared first on Game Wisdom.

article thumbnail

Indie dev Serene Questworks accused of replacing game's cast with AI voices

Game Developer

Generative AI is becoming more prevalent in games, and not every developer is completely honest about their intentions with it.

AI 310
article thumbnail

How Istanbul Became the New Capital of Mobile Gaming – And Where It’s Headed Next

Deconstructor of Fun

Written by Michail Katkoff , founder of Deconstructor of Fun, a games industry veteran of 15 years, who's no stranger to hammams, pide and late-night kebabs around Taksim. Trkiye has rapidly established itself as one of the world's most dynamic mobile gaming hubs. With a strong talent pool, an entrepreneurial mindset, and a track record of success, the country is now the second-largest gaming hub in EMEA after the UK.

article thumbnail

Build High-Performance Unreal Engine Studios with Remāngu 2.0 and AWS

AWS Games

This blog is co-written by Stepan Kaiser, CEO of Remngu and Jan Sechovec, CTO of Remngu. Game studios, with geographically distributed teams, are challenged with creating and delivering innovative, increasingly complex, games across multiple platforms, on time and on budget. The Remngu 2.0 platform is addressing these challenges head-on with its comprehensive cloud-native game development environment built on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Build 64
article thumbnail

Godot 4.4 Released

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Godot 4.4 Released Coming just over a half a year after the release of Godot 4.3 the Godot Foundation have just released Godot 4.4. Absolutely jam packed with new feature including several quality of life features, this may in fact be my favourite Godot Engine released yet. Highlight features of Godot 4.4 include: The post Godot 4.4 Released appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

Feature 81
article thumbnail

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.5 dev 1

Mircosoft Game Dev

Our first development snapshot for 4.5 has arrived! As is often the case following a feature-freeze, several quality PRs were finally released from the collective backlog, as merging them at the time wouldve been too much of a risk. In truth, the quantity has been so great that we couldve gotten away with releasing a snapshot a week ago! However, we found it worth our time to hold out and get as many contributions integrated as possible, as a way of thanking those whove been so patient in waitin

Dev 75
article thumbnail

Does the refund windows of digital stores have any affect on the overall design of a game? If you’re expecting Steam to be the main storefront you’ll sell on is there an extra drive to hook players within the first two hours?

Ask a Game Dev

The main element here is that it kills short games and short form game experiences, because players can play the game through and refund it before the refund window closes. Any short form game experience like that has pretty severe pressure to increase the runtime to avoid getting refunded. Other than that, it doesn't have a huge effect on things. Games have a huge incentive to hook players within the first few minutes , let alone hours, because we must.

Dev 64
article thumbnail

Split Fiction sells 1 million copies in two days

Game Developer

Hazelight's newest co-op adventure is hitting big and has the numbers to show for it.

Co-op 310
article thumbnail

Godot Tactics RPG – 15. Turn Order

The Liquid Fire

7thSage again, welcome back to part 15 – Turn Order. Up until this point, units have taken turns one after another, with no consideration for speed or any variation. In a tactics game such as Final Fantasy Tactics, units get their turn based on their individual speed, which can also be affected by things such as slow and haste. In this lesson we’ll be creating a controller class that will be able to handle cases such as those.

article thumbnail

6 lessons game developers can learn from Epic Games’ cloud governance strategy

AWS Games

This blog is co-written by Reza Nikoopour, Principal Engineer, Cloud Governance at Epic Games. For game studios large and small, a smart cloud governance strategy can go a long way in reducing costs and increasing security for a live service game. Following are a few key learnings from Epic Games work with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that game developers should consider when developing a cloud governance strategy.

article thumbnail

Godot + Toon Boom = Jump!

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Godot + Toon Boom = Jump! Toon Boom, the creators of the Toon Boom Harmony (and other) 2D animation packages have just announced a new product in beta format, Toon Boom Jump! Toon Boom Jump! takes the animation tools they are known for, but integrates the open-source Godot game engine. Toon Boom already offering a gaming The post Godot + Toon Boom = Jump!

Beta 70
article thumbnail

Release candidate: Godot 4.4.1 RC 1

Mircosoft Game Dev

We released Godot 4.4 last week and we are delighted to see the reception, with so many users upgrading to it on day 1 and sharing their favorite new changes on social media! If you havent seen the 4.4 release page , its well worth a read! Since then, weve started the development phase for Godot 4.5 at full speed, but we also put our main focus on fixing remaining and newly reported regressions that affect users who upgraded to 4.4.

Shaders 73
article thumbnail

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

What matters the most to hiring managers is the kind of experience a candidate has. Hiring managers have a specific set of tasks they're looking to hire someone to do for them. At an indie studio, they are probably looking for a broad set of experience, someone able to field many different types of tasks. 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.

Indy 64
article thumbnail

Unity's CEO, CTO promise 'stability' after runtime fee debacle

Game Developer

Uniting developers has never been so challenging.