What the game industry must do to prevent occupational burnout
Game Developer
APRIL 10, 2024
Game industry working conditions are improving, but occupational burnout still runs amok. Studios and workers have the power to slow it down.
Sat.Apr 06, 2024 - Fri.Apr 12, 2024
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Detective Dotson by Masala Games is a cultural joyride through modern-day India
PreMortem.Games
APRIL 8, 2024
When you live in a country that houses twenty percent of the entire world’s population, yet hardly see a genuine and honest representation of that country in video games, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. And that’s precisely what Shalin Shodhan is doing with his studio, Masala Games. In the outlandish adventure game Detective Dotson , modern-day India plays an equally significant role as the titular hero.
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EA raising price of EA Play subscription
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 10, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Electronic Arts is increasing the price for its EA Play subscription service, GamesIndustry.biz understands. The standard EA Play tier will increase from $4.99 / £3.99 per month to $5.99 / £5.99, with the annual fee rising from $29.99 / £19.99 to $39.99 / £35.99.
Do you have any insight as to why annual sports titles have not gone the Live Service model yet given the fact each year it is mostly minor tweaks and roster changes anyway?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 11, 2024
I've actually worked on and shipped more than one annual sports title over my career and I want say for the record that the idea that annual sports titles are "mostly minor tweaks and roster changes" is absolutely and categorically false. Annual sports titles absolutely do not have the same scope as AAA games with multi-year dev cycles, but they do absolutely have significant breadth and depth of scope each year beyond "minor tweaks and roster changes".
Slay the Spire devs followed through on abandoning Unity
Game Developer
APRIL 11, 2024
Unity's Runtime Fee debacle cost it the trust of several indie developers, and led to Slay the Spire 2 being made in Godot.
Solo dev Walter Woods (Here Below) of Dark and Deep “Strategic partners are crucial”
PreMortem.Games
APRIL 12, 2024
In the upcoming first person horror game Dark and Deep players take on the role of an underachieving IT guy who gets caught up in a conspiracy podcast. As he delves deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, the real and surreal merge in a nightmarish world filled with weird creatures and deadly secrets. Solo developer Walter Woods , working under the name of Here Below , used the distinctive black and white illustrations of 19th century artist, Gustave Doré as the textures for much of the game.
Taking layoffs too lightly | This Week in Business
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 12, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox This Week in Business is our weekly recap column , a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry. This industry takes layoffs too lightly.
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How to build branching narrative without breaking the bank
Game Developer
APRIL 12, 2024
Freelance game writer and narrative designer Nessa Cannon wants devs to know they can craft meaningful narrative choices without overscoping.
Cosmic storms and galactic monsters in Pastaspace Interactive’s Underspace
PreMortem.Games
APRIL 10, 2024
The creator of the ‘open world lovecraftian spacefighter RPG’ Underspace calls it a ‘vast freaky universe,’ and even that might be an understatement. This sci-fi world is not only rooted in science but goes full-on supernatural. Expect cosmic storms and massive space monsters to try to take a bite out of your spaceship. “I find something that doesn’t belong in space normally, and then I put it in space.
Possibility Space shuts down
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 12, 2024
Possibility Space has shut down, according to former employees. News of the developer's demise was posted by a former employee on social media , and confirmed separately to GamesIndustry.biz by another developer impacted by the closure. The closure comes just weeks after parent company Prytania Media formally shut down its Crop Circle Games studio.
Spellstorm Character Profiles: Croh Vosh
Keith Burgun
APRIL 8, 2024
Narratively speaking, Croh Vosh is probably the most important character in the game. At the end of Gem Wizards Tactics, the Omni-Gem was destroyed. This was a great thing for those battling the oppressive occupation of the Business Demons on the western continent, which had largely been enabled by the Omni-Gem’s magic. Eve Williams and Derby Pocket (both Dragon Bridge characters, also in Spellstorm) decided that the best thing to do would be to destroy the Omni-Gem, and so they did, with
Avalanche Studios devs form bargaining agreement with Swedish unions
Game Developer
APRIL 12, 2024
Avalanche Studios CEO Stefanía Halldórsdóttir said the bargaining agreements help the studio "[become] one of the best workplaces in the games industry.
Anima Flux Demo Update 2
Indie DB
APRIL 7, 2024
Attention all gamers and adventurers alike, brace yourselves for an electrifying update in the realm of co-op metroidvania games! Prepare to plunge into a 2D platformer like no other as Anima Flux unveils its latest Demo, promising an adrenaline-fueled.
Lisette Titre-Montgomery: "We will keep knocking on doors and pitching until we find the right person"
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 8, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Finding VC support for your studio is complex, and it gets thornier when trying to find a partner that aligns with your views and culture. The difficulty gets further compounded when your studio's founders don't belong to demographic groups that investment firms have commonly supported.
How Fika Productions set sail with their peer-to-peer multiplayer hit Ship of Fools
Unity Blog
APRIL 11, 2024
Learn how Fika Productions overcame development hurdles to transition Ship of Fools from a local couch co-op into an engaging multiplayer roguelite.
Obituary: Jeremías Babini, Storyteller co-designer, has passed away
Game Developer
APRIL 8, 2024
Babini's decades-long career includes original games like Storyteller and Piopow, and various Cartoon Network games for Flash and HTML5.
Pricing Starter Packs: When Conversion is King, We May Price Too Low
Deconstructor of Fun
APRIL 8, 2024
Guest post by Julian Runge , Assistant Professor at Northeastern University and Principal Scientist at Game Data Pros I went out and asked game and app developers how they price their starter packs, and to find out why they do so. Read on to learn about the results. Good starter packs are indispensable for effective freemium monetization. But, in the heat of marketing and live operations, too strong a focus on conversion can lead you to price your starter packs too low.
Xbox forms new game preservation and platforms teams, moves AI division under hardware
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 8, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox At a glance Microsoft has seen more changes behind the scenes, including the creation of two new teams dedicated to experiences and platforms, as well as game preservation.
GolfGambit: Mini-Golf with a Twist!
Indie DB
APRIL 12, 2024
GolfGambit is an electrifying mini-golf experience with a twist! Strategize and set traps before each round to gain the upper hand or throw off your opponents. Get ready to unleash chaos on the green with GolfGambit!
IO Interactive recruits Ubisoft alum Rodrigo Santoro for James Bond project
Game Developer
APRIL 10, 2024
Santoro's previous work includes immersive sim-like games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the Crysis sequels, and the first two Division titles.
Picking Apart Baldur's Gate 3, Part 2 (Talkin' 'Bout D&D)
The Bottom Feeder
APRIL 9, 2024
I’ve been doing some thinking and I’ve got some ideas to improve Dungeons & Dragons. One. Whenever Shadowheart’s not in the game, all the other characters should be asking, “ Where’s Shadowheart ?” It's always a huge holiday for me when a turn-based, story-heavy RPG manages to break through and be popular with the Normals.
The accidental, inimitable success of Monument Valley
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 8, 2024
This April marks the tenth anniversary of Ustwo Games' breakout hit, Monument Valley. The qualities that make Monument Valley a great game are multifaceted, every aspect of it potentially worth dissecting, from its art direction to its narrative design to its minimalism. But there's something particularly special to be said about its main mechanic, and the pure joy of experiencing its optical illusion puzzles for the first time, seeing reality shift before your eyes.
Smash Indie Hit Sequel Slay the Spire 2 Made with Godot
Game From Scratch
APRIL 11, 2024
GameFromScratch.com Smash Indie Hit Sequel Slay the Spire 2 Made with Godot The sequel to the smash hit indie deck building game Slay the Spire was just announced at the Triple-I showcase. The reason why this is relevant to game developers is MegaCrit are one of the many developers that spoke out after the Unity runtime pricing change releasing the following statement: […] The post Smash Indie Hit Sequel Slay the Spire 2 Made with Godot appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.
Ascendant Studios has reportedly furloughed majority of its staff
Game Developer
APRIL 10, 2024
The Immortals of Aveum studio has allegedly let go of "nearly 30" of its staff that remained after its layoffs in August 2023.
Bring more players into your game with Unity Multiplayer Services
Unity Blog
APRIL 8, 2024
Learn how we're investing in Unity Multiplayer Services to support the growing number of developers creating incredible multiplayer games with a flexible, extensible suite of tools and services.
Saber's Matthew Karch: "The AAA model is going to change"
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 10, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox The games industry's current troubles have been well documented by this point and, looking at the release slate for the rest of the year, you'd be forgiven for thinking there's not much cause for optimism on the horizon. While there are still a number of AAA games heading to consoles and PC by the end of the year, it's currently a quieter line-up than we would historically expect and some heavy hitters that are most lik
Designer Notes 81: Jake Solomon – Part 2
Designer Notes
APRIL 11, 2024
In this episode, Soren interviews veteran game developer Jake Solomon, best known for the XCOM reboot and Midnight Suns. They discuss his first, failed attempt at XCOM, why 75% does not mean 75%, and how many copies of XCOM he sold at Power Gamer in Glen Burnie, MD. This episode was recorded on April 26, 2023.
'Distributed' studio Possibility Space abruptly shut down by Prytania Media
Game Developer
APRIL 12, 2024
Possibility Space, like Crop Circle, was shut down years after starting up, and before it could finish its debut project.
A look ahead at spatial computing with Owlchemy Labs
Unity Blog
APRIL 9, 2024
Unity sits down with Andrew Eiche, CEOwl of Owlchemy Labs, to discuss spatial computing and tips for porting a game to Apple Vision Pro.
Command & Conquer invades European March charts as sales improve | European Monthly Charts
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 11, 2024
Command & Conquer games flooded the European charts in March after EA put out a bundle of games on Steam. Five titles in the iconic strategy series make the Top Ten, led by Command & Conquer Generals at No.4. The result of this means that new releases such as WWE 2K24 (No.12), Rise Of The Ronin (No.18) and Princess Peach Showtime (No.23), all chart lower than expected.
Gust of Wind optimizations
Indie DB
APRIL 9, 2024
I've been focusing on optimizations quite a lot since this game's EA release half a year ago, and wrote a post describing some of the methods I've used.
UK retailer GAME cuts jobs as remaining staff put under new contracts
Game Developer
APRIL 9, 2024
GAME's non-management staff will now work under a zero-hours contract where their salary and minimum hours aren't fully guaranteed.
GameMaker Gets a New Code Editor
Game From Scratch
APRIL 9, 2024
GameFromScratch.com GameMaker Gets a New Code Editor In the just released GameMaker Beta 2024.400 a major new feature is the addition of Code Editor 2.0. By default you will need to enable the code editor by going to File->Preferences (or Ctrl + Shift + P), then locating the Code Editor 2 selection and enabling the feature: New […] The post GameMaker Gets a New Code Editor appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.
Games London's Ensemble 2024 cohort announced
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 9, 2024
Eight games professionals to be featured in the 2024 Ensemble Exhibition have been unveiled by the organisers of London Games Festival. Launched in 2018, Ensemble spotlights the talent and creativity of Black, Asian, and underrepresented ethnicities working in the UK games industry. The Ensemble initiative will be showcased as an outdoor installation at Trafalgar Square on Saturday, April 13, followed by an exhibition at WASD from Thursday, April 25 to Saturday, April 27 at the Truman Brewery.
Plague: London 1665 - DEMO out
Indie DB
APRIL 11, 2024
Unearth secrets in 1665 London's eerie streets. Immerse yourself in our free Plague: London 1665 demo. Discover the city's darkest hour.
CD Projekt boss says the studio needed to change how it makes games
Game Developer
APRIL 11, 2024
CD Projekt joint-CEO Michal Nowakowski explains how the Cyberpunk developer is learning from the past while looking to the future.
Design review: Botany Manor as a quiet dark detective game
Radiator Blog
APRIL 11, 2024
Botany Manor is a 3 hour first person puzzle game about growing plants while exploring a big beautiful fancy house that smells like British Bake-Off. The main design inspiration here is obviously Gone Home , with a central family-based ambient narrative, household duck homages, and gradually unlocked doors. Many would also compare this to The Witness' soft visual style and sprawling sunny gardens.
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