Sat.Feb 08, 2025 - Fri.Feb 14, 2025

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How Drama and Fake Ads Convert To Real Profits

Deconstructor of Fun

Dylan Tredrea is a product & publishing consultant with over 12 years of experience in mobile free to play games at studios such as Disney, Rovio, Zeptolab, & CrazyLabs. Dark War: Survivals (DW:S) bold betand its emerging successon more drama is an early indication even core audiences are increasingly acquired, retained, and monetized with highly dramatic narratives.

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Crytek laying off 15 percent of workforce and placing Crysis 4 on hiatus

Game Developer

The company intends to focus on expanding extraction shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896.

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Trending Sources

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Parallel Experiment by Eleven Puzzles: “Put your heart into it and players will notice”

PreMortem.Games

Polish indie studio Eleven Puzzles has been making a name for themselves as the creators of some fine cooperative puzzle games, like Unsolved Case and Unboxing the Cryptic Killer. Their latest project, Parallel Experiment, is their most ambitious title yet. Co-founded by Adrian Olczyk and Karolina Pytka, the fully remote studio has been crafting unique multiplayer puzzle experiences since its inception in 2020. “The initial idea was very simple and primitive, we just wanted to make a game

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New game announcement: "Tryhard" + "A Sportslike Manifesto"

Radiator Blog

Tryhard is an upcoming sports RPG about managing an underdog rugby club in New Zealand. We're still quite early in development. But for now, it'd really help us if you wishlisted the game on Steam or idled in the Discord , mostly so we can show those stats to convince rich people to give us money to finish making the game. If you're interested in why we're making this game / what's going on.

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Looking Back (and Forward) at the Success of Vampire Survivors

Game Wisdom

Looking Back (and Forward) at the Success of Vampire Survivors Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com It has been about four years since the release of Vampire Survivors blew up the indie space, created the “bullet-heaven” genre, and developers have been chasing after its success. With the latest DLC inspired by Castlevania , I jumped back … The post Looking Back (and Forward) at the Success of Vampire Survivors appeared first on Game Wisdom.

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Report: Unity continues mass layoffs with 'abrupt' communications and 5am emails

Game Developer

'Unity must do better in how they treat their workers in hard times.

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Solo dev Lente lives and works on a boat and that shows in her game Spilled!

PreMortem.Games

Young Dutch indie developer Lente is something of a free spirit. Never really comfortable in the education system, she dropped out of college twice before embarking on her debut game, Spilled! , last year as a solo developer. Growing up living on a ship made a profound impression on her, leading her to buy an old boat for herself. After renovating it together with her mother, she now lives and works there.

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More Trending

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Local testing to cloud deployment: development workflows in Amazon GameLift

AWS Games

In todays competitive gaming landscape, delivering a seamless multiplayer experience is crucial for an optimal game play experience. Game developers face numerous challenges in managing game servers such as scaling servers to meet player demand, managing game deployment pipelines and optimizing server fleets for costs. From initial development to scaling for global player bases, Amazon GameLift addresses these challenges by providing robust server hosting and scaling solutions.

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Did you know the top brass at ARMA and DayZ studio Bohemia Interactive bought a 'disinformation outlet' in 2023?

Game Developer

The owners of the company behind the ARMA series and DayZ now own a Czech outlet accused of publishing disinformation and pro-Russia talking points.

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Surface-Stable Fractal Dither on Playdate

The Astronauts

Rune Skovbo Johansen has a really sweet Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering technique, where the dither dots “stick” to 3D surfaces, yet the dot density adapts to the view distance and zoom level. Some people have asked whether this would be a good technique for Playdate, given that the screen is one-bit color. And so I had to try it out! Here’s a video: And here’s the code: github.com/aras-p/playdate-dither3d.

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More Layoffs and Restructuring at Unity

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com More Layoffs and Restructuring at Unity After several years of layoffs following their 2020 IPO that cumulated in the ousting of CEO John Riccitiello, it had seemed that Unity was finally on solid footings going forward. Under new CEO Matthew Bromberg the state of Unity seemed to be heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, as reported The post More Layoffs and Restructuring at Unity appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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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

I think you've misunderstood the "single player vs live service" thing. 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. When Andrew Wilson talked about having live service elements for Veilguard, he didn't mean it needed multiplayer or MMO elements.

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Mojang and Coffee Stain veterans form new publishing label Three Friends

Game Developer

'We dont believe in rushing a game to market or throwing money at problems.

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Ubisoft revenues decline 31.4% to €990m

GamesIndustry.biz

Ubisoft has released its financial results for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, reporting significant declines in revenues and net bookings.

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PlayCanvas 2.5 Released

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com PlayCanvas 2.5 Released PlayCanvas is a popular 2D/3D game engine with a full editing environment for creating WebGL accelerated high performance games. PlayCanvas has a proprietary online 3D editor built on top of an open-source game development framework. We have long followed the progress of the PlayCanvas engine, including this multi-part creating your The post PlayCanvas 2.5 Released appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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VR Storytelling in Games

Played with Fire

Why VR Storytelling Still Falls Short VR creates immersive experiences , but VR storytelling often lags behind. While players can step inside virtual worlds , many VR games fail to deliver engaging narratives. Why? 1⃣ Short Play Sessions Limit Deep Narratives Most VR players engage in 30-60 minute sessions , much shorter than traditional gaming.

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SEC confirms Roblox part of 'active and ongoing' investigation

Game Developer

The focus of the investigation remains unclear.

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By your definition of “live service”, that is, a game with post-launch updates with both free and paid DLC, wouldn’t that mean that ALL games with post-launch support are “live-service” games? Because to the general player, there IS a difference between games like Overwatch/2 or Fortnight which are “live service” games, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate which was not “live service” in the same way that the other games are, despite getting regular character drops/dlcs and some patches.

Ask a Game Dev

Yes, they are all live service games. As long as the product is out in public and actively being supported by developers, to us it is a live service game. This is one of those disconnects between what the public thinks the term means and what the developers think the term means (much like [ "alpha" and "beta" ]). Your own example of Smash Ultimate is very much a live service game - the online matchmaking, for example, is literally an online live service element.

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Fab February 2025 Free Asset Giveaway #2

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Fab February 2025 Free Asset Giveaway #2 Every other Tuesday we get anUnreal EngineFab marketplace giveaway, and this Tuesday is no exception. You can get three free game development assets during the next two weeks; all of the assets work in Unreal natively as well as one asset being available for the Unity game engine. If you The post Fab February 2025 Free Asset Giveaway #2 appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Jumpship co-founder reacquires studio from Thunderful

GamesIndustry.biz

Jumpship co-founder Dino Patti has reacquired the studio following layoffs at Thunderful last November , in addition to obtaining shares in Viewfinder developer Sad Owl Studios.

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Company of Heroes developer Relic to build for the future with smaller titles and classic revivals

Game Developer

The Vancouver studio will continue to develop sprawling strategy titles, but hopes to supplement those releases with more experimental projects.

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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

Player retention and monetization strategies are important knowledge to learn. If studios don't do these things well , then they'll do them badly. That's a situation where everyone loses. Most game studios don't have the option of firing and forgetting their game launches and moving on. Veilguard's developers actually wanted to do post-launch content; it was an executive decision not to do it.

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The Gates Godot Powered 3D Web Browser

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com The Gates Godot Powered 3D Web Browser The idea of linking 3D experiences together to create “cyberspace” has been with us for a very long time, a term first coined in the book Neuromancer (published in 1984). Early technologies like VRML attempted this, but were ahead of the technology of the day. The Gates is one such The post The Gates Godot Powered 3D Web Browser appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Inaugural Olympic Esports Games will now take place in 2027

GamesIndustry.biz

The inaugural Olympic Esports Games will now take place in 2027.

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Jumpship co-founder Dino Patti reacquires studio from Thunderful

Game Developer

The news comes with Thunderful attempting to reduce costs after admitting it made some 'over-investments.

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Part 2 of My Top Gnome Chat

Game Wisdom

Part 2 of My Top Gnome Chat Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" This week’s developer interview is up with part 2 of my chat with Onyx Prism to discuss lessons learned from the release of their first game.… The post Part 2 of My Top Gnome Chat appeared first on Game Wisdom.

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Unity have 3 MegaBundles Right Now

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Unity have 3 MegaBundles Right Now The Unity Asset Store megabundles are back in a big way, with not one, but three Mega Bundles available. The Fantasy MegaBundle, the Sci-Fi MegaBundle and the Realistic MegaBundle. Thankfully the majority of assets in these bundles have not been featured in previous Unity Asset Store bundles or on Humble The post Unity have 3 MegaBundles Right Now appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Achieve a digital Linocut Look in Affinity Designer and Inkscape

2d Game Art Guru

Achieve a digital Linocut Look in Affinity Designer and Inkscape Affinity Designer Video Tutorial In this video, I create a digital linocut look. I use the layer blend modes, compounds, and layers to contain the effect. I will show you how to create a digital design that looks (somewhat) like a linocut print. Doing it digitally, means no cuts, no tools, no paint, and no mess.

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Avengers directors hire industry veteran Pete Wanat to spearhead games at AGBO

Game Developer

The company hopes to leverage Wanat's experience to build transmedia properties across film, television, and games.

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The Backrooms 1998

Indie DB

Console players can look forward to heart-pounding gameplay as The Backrooms 1998 lands on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. For PC players, the full release is coming to Steam as well. You can wishlist the game on PlayStation and Steam right now.

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Crytek cuts 15% of workforce, Crysis 4 put on hold

GamesIndustry.biz

German developer Crytek has announced it is cutting its workforce by 15%, affecting around 60 employees on its development and shared services teams.

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The Influence of Game Design on Player Engagement

Game Wisdom

The Influence of Game Design on Player Engagement Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com Player interaction and engagement are very important in casino games. Without these elements, casinos risk losing clients to competitors. As technology continues to advance, game developers are coming up with different designs to captivate and improve player experiences.

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Krafton delivers record annual revenue, now wants to secure 'big franchise IP'

Game Developer

'We will accelerate the discovery of a new franchise IP to further reinforce our competitive edge.

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Windows Docker Image for a Cocos Application

Cocos

Im currently working on containerizing a Cocos application using Docker, but Ive run into some challenges due to the applications reliance on the Windows Server and GUI components. The application requires a graphical environment to function correctly, which makes it tricky to set up in a Docker container. What Ive Tried So Far: Docker Desktop for Windows: I have Docker Desktop installed on my Windows machine.

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Unions slam Bobby Kotick's claims that Activision Blizzard harassment reports were "fake"

GamesIndustry.biz

The Communication Workers Of America (CWA) has slammed former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick's claims that the numerous reports of harassment that allegedly took place when he was led the firm were "fake.

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Astrumis - Survive Together

Indie DB

Mission Control has received a major overhaul based on player feedback to boost engagement and strategy, giving him a little more to do!

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Ex-Activision Blizzard head Bobby Kotick calls Bizarre acquisition a 'bad, expensive lesson'

Game Developer

According to Kotick, buying the Project Gotham Racing studio back in 2007 'violated all our principles.

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