Sat.Aug 17, 2024 - Fri.Aug 23, 2024

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Phil Spencer: Indiana Jones' PS5 jump good for Xbox's health

Game Developer

Xbox's new multiplatform push continues to be scrutinzed as the company insists it's needed to further make Xbox 'as strong as possible.

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Left To Rot developer Tarba Paul Cornel “It’s trial and error until you find success”

PreMortem.Games

For Romanian solo dev Tarba Paul Cornel , his journey has been driven by a deep love for storytelling. “I’ve been into game development since I was eight, completely self-taught,” he says, reflecting on how his passion evolved from a childhood hobby to a full-time pursuit. While the dream of becoming a movie director didn’t pan out, game development became the perfect outlet for his creative ambitions.

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Trending Sources

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The state of games publishing: "The era of the generalist indie publisher is over"

GamesIndustry.biz

The closure (or near closure) of Humble Games was yet another brutal headline in what has been a bleak 18 months for indie games publishers We've seen collapsing share prices, redundancies, a reduction in games being signed and entire company closures. Of course, publishers are caught up in the same nightmare that the entire games industry has been dealing with – a drop in game revenue mixed with over-investment and rapidly rising costs.

Indy 142
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Top 3 Websites for Learning Shaders

That One Game Dev

In this article, I will mention 3 great websites to learn how to create your shaders in GLSL that you shouldn't miss out on! The post Top 3 Websites for Learning Shaders appeared first on That One Game Dev.

Shaders 126
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Game performers demand more support from studios over 'graphic' scenes

Game Developer

Actors in the game industry claim they're often asked to perform explicit and intimate scenes without warning or appropriate workplace protections.

Graphics 342
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Modulate scales ToxMod AI voice chat moderation tool with AWS

AWS Games

From in-game chats to gig economy apps, social media, and beyond, digital conversations can quickly turn toxic, even dangerous. It’s a problem that Massachusetts-based startup Modulate is tackling head-on with its ToxMod voice chat moderation tool. The technology applies artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to voice conversations to flag problematic behavior, and has quickly captured the game industry’s attention.

AI 118
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Masters of Albion is Peter Molyneux's final shot at redemption (probably)

GamesIndustry.biz

Opinions on Peter Molyneux vary. For some, he's a whimsical raconteur responsible for some of the most inspirational games in this industry. For others, he's someone who wilfully misleads fans and has somewhat sullied his reputation with ill-advised pivots into motion controls, Kickstarter and NFTs.

Games 141

More Trending

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Visual Concepts lays off staff at Lego 2K Drive South studio

Game Developer

The layoffs have resulted in a 'majority' of losses for VC South's art team, along with cuts among design and engineering.

Concepts 334
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Tactical Breach Wizards Is Out!

Tom Francis

Hi! Here’s the game we’ve been working on for 6.8 years! You can see the launch trailer and all the details on the store page, but for some reason what I feel like sharing here is the very quickly knocked together trailer I made for the developer commentary, which comes with the Special Edition of the game. It just feels like the sort of thing long time blog followers might jibe with.

Editing 105
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Black Myth: Wukong demands influencers don't mention "feminist propaganda" in coverage

GamesIndustry.biz

Developer Game Science has been asked to justify a document circulated to influencers and content creators that demanded coverage of Black Myth: Wukong did not include covid-19 references, "politics", or "feminist propaganda." When the document first leaked online over the weekend, journalists were quick to point out that it did not match paperwork given to critics reviewing the game, leading some to assume it was fake.

Content 141
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The Role and Difficulty of Skill Based Matchmaking

Game Wisdom

The Role and Difficulty of Skill Based Matchmaking Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com Activision’s findings about skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) is an important read about the challenges and misconceptions of creating a competitive and friendly online atmosphere. But it also drives home one of the hardest aspects of these games and how it relates … The post The Role and Difficulty of Skill Based Matchmaking appeared first on Game Wisdom.

Games 104
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Deep Dive: Behind the starkly stylish art direction of Bloodless

Game Developer

Developing a minimalist look meant maximizing the use of internal tools, particularly for lighting and water effects.

Art 334
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The sense of wonder in Verne: The Shape of Fantasy by Gametopia “It’s a tribute”

PreMortem.Games

The Jules Verne Museum in Nantes, his hometown, has recently selected the game Verne: The Shape of Fantasy to be part of their collection. In Verne: The Shape of Fantasy players take on the role of famous sci-fi writer Jules Verne and venture into a fantastical, parallel world built from his own imagination. Development studio Gametopia has translated their love and admiration for the works of the author into an original tale, told through a pixel perfect point-and-click adventure.

Fantasy 104
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Ubisoft lays off 45 from US offices

GamesIndustry.biz

Ubisoft has made another round of layoffs, this time cutting staff from two of its US studios. A total of 45 employees have been let go across the Assassin's Creed publisher's San Francisco studio and Red Storm Entertainment, which is based in Cary, North Carolina. It is unclear which departments have been affected. "Yesterday Ubisoft San Francisco and Red Storm Entertainment informed their teams of a restructuring that resulted in 45 employees leaving Ubisoft," a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN i

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Finding Genre Success: the Case of Gossip Harbor

Deconstructor of Fun

Written by Jesper Gustavsson , Director of Product at SYBO Games and a games industry veteran with 10 years of experience in building and operating mobile games as a product manager. Opinions shared are personal and do not reflect those of the employers. Special thanks to Ahmetcan Demirel and Mishka Katkoff for feedback during the research process. Executive Summary If you follow the mobile gaming market, you’re probably aware of the “shark-fin” phenomenon—games that skyrocket in popularity only

Balance 98
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Firaxis' big swing with Civilization VII? Convincing players to actually finish their games

Game Developer

Creative director Ed Beach says the number of player who completed games in Civilization VI was 'depressingly' low.

Games 331
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Hollow Home by Ukrainian studio Twigames tells the story of how the war affects everyday life

PreMortem.Games

Hollow Home is participating in the Ukrainian Steam Festival that runs for the whole week until August 26th on Steam. There's an exclusive playable demo for the game that is only available for a limited time. Additionally, Hollow Home will be at Gamescom, as a part of the Polish Indie Booth, Hall 10.2, Booth E-069. As the Ukraine war enters its third year, the impact on the lives of everyday people is profound.

Studios 104
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89% of Devcom speakers believe AAA games don't need additional purchases

GamesIndustry.biz

As the Devcom developer conference kicks off in Cologne today, the organisers have shared the results of this year's speaker survey, with almost 90% of respondents stating they believe AAA games can succeed without additional purchases. In a survey of 100 speakers, out of 300 industry experts who will take the stage over the next two days, 89% said AAA titles can be "financially successful just by being Buy-to-Play.

AAA 138
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Godot Popularity at GMTK Jam 2024 Explodes

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Godot Popularity at GMTK Jam 2024 Explodes The GMTK 2024 Game Jam (Game Makers Toolkit) just concluded and GTMK has released some interesting details about game engines that were chosen for each GTMK Jam, going back to 2020. Suffice to say, the explosive growth in the popularity of the Godot game engine simply cannot be ignored this […] The post Godot Popularity at GMTK Jam 2024 Explodes appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Survey: Spotty preservation efforts risk 'significant loss' for Australian game industry

Game Developer

A recent study from the National Film and Sound Archive highlights the troubles facing game preservation efforts and how it intersects with Australia's industry scene.

Film 323
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FUMES Demo UI update v0.05 is out!

Indie DB

FUMES Demo on Steam has a shiny update with upgraded UI and additional content!

Demo 92
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Exploring the challenges of AI-generated art in game development

GamesIndustry.biz

Speaking at Devcom today, Red Meat Games creative content strategist Judy Ehrentraut discussed the importance of ethically training generative AI models, and how certain tools can be utilised during game development. "AI is the biggest buzzword and it's either hyped as the new way to solve every productivity problem, or it's received with a groan," Ehrentraut acknowledged.

AI 136
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Shape Engine

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Shape Engine The Shape Engine is an interesting open source C# based 2D vector graphics game engine built on top of the excellent RayLib framework. Key Features of the Shape Engine include: Shape Engine is free and open source under the MIT license. Key Links Shape Engine GitHub Shape Engine on Itch.io […] The post Shape Engine appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is shutting down in November, then reopening as a paid game

Game Developer

Nintendo is closing and re-releasing its mobile Animal Crossing spinoff on the same day, and the new, paid version will function the same as the original.

Animation 320
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Hybrid game server hosting with Amazon GameLift Anywhere

AWS Games

To provide a low latency multiplayer experience for your players, you want to host the game sessions physically as close as possible to your players. Amazon GameLift supports 24 Regions and nine Local Zones—continually adding more support across the world. This allows you to centrally manage a global game server fleet from a single home region. In addition, you can leverage Amazon GameLift Anywhere to host game servers in any additional locations.

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Xbox wades cautiously into a multiplatform future | Opinion

GamesIndustry.biz

Back in February, Microsoft ended a few torrid weeks of swirling speculation (not helped by its own cryptic pre-announcement of a forthcoming announcement) when it revealed that four of its formerly exclusive games – Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded – would be launching on other platforms. At the time, the company stressed the point that these were older games, each having launched more than a year previously, and highlighted Starfield and MachineGames’ upcom

PC 135
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Script to arrange 3D game object in a grid

Game Development for Beginners

GridLayoutGroup component is useful for UI object but won’t help if you want to arrange 3D game objects or 2D sprites. Here is a custom script that will do that for you. How It Works Usage Extending to 3D To extend this to 3D space, you can add another dimension for the Z-axis and modify. Read more The post Script to arrange 3D game object in a grid appeared first on VionixStudio.

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Microsoft unveils new accessibility hardware including Xbox Adaptive Joystick

Game Developer

The company has also debuted adaptive thumbstick toppers that can be 3D printed at home.

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Game Creator Mega Bundle

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Game Creator Mega Bundle There are two new Humble Bundles of interest to game developers, the GameDev.tv GamesCom Unreal Flash Sale and the Game Creator Mega Bundle Humble Bundle. The first is a single tier of Unreal Engine courses by the excellent GameDev.tv, while the second is a large collection of mostly 2D RPG […] The post Game Creator Mega Bundle appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

Games 59
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How Stray Fawn survived eight years as an indie with no investors or publisher

GamesIndustry.biz

Speaking at Devcom, Stray Fawn co-founder Philomena Schwab shared how the Zurich-based studio has survived for the past eight years, from refusing to partner with a publisher to the importance of community support when developing a game. Schwab emphasised that Stray Fawn prides itself on being an independent studio, with no publisher or external investors.

Indy 135
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Enemy Design Tips: Time to Kill

Ask a Game Dev

askagamedev : Today, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how we go about designing enemies from an important conceptual perspective - Time to Kill. Time to Kill is how long an enemy should take to defeat. Players will be interacting with many enemies over the course of their gameplay, so it is important for us to make them engaging and interesting to fight.

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Obituary: Atsuko Tanaka, game and anime voice actor, dies at age 61

Game Developer

Tanaka's many voice acting roles for games includes Nier: Replicant, the Bayonetta games, and Dragon Age II.

Animation 317
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How to optimize AAA games for performance

Juego Studio

AAA games often face performance challenges. CPUs can struggle with complex game logic and AI, GPUs are taxed by demanding visuals and effects, memory is strained by large game worlds and assets, and slow storage can cause lengthy loading times.

AAA 52
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Amazon's widening bet on games: "We're not hell bent on just being MMOs"

GamesIndustry.biz

At first glance, last night's reveal of King of Meat doesn't seem to fit with Amazon's video games strategy thus far. While it was already known the publisher had signed the next title from UK developer Glowmade, the team behind King of Meat, most of Amazon's efforts since announcing its move into PC and console way back in 2014 have been more targeted at hardcore gamers — and particularly MMO fans.

Console 134
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[From the industry] devcom developer conference breaks all records in a new location

Game Development News

devcom Developer Conference 2024, held from August 18–20 at the new Koelnmesse Confex conference center, has ended with record-breaking attendance, session, and speaker numbers. More than 5,000 unique participants registered for the conference, an increase of 45% compared to 2023, consolidating devcom’s position as the largest industry conference in Europe and the second largest globally.

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Embracer boss says 'volatile' PC and console business is the 'bad guy'

Game Developer

The company, however, is 'confident' the segment can deliver following a colossal restructuring program.

Console 317
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Design Principles: Crafting Interesting Choices, part 2

Ask a Game Dev

askagamedev : Previously I wrote about the fundamentals of crafting interesting choices in gameplay - the choice must have more than one viable option and the choice must have stakes. However, I don’t want to leave things too abstract - game design is about taking an idea and translating it into real game rules and mechanics. Today, I’ll go into some more specific implementation principles that designers can use while crafting their choices in order to get the player thinking.