2024

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Shooting for Success: Navigating the Ultra Competitive Shooter Genre

Deconstructor of Fun

Written by Adam Telfer , our razor-sharp Canadian co-host who doesn’t just play games—Adam both builds and dissects them. As a badass product leader, Adam cuts through the noise with no-nonsense insights into what makes games tick and why some crash and burn. Whether it's tearing apart the latest market trends or calling out the next big thing, Adam brings a perspective that keeps our discussions brutally honest and ahead of the curve.

Console 52
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How Games Retain Players Using Risk and Reward

Game Wisdom

How Games Retain Players Using Risk and Reward Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com Gaming is all about taking calculated risks and aiming for big rewards. Whether its a dragons lair or a slot machine, players are attracted to games that let them weigh risks against rewards. The best games get risk and reward … The post How Games Retain Players Using Risk and Reward appeared first on Game Wisdom.

Games 52
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Trending Sources

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Climbing to the C-Suite: Insights from Mission One's Gerard Miles

Deconstructor of Fun

New year, new exciting job opportunities? Or maybe its time for a fresh perspective on your career? Also, did you know that staying in a role for 3 to 5 years can often do more for your career than hopping between shiny new opportunities every couple of years? Longevity allows you to showcase your ability to create meaningful impact, develop deep expertise, and build a legacyqualities that are highly prized in C-level executives.

Build 52
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QORPO brings generative AI features to AneeMate with AWS

AWS Games

Grabbing the attention of gamers is challenging in a crowded market, but QORPO s unique video gaming experiences stand out. Leveraging many managed services from Amazon Web Services (AWS), the game developer, publisher, and solutions provider accelerated creative game development for popular titles like Citizen Conflict. Most recently, QORPO integrated Amazon GameLift into its infrastructure to enable scalable cross-platform server hosting and matchmaking across titles.

AI 85
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Nearing the Finish Line: Rewriting the Untold Engine

Harold Serrano

I’ve been knee-deep in rewriting the Untold Engine , transitioning it from C++ to Swift. After months of coding, tweaking, and testing, I’m thrilled to share that the rewrite is almost done. Moving to Swift has been a game-changer, making the engine not only faster and more modern but much easier to work with. Built on ECS Architecture The Untold Engine is powered by Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture.

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Scaravan 66 by Lithic Entertainment is a car-combat-roguelike straight out of hell

PreMortem.Games

With their second game, Canadian indie studio Lithic Entertainment takes a sharp turn from the tranquil charm of their peaceful city-building debut title, Dwarrows. This time they’re slamming the accelerator with Scaravan 66 , a high-octane car combat roguelike straight out of hell. At its heart is Lucky, an arrogant greaser trapped in a hellish nightmare of endless asphalt, monstrous foes and a shotgun-fueled quest for freedom.

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Yasuyuki Oda on why it's taken over a quarter of a century for a new Fatal Fury game

GamesIndustry.biz

The Fatal Fury fighting game series stretches all the way back to 1991, when SNK Corporation released Fatal Fury: King of Fighters for arcades. The franchise had numerous iterations in the 90s, with Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999) being the last – at least until now. A quarter of a century after Mark of the Wolves came out, we find ourselves sitting in SNK's booth at the Tokyo Game Show, eagerly playing the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.

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Minigames Revisited: How Developers Are Continuing to Tap into Trends and Drive Engagement

Game Refinery

With IDFA regulation changes and an influx of new games entering the market, publishers and mobile game studios are facing an ever-uphill battle to acquire new players (UA) and retain them. To stay ahead of the competition, studios are exploring innovative strategies, like enhancing ad creatives to attract new players and introducing fresh gameplay features to keep existing players engaged and invested in their titles.

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Wrapping up 2024 • Celebrating the life and works of solo developers

PreMortem.Games

Here at PreMortem.Games, we have great admiration for developers who tackle the entire game development cycle on their own. Because, lets be honest, creating games is hard and it takes a special kind of developer to choose the solo path. This year, we featured 22 inspiring creators in our Solo Developers-series and we love to share some of their highlights in these final days of the year.

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Column • The Pure Product – Every video game ultimately becomes a story

PreMortem.Games

Image: Post Malone’s Murder Circus, one of the many projects Richard Dansky worked on in 2024. Author: Richard Dansky Every video game ultimately becomes a story. The elements of the game, even and perhaps especially the narrative ones, are inert until they are suddenly interacted with by the player. 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.

Games 197
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Elon Musk announced that he will open a studio and “Make games great again”

PreMortem.Games

In response to a comment by Bill Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin, that gamers have become “ideologically captured,” Elon Musk announced that his firm xAI will open a game studio. Musk states: “ Too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations ,” and that said studio will “ make games great again.” The real issue in the industry is not the concentration of content creators under publishing labels, but rather the shift in economic power towards platform holders.

Studios 197
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BitCake Studio built online multiplayer game Atomic Picnic completely remote

PreMortem.Games

BitCake Studio , an indie game development studio based in Brazil, is celebrating its 10th year in the industry. Eduardo Lamhut, the company’s main Game Designer and Creative Director of the upcoming game Atomic Picnic , explains how the company started. “We didn’t know each other, we just all got a call from a bigger studio that told us we could use some of their spare space to develop video games.

Studios 129
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Invaluable lessons on crafting impactful games: insights from LIMBO’s Dino Patti

PreMortem.Games

As the Executive Producer of LIMBO, Dino Patti knows what it takes to deliver a world-class product. Developing LIMBO as the Co-Founder and CEO of Playdead taught him invaluable lessons about creating impactful games. Here’s what he learned: 1. Accessibility matters. We designed LIMBO to be approachable for everyone, whether they were seasoned gamers or picking up a controller for the first time.

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Why art tests fail artists and the game dev industry

Game Developer

Art tests in game dev often harm diversity and fail to reflect real skills. It's time to rethink their use and adopt more inclusive hiring practices.

Art 363
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Ex-Humble Games staff form new publisher, Good Games Group

Game Developer

Humble will use Good Games to continue supporting games it had already published prior to restructuring its staff in July.

Games 363
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Mirthwood by Bad Ridge Games is mixing genres with something darker and more adventurous

PreMortem.Games

Mirthwood , the debut title from Bad Ridge Games , merges genres like RPGs, life sims, and farm sims into a medieval sandbox experience. Created by a two-person team based in Seattle, USA, Mirthwood represents a creative and personal journey for its developers, long-time friends Brian Hecox and Daron Otis. “We’ve known each other since kindergarten, but weren’t quite ready to start a studio back then,” jokes Otis.

Sandbox 145
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BioWare pulls back the veil on Dragon Age: The Veilguard's magical hair tech

Game Developer

High-fidelity hair can be a tricky challenge in video games. BioWare's shown off its solutions for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Games 358
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Exclusive: Unity is killing its controversial Runtime Fee

Game Developer

The company is reverting to a seat-based subscription model, but will be increasing the price of Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise in January 2025.

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All of Annapurna Interactive has resigned

Game Developer

In a stunning turn of events appropriate for Hollywood, all workers and executives at Annapurna Interactive have resigned from the company.

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'This was essentially a two-week long DDoS attack': Game UI Database slowdown caused by relentless OpenAI scraping

Game Developer

The free repository relaunched a few weeks ago to provide 'the ultimate reference tool for game designers.' Then OpenAI came knocking.

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Microsoft CEO says Xbox is intent on manifesting a multiplatform future

Game Developer

'We are focused on growing the platform and expanding to new ecosystems to engage as many gamers as possible.

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Riot Games lays off staff to 'solve challenges and build for the future'

Game Developer

The developer is conducting layoffs across its League of Legends team in prepartion for the 'next phase' of the (almost) 15-year-old MOBA.

Build 359
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Report: Annapurna Interactive collapse followed years of infighting by top execs

Game Developer

The game division's upper management reportedly kept going over and against each other, and Annapurna Interactive's staff were helpless to watch it happen.

Games 360
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Korean devs report a burst of interest in single-player console and PC games

Game Developer

Developers at Pearl Abyss, Round8 Studio, Shift Up, and other studios say developers and players in the region want to break out of the free-to-play market.

Console 364
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Microsoft and Activision Blizzard accused of 'bad faith bargaining' by Raven Software union workers

Game Developer

Raven employees successfully unionised in 2022 but have now filed an NLRB complaint against their employer after struggling to secure their first collective bargaining agreement.

Software 362
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461 employees at ZeniMax Online Studios have unionized

Game Developer

Another union has formed within Microsoft in a bid to 'create protections against layoffs and workplace exploitation.

Studios 350
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'This is just a death cycle': No More Robots gets candid about the state of indie publishing

Game Developer

No More Robots founder Mike Rose explains how cynicism can ensure survival and offers indie devs some pitching advice.

Indy 363
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Report: WB Discovery looking to sell off games, other divisions to prevent total breakup

Game Developer

Game franchises like DC and Mortal Kombat may once again be up for sale as Warner Bros. Discovery tries to make some money.

Games 364
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Godot founders had desperately hoped Unity wouldn't 'blow up'

Game Developer

Godot was a big winner when devs revolted against Unity's Runtime Fee—but its founders were worried about a surprise influx of users.

Dev 361
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Update: Humble Games confirms layoffs amid 'restructuring', denies full shutdown

Game Developer

Update: In a statement, Humble confirms layoffs at Humble Games but maintains that the publisher is still up and running. Update: Humble has now provided a statement saying Humble Games hasn't been shut down, but just restructured.

Games 364
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SAG-AFTRA can now call immediate strike if game companies refuse AI protections

Game Developer

The union is attempting to secure better wages, working conditions, and AI protections for voice actors and performers within the game industry.

AI 363
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Krafton acquires Tango Gameworks and Hi-Fi Rush franchise from Microsoft

Game Developer

The deal will enable Tango to continue developing the Hi-Fi Rush series while exploring 'future projects.

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Report: Microsoft shuts down DEI team, ex-lead claims similar programs at risk

Game Developer

Diversity and inclusion initiatives could be facing the axe with large-scale conservative policy potentially on the horizon.

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Patch Notes #4: Strange Scaffold rejected a 'culture of hope' to resurrect I Am Your Beast

Game Developer

Xalavier Nelson Jr. explains how the famously efficient studio honed its process to build a goated shooter in nine months.

Build 358
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Indie publisher Armor Games reportedly axes publishing team

Game Developer

Ex-staff claim the publisher has eliminated its entire publishing team. If true, it's unclear what that means for the games Armor's expected to publish.

Indy 362
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Opinion: How will Project 2025 impact game developers?

Game Developer

The Heritage Foundation's manifesto for the possible next administration could do great harm to many, including large portions of the game development community.

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Nintendo's systemic policy of miscredting is harming external translators

Game Developer

External translators who've worked on major franchises including The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing have been refused credits and locked into decade-long NDAs.

Animation 363